ELEMENTS OF ORIGINALITY 181 



is transformed into living matter, Loeb said that 

 "science will retain the idea of panspermia." Yet 

 he urged: "There is no reason to predict that abio- 

 genesis is impossible, and I believe that it can only 

 help science if the younger investigators realize that 

 experimental abiogenesis is the goal of biology. "^^ 



The theory for the first time states the general 

 specific condition that must be provided in order to 

 transform non-living matter into living matter in 

 the laboratory; and thus for the first time furnishes 

 a definite method of approach to the problem of 

 experimental abiogenesis. {See pp. 117, 121.) 



XX. The statement of the cause of cancer. 



According to my theory of life, the general origin 

 of cancer is as follows : 



1. Normal cells. 



2. Injury to a cell or a group of cells — tissue, gland, 

 epithelial cells. The injury may be caused by a single 

 trauma or follow prolonged "irritation"; it may be 

 a local injury due to a mechanical, thermal, electrical, 

 chemical, or biochemical cause; or the result of 

 parasitic agency (such as the boring of a minute 

 worm); or due even to autolysis. 



3. Result of the injury: Indifferent cell material, 

 that constitutes a solution of great chemical com- 

 plexity and contains free ions, and in which a critical 



'* Dynamics of Living Matter, 223. 



