248 WHAT IS LIFE 



of life caused by the discovery of the cell, for about 

 fifty years emphasis in biology was almost entirely 

 placed on morphology. Concerning the cell, early 

 views deemed the cell wall as hardly less important 

 than the ''contents" of the cell. It was by no means 

 known that the apparently simple cell constituents 

 really are "incredibly complex," and that the cell is 

 a unit which, as since shown by cytologists, exists in 

 most various degrees of complexity. 



The conception of the cell as very close to the 

 origin of life, and the idea of the importance of the 

 cell wall, has been lingering. Thus it only a decade 

 ago (1916) found expression by an authority in 

 geology (Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin^) when 

 among the conditions that might be considered 

 favorable for the origin of life on the early earth, was 

 mentioned the probable presence of cell-like, comb- 

 like formations. Blitschli thought he discovered a 

 comb-like structure in gels, but the "discovery" was 

 discredited by Wolfgang Pauli. Naturally then, to 

 be able to produce an artificial "cell," hollow cham- 

 ber, membrane, was thought to be a very high goal. 

 However, it has been found that artificial cells 

 (Wilhelm Pfeffer's and Moritz Traube's) after all do 

 not contribute much toward the solution of life. 



It is well known what importance the evolutionists 



' The Origin of the Earth, 250-261. 



