MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 5 



Upon opening the flasks, the beef tea soon teemed with Hfe; in other words, 

 this man was the first wlio could safely say that life was essential to the 

 production of life or life must come from life. After one hundred and fifty 

 years, no one has been able to gainsay Spallanzani. This statement is 

 made guardedly, realizing that the problem still invites attacks, and not a 

 few would demonstrate the creation of life at one fell stroke. Bastian, in 

 his book on "The Evolution of Life" published in 1907, has not ceased 

 his labor in the over-throw of Pasteur by actually creating micro-organisms 

 out of saline solutions, which are prepared and introduced into tubes, sealed 

 and subjected to a heat varying from 1C0° C to 130° C. After a time, he 

 finds such forms as micrococci, vibrios, bacilli, torulae and moulds which 

 he photographs. His summing is sufficiently characteristic of the individual 

 ancl conclusive to investigators: "These views of mine as the result of oft 

 repeated observations, are, I would submit, in accordance with the ]3resent 

 day existence of vast multitudes of lowest organisms of all kinds on the face 

 of the earth. No consistent explanation of their ])resence can l)e given by 

 those who will not accept my facts." The mysteries of radium have in- 

 veigled Dr. Burke into thinking that gelatin solutions may be readily con- 

 verted into life by its peculiar influence. The peculiar physical properties 

 possessed by gelatin, egg albumen, water glass have led many a poor victim 

 to figurative decapitation. It is too true when some new natural force 

 becomes heralded, the public and unthinking scientific workers are a little 

 inclined to be precocious. It would be folly for us to spend our 

 time and energy in an effort to ascertain the value of chimerical theories 

 and fanciful speculations. Our only safe ground is to consider those logical 

 and developing avenues of research which may, eventually, lead to some 

 solution, and which even at present are contributing much to fundamental 

 knowledge. 



Technical studies of protoplasm w^ere from the first aimed at the jiroblems 

 of metabolism with comparatively little reference to how it came to be. 

 Following upon the normal metabolism much attention was given to altered 

 metabolism induced by disease and by the ingestion of substances which 

 may have some influence upon the work of the cell. Unicellular investigations 

 have emphasized the importance of ferments or enzymes, which are well 

 known agents, acting as chemical stimulants. Soon, it was recognized that 

 digestion, decomposition, putrefaction, fermentation, and perhaps many 

 other intra- and extra-cellular phenomena are very much the same. The 

 products resulting from the digestion of nitrogenous substances in the 

 alimentary canal are very similar to the products of nitrogenous decom- 

 position or putrefaction, and the digestion of carbo-hydrates and fats is 

 practically the same as the fermentation of these bodies. Little by little, 

 it has grown upon us that enzymes assume the role of inciting the various 

 changes necessary for cellular nutrition throughout the body, thus implying, 

 as it does, that digestion and assimilation are not confined to the intestinal 

 canal, but are co-extensive with the cellular structures of the body. It 

 follows that the final step is the cell, and that the cell is the unit, whether 

 in combination with other cells to form multicellular bodies, or wdiether 

 it has an independent individual existence as an organism — an entity. In 

 the case of multi-cellular organisims it has grown to a habit to speak of 

 specialization as if this were peculiar to complex bodies. It is ecjually true 

 of micro-organisms, for do we not know that the special class of proteolytic 

 bacteria, of lactic bacteria, of the alcohol-producing yeasts is highly specific 

 in its functions? The correlation of these phenomena in the cell and the 



