BASIC ASSUMPTIONS 7 



For the initial purposes of this discussion on Evolution I shall 

 consider that the supporters of the theory of Evolution hold that 

 all these seven assumptions are valid, and that these assumptions 

 form the " General Theory of Evolution." 



The first point that I should like to make is that these seven 

 assumptions by their nature are not capable of experimental 

 verification. They assume that a certain series of events has 

 occurred in the past. Thus though it may be possible to mimic 

 some of these events under present-day conditions, this does not 

 mean that these events must therefore have taken place in the 

 past. All that it shows is that it is possible for such a change to 

 take place. Thus to change a present-day reptile into a mammal, 

 though of great interest, would not show the way in which the 

 mammals did arise. Unfortunately we cannot bring about even 

 this change; instead we have to depend upon limited circum- 

 stantial evidence for our assumptions, and it is now my intention 

 to discuss the nature of this evidence. 



Non-living into living (Biogenesis) 



This is one of the oldest problems to puzzle man. Is it possible 

 for non-living material simply to be turned into living material 

 or is some extra " vital " force necessarv? It is reasonablv clear 

 that living bodies in many ways use systems similar to those 

 present in the non-living world. One of the first barricades 

 appeared to fall to Wohler, when he showed by his synthesis of 

 urea that there was no very clear distinction between organic 

 chemicals and non-organic chemicals. Within recent years we 

 have been able to devise systems in w T hich the irradiation of a 

 mixture containing water, carbon dioxide and ammonia brings 

 about the formation of amino-acids, simple peptides, and 

 carbohydrates. However, proteins and nucleoproteins have not 

 yet been synthesised under such conditions and these latter com- 

 pounds appear to be of great importance in the development and 

 maintenance of life. One imagines that the synthesis of these 

 substances will merely be a matter of time and application, but 

 it will be useful to distinguish the two different methods of 

 achieving their synthesis. The first is to try to synthesise them 

 under conditions in which we imagine that living things first 

 occurred, i.e. to irradiate simple solutions and hope that proteins 



