50 ETERNITY OF LIFE 



a lifeless medium only happen at high pressures and tem- 

 peratures in the depths of metamorphic formations. " The 

 synthesis of life ", Vernadskii continued, " requires prelimin- 

 ary isotopic modification of the chemical elements ". However, 

 as we have just seen, Vernadskii himself pointed out that 

 changes of this sort may occur in ordinary inert media at 

 high temperatures and pressures and it is therefore quite 

 arguable that life first originated from ordinary inert (not 

 biogenic) matter under conditions where it was subjected to 

 preliminary isotopic modification by the forces of inorganic 

 nature. 



Thus we have seen that, as a result of prolonged and varied 

 studies of the question, Vernadskii abandoned the untenable 

 position of ' materialistic dualism ' which he previously held. 

 In 1944 he wrote, " In our time the problem can hardly be 

 treated as simply as it could be during last century when, 

 it seemed, the problem of spontaneous generation had been 

 finally solved in a negative sense by the work of Louis 

 Pasteur." 



It is hardly necessary nowadays to demonstrate theoreti- 

 cally the complete incompatibility of all kinds of dualistic 

 views with a consistent materialism. We should, however, 

 analyse in detail the factual evidence which has been and 

 still is adduced in support of their attitude by the adherents 

 of the theory of the eternity of life. We should examine 

 how far this evidence agrees with the objective data of 

 contemporary science. The chief difficulty which is always 

 encountered by the materialistically inclined proponents of 

 the eternity of life is the problem of the emergence of life 

 on the Earth and of all those beings which inhabit the Earth. 

 The Earth itself does not seem to be eternal, it originated 

 at some time and it is therefore necessary to explain in some 

 way how the first organisms appeared on it without recourse 

 to the creative act of deity or the formative influence of 

 a ' life force '. 



For vegetation to develop on the virgin rocks of volcanic 

 islands the seeds or spores of plants must have been carried 

 there from elscAvhere. A similar idea that viable germs from 

 other worlds inhabited by organisms were deposited on the 

 virgin earth during its development was put forward by the 



