CONCLUSION 489 



to the origin of life. However, if we were to introduce into 

 our tank ready-made organisms, e.g. bacteria, the course of 

 events would be quite different ; in that case the more 

 highly developed form of the motion of matter would come 

 to the fore and take the lead. At once the transformation of 

 lifeless to living material would cease to follow the old slow 

 paths and would proceed in the new way, based on metabol- 

 ism, converting the organic substances in the solution into 

 the ingredients of living protoplasm with colossal rapidity. 

 The origin of life from lifeless material simply could not 

 occur under these conditions. It would, in fact, be completely 

 ruled out, as Darwin pointed out long ago and as, indeed, we 

 can see everywhere in nature. 



Of course, in some out of the way parts of our planet where, 

 for some reason, there are no organisms, but where the 

 circumstances are suitable, it might be that the process of 

 the primary formation of life is, even now, taking place. 

 However, if we are to accept this possibility as a fact, the 

 process must first actually be found taking place under 

 natural conditions, but nobody has yet succeeded in doing 

 this. A far more rational approach to a solution of the 

 problem of the origin of life would seem to be the study of 

 the ways in which lifeless material is transformed into 

 living material as manifested in metabolism. A detailed 

 study of the processes of metabolism is the very thing which 

 can lead towards a solution of the problem of reproducing 

 it artificially. By studying this high form of the organisation 

 of matter which is characteristic of living bodies we shall be 

 able to proceed far more efficiently than nature and shall 

 be able to synthesise life at a far greater rate. One may rest 

 assured that this is a matter for the not so distant future. 



