THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 181 



origin or beginning of life in the universe. Thus the old nebu- 

 lar hypothesis of Laplace postulated a hot origin of our solar 

 system incompatible with the coexistence of organic life, which, 

 as the experiments of Pasteur and others have shown, is 

 destroyed, in all cases, at a temperature just above 45° Centi- 

 grade (113° Fahrenheit). Even the enzymes or organic cata- 

 lysts, which are essential for bio-chemical processes, are de- 

 stroyed at a temperature between 60° and 70° Centigrade. 

 This excludes the possibility of the contemporaneousness of 

 protoplasm and inorganic matter, and points to a beginning 

 of life in our solar system. Moreover, independently of this 

 theory, the geologist sees in the primitive crystalline rocks 

 (granites, diorites, basalts, etc.) and in the extant magmas 

 of volcanoes evidences of an azoic age, during which tempera- 

 tures incompatible with the survival of even the blue-green 

 algae or the most resistent bacterial spores must have pre- 

 vailed over the surface of the globe. In fact, it is generally 

 recognized by geologists that the igneous or pyrogenic rocks, 

 which contain no fossils, preceded the sedimentary or fossil- 

 iferous rocks. The new planetesimal hypothesis, it is true, 

 is said to be compatible with a cold origin of the universe. 

 Nevertheless, this theory assumes a very gradual condensation 

 of our cosmos out of dispersed gases and star dust, whereas 

 life demands as the sine qua non condition of its existence a 

 differentiated environment consisting of a lithosphere, a hydro- 

 sphere, and an atmosphere. Hence, it is clear that life did not 

 originate until such an appropriate environment was an ac- 

 complished fact. All theories of cosmogony, therefore, point 

 to a beginning of life subsequent to the constitution of the 

 inorganic world. 



Now, it is impossible for organic life to antecede itself. 

 If, therefore, it has had a beginning in the world, it must have 

 had a first active cause distinct from itself; and the active 

 cause, in question, must, consequently, have been either some- 

 thing intrinsic, or something extrinsic, to inorganic matter. 

 The hypothesis, however, of a spontaneous origin of life 



