After Neumayr 



LATER SPECIES DIFFER FROM THEIR PREDECESSORS 



Thousands of pond-snail shells dug out of mountains in Slavonic, at different levels, 

 were arranged in order from the oldest to the most recent. They showed increasing 

 departure from the oldest type; and the most recent resembled most closely the 

 forms still living in the mountain lakes 



our Studies, that the total energy output of an organism balances exactly the 

 total energy income. Similarly, we find that the total material growth and 

 output of a Hving thing balances exactly the material income. From a purely 

 physical or chemical point of view, "vitality" is neither a particular kind of 

 matter nor a particular kind of energy. Yet we are sure that a living organism 

 is different from the same organism dead. 



While we are thus unable, in a strictly scientific sense, to locate or manipu- 

 late any vital principle, many nevertheless choose to "believe" that there is 

 such a something. For it is often convenient to explain what happens as if 

 such a principle were actually at work. In the past scientists spoke of caloric 

 or of phlogiston to explain various happenings or appearances associated with 

 fire and heat, just as in earlier times "spirits" explained sickness, thunder, and 

 other mysterious happenings. This is not to say that a vital principle does 

 not exist. It is to say only that when we do choose to believe in something of 

 this nature, we owe it to ourselves to recognize that we are dealing with a 

 supposition, or hypothesis, not a fact. 



Did Life Originate from the Not-Living? 



The Scientist's Dilemma^ Scientists reject the sun myths and ocean 

 myths of ancient times. They treat modern tales of the "spontaneous" trans- 

 formation of rubbish and dirty water into worms or mice as examples of false 

 inference or of faulty observation. Nor will most scientists admit that life 

 has "always" existed on the earth or that it came into being through a "mir- 

 acle". That is, we cannot admit that there has ever been any violation of 

 those orderly relationships between substances and forces which we call the 

 "laws of nature". Nevertheless, scientists are obliged to assume that life 

 originated from nonliving matter. Life did and still does so originate. 



Life out of Nonliving Through photosynthesis lifeless water and carbon 

 dioxide become starch and sugar. Through the oxidation of sugar chemical 



iSee Nos. 2 and 3, p. 449. 

 443 



