LIFE 347 



his perceptions with regard to the earth he is compelled 

 to postulate a period, distant, it is true, many millions of 

 years back, in which, owing to conditions of fluidity and 

 temperature, no life, such as we noiv knoiv life, not even 

 the protoplasmic grain, could have existed on the earth. 

 This period has been termed the azoic or lifeless period, 

 but we must be careful to note that we mean by lifeless 

 only " without life as we now know it." Bearing these 

 facts in mind there are three hypotheses by which we can 

 conceptually describe and classify our present experiences 

 of the living and the lifeless. They are as follows : — 



ia) Life may be conceived as based upon an organic 

 corpuscle which is immortal — that is to say, it will, with 

 suitable environment, continue to exist for ever. This 

 hypothesis may be termed ^o. perpetuity of life. 



(J?) Life may be conceived as generated from a special 

 union of inorganic corpuscles, which union may take place 

 under favourable environment. This hypothesis is termed 

 the spontaneous ge^ieration of life} 



(c) Life may have arisen from the " operation in time 

 of some ultra-scientific cause." This is the hypothesis of 

 a special creation of life. 



We will briefly consider these hypotheses in succession. 



^ 8. — The Perpetuity of Life, or Biogenesis 



The perpetuity of life at first sight appears to contra- 

 dict what physicists tell us of the azoic condition of the 

 earth. A reconciliation of the two hypotheses has, how- 

 ever, been found by Von Helmholtz and Lord Kelvin, 

 who suggest that a meteorite like an ethereal gondola 

 might have brought in a crevice the protoplasmic drop 

 to our earth when the azoic stage was passed. But our 

 experience of meteorites — especially the intense cold they 

 are subjected to in space and the intense heat they undergo 



1 In more technical language the hypotheses {a) and {b) are spoken of as 

 biogenesis and abiogenesis respectively. In using the popular term " spon- 

 taneous generation " I must not be supposed to suggest that life (any more 

 than consciousness) can be suddenly generated. 



