46 PROTOPLASM 



Shall we ever be able to make a living cell? An answer to 

 this question is impossible. While some men of scientific stand- 

 ing believe the synthesis of living matter to be possible, others 

 regard it as very unlikely; in any case, it has as yet not been 

 accomplished. The work of Pasteur proved that spontaneous 

 generation does not (ordinarily) exist and that organisms arise 

 only from parents, from living antecedents. This fact gave rise 

 to the aphorism "Omne vivum ex ovo," which has since domi- 

 nated all scientific and philosophic thought. The pre-Pasteur 

 "scientific" formulas for producing life are no longer taken 

 seriously ; on the other hand, those scientists who believe that the 

 bridge between the living and the nonliving is not very great 

 tacitly admit that it may be possible to cross this bridge some 

 day. 



In justice to the model makers, it should again be emphasized 

 that they do not assume that their imitations are alive. Model 

 making teaches much and may approach the actual state of 

 affairs in living matter. Imitations of life processes should be 

 viewed not necessarily with skepticism but with the full realiza- 

 tion that they are imitations and likely to differ greatly from the 

 way living matter performs the same function, even though 

 both accomplish the same result. On the other hand, it is 

 important to realize that, as Leduc says, "considering the 

 impossibility of defining the exact line of demarcation between 

 animate and inanimate matter, it is astonishing to find so much 

 stress laid on the supposed fundamental difference between vital 

 and non vital phenomena." 



Whatever protoplasm and life may be, their mechanisms are 

 physical and chemical, and these mechanisms can be studied 

 independently. They represent certain laws, and the laws are 

 true even if, in a living system, hundreds of processes go on at 

 the same time. Model making is simply an attempt to analyze 

 the laws of protoplasmic behavior. 



