THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 187 



resemblances between the changes which are carried 

 on in living bodies and those which are ordinarily 

 classed under the head of fermentations. We have 

 shown that, in the commoner kinds of fermentations, 

 processes of analysis and processes of synthesis go on 

 simultaneously in the fluid; and, similarly, we have 

 found that growth of pre-existing protoplasm is inti- 

 mately associated with simultaneous processes of de- 

 composition or analysis 1. We have proved that some 

 of the products of this process of synthesis which takes 

 place in ordinary fermentations appear in the form of 

 living matter (even where no such matter pre-existed), 

 so that we are compelled to believe that there is a 

 natural tendency to the formation of the compounds 

 which constitute such matter, just as there is a natural 

 tendency to the formation of simpler chemical com- 

 binations. We are, therefore, entitled to believe that 



^ There is, therefore, much reason for the belief that the appearance 

 of living matter, whether it arises independently or by a process of 

 growth, is due in part to the existence of molecular movements which 

 are initiated by chemical decompositions. This state of movement, as 

 Liebig says, is capable of 'being communicated to other atoms in contact 

 with the former, so as to cause the atoms and elements of these latter 

 also, in consequence of the resulting disturbance of the equilibrium of 

 their chemical attraction, to change their position, and to arrange 

 themselves into one or more new groups.' Or, as Mr. Hinton puts 

 it : — ' One body is ceasing to be organic, and therein is giving off its 

 force, and in immediate connection with it another body is becoming 

 organic, and therefore is receiving force into itself. Can we be mis- 

 interpreting these facts in saying that the former process is the cause of 

 the latter ; and that the decay gives out the force which produces the 

 growth.' (' Life in Nature,' 1861, p. 43.) 



