402 THE LIFE OF MATTEK. 



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may he (|irite supcrticial and allow micro-organisms to su))sist in their 

 interior. But other objeotions retain their force: First, that of M. 

 Verworn, who considers the hypothesis of cosmic germs as inconsistent 

 with the laws of evolution: then, that of L. P^rrera, who denies that 

 the conditions necessary for life can exist in interplanetary bodies. 



IlypofJiesis of cosmic pan><pei'in(a. — Du Bois-Reymond has given the 

 name of cosmic 2)(m-^J^<'Tmia to a doctrine \ery similar to the preced- 

 ing, fornudated by H. Richter in 1S65, and by F. C'ohn in 1872. 

 According to this, the first living germs arrived on our globe mingled 

 with the cosmic dust that floats in space and Tails slowly to the sur- 

 face of the earth. If they escape by this gentle fall the dangerous 

 heating of meteorites, L. Eri'era observes that they must remain ex- 

 posed to the action of the luminous rays, which is generally destruc- 

 tive of germs. 



Hypothesis of pyrcjzocuis. — W. Preyer was not willing to accept this 

 cosmic transmigration of even the most simple living beings, nor to 

 bring other worlds into the history of our own. Life, according to 

 him, must have subsisted for all time, even when the globe was an 

 incandescent mass. But it was not the same life as at present. 

 Vitality must have undergone many profound changes in the course 

 of ages. The pyrozoans, the first living beings, vulcanians, were 

 quite difl^erent from the beings of the present day that are disorgan- 

 ized by a slight elevation of temperature. 



This theory of pyrozoans proposed by W. Preyer in 1872 certainly 

 seems quite chimerical, and similar to the imaginings of Kepler, yet 

 in a certain way it accords with contemporary ideas concerning the 

 life of matter. It is related to them l)y the evolution which it implies 

 in the materials of the terrestrial globe. 



According to Preyer. primitive life existed in the fire. Being 

 igneous masses in fusion the pyrozoans lived after their own manner; 

 their vitality, slowly modified, finally took on the form which it pre- 

 sents to-day. Yet, in this profound transformation their numl)er has 

 not varied, and the total quantity of life in the universe has remained 

 the same. 



We recognize here the ideas of Button. These cosmozoans. these 

 pyrozoans, have a singular resemblance to the organic molecules of 

 '•live matter" of the illustrious naturalist — everywhere distriouted, 

 in(lestructil)le, and forming, by their concentration, living structures. 



But it is time to abandon scientific theories and to come to arguments 

 based upon facts. 



It is with a spirit quite difterent from that of the poets, the meta- 

 physicians, and the more or less philosophical scientists that the sci- 

 ence of our days looks at the obscure vitality of inanimate bodies. 

 It thinks that there is to be recognized there, in a more or less rudi- 

 mentary state, the action of the same factors which operate in living 

 beings, the manifestation of the same fundamental properties. 



