528 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1912. 



came into existence in those times. Chemists and geologists would 

 be in agreement, I believe, that these oils were formed at a somewhat 

 late geological epoch and that they are derived from fatty materials 

 laid down as remains of organisms. 



Prof. Benjamin Moore, brimming over with biotic energy, after- 

 wards told us that "something more than structure was necessary for 

 life." He preferred a dynamic view which embraced energy, motion, 

 and change ; * * * all the actions of the cell were concerned with 

 the liberation of energy and its transformation into man}" forms. 

 For the origin of life * * * j^ -^y^g necessary to start with the 

 formation of organic bodies. The colloids, which were large aggre- 

 gates of molecules, began to show the properties of dawning life, but 

 it was needful also to get an energy transformer attached to the 

 colloid. He also insisted that "the problem was metaphysical at the 

 present moment, as through all the ages the process of life was going 

 on. As soon as the colloids got under the mfluence of sunlight they 

 started synthesizing organic bodies. That process was going on 

 now." 



In making such statements Prof. Moore allowed his imagination to 

 run away with him; his assertions can not be justified. Vague, 

 sweeping generalities are out of place in such a discussion. Unless 

 the steps be made clear, there can be no logic m the argument. 



No doubt something more than structure is necessary for life. 

 Nevertheless life is dependent on structure — just as is the activity of 

 the steam engine. The steam engine is essentially a dynamic machine; 

 it lives only when fuel is burnt under its boiler, but the energy 

 liberated in combustion is brought into action through the agency of 

 a complex mechanism. And it is worth noting that by a slight 

 extension of this mechanism the engine may be made to "remember," 

 and even talk. Thus, if it be caused to draw a steel tape across the 

 magnetic ])ole of a telephone while the drum of the ijistrument is being 

 talked at, the message is taken down by the tape; if the tape be then 

 drawn back in the reverse direction, the drum of the telephone will 

 speak and deliver the message remembered in the tape. Surely such 

 an analogy with life is worth considering. Of course it will be said 

 that the engine is fashioned by an intelligence external to itself and 

 if we suppose that life may have been self-constituted, to obtain a 

 hearing we must discover the means of self -constitution. 



Sir William TUden, in a letter to The Times (Sept. 10, 1912), after 

 referring to the various raw materials available on the earth, remarks : 



I venture to think that no chemist will be prepared to suggest a process by which, 

 from the interaction of such materials, anything approaching a substance of the nature 

 of a proteid could be formed or, if by a complex series of changes a compound of this 

 kind were conceivably produced, that it would present the characters of living proto- 

 plasm. 



