536 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1912. 



I have no desire to take exception to the general trend of Prof. 

 Schafer's address, but I can not help thinking that he altogether 

 underrates the complexity of vital chemical processes; while behev- 

 iug that, as he says, "we may fairly conclude that all changes in 

 hving substance are brought about by ordinary chemical and phy- 

 sical forces" and that "at the best, vitahsm explains nothing," I am 

 in no way prepared to underrate the difficulties before us in fuiding 

 satisfactory explanations of the origin of Hfe. 



I see no reason to suppose that life may be originating de novo at 

 the present time nor do I believe that we shall ever succeed in effect- 

 ing the synthesis of living matter. 



With regard to Prof. Moore's statement that all the actions of the 

 cell are concerned with the liberation of energy and its transformation 

 into many forms, there is nothing to show that the forms of energy 

 that are operative during life are in any way peculiar. Energy is 

 inherent in matter; apparently its prunary form is that known to us 

 as electrical energy; and inasmuch as Faraday's dictum that chemi- 

 cal affinity and electricity are forms of the same power is incontro- 

 vertible, moreover as electricity in its passage through matter is 

 frittered down into heat, the mechanical effects associated with life 

 are easily accounted for. As to the origin of consciousness and of 

 psychical phenomena generally we know nothmg; at most we can 

 assert that we are conscious of consciousness. The effects of con- 

 sciousness may well be the outcome of simple mechanical displace- 

 ments of molecules such as take place in the steel tape previously 

 referred. to in its passage across a magnetic field varymg in mtensity. 

 If nervous impulses are conveyed not along continuous tracts but 

 through the agency of interdigitating fibers, a mere alteration in the 

 lengths of these fibers would condition a variation of the impulse; 

 the actual conductivity of a continuous fiber would vary also if 

 chemical changes were to take place within its substance. It is easy 

 to see how chemical changes occurring within a nerve or muscle cell 

 would involve an alteration in the osmotic state, which would neces- 

 sarily be followed by the influx or efflux of water according as the 

 alteration hivolved an increase or diminution of the number of mole- 

 cules in solution. Oscillatory hydraulic changes of this type may 

 well be at the bottom of both nervous and muscular activity in the 

 organism; in fact, there is every reason to believe that we are but 

 hydraulic engines. 



According to Prof. Moore, the colloid shows the properties of dawn- 

 ing life; whatever this may mean, I understand him to say that to 

 make it live it is necessary to get an energy transformer attached 

 to it. It is surprismg how little life there is m those who live, how 

 slowly lessons are learnt. The conditions which determine the 

 transformations of energy were laid down generations ago by Fara- 



