FROM DUST TO DUST. 49 



How or 7vhe?i life first originated is not for us now to consider; 

 suffice it to say that even Tyndall, who fought such fierce battles 

 with Bastian and Pouchet on the question of Abiogenesis, has told 

 us * "that, as a believer in the nebular hypothesis, he is logically 

 bound to believe that spontaneous generation did come about 

 some time;" and Haeckelf thinks that it may still be taking 

 place in such organisms as Bathybius Haeckelii. This moneron, 

 found at a depth of 2,000 to 4,000 fathoms, was discovered and 

 described by Huxley, but of the organisation of this " protoplas- 

 mic slime " there is some doubt, though Dr. Emil Bessels,J an 

 excellent observer, states that he has studied it in the living con- 

 dition. Under any circumstance, whether it be organised or only 

 a gelatinous precipitate of sulphate of lime, its spontaneous gene- 

 ration must be an assumption. 



The question where life first originated is more easily dealt 

 with, and on this point most naturalists are agreed that the ocean 

 was the original home of all life. During a long period of the 

 earth's history there was practically only pelagic life, the conditions 

 of which are so simple that it is easy to believe that the first dawn 

 of life appeared there. Modern science has discovered quite a 

 new fauna and flora in the organisms of the surface, such as Tri- 

 chodesmium^ PyrocisHs^ Protococcus^ the Coccospheres, Rhab do spheres, 

 the free-swimming algae and bacteria. Whether or no the bacteria 

 in sea-water perform the function of fixing the nitrogen of the air? 

 so that it can be utilised by pelagic algse, in the same way as nitrify- 

 ing organisms are known to do on land, has yet to be discovered; 

 but it is clear that the teeming myriads of marine animals, the 

 most conspicuous of which are all carnivorous, must get their 

 nitrogen from somewhere. The small amount of debris coming 

 from the land, and the very limited supply of vegetable food which 

 the littoral shore can afford, could never support so vast a fauna, 

 far larger indeed than that of the land.§ On the earth's surface we 



* Natural Science, Jan., 1894. Tyndall, by Prof. Huxley. 



t E. Ilaeckel, The History of Creation, v. i., p. 344. 



X Jena Zeitschrift, v. ix. , p. 277. 



§ Natural Science, October, 1894, p. 242. Review of Prof. W. K. 

 Brook's paper m Journal of Geology, August, 1894 : — 



" In a«few vivid pages we are shown how the ocean is almost destitute of 



Inter a nal Journal of Microscopy and Natural Science. 



HiRD Series. Vol. V. e 



