10 JOURNAL OF THE [January, 



purely inorganic matter ; (2) the origination of living organized 

 forms from the same sort of matter ; (3) the origination of 

 living material from dead organic substances ; and (4) the orig- 

 ination of living forms from the same kind of substances. 

 Some authors have attempted to designate each of these imag- 

 inary processes by a distinct, name ; but not with entire suc- 

 cess. I shall not try to follow any particular system of defini- 

 tion, but shall use the word abiogenesis pretty much as 

 Professor Haeckel uses the term spontaneous generation ; — 

 to 'designate any supposed process by which living 

 organisms may arise out of not-living substances, without the 

 agency of other organisms. In a measure the word archebiosis 

 covers the same ground, since it means simply the origination 

 of life or a living thing. 



Now, the ultra doctrine of abiogenesis involves the idea of 

 the spontaneous origination of living forms at the present time, 

 as well as at a distant point in the past. Great Britain has not 

 produced many advocates of this extreme conception. In 

 America I think none of prominence has appeared. Germany 

 has its Haeckel, and France its Pouchet. England has only 

 its Bastian. These are all radicals. To them Evolution is no mere 

 hypothesis. It is already a demonstrated and general fact ; and 

 they cannot, or will not, admit any missing links. In their creed 

 unfilled breaks are an impossibility. Living things must have arisen 

 out of not-living, and higher organisms out of lower, in unbroken 

 series. And what has occurred in times past must have been 

 an effect of causes now potent and operative. They permit no 

 heretical leaning towards a belief in extinct causes. They are 

 exceedingly jealous of the uniformity of nature. Its laws are 

 from everlasting to everlasting. What has happened may hap- 

 pen. What takes place now may have taken place at any pre- 

 vious time. The lowest forms of living beings once came into 

 existence de noiw. They began to be. But not by miracle ; 

 they were evolved from things until then forever dead, by phys- 

 ical and chemical processes that may still be evoked, both 

 naturally and artificially. They think they can even point to 

 the bottom of the ascending scale. Haeckel says, in effect, 

 there is the Moner ; that is without doubt the simplest possible 

 vitalized unit. But others say there must be something even 

 simpler, for the Moner moves about, takes food, and performs 



