SOME GENERAL CONCLUSIONS 283 



an embryo or as an adult. If it had no living 

 ancestors, we are thus face to face with the 

 problem of the origin of animal life, either by what 

 has been termed " Abiogenesis " of a merely 

 physical and fortuitous kind, or by creation. This 

 implies the previous production of the complex 

 organic compound known as " Protoplasm," which 

 can, so far as we know, be produced only through 

 the agency of previously living " Protoplasm " 

 formed by living plants. We have, therefore, to 

 presuppose the "Abiogenesis" or creation of plants 

 as predecessors of the animal ; but here the same 

 difficulty meets us. We have next to imagine the 

 spontaneous origin of the structures of the 

 " Protozoon " — its outer and inner substance, its 

 nucleus, its pulsating vesicle, and its pseudopods, 

 with its protective test, and its endowment with vital 

 powers of locomotion, sensation, assimilation, nutri- 

 tion, and reproduction. Can we suppose that all 

 this could come of the chance interaction of 

 physical causes? 



At present the production of the living from the 

 non-living seems to be an impossibility, and the 

 suggestion that at some vastly distant point of 

 past time physical conditions may have been so 



