130 TRANSACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE [Sess. Lxm. 



On the hitherto received chemico-physical theories, there 

 has been no explanation of how sap rises to the top of the 

 loftiest trees, in opposition to the law of gravitation, nor 

 why plants, in many other ways, disobey the laws of Xature. 

 By the laws of Xature, I vmderstand the current explana- 

 tions of phenomena. In this country, the laws of Nature 

 are made by the Eoyal Society, the British Association,, 

 and other scientific bodies. As the sap, which rises from 

 the ground to the top of trees, systematically breaks these 

 laws, it is time for the scientific parliament to pass a 

 revised code, and admit that vitalism is a law of Nature, as 

 well as gravitation, natural selection, capillarity, etc. The 

 laws of Nature are the creation of scientists, just as the 

 laws of England are the creation of politicians, and when a 

 law is not obeyed by subjects, it ought to be altered 



A majority of the Royal Society is not infallible, any 

 more than a majority of the House of Commons ; and even 

 wlien these august bodies are unanimous, they are often 

 wrong. 



In "Nature," of 27th October 1898, there is an attack 

 on the theory of Pasteur and Japp, by Professor G. Errora,. 

 who thinks that the problem of spontaneous generation is 

 not likely to be reduced to the far simpler question of the 

 origin of molecular asymmetry. He thinks a primordial 

 racemic compound, might have spontaneously separated into 

 its two enantiomorphs, somewhere in space, and one of its 

 enantiomorphs come to our ])lanet and the other gone to 

 some other planet. In that planet, the bodies of all living 

 beings would be built up of dextro-gyrose albumens ; and 

 the vine-grapes in that planet would yield Iffivo-glucose 

 instead of dextro-glucose, and the sugar in diabetes would 

 also yield kx-vo-glucose instead of dextro-glucose. This 

 seems to me to be like elliptical hyperbolic and spherical 

 space, quite unscientific, for it is not a concept attempt- 

 ing to explain observed facts, but an assertion that there 

 may possiljly be in space something quite unlike anything 

 on earth, — an assertion which, even the assertor himself 

 admits, it is impossible either to verify or refute. 



The theory of Pasteur and Japp has also been attacked 

 by other great men, such as Cail Pearson, Professor Fitz- 

 gerald, and Herbert Spencer. 



