\278 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Sept. 



solution is this one of life; life as manifested in men 

 and in animals and plants around them 



"This address is therefore to deal, not with life itself, 

 but with some of the processes or phenomena which ac- 

 company its manifestations. But it is practically impos- 

 sible to do fruitful work according to the Baconian 

 guide of piling observation on observation 



"At the very threshold of any working hypothesis for 

 the biologist, the question as to the nature of the energy 

 we call life must be considered. The great problem 

 must receive some kind of a hypothetical solution. What 

 is its relation to the energies of light, heat, electricity, 

 chemism and the other forms discussed by the physicist? 

 Are its complex manifestations due only to those or does 

 it have a character and individualty of its own ? If we 

 accept the ordinarily received view of the evolution of 

 our solar system, the original fiery nebula in which heat 

 reigned supreme, slowly dissipating part of its heat, and 

 hurled into space the planets, themselves flaming vapors, 

 only the protons of the solid planets. As the heat be- 

 came further dissipated there appeared in the cooling 

 mass manifestations of chemical attraction, compounds 

 at first gases, then liquids, and finally, on the cooling 

 planets, solids appeared. Lastly, upon our own planet, 

 the earth, when the solid crust was formed and the tem- 

 perature had fallen below the boiling point of water, the 

 seas were formed and then life appeared. Who could 

 see, in the incandescent nebula, the liquids and solids of 

 our planet and the play upon them of chemism, of light, 

 heat, electricity, cohesion, tension and the other mani- 

 festations so familiar to all ? And yet, who is there that 

 for a moment believes that aught of matter or energy 

 was created in the difi"erent stages of the evolution ? 

 They appeared or were manifested just as soon as the 

 conditions made it possible. So it seems to me that the 

 energy called Life manifested itself upon this planet 



