APPENDIX I 



WHAT IS LIFE? 



A Paper contributed to the " Hibbert Journal," 

 October, 1905. 



IN an article on Sir Oliver Lodge's criticism of 

 Haeckel in the Hibbert Journal for July, 1905. the 

 writer quotes Sir Oliver as saying that life is " some- 

 thing immaterial and itself fundamental, something 

 which uses collocations of matter in order to display 

 itself amid material surroundings, but is otherwise 

 essentially independent of them;" and on this he 

 remarks : "As far as all infra-human vitality is 

 concerned, there is not a single fact to support this, 

 and the negative evidence is imposing." As a 

 biologist, I must join issue on this point with this 

 writer, and I would ask leave to give my reasons for 

 differing from him. 



Roughly speaking, one half of the living matter on 

 the earth is engaged in the process of assimilation 

 that is, in decomposing carbon dioxide by means of 



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