ORIGIN OF BRUTE MATTER. '• 25 1 



is to say, by the intervention of a pre-existing living 

 organism. 



Spontaneous Generation an Episode in the History 

 of the Globe. — Though we have been unable to effect 

 spontaneous generation up to the present, it has been 

 referred by Haeckel to a more or less distant past, to 

 the time when the cooling of the globe, the solidifica- 

 tion of its crust, and the condensation of aqueous 

 vapour upon its surface created conditions compatible 

 with the existence of living beings similar to those 

 with which we are acquainted. Lord Kelvin has 

 fixed these geological events as occurring from twenty 

 to forty million years ago. Then circumstances 

 became propitious for the appearance of the first 

 organisms, whence were successively derived those 

 which now people the earth and the waters. 



Circumstances favourable to the appearance of the 

 first beings apparently occurred only in a far distant 

 past ; but most physiologists admit that if we knew 

 exactly these circumstances, and could reproduce 

 them, we might also expect to produce their effect — 

 namely, the creation of a living being, formed in all 

 its parts, developed from the inorganic kingdom. 

 To all those who held this view the impotence of 

 experiment at the present time is purely temporary. 

 It is comparable to that of primitive men before the 

 time of Prometheus ; they, not knowing how to 

 produce fire, could only get it by transmitting it 

 from one to another. It is due to the inadequacy 

 of our knowledge and the weakness of our means ; it 

 does not contradict the possibility of the fact. 



Contrary Opinion. Life did not Originate on our 

 Globe. — But all biologists do not share this opinion. 

 Some, and not the least eminent, hold it to be an 



