LIFE IN ITS LOWER AND HIGHER FORMS 27 



when the relations between organic motion and 

 exchange of material, are duly considered. 1 



Though we cannot here linger over these early 

 stages of investigation, we must carry with us at least 

 a general conception of scientific results. We must 

 take the physical basis of life/ as Professor Huxley 

 depicted it in his famous lecture, perhaps giving even 

 wider range to the phrase. For, if we are agreed 

 that all science is pointing towards a conclusion 

 which interprets as a unity the world, material, 

 organic, and rational, we must begin with the basis 

 of life, outstretching all that has assumed organised 

 form. We must see life springing up in the earth. 

 We must see inorganic material, by subtle procedure 

 of Nature, transformed into vital tissue. 



The hypothesis that life originates under action of 

 the mechanical and chemical forces operating uni 

 formly throughout Nature, has been abandoned by 

 competent judges. The most careful search has 

 failed to discover spontaneous generation. When, 

 however, it is considered that life belongs to the 

 material order, drawing its sustenance from the 

 material universe, there does not seem to be any in 

 superable logical difficulty to bar the supposition that 

 it might originate under physical conditions. All 

 that can be said with scientific authority is that Spon 

 taneous Generation, (abiogenesis ; generatio spon- 

 tanea), has not been recognised, after most painstaking 

 search for it. Nevertheless there are some who cling 

 still to the belief that mechanical and chemical forces 

 may account for the origin of life. Nageli favours 



1 Mayer s Die Organische Bewegung in ihren Zusammenhcinge -m.lt 

 dem Stoffwechsel. 



