THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



of the mould. It also has had its parents like 

 unto itself, and did not spontaneously develop 

 from the cheese. We have framed various Latin 

 dogmas on this matter dogmas of great historical 

 and immediate interest. The illustrious Harvey, 

 greatest physiologist of any age, made a great con- 

 tribution to this question a contribution which 

 would keep green his name had he not been the 

 discoverer of the circulation of the blood. Harvey 

 spent many an hour in preparation for his great trea- 

 tise "Concerning Generation," and concluded that 

 omne vivum ex ovo: he found what corresponded to 

 an egg-stage in the history of all the living things 

 he examined. With the microscope, and especial- 

 ly its employment in the nineteenth century, the 

 dogma of Harvey has been modified it being the 

 custom to modify scientific dogmas in accordance 

 with new truth, a custom which is found more con- 

 venient than that of retaining the old form and 

 giving it a new meaning. 



Rudolf Virchow, the founder of the cellular 

 pathology that is, of modern pathology modified 

 Harvey's phrase in accordance with his own re- 

 searches, and propounded it in this form omnis 

 cellula e cellula. It was thought that every living 

 thing consists of cells; but it is at least probable 

 that the very lowest and simplest form of living 

 matter is not even so far evolved as to possess 

 cellular form, so it is best to read our dogma in this 

 form omne vivum ex vivo. Under no conditions 

 can all the (dead) cheese in the world produce one 

 s 103 



