SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY 115 



The first experiment in physiogeny was the discovery of 

 osmosis by the Abbe Nollet in 1748. He filled a pig's bladder 

 with alcohol, and plunged it into water. He noticed that the 

 bladder gradually increased in volume and became distended, 

 the water penetrating into the interior of the bladder more 

 quickly than the alcohol could escape. This was the first 

 recorded experiment in the physics of nutrition and growth. 



In 1866, Moritz Traube of Breslau discovered the osmotic- 

 properties of certain chemical precipitates. As I pointed out 

 in the Revue Scientifique of March 1906. Traube made the 

 first artificial cell, and studied the osmotic properties of 

 membranes and their mode of production. This remarkable 

 research should have been the starting - point of synthetic 

 biology. The only result, however, was to give rise to 

 numberless objections, and it soon fell into complete oblivion. 

 " There are," says Traube, "a number of persons quite blind 

 to all progress, who in the presence of a new discovery think 

 only of the objections which may be brought against it." 1 

 The works of Traube have been collected and published by 

 his son (Gesammelte Abhandlungen von Mont:: Traube, 

 LS9!>). 



In 1867 there appeared in England a paper by Dr. E. 

 Montgomery, of St. Thomas's Hospital, On the Formation of 

 so-called Cells in Animal Bodies. This paper, published by 

 Churchill & Sons, is a most interesting contribution and 

 one of great originality. The author says: "There can be no 

 compromise between the tenets of the cell theory and the 

 conclusions arrived at in this paper; the distinction is thorough. 

 Either the units of which an organism is composed owe their 

 origin to some kind or other of procreation, a mysterious act 

 of that mysterious entity life, by which, in addition to their 

 material properties, they become endowed with those peculiar 

 metaphysical powers constituting vitality. Or, on the other 

 hand, the organic units, like the crystalline units of inorganic 

 bodies, form the organism by dint of similar inherent qualities, 

 form in fact a living being possessed of all its inherent 

 properties, as soon as certain chemical compounds are placed 

 under certain physical conditions. If the former opinion be 



