NEXT STEP IN EVOLUTION 



plies the physical basis of the 

 vegetable life — vegetable proto- 

 plasm — was ripened through the 

 marvelous chemistry of nature. 

 But when all was ready for the 

 plant, whence came the plant life? 

 Scientists are now practically 

 unanimous in saying that there is 

 not a scintilla of evidence that 

 the inorganic or mineral world 

 has ever evolved a plant life.* 



* " There is not a shadow of trust- 

 worthy direct evidence that abiogene- 

 sis [spontaneous generation] does take 

 place or has taken place within the 

 period during which the existence of 

 life on the globe is recorded." — Hux- 

 ley, under "Biology," "Encyclopedia, 

 Bi'itannica," vol. hi., p. 689. 



"I do not forget the alleged -facts of 

 spontaneous generation ; but even after 

 the very extended investigations of the 

 last ten years, it may still be stated as 

 a general result of the innumerable ex- 

 periments which have been made, that, 

 in no case has even the lowest type of 

 an organic cell been produced from 

 21 



