IN TR OD UC TION. 1 3 



duced by purely chemical processes. It has shown 

 that many of the vital processes of living things are 

 simply chemical in their nature, and that some of 

 them may be imitated by lifeless material in the 

 laboratory. It has shown that chemical compounds 

 of great complexity have complex properties, and 

 that protoplasm is the most complex substance in 

 existence. In all of these ways has the close union 

 of chemical and biological laws been made evident ; 

 and chemistry has thus prepared the way for the 

 conception of a still closer union, and for the sup- 

 position that life originally, as now, was a mere 

 application of natural chemical laws to complex 

 i conditions, and thus arose by natural and not super- 

 natural law. 



3. The study of the low forms of life. This is of 

 value in showing the simplest conditions of life, and 

 therefore bringing us nearer to the condition of the 

 first life. The simplicity both of structure and 

 function of some of the lowest forms of life seems 

 to bring us very close to the inorganic world. The 

 step from the amoeba to some inert chemical com- 

 pound is certainly less than from man to the same 

 compound. From the study of these simple forms, 

 we can easily conceive of still simpler masses of proto- 

 plasm with even less organization than the amoeba 

 and proteomixa. At the same time the complexity of 

 compounds manufactured by the chemist seems to 

 be approaching the somewhat greater complexity of 

 these simplest forms of life. It is plain enough that 

 the simpler the condition to which life can be 



reduced and the smaller the gap between the sim- 



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'UNIVERSITY)) 



