34 THE LIVING WORLD. 



unrelated to other forces of nature ; if, in short, we 

 accept the vitalistic standpoint, the matter becomes 

 very simple. Such a force could not have come into 

 existence except by a creative fiat. We should 

 simply say then that far back in the history of the 

 world some supernatural power introduced the first 

 germ of life into the world, and that this first germ 

 was the simplest form of protoplasm. To one who 

 holds this view all the attempts to find a natural 

 explanation of the origin of life are useless. 



If, however, we are willing to accept, even pro- 

 visionally, the view that life is not a distinct essence, 

 but, as the mechanical theory of life would tell us, 

 simply an abstraction from the complex properties 

 of the substance protoplasm, then the question of its 

 origin assumes a new aspect. It becomes then a 

 legitimate question to ask how life arose in the 

 world. Life by its inherent qualities is self-perpetu- 

 ating, and if once it makes its appearance in the 

 world its remaining here so long as the conditions 

 admit is a matter of course. Geology tells us, how- 

 ever, that at one time the earth was so heated that 

 no living thing could have existed on its surface. It 

 follows from .this fact, that life on the globe must 

 have had a beginning. What then was the nature of 

 the forces which brought the first living matter into 

 existence ? 



Spontaneous Generation, 



First we must ask if experiment or observation 

 gives us any reason for believing that living matter 

 can arise from that which is not living. Ever since 



