THE ORIGIN OF LIFE. 37 



spontaneous generation must have occurred at some 

 time in the history of the globe. 



While it is thus true that scientists have somewhat 

 reluctantly given up this fascinating theory, it by 

 no means indicates that they have given up the be- 

 lief in the possibility of life arising from the non- 

 living under the right conditions. Although no one 

 has as yet been able to produce conditions under 

 which life can arise, this by no means proves that 

 under different conditions a different result might 

 not be reached. Protoplasm will not arise in closed 

 flasks, but this does not show that it cannot do so 

 at the bottom of the sea. If it could be shown that 

 life arises spontaneously nowhere on the globe at the 

 present time, this would by no means prove that in 

 other ages, under different conditions, it may not so 

 have arisen. And, indeed, now that the possibility 

 of spontaneous generation to-day is practically de- 

 cided in the negative, it is beginning to be recognized 

 that the experiments thus far are utterly futile to 

 settle the primary question at issue. Even if a 

 positive result had been obtained, it would have had 

 scarcely any bearing upon the question of the origi- 

 nal appearance of life. This will be evident from 

 the following considerations. The first living things 

 must have been able to make use of inorganic ma- 

 terial for food, since there could of course have been 

 no organic food existing at that time. Our experi- 

 menters on spontaneous generation have, however, 

 always used organic solutions in their experiments. 

 Now, to-day only organisms which are supplied with 

 chlorophyll are able to raise inorganic matter into an 



