56 ORIGINATION OF LIVING BEINGS 



are crowded with the records of living forms ; I think it is 

 impossible to place any reliance on the supposition, or to 

 fed justified in supposing that these are the forms 



in \\hi.-h life first commenced. I have not time here to 

 niter upon the technical grounds upon which I am led 

 to this conclusion, that could hardly be done properly 

 in half a dozen lectures on that part alone ; I must content 

 i -If with saying that I do not at all believe that these 

 are the oldest forms of life. 



I turn to the experimental side to see what evidence 

 have there. To enable us to say that we know any- 

 thing about the experimental origination of organization 

 and life, the investigator ought to be able to take inorganic 

 matters, such as carbonic acid, ammonia, water, and 

 salines, in any sort of inorganic combination, and be able 

 to build them up into Protein matter, and that that Protein 

 matter ought to begin to live in an organic form. That, 

 nobody has done as yet, and I suspect it will be a long 

 while before anybody does do it. But the thing is by 

 no means so impossible as it looks ; for the researches 

 of modern chemistry have shown us I won't say the 

 road towards it, but, if I may so say, they have 

 shown the finger-post pointing to the road that may 

 lead to it. 



It is not many years ago and you must recollect that 

 Organic Chemistry is a young science, not above a couple 

 of generations old, you must not expect tdb much of it ; 

 it is not many years ago since it was said to be perfectly 

 impossible to fabricate any organic compound ; that is to 

 say, any non-mineral compound which is to be found in an 

 organized being. It remained so for a very long period ; 

 luit it is now a considerable number of years since a dis- 

 tinguished foreign chemist contrived to fabricate Urea, a 

 . < of a very complex character, which forms one of 

 the waste producls of animal structures. And of late years 

 a number of other compounds, such as Butyric Acid, and 

 olh< heen added to the list. I need not tell you 



ry is an enormous distance from the goal I 

 indicate ; all I wish to point out to you is, that it is by no 

 y that that goal may not be reached one 

 Jt may he that it is impossible for us to produce 

 the condition requisite to the origination of life; but we 

 niti .lit the matter, and recollect that 



Scui put hvr foot upon the bottom round of the 



