CHAPTER VIII 



BIOGENESIS AND ABIOGENESIS 



History of the Controversy Dr Bastian's Views Where 

 did Living Matter come from The Catholic Position. 



THOSE who have followed the facts laid down 

 in the last chapters will now be able to ascer- 

 tain the foundation on which are constructed 

 the four axioms mentioned in Chapter IV. : 

 Omne vivum ex vivo, omnis cellula ex cellula, 

 omnis nucleus e nucleo, omne chromosoma e 

 chromosomate. Something, however, still re- 

 mains to be said respecting the first axiom, 

 for after centuries of discussion the question 

 of biogenesis or abiogenesis still seems unsettled 

 to some. 



Looking at things as we see them it is not 

 wonderful that men should have believed, from 

 the time of Aristotle onwards down to the 

 seventeenth centry, that living things could 

 come directly from non-living things, that rep- 

 tiles and worms were bred from the mud of 

 rivers and that decaying flesh produced mag- 

 gots . Haxvjey first ^proclaimed the Contrary 

 doctrine, and Redi, an Italian physician, 

 112 





