BIOGENESIS AND ABIOGENESIS 121 



He says : * " The mode of production of living 

 matter is characteristic, and cannot be brought 

 about by the action solely of inorganic forms 

 of energy. Living matter is produced only by 

 the action of other living matter upon the 

 materials and forms of energy of the non-living 

 world. In the process the matter involved is 

 built up into substances of great chemical com- 

 plexity, and it has been supposed that this is 

 the essential portion of the process of produc- 

 tion of a living structure ; but it must be noted 

 that even this very production of complexity 

 of structure from simple inorganic bodies at the 

 expense of the energy of the solar rays take 

 place and can only take place in a living struc- 

 ture itself. The very building up of the 

 machine or transformer in which the manifesta- 

 tions of biotic energy are subsequently to take 

 place is then a cogent argument that here we 

 are dealing with a type of energy which is not 

 met with elsewhere. For nowhere else in 

 Nature does a similar process appear to that 

 of the production of living structure, and by no 

 combination or application of the forms of 

 energy apart from life can it be repeated or 

 simulated." 



It has seemed advisable to give this some- 

 what lengthy list of quotations in order to show 



* Recent Advances in Physiology and Bio-Chemist^. 



