124 VITALISM AND SCHOLASTICISM 



have come to the conclusion that bacteria never 

 arise de novo." The repeated boilings and the 

 high temperatures employed by bacteriologists 

 are made use of for the very purpose of sterilis- 

 ing the media, and that the operation is a 

 successful one seems to be proved by the facts 

 admitted by Dr Bastian, namely that (i.) no 

 new life appears without inoculation and (ii.) 

 that after inoculation the fluid can support the 

 introduced life. It has not been injured as a 

 pabulum though all pre-existing life has been 

 destroyed in it. Dr Bastian claims that besides 

 the power of maintaing life there is also a power 

 of engendering it which is destroyed by those 

 measures which bacteriologists think necessary 

 for the production of complete sterilisation. 

 All that one can say is that if the power of 

 engendering is not due to the presence of 

 bacteria unkilled on account of insufficient 

 sterilisation it is a power which has not been 

 recognised by any other worker. 



Where Suppose we grant that living matter has 



did living always come from living matter, which is in- 

 come from? ^ eec * tne sc i ent i nc creed of the day, where did 

 the first living matter come from ? This world 

 was once so hot that no living thing could 

 exist upon it. It cooled down and a time 

 arrived when life could exist. Where did it 

 come from? Some space must be devoted to 



