130 VITALISM AND SCHOLASTICISM 



dence for it ; and, if it did exist, it would have 

 to be far more wonderful than radium is, were 

 it to explain all the processes for which it would 

 be resopnsible. Let us dismiss Bion, and pass 

 to another postulated possibility, Protobion, as 

 suggested by Gregory.* In his opinion, " the 

 problem of the origin of life is that of the for- 

 mation of quantities of carbonaceous jelly under 

 Carbona- such conditions that it would have continued 

 ceous jelly to increase until the masses mechanically sub- 

 divided, and the separate parts would inherit 

 the power to grow and subdivide in turn. The 

 problem is that of the formation of a self- 

 generating, reproductive, carbonaceous jelly, of 

 such a nature that it served as the beginning 

 of the whole of the organic evolution that 

 followed." No doubt; but supposing such a 

 jelly to be sufficient which it could not be 

 to account for the process, how did it arise ? 

 In the warm, muddy oozes near some prehis- 

 toric sea he thinks that " a complex, vaseline- 

 like jelly may have been deposited from the 

 carbon compounds in the atmosphere, and have 

 been combined with various compounds of 

 nitrogen, chlorine and phosphorus." And so 

 on, until the " primordial jelly was vitalised 

 by the action of one of the reagents known as 

 catalysers." No doubt catalysers are very re- 



* The Making of the Earth. Home Univ. Library, p. 229. 



