BIOGENESIS AND ABIOGENESIS 141 



ally within the cell. Most of these," he says, 

 " are so complex that they have not yet been 

 synthesised by the organic chemist; but even 

 of those that have been synthesised, it may be 

 remarked that all proof is wanting that the 

 syntheses have been carried out in identically 

 the same fashion and by the employment of 

 the same forms of energy in the case of the 

 cell as in the chemist's laboratory. The con- 

 ditions in the cell are widely different, and at 

 the temperature of the cell and with such 

 chemical materials as are at hand in the cell 

 no such organic syntheses have been artifici- 

 ally carried out by the forms of energy 

 extraneous to living tissue." 



Lest any false deductions should be drawn 

 from an omission to mention them some refer- 

 ence should perhaps be made to Le Due's arti- Le Due 

 iicial plants* though no one now regards these 

 things as anything but a pretty and interesting 

 experiment without any bearing on the question 

 of life. Le Due made seed-grains from 1/25 to 

 1/12 of an inch in diameter, composed of two 

 parts of sugar and one of sulphate of copper. 

 Placed in water in which was 1/4 per cent, of 

 gelatine, 1 to 10 per cent, of common salt arid 

 2 to 4 per cent. Ferrocyanide of Potassium, 



* As described and figured in his work, The Mechanism 

 of Life, London, Rebnaan, 1911. 



