BIOGENESIS AND ABIOGENESIS 85 



and not, as has been supposed, the direct work of 

 the Creator. But there is no more inherent im- 

 possibility in holding that animal life is brought 

 into being by a certain combination of chemical 

 substances than in the converse belief, which is 

 incontestable, that it is brought to an end by the 

 dissolution, natural or artificial, of that combina- 

 tion. If we can destroy an animal's soul, as we 

 certainly can, there is no a priori reason why we 

 should not be able to make one." 



Whilst, however, we allow all this, we must 

 admit, with all who have studied the subject, that 

 no approach has been made to any synthesis at all 

 approaching that which would constitute living 

 matter, and that those syntheses of organic com- 

 pounds which have been arrived at do not afford 

 any help in the direction in question as some have 

 thought that they do. This is the second and final 

 point to which allusion was to be made, and it may 

 be clinched by quotations from two very distin- 

 guished chemists. 



Sir Henry Hoscoe l says : " It is true that there 

 are those who profess to foresee that the day will 

 arise when the chemist, by a succession of construc- 

 tive efforts may pass beyond albumen, and gather 

 the elements of lifeless matter into a living structure. 

 Whatever may be said of this from other stand- 

 presidential Address, Brit. Ass., 1887. 



