Scientific Sophisms. 69 



to whom I refer as having studied this question, believing 

 the evidence offered in favour of ' spontaneous genera- 

 tion ' to be thus vitiated cannot accept it. They know 

 full well that the chemist now prepares from inorganic 

 matter a vast array of substances which were some time 

 ago regarded as the sole products of vitality. They are in- 

 timately acquainted with the structural power of matter as 

 evidenced in the phenomena of crystallization. They can 

 justify scientifically their belief in its potency, under the 

 proper conditions, to produce organisms. But in reply 

 to your question they would frankly admit their inability 

 to point to any satisfactory experimental proof that life 

 can be developed save from demonstrable antecedent 

 life. As already indicated, they draw the line from the 

 highest organisms through lower ones down to the lowest, 

 and it is the prolongation of this line by the intellect 

 beyond the range of the senses that leads them to the 

 conclusion which Bruno so boldly enunciated." * 



Reserving, for the present, all consideration of 

 the other important admissions in this remark- 

 able paragraph, it is- sufficient to note here the 

 distinctly decisive answer which it furnishes to 

 the question before us. " The evidence offered 

 in favour of 'spontaneous generation'" is "viti- 

 ated by error." There is no "satisfactory ex- 

 perimental proof," nor even does there exist 

 " the least evidence to prove that any form of 

 life can be developed out of matter, without 

 demonstrable antecedent life." 



With this avowal of Professor Tyndall as 



1 " Belfast Address," pp. 55, 56. 



