Chapter I The Origin of Life 



THE origin of life is still a matter 

 of conjecture, but science toils slowly, 

 approaching year by year nearer to the 

 answer of a riddle that has disturbed 

 the thinking men for countless genera- 

 tions. There is now little doubt that 

 life possibly neither animal nor vege- 

 table but still " life "first saw light in 

 the waters, and there must have been 

 a period when the oceans teemed with 

 creatures imperceptible to the naked eye, 

 ever striving one with another in a world 

 wrapped in awesome silence, only broken 

 by the winds and waves. 



A single cell of the most primitive of 

 living matter ' ' protoplasm ' ' differs 



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