72 EVOLUTION 



the synthetic chemist can now manufacture 

 artificially such natural organic products as 

 urea, alcohol, grape sugar, indigo, oxalic acid, 

 tartaric acid, salicylic acid and caffeine, he 

 has not yet come near the artificial syn- 

 thesis of proteids; (2) that we are at a loss 

 to suggest what, in Nature's as yet very 

 hypothetical laboratory of chemical synthesis, 

 could take the place of the directive chemist; 

 and (3) that there is a great gap between 

 making organic matter and making an 

 organism. 



It is plain, therefore, that the doctrine of 

 the origin of the living from the not-living 

 cannot be held at present with a clear or 

 easy mind, yet we must admit that as an 

 hypothesis it is in harmony with the general 

 trend of evolutionary theory. If facts 

 accumulate which make the hypothesis a 

 tenable interpretation, it will not in any way 

 affect the dignity and value of living creatures, 

 nor of our own life. If the dust of the earth 

 did naturally give rise to living creatures, if 

 they are in a real sense born of her and 

 the sunshine, then the whole world becomes 

 more continuous and vital, and all the in- 

 organic groaning and travailing becomes 

 more intelligible. 



PROTOPLASM AND ORGANISMS. If we whip 



