296 THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE 

The fascination of the subject from the biological 
standpoint has in a general way been indicated in 
this volume, though it has been more fully considered 
in my work on “ The Nature and Origin of Living 
Matter,” where I have attempted in Chapter xiv to 
show how needful is the recognition of the reality of 
Archebiosis and Heterogenesis from the point of view 
of the Doctrine of Evolution ; and what light a belief 
in the occurrence of such processes is capable of shed- 
ding upon the past history of our earth, as well as 
upon the meaning of the existence almost every- 
where at the present day of swarms of the lowest 
forms of life, which ought otherwise (that is, apart 
from the processes in question) to have wholly dis- 
appeared ages and ages ago. 
Let us look here, however, briefly to the question 
why, from the point of view of the physician and the 
pathologist, my interest was originally roused to 
consider this problem, and why my original point of 
view still impresses me as strongly as ever, notwith- 
standing all the remarkable advances that have 
been made in bacteriological science—which many, 
wrongly enough, consider to be adverse to my views. 
In reality, as I shall show, there is no necessary 
antagonism between my facts and views and modern 
bacteriological discoveries. 
But how needful it is for me to explain my position 
may be gathered from the fact that the reviewer of 
my ‘Studies in Heterogenesis,” in one of the leading 
medical journals, said that the book was ‘the best 
possible statement of the case against the claims of 
