484 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[July, igo6. 



The 



Artificial Generation 

 of Life.* 



Hv CiEii. Rath Prof. Dr. W. Rou.x. 

 f )(■//// (1 note by ]. Butler Burke, M.A. (Camb. d.- Dubl.)\ 



(Rcprintid i'ri>in the " Umschaii," 1906, No. 8, the 

 weekly journal of the work and progress of the 

 eonihimd departments of Science and Technical 

 Knowledge (Frankfort a./IM., H. Bechhold). 



Thi-. political newspapers and popular science journals 

 are publishing accounts of the artificial generation of 

 life and exciting universal amazement amongst their 

 readers. The element of amazement arises, however, 

 mainly from the interpretation put upon the matter by 

 the imagination of the \\ riters of these accounts ; the 

 experimenters themselves speak with considerably 

 greater caution. 



.•\ccording to a communication in the English 

 periodical Nature, No. 1,856, May 25, 1905, Mr. John 

 Butler Burke sterilised some gelatine and placed it in 

 a small tube with radium salt. After twenty-four hours 

 there appeared on the surface of the gelatine a peculiar 

 culture-like growth which gradually made its way down- 

 wards into the gelatine. When examined under a 

 microscope a distinct growth was apparent ; this was 

 followed by subdivision of the circular bodies when they 

 had reached a certain size, viz., 0.0003 mm., and they 

 often took a rosette-like arrangement. Mr. Burke 

 thinks the name Rudiobcs (Radium organisms) might 

 be given to these bodies. I^rofessor Sims Woodhead 

 asserted that their resemblance to bacteria is only an 

 apparent one. He showed that the forms, when re- 

 moved to fresh gelatine, increase still further in size, 

 and that on heating the cultures till the gelatine dis- 

 solves they disappear, but become visible again after a 

 few days. 



Mr. Littlefield is stated to have obtained a similar 

 result by quite a different process. To a 33 per cent, 

 solution of common salt there was added the same 

 volume of go per cent, alcohol. Small quantities of this 

 mixture were placed in watch-glasses, a little ammonia 

 was added, and the whole covered with a bell-glass. 

 In lialf an hour drops were visible on a slide with the 

 aid of a microscope. Crystals of common salt settled 

 out first, then crystals from which emerged small oval 

 or round forms which are alleged to be living organ- 

 isms, since they grow, and, like amcebEe, send out 

 mo\ing processes. 



But, assuming that the account of the directly ob- 

 served results of these two experiments is absolutely 

 correct, the conclusion drawn from them, that foims 

 corresponding to living organisms have been obtained, 

 is by no means justified. 



T/icsc unjustifiable eonelusious arise from the want of a 

 eomplete definition of life in its simplest form. A 

 quarter of a century ago I formulated such a definition f 

 of living organisms on the ground of their peculiar 

 property of self-preservation and the persistence of their 

 species through the ages, notwithstanding alteration of 



■ Translated by Miss E. Slater. 



' "The Struggle of the Parts in the Organism," Leipzig, 18S1. 

 Also in '-Collected Treatises on the Mechanics of Development," 

 Vol. I., p. jSy. 1S95. 



material and environment, and I have recently more 

 completely established this definition. ''' 



It is impossible to make a purely chemical definition 

 of life, such as has long been sought, because life is 

 intimately bound up with those physical aspects which 

 are not merely the result of the chemical constitution, 

 but rest also on a special physical structure. The 

 definition of life can at present only be made on the 

 basis of the activities of the living organisms, so far as 

 we know them. Such organisms, at their simplest, are 

 natural bodies which (i) absorb foreign materials into 

 themselves {absorption), and (2) convert them into sub- 

 stance resembling themselves, assimilate them [assimila- 

 tion); (3) change themselves by means of processes 

 taking place within themselvest {Dissimilation, e.g., 

 consumption of albumen, fat, &c.), or, on the other 

 hand, may reinain entirely or almost entirely unchanged 

 (4) by spontaneous secretion of the altered material 

 (secretion of carbonic acid, urea, &c., in animals, of 

 oxygen, &c., in plants), and (5) by spontaneous repair 

 through absorption and assimilation of food; and (6) 

 may grow by over-compensation in the repair of the 

 used-up material {spontaneous growth); further, (7) from 

 causes lying chiefly in themselves they are able to move 

 themselves {spontaneous movement, reflex movement), and 

 are also able (8) to subdivide themselves {spontaneous 

 subdivision, spontaneous multiplication), and (9) to 

 transmit their characters entire to the organisms which 

 spring from them {transmission). It remains to urge 

 emphatically that all these long-known activities belong 

 together, and that they are in their own way fixed, 

 determined, in the organisms, even though their perfec- 

 tion is often dependent on external factors, and though 

 their activities are somewhat modified by external in- 

 fluences. The sum of these activities is what deter- 

 mines the character of the living organism, as well as 

 the highly developed faculty of self-preservation. Living 

 organisms are primarily concerned with the renewal and 

 preservation of their species, and when food is present 

 they take what is necessary to maintain their own exist- 

 ence. 



Forms exhibiting the activities here enumerated would 

 certainly be accepted as living organisms. But there 

 is yet another essential property of all forms of life, 

 even the lowest : (10) the spontaneous regulation of the 

 exercise of all specific activities ; the more, for instance, 

 they are deprived of food, the greater is their desire for 

 it; when a certain quantity has been absorbed the 

 capacity for absorption is diminished; the more foreign 

 materials have been formed, the more possible is it to 

 secrete them, &;c. By means of this power of regu- 

 lating function, which, of course, is not without its 

 limits, the faculty of self-preservation, and with it the 

 persistence of the organisms, is substantially increased; 

 indeed, when changes occur in external relations, this 

 power is indispensably necessary in order to prolong 

 existence. We must, therefore, regard the spontaneous 

 regulation of function as a further " -primary property " 



• " Suggestions on the Mechanics of Development : I. The 

 Mechanics of Development, a new Branch of Biological Science," 

 p. 105. Leipzig, 1905. 



] In the lower organisms dissimilation is not an absolute and 

 continuous process as it is amongst warm-blooded animals, but it 

 IS essentially conditioned by the using up of energy and the wear 

 and tear of the machinery throjgh action. Many experiments 

 made on cold-blooded animals, as for instance by drying and 

 freezing, indicate complete suspension of metabolic changes. The 

 continuous destructive decomposition of the warm-blooded 

 animals, however, assists in self-preservation, since but for the 

 maintenance of a higher temperature their machinery would not 

 perform its functions and they would consequently be incapable of 

 self-preservation. 



