486 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[July, 1906. 



round, or oval and flat disc-like forms were noticed, 

 sometimes near these liquid area crystals, sometimes 

 at a distance from them; these are probably Littleficld's 

 organisms. To me they appeared to be residues left 

 after evaporation, or deposits on dirty places on the 

 plate. I'erhaps they are partly produced like the flat 

 drops which may be seen forming- on the side of a vessel 

 only partly filled with alcoholic liquid. Alcohol first 

 rises invisibly, and gradually becomes visible on the 

 sides; perhaps even a mist is deposited at a suitable 

 temperature; in this way drops are formed which gradu- 

 ally increase in size; other drops are formed in the same 

 way all about them, often appearing to issue from the 

 earlier ones. These are well-known phenomena which, 

 however, have nothing to do with specific organic 

 " spontaneous growth." I have never seen any growth 

 in the small pale forms which arise in great numbers as 

 the evaporation proceeds, although I do not assert that 

 such phenomena are impossible, for we know that in- 

 stances of the kind may be found in similar artificial 

 forms. The deposited drops just mentioned increase in 

 size visibly; this, however, is not spontaneous growth, 

 but passive growth, according to my definition. On 

 large freshly-moistened glass surfaces division of the 

 liquid used for moistening is frequently seen. This 

 division is caused by retraction of the layer of liquid at 

 some points of closer adhesion. It is not, however, 

 spontaneous division, but is division " effectuated " and 

 determined from wiihout and influenced by the exact 

 degree of surface tension, and is not connected (through 

 qualitative bisection) with transmission. 



We often can produce no direct, but only indirect 

 evidence of assimilation and of the spontaneous growth 

 which depends upon it, as also of spontaneous division, 

 in the actual lowest forms of life. In order to adduce 

 direct proofs of assimilation it would be necessarv to 

 watch for days together to see that materials differing 

 in appearance were taken into the organism, that these 

 did not accumulate in large masses different from the 

 rest of the organism, but gradually disappeared. Even 

 then assimilation is only indirectly proved bv the fact 

 that the vital force, instead of being reduced by taking 

 in so much foreign material, is, on the contrary, in- 

 creased, inasmuch as subdivision of the organisms goes 

 on. If this subdivision has gone on through several 

 generations, and has always resulted in forms re- 

 sembling the original in shape and function, then we 

 have a clear proof of spontaneous assimilation and of 

 spontaneous division. 



The actual lowest forms of life exist for the most 

 part in aqueous fluid and prove by the fact of their re- 

 maining intact that they are not soluble in it. The 

 artificial forms spoken of, on the contrary, are soluble 

 in water; they are incapable of maintaining their exist- 

 ence in it, and in this respect also they are lower in the 

 scale than living organisms-,* 



♦ While this paper was in ihe press there appeared ^in ihe 

 Karlsruhe Journal) another commuri. ation en the same subjftt 

 giving an account of some interesting observations made in the 

 Physical Institute at Karlsruhe under the famous physicist O. 

 Lehmann ; it was also widely circulated under the misleading 

 title o( " A New Physical Wonder." It gave an account of drops 

 which form buds and divide, then assume a worm-like shape and 

 ,-ifterwards separate into many parts. They crawl about like the 

 Hiit'chli drops mentioned, but more quickly. These forms, 

 •uhich seem to be produced mainly by changes in surface-tension 

 in a manner which makes them appear almost typically peculiar, 

 must also be tested as to the degree of their resemMance to living 

 forms by the analytic method of examining functions given above; 

 and the nature of the forres in question must be narrowly 

 scrutinized and compared with the influenceswliich have produced 

 organic phenomena of a similar kind. I'erhaps here we shall 

 come upon the beginning of that spontaneous division which is 

 essentially determined from within. 



We have recognised, then, on the one hand, that 

 the artificially-produced forms are devoid of the primary 

 activities essential to even the lowest forms of life; and 

 on the other hand thi re is no proof that the activities 

 observed depend on the power of spontaneous deter- 

 mination which is characteristic of living organisms, 

 or that they are capable of that spontaneous regulation 

 which alone would enable them to persist throughout 

 many changes in external relations. 



'1 he inadequacy of the dcjnutions of the nature of life 

 formulated and promulgated by philosophers, natural- 

 ists, and even some physiologists, is ultimately responsi- 

 ble for the unwarranted interpretation of these forms 

 as being actual organisms of the lowest stage. They 

 think that what is needed is something simpler, more 

 universal, more direct, than what I have given above, 

 the sum of widely differing individual activities and tho 

 spontaneous regulation of these. Even if we leave out 

 of count those authors who take the supernatural view 

 and would have a " purposeful agent " (conscious First 

 Cause) in the processes which result in life, yet we 

 cannot disregard those who believe there could be a 

 " simple " chemical process or a simple physical agency 

 which could produce all these activities. According to 

 this view a " simple " experiment might happen to pro- 

 duce this direct agent and thus suddenly give rise to 

 forms of life. But there is a fundamental error in this 

 view. The sum of the different activities descriljed 

 above alone indicates the minimum of actual life, and 

 only those forms which possess this sum of activities 

 reproduce similar forms; nor does this reproduction de- 

 pend on the aid of a purposeful agent, but, the forms 

 once in existence, reproduction depends only on the 

 pre-determining tendencies inherent in their material 

 basis. 



Admitting all this, however, it would be vain to assert 

 that in principle we could never artificially create the 

 lowest forms of life, perhaps with very slightly deve- 

 loped spontaneous regulation. This, however, cannot 

 be done by a single experiment, but only by a methodical 

 scries of experiments in which we must first endeavour 

 to produce forms with one or a few primary individual 

 activities. The insight which has been gained can be 

 turned to account by combining the successful results 

 already secured. Only thus shall we be able gradually 

 to produce bodies which will combine all the activities 

 indicated above wliich are necessary for self-preservation 

 by the processes of change in material corresponding to 

 change in external circumstances, and which will then con- 

 tinue and multiply. Forms possessing certain of these 

 activities, spontaneous movement, spontaneous absorp- 

 tion, and spontaneous secretion of material, have 

 already been artificially produced by Butschli, Quincke, 

 Rhumbler, and others. Spontaneous chemical assimila- 

 tion, spontaneous growth, spontaneous secretion of 

 altered material, and a certain amount of spontaneous 

 regulation in assimilation and secretion are typically 

 represented in the processes of assimilation by heat. 

 Since, however, the other activities of self-preservation 

 are absent in bodies thus produced, their power of per- 

 sistence is inadequate. As soon as cold assimilation 

 processes of a suitable nature (according to l-'fliiKer, 

 cyanide compounds) are employed, it is possible that 

 high preliminary stages of life might be produced 

 artificially by combining these with the processes for 

 the last-named forms. Spontaneous division, spon- 

 taneous regulation, and " morphological assimilation," 

 which presents special difficulties, would then follow. 

 We shall then, perhaps, attain in the laboratory by 

 observation and study in a relatively short time to what 

 in nature has only arisen in the course of vast periods 



