LIFE IN THE PRIMITIVE OCEAN 31 



believe that what many call the "mystery" of the 

 origin of life is really an ordinary event in nature's 

 life to-day. It would be below the level of the micro- 

 scope, so that the old controversy about "spon- 

 taneous generation" does not settle the question. 

 Other scientific men, perhaps the majority, believe 

 that it was the very extraordinary conditions of the 

 early earth which begot life. The temperature of the 

 ocean was very high, the chemical conditions are 

 unknown to us, the electrical conditions were more 

 pronounced than now, and there may have been a 

 good deal of radio-activity. It seems more probable 

 that the evolution of life was due to these special 

 conditions, which have passed away for ever. 



It is hardly necessary to point out that much the 

 same conditions would be found at one timiC or other 

 on all the planets in the universe of any size. They 

 are globes of (generally) the same m.aterial as ours, 

 cooling down. That is why we expect life in myriads 

 of other places besides the earth. And as we saw 

 that other stars are older than ours, and some have 

 actually run their course and died, it seems likely 

 that the full story of life had been played out on 

 countless globes before man began his career on earth. 



Well, we return to the first living inhabitants of the 

 earth, which must have been far simpler than the 

 lowest bacteria that we know. In fact, it would be 

 correct to say that there were no "first " living things. 

 Inorganic matter slowly developed into organic, and 



