WHAT IS BEING ALIVE? 



253 



Samson saw some little flies coming out of the decaying 

 carcass of a lion. He thought the flies were bees and that 

 they arose spontaneously from the lion's body hence 

 the riddle. This belief that living things arose spon- 

 taneously was held for many centuries, and it was not until 

 the time of Louis Pasteur, l the great French scientist, who 

 knew so much about bacteria, that this belief was finally 

 proved false by a series of experiments. Now we know 

 that for a thing to be alive it must come from another 

 thing of its own kind that was alive. Life comes from life. 

 We all know that chickens lay eggs from which little 

 chicks are hatched and that plants form seeds which 

 under favorable conditions grow into plants like those 

 which formed the seeds. Life is like a stream, it flows 

 on and on. 



Living Things Grow. You may have perhaps made 

 rock candy and noticed that as the sugar solution dried 

 out, crystals formed on the string. These were formed 

 from the sugar in the solution. The crystals grew by 



J. C. Allen 



Life comes from life. 

 1 Pasteur (pa'ster'), Louis (1822-1895), French biologist and chemist. 



