PREFACE. 



it still comes into being, in fact, by the operation of 

 the same laws, and in the same manner as the majority 

 of scientific men and a large section of the educated 

 public believe that it must have originated in the early 

 days of the earth's history when c living' compounds 

 first began to appear upon the cooling surface of our 

 planet. And if such synthetic processes took place then, 

 why should they not take place now ? Why should the 

 inherent molecular properties of various kinds of matter 

 have undergone so much alteration ? Why should these 

 particular processes of synthesis now be impossible, 

 although other processes of a similar nature still 

 go on? 



Whilst no attempt has ever been made to justify 

 or explain such a supposed arbitrary curtailment of 

 natural laws, it happens most fortunately that the 

 ascending series of molecular combinations, to which 

 we have already referred, does not end with the birth 

 of c living ' matter. Steps which were previously beyond 

 the reach of our senses, become, in some newly-dis- 

 covered terms of the series, capable of ocular demon- 

 stration. Whilst invisible colloidal molecules are sup- 

 posed to combine and undergo re-arrangements in order 

 to produce specks of new-born living matter, such 

 specks of living matter may be actually seen to com- 

 bine, fuse, and undergo molecular re-arrangements so 

 as to lead to the origin of Fungus-germs, of Amoebae, 

 of Monads, or of Ciliated Infusoria ; and, in the same 

 manner, larger and still more complex living units of 

 an algoid nature may actually be seen to fuse and 

 become altered externally, whilst they undergo those 

 obscure and mysterious molecular re-arrangements 



