SOME GENERAL CONCLUSIONS 283 



an embryo or as an adult. If it had no livin^^ 

 ancestors, we are thus face to face with the 

 problem of the origin of animal life, either by what 

 has been termed " Abiogenesis " of a merely 

 physical and fortuitous kind, or by creation. This 

 implies the previous production of the complex 

 organic compound known as " Protoplasm," which 

 can, so far as we know, be produced only through 

 the agency of previously living " Protoplasm " 

 formed by living plants. We have, therefore, to 

 presuppose the "Abiogenesis" or creation of plants 

 as predecessors of the animal ; but here the same 

 difficulty meets us. We have next to imagine the 

 spontaneous origin of the structures of the 

 " Protozoon " — its outer and inner substance, its 

 nucleus, its pulsating vesicle, and its pseudopods, 

 with its protective test, and its endowment with vital 

 powers of locomotion, sensation, assimilation, nutri- 

 tion, and reproduction. Can we suppose that all 

 this could come of the chance interaction of 

 physical causes? 



At present the production of the living from the 

 non-living seems to be an impossibility, and the 

 suggestion that at some vastly distant point of 

 past time physical conditions may have been so 



