236 Dynamic Theory. 



totally disqualifies it from being operated upon in such a wa} T as to 

 show vital reactions. It is true that the intention of the experimenters 

 was to thoroughly disorganize the infusion so as to see whether it would 

 become reorganized again. Nothing can be more obvious than that if 

 they had supplied to their infusions the necessary force under the neces- 

 sary conditions, thej r would have effected their reorganization into vital 

 organisms. If they failed in this result it is simply evidence that they 

 failed to supply the conditions. It is by no means certain that if the 

 conditions were thoroughly known it would be possible to fill them. 

 Something more than the mere aggregation of the materials is essential. 

 An organism does not construct itself any more than a house does. A 

 drop of water constitutes the material of a crystal of snow ; but a drop 

 of water, carefully boiled and then sealed up in an air-tight flask, will 

 never make itself into a crystal of snow. Consider that an organism is 

 a machine built up by energies outside of itself, then grant that we have 

 a general idea of what these energies are, still we must admit that the 

 chances of being able to marshall them at the right time, in the right 

 place, in the right proportion, strength and sequence, are, to say the 

 least, rather slim. Knowing that it takes nothing more to hatch a 

 hen's egg than a temperature of so many degrees, applied steadily for 

 three weeks, the force is so simple anyone can fill the condition. But 

 it would be a very different problem if we were to boil the egg, as a pre- 

 liminary step. The conditions of life among the protozoa are not so 

 complicated as among beings of higher organization, and it does not 

 antecedently appear so very improbable that experimenters might some- 

 time stumble upon the combination of materials and energies necessary 

 to the production of a single celled organism. Some experimenters, 

 among whom is Dr. Bastian, claim that this has already been done. 



If it has not been done, it is only, as I said before, because all the 

 conditions have not been supplied, and it is only a question of time 

 when they will be. The deficiency, if there be any, is probably not in 

 the materials required, but in the application of the polar energy neces- 

 sary to arrange them in the positions essential to fuse them into a coher- 

 ent organism. 



It is not essential to my purpose to assume the question to be decided 

 one way or another. But the discussion has brought out some interest- 

 ing and important facts which it will be useful to call attention to. * 



The cells of fruit are competent to act in the same way as the cells of 

 the Torula, Saccharomyces and other ferments. The condition required 

 being that the cells be alive, which, I believe, means only that they be 

 whole and uninjured. " The yeast plant is an assemblage of living cells ; 



(*The quotations following are from Prof. Tyndall's work cited above unless otherwise 

 specified.) 



