38 Living and Dead Matter and 



resist this effect of ultraviolet light. Arrhenius's 

 theory can not of course be disproved and we must 

 agree with him that it is consistent not only with the 

 theories of cosmogony but also with the seeming poten- 

 tial immortality of certain or of all cells. 



The alternative to Arrhenius's theory is that living 

 matter did originate and still originates from non-living 

 matter. If this idea is correct it should one day be 

 possible to discover synthetic enzymes which are cap- 

 able of forming molecules of their own kind from a 

 simple nutritive solution. With such synthetic en- 

 zymes as a starting point the task might be undertaken 

 of creating cells capable of growth and cell division, 

 at least in the apparently simple form in which these 

 phenomena occur in bacteria; viz., that after the mass 

 has reached a certain (still microscopic) size it divides 

 into two cells and so on. If Arrhenius is right that 

 living matter has had no more beginning than matter 

 in general, this hope of making living matter artificially 

 appears at present as futile as the hope of making 

 molecules out of electrons. 



The problem of making living matter artificially 

 has been compared to that of constructing a perpetuum 

 mobile; this comparison is, however, not correct. The 

 idea of a perpetuum mobile contradicts the first law of 

 thermodynamics, while the making of living matter 

 may be impossible though contradicting no natural law. 



Pasteur's proof that spontaneous generation does 



