250 THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF LIFE 



of such efforts. It is a mistake. Pasteur showed only this : 

 By taking certain precautions we can keep from all invasion 

 on the part of living species actually existing certain sub- 

 stances which might serve them as food. And that is all. 



The problem of protoplasm synthesis remains what it was. 



Our acquaintance with colloids is still so recent and 

 rudimentary that we ought not to count on any speedy suc- 

 cess in the efforts to fabricate a living cell. But the time 

 will come when methodic analysis will allow of a reasoned 

 synthesis. We have seen that scholars already begin to 

 know how to decompose the activity of the living substance 

 into transportable elements called diastases. It is prob- 

 ably along this way that we shall find the solution of the 

 problem. 



Perhaps, too, the solution will be hit on by chance. The 

 learned world of to-day is so prepared for the discovery, that 

 a premature announcement of spontaneous generation 

 realized in gelatine subjected to the action of radium sur- 

 prised nobody. When the effective synthesis is obtained, 

 it will have no surprises in it and it will be utterly useless. 

 With the new knowledge acquired by science, the enlight- 

 ened mind 110 longer needs to see the fabrication of 

 protoplasm in order to be convinced of the absence of 

 all essential difference and all absolute discontinuity between 

 living and not-living matter. 



Butler and fanner, The Sehvood Printing \\'otks t Frame, and London 



