70 OKIGINATION OF LIVING BEINGS. 



I think, considering the organization of these mollusca 

 and Crustacea, and looking at their very complex 

 nature, that it does indeed require a very strong 

 imagination to conceive that these were the first 

 created of all living things. And you must take into 

 consideration the fact that we have not the slightest 

 proof that these which we call the oldest beds are 

 really so : I repeat, we have not the slightest proof of 

 it. When you find in some places that in an enormous 

 thickness of rocks there are but very scanty traces of 

 life, or absolutely none at all ; and that in other parts of 

 the world rocks of the very same formation are crowded 

 with the records of living forms, I think it is impos- 

 sible to place any reliance on the supposition, or to feel 

 oneself justified in supposing that these are the forms 

 in which life first commenced. I have not time here to 

 enter upon the technical grounds upon which I am led 

 to this conclusion, — that could hardly be done properly 

 in half a dozen lectures on that part alone ; — I must 

 content myself with saying that I do not at all believe 

 that these are the oldest forms of life. 



I turn to the experimental side to see what evidence 

 we have there. To enable us to say that we know 

 anything about the experimental origination of organ- 

 ization and life, the investigator ought to be able to 

 take inorganic matters, such as carbonic acid, ammonia, 

 water, and salines, in any sort of inorganic combina- 

 tion, and be able to build them up into Protein matter, 

 and then that Protein matter ought to begin to live in 

 an organic form. That, nobody has done as yet, and 

 I suspect it will be a long while before anybody does 



