1 64 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



(3) That life was brought to the world from 

 another planet. 



The great exponent of the first theory, that life 

 has originated and still does originate from dead 

 matter, is Dr Bastian, who has been working for 

 thirty years at the problem of the origin of life. 

 Dr Bastian claims that life may originate in 

 organic and even in inorganic fluids without ante- 

 cedent life. His experiments with inorganic saline 

 solutions are particularly interesting. He used 

 solutions of sodium silicate, ammonium phosphate, 

 dilute phosphoric acid, with distilled water, or of 

 sodium silicate, and liquor of pernitrate of iron, 

 with distilled water. He heated these saline solu- 

 tions in hermetically sealed tubes to over 250° F., 

 and yet thereafter found that numerous organisms, 

 bacteria, yeast-cells, etc., appeared in the tubes. In 

 his book. The Evolution of Life ^ he says : — 



" But, as we have seen, such bodies, as well as 

 vibriones, cocci, streptococci, torulae, and other 

 germs of fungi, have appeared within our experi- 

 mental vessels when they have been heated for 

 from ten to twenty minutes to temperatures rang- 

 ing from 115° to 130° C. (239° to 266° F.). 

 These organisms which we have seen to be living 

 — which developed and multiplied — must, there- 

 fore, have been evolved de novo. What other 

 answer is it possible to give } " 



