)6 



J. W. SLATKR^ ESQ., F.C.S., F.E.S., ON 



raised "in a direction diametrically opposed to gravity," so as to 

 occupy all parts of the vessel ? Is not vital action after all quite 

 distinct from, and much above, the phenomena enumerated by 

 Professor Allman as belonging to protoplasm, and are not these 

 after all only the physical phenomena of w^hat Professor Huxley 

 justly calls " the physical basis of life " ? 



(6) The late Dr. John Rak, F.R.S., in a letter to the 

 Secretary, not intended for publication in full, says : — 



February 20th, 1893. 

 " There are certain things tliat are placed beyond the keenest 

 and most educated human intelligence to understand and gain 

 an insight into, yet I believe that new creations aie taking place 

 every day." 



(7) Fi'om Professor Bernard, Dublin University. 



FeJmianj 17 fh, 1893. 

 My Dear Sir, — Mr. Slater's comparison of the vital forces with 

 the forces of heat, light, electi-icity, etc., is very interesting. The 

 facts that life is not susceptible of mathematical measurement or 

 of conversion into other forms of enei'gy, as far as we know, are 

 significant. But the kernel of Mr. Slater's paper is, I take 

 it, the third point insisted on by him, viz., that Biogenesis — life 

 from what has life already — seems to be the law of nature; and 

 that for abiogenesis, or the production of living organisms from 

 inanimate matter, we have not a particle of evidence. The only 

 reason that has been alleged for supposing it to have taken place 

 at some remote epoch in the past, seems to be that otherwise we 

 come upon a breach of the Law of Continuity, which is our guide 

 in the scientific investigation of nature. But why Ave should 

 suppose the law of continuity to be thus absolutely binding is not 

 easy to see. The formnloe for the conduction of heat, e.g., dis- 

 tinctly show didcoidinuify, and in other branches of science there 

 are not Avantiug indications of past crises in the history of the 

 earth and the life upon it utterly unlike iinything that has 

 happened since. And therefore it does not seem unscientific 

 to postulate a crisis of this kind at the epoch wlieu life was 

 originated. All the evidence, as Mr. Slater and other e.\i)erts tell 



