November 3, 1904] 



N.-4 TURE 



The Origin of Life. 



Although to the evolutionist it must necessarily appear 

 more than probable that at some time or other non-living 

 matter has by evolution acquired the properties of life, and 

 to him the only question is as to how this has come about, 

 yet, for all that, he has been in the habit of admitting that 

 the complete failure of all experiment in this direction makes 

 the negative evidence very strong indeed. My present object 

 is to suggest that the negative evidence, so far from being 

 strong, is so weak that perhaps it can hardly be said to 

 exist. 



In the experiments the first step has always been, and, so 

 far as one can see, must always be, to destroy all existing 

 life and all existing germs of life. Suppose the agent to 

 be heat. How does the experimenter know that the very 

 means he employs to destroy in living matter the property 

 of life are not equally efficacious in destroying the peculiar 

 property or properties of matter that is just on the point 

 of transmutation? P'or all that we certainly know to the 

 contrary, dead matter may be changing into living every 

 day in every pool, especially every warm pool, on the face 

 of the earth. If so, the difference between the last state 

 of the non-living and the first state of the living must, by 

 the evolutionist's hypothesis, be extremely small ; and it is 

 probable — to my mind most probable — that both would be 

 similarly affected by an unusual degree of heat, or what- 

 ever other agent is calculated to destroy life ; the precaution 

 eliminating life and its potentiality at one stroke. But the 

 value of the negative evidence is precisely in inverse pro- 

 portion to this probability. If the probability is thought 

 great, the negative evidence will necessarily be thought 

 small. I submit that the probability is very great indeed, 

 and consequently that we are pretty much in the same posi- 

 tion as to the possible evolution of life from non-living 

 matter as we should have been if no experiments had been 

 made. Certainly, so far as the logic of the matter is con- 

 cerned, there is no need yet to consider the hypothesis of 

 life having been imported here from another planet. 



Birmingham, October 25. George Hookham. 



Thinking Cats. 



I HAVE known three cats which behaved as if they thought. 

 The first, a large, sleek tabby, belonged to a private family 

 living in the City. Between 1846 and 1858 the owner, 

 Mr. I. S., was surprised by his manservant coming to his 

 office at the back of the house in business hours and asking, 

 " Did you ring, sir? " " No, I have not been into the 

 house," was his answer. This occurred repeatedly. At 

 last the man watched, and observed that, the family being 

 in other rooms, the dining room bell rang, and when he 

 answered it the cat ran out of the door. He then purposely 

 shut her into the room. A leather easy chair was so placed 

 that by getting on the seat, and then standing on the 

 arm, she could reach the knob with her front paw ; and she 

 continued to practise this accomplishment as often as she 

 was shut up in the room. 



The second cat, also a large tabby, lived at Blackheath. 

 Her master often sat up late writing. The cook, a " good 

 old servant," also now and then sat late, sewing or read- 

 ing, in the kitchen. One night after twelve Mr. H. F. 

 was interrupted by the cat running into the library (the door 

 being open), mewing and clawing him, then running 

 towards the door, and repeating these acts. He got up 

 and followed the cat, which now ran into the kitchen. The 

 cook was sitting asleep close to the fender, a piece of coal 

 had fallen on her dress, and it was burning. No harm 

 happened, thanks to the cat. 



The third was a very small, slight cat, white and tabby, 

 a good mouser and bird catcher, and not at all afraid of 

 a rat. On one occasion the servant, exasperated by the 

 trouble caused by the cat's selection of a birthplace for 

 kittens, drowned them all, for which she was duly rebuked. 

 The next family arrived in a suitable corner, but, when two 

 or three days old, disappeared, as well as their mother. 

 As the cat was never allowed to go upstairs, it was supposed 

 that, like another cat once before, she had made a lair in 

 the garden, where she spent most of her time. At dusk the 

 mistress of the house went up to dress for dinner. As soon 

 as she entered her room she heard something fall, and it 



NO. 1827, VOL, 71I 



struck her that the noise was like a cat's jump from a 

 height. Procuring light she found the cat standing by the 

 door. She then saw that the curtains, where folded on the 

 bed, had been a little disturbed, put in her hand, and found 

 three soft warm kittens ! They were immediately put into 

 a basket with flannel, and set by the kitchen fire ; but as 

 soon as the lady had gone downstairs she met the cat, with 

 a kitten in her mouth, on her way back to the bedroom. 

 Why did she select that room? She was not petted by the 

 lady, nor friendly to her. The housemaid was safe, busy 

 waiting at table. 



Debarred from this resource, she hid the kittens again 

 while the family were at dinner, and apparently felt so sure 

 that they were safe, that she went and sat by the kitchen 

 fire, awaiting the usual scraps. Of course a search was 

 made in all likely hiding places and corners frequented by 

 the young people, who were very fond of this cat, and 

 thought she was fond of them. A piteous, faint squealing 

 betrayed the poor little creatures on the floor behind the 

 largest folios in the library. The space above the books 

 was so small that it is difficult to think how the cat got in 

 with a kitten in her mouth, or even without it. This was 

 the one room into which the housemaid seldom came, 

 especially in the evening, as the master sat there. He did 

 not pet the cat at any time, and she took no notice of him. 



But though securely hidden, the kittens could hardly have 

 lived in that cold place ; their mother seemed to have over- 

 looked their need of warmth. After this failure she sub- 

 mitted to have them kept in the basket in the kitchen. 



V. N. 



Fish-passes and Fishponds, 



In your issue of August 18, in an article dealing with 

 fish-passes and fish-ponds, the following statement is 

 made : — 



" Much of the information as to the construction of 

 ponds and their inlets and overflows is, of course, ancient, 

 and can be found in such books as the ' History of Howie- 

 toun ' " (bv the late Sir James Ramsay Gibson Maitland, 

 Bart.). 



The above statement may easily cause the incorrect in- 

 ference that the information in Sir James Ramsay Gibson 

 Maitland's work is now obsolete. Perhaps you may care to 

 make it known that this is, of course, not the case, although 

 no doubt with lapse of time improvements and modifications 

 are introduced. Howietoun Fishery Co. 



Howietoun Fishery, Stirling, N.B., October 24. 



Average Number of Kinsfolk in each Degree. 



I THANK Dr. Galton for his e.xplanation (p. 626), which 

 only shows how easy it is to make mistakes in things which 

 appear perfectly trivial. The discrepancy can be accounted 

 for, however, more simply still by the fact that families 

 containing boys only have to be left out of account, and 

 therefore in the families which contain at least one girl 

 there are on an average more girls than boys altoe'ether. 



"G. H. Bryan. 



Misuse of Words and Phrases. 



It is quite true, as Mr. Basset says, that " in English 

 considerable care is often required in the arrangement of 

 a sentence, so as to avoid ambiguity " ; but he seems to go 

 too far when he says that " brevity ought always to be 

 aimed at." Too much brevity will often, as we are warned 

 by Horace, lead to obscurity : " brevis esse laboro : 

 obscurus fio " ; and the absence of inflections and genders 

 renders it impossible to write English in the brief, epigram- 

 matic style that is common in Latin. 



To Mr. Basset's rules the following may be advantage- 

 ously added : that new words of foreign origin should not 

 be employed when English words will suit the purpose as 

 well or better. For instance, autotomic and anaiiiotomic, 

 as applied to curves, are objectionable, because self-cutting 

 and twn-self-cutting express precisely the same ideas in 

 simpler and more familiar words. I am at a loss to know 

 on what ground Mr. Basset objects to the phrase " non- 

 singular cubic curve "; does he think the epithet is " un- 

 couth " or " inelegant " or " inaccurate "? 



October 31. T. B. S. 



