ORIGINATION OF SELF-GENERATING MATTER 605 
them, while in addition other states of ionization, due to radioactivity, 
would all be possible factors contributory to a synthesis that might 
form a beginning of the physical basis of life. Any resulting thermo- 
catalyzer would be a possible agent for self-organization, and in the 
development of an organic type its characteristic activities would 
consist in the degradation, or reduction of the potential energy of the 
medium or substratum and the oxidation of the acquired substances. 
Living matter is in fact a thermal engine in which the oxidation is, 
comparatively, exceedingly slow. 
Fic. 1.—Mud-volcanoes of Lower California, in and around which unusual oppor- 
tunities for chemical combination are offered by the conditions of temperature and 
pressure. 
No process observable by available physiological methods sug- 
gests the origination of living matter, yet it seems quite probable 
that combinations similar, analogous, or even identical with the 
earliest forms of living matter might be produced in the laboratory, 
in inclosed spaces or under special conditions. Doubtless compounds 
of much greater intricacy have been made, but while we might make 
such substances, yet it would be extremely difficult for us to furnish 
the supply of material and the continuance of conditions which 
would permit this matter to exercise its initial functions of self- 
generation to any appreciable extent. The starting of a strain of 
