294 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 923 



made by Emil Fischer, who has for many 

 years been engaged in the task of building 

 up the nitrogenous combinations which 

 enter into the formation of the complex 

 molecule of protein. It is satisfactory to 

 know that the significance of the work both 

 of Fischer and of Kossel in this field of 

 biological chemistry has been recognized by 

 the award to each of these distinguished 

 chemists of a Nobel prize. 



The elements composing living substance 

 are few in number. Those which are con- 

 stantly present are carbon, hydrogen, oxy- 

 gen and nitrogen. "With these, both in 

 nuclear matter and also, but to a less de- 

 gree, in the more diffuse living material 

 which we know as protoplasm, phosphorus 

 is always associated. "Ohne Phosphor 

 kein Gedank" is an accepted aphorism; 

 "Ohne Phosphor kein Leben" is equally 

 true. Moreover, a large proportion, rarely 

 less than 70 per cent., of water appears 

 essential for any manifestation of life, al- 

 though not in all cases necessary for its 

 continuance, since organisms are known 

 which will bear the loss of the greater part 

 if not the whole of the water they contain 

 without permanent impairment of their 

 vitality. The presence of certain inorganic 

 salts is no less essential, chief amongst 

 them being chloride of sodium and salts of 

 calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron. 

 The combination of these elements into a 

 colloidal compound represents the chemical 

 basis of life; and when the chemist suc- 

 ceeds in building up this compound it will 

 without doubt be found to exhibit the phe- 

 nomena which we are in the habit of asso- 

 ciating with the term "life." 



The above considerations seem to point 

 to the conclusion that the possibility of the 

 production of life — i. e., of living material 

 — is not so remote as has been generally 

 assumed. Since the experiments of Pas- 

 teur, few have ventured to affirm a belief 



in the spontaneous generation of bacteria 

 and monads and other microorganisms, al- 

 though before his time this was by many 

 believed to be of universal occurrence. My 

 esteemed friend Dr. Charlton Bastian is, 

 so far as I am aware, the only scientific 

 man of eminence who still adheres to the 

 old creed, and Dr. Bastian, in spite of nu- 

 merous experiments and the publication of 

 many books and papers, has not hitherto 

 succeeded in winning over any converts to 

 his opinion. I am myself so entirely con- 

 vinced of the accuracy of the results which 

 Pasteur obtained — are they not within the 

 daily and hourly experience of every one 

 who deals with the sterilization of organic 

 solutions? — that I do not hesitate to be- 

 lieve, if living torulse or mycelia are ex- 

 hibited to me in fiasks which had been sub- 

 jected to prolonged boiling after being her- 

 metically sealed, that there has been some 

 fallacy either in the premisses or in the 

 carrying out of the operation. The ap- 

 pearance of organisms in such flasks would 

 not furnish to my mind proof that they 

 were the result of spontaneous generation. 

 Assuming no fault in manipulation or fal- 

 lacy in observation, I should find it simpler 

 to believe that the germs of such organisms 

 have resisted the effects of prolonged heat 

 than that they became generated spontane- 

 ously. If spontaneous generation is pos- 

 sible, we can not expect it to take the form 

 of living beings which show so marked a 

 degree of differentiation, both structural 

 and functional, as the organisms which are 

 described as making their appearance in 

 these experimental flasks. Nor should we 

 expect the spontaneous generation of living 

 substance of any kind to occur in a fluid 

 the organic constituents of which have 

 been so altered by heat that they can retain 

 no sort of chemical resemblance to the or- 

 ganic constitutents of living matter. If 

 the formation of life — of living substance 



