The President's Address. By the Eev. W. H. Dallinger. 179 



adverse bearing have been presented. Hence in the interval 

 Huxley, taking into account all the factors of our ever-increasing 

 knowledge of biological facts, affirms " that at the present moment 

 there is not a shadow of trustworthy evidence that abiogenesis 

 does take place, or has taken place within the period during which 

 life has appeared on the globe " ; * and in another place, " the 

 present state of our knowledge furnishes us with no link between 

 the living and the not living." j 



That there was a time when living matter did arise from 

 matter not hving there can be no question. How, is no present 

 concern of science. With increased knowledge, deeper research, 

 further penetration, even that question may be answered. 



But the impossibility of present explanation is no scientific 

 prejudice to the facts. 



It is evidence of the deep insight of Darwin's mind that he 

 nowhere suggested, or even hinted at, the operation of any 

 unknown activity to give efficiency to the development of living 

 things in all their incalculable variety. Out of the known and 

 established phenomena of hfe he could deduce the evolution of all 

 living forms. Granted the existence of living matter — primordial 

 germs — he found no need of abiogenesis. And the long unbroken 

 lines of life in definite forms, revealed by the geological and 

 palseontological history of the earth, absolutely support this view. 



The supposition that abiogenesis is a necessary sequence from 

 the doctrine of evolution, has indeed no philosophical basis. The 

 inevitable power of living forms, however lowly, to multiply with- 

 out limit is enough. " In the eyes of a consistent evolutionist 

 any further independent formation of protoplasm would be sheer 

 waste." I 



But the investigations that in our more immediate times con- 

 firmed these conclusions, also gave us a greatly enlarged knowledge 

 of that remarkable group of organisms known as septic. So much 

 so, that the morphology of the monads and the bacteria may be said 

 to be approximately within our reach, always remembering the 

 range of our present optical aids. 



But beyond this, the life-histories of many, of both the monads 

 and the bacteria, are fairly known ; and their physiological 

 characteristics are being carefully studied. There is, however, a 

 possible difficulty before us. The whole group of septic organisms 

 must, as a group, form the subject of complete and exhaustive 

 study. If this be not done, we are in peril of false conclusions on 

 a practical phase of the subject, which touches the highest interests 



* Anat. Invert. Animals, p. 39, 



t Biology, Ency, Brit., 9th ed., pp. 67-9, 



X Anat. Invert. Animals, p. 38. 



N 2 



