viu.J THE CHEMISTRY OF LIFE, 89 



consequeutly must be solved, not by reasoning, but by tion for ex- 

 observation and experiment. It is one of the most im- P*^''"^^"!*- 

 portant of all scientific questions, whether the lowest forms 

 of life can be generated by a purely chemical process. The 

 preponderance of experimental evidence appears to be 

 against any such possibility, and to show that no organism 

 can be generated except from a previously existing organism. 

 But if it could be proved that the lowest forms of life can 

 be generated by a purely chemical process, still, as has been 

 lately remarked, this would bring us no nearer to any 

 absolute origin of life ; for the chemical actions in which 

 the lowest forms of life are by some believed to originate, 

 consist in the decomposition of organic substances ; so that 

 even this would be a case of the production of life under 

 conditions that require the previous existence of other 

 organisms. — For these reasons it appears most probable Life had 

 that life, like matter and energy, had its origin in no J^ ^i^^f^e 

 secondary cause, but in the direct action of creative power, power. 



The question of the origin of species is a totally distinct Origin of 

 question from that of the origin of life. dSct* 



There is good reason to believe the most important l^estion. 

 organic compounds to be thermo-positive.^ " It has been Oi'S^'^ic 

 recently shown by Berthelot that by the hydration and rounds 

 dehydration of organic substances heat results. ThuSpos™ye". 

 sugar, starch, and fatty matter by decomposition give rise 

 to increased development of heat ; and when albuminoid 

 matters are hydrated and decomposed, or dehydrated and 

 caused to enter into composition, heat is set free altogether 

 independently of the process of oxidation." ^ It is, I think, 

 quite impossible to interpret these facts except by supposing 

 the substances in question to be thermo-positive ; that is to 

 say, that they contain a charge of energy which is due to 

 their chemical constitution, and part with it when that con- 

 stitution is subverted. Thus, energy is taken up, and stored, 

 in the act of forming organic compounds ; and this energy 

 is liberated again, whether as heat or in some other form, 

 in that chemical traiisformation which constitutes waste. 



1 See p. 50 for the meaning of this expression. 



2 Beale's edition of Todd and Bowman's Phy.siology, p. 137. 



