\ 



.260 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE, 



selves. In 1809 appeared the 'Philosophie Zoologique' 

 of Lamarck, in which he expressed himself strongly in 

 favour of the spontaneous origination of Life— declaring 

 that matter was continually changing, not only in regard 

 to its states of combination, but also changing in its 



nature 



from 



into a lifeless one, and now again assuming the forms 

 and properties of living matter under the combined and 

 mystic influence of heat, light, electricity, and moisture. 

 «^ These transitions,' he said, <=from life to death and 

 from death to life, evidently form part of an immense 

 circle of all kinds of changes to which, in the course 

 of time, all physical substances are submitted.' But 

 such a mode of origin was only possible, as he thought, 

 for the lowest kinds of living things. This is expressed 



in 



the following 



passage, which he also prints in 

 italics : — ' L.a nature a Vaide de la chaleur^ de la lumiere^ 

 de PelectricitSj et de Phumldite\ forme des generations spon- 

 tanees ou dlrectes a Vextrem'ite de chaque regne des corps 

 'vivantSy ou se trouvent les plus simples de ces corps' Soon 



afterwards, two philosophers, Cabanis and Oken, also 

 declared their belief in the possibility of a new evolu- 

 tion of life out of dead inanimate matter. According 

 to Okeiij ^ the animal body is only an edifice of mo- 

 nads/ and ^ putrefaction is nothing more than the dis- 

 aggregation of the monads^ and a return to the primi- 



Then fol- 



tive condition of the 



animal kingdom.' 



lowed other distinguished naturalists, amongst whom we 

 may mention Bory St. Vincent, Bremser, Tiederr.annj 



lion. 



) 



4 



«f) 



f 



In his ^ve 

 iled ace 



enerati 



detai 



g 



c 



Dcratio 



Itcessors 



hetero 

 and fc' 



(iiiann 



) 



his viev 



\\ 



compared 

 liited the possit 



members c 



iis, but also CO 

 BtaceEjand evi 

 if scene without 



liinij hoM 

 ' W that he ha 



netic ori 



i 



^—Monas 



Sic fungu 



announces 



'*4ased 



«Ktal 



ei 



upon 

 infe 



I i,^' ^vere at 



6 



n 



3 



