m 



298 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



The problem which is now presented, concernin<^ the 



low organisms, so precisely resembles 



origin of these 



that which has had to be settled in the case of som 

 crystals!, that it may be well to elucidate our subject by 

 this analogy. It will be necessary, however, in com- 

 paring the two problems, that the reader should look at 

 the evidence only, with a mind as free as possible from 

 the warping influence of preconceptions. 



+ 



Crystals are statical aggregations, whilst organisms 

 are dynamical aggregations 2^ which, from the evolu- 



bounds of strict logic. It suffices to show by the agency of the electric 

 light or by some other means, that air and water contain myriads of infi- 

 nitesimally small particles, some of which are organic in nature, in order 

 that they may at once come to the conclusion that the organic particles 

 are germs. But, seeing the countless forms of life which exist upon the 

 surface of the earth, and how these are from moment to moment, during 

 life as well as after death, undergoing a molecular disintegration, it 

 would be strange indeed if the atmosphere, and water which has been 

 exposed to it, did not contain multitudes of organic particles, both large 

 and small. The great majority of such mere organic particles, however, 

 could have no reasonable title to be called germs. 



The analogy between the two problems, as to the possible origin 

 of some crystals and organisms de novo in solutions, has been rendered 

 much more obvious since the discovery by the late Professor Graham, 

 that, when dissolved, the saline substance does not remain as such in 

 solution — but that the acid and the base exist separately, and are 

 separable by a process of dialysis. When crystallisation occurs, there- 

 fore, we have a combination of molecules taking place similar to, though 

 simpler than, what may be presumed to take place in the genesis of a 

 speck of living matter. 



^ This difference between crystals and organisms, which are in other 

 respects strictly comparable with one another, was clearly pointed out 

 by Burdach. In both cases, he says, " La tendance interieure a la 

 configuration existe avant sa manifestation. . . . Mais dans le cristal, 



>en it pass^' 

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