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390 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



seems fully borne out by facts already cited. The 

 solution which was found favourable for the processes of 

 growth and development might also^ reasonably enough^ 

 be considered favourable for Archebiosis. A process 

 would most likely be Initiated where the conditions 

 were suitable for its continuance. And surely the same 

 factors would be at work in the initiation of a living 

 thing that would be called into play during its growth. 

 The presumption^ therefore^ is a fair one, that solutions 

 which are favourable to the growth and development 

 of certain organisms, may also be favourable to the 

 occurrence of evolutional changes which more especially 

 lead to the initiation of such living things. 



Seeing, then, that the question of the occurrence or 

 non-occurrence of Archebiosis is the very matter in 

 dispute, it is certainly most imperative that all those 

 engaged in investigations bearing on the subject 

 should appreciate (when weighing the evidence) that 

 these are possibilities whose probability ought to be 

 assumed as equal. We may well be surprised, there- 

 fore, to find such an investigator as M. Pasteur com- 

 pletely ignoring one of these points of view^ inter- 

 preting all his experiments by the light of a foregone 

 conclusion, and looking solely upon the different solu- 

 tions employed, as fluids which are destructive or not 

 destructive at a given temperature to hypothetically- 



(existing '• germs.' 



It should not be understood that we are to regard all 

 acid solutions as having a low evolutional or fermen- 



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