f « 



BEGINNINGS 



3 



f me to 



id 



4 



others 



Ci 



tiation offe 

 icable from 



f^ nedect 



) 



;ur's celebral 

 tiich had be 



12. That, in accordance with the views of evolution- 



r 



ists, 'life' may be considered to represent the 

 sum-total of properties displayed by certain kinds 

 of organic matter • and that these higher proper- 

 ties may be deteriorated or rendered non-existent 

 by an amount of heat which may not be adequate 

 wholly to decompose the organic matter itself. 



The first is a very important consideration. It should 

 d bent ned be clearly understood, that even if we could demon- 

 to the air strate the presence of Bacteria in the atmosphere, this 

 eviously ster, alone would not be enoi 



alone would not be enough. The panspermatists ought 

 loculation c to be able to demonstrate the existence of universally 

 rom beir 



are even mt fairly asked to show — what as yet they have never 



attempted — that Bacteria are well capable of resisting 

 such an amount of desiccation as must be involved by 



doctrit 



Liebig. 

 almost 



ire 



, Q ^e CO even of the hottest and driest regions of the earth. For 

 . j.g5ult5 organic substances in solution do not only putrefy in 



of ferme 



on the 



1 



. . .'qj contrary, most rapidly and surely when the temperature 



IS high. 



phere 



has 

 thong' 



and quite irrespectively of the amount of 



J moisture contained in the atmosphere. The capability 



of resisting the effects of desiccation — the possession 



tctert^^ '"' .jOf which, by Bacteria^ is so necessary for the truth o^ 



» \\ T>„.^„„„> iment— ought to have been shown by 



tude 



w 



ith 



M. Pasteur's arg 



scientific evidence to be a real attribute of such organ- 



tits 

 ^ fern^^ isms; though it seems^ on the contrary, to have been 



B % 



