12 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



those simpler ones to which the physicist can 

 attract his notice as appearing quite spontan- 

 eously, even at this late hour in the history of the 

 earth. 



Till Faraday's discovery of electro-magnetism, 

 which brought electricity and magnetism together, 

 a doctrine not unlike that of biogenesis as it exists 

 to-day might have been, or rather was, applied to 

 magnetism. All magnets were produced from 

 magnets. They could be broken up or subdivided 

 into smaller ones ; but these also were magnets, as 

 much so as the originals. It was held to be 

 ridiculous that magnets could be made except by 

 or from previously existing magnets. To Faraday, 

 things seemed different. He perceived unity and 

 relation, where others saw nothing but diversity 

 and plurality. He was convinced from his profound 

 knowledge of Nature that electricity and magnetism 

 were not merely allied phenomena but closely 

 related effects. He observed that an electric 

 current and a magnet reacted on each other; and 

 that a current could induce magnetism temporarily 

 in iron and permanently in steel. And conversely 

 that a magnet by its motion could likewise induce 

 a current in a neighbouring wire. Thus the connec- 

 tion between current electricity and magnetism was 

 established, and the two ever afterwards must be 

 looked upon as concomitant effects. 



Turning, then, to the subject of biogenesis, what 

 reason is there for supposing that purely physical 

 and chemical processes cannot give rise to life ? 



