50 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



not quite understood. By this means, however, the 

 cyclic process which is the test of vitality in its more 

 developed forms is manifested. 



Although, as we say, the artificial synthesis of 

 a bacillus has never been, nor do we think ever 

 will be, accomplished, any more than the artificial 

 production of a man, there are still artificial types 

 of vitality far simpler than the bacillus, that are 

 entitled to claim relationship to their pedigreed 

 fellow creatures, with which they have so many and 

 so distinctive properties in common. 



The former is a creation of one generation, and 

 may almost be designated as a self-made thing ; 

 whilst the bacillus can claim a long roll of ancestors 

 back to the remote prodigious vista of the past, when 

 life first made its appearance on this planet. 



It is, therefore, too much to expect that the 

 aristocratic creature should admit any relationship 

 with its plebeian neighbour. Yet, if our definition 

 is correct, the two are merely factors in the same 

 field of Nature : one having had a history and the 

 other not. And it is therefore to be expected, as a 

 necessary consequence, that the bacillus should have 

 some qualities, markedly developed, which the other 

 has not. That, in fact, the bacillus, being the descen- 

 dant of the most stable and persistent types, for the 

 environment of our planet, has also the qualities 

 adapted to the particular conditions of moisture and 

 temperature which the other has not. What is more, 

 the bacillus must have come into being under con- 

 ditions of the precise nature of which we are totally 



