64 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



upon these phenomena, as also to expound the 

 theories that may be advanced, and which in the 

 present state of our knowledge seem to be best fitted 

 to disentangle, the skein of facts in which these 

 many phenomena appear to be enveloped. 



It is not our desire, then, to hold out to the reader 

 the hope — the illusory hope, as it may prove to be — 

 that when the facts have been reviewed, and hypo- 

 theses put forward to explain their inner nature and 

 relation with each other, he need expect much more 

 than to have presented to his mind's eye a visual 

 representation of the dynamical processes which 

 underlie the facts that have been brought within 

 his notice. 



These hypotheses must be taken for what they are 

 worth, and from the scientific standpoint, viewed 

 merely as hypotheses, possessing perhaps the value 

 only of conjectures, which may help us to discern new 

 relations and new facts implied in such of them as 

 shall have already come within our knowledge ; but 

 hypotheses or conjectures we must be ever ready to 

 dismiss, if new facts come to light antagonistic to 

 them — that is, provided we are certain that they are 

 facts ; for apparent facts that contradict hypotheses 

 otherwise well founded, require to be carefully 

 considered before they are accepted as truths. 



These results, the outcome in part of some years 

 of study and research, curiously enough, as to 

 the cause of the phenomena embraced by the 

 term phosphorescence, give in the outline the sub- 

 stance of an inquiry originally undertaken with 



