CHAPTER V 



THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE 



This correlation of Vital Phenomena opens up a new perspective 

 — Life in its primitive state must have been different from 

 anything now observed in Nature — According to Clerk 

 Maxwell the number of atoms in the cell is not sufficient to 

 account for its immense potentiality — This potentiality, with 

 all its varieties, probably the result of perturbations in the 

 particular motion which constitutes the principle of vital 

 activity — How it may have arisen — Natural as distinct from 

 artificial life — Eadio-aotivity of living bodies, plants, and 

 animals — Experiments of Tommasina — Origin of primitive 

 radio-active bodies lost in same obscurity as that of primitive 

 Ufe. 



The correlation of Vital Phenomena, when extended, 

 as we have thus ventured to extend it, so as to 

 include many physical and chemical effects not 

 generally regarded as living, opens up a new per- 

 spective of the whole question as to how life in 

 its primitive state may have originated. 



We have seen that many types of life may have 

 been, and most probably have been, entirely different 

 from any of its forms now naturally existing around 

 us. These are the strongest and most stable specimens 

 of life ; that after countless ages and in the most 



