io8 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



these bodies, if living, must be the result of imperfect 

 sterilisations, and that the experiments of Pasteur 

 completely proved that when sterilisations are properly 

 carried out, life does not spring from lifeless matter. 

 These experiments have really no bearing on the 

 question as to whether radio-activity can afford the 

 internal energy of vital processes. Pasteur's experi- 

 ments were on sterilised media not acted upon by 

 sources of activity such as those which now form 

 the subject of discussion, and they have nothing 

 whatsoever to do with the questions as to whether 

 radio-activity can afford that energy in dynamically 

 unstable groupings placed in suitable surroundings, 

 which might afford in more complex aggregations 

 the jlux, so to speak, which constitutes the principle 

 of life. It may be said without fear or hesitation 

 that whatever is the aspect we should take of this 

 conception, it is a matter about which we may feel 

 confident that Pasteur, Tyndall, and Huxley would 

 have thought as strongly as ourselves that their 

 experiments had no bearing whatsoever on the 

 point at issue. Nay, more, since all bodies are 

 now supposed to be radio-active to a slight degree, 

 even Pasteur's experiments should yet yield the 

 same result ; although it would take aeons to pro- 

 duce in this way the aggregations brought about by 

 radium in a few days. 



The growth is from the minutest visible specks, 

 which develop into two dots, then into a dumb- 

 bell shaped appearance, later a biscuit-shape, and 

 later still more like frog's spawn, through various 



