114 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



However, it is the actual result that concerns 

 us, and not by how many it may have been 

 discussed. 



Numerous effects have been observed by the action 

 of salts on gelatinous substances, but the precise 

 nature of the bodies thus produced is a point 

 which requires the most careful consideration. In 

 the case of non-radio-active bodies it seems as 

 if there can be little doubt that these bodies 

 are crystalline in most cases. Whether even here 

 the crystalline structure is the final or fossilised 

 stage of a something analogous to living things 

 which have become extinct is a point that remains 

 to be considered. And in giving in outline the 

 summary of this work, so far as it bears upon the 

 point at issue, we are forced to recognise that this 

 aspect of the question is not one that we should 

 pass over without pause. 



The remarkable researches of von Schron, of 

 the Pathological Institute of the University of 

 Naples, have added much to our knowledge of the 

 generation and behaviour of crystals. According 

 to him, everything in Nature either lives or has 

 lived. He thoroughly maintains that " young 

 crystals " are living things, just as he denies vitality 

 for old ones in the fossilised state. His assertion 

 that the vital phenomena take place in crystals, even 

 if they do not unite all the periods of their exist- 

 ence, is very d propos. Some of his photographs, 

 of which he has taken a great many, are magnified 



