156 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



the origin of matter. The origin, however, of organic 

 matter, which, as we know, cannot exist at a very- 

 high temperature, becomes reduced to the develop- 

 ment of organic cells by such methods as unstable 

 nuclei are capable of originating. The real difference 

 between natural and artificial cells is in the greater 

 complexity of the nth or ultimate nucleus ; whilst the 

 mode of subdivision of the nucleus in the manner 

 we have described gives rise to assimilation, growth, 

 and reproduction. 



It takes no great stretch of imagination to com- 

 prehend the vast possibilities of which this notion 

 really admits, and there may be a great variety of 

 types of such ultimate vital units or aggregates of 

 electrons. A great variety of types of nuclei is 

 possible, and the subsequent complexity of the 

 organism becomes more intelligible when it is borne 

 in mind that almost an indefinite series of them 

 may now exist or may have existed in the past. 

 This conception is particularly fruitful, especially as 

 it gives us a clue as to the origin, not merely of 

 life itself, but of the many types in which it has 

 appeared. 



As we have said before, of the vast number of 

 varieties which have thus been formed only a small 

 proportion have been sufficiently stable to counteract 

 the opposing circumstances in which they had been 

 placed, and thus the illimitable gap between living 

 and dead matter, as we see them to-day, may have 

 been in the course of aeons finally established. 



In this way then, and in this way alone 



