1 64 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



is sterilised or destroyed by heat in a gelatinous 

 culture medium, if this nth. nucleus survives the 

 heat, as in the case of radium, a new cell would 

 be formed which would differ largely from the ori- 

 ginal and more appropriately admit of being styled 

 an artificial cell ; a revival, in fact, of the life which 

 was destroyed, but only an artificial imitation, so 

 to speak, and more like radiobes than natural life, 

 with that impassable gulf which separates the natural 

 from the artificial. 



This is the most we can expect, and we may call it 

 spontaneous generation if we please, or heterogenesis, 

 but the results are as far from natural life as the 

 artificial products of the laboratory can be. 



What we have chosen to call bio-carbon, then, 

 would form the physical basis of life. Such an 

 element, or compound as it may appear from the 

 complexity of its nature, whilst possessing the 

 chemical properties of carbon, would also possess 

 a considerable store of energy, which, strictly 

 speaking, would be energy stored up in the aether 

 and apparently at least independent of physical 

 forces, but in reality forming a part of the 

 dynamical connections of the universe. 



This secret source of vital energy may perhaps 

 satisfy those philosophers who maintain that vital 

 actions are guided by some immaterial source. 

 Sir Oliver Lodge, although belonging to this 

 class of thinkers, admits that even in such 

 cases the conservation of energy is still valid. The 

 hypothesis which we venture to put forward seems 



