CHAPTER X 



THE DESCENT OP LIVING PROTOPLASM 



Artificial cells in their relation to the mode in which life 

 first made its appearance — Criticisms as to the nature 

 of these cells — Preyer's theory — The small chance of the 

 particular aggregates constituting a Hving cell being found 

 — Experiments with cyanogen and electric discharge — 

 Probable structure of Haeckel's Monera — Fresh specula- 

 tion in their relation to biogenesis. 



By this time it is no doubt apparent that the 

 dawn of life in the remote past was the result of 

 a process very closely allied to the formation of 

 artificial cells, as we see them develop to-day in 

 the laboratory, by the action of various salts upon 

 gelatin media, or more accurately of gelatinous 

 bodies containing the constituents of protoplasm. 

 Those gelatinous substances, however, cannot have 

 existed in that remote past as they do to-day, and 

 it is therefore to be inferred that the formation of 

 cells of protoplasm in the first instance was the 

 result of the interaction of a particular substance 

 or substances, composed of the hio-elements thus 

 postulated, with other organic bodies. It is most 

 probable that the conditions under which they were 

 formed were totally diflferent from those within our 



