i8o THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



probable but accidental failures, using the word 

 probability in its mathematical signification. If 

 this theory be correct it would still appear that, 

 even with the proper combination, the probability 

 of getting a living cell in any particular experi- 

 ment may be one in millions or perhaps millions 

 of millions. It seems far more probable indeed 

 that we have not yet obtained that combination, 

 and that we shall not guess what that combination 

 should be for a considerable time to come. 



Out of the fortuitous combination of electrons 

 in the evolution of matter only a very small 

 number would have attained a stable state, the 

 most stable of these being the elements ; while 

 it seems extremely probable that the substance 

 of which a body like the sun is composed 

 consists largely of primordial elements or electrons 

 rather than of the stable aggregates or systems 

 which these in turn are in the long run capable 

 of forming; so that the elements are merely the 

 precipitated aggregations, so to speak, of that 

 gaseous fluid of electricity. In other words, instead 

 of looking at the sun as composed chiefly of 

 chemical elements, we should regard it as composed 

 essentially of corpuscles gathered into it from all 

 space, and which in the course of time condense 

 into stable and unstable systems. It is among the 

 unstable ones that we may hope to find the initial 

 conditions by which the formation of highly com- 

 plicated metabolic actions can result. 



The same process or processes no doubt took 



