2o6 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



outline at least, those processes which in a higher 

 and more complicated degree are also performed by 

 that which in a more restricted sense is called living 

 protoplasm, we see not why, although spontaneous 

 generation of living protoplasm may not occur 

 at the present day, it should not have occurred in 

 the remote past and under similar though some- 

 what different conditions from those in the 

 laboratory ; in a word, that this method of ap- 

 proaching the problem affords a means of synthesis- 

 ing life like that in living proteid though it differs 

 from it widely. 



The artificial synthesis of cells that can in a 

 like manner assimilate from their surroundings, or 

 perform the function of nutrition, which can grow, 

 reproduce themselves and then decay or die, is, 

 strictly speaking, artificial life. This may or may 

 not be the same as natural life," but stiU there is 

 no reason why it should not be regarded as a 

 mode of life, and in view of the widespread nature of 

 metabolism there is no reason why these cells should 

 not be regarded as corresponding in the scale of 

 being to forms of life which serve to bridge the 

 gap between the animate and the inanimate. In 

 fact why they should not be types which have 

 thus served in the remote past to fill those gaps 

 that have once existed and have long since ceased 

 to be. Of the indefinite varieties thus formed 

 few, very few indeed, could have had the power 

 and the properties to resist all the opposing 

 circumstances of nature ; and it will therefore be 



