ORIGIN OF LIFE. 69 
the whole of that long vista of bygone ages during 
which the surface of our Earth has been occupied by 
living things. 
Having been compelled by experimental evidence 
and observation to believe in the present occurrence 
of Archebiosis and Heterogenesis, I will now strive 
to lay before the reader some of the principal and 
most interesting consequences resulting from such 
a recognition of natural uniformity. This I will 
endeavour to do in as short a space as is com- 
patible with my object of giving the intelligent reader 
some notion of the general scope and nature of the 
biological doctrines which recent experiments and 
observations seem to force upon us. A detailed 
statement of the facts and reasons upon which the 
following views are based, may be found by those 
who desire it elsewhere.* 
Living matter is constantly being formed de novo 
in obedience to.the same laws and tendencies as 
those which determine all the more simple chemical 
combinations. The qualities which we summarize 
under the word ‘life’ are in all cases due to the 
combined molecular actions and properties of the 
aggregate that displays them, just as the properties 
* The Beginnings of Life, 
