184 THE DESTRUCTIVE INFLUENCE OF 
‘principle’—a kind of transformation has taken place. 
This, in short, is the view to which a vitalist would 
be driven, if he had become convinced that no germs 
of Bacteria, or of such other organisms as are found 
in our flasks, could have survived the preliminary 
process of heating. Such a vague sort of position 
is not open, however, to evolutionists or to those 
who believe in the now generally accepted physical 
doctrines of life. They are bound to recognize the 
undoubted distinction which exists between mere 
dead organic matter, and that organic matter which 
displays the phenomena of life. They should no 
more think of calling a body ‘living’ which could 
not be made to display the characteristics of life, 
than they would call a body ‘magnetic, when it 
would show none of the properties pertaining to 
magnetism. If they had learned, therefore, that 
living matter when exposed to heat of a certain 
intensity became lifeless matter (that is, that it 
could no longer be made to display the phenomena 
of life), the process by which new living protoplasm 
comes into existence amongst this dead organic 
material, would be, for them, as much an instance 
of its new independent origin as if the process had 
occurred in the midst of mere inorganic elements, 
The term Archebiosis is therefore applicable to the 
process that must take place in our ordinary flask 
