SPONTANEOUS GENERATION 61 



hand. If living beings could not come into existence 

 from this highly oi'ganized matter, which can serve as 

 animal food and of which their bodies are made, what 

 hope can there be that they can originate from very 

 simple forms of inorganic matter? If spontaneous 

 generation has taken place, it is still a legitimate 

 problem for the laboratory to solve. If it has taken 

 place in nature, then I can see no reason why it may 

 not be repeated time after time. 



It is admitted by some scientists that it is not now 

 taking place, and it is assumed by them that it is an 

 occurrence so extraordinary that we ought not to ex- 

 pect it to be repeated. But why extraordinary? 

 Spontaneous generation, as believed in by most evolu- 

 tionists, is simply a matter of chemistry, and certain- 

 ly no chemical action can be regarded as being so 

 extraordinary that it may not be repeated. 



We have good reason to believe that life began 

 millions of years ago under physical conditions that 

 substantially exist in many parts of the world to-day, 

 and that have existed from the first dawn of life. 



The earth is one vast laboratory in which every 

 moment are taking place countless millions of experi- 

 ments. The materials for the construction of organic 

 beings are everywhere present, and the same forces 

 are ceaselessly doing their work, as they have been 

 from the first. To conclude that under the numerous 

 and widespread conditions favorable to the existence 

 of life, which have so long existed and which still 

 exist in the earth, spontaneous generation, a chemical 

 problem, could have been produced but once, or only 

 a few times, is beyond belief. 



In view of the presence of such conditions, extend- 

 ing through the many millions of years since life 

 began, nature ought to have successfully repeated the 

 experiment resulting in spontaneous generation a 



