18 CORRELATION OP VITAL 



elements of this mixture, since one of the chief constituents of the 

 yeast fungus is an albuminoid substance." 



All that is here said by Liebig becomes even still more striking 

 after my own observations, as to the freedom with which Bacteria 

 and Torulse multiply not only in solutions of ammonic tartrate to 

 which a phosphate has been added, but also in solutions of tartrate 

 of ammonia alone.' The fact that this occurs shows that these 

 simple saline substances not only contain the elements necessary 

 for the formation of living matter, but that the passage must be 

 comparatively easy from the saline mode of collocation of the 

 elements into that by which they are converted into living proto- 

 plasm. Nay, more, seeing that the multiplication of living things 

 takes place with so much more energy and rapidity in a solution 

 of ammonic tartrate than it does in one of the oxalate, the 

 acetate, or even the carbonate, it seems to show that the ammonic 

 tartrate state of combination is an especially favourable platform 

 for the initiation of these new and more complex modes of 

 combination. 



This fact, that growth and multiplication of elementary living 

 organisms takes place at the expense of the elements of the saline 

 solution, shows that under a certain influence — that of the pre- 

 existing living matter added thereto — the elements of the saline 

 solution are capable of reacting in such a manner as to fall into 

 new modes of combination, whereby they give rise to ' living ' 

 compounds. But if, as we contend, no special or peculiar forces 

 are at work within the pre-existing organisms, the molecular move- 

 ments constituting their ' hfe ' must be determined purely by 

 natural affinities, so that they can only exert some catalytic action 

 which is essentially physico-chemical upon the molecules of the 

 matter with which they are brought into contact. If, then, under 

 the influence of these chemical actions the molecules of the saline 

 substances and of the water in which they are dissolved undergo 

 a rearrangement and combination whereby they are converted 

 into living protoplasm, we are compelled to assume the truth of 

 what appears to be on other grounds so probable, that there is 

 a natural aptitude for the molecules of certain compounds to 

 fall into the more complex modes of combination that exist in 

 living matter. 



In regard to the general doctrine of " The Correlation of the 



' " The Beginnings of Life," 1872, Vol. ii, Appendix, pp. xlvi-liii. 



