142 CONCERNING PRESENT 



viously living a totally different life in organic fluids, when intro- 

 duced into this simple solution which may be almost described as 

 an inorganic mixture,' at once altering their life processes in a 

 fundamental manner, and forming their protoplasm in some 

 mysterious way from the mere elements of the saline solution. It 

 would seem, therefore, that the process in this case cannot be 

 a very complicated one ; and when we think of the intimate 

 relations existing between Origination and Growth in simpler forms 

 of matter, and the examples that have been given in a previous 

 chapter (pp. 47, 60), we may be encouraged to hope that some 

 conditions may be at last discovered, under the influence of which 

 it may be freely admitted that living matter will take its origin, as 

 well as merely grow, within some simple saline solution. 



Let us look at the question of origin and growth for a moment 

 in its simpler form — taking the case of the production of a so-called 

 " silver tree." A weak galvanic current is passed through a solution 

 of silver nitrate, and simultaneously in a first increment of time a 

 number of molecules of oxygen and of silver begin to aggregate 

 independently into crystals of silver oxide ; in a second increment 

 of time, the operation of the same causes produces similar results, 

 only now part of the new crystalline matter forms in connection 

 with the existing recently-formed germs of crystals, though part of 

 it may still aggregate independently. During a third, a fourth, and 

 all succeeding increments of time in which the same causes operate 

 amidst similar conditions, similar results must ensue. But taking 

 the process of origination that occurs in the first increment of time, 

 can we believe that it is in any essential way different from that 

 process of growth which takes place during a second, third, or 

 fourth increment of time ? Does not the very fact that origination 

 and growth so often occur simultaneously in the case of crystalline 

 matter, and under the influence of the same causes, show us that 

 the two processes are intrinsically similar, and that conditions 

 favourable for growth are also likely to be favourable for origina- 

 tion ? And if this be true for crystalline matter, may we not infer 

 that it should also be true for living matter ? These are questions 

 usually neither asked nor answered in any definite manner. They 

 are, however, by no means unworthy of an attentive consideration. 



' Ammonium tartrate can now be produced synthetically by chemists in the 

 laboratory, from inorganic material, and the substance so produced is, Sir William 

 Ramsay tells me, " so far as we know, absolutely identical with ammonium 

 tartrate derived from tartaric acid abstracted from wine-lees." 



