OCCURRENCE OF ARCHEBIOSIS 145 



Everything, therefore, tends to support the doctrine of Continuity, 

 and seems to testify to the present occurrence of Archebiosis — 

 especially when the alternative we are asked to accept is the belief 

 that these particles which we see gradually emerging into the 

 region of the visible, and developing into simplest organisms whose 

 form and mode of growth varies with every slight change in the 

 media in which they appear, have been perpetuating themselves 

 in this humble form through hundreds of millions of years, while 

 other portions of the same variable living matter have gradually 

 given rise to all the higher forms of life that have ever appeared 

 upon the earth. 



It is, of course, not to be supposed that I regard Bacteria and 

 Torulse as the only primordial forms of life. It is possible that the 

 simplest Amoebse, and the simplest forms of Algae — especially the 

 non-nucleated Chromacea — may also be primordial living things. 

 In all mountainous countries, and wherever large surfaces of rock 

 are bared, we may constantly see great black patches, often many 

 yards in diameter, looking at a distance like patches of paint. On 

 close examination we may find that such a patch is composed of a 

 thin, blackish, granular layer most closely adherent to the surface 

 of the stone which is otherwise quite bare. Portions of such a 

 limestone rock, thus coated, have been brought home by me, and 

 microscopical examination of some scrapings from the black patch, 

 which was soaked in water for a short time, has shown it to consist 

 of an aggregation of minute purple algoid vesicles, some extremely 

 minute and others about ^-jnn)" in diameter mixed with a smaller 

 number having an orange or red-brown tint. They were all, 

 however, simple Algoid cytodes presenting no trace of a nucleus — 

 nor were filaments of any kind to be seen among the vesicles. 



We have taken the question of the present occurrence of Arche- 

 biosis as far as it can be taken, from the point of view of logic, of 

 continuity, and of actual observation ; so that we now have to turn 

 to another aspect of the question, namely to a brief consideration 

 of some of the latest experimental trials that have been made — of 

 attempts actually to prove that a natural origin of living matter is 

 still possible under this or that experimental condition. 



On this subject Weismann says (" Evolution," II, p. 366) : — 

 " After the fiery earth had so far cooled that its outermost layer 

 had hardened to a firm crust, and after water had condensed to a 

 liquid form, there could at first only have been inorganic substances 

 in existence. In order to prove spontaneous generation, therefore, 



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