Spiritual Evolution of Society 199 



possible is that it would be unwise to deny anything 

 concerning a matter of which men are profoundly 

 ignorant, but even at the risk of being proved wrong, 

 one is justified from a study of observed phenomena 

 in stating that it is most unlikely that any such result 

 will ever be obtained. 



When we reflect that the experiments of Pasteur, 

 resulting in his famous axiom — " omne vivum ex vivo " 

 — were those upon which Lord Lister founded the 

 present system of surgery, resulting in such untold 

 benefits — in the saving of pain, sorrow, and death — to 

 the human race, we are not likely to change our attitude 

 to this established law, proved to the hilt in our ex- 

 perience from day to day. The earth at one time may 

 be said to have been an aseptic mass just as water is 

 after sterilisation by boiling, and there being no source 

 of contamination we are entitled to believe in the 

 light of Pasteur's experiments that no " primordial 

 slime," potential of life, by means of a purely chemical 

 and physical change, ever appeared. The primordial 

 slime was the result of bacterial infection. This is the 

 teaching of science — of observed phenomena as we 

 know them, and beyond that we are not entitled to 

 make assumptions which entail a departure from these. 



In discussing Dr. Charlton Bastian's experiments so 

 long discredited by the Royal Society, Professor 

 Schafer remarks : " Nor should we expect the spon- 

 taneous generation of living substance of any kind to 

 occur in a fluid, the organic constituents of which have 

 been so altered by heat that they can retain no sort of 

 chemical resemblance to the organic constituents of 

 living matter. If the formation of life — of living sub- 

 stance — is possible at the present day — for my own 

 part, I see no reason to doubt it — a boiled infusion of 

 organic matter — and still less of inorganic matter — is 

 the last place in which to look for it." With all due 



