396 MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT SCIENCE 



struction in the laboratory by chemical methods of the 

 complex chemical combination which exhibits those 

 " activities " — essentially movements, unions, disruptions 

 and re-unions of extremely minute particles — which we 

 call " living." The conclusion that such a gradual building 

 up has taken place in past ages of the history of our earth 

 was formulated more than forty years ago by Spencer, 

 Tyndall, Huxley, Haeckel, and others, and has not been 

 seriously attacked in the interval, but, on the contrary, 

 generally accepted as a legitimate inference from the facts 

 ascertained and the theory of the evolution or gradual 

 development of what we call the material universe. 



Professor Schafer expressed the opinion, anticipated and 

 shared by many other investigators, that the progress of 

 chemical experiment renders it probable that further steps, 

 culminating in the successful construction of " living " 

 matter in the laboratory, are not beset by any insurmount- 

 able obstacles and will sooner or later be accomplished. 

 There was no " bomb-shell " in this statement, and no ex- 

 citement as its result among scientific workers nor amongst 

 those who do not neglect- to study the writings of the 

 " interpreters " desired by Lord Justice Moulton. There 

 are still some such interpreters carrying on the work of 

 Huxley and of Tyndall, those great interpreters whose 

 writings should be studied and treasured as classics. 



The most interesting result of the attempt to treat the 

 discussions at Dundee as a newspaper " sensation," com- 

 parable to the reports relating to motor-car bandits or 

 the pronouncements of political factions, has been its com- 

 plete failure. Serious thinkers of all schools seem to have 

 adjusted themselves to the more modern way of regarding 

 natural processes even when these relate to matters of 

 such age-long interest to mankind as the inception of 

 " living " organisms and of conscious humanity itself. 

 There are fewer now than there were forty years ago who 



