April 28, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



643 



ondary products of the differentiation of 

 the plasma. 



Latterly, Osier has said, "Around the 

 nature of cell-organization the battle wages 

 most fiercely, and here again the knowledge 

 of structure is sought eagerly as the basis 

 of explanation of the vital phenomena. 

 So radical have been the changes in this 

 direction that a new and complicated 

 terminology has sprung up, and the simple 

 undifferentiated bit of protoplasm has now 

 its cytostome, cytolymph, caryosome, chro- 

 mosome, and with their somacules and 

 biophores. These accurate studies in the 

 vital units have led to material modifica- 

 tions in the theory of descent." 



It is unnecessary for us to trace fully the 

 history of the idea of 'spontaneous genera- 

 tion,' which has persisted for twenty cen- 

 turies. The story has been recommended 

 'to the psychological historian as a laby- 

 rinth of error, with glimpses of truth at 

 every turn.' 



Leeuwenhoek, by using a crude micro- 

 scope, showed 'spontaneous generation' to 

 be only apparent, not real. A memorable 

 scientific battle Avas fought over parasitic 

 animals. "Adam was said to have con- 

 tained all the human parasites from the 

 first — a state hardly consistent with Edenic 

 bliss." Now Darivinismus makes such as- 

 sumptions useless. 



Pasteur almost proved that all 'life 

 comes from preexisting life.' But Tyn- 

 dall and Dallinger learned that in many 

 cases 'young and immature germs could 

 survive the boiling temperature, growing 

 and propagating themselves when the 

 liquid subsequently cooled.' 



Life was in every ease traced to other 

 life. Its origin remained a profound 

 mystery. Man beat in every direction ho- 

 ping a door might open. Kelvin suggested 

 that germ life may have been a meteoric 

 passenger from otherwhere. Allowing 

 such arrival gave no answer to the ques- 



tion as to the origin of the life found on 

 the meteorite. Helmholtz, in advocacy of 

 this 'cosmozoic hypothesis,' said, 'Organic 

 life either came into existence at a certain 

 period, or it is eternal.' 



Just a few years ago Professor Riicker 

 in his address before the British Associa- 

 tion said: "Perhaps the chief objection 

 which can be brought against physical 

 theories is that they deal only with the 

 inanimate side of nature and largely ignore 

 the phenomena of life. It is, therefore, in 

 this direction, if any, that a change of 

 type may be expected." Before then the 

 Count de Gasparin wrote in the Journal 

 des Dehats, ' Take care ; the representations 

 of the exact sciences are on their way to 

 become the inquisitors of our days.' 



Projected as we are upon the stream of 

 life, we endeavor to learn first how it con- 

 tinues and thus reach its source. This is 

 not an altogether illogical method; quite 

 the contrary, as it rests upon the great 

 principle of true inductive reasoning from 

 experience to cause. 



There are two great principles upon 

 wluch the philosophy of nature now rests. 

 They are the doctrines of the conservation 

 of matter and the conservation of energy. 

 These are dependent upon our conception 

 of length and time, measured by arbitrary 

 standards. A metallic bar is the former 

 unit. The revolution of the earth gives 

 us a day, Avhich may be shorter or longer 

 according to tidal friction. Or the recur- 

 i-ing seasons give i;s the year unit, depend- 

 ing upon the course described by our rela- 

 tion to the sun. We are aware of necessary 

 calendar changes as a result. And yet 

 Cavendish's idea of science was measure- 

 ment ! 



These tenets have recently been brought 

 into question as a res^^lt of the investiga- 

 tions pursued in the laboratory where New- 

 ton, Clerk-Maxwell, Stokes, J. J. Thomson 

 and Rutherford worked. Before the inter- 



