PROF. G. SIMS WOODHEAD ON THE ORIGIN OF LIFE. 211 



points, must all be discussed where the question of the origin 

 of life is under consideration. 



It is evident from a study of the history of this question 

 that, just as the alchemist, in his search for the philosopher's 

 stone and the elixir of life, made observations and came upon 

 facts that constituted much of the foundation of our modern 

 chemistry, so the search for the meaning and origin of life, 

 begun in darkness and continued in shadow, has stimulated 

 most powerfully the development of science and philosophy, 

 and has led men along paths now much more broadly and solidly 

 laid than those " sheep-tracks " on the mountain-side of thought 

 in which they began. 



The earliest literature with which all are familiar — the Penta- 

 teuch — puts forward the hypothesis that life, in the first instance, 

 was of supernatural origin, and then transmitted in perpetuity. 



In contrast to this, the earlier Greek philosophers had a 

 distinct conception of life as having spontaneous origin, 

 accompanied, however, by the idea expressed by Thales in the 

 words:* "All things are full of gods." This idea was more 

 fully developed by Plato and Aristotle as a belief in a " World- 

 soul sustaining and moving all that is." Aristotle makes clear 

 his belief that living organisms may arise spontaneously. It 

 must be realised, moreover, that, following the earlier Ionic 

 philosophers, he looked on the universe and the elements from 

 which it was constructed, as being endowed with energy and 

 life, which might be imparted to the organisms developed from 

 and in them. This view was adopted by the poet Lucretius : 

 " The earth has rightly received the name of Mother, since all 

 things are begotten of it, and many living creatures arise out of 

 it, having been generated by the mists and by the warm sun."-|- 



During the Middle Ages, the influence of Christianity secured 

 the universal acceptance of the Hebrew view of the creation of 

 life in the first place by supernatural action. But along with 



* Adam, Religioits Teachers of Greece, p. 185. 

 t Given by Macallum from : 



" Linquitur ut merito maternum nomen adepta 

 Terra sit, e terra quoniam sunt euncta creata. 

 Multaque nunc etiam exsistant animalia terris, 

 Imbribus et calido sohs concreta vapore." 



De Rerum Natura, Lib. V, pp. 793 sqq. 



Note. — I wish hereto express my great indebtedness for many valuable 

 suggestions to a paper — " The Origin of Life on the Globe " — contributed 

 to the Transactions of the Canadian InstitiUe, vol. viii, pjD. 423-441, by 

 A. B. Macallum, Sc.D., F.R.S., Professor of Biological Chemistry in the 

 University of Toronto. 



p 2 



