THE ORIGIN OF LIFE — UNDISCOVERABLE. 



39 



THE ORIGIN OF LIFE— UNDISCOVERABLE. 



By Rev. Prof. G. Henslow, M.A., V.M.H. 



[Read April 1 5, 1913 ; Mr. J. A. Alexander, F.R.H.S., in the chair.] 



As Professor Schaffer's address to the British Association in 1912 

 is nearly the latest exposition of any ideas dealing with " The Nature, 

 Origin, and Maintenance of Life," it will be desirable to begin by 

 inquiring how far he succeeded in replying to the question, " What 

 is the nature and origin of life ? " for this question has never been 

 answered ; though we know something as to how the maintenance of 

 our own lives is sustained. 



Having shown the inadequacy of all former definitions of life which 

 could completely exclude lifeless minerals, and declining to make a new 

 definition, he observed that " the dividing line between animate and 

 inanimate matter is less sharp than it has been hitherto regarded." * 



The Professor starts with the general impression " that spon- 

 taneous movement is a sign of life." A simple illustration may be seen 

 if a drop of ditch-water be placed under a covering glass, when 

 numerous very active living bodies will be observed rushing about, 

 indicating great liveliness. If now the tip of a camel's-hair brush 

 dipped in tincture of iodine be run in under the covering glass, every- 

 thing comes to instant rest, all the living and moving organisms being 

 instantaneously killed. 



He observes that many apparently spontaneous movements may be 

 seen to take place in the inorganic world. Thus, molecules of water when 

 it freezes " move into line," as when a snow-crystal is being made. 

 Small bubbles in a teacup rush to attach themselves to a large one ; 

 but in all cases there is a force acting upon the molecules, externally, 

 which causes them to do this. We call it " attraction " or gravity, 

 &c. ; but what the forces are and why they bring about the so-called 

 attractions between molecules no one knows. There is, however, a 

 sameness or constancy about them in all inorganic matter ; so that, as 

 in the contraction and expansion of iron, precise results can be safely 

 predicted. 



Many movements in living organisms can also be predicted, provided 

 the same external stimulus be applied or the same internal laws 

 of growth are obeyed ; thus, many leaves " sleep " at night, and shoots 

 circumnutate ; but the seat of all such plant movements resides in the 

 living protoplasm within the organism ; kill that and all such move- 

 ments cease. External influences are now of no avail. 



On the other hand, if a broken crystal of alum be put into a basin 

 containing a hot, saturated solution of alum, as it cools the alum is 

 crystallized out, not only completing the broken crystal till it is a 

 perfectly symmetrical cube or octahedron [i.e. two four-sided pyramids 



* The quotations are from the report of Dr. Schaffer's lecture in The Daily 

 Telegraph, September 5, 191 2. 



