THE ORIGIN OF LIFE— UNDISCOVERABLE. 



41 



carbonate, forming 30 per cent, of nitrogenous compounds ; in ad- 

 dition are 41 per cent, of ternary compounds, such as resin, pigment, 

 sugar, fatty acids, and neutral substances. Lastly, minerals are present, 

 combined with various acids. " This illustrates," writes Dr. Campbell, 

 " the extraordinary complexity of the protoplast, and the impossibility 

 of obtaining more than an approximation of its chemical constitution."* 



Protoplasm, therefore, does not seem to be quite so simple a sub- 

 stance as Haeckel thought. McCabe, too, says, " There is no 

 reason why they [the earliest living things] may not have evolved 

 from the inorganic world." f 



The fundamental objection would seem to be in the question, 

 Whence could the necessary ingredients of protoplasm be found all 

 together in sea-water ? That is, if, as McCabe says, the first living 

 beings arose from the ocean : a proposition I would venture to dispute. 

 Secondly, even supposing all the necessary elements were all present 

 simultaneously, how will they combine in the extraordinarily high 

 proportions, as in the above cases ? He admits " a particle of plasm 

 is a thing of wonderful and undeterminable potentialities." Mineral 

 compounds never unite with their elements in high proportions ; then 

 why should protoplasm ? 



As sugar, e.g. glucose (C 6 H 12 0 6 ),may only differ from starch (C 6 H 10 O 5 ) 

 by one molecule of water (H 2 0) , and where starch is turned into sugar 

 all the phenomena of the former are replaced by those of the latter ; 

 so when the necessary elements are combined and protoplasm results, 

 then, it is argued, all the phenomena of life will be manifested. What 

 is the proof ? Neither induction nor experiment is forthcoming, 

 Conversely, as stated, a drop of the tincture of iodine instantaneously 

 dispels life in an active zoospore ; but the protoplasm remains the 

 same, as far as we know, for a time, at least ; i.e. until decomposition 

 takes place. 



A bullet through the heart does the same things with the same 

 results. How can we assert that if protoplasm were made 

 synthetically in the laboratory it would not be lifeless ? Life is 

 something superadded to the material basis and physical forces in 

 protoplasm ; for it can be removed, as we have seen, and 

 protoplasm unaltered remains. 



The question may be asked, Which came first, Life or Proto- 

 plasm ? From all practical experience we know that no new proto- 

 plasm comes into existence without life, any more than life can come 

 without pre-existing life in protoplasm. 



Yet McCabe assures us that " We have found that the world 

 of life is not separated from the inanimate world by a yawning gulf. 

 . . . We find tiny creatures whose life is hardly worth calling life. "J 

 Why not ? What has size got to do with it ? To watch the vegetable 

 and animal creatures in a drop of ditch-water one would say they are 

 as much alive as men in a football match, to judge by their motions. 



* A University Text-Book of Botany, by D. H. Campbell, Ph.D., 1902. 

 f The Origin of Life, p. 34. t Op. cit. p. 59. 



