On the Origin of Life. By Lionel 8. Beale. 83 
in all of wMch, however, it is assumed that the change from the 
non-living to the living was sudden and abrupt, and not gradual. 
First, we may conceive that one form of living matter was pro- 
duced direct from the non-living, and that from this all future living 
was evolved. 
Secondly, we may prefer to imagine that more than one form of 
life originated from the non-living at or about the same time. 
Thirdly, we might think it more in accordance with facts to 
conceive that several different kinds of bioplasm originated in the 
beginning of an epoch of life, from which all life of that epoch was 
derived. New forms originating anew in the next epoch, the results 
of evolution from the first gradually dying out as those of the 
second epoch increased and became dominant. As life-epoch suc- 
ceeded epoch, new forms of bioplasm may have appeared as old 
forms of life died out. 
But the above by no means exhaust the list of what I would 
term the reasonable hypotheses concerning the origin of life that 
may at once be suggested. All of them involve in some form or 
other the admission of a remarkable change in capacity or power 
not to be accounted for by physics. In all, the communicatiqa to 
matter of powers or forces which it did not always possess, and 
which it is conceivable might never have been communicated at all, 
is suggested. 
Whether this communication of new powers occurred once only 
or was repeated at many successive periods in the remote past, — • 
whether it be reasonable to consider a recurrence of the process in the 
future as probable or improbable, I shall not now venture to discuss. 
What I particularly wish we should keep before our minds is 
that facts and arguments render it much more probable that the 
passage from the non-living to the living is sudden and alrujot^ 
than that there is a gradual transition or scarcely percejptihle grada- 
tion from one state to the other. I should, however, clearly state 
that this inference is in opposition to the views of many authorities, 
and in particular is opposed to the clearly expressed opinion of one 
of the greatest discoverers and most acute thinkers of our time, who 
maintains that the conversion of physical into vital modes of foi'ce 
is continually taking place. It is suggested that the change from 
non-living matter to living matter is a transition easily effected and 
continually occurring. Of the facts in support of so startling a 
proposition I confess I am ignorant, nor have I succeeded in my 
efforts to discover any facts in the writings of those who appear to 
have accepted the conclusion in question, which has never failed to 
enlist advocates in its support from the time when it was believed 
that highly complex living forms were produced from earth or dew, 
to the present day, when the advocates of the doctrine are so 
terribly restricted in the discovery of parentless living particles. 
