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monera to explain the first origin of life upon our earthy has 
no other resource but to believe in a supernatural miracle ; 
and thisj in fact^ is the questionable standpoint still taken by 
many so-called ^ exact naturalists/ who thus renounce their 
own reason.^^ 
In keeping with this is the opinion of Professor Strauss^ 
whoj in his work^ The Old Faith and the Few, gives it as his 
opinion that bathybius was a presumable triumphant keystone 
in his argument against belief in the supernatural^ and this 
was just what he wanted. For he had once confessed that a 
miracle must have occurred at the introduction of life^ unless 
some method of filling up the chasm between the dead and 
the living forms of matter could be found. Bathybius is^ in 
the opinion of the Professor^ that other method ; it does_, in 
fact, span the chasm between the living and the not living, 
so the belief in miracle was rendered impossible. 
But does bathybius really span the chasm ? Let us see. 
Dr. Lionel Beale in his work on protoplasm quotes Dr. 
Wallich, who says, Bathybius, instead of being a widely 
extending sheet of living protoplasm, which grows at the 
expense of inorganic elements, is rather to be regarded as a 
complex mass of slime with many foreign bodies, and the 
debris of living organisms which have passed away. Nume- 
rous living forms are, however, found upon it.^"’* Nor is this 
all. In the October number of the American Journal of 
Science, 1876, in an article on the voyage of H.M. Ship 
Challenger, it is affirmed that some bathybius had been 
dredged from the bottom of the sea and submitted to chemical 
analysis. It was found to be made up of sulphate of lime, and 
when dissolved it crystallised as gypsum. Here, then, the 
boasted bridge which was to span the chasm falls to pieces. 
And y et it is upon this uncertain, this unsound basis, that the 
conclusions of the German professor rest, at least, as far as 
concerns the introduction of life on our planet. 
But it may be asked, Have not experiments been performed 
which prove that living bodies have been produced from the 
non-living ? How about the experiments of Dr. Bastian ? 
Let us examine the subject carefully. 
In the year 1870 Dr. Bastian published his account of the 
experiments which he performed. It appears that he prepared 
certain infusions of hay, turnips, &c., and placed them in 
glass tubes. He then submitted them to the action of heat, 
and while the steam was issuing from the ends of the tubes he 
sealed them so as to exclude the air. After a time the infu- 
Protoplasm, bv Br. L. Beale, p. 110. 
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