-NRLF 
 
 313 
 
 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
 PALEONTOLOGY LIBRARY 
 
II y a eu une epoque ou notre planete ne possedait aucun germe de vie organised ; done la vie 
 organisee y a commence sans germe anterieur. Toutes les apparitions nouvelles qui ont eu lieu 
 dans le monde se sont faites, non par 1'acte incessamment renouvele d'un Etre Createur, mais par 
 la force intime deposee une fois pour toutes au sein des choses." Ernest Renan. 
 
 ' The utmost possibility for us is an interpretation of the process of things as it presents itself 
 to our limited consciousness. . . . There is no mode of establishing the validity of any belief 
 except that of showing its entire congruity with all other beliefs.' Herbert Spencer. 
 
THE 
 
 BEGINNINGS OF LIFE 
 
 BEING 
 
 SOME ACCOUNT OF THE NATURE, 
 MODES OF ORIGIN AND TRANSFORMATIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 LOWER ORGANISMS. 
 
 H. CHARLTON BASTIAN, M. A., M. D., F. R. S. 
 
 Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians ; 
 Professor of Pathological Anatomy in University College, London; 
 
 Physician to University College Hospital; 
 Assistant Physician to the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epilefiic. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 0rk 
 
 D. APPLETON AND CO. 
 
 1872. 
 
 
WTONTOLOGY LIBRARY 
 Gift of C. A. Kofoid 
 
 OXFORD: 
 
 By T. Combe, M.A., E. B. Gardner, E. Pickard Hall, and J. H. Stacy. 
 PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
Q-H- 3*5" 
 
 P RE FAC E. 
 
 RATHER more than three years ago, in the course 
 of some investigations upon the microscopical 
 characters of the blood of persons suffering from acute 
 diseases, my attention was first thoroughly given to the 
 great question of the Origin of Life. And as so 
 much depended upon the proper solution of this 
 problem not only for Science generally, but even with 
 reference to the scientific basis of Medicine I deter- 
 mined to undertake some investigations and endeavour 
 to revise the grounds of opinion upon the subject. 
 
 I did investigate, and in consequence was after a 
 time compelled to renounce my old prepossessions, 
 and adopt views concerning the origin of c living' 
 matter which are as yet only very partially accepted 
 in the world of science. The state of professional 
 opinion on these questions, moreover, was such that it 
 would have been unsuitable for me to have taught 
 new doctrines based upon facts ascertained during 
 these investigations, without having fully and publicly 
 stated the grounds upon which I had adopted them. 
 
 At much personal sacrifice, therefore, I resolved to 
 attempt to produce a statement of the facts which 
 should carry conviction to the minds of others. And 
 
 VOL. i. b 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 although at first wishing to do this in a work much 
 smaller than that which I now submit to the public, it 
 was soon found that more elaboration would be needed. 
 The scope of the subject itself, moreover, widened so 
 rapidly biological problems of such enormous import- 
 ance were opened up that I at last felt compelled to 
 pursue the investigation in a manner a little more com- 
 mensurate with the magnitude of its dependent issues. 
 
 The First Part of this work was written and printed 
 nearly three years ago. It was intended to show the 
 general reader, more especially, that the logical conse- 
 quences of the now commonly accepted doctrines con- 
 cerning the 'Conservation of Energy' and the c Cor- 
 relation of the Vital and Physical Forces/ were wholly 
 favourable to the possibility of the independent origin 
 of c living ' matter. It also contains a review of the 
 'Cellular Theory of Organization/ which was written 
 and was in type before I had had the pleasure of reading 
 Prof. Strieker's essay on c Cells.' 
 
 In the Second Part of the work, under the head 
 c Archebiosis/ the question as to the present occurrence 
 or non-occurrence of f spontaneous generation ' is fully 
 considered. And in spite of all the difficulties in 
 great part imaginary which have hitherto interfered 
 with the acceptance of a positive solution of this 
 problem, it seems to me one which is now not difficult 
 to solve. It must be considered to turn almost wholly 
 upon the possibility of the de novo origin of Bacteria ; 
 since if such a mode of origin can be proved for them, 
 it must also be conceded for other allied fungoid and 
 algoid units. Evidence which is of the most convincing 
 character when looked at from all sides, now shows 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 that Bacteria are killed by a temperature of i4OF. 
 Yet similar organisms will constantly appear and rapidly 
 multiply within closed flasks containing organic fluids, 
 although the flasks and their contents have been pre- 
 viously exposed for some time to a temperature of 
 2i2F. The latter fact has been admitted by almost 
 all experimenters including even Spallanzani and 
 Pasteur and the inference from it must be quite 
 obvious to those who accept this or any lower tem- 
 perature as the thermal limit of organic life. In experi- 
 ments yielding positive results, they would have to 
 admit that the progenitors of the new, and more or less 
 rapidly multiplying brood must have been evolved de 
 novo within the previously superheated flasks. So that, 
 even if nothing more could be said, the positive results 
 which can almost invariably be obtained in experiments 
 conducted with this temperature, should suffice, in the 
 present state of science, to show that living matter may 
 arise de novo more especially when such a conclusion is 
 also supported by the utter break-down of the opposing 
 Panspermic hypothesis. But much stronger evidence can 
 be adduced ; since numerous similarly successful results 
 have been obtained by Pasteur himself, by Pouchet, 
 Mantegazza, Wyman, Cantoni, Oehl, and others 
 although the closed flasks and their contents had been 
 subjected to the influence of still more destructive tem- 
 peratures, ranging from 212 F to rather over 300 F. 
 Several of such experiments are now recorded for the 
 first time ; and their results cannot be reasonably ex- 
 plained except on the supposition that the living things 
 obtained from the closed flasks had been developed 
 from newly-evolved living matter. 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 The probabilities in favour of this interpretation of the 
 experimental evidence become, moreover, stronger and 
 stronger in proportion as the problem is viewed by 
 the light derived from various kinds of general evi- 
 dence, which I have adduced in different parts of this 
 work. 
 
 We know that the molecules of elementary or mineral 
 substances combine to form acids and bases by virtue 
 of their own c inherent' tendencies; that these acids 
 and bases unite so as to produce salts, which, in their 
 turn, will often again combine and give rise to c double 
 salts/ And at each stage in this series of ascending 
 molecular complexities, we find the products endowed 
 with properties wholly different from those of their con- 
 stituents. Similarly, amongst the carbon compounds 
 there is abundance of evidence to prove the existence 
 of internal tendencies or molecular properties, which 
 may and do lead to the evolution of more and more 
 complex chemical compounds. And it is such synthetic 
 processes, occurring amongst the molecules of colloidal 
 and allied substances, which seem so often to engender 
 or give c origin' to a kind of matter possessing that 
 subtle combination of properties to which we are 
 accustomed to apply the epithet c living. 5 
 
 The experimental evidence which I have brought 
 forward not only goes to prove that living matter may 
 originate in this natural manner, but that, like other 
 kinds of matter, it comes into being by virtue of the 
 operation of the same laws and molecular properties 
 as suffice to regulate its c growth/ Would it not be 
 deemed absurd if we were to assume, as a necessity, 
 the existence of one set of agencies in order to bring 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 about the origination of crystalline matter, and of 
 another set for inducing and regulating the growth of 
 crystals ? And may it not also be deemed just as absurd 
 and unnecessary that any such demands should be made 
 in reference to the origin of living matter and the 
 growth of organisms? 
 
 Both crystalline and living aggregates appear to be 
 constantly separating de novo from different fluids, and 
 both kinds of matter now seem to be naturally formable 
 from their elements. It so happens, however, that one of 
 the fundamental properties of living matter that is to 
 say, its power of undergoing spontaneous division 
 is constantly entailing results which, owing to their 
 being of a more obvious nature, have long and unduly 
 monopolized the attention of biologists and of the 
 world in general. And yet the existence in living 
 matter of this power of spontaneous division, by which 
 processes of c reproduction ' are brought about, is rendered 
 somewhat less exceptional and mysterious when we 
 consider that a fragment of crystalline matter artificially 
 severed from the parent mass will, under suitable con- 
 ditions, grow into a crystal similar to the original form. 
 The reproduction of similar matter takes place in each 
 case ; and surely the mere fact that the initial repro- 
 ductive separation may occur c spontaneously ' in the 
 case of living matter, is no argument against the pro- 
 bability that such matter may, like crystalline matter, 
 also come into being by an independent elemental 
 mode of origin. 
 
 Our experimental evidence, therefore, merely goes to 
 prove that such an elemental origin of living matter 
 is continually taking place at the present day, that 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 it still comes into being, in fact, by the operation of 
 the same laws, and in the same manner as the majority 
 of scientific men and a large section of the educated 
 public believe that it must have originated in the early 
 days of the earth's history when c living' compounds 
 first began to appear upon the cooling surface of our 
 planet. And if such synthetic processes took place then, 
 why should they not take place now ? Why should the 
 inherent molecular properties of various kinds of matter 
 have undergone so much alteration ? Why should these 
 particular processes of synthesis now be impossible, 
 although other processes of a similar nature still 
 go on? 
 
 Whilst no attempt has ever been made to justify 
 or explain such a supposed arbitrary curtailment of 
 natural laws, it happens most fortunately that the 
 ascending series of molecular combinations, to which 
 we have already referred, does not end with the birth 
 of c living ' matter. Steps which were previously beyond 
 the reach of our senses, become, in some newly-dis- 
 covered terms of the series, capable of ocular demon- 
 stration. Whilst invisible colloidal molecules are sup- 
 posed to combine and undergo re-arrangements in order 
 to produce specks of new-born living matter, such 
 specks of living matter may be actually seen to com- 
 bine, fuse, and undergo molecular re-arrangements so 
 as to lead to the origin of Fungus-germs, of Amoebse, 
 of Monads, or of Ciliated Infusoria ; and, in the same 
 manner, larger and still more complex living units of 
 an algoid nature may actually be seen to fuse and 
 become altered externally, whilst they undergo those 
 obscure and mysterious molecular re-arrangements 
 
PREFACE. xi 
 
 whereby they are converted into the embryos of 
 large and complex Rotifers. 
 
 Visible phenomena of Synthetic Heterogenesis thus 
 serve, as it were, to demonstrate the mode in which, 
 by invisible processes, the simplest living units may 
 arise. So that after watching all the steps of the more 
 complex phenomena, we may find it less difficult than 
 we should otherwise have done to believe in the occur- 
 rence of the simpler process of Archebiosis more espe- 
 cially when its occurrence is attested by facts and 
 probabilities of the highest independent value. 
 
 Again, we know that simple mineral substances may 
 exist in different allotropic conditions, just as numeri- 
 cally-similar combinations of different elements may 
 exist in two or more isomeric states. But, if mere 
 differences in molecular arrangement may cause sulphur 
 or arsenic, on different occasions, to present wholly 
 different appearances and properties; or if a similar 
 alteration in molecular arrangement may lead such salts 
 as mercuric iodide to pass easily from one to another 
 mode of crystallization, it should not be very difficult 
 for us to believe that living matter might also, with 
 comparative ease, undergo somewhat analogous mole- 
 cular rearrangements, and that such changes might 
 also entail some modifications in the form and other 
 attributes of the living aggregate. And now, as matter 
 of fact, we have to state that the occurrence of Hetero- 
 genetic Transformations amongst lower living things 
 and in portions of higher living things have been 
 almost as well attested as the occurrence of allotropic 
 and isomeric modifications amongst different kinds of 
 not-living matter. 
 
xii PREFACE. 
 
 Unmistakeable processes of Heterogenesis have been 
 watched over and over again by some of the best ob- 
 servers, amongst whom may be named Turpin, Kiitzing, 
 Reissek, Hartig, Gros, Pringsheim, Pineau, Carter, 
 Nicolet, Pouchet, Schaaffhausen, Braxton Hicks, and 
 Trecul. And yet the careful investigations of these 
 well-known naturalists have, upon this particular sub- 
 ject, been either wholly disregarded or publicly repudiated 
 by some leading biologists who not having worked 
 over the same ground themselves rashly trust to 
 their own theoretical convictions, rather than to the 
 positive observations of so many workers. How un- 
 warrantable this conduct has been, almost any compe- 
 tent person however sceptical may learn for himself, 
 if he will but devote two or three months to the careful 
 study of the changes which are apt to take place in the 
 substance of many of the fresh-water Algae, or in those 
 beautiful green animalized organisms known by the 
 name of Euglenae, some of whose marvellous trans- 
 formations were faithfully described more than twenty 
 years ago in the highly valuble but much neglected 
 memoir of Dr. Gros. 
 
 The time is doubtless not far distant when it will be 
 a source of much wonder that those who had already 
 heartily adopted the Evolution philosophy could even 
 in the face of facts long ago known stop short of a 
 belief in the present and continual occurrence of Arche- 
 biosis and Heterogenesis. Do not the very simplest 
 forms of life abound at the present day ? And, would 
 the Evolutionist really have us believe that such forms 
 are direct continuations of an equally structureless matter 
 
PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 which has existed for millions and millions of years 
 without having undergone any differentiation ? Would 
 he have us believe that the simplest and most struc- 
 tureless Amoeba of the present day can boast of a line 
 of ancestors stretching back to such far-remote periods 
 that in comparison with them the primseval men were 
 but as things of yesterday? The notion surely is 
 preposterously absurd; or, if true, the fact would be 
 sufficient to overthrow the very first principles of their 
 own Evolution philosophy. Again, may we not see at 
 the present day all those minute shades of difference 
 by which the primordial fissiparous act of reproduction 
 gives place to the more and more specialized forms 
 of bisexual reproduction? Even this could scarcely 
 occur unless the excessively changeable forms of life 
 which supply us with these various transitions were 
 continually seething into existence afresh. Instead of 
 having to do with a pretty accurate picture of the 
 original process of evolution, each sectional mosaic of 
 which has been faithfully transmitted for millions of 
 years with little or no variation, we probably stand face 
 to face with processes that have been independently 
 repeated billions and billions of times and repeated 
 in a more or less similar manner, simply because the 
 processes themselves have always been the results of 
 the conjoint action of the same external forces in 
 conflict with similar material properties or tendencies. 
 Like causes should produce like results: so that the 
 primordial living units of to-day should undergo changes 
 which are, in the main, similar to those passed through 
 by the units of living matter which first came into 
 being upon the surface of our globe. 
 
xiv PREFACE. 
 
 Again, we find that the comparatively low forms of 
 life in which all these developmental transitions are 
 embodied, instead of being almost unchangeable as 
 they ought to be if there were any truth in the con- 
 tradictory doctrines to which we have already referred 
 are variable in the highest degree. They pass through 
 the most diverse and astounding transformations, and, 
 as we have endeavoured to show in the Third Part of 
 this work, such organisms are often seen to be derived 
 from matrices wholly unlike themselves. 
 
 In fact, these lower forms of life corresponding 
 pretty closely with the Protista of Prof. Haeckel form 
 an enormous and ever-growing plexus of vegetal and 
 animal organisms, amongst which transitions from the 
 one to the other mode of growth take place with the 
 greatest ease and frequency. Here Heterogenesis is 
 constantly encountered, and variability reigns supreme, 
 so that those assemblages of definitely recurring indi- 
 viduals, answering to what we call c species/ are not 
 to be found amongst them. They are essentially tran- 
 sitory and variable forms, which I have proposed to 
 name c Ephemeromorphs/ Regularly recurring or homo- 
 genetically produced types, both animal and vegetal, 
 are, however, constantly arising out of this great ephe- 
 meromorphic plexus, either by direct and sudden pro- 
 cesses of transformation or by some intermediate and 
 cyclical processes of so-called ' alternate generation.' 
 
 And until such assemblages of repeating individuals 
 make their appearance that is, until Homogenesis 
 becomes the rule the c laws of heredity' can scarcely 
 be said to come into operation. Hence the complexly- 
 interrelated individuals, constituting this vast under- 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 lying plexus of Infusorial and Cryptogamic life, must 
 remain wholly uninfluenced, so far as their form and 
 structure is concerned, by what Mr. Darwin has 
 termed c Natural Selection.' Such vegetal and animal 
 organisms, however, gradually tend to become more and 
 more complex. An ascending development takes place, 
 and as this occurs, the causes which originally sufficed 
 to determine their form and structure, and which for a 
 time continue to induce deviations, become less and 
 less capable of bringing about structural modifications 
 during the life of the individual. Changes have now 
 to be perfected in a succession of individuals; and 
 thus is the operation initiated of those subtle and 
 more slowly modifying agencies which have been so 
 admirably illustrated by Mr. Darwin. 
 
 Throughout this work, whilst I have been anxious 
 to consider the various aspects of the subject with as 
 much thoroughness as was necessary in order to be able 
 fairly to attempt to establish the truth of the principal 
 doctrines now advanced, I have also tried to simplify 
 the problems as much as possible. A limitation was, 
 moreover, necessitated by the pressing nature of those 
 more strictly professional duties, on account of which 
 I was first induced to enter upon these investigations, 
 and in the midst of which the work has been carried 
 on. A rich harvest, therefore, remains for many other 
 workers who may wish to develop the subject in all its 
 collateral bearings. 
 
 These volumes being, in great part, the record of a 
 series of current investigations each section of which 
 was written whilst the next division of the subject was 
 
xvi PREFACE. 
 
 being investigated some forbearance may, perhaps, not 
 unfairly be claimed for certain literary defects and in- 
 consistencies, which were to some extent unavoidable. 
 For although this order was definitely planned, yet it 
 has happened that more than three-fourths of the work 
 was actually printed before the new investigations de- 
 tailed in the latter part were made and certainly at a 
 time when I had scarcely hoped ever to witness such 
 transformations as I have since been able to follow. 
 
 I am deeply impressed with the conviction that we 
 are but upon the threshold of our acquaintance with 
 these marvellous heterogenetic transformations, the 
 discovery of which already affords material for revolu- 
 tionizing the old foundations of botanical and zoological 
 science. But the path now opened must be followed 
 up by other workers by faithful and competent ob- 
 servers who are willing zealously to watch and wait 
 through eager hours whilst Nature unfolds her secret 
 processes by those true students who, instead of being 
 blinded by any existing theories, are content to regard 
 them as useful and modifiable aids to further progress. 
 
 QUEEN ANNE STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE, 
 May 22, 1872. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Index .. .. .. .. .. .. .. page xx i 
 
 PART I. 
 
 The Nature and Source of the Vital Forces, and of 
 Organizable Matter. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Pages 
 
 The Persistence of Force : Correlation of the Vital and 
 
 Physical Forces 1-49 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The 'Vital Principle': Nature of Life .. .. .. 5O~79 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Nature of Organizable Materials and of lowest Living Things 80-128 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Relations of Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral Kingdoms : 
 
 Theories of Organization .. .. .. .. 129-168 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Modes of Origin of Reproductive Units and of Cells .. 169-239 
 
xviii CONTENTS. 
 
 PART II. 
 Archebiosis. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Pages 
 
 Meanings attached to term 'Spontaneous Generation' .. 243-264 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Mode of Origin of Primordial Living Things: Nature of 
 
 Problem 265-395 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 The Limits of ' Vital Resistance ' to Heat . . - . . . . 306-343 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Experimental Proof: Untenability of Pasteur's Con- 
 clusions ... .. 344-399 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Physical and Vital Theories of Fermentation .. .. 400-427 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Additional Proofs of the Occurrence of Archebiosis .. 428-475 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Fig. Page 
 
 1. Animals found in tufts of Moss and Lichen .. .. 106 
 
 2. Hydra viridis on Duckweed (Roesel) .. .. 112 
 
 3. Representatives of Monera (Haeckel) .. .. .. 119 
 
 4. Animal Cells (Kolliker) M5 
 
 5. Unicellular Organisms 152 
 
 6. Formation of Spore in Vaucheria (Hassall) .. .. 174 
 
 7. Development of Zoospores in Achlya (linger) .. .. 180 
 
 8. Development of Spores in Ascomycetous Fungi (Corda) 183 
 
 9. Development of 'Cells' in internodes of Chara (Carter) 187 
 
 10. Reproduction of Protomyxa (Haeckel) 194 
 
 11. Development of Reproductive Units in Amoeba (Nicolet) 198 
 
 12. Early Forms of Ova in Ascaris mystax (A. Thomson) .. 201 
 
 13. Graafian Follicles of a Mammal (Coste) 203 
 
 14. Portions of the Ovary of the Thrush (A. Thomson) .. 205 
 
 15. Segmentation of the Yolk after Fecundation (Kolliker) .. 209 
 
 16. Development of white blood-corpuscles 226 
 
 17. Some of the Primordial Forms of Life: Bacteria, Torulse, 
 
 &c 272 
 
 1 8. Other Early Forms of Life from Organic Infusions .. 274 
 
 19. Oscillatorise and other Simple Fresh-water Algse (Hassall) 276 
 
 20. The ' Micrococci ' and ' Cryptococci ' of Hallier . . . . 284 
 
 21. Sarcina from Saline Solutions .. .. .. 287 
 
 22. Different Developmental Stages of 'Spores' (?) found in an 
 
 Ammonic Carbonate Solution 290 
 
 23. Organisms found in Infusions of Hay with Carbolic Acid 356 
 
XX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Fig. Page 
 
 24. Bacteria, Vibriones, and Leptothrix Filaments found in an 
 
 Infusion of Turnip .. .. .. .. .. .. 358 
 
 25. Organisms found in a Simple Solution of Ferric and 
 
 Ammonic Citrate . . . . . . . . . . . . 364 
 
 26. Organisms found in a Solution of Ferric and Ammonic 
 
 Citrate, with minute fragments of wood . . . . . . 365 
 
 27. Fungus from a Solution of Potash and Ammonia Alum 
 
 with Tartar-emetic .. .. .. .. .. .. 367 
 
 28. Torulse from a Solution of Ammonic Tartrate and Sodic 
 
 Phosphate .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 369 
 
 29. Fungus from a Solution of Ammonic Tartrate and Sodic 
 
 Phosphate .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 371 
 
 30. Organisms from a Neutralized Infusion of Turnip .. 442 
 
 31. Protamcebse, Monads, Torulse, &c., from an Infusion of 
 
 Common Cress .. .. .. .. .. .. 444 
 
 32. Torulse from a Neutralized Infusion of Turnip .. .. 447 
 
 33. Pediastreae from a Solution containing Iron and Ammonic 
 
 Citrate, &c 448 
 
 34. Green and Colourless Organisms from a Solution of Iron 
 
 and Ammonic Citrate .. .. .. .. .. 450 
 
 35. Greenish, Desmid-like Organisms found in a Fluorescent 
 
 Solution of Iron and Ammonic Citrate .. .. .. 453 
 
 36. Spore-like bodies from a Solution of Ammonic Carbonate 
 
 and Sodic Phosphate .. .. .. .. .. 462 
 
 37. Bacteria and Spore-like bodies found in a Solution of 
 
 Ammonic Carbonate and Sodic Phosphate .. .. 463 
 
 38. Fungus found in a Solution of Ammonic Tartrate and 
 
 Sodic Phosphate .. .. .. .. .. .. 466 
 
INDEX. 
 
 {Pages of the Appendix are referred to by Roman Numerals.) 
 
 ACHLYA, production of zoospores in, 
 i. 179. 
 
 Acinetee, developmental relation- 
 ships of, xciv. 
 
 Actinophrys, mode of origin of, ii. 
 381 ; transformation of Euglenee 
 into, ii. 45 6 ; conversion of, into 
 Ciliated Infusoria, ii. 485 ; sub- 
 sequent development of, ii. 505 ; 
 resolution of Rotifers into, ii. 523; 
 transformation of, into Tardi- 
 grades, ii. 524; into Nematoids, 
 ii. 525. 
 
 Agardh, on zoospores in Conferva, 
 i. 171. 
 
 Agassiz, on relation of Ciliata to 
 Planaria, cvii. 
 
 Air, germs in, ii. 6, 7, 264-288. 
 
 Algae, transitions between Fungi 
 and, ii. 159; relations of, to Pe- 
 diastreae and Desmids, ii. 160; 
 spores of, ii. 376; interchange- 
 ability of Lichens and, ii. 452; 
 lower, relations of, to Lichens, 
 liii-lviii ; variability of, lix-lxii ; 
 relations of, to Mosses, Ixiii-lxvi ; 
 to Fungi, Ixxvi. 
 
 Algoid corpuscles, resolution of 
 Euglense into, ii. 4+2 ; transform- 
 ation of, ii. 443 ; origin of Rotifers 
 from, ii. 510. 
 
 Alternate Generation, ii. 564 ; rela- 
 tions of, to other processes, ii. 
 566 ; nature and mode of origin 
 of, ii. 570. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 Ammonic Tartrate, preparation of, 
 xvi ; crystals of, containing germs, 
 xvi; examination of crystals of, 
 xvii ; spores in crystals of, xviii. 
 
 Amoebae, germ-formation in, i, 197 ; 
 digestion in, ii. 132; interchange- 
 ability of Monads and, ii. 218; 
 encystment of, ii. 22 r; resolu- 
 tion of, into Bacteria, ii. 222; 
 production of, in Moss-radicles, 
 ii. 376; modes of origin of, ii. 
 381, 388 ; origin of, in Vaucheria, 
 ii. 395 ; in Nitella, ii. 404 ; from 
 Chlorophyll corpuscles, ii. 408 ; 
 transformation of Euglense into, 
 ii. 456 ; formation of, in Pro- 
 tonema, Ixx ; relations of, to 
 Fungi, Ixxix ; to other Infusoria, 
 xc ; relations of, to Actiuophrys, 
 xcv. 
 
 Amylobacter, origin of, ii. 318; 
 conversion of crystalline mass 
 into, ii. 322. 
 
 Animal heat, origin of, i. 24 ; in- 
 creased by muscular activity, i. 
 29 ; increase of, during nerve- 
 activity, i. 40. 
 
 Animals, functions of, related to 
 those of plants, i. 129; forms of, 
 interchangeable with those of ve- 
 getals, ii. 431, 434. 
 
 Antiseptic system of treatment in 
 disease, cxxv. 
 
 Arcellinse, 486 ; transformation of, 
 into Ciliated Infusoria, ii. 487. 
 
XX11 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Archebiosis, meaning of, i. 232, 244; 
 views of vitalists antagonistic to, 
 i. 248 ; theory of, ii. 108 ; experi- 
 ments bearing upon, i. 355-372, 
 434-468, xxx-lii ; relation of, to 
 other processes, (Table) ii. 545, 546. 
 
 Arlidge, Dr., on Phytozoa, Ixxxi. 
 
 Ascarides, development of ova of, 
 i. 200. 
 
 Astasise, modes of origin of, ii. 390, 
 392, 420; heterogenetic changes 
 in, ii. 434 ; relations of, to Proto- 
 coccus. Ixxxiii ; Dr. Gros on trans- 
 formations of, Ixxxv. 
 
 Bacon, Lord, on Heat, i. 6. 
 
 Bacteria, views concerning modes 
 of origin of, i. 268 ; microscopical 
 examination of, i. 294 ; origin of, 
 compared with that of crystals, i. 
 -298 ; vital resistance of, to heat, 
 i. 317; living in air, ii. 2, 6, 7 ; 
 desiccation of, ii. 3-5 ; different 
 views concerning, ii. 134; varia- 
 tions in development of, ii. 137- 
 140; relations of, to Torulse, ii. 
 140-146 ; in pellicle, ii. 207 ; pro- 
 duction of, from Amoebse, ii. 2 2 2 ; 
 from embryonal spheres, ii. 401 ; 
 from Euglense, ii. 442 ; develop- 
 mental tendencies of, xxii. 
 
 Bacteridia, i. 275. 
 
 Baer, Von, on development in plants 
 and animals, ii. 125. 
 
 Barry, De, on Myxogasteres, Ixxix; 
 on development of zoospores in 
 Cystopus, Ixxx. 
 
 Bathybius, i. 122. 
 
 Beale, Dr. Lionel, views concerning 
 living units, i. 153-158 ; on germs 
 within cells and tissues, ii. 342 ; 
 Panspermic theory of, ii. 358. 
 
 Bechamp, M., Bacteria in cells, ii. 
 342- 
 
 Beclard, M., on development of heat 
 during muscular activity, i. 29. 
 
 Bennett, Prof. Hughes, on cellular 
 theory of organization, i. 160, 
 ii. 344 ; cellular crystals, ii. 59. 
 
 Berkeley, Rev. M. J., on nature of 
 Fungi, ii. 153; on Botrytis in- 
 festans, ii. 341 ; development of 
 mushrooms, ii. 433 ; relations of 
 Fungi to Algse and Lichens, Ixxvi ; 
 variability of Fungi, Ixxvii ; rela- 
 tions of animal and vegetable life, 
 Ixxx. - 
 
 Biocsenosis, nature of, i. 234, (Table) 
 ii. 545, 546. 
 
 Biocrasis, ii. 193; nature of, i. 233 ; 
 heterogenetic, ii. 62, (Table) ii. 
 
 545. 546. 
 Biodioeresis, nature of, i. 233, (Table) 
 
 ii. 545, 546. 
 Bioparadosis, nature of, i. 234, 
 
 (Table) ii. 545, 546- 
 Birds, their specialized organization, 
 
 ii. 627. 
 
 Black-death, cxxix. 
 Blood, constituents of, as sources 
 
 of energy, i. 48 ; heterogenetic 
 
 changes in, ii. 332 ; (Sang de rate) 
 
 nature of, ii. 362 ; diseases of, cxii, 
 
 cxvii. 
 Bonnet, Charles, on Panspermi<=m, 
 
 i. 259; theories concerning germs, 
 
 ii. 266. 
 Boussingault, M., on vital forces, i. 
 
 21 ; source of nourishment in 
 
 plants, i. 135. 
 Braun, Alexander, on formation of 
 
 seed in Phanerogamia, i. 190 ; the 
 
 cell, i. 216 ; formation of seed-cell 
 
 in QEdogonium, i. 177. 
 Brebisson, M. de, on origin of Mosses 
 
 from Conferoe, ii. 454. 
 Brongniart, M. Ad., on succession of 
 
 life on the earth, i. 137-141. 
 Brownian-movement, i. 318. 
 Buffon, theory of life, ii. 1 74. 
 Burdach, on Heterogeny, i. 246, 261. 
 
 Calculi, artificial formation of, ii. 
 60-65. 
 
 Cancer, non-specific nature of, cxiii, 
 cxvii ; germs of, cxiii ; spread of, 
 cxv; comparable with spread of 
 epidemic diseases, cxviii. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 xxin 
 
 Cantoni, Professor, experiments of, 
 with superheated flasks, i. 436 ; 
 with bent-neck flasks, ii. 9. 
 
 Carpenter, Dr., on correlation of 
 forces, i. 18, 21 ; continuity of 
 types of Foraminifera, ii. 104; 
 views of, concerning individual- 
 ity, ii. 553 ; on Foraminifera, ii. 
 6 1 1 ; epidemic diseases, cliii. 
 
 Carter, Mr. H. J., on development 
 of gonidial-cell in Characese, 1.187; 
 heterogenetic changes in gonidial- 
 cell, ii. 378 ; transformations in 
 Spirogyra, ii. 387 ; mode of origin 
 of Otostoma, 11.479; transform- 
 ations of Ciliated Infusoria, ii. 
 497 ; relations of Amoebae to 
 Astasise, Ixxxix. 
 
 Cells, formation and nature of, i. 
 144-158; formation of gonidial- 
 cell in Characese, i. 187; inde- 
 pendent origin of, in Phaneroga- 
 mia, i. 190 ; as products of deve- 
 lopment, i. 216; origin of, in 
 Blastemata, i. 220-231 ; another 
 mode of origin of, i. 231 ; hete- 
 rogenetic changes in, ii. 338- 
 
 345- 
 
 Cellular theory, discussion of, i. 143- 
 168. 
 
 Chara, M. Nicolet on transforma- 
 tions in filaments of, ii. 474; 
 origin of Ciliated Infusoria from 
 protoplasm of, ii. 478. 
 
 Characese, on development of goni- 
 dial-cell in, i. 187. (See Nitella.'} 
 
 Child, Dr., on original evolution of 
 organic life, i. 92 ; experiments 
 on fermentation, 1.416. 
 
 Chlorococcus vesicles, transforma- 
 tion of, into Oxytricha and Plce- 
 sconia, ii. 467 ; aggregations of, 
 into ' winter-egg ' of Hydatina, 
 ii. 514; relation of, to Lichens, 
 liii; developmental changes of, 
 liv ; production of, from Proto- 
 nema, Ixviii; relation of, to Gleo- 
 capsa. Ixix. 
 
 Chlorophyll, influence of, in meta- 
 morphic changes, ii. 425. 
 
 Chlorophyll-corpuscles, of Nitella, 
 transformations of, ii. 407 ; of 
 Euglenae into Enchelys, ii. 410; 
 of Moss-radicles into Monads, ii. 
 41 1 ; of Vaucheria and Nitella 
 into Desmids, ii. 418. 
 
 Cholera, Dr. Aitken on, cxxix, 
 cxxxviii. 
 
 Cienkowski, views concerning Aci- 
 netse and Vorticellre, xciv-xcvi. 
 
 Ciliated Infusoria, mode of origin 
 of, ii. 238, 288; reproduction of, 
 ii. 290-297 ; relation of, to the 
 pellicle, ii. 299; other influences 
 affecting, ii. 302 ; digestion in, ii. 
 132 ; direct transformation of 
 Euglense into, ii. 450 ; production 
 of, from Monads and Amcebse, ii. 
 472 ; origin of, from protoplasm 
 of Chara, ii. 478 ; from animal 
 matrices, ii. 483 ; from eggs of 
 Gasteropods and Rotifers, ii. 488; 
 convertibility of forms of, ii. 492 ; 
 ascending transformations of, ii. 
 500 ; encystment of, ii. 500 ; va- 
 riations in habitat of, ii. 535 ; 
 varied modes of reproduction of, 
 xcvii-cv; successive forms of, in 
 infusions, cvi ; relations of, to 
 Planaria, cvii. 
 
 Closterium, production of, from 
 Euglenae, ii. 446. 
 
 Cobbold, Dr., on Psorosperms, ii. 
 
 353- 
 
 Cohn, Professor, on Bacteria, i. 270; 
 on constitution of Pellicle, i. 278 ; 
 on origin of Empusa. ii. 330 ; ex- 
 periments with Stephanosphsera, 
 Ixxxi ; observations on transform- 
 ations of Protococcus, Ixxxii ; suc- 
 cession of Ciliata in Infusions, 
 cvi. 
 
 Colloidal matter, bodies emerging 
 from solutions of, ii. 65. 
 
 Colloids, Professor Graham on dis- 
 tinction between crystalloids and, 
 i. 88 ; properties of, i. 89 ; insta- 
 bility of, i. #6 ; interchangeability 
 of crystalloids and, ii. 38 ; nature 
 of, ii. 52. 
 
 C 2 
 
XXIV 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Comparative Experiments, bearing 
 upon occurrence of Archebiosis, 
 xxx-lii. 
 
 Conclusions, ii. 633-640. 
 
 Confervse, origin of Mosses from, ii. 
 452- 
 
 Consciousness, i. 42 ; not co-exten- 
 sive with Mind, i. 43 ; changes in 
 sphere of, i. 44 ; degree of corre- 
 lation with nerve-action, i. 45 ; 
 quantitative value of, i. 46. 
 
 Contagion, theory of, ii. 360 ; mode 
 in which brought about, cxviii ; 
 early views concerning, cxix. 
 
 Contagious element, action of, in 
 parasitic diseases, ii. 361-365. 
 
 Contagiousness, degrees of, cxiv, 
 cxxxv; explanation of, cxlviii. 
 
 Contractility of muscle, i. 26 ; de- 
 pendent on blood-supply, i. 28. 
 
 Corda, on Peziza, i. 184. 
 
 Crystalline matter, causes of differ- 
 ences in form of, ii. 87 ; cellular 
 forms of, ii. 59. 
 
 Crystalloids, distinction between 
 colloids and, i. 88 ; interchange- 
 ability of states of colloids and, 
 ii. 38. 
 
 Crystals, origin of, compared with 
 that of lowest organisms, i. 298, 
 ii. 71-85 ; Mr. Rainey on form- 
 ation of modifications of, i. 302 ; 
 formation of, under different con- 
 ditions, ii. 55-65 ; size of, de- 
 pends upon rate of collocation, ii. 
 69 ; influence of conditions on 
 forms of, ii. 87, 113; development 
 of, ii. 114. 
 
 Darwin, Dr. Erasmus, views on Or- 
 ganization, ii. 538. 
 
 Darwin, Mr., on Natural Selection, 
 ii- 57 2 > 576; influence of new 
 conditions upon species, ii. 580, 
 591 ; not a believer in Progressive 
 Development, ii. 590 ; converti- 
 bility of peach and nectarine, 
 ii. 596, 598 ; Correlated Varia- 
 bility, ii. 601 ; Pangenesis, ii. 603 ; 
 
 affiliation of existing organisms, 
 ii. 606 ; variability of lower or- 
 ganisms, ii. 607 ; stability of spe- 
 cies through long periods, ii. 609. 
 
 Davaine, M., on Bacteridia, i. 275 ; 
 observations on Sang de rate, ii. 
 362. 
 
 Davy, Sir Humphrey, on Heat, i. 8. 
 
 Decolonization, process of, in deve- 
 lopment of Nematoids and Roti- 
 fers, ii. 532. 
 
 Desmids, modes of origin of, ii. 41 2, 
 416, 418, 443, 446, 451 ; mode of 
 reproduction of, ii. 420 ; converti- 
 bility of, into Diatoms or Algae, ii. 
 
 455- 
 
 Diatoms, origin of, ii. 412, 416, 418, 
 441, 444, 453 ; mode of reproduc- 
 tion of, ii. 420 ; terminal forms of 
 a divergent series, ii. 455. 
 
 Diseases of skin, parasitic, ii. 346; 
 blood-changes in, ii. 361 ; nature 
 of, cxi ; causes of, cxi ; of general 
 nature, ii. 360, cxii; of special 
 nature, cxiii. Epidemic, mor- 
 tality from, cix; importance of, 
 ex ; problems as to origin of, 
 ex, cxlv, cli-clv ; nature of, cxvii, 
 cxlix; relations of, to Cancer and 
 Tubercle, cxvii ; spread of, cxviii ; 
 doctrines concerning, influenced 
 by views on Fermentation, ex, 
 cxx, cxlix ; predisposing causes of, 
 cliii ; independent origin of, cliii ; 
 contagious, how related to non- 
 contagious, cxxx ; classification of, 
 cxlvi ; how differing from general 
 parasitic diseases, cxlvii. 
 
 Distomata, direct development of 
 some, explained, ii. 571. 
 
 Dumas, M., functions of animals 
 and plants compared, i. 130, 
 142. 
 
 Dysentery, cxxxviii. 
 
 Ehrenberg, on multiplication of In- 
 fusoria, i. 262. 
 
 Embryonal areas of pellicle, nature 
 and developmental transforma- 
 
/ N D E X. 
 
 XXV 
 
 tions of, ii. 198-254 ; spheres, 
 changes in, ii. 40 r. 
 
 Empusa, nature of, ii. 330. 
 
 Entozoa, ii. 309. 
 
 Ephemeromorphs, nature of, ii. 559 ; 
 relation of, to crystals, ii. 571; 
 not influenced by Natural Selec- 
 tion, ii. 572; causes which regu- 
 late their structure, ii. 600 ; have 
 no long line of ancestors, ii. 606 ; 
 Foraminifera to be included 
 amongst, ii. 613. 
 
 Epochs, Geological, forms of life in, 
 ii. 621. 
 
 Erysipelas, cxxxiv. 
 
 Estor, M., Bacteria in cells of ani- 
 mals, ii. 342. 
 
 Euglenae, modes of origin of, ii. 421 ; 
 heterogenetic transformations of, 
 ii. 434 ; into fungus-germs, ii. 436 ; 
 into Monads, ii. 440 ; into Dia- 
 toms, ii. 441 ; into Algoid cor- 
 puscles, ii. 442 ; external vesicu- 
 lation of, ii. 436, 440 ; minor mo- 
 difications of, ii. 443 ; transforma- 
 tion of, into Diatoms, ii. 444; 
 into Desmids and Pediastrese, ii. 
 446 ; into Vaucheria filament, ii. 
 449 ; into Actinophrys and Amoe- 
 bae, ii. 456; direct transformation 
 of, into Ciliated Infusoria, ii. 459 ; 
 into Oxytricha and Trichoda, ii. 
 462 ; into Vorticella, ii. 464, 504 ; 
 into Amoebae and Actinophrys, ii. 
 505; into Rotifers, ii. 506, 518, 
 525; into Tardigrades and Nema- 
 toids, ii. 525 ; into Nematoids, ii. 
 527; relations of, to Protococcus 
 and Oscillatorise, Ixxxiii ; on trans- 
 formations of, Ixxxv. 
 
 Evolution, hypothesis of, i. 92 ; arti- 
 ficial, i. 92; of complex chemical 
 compounds, ii. 24 ; simple, ii. 1 21 ; 
 compound, ii. 122. 
 
 Faraday, on indestructibility of force, 
 
 1.15. 
 Fermentation, cause of, related to 
 
 origin of life, i. 400; Liebig's 
 
 physical theory of, i. 403; vital 
 theory of, held by Pasteur and 
 others, i. 404 ; presence of oxygen 
 not essential for initiation of, i. 
 416; conclusions on subject of, 
 i. 420 ; three principal modes of, 
 1.423; analogy of, to vital pro- 
 cesses, 1.425, ii. 186; occurrence 
 of, in bent-neck flasks, ii. 12; 
 two degrees of, ii. 14; theories 
 of, in their bearing upon Conta- 
 gious Diseases, cxlix. 
 
 Fevers, Intermittent and Remittent, 
 cxxxv ; Yellow, cxxxvii ; Typhoid 
 and Relapsing, cxl; Typhus, cxl, 
 cxlii, cliv;. Scarlet, cxliii, cliv. 
 
 Flagellum of Monads, development 
 of, ii. 212. 
 
 Fluidity, state of, ii. 42. 
 
 Food, relation of, to vital forces, ii. 
 1 83 ; putrid articles of, cxxiv. 
 
 Foraminifera, ancient descent of, ii. 
 104; nature of, ii. 611 ; types of, 
 explanation of apparent persistence 
 of, ii. 613. 
 
 Force, inseparability of matter and, 
 i. 5 ; indestructibility of, i. 14 ; 
 origin and distribution of, in 
 living bodies, ii. 18.3. 
 
 Fox, Dr. Tilbury, on Parasitic skin- 
 diseases, ii. 347. 
 
 Fox, Dr. Wilson, experiments on 
 inoculability of Tubercle, cxiv. 
 
 Frankland, Prof., on vital and phy- 
 sical forces, i. 22, 54; mode of 
 preparation of experimental flasks, 
 ii. 438. 
 
 Fungi, relation of, to Bacteria, ii. 
 1 34 ; to Amcebse and Monads, ii. 
 157; to Algae and Lichens, ii. 
 159; mode of origin of micro- 
 scopic, ii. 338 ; presence of, in 
 closed cavities, ii. 349 ; influence 
 of conditions on development of, 
 ii. in; exogenous origin of, from 
 Euglenoe, ii. 436 ; in solutions 
 containing silicates, xi-xiii ; rela- 
 tions of, to Algae and Lichens, 
 Ixxvi; to Amoebae, Ixxix; varia- 
 bility of, Ixxvii. 
 
XXVI 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Fungus-germs, mode of origin of, 
 i. 183, ii. 203 ; development of, in 
 Ammonic-carbonate solution, i. 
 288 ; vital resistance of, to heat, 
 i. 315 ; origin of, in pellicle, from 
 segmentation of Amoebae, ii. 226; 
 origin of, from embryonal areas, 
 ii. 233; in blood, ii. 331; from 
 milk-globules, ii. 310; from em- 
 bryonal spheres, ii. 401 ; resolu- 
 tion of Euglenae into, ii. 436; in- 
 dependent origin of, within closed 
 flasks (see Arcbebiosis, experiments 
 relating to). 
 
 Gavarret, M., on source of energy 
 in animals, i. 23, 48 ; mode of 
 action of muscle, i. 30. 
 
 Gay-Lussac, views of, concerning 
 fermentation, i. 416. 
 
 Gemmae, ii. 520. 
 
 Gerhard t, on fermentation, i. 416. 
 
 Germ-cells, ii. 96. 
 
 Germs, existence of, in air, ii. 305, 
 538 ; two theories concerning, ii. 
 266 ; M. Pasteur on unequal dis- 
 tribution of, ii. 272; M. Pouchet 
 and others on atmospheric, ii. 
 275-288 ; distribution of those of 
 Rotifers and Nematoids, ii. 535 ; 
 absence of, in crystals, xv ; abun- 
 dance of, in old crystals, xxv; 
 presence of, in crystals of Am- 
 monic Tartrate, xvi, xviii ; mode 
 of origin of, xix, xxi, xxiii, xxv- 
 xxix ; absence of, in newly-formed 
 crystals, xxi, xxiv. 
 
 Germ-theory of disease, cxx-cxxvii. 
 
 Glanders, cxxxii. 
 
 Gleocapsa, origin of, ii. 411. 
 
 Gomphonema, origin of, ii. 442. 
 
 Gonidia, variation in modes of 
 growth of, ii. 164 ; of Algae, Lich- 
 ens, and Mosses, indistinguishable 
 from one another, Ixxiii. 
 
 Gonidial-cell, heterogenetic changes 
 in, ii. 378. 
 
 Goodsir, Prof., on centres of nutri- 
 tion, i. 146. 
 
 Graham, Prof., on colloids, i. 88, 
 53- 
 
 Grant, Prof., views concerning evo- 
 lution of living things, ii. 165; 
 cause of organization, ii. 584. 
 
 Gregarinae, nature of, xcii ; rela- 
 tions of, to Amoebae, xci ; to Pso- 
 rosperms, xcii. 
 
 Gros, Dr., transformations of chlo- 
 rophyll corpuscles of Euglense, 
 ii. 410; origin of Desmids and 
 Diatoms, ii. 412 ; heterogenetic 
 changes in Astasiae and Euglenae, 
 ii. 434 ; transformation of Eu- 
 glense into Diatoms, ii. 444 ; into 
 Micrasterias and Arthrodesmus, 
 ii. 448; into Confervae, ii. 451; 
 origin of Mosses from Confervae, 
 ii. 453; direct transformation of 
 Euglenae into Ciliated Infusoria, 
 ii. 459 ; origin of Vorticella as 
 outgrowth from algoid filaments, 
 ii. 470; process of Pangenesis in 
 Rotifers, ii. 484 ; origin of Cilia- 
 ted Infusoria from Rotifer-eggs, 
 ii. 488 ; ascending transformations 
 of Ciliated Infusoria, ii. 500 ; 
 transformation of Actinophrys 
 into Ciliated Infusoria or Rotifers, 
 ii. 505 ; of winter-spore of Vol- 
 vox into Rotifers, ii. 506 ; of 
 Euglenae into Rotifers, ii. 507 ; 
 of Euglense into Nematoids, ii. 
 527; origin of Entozoa, ii. 539; 
 transformations of Euglenae and 
 Astasiae, Ixxxv. 
 
 Grove, Mr., on correlation of phy- 
 sical forces, i. 9, 18. 
 
 Gruithuisen, on fermentative changes 
 in infusions, i. 418. 
 
 Guerin-Me'neville, M., on independ- 
 ent origin of Muscardine, ii. 326. 
 
 Haeckel, Prof., on original evolution 
 of Life, i. 92 ; Protista and di- 
 visions of, i. 115 ; reproduction of 
 Protomyxa, i. 193. 
 
 Halford, Prof., on snake-poisoning s 
 
/ N D E X. 
 
 XXVll 
 
 Hallier, Prof., on micrococci, i. 283. 
 
 Hartig, Prof., on transformation of 
 Phytozoa of Liverworts, Ixxiv. 
 
 Harvey, William, on Heterogenesis, 
 i- 255. 
 
 Hassall, Dr. A. H., on formation of 
 spore of Vaucheria, i. 173. 
 
 Heat, as a mode of motion, i. 7 ; 
 relation of, to mechanical energy, 
 i. 8-12 ; influence of, on vital 
 processes, i. 21 ; its relation to 
 nerve functions, i. 35 ; vital re- 
 sistance to, i. 311; resistance of 
 spores of Fungi to, i. 316; of 
 Bacteria and Vibriones to, i. 317, 
 429 ; dissociating effect of, on 
 compounds, ii. 43. 
 
 Heredity, law of, ii. 94-103. 
 
 Heterogenesis, i. 245 ; distinction 
 between Archebiosis and, i. 249 ; 
 various modes in which it may 
 occur, (Table) i. 252 ; ancient 
 and modern views concerning, ii. 
 172181 ; classification of varie- 
 ties of, ii. 182 ; in products of 
 animal secretions, ii. 310; in tis- 
 sues of plants, ii. 317; frequency 
 of, amongst lowest organisms, ii. 
 561 ; varieties of, ii. 563; origin 
 of Monads, Fungus-germs, Ciliata, 
 and Rotifers, by synthetic, ii. 192- 
 263, SH-S^i; limits to., ii. 539; 
 future researches connected with, 
 ii. 540 ; different varieties of, 
 (Table) ii. 545. 
 
 Hicks, Dr. Braxton, production of 
 Amoebae in moss-radicles, ii. 376 ; 
 of Monads, ii. 410 ; Gleocapsa, 
 ii. 41 1 ; variability of lower Algae 
 and their relations to Lichens and 
 Mosses, liii-lxxiii. 
 
 Hildgard, Mr. T. C., mode of origin 
 of Vorticella, ii. 470; on trans- 
 formations of Ciliata, ii. 495. 
 
 Hofmeister, on free cell-formation 
 in Phanerogamia, i. 190. 
 
 Holland, Sir Henry, on spread of 
 Epidemic Diseases, cxix. 
 
 Homogeny, meaning of term, i. 245. 
 
 Hooping-cough, cxliii, cliv. 
 
 Huxley, Prof., on Bathybius, i. 122 ; 
 on cellular theory, i. 158 ; doc- 
 trine concerning living matter, i. 
 310; views concerning Individu- 
 ality, ii. 553 ; on persistent types, 
 ii. 614. 
 
 Hydatina, origin of, from Chloro- 
 coccus corpuscles, ii. 514; from 
 Euglenre, ii. 518. 
 
 Hydrophobia, cxxx, cxxxii, cxlviii. 
 
 Individual, views concerning mean- 
 ing of term, ii. 542 ; nature of, ii. 
 569. 
 
 Individuality, views concerning, 
 ii- 553 5 objections to views of 
 Dr. Carpenter and Prof. Huxley, 
 553-556. 
 
 Influenza, cxxxix. 
 
 Iron, influence of, on new-born pro- 
 toplasm, ii. 157. 
 
 Itzigsohn, on transformation of Os- 
 cillatorise, Ixxxiii. 
 
 Johnson, Mr. Metcalfe, converti- 
 bility of Ciliated Infusoria, ii. 
 496 ; transformation of these into 
 Rotifers, ii. 504. 
 
 Jones, Dr. Bence, on Physical 
 Theory of Life, i. 62. 
 
 Lamarck, doctrines of, concerning 
 Life, i. 260 ; cause of Organiza- 
 tion, ii. 584. 
 
 Laticiferous vessels, alterations in 
 globules of, ii. 318. 
 
 Lavoisier, M., on source of animal 
 heat, i. 25. 
 
 Leptothrix filaments, description of, 
 i. 277; development of, ii. 138, xxii. 
 
 Leucocytes, mode of origin of, i. 221. 
 
 Lewes, Mr. G. H., on neurility, i. 
 36 ; life and organization, i 69 ; 
 on multiple evolutions of living 
 matter, ii. 75 ; on theories of de- 
 velopment, ii. 268. 
 
 Lichens, origin of spores in, i. 183 ; 
 
XXV111 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 relations of, to Fungi, ii. 159; to 
 lower Algse, liii-lviii ; to Mosses 
 and Fungi, Ixvi; interchangeabi- 
 lity of Algse, ii. 452. 
 
 Liebig, Baron, on physical theory of 
 fermentation, i. 403 ; analogy of 
 fermentation to some vital pro- 
 cesses, i. 425 ; formation of albu- 
 minates in plants, ii. 30. 
 
 Life, views of ancient philosophers 
 concerning, i. 56 ; vitalistic theo- 
 ries of, i. 59 ; Dr. Bence Jones on 
 physical theory of, i. 62 ; defini- 
 tions of, i. 70-77; dependent upon 
 certain material collocations, i. 
 78 ; not abruptly limited, i. 79 ; 
 speculations concerning original 
 evolution of, i. 93 ; physical the- 
 ory of, reconcilable with vital 
 phenomena, i. 104; succession of, 
 on the earth, i. 137-142; charac- 
 teristics of, displayed by proto- 
 plasm, i. 153; doctrines concern- 
 ing, i. 308 ; destruction of, by 
 heat, ii. 3 ; evolution of, ii. 103 ; 
 dependence of, upon decomposi- 
 tion, ii. 185 ; theories concerning, 
 ii. 1 74 ; variability of primordial 
 forms of, ii. no, 137, 143, 145. 
 
 Lindley, Dr., on reproduction of 
 Algals by zoospores, i. 171; on 
 zoospores in Achlya, i. 180. 
 
 Lindsay, Dr. Lauder, on relationship 
 between Fungi and Lichens, ii. 1 59. 
 
 Living matter, conversion of not- 
 living into, i. 103, ii. 77; no dis- 
 tinct line between not-living and, 
 i. 127; influence of heat upon,.i. 
 429 ; origin of, from colloid mole- 
 cules, ii. 26 ; process of produc- 
 tion of, ii. 27; the result of mole- 
 cular combination, ii. 27 ; pro- 
 duction of, in saline solutions, ii. 
 30; influence of organic impuri- 
 ties on evolution of, within closed 
 flasks, ii. 33 ; influence of exter- 
 nal conditions on development of, 
 ii. 107; nature of, ii. 123; differ- 
 entiation of, identical with organ- 
 ization, ii. 127; discontinuous 
 
 growth of, ii. 138; various forms 
 assumed by new-born, ii. 155 ; 
 influence of iron upon, ii. 158; 
 formation of, in living organisms, 
 ii. 185; homogeneous, tends to 
 become heterogeneous, ii. 585 ; 
 heterogeneity of, principally de- 
 pendent on internal polarities, ii. 
 586 ; initial differences of, ii. 592 ; 
 possibility of silicon replacing 
 carbon in, x. 
 
 Living things, definition of, i. 72 ; 
 nature of matter of, i. 83, 96 ; 
 origin of lowest, compared with 
 that of crystals, i. 298 ; resistance 
 of, to heat, i. 317, 429; occur- 
 rence of, in vacuo, i. 347-350 ; 
 origin of, from organic matter, ii. 
 308 ; persistence of forms of low- 
 est, ii. 104-108; modes of origin 
 of, ii. 545 ; nature of lowest, ii. 
 557 ; Developmental tendencies 
 of, ii. 558. 
 
 Longet, on contractility of muscle, 
 i. 28. 
 
 Lyell, Sir Chas., on geological re- 
 cord, ii. 623. 
 
 Maddox, Dr., on atmospheric germs, 
 ii. 283. 
 
 Malaria, cxxxv. 
 
 Man, origin of, ii. 622, 628; his 
 advent, ii. 628 ; development of 
 brain of, ii. 628, 630 ; his intel- 
 lectual and moral nature, ii. 629 ; 
 probable date of first appearance, 
 ii. 629 ; limits to variation of ex- 
 ternal form of, ii. 630 ; improve- 
 ment in race of, ii. 631 ; preju- 
 dices concerning origin of, ii. 631 ; 
 future of the race, ii. 633. 
 
 Mantegazza, Prof., researches of, i. 
 263, 434. 
 
 Matter, indestructibility of, i. 3 ; in- 
 separability of force and, i. 4. 
 
 Max Schultze, nature of cell, i. 1 50. 
 
 Measles, cxliii, cliv. 
 
 Medicine, practice of, influenced by 
 theories, cix. 
 
/ N D EX. 
 
 xxix 
 
 Medusae, direct development of some 
 explained, ii. 571. 
 
 Metamorphosis (see Transforma- 
 tion). 
 
 Meunier, M. Victor, experiments of, 
 with bent-neck flasks, ii. 8. 
 
 Micrococci, Prof. Hallier, i. 283. 
 
 Milk-globules, conversion of, into 
 fungus-germs, ii. 310. 
 
 Milne-Edwards, M., on Pansper- 
 mism, ii. 271. 
 
 Mites, probable mode of origin of, 
 ii. 540 ; reproduction in, ii. 551. 
 
 Mivart, Mr. St. G., on cause of or- 
 ganization, ii. 583 ; on internal 
 tendencies to, ii. 60 1. 
 
 Molecular composition, nature of 
 bodies dependent upon, ii. 49. 
 
 Monads, description of, i. 267 ; evo- 
 lution of, ii. 196, 388 ; origin of, 
 in pellicle, ii. 196, 212, 214; 
 interchangeability of Amoebae 
 and, ii. 218; origin of, from 
 embryonal spheres of Nitella, ii. 
 402 ; from chlorophyll corpuscles, 
 ii. 409 ; from outgrowths of Eu- 
 glense, ii. 436 ; resolution of Eu- 
 glenae into, ii. 440. 
 
 Monera, growth and reproduction 
 of, i. 153. 
 
 Montgomery, on cell-forms assumed 
 by Myeline, i. 52. 
 
 Mosses, origin of, from Confervae, 
 ii. 452 ; observations of M. de 
 Brebisson on, ii. 454 ; relations of, 
 to Lichens and Algae, Ixiii-lxvi. 
 
 Moxon, Dr., on fission of Ciliated 
 Infusoria, ii. 291. 
 
 Mucous membranes, development of 
 organisms on, ii. 345. 
 
 Miiller, O. F., on spontaneous gen- 
 eration, ii. 179. 
 
 Mumps, cxxxix. 
 
 Murchison, Dr., on origin of fevers, 
 cxl. 
 
 Murphy, Mr., on origin of species in 
 wild state, ii. 598. 
 
 Muscardine, nature of, ii. 324-330. 
 
 Muscle, contractility of, i. 26 ; 
 mode of action of, i. 30; source 
 
 of power in contraction of, i. 33, 
 
 54- 
 Mushrooms, cultivation of, ii. 433. 
 
 Nai'des, a probable origin of, ii. 540. 
 
 Natural Selection, ii. 107 ; Mr. Dar- 
 win on, ii. 572 ; meaning of 
 phrase, ii. 572-576; limitation to 
 influence of, ii. 573; two mean- 
 ings of, ii. 574, 600. 
 
 Nectarine, convertibility of, and 
 Peach, ii. 596, 598. 
 
 Needham, on spontaneous genera- 
 tion, i. 258; theory of life, ii. 174. 
 
 Nematoidea, development of ova 
 in, i. 200 ; origin of, from Eu- 
 glenae, ii. 466 ; transformation of 
 Actinophrys into, ii. 525; mode 
 of origin of, from resting-spore of 
 Vaucheria, ii. 529; reproduction 
 in, ii. 532. 
 
 Nerve activity, source of heat during, 
 i. 40. 
 
 Nervous system, constituents of, i. 
 35 ; functions of, dependent on 
 blood-supply, i. 37; persistence 
 of function after apparent death, 
 
 i- 37- 
 
 Neurility, i. 36. 
 
 Newport, Mr., on vital forces, i. 1 7. 
 
 Nicolet, on germ-formation in Amoe- 
 bae, i. 197; modes of origin of 
 Amoebae and Actinophrys, ii. 382 ; 
 mode of origin and transforma- 
 tions of Trichomonas, ii. 384 ; 
 transformations in Chara fila- 
 ments, ii. 474 ; heterogenetic ori- 
 gin of Rotifers, ii. 509 ; on Amoe- 
 bae, xc. 
 
 Nitella, transformations in, ii. 399 ; 
 transformations of Chlorophyll 
 corpuscles of, into Monads and 
 Amoebae, ii. 407 ; formation of 
 embryonal spheres in, ii. 400 ; 
 their transformations into Bacte- 
 ria and Pythium corpuscles, ii. 
 401 ; into Monads, ii. 402; into 
 Amoebae and Actinophrys, ii. 404 ; 
 into Ciliated Infusoria, ii. 494; 
 
XXX 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 into complex egg-like bodies, ii. 
 405. 
 
 Nordmann, M., production of Cili- 
 ated buds from embryos of Gaste- 
 ropods, ii. 488. 
 
 CEdogonium, mode of origin of 
 'seed-cell' in, i. 177. 
 
 Onimus, M., on mode of origin of 
 leucocytes, i. 221. 
 
 Organic compounds, mode of for- 
 mation of, in plants, i. 23 ; in- 
 fluence of physical forces on evo- 
 lution of, ii. 38 ; artificial pro- 
 duction of, i. 50, 94; views con- 
 cerning, i. 81. 
 
 Organic molecules, Buffon on, ii. 
 174. 
 
 Organisms, desiccation of, i. 104 ; 
 tenacity of life in lowest, i. 106 ; 
 death of higher, i. 108 ; degree of 
 individuation in, i. 1 1 1 ; death in 
 lower, i. 112; classification of 
 lowest, i. 114; vital resistance of, 
 to heat, i. 312 ; multiplication of, 
 truest test of life, i. 320; views 
 concerning origin of, ii. 71 ; on 
 independent evolutions of, ii. 75 ; 
 reproduction amongst, ii. 87-103, 
 116 ; cause of reproduction of, ii. 
 no; origin of green, ii. 157; de- 
 velopment of corpuscular, ii. 198 ; 
 segmentation of lower, into fun- 
 gus-germs, ii. 226 ; mode of origin 
 of, in pellicle, ii. 235 ; assump- 
 tions respecting, ii. 254; origin of 
 living units from pre-existing, ii. 
 308 ; presence of, in bent-neck 
 flasks, ii. 8 ; variability of lowest, 
 ii. 259, 557, 607 ; modes of death 
 of, ii. 37 1 ; tendency of, to develop 
 into higher, ii. 432; convertibility 
 of lower, ii. 492, 558 ; influence 
 of size of heterogenetic matrix on 
 forms of, ii. 473 ; modes of repro- 
 duction in, ii. 548 ; frequency of 
 hetercgenesis amongst lowest, ii. 
 561 ; varieties of heterogenesis 
 . .arnongst, ii. 563 ; limits to, ii. 
 
 609, 610; lowest, of present day, 
 their descent, ii. 617. 
 
 Organizable matter, nature and 
 composition of, i. 83 ; molecular 
 re-arrangement of, i. 97 ; physical 
 explanation of process, i. 98. 
 
 Organization, discussion of cellular 
 theory of, i. 158 ; molecular theory 
 of, harmonizes with evolution hy- 
 pothesis, i. 162 ; differentiation 
 identical with, ii. 127 ; causes 
 regulating complexity of, ii. 130; 
 existence of internal principle of, 
 ii. 582 ; internal tendencies to, ii. 
 591, 603; Dr. Erasmus Darwin's 
 views on, ii. 583 ; Prof. Owen and 
 Mr. St. George Mivart on cause 
 of, ii. 583; Lamarck and Prof. 
 Grant on cause of, ii. 584; nature 
 of internal principle of, ii. 585 ; this 
 not believed in by Mr. Spencer and 
 Mr. Dai-win, ii. 585-594 ; strength 
 of internal principle shown by 
 similarity of lowest organisms in 
 different regions, ii. 593. 
 
 Origin of living things, experiments 
 relating to, with calcined air, i. 
 337-343; different results obtained 
 by other experimenters, i. 344 ; 
 experiments relating to, with or- 
 ganic solutions, i. 355-360; re- 
 marks on, i. 360 ; experiments 
 relating to, with saline solutions, 
 i. 363-372; remarks on, i. 372; 
 M. Pasteur's experiments and 
 views concerning, i. 374-384 ; 
 comparative experiments connect- 
 ed with, i. 385-391, ii. 18; dele- 
 terious effects of acidity of solu- 
 tion increased by heat, i. 392-396 ; 
 experiments concerning, in super- 
 heated flasks, i. 441-470 ; remarks 
 on, i. 471-475 ; facilitated by 
 diminution of pressure, ii. 20 ; oc- 
 curring in organic solutions, ii. 
 22, 71 ; theoretical views respect- 
 ing, ii. 254. 
 
 Otostoma, origin and development, 
 ii. 479; origin of, from Nitella 
 filament, ii. 482. 
 
I N D E X. 
 
 XXXI 
 
 Ova, in lower animals, i. 199-202 ; 
 in higher animals, i. 203-211. 
 
 Owen, Prof., on cause of organiza- 
 tion, ii. 583 ; internal organizing 
 tendencies, ii. 591. 
 
 Oxytricha, origin of, from Euglense, 
 ii. 462 ; from Chlorococcus vesi- 
 cles, ii. 467 ; metamorphosis of 
 Vorticella into, ii. 493 ; transform- 
 ation of, into Trichoda, ii. 496. 
 
 Palseontological Record, interpreta- 
 tion of, ii, 620; imperfection of, 
 ii. 622. 
 
 Pangenesis, Mr. Darwin's hypothesis 
 of, ii. 98, 603 ; previous use of 
 term by Dr. Gros, ii. 484; in 
 Tardigrades, ii. 549 ; peculiarities 
 of, in Tardigrades and Rotifers, 
 
 . 55i. 
 
 Panspermism, views of Spallanzani 
 and Bonnet on, i. 259 ; nature of 
 theories, ii. 267 ; untenability of 
 hypothesis of, ii. 305, 359, 367, 
 53. 
 
 Paramecium, evolution of, from 
 pellicle, ii. 240-250; its conver- 
 sion into Nassula, ii. 251 ; trans- 
 formations of, ii. 496. 
 
 Parasites, higher, ii. 309, 539 ; 
 lower, in blood of animals, ii. 
 324-337; in tissues of plants, ii. 
 317, 338-342; in tissues of ani- 
 mals, ii. 342-358; within eggs of, 
 ii. 366. 
 
 Pasteur, M., on resistance to heat of 
 spores of fungi, i. 316; double 
 nature of results in experiments 
 
 by, i- 34. 345 374. 3 8 45 vital 
 theory of fermentation, i. 404 ; 
 his explanation of experiments 
 with bent-neck flasks, ii. ii ; on 
 atmospheric germs, ii. 271-275, 
 286. 
 Peach, converted into Nectarine, ii. 
 
 59 6 > 59 8 - 
 Peacock, black-shouldered, origin 
 
 of, ii. 598. 
 Pbrine, nature of, ii. 352, cxxii. 
 
 Pellicle, formation of, on organic 
 infusion, i. 266; composition of, 
 i. 277, ii. 193; formation of em- 
 bryonal areas in, ii. 198; remarks 
 concerning changes in, ii. 205 ; 
 series of changes in, leading to 
 evolution of Monads, ii. 215; 
 other changes in, leading to evo- 
 lution of Fungus-germs, ii. 231- 
 235 ; evolution of Ciliated Infu- 
 soria from, ii. 237-254; changes 
 in, throw light upon mode of ori- 
 gin of living matter, ii. 262 ; con- 
 ditions favourable to production 
 of Ciliated Infusoria, ii. 244, 299. 
 
 Penicillium, evolution of, ii. 195 ; 
 conversion of milk-globules into, 
 ii. 310. 
 
 Peranemata, origin of, from Euglenae, 
 ii. 459 ; from Rotifers, ii. 484 ; 
 conversion of, into Ciliated Infu- 
 soria, ii. 485. 
 
 Peziza, Corda on formation of spores 
 in, i. 184. 
 
 Philodinioe, mode of origin of, ii. 
 
 54- 
 
 Physcia, formation of spore in, i. 
 186. 
 
 Physical Forces, convertibility of, i. 
 1 3 ; correlation of vital and, i. 
 16-49, 6>' action of, upon living 
 tissues, i. 98 ; influence of, on evo- 
 lution of organic compounds, ii. 38. 
 
 Physiological units, ii. 23, 90, 98, 
 603, 
 
 Phytoids, ii. 542, 553. 
 
 Pineau, M., on formation of spore in 
 Physcia, i. 186; observations of 
 heterogenetic changes, i. 261 ; on 
 origin of Penicillium, ii. 195 ; of 
 Monads, ii. 196 ; of Vorticellse, 
 ii. 252, 471 ; of Enchelys, ii. 238 ; 
 metamorphoses of Vorticellce into 
 Oxytrichse, ii. 493. 
 
 Plaesconia, origin of, from Chloro- 
 coccus vesicles, ii. 467. 
 
 Plague, cxliii. 
 
 Plants, functions of, related to those 
 of Animals, i. 129; M. Brong- 
 niart on development of, in past 
 
XXX11 
 
 I N D EX. 
 
 ages, i. 137; M. Saussure on, i. 
 139; growth of, ii. 27; occurrence 
 of heterogenesis in, ii. 317- 
 
 Plastide-particles, i. 267, 270. 
 
 Plastides, i. 152, 267. 
 
 Polarity, Herbert Spencer on or- 
 ganic, ii. 23, 94 ; its operation in 
 higher organisms, ii. 595 ; an ever- 
 potent cause of form and struc- 
 ture, ii. 60 1. 
 
 Pouchet, M., on vital force, i. 248 ; 
 on spontaneous generation, i. 263; 
 interchangeability of forms of 
 Fungi, ii. 151 ; heterogenesis and 
 vitalism, ii. 180; origin of Monads, 
 ii. 196 ; of Paramecia, ii. 240; of 
 Vorticellae, ii. 471 ; atmospheric 
 germs, ii. 275 ; apparatus for 
 showing connection of Ciliata 
 with Pellicle, ii. 300. 
 
 Pringsheim, Prof., on transformations 
 in Algse, ii. 374. 
 
 Pritchard, on Algse and their allies, 
 ii. 1 60; modes of succession of 
 organisms in infusions, ii. 502 ; 
 variations in habitat of Infusoria, 
 
 535- 
 
 Progressive development, ii. 583, 
 588, 590, 602. 
 
 Protamcebae, i. 117, 121, 125. 
 
 Protista, i. 115-126 ; divisions of, i. 
 117; modes of reproduction 
 amongst, i. 116, 192, ii. 548. 
 
 Protococcus, relation of, to Algse, 
 Lichens, and Mosses, ii. 163 ; pro- 
 ducts of transformations of, Ixxxii. 
 
 Protomyxa, process of reproduction 
 in, i. 193. 
 
 Protonema, changes of, Ixvi-lxxii, 
 
 Protoplasm, properties of, i. 127; 
 independent origin of, ii. 31, 77. 
 
 Protoplasta, i. 153; development of 
 germs in, i. 197. 
 
 Psorosperms, ii. 352,cxxii. 
 
 Puerperal Fever, cxxxiv. 
 
 Pyaemia, cxxxiv. 
 
 Rainey, Mr., on 'molecular coal- 
 escence,' i. 51 ; on formation of 
 
 Calculi, ii. 60 ; nature of starch- 
 grains, ii. 66. 
 
 Redi, on spontaneous generation, i. 
 257- 
 
 Reissek, Prof., on metamorphoses 
 of Chlorophyll corpuscles and 
 pollen -grains, ii. 432. 
 
 Reproduction, act of, best sign of 
 life of Bacteria, i. 320; funda- 
 mental nature, ii. 91 ; limitations 
 of process in complex organisms, 
 ii. 95 ; in Rotifers, ii. 522 ; sexual 
 mode of evolution of, ii. 548, 
 552; ultimate nature of, ii. 561 ; 
 sexual modes, commencement of, 
 ii. 564 ; nature of ' alternate ' pro- 
 cesses of, ii. 565. 
 
 Reproduction, different modes of, 
 'fable facing ii. 552. 
 
 Reproductive units, mode of origin 
 of, i. 169-214, 232. 
 
 Robin, Charles, on independent 
 origin of Leucocytes, i. 220 ; 
 blood-change in parasitic dis- 
 eases, ii. 361. 
 
 Rotifers, resolution of, into Actino- 
 phrys and Peranema, ii. 484 ; 
 into Arcellinse, ii. 486 ; origin of 
 Ciliated Infusoria from eggs of, 
 ii. 488 ; modes of analytic hetero- 
 genesis in, ii. 489 ; heterogenetic 
 modes of origin of, ii. 501-523; 
 reproduction in, ii. 522, 549. 
 
 Rumford, Count, heat as a mode of 
 motion, i. 7. 
 
 Samuelson, Mr. James, on atmo- 
 spheric germs, ii. 280. 
 
 Sanderson, Dr. Burdon, effect of 
 desiccation on Bacteria, ii. 5 ; 
 Microzymes in air, ii. 7 ; experi- 
 ments on inoculability of Tuber- 
 cle, cxiv. 
 
 Sang de rate, M. Davaine on, ii. 362. 
 
 Sarcina, i. 286 ; nature of, iii ; pro- 
 ducts allied to, v ; bodies resem- 
 bling, in silicated solution, xiv. 
 
 Schaaffhausen, Prof., on heterogene- 
 tic transformations, ii. 453, 499. 
 
/ N D EX. 
 
 XXXlll 
 
 Schelling, theory of life, i. 77. 
 
 Schleiden, sources of nutriment of 
 plants, i. 136. 
 
 Schultze, on Panspermism, i. 262. 
 
 Schwann, on origin of cells, i. 144 ; 
 on Panspermism, i. 262 ; method 
 of experimentation with calcined 
 air, i. 337. 
 
 Scolecida, modes of origin of repre- 
 sentatives of, ii. 539. 
 
 Seguin, M., on convertibility of 
 forces, i. 9. 
 
 Silicates, solutions of, containing 
 Fungi, xi-xiii ; spiral fibres, xiv ; 
 bodies resembling Sarcina, xiv. 
 
 Silicon, as a possible substitute for 
 carbon in living matter, x. 
 
 Small-pox, views on, cxxvii ; origin 
 of, cxliv ; contagiousness of, cxlix. 
 
 Snake-poisoning, cxxviii, cxxx. 
 
 Snow-flakes, ii. 280. 
 
 Solution, nature of process, ii. 44. 
 
 Spallanzani, l'Abb6, on Pansperm- 
 ism, i. 259. 
 
 Species, meaning of term, ii. 547 ; 
 mutability of, ii. 548 ; nothing 
 corresponding to, amongst lower 
 forms, ii. 568 ; nature of, ii. 569 ; 
 influenced by change in external 
 conditions, ii. 577-582 ; by use 
 and disuse, ii. 577; to what ex- 
 tent influenced by natural selec- 
 tion, ii. 578 ; Darwin on influence 
 of new external conditions upon, 
 ii. 591 ; variation of, ii. 598 ; fre- 
 quency of spontaneous variation in 
 unknown, ii. 599 ; modes in which 
 transmutations are brought about, 
 ii. 600 ; Mr. Darwin's views con- 
 cerning, ii. 601-603. 
 
 Spencer, Mr. Herbert, on converti- 
 bility of forces, i. 13 ; on meaning 
 of persistence force, i. 14 ; corre- 
 lation of vital and physical forces, 
 i. 22 ; consciousness, i. 45 ; mor- 
 phological development, i. 52 ; 
 characteristics of living things, i. 
 74 ; elements of organizable mat- 
 ter, i. 84; instability of protein 
 compounds, i. 86 ; original evolu- 
 
 tion of life, i. 92 ; artificial evolu- 
 tion of organic matter, i. 94; oper- 
 ation of physical forces upon living 
 tissues, i. 98 ; evolution of living 
 matter, i. 163 ; organic polarity, 
 ii. 23 ; physiological units, ii. 23, 
 90, 98 ; law of heredity, ii. 94, 
 97; nature of evolution, ii. 120; 
 two meanings of natural selection, 
 ii- 573 ; denies existence of internal 
 organizing tendencies, ii. 585 ; 
 cause of organization, ii. 587 ; his 
 explanation of existence of undif- 
 ferentiated organisms in present 
 day, ii. 587-589; physiological 
 units, ii. 603 ; limits to variability 
 of species, ii. 610. 
 
 Spermatozoa, development of, i. 213. 
 
 Sperm-cells, ii. 96. 
 
 Spiral fibres, v ; where found, viii ; 
 in association with mycelium, 
 viii ; in silicated solution, xiv. 
 
 Spirillum, i. 277, ii. 139. 
 
 Spirogyra, transformations in, ii. 
 
 3 8 7-393. 
 Spontaneous Generation, reason for 
 
 rejecting term, i. 244 ; views of 
 
 ancient writers concerning, i. 253; 
 
 other views concerning, i. 255- 
 
 263 ; two processes included under 
 
 term, ii. 172. 
 Spores, mode of formation of, in 
 
 CEdogonium, i. I77 i n Zygne- 
 
 meacese, i. 1 79 ; in Fungi and 
 
 Lichens, i. 183 ; in Peziza, i. 184; 
 
 in Hydrodictyon, i. 186 ; Physcia, 
 
 i. 186. 
 
 Starch-grains, production of, ii. 65. 
 Steenstrup, on alternate generation, 
 
 ii. 565. 
 Stein, views concerning Acinetre 
 
 and Vorticellse, xciv-xcvii. 
 Survival of the fittest, ii. 575. 
 Syphilis, cxxxii. 
 
 Tables relating to : (i) origin of 
 living things, i. 252 ; (2) modes of 
 origin of independent living units, 
 ii. 545 ; (3) modes of reproduction 
 
XXXIV 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 with reference to the origin and 
 gradual appearance of sexual dif- 
 ferentiation, Table facing ii. 552 ; (4) 
 modes of development in relation 
 to sexual multiplication occurring 
 during its progress, ii. 567 ; (5) 
 causes which determine forms of 
 organisms, ii. 600; (6) communi- 
 cable diseases, cxlvi. 
 
 Tardigrades, origin of, from Eugle- 
 nse, ii. 466 ; transformation of 
 Actinophrys into, ii. 524; repro- 
 duction in, ii. 532 ; Pangenesis in, 
 ii. 549 ; peculiarities of Pangenesis 
 in, ii. 551. 
 
 Theory, test of true, ii. 605. 
 
 Thomson, Prof. Allen, on develop- 
 ment of ova in Ascarides, i. 200 ; 
 on individuality, ii. 556. 
 
 Thomson, Sir William, on geological 
 time, ii. 619. 
 
 Toruloe, i. 273 ; mode of origin of, 
 in solutions, i. 281 ; nature of, ii. 
 141 ; development of, into Fungi, 
 ii. 145-154; interchangeability of 
 Bacteria and, ii. 143 ; origin of, 
 within closed flasks (see Arcbebio- 
 sis, experiments relating to). 
 
 Transformations, in Spirogyra, ii. 
 374> 387 ; in Moss-radicles, ii. 
 376 ; in Gonidial-cell, ii. 378; of 
 Trichomonas, ii. 384 ; in Vauche- 
 ria, ii. 394 ; in Nitella, ii. 399 ; of 
 Chlorophyll vesicles, ii. 415; of 
 Chlorophyll vesicles of Vaucheria, 
 Nitella, etc. into Desmids, ii. 418; 
 of cell-contents of Conferva into 
 Euglense, ii. 421 ; of Spirogyra 
 into Astasiae, ii. 421 ; of Potamo- 
 geton into Euglense, ii. 422; M. 
 Kiitzing on, of vegetable organ- 
 isms, ii. 432; Reissek on, of Chlo- 
 rophyll vesicles and pollen-grains, 
 ii. 432 ; of Euglense, ii. 436-466; 
 of Ciliated Infusoria, ii. 492-504; 
 of Actinophrys into Rotifers, ii. 
 504 ; of Vegetal vesicles into Ro- 
 tifers, ii. 506-521 ; of Rotifers 
 into Nematoids, ii. 522 ; of Acti- 
 nophrys into Nematoids and Tar- 
 
 digrades, ii. 524; of Euglense into 
 Rotifers, Tardigrades, and Nema- 
 toids, ii. 525 ; of resting-spore of 
 Vaucheria into Nematoids, ii. 528. 
 
 Trecul, M., on development of Toru- 
 Ise, ii. 147 ; origin of Amylobacter, 
 ii. 318. 
 
 Treviranus, experiments in reference 
 to heterogeny, i. 259. 
 
 Trichoda, origin of, from Euglenae, 
 ii. 462; metamorphosis of Oxy- 
 trica into, ii. 496. 
 
 Trichomonas, origin and transform- 
 ations of, ii. 384. 
 
 Tubercle, non-specific nature of, 
 cxiii, cxvii ; generalization of, cxvi. 
 
 Turpin, M., heterogenetic changes 
 in milk-globules, ii. 311 ; mode of 
 origin of Uredo, ii. 339. 
 
 Types, persistence of, ii. 606; per- 
 sistent, Prof. Huxley on, ii. 615; 
 explanation of persistent, ii. 616- 
 619; dominant, ii. 621. 623; of 
 fish and insect, ii. 624 ; estimation 
 of worth of, ii. 625 ; vertebrate, ii. 
 626 ; elaboration of, ii. 627. 
 
 Units, physiological, ii. 23, 90, 98. 
 ii. 603. 
 
 Variation, 'spontaneous,' meaning 
 of, ii. 595 ; instances of, ii. 596- 
 
 599- 
 
 Varicella, cxliii. 
 Vaucheria, formation of spore of, i. 
 
 173; transformations in, ii. 394.; 
 
 of spore of, into Nematoids, ii. 
 
 528. 
 Vegetable forms; interchangeability 
 
 of animal and, ii. 431, 434. 
 Vibriones, nature of, i. 274; vital 
 
 resistance of, to heat, i. 317. 
 Virchow, Prof., doctrines concern- 
 ing, i. 148 : cellular pathology, i. 
 
 158 ; activities of tissue-elements, 
 
 i. 167. 
 Vital forces, correlation of physical 
 
 and, i. 16-49, 6 ; dependent on 
 
INDEX, 
 
 XXXV 
 
 oxidation of blood, i. 48 ; trans- 
 mutation of physical force into, i. 
 67 ; no evidence for existence of a 
 special, i. 83 ; relation of food to, 
 ii. 183. 
 
 Vital processes, effect of light and 
 heat upon, i. 16 ; amenable to 
 physico-chemical laws, i. 54 ; in- 
 explicable nature of most inti- 
 mate, i. 55, ii. 256, 534 ; analogy 
 of fermentation to, i. 425, ii. 186. 
 
 Vorticellse, mode of origin of, ii. 
 252 ; from Euglense, ii. 464; from 
 Algoid-vesicles and Moss-sporan- 
 gia, ii. 469 ; other modes of ori- 
 gin of, ii. 469 ; from filaments of 
 Nitella and hlamydococcus cor- 
 puscles, ii. 470 ; by synthetic 
 Heterogenesis, ii. 471 ; metamor- 
 phosis of, into Oxytricha, ii. 493 ; 
 into Rotifers, ii. 502, 511 ; origin 
 of, from Actinophrys, xcv ; rela- 
 tions of, to Acinetse, xcv ; conver- 
 sion of, into Actinophrys, xcv. 
 
 Wallace, Mr., on natural selection, 
 ii. 574; on means of changing 
 colour in feathers, ii. 597 ; test of 
 true theory, ii. 604; age of human 
 race, ii. 629 ; development of brain 
 in man, ii. 630 ; future of human 
 race, ii. 633. 
 
 Watson, Sir Thomas, on non-suscep- 
 tibility to contagion of small-pox 
 and measles, cxlix. 
 
 Winter-eggs, of Hydatina senta, ii. 
 
 514. 
 
 W T yman, Prof. Jeffries, experiments 
 relating to origin of living matter, 
 i. 435 ; on analogical evidence 
 concerning origin of living matter, 
 i. 471 ; on atmospheric germs, ii. 
 282. 
 
 Zooids, ii. 542, 553. 
 
 Zoospores, mode of origin of, in Al- 
 gse, i. 171 ; formation of, in Vau- 
 cheria, i. 173; in Achlya, i. 180. 
 
PART I. 
 
 THE NATURE AND SOURCE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 VITAL FORCES, 
 
 AND OF 
 
 ORGANIZABLE MATTER. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE PERSISTENCE OF FORCE CORRELATION OF THE VITAL 
 AND PHYSICAL FORCES. 
 
 Indestructibility of Matter. Forces modes of motion. The doctrine of 
 Conservation of Energy. History of. The unit of Heat. Con- 
 vertibility of Physical Forces. Indestructibility of Force. Gradual 
 growth of doctrine of Correlation of Physical and Vital Forces. 
 Source of Energy manifested in Plants and Animals. Doctrines 
 concerning Animal Heat. Its real mode of Origin. Power of 
 movement in Animals. Laws regulating muscular Contractility. 
 The Muscle a machine in which heat transforms itself into Me- 
 chanical Energy. Comparison between Muscle and Steam- Engine. 
 Nervous phenomena. Neurility. Sensory and motor nerves have 
 similar functions. Dependence of Nerve action upon due supply 
 of blood. Remarkable experiments illustrating this. Evolution of 
 heat and increased chemical change accompaniments of Nerve 
 action. Different functions of Nervous System. Relations of Con- 
 sciousness and Mind. Correlations of Consciousness not ascertain- 
 able. Conclusions. 
 
 doctrine that Matter is indestructible may 
 JL now be regarded as one of the most universally 
 accepted utterances of science. It is already firmly 
 rooted, and the belief in its truth is gradually spreading 
 deeper and wider as education advances. All must 
 admit that there is an immeasurable difference between 
 
 B 2 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 mere change of form and destruction, though in past 
 times and even at present amongst the uneducated 
 the former has been often mistaken for the latter. 
 Such misconceptions, however, were natural enough 
 in the past, and even now they are quite in harmony 
 with the defective general knowledge of those who 
 still entertain them: their occurrence does not in the 
 least tend to diminish our well-grounded belief in 
 the indestructibility of matter. 
 
 Of late years, too, experimental investigators as 
 well as purely speculative enquirers have alike been 
 gradually tending towards the recognition of the com- 
 plemental doctrine of the essential oneness and inde- 
 structibility of Force. Matter, they say, is indestructible, 
 and so also is force. Forces are c modes of motion,' 
 and motion is continuous. The very idea of motion, 
 however, cannot be realized in thought except it be 
 in connection with a something which moves though 
 the moving body may be infinitely great or infinitely 
 small. We may imagine molar motion, or motion of 
 a mass, as exhibited by the revolution of a planet or 
 of a sun in its orbit ; and we may imagine molecular 
 motion amongst the particles of a cosmical sether, even 
 though this aether itself may be so subtle as to elude 
 all present means of recognition. But, though motion 
 is inseparable from matter, it is, as we have intimated, 
 continuous or persistent, and, therefore, communicable 
 from particle to particle. Ethereal pulses of solar 
 derivation impinging upon the surface of our earth 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 may produce effects which, in part, manifest them- 
 selves in our consciousness as sensations of heat ; or, 
 acting upon other bodies, organic and inorganic, may 
 in them produce such molecular re-arrangements 
 such modifications of form and nature as will suffice 
 to alter their qualities or attributes. Matter, then, 
 may undergo changes of form it may be now solid, 
 now liquid, and now an invisible gas ; whilst the 
 disguised Force or Motion, owing to such different 
 modes of collocation of the atoms of matter, may 
 manifest itself to us in different ways, but in its 
 essence it remains as the underlying and indestruct- 
 ible cause of the attributes of matter. So that at the 
 same time that force is indestructible, it is moreover 
 incapable of existing alone and independently of 
 matter. We cannot conceive force save as inhering 
 in, and appertaining to some body; we cannot con- 
 ceive a body, or matter, existing, devoid of all at- 
 tributes or force manifestations. Both are mutable, 
 both indestructible, and both, so far as we know, quite 
 incapable of existing alone. 
 
 The growth of modern scientific opinion concerning 
 force has necessarily had much influence in modifying 
 the doctrines concerning Life which were formerly in 
 vogue. During the present century the labours of earnest 
 workers of all kinds have done much towards the over- 
 throw of the ancient and long-predominating meta- 
 physical conceptions of Life. Chemists, physiologists, 
 and others have striven manfully to dispel the mists 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 and darkness which previously enshrouded all vital 
 phenomena, and few, we suppose, would deny that the 
 results of their labours had sent gleams of light into 
 corners previously unillumined. However much there 
 may be of the mysterious and occult still remaining, 
 some of the phenomena, at least, formerly looked upon 
 as essentially c vital' and, therefore, well-nigh in- 
 explicable are now recognized as depending in great 
 part upon purely physical processes. But before stating 
 what are the modern conceptions of Life what 
 views are now possible it will be well to glance 
 briefly at the labours of those who have helped to build 
 up that doctrine of the Correlation of Forces, or Con- 
 servation of Energy, whose influence has been so great 
 in upsetting the old metaphysical conceptions to which 
 we have referred. 
 
 It is not to be expected that the doctrine of the 
 Conservation of Energy should have sprung fully formed 
 from the brain of any single man. The progress of 
 scientific thought and experiment had been gradually 
 tending in this direction during the closing years of 
 the last century, and the doctrine has since been built 
 up and perfected by the labours of many workers and 
 thinkers. The germs of it are, however, to be found, 
 stated with remarkable clearness, even more than two 
 centuries ago, in the writings of Lord Bacon, who says 
 in the twentieth Aphorism of his c Novum Organum:' 
 c When I say of motion that it is the genus of which 
 heat is a species, I would be understood to mean, not 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 that heat generates motion (though both are true in 
 certain cases), but that heat itself, its essence and 
 
 quiddity, is motion and nothing else Heat is 
 
 a motion, expansive, restrained, and acting in its strife 
 upon the smaller particles of bodies V Locke, also, 
 shortly afterwards, expressed himself in much the same 
 terms. He said: c Heat is a very brisk agitation 
 of the insensible parts of the object, which produces 
 in us that sensation from whence we denominate 
 the subject hot- so that what in our sensation is 
 heat^ in the object is nothing but motion? But it was 
 not till quite the close of the last century, in 1798, 
 that Benjamin Thompson, afterwards Count Rumford, 
 announced to the Royal Society his conviction, based 
 upon real experimental evidence, that heat was a 
 mode of motion. Whilst superintending the boring 
 of cannon in the military arsenal at Munich, Count 
 Rumford was much struck with the heat acquired by 
 the brass after it had been bored for a time, and 
 also with the intense heat of the metallic chips which 
 were separated by the borer 2 . He then instituted 
 the most careful experiments to ascertain the source 
 of this heat, and in his memoir, after having de- 
 tailed the nature and results of these experiments, he 
 made the following remarks in opposition to the then 
 prevalent notion that heat was a material substance, 
 a kind of igneous fluid named c caloric:' c We have 
 
 1 Bacon's Works, vol. iv. Spedding's Translation. 
 
 2 See Tyndall's ' Heat Considered as a Mode of Motion,' 1863, p. 53. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 seen that a very considerable quantity of heat may be 
 excited by the friction of two metallic surfaces, and 
 given off in a constant stream or flux in all directions y 
 without interruption or intermission, and without any 
 signs of diminution or exhaustion. In reasoning on this 
 subject we must not forget that most remarkable circum- 
 stance^ that the source of the heat generated by friction 
 in these experiments appeared evidently to be in- 
 exhaustible. It is hardly necessary to add, that any- 
 thing which any insulated body or system of bodies can 
 continue to furnish without limitation cannot possibly 
 be a material substance-, and it appears to me to be 
 extremely difficult, if not quite impossible, to form any 
 distinct idea of anything capable of being excited and 
 communicated in those experiments, except it be 
 MOTION.' In 1812 also, Sir Humphrey Davy in his first 
 Memoir 1 brought forward most valuable scientific evi- 
 dence to show that no such thing as c caloric ' existed, 
 that heat was not an elastic fluid, and that the c laws 
 of the communication of heat are precisely the same as 
 those of the communication of motion.' One of his 
 experiments was of the most conclusive nature. c He 
 succeeded in melting two pieces of ice by rubbing 
 them together in vacuo, at the same time preventing 
 the access of external heat. The water produced in 
 this experiment has a much higher relative heat than 
 the ice; hence the potential heat which caused the ice 
 to melt must have been obtained by the conversion of 
 
 1 Sir Humphrey Davy's Works, vol. ii. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 the mechanical force employed for the friction V For, 
 as Sir Humphrey Davy reasoned, a motion or vibration 
 of the corpuscles of bodies must be necessarily gener- 
 ated by friction and percussion, and so, he adds, c we 
 may reasonably conclude that this motion or vibra- 
 tion is heat, or the repulsive power.' Then, in 1827, 
 Lardner Vanuxem published in Philadelphia an essay 2 
 in which he speaks of caloric, light, electricity, and 
 magnetism as being mutually convertible. His utter- 
 ances are, however, somewhat dubious, since he at 
 first treats of them as c four different states' of c one 
 kind of repulsive matter', though, further on, he ac- 
 knowledges that the existence of these as c four dis- 
 tinct fluids, or kinds of aethereal matter, is inadmis- 
 sible; for this conversion or change of characters is 
 analogous to what are called the properties of bodies 
 and not to the bodies themselves.' Again, in 1839, 
 Seguin, in a work entitled ' De {'Influence des Chemins 
 de Fer,' called attention to the mutual convertibility of 
 heat and mechanical force, and he gave a calculation 
 of their equivalent relation not differing materially 
 from that afterwards published by Mayer and Joule. 
 In January, 1842, in a lecture delivered before the 
 Royal Institution, Professor Grove declared that c light, 
 heat, electricity, magnetism, motion, and chemical 
 affinity are all convertible material affections;' and in 
 
 1 Orme's ' Science of Heat,' 1869, p. 163. 
 
 2 'On the Ultimate Principles of Chemistry, Natural Philosophy , 
 and Physiology.' 
 
10 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 the recently published third edition of his c Correlation 
 of the Physical Forces,' he says, c As far as I am now 
 aware, the theory that the so-called imponderables are 
 affections of ordinary matter, that they are resolvable 
 into motion, that they are to be regarded in their 
 action on matter as forces, and not as specific entities, 
 and that they are capable of mutual reaction, thence 
 alternately acting as cause and effect, had not at that 
 time been publicly advanced/ But it was also in the 
 year 1842, though in its latter part, that Dr. Mayer 1 , 
 a physician of Heilbronn, announced independently 
 a doctrine substantially similar, to the effect that the 
 imponderables were forces at once indestructible and 
 convertible. He actually calculated the mechanical 
 equivalent of heat out of data derived from the velocity 
 of sound in air an intellectual feat only possible to 
 a man of rare originality. Professor Tyndall says 2 of 
 him, c When we consider the circumstances of Mayer's 
 life, and the period at which he wrote, we cannot fail 
 to be struck with astonishment at what he has ac- 
 complished. Here was a man of genius working in 
 silence, animated solely by a love of his subject, and 
 arriving at the most important results some time in 
 advance of those whose lives were entirely devoted 
 to Natural Philosophy. It was the accident of bleeding 
 a feverish patient at Java, in 1 840, that led Mayer to 
 
 1 ' Bemerkungen iiber die Krafte der umbeleten Natur,' Liebig's 
 Annalen, 1842, vol. xlii. 
 
 2 Loc. cit. p. 445. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 1 1 
 
 speculate on these subjects. He noticed that the 
 venous blood of the tropics was of a much brighter red 
 than in colder latitudes, and his reasoning on this fact 
 led him into the laboratory of natural forces, where he 
 has worked with such signal ability and success/ But 
 in the following year, 1843, Mr. Joule of Manchester 
 published his first paper on the c Mechanical Value of 
 Heat,' in which he detailed the most valuable results 
 of a series of experiments, conducted whilst he was 
 in ignorance of the labours of Seguin and of the reason- 
 ings of Mayer. It is to him that we are principally 
 indebted for the actual experimental determination of 
 the mechanical equivalent of heat. A paddle-wheel 
 was made to revolve in a copper vessel containing 
 a weighed quantity pf water at a known temperature, 
 The mechanical force, derived from falling weights, 
 which was employed in turning the wheel was known ; 
 so that when, after the wheel had revolved for a cer- 
 tain time, the temperature of the water was estimated, 
 and the distance through which the weights had fallen 
 in the same time was computed, it became easy to 
 estimate the quantity of heat which corresponded to 
 the fall of a known weight through a given distance. 
 Of course, corrections had to be made, allowing for 
 the heating of the copper vessel, and of the wheel itself, 
 as well as for the loss of heat by radiation. Similar 
 experiments were conducted with oil and with mer- 
 cury, though under somewhat different conditions - y and 
 in all cases the amount of heat evolved by the friction 
 
1 2 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 of the vanes of the wheel against the various fluids 
 was ascertained with the greatest care. The uniform 
 results obtained in these experiments enabled Mr. Joule 
 most satisfactorily to establish the mechanical equiva- 
 lent of what has been termed the unit of heat. He 
 found that the energy of a body weighing one pound 
 which had fallen from a height of 772 feet was exactly 
 equal to the quantity of molecular motion or heat 
 which suffices to raise the temperature of one pound of 
 water by one degree of the Fahrenheit scale 1 . 
 
 It is needless for us to follow further the ultimate 
 developments of this doctrine with which the names 
 of Clausius, Rankine, Thomson, and Helmholtz are 
 associated. We have called attention to the experi- 
 ments and reasonings by which it has been shown that 
 an exact relation of equivalence exists between the 
 motion of masses produced by mechanical force, and 
 the motion of the particles of bodies manifesting itself 
 as heat produced by friction. Heat, therefore, has been 
 indubitably established to be a c mode of motion;' and 
 there is the very best reason for believing that all the 
 other forces or affections of matter are similarly re- 
 lated to motion, whilst they are also mutually con- 
 vertible. Each alike may arise from, or may give origin 
 to motion either directly or indirectly. 
 
 1 The ' unit of heat ' therefore, or that amount of heat which will 
 raise a pound of water i Fahr, is equal to 772 'foot-pounds,' if we 
 call the actual energy of a body weighing one pound which has fallen 
 one foot, a foot-pound. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 13 
 
 By the rubbing of substances of a different nature 
 together electricity is produced, as in the ordinary 
 electrical machine. Magnetism, again, may result from 
 motion; either immediately, in a bar of soft iron, 
 through a repetition of percussions, which, producing 
 motion amongst the particles of the bar, facilitate their 
 assumption of the magnetic mode of collocation; or 
 mediately through the intervention of electricity which 
 lias itself been generated by motion. And, as Mr. Her- 
 bert Spencer says 1 , c The transformations of electricity 
 into other modes of force are still more clearly demon- 
 strable. Produced by the motions of heterogeneous 
 bodies in contact, electricity, through attractions and 
 repulsions, will immediately reproduce motion in neigh- 
 bouring bodies. Now a current of electricity generates 
 magnetism in a bar of soft iron ; and now the rotation 
 of a permanent magnet generates currents of elec- 
 tricity. Here we have a battery in which, from the 
 play of chemical affinities, an electric current results; 
 and there, in the adjacent cell, we have an electric 
 current effecting chemical decomposition. In the con- 
 ducting wire we witness the transformation of elec- 
 tricity into heat ; while in the electric sparks and in 
 the voltaic arc we see light produced That mag- 
 netism produces motion is the ordinary evidence we 
 have of its existence. In the magneto-electric machine 
 we see a rotating magnet evolving electricity. And 
 
 1 ' First Principles,' p. 254. 
 
14 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 the electricity so evolved may immediately after ex- 
 hibit itself as heat, light, or chemical affinity. Faraday's 
 discovery of the effect of magnetism on polarized light, 
 as well as the discovery that change of magnetic state 
 is accompanied by heat, point to further like con- 
 nections. Lastly, various experiments show that the 
 magnetization of a body alters its internal structure ; 
 and that, conversely, the alteration of its internal struc- 
 ture, as by mechanical strain, alters its magnetic con- 
 dition/ We need allude to all these possibilities of 
 change no further ; those who wish for additional in- 
 formation may find it in Mr. Grove's work. 
 
 The most attentive consideration of the facts forces 
 us to the conclusion even to an irresistible belief 
 that though continually varying in its modes, Force 
 itself is indestructible or persistent. As Mr. Herbert 
 Spencer says, such an allegation really amounts to this, 
 that a priori possibilities and experimental evidence 
 alike warrant us in the belief c that there cannot 
 be an isolated force beginning and ending in no- 
 thing ; but that any force manifested implies an 
 equal antecedent force from which it is derived, and 
 against which it is a reaction. Further, that the force 
 so originating cannot disappear without result- but 
 must expend itself in some other manifestation of 
 force, which, in being produced, becomes its reaction ; 
 and so on continually.' 
 
 If forces are nothing but the inseparable qualities, 
 attributes, or affections of matter, and if matter is 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 15 
 
 itself indestructible, then, of course, it must follow as 
 an a priori necessity that forces, or the attributes of 
 matter, are also indestructible \ As Professor Faraday 
 expresses it 2 , c a particle of oxygen is ever a particle 
 of oxygen nothing can in the least wear it. If it 
 enter into combination and disappear as oxygen if 
 it pass through a thousand combinations, animal, 
 vegetable, and mineral if it lie hid for a thousand 
 years, and then be evolved, it is oxygen with its first 
 qualities. Neither more nor less. It has all its original 
 force, and only that ; the amount of force which it dis- 
 engaged when hiding itself has again to be employed 
 
 in a reverse direction when it is set at liberty 
 
 Just as the chemist owes all the perfection of his ex- 
 periments to his dependence on the certainty of gravita- 
 tion applied by the balance, so may the physical philo- 
 sopher expect to find the greatest security and the 
 utmost aid in the principle of the conservation of force. 
 
 1 Those who wish to follow this subject further, and to understand 
 what are its ultimate implications, cannot do better than read chapters 
 vi.-ix. of Mr. Herbert Spencer's ' First Principles.' They will then see 
 that 'persistence of force ' is really the most ultimate notion, on which the 
 doctrine of the ' indestructibility of matter ' as well as that of the 
 ' continuity of motion ' are alike dependent. He says : ' By the Per- 
 sistence of Force, we really mean the persistence of some power which 
 transcends our knowledge and conception. The manifestations either 
 as occurring in ourselves or outside of us do not persist ; but that 
 which persists is the Unknown Cause of these manifestations. In other 
 words, asserting the persistence of force is but another mode of asserting 
 an Unconditional Reality, without beginning or end.' p. 255, ist edit. 
 
 2 ' Researches in Chemistry,' pp. 454, 459. 
 
1 6 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 All that we have that is good and safe, as the steam- 
 engine, the electric telegraph, &c., witness to that 
 principle. It would require a perpetual motion, a fire 
 without heat, heat without a source, action without 
 reaction, cause without effect, or effect without a cause, 
 to displace it from its rank as a law of nature.' The 
 time, therefore, must come when the really funda- 
 mental doctrine of the persistence or indestructibility 
 of Force will be recognized by all educated persons 
 to have an equal validity with the secondary, though 
 more familiar, doctrine of the indestructibility of 
 Matter. The two doctrines are correlatives, and the 
 admission of one implies the truth of the other as a 
 necessary consequence. 
 
 Having come to an understanding as to what views 
 we are to take of Force and of the mutual relations 
 of the several physical forces, we now have to enquire 
 as to the relation in which these stand to the so-called 
 c vital forces ' manifested by Living Organisms. 
 
 The first real 1 step in explanation was taken in 
 
 1 In an 'Inaugural Address,' delivered in 1868 at the Jeafferson 
 Medical College, U.S., by Dr. J. Aitken Meigs, he claims the credit for 
 Dr. Metcalfe of having initiated this part of the doctrine. These 
 claims, and also others concerning Lardner Vanuxem, have been con- 
 sidered in the 'British Medical Journal/ January 16, 1869, p. 50. Dr. 
 Metcalfe's work, published two years earlier, in 1843, was entitled, 'On 
 Caloric ; its Mechanical, Chemical, and Vital Agencies in the Pheno- 
 mena of Nature.' Dr. Metcalfe seems to have been a man of much 
 power and originality, though he still looked upon heat as a material 
 substance, an elastic fluid named caloric. This view, of course, vitiates 
 his treatment of the subject, though it seems clear, from the passage 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 17 
 
 1845 ty Mayer of Heilbronn, in a memoir on c Organic 
 Movement in its Relation to Material Changes/ in 
 which he showed that the processes taking place in 
 living organisms, animal or vegetable, were produced 
 by forces acting upon them from without, and that 
 the changes in their composition brought about by 
 these external agencies were the immediate sources 
 of those modes of force apparently generated in the 
 organisms themselves. In the same year also Mr. 
 Newport was led by a consideration of the relations 
 which had been shown to exist between light and 
 electricity by Faraday, and between electricity and 
 nervous power by Matte ucci *, as well as ' by the 
 known dependence of most of the functions of the 
 body on the latter, to consider light as the primary 
 source of all vital and constructive power, the de- 
 grees and variations of which may, perhaps, be re- 
 ferred to modifications of this influence on the special 
 organization of each animal body 2 .' In the following 
 
 which we subjoin, that his notions otherwise were verging in the right 
 direction. ' All the chemical changes,' he says, ' that mark the course 
 of nature, are attended with changes of temperature, from the slowest 
 process of fermentation to the most rapid combustion ; that is, all the 
 decompositions and recombinations of matter are attended with the 
 addition or subtraction of caloric. Without the continual agency of the 
 solar beams, the vital air, the ocean, and the solid ground would become 
 a motionless mass of inert and chaotic matter. Without the reception 
 of caloric from the atmosphere by respiration, the wonderful mechanism 
 of animal motion, sensation, and life, could not go on.' 
 
 1 Physical Phenomena of living beings. 
 
 2 This passage is to be found only in the ' Athenaeum ' for Dec. 6, 
 
 C 
 
1 8 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 year Mr. Grove published his now well-known work 
 on the c Correlation of the Physical Forces/ and in 
 this, after having spoken of the relations existing 
 between the several physical forces, he said, C I be- 
 lieve that the same principles and mode of reasoning 
 might be applied to the organic, as well as to the 
 inorganic world; and that muscular force, animal 
 and vegetable heat, &c., might, and at some time 
 will, be shown to have similar definite correlations/ 
 This view was taken up by Dr. Carpenter, and was 
 much more fully elaborated by him. In an article 
 contributed to the c British and Foreign Medico- 
 Chirurgical Review' for January, 1848, Dr. Carpenter 
 maintained c that the vita/ forces, of various kinds, 
 bear the same relation to the several physical forces 
 of the inorganic world that they bear to each other; 
 the great essential modification or transformation 
 being effected by their passage, so to speak, through 
 the germ of the organic structure, somewhat after the 
 same fashion that heat becomes electricity when passed 
 through certain mixtures of metals/ Then, in 1850, 
 a memoir was read before the Royal Society, and after- 
 wards published in the c Philosophical Transactions/ 
 entitled, c On the Mutual Relations of the Vital and 
 Physical Forces,' in which the whole doctrine was much 
 
 1845. Though it originally formed part of a paper which afterwards 
 appeared in the 2Oth vol. of the ' Transactions of the Linnaean Society, 
 but from which this particular passage was omitted by desire of the 
 officers of the Society. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 19 
 
 more fully discussed, and Dr. Carpenter laboured most 
 successfully to show c that so close a mutual relation- 
 ship exists between all the vital forces, that they may 
 be legitimately regarded as modes of one and the same 
 force V And he also maintained that these so-called 
 vital forces were evolved within the living bodies of 
 plants and of the lower animals by the transformation 
 of the light, heat, and chemical action obtained from 
 without, which were given back to the external world 
 again, either during the life of the living beings, or 
 after their death, in terms of motion and heat, and 
 also, to a slight extent, in the form of light and elec- 
 tricity. These doctrines are thus definitely expressed 
 by him 2 : c The vital force which causes the prim- 
 ordial cell of the germ first to multiply itself, and 
 then to develope itself into a complex and extensive 
 organism, was not either originally locked up in that 
 single cell, nor was it latent in the materials which 
 are progressively assimilated by itself and its descend- 
 ants 5 ; but it is directly and immediately supplied by 
 
 1 In unicellular organisms, all the vital functions, so far as they are 
 differentiated, are carried on in the single cell ; and in the higher animals 
 which proceed from the growth and development of some single, equally 
 minute germ, specialization of function goes hand and hand with spe- 
 cialization of structure. 
 
 2 Loc. cit. pp. 752-756. 
 
 3 This holds good for plants, the lowest animals, and the initial 
 changes in the higher animals, though all the later vital manifestations 
 of the latter are dependent almost entirely upon the redistribution of the 
 forces pertaining to the organic substances which constitute their food, 
 and to the various chemical changes taking place within their own 
 
 C 2 
 
20 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 the heat which is constantly operating upon it, and 
 which is transformed into 'vital force by its passage through 
 
 the organised fabric 'which manifests it All the 
 
 forces which are operating in producing the phenomena 
 of life are in the first place derived from the inor- 
 ganic universe, and are finally restored to it again. 
 .... And there is strong reason to believe that the 
 entire amount of force of all kinds received by an 
 animal during a given period is given back by it during 
 that period, his condition at the end of the time being 
 the same as at the beginning. And all that has been 
 expended in the building up of the organism is given 
 back by its decay after death.' 
 
 In plants and in the lower tribes of animals we are 
 able to trace a most undoubted relationship between 
 the vital activity of each individual and the amount 
 of heat which it receives from external sources. Even 
 
 bodies. Mr. Herbert Spencer says : ' We have next to note, as having 
 here a meaning for us, the chemical contrasts between those organisms 
 which carry on their functions by the help of external forces, and those 
 which carry on their functions by forces evolved from within. If 
 we compare animals and plants, we see that whereas plants, charac- 
 terised as a class by containing but little nitrogen, are dependent upon 
 the solar rays for their vital activities ; animals, the .vital activities of 
 which are not thus dependent, mainly consist of nitrogenous substances. 
 There is one marked exception to this broad distinction, however ; and 
 this exception is specially instructive. Among plants there is a con- 
 siderable group the Fungi many members of which, if not all, can 
 live and grow in the dark ; and it is their peculiarity that they are very 
 much more nitiogenous than other plants.' (Principles of Biology, 1864, 
 vol. i. p. 37.) 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 21 
 
 in 1837, M. Boussingault, after contrasting the meteor- 
 ological circumstances in which wheat, barley, Indian 
 corn, and the potato are developed at the equator and 
 in the temperate zones, with their different rates of 
 growth in these situations, came to the conclusion c that 
 the same annual plant everywhere receives the same 
 quantity of heat in the course of its existence.' And 
 in one of his more recent works, speaking of the Fora- 
 minifera, Dr. Carpenter says 1 , c We have found strong 
 reason for regarding temperature as exerting a most im- 
 portant influence in favouring, not merely increase in 
 size, but specialization of development: all the most 
 complicated and specialized forms at present known 
 being denizens either of tropical or sub-tropical seas, and 
 many of these being represented in the seas of colder 
 regions by comparatively insignificant examples which 
 there seems adequate reason for regarding as of the 
 same specific types with the tropical forms, even though 
 deficient in some of their apparently most important 
 features/ That the rate of growth in plants depends 
 most notably upon the amount of light and heat to 
 which they are subjected is a fact familiar to most of 
 us. The stimulation of the vital processes by heat is, 
 indeed, most easy of demonstration in some cases. It 
 is now perfectly well known that in Valisneria^ Chara^ 
 Anacharls^ and other plants in the cells of which there 
 is a well-marked cyclosis, the rate of revolution of the 
 
 1 'Introduction to the Study of the Foraminifera ' (Ray Soc.), 1862, 
 p. 9. 
 
22 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 particles of protoplasm is, within certain limits, di- 
 rectly dependent upon temperature. By variations of 
 this, the rapidity of movement of the particles in 
 the cell may be seen to be increased or diminished 
 at pleasure. The amoeboid activity of a white blood 
 corpuscle or of a pus corpuscle is similarly stimu- 
 lated, within certain limits, by the influence of heat. 
 We know also that the hatching of eggs and the 
 germination of seeds may be likewise hastened or 
 retarded by access or deprivation of heat. Considera- 
 tions such as these at first suggested the doctrine of 
 the Correlation of the Vital and the Physical Forces, 
 a doctrine which has been slowly, though surely, gain- 
 ing ground since the date of its first announcement. 
 More and more evidence is gradually being accumu- 
 lated in its favour, so that we now find Professor 
 Frankland alluding to it in these terms: c No one 
 possessing any knowledge of physical science would 
 now venture to hold that vital force 1 is the source 
 of muscular power. An animal, however high its or- 
 ganization, can no more generate an amount of force 
 capable of moving a grain of sand, than a stone can 
 fall upwards, or a locomotive drive a train without fuel.' 
 Mr. Herbert Spencer, also, speaking of the same doc- 
 trine, says 2 , c It is a corollary from that primordial truth 
 which, as we have seen, underlies all other truths, that 
 
 1 That is, any peculiar force existing of and I>y itself, independently of 
 nil the physical forces. See Proceed, of Royal Institution, June 8, 1866. 
 8 ' Principles of Biology,' vol. i. p. 57. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 23 
 
 whatever amount of power an organism expends in any 
 shape, is the correlate and c-ijuivalcnt of a power that 
 was taken into it from without. On the one hand, it 
 follows from the persistence of force, that each portion 
 of mechanical or other energy which an organism 
 exerts, implies the transformation of as much organic 
 matter as contained this energy in a latent state. And 
 on the other hand, it follows from the persistence of 
 force that no such transformation of organic matter 
 containing this latent energy can take place without 
 the energy being in one shape or other manifested.' 
 
 We shall find it worth our while, however, to follow 
 up a little more fully the details of this most important 
 doctrine, as it will aid us so much in forming a true 
 conception as to the nature of Life. 
 
 As pointed out by M. Gavarret l , most of the physi- 
 cal force which, in the form of light and heat, impinges 
 upon a plant, is consumed therein (travail mttrleur}. It 
 is stored up as potential force in the complex organic 
 substances entering into the composition of the plant ; 
 these being produced therein (under the influence of 
 the already existing living tissues) by the action of 
 physical forces upon the not-living constituents of the 
 earth, air, and water by which the plant was surrounded. 
 The animal, on the contrary, liberating and using these 
 forces which have been stored up by the plant after 
 assimilating its substance in the form of food expends 
 them in the production of that travail ext'crieur which 
 1 ' Ph5nomoncs Physiques cle la Vie,' 1869, Paris p. 73. 
 
24 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 the animaFs nature and the necessities of its existence 
 compel it to manifest. Animals display, in varying 
 proportions, three principal modes of vital activity 
 which testify to the continual liberation of force within 
 them : (i) they appear to produce heat; (2) they move, 
 by reason of the contractility of certain tissues ; and 
 (3) they display certain nervous phenomena. 
 
 i. Very many animals constantly maintain them- 
 selves at a temperature above that of the medium in 
 which they live; this being more especially the case 
 with the so-called warm-blooded animals amongst which 
 birds are most remarkable for the very great difference 
 existing between their temperature and that of the air. 
 The cause of this difference in temperature between 
 the animal and its medium has been variously explained 
 at different times. It was believed by Galen that heat 
 was actually produced de novo in the left ventricle of 
 the heart ; and even John Hunter thought that the pro- 
 duction of animal heat depended upon a special vital 
 force or principle, which was able not only to produce 
 but actually to destroy heat. Others and that even 
 in comparatively recent times have striven to prove 
 that some principle resident in the nervous system was 
 capable of giving rise to animal heat. The true theo- 
 ries on this subject, however, may be said to date as 
 far back as the close of the eighteenth century, and to 
 have commenced with the brilliant discoveries of Lavoi- 
 sier. Speaking of his researches, M. Gavarret says 1 : 
 
 1 Loc. cit. p. 99. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 25 
 
 c The alimentary substances introduced into the stomach, 
 after being digested and liquified, are absorbed and sent 
 into the vessels, where they mix with the blood , on the 
 other hand, the air introduced at each inspiration into 
 the pulmonary cavity yields to the blood a part of its 
 oxygen. Struck with this double centripetal move- 
 ment., Lavoisier asked himself what happened to these 
 substances brought into relation with one another 
 within the blood-vessels. Proceeding in this research 
 with all the rigour of a chemical analysis, he showed 
 that the oxygen introduced by the respiratory passages 
 attacks the organic substances furnished by digestion, 
 burns them, combining with their carbon and their 
 hydrogen to form carbonic acid and water. He showed 
 that this slow combustion of the organic materials of 
 the blood is an incessant source of heat V Lavoisier 
 then instituted experiments to determine the quantity 
 of heat abstracted from the animal by radiation, by 
 contact with air, and by evaporation of fluids from the 
 surface of the body. On the other hand, he measured 
 the quantity of oxygen consumed, calculated the propor- 
 tions of carbonic acid and of water produced by the 
 combination of this oxygen with the materials of the 
 blood, and then estimated the quantity of heat dis- 
 engaged during these reactions. From a comparison 
 of the results thus obtained in these two series of ob- 
 servations, he came to the conclusion that the chemical 
 reactions carried on within the body would furnish 
 1 ' Mm. de 1'Acad. des Sciences,' 1789. 
 
26 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 enough heat to maintain the animal at its proper tem- 
 perature. This conclusion was afterwards confirmed by 
 many other experiments and observations. The re- 
 searches of Lavoisier still left us in doubt, however, as 
 to whether the combustion of the materials of the blood 
 took place in the capillaries of the body generally, or 
 in those of the pulmonary circulation. This doubt was 
 removed by Spallanzani; and the subsequent experi- 
 ments of Magnus and of Claude-Bernard only tended to 
 confirm his conclusion, that the heat-producing chemi- 
 cal changes were carried on in the capillaries of the 
 body generally. Thus the heat evolved in animals is 
 some of that solar heat which had previously impinged 
 upon plants, and which was gradually locked up in the 
 form of potential force, during the growth of the plant- 
 tissue subsequently taken as food by animals. 
 
 2. Turning now to the next dynamic manifestation of 
 animals to their power of movement we may, for the 
 sake of brevity, consider this as it presents itself in the 
 higher animals only in those in which the movements 
 depend upon the contractility of definite structures 
 known as c muscles.' Contractility is the essential attri- 
 bute of the muscle, and, being one of the peculiarly 
 vital endowments, we may now enquire how far this 
 vital property is one which is correlatable with ordinary 
 physical forces, or whether it can display itself inde- 
 pendently of these l . In the first place, it is important 
 
 1 For a full and admirable treatment of this question we must Tefer 
 the reader to pp. 120-194 of the work of Gavarret, already quoted. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 27 
 
 to state that this contractility of the muscle can be ex- 
 cited, for a time, after the death of the animal of which 
 it formed part : the length of time during which the 
 property persists being, generally, longer in proportion 
 as the animal is lower in the scale of organization. 
 During winter the muscles of certain fish and reptiles 
 have been known to contract for a week after death, 
 though in mammals and birds this property of the vo- 
 luntary muscles disappears after a few hours. From the 
 researches of Nysten upon the bodies of decapitated 
 criminals, it appears that in man, as in the lower ani- 
 mals, a certain order is observed amongst the different 
 muscles of the body in the loss of this vital property. 
 Contractions, from electrical stimuli, ceased in the left 
 ventricle of the heart after forty-five minutes; in the 
 muscles of the extremities after seven hours ; and, last 
 of all, in the right auricle of the heart, which, on this 
 account, had been previously spoken of by Galen as 
 c ultimum moriens/ In one instance, Nysten found 
 that this portion of the human heart could be made to 
 contract i6j hours after the death of the individual. 
 Contractility of the muscle cannot, therefore, be due 
 to any peculiar c vital principle' which leaves the body 
 when the organism dies. 
 
 Although the muscle is usually excited to contract by 
 a stimulus sent through a nerve, we have now learned 
 principally through the phenomena observable in ani- 
 mals poisoned by woorara that the contractility of the 
 muscle may be called into play through the direct 
 
28 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 action of a stimulus, and without any intervention of the 
 nervous system. The contractility is, however, closely 
 related, and more or less proportionate in degree, to 
 the supply of arterial blood circulating in the capillary 
 vessels with which it is furnished. The experiments 
 of Longet l on this subject are most instructive. He 
 found, as a result of experimentation upon many ani- 
 mals, that all traces of contractility after the direct 
 application of a stimulus disappeared from muscles 
 which had received no arterial blood for a space of two 
 hours ; but that almost as soon as the afflux of arterial 
 blood to the muscle was again permitted even in the 
 space of a few minutes the contractility of the muscles 
 again manifested itself upon the application of a stimu- 
 lus, either direct or indirect. But those heat-liberating 
 chemical reactions the processes of combustion neces- 
 sary for the continuance of the nutritive changes are 
 carried on in the capillaries of the muscle as well as in 
 the capillaries of other parts of the body ; and it would 
 seem that the disappearance of the property of contrac- 
 tility from the muscle is dependent upon that stoppage 
 of the heat-evolution therein which the arrest of the 
 circulation entails. In support of this view, on the one 
 hand, it has been shown by M. Becquerel 2 that the 
 temperature of a muscle becomes sensibly lowered when 
 the artery supplying it is compressed ; and, on the other^ 
 
 de Physiologic,' sme ed. 1869, t. ii. p. 613. 
 2 ' Ann. de Chimie de Physique,' 1835, t. lix. p. 135,. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 29 
 
 we learn, from the experiments of Matteucci l y that the 
 activity of the processes of combustion within the 
 muscle increase during its contraction -. 
 
 Many separate sets of investigations do indeed tend 
 to show that an excess of heat is developed during mus- 
 cular activity, though, on the other hand, there is evi- 
 dence to prove, from the highly interesting experiments 
 of M. Beclard 3 , whose results have been confirmed and 
 extended by M. Heidenhain, the increase in the acti- 
 vity of the chemical changes which undoubtedly exists 
 during muscular exercise, is much greater than can be 
 accounted for by the actual increase of sensible heat in 
 the body. After alluding to these various investigations, 
 M. Gavarret generalizes their results as follows 4 : 
 
 1 ' Letture sul 1' elettro-physiologia,' Milano, 1867, p. 36. 
 
 2 During a state of rest, or moderate exercise, combustion and eli- 
 mination of its products are duly regulated in the muscle. So long as 
 this balance is maintained the muscle preserves its physiological pro- 
 perties, and the chemical reaction of its juice remains neutral or alkaline. 
 But when excessive activity of the muscle is maintained, then the pro- 
 cesses of elimination can no longer keep pace with those of combustion : 
 lactic acid accumulates within the muscle, and the reaction of its juice 
 becomes decidedly acid. The contractility is gradually enfeebled by 
 the increasing accumulation of these effete products within the muscle, 
 and the feeling of fatigue is induced. There is good reason for believing 
 that this feeling of fatigue is rather dependent upon the accumulation of 
 these products of combustion within the muscle than upon an actual 
 molecular wasting of the muscle-substance. There is, however, a more 
 general feeling of fatigue which is dependent rather upon state of nerv- 
 ous system than state of muscle. 
 
 3 ' De la Contraction musculaire dans ses rapports avec la temperature 
 animale,' Paris, 1861. 
 
 4 Loc. cit. p. 135. 
 
30 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 c All these experiments agree in showing that in the 
 muscular system of an animal which accomplishes ac- 
 tual work (such as raising a weight, dragging a load, &c.) 
 everything goes on as in an ordinary steam-engine. 
 Whilst the muscle performs work, the heat produced by 
 the internal combustions becomes divided into two 
 complementary portions; the one part appears as sen- 
 sible heat, and determines the temperature of the muscle, 
 the other disappears^ so far as its existence in the form 
 of heat is concerned, and, by the intervention of the 
 muscular contraction, becomes transformed into mechani- 
 cal work. The muscle is an animated machine^ which, 
 like the steam-engine, utilizes the heat in order to 
 produce work : in both cases there is necessarily an 
 equivalence between the heat which disappears, or is 
 consumed, and the external work achieved.' In con- 
 sideration of its origin, the energy manifested during 
 the contraction of the muscle is directly comparable 
 with the energy due to the elasticity of vapour when 
 this is the motor power at work, as in a steam-engine. 
 Chemical change combustion, in fact in each case, in 
 muscle and steam-engine alike, causes the liberation of 
 heat; and in each case part of this liberated force is 
 capable of manifesting itself anew in the form of me- 
 chanical energy. It matters not whence the heat is 
 derived whether it comes from the decomposition of 
 the recently assimilated food-products in the blood 
 which circulates through the muscle, or whether it 
 proceeds from the liberated energy or sun-force that 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 31 
 
 may have been locked up for ages in the bowels of the 
 earth, but which is now set free by a process of com- 
 bustion in the engine fire the result is the same, and 
 in the muscle, as much as in the steam-engine, we have 
 to do with a machine in which the transference of heat 
 into mechanical energy is capable of being effected. 
 The muscle, it is true, is a much more subtle kind of 
 machine, and the precise mode of its action is as yet 
 hidden from us ; we know not ho<w it is through what 
 precise molecular changes taking place in the substance 
 of the muscle that the heat which disappears as heat, 
 is, through the property of contractility, enabled to re- 
 appear in the form of mechanical energy whilst 
 the animal performs its manifold muscular move- 
 ments. That this is so, however, we know; and we 
 know, moreover, that as a mere machine for the con- 
 version of heat into mechanical energy, the muscle far 
 excels the best steam-engine which has ever been 
 constructed. The merits of such a machine must of 
 course be judged, other things equal, according to the 
 greater or less proportion of the total heat liberated 
 therein which is capable of being converted into me- 
 chanical energy available 1 for the execution of actual 
 work. Now, the investigations of Helmholtz and 
 
 1 Available muscular energy must be distinguished from total muscular 
 energy, some of which whilst a man is performing work is ex- 
 pended in balancing the body or in other ways not directly effective. 
 It is the amount of loss of effective or available energy in this and in 
 other ways (such as from friction, radiation, &c.) which regulates the 
 value of muscular and all other machines. 
 
32 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 Hirn have gone to show that a man is capable of util- 
 izing, for the production of available muscular energy, 
 one-fifth of the total amount of heat developed in his 
 body ; whilst the admirable labours of the latter inves- 
 tigator have also shown that even the most perfect 
 steam-engine that has yet been constructed is only 
 capable of utilizing about one-eighth l of the total amount 
 of heat liberated therein 2 . We now know also, in op- 
 
 1 This estimate is much more in favour of the steam-engine than that 
 of other investigators. According to Rankine, only from ^ to ^ of 
 the heat of the fuel is capable of manifesting itself as mechanical 
 energy; Sir William Armstrong, again, considers -^ as the maximum, 
 though he thinks the average conversion to be about - of the total 
 potential force of the fuel. 
 
 2 In continuation of this subject M. Gavarret says (loc. cit. p. 146) : 
 ' Mais pour se faire une juste idde du haut degre' de perfection qui peut 
 atteindre le moteur animd, il faut fixer son attention, sur la rapidite" des 
 mouvements execute's d'une maniere continue par certains oiseaux et les 
 insectes alt's, pendant les heures et meme des journees entires. En 
 quatre ou cinq minutes 1'aigle s'dleve a 6 ou 7000 metres et disparait, 
 dans les airs : d'aprks Pictio de Lavalle, le pigeon messager de Perse 
 fait en un jour plus de chemin qu'un homme de pied en six. Les 
 hirondelles volent pendant des journe'es entieres de'crivant mille et mille 
 sinuosite's dans les airs pour atteindre les petites insectes dont elles font 
 leur nourriture ; leur vol est si rapide et si soutenu que sept a huit jours 
 leur suffisent pour se transporter de nos climats sous la ligne ; Adanson 
 en a vu arriver au Sdndgal trois ou quatre jours apres leur depart 
 d'Europe. Le faucon de Henri II s'etant emporte" apres une canar- 
 dicre a. Fontainebleau, fut pris le lendemain a Malte et reconnu a 1'an- 
 neau qu'il portait; un faucon des Canaries, envoye" au due de Lerme 
 revint d'Andalousie k 1'lle de Te'ne'riffe en seize heures, ce qui fait un 
 trajet de 250 lieues execute" avec un vitesse moyenne de 16 lieues k 
 1'heure. Hans Sloane assure qu'a la Barbade les mouettes vont se 
 promener en troupes <\ plus de 60 lieues de distance en mer, et que le 
 meme jour elles regagnent leur point de depart. Certains insectes, 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 33 
 
 position to the doctrines of Liebig, that the heat which 
 is transformed into mechanical energy is by no means 
 necessarily derived from the combustion of nitroge- 
 nous substances , and, least of all, from an oxidation 
 of the substance of the muscle itself. This doctrine of 
 Liebig, which was for a long time accepted by many 
 physiologists, was from the commencement rejected by 
 a few, and notably so by Mayer, in his celebrated 
 memoir before alluded to 1 . In this memoir he insisted 
 that c A muscle is only an apparatus by means of 
 which the transformation of force is brought about, 
 but it is not the substance by the chemical change of 
 which the mechanical effect is produced/ The recent 
 admirable researches of MM. Fick and Wislicenus 2 
 are entirely in favour of this notion. They found, in 
 making a mountain ascent, that the total combustion 
 of nitrogenous materials would only suffice to produce 
 about one-half of the tota] effective energy which must 
 have been expended during the excursion. This and 
 other considerations render it almost certain that the 
 heat which is converted into mechanical energy during 
 
 comme les taons peuvent suivre pendant de longues heures un cheval 
 lancd au grand trot. Par une belle jour-ne'e de mai ou de juin 1'abeille 
 vole d'une manifere continue du matin au soir, pour aller cueillir dans les 
 corolles des fleurs et rapporter k la ruche les materiaux necessaires aux 
 travaux et k la nourriture de la communautd.' 
 
 1 ' Organic Movement in its Relation to Material Changes,' Heilbronn, 
 1845. 
 
 2 ' Philosophical Magazine,' vol. xxxi. p. 485. For most important 
 additional facts and explanations, see a paper by Prof. Parkes in ' Pro- 
 ceedings of the Royal Society,' 1867, pp. 53-59. 
 
 D 
 
34 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 muscular action is derived from no peculiar source. We 
 know that heat is set free by nutritive chemical changes 
 taking place in the blood which circulates through the 
 capillaries of the muscular system, and that the sub- 
 stances which undergo these changes are dissolved non- 
 nitrogenous, as well as nitrogenous products of assimi- 
 lation. We know, in fact, that the muscle acts only as 
 a machine for the purpose of converting a portion of 
 the heat thence derived into mechanical energy \ and 
 that the substance of the muscle itself not yielding the 
 force which is to be transformed undergoes merely a 
 molecular wasting by virtue of its own functional acti- 
 vity as a transformative apparatus, just as the parts of 
 a steam-engine are subject to a gradual wear and tear 
 produced by the friction occasioned during its activity 2 . 
 
 1 The machine being called into action, merely, by the nerve, and the 
 stimulus coming through this being partly, though not wholly, to the 
 contraction of the muscle as the spark is to exploding gunpowder. 
 The experiments of Matteucci ('Letture sul 1' elettro-physiologia/ Milan, 
 1867, p. 35") go to show that the mechanical work effected by a muscle 
 during its contraction may be 30,000 times greater than the work ex- 
 pended in the excitation of the nerve. On the other hand, there is 
 abundant evidence to show that the strength and vigour of the muscular 
 contraction varies with the amount or intensity of the nerve-change 
 which calls it into play. The same muscle which, in certain states of 
 the nervous system, may be almost powerless, may in others be made to 
 contract with far more than ordinary energy. 
 
 2 The molecular restitution of muscle, of brain, and of the nitrogenous 
 tissues generally, which are in continual need of repair, make it essential 
 that nitrogenous substances should to a certain extent be consumed as 
 food. But so far as muscular action is concerned the nitrogenous sub- 
 stances are needed for the repair of the machine, and not, as formerly 
 supposed, as a source of the energy which is to be transformed through 
 the intervention of the machine. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 35 
 
 3. Turning now to the third mode of vital activity 
 to that which manifests itself in the display of nervous 
 phenomena we shall find that these manifestations 
 are also closely dependent upon the integrity of certain 
 material structures, and that their appearance coincides 
 with an increase in the quantity of heat appreciable 
 in, or in the neighbourhood of these structures. 
 
 The Nervous System is made up of nerve-cells and 
 nerve-fibres in various states of aggregation. The 
 nerve-cells are elements in which great molecular 
 changes are supposed to take place, attended by the 
 liberation of molecular motion, whilst the nerve-fibres 
 are, for the most part, mere channels of communica- 
 tion along which this molecular motion is conducted. 
 The matter of which the nervous system is com- 
 posed was originally almost uniform in structure and 
 property; but, little by little, developmental differen- 
 tiations take place in the embryo, with which are 
 associated correlated differences in function. As Mr. 
 Herbert Spencer says, all direct and indirect evidence 
 c justify us in concluding that the nervous system con- 
 sists of one kind of matter under different forms and 
 conditions. In the grey tissue this matter exists in 
 masses containing corpuscles^ which are soft and have 
 granules dispersed through them, and which, besides 
 being thus unstably composed, are placed so as to be 
 liable to disturbance in the greatest degree. In the 
 white tissue this matter is collected together in ex- 
 tremely slender threads that are denser, that are uniform 
 
 D 2 
 
36 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 in texture, and that are shielded in an unusual manner 
 from disturbing forces, except at their two extre- 
 mities V On the one hand, these fibres connect peri- 
 pheral parts with the nerve-centres, whereby such parts 
 are rendered sensitive $ whilst, on the other hand, the 
 nerve-centres are also in connection with other sets of 
 nerve-fibres which are accustomed to transmit stimuli 
 outwardly towards the muscles in which they are dis- 
 tributed, so as to call them into activity. The expe- 
 riments of Phillipeaux and Vulpian have abundantly 
 confirmed the reasonings of Mr. G. H. Lewes 2 , which 
 went to show that there was no real difference in pro- 
 perty between the so-called sensory and motor nerves. 
 The fundamental property of each alike is the capa- 
 bility of transmitting a stimulus, and for this property 
 Mr. Lewes proposed the name neurility. Neurility, 
 therefore, is the characteristic property of a nerve, just 
 as contractility is the characteristic property of a muscle ; 
 and the different results produced, when a sensory and 
 a motor nerve respectively are stimulated, is due to the 
 different nature of the organs to which the stimulus is 
 directed. When the stimulus traverses the nerve in 
 an afferent direction, this, impinging upon a nerve- 
 centre, liberates a larger or smaller quantity of energy, 
 and may produce what is called a sensation ; but when, 
 on the other hand, a stimulus originating in a nerve- 
 centre is propagated in an efferent direction, then this 
 
 1 'Principles of Psychology,' 1869, No. 20, p. 24. 
 
 2 ' Physiology of Common Life,' 1859. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 37 
 
 stimulus calls into play the contractility of a muscle, 
 and so gives rise to a motor act. 
 
 As we have already seen in respect to the muscle, 
 that its contractility lasts for a varying period after the 
 death of the animal, so is it in the case of the nerve. 
 This, after the death of the animal, is still capable of 
 transmitting a stimulus a fact which is shown by its 
 power (when stimulated) of calling into action the muscle 
 to which it is distributed. The precise length of time 
 during which the property survives increases also in pro- 
 portion as the animal is low in the scale of organization. 
 Again, there are many experiments of the most striking 
 kind on record which show the complete dependence of 
 the nervous system upon a due supply of arterial blood. 
 Without this all nerve-functions soon cease in parts 
 thus cut off from their stores of potential energy. The 
 experiments of many observers have shown that, when 
 the posterior part of the body of a mammalian animal 
 has been cut off from its blood supply by ligature of 
 the abdominal aorta, the complete insensibility and 
 disappearance of all reflex^ excitability which soon 
 supervenes, may be made to cease in the course of a 
 few minutes by the removal of the ligature from the 
 main artery. The renewal of the circulation of the 
 blood through the grey matter of the spinal cord re- 
 stores to this and to the paralysed parts generally their 
 
 1 That is to say, the ability to give rise to movements, in response to 
 external stimuli, through the intervention of lower nerve-centres, in- 
 dependently of the action of Will or volition. 
 
38 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 temporarily-abolished functions. Non-sensitive parts 
 again become sensitive, and the paralysis of motor power 
 disappears. Even when the posterior part of the body 
 of such an animal has been completely severed from the 
 anterior, and when all signs of reflex excitability have 
 disappeared, M. Brown-Sequard has, nevertheless, found 
 that the injection for a time of oxygenated and defibri- 
 nated blood seems to restore to the spinal cord all its 
 properties so that irritation of the skin again gives 
 rise to reflex movements. The functions of the brain 
 are similarly dependent upon, and modifiable by, the 
 nature of the blood supply. Sir Astley Cooper having 
 tied the two carotid arteries of a rabbit, completely 
 cut off the afflux of blood to the brain by compressing 
 the two vertebral arteries ; when the animal very 
 shortly lapsed into a state of complete stupor or coma, 
 which continued until the compression was removed 
 from the two latter vessels. As soon as this was done, 
 however, the animal again exhibited signs of life. The 
 experiments of M. Vulpian upon frogs have yielded even 
 still more striking results. He stopped the circulation 
 of blood throughout the body generally, by tying the 
 heart at the origin of the great vessels. This occasioned 
 a gradual cessation of all vital manifestations. In 
 such animals, however, these manifestations are slow 
 to disappear, so that it was- not till after the expi- 
 ration of tiuo or three hours that all signs of life had 
 gone. After this period no trace of any excitability 
 could be detected in the spinal cord, and the animal 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 39 
 
 was practically dead l but for the fact that the heart still 
 exhibited feeble contractions 2 , although the presence of 
 the ligature still prevented the egress of blood from its 
 cavities. In this condition the frog might be allowed 
 to remain for even three or four hours , and yet, when 
 the ligature was removed, the heart still continuing to 
 beat, the circulation soon became completely re-estab- 
 lished. The other vital functions reappeared much more 
 slowly. After about half-an-hour the first signs of 
 respiratory movements showed themselves at first at 
 irregular and distant intervals, and then, gradually, with 
 their accustomed rhythm. But it was not till after about 
 two hours more that the spinal cord, as a whole, re- 
 gained its excitability, and that reflex movements were 
 producible by irritation of the skin. Later still, the 
 power of voluntary movement was resumed, and the pre- 
 viously dead animal was seen to have recovered all its 
 vital powers 3 . 
 
 1 The animal, as a whole, was certainly dead, although it retained 
 within itself the potentiality of living. Life might be renewed, if its 
 tissues and organs were again exposed to fitting conditions, but not 
 otherwise. 
 
 2 We have seen, already, how long even in the human subject signs 
 of vitality remain in the right auricle of the heart. All this is much more 
 manifest in the Amphibia, and, from what has been stated above, we 
 can only conclude that the cardiac ganglia, in these creatures as well as in 
 others, are capable of retaining their vital properties longer than the 
 spinal centres. 
 
 3 M. Gavarret calls attention to the Memoir of Legallois published 
 in 1812, ' Sur le Principe de la Vie,' in which he showed a rare insight 
 and prescience. Legallois said (CEuvres, t. i. p. 131) : ' Si Ton pouvait 
 supplier au cceur par une sorte d'injection et si en meme temps on avait, 
 
40 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 It has been ascertained very definitely by the expe- 
 riments of Helmholtz and of M. SchifF, that the trans- 
 mission of a stimulus through a nerve is marked by a 
 rise of temperature therein ; whilst the extremely inte- 
 resting experiments of Dr. Lombard seem to show that 
 a similar rise of temperature takes place in the brain 
 itself l , when it is in a state of activity. Liebreich 
 
 pour fournir k 1'injection d'une maniere continue, une provision de 
 sang arterial, on parviendrait sans peine k entretenir la vie inde'finement 
 dans quelque troncon que ce soit ; et par consequent, apres la de'capi- 
 tation, on 1'entretiendrait dans la tete elle-m6me avec toutes les fonctions 
 qui sont propres au cerveau. Non seulement on pourrait entretenir la 
 vie de cette maniere, soit dans la tete, soit dans toute autre partie isolee 
 du corps d'un animal, mais on pourrait 1'y rappele'r apres son entiere 
 extinction.' These predictions of Legallois have received a most re- 
 markable verification by the experiments of Brown-Se'quard, which are 
 thus referred to by M. Gavarret : ' Sur un chien, M. Brown-Se'quard 
 separe la tete du tronc ; il attend buit ou dix minutes jusqu'k ce que, 
 depuis quelques instants, le bulbe rachidien et le reste de 1'encephale 
 aient bien eVidemment perdu toute trace appreciable d'excitabilite' ; puis 
 il, pratique des injections re'ite'rees de sang defibrine' et oxyge'ne' k la fois 
 dans les arteres carotides et dans les verte'brales. Quelques mouvements 
 de'sordonne's apparaissent au bout de deux ou trois minutes, puis les 
 muscles des yeux et de la face executent des mouvements coordonnes 
 ve*ritables manifestations de la vie, qui tendent k faire admettre que les 
 fonctions ce're'brales se sont re'tablies dans cette tete completement sepa- 
 re'e du tronc.' (Loc. cit. p. 237.) 
 
 1 See ' Journal de Physiologic,' t. i. 670. Intellectual and emotional 
 activity alike produced a rise of temperature, which was always most 
 appreciable over the posterior part rather than the frontal region of the 
 head. We must suppose that the heat detectable in these cases is some 
 surplus portion of that set free in the blood of the part a portion 
 which has escaped modification into nerve-force. The muscle, as we 
 have seen, is only capable of utilizing a portion of the heat actually 
 liberated. But if the analogy between the mode of action of the muscle 
 and the nerve-centre does not hold and there is still much room for 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 and M. Byasson think that such evolution of heat is 
 produced by an increased amount of chemical change 
 in the active parts; though the investigations of Dr. 
 L. H. Wood J go to show that (as was the case in the 
 activity of muscle) the liberated energy is not derived 
 from the oxidation of the nerve-substance itself, but 
 rather from an oxidation of the pabulum supplied by 
 the blood to the functionally active parts. It is quite 
 reasonable to suppose, however, that nerve-organs, by 
 virtue of their activity, should undergo a certain amount 
 of waste 2 ; and, probably, it is this of which we get 
 evidence in the observations of Liebreich as to the 
 diminution of protagon in parts of the nervous system 
 which had long been in a state of uninterrupted activity. 
 
 doubt on this subject then the local increase of heat may be due to 
 mere increased afflux of blood, either alone or supplemented by heat 
 which is liberated during the molecular changes taking place in the 
 nerve-tissue itself. 
 
 1 ' On the Influence of Mental Activity on the Excretion of Phos- 
 phoric Acid by the Kidneys.' (' Proceedings of Connecticut Medical 
 Society,' 1869, p. 197.) 
 
 2 The researches of Professor Haughton (' Dublin Quarterly Journal 
 of Medical Science,' 1 860) and also of M. Byasson (' Thfese de Paris,' 
 1868, No. 162) have shown that the same individual during periods in 
 which he has undergone much intellectual labour and a minimum of 
 muscular exercise, passes as much or even more urea than during other 
 similar periods when there has been much muscular exertion and a 
 minimum of intellectual labour. The analyses of M. Byasson go to 
 show that the same individual, under the influence of the same diet, 
 passed in 24 hours the following quantities of urea : 
 
 During a period of rest . 20-46 grms. 
 
 During a period of muscular labour .... 22-90 
 During a period of cerebral activity ..... 23-88 
 
42 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 The molecular motion or energy, set free in the ner- 
 vous system, subserves very different purposes. Upon 
 evidence which cannot now be gone into, it could be 
 shown (a) that the nervous system plays an important 
 part in regulating the various secretions and in in- 
 fluencing the nutrition of the body generally. It is 
 nerve-force again (&) which initiates or calls into play 
 the activity of the various muscles by which the count- 
 less movements within the bodies of animals are pro- 
 duced, and also those by which locomotion and external 
 visible movements generally are effected. But nerve- 
 changes also (c) give rise to other manifestations mani- 
 festations altogether peculiar in kind and peculiar to the 
 individual in whom they occur. Feeling is the basis of 
 Consciousness, and this is a property sui generis, which is 
 believed to be called into existence by the action or 
 occurrence of molecular changes within certain parts of 
 the brain *. 
 
 Whilst the manifestation of mental phenomena, in 
 
 1 ' Feeling of whatever kind is directly known by each person in no 
 other place than his own consciousness. That feelings exist in the world 
 beyond consciousness is a belief reached only through an involved com- 
 bination of inferences. That, alike in human and inferior beings, feel- 
 ings are accompaniments of changes in the peculiar structure known as 
 the nervous system, is also an indirectly established belief. And that 
 the feelings alone cognizable by any individual are products of the 
 action of his own nervous system, which he has never seen, and on 
 which he can try no experiments, is a belief only to be arrived at through 
 a further chain of reasoning. Nevertheless, the evidence, though so 
 indirect, is so extensive, so varied, and so congruous, that we may ac- 
 cept the conclusion without hesitation.' Herbert Spencer, 'Principles 
 of Psychology,' 1869, p. 128. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 43 
 
 the ordinary sense of the term, therefore, corresponds 
 only to a fractional part of nerve-activities in gene- 
 ral, there is, again, the very best reason for believ- 
 ing that Consciousness, so far from being co-exten- 
 sive with Mind, or mental phenomena, is in reality 
 limited to a comparatively small portion of what 
 may be rightly ranged under this category. Many truly 
 mental phenomena never reveal themselves in con- 
 sciousness at all, and the roots of these strike far and 
 wide; so that, instead of accepting the popular view, 
 that the Brain is the organ of Mind, I believe it would 
 be nearer the truth to look upon the whole Nervous 
 System as the organ of Mind a doctrine which has 
 already been taught by Mr. G. H. Lewes and others. 
 The Brain, it is true, is its principal organ, whilst Con- 
 sciousness or Feeling 1 is probably only attendant upon 
 the activity of quite a limited portion of this 2 . And, 
 
 1 Not using these words, however, in the sense in which they are 
 employed by Mr. Lewes, as has been explained in an article on ' Sensa- 
 tion and Perception' in Nature, vol. i. Nos. 8 and 12. 
 
 2 On this subject we have said elsewhere (article on * Conscious- 
 ness,' 'Journal of Mental Science,' January 1870, p. 522): 'Mind is 
 generally supposed to be constituted by our conscious states or nerve- 
 actions only ; but as these conscious states are themselves only the last 
 terms of a series of molecular actions taking place in ganglionic and 
 other nerve-tissue, we now simply maintain that the components and 
 not the resultant alone ought to be considered as elements entering into 
 the composition of mind. And, similarly, we would make the sum 
 total of the seats of these molecular changes the whole Nervous Sys- 
 temrather than the seats of the resulting conscious states alone, con- 
 stitute the organ of Mind as now understood.' And again, in Nature 
 (vol. i. No. 12, p,3ii): 'Cognition or intellectual action may take 
 
44 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 as Mr. Herbert Spencer has so clearly pointed out a , 
 in the evolution of Mind we each one of us expe- 
 rience the constant transitions whereby a state or act 
 (the recurrence of which was at first always attended 
 by consciousness) at last, when thoroughly familiar, 
 may take place quite unconsciously, or without in 
 the least arousing our attention. The more fully 
 such phenomena, therefore, are recognized as parts 
 of an orderly succession, by which alone greater and 
 greater complexities of thought and feeling are rendered 
 possible, the more will it become evident that the 
 sphere of Mind cannot at any time be circumscribed by 
 the then present or possible states of Consciousness 
 the more it is obvious that in our conception of Mind 
 we should also include all past stages of Consciousness, 
 the representatives of which, now in the form of un- 
 conscious nerve- actions, are from moment to moment 
 manifesting themselves potentially, if not actually, in 
 all our present Thoughts, Feelings, and Volitions. 
 
 But though on the question whether Consciousness 
 or Feeling is to be regarded as a possible accompani- 
 
 place under the form of a mere organic or unconscious discrimination 
 without the intervention of consciousness. Thus, in the individual, con- 
 sciousness or feeling comes to be superadded as an additional accom- 
 paniment to certain mere organic discriminations ; so that consciousness, 
 without which sensation cannot exist, is secondary, whilst cognition, in 
 the form of unconscious discrimination, is primary. Out of this primary 
 undifferentiated organic discrimination, such as alone pertains to the lowest 
 forms of animal life, there has been gradually evolved that which we 
 know as Feeling and Consciousness.' 
 
 1 ' Principles of Psychology,' 1855, pp. 563 and 616. 
 
'2 HE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 45 
 
 ment only of certain nerve-changes, or whether it is to 
 be regarded as the invariable and principal result of the 
 activity of the elements of a part which is to be looked 
 upon as the organ of Consciousness, there is still room 
 for doubt; there is, on the other hand, a certainty that 
 the various modes of Consciousness which may be 
 called into activity by any sets of nerve-changes are 
 not to be considered as correlatable with such nerve- 
 changes as a whole. c We have good reason to con- 
 clude/ as Mr. Spencer says, c that at the particular place 
 in a superior nerve-centre where, in some mysterious 
 way, an objective change or nervous action causes a 
 subjective change or feeling, there exists a quantitative 
 equivalence between the two : the amount of sensation 
 is proportionate to the amount of molecular transfor- 
 mation that takes place in the vesicular substance af- 
 fected. But there is no fixed or even approximate 
 quantitative relation between this amount of molecular 
 transformation in the sentient centre and the periphe- 
 ral disturbance originally causing it.' So that, as the 
 same writer also says l : c Between the outer force 
 and the inner feeling it excites, there is no such corre- 
 lation as that which the physicist calls equivalence 
 nay, the two do not even maintain an unvarying pro- 
 portion. Equal amounts of the same force arouse dif- 
 ferent amounts of the same feeling, if the circumstances 
 differ. Only while all the conditions remain constant 
 
 1 ' Principles of Psychology,' 1869, No. 22, p. 194. 
 
46 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 is there something like a constant ratio between the 
 physical antecedent and the psychical consequent.' 
 
 From all this it may be imagined how hopeless the 
 attempt would be to establish anything like a quanti- 
 tative estimate of the amount of force answering to 
 these different results of the activity of the Nervous 
 System. In considering the question of muscular acti- 
 vity and its correlation with physical force, we have to 
 do with a measurable effect under the form of mecha- 
 nical energy. But the manifestations of the activity 
 of the nervous system are much more subtle and elud- 
 ing. How is it possible for us to estimate the value of 
 the energy expended in regulating the nutrition of the 
 body? How, in a motor act, shall we separate what 
 is due to the nerve and what to the muscle? nay, 
 where Feeling is aroused, where Consciousness appears, 
 how shall we estimate the equivalent value of this, 
 which each one knows in himself alone, and which 
 seems to differ so absolutely from everything else in 
 the universe ? However probable it may be that what 
 we know as Sensation and Thought are as truly the direct 
 results of the molecular activity l of certain nerve- 
 centres, as mechanical energy is the direct result of a 
 muscle, this cannot be proved. MM. Beclard and 
 Heidenhain have shown us how, when a muscle con- 
 tracts, an amount of heat disappears which holds a 
 
 1 For some most admirable and suggestive remarks as to the probable 
 unit of Consciousness, we would refer the reader to Mr. Spencer's ' Princi- 
 ples of Psychology,' No. 21, pp. 148-158. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 47 
 
 definite relation to the amount of work done j and so 
 it may well be that when the nerve-centre is in ac- 
 tion when fains and pleasures are felt, when thoughts 
 are rife this is possible only by reason of a disappear- 
 ance or metamorphosis of a certain amount of potential 
 energy which had previously been locked up in some of 
 the organic constituents of the body. We cannot, how- 
 ever, prove that it is so, because we have not yet been 
 able to show that there is evolved, during brain action, 
 an amount of heat, or other mode of physical energy, 
 less than there would have been had not the Sensations 
 been felt and the Thoughts thought ; and because we 
 have no means of ascertaining what amount of sensa- 
 tion or of thought corresponds to a unit of heat 
 because it is even impossible for us to gauge the strength 
 of a sensation, or the force of a thought we are cut 
 off from all means of comparison. 
 
 Knowing, however, what we now do concerning the 
 evolution of heat in the animal body and concerning 
 the contractility of muscle ; knowing that respiration 
 is, in the main, a process of oxidation j that digestion 
 is an essentially chemical process ; it can no longer be 
 said as of old it was said that the manifestations of 
 Life in organic beings take place independently of 
 physico-chemical laws, and are regulated solely by oc- 
 cult influences. This error has been fast disappearing 
 since Lavoisier sought to demonstrate the real nature 
 of the phenomena taking place in living things, and 
 since he first taught that many of them were essentially 
 
48 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 chemical in the ordinary acceptation of the word. What 
 has already been accomplished may well lead us to be- 
 lieve that, as time goes on, the torch of Science will 
 enable us to penetrate still further and to throw light 
 upon some of the remaining mysteries of vital pheno- 
 mena. 
 
 All that we know already, however, concerning the 
 higher animals points strongly to the truth of the con- 
 clusion which is thus expressed by Gavarret : c The 
 action of oxygen upon the material of the blood is then 
 the sole source 1 of force of which the animal can avail 
 itself. In order to accomplish all the internal and ex- 
 ternal work necessary for the nutrition and for the 
 development of the individual, for the propagation of 
 its kind, and for its action upon the surrounding world, 
 the animal, makes use of the force set at liberty during 
 the conflict of oxygen borrowed from the air with the 
 elements of its food. But these alimentary substances 
 in again taking on, under the influence of the burn- 
 ing action of oxygen, their primitive mineral forms, 
 can only set at liberty, and place at the disposal of the 
 animal, their own potential energy that is to say, that 
 quantity of force which was borrowed by the plant 
 from the solar radiations in order to convert mineral 
 matter into organic matter. 5 
 
 Matter and force are inseparable neither can exist 
 alone ; and just as the substances which enter into the 
 
 1 Either immediate, or mediate. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 49 
 
 composition of the plant or of the animal however 
 high or however low it may be in the scale of organi- 
 zation have been ultimately derived from the mineral 
 world, so have the forces at work therein been derived 
 from this source and from the Sun our great centre 
 of light and heat. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE 'VITAL PRINCIPLE' NATURE OF LIFE. 
 
 Artificial production of Organic compounds. Genesis of living Forms. 
 Influence of modern researches upon conception of Life. Theories 
 concerning Life. Views of Atomists. Pantheistic conception of 
 Anaxagoras. The ' Archseus ' of Paracelsus. ' Vitalistic' theories. 
 Difficulties of. Based on misconceptions. Illustrations. Genesis 
 of Living Things. Life a result of molecular organization. Defini- 
 tions of ' Life.' Why unsatisfactory. Correspondence between 
 Organisms and their Environment. Views of Coleridge. ' Life' an 
 abstract name for the 'qualities' of certain material aggregates. 
 Mere arbitrary nature of distinction into Living and not-living. 
 Gradual passage of the not-living into the Living. 
 
 BUT whilst the labours of one set of enquirers have, 
 as we have seen, been directed towards the elu- 
 cidation of the real nature of the phenomena taking 
 place in living things, with the result of showing them 
 to be much less obscure than had been previously sup- 
 posed, those of another set have been concentrated upon 
 attempts to build up artificially in the chemical labo- 
 ratory some of those organic compounds which had 
 hitherto been regarded as the peculiar products of the 
 living organism. The labours of Wohler, Pelouze, 
 Kolbe, Wurtz, Berthelot, and other celebrated chemists 
 have been especially successful in this direction- and 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 51 
 
 we now can name a goodly array of compounds, pre- 
 viously known only as constituents of animal or vege- 
 table organisms, and previously supposed to be incapable 
 of coming into existence save under the influence of 
 vital forces and vital structures, which are, neverthe- 
 less, continually being built up in the chemical labo- 
 ratory, out of more elementary substances, by processes 
 of synthesis \ 
 
 While thus much has been done to throw light upon 
 some of the phenomena exhibited by living beings, and 
 to diminish the mystery hitherto supposed to enshroud 
 the origin of organic compounds, other efforts, by no 
 means unsuccessful, have been made to account for 
 the production of organic forms, and to reveal how 
 such shapes as are met with amongst the structural 
 units of an organ, as well as those of entire organisms, 
 are the resultants of physical forces acting upon plastic 
 and modifiable tissues. Mr. Rainey 2 has sought to show 
 
 1 Speaking on this subject, Gavarret says (' Phe"nomenes Physiques de 
 la Vie,' 1869, p. 269), ' De nombreuses et importantes syntheses ont ete 
 realisres. Les Carbures d'hydrogene peuvent etre consider es comme 
 formant la transition entre 1'etat mineral et 1'etat organique ; beaucoup 
 de ces composes tinaires ont etc* reproduits directement : 1'acetylene, 
 1'ethylene et ses homologues, la benzine et ses homologues, la naph- 
 taline, 1'anthracine, etc. Les chimistes ont aussi opere la synthese 
 d'une quantite considerables de composes oxygenes ternaires : des 
 alcools, des aldehydes, des acides, des ethers, des corps gras, le phenol 
 et plusieurs de ses homologues, etc. Quelques substances azotees ont 
 ete aussi reproduites par synthese : le cyanogene et ses derives, 1'uree, 
 la taurine, le glycocolle et ses homologues/ etc. 
 
 2 ' On the Mode of Formation of Shells, of Animals, of Bone,' &c. 
 i8 5 8 v 
 
 E 2 
 
52 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 that the mode of formation of the shells of animals, 
 of bone, and of other structures, may be explained 
 by a process of c molecular coalescence, 3 and that more 
 or less similar structures may be artificially prepared j 
 and Dr. Montgomery 1 has shown how myeline, a pe- 
 culiar organic substance, under various physical con- 
 ditions can be made to assume almost all the different 
 forms of cells at present known ; whilst in the second 
 volume of his c Principles of Biology,' Mr. Herbert 
 Spencer has handled the subject of morphological 
 development, in all its details, with that fulness and 
 philosophic grasp for which he is so distinguished. 
 The shapes of plants of their branches, leaves, flowers, 
 and cells are considered on the one hand, and those 
 of animals and of their several parts on the other ; 
 and it has been shown that very many of the pecu- 
 liarities actually met with can be fully accounted for 
 by a consideration of the nature of the incident forces 
 or physical conditions to which they have been sub- 
 jected during the progress of their growth. Indeed, 
 he goes so far as to say that c it is an inevitable 
 deduction from the persistence of force, that organic 
 forms which have been progressively evolved must 
 present just those fundamental traits of form which we 
 find them present. It cannot but be that, during the 
 intercourse between an organism and its environment, 
 equal forces, acting under equal conditions, must pro- 
 
 1 'Proceedings of Royal Society,' 1867. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 53 
 
 duce equal effects; for to say otherwise is, by impli- 
 cation., to say that some force can present more or less 
 than its equivalent effect, which is to deny the per- 
 sistence of force. Hence those parts of an organism 
 which are by its habits of life exposed to like amounts 
 and like combinations of actions and reactions, must 
 develope alike ; while unlikeness of development must 
 as unavoidably follow unlikeness among these agencies. 
 And, this being so, all the specialities of symmetry, 
 and unsymmctry, and asymmetry which we have 
 traced, are necessary consequences.' 
 
 It is impossible to ignore the general direction and 
 bearing which the results of all the researches hitherto 
 referred to must have upon our modern conception of 
 c Life/ We have seen that in the minds of all scientific 
 men, the doctrine of the Persistence of Force, or of the 
 Conservation of Energy, as it is also termed, now rests 
 upon just as sure a basis as the really equivalent doc- 
 trine of the persistence or Indestructibility of Matter 1 . 
 And if matter and force are absolutely inseparable, if 
 the ons cannot exist without the other, it will be seen 
 that, even independently of the experimental support 
 which the doctrine has received, the reality of the 
 Persistence of Force must have followed as a logical 
 
 1 As we have previously intimated, the popular doctrine concerning 
 the Indestructibility of Matter resolves itself philosophically into the 
 really fundamental notion of the Persistence of Force. Force and 
 Matter are two aspects of a something one and indivisible ; only the idea 
 of Matter is a conception mentally superadded to the various Force- 
 attributes which are alone correlatable with consciousness. 
 
54 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 necessity from the Persistence of Matter, which was 
 denied by none. We have seen also how firmly the 
 doctrine has gradually been gaining possession of the 
 minds of the best scientific workers of all kinds, that 
 the so-called c vital' forces about the very name of 
 which there was formerly such a ring of mystery 
 are, after all, nothing more than incident physical 
 forces which have been transformed and conditioned 
 by their c passage through an organism/ or, as we pre- 
 fer to express it, are physical forces which have un- 
 dergone change and have ceased to exist as such in 
 giving birth to those material combinations, which con- 
 stitute the very matter of the organism itself. As 
 Dr. Frankland has said, c An animal, however high its 
 organization, can no more generate [that is, actually 
 create] an amount of force capable of moving a grain 
 of sand, than a stone can fall upwards, or a loco- 
 motive drive a train without fuel/ The force mani- 
 fested during the contraction of muscles is the result 
 of the setting free of an equivalent amount of poten- 
 tial energy by the tissue disturbances and chemical 
 changes, of various kinds, which immediately precede 
 and accompany the motor act. And, moreover, if 
 it can be shown that the processes taking place 
 in living beings are in great part amenable to and 
 governed by ordinary physico-chemical laws, instead 
 of being processes altogether occult and peculiar ; 
 if it can be shown that products hitherto believed to 
 be producible only under the influence of vital actions 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 55 
 
 taking place within living beings, are capable of being 
 built up artificially by the chemist in his laboratory j 
 and if it can be shown that the shapes and forms 
 assumed by such organic structures are the natural 
 resultants of incident forces acting upon the plastic 
 and modifiable tissues of which they are composed 
 then may we indeed say that much of the mystery 
 which formerly obscured vital phenomena is being 
 gradually removed. But let it not be supposed that 
 we go further than this, that we suppose all mystery 
 has vanished. No, enough still remains to fill our 
 minds with the deepest awe and reverence. The 
 most intimate processes and phenomena of Life 
 remain utterly inexplicable. We have removed the 
 thick husks, but the kernel of the nut as yet lies 
 hidden, enveloped in an impenetrable shell. What 
 do we know concerning the actual phenomena of nutri- 
 tion? They are still inscrutable mysteries. By what 
 molecular or other laws does an organic unit assi- 
 milate to itself matter of a particular kind out of a 
 complex mixture, convert it into its own substance, 
 and endow it with its own properties of doing like- 
 wise? Believing, as we may, that sensation and thought 
 are the products of molecular changes taking place in 
 nerve organs, does this belief assist us one iota in 
 explaining the deeper facts ? Can we at present frame 
 to ourselves any possible or conceivable way in which 
 mere molecular motion can result in the manifestation 
 of such phenomena as sensations, thoughts, and all the 
 
56 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 various modes of self-consciousness ? Whilst such pro- 
 blems, and many others just as difficult, remain for our 
 solution, it could never be supposed that we believed 
 the problems of Life to be solved. We have cleared 
 some of the approaches, but there is still an impene- 
 trable temple of mystery. Fully to appreciate the ex- 
 tent of our ignorance, however, is the best and surest 
 preparation for widening the sphere of our knowledge. 
 
 Glancing now, for a moment, at the conceptions of 
 Life which have been hitherto entertained, let us see 
 how far they are in accordance with modern scientific 
 notions concerning Force. 
 
 Two fundamentally opposite doctrines have been 
 maintained again and again as to the nature of Life, 
 under one or the other of which all the views ever pro- 
 mulgated, on this subject, may be ranged. According 
 to the one school, Life is to be regarded as the prin- 
 ciple or cause of organization and according to the 
 other, Life is the product or effect of organization. 
 Democritus and the other Atomists accounted for the 
 whole phenomenal universe on the supposition that 
 the different kinds of matter are made up of the most 
 variously arranged ultimate particles or atoms. These 
 atoms differing from one another in size, shape, and 
 weight, were nevertheless thought to be indivisible. 
 They were supposed by Democritus to be able to group 
 and arrange themselves and so to form the various 
 material substances which exist by virtue of these 
 inherent tendencies. Nothing but predestination or 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 57 
 
 c blind necessity' could, therefore, be assigned by De- 
 mocritus as the active cause of the continual mutations 
 taking place in the material world. Such a spiritless 
 conception of the Universe was, however, resisted by 
 Anaxagoras. He too, like his predecessors, believed 
 that in the ordinary course of things nothing was 
 created and nothing was destroyed there was only a 
 continual flux and mutation. But the necessity of a 
 moving force, hitherto almost neglected, was fully 
 realized by him. 'The mythical powers of love and 
 hate, the blind necessity of the mechanical theory, 
 explained nothing; or at least, whatever they explained, 
 they certainly explained not the existence of design in 
 the process of nature. It was consequently seen to 
 be necessary that this notion of design should be 
 identified with that of the moving power. This 
 Anaxagoras accomplished by his idea of a world- 
 forming intelligence (vovs) that was absolutely sepa- 
 rated and free from matter and that acted on design 1 .' 
 Although the function of the vovs was, therefore, essen- 
 tially that of a mere mover or re-arranger of the in- 
 finitely minute particles of things into definite shapes 
 and forms, which were thus abstracted from an original 
 chaotic intermixture, still Anaxagoras did endow it 
 with the attribute of thinking with the power of 
 acting in accordance with design. c ln the case of 
 organized beings more especially, we have the presence 
 
 1 Schwegler's ' Handbook of the History of Philosophy,' translated 
 by Stirling, p. 28. 
 
58 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 of the matter -moving VQV^ which as animating 
 soul, is immanent in all living beings (plants, ani- 
 mals, men), but in different degrees of amount and 
 power. In this way we see that it is the business 
 of the vovs to dispose all things, each in accordance 
 with its own nature, into a universe that shall com- 
 prehend within it the most manifold forms of exist- 
 ence, and to enter into, and identify itself with, this 
 universe as the power of individual vitality. 3 Thus 
 was initiated the ancient pantheistic notion of a 
 general soul or Spirit pervading all things a notion 
 which, with more or less of modification, not un- 
 frequently appears in our own times, and which was 
 exquisitely expressed by our poet Wordsworth in his 
 ( Excursion,' when he said : 
 
 ' To every form of being is assigned 
 An active principle : howe'er removed 
 From sense and observation, it subsists 
 In all things, in all nature, in the stars 
 Of azure heaven, the unenduring clouds ; 
 In flower and tree, in every pebbly stone 
 That paves the brooks.' 
 
 Whilst therefore the ancients looked upon the spirit 
 or the c animating principle ' of any living thing as an 
 integral part of the general c Soul of Nature,' 
 
 ' Divinae particulam aurae,' 
 
 Paracelsus and his followers, on the contrary, in the 
 sixteenth century, regarded the c vital principle' as an 
 entity or self-existent something, altogether indepen- 
 dent and peculiar. This distinct vital principle was 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 59 
 
 presumed to preside over the processes of nutrition and 
 was known by the name Arckteus. The doctrines of 
 Paracelsus were more especially developed by his dis- 
 ciple Van Helmont, who sought to explain all the phe- 
 nomena of Life by the occurrence of chemical changes 
 in the organism taking place under the guidance of 
 this distinct spiritual entity or c Archaeus, 3 whose place 
 of abode was the cardiac orifice of the stomach. The 
 c Archxus' of Van Helmont, however, was only one, 
 though the chief, of many c vital spirits,' which were 
 allotted severally to each organ of the body. In health 
 there was supposed to be a harmonious action of these 
 various c vital spirits,' whilst disease was a result of 
 their discord. But whether the c vital principle' was 
 looked upon as a something altogether peculiar and 
 independent, or as an integral part of the general c Soul 
 of Nature,' in either case the organism as an organism 
 was supposed to have owed its nature and peculiarities 
 to the influence and active working of the c vital 
 principle.' 
 
 Then, in all but modern times, Life was by the 
 greater number of physiologists looked upon as a con- 
 sequence rather than as a cause of organization ; whilst 
 c vital ' actions, or the phenomena presented by living 
 beings, were supposed to be altogether special in kind 
 to be the peculiar manifestations of the inherent acti- 
 vity of the organized body, and to have no necessary 
 relationship with the physical forces of the inorganic 
 world. Later still, as we have seen, this view gradually 
 
60 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 underwent a most important modification: 'vital' 
 phenomena, instead of being looked upon as altogether 
 peculiar, were gradually more and more recognized as 
 the results of physical forces which, as Dr. Carpenter 
 expressed it, had been transformed or conditioned in 
 various ways by their c passage through the organism.' 
 And now amongst nearly all advanced physiologists the 
 same kind of Correlation is implicitly believed to exist 
 between the Vital and the Physical Forces, and between 
 the several vital forces, as we know exists between the 
 physical forces Inter se. Some there are, however, who 
 still contend that there is such a thing as a peculiar 
 c vital force,' a something which finds no place amongst 
 this circle of correlated energies 1 . It is argued, that in 
 order to bring about this metamorphosis of the physical 
 forces, which is to give rise to the various manifesta- 
 tions of vegetable and animal life, there must be 
 needed some force inherent in the organism as a whole, 
 and in every part of its structure. That this force or 
 power, altogether independent of the correlated series, 
 is the vital force that which conditions or transforms 
 the physical forces, in order that they may give rise to 
 the most varied vital phenomena. But if the vital or 
 
 1 Dr. Lionel Beale, for instance, says in his new work on ' Protoplasm,' 
 ' In order to account for the facts, I conceive that some directing 
 agency of a kind peculiar to the living world exists in association with 
 every particle of living matter, which, in some hitherto unexplained 
 manner, affects temporarily its elements, and determines the precise 
 changes which are to take place when the living matter again comes 
 
 der the influence of certain external conditions.' (2nd ed. p. 119 ) 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 61 
 
 directive power resident in each particle of a living- 
 being be other than a transformed physical force, it 
 must be one which in spite of the well-known formula 
 c ex nihilo nikll fit ' is capable of indefinite self-multi- 
 plication. Either such force must be continually spring- 
 ing into being without a cause originating itself, or 
 growing out of nothing which is an absurdity; or else 
 within the human ovum, or within that of any other 
 animal, there must be locked up^ in this one tiny microscopic 
 cel^ the 'whole of the peculiar 'vital power which is after- 
 wards to diffuse itself throughout the body, and which, 
 later still, is to serve as the guiding principle of the 
 whole man. How could the tiny cell retain all this 
 priceless energy ? What hydraulic press would be ade- 
 quate to bring about such concentration, even were 
 it destined to be locked up within walls of adamant, 
 rather than of tender protoplasm ? Then, too, we come 
 back to the further difficulty, as to how this original 
 ovum acquired its marvellously concentrated quotum of 
 vital force. The ovum is but a differentiated product, 
 an individual cell, arising from the almost infinite sub- 
 division and growth of a pre-existing ovum, and, there- 
 fore, it can only have received an infinitesimal share of 
 the original vital force with which its parent germ was 
 endowed. This parent germ was similarly related to 
 its progenitor, and so we might run back through the 
 races and through the ages, did not the very idea carry 
 absurdity in its face. A force independent of the 
 correlated series of physical forces, and yet capable 
 
62 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 of perpetual existence, with apparently undiminished 
 powers in spite of an almost infinite number of divi- 
 sions and subdivisions, surely there are few who will 
 believe that such a force can exist. The doctrine 
 is absolutely inconceivable, it cannot be realized in 
 thought. Dr. Bence Jones has well said \ c We know 
 now that in all living things no separate or peculiar 
 matter is present. The stuff which takes part in 
 the living actions and the forces which are inherent 
 in that stuff are there, and indestructible and in- 
 separable. Inorganic matter and inorganic force al- 
 ways exist together in living things; so that if a 
 separable living force be also present, then we must 
 admit that two totally different laws of force must 
 be in action at the same time in the same matter. 
 The unity of nature will at least be preserved by our 
 hesitation to admit the assumption of a force capable 
 of creation and annihilation, until some very conclusive 
 evidence be obtained that there actually is in living 
 things such a force or forces capable of being separated 
 entirely from the matter of which they are made.' And 
 in addition to this kind of argument, we may well ask 
 whether there is the need (such as the advocates for 
 the existence of a peculiar and independent c vital 
 principle' suppose) for a special force to effect the 
 transformation of physical forces within organized 
 structures ? The phenomena presented by living 
 
 1 Croonian Lectures ' On Matter and Force ' at Royal College of 
 Physicians ('British Medical Journal,' May 16, 1868, p. 471). 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 63 
 
 beings are now presumed by almost all physiologists 
 to be dependent upon the agency of transformed 
 physical forces? And, if this be the case, we may 
 well ask (seeing that they are all members of a cor- 
 related series) why a special force should be needed 
 to effect the transformation of physical forces into 
 those modes of energy which are active in the 
 manifestations of living beings, whilst no peculiar 
 force is deemed necessary to effect the transforma- 
 tion of one mode of physical force into any other 
 mode of physical force ? The mere advancement 
 of such a supposition would seem to show that the 
 promulgators of it had not seized the very essence of 
 the doctrine of the Persistence of Force. Matter and 
 force, it says, are inseparable ; the latter manifests 
 itself as the attributes or qualities of the former, and 
 necessarily, if, under the influence of communicated 
 Motion or Force, the particles of matter assume dif- 
 ferent relationships to one another, this matter will be 
 changed in its qualities, and will display the same to 
 us under the guise of different attributes or force-mani- 
 festations 1 . When mechanical energy is converted into 
 
 1 ' Redistributions of matter,' Mr. Spencer says, ' imply concomitant 
 redistributions of motion. That which under one of its aspects we con- 
 template as an alteration of arrangement among the parts of a body is, 
 under a correlative aspect, an alteration of arrangement among certain 
 momenta whereby these parts are impelled to their new positions. . . . 
 Inseparably connected as they are, these two orders of phenomena are 
 liable to be confounded together.' (' Principles of Biology,' vol. i. p. 43.) 
 And again, he points out that the ' transformation of ethereal undulations 
 
64 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 heat, the motion in mass, or molar motion, of one body 
 expends itself as the body is arrested in producing 
 an equivalent molecular motion, or motion of the par- 
 ticles, in its own substance and in those of the body 
 by which it has been arrested. But here there is a 
 simple transference of the motion of the mass into the 
 more diffuse motion of the particles of the masses. 
 The motion ceases to exist in the mass as what we 
 ordinarily call motion, though it persists for a time in 
 the atoms or molecules of the masses, and manifests 
 itself in the form of heat. And, similarly, when the 
 expansive motions of the particles of bodies are checked 
 (and mechanical work is done), the heat diminishes in 
 quantity in proportion as a motion of the resisting mass 
 is produced. When heat gives rise to electricity in a 
 thermo-electric pile, a certain quantity of the incident 
 heat ceases to exist as heat. By acting upon the related 
 metals, it has been able to bring about certain mole- 
 cular re-arrangements of the particles of these, and 
 owing to this new arrangement, the attributes of the 
 metals or their force- manifestations are altered. The 
 newly-arranged particles cease to manifest heat, though 
 they show an equivalent amount of electrical pro- 
 perties. Now, in these cases, we do not postulate the 
 existence of a peculiar force in the molecules of the 
 bodies by the influence of which the incident physical 
 
 into certain molecular rearrangements of an unstable kind, on the over- 
 throw of which the stored-up forces are liberated in new forms, is a 
 process that underlies all organic phenomena.' (Loc. cit. p. 29.) 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 65 
 
 forces are modified, so as to give rise to new electrical 
 manifestations. Such a view might have been admis- 
 sible if forces were considered as independent entities, 
 capable of manifesting themselves in different ways, 
 but with an inherent obstinacy of their own an inborn 
 reluctance to change their mode of action which could 
 only be overcome by the superior energy of some inde- 
 pendent, autocratic demon situated in each particle of a 
 body. We will not speak of the waste of energy which 
 would result, on such a supposition, from the everlast- 
 ing conflict of these powers, because such doctrines are 
 now effete. Forces are not separable entities. They 
 are merely modes, affections, properties call it what 
 you will of matter j and, therefore, necessarily vary 
 with the molecular states of matter. When heat gives 
 rise to electricity, a certain amount of heat vanishes, 
 and an equivalent amount of electricity appears, be- 
 cause the heat, under certain conditions of proximity 
 of other metals, has arranged the metallic molecules in 
 a different way. This heat or force expends itself in 
 producing the molecular change, and the result of the 
 new molecular arrangement is, that electrical pro- 
 perties are manifested instead of heat, because elec- 
 tricity is the property of this particular molecular 
 arrangement, just as heat was the property of the 
 particles when in their immediately antecedent con- 
 dition. This is just parallel with what we have pre- 
 viously alluded to as characterising the transformation 
 of the motion of masses into heat, or the motion of 
 
 F 
 
66 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 particles. If we suppose a wooden ball to be allowed to 
 drop from a moderate height from the raised hand of an 
 experimenter into a basin of water, we have no difficulty 
 in imagining what the result would be. A great splash- 
 ing of the water would occur, and a visible motion of the 
 contents of the basin would remain for a considerable 
 time though gradually diminishing in extent, and 
 therefore in the ease with which it could be perceived. 
 Here the motion of one mass becomes arrested, but 
 communicates itself in a more diffused manner to a 
 mass of water, the visible motion of which is seen to 
 diminish most gradually. But if the ball had been 
 allowed to fall from a height of three hundred feet, 
 instead of from a height of six feet, and if it had fallen 
 upon a solid floor instead of into a basin of water, then 
 (with the exception of the motion of the rebound) all 
 the force existing as visible motion would have been 
 much more immediately expended in the production of 
 molecular motion in the ball and in the floor, and 
 this would have given rise to heat, recognizable by 
 the aid of a thermoscope. Now the motion of a mass 
 is only the motion of an aggregate of molecules the 
 molecules being numerous in direct proportion to the 
 size of the mass. So that in this case also, when the 
 mechanical energy resulting from molar motion is con- 
 verted into heat, the energy (or motion) which the mass 
 displays ceases to manifest itself to us as motion as 
 soon as it has become expended in the production of 
 vibrations in the particles of the bodies which may 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 67 
 
 reveal themselves in the form of heat. The pre-exist- 
 ing force is itself the cause of the change of constitution 
 which results in the new manifestations. 
 
 And, similarly, we have the most perfect right to 
 expect that, when a physical force gives rise to any 
 one of the modes of vital force, what takes place is 
 not so much a direct conversion or transmutation of 
 the force itself, but rather that the physical force 
 expends itself in bringing about new collocations of 
 matter either in converting non-living into living 
 matter, or in altering the molecular constitution of 
 matter which is already alive. The properties of this 
 matter being what we call c vital ' properties, it may be 
 said that the physical force has been transmuted into 
 vital force. Only when understood in this sense, are 
 the words c conversion ' or c transmutation ' suitable for 
 the expression of what really occurs. The almost ne- 
 cessary use of these terms has, we think, nevertheless 
 tended to foster an erroneous impression, which has 
 exercised its misleading influence by causing certain 
 physiologists to suppose that a special c vital force ' is 
 needed to effect the transmutation of incident physical 
 forces within the bodies of living organisms. In reality, 
 no special force is in the least needed to do the work 
 of conversion. Any pre-existing physical force, acting 
 upon an organism, expends itself in producing those 
 molecular re- arrangements which, with others, contri- 
 bute to enable the organism to carry on its so-called 
 c vital ' processes. If the doctrine of the Correlation 
 
 F 2, 
 
68 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 of the Vital and of the Physical forces is admitted 
 to be true, it can, we think, be believed only in this 
 form, and the vitalists must give up their last strong- 
 hold we cannot even grant them a right to assume 
 the existence of a special c vital force ' whose peculiar 
 office it is to effect the transformation of physical 
 forces. The notion that such a force does exist, is 
 based upon no evidence j it is a mere postulate. The 
 assumption of its existence carries with it nothing 
 but confusion and contradiction, because the very 
 supposition that it exists and that it does so act, is 
 totally adverse to the general doctrine of the Correla- 
 tion of the Forces. Need we say more ? Does it not 
 follow, if living organisms of the simplest kind are ever 
 now evolved in solutions containing organic matter, 
 that such rudimentary forms of life are to be regarded 
 as resulting from the collocations of organic molecules 
 in peculiar modes, brought about by the expenditure of 
 incident physical forces whilst the dynamic mani- 
 festations of these peculiar aggregates would constitute 
 those phenomena which we term vital, and which are 
 designated in their generality by the word c Life ? ' 
 
 To speak then of Life as a result of organization 
 is obviously as much in accordance with the general 
 doctrine which we have been unfolding, as the other 
 view that Life is a cause of organization is opposed to 
 it. The last doctrine is an appanage of obsolete views ; 
 it accords only with the notion that Force is a some- 
 thing separate, or at least separable, from matter a 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 69 
 
 kind of entity or self-existent principle. But whilst 
 we say that Life is a result of organization, we do 
 not necessarily mean of an organization which is 
 capable of being discovered by means of our micro- 
 scopes rather, of a molecular organization, in the 
 sense of a peculiarly complex and unstable colloca- 
 tion of the component atoms of the matter displaying 
 Life, which may exist to perfection after its own 
 fashion, even in what appears to be the perfectly 
 structureless jelly-mass constituting one of the Prot- 
 am<eb of Professor Haeckel. And it is important to 
 keep this difference in view to remember that the 
 only organization necessary for the display of Life is 
 a molecular organization which, in the common accep- 
 tation of the term, has often been regarded as no or- 
 ganization at all. Mr. Lewes says, c Although the 
 question whether Life precedes Organization has been 
 often asked, it is a question mat pose'e. If by organiza- 
 tion we are to understand not simply organic substance, 
 but a more or less complex arrangement of that sub- 
 stance into separate organs, the question is tantamount 
 to asking whether the simplest animals and plants have 
 life ? And to ask the question whether Life precedes 
 organic substance, is tantamount to asking whether the 
 convex surface of a curve precedes the concave, or 
 whether the motions of a body precede the body V If 
 the word c organization' is comprehended in its wider 
 
 1 'Fortnightly Review,' July, 1868, p. 73. 
 
76 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 sense, however, we may in answer to the oft-put ques- 
 tion reply that Life it a result of organization. Pro- 
 viding only that the c molecular organization ' is of the 
 right kind, it is true enough, as Mr. Lewes intimates, 
 that the two are inseparable. The word c Life' is only 
 a generalized expression signifying the sum-total of the 
 properties of matter possessing such an organization. 
 And matter is, as we have before agreed, inseparable 
 from its properties. 
 
 This brings us at last to the question of the defini- 
 tion of Life. We will say only a very few words on 
 this subject before alluding to some of the numerous 
 attempts that have been made in this direction, and 
 to the degree of success with which they have been 
 attended. 
 
 The word c Life ' is merely an abstract name for 
 those sets of attributes or force-manifestations of living 
 beings which are usually spoken of as c vital pheno- 
 mena/ The word itself, however, corresponds only 
 with a mere mental conception : we have observed that 
 a number of things (by common consent looked upon 
 as living beings, whether animal or vegetable) always 
 present a certain set of phenomena or qualities, and in 
 order to express our conception of these in their gene- 
 rality we employ the word c Life/ Just as, to take a 
 more simple case, after having seen a certain number 
 of things all of which present a black colour, we make 
 use of the word c blackness' as our name or symbol for 
 the common attribute of all black things. Since, how- 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 7 1 
 
 ever, this word c blackness 7 represents nothing but a 
 mere impression made upon our mind, since it corre- 
 sponds to no external reality which, in the common 
 acceptation of the phrase, exists of and by itself, and 
 is moreover the name of a simple attribute, it admits 
 of no useful definition l . The word ' Life,' however, is 
 not a simple abstract name, it is rather a general 
 abstract name, connoting certain fundamental pro- 
 perties of living things. Such a general abstract name 
 may therefore be defined by distinguishing the nature 
 of the qualities which it implies. This has been at- 
 tempted by many, but has, we think, been achieved 
 by none so successfully as by Mr. Herbert Spencer. 
 He defines c Life' as c The continuous adjustment of 
 internal relations to external relations,' and this phrase 
 is, perhaps, the most generalized statement (being at 
 the same time distinctive) which can be made con- 
 cerning the phenomena presented by living things. 
 As such, also, it doubtless is a formula of much 
 philosophical interest, though as a mere definition of 
 Life, that is as an explanatory phrase which is likely 
 to make an ordinary reader's notions on the subject 
 any the clearer, we question whether it will be of 
 much service. This, however, is owing to the in- 
 herent difficulty of giving any intelligible account in a 
 
 . l It certainly would answer no useful purpose would explain no- 
 thingif we defined ' blackness ' to be the property or power of ex- 
 citing the sensation of black ; and yet this is about the only possible 
 definition of the word. 
 
72' THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 definition of the meaning of such a general abstract 
 term. The time is, moreover, well-nigh passed when 
 much importance can be attached to attempts to define 
 c Life.' Such an end might have had more attractions 
 for those who looked upon Life as the manifestation of 
 an independent c principle' or entity, but it is certainly 
 far less important for those who look upon the word 
 * Life' as a mere name connoting a set of attributes 
 which belong to all living things. Believing this to be 
 true, believing that anything which can be called 
 Life, or the c principle' of Life, has no more a separate 
 and independent existence in the world than that 
 'blackness' has any real existence apart from a thing 
 possessing this quality, it would seem that the reader 
 would be likely to derive clearer notions of the nature 
 of Life, if in place of the definition of this abstract 
 name, we were to substitute the definition of a Living 
 Thing 1 . This should be done in such general terms 
 that although the definition may be in itself distinctive 
 and only applicable to the objects in question all things 
 manifesting this set of properties connoted by the word 
 c Life' may, nevertheless, be included under it. Such 
 a definition of a Living Thing might stand as follows : 
 
 1 Every abstract name must, in fact, include in its signification the 
 existence of some object to which the quality, of which it is the name, 
 belongs. And inasmuch as no Life can exist without an organism, of 
 which it is the phenomenal manifestation, so it seems comparatively 
 useless to attempt to define this phenomenal manifestation alone and 
 what is worse, such attempts may tend to keep up the idea that Life is 
 an independent entity. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 73 
 
 It is an unstable collocation of Matter, capable of 
 growing by selection and interstitial appropriation of 
 new matter which then assumes similar qualities, of con- 
 tinually varying in composition in response to variations 
 in its Medium, and which is capable of self-multiplication 
 by the separation of portions of its own substance 1 . 
 
 It is one of the properties of living bodies, one of 
 the consequences of the peculiar collocation of their 
 molecules, that they are only slightly amenable to the 
 influence of some of the physical forces which tend to 
 disintegrate and destroy many forms of not-living 
 matter. It was under the influence of this considera- 
 tion principally, that Bichat was led to define life as 
 
 1 M. Nicolet, in his ' Memoire sur les Amibes k Corps Nu,' speaking 
 of these creatures, which have been subsequently named ProtamcebeE 
 by Professor Haeckel, and which are about the simplest of known 
 living things, says: 'La substance qui en forme le corps peut etre 
 considered comme 1'expression d'un premier degr d'animalite de la 
 matiere organique. Ici point d'appareils speciaux affectes aux fonctions 
 de la vie ; point d'organe, meme rudimentaire, indiquant une similitude 
 plutot animale que ve"getale ; point de muscles, point de fibres, point de 
 cellules, rien de ce qui manifestent la vie dans ces deux regnes : et ce- 
 pendant elle vit, elle remplit des fonctions qui necessitent des organes par- 
 ticuliers dans tous les autres etres ; elle se meut, elle se nourrit, elle se 
 reproduit, elle digere, mais la locomotion s'opere par la pretension et la 
 retraction alternative ou simultanees des differentes parties de sa masse. 
 . . . L'Amibe n'a done aucune organisation appreciable; et lorsque, 
 depouillee des matieres e"trangeres qu'elle renferme presque toujours dans 
 sa propre substance, elle glisse sur la surface d'un lame de verre im- 
 mergee, elle se presente toujours comme une gelee vivanfe, fmement 
 granulee, de"pourvue de teguments, et d'un diaphaneite souvent telle, 
 que sa presence ne se manifeste que par un simple difference de re- 
 fraction.' 'Arcana Naturae,' J. Thompson, 1859, p. 23. 
 
74 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 c L'ensemble des fonctions qui resistant a la mort.' 
 Here the notion of a certain antagonism between the 
 organism and its Medium is principally apparent ; 
 whilst, on the other hand, in the definition of Mr. 
 Herbert Spencer, already alluded to, we have one of 
 the most general and inclusive statements possible 
 concerning the phenomena of living things: Life is 
 rather represented as the harmonious reaction in 
 living matter to the influence exerted by surrounding 
 matter and force. Stated more fully, his conception 
 of life becomes c The definite combination of hetero- 
 geneous changes, both simultaneous and successive, 
 in correspondence with external coexistences and sequences? 
 And how extremely important this notion of reci- 
 procal action is, has been most happily dwelt upon 
 by Mr. Spencer * in the following sentences. c We 
 habitually distinguish between a live object and a 
 dead one by observing whether a change which we 
 make in surrounding conditions, or one which nature 
 makes in them, is or is not followed by some per- 
 ceptible change in the object. By discovering that 
 certain things shrink when touched, or fly away when 
 approached, or start when a noise is made, the child 
 first, roughly discriminates between the living and the 
 not-living ; and the man, when in doubt whether an 
 animal he is looking at is dead or not, stirs it with 
 his stick ; or if it be at a distance, shouts or throws 
 a stone at it. Vegetal and animal life are alike pri- 
 
 .* ' Principles of Biology,' vol. i. p. 72. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 75 
 
 marily recognized by this process. The tree that puts 
 out leaves when the spring brings change of tempera- 
 ture, the flower which opens and closes with the rising 
 and setting of the sun, the plant that droops when 
 the soil is dry and re-erects itself when watered, are 
 considered alive because of these induced changes; in 
 common with the zoophyte which contracts on the 
 passing of a cloud over the sun, the worm that comes 
 to the surface when the ground is continuously shaken, 
 and the hedgehog which rolls itself up when attacked.' 
 And, not only do we expect some response when a 
 living organism is acted upon by a stimulus, but there 
 is a sort of fitness in the response, different from the 
 reaction of mere dead matter under certain changes 
 of condition. In the latter c the changes have no 
 apparent relation to future external events which are 
 sure or likely to take place,' whilst in the former the 
 vital changes manifestly have such relations. Then 
 too, as Mr. Spencer says, familiarity with the fact must 
 not allow us to overlook the significance of the con- 
 sideration, c that there is invariably, and necessarily, 
 a conformity between the vital functions of any 
 organism, and the conditions in which it is placed 
 between the processes going on inside of it, and 
 the processes going on outside of it. We know 
 that a fish cannot live in air, or a man in water. 
 An oak growing in the ocean, and a sea-weed on 
 the top of a hill, are incredible combinations of 
 ideas. We find that every animal is limited to a 
 
76 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 certain range of climate ; every plant to certain zones 
 of latitude and elevation. Of the marine flora and 
 fauna, each species is found exclusively between such 
 and such depths. Some blind creatures flourish only 
 in dark caves ; the limpet only where it is alternately 
 covered and uncovered by the tide ; the red-snow alga 
 rarely elsewhere than in the arctic regions or among 
 alpine peaks.' But having once recognized the im- 
 portance of this action and reaction continually taking 
 place between the organism and its environment, we 
 become the more alive to the shortcomings of those 
 definitions which do not include this fundamental 
 notion. Though unsatisfactory for other reasons also, 
 the definition of De Blainville will be seen to be 
 eminently defective in this respect. He says, f Life is 
 the twofold internal movement of composition and 
 decomposition, at once general and continuous/ Almost 
 the same objection may also be alleged against the de- 
 finition of Richerand, that c Life is a collection of phe- 
 nomena which succeed each other during a limited time 
 in an organized body,' even if it had not been useless 
 as a definition of Life, because the same words would 
 be applicable to the process of decay taking place 
 after death in a previously living body. 
 
 Life, says Schelling 1 , is the c principle of individuation^ 
 or the power which unites a given all into a whole? 
 
 1 As given in an unacknowledged translation by Coleridge entitled 
 ' Hints towards the Formation of a more Comprehensive Theory of 
 Life,' 1848, p. 42. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 77 
 
 But Schelling, in reality, in spite of the actual wording 
 of his definition 1 , looked upon the words c life' and 
 c quality ' as conveying to the mind almost identically 
 the same ideas. All things, therefore, possessing 
 qualities that is everything in the universe has a 
 Life of its own 2 , varying though it may in rank and 
 supremacy, in the case of things ordinarily spoken of as 
 non-Jiving or living respectively^. And this brings us 
 to what we consider to be the true conception of Life 
 to the meaning which ought to be attached to the 
 word. All bodies in Nature have properties or quali- 
 ties they are in fact known to us only as aggregates 
 of such and such properties. Bodies are, however, 
 divided into two great classes the living and the 
 not-living according as they do or do not possess 
 certain qualities or properties. These differentiating 
 qualities are those which are generalized and included 
 
 1 However unsatisfactory Schelling's formula may be as a definition 
 of Life, we cannot fail to recognize that it is an expression of one of the 
 most notable tendencies of life in all its higher manifestations. 
 
 2 Burdach (' Traite de Physiologic,' Trad, par Jourdan, 1837, t. iv. 
 p. 149) says, ' Effectivement nous rencontrons des traces de vie dans 
 toute existence quelconque.' 
 
 5 Thus are we again brought face to face with the old philosophic 
 conception that there exists a ' soul ' in all things, or, as Wordsworth 
 tells us, an all-pervading Power : 
 
 ' Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 
 And the round ocean and the living air, 
 And the blue sky, and in the mind of man : 
 A motion and a spirit that impels 
 All thinking things, all objects of all thought, 
 And rolls through all things.' 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 under the abstract name c Life.' We must not be 
 blinded, however, by the use of such a word; we must 
 not fall into the old error of supposing that because by 
 a process of generalization we have conceived a mere 
 abstract notion which we name c Life/ that, therefore, 
 there is anything existing, of and by itself, answering 
 to this term. No,, each material body has properties of 
 its own properties which are due to its molecular con- 
 stitutionand which make it what we know it to be. 
 These properties are, however, often classed together 
 in a definite way ; certain of the objects around us, for 
 instance, have a power of growing, of developing, and 
 pf reproducing their kind. Bodies possessing such pro- 
 perties have been arbitrarily named 'Living' bodies, 
 and the word c Life ' has been used as a mental symbol 
 connoting the sum total of the properties which dis- 
 tinguish such an aggregate from the member of the 
 other great class whose representatives do not present 
 such properties. These properties may be looked upon 
 as of a higher and more subtle nature, but it should be 
 distinctly understood that they are as much dependent 
 upon the mere qualities and nature of the material 
 aggregate which displays them, as the properties of a 
 metal or the properties of a crystal are the results of 
 the nature and mode of collocation of the atoms of 
 which these bodies are composed. Hence in using the 
 phrase c Genesis of Life,' it must not be supposed that 
 we should, in so doing, refer to the actual origination 
 of any c principle' or c force' that did not pre-exist; 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 79 
 
 rather, we should wish to convey the idea, that a par- 
 ticular aggregation of matter had been brought about, 
 of such a kind as to enable it to manifest the properties 
 of a Living Thing, properties which are expressed in 
 their generality by the word c Life.' Philosophically 
 speaking, therefore, there can be no abrupt line of 
 demarcation between the living and the not-living. 
 Living things are peculiar aggregates of ordinary 
 matter and of ordinary force which in their separate 
 states do not possess the aggregate of qualities known 
 as c Life. 5 The transition must be most gradual, there- 
 fore, between some of the ordinary not-living states 
 of these and the formation of those particular colloca- 
 tions which constitute them living things. c Construed 
 in terms of evolution,' as Mr. Spencer says 1 , c every 
 kind of being is conceived as a product of modifica- 
 tions wrought by insensible gradations on a pre- 
 existing kind of being:' to which we will only add, 
 that the physical forces expending themselves in bring- 
 ing about any particular collocation manifest them- 
 selves anew in the properties which this displays. 
 Qmnia mutantur : nihil intent. As Dumas 2 has said, 
 there is an c eternal round in which death is quickened 
 and Life appears, but in which matter merely changes 
 its place and form.' 
 
 1 Appendix to ' Principles of Biology.' 
 
 2 'Chemical and Physiological Balance of Organic Nature,' 1844 
 (Translation), p. 48. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 NATURE OF ORGANIZABLE MATERIALS AND OF LOWEST 
 LIVING THINGS. 
 
 No real distinction between Organic and Inorganic matter. Artificial 
 Production of Organic Compounds. Organizable matter. Its con- 
 stitution and Properties. Belongs to colloidal division of matter. 
 Professor Graham's views on colloids. Original Evolution of Organic 
 Matter on our Globe. Primordial Evolution of Living Things. 
 Probable nature of these. The factors being a plastic material 
 and ethereal undulations. Conversion of insensible into sensible 
 motion. Mr. Herbert Spencer's explanations. Important nature 
 of these. Constructive functions of Plants. Continual conversion 
 of non-living into Living Matter in processes of Growth. 
 
 Views of Life to be tested by nature of simplest living things. Illustra- 
 tions of physical theory. Death in higher Animals. Different de- 
 grees of ' Individuation.' Death in lower Organisms. 
 
 Lowest present Living Things. A third Organic Kingdom, Protista, 
 intermediate between Plants and Animals. Nature of its simplest 
 Forms. The Protoplasm Theory. No Absolute Commencement 
 of Life. 
 
 BEFORE Wohler announced to the scientific world 
 that he had succeeded in building up an organic 
 compound in his laboratory with the aid of no more 
 mysterious agencies than usually lie at the chemist's 
 disposal, and before the labours of other distinguished 
 chemists had been crowned with a like success, there 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 8 1 
 
 was more reason than there is at present for the belief 
 that the forces in living things are altogether peculiar, 
 because it appeared that certain compounds of carbon 
 with other elements, known as organic substances, were 
 capable of being produced only within these laboratories 
 of nature. A department of Inorganic chemistry has 
 hitherto existed, separated quite definitely from another 
 known as that of Organic chemistry. In the former 
 were included all those elements and their compounds 
 which were naturally met with amongst, and which 
 made up the not-living constituents of our globe, 
 whilst under the latter department were ranged those 
 compounds and their derivatives which were sup- 
 posed to exist only in plants and animals. The 
 so-called organic compounds were for a long time 
 regarded as altogether peculiar ; not as regards com- 
 position for they were known to be composed of 
 precisely the same elements as were most abundant 
 in the inorganic world but rather in point of 
 origin. They were the products only of living things : 
 had been produced under the influence of c vital' forces. 
 The action of physical forces in the world without was 
 deemed inadequate to give rise to such combinations, 
 and therefore they were separated by a hard and fast 
 line from all other compounds with which the chemist 
 manipulated. Thus the popular belief of the time 
 concerning Life was fostered; and an argument for 
 the special and peculiar nature of the c vital forces,' 
 could, at least, be based on the supposed fact that 
 
82 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 living things did produce substances were in fact 
 almost entirely built up of material combinations 
 which could not be evolved by the agency of mere 
 physical forces, either in the grand laboratory of 
 nature, or under the hands of the chemist. But now 
 all this has changed. Chemists have already succeeded 
 in building up some hundreds of such compounds., and, 
 as each month passes by, the list is swelled by fresh 
 conquests. The speciality then of these compounds 
 has passed away; the difference between Organic and 
 Inorganic chemistry is fast vanishing has, in fact, 
 well-nigh vanished. At all events, these names can no 
 longer be retained as definite marks; they have lost 
 their significance, and if it be desirable still to partition 
 off the great department of chemical compounds formerly 
 represented by the word c organic/ it must be done by 
 fixing upon some really common and distinguishing 
 characteristic of the members of the group, and em- 
 bodying this in some new class name or phrase under 
 which they can be ranged. Numerous suggestions 
 have been made, but none of them seems so good as 
 that of Kekule. All the compounds named c organic 5 
 invariably contained carbon as a constituent, and with 
 the exception of at most three or four, all the com- 
 pounds of carbon were formerly placed under this cate- 
 gory, so that when Kekule not Jong since brought out a 
 work \ c On the Chemistry of Carbon Compounds,' its 
 
 1 ' Lehrbuch der Organischen Chemie, oder der Chemie den Kohlen- 
 stoffverbindungen,' 1861, in which this subject is discussed at pp. 8-n. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 83 
 
 scope was found to be as nearly as possible what it 
 would have been had it appeared solely under the old 
 name of c Organic Chemistry.' 
 
 Thus the Matter of living things, the combinations 
 which they are capable of producing, have no distin- 
 guishing peculiarity they can be built up by the che- 
 mist in his laboratory the mysterious agency of Life is 
 now no longer all essential. This knowledge is a 
 great gain to science, and it harmonizes well with 
 our conclusion in the last chapter, that there is no 
 evidence whatever for a belief in the existence of 
 a peculiar c vital force ' a something independent of 
 matter, and not convertible with the ordinary physical 
 forces. 
 
 It will now be necessary for us to furnish some 
 explanations as to the nature and composition of 
 organizable matter in general- of those substances in 
 fact which enter into the composition of living things 
 and in so doing we shall avail ourselves freely of the 
 writings of those who are best entitled to speak on the 
 subject. 
 
 Organizable matter always contains, as principal and 
 fundamental ingredients, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, 
 and nitrogen, and to these are often added traces of 
 sulphur and phosphorus. The first four elements are, 
 however, all-essential, and it is especially worthy of 
 remark that no less than three of them are gaseous. 
 Mr. Herbert Spencer says 1 : c When we remember 
 
 1 Principles of Biology/ vol. i. chap, i., ' Organic Matter.' This and 
 G 2 
 
84 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 how these re-distributions of Matter and Motion which 
 constitute Evolution, structural and functional, imply 
 motions in the units that are redistributed ; we shall 
 see a probable meaning in the fact that organic bodies 
 which exhibit the phenomena of Evolution in so high 
 a degree, are mainly composed of ultimate units having 
 extreme mobility.' When such mobile units enter 
 into various combinations, this initial property though 
 masked is still potentially present, and must have its 
 influence upon the molecular mobility of the com- 
 pounds into which they enter. Hence Mr. Spencer 
 adds, c We may infer some relation between the gaseous 
 form of three out of the four chief organic elements, 
 and that comparative readiness to undergo those changes 
 in the arrangement of parts which we call development, 
 and those transformations of motion which we call 
 
 function One more fact that is here of great 
 
 interest for us must be set down. These four elements 
 of which organisms are almost wholly composed, pre- 
 sent us with certain extreme antitheses. While be- 
 tween two of them we have an unsurpassed contrast 
 in chemical activity; between one of them and the 
 other three we have an unsurpassed contrast in mole- 
 cular mobility. While carbon by successfully resisting 
 fusion and volatilization at the highest temperatures 
 that can be produced, shows us a degree of atomic 
 cohesion greater than that of any other known element, 
 
 the succeeding chapters of Mr. Spencer's work should be read by all 
 who wish fully to understand this part of the subject. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 85 
 
 hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen show the least atomic 
 cohesion of all elements. And while oxygen displays, 
 alike in the range and intensity of its affinities, a 
 chemical energy exceeding that of any other substance 
 (unless fluorine be considered an exception), nitrogen 
 displays the greatest chemical inactivity 1 . Now on 
 calling to mind one of the general truths arrived at 
 when analyzing the process of Evolution in general, 
 the probable significance of this double difference will 
 be seen. It was shown ("First Principles/ 3 123) that, 
 other things equal, unlike units are more easily se- 
 parated by incident forces than like units are that 
 an incident force falling on units that are but little 
 
 1 Hence its compounds are generally most unstable. ' Here it will 
 be well to note, as having a bearing on what is to follow, how charac- 
 teristic of most nitrogenous compounds is this special instability. In 
 all the familiar cases of sudden and violent decomposition, the change is 
 due to the presence of nitrogen. The explosion of gunpowder results 
 from the readiness with which nitrogen contained in the nitrate of 
 potash yields up the oxygen combined with it. The explosion of gun- 
 cotton, which also contains nitric acid, is a substantially parallel pheno- 
 menon. The various fulminating salts are all formed by the union with 
 metals of a certain nitrogenous acid called fulminic acid ; which is so 
 unstable that it cannot be obtained in a separate state. Explosiveness 
 is a property of nitro-mannite, and also of nitro-glycerine. Iodide of 
 nitrogen detonates on the slightest touch, and often without any assign- 
 able cause. Percussion produces detonation in sulphide of nitrogen. 
 And the body which explodes with the most tremendous violence of any 
 that is known, is the chloride of nitrogen. Thus these easy and rapid 
 decompositions, due to the chemical indifference of nitrogen, are charac- 
 teristic. When we come hereafter to observe the part which nitrogen 
 plays in organic actions, we shall see the significance of this extreme 
 readiness shown by its compounds to undergo change.'. Spencer, loc. 
 cit. p. 8. 
 
86 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 dissimilar does not readily segregate them, but that it 
 readily segregates them if they are widely dissimilar. 
 Thus, these two extreme contrasts, the one between 
 physical mobilities, and the other between chemical 
 activities, fulfil in the highest degree a certain further 
 condition to facility of differentiation and integra- 
 tion.' 
 
 Thus, then, the very fact that organizable matter is, 
 in the main, compounded of elements with such dis- 
 similar properties, affords a strong a priori presumption 
 that such organizable matter would be most unstable, 
 and most prone to undergo metamorphic changes under 
 the influence of even slight changes of condition such 
 as might operate without appreciable result upon the 
 majority of inorganic substances. The properties of 
 the various frotem substances which form the all- 
 essential constituents of living tissues, are found to 
 correspond entirely with these a priori requirements. 
 This can scarcely be better shown than it has been 
 by Mr. Spencer when he wrote 1 : c It is, however, the 
 nitrogenous constituents of living tissues that dis- 
 play most markedly those characteristics of which 
 we have been tracing the growth. Albumen, fibrin, 
 casein, and their allies are bodies in which that 
 molecular mobility exhibited by three of their com- 
 ponents in so high a degree is reduced to a mini- 
 mum. These substances are known only in the solid 
 state : that is to say, when deprived of the water 
 
 1 Loc. cit. p. 12. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 8? 
 
 usually mixed with them, they do not admit of 
 fusion, much less of volatilization. To which add, 
 that they have not even that molecular mobility which 
 solution in water implies; since though they form 
 viscid mixtures with water, they do not dissolve in the 
 same perfect way as do inorganic compounds. The 
 chemical characteristics of these substances are in- 
 stability and inertness carried to the extreme It 
 
 should be noted, too, of these bodies, that though they 
 exhibit in the lowest degree that kind of molecular 
 mobility which implies facile vibrations of the atoms 
 as wholes, they exhibit in a high degree that kind of 
 molecular mobility resulting in isomerism, which im- 
 plies permanent changes in the positions of adjacent 
 atoms with respect to each other. Each of them has 
 a soluble and insoluble form. In some cases there are 
 indications of more than two such forms. And it 
 appears that their metamorphoses take place under very 
 slight changes of conditions In these most un- 
 stable and inert organic compounds, we find that the 
 atomic complexity reaches a maximum : not only since 
 the four chief organic elements are here united with 
 small proportions of sulphur and phosphorus, but also 
 since they are united in high multiples. The peculiarity 
 which we found characterized even binary compounds 
 of the organic elements, that their atoms are formed 
 not of single equivalents of each component, but of 
 two, three, four, and more equivalents, is carried to 
 the greatest extreme in these compounds that take the 
 
88 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 leading part in organic actions. According to Mulder, 
 the formula of albumen is 10 (C 40 H 31 N 5 O 12 ) -f- S 2 P. 
 That is to say, with the sulphur and phosphorus there 
 are united ten equivalents of a compound atom con- 
 taining forty atoms of carbon, thirty-one of hydrogen, 
 five of nitrogen, and twelve of oxygen : the atom 
 being thus made up of nearly nine hundred ultimate 
 atoms.' 
 
 These complex nitrogenous compounds, to the pro- 
 perties of which we have just been alluding, belong to 
 the class of bodies named colloids by Professor Graham. 
 They all have an extremely low diffusive power when 
 in solution, and on this account they have been sepa- 
 rated from the crystalloids^ or kinds of matter which 
 tend to crystallize, and also undergo diffusion much 
 more rapidly. Gelatine may be taken as the type of 
 this colloidal condition of matter. A most radical dis- 
 tinction is presumed to exist between crystalloids and 
 colloids, in regard to their intimate molecular con- 
 stitution. Professor Graham says 1 : 'Every physical 
 and chemical property is characteristically modified in 
 each class. They appear like different worlds of matter, 
 and give occasion to a corresponding division of chemical 
 science. The distinction between these kinds of matter 
 is that subsisting between the material of a mineral, 
 and the material of an organized mass.' Referring to 
 the colloidal class of substances, Professor Graham also 
 
 1 'Phil. Trans.' 1861, p. 220. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 89 
 
 says 1 : c Among the latter are hydrated silicic acid, 
 hydrated alumina, and other metallic peroxides of the 
 aluminous class, when they exist in the soluble form j 
 with starch, dextrine and the gums, caramel, taurin, 
 albumen, gelatine, vegetable and animal extractive 
 matter. Low diffusibility is not the only property 
 which the bodies last enumerated possess in common. 
 They are distinguished by the gelatinous character of 
 their hydrates. Although often largely soluble in water, 
 they are held in solution by a most feeble force. They 
 appear singularly inert in the character of acids and 
 bases, and in all the ordinary chemical relations. But, 
 on the other hand, their peculiar physical aggregation, 
 with the chemical indifference referred to, appears to 
 be required in substances that can intervene in the 
 organic processes of life. The plastic elements of the 
 animal body are found in this class.' These compounds 
 are so all-important in living organisms, both from 
 a structural and from a functional point of view, that 
 it is most desirable to learn as much as we can con- 
 cerning their properties as mere material aggregates 
 i. e. when they exist alone and not as constituents 
 of living bodies. We find that they themselves exhibit 
 a constant tendency to change in response to the most 
 delicate impressions, after a fashion which is suggestive, 
 at least, of the more complex though still comparatively 
 simple action and interaction taking place between one 
 of the lowest kinds of Amoebae and its environment. 
 
 1 'Phil. Trans.' 1861, p. 183, 
 
90 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 This tendency we must attribute to the large size and 
 complexity of the colloidal molecules 1 . Professor 
 Graham says on this subject: c Another and eminently 
 characteristic quality of colloids is their mutability. 
 Their existence is a continued metastasis. A colloid 
 may be compared in this respect to water while existing 
 liquid at a temperature under its usual freezing point, 
 or to a supersaturated saline solution The solu- 
 tion of hydrated silicic acid, for instance, is easily 
 obtained in a state of purity, but it cannot be pre- 
 served. It may remain fluid for days or weeks in 
 a sealed tube, but it is sure to gelatinize and become 
 insoluble at last. Nor does the change of this colloid 
 appear to stop at that point. For the mineral forms 
 of silicic acid deposited from water, such as flint, are 
 
 1 ' Applying to atoms the mechanical law which holds of masses, that 
 since inertia and gravity increase as the cubes of dimensions, while 
 cohesion increases as their squares, the self-sustaining power of a body 
 becomes relatively smaller as its bulk becomes greater; it might be 
 argued that these large aggregate atoms which constitute organic sub- 
 stance, are mechanically weak are less able than simpler atoms to 
 bear, without alteration, the forces falling on them. That very massive- 
 ness which renders them less mobile, enables the physical forces acting 
 on them more readily to change the relative positions of their com- 
 ponent atoms ; and so to produce what we know as rearrangements and 
 decompositions.' (Spencer, loc. cit. p. 14.) Professor Graham also 
 says : ' It is difficult to avoid associating the inertness of colloids with 
 their high equivalents, particularly where the high number appears to 
 be attained by the repetition of a smaller number. The inquiry suggests 
 itself whether the colloid molecule may not be constituted by the group- 
 ing together of a number of smaller crystalloid molecules, and whether 
 the basis of colloidality may not really be this composite character of 
 the molecule.' (Loc. cit. p. 221.) 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 91 
 
 often found to have passed, during the geological ages 
 of their existence, from the vitreous or colloidal into 
 the crystalline condition 1 . The colloidal is, in fact, 
 a dynamical state of matter ; the crystalloid being the 
 statical condition. The colloid possesses ENERGIA. 
 It may be looked upon as the probable primary source of the 
 force appearing in the phenomena of vitality. To the 
 gradual manner in which colloidal changes take place 
 (for they always demand time as an element), may the 
 characteristic protraction of chemico-organic changes 
 also be referred/ Thus, then, we seem to have found 
 materials which are modifiable and plastic enough to 
 enter into the composition of living things 2 . 
 
 But, let us now glance at the theories and require- 
 ments of those who seek to account for the first appear- 
 ance of Organisms. 
 
 To all those who are firm believers in the Evolution 
 
 1 Even a ' colloid holding so high a place in its class as albumen ' 
 may be met with in the opposite or crystalline condition. Professor 
 Graham says : ' In the so-called blood-crystals of Funke, a soft and 
 gelatinous albumenoid body is seen to assume a crystalline contour. 
 Can any facts more strikingly illustrate the maxim that in nature there 
 are no abrupt transitions, and that distinctions of class are never 
 absolute ? ' 
 
 2 ' While the composite atoms of which organic tissues are built up 
 possess that molecular mobility fitting them for plastic purposes, it 
 results from the extreme molecular mobilities of their ultimate consti- 
 tuents, that the waste products of vital activity escape as fast as they 
 are formed.' (Spencer, loc. cit. p. 24.) Vital actions entail decomposi- 
 tions, in which comparatively stable and simple combinations result 
 from the breaking up of the more complex and highly unstable protein 
 compounds. It is necessary that these effete products should be got 
 rid of. 
 
92 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 hypothesis, it will, as Dr. Child has already said 1 , 
 seem c an almost irresistible conclusion that there must 
 have been a stage in the development of the universe 
 when the earliest forms of organic life were evolved 
 from some special collocation of inorganic elements by 
 the continued operation of the laws already in action.' 
 Professor Haeckel, indeed, tells us that the occurrence 
 of an original evolution of Life on our globe c has at 
 present become a logical postulate of scientific natural 
 history? and, similarly, Mr. Herbert Spencer, though 
 c granting that the formation of organic matter, and the 
 evolution of life in its lowest forms, may go on under 
 existing cosmical conditions,' believes it c more likely 
 that the formation of such matter and such forms took 
 place at a time when the heat of the earth's surface 
 was falling through those ranges of temperature at 
 which the higher organic compounds are unstable.' 
 c Exposed to those innumerable modifications of con- 
 ditions,' he adds, c which the earth's surface afforded, 
 here in amount of light, there in amount of heat, and 
 elsewhere in the mineral quality of its aqueous medi- 
 cine, this extremely changeable substance must have 
 undergone now one, now another of its countless meta- 
 morphoses.' 
 
 The exponents of the Evolution hypothesis, in fact, 
 lead us to believe, that, prior to the evolution of Life 
 and the appearance of living things on our globe, 
 there must have gone on a long series of changes in 
 
 1 'Essays on Physiological Subjects,' 2nd edition, 1869, p. 144. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 93 
 
 the combinations and re-combinations of matter on its 
 surface, leading to the formation of different kinds of 
 aggregates, the molecules of which were large and com- 
 plex. Such molecules, then, existing in a state of solu- 
 tion, are supposed to have been as prone to undergo 
 changes under the modifying influence of incident forces, 
 as are those of the more or less similar compounds 
 named c organic' in our own day. Before the lowest 
 forms of Life could have been evolved, it is presumed 
 that there must have been gradually going on the pro- 
 gressive elaboration of an c organizable' material, re- 
 sulting, perchance, in the production of states of matter 
 more or less resembling those named protein, states 
 which, under the influence of incident forces, may have 
 been thrown into phases of unstable equilibrium, slowly 
 and gradually resulting in new combinations present- 
 ing such lowest modes of vital manifestation as present 
 themselves in the minute and simple jelly-specks con- 
 stituting the Protamxbte of Professor Haeckel. 
 
 Modes of action and reaction between such unstable 
 bodies and their environment, not wholly different from 
 those which a colloid presents, may at last have led, 
 through the most insensible gradations, to those alto- 
 gether indefinite, though successive, changes which con- 
 stitute the vital phenomena of the lowest known forms 
 of Life. 'Construed in terms of evolution/ says Mr. 
 Spencer, c every kind of being is conceived as a product 
 of modifications wrought by insensible gradations on a 
 pre-existing kind of being and this holds as fully of the 
 
94 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 supposed cc commencement of organic life" as of all 
 subsequent developments of organic life. It is no 
 more needful to suppose an " absolute commencement 
 of organic life," or a " first organism," than it is needful 
 to suppose an absolute commencement of social life 
 and a first social organism. 3 
 
 It is of the utmost importance to keep this last 
 consideration clearly in view in discussing the problem 
 of the origin of Life. 
 
 The labours of the chemists who have succeeded in 
 building up organic compounds in their laboratories 
 now come to our aid. They throw even more than 
 a faint glimmer of light upon the possibilities to which 
 we have just been alluding, since, as Mr. Spencer says, 
 c Organic matters are produced in the laboratory by 
 what we may literally call artificial evolution? This 
 opinion he explains in the following passage, which we 
 cannot forbear quoting, notwithstanding its apparent 
 technicality. c Chemists find themselves unable to form,' 
 he says, c these complex combinations directly from 
 their elements; but they succeed in forming them in- 
 directly, by successive modifications of simpler com- 
 binations. In some binary compound, one element of 
 which is present in several equivalents, a change is 
 made by substituting for one of these equivalents an 
 equivalent of some other element; so producing a 
 ternary compound. Then another of the equivalents 
 is replaced, and so on. For instance, beginning with 
 ammonia, NH 3 , a higher form is obtained by replacing 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 95 
 
 one of the atoms of hydrogen by an atom of methyl, so 
 producing methyl-amine, N(CH 3 )H 2 ; and then under 
 the further action of methyl, ending in a further substi- 
 tution, there is reached the still more compound sub- 
 stance dimethyl-amine, N(CH 3 )(CH 3 )H. And in this 
 manner highly complex substances are eventually built 
 up. Another characteristic of their method is no less 
 significant. Two complex compounds are employed to 
 generate, by their action upon one another, a compound 
 of still greater complexity; different heterogeneous 
 molecules of one stage, become parents of a molecule 
 a stage higher in heterogeneity. Thus having built up 
 acetic acid out of its elements, and having by the 
 process of substitution described above changed the 
 acetic acid into propionic acid, and propionic into 
 
 butyric, of which the formula is i C ^S^li?^ H ^ 
 
 ( ^ u (tiV) } 
 this complex compound by operating upon another 
 
 complex compound, such as the dimethyl-amine named 
 above, generates one of still greater complexity, butyrate 
 
 of dimethyl-amine | C ^^Q$*\ N(CH 3 ) (CH 8 )H. 
 
 See then the remarkable parallelism. The progress 
 towards higher types of organic molecules is effected 
 by modifications upon modifications; as throughout 
 Evolution in general. Each of these modifications is 
 a change of the molecule into equilibrium with its 
 environment an adaptation, as it were, to new sur- 
 rounding conditions to which it is subjected ; as through- 
 out Evolution in general. Larger, or more integrated, 
 
96 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 aggregates (for compound molecules are such) are suc- 
 cessively generated , as throughout Evolution in general. 
 More complex or heterogeneous aggregates are so made 
 to arise, one out of another; as throughout Evolution 
 in general. . . . And it is by the action of the suc- 
 cessively higher forms on one another, joined with the 
 action of environing conditions, that the highest forms 
 are reached ; as throughout Evolution in general 1 . 
 
 If, however, we may suppose that by a process of 
 Evolution, under the influence of natural forces, any 
 such complex and unstable bodies as those to which 
 we have been referring could have come into being in 
 remote periods of the Earth's history, then scarcely any 
 conceivable limit could be placed upon the variations 
 which might still result under the continued play of 
 incident physical forces. In the first place, most of 
 these compounds whose molecules are very complex, 
 are found to be capable of existing under many dif- 
 ferent isomeric modifications. Protein, for instance, 
 according to Prof. Frankland, is capable of existing 
 under probably at least a thousand isomeric forms ; and 
 this is the substance which, in one state or another, 
 enters so largely into the fabric of living things, as to 
 be, above all else, the organizable material. But even 
 this is not all ; there are chemical possibilities more 
 favourable still for the origination and developmental 
 variation of living things. c There are facts,' Mr. 
 
 1 Appendix to ' Principles of Biology ' (published separately), p. 482. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 97 
 
 Herbert Spencer says ', c warranting the belief that 
 though these multitudinous isomeric forms of protein 
 will not unite directly with one another, yet they admit 
 of being linked together with other elements with 
 which they combine. And it is very significant that 
 there are habitually present two other elements, sulphur 
 and phosphorus, which have quite special powers of 
 holding together many equivalents the one being pent- 
 atomic and the other hexatomic. So that it is a legi- 
 timate supposition (justified by analogy), that an atom 
 of sulphur may be a bond of union among half-a-dozen 
 isomeric forms of protein ; and similarly with phos- 
 phorus.' 
 
 These then are the materials, or such as these, from 
 the nascent action and interaction of which and their 
 environment there may have sprung up those modes 
 of change and growth which may gradually win for 
 themselves the title of c vital ' phenomena, and which, 
 becoming more pronounced, may at last suffice to 
 stamp the most infinitesimal and variable forms which 
 present them as Living Things. 
 
 But, for these changes and actions to take place, the 
 continued action of Forces upon the matter is needed 
 even though this be of the most -unstable description, 
 and therefore the most prone to assume new molecular 
 re-arrangements. There must also be causes of change 
 acting from without. Have we not s?en that the phe- 
 nomena taking place in living things, all essentially 
 1 Loc. cit. p. 486. 
 H 
 
9 8 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIF. 
 
 vital characteristics, may be described as c the continuous 
 adaptation of Internal to external relations ?' This is the 
 essence of Life in its dynamical aspect. The causes 
 of change are, however, omnipresent j and the most 
 potent of them seem to be those rays of Heat and Light 
 which are transmitted to us from our great central 
 luminary in the form of molecular motions by means 
 of subtle impacts and wave-like undulations in the 
 intervening realms of ether-space. These are the best 
 known, and possibly the most influential of the forces 
 which, emanating from the centre of our solar system, 
 spirit-like, work their vivifying influence by producing 
 such material combinations as are capable of mani- 
 festing the phenomena of Life. 
 
 The question how such ethereal undulations are 
 capable of bringing about the gradually more complex 
 molecular re-arrangements by which an organizable 
 material has been supposed to be producible ; and how 
 in the already existing living thing they exert their 
 influence in those processes of assimilation and growth, 
 whereby not-living materials are continually being converted 
 Into living tissue^ is one of the deepest interest towards 
 the solution of which Mr. Spencer has contributed some 
 most valuable suggestions. 
 
 c The elements of the problem,' as Mr. Spencer 
 says, c are these: The atoms of several ponderable 
 matters exist in combination : those that are com- 
 bined having strong affinities, but having also affi- 
 nities less strong for some of the surrounding atoms 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 99 
 
 that are otherwise combined. The atoms thus united, 
 and thus mixed among others with which they are 
 capable of uniting, are exposed to the undulations of 
 a medium that is relatively so rare as to seem im- 
 ponderable. These undulations are of numerous kinds : 
 they differ greatly in their lengths, or in the frequency 
 with which they recur at any given point. And under 
 the influence of undulations of a certain frequency, 
 some of these atoms are transferred from atoms for 
 which they have a stronger affinity, to atoms for which 
 they have a weaker affinity. That is to say, particular 
 orders of waves of a relatively imponderable >A matter, 
 remove particular atoms of ponderable matt eiv> from* 
 their attachments, and carry them within reach of other 
 
 attachments Now the discoveries of Bunsen and 
 
 Kirchoff respecting the absorption of particular lumi- 
 niferous undulations by the vapours of particular sub- 
 stances, joined with Professor Tyndall's discoveries 
 respecting the absorption of heat by gases, show very 
 clearly that the atoms of each substance have a rate of 
 vibration in harmony with ethereal waves of a certain 
 length, or rapidity of recurrence. Every special kind 
 of atom can be made to oscillate by a special order of 
 ethereal waves, which are absorbed in producing its 
 oscillations and can by its oscillations generate this 
 same order of ethereal waves. Whence it appears that 
 immense as is the difference in density between ether 
 and ponderable matter, the waves of the one can set 
 the atoms of the other in motion, when the successive 
 
 H 2 
 
100 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 impacts of the waves are so timed as to correspond 
 with the atoms. The effects of the waves are, in such 
 case, cumulative; and each atom gradually acquires 
 a momentum made up of countless infinitesimal mo- 
 menta. 3 Mr. Spencer then points out that the elements 
 of a chemically-compounded atom (or c molecule/ as it 
 is usually termed by chemists), being still free to move 
 within certain limits, we must suppose them to remain 
 severally capable of vibrating in unison with the same 
 kinds of ethereal waves, as were capable of moving 
 them when they were in their uncombined condition. 
 The component atoms, therefore, retain their original 
 rates of oscillation, modified only as they may be by 
 their mutual influence upon one another j whilst the 
 compound atom or molecule will have a capacity of 
 oscillating determined by the attributes of its con- 
 stituent atoms. Taking the case of binary molecules 
 as an example, it becomes evident that if the members 
 of such molecules differ from one another considerably, 
 they are almost sure to be thrown into different rates 
 of vibration, and c it is manifest that there must arise 
 a tendency towards the dislocation of the two a 
 tendency which may or may not take effect, according 
 to the weakness or strength of their union, and according 
 to the presence or absence of collateral affinities? This 
 inference is perfectly in harmony with certain known 
 facts. The metallic compounds which are most de- 
 composable under the influence of the chemical rays of 
 light are silver, gold, mercury, and lead, all of which 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. IOI 
 
 have high atomic weights, whilst others, -such as so- 
 dium and potassium, the atomic weights of which are 
 low, are much less changeable. In binary compounds 
 of these several metals having high atomic weights 
 there would be a greater difference between the weights 
 of the component elements, than if we had to do with 
 compounds of the small-atomed metals, and so also, 
 it has been found that it is precisely those compounds 
 which consist of the most dissimilar elements that are 
 the most decomposable. But there is also another 
 most interesting aspect of the question. Mr. Spencer 
 says : c Strong confirmation of this view may be drawn 
 from the decomposing actions of those longer ethereal 
 waves which we perceive as heat. On contemplating 
 the whole series of binary compounds, we see that the 
 elements which are most remote in their atomic 
 weights, as hydrogen and the noble metals, will not 
 combine at all : their vibrations are so unlike that they 
 cannot keep together under any conditions of tempe- 
 rature. If again we look at a smaller group, as the 
 metallic oxides, we see that whereas those metals that 
 have atoms nearest in weight to the atoms of oxygen, 
 cannot be separated from oxygen by heat, even when 
 it is joined by a powerful collateral affinity; those 
 metals which differ more widely from oxygen in their 
 atomic weights, can be de-oxidized by carbon at high 
 temperatures; and those which differ from % it most 
 widely, combine with it very reluctantly, and yield 
 it up if exposed to thermal undulations of moderate 
 
102 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 intensity. And here indeed, remembering the relations 
 between the atomic weights in the two cases, may we 
 not suspect a close analogy between the de-oxidation of 
 a metallic oxide by carbon under the influence of the 
 longer ethereal waves, and the decarbonization of car- 
 bonic acid l by hydrogen under the influence of the 
 shorter ethereal waves ? ' 
 
 These discoveries and suggestions are, we think, of 
 the deepest interest and importance. They open up 
 possibilities of explaining problems which had hitherto 
 seemed well-nigh insoluble, and that, too, in the sim- 
 plest way, and by the application of strictly physical 
 principles. Having to deal with such mutable ma- 
 terials as the unstable and big-atomed colloids, and 
 being aware of the above-mentioned explanations as 
 to the way in which vibrations communicated to an 
 imponderable ether may bring about motions amongst 
 the atoms of ponderable matter, much of the seem- 
 ingly impenetrable mystery which has hitherto en- 
 shrouded the nature of the changes taking place in 
 living tissues, appears to be notably lessened. No 
 subject seemed more hopelessly difficult, and yet we 
 can now only agree with Mr. Spencer when he 
 says : c These conceptions help us to some dim no- 
 tion of the mode in which changes are wrought by 
 
 1 The decomposition of carbonic acid and the fixation of carbon as 
 one of the component elements of living tissue is continually taking 
 place in the leaves of plants under the stimulus of solar light and 
 its actinic rays. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 103 
 
 light in the leaves of plants. Among the several 
 elements concerned there are wide differences in mole- 
 cular mobility, and probably in the rates of molecular 
 vibration. Each is combined with many of the others, 
 but is capable of forming various combinations with 
 the rest. And they are severally in presence of a com- 
 plex compound into which they all enter, and which 
 is ready to assimilate to itself the new compound 
 atoms that they form. Certain of the ethereal waves 
 falling on them when thus arranged, there results 
 a detachment of some of the combined atoms and 
 a union of the rest. And the conclusion suggested 
 is, that the Induced vibrations among the various atoms as 
 at frst arranged } are so incongruous as to produce instability , 
 and to give collateral affinities the power to 'work a re- 
 arrangement ivhich^ though less stable under other conditions^ 
 is more stable in the presence of these particular undulations? 
 Thus the way seems opening for us to comprehend 
 how, under the mere influence of physical forces, not- 
 living combinations may be broken up so as to give 
 place to those more subtle combinations of matter 
 which are only possible where much incident force is 
 retained. We know that the food of plants consists 
 of not-living or so-called mineral ingredients, we 
 know also that the plant grows, and therefore that 
 these non-living ingredients must be decomposed 
 in order to give place to the new living matter 
 which is continually being produced. Physical forces 
 and natural affinities are, therefore, supposed to be the 
 
104 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 only factors necessary for bringing about this marvel- 
 lous transformation, for enabling Living Matter to 
 originate in the tissues of plants by means of a complex 
 rearrangement of pre-existing not-living elements. 
 
 To some these views concerning the nature of Life 
 and vital manifestations may seem to be sadly insuffi- 
 cient, reducing it, as the theory does, to a mere inter- 
 play between a material aggregate of a particular kind 
 and its environment. But, it must not be forgotten that 
 the only fair way, in judging of the adequacy of such 
 an hypothesis, is to consider how far it is applicable 
 as an explanation of the phenomena exhibited by the 
 lowest Living Things. The more we look to the higher 
 forms of Life, the more apt are we to be blinded to 
 the real and essential nature of the phenomena taking 
 place, owing to the greater complexity which has arisen 
 in their various functions step by step with the struc- 
 tural differentiation of the organism itself. Never- 
 theless, even from phenomena presented by some of 
 these higher organisms, evidence may be obtained 
 which is certainly more reconcilable with the con- 
 ceptions of Life to which we have just been alluding 
 than with any other. 
 
 When seeds of wheat, produced by living plants in 
 times antecedent to the Pharaohs, can remain in the 
 Egyptian catacombs, through century after century 
 displaying of course no vital manifestations, but never- 
 theless retaining the potentiality of growing into per-. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 105 
 
 feet plants 1 whenever they may happen to be brought 
 into contact with suitable external conditions, we must 
 presume that, either (i) during this long lapse of cen- 
 turies the 'vital principle' of the plant has been 
 imprisoned in the most dreary and impenetrable of 
 dungeons, whither no sister effluences from the general 
 c soul of nature ' could affect it, and whence escape was 
 impossible; or else (2) that the germ of the future 
 possible living plant is there only in the form of an 
 inherited structure whose molecular complexities are 
 of such a kind that, after moisture has restored mobi- 
 lity to its atoms, its potential life may pass into actual 
 life, because the ever-recurring ethereal pulses of motion, 
 and other changes in its environment, are capable of 
 giving rise to a definite series of simultaneous and 
 successive changes in its own structure. This series 
 of actions and re-actions most variously complex 
 though they may be constitute the essential phenomena 
 of Life, and the structure of the organism or living 
 thing manifesting them is but the material embodi- 
 ment resulting from such actions. 
 
 1 In connection with periods of rest in Plant life, Alex. Braun (Re- 
 juvenescence in Nature, Syd. Soc. 1853, p. 200, et seq.) makes some very 
 interesting remarks. We will extract the following sentences only: 
 ' The formation of fixed oil is intimately connected with that of starch 
 in the economy of cell-life ; its appearance, in like manner, announces 
 the repose of age in cell-life, its disappearance the beginning of Re- 
 juvenescence. We meet with fixed oil in the cells, either mixed with 
 starch, substituted for it, or gradually displacing it; its occurrence is 
 perhaps still more general than that of starch, since it exists even in the 
 Fungi and Phycochromiferous Algae,' 
 
io6 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 But such things are not only true concerning the 
 germs of plants ; somewhat parallel phenomena are pre- 
 sented even by adult organisms in the animal series. 
 The c Sloths ' of Spallanzani, the Rotifers, and the Free 
 Nematoids or Anguillules, certainly should be taken into 
 account by those who would wish to arrive at correct 
 conceptions as to Life. These animals, having com- 
 paratively definite and complex organizations, are now 
 
 FIG. i. Animals found in tufts of Moss and Lichen. 
 
 a. Plectus parietinus, a Free Nematoid. 
 
 b. Rotifer vulgaris, the common Wheel Animalcule. 
 
 c. Emydium testudo, one of the ' Sloths ' of Spallanzani. 
 
 notorious for their tenacity of Life, their power of re- 
 sisting the most adverse external conditions, and, 
 above all, for their power of resuming active vital mani- 
 festations, after these have been completely in abeyance 
 for five, ten, fifteen, or even more than twenty years ' . 
 
 1 More complete details concerning these properties may be found in 
 a memoir on ' The Anatomy and Physiology of the Nematoids, Parasitic 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. IO/ 
 
 Living together, as they generally do, tenanting the 
 same tufts of moss or the same patches of lichen, they 
 eke out their existence by instalments, instead of enjoy- 
 ing a more or less definite and continuous span of life. 
 And, during their most extreme degrees of desiccation 
 they certainly can have no more title to be looked 
 upon as living things than can the seeds in the cata- 
 combs of Egypt. Though not living, they also retain 
 the potentiality of manifesting Life: and, for each 
 alike, in order that this potentiality may pass into an 
 actuality, the first requisite is water, with which to 
 restore to them that possibility of molecular re-arrange- 
 ments under the influence of incident forces, of which 
 the absence of water had deprived them, and without 
 which Life, in any real sense, is impossible 1 . 
 
 and Free.' Philosophical Transactions, 1866, p. 613-620. With regard 
 to Nematoids I have there said that ' the remarkable tenacity of Life 
 of which we have been speaking is met with only amongst the repre- 
 sentatives of four land and freshwater genera, Tylencbus, Plectus, 
 Aphelencbus, and Cepbalobus ; whilst those of all the other genera, except- 
 ing Rhabditis, marine as well as land and freshwater, are rather remark- 
 able for the very opposite characteristic, they being incapable of recovery 
 even after the shortest periods of desiccation.' It was formerly supposed 
 that all the Free Nematoids exhibited this tenacity of Life. 
 
 1 Professor Owen says (Monthly Microscopical Journal, May i, 1869, 
 p. 294), 'There are organisms (Vibrio, Rotifer, Macrobiotus, &c.) which 
 we can devitalize and revitalize devive and revive many times. As 
 the dried animalcule manifests no phenomenon suggesting any idea 
 contributing to form the complex one of " life " in my mind, I regard it 
 to be as completely lifeless as is the drowned man whose breath and 
 
 heat have gone and whose blood has ceased to circulate 
 
 The change of work consequent on drying or drowning forthwith 
 begins to alter relations or " composition," and, in time, to a degree 
 
108 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 But the Death of organisms is even capable of teach- 
 ing us something as to their life : their mode of dying 
 is typical of their mode of living. The more highly 
 developed an organism has become, the more has speci- 
 alization been brought about in the functions of its 
 several parts, and (in almost the same proportion) the 
 more has the all become welded into a whole. The 
 greater the degree of interdependence existing between 
 the actions of its several parts, the more is the well- 
 being of the entire organism interfered with by damage 
 occurring to any one of these principal parts. Through 
 the intervention, for the most part, of the nervous 
 system and the vascular system, this individuality of 
 the entire organism is carried to the most marked 
 extent in the highest vertebrata, so that the Life of 
 one of these creatures regarded as a whole, or sum 
 total of phenomena differs almost as widely as it is 
 possible from that of some of the lowest animals on 
 the one hand, and from that of plants on the other. 
 Their mode of death also is quite different. And as 
 with Life, so is it with Death, we are perhaps too apt 
 to form our notions concerning each from what we see 
 taking place in man himself and in the higher living 
 things many people apparently never reflect upon the 
 striking differences which are presented, in this respect, 
 by the lowest animals as well as by the members of the 
 
 adverse to resumption of the vital form of force, a longer period being 
 needed for this effect in the Rotifer, a shorter one in the Man, still 
 shorter, it may be, in the Amoeba,' 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 109 
 
 vegetable kingdom. In man we find a fully developed 
 and almost inconceivably complex organism; in the 
 working of which, as in that of any ordinary but ex- 
 tremely complex piece of machinery, there is seen to 
 be the closest interdependence between the actions of 
 the several parts. Destined as a whole to perform 
 a certain work, we may constantly see, for instance, 
 in the wool-factories of our manufacturing districts 
 a piece of machinery in which the sum total of work 
 to be done is parcelled out amongst different re- 
 lated and interdependent parts wheels of every de- 
 scription, large and small, plain and toothed ; combs of 
 various kinds; rhythmically acting knives, reels and 
 thread twisters, all combine simultaneously or suc- 
 cessively to elaborate the woof out of which our gar- 
 ments are woven. The action of some parts are 
 more essential, that of others less essential to the 
 action of the machine as a whole. An interference 
 with the revolution of some central wheel may suffice 
 instantly to interrupt the working of the entire mechan- 
 ism, just as the functional workings in the body of 
 a highly organized vertebrate animal may be as sud- 
 denly arrested by a puncture in a particular part of its 
 nervous system. In both instances the first result is 
 a simple cessation in the action of a complex machine ; 
 and, in the case of the animal seeing that its body 
 has been gradually built up in a given manner under 
 the influence of certain definite actions or functions, 
 the continuance of which is absolutely necessary it 
 
1 1 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 follows that when such actions are arrested irretrievably, 
 the organism as an individual whole must die, although 
 its separate parts and anatomical elements may and 
 do perish much more slowly, after different intervals. 
 These perish simply by default because the conditions 
 suitable for the continuance of their life are no longer 
 forthcoming ; and not because they themselves as vital 
 units had received any damage at the time that the 
 organism as a whole ceased to live when the action of 
 the vital machine was stopped. Every anatomical ele- 
 ment of even the highest animal may fairly be said to 
 possess Life and a specific mode of action, each after its 
 own kind ; only, the vital manifestations of the whole of 
 these units are subordinated to the Life and, in health, 
 work towards the well-being of the higher organism of 
 which they form part. The death of the Organism as 
 a whole, results from the stoppage of its machinery ; 
 but the death of its component parts subsequently 
 follows as a consequence of the cessation of those 
 more general actions under whose influence they 
 were produced, and without whose existence they can 
 no longer live. If the medulla oblongata has been 
 punctured and the heart has ceased to beat, there is 
 a permanent stoppage of this function, without which 
 Life, in such a being as a mammalian vertebrate, 
 is impossible. It consequently dies. If the blood no 
 longer circulates, the anatomical elements, which are 
 absolutely dependent upon this fluid for their pabulum, 
 must also, after. a time, necessarily die. The individual 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. in 
 
 muscular and nervous elements may and do still live 
 for a time the nerve will conduct a stimulus under 
 which the muscle will contract; and so is it, even 
 more markedly, with the epithelial cells those pos- 
 sessing cilia display their characteristic vital actions 
 long after the organism considered as a complex whole 
 has ceased to live. 
 
 Now the lower we descend in the scale of living 
 things, the less marked does the life of the organism 
 as a whole become, in contradistinction to the life of 
 its several parts. The c tendency to individuation ' be- 
 comes less and less manifest in proportion as the struc- 
 tural differentiation diminishes. The more the several 
 parts of an organism resemble one another, the less 
 difference is there between the functions discharged 
 by these several parts, and therefore the importance 
 is proportionately less to the whole organism when 
 one of these functions is interfered with. This is but 
 saying, in other words, that the machinery of Life grows 
 less and less complex, and that we are gradually ap- 
 proximating more and more to a state of things in 
 which, to employ the same simile, we have a mere 
 aggregate of wheels, a mere repetition of more or less 
 similar parts, with progressively less of mutual inter- 
 dependence between their several actions. Who has 
 not noticed the slowness with which a serpent dies, 
 how the toad clings to Life ? Look at the writhing 
 segment of the worm whose body has been cut by 
 the gardener's spade, or at the green Nereis of the 
 
1 12 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 rock-pool whose body has been accidentally torn, and 
 let us think of the powers of repair possessed by each 
 it is not killed, and an attempt will be made more or 
 less effectually to reproduce the lost parts, just as a 
 crystal, in its own proper medium would, after injury, 
 tend to reproduce its original symmetry of form. Look 
 again at the little polyp of our lakes and ponds the 
 Hydra, whose individual Life is so dwarfed in com- 
 
 FIG. 2. Hydra viridis in different stages of extension and contrac- 
 tion, reproducing gemmiparously attached to roots of Duckweed. 
 (Roesel.) 
 
 parison with the Life of its several parts that you may 
 cut it or injure it to almost any extent, and yet the 
 separate parts will still live \ It can, in fact, scarcely 
 
 1 It has, moreover, been recently revealed by the experiments of 
 Haeckel that a similar power of reproduction, previously unsuspected, is 
 possessed by Medusae. Haeckel says : ' My experiments proved that it 
 prevails to an amazing extent in many medusae, especially in those be- 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 113 
 
 be said to constitute a living whole, for the one animal 
 may be divided into two, and the two into four, and 
 each part will grow into an organism like that of which 
 it is a segment the parts grow into wholes, and in the 
 place of the one individual organism we get four others 
 similar in kind. By mechanical injury or compression 
 we may destroy any single part so compressed, but we 
 do not affect the total organism, except for a time : 
 the lost part is reproduced. 
 
 These also are the kinds of phenomena and modes 
 of Life with which we are familiar throughout the 
 Vegetable Kingdom nowhere do we meet with any- 
 thing like that same amount of integration or indi- 
 viduation which is characteristic of the higher animals. 
 Mere fragments of plants in the form of buds, c cut- 
 tings,' or portions of the root, separated from the parent 
 organism, are capable of reproducing plants similar 
 to those from which they have been derived. The 
 c tendency to individuation' exists here also, but even 
 in the most perfect plant the accomplished result is 
 small indeed, when compared with what we encounter 
 amongst animals. The absence of a nervous system 
 
 longing to the family Tbaumantiadte of Gegenbauer (Laodicei of Agassiz). 
 In several species of this family I could divide the umbrella into more 
 than a hundred species ; and from each, provided it only contained 
 a portion of the margin of the umbrella, grew in a few days (from two 
 to four) a complete small medusa. Merely a loosened shred of the 
 fringe on which the base (the adjoining piece of the edge of the umbrella) 
 remained, formed a medusa in a few days.' ' Monograph of Monera.' 
 Transl. in ' Quart. Journal of Micros. Science,' April, 1869, p. 117. 
 
 I 
 
114 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 however, combined with the less perfect condition 
 of the vascular system, are sufficient to account for 
 this want of integration in the plant, and the great 
 amount of independence shown by its individual 
 parts. 
 
 Such are some of the principal differences in the 
 nature of the Life, or aggregate vital manifestations of 
 the members of the Animal and of the Vegetable King- 
 doms: and great as are the differences between the 
 phenomena of the higher and of the lower forms of 
 these, we may look for even still lower manifestations 
 of Life in a group of organisms whose characteristics, 
 whether structural or functional, are so little marked 
 as to make the most philosophic naturalists unable to 
 assign them a place amongst either the one or the other 
 of these Organic Kingdoms. 
 
 It might have been expected, in accordance with the 
 doctrines of Evolution, that the lowest living things 
 would present characters of the most general descrip- 
 tion. They ought to be simply living things, without 
 visible organization, and should as yet present no 
 special characters by virtue of which a place might 
 be assigned to them either in the vegetable or in 
 the animal kingdom. The older naturalists thought 
 that every living thing must be either an animal 
 or a plant, and they accordingly ranged all organic 
 forms under one or other of these categories. But there 
 were certain of them whose characteristics were so in- 
 definite that they could really claim for themselves no 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 115 
 
 place in either of these kingdoms, and they were con- 
 sequently placed in the one or in the other alternately 
 as the state of knowledge at the time varied, or almost 
 according to the whim of successive writers. But now, 
 at last, after this unseemly bandying to and fro, their 
 proper position is being generally recognized. The 
 merit of taking a definite step as regards the classifica- 
 tion of these animals rests with Professor Haeckel, who 
 says 1 : C I have made the attempt in my "General 
 Morphology " to throw some light upon this systematic 
 chaos, by placing, as a special division between true 
 animals and true plants, all those doubtful organisms 
 of the lowest rank which display no decided affinities 
 nearer to one side than to the other, or which possess 
 animal and vegetable characters united and mixed in 
 such a manner that, since their discovery, an in- 
 terminable controversy about their position in the 
 animal or in the vegetable kingdom has continued. 
 Manifestly this controversy becomes reduced to the 
 smallest compass if the disputable and doubtful inter- 
 mediate forms are separated for the present (though 
 only provisionally) both from the true animals and 
 from the true plants, and united in a special organic 
 "kingdom." Thereby we obtain the advantage of 
 being able to distinguish both true animals and true 
 plants by a clear and sharp definition, and, on the 
 other hand, a special proportion of attention is attracted 
 
 1 ' Monograph of Monera.' Translation in ' Quarterly Journal of 
 Microscopical Science,' July, 1869, p. 230. 
 
 I 2, 
 
Il6 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 to the very low organisms hitherto so much neglected, 
 and yet so extremely important. I have called this 
 boundary kingdom intermediate between the animal 
 and the vegetable kingdoms, and connecting both, 
 the PROTISTA i.' All the members of this king- 
 dom multiply by an exclusively non-sexual method 
 of reproduction. It should be understood, however, 
 that in proposing such a classification Prof. Haeckel 
 by no means wishes to establish an absolute wall 
 of separation between these three organic kingdoms. 
 He is much more disposed to believe that animals 
 as well as plants have gradually arisen out of mo- 
 difications which have taken place in the simplest 
 Protista. This primordial organic kingdom he divides 
 into ten groups, in the lowest of which, named 
 Monera 2 , are included such mere naked, non-nucle- 
 ated jelly-specks as those belonging to the genera 
 
 1 rb irpduTtaTov, the first of all, primordial. 'Gen. Morph.' vol. i. 
 p. 203, and vol. ii. p. xx. and p. 403. Elsewhere he says : ' The question 
 which has been so often debated during the last twenty years as to 
 a boundary between the animal and the vegetable kingdoms will be 
 decided by the Monera, or, more correctly, they will prove that a perfect 
 separation of both kingdoms, in the manner in which it is usually 
 attempted, is impossible. The Monera are apparently such peculiar 
 organisms that they can be classed with equal propriety, or rather with 
 equal arbitrariness, as primitive animals or as primitive plants. They 
 may just as well be regarded as the first beginnings of animal as of 
 vegetable organization. But as no one mark of distinction inclines them 
 more to one side than to the other, it seems most correct at present 
 to class them as intermediate between true animals and true plants.' 
 .('Journal of Micros. Science,' Jan. 1869, p. 29.) 
 
 2 Name from ftof^s, simple. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 117 
 
 Protamoeba and Protogenes, to which we shall have occa- 
 sion again to allude. The other members of this 
 primitive kingdom being comprised under one or other 
 of the following groups : Flagellata, Labyrinthulea, 
 Diatomea, Phycochromacese, Fungi 1 , Myxomycetes, Proto- 
 plasta 2 , EToctilucsD, and Rhizopoda. 
 
 The homogeneous and shapeless masses of plasma 
 constituting the group Monera are supposed by Prof. 
 Haeckel to have come into being by a process 
 of equivocal or ' spontaneous ' generation, and these 
 are regarded by him as the primordial living things 3 . 
 We think, however for reasons which will subse- 
 quently appear that, side by side with these, should 
 stand Bacteria, Torul^ and other equally primordial 
 forms not alluded to by Prof. Haeckel. We merely 
 mention this conclusion at which we have arrived, 
 but will not enlarge upon it at present. 
 
 It will be useful for us to see, however, what Prof. 
 Haeckel has to say concerning the members of his group 
 Monera, including as it does the two genera above 
 mentioned, as well as others (such as Protomyxa and 
 Vampyrella] the species of which are no longer naked, 
 
 1 In justification of the removal of these from the Vegetable Kingdom 
 Haeckel says : ' The whole method of nourishment and assimilation of 
 the fungi, in connection with many other characters (especially the total 
 absence of chlorophyll), remove them so far from the true plants that 
 the earlier botanists long since wished to establish for the fungi a special 
 organic kingdom.' 
 
 2 In this group are included all the higher nucleated Amoeba. 
 
 3 Loc. cit. p. 330. 
 
Il8 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 but are bounded by an outer membrane 1 . He says 2 : 
 C I have called those forms of life standing at the 
 lowest grade of organization Monera. Their whole 
 body, in a fully developed and freely moving con- 
 dition, consists of an entirely homogeneous and struc- 
 tureless substance, a living particle of albumen 3 , 
 capable of nourishment and reproduction. These 
 simplest and most imperfect of all organisms are, 
 in many respects, of the highest interest. For the 
 albumen- like organic matter meets us here as the material 
 substratum of all life phenomena^ apparently not only 
 under the simplest form as yet actually observed, 
 but also under the simplest form which can well be 
 imagined. Simpler and more incomplete organisms 
 than the Monera cannot be conceived. . . . Indeed, the 
 whole body of the Monera, however strange this may 
 sound, represents nothing more than a single, thoroughly 
 homogeneous particle of albumen, in a firmly adhesive 
 
 1 Professor Haeckel proposes that the word ' Sarcode,' introduced by 
 Dujardin, should be applied to the free protoplasm which exists without 
 a covering or limiting membrane, only with the distinct understanding 
 that such free protoplasm differs in no essential respect from that which 
 is encapsuled, whether it is marked off from surrounding things by 
 a mere limiting membrane, or whether it is enclosed within a definite 
 cell-wall. 
 
 2 Translation in 'Journal of Micros. Science,' Jan. 1869, p. 28. 
 
 3 ' In all chemical and physical respects,' Prof. Haeckel writes else- 
 where, ' this substance shows the qualities of a consistent carbonaceous 
 compound of the group of albuminous substances (Proteine). It is 
 identical with the substance which as Plasma or Protoplasm forms 
 the contractile living substance of all organic Plastides, of all cells, and 
 cytodes of animals, protista, and plants.' 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 119 
 
 condition. The external form is quite irregular, con- 
 tinually changing, globularly contracted when at rest. 
 Our sharpest discrimination can detect no trace of an 
 internal structure, or of a formation from dissimilar 
 parts. As the homogeneous albuminous mass of the 
 body of the Moner does not even exhibit a differen- 
 tiation into an inner nucleus and an outer plasma, 
 and as, moreover, the whole body consists of a homo- 
 
 FIG. 3. Representatives of Haeckel's group Monera. 
 
 a. Most minute specks of protoplasm from fine surface mud of fresh- 
 
 water ponds, Hendon. ( X 800.) 
 
 b. Prot amoeba primitiva (Haeckel). Two individuals resulting from 
 
 a recent fission. 
 
 c. Vampyrella pendula (Cienkowski). 
 
 d. Amoeba porrecta (Max Schultze). This is really a Protamceba. 
 
 e. Protomyxa aurantiaca (Haeckel) developed into a ' plasmodium/ either 
 
 from the simple increase of a single amreba-like germ or by the 
 union of several originally distinct individuals. A devoured Isthmia 
 and a Navicula are visible in the homogeneous parenchyma of the 
 sarcode ; also numerous vacuoles. (6, c, d, and e x 220.) 
 
 geneous plasma, or protoplasma, the organic matter 
 here does not even reach the importance of the simplest 
 
120 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 cell. It remains in the lowest imaginable grade of 
 organic individuality.' Professer Haeckel afterwards 
 says: c The Monera are indeed Protista. They are 
 neither animals nor plants. They are organisms of 
 the most primitive kind: among which the distinc- 
 tion between animals and plants does not yet exist. 
 But the term " organism" itself seems scarcely ap- 
 plicable to these simplest forms of life; for in the 
 whole conception of the "organism" is especially 
 implied the construction of the whole from dis- 
 similar parts, from organs or limbs. At least, two 
 separate parts must be united to complete the descrip- 
 tion of a body as an organism in this original sense. 
 Every true Amceba, every true (i. e. nucleus-including) 
 animal and vegetable cell, every animal-egg, is, in this 
 sense, already an elementary organism, composed of 
 two different organs, the inner nucleus and the outer 
 cell-matter (Plasma or Protoplasma) . Compared with 
 these last the Monera are strictly " organisms without 
 organs." Only in a physiological sense can we still 
 call them organisms ; as individual portions of organic 
 matter, which fulfil the essential life-functions of all 
 organisms, nourishment, growth, and reproduction. But 
 all these different functions are not yet limited to dif- 
 ferent parts. They are all, still, executed equally by 
 every part of the body V 
 
 1 Prof. Haeckel then continues : ' If the natural history of the 
 Monera is already, on these grounds, of the highest interest as well for 
 morphology as for physiology, this interest will be still more increased 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 121 
 
 One of the most rudimentary, and at the same time 
 the first member of this group observed by Prof. Haeckel, 
 he named Protamceba primitiva. c l observed it/ he 
 says, c for the first time at Jena, in the summer of 1863, 
 in water which I had brought from a small pond in the 
 Tautenburg forest (opposite Dornburg, on the right 
 bank of the Saal). The bottom of this shallow little 
 pond is thickly covered with fallen decayed beech- 
 leaves, and in the fine brown mud, among the decayed 
 leaves, I found the little Protamceba.' It was a minute 
 plasma-ball, perfectly homogeneous, rather more than 
 Y-Q^ of an inch in diameter, which moved with extreme 
 slowness, and also changed its form as slowly, by 
 means of alternate protrusions and retractions of bluntly 
 rounded portions of its body-mass. The whole sub- 
 stance of Protamceba primttwa is absolutely structureless 
 and homogeneous. At one time it will multiply itself by 
 a process of fission, whilst, at another time, individuals 
 
 by the extraordinary importance which these very simple organisms 
 possess for the important doctrine of spontaneous generation or arche- 
 gony. I have shown in my " General Morphology " that the accepta- 
 tion of a genuine archegony (once or repeated) has at present become 
 a logical postulate of scientific natural history. Most naturalists who have 
 discussed this question rationally believed that they must designate 
 simple cells as the simplest organism produced thereby, from which 
 all others developed themselves. But every true cell already shows 
 a division into two different parts, i. e. nucleus and plasma. The imme- 
 diate production of such an object from spontaneous generation is 
 obviously only conceivable with difficulty; but it is much easier to 
 conceive of the production of an entirely homogeneous, organic sub- 
 stance, such as the structureless albumen body of the Monera.' 
 
122 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 originally separate coming into contact accident- 
 ally, unite or fuse together into a single individual. 
 The blunt projections of its body-mass, by means of 
 which it is continually varying in form, contrast notably 
 with the fine thread-like prolongations, occasionally 
 interlacing, which are thrown out from Max Schultze's 
 nearly allied Amoeba porrecta. These latter projections, 
 or pseudopodite, as they have been termed, closely resemble 
 those met with in the shelled-amcebse or Foraminifera l . 
 But even in 1857 an organism was procured from 
 great depths in the Atlantic Ocean by Captain 
 Dayman, which ought, apparently, to be placed in 
 this same group Monera. This and other products of 
 Captain Dayman's expedition were examined by Pro- 
 fessor Huxley, and since the publication of HaeckeFs 
 Memoir, he has proposed to look upon this organism 
 as a c Moner,' placing it in a new genus Bathyfaus. 
 Recent expeditions and fresh investigations have tended 
 
 1 Speaking of this animal, the Amoeba porrecta, Max Schultze says : 
 ' It sends out from its colourless body, on all sides, numerous fibrous 
 processes, short and broad on their first extrusion, but which gradually 
 elongate until they exceed the diameter of the body eight or ten times, 
 and taper to such fine extremities that a magnifying power of 400 dia- 
 meters is needed to distinguish them. The figure ,and extension of the 
 body change every moment, according to the side in which the ramifica- 
 tions are extended. If two or more of the filiform processes touch, 
 a coalescence takes place, and broader plates or net -like interlacements 
 are produced, which, in the continual changes of figure, are either taken 
 up again into the general mass, or otherwise are further increased by 
 a fresh influx of matter, until finally the entire body is transposed to 
 their place.' 
 
I 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 123 
 
 to throw a great additional interest over this oceanic 
 Moner, which, it is now believed, must have existed 
 far back in geologic time, and must have played a 
 most important part, by the accumulation of its in- 
 organic remains, in the formation of ancient chalk 
 strata, just as it is now being instrumental in the de- 
 position of another chalk stratum in the bottom of our 
 great Atlantic Ocean 1 . Captain Dayman was much 
 
 1 Referring to this subject in an interesting lecture ' On a Piece of 
 Chalk' (' Macmillan's Mag.' Sep. 1868, p. 399), Prof. Huxley says: 
 < The result of all these operations is that we know the contours and 
 nature of the surface-soil covered by the North Atlantic for a distance 
 of 1,700 miles from east to west, as well as we know that of any part of 
 the dry land. ... It is a prodigious plain one of the widest and most 
 even plains in the world. If the sea were drained off, you might drive 
 a waggon all the way from Valentia, on the west coast of Ireland, to 
 Trinity Bay in Newfoundland. . . . From Valentia the road would lie 
 down hill for about 200 miles to the point at which the bottom is now 
 covered by 1,700 fathoms of sea water. Then would come the central 
 plain more than a thousand miles wide, the inequalities of the surface of 
 which would be hardly perceptible, though the depth of water upon it 
 now varies from 10,000 to 15,000 feet; and there are places in which 
 Mont Blanc might be sunk without showing its peak above water. 
 Beyond this, the ascent on the American side commences, and gradually 
 leads, for about 300 miles, to the Newfoundland shore. . . . Almost the 
 whole of the bottom of this central plain (which extends for many 
 hundred miles in a north and south direction) is covered by a fine mud, 
 which, when brought to the surface, dries into a greyish-white, friable 
 substance. You can write with this on a black board, if you are so 
 inclined, and to the eye it is quite like very soft, greyish chalk. Examined 
 chemically, it proves to be composed almost wholly of carbonate of lime ; 
 and if you make a section of it in the same way as that of the piece of 
 chalk was made, and view it with the microscope, it presents innume- 
 rable GlobigerincB, embedded in a granular matrix. . . . Thus this deep 
 sea mud is substantially chalk. I say substantially, because there are 
 
124 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 struck with the sticky, viscid character of the mud from 
 great depths, and thus speaks of it in his Report 1 : 
 'Between the i5th and 45th degrees of west longitude 
 lies the deepest part of the ocean, the bottom of which 
 is almost wholly composed of the same kind of soft 
 mealy substance, which, for want of a better name, 
 I have called ooze. This substance is remarkably 
 sticky, having been found to adhere to the sounding-rod 
 and line (as has been stated above), through its passage 
 from the bottom to the surface, in some instances from 
 a depth of more than 2000 fathoms.' This is the 
 character of the mud in the warm area of the ocean, 
 though the more recent expeditions of Dr. Carpenter 
 and Professor Wyville Thompson have shown that the 
 character of the bottom is totally different in the cold 
 portion of the strait between the Faroe and the Shet- 
 land Islands in that part over which flows the down- 
 current from the Arctic basin. Referring to Captain 
 Dayman's description, Professor Huxley says 2 : c This 
 stickiness of the deep sea mud arises, J suppose, from 
 the circumstance that, in addition to the Globlgerina 
 of all sizes which are its chief constituents, it contains 
 innumerable lumps of a transparent, gelatinous sub- 
 stance. These lumps are of all sizes, from patches 
 
 a good many minor differences.' For further information on this most 
 interesting subject we must refer the reader to the Lecture itself. 
 
 1 ' Deep-Sea Soundings in the North' Atlantic Ocean,' 1858. 
 
 2 On some Organisms living at great Depths in the North Atlantic 
 Ocean, 'Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science,' October, 1868, 
 p. 105. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OP LIFE. 125 
 
 visible with the naked eye to excessively minute par- 
 ticles. When one of these is submitted to microsco- 
 pical analysis it exhibits imbedded in a transparent, 
 colourless, and structureless matrix granules, cocoliths, 
 and foreign particles V 
 
 But those who wish to make themselves acquainted 
 with the Protamcebtf, need not seek for them only in 
 comparatively inaccessible regions. They are in reality 
 common in the fine surface mud of many of our fresh- 
 water ponds, and may easily be detected by the skilled 
 microscopist when once he has familiarized himself 
 with their appearance. We have lately detected, in 
 material taken from such situations, organisms similar 
 in kind though much more minute than the Protamceba 
 
 1 One of the most interesting subjects attaching to these lower organ- 
 isms of the Protistic kingdom, is the enquiry as to how they are nourished 
 whether, like plants, they live upon inorganic elements abstracted from 
 their environment, or, like animals, upon organic substances already 
 elaborated. Dr. Wallich has strongly maintained the former view in 
 opposition to Dr. Carpenter's opinions that the Foraminifera are 
 nourished after the fashion of animals. In these and in similar low 
 oceanic organisms he has frequently expressed his belief that ' nutrition 
 is affected by a vital act which enables the organism to extract hydrogen, 
 oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and lime from the surrounding medium, and 
 to convert these ingredients into sarcode and shell material.' (' Monthly 
 Microscopical Journal,' January i, 1869.) This elimination of inorganic 
 elements, and their conversion into protoplasm, Dr. Wallich believes to 
 be dependent upon ' a special vital force inherent in the protoplasmic 
 mass itself, and diffused, in all probability, throughout its substance.' In 
 view of this hypothesis, or of certain modifications thereof, concerning 
 Protistic life, it is most interesting for us to learn, from the analyses 
 of Dr. Frankland, that a large quantity of nitrogen, both free and 
 combined, exists in the water of the Atlantic Ocean. 
 
126 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 primiti'va of Prof. Haeckel. These have presented them- 
 selves in the form of minute irregularly-shaped, almost 
 transparent specks of homogeneous jelly, about To( ^ 0(> " 
 in diameter. They seldom showed even a vacuole in 
 their interior. They underwent slow, though obvious 
 changes in form ; and they exhibited slight to-and-fro, 
 or somewhat jerkingly-progressive movements. Essen- 
 tially similar organisms will, in all probability, here- 
 after be found to be most widely distributed. They 
 are, in almost every respect, similar to the minute jelly- 
 specks, which we shall afterwards find making their ap-. 
 pearance in previously homogeneous organic solutions; 
 and they are, we believe, thoroughly primordial organ- 
 isms, capable of originating de novo in organic solutions. 
 Concerning this part of our subject, however, we shall 
 have more to say hereafter. 
 
 This then is the material which was spoken of by 
 Professor Huxley 1 as c The Physical Basis of Life;' and 
 the upholders of the Protoplasm or Sarcode theory main- 
 tain that this substance has an essential unity of nature. 
 So that, in spite of minute specific and isomeric dif- 
 ferences, we have in reality to do with one and the same 
 generic substance, whether existing as the 'contents' of 
 animal and vegetable cells, or as naked masses of proto- 
 plasm whether as parts of higher organisms, or as single 
 independent beings such as we have just been de- 
 scribing. The belief that all these various forms are but 
 
 1 ' Fortnightly Review,' 1869^ 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 127 
 
 trifling alterations of a single genus of primitive organ- 
 izable material, and that in all cases this * albuminous 
 material is the original active substratum of all vital 
 phenomena, may/ says Professor Haeckel, < perhaps be 
 considered one of the greatest achievements of modern 
 biology, and one of the richest in results/ 
 
 Protoplasm then, in its most general and undifferen- 
 tiated condition, in the form of a naked contractile 
 mass of seemingly homogeneous jelly, is the substratum 
 for all the life-movements of the lowest living things, 
 even in their adult condition. A structureless mass 
 of jelly suffices for the display of all the vital phe- 
 nomena of the lowest organisms. Here, without the 
 aid of organs of any kind, are carried on the vital 
 phenomena of c growth' and c reproduction ;' here do 
 we see the first germs of that organic irritability and 
 contractility which attain their highest development in 
 the conscious sensibility and power of -movement pos- 
 sessed by those living things which stand at the head 
 rather than at the foot of organic nature. Here does 
 that which has what we call Life approximate most 
 closely to that which has no Life : and who will venture 
 to draw a rigid line which is to separate these two 
 categories from one another ? As we have said before, 
 the theory of evolution knows nothing of c absolute 
 commencements;' rather, as Mr. Herbert Spencer puts 
 it, ' every kind of being is conceived as a product 
 of modifications wrought by insensible gradations on 
 a pre-existing kind of being.' We must not, therefore. 
 
128 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 look for an absolute barrier between the Living and 
 the not-living. We know nothing of an absolute com- 
 mencement of Life ; we may know some of the lowest 
 living things, as mere specks of almost inconceivable 
 smallness, barely perceptible even by our highest micro- 
 scopic powers but these are even then living organic 
 units. We cannot, however, penetrate further who 
 can describe the primordial collocations ? However 
 much we may wish it, we cannot be present at the 
 genesis of Life the veil is still there. The gradual 
 transition from the not-living to the Living is still 
 hidden from our view, and so, perhaps, it may ever 
 remain. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 RELATIONS OF ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, AND MINERAL KINGDOMS. 
 THEORIES OF ORGANIZATION. 
 
 The two higher Organic Kingdoms. Relations of Plants and Animals 
 to one another, and to Air, Earth, and Water. Plants produce and 
 Animals consume organic matter. Plants derive Carbon from the 
 air. Illustrations from past succession of Life on our globe. 
 Nature's Cycle. Plants continually producing Living Matter from 
 inorganic materials. 
 
 Theories of Organization. Cells. Doctrines of Schleiden and Schwann. 
 Views of Goodsir. Virchow's Cellular doctrines. Modifications of 
 views concerning the Cell and its powers. These necessitated by 
 our knowledge of the Protista. Cells and Plastides. Dr. Pile's 
 views concerning Germinal matter and ' Formed material.' Prof. 
 Huxley's opposition to Cellular Theories. Dr. Hughes Bennett's 
 ' Molecular Theory of Organization.' Doctrine now maintained by 
 very many Physiologists. This in harmony with Evolution Hypo- 
 thesis. Reason why Cells are so common as morphological units. 
 Do they arise de novo in blastemata ? 
 
 EAVING now for a time the consideration of 
 the nature of the lowest known forms of Life, 
 and all speculations as to the mode of evolution of 
 those combinations of matter and motion out of which, 
 by the most insensible gradations, they have gradually 
 arisen, it will be desirable to turn our attention to the 
 mutual relation of Plants and Animals to one another, 
 
 K 
 
130 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 and to those great storehouses of inorganic elements 
 earth, air, and water. 
 
 Whatever be the nature of the functions of the lowest 
 living things, and their relations with the environment, 
 or aqueous medium in which they alone exist, we find, 
 on coming to those more definite organisms which can, 
 without room for doubt, be ranged under either the 
 Animal or the Vegetable Kingdom, that the members 
 of each great class have functions definitely related to 
 one another and to the world of unorganized matter. 
 
 Bearing in mind that the fundamental constituents 
 of living things are carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and 
 oxygen, we must also remember that the degree in which 
 other constituents (such as sulphur and phosphorus with 
 various saline materials) enter into the composition of 
 organic matter, is altogether trifling when compared 
 with the immense bulk of living tissue that is almost 
 solely built up of these four elements in their diverse 
 modes of combination. 
 
 We shall then be the better able to appreciate the 
 doctrine so eloquently expounded by the eminent French 
 chemist, M. Dumas, in a work by himself and M. Bous- 
 singault, on c The Chemical and Physiological Balance 
 of Organic Nature.' He calls attention again and again, 
 in the most forcible language, to the all-important com- 
 plemental relation existing between the functions of 
 plants and animals. Plants in their natural and healthy 
 state decompose carbonic acid incessantly, fixing its 
 carbon and setting free its oxygen : similarly they de- 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 131 
 
 compose water, seizing upon its hydrogen and releasing 
 its oxygen ; whilst, lastly, they abstract nitrogen either 
 directly from the atmosphere, or indirectly from the 
 nitrate of ammonia which, under particular conditions, 
 has been formed therein. Plants, therefore, are mar- 
 vellous apparatuses of reduction, working with the aid 
 of the heat and light derived from the Sun. But this is 
 not all. The carbonic acid, the water, and the nitrate 
 of ammonia are decompounded, because the carbon, the 
 hydrogen, and the nitrogen entering into their compo- 
 sition, unite with oxygen to produce the various organic 
 substances entering into the fabric of plants. Reduc- 
 tion takes place, but only that combinations of a higher 
 order may arise. Animals, on the contrary, are true 
 apparatuses of combustion: in their bodies carbon- 
 aceous matters are burnt incessantly during the per- 
 formance of animal functions, and are returned to the 
 atmosphere in the shape of carbonic acid; hydro- 
 gen burnt incessantly is returned as water; whilst 
 nitrogen is ceaselessly exhaled in the breath and thrown 
 off in the different excretions 1 . c From the animal 
 
 1 This continual process of combustion is dependent upon the con- 
 joint and reciprocal action of the respiratory and nutritive functions. 
 Through the process of respiration the animal is supplied with an all- 
 important element, needed for the production of such changes. Mr. 
 Spencer says: 'The inorganic substance, however, on which mainly 
 depend these metamorphoses in organic matter, is not swallowed along 
 with the solid and liquid food, but is absorbed from the surrounding 
 medium air or water, as the case may be. Whether the oxygen taken 
 in, either, as by the lowest animals, through the general surface, or, as 
 by the higher animals, through respiratory organs, is the immediate cause 
 
 K 2 
 
132 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 kingdom, therefore, as a whole,' M. Dumas says, c car- 
 bonic acid, watery vapour, and azote or oxide of ammo- 
 nium are continually escaping simple substances and 
 few in number, the formation of which is intimately 
 connected with the history of the atmosphere itself:' 
 substances, too, which plants are continually needing, 
 and are as continually abstracting from the air. M. 
 Dumas also says : c It is in plants, consequently, that 
 the true laboratory of organic nature resides ; carbon, 
 hydrogen, ammonium, and water are the elements they 
 work upon ; and woody fibre, starch, gums, and sugars, 
 on the one hand, fibrine, albumen, caseum, and gluten, 
 on the other, are the products that present themselves 
 as fundamental in either organic kingdom of nature 
 products, however, which are formed in plants^ and in 
 
 of those molecular changes that are ever going on throughout the living 
 tissues ; or whether the oxygen, playing the part of scavenger, merely 
 aids these changes by carrying away the products of decomposition 
 otherwise caused ; it remains equally true that these changes are main- 
 tained by its instrumentality. Whether the oxygen absorbed and dif- 
 fused through the system effects a direct oxidation of the organic colloid 
 which it permeates ; or whether it first leads to the formation of simpler 
 and more oxidized compounds, that are afterwards further oxidized and 
 reduced to still simpler forms; matters not in so far as the general 
 result is concerned. In any case it holds good, that the substances of 
 which the animal body is built up enter it in a but slightly oxidized and 
 highly unstable state ; while the great mass of them leave it in a fully 
 oxidized and stable state. It follows, therefore, that whatever the 
 special changes gone through, the general process is a falling from 
 a state of unstable equilibrium, to a state of stable chemical equilibrium. 
 Whether this process be direct or indirect, the total molecular re- 
 arrangement and the total motion given out in effecting it must be the 
 same.' (' Principles of Biology,' vol. i. p. 34.) 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 133 
 
 plants only^ and merely transferred by digestion to the bodies 
 of etwmals? 
 
 Thus we find that the vegetable world is the great 
 originator and source of that pabulum which is necessary 
 for the existence of animals. Plants are the active 
 agents ever ministering to the wants of animals. They, 
 in fashioning their own structures, are continually 
 giving birth to organic substances which are to consti- 
 tute the materials necessary for the maintenance of 
 animal life. Animals, as a rule, are powerless for the 
 creation of organic matter 1 j they can assimilate and 
 modify the organic substances which have been built 
 up for them in the tissues of plants ; but they cannot 
 abstract from earth, air, and water the elementary con- 
 stituents of organic matter, and force them to enter 
 into such and such combinations. They use the 
 materials which have been elaborated for them by 
 plants, since they all feed either directly upon members 
 of the vegetable kingdom, or else indirectly by living 
 upon animals which have been so nourished. Plants, then, 
 are the great factors of organic matter the vegetable 
 
 1 ' Animals assimilate or absorb the organic substances which plants 
 have formed. They alter them by degrees ; they destroy or decom- 
 pound them. New organic substances may arise in their tissues, in 
 their vessels ; but these are always substances of greater simplicity, 
 more akin to the elementary state than those they had received. They 
 decompose, then, by degrees the organic matters created by plants. 
 They bring them back by degrees towards the state of carbonic acid, 
 water, azote, and ammonia, a state which admits of their ready resto- 
 ration to the air.' Dumas, loc. cit. p. 48. 
 
134 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 kingdom is nature's laboratory, within whose sacred 
 precincts dead brute matter is coerced into more 
 elevated and complex modes of being, and is made to 
 display those more subtle characteristics which we find 
 in living tissues. Using only the great forces of nature 
 availing themselves only of the subtle motions ema- 
 nating from the Sun under the names of heat, light, and 
 actinism plants compel carbonic acid to yield up its 
 carbon, water its hydrogen, and nitrate of ammonia its 
 nitrogen; and, at the same time, these separated 
 elements, with some of the retained oxygen x , are still 
 further forced by an accumulation of these mysterious 
 impacts to enter into combinations of a higher order. 
 
 M. Dumas, speaking of the sources whence are de- 
 rived the ammonia and the nitric acid used as food 
 by plants, says : c They are, in fact, produced upon the 
 grand scale by the action of those magnificent electric 
 sparks which dart from the storm-cloud, and furrowing 
 vast fields of air, engender in their course the nitrate 
 of ammonia, which analysis discovers in the thunder 
 shower. . . . As it is from the mouths of volcanoes, 
 then, whose convulsions so often make the crust of our 
 globe to tremble, that the principal food of plants, car- 
 bonic acid, is incessantly poured out ; so is it from the 
 
 1 Dumas says (' Lee. de Philosophic Chimique,' p. 100, Paris, 1837) : 
 ' These are the four bodies, in fact, which, becoming animated at the fire 
 of the sun, the true torch of Prometheus, approve themselves upon 
 the earth, the eternal agents of organization, of sensation, of motion, 
 and of thought.' 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 135 
 
 atmosphere on fire with lightnings, from the bosom of 
 the tempest, that the second and scarcely less indis- 
 pensable aliment of plants, nitrate of ammonia, is 
 showered down for their behoof.' Thus the air is the 
 great storehouse for the pabulum of plants, so that, look- 
 ing at the subject, as M. Dumas says, c from the loftiest 
 point of view, and in connection with the physics of 
 the globe, it would be imperative on us to say that, in 
 so far as their truly organic elements are concerned, 
 plants and animals are the offspring of the air' 
 
 It might be thought that plants derive the principal 
 part of the ingredients with which they build up their 
 own structures from the soil; but the experiments of 
 M. Boussingault have long since disproved this formerly 
 favoured assumption. He found that peas sown in 
 pure sand, moistened with distilled water, and fed by 
 the air alone, nevertheless found in this air all the car- 
 bon necessary for their development, flowering, and 
 fructification. Carbon is the most fundamental ingre- 
 dient of the vegetable kingdom; all plants fix this 
 substance, and all obtain it from carbonic acid either 
 abstracting it directly from the air by their leaves, or 
 obtaining it through their rootlets. In the latter case 
 they may obtain it from rains which have fallen to the 
 earth impregnated with the carbonic acid of the atmo- 
 sphere, or else they procure it from that which is 
 liberated by the gradual decomposition of organic par- 
 ticles in the soil. But that the air is the great storehouse 
 whence, either mediately or immediately, plants procure 
 
136 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 their carbon, is rendered more and more obvious to us 
 by the consideration of such facts as those to which 
 Schleiden refers when he says 1 : c From forests main- 
 tained in good condition we annually obtain about 
 4000 Ibs. of dry wood per acre, which contains about 
 1000 Ibs. of carbon. But we do not manure the soil 
 of the forests, and its supply of humus, far from being 
 exhausted, increases considerably from year to year, 
 owing to the breakage by wind and the fall of the leaf. 
 The haymaker of Switzerland and the Tyrol mows his 
 definite amount of grass every year on the Alps, inacces- 
 sible to cattle, and gives not back the smallest quantity 
 of organic substance to the soil. Whence comes this 
 hay if not from the atmosphere ? The plant requires 
 carbon and nitrogen, and in the woods and on the wild 
 Alps there is no possibility of its acquiring these 
 matters save from the ammonia and carbonic acid of 
 the atmosphere. 3 
 
 How important such facts as these are in throwing 
 light upon the past history of our globe, when we 
 attempt to study it with the aid of those relics, 
 preserved as fossil plants and animals, and dis- 
 tributed through the various successive strata of its 
 crust, the palaeontologists are best entitled to inform 
 us. M. Ad. Brongniart, one of the most able and 
 eloquent of these, even so long ago as the year 1838 
 announced, before the Academy of Sciences, the fol- 
 
 1 ' Biography of a Plant.' 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 137 
 
 lowing broad views concerning the succession of Life 
 on the earth 1 : 
 
 c We know, in fact, that in the strata of older date 
 than, or of the same epoch as, the coal formations, there 
 are no remains of any terrestrial animal, whilst at this 
 epoch vegetation had already made great progress, and 
 was composed of plants as remarkable for their forms 
 as for their gigantic stature. At a later period ter- 
 restrial vegetation loses in a great measure the signal 
 vigour which it formerly possessed, and cold-blooded 
 vertebrate animals become extremely numerous : this 
 is what is observed during the third period. 
 
 c Subsequently, plants become more varied, more per- 
 fect , but the analogues of those that existed originally 
 are reduced to a vastly smaller stature: this is the 
 epoch of the appearance of the most perfect animals, 
 of animals breathing air, of mammalia, and birds. 
 
 c ls there no means of discovering some cause adequate 
 to explain in a natural way this vast development, this 
 vigorous growth of plants breathing air, even from the 
 most remote epochs in the formation of the globe? 
 And, on the other hand, of the appearance of warm- 
 blooded animals, that is to say, of animals whose aerial 
 respiration is most active in the last periods of its 
 formation only ? May not this difference in the epoch 
 of the appearance of these two classes of beings depend 
 on the difference in their mode of respiration, and 
 
 1 Quoted in Dumas and Boussingault's ' Chemical and Physiological 
 Balance of Organic Nature.' 
 
138 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 of the circumstances in the state of the atmosphere 
 calculated to favour the development of one and to 
 oppose that of the other ? 
 
 c Under what form at the epoch of the creation of 
 organized beings did the whole of the carbon exist 
 which these beings subsequently absorbed, and which 
 is now buried with their spoils in the bosom of the 
 earth, or which is still met with distributed among 
 the infinite multitude of organized beings that actually 
 cover the face of our globe ? 
 
 c It is obvious that animals derive carbon neither 
 from the atmosphere nor the soil, but exclusively from 
 their food. 
 
 c We cannot conceive how plants could have assimi- 
 lated this carbon had it been in the solid state j and, 
 moreover, in the formations older than those that 
 include the first remains of vegetables, we scarcely 
 encounter any traces of carbon. 
 
 c This carbon, then, which the vegetables of the 
 primitive world, and those of the subsequent and 
 present world, absorbed, must necessarily have existed 
 in a shape proper to furnish them with nutriment ; 
 and we only know of two humus or vegetable mould, 
 which, resulting itself from the decomposition of other 
 vegetables, would lead us into a vicious circle, and 
 carbonic acid, which, decomposed by the leafage of 
 vegetables under the influence of solar light, deposits 
 its carbon, and so serves for their growth. 
 
 c It appears to me impossible, therefore, to suppose 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 139 
 
 that vegetables can have derived from any other source 
 than the atmosphere, and in the state of carbonic acid, 
 the carbon which is found in all existing species of 
 plants and animals., as well as that which, after having 
 served the vast primeval forests for sustenance, has 
 been deposited, under the form of coal, lignite, and 
 bitumen, in the different sedimentary strata of the 
 earth. If we suppose, then, that the whole of this 
 carbon was diffused through the atmosphere in the 
 shape of carbonic acid prior to the creation of organ- 
 ized beings, we shall see that the atmosphere, instead 
 of containing less than the one-thousandth part of its 
 bulk of carbonic acid as at present, must have con- 
 tained a quantity which it is not easy to estimate 
 exactly, but which was perhaps in the proportion of 
 3, 4, 5, 6, and even 8 per cent/ 
 
 But the experiments of M. Saussure have shown that 
 such a super-abundance of carbonic acid in the at- 
 mosphere, far from being detrimental, is positively 
 favourable to the life of plants when they are at the 
 same time exposed to the influence of the solar light 
 and heat. So that, as M. Brongniart says, c This 
 highly probable difference in the constitution of the 
 atmosphere may, therefore, be regarded as one of the 
 causes influencing most powerfully the more active and 
 very remarkable vegetation of the first organic period 
 of our globe 1 . 
 
 1 ' But this same circumstance must, on the contrary, have interfered 
 materially with the decomposition of the remains of dead vegetables 
 
1 40 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 c On the other hand, this difference in the com- 
 position of the atmosphere, so favourable to the de- 
 velopment., growth, and preservation of vegetable 
 matter, must have proved a bar to the existence of 
 animals, particularly of warm-blooded animals, whose 
 respiration, as it is more active, also requires a purer 
 air : during this first period, consequently, not a single 
 animal breathing air appears to have existed. 
 
 c During this period the atmosphere must have been 
 purged of some portion of the excess of carbonic acid 
 which it contained, by the vegetables which then existed ; 
 these assimilated it first, and subsequently buried it in 
 the state of coal in the bowels of the earth. It is after 
 this first period, in the course of our second and third 
 periods, that this immense variety of monstrous reptiles 
 makes its appearance, animals which, by the nature of 
 their respiration, are capable of living in an atmosphere 
 of much less purity than that which warm-blooded 
 animals require, and were the heralds and precursors 
 of these. 
 
 c Vegetables continued incessantly to abstract a 
 portion of the carbon of the air, and thus rendered 
 
 and their transformation into soil; for this kind of decomposition is 
 owing essentially to the abstraction of a portion of the carbon of the 
 wood by the oxygen of the air : and if the atmosphere contained less 
 oxygen and more carbonic acid, the decomposition in question must 
 have been without doubt both more difficult and slower. Hence the 
 accumulation of vegetable debris in extensive beds, even in circumstances 
 and from vegetables which, in the actual state of the atmosphere, would 
 give rise to no such layers of combustible material. 1 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 141 
 
 it every day more pure; but it was not till the ap- 
 pearance of a vegetation altogether new, abounding 
 in mighty trees, the source and origin of numerous 
 deposits of lignite, a vegetation which seems to have 
 covered the surface of the earth with vast forests, that 
 a great number of mammiferous animals, analogous in 
 all the essential features of their organization to those 
 that still exist in the world, appeared for the first time 
 upon its surface. 
 
 c Would it not be fair to suppose from this, that our 
 atmosphere had now arrived at that degree of purity 
 which could alone comport with the active respiration 
 of warm-blooded animals, and prove alike favourable 
 to the development of plants and animals, whilst the 
 simultaneous existence of these two orders of beings, 
 and the inverse influence of their respiratory actions, 
 conduce to maintain our atmosphere in the state of 
 stability which is one of the remarkable characters of 
 the present period ?' 
 
 Such, then, is the mighty round of things, such are 
 the interchanges ever taking place on the surface of our 
 globe. The inorganic is continually being fashioned into 
 the organic, and this after passing through successive 
 changes, and after having displayed the manifestations 
 of Life, is ever passing again into the inorganic, ever 
 again giving up its fashioning forces. c The crude and 
 formless mass of the air gradually organized in veget- 
 ables, passes without change into animals, and be- 
 comes the instrument of sensation and thought ; then 
 
142 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 vanquished by this effort, and, as it were, broken, it 
 returns as crude matter to the source whence it had 
 come/ c Thus,' Dumas also says, c is the mysterious 
 circle of organic life upon the surface of the globe 
 completed and maintained! The air contains or en- 
 genders the oxidized substances required carbonic 
 acid, water, nitric acid, and ammonia. Vegetables, true 
 reducing apparatus, seize upon the radicals of these, 
 carbon, hydrogen, azote, ammonium; and with them 
 they fashion all the variety of organic or organizable 
 matters which they supply to animals. Animals, again, 
 true apparatuses of combustion, reproduce from them 
 carbonic acid, water, oxide of ammonium, and azotic 
 or nitric acid, which return to the air to reproduce the 
 same phenomena to the end of time.' 
 
 Thus we see that throughout vast epochs, and even 
 in the present day, the Vegetable Kingdom has been, 
 and now constitutes, the great laboratory in which the 
 combination of dead inorganic or mineral materials into 
 living matter is continually taking place. We have 
 also seen that animals have no such direct power of 
 elevating matter taken immediately from its inorganic 
 sources, that they, on the contrary, avail themselves of 
 the previously constructive energies of plants, and use 
 for the building up of their own tissues complex sub- 
 stances which have been obtained, more or less directly, 
 from the members of the vegetable kingdom. We have 
 next to enquire briefly into what has been called the 
 c Theory of Organization/ in order to learn how far 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 143 
 
 within the tissues of plants and animals there is at 
 present, and has been taking place, a corresponding 
 evolution of living forms^ or morphological units. This 
 enquiry will involve a consideration of the present 
 aspect of the 'Cellular theory' of organization, and a 
 sketch of the principal modifications which, of late 
 years, that doctrine has undergone. 
 
 Facts are still multiplying day by day which tend 
 to show that the elements of the tissues in man and 
 in the higher animals are possessed of an inherent 
 power and activity of their own of a separate indi- 
 viduality in fact, though one which is subordinate to 
 the higher and more complex individuality of the 
 organism to which they belong, and as parts of which 
 they have been evolved. Tissue elements, such as 
 epithelial cells, are to a certain extent like distinct 
 organisms. They have a definite Life of their own 
 longer or shorter according to the situation in 
 which they occur, and which is therefore very vari- 
 ously related to that of the whole organism. Their 
 individuality of character or function is, moreover, 
 further shown by the power which they possess of 
 selecting their own peculiar nutritive elements out 
 of a complex fluid, or nutritive blastema the blood 
 common to all parts of the organism. But, granting 
 all this, the question then comes for consideration as 
 to whether we are to look upon c Cells' as the invariable 
 and ultimate morphological units whether they alone 
 can exhibit those subordinate vital activities upon 
 
144 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 which the vital manifestations of the organism as a 
 whole depend. On this subject much difference of 
 opinion exists. Though we cannot go into detail, 
 we will briefly consider the doctrines which have been 
 principally advocated. 
 
 An enormous impulse was given to such enquiries by 
 the publication, in the year 1839, of the researches of 
 Schleiden and Schwann 1 , who endeavoured to prove 
 that all the tissues of both plants and animals were 
 entirely built up of morphological units called c cells.' 
 They believed that cells were continually being produced 
 de novo in the bodies of plants and animals. Speaking 
 on this subject Schwann said 2 : c The following admits 
 of universal application to the formation of cells; there 
 is in the first instance a structureless substance present, 
 which is sometimes quite fluid, at others more or less 
 gelatinous. This substance possesses within itself, in 
 a greater or less measure, according to its chemical 
 qualities and the degree of its vitality, a capacity to 
 occasion the production of cells. When this takes 
 place the nucleus usually appears to be formed first, and 
 then the cell around it. The formation of cells bears the 
 same relation to organic nature that crystallisation does to in- 
 organic. The cell when once formed continues to grow 
 by its own individual powers, but is at the same time 
 directed by the influence of the entire organism, in such 
 
 1 ' Microsc. Researches into the Accordance in the Structure and 
 Growth of Animals and Plants.' Translation (Sydenham Society), 1847. 
 
 2 Loc. cit. p. 39. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 145 
 
 manner, as the design of the whole requires. This is the 
 fundamental phenomenon of all animal and vegetable 
 vegetation. It is alike equally consistent 'with those instances 
 in which young cells are formed within parent cells^ as 'with 
 
 FIG. 4. 
 
 Animal Cells. 
 
 A. Flattened Epithelium cells from the inside of the mouth. ( x 260.) 
 
 B. Ciliated Epithelium from the human Trachea ; magnified 350 diame- 
 
 ters, a. Innermost part of the elastic longitudinal fibres, b. Ho- 
 mogeneous innermost layer of the mucous membrane, c. Deepest 
 round cells, d. Middle elongated cells, e. Much larger super- 
 ficial cells, bearing cilia, and containing nucleolated nuclei. (K61- 
 liker.) 
 
 those in "which the formation goes on outside of them. The 
 generation of the cells takes place in a fluid or in a 
 structureless substance in both cases x . We will name 
 
 1 There are most important differences between these two modes of 
 cell-formation dependent upon the nature of the material in the midst 
 of which the new units arise. This will be pointed out further on. 
 
 L 
 
146 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 this substance in which the cells are formed, cell- 
 germinating material (Zellenkeimstoff), or cytoblas- 
 tema. It may be figuratively, but only figuratively, 
 compared to the mother-lye from which crystals are 
 deposited.' 
 
 The cells thus formed might remain isolated, or, 
 by the subsequent development and coalescence of their 
 walls in different ways, they might tend to produce 
 the various textures of the plant or animal. All the 
 tissues being thus either made up of cells variously 
 aggregated or derived by a metamorphic process from 
 cells, they maintained that ' the cause of nutrition and 
 growth resides, not in the organism as a whole, but in 
 the separate elementary parts the cells.' Schwann 
 believed that the c same process of development and 
 transformation of cells within a structureless substance 
 is repeated in the formation of all the organs of an 
 organism, as well as in the formation of new organ- 
 isms;' and he thought that the fundamental phenome- 
 non attending the exertion of productive power in 
 organic nature was always of this kind. 
 
 Shortly afterwards Professor Goodsir 1 advanced the 
 doctrine that it was not so much the cells as the nuclei 
 of the textures which are the potential elementary parts 
 of the organism, and which therefore may be called 
 c centres of nutrition.' In a communication on this 
 subject he said : c The centre of nutrition with which 
 we are most familiar is that from which the whole 
 
 1 Anatomical and Pathological Observations,' 1845. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 1471 
 
 organism derives its origin the germinal spot of the 
 ovum. From this all the other centres are derived, 
 either mediately or immediately, and in directions, 
 numbers, and arrangements, which induce the configu- 
 ration and structure of the being. ... As the 
 entire organism is formed at first, not by simultaneous 
 formation of its parts, but by the successive develop- 
 ment of these from one centre, so the various parts 
 arise each from its own centre, this being the original 
 source of all the centres with which the part is ulti- 
 mately supplied. . . . From this it follows, not 
 only that the entire organism, as has been stated by 
 the authors of the cellular theory, consists of simple or 
 developed cells, each having a peculiar independent 
 vitality, but that there is, in addition, a division of 
 the whole into departments, each containing a certain 
 number of simple or developed cells, all of which hold 
 certain relations to one central or capital cell, around 
 which they are grouped 1 . It would appear that from 
 this central cell all the other cells of its department 
 derive their origin/ And then he adds : c Centres 
 of nutrition are of two kinds those which are peculiar 
 to the textures, and those which belong to the organs. 
 The nutritive centres of the textures are in general 
 permanent. Those of the organs are in most instances 
 peculiar to their embryonic stage, and either disappear 
 ultimately or break up into the various centres of the 
 
 1 This doctrine of ' departments,' doubtless, suggested to Virchow his 
 modification of a similar conception, concerning ' cell territories.' 
 
 L 2 
 
148 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 textures of which the organs are composed. . . . 
 A nutritive centre, anatomically considered, is merely 
 a cell, the nucleus of which is the permanent source of 
 successive broods of young cells.' 
 
 But later still, Virchow announced l views which 
 have had an immense influence on pathological doc- 
 trines throughout all the schools of medicine, and 
 wherever biological studies have been cultivated. He, 
 too, maintains that c the cell is really the ultimate 
 morphological unit in which there is any manifesta- 
 tion of life, and that we must not transfer the seat of 
 real action to any point beyond the cell 2 .' But then he 
 denies altogether the origin of cells de no<vo in blaste- 
 mata taking place after the fashion described by Schlei- 
 den. He holds that cells can be produced only from 
 or by pre-existing cells. And, moreover, he does not 
 attempt to prove that the whole bulk of the tissues is 
 made up exclusively of cells ; he admits the existence 
 of a large amount of intercellular material in many 
 tissues, and so, in order to reconcile this fact with his 
 previous doctrine, he is compelled to put forward the 
 hypothesis that such intercellular material may be 
 broken up into imaginary c cell territories,' each of 
 which c is ruled 3 over by the cell which lies in the 
 
 1 ' Cellular Pathologic/ 1858. 
 
 2 Translation by Chance, 1859, p. 3. 
 
 3 This is like a degradation of the old ' archseus ' or vital principle. 
 Instead of one monarch holding his court in the stomach, this doctrine 
 would give us an incalculable number of potentates holding their sway 
 in cells over ' cell territories.' 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 149 
 
 middle of it/ He also is disposed to attach much 
 importance to the nucleus, and believes that c as long 
 as cells behave as elements still endowed with vital 
 power, the nucleus maintains a very constant form/ 
 Thus, according to Virchow, c every animal presents 
 itself as a sum of vital unities J or as a large kingdom 
 made up of an enormous aggregate of minute depend- 
 encies, each of which is endowed with more or less 
 power of self-government these dependencies being 
 invariably constituted by definite morphological units 
 known as cells, though there may or may not be in- 
 cluded under the sway of each a certain outlying 
 c cell territory/ Such is the essence of Virchow's 
 doctrine. 
 
 Before proceeding further, however, it will be well 
 to point out that important modifications had been 
 growing up, even before the publication of Virchow's 
 theories, as to the true conception of the nature of a 
 cell. So far the cell has been spoken of as an alto- 
 gether definite structure as a body with a distinct wall 
 or bounding membrane and also certain contents, which 
 include amongst other things one of the most funda- 
 mental parts of the cell, the nucleus which again 
 may contain a nucleolus. But it was maintained by 
 Naegeli *, and also by Alexander Braun 2 , and then more 
 
 1 'Zeitschrift ffir Wissen. Botanik,' 1846 (Transln. Ray Soc. 1849, 
 P- 95). 
 
 2 'The Phenomena of Rejuvenescence in Nature,' 1851 (Transln. 
 Ray Soc. 1853). 
 
150 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 emphatically declared by Max Schultze *, that a distinct 
 investing membrane or cell-wall was not an essential 
 character : afterwards the typical ceil was still further 
 shorn of its characteristics when it was shown (if 
 this had not been already done by Naegeli and Braun) 
 by Briicke 2 , Kiihne 3 , and others, that even the nucleus 
 was a non-essential constituent of that body, which 
 was formerly thought to represent not only the morpho- 
 logical, but also the vital unit. So that, in place of 
 the old c celP with its definite characters, this would 
 reduce us to a mere naked, non-nucleated bit of pro- 
 toplasm as the simplest material substratum adequate 
 to display all those vital manifestations which were 
 previously considered as the essential attributes of cer- 
 tain formed elements known as c cells.' The power 
 of displaying vital manifestations was, in fact, trans- 
 
 1 'Reichert und Du Bois Reymond's Archiv,' 1861. A mere mass of 
 protoplasm with a nucleus was sufficient to constitute a ' cell ; ' and at 
 the same time it was maintained that the substance of the cell (or that 
 within the wall, where this existed) was protoplasm, a contractile sub- 
 stance answering to what Dujardin had named sarcode. These later 
 modifications are, however, by no means antagonistic to the notions of 
 Schwann as may be gathered from the following passages : ' There is 
 no contradiction involved in the supposition that a nucleus may be 
 contained in a solid globule as well as in a cell. . . . A given object may 
 really be a cell when even the common characteristics of that structure , 
 namely the perceptibility of the cell membrane, and the flowing out of 
 the cell contents, cannot be brought under observation. . . . The most 
 important and abundant proof as to the existence of a cell is the pre- 
 sence or absence of the nucleus.' Loc. cit. p. 37. 
 
 2 'Wiener Sitzungsberichte,' 1861, pp. 18-22. 
 
 3 'Protoplasma und die Contractilitat.' Leipzig, 1864. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 151 
 
 ferred from definitely formed morphological units to 
 utterly indefinite and formless masses of what is called 
 protoplasm. Instead therefore of an obvious form of Life, 
 we are reduced to a matter of Life, presenting no appre- 
 ciable morphological characters. It becomes evident, 
 moreover, that if the old term c cell' is now applied to 
 these bits of living stuff or protoplasm (simply because 
 biologists have been compelled to transfer the power of 
 manifesting vital properties to such masses, instead 
 of restricting this power to definitely formed morpho- 
 logical units) the term must, nevertheless, have entirely 
 lost its old signification, and can be regarded in no 
 other way than as a mere courtesy title when so em- 
 ployed. Vital power has obviously been transferred 
 from a morphological unit (the cell) to mere formless 
 living matter, and if some persist in calling a portion 
 of such mere matter by the name of the morphological 
 unit, simply because this was of old also assumed to be 
 the ultimate vital unit, we must not allow our minds 
 to be confused by such use of the word 1 . 
 
 In order to prevent this, a new term must be intro- 
 duced, and the old term must lose something of its 
 definiteness: it must, at the same time, renounce 
 for ever one of the characteristics with which many 
 have credited it. In accordance with the views above 
 expressed, the c cell,' even in its modern sense the 
 mass of protoplasm containing a nucleus cannot be 
 regarded as the ultimate vital unit. It is also less 
 
 1 See Hutchison Stirling's ' As regards Protoplasm,' &c., 1869, p. 16. 
 
152 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 definite in its morphological characters, since it is now 
 acknowledged that the cell may or may not be enclosed 
 by a membrane or cell-wall. For the structureless mass 
 of protoplasm the mere bit of plasma, or living matter 
 in which no inner differentiation has yet taken place, 
 we cannot do better than adopt HaeckeFs 1 term c plastide. y 
 The plastide, like the cell, may vary much in size : it, 
 also, may be either naked or bounded by a membrane. 
 
 The old doctrine as to the fundamental properties of 
 the c cell' as a vital unit, did well enough in those days 
 when the lowest known living things the lowest plants 
 and the lowest animals were thought to be c unicellular 
 
 FIG. 5. 
 
 4 Unicellular Organisms.' 
 a, b, c. Three of the higher Amoebae, f. One of the most minute and 
 
 a. Nuclearia simplex. 
 
 b. Amoeba Limax. 
 
 c. Amceba guthtla. 
 
 d and e. Gregarina Sipunculi. 
 
 simple of the unicellular Al- 
 gae Hematococcus ceruginosus. 
 g. The ' red snow ' Alga Proto- 
 coccus nivalis. 
 
 1 'Journal of Microsc. Science,' 1869, vol. ix. p. 332. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 153 
 
 organisms,' closely approximating in their characters to 
 the morphological units of which the higher plants and 
 animals were compounded. But, since our knowledge 
 has increased, since we have become more familiar 
 with the various living things which now constitute 
 the lowest groups of the third organic kingdom PRO- 
 TISTA the maintenance of such doctrines (leaving 
 aside all other reasons) has become impossible. Have 
 we not seen that although the Protoplasta are amoe- 
 boid animals, possessing the old cell characters that 
 is, having a distinct nucleus and a definite bounding 
 membrane there are, nevertheless, adult animals 
 entering into the composition of the lowest group 
 Monera, some of which have no bounding membrane 
 though they have a nucleus, whilst others, simpler 
 still, are mere bits of protoplasm, naked, non-nucle- 
 ated, structureless? Yet, such minute, homogeneous, 
 and altogether indefinite bits of protoplasm, are as 
 capable of displaying the fundamental -characteristics of 
 Life as are the more definite unicellular organisms, to 
 which such attributes were previously supposed to be 
 restricted. Without visible structure they nevertheless 
 assimilate materials from their environment, and grow. 
 They constantly vary their form, and are capable of 
 executing slow movements. Though possessing no 
 nucleus, they, nevertheless, are able to divide and 
 reproduce their kind. 
 
 Dr. Lionel Beale, whilst admitting the existence of 
 a morphological unit answering to the cell of other 
 
154 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 observers, which is found to enter largely into the com- 
 position of many of the tissues of the body, denies that 
 anything to which the ordinary definition of a cell would 
 be applicable can be said to constitute the elementary 
 part of many tissues. He says 1 : c We may, how- 
 ever, use this term, which is very short and conve- 
 nient, if we give it a more general meaning. I would 
 venture to describe the cell or elementary part as a 
 structure always consisting of matter in two states, 
 forming and formed^ or germinal matter and formed 
 material. The first or active substance is surrounded 
 and protected by the outer passive matter, through 
 which all the pabulum to be converted into ger- 
 minal matter must pass/ Looking therefore upon the 
 central portion (corresponding to nucleus and part 
 of cell contents) as the living part or germinal matter, 
 in which the active powers of grov/th reside, and by 
 the division of which new germinal centres are pro- 
 duced; he regards the peripheral portion (correspond- 
 ing to the outer part of cell contents, the cell-wall and 
 the intercellular substance of most other writers) as dead 
 matter, incapable of undergoing any further changes 
 that may be called vital. The outermost layers of 
 germinal matter are supposed to be continually losing 
 their peculiar powers, and passing into formed mate- 
 rial ; whilst the new materials of growth penetrate to 
 the very centre of the germinal mass, where all the 
 
 1 'Structure and Growth of Tissues,' 'Journal of Microscopical 
 Science,' 1861, p. 62. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 155 
 
 vital processes are thought to be in their greatest acti- 
 vity. Further changes in the formed (or dead) material, 
 result, in some cases, in the formation of the various 
 secretions, and in others, in the production of the cha- 
 racteristic parts of such tissues as muscle and nerve. 
 
 We now know, however, that the simplest living 
 things present no such distinction of parts as those 
 to which Dr. Beale alludes; and it has always ap- 
 peared to me to be a very fundamental objection to his 
 theory that so many of the most characteristically vital 
 phenomena of the higher animals should take place 
 through the agency of tissues muscle and nerve for 
 instance by far the greater part of the bulk of which 
 would, in accordance with Dr. Beale's view, have to be 
 considered as dead^ and inert. Dr. Beale has quite re- 
 cently said l : c The contractile material of muscle 
 may be shown to be continuous with the germinal 
 matter, and oftentimes a thin filament of the trans- 
 versely striated tissue may be detached with the oval 
 mass of germinal matter still connected with it, show- 
 ing that, as in tendon, the germinal matter passes un- 
 interruptedly into the formed material. This con- 
 tractile tissue is not, like the germinal matter which 
 produced it, in a living state. In the formation of the 
 contractile tissue the germinal matter seems to move 
 onwards, and at its posterior part gradually undergoes 
 conversion into the tissue. At the same time it absorbs 
 nutrient material, and thus, although a vast amount 
 1 'Protoplasm,' 2nd edition, 1870, p. 54. 
 
156 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 of contractile tissue may have been produced, the ger- 
 minal matter which formed it may not have altered in 
 bulk/ Then, concerning the nature and mode of for- 
 mation of nerve fibres, Dr. Beale says : c The nerve 
 fibre is composed of formed material, which is structu- 
 rally continuous with the formed material of the nerve 
 cells of the nerve centres. A nerve fibre at an early 
 period of development consists of a number of oval 
 masses of germinal matter linearly arranged. As deve- 
 lopment proceeds, these become separated farther and 
 farther from one another, and the non-living tissue 
 which is thus spun off as they become separated, is the 
 nerve.' 
 
 Dr. Beale's dictum that the matter which he calls 
 ' formed material 3 is dead, we regard as a singularly 
 foundationless hypothesis, the maintenance of which is 
 beset with difficulties. If muscles and nerves perform 
 work, such functional activity must be attended by 
 tissue changes in their very substance. How then is 
 repair to be effected ? Not after the fashion in which 
 living tissues are renovated, for these, according to 
 Dr. Beale, are dead, and therefore cannot be amenable 
 to the laws which govern the repair of living structures. 
 I have no faith, however, in the ability of carmine to 
 discriminate the not-living from the Living, and can 
 only state my total inability to accept the opinion of 
 Dr. Beale when he says : c The difference between 
 germinal or living matter and the pabulum which 
 nourishes it, on the one hand, and the formed material 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 157 
 
 which is produced by it, on the other, is, I believe, 
 absolute. The pabulum does not shade by impercept- 
 ible gradations into the living matter, and this latter 
 into the formed material, but the passage from one 
 state into the other is sudden and abrupt, although 
 there may be much living matter mixed with little life- 
 less matter, or 'vice versa. The ultimate particles of 
 matter pass from the lifeless into the living state, and 
 from the latter into the dead state, suddenly. Matter 
 cannot be said to half-live or half-die. It is either 
 dead or living, animate or Inanimate , and formed matter 
 has ceased to live.' We do not wonder that any one 
 who could hold such a doctrine as this should exhibit 
 so much antagonism towards the Evolution Hypo- 
 thesis. But how such marvellously abrupt transitions 
 are brought about we are not toldj and Dr. Beale, 
 moreover, forgets to mention upon what evidence he 
 feels himself entitled to make such positive and start- 
 ling assertions. 
 
 To a certain extent, however, we find there is an 
 agreement between Dr. Beale's doctrine and that of 
 other excellent observers. He says * : c However 
 much organisms and tissues in their fully formed 
 state may vary as regards the character, properties, and 
 composition of the formed material, all were first in 
 the condition of clear, transparent, structureless, form- 
 less living matter.' Surely, however, he is uttering 
 something quite contradictory when he says, in effect 
 1 Loc. cit. p. 48. 
 
158 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 previously, and also subsequently 1 in actual words: 'All 
 that is essential to the cell or elementary part is matter 
 that is in the living state germinal matter^ and matter 
 that has been in the living state formed material? Such 
 c formed material' as Dr. Beale here speaks of may 
 be necessary in order to support certain theories, but it 
 does not actually exist in the simplest living things or 
 elemental living parts these are, as he has himself 
 frequently stated, perfectly structureless 2 . 
 
 But even so far back as 1853, before the doctrine 
 as to the constitution of the c cell' had undergone these 
 modifications or rather, as we should more strictly say, 
 before it had been generally acknowledged that vital 
 manifestations could be displayed by mere bits of 
 protoplasm lacking this form hitherto supposed ne- 
 cessary Professor Huxley had put forth 3 a powerful 
 remonstrance against the then all-prevalent c cellular 
 theory ' of organization. His opinions were announced 
 even five years before Virchow, the last great champion 
 of the old doctrine, issued his celebrated c Cellular Patho- 
 logic.' Following in the main the doctrines of Wolff 
 and Von Baer, Professor Huxley contended that the 
 primitive organic substance is a homogeneous plasma 
 
 1 Idem, p. 55. 
 
 2 If the reader chooses to consult Dr. Beale's work on ' Protoplasm,' 
 it will be found in accordance with fact rather than theory that the 
 figures of living things and elementary parts there given in PL II, 
 especially figs. 3, 5, and 6, represent only homogeneous living matter, 
 with no trace of formed material externally. Dr. Beale's accuracy as an 
 observer is thoroughly well known. 
 
 3 See ' British and Foreign Medical Chirurgical Review,' 1853, P- 3^- 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 1 59 
 
 in which a certain differentiation takes place, but that 
 there is no evidence whatever to show that the mole- 
 cular forces of this living matter (the c vital forces' of 
 most modern writers) are by this differentiation local- 
 ized in any one part more than in any other part 
 be it cell or be it intercellular tissue. c Neither is 
 there any evidence/ he says, c that any attraction or 
 other influence is exercised by the one over the other ; 
 the changes which each subsequently undergoes, though 
 they are in harmony, having no causal connection with 
 one another, but each proceeding, as it would seem, 
 in accordance with the general determining laws of 
 the organism.' Whilst believing that the periplast 
 corresponding with the cell-wall and intercellular tissue 
 of other writers is the seat of all the most important/ 
 metamorphic processes, out of which the various tissues 
 are produced, he also believes that this differentiation 
 is not brought about by any mysterious action on the 
 part of the cell or nucleus that it is rather a result 
 of intimate molecular changes taking place in the plastic 
 matter itself after a definitely successive, though in- 
 explicable fashion. The fundamental position of Pro- 
 fessor Huxley is, in fact, that the c primary differentia- 
 tion is not a necessary preliminary to further organi- 
 zation that the cells are not machines by which alone 
 further development can take place,' they are rather 
 mere indications of accustomed modes of evolution. 
 This view he has further illustrated as follows: 
 c We have tried to show,' he says, c that they are not 
 
160 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 instruments but indications that they are no more 
 the producers of the vital phenomena, than the shells 
 scattered m orderly lines along the sea-beach are the 
 instruments by which the gravitative force of the moon 
 acts upon the ocean. Like these, the cell marks only 
 where the vital tides have been, and how they have 
 acted/ 
 
 Professor Huxley's doctrine must be distinguished 
 from another put forward by Dr. Hughes Bennett shortly 
 afterwards \ and then more fully in the ( Proceedings 
 of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,' in 1861. This is 
 more especially known as c The Molecular Theory of 
 Organization.' ( The first step/ Professor Bennett says, 
 c in the process of organic formation, is the production 
 of an organic fluid ; the second, the precipitation in it 
 of organic molecules, from which, according to the 
 molecular law of growth, all other textures are derived 
 either directly or indirectly.' So that c the ultimate 
 parts of the organism are not cells nor nuclei, but the 
 minute molecules from which these are formed. They 
 possess independent physical and vital properties, which 
 enable them to unite and arrange themselves so as to 
 produce higher forms. Among these are nuclei, cells, 
 fibres, and membranes, all of which may be produced 
 directly from molecules. The development and growth 
 of organic tissues is owing to the successive formation 
 of histogenetic and histolytic molecules. The breaking 
 
 1 ' Report of the British Association,' 1855, p. 119. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 161 
 
 down of one substance is often the necessary step to 
 the formation of another : so that the histolytic or dis- 
 integrative molecules of one period become the histo- 
 genetic or formative molecules of another 1 .' The theory 
 of organization advocated by Prof. Huxley and others is 
 c molecular' from a functional point of view, whilst 
 this of Dr. Hughes Bennett bears principally upon the 
 developmental and structural aspects of the doctrine 2 , 
 although he also distinctly teaches that the vital forces 
 are dependent upon molecules and not upon cells. 
 Speaking of his general doctrine, Dr. Bennett says : 
 c The molecular, therefore, is in no way opposed to a 
 true cell theory of growth, but constitutes a wider 
 generalization, and a broader basis for its operations. 
 Neither does it give any countenance to the doctrine of 
 equivocal or spontaneous generation 3 .' It can scarcely 
 be said that Dr. Bennett has succeeded in convincing 
 
 1 Lectures ' On Molecular Physiology,' &c., ' Lancet,' 1863 ( v l- *) 
 p. 56. 
 
 2 A doctrine of this kind had been previously hinted at by Pineau in 
 1848 (' Annal. des Sciences Naturelles '), when he expressed his belief 
 that the primary phenomenon in the development not only of cells, 
 animal and vegetable, but also of Infusoria, consisted ' essentiellement 
 en une agglomeration des granules.' He described observations by 
 which he had satisfied himself that such a mode of formation occurred 
 in the origin of certain Infusoria, and also in the formation of the spores 
 of certain Lichens. According to Virchow (loc. cit. p. 26), Baumgartner 
 and Arnold had also expressed their belief in a similar mode of origin of 
 tissue elements. 
 
 3 Lectures in 'Lancet,' 1863, p. 4. Lately, however ('Pop. Science 
 Review,' Jan., 1869), Dr. Hughes Bennett has proclaimed his firm 
 belief in the doctrine of ' Spontaneous Generation.' 
 
 M 
 
1 62 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 physiologists as to the truth of his doctrines so far as 
 they bear upon structure and development, although 
 they are undoubtedly true in several important respects. 
 
 Now the essence of the doctrine propounded by 
 Prof. Huxley, and in this respect also by Dr. Hughes 
 Bennett, is that the vital forces are c molecular forces/ 
 that they are not dependent upon morphological forms 
 or c cells/ and therefore, that essentially vital mani- 
 festations may take place in mere formless living 
 matter 1 . But, as we have just seen, this is precisely 
 the doctrine to which so many other distinguished bi- 
 ologists have now given in their adhesion. They too 
 Max Schultze, Haeckel, Kiihne, and others have 
 gradually recognized that a something of definite form 
 is no longer necessary that there are independent 
 living things even lower in the scale than the old uni- 
 cellular organisms, and that whether to constitute one 
 of these or to constitute a functional unit of a higher 
 organism, all that is needed is mere indefinite formless 
 protoplasm a mere c shred' of the matter of Life 2 . 
 
 This then being the theory to which our most ac- 
 complished microscopists and physiologists have ar- 
 rived, it will be interesting for us to see how such a 
 conclusion harmonizes with the hypothesis of Evolu- 
 
 1 This is the logical outcome also of the doctrine of Schwann, since 
 he so distinctly maintained that, ' The formation of cells bears the same 
 relation to organic nature, that crystallization does to inorganic.' 
 
 2 See Mr. Stirling's pamphlet, ' As regards Protoplasm in relation to 
 Professor Huxley's Essay on the Physical Basis of Life,' 1869, p. 16. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 163 
 
 tion. We cannot do better than quote what Mr. Her- 
 bert Spencer writes on this subject in his c Principles of 
 Biology/ c We set out with molecules 1 / he says, c one 
 degree higher in complexity than those molecules of 
 nitrogenous colloidal substance into which organic 
 matter is resolvable; and we regard these somewhat 
 more complex molecules as having the implied greater 
 instability, greater sensitiveness to surrounding in- 
 fluences, and consequent greater mobility of form. 
 Such being the primitive physiological units, organic 
 evolution must begin with the formation of a minute 
 aggregation of them an aggregate showing vitality only 
 by a higher degree of that readiness to change its form of 
 aggregation which colloidal matter in general displays $ and 
 by its ability to unite the nitrogenous molecules it meets 
 with, into complex molecules like those of which it is 
 composed. Obviously the earliest forms must have 
 been minute ; since in the absence of any but diffused 
 organic matter, no form but a minute one could find 
 nutriment. Obviously, too, it must have been struc- 
 tureless; since as differentiations are producible only 
 by the unlike actions of incident forces, there could 
 have been no differentiations before such forces had 
 had time to work. Hence distinctions of parts like 
 those required to constitute a cell were necessarily 
 
 1 Mr. Spencer here refers to chemical molecules of a very complex 
 nature, and not to minute visible granules. For an account of these 
 complex molecules or 'physiological units' see ' Prin. of Biol.' vol. i. 
 p. 182. 
 
 M 2, 
 
164 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 absent at first. And we need not therefore be surprised 
 to find, as we do find, specks of protoplasm manifesting 
 life and yet showing no signs of organization 1 . 5 
 
 But if, then, mere c cellular * form is so non-essential 
 for the display of vital manifestations, how, it may be 
 asked, is its frequent recurrence throughout the tissues 
 of plants and animals to be explained 2 ? We can only 
 make more or less probable surmises in reply to this 
 question. We must imagine, in the first place, that 
 the telluric conditions acting upon plastic organizable 
 matter are such as to be especially favourable for the 
 evolution of this particular organic form. The very 
 interesting experiments of Mr. Rainey, as well as 
 those of Dr. Montgomery, have indeed already shown 
 that non-living semi-fluid matter, under certain con- 
 ditions, is especially prone to assume such shapes. 
 Thus the action of environing conditions, combined 
 
 1 Loc. cit. vol. ii. p. u. 
 
 2 It must not be supposed that a cellular structure is more prevalent 
 than is really the case. Nothing of the kind exists, as we have seen, in 
 many Amoebae, and likewise in the Foraminifera. No true cells can be 
 said to be present in Diatoms or Desmids, and from what the Rev. 
 M. J. Berkeley tells us there are what may be considered non-cellular 
 Algae and Fungi. Speaking of these plants, he says (' Introduction to 
 Crypt. Botany,' p. 248) : ' The cellular tissue varies in almost every con- 
 ceivable way, both as regards form and composition. . Cells occur per- 
 fectly globose, and almost extremely elongated and attenuated ; and in 
 some instances, as in Vaucberia (Fig. 22), not a single dissepiment is 
 formed (Fig. 23) from the first germination of the spore till impreg- 
 nation ; so that the whole plant is a single ramified cell whose apices 
 fall off and reproduce the species.' Many other Algae agree with Vau- 
 cberia in presenting no trace of a cellular structure. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 165 
 
 with the inherent tendencies of the lowest living 
 things, would predispose towards their evolution into 
 unicellular organisms both animal and vegetable. 
 And similar determining causes might be presumed 
 to be in part operative in the production of those 
 higher organisms which are composed of variously 
 arranged aggregates of such morphological units. But 
 we must not forget, as Mr. Spencer reminds us, that 
 from the Law of Heredity, considered as extending to 
 the entire succession of large groups of living things 
 on the surface of our globe, during its whole past 
 history, c it follows that since the formation of these 
 small simple organisms must have preceded the for- 
 mation of larger and more complex organisms, the 
 larger and more complex organisms must inherit their 
 essential characters. We may anticipate/ Mr. Spencer 
 continues, c that the multiplication and combination of 
 these minute aggregates or cells will be conspicuous 
 in the early developmental stages of plants and animals; 
 and that throughout all subsequent stages, cell-produc- 
 tion and cell-differentiation will be dominant charac- 
 teristics. The physiological units peculiar to each 
 higher species will, speaking generally, pass through 
 this form of aggregation on their way towards the 
 final arrangement they are to assume; because those 
 primordial physiological units from which they are 
 remotely descended, aggregated into this form. And 
 yet, just as in other cases we found reason for in- 
 ferring ( 131) that the traits of ancestral organization 
 
1 66 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 may, under certain conditions, be partially or wholly 
 obliterated, and the ultimate structure assumed without 
 passing through them, so here it is to be inferred that 
 the process of cell formation may, in some cases, be 
 passed over. Thus the hypothesis of evolution prepares 
 us for these two radical modifications of the cell doc- 
 trine which the facts oblige us to make. It leads us to 
 expect, that as structureless portions of protoplasm 
 must have preceded cells in the process of general 
 evolution, so in the special evolution of each higher 
 organism there will be an habitual production of cells out 
 of structureless blastema. And it leads us to expect, that 
 though generally the physiological units composing a 
 structureless blastema will display their inherited pro- 
 clivities by cell development and metamorphosis ; there 
 will nevertheless occur cases in which the tissue to 
 be formed is formed by direct transformation of the 
 blastema 1 / 
 
 Fully admitting, therefore, that the c cell ' is a 
 most important structure, that it is a kind of 'whole 
 having in complex organisms a subordinate individu- 
 ality of its own, that cells do frequently multiply by 
 division of pre-existing cells, that they are in fact 
 morphological units, which by their uniformity of struc- 
 ture and wide-spread diffusion throughout the tissues 
 of both plants and animals may well claim to be the 
 morphological units still, we must not, on this ac- 
 count, endow them with an undue importance. We have 
 
 1 Loc. cit. vol. ii. p. 12. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 167 
 
 seen how strongly many of our leading physiologists 
 and zoologists are in favour of the view that such a 
 definite form is no longer necessary for the display of 
 vital manifestations nay, it is a view which they 
 cannot do other than hold, now it has become a matter 
 of absolute knowledge that the lowest living things 
 far from being unicellular organisms are mere bits of 
 protoplasm, devoid of nucleus, devoid of cell-wall, 
 Proteus-like, changing in outline from moment to 
 moment. Whilst, therefore, fully alive to the great 
 service which Virchow has done to the cause of pa- 
 thology, by calling attention so forcibly to the import- 
 ance of a consideration of the inherent activities of 
 the tissue elements as factors in the nutritive processes, 
 whether healthy or morbid, we believe, nevertheless, 
 that he has pushed his doctrines to a perilous and 
 erroneous extreme. We feel it impossible and per- 
 chance he would now do the same to admit that 
 c the cell is really the ultimate morphological unit 
 in which there is any manifestation of life, and that 
 we must not transfer the seat of real action to any 
 point beyond the cell.' Then, too, the accumulated 
 weight of other evidence, of various kinds, makes 
 it impossible for us to agree with him in regard to 
 the doctrine that cells can only originate from division 
 or endogenous multiplication of pre-existing cells, that 
 they can never be evolved de now out of homogeneous 
 blastemata 1 . Virchow's doctrine on this subject is 
 1 ' Cellular Pathology/ p. 27. 
 
1 68 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 c Where a cell arises, there a cell must have pre- 
 viously existed (omnis cellula e cellula), just as an animal 
 can spring only from an animal, a plant only from a 
 plant.' To what extent this is true we have now to 
 enquire. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 MODES OF ORIGIN OF REPRODUCTIVE UNITS AND OF CELLS. 
 
 Modes of origin of reproductive units. Development of ' zoospores ' in 
 Conferva area. Evolution of ciliated spore in Vaucberia. Forma- 
 tion of ' resting spore ' in CEdogonium. Development of spores 
 in Acblya prolifera; rapidity of process. Similar mode of for- 
 mation in other Fungi, and in Lichens. Mode of origin of Nuclei. 
 Formation of Cells within the internodes of Cbaracece. Develop- 
 ment of ovule, and of endosperm cells, in Flowering Plants. 
 Mode of origin of germs in Protomyxa, and in higher Amoebae. 
 Formation of ova in lower Animals. No doubt about mode of 
 formation of yelk-mass and vitelline membrane in Nematoids. Mode 
 of origin of ova in higher Animals. Origin of Spermatozoa, 
 antherozoids, and pollen grains. 
 
 Above evidence shows that independent Living Units are at first form- 
 less. The Cell a product of Evolution. Non-essential nature of 
 nucleus and cell-wall. Virchow's hypothesis untenable. Most 
 necessary to consider properties of Living Matter. 
 
 Origin of Living Units, as specks of protoplasm, in blastemata. Ex- 
 periments of Onimus. Observations on mode of origin of white 
 blood corpuscles. Another mode in which Cells originate. Five 
 fundamental modes by which independent Living Units are 
 produced. Can a fluid live? Comparison between the Growth 
 and Genesis of Living Matter. Theoretical indications not adverse 
 to Archebiosis. 
 
 THE mere form, therefore, of living things, or of 
 the active elemental parts of higher organisms, 
 has lost its importance. Vital manifestations are now 
 known not to be dependent upon visible organization 
 of any kind ; they are the results of peculiar molecular 
 
170 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 aggregations: visible organization is, in fact, a result 
 rather than a cause of Life and living action. The 
 cell is not the ultimate unit, without which the pheno- 
 mena of Life are unable to occur. It is itself the pro- 
 duct, immediate or remote, of an antecedent evolution. 
 Life is dependent upon matter of particular kinds, and 
 results from the aggregated and interdependent play of 
 the molecular forces pertaining to such matter, in an 
 organism. The old and much disputed problem, there- 
 fore, as to whether cells can originate, independently 
 of pre-existing cells, in homogeneous fluids or blas- 
 temata within the body, may and must be resolved 
 into the still simpler question, Whether mere minute, 
 almost microscopically invisible, specks of protoplasm 
 (plastides), which are able to develope into definite c cell' 
 forms, can originate in such fluids ? With the view of 
 throwing light upon the subject, we may call attention 
 to some facts which, though familiar to very many, do 
 not seem to have been adequately appreciated in their 
 bearing upon this question. 
 
 We will first enquire into the mode of origin of the 
 most important of all living units of those which are 
 destined to perpetuate the species. And, having done 
 so, we must test the facts thus ascertained not by 
 the old notions concerning the ( cell,' but by the new 
 facts and views concerning the powers of mere formless 
 living matter, which the present state of biological 
 science compels us to accept. 
 
 The reproductive units of Algae, which, after escaping 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 from certain cells or chambers of the parent plant, 
 for a time move about in the water with great activity, 
 before developing into the future plant, are named 
 c zoospores/ and also c gonidia.' The nature and mode 
 of origin of these bodies were most carefully studied by 
 M. Thuret 1 , and the investigation has since been fol- 
 lowed up by many other observers. They seem to be 
 always produced as a result of differentiations taking 
 place in a previously formless protoplasm, and in their 
 free active stage of existence they closely resemble 
 certain infusorial animalcules, though, of course, they 
 differ from these altogether as regards their ultimate 
 fate. As Dr. Lindley pointed out 2 : c The reproduc- 
 tion of algals by zoospores is a much more common 
 phenomenon than has been supposed. Instead of being 
 confined to the lower forms of the alliance, it occurs in 
 the most completely organized forms, such as Lami- 
 narias, which are hardly more remarkable for their 
 gigantic size than for the complexity of their structure/ 
 One mode of formation and liberation of these bodies 
 is well described by Agardh. He says 3 : c The fila- 
 ments of Conferva area are, as is well known, articu- 
 lated or divided at equal distances into little compart- 
 ments (joints), which have no communication among 
 themselves other than what results from the per- 
 meability of the dissepiments. The green matter 
 
 1 Ann. des Sc. Naturelles. Ser. 3, t. xiv. 
 
 2 ' Vegetable Kingdom,' 3rd edition, p. n. 
 
 3 ' Ann. des Sc. Naturelles,' 1836, t. xii. p. 194. 
 
172 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 contained in these joints appears at first altogether homo- 
 geneous^ as if it were fluid ; but in a more advanced 
 state it becomes more and more granular. The granules 
 are, at their formation, found adhering to the inner 
 surface of the membrane ; but they soon detach them- 
 selves, and the irregular figure which they present at 
 first passes to that of a sphere. These granules congre- 
 gate by degrees in the middle of the joint into a mass, 
 at first elliptical, but which at length becomes perfectly 
 spherical. All these changes are conformable to the 
 phenomena known in vegetable life; those which are 
 to follow have more analogy with the phenomena of 
 animal life. At this stage an important metamor- 
 phosis exhibits itself by a motion of swarming (un 
 mouvement de fourmillement) in the green matter. 
 The granules of which it is composed detach them- 
 selves from the mass one after another, and having thus 
 become free, they move about in the vacant space of 
 the joint with an extreme rapidity. At the same time 
 the exterior membrane of the joint is observed to swell 
 in one point, till on it there forms a little mammilla, 
 which is to become the point from which the moving 
 granules finally issue. . . At first they issue in a 
 body, but soon those which remain, swimming in a 
 much larger space, have much more difficulty in es- 
 caping; and it is only after innumerable knockings 
 against the walls of their prison that they succeed in 
 finding an exit. From the first instant of the motion 
 one observes that the granules or sporules are furnished 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 173 
 
 with a little beak, a kind of anterior process, always 
 distinguishable from the body of the seed by its paler 
 colour. . . . Escaped from their prison they con- 
 tinue their motion for one or two hours, and retiring 
 always towards the darker edge of the vessel, some- 
 times they prolong their wandering course, sometimes 
 they remain in the same place, causing their beak to 
 vibrate in rapid circles. Finally they collect in dense 
 masses, containing innumerable grains, and attach 
 themselves to some extraneous body at the bottom or 
 on the surface of the water, where they hasten to 
 develope filaments like those of the mother plant.' 
 
 The mode of formation of the single ciliated spore l 
 of Vauckeria is perhaps still more interesting, because 
 the parent organism, which is a fine tufted filamentous 
 Alga, presents not the slightest trace of a cellular 
 structure, and because of the rapidity with which the 
 spore is produced. The ramified tubular structure of 
 the Alga is lined with minute but bright green chloro- 
 phyll vesicles or granules. All the phenomena which 
 attend the formation of the spore were frequently 
 observed, and have been carefully described by Dr. 
 A. H. Hassall, from whose work 2 we abstract the 
 following details. When spores are about to form, 
 the extremities of some of the filaments swell up in 
 the form of a club, and the green matter becomes so 
 much condensed at this part as to make it assume a 
 
 1 About ^o" in diameter. 
 
 2 History of the British Fresh Water Algae,' 1845, p. 16. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 blackish tint. Near the base of the enlargement the 
 
 FIG. 6. 
 Formation of Spore in Vaucberia. (Hassall.) 
 
 a, b, c, d. Successive changes in one of terminal filaments prior to the 
 
 separation of the spore. 
 
 e. Spore emerging from ruptured extremity of filament. 
 /. Spore immediately after separation. 
 g. Spore at later stage, larger and ciliated. 
 
 b. Later still, showing changes which precede germination. 
 
 i, k. Commencing growth of filaments from the stationary spore. 
 
 chlorophyll granules are seen separated from one another, 
 leaving a clear and ultimately well-defined space, in 
 which transparent mucilage only is to be seen, separating 
 the matter of the future spore from that of the filament. 
 All this takes place most rapidly, so that in a few 
 minutes from its commencement the embryo spore 
 assumes an elongated oval form, and the whole of it, 
 with the exception of its proximal or inferior extremity, 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 175 
 
 is almost black from the condensation of chlorophyll 
 that has taken place in its substance. c lt is then/ 
 Dr. Hassall says, c that the crisis commences: the 
 superior extremity suddenly becomes protruded, the 
 granular fluid empties itself into the protruded portion, 
 which quickly increases in volume, so that the opposite 
 extremity becomes separated from the filament. At 
 the same time the spore commences to turn on its great 
 axis in such a manner as that all the granules which it 
 contains are seen to pass rapidly from right to left, and 
 from left to right, as though they moved in the interior 
 of a transparent cylinder/ The spore soon completely 
 frees itself from the filament 1 , and c springs with 
 rapidity into the surrounding liquid,' where it swims 
 about with its colourless portion always in advance, 
 and may then be seen to be surrounded by a tolerably 
 thick transparent membrane. It continues revolving 
 on its axis, at the same time that it moves about from 
 place to place. c In general it quickly reaches the edge 
 of the glass as though it tried to escape ; sometimes it 
 stops j then in an instant afterwards it resumes its 
 course.' The cilia which cover the whole surface of 
 the transparent membrane are mostly invisible on 
 account of the rapidity of their movement ; but when 
 their motion is retarded by putting some opium into 
 the water containing the spore, the individual cilia 
 
 1 These remarkable phenomena may occur more than once. Dr. 
 Hassall says, 'I have seen the operation thrice repeated upon the 
 same filament.' 
 
176 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 can be easily discriminated. With regard to the 
 first appearance of these Dr. Hassall says: C I have 
 observed many times the emission of the spore in a 
 coloured infusion, and then noticed that the agitation 
 of the granules 1 by the motion of the cilia is not felt 
 until about a fourth part of the spore has been released/ 
 Prof. Unger saw these spores moving about for more 
 than two hours, but when they were covered by a thin 
 slip of glass, as during the observations of Dr. Hassall, 
 they never continued to move for more than nineteen 
 minutes. Dr. Hassall says : c The vibration of the 
 cilia continues sometimes after the spore is arrested, 
 only it is not sufficiently strong to displace the cor- 
 puscle. When at last they cease to move, the contour 
 of the spore undergoes during some instants a sensible 
 alteration, which announces, perhaps, the decomposi- 
 tion or the absorption of the vibratile organs 2 . The 
 motionless spore delays not to modify itself once again : 
 it becomes spherical ; the green matter distributes itself 
 equally, and the episporic membrane, in part reabsorbed, 
 at last escapes the sight ; very soon germination com- 
 mences . . . The elongation of the filaments 
 progresses, one might say by eye-sight; for I have 
 measured more than once an increase of three-twentieths 
 *of a millimetre in an hour.' The formation of the 
 spores always takes place during the first hours of the 
 
 1 Of carmine or indigo. 
 
 2 The rapid formation and disappearance of the cilia surrounding 
 these spores are features of extreme interest. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 177 
 
 day. Dr. Hassall says: c The tufts which I have 
 gathered the day before, and which presented no indi- 
 cation of the formation being near at hand, were in 
 general covered with spores the next morning; and 
 after midday these were all gathered on the surface 
 of the water beginning to germinate/ 
 
 The mode of origin of the so-called c resting spore ' 
 or c seed-cell l ' in (Edogcnmm is also very interesting, 
 and illustrates in an important manner the question 
 we are now considering. In this case, the whole of 
 the protoplasmic contents of one of the cells of the 
 plant goes to produce a single new reproductive ele- 
 ment, instead of many as in the case of Conferva 
 <erea. Alexander Braun' 2 describes the changes which 
 take place as follows : c In the formation of the rest- 
 ing seed-cells of (Edogonium we see the thickish cell- 
 contents composed of greenish coloured mucilage, 
 mixed with chlorophyll and starch vesicles, which, in 
 the earlier vegetative period of the cell, form a lining 
 
 1 These are reproductive products which do not develope immedi- 
 ately after they have been formed, into the plant which they may ulti- 
 mately produce. They continue, as Braun says, ' for a long time in a 
 condition of rest, during which, excepting as regards imperceptible 
 internal processes, they remain wholly unchanged.' The direct germ- 
 cells, or swarming-spores (gonidia, or zoospores), however, pass on, 
 after their evolution, through a continuous process of growth and de- 
 velopment till the perfect plant is reproduced. These latter are the bodies 
 of which we have already spoken in connection with Conferva area, and 
 of whose development in Achlya prolifera we are shortly about to speak. 
 2 ' Rejuvenescence in Nature ' (Translation by Henfrey, Ray Society), 
 1853, p. 164. 
 
 N 
 
178 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 of the wall, retreat from this membrane, and present 
 themselves as a new, everywhere free cell, destined for 
 reproduction. The cell-body thus detached from the 
 walls, appearing in a new form, with a new vital direc- 
 tion, presents itself with regular form and boundaries, 
 before a trace of the cell membrane subsequently cloth- 
 ing It is visible. It mostly assumes a perfectly globu- 
 lar form, even when the mother-cell is longish ; in this 
 first period of formation its surface appears somewhat 
 uneven from the projection of chlorophyll vesicles ; the 
 whole internal cavity is filled up, and of deep green 
 colour. Very slowly and gradually there appears, first 
 a simple, afterwards a double, and sometimes even a 
 triple-layered membrane upon the surface, while the 
 chlorophyll and starch formations in the contents pro- 
 gressively vanish, and give place to reddish oil-drops, 
 which at length occupy nearly the whole cavity, and 
 give the seed-cell a brownish-red, sometimes even a 
 red-lead coloured appearance 1 . The seed-cells of the 
 
 1 These metabolic changes of a chemical nature taking place within 
 the cell are of the highest interest. We have already had occa- 
 sion (note, p. 105) to refer to the properties conferred upon a seed by the 
 presence of much oil and starch in its interior, and we shall subsequently 
 (p. 212) have occasion to refer to the metabolic capacities of fatty 
 products. One of the best instances of the conversion of chlorophyll 
 and protoplasm into colourless fatty and other materials, and of the subse- 
 quent reconversion of these into coloured protoplasm, is to be met with 
 in the life-history of Palmoglea. The reproduction of this plant is 
 brought about by the union of two green vegetative cells, the con- 
 tents of which are converted inj;o a single seed- cell. Braun says : 
 ' During the gradual growing together and fusion of the two combining 
 cells, we may trace the formation of fixed oil step by step. Before the 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 179 
 
 Zygnemace* originate in the same way as those of (Edo- 
 gomum, with the single distinction that in the former 
 the contents of two chambers become united to form 
 one seed-cell/ 
 
 A mode of production of zoospores different from 
 that already described by Agardh, and resembling more 
 closely that by which the seed-spore of (Edogonlum is 
 produced, is now known to take place in Acklya pro- 
 lifer a a curious little plant first discovered by Prof. 
 Goodsir, on the gills of certain gold fish which were in 
 an unhealthy condition. It was formerly thought to be 
 a species of Conferva, but it is now regarded by the 
 Rev. M. J. Berkeley and others as merely a submerged 
 or aquatic form of a Mucor. This, as one of the simplest 
 kinds of Fungi, has been made the subject of a most 
 careful investigation by Prof. Unger 1 . When in the 
 
 beginning of the combination, the cells are filled with finely granular 
 contents, in which we see arise, during the progress of the union, shining 
 drops, at first very small and distant, gradually growing larger, coming 
 in contact and coalescing, so that the intermediate contents almost en- 
 tirely disappear, and the complete spore appears filled merely with a 
 mixture of oil drops of the most varied size. During this process the 
 colour of the cells changes from green to a light yellowish brown. 
 Vegetative cells with homogeneous green contents originate subse- 
 quently through transformation and division of the contents of these 
 oleaginous seed-cells.' (Loc. cit. p. 202, and PI. I, II.) In connection 
 with this subject, also, we may call attention to the fact elsewhere 
 (Linn. Soc. Trans, xxv. 1865, p. 84) mentioned, of the large amount of 
 free fat frequently existing within the intestinal canal of many of the 
 Free Nematoids, which appears to result from the more or less direct 
 transformation of the cellulose taken as food. 
 
 1 ' Einiges zur Lebensgeschichte der Achlya prolifera,' in ' Linmea/ 
 1843, t. iv. 
 
 N % 
 
i8o 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 perfect state, it consists of transparent threads of extreme 
 fineness packed together as closely as the pile of velvet. 
 Dr. Lindley says 1 : c These threads are terminated by 
 an extremity about T^UIF" m diameter, consisting of 
 a long single cell, within which is collected some green 
 mucilage intermixed with granules. . . . The contents 
 
 FIG. 7. 
 Development of Zoospores in Acblya prolifera. 
 
 A. Dilated extremity of a filament, b. separated from the other portion 
 
 by a partition, a. and containing young zoospores in process of 
 formation. 
 
 B. Club-head after most of the active zoospores have been set free. 
 
 (Unger.) 
 
 1 ' Vegetable Kingdom,' 3rd edition, p. 1 7. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 181 
 
 of the cell are seen to be in constant motion. . . . While 
 this is going on the end of the cell continues to grow, and 
 at the same time the contents collect at the extremity, 
 and distend it into a small head, in form resembling a 
 club, immediately after which a chamber is formed and 
 then the first stage of fructification is established. The 
 next change is observed to take place in the granular 
 matter of the club-head, which itself enlarges, whilst 
 the contents gain opaqueness, and by degrees arrange 
 themselves in five or six-sided meshes, which are in 
 reality the sides of angular bodies that are rapidly form- 
 ing at the expense of the mucilage above mentioned, 
 which has disappeared. It is not the least surprising 
 part of this history that all the changes above men- 
 tioned take place in the course of an hour or an hour and 
 a half, so that a patient observer may actually witness 
 the creation of this singular plant. At this time all 
 the vital energy seems directed towards changing the 
 angular bodies in the inside of the club-head into pro- 
 pagating germs or spores. Meanwhile the club-head 
 grows, and gives them a little room, and they in their 
 turn alter their form and become oval. Then it is that 
 is witnessed the surprising phenomenon of spontaneous 
 motion in the spores, which, notwithstanding the nar- 
 row space in which they are born, act with such vigour 
 that at last they force a way through the end of the 
 club-head. At first one spore gets out into the water, 
 then another and another, till at last the club-head is 
 emptied. All this takes place with such .rapidity that 
 
1 82 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 a minute or two suffices for the complete evacuation 
 of the club-head or spore-chamber. The spores when 
 they find their way into the water are generally egg- 
 shaped, and swim with the small end foremost. . . . 
 They are extremely small, their breadth not exceeding 
 
 the TsW" f an inc h *' 
 
 But such a mode of formation of reproductive spores 
 is by no means a method peculiar, amongst Fungi, to 
 
 1 The formation of spores in Leptomitus lacteus is said by Braun 
 ('Rejuvenescence in Nature, 5 translation by Henfrey, Ray Society, 1853, 
 p. 270), to take place after precisely the same fashion. The two plants 
 are, in fact, closely allied. In both, according to Braun, the dichotomous 
 filaments are not articulated, they are merely divided into sections by- 
 regular strictures, though these sections have been taken for closed cells. 
 He says : ' It is only in the fruit that isolated, mostly terminal sections 
 are actually shut off, swell up to some extent, and become spore cases.' 
 And yet the gonidia of Leptomitus differ from those of Achlya by being 
 motionless. In one of the white rusts (Cystopus candidus), moreover, the 
 gonidia, produced in the same fashion, are motionless when discharged, 
 but in a very short time become quite active. (Cooke's ' Microscopic 
 Fungi,' 2nd Edit., 1870, pp. 127, 132, and 142.) The presence or absence 
 of motility in the gonidia probably depends upon minute differences 
 in molecular constitution. We are quite unable to give any precise 
 reason, however, why such a difference should exist between the repro- 
 ductive spores of nearly allied species as is found in these and other 
 cases. In connection with this subject it may be mentioned that I have 
 frequently seen the chlorophyll vesicles within portions of the filament 
 of a Vaucheria which were about to die, exhibiting slow oscillating 
 movements ; though in the healthy plant they are always quite motion- 
 less. And similarly, in the examination of specimens of human blood 
 with the microscope, I have very frequently seen certain of the red 
 corpuscles in a ' crenated ' state oscillating most distinctly, whilst other 
 normally shaped red corpuscles, which may have been by their side, 
 similarly isolated, and apparently equally free to move, were nevertheless 
 quite motionless. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 183 
 
 the somewhat anomalous species of which we have just 
 been speaking. A similar mode of origin of spores 
 is, in fact, very common even in highly organized 
 Fungi, and also in very many Lichens. Thus it pre- 
 vails universally throughout the family of ascomycetous 
 
 FIG. 8. 
 
 Development of Spores in one of the Ascomycetous Fungi 
 (Perisporlum vulgare). (Corda.) 
 
 a, b, c. Commencing differentiation of homogeneous matter within asci. 
 d, e,f. Apparent resolution of this into distinct rounded spores. 
 g. Rupture of ascus, and exit not of separate spores, but of sets of four, 
 each contained within a delicate theca. 
 
 Fungi 1 , and also amongst all the ascigerous Lichens: 
 
 1 The Rev. M. J. Berkeley, our leading cryptogamic botanist, says : 
 4 There is another point of immense importance, which the cryptogamic 
 obsei-ver has in a peculiar degree the power of studying successfully. 
 Questions often arise as to the point whether cellular structure can 
 
1 84 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 and in these cases the process differs only in matters of 
 minor detail from that which takes place in Achlya. 
 In the genus Peziza, according to Corda 1 , the following 
 phenomena may be observed. The contents of the 
 mother- cells, or spore -cases, consist originally of a 
 mucus-like substance through which are diffused a num- 
 ber of granules though there are, at first, no traces of 
 cells or nuclei. In the midst of this uniformly granular 
 material, within the spore-case ofPeziza acetakulum, there 
 appears, after a time, a row of globular-looking bodies, 
 ranged at regular distances, which are spoken of by 
 Corda as drops of oil. These, however, are probably 
 mucilaginous nuclei 2 , judging from their relation to 
 
 originate withcmt the presence of a previous mother cell. It is a ques- 
 tion, for instance, whether cells are ever formed in Phsenogams from 
 mere organizable sap, as presumed by Mirbel (Ann. des Sc. Naturelles, 
 Second Series, vol. xi. p. 321) in his paper on the Date Palm; or again, 
 whether, in what is called organizable lymph in the animal world, cells 
 can originate freely, without pullulation from neighbouring tissue 
 with which the lymph is in contact. . . . Now in those fungi in which, 
 as in Spberia and Peziza, the reproductive bodies are generated by the 
 endochrome of the fructifying cells, the Cryptogamist has the power of 
 watching the development of the spores from the very moment when 
 the endochrome commences to be organized, and he can with confidence 
 assert that they are not tbe creatures of previously existing cells, but 
 the produce of (be endocbrome itself. He will be able to compare with 
 this what takes place in the embryo sac of Phaenogams, and will 
 be better prepared to appreciate all the arguments which bear upon 
 the Schleidenian Theory of the formation of the Embryo.' (' Intro- 
 duction to Cryptogamic Botany,' Lond. 1857, p. 25). 
 
 1 ' Icones Fungorum.' 
 
 2 The nuclei seem to be produced in this case after a fashion similar 
 to that by which the nuclei of the common water-net (Hydrodictyon) 
 originate. The process is a most important one, and we are inclined to 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 185 
 
 the spores which ultimately appear. Lighter coloured 
 areas are then produced around these nuclei 
 
 believe that the nuclei of many cells in the human body, and in animals 
 generally, are not unfrequently produced after this fashion. The appear- 
 ances in Hydrodictyon are thus described by Braun (loc. cit. p. 261), 
 ' At the time when gonidia are about to form, the mucilaginous contents 
 of the cells change altogether in appearance. The fresh transparent 
 green becomes more opaque, and the entire mucilaginous layer acquires, 
 even before the solution of the starch granules is completed, a peculiar 
 regular appearance, closely beset with lighter spots, which appearance, 
 however, is only distinctly perceptible when the focus is adjusted to the 
 bottom of the mucilaginous layer. These spots are not the starch 
 grains undergoing solution, as might be conjectured, for their number is 
 much larger than that of the latter. . . . The little green granules of the 
 contents, which, for the sake of brevity, I shall call chlorophyll granules, 
 do not disappear with the starch grains, but separate from each other as 
 the period of the formation of the spots, and become accumulated as 
 dark boundary lines between the brighter spots. . . . The spots themselves 
 are roundish spaces free from granules existing in the thickness of the 
 mucilaginous layer.' A little further on (p. 266) Braun says : 
 ' Seeking, in the first place, the import of the light spots which charac- 
 terize the first stage of the new cell-formation of the water-net, it is 
 beyond doubt that they represent the centres of so many new cells, con- 
 sequently are either actual nuclei, or, since we cannot detect any defined 
 outlines, accumulations of albuminous substance analogous to nuclei.' 
 This mode of formation of nuclei was also fully recognised by Naegeli. 
 He summed up his researches on the subject in the following manner : 
 ' The nucleus originates in two ways ; either free in the contents of 
 the cell or by division of a parent nucleus ' (Henfrey's Translations, Ray 
 Society Pub. 1849, P- l68 )- Th e nucleus is described as appearing in 
 the embryo-sacs of Scilla cernua and other flowering plants in the form 
 of ' globular drops of perfectly homogeneous mucilage.' The nuclei in 
 the large ventral glands of some of the Free Nematoids, and in the 
 glandular substance lining the longitudinal muscles of others, present 
 precisely similar characters, and may be seen represented elsewhere 
 (Phil. Trans. 1866, PL 27, fig. 8, and PL 28, fig. 32 c.), in a memoir 
 on the anatomy of these animals. Whilst still unaware of the views 
 above mentioned concerning the origin of the nucleus I had come to 
 
1 86 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 owing apparently to the darker granules accu- 
 mulating in the form of zones between them 
 as in the formation of the spores of Hydrodktyon. 
 Later still, a redispersion of these granules takes place, 
 leaving light streaks, instead of dark granular boundary 
 lines, between what are to be the future spores. Then 
 a solution of continuity is gradually effected, between 
 the several spores, in the situation of these light streaks, 
 and also between them and the membrane of the spore 
 case, till the whole of the contained protoplasmic 
 matter has thus been broken up into moving re- 
 productive bodies. 
 
 The phenomena taking place within the spore-cases 
 of Lichens are essentially similar. It is stated by 
 Pineau 1 that the process can be best watched in 
 Physcia ciliaris, on account of the large and transparent 
 nature of the spore cases in this species. The first 
 step in the formation of the spore in this plant is 
 said to be the formation of aggregations amongst the 
 granules which had been previously dispersed through- 
 out the mucilaginous contents of the spore-case. These 
 
 the conclusion that such was the mode of origin of the nucleus in the 
 white blood corpuscle. (See p. 227.) Here, as in other cases, the definite 
 bounding-wall of the nucleus is, like the cell-wall itself, an after pro- 
 duction. 
 
 In certain cases the nucleus makes its appearance before the com- 
 plete individuation of the embryo cell has taken place, but, just as 
 frequently (as is the case with white blood corpuscles), the nucleus 
 appears, after the fashion above indicated, in an already isolated non- 
 nucleated embryo cell, or plastide. 
 
 1 ' Ann. des Sc. Naturelles,' 1848, p. 99. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 187 
 
 constitute so many foci, and as a result of changes 
 subsequently occurring around these granule-heaps the 
 separate spores result. 
 
 Another most striking instance of the new origina- 
 tion of cells within the tissues of plants, has been 
 revealed by the researches of Mr. H. J. Carter on 
 changes taking place within the internodes of different 
 members of the family Charace* 1 . He principally 
 examined specimens belonging to the genus Nitella^ 
 
 FIG. 9. 
 
 Development of new cells in internodes of Cbara. (Carter.) 
 
 a. Natural arrangement of chlorophyll vesicles. 
 
 b. Commencing rearrangement of these. 
 
 c. Aggregation into distinct masses. 
 
 d. Assumption of cell form. 
 
 which were to be found in the ponds at Bombay. 
 In order to make his description clear, the reader 
 
 1 ' Observations on the Development of Gonidia from the Cell-con- 
 tents of the Cbaracea,' by H. J. Carter, F.R.S., ' Annals of Nat. Hist.' 
 July 1855. 
 
1 88 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 should understand that the branches of this plant are 
 made up of elongated, cylindrical, and transparent 
 cells, or internodes, of a greenish colour. On micro- 
 scopical examination it has been ascertained that the 
 colour is due to the presence, immediately beneath 
 the cell-wall, of a layer of green chlorophyll disks or 
 vesicles, each of which is about -^^s' in diameter. 
 These are uniformly distributed, except along a spirally 
 disposed line which is therefore colourless on each 
 side of the cell. In the situation of this line (along 
 which the green disks are absent), the c mucus' or 
 protoplasmic layer has also less depth than it has over 
 other parts of the surface of the internode. The layer 
 of green disks lies, in fact, in the outermost or super- 
 ficial portion of the protoplasmic layer, whilst within 
 this is situated a colourless axial fluid. The inner 
 surface of the protoplasmic layer is irregular and under- 
 goes constant changes of form. It is these contrac- 
 tions of the mucus or protoplasmic layer, taking place 
 in a regular manner, which communicate their motion 
 to the contained fluid, and thus produce the so-called 
 c cyclosis ' of the cell-contents. With these explana- 
 tions the reader will readily understand Mr. Carter's 
 description. He says: c All are aware that in the 
 fresh-water Algae commonly called Confervas, the for- 
 mation of the spore is preceded by a breaking up or 
 displacement of the cell contents, after which a con- 
 densation and rearrangement of them takes place, and 
 they are then invested with a capsule which remains 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 189 
 
 entire, until the time arrives for the spore thus formed 
 to germinate. Now, under certain circumstances, 
 which appear to be the approaching dissolution or death 
 of the cell-tva/l, a similar process takes place in the 
 cells of the Characeae; and following this from the 
 beginning, we find, that it first commences with a 
 cessation of the circulation, after which the lines of 
 green disks forming the green layer become displaced, 
 and, as if obeying a still continued but inappreciable 
 movement of the mucus-layer, they roll themselves up 
 into lines which assume a more or less irregular arrange- 
 ment across the internode, or into groups of different 
 sizes, more or less connected by narrow lines of mucus 
 and single disks, so as to present an areolar structure 
 in contact with the inner surface of the cell-wall. The 
 next stage is the separation of the disks into still more 
 distinct groups, which, having become more circum- 
 scribed and circular, leave the cell-wall and evince 
 a certain amount of polymorphism and locomotion. 
 The cavity of the internode hitherto rendered turbid 
 by the breaking up of the green layer, now clears off 
 and becomes transparent, save where the circular masses, 
 which have changed from their original green into 
 a brownish-green or yellow colour, intercept the light. 
 After a day or two, but the time seems to vary, 
 the green disks become entirely brown, and the group 
 assuming a more circumscribed and circular form, 
 shows that it is surrounded by a transparent globular 
 cell[-wali]j this we shall henceforth call the gonidial 
 
1 90 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 cell.' I have also, of late, since having become ac- 
 quainted with these observations of Mr. Carter, re- 
 peatedly watched the formation of independent cells 
 of this kind within the filaments of Vaucheria resulting 
 from modifications taking place in what were at first 
 irregular masses of protoplasm containing chlorophyll 
 granules. A definite cell-wall is soon formed around 
 these variously-sized masses, whilst the most striking 
 changes also take place in the substance of the newly 
 constituted cell. These changes, however, will be more 
 fully described in a later chapter. 
 
 Hitherto we have been speaking of Cryptogamic 
 plants, but through the admirable researches of Hof- 
 meister l we know that just as good instances of ' free ' 
 cell formation are to be met with amongst the Pha- 
 nerogamia, or o dinary flowering plants. The inves- 
 tigation of the subject here, is however much more 
 difficult for the observer. There is this difference also, 
 with these more complicated plants, that the embryo-sac, 
 or mother-cell, itself persists for a time, instead of being 
 destroyed by the reproductive process, We will quote 
 the description given by Braun 2 of the phenomena 
 taking place during the formation of the seed in one 
 of the flowering plants. He says : c The embryo-sac, 
 or germ-sac, as it is termed, is the last cell of the 
 mother plant, the uppermost in the axial row of cells 
 of the ovule, destined to become the focus of re- 
 
 1 ' Der Enstehung des Embryos der Phanerogamen,' 1849. 
 2 Loc. cit. p. 276. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE, 191 
 
 production., the mother-cell of new individuals; the 
 germinal vesicles forming in it are the real rudiments 
 of the new individuals, the unicellular germs of new 
 plants. They are formed already before the period of the 
 scattering of the pollen, as free nuclei originating in the 
 upper part of the embryo-sac (the end turned to the 
 apex of the nucleus and the micropyle), in which the 
 protoplasm is principally accumulated. Around these 
 nuclei soon appear sharply defined masses of contents, 
 which are, as it were, cc cut out " of the general mass of 
 contents of the embyro-sac. The number of germinal 
 vesicles is mostly three, rarely more. . . . Ordinarily 
 only one of them becomes developed into an embryo, 
 this outstripping the others in growth even before 
 fertilization or the latter even die away and dis- 
 solve about that epoch. 5 After mentioning the mode 
 in which it comes into contact with the pollen tube, 
 Braun says: c ln other respects the germinal vesicle 
 remains wholly free during its development into sus- 
 pensor (vorkeim) and embryo; becoming developed 
 without any connection with the other phenomena 
 of cell formation in the embryo-sac ... so that it 
 affords us, not merely in its present formation, but 
 also in its further behaviour, the example of the freest 
 and most independent cell-formation which the plant 
 exhibits.' During the process of formation of the 
 germinal vesicles and certain transitory cells at the 
 other end of the embryo-sac, this latter as a whole 
 seems to retain its vitality ; its primary nucleus usually 
 
192 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 survives and may even increase in size after the for- 
 mation of the germinal vesicles. According to Braun, 
 c The nucleus of the embyro-sac is only dissolved during 
 or shortly before the period of fertilization, and then 
 a profound reconstruction commences in the interior 
 of the embyro-sac, expressed in the production of 
 daughter cells likewise free, but so numerous that they 
 soon exhaust the independent life of the former, and 
 the entire cavity becomes filled up by the cohering 
 newly-formed cells. The tissue produced in this way 
 is the endosperm, or, as it is called, the albumen of 
 the seed, in which the developing embryo of the new 
 plant then becomes imbedded. The endosperm cells, 
 like the germinal vesicles, originate as free nuclei in 
 the fluid of the embryo-sac, which subsequently becomes 
 surrounded by masses of contents and clothed with 
 membranes. The cells thus formed very soon combine 
 into a continuous parenchyma, in which there is no 
 longer evidence of the origin from free cells.' Such is 
 the mode of origin and development of the seeds of 
 most of the flowering plants. 
 
 If we now turn our attention to some of the methods 
 by which reproductive germs, or ova, are produced in 
 the members of the Protistic and Animal Kingdoms, 
 we shall find these strikingly analogous to the modes of 
 origin of reproductive units, such as we have just been 
 citing, amongst the various members of the Vegetable 
 Kingdom. 
 
 The first example to which we shall refer will be the 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 193 
 
 process of reproduction recently described by Professor 
 Haeckel as occurring in Protomyxa aurantiaca y one of the 
 lowest amoeboid creatures, belonging to the group Mo- 
 nera, found by him on a shell dredged from deep water 
 near the Canary Isles. It existed in the form of a mass 
 of jelly-like substance of a reddish-yellow colour, visible 
 even to the naked eye, the peripheral portions of whose 
 body-mass were prolonged into moving, branch-like 
 appendages. These very frequently became more or 
 less united and interlaced amongst one another, whilst 
 the homogeneous body-substance displayed in its inte- 
 rior only a number of small granules, interspersed with 
 larger, highly refractive, and more or less spherical par- 
 ticles, and also a variable number of merely temporary 
 spaces, or vacuoles, containing fluid. The granules, 
 particles, and vacuoles were invariably found to increase 
 in direct proportion to the amount of food which the 
 Protomyxa had previously taken. After a time some of 
 the highly-fed individuals were seen to undergo a pro- 
 cess of encystment. They began to retract their vari- 
 ous branch-like pseudopodia^ and to eject all debris of 
 food that might still remain within their body-sub- 
 stance, whilst the vacuoles in their interior diminished 
 in number. After some days, instead of the previously 
 branched plasmodium, little orange-red spherical balls 
 were to be seen. The external layers of these gradu- 
 ally became more and more defined, and afterwards the 
 contracted body-mass was found to be enclosed within 
 a thick colourless envelope or cyst. The vacuoles and 
 
 o 
 
194 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 large particles gradually disappeared until nothing but 
 
 FIG. 10. 
 Reproduction of rrotomyxa. (Haeckel.) 
 
 a. Protomyxa aurantiaca encysted; a homogeneous ball of protoplasm, 
 
 surrounded by a structureless, gelatinous covering, x 300. 
 
 b. The same in later stage of development. The plasma ball completely 
 
 divided into small globular bodies, x 300. 
 
 c. Cyst ruptured, showing exit of active spores, having long tail-like 
 
 prolongations. After a time these become stationary ; they retract 
 their tails, and protrude instead a number of pointed irregular 
 processes. In this condition, they are true amoeboid creatures, 
 still without vacuoles or nucleus in their homogeneous body 
 substance. 
 
 a few fine granules were left scattered through the 
 otherwise perfectly homogeneous protoplasm mass. 
 Then, in the course of a day or two, and after it had 
 retracted somewhat from the hyaline capsular wall., 
 traces of segmentation revealed themselves in this 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 195 
 
 enclosed mass of protoplasm; whilst by a continu- 
 ance of the process it eventually became broken up 
 into a number of small reddish balls about ^ ^ " in 
 diameter. After the lapse of about a week Professor 
 Haeckel noticed that a slow movement of the naked 
 protoplasm masses had commenced within the cyst. 
 He says : ' The motion consisted in no regular rota- 
 tion of the balls, but in a slow change of place 
 among them, in which they crowded in all directions 
 among each other without any fixed order. . . . 
 Some hours afterwards the motion had become livelier ; 
 and the red balls had assumed a pear-shaped form, in 
 which one end was produced into a fine point. In their 
 confused motions within the cyst they changed the 
 shape of their soft pear-shaped bodies many times, be- 
 coming sometimes drawn out into a longer, sometimes 
 into a shorter club-shaped body, and sometimes they 
 became twisted. . . . Next day I found one of 
 the cysts burst ; the empty collapsed wall lay shrivelled 
 at the bottom of the watch glass, and a great number 
 of small club- or pear-shaped red bodies moved about 
 freely in the sea-water. It now appeared that the red 
 balls were the sporules of the Protomyxa, and that they 
 danced about after issuing from the cyst like Flagellata, 
 or like the sporules of Algae. 3 These germs were quite 
 simple and homogeneous throughout no nucleus or 
 contractile vacuole was to be seen, no limiting mem- 
 brane, but only a yellowish-red protoplasmic substance 
 in which were imbedded a few fine granules. The 
 
 o 2 
 
196 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 swarming movements of the germs were precisely simi- 
 lar to those of the sporules of the Myxomycetas 1 . The 
 movement is progressive, accompanied by a rotatory 
 or lash-like action of the cilium, which consists merely 
 of a prolongation of the body-substance of the germ. 
 The swarming time of the Protomyxa spores seems to 
 last at least one day. On the day following that of 
 their exit from the cyst. Professor Haeckel mostly 
 found them lying quiet at the bottom of the watch 
 glass. And then, he says, c the tail of the spore was 
 drawn in, and the pear-shaped form of the body was 
 exchanged for that of an irregular roundish disc, whose 
 star-shaped circumference was drawn out into several 
 processes. The reddish-yellow plasma bodies now com- 
 pletely resembled in outline the spores of Myxomycette 
 when they had come to rest ; or likewise Amoeba radiosa 
 of Ehrenberg. . . . Most of the processes were simple, 
 but, at this stage, the largest already began to divide' 
 themselves dichotomously, or repeatedly to ramify them- 
 selves. The protrusion and retraction of the ever- 
 changing processes was accomplished throughout in 
 the same manner as in the lively moving species of 
 Amoeba/ These separate amoeboid creatures now began 
 to take food for themselves ; they rapidly increased 
 in size, and then also began to throw out more numerous 
 and complex processes from their circumference. Then, 
 too, they first developed large refractive particles in their 
 
 1 These however, even at a similar early stage, are provided with 
 a contractile vacuole. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 197 
 
 interior, as well as the so-called vacuoles the latter, 
 which constantly change in size and in situation, being 
 usually filled with fluid contents \ 
 
 Another most interesting mode of development of 
 reproductive germs occurring in the higher nucleated 
 forms of Amoebae the Protoplasta of Prof. Haeckel 
 has been described by Nicolet 2 . In these higher Amoebae, 
 which, though they continually change their form, do not 
 send out complicated processes like those of the Proto- 
 myxa, multiplication takes place by means of fission and 
 also by germ-formation. The process of germ-forma- 
 tion closely resembling that by which the spores are 
 produced in Conferva area only takes place towards 
 the close of the life of the parent Amoeba, whose exist- 
 ence is terminated by the setting free of its numerous 
 progeny. At a certain stage in the life of one of these 
 individuals such as would have been named Amoeba 
 princeps by Ehrenberg the granules contained in the 
 
 1 Although a Protomyxa is capable of increasing much in size and 
 complexity by the ordinary processes of growth, there is also another 
 process by means of which the larger individuals are produced. Pro- 
 fessor Haeckel says, ' I could many times immediately follow in the 
 swarms of Protomyxa under my eyes the formation of a plasmodium by 
 the growing together (concrescence) of two or more Amoebae.' Some- 
 times it happened that two Amoebae, attaching themselves to a single 
 Navicula, would, by drawing themselves over it, meet in the middle 
 and then become united to one another. After the process of digestion, 
 the united plasma-mass would free itself from the silicious diatom shell, 
 but would remain as a single individual. To such fusions of originally 
 distinct living things we shall have again to refer. 
 
 2 Thompson's Arcana Natnra, 1859 (Paris), p. 27. 
 
198 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 midst of its body-substance are said to come together 
 
 FIG. ii. 
 Formation of reproductive units in Amceba. (Nicolet.) 
 
 a. Amceba princeps (Ehr.) containing refractive granules and particles in 
 
 its interior. 
 
 b, c, d. Different stages in aggregation of granules. 
 
 e, f, g, b. Showing gradual concentration and increase in size of repro 
 ductive mass, with corresponding diminution and contraction of 
 surrounding substance. 
 
 here and there so as to form much larger refractive 
 particles. These latter unite again to form still larger 
 masses, and ultimately, after several steps of this kind, 
 only to be followed by prolonged observation, the 
 different granule heaps collect into a single mass 
 which, at first, is irregular and mamillated, but gradually 
 becomes smooth and assumes an ovoid or spherical 
 form. According to Nicolet, the contractile body-sub- 
 stance of the animal diminishes and becomes more 
 transparent in direct proportion to the increase in size 
 of this central aggregation of granules. The move- 
 ments of the Amceba, also, become slower; it remains 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 199 
 
 for a longer time stationary in the same situation. It 
 devours no more food, and sends out only short projec- 
 tions. When the central mass has attained its maxi- 
 mum size, and when no further trace of granules re- 
 mains in its glutinous body-substance, the Amoeba 
 contracts and becomes rounded, by collecting its out- 
 lying portions around the enclosed and altered granular 
 mass. Then, after a time, suddenly and with the rapidity 
 of lightning, the germ-mass breaks up and disappears, 
 shooting out around the space which it had previously 
 occupied myriads of oblong particles, each furnished 
 with a thread-like flagellum *. These dart about in the 
 water and closely resemble very minute Astast*. 
 
 In the great majority of animals ova are produced 
 from germs arising either (a) in the upper part or 
 blind extremity of an ovarian tube, or else () in the 
 midst of the stroma of a more or less solid organ, 
 called an ovary, where each is invariably lodged within 
 an c ovisac' or so-called Graafian follicle. The best 
 examples of the first mode of origin of ova are to be 
 met with amongst Nematoids and Insects; whilst in 
 Birds and throughout the Mammalian series, on the 
 
 1 In the case of Conferva area, however, the granules, instead of 
 separating from one another at once and with such rapidity, are stated 
 by Agardh to detach themselves one by one from the spherical heap of 
 granules similarly formed. Then, however, they also move about with 
 great rapidity. The suddenness of the dispersion reminds one of the 
 phenomena of ' diffluence ' which have been observed in certain Amoebae 
 and Ciliated Infusoria, and to which, indeed, Nicolet calls the attention 
 of his readers. 
 
200 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 contrary, we are presented with typical instances of 
 their origination in the midst of the more or less solid 
 tissue of the ovary. 
 
 The development of ova has been studied perhaps 
 with the greatest success amongst members of the order 
 Nematoidea - 3 for, on account of the simplicity and trans- 
 parency of the ovarian tubes, the whole process of egg 
 formation can be watched in these animals more readily 
 than in many others. As pointed out by Dr. Nelson l 
 and by Prof. Allen Thomson 3 , the process of egg de- 
 velopment commences in the Ascarides^ or Round 
 Worms, by the appearance c of minute cell-germs in 
 the upper part of the ovarian tube, immediately ad- 
 joining its csecal termination/ Leaving aside all 
 theories as to the precise mode of origin of these 
 c cell-germs,' since this is a question on which we 
 possess no decisive evidence it is admitted by Dr. 
 Thomson himself that c some from the highest part are 
 mere molecules j although others a little further down 
 have already assumed the appearance of minute nucle- 
 ated cells. These nucleated cells constitute the so- 
 called c germinal vesicles/ Concerning the remain- 
 ing steps in the formation of the ovum in these animals 
 there is the greatest unanimity of opinion amongst 
 anatomists; so that, although we avail ourselves of 
 the description given by Dr. Allen Thomson, it must 
 
 1 Reproduction of the Ascaris mystax,' in Philosophical Transactions, 
 1852. 
 
 2 ' Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology,' vol. v. 1859, P- I2 - 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 201 
 
 be understood that his opinions are in accordance with 
 those of other naturalists. The second stage in the 
 formation of the ovum has to do with the deposit of the 
 vitelline or yolk-substance around the germinal vesicle. 
 
 FIG. 12. 
 Early forms of ova in Ascaris mystax. (Thomson.) 
 
 a. Molecular condition. 
 
 b, c. Germinal vesicles becoming surrounded by yolk granules. 
 d, e. Irregular forms of ova due to tight packing. 
 
 /. Later stage showing first traces of vitelline membrane. 
 
 Dr. Thomson says: c The granules of the yolk-sub- 
 stance very soon collect round the exterior of the germi- 
 nal vesicles 1 . These granules appear at first to be 
 
 1 In some cases, however, the order is different. The germinal 
 vesicle may at first be surrounded by more or less of a clear viscous 
 material in which granules, after a time, make their appearance. Thus 
 Professor Thomson tells us (loc. cit. p. 133) that 'In most animals 
 
202 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 suspended in fluid ; but a little later, as they come to 
 collect round the germinal vesicles, they are united 
 together in a mass by a firmer but clear basement sub- 
 stance, and when the minute ova have somewhat in- 
 creased in size, the outline of this clearer basement 
 substance of the yolk is distinguishable. There is not, 
 however, at first any external or vitelline membrane ; 
 of this Dr. Nelson and I have convinced ourselves by 
 repeated observations in Ascaris mystax. . . . The 
 ova, as they continue to descend in the vitelligenous 
 part of the tube in immense numbers closely pressed 
 together, assume the form of subtriangular flattened 
 bodies. ... A prodigious number of ova are thus 
 packed together in a very small space.' In many 
 instances it is only after fecundation has taken place 
 that the vitelline membrane seems to become de- 
 veloped. The production of this is usually spoken of 
 as the third stage in the formation of the ovum. In 
 all the simpler kinds of ova it is supposed to result 
 after the fashion of the cell-wall generally from c the 
 consolidation of the superficial part of the basement 
 substance ' of the yolk l . 
 
 the yolk-substance, when it first begins to be formed, is scarcely granu- 
 lar, and in some instances quite clear, consisting of a viscous blastema. 
 . . . Very soon, however, and in many animals indeed from the 
 first, fine opaque granules make their appearance, as if by precipitation or 
 deposit in the clearer basement substance, and thus the primitive yolk-sub- 
 stance of the ovum in all animals is formed.' 
 
 1 This mode of formation of the ovum in Ascaris corresponds 
 with the mode of origin of cells described by the upholders of the 
 'investment theory' (Umhullungs-theorie). 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 20 
 
 Referring now, for a time, to the other mode of 
 formation of the ovum, we may state that the question, 
 concerning which there is the most uncertainty (and 
 at the same time one to which a considerable 
 interest attaches) is c whether the ovisac is to be re- 
 garded as the vesicle of evolution of the ovum, or 
 
 FIG. 13. 
 Diagrammatic representation of section of two Graafian Follicles or 
 
 Ovisacs in different stages of advancement in the ovary of a mam- 
 
 mifer ; enlarged about ten diameters. (Coste.) 
 p. Peritoneal covering of the ovary. 
 st. Ovarian stroma. 
 ov. The two layers of the ovisac. 
 mg. Membrana granulosa, near which is the discus granulosus, with the 
 
 ovum embedded. 
 
 whether the ovum, or parts of it at least, are previously 
 formed, and the ovisac is afterwards superadded 1 ?' 
 
 1 ' Cyclopaed. of Anat. and Phys.' vol. v. p. 554. In its later stages 
 the ovum of all the higher animals is found to be contained within 
 a most distinct ovisac or Graafian vesicle that is, within a com. 
 paratively large receptacle filled with a granular fluid, in which the 
 
204 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 Martin Barry and also Allen Thomson incline to the 
 latter view, whilst Bischoff, Valentin, and others, 
 maintain that the germinal vesicle of the ovum first 
 appears within the ovisac, and that the latter is there- 
 fore the primary formation. It is stated, however, 
 both by Dr. Martin Barry and Dr. Thomson, that the 
 ovisac (if it does precede) could only be formed c a very 
 short period' before the rudiments of the ovum, because 
 even where it is most minute it is found to co-exist 
 with the germinal vesicle. And at this early stage (as 
 they and all others admit) there is only a trace of the 
 future yolk, and none of the cells which subsequently 
 compose the memhrana granulosa. The development of 
 these cells, at all events, and the further development 
 of the ovum, undoubtedly take place within the ovisac. 
 
 ovum appears as an almost free anatomical element, situated, at a 
 certain portion of its circumference, in the midst of a granular and rudi- 
 mentary cell structure. At its period of maturation, the Graafian vesicle 
 bursts and sets free the contained ovum. We extract the following 
 from Dr. Thomson's article : ' In the human ovary these follicles are 
 firm spheroidal sacs which attain when mature an average size of about 
 of an inch. In the ovaries of women during the child-bearing period, 
 a number of smaller follicles lie throughout the greater part of the sub- 
 stance of the ovary ; the more developed follicles being usually placed 
 towards the free surface, but at some little distance from it. As they 
 enlarge and approach maturity, the ovarian substance seems to give way 
 to them, or to become gradually thinner between the follicles and the 
 outer surface of the ovary, so as at last to leave almost nothing but the 
 covering membranes of the ovary at the most projecting part. . . . 
 The following are the results of a few measurements made by myself 
 and others of the external diameter of the mature ovarian ovum, viz. 
 man ^, dog T ^, cat T ^, rabbit ^ rat ^, mouse ^, pig s fa, 
 cow 2^, guinea-pig ^ of an inch.' (Loc. cit. pp. 81-83.) 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 205 
 
 Whether or not the first rudiments of the ovum, the 
 germinal vesicle, is formed first or formed within the 
 ovisac, must therefore still be considered an open ques- 
 tion, although the balance of evidence seems, perhaps, 
 rather more favourable than adverse to -its secondary 
 formation ; and if this were the case, the process would 
 strongly resemble that by which the vegetable ovule 
 arises in all flowering plants. Turning, however, to 
 the question of the mode of formation of the ovum 
 itself, Dr. Allen Thomson tells us that the earliest 
 stages in its development are best traced in such 
 
 FIG. 14. 
 
 Portions of the Ovarian Stroma and Ovisacs of the 
 Thrush. (Thomson.) 
 
 a. Earliest state of ova to be perceived in ovarian stroma, consisting, 
 
 first of minute granular spots ; next of clear points within a granular 
 mass; and thirdly, of small germinal vesicles surrounded by the 
 minutely granular dark yolk-substance. 
 
 b, c. Different stages of formation of the ovisac round the small ova : 
 
 epithelium is seen to line the sac, and the germinal vesicle, with 
 
 occasionally a single macula, is now apparent. 
 d. The ovisac and ovum in a more advanced stage. 
 ov. Ovisac with epithelial lining. 
 v. Minutely granular yolk. 
 
206 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 animals as the thrush, the yellow-hammer, or the 
 chaffinch on account of the transparency of the 
 ovarian tissue in these smaller singing birds. He 
 describes the earliest appearances in the ovarian stroma 
 of the thrush to be as follows : first, the appearance ' of 
 minute granular spots; next, of clear points within a 
 minute granular mass ; and third, of small germinal 
 vesicles surrounded with the minutely granular dark 
 yolk-substance.' Afterwards the ovisacs are said to 
 form around the rudimentary ova. Here again, therefore, 
 we meet with mere granules or molecules as the first 
 representatives of the future ova. These molecules, 
 however, appear to belong to the yolk, whereas in the 
 Nematoid ovarian tube those which first appeared were 
 representatives of the future germinal vesicles. Even 
 Dr. Allen Thomson, who is quite indisposed to believe 
 that cell elements can spring up de novo, is yet neverthe- 
 less compelled to make the following statement concern- 
 ing the origin of the germinal vesicle, the potential part, 
 as he and others believe, of the egg itself: c The manner 
 of the very frst origin- of the germ of the ovum is still in- 
 volved in obscurity, for we only know of the existence of 
 an ovi-germ when the germinal vesicle has attained an 
 appreciable size. Whence the frst germs of the germinal 
 'vesicle proceed can as yet be matter only of conjecture. . . . 
 Here observation fails, and we are lost in the region of 
 speculation.' It is open therefore for us to presume that 
 an aggregation of granules, such as he himself describes 
 and figures as occurring in the thrush, may be the very 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 207 
 
 first rudiments of the egg 1 in these cases. Certain it 
 is, however, as he and almost all other embryologists 
 admit that, even in the higher animals, the yolk is 
 always formed by a mere aggregation of granules and 
 of a mucilaginous substance, subsequently becoming 
 limited by a vitelline membrane. And yet the granular 
 substance of the yolk constitutes, by its segmentation, 
 the initial embryonic mass of the future animal. In 
 certain animals, indeed, the yolk mass is apparently all 
 that exists : the germinal vesicle seems to be absent. 
 
 Seeing the undecisive nature of the evidence as to 
 the precise mode of origin of the c germinal vesicle,' it 
 is desirable to learn whether its subsequent fate bears 
 out the generally prevalent notion of its immense im- 
 portance as a constituent of the ovum. What follows 
 refers equally to ova produce^ by either of the two 
 methods above referred to to those which have a free 
 origin within tubular organs, or to those arising in the 
 midst of a more or less solid organ. 
 
 Before the mingling of the contents of the sperm- 
 cells with the granules of the vitelline substance that 
 is before fecundation 2 has taken place it seems to be 
 
 1 The ' clear point ' which next makes its appearance, the rudiment of 
 the future germinal vesicle, may be evolved as a gradually increasing 
 dot of homogeneous mucilage after the same fashion as the nucleus is 
 now known to appear in so many cells which are in process of evolution. 
 
 2 It may be well to quote here some philosophical remarks of Dr. 
 Allen Thomson bearing upon the phenomena of fecundation. He says : 
 ' The physiologist agrees, for the sake of convenience of expression, to 
 adopt the terms power, property, force, &c., to denote the conditions 
 necessary for the occurrence of certain actions or changes 
 
208 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 the rule for the germinal vesicle to disappear. Dr. 
 Allen Thomson says : c In some animals, as Mam- 
 malia and Birds, it has been observed that shortly be- 
 fore the diffluence of the vesicle its delicate wall under- 
 goes a softening on approaching solution, so as to make 
 it impossible to separate the vesicle entire. After this, 
 when the diffluence is complete, the contents disappear 
 from the situation they have previously occupied, but 
 what becomes of them has not yet been determined.' 
 Thus, at all events, we get rid of the only element of 
 the ovum about whose precise mode of origin there is 
 any doubt or uncertainty. We are now reduced to a 
 mere amorphous mass of granular material dispersed 
 through a homogeneous basement substance. But in 
 the midst of this mass there shortly arises de novo^ in 
 
 The fecundating power of the semen is an expression used only for 
 convenience to denote the invariable sequence or relation as cause 
 and effect which has been observed to subsist between the contact of 
 spermatic matter with the ovum, and the changes in the latter which 
 follow on the act of fecundation. We might with as much propriety 
 have given a name to a separate power residing in the egg or its germ, 
 which render it susceptible of fecundation, as of a special power belong- 
 ing to the semen by which that susceptibility of the ovum is acted upon. 
 The efficient cause of the process of fecundation can only be educed, as 
 in all physical as well as vital changes, from a perfect knowledge of all 
 its phenomena, and the statement of the efficient cause of such actions 
 is only the expression of the most general and best known law to which 
 a full acquaintance with the phenomena enables them to be reduced. 
 Fecundation is to be regarded as a purely vital change, seeing that it 
 takes place only in the usual conditions of vitality ; but, like all other 
 vital changes, it appears more probable that a variety of conditions of 
 the organic matter, rather than any one known property or condition, 
 are necessary for its occurrence.' (Loc. cit. p. 138.) 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 209 
 
 the ova of most animals, a new vesicular element which 
 is called the c embryo cell/ This does not appear until 
 after the process of fecundation, and just anterior to the 
 
 FIG. 15. 
 
 Segmentation of the Yolk after Fecundation, 
 a, b, c. Ovum, of Ascaris nigrovenosa. (Kolliker.) 
 d. That of A. acuminata, showing later stage. (Bagge.) 
 
 commencement of segmentation in the yolk mass. This 
 new cell, that which takes the place of the germinal 
 vesicle after fecundation, is generally tolerably distinct, 
 and nucleated,, but Dr. Thomson says 1 : c In other 
 instances a clear spherule or space only is observed in 
 the place of the embryo-cell, and in a few animals no 
 clear part of this nature has yet been detected/ Here 
 then we certainly have the new evolution of a cell or 
 nucleus in the midst of the granular yolk-substance 
 after a fashion with which we are not unfamiliar 2 . But 
 
 1 Loc. cit. p. 139. 
 
 2 Much interest attaches to these facts. We see now, in respect of 
 the presence or absence of an embryo-cell, how close is the correspond- 
 ence between these reproductive units of higher animals and the spores 
 of Algae, Fungi, and Lichens, or the reproductive germs of the lower 
 Amoeba. In them also, as we have seen, the presence of a nucleus was 
 by no means invariable ; and in some of the cases where it did exist 
 (Hydrodicfyon, Peziza, &c.) it also made its appearance, at first, as a mere 
 'clear space.' See note, p. 184. 
 
 P 
 
210 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 Dr. Thomson says, c The origin of the embryo-cell is still 
 involved in obscurity;' and when he adds, c Most 
 ovologists are disposed to connect it in some 'way or other 
 with the previously existing germinal vesicle., or some 
 part of its contents, and more especially the nucleus/ 
 we can only recognize in this statement an evidence of 
 the enormous amount of influence which the old doctrine 
 concerning the potentiality of the nucleus once exercised 
 over the minds of physiologists. As Dr. Thomson frankly 
 admits, there is no direct evidence that can be produced 
 in favour of such an hypothesis : it would probably 
 never have been advanced had it not been for the 
 old doctrines concerning the marvellous powers of 
 the nucleus, which we have now gradually learned to 
 discard. The fact that segmentation does actually com- 
 mence in certain ova where no nucleus or embryo-cell 
 is present just as the protoplasmic contents of a spore- 
 case, or of an encysted Protomyxa, may break up into 
 separate living units in spite of the absence of a nu- 
 cleus should go far to convince us that such a body is 
 not in the least necessary, in order that the phenomena 
 of segmentation and development may be initiated. 
 Although, therefore, it may be present in many cases, 
 and may seem to take the initiative by its early divi- 
 sion, we must not on this account suppose that any 
 influence or power emanating from the embryo cell is 
 the cause of the segmentation of the yolk-mass : we 
 should rather regard both sets of phenomena as merely 
 associated changes, each alike being referrible to the 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 211 
 
 properties of the matter of which the ovurn is composed. 
 This, too, was the view expressed by Professor Huxley 
 when he said \ c Neither is there any evidence that any 
 attraction or other influence is exercised by the one 
 over the other* the changes which each subsequently 
 undergoes, though they are in harmony, having no 
 causal connexion with one another, but each proceed- 
 ing, as it would seem, in accordance with the general 
 determining laws of the organism/ Nevertheless, from 
 the yoJk-mass itself (constituted, as we have seen, 
 by a mere aggregation of granules, or by an increasing 
 mass of granular mucilage) there is produced, as a result 
 of this segmentation, the germinal or c blastodermic' 
 tissue 2 , out of which, by a continuous series of changes 
 
 1 Essay previously quoted, ' British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical 
 Review,' October 1853, p. 386. 
 
 2 Dr. Thomson says : ' The last result of the segmentation is the 
 production of the blastoderma or germinal membrane in which*, by 
 other changes, the rudiments of the embryo subsequently make their 
 appearance. According to most ovologists, the last globules formed by 
 segmentation are the nucleated organized cells immediately constituting 
 the blastoderma. But a different view of the process, as it occurs 
 in Mammalia, has been taken by Bischoff, and is very decidedly set 
 forth in his two most recent works on the development of the guinea- 
 pig and the deer respectively. In these memoirs he makes the 
 announcement that ' the last resulting spherules formed by segmentation 
 are not true cells, and that previous to the formation of the blastoder- 
 mic cells the yolk-germ falls completely into an amorphous or homo- 
 geneous finely granular substance, out of which, secondarily, the blasto- 
 dermic cells are produced by a process of cyto-genesis. It seems 
 probable that, in the different classes of animals, there may be consider- 
 able variety in the degree of perfection in organization or advance in 
 cell structure to which the segments of the yelk have attained at the 
 
 P 2 
 
2 1 2 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 occurring with a still more mysterious regularity 
 there is gradually evolved the future organism, however 
 complex J . 
 
 Hitherto we have considered the mode of origin of 
 spores, germs, and ova, but if we turn our attention 
 
 period when the development of the embryo begins to manifest itself. 
 But in the higher animals, at least, the weight of evidence appears to me 
 in favour of the view that the process of segmentation results directly 
 in the formation of blastodermic cells. The facts now established by 
 the observations of Reichert in Entozoa, in 1841, of Ransome in osseous 
 fishes, and more particularly those of Remak in Batrachia, that a deli- 
 cate membrane is formed over the surface of each of the segments as 
 they appear, and that the last and smallest segments possess a delicate 
 membranous envelope, appear to show that, in these animals, each seg- 
 ment has the structure of an organized cell, and is very similar to, if not 
 identical with, those of the blastodermic lamina.' 
 
 We shall find, hereafter, that the mode of production of cells described 
 by Bischoff as occurring during the development of the ova of the 
 guinea-pig and of the deer, can be almost exactly paralleled by a similar 
 production of cells, in certain areas of the ' pellicle' which forms on organic 
 solutions. In these cases, also, the material that undergoes change is 
 an albuminous basis substance, containing a multitude of newly pro- 
 duced granules (plastide particles and bacteria). 
 
 1 It is interesting to note the very large proportion of fatty com- 
 pounds which enter into the composition of the yolk of eggs, and also, 
 as previously stated (note, p. 178), in the reproductive cells of many 
 algse. Many of these fatty products seem to be extremely unstable, and 
 therefore well suited to initiate developmental changes. It is in the 
 ovum especially, and in nerve tissue, that complex phosphuretted fats 
 are met with and it is here also that developmental and metabolic 
 changes occur to the most notable extent. According to Dr. Allen 
 Thomson, in the egg of the common fowl 'the yolk contains little 
 more than half its weight of water, or 54 per cent. The remaining 
 46 parts consist of about 17 of albumen, or analogous principles, 28 
 of oily matter, and i^ of salts. These last are chiefly alkaline muriates 
 and sulphates, phosphate of lime and magnesia, and traces of iron, 
 ^ulphur, and phosphorus.' (Loc. cit. p. 61.) 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 213 
 
 to the male reproductive elements, both in Animals and 
 in Plants, we shall find them invariably arising out of 
 modifications taking place in the protoplasmic contents 
 of certain cells or vesicles. Thus Wagner and Leuckart, 
 after pointing out that spermatozoa in the various kinds 
 of animals are produced separately in the interior of 
 vesicular elements, as was first made known to us by 
 Kolliker, say 1 : c lt is difficult to trace the intimate 
 development of the spermatozoa in the interior of these 
 vesicles; but It appears probable that It Is brought about 
 by the junction of molecular corpuscles^ which join each 
 other linearly, and which have been deposited from 
 the contents of the vesicles.' With regard to the 
 precise nature of the c vesicles' of development, 
 however, there is some uncertainty. In very many 
 cases they are undoubtedly, as Koiliker supposed, 
 nuclei; and referring to this view Wagner and Leuc- 
 kart say : c The unity in the mode of development of 
 the spermatozoa which would thus be established is 
 certainly very attractive; but we dare not conceal it 
 from ourselves that this inference from analogy is the 
 less to be depended upon, since the genesis of the 
 spermatozoa in the Decapoda furnishes us with a proof 
 that the formation of these elements may also take 
 place immediately in the interior of cells, without 
 the nuclei at all participating in it.' All the known 
 modes of origin of these spermatic bodies may, however, 
 
 1 Art. ' Semen,' ' Cyclop, of Anat. and Physiol.' vol. iv. p. 499. 
 
214 TJf-E BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 be ranged under three principal heads, which are thus 
 spoken of by the authors above cited : c ist. The 
 cell membrane and nucleus of the formative vesicles 
 convert themselves immediately into the spermatozoon, 
 2nd. The nucleus of the formative vesicles alone meta- 
 morphoses itself into the spermatozoon. 3rd. A new 
 formation, which takes place in the interior of the 
 nucleus (or immediately in the cell cavity), performs 
 the functions of a spermatozoon/ But it appears that 
 of those produced by these different methods, c the sper- 
 matozoa resulting from endogenous formation are most 
 highly developed; they are the produce of a perfectly 
 new generative process;' and it should be remarked 
 also that this mode of origination is far more frequently 
 met with than either of the others. 
 
 We will not bring forward any further details how- 
 ever; we will say nothing concerning the mode and 
 origin of antherozoids 1 in the lower members of the 
 Vegetable Kingdom, or of the pollen grains in flowering 
 plants, since these details would, in essence, be little 
 more than a repetition of modes of origin of indepen- 
 dent units, similar to what have been already described. 
 The instances already cited, although scarcely one 
 tithe of those which might have been quoted, are 
 abundantly sufficient for our present purpose. Of them- 
 selves they almost force us to come to a conclusion 
 similar to that at which we have already arrived. The 
 
 1 See 'Botanische Zeitung' for March 25 and April I, 1853; also 
 'Ann. des Sc. Nat.' 1852, and Lindley's 'Vegetable Kingdom,' p. 19. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 215 
 
 history of the development of germs, spores, ova, and 
 spermatic elements, tends to show us most convincingly 
 that independent and even active, newly-formed Living 
 Units, have at first no trace of a cell-wall this being 
 a product which is subsequently formed. Then, we 
 have ascertained, also, that some of these when first 
 they present themselves exhibit no trace of a nucleus 
 such being the case with the actively moving progeny 
 of Protomyxa and many other organisms. The germs 
 or spores of these are mere masses of living matter 
 protoplasmic in nature. They present no trace of cell- 
 wall or of bounding membrane, and there is a similar 
 absence of anything like a nucleus or nucleolus. It 
 matters not, therefore, if in certain other cases (as in the 
 formation of spores within the asci of Peziza and other 
 fungi) we do find nuclei making their appearance in 
 the midst of the living matter, before this has begun 
 to show any traces of its approaching segmentation. 
 Such primary appearance of nuclei, when it occurs, 
 should not be regarded as a necessary preliminary, or 
 one which is in any way causative of those changes 
 which are about to follow. How could we come to 
 such a conclusion, when, in so many instances, similar 
 processes of segmentation may be seen taking place in 
 living matter where no such nuclei exist! This matter 
 itself, therefore, perfectly homogeneous save for the 
 presence of a few minute granules scattered here and 
 there, is the real elementary life-stuff' that which already 
 possesses the properties of a living thing, and which 
 
2l6 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 is capable (by virtue of its own inherent tendency to 
 undergo a process of different iation) of taking on the 
 real cell form. Before a nucleus is evolved, whilst 
 still without a bounding membrane, the simple living 
 unit (plastide) is able to assimilate nutritive material 
 and grow j it may be able to move from place to place 
 and continually vary in its form ; it is able to divide 
 and reproduce its kind. In course of time a cell-wall 
 may consolidate around it, and a nucleus may arise in 
 its interior. The Cell is, therefore, seen to be only a 
 developed formj a more visibly complex condition, 
 which a simpler but already living and independent 
 Plastide may or may not assume. 
 
 Some of the opinions we have just expressed were 
 uttered by Alexander Braun in 1851, when he said 1 : 
 c The cell is thus a little organism which forms its 
 covering outside, as the mussel, the snail, or the crab does 
 its shell. The contents enclosed by these envelopes form 
 the essential and original part of the cell, in fact must 
 be regarded as a cell, before the covering is acquired. 
 From the contents issues all the physiological activity 
 of the cell, while the membrane is a product deposited 
 outside, a secreted structure/which only passively shares 
 the life, forming the medium of intercourse between 
 the interior and the external world, at once separating 
 and combining the neighbouring cells, affording pro- 
 tection and solidity to the individual cell in connection 
 with the entire tissue. Hence the development of the 
 1 Loc. cit. p. 155. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 217 
 
 cell-coat, as a product of cellular activity, always stands 
 in inverse proportion to the physiological activity of 
 the cell. In youth, thin, soft, and extensible, the cell 
 coat allows abundant nutrition and advancing growth ; 
 subsequently, thickened and therewith hardened by the 
 deposit of lamellae 1 , it compresses the contents within 
 continually narrower boundaries, more and more ex- 
 cludes intercourse with the external world, and puts 
 a term to growth/ 
 
 Taking that view of the case, therefore, which would 
 alone seem tenable in our present state of knowledge, 
 it could not be imagined that any changes occurring 
 in a simple living unit, or plastide, would be essen- 
 tially altered in character because its external layers 
 had become condensed into a so-called cell-membrane. 
 It is useless, also, to resort to the nucleus as an element 
 possessing a mysterious power of its own, and to attri- 
 bute, as was formerly the case, all the important phe- 
 nomena occurring within a Cell to the effects of its 
 influence. We are told by Nageli 2 that whole families 
 of plants are devoid of anything like a nucleus, and 
 
 1 This more especially refers to the thickening and condensation of 
 the wall which takes place in many vegetable cells. 
 
 2 Speaking of the occurrence of this previously supposed necessary 
 element of the cell, Braun says (loc. cit. p. 1 74) : ' Nageli's extensive 
 researches have demonstrated its occurrence in all divisions of the 
 vegetable kingdom ; only in particular families of the Algje, as, for 
 example, in the Palmellaceze, Chlorococcaceae, Oscilatorineae, and Nosto- 
 chinese, as also in the large-celled Cladopbora, and the unicellular Algae 
 with unlimited growth of the cell (Vaucheria, Codium, Caulerpa), no 
 trace of a nucleus has yet been discovered.' 
 
2i8 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 yet all the ordinary vegetative and reproductive pheno- 
 mena go on within the chambers of which they are 
 composed. And if we are still to call these non- 
 nucleated chambers c cells/ we nevertheless find similar 
 vegetative and reproductive phenomena taking place 
 within structures which certainly have no right to such 
 a name. It appears that Leptomhus^ Saprolegma^ Vau- 
 cheria, Codlum^ Eryopsh^ Caulerpa, and perhaps other Algse 
 as well as Fungi are branched filiform organisms pre- 
 senting no trace of a cellular structure, although by 
 a strange perversion of language they have been spoken 
 of as c branched unicellular organisms' by those who 
 were anxious to interpret all facts so as to make them 
 yield to the requirements of an exclusively c cellular' 
 Theory of Organization. At a definite stage in the 
 life of such organisms a partition extends across, near 
 the extremity of certain of the filaments, so as to cut 
 off a small terminal chamber. This chamber enlarges 
 rapidly, and its contents undergo changes such as we 
 have described in Acblya^ speedily leading to the forma- 
 tion of actively moving zoospores. Are such changes 
 due to the properties of the living matter itself, or 
 are they attributable to the mere chamber in which 
 it is enclosed ? Has the growth of the partition sud- 
 denly given rise to a potentiality previously non- 
 existent? Again, when the Protomyxa contracts, when 
 its living matter devoid of a nucleus condenses ex- 
 ternally, so as to form a cell-wall or cyst, are the 
 phenomena of segmentation which subsequently occur 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 219 
 
 still to be considered as dependent upon the properties 
 of the living matter itself under the influence of its 
 medium, or are we to suppose that suddenly, with the 
 assumption of this pseudo c cell ' form, there has arisen 
 an entirely new force capable of inducing certain de- 
 velopmental changes not otherwise producible? The 
 answers to these questions cannot, we think,, be doubt- 
 ful; and yet if we were to accept some theories at 
 present in vogue, we should have to believe in the 
 truth of the latter assumption 1 . 
 
 All the phenomena of so-called c endogenous cell- 
 formation' are therefore, if rightly interpreted, capable 
 of strengthening our belief in the necessity for the 
 existence of mere matter of a particular kind as the 
 physiological basis of all life-phenomena. They equally 
 lead us to reject as preposterous the doctrine of 
 Virchow that the cell is the ultimate vital unit, or, 
 as he expresses it, that c the cell is really the ultimate 
 morphological unit in which there is any manifestation 
 
 1 It may be well at this stage to call attention to the fact that the 
 views of Dr. Beale are so far quite in accordance with those above 
 expressed. He believes in the formless nature of primitive living matter, 
 and in the absence of any special functions or importance attaching to 
 the nucleus. We have already seen that he regards the cell-wall, when 
 present, as a dead and inert appanage of the living matter within. Thus 
 the only active potential part is the living but structureless germinal 
 matter. He says, moreover, 'it must be borne in mind that at all 
 periods of life, in certain parts of the textures and organs, and in the 
 nutrient fluids, are masses of germinal matter, destitute of any cell-wall, 
 and exactly resembling those of which at an early period the embryo is 
 entirely composed.' See 'Protoplasm,' second ed. pp. 45-47, 48, 59. 
 
220 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE, 
 
 of life, and that we must not transfer the seat of 
 real action to any point beyond the cell.' All these 
 instances of endogenous cell-formation which, indeed, 
 are frequently spoken of as examples of 'free cell- 
 formation' do, in spite of their having taken place 
 in what are called c cells,' lead us on by insensible 
 gradations to those purest and most unquestionable 
 instances of free cell -formation, in which we may find 
 new living units, or plastides, arising in homogeneous 
 blastemata, and independently altogether of pre-exist- 
 ing cells. 
 
 As we have already endeavoured to show, it would 
 be quite unreasonable to expect to get evidence of the 
 genesis of minute though fully formed Cells in blas- 
 temata. This was the old point of view and one 
 which was more justifiable in the days of Schleiden and 
 Schwann. Now, however, knowing as we do that a cell 
 with its cell -wall and nucleus is a product of evolution, 
 we must go back to formless matter, if we wish to 
 trace out the origin of the cell. We must look for 
 the appearance of mere specks minutest particles of 
 living matter which, continually growing in size, may 
 ultimately take on the form of cells, after the fashion 
 already described. 
 
 We are thus led to enquire into the truth of a doctrine 
 long maintained by Charles Robin, though one which 
 has been as warmly repudiated by Virchow and his 
 school. The former believes that simple living units 
 are produced de novo in blastemata, and he maintains 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 221 
 
 that there is a strong anatomical resemblance a per- 
 fect similarity in fact between the earlier stages of 
 all kinds of pus and mucus corpuscles, and the white 
 corpuscles of the blood \ He accordingly uses the word 
 c leucocyte' as a generic appellation for the various 
 living units of this type which are to be met with 
 either as physiological or pathological tenants of the 
 different fluids of the body. And although it is not 
 denied that such units are capable of undergoing rapid 
 multiplication by processes of fission and gemmation, 
 they are, as Robin maintains, also capable of being 
 evolved de novo in the several fluids of the body. 
 
 M. Onimus 2 has lately recorded some very carefully 
 conducted experiments made for the purpose of obtain- 
 ing more satisfactory evidence as to the mode of origin 
 of leucocytes. He found that when serosity was 
 taken as soon as possible from a rapidly formed blister, 
 and then filtered, no leucocytes, and only a very few 
 epithelial scales, were recognizable by the aid of the 
 microscope on the filter; whilst the fluid which had 
 passed through was never found to contain any formed 
 element, leucocytic or epithelial 3 . But, whenever the 
 serosity had been taken from the blister one hour 
 after its effusion, then, almost invariably, a certain 
 number of leucocytes were found on the filter, and at 
 
 1 ' Sur quelques points de 1'Anatomie et de la Physiologic des Leuco- 
 cytes ou Globules Blancs de Sang.' Brown-Sequard's ' Journal de la 
 Physiologic,' torn. ii. 1^59 p. 41. 
 
 2 ' Journal de 1'Anat. et de la Physiol.' 1867. 
 
 * The magnifying power employed, is unfortunately not stated. 
 
22 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 the same time, M. Onimus says, some of them passed 
 through the filter and were recognizable in the filtered 
 fluid. The recently effused serosity was, therefore, 
 always made use of in his subsequent experiments, 
 after he had satisfied himself that such serosity appeared 
 to be quite homogeneous and to contain no formed 
 elements of any kind 1 . Small portions of this fluid 
 were enclosed in little bags of gold-beater's skin, firmly 
 secured, and these were then inserted beneath the skin 
 of rabbits, in order to ensure the submission of the fluid 
 to the requisite temperature. The contents of the bags 
 were examined after different intervals ; and before the 
 bags were opened they were subjected to the action of 
 a full stream of water, in order to wash away every trace 
 of formed element (derived from the wounded tissues of 
 the rabbit) which might have adhered to any part of their 
 surface. When a portion of the fluid was examined 
 after the bag had remained for twelve hours beneath 
 
 1 He ascertained, by trial with the older fluids containing leucocytes, 
 that when some of this serosity had been allowed to remain undisturbed 
 for five or six hours in a small conical glass, its upper strata had, by this 
 time, become clear, owing to the leucocytes having gravitated to the 
 narrow lower portion of the vessel. When the recent serosity however 
 was tested in the same way, he invariably found that the last drops of 
 the fluid in the bottom of the glass were quite devoid of leucocytes, and 
 indeed of all trace of solid matter, however minute. He therefore con- 
 cluded that such a fluid was really a homogeneous blastema. It must 
 be remembered, however, that exceedingly minute particles of living 
 matter less than 30 ooo" * n diameter might not sink in the way de- 
 scribed, and that such particles easily make their way through an 
 ordinary filter. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 223 
 
 the rabbit's skin, it was found to be already slightly 
 opalescent, owing to the presence of myriads of minute 
 particles. After twenty-four hours, the fluid in other 
 bags was found to have become whitish and cloudy 
 from its containing, in addition to the particles, 
 numerous well-formed leucocytes. When examined 
 after a period of thirty-six hours, the fluid was in- 
 variably found to be quite white and milky, owing 
 to the presence of myriads of leucocytes, which ex- 
 hibited the characteristic amoeboid movements, and 
 seemed to differ in no essential respect from ordinary 
 young pus corpuscles or from white corpuscles of the 
 blood i. 
 
 1 M. Onimus found that the nature of the blastema employed modified 
 the results obtained in a most remarkable manner. He says : ' All the 
 experiments we have hitherto recorded are true only on condition that 
 the fibrine is not coagulated ; for neither leucocytes nor any other kind 
 of anatomical elements are produced in the serum of blisters whose 
 fibrine has been coagulated.' These results are most interesting to the 
 physician, and harmonize well with his own experience. He does 
 not expect to meet with pus corpuscles in an effusion into the pleura 
 which has not been caused by inflammation, whilst he is quite prepared 
 to find them in abundance in an inflammatory effusion. In the former 
 case the fluid would not contain both the protein compounds necessary 
 for the production of fibrine, whilst in the latter it would probably contain 
 them in large quantity. Although it is fully granted that the pus corpus- 
 cles in an empyematous fluid may be derived in part from wandering 
 white blood corpuscles, and in part from subdivision of any of the nuclear 
 elements of the tissues in contact with the fluid, I fully believe that 
 another, and perhaps a very large section of them, have been evolved 
 de novo in the blastema itself. Corpuscles derived in either of these 
 ways may of course multiply indefinitely in the fluid by processes of 
 gemmation. In these various ways may we account for the presence of the 
 untold legions of leucocytes which are met with in inflammatory fluids. 
 
224 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 Now by these experiments Onimus seems to have 
 shown quite conclusively that the corpuscles met with 
 in his experimental fluids had not been derived from 
 the fission of any visible pre-existing cells. It seems 
 almost equally certain that they did not even originate 
 from particles which were recognizable by the micro 
 scopic powers employed, since the fluids were at first, 
 to all appearance, perfectly homogeneous. Either, 
 therefore, the minute particles which were seen at a 
 later stage must have originated owing to some 
 primitive formative process taking place in a really 
 homogeneous organic solution, or else the fluid, seem- 
 ingly homogeneous, in reality contained the most 
 minute particles (microscopically invisible), derived in 
 some unknown way from the previously existing pro- 
 toplasmic elements of the tissues 1 . Further than this 
 we cannot go by direct observation reason alone must 
 be our guide in the selection of the one or the other 
 alternative. We, however, incline to the former view; 
 
 1 We are quite unable to disprove such a supposition. It is but the 
 germ theory under another form, and being based only upon analogical 
 evidence it belongs to the region of pure hypothesis. Those who would 
 be inclined to believe in the existence of such infinitesimal off-castings 
 from pre-existing cells are, however, no more able to prove that organic 
 units, seemingly originating de novo, are in reality derived from such 
 supposed invisible germs, than we are to disprove their hypothesis. We 
 must be guided therefore by evidence of an indirect nature, and those 
 who at present still doubt the probability of leucocytes originating de 
 novo, may, perhaps, be more inclined to admit that the tendency of the 
 evidence above adduced is strongly in favour of the actuality of such 
 a process, after they have read other portions of this work, relating to 
 the de novo origination of wholly independent living things. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 225 
 
 and we believe it to be in the highest degree probable 
 that the fully developed leucocytes or plastides which 
 were seen in the later examinations had arisen out 
 of the growth and development of the mere organic 
 specks met with in the earlier stages of the enquiry. 
 
 This latter view receives the strongest support from 
 observations that have been made as to the nature and 
 mode of origin of the white corpuscles of the blood. 1 
 have obtained some very striking evidence on this sub- 
 ject from the study of specimens of blood taken from 
 two persons suffering from Leucocythaemia, though I had 
 previously been tending towards the same conclusion 
 from a careful study of its condition in other states of 
 disease in which the white corpuscles existed in undue 
 proportion. In these two cases the number of the white 
 was equal to that of the red corpuscles : instead of the 
 two kinds of elements existing in the normal propor- 
 tion of about one of the former to three hundred of the 
 latter. The other most striking feature in the speci- 
 mens of blood from these patients was the extreme 
 variability in the size of the white corpuscles some 
 being nearly twice as big as usual, whilst others were 
 seen of all intermediate sizes between this and a mere 
 protoplasmic speck 4 * " in diameter. The corpuscles 
 also presented different aspects, the largest of them 
 appeared to possess a cellular structure there were 
 slight evidences of a boundary wall, and numerous 
 large protein granules within, more or less completely 
 concealing a faint ovoid nuclear-looking body. This 
 
226 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE, 
 
 granular appearance seemed to become more and more 
 marked as the corpuscles became larger, and the nucleus 
 also became more and more distinct, though only ap- 
 pearing as a space free from granules. The corpuscles 
 which were about ^-gV*/' * n diameter, as well as all those 
 that were of smaller size, presented none of these charac- 
 ters. They were, in fact, not cells but plastides solid 
 homogeneous bits of protoplasm, exhibiting very slow 
 
 FIG. 1 6. 
 
 Showing the different stages in the development of white blood 
 corpuscles, as seen in blood from a case of Leucocythsemia. All 
 gradational sizes to be seen from a mere homogeneous speck of 
 protoplasm ^ O l 6o " in diameter up to that of a corpuscle of the 
 ordinary size. Those under -^oW" * n diameter are homogeneous 
 bits of protoplasm, showing only a very few granules and no 
 nucleus or distinct bounding wall, x 600. 
 
 amoeboid variations in shape 1 . There was no break 
 whatever in the continuity of the series ; all gradations 
 in size could be and were measured, from the mere 
 plastide particle 4 ; Q " in diameter,, up to the fully 
 developed corpuscle ; and until the size above indicated 
 
 1 The amoeboid movements of the white corpuscles, however, are not 
 generally very marked in blood taken from Leucocythaemic patients. 
 They have often seemed to be much less obvious than usual a large 
 number of the corpuscles remaining for a long time more or less 
 spherical. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 22 7 
 
 was reached we had to do with mere bits of growing 
 protoplasm, or plastides, differing from one another 
 in no other respect except that of size 1 . But in 
 those corpuscles which exceeded ^Vs" tne protoplasm 
 gradually became granular, and they then began to 
 exhibit changes which appear characteristic of age and 
 approaching degeneration 2 . Then, also, the nucleus 
 seemed to be evolved as a growing spherule of homo- 
 geneous matter, without distinct boundary wall and 
 therefore appearing as a mere circular space gradually 
 increasing in size amongst refractive granules, which 
 also grew larger and larger. It is extremely difficult to 
 recognize in its earlier stages and when it is very minute 
 in size : there can be little doubt, however, that it is 
 evolved after the same fashion as the nucleus in many 
 vegetable cells 3 . 
 
 Whether the minutest specks of protoplasm seen 
 
 1 Since the above was written I find that Dr. Hughes Bennett has 
 alluded (Lancet, 1863, vol. ii., p. 378 and fig. 61) to the occurrence of 
 bodies of different sizes in the blood of certain Leucocytluemic patients. 
 Our interpretation of the appearances is, however, quite different, since 
 he regards the smaller particles as 'nuclei' which have been liberated 
 from the white corpuscles. 
 
 2 I have again and again noticed the results of an evolution of 
 this kind (though more marked in degree") which appears to take place 
 in white corpuscles, after the death of the individual. In autopsies 
 made 36 or 48 hours after death, I have frequently found on examina- 
 tion of the pia mater that the white corpuscles had assumed a most 
 distinctly cellular appearance each cell containing one or perhaps two 
 well-defined ovoidal nuclei and a variable number of protein granules. 
 In these cases the corpuscles have a distinctly vesicular appearance, and 
 the nuclei also seem to be bounded by a distinct wail. 
 
 3 See note, p. 184. 
 
228 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 had been evolved out of the fluid plasma of the lymph ; 
 whether, as such, they had been introduced into the 
 lymph, from the lymphatic glands and other sources; 
 or whether they had been thrown off by a process of 
 gemmation from the pre-existing white corpuscles 
 themselves, we have no evidence to enable us posi- 
 tively to decide, although it seems that the facts at 
 present in our possession are most favourable to the 
 first mode of explanation. We have, however, in these 
 facts much stronger evidence to show that the fully 
 developed white corpuscles have grown out of the mere 
 specks of living matter J ; that these, even when they 
 
 1 And, therefore, evidence tending to upset the notion generally pre- 
 valent amongst physiologists, that the white corpuscles of the blood 
 have been produced by modifications which have taken place in 
 lymphatic corpuscles as starting points these bodies being not less 
 than -3-5^" in diameter. 
 
 There are other reasons also against this mode of origin of the 
 white corpuscles which have been advanced by Ch. Robin. He says 
 (loc. cit. p. 49) : ' L'existence des leucocytes dans le sang de I'embryon 
 a une <$poque ou les lymphatiques manquent encore, montre qu'il en 
 natt dans les vaisseaux sanguins, et que, chez I'embryon, du moins, 
 ceux du sang ne proviennent pas necessairement de la lymphe. . . . Leur 
 presence dans le canal thoracique k tous les Sges montre qu'il en nait 
 pendant toute la vie dans les lymphatiques, puisque ceux de ces derniers 
 arrivent dans le sang avec la lymphe. Comme on tfouve des leucocytes 
 dans les reseaux et les conduits lymphatiques, du pied du testicule etc., 
 avant leur arrive'e aux ganglions correspondants il est manifest aussi que 
 ce ne sont pas ces derniers organes qui seraient specialement charges de 
 les former, et qu'il naisse dans le liquide meme qui les renferme, c'est 
 a dire dans toutes les parties du systeme lymphatique probablement. . . . 
 D'autre part, c'est apres une hypothese contredite par les faits les plus 
 lementaires qu'on a pu admettre que produire cette espece d'element ana- 
 tomique etait 1'usage, le rule que tel ou tel organe etait charge de remplir.' 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 229 
 
 have nearly attained their full size, are still (although 
 units exhibiting a distinct vitality of their own) mere 
 structureless bits of protoplasm, without cell-wall and 
 without nucleus differing, in fact, in no respect from 
 the Vrotamceb-e of Professor Haeckel, except that they 
 are subordinate parts of a higher organism, and there- 
 fore do not lead an entirely independent existence. 
 It seems evident also that such homogeneous masses 
 of matter (plastides), already exhibiting vital character- 
 istics, are afterwards capable of evolving a nucleus, and 
 of assuming that cellular form without which it was 
 formerly supposed no vital manifestations could occur. 
 
 Such a mode of origination of living units, together 
 with their subsequent evolution, affords perhaps the 
 best illustration that can be given of the birth of 
 cells de no<vo in blastemata. Other evidence of vari- 
 ous kinds can however be adduced tending towards 
 the same conclusion, and to this we will now briefly 
 allude. When working at the anatomy of a diseased 
 spinal cord in the year 1866, before my faith in 
 Virchow's doctrines had been notably shaken, I was 
 much struck by certain appearances met with through- 
 out the degenerated portions of a cord in which the 
 interstitial fibrous tissue had become abnormally in- 
 creased in quantity. As in such tissue generally, there 
 was a very great increase in the number of nuclei, and 
 although very many of them appeared about ^jVzr" in 
 diameter, there were others even larger than this, and 
 others still in great abundance representing every 
 
230 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 intermediate size between these and a mere granular 
 speck or dot about 40 ^ 00 " in diameter. In an account 
 of this case published shortly afterwards 1 there occurs 
 the following passage : c The large nuclei were appar- 
 ently unconnected with fibres, and all intermediate 
 sizes could be traced between them and the small 
 dot-like forms. They existed in the greatest abund- 
 ance, and seemed to represent only different ages of 
 one and the same element. All alike became deeply 
 stained with carmine V I have since repeatedly seen 
 similar appearances in other specimens of diseased 
 nerve tissue. It is impossible to say positively, of 
 course, whether the minute dots, the mere formless 
 specks of living matter, had been given off bodily, as 
 buds, from pre-existing living matter, or whether they 
 had originated de novo out of fluid plasma. The proba- 
 bilities are certainly, to say the least, as much in favour 
 of the one mode of origin as of the other j and even 
 if they had proceeded from previously living matter, 
 
 1 ' Medico-Chirurgical Transactions,' 1867, vol. 1., ' On a Case of 
 Concussion - Lesion, with extensive Secondary Degenerations of the 
 Spinal Cord.' 
 
 2 At the time I was somewhat puzzled to understand how the large 
 nucleated granulation corpuscles, which were also so numerous, could 
 have originated. Acknowledging the difficulty, it was then suggested 
 that the cells had become developed around some of the originally free 
 ' nuclei,' and had afterwards undergone a rapid process of fatty degene- 
 ration. Now, however, I feel much more inclined to believe that some 
 of the original 'nuclei' underwent a rapid process of growth, that each of 
 these subsequently developed a nucleus in its interior, and then underwent 
 a process of degeneration. (See loc. cit. PI. XL fig. 20.) 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 23 I 
 
 this, though a mode of origin of new organic units 
 which has been long spoken of by Dr. Beale, is not 
 one which has been much mentioned by Virchow and 
 others of the Cellular School of Pathology. They speak 
 principally of cell multiplication taking place by equal 
 division of pre-existing cells or nuclei a mode of 
 reproduction which, though undoubtedly very common, 
 does not, in my opinion, play such an important and 
 almost exclusive part in tissue growth as has been 
 represented, and which does not, moreover, enable us 
 to account for many appearances that are frequently 
 met with. 
 
 Cells may also originate after another fashion in the 
 human body, as I have satisfied myself from a most 
 careful study of the results of inflammation when 
 occurring on the pericardium, or lining membrane of 
 the heart. It appears that small nuclei-like bodies, or 
 plastides, about 45 1 00 " in diameter originate by a direct 
 process of differentiation, from the homogeneous and 
 tenacious so-called c lymph' which is produced on the 
 surface of the serous membrane 1 . This structureless 
 lymph-like matter is capable of being resolved, or of 
 differentiating, more or less rapidly, into an areolar 
 tissue and plastides of the kind above mentioned. I 
 
 1 In what precise way this is produced we have still no certain 
 knowledge. I feel convinced that it is no mere 'exudation' from the 
 blood-vessels ; neither is it produced by an abundant proliferation and 
 over-growth of the superficial tissue elements. It is at first quite struc- 
 tureless, and, judging from the changes which it subsequently undergoes, 
 it seems to be formless living matter. 
 
232 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 will not speak more in detail on this subject now, 
 as the particulars would be somewhat too technical. 
 Such a mode of origin of new organic units is closely 
 allied to the process which gives birth to the zoospores 
 of certain Fungi and Algae, or to the reproductive 
 gemmules of Protomyxa. In each case there exists, at 
 first, formless living matter : only the independent units 
 into which it afterwards divides remain to form a 
 coherent tissue in the one case, whilst they separate 
 and form independent reproductive units in the other 
 instances mentioned. 
 
 A careful consideration of all the facts adduced in 
 the present chapter leads us to the conclusion that 
 Living Units, whether reproductive or not, may ori- 
 ginate by one or other of five principal methods within 
 the bodies of pre-existing organisms : 
 
 1. In a not-living organizable fluid we have good 
 
 reason to suppose that a living unit may ori- 
 ginate ; and this being so we should have in 
 such case a veritable instance of the passage 
 of the not-living into the living. Life would 
 here begin de novo owing to the occurrence of 
 certain new molecular combinations. To this 
 process we propose to apply the name Arche- 
 biosis l . 
 
 2. Where living particles or portions of living matter 
 
 exist in a fluid or semi-fluid medium some of 
 
 1 From apx?i, ' beginning/ and fitoca, ' to live.' 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 233 
 
 these may aggregate, as a result of which after 
 certain mysterious changes, or more or less 
 directly, there may originate a new-formed ele- 
 ment, reproductive or other. As instances of 
 this process for which we propose the name 
 Biocrasis 1 we may cite the mode of formation 
 of ova in Nematolds and in many other animals, 
 of the spore in Vauckerla^ and of the so-called 
 c gonidial cell' in Nitella. 
 
 3. New units may arise, without obvious differentia- 
 tion of pre-existing living matter, by the well- 
 known processes of fssion or gemmation. Or 
 again, new units may arise owing to actually 
 existing living matter undergoing a process of 
 differentiation, followed by a simultaneous divi- 
 sion into few or many separate living things 
 by a method, in fact, such as we see occurring in 
 the reproduction of Protomyxa or Acklya*. All 
 such modes of formation of living units we pro- 
 pose to comprise under the term Biodiseresis 3 . 
 
 1 From 0ios, ' life,' and tepdffis, * fusion.' We are at present speaking 
 only of the origin of independent units in pre-existing organisms ; and 
 therefore we only incidentally call attention to the most typical instance 
 of this process, viz. the fusion of two originally distinct Amoeba into 
 a single individual. 
 
 2 In the process of organization of pericardial lymph, otherwise 
 similar, the new-formed units do not separate from one another, and 
 are therefore somewhat less independent. The mode of origin of the 
 reproductive units inAcblya and Protomyxa leads us on almost insensibly 
 to the process of Biocanosis the products of the molecular re arrange- 
 ment are here multiple instead of single. 
 
 3 From jStos, ' life,' and oiaipeffis, ' division.' 
 
234 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 4. Living matter being already in existence, it may 
 
 after a time undergo a thorough molecular re- 
 arrangement whereby it acquires fresh powers 
 and an increased vitality, fitting it for inde- 
 pendent existence. By this process for which 
 we propose the name Biocsenosis l the spore is 
 produced in (Edogonmm and other algae, and 
 also, after 'conjugation,' in Palmogl<ea and the 
 Zygnemeacete 2 . 
 
 5. Lastly, in the midst of already existing living 
 
 matter (in the form of cell or plastide) there 
 may arise a new centre of growth and life, which 
 may subsequently lead an independent existence. 
 Such is the mode of origin of the embryo in all 
 Phanerogamia, of the majority of spermatozoa, 
 and possibly of the ova in Birds and Mammals j 
 also of nuclei in many plastides, which may 
 outlive the latter and subsequently lead an inde- 
 pendent existence. These processes we propose 
 to include under the name Bioparadosis 3 . 
 
 1 From jStos, ' life/ and Kaivuats, ' renewal.' 
 
 2 These are some of the phenomena spoken of by Alexander Braun 
 under the name 'Rejuvenescence' (Verjiingung). 
 
 3 From /3/os, ' life,' and irapdScaats, ' transmission.' The phrase ' free 
 cell formation,' as used by older writers, includes these endogenous 
 processes, and also that which we designate Arcbebiosis. There is, 
 moreover, a certain resemblance between Arcbebiosis and Bioparadosis. 
 In the one case a centre of Life is initiated in the midst of mere 
 organizable matter, whilst in the other it is initiated in an equally 
 mysterious way in the midst of already existing living matter. The 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 235 
 
 Thus we have in all, five principal processes or modes 
 of origin of living units, which in each case may or may 
 not, by virtue of subsequent developmental processes, 
 assume the e cell ' form : 
 
 Life-origination Archeblosls. 
 
 Life-fusion Biocrasis. 
 
 Life-division Biodi crests. 
 
 Life-renewal Biocxnosts. 
 
 Life-transmission Bioparadosis. 
 
 Although, however, we have arrived at a very strong 
 presumption that specks of living protoplasm are 
 evolved de novo in certain fluids within the body, it 
 will doubtless at first be said by many that such an 
 occurrence affords no instance of a passage of the 
 not-living into the living, because the phenomenon 
 takes place in a fluid which is already endowed with 
 Life. Let us not deceive ourselves, however, by any 
 inconclusive assumption. The organic fluids pertain- 
 ing to higher animals and plants can be said to 
 live only because they constitute parts of living organ- 
 isms. But is this enough? The several fluids have 
 each peculiarities of their own, and are certainly 
 very different from one another in their degree of 
 elaboration. Thus, when dead organic matter in the 
 shape of food is introduced into the stomach of an 
 
 mode of origin of the zoospores of Conferva area, and of the re- 
 productive units of certain Amoebae, as described by Nicolet, may 
 perhaps be regarded as instances of Bioparadosis with multiple products 
 instead of with the origination of a single reproductive unit. 
 
236 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 animal, it is first converted into chyme ; then, having 
 been absorbed from the intestinal canal and submitted 
 to the action of certain parts of the lymphatic system, 
 it is converted into fully elaborated chyle, which is 
 afterwards poured into the proper vascular system. 
 Now when, during this process, does the solution of 
 dead organic matter assume the qualities of Life ? when, 
 or at what stage, does it become a living fluid ? is it, 
 in fact, ever anything else (even in its most elaborated 
 condition of blood-plasma) than a mere organizable 
 solution of organic compounds, capable of acting as 
 pabulum for already existing living matter, and of 
 permitting the de novo origination of new centres of 
 growth and Life? Certain it is that at some stage 
 the passage from the not-living to the living must 
 be effected; and the process is probably not more 
 abrupt than that reverse process by which living matter 
 again reverts to not-living materials, such as are cast off 
 in various excreted fluids. Starting with dead organic 
 and inorganic matter, imbibed as food, we pass, in all 
 living animals and plants, through fluids of various de- 
 grees of elaboration, till we find these food ingredients 
 becoming converted into actual Living Matter. The 
 animal or plant is nourished, and grows by the occurrence 
 of such a process. We contend, however, that the fluids 
 concerned cannot be said to live. The property, or 
 aggregate of properties, designated by the word c Life ' 
 does not pertain to the fluids themselves, though their 
 constitution is such as to favour, under the influence 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 237 
 
 of certain conditions, new modes of collocation amongst 
 the molecules of the matter in solution, whereby the 
 transition may take place from the not-living to the 
 living. When these molecules aggregate so as to form 
 the smallest conceivable specks of protoplasm, then 
 does nascent or potential pass into actual Life. But, 
 it may well be asked, must not the process be essentially 
 similar, whether we have to do with the phenomena 
 of growth or the phenomena of evolution ? In each act 
 of growth not-living matter must be converted into matter 
 which lives , just as we now suppose such a process 
 to occur when the minutest specks of living matter 
 arise in homogeneous organizable fluids. We are as 
 powerless to explain the one process, of which no one 
 doubts the reality, as we are the other, which in part, 
 because it is less familiar so many seem to think 
 an impossible one. That living matter is capable of 
 growing and increasing in bulk is an obvious and 
 undeniable fact. Physiologists and others can, how- 
 ever, if they choose, doubt the reality of the occur- 
 rence of that to which we have been alluding, since 
 Arckehiosis^ far from being obvious, is even extremely 
 difficult to establish with certainty. And accordingly, 
 whilst many physiologists readily grant that during the 
 growth of organisms the not-living does continually 
 pass into the living under the influence of physi- 
 cal forces alone 1 , they, influenced by old theoretical 
 
 1 It cannot of course be expected that those physiologists who still 
 believe in the existence of a special 'vital principle' should so easily 
 
238 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 considerations which they are unable thoroughly to cast 
 aside, cannot bring themselves to believe think it, in 
 fact, a stupendous step to have to imagine that the 
 same matter and the same forces, should be able of them- 
 selves to collocate into independent centres of growth. 
 Whilst teaching, as they implicitly or explicitly do, that 
 the growth of organisms is a process akin to crystal- 
 lization (a process which has to do only with ordinary 
 matter of a certain kind acted upon by ordinary forces) 
 they nevertheless persist in believing that whilst 
 the crystal can and does originate de no<vo by virtue 
 of the action of those molecular affinities which are 
 potential in its growth the organism is quite unable 
 similarly to originate by the play of those very same 
 affinities which are afterwards alone admitted to be 
 necessary for its increase. Whilst the first particle of 
 a crystal owes its origin to the same causes as those 
 which subsequently determine its growth, the first par- 
 ticle of a living organism, though also substantially 
 similar to those which are subsequently formed, is 
 arbitrarily assumed to be incapable of arising under the 
 influence of the causes which are believed to determine 
 their existence. This assumption is obviously opposed 
 to what we might expect a priori. The real point of 
 view, therefore, for the emancipated scientific enquirer 
 of the present day, in looking into the evidence 
 
 become converts to a doctrine of evolution by which the not-living is, 
 through a series of successive changes, supposed to be converted into 
 the living. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 239 
 
 bearing upon this subject, is rather to see whether 
 it tends to countenance an assumption so contradic- 
 tory to the present teachings of biological science, or 
 whether it is now altogether and more strongly in 
 favour of the doctrine of Evolution. 
 
PART II. 
 
 ARCHEBIOSIS. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MEANINGS ATTACHED TO TERM 'SPONTANEOUS GENERATION.' 
 
 The term should be discarded being bad and insufficient. Includes 
 two fundamentally different sets of phenomena. Influence of 
 general views concerning ' Life.' Opinions of Burdach. Meanings 
 of terms Homogenia and Heterogenia. Burdach, Buffon, Needham, 
 Pouchet, and others, never believed in Arcbebiosis. This, antago- 
 nistic to their general views concerning Life. Previous use of term 
 Heterogenesis therefore correct and may be retained. May occur 
 during Life of Organism as a whole, or after its death. Modes of 
 origin of living things. 
 
 Views of earlier writers concerning 'Spontaneous Generation.' Aristotle, 
 Ovid, and others. Continuance of these views till time of Harvey. 
 Doubt as to his exact doctrine. Experiments and opinions of Redi, 
 Needham, Buffon, Spallanzani, and Bonnet. Views of other writers 
 at close of last and early part of present century. Contrast between 
 doctrines of Lamarck and Burdach. Observations of Pineau. 
 Views of Ehrenberg. Experiments of Schwann and Schultze. 
 Writings of M. Pouchet. Vigorous discussion excited thereby. 
 Labours of M. Pasteur. Modern aspects of discussion to be 
 more fully explained hereafter. 
 
 AS human knowledge increases concerning any 
 department of science it almost always becomes 
 necessary to give up some terms or modes of ex- 
 pressions long in use, and which may not have seemed 
 faulty whilst the science was in its infancy. Certain 
 of them, however, may gradually become less and less 
 
 R 2 
 
244 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 suitable, because they convey notions absolutely irrecon- 
 cilable with the later development of knowledge on 
 the subject, or because they are too vague and general. 
 Hence it is that the phrase c spontaneous generation' 
 should be rejected in the present day. The phenomena 
 hitherto referred to under this name are no more 
 c spontaneous ' than are any others which take place 
 in accordance with natural laws. The phrase is, more- 
 over, utterly inadequate, since under it, if retained, 
 we should have to include two sets of phenomena at 
 least, which, in the present day, ought to be carefully 
 discriminated from one another. 
 
 This discrimination has, however, been attempted 
 only by a few writers. Many who have written on 
 the subject of c spontaneous generation ' have failed to 
 appreciate the full extent of the difference which exists 
 between the origin of living things from not-living 
 materials (Archebiosis), and their origin in whatever 
 fashion whether by modes which are familiar, or by 
 others which are unfamiliar from the substance of a 
 pre-existing living thing. This difference, which is so 
 little dwelt upon by some, assumes in the minds of 
 others an overwhelming importance they might be 
 open to conviction as to the possibility of living things 
 arising by previously unknown methods from the matter 
 of pre-existing living things, whilst they would regard 
 the origin of living things from not-living materials to 
 be altogether impossible. In the first set of cases, how- 
 ever bizarre the mode of generation might be, there 
 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 245 
 
 would at least be a continuity of Life the peculiar 
 powers of living matter would be directly communi- 
 cated or transmitted, although such living matter might 
 take on new modes of growth and development ; but in 
 the occurrence of Archebiosis they would have to 
 imagine the actual new creation of the special and 
 peculiar c something-' which they mentally associate 
 with the word c Life.' 
 
 The general views entertained concerning Life its 
 nature, or the meaning to be attached to it as a term 
 exercise no small influence in producing a variation in 
 the point of view of different writers as to the nature of 
 certain phenomena. Thus, statements which appear to 
 many to be consistent only with a belief in Archebiosis., 
 are, when taken in conjunction with the general views 
 of the writers, often found not to warrant such a con- 
 clusion. This may be best explained by a reference to 
 the opinions of two or three well-known writers on 
 the subject. 
 
 In the first volume of his c Physiologic,' published in 
 1826, Burdach introduced the words Homogenia and 
 Heterogenia, as names for the two principal class 
 distinctions in the mode of origin of living things. 
 Homogenia was the class-name applied to the processes 
 by which an individual results from a pre-existing 
 living thing, similar to itself in organization; whilst 
 Heterogenia was the class-name for processes by which 
 living things arise from the matter of pre-existing 
 organisms belonging to a totally different species. 
 
^246 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 Concerning these latter processes Burdach said 1 : 
 c On appelle Heterogenie (generatto heterogenea, primiti'va. ) 
 primigena^ ortginarta^ spontanea) toute production d'etre 
 vivant qui, ne se rattachant, ni pour la substance ni pour 
 1'occasion, a des individus de la meme espece, a pour 
 point de depart des corps d'un autre espece, et depend 
 d'un concours d'autres circonstances. C'est la mani- 
 festation d'un etre nouveau et denue de parens, par 
 consequent une generation primordiale, ou un creation/ 
 So far, this would seem to intimate the possibility of 
 the formation (by Heterogeny) of living things only 
 from the matter of pre-existing organisms, but Burdach 
 did not really confine himself to this doctrine, as may 
 be seen from the following quotation taken from the 
 next page. He says : c Nul doute que notre planete 
 ne soit arrivee par degres a son etat actuel, qu'a une 
 epoque tres reculee elle n'ait ete inhabitable pour les 
 tres organises, et que tous ces etres ne soient formes 
 peu a peu sans parens, consequemment par la voie de 
 1'heterogenie. Si Ton juge d'apres ce fait et autres 
 semblable, la terre a posse'de jadis un exuberance de 
 force plastltjue , cette force ne peut point avoir e'te 
 transitoire et accidentelle ; elle ne peut avoir ete 
 qu'essentielle et inseparable de la nature, elle ne sau- 
 rait done etre eteinte actuellement. Limitee quant a 
 Tetendue de ses manifestations, elle continue toujours 
 d'agir pour la conservation de ce qui a e'te cree, et, 
 
 1 In the second edition of his work, as translated by Jourdan 'Traite 
 de Physiologic,* 1837, t. i. p. 8. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE, 247 
 
 quoiqu'elle ne maintienne les formes organiques supe- 
 rieures que par la seule propagation, il ne repugne point 
 au bon sens de penser qu'aujourd'hui encore elle a la 
 puissance de produire les formes inferieures avec des 
 elements heterogenes, comme elle a cree originaire- 
 ment tout ce qui possede Forganisation.' But, although 
 this passage shows that Burdach believed in the 
 possibility of the origin of living things from what 
 are called not-living materials, nevertheless he did 
 not believe that in such a case there would be a 
 creation of a something altogether new, which we term 
 c Life.' This divergence arises from the nature of his 
 theoretical views. The whole universe is to him the 
 organism of organisms, and endowed with Life. Else- 
 where l he says : c Mais si Tunivers est 1'organisme 
 absolu, chacune de ses parties doit etre un tout or- 
 
 ganique II y a plus encore : la force du 
 
 tout doit etre inherente & chaque chose particuliere, 
 et effectivement nous rencontrons des traces de vie dans 
 toute existence yuelconque V Similar considerations have 
 to be taken into account before we can thoroughly 
 comprehend the doctrines of Pouchet, and those of 
 BufTbn, Needham, and others who are professed 
 
 1 ' Trait6 de Physiol.' t. iv. p. 149. 
 
 2 The relation of Force to Life seems to have been clearly seen by 
 Burdach, whose doctrine approximates to that of Schelling. We differ 
 only in restricting the attribute ' living ' to its conventional use ; though 
 we fully recognize that all things whether living or not-living are 
 fundamentally related from the point of view of the origin of their 
 ' properties,' or ' qualities.' 
 
248 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 c vitalists.' They all agree that pre-existing c vital 
 force ' of some kind pre-existing Life, therefore 
 is necessary, and that without the agency of this no 
 living thing can come into being. M. Pouchet did 
 not believe in what we term c Archebiosis, 5 and he 
 quite legitimately called himself a heterogenist j be- 
 cause the molecules of the infused animal or vegetable 
 substances (with which alone he experimented) were 
 supposed by him to be possessed by some special c vital 
 force,' or c force plastique,"* under whose directive agency 
 the new collocations arose 1 . He says 2 : C I have always 
 thought that organized beings were animated by forces 
 which are in no way reducible to physical and chemical 
 forces.' And accordingly M. Pouchet has never at- 
 tempted to show that living things might come into 
 
 1 In this point of view he is indeed supported by the doctrines announced 
 quite recently by a celebrated French chemist, concerning 'corps hemi- 
 organises.' M. Fremy says (' Compt. Rend.' t. Ixvii. p. 1 165) : ' Ces corps 
 sont les albumines, la fibrine, la cas&ne, les substances vit^llines, &c. La 
 synthese chimique ne les reproduit pas. II est impossible selon moi de les 
 considdrer comme des principes imme'diats definis : je les designe, sous le 
 nom gnral de corps bdmiorganises, parce qu'ils tiennent le milieu entre 
 
 le principe imme'diat et le tissu organist Us ne sont pas encore 
 
 organist mais cependant ils sont dou^s d'une veritable force vitale, car 
 sous 1'influence de 1'air humide ils entrent en decomposition comme des 
 corps vivants et re'ellement organises.' He says also : ' en raison de 
 la force vitale qu'ils possedent, ils eprouvent alors des decompositions 
 successives, donnent naissance a des derives nouveaux, et engendrent des 
 ferments dont la production n'est pas due a une generation spontanee, 
 mais a une force vital preexistante dans les corps hmiorganis6s et qui 
 s'est simplement continuee en se manifestant par les transformations 
 organiques les plus varides.' 
 
 2 ' Hdtdrogenie,' 1859, p. 428. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 249 
 
 being in solutions which had previously contained 
 merely mineral ingredients. This was only possible, 
 he thought, in organic solutions, the matter of which 
 had been previously formed under the influence of Life, 
 and whose properties it still retained 1 . The postulation 
 by Needham of a special c force vegetative/ and by 
 Buffon of the invariable agency of vital, though imma- 
 terial, c molecules organiques,' suffice to place them in 
 this same category: they are all persons whos? theo- 
 retical views have been framed in such a way as to 
 exclude the possibility of their belief in the origin of 
 the living from the 'not-living. The possibility of 
 Archebiosis not being one of the elements of their 
 philosophical creed, they would give a different inter- 
 pretation to certain facts which, in the minds of others, 
 might seem to testify to the occurrence of such a process. 
 Seeing that the notion represented by the word 
 c Archebiosis' is one which on account of these theo- 
 retical views does not very often occur in previous 
 writings upon c spontaneous generation,' and seeing 
 how desirable it is to separate this idea from that 
 
 1 Many will, however, rather agree with us in thinking that a mere 
 solution made by infusing animal or vegetable tissues, has apart from 
 germs of living things which it may contain no more title to the 
 epithet ' living,' than has any solution of mineral substances a right to 
 such an appellation. For those who hold such opinions, therefore, the 
 appearance of living things in organic solutions (after all pre-existing 
 germs had been destroyed), should it occur, would be as much a case of 
 the origin of the living from the not-living, as if the new forms of life 
 had appeared, in spite of similar precautions, in solutions containing 
 mere mineral or saline constituents. 
 
250 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 primarily indicated by Heterogema, it seems to us that 
 all the necessities of the case will be met by the 
 introduction of the one new term c Archebiosis.' This 
 will permit the limitation of the word c Heterogenia* (or 
 c Heterogenesis '), to the sense originally given to it in 
 Burdach's definition, and, as we have seen, to the sense 
 in which it has almost invariably been employed l . 
 
 It is a matter of altogether secondary importance 
 whether the individualisation of the portion of the 
 matter of an organism (with power of independent 
 development) takes place during the life of the organ- 
 ism or after its death. As we have already seen, an 
 organism is an organic whole made up of a number of 
 partially independent living units. The death of the 
 organism we have compared to the arrest of motion in a 
 complex machine it does not at once entail the death 
 of the matter entering into its composition. There is a 
 
 1 The word ' Heterogenkse' was first used by Breschet in the article 
 'Deviation Organique,' in the first edition of the ' Dictionnaire de Medecine' 
 (t. vi. 1823). He divided monstrosities into four classes : (i) Ag^nfeses, 
 (2) Hyperg^nkses, (3) Diplogdneses, and (4) Het^rogenkses ; and these 
 he proposed to describe in detail in the article ' Monstruosite' This, 
 however, was never done ; the latter article being written instead by 
 Andral, without reference to Breschet's classification, which was never 
 accepted. In the second edition of the ' Dictionnaire de Mddecine,' the 
 article ' Monstruosite' was written by Ollivier, who, in an unfavourable 
 criticism of Breschet's system, called special attention to the unsatis- 
 factory nature of the division Heterogenkses, under which were included 
 conditions which had no sort of relationship to one another, such as 
 albinism, extra-uterine fetation, displacement of viscera, &c. No objec- 
 tion, therefore, can be made, on the score of previous appropriation, 
 to the transition from ' Heterogenia ' to ' Heterogenesis,' which has 
 gradually been brought about. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 251 
 
 cessation only of the combined action which constitutes 
 the life of the entire organism, though its constituent 
 parts continue to live for a time, and gradually, at 
 different intervals, lapse into the condition of mere 
 dead matter. It is unimportant, therefore, in order that 
 heterogeny may occur, whether a certain portion of 
 the matter of an organism becomes individualised into 
 a distinct and independent living thing during the 
 life of such organism, or after its death, so long as its 
 individual parts continue to live 1 . When death has 
 once fallen upon these when they have lapsed into the 
 condition of mere not-living organic matter no further 
 organizing changes are, for a time, possible. The matter 
 must undergo solution, and must give up its solid form ; 
 
 1 M. Milne-Edwards, in his ' Le9ons de la Physiologic et de 1'Anatomie 
 Comparde' (1868, t. 8 ne . p. 251), thinks this difference one of more 
 importance, apparently ; for, though he does not believe in the occur- 
 rence of either, he proposes that the first process should be spoken of as 
 necrogenie, and the second as zenogenie. What we term Arcbebiosis, 
 he spoke of as ' agenetique mode d'origine ' of organisms. We have 
 endeavoured to show that this process has only very rarely been 
 included under the word ' H^terogenie ' which has almost invariably 
 been used to signify what M. Milne-Edwards needlessly includes under 
 the two words zenogenie and necrogenie. His statement, therefore, that 
 in place of the word zenogenie, he should have preferred ' le nom 
 d'beterogenie si ce nom n'avait deja recu une acceptation differente et 
 beaucoup plus etendue,' refers only to its having been used, as he 
 supposes, as an equivalent to all the processes which have been spoken 
 of under the head of ' spontaneous generation.' This, however, is an 
 erroneous supposition. The surrender of the word ' Hterognie ' is, 
 therefore, no more necessary than desirable ; and it is fortunate that 
 this is the case, because the word is already so deeply stamped into the 
 literature of this and other countries that any change would cause much 
 confusion. 
 
252 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 and then, if new living things appear, we have no longer 
 to do with Heterogeny, but rather with Archebiosis. 
 
 As to the various modes in which Heterogeny may 
 occur, we will say nothing more at present than may be 
 found in the following table. Numerous variations 
 will be subsequently described. 
 
 Archebiosis 
 
 ORIGIN 
 
 OF 
 
 LIVING 
 THINGS. 
 
 (primordial ori- 
 gination). 
 
 From not-living ma- 
 terials. 
 
 Heterogenetic. 
 
 f I . From a portion of 
 the living matter of 
 a pre-existing or- 
 ganism, (a) After its 
 death, (b) Before its 
 death. 
 
 2. By a molecular me- 
 tamorphosis of the 
 matter of an entire 
 
 Reproduction organism, 
 
 (from pre-exist- < 3. By the metamor- 
 
 ingliving things). phosis and fusion of 
 
 many minute or- 
 ganisms. 
 
 [.Indirect. Cases of 
 ' alternate' or cycli- 
 cal generation l . 
 
 Homogenetic. | 2. Direct. Continuous 
 development into 
 the likeness of its 
 parent. 
 
 Having briefly indicated the nature of the problems 
 which require to be carefully discriminated from one 
 another, we will now, before enquiring into the possi- 
 bility of Archebiosis taking place in the present phase 
 of the earth's history, briefly enumerate some of the 
 different opinions which have been expressed by earlier 
 writers on the subject of c spontaneous generation.' 
 
 1 These are the cases for which Mr. Herbert Spencer has appropriated 
 the term ' Heterogenesis ' (see 'Principles of Biology/ vol. i. p. 210). The 
 above arrangement would, we think, meet his requirements. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 253 
 
 Aristotle believed in the c spontaneous ' origination 
 of eels and other fish out of the slimy mud of rivers 
 and marshes; also that certain insects took origin 
 from the vernal dew on plants; and that lice were 
 spontaneously engendered in the flesh of animals. 
 He believed also that animals might proceed from 
 vegetables that the caterpillars of certain butterflies, 
 for instance, were actually the products of the plants 
 upon which they feed. Some of these beliefs were 
 echoed by Lucretius l and Ovid more than two hundred 
 years later. When the latter of these poets had de- 
 scribed the means adopted by Deucalion and Pyrrha 
 for repeopling the world after the deluge how the 
 backwardly-thrown stones, the bones of mother earth, 
 grew into human beings he thus accounts for the 
 origin of all the lower living things : 
 
 ' Csetera diversis tellus animalia formis 
 Sponte sua peperit, postquam vetus humor ab igne 
 Percaluit Soils, coenumque udseque paludes 
 Intumuere sestu : fecundaque semina rerum 
 Vivaci nutrita solo, ceu matris in alvo, 
 Creverunt, faciemque aliquam cepere morando. 
 Sic, ubi deseruit madidos septemfluus agros 
 Nilus, et antique sua flumina reddidit alveo, 
 .ffithereoque recens exarsit sidere limus ; 
 Plurima cultores versis animalia glebis 
 Inveniunt, et in his qusedam modo coepta per ipsum 
 Nascendi spatium, quaedam imperfecta, suisque 
 Trunca vident numeris : et eodem corpore ssepe 
 Altera pars vivit, rudis est pars altera tellus 2 .' 
 
 1 De Rerum Natura,' lib. v. 793. 
 
 8 This passage (Metamorph. bk. i. 416-429) has been thus translated 
 by Dryden : 
 
254 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 Such an origin for various kinds of animals was also 
 referred to by Diodorus Siculus and by Plutarch the 
 soil of Egypt, and the bed of the Nile in particular, 
 being more especially alluded to as the seat where such 
 marvels had been observed. Ovid, moreover, speaks of 
 bees originating in the putrefying flesh of a bull. 
 
 These old and crude notions as to the possibility of 
 the new evolution of complex and highly organized 
 animals out of decaying organic, and even out of in- 
 organic materials, survived till far on into the middle 
 ages. The influence of the teachings of Aristotle was 
 still all-powerful in such subjects. What he had 
 affirmed, multitudes implicitly believed for many 
 centuries. 
 
 The transition from the ancient to the modern 
 popular view, was initiated by that illustrious phy- 
 
 ' The rest of animals from teeming earth 
 Produc'd, in various forms receiv'd their birth. 
 The native moisture, in its close retreat 
 Digested by the sun's zetherial heat 
 As in a kindly womb, began to breed, 
 Then swell'd and quicken'd by the vital seed. 
 And some in less, and some in longer space, 
 Were ripen'd into form and took a several face. 
 Thus when the Nile from Pharian fields, is fled, 
 And seeks, with ebbing tides, his ancient bed, 
 The fat manure with heav'nly fire is warm'd: 
 And crusted creatures, as in wombs, are formed; 
 These, when they turn the glebe, the peasants find. 
 Some rude, and yet unfinished in their kind. 
 Short of their limbs, a lame imperfect birth; 
 One half alive, and one of lifeless earth.' 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 255 
 
 sician and biologist, William Harvey, the discoverer 
 of the circulation of the blood. The modern theory 
 of development (Epigenesis) dates from a celebrated 
 treatise by Harvey, entitled Exercitationes de Gene- 
 ratlone Animal'mm , and he also is commonly believed 
 to have taught the doctrine of the continuity of Life 
 on our globe, as opposed to views concerning its de 
 novo origination. But although, apparently, a dis- 
 believer in the doctrine that living things could take 
 origin from not-living materials (Archebiosis), Harvey 
 was a firm believer in Heterogenesis. On this subject 
 Burdach said 1 : c The rallying-cry of the adversaries 
 of spontaneous generation is the following sentence, 
 resting upon classical authority : omne vivum ex wo. 
 But they can only quote this sentence in support of 
 their opinion by neglecting the spirit and fixing merely 
 upon the letter of what was said. Valentin has 
 already called attention to the fact that Harvey him- 
 self, far from wishing to deny thereby all spontaneous 
 generation, used the word cc egg" as a general term to 
 designate a substance capable of germinating that is 
 to say, for every kind of matter which develops immedi- 
 ately into an organised body and that, consequently, 
 he extended this denomination even to the substance 
 called cc primordial mucus 2 ." 3 It seems quite certain, 
 from many passages in Harvey's writings, that he was 
 
 de Physiologic,' 2nd edition, 1837, t. i. p. 10. 
 2 This is the name given by Burdach to the pellicle which forms on 
 organic infusions. 
 
256 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 still a believer in Heterogenesis \ though it is some- 
 what doubtful whether he had rejected the old notions 
 as to the direct origin of the living from the not-living. 
 Although grave doubts may be entertained, therefore, as 
 to the propriety of expressing Harvey's doctrine by the 
 phrase omne vivum ex o<vo^ it is not even altogether free 
 from doubt whether the modification suggested by 
 M. Milne - Edwards, omne <ut*vum ex vivo, really em- 
 bodies the notion taught by Harvey. In illustration 
 of this difficulty, we need only quote the following 
 general statement made by Harvey in summing up his 
 doctrines 2 : c His autem omnibus (sc. animalibus et 
 stirpibus) . . . sive sponte, sive ex aliis, sive in aliis, 
 vel partibus, vel excrementis eorum putrescentibus, 
 
 oriantur id commune est^ ut ex principio v'wente 
 
 gignantur, adeo ut omnibus viventibus primordium insit 
 
 ex quo et a quo proveniant Diversa scilicet 
 
 diversorum viventium primordia; pro quorum vario 
 discrimine alii atque alii sunt generationis animalium 
 modi, qui tamen omnes in hoc uno conveniunt, quod 
 a primordio vegitali, tanquam e materia efficienti 
 virtute dotata, oriantur: differunt autem, quod prim- 
 ordium hoc vel sponte et casu erumpat, vel ab alio 
 praeexistente tanquam fructus proveniant.' Whilst 
 every living thing, therefore, is said to derive its im- 
 mediate origin from a c living principle,' Harvey also 
 
 1 Attention was again prominently called to this fact in 1865, by M. 
 Pouchet. 
 
 2 Loc. cit. p. 270. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 257 
 
 thought that this c primordium' might arise c sponte 
 et casu,' so that he can scarcely be said to have been 
 a strict believer in the continuity of Life. 
 
 The first adversary who seriously attacked the old 
 and then accepted doctrines was Redi, a Florentine 
 physician, who, in 1638, announced and demonstrated 
 before one of the learned academies, of which he was 
 a member, that the maggots which appear in putrefying 
 flesh are deposited by flies, and are not engendered, as 
 had been generally 1 supposed, in the flesh itself. This 
 demonstration gave rise to much discussion at the time, 
 and undoubtedly shook the faith of many in the truth 
 of the old doctrines. But even Redi himself, it ap- 
 pears, rather attempted to disprove some alleged cases 
 of c spontaneous generation/ than to disprove the whole 
 doctrine. He inclined to the belief that parasites were 
 produced from a modification of the substance of the 
 
 1 The Rev. M. J. Berkeley has lately called attention to the fact that 
 Homer was fully aware of the real origin of the larvae which appear in 
 putrefying carcases. In Iliad xix. 23-27 there occurs the following 
 passage : 
 
 dAAd fj.a\' alvws 
 
 AfiSoj (Mrj ftoi To<f>pa "MevoiTiov d\KifJ.ov vlov 
 Mufat Ka58vffai Kara x a ^ KOT ^' I 
 Eu\as fjyfivcavrat, dfiteiffauffi 
 *E/f 8' alwv irctparai Kara 8e 
 
 Which is thus rendered in the late Lord Derby's translation : 
 
 ' Yet fear I for Menoetius' noble son, 
 Lest in his spear-inflicted wounds the flies 
 May gender worms, and desecrate the dead, 
 And, life extinct, corruption reach his flesh.' 
 S 
 
258 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 animal in which they were found. And, similarly, he 
 believed that the grubs which are to be met with 
 in the galls of plants, are produced by a modification 
 of the living substance of the plant these galls being, 
 in fact, as he thought, organs destined to produce such 
 animals '. In 1745, Needham, who was shortly after- 
 wards elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Lon- 
 don, came forward with much additional evidence in 
 favour of the doctrine of c spontaneous generation/ and 
 affirmed that, if the mere putrefaction of meat could 
 not of itself engender insects, as Redi had shewn, it 
 could at least give origin to myriads of microscopic 
 animalcules. Four years after the publication of Need- 
 ham's researches, the great naturalist Buffon expounded 
 his views 2 concerning 'organic molecules,' and the uni- 
 versal origination of the lowest forms of animal life, 
 by a process answering to what was termed c spon- 
 taneous generation/ He said : c There are, perhaps, 
 
 1 'Esperienze intorno alia Generazione degl' Insetti,' p. 129. Redi 
 was therefore a partial believer in the doctrine which we now name 
 Heferogenesis. According to this doctrine, as taught by Burdach and 
 others, strange living things might be generated from the matter of 
 pre-existing living beings, both during their life and after their death. 
 In the opinion of Redi, however, such a process could only take place 
 whilst the parent organism was living (Loc. cit. p. 14). It will after- 
 wards be more fully seen that this is quite an unimportant limitation, 
 because it is one of a purely arbitrary nature, based upon the imperfect 
 knowledge of the time. We now know that the constituent elemental 
 parts of one of the higher organisms may continue to live long after the 
 organism as a whole is dead. 
 
 2 These will be referred to more fully in a subsequent chapter. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 259 
 
 as many living things, both animal and vegetable, which 
 are produced by the fortuitous aggregation of "mole- 
 cules organiques," as there are others which reproduce 
 themselves by a constant succession of generations/ 
 But it was the experiments of Needham, more espe- 
 cially, that aroused one who was for a long time the 
 most celebrated opponent of these doctrines. The re- 
 nowned Abbe Spallanzani soon took up the question, 
 and entered into a controversy with Needham on the 
 subject. He maintained that the air of our atmosphere 
 bears with it everywhere the germs of infusorial ani- 
 malcules and of other organic forms, and that Needham 
 had not taken sufficient account of this fact in his 
 experiments. In this view he was supported by the 
 fantastic assumptions of Bonnet, and their doctrine 
 since known by the name of ' Panspermism' has re- 
 ceived the most powerful support from Pasteur and 
 others in our own times. The questions in dispute 
 could not be settled by these two champions, and suc- 
 cessive advocates were continually springing up in 
 favour of one or other of the adverse doctrines till 
 the commencement of our own century. Two of the 
 most famous of them, Gleichen and Otho F. Muller, 
 were dissentients from the doctrines of Bonnet and 
 Spallanzani. A little later Treviranus made known an 
 important fact in favour of the doctrine of heterogeny, 
 to the effect that the species of animalcules found in 
 the infusions varied with, and seemed to depend upon, 
 minute differences in the nature of the infusions them- 
 
 s 2 
 
260 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 selves. In 1809 appeared the ' Philosophic Zoologique' 
 of Lamarck, in which he expressed himself strongly in 
 favour of the spontaneous origination of Life declaring 
 that matter was continually changing, not only in regard 
 to its states of combination, but also changing in its 
 nature that it was now passing from the living state 
 into a lifeless one, and now again assuming the forms 
 and properties of living matter under the combined and 
 mystic influence of heat, light, electricity, and moisture. 
 c These transitions/ he said, c from life to death and 
 from death to life, evidently form part of an immense 
 circle of all kinds of changes to which, in the course 
 of time, all physical substances are submitted.' But 
 such a mode of origin was only possible, as he thought, 
 for the lowest kinds of living things. This is expressed 
 in the following passage, which he also prints in 
 italics : c La nature a Paide de la chaleur, de la lumiere^ 
 de F electricite^ et de Fkumidite^ forme des generations spon- 
 tanees ou directes a Pextremite de cha^ue regne des corps 
 vivants, ou se trouvent les plus simples de ces corps. 3 Soon 
 afterwards, two philosophers, Cabanis and Oken, also 
 declared their belief in the possibility of a new evolu- 
 tion of life out of dead inanimate matter. According 
 to Oken, c the animal body is only an edifice of mo- 
 nads, 3 and c putrefaction is nothing more than the dis- 
 aggregation of the monads, and a return to the primi- 
 tive condition of the animal kingdom.' Then fol- 
 lowed other distinguished naturalists, amongst whom we 
 may mention Bory St. Vincent, Bremser, Tiedemann, 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 2:6' I 
 
 J. Miiller, Dujardin, and Burdach, who were all more or 
 less in favour of the doctrines of heterogeny. These 
 views received their fullest and most complete expo- 
 sition, however, from the last whom we have men- 
 tioned. In his well-known work, Burdach gave a some- 
 what detailed account of his views on that primordial 
 mode of generation to which he first attached the name 
 c generatio heterogenia.' But like those of his pre- 
 decessors and fellow-countrymen, Bremser and Tie- 
 demann, his views were of a retrograde description, 
 when compared with those of Lamarck. He no longer 
 limited the possibility of such a mode of origin to the 
 lowest members of the animal and the vegetable king- 
 doms, but also contended that certain worms, insects, 
 Crustacea, and even fish might in this way appear upon 
 the scene without grdinary parentage. 
 
 After him, however, came Pineau in 1845, who de- 
 clared that he had actually watched, step by step, the 
 heterogenetic origin and development of two ciliated 
 infusoria Monas lens and a Vortnella and also of a 
 microscopic fungus Penicillium glaucum. This was the 
 first announcement of a kind of evidence altogether 
 new based upon actual observation rather than upon 
 experimental inference. 
 
 Advocates of the opposite or panspermic doctrine, 
 however, were abundant enough also during the first 
 half of the present century : amongst the most distin- 
 guished of these must figure the names of P. Gervais, 
 Schwann, Schultze, and Ehrenberg. The latter, in his 
 
262 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 remarkable c Memoire sur le developpement et la duree 
 de la vie des infusoires,' endeavoured to establish the 
 fact that the generation of infusoria takes place normally 
 by means of eggs, and that their multiplication by this 
 process, in combination with that by fission, was suffi- 
 cient to account for their numbers in organic infusions. 
 Schultze and Schwann, however, sought to undermine 
 the position of the heterogenists by adducing experi- 
 mental proofs in support of the panspermic doctrine. 
 Schultze alleged that no organisms of any kind were 
 produced in a fermentable solution which had been 
 raised to a temperature of 212 F., provided the air 
 which was allowed access to this fluid had been pre- 
 viously made to traverse concentrated sulphuric acid, 
 so as to free it from all possible germs ; and Schwann 
 stated that the experiments were, with certain reser- 
 vations *, marked by the same sterility when calcined 
 or highly heated air only was allowed access to the 
 vessel containing the previously boiled solution of 
 organic matter. These assertions, which have been 
 subsequently disproved, had an immense influence at 
 the time against the doctrine of heterogeny. 
 
 Though in the intervening years the subject was still 
 worked at from time to time, yet almost a new epoch 
 in the controversy may be said to have commenced 
 
 1 His results were conflicting and contradictory whilst dealing with 
 materials which underwent the alcoholic fermentation. Sometimes 
 organisms were to be met with in such solutions in spite of all his 
 precautions. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 263 
 
 about twelve years ago. Since this time, and in France 
 more especially, the truth or falsity of the doctrine of 
 c spontaneous generation ' has formed the subject of a 
 most vigorous discussion. Its renewal was initiated in 
 1858 by the communication of a paper by M. Pouchet 
 to the Academic des Sciences of Paris, entitled c Note 
 sur des Proto-organismes vegetaux et animaux nes 
 spontanement dans Fair artificiel et dans le gaz oxy- 
 gene/ The views and experiments of M. Pouchet 
 were warmly repudiated by men so distinguished as 
 MM. Milne-Edwards, de Quatrefages, Claude Bernard, 
 Dumas, Payen, and Lacaze Duthiers. Nevertheless, 
 Professor Mantegazza very shortly afterwards also com- 
 municated to the Academy of Sciences the results of 
 his researches upon the generation of infusoria, which 
 he had previously laid before an Italian academy in 
 1852. The conclusions at which he had arrived agreed 
 almost perfectly with those of M. Pouchet- and in 
 the following year the latter published his treatise on 
 c Hete'rogenie ] ,' in which much new matter was added 
 in support of his doctrines. But it would be in vain 
 for us now to attempt to follow out all the intricacies 
 of the discussions which have taken place since this 
 time 2 . Many of the most interesting points will be 
 
 1 To this treatise we must refer those also who desire a more com- 
 plete historical sketch than we have deemed it necessary to give. 
 
 2 This has been attempted by M. Pennetier, in a work entitled ' L'Ori- 
 gine de la Vie,' which, in addition to a sketch of the later stages of the 
 controversy up to the year 1869, contains a very complete list of works 
 and papers on the whole subject, arranged in chronological order. 
 
264 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE, 
 
 alluded to in our succeeding chapters though others 
 will scarcely be referred to, as we wish to narrow 
 the question in dispute down to its simplest issues. 
 We will, now, only state that early in the following 
 year an accomplished chemist, M. Pasteur, entered the 
 field, and henceforth became the most prominent ob- 
 jector to the doctrines of heterogeny. Although many 
 others have taken part in the contest, still it was, for 
 a long time, in the main carried on between M. Pasteur 
 on the one hand (backed by the immense moral support 
 of the French Academy) and by MM. Pouchet, Joly, 
 and Musset, on the other. Most valuable experimental 
 evidence was, however, adduced in 1862 in support 
 of the possibility of the origin of living things from 
 not-living matter, by Professor Jeffries Wyman of 
 Cambridge, U. S. } and in 1 868 by Professor Cantoni 
 of Pavia. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MODE OF ORIGIN OF PRIMORDIAL LIVING THINGS I 
 NATURE OF PROBLEM. 
 
 Changes which occur in an Organic Infusion. Evolution of Gas. 
 Plastide-particles and Bacteria. Formation of ' Pellicle.' Mode 
 of formation of Bacteria. Views as to their nature. Different 
 kinds of Bacteria and allied organisms Vibriones, Leptoihrix, and 
 Spirillum. Composition of ' proligerous pellicle.' Views of Cohn 
 and Pouchet. Sometimes no ' pellicle' forms, only turbidity, flocculi, 
 or deposit. Mode of origin of Torula. Views of Hallier. Micro- 
 cocci, cryptococci, and arthrococci. Their mutual relations to one 
 another and to Fungi. Nature and mode of origin of Sarcina. 
 Development of Fungus ' spores.' Doubt as to mode of origin of 
 these forms. Useless to look in Air for germs of Bacteria. Mode 
 of appearance of these in thin films of fluid. Only two explanations 
 possible. Origin either germless or from invisible germs. Existence 
 of latter must not be recklessly postulated. Similar problem in case 
 of origin of Crystals. Statical and dynamical aggregates. Solution 
 of problem concerning Crystals. Mr. Rainey's observations. Micro- 
 scopical evidence similar in both cases. This can neither confirm 
 nor invalidate the supposition as to invisible germs, crystalline or 
 living. The existence of both equally hypothetical. 
 
 WHEN a fluid containing an organic substance in 
 solution is allowed to remain in contact with 
 air during moderately warm * weather, it soon undergoes 
 
 1 Fermentation usually ceases in an organic solution when the tem- 
 perature falls to about 45 F. ; and it is interesting to find that the poetic 
 imagination of Ovid had, by a kind of happy guess, led him to attach 
 
266 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 changes of a putrefactive or fermentative character. 
 A slight evolution or liberation of gas generally takes 
 place as the first obvious stage of the process 1 , and 
 after a variable time (hours or days, according to the 
 temperature, the nature of the solution, and other 
 modifying conditions) during which the infusion has 
 gradually become more and more turbid, a slight whitish, 
 though semi-translucent, scum or pellicle, that soon 
 thickens into a membrane, makes its appearance on 
 the surface of the fluid. This constitutes the c primor- 
 dial mucous layer' of Burdach, or the c proligerous 
 
 the same importance to the influence of solar heat in the evolution of 
 Life which modern science now allots to it. We have already quoted 
 one passage to this effect, but here is another : 
 
 ' Ergo ubi diluvio tellus lutulenta recenti 
 Solibus aetheriis, altoque recanduit aestu, 
 Edidit innumeras species.' 
 
 1 This may be well seen by adding to the fermentable infusion suffi- 
 cient isinglass to ' set' the fluid slightly. The bubbles of gas liberated, 
 are for a long time retained in the slightly gelatinous liquid, and may be 
 seen throughout its substance. Very contradictory opinions prevail as 
 to the order of appearance and cause of this gaseous evolution. M. Pas- 
 teur believes that the evolution of gas takes place after the appearance 
 and on account of the changes induced by the presence of organisms. 
 In his opinion all fermentations are brought about by the presence and 
 development of organisms (derived from the atmosphere) in the fer- 
 menting fluids. His opponents, however, maintain that the organisms 
 are results of chemical changes brought about by physical conditions 
 in the molecularly mobile and unstable matter of an organic infusion, 
 and that the gaseous evolution is dependent upon some of these ante- 
 cedent, or formative, chemical changes. The gases most commonly 
 liberated in fermentations and putrefactions are hydrogen, carbonic acid, 
 sulphuretted hydrogen, or ammonia. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 267 
 
 pellicle ' of Pouchet. On microscopical examination of 
 the fluid by the highest powers, as soon as it begins to 
 grow clouded, it will be found swarming with multitudes 
 of mere moving specks or spherical particles, inter- 
 mixed with short staff-like bodies, known as Bacteria, 
 which also exhibit more or less active movements. The 
 specks, that have hitherto been called c Monads 1 } or 
 'microzymes 2 ,' I shall henceforth term plastide-particles. 
 They are primordial particles of living matter, and 
 may be seen, with our present optical powers, to vary 
 between -^-oW" and ^ w " in diameter. 
 
 An examination of the c pellicle,' moreover, shows 
 that it is composed of a dense superficial aggregation 
 of such bodies as may previously have been found 
 diffused through the liquid. In addition to plastide- 
 particles and Bacteria, however, other low organisms, of 
 
 1 Much confusion results from the classifications of the older natu- 
 ralists, who (following O. F. Miiller) arranged under the same genus 
 (Monas) the mere moving specks above referred to, and also certain of 
 the most elementary and smaller of the Ciliated Infusoria of which the 
 so-called Monas lens is about the most abundant representative. It will 
 now be better, in order not to clash with modern usage, to follow the 
 example already set by others, and to restrict the word ' Monad ' to the 
 ciliated organisms which have lately been so well described by Cien- 
 kowski and others. 
 
 2 They were called Microzyma by B^champ, but I do not adopt this 
 designation, because it is too special. All minute living particles, whose 
 nature cannot be distinguished by the microscope, may well be desig- 
 nated by one generally applicable name. Minute off-castings from 
 white blood corpuscles are quite indistinguishable microscopically from 
 the living specks which appear in fermenting solutions, and yet it would 
 not be reasonable to call the former ' small ferments ' (microzymae). 
 
268 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 which we shall subsequently speak, are very often found 
 in both situations. 
 
 With regard to the mode of origin and nature of 
 Bacteria^ much difference of opinion still exists. They 
 have been supposed by some persons to result from the 
 coalescence and fusion of plastide-particles ; whilst 
 the longer and more developed bodies, called Vibriones, 
 have been thought to result from a similar union of 
 Bacteria. 
 
 This is the view of M. Dumas and of Dr. Hughes 
 Bennett, though it is doubted by Pouchet and most 
 other observers. It seems much more probable that 
 both Bacteria and Vibriones are only later stages in the 
 growth and development of certain primary plastide- 
 particles. Dr. Bennett 1 states that he has actually 
 seen the union above referred to taking place ; but, 
 judging from my own experience, I should say that it 
 is an occurrence of the most extreme rarity. During 
 a very long series of observations I have never per- 
 ceived such a coalescence. 
 
 The most discordant opinions have always existed 
 as to the nature of these Bacteria. Naturalists have 
 been in doubt as to whether they should be regarded 
 as independent living things of the lowest grade, 
 having an individuality of their own ; or whether, 
 rather, they should be looked upon as developmental 
 forms of some higher organisms either animal or 
 vegetal. There seem to be four principal views con- 
 
 1 'Pop. Science Rev.,' Jan. 1869. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 269 
 
 cerning them: (i) that they are animal organisms of 
 the lowest grade, having an individuality of their own, 
 as conjectured by Ehrenberg; (2) that they are, as 
 supposed by Hallier, of the nature of spores, produced 
 from, and destined again to develop into, some of the 
 simplest microscopic fungi ] ; (3) that they represent, 
 
 1 This view has been advocated by Dr. Polotebnow of St. Petersburg, 
 in a memoir presented to the Vienna Academy on June 3, 1869. He 
 thinks that Bacterium, Vibrio, and Spirillum are all developmental stages 
 of Penicillium glaucum. Prof. Huxley has lately (' Quart. Journal of 
 Microsc. Science,' Oct. 1870, p. 360) expressed opinions having a similar 
 bearing. It will be seen, however, from the words which are placed in 
 italics, that Prof. Huxley's views on this subject are, in part, mere sur- 
 mises, rather than positive impressions based on a complete research. 
 He says : ' With Torula, then, we find Bacteria in great numbers in this 
 quiescent state. Usually masses are to be seen adhering very closely or 
 tightly to one Torula cell or another, and such masses are very difficult 
 to separate from the cell to which they are fixed. // seems probable that 
 the Bacteria proceed in this way from the Torula cells, as the Torula 
 cells do from Conidia. // is probable that Bacterium is a similar thing 
 to Torula a simplest stage in the development of a fungus. By sowing 
 Conidia you also get Bacteria in abundance. You get the Bacteria 
 adhering like this (fig. 6, d) to the Conidia, and they are, / believe, 
 developed from the protoplasm of the Conidia just as Torulae are ; and 
 we may compare these two forms to the Microgonidia and Macro- 
 gonidia of Algae. They are all terms in the development of Penicillium.' 
 With reference to this theory, my own observations make me certain 
 that Bacteria may appear in solutions (thin films) where no Torula 
 exists. And more rarely, Torula cells may be seen in myriads in 
 infusions, not only without attached Bacteria, but even without any 
 discoverable Bacteria in the free state. I am quite familiar with this 
 appearance, as of budding Bacteria, in connection with Torulce and 
 certain mycelial filaments. I look upon it, however, as the exception 
 rather than the rule ; and even where it exists, it seems by no means 
 clear that the appearance is not due to the mere adhesion of some of the 
 previously free Bacteria, which, in such cases, are always to be found 
 co-existing with the Torula or .F^s-filaments. 
 
270 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 as Cohn 1 thinks, the later free-swimming stage in the 
 existence of certain algae, intermediate between Pal- 
 mell<e and Oscillator!* ; or lastly (4) that they are 
 the first and most common developmental phase of 
 newly- evolved specks of living matter, which are capa- 
 ble, either singly or in combination, of developing into 
 many different kinds of living things. 
 
 Ehrenberg's is an almost obsolete point of view. 
 Bacteria are no more animal than vegetal organisms 
 they are protists. And few even of the firmest believers 
 in the constancy of specific forms would now be in- 
 clined to maintain this doctrine with respect to Bacteria. 
 The opinions of Hallier and Cohn will be again referred 
 to in other portions of this chapter. 
 
 I have been compelled to take the fourth view, 
 and to look upon plastide-particles as the mere tem- 
 porary and initial developmental form of many or- 
 ganisms which may afterwards present distinct cha- 
 racteristics of their own 2 , though certain of these 
 particles may, through default of the necessary con- 
 ditions, never actually develop into higher modes of 
 being. But a very large number of them undoubtedly 
 give rise to the bodies known as Bacteria, by a direct 
 process of growth and development. These Bacteria 
 vary very considerably in size, and also in the 
 quality of their movements. Their sifce seems to 
 
 1 ' Entwickelungs-geschichte der Mikroscop.' Algen und Pilze, 1854. 
 
 2 Many of what may seem to be mere plastide-particles, are only 
 Bacteria seen endwise. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 271 
 
 differ according to the degree of putrescibility of the 
 solution, the amount of heat to which it has been 
 exposed., and other modifying circumstances. Those 
 which have been produced at the same time are often 
 pretty uniform in size, so that the different dimensions 
 are frequently more marked in different solutions than 
 between Bacteria existing in the same solution. They 
 are, in their most common form, straight, rod-like 
 bodies, varying in length from TT J^" to ^W" of an 
 inch ; and they generally present a joint or line in the 
 middle, dividing them into two equal parts. Their 
 movements are frequently of a more or less rapid, 
 oscillating, or irregularly-rotating character; though at 
 other times they may be seen darting from place to 
 place, either directly or in curves of various de- 
 scriptions. All gradations exist, in fact, between 
 movements which suffice at once to stamp them as 
 living things, and mere slow oscillations, the presence 
 of which alone may make us doubtful as to whether 
 we have to do with living or with dead organisms. 
 
 It should be distinctly understood, however, that 
 such Bacteria as are above described, with all their 
 differences in size, only constitute one variety of the 
 many lower forms of life met with in organic solu- 
 tions. The most varied and diverse forms of these 
 simple organisms exist, and the Bacterium already 
 alluded to is only to be considered as the most con- 
 stant and abundantly represented type. Instead of the 
 rigid, simple, or bi-segmented, staff-like bodies, we may 
 
272 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 see intermixed with these other bi-segmented bodies 
 less cylindrical in shape, and which, instead of being 
 perfectly rigid, have a flexible joint, so that the two 
 segments are freely movable. These bodies (about as 
 large as medium-sized, ordinary Bacteria) generally ex- 
 hibit the most active movements darting about from 
 place to place with rapid eel-like bendings of their body. 
 Other forms are not unfrequently met with in which 
 
 00 
 
 ,**.""' "" '* 
 
 FIG. 17. 
 
 Some of the most common Primordial Forms of Life : Bacteria, 
 Torula, &c. X 800. 
 
 the tendency to assume a bicellular shape is more 
 obvious though their bodies are similarly rigid, and 
 their movements are not more active tbian those ordi- 
 narily displayed by Bacteria. Whilst the common 
 Bacterium looks like a solid simple or bi-segmented rod, 
 these latter forms seem rather to be made up of two 
 juxtaposed, minute, cell-like elements, and in their 
 early stages present the appearance of m^re figure-of-8 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 2*73 
 
 particles. We also frequently see straight necklace-like 
 rows composed of from two to fifteen bead-shaped 
 bodies about the size of ordinary plastide-particles, 
 though having a more hollow appearance. These aggre- 
 gates are either motionless, or they exhibit a slow 
 vibratile movement 1 . Not unfrequently organisms 
 are met with which present an appearance somewhat 
 similar to that of the smaller vegetative cells of 
 the yeast-fungus commonly known by the name of 
 Torulg -, they are, however, more minute than these, and 
 seem rather solid than cellular presenting no evidences 
 of a nucleus. One spherule is frequently seen with a 
 much smaller bud-like particle attached, and they may 
 exhibit pretty active oscillations, though never move- 
 ments of a more extensive nature. In addition, there 
 are to be seen in fermenting fluids more than ordinarily 
 refractive particles, between which and minute though 
 obvious Fungus-spores or Torula cells all intermediate 
 forms can be detected. 
 
 These are the simplest organisms most frequently met 
 
 1 Such chaplet-like combinations are CQnsidered by Pasteur to be very 
 minute Torulacea, but I think they are more closely allied to Bacteria 
 than to Torula. They are almost invariably to be met with in urine in 
 company with other organisms when this is undergoing change. Indeed 
 Pasteur even says: ' Je suis tres port6 a croire que cette production con 
 stitue un ferment organise, et qu'il n'y a jamais transformation de 1'ur^e 
 en carbonate d'ammoniaque sans la presence et le developpement de ce 
 petit vegetal.' It develops in the body of the liquid and not specially at 
 the surface, where we frequently meet with a pellicle made up of bodies 
 of the kind next to be mentioned. Both these forms, however, may be 
 found in fluids which are altogether different in nature. 
 
 T 
 
274 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 with, though very many other modifications of form 
 may be encountered, and will soon become familiar 
 to those who work much at this subject. 
 
 With respect to the larger organisms known as 
 
 FIGS. 1 8. 
 Other Early Forms of Life from Organic Infusions. 
 
 a. Vibriones. 
 
 b. Different kinds of simple Leptothrix. 
 
 c. Spirilla. 
 
 d. Mycelial filaments of an incipient Fungus (Hallier). 
 
 e. Branched Leptotbrix or mycelial filaments (Pasteur). 
 
 Ftbriones 1 , these are two or many-jointed bodies, com- 
 posed of long rod-like segments bent at various angles, 
 which exhibit certain slow movements either a mere 
 
 1 These Vibriones of organic solutions are totally different organisms 
 from the minute Nematoid worms to which the name has also been very 
 improperly applied the so-called Vibrio tritici, for instance. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 275 
 
 bending of the body, or else an actual progression of 
 an undulating anguilluloid character. In size they may 
 vary from that of the largest 'Bacterium up to a body 
 -faf" in length by TT Vrro" in breadth, though there is no 
 definite limit to their dimensions. Notwithstanding 
 the observations of Dumas and Bennett, it cannot be 
 considered that these are ordinarily produced by the 
 aggregation of Bacteria. It seems much more consistent 
 with what may be observed, to believe that they arise 
 by the gradual development of simple Bacteria, which 
 from some cause unknown to us do not undergo 
 such frequent processes of fission, and possess a great 
 inherent power of growth. M. Davaine has also 
 described certain straight or slightly bent, though 
 motionless, bodies, closely resembling Vibriones as far as 
 size and general appearance are concerned, to which 
 he has given the name Bacteridia 1 . These are the 
 organisms met with in the blood of animals suffering 
 
 1 He looks upon Bacteria and Vibrio as genera which are closely 
 allied to the Oscillatorite, and thinks that these Bacteridia form a still 
 closer connecting link. Many of them are, in fact, even longer than 
 Vibriones, and therefore in point of size they do approach more closely 
 to the Oscillatorlce. M. Davaine says he has also met with many kinds of 
 Vibriones in the intestines of mammals and birds, as well as in salt-water 
 infusions, which have been invariably motionless throughout their whole 
 period of existence. He maintains that when those species which have 
 previously exhibited movements cease to manifest them, we must by no 
 means look upon them as necessarily dead : such organisms may pre- 
 serve an unchanged appearance for many days or weeks, whilst, when 
 they really die, they undergo disintegration in from twelve to twenty- 
 four hours. (See ' Compt. Rend.' 1864, and ' Gaz. Med. de Paris,' 
 1864.) 
 
2 7 6 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 from a certain pestilential disease 1 ; and although they 
 may, as M. Davaine imagines, exhibit close affinities 
 
 FIG. 19. 
 
 Oscillatoria and other simple Fresh-water Algae (Hassall 2 ). These 
 forms are known by the following names : 
 
 a. Lyngbya prolific a. 
 
 b. vermicularis. 
 
 c. Rapbidia viridis. 
 
 d. Tolypotbrix rufescens. 
 
 e. Microcoleus gracilis. 
 
 f. Oscillatoria aulumnalis. 
 
 g. splendida. 
 b. Spirillum Jenneri. 
 
 i. Nostoc commune. 
 
 to the low algae known as Oscillatoria^ they, on the 
 
 1 The ' Miltzbrand,' ' sang de rate,' or ' the blood,' as it is called in 
 different countries; and from the contagion of which the Malignant 
 Pustule of man is produced. 
 
 2 Selected from Hassall's 'British Fresh -Water Algae,' in order to 
 show the simple structure of the filaments. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 277 
 
 other hand, are just as closely related to Leptothrix, 
 and through these to the lower kinds of Fungi known 
 as c moulds.' Leptothrix filaments are also, for the 
 most part, quite motionless, and are often not much 
 thicker than Vihiones. They may be either straight or 
 undulating in outline, and perfectly plain or marked 
 by minute segmentations after the fashion of the 
 larger fungus filaments into which they sometimes 
 develop. In addition to the larger organisms already 
 mentioned, there are other rarer forms, belonging to 
 the genus Spirillum, characterized by the most active 
 movements, and in which the body is thread-like 
 though twisted into the form of a helix or spiral. 
 
 It will be easily understood that the nature of the 
 pellicle must vary very much in different solutions, 
 according to the varying proportions in which these 
 several kinds of organic units and organisms enter into 
 its composition. All are agreed, however, that plastide 
 specks and the more minute and simpler organisms 
 are the first things to make their appearance in pre- 
 viously homogeneous solutions; and that, later, whilst 
 these increase in number, there may gradually appear 
 Vibnones, Leptothrix filaments. Fungus-spores, or some of 
 the other lower forms of life. A very large propor- 
 tion of the organisms met with in organic infusions 
 are Bacteria, and their life and active movements 
 continue for a longer or a shorter period, the duration 
 of which is altogether uncertain. After a time, at 
 all events, they gradually tend to accumulate at the 
 
278 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 surface of the solution, and, becoming motionless, 
 to form a very densely aggregated but pretty uniform 
 layer of a more or less granular appearance, consti- 
 tuting the so-called c proligerous pellicle.' But even 
 the simplest pellicle is not constituted solely by the 
 mere aggregation of these bodies. As pointed out by 
 Cohn 1 , the organic particles are surrounded by, and 
 imbedded in, a thin pellucid and almost invisible jelly- 
 like stratum, which is best revealed, in a microscopical 
 specimen, after the addition of a drop of a dilute 
 aqueous solution of iodine. The gelatinous matter 
 is not coloured by this reagent, and is thus rendered 
 apparent. 
 
 The pellicle gradually continues to increase in thick- 
 ness, and owing to the additions being made from 
 below, its under surface frequently becomes very 
 irregular, from the presence of numerous bosselated 
 projections. As fast as the Bacteria and plastide- 
 particles accumulate, they appear to become surrounded 
 by the almost invisible gelatinous material above re- 
 ferred to. In this condition they are motionless, and 
 it has been assumed, without sufficient proof, by 
 Pouchet and most of the other heterogenists, that they 
 were also dead. Bacteria which are really dead, how- 
 ever, do not become enveloped in such a material. 
 The observations of Cohn, which I have frequently 
 confirmed, show that the Bacteria again begin to move as 
 soon as any of them may have been set free from the 
 
 1 'Entwick. Geschichte der Mikros. Algen und Pilze, 1854.' 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 2-79 
 
 gelatinous layer in which they had been imbedded 1 . 
 They do not, however, resume their active movements 
 of translation. They merely exhibit more or less rapid 
 oscillations, which, although quite compatible with life, 
 differ in no important respect from the Bro-wnian move- 
 ments which would be displayed by similarly-light not- 
 living particles. 
 
 It is the presence of the gelatinous material which 
 gives consistence to the pellicle, and makes the name 
 c primordial mucus,' bestowed upon it by Burdach, more 
 suitable than it would otherwise have been/ 
 
 1 Whilst agreeing with Cohn so far as this observation is concerned, 
 I by no means agree with him in his general estimate of the life- 
 history of the Bacteria. On account of their existence in the above- 
 named jelly, more especially, he came to the conclusion that Bacteria 
 . ere most closely allied to certain algse, composing the genera Palmella 
 and Tefraspora, which have a similar gelatinous stage of existence. 
 He considers that they have affinities with these on the one hand, and 
 with the Oscillalorice on the other. The gelatinous condition represents 
 the early stage in the life-history of Palmellce and Telrasporce. In the 
 later stages the cells previously contained in the jelly loosen them- 
 selves, and become independent, free-swimming organisms. Cohn thinks 
 that a similar order is observed in the life-history of Bacteria. He 
 believes that these appear first in solutions as small jelly-masses, which 
 gradually increase, unite, and grow into a uniform pellicle, out of which 
 the Bacteria ultimately appear as free-swimming organisms. The real 
 order is, as I think, precisely the reverse. At first they are independent 
 bodies, in the form of minute moving organisms scattered through the 
 fluid. After a time they gradually accumulate in the midst of the fluid, 
 or, more commonly, at the surface, and, becoming motionless, are found 
 to be imbedded in a pellucid jelly. What is the mode of origin of 
 this jelly whether it also merely accumulates at the surface, or whether 
 it is formed around and by the Bacteria in this situation nobody seems 
 to know, although the latter seems to be the more probable supposition. 
 It certainly is a most important constituent of the pellicle. 
 
280 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 The pellicle that forms at first is, however, not 
 always persistent : after twenty-four or thirty-six hours 
 it may sink to the bottom, whilst another gradually 
 takes its place which may prove more durable. It is 
 not very plain why some pellicles break up and sink 
 in this way, but it would seem very probable that such 
 an occurrence may be associated with an imperfect 
 secretion or formation of that transparent jelly which, 
 in ordinary cases, so much helps to give it coherency 
 and strength, and whose presence is probably as ne- 
 cessary in order that subsequent evolutional changes 
 may ensue. In some infusions or fermentable solutions, 
 however, no distinct pellicle is ever formed. Flocculi 
 may appear in the clouded liquid, which, after a time, 
 sink to the bottom of the vessel ; or, without the 
 formation of flocculi, a deposit gradually accumulates, 
 whilst the previously clouded supernatant liquid be- 
 comes more or less clear. 
 
 Occasionally it happens that the substance of a 
 pellicle may be almost wholly composed of minute 
 Torula cells Bacteria being well-nigh absent. I once 
 saw a very remarkable instance of this in an infusion 
 of turnip. In certain of the cases, also, in which no 
 distinct pellicle forms, the fine sediments or flocculi 
 which gradually collect at the bottom of the vessel 
 more especially when the infusion has an acid reaction 
 are found to consist either 1 wholly or largely of vegetating 
 Torula cells. 
 
 1 In two or three cases I have failed, after a long search, to find a 
 single Bacterium amongst the myiiads of Torula cells. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 281 
 
 Since only a casual allusion has hitherto been made 
 to the mode of origin of Torultf, it will be necessary 
 to speak more distinctly concerning this subject, and 
 also with reference to the mode of origin of other 
 forms of Fungus-spores in solutions in which previously 
 no such incipient organisms could be recognized. They 
 appear, as a general rule, to arise somewhat more 
 slowly than Bacteria, and their existence is often sig- 
 nificant of a lower or impaired fermentative energy in 
 the solution in which they occur. 
 
 As to the origin of ordinary Torula cells, their first 
 appearance may be watched in various kinds of 
 solutions, though I have found none more suitable for 
 this purpose than a weak solution of neutral ammonic 
 tartrate in distilled water 1 . During the past summer 
 I found that Bacteria and Torula cells soon appeared in 
 such a solution when placed in a flat-bottomed watch- 
 glass and merely protected by an inverted glass. After 
 twenty-four hours or more (according to the tempera- 
 ture), if the watch-glass be removed, without shaking, 
 to the stage of a microscope, and if the flattened portion 
 of the surface of the glass be scrutinized by a powerful 
 immersion lens 2 , numerous small but quite distinct 
 colonies of Torula cells may be seen scattered over this 
 area, the members of which are perfectly motionless 3 . 
 
 1 About 10 or 15 grains of the crystalline salt to an ounce of water. 
 
 2 I generally employ a %" objective, and frequently double its 
 ordinary magnifying power by the use of a long draw-tube, so as to get 
 an amplification of about 1000 diameters. 
 
 3 Other Torula cells, however, often exhibit distinct oscillating move- 
 ments. 
 
282 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 In these several patches there may be seen delicate 
 ovoid Torula cells of almost any size beneath g^Vo" m 
 diameter. The larger cells are united in little groups 
 of twos and threes, and budding from them may be 
 seen pullulating projections of different sizes. Separate 
 cells also exist, smaller and smaller in size, till at last 
 they cease to be cellular in form, and we see only 
 peculiarly refractive dots or specks less than -g^^V m 
 diameter. In other places a colony of Torula cells 
 seems to be about to grow up. Here there may be 
 seen merely one or two of the smallest bodies which 
 distinctly display the cellular form interspersed amongst 
 a variable number of the refractive specks of all sizes 
 down to the minimum visible stage. And when such a 
 patch is marked and watched "at different intervals 
 a crop of perfect Torula cells is soon seen to occupy 
 the same situation. The Torula cells do undoubtedly 
 multiply pretty rapidly by a process of gemmation 1 , 
 when they have attained their full size, and possibly 
 also they may increase by processes of fission during 
 their earlier stages. Accordingly, their distribution is 
 such as might have been expected amongst such self- 
 multiplying units. Very rapid processes of sub-division 
 cannot be recognized amongst ordinary plastide-par- 
 ticles and JZacterla^ although many persons assume that 
 such phenomena do take place 2 , and, moreover, when 
 
 1 M. Pouchet doubts the occurrence of this mode of multiplication 
 ('Nouvelles Experiences,' &c., 1864, p. 168). 
 
 2 I have actually seen the fissiparous division of a Bacterium only 
 on comparatively few occasions. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 283 
 
 these first appear in a homogeneous film of fluid, they 
 present a more or less uniform distribution. Torula 
 cells, on the other hand, can be seen to pullulate 
 and multiply, and being motionless, are observed to be 
 distributed, not uniformly but in groups or colonies 
 through certain fluids in which they did not previously 
 exist. As to the origin of the minute specks or 
 plastide - particles which subsequently develop into 
 Torula cells, two views may be taken : either (i), they 
 are the developed representatives of pre-existing, though 
 not-visible, particles which have been derived from the 
 spores or filaments of pre-existing Fungi, or (2), they 
 are the representatives of previously invisible particles 
 of living matter which have originated de novo. 
 
 The former is the doctrine advocated by Professor 
 Hallier, of Jena, whose views on this subject we may 
 now briefly epitomise. Such bodies as I have been 
 terming plastide - particles, Professor Hallier names 
 c micrococci.* He, also, regards them as minute par- 
 ticles of plasma, or naked living matter, though he 
 assigns to such particles a very definite mode of origin. 
 He believes them to be produced by the repeated 
 subdivision of the nuclei of some fungus-spores, .or 
 by the breaking up of the protoplasmic contents of 
 certain larger reproductive cells produced by fungi. 
 Although not recognized by other botanists, Hallier 
 regards the production of micrococci, after the manner 
 stated, to be a normal occurrence in the life-history 
 of many of the smaller fungi. Whilst disagreeing 
 
284 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 with him in this view, my own observations do 
 pretty closely accord with his, as to the future fate 
 of these so-called 'micrococci.' When introduced into 
 a fluid capable of undergoing alcoholic fermenta- 
 tion, they develop, according to Hallier, into bodies 
 resembling ordinary yeast cells or Torul* (named by 
 him c cryptococci'), whereas in an acid fluid, or one 
 which becomes acid by the establishment of a new 
 kind of fermentation, they assume an elongated form, 
 and constitute one variety of what are ordinarily termed 
 
 ' - v ' 
 
 FIG. 20. 
 The ' Micrococci' and ' Cryptococci' of Hallier. 
 
 Bacteria (or c arthrococci ' in the nomenclature of 
 Hallier). Micrococci and arthrococci are said to mul- 
 tiply by fission, whilst cryptococci increase by a process 
 of gemmation. By an elongating growth, accompanied 
 by the formation of septa at intervals, arthrococci are 
 said to be capable of developing into distinct fungi 
 of the Qldium type. Thus, according to the nature 
 of the fluids, ' micrococci ' develop either at once into 
 Torula cells, from which a mycelium and a perfect 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 285 
 
 fungus may result; or else into Bacteria, which also 
 may develop into segmented filaments, and thence 
 into distinct Fungi of a different type. These various 
 kinds of Fungi, thus resulting from the development 
 of mere micrococci (or plastide-particles), are supposed 
 by Hallier to be capable of reproducing micrococci in 
 the manner already indicated by a breaking-up and 
 individualisation of the protoplasmic contents of cer- 
 tain reproductive cells 1 . Thus he claims to have shown 
 that such particles, and Bacteria, are merely the ultimate 
 reproductive elements of Fungi; and he also tries to 
 show that they are the active infective agents in the 
 establishment of cholera and many other contagious 
 diseases 2 . 
 
 1 See Twelfth Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council, 1870, 
 p. 243 (' Introductory Report on the Intimate Pathology of Contagion'). 
 It will be seen on p. 245 of this ' Report' that Dr. Sanderson proposes to 
 include micrococci, arthrococci, other forms of Bacteria, and Bacteridia, 
 under the single designation ' microzymes.' This, however, we consider for 
 many reasons undesirable. ' Microzyme' seems to be too theoretical and 
 specific as a name for a simple particle of plasma, which may have nothing 
 to do with fermentation ; and we think that such rudimentary particles 
 ought to be distinguished by name from those which have assumed 
 some developed form. For this latter reason, therefore, we consider 
 Nageli's term, ' Scbitzomycetes,' even still more objectionable, since 
 according to De Bary, who adopts it, we are to include under this 
 designation ' forms of extreme minuteness, as yet insufficiently known as 
 regards their organization, which are represented by the generic names, 
 Vibrio, Bacterium, Zooglaa (Cohn), Nosema (Nageli), Sarcina, &c.' 
 ('Morphologic der Pilze,' Leipsig, 1866, S. 3.) 
 
 2 These claims and views have been carefully considered by Dr. 
 Burdon Sanderson, who says, in the before-mentioned Report, ' If it is 
 true that our common cereals are infected with an endophyte which 
 requires only certain very easily combined conditions of soil and tempe- 
 
286 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 In spite of all that has been said upon the subject, 
 however, no success has yet attended the attempt to 
 show that Bacteria usually derive their origin from 
 Fungi, although the concurrent testimony of many 
 observers tend to show that they may, after undergoing 
 various developmental phases, grow into Fungi. The 
 actual origin of the plastide-particles or micrococci, 
 therefore, still remains an open question. 
 
 What I have said concerning the appearance of 
 Torulte, and their derivation from minute particles, 
 seems to apply also to Sardna, though my observations 
 on this subject are less complete and satisfactory. I 
 am even doubtful as to whether Sardna is really a living 
 organism 1 . It was originally discovered by Prof. Good- 
 sir 2 , in fluid vomited by a patient suffering from disease 
 of the stomach. Subsequently it has been discovered 
 in other situations in urine by various observers, in 
 the lungs by Prof. Virchow, in fluid from the ven- 
 
 rature in order to produce nests of microzymes, and if such nests are, as 
 Hallier states, to be found in all contagious liquids, the fact can hardly 
 fail to have a certain significance in its bearing on the etiology of 
 infective diseases ;' but then he adds : ' At present there is no ground 
 for stating either the one or the other. The former is denied by all 
 botanists, the latter by all pathologists.' 
 
 1 See Appendix A., pp. ii v. 
 
 2 See ' Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journal,' vol. Ivii., 1842. The de- 
 scription then given was as follows : ' Sardna, plants coriaceous, 
 transparent, consisting of 16 to 64 four-celled square frustules, arranged 
 parallel to one another in a square transparent matrix. Species i. 
 Sardna ventriculi (mini), Frustules 16, colour light brown, transparent 
 matrix very perceptible between the frustules, less so around the edges ; 
 size 800 to loooth inch. Hab., the human stomach.' 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 287 
 
 tricles of the brain by Sir Wm. Jenner, in a gelatinous 
 stratum on the surface of old bones by Mr. Stephens, 
 and in a few other habitats 1 . It is believed by the 
 Rev. M. J. Berkeley to be some unusual form of one of 
 our common moulds, though great obscurity is acknow- 
 ledged to prevail on this subject, and nothing is cer- 
 tainly known concerning its subsequent morphological 
 
 FIG. 21. 
 
 Sarcina, from an Ammonic Tartrate and Sodic Phosphate Solution. 
 
 condition, or from what organism it has been derived. 
 Mr. Berkeley says 2 , c Every attempt to make it ger- 
 minate and produce its proper fruit has at present 
 failed.' I have met with it several times in closed 
 flasks containing ammonic tartrate and sodic phosphate, 
 though not in other saline solutions with which I 
 have experimented. It appears to be always produced 
 in slightly acid fluids, and it seems very probable that 
 
 1 For further particulars on this subject, see Dr. Tilbury Fox's ' Skin 
 Diseases of Parasitic Origin,' pp. 152-163. M. Pasteur ('Ann.de Chim. 
 et de Phys.,' 1862, PL n, fig. 27, K, and p. 80) has figured and 
 alludes to an ' Algue formee de cellules quaternaires, deposee sous 
 forme de precipitate,' upon the walls of a flask which had contained 
 '1'eau de levure non sucree,' and which, if not Sarcina, must be very 
 closely allied thereto. 
 
 2 ' British Fungology,' 1860, p. 69. 
 
288 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE . 
 
 the presence of phosphates or of phosphoric acid may 
 be also necessary for the development of this product. 
 The specimens found in urine are about half the size 
 of those which occur in the stomach ; the latter also 
 have a brownish tint, whilst those found in my saline 
 solutions 1 have been cojourless and more sharply de- 
 fined, though very variable in siz,e. 
 
 I have still to refer to another observation throw- 
 ing light upon the mode of origin of what appeared 
 to be distinct, double-contoured, Fungus-cells, of a kind 
 concerning which we shall have more to say here- 
 after. These again seemed to originate from minute 
 particles, which, a short time previously, had not been 
 visible in the fluid. The observation now to be 
 recorded is interesting also in other respects, and is 
 sufficiently suggestive as to the possible influence of 
 electrical conditions in promoting evolutional, or de- 
 velopmental changes. 
 
 Referring to notes made at the time, I extract the 
 following particulars: About eleven P.M. on the i4th 
 of June a small quantity of ordinary ammonic sesqui- 
 carbonate was dissolved in some apparently pure (though 
 not distilled) water, in a watch-glass. After solution, 
 and in about an hour's time, the fluid was carefully 
 examined with different microscopic powers, and lastly 
 
 1 They are not to be obtained at will. I have met with them about 
 eight or nine times, but have very frequently failed to produce them. 
 I have, however, never found well marked specimens except in a solution 
 which contained ammonia and a phosphate. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 289 
 
 the bottom of the watch-glass was scrutinised in very 
 many situations with an immersion T y objective. No 
 living thing of any kind was seen, though scattered 
 over the bottom of the glass were a large number of 
 tiny crystals, some larger and some smaller than ^^" 
 in diameter. Under the polariscope they gave the 
 most beautiful and varied colour reactions. The watch- 
 glass was then placed on a mantel-piece with a soft 
 surface (covered with velvet), a wine-glass, with its 
 stem broken off, was inverted over it, and this again 
 was covered by a tumbler, in order, as much as 
 possible, to prevent evaporation and keep out dust. 
 After twenty-four hours the bottom of the watch-glass 
 was again carefully examined with the T |-'' object-glass, 
 and no change was observable. There were the same 
 minute crystals perhaps rather more numerous than 
 before but no recognisable specks of protoplasm or 
 other trace of living things. The watch-glass was then 
 replaced as before. The next day (June i6th) the weather 
 was hot and extremely sultry. The temperature was 
 about 85 F. in the shade, and a thunder-storm, 
 which seemed imminent during the whole of the day, 
 began about 7 p. M., and continued till the early 
 hours of the morning of the following day. At about 
 11.30 P.M. of this 1 6th of June, I again examined the 
 solution in the watch-glass forty-eight hours after it 
 had been prepared. Then, what appeared to be Fur/gus- 
 spores were seen in all stages of development, scattered 
 over the whole of the bottom of the glass, and 
 
 u 
 
2 po THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 intermixed with the small crystals. They were quite 
 motionless, and mostly separate, rather than in distinct 
 groups. They varied in size from the minutest visible 
 speck, to a spherical nucleated body ^Vtr" in diameter. 
 No moving particles or Bacteria, were seen. Probably 
 
 ft OL a 
 
 o O O O O &i &\ (Jb\ 
 
 ^=^ 6 x3rv 
 
 FIG. 22. 
 
 Different Developmental Stages of Spores (?) found in an Ammonic 
 Carbonate solution. ( x 800.) 
 
 more than a thousand of these bodies were developing 
 in the one watch-glass each growing in its own place, 
 and showing no evidence of multiplication by division 
 or pullulation. In those whose dimensions did not 
 exceed T ^oV' * n diameter, no nucleus was visible, ; 
 though the larger of them displayed a distinctly vesicular 
 appearance. As these spores or spore-like bodies in- 
 creased in size, the thick wall became more and more | 
 manifest though it had a rather rough, granular ap- 
 pearance and a nucleus gradually showed itself within, I 
 which was also granular 1 . The next morning, after * 
 
 1 This appearance I had not unfrequently seen before, where spores 
 resembling these bodies had been developing in saline solutions, and it 
 had always strongly suggested the notion to me that such spores were 
 formed by an actual coalescence of granules and particles. Here, 
 however, there were no granules or moving particles present ; the spore- 
 like bodies were the only possibly living things, and it seemed quite 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 291 
 
 twelve hours, the spares (?) seemed to be much in the 
 same condition, though numerous small colonies (30 to 
 50 in each) of motionless 'Bacteria were now visible. 
 During the day the air was clear, and the temperature 
 lower (76 F.) ; and after twelve hours more (in the 
 evening) the Bacteria were found to have considerably 
 increased in number, and several of the spore-like 
 bodies were in a more developed condition their thick 
 walls being wholly or partially consolidated, and the 
 nucleus also more distinctly defined. In this condition 
 they perfectly resembled the undoubtedly living spores 
 which have been found, either alone or in connection 
 with mycelial filaments to which they have given rise, 
 in many ammoniacal solutions. The great majority of 
 the spore-like bodies in the watch-glass were, however, 
 still in the granular condition they seemed to have 
 made no advance whatever. On the following day they 
 were not quite so distinct some of them seemed to 
 be disintegrating, whilst none had undergone any 
 further development. The Bacteria, on the contrary, 
 had decidedly increased in quantity. After two days 
 more, minute Torula cells began to appear. These did 
 not rapidly multiply, as on other occasions, but soon 
 
 certain that they could not have originated after this fashion. They 
 obviously commenced as minute specks, and the granular appear- 
 ance manifested itself as long as the spore-like bodies were still 
 increasing in size. When growth stopped, consolidation began to 
 take place, and an even, double-contoured wall soon replaced that 
 which was before irregular and granular. (Compare with those in 
 Figs. 29 and 39.) 
 
 U 2 
 
292 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 began to develop into mycelial filaments. I.e. the growth 
 of each was continuous rather than discontinuous. 
 
 The thick- walled spores if such was their real; 
 nature had either developed or come into existence, 
 under the influence of the high temperature and the 
 disturbed electrical condition of the atmosphere 1 . And 
 whatever their nature, they seemed to be so much the 
 creatures of these conditions as to be unable to survive 
 under those which followed. 
 
 It seems certain, at all events, that these bodies re- 
 sembling Fungus-spores originated separately in different 
 parts of the solution. And neither have the real spores 
 which they resemble been observed to multiply either 
 by fission or gemmation : they have not even been 
 found aggregated together in a fashion which would 
 suggest the probability of this method of multiplica- 
 tion. The real spores have likewise been seen in 
 gradually diminishing sizes, down to the smallest 
 visible specks. 
 
 What, then, is the origin of the plastide-particles 
 which develop into Bacteria, Torulte, or other low forms 
 of life that so soon swarm in infusions of animal or 
 vegetable substances, and in certain saline or ammo- 
 niacal solutions ? Do they owe their origin to the 
 multiplication of germs pre-existing in the air, the 
 
 1 We may, perhaps, connect this possibility with the well-known fact 
 that milk, beer, and other fluids are so very prone to turn sour during a 
 thunder-storm, or whilst it is threatening. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 293 
 
 water, or the substance infused? or have they been 
 produced de novo, and without the agency of germs ? 
 These are the questions which most urgently press for 
 solution. Can Archebiosis still take place, or does all 
 Life proceed from pre-existing Life ? 
 
 I think it will be at once recognised, that it 
 would be altogether useless to search in the air for the 
 germs of plastide-particles, or of Bacteria. Even M. 
 Pasteur himself admits this. Speaking of the germs of 
 the Bacterium, c which shows itself in all sorts of in- 
 fusions, and which almost always appears before the 
 other Infusoria,' he says (Annal. de Chimie et de 
 Physique, 1862, p. 56): c This Infusorium is so small, 
 that ont could not distinguish its germ, and still less 
 affirm the presence of such germ, if it were known, 
 amongst the organised corpuscles belonging to the dust 
 in suspension in the atmosphere/ 
 
 No investigations as to what the air does or does not 
 contain can, therefore, throw much direct light upon this 
 question as to the mode of origin of Bacteria. Seeing 
 that the champion of the Panspermatists admits this, 
 we may for the present completely disregard this aspect 
 of the question, merely pointing out that probably more 
 than nine-tenths of the discussion and experimentation 
 which has taken place upon the question of the exist- 
 ence or non-existence of c germs ' in the air has been 
 almost wholly irrelevant, and without value for the 
 settlement of the main question at issue (see p. 297). 
 
 We must, then, have recourse to a microscopical 
 
294 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 examination of the solutions themselves in which the 
 plastide-particles, and the Bacteria or Torul*, appear. 
 The mode in which they make their appearance was 
 first studied by Mantegazza 1 , though others have sub- 
 sequently made similar observations. I have frequently 
 watched their appearance, during warm weather, in 
 portions of organic solutions hermetically sealed in 
 small glass tubes, or, more advantageously still, in thin 
 films of fluid beneath a covering glass, after it had been 
 cemented 2 to the glass slip, or after the fluid had been 
 otherwise prevented from undergoing rapid evaporation. 
 If a drop of a very strong infusion of turnip 3 be 
 taken (after it has been filtered five or six times 
 through the finest filtering paper), and mounted in the 
 
 1 Professor Mantegazza first watched the appearance of Bacteria in 
 a solution containing some fragments of vegetable tissue, enclosed in a 
 hermetically-sealed glass tube. On this occasion he watched the 
 solution assiduously for sixteen consecutive hours. At the expiration 
 of two hours, he saw the first particles appear in the solution, at first 
 simply exhibiting a slow, oscillating movement, but, after a time, darting 
 about with the rapid movements by which active Bacteria are cha- 
 racterized. Their number increased imperceptibly, till, at the end of ten 
 hours, the liquid had become quite cloudy. (See ' Giornal. dell. R. Isti- 
 tuto Lombardo,' t. iii. 1851.) 
 
 2 Taking care to employ a cement which has been previously ascer- 
 tained not to be hurtful to Bacteria, and to leave a minute aperture at the 
 circumference of the glass uncovered by the cement. Or a drop of the 
 fluid to be examined may be placed in an ordinary animalcule cage, and 
 the cover then pressed down so as to flatten the drop into a thin film. 
 
 8 This I have found to answer best. The water of the infusion should 
 not at any time be hotter than about 35 F. Sometimes the appearance 
 of Bacteria has been hastened by neutralizing the natural acidity of the 
 infusion by liquid potassse. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 295 
 
 manner above mentioned, it is not difficult with the 
 stage of the microscope in a horizontal position 
 to bring into the field of view a portion of the film, 
 which either contains no visible 1 particles, or only 
 a small number, such as can be easily counted. With 
 the slip resting on one of Strieker's hot-water plates 
 maintained at a temperature of 85-95 F., it may be 
 found that, in the course of three or four hours, faint 
 and ill-defined whitish specks, less than 5 - J 00 " in 
 diameter, make their appearance pretty evenly dispersed 
 throughout the field of view. These are at first almost 
 motionless exhibiting only the merest vibrations, but 
 no progressive movements. They gradually become 
 more distinct, assume a sharper outline, and after 
 a variable time some of them develop into distinct 
 'Bacteria 2 . At first they exhibit gentle oscillations and 
 tremblings only, though gradually they display the more 
 characteristic darting movements. The study of the 
 mode of origin of these primordial living forms is, in- 
 deed, facilitated and rendered much more certain by the 
 fact that they remain comparatively motionless for a 
 long time after their first appearance, and also continue 
 faint and much less refractive than when in the more 
 mature condition. Hence it becomes a matter of the 
 
 1 Working with a magnifying power of 1000 diameters. 
 
 2 The shortest time in which I have seen Bacteria develop in such 
 a film has been one hour and a half. More frequently, however, three 
 hours have elapsed, and sometimes longer still, before distinct Bacteria 
 have made their appearance in the field of view. 
 
296 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 greatest ease to watch their appearance in thin films of 
 fluid, and also to distinguish them from other extraneous 
 particles with which they may coexist. 
 
 But if, in a motionless film of fluid, multitudes of 
 living particles subsequently appear, which are them- 
 selves almost motionless, how can we account for 
 their origin? Three hypotheses present themselves. 
 It may be said (a) that they have arisen through the 
 reproductive multiplication of one or more germs or 
 organisms in the film of fluid which, though visible^ 
 had escaped observation. The difficulties standing in 
 the way of our acceptance of this explanation are these. 
 The film is motionless, and also those first appearing 
 particles which gradually come into view in portions 
 of it where no such particles had been previously 
 visible. No multiplication by fission or other means 
 can actually be observed to take place by microscopists 
 among the mere particles in question, though this ought 
 to be easily observable if it really occurred at the rate 
 postulated. And lastly, if the subsequent large numbers 
 are to be accounted for by the occurrence of a repro- 
 ductive process taking place amongst a few visible but 
 unobserved germs, these products of fission, being mo- 
 tionless, ought to be aggregated here .and there only 1 , 
 whilst as a matter of fact, no such arrangement exists 
 there is rather a uniform diffusion of the particles. These 
 
 1 This does actually take place in the appearance of Torula cells in a 
 watch-glass (p. 281), because, being also motionless, they do undergo a 
 rapid process of subdivision, even whilst they are of a very minute size. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 297 
 
 various difficulties appearing fatal to this explanation 
 of the mode of origin of the multitudes of plastide- 
 particles and Bacteria, we are left with only two other 
 possible modes of origin: either (b) they have been 
 developed from a multitude of pretty evenly dissemi- 
 nated invisible germs, or (c) they have been produced 
 de novo in the fluid by a process of Archebiosis. 
 
 Thus the solution of this great problem passes beyond 
 the reach of actual demonstration. Microscopical 
 evidence enables us to bring it to this stage now, and 
 it may perhaps never enable us to do more. It reduces 
 us to a consideration of two rival hypotheses, and to a 
 careful consideration of whatever evidence may be 
 forthcoming to influence us in our choice between these 
 two possible explanations. Nothing that can be said 
 about the abundance of recognisable atmospheric germs 
 can directly affect the solution of this problem. It 
 is one which, if it has to do with germs at all, has to 
 do with invisible germs. But invisible germs can have 
 only a hypothetical existence, and even to this they can 
 lay no claim, unless observed phenomena cannot be 
 explained without such postulation. We must not 
 forget the old and well-approved logical rule, 
 
 ' Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.' 
 
 The c law of parsimony' may well be quoted for the 
 benefit of those who would ruthlessly people the atmo- 
 sphere with such countless myriads of c entities 1 .' 
 
 1 Some of those who are so eager to demonstrate the prevalence of 
 ' germs,' are frequently carried away, by their enthusiasm, beyond the 
 
298 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 The problem which is now presented, concerning the 
 origin of these low organisms, so precisely resembles 
 that which has had to be settled in the case of some 
 crystals 1 , that it may be well to elucidate our subject by 
 this analogy. It will be necessary, however, in com- 
 paring the two problems, that the reader should look at 
 trie evidence only, with a mind as free as possible from 
 the warping influence of preconceptions. 
 
 Crystals are statical aggregations, whilst organisms 
 are dynamical aggregations 2 , which, from the evolu- 
 
 bounds of strict logic. It suffices to show by the agency of the electric 
 light or by some other means, that air and water contain myriads of infi- 
 nitesimally small particles, some of which are organic in nature, in order 
 that they may at once come to the conclusion that the organic particles 
 are ( germs. But, seeing the countless forms of life which exist upon the 
 surface of the earth, and how these are from moment to moment, during 
 life as well as after death, undergoing a molecular disintegration, it 
 would be strange indeed if the atmosphere, and water which has been 
 exposed to it, did not contain multitudes of organic particles, both large 
 and small. The great majority of such mere organic particles, however, 
 could have no reasonable title to be called germs. 
 
 1 The analogy between the two problems, as to the possible origin 
 of some crystals and organisms de novo in solutions, has been rendered 
 much more obvious since the discovery by the late Professor Graham, 
 that, when dissolved, the saline substance does not remain as such in 
 solution but that the acid and the base exist separately, and are 
 separable by a process of dialysis. When crystallisation occurs, there- 
 fore, we have a combination of molecules taking place similar to, though 
 simpler than, what may be presumed to take place in the genesis of a 
 speck of living matter. 
 
 2 This difference between crystals and organisms, which are in other 
 respects strictly comparable with one another, was clearly pointed out 
 by Burdach. In both cases, he says, " La tendance int^rieure a la 
 configuration existe avant sa manifestation. . . . Mais dans le cristal, 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 299 
 
 tionist's point of view, are supposed to take origin from 
 the recompositions occurring amongst colloidal mole- 
 cules. Colloids possess so strong an inherent tendency 
 to undergo change, that they were said by Professor 
 Graham to be endowed with properties which form 
 the basis of those manifested by living things. Matter 
 when it passes into the crystalline condition exhibits 
 properties of a certain kind; and when* it passes into 
 the living condition it exhibits properties of another 
 kind, to which we commonly apply the term c vital.' 
 Now the question in each case is, whether by mere 
 concurrence of certain physical conditions, aiding 
 and abetting the inherent properties of the matter 
 itself, some kinds of matter can fall into modes of 
 combination called crystalline^ whilst other kinds are 
 capable of falling into modes of combination called 
 living ; or whether, in each case, a pre-existing c germ' 
 of the particular kind of matter is necessary, in order to 
 determine, in suitable media, either of these modes of 
 combination. Are we to believe that crystals can 
 appear in no solution whatsoever without the pre- 
 
 1'activite' e'e"teint a moment meme ou il se produit ; il ne conserve 
 ensuite sa forme comme le caillot, que par sa seule cohesion, par 1'en- 
 chainement chimique de ses Elements, et il ne manifeste plus aucune 
 activite, tant que de nouvelles causes ne viennent point deranger 1'equi- 
 libre. Le corps organise au contraire, se maintient par une production 
 incessante, par la continuite des mouvements plastiques, par la perma- 
 nence de 1'antagonisme de forces qui lui a donn^ naissance. La per- 
 ennite ou la persistance de 1'activite nous apparait done comme 
 caractere de la vie." Traite de Physiologic, translated by Jourdan, 
 1839, t. iv. p. 129. 
 
300 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 existence in that solution of certain crystalline germs; 
 and similarly that living things can arise in no solution 
 whatsoever without the pre-existence in such solution 
 of living germs? The very mention of this question 
 in connection with the origin of crystals may seem to 
 some people to be quite absurd, because they have 
 always been in the habit of believing that crystals 
 could, and do, habitually come into being de novo, with- 
 out the agency of pre-existing crystals. But in spite of 
 the fact, that the majority of people are quite content 
 to believe that crystals originate in obedience to purely 
 physical conditions, and independently of pre-existing 
 c crystalline force ;' still, facts somewhat similar to those 
 which are to be met with in connection with the sister 
 problem, have induced some chemists seriously to ques- 
 tion the possibility of the de novo origination of crystals 
 in some supersaturated solutions. In support of this 
 statement, I need only quote the following passage from 
 Watts's Dictionary of Chemistry l : c This sudden crystal- 
 lisation, if not produced by cold, appears to depend 
 essentially on contact of the solution with small, solid, 
 perhaps crystalline particles ; for it is not produced by 
 passing air previously purified by oil of vitriol through 
 the solution, or by agitation with a glass rod previously 
 purified from dust by ignition. According to Vlolette 
 and De Gernez^ the sudden crystallisation is in all cases 
 induced only by contact 'with a crystal of the same salt, 
 possessing the same form and degree of hydration as 
 
 1 Vol. v. p. 349. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 301 
 
 the crystals, which separate out ; and in the case of 
 those supersaturated solutions which crystallise suddenly 
 on exposure to the air, it is due to the presence of 
 minute particles of that salt floating in the air. From 
 an experiment of De Gernez it appears that micro- 
 scopic crystals of sodic sulphate may be obtained by 
 passing air, even in the open country, through pure 
 water, and evaporating the water on a glass plate. 
 Jeannel, however, denies the necessity of contact with 
 the salt actually contained in the solution. He finds, 
 indeed, that a supersaturated solution of sodic acetate 
 may be made to crystallise by contact with any solid 
 substance (a piece of paper, for example), and a solution 
 of sodic tartrate by contact with a clean, dry, glass 
 rod.' Here, then, we have a veritable c germ ' contro- 
 versy referrible to crystals. I have been informed, 
 however, by Prof. Frankland, that even in the case of 
 sodic sulphate it has been shown that, under certain con- 
 ditions^ crystallisation can take place where no crystal- 
 line germ could possibly have existed. 
 
 The c germ' theory of the origin of crystals in 
 supersaturated solutions has, therefore, not only been 
 in existence, but has been overthrown; This has been 
 possible, however, only because it has been more easy 
 to show that a given set of conditions are inimical to 
 the existence of a crystal, than it has yet been to induce 
 people to believe that any given set of suitable experi- 
 mental conditions are incompatible with the existence 
 of matter in the living state. 
 
302 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 It is worthy of remark, however, that the germ con- 
 troversy concerning crystals can only be settled in the 
 minds of those who are content to accept the high 
 probability that the properties of any invisible portions 
 of crystalline matter would correspond with the proper- 
 ties which similar visible crystalline matter is known 
 to display. And it is this reluctance to admit an 
 equally high probability in the case of living matter, 
 which alone causes the sister controversy to continue. 
 Otherwise, the question as to the possibility of the de 
 now origination of organisms would have been amicably 
 settled long ago. 
 
 So far as evidence derived from microscopical exami- 
 nation can be adduced, moreover, it is able to speak 
 no more decisively concerning the de novo origin of 
 crystals, than concerning the de novo origin of or- 
 ganisms. In the elucidation of this point the valuable, 
 though insufficiently known, observations of Mr. Rainey * 
 come most opportunely to our aid. In ordinary cases, 
 it is difficult to watch satisfactorily with the microscope 
 the first stage in the appearance of crystals in solutions 
 containing crystallizable matter, owing to the rapidity 
 with which their growth takes place. This is one 
 point in which crystals are strikingly different from 
 organisms. The slower growth of organisms is, how- 
 ever, as Prof. Graham pointed out, quite in accordance 
 with the general slowness of colloidal changes. But, 
 
 1 ' On the Mode of Formation of the Shell of Animals,' &c. London, 
 1858. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 303 
 
 since Mr. Rainey's discovery that crystals are produced 
 much more slowly, and undergo very important modi- 
 fications in shape, when they are formed in viscid 
 solutions, the formation of these bodies has, in both 
 respects, become much more obviously comparable with 
 that of organisms. The appearance of these modified 
 crystals may be best watched after mixing solutions 
 of gum and carbonate of potash in the manner which 
 has been carefully described by Mr. Rainey. Owing 
 to the viscid properties of gum, a solution of this sub- 
 stance diffuses with difficulty, and hence, when brought 
 into contact with a solution of carbonate of potash, the 
 malate of lime of the gum only decomposes very slowly. 
 The insoluble carbonate of lime, instead of appearing in 
 its usual crystalline condition, is precipitated in the form 
 of globules resembling calculi. Mr. Rainey thus describes 
 what takes place when portions of the two solutions 
 are mixed under the microscope: c The appearance 
 which is first visible is a faint nebulosity at the line of 
 union of the two solutions, showing that the particles 
 of carbonate of lime, when they first come into existence, 
 are too minute to admit of being distinguished indivi- 
 dually by high microscopic powers 1 . In a few hours 
 exquisitely minute spherules, too small to allow of 
 accurate measurement, can be seen in the nebulous 
 part, a portion of which has disappeared, and is replaced 
 by these spherical particles. Examined at a later period, 
 
 1 Mr. Rainey generally made use of one of Ross's " object-glasses. 
 
304 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 dumb-bell-like bodies will have made their appearance, 
 and with them elliptical particles of different degrees 
 of excentricity.' (p. 9.) These modified crystals are, 
 therefore, not produced more rapidly than the lowest 
 living things appear to be in other solutions during 
 hot weather. The shapes of the products in the two 
 cases, judging from Mr. Rainey's figures, are also 
 remarkably similar. (See vol. ii. Fig. 41.) 
 
 Thus, then, the problem concerning the primordial 
 formation of crystals and of living things is essentially 
 similar in kind. Any difference in degree between our 
 present knowledge on these two subjects must not blind 
 us as to their similarity in nature. Plastide-particles 
 and ^Bacteria, are produced as constantly in solutions of 
 colloidal matter as crystals are produced in solutions 
 containing crystallizable matter. Crystallizable sub- 
 stances are definite in composition, and give rise to de- 
 finite statical aggregations j whilst colloidal substances, 
 much more complex and unstable, give rise on the 
 contrary to dynamical aggregations. These dynamical 
 aggregations, though they may at first make their ap- 
 pearance in the form of plastide-particles and Bacteria, 
 are, by virtue of the properties of their constituent 
 molecules, endowed with the potentiality of undergoing 
 the most various changes in accordance with the 
 different sets of influences to which they are submitted. 
 Respecting the origin of the first visible forms which 
 appear in either kind of solution, the evidence which 
 we possess is precisely similar in nature. If such 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 305 
 
 microscopical evidence does not enable us to get rid of 
 the doubt that the smallest visible specks of living 
 matter may have originated from invisible c germs' of 
 such organisms, neither does it any more enable us to 
 dispense with the supposition that the smallest visible 
 crystals may have originated from pre-existing invisible 
 c germs ' of crystals. The very existence of the one 
 set of invisible c germs 'is, in fact, just as hypothetical 
 as the existence of the other. Plastide-particles and 
 Bacteria we do know ; but concerning the existence of 
 invisible c germs/ of these we know just as little as 
 we do concerning the existence of invisible ( germs ' 
 of crystals. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE LIMITS OF 'VITAL RESISTANCE* TO HEAT. 
 
 Conflicting analogies bearing on the question of the Origin of Life. 
 Views on this subject likely to be influenced by wider philosophical 
 beliefs. Physical theories of Life quite harmonious with possibility 
 of de novo origin. Both crystalline and living matter may be 
 . supposed to originate by same laws as determine their growth. 
 Whether this does occur with living matter has to be determined 
 by experiment. Only one mode of solving the problem. Import- 
 ance of ascertaining limits of ' vital resistance ' to Heat. Previously- 
 existing evidence on this subject. Limits in dry air, and limits in 
 water. General unanimity as to destructive influence of boiling 
 water. Observations of Pouchet, Meunier, Wyman, and Liebig 
 upon the effect of lower temperatures. Brownian and languid vital 
 movements. Their significance and meaning. Occurrence of re- 
 production the surest test that Bacteria are living. New experiments 
 with inoculated ammoniacal solutions. Show that Bacteria, Torulae, 
 and their germs are killed in fluids which have been raised to 
 140 F. Or by lower temperatures, if exposure last longer. Crucial 
 nature of experiments. Almost similar results with slightly higher 
 organisms. Experiments of Schwann. Value of single, properly- 
 conducted experiment with positive result. These obtained by 
 Schwann himself, and by Pouchet, Mantegazza, Wyman, and others. 
 Also by M. Pasteur. Unfair way in which the latter argues on this 
 subject. Limits of ' vital resistance ' said to be higher in neutral 
 or alkaline than in acid solutions. M. Pasteur's conclusions and 
 assumptions. 
 
 SCIENTIFIC men are content to believe that crystals 
 may originate without the aid of pre-existing 
 crystalline matter, and it will remain for us, in sub- 
 sequent chapters, to show how far existing evidence 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 307 
 
 points towards a similar probability in the case of 
 organisms. There is, however, an obvious and fun- 
 damental difference between crystals and organisms, 
 which has had an immense and quite natural influence 
 in affecting the opinions entertained as to the mode 
 of origin of each. Crystals do not undergo a process 
 of c spontaneous division,' and reproduction is unknown 
 amongst them. How else could they arise, then, save 
 by a 'spontaneous' collocation of their atoms ? With 
 organisms and with living matter, however, the case is 
 wholly different. These are dynamical aggregates, and 
 the possession of a property of reproduction is their 
 fundamental characteristic. All the higher forms with 
 which we are most familiar do undoubtedly derive their 
 origin from organisms similar to themselves. Why 
 then should the processes with which we are so familiar 
 in the many not be applicable to all ? Why should we 
 not implicitly believe that the phrase omne vivum ex 
 vivo gives accurate expression to the law of nature ? 
 An analogical argument of so striking a nature could 
 not fail to arrest and enchain the attention of those 
 who, for other reasons, might believe or wish that the 
 dogma were true notwithstanding the fact that another 
 analogical argument speaks almost as strongly in favour 
 of the possibility of the de novo origination of some 
 organisms as specks of living matter. 
 
 General beliefs will, then, be brought to bear upon 
 the subject, and the views entertained upon this pro- 
 blem, as to the mode of origin of some organisms, 
 
 X 2 
 
308 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 will inevitably be influenced by the current doctrines 
 entertained concerning c Life' just as these notions, in 
 their turn, are held in subjection to, and are made to 
 harmonize with, higher philosophical or religious beliefs. 
 The influence of such general considerations is im- 
 mense, and they are only too apt, even unconsciously, 
 to warp the judgments of many of us in our attempts 
 to interpret facts. Then, too, living things manifest 
 such complex properties that the whole notion of Life 
 has been shrouded in mystery. Biologists at first could 
 not bring themselves to believe some cannot do so 
 now that the phenomena which living things manifest 
 are absolutely dependent upon the properties of the 
 variously organised matter entering into their com- 
 position. They were obliged to have recourse to some 
 metaphysical entity some c anima,' c archseus, 3 or c vital 
 principle' under whose directing influence the living 
 form was supposed to be built up, and upon whose 
 persisting influence many of the phenomena of Life 
 were thought to depend. The aid of no similar meta- 
 physical principle' has, however, been deemed necessary 
 in order to account for crystalline structures and pro- 
 perties. It was in the main conceded by most physicists, 
 and the doctrine remained unquestioned by biologists, 
 that matter of certain kinds might, by virtue of its 
 own inherent properties, aided by certain favouring 
 circumstances and quite independently of all pre- 
 existing germs fall into such modes of collocation as 
 to give rise to crystals. But, owing to the influence of 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 309 
 
 the theoretical considerations already mentioned con- 
 cerning the nature of Life, a similar possibility could 
 not easily be granted by many, in reference to the 
 origin of living things. Was it not held that the living 
 thing owed its structure or organization to the active 
 influence of a special and peculiar principle ? This 
 c vital principle ' was neither ordinary matter nor ordinary 
 force, neither was it in any way derivable from either 
 of these ; how then could it be supposed that the coming 
 together of matter of any kind could give rise to a 
 living thing ? The aggregate of properties, which we 
 designate by the word c Life/ were not supposed to be 
 dependent upon -to be, in fact, properties of the material 
 aggregate which constituted the living thing. Life was 
 presumed to be due to the manifestation of a something 
 altogether peculiar of a c vital principle,' which was 
 inseparable from living matter. Doubts, however, as 
 to the truth of this doctrine have gradually multiplied 
 and increased in strength. New means of observation 
 opened up new questions for solution, and the ever- 
 increasing strides of science have wrought the most 
 fundamental changes in our notions concerning Life. 
 Under the influence of the well-established doctrine 
 concerning Persistence of Force and more especially 
 since the clear recognition of the subordinate doctrine 
 as to the Correlation existing between the Physical and 
 Vital forces physiologists have now begun to recognise, 
 and most unhesitatingly to proclaim the opinion, that 
 the phenomena manifested by living things are to be 
 
310 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 ascribed simply to the properties of the matter as it 
 exists in such living things. No one has expressed 
 himself more decidedly on this subject than Prof. Huxley, 
 and he may fairly be taken as an exponent of the 
 modern doctrines on this question. He says l : < Carbon, 
 hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen are all lifeless bodies. 
 Of these, carbon and oxygen unite in certain pro- 
 portions and under certain conditions to give rise to 
 carbonic acid ; hydrogen and oxygen produce water ; 
 nitrogen and hydrogen give rise to ammonia. These 
 new compounds, like the elementary bodies of which 
 they are composed, are lifeless. But when they are 
 brought together under certain conditions they give 
 rise to the still more complex body, protoplasm; and 
 this protoplasm exhibits the phenomena of life. I 
 see no break in this series of steps in molecular com- 
 plication, and I am unable to understand why the 
 language which is applicable to any one term of the 
 series may not be used to any of the others. We think 
 fit to call different kinds of matter carbon, oxygen, 
 hydrogen, and nitrogen, and to speak of the various 
 powers and activities of these substances as the pro- 
 perties of the matter of which they are composed. . . . 
 Is the case in any way changed when carbonic acid, 
 water, and ammonia disappear, and in their place, 
 under the influence of pre-existing protoplasm^ an equivalent 
 weight of the matter of life makes its appearance ? . . . 
 
 1 Article on ' Protoplasm,' in the ' Fortnightly Review ' for February 
 1869. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 311 
 
 What justification is there, then, for the assumption 
 of the existence in the living matter of a something 
 which has no representative or correlative in the not 
 living matter which gave rise to it ?' 
 
 The reader's attention must, therefore, again be called 
 to the fact that our precise object is to ascertain 
 whether it is possible for the first particles of future 
 living matter to come together de novo^ and in obedience 
 to the same physical influences which are deemed 
 adequate to bring about its growth or increase ; or, 
 whether we are to suppose that the first particles of an 
 organism cannot be initiated apart from pre-existing 
 protoplasm, even though this protoplasm is believed by 
 a very large section of the physiological world to contain 
 no special and peculiar c force,' but to owe its qualities 
 entirely to the ordinary physical properties of the 
 elements entering into its composition. 
 
 The actuality of the process of Archebiosis, as against 
 the hypothesis of the derivation of some organisms 
 from pre-existing though invisible germs, can only be 
 established if it can be shown that living things are to 
 be met with in the fluids from hermetically-sealed flasks 
 which have previously been exposed to a degree of heat 
 adequate to destroy all pre-existing Life. This is the 
 kind of test which was proposed by Needham and 
 Spallanzani, and which has been accepted by all subse- 
 quent workers, including Pasteur, as the only one which 
 was capable of throwing light upon the problem 1 . Much 
 
 1 Though no one would suppose this to be the case from the mere 
 
3T2 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 discussion has taken place as to the means of closing 
 the flasks, concerning the degree of heat which it is 
 necessary to employ, and also as to whether the 
 organisms that have been found in such experiments 
 have been living or dead ; but, amidst all varieties of 
 opinion with regard to the several details, there has 
 been a general agreement that the question was only 
 to be settled in some such manner. 
 
 The question as to the limits of what M. Pouchet 
 terms c vital resistance' to heat is that which has 
 excited the greatest share of attention, and is the one 
 which is of most fundamental importance in this 
 enquiry } . 
 
 In spite of the very definite results, however, of ex- 
 periments carried on with the view of throwing light 
 upon the subject, it is one upon which the opponents 
 of c spontaneous generation' are most reluctant to 
 come to any decision. They seem ever ready to re- 
 pudiate the validity of the results at which they had 
 previously arrived,, as soon as experiments are published 
 tending to show that these results being correct or- 
 ganisms are undoubtedly capable of arising de novo. 
 
 perusal of Prof. Huxley's Inaugural Address before the British As- 
 sociation in 1870, which was destined to enlighten the public on this 
 question. 
 
 1 One of the latest writers on this subject, Professor Wyman, of 
 Cambridge, U. S., says : ' The issue between the advocates and the 
 opponents of the doctrine in question, clearly turns on the extent to 
 which it can be proved that living beings resist the action of water at a 
 high temperature.' American Journal of Science and Art, Sept. 1867. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 313 
 
 The positive evidence now existing on this subject, 
 however, which may be considered all the more reliable 
 because it has been partly built up and confirmed by the 
 panspermatists themselves, is of the following nature. 
 
 It has been established by most careful observation 
 that in dry air or in a vacuum, organisms are capable of 
 withstanding a notably higher temperature than when 
 they are immersed in fluid. According to the direct 
 observations of M. Pasteur, the spores of certain fungi 
 belonging to the family Mucedlne* seem to possess this 
 tenacity of life to a very great extent ; but even these, 
 he says, though they still remain capable of germinating 
 after having been raised for a few minutes in dry air 
 or in vacua to a temperature of 120 to I25C (248- 
 257F), lose this power absolutely and entirely after an 
 exposure for half an hour, under similar conditions, to 
 a temperature varying from 127 to I3OC (260- 
 266F). And the labours of the commission appointed 
 in 1860 by the Socie'te de Biologic (consisting of the 
 following members MM. Balbiani, Berthelot, Broca, 
 Brown-Sequard, Dareste, Guillemin, and Ch. Robin) 
 to enquire into the subject, led them to the conclusion 
 that the lower animals which were the most tenacious L 
 of life the rotifers, the c sloths/ and the anguillules 
 of tufts of moss or lichen succumbed at even a much 
 
 1 This extreme tenacity of life is perhaps due in part to the chitinous 
 integument with which all these animals are provided. It is certain that 
 very many of the lower forms, not so protected, are destroyed more 
 easily by the influence of heat both in the presence and in the absence of 
 moisture. 
 
314 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 lower temperature than this. In dry air or m vacua, 
 therefore, we may look upon the temperature of I3OC 
 for thirty minutes, as marking the extreme limit, so 
 far as it has been hitherto possible to fix it, of vital 
 endurance under such conditions even for animals 
 which are covered by a tough chitinous integument. 
 There is, at present, no evidence forthcoming to shake 
 the validity of this conclusion. 
 
 When immersed in fluids^ however, the power 
 possessed by the inferior organisms of resisting the 
 destructive influence of heat is not nearly so great. 
 Comparatively few, whether animal or vegetable, are 
 believed to be capable of resisting a temperature of 75 
 C (167 F) j and with regard to that of 100 C (212 F), 
 it has been admitted, by MM. Claude Bernard and 
 Milne-Edwards, by M. Pasteur, and by all the other 
 most influential opponents of the doctrines of arche- 
 biosis and heterogeny, that such a temperature, even 
 for one minute, has invariably proved destructive to all 
 the lower organisms met with in infusions J so far as 
 
 1 It is quite fair to make this limitation, since we are only concerned 
 with the origin of such organisms. Seeds of higher plants, provided 
 with a hard coat, may especially after prolonged periods of desiccation 
 germinate even after they have been boiled for a long time in water. 
 This was ascertained by M. Pouchet to be the case with an American 
 species of Medicago. Some of the seeds were completely disorganised 
 by the boiling temperature, whilst a few remained intact, and it was these 
 latter which were afterwards found to germinate. They had been pro- 
 tected from the influence of the hot water by their very dry and 
 hardened coats. On this subject Prof. Jeffries Wyman says : ' Water 
 penetrates the seeds of many plants, and especially of some of the Legu- 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 315 
 
 these had been made the subjects of special and direct 
 experimentation. And, amongst all the diversity of 
 form presented by the lowest living things, there is so 
 much of uniformity in property living matter, as we 
 know it, agrees in so many of its fundamental characters 
 that biologists and chemists alike may feel a reasonable 
 assurance as to the probable universality of any such 
 rule which has been proved to hold good for a very 
 large number of organisms, more especially when, 
 amongst this large number of cases, no exceptions 
 have been encountered. 
 
 Practically, however, it will be found that, in order 
 to appreciate the bearings of the experiments which 
 we shall have to relate, it will be necessary for us 
 more especially to know what are the limits of vital 
 resistance to high temperatures possessed by spores of 
 
 minosce, very slowly ; in the case of those of Gteditcbia and Laburnum, 
 we have found several days and even weeks necessary for the complete 
 penetration of cold water, though when the water is hot it penetrates 
 much more readily. If, therefore, the seeds are dry when immersed, and 
 are boiled for a few minutes only, they may still germinate. If they are 
 moistened beforehand, the action of boiling water has been found 
 uniformly fatal. In one of our experiments, twenty-eight seeds of 
 Gledifcbia were soaked until their coverings became soft and swollen ; 
 one-half were planted at once, and the others after having been boiled 
 five minutes. None of the boiled ones germinated, while the others 
 did. Similar experiments with beans and with several other kinds of 
 seeds ended in a similar manner.' (A mer. Journal of Science and Art, 
 Sept. 1867.) All the organisms in which we are interested, at present, 
 however, have no such protection. These are mere specks or masses 
 of protoplasm, which are either naked, or provided only with thin 
 coverings. 
 
3l6 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 Fungi on the one hand, and by Bacteria and Vibriones 
 on the other. 
 
 I am not aware of any experiments tending to show 
 that spores of Fungi can survive after exposure for even 
 a few seconds in fluids raised to the temperature of 
 boiling water (iooC); whilst, on the other hand, 
 there is the concurrent testimony of many observers 
 to the fact that, after such exposure, germination 
 would never take place because the spores were no 
 longer living l . This was the result obtained in many 
 experiments made by Bulliard, and related in his 
 c Histoire des Champignons.' Mere contact with 
 boiling water was found sufficient to prevent germi- 
 nation; and M. Hoffmann 2 similarly ascertained that 
 an exposure for from four to ten seconds to the 
 influence of boiling water sufficed to prevent the 
 germination of all the Fungus spores with which he 
 experimented. The experience of other observers 
 has been similar to that above quoted, arid amongst 
 these we may cite M. Pasteur himself. Speaking 
 of his experiments with boiled milk in Schwann's 
 apparatus, M. Pasteur says 3 : c je n'ai jamais vu se 
 former, dans le lait ainsi traite autre chose que des 
 Vibrions et des Bacteriums, aucune Mucedmee^ aucune 
 
 1 I have lately been informed, however, by Mr. Lowne, .that he has 
 seen a minute fungus continue to grow, notwithstanding an immersion in 
 boiling water for two or three minutes. So far as I know, this is an 
 altogether unique observation which stands in need of confirmation. 
 
 2 ' Bullet, de la Soc. Bot.' t. viii. p. 803. 
 
 3 'Annal. de Chim. et de Physique,' 1862, p. 60. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 317 
 
 Torulacee^ aucun ferment 'vegetal. II n'ya pas de doutc 
 que cela tient a ce que les germes de ces dernieres 
 productions, ne peuvent resister a iooC au sein de 
 Feau, ce que j'ai d'ailleurs constate par des expe- 
 riences directes/ Professor Wyman says 1 : c We have 
 tried many experiments upon different kinds of moulds 
 and yeast plants, and have found, as nearly all ob- 
 servers have, that they perish at 2i2F.' The obser- 
 vations of Baron Liebig tend to show that they are 
 killed in fluids at a temperature even much below 
 this; he says 2 : c A temperature of 60 C (140 F) 
 kills the yeast cells ; after exposure to this temperature 
 in water they no longer undergo fermentation, and do 
 not cause fermentation in a sugar solution. ... In 
 like manner, active fermentation in a saccharine liquid 
 is stopped when the liquid is heated to 6oC, and it 
 does not recommence again on cooling the liquid/ 
 
 The evidence which we at present possess concerning 
 the tenacity of Life displayed by Bacteria and Vibriones 
 in fluids whose temperature has been raised, is just as 
 decisive as that concerning the spores of fungi. M. 
 Pouchet's observations led him to believe that Vibrlones^ 
 in common with all the varieties of ciliated infusoria, 
 are killed by raising the temperature of the fluid which 
 contains them to 55 C j M. Victor Meunier also 
 
 1 ' Observations and Experiments on Living Organisms in Heated 
 Water,' loc. cit. 
 
 2 Translation of a paper on 'Alcoholic Fermentation,' in 'Pharmaceu- 
 tical Journal,' July 30, 1870, p. Si. 
 
318 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 believed that none of these organisms survived after 
 they had been similarly subjected to a temperature of 
 60 C; whilst Prof. Wyman, as a result of many ex- 
 periments, always found that their movements entirely 
 ceased after an exposure for a few minutes in fluids 
 raised to a temperature of 54-56C (i3O-J34F). 
 There is also every reason to believe, as I shall pre- 
 sently attempt to show, that an exposure to similar 
 conditions kills Bacteria as well as their less developed 
 representatives the primordial plastide-particles. 
 
 With reference to Bacteria, however, one caution 
 is necessary to be borne in mind by the experi- 
 menter. Their movements which they display may 
 be, and very frequently are, of two kinds. The one 
 variety differs in no appreciable manner from the 
 mere molecular or Brownian movement, which may 
 be witnessed in similarly minute not-living particles 
 immersed in fluids j whilst the other seems to be purely 
 vital dependent that is upon their properties as living 
 things. These vital movements are altogether different 
 from the mere dancing oscillations which not-living 
 particles display : as may be seen when even the most 
 minute Bacterium darts about over comparatively large 
 areas, so as frequently to disappear, from the field 
 of the microscope. After an infusion which contains 
 organisms exhibiting these unmistakeably vital move- 
 ments has been boiled for a second or two, I have 
 invariably found that such movements no longer occur, 
 though almost all the plastide-particles and Bacteria may 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 319 
 
 be seen to display the Brownian movement in a well- 
 marked degree. They seem to be reduced by the shortest 
 exposure to a temperature of 2I2F to the condition 
 of mere not-living particles, and then they become 
 subjected to the unimpaired influence of the physical 
 conditions which occasion these molecular movements 1 . 
 In many cases, however, organisms that are truly 
 
 1 This statement concerning the two kinds of movements of Bacteria 
 and the power of boiling water to arrest only one of them, is almost word 
 for word what appeared in ' Nature* (No. 35, p. 171), for June, 1870. I 
 thought at the time that the statement was new in certain respects at 
 least I cannot refer to any similar statement in the writings of others 
 previous to that time. I was somewhat surprised, therefore, on 
 reading the quotation which is subjoined, to find that Prof. Huxley, on 
 Sept. 13, 1870, mentioned such distinctions as though they were quite 
 novel, and with the tacit suggestion that I was unaware of them. 
 Speaking of Bacteria, he says, ' They have two distinct kinds of move- 
 ments. The very smallest have merely a trembling movement ; those 
 which are elongated oscillate on a central point in their long axis rotating 
 whilst in an oblique position. This is one kind of movement. The 
 other kind of movement is a darting across the stage of the microscope, 
 sometimes in a straight line, sometimes accompanied by oscillations, 
 which gives a serpentine appearance to the moving Bacterium or chain 
 of Bacteria, whence the name Vibrio. These two kinds of movement 
 are not to be confounded. They must be explained as due to very 
 different causes ; and it seems to me that it is a confusion of these two 
 which is at the bottom of the mistakes made in the assertions as to the 
 survival of Bacteria, &c. after the application of very high temperatures.' 
 Prof. Huxley goes on to say that the temperature of boiling water and 
 other reagents which certainly destroy their life and abolish the last 
 kind of movement, does not put an end to the former ; and then adds 
 ' Do what you will, however, they retain their tumbling movement ; 
 and this is a very misleading phenomenon.' (Quart. Jrnl. of Micros. 
 Science, October, 1870.) What follows is certainly a suggestion that I 
 had been misled by these phenomena, apparently because I was unaware 
 of the distinction then pointed out by Prof. Huxley. 
 
,32,0 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 living exhibit only very languid movements, which, as 
 movements, are quite indistinguishable from those that 
 the same "Bacteria may display when they are really 
 dead 1 . Because the movements, therefore, are of this 
 doubtful character, some are apt, unfairly, to argue that 
 the ^Bacteria which present them are not more living 
 than are the minute particles of carbon obtained from 
 the flame of a lamp when they exhibit similar move- 
 ments. This, however, is a point of view which 
 becomes obviously misleading if too much stress is laid 
 upon it ; and it is more especially so in this case, when 
 it can be shown that "Bacteria which display the most 
 characteristic sign of vitality viz. c spontaneous' divi- 
 sion or reproduction at this time, almost always 
 exhibit such mere languid movements. It should 
 always be borne in mind, in fact, that mobility is not 
 an essential characteristic of living Bacteria, whilst the 
 occurrence of the act of reproduction is the most indubitable 
 sign of their life-, so that any "Bacteria which are almost 
 motionless, or which exhibit mere Brownian move- 
 ments, may be living, whilst those which spontaneously 
 divide and reproduce are certainly alive whatever be 
 the kind of movement which they present. 
 
 1 Speaking of the organisms above mentioned, Prof. Wyman says : 
 ' Under certain circumstances, all signs of life may cease, but the infusoria 
 may still be alive. If, for example, they are developed in a sealed flask, 
 as soon as the organic matter convertible into infusoria is exhausted, 
 their activity ceases, and they remain dormant for many months ; we have 
 kept them in this way for a year ; but if fresh material is supplied to them 
 they at once resume their activity.' Loc. cit. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 321 
 
 It may naturally be asked if there are any means of 
 deciding whether 'Bacteria^ that have been submitted 
 to a given temperature, and which exhibit movements 
 resembling those known as Brownian, are really dead or 
 living. If the movements are primary, or dependent upon 
 the inherent molecular activity of the organisms them- 
 selves, they ought, it might be argued, to continue when 
 the molecules of the fluid are at rest ; if, on the other 
 hand, they are mere secondary or communicated move- 
 ments, impressed upon the organisms as they would 
 be upon any other similarly minute particles, by the 
 molecular oscillations of the fluid in which they are 
 contained, then the movements ought to grow less, and 
 gradually cease, as the fluid approaches a state of 
 molecular rest if this be attainable. Following out 
 this idea, some months ago, I first tested the correct- 
 ness of the assumption by experimenting with fluids 
 containing various kinds of not-living particles; such 
 as carbon-particles from the flame of a lamp, or freshly 
 precipitated baric sulphate. However perfect may have 
 been the Brownian movements when portions of these 
 fluids were first examined beneath a covering-glass, 
 they always gradually diminished after the specimen 
 had been mounted by surrounding the covering-glass 
 with some cement or varnish. Thus prepared, no eva- 
 poration could take place from the thin film of fluid, 
 and after one, three, four, or more hours the slide re- 
 maining undisturbed most of the particles had sub- 
 sided, and were found to have come to a state of rest. 
 
 Y 
 
322 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 In order still further to test these views, I took an 
 infusion of turnip, containing a multitude of Bacteria, 
 whose movements were of the languid description, and 
 divided it into two portions. One of these portions 
 was boiled for about one minute, whilst the other was 
 not interfered with. After the boiled solution had been 
 cooled, a drop was taken from each and these were placed 
 at some little distance from one another on the same 
 glass-slip; covering- glasses half an inch in diameter 
 were laid on, and the superfluous fluid from beneath 
 each of them was removed by blotting-paper. When 
 only the thinnest film of fluid was left, the covering- 
 glasses were surrounded by a thick, quickly-drying 
 cement l . Examined with the microscope immediately 
 afterwards, it was generally found that the Bacteria 
 which had been boiled presented a shrunken and 
 shrivelled aspect whilst some of them were more or 
 less disintegrated though, as far as movement was 
 concerned, there was little to distinguish that which 
 they manifested from the slight oscillations of their 
 unboiled and plumper-looking relatives. 
 
 If the specimens were examined again after twenty- 
 four or more hours, there was still very little difference 
 perceptible between them as regards their movements. 
 And the same was the case when the specimens were 
 examined after a lapse of some days or weeks. One 
 
 1 I always employ a solution of gum mastic and bismuth in chloro- 
 form. If a different varnish be employed, it is of course necessary to 
 ascertain that its application is not injurious to the enclosed Bacteria. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS Of LIFE. 323 
 
 important difference does, however, soon become ob- 
 vious. The bacteria, which have not been boiled, 
 undergo a most unmistakeable increase within their 
 imprisoned habitat; whilst those which have been 
 boiled, do not increase. The two films may be almost 
 colourless at first (if the 'Bacteria are not very abundant), 
 but after a few days, that composed of unboiled fluid 
 begins to show an obvious and increasing cloudiness, 
 which is never manifested by the other. Microsco- 
 pical examination shows that this cloudiness is due to 
 a proportionate increase in the number of Bacteria. 
 
 Is the continuance of the movements of the or- 
 ganisms which had been boiled attributable to their 
 extreme lightness, and to the slight difference between 
 their specific gravity and that of the fluid in which 
 they are immersed ? I soon became convinced that 
 this was one, if not the chief reason, when I found 
 that Bacteria which had been submitted to very much 
 higher temperatures, behaved in precisely the same 
 manner as those which had been merely boiled; and 
 that other indubitably dead particles which chanced to 
 have a similar specific lightness, also continued to exhibit 
 their Brownian movements for days and weeks. This 
 was the case more especially with the minute fat 
 particles in a mounted specimen of boiled milk *, and 
 
 1 If an unboiled specimen of milk be mounted, a multiplication of 
 living particles (spherical) takes place here and there amongst the fat 
 globules, just as the multiplication of Bacteria occurs in a vegetable 
 infusion. In a boiled specimen, however, no trace of such multiplication 
 can be detected. 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 also with very minute particles which were gradually 
 precipitated from a hay infusion that had been heated 
 to 302 F for four hours 1 . Trials with many different 
 substances, indeed, after a time convinced me that the 
 most rapid cessation of Brownian movements in sta- 
 tionary films, occurred where the particles were 
 relatively heavy or large ; and that the duration of the 
 movement was more and more prolonged, as the par- 
 ticles experimented with were lighter or more minute 2 . 
 So that, when we have to do with Bacteria, the minute 
 oil globules of milk, or with other similarly light par- 
 ticles, the movements continue for an indefinite time, 
 and are, in part, mere exponents of the molecular 
 unrest of the fluid. They are always capable of being 
 increased or renewed by the incidence of heat or other 
 disturbing agencies. 
 
 In respect of the movements which they may exhibit, 
 therefore, really living, though languid, 'Bacteria cannot 
 always be discriminated from dead Bacteria. Both may 
 only display mere Brownian movements 3 . 
 
 1 Those of the light particles which come to rest, in such cases, are 
 always in contact with one or other of the contiguous surfaces of glass. 
 
 2 The specific gravity of the fluid being constant. Where this is dense 
 or viscid, as with glycerine, Brownian movements do not occur at all. 
 
 3 That absence of even customary movements is no certain indication 
 of the non-existence of ' Life,' is admitted by most biologists. The 
 Rev. M. J. Berkeley (Cryptogamic Botany, 1857, p. 9-2) says: 'It is 
 curious in two such closely-allied algae as Vancheria sessilis and V. clavaia, 
 to find the fruit so very different. The spore of the former is perfectly 
 inactive, while that of the latter revolves by means of delicate cilia 
 covering its whole surface. It is clear, then, that we must not, in these 
 lower cryptogams, attach too much importance to motion.' 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OP LIFE. 325 
 
 Although the movements of Bacteria are, therefore, 
 frequently of so extensive a nature as to render it not 
 at all doubtful whether the organisms which display 
 them are living, it becomes obvious that we ought not 
 to rely too strongly upon the mere vibratory character 
 of their movements, as evidence of the death of Bacteria. 
 In the experiments which I am about to relate, we shall 
 be able to pronounce that the Bacteria are living or dead, 
 by reference to the continuance or cessation of a much 
 more essentially vital characteristic. If Bacteria fail 
 to multiply in a suitable fluid, and under suitable con- 
 ditions, we have the best proof that can be obtained 
 of their death. 
 
 Having made many experiments with solutions of 
 ammonic tartrate and sodic phosphate, I have almost 
 invariably observed that such solutions when exposed 
 to the air without having been boiled become turbid 
 in the course of a few days owing to the presence of 
 myriads of Bacteria and Vihriones^ with some Torul<e. 
 These organisms seem to appear and multiply in such 
 a solution almost as readily as they do in an organic 
 infusion. On the other hand, having frequently boiled 
 similar solutions, and closed the flasks during ebullition, 
 I have invariably found, on subsequent examination 
 of these fluids, that whatever else may have been met 
 with, Bacteria and Vibriones were always absent. The 
 difference was most notable, and it seemed only intel- 
 ligible on the supposition that any living Bacteria or 
 dead ferments which may have pre-existed in the 
 
326 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 solution, were deprived of their virtues by the pre- 
 liminary boiling. These experiments also seemed to 
 show that such solutions, after having been boiled, and 
 shut up in hermetically-sealed flasks from which all 
 air had been expelled, were quite incapable of giving 
 birth to Bacteria. The unboiled fluid, exposed to the 
 air, must have become turbid, either merely because 
 it was capable of nourishing living Bacteria which it 
 contained, or else because it was capable of evolving 
 these de novo, under the influence of fermentative 
 particles whose activity had not been destroyed by heat. 
 Hence, in such a solution we have a fluid which is 
 eminently suitable for testing the vital resistance of 
 Bacteria, one which, although quite capable of nourish- 
 ing and favouring their reproduction, does not appear 
 capable of evolving them, when, after previous ebulli- 
 tion, it is enclosed in airless and hermetically-sealed 
 flasks. 
 
 Three flasks were, therefore, half filled with this 
 solution 1 . The neck of the first (a) was allowed to 
 remain open, and no addition was made to the fluid. 
 To the second (), after it had been boiled and had 
 become cool, was added half a minim of a similar 
 saline solution, which had been previously exposed to 
 the air, and which was quite turbid with Bacteria^ 
 Vibriones^ and Torul*. From this flask after its inocula- 
 tion with the living organisms the air was exhausted 
 
 1 In the proportion of ten grains of neutral ammonic tartrate, with 
 three grains of neutral sodic phosphate, to an ounce of distilled water. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 327 
 
 by means of an air-pump, and its neck was hermeti- 
 cally sealed during the ebullition of the fluid, without 
 the flask and its contents having been exposed to 
 a heat of more than 90?. The third flask (c) was 
 similarly inoculated with living Bacteria, though its 
 contents were boiled for ten minutes (at 2i2F), and 
 its neck was hermetically sealed during ebullition. The 
 results were as follows : the solution in the first flask 
 (*), became turbid in four or five days; the solution 
 in the second (&), became turbid after thirty-six hours ; 
 whilst that in the third flask (f), remained perfectly 
 clear. This latter flask was opened on the twelfth 
 day, whilst its contents were still clear, and on micro- 
 scopical examination of the fluid no living Bacteria 
 were to be found. This particular experiment was 
 repeated three times, with similarly negative results, 
 although on two occasions the fluid was only boiled 
 for one instead of ten minutes. 
 
 It seemed, moreover, that by having recourse to 
 experiments of the same kind, the exact degree of heat 
 which is fatal to Bacteria and Torulj? might be ascer- 
 tained. I accordingly endeavoured to determine this 
 point. Portions of the same saline solution, after having 
 been boiled x and then cooled, were similarly inoculated 
 
 1 It was necessary to boil the solution first, in order to destroy any 
 living things or dead ferments which it might contain. As before 
 stated, it must contain one or the other of these, because an unboiled 
 solution of this kind, in a corked bottle about half full, will always 
 become turbid ; whilst, after it has been boiled, it may be kept inde- 
 finitely under similar conditions without becoming turbid. 
 
.328 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 with a drop 1 of very turbid fluid, containing hundreds 
 of living Bacteria, Vtbriones^ and Torul<e. A drying appa- 
 ratus was fixed to an air-pump, and the flask containing 
 the inoculated fluid was securely connected with the 
 former by means of a piece of tight india-rubber tubing 2 , 
 after its neck had been drawn out and narrowed, at 
 about two inches from the extremity. The flask con- 
 taining the inoculated fluid was then allowed to dip 
 into a beaker holding water at I22F, in which a 
 thermometer was immersed. The temperature of the 
 fluid was maintained at this point for fifteen minutes 3 , 
 by means of a spirit-lamp beneath the beaker. The 
 air was then exhausted from the flask by means of the 
 pump, till the fluid began to boil ; ebullition was allowed 
 to continue for a minute or two, so as to expel as much 
 air as possible from the flask, and then, during its con- 
 tinuance, the narrowed neck of the flask was hermeti- 
 cally sealed by means of a spirit-lamp flame and a 
 blow-pipe. Other flasks were similarly prepared, except 
 that they were exposed to successively higher degrees 
 of heat the fluid being boiled off, in different cases, 
 at temperatures of 131, 140, 149, 158, and i67F. 
 All the flasks being similarly inoculated with living 
 
 1 The proportion was one drop of the fluid, opaque with organisms, 
 to an ounce of the clear solution. 
 
 2 Into which a piece of glass tube had been slipped to prevent 
 collapse. 
 
 3 Allowing even five minutes for the temperature of the i oz. of fluid 
 to become equal to that of the bath, it would have remained exposed 
 to this amount of heat for about ten minutes. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 329 
 
 Bacteria, Vibriones, and ToruU^ and similarly sealed during 
 ebullition, they differed from one another only in 
 respect to the degree of heat to which they had been 
 submitted. Their bulbs were subsequently placed in a 
 water bath, which during both day and night was 
 maintained at a temperature of from 85 to 95 F. 
 The results have been as follows: The flasks whose 
 contents had been heated to 122 and J3iF re- 
 spectively, began to exhibit a bluish tinge in the 
 contained fluid after the first or second day ; and after 
 two or three more days, the fluid in each became quite 
 turbid and opaque, owing to the presence and multi- 
 plication of myriads of Bacteria, Vibriones^ and Torulae $ 
 the fluids in the flasks, however, which had been ex- 
 posed to the higher temperature of 140, 149, 158, 
 and i67F, showed not the slightest trace of turbidity, 
 and no diminution in the clearness of the fluid while 
 they were kept under observation that is, for a period 
 of twelve or fourteen days. 
 
 The conditions under which these experiments were 
 made being in every way similar, except as regards 
 the degree of heat to which the inoculated fluids were 
 subjected, and the organisms being immersed in a fluid, 
 which had been proved to be eminently suitable for 
 their growth and multiplication, it seems only possible 
 to suppose that the difference in the results had to do 
 with the difference in the degree of heat. If such 
 inoculated fluids after having been raised to 122 and 
 i3iF for ten minutes, are found in the course of a 
 
330 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 few days to become turbid, then, obviously, the or- 
 ganisms cannot have been killed by this degree of heat ; 
 whilst, if -similar fluids, similarly inoculated, which have 
 been raised to temperatures of 140, 149, 158, and 
 i67F, remain sterile, such sterility can only be ex- 
 plained by the supposition that the inoculated organisms 
 had been killed by exposure to these temperatures l . 
 
 Some of these experiments have been repeated several 
 times with the same results. On three occasions, I have 
 found the fluid speedily become turbid which had only 
 been exposed to i3iF for ten minutes, whilst on three 
 other occasions I have found the inoculated fluid remain 
 clear after it had been exposed to a heat of i4OF 
 for ten minutes 2 . 
 
 Wishing to ascertain what difference would be 
 manifested if the inoculated fluids were exposed for a 
 very long time, instead of for ten minutes only, to 
 certain temperatures, I prepared three flasks in the 
 same manner each containing some of the previously 
 boiled solution, which, when cold, had been inoculated 
 
 1 More especially since the fluids which had remained sterile would 
 always, in the course of thirty-six or forty- eight hours after inoculation 
 with living Bacteria, show signs of an increasing turbidity. 
 
 2 That the organisms in question being minute portions of naked living 
 matter should be killed by exposure to the influence of a fluid at these 
 temperatures, will perhaps not seem very improbable to those who have 
 experienced its effects by attempting to keep their ringers for any length 
 of time in water heated to a similar extent. With watch in hand I im- 
 mersed my fingers in one of the experimental beakers containing water 
 at I3IF, and found that in spite of my desires they were hastily with- 
 drawn, after an exposure of less than five-and-twenty seconds. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 331 
 
 with living Bacteria, Vibriones, and Torulx. These flasks 
 and their contents were then submitted to the influence 
 of the following conditions: One of them was heated for 
 a few minutes in a beaker containing water at H3F, 
 and then by means of the air-pump a partial vacuum 
 was procured, till the fluid began to boil. After the 
 remainder of the air had been expelled by the ebullition 
 of the fluid, the neck of the flask was hermetically 
 sealed, and the flask itself was subsequently immersed 
 in the water of the beaker, which was kept for four 
 hours at a temperature between 113 and nS^F 1 . 
 The two other flasks similarly prepared were kept at 
 a temperature of n8| u -i27^F for four hours. In two 
 days, the fluid in the first flask became slightly turbid, 
 whilst in two days more the turbidity was most marked. 
 The fluids in the two other flasks, which had been 
 exposed to the temperature of ii8^- -i27| F for four 
 hours, remained quite clear and unaltered during the 
 twelve days in which they were kept in the warm bath 
 under observation. These experiments seem to show, 
 therefore, that the prolongation of the period of ex- 
 posure from ten minutes to four hours suffices to lower 
 the vital resistance to heat of Bacteria and Torul# by 
 
 Such experiments would seem to be most important 
 and crucial in their nature. They may be considered 
 to settle the question as to the vital resistance of these 
 
 1 During nearly the whole of the time the temperature was kept at 
 H3F. It only rose to the higher temperature for about ten minutes. 
 
332 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 particular Bacteria, whilst other evidence points con- 
 clusively in the direction that all Bacteria, whencesoever 
 they have been derived, possess essentially similar vital 
 endowments 1 . Seeing also that the solutions have 
 been inoculated with a drop of a fluid in which Bacteria, 
 Vihriones, and Torul# are multiplying rapidly, we must 
 suppose that they are multiplying in their accustomed 
 manner as much by the known method of fission as 
 by any unknown and assumed method of reproduction. 
 In such a fluid, at all events, there would be all the 
 kinds of reproductive elements common to Bacteria, 
 whether visible or invisible, and these would have 
 been alike subjected to the influence of the same tem- 
 perature. These experiments seem to show, therefore, 
 that even if Bacteria do multiply by means of invisible 
 gemmules as well as by the known process of fission, 
 
 1 The Bacteria and Vibriones with which Prof. Wyman experimented 
 were derived from different sources ; and so far as I, also, have been 
 able to ascertain, the Bacteria of different fluids are similarly affected 
 by exposure to similar degrees of heat. Thus, if on the same slip, 
 though under different covering glasses, specimens of a hay infusion, 
 turbid with Bacteria, are mounted, (a) without being heated, (6) after 
 the fluid has been raised to I22F for ten minutes, and (c) after the 
 fluid has been heated to I4OF for ten minutes, it will be found that, 
 in the course of a few days, the Bacteria under a and b have notably 
 increased in quantity, whilst those under c do not become more numerous, 
 however long the slide is kept. Facts of the same kind are observable 
 if a turnip infusion, containing living Bacteria, is experimented with ; 
 and the phenomena are in no way different if a solution of ammonic 
 tartrate and sodic phosphate (containing Bacteria) be employed instead 
 of one of these vegetable infusions. The multiplication of the Bacteria 
 beneath the covering-glass, when it occurs, is soon rendered obvious, 
 even to the naked eye, by the increasing cloudiness of the film. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 333 
 
 such invisible particles possess no higher power of 
 resisting the destructive influence of heat than the 
 parent Bacteria themselves possess a result which is 
 by no means surprising when we consider that these 
 gemmules, however minute, could only be portions of a 
 similar homogeneous living matter, and ought therefore 
 to be endowed with like properties. 
 
 The results just recorded seem all the more trust- 
 worthy also, because they are confirmed by the ex- 
 periments of M. Pouchet 1 , myself, and others, upon 
 the degree of c vital resistance' to heat manifested by 
 rather higher organisms, which, on account of their 
 very much greater size and other peculiarities, easily 
 enable the microscopist to decide whether they are 
 living or dead. My observations accord very closely 
 with those of M. Pouchet ; and I have found that an 
 exposure to a temperature of i3iF for five minutes 
 always suffices to destroy all reliable signs of life in 
 Amcebae, Monads, Chlamydomonads, Euglense, Desmids, 
 Vorticellse, and all other Ciliated Infusoria which were 
 observed, as well as in free Nematoids, Rotifers, and 
 other organisms contained in the fluids which had been 
 heated 2 . 
 
 1 'Nouvelles Experiences,' &c. 1864, p. 38. 
 
 2 In opposition to all this concurrent testimony as to the influence 
 of comparatively low temperatures upon the lower forms of life, Mr. 
 Samuelson (Quarterly Journal of Science, Oct. 1870, p. 490) desires to 
 impress us with the idea that they are capable of resisting a very high 
 degree of heat. The evidence which he adduces, however, is quite 
 inadequate to establish the truth of such a conclusion. Having heated 
 
334 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 Such is the evidence concerning the power of 
 resisting the destructive influence of heat, manifested 
 by the organisms about which we are at present most 
 
 some 'dry dust in an open tube to 480 C ' (the mode of estimating the 
 heat not being stated), after it had cooled distilled water was added and 
 the mixture was boiled for a few minutes. The tube containing this 
 was closed with a stopper of cotton wool, and then, on the same even- 
 ing, again opened to the air, whilst some of the fluid was poured into 
 another tube which was afterwards plugged with cotton wool. The effect 
 of the high temperature was thus cancelled by the subsequent addition 
 of distilled water; and the effects of the boiling of this mixture 'for 
 a few minutes' was subsequently rendered nugatory, so far as all strict 
 experimentation is concerned, by its exposure to the air whilst it was 
 poured into the new vessel. Such evidence is wholly inconclusive and 
 even inadmissible. What has lately been honoured by admission, in 
 detail, into a recent number of the ' Proceedings of the Royal Society ' 
 (vol. xix. No. 128), is not much more cogent in its nature. In a paper 
 on the ' Action of Heat on Protoplasmic Life,' Dr. Crace-Calvert asserts 
 that certain ' black Vibrios,' not commonly known to naturalists, and 
 other ordinary Vibrios, are capable of resisting the influence of fluids 
 heated to 300 F for half an hour. The conclusion that the organisms 
 were living or dead in the several experiments, was based apparently 
 upon the mere presence or absence of slight movements of a non- 
 progressive nature, whilst no details are given as to the conditions of 
 observation. In opposition to the statements and experiments of Dr. 
 Crace-Calvert, it may be well to call his attention to the fact (of which 
 he is apparently unaware) that MM. Milne-Edwards, Claude Bernard, 
 Pasteur, Professor Huxley, and many others who cannot be ranged 
 in the category of ' investigators of germ-life who favour the theory of 
 spontaneous generation,' have most deliberately given their assent, based 
 upon experiment and observation, to the view that the lowest forms of 
 life are killed by contact for a very short period with boiling water. 
 The truth of this conclusion has been again, of late, ratified by Dr. 
 Burdon Sanderson as I ascertain from a revise (with which he has kindly 
 furnished me) of a paper entitled ' Further Report of Researches con- 
 cerning Contagion,' shortly to appear in the Thirteenth Report of the 
 Medical Officer of the Priv Council. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 335 
 
 interested. It will be found quite harmonious with our 
 ordinary every-day experience, and should, therefore, not 
 be very difficult for us to believe \ An embryo of one of 
 
 1 It is, moreover, not in the least at variance, as some seem to 
 suppose, with the facts at present known concerning the power which 
 some individuals have displayed of braving the influence of hot dry air for 
 very short periods, either for the purposes of experiment or in Turkish 
 baths. When such comparisons are made, two points frequently lost 
 sight of should always be borne in mind. In the first place, there is 
 a very great difference between the destructive influence of hot dry air 
 and hot -water; and in the second place, highly organized warm-blooded 
 vertebrate animals are protected, as it were, from the destructive in- 
 fluence of hot dry air, for short periods, by certain counteracting 
 phenomena produced by the heat itself. On this subject, in one of 
 our recent and most valuable text-books on Physiology, Prof. Marshall 
 says : ' The chief means of maintaining the normal temperature of 
 the body, in hot climates, consists in a large increase in the amount 
 of the water exhaled from the surface of the lungs and of the skin, 
 especially, however, from the latter. The skin becomes bathed 
 with fluid, the evaporation of which at' the high temperature of the 
 surface and of the surrounding air, occasions a loss of heat and a 
 reduction in the temperature of the evaporating surface. The effect 
 in reducing the temperature of the body is greater if the atmosphere be 
 dry as well as warm, and then also if it be in motion : these conditions 
 favour cutaneous exhalation and evaporation. . . . The increased per- 
 spiration excited by the great heat of the skin, furnishes, for a certain 
 time, sufficient material for evaporation. There is a limit, however, to 
 the amount of this excretion, and also to its rapidity of evaporation ; 
 for, when the surrounding air becomes moist, a check being put to the 
 evaporation, the body is no longer thus defended, and its temperature 
 begins to rise. Thus in a room, the temperature of which was 26oF, 
 and the air dry, it was found possible to remain for eight minutes, 
 by which time the body was not much altered in temperature, although 
 the clothes and other articles in the room became very hot \Blagden 
 and Banks). A case is on record of a person remaining ten minutes 
 in a dry hot-air bath at 284 ; whilst Chabert, the so-called fire-king, 
 went into ovens heated from 400 to 600 ; but, of course, for a much 
 
336 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 the higher animals whilst still contained within its egg 
 may fairly enough be compared with the lower organ- 
 isms of which we have been speaking, in respect to the 
 quality of the matter of which they are composed j and 
 knowing the profoundly modifying influence of water 
 at a temperature of si2F upon the comparatively un- 
 differentiated matter of the embryo in the egg and 
 also, we may add, even upon the differentiated tissues 
 of the parent fish or fowl need we wonder much that 
 the same temperature should have been hitherto found 
 to be destructive to the simple and naked living matter 
 entering into the composition of Bacteria and Vibriones, 
 and to the almost naked living matter of Fungus-spores ? 
 If any other result had been ascertained, would there 
 
 shorter period. Many workmen employed in foundries and glass-works 
 also withstand very high temperatures, the skin being profusely bathed 
 with perspiration ; these men of necessity drink large quantities of fluid. 
 When, however, the air is moist as well as hot, the temperature that 
 can be endured is much less ; for, in a vapour bath, at a temperature of 
 only 120, the body rapidly gains heat, as much as 70 in ten minutes* 
 and a feeling of great and insupportable discomfort is experienced 
 (Berger and De la Roche). It is said, however, that from habit the 
 Finns can withstand, for upwards of half an hour, moist air or vapour 
 baths gradually raised to 158, or even to 167.' (Outlines of Physiology, 
 Human and Comparative, 1867, vol. ii. p. 511.) As soon, indeed, as the 
 temperature of the warm-blooded animal, as a whole, is raised to no- 
 H2F, it speedily dies ; the length of time, therefore, which it can bear 
 exposure to higher temperatures is almost wholly dependent upon the 
 freedom and rapidity with which evaporation of its fluids takes place. 
 Minute particles or specks of naked living matter cannot avail them- 
 selves of such antagonising influences, and even if they had any self- 
 protecting resources of this kind, they would be of little or no service 
 in an atmosphere saturated with hot vapour, and of still less avail when 
 the living particles were immersed in heated fluids. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 337 
 
 not have been much more reason for surprise ? We 
 ought therefore to be very cautious how we attempt to 
 set aside the conclusions which have been arrived at 
 on this subject founded as they have been upon direct 
 evidence of a most positive character. 
 
 From this basis we may now proceed to enquire into 
 the nature and results of the experiments which have 
 been instituted with the view of throwing light upon the 
 origin of Bacteria and other similarly low organisms. 
 
 The method of experimentation principally relied 
 upon since 1837 has been that introduced by Schwann 1 . 
 His experiments have been occasionally repeated with 
 some slight modification, whilst at other times he has 
 been exactly followed. In the latter case the solution 
 of organic matter is boiled in a flask, the neck of which 
 is securely connected with a tube closely packed with 
 portions of red-hot pumice-stone, or other incombustible 
 substance; and after the solution has been boiled for 
 some time, so that all the air of the flask has been 
 expelled, the flask itself is allowed to cool whilst the 
 tube containing the closely-packed red-hot materials is 
 still maintained at the same temperature, in order that 
 whatever air enters into the flask may be subjected to a 
 calcining heat as it passes through the tube. When the 
 flask has become cool, its neck is hermetically sealed by 
 the blow-pipe flame, so that it will then contain only the 
 previously boiled solution in contact with air (at ordi- 
 nary atmospheric pressure) which has been calcined. 
 
 1 ' Annales de Poggendorf/ 1837, P- 184- * Isis,' 1837, p. 523. 
 
338 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 Since it has been thoroughly settled that all the lower 
 organisms which may be contained in the organic so- 
 lutions are killed when the fluids are raised to a tem- 
 perature of 2i2F, and that no organisms have been 
 known to survive after having remained for thirty 
 minutes in air raised to a temperature of 2,66 F 
 (J30 C C), the boiling of the fluid for a time and the 
 calcination of the air has generally been supposed to 
 be a sufficient precaution to ensure the destruction of 
 all organisms in the experimental media 1 . Experi- 
 ments conducted in this way have yielded negative re- 
 sults to some investigators, though many others have 
 always maintained that in spite of such precautions - 
 calculated to destroy all pre-existing living things 
 they have, after a time, seen multitudes of low organ- 
 isms in their experimental fluids immediately after the 
 flasks have been broken. 
 
 Negative results in these experiments can of course 
 prove little or nothing j they may be explained equally 
 well by either side: either no organisms have been 
 found, because they or all the germs which could give 
 rise to them have been killed; or, as it is just as fair for 
 the evolutionists to say, the absence of organisms can 
 be explained on the supposition, that the fluids employed 
 have not yielded them because of the severely destruc- 
 
 1 The sides of the vessel itself, above the level of the fluid, would, 
 during the whole time, be bathed by the steam given off from the 
 boiling fluid, even if they did not come in contact with it during the 
 process of ebullition, so that any adherent germs would in this way 
 be destroyed. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 339 
 
 tive influences to which the particular organic matter 
 had been subjected by the previous boiling of the 
 fluids. When organisms are found, however, in solu- 
 tions which have been legitimately subjected to the 
 conditions involved in Schwann's experiments, then 
 one of two things is proven : either the amount of heat 
 which was hitherto deemed adequate to destroy all 
 pre-existing organisms is in reality not sufficient, or 
 else the organisms found must have been evolved de 
 novo, as the evolutionists suppose. Unless, therefore, 
 the standard of vital resistance to heat can be shown 
 to be higher than it was formerly supposed to be, any 
 single positive result when Schwann's experiment has 
 been legitimately performed, is of far more importance 
 towards the settlement of the question in dispute than 
 five hundred negative results. It would tend to show 
 that in the particular fluid employed, organisms might 
 be evolved de novo. 
 
 The experiments of Schwann have been commonly 
 believed by many to be altogether in favour of the views 
 of the panspermatists. Those who read his memoir 
 will find, however, that he did not fail to obtain living 
 organisms in all his experimental fluids. When the 
 fluids were such as were capable of undergoing the 
 alcoholic fermentation on exposure to the air, living 
 organisms were, in spite of all precautions, sometimes 
 found within his flasks. And although many other 
 investigators had subsequently obtained living things, 
 even when other infusions were employed, M. Pasteur 
 
340 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 was quite inclined to believe for a time, on the strength 
 of his own experiments., that Schwann's precautions, 
 properly carried out, were adequate to prevent the 
 occurrence of organisms in the experimental fluids. 
 These early investigations were made with sweetened 
 yeast-water, concerning which M. Pasteur says *, c I 
 have certainly had occasion to repeat the experiment 
 more than fifty times, and in no case has this fluid, 
 otherwise so changeable, shown a vestige of organism 
 when in the presence of calcined air.' But after a 
 time M. Pasteur began to employ an entirely different 
 fluid, and in all these experiments living organisms 
 were invariably present in the previously boiled fluids 
 from recently opened flasks. Formerly he used c Feau 
 de levure sucree,' but now he employed milk a complex 
 and highly nutritive fluid. There was no necessary 
 contradiction in these results. Facts which had been 
 thoroughly established with regard to the one fluid 
 might not necessarily hold good for the other. A 
 consideration so obvious as this ought to have been 
 entertained by any unbiassed experimenter, but it was 
 not even hinted at by M. Pasteur. As on other occa- 
 sions, when his experiments admitted of two interpre- 
 tations, M. Pasteur spoke only of one. He completely 
 ignored an equally possible interpretation the very 
 existence of which he left his readers to ascertain for 
 themselves. Thus, speaking of his experiments with 
 boiled milk and calcined air in closed vessels, he 
 
 1 Loc. cit., p. 36, note (i). 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 341 
 
 says 1 : c je n'ai jamais vu se former dans le lait ainsi 
 traite autre chose que des Vibrions, et des Bacteriums, 
 aucune Mucedinee aucune Torulacee aucun ferment 
 vegetal. II n'y a pas de doute que cela tient a ce que 
 les germes de ces dernieres productions ne peuvent 
 resister a 100 au sein de Feau, ce que j'ai d'ailleurs 
 constate par des experiences directes. Et de meme 
 nous aliens reconnaitre que, si le lait se putrefe dans 
 les clrconstances precedentes^ c*est que les germes des 
 Infusoires dont nous venous de parler peuvent resister a 
 la temperature hum'ide de ioo c , lorsque le liquide oil on 
 les chauffe joult de certains proprletes? But the passage 
 which I have placed in italics has not been demon- 
 strated by any direct evidence: it is in fact entirely 
 opposed to all such evidence 2 . 
 
 1 Loc. cit., p. 60. 
 
 2 Prof. Jeffries Wyman very aptly says (American Jour, of Science and 
 Arts, vol. xliv. Sept. 1867) : ' The study of organisms living in thermal 
 springs is of great importance in connection with the investigation of 
 the limits of vital resistance. Having become adapted through a long 
 series of years to their surroundings, such organisms may be supposed 
 to live under circumstances the most favourable possible for sustaining 
 life at a high temperature. It is a well-known physiological fact that 
 living beings may be slowly transferred to new and widely different con- 
 ditions without injury ; but if the same change is suddenly made they 
 perish.' Even in these most favourable cases, however, no living things 
 have ever been found in springs at the temperature of boiling water, 
 though certain Conferva were found by M. Descloizeaux in a hot spring 
 in Iceland which was registered at 208 F. No more extreme case than 
 this can, I believe, be quoted. As Prof. Wyman points out, however, 
 the question which it concerns us to settle is, at what temperature the 
 organisms met with in our infusions perish these being accustomed to 
 live at ordinary atmospheric temperatures, and not being steeled against 
 the action of heat by long custom and habit. 
 
342 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 He came to the conclusion that if fluids with an 
 alkaline reaction were raised to the temperature of 
 boiling water, the organisms contained in them were 
 not all destroyed, because such fluids were subsequently 
 found by him to yield living things when experimented 
 with in the manner adopted by Schwann ; and simi- 
 larly he believed that the organisms in these fluids 
 were destroyed when the fluids had been raised for 
 however short a time to a temperature of 1 1 o C 
 (230 F), because after such treatment no organisms 
 were to be met with in the flasks to which calcined 
 air alone had been admitted, 
 
 The conclusions drawn by M. Pasteur from his re- 
 searches on the subject at present under discussion., may 
 be summed up thus : (i) When acid solutions of organic 
 matter are employed, no living things are to be met with 
 in repeating Schwann's experiments, because all pre- 
 existing organisms are destroyed, and living things are 
 believed to be incapable of arising de novoj but (2) when 
 neutral or slightly alkaline solutions are made use of, 
 organisms may be met with if such infusions are merely 
 raised to the temperature of 1 00 C, though (3) they are 
 never to be seen when similar infusions have been raised 
 to a temperature of noC. On account of these sup- 
 posed facts, and on the strength of a chain of indirect 
 evidence, M. Pasteur assumes, that whilst Bacteria are 
 destroyed in acid fluids at a temperature of iooC, their 
 hypothetical c germs' are not destroyed in a neutral or 
 slightly alkaline fluid at 100 C, though they do cease 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 343 
 
 to live in such a fluid after it has been exposed to 
 noC. 
 
 In the next chapter I shall endeavour to show how 
 far the particular results of M. Pasteur's experiments 
 are entitled to be taken as the basis for any general 
 conclusions on the great question of the Origin of Life, 
 and how far his assumptions were warrantable in the 
 face of existing evidence. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE EXPERIMENTAL PROOF. UNTENABILITY OF 
 PASTEUR'S CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 Different results obtainable by Schwann's method of experimentation. 
 M. Pasteur's conclusions. Presence of air in flasks not essential. 
 Evolution in vacua previously thought impossible. New method 
 of experimentation. Results with acid infusions. Abundance of 
 living organisms. Experiments with acid saline solutions. These 
 not often yielding Bacteria, but rather Torula or Fungi. 
 
 M. Pasteur does not adequately consider the nature of the fluid employed. 
 Thinks too exclusively about the germ -killing powers of acid or 
 alkaline fluids. Pays no attention to opposing views. Negative re- 
 sults equally capable of explanation on either hypothesis. Importance 
 of positive results. M. Pasteur not entitled to his conclusion about 
 germs in alkaline solutions. His indirect evidence negatived by 
 direct evidence. Other explanations more probable. Difference in 
 degree of fermentability between acid and neutral states of same 
 solution. Experiments in illustration. Differences seen with 
 solutions fully exposed to air and germs. Similar in kind to those 
 quoted by M. Pasteur. Fluids most favourable for growth also 
 most favourable for evolution. Fertility of any given solution 
 often in the inverse ratio to its acidity. Effect of acidity intensified 
 by high temperatures. Improbability of M. Pasteur's explanations 
 in face of these results. 
 
 THE experiments most frequently cited as adverse to 
 the possibility of the de novo origination of living 
 things, have been stated to be those of Schwann, or re- 
 petitions of them by other experimenters. And yet, as 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 345 
 
 already mentioned, Schwann's results were by no means 
 universally adverse to this possibility. Sometimes 
 living organisms were met with in his flasks, when the 
 fluids employed were such as underwent the vinous 
 fermentation. Many other observers have also found 
 organisms in fluids from hermetically-sealed flasks 
 which had been strictly subjected to the conditions 
 prescribed by Schwann ; and that not unfrequently 
 when the change which the fluid had undergone was 
 of a putrefactive rather than of a fermentative cha- 
 racter. Amongst those who have obtained these posi- 
 tive results may be named Mantegazza, Pouchet, Joly, 
 Musset, Wyman, Bennett, Child, and others including 
 even Pasteur himself 1 . 
 
 But, as soon as M. Pasteur discovered that organisms 
 were undoubtedly to be met with under these con- 
 ditions, and irrespective of the limitations established 
 by Schwann, he sought to include all such exceptional 
 cases under a new general rule. After further experi- 
 ments he came to the conclusion that living organisms 
 might be encountered in almost any suitable neutral or 
 slightly alkaline solution, which had been submitted to 
 Schwann's conditions, though, on the contrary, they were 
 not to be met with when the solutions employed had 
 an acid reaction. This rule was represented by M. 
 Pasteur to be absolute. And, although the results of 
 
 1 As it would be impossible to give any adequate account of all these 
 valuable experiments, we must refer the reader to the works, already 
 cited, in which they are detailed. 
 
346 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 the investigators above mentioned did not permit them 
 to come to a similar conclusion, still M. Pasteur's 
 reputation as an exact and brilliant experimenter has 
 been all-powerful, and the majority of readers have, 
 apparently, been only too willing to believe implicitly 
 in conclusions which they may have found to be com- 
 patible with their own theories or prejudices. They have 
 not hesitated to explain away results of a contradictory 
 nature, on the ground that those who made the ex- 
 periments had not taken sufficient care to perform 
 them in a thoroughly stringent manner, or else on the 
 supposition that the organisms which they had found 
 in their experimental fluids were not living. c Was it 
 certain that the flasks had been hermetically sealed? 
 Had the air been sufficiently calcined? Were the 
 organisms which had been seen really alive ?' Such 
 were the questions and doubts that were continually 
 addressed to persons who chanced to get results at all 
 different from those of M. Pasteur. His experiments 
 and reasonings have again and again been quoted as 
 alike unanswerable. Nevertheless, I hope to be able to 
 show that his conclusions are rendered untenable in the 
 face of further experiments, and that M. Pasteur was 
 not even entitled to draw the conclusions which he did 
 draw from his own experiments. Assumptions have 
 occasionally been inserted, in his chain of reasoning, 
 as though they were established facts, and his whole 
 argument has, therefore, been rendered weak and 
 vulnerable. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 347 
 
 Although the presence of air within the closed flasks 
 has generally been considered essential, still it had been 
 shown by Fray \ even before the time of Schwann, that 
 atmospheric air might be replaced by other gases, such 
 as hydrogen or nitrogen, and that even then (with the 
 method of closing the vessels at the time in vogue) 
 living organisms were subsequently to be met with in 
 the infusions. More recently Prof, Mantegazza 2 and 
 M, Pouchet 3 showed that oxygen gas might be success- 
 fully substituted for atmospheric air, in experiments 
 which in other respects complied with Schwann's con- 
 ditions; whilst Dr. Child 4 has also shown that organisms 
 are to be met with when either oxygen or nitrogen 
 is substituted for atmospheric air in similar experi- 
 ments. He failed to get any positive results, how- 
 ever, in the presence of carbonic acid or hydrogen 
 gases. 
 
 On the other hand, it was thought by Burdach 5 that 
 organisms were not procurable unless the hermetically- 
 sealed flasks contained a certain amount of air. He 
 says : d Gruithuisen discovered that infusions, other- 
 wise very prolific (those of hay, for example), did not 
 yield infusoria in glass vessels in which the stopper 
 touched the surface of the fluid/ In a comparatively 
 
 1 'Essai sur 1'origine des corps organises et inorganis^s,' Paris, 1821, 
 pp. 5-8. 
 
 2 ' Giornale. dell. R. Istituto Lombardo,' t. iii., 1851. 
 3 Compt. Rend.' (1858), t. xlvii. 
 
 4 ' Essays on Physiol. Subjects,' 2nd ed., 1869, p. 114. 
 
 5 ' Traite de Physiologic ' (Transl. by Jourdan), 1837, t. I p. 16. 
 
348 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 recent paper by Prof. Wyman 1 , also, in giving an 
 account of experiments which were more than usually 
 productive, he says, c The amount of infusion used 
 was from one-twentieth to one-thirtieth of the whole 
 capacity of the flask-' the object of employing this 
 comparatively small quantity of fluid being, as he 
 adds, c to have the materials exposed to as large a 
 quantity of air as possible.' These facts and reasonings 
 were consistent enough with the view that putrefactive 
 and fermentative changes were incited in the organic 
 fluids under the influence of the oxygen in the air above 
 them 2 : and this has been the doctrine most in vogue 
 amongst those who have believed in the possibility of 
 the de novo origination of living things. 
 
 It had been stated by Spallanzani that whilst organisms 
 were procurable from hermetically-sealed flasks in which 
 the air was somewhat ratified, they were not to be 
 met with when the rarefactioji was extreme, or where 
 a vacuum existed 3 . Although this was a conclusion 
 which seemed to be generally accepted 4 , still, on re- 
 
 1 ' American Journal of Science,' vol. xxxiv., July, 1862. 
 
 2 Thus Gerhardt says (' Chimie Organique,' 1856, t. iv.p. 537) : ' Get 
 oxygene est en effet la cause premiere de tous les phenomenes de 
 fermentation et de putrefaction.' Dr. Child's experiments, showing that 
 organisms might be found even in presence of pure nitrogen gas, were 
 made two or three years subsequently to those we are now alluding to 
 by Prof. Wyman. 
 
 3 See ' Obs. et exp. sur les Animalcules,' p. 140. 
 
 4 M. Pouchet, for instance, rejected as preposterous the notion that 
 organisms could be expected to occur under such conditions, in some 
 experiments made by M. Milne-Edwards (see 'Nouvelles Experiments,' 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 349 
 
 flection, it appeared to me to be one which might very 
 possibly be erroneous. 
 
 Putrefactive or fermentative changes might not 
 always be initiated by contact of organic matter with 
 oxygen or any other gas, it might occasionally be de- 
 pendent upon the inherent instability of the organic 
 matter itself. Independently of the fact, therefore, 
 that the sealing of the flask after all the air had been 
 expelled and during ebullition of the fluid, was a much 
 simpler process than having to admit calcined air and 
 sealing the flask after it had cooled, it seemed likely 
 that the presence of a vacuum might, for other reasons, 
 sometimes prove to be a great advantage. It appeared 
 quite possible that the diminution of pressure in the 
 early stages of the experiment might favour the ini- 
 tiation of rearrangements amongst the molecules of the 
 dissolved organic substances, whilst the absence of air 
 might permit these changes to go much further than 
 they could have done if calcined air had been present, 
 because the vacuum would afford a space into which 
 residual gases might collect without at once inducing 
 an undue amount of pressure within the flask 1 . Ex- 
 
 1864, p. 12, note); whilst on another page he says: 'La presence de 
 Tair parait etre 1'une des conditions fondam en tales de la fermentation. 
 Plus il est abondant plus elle semble active. Si on le confine, ou s'il 
 manque, cet acte chimique est paralys ou absolument entrave.' (p. 156.) 
 1 I was actually led to adopt this important modification, perhaps, by 
 a mere chance. In the spring of last year Mr. Temple Orme, of 
 University College, had kindly undertaken to perform some experiments 
 with me bearing upon this subject. One day, however, he told me he 
 
350 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 cessive pressure certainly does occur, and occasionally it 
 has been so extreme as to cause a rupture of the vessel 1 . 
 The tension within the flask was thought likely to be 
 especially unfavourable to the occurrence of fermen- 
 tation or putrefaction, since it had been experimentally 
 proved by Mr. Sorby 2 that pressure does undoubtedly 
 influence c chemical changes taking place slowly,' and 
 which are therefore c probably due to weak or nearly 
 counterbalanced affinities.' This influence of pressure 
 in checking chemical change is more especially seen in 
 cases where the chemical actions are accompanied by 
 the evolution of a gas. So that, as Mr. Sorby adds, c it 
 may cause a compound to be permanent, which would 
 otherwise be decomposed/ For these reasons I was led 
 to adopt 'the following method of experimentation : 
 After each flask had been thoroughly cleaned with 
 
 had boiled an infusion of hay for four hours, and had then hermetically 
 sealed the neck of the flask whilst ebullition continued. In this way a 
 more or less perfect vacuum was procured. This he did as a sort of 
 tentative experiment ; but it was then, on thinking over the subject, that 
 I resolved to give the plan a thorough trial, as it appeared to me that 
 by so doing I should be working under conditions which were most in 
 accordance with the theory of evolution. I performed four experiments 
 at that time in concert with Mr. Temple Orme, with hay infusions, 
 which had been boiled for four hours, and had then been sealed up in 
 vacua. In each of these fluids, organisms were found after a com- 
 paratively short time. These were the first experiments performed 
 under such conditions. In my subsequent work I have not had the 
 benefit of Mr. Orme's personal assistance, although I have frequently 
 profited by suggestions which he has made. 
 
 1 ' Essays on Physiological Subjects,' 2nd ed., 1869, pp. 113, 114. 
 
 2 Bakerian Lecture ' On the Direct Correlation of Mechanical and 
 Chemical Forces.' (Proceed, of Royal Society, 186.3, pp. 546 and 539.) 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 351 
 
 boiling water, three-fourths of it was filled with the 
 fluid which was to be made the subject of experiment. 
 With the aid of a small hand blow-pipe and the spirit- 
 lamp flame, the neck of the flask 1 , about three inches 
 from its bulb, was then drawn out till it was less than 
 a line in diameter. The neck having been cut across 
 in this situation, the fluid within the flask was boiled 
 continuously for a period of from ten to twenty 
 minutes. At first, ebullition was allowed to take place 
 rapidly (till some of the fluid itself frothed over) so as 
 to procure the more thorough expulsion of the air; then 
 the boiling was maintained for a time at medium 
 violence over the flame of a spirit-lamp, whilst the 
 greatly attenuated neck of the flask was heated in the 
 flame of another spirit-lamp placed at a suitable 
 elevation. The steam for a time poured out violently 
 into the flame of the lamp; and whilst my assistant 
 slightly moved the other lamp, so as to diminish still 
 further the violence of the ebullition, I directed the 
 blow-pipe flame upon the narrow neck of the flask, and 
 sealed it hermetically. When the orifice was closed, 
 the heat was immediately withdrawn from the body of 
 the flask. 
 
 After a little practice I soon became able to procure 
 in this way a tolerably perfect vacuum. Even though 
 the vessels were so small, momentary ebullition could 
 generally be renewed again and again for the space of 
 
 1 They were generally small, capable of containing from three-quarters 
 of an ounce to one ounce and a hah" of fluid. 
 
352 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 five minutes after they had been hermetically sealed, by 
 the mere application of one of my fingers, which had 
 been dipped in cold water, to a portion of the glass 
 above the level of the fluid. The water-hammer effect 
 was also very obvious, in those which were tested in 
 this fashion. 
 
 I believe that an almost perfect vacuum can be 
 produced in this way. During the first violent 
 ebullition the air is driven out of the flask by the fluid, 
 and as ebullition is continuously kept up after this till 
 the flask is hermetically sealed, there is always an 
 outpouring of heated vapour, and no opportunity for 
 re-ingress of air. But even, if in any given case, the 
 vacuum should not prove to be absolute, it does not 
 seem to me that there would be any material abate- 
 ment from the severity of the conditions which strict 
 experimentation would demand. If, on the one hand, 
 absolutely the whole of the air had not been expelled 
 from the flasks during the process of ebullition, what 
 remained would necessarily be mixed up with a very 
 much larger quantity of continually renewed steam, 
 and the effect would probably be that any living 
 things would be just as effectually and destructively 
 heated in this as if they were lodged in the boiling 
 solution itself; whilst if, on the other hand, the boiling 
 had been arrested for one or two seconds before the 
 complete closure of the almost capillary orifice at the 
 mouth of the flask, and any air had entered, it would 
 have had first to pass through the blow-pipe flame, and 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 353 
 
 then through the white-hot capillary orifice it would, 
 in fact, have been calcined as in Schwann's experiment. 
 The conditions of the experiment would thus have been 
 no less severe, and the only effect would be that the 
 vacuum (with which I prefer to work) would have been 
 rendered by so much the less complete. These remarks 
 are made with the view of meeting possible criticism. 
 It should be remembered, however, that M. Pasteur 
 always adopted this method when he wished to preserve 
 solutions for a time m vacua ] . 
 
 After the flasks had been prepared in the way above 
 mentioned, they were kept in a warm place in which 
 the temperature could be maintained at night. Some 
 have been suspended in the air, whilst others have been 
 immersed in a water-bath heated by a spirit-lamp. So 
 far as I have been able to ascertain, the temperature to 
 which they have been subjected has mostly ranged 
 
 1 Whenever he desired to make comparative trials with the air of 
 different localities, the solutions which had been prepared in this way 
 were considered by him to be contained in vacuo. The necks of the 
 flasks were broken in the several localities, in order that they might 
 become filled with the ordinary air of the respective places. After this 
 had been done the flasks were re-sealed and kept for future observation of 
 their contained fluids. M. Pasteur, M. Pouchet, and others who adopted 
 this method, carried away their experimental fluids in vacuo, during a two 
 or three days' journey to the Alps or to the Pyrenees, and it never seemed 
 to have occurred to either of them that evolutional changes might be 
 taking place during the interval. M. Pasteur, in fact, habitually shut his 
 eyes to all such possibilities ; they did not come within the range of what 
 he considered possible. Such thoughts might, however, have suggested 
 themselves to M. Pouchet and others, had they not imagined that 
 evolution in vacuo was an impossibility. 
 
 A a 
 
354 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 between 75-86F (23-29C), though occasionally it 
 has been even higher than this. Sometimes the flasks 
 have been exposed to the lower temperature and some- 
 times to the higher, and I suspect that a variation of 
 this kind may perhaps be more favourable for the 
 production of evolutional changes than maintenance at 
 a constant temperature. 
 
 In detailing the results of the following experiments, 
 I shall not enter into any minute description of the 
 organisms found. The main object throughout has 
 been to obtain evidence on the subject as to whether a 
 de novo evolution of living things could or could not 
 take place. Occasionally only small portions of the 
 experimental fluids have been examined. If, for 
 instance, what was found in the first few drops of the 
 fluid left no doubt in my mind as to the nature and 
 abundance of some living things contained therein, the 
 remaining portions of the fluid were frequently not 
 scrutinized. 
 
 Seeing that M. Pasteur and others admit that organ- 
 isms are to be met with in neutral or slightly alkaline 
 fluids, treated in the manner adopted by Schwann ! , 
 I will only mention the fact that neutral solutions of 
 hay, mutton, beef, and other substances have also 
 readily yielded organisms in the course of a few days 
 when treated in the manner just described. With 
 respect to acid solutions, however, M. Pasteur's verdict 
 
 1 M. Pasteur's explanation of this fact will be subsequently considered. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 355 
 
 is different. c These,' he says, c are uniformly sterile ; 
 and the sterility is to be accounted for by the fact that 
 all the lower organisms and their germs are destroyed 
 in an acid fluid raised to the boiling point.' 
 
 The latter statement seems to be quite true ; the 
 former, however, is one which has been negatived by 
 the experience of others, and which now may be shown 
 to be altogether erroneous. Alterations in the nature 
 of the fluid employed, or in the method of experimenta- 
 tion either singly or in combination easily show the 
 untenability of M. Pasteur's conclusion with respect to 
 the sterility of acid fluids. 
 
 A. Experiments in which the fluids were raised to 
 a temperature of 2i2F for from 10 to 20 minutes, 
 and in which the flasks were hermetically sealed whilst 
 the fluids were still boiling. 
 
 SERIES a. Fluids employed being filtered infusions, containing 
 organic matter in solution and having an acid reaction. 
 
 Experiment i. A closed flask containing a very strong 
 infusion of hay (boiled for five minutes), to which had 
 been added ?nr th part of carbolic acid, was opened twelve 
 days after it had been hermetically sealed. 
 
 The solution remained quite clear for the first four 
 days, but on the fifth day a small quantity of a 
 powdery sediment was observed, and also one small, 
 grey, flake-like mass. On the seventh day more minute 
 
 A a 2 
 
356 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 flakes were noticed, and also a slight general turbidity 
 of the fluid. The turbidity and deposit having slightly 
 increased, the flask was opened on the twelfth day. 
 The vacuum was found to have been only very slightly 
 impaired ; and the reaction of the fluid was still very 
 strongly acid. 
 
 On microscopical examination of some of the 
 deposit there were found, amongst granular flakes and 
 aggregations, a large number of Torula cells of most 
 various shapes and sizes ; also, in the midst of granule- 
 heaps, many large, rounded or ovoidal, densely granular, 
 
 FIG. 23. 
 
 Organisms found in an Infusion of Hay, plus one-twentieth part 
 of Carbolic Acid. ( X 800.) 
 
 nucleated bodies whose average size was y-gVir" i* 1 
 diameter, though there were many much larger, and 
 others even less than half this size. Intertwined 
 amongst the granular matter also were a large number 
 of algoid filaments ^^Q -$>' in diameter, containing seg- 
 mented protoplasmic contents. There were also in the 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 357 
 
 fluid itself a number of medium-sized, unsegmented 
 Bacteria, whose movements were somewhat languid \ 
 
 Experiment 2. A closed flask containing a filtered 
 infusion 2 of turnip, was opened five days after it had 
 been hermetically sealed. 
 
 On the second day after the flask had been sealed, 
 the previously clear solution began to exhibit a cloudy 
 appearance. The next day a reticulated scum was seen 
 on the surface of the fluid, which gradually became 
 more manifest on the two following days. When the 
 neck of the flask was opened, its contents were found 
 to emit a most foetid, sickly odour. 
 
 Microscopical examination revealed Bacteria, and a 
 very large number of Vibriones mostly without joints 
 some straight and others bent, some motionless and 
 others exhibiting languid movements. These, mixed 
 up with a thickly interlaced network of Leptothrix 
 
 1 This experiment was one of a series of six, in which the same hay 
 solution was employed (see Appendix C, pp. xlii-xlvi). A flask in 
 which the hay solution had been boiled without any addition of carbolic 
 acid, and which had been sealed after the solution had become cool and 
 the flask was full of ordinary air, yielded no organisms. 
 
 2 This and other infusions of a similar nature have been prepared by 
 cutting a portion of white turnip into small thin slices, and then pour- 
 ing warm water upon them (in a suitable vessel) up to rather above 
 the level which they alone had reached. The infusions were then 
 allowed to stand near a fire for three or four hours, so as to keep them 
 at a temperature of from no-i3OF. Nothing is easier than to obtain 
 negative results in such experiments : it is only necessary to use weak 
 infusions, more especially if, during their preparation, they have been 
 kept for a prolonged period at a temperature near to that of boiling 
 water, instead of at a heat which can be supported by the finger. 
 
358 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 filaments, constituted the reticulated pellicle which was 
 seen on the surface. The Leptothrix fibres were partly 
 plain, and partly segmented; they presented except 
 in respect of their length an appearance almost pre- 
 
 FIG. 24. 
 
 Bacteria, Vibriones, and Leptothrix filaments met with in a Turnip Infusion 
 which had been only five days in vacuo. ( X 800.) 
 
 cisely similar to the Vibriones. The long filaments 
 seemed, in fact, to be only developed forms of the shorter 
 rod-like bodies. 
 
 Experiment 3. A closed flask containing an infusion 
 of turnip 1 , was opened seventeen days after it had been 
 hermetically sealed. 
 
 The fluid never exhibited any distinct turbidity, and 
 no pellicle formed on the surface ; there was, however, 
 an irregular covering of the bottom of the flask by fine 
 granular matter, with here and there a small patch of 
 filamentous-looking substance. No bad odour was 
 perceived when the flask was opened. 
 
 1 See note 2, p. 357. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 359 
 
 Unfortunately, just as I was proceeding to examine 
 the contents microscopically, nearly all the fluid was 
 lost, including the filamentous-looking masses. Exami- 
 nation of a few drops of the fluid which remained 
 showed a very large number of plastide-particles and 
 'Bacteria. 
 
 'Experiment 4. A closed flask containing an infusion 
 of turnip was opened seven days after it had been 
 hermetically sealed. 
 
 The solution itself was much clouded, and its surface 
 was covered by a thick gelatinous pellicle. 
 
 On microscopical examination of the fluid it was 
 found to contain a multitude of plastide-particles and 
 very active Bacteria, The thick gelatinous pellicle 
 was also made up of an aggregation of these in the 
 usual transparent mucoid material. In very many situ- 
 ations this uniform pellicle was undergoing a process 
 of heterogenetic organisation^ such as will be more fully 
 described hereafter. 
 
 Experiment 5. A flask containing a very strong infu- 
 sion of turnip was opened fifteen days after it had been 
 hermetically sealed. 
 
 The solution itself was very cloudy, and there was on 
 its surface a thick coriaceous sort of pellicle marked by 
 more closely-set aggregations or islets of denser growth. 
 
 On microscopical examination the fluid was found to 
 contain a multitude of plastide-particles and very active 
 Bacteria. The Bacteria were almost more active than any 
 I had before seen, and there were many different kinds. 
 
360 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 Some exhibited rapid serpentine movements, accom- 
 panied by flexions of the two segments of which they 
 are composed j whilst the movements of others were 
 rapidly progressive in straight or curved lines. 
 
 The pellicle was made up mainly of simple Leptothrix 
 filaments (mostly without joints or evidences of seg- 
 mentation) j and the thicker islets were found to be 
 produced by a more luxuriant growth in these situations 
 of densely interwoven filaments. 
 
 The pellicle was found to be so tough and elastic 
 that some of it could only be mounted as a micro- 
 scopical specimen after it had been compressed for an 
 hour or two, by placing a small weight on the covering 
 glass. 
 
 It would be useless to quote other experiments of 
 the same kind, though many others have been made with 
 similarly positive results. Those in which a hay infusion 
 acidified by carbolic acid has been employed are 
 most especially interesting. In no case has a properly 
 prepared infusion of turnip failed to yield an abundance 
 of living organisms in the course of from two to six 
 days, although the reaction of the infusion has always 
 been decidedly acid. A distinct pellicle, however, only 
 forms occasionally. If a clear solution becomes turbid 
 in a few days, with or without the formation of a thick 
 pellicle, and if on microscopical examination the cause 
 of the turbidity or the constituents of the pellicle have 
 been found to be Bacteria^ Vibriones^ or Leptothrtx fila- 
 

 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 361 
 
 ments, no fair critic could reasonably object to the in- 
 ference that the organisms found were living, simply 
 because they only exhibited languid movements more or 
 less indistinguishable from mere molecular or Brownian 
 movements. The property of reproduction is a fun- 
 damental attribute of living things ; the power of 
 performing extensive movements is not. That repro- 
 duction has taken place must be obvious to all. How 
 else could a clear fluid, within an hermetically-sealed 
 vessel, become turbid owing to the presence of myriads 
 of Bacteria ? How else could a thick pellicle form on 
 such a solution composed of densely interlaced Bacteria., 
 Vibricnes^ and Leptotkrix filaments? And, moreover, 
 although in the fluid from some of the flasks the move- 
 ments of the contained Bacteria were so languid as to be 
 scarcely distinguishable from Brownian movements, in 
 that of others (as, for instance, in Exps. 4 and 5) the 
 movements were very active and unmistakeably vital. 
 That the vessels were in no way cracked, and that the 
 vacuum was in some cases still partially preserved, I 
 have thoroughly satisfied myself 1 . For the rest, the 
 
 1 This is easily done by carefully heating the end of the neck of the 
 flask (before breaking it), and then softening it with the blow-pipe 
 flame. The insinking of the softened glass is a sure sign that the 
 vacuum is still more or less preserved. The amount of gas liberated 
 in different cases varies very much. In many instances it is not suffi- 
 cient to establish an equilibrium with the external atmospheric pressure, 
 though occasionally (even when the fluids were originally contained 
 in vacua) the internal tension from liberated gases exceeds the external 
 atmospheric pressure. 
 
362 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 experiments can be easily repeated by any one who is 
 desirous of seeing such results for himself. 
 
 In the next series of experiments, ammoniacal and 
 other saline solutions have been employed. At present, 
 we have to do with these simply as acid solutions in 
 which living organisms have been procured. The pre- 
 sence of living organisms in such solutions, after ebulli- 
 tion and other proper precautions, being, in accordance 
 with the admissions of M. Pasteur, only compatible 
 with the de novo origination of those which first 
 appear. 
 
 I was induced to employ saline solutions for various 
 reasons. In the first place, after having read M. Pas- 
 teur's statements, concerning the growth and develop- 
 ment of Fungi which had been placed in saline solutions 1 , 
 it occurred to me that it would be a subject of much 
 interest to determine whether any evidence could be 
 obtained, tending to show that organisms might even be 
 evolved de now in certain fluids of a similar character. 
 This, in fact, seemed to be a problem of very great im- 
 portance j for, if otherwise suitable, the employment of 
 such saline solutions would be attended by certain 
 advantages. It appeared likely that the saline mate- 
 rials in solution would be far less- injured by the 
 high temperature of 2i2F than organic substances. 
 We should thus, also, best prepare ourselves to be 
 brought face to face with the problem Whether the 
 pre-existence of organic matter, which has been elabo- 
 
 J Loc. cit, p. 100. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 363 
 
 rated in pre-existing organisms, is, at present, absolutely 
 necessary for the de novo origination of living things , 
 or whether, in fact, these may arise, more or less 
 directly, by changes taking place in an aggregation of 
 new-formed molecules of an organic type \ 
 
 At present, however, no special precautions have 
 been taken to ensure the purity of the chemical sub- 
 stances employed. These may, and sometimes did 
 undoubtedly contain organic impurities, so that the fol- 
 lowing experiments are simply quoted as instances in 
 which more or less acid fluids, containing at all events 
 a very large proportion of saline ingredients, have 
 proved productive of living organisms when treated in 
 the way already described. 
 
 SERIES b. Saline Solutions having an acid reaction. 
 
 Experiment i. A closed flask containing a solution 
 of ferric and ammonic citrate 2 in distilled water (gr. x. 
 to |j.) was opened 29 days after it had been hermetically 
 sealed. 
 
 A small amount of powder-like sediment had gra- 
 dually collected at the bottom of the flask, though there 
 was no general turbidity of the fluid. Before the flask 
 was opened it was ascertained that the vacuum was still 
 
 1 These having themselves arisen by the combination of some of the 
 dissociated elements of the saline substances employed. 
 
 2 Some of the purest that could be obtained, from Messrs. Hopkin 
 and Williams. 
 
364 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 partially preserved. The reaction of the fluid was found 
 to remain slightly acid. 
 
 On microscopical examination of the sediment, Bac- 
 teria were found, having moderately active movements 
 though they were not very numerous. There were 
 many granular aggregations, from the midst of which 
 were growing Leptotkrix filaments, though the organisms 
 
 FIG. 25. 
 
 Torula, Leptothrix, and Bacteria found in simple Solution of 
 Ferric and Ammonic Citrate. ( x 800.) 
 
 which were most abundant were Torula cells of different 
 sizes, many of which were provided with a segment 
 across their short diameter, whilst each half contained 
 a nuclear particle. These Torula cells had a uniform 
 very faint greenish hue, and homogeneous contents. 
 They often existed in groups of 1 3-20, or more. 
 
 Experiment 2. A closed flask containing a solution of 
 ferric and ammonic citrate, together with a few minute 
 fibres of deal wood (much less than half a grain), was 
 opened 42 days after it had been hermetically sealed. 
 
 The fluid continued clear and there was no pellicle on 
 the surface, though, after the first two weeks a slight 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 365 
 
 deposit began to collect at the bottom of the flask, 
 which slowly increased in quantity. 
 
 On opening the flask the reaction of the fluid was 
 found to be still slightly acid; and on microscopical 
 examination of the deposit several different kinds of 
 organisms were discovered in and amongst the granular 
 aggregations of which it was in great part composed. 
 Many minute fragments of deal wood dotted ducts, 
 6cc. were also intermixed. 
 
 Amongst the organisms were perfectly-formed Bacteria, 
 about T -^/' in length, which were very numerous and 
 extremely active , several long unsegmented Leptothrix 
 filaments, ^-g^" in diameter ; many oat-shaped Torula 
 corpuscles, about ^W in length ; three or four spherical 
 
 FIG. 26. 
 
 Bacteria, Leptothrix, Torulce, and other organisms found in a Solution of 
 Ferric and Ammonic Citrate, plus some minute fragments of deal 
 wood. ( x 800.) 
 
 or ovoid fungus-spores, each having a large central 
 nucleus, and others rather smaller, having granules 
 within instead of a distinct nucleus; also, partly 
 imbedded in one of the granular aggregations was a 
 
366 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE, 
 
 distinct cellular body, -^^' in diameter, having a 
 sharply-defined border and finely-granular contents, 
 in the midst of which was a large nucleus. A thick 
 hyaline capsule seemed to shut it off from the granular 
 matrix in which it was imbedded. And, lastly, there 
 were a number of bodies closely resembling one of the 
 simplest kinds of Desmids. Some of them were single 
 ovoidal bodies, about ToW" in length, consisting of an 
 oat-shaped mass of faintly greenish protoplasm within 
 a larger delicately hyaline envelope. Others were com- 
 posite, and one mass was seen composed of four much 
 larger segments 1 . 
 
 Experiment 3. A closed flask containing a solution 
 of potash-and-ammonia alum, and of tartar emetic 2 , 
 was opened 28 days after it had been hermetically 
 sealed. The fluid then had a decidedly acid reaction. 
 
 The solution continued clear throughout ; there was 
 no trace of a pellicle and no deposit at the sides, though 
 
 1 Organisms closely resembling these have frequently been met with 
 in solutions similar to the above, even when the solutions have been 
 exposed to much higher temperatures (see vol. ii. chap. x. Exps. 8, 
 9, n and 12). And in a flask containing an inoculated solution of 
 ammonic tartrate and sodic phosphate, which had been heated to I4OF, 
 and subsequently kept for eleven weeks, bodies somewhat similar were 
 encountered. In this case, however, they were colourless, and were 
 associated with a number of more ordinary-looking Torula cells. The 
 green organisms of the iron solutions bear some resemblance to the 
 Desmids of the genus Artbrodesmus, and to the Pediastreae of the genus 
 Scenodesmus. 
 
 2 The quantities were, unfortunately, not measured. The water used 
 was not distilled, but was a pure drinkable water. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 367 
 
 a whitish flocculent niass was seen at the bottom of the 
 flask after the first fortnight, which gradually increased, 
 and at last formed a mass about " in diameter. 
 
 On microscopical examination, the white mass was 
 found to be made up of aggregations of colourless 
 particles, varying much in size and shape, and im- 
 bedded (f] in a distinct hyaline jelly-like material. 
 The granules were highly refractive, altogether ir- 
 regular in shape, and they varied in size from 3T nn/' 
 to -g-^n/' in diameter. Though most of them were 
 
 FIG. 27. 
 
 Fungus met with in a solution containing Potash-and- Ammonia 
 Alum, with Tartar Emetic, (x 600.) 
 
 motionless and imbedded in the jelly, very many were 
 seen exhibiting active and independent movements; 
 some of these were in the form of little double 
 spherules (</), and a very few others resembled Bacteria 
 about sin/' in diameter, though they did not possess 
 the accustomed joint. 
 
368 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 Three fungus-spores with thick double walls were 
 seen. Each of these was about ^Vrr" ^ n diameter. 
 Within one of them there were only a number of 
 granular particles (c], but within each of the other two 
 there was a large and somewhat irregular nuclear mass. 
 
 In addition there was found the complete fungus 
 which is represented in the figure (a), with all its 
 spores, and in a portion of one of the granular aggrega- 
 tions, a mass of about thirty spores seemed to be under- 
 going evolution, by a differentiation of mucoid material 
 through which some fine granules were disseminated. 
 
 Experiment 4. A closed flask containing a solution 
 of neutral ammonic tartrate and neutral sodic phos- 
 phate 1 was opened on the 75th day after it had been 
 sealed 2 . 
 
 Before the opening of the flask it was ascertained 3 
 that the vacuum had been well preserved. The reaction 
 of the fluid was still slightly acid. For a long time the 
 contents of the flask seemed to remain unaltered, though 
 for the last few weeks a very small amount of greyish 
 deposit had collected at the bottom of the vessel. 
 
 When examined microscopically this deposit was 
 found to be principally made up of amorphous granules, 
 
 1 In the proportion of gr. xv. of the former to gr. v. of the latter in one 
 ounce of distilled water. 
 
 2 The flask having been kept during this time in a warm water-bath 
 which was constantly maintained at a temperature of 95-90 F. 
 
 3 By the inbending of the neck of the flask when heated. It had been 
 kept with its neck immersed in the fluid, so that if this had become 
 cracked the bath fluid would have been sucked into the flask. 
 
7 HE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 369 
 
 colourless and irregular in size, amongst which were a 
 number of minute Toru/a-cells, scattered here and there 
 
 ' 
 
 FIG. 28. 
 
 Torulce obtained from a Solution of Ammonic Tartrate and Sodic 
 Phosphate. (X 800.) 
 
 both singly and in groups. No other kind of living 
 thing was met with. 
 
 Some of this granular matter with Torulz was 
 mounted as a microscopical specimen, in a mixture 
 of glycerine and carbolic acid (16 : i), and in the course 
 of two weeks it was found that the Torulx had notably 
 increased in size and in number beneath the cemented 
 covering-glass. 
 
 'Experiment 5. A flask containing a solution of 
 ammonic tartrate and sodic phosphate was opened 
 twenty days after it had been hermetically scaled. The 
 reaction of the fluid was then decidedly acid. 
 
 The fluid itself showed no signs of turbidity, and 
 there was no trace of scum on its surface. Small 
 whitish flocculent shreds had, however, been seen at the 
 bottom of the flask for the last twelve or fourteen days, 
 during which time they seemed very slowly to increase 
 in size. Some smaller sedimentary particles were also 
 seen. 
 
 B b 
 
370 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 On microscopical examination, some of the white 
 shreds were found to be composed of comparatively 
 large masses of small, colourless, algoid filaments; 
 whilst others were made up of aggregations of fungus- 
 spores with an abundant mycelium which had been 
 developed from them. The spores were rounded or 
 oval, thick-walled bodies, varying very much in size. 
 The largest of them were about -r^W" in diameter. 
 Some of them were about to germinate, and these 
 exhibited a rudimentary truncated outgrowth at 
 one extremity \ whilst others had germinated into 
 a fungus of the Pemcillium type. In one mass the 
 mycelium had produced four or five much larger fila- 
 ments, terminating in artichoke-like heads of different 
 sizes, bearing naked spores 2 . All gradations in size 
 
 1 Some of my critics speak of this as a 'hilum,' and look upon its 
 presence as unmistakeable evidence that the spore came from a parent 
 Fungus. At all events, such a ' hilum ' is not presented by very many 
 spores, and its absence from any of them does not seem reconcilable 
 with this hypothesis. Other evidence shows unmistakeably that it is a 
 rudimentary outgrowth, representing merely the first commencement of 
 the mycelial filament which ultimately develops. 
 
 2 Other critics seem to think it impossible that such heads of fructifi- 
 cation could be developed in a fluid, and therefore express ominous 
 doubts about my statements. Fungi of this type, however, were described 
 several years ago by M. Pouchet (' Nouvelles Experiences,' Paris, 1864, 
 p, 1 80), who says : ' Parmi les especes submergees, celle a laquelle je 
 donne le nom de Pemcillium submersum est assure'ment la plus com- 
 mune. Elle offre un mycelium k filaments tres-fins, tres long, rameux, 
 articules, fistuleux. Les pedicelles sont simples, excessivement greles, 
 articules, long et offrent cinq k six cloisons. Le pinceau terminal est 
 petit, peu rameux, et produit tine enorme quantite de spores arrondies. 
 .... Cette espece n'est nullement decrite, ni dans les ceuvres de 
 Bulliard, ni dans celles de Paulet ou de Corda,' 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 371 
 
 and appearance existed between the algoid-looking 
 filaments and those which were more obviously of a 
 mycelial nature. 
 
 F;G. 29. 
 
 Fungus found in a Solution containing Ammonic Tartrate and Sodic 
 Phosphate. Transitions between small Conferva-like filaments and 
 well-developed Mycelium. ( x 600.) 
 
 A small number of granules and particles of various 
 shapes were seen, though, as in the last solution, 
 there was nothing resembling a 'Bacterium. Spherules 
 which seemed to represent different stages in the 
 development of the fungus-spores were met with, 
 varying in size from that of an almost inappreciable 
 speck to that of the perfect spore which itself 
 varied considerably in size even at the time that it 
 began to germinate. In one of these fungus-spores 
 which was about halfgrown, the nuclear particle within 
 B b % 
 
372 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 was seen actively moving from end to end of the 
 cell. 
 
 Experiment 6. A flask containing a saturated solution 
 of ammonic tartrate and sodic phosphate, prepared in 
 the same manner as the last solution and at the same 
 time, though opened on the thirty-fifth day, yielded 
 no organisms of any kind. 
 
 Experiment J. A closed flask containing a solution 
 of ammonic acetate and sodic phosphate was opened 
 forty-two days after it had been hermetically sealed. 
 
 The solution during this time had shown no signs of 
 deposit, turbidity, or pellicle, and on microscopical 
 examination of the fluid, no organisms of any kind were 
 discovered. 
 
 All the fluids in the experiments hitherto related were 
 subjected to a temperature of 212 F. It has been pre- 
 viously ascertained that none of the lower organisms 
 which had been so treated and afterwards examined were 
 able to survive an exposure for a few seconds to such a 
 degree of heat. They had nearly all been destroyed, in 
 fact, at a temperature many degrees short of this 1 . Many 
 different kinds of organisms have been submitted to 
 this test, and without the occurrence of any exceptions 2 
 
 1 See pp. 325-336. 
 
 2 No exceptions, that is, amongst such organisms as are met with in 
 infusions. The only known exceptions to that rule being met with in 
 the case of seeds, naturally provided with a hard testa, which had under- 
 gone nn extreme amount of desiccation (see p. 314, note i). 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 373 
 
 such a degree of heat has always proved fatal to them. 
 Looking therefore, on the one hand, at the uniformity 
 in the experimental evidence, which has itself extended 
 over a wide basis, and on the other, at the comparative 
 uniformity in fundamental nature and property existing 
 between all the lowest kinds of living things which 
 are almost wholly made up of a more or less naked 
 living matter or protoplasm it is only reasonable for us 
 to conclude, until direct evidence can be adduced to the 
 contrary, that that which holds good for the many 
 without exception, may prove to be a rule of universal 
 application. Therefore it was that the commission 
 appointed by the Societe de Biologic (and M. Pasteur 
 himself for a long time) assumed that none of the lower 
 kind of organisms could survive in a fluid which was 
 raised to a temperature of 2i2F. 
 
 No evidence has as yet been adduced which is capable 
 of shaking the validity of this conclusion, so that the 
 experiments just related afford strong evidence in favour 
 of the view that the organisms found in my experimental 
 fluids were there evolved de novo. Other experiments 
 with negative results, in the face of these, cannot prove 
 the impossibility of such a mode of evolution. And yet 
 the experiments of Schwann and others were deemed by 
 many to have conclusively upset the doctrines of the 
 evolutionists. The particular fluids with which they 
 experimented were only exposed to a temperature of 
 2I2F, but they worked under a set of conditions which, 
 are considered by many to be particularly adverse to the 
 
374 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. . 
 
 occurrence of fermentation, so that they often found 
 no organisms when their flasks were opened. But on 
 subjecting other experimental fluids to the same tem- 
 perature, though exposing them subsequently to quite 
 different conditions supposed by myself to be more 
 favourable for the occurrence of fermentative changes 
 I do find organisms in the fluids when the flasks are 
 opened, 
 
 It must then never be lost sight of that the negative 
 results of Schwann, M. Pasteur, and others, may be only 
 applicable to the particular fluids and the particular 
 conditions under which they worked; but the multi- 
 tudes of positive results legitimately obtained by myself 
 and other experimenters, must have a most important 
 bearing upon the settlement of the general doctrine. 
 
 As previously stated, M. Pasteur himself for a long 
 time obtained only negative results in repeating the 
 experiments of Schwann. In his earlier investigations 
 he had generally made use of c Feau de levure sucree,' 
 of urine, or of some other fluid which was naturally 
 unfitted to undergo fermentative changes of marked 
 intensity, or even to nourish the higher infusorial organ- 
 isms 1 . But there came a time when M. Pasteur chanced 
 
 1 Whether the organisms found in a given fluid have been actually 
 produced therein, or have only undergone development in it, we may, 
 for the sake of argument, measure the evolutional capacity of a fluid by 
 the amount and kinds of organisms which are produced in a given 
 quantity of it, in a definite time, and at a given temperature. We cer- 
 tainly must not judge of the evolutional qualities of a fluid by its mere 
 tendency to emit a bad odour in a short space of time. A certain fluid 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 375 
 
 to repeat his experiments, using precisely the same pre- 
 cautions as before, and yet the results were quite 
 different organisms were now found in his solutions. 
 There was one important difference, it is true. In 
 these latter experiments, M. Pasteur had made use of 
 milk. Now the quantity of organic matter contained 
 in milk is, of course, very great ; it is a highly nutritive 
 and complex fluid. It might, therefore, and ought, per- 
 haps, to have suggested itself to M. Pasteur that the 
 different results of his later experiments were possibly 
 explicable on the supposition that the restrictive con- 
 ditions the boiling of the solution, and the closed 
 vessel already containing air were too potent to be 
 overcome by the organic matter in the one solution, 
 whilst they were not too potent, and could not prevent 
 fermentative changes taking place in that of the other. 
 
 urine, for instance judged by these qualities, may be disagreeably 
 putrescible, though its evolutional tendencies may be quite low. By 
 many experimenters this difference has not been appreciated, and they 
 seem to imagine that in employing urine they make use of a fluid which 
 is very favourable for such experiments forgetting, apparently, that urine 
 is an effete product containing comparatively stable compounds, which 
 have already done their work in the body. It may after a short time 
 swarm with Bacteria, and these may be followed by fungi ; but there is 
 no comparison even as to the actual quantity of these organisms, that 
 may be developed in equal amounts of milk and urine respectively 
 when both are exposed to the air for the same time in similarly- 
 shaped vessels, and under the same bell-jar. The milk soon becomes 
 actually solid with fungus growths. M. Pasteur's '1'eau de levfne 
 sucree,' by his own confession (loc. cit. note, p. 58), is never found to 
 contain any of the higher ciliated infusoria, and though it produces 
 fungi, they are met with in much smaller quantity than in an equal bulk 
 of milk under similar conditions. 
 
376 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 For if, in accordance with the belief of the evolutionists, 
 different organic fluids have different initial tendencies 
 to undergo fermentation (leading to the evolution of 
 living things), it may be easily understood, that as the 
 conditions favourable to fermentation are more and more 
 restricted, certain of these fluids may altogether cease 
 to undergo such changes, others may manifest them to 
 a meagre extent, and others still, only a little more 
 fully l . When subjected to a pressure of one atmo- 
 sphere,, do we not find that water boils at cu2F, 
 alcohol at 1 73 F, and ether at 96 F ? The restric- 
 tive condition, or atmospheric pressure, is here in 
 each case the same, only, having to do with differ- 
 ently constituted fluids, it is natural enough to look for 
 different results under the influence of like incident 
 forces. Ether raised to a temperature of ioo D F would 
 rapidly disappear in the form of vapour, though no such 
 result would follow the heating of water to the same 
 extent. And similarly, whilst milk might be capable of 
 yielding organisms in Schwann's apparatus, another fluid 
 less rich in organic matter might fail to do so. It seems 
 almost incredible that such considerations should not 
 
 1 Referring to repetitions of Spallanzani's experiments made in conceit 
 with Prof. Oehl, Prof. Cantoni says (Gaz. Med. Ital. Lombard, t. i. 
 1 868) : ' E in fatto, preparando diversi palloni, egualmente scaldati a 
 100, con sugo di carne a vario grado di diluzione, riconoscemmo che, 
 mentre in alcune s' aveva un pronto e ricco sviluppo di infusorj, in altre 
 esso era tardo e scarso, ed in altre ancora mancava affatto ancor dopo 
 molti giorni dalla preparazione.' And even the strongest solution will 
 yield similarly varying results, when exposed to successively lower atmo- 
 spheric temperatures. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 377 
 
 have suggested themselves to M. Pasteur ; but yet we 
 have no mention of them, or any evidence that they had 
 been considered l . He explains the discrepancy between 
 his earlier and his later experiments by reference to a 
 completely different supposition, and, as on other occa- 
 sions, he does not even suggest to the reader that any 
 different explanation is possible from that which he 
 adduces. He at once assumes that the Bacteria and 
 Vibr'tones which were ultimately found in the milk used 
 in these experiments had been derived from ' germs ' of 
 such organisms which either preexisted in, or had ob- 
 tained access to this fluid before it had been heated, 
 and also (contrary to the general rule which had been 
 previously admitted) he assumed that such supposed 
 preexisting germs were capable of resisting the influ- 
 ence of the heat which causes milk to boil. No direct 
 proof of the latter assumption was ever attempted, 
 though M. Pasteur did afterwards endeavour to bring 
 the cases in which organisms were to be met with 
 under a general law : he supposed that the results ob- 
 tained were due to the absence of acidity in the fluids 
 employed. Neutral or slightly alkaline fluids might 
 yield positive results in repeating Schwann's experi- 
 ments, because, as he alleged, the c germs' of Bacteria 
 and Vibriones were not destroyed by the temperature of 
 2i2F in such fluids. 
 
 1 The experiments and reasonings to which I now allude are 
 detailed in pp. 58-66 of M. Pasteur's Memoir (' Ann. de Chim. et de 
 Phys.' 1862). 
 
378 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 Such was the very definite statement made by M. 
 Pasteur on the faith of a chain of evidence of which 
 almost every link is ambiguous. He did not even 
 allude to the desirability of making direct observations 
 upon this subject. They lend not the least support 
 to his assumption, however ; on the contrary, they go 
 to confirm the rule which had hitherto been generally 
 admitted, as to the inability of any of these lower 
 organisms to live after an exposure for even a few 
 seconds in a fluid raised to a temperature of 2i2F. 
 I have again and again boiled neutral and alkaline 
 infusions containing very active Bacteria and Vibriones^ 
 and the result has always been a more or less complete 
 disruption of the Vtbriones^ and the disappearance of 
 all unmistakeable signs of life in the Bacteria 1 . All 
 their peculiarly vital movements have at once ceased, 
 and it has been shown by the evidence detailed in the 
 last chapter, that these . organisms and any c germs,' 
 visible or invisible 2 , by which they multiply, have been 
 really killed by an exposure to even a much lower 
 degree of heat. 
 
 1 The results with neutral hay infusions have not seemed to differ at 
 all from those which were obtained with slightly acid turnip infusions, 
 or solutions of ammonic tartrate and sodic phosphate. See p. 318 and 
 p. 33 2, note I . It seems a vague supposition to imagine that either Bacteria 
 or Vibrlones have germs which are in any way differently endowed from 
 themselves. In common with other primitive living things, they are 
 only known to multiply by fission or gemmation. The separated por- 
 tions, however minute, would always resemble the parent structure, of 
 which, indeed, they are unaltered fragments. 
 
 2 See p. 332. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 379 
 
 M. Pasteur approached the solution of the discrepancy 
 in this way. His attention was arrested by the fact 
 that milk was an alkaline fluid, because he afterwards 
 ascertained that other alkaline fluids also yielded posi- 
 tive results when submitted to the conditions involved 
 in Schwann's experiments. But having satisfied him- 
 self of this, it was necessary for M. Pasteur to offer some 
 explanation, if he was not prepared to yield his assent to 
 the doctrine which he had formerly rejected. He soon 
 found, truly enough, that the mere alkalinity or acidity 
 of the solution was a matter of great importance in 
 these experiments; he ascertained, for instance, that 
 his sweetened yeast- water, naturally a faintly acid fluid, 
 was always unproductive when submitted to Schwann's 
 conditions unaltered, though it was, on the contrary, 
 always productive if it had previously been rendered 
 neutral or slightly alkaline by the addition of a little 
 carbonate of lime. Facts of this kind were observed so 
 frequently as to make him come to the conclusion that 
 whilst acid solutions were never productive in Schwann's 
 apparatus, any neutral or alkaline fluids might be, if 
 they were otherwise suitable for such experiments. 
 Then came the question as to how this was to be 
 explained. 
 
 It should be remembered that M. Pasteur was en- 
 gaged in investigating the problem of the mode of 
 origin of certain low organisms in organic fluids, con- 
 cerning which so much controversy had taken place. 
 In this controversy hitherto, it had been contended on 
 
380 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 the one hand, that the living things met with derived 
 their origin from pre-existing 'germs' that had survived 
 all the destructive conditions to which the media sup- 
 posed to contain them had been subjected , whilst, on 
 the other hand, it was contended that if the media had 
 been subjected to conditions which (by evidence the 
 most direct and positive) had been shown to be de- 
 structive to the lowest living things, then any such living 
 things as were subsequently discovered in these fluids 
 must have been evolved de novo. It was a question, 
 therefore, on the one hand, as to the degree of c vital 
 resistance' to heat which might be displayed by the 
 lowest living things; and on the other, as to the 
 strength of the tendency in the organic matter of the 
 solution to undergo changes of a fermentative cha- 
 racter, coupled with the degree to which this molecular 
 mobility could persist in spite of the disruptive agency 
 of the heat to which the organic matter had been 
 subjected. Whatever fluids arc employed, if after they 
 have been boiled and exposed to a given set of con- 
 ditions, organisms are not found, their absence is 
 explicable in one of two ways that is, in accordance 
 with either of the two opposing views. Either the heat 
 has proved destructive to all living things in the solu- 
 tions; or else the restrictive conditions to which the 
 organic matter in these solutions has been exposed have 
 been such as to prevent the occurrence of fermentative 
 changes. Any person seriously wishing to ascertain the 
 truth, and competent to deal with such a subject, of 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 381 
 
 course, would not fail to see that he was bound to give 
 equal attention to each of these possibilities. He would 
 have no right to aAume that the probabilities were 
 greater in favour of the one mode of explanation than 
 they were in favour of the other; this was the very 
 subject in dispute this it was which had to be proved. 
 When, therefore, it was definitely ascertained by M. 
 Pasteur that acid solutions employed in Schwann's ex- 
 periments yielded negative results as far as organisms 
 were concerned, the establishment of this fact was in 
 reality no more favourable to the one view than to the 
 other. It is what the panspermatists might have ex- 
 pected, it is true, because regarding it only as a 
 question of the destruction or non-destruction of germs 
 even they had convinced themselves that calcining 
 the air and boiling the fluids were adequate to destroy 
 all living things contained in these media. But on the 
 other hand, it was equally open to the evolutionists to 
 say, that the restrictive conditions employed were so 
 severe that they also were not surprised at the fermen- 
 tative changes being stopped and at the consequent 
 non-appearance of organisms in the solutions. When 
 positive results were obtained, however, the case be- 
 came altogether different. The rule with regard to the 
 inability of living things to survive in solutions which 
 had been raised to the boiling temperature for a few 
 minutes was absolute, so far as it had gone, and being 
 founded on good evidence, to which M. Pasteur and 
 others had assented, no one should have attempted to 
 
382 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE, 
 
 set it aside, except upon evidence equally direct and 
 equally positive, though more extensive than that upon 
 which the rule had been originally founded. Certainly, 
 no one should have attempted to set it aside on the 
 strength of indirect evidence, which, though equally 
 capable of explanation in accordance with either one of 
 the two opposing views, was tacitly represented to be 
 explicable only in accordance with one of them. Such, 
 however, was the course pursued by M. Pasteur. It will, 
 perhaps, scarcely be credited by many that the investiga- 
 tions of M. Pasteur, which have had so much influence, 
 and which have been looked upon by many as models of 
 scientific method, should really contain such fallacies. 
 On other important occasions, however, his reasoning 
 has been similarly defective, though he himself claimed 
 and was believed by many to have ' mathematically de- 
 monstrated ' what he had so plausibly appeared to prove. 
 In the present case, after his experiments with milk 
 in Schwann's apparatus, M. Pasteur ascertained that in 
 other alkaline or neutral fluids, even when they had 
 been subjected to all the conditions above mentioned, 
 inferior organisms might be found more or less quickly. 
 But he also discovered that even such solutions no 
 longer yielded organisms, if instead of being subjected 
 to a heat of 2i2F they were exposed for a few 
 minutes to a temperature of 230?. And it was on the 
 strength of two or three other links of such evidence 
 as this that M. Pasteur sought to upset the rule with re- 
 gard to the inability of inferior organisms to resist the 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 383 
 
 destructive influence of a moist temperature of 
 On such evidence as this he attempted to raise the 
 possible limit of vital resistance by i8F, and sought 
 to establish the rule that living organisms might survive 
 in neutral or alkaline solutions, which had been raised 
 to any temperature short of 230 F. He did not seem 
 to appreciate the fact that he had less warrant for the 
 assumption that the organisms met with in these neutral 
 or alkaline fluids had been derived from c germs * which 
 had resisted the temperature of 2i2F 5 than he or his 
 opponents would have had in falling back at once upon 
 the counter assumption, that the evolutional tendencies 
 of neutral or alkaline fluids exposed to high temperatures 
 were greater than those of similar fluids when in an 
 acid state l ; such neutral or alkaline fluids being, as 
 was now seen, capable of overcoming the restrictive 
 conditions in Schwann's experiments and of giving 
 
 1 This omission on the part of M. Pasteur is all the more remarkable 
 in the face of facts which must have been well known to such an accom- 
 plished chemist. Thus, Gerhardt says ('Chimie Organique,' t. iv. p. 
 547): ' Beaucoup de matieres qui seules ou k 1'etat humide ne 
 s'oxydent pas k 1'air, eprouvent une combustion dfcs qu'elles se trouvent 
 en contact avec un alcali. Ainsil'alcoholpur se conserve a 1'air indenni- 
 ment et sans s'aigrir ; mais, si Ton y verse un peu de potasse, il absorbe 
 promptement de 1'oxygene et se convertit en vinaigre et en une matiere 
 brune r^sineuse. II est clair, d'aprks cela, que la potasse doit favoriser 
 certaines fermentations, puisqu'elle favorise 1'absorption de I'oxyg&ne et 
 que la presence de celui-ci ddveloppe les ferments.' He also says (loc. 
 cit. p. 556) : ' On sait, que les viandes et les substances vdgetales 
 mariees dans le vinaigre sont preservees de la decomposition, au moins 
 pour un certain temps .... La plupart des acides produisent le meme 
 effet que le vinaigre/ 
 
384 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 birth to organisms, by permitting the occurrence of 
 life-evolving changes amongst the colloidal molecules 
 contained therein. He had less right to explain the 
 facts as he did, than the evolutionist would have had to 
 explain them as above mentioned, because in so doing 
 he was attempting to upset previously admitted facts 
 on insufficient evidence, whilst the reasonings of the 
 evolutionist would have been in every way legitimate. 
 And yet M. Pasteur left his readers to imagine that the 
 explanation which he had adduced was that which was 
 alone admissible ; he did not refer to the existence of 
 any other mode of explanation, but at once attempted 
 to set aside the old rule. And similarly, when he as- 
 certained that such alkaline or neutral fluids were no 
 longer found to contain organisms if they had been 
 previously submitted to a temperature of 23O F, he was 
 entitled to draw no conclusion from such facts. Never- 
 theless, M. Pasteur did assume that such ambiguous 
 evidence entitled him to come to the conclusion that the 
 hypothetical c germs' contained in these solutions 
 those which were not killed, as he supposed by a tem- 
 perature of 2i2F were destroyed by a temperature 
 of 230F. Such two-faced evidence is, however, worth- 
 less for raising the standard of c vital resistance ' 
 to heat j and to ignore the possible differences which 
 may exist, from the evolutionist's point of view, be- 
 tween acid and alkaline solutions, as M. Pasteur 
 did, is about as reasonable as if he had imagined 
 that because water does not boil at the temperature 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 385 
 
 of iooF, the same rule must necessarily hold good 
 for ether. 
 
 Much evidence, indeed, can be brought forward to 
 show that even at ordinary temperatures, and under 
 conditions in which there is a moderately free exposure 
 to the air (and where there is therefore every facility 
 for the entrance of germs), organisms are not only 
 found in a neutral or slightly alkaline solution more 
 quickly, but they are found to exist in it in much 
 greater variety than in solutions which are slightly acid, 
 but in other respects similar. Any of the higher forms 
 of Ciliated Infusoria way appear in different neutral or 
 slightly alkaline solutions, though they rarely if ever 
 present themselves in those having an acid reaction, 
 either in a developed or undeveloped condition dead 
 or living. 
 
 The amount of difference that is capable of being 
 produced by the mere acidity of a solution was well 
 seen by me a few months ago. Having prepared l a 
 mixture of white sugar and ammonic tartrate, with 
 small quantities of ammonic phosphate and sodic phos- 
 phate in distilled water., whose reaction was found to 
 be neutral, two similar, wide-mouthed bottles, of about 
 three ounces capacity, were filled with this fluid. Both 
 were kept side by side in a tolerably warm place, the 
 mouths of the bottles being merely covered in each case 
 by a piece of glass after glycerine had been smeared 
 over the rim on which the cover rested. Although not 
 
 1 Dec. 23, 1869. The weather being very cold and frosty. 
 C C 
 
386 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 hermetically sealed, these solutions were thus sufficiently 
 protected, to prevent the access of much dust from the 
 neighbouring fire. The fluid in one of the bottles was 
 allowed to remain neutral, whilst to that of the other 
 four or five drops of acetic acid were added, so as to 
 make it yield a faintly acid reaction to test paper. The 
 results were quite different in the two cases. Towards 
 the end of the fourth day the originally unaltered neutral 
 solution began to assume a cloudy appearance ; this in- 
 creased in amount during the next day, and at the close 
 of the sixth day a thin pellicle was found on the surface, 
 and beneath it there were some irregular, flocculent, 
 whitish masses buoyed up by small air bubbles. Ex- 
 amined microscopically, the pellicles and also the 
 flocculent masses beneath were found to be made up 
 of medium-sized plastide-particles and Bacteria, mixed 
 with crystals of triple phosphate. There were also 
 many scattered cells of a Torula, varying from T oW to 
 nnnn/' ^ n diameter. By this time (close of the sixth 
 day), however, the companion solution which had been 
 slightly acidified, had undergone scarcely any appreciable 
 change. It was still quite clear and transparent, and 
 there was no pellicle on the surface, though there was a 
 very slight whitish flocculent stratum at the bottom of 
 the bottle. Even on the twenty-first day this solution 
 continued in much the same condition still showing 
 no trace of a pellicle. The fluid itself was clear, and 
 there had been only a very slight increase in the thick- 
 ness of the white flocculent layer at the bottom of the 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 387 
 
 bottle. This, on microscopical examination, was found 
 to be made up mainly of a granular matter having no 
 definite character though a small number of minute 
 but well-formed Bacteria were mixed with it. The 
 acid solution had remained throughout in the same 
 warm place, but the bottle containing the neutral fluid 
 had not (after the examination on the sixth day) been re- 
 placed in its original situation near the fire : it had con- 
 tinued since this time in a part of the room altogether 
 away from the fire, and yet when this was also examined 
 on the twenty-first day, it was found to present a very 
 cloudy, whitish appearance throughout. There was also 
 a thick flocculent stratum at the bottom, and a very 
 consistent, well-marked pellicle on the surface of the 
 fluid, made up almost entirely of large and well-formed 
 Torula-cells. 
 
 Although the results here detailed, as occurring in the 
 neutral and the acidified solutions respectively, are so 
 strikingly different, still they are by no means singular 
 or peculiar to the particular kind of solution which was 
 employed in this experiment. Phenomena essentially 
 similar in kind may be observed when almost any neu- 
 tral or slightly alkaline organic infusion is employed. 
 I will quote only one out of many experiments 
 bearing upon this point. A short time ago, having 
 prepared a pretty strong infusion of mutton, about an 
 ounce and a half was put, after filtration, into each of 
 two similar flasks. One portion of the infusion was 
 allowed to remain neutral, whilst to the other three 
 
 c c 2 
 
388 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 drops of strong acetic acid were added, so as to make 
 the whole yield a faintly acid reaction to test paper. 
 The two flasks were then exposed side by side to a 
 temperature of 75 to 8oF during the day. In twenty- 
 four hours the neutral solution was clouded, and 
 more or less opaque, whilst the portion which was 
 acid appeared perfectly unchanged. It was as clear as 
 ever; and so it continued even to the end of forty-eight 
 hours, although by this time the neutral solution was 
 quite opaque and muddy-looking, with a pellicle on its 
 surface and also some flocculent deposit at the bottom 
 of the flasL A microscopical examination of two or 
 three drops of this fluid showed that it was teeming 
 with plastide-particles, and most actively moving Bac- 
 teria and Vifoiones $ whilst a similar examination of the 
 acid fluid, showed not a trace of these or of any other 
 kind of organisms \ 
 
 The difference between the results in these two sets 
 of cases was thus extremely well marked, and the 
 results themselves are well worth our serious attention. 
 We had to do with equal bulks of fluid, placed under 
 similar conditions and similarly constituted, with the 
 exception that in each set a few drops of acid bad been 
 added to the one fluid, whilst the other, was allowed to 
 remain neutral. And it must be acknowledged that the 
 difference encountered was very similar in kind to that 
 which was observed by M. Pasteur when he made use 
 
 1 The reverse restilts, which may be produced by neutralising the 
 acidity of a naturally acid fluid, will be exemplified farther on. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 389 
 
 of acid, or of neutral or alkaline solutions respectively, 
 in repeating the experiments of Schwann. But here 
 we had nothing to do with the destructive agency of 
 heat, and germs were as free to enter or develop in the 
 one solution as they were in the other ; so that the 
 differences actually observed would seem now, at all 
 events, simply due to the different qualities of the 
 fluids themselves. Of course such results cannot be 
 adduced as evidence that the evolutional property of the 
 neutral solution was higher than that of the acid solution. 
 It may not be a case of de novo origination at all, but 
 simply one of growth and development. The results, 
 however, show plainly enough that the neutral solu- 
 tion was the one most favourable to the growth and 
 development of living things. And if, starting from 
 this fact which cannot be denied, the evolutionists see 
 reasons which induce them to assume the possibility 
 that an actual origination of living things may have 
 taken place de nwo, in addition to mere growth and 
 development; they would also be likely to suppose that 
 the neutral fluid was more favourable to such evolution 
 than that which had been acidified 1 a supposition which 
 
 1 Taking it only for what it is worth, it is at least deserving of 
 mention that no reason seems assignable for the presence of Torula in 
 the one saline solution and not in the other. They were both equally 
 exposed to. the advent of ' germs.' It can scarcely be imagined that 
 the 7V/a-germs obtained access to both solutions, but that they 
 perished in that which was faintly acid, for, as a matter of fact, Torul<z 
 are much more frequently met with in acid solutions than in those 
 which are alkaline. And for the same reason one can scarcely imagine 
 that any germs of Torulce which preexisted in the fluids were unable to 
 develop in one of them merely on account of its slight acidity. 
 
390 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 seems fully borne out by facts already cited. The 
 solution which was found favourable for the processes of 
 growth and development might also, reasonably enough, 
 be considered favourable for Archebiosis. A process 
 would most likely be initiated where the conditions 
 were suitable for its continuance. And surely the same 
 factors would be at work in the initiation of a living 
 thing that would be called into play during its growth. 
 The presumption, therefore, is a fair one, that solutions 
 which are favourable to the growth and development 
 of certain organisms, may also be favourable to the 
 occurrence of evolutional changes which more especially 
 lead to the initiation of such living things. 
 
 Seeing, then, that the question of the occurrence or 
 non-occurrence of Archebiosis is the very matter in 
 dispute, it is certainly most imperative that all those 
 engaged in investigations bearing on the subject 
 should appreciate (when weighing the evidence) that 
 these are possibilities whose probability ought to be 
 assumed as equal. We may well be surprised, there- 
 fore, to find such an investigator as M. Pasteur com- 
 pletely ignoring one of these points of view, inter- 
 preting all his experiments by the light of a foregone 
 conclusion, and looking solely upon the different solu- 
 tions employed, as fluids which are destructive or not 
 destructive at a given temperature to hypothetically- 
 existing c germs.' 
 
 It should not be understood that we are to regard all 
 acid solutions as having a low evolutional or fermen- 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 391 
 
 tative tendency. On the contrary, evidence has already 
 been adduced in this chapter to show that some acid solu- 
 tions are most prone to undergo evolutional changes of 
 a certain kind. These do not result in the production 
 of living things of a high type, but rather in an abund- 
 ance of organisms of a comparatively low type. Jt seems 
 to me, however, after careful observation and experi- 
 ment, that a neutral or slightly alkaline solution to which 
 a few drops of acid have been added is almost always 
 found, after a given time, to contain a notably smaller 
 number of organisms than an equal bulk of the unaltered 
 solution. And conversely, having an acid solution whose 
 productiveness is known, the number of organisms found 
 in equal bulks under similar conditions can almost 
 always be notably increased in either one of them by the 
 mere addition of a few drops of liquor potass^, so as to 
 render it neutral or slightly alkaline. This, as previously 
 pointed out, may be interpreted as an indication that 
 alkalinity or neutrality of the fluids is more favourable 
 than their acidity for the occurrence of fermentative 
 changes. And thus the fact that organisms were never 
 met with when an acid c eau de levure sucree ' was used 
 in repeating the experiments of Schwann, though they 
 were met with, on the contrary, in other experiments 
 where portions of this same fluid had been used which 
 had been rendered slightly alkaline by the addition of 
 chalk, may be explained without the aid of that 
 supposition which alone seems to have occurred to 
 M. Pasteur. 
 
392 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 But, after reflection on this subject, it seemed to me 
 quite within the range of probability., that the difference 
 between acid and alkaline solutions as regards the 
 number of organisms which are to be found in them, 
 when they have been simply exposed to ordinary 
 atmospheric conditions, might be exaggerated after they 
 had been subjected to the temperature at which water 
 boils. It seemed quite possible that high temperatures 
 might be more destructive to organic matter contained 
 in acid solutions than when it existed in alkaline 
 solutions. Since the acid seems to exercise a certain 
 noxious influence even at ordinary temperatures, so 
 it may be conceived that this influence, whatever 
 its nature, may be increased in intensity with the rise 
 of temperature, and with the consequent greater facility 
 for the display of chemical affinities. Hot acids will 
 frequently dissolve metals which would remain un- 
 affected by them at ordinary temperatures; and chemical 
 affinities generally, are notably exalted by an increased 
 amount of heat. Since the addition of an acid, there- 
 fore, to a previously neutral or slightly alkaline fluid 
 containing organic matter in solution, appears to 
 alter its character in some mysterious way, we may 
 assume that its action upon the unstable organic 
 molecules goes on increasing in intensity, as the fluid 
 becomes hotter. Thus, when two portions of a solution 
 containing organic matter the one neutral and the 
 other acid have been raised to a temperature of 2 1 2 F, 
 the organic matter of the one has been injured only 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 393 
 
 by the mere action of heat ; whilst that of the other 
 solution, which has been acidified., has not only had to 
 submit to the deleterious influence of the high tempe- 
 rature, hut also to the increased activity of the acid 
 at this temperature. The result would be that 
 the amount of difference existing between the two 
 solutions before they had been heated, would be found 
 more or less increased after they had been exposed to 
 the high temperature, in diiect proportion to the 
 increase in intensity of the action of the acid produced 
 by such high temperature. What we know concerning 
 the precipitation of albumen in urine is quite in 
 harmony with this view. When albumen is present, 
 and the fluid has an alkaline reaction, mere boiling 
 does not cause its precipitation j though, if the reaction 
 is acid ', the albumen present would be precipitated, 
 when, or even before the temperature of the fluid 
 was raised to the boiling point. Or a similar result 
 might have been induced by the addition of a small 
 quantity of acid to a portion of a neutral or alkaline 
 albuminous urine, which had just been boiled without 
 a precipitation of the albumen having been brought 
 about. Thus the addition or presence of a small 
 quantity of acid, in conjunction with an elevated 
 temperature, is seen to be capable of bringing about 
 results which cannot be produced by the mere elevated 
 tempeiature alone. But the fact that an isomeric 
 
 1 Provided this was not due to the presence of a mere trace of nitric 
 acid. 
 
394 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 transformation of albumen can be brought about in 
 this way that albumen can be transformed so as to be 
 no longer capable of remaining in solution shows that 
 a molecular change has been induced by the influence of 
 the acid working at high temperatures, which neither the 
 acid nor the heat, working alone, are capable of effecting. 
 With the view of throwing further light on this 
 subject, I made the following experiment on March 
 27, 1870: A tolerably strong infusion of white 
 turnip was prepared and subsequently filtered 1 . This 
 had a decidedly add reaction. It was then divided into 
 two portions, one of which was allowed to remain 
 unaltered, whilst to the other a few drops of liquor 
 potass* were added, so as to give the fluid a very faintly 
 alkaline reaction. This addition produced a slight 
 alteration, even in the naked-eye appearance of the 
 fluid j the faintly whitish opalescence which formerly 
 existed disappeared, and was replaced by an equally faint 
 brownish tinge. About an ounce of each of the two 
 fluids was then placed separately in two small flasks. 
 The fluids were not heated at all, but a piece of paper 
 having been placed loosely in the neck of each, so as to 
 exclude dust, they were exposed side by side to a 
 temperature varying from 75 to 85 F. After twenty- 
 four hours 2 , the unaltered acid infusion merely showed 
 
 1 The turnip at this season of the year was, however, very poor and 
 dry as compared with that which was employed in some of my earlier 
 experiments (Experiments 2-5) during the winter months. 
 
 2 During the whole of this time the heat only varied between the 
 limits mentioned. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 395 
 
 a more decided opalescence approaching to cloudiness ; 
 though that which had been rendered faintly alkaline 
 had a distinctly opaque whitish colour, and there was 
 also a distinct pellicle, covering more than one-half of 
 the surface of the fluid. In the three or four succeeding 
 days the amount of opacity, of pellicle, and of deposit 
 increased in both the fluids, though each of these 
 continued to be more manifest in the alkaline than in 
 the acid solution. After a week, however, the difference 
 was scarcely appreciable, though on the whole, for 
 about two weeks afterwards, the quantity of new matter 
 seemed to be greater in the alkaline than in the acid 
 solution. 
 
 But, on the same morning that these two portions of 
 the acid and alkaline infusions had been set aside for 
 observation, I had placed with them vessels containing 
 two other specimens of the same fluids. These had 
 been previously treated in the following manner. The 
 acid and the alkaline fluid were placed in their re- 
 spective flasks, and after the necks of these had 
 been drawn out the fluids were boiled for ten minutes. 
 At the expiration of this time, and whilst ebullition 
 was still continuing, the drawn-out necks of the 
 flasks were hermetically sealed in the blow-pipe flame. 
 These experiments were undertaken in order to show, by 
 comparison with the other two, whether the difference 
 produced by mere acidity or alkalinity of the solutions 
 at low temperatures was or was not intensified by the 
 action of heat. The flasks were all suspended in a 
 
396 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 group at the same time, and were, thenceforward, 
 subjected to the same temperature. The results were 
 as follows : After twenty-four hours the slightly alkaline 
 fluid which had been boiled showed a slight though 
 decided opalescence, it was, in fact, very similar in 
 appearance to the acid solution which had not been 
 boiled. The boiled acid solution was, however, as 
 clear as when the flask was first suspended, and it 
 remained apparently quite unaltered, after it had been 
 suspended a week ; though the boiled alkaline solution 
 had by this time become decidedly opaque, and also 
 showed some flocculent matter lying at the bottom of 
 the vessel. And after they had been suspended rather 
 more than three weeks, the acid solution still remained 
 almost transparent, presenting only the faintest cloudi- 
 ness, though with no pellicle or deposit at the bottom 1 . 
 The boiled alkaline fluid, however, exhibited a totally 
 different appearance ; it was whitish and quite opaque, 
 there was a very thick pellicle covering part of its 
 surface, and also some whitish sediment at the bottom 
 of the flask. 
 
 Thus the difference which already exists between 
 alkaline and acid solutions at ordinary temperatures was 
 seen to be most notably intensified after similar alkaline 
 and acid solutions have been raised to a temperature of 
 
 1 This solution was, therefore, much more backward in exhibiting 
 signs of change than were the others which had been used in Experi- 
 ments 2 to 5 a difference probably explicable by the poorer quality of 
 th turnip used in this last experiment (see p. 394, note i). 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 397 
 
 2i2F. And whilst these differences tend strongly to 
 confirm the truth of the mode of explanation which 
 I have suggested of the discrepancies observed by 
 M. Pasteur when he repeated Schwann's experiments 
 with acid and alkaline organic infusions respectively, 
 they may also be considered to strengthen the pro- 
 babilities in favour of my assumption that an acid 
 fluid is less prone to undergo those molecular changes 
 which lead to the evolution of living things, than 
 a fluid, otherwise similar, whose reaction is neutral 
 or faintly alkaline. And yet, this explanation was 
 utterly ignored by M. Pasteur ; he leads his readers to 
 believe that the before-mentioned discrepancies were 
 explicable only in one way; and he moreover illogically 
 attempted to set aside a rule, concerning the limits of 
 c vital resistance ' to different degrees of heat, to which 
 he had previously assented, on the strength of evidence 
 which was most ambiguous and inconclusive. 
 
 One finds M. Pasteur, as a chemist, engaging him- 
 self in a controversy concerning one of the most im- 
 portant questions in the whole range of biological 
 science; and yet he assumes the attitude of a man 
 who is so convinced beforehand of the error of those 
 who are of the opposite opinion, that he will not abide 
 by ordinary rules of fairness ; he will not even, at first, 
 assume the possibility of the truth of the opinions which 
 are opposed to his own. Ambiguous evidence is ex- 
 plained as though it were not ambiguous ; conclusions 
 based upon good evidence are attempted to be set aside 
 
398 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 in favour of conclusions based upon evidence which is 
 comparatively worthless : and, by such illogical methods, 
 M. Pasteur proclaims that he has c mathematically 
 demonstrated' the truth of his own views. Un- 
 fortunately for the cause of truth, many have been 
 only too much blinded by his skill and precision as a 
 mere experimenter. 
 
 An attempt has been made to show the incon- 
 clusiveness of M. Pasteur's mode of reasoning on this 
 point, principally with the view of preventing similar 
 deductions being drawn from observations and experi- 
 ments of the same nature by subsequent workers. Other- 
 wise it would not have been at all necessary. For so 
 far from there being any truth in M. Pasteur's assump- 
 tion that Bacteria and their germs are not killed in 
 slightly alkaline or neutral fluids raised to a temperature 
 of 2i2F 3 we have found that experiment and observa- 
 tion alike seem to show that they are killed when 
 such fluids are raised for two or three minutes to a 
 temperature of 140 F. Nay, more, taking M. Pasteur 
 even upon his own ground using boiled acid infusions, 
 in which he admits that all germs of preexisting life 
 are killed we find, nevertheless, as others have 
 found, that such infusions, contained^ within heated 
 and hermetically-sealed flasks, will speedily become 
 turbid, owing to the presence of multitudes of living 
 organisms. 
 
 There being no valid reasons, therefore, for our belief 
 in the assumption that Bacteria, Vibriones, and their 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 399 
 
 germs, are not killed in slightly alkaline or neutral 
 solutions which have been boiled, very many of the 
 experiments of M. Pasteur with such fluids may be cited 
 amongst many others by Schwann, Mantegazza, Pou- 
 chet, Joly, Musset, Wyman, Hughes Bennett, Child, 
 Cantoni, and other experimenters, in addition to those 
 recorded in the present work, as testifying to the 
 reality of the process of Archebiosis, and to the erro- 
 neousness of the doctrines concerning Fermentation, 
 of which he is the advocate. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 PHYSICAL AND VITAL THEORIES OF FERMENTATION. 
 
 Questions as to Cause of Fermentation and Origin of Life intimately 
 associated. Pasteur's researches undertaken to establish a ' vital 
 theory ' of Fermentation. Fermentable substances and Ferments. 
 Nature of latter. Doctrine of Liebig and others. Influence of the 
 discovery of the yeast-plant. Vital theories of Schwann, Pasteur, 
 and others. Upholders of Physical theory admit the facts of the 
 Vitalists. Interpretations of latter too narrow. Pasteur's experi- 
 ments inconclusive in themselves. His conclusions wider than 
 were legitimate. Vital theory opposed to known facts. Manu- 
 facture of Vinegar. Continuous series of chemical changes in dead 
 muscle. Transformation of starch into glucose. Communicability 
 of molecular movements No line of demarcation between fer- 
 mentative and non-fermentative chemical changes. Two degrees of 
 fermentability. Oxygen not always the primttm movens in Fermen- 
 tations. Action of diminished pressure in some cases. Preserva- 
 tion of Meats. Differences between these processes and my 
 experiments. Observations of Gruithuisen. Reconciliation of 
 results. Conclusions. 
 
 THE lower organisms being so very frequently met 
 with in fermenting fluids, and being Invariably 
 present in some of them, it so happens that the problem 
 as to the cause of fermentation has come to be in- 
 separable from the question as to the possibility of the 
 de novo origin of living things. Thus it is that the 
 most important problem in biology is one towards the 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 401 
 
 solution of which many distinguished chemists have 
 been induced to devote much time and labour. The 
 ground is in fact common to biologists and chemists, 
 and the question is so obscure and difficult that it 
 stands much in need of the double illumination. 
 Important, however, as are the considerations which the 
 chemist brings towards its solution, and valuable as are 
 the methods which he employs, the problem is, never- 
 theless, so all-important in its biological aspects that 
 it cannot with advantage be wholly relegated to him. 
 
 M. Pasteur frankly tells us that, having formed cer- 
 tain views concerning the cause of fermentations in 
 general, he found himself compelled to come to an 
 opinion c sur les questions des generations spontanees/ 
 And here some words of explanation seem needed, in 
 order to show more fully how the two problems are 
 so inseparably related, and as well that the reader 
 may comprehend the nature of the doctrines which are 
 held by many other chemists, in opposition to those of 
 M. Pasteur. 
 
 We are now becoming better acquainted with a set of 
 remarkable changes that certain compound substances 
 are apt to undergo, and which have usually been known 
 by the generic name of ' Fermentations V The prevail- 
 ing opinion had been that for the occurrence of such a 
 
 1 Those which are accompanied by the evolution of foetid gases (see 
 p. 266, note O have usually been spoken of as putrefactions. The old 
 view of Mitscherlich ('Ann. Chem. Pharm.' xlviii. p. 126) was that 
 ' fermentation is caused by a plant organism, and putrefaction by an 
 animal organism.' No such distinction can, however, be drawn. 
 
 D d 
 
402 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 process two things are necessary : in the first place,, 
 there must be a fermentable substance a body capable of 
 undergoing chemical change and, in the second place, 
 there must be & ferment, or substance capable of initiat- 
 ing such a change. According to MM. Pelouze and 
 Fremy, c the decomposition of organic substances under 
 the influence of a body which acts only by its mere pre- 
 sence is called fermentation.' What, then, is the nature 
 of the ferment ? It has generally been regarded as some 
 nitrogenous substance, belonging to the albumenoid type, 
 though subject to much variation in actual composition. 
 Gerhardteven says that c a ferment is not a bodysu? generis, 
 but rather any substance in a state of decomposition.' 
 
 In the opinion of some chemists followers of 
 Gay-Lussac the mere presence of the ferment in com- 
 pany with the fermentable substance is not sufficient. 
 Even its activity must be excited before it can act 
 upon the fermentable substance: a result generally 
 brought about by the action of the oxygen contained in 
 the air with which the ferment is in contact *. But 
 according to other chemists and more especially to 
 Liebig 2 it is only necessary to have a body which 
 decomposes, perhaps spontaneously, in the presence of 
 another (fermentable substance) whose elements are 
 held together by a feeble affinity. The more change- 
 able substance, by virtue of its own inherent instability, 
 
 1 So that, as Gerhardt says, ' L'oxygbne de 1'air, comme nous 1'avons 
 <djt, est done le primum movens des fermentations.' Loc. cit. p. 540. 
 9 ' Annales de Chimie et de Physique,' 2nd serie, t. Ixxi. p. 1 78. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 403 
 
 may initiate molecular movements in even a large 
 amount of a less unstable substance with which it is 
 brought into contact ; and to this latter set of changes the' 
 name c fermentation' is applied. Liebig's explanation of 
 this process, which is accepted by Gerhardt and many 
 other chemists, is thus described in Gerhardt's Ckimie 
 Organise 1 : c Every substance which decomposes or 
 enters into combination is in a state of movement its 
 molecules being agitated; but since friction, shock, 
 mechanical agitation, suffice to provoke the decompo- 
 sition of many substances (chlorous acid, chloride of 
 nitrogen, fulminating silver), there is all the more 
 reason why a chemical decomposition, in which the 
 molecular agitation is more complete, should produce 
 similar effects upon certain substances. In addition, 
 bodies are known which, when alone, are not decom- 
 posed by certain agents, but which are attacked when 
 they exist in contact with other bodies, incapable of 
 resisting the influence of these agents. Thus platinum 
 alone does not dissolve in nitric acid, but when allied 
 with silver, it is easily dissolved; pure copper is not 
 dissolved by sulphuric acid, but it does dissolve in this 
 when it is allied with zinc, Sec. According to M. 
 Liebig it is the same with ferments and fermentable 
 substances; sugar, which does not change when it is 
 quite alone, changes that is to say, ferments when it 
 is in contact with a nitrogenous substance undergoing 
 change, that is, with a ferment.' 
 
 1 Tom. iv. p. 539. 
 P d 2 
 
404 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 But since the discovery by Cagniard-Latour and 
 Schwann, in 1836, of the yeast-plant, which invariably 
 reveals itself during the vinous fermentation; and 
 since the recognition of the existence of a similar 
 relationship between other fermentations and other 
 organisms, there have always been persons who have 
 inclined to the notion that the associated organism 
 was the actual cause of the fermentation itself. For 
 three or four years after the discovery of the yeast- 
 plant, it was warmly advocated by Cagniard-Latour, 
 Turpin, Mitscherlich, and others, that living organisms 
 alone were capable of initiating the changes known 
 as fermentations that they, in fact, were the only 
 true ferments. According to the notions of Liebig, 
 Gerhardt, and others, fermentations are separated by 
 no hard and fast line from chemical changes in general ; 
 here, however, a limitation was sought to be established ; 
 a hard and fast line was to be drawn, and fermentations 
 were to be supposed to differ from chemical changes in 
 general, by the fact that they could only be initiated 
 by the presence and influence of living organisms. 
 Such a limitation seemed of itself to necessitate the 
 supposition that the chemical changes occurring in 
 living things were wholly different from all other che- 
 mical changes that the changes, in fact, constituting 
 fermentations were initiated by occult c vital ' influ- 
 ences.' This is the doctrine which M. Pasteur has 
 revived, and which he has sought to establish upon a 
 firm foundation. He says: c je trouvais que toutes 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 405 
 
 les fermentations proprement elites, visqueuse, lac- 
 tique, butyrique, la fermentation de 1'acide tartarique, 
 de 1'acide malique, de 1'uree . . . . , etaient toujours 
 correlatives de la presence et de la multiplication 
 d'etres organises. Et, loin que 1'organisation de la 
 levure de biere fut une chose genante pour la theorie 
 de la fermentation., c'etait par la au contraire, qu'elle 
 rentrait dans la loi commune, et qu'elle etait le type 
 de tous le ferments proprement dits Selon moi, les 
 matieres albuminoides n'etaient jamais des ferments, 
 mais 1'aliment des ferments. Les vrais ferments etaient 
 des etres organiseV (Loc. cit. p. 23.) 
 
 Thus it may be seen that there are two principal 
 doctrines as to the nature of a ' ferment,' each 
 having its several supporters so that two distinct 
 theories of fermentation at present divide the world 
 of chemists. Some now believe in the exclusive view 
 resuscitated by M. Pasteur 1 ,, that (T) all ferments are 
 living organisms these being upholders of what may 
 be called a c vital theory of fermentation ; ' whilst 
 others maintain (2) that certain not-living albumenoid 
 substances are also capable of acting as ferments, so 
 that they may be classed as believers in a c physical 
 theory of fermentation.' Of those who maintain the 
 latter opinion, the great majority believe with Gay- 
 Lussac, that the presence of oxygen is necessary in 
 order to arouse the activity of the ferment ; though my 
 
 1 Liebig says : ' It is impossible to detect any fundamental difference 
 between the views of Turpin and those of Pasteur.' 
 
466 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 own experiments 1 tend to show that a ferment may 
 begin to operate, independently of the disturbing in- 
 fluence of oxygen, so long as other conditions are 
 favourable for the initiation of molecular movements 
 amongst its delicately-balanced constituent elements. 
 
 In reference to the doctrine revived by M. Pasteur, 
 that all ferments are living organisms, it should be 
 clearly understood that those who reject this notion 
 by no means deny the almost invariable association of 
 organisms with some fermentations. They maintain 
 however that other real fermentations exist with the 
 occurrence of which organisms are not associated; and 
 that in all those fermentations in which organisms 
 are encountered, these are concomitant formations or 
 results, rather than causes of the fermentative changes. 
 The facts cited by Pasteur, even granting that his state- 
 ments are perfectly correct, are obviously open to a 
 double interpretation. Although it is true that such 
 constant association of particular organisms with par- 
 ticular fermentations would occur if the changes in 
 question were initiated by pre-existing omnipresent 
 organisms, some of which found in each fermentable 
 substance a nidus suitable for their development and 
 multiplication; still the same constancy of association 
 ought also to occur if the changes which initiated the 
 process of fermentation were purely chemical in nature, 
 and led to the evolution of living things as concomitant 
 
 1 In addition to those detailed in the last Chapter, they are recorded 
 in Chapters xii. and xiii., and in Appendix C. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 407 
 
 results. The same substance would decompose in the 
 same way on different occasions, if placed under the in- 
 fluence of similar conditions, so that if certain kinds of 
 organisms arose de novo on any occasion during the 
 occurrence of such changes, similar organisms ought 
 also to be produced whenever these changes were re- 
 peated. Therefore, whether the organisms which are 
 undoubtedly to be met with in association with certain 
 fermentations are to be regarded as causes or as conco- 
 mitant results, is a question which can only be settled 
 by having recourse to experiment. If living things are 
 shown to be capable of arising de no<vo, then the doctrine 
 that fermentations cannot be initiated without the 
 agency of living things must receive its death-blow. 
 
 M. Pasteur did appeal to experiment to support him 
 in maintaining this particular doctrine of fermentation, 
 which, as the reader should not forget, is repugnant to the 
 teachings of many chemists equally eminent with himself. 
 We have endeavoured to show that the experimental 
 evidence on which M. Pasteur relies in support of his 
 doctrine is insufficient and inconclusive nay, more, 
 that many other careful experimenters, who have no 
 theory whatever to support, have failed to get results 
 similar to those which he has recorded. We have, more- 
 over, attempted to explain why his own results cannot 
 fairly receive the interpretation that he has applied to 
 them. Thus, not only has M. Pasteur been unable to 
 establish his point with reference to the nature of the 
 relation existing between organisms and those ferment- 
 
408 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 ations with which they are undoubtedly associated, but 
 it may fairly enough be said that he is the advocate of 
 a doctrine which is irreconcilable with many other 
 facts generally admitted by chemists, and of one which 
 is thought by some of the most eminent of them to be 
 adverse to the best chemical knowledge of the day. 
 They hold the opinion (i) that fermentations cannot 
 be definitely and sharply discriminated from other 
 chemical changes not usually placed in this category ; 
 and (2) that amongst those chemical changes which are 
 generally considered to be real fermentations, there are 
 some whose occurrence is not necessarily associated 
 with the presence of organisms. 
 
 If fermentative changes were, in reality, only to be 
 brought about through the agency of living organisms or 
 particles, how could we then account for the fact that 
 precisely such changes as are effected occasionally when 
 the influence of living particles might be predicated, 
 are at other times occasioned when no such predication 
 is tenable ? Thus, although pancreatin and pepsine 
 convert starch into sugar, a precisely similar change 
 may be brought about by dilute sulphuric acid; and 
 although saliva or emulsin may cause a breaking-up 
 or fermentation of salicine, here again dilute sulphuric 
 acid is capable of effecting a similar change. 
 
 To take another instance, the production of acetic 
 acid is due to a process of fermentation, in which 
 alcohol is first converted into aldehyde and then into 
 the acid in question. This fermentative change, 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 409 
 
 according to M. Pasteur, is brought about by a living 
 organism, the vinegar-plant (Mycoderma aceti) ; but, as 
 we are reminded by Baron Liebig, acetic acid may 
 be similarly derived from alcohol through the agency 
 of finely-divided platinum., as was first pointed out 
 by Dobereiner. The finely-divided platinum has the 
 power and many organic substances have a similar 
 property of absorbing oxygen from the air, and 
 bringing it into a condition in which it can unite with 
 other substances with which it would not otherwise enter 
 into combination at low temperatures. So that, when 
 alcohol is subjected to the influence of finely-divided 
 platinum, it is first converted into aldehyde, owing 
 to the oxidation of its hydrogen, whilst aldehyde, 
 by a further oxidation, is converted into acetic acid. 
 And, according to Liebig, the method introduced by 
 Schutzenbach in 1823, ^ or ^ e manufacture of vinegar, 
 is based upon this theory. He says 1 : c ln this 
 operation wood shavings or fragments of charcoal are 
 used for determining the oxidation. At one of the 
 largest vinegar factories in Germany, the dilute alcohol 
 receives no admixture during the whole operation ; 
 besides air, and wood shavings, or charcoal, there is no 
 other substance concerned, and the fresh supply of 
 dilute alcohol is only mixed with a little of the 
 unfinished vinegar from a previous operation. The 
 proprietor of these works, Hy. Riemerschmied, sent me 
 
 1 On Acetic Fermentation, translated in ' Pharmaceutical Journal,' 
 Aug. 13, 1870, p. 124. 
 
'410 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 some of the beech-wood shavings which had been used 
 uninterruptedly for twenty-five years ; and in reply to 
 my enquiry whether the Mycoderma aceti took part in 
 the production of vinegar, he states that, so far as 
 can be seen, the shavings that have been thirty years 
 in use are quite free from the fungus 1 .' Although, 
 therefore, the vinegar-plant is capable of causing the 
 conversion of alcohol into acetic acid, this conversion 
 can be otherwise achieved without the intervention of 
 a living organism. The process is one of oxidation 
 merely, so that even when it does take place by the 
 agency of the vinegar-plant, the effective action is in 
 all probability none the less purely chemical in nature 2 . 
 Baron Liebig says : c Analyses of the air discharged 
 from the vessels where the vinegar is made, show that 
 the oxygen consumed in the oxidation of alcohol is 
 taken from the air, so that the only part taken by 
 
 1 It appears, however, that 'the production of the fungus is a continual 
 source of hindrance in factories where beer-wort is used [instead of 
 dilute alcohol], since the interstices of the wood shavings are gradually 
 stopped up by its growth, and thus free circulation of air is prevented 
 so far as to stop the formation of vinegar.' 
 
 2 The Mycoderma aceti is, also, only an occasional instrument in 
 bringing about the acetous fermentation ; it is not a necessary concom- 
 itant, as yeast-cells seem to be of the vinous fermentation. The acetic 
 fermentation may occur without the presence of the vinegar-plant, 
 though the vinous fermentation never occurs without the appearance of 
 yeast. When produced, yeast is, as we all know, capable of initiating 
 the vinous fermentation in other suitable liquids, though the vinous 
 fermentation is also capable of originating without the influence of 
 pre-existing yeast. In fermentations which commence in this way yeast 
 arises de novo, as one of the results of the process. (See Pouchet's 
 ' fouvelles Experiences,' Paris, 1864, pp. 190-192.) 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 411 
 
 the vinegar plant in the process is that of determining 
 the absorption of oxygen ; it is active only in virtue of 
 this chemical property, and it can be replaced by a 
 large number of dead materials or parts of plants/ 
 
 Again, in a continuous series of chemical changes, 
 why should an arbitrary division be made ? Why should 
 some changes, which are admitted to be c spontaneous,' 
 be artificially separated from others, when these latter 
 follow in an uninterrupted sequence ? Baron Liebig 
 says * : c From the moment that a piece of muscle is 
 separated from the living body it begins to undergo 
 alteration , after some hours it acquires an alkaline 
 reaction; the coagulable substances are coagulated, the 
 contents of the muscular tubes become more solid and 
 acquire a clouded appearance, with a thickish consist- 
 ence. The muscle contracts and thickens, or rigor 
 mortis takes place ; then, after some time, the stiffness 
 ceases, the acidity augments, and offensively-smelling 
 products make their appearance. ... . . If organized 
 
 ferments have nothing to do with the formation of the 
 first products that appear in the muscles up to the 
 occurrence of rigor mortis and I believe there is no 
 physiologist who thinks they have then it is difficult 
 to understand how the further alterations can be de- 
 termined by them.' 
 
 The transformation of starch into glucose by 
 the agency of sulphuric acid, to which we have 
 already referred, is a process that cannot logically be 
 
 1 Loc. cit., p. 123. 
 
412 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 separated from the fermentations; whilst the change 
 which occurs when sugar is added to a mixture of 
 yeast and dextrine, is probably no less truly chemical 
 in nature, even though a living organism does take 
 part in the process. A solution of dextrine does not 
 undergo fermentation when it is mixed with beer-yeast 
 alone; though, when a certain quantity of sugar is 
 added to the mixture, a great part of the dextrine shares 
 the same fate as the sugar itself, and is converted into 
 alcohol and carbonic acid. c In this case,' Liebig says, 
 c the influence of the motion communicated to the sugar 
 atoms by the action of the yeast appears very evidently 
 to have been extended to the dextrine upon which yeast 
 itself has no action.' Facts like, these and many 
 others which might be mentioned, showing how the 
 different kinds of fermentation are influenced and 
 modified by the presence of different chemical sub- 
 stances lead most strongly to the conclusion that 
 fermentations are themselves, in essence, nothing more 
 than definite processes of chemical change which 
 certain complex bodies are apt to undergo, either by 
 virtue of their own inherent instability, or by reason of 
 the action upon them of other bodies (ferments) which 
 are at the time in a state of molecular flux, or motor-decay. 
 Such processes are, moreover, separated by no well- 
 defined line from other chemical changes. It can no 
 longer be maintained that they are chemical processes 
 which are only capable of being initiated by the 
 contact-influence of the changes taking place in living 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 413 
 
 things. Observation and experiment alike are abso- 
 lutely opposed to such a limitation., and even had it not 
 already been shown to be utterly erroneous, it is a 
 doctrine which ought only to have found favour . with 
 those who are professed c vitalists.' Consistent believers 
 in the physical doctrine of life could scarcely be expected 
 to do other than mistrust a doctrine which would have 
 them believe either that the molecular changes taking 
 place in living things were not essentially chemical in 
 nature, or else that they were chemical changes absolutely 
 sui generis. It would be almost impossible, indeed, to 
 frame a true and distinctive definition of fermentative 
 changes. Just as we have previously urged, that the 
 living thing differs from the not-living thing in degree 
 and not in kind, since the properties of both are de- 
 pendent upon their molecular composition and structure 
 so does the fermentative chemical change differ from 
 the not-fermentative chemical change merely in degree 
 though even to a less extent, because these two kinds 
 of chemical change are now actually known to merge 
 almost insensibly into one another. It is almost impos- 
 sible to say where the one ends and the other begins. 
 
 As we have already intimated, in the opinion of 
 Gay-Lussac and also of many chemists in the pre- 
 sent day, oxygen is needed to initiate the changes 
 'which the ferment undergoes. According to Baron 
 Liebig, however, all that_ is essential in order that 
 fermentation may occur, is that a complex substance 
 should undergo changes of a particular kind, either 
 
414 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 by reason of its own instability, or on account of the 
 greater instability of some more mobile substance with 
 which it is brought into contact. He says: c Many 
 organic compounds are known which undergo, in 
 presence of water, alteration and metamorphosis having 
 a certain duration, and ultimately terminating in putre- 
 faction; while other organic substances that are not 
 liable to such alterations by themselves, nevertheless 
 suffer a similar displacement or separation of their 
 molecules when brought into contact with the former V 
 
 1 ' Pharm. Journal,' 1870. This statement is illustrated by Gerhardt 
 when he says ('Chimie Organique,' t. iv. p. 474): 'En presence de 
 1'eau, le gluten s'altere continuellement ; si on le delaye dans 1'eau et 
 qu'on 1'abandonne dans cet e"tat k la temperature ordinaire, il se gonfle 
 peu k peu en de"gageant beaucoup de gaz acide carbonique melange 
 d'hydrogene non carbone, et d'hydrogene sulfure ; en merne temps il se 
 ramollit et se fluidifie entitlement ; 1'eau qui le recouvre devient alors 
 acide, et contient de la leucine, du phosphate et de I'ace'tate d'ammoni- 
 aque ; finalement le gluten se fonce de plus en plus et se dissout presque 
 
 entitlement Pendant les differentes phases de sa transformation 
 
 le gluten possede la propriete d'agir comme fermente a la maniere des 
 autres substances albuminoides. Avant de subir lui-meme la ferment- 
 ation putride, il possede la propriete' de faire subir une metamorphose 
 remarquable k la matiere amylacee. En effet lorsqu'on ajoute de la 
 farine de ble a de 1'empois d'amidon delaye" dans 1'eau et qu'on expose 
 ce melange, pendant quelques heures, k une temperature de 60 a 70 C, 
 il perd sa consistence, se fluidifie, et finalement devient entierement 
 sucre ; la matiere amylacee se trouve alors convertie soit en dextrine, soil 
 en glucose.' It should be observed that the temperature at which this 
 change takes place, 60-70 C (i4O-i58F), precludes the possibility 
 of its being brought about by living organisms, since Bacteria and 
 TorultB are uniformly killed by exposure for a few minutes to a tem- 
 perature of i4OF. The recent researches of Hoppe-Seyler (' Med. 
 Chem. Unters,' 1871, pp. 557-581), also show that living ferments are 
 killed by temperatures which do not destroy the virtues of dead ferments. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 415 
 
 In the great majority of cases oxygen may be the 
 initiator of the molecular change which the fer- 
 mentable substance or the ferment undergoes; it 
 would seem scarcely probable, however, that in the 
 absence of free oxygen, no other conditions would be 
 adequate to disturb the delicate balance existing be- 
 tween the elements of a highly unstable substance. 
 
 In considering such a subject it is of great import- 
 ance always to bear in mind the various degrees of 
 molecular mobility of different substances, and also the 
 fact that some substances will easily decompose under 
 the influence of conditions which do not affect other 
 compounds of equal complexity. Individual differences 
 or peculiarities cannot be ignored. Under the influence 
 of any particular set of conditions, therefore, organic 
 substances may be ranged under two distinct categories, 
 with respect to their degree of fermentability. Substances 
 which are to be placed in the frst class are so unstable 
 that they decompose c spontaneously ' and without the 
 aid of a separate ferment j whilst those which possess 
 only the second degree of fermentability cannot by 
 themselves be made to initiate a fermentative change 
 require to be brought into contact with a more 
 unstable substance whose motor-decay may impart the 
 needful molecular movement. Once initiated, the 
 process of change is afterwards easily maintained, even 
 in those bodies which possess only the second degree of 
 fermentability. This distinction is one of a most 
 important nature, and will subsequently help us to 
 
4i6 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 explain the results of many experiments, in a manner 
 different from that which has been generally accepted. 
 
 Those experiments which I have already detailed 
 tend to show, in opposition to the widely-accepted 
 views of Gay-Lussac, that the presence of free oxygen 
 is not necessary even for the initiation of certain 
 processes of fermentation or putrefaction, since such 
 processes may occur m vacua. Dr. Child, however, 
 had previously shown that fermentation might take 
 place in a closed flask containing nothing but freshly- 
 prepared nitrogen gas in contact with the fermentable 
 fluid (see p. 347). 
 
 My experiments have been conducted, to a certain 
 extent, in accordance with a method which is in daily 
 use for the preservation of meats and various kinds of 
 provisions. Curiously enough, Gay-Lussac, Gerhardt, 
 and other chemists came to the conclusion that oxygen 
 was necessary for the initiation of fermentation and 
 putrefaction, because meats or vegetables can only be 
 preserved by a process somewhat similar to that which 
 I have adopted in my experiments that is, by sealing 
 them hermetically in vessels from which all air has 
 previously been expelled by heat. So prepared, the 
 most changeable meats or vegetables will often preserve 
 all their freshness for many years a fact which has 
 been attributed principally to the absence of oxygen gas. 
 Now, however, by a certain modification of the experi- 
 ment, I find that fermentation and putrefaction will 
 occur in vacua, and am consequently led to the opposite 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 417 
 
 conclusion that oxygen is not always necessary for the 
 initiation of such processes. 
 
 This announcement., made on a former occasion 1 , 
 seems quite to have paralysed the understandings of 
 some of my readers. The effect produced would have 
 been laughable had it not been rather pitiable. Instead 
 of repeating such simple experiments as I have de- 
 scribed with infusions of hay or turnip, and satisfying 
 themselves as to the truth of what had been said, the 
 scientific world and the public generally have been 
 authoritatively told by more than one of them, that such 
 statements are unworthy of attention; and the excel- 
 lence of many meats, which have been preserved for 
 years in airless and hermetically-sealed tins, has been 
 said to afford a practical denial of the truth of my 
 assertions. 
 
 The differences between the two kinds of experiments 
 are, however, sufficiently notable to account for the 
 apparently discordant results. When provisions are 
 preserved, it is in a tin case that is almost filled, and 
 then hermetically sealed, after all air has been expelled 
 by a prolonged ebullition of its fluid contents 2 . What 
 small space there may be at first between the top of the 
 tin and the upper surface of the provisions, is speedily 
 lessened by the insinking of the top, owing to 
 atmospheric pressure. The meats are thus enclosed in 
 
 1 ' Nature,' Nos. 35, 36, 37, 1870. 
 
 2 Very frequently the closed tins are immediately submitted, for half 
 an hour or more, to a much higher temperature even to 258-26oF. 
 
 E e 
 
418 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 a vessel which is full nay, more, in one in which they 
 are cut off from all access of light. My flasks, on the 
 contrary, have been only half filled with the fermentable 
 infusions, and these have been subjected to any 
 disturbing influences which may have been derivable 
 from the influence of light, at the same time that they 
 have been purposely exposed to a warm temperature. 
 
 What, then, is the explanation to be given of the 
 results which I have obtained ? Quite early in the 
 present century Gruithuisen discovered, as we have pre- 
 viously quoted from Burdach, that c infusions, otherwise 
 very prolific (those of hay, for example), did not yield 
 infusoria in glass vessels in which the stopper touched 
 the surface of the fluid.' Under such circumstances \ 
 no space is left for the liberation of waste gases ; 
 pressure rapidly increases, and fermentative or putre- 
 factive changes, if they chance to be initiated at all, 
 are generally checked at their very onset 2 . When 
 
 1 Even Gay-Lussac was also aware of a similar fact with regard to 
 urine. And, moreover, urine may often be preserved, in this way, when 
 it has not been previously boiled. 
 
 2 A microscopical examination of the surface of some preserved meats 
 which are sold as being ' perfectly good,' and whose taste ratifies the 
 truth of this description, has occasionally revealed the presence of a 
 number of Bacteria and Leptothrix filaments, which, though extremely 
 small in quantity and not numerous enough to affect the quality of the 
 provisions, would seem to have been developed in the situation in which 
 they are found, because the meats in their original condition do not 
 present even this amount of organisms, and because other cases 
 of meats are found to be perfectly free from organisms (' Nature,' No. 48, 
 p. 433). Thus a change seems to commence in certain cases, which is, 
 however, so speedily stopped (owing to the unfavourable nature of the 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 419 
 
 this liberation or emission (which is almost always one 
 of the accompaniments of a fermentative change) has 
 taken place to a slight extent, the meats are in the very 
 best condition for preservation. There is an absence 
 of free oxygen, an utter absence of light, and also 
 an absence of that diminished pressure which my ex- 
 periments seem to show 1 is favourable to the pro- 
 motion of many kinds of fermentative change. It 
 would seem that fluids whose fermentation or putre- 
 faction is hindered by increased pressure, and favoured 
 by diminution of pressure, may be placed under con- 
 ditions which are successively more favourable than 
 the last for the occurrence of such changes, by putting 
 a gradually smaller and smaller quantity of fluid into 
 a flask, to which calcined air is admitted 2 . Whilst, 
 if the stimulus of free oxygen is not absolutely needed 
 in order to incite fermentation in the fluid employed, 
 the conditions may often be still further improved by 
 only half filling the flask, and procuring a more and 
 more perfect vacuum before it is hermetically sealed. 
 
 If any one wishes, therefore, to understand why I 
 have been enabled to bring about putrefaction and to 
 obtain living organisms in my flasks, whilst preserved 
 meats do not usually change m vacuo^ let him repeat 
 
 ' conditions ' to which the fermentable substances are exposed), as to 
 cause no appreciable detriment to the provisions. In other rare cases, 
 the change does proceed, and the contents of the tin become more 
 or less putrid. 
 
 1 See Appendix C, Exps. ix, and xv., Exps. xxxiii. and xxxvi., etc. 
 
 2 See p. 348. 
 
 E e 2 
 
420 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 Gruithuisen's experiment and one of my own with the 
 same fluid. Let him fill a stoppered bottle with a boiled 
 infusion of hay or turnip and then close it hermetically, 
 and he will almost certainly find, as I and others have 
 found, that such an infusion will keep for an indefinite 
 time without exhibiting any trace of turbidity l . Let 
 him, at the same time, treat some of the same boiled 
 infusion of hay or turnip in a different manner : let it 
 only half fill a hermetically-sealed flask from which all 
 air has been expelled. He will then learn, better than 
 by any amount of mere idle conjecturing, whether there 
 is any real contradiction between the results of my 
 experiments, and generally admitted facts. 
 
 The conclusions to which I have been compelled to 
 arrive, therefore, on the subject of Fermentation, are 
 these. The c Vital theory' is untrue on account of its 
 exclusiveness ; some organisms are ferments, though all 
 ferments are not organisms. Organisms may be either 
 
 1 Although hay and other infusions will yield these results which are 
 comparable with the majority of cases in which provisions are properly 
 preserved in tins still it has been shown by M. Pouchet (' Nouvelles 
 Experiences,' Paris, 1864, p. 190), that beer-wort which has been boiled 
 will undergo change even in a full vessel, and give rise to an abundance 
 of yeast-cells. This, therefore, is an example which is comparable with 
 those exceptional cases in which meats undoubtedly become putrid in 
 spite of every care in their preparation, and notwithstanding the fact of 
 their being contained in filled-tins which are hermetically closed. Some 
 fermentations are doubtless attended by a less copious emission of waste 
 gases than that which characterizes other fermentations ; and some 
 fermentations will progress in spite of an amount of pressure which, 
 in other cases, would quite put a stop to the process. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 421 
 
 absent, occasional instruments, or necessary conco- 
 mitants in processes of fermentation. Thus there are 
 (a) chemical changes which are essentially fermentative 
 in nature, with which organisms are never known to 
 be associated : to this class belongs the conversion of 
 cellulose into dextrine and glucose under the influence 
 of heat and sulphuric acid. There are other () fermen- 
 tations that may be initiated by ordinary physical or 
 chemical agencies alone, or which may be brought about 
 by the agency of living organisms. Examples of such 
 changes are the conversion of salicin into glucose 
 and saligenin, which may be produced either by con- 
 tact with dilute sulphuric acid or by the influence of 
 yeast (Torula) ; and also the acetous fermentation, 
 which may be induced either by bringing alcohol 
 into contact with certain dead oxidising agents, or 
 by. subjecting it to the influence of a living fungus 
 (Mycoderma]. Whilst there is a third set (c) of changes 
 in which the transformative processes are invariably 
 associated with the presence of organisms ; the most 
 familiar examples of this class being the putrid and 
 vinous fermentations. Although these latter may be 
 initiated by the agency either of dead or of living 
 ferments, living matter is one of the invariable products 
 of the fermentative changes 1 : during their progress 
 
 1 ' Schlossberger observed that many juicy fungi (for example Agaricus 
 russula, &c.), when kept in narrow-mouthed, open flasks, underwent 
 vinous fermentation spontaneously, and that alcohol could be obtained 
 from the expressed liquid on distillation ; meanwhile true yeast-cells were 
 
422 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 growth and reproduction of the old, goes on simul- 
 taneously with the production of new living matter. 
 
 Looked at from a chemical point of view, the most 
 essential feature of these changes seems to be that they 
 are successive, similar changes, induced by mere con- 
 tact with another body 1 . As we have previously stated, 
 however, such changes do not form a group apart, they 
 blend insensibly into chemical actions in general. 
 To speak of certain chemical changes, therefore, as 
 fermentations, as though they were different in kind 
 from other chemical changes, may be convenient, though 
 it must be acknowledged to be a mere arbitrary distinc- 
 tion, and not justifiable from a philosophical point of 
 view. Limiting ourselves, however, to such processes 
 as seem best entitled, in the opinion of Liebig and 
 others, to be included in this category, it appears to 
 me that, from one important point of view, they may 
 be included under three principal groups 2 . 
 
 formed? (Liebig on Alcoholic Fermentation, loc. cit.) When a small 
 quantity of yeast is added to a simple solution of sugar, there can be 
 no new production of yeast either by growth or evolution, if no nitrogen 
 exists. 
 
 1 See the definition of Pelouze and Fr^my at p. 402. Liebig says: 'We 
 can resolve with a given quantity of sulphuric acid unlimited quantities 
 of alcohol into ether and water ; we can, by the help of the same acid, 
 convert a quantity of starch into grape sugar, without the acid being 
 neutralized in either case. These effects are utterly distinct from the 
 effects produced when sulphuric acid acts on metals or metallic oxides ; 
 but it is quite absurd to ascribe them to a peculiar cause, altogether 
 different from chemical affinity.' (Letters on Chemistry, 1851. p. 263.) 
 
 2 These views are submitted, with all deference, to the consideration of 
 chemists. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 423 
 
 I. (Synthetic Fermentations^] In this group the changes 
 that occur are wholly synthetic, leading to the evolution 
 of compounds which have a higher molecular com- 
 plexity. Thus, as Schmitz and Glutz have observed, 
 contact with strong hydrochloric acid causes the con- 
 version of cyanogen into oxamide (C 2 N 2 -f-2H 2 O=C 2 
 O 2 N 2 H 4 ), by bringing about a combination between 
 the elements of cyanogen and those of water. This 
 is one of the simplest examples, though a large number 
 of such changes might be cited 1 . 
 
 II. (Analytic Fermentations.) In these cases we find 
 that a more or less complex body breaks up into two 
 or more simpler products, as when starch and water, 
 in contact with sulphuric acid, is converted into dextrin 
 and glucose ; or when salicin, in contact with the same 
 acid, breaks up into saligenin and glucose. 
 
 III. (Analytlco-synthetlc Fermentations^] In this group 
 the two processes occur simultaneously the ferment- 
 able substance breaks up into simpler compounds, and 
 at the same time gives origin to higher and more 
 complex products 2 . As a simple instance of such a 
 change may be cited the fact, that tartaric acid, when 
 heated, not only yields such lower derivatives as water 
 and carbonic acid, but also the decidedly more com- 
 
 1 See vol. ii. chap. xii. p. 24. 
 
 2 This is an occasion most favourable for the production of higher 
 compounds. Elements or compounds always unite most freely ' when 
 one or both are in the act of separating from some previous combination. 
 The state in which they are at that moment is called by chemists the 
 status nascens, or nascent state.' (Liebig.) 
 
424 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 plex body known as pyrogallic acid. Here, all the 
 products are still mere ordinary chemical compounds. 
 But in those processes which are most familiarly 
 known as fermentations, some of the higher products 
 constitute what we know as c living ' matter, and 
 soon separate from the solution in the form of visible 
 specks or particles 1 . This is what occurs in the 
 vinous, and all those more or less putrid fermenta- 
 tions of animal and vegetable substances with which 
 living matter is invariably and necessarily associated. 
 These are all of them exceedingly complex processes 2 , 
 which are as yet very imperfectly understood, The 
 results of the experiments of many investigators, how- 
 ever, compel us to believe that living matter is one 
 of the products, in these fermentations. 
 
 Double simultaneous changes of a synthetic and 
 analytic character are familiar enough to chemists. 
 When olefiant gas (C 2 H 4 ), or the vapour of alcohol or 
 ether, is passed through red hot tubes, a complex body 
 known as naphthalene (C 10 H 8 ) is obtained in addition 
 to such lower products as marsh gas (C H 4 ), carbon 
 and hydrogen. Several acids when heated yield water 
 and a di-acid : thus tartaric acid yields di-tartaric 
 acid, whilst glycol yields di-glycol, and . even tri- and 
 tetra-glycol. More notable, however, than the oc- 
 
 1 See pp. 77-79. 
 
 2 Even in the vinous fermentation there are, as Pasteur has shown, 
 non-volatile products, in addition to such derivatives as succinic acid, 
 glycerine, alcohol, and carbonic acid. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 425 
 
 currence of all such reactions is the fact that simul- 
 taneous processes of analysis and synthesis are con- 
 tinually taking place in all growing forms of living 
 matter. This dependence of life on decomposition 
 is a subject which has been much dwelt upon by 
 Dr. Freke 1 and Mr. Hinton 2 ; and, quite apart from 
 the special relations to which I have just been alluding, 
 Baron Liebig has, on other and broader grounds, 
 pointed out the striking analogies that exist, between 
 processes of fermentation and those nutritive changes 
 which occur within the living body during the acts of 
 assimilation and growth. After alluding to the retro- 
 gressive theories of Pasteur 3 , he adds : c I have re- 
 garded the phenomena of fermentation and putrefaction 
 from a totally different point of view, and have con- 
 sidered their elucidation as the bridge by means of 
 which we may arrive at a more exact knowledge of the 
 processes taking place in the bodies of animals and 
 plants 4 . Who can at the present time fail to perceive 
 the significance of these facts, in regard to the concep- 
 tion and explanation of many vital processes? If a 
 
 1 On Organization, 1848. 
 
 2 ' Life in Nature,' 1862, pp. 51-54, and 229-258. 
 
 3 In the following terms : ' Inasmuch as Pasteur has again diverted 
 the study of fermentation and putrefaction by microscopists into the old 
 objectless path, the result has been, that the general aspect of these pro- 
 cesses has been disregarded, the phenomena that are common to all of 
 them have been overlooked. Observation has been directed to the 
 search for mere details, and it has thus become incoherent.' (On 
 Alcoholic Fermentation, Pharmac. Jrnl. Aug. 6, 1870, p. 104.) 
 
 4 ' Ann. Chem. Pharm.' Ixii. p. 263. 
 
426 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 change in the locality and relative position of the 
 elementary particles of animal substances 1 , outside the 
 organism., be capable of exerting a very definite in- 
 fluence upon a number of organic substances which are 
 brought in contact with them ; if those substances are 
 thereby decomposed, while new compounds are formed 
 from their elements; and if it be considered that the 
 class of substances susceptible of such changes as take 
 place in fermentation, comprises all those which are 
 the constituents of the food of man and animals, who 
 can doubt that the same causes act one of the most 
 important parts in the vital process, or that they have 
 a powerful share in the alterations which the materials 
 of food undergo when they are converted into fat, 
 blood, or constituents of organs 2 ? We know, indeed, 
 that there is in all parts of the " living " animal body an 
 incessant change going on ; that living particles of this 
 body are eliminated; that their constituents, whether 
 fibrin, albumen, gelatin, or whatever else they may be, 
 rearrange themselves as new compounds; that their 
 elements unite to form new products. In accordance 
 with our experience, we must presume that in virtue of 
 this activity, there is at all places where it obtains, and 
 corresponding to its direction and intensity, a parallel 
 alteration in the character and composition of con- 
 
 1 Belonging to the class known as ' ferments.' 
 
 2 This view was very clearly expressed by Mr. Hinton in his ' Life in 
 Nature,' pp. 41, 42 an interesting work, which I have only seen since 
 this Chapter was in type. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 427 
 
 stituents of the blood or of food, coming in contact 
 with such changing particles that consequently the 
 animal metamorphosis is itself a main cause of the 
 alterations that the food undergoes, and a determining 
 condition of the nutritive process.' 
 
 The breadth and suggestiveness of these views of 
 Liebig are most striking, and we venture to hope 
 that they may be considered to derive additional sup- 
 port from our own experiments all of which tend 
 to show the essential similarity of the influences that 
 occasion both the c genesis ' and the c growth ' of living 
 matter. Chemical affinities, variously modified by 
 physical agencies, are the causes of those fermentations 
 which lead to the production of living matter; and 
 chemical affinities similarly modified, are again all 
 powerful in continuing the growth of the matter thus 
 initiated. Nutritive processes are closely allied to 
 fermentative processes, and both sets of phenomena 
 are due to common causes. In other words, the same 
 forces which are operative in the production of the 
 subsequent units of living matter are potential in the 
 initiation of the first unit. The occurrence of living 
 matter is, like the formation of crystalline matter, 
 the result of inherent molecular affinities and of im- 
 mutable natural laws. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ADDITIONAL PROOFS OF THE OCCURRENCE OF ARCHEBIOSIS. 
 
 Uniformity of natural phenomena. Influence of Heat upon Living 
 Matter. Equally uniform appearance of Bacteria and Torula within 
 super-heated, closed Flasks. Their de novo origin alone reconciles 
 such apparently contradictory Facts. Difficulties with which the 
 Experimenter has to contend. Nature works with Unboiled Mate- 
 rials, and under freer Conditions. Further deleterious Action of 
 increased Heat. Living, Colloidal, and Crystalloidal Matter. 
 Diminishing Molecular Complexity goes with diminishing destruc- 
 tibility by Heat. Limits within which Archebiosis is possible. 
 Life and Death are but Transitions. 
 
 Experiments with still Higher Temperatures. Those of Mantegazza, 
 Wyman, and Cantoni. Author's experiments. Mode of preparation. 
 Sealed flasks heated to 27o-275F. Living Torulce, Protamceba;, 
 and Monads. Sealed flasks heated to 293 F. Bacteria, Leptotbrix, 
 and chlorophyll-containing Organisms found. Sealed flasks heated 
 to 295-3O7F for four Hours. Bacteria, Fungus spores, and Fungi 
 found. Other experiments in which Flasks were heated to 327F 
 and 464 F. Charring of Organic Matter most extensive. Action 
 of high temperatures upon Living Organisms. They not only kill 
 but disintegrate. Experiments conclusively in favour of the occur- 
 rence of Archebiosis. 
 
 THE regularity of natural phenomena is proverbial, 
 and is tacitly recognized by each one of us in 
 our daily actions. Even where the succession of events 
 seems less constant, they are none the less the natural 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 429 
 
 resultants of a more complex set of antecedent condi- 
 tions. Chance finds no recognized place where law, 
 or uniformity of result, is eternal. New doctrines 
 must, therefore, before their period of general ac- 
 ceptance, be shown to rest upon phenomena that are 
 easily obtainable. Facts which can be attested by all 
 are not to be gainsayed by any amount of theorizing, 
 or mere affirmation of opposite c mental convictions/ 
 
 The uniformity in the properties of living matter, 
 as it exists in the simplest living things, is recognized 
 by all biologists. All minute, naked, living organisms 
 with which experiment has been made, have been killed 
 by being immersed for a few minutes in water raised 
 to the temperature of 140 F; so that, judging from this 
 known uniformity, there is very good reason for believing 
 that such an amount of heat would prove destructive 
 to all similar, minute, naked portions of living matter. 
 With regard to the higher temperature of 2I2F, how- 
 ever, there is the most unanimous agreement (amongst 
 all those who are best entitled to speak upon the 
 subject) as to the fact that such an amount of heat is 
 destructive to all the lower forms of life which are to 
 be met with in infusions. 
 
 On the other hand, the labours of very many experi- 
 menters have now placed it beyond all question of 
 doubt or cavil, that living Bacteria, Toru/*, and other 
 low forms of life, will make their appearance and 
 multiply within hermetically-sealed flasks (containing 
 organic infusions), which had been previously heated to 
 
430 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 2 1 2 F, even for one or two hours. This result is now so 
 easily and surely obtainable, as to make it come within 
 the domain of natural law 1 . All pre-existing living 
 matter and organisms having been killed within the 
 closed flasks, how can new living things appear therein 
 save by a process of Archebiosis or new origination 
 of living compounds ? The explanations which are ad- 
 duced may be criticized, the phraseology employed may 
 be objected to, but the great fact remains that the new 
 living matter must have originated by the occurrence 
 of some combinations similar in kind to those which 
 
 1 In a very large number of trials I have never had a single failure 
 when an infusion of turnip has been employed, and from what I have 
 more recently seen of the effects produced by the addition of a very 
 minute fragment of cheese to such an infusion (see Appendix C, 
 pp. xxxiv xxxviii), I fully believe that in 999 cases out of 1000, if not 
 in every case, a positive result could be obtained. Having made use of 
 this infusion most frequently, I am able to speak more positively con- 
 cerning it than about others, many of which would, I doubt not, if 
 sufficient care were taken, yield equally unmistakeable results. It must 
 indeed never be forgotten, that the obtaining of positive results or not, 
 in such experiments, depends not a little upon the strength of the 
 solutions employed. A weak infusion will often yield no trace of living 
 things, whilst a stronger infusion prepared at the same time, and 
 treated in the same manner will, after a similar period, be found to 
 swarm with living organisms. The original access of germs having been 
 equally possible in each case, and the destructive influences to which 
 they had been submitted being similar, the subsequent presence of living 
 organisms in the one solution and their absence from the other, seems 
 only consistent with the supposition, that an increased quantity of or- 
 ganic matter in a solution acts in the same w r ay as the addition of a 
 very fermentable fragment (cheese), and suffices to produce an increased 
 tendency towards the occurrence of those fermentative changes during 
 which there is a correlative production of new-born living matter. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 431 
 
 take place in plants during every moment of their 
 growth even though such chemical combinations oc- 
 cur c spontaneously,' or independently of the influence 
 of any pre-existing living protoplasm. 
 
 It may be easily understood, however, that he who 
 investigates this subject has to work under the in- 
 fluence of a set of conditions which are of the most 
 unfavourable description. What he wishes to ascer- 
 tain is whether in the wide field of nature in its 
 ponds, its lakes, its rivers, and its ocean beds, where 
 there is the freest play of cosmical forces upon the 
 most suitable materials any de novo origination of living 
 matter is taking place. And with the view of answering 
 this portentous question, he is compelled (if he would 
 avail himself of experimental conditions which shall 
 be free from all chances of error) to resort to a poverty 
 of conditions, which seems but a mockery of the wealth 
 of nature. In the one case we have ponds, containing 
 in solution an abundance of protein materials whose 
 virtues have not been impaired by the blighting in- 
 fluence of heat, and which are freely exposed to air, 
 light, and all those other known or unknown cosmical 
 agencies which stimulate the growth of living matter. 
 Whilst, in the other case, the experimenter has to 
 content himself with boiled organic infusions, shut 
 up within the narrow confines of a small, hermetically- 
 sealed flask. Seeing, however, that conclusive results 
 are still obtainable in spite of these unpromising con- 
 ditions, the subject is one on which science may be 
 
432 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 congratulated. Had the natural tendency to the for- 
 mation of living compounds in certain solutions been 
 much less potent than it seems to be 1 , the problem to 
 which we have been referring could never have been 
 solved. As it is, that which we are absolutely com- 
 pelled to believe takes place within the closed flasks, 
 may illuminate our mental vision concerning all the 
 richer probabilities which are possibly being realized 
 from moment to moment in such freer sites as ponds, 
 lakes, rivers, and ocean beds. 
 
 Looking, however, again at the experimental aspects 
 of the question, it will be easily understood that by 
 increasing the stringency of the c conditions,' we may 
 ultimately succeed in stifling the voice of nature. 
 
 That combination of properties which we generalize 
 and include under the word c Life ' being the result of a 
 fine and subtle molecular combination in the matter 
 by which it is manifested, it is easy to understand 
 that a certain amount of heat may be adequate to 
 destroy these more delicate combinations, and so 
 put an end to the c vital 5 manifestations with which 
 they are associated. Such is the action of heat when 
 it just suffices to convert a living thing into a dead 
 organism. Though it is no longer living, however, 
 though, in common parlance, its c life* has departed 
 the body may still remain as an organic aggregate. 
 If allowed to continue in water, it gradually disin- 
 tegrates, and becomes more or less dissolved yielding 
 1 See Vol. ii. pp. 27-32. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 433 
 
 an organic solution in which colloidal substances are 
 dissolved. 
 
 But just as the combinations which constitute living 
 matter are superior in complexity to, and more destruc- 
 tible by heat than, colloidal compounds, so are colloidal 
 compounds themselves broken up and more or less 
 destroyed, by an amount of heat which will leave many 
 crystalloids unaltered. The degree of heat necessary 
 to decompose different complex colloids is, of course, 
 subject to an amount of variation which does not 
 admit of previous predication. As a rule, however, 
 the more intense the heat to which a solution has 
 been subjected, the more has the complex compo- 
 sition of the dissolved substances been impaired, and 
 the less is the solution calculated to be one in which 
 the new combinations initiative of living matter could 
 arise. The de novo origin of living matter in a solution 
 is possible at any period, after the destruction of all 
 its pre-existing living things, provided the heat 
 employed has not been so extreme as to break up 
 its colloidal compounds, or such other unstable com- 
 binations as may be capable of conjointly yielding so 
 high a product. The number of successful results, 
 however, naturally diminishes, according as one em- 
 ploys, either more destructible compounds or higher 
 temperatures and less destructible compounds. 
 
 So that however meagre the chances may seem 
 for the occurrence of nature's subtlest material com- 
 binations within even ordinary experimental flasks (as 
 
 F f 
 
434 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 compared with those which favour their induction in 
 the outside world), the chances become far less when 
 still higher temperatures are made use of, with or 
 without longer periods of exposure. And., ultimately, 
 a limit must be attained, at which the degrading in- 
 fluence of heat produces effects that suffice to render 
 the experimental vessel a dreary and lifeless tomb, in 
 which no living thing can subsequently arise. The 
 transition from the not-living to the living, is an 
 ascent in molecular complexity which may not be 
 possible under such conditions where the much-altered 
 matter exists, though shorn of its finer virtues. 
 
 ' Nee perit in tanto quicquam (mihi credite) mundo, 
 Sed variat, faciemque novat : nascique vocatur, 
 Incipere esse aliud, quam quod fuit ante ; morique, 
 Definere illud idem.' 
 
 Although no additional evidence is actually required 
 to prove that living matter can and does arise de novo^ 
 still my own experiments, and those of others, in 
 which very much higher temperatures have been re- 
 sorted to, and successful results have yet been obtained, 
 ought to be cited, because of the great additional surety 
 which they supply that no pre-existing living matter 
 was left within the experimental flasks. 
 
 In 1851, Prof. Mantegazza 1 , of Pavia, introduced a 
 decoction of lettuce into a strong glass tube, and then 
 hermetically sealed it in the flame of a lamp. One- 
 
 1 ' Giornal dell R. Istituto Lombardo.' Exp. iii. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 435 
 
 third of the tube was occupied by the fluid, and the 
 remaining two-thirds contained ordinary air. It was 
 exposed for thirty minutes to a temperature of 2I2F, 
 and for forty minutes to 384? (i4OC), in a bath 
 saturated with carbonate of potash. Fifty-nine hours 
 after having taken the tube from the bath (during which 
 time it had been maintained at a temperature of about 
 75 F), it was divided by a file, and the fluid was sub- 
 mitted to a microscopical examination, In the fluid, 
 Prof. Mantegazza says he found living specimens of 
 Bacterium termo. 
 
 In 1862, Prof. Jeffries Wyman, of Cambridge, U.S., 
 performed, and subsequently recorded the following 
 experiments 1 . c Exp. xxxiv. (3.) March 27th. Juice 
 of mutton, in a hermetically sealed flask, was boiled 
 five minutes in a Papin's digester, under a pressure of 
 two atmospheres [i2o-6F], A film formed on the 
 fourth day. It was opened several days later in the 
 presence of Prof. Gray, and found to contain Vibrios 
 and Bacteriums, some of them moving with great 
 rapidity.' 
 
 The next experiment was also made with the same 
 kind of solution 2 . It is thus recorded : c Exp. xxxv. (3.) 
 The same as the preceding, and boiled in Papin's 
 digester ten minutes, and under the pressure of five 
 
 1 ' American Journal of Science and Arts,' July, 1862. 
 
 2 In two other experiments, in which beef juice was employed instead 
 of mutton juice, and in which the flasks were raised to the same tem- 
 peratures for fifteen minutes, no organisms were found. 
 
 F f 2 
 
436 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 atmospheres |j52*2 F]. No film was formed. The flask 
 was opened on the forty-first day. Monads and Vibrios 
 were found, some of the latter moving across the field. 
 No putrefaction ; the solution had an alkaline taste.' 
 
 In 1868, Prof. Cantoni, of Pavia, also made some 
 experiments in concert with Profs. Balsamo and Maggi, 
 in which hermetically sealed flasks containing various 
 organic solutions or infusions were heated to tempera- 
 tures ranging from ioo-n7C (2i2-242-6F), in a 
 Papin's digester 1 . Amongst other fluids they tried a 
 solution of yolk of egg, and with reference to this Prof. 
 Cantoni says 2: c We began by observing that this 
 solution, enclosed with plenty of air in a flask hermeti- 
 cally sealed and heated to io5-uo, produced a large 
 number of Vibrios in two days. We heated it in 
 different experiments to 112, 114, 116, 117, and 
 always obtained the same result^ if the temperature of the 
 air was from 25 to 27.' Experiments were similarly 
 conducted with other organic fluids, which led to the 
 following results: c The juice from meat sufficiently 
 concentrated produces Vibrios if heated to 112, but 
 not if heated to 1 14 ; cow's milk of good quality pro- 
 duces them if heated to H3*53 and remains unpro- 
 
 1 I was for a long time unable to procure a sight of Prof. Cantoni's 
 valuable papers, but he has lately been kind enough to send them to me. 
 Having merely seen references to them in journals, I was led on a 
 former occasion (' Nature/ No. 48, 1870, p. 432) to state that he had 
 obtained positive results at 242-6 C, instead of 242-6 F. I much 
 regret that the mistake should have occurred. 
 
 2 ' Gazzetta Medica Italiana-Lombardia,' Serie VI. t. i, 1868. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 437 
 
 ductive from 1 14-5 ; a decoction of pumpkin 1 produces 
 them at 110 and not at 112; the albumen of an egg 
 is productive at 112, and at 113 commences to show 
 signs of disintegration ; and the decoction of hay gives, 
 moreover. Vibrios at no , but cannot when subjected 
 to a higher temperature 2 .' These experiments were 
 all comparable with one another, from the fact that 
 they were performed during the months of July and 
 August, when the atmospheric temperature remained 
 pretty constantly at from 25-27C (77-8oF) 3 . 
 
 Thinking it very desirable to ascertain the highest 
 point to which some solutions might be heated with- 
 out being rendered unproductive ; and also wishing 
 
 1 Heated to any extent short of noC, this fluid is said by Prof- 
 Cantoni to produce Vibrios with astonishing rapidity. 
 
 2 Solutions of Liebig's soup were also found, on another occasion, to 
 be unproductive at and above this point, though they were productive 
 after exposure to temperatures a little lower, providing the daily atmo- 
 spheric temperature remained high. 
 
 3 Prof. Cantoni naturally enough asks, why it should be, if the 
 Vibriones are in all cases produced from germs, that these germs 
 should be killed at such different temperatures in different fluids; and 
 why the germs (which nobody has seen) should require such a very 
 much higher temperature to kill them, than suffices to destroy their 
 parents ? The latter he, also, believes to be destroyed by a temperature 
 of about 60 C. Then, again, there is the fact that the amount of 
 heat which is necessary in order to stop the productivity of the fluid 
 (other things being equal), becomes lower and lower as the temperature 
 of the air diminishes so that the yolk of egg, for instance, which, with 
 a temperature of 25C, will produce after being heated even to H7C, 
 will not produce after being heated only to 110 if the temperature of 
 the air continues at 20, whilst when it is still further reduced to 15 
 (59 F) the fluid ceases to be productive after it has been exposed to 
 105 or even 100. 
 
438 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 to ascertain what amount of evidence was obtain- 
 able as to the possibility of living matter being pro- 
 duced de novo, from changes taking place, in the main, 
 amongst inorganic or mineral elements, I made during 
 the present and the past year many experiments, some 
 of which I will now detail. With the exception of Prof. 
 Mantegazza's one experiment, and of one by Prof. 
 Wyman, all the flasks in my experiments have been 
 raised to temperatures higher than any which had pre- 
 viously been resorted to. 
 
 In those which have been productive, the hermetically 
 closed flasks have been exposed to temperatures ranging 
 from 27o-3o7F (i32-i53C), though in other un- 
 productive experiments the flasks have been heated to 
 327F and 464 F. As on other occasions, the solu- 
 tions were heated in <vacuo, so that the experiments 
 also differed in this respect from those of Mantegazza, 
 Wyman, and Cantoni, who adhered to the method 
 pursued by Spallanzani and Needham. 
 
 In some of my earlier experiments, I had the benefit 
 of Prof. Frank] and's assistance, though subsequently he 
 kindly placed his digester at my disposal 1 . 
 
 The mode of preparation of the flasks and the instru- 
 ment employed for heating them were thus described 
 by Prof. Frankland : 
 
 1 Of the Experiments now about to be recorded, those in which the 
 flasks were heated under Dr. Frankland's superintendence are Nos. g, 
 b>j, k> s > u i w t and.y, whilst those which were executed alone by me in 
 University College are Nos. a, b, c, d, e, f t I, m, , o, p, q, r, t, v, x* 
 and z. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 439 
 
 c Each liquid was placed in a glass tube about three- 
 quarters of an inch in diameter, nine inches long, and 
 closed at one end by fusion of the glass. The open end 
 of the tube was then drawn out so as to form a thick 
 capillary tube, which was afterwards connected with a 
 Sprengel's mercurial pump. The action of the pump 
 soon produced a tolerably good vacuum, when on gently 
 warming the liquid, the latter began to boil, its vapour 
 expelling the last traces of air from the apparatus. 
 After the boiling had been continued for several 
 minutes, the tube was hermetically sealed at the capil- 
 lary part. 
 
 c The tubes were now placed in the wrought iron 
 digester, described by me in the Philosophical Trans- 
 actions for 1854, p. 260. It consists essentially of a 
 cylindrical iron vessel, with a tightly-fitting cover, 
 which can be securely screwed on to it. Through the 
 centre of the cover passes an iron tube, which descends 
 half way down the centre of the cylinder. This tube 
 is closed at bottom, and contains a column of mercury 
 about an inch long, and a thermometer plunged into 
 the mercury shows the temperature of the liquid inside 
 the digester. 
 
 c Water being now poured into the digester until 
 it covered the tubes, and the cover having been 
 screwed on, heat was applied by means of a gas 
 stove. 
 
 c The temperature was allowed to rise to about 
 15OC, and was maintained between 146 and I53C 
 
440 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 for four hours *, and it is almost needless to say that 
 every part of the sealed tubes and their contents was 
 exposed to this temperature during the whole time. 
 The glass tubes, though of moderately thick glass only, 
 ran no risk of fracture, because the pressure inside them 
 was approximately counterbalanced by the pressure of 
 steam outside/ 
 
 In all the subsequent experiments which I performed 
 alone, an approximate vacuum was procured, as in my 
 former experiments, by boiling the fluids and sealing 
 the flasks hermetically during ebullition. The vacuum 
 may have been somewhat less perfect in these cases 
 than when it was procured by means of the Sprengel 
 pump, though this circumstance does not in the least 
 diminish the value of the experiments. The vacuum 
 was not desired, because, by working under these con- 
 ditions, all atmospheric c germs ' might be abstracted 
 since in all cases the flasks were exposed to a 
 temperature which is acknowledged to be destructive 
 of living things whether in air or in fluids. In the 
 experiments of Mantegazza, Wyman, and Cantoni, the 
 portions of the closed flasks above the level of the 
 fluids were filled with ordinary air. If, therefore, the 
 vacuum may not have been quite so complete in some 
 of my latter experiments as in those in which I had 
 the benefit of Prof. Frankland's assistance, it is a matter 
 
 1 This prolonged period of exposure was subsequently only resorted 
 to in some of the experiments. In others they were exposed for shorter 
 periods, as will be seen from the different headings. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 441 
 
 of no importance, and does not in the least affect their 
 value. 
 
 Solutions exposed in airless and hermetically sealed flasks to 
 2*io-2*i$F (i32-i35C) for twenty minutes, and sub- 
 sequently maintained at a temperature of 7o-8o F. These 
 flasks were also exposed to direct sunlight for eight days *. 
 
 'Experiment a. A strong infusion of turnip, rendered 
 very faintly alkaline by liquor potassae, to which a few 
 muscular fibres of a cod-fish were added. 
 
 When taken from the digester the fluid was found to 
 have assumed a pale brownish colour. The flask was 
 kept in a warm place, in addition to being exposed to 
 direct sunlight. The vacuum having been ascertained 
 to be partially preserved, the neck of the flask was 
 broken two months after the date of its preparation. 
 The reaction of the fluid was then decidedly acid, and 
 the odour (differing altogether from that of mere baked 
 turnip) was sour, though not at all foetid. The fluid 
 was very slightly turbid, and there was a well-marked 
 sediment consisting of reddish-brown fragments, and a 
 light flocculent deposit. On microscopical examination, 
 the fragments were found to be portions of altered mus- 
 cular fibre, whilst the flocculent deposit was composed, 
 
 1 The solutions and flasks were exposed to a temperature of from 
 no''-i35 C for one hour, if we include the twenty minutes' exposure, 
 and also the period which elapsed till the fluid in the digester cooled 
 down to iroC. The subsequent exposure to direct sunlight was, for 
 several hours daily, during some very fane weather in the month of March. 
 
442 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 for the most part, of granular aggregations and bacteria. 
 In the portions of fluid and deposit which were examined. 
 
 FIG. 30. 
 
 Bacteria, Torula, Fungus-mycelium, and Spores of different sizes, from 
 a neutralized Turnip Infusion. ( X 800.) 
 
 there were thousands of Bacteria of most diverse shapes 
 and sizes, either separate or aggregated into flakes. 
 There were also a large number of monilated chains 1 
 of various lengths, though mostly short , a large number 
 of small spherical Torula cells with mere granular 
 contents, and a smaller number of ovoid, vacuolated 
 cells. There were, in addition, a considerable number 
 of brownish nucleated spores, gradually increasing in 
 size from mere specks about -^-giro" in diameter, up to 
 bodies -2-W i n diameter ; and also a small quantity of 
 a mycelial filament, having solid protoplasmic contents, 
 
 1 Similar to those found in other turnip infusions which have been 
 slightly acid and not foetid. See Appendix C, Experiments xxi. and 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 443 
 
 broken at intervals, and bearing bud-like projections, 
 each of which was capped with a single spore. 
 
 'Experiment b. An infusion of common cress (Lepi- 
 dium sativum),to which a few of the leaves and stalks 
 of the plant were added. 
 
 This was kept in the same way as the last solu- 
 tion, and was similarly exposed to sun-light for a 
 few days. 
 
 After nine weeks, and before the neck of the flask 
 was broken, the vacuum was found to be well preserved. 
 The reaction of the fluid was distinctly acid, but there 
 was no notable odour of any kind. The fluid itself 
 was tolerably clear and free from scum, though there 
 was a considerable quantity of a dirty-looking flocculent 
 sediment at the bottom of the flask, amongst the debris 
 of the cress. On microscopical examination of portions 
 of these fragments, most of the cells in the stalks were 
 found crowded with very actively-moving granules. In 
 some of the leaves the chlorophyle was not much 
 altered, whilst in others it presented various stages 
 of decomposition being in some cells wholly replaced 
 by a blackish-brown granular material. Large quan- 
 tities of such matter also existed, either dispersed or 
 aggregated, amongst the sediment; and in some of it 
 three minute and delicate Protamceb# were seen, creep- 
 ing with moderately-rapid, slug-like, movements and 
 changes of form. They contained no nucleus, and 
 presented only a few granules in their interior. Partly 
 in the same drop, and partly in others, there were also 
 
444 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 seen more than a dozen very active Monads^ 40*00" 
 in diameter each being provided with a long rapidly- 
 
 Bacteria, Torula, Protamoebce, Monads, &c., from an infusion of Common 
 Cress. ( X 800.) 
 
 moving flagellum, with which neighbouring granules 
 were lashed about *. There were many smaller motion- 
 less spherules, of different sizes, whose body- substance 
 presented a similar appearance to that of the Monads. 
 There were also several unjointed Bacteria, presenting 
 most rapid progressive movements, accompanied by 
 rapid axial rotations ; many Torula- cells of different 
 kinds, and coarser fungus spores, some of them with 
 segmented protoplasmic contents j and lastly, some 
 mycelial or algoid filaments, containing tolerably equal 
 blocks of colourless protoplasm within an investing 
 sheath. 
 
 1 A drop containing several of the Monads was placed for about five 
 minutes on a glass slip, in a warm-water oven maintained at a tempera- 
 ture of i4oF. All the movements of the Monads ceased from that 
 time ; and they never again showed any signs of life. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 445 
 
 Experiment c. An infusion of beef with some mus- 
 cular fibres, prepared at the same time, similarly ex- 
 posed, and also opened after nine weeks, was not found 
 to contain any living things, though there was an 
 abundance of mere moving granules. Some of the 
 muscular fibres had preserved their natural appearance, 
 whilst others had lost it, and had become completely 
 granular. 
 
 Experiment d. An infusion of cod-fish muscle, simi- 
 larly prepared and exposed, also proved quite sterile. 
 
 Experiment e. A solution containing ten grains of 
 potash and ammonia alum, three grains of tartar emetic, 
 and half a grain of new cheese to an ounce of distilled 
 water. 
 
 The vacuum having been ascertained to be still 
 partly preserved, this flask was opened at the end of 
 the seventh week. The fluid was odourless, and its 
 reaction neutral. There was a considerable quantity 
 of dirty-looking deposit, and some oily matter on 
 the surface, though the fluid itself was tolerably 
 clear. The deposit was, for the most part, com- 
 posed of dark granules, together with mucoid flakes 
 also containing granules. Mixed with the moving gra- 
 nules were a considerable number of Bacteria partly 
 of the ordinary shape, and partly of the monilated 
 variety the movements of which were tolerably ex- 
 tensive. They travelled over small areas, and danced 
 around one another, in a manner quite different from 
 the mere granules with which they were intermixed. 
 
446 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 There were no traces of Torulte or Leptothrix fila- 
 ments. 
 
 Experiment f. A solution containing ten grains of 
 ammonic tartrate and three grains of sodic phosphate, 
 with half a grain of new cheese, to an ounce of 
 distilled water. 
 
 The vacuum having been ascertained to be well 
 preserved, the flask was opened in the early part of the 
 sixth week. The fluid was found to have a neutral 
 reaction, and there was a well-marked, whitish deposit 
 at the bottom of the vessel. On microscopical examina- 
 tion, no Bacteria, Torul^e, or Fungi were found, but 
 there were a great number of fibres, exactly like un- 
 segmented Leptothrix filaments, growing from the midst 
 of aggregations of the irregular particles of which the 
 deposit was composed. Other filaments were seen 
 having a close resemblance to the spiral fibres met 
 with in somewhat similar solutions which were exposed 
 to a lower temperature \ They were, however, in 
 smaller masses, the spirals were less marked, and 
 transitional states existed between them and the fibres 
 which resembled Leptotkrix 2 . 
 
 1 See Appendix A, pp. v ix. 
 
 3 Since this was written I have seen Leptotbrix (or Spirulind] filaments, 
 growing so as to form quite irregular, spirally-disposed masses of dif- 
 ferent sizes. These were obtained from the surface of water, in which 
 a few young twigs of the common elder had been immersed for five or 
 six days. All stages were seen, also, between such spiral masses and 
 more ordinary Bacteria and Vibrio forms. As the latter elongated they 
 gradually became curved. Segmentations were seen, at intervals, in the 
 internal solid protoplasm of which they were principally composed. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 447 
 
 Solutions exposed in airless and hermetically-sealed flasks to 
 293^ (i45C), for from five to twenty minutes ; and 
 subsequently maintained at a temperature qf^o-So ^ 1 . 
 
 'Experiment g. A turnip infusion rendered very 
 faintly alkaline by liquor potassse. 
 
 The flask was opened after nine weeks, when the 
 vacuum was found to be partially preserved. The fluid 
 was still of the same light brown colour as when it was 
 taken from the digester. Its reaction was now decidedly 
 acid, though the odour was slightly sour and not foetid. 
 There was a small quantity of granular scum on some 
 parts of the surface, and a distinct brownish flocculent 
 sediment, but the bulk of the fluid was tolerably 
 clear. On microscopical examination of the deposit, 
 a number of minute Torula-cells were found, both singly 
 and in groups. They varied from the minutest specks 
 up to bodies ^V?/' in breadth, and were mostly with- 
 
 FIG. 32. 
 Various kinds of Torula from a neutralized Infusion of Turnip. ( X 600.) 
 
 out nuclei or vacuoles. Some were growing out into 
 mycelial filaments. Other small, nucleated, spores were 
 
448 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 also met with, singly and in groups ; and in addition, 
 a thick-walled body with granular contents, y^W' ^ n 
 diameter. No distinct Bacteria were seen, though there 
 were numerous acicular crystals, some solitary, and 
 others in peculiar bundles having constrictions at in- 
 tervals. A number of minute octohedral and prismatic 
 crystals were also present 1 . 
 
 Experiment h. A solution containing seven grains 
 of iron and ammonic citrate (mixed with a few very 
 minute fibres of deal wood), seven grains of ammonic 
 tartrate, and three grains of sodic phosphate, to one 
 ounce of distilled water. 
 
 When taken from the digester this solution was 
 found to have become fluorescent being blackish by 
 reflected, and olive-green in colour by transmitted light. 
 After a time, some cloud-like flakes appeared, and also 
 an increasing quantity of sediment. After eight months, 
 
 FIG. 33- 
 
 Bright green Organisms resembling Pediastrece, from a Solution con- 
 taining Iron and Ammonic Citrate and other ingredients. ( X 800.) 
 
 the vacuum being still well preserved, the neck of the 
 flask was broken and its contents examined micro- 
 
 1 Only three drops of the fluid were examined. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 449 
 
 scopically. The sediment contained a few wood fibres 
 and ducts, and very much granular matter together with 
 actively-moving particles, though no distinct Bacteria. 
 There were also very many ovoid cells (single, and 
 in groups of two to eight), about TT n/' in length, with 
 somewhat granular and rather bright green contents 
 in which a vacuole existed. Other somewhat similar 
 bodies were seen in groups of four, each segment of 
 which was surrounded by a hyaline envelope. In one 
 group the protoplasm within the hyaline envelope was 
 seen to have undergone segmentation. 
 
 Some of this fluid was put on one side in a small 
 corked tube, and when examined after six weeks, the 
 cells had lost all their green colour the contents having 
 assumed a dirty yellowish brown hue 1 . 
 
 Experiment j. A solution containing fifteen grains 
 of iron and ammonic citrate (mixed with a few minute 
 fibres of deal wood), in one ounce of distilled water. 
 
 The vacuum having been ascertained to be well 
 preserved, the neck of the flask was broken eight 
 months after its preparation. The fluid, which was 
 still very faintly acid, was not fluorescent, though there 
 had been a notable amount of sediment for some time. 
 On microscopical examination, the latter was found to 
 consist of dotted ducts and minute portions of woody 
 fibre, mixed with large quantities of granular matter 
 
 1 A certain general resemblance exists between the organisms met 
 with in this experiment, and those of Experiments j, I, and m, as well as 
 those of Experiment 2, recorded at p. 365. 
 
450 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 (aggregated into flakes), and a great multitude of very 
 actively-moving particles. Some of them had a figure- 
 of-8 shape, and others were well -formed "Bacteria. 
 There were also a few monilated chains, as well as 
 simple unsegmented Leptothrtx filaments. The most 
 
 FIG. 34. 
 
 Bacteria, different kinds of Leptothrix, and green Organisms resembling 
 Desmids, from a Solution of Iron and Ammonic Citrate. ( X 800.) 
 
 notable products, however, were a great number of single 
 and aggregated organisms, resembling certain simple 
 Desmids and Pediastre*. Like them, also, they exhi- 
 bited slow oscillations or partial slight rotations. Their 
 contents were decidedly greenish, though the hue was 
 not so bright as that of the organisms found in the last 
 solution. Some were single, and others were in groups 
 of four or eight \ 
 
 Two drops of the solution, containing some of the 
 sediment, were placed in a clean animalcule-cage, 
 
 1 The organisms in this solution more closely resembled those of 
 Experiment 2 (p. 365) than those of Experiments I and m. Bacteria were 
 contained in both, and the solutions themselves were also more similar 
 neither of them had become fluorescent. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 451 
 
 which was kept at a temperature of 85 90 F in a 
 developing oven. After twenty-four hours the groups 
 and single Desmid-like bodies were still seen under- 
 going partial rotations, and the number of "Bacteria 
 had increased in quantity. After forty-eight hours, 
 a group of eight cells, in addition to solitary and smaller 
 groups, was seen distinctly oscillating ; and there were 
 two or three elongated bodies (containing segmented 
 blocks of protoplasm), which seemed to have resulted 
 from the development of single organisms ; there were 
 also several Leptothrix filaments, and a great increase 
 had taken place in the number of Bacteria, which showed 
 very active movements of translation. After this period 
 the contents of the Desmid-like bodies began to fade, 
 and they seemed gradually to die ; though the Bacteria 
 lived and increased for several days, during which the 
 specimen was kept under observation. 
 
 Experiment k. A solution containing ten grains of 
 ammonic sulphate, and ten minims of dilute liquor 
 ferri perchloridi in one ounce of distilled water. 
 
 A thick scum formed on the surface after about two 
 months. The flask was opened at the expiration of the 
 third month, the vacuum being still well preserved. 
 On microscopical examination, no trace of living 
 things was to be seen amongst the amorphous deposit 
 at the bottom of the flask. The pellicle was found to 
 present a cellular arrangement (Fig. 39). It polarized 
 light, however, and was obviously crystalline in con- 
 stitution. It was very heavy sinking at once in the 
 eg 2 
 
452 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 watch-glass as soon as its upper surface was wetted. This 
 solution contained no carbon (see Appendix A, p. x). 
 
 Experiment 1. A solution containing twelve grains of 
 iron and ammonic citrate (mixed with a few very mi- 
 nute fibres of deal wood) in one ounce of distilled water. 
 
 The flask was opened at the commencement of the 
 seventh week from the date of preparation. It was 
 exposed to sunlight for about eight days during the last 
 fortnight, though previous to this the amount of sedi- 
 ment had gradually increased. After the second or 
 third exposure the previously dark brown fluid became 
 fluorescent black to reflected, but olive-coloured to 
 transmitted light. There was also a brownish deposit 
 on one side of the tube. When the flask was opened 
 it was found that the vacuum was almost wholly 
 impaired, by an internal evolution of gas. On 
 microscopical examination of a drop of the fluid (con- 
 taining sediment), multitudes of granules, separate and 
 aggregated into flakes, were seen. There were no dis- 
 tinct Bacteria, though large numbers of the rounded and 
 ovoid organisms similar to those met with in Exps. 9 
 and 12, were intermixed with the granules. They were 
 partly separate, partly in groups of fours and eights. 
 They varied considerably in size, and also in colour 
 some being decidedly greenish, and others quite yellow 
 and faded. In the granular aggregations, different stages 
 in the growth of these Desmid-like bodies were to be 
 recognized. What appeared to be short Leptothrix fila- 
 ments issued from some of the granular masses. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 453 
 
 Experiment m. Some of the same solution as was 
 employed in the last experiment, similarly exposed 
 and rendered similarly fluorescent. After the exposure 
 to sunlight, however, the tube was kept in ordinary 
 daylight for two weeks, so that it was not opened till 
 the commencement of the ninth week. 
 
 It was then found that the vacuum was impaired as 
 in the last experiment. On microscopical examination 
 of the sediment the same kind of granules (separate and 
 aggregated) were seen, and also great multitudes of the 
 Desmid-like organisms. These existed more abundantly 
 than in the last solution. Here also there was the 
 same fresh appearance of some, and faded look of others, 
 and also great variations in size the largest being 
 TWO" i n length, whilst many were not more than 
 length. Several groups of four were seen, in 
 
 TWO" 
 
 FIG. 35. 
 
 Greenish, Desmid-like Organisms of different kinds, and Torulte, found 
 in a fluorescent solution of Iron and Ammonic Citrate. ( X 800.) 
 
 which the separate elements were spherical instead of 
 ovoid. There were also many straight, or slightly 
 
454 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 curved bodies, having blocks of protoplasm within 
 which apparently resulted from a longitudinal growth 
 of single frustules. The groups of organisms, as well as 
 those which were single, exhibited the same slow partial 
 rotations, forwards and backwards, which had been 
 observed in those produced in other solutions. 
 
 Some of this solution was put into a corked tube, 
 and when it was examined two months afterwards, all 
 the frustules had lost their greenish colour, and were 
 apparently quite dead. 
 
 'Experiment n. A solution containing ten grains of 
 ammonic carbonate, and three grains of sodic phosphate 
 in one ounce of distilled water. 
 
 The flask was opened in the commencement of the 
 twelfth week from the date of preparation, the vacuum 
 having been previously ascertained to be well preserved. 
 The reaction of the solution was slightly alkaline. 
 There was no notable turbidity of the fluid, though 
 there was a small amount of whitish deposit, which on 
 microscopical examination was found to be mostly 
 composed of amorphous granules. The fluid itself con- 
 tained a small number of minute but distinct Bacteria^ 
 and also a number of figure-of-8 shaped bodies all 
 of which exhibited sluggish movements, They were 
 very faint in colour, so that on this account and owing 
 to their small size, although plentiful enough, they 
 were somewhat difficult to recognize. A drop of the 
 solution, on the application of the covering glass, had 
 been immediately cemented, and when examined after 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 455 
 
 twenty- four hours, both varieties of 'Bacteria had 
 notably increased in quantity, and had become some- 
 what larger, though their movements were not at all 
 more active. 
 
 Experiment o. An infusion of hay, which had become 
 slightly darker by the exposure to heat, and in which 
 a fine flocculent sediment had been thrown down. 
 
 The flask was opened at the end of the seventh 
 week, the vacuum being still well preserved. The 
 reaction of the fluid was then found to be acid, and its 
 odour was hay-like though somewhat altered in character. 
 No organisms of any kind were discovered in the fluid, 
 or amidst the minutely granular deposit. 
 
 Experiment p. An infusion of turnip (not neutralized 
 but in its natural slightly acid condition) was found to 
 have assumed the colour of pale sherry when removed 
 from the digester. There was also a small amount of 
 light flocculent sediment. 
 
 The flask was opened eight weeks afterwards; the 
 vacuum having been well preserved. The reaction of 
 the fluid was still acid, and its odour was that of baked 
 turnip. There was a considerable quantity of granular 
 matter at the bottom of the flask, but after careful 
 microscopical examination, no organisms of any kind 
 could be detected x . 
 
 1 Compare the results of this experiment with those of Nos. a and 
 g. The very slight addition of dilute liquor potassae to the latter 
 fluids seems to have been the immediately determining cause of their 
 productiveness (see p. 383). Some other experiments recorded in 
 
456 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 After it had been examined, the remainder of the 
 fluid was left in the open flask. Six weeks afterwards 
 it was accidentally noticed,, and a bluish-green fungus 
 was seen covering the surface of the fluid. On 
 microscopical examination of the sediment which had 
 collected at the bottom of the flask, multitudes of 
 Torula cells were found, though there was a complete 
 absence of Bacteria ] . 
 
 Solutions exposed in airless and hermetically-sealed flasks to 
 a temperature of 295 307^ (146 i53C) for four 
 hours, and subsequently maintained at a temperature of 
 70 80^. 
 
 Experiment q. An infusion of turnip which had 
 been much charred by the high temperature. It had 
 become brown in colour, and in addition there was a 
 
 Appendix C, also point to the desirability of neutralizing a turnip 
 infusion if we wish to increase the chances of finding organisms within 
 the flasks. In Exps. a and g the odour was not that of mere baked 
 turnip, and the solutions had become acid fermentation had in fact 
 taken place. 
 
 1 I have also on other occasions (see Appendix C, Exp. xviii.) fre- 
 quently found, when the fermentability of certain fluids is lowered by the 
 influence of heat, that they yield nothing but slowly-growing Torulce, 
 although a portion of the same fluid, unheated and standing beneath 
 the same bell-jar, would speedily become turbid and yield myriads 
 of Bacteria without Torula. Facts of this kind are very interesting, 
 and serve to throw light upon the morphological differences which 
 exist between Bacteria and Torulce. Crystals which are produced 
 rapidly, are always smaller and less perfect in form than those of 
 slower growth. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 457 
 
 blackish-brown deposit of charred matter, which, after 
 it had thoroughly settled, was about equal to one-twelfth 
 of the bulk of the fluid. 
 
 The flask was opened at the end of the eighth week, 
 when the vacuum was found to be well preserved. The 
 odour of the fluid was for the most part that of baked 
 turnip, and its reaction was acid. The deposit was 
 composed of amorphous granules, and also of a mul- 
 titude of reddish or claret-coloured spherules of various 
 sizes, but no organisms of any kind could be dis- 
 covered. 
 
 Experiment r. An infusion of turnip rendered slightly 
 alkaline by the addition of dilute liquor ammonias, was 
 affected in almost precisely the same way as in the last 
 experiment. 
 
 The flask was prepared at the same time, and opened 
 after the same interval. The deposit, in its micro- 
 scopical characters, resembled that found in the last 
 experiment, and there was a similar absence of all 
 organisms 1 . 
 
 Experiment s. A tube containing an unaltered infusion 
 of turnip was opened at the end of the twelfth day. 
 
 When received from Dr. Frankland, the fluid had 
 been changed to a decided but light brown colour, and 
 there was some quantity of a blackish-brown granular 
 
 1 Considering the results which were obtained in Exps. a and g, I 
 think that a turnip infusion neutralized by liquor potassoe rather than 
 liquor ammonias, is one of the most favourable combinations for producing 
 organisms after exposure to high temperatures. 
 
458 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 sediment, though the infusion had been quite free from 
 all deposit when placed in the digester. After this 
 tube was suspended in a warm place, as the others had 
 been, it remained in the same position till it was 
 taken down to be opened. A slight scum or pellicle, 
 which partially covered the surface, was observed on 
 the sixth day. During the succeeding days it did 
 not increase much in extent, though it became some- 
 what thicker. Although very great care was taken, 
 still the slight movement of the flask, occasioned in 
 knocking off its top, caused the pellicle to break up 
 and sink ] . 
 
 The contents of the flask emitted a somewhat 
 fragrant odour of baked turnip, and the reaction of the 
 fluid was still slightly acid. On microscopical exami- 
 nation, a great deal of mere granular debris and irregular 
 masses of a brownish colour were found, and also a 
 very large number of dark, and apparently homogeneous 
 reddish-brown spherules, mostly varying in size from 
 TSW" to 2i)ih>o" in diameter, partly single and partly 
 in groups of various kinds. There were no distinct 
 Bacteria^ though in one of the drops examined there was 
 a delicate tailed-monad in active movement a speci- 
 men of Monas lens^ in fact, y^/' in diameter, having 
 
 1 It was owing to the appearance of the pellicle and the seeming 
 likelihood of its breaking up and sinking to the bottom of the vessel, 
 as others had done, if allowed to remain, that I was induced to open this 
 tube so early. I thought it possible that nothing else might form after- 
 wards, and felt anxious to examine the pellicle before it became mixed 
 with the granular deposit. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 459 
 
 a distinct vacuoie in the midst of the granular contents 
 of the cell, and a rapidly-moving flagellum. 
 
 Experiment t. An infusion of hay. When taken 
 from the digester there was a considerable quantity of 
 brownish-black, charred, organic matter at the bottom 
 of the flask, though the fluid itself was clear and of a 
 dark sherry colour. 
 
 The flask was opened on the fourteenth day and for 
 six or seven days previously a slight scum had been 
 seen covering part of the surface of the fluid, the solu- 
 tion itself remaining clear. The fluid was found to be 
 quite strongly acid, whilst its odour was sour and not at 
 all hay-like. The scum was found to be composed of 
 mere charred granules and globules, and no trace of 
 organisms could be found either in the fluid or amongst 
 the deposit l . 
 
 Experiment u. A solution containing fifteen grains of 
 ammonic carbonate, and five grains of sodic phosphate, 
 in one ounce of distilled water. 
 
 When taken from the digester the glass of the tube 
 was found to be considerably corroded, and there was 
 
 1 This infusion had been evidently wholly altered in quality by the 
 high temperature to which it had been exposed ; and from the fact that 
 it was left in an open flask for more than a week, and was still found to 
 be free from any trace of living things, its original sterility cannot be 
 wondered at. It is easy enough to believe that the different organic 
 compounds existing in different infusions would be differently capable of 
 resisting the destructive influence of heat ; so that some infusions may 
 be much more favourable than others for experiments in which high 
 temperatures are resorted to. 
 
460 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 a whitish deposit as a result of this. After a few weeks 
 many bluish cloudlike masses became visible in the 
 fluid, dotted here and there with minute whitish spots, 
 but no pellicle made its appearance on the surface. 
 The flask was opened at the end of the fifteenth week, 
 no apparent change having taken place. On micro- 
 scopical examination the flakes were found to have a 
 very minutely granular composition, and the whitish 
 spots on them consisted of aggregations of minute 
 linear crystals, about 2-wuV' m length. The deposit 
 was composed of amorphous particles and spherules, but 
 there was no trace of the existence of living things l . 
 
 Experiment v. A solution of eight grains of ammonic 
 carbonate and three grains of sodic phosphate in one 
 ounce of distilled water. 
 
 When taken from the digester the glass was not in 
 the least corroded. The tube was opened at the ex- 
 piration of eight weeks, when the vacuum was found 
 to be well preserved. There was a very small amount 
 of whitish deposit at the bottom and sides of the tube, 
 though there never had been any trace of scum on the 
 surface. When examined microscopically the deposit 
 was found to be composed of more or less rounded 
 refractive particles, imbedded in a homogeneous colour- 
 less matrix. There were also very many motionless rod- 
 
 1 This tube was one of English glass. The quality of the solution 
 must have been altogether altered by the corrosion a great part, if 
 not the whole, of the phosphoric acid being precipitated in the form 
 of insoluble phosphate of lead. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 461 
 
 like bodies from -g^Vo" to TT Vs" in length (crystalline ?), 
 but no trace of living things, either amongst them or 
 suspended in the fluid itself. 
 
 Experiment w. A solution containing an unweighed 
 quantity of ammonic carbonate and sodic phosphate in 
 distilled water. 
 
 The fluid was at first somewhat whitish and clouded. 
 From the twentieth to the thirtieth day a thin pellicle 
 had been seen gradually accumulating on its surface; 
 and in the latter four or five days this increased much 
 in thickness, and gradually assumed a distinct mucoid 
 appearance. The fluid itself was tolerably clear, though 
 an apparent turbidity was given by the presence of a 
 fine whitish deposit on the sides of the glass. 
 
 The flask was opened on the thirtieth day, and the 
 reaction of the fluid was then found to be neutral. 
 When submitted to microscopical examination portions 
 of the pellicle were seen to be made up of large, 
 irregular, and highly-refractive particles, imbedded in 
 a transparent jelly-like material. The particles were 
 most varied in size and shape, many of them being 
 variously branched and knobbed. Several very delicate 
 perfectly hyaline vesicles about YFOO" * n diameter, 
 altogether free from solid contents, were seen ; and, in 
 addition, there were a number of figure-of-8 bodies, 
 exhibiting tolerably active vibrations, each half of 
 which was about 3- % o" ^ n diameter. 
 
 A subsequent careful examination, on the same 
 evening, of a quantity of the granular matter of the 
 
462 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 pellicle (which had been mounted on two microscope- 
 slips, and at once protected by surrounding the covering 
 glasses with cement)., revealed five spherical or ovoid 
 spores, the average size of which was about -^^W in 
 diameter. They all possessed a more or less perfectly- 
 
 8 8 
 
 FIG. 36. 
 
 Spore-like bodies, and figure-of-8 particles, from a solution of Ammonic 
 Carbonate and Sodic Phosphate. ( x 600.) 
 
 formed nucleus, and all showed a most distinct doubly- 
 contoured wall. One of the smaller of them showed 
 that it had reached a stage when it was about to 
 germinate. In addition, a small mass of Sarcina-like 
 material was seen, which was not very distinctly de- 
 fined, owing to its being still in a somewhat embry- 
 onic stage. 
 
 Experiment x. A solution containing eight grains 
 of ammonic carbonate and three grains of sodic 
 phosphate. 
 
 The vacuum having been ascertained to be well 
 preserved, the tube was opened in the beginning of 
 the eleventh week. There was no pellicle or scum 
 of any kind, and no turbidity, though there was a very 
 small amount of deposit at the bottom of the vessel. 
 The reaction of the fluid was decidedly though not 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 463 
 
 strongly alkaline. On microscopical examination., the 
 deposit was found to be principally made up of mere 
 amorphous granules separate, as well as forming ag- 
 gregations of various sizes. Here and there, however, 
 there were granules, both separate and aggregated, of 
 a much less refractive character, and more closely re- 
 sembling organic particles. Short homogeneous fila- 
 ments, having all the appearance of Leptothrix, were 
 seen to project from two or three of the granule heaps. 
 
 FIG. 37. 
 
 Bacteria, Leptothrix, and Spore-like bodies found in a Solution of 
 Ammonia Carbonate and Sodic Phosphate. ( X 800.) 
 
 Several Bacteria, some of medium size, and others some- 
 what large and unjointed, were observed, flitting across 
 the field of view with quite rapid undulating move- 
 ments, whilst others were seen rapidly rotating on 
 their long axis. There were also many figure-of-8 
 shaped bodies which showed distinct and slightly pro- 
 gressive movements quite different from those which 
 are called c Brownian ' though many single particles 
 were seen which soon ceased to exhibit movements of 
 any kind. In addition, there were several spore-like 
 
464 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 bodies having doubly-contoured walls, which were also 
 similar to those of the last solution. 
 
 'Experiment y. A solution containing an unweighed 
 quantity of ammonic tartrate and sodic phosphate in 
 distilled water. 
 
 The solution in this tube was at first quite colourless, 
 clear, and free from visible deposit. About the fifth 
 or sixth day, however, after it had been suspended in 
 a warm place, a number of small, pale, bluish-white 
 flocculi made their appearance throughout the solution, 
 and continued always in the same situation except 
 when the fluid was shaken, owing apparently to their 
 specific weight being the same as that of the fluid 
 itself. The contents of the tube were repeatedly 
 scanned with the greatest care with the aid of a lens, 
 though nothing else could be seen until about the 
 expiration of a month. Then there was observed, 
 attached to one of the flocculi, about " from the 
 bottom of the vessel, a small, opaque, whitish speck, 
 scarcely bigger than a pin's point. This seemed to 
 increase very slowly in size for the next three or four 
 weeks, and then another smaller mass was also per- 
 ceived. At the expiration of this time the larger mass 
 was more than |" in diameter. Both could be, and 
 were, seen by several people with the naked eye. 
 During the three weeks immediately preceding the 
 opening of the flask, it was often remarked that the 
 mass did not appear to have undergone any increase 
 in size. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 465 
 
 It was found that the tube acted as a water-hammer 
 only to a trifling extent before it was opened, though, 
 when the narrow end of the tube was broken off, there 
 was a slight dull report, and a quantity of small particles 
 of glass were swept by the in-rush of air into the 
 fluid. There had still, then, been a partial vacuum in 
 the tube. The reaction of the fluid was found to be 
 slightly acid. 
 
 This tube was opened in Dr. Sharpey's presence. 
 He had examined the white masses previously with a 
 pocket-lens, and when the vessel was broken the larger 
 white mass issued with some of the first portions of 
 the fluid, which were poured into a large watch-glass. 
 It was at once taken up on the point of a penknife 
 and transferred to a clean glass slip, where it was im- 
 mersed in a drop of the experimental fluid and then 
 protected by a thin glass cover. On microscopical 
 examination, we at once saw that the whitish mass 
 was composed of a number of rounded and ovoidal 
 spores, with mycelial filaments issuing from them, in 
 all stages of development. The spores varied much in 
 shape and dimensions j the prevalent size being about 
 STIR/' * n diameter, though one was seen as much 
 as TnyV/' in diameter. They all possessed a single and 
 rather large nucleus, which was mostly made up of an 
 aggregation of granular particles. Some were just begin- 
 ning to develop mycelial filaments j others had already 
 given origin to such filaments, which were about ^V^" 
 in diameter, and in which were scattered some colour- 
 
 VOL. i. H h 
 
466 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 less protoplasmic granules, but no vacuoles. Contiguous 
 to these fresh and evidently living portions of the plant, 
 there were other parts in all stages of decay, in which 
 
 FIG. 38. 
 
 Fungus found in a solution of Ammonic Tartrate and Sodic 
 Phosphate. ( X 600.) 
 
 the remains of the filaments were seen in the form 
 of more or less irregular rows of brownish granules 
 representing the altered protoplasmic contents of a 
 previous filament, whose walls were now often scarcely 
 visible. Subsequently the' smaller white mass was 
 picked out, and this was found to contain some living 
 mycelium and spores, and also a considerable patch of 
 decaying filaments, in connection with which there 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 467 
 
 was a long and broader filament bearing at its distal 
 extremity a large aggregation of more than 100 spores, 
 quite naked, and very similar in character to those 
 from which the mycelial thread arose. This plant was 
 evidently a Penici Ilium, quite similar to what had been 
 obtained from other ammonic tartrate and sodic phos- 
 phate solutions 1 . The delicate flocculi that first made 
 
 1 I have ascertained that the life of this particular fungus is destroyed 
 by exposure for a few minutes to the influence of boiling water. Placed 
 even in a mere corked flask, containing an ammonic tartrate solution, 
 the boiled fungus does not grow, whilst an unboiled specimen will slowly 
 increase and grow in all directions. (The extremely slow growth of the 
 fungus in this solution is very remarkable, when compared with the 
 rapidity with which other minute fungi increase in organic solutions.) 
 A specimen which had been boiled for 5" was kept under observation 
 for nearly three months, and it showed not the slightest signs of growth. 
 Mere exposure to the influence of boiling water for a few minutes suffices 
 to break up and disperse such heads of fructification as are represented 
 in Fig. 38, and also to produce some amount of disorganization of the 
 filaments. How much more, therefore, does it seem likely that an 
 exposure to 1 46-1 5 3 C for four hours, should prove destructive even to 
 mere organic forms ? With the view of answering this question, I placed 
 a quantity of a small fungus, consisting of mycelial filaments and multi- 
 tudes of spores (closely resembling, although not quite so delicate as 
 those which were met with in the saline mixtures), into a solution, of the 
 same strength as that which had been previously employed, of tartrate 
 of ammonia and phosphate of soda in distilled water, and then handed 
 it over to Dr. Frankland with the request that he would kindly treat this 
 in the same way as he had done the other solutions. Accordingly, 
 on May u, a vacuum having been produced within the flask before it 
 was hermetically sealed, the solution was submitted in the s sme digester 
 to a temperature of 146-1 53 C for four hours. When taken from 
 the digester, the previously whitish mass of fungus filaments and spores 
 had assumed a decidedly brownish colour, and it was in great part 
 converted into mere debris. On the following morning the flask was 
 broken, and some of the remains of the fungus and its spores were 
 
 H h 2 
 
468 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 their appearance in the solution, and which persisted 
 throughout, were gelatinous and made up of aggre- 
 gations of the finest granules. These, however, became 
 almost invisible when mounted in glycerine and car- 
 bolic acid. 
 
 Experiment z. A solution containing eight grains of 
 ammonic tartrate, and three grains of sodic phosphate, 
 in one ounce of New River water (from the tap). 
 
 On dissolving the crystals in this water, a small 
 amount of fine white precipitate was produced. After 
 the tube was taken from the digester a fine white de- 
 posit soon subsided. No cloud-like flocculi appeared, 
 and no further change was discovered in the solution. 
 The tube was opened on the sixty-sixth day, after the 
 vacuum had been ascertained to be still well preserved. 
 The fluid had a neutral reaction, and on microscopical 
 examination no living things could be found, either in 
 it or amongst the amorphous granules of the sediment ] . 
 
 In addition to the experiments now recorded, I have 
 performed twenty others in which the tubes and solu- 
 
 examined microscopically. Tie plant was completely disorganised : not a 
 single entire spore could be found ; they were all broken up into small 
 and more or less irregular particles, and the filaments were more or less 
 empty containing no definite contents, and being only represented by 
 torn tubular fragments of various sizes. 
 
 1 New River water was used in this case with the view of seeing how 
 the results would be modified. It probably contained too much lime- 
 salts and other saline constituents. Germs, of course, may have been 
 present in abundance, and yet no living things were subsequently to be 
 found. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFg. 469 
 
 tions were exposed to still higher temperatures. In 
 fourteen of these they were heated to a temperature 
 ranging as high as 327F (i64C) for four hours, 
 whilst in the other six they were maintained at a 
 temperature of 464 F (240 C) for one hour 1 . Some 
 only of each set have been opened, but all of these 
 were wholly devoid of living things. The infusions 
 of hay and turnip which have been heated to the 
 lower temperature of 327 F were almost hopelessly 
 changed by this amount of heat. When taken from 
 the digester, the previously clear and colourless turnip 
 infusions, for instance, were of a brownish-black colour j 
 owing to the abundant presence of granules and flakes 
 of charred organic matter, which, after complete sub- 
 sidence, occupied a space equal in bulk to one-fourth 
 of the supernatant brown fluid. Infusions of hay were 
 
 1 The latter tubes had been sealed in the blow-pipe flame during the 
 ebullition of their contained fluids. Each was then placed in a very 
 thick iron tube, whose internal diameter was only slightly larger than 
 the glass, and into which some of the experimental fluid was also poured. 
 Each iron tube was fitted with a screw-cap, which was firmly fastened by 
 means of long iron wrenches, whilst the tube itself was secured in a vice. 
 The hermetically sealed glass tube was thus enclosed within a her- 
 metically closed iron tube, and by putting the same kind of fluid within 
 each, an equal pressure was ensured upon the inner and the outer surfaces 
 of the glass. All the tubes were then placed in an iron vessel containing 
 five quarts of the very best French Colza oil, which was maintained, by 
 means of gas burners, at a temperature of 464 F for one hour. Although 
 the oil did not boil, the vapours which were given off at this temperature 
 were most disagreeable and suffocating, and made me feel faint and giddy 
 for several hours afterwards. Oils of inferior quality are not available, 
 because they actually boil at much lower temperatures. 
 
 H h 3 
 
470 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 charred to a similar extent. Infusions of mutton, 
 however, were scarcely altered in colour by this tempe- 
 rature or by the higher one of 464 F, and only a small 
 amount of a light flocculent precipitate was thrown 
 down. But on opening these flasks, the mutton infu- 
 sion in each case presented a very strongly ammoniacal 
 and otherwise unpleasant odour, and was also alkaline 
 in reaction. The organic compounds had, therefore, 
 been differently decomposed in these cases in the hay 
 and turnip infusions more or less pure carbon had 
 been liberated, whilst the mutton solution probably 
 broke up, in the main, into ammonia and carbonic 
 anhydride. Seeing that the organic matter was so 
 thoroughly destroyed in these infusions, there was not 
 much chance that any mere shreds of it should 
 have escaped uninjured in the tubes which contained 
 various saline solutions. And in those experiments 
 in which the tubes and their solutions were raised to 
 the temperature of 464 F, all the disadvantages were 
 further augmented by the extreme amount of corrosion 
 of the tubes, which took place even when the hardest 
 Bohemian glass was employed. 
 
 Confining ourselves, therefore, to a consideration of 
 the experiments in which the closed flasks containing 
 the experimental fluids have been heated to tempera- 
 tures ranging from 27o-3O7F, the results arrived at 
 must be looked at from two or three different points 
 of view. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 471 
 
 Living organisms have, undoubtedly, been obtained 
 from hermetically sealed flasks which had been heated 
 for various periods to such temperatures; and many 
 persons have been not a little surprised at the com- 
 paratively high forms of life which have presented 
 themselves. This of itself has been deemed by some 
 to be a difficulty of so serious a nature as to make 
 them hesitate to accept the results of the experiments 
 principally on account of a preconceived notion that 
 such organisms could not arise de novo and without 
 ordinary parentage. Although willing to concede that 
 the very simplest organisms might so arise, they are 
 quite indisposed to believe that some of the higher 
 forms which I have represented could have had an 
 independent origin. I will not, however, at present 
 enter upon this question, but will merely state that 
 such difficulties are likely to disappear on a more 
 thorough consideration of the subject as it is hoped 
 the reader will perceive after a perusal of Chaps, xiii. 
 xiv. and xv. 
 
 Limiting ourselves at present to the fact that specks 
 of living matter must either have been born in the 
 experimental fluids after they had been exposed to 
 the heat, or else (having pre-existed in the fluids) have 
 braved its influence, we have merely again to consider 
 which of these alternatives is the more probable. A 
 choice must be made, and yet, as Prof. Wyman has 
 pointed out, it does not appear at first sight that a 
 profitable resort can be made to arguments from analogy. 
 
472 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 He says ! : ' If, on the one hand, it is urged that all 
 organisms, in so far as the early history of them is 
 known, are derived from ova, and therefore from 
 analogy, we must ascribe a similar origin to these 
 minute beings whose early history we do not know; 
 it may be urged with equal force, on the other hand, 
 that all ova and spores, in so far as we know anything 
 about them, are destroyed by prolonged boiling : there- 
 fore from analogy we are equally bound to infer that 
 Vibrios, Bacteriums, &c., could not have been derived 
 from ova, since these would all have been destroyed by 
 the conditions to which they have been subjected. 
 The argument from analogy is as strong in the one 
 case as in the other.' 
 
 We do not think, however, that the analogical 
 arguments are so nearly balanced as Prof. Wyman 
 appears to consider them. Whilst it would contradict 
 all our previous experience, and violate the uniformity 
 of natural laws, if certain pre-existing germs had been 
 able to survive the exposure to which they must have 
 been subjected in my experimental flasks, it would in 
 no way outrage our experience if we found that specks 
 of living matter might form de novo in some fluids, just 
 as specks of crystalline matter form in other fluids 
 especially as they do actually appear, under the micro- 
 scope, to arise in this way. The physical doctrines of 
 life which are now so widely believed in, speak unhesi- 
 
 1 'American Journal of Science and Art,' July, 1862. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 473 
 
 tatingly in favour of the latter possibility. So that 
 we have an analogical argument of great force, and, in 
 addition, most overwhelming experimental evidence, 
 tending to oppose a mere dogma (omne vivum ex vivo) 
 which many erroneously believe to be a legitimate 
 inference from every-day experience. I say that this 
 inference is erroneous, because, whilst we do know 
 something about the ability which most organisms 
 possess of reproducing similar organisms, we cannot 
 possibly say, from direct observation, that every organism 
 which exists has had a similar mode of origin. The 
 cases in which organisms may have originated de novo 
 are the very cases in which their mode of origin must 
 elude our observation; for it can actually be shown 
 that some organisms make their appearance in fluids 
 after precisely the same fashion as crystals that is to 
 say, they can be seen to arise independently of all 
 pre-existing visible germs l . 
 
 Germs, therefore, which cannot be seen, and which 
 nobody knows, are not only presumed to exist, but 
 (contrary to all evidence) they are to be deemed 
 capable of resisting the influence of far higher tempe- 
 
 1 Having made this announcement on a previous occasion, and 
 having had the satisfaction of finding it pooh-poohed as an idle state- 
 ment, I, still believing in its truth, am glad to ascertain that others hold 
 the same opinion. Dr. Burdon Sanderson says in a recent Memoir 
 (Thirteenth Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council, 
 p. 62) : ' From the most careful and repeated examinations of water 
 known to be zymotic, we have learnt that such waters often contain no 
 elements or particles whatever which can be detected by the microscope.' 
 
474 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 
 
 ratures than those which, on other occasions, are 
 uniformly found to be fatal to all germs with which 
 experiment is made, whether visible or invisible. And, 
 moreover, some would have us give credence to these 
 assumptions and improbabilities, in order to stave 
 off a belief in the occurrence of something which 
 would be thoroughly harmonious with all the best 
 biological knowledge of the day. 
 
 Let the reader finally consider the extent of the 
 contradictions which would be involved by the ac- 
 ceptance of the hypothesis, that the results of my 
 experiments are to be explained by the assumption 
 that some preexisting germs escaped death within the 
 closed flasks, during the fiery ordeal to which they had 
 been submitted. 
 
 It has been previously shown that Bacteria and 
 Torul#a.s well as their germs, both visible and in- 
 visible 1 are killed by exposure for ten minutes to a 
 temperature of 140 F, and that they are even destroyed 
 by a heat of I25F, when it is prolonged for four 
 hours. It is, moreover, admitted by all persons who 
 have paid an adequate attention to the subject, that all 
 such low organisms as may be met with in the experi- 
 mental fluids, are unable to resist the destructive in- 
 fluence of boiling water. And yet now, in addition to 
 all the evidence previously detailed, we again find living 
 organisms occurring in closed flasks which have been 
 
 1 See pp. 331-333- 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 475 
 
 exposed to 370 F, and 293 F, and even in others 
 which have been heated to 295-3O7F for four hours. 
 Of these experiments none have, perhaps, yielded more 
 striking results than No. b. Here active Protamceb<e 
 and ciliated Monads were taken from an hermetically 
 sealed flask which, eight weeks previously, had been 
 exposed to a temperature of 27o -275F; and these 
 very organisms were killed by the same temperature 
 (i40F) as that which has been found to prove fatal to 
 all other Monads and Protam<eh<e. 
 
 It seems scarcely possible to present experimental 
 evidence which could speak more plainly in favour of 
 the occurrence of Archebiosis. 
 
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