THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE.

VOL. I.

' I] y a eu une epoque ou notre planete ne possedait aucun germe de vie organisee ; done la vie
organisee y a commence sans germe anterieur. Toutes les apparitions nouvelles qui ont eu lieu
^e sont faites, non par 1'acte incessamment renouvele d'un Etre Createur, mais par
la force imime 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
t 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.

BY

H. CHARLTON BASTIAN, M. A., M.D., F. R. S.

Felloiu 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 (he Paralysed and Epileptic.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.

MACMILLAN AND CO.

1872.

\_All rights reserved}

1

OXFORD:

I'.y T. Combe. M.A., E. B. Gardner, and E. Pickard Hall
PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY.

P RE FAC E.

T~) ATHER more than three years ago, in the course
JL V 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 c Conservation of Energy 3 and the '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
c 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 < 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 2I3F to rather over 300?.
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 'living.'

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 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 Amcebse,
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 j 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, Kutzing,
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

PREFA CE. xiii

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 primaeval 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 vegetajxand
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 Cryptogamtc 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 21, 1872.

CONTENTS.

Index .. .. .. .. .. .. .. page xx i

PART I.

The Nature and Source of the Vital Forces, and of

Organizable Matter.

CHAPTER I.

Pa^es

The Persistence of Force : Correlation of the Vital and

Physical Forces .. .. .. .. .. .. 1-49

CHAPTER II.
The 'Vital Principle': Nature of Life .. .. .. 5~79

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) .. .. .. .. 145

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, Torulae,

(X C. * . . , , . . . 2y2

1 8. Other Early Forms of Life from Organic Infusions .. 274

19. Oscillatoriae and other Simple Fresh-water Algae (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. Protamoebae, Monads, Torulae, &c., from an Infusion of

Common Cress .. .. .. .. .. .. 444

32. Torulse from a Neutralized Infusion of Turnip .. .. 447

33. Pediastreoe from a Solution containing Iron and Ammonic

\_^iti ntc, occ. * * , * . . J.J.O

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 tie Appendix are referred to by Roman Numerals.)

ACHLYA, production of zoospores in,
i. 179.

Acinetse, developmental relation-
ships of, xciv.

Actinophrys, mode of origin of, ii.
381 ; transformation of Euglense
into, ii. 4^6 ; 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,
1.171.

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
Euglenre into, ii. 442; 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. 221; 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 Actinophrys,
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 CiUated Infusoria, ii. 487.

XXII

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. -

Astasire, 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 Torulae, ii.
140-146 ; in pellicle, ii. 207 ; pro-
duction of, from Amoebae, ii. 222;
from embryonal spheres, ii. 401 ;
from Euglenae, 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 Algoe and Lichens, Ixxvi ;
variability of Fungi, Ixxvii ; rela-
tions of animal and vegetable life,
Ixxx.

Biocaenosis, nature of, i. 234, (Table)
ii. 545, 546.

Biocrasis, ii. 193; nature of, i. 233 ;
heterogenetic, ii. 62, (Table) ii.

545 546.
Biodireresis, 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 Panspermism,

i. 259 ; theories concerning germs,

ii. 266.
Boussingault, M., on vital forces, i.

2 1 ; source of nourishment in

plants, i. 135.
Braun, Alexander, on formation of

seed in Phanerogamia, i. IQO ; the

cell, i. 216 ; formation of seed-cell

in CEdogonium, i. 177.
Brebisson, M. de, on origin of Mosses

from Confervse, ii. 454.
Brongniart, M. Ad., on succession of

life on the earth, i. 137-141.
Brownian-movement, i. 318.
Btrffon, 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 Characeae, i. 187;
heterogenetic changes in gonidial-
cell, ii. 378 ; transformations in
Spirogyra, ii. 387 ; mode of origin
of Otostoma, ii. 479; transform-
ations of Ciliated Infusoria, ii.
49 7 ; relations of Amoebae to
Astasiae, Ixxxix.

Cells, formation and nature of, i.
144-158; formation of gonidial-
cell in Characeae, 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 4.74:
origin of Ciliated Infusoria from
protoplasm of, ii. 478.

Characeae, 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 Hyclatina,
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-

^netae and Vorticellae, xciv-xcvi.

Ciliated Infusoria, mode of origin
of, 11.238, 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
Euglenre into, ii. 450 ; production
of, from Monads and Amoebae, ii.
472 ; origin of, from protoplasm
of Chara, ii. 478 ; from animal
matrices, ii. 48.3 : from eggs of
Gasteropods and Rotifers, ii. 488 :
convertibility of forms of, ii. 4.92 ;
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.

3 = 3-

Cohn, Professor, on Bacteria, i. 2 w o;
on constitution of Pellicle, i. 278 ;
on origin of Empusa. ii. 330 ; ex-
periments with Stephanosphaera,
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. <% ; 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, 1.42; 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. 5 ?,8.

Darwin, Mr., on Natural Selection,
ii- 572, 576; influence of new
conditions upon species, ii. 5 (So,
591 ; not a believer in Progressive
Development, ii. 51^0 ; 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. 6og.

Davaine, M., on Bacteridia, i. 275;
observations on Sang de rate, ii.
362.

Davy, Sir Humphrey, on Heat, i. 8.

Decolourization, 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 Algee, 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. 1 30,
142.

Dysentery, cxxxviii.

Ehrenberg, on multiplication of In-
fusoria, i. 262.

Embryonal areas of pellicle, nature
and developmental transforma-

INDEX.

xxv

tions of, ii. 198-254 ; spheres, |
changes in, ii. 40 i .

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.

Euglense, 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 Pediastreae, ii.
446 ; into Vaucheria filament, ii.
449 ; into Actinophrys and Amoe-
bae, ii. 456; direct transformation
of, into Ciliated Infusoria, ii. 45Q ;
into Oxytricha and Trichoda, ii.
462 ; into Vorticeila, ii. 464, 504 ;
into Amoebas 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. 121;
compound, ii. 122.

Faraday, on indestructibility offeree,
^i. 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, i. 425, ii. 186; occurrence
of, in bent-neck flasks, ii. 1 2 .;
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. 6n ; 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.-?.

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.
134; to Amcebae 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
Eugleme, ii. 436 ; in solutions
containing silicates, xi-xiii ; rela-
tions of, to Algae and Lichens,
Ixxvi; to Amoebae, Ixxix; varia-
bility of, Ixxvii.

XXVI

2ND EX.

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 Archebiosis, 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.

Gerhardt, 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 Euglenae,
ii. 410; origin of Desmids and
Diatoms, ii. 412 ; heterogenetic
changes in Astasiae and Euglenae,
ii. 434 ; transformation of Eu-
glenae into Diatoms, ii. 444 ; into
Micrasterias and Arthrodesmus,
ii. 448 ; into Confervae, ii. 45 1 ;
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 Euglenae 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-M&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,
cxxviii.

INDEX.

xxvn

Hallier, Prof., on micrococci, i. 283.
Hartig, Prof., on transformation of

Phytozoa of Liverworts, Ixxiv.
Harvey, \Villiam, on Heterogenesis,

i- 255-

Hassall, Dr. A. H., on formation of
spore of Vaucheria, i. 1 73.

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.
172-181 ; 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, 514-521 ; limits to. ii. 539;
future researches connected with,
ii. 540 ; different varieties of,
(Table) ii. 545.

Hicks, Dr. Braxton, production of
Amoebse in moss-radicles, ii. 376 ;
of Monads, ii. 410 ; Gleocapsa,
ii. 411 ; variability of lower Algze
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 Hemy, 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.

Individuality, views concerning,
ii- 553 '> 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-

cillatoriae, 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 Algce, 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- j
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.

7 N D EX.

XXIX

Medusa, 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 Amoebee
and, ii. 218; origin of, from
embryonal spheres of Nitella, ii.
402 ; from chlorophyll corpuscles,
ii. 409 ; from outgrowths of Eu-
glenae, 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. 1 79.

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.

Naides, a probable origin of, ii. 140.

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. 1 74.

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. 4 o.

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. j 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, 11.404;
into Ciliated Infusoria, ii. 404;

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,
" 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
amongst, 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. 1 30 ;
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. Darwin, 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 Euglenge,
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,

". 55'-

Panspermism, views of Spallanzani
and Bonnet on, i. 259 ; nature of
theories, ii. 267 ; untenability of
hypothesis of, ii. 305, 359, 367,

538.

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' 3^4: vita l
theory of fermentation, i. 404 ;

his explanation of experiments
with bent-neck flasks, ii. 1 1 ; on
atmospheric germs, ii. 271-275,
286.
Peach, converted into Nectarine, ii.

59 6 , 59 8 -
Peacock, black-shouldered, origin

of,_ii. 598.
Pebrine, 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 Euglens,
ii. 459 ; from Rotifers, ii. 484 ;
conversion of, into Ciliated Infu-
soria, ii. 485.

Peziza, Corda on formation of spores
in, i. 184.

Philodinire, mode of origin of, ii.
504.

Physcia, formation of spore in. i.
186.

Physical Forces, convertibility of, i.
13; correlation of vital and, i.
16-49, 6 5 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 Vorticellce,
ii. 252, 471 ; of Enchelys. ii. 238 ;
metamorphoses of Vorticellce into
Oxytrichce, ii. 493.

Plresconia, 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

INDEX.

ages, i. 137; M. Saussure on, i.
T 39; 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. 601.

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 Algae, ii. 3 74.

Prit chard, on Algae and their allies,
ii. 160; modes of succession of
organisms in infusions, ii. 502 ;
variations in habitat of Infusoria,

ii- 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 Algae,
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 Arcellinre, 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.

INDEX.

xxxni

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, 1'Abbe, 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, 11.599; modes in which
transmutations are brought about,
ii. 600 ; Mr. Darwin's views con-
cerning, ii. 601-603.

Spencer, Mr. Herbert, on converti-
bility offerees, 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. 1 20 ;
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.

,
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. 177; in Zygne-
meaceae, i. 1 79 ; in Fungi and
Lichens, i. 183 ; in Peziza, i. 184;
in Hydrodictyon, i. 186 ; Physcia,
i. 1 8 6.

Starch-grains, production of, ii. 65.

Steenstrup, on alternate generation,
ii. 565.

Stein, views concerning Acinetce
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, TaWe 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 Archebio-
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 Astasise, ii. 421 ; of Potamo-
geton into Euglence, ii. 422; M.
Kutzing on, of vegetable organ-
isms, ii. 432; Reissek on, of Chlo-
rophyll vesicles and pollen-grains,
ii. 432 ; of Euglenze, 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-
l?e, ii. 147 ; origin of Amylobacter,
11.318.

Treviranus, experiments in reference
to heterogeny, i. 259.

Trichoda, origin of, from Euglense,
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.

Vorticellae, 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 Chlamydococcus 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. 5/4; 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.

5I4-

Wyman, 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-
gae, 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,

VOL. I.

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.

THE doctrine that Matter is indestructible may
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 aether, 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 j 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

6 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.

8 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^
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 appeals 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 J 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 Maws
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 j 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 l De Flnfluence 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 i 840, that led Mayer to

1 ' Bemerkungen iiber die Kiiifte 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 of 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 j and
in all cases the amount of heat evolved by the friction

12 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; 3 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, ^.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
has itself been generated by motion. And, as Mr. Her-
bert Spencer says *, 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 1 . 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 Matteucci \ 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,

VOL. I. C

1 8 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE.

year Mr. Grove published his now well-known work
on the 'Correlation of the Physical Forces' and in

* J

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 ' that the vital 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 3 ; 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.

' 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
<whtch Is transformed Into vita! 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 nitrogenous than other plants.' (Principles of Biology, 1864,
vol. i. p. 37.)

THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 2 I

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^
Anackaris^ 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 l 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 by itself, independently of
all the physical forces. See Proceed, of Royal Institution, June 8, 1866.

2 ' 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 equivalent 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 J , most of the physi-
cal force which, in the form of light and heat, impinges
upon a plant, is consumed therein (travail mterieur}. 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 exterieur which
Phenomenes Physiques de la Vie,' 1869, Pari=, p. 73.

i <

24 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE.

the animal's 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 iu arm-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 J :

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 ' M&n. 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 correctable with ordinary
physical forces, or whether it can display itself inde-
pendently of these J . In the first place, it is important

1 For a full and admirable treatment of this question we must refer
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 i6| 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 j 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,

1 ' Trait^ de Physiologic,' 3me 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 *, 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.

5 ' 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 how 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 T 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.

Him 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 j 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 * 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 ^V f
the heat of the fuel is capable of manifesting itself as mechanical
energy ; Sir William Armstrong, again, considers -jJ_ 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 ide'e du haut degre" de perfection qui peut
atteindre le moteur anime, il faut fixer son attention, sur la rapidit^ des
mouvements executes d'une maniere continue par certains oiseaux et les
insectes alt's, pendant les heures et meme des journees entieres. En
quatre ou cinq minutes 1'aigle s'e'leve a 6 ou 7000 metres et disparait,
dans les airs : d'apres 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 journees entieres de'crivant mille et mille
sinuosites 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 Senegal trois ou quatre jours apres leur depart
d'Europe. Le faucon de Henri II s'etant emporte' apres une canar-
diere a. Fontainebleau, fut pris le lendemain a Malte et reconnu h, 1'an-
neau qu'il portait ; un faucon des Canaries, envoye" au due de Lerme
revint d'Andalousie k 1'ile de Teneriffe en seize heures, ce qui fait un
trajet de 250 lieues execute avec un vitesse moyenne de 16 lieues h,
1'heure. Hans Sloane assure qu'a la Barbade les mouettes vont se
promener en troupes a 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 l . 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 total 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 longties heures un cheval
lance au grand trot. Par une belle journee de mai ou de juin 1'abeille
vole d'une maniere continue du matin au soir, pour aller cueillir dans les
corolles des fleurs et rapporter a. la ruche les materiaux necessaires aux
travaux et a la nourriture de la communaute.'

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.

VOL. 1. 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 1 , 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 j 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 neurlUty. 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 XI FE. 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 y
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 relex 1 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 * 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 ((Envres, 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. Scruff, 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 1 , when it is in a state of activity. Liebreich

pour fournir a 1'injection d'une maniere continue, une provision de
sang arterial, on parviendrait sans peine a entretenir la vie inde"finement
dans quelque troncon que ce_ soit ; et par consequent, apres la ddcapi-
tation, on 1'entretiendrait dans la tete elle-meme 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 rappeler apres son entiere
extinction.' These predictions of Legallois have received a most re-
markable verification by the experiments of Brown-Sequard, which are
thus referred to by M. Gavarret : ' Sur un chien, M. Brown-Sequard
separe la tete du tronc ; il attend butt ou dix minutes jusqu'a ce que,
depuis quelques instants, le bulbe rachidien et le reste de 1'encephale
aient bien e'videmment perdu toute trace appreciable d'excitabilite' ; puis
il, pratique des injections reiterees de sang defibrine' et oxygene k la fois
dans les arteres carotides et dans les vertebrales. Quelques mouvements
de'sordonne's apparaissent au bout de deux ou (rots minutes, puis les
muscles des yeux et de la face executent des mouvements coordonnes
veritables manifestations de la vie, qui tendent & faire admettre que les
fonctions cdrdbrales se sont re'tablies dans cette tete completement sepa-
re 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. 41

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 1 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,' 1860) 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 1 .

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 ?ystem, 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 poition 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 l 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 talcing 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. 311): 'Cognition or intellectual action may take

44 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE.

as Mr. Herbert Spencer has so clearly pointed out r ,
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.

XffE 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 stilt 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 correctable 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 * 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 don? ; and so
it may well be that when the nerve-centre is in ac-
tion when pains 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 ; 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/

Matter and force are inseparable neither can exist
alone - y 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.

VOL. I.

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 l .

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
realises. Les Carbures d'hydrogene peuvent etre considered comme
formant la transition entre 1'etat mineral et 1'etat organique ; beaucoup
de ces composes binaires ont ete 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 reproduces 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.
1858.

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,' 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 unsymmetry, 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 one 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 In 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 vov<s, 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/ 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
c 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 unencluring 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, 5

' 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 Arch<eus. 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 Archseus,' whose place
of abode was the cardiac orifice of the stomach. The
c Archaeus ' 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 BEGINN^ 7 GS OF LIFE,

underwent a most important modification : c 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 aU 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. 6 1

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
'ex nihilo m hit 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
cell, the whole of the peculiar 'vital po-uoer 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 J , 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; 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
VOL. i. 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

4

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 5 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; 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 Coi rela-
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 '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-
amcebz 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 mal posee. 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 5 is comprehended in its wider

1 ' Fortnightly Review,' July, 1868, p. 73.

70 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE.

sense, however, we may in answer to the oft-put ques-
tion reply that Life is 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' 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, 3 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

1 It certainly would answer no useful purpose would explain no-
thing if we denned ' 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 3 or entity, but it is certainly
far less important for those who look upon the word
c 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 a Corps Nu.' speaking
of these creatures, which have been subsequently named Protamceb<z
by Professor Haeckel, and which are about the simplest of known
living things, says: 'La substance qui en forme le corps petit etre
considered comme 1'expression d'un premier degre 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 etrangeres 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 vivante, finement
granulee, depourvue 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 insistent 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 J 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-

1 ' 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 j 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 j 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, ' 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 < principle of mdwiduation^
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 \ 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.'

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.'

78 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-
stitution and 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
of reproducing their kind. Bodies possessing such pro-
perties have been arbitrarily named c 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, 3 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/ 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 Ccnstrued
in terms of evolution, 5 as Mr. Spencer says 1 , 'every
kind of being is conceived as a product of modifica-
tions wrought by insensible gradations on a pre-
existing kind of being: 3 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.
Qmnla mutantur : mhil mterit. 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 Spencers 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

VOL. I. G

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 3
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 long 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," 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 protein 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. 87

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 ) -j- 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 : c 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
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 Amcebse 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 5 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 Protamcebae 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. c 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 " commencement of organic life' 3 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.'

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^S^ltSS 3 ^;

( UJ (HO) \

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 ( 3 ^<^ 3)H j N(CH 3 ) (CH 3 )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 j 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 seen that the phe-
nomena taking place in living things, all essentially

1 Loc. cit. p. 486.
VOL. I. H

9 3 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE.

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 ; 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 matter,
remove particular atoms of ponderable matter 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/ 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 ; 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. 101

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 first arranged, are so incongruous as to produce instability j
ana 1 to give collateral affinities the power to 'work a re-
arrangement which^ 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 c 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

& o

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:
4 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. 107

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,
Aphelenchus, and Cephalobus ; whilst those of all the other genera, except-
ing Rhabditit, 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 j 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

HO 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. 1 1 1

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

I 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 l . 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 Medusa. 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, but-
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
'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 Thaumantiadce 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.

VOL. I. 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. 1 1 5

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. 5 Translation in ' Quarterly Journal of
Microscopical Science,' July, 1869, p. 230.

I 2

Ii6 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 !.' 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 TO irpduTiffTov, 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 /xon^pr/s, simple.

THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 117

Protamceba, 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, Phycochromaceee, Fungi 1 , Myxomycetes, Proto-
plasta 2 , Noctilucse, 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, Torulx, 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
Vamfyrella] 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
alhumen-llke 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.

; ' 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-

\ :.
,

r *-'V .'

&- . . ,
'f*

~. r V~*" \ ' y--'/V.'-V/

'

K

Al-itiA

*"-"

t3fe ;;^r |S vS3

- :,11^ r ' j .-5 iSVvV-j-"- : , /}y '. >?.;"^'i-''X

IOTP

, MA ''M rsf

f TpH \

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. Protamceba primitiva (Haeckel). Two individuals resulting from

a recent fission.

c. Vampyrella pendula (Cienkowski).

d. Amoeba porrecta (Max Schultze). This is really a Protamoeba.

e. Protomyxa aurantiaca (Haeckel) developed into a ' plasmodium,' either

from the simple increase of a single amoeba-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 Amoeba, 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. 3 ' 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 I 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
YoVo 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 primitiva 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 Amoeha forrecta. These latter projections,
or pseudofodite^ as they have been termed, closely resemble
those met with in the shelled-amcebas or Foraminifera 1 .
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 HaeckePs
Memoir, he has proposed to look upon this organism
as a c Moner,' placing it in a new genus Bathybius.
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.'

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:
1 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 Globigerince, 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 :
c 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 : 'This
stickiness of the deep sea mud arises, J suppose, from
the circumstance that, in addition to the Glotigerina
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 ProtamKbte^ 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.

primtti'va of Prof. Haeckel. These have presented them-
selves in the form of minute irregularly-shaped, almost
transparent specks of homogeneous jelly, about 10 o 00 "
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 c 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. Beale'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,

VOL. I. 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 claso 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. \ 3 1

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
cf animals. 3

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 ! ; 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 *, 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, ' 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 J : 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. 5

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 1828
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 l :

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 6f 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?

t

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 ^

140 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

* J

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. ' 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 j 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, s^ize 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 c 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 hears 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.

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. 6. 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 1 . 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.

VOL. I. 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. 147

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-.' But then he
denies altogether the origin of cells de novo 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 j 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.

This is like a degradation of the old ' archaeus ' 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.? 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 fur Wissen. Botanik,' 1846 (Transln. Ray Soc. 1849,

P- 95)-

2 'The Phenomena of Rejuvenescence in Nature," 1851 (Transln.

Ray Soc. 1853).

1 50 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 cell 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 ceir 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 'cells.' The power
of displaying vital manifestations was, in fact, trans-

1 ' Reichert und Du Bois Raymond'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 Contractilitiit.' 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 \

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 HaeckePs 1 term 'plastide.'
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 celF 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.

' Unicellular Organisms.'

a, b, c. Three of the higher Amoebae, f. One of the most minute and

a. Nudearia simplex. simple of the unicellular Al-

b. Amceba Limax. gse Hematococcus (Eruginosus.

c. Amceba guttula. g. The 'red snow' Alga Prolo-
d and e. Gregarina Sipunculi. 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 Protop/asfa 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 J : 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 j 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 : ' 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,' and 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 ' 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 j 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 told; 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 T : 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: C A11
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. 306.

THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 159

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 penplast
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 in 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 1 5 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.' c 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 V It can scarcely
be said that Dr. Bennett has succeeded in convincing

1 Lectures 'On Molecular Physiology,' &c., 'Lancet,' 1863 (vol. i.),
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 ' esseritiellement
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.'

VOL. I. 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 '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 y 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,

I 64 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 /

But if, then, mere c cellular J 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. n.

3 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 V

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. 3 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 novo 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 (pmnh 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 Achlya 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 Characea. 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

1 70 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 f 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 Algse, which, after escaping

THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 171

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 <erea 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.
3 ' 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-
geneouSj 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
1 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 1
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 -^-3" 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

a.

FIG. 6.
Formation of Spore in Vaucheria. (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.
h. Later still, showing changes which precede germination.
/, 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; 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 l 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 1 ' in (Edogcnium 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
area. Alexander Braun - describes the changes which
take place as follows : c In the formation of the rest-
ing seed-cells of QEdogonium 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.

VOL. I. 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 Pcilmoglea. The reproduction of this plant is
brought about by the union of two green vegetative cells, the con-
tents of which are converted into 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

Zygnemaceg originate in the same way as those of (Edo-
gonmm^ 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 Achlya pro-
Hfera 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 J . 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 ' Linnaea,'
1843, t. iv.

N 2

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 l : c These threads are terminated by
an extremity about T^Vo" * n 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 Achlya 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. 17.

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 8-2 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 T Ve-" of an inch V

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,' 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.

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
(Perisporium vulgare). (Corda.)

a, &, 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 :
' There is another point of immense importance, which the cryptogamic
observer 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 without the presence of a previous mother cell. It is a ques-
tion, for instance, whether cells are ever formed in Phaenogams 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 Spheria 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 the creatures of previously existing cells, but
the produce of the endochrome itself. He will be able to compare with
this what takes place in the embryo sac of Phsenogams, 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.'

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 Nsegeli,
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. 168). The 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, PI. 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 Hydrodictyon.
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 l that the process can be best watched in
Physcia dl'taris, 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 Cbaraceg 1 . He principally
examined specimens belonging to the genus Nitella^

a

a

OO

FIG. 9.
Development of new cells in internodes of Chara. (Carter.)

a. Natural arrangement of chlorophyll vesicles.
6. 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 Cbaracece; 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 -r-^Vo" ^ n 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 3 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-wall, a similar process takes place in the
cells of the Characex; 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[-wall]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 Vaucherla 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 1 we know that just as good instances of ' free 3
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 In 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^ 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
VOL. i. o

194

THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE.

large particles gradually disappeared until nothing but

FIG. 10.
Reproduction of Protomyxa. (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 1 ^ " 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 ach 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 Algse/ 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

1 96 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE.

swarming movements of the germs were precisely simi-
lar to those of the sporules of the Myxomycetae l . 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 Myxomyceta
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 l .

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 Amcebse,
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 Naturae, 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 Amoeba. (Nicolet.)

a. Amoeba princeps (Ehr.) containing refractive granules and particles in

its interior.

b, c, d. Different stages in aggregation of granules.

e, f, g, h. 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 Amoeba, 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 1 . These dart about in the
water and closely resemble very minute Astasl<e.

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 3 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 ' diffiuence ' 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. j 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 *
and by Prof. Allen Thomson 2 , the process of egg de-
velopment commences in the Ascarldes^ or Round
Worms, by the appearance c of minute cell-germs in
the upper part of the ovarian tube, immediately ad-
joining its caecal 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 '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 l . 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 j 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 j
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 1 .

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 ' (Umhiillungs-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.
sf. Ovarian stroma.
ov. The two layers of the ovisac.
rng. 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 l ?'

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 membrana 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. \Ve 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
jj 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 ^ rabbit -^ rat ^, mouse ^, pig
cow 25^, 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,
of. Ovisac with epithelial lining.
v. Minutely granular yolk.

2o6 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 first 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 first germs of the germinal
vesicle proceed can as yet be matter o?tly 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 produced 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 '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 x : 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
Amcebx. 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
(Hydrodictyon, Peziza, &c.) it also made its appearance, at first, as a mere
'clear space.' See note, p. 184.

VOL. I. 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, '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 ovum 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. 5 Nevertheless, from
the yolk-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-
derrnic 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
algae. 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 1^ of salts. These last are chiefly alkaline muriates
and sulphates, phosphate of lime and magnesia, and traces of iron,
sulphur, 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 Kolliker 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 j 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 THE 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

216 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE.

is capable (by virtue of its own inherent tendency to
undergo a process of differentiation) 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; it may be able to move from place to place
and continually vary in its form j 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 form, 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 lamella* 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 Avail 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 Alga, as, for
example, in the Palmellacese, Chlorococcacece, Oscilatorineae, and Nosto-
chinese, as also in the large-celled Cladopborce, and the unicellular Algae
with unlimited growth of the cell (Vaucberia, Codium, Cmderpa), no
trace of a nucleus has yet been discovered.'

2 1 8 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, 3 we nevertheless find similar
vegetative and reproductive phenomena taking place
within structures which certainly have no right to such
a name. It appears that Leptomitus^ Saprolegma^ Vau-
cheria^ Codwm, Bryopsis^ Caulerpa^ and perhaps other Algae
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 '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 Achlya^ 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 f free cell-
formation 3 do, in spite of their having taken place
in what are called c cells, 5 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 J . 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. 1859, p. 41.

3 * Journal de 1'Anat. et de la Physiol.' 1867.

3 The magnifying power employed, is unfortunately not stated.

222 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 3 - 0( ' )()0 // in 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 \

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 Leucocythsemia, 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 40 ^ 0o " 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

VOL. I.

2 26 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 -^-Q-Q" in 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 -^L_" in diameter up to that of a corpuscle of the
ordinary size. Those under -^oW' m 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 l . 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 To * 00 " 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 Leucocythasmic 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. 227

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 Tr-gVo" ^ ie 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, v l- n -> P- 37^ an d fig- 61) to the occurrence of
bodies of different sizes in the blood of certain Leucocythaemic 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 wall.

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 l ; 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 45 V, " 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 1'embryon
a une epoque ou les lymphatiques manquent encore, montre qu'il en
nalt dans les vaisseaux sanguins, et que, chez 1'embryon, du moins,
ceux du sang ne proviennent pas necessairement de la lymphe. . . . Leur
presence dans le canal thoracique a tous les ages 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 trouve 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 mme qui les renferme, c'est
a dire dans toutes les parties du systeme lymphatique probablement. . . .
D'autre part, c'est apiis une hypothese contredite par les faits les plus
elementaires qu'on a pu admettre que produire cette espece d'element ana-
tomique etait 1'usage, le ri le 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 Protamvtyj' 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 novo 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 ;30 ' 00 " 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 l 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; 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. PL XI. 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 ^-gVo" ^ n diameter originate by a direct
process of differentiation, from the homogeneous and
tenacious so-called 'lymph' which is produced on the
surface of the serous membrane l . 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.

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 '.

2. Where living particles or portions of living matter

exist in a fluid or semi-fluid medium some of

1 From apxrj, ' beginning,' and /3(dcy, ' 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 l we may cite the mode of formation
of ova in Ncmatolds and in many other animals,
of the spore in Vaucberla^ and of the so-called
c gonidial cell' in Nitella.
3. New units mav arise, without obvious differentia-

\.f 4 *

tion of pre-existing living matter, by the well-
known processes of fission 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 Achlya 2 . All
such modes of formation of living units we pro-
pose to comprise under the term Biodiseresis 3 .

1 From /3tos, ' life,' and Kpacris, ' 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 in Achlya 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 0ios, '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 ] the spore is
produced in (Edogomum and other algae, and
also, after c conjugation,' in Pa/mogl*ea and the
Zygnemeace<e -.

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
Pbanerogamia, of the majority of spermatozoa,
and possibly of the ova in Birds and Mammals ,
also of nuclei in many plastidcs, which may
outlive the latter and subsequently lead an inde-
pendent existence. These processes we propose
to include under the name Bioparadosis :! .

1 From (3ios, ' life,' and Kaivcacrts, ' renewal.'

2 These are some of the phenomena spoken of by Alexander Braun
under the name 'Rejuvenescence' (Verjiingung).

1 From fiios, ' life,' and irapaSwais, ' transmission.' The phrase ' free
cell formation,' as used by older writers, includes these endogenous
processes, and also that which we designate Archebiosis. 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 c cell' form :-

Life-origination Archebiosis.

Life-fusion Biocrasis.

Life-division ~Bio diuresis.

Life-renewal Biocxnosis.

Life-transmission Bloparadosis.

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 Amcebre, 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
ivkich 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
Arckebiosis^ 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 novo 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.

VOL. I. R

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.' Opinion? 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
Heterogenests 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 BEG1XXIXGS 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 mi^ht

J \~f C? O

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 Homogenla and
Heterogeniaj as names for the two principal class
distinctions in the mode of origin of living things.
Homogenla 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 (generatio heterogenea^ primitl'Va^
primigena^ origmarla^ 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 degre's a son etat actuel, qu'a une
epoque tres reculee elle n'ait e'te inhabitable pour les
etres organises, et que tous ces etres ne soient forme's
peu a peu sans parens, conse'quemment par la voie de
rhe'terogenie. Si Ton juge d'apres ce fait et autres
semblable, la terre a posse'de jadis un exuberance de
force plastique ; cette force ne peut point avoir ete
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 ete 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 Porganisation.' 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 1'univers 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 a 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
Buffon, Needham, and others who are professed

1 ' Traite 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
4 properties,' or ' qualities.'

248 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE.

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,' and he
quite legitimately called himself a heterogenist ; 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 caserne, les substances viteTlines, &c. La
synthese chimique ne les reproduit pas. II est impossible selon moi de les
considerer comme des principes imme'diats definis : je les designe, sous le
nom g^neVal de corps htmiorg anises, parce qu'ils tiennent le milieu entre

le principe imme'diat et le tissu organise Us ne sont 'pas encore

organise' mais cependant ils sont doue's d'une veritable force vitale, car
sous 1'influence de 1'air humide ils entrent en decomposition comme des
corps vivants et rdellement organises.' He says also : ' en raison de
la force vitale qtfils possedent, ils e"prouvent alors des decompositions
successives, donnent naissance a des drive's 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 herniorganises et qui
s'est simplement continuee en se manifestant par les transformations
organiques les plus vari^es.'

2 ' Hete'rogenie,' 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 whoss 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 Heterogenla (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 1 .

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 j it does not at once entail the death
of the matter entering into its composition. There is a

1 The word ' Heterogenese' 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) Ageneses,
(2) Hypergeneses, (3) Diplog^neses, and (4) Heterogenfeses ; 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 Medecine,' 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 Heterogenfeses, under which were included
conditions which had no sort of relationship to one another, such as
albinism, extra-uterine foetation, displacement of viscera, &c. No objec-
tion, therefore, can be made, on the score of previous appropriation,
to the transition from ' Heterogenia ' to ' Heterdgenesis,' 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 l . 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' Anatomic
CompareV (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 bespoken of as
necrogenie, and the second as zenogehie. 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 ' Heterogenie ' 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 re<,u une acceptation clifferente et
beaucoup plus etendtie,' 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 ' Heterogenie ' 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.

ORIGIN

OF

LIVING
THINGS.

Archebiosis

(primordial

gination\

Heterogenefip.

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.

( From not-living ma-
( terials.

f i . From a portion of
the living matter of
a pre-existing or-
ganism (a) After its
death, (b) Before its
deafh.

2. By a molecular me-
tamorphosis of the
matter of an entire
organism.

3. By the metamor-
phosis and fusion of
many minute or-

[_ ganisms.

1. Indirect. Cases of
' alternate' or cycli-
cal generation '.

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.'

Reproduction
(from pre-exist- <
ing living things).

Homogenetic.

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:

' Caetera diversis tellus animalia formis
Sponte sua peperit, postquam vetus humor ab igne
Percaluit Solis, coenumque udreque paludes
Inlumuere 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,
./Ethereoque recens exarsit sidere limus ;
Plurima cultores versis animalia glebis
Inveniunt, et in his quaedam modo coepta per ipsum
Nascendi spatium, quaedam imperfecta, suisque
Trunca vident numeris : et eodem corpore saepe
Altera pars vivit, rudis est pars altera tellus 2 .'

1 ' De Rerum Natura,' lib. v. 793.

2 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 notioils 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, survive4 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 setherial 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-
rattone Anlmalium > 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 vl^um ex ovo.
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 "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 V It seems quite certain,
from many passages in Harvey's writings, that he was

1 'Traitd de Phys : ologie,' 2nd edition, 1837, * * P- IO -

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 ovo, it is not even altogether free
from doubt whether the modification suggested by
M. Milne - Edwards, omne vivum 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 - : 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 y ut ex principle vivente

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
prseexistente 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.
Ponchet.

2 Loc. cit. p. 270.

THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 257

thought that this c primordium ;> might arise c sponte
et casu, 3 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 //aA' aivws

A6/Sa> fj.r) poi To<ppa Mei/otrtov a\Ki/J.ov vlov
Mvfcu KaSSvcrai Kara. -)(aXKorv-novs wreiAas
EuAas lyyetVcui/Tcu, dfircKTaaxri 8 veKpi/v
'E/c 5' altav itifparai Kara 5e xP' a TGI/TO, aair-qri.

Which is thus rendered in the late Lord Derby's translation :

' Yet fear I for Mencetius' noble son,
Lest in his spear-inflicted wounds the flies
May gender worms, and desecrate the dead,
And, life extinct, corruption reach his flesh.'

VOL. I. 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 c 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
Heterogenesis. 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, 3 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 Valde de la ckaleur^ de la lumiere^
de felectricite^ et de Phumldite^ forme des generations spon-
tanees ou directes a Fextremite de cba^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/ 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. 261

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 ordinary 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 Vorthella 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 dure'e
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 Heterogenie ',' 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
tim? 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.

s

CHAPTER VII.

MODE OF ORIGIN OF PRIMORDIAL LIVING THINGS :
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, Leptothrix, and
Spirillum. Composition of ' proligerous pellicle.' Views of Cohn
and Pouchet. Sometimes no ' pellicle' forms, only turbidity, flocculi,
or deposit. Mode of origin of Torulce. 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 1 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 \ 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 sestu,
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
c 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 -3^0 TTTT" and 2 oW 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

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 Microzymce by Bechamp, 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 ' (microzymse).

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 Vtbriones^
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 ; (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. It 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 (ihin 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 Torula 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 Fwre^ws-filaments.

270 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE.

as Cohn l thinks, the later free-swimming stage in the
existence of certain algae, intermediate between Pal-
well* 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 size 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 sixe, 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 T^TOO" to ouW of an
inch j 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 theseother 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 <?

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o ff ^> a ^c& A

<==^?

/*/

. o o 0o

< n o " ^-~>

oo/:v" *?

B **-- - ^-^ o g

, , ^ . , / X=N @

^^^C?
* % 2* 8 ^ALo *^

-^

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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 than 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 mere figure-of-8

THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 273

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 censidered by Pasteur to be very
minute Tornlacece, but I think they are more closely allied to Bacteria
than to Torulae. 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 porte a croire que cette production con-
stitue un ferment organise, et qu'il n'y a jamais transformation de l'ure"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.

VOL. I. 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

I

FIG. i 8.
Other Early Forms of Life from Organic Infusions.

a. Vibriones.

b. Different kinds of simple Leptotbrix.

c. Spirilla.

d. Mycelial filaments of an incipient Fungus (Hallier).

e. Branched Leptotbrix or mycelial filaments (Pasteur).

^ l , 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
3^0-" in length by TT Vg-o" i n 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

He looks upon Bacteria and Vibrio as genera which are closely
allied to the Oscillatorice, 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 OscillatoricE. 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.)

T 2

276

THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE.

from a certain pestilential disease 1 ; and although they
may, as M. Davaine imagines, exhibit close affinities

FIG. 19.

Oscillatorice and other simple Fresh-water Algae (Hassall 2 ). These
forms are known by the following names :

a. Lyngbya prolific a. e. Microcoleus gracilis.

b. vermicularis. f. Oscillatoria autnmnalis.

c. Raphidia viridis. g. splendida.

d. Tolypotbrix rufescens. b. Spirillum Jenneri.

i. Nostoc commune.

to the low algx known as Oscillatoritf, 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.' Leptotkrix filaments are also, for the
most part, quite motionless, and are often not much
thicker than Vibriones. 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
Vlbr tones ^ 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
bv the almost invisible gelatinous material above re-

2

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. JSacteria 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,

THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 279

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, 3 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 Tetraspora, which have a similar gelatinous stage of existence.
He considers that they have affinities with these on the one hand, and
with the Oscillatorice on the other. The gelatinous condition represents
the early stage in the life-history of Palmellce and Tetrasporce. 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 j 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 myriads of Torula cells.

THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 281

Since only a casual allusion has hitherto been made
to the mode of origin of Torul<e^ 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 ^-oVo" in
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 ^o^oo" in
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 'Bacteria^ 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 noro.

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 c 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<e (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

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 Ql'idtum 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, Zooglcea (Conn), 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 Sarcina, though my observations
on this subject are less complete and satisfactory. I
am even doubtful as to whether Sarcina 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 : ' Sarcina, plants coriaceous,
transparent, consisting of 16 to 64 four-celled square frustules, arranged
parallel to one another in a square transparent matrix. Species i.
Sarcina ventriculi (mihi), Frustules 16, colour light brown, transparent
matrix very perceptible between the frustules, less so around the edges ;
size 800 to locoth 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, PI. n, fig. 27, K, and p. So) 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 levCire non sucree,' and which, if not Sarcina, must be very
closely allied thereto.

1 ' British Fungology,' 1860, p. 69.

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 colourless and more sharply de-
fined, though very variable in sifce.

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 g^Vo"
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 V 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-ei^ht hours after it
had been prepared. Then, what appeared to be Fungus-
spores were seen in all stages of development, scattered
over the whole of the bottom of the glass, and
VOL. i. 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 s^Vo" m diameter.
No moving particles or Bacteria were seen. Probably

O O O O

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 To^oV' i 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,
which was also granular J . 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 spores (?) 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 one could not distinguish its germ, and still less
affirm the presence of such germ, if it were known,
amongst tlu organised corpuscles belonging to the dust
in suspension in the atmosphere. 3

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 Torulce, appear.
The mode in which they make their appearance was
iirst 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.

3 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 potasses.

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 l 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 g - * '' in

J- J 5 \j \j \j \j

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 visi6/e y
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 () 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
the 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-
nitesimaHy 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 interieure 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-

I'activite* e'eteint a moment meme oil 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 donne naissance. La per-
ennite ou la persistance de 1'activite nous apparait done comme
caractere de la vie." Trails 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 Violette
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
novo 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 ; 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 '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 c germs '
of crystals.

VOL. i.

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, Torulce,
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.

CIENTIFIC 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 c 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 vzvum 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 thosj
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 brin; themselves to believe some cannot do so

D

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 a^chseus,' 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
O,wn 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 '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

3.1 2 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 Mucedinete 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-
257 F), 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 in vacua,
therefore, we may look upon the temperature of J3OC
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 1 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. 3 1 5

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

minosa, very slowly ; in the case of those of Gleditcbla 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.' (Amer. 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.

316 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, and 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 Mucedinee, 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 doute
que cela tient a ce que les germes de ces dernieres
productions, ne peuvent resister a iooC au sein de
1'eau, ce que j'ai d'ailleurs constate par des expe-
riences directes. J Professor Wyman says * : 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 (i4oF)
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 Vlbriones^
in common with all the varieties of ciliated infusoria,
are killed by raising the temperature of the fluid which
contains them to 55 C; M. Victor Meunier also

1 ' Observations and Experiments on Living Organisms in Heated
Water,' loc. cit.

: 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-J34 c F).
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; 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

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, w r hence 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.

320 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 j 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-

' O J

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 corne to a state of rest.

VOL. I. 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 j 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 Bacferia.

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

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 3O2F 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.

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. 92) says : ' It is
curious in two such closely-allied algae as Vaucberia sessilis and V. clavata,
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 Vihiones^ with some ToruLe.
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 Vlbrlones 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

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 l . 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 9oF. The third flask (c) was
similarly inoculated with living Bacteria, though its
contents v/ere 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 (V), 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 often 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 Torul^e might be ascer-
tained. I accordingly endeavoured to determine this
point. Portions of the same saline solution, after having
been boiled 1 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 l of very turbid fluid, containing hundreds
of living Bacteria, Vibrlones^ 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 Torulte^ 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 i3iF 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 Torulte ,-
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 14OF
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 fingers 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 Jive-and-twenty seconds.

THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 331

with living Bacteria^ Vlbrio-nes^ and Torulce. 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 ii3F,
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 -i27jF 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 n8i-i27i D 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 Torulx by
i2i-i8 D F.

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
ii3F. 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,
Vlbriones, and Tor l^ 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 6 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 3 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
Amoebae, 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. .190) 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,
'i iie truth of this conclusion has been again, of late, ratified by Dr.
Lurdon 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 Privy 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 1 . 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 260 F,
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 iBlagden
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 2i2F 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). Tt 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.
VOL. I. 2,

338 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE.

Since it has been thoroughly settled that all the lower

O *

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 266 F
(i3Q G 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 *. 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 ; 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^tttstr~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

& 2

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 J , 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 Teau
de levftre 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 1'eau, ce que j'ai d'ailleurs
constate par des experiences directes. Et de meme
nous allons reconnaitre que., si le lait se putrefie dans
les cir Constances frecedentes y Sest que les germes des
Infusoires dont nous <venons de parler peuvent resister a
la temperature humide de ioo 5 lorsque le li^uide ou on
les chauffe jouit de certains proprietes? 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 noC
(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 novo; 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 100 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 ioo 3 C, though they do cease

THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 343

to live in such a fluid after it has been exposed to
110 C.

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 Torulce 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 1 ) 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 : c 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. 3 In a comparatively

1 ' Essai sur 1'origine des corps organises et inorganisds,' 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 rarified, they were not to be
met with when the rarefaction 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 (' Chiriiie Organique,' 1856, t. iv. p. 537) : ' Cet
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.

" 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. 1 2, note); whilst on another page he says: 'La presence de
1'air parait etre 1'une des conditions fondamentales de la fermentation.
Plus il est abondant plus elle semble active. Si on le confine, ou s'il
manque, cet acte chimique est paralyse 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- TI 3' T1 4-
! Bakerian Lecture ' On the Direct Correlation of Mechanical and
Chemical Forces.' (Proceed, of Royal Society, 1863, 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 half 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 1 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 in 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.

VOL. I. 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, ' 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 j 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 7>V 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^oV' in
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 T^XTO (/ m 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 1 .

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 Leptotbrix

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 iio-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 Leptothnx fibres were partly
plain, and partly segmented j they presented except
in respect of their length an appearance almost pre-

FIG. 24.

Bacteria, Vibriones, and Leptothnx 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 keterogenetic organization^ 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 ; whilst the movements of others were
rapidly progressive in straight or curved lines.

The pellicle was made up mainly of simple Leptotbrix
filaments (mostly without joints or evidences of seg-
mentation) ; 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., Vlhrlones^ or Leptotkrix 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.,
^ and Leptothrix 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 BEGINNIATGS 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 no<vo 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-

1 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 j
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 T .

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.

Torulce, 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 2-20, 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,
&c. were also intermixed.

Amongst the organisms were perfectly-formed Bacteria,
about y^oo" in length, which were very numerous and
extremely active:, several long unsegmented Leptothrix
filaments, -3-^-5" in diameter ; many oat-shaped Torula
corpuscles, about 5-<ro o" i n length j three or four spherical

FIG. 26.

Bacteria, Leptothrix, Toruhe, 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, ^oW * n 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 ^oW 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 ] .

'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, ii 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 Tontla cells. The
green organisms of the iron solutions bear some resemblance to the
Desmids of the genus Arthrodesmus, and to the Pediastreae of the genus
Scenodesmus.

2 The quantities were, unfortunately, not measured. The water used
w r as not distilled, but was a pure drinkable water.

THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE.

a whitish flocculent mass was seen at the bottom of the
flask after the first fortnight., which gradually increased,
and at last formed a mass about i" in diameter.

6

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 (&) in a distinct hyaline jelly-like material.
The granules were highly refractive, altogether ir-
regular in shape, and they varied in size from
to

rt

50 (TO

in diameter. Though most of them were

FIG. 27.

Fungus met with in a solution containing Potash-and-Ammonia
Alum, with Tartar Emetic. ( X Coo.)

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 8-oVo" i n 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 -g^Vo" m 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 (<?), 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.

The flask having been kept during this time in a warm water-bath
which was constantly maintained at a temperature of 95-90 F.

5 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 Tom/a-cells, scattered here and there

o

nr

o
o

FIG. 28.

Torulee. 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 Torul* 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 Toruljs 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.

VOL. i. 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 40 1 00 </ 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 PemciU'mm 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.

- 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. 180), who says : ' Parmi les especes submergees, celle a laquelle je
donne le nom de Penicillium submersum est assurdment la plus com-
mune. Elle offre un mycelium a filaments tres-fins, tres long, rameux,
jirticules, fistuleux. Les pedicelles sont simples, excessivement greles,
articules, long et offrent cinq a six cloisons. Le pinceau terminal est
petit, peu rameux, et produit une 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.

FJG. 29.

Fungus found in a Solution containing Ammonic Tartrate and So
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 2

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 7. 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 2i2F. 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. 3^5-336.

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 an 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 Biologie (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
212F, 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 Peau 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
ferrnentative 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, thai
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 leviire
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 31 2 F,
alcohol at i73F, 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 3 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.
1868) : ' E in fatto, preparando diversi palloni, egualmente scaldati a
1 00, con sugo di carne a vario grade 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
Vlbriones which were ultimately found in the milk used
in these experiments had been derived from ' germs 3 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 Vibrlones 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 Vibrlones^
and the result has always been a more or less complete
disruption of the Vibrlo-nes^ and the disappearance of
all unmistakeable signs of life in the Bacteria } . 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 ^erms,'
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. 332, note I. It seems a vague supposition to imagine that either Bacteria
or Vibriones 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 BEG I WINGS 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,
w*as 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 are 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 assume 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 23OF. 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 2i2F.
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 3 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 1 ; 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 a 1'etat humide ne
s'oxydent pas a 1'air, eprouvent une combustion ds qu'elles se trouvent
en contact avec un alcali. Ainsi 1'alcohol pur se conserve a 1'air indefini-
ment et sans s'aigrir ; mais, si 1'on y verse un peu de potasse, il absorbe
promptement de 1'oxygene et se convertit en vinaigre et en une matiere
brune resineuse. II est clair, d'apres cela, que la potasse doit favoriser
certaines fermentations, puisqu'elle favorise 1'absorption de 1'oxygene et
que la presence de celui-ci developpe les ferments.' He also says (loc.
cit. p. 556) : ' On sait, que les viandes et les substances vegetales
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

E? O O

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 230 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 230 F. Such two-faced evidence is, however, worth-
less for raising the standard of c vital resistance '
to heat; 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 may 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.
VOL. I. 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 -oVo" to
roWo" i 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
Toru/a-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 80 F 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 flask. 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 Vttriones $ whilst a similar examination of the
acid fluid, showed not a trace of these or of any other
kind of organisms 1 .

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 had 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 results, 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 no-vo 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 novo^ 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 Torul< 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 TVWa-germs obtained access to both solutions, but that they
perished in that which was faintly acid, for, as a matter of fact, Torula.
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 Torula 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. It 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, alter reflection on this subject, it seemed to me
quite within the range of piobability, 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 212 F,
the organic matter of the one has been injured only

THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 39,3

by the mere action of heat j 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 ; 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 l . This
had a decidedly acid 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
potassx 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.

1 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 j 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
the turnip used in this last experiment (see p. 394, note i ).

THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 397

21 2 F. 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, 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 primum 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 5 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

Those which are accompanied by the evolution of foetid gases (see
p. 266. note 1} 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.
VOL. I. 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 a. 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.
Gerhard t even says that c a ferment is not a bodysui 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'oxygkne de 1'air, comme nous 1'avons
dit, est done le primum movens des fermentations.' Loc. cit. p. 540.

2 ' Annales de Chimie et de Physique,' 2nd serie, t. Ixxi. p. 178.

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 fermentation' is applied. Liebig's explanation of
this process, which is accepted by Gerhardt and many
other chemists, is thus described in Gerhardt's Chimie
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, &c. 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.
D 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 Facide malique, de 1'uree . . . . , etaient toujours
correlatives de la presence et de la multiplication
d'etres organises. Et, loin que ^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 organise's.' (Loc. cit. p. 23.)

Thus it may be seen that there are two principal
doctrines as to the nature of a c 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 j ' 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.'

406 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 </<? novo^ 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 the manufacture of vinegar,
is based upon this theory. He says 1 : c In 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 j
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 j and in reply to
my enquiry whether the Mycoderma acett 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 V 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
' Nouvelles 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 l : 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 su;ar itself, and is converted into

? t

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 j 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 1 /

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 etat a la temperature ordinaire, il se gonfle
peu k pen en degageant beaucoup de gaz acide carbonique melange
d'hydrogene non carbone, et d'hydrogene sulfure ; en meme temps il se
ramollit et se fluidifie entierement ; 1'eau qui le recouvre devient alors
acide, et contient de la leucine, du phosphate et de 1'acetate d'ammoni-
aque ; finalement le gluten se fonce de plus en plus et se dissout presque

entierement 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 finalt'ment devient entierement
sucre; la matiere amylacee se trouve alors convertie soit en dextrine, soit
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
TorulfE are uniformly killed by exposure for a few minutes to a tem-
perature of i40F. 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 ; 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

416 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 in <vacuo. 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 i-acuo^ 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.

VOL. I. EC

4i8 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 in vacua , 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., Fxps. 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 ] . 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 (6) 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 (Toru/a) , 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 Frerny 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 -j-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 J .

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. (Analytico-synthetic 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 t
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 - ? We know, indeed,
that there is in all parts of the cc 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

stitucnts 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 Torulce 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, Protamaebce,
and Monads. Sealed flasks heated to 293 F. Bacteria, Leptothrix,
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 w r ere 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 I4OF; 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, Tortile, 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 way 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 v/ord 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' 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

VOL. i. 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 pent 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 a , 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 284 F (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 c

American Journal of Science and Arts,' July, 1862.
1 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 [] 52'2F]. 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-ii7C (2i2-242'6F), in a
Papin's digester J . 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 re suit , 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 114; cow's milk of good quality pro-
duces them if heated to 113*5, 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 J 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 l 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 110, but cannot when subjected
to a higher temperature V 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 uoC, 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 H7 P C,
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-307F (i32-i53C), though in other un-
productive experiments the flasks have been heated to
327 F 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, , w, and>, whilst those which were executed alone by me in
University College are Nos, a, b, c, d, e, f, I, m, n, 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 i-nto
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
150 C, and was maintained between 146 and I53C

440 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE.

for four hours 1 , 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
2lQ-2*i$F ( 1 32- 1 35 C) for twenty minutes, and sub-
sequently maintained at a temperature of 7o-8o/ r '. These
flasks were also exposed to direct sunlight for eight days 1 .

'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
uo-i35C 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 uo~C. The subsequent exposure to direct sunlight was, for
several hours daily, during some very fine 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 *
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 -^-^Q" in diameter, up to
bodies ^Vo" m 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

xxvi.

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 (Lept-
dlum satfoum], 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 Protamcebx 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 v/ere also

444

THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE.

i "

.1000

seen more than a dozen very active Monads^

in diameter each being provided with a long rapidly-

FIG. 31.

Bacteria, Tornlce, Protamoebce, Monads, &c., from an infusion of Common

Cress. ( X 800.)

moving flagellum, with which neighbouring granules
were lashed about l . 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 Torufa-cells of different
kinds, and coarser fungus spores, some of them with
segmented protoplasmic contents; 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 J 40 F. 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, arid 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 Torulx or Leptothrtx 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^ Torultf^ 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 1 . 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.

2 Since this was written I have seen Leptothrix (or Spirulina] 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 of 7 o-So-F.

^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-celh were found, both singly
and in groups. They varied from the minutest specks
up to bodies j-oVo" in breadth, and were mostly with-

FIG. 32.
Various kinds of Torulae. 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 Soo.)

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 ~Bacterla.
There were also very many ovoid cells (single, and
in groups of two to eight), about ^oV' i n 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 l .

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.

VOL. I. G g

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 Leptothrix 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 Pediastrea. 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 l .

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 Leptothrlx 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

Gg 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
in length, whilst many were not more than
in length. Several groups of four were seen, in

1 "

5"0~0~
1 "

FIG. 35.

Greenish, Desmid-like Organisms of different kinds, and Torulv, 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 ail
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 *.

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 temper attire of 295 307^ (146 i53C r ) for four
hotirs, 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 v/ell 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.

v 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 potassse rather than
liquor ammoniae, 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
TWO'' to wuW 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, TFQTS" * n 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 vacuole 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 j 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 T .

'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 ^J^/' in 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 ^Vo"" to TsW ^ n 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 ^W in 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 a-cnroo" in 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 * n
diameter. They all possessed a more or less perfectly-

Ok C O
" O O
o Q
o w C^

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 Sarcma-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, Lepfothrtx, and Spore-like bodies found in a Solution of
Ammonic 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 y 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 ; the prevalent size being about
^--Vo" in diameter, though one was seen as much
as o-^oo" m 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 others had already
given origin to such filaments, which were about ^Vo"
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 Penicillium^ 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 n, a vacuum having been produced within the flask before it
was hermetically sealed, the solution was submitted in the s ime 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. The 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 LIFE. 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 ;
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.

Hh 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, hov/ever, 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 1 : ' 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 c

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 no*vo
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
Torulg as well as their germs, both visible and in-
visible 1 are killed by exposure for ten minutes to a
temperature of I4OF, 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 27oF, 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 Protamtzlxe
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
(i4OF) as that which has been found to prove fatal to
all other Monads and Protamcebte.

It seems scarcely possible to present experimental
evidence which could speak more plainly in favour of
the occurrence of Archebiosis.

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necessary for a beginner are introduced either in the form of
foot-notes, or, where that would have occupied too much room, of
Appendices.

Earnshaw (S., M.A.) PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL

EQUATIONS. An Essay towards an entirely New Method of
Integrating them. By S. EARNSHAW, M.A., of St. John's
College, Cambridge. Crown 8vo. 5-y.

The peculiarity of the system expounded in this work is, that in every
equation, whatever be the number of original independent variables y
the work of integration is at once reduced to the use of one indepen-
dent variable only. The author s object is merely to render his
method thoroughly intelligible. The various steps of the investiga-
tion are all obedient to one general principle : and though in some
degree novel, are not really difficult, but on the contrary easy when
the eye has become accustomed to the novelties of the notation. Many
of the results of the integrations are far more general than they were
in the shape in which they appeared in former Treatises, and many

MATHEMATICS.

Equations will be found in this Essay integrated with ease in finite
terms, which were never so integrated before.

Ferrers. AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON TRILINEAR

CO-ORDINATES, the Method of Reciprocal Polars, and the
Theory of Projectors. By the Rev. N. M. FERRERS, M. A., Fellow
and Tutor of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Second
Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 6d.

The object of the author in writing on this subject has mainly been to
place it on a basis altogether independent of the ordinary Cartesian
system, instead of regarding it as only a special form of Abridged
Notation. A short chapter on Determinants has been introduced.

FrOSt. THE FIRST THREE SECTIONS OF NEWTON'S
PRINCIPIA. With Notes and Illustrations. Also a Collection
of Problems, principally intended as Examples of Newton's
Methods. By PERCIVAL FROST, M.A., late Fellow of St. John's
College, Mathematical Lecturer of King's College, Cambridge.
Second Edition. 8vo. cloth, los. 6d.

The author's principal intention is to explain difficulties which may be
encountered by the student ^>n first reading the Principia, and to
illustrate the advantages of a careful study of the methods employed
by Newton, by showing the extent to which they may be applied in
the solution of problems ; he has also endeavoured to give a,ssistance
to the student who is engaged in the study of the higher branches of
mathematics, by representing in a geometrical form several of the
processes employed in the Differential and Integral Calcuhis, and in
the analytical investigations of Dynamics.

Frost and Wolstenholme. A TREATISE ON SOLID
GEOMETRY. By PERCIVAL FROST, M.A., and the Rev. J.
WOLSTENHOLME, M.A., Fellow and Assistant Tutor of Christ's
College. Svo. cloth. iSs.

Intending to make the subject accessible, at least in the earlier portions
to all classes of students, the authors have endeavoured to explain
completely all the processes which are most useful in dealing with
ordinary theorems and problems, thus directing the sttident to the
selection of methods which are best adapted to the exigencies of each
problem. In the more difficult portions of the subject, they have

8 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

considered themselves to be addressing a higher class of students ;
and they have there tried to lay a good foundation on which to
build, if any reader should wish to pursue the science beyond the
limits to which the work extends.

Godfray. Works by HUGH GODFRAY, M.A., Mathematical
Lecturer at Pembroke College, Cambridge :

A TREATISE ON ASTRONOMY, for the Use of Colleges and
Schools. 8vo. cloth. \2.s. 6d.

This book embraces all those branches of Astronomy which have, from
time to time, been recommended by the Cambridge Board of Mathe-
matical Studies : but by far the larger and easier portion, adapted
to the first three days of the Examination for Honours, may be read
by the more advanced pupils in many of our schools. The author's
aim has been to convey clear and distinct ideas of the celestial phe-
nomena. "It is a working book,'" says the Guardian, " taking
Astronomy in its proper place in the Mathematical Sciences. . . .
It is a book which is not likely to be got up unintelligently -."

AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON THE LUNAR
THEORY, with a Brief Sketch of the Problem up to the time of
Newton. Second Edition, revised. Crown Svo. cloth. 5^ 6d.

These pages will, it is hoped, form an introduction to more recondite
works. Difficulties have been discussed at considerable length. The
selection of the method followed with regard to analytical solutions,
which is the same as that of Airy, Herschell, etc., was made on
account of its simplicity ; it is, moreover, the method which has
obtained in the University of Cambridge. "As an elementary
treatise and introduction to the subject, we think it may justly claim
to supersede all former ones." -London, Edinburgh, and Dublin
Phil. Magazine.

Green (George). MATHEMATICAL PAPERS OF THE

LATE GEORGE GREEN, Fellow of Gonville and Caius
College, Cambridge. Edited by N. M. FERRERS, M.A., Fellow
and Tutor of Gonville and Caius College. Svo.

The publication of this book may be opportune at present, as several
of the subjects with which they are directly or indirectly concerned
have recently been introduced into the course of mathematical

MATHEMATICS.

study at Cambridge. They have also an interest as being the work
of an almost entirely self-taught mathematical genius. The Papers
comprise the following : An Essay on the application of Mathe-
matical Analysis to the Theories of Electricity and Magnetism
On the Laws of the Equilibrium of Fluids analogmis to the Electric
Fluid On the Determination of the Attractions of Ellipsoids of
variable Densities On the Motion of Waves in a variable Canal
of small depth and ^vidth On the Reflection and Refraction of
Sound On the Reflection and Refraction of Light at the Common
Surface of two Non- Crystallized Media On the Propagation of
Light in Crystallized Media Researches on the Vibrations of Pen-
dulums in Fluid Media. "It has been for some time recognized
that Greeris writings are amongst the most valuable mathematical
productions we possess."- Athenseum.

Hemming. AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON THE
DIFFERENTIAL AND INTEGRAL CALCULUS. For the
Use of Colleges and Schools. By G. W. HEMMING, M.A.,
Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. Second Edition, with
Corrections and Additions. Svo. cloth. 9.5-.

" There is no book in common use from which so clear and exact a
knowledge of the principles of the Calculus can be so readily ob-
tained." Literary Gazette.

Jackson. GEOMETRICAL CONIC SECTIONS. An Ele-
mentary Treatise in which the Conic Sections are defined as the
Plane Sections of a Cone, and treated by the Method of Projections.
By J. STUART JACKSON, M. A , late Fellow of Gonville and Caius
College. Crown Svo. 4^. 6d.

This work has been written with a view to give the student the benefit
of the Method of Projections as applied to the Ellipse and Hyper-
bola. When this method is admitted into the treat?nent of Conic
Sections there are many reasons why they should be defined, not
with reference to the focus and directrix, but according to the
original definition from which they have their name, as Plane
Sections of a Cone. This method is calculated to produce a material
simplification in the treatment of these curves and to make the proof
of their properties more easily understood in the first instance and
moi'e easily remembered. It is also a powerful instrument in the
solution of a large class of problems relating to these curves.

io SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

Morgan. A COLLECTION OF PROBLEMS AND EXAM-

PLES IN MATHEMATICS. With Answers. By H. A.
MORGAN, M.A., Sadlerian ^and Mathematical Lecturer of Jesus
College, Cambridge. Crown 8vo. cloth. 6s. 6d.

This book contains a number of problems, chiefly elementary, in the
Mathematical subjects usually read at Cambridge, They have been
selected from the Papers set during late years at Jesus College. Very
few of them are to be met with in other collections, and by far the
larger number are due to some of the most distinguished Mathe-
maticians in the University.

Newton's Principia. 4 to. cloth. 31 j. 6d.

It is a sufficient guarantee of the reliability of this complete edition of
Newton! s Principia that it has been printed for and under the care
of Professor Sir William Thomson and Professor Blackburn, of
Glasgow University. The following notice is prefixed : ' ' Finding
that all the editions of the Principia are now out of print, we have
been induced to reprint Newtorfs last edition [of 1 726] without note
or comment, only introducing the ' Corrigenda ' of the old copy and
correcting typographical errors" The book is of a handsome size,
with large type, fine thick paper, and cleanly-cut figures, and is
the only recent edition containing the whole of NewtoriS great
work.

Parkinson. Works by S. PARKINSON, D.D., F.R.S., Fellow
and Tutor of St. John's College, Cambridge :

AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON MECHANICS. For the

Use of the Junior Classes at the University and the Higher Classes
in Schools. With a Collection of Examples. Fourth Edition,
revised. Crown 8vo. cloth. 9.5-. 6d.

In preparing a fotirth edition of this work the author has kept the
same object in view as he had in the former editions namely, to in-
clude in it such portions of Theoretical Mechanics as can be con-
veniently investigated without the use of the Differential Calculus,
and so render it suitable as a manual for the junior classes in the
University and the higher classes in Schools. With one or two short
.exceptions, the student is not presumed to require a knowledge of any
branches of Mathematics beyond the elements of Algebra, Geometry,

MATHEMATICS. 11

Parkinson (S.) continued.

and Trigonometry. Several additional propositions have been in-
corporated in the work for the purpose of rendering it more complete,
and the collection of Examples and Problems has been largely in-
creased.

A TREATISE ON OPTICS. Third Edition, revised and en-
larged. Crown 8vo. cloth. los. 6d.

A collection of Examples and Problems has been appended to this work,
which are sufficiently numerous and varied in character to afford
useful exercise for the student. For the greater part of them, re-
course has been had to the Examination Papers set in the University
and the several Colleges during the last twenty years.

Phear. ELEMENTARY HYDROSTATICS, with Numerous

Examples. By J. B. PHEAR, M.A., Fellow and late Assistant
Tutor of Clare College, Cambridge. Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo.
cloth. 5.5-. 6d.

This edition has been carefully revised throughout, and many new
Illustrations and Examples added, which it is hoped will increase
its usefulness to students at the Universities and in Schools. In ac-
cordance with suggestions from many engaged in tuition, answers to
all the Examples have been given at the end of the book.

Pratt. A TREATISE ON ATTRACTIONS, LAPLACE'S
FUNCTIONS, AND THE FIGURE OF THE EARTH.
By JOHN H. PRATT, M.A., Archdeacon of Calcutta, Author of
"The Mathematical Principles of Mechanical Philosophy. " Fourth
Edition. Crown 8vo. cloth. 6s. 6d.

The author's chief design in this treatise is to give an answer to the
question, "Has the Earth acquired its present form from being
originally in a fluid state?" This edition is a complete revision of
the former ones.

Puckle. AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON CONIC SEC-
TIONS AND ALGEBRAIC GEOMETRY. With numerous
Examples and Hints for their Solution ; especially designed for the
Use of Beginners. By G. H. PUCKLE, M.A., Head Master of

12 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

Windermere College. New Edition, revised and enlarged.
Crown 8vo. cloth. 'js. 6d.

This work is recommended by the Syndicate of the Cambridge Local
Examinations, and is the text-book in Harvard University ; U.S.
The Athenaeum says the author "displays an intimate acquaint-
ance with the difficulties likely to be felt, together -with a singular
aptitttde in removing them ."

Routh. AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON THE DYNA-
MICS OF THE SYSTEM OF RIGID BODIES. With
numerous Examples. By EDWARD JOHN ROUTH, M.A., late
Fellow and Assistant Tutor of St. Peter's College, Cambridge ;
Examiner in the University of London. Second Edition, enlarged.
Crown 8vo. cloth.

In this edition the author has made several additions to each chapter :
he has tried, even at the risk of some little repetition, to make each
chapter, as far as possible, complete in itself, so that all that relates
to any one part of the subject may be found in the same place. This
arrangement will enable every student to select his own order in
which to read the subject. The Examples which will be found at
the end of each chapter have been chiefly selected from the Examina-
tion Papers which have been set in the University and the Colleges
in the lastfeiv years.

Smith's (Barnard) Works. See EDUCATIONAL CATA-
LOGUE.

Smith (J. Brook.) ARITHMETIC IN THEORY AND
PRACTICE. By J. BROOK SMITH, M.A., LL.B., St. John's
College, Cambridge ; Barrister-at-Law ; one of the Masters of
Cheltenham College. Crown 8vo. 4J-. 6d.

Writers on Arithmetic at the present day feel the necessity of explaining
the principles on which the rules of the subject are based, but few as
yet feel the necessity of ma king these explanations strict and complete ;
or, failing that, of distinctly pointing out their defective character.
If the science of Arithmetic is to be made an effective instrument in
developing and strengthening the mental powers, it ought to be
worked out rationally and conclusively ; and in this work the
author has endeavoured to reason out in a clear and accurate

MA THEM A TICS. 1 3

manner the leading propositions of the science, and to illustrate and
apply those propositions in practice. In the practical part of the
subject he has advanced somewhat beyond the majority of preceding
writers ; particularly in Division, in Greatest Common Measure,
in Cube Root, in the chapters on Decimal Money and the Metric
System, and more especially in the application of Decimals to Per-
centages and cognate subjects. Copious examples, original and
selected, are given.

Snowball. THE ELEMENTS OF PLANE AND SPHERI-
CAL TRIGONOMETRY ; with the Construction and Use of
Tables of Logarithms. By J. C. SNOWBALL, M.A. Tenth
Edition. Crown Svo. cloth, "js. 6d.

In preparing the present edition for the press, the text has been sub-
jected to a careful revision ; the proofs of some of the more import-
ant propositions have been rendered more strict and general ; and
a considerable addition of more than two hundred examples, taken
principally from the questions set of late years in the public exami-
nations of the University and of individual Colleges, has been made
to the collection of Examples and Problems for practice.

Tait and Steele. DYNAMICS OF A PARTICLE. With

numerous Examples. By Professor TAIT and Mr. STEELE. New
Edition. Crown Svo. cloth. loj. 6d.

In this treatise will be found all the ordinary propositions, connected
with the Dynamics of Particles, which can be conveniently deduced
without the use of D' Alember? s Principle. Throughout the book
will be found a number of illustrative examples introduced in the
text, and for the most part completely vvorked out ; others with occa-
sional solutions or hints to assist the student are appended to each
chapter. For by far the greater portion of these, the Cambridge
Senate-House and College Examination Papers have been applied to.

Taylor. GEOMETRICAL CONICS ; including Anharmonic
Ratio and Projection, with numerous Examples. By C. TAYLOR,
B.A., Scholar of St. John's College, Cambridge. Crown Svo.
cloth, is. 6d.

This work contains elementary proofs of the principal properties of
Conic Sections, together with chapters on Projection and Anharmonic
Ratio.

14 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

Todhunter. Works by I. TODHUNTER, M.A., F.R.S., of
St. John's College, Cambridge :

"Perspicuous language, vigorous investigations, scrutiny of difficulties,
and methodical treatment, characterize Mr. Todhunter 's works"
Civil Engineer.

THE ELEMENTS OF EUCLID; MENSURATION FOR
BEGINNERS ; ALGEBRA FOR BEGINNERS ; TRIGO-
NOMETRY FOR BEGINNERS; MECHANICS FOR
BEGINNERS. See EDUCATIONAL CATALOGUE.

ALGEBRA. For the Use of Colleges and Schools. Fifth Edition.
Crown 8vo. cloth. 7,5-. 6d.

This work contains all the propositions which are usually included in
elementary treatises on Algebra, and a large number of Examples
for Exercise. The author has sought to render the work easily in-
telligible to students, without impairing the accuracy of the demon-
strations, or contracting the limits of the subject. The Examples,
about Sixteen hundred and fifty in number, have been selected with
a view to illustrate every part of the subject. The work will be
found peculiarly adapted to the wants of students who are without
the aid of a teacher. The Answers to the Examples, with hints
for the sohition of some in which assistance may be needed, are
given at the end of the book. In the present edition two New
Chapters and Three hundred miscellaneous Examples have been
added. "It has merits which unquestionably place it first in the
class to which it belongs. " Educator.

KEY TO ALGEBRA FOR THE USE OF COLLEGES AND
SCHOOLS. Crown 8vo. IQJ-. 6d.

AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON THE THEORY OF
EQUATIONS. Second Edition, revised. Crown 8vo. cloth.
7-r. 6d.

This treatise contains all the propositions which are usually included
in elementary treatises on the theory of Equations, together with
Examples for exercise. These have been selected from the College
and University Examination Papers, and the results have been
given when it appeared necessary. In order to exhibit a compre-
hensive viftv of the subject, the treatise includes investigations which
are not found in all the preceding elementary treatises, and also

MA THE MA TICS. 1 5

Todhunter (I.) continued.

some investigations -which are not to be found in any of them. For
the second edition the work has been revised and some additions
have been made, the most important being an account of the Re-
searches of Professor Sylvester respecting Newton! s Rule. "A
thoroughly trustworthy, complete, and yet not too elaborate treatise."
Philosophical Magazine.

PLANE TRIGONOMETRY. For Schools and Colleges. Fourth
Edition. Crown 8vo. cloth. 5^.

The design of this work has been to render the subject intelligible
to beginners, and at the same time to afford the stiident the oppor-
tunity of obtaining all the information which he will require on
this branch of Mathematics. Each chapter is followed by a set
of Examples : those which are entitled Miscellaneous Examples,
together with a few in some of the other sets, may be advantageously
reserved by the student for exercise after he has made some progress
in the subject. In the Second Edition the hints for the solution of
the Examples have been considerably increased.

A TREATISE ON SPHERICAL TRIGONOMETRY. Third
Edition, enlarged. Crown 8vo. cloth. ^s. 6d.

The present ivork is constructed on the same plan as the treatise on
Plane Trigonometry, to which it is intended as a sequel. In the
account of Napier's Rules of circular parts, an explanation has
been given of a method of proof devised by Napier, which seems to
have been overlooked by most modern writers on the subject. Con-
siderable labour has been bestorved on the text in order to render it
comprehensive and accurate, and the Examples (selected chiefly
from College Examination Papers) have all been carefully verified,
"for educational purposes this work seems to be superior to any
others on the subject." Critic.

PLANE CO-ORDINATE GEOMETRY, as applied to the Straight
Line and the Conic Sections. With numerous Examples. Fourth
Edition, revised and enlarged. Crown 8vo. cloth. "js. 6d.

The author has here endeavoured to exhibit the subject in a simple
manner for the benefit of beginners, and at the same time to include
in one volume all that students ^lsually require. In addition,
therefore, to the propositions which have always appeared in such

1 6 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

Todhunter (I, ,)_ continued.

treatises, he has introduced the methods of abridged notation,
which are of more recent origin : these methods, which are of a
less elementary character than the rest of the work, are placed in
separate chapters, and may be omitted by the student at first.

A TREATISE ON THE DIFFERENTIAL CALCULUS.
With numerous Examples. Fifth Edition. Crown 8vo. cloth.
6d.

The author has endeavoured in the present work to exhibit a compre-
hensive view of the Differential Calculus on the method of limits.
In the more elementary portions he has entered into considerable
detail in the explanations, %vith the hope that a reader who is without
the assistance of a tutor may be enabled to acquire a competent ac-
quaintance with the subject. The method adopted is that of Dif-
ferential Coefficients. To the different chapters are appended
Examples sufficiently numerous to render another book unnecessary;
these Examples being mostly selected from College Examination
Papers. This and the following vvork have been translated into
Italian by Professor Battaglini, who in his Preface speaks thus :
' ' In publishing this translation of the Differential and Integral
Calculus of Mr. Todhunter, we have had no other object than to
add to the books which are in the hands of the students of our Uni-
versities, a work remarkable for the clearness of the exposition, the
rigour of the demonstrations, the just proportion in the parts, and
the rich store of examples which offer a large field for useful

exercise."

A TREATISE ON THE INTEGRAL CALCULUS AND ITS
APPLICATIONS. With numerous Examples. Third Edition,
revised and enlarged. Crown 8vo. cloth. IOJ. 6d.

This is designed as a ivork at once elementary and complete, adapted
for the .use of beginners, and sufficient for the wants of advanced
students. In the selection of the propositions, and in the mode of
establishing them, it has been sought to exhibit the principles clearly,
and to illustrate all their most important restilts. The process of
summation has been repeatedly brought fonvard, with the view
of securing the attention of the student to the notions which form the
true foundation of the Calculus itself, as well as of its most
valuable applications. Every attempt has been made to explain those

MATHEMATICS. 17

Todhlinter (I.) continued.

difficulties which usually perplex beginners, especially with reference
to the limits of integrations. A new method has been adopted in
regard to the transformation of multiple integrals. The last chapter
deals ivith the Calculus of Variations. A large collection of Exer-
cises, selected from College Examination Papers, has been appended
to the sn<eral chapters.

EXAMPLES OF ANALYTICAL GEOMETRY OF THREE
DIMENSIONS. Second Edition, revised. Crown Svo. cloth. 4.r.

A TREATISE ON ANALYTICAL STATICS. With numerous
Examples. Third Edition, revised and enlarged. Crown Svo.
cloth. los. 6d.

In this work on Statics (treating of the laws of the equilibrium of
bodies) -will be found all the propositions which usually appear in
treatises on Theoretical Statics. To the different chapters Examples
are appended, which have been principally selected from University
Examination Papers. In the Third Edition many additions have
been made, in order to illustrate the application of the principles of
the subject to the solution of problems.

A HISTORY OF THE MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF
PROBABILITY, from the Time of Pascal to that of Laplace.
Svo. i&.

The subject of this work has high claims to consideration on account
of the subtle problems which it involves, the valuable contributions
to analysis which it has produced, its important practical applica-
tions, and the eminence of those who have cultivated it ; nearly
every great mathematician within the range of a century and
a half comes under consideration in the course of the history. The
author has endeavoured to be quite accurate in hi-s statements, and
to reproduce the essential elements of the original works "which he
has analysed. Besides being a history, the -work may claim the title
of a comprehensive treatise on the Theory of Probability, for it
assumes in the reader only so much knowledge as can be gained from
an elementary book on Algebra, and introduces him to almost every
process and every special problem which the literature of the subject
can furnish.

RESEARCHES IN THE CALCULUS OF VARIATIONS,
Principally on the Theory of Discontinuous Solutions : An Essay

B

i8 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

Todhunter (I. continued.

to which the Adams' Prize was awarded in the University of
Cambridge in 1871. Svo. 6s.

The subject of this Essay was prescribed in the following terms by the
Examiners : "A determination of the circumstances under which
discontinuity of any kind presents itself in the solution of a problem
of maximum or minimum in the Calculus of Variations, and
applications to particular instances. It is expected that the discus-
sion of the instances should be exemplified as far as possible geo-
metrically, and that attention be especially directed to cases of real or
supposed failure of the Calculus" WJiile the Essay is thus mainly
devoted to the consideration of discontinuous solutions, various
other questions in the Calculus of Variations are examined and
elucidated ; and the atithor hopes he has definitely contributed to the
extension and improvement of our knowledge of this refined depart-
ment of analysis.

Wilson (W. P.) A TREATISE ON DYNAMICS. By
W. P. WILSON, M.A., Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge,
and Professor of Mathematics in Queen's College, Belfast. Svo.
gs. 6d.

Wolstenholme. A BOOK OF MATHEMATICAL
PROBLEMS, on Subjects included in the Cambridge Course.
By JOSEPH WOLSTENHOLME, Fellow of Christ's College, some
time Fellow of St. John's College, and lately Lecturer in Mathe-
matics at Christ's College. Crown Svo. cloth. Ss. 6d.

CONTENTS : Geometry (Euclid) Algebra Plane. Trigonometry-
Geometrical Conic Sections Analytical Conic Sections Theory of
Equations Differential Calculus Integral Calculus Solid Geo-
metry Statics Elementary Dynamics Newton Dynamics of a
Point Dynamics of a Rigid Body Hydrostatics Geometrical
Optics Spherical Trigonometry and Plane Astronomy. In some
cases the author has prefixed to certain classes of problems frag-
mentary notes on the mathematical subjects to which they relate.
" Judicious, symmetrical, and well arranged."- Guardian..

PHYSICAL SCIENCE.
Airy (G. B.) POPULAR ASTRONOMY, with illustrations.

By G. B. AIRY, Astronomer Royal. Seventh and cheaper Edition.
i8mo. cloth. 45-. 6d.

This ^vork consists of Six Lectures, which are intended ' ' to explain
to intelligent persons the principles on which the instruments of an
Observatory are constructed (omitting all details, so far as they are
merely subsidiary), and the principles on which the observations
made with these instruments are treated for deduction of the distances
and weights of the bodies of the Solar System, and of a few stars,
omitting all minutice of fornmlte, and all troublesome details of
calculation." The speciality of this volume is the direct reference of
every step to the Observatory, and the full description of the methods
and instruments of observation.

Bastian (H. C. M.D., F.R.S.) THE MODES OF

ORIGIN OF LOWEST ORGANISMS : Including a Discussion
of the Experiments of M. Pasteur, and a reply to some Statements
by Professors Huxley and Tyndall. By H. CHARLTON BASTIAN,
M.D., F.R. S., Professor of Pathological Anatomy in University
College, London, etc. Crown Svo. ^s. 6d.

The present volume contains a fragment of the evidence which will be
embodied in a much larger work noiv almost completed relating to
the nature and origin of living matter, and in favour of what is
termed the Physical Doctrine of Life. ' ' It is a work worthy of the
highest respect, and places its author in the very first class of scientific
physicians. . . . It would be difficult to name an instance in which
skill, knotvledge, perseverance, and great reasoning power have been
more happily applied to the investigation of a complex biological
problem.' 1 ' 1 British Medical Journal.

li 2

20 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

Birks (R. B.) ON MATTER AND ETHER ; or, The Secret
Laws of Physical Change. By THOMAS RAWSON BIRKS, M.A.,
Rector of Kelshall, Herts, formerly Fellow of Trinity College,
Cambridge. Crown 8vo. $s. 6</.

The author believes that the hypothesis of the existence of, besides matter,
a luminous ether, of immense elastic force, supplies the tru^e and suf-
ficient key to the remaining secrets of inorganic matter, of the phe-
nomena of light, electricity, etc. In this treatise the author endea-
vours first to form a clear and definite conception with regard to the
real nature both of matter and ether, and the laivs of mutual action
which must be supposed to exist between them. He then endeavours
to trace out the main consequences of the fundamental hypothesis,
and their correspondence with the known phenomena of physical
change.

Blanford (W. T.) GEOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY OF
ABYSSINIA. By W. T. BLANFORD. Svo. 2U.

This work contains an account of the Geological and Zoological Obser-
vations made by the author in Abyssinia, when accompanying the
British Army on its march to Magdala and back in 1868, and
during a short journey in Northern Abyssinia, after the departure
of the troops. Part I. Personal Narrative; Part II. Geology ;
Part III. Zoology. With Coloured Illustrations and Geological
Map. "The result of his labours," the Academy says, "is an
important contribution to the natural history of the country "

Cooke (Josiah P., Jun.) FIRST PRINCIPLES OF

CHEMICAL PHILOSOPHY. By JOSIAH P. COOKE, Jun.,
Ervine Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy in Harvard College.
Crown Svo. 12s.

The object of the author in this book is to present the philosophy of
Chemistry in such a form that it can be made with profit the subject
of College recitations, and furnish the teacher with the means of
testing the student 's faithfulness and ability. W'i'li this view the
subject has been developed in a logical order, and the principles of
the science are taught independently of the experimental evidence on
which they rest.

PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 2t

Cooke (M. C.) HANDBOOK OF BRITISH FUNGI,
with full descriptions of all the Species, and Illustrations of the
Genera. By M. C. COOKE, M.A. Two vols. crown 8vo.

During tlie thirty-Jive years that have elapsed since the appearance of
the last -complete Mycologic Flora no attempt has been made to revise
it, to incorporate species since discovered, and to bring it up to the
standard of modern science. No apology, therefore, is necessary for
the pi-esent effort, since all -will admit that the want of such a
manual has long been felt, and this work makes its appearance
under the advantage that it seeks to occupy a place which has long
been vacant. No effort has been spewed to make tlie work worthy
of confidence, and, by Uie publication of an occasional supplement,
it is hoped to maintain it for many years as the "Handbook"
for every student of British Fungi. Appended is a complete alpha-
betical Index of all the divisions and subdivisions of the Fungi
noticed in the text. The book contains 400 figures '. " Will main-
fain its place as the standard English book, on the subject of which
it treats^ for many years to come.' 1 ' Standard.

Dawson (J. W.) ACADIAN GEOLOGY. The Geologic

Structure, Organic Remains, and Mineral Resources of Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. By JOHN
WILLIAM DAWSON, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., Principal and
Vice- Chancellor of M'Gill College and University, Montreal, &c.
Second Edition, revised and enlarged With a Geological Map
and numerous Illustrations. 8vo.

The object of the Jirst edition of this work was to place within the
reach of the people of the districts to which it relates, a popular
account of the more recent discoveries in the geology and mineral
rescnirces of their country, and at the same time to give to geologists
in other countries a connected vieiv of the structure of -a very in-
teresting portion of the American Continent, in its relation to
general and theoretical Geology. In the present edition, it is hoped this
design is still more completely fiilfillcd, with reference to the present
-more advanced condition of knowledge. TJie author has endea-
voured to convey a kncavledge of the structure and fossils of the
region in such a manner as to be intelligible to ordinary readers,
and has devoted much attention to all questions relating to the nature
and present or prospective value of deposits of tiscful minerals.

22 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

Besides a large coloured Geological Map of the district, the work
is illustrated by upwards of 260 cuts of sections, fossils, animals,
etc. " The book will doubtless find a place in the library, not only
of the scientific geologist, but also of all who are desirous of the in-
dustrial progress and commercial prosperity of the Acadian pro-
vinces." Mining Journal. "A style at once popular and scientific.
. . . A valuable addition to o ur store of geological knotvledge. "
Guardian.

Flower (W. H.) AN INTRODUCTION TO THE OSTE-
OLOGY OF THE MAMMALIA. Being the substance of the
Course of Lectures delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons
of England in 1870. By W. H. FLOWER, F.R.S., F.R.C.S.,
Hunterian Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology.
With numerous Illustrations. Globe Svo. js. 6d.

Although the present work contains the substance of a Course of Lecttires.
the form has been changed, so as the better to adapt it as a hand-
book for students. Theoretical views have been almost entirely ex-
cluded: and while it is impossible in a scientific treatise to avoid the
employment of technical terms, it has been the authors endeavour to
use no more than absolutely necessary, and to exercise due care in
selecting only those that seem most appropriate, or which have re-
ceived the sanction of general adoption. With a very few excep-
tions the illustrations have been drawn expressly for this work from
specimens in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons.

Galton. Works by FRANCIS GALTON, F.R.S. :-

METEOROGRAPHICA, or Methods of Mapping the Weather.
Illustrated by upwards of 600 Printed Lithographic Diagrams.
4to. 9.5-.

As Mr. Galton entertains strong vieivs on the necessity of Meteorolo-
gical Charts and Maps, he determined, as a practical proof of %vhat
could be done, to chart the entire area of Europe, so far as meteorological
stations extend, during one month, viz. the month of December, 1861.
Mr. Galton got his data fro >n authorities in every part of Britain
and the Continent, and on the basis of these lias here drawn up
nearly a hundred different Maps and Charts, showing the state of
the weather all over Europe during the above period. " If the
various Governments and scientific bodies would perform for the

PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 23

Gallon (F. ) continued.

whole -world for two or three years what, at a great cost and labour,
Mr. Galton has done for a part of Europe for one month, Meteoro-
logy would soon cease to be made a joke of." Spectator.

HEREDITARY GENIUS : An Inquiry into its Laws and Con-
sequences. Demy 8vo. 12s.

" 1 propose" the author says, "to show in this book that a maris
natural abilities are derived by inheritance, under exactly the same
limitations as are the form and physical features of the whole organic
world. I shall show that social agencies of an ordinary character,
whose influences are little suspected, are at this moment working
tcnvards the degradation of human nature, and that others are
working towards its improvement. The general plan of my argu-
ment is to show that high reputation is a pretty electorate test of high
ability ; next, to discttss the relationships of a large body of fairly
eminent men, and to obtain from these a general survey of the taws
of heredity in respect of genius. Then will follcau a short chapter,
by way of comparison, on the hereditary transmission of physical
gifts, as deduced from the relationships of certain classes of oarsmen
and wrestlers. Lastly, 1 shall collate my resiilts and draw conclu-
sions" The Times calls it "a most able and most interesting
book;" and^lv. Darwin, in his "Descent of Man" (vol. \. p. ill),
says, " We kno-,.i<, through the admirable labours of Mr. Galton,
that Genius tends to be inherited."

Geikie(A.) SCENERY OF SCOTLAND, Viewed in Connec-
tion with its Physical Geography. With Illustrations and a new
Geological Map. By ARCHIBALD GEIKIE, Professor of Geology
in the University of Edinburgh. Crown Svo. icv. dd.

" We can confidently recommend Mr. Geikie's work to those who wish-
to look below the surface and read the physical history of the Scenery
of Scotland by the light of modern science." Saturday Review.
"Amusing, picturesque, and instructive."- -Times.

Hooker (Dr.) THE STUDENT'S FLORA OF THE
BRITISH ISLANDS. By J. D. HOOKER, C.B., F.R.S.,
M.D., D.C.L., Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew. Globe Svo.
IOS. 6d.

24 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

The object of this work is to supply students and field-botanists with a

fuller account of the Plants of the British Islands than the manuals

hitherto in use aim at giving. The Ordinal, Generic, and Specific

characters have been re-written, and are to a great extent original,

and drawn from living or dried specimens , or both. " Cannot fail to

perfectly fulfil the purpose for which it is intended.' 1 '' Land and

Water. ' ' Containing the fullest and most accurate manual of the

kind that has yet appeared.' 1 ' 1 - Pall Mall Gazette.

Huxley (Professor). LAY SERMONS, ADDRESSES,
AND REVIEWS. By T. H. HUXLEY, LL.D., F.R.S. New

and Cheaper Edition. Crown Svo. 'js.

Fourteen Discourses on the following subjects: (i) On the Advisable-
ness of Improving Natural Knowledge: (2) Emancipation
Black and White: (3) A Liberal Education, and where to find
it: (4) Scientific Education : (5) On the Educational Value of
the Natural History Sciences: (6) On the Study of Zoology:
(7) On the Physical Basis of Life: (8) 77/6' Scientific Aspects of
Positivism: (9) On a Piece of Chalk: (10) Geological Contem-
poraneity and Persistent Types of Life : ( 1 1 ) Geological Reform :
(12) The Origin of Species : (13) Criticisms on the "Origin of
Species:" (14) On Descartes' " Discottrse touching the Method of
using One's Reason rightly and of seeking Scientific Truth." The
momentous influence exercised by Mr. Huxley's writings on physical,
mental, and social science is universally acknowledged ; his works
must be studied by all who would comprehend the various drifts of
modern thought.

ESSAYS SELECTED FROM LAY SERMONS, ADDRESSES,
AND REVIEWS. Crown Svo. \s.

This volume includes Numbers I, 3, 4, 7, 8, and 14, of the above.

LESSONS IN ELEMENTARY PHYSIOLOGY. With numerous
Illustrations. Fourteenth Thousand. iSmo. cloth, ^s. 6d.

This book describes and explains, in a series of graduated lessons, the
principles of Jin/nan Physiology, or the Structure and Functions
of the Human Body. The first lesson supplies a general view of
the subject. This is folloived by sections on the Vascular or Venous
System, and the Circulation ; the Blood and the Lymph ; Respira-

PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 25

tion : Sources of Loss and of Gain to the Blood ; the Function of
Alimentation ; Motion and Locomotion ; Sensations and Sensory
Organs ; the Organ of Sight ; the Coalescence of Sensations with
one. another and with other States of Consciousness ; the Nervous
System and Innervation ; Histology, or the Minute Structure of
the Tissues. A Table of Anatomical and Physiological Constants
is appended. The lessons are fully illustrated by numerous en
gravings. " Pure gold throughout " Guardian. " Unquestion-
ably the clearest and most complete elementary treatise on this subjeci
that we possess in any language."- -Westminster Review.

Kirchhoff (G.) RESEARCHES ON THE SOLAR SPEC-
TRUM, and the Spectra of the Chemical Elements. By. G.
KIRCHHOFF, Professor of Physics in the University of Heidelberg.
Second Part. Translated, with the Author's Sanction, from the
Transactions of the Berlin Academy for 1862, by HENRY R.
ROSCOE, B.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry in Owens
College, Manchester.

" It is to Kirchhoffwe are indebted for by far the best and most accurate
observations of these phenomena"- Edin. Review. " 71iis memoir
seems almost indispensable to every Spectrum observer" Philo-
sophical Magazine.

Lockyer (J. N.) ELEMENTARY LESSONS IN AS-
TRONOMY. With numerous Illustrations. By J. NORMAN
LOCKYER, F.R.S. Eighth Thousand. iSmo. $s.6d.

The author has here aimed to give a connected view of the whole subject,
and to supply facts, and ideas founded on the facts, to serve as a basis
for subsequent study and discussion. The chapters treat of the
Stars and Nebula ; the Sun; the Solar System ; Apparent Move-
ments of the Heavenly Bodies ; the Measurement of Time; Light;
the Telescope and Spectroscope; Apparent Places of the Heavenly
Bodies ; the Real Distances and Dimensions ; Universal Gravitation.

The most recent Astronomical Discoveries are incorporated. Mr.
Lockyer s work supplements that of the Astronomer Royal. ' ' The
book is full, clear, sound, and worthy of attention, not only as a
popular exposition, but as a scientific ' Index. ' - - Athenaeum.

"The most fascinating of elementary books on the Sciences"
Nonconformist.

26 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

Macmillan (Rev. Hugh). For other Works by the same
Author, see THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE.

HOLIDAYS ON HIGH LANDS ; or, Rambles and Incidents in
search of Alpine Plants. Crown 8vo. cloth. 6s.

The aim of this book is to impart a general idea of the origin, cha-
racter, and distribution of those rare and beautiful Alpine plants
which occur on the British hills, and which are found almost every-
where on the lofty mountain chains of Europe, Asia, Africa, and
America. In the first three chapters the peculiar vegetation of the
Highland mountains is fully described ; while in the remaining
chapters this vegetation is traced to its northern cradle in the moun-
tains of Not way, and to its southern European termination in the
Alps of Switzerland. The information the author has to give is
conveyed in a setting of personal adventure. ''"One of the most
charming books oj its kind ever written."- -Literary Churchman.
11 Mr. M.'s glowing pictures of Scandinavian scenery."- Saturday
Review.

FOOT-NOTES FROM THE PAGE OF NATURE. With

numerous Illustrations. Fcap. 8vo. $s.

" Those who have derived pleasure and profit from the study of flowers
and ferns subjects, it is pleasing to find, now everywhere popular
by descending lower into the arcana of the vegetable kingdom,
will find a still more interesting and delightful field of research in
the objects brought under reviei.u in the following pages.' 1 '' Preface.
" The naturalist and the botanist will delight in this volume, and
those who understand little of the scientific parts of the work will
linger over the mysterious page of nature here unfolded to their
view."- -John Bull.

Mansfield (C. B.) A THEORY OF SALTS. A Treatise

on the Constitution of Bipolar (two-membered) Chemical Com-
pounds. By the late CHARLES BLACHFORD MANSFIELD. Crown
8vo.

Mansfield" says the editor, "wrote this book to defend the prin-
ciple that the fact of voltaic decomposition afforded the true indi-
cation, if properly interpreted, of the nature of the saline structure,
and of the atomicity of the elements that built it up. No chemist
will peruse this book without feeling that he is in the presence of an

PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 27

original thinker, whose pages are continually suggestive, even
though their general argument may not be entirely concurrent in
direction with that of modern chemical thought.''''

Mivart (St. George). ON THE GENESIS OF SPECIES.
By ST. GEORGE MIVART, F.R.S. Crown Svo. Second Edition,
to which notes have been added in reference and reply to Darwin's
"Descent of Man." With numerous Illustrations, pp. xv. 296.

The aim of the author is to support the doctrine that the various
species have been evolved by ordinary natural laws (for the most
part unknown) controlled by the subordinate action of "natural
selection," and at the same time to remind some that there is and
can be absolutely nothing in physical science which forbids them to
regard those natural laws as acting with the Divine concurrence,,
and in obedience to a creative fiat originally imposed on the primeval
cosmos, "in the beginning," by its Creator, its Upholder, and its
Lord. Nearly fifty woodcuts illustrate the letter-press, and a com-
plete indtx makes all references extremely easy. Canon Kingsley,
in his address to the " Devonshire Association," says, " Let me re-
commend earnestly to you, as a specimen of whdt can be said on the
other side, the ' Genesis of Species,' by Mr. St. George Mivart,
F.R.S., a book which I am happy to say has been received elsewhere
as it has deserved, and, I trust, will be received so among you."
"In no work in the English language has this great controversy
been treated at once with the same broad and vigorous grasp
of facts, and the same liberal and candid temper."- Saturday
Review.

Nature. A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF
SCIENCE. Published every Thursday. Price 4^. Monthly
Parts, \s. qd. and is. Sd. ; Half-yearly Volumes, los. 6d. Cases for
binding vols. I s. 6d.

"Sacked by many of the best names among English philosophers, and
by a few equally valuable supporters in America and on the Conti-
nent of Europe. " Saturday Review. ' ' This able and well-edited
Journal, which posts tip the science of the day promptly, and
promises to be of signal service to students and savants."- -British.
Quarterly Review.

28 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

Oliver Works by DANIEL OLIVER, F.R.S., F.L.S., Professor of
Botany in University College, London, and Keeper of the Herba-
rium and Library of the Royal Gardens, Kew :

LESSONS IN ELEMENTARY BOTANY. With nearly Two
Hundred Illustrations. Twelfth Thousand. iSmo cloth. 4$-. 6</.

This book is designed to teach the elements of Botany on Professor
Ilenslow s plan of selected Types and by the use of Schedules. The
earlier chapters, embracing the elements of Structural and Physio-
logical Botany, introduce us to the methodical study of the Ordinal
Types. The concluding chapters are entitled, ' ' Ho w to Dry
Plants " and " How to Describe Plants. " A valuable Glossary is
appended to the volume. In the preparation of this work free use
has been made of the manuscript materials of the late Professor
Henslow.

FIRST BOOK OF INDIAN BOTANY. With numerous
Illustrations. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s. 6d.

This manual is, in siibstance, the authors ' ' Lessons in Elementary
Botany" adapted for iise in India. In preparing it he has had in
view the want, often felt, of some handy resume of Indian Botany,
which might be serviceable not only to residents of India, but also to
any one about to proceed thither, desirous of getting some pre-
liminary idea of the botany of the country. It contains a wel"-
digested summary of all essential knowledge pertaining to Indian
Botany, wrought out in accordance with the best principles of
scientific arrangement.' 1 '' Allen's Indian Mail.

Penrose (F. C.) ON A METHOD OF PREDICTING BY
GRAPHICAL CONSTRUCTION, OCCULTATIONS OF
STARS BY THE MOON, AND SOLAR ECLIPSES FOR
ANY GIVEN PLACE. Together with more rigorous methods
for the Accurate Calculation of Longitude. By F. C. PENROSE,
F.R.A.S. With Charts, Tables, etc. 410. I2J.

The author believes that if, by a graphic method, the prediction of
occultations can be rendered more inviting, as %vell as more expedi-
tious, t/ian by the method of calculation, it may prove acceptable to
the nautical profession as well as to scientific travellers or amateurs.
The author has endeavoured to make the whole process as intelli~
gible as possible, so that the beginner, instead of merely having to

PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 29

follow directions imperfectly understood, may readily comprehend
the meaning of each step, and be able to illustrate the practice by the
theory. Besides all necessary charts and tables, the work contains
a large number of skeleton forms for working out cases in

practice.

Roscoe. Works by HENRY E. ROSCOE, F.R.S., Professor of
Chemistry in Owens College, Manchester :

LESSONS IN ELEMENTARY CHEMISTRY, INORGANIC
AND ORGANIC. With numerous Illustrations and Chromo-
litho of the Solar Spectrum, and of the Alkalies and Alkaline
Earths. New Edition. Thirty-first Thousand. iSmo. cloth.
4J. 6d.

It has been the endeavour of the author to arrange the most important
facts and principles of Modern Chemistry in a plain but concise
and scientific form, suited to the present requirements of elementary
instruction. For the purpose of facilitating the attainment of
exactitude in the knowledge of the subject, a series of exercises and
questions upon the lessons have been added. The metric system of
weights and measures, and the centigrade thermometric scale, are
used throughout this work. The new edition, besides new wood-
cuts, contains many additions and improvements, and includes the
most important of the latest discoveries. " We unhesitatingly pro-
nounce it the best of all our elementary treatises on Chemistry '."-
Medical Times.

SPECTRUM ANALYSIS. Six Lectures, with Appendices, En-
gravings, Maps, and Chromolithographs. Royal 8vo. 2is.

A Second Edition of these popular Lectures, containing all the most
recent discoveries and sez<eral additional illustrations. "In six-
lectures he has given the history of the discovery and set forth the
facts relating to the analysis of light in mch a way that any reader
of cn'dinary intelligence and information will be able to understand
what ' Spectrum Analysis' is, and what are its claims to rank
among the most signal triumphs of science."- Nonconformist.
' ' The lectures themselves furnish a most admirable elementary
treatise on the subject, whilst by the insertion in appendices to each
lecture of extracts from the most important published memoirs, the
author has rendered it equally valuable as a text-book for advanced
students." Westminster Review.

30 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

Stewart (B.) LESSONS IN ELEMENTARY PHYSICS.
By BALFOUR STEWART, F.R.S., Professor of Natural Philosophy
in Owens College, Manchester. With numerous Illustrations and
Chromolithos of the Spectra of the Sun, Stars, and Nebulas. Second
Edition. i8mo. ^s. 6d.

A description, in an elementary manner, of the most important of
those laws which regulate the phenomena of nature. The active
agents, heat ^ light, electricity, etc., are regarded as varieties of
energy, and the work is so arranged that their relation to one
another, looked at in this light, and the paramount importance of
the laws of energy, are clearly brought out. The volume contains
all the necessary illustrations. The Educational Times calls this
11 the beau-ideal of a scientific text-book, clear, accurate, and
thorough."

Thudichum and Dupre. A TREATISE ON THE
ORIGIN, NATURE, AND VARIETIES OF WINE.
Being a Complete Manual of Viticulture and CEnology. By. J. L.
W. THUDICHUM, M.D., and AUGUST DUPR, Ph.D., Lecturer
on Chemistry at Westminster Hospital. Medium 8vo. cloth
gilt. 25-r.

In this elaborate work the subject of the manufacture of wine is
treated scientifically in minute detail, from every point of view. A
chapter is devoted to the Origin and Physiology of Vines, two to the
Principles of Viticulture; ^vhile other chapters treat of Vintage and
Vinification, the Chemistry of Alcohol, the Acids, Ether, Sugars,
and other matters occurring in wine. This introductory matter
occupies the first nine chapters, the remaining seventeen chapters
being occupied with a detailed account of the Viticulture and the
Wines of the various countries of Europe, of the Atlantic Islands,
of Asia, of Africa, of America, and of Australia. Besides a
number of Analytical and Statistical Tables, the work is enriched
with eighty -jive illustrative woodcuts. ' ''A treatise almost ^mique
for its usefulness either to the wine-groover, the vendor, or the con-
sumer of wine. The analyses of wine are the most complete we
have yet seen, exhibiting at a glance the constituent principles of
nearly all the wines known in this country."- -Wine Trade Review.

Wallace (A. R.) CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE THEORY

OF NATURAL SELECTION. A Series of Essays. By

PHYSICAL SCIENCE, 31

ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE, Author of " The Malay Archipelago,"
etc. Second Edition, with Corrections and Additions. Crown
8vo. %s.6d. (For other Works by the same Author, see CATA-
LOGUE OF HISTORY AND TRAVELS.)

Mr. Wallace has good claims to be considered as an independent
originator of the theory of natural selection. Dr. Hooker, in
his address to the British Association, spoke thus of the author :
"Of Mr. Wallace and his many contributions to philosophical
biology it is not easy to speak 'without enthusiasm ; for, putting
aside their great merits, he, throughout his writings, with a
modesty as rare as I believe it to be unconscious, forgets his cnvn
unquestioned claim to the honour of having originated, indepen-
dently of Mr. Darwin, the theories which he so ably defends"
The Saturday Review says : "He has combined an abtmdance of
fresh and original facts -with a liveliness and sagacity of reasoning
which are not often displayed so effectively on so small a scale."
The Essays in this volume are : /. ' ' On the Law which has regu-
lated the introduction of New Species" II. "On the Tendencies of
Varieties to depart indefinitely from the Original Type" III. "Mi-
micry, and other Protective Resemblances among Animals." IV.
" The Malayan Papilionidce, as illustrative of the Theory of
Natural Selection." V. "On Instinct in Man and Animals."
VI. "The Philosophy of Birds' Nests." VII. "A Theory of
Birds' Nests." VIII. " Creation by Law." IX. " The Develop-
ment of Htnnan Races under the Law of Natural Selection."
X. " The Limits of Natural Selection as applied to Man."

Warington. THE WEEK OF CREATION; OR, THE
COSMOGONY OF GENESIS CONSIDERED IN ITS
RELATION TO MODERN SCIENCE. By GEORGE WAR-
INGTON, Author of "The Historic Character of the Pentateuch
Vindicated." Crown Svo. ^s. 6d.

The greater part of this work it taken tip with the teaching of the
Cosmogony. Its purpose is also investigated, and a chapter is
devoted to the consideration of the passage in which the difficulties
occur. "A very able vindication of the Mosaic Cosmogony, by a
writer who imites the advantages of a critical knowledge of the
Hebreiv text and of distinguished scientific attainments."-
Spectator.

3 2 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

Wilson. Works by the late GEORGE WILSON, M.D., F.R.S.E.,
Regius Professor of Technology in the University of Edinburgh :

RELIGIO CHEMICI. With a Vignette beautifully engraved after
a design by Sir NOEL PATON. Crown Svo. 8s. 6d.

1 ' George Wilson" says the Preface to this volume, ' 'had it in his heart
for many years to write a book corresponding to the Religio Medici
of Sir Thomas Browne, with the title Religio Chemici. Several
of the Essays in this volume were intended to form chapters of it.
These fragments being in most cases like finished gems waiting to be
set, some of them are now given in a collected form to his friends
and the public. In living remembrance of his purpose, the name
chosen by himself has been adopted, although the original design
can be but very faintly represented" The Contents of the volume
are: " Chemistry and Natural Theology." " The Chemistry of
the Stars; an Argument touching the Stars and their Inhabitants. "
" Chemical Final Causes; as illustrated by the presence of Phos-
phorus, Nitrogen, and Iron in the Higher Sentient Organisms."
1 ' Robert Boyle. " " Wollaston ." ' 'Life a nd Discoveries of Dalton . ' '
" Thoughts on the Resurrection; an Address to Medical Students."
"A more fascinating volume" the Spectator says, "has seldom
fallen into our hands." The Freeman says: "These papers arc all
valuable and deeply interesting. The production of a profound
thinker, a suggestive and eloquent writer, and a man whose piety
and genius went hand in hand."

THE PROGRESS OF THE TELEGRAPH. Fcap. Svo. is.

" While a complete view of the progress of the greatest of human
inventions is obtained, all its suggestions are brought out with a
rare thoughtf illness, a genial humour ; and an exceeding beaiity of
utterance"- Nonconformist.

Win slow. FORCE AND NATURE : ATTRACTION AND
REPULSION. The Radical Principles of Energy graphically
discussed in their Relations to Physical and Morphological De-
velopment. By C. F. WINSLOW, M.D. Svo.

The author having for long investigated Nature in many directions,
has ever felt unsatisfied with the physical foundations upon which
some branches of science have been so long compelled to rest. The
question, he believes, must have occurred to many astronomers and

PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC. 33

physicists "whether some subtle principle antagonistic to attraction
does not also exist as an all-pervading element in nature, and so
operate as in some way to disturb the action of what is generally
considered by the scientific world a unique force. The aim of the
present work is to set forth this subject in its broadest aspects, and
in such a manner as to invite thereto the attention of the learned.
The subjects of the eleven chapters are : /. ' 'Space. " //. ' ' Matter. "
///. " Inertia, Force, and Mind: 1 IV. "Molecules." V.
" Molecular Force." VI. "Union and Inseparability of Matter
and Force." VII. and VIII. "Nature and Action of Force-
Attraction Repulsion." IX. " Cos mical Repulsion. X. "Me-
chanical Force." XI. "Central Forces and Celestial Physics."
" 'Deserves thoughtful and conscientiotts study." Saturday Review.

Wurtz. A HISTORY OF CHEMICAL THEORY, from the
Age of Lavoisier down to the present time. By AD. WURTZ.
Translated by HENRY WATTS, F.R.S. Crown 8vo. 6.r.

" The discourse, as a resume of chemical theory and research, unitts
singular luminousness and grasp. A fei.u judicious notes are added
by the translator" Pall Mall Gazette. " The treatment of the
subject is admirable, and the translator has evidently done his duty
most efficiently." Westminster Review.

WORKS IN PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, AND
MEDICAL WORKS GENERALLY.

Alibutt (T. C.) ON THE USE OF THE OPHTHALMO-
SCOPE in Diseases of the Nervous System and of the Kidneys ;
also in certain other General Disorders. By THOMAS CLIFFORD
ALLBUTT, M.A., M.D. Cantab., Physician to the Leeds General
Infirmary, Lecturer on Practical Medicine, etc. etc. 8vo.

The Ophthalmoscope has been found of the highest value in the inves-
tigation of nervous diseases. But it is not easy for physicians ivho
have left the schools, and are engaged in practice, to take up a new

C

34 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

instrument which requires much skill in using ; it is therefore
hoped that by such the present volume, containing the results of the
authors extensive use of the instrument in diseases of the nervous
system, will be found of high value ; and that to all students it may
prove a useful hand-book. After four introductory chapters on the
history and value of the Ophthalmoscope, and the manner of investi-
gating the states of the optic nerve and retina, the author treats of
the various diseases with which optic changes are associated, and
describes the way in which such associations take place. Besides
the cases, referred to throughout the volume, the Appendix con-
tains details 0/12$ cases illustrative of the subjects discussed in the
text, and a series of tabulated cases to show the Ophthalmoscopic
appearances of the eye in Insanity, Mania, Dementia, Melancholia
and Monomania, Idiotcy, and General Paralysis. The volu?ne is
illustrated with two valuable coloured plates of morbid appearances
of the eye iinder the Ophthalmoscope. "By its aid men will no
longer be compelled to work for years in the dark ; they will have a
dejiniie standpoint whence to proceed on their course of investigation."
Medical Times.

Anstie (F. E.) NEURALGIA, AND DISEASES WHICH
RESEMBLE IT. By FRANCIS E. ANSTIE, M.D., M.R.C.P.,
Senior Assistant Physician to Westminster Hospital. 8vo. los. Cvl.

Dr. Anstie is well known as one of the greatest living authorities on
Neuralgia. The present treatise is the result of many years 1 careful
independent scientific investigation into the nature and proper treat-
ment of this most painful disease. The aiithor has had abundant
means of studying the subject both in his own person and in the
hundreds of patients that have resorted to him for treatment. He
has gone into the whole subject indicated in the title ab initio, and
the publishers believe it ^vill be found that he has presented it in an
entirely original light, and done imich to rob this excruciating and
hitherto refractory disease of many of its terrors. The Introduction
treats briefly of Pain in General, and contains some striking and
even original ideas as to its nature and in reference to sensation
generally.

Harwell. THE CAUSES AND TREATMENT OF LATERAL

CURVATURE OF THE SPINE. Enlarged from Lectures
published in the Lancet. By RICHARD BARWELL, F.R.C.S.,

PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC. 35

Surgeon to and Lecturer on Anatomy at the Charing Cross Hospital.
Second Edition. Crown Svo. 4,5-. 6d.

Having failed to find in books a satisfactory theory of those conditions
which produce lateral cumatitre, Mr. Harwell resolved to investi-
gate the subject for himself ab initio. The present work is the
result of long and patient study of Spines, normal and abnormal.
He believes the vievus which he has been led to form account for those
essential characteristics vuhich have hitherto been left unexplained ;
and the treatment which he advocates is certainly less irksome, and
will be found more efficacious than that which has hitherto been
pursued. Indeed, the mode in vu/iich the first edition has been
received by the profession is a gratifying sign that Mr. Barvoelfs
principles Jiave made their value and their weight felt. Many
pages and a number of woodcuts have been added to the Second
Edition.

Corfield (Professor W. H.) A DIGEST OF FACTS
RELATING TO THE TREATMENT AND UTILIZATION
OF SEWAGE. ByW. H. CORFIELD, M.A., B.A., Professor
of Hygiene and Public Health at University College, London.
&vo. loj 1 . 6d. Second Edition, corrected and enlarged.

The author in the Second Edition has revised and corrected the entire
work, and made many important additions. The headings of the
eleven chapters are as follow: /. "Early Systems: Midden- Heaps
and Cesspools.'''' II. "Filth and Disease Cause and Effect"
III. "Improved Midden-Pits and Cesspools; Midden- Closets, Pail-
Closets, etc." IV. "The Dry- Closet Systems. V. "Hater- Closets."
VI. "Sewerage." VII. "Sanitary Aspects of the Water- Carrying
System." VIII. "Value of Sewage; Injury to Rivers." IX.
"Town Sewage; Attempts at Utilization." X. "Filtration and
Irrigation" XI. "Influence of Sewage Farming on the Public
Health." An abridged account of the more recently published
researches on the subject will be found in the Appendices, while
the Summary contains a concise statement of the views wJuch the
author himself has been led to adopt: references have been inserted
throughout to show from what sources the numerous quotations have
been derived, and an Index has been added. "Mr. Corfield 's work
is entitled to rank as a standard authority, no less than a con-
venient handbook, in all matters relating to sewage" Athenaeum.

c 2

36 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

Elam (C.) A PHYSICIAN'S PROBLEMS. By CHARLES
ELAM, M.D., M.R.C.P. Crown 8vo. 9^.

CONTENTS : " Natural Heritage." " On Degeneration in Man."
' On Moral and Criminal Epidemics." ' 'Body v. Mind. " "Il-
lusions and Hallucinations." " On Somnambulism. "Reverie
and Abstraction." These Essays are intended as a contribution to
the Natural History of those outlying regions of Thought and
Action whose domain is the debateable ground of Brain, Nerve,
and Mind. They are designed also to indicate the origin and mode
of perpetuation of those varieties of organization, intelligence, and
general tendencies towards vice or virtue, which seem to be so
capriciously developed among mankind. They also point to causes
for the infinitely varied forms of disorder of nerve and brain
organic and functional far deeper and more recondite than those
generally believed in. " The book is one which all statesmen,
magistrates, clergymen, medical men, and parents should study and
inwardly digest."- Examiner.

?OX. Works by WILSON Fox, M.D. Lond., F.R.C.P., Holme
Professor of Clinical Medicine, University College, London,
Physician Extraordinary to her Majesty the Queen, etc. :

ON THE DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF THE
VARIETIES OF DYSPEPSIA, CONSIDERED IN RELA-
TION TO THE PATHOLOGICAL ORIGIN OF THE
DIFFERENT FORMS OF INDIGESTION. Second Edition.
8vo. 7-r. 6d.

ON THE ARTIFICIAL PRODUCTION OF TUBERCLE IN
THE LOW r ER ANIMALS, With Coloured Plates. 410. $s. 6d.

In this Lecture Dr. Fox describes in minute detail a large number of
experiments made by him on guinea-pigs and rabbits for the pur-
pose of inquiring into the origin of Tubercle by the agency of direct
irritation or by septic matters. This method of inquiry he believes
to be one of the most important advances which have been recently
made in the pathology of the disease. The work is illustrated by
Hi ree plates, each containing a number of carefully coloured illus-
trations from nature.

ON THE TREATMENT OF HYPERPYREXIA, as Illustrated
in Acute Articular Rheumatism by means of the External Applica-
tion of Cold. Svo. 2s. 6d.

PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC. 37

77*4* object of this work is to show that the class of cases included tinder
the title, and which have hitherto been invariably fatal, may, by
a judicious ttse of the cold bath and without venesection, be brought
to a favourable termination. Minute details are given of the
successful treatment by this method of two patients by the author,
follcnued by a Commentary on the cases, in which the merits of the
mode of treatment are discussed and compared with those of methods
follozved by other eminent practitioners. Appended are tables of the
observations made on the temperature during the treatment ; a table
shelving the effect of the immersion of the patients in the baths em-
ployed, in order to exhibit the rate at which the temperature was
lowered in each case; a table of the chief details of twenty-hvo
cases of this class recently published, and ivhich are referred to in
various parts of the Commentary. Two Charts are also introduced,
giving a connected -view of the progress of the two successful cases,
and a series of sphygmographic tracings of the pulses of the two
patients. ' ' A clinical study of rare value. Should be read by
every one" Medical Press and Circular.

Galton (D.) AN ADDRESS ON THE GENERAL PRIN-
CIPLES WHICH SHOULD BE OBSERVED IN THE
CONSTRUCTION OF HOSPITALS. Delivered to the British
Medical Association at Leeds, July 1869. By DOUGLAS GALTON,
C.B., F.R.S. Crown Svo. 3^.6^.

In this Address the author endeavours to enunciate what are those
principles which seem to him to form the starting-point from which
all architects should proceed in the construction of hospitals. Be-
sides Air. Galton 's paper the book contains the opinions expressed in
the subsequent discussion by several eminent medical men, such as
Dr. Kennedy, Sir James Y. Simpson, Dr. Hughes Bennet, and
others. The work is illustrated by a number of plans, sections, and
other cuts. "An admirable exposition of those conditions of struc-
ture which most conduce to cleanliness, economy, and convenience."
-Times.

Harley (J.) THE OLD VEGETABLE NEUROTICS, Hem-
lock, Opium, Belladonna, and Henbane ; their Physiological
Action and Therapeutical Use, alone and in combination. Being
the Gulstonian Lectures of 1868 extended, and including a Complete
Examination of the Active Constituents of Opium. By JOHN
HARLEY, M.D. Lond., F.R.C.P., F.L.S., etc. Svo. i2s.

38 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

The authors object throughout the investigations and experiments on
which this volume is founded has been to ascertain, clearly and
definitely, the action of the .drugs employed on the healthy body in
medicinal doses, from the smallest to the largest ; to deduce simple
practical concisions from the facts observed ; and then to apply the
drug to the relief of the particular conditions to 'which its action
appeared suited. Many experiments have been made by the author
both on men and the loiuer animals ; and the author's endeavour
has been to present to the mind, as far as -words may do, impres-
sions of the actual condition of the individual subjected to the
drug. " Those who are interested generally in the progress of
medical science will find much to repay a careful perusal"
Athenaeum.

Hood (Wharton). ON BONE-SETTING (so called), and
its Relation to the Treatment of Joints Crippled by Injury, Rheu-
matism, Inflammation, etc. etc. By WHARTON P. HOOD,
M.D., M.R.C.S. Crown 8vo. 4*. 6d.

The author for a period attended the London practice of the late Mr.
Hiitton, the famous and successful bone-setter, by whom he was
initiated into the mystery of the art and practice. Thus the atithor
is amply qualified to write on the subject from the practical point of
vinv, while his professional education enables him to consider it in
its scientific and surgical bearings. In the present -work he gives a
brief account of the salient features of a bone-setter's method of pro-
cedure in the treatment of damaged joints, of the results of that treat-
ment, and of the class of cases in which he has seen it prove successful.
The author's aim is to give the rationale of the bone-setter 's practice,
to reduce it to something like a scientific method, to show when force
should be resorted to and when it shotild not, and to initiate
surgeons into the secret of Mr. Huttorfs successful manipulation.
Throughout the work a great number of- authentic instances of
successful treatment are given, with the details of the method of
cure ; and the Chapters on Manipulations and Affections of the
Spine are illustrated by a number of appropriate and well-executed
cuts. " Dr. Hood" 1 s book is full of instruction, and should be read
by all surgeons.'''' Medical Times.

Humphry. THE HUMAN SKELETON (including the joints).
By G. M. HUMPHRY, M.D., F.R.S. With 260 ^Illustrations,
drawn from nature. Medium Svo. 2&s.

PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC. 39

In lecturing on the Skeleton it has been the authors practice, instead
of giving a detailed account of the sez>era! parts, to request his
students to get up the descriptive anatomy of certain bones, with the
aid of some work on osteology. He afterwards tested their acquire-
ments by examination, endeavouring to supply deficiencies and
correct errors, adding also such information physical, physiologi-
cal, pathological, and practical as he had gathered from his own
observation and researches, and which was likely to be useful and
excite an interest in the subject. This additional information
Jorms, in great part, the material of this volume, which is intended
to be supplementary to existing works on anatomy. Considerable
space has been dez>oted to the description of the joints, because it is
less fully given in other works, and because an accurate knowledge
of the structure and peculiar form of the joints is essential to a
correct knowledge of their movements. The numerous illustrations
were all drawn upon stone from nature ; and in most instances,
from specimens prepared for the purpose by the author himself.
"Bearing at once the stamp of the accomplished scholar, and
evidences of the skilful anatomist. We express our admiration of
the drawings"- Medical Times and Gazette.

Huxley's Physiology. See p. 24, preceding.

Journal of Anatomy and Physiology.

Conducted by Professors HUMPHRY and NEWTON, and Mr. CLARK
of Cambridge, Professor TURNER of Edinburgh, and Dr.
WRIGHT of Dublin. Published twice a year. Old Series, Parts
I. and II., price js. 6<t. each. Vol. I. containing Parts I. and II.,
Royal 8vo., i6j. New Series, Parts I. to IX. 6s. each, or yearly
Vols. I2s. 6d. each.

Lankester. COMPARATIVE LONGEVITY IN MAN AND
THE LOWER ANIMALS. By E. RAY LANKESTER, B.A.
Crown 8vo. 43. 6d.

This Essay gained the prize offered by the University of Oxford for
the best Paper on the subject of which it treats. This interesting
subject is here treated in a thorough manner, both scientifically and
statistically.

Maclaren. TRAINING, IN THEORY AND PRACTICE.
By ARCHIBALD MACLAREN, the Gymnasium, Oxford. 8vo.
Handsomely bound in cloth, "js. 6d.

40 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

The ordinary agents of health are Exercise, Diet, Sleep, Air, Bath-
ing, and Clothing. In this work the author examines each of
these agents in detail, and from two different points of view. First,
as to the manner in which it is, or should be, administered under
ordinary circumstances : and secondly, in what manner and to
what extent this mode of administration is, or should be, altered for
purposes of training ; the object of " training," according to the
author, being " to put the body, with extreme and exceptional care,
under the influence of all the agents which promote its health and
strength, in order to enable it to meet extreme and exceptional de-
mands upon its energies." Appended are various diagrams and
tables relating to boat-racing, and tables connected with diet and
training. " The philosophy of human health has seldom received
so apt an exposition.'''' Globe. "After all the nonsense that Las
been written about training, it is a comfort to get hold of a
thoroughly sensible book at last."- -John BulL

Macpherson. Works by JOHN MACTHERSON, M.D. :-

THE BATHS AND WELLS OF EUROPE ; Their Aciion and
Uses. With Hints on Change of Air and Diet Cures. With a
Map. Extra fcap. Svo. 6s. 6</.

This work is intended to supply information which ivill aftard aid in
the selection of such Spas as are suited for particular cases. It
exhibits a sketch of the present condition of our knaivledge on the
subject of the operation of mineral waters, gathered from the
author's personal observation, and from every other available
source of information. It is divided into four books, and each
book into several chapters : Book I. Elements of Treatment, in
which, among other matters, the external and internal uses of water
are treated of. II. Bathing, treating of the various kinds of baths.

III. Wells, treating of the varioits kinds of mineral waters.

IV. Diet Cures, in which various vegetable, milk, and other
" cures " are discussed. Appended is an Index of Diseases noticed,
and one of places named. Prefixed is a sketch map of the principal
baths and places of health-resort in Europe. "Dr. Macpherson
has given the kind of information which every medical practitioner
ought to possess." -The Lancet. "Whoever wants to know the
real character of any health-resort must read Dr. Macpherson' s
book." Medical Times.

PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC. 41

MacpherSOn (].) continued.

OUR BATHS AND WELLS : The Mineral Waters of the British
Islands, with a List of Sea-bathing Places. Extra fcap. Svo.
pp. xv. 205. 3 s - 6d.

Dr. Macpherson has divided his work into five parts. He begins by
a few introductory observations on bath life, its circumstances, uses,
and pleasures ; he then explains in detail the composition of the
various mineral waters, and points out the special curative pro-
perties of each class. A chapter on ' ' The History of British
Wells " from the earliest period to the present time forms the
natiiral transition to the second part of this volume, which treats of
the different kinds of mineral waters in England, whether pure,
thermal and earthy, saline, chalybeate, or sulphur. Wales, Scot-
land, and Ireland supply the materials for distinct sections. An
Index of mineral waters, one of sea-bathing places, and a third of
wells of pure or nearly pure water, terminate the book. ' ' This little
volume farms a very available handbook for a large class of
invalids.' 1 '' Nonconformist.

Maudsley. Works by HENRY MAUDSLEY, M.D., Professor of
Medical Jurisprudence in University College, London :

BODY AND MIND : An Inquiry into their Connection and
Mutual Influence, specially in reference to Mental Disorders ; being
the Gulstonian Lectures for 1870. Delivered before the Royal
College of Physicians. Crown Svo. $s.

77/6' volume consists of three Lectures and two long Appendices, the
general plan of the whole being to bring j\Ian, both in his physical
and mental relations, as much as possible under the scope of scientific
inquiry. The first Lecture is devoted to an exposition of the physical
conditions of mental function in health. In the second Lecture are
sketched the features of some forms of degeneracy of mind, as exhibited
in morbid varieties of the human kind, with the purpose of bringing
prominently into notice the operation of physical causes from
generation to generation, and the relationship of mental to other
diseases of the nervous system. In the third Lecture are displayed
the relations of morbid states of the body and disordered mental
function. Appendix I. is a criticism of the Archbishop of York's
address on " The Limits of Philosophical Inquiry." Appendix II.
deals with the "Theory of Vitality,' 1 '' in which the author en-

42 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

Maudsley (H.) continued.

deavours to set forth the reflections which facts seem to warrant.
11 It distinctly marks a step in the progress of scientific psychology."
The Practitioner.

THE PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OF MIND.
Second Edition, Revised. Svo. i6j-.

This work is the result of an endeavour on the aiithor's part to arrvve
at some definite conviction with regard to the physical conditions of
mental function, and the relation of the phenomena of sound and
unsound mind. The author's aim throughout has been twofold :
I. To treat of mental phenomena from a physiological rather than
from a metaphysical point of view. II. To bring the manifold
instructive instances presented by the ^^nsound mind to bear upon
the interpretation of the obscure problems of mental science. In the
first part, the author pursues his independent inquiry into the
science of Mind in the same direction as that followed by Bain,
Spencer, Laycock, and Carpenter ; and in the second, he studies
the subject in a light which, in this country at least, is almost
entirely novel. "Dr. MaudsleyPs work, which has already become
standard, we most urgently recommend to the careful study of
all those who are interested in the physiology and pathology of the
brain."- Anthropological Review.

Practitioner (The). A Monthly Journal of Therapeutics.
Edited by FRANCIS E. ANSTIE, M. D. Svo. Price is. 6d.
Vols. I to VII. Svo. cloth, los. 6d. each.

4

Radcliffe. DYNAMICS OF NERVE AND MUSCLE. By
CHARLES BLAND RADCLIFFE, M.D., F.R.C.P., Physician to the
Westminster Hospital, and to the National Hospital for the
Paralysed and Epileptic. Crown Svo. Ss. 6d.

This work contains the result of the author's long investigations into the
Dynamics of Nerve and Muscle, as connected with Anijnal Electricity .
The author endeavours to show from these researches that the state
of action in nerve and muscle, instead of being a manifestation of
vitality, must be brought under the domain of physical law in order
to be intelligible, and that a different meaning, also based upon pure
physics, must be attached to the state of rest. ' ' The practitioner

PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC. 43

will find in Dr. Raddiffc a 'guide, philosopher, and friend,' from
"whose teaching he cannot fail to reap a plentiful harvest of new and
valuable ideas." Scotsman.

Reynolds. A SYSTEM OF MEDICINE. Vol. I. Edited
by J. RUSSELL REYNOLDS, M.D., F.R..C.P. London. Second
Edition. Svo. 2$s.

Part I. General Diseases, or Affections of the Whole System.
/. Those determined by agents operating from -without, such as
the exanthemata, malarial diseases, and their allies. //. Those
determined by conditions existing within the body, such as Gout,
Rheumatism, Rickets, etc. Part II. Local Diseases, or Affections
of particular Systems. /. Diseases of the Skin.

A SYSTEM OF MEDICINE. Vol. II. Second Edition in the
Press. Svo. 25^.

Part II. Local Diseases (continued). /. Diseases of the Nervous
System. A. General Nervous Diseases. B. Partial Diseases of
the Nervous System. I. Diseases of the Head. 2. Diseases of the
Spinal Cohimn. 3. Diseases of the Nerves. //. Diseases of
the Digestive System. A. Diseases of the Stomach.

A SYSTEM OF MEDICINE. Vol. III. Svo. 25^.

Part II. Local Diseases (continued). //. Diseases of the Digestive
System (continued). B. Diseases of the Mouth. C. Diseases of
the Fauces, Pharynx, and (Esophagus. D. Diseases of the In-
testines. E. Diseases of the Peritoneum. F. Diseases of the
Liver. G. Diseases of the Pancreas. ///. Diseases of the
Respiratory System. A. Diseases of the Larynx. B. Diseases of
the Thoracic Organs. " One of the best and most comprehensive
treatises on Medicine -which have yet been attempted in any country."
Indian Medical Journal. "Contains some of the best essays
that have lately appeared, and is a complete library in itself."-
Medical Press.

Seaton. A HANDBOOK OF VACCINATION. By EDWARD

C. SEATON, M.D., Medical Inspector to the Privy Council. Extra
fcap. Svo. 8.T. 6d.

The author's object in putting forth this work is twofold : First, to
provide a text-book on the science and practice of Vaccination for

44 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

the use of younger practitioners and of medical students ; secondly,
to give ^vJlat assistance he could to those engaged in the administra-
tion of the system of Public Vaccination established in England.
For many years past, from the nature of his office, Dr. Seaton has
had constant intercourse in reference to the subject of Vaccination,
with medical men who are interested w it, and especially with that
large part of the profession who are engaged as Public Vacci-
nators. All the varieties of pocks, both in men and the lower
animals, are treated of in detail, and much valuable information
given on all points connected with lymph, and minute instructions
as to the niceties and cautions which so greatly influence success
in Vaccination. The administrative sections of the work will be
of interest and value, not only to medical practitioners, but to
many others to whom a right understanding of the principles on
which a system of Public Vaccination should be based is indis-
pensable. "Henceforth the indispensable handbook of Public Vacci-
nation, and the standard authority on this great subject." British
Medical Journal.

Symonds (J. A., M.D.) MISCELLANIES. By JOHN
ADDINGTON SYMONDS, M.D. Selected and Edited, with an
Introductory Memoir, by his Son. 8vo. *]s. >d.

The late Dr. Symonds of Bristol 'was a man of a singularly versatile
and elegant as well as powerful and scientific intellect. In order
to make this selection from his many works generally interesting,
the editor Jias confined himself to works of pure literature, and to
such scientific studies as had a general philosophical or social
interest. Among thegenei'al subjects are articles on "the Principles
of Beauty,'" on " Knoivledge," and a "Life of Dr. Prichard ;"
among the Scientific Studies are papers on " Sleep and Dreams,"
"Apparitions" "the Relations between Mind and Muscle"
"Habit," etc.; there are several papers on "the Social and
Political Aspects of Medicine ; " and a few Poems and Transla-
tions selected from a great number of equal merit. "A collection of
graceful essays on general and scientific subjects, by a very accom-
plished physician."- Graphic.

WORKS ON MENTAL AND MORAL
PHILOSOPHY, AND ALLIED SUBJECTS.

Aristotle. AN INTRODUCTION TO ARISTOTLE'S
RHETORIC. With Analysis, Notes, and Appendices. By E.
M. COPE, Trinity College, Cambridge, 8vo.

This work is introductory to an edition of the Greek Text of 'Aristotle 's
Rhetoric, which is in course of preparation. Its object is to render
that treatise thoroughly intelligible. The author has aimed to
illustrate, as preparatory to the detailed explanation of the work, the
general bearings and relations of the Art of Rhetoric in itself, as
well as the special mode of treating it adopted by Aristotle in his
peculiar system. The evidence upon obscure or doubtful questions
connected with the subject is examined ; and the relations which
Rhetoric bears, in Aristotle' 1 s view, to the kindred art of Logic are
fully considered. A connected Analysis of the work is given, and
a few important matters are separately discussed in Appendices.
There is added, as a general Appendix, by zvay of specimen of the
antagonistic system of Isocrates and others, a complete analysis of
the treatise called 'Pr/Topj;^ ^P^ 5 'AXe^avSpov, with a discussion of
its authorship and of the probable results of its teaching.

ARISTOTLE ON FALLACIES ; OR, THE SOPHISTICI
ELENCHI. With a Translation and Notes by EDWARD POSTE,
M.A., Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. 8vo. 8^. 6d.

Besides the doctrine of Fallacies, Aristotle offers, either in this treatise
or in other passages quoted in the Commentary, various glances
over the world of science and opinion, various suggestions or pro-
blems which are still agitated, and a vivid picture of the ancient
system of dialectics, which it is hoped may be found both interesting

46 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

and instructive. ll It will be an assistance to genuine students of
Aristotle."- Guardian. "It is indeed a work of great skill.''''
Saturday Review.

Butler (W. A.), Late Professor of Moral Philosophy in the
University of Dublin :

LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT PHILO-
SOPHY. Edited from the Author's MSS., with Notes, by
WILLIAM HEPWORTH THOMPSON, M.A., Master of Trinity
College, and Regius Professor of Greek in the University of
Cambridge. Two Volumes. 8vo. I/. $s.

These Lectures consist of an Introductory Series on the Science of Mind
generally, and jive other Series on Ancient Philosophy, the greater
part of which treat of Plato and the Platonists, the Fifth Series
being an unfinished course on the Psychology of Aristotle, contain-
ing an able Analysis of the well known though by no means well
understood Treatise, Trepl ^vx^s. These Lectures are the result of
patient and conscientious examination of the original documents,
and may be considered as a perfectly independent contribution to our
knowledge of the great master of Grecian %aisdom. The author's
intimate familiarity with the metaphysical %oritings of the last
century, and especially with the English and Scotch School of
Psychologists, has enabled him to illustrate the subtle speculations
of which he treats in a manner calculated to render them more
intelligible to the English mind than they can be by writers trained
solely in the technicalities of modern German schools. The editor
has verified all the references, and added valuable Notes, in whicJi
he points out sources of more complete information. The Lectures
constitute a History of the Platonic Philosophy its seed-time,
maturity, and decay.

SERMONS AND LETTERS ON ROMANISM.- See THEO-
LOGICAL CATALOGUE.

CalderwOOd. PHILOSOPHY OF THE INFINITE: A

Treatise on Man's Knowledge of the Infinite Being, in answer to
Sir W. Hamilton and Dr. Mansel. By the Rev. HENRY
CALDERWOOD, M.A., LL.D., Professor of Moral Philosophy in
the University of Edinburgh. Cheaper Edition. 8vo. Js. 6d.

MENTAL AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY, ETC. 47

The purpose of this volume is, by a careful analysis of consciousness,
to prove, in opposition to Sir W. Hamilton and Mr. Mansel, that
man possesses a notion of an Infinite Being, and to ascertain the
peculiar nature of the conception aud the particular relations in
which it is found to arise. The province of Faith as related to that
of Knowledge, and the characteristics of Knowledge and Thought
as bearing on this subject, are examined ; and separate chapters are
devoted to the consideration of our kncnvledge of the Infinite as
First Cause, as Moral Governor, and as the Object of Worship.
it A book of great ability .... written in a clear style, and may
be easily ztnderstood by even those who are not versed in such
discussions" British Quarterly Review.

Elam. A PHYSICIAN'S PROBLEMS. --See MEDICAL
CATALOGUE, preceding.

Galton (Francis). HEREDITARY GENIUS : An Inquiry
into its Laws and Consequences. See PHYSICAL SCIENCE
CATALOGUE, preceding.

Green (J. H.) SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY: Founded on
the Teaching of the late SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. By the
late JOSEPH HENRY GREEN, F.R.S., D.C.L. Edited, with a
Memoir of the Author's Life, by JOHN SIMON, F.R.S., Medical
Officer of Her Majesty's Privy Council, and Surgeon to St.
Thomas's Hospital. Two Vols. 8vo. 25^.

The late Mr. Green, the eminent surgeon, was for many years fhe
intimate friend and disciple of Coleridge, and an ardent student of
philosophy. The language of Coleridge's will imposed on Mr.
Green the obligation of devoting, so far as necessary, the remainder
of his life to the one task of systematising, developing, and establish-
ing the doctrines of the Coleridgian philosophy. With the assist-
ance of Coleridge's manuscripts, but especially from the kncnvledge
he possessed of 'Coleridge 's doctrines, and independent study of at least
the basal principles and metaphysics of the sciences and of all the
phenomena of human life, he proceeded logically to work out a
system of universal philosophy such as he deemed would in the Kiatn
accord with his master's aspirations. After many years of pre-
paratory labour he resolved to complete in a compendious form a
work which should give in system the doctrines most distinctly
Coleridgian. The result is these two volumes. The first volume

48 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

is devoted to the general principles of philosophy ; the second aims at
vindicating a priori (on principles for which the first volume has
contended) the essential doctrines of Christianity. The work is
divided into four parts: I. "On the Intellectual Facilities and
processes which are concerned in the Investigation of Truth.' 1 ' 1
II. " Of First Principles in Philosophy." III. " Truths of
Religion." IV. " The Idea of Christianity in relation to Con~
trover sial Philosophy"

Huxley (Professor.) LAY SERMONS, ADDRESSES,
AND REVIEWS. See PHYSICAL SCIENCE CATALOGUE,
preceding.

JevonS. Works by W. STANLEY JEVONS, M.A., Professor of
Logic in Owens College, Manchester :

THE SUBSTITUTION OF SIMILARS, the True Principle of
Reasoning. Derived from a Modification of Aristotle's Dictum.
Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d.

" All acts of reasoning" the author says, "seem to me to be dif-
ferent cases of one uniform process, which may perhaps be best
described as the substitution of similars. This phrase clearly
expresses that familiar mode in which we continually argue by
analogy from like to like, and take one thing as a representative
of another. The chief difficulty consists in showing that all the
forms of the old logic, as well as the fundamental rnks of mathe-
matical reasoning, may be explained upon the same principle; and
it is to this difficult task I have devoted the most attention. Should
my notion be true, a vast mass of technicalities may be swept from
our logical text-books and yet the small remaining part of logical
doctrine ivitl prove far more useful than all the learning of the
Schoolmen." Prefixed is apian of a new reasoning machine, the
Logical Abacus, the construction and working of which is fully
explained in the text and Appendix. "Mr. Jevons 1 book is very
clear and intelligible, and quite worth consulting." Guardian.

ELEMENTARY LESSONS IN LOGIC. See EDUCATIONAL
CATALOGUE.

Maccoll. THE GREEK SCEPTICS, from Pyrrho to Sextus.
An Essay which obtained the Hare Prize in the year 1868. By

MENTAL AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY, ETC. 49

NORMAN MACCOLL, B.A., Scholar of Downing College, Cam-
bridge. Crown Svo, 3-y. 6d.

This Essay consists of jive parts: I. " Introduction" II. " Pyrrho
and Timon." III. "The New Academy." IV. "The Later
Sceptics." V. " The Pyrrhoneans and New Academy con-
trasted.'''' "Mr. Maccoll has produced a monograph which merits
the gratitude of all students of philosophy. His style is clear and
vigorous ; he has mastered the authorities, and criticises them in a
modest but independent spirit. "- Pall Mall Gazette.

M'Cosh Works by JAMES M'Cosn, LL.D., President of Princeton

College, New Jersey, U.S.

' ' He certainly shcnvs himself skilful in that application of logic to
psychology, in that inductive science of the human mind which is
the fine side of English philosophy. His philosophy as a whole is
worthy of attention"- -Revue de Deux Mondes.

THE METHOD OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT, Physical
and Moral. Tenth Edition. Svo. los. 6d.

This work is divided into four books. The first presents a general
view of the Divine Government as fitted to throw light on the
character of God; the second deals with the method of the Divine
Government in the physical world ; the third treats of the principles
of the human mind through which God governs mankind; and the
fourth is on Pastoral and Revealed Religion, and the Restoration
of Man. An Appendix, consisting of seven articles, investigates
the fundamental principles which underlie the speculations of the
treatise. " This work is distinguished from other similar ones by
its being based upon a thorough study of physical science, and an
accurate kncauledge of its present condition, and by its entering in a
deeper and more unfettered manner than its predecessors upon the dis-
cussion of the appropriate psychological, ethical, and theological ques-
tions. The author keeps aloof at once from the a priori idealism and
dreaminess of German speculation since Schdling, and from the
onesidedness and narrowness of the empiricism and positivism
which have so prevailed in England." Dr. Ulrici, in "Zeitschrift
fiir Philosophic."

THE INTUITIONS OF THE MIND. A New Edition. Svo.
cloth. IQS. 6d.

D

50 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

M'Cosh (J.) continued.

The object of this treatise is to determine the true nature of Intuition,
and to investigate its laT(js. It starts with a general view of
intuitive convictions, their character and the method in which they
are employed, and passes on to a more detailed examination of
them, treating them under the various heads of ii Primitive Cogni-
tions, " ' ' Primitive Beliefs, " ' ' Primitive Judgments, " and ' ' Moral
Convictions." Their relations to the various sciences, mental and
physical, are then examined. Collateral criticisms are thrown
into preliminary and supplementary chapters and sections. ' ' The
undertaking to adjust the claims of the sensational and intuitional
philosophies, and of the a posteriori and a priori methods, is
accomplished in this work with a great amount of success.' 1 ' 1
Westminster Review. "/ value it for its large acquaintance
with English Philosophy, which has not led him to neglect the
great German works. I admire the moderation and clearness, as
well as comprehensiveness, of the author's views. " Dr. Dorner, of
Berlin.

AN EXAMINATION OF MR. J. S. MILL'S PHILOSOPHY :
Being a Defence of Fundamental Truth. Crown 8vo. Js. 6d.

This volume is not put forth by its author as a special reply to Mr.
Mill's "Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy"
In that work Mr. Mill has furnished the means of thoroughly
estimating his theory of mind, of which he had only given hints
and glimpses in his logical treatise. It is this theory which Dr.
Jlf'Cos/i professes to examine in this volume; his aim is simply to
defend a portion of primary truth which has been assailed by an
acute thinker who has extensive influence in England. "In
such points as Mr. MiWs notions of intuitions and necessity, he
will have the voice of mankind with him. " - Athenaeum. "Such
a work greatly needed to be done, and the author was the man to
do it. This volume is important, not merely in reference to the
views of Mr. Mill, but of the whole school of writers, past and
present, British and Continental, he so ably represents."- -Princeton
Review.

THE LAWS OF DISCURSIVE THOUGHT : Being a Text-
book of Formal Logic. Crown 8vo. $s.

The main feature of this Logical Treatise is to be found in the more
thorough investigation of the nature of the notion, in regard to

ME NT A L A ND MORA L PHIL OSOPH Y, ETC. 51

M'Cosh (J.)_ continued.

which the vicivs of the school of Locke and Whately are regarded
by the author as very defective, and the views of the school of Kant
and Hamilton altogether erroneous. The author believes thai
errors spring far more frequently from obscure, inadequate, indis-
tinct, and confused Notions, and from not placing the Notions in
their proper relation in judgment, than from Ratiocination. In
this treatise, therefore, the Notion (with the term, and the Relation
of Thought to Language) will be found to occupy a larger relative
place than in any logical work written since the time of the famous
Art of Thinking. "The amount of summarized information
which it contains is very great ; and it is the only work on the very
important subject with which it deals. Never was such a work
so much needed as in the present day." London Quarterly
Review.

CHRISTIANITY AND POSITIVISM : A Series of Lectures to
the Times on Natural Theology and Apologetics. Crown 8vo.
is. 6d.

These Lectures were delivered in New York, by appointment, in the
beginning of 1871, as the second course on the foundation of
the Union Theological Seminary. There are ten Lectures in all,
divided into three scries : /. " Christianity and Physical Science"
(three lectures). II. "Christianity and Mental Science" (four
lectures). III. " Christianity and Historical Investigation" (three
lectures). The Appendix contains articles on "Gaps in the Theory
of Development ;" " Darwiii's Descent of Man." ''''Principles
of Herbert Spencer's Philosophy." In the course of the Lectzires
Dr. M'Cosh discusses all the most important scientific problems
which are supposed to affect Christianity.

Masson. RECENT BRITISH PHILOSOPHY : A Review,

with Criticisms ; including some Comments on Mr. Mill's Answer
to Sir William Hamilton. By DAVID MASSON, M.A., Professor
of Rhetoric and English Literature in the University of Edinburgh.
Crown 8vo. 6s.

The author, in his usual graphic and forcible manner, review's in
considerable detail, and points out the drifts of the philosophical
speculations of the previous thirty years, bringing tinder notice the
work of all the principal philosophers who have been at work during

52 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE.

Mas SOn (D.) continued.

that period on the highest problems which concern humanity. The
four chapters are thus titled: /. "A Survey of Thirty Years."
II. "The Traditional Differences: hcnv repeated in Carlyle,
Hamilton, and Mill.'' 1 III. "Effects of Recent Scientific Con-
ceptions on Philosophy" IV. "Latest Drifts and Groupings.''''
The last sezienty-six pages are devoted to a Revie^v of Mr. Mill's
criticism of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy. " We can
ncnvhere point to a work which gives so clear an exposition of
the cotirse of philosophical speculation in Britain during the past
century, or which indicates so instructively the mutual influences of
philosophic and scientific thought."- Fortnightly Review.

BRITISH NOVELISTS. See BELLES LETTRES CATALOGUE.
LIFE OF MILTON. See BIOGRAPHICAL CATALOGUE.

Maudsley. Works by HENRY MAUDSLEY, M.D., Professor of
Medical Jurisprudence in University College, London :

BODY AND MIND : An Inquiry into their Connection and
Mutual Influence, specially in reference to Mental Diseases. See
MEDICAL CATALOGUE, preceding.

THE PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OF MIND.

See MEDICAL CATALOGUE, preceding.

Maurice. Works by the Rev. FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE,
M.A., Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Cam-
bridge. (For other Works by the same Author, see THEOLOGICAL
CATALOGUE.)

SOCIAL MORALITY. Twenty-one Lectures delivered in the
University of Cambridge. Svo.

In this series of Lectures, Professor Maurice considers, historically
and critically, Social Morality in its three main aspects : I. "The
Relations which spring from the Family Domestic Morality."
II. " The Relations which subsist among the various constituents
of a Nation National Morality." III. "As it concerns Uni-
versal Humanity Universal Morality." Appended to each series
is a chapter on " Worship :" first, "Family Worship;" second,

MENTAL AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY, ETC. 53
Maurice (F. D.) con tinned.

"2\'ati\>nal Worship;" third, "Universal Worship.' 1 ' 1 " Whilst
reading it we- are charmed by the freedom from exclusiveness and
prejudice, the large charity, the loftiness of thought, the eagerness to
recognize and appreciate whatever there is of real worth extant in
the world, which animates it from one end to the other. We gain
new thoughts and new ways of mewing things, even more, perhaps,
from being brought for a time under the influence of so noble and
spiritual a mind.'' Athenaeum.

THE CONSCIENCE : Lectures on Casuistry, delivered in the
University of Cambridge. New and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo.

In this series of nine Lectures, Professor Maurice, with his wonted

force and breadth and freshness, endeavours to settle what is meant

by the word "Conscience" and discusses the most important

questions immediately connected with the subject. Taking "Casu-

istry " in its old sense as being the "study of cases of Conscience,"

he endeavours to show in what way it may be brought to bear at

the present day tipou the acts and thoughts of our ordinary

existence. He shows that Conscience asks for laws, not rules ;

for freedom, not chains ; for education, not suppression. He

has abstained from the zise of philosophical terms, and has touched

on philosophical systems only when he fancied "they were inter-

fering with the rights and duties of wayfarers." The Saturday

Review says : ' ' We rise from them with detestation of all that is

selfish and mean, and with a living impression that there is such a

thing as goodness after

MORAL AND METAPHYSICAL PHILOSOPHY. New
Edition and Preface. Vol. I. Ancient Philosophy and the First to
the Thirteenth Centuries ; Vol. II. the Fourteenth Century and the
French Revolution, with a glimpse into the Nineteenth Century.
2 Vols. 8vo. 25 j.

This is an Edition in two volumes of Professor Maurice 's History of
Philosophy from the earliest period to the present time. It was
formerly scattertd throughout a number of separate volumes, and it
is believed that all admirers of the author and all students of
philosophy will welcome this compact Edition. The subject is one
of the highest importance, and it is treated here with fulness and

54 SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE,

candour, and in a clear and interesting manner. In a long intro-
duction to this Edition, in the form of a dialogue, Professor Maurice
justifies some of his own peculiar views, and touches upon some of
the most important topics of the time.

Murphy. HABIT AND INTELLIGENCE, in Connection
with the Laws of Matter and Force : A Series of Scientific Essays.
By JOSEPH JOHN MURPHY. Two Vols. 8vo. i6s.

The author's chief purpose in this ivork has been to state and to dis-
cuss what he regards as the special and characteristic principles of
life. The most important part of the work treats of those vital
principles which belong to the inner domain of life itself, as dis-
tinguished from the principles which belong to the border-land
where life comes into contact with inorganic \ matter and force. In
the inner domain of life we find two principles, which are, the
author believes, coextensive with life and peculiar to it : these are
Habit and Intelligence. He has made as full a statement as
possible of the laws under which habits form, disappear, alter under
altered circumstances, and vary spontaneously. He discusses that
most important of all questions, whether intelligence is an ultimate
fact, incapable of being resolved into any other, or only a resultant
from the laws of habit. The latter part of the first volume is
occupied with the discussion of the question of the Origin of Species.
The first part of the second volume is occupied with an inquiry
into the process of mental growth and development, and the nature
of mental intelligence. In the chapter that follows, the author dis-
cusses the science of history, and the three concluding chapters
contain some ideas on the classification, the history, and the logic, of
the sciences. The author's aim has been to make the subjects treated
of intelligible to any ordinary intelligent man. " We are pleased
to listen," says the Saturday Review, "to a writer who has so firm
a foothold upon the ground within the scope of his immediate
survey, and who can enunciate with so much clearness and force
propositions which come within his grasp.'' 1

Thring (E., M. A.) THOUGHTS ON LIFE-SCIENCE.
By EDWARD THRING, M.A. (Benjamin Place), Head Master of
Uppinghara School. New Edition, enlarged and revised.
Crown Svo. Js. 6</.

In this volume arc discussed in a familiar manner some of the most
interesting problems between Science and Religion, Reason and

MENTAL AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY, ETC. 55

Feeling. " Learning and Science" says the author, "are claiming
tlie right of building up and pulling down everything, especially
tlie latter. It has seemed to me no useless task to look steadily at
wJiat has happened, to take stock as it were of men's gains, and to
endeavour amidst new circumstances to arrive at some rational
estimate of the bearings of things, so that the limits of what is
possible at all events may be clearly marked out for ordinary

readers This book is an endeavour to bring out some of the

main facts of the world."

Venn. THE LOGIC OF CHANCE : An Essay on the Founda-
tions and Province of the Theory of Probability, with especial
reference to its application to Moral and Social Science. By JOHN
VENN, M.A., Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
Fcap. 8vo. 7-y. 6d.

This Essay is in no sense mathematical. Probability, the author
thinks, may be considered to be a portion of the province of Logic
regarded from the material point of view. The principal objects of
this Essay are to ascertain how great a portion it comprises, where
we are to draw the boundary between it and the contiguous branches
of the general science of evidence, what are the ultimate foundations
upon which its rules rest, what the nature of the evidence they are
capable of affording, and to what class of subjects they may most
Jitly be applied. The general design of the Essay, as a special
treatise on Probability, is quite original, the author believing that
erroneous notions as to the real nature of the subject are disastrously
prevalent. "Exceedingly well thought and well written" says the
Westminster Review. The Nonconformist calls it a "masterly
book."

LONDON I K. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, BREAD STREET HILL.

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