Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1880-12-24
Searching After the Secrets of Life.

0edVC"'"B ~'so' TO-
Byst,nder.
A pPan of evolution was sung by
Prof &. F.. Barker. in his address on
"The Problem of Life The solution
of that problem the professor, looking
forth from his Evolutionary Pisgah. an
nounccd to- be very near at hand. "The
rapid march of recent organic syntheses
makes it quite certain that every dis
tinct chemical substance of the living
body will ultimately be produced in the
laboratory: and this from inorganic ma
terials Given only the exact constitu-
ton of compound, and its synthesis
follows. When. therefore, the chemist
shall succeed in producing mass con-
stitutionally identical with protoplasmic
ALBUMIN, there is every reason to expect
that it will exhibit all the phenomena
which characterize its life; and this
equally, whether protoplaSm be sim
gle substance or mixture of several
closely allied substances" There is no
essential difference between the proto-
plasmic life of the plant and that Of
the animal; hence the solution of the
life question in the myXomycetes will
solve the life problem for the highest
vertebrate" Nor could the sympathiz-
ing hearer fail to draw the inference,
whether the lecturer wished to suggest
it or not, that with the life problem, all
other problems, moral, intellectual, and
spiritual, would be solved also, and
that the highest vertebrate" was a
full equivalent for humanity. 1t may
be so, but the predictions of science,
like other predictions, must await the
verdict of experiment Let Prof.
Barker make man, or even an oyster,
and skepticism will bow before the evil
dence of fact. But even then we shall
not be able to admit that the rudiments
of being are the being itself, or that
a description of its genesis is full ac-
count OF its nature and limitation of
its destiny. Every man was once an
embryo, yet the man is not an embryo,
but Il man; and the case will not be
changed II the protoplasmic life of
Newton and Shakespeare can be identi-
fled with that of the myxomycetes.
Nothing will have been proved except
this, that the Author of our being
works not by abrupt creation, but the
gradual progress, III manner analo-
gous TO human effort, the finished pro-
ducts OF which are essentially different,
II there is any such thing as essential
difference, from their rudimentS or raw
materials; and this is as much implied
in the saying of Genesis, that God
made man ont of the dust of the earth"
as 1t is in the scientific doctrine of evo-
luton. That which is called evolution
is only an observed SUGGESTIONS of
phases through which our being regu-
larly moves in an ascending scale:
what power causes and regulates the
movement is just as much a mystery
as ever; il would remain mystery
even though Prof. Barker should sue
ceed III producing life by chemical APP
plianceS, because he would be only the
the instrument; the power which en-
dowed the chemical ingredients with
the life generating virtue would still
be behind. If evolution implies more
than observed succession of phases or
stages of existence, if it implies a
known cause of progression, it is Il mis-
leading and illegtimate term.
In nctAhn,.