Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-09-13
THE MICROSCOPE.
SEARCHING AMONG NATURES
HIDDEN MYSTERIES.
The Origin and Life Histories of
the Least and Lowest
Living Things.


the Least and Lowest
Living Things.
In a recent issue of the Montreal Witness
is given synopsis of an interesting lecture
delivered by the Rev. DR.. Dallinger, in that
city, upon Researches on the Origin and
Life-histories of the Least and Lowest Liv-
ing Things The lecturer began by say
ing that to all who have familiarized them
selves, even cursorily, with modern
scientific knowledge, it is known that the
temptation of minute as well as in the
study of vast natural phenomena The
farthest limit we have reached with the
most gigantic standard of measurement we
could well employ in gauging the greatness
of the universe, only leaves US with an
overwhelming consciousness of the awful
greatness-the abyss Of the intinite-that
lies beyond, and which our minds can
never measure. The indefinite has limit
somewhere, but it is not the indefinite, it is
the measurelesS, the infinite, that vast eX-
tension forces upon our mind. In like
manner the immeasurable in minuteness
is an inevitable mental sequence from the
facts and phenomena revealed to us by a
study of the minute in nature. The praC
teal divisability of matter disclosed by
modern physics may well arrest and as
tonish us But biology, the science which
invests the phenomena of all living things,
is in no whit behind. The most universally
ditfjIsed organism in nature, the least in
size with which we are definitely acquaint
ed. is so small that fifty millions of them
could lie together in the one-hundredth
of an inch square. Yet these definite living
things have the power of locomotion, of in
gestion, of assimilation, of eXcreuon, and
of enormous multiplication, and the mate
rial OF which the inconceivaby minute liv-
ing speck is made, is highly complex
chemical compound.
WE DARE NOT ATTEMPT A CONCEPTION
OF the minutcness of the ultimate atoms
that compose the several simple elements
that thus mysteriouSly combine to form the
complex substance and properties Of this
leas; and lowliest living thing. But if we
could even measure these as 4 mental ne
cessity, we are urged indefinitely on to a
minuteness without conceivable limit, in
effect, minuteness that is beyond all finite
whilst they are the least, are also the low
Hest in nature, and are totally devoid Of
what is known as organic structure even
when Scrutnized with our most powerful
and perfect lenses. Now these organisms
lie on the very verge and margin Of the vast
area of what we know as living. They
possess the essential properties Of life, but
in their most initial state And their num-
berless billions, springing into existence
wherever putrescence appeared, led to the
question: How do they originate? Do they
spring up de nora from the highest point on
the area of not life, which they touch? Are
they, in short, the direct product of some
Yet uncorelated force in nature, changing
the dead, the un0rganized, the not living
into definite forms of life? Now. this is a
profound question, and that it is a difficult
one there can be no doubt. But that it IS
question for our laboratories is certain.
A PERTINENT QUESTION.
And after careful and prolonged expert
ment and research, the question to be asked
is, Do we find that in our laboratories and
in the obscure processes Of nature that not
living can be, without the Intervention of
living things, c1nged into what lives? 70
this question the vast majority Of practical
biologists answer without hesitancy, No,
We have no facts to justify such a cCnclu
sion. Professor Huxley shall represent
them. He says: The properties of liy-
ing matter distinguish it absolutely from all
other kinds of things and he continues,
the present state Of our knowledge fur
nishes US with no link between the living
and The not living Now let Us carefully
remember that the great doctrine OF
Charles Darwin has furnished biology with
a magnificent gcncraiization-onc, indeed,
which stands upon so broad a basis that
great names Of detail and many ncCdtUl in
teriocking facts are Of necessity rclegltcd
to the quiet workers Of the present and the
earnest laborers of the years to come. But
it is a doctrine which cannot be shaken.
The constant and universal action Of yari&
ton, the struggle for existence, and the
survival Of the tittcst," few who are compe-
tent to grasp will have the temerity to
doubt. And to many, that which lies i'll
it as a doctrine and forms the Eber of its
fabric is the existence Of a continuity, an
unbrokcn stream of unity running from
the base to the apex of
THE ENTIRE ORGANIC SPECIES.
The plant and the animal, the lowlicst or
gauizcd and the most complex, the minut-
est and the largest are related 10 each
other, SO Is TO constitute one majestic
organic whole. Now to this splendid con-
tinuity biology presents no adverse fact.
All our most recent and most accurate
knowledge confirms it. Now the question
We had 10 determine was great one and
had to be treated in q purely scientific
manner. 1t was whether or not, in the in
definite past, the non-Vital elements OF the
earth at some point in their highest actIv-
lily, were incloScd with or became possessed
OF the properties OF life On that subject
there was no doubt The elements that
compose protoplasm-the physical basis of
all living things-are the familiar elements
of the world without life. The mystery of
life is notin the clements that compose the
vital stuff We know them all, and we
know their properties. The mystery con-
sists solely in how these clements can be 50
combined as to acquire the transccndcnt
properties Of life. That which calm and
patient research has to determines whether
matter Gemoustraby not living, can be-
without the aid of organisms already liv-
ing, endowed with the properties of life
Judged of hastily and apart from the facts,
it may appear to some minds that
An ORIGIN OF LIFE
From not life. bysbeer physical law, would
be great philosophical gain, an indefinite
~ strong support of the doctrine of eyolu-
ton. If this were So. and indeed, so far as
it Is believed to be 50, it would speak and
does speak volumes in favor of the science
pervadiug our age. For although the vast
majority of biologists in Europe and Amer
lea accept the doctrine of evolution, they
are almost unanimous in their refusal TO
accept in any sense competent the rcputed
evidence OF " spontaneous generation,
which demonstrates, at least, that what Is
sought by our leaders in science IS not the
support of mere hypothesis, cherished
though they may be but the truth, the
uncolorcd truth from nature. But it must
be remembered that what is called "spon-
tAneous generation" is by no means re-
Quired by the doctrine of evolution. Pro-
fessor Huxley, for example, says: - If all
living beings have been evolved from pre-
existing forms of life, it is enough that 4
single particle of protopasm should once
have appeared upon the globe, as the result
of no matter what agency, any further for
nation Of protoplasm would be sheer
waste" And why ? we may ask. Because
one of the most marvellous and unique
properties of protoplasm. and the living
forms out of it is the power to multiply
indefinitely and for ever What need,
then. of spontaneous generation?
QUALITIES OPPOSE WATER.
The lecturer then proceeded to show
how Professor Tyndall had demonstrated
that spontaneous generation in pure water,
kept in TASKS Theoretically sealed from the
air, was impossible He then showed a
number of butterflies eggs, foramenifera,
the pygium of the flea and other append
ages of insects on a large sheet by means