Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1890-03-28
ORIGIN OF LIFE ON OUR GLOBE.

Father Mulcahy's Address Before the
Catholic Literary Association.
An instructive paper upon the com
mencement of organic life was read by
Rev J.. A. Mulcahy before the Young
Mems Catholic Literary association last
night. =. ,;.. .
said the speaker. "has received a three
fold answer Some teach that the germs
of life are eternal, and scattered about
in every portion of space, and have be-
come stable and performed in accor-
dance with the eternal laws of the world
their successive evolutions from the
lowest to the highest order of life. There
are those who teach that life is but
higher form of matter, and the organism
of living beings nothing else than spe-
cial arrangement of material atoms.
Living beings, they claim. appeared
upon the globe without the aid of any
pre-existing germs, but solely by the
necessary and gradual evolution of mat
ter. There are in fine, those who teach
that life could not commence upon this
globe except in virtue of special act OF
the creator. There is in these beings,
| absolutely impossible that inorganic
matter could by sole virtue of its own
innate forces transform itself into or
ganic matter"
The speaker then explained in detail
the nature of life and showed: Frs
A living being cannot be formed except
by means of another living body like to
itself Second-The inanlnate body is
,lways identically the same, and when
these bodies increase in size the increase
is ever from without, while living beings
grow in virtue of "a process called intus-
SUBSCRIPTION i. e., the new molecules are
first taken internally. Third-Inani-
| mate bodies continue to exist for an IN
definate period of time, unless some for
eign body should intervene for their de-
structlon, whereas living beings have a
determined period of duration for each
species. Fourth-Minerals are not De-
gotten or produced by others similar to
themselves and it is a well-known ia, 4
That living beings SO reproduce them
selves. Fifth-All inanlmate matter
either has no regular determinate form
or is in a crystalized 8 ate, while in
living beings there is always a form.
Sixth-1nanimato matter can be consti
tuted by one sole species of substance
whereas living bodies are always com
pound, complex. No one has ever seer
a simple substance endowed with life.
Having explained the distinctions
which exist between living beings anC
inanimate matter, the speaker proceeded
to determine the characteristics specia
and proper to human beings themselves
, Every body that has life is an organized
, being. an organism. Four simple bodies
carbon, oxygen, ny drogen and azote con
. stitute almost absolutely all living bodies
Without albuminoids and glycogenit
substances no life, SO far as we are &C
r quainted, has ever yet existed on thi
globe. Albuminoids are substances yer,
similar to the white of an egg. Thi
| matter is found in the blood in tn
q flesh, in milk and in vegetables
y Glycogenic substances like albuminuid
q are the essential basis of every ivin
a body. The anatomical elements may b
= reduced to three classes, cells. fbres an
7 tubes, each one of which possesses spec
ial characters and structure which bear
8 no analogy to those of inanimate matter
The different properties of Living
= beings common to We getables and thos
peculiar to animals were fully explained
IS In conclusion Father Mulcahy said tina
; anaesthetics, as opium, ether, chlnrc
form, suspend the motive power in vege
a a tables and plants as it suspends anims
u ton in man. Authors cannC
J. explain by purely physical cause
/" their motions. There are the
in plants many properties whic
l. unorganized matter does not possess.
l. Others who addressed the meetin
II were Attorney Moran and DR. Mccall {
New Haven and DR. B. A. O'Hara {
d this city.