New-York tribune., 1907-09-22
THE ORIGIN OF LIFE.
An Important Contribution to the
Problem of Genesis.

,os almost died away from the ears Of most
a-sons That battle began TO rage in Europe
wbne the Civil War was at its height in this
country. This may account TO some extent for
,ba relatively small hold il gained on the inter
ss-s and passions Of Americans Down 10 the
.,-,a when the cculbatants across the Atlantic
,i,bd-ew from the strife in the open, leaving
liz, -,-rffc with the certain impression that the
kr-eat Pasteur and the less great but more fas-
.;,a+ing TyndalI had settled the problem for all
slime our countryInen were absorbed with Re
,ore+-1atjon and had scant time for biology.
-q,e-er7-e those Americans who found pleasure
~ the study Of life did not return to their IA
,-o-i+e theme until Pasteur's overwhelming
sa-nonstr11tion'' Of the absurdity Of Spontaneous
Generation had been ratified by the British As
s,c5at5on and had become dogma Of science
: S-7-e then. Of the influence religious prepos-
sessions naturally exerted upon the scientific
,-.rion If American laymen nearly everybody
or+eise q small circle OF distinguished amateurs
,-,n5icit1v believes that whatever the primitive
--ooesses Of genesis may be- they are certainly
not processes bringing forth living beings from
,o,aTv Inorganic matter Indeed, 10 many per-
sons. the theory of the inorganic origin Of life
s,a-es 2 pure logical contradiction; for. they
cay whatever produces life is thereby itself
living.
Il must He confessed that this piece Of ap-
-arert clubbing Is not without force, for, in or
se- 70 discuss 1nteIIigently whether life arises
f-or1 inorganic matter not, We must agree
mon some convenient definition of life The
difficulty Of doing this adds both confusion and
7,ouancy 70 the great and vexed controversy
Scientists. however, have found na0dAS t1rfndi
,r narrowing the problem Of spontaneous gen
Grafton down 70 this question: Do bacteria de-
velop in perfectly isolated fluids which, after
sterilization. show absolutely no trace Of the
r-esence Of bacteria their fssions or their gem
krrles2 7 they de- then this phenomenon shall
called spontaneous generation, or Archebi-
osis. Il - in this highly limited but legitimate
sense Of the phrase that Professor Bastian has
SPOKEN Of the creation Of organic life in his
rresent highly technical investigation The old
tine opponent Of Pasteur and Tyndall, in striv-
ing 20 refute the dogma established by these
eminent men over thirty years ago explicitly
saws that he regards the remains OF organisms
which have undergone solution (by boiling) as
dead matter and he adds that, ''if, in solu-
-ion thus formed, the evidence were TO point to
the dc moro therein of living units, We might
quite leg5t5-rately speak OF it as a process Of
s-rbetios5s" As this view is the same one that
Pasteur held when, il his famous memoir. he
sought q 5-sFrCve spontaneous generation, Pro
tessc- Basti-r-s demonstrations are q fair reply
70 these who criticised him severely many
years ago. But his conclusion that there are
me generating fuids.' in which, after all
uicro-orgarisrrs have been killed off by ex-
Ecsure 70 high temperatures, new organisms ap-
fe2r and multiply. must not be taken as proof
0f spontaneous generation IN the fullest IN
qualified sense q this phrase.
There VII probably never be either q demon
stration O z E-srr0ot q the rise Of organisms
from totally Inorganic matter; for recent phys
ical Discovers have shown too clearly the in
credible c9--pIezity Of the smallest particles Of
tier visible through the most powerful micro
= From the rnolecule ttls physicist has been
1Dls-len backward in his dissection Of matter 70
the atom. and from the atom TO its thousands
znd perhaps hundreds Il thousands Of planet
Ike Co-puscLes- In comparison with these sys-
tens the bacteria at which the biologist peers
a-e leviathans u the first magnitude. and they
cal De regarded Is the lowest form Of life only
by pure assumption Nevertheless. nobody ought
&c underrate the Importance Of the fact Professor
Bastian seems now definitely to have established
after lifetime Of experimentation 1t is ex-
ceediug1y significant. for both theory and prac-
tee, that bacteria arise in bacteria-free sub
stances without the assistance and parentage Of
homogeneous organisms OF that Of any complex
8 which ran be recognized as analogous TO or
garlsrns n structure and behavior. The startling
similarity between the crystallizing process in
minerals and the genesis Of typical forms Of bac-
terra IN fluids is made even more startling by
p~nrar-o- r.--=.--~ -4layraltS