The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-07-21

last a new kind OF synthesis must have
taken place. synthesis resulting In the
formation Of what We call living matter
Men of science no longer doubt that a nat
ural birth OF living matter must have 90
Cured in the past, when the surface Of the
earth had become sufficiently cool; n
logically such a process n only be re-
garded "a a continuation and eQuenoe OF
that related process OF evolution which pre-
viously had been leading to the genesis OF
the various chemical elements and OF those
simple combinations among them by which
oxides, acids and other compounds are
produced. Now, as all the combinations
In question-whether Of e~lectrons, OF atoms,
or Of molecules, and whether simple or COM
pick the work of natural influences
and natural afinities, IL Ia only reasonable
to suppose that the particular combination
giving rise to living matter would also, when
the right time came, have occurred In null
titudinous regions over the earth's surfaces
and have REQUIRED again and again as long
rs the conditions remained favorable
How, indeed, these later combinations,
called organic, were led up to no one can
say; but that they must rave occurred no
person possessinR a fair smount Of chemical
and biological knowledge now doubts.
Moreover, IF this beginning OF organic
evolution In but a continuation and natural
appendix TO what had gone before; II, as
astronomers tell us. there must be thousands
of suns having orbs circling around them
like our earth, and among these planets
perhaps thousands in which the special
conditions existing are very similar to those
now existing, or hat have existed IN our
earth. we are fully entitled to believe that
just as the simple chemical elements are
ever coming into being in untold myriads
OF SUITS, so throughout the universe there
may be Thousands. or even millions. Of
planets in which the highest kind of syn
thesis represented by living matter has
been or is taking place
II is now generally admitted by men Of
science the great revolt ton In
scientific beliefs brought about by the
epoch making work Of Darwin-that all
the various forms OF life have arisen one
from another by processes OF evolution;
that. in other words. they have appeared
az successive natural results Of the inter-
action between the primordial forms OF
living matter and the sum total of the
influences. animate and inanimate. acting
thereupon. The multitudinous forms OF
vegetal and animal life are deemed to have
come into being az nal results OF the
same physioo-chemical processes which
have been shown by astronomers to be in
operation throughout the universe. Starting
from the all pervading ether, whose origin
and nature are alike i~nscrutable, CON-
temporary physicists would have us re-
gard IL as the source in and from which the
primordial units of matter (the electrons)
arise. Az to how these elections aggregate
(perhaps first in their tens and hundreds, and
then in their ~thousands) to form the various
chemical elements we are just as ignorant
as we are concerning the formation OF
those ultimately complex material COM
binations that lead on to the production
OF living matter. Yet the spectroscope
compels us to believe that the processes
which lead to the genesis Of so-called
chemical elements are continually occurring
throughout the universe; while astronomical
and geological evidences combined assure
us that a genesis of living matter must have
occurred at some time in the far distant
past when the temperature OF the earth's
surface had sunk below the boiling point
OF water. Thus in the formation of cleo
irons, in the formation of the eighty or
more different chemical atoms. in the
formation OF more and more complex
chemical compounds. terminating in those
met with in living matter. and In the pro-
duction Of all the forms OF life that have
since appeared we have a continuous series
of evolutional results, each more or less
inexplicable. yet all dependent pom natural
processes acting. as II appears. uniformly
throughout all space and all time.
This. u author submits, is the natural
and logical point OF view from which to
approach the all important question whether
the genesis of living matter is or is not
still taking place on our earth at the present
day-a process which is spoken OF in this
pooh under the NAM Of "archebiosis."
Did such a process occur only once or
more In some remote geological ages. as
many are inclined to think or has the proc
ess been going on ever since il first began
all through the ages and 10 IL still con-
tinuing2 That is the question examined in
the present volume.
At this point our author stops to meet
an objection that possibly may be made
to one OF his statements. In saying that
mo person possessing a fair amount OF
chemical and biological knowledge" now
doubts that a natural origin Of living matter
occurred in the past on this earth. he does
not forget that a good many years ago
lin 1871 Lord Kelvin, adopting for a mo-
ment a view previously expressed by an
other celebrated physicist (Helmholtz).
did throw doubt upon the subject by sug-
costing that life might have come to US
on the moss grown fragments of another
world" This evasive and very improbable
view Is pronounced altogether beside the
question. and, as was pointed out in 1892
by Sir George Stokes. would obviously
leave untouched the problem OF the origin
Of life" 1t would simply transfer the So
luton Of that problem from this earth to
some other planet. DR.. Bastian. for his
part. recalls that some astronomers. so far
from doubling that archebiosis originally
occurred on the earth. go 80 far az to think
that life Of some sort is to be found even
on other planets belonging to our own
solar system. Thus DIR. Fl. II. Turner,
professor Of astronomy in the University
OF Oxford. lecturing at the Royal Institu-
ton in December. 1905. is reported to lave
said IAN the stars that we saw THAT is.
all visible starsl. with a few insignificant
...o.s1.a had n apnparafNra anvoouhot