East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1912-10-14
HOLDS ALL LIFE CREATED
BY CHEMICAL ACTION

London.-All the scientists of Eng
land are discussing the amazing the-
ories advanced by Professor Schaler
of Edinburgh University, who mas
given the British association the ex-
traordnary suggestion that lie arises
spontaneously in its primal torm'
without supernatural Intervention py
chemical action. and that therefore
artificial production of life is not by
any means outside the region or pos
sibility. The most obvious manifesta-
ton of life, he said, is spontaneous
movement
I'VE see man. dog, bird move
and we know that they are alive. we
place drop of pond water under
the microscope and see numberless
particles moving within it; We al
firm that it swarms with life. we
notice "A small mass of slime chang-
| ing it's shape, throwing out proJec-
! tions of its structureless substances
creeping from one part of the field
of the microscope to another. we
recognize that the slime is living.
I'VE observe similar movements III
| individual cells of our own BODY; Ill
! the white corpuscles of our blood Ill
! connective tissue cells, in growing
nerve cells, in young cells everywhere
We regard such movements as lndl-
catiye of the possession of life; noth-
ing seems more justifiable than such
an Inference
1t was pointed out that the ele-
ments composing life substances are
few i'm number Those constantly
present are carbon, hydrogen, oXy-
gen and nitrogen. With these, both
in nucleus matter, and Also but IN
less degree in the more dlttuse llNlhs
material which we know as protop-
lasm, phosphorus is always associ'
ated. Moreover a large proportion
rarely less than 20 per cent OF water
appears essential for any mahites'a'
ton of life, although not in all cases
necessary for its continuance, since
organisms are known when VIII peai
the loss of the greater part OF th'
water they contain without perma'
nent impairment of their vitality.
The presence of certain inorganic
salts is no less essential, chief am
ong them being chloride of sodlu"
and salt of calcium, magnesium, po
tassium and iron.
The combination of these elemehu
into colloidal compound represent
the chemical basis of life" declared
the professor, land when the chem
ist succeeds in building up THIS com
mound it will without doubt be touh'
| Al,
are in the habit of associating VIII
the term life
Setting aside as devoid of sclel
tific foundation, the idea of immeai
ata supernatural intervention in IN
first production of life, we are no
only justified in believing, but com
pelied to believe that living matte
| must have owed its origin to cause
| similar in character to those Whlc
I have been instrumental in prouucln
| all other forms of matter IN the u'i'
| verse: in other words, to process
| gradual evolution.
/ Looking at the evolution OF lNlh
| matter by the light which Is sheo VI
i on it from the study of the eNolu.io
II of matter in general we are lea
II regard it as having been produce'
II not nv natural or supernatural ase'
CIV, but by gradual process
II change from material which Wa
II lifeless, through material on IN
III borderland between inanimate an
u animate, to material which has all II
characteristics to which we attac
III the term life
II "In place of looking for the pre-
II duction of fully formed living orga'
III isms in Theoretically sealed TASK
II should we not rather search natu
II itself under natural conditions II
IN evidence of the existence, either
III tho mast or in the present, of trans
tional forms between living and no
living matter? -
II "Within the soil of this earth
most any chemical transforma'i'
NAV occur. Assuming the eVoiu','
II Of living matter to have occurred
II whether once only or more freauel
II 10 matters not for the momeht-a
II in the form suggested, namely as
II mass of colloidal slime possessing
II nroperty Of assimilation, and thei
fore of growth, reproduction won
so,iov as n matter of course. ETC
II any beginning of living material
II nr;nit,va form of life would spre