Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1912-09-05
SCIENCE
IN REPRODUCTION
Edinburgh Professor Addressed
British Society at
Meeting.

DUNDEE, Scotland. Sept. 5.-The
most interesting feature of the OPEN
ing session of the British Associa-
ton for the Advancement of Science
was the presidential address OF Pro-
lessor E.. A. S%chaefer, of Edinburgh
University, which dealt with the
nature, origin and maintenance of life.
During the course of his address he
said:
1--WE may fairly conclude that all
changes in living substance are
brought about by ordinary chemical
and physical forces"
Speaking of the properties of
growth and reproduction, he de-
clared: "They are possessed not alone
by living bodies, for inorganic crys-
tails grow and multiply and reproduce
their like, given a supply of h req
uisite substance"
Further on he said; ut has been
proved that we can no longer consider
such an apparently vital phenome-
non as the fertilization of the egg
as being the result of living material
brought to 1t, since 1t Is possible to
start the process of division of the
cell in the egg and the resulting for
nation of cells and ultimately of all
the tissues and organism short, to
bring about the development of the
whole body--if a simple chemical
reaction is substituted for the male
element in the process of fertiliza-
ton. We may even hope some day
to see the material which composes
the nucleus of cell life prepared by
the combination of the proper sub
stances"
In summing up his remarks, he
said that research seems to point to
the conclusion hat the possibility oil
the production of life-that is, of iiv-
ing waterfalls not SO remote as has
been generally assumed"
No Faith In Boiled Infusion.
Professor Schaefer continued:
"Since the experiments of Pasteur
few had ventured to affirm a belief In
the spontaneous generation of bac-
terra and monads and other micro
organisms. But IL the formation OF
life-of living substance-was possible
at the present day, and I see no rea-
son to doubt it, a boiled infusion oil
organic matter and still less of inor-
ganic matter is the last place In
which to look for 1t.
Setting aside as devoid of scien-
tdfc foundation the idea of immediate
supernatural Intervention In h first
production of life, we are not only
justified in believing, but compelled
to believe, that living matter must
have owed its origin to causes sim
liar in character to those which have
been instrumental in producing all
other forms of matter in the uni
verse-in other words, to a process
of gradual evolution.
Looking, therefore. at the evolu-
ton of living matter by the light
which is shed upon 1t from the study
of the evolution of matter in general
we are led to regard 1t as having been
produced not by a sudden alteration,
whether exerted by natural or super
natural agency, but by a gradual
process of change from material
which was l~ifeless, through material
on the border land between inanimate
and animate, to material which has
all the characteristics to which we
attach the term life So far from
expecting a sudden leap from an in
organic, or at least an unorgapized,
into an organic and organized condi-
ton, from an entirely inanimate sub
stance to a completely animate state
of being, a gradual procession OF
changes from inorganic to organic
matter, through stages Of gradually
increasing complexity until a state
which could be termed living was
attained, is rather to be expected.
Search Nature Herself.
"And in place of looking for the
production of fully formed living or
ganisms in Theoretically sealed TASKS,
Is 1t moi better to search nature her
self, under natural = conditions, for
evidence of the existence, either in
the past Or in the present. of transi-
tional forms between living and non
living matter? The difficulty of OBJ
tanning evidence of such evolution
from the past history of the globe is
| obvious, and the problem would ap-
pear to be hopeless of solution If we
were rigidly confined to the SUPPOSE
ton that the evolution of life had
only occurred once in the past his
tory of the globe.
"In the absence Of any definite proof
to the contrary, the conclusion forces
itself upon us that the evolution OF
non-living into living substances has
happened more than once, and we can
be by no means sure that it is not
happening still. 1t is true that up
to the present there was no evidence
of such happening, no process of
transition has hitherto been OBJ
served; but, or the other hand, is II
not equally true that the kind of
evidence which would be of any real
value in determining this question
has not hitherto been looked for?
ut is certain that If life is being
produced from non-living substances
1t would be life of a far simpler char
acter than any thai has yet been OBJ
served. II living matter had been
! evolved from lifeless In the past, we