Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-09-18

was the presidential address this eve
lining of Professor L. A. Schaefer of
Edinburgh University, which dealt
with the nature, origin. and mainte-
nance of life. During the course of
his address he said: we may fairly
leenclude that all changes in living
tsGbstance are brought about by ordi-
nary chemical and physical forces"
Speaking of the properties Of growth
land reproduction, ,he declared: They
are possessed not only by living
bodies, for inorganic crystals grow
land multiply and produce their like,
lgiyen supply of the requisite sub
lstance."
Further on he said. 1T has beea
lproveG thai we can no longer consid-
er such an apparently vital phe-
inomenon as the fertilization of the
egg 90 being the result of living ma
terial brought To it. since it is posi-
lble to start the process of division of
the cell in the egg ard the resulting
formation Of cells and ultimately OF
lall the tissues and organs--in short,
Ito bring about the development of the
whole body-ifa simple chemical re-
faction is substituted for the male ele-
nlent in the process of fertilization.
We may even hope some day to see
the material which composes the nu-
| cleus of cell life prepared by. the COM
bination of the proper substances"
In summing up his remarks, he said
/ that research seems to point to the
conclusion that the possibility of the
| production of life-that is, of living
materials not SO remote as has been
generally assumed.
"As a mere word, life is interest
| ing in the fact that it is one of those
abstract terms which have no direct
| ahtithesis: although probably most
persons would regard death in that
light. A little consideration will show
us that this1is not the case Death
| implies the pre- existence of aife';
there are physiological grounds for re-
garding death as a phenomenon OF life
lit is the completion, the last act Of
| life. We cannot speak of a noit-liv
| ing object as possessing death in the
sense that we speak of living object
as possessing life The adjective
| dead is. it is true, applied in a popu-
lar sense antithetically to objects
| which have never possessed life, as in
| the proyerbial expression, AS dead
as door nail But in the strict sense
such application is not justiffable
| since the use of the terms dead and
| living implies either in the past or
| present the possession of the reeog
| nized qualities of living matter on
| the other hand. the expressions living
and lifeless, animate and inanmate,
furnish terms which are undoubtedly
antithetical. Strictly and literally the
| words animate and inanimate express
the presence or absence of soul and
not infrequently We find life ana
SOUL enormously employed as identi
| cal. But it is hardly necessary for me
10 state that the remarks / have to
make regarding life must not be taxi
en- to apply TO the conceptions to which
the word soul is attached.
Plenty of Life, Plenty of Matter.
The fact that the formation of
such a conception IS only possible in
connection with life and that the
growth and elaboration of the cencep-
| ton has only been possible as the re-
suit of the most complex processes of
| life in the most complex of living or
ganisms. has doubtless led to belief
| in the identity of life with soul. But
unless the use of the expression of
soul is extended to a degree which
would deprive it of all special signifie
canoe the distinction between these
terms must be strictly maintained.
For the problems of life are essential
| ly problems of matter; we cannot con-
eeive of life in the scientific sense as
| existing apart from matter The
phenomena of life are investigated
| and can only be investigated by the
| same methods as all other phenomena
| of matter and the general results of
! such investigations tend to show that
living beings are governed by laws
| Identical with those which govern in
animate matter. The more we study
| the manifestations of life the more We
| become convinced of the truth OF this
! Statement and the less we are dis
| posed to cali in the aid of special
and unknown form of energy to ex-
plain those manifestations
| The most obvious manifestation of
| life is spontaneous movement We
see man, dog, bird move, and we
know that they are alive. We place
a drop of pond water under the micro
| scope, and see numberless particles
rapidly moving within it; We affirm
| that il swarms with life We notice
a small mass of clear slime changing
| Its shape. throwing out projections of
| its structurelesS substance, creeping
from one part of the field of the
| microscope to another. We recognize
that the slime is living: we give it i
| name = Amoeba limax the slug
amoeba.
LifeIess Objects Possess Movement
But ply sicists show us movements
of a precisely similar character in
substances which no one by any
stretch of imagination can regard as
| living; movements of oil drops of or
ganic and inorganic mixtures even of
mercury giohules, which are irdis-
tinguishable in their character from
those of the living organisms we have
been studying: movements which can
only be described by the same term
| amoeboid. vet obviously produced as
the result of purely physical and
chemical reactions causing changes in
surface tension of the fluids under ex-
animation
II is therefore certain that such
| movements are not specifically VITAL
that thair 11rp SpYca does NOT