Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-07-13

Published BY Permission Of and Copyrighted
1918 by HEARsT's MAGAZINE.
-HE question Of the origin Of life has for
long been a fascinating subject Tor
l. thinking men, Is 1t necessary that LIE
should always be derived from life; that every
living being should have had parent; Is II
not possible that lifeless matter should under
suitable conditions acquire life? 1t is not very
easy to define life; It is not the power OF
motion: particles OF sufficient minuteness' as
already mentioned. exhibit 'Brownian motion"
and are certainly not living. 1t is not the
power Of growth; crystals increase in size,
and they are not alive It is not conscious
ness; plants have none; and it is difficult to
believe that the lower organisms are conscious.
With limitations, the best definition is-an or
ganism is alive which can reproduce another
organism like itself also endowed with similar
powers. But there are some inorganic mate
rails which closely initiate reproduction.
In a work published some years ago, Mr..
Butler Burke described experiments in which
small quantities OF a salt Of radium were added
10 a solution of white-of-egg; small round
objects like cells appeared; and these. like
yeastcells. began to grow small excrescences
on one side; the eXcrescence developed into
what was apparently another round cell; and
the child" separated from the parent and
repeated the process. The writer suggested
an explanation at the time which appeared to
meet the case; it was that the radium coagu'
lated the albumen. just as an egg hardens
when it is boiled; this formed small round
object about the particle of radium-salt.
Niton, the gas from radium, is formed from
the radium, together with hydrogen and oxy'
gen gases from the water The niton also
possesses the property OF coagulating albumen;
and it forms little bubble on one side of the
original CELL" which increases in size until
it has grown like its parent; when suni
ciently large. it breaks off. No doubt some
such explanation is correct the supposed cells
we're not alive
A much more serious campaign in favor of
-biogenesls." as the artificial creation of living
from nonliying matter has been termed, has
been carried on since the COS by DR.. Bastian;
the latest account of his experiments has been
given in a book entitled The Origin of Life"
published in 1911 His contention is that GER
tain inorganic materials. dissolved in water.
and heated to such a temperature as to pre-
Cluue the buTNlNdl OF any SEEDS or spores, II eX-
p to difused light for some three months
have transmitted themselves into living organ.
isms. molds, or torulae But these. when re-
moved from the solution, are not yet exactly
alive; they require to be fed with suitable
rourishment
They are transpanted with all precautions
into nutrient solutions, and they multiply and
be recognized as alive by any competent
microscopic The difficulty which meets one
at the outset is that the organisms which are
thus produced are comparatively complicated;
they are by no means simple cells. One would
imagine that the primordial cell would be of
exceedingly simple structure
Professor Bastians earlier papers were chaL
lenged by Professor Tyndall Tyndan showed
that it is easy TO exclude spores from a solu-
ton from which organisms could derive nour.
ishment. and in which they could grow, by fl
tering all air through cotton WOOL or by pass
ing it through a sufficiently long tube in which