Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-08-19
Scientific Discussions
by Garrett P. SerUiss

Is matter inert or is it eternaIlv
charged with life. or the possibility Of
entering into new combinations and
producing new forms?
Is there inorganic life as we'll as or
game, and If so where does the one be-
gin and the other end?
where did the first germ of life come
from, and how did it assimulate to
itself a material body?
have heard 1t said that Prof. Loeb
claims to have produced life in his
laboratory, using only matter. Is this
true?
ARTHUR ECKENBERG.
Life is like an axiom in that every
body regards it as self-evident in its
nature, but to explain it logically by
rigid analysis is very difficult if not
impossible. To speak of inorganic
life is contradiction in terms, since
the words Organic" and inorganic
were invented for the purpose of dis
t'ngushing between living and nom
living things
1t is true that If it can ever be
proved that life is only the product, or
result, of the operation of chemical and
physical forces a continuality will be
established between the reactions that
go on in the inorganic world and the
processes of life in the organic world,
and then it will only remain to link
them up logically so that we can trace
clearly the intervening steps. But
this, 1 think, is very far from having
been done.
The manner of origin of life is still
mystery that has not been satisfac-
torily explained. Once started in the
cell, or germ, life goes on in ways that
can be controlled, but experiment has,
% fIA .-1I.. EasI a.
develop new life from nonliving mat
ter.
AS to the source from which the first
germ of life came, 1 have never been
able to see the necessity of assuming,
as was done, for instance. in Lord Kel-
wins hypothesis of n visiting meteor
laden with life spores, that life could
not have begun on this earth as we'll
as on some other world out in space
which was afterward clown to pieces.
That looks to me like very cumbr ous
and expensive method of distributing :
life through the universe.
l do not believe that it was sent
about by celestial bombs from some
central distributing plant, which had to
perish in the process. l do believe
that it originated on the earth itself,
hut precisely how it was done nobody
knows. If its origin was due to some
peculiar state of matter which no
longer exists, then we cannot hope to
produce life from nonliving matter,
unless that ancient state of things
should be revived.
1t may be thought that science could
discover a way to revive the necessary
conditions although Nature has aban-
doned them. At any rate we are face
to face with the fact that, as far as
hn of
longer brings absolutely new life into
existence She continues to extend it
in an endless chain, which branches
off many ways, but no new chain of
life is begun-at least not to our
knowledge.
There is a tendency in biology to
interpret many of the actions of liv-
ing things as simply reactions to slim
uli. such aszlight or heat, and not as
the result of free choice on the part of
the organism. If this be granted for
simple forms of life the question i'm
mediately arises whether 1t applies
universally throughout the whole
gamut of life Are we. who stand at
the top of the list, also cnly machines
acting in cbrdience to rrearranged
forces, and is our fancied self-de-
termination merely a delusion, or are
we exceptional, and If we are ex-
ceptional are there other creatures
below us which are exceptional in a
similar sense, though not enjoying so
high a degree of freedom from auto
matism? These very old questions,
which have fascinated thinking men
from the remotest historical ages,
seem to be as far as ever from a
definite answer.
do not believe that Professor Loeb
has ever claimed to have produced
life in his laboratory using only mat
ter" What ne and others have done
is to cause the eggs of certain crea-
lures, for instance, sea urchins, to pro-
dure youn:s without being fertilized in
the normal manner But this iss a
totally different thing from producing
life out of nonliving matter. since the
eggs are already charged with life, and
all that the experimenter has done is
to supply artihcally a chemical stirnu-
lus needed for their development.