Year: 1875

TIE ORIGIN or LIFE on THE EARTH


In recent years the conflict between theology
and science has been most violent upon ques-
tions as to the origin and development OF life
on this planet. The studies of Dr. Bastian, and
the apparent evidence which he brought for
ward that life might be created out of dead
matter here and now, concentrated the struS-
gle at that point for some time. Doubt al
most amounting to disproof was thrown
on his experiments, when it was shown
that slightly higher temperature than
he had employed killed the germs in
his sealed TASKS, or at all events rendered
the solutions incapable of originating life. BY
many the failure Of these experiments was
held as conclusive against the theory, while
by others it was regarded as no evidence that
the production of life from inorganic matter
mioM not have taken place under favoring cir
cumstances in ages past.


A letter in another column calls attention to
a comparatively new theory upon this subject.
Briefly stated. it is that the germs of life We're
brought to this earth from the regions of
space by meteoric downfalls. Much of the
evidence that renders this strange theory
tenable is adduced by our correspondent



The presence of carbon in meteOric
dust and stones does not stand alone on mi
croscopic and chemical tests. II is well known
that several comets, if not all, are accompanied
and followed by trains of meteoric bodies !;
indeed that the whole cOmetary substance Is
largely composed of them seems every way
probable. But in the case of several
comets-among the rest the last bright
one known az Cogga's - the light that
streams from them, analyzed by the spectre
scope, distinctly indicates the presence of car
bon. The spectrum of at least one comet Is
more like that of the vapOr OF olive oil than
like any other substance known to chemists.
Still another proof has been brought
forward very recently-by Prof. j. Law
renee Smith at the last meeting of
our National Academy of Sciences. He found
a substance, which he considers "A hydro-carbOn,
in the interior of large mass Of meteoric
iron and he thinks that sulphur also forms
part of this strange liquid. Such compound
rs that might well lead to the belief that it
was of an organic nature.


Either this substance does or does not con-
tain living germs. If it does not, there is an
end of its service to the question at issue : to
grant to its Inorganic elemeGts-no matter
what they are-the property of combining so
as to produce life, il to allow all that is asked
by the believers in "the promise and potency"
of matter. If it does contain vital germs what
experiences they must have passed through I!
Subjected to the cold of space-a cold so in
tense that nothing within the chemists art
has ever remotely approached it; heated
perhaps to the degree of becoming
luminous if this substance forms the
envelope Of comets; stewed perhaps in the
interior of a red-hot aerolite as it fell from
the sky; yet retaining vitality enough to start
life upon desolate earth. Germs that could
survive such rough treatment certainly surpass
any that Pastcur boiled to death in his
controversy with. Bastian. To remove the
origin of life to On infinite past in the Uni
verse outside Of us, would perhaps dispose
of biological theory which is distasteful
to many minds. Whether it is worth
while for such reason, however, to grasp
at once o theory which makes such heavy
draft on our notions of probability, may be
doubted. If it be accepted, there still lies a
question behind it--Wherc did life In the Uni
verse originate (which will be as far Us ever
from a scientific answer.


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