Page 511 - My FlipBook

PHYSrOLOGICAL CONSIDERATION OF LIFE-FORCE. 521

Still stronger words than these have been spoken against the doctrine
of spontaneous generation. It is even admitted by nearly all the fore-
most evolutionists themselves that as yet not an instance of life-forma-
tion without seed has been made out. "It is true," say they, "that
the knowledge of man has not yet enabled him to make a vegetable or
animal germ, but the time may come when it will be done."
"'To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,'" says Dr. Beale,
" has always been the refuge of the philosophers who have faith in the
dogma that matter alone is competent to develop every form of life.
But the 'to-morrow' of Lucretius has not yet dawned; and how^ many
thousand years, I would ask, may be expected to pass away before the
prophecies of those who would now go along with Lucretius shall be
fulfilled?" Again, speaking directly of the theory of spontaneous
generation, he says: "I cannot but remark that the more minutely
investigation is carried out, the more thoroughly and intently facts
bearing upon the matter are examined, the more improbable, in my
judgment, does it appear that any living form should be derived directly
from the non-living. Notwithstanding all that has been recently written
upon this subject, I cannot but feel surprised that at this time many
good reasoners should decide in favor of the de-novo origin even of
bacteria. Whether we consider the matter from the experimental side
only, or study the evidence obtained in a general survey of Nature, or
carefully reflect upon the facts learned from investigations concerning the
properties of living and non-living matter with the aid of the most
perfect instruments of minute research now at command or from other
standpoints, the conclusion seems to me irresistible that the verdict of a
jury of well-educated men would be against the direct origin of any
form of living from any form of non-living." ^
Pasteur asserts decisively, "There is no circumstance now known
that permits us to affirm that microscopic beings have come into the
world without germs, without parents like themselves. Those who
affirm it have been victims of illusions, of experiments badly made,
and infected with errors which they have not been able to perceive or
avoid. Spontaneous generation is a chimera."
Did our limits allow we might multiply quotations almost indef-
initely to show that the most thoughtful among working scientists, both
at home and abroad, deny that there have been proved cases either of
transmuted species or of spontaneous generation. On the contrary,
experimental investigation is constantly furnishing positive proof of the
permanence of species, and so intensifying the vast dissimilarities be-
tween the living and the non-living as to preclude the possibility of
drawing even an analogy between the properties peculiar to living mat-
ter and any properties known in connection with the non-living.
The distinctive characteristic of non-living matter is rest; the dis-
tinctive trait of living matter is motion, life. The non-living, once
its parts invariably pre-
formed, never changes from internal causes ;
serve the position which they have once taken in respect to each other,
unless endowed with the properties of life by the aid of organisms
already living. Living bodies, on the contrary, from the very lowest in
' On Life and on Vital Action in Health and Disease.