THE MYSTERY OF LIFE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1605, 23 November 1912, Page 7

THE MYSTERY OF LIFE.

'— } — ■ ITS-ORIQIN AND NATURE. ARTICLE BY SIR OLIVER LODGE. Sir Oliver Lodge has a very lucid articlo . on the problem of the origin of life in the .''Contemporary Review." ■ • "The business of a biologist is to study the phenomena exhibited by matter un- " der the influence of life," he says. "It is not his business to know-what matter is, or to know what life is, nor even to understand the way in wiliich one interacts with the other. He need not discuss the ultimate nature of their interaction: that may be the business of the metaphysician, . or it may be a problem unsoluble in tho present state of our. ignorance. ..Anyhow, ths interaction of life and matter occurs, and the interaction of mind and.matter ocouts.' - There is no question about that: it is 1 ah affair of common and is conspicuous, to anyone, who considers his own We do not in the least understand them, but they are there; and to shut our eyes .to manifest facts in order to grope ifter. some' recondite theory is "not a'sensible attitude. The laws connecting, life, and .mind, and matter, may belong to an aspect of the'universe distinct from those which the biologist is studying; they are more likely to be appropriate to the "consideration of the psyOur Limited Power. "Another thing to remember is that the artificial production of a thing does not exhaust; .or even explain,its nature. Laboratory control fives us a .better chance of Investigation; but, otherwise leaves its mystery unchanged. Though a child may stroke a: piece of steel with a magnet,, and may go on inlthis way gen-* erating magnetism ivithout limit bjr simple acts of movement,- the production of magnetisnl is-really , due to .certain molecular and ethereal processes, not fully .understood by s Sir Isaac Newton, Lord Kelvin, Lord Rayloighy.or anybody. "A thiTd thing to remember is that the power of humanity in the.physical world is strictly. limited !to'. movement,-i.e., to muscular ■ action,- • stimulated. and guided by brain and'nerve processes, i John btuart Mill-pointed'out clearly enough, and other philosophers "may have statod it before, that all -that man and animals can do, of their own volition, is to move a piece of matter from one place to another. Everything else that'happens in consequence of that movement must depend on tlio properties of the matter itself, or on things which happen beyond our knowledge and control. >'Volta moved 1 zinc and copper into acid, and an electric current resulted. The current was guided by wires through liquids, and chemical-phenomena of great interest occurred. Faraday moved a conductor near a magnet, and the result has been the dynamo. Graham Bell arranged a ; coil of wire and an 'iron plate in the vicinity of a. magnet, and made a tele--phon?. :V Madame - Curie ..mixed together, certain chemicals, separating them and combining' them in accordance with • a well-thought-out scheme, and the Tesult is radium. She may be said to have manufactured radium or discovered radium, . or whatever the proper phrase it; but the radium was there all the time. . If Life 'Results. - ■ "Let.;ils assume, , for., the present—as I myself, assumed, ia the .first chapter of • 'Man a'nd'the .Universe,' .in 'Life .and Mat- * teT/.i and elsewhere—that &' positive iesult 'in so^lled. I ;si>ontaneo]is' generation will - some day. be' "attainable, 'and that'/a, low form of life may come into'being under observation; and-let .us consider .what : it; will, (really mean when such a thing happens. All that the experimenter will have dono" will have been to place "fiertain;"things together—te submit, ' for instance, chemical-compounds to certain influences. If;life results; it will'be because of the' properties of those 'materials,. and of th-ej laws of interaction of life and matter,' just, as truly as when al , seed is put. into the ground. It will be \ a step beyond that, tjiily, but it ivill be a .step not of a wholly-dissimilar kind-. The nature of life will not bo more known, than .before. . ; .To Catch Life, at It. : _ ''The position ; may bei 6tated'' thus Life' has undoubtedly originated on this planet somehow. - There waa a time when ; the. whole earth' was: molten, and ' purely inorganic—many, million years ago cer-. tainly, perhaps a-thousand million years ago.- Common observation shows that its surface "is'flooded with'organic'life now. Terrestrial life originated in ways unknown. and at times unknown; it may have entered into relation with matter gradually, and solely in the past, it may perhaps be incarnating' itself likewise,' here and now; but, so far, the process has never been observed. .' ■. _ "The effort now being made is. to bring . it linder human' observation-. - Perhaps it will occur some dav in a laboratory. If so, at will be a matter ofieitfemei interest, though: it will ; ,be-.a'''fact. extraordinarily difficult to establish.' We shall then begin -to' exairiine-' the (properties of living matter under, very,favourable conditions; and discoveries may -be expected; • But all that humanity, will have done ivill have 'been to place' materials together and watch the result.. I The Theologian's Position. "As TO the_ theological' bearing of the whole "discussion, so far as it can be supposed to have -any—and on the practical aide it must be. regarded as deserving of consideration—l. have dealt with tho pro-' bleip in the first two chapters of 'M(in and the Universe'; and.it may suffice here to indicate the. "bare outline and beginning of that discussion." Life in its ultimate elements and on. its material side is such a simple thing, it is but a slight extension 'of known chemical and physical forces; tho cell must be able to respond to ' stimuli, to assimilate outside materials, and to subdivide; though the origin' of protoplasmic activity itself as yet eludes the laboratory workers; But will the theologian; triumph, in that admission? Will he therein detect at last a dam which shall stem the torrent of ecepticism ? Will he base an argument for the direct action of the Deity in mundane affairs on that failure, and entrench*himself behind that present incompetence of labouring men ? If so, he takes his-stjmd on what may prove a yielding foundation. Dangerous Negations. "Antecedent life oan certainly prepare a suitable habitat, but perhaps a life-re-ceiving preparation may. be"produced in other, at present unknown, ways. In an early stage of civilisation it may have been supposed that flame only proceeded from antecedent flame, but the tinder-box and the lucifer-niatob were invented nevertheless. Theologians have probably learnt by this time that their central tenets should not be founded, even partially, upon nescience, or upon negations of any kind," concludes Sir Oliver Lodge; "lest the placid progress of positive knowledge should once more undermine their position,' and another discovery have to be scouted with alarmed and violent anathemas."