THE ORIGIN OF LIFE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3975, 25 July 1929, Page 1

THE ORIGIN OF LIFE.

“Assuming that -life had some such origin as has been suggested (iby arguments in favour of spontaneous generation), can it be held that we are any nearer to an understanding of its nature? ” asked Dr. E. W. Barnes, Bishop of Birmingham, in a lecture at Marischal Colllege Aberdeen. “I would unhesitatingly) reply in the negative. The essential charaletetristic of living tissue is that it registers the past in such a way that what has been tends to determine the present; and to its activity there is no parallel whatever in the inorganic world. AX'fe have not the faintest understanding why a group of chemical substances, mainly •built from carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, should have this sort of unconscious .memory of .past events, this ability to telescope history. .... I would «laim that emergence of life must he regarded as, a, sign of creative activity; and that such activity has brought a higher degree of reality into existence. Nevertheless, the origin of life, like all origins, is in fact hidden i|rom us. A still higher foiim of ‘Creative activity was manifested when, from mere response and from an a lotos t mechanical trial and error, thdre began that awareness which was to culminate for us in the mind of man. In imagination we ioan see such creative activity proceeding for more than twelve hundred million yeajrs upon the earth; and the latter part of the 'prolcess is actually telescoped for our .personal observation as the infant becojines the thoughtful man. But we cannot explain what we observe.”