ORIGIN OF LIFE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 403, 11 July 1928, Page 6

ORIGIN OF LIFE

WHAT SCIENCE TELLS OLD THEORIES DISPELLED Demonstrating the futility of the spontaneous generation theory, experiments were made last evening at the Auckland University College by Professor J. C. SperrinJohnson, professor of biology at the college. Professor Sperrin- Johnson recalled that unsuccessful attempts had been made to reproduce forms of life by chemical means. He reviewed quaint beliefs of the 17th century and earlier that bees, beetles, rats, worms and snails sprang from impure matter. One recipe described how to make a minute human race by a paracelsian system. "Pasteur largely dispelled medieval beliefs about spontaneous generation, or abiogenesis,” he said, "Pasteur showed that if organic matter were sterilised and kept from dust in the atmosphere, putrefaction would not occur.” GERM THEORY OF DISEASE "Although the germ theory of disease is now almost universally held, it is surprising that there are still investigators with the old idea of spontaneous generation. The growth in the substance of living organisms is due to faulty sterilisation. "Antiseptic surgery nowadays is not designed to kill, but only to depress the vitality of bacteria,” said the speaker. “In health, the tissue juices are antiseptic and attack the toxin of microbes. The modern idea is not to kill the microbes, but to keep them out as much as possible and, by injuring the tissues as little as possible, encourage rapid healing.”

lodine poured into a wound irritated the tissues and was only used in emergency. The idea of wiping away the blood from a wound was irrational. Provided the blood was clean, the proper thing to do was to cover it up and so prevent contact with the air and its attendant bacteria.