ORIGIN OF LIFE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 130, 19 October 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

ORIGIN OF LIFE

PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED. PROFESSOR SCIIAFER'S NEW THEORY. London, September 7. in the course of his presidential address at tlie British Association meeting at Dundee. Professor K A. Schafer asked the amazing question, "Is it possible for man to make life by artificial mean?" This he answered in the affirmative. His main contentions, broadly summarised, were:— That the line between living and dead things is less sharp than it has hitherto been regarded. That the formation of life by chemical means is possible, and that in this manufacture of Jiving organisms in the laboratory it is ever possible to determine the sex.

The chemical constituents of life, are: Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, water, a number of salts. That having solved the problem of the manufacture of life, chemists will be able to form character, to kill disease, and to solve the problem of heredity. That,_ though it may he possible to make life, it is not possible to resist death.

"The line between inorganic and organic chemistry," he said, "which up to the middle of last century appeared sharp, subsequently became misty and has now disappeared." Even the phenomenon of sex, the president declared, can be reproduced in the sea-urchin, for instance, by purely chemical means. Dr. Schafer quoted Miescher and Kossel for "the fact that a body so important for the nutritive and reproductive functions of the cell as the nucleus—which may be said, indeed, to represent the quintessence of all life—possesses a chemical constitution of no very great complexity; so that we may even hope some day to see the material which composes it prepared synthetically. The elements composing living substance are few im number. Those which are constantly present are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen . With these, both in.nuclear matter and also, but to a less degree, in the more diffuse living material which we know as protoplasm, phosphorus is always associated.

"Moreover, a large proportion, rarely less than 70 per cent. of. water appears essential for any manifestation of life. The presence of certain inorganic salts is no les sessential, chief among them being chloride of sodium and salts of calcium, magnesium potassium, and iron.

"The combination of these leements into a colloidal compound represents the chemical basis of life, and when the chemist succeeds in building up this compound it will without doubt be found to exhibit the phenomena which we are in the habit of associating with the term 'life.'" Having declared that we may one day be able by chemistry to make life, Professor Schafer went further, and predicted the day when we should be able to make character by chemistry, and even to kill disease.

THE MYSTERY OF DEATH. The president touched on the question whether death itself might not be one day destroyed, but he refused to believe that this would ever be possible, though he mentioned a scientist who did. "Heredity also," he said, "is one of the questions the eventual solution of which we must look to the chemist to provide. Are the phenomena of senescence and death a natural and necessary sequence to the existence of life? To most of my audience it will appear that the subject is not open to debate. But some physiologists—Metchnikoff, for example —hold that the condition of senescence is itself abnormal—that old age is a form of disease or is due to disease, and, theoretically at least, is capable of being eliminiated. But even if the ravages ol disease could be altogether eliminated, it is certain that at any rate the fixed cells of the body must eventually grow old and ultimately cease to perform their functions. When this happens to cells which are essential to the life of the organism, general death must result. This will always remain the universal law, from which there is no escape. "All that 'lives must die, passing through nature to eternity.'"

The formation of the nervous system, according to Dr. Schafer, "has been the means of causing the complete divergence of the world of animals from the world of plants, none of which possess any trace of a nervous system. In the abstnce of anything corresponding to a nervous system, it is not possible to suppose tliat .-any plant can ever acquire the least glimmer of intelligence.

NERVE STORMS. "It is due to the readiness by which the action of the heart is influenced. . . by the spread of impulses generated during the nerve storms which we term 'emotions' that, in the language of poetry and even of every day, the word 'heart' has become synonymous with the emotions themselves. Changes in the arteries, like the effects upon the hearc, may also be produced under the influence of emotion. Thus ■blushing' is a purely physiological phenomenon due to diminished action of the muscular tissue of the arteries, while the pallor produced by fright is caused by an increased contraction of that tissue. "Ah emotion of one kind —such as the anticipation of food will cause saliva to flow—'the mouth to water'—whereas an emotion of another kind, such as fear or anxiety, •will stop the secretion, causing the 'tongue to cleave unto the roof of the mouth,' and rendering speech difficult or impossible. Such arrest ot the salivary secretion also makes the swallowingof dry food difficult. Advantage of this fact is taken in the 'ordeal by rice' which used to be employed in the East for the detection of criminals."