Bathybius and Radiobe

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 16, 18 April 1907, Page 10

Bathybius and Radiobe

True science is without prejudices. Scientists, . however, start sometimes with prepossessions that impair the value of thdir Work. Have we" not, for instance, the historic case of Darwin in a tremor of expectant fear lest some of his investigations might upset one of the theories to which he , was wefdded ?- And when Huxley was inquiring into the origin of life, and founds that it came only and always from pre-existing life, di>d 'he not express his disappointment. that the evidence was not the other way ? If a train were to run up against a cow, ,it would (said Engineer Stevenson to; the Lrords' Committee) be ' sac much the waur for the coo \ When a fact bumps a theory, it is so much tl*e worse for the theory. But among sciolists, and~ainong scientists of strong prejudice, the theory is noC shaped to suit the facts, but the facts are filed down or built •up or pulled and twisted tbis way/ _ or that to jsuit the theory. In 1868 Huxley first described a deep-sea slime which had been _ dragged up from the floor of the Atlantic. This slime (Huxley thought) bridged the- gulf between the inorganic and the organic worlds, and showed low foHms of life in the actual process of being spontanously • generated out of non-living and formless" matter. He named tlie stuff ' Bathybius Haeckelii ' (Haeckels bathybius). Careful experiments by Mr. John' Murray, however, conclusively prcived that the mass of ocean-slime that was supposed" to be "matter spontaneously generating life, was ' only a gelatinous precipitate of sulphate of lime from . sea-water mixed with alcobiol. 1 Huxley had sufficient reverence for scientific truth to. abandon his • bathybius '. Haeckel, however, clung to the beloved slime that had been named in nis honor. " But the mystery of life remained where it had' ever been,. . A similar fate has. befallen the interesting investigations of Mr. Butler Burke, accounts of which were cabled to our "shores, coupled with wild statements and unscientific inferences and predictions which went vastly farther than the facts at any time warranted. We take from a contemporary the following story . of ttoe upshot; of Mr. Burkes investigations :— ' It has nbw been demonstrated that Mr. Butler Burike*s investigations of _ the action of radium on •gelatine' and other culture media," by which it is was claimed about

two years ago tMt he had thrown considerable, light on the origin of life, were not quite so far-reaching as sdme people thought. The "Standard" says that Mr W. A. Douglas Rudge has just published in -the papers of the Royal Society the account of a series of^nost interesting experiments which he -has made. Suspecting the cause to be purely chemical,. Miv Rudge subjected tfoe gelatine to the acticm of the other metallic salts Barium; which is,' of- course, a constant impurity ■- in ■ radium, gave the effect even better than radium itself. Though from the outset jthe majority of biologists refused to look on Mr. Burkes " radiobes " as being in any. way connected with the origin of life, thAr refusal was based cm purely biological considerations. They were quite unable to suggest any explanation* of the phenomenon. Mr. Rudge, however, has settled the - matter once for- all. There can be no- doubt that the cells ", axer nothing else than .the insoluble sulphates - of certain metals which, form » about a core of gelatine. The limits of .the- precipitation of the sulphates vary according to the larger or smaller area through, which 'the metallic salts are able to diffuse.' And so we get back,, and ever and ever back, to the ■scientific truth, ' Evejy lining thing ~ bomes from a living thing, every cell from a cell, every -nucleus from a nucleus.' ' Upon this point,', says Gerard in his 'Old Riddle ' (1904); there is now complete agreement aroiongst scientific authorities, ' and (what is more remarkable) none "are more strenuous in upholding the doctrine of Biogenesis \. (the derivation of life from life" alone) ' than some of those who. with equal vehemence - proclaim, the doctrine of Evolution, for which the occurrence of spontaneous generation is a - necessity .' The " missing links ' between the 'organic and inorganic worlds, and between the anthropoid ape and man, have often been announced. But they have "persistently refused to materialise and put themselves on exhibition.