Part 8 (2/2)

We refer to these several statements of fact for the purpose of emphasizing the true genesis of life as supplemented by ”the incidence of different conditions,” on which all vital manifestations depend. The presence of the germinal principles of life in the earth is emphatically averred in the Bible genesis. And we have only to connect the doctrine of ”conditional incidence” with this averment, to account for all the vital phenomena which so profoundly puzzle these gentlemen while prying into the mysteries of the ephemeromorphic world. Whatever may be the character of any infusion, or to whatever incidence of conditions it may be subjected, it will produce _some_ form of life; not because it contains this or that morphological cell, destructible at a temperature of 100A deg. C--that to which it is experimentally subjected before microscopic examination,--but because every organic infusion, whether undergoing the required heat-test or not, contains vital units--those as indestructible by heat as by glacial drift--which burgeon forth into life whenever the proper conditions of environment obtain. The slightest variation, in either the quant.i.ty or quality of the material employed in the infusion, is, as these eminent microscopists agree, invariably accompanied by the appearance of different forms of life, just as the slightest change in soil-conditions, such as that produced by the presence of one species of tree with another in natural truffle-grounds, will result in the appearance of another and altogether different plant, as well as truffle tuber.

But the theory which the vitalists are more particularly called upon to combat is that to which the non-vitalists most rigidly adhere; and we refer to it, in this connection, that the reader may compare its complexity and involution of statement and idea with the extreme simplicity of the biblical genesis, as heretofore presented. We give it in the exact phraseology employed by Professor Bastian: ”Living matter is formed by, or is the result of, certain combinations and rearrangements that take place _in invisible colloidal molecules_--a process which is essentially similar to the mode by which higher organisms are derived from lower in the pellicle of an organic infusion.” This carefully-worded definition of life, or the origin of ”living matter,” presents a hypothetical mode of reasoning which is eminently characteristic of all materialists. In the stricter definitional sense of the word, there is no such thing as ”living matter” or ”dead matter,” as we have before claimed.

There are ”living organisms” in mult.i.tudinous abundance--those resulting _from_, not _in_, the _vis vitA

_, or the elementary principle of life in nature--as there are also ”dead organisms” in abundance. This materialistic definition of life, which is not so much as a generic one even, begins in an absurdity and ends in one. It is agreed that the ”proligerous pellicle” of M. Pouchet, the ”plastide particle” of Professor Bastian, the ”monas” of O.F. MA1/4ller, the ”bioplast” of Professor Beale, etc., are essentially one and the same thing, except in name. They are mere moving specks, or nearly spherical particles, which exhibit the first active movements in organic solutions. They vary in size from the one hundred-thousandth to the one twenty-thousandth of a second of an inch in diameter, and appear at first hardly more than moving specks of semi-translucent mucus. Indeed, Burdach calls them ”primordial mucous layers.” But they move, pulsate, swarm into colonies, and act as if they were guided, not by separate intelligence, but by some master-builder supervising the whole work of organic structure. This master-builder is the one ”elementary unit of life,” which directs the movements of all the plastide particles, constantly adding to their working force, from the first primordial mucous layer of the superstructure to the majestic dome of thought (in the case of man) which crowns the temple of G.o.d on earth.[24]

But this ”pellicle” of Professor Bastian is not mere structureless matter, any more than the ”bioplast” of Professor Beale. The fact that they move, pulsate, work in all directions, shows that they have the necessary organs with which to work. These organs may be invisible in the field of the microscope, but that is no proof that they do not exist. Organs are as essential for locomotion in a plastide particle as in a mastodon or megatherium, and if the microscope could only give back the proper response, we should see them, if not be filled with wonder at the marvellous perfection of their structure. But into whatever divisions or cla.s.sifications we may distinguish or generalize the properties of matter, we can never predicate _vitality_ of it, any more than we can predicate _intellectuality_. Indeed, ”intellectual matter” presents no greater incongruity or invalidity of conception than ”vital matter.” These qualifying terms are applied to the known laws and forces of nature, not to insensate matter. To a.s.sert that life results _from_ ”certain combinations and rearrangements of matter,” and not _in_ them, is utterly to confound cause and effect, or so incongruously mingle them together that no logical distinction between the two can exist as an object of perception. Without the _vis vitA

_, or some germinal principle of life, lying back of these ”combinations and rearrangements of matter,” and determining the movements of their const.i.tuent molecules, there could be no vital manifestation, any more than there could be a correlate of a force without the actual existence of the force itself. [25]

The materialists give the name of ”protoplasm” to that primitive structureless ma.s.s of h.o.m.ogeneous matter in which the lowest living organisms make their appearance. They claim that this generic substance is endowed with the property or power of producing life _de novo_, or, as Professor Bastian puts it, of ”unfolding new-born specks of living matter”

which subsequently undergo certain evolutional changes; but whether they die in their experimental flasks, or rise into higher and more potentially endowed forms of life, it is difficult for those following their diagnoses to determine. They further claim that the same law of vital manifestation obtains in organic solutions as in the structureless ma.s.s they call ”protoplasm.” Both are essentially endowed with the same potentiality of originating life independently of vital units, or _de novo_, as they more persistently phrase it. But why speak of _unfolding_ ”new-born specks of living matter?” ”To unfold” means to open the folds of something--to turn them back, get at the processes of their _infoldment_. It implies a pre-existing something, inwrapped as a germ in its environment. If not a germ, what is this pre-existing vital something which their language implies? Is our scientific technology so dest.i.tute of definitional accuracy that they cannot use half a dozen scientific terms without committing half that number of down-right scientific blunders? ”New-born specks of living matter” is language that a vitalist might possibly use by sheer inadvertence; but no avowed materialist, like Professor Bastian, should trip in this definitional way.

”Living matter,” _born_ of what? Certainly not of _dead_ matter. Death quickens nothing into life, not even the autonomous moulds of the grave.

It implies the absence of all vitality--a state or condition of matter in which all vital functions have been suspended, have utterly ceased, if, indeed, they ever existed. It behooves the materialists to use language with more precision and accuracy than this. ”Dead matter,” whatever the phrase may imply, can bear nothing, produce nothing, quicken nothing. The pangs of death once past, the pangs of life cease. Nor is there any birth from unquickened matter. Animals _bear_ young, trees _bear_ fruit, but force _produces_ results. What then quickens protoplasmic matter? Neither vital force, nor vegetative force, if we are to credit the materialists.

They would scorn to postulate such a theory, or accept any such absurd remnant of the old vitalistic school. It is rather ”molecular force”--a physical, not a vital unit--that gives us these ”new-born specks of living matter.” [26] This is what they would all a.s.sert at once, in their enthusiasm to enlighten us on a new terminology.

But ”molecular force” fails to give us any additional enlightenment on the subject we are investigating. It is even less satisfactory than ”atomic force,” or ”elementary force”--that which may be considered as inhering in the elementary particles from which both atoms and molecules are derived.

And since both the ultimate atom and the ultimate molecule lie beyond microscopic reach, the a.s.sumption that vital phenomena are the result of either molecular force or atomic force, rests upon no other basis than that of imaginary hypothesis. To postulate any such theory of life, is going beyond the limits of experimental research and inquiry, and hence adopting an unscientific method. At what point the smallest living organism is launched into existence--started on its life-journey--no one is confident enough to a.s.sert. The materialist is just as dumb on this subject as the vitalist; and the only advantage he can have over his antagonist is to stand on this extreme verge of attenuated matter, and deny the existence of any force beyond it. The postulation by him of molecular force at this point, is virtually an abandonment of the whole controversy. He ceases to be a materialist the moment he pa.s.ses the visible boundaries of matter, in search of anything like ”undifferentiated sky-mist” beyond it.

All that we definitely know is that certain conditions of protoplasmic matter, of organic solutions, of soil-const.i.tuents, etc., produce certain forms of life; and, in the case of solutions, certain low forms of life: But whether the lower rise, by any insensible gradations, into the higher, more complex, and definitely expressed forms of life, is altogether unknown. That any such gradations can be traced from the lowest vital unit, in the alleged collocations of molecules, is not yet claimed. These primordial collocations, like the lowest living organisms, lie beyond the microscopic aids to vision, so that the ultimate genesis of life remains as much a mystery as ever--becomes, in fact, a mere speculative hypothesis. And when it comes to this sort of speculation, the materialist is just as much in the dark as the vitalist, and neither can have any advantage over the other, except as the one may adopt the a.n.a.lytic, and the other the synthetic method.

This is the materialistic argument covering the _de novo_ origin of living organisms:--There is no greater microscopical evidence, they a.s.sert, that these organisms come from pre-existing invisible germs or vital units, than that crystals are produced in a similar manner--that is, come from pre-existing invisible germs of crystals. But this is overlooking all generic distinction in respect to processes or modes of action. Crystals are inorganic matter which _form_, do not _grow_. They are mere symmetrical arrangements, not organic growths; and are produced by some law akin to chemical affinity, acting on the molecules of their const.i.tuent ma.s.s. They possess no vital function. They show no beginning or cessation of life. But, once locked up in their geometric solids, they remain permanently enduring forms--concessively inorganic, not functionally-endowed, matter. To speak, therefore, of the ”germs of crystals,” is using language that has no appreciable significance to us.

Germs are embryonic, and imply a law of growth--a process of a.s.similation, not of mere aggregation.

But, at the risk of being tedious, let us extend this argument of the materialists a little further: The only difference, they will still insist, between the preA”xisting germs of crystals and plants--or the only difference essentially worth noticing--is that crystalline particles of matter are endowed with much less potentiality of undergoing diversified forms and structural changes than the more highly favored vital particles, such as the proligerous pellicle, the bioplast, the plastide, etc. The one represents mere crystallizable matter, the other the more complex colloidal or alb.u.minoid substance, or that capable of producing a much greater number of aggregates. The a.n.a.logies, they concede, end here. But the difference is world-wide when we come to processes--the true experimental test in all cla.s.sification. Crystallizable substances _crystallize_--that is all. They pa.s.s into a fixed and immovable state, and mostly into one as enduring as adamant; while colloidal or alb.u.minoid matter (laboratory protoplasm) takes on no fixed forms--only those that are ephemeral, merely transitory. This is so marked a feature, in respect to all the primordial forms of life, that Professor Bastian gives them the more distinctive name of ”ephemeromorphs,” in place of _infusoria_. But all these primordial forms grow--develop into vital activity. Not so with a solitary crystal. Everywhere the statical unit _forms_, the dynamical unit _grows_; the one aggregates, the other a.s.similates; the one solidifies, the other opens up into living tissue; the one rests in the embrace of eternal silence, the other breaks the adamantine doors, and makes nature resonant with praise.

Great stress is laid by the materialists on the changeability of certain microscopic forms, and the startling metamorphoses they apparently undergo in different infusions, especially those forms having developmental tendencies towards fungi and certain low forms of algA

. They attribute their different modes of branching, articulation, segmentation of filaments, etc., both to intrinsic tendencies and extrinsic causes, the latter depending, no doubt, in a great measure upon the chemical changes constantly taking place in their respective infusions. These intrinsic tendencies, they would have us believe, depend upon the dynamic force of molecules, rather than any vital unit, or even change in elementary conditions. But ”Dynamism” simply implies that force inheres in, or appertains to, all material substance, without specifically designating either the quant.i.ty or quality of the inhering force. If these materialists, therefore, use the terms ”dynamic force,” in this connection, in the sense in which we use vital force, or in the sense in which they use ”statical force” as applied to the formation of crystals, in contradistinction from ”dynamical force” as applied to living organisms, we have no special objection to urge against this particular formula. It presents no such formidable antagonism as the vitalists would expect to encounter from them.

M. Dutrochet is approvingly quoted by Professor Bastian, as a.s.serting that he could produce different genera of mouldiness (low mycological forms) _at will_, by simply employing different infusions. This is unquestionably true, with certain limitations. And the chief limitation is as to _his_ (M. Dutrochet's) will. He might ”will,” for instance, to plant one field with corn and another with potatoes, but if the husbandman he employed to do the planting should happen to plant the one crop where he had willed to plant the other, and corn should grow where potatoes were planted, and _vice versa_, then he might be said to have produced corn _at will_. And so of his infusions. No change in their conditions enabled him to produce one species, much less a genus, of mouldiness in preference to another, by any change in the infusions employed by him. The power which implants life in the mycological world, implants it in every other world, from that without beginning to that without end. And this implanted life is quite as complete in one form as another,--

”As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns, As the rapt seraph that adores and burns.”

All that the materialists can claim respecting man's agency in the production of life is, that he may take advantage of the uniform laws of nature, so far as they are known to him, planting seeds here, changing chemical conditions there, using different infusions in his experimental flasks,--organic or inorganic, as he may choose--and then await the action of these uniform laws. He will find them operative everywhere, and if he studies them deeply enough, he will find that they are not so much the laws of nature as they are the laws of nature's G.o.d.

Professor Bastian thinks he has conclusive evidence that what he calls ”new-born specks of living matter” are produced _de novo_, that is, independently of any conceivable germ or germinal principle of life implanted in nature. But he confounds this implanted principle of life with the living organism it produces. His morphological cells, as well as plastide particles, are among these living organisms, as is conclusively shown by his own experiments. These all perish in his super-heated flasks.

But the vital principle that produced them--that which becomes germinal under the proper conditional incidences--he can no more destroy by experimentation than he can create a new world or annihilate the old one.

His flask experiments, therefore, prove nothing; and all this talk about _de novo_ production is the sheerest scientific delusion. For, were it possible to destroy every plant, tree, shrub, blade of gra.s.s, weed, seed, underground root, nut, and tuber to-day, the earth would teem with just as diversified a vegetation as ever to-morrow. A few trees, like the gigantic conifers of the Pacific slope, might not make their appearance again, and some plants might drop out of the local flora; but the _Pater omnipotens Ather_ of Virgil, would descend into the bosom of his joyous spouse (the earth), and, great himself, mingle with her great body, in all the prodigality, profusion, and wealth of vegetation as before.[27]

But these defiant challengers of the vitalists, who refuse us even the right to a.s.sume the existence of a special ”vital force” in nature, are anything but consistent in their logical deductions. For while they resolutely deny the invasion of vital germs in their experimental flasks, they talk as flippantly of the ”germs of crystals,” and their presence in saline and other solutions, as if there were no scientific formula more satisfactorily generalized than that establis.h.i.+ng their existence. Even Professor Bastian speaks of ”germs,” in a general sense, as if they thronged the earth, air, water, and even the stratified rocks, in countless and unlimited numbers. But we fail to see that any of his accurately obtained results determine their exclusion from the experimental media employed by him for that purpose. His unit of value is a morphological cell, a derivative organism rather than a primary vital unit; and all organisms are, as we have before said, destructible by heat.

Professor Aga.s.siz is pretty good authority for doubting the existence of such a cell. The difficulty of a.s.signing to it any definitional value is, that it lies too near the ultimate implications of matter--those shadowy and inexplicable confines not yet reached--to admit of any scientific explication necessarily resting on objective data. If they mean by ”germs”

primary organic cells, then none exist in their super-heated infusions, and they are logical enough in rejecting the idea of their invasion. But in a.s.suming the cell to be the ultimate unit of value, is where they trip in attribution, and stumble upon a partial judgment only.

The only value attaching to their theory of crystalline germs is, that it conclusively establishes the law of uniformity by which all structural forms are determined, whether they originate in organic infusions or inorganic solutions--in protoplasm or protoprism. The crystalline system presents no variability in types, but a rigid adherence to specific forms of definitely determined value. Whatever geometrical figure any particular crystal a.s.sumed at first, it has continued to a.s.sume ever since, and will forever a.s.sume hereafter. As a primary conception of the ”Divine Intendment” (to speak after the manner of Leibnitz) it can neither change itself, nor become subject to any law of change, or variability, from eternally fixed types. And this is as demonstrably true of all living types, after reaching the point of heredity, as of the countless crystalline forms that go to make up the princ.i.p.al bulk of our planet. In this light, and as affording this conclusive induction, the crystalline argument of the materialists has its value.

The materialists should not too mincingly chop logic over the validity of their own reasoning. If they force upon us their conclusions respecting statical aggregates, or crystalline forms, let them accept the inductions that inevitably follow in the case of dynamical aggregates, or living organisms. Beggars of conditions should not be choosers of conditions, nor should they be al lowed to dodge equivalent judgments where the validity of one proposition manifestly rests upon that of another. If they insist upon the presence of a chemical unit, or, worse still, a crystalline ”germ” or unit, in the case of statical aggregations, they are effectually estopped from denying the presence of vital units in dynamical aggregations. And if they further force upon us the conviction that the process of aggregation, when once determined, remains in the one case, eternally fixed and certain, they should not be permitted to turn round and insist that, in the other case, there is nothing fixed and certain, but all is variability, change, uncertainty of specific forms.

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