Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/12

 6 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

chanicfl^ physics and chemistry since the time of Newton and of evo* lutionary thought since Lamarck and Darwin.

Second : the second question relates to the exact significance of the term evolution when applied to lifeless and to living matter. Is the development of life evolutionary in the same sense or is it essentially different from that of the inorganic world? Let us critically examine this question by comparing the evolution of life with what is known of the evolution of matter^ of the evolution of the stars^ of the formation of the earth; in brief ^ of the comparative anatomy and physiology of the universe as developed in the preceding lectures of this course by Kuther- ford," Campbell,* and Chamberlin;' of the possible evolution of the chem- ical elements themselves from simpler forms, in passing from primitive nebulse through the hotter stars to the planets, as first pointed out by Clarke' in 1873, and by Lockyer in 1874.

Do we find a correspondence between the orderly development of the stars and the orderly development of life ? Do we observe in life a con- tinuation of processes which in general have given us a picture of the imiverse slowly cooling ofiE and running down; or, after hundreds of millions of years of more or less monotonous repetition of purely physico- chemical and mechanical reaction, do we find that electrons, atoms, and molecules break forth into new forms and manifestations of energy which appear to be "creative," conveying to our eyes at least the im- pression of incessant genesis of new combinations of matter, of energy, of form, of function, of character?

To our senses it seems as if the latter view were the correct one, as if something new had been breathed into the aging dust, as if the first appearance of life on this planet marked an actual reversal of the previ- ous order of things. Certainly the cosmic processes cease to run down and begin to build up, abandoning old forms and constructing new ones. Through these activities within matter in the living state the dying earth, itself a mere cinder from the sun, develops new chemical com- pounds; the chemical elements of the ocean are enriched from new sources of supply, as additional amounts of chemical compounds, pro- duced by organisms from the soil or by elements in the earth that were not previously dissolved, are liberated by life processes and ultimately carried out to sea; the very composition of the rocks is changed; a new life crust begins to cover the earth and to spread over the bottom of the sea. Thus our old inorganic planet is reorganized, and we see in living matter a reversal of the melancholy conclusion reached by Campbell^ that

sButherford, Sir Ernest, 1914.

«CampbeU, William Wallace, 1914.

Chamberlin Thomas Chrowder, 1916.

• Clarke, P. W., 1873, p. 323.

7 GampbeU, William Wallace, 1915, p. 209.

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