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recent terms such as archegenesis and archebiosis, for the theory according to which fully formed living organisms sometimes arise from not-living See also:

MATTER

matter. See also:

Aristotle explicitly taught abiogenesis, and laid it down as an observed fact that some animals See also:

SPRING (from " to spring," " to leap or jump up," " burst out," O. Eng., springau, a common Teut. word, cf. Ger. springer, possibly allied to Gr. QnrFpxecOac, to move rapidly)

spring from putrid matter, that plant-lice arise from the See also:

dew which falls on See also:

PLANTS

plants, that fleas are See also:

DEVELOPED

developed from putrid matter, and so forth. T. J. See also:

Parker (Elementary Biology) cites a passage from See also:

Alexander See also:

Ross, who, commenting on See also:

Sir See also:

Thomas See also:

Browne's doubt as to " whether mice may be bred by putrefaction," gives a clear statement of the See also:

COMMON

common See also:

OPINION (Lat. opinio, from opinari, to think)

opinion on abiogenesis held until about two centuries ago. Ross wrote: " So may he (Sir Thomas Browne) doubt whether in See also:

CHEESE (Lat. caseus)

cheese and See also:

TIMBER

timber See also:

WORMS

worms are generated; or if beetles and wasps in cows' dung; or if butterflies, locusts, grasshoppers, See also:

shell-See also:

fish, snails, eels, and such like, be procreated of putrefied matter, which is See also:

apt to receive the See also:

FORM (Lat. forma)

form of that creature to which it is by formative See also:

POWER [WILLIAM GRATTAN] TYRONE (1797-1841)

power disposed. To question this is to question See also:

REASON (Lat. ratio, through French raison)

reason, sense and experience. If he doubts of this let him go to See also:

EGYPT

Egypt, and there he will find the See also:

FIELDS, JAMES THOMAS (1817-1881)

fields swarming with mice, begot of the mud of Nylus, to the See also:

GREAT

great calamity of the in-habitants." The first step in the scientific refutation of tharlheory of abiogenesis was taken by the See also:

ITALIAN

Italian Redi, who, in 1668, proved that no maggots were " bred " in See also:

MEAT

meat on which flies were pre-vented by See also:

WIRE (A.S. wir, a wire; cf. Swed. vire, to twist, M.H.G. wiere, a gold ornament, Lat. viriae, armlets, ultimately from the root wi, to twist, bind)

wire screens from laying their eggs. From the 17th See also:

CENTURY (from Lat. centuria, a division of a hundred men)

century onwards it was gradually shown that, at least in the See also:

case of all the higher and readily visible organisms, abiogenesis did not occur, but that omne vivum e vivo, every living thing came from a pre-existing living thing. The See also:

DISCOVERY

discovery of the See also:

MICROSCOPE (Gr. µucp6s, small, asenreiv, to %view)

microscope carried the refutation further. In 1683 A. See also:

van See also:

LEEUWENHOEK, or LEUWENHOEK, ANTHONY VAN (1632–1723)

Leeuwenhoek discovered bacteria, and it was soon found that however carefully organic matter might be protected by screens, or by being placed in stoppered receptacles, putrefaction set in, and was invariably accompanied by the See also:

APPEARANCE (from Lat. apparere, to appear)

appearance of myriads of bacteria and other See also:

low organisms. As knowledge of microscopic forms of See also:

LIFE

life increased, so the apparent possibilities of abiogenesis increased, and it became a tempting See also:

HYPOTHESIS (from Gr. inrorcOivat, to put under; cf. Lat. suppositio, from sub-ponere)

hypothesis that whilst the higher forms of life arose only by generation from their See also:

KIND (O. E. ge-cynde, from the same root as is seen in " kin," supra)

kind, there was a perpetual abiogenetic fount by which the first steps in the See also:

EVOLUTION

evolution of living organisms continued to arise, under suitable conditions, from inorganic matter.

It was due chiefly to L. See also:

PASTEUR, LOUIS (1822-1895)

Pasteur that the occurrence of abiogenesis in the microscopic See also:

WORLD

world was disproved as much as its occurrence in the macroscopic world. If organic matter were first sterilized and then prevented from contamination from without, putrefaction did not occur, and the matter remained See also:

FREE

free from microbes. The nature of sterilization, and the difficulties in securing it, as well as the extreme delicacy of the manipulations necessary, made it possible for a very See also:

long See also:

time to be doubtful as to the application of the phrase omne vivum e vita to the microscopic world, and there still remain a few belated supporters of abiogenesis. Subjection to the temperature of boiling See also:

WATER

water for, say, See also:

HALF

half an See also:

HOUR

hour seemed an efficient mode of sterilization, until it was discovered that the spores of bacteria are so involved in See also:

HEAT (0. E. haktu, which like " hot," Old Eng. hat, is from the Teutonic type haita, hit, to be hot; cf. Ger. hitze, heiss; Dutch, hitte, heet, &c.)

heat-resisting membranes, that only prolonged exposure to dry, See also:

BAKING

baking heat can be recognized as an efficient See also:

PROCESS

process of sterilization. Moreover, the presence of bacteria, or their spores, is so universal that only extreme pre-cautions guard against a re-infection of the sterilized material. It may now be stated definitely that all known living organisms arise only from pre-existing living organisms. So far the theory of abiogenesis may be taken as disproved. It must be noted, however, that this disproof relates only to known existing organisms. - All these are composed of a definite substance, known as See also:

PROTOPLASM

protoplasm (q.v.), and the See also:

MODERN

modern refutation of abiogenesis applies only to the organic forms in which protoplasm now exists. It may be that in the progress of See also:

SCIENCE (Lat. scientia, from scire; to learn, know)

science it may yet become possible to construct living protoplasm from non-living material. The refutation of abiogenesis has no further bearing on this possibility than to make it probable that if protoplasm ultimately be formed in the laboratory, it will be by a See also:

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

series of stages, the earlier steps being the formation of some substance, or substances, now unknown, which are not protoplasm.

Such intermediate stages may have existed in the past, and the modern refutation of abiogenesis has no application to the possibility of these having been formed from inorganic matter at some past time. Perhaps the words archebiosis, or archegenesis, should be reserved for the theory that protoplasm in the remote past has been developed from not-living matter by a series of steps, and many of those, notably T. H. See also:

HUXLEY, THOMAS HENRY (1825–1895)

Huxley, who took a large See also:

SHARE (O. Eng. scearu, chiefly in compounds, e.g. land-scearu, a share of land, from sceran to cut; cf. " shear" )

share in the process of refuting contemporary abiogenesis, have stated their belief in a primordial archebiosis. (See See also:

BIOGENESIS (from the Gr. (3ios, life, and yi 'eots, generation, birth)

BIOGENESIS and LIFE.) (P. C.

End of Article: ABIOGENESIS

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