THE ORIGIN OF LIFE UPON EARTH.
(To THE Eotroa or THE " SPEOVATOR1 Sta,—In Sir William Thomson's inaugural address to the British Association at Edinburgh, he throws out, in his own eloquent language, the suggestion that life was brought to our planet by the agency of meteoric stones. Permit me, through the medium of your columns, to call the attention of Sir William Thomson and the public to the following passage front pp. 328-9, vol. ii., of my "Life and Letters of Hugh Miller" :— " The tendency of scientific research throughout every province of nature has been to obliterate linen of demarcation, and to show, stretching beyond us into the infinitude both of time and space, immeasurable curves and undulations of unity. 'rue definite proof afforded by spectrum analysis of the sameness of matter throughout the solar and stellar expanses marked a stage of sublime advancement in our conception of the harmony of things ; and correspondences, indubitable though mys- terious, between terrestrial magnetism, the spots of the sun, and those systems of aerolites which have recently attracted so much of the atten- tion of philosophers, suggest that the unitios of naturo are as intimate and as wonderful as her diversities. I venture to throw out the suggestion that a key lately put IWO OW' hands by hofessor Tyndall may possibly unlock for ns the secret that (Am is unity q' 4Je, CU well as unity of mailer, throughout space. lierms of' life, Profissor Tyndall has taught us, are of what may be called irifiaitesinal smallness; and what proof have we that, if aerolities can travene space, life-germs cannot (rave as spa,:e likewise?"
I need hardly say that I have no thought of entering into controversy with Sir William Thomson, or of expressing the slightest doubt that the suggestion, as made by him, was original. It is but fair to myself, however, to add that it was wholly un- derived on my part, and that I was perfectly aware of its import- ance, and made it, not in the way of a chance hit, but with full deliberation. My friend, Mr. Carruthers, of the British Museum, whose attention I called to the passage when the volume was in the press, is able to corroborate this statement. Though not
professionally a scientific man, I have for upwards of twenty years devoted much attention to scientific matters, and the suggestion occurred to my mind' as the result of careful study and reflection in the provinces of geology and biology.—I am, Sir,
Harlington, Middlesex, August 9, 1 871. PETER BAYNE.
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