TEST TUBE LIFE

Evening Star, Issue 19410, 19 November 1926, Page 1

TEST TUBE LIFE

CREATION FROM CHEMICALS * Toiling in his laboratory, an ob- ’ score chemist, Mr John F. Mazur, claims to have created life out of chemicals. t A startling vision of the future, . when science-made men may walk the ; earth, is conjured up by the amazing , statement by Mr Mazur, that, after experiments lasting over five years, he has been able to produde by means of chemical' formula and mixtures artificial snails. It was in 1921 that he accidentally created his first artificial cells. He . says that lie reached his results not by . following tho beaten tracks of established science, but by getting out of ] the rut of tradition. His very lack of the usual scientific education, he al- ■ leges, aided him in doing what science , has tried in vain to accomplish. He took some natural snail eggs and mixed them with calcium crystals, , which formed an emulsion. Three weeks later he found snails in the mixture. For several weeks he tried in- ‘ cubatiug the crystals. AMAZING EXPERIENCE. “ When the incubation process was 1 complete, he mixed them with albumen 1 and injected the mixture info the soil 1 of a plant in a flower pot. Three 1 months later tho pot was full of snails. “ I successfully repeated this experii ment three times” he says. “I used 1 eight flower pots. Each contained the same sort of soil and the same species of flower. Into four of the pots I injected my mixture. The other four I did not touch. “ I permitted all eight pots to remain under tho sun until three months had passed. In the pots containing the mixture I found many snails. In those which did not contain the mixture there were none. SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. I contend that these experiments offer conclusive proof of tho theory of spontaneous generation. _ In other words, I contend that life can rise spontaneously out of the earth when the proper cells come together under the proper conditions and without the aid of parents.” Mr Mazur, by his contention that life originates from spontaneous animation, claims that his discovery is in line with the Biblical version of the origin of species, and confounds tho Darwinian theory. “There is more scientific truth in tho Bible’s explanation of the origin of life than there is in the theory of evolution. The Biblical explanation, can be interpreted to mean spontaneous generation. That is hpw practically all species of plant and animal life originated. If the conditions under which each species originated can be duplicated, the species can be created artificially. This I have succeeded in doIng ’ THE GREAT SECRET. But I do not claim to create. Nature does the creating.. I merely do the mixing. While I contend that man can produce life, I deny that man can produce mind in life or spirit. “ Of that vital spiritual entity which takes bold of non-living matter_ and transforms it into a living condition I know absolutely nothing.” He makes no secret of any part of his work. He _stat.es ■ that he created artificial yeast-like cells under the following formula;— He dissolved a gram of common glue in four ounces of distilled water, and brought the mixture to a boil. Ho then added three scruples _of tannic acid and boiled it for ten minutes. Ho removed the mixture from the fire, and allowed it to cool. The result was a sort of inert artificial cell. To vivify the cells he picked up a drop of the fluid containing the artificial cells with a platinum loop and placed it on a slide. He added a drop of oxgall, which is a product used in tho preparation of bacteriological culture media, and mixed it with the fluid on the slide. ■ Within three minutes the cells changed from a dark brown color to a light, transparent condition and formed nuclei. Science will be quite content if she is convinced that Mr Mazur has really at last achieved the great triumph of creating life in a laboratory test tube, oven if it is nothing more than a small,