ABIOGEN'ESIS (See GENERATION, SPONTANEOUS, ante), the name for the supposed production of living matter from non-living; one of the fundamental and oldest ques tions in biology; recently much studied because of more accurate means of experiment, and partly because of its important bearing on evolution, correlation of forces, and the theory of infectious diseases. Though the doctrine of A. may not be said to be either established or refuted, we can believe in gradual progress towards a solution. The defenders of A., while interpreting the results of past observations in their favor, are less disposed to rest on these, preferring to argue from such wide analogies of evolution and correlation as seem to support their doctrines. Haeckel embraces A. as a necessary and integral part of the theory of universal evolution; and Huxley, from the other side, confesses that if it were given to him to look beyond the abyss of geologically recorded time to the more remote period when the earth was passing through early phys ical and chemical conditions, he should expect to be a witness of the evolution of living protoplasm from non-living matter. Thus it is not so much on the ground of fact and
experiment that abiogenesists are convinced of the truth of their doctrine as because it seems to gain confirmation from a much wider scope: because it aids the theory of evo lution by tracing organic into inorganic matter; because it fosters the increasing unpop ularity of the hypothesis of a special vital force; because it would well agree with the principle of uniformity, and by disclosing the existence of unknown worlds of material for development would relieve natural selection from the immense labor of evolving all species from one or a very few primary forms.