--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Widtsoe, Osborne collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 6 number: 1 published: 1902-11 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Prof. Osborne Widtsoe, "He Hath Given Us Life," *Improvement Era* 6, no. 1 (November 1902): 33–36.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0601unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0601unse start_page: 33 end_page: 36 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1902-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0601unse publication_year: 1902 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1902, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # He Hath Given Us Life HE HATH GIVEN US LIFE. EVIDENCE FROM ORGANIC NATURE OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. TWO PARTS —PART ONE. BY PROF. OSBORNE WIDTSOE, OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS' UNIVERSITY, SALT LAKE CITY. — Zophar. Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? — Job. But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee; or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Whoknoweth not in all these, that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? I. Unquestionably the most remarkable phenomenon in the or- ganic world, consists in the multiplication of organism through the operation of definite procreative laws. In the plant and the animal kingdoms alike, living beings are provided with reproduc- tive organs, and possess power to propagate their own species. Plants are divided into two great classes, known by the absence or presence of visible flowers. In the flowerless plants, the or- gans of fructification are obscure, and often rudimentary; but they are, nevertheless, present, and are capable of performing their own peculiar functions. To the sub-kingdom of flowerless plants belong mildews, smuts, rusts, toadstools, mushrooms, lichens, ferns, mosses, and many other low-order plants; and it was be- lieved anciently that the individuals of this class bore no seeds. But the perfection of modern science has established beyond ques- tion that the reproductive apparatus of a flowerless plant produces a multitude of minute grains, termed spores, from which are de- veloped new and perfect individuals. In the flowering plants, the organs of reproduction are dis- tinctly visible. The gay blossoms that gladden our sight in the spring and summer months, constitute that portion of a flowering plant which is the chief end of its whole life: in the flower region is produced the seed, the germination and growth of which are to give origin to a new plant. Rudimentary seeds are produced in the central part of the flower, and these are fertilized, when the plant has reached maturity, by grains of ripened pollen-dust, which are carried by the wind or by insects. The young seed thus fertilized becomes a new center of growth. It expands and multiplies by division and sub-division, then begins to form the various organs according to the species, until fully developed into embryo. And the embryo, after germination, becomes matured into a perfect plant similar to the parent. Two modes of generation are recognize 1 as occurring among animals. These are oviparous generation and viviparous germ.ina- tion. Oviparous generation is that form in which the female pro- duces eggs from which the young are hatched, as in fishes, reptiles, and birds; while viviparous generation is that in which the young are brought forth alive and fully developed, as in quadrupeds and the human species. It was thought by the ancients that there was a fundamental difference in the modes of generation of the oviparous and the viviparous animals; but recent discoveries have shown that there is no such imagined difference, "for all animals whatsoever, even the viviparous, and man himself not excepted, are produced from ova." Aristotle, who has been called the father of natural history, recognized still another mode of generation as occurring in the organic world. He believed that certain low forms of life, such as worms, insects, parasites, maggots, were produced spontaneous- ly, without parents, from the soil, or the water, or decaying ani- mal and vegetable substances. And for two thousand years after this noted philosoper, itwas believed, that shellfish of all kinds were produced without parents; that eels issued from the "fat ooze" of the Nile; that tadpoles were formed in lake- HE HATH GIVEN US LIFE. 35 mud by the vivifying action of the sun; that caterpillars were be- gotten by the leaves on which they fed; and that winged insects, serpents, rats, mice, and even higher animals, were generated without an ancestry. If a piece of flesh be left exposed, it will putrify; and there will appear in it myraids of little worms, or maggots. They seem to spring suddenly into life, without cause; hence, it is not sur- prising that those who had no experimental check upon this phe- nomenon, should receive it as evidence of spontaniety. But in the year 1668, one Francisco Redi, physician to the grand dukes of Tuscany, applied himself to the examination of this apparent anomaly. He observed that there were always multitudes of buz- zing flies around putrifying flesh; and he guessed that the mag- gots were due, in some way, to the agency of the flies. He put, therefore, some meat in a jar, and covered it closely with paper; and he found that, though the meat became decomposed, there were formed no maggots in it. Redi then put meat in another jar and covered it with a very fine gauze. As the meat decayed, the putrid odors rose through the gauze, and flies swarmed over it. They alighted on it, and deposited their eggs; and in a short time maggots were hatched on the gauze, while in the meat there was found none. Thus this celebrated physician showed that maggots, instead of being produced without parents, are really hatched from eggs laid by perfect insects, and become themselves finally de- veloped into perfect forms similar to their parents. Redi was followed by Vallisneri, Schwammerdam, and Reaumur; and the re- sults of their extended researches banished forever the notion of spontaneous generation in higher forms of life, from the minds of scientific men. When the microscope was invented and came into scientific use, there was revealed to view a vast world of life till then un- dreamed of. Animal and vegetable infusions, left exposed to the air,were found to abound in tiny creatures much too small to be seen with the unaided eye. Stagnant water was found to teem with these minute organisms; it was estimated by Leenwenhalk, one of the first microscopic observers, that there were 500,000,000 germs in one drop of foul water. The individuals of this new- found world of life were so small that scientists found great difii- culty in studying them; and it was obviously difficult to assign to these microscopic forms a germinal origin. Hence, many investigators began to entertain again the notion of hetero- genesis, or spontaneous generation. The scientific world became soon divided into two contending parties. Both sides were led by men of renowned excellence; and for many years it was questionable on which side was found the greatest evidence. However, in 1777, the celebrated Abbe Lazzaro Spallanzani published results of experiments, that entirely over- threw many of the convictions of the heterogenists. Spallanzani charged his flasks with organic infusions, sealed their necks with a blow-pipe, subjected themto the heat of boiling water, then to a temperature favorable for the development of life. He found that after many months there were no signs of life in the infu- sions. The results of Spallanzani were corroborated by those of other experiments; and, in 1837, the celebrated investigator Schwann showed further that putrif action itself "is due to decom- position of organic matter attendant on the multiplication therein of minute organisms." Professor Cohn, of Breslau, says that "no putrification can occur in a nitrogenous substance if its bac- teria be destroyed and new ones prevented from entering it. Putri- fication begins as soon as bacteria, even in the smallest numbers, are admitted either accidentally or purposely." And during the ten years extending from 1859 to 1869, Professor John Tyndall conducted a series of experiments by which he proved that the bacteria, or germs, of putrifaction and disease, are carried about with the floating matter of the air. A beam of light reveals that the air is filled with particles of dust. Professor Tyndall admit- ted air from which the floating matter had been removed, into sterilized organic infusions; and they remained for many years as pure and fresh as when they were first put into their containing flasks. In this way the number of beings in which spontaneous generation was thought possible, gradually diminished, until it is now held by the most eminent scientists that spontaneous gener- ation is a thing unknown and impossible in nature. The facts' that we have just briefly touched have led to the recognition of a great law as existing in the organized world; namely, that "organisms reproduce others, which at maturity