The course of development of every branch of natural science has been the same. It begins by the observation and classification of the objects and phenomena of nature. The next step is to decompose the more complex phenomena in order to determine the physical mechanism underlying them—the science has become analytical. Finally, when the mechanism of a phenomenon is understood, it becomes possible to reproduce it, to repeat it by directing the physical forces which are its cause—the science has now become synthetical.
Modern biology admits that the phenomena of life are physico-chemical in their nature. Although we have not as yet been able to define the exact nature of the physical and chemical processes which underlie all vital phenomena, yet every further discovery confirms our belief that the physical laws of life are identical with those of the mineral world, and modern research tends more and more to prove that life is produced by the same forces and is subject to the same laws that regulate inanimate matter.
The evolution of biology has been the same as that of the other sciences; it has been successively descriptive, analytical, and synthetic. Just as synthetic chemistry began with the artificial formation of the simplest organic products, so biological synthesis must content itself at first with the fabrication of forms resembling those of the lowest organisms. Like other sciences, synthetic biology must proceed from the simpler to the more complex, beginning with the reproduction of the more elementary vital phenomena. Later on we may hope to
unite and associate these, and to observe their development under various external influences.
The synthesis of life, should it ever occur, will not be the sensational discovery which we usually associate with the idea. If we accept the theory of evolution, then the first dawn of the synthesis of life must consist in the production of forms intermediate between the inorganic and the organic world—forms which possess only some of the rudimentary attributes of life, to which other attributes will be slowly added in the course of development by the evolutionary action of the environment.
Long ago, the penetrating genius of Lamarck seized on the idea that a knowledge of life could only be obtained by the comparison of organic with inorganic phenomena. He writes: "If we would acquire a real knowledge of what constitutes life, of what it consists, what are the causes and the laws which give rise to this wonderful phenomenon of nature, and how life can be the source of the multitude of forms presented to us by living organisms, we must before all consider with great attention the differences which exist between inorganic and living bodies; and for this purpose we must compare side by side the essential characters of these two classes of bodies."
Synthetic biology includes morphogeny, physiogeny, and synthetic organic chemistry, which is also a branch of synthetic biology, since it deals with the composition of the constituents of living organisms. Synthetic organic chemistry is already a well-organized science, important by reason of the triumphs which it has already gained. The other two branches of biological synthesis, morphogeny, the synthesis of living forms and structures, and physiogeny, the synthesis of functions, can hardly as yet be said to exist as sciences. They are, however, no less legitimate and no less important than the sister science of synthetic chemistry.
Although morphogeny and physiogeny do not exist as well-organized and recognized sciences, there are already a number of works on the subject by enthusiastic pioneers—independent seekers, who have not feared to abandon the paths of official science to wander in new and hitherto unexplored domains.
The first experiment in physiogeny was the discovery of osmosis by the Abbé Nollet in 1748. He filled a pig's bladder with alcohol, and plunged it into water. He noticed that the bladder gradually increased in volume and became distended, the water penetrating into the interior of the bladder more quickly than the alcohol could escape. This was the first recorded experiment in the physics of nutrition and growth.