A Real Life Dr. Frankenstein

Andrew Crosse was hardly a mad scientist, nor was he trying to reanimate dead tissue back to life. His goal was actually something far different – he was just trying to form glass crystals. And while the premise of the experiment proved a failure, there was an unexpected result – life from whence there was none previously.

How is it that so many of us are unaware of this account? Well, we can hardly blame ourselves, as the man performed his experiments back in 1837, and was quickly swooped down upon by the ‘then powerful’ clergymen of the day. Just the thought of a common man being able to bring forth life was enough to ostracize him from society, as only a demonic beast could possibly replicate the efforts of God. Had Crosse been born a century and a half later, the response would have been so much different.

But did he actually create life in a petri dish? If so, where there any witnesses? Was the experiment ever successfully replicated?

Life From Nothingness

The concept of creating life from inanimate matter isn’t something new. The Ancient Greeks, terribly confused by how insects seemed to spring forth from the ground, were certain these foul bugs must have spontaneously spawned from the rocks in the soil. The ancient alchemists had their hands in things too. While attempting to transmute one element into another, they were never beyond the idea that they could spring forth life as well. In fact, had Andrew Crosse been born a few hundred years earlier we’d dismiss his experiments altogether, certain that he had somehow mismanaged or misunderstood the results. However, this was a man that was well-schooled in the ways of science, and his first belief wasn’t that he had created life – but rather – that something had tainted his experiment.

For his experiment, he made glass out of flint and potassium carbonate and then dissolved it in hydrochloric acid. From there, he let the fluid dry slowly through a porous stone that had been electrified by a battery. His belief was that this would cause glass crystals to form. Instead, it sprung forth life!

Many small, white lumps formed on the porous stone, which was definitely not the effect he had expected. However, he let the experiment continue to see where it would lead. Within days he could see legs forming and within four weeks he had small insect creatures walking around, visible under a magnifying glass.

Puzzled by this result, his first belief was that insect eggs had somehow contaminated his experiment. However, another thought entered his head. What if he had actually created life? Another experiment was in order, but this one had to be controlled far more than the previous one!

Remove All Of The Variables

In the world of science, one good result is like the event never happening at all. It’s only through repeated success that any experiment can be taken seriously. As a scientist, Crosse knew this well. He also understood the many ways by which the bug eggs could have infiltrated his experiment and made it his mission to eradicate each one.

He sterilized all of his equipment with hot alcohol, used only air tight containers, and pressed the electrical wire in through a glass stopper. Every effort was made to make it impossible for life (especially life as complex as an insect) to enter into his experiment unwantedly. To his astonishment the insect-like creatures reappeared in his second experiment too, as well as the repeats that followed. Had he somehow stumbled upon the true process of creating life?

Ecstatic with his find, he quickly dispatched his results to the London Electrical Society. Other engineers repeated his success, seeming to make his findings conclusive, so it was only a matter of time before he became a world-renowned scientist. But something went dreadfully wrong.

The church still held much of the power in Crosse’s day, and they didn’t take kindly to him playing God. In fact, the local church came to his doorstep to perform an exorcism. Michael Faraday, one of the greatest minds of the time, spoke up avidly for Crosse, stating he had successfully performed the same experiment himself, but it all fell on deaf ears. Religion trumped science, and those who still believed in Crosse soon gave up on the experiment, concerned that what they had participated in somehow had made them guilty of blasphemy before the eyes of God.

Disgraced by the church for the next eighteen years, Crosse went on to die a lonely man, designated as a menace to society.

A New Age Of Science

As the industrial revolution progressed to a renaissance of science, there were those who tried to resurrect Crosse’s experiment – but to date,  none have succeeded. As Crosse’s notes have been lost to time, scientists can never be certain on the exact methodology that had been used. As such, we may never know if Crosse really created life in a laboratory, but the fact that Michael Faraday’s name has been attached to all of this does add a bit of credibility.

Is is possible Andrew Crosse actually stumbled upon the secret to creating life? Without his notes we can never be certain. What we do know is that it was fear and ignorance that prevented the experimentation from going any further, and it’s disbelief and a lack of historical notes that prevent the final answer from being arrived at today.

If any man should ever repeat Crosse’s success, we can only hope that the credit will return to this man of antiquity, redeeming his name before all in the name of science. Another important footnote is the fact that he already gave the life he created a name – Acari Crossii.