To Hatch Men Like Chicks.

New York Times 100 years ago today, February 1, 1913:
Scientist Says Baby Factories Will Take the Place of Parents.
Special to The New York Times.
    BOSTON, Jan. 31.— That it was possible to create human life by chemical means and that a baby factory was not out of the question for the distant future was asserted to-day by Dr. Martin Kellog Schermerhorn of the Department of Philosophy in Harvard. He spoke before the Metaphysical Club.
    "Life is not confined to the animal and plant world," he said. "The whole universe is alive, and all that lives is conscious.
    "Animals are conscious and gifted with the power of thought and imagination, even though Roosevelt, who thinks himself a great hunter, says they do not know when they are being slaughtered.
    "Plants are conscious, and Ruskin and Goethe agree they are capable of exercising strategy and forethought. Even Darwin said plants were sensitive, and hence he must have believed they were conscious.
    "It is obvious that the evolution from so-called matter to human life is possible. The chemist of the future will labor so that men shall be made in baby factories as chickens are hatched in incubators."