The record-union., 1898-01-31
TOUGH SEEDS AND MICROBES.
WITHSTAND MARVELOUSLY
Low TEMPERATURES.
Experiments That Bear on the Ma
ture and Origin of Life, as Well
as Disease Germs.

Some experiments undertaken to as
certain the influence of very low tenn
peratures on the germinative power OF
seeds, described at a meeting of the
Royal Society in England last month,
possess double interest The matter
has its purely practical side, in the.first
place. Inasmuch as grain and flower
seeds are not likely. in the ordinary
course of events, 10 be subjected to any
such intense cold as was employed in
these tests, the farmer and horticultur-
ist may not find the latter particularly
instructive. But bacteria also belong
to the vegetable world, and some spec
les of these minute organisms are cap
able of making "a good deal of mischief
with our health. 1t is desirable, there
fore, to know how low a temperature
these disease germs can endure with
out being killed.
To large class of people, however, a
very different phase OF the subject will
make the strongest appeal. These eX-
periments are thought to have some
bearing on that profound problem, the
origin of life on our globe AS long
ago as 1871. very soon after Charles
Darwin taught that man and the high
er animals We're descended from few
exceedingly low forms of life, Lord
Kelvin threw out the suggestion, in
his Presidential address to the British
Association for the Advancement of
Science, that life may have had an ex-
tra-terrestrial origin, and may have
come to our planet in "mosS-grown
fragments from the ruins of another
faI, IL
teorites. But these bodies, astrono-
merS believe, have been exposed for
years, not to say incaluculable ages.
to the cold of inter-stellar space, which
has been put, approximately, at 'abso
Lutte Zero" or 273 degrees below zero
Centigrade. If, then, it should be as
certained that all seeds and microbes
lose their vitality after a short exposure
to the most extreme cold that we can
produce artificially, Lord Kelyin's sug-
gestion would seem incredible. But if,
on the other hand, some seeds and some
microbes are able to withstand the low
est temperature of which we have act
ual knowledge, then that theory re-
mains tenable, even though it may
seem improbable for other reasons.
Well, up to date, it has not been pos
sible to exterminate life altogether by
freezing. Hence the investigators who
addressed the Royal Society on this
subject last month (Horace T. Brown
and F. Escombe) We're moved to say:
THAT such meteoric) fragments might
circulate in the intense cold of space
for perfectly indefinite period without
prejudice to their freight of seeds or
spores is almost certain from the facts
we know about the maintenance of life
by resting protoplasm. The difficult
ties in the way of accepting such an
hypothesis certainly do not lie in this
direction"
These experiments, moreover throw
little light on the nature of life itself
Herbert Spencer, for instance, has given
definition of life which implies con-
slant, though possibly a very low, de-
gree of internal activity in the pro-
toplasm in which life resides. For this
and for other reasons a good many BIZ
ologists hold that during the period of
seeds inertness it's vital part under
goes very feeble and imperceptible al
terations, accompanied by an exchange
of gases with the surrounding atmos-
phere; a sort of respiration, as it were.
who think that there is not merely a
Slowing down" of vital processes dur
ing the dormant stage, but a complete
suspension of chemical activity, and
that the protoplasm loses, for the time
being, all power of adjustment to ex-
ternal conditions"
Now, five or six years ago. the late
G. J. Romanes experimental with seeds,
some of which he exposed to a vacuum
of an exceedingly high degree for fifteen
months, and then immersed them in va
rious gases and vapors for several
months more. The power of germina-
tion was not destroyed thereby. These
results were adverse to the respiration
theory. Pictet, famous Swiss chem
ist, about the same time found that
seeds and microbes could Withstand a
temperature of over 100 degrees below
zero C.
Messrs. Brown and Escombe had the
assistance of Professor Dewar in their
work. The cold required in their tests
was obtained by the slow evaporation
of liquid air. Temperatures as low as
1873 and 1872 below zero c. were secured.
The seeds with which they experiment
ed represented several different orders
of vegetation, like grasses, lilies, beans,
morning glories and geraniums. The
exposures lasted no consecutive hours
And yet the seeds afterward sprouted,
and most of them grew to maturity. The
plants thsu obtained were apparently
as healthy as those grown from other
specimens of seed taken from the same
lots before the freezing began.
In connection with this Messrs. Brown
and Escombe say: "In 1892 Professor
Dewar and Professor McKendrick
found that temperature of 1S2 degrees
below zero c. continued for one hour
is sufficient to sterilize putrescent sub
stances. such as blood. milk and flesh,
and that seeds would germinate after
the action of similar temperature for
the same period of time Since COM
pleting their tests the English investi-
gators have learned that Pictet also
subjected some seeds and microbes to
a. temperature Of nearly 200 degrees
below zero without killing them. New
York Tribune.