The Morning standard. [volume] (Ogden, Utah) 1910-191?, 1910-10-30

(By Professor Charles Nordmann,
President Of the Paris Observatory
When NJ Bergcrct declared that
organic life IS only vermin crawling
on the surface of this subunar globe,
he had Just been cruelty hurt In his
home life. aud many times the meta
physics OF the most sage philosophers
arc optimistic or pessimisuc, accord
lug 10 their state OF mind
So ii Mr.. Bergeret, at the moment
when he made this pessImiBuc decla-
ration. had caught sight ol the lea
lures OF Nine de Gromancc there rs
no doubt bUt that he would have eN-
pected at least some mammnls.
The truth is that nothing is more
worth studying than the problem OF
lie with the many cDigmas 1t offers
to science. or course we are bound 10
consider II, rs geology shows 1t 10
be very unimportant accident In
the evolution of the earth. but 1t is
nevertheless exceedingly interesting
To try 10 investigate how 1t flrst orig
irated.
Powerful thinkers. from Kant to
Lord Kelvin, have declared that the
germs OF life may have been brought
here by acroliths from some distant
world. but how This transmission was
carried out remained unknown, and
it was besides considered likely that
the empty space with its extremely
low temperatures that prevail between
the stars. were an absolute obstruction
IL the propagation OF living beings.
Recent experiments, however. have
given new impulses 10 these ideas
that recently had hardly emerged
from the imposing but vague domains
oil speculation
The effect upon great many Dac-
teria oil the empty space and temper
atures near the absolute zero We
Elerely tends to preserve them The
cold and the vacuum only serve TO
suspend animation Indefinitely few
hours When, therefore, they are de-
posted In some atmosphere after
years of wandering through space,
they instantly and with all their In
nato vigor begin their termination
Does not this in many respects re-
mind one OF the fairy tale of the
Sleeping Beauty in the woods
The intorstellar space liz therefore
a medium favorable to the transmits
sion OF life.
As TO the way In which the micro
organism may mbe transmitted from
ono world TO another, recent discov-
cries In regard to the action of light
permit us 30 conceive q very simple
solution The sun attracts and holds
II, It's mighty dependence only bodies
OF very considerable magnitude. When
the volume decreases the repulsion,
which the solar rays are known tn
exert, becomes predominant, and TN
action probably also explains the tails
of comets.
AS for the infinitely small bodies,
the diameter OF which is only very
small fraction of a millimeter. the
light of the sun drives them indefl-
nitely into space until they, conglom-
Grated witu other cosmic dust. are
again attracted by celestial bodies.
Melancholy spirits see in this some
resemblance to what happens In soci-
ETY. where the poor and small are also
crlyen out OF the sunshine into cold
and darkness, but | do not think that
Nature follows the doctrines of Met.
szche in this. for the cause OF the
phenomenon I have just described Is
due solely to the electromagnetic ao-
tlon OF light. as. the lllustrIous Max
well has shown.
1t is thus understood how it has al,
ways been made possible for life to be
transmitted from one solar system to
another. 1t is only necessary that in
some distant part of the sky. near
Sirius OF even further away, near