PRESENT STATE OF THE PROBLEM 6l 



Becquerel" kept ampoules containing the dried spores of 

 moulds and bacteria in a vacuum at the temperature of 

 liquid air for several weeks. They all remained alive and 

 grew for a year and a half under observation. The articles 

 of C. B. Lipman^* and E. Kadisch^^ may also be referred to. 



The studies of B. J. Luyet*" and his colleagues are of par- 

 ticular interest. These studies show that if protoplasm is 

 frozen deeply and quickly with liquid air or hydrogen it 

 is possible to avoid crystallisation of ice and the dispersal 

 of molectdes and disturbance of structure associated with it. 

 The protoplasm gets into a glassy state (becomes vitrified) 

 and can be kept in that form at low temperatures indefinitely 

 w^ithout losing the ability to be brought to life again when 

 transferred to favourable conditions. From this one may 

 conclude that the germs of bacteria which exist in inter- 

 stellar space, where the temperature is near to absolute zero, 

 could certainly float around for thousands of years without 

 losing their viability. We find in the literature some reports 

 of the survival of viable bacteria for very long periods in 

 the frozen state, but not all of these reports seem completely 

 reliable. We must refer first to the work of V. Omelyanskii.*^ 

 He found many kinds of micro-organisms (^vhich grew on 

 broth media) in the tissues and mucus of the preserved middle 

 part of the trunk of the Sanga Yurakh mammoth, which 

 was sent to him from the place where the animal was found. 

 The author does not exclude the possibility that some of the 

 bacteria found in the corpse of the mammoth had reached 

 it later. He considers that the evidence in favour of the 

 microflora of the trunk being of contemporary origin with 

 the mammoth is more convincing. If this is true, these 

 bacteria have retained their viability during continuous 

 refrigeration for tens of thousands of years. It must, how- 

 ever, be borne in mind that the remains of the mammoth 

 were sent to Omelyanskii from a distance and were not 

 removed by professional microbiologists. One cannot, there- 

 fore, exclude the possibility that they were secondarily in- 

 fected. 



The same applies to the observations of P. Kapterev.*- He 

 has drawn up a complete list of algae, fungi, bacteria and 

 even crustaceans which he has succeeded in bringing to life 



