BiOTic State of Energy 101 



kept for long periods in hermetically closed vessels have not 

 been found to manifest any evidence of the most fundamental 

 and general chemical change occurring in living matter, viz., 

 a production of CO2. Their chemical reply to the question, 

 *Are you ahve?' has been 'No.' 



"But does this negative answer *not-alive' imply that such 

 seeds are dead? Evidently not, as may be seen if, under suit- 

 able conditions of temperature, moisture, and so forth, they 

 are found to germinate and grow into plants. So that a seed, 

 insofar as it does not manifest chemical change, is not proved 

 to be living, and, inasmuch as it germinates, is proved not to 

 be dead. E\adently, here is a dilemma; in the absence of an 

 objective chemical sign of life, we have no right to say that 

 a seed is alive; it is, as far as we can tell, not-alive; in the pres- 

 ence of its subsequent germination we are assured that it is 

 living, and that therefore it was not dead. And the usual 

 manner of escape from this dilemma of the seed which is neither 

 living nor dead is to say that it is in a state of latent life, during 

 which there is a complete suspension of chemical changes char- 

 acteristic of the living state." 



To escape from the above dilemma he considers that one 

 of two explanations might be offered, "firstly, that our means 

 of chemical investigation are not refined enough to reveal to 

 us the smallest and most infinitesimal changes that may be 

 going on in an apparently dry and perfectly dormant seed; and, 

 secondly, it is possible that chemical change may be completely 

 and absolutely arrested (e. g., by low temperature) without 

 that arrest being of necessity final and definite. 



*'I will place evidence before you of this point, which I have 

 investigated at some length. As to the second, which I have 

 not myself investigated, I will only mention that it appears 

 to be established by the observations of Horace Brow^l, who 

 found that dry seeds kept for 110 hours in closed vessels at a 

 temperature of — 183° to — 192° C, i. e., seeds in wliicli the 

 arrest of chemical change must be considered to have been 

 absolutely complete, germinated quite normally when they were 

 placed under suitable conditions of temperature and moisture." 



