LATENT LIFE—BECQUEREL, 551 
life shall be destroyed, latent life will still be able to exist for a long 
time on. the surface of the earth. 
Indeed, at that moment there will be found realized by nature the 
vacuum, dryness, and low temperature, the three conditions neces- 
sary for the conservation of germs which we have obtained simulta- 
neously in our experiments. Upon that day, on this frozen, unin- 
habitable planet, wandermg in the darkness of cosmic space, what 
will become of the stored seeds, and eggs, and spores? If the planet 
should be captured by a new solar system, will there be produced, 
under the action of new radiations, an atmosphere and a wakening 
of latent life, the beginning of a new evolution of beings? If this 
contingency is not fulfilled, and the planet is demolished by a shock 
or an explosion, will its débris, charged with germs, as Lord Kelvin 
believes, sow other worlds ? 
For my part, I do not believe so, because at the present time the 
study of meteorites does not justify this conjecture. And it is a 
pity, because latent life, which is a true Providence for the terrestrial 
conservation of beings, would have been the best means that nature 
could have employed to confer on certain animal and vegetable 
species a sort of celestial immortality. 
