100 Transactions, &c. — Annual Address. 



contained in all cells, animal or vegetable, of which they regard 

 them as normal and necessary constituents. These granulations, 

 they say, can develop themselves into bacteria. 



The most startling of M. Bechamp's statements concerning these 

 microzymes is, that they exist alive in chalk, or in other rocks. This 

 announcement was made some time ago, but in the April of last year 

 he detailed the results of a number of experiments to the French 

 Academy, showing that the microzymes existed in a fresh-water ter- 

 tiary limestone, as well as in chalk, in the same condition of " molecular 

 granulations," and possessing the same powers of causing fermen- 

 tation. He mentioned the Calcaire d'Ormisson, near Narbonne — 

 lacustrine and middle tertiary; the Calcaire de Borbentone, near 

 Beaucaire — middle tertiary and marine ; the Calcaire of Pignon — 

 middle tertiary and marine ; the Calcaire neocomien de Lavallette, 

 near Montpellier — very compact, and belonging to the lower chalk ; 

 and the Calcaire oolithique of the Meuse, as all capable of making 

 cane-sugar and starch ferment. The tufaceous limestone of Cas- 

 telnau, near MontjielHer, contained the microzymes, but acted 

 very slowly upon starch, so that at the end of two months, scarcely 

 any products of fermentation could be traced — they confined their 

 action to a very slow hquefaction of the starch. The same mole- 

 cular ferments are found by him in fossil bones, but they are in- 

 active at a temperature below from 35 to 40^ C, so that they would 

 not injure the fossil ivory which is exposed to severe cold. It would 

 be interesting to know whether they exist in such ivory, and could 

 be called into operation by suitable conditions of temperature and 

 moisture. 



M. Bechamp considers these objects as really living, and having 

 been in the case of the limestones and chalk for unnumbered ages 

 in a dormant state. Should further researches lead to the con- 

 firmation of this opiuion, all tales of the germination of mummy 

 wheat, &c., will be thrown into the shade. 



No very precise data exist as to the length of time during which 

 any kind of seed or germ can remain dormant. Amongst those 

 cases which may be regarded as authentic, is one cited by Dr. Car- 

 penter on the authority of Professor Lindley, in which three plants 

 of raspberries were raised by the latter from seed taken from tlie 

 stomach of a man, whose skeleton was found thirty feet below the 

 surface of the earth, at the bottom of a barrow which was opened 

 near Dorchester. He had been buried with some coins of the 

 Emperor Hadrian, and it is probable, therefore, that the seeds were 

 sixteen or seventeen hundred years old.* Many cases will occur 

 to Fellows of the Society, in which seeds dug up at considerable 

 depths have been stated to grow ; and although tlie mind is not dis- 

 posed Avithout due examination to admit that germs, or organisms, 

 * Art. " Life," ' Cyclo. Anat. and Phys.,' vol. iii., p. 156. 



