804 REPORT— 1902. 



The flowers reopen for several days. The first day the stigma is short and 

 the pollen unripe, petals curved back ; the second day the stigma has grown as 

 long as the stamens, and the pollen is ripe ; the third day the petals remain flat 

 open, and there is a ])rofase quantity of pollen; during this time the flower 

 gradually takes up a vertical position, pollen often being formed for five or six 

 days. Then, if fertilised by bees, the flower-stalk falls again into the horizontal 

 position, from which it rises again as the fruit ripens. The fruit does not ripen 

 easily in England. Bees had to be introduced into the greenhouse on a day when 

 the temperature was above 70° F. (2M C.) The fruits ripen and fall off' at the 

 joint. The seeds were germinated and the seedlings drawn. 



The behaviour of the flowers in rain was also described. 



3. On the Germination of Fatty Seeds. 

 By Professor J. Reynolds Greex, F.R.S., and H. Jackson. 



4. On the Suspension of Life at Low Temperatures. 

 By Allan Macfadyen, M.D., and Sydney Rowland, M.A. 



Our first experiments were made with organisms possessing varying degrees of 

 resistance, the extremes in this respect being represented by the sensitive spirillum 

 of cholera asiatica and the resistent spores of Bacillus anthracis. Ten organisms 

 altogether were used and cooled down to — 190° C, in the first instance for 

 twenty hours, and eventually for seven days. These exposures did not produce 

 any appreciable impairment in the vitality of the organisms, either as regards their 

 growth or their characteristic physiological properties, such as pigment and gas 

 production, pathogenicity, &c. Amongst the organisms tested were photogenic 

 bacteria, and these likewise preserved their normal luminous properties ; and Ave 

 were able, through the kindness of Professor Dewar, to apply a still severer test — 

 namely, an exposure to the temperature of liquid hydrogen (about — 252° C), a 

 temperature which is as far removed from that of liquid air as is that of liquid air 

 from the average summer temperature. Ten hours' exposure to this temperature 

 bad no appreciable ett'ect on the vitality of the micro-organisms tested. At such 

 temperatures it must be assumed that the chemical metabolism of the cell ceases, 

 in the absence of heat and moisture. At the same time it appeared to us advisable 

 to test the influence of & proloiujed exposure to low temperatures on the vitality of 

 cells. The experiments were conducted with the aid of the liquid air plant at the 

 Jenner Institute of Preventive Medicine. The organisms employed were the 

 B. typhosus, B. coli communis, Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus, and a sac- 

 charomyces. The bacteria were suspended in small loops of platinum wire or on 

 cotton-wool swabs, and directly immersed in the liquid air. The yeast, washed 

 and pressed, was wrapped in rice-paper, and likewise directly immersed in the 

 liquid air. Samples were taken and tested at intervals for a total period of six 

 months. In no instance could any impairment of the vitality of the organisms be 

 detected. The yeast gave a good growth, and exhibited its fermentative powers 

 unaltered ; the typhoid bacillus retained its pathogenic and other properties ; the 

 Staphylococcus aureus gave a characteristic pigment growth, and the colon bacillus 

 responded to all the typical tests that were applied to it. Judging by the results, 

 the experiments might have been prolonged for a much longer period than si.x 

 mouths without appreciable influence on the vitality of the organisms in question. 



The ordinary manifestations of life cease at zero, but at — 190° C. we have 

 every reason to suppose that intra-cellular metabolism must also cease — as a result 

 of the withdrawal of two of its cardinal physical conditions — heat and moisture. 



It is difficult to form a conception of living matter under this new condition, 

 which is neither life nor death, or to select a term which will accurately 

 describe it. 



It is a new and hitherto unobtained state of living matter — a veritable con- 

 dition of suspeyided animation. 



