THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 97 
(the critical pressure) we will find that the liquid condition is 
impossible. According to the temperature, we will have either 
ice or vapor. Now the pressure of the Moon’s atmosphere is 
only .0760 millimeters, so that on the Moon no water can exist 
as liquid. There one’s blood would be either ice or steam, ac- 
cording to the temperature, a state of affairs hardly conducive 
to health. 
Further, all life requires a suitable temperature. 
Prof. Huxley, summing up the experiments made pre- 
viously to the issue of the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia 
Britannica, places the limits of temperature between —6o deg. 
Centigrade and about +60 deg. Centigrade. In the case of 
some Algz a temperature of within a few deorees of ordinary 
boiling point seemed quite congenial. 
We are not much concerned, however, with the upper 
limit, as according to Prof. S. P. Langley and F. W. Very, the 
temperature on the Moon does not rise above zero Cent., and 
probably falls as low as —200 deg. Cent. The lower limit 
is, however, important, as recent experiments, conducted by Dr. 
Macfadyen and Mr. Rowland, and described by them at the last 
meeting of the British Association, show that certain primitive 
organisms, such as Bacillus Anthracis, certain ferments and 
photogenic bacteria can withstand a temperature of —252 deg. 
Cent. for as much as ten hours. Some of these organisms were 
kept in liquid air (—190 deg. Cent.) for six months without 
impairing their vitality. They say “The ordinary manifestations 
of life cease at zero, but at —190 deg. Cent. we have every 
reason to suppose that intracellular metabolism must also cease 
as a result of the withdrawal of two of its cardinal physical con- 
ditions, 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 condition of suspended animation.” 
It will be seen that very low organisms may thus sustain a 
temperature comparable with the lower limit assigned to the 
Moon by Prof. Langley, and for a period much longer than the 
