182 SECRETS OF ANIMAL LIFE 
that if the sun were extinguished and all the gases 
of our atmosphere disappeared, seeds and germs, 
eggs and spores of organisms, in the state of latent 
life, might linger on for a long time on the surface 
of the “frozen, uninhabitable planet, wandering 
in the darkness of cosmic space.” It is possible 
that under the influence of the radiations of a new 
system the frozen streams of protoplasm might 
thaw and flow again; it is possible that a shattering 
of the derelict by collision or explosion might sow 
new worlds with the seeds of old life. 
