590 Notes. 
than six months 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 condition of suspended animation. 
ALLAN MACFADYEN. 
Jenner Institute. SYDNEY ROWLAND. 
RESISTANCE OF SEEDS TO HIGH TEMPERATURES 1 .— 
Various experimenters have investigated the limits of temperature 
which spores of the lower plants and animals can withstand. The 
results they have obtained show that these spores, if dry, can germi- 
nate after exposure to the lowest temperatures obtainable, while the 
upper limit for similarly dried spores lies between ioo°C. and I30°C. 
For seeds of the higher plants also it has been more recently 
shown that the lowest temperatures available are without harmful 
effects. This note contains an account of some experiments on the 
maximum temperatures which seeds can withstand and after which 
they will retain their germinative power. 
Before exposure to the high temperatures the seeds were either 
desiccated over sulphuric acid, or dried in an oven the temperature 
of which was gradually raised to 90° C. After desiccation the seeds 
were exposed for at least one hour to the higher temperature. After 
exposure the seeds were sown on moist sand. The following tempera- 
tures were obtained as the highest after exposure to which the seeds 
of the species mentioned could germinate : — 
Mimulus moschatus 
. io5°C. Medic ago saliva . 
. 121° C. 
M. luteus 
112 0 Avena saliva 
M 
M 
00 
O 
Papaver somniferum 
. ioo° Hordeum distichum 
. 1 1 8° 
P. nudicaule 
. ioo° Cucurbita Pepo . 
. 112° 
1 Abstract of paper read before Section K of the British Association, Belfast, 
1902. 
