The following is my translation of an article called: Ewiges Leben auf der Erde? von Garston Bonnier, von der Académie des Sciences. It appeared in a German popular science magazine, Kosmos Handweiser für Naturfreunde 1909, Heft 11, Seiten 344-349. At the time, reports of remarkable vitality for ancient seeds had been germinating; corn from the tombs of Egyptian mummies or the graves of Celtic daddies. The article includes some French terms coined by Claude Bernard, somebody of whom I've not previously heard. It's possible there may be established English translations of his concepts, but I've settled for concocting my own.
I'm not aware of any previous translations.
Trevor Dykes.

Eternal life on Earth? by Garston Bonnier* of the Academy of Sciences
* The gentleman author has been good enough to permit Kosmos to translate and publish this article, which originally appeared in the Revue, and we wish to express our sincere thanks for that.

I
Who has not already heard of the grain seeds that have been found in Egyptian sarcophaguses, and the life force had been retained through the millennia they spent next to the mummies? It is reported in all old natural history text books. This "mummy corn" has become a classic, and it is generally thought that one needs only to sow these grains in order to see the stalks growing, as with usual seed.

Without turning to such a distant age, it has been said that seed corn has also been discovered in Pompeii, and this is also supposed to have retained its vitality. Archaeologists have brought various crop seeds to development from Gallo-Romano graves; they have sown them in their gardens and seen the appropriate plants growing. One can read the same for seeds from Ancient Peruvian graves, ie. from a time at least a half-thousand years prior to the rule of the Incas, and these were nevertheless brought to germination.

In many works on botany and cultured forests can be found the following facts: As a result of particular circumstances following the harvesting of a significant area of a tall forest, that reveals ground which had previously been covered by thick shadow from giant trees, the area is transformed into a sunny clearing. In the following years one sees the appearance of numerous plants that are not found in the forest. From this, it was concluded that the seed had lain dormant in the ground for hundreds of years, maintained its capacity for life there, and had first found the required conditions for its development with the felling of the trees. One also generally encounters the names of microscopic organisms, the ciliates and rotifers, which, so it is said, can retain their life force indefinitely in a dried condition. One only needs a drop of water, and one can immediately see them moving again.

These sorts of observations, which were generally accepted as correct, are what brought Claude Bernard to his proposal of latent life. He assumed there were three main categories of life:

The obvious life (vie manifestée) is that for which the physiological activities, such as breathing and the metabolism, are energetically practiced: the main characteristic of obvious life is the production of new cell material in the organism or, at least, the constant renewal of the cells, ie. the Gewebselemente (Additional note: ?'cellular elements).

The suspended or inhibited life (vie ralentie is that for which the general physiological activities are occurring with but little energy, and the body only continues its existence by the consumption of reserve food resources within its own organism. There is no production of new cells with inhibited life, no replacement of dead cells by new ones; the organism does nothing, as if a part of its element were destroyed, so as to retain changes. Animals in hibernation and plant tubers are examples of vie ralentie.

The dormant or latent life (vie latente) is that for which the physiological activities have been completely suspended, and metabolic interaction of the organism and the external world have ceased, and there is no longer a trace of breathing or transpiration. Internally, there are no activities, construction or destruction of elements, or any changes of the cells. The microscopic organisms that can tolerate dehydration find themselves, when in their dried out condition, at the stage of vie latente; the same would generally apply for seed corn, most seeds or spores of lower animals and for fungi and the microbes.

II
Let us now take a close look at the various observations that have led to the conclusion of a complete suspension of life, meaning the concept of the existence of plants or dried up animals showing, neither externally not internally, not the slightest trace of changes, and for which physiological activity and chemical change have completely ceased.

Girardin and others have already issued reports about plant seeds found in graves of the Middle Ages, the Gallo-Romano period or the Celtic age. When archaeologists planted these seeds in their gardens they saw them grow into pant, as one could not have expected. These were mostly common weeds such as dog's mercury, cherry pie, cornflowers, wild camomile and so on. In short, the plants which grew could easily have already been in the soil that was seeded even if nothing had been sown. That makes the results of these so called tests appear somewhat dubious, as no control measures whatsoever were taken to ensure that naturally occurring fresh seeds, that had nothing to do with the Middle Ages, or with Gallo-Romano or Celtic epochs, were not present. This haphazard sowing of seed is reminiscent of similar experiences with the supposed sudden transformations of organisms. One plants a particular species, a different one grows, and one concludes from this that the first species has changed into the second. I take crop seeds unaware that they have lost their ability to germinate; I plant them somewhere or other, and poppies grow; according to these methods of research, I must then conclude that the cereal has been changed into a poppy flower.

This concept of the supposed longevity of seeds is so strongly fixed in the minds of many academics, that one could be silenced by the unbelievable mistakes that have been allowed to happen. Heldreich, a professor of botany in Athens, suddenly saw a well-known plant with large yellow flower, the horned poppy (Glaucium flavum Juss.) growing on ground from which a thick layer of slag had been removed. As this slag had resulted from the exploitation of a very old mine of Laurium's, the author concluded the horned poppy seed must have been more than one-and-a-half thousand years old, as that was when the ground had first been covered by slag. And as this plant was lighter than the others, the opportunity was offered for an apparent miracle. And indeed, it is again the horned poppy that Escombe, an English botanist, reported seeing growing from ground covered with Liassic rubble, which belongs to the start of the Mesozoic (Additional note: That would be Triassic rubble!), and he believed this plant arose from a fossilised seed that had retained its power to germinate since that distant epoch! This reminds me of a similar report by a scientifically educated journalist in Figaro, dating from the time when the foundations of the Basilica were being laid at Montmartre. He noticed that deep trenches had been cut through plaster and saw numerous plants which, in the following year, were growing on the fresh walls of these trenches. Now, he said to himself, as this plaster was deposited during the Eocene epoch at the start of the Tertiary period (Additional note: That would be the Paleocene!), then that must be their age. Billions (Additional note: The author uses Milliarden) of years separate us from then but, nevertheless, the seeds contained in the deposits have remained alive, and demonstrated their capacity for germination as soon as the plaster was removed. In my naive indignation upon reading this article, I showed it, not to academics, but to various people with a rich general education, and none of them displayed great astonishment; and not one came immediately to the thought, that these seeds could have been brought in by the wind and, even after reconsideration, the hypothesis that the seeds had spent an endlessly long time in the ground and retained their capacity to germinate, appeared plausible. Should somebody say: "I have just been nipped on the finger by a fossil crab", one would undoubtedly believe they had suddenly gone mad; but if another says: "I have sown a fossil seed and it has started to grow", then one immediately thinks of the famous mummy corn, and finds the fact very remarkable but not improbable.

III
Let us turn to the facts which stand less in conflict with reality. One has kept seeds of the Sensitive plant (Mimosa sensitiva) for sixty years after they were harvested, and seen them grow. One has also spoken of a bean harvested by Tournefourt which, after having spent 100 years in a herbarium, is supposed to have germinated. However, another took a bean from the same pod from which the first had come, and this did not germinate. But a duration of a hundred years is, in any case, more modest than billions of years or the five or six thousand years of the Egyptian sarcophaguses. If seeds are kept in a state of abosolute quiet life and find themselves in a closed drawer or vessel, so that they are protected from any external influence; then these must presumably preserve all of their power to germinate. But the seed trader and gardener both known this is not so.

In the year of 1846, Alphonse de Candolle tried, with the greatest of care, an experiment in this direction. Under the best of conditions imaginable, he planted numerous seeds from 368 various plant species, all of which had been collected 15 years previously. From these 368 species, nothing at all germinated for 351 sorts. There were only 17 species from which the seed or, better said, a certain number of seeds from each species, had been able to prolong their existence during the fifteen years. In most of these cases, it was only between 1 to 3 seeds out of 20 sown that came to development. We this, we are also a long way from the indefinite duration of slumbering life in the plant kingdom*.
(* Compare Kosmos, vol. IV, p.279).

Similar experiments have also been conducted for the microscopic protisten, such as the ciliates and rotifers. A limitless latent existence is evidenced as little for them as for the seeds. Let us restrain ourselves to one example from recent time, an article published in the year 1907: Richters collected ciliates of various species from moss in Spitz Bergen that can be found in great numbers there -on average, 121 of these small organisms are found in 0.26 grammes of dried moss**.
(** Compare also Richters, D. Bärtierchen, in Mikrokosmos, Bd. 1, Heft 7.)

These ciliates were stored in a dried form in paper, and then served as the basis for a study of their revival. For example, one species (Macrobiotus coronifer) brought Richters the following results: After 9 months, they had to be in water for 35 minutes so as to be reawoken to life. After 22 months, their return to obvious life, which only occurred for a certain number, did not happen until they had spent over an hour in water. Finally, after 30 months, none of these ciliates were capable of returning to life. These experiments clearly show that a literally latent life cannot be spoken of. During the slumber of these organisms, physiological and chemical changes occurred, albeit at an exceptionally slow pace, but they really have to happen or otherwise a return to obvious life, after a shorter or longer period, would no longer be possible.

Together with Herrn Van Tieghem I conducted an experiment to see if an exchange of gas between the seed, which was supposed to be in the state of latent life, and the outer air took place. Our experiments delivered the evidence that seeds, kept in a dry state (after the course of a few years or, for particular species, even for a few months), show very weak physiological reactions. It was possible for us to demonstrate this as we measured a small quantity of oxygen, or a small quantity of exhaled carbon dioxide; this shows that the seeds breathed, albeit with very little energy.

We were able to detect, from various seeds stored in this manner, a weak emission of water vapour; this shows that transpiration occurred, albeit to a very minor degree.

We came to the following conclusion: "The breathing of the organism continues for an organism of which, it is said, that it finds itself in a state of latent life, and when that is no longer possible, then the organism expires. Life, that finds itself to be in a state of latent life, has not ceased but is slumbering, it is a suspended, a slowed life." These results have been disputed by the proponents of absolute latent life. Kasimir de Candolle maintained, without incidentally supporting his assertion with further experiments, that this weak breathing detected by our research may have only taken place at the beginning, during the transition from a suspended life into a completely latent one.

Recently, a German researcher took up this experiment again, and came to the same results that we had arrived at. Kolkwitz found that completely dried barley corns exhaled carbon dioxide and consumed oxygen, ie. breathing was taking place. Pound one of the corns and the breathing becomes livelier; if ground into flour, and even if this flour is subjected to a temperature of 100° for hours or dunked into a 90% proof alcohol, this breathing does not stop. "All these experiments", wrote the author, "confirm that dried seeds find themselves in a condition of suspended life." Paul Becquerel again tried this entire series of experiments on the most diverse dried seeds, and regularly demonstrated the presence of respiration and transpiration, and not only, as Kasimer de Candolle would have it, at the beginning, but rather during the entire duration of this "latent life". Becquerel was even able to show that seeds, which had exceptionally maintained their capacity to germinate for 80 years, do provide evidence of a very restricted breathing.

IV
Let us now turn again to the seed corn from the graves of the pharaohs.

Externally, when they have authentically been found with mummies, the seeds look good. The only obvious sign of their appearance is the usual presence of a red-brown colour, as Raspail had already noted in 1825. In 1828, Bonastre subjected seeds found with an Egyptian mummy to a chemical analysis, and found that the albumin, ie. the food provision stored next to the embryo or germ, contained various organic fundamentals that are capable of surviving for an unlimited period of time. Thus, the starch of these seeds turns blue under the influence of iodine as does starch from seeds of our days. That is a remarkable fact, and it shows that certain organic substances do remain unimpaired if stored under particular conditions; but it does not provide evidence that such seeds can germinate.

Which conditions must be fulfilled in order that this reawakening is possible? Gain, a professor at the University of Nancy who has recently reported on research into seeds sent to him by Maspero, has concluded that three conditions are essential.

In order that an ancient seed could germinate, three conditions must be fulfilled: 1. The food provision must be chemically intact, as is the case for crop corns and the barley from the graves of the pharaohs. 2. The embryo must still possess a level of organisation that would allow the consumption of the albumin reserves; 3. should that condition be fulfilled, then the embryo must also remain in contact with those reserves, so as to enable their consumption.

As stated above, the first of these three conditions is often met; but how do things stand with the other two? Gain had cut the corn of the pharaohs into a number of segments, and investigated them microscopically. The results show that the embryo is largely disorganised; it appears to have shrunk as if it had been mummified. Furthermore, the connection between the embryo and albumin has been lost. Even had the germ survived undamaged, then it would not have been able to consume the albumin; and additionally, the elements of the germ or embryo are abnormally positioned and sometimes entirely disconnected. Furthermore, the individual cells have been subjected to chemical changes, and no longer react in the specific ways shown as for the embryo cells of modern seeds.

Gain comes to the following result: "The pharaoh corn no longer possesses, despite the external appearance of a good condition, the cellular organisation required to enable the germination of new life. Their reserves are often chemically well preserved, but the embryo itself has suffered from a severe chemical change, and life is no longer viable. These chemical changes allow it to be recognised, that the latent life of the seed has long since disappeared." Gain has also attempted, on the basis of the appearance of the corn that was preserved on the sections made for the microscope, to specify the age of it. The classification of 4, 20, 50, 100, 200, 400 and 3,000 year old seed is not difficult. One only needs to follow the effects of the internal transformations step by step, which time has produced for these apparently unchanged corns.

V
In very recent times, Gain and Barocq-Rousseau have both investigated seeds from various ages, not only from the perspective of their storage or less of germination ability, but also with connection to their capabilities for consumption.

The relevant seeds corns came from 12 various collections and herbariae, ages ranging between 2 and 3,000 years, and included seeds from Ancient Peruvian graves.

These investigations show that the consumption capabilities of seed corn are generally preserved for longer than the germination ability. However, no seed maintained it for longer than 100 years, and the diastase itself was not present in any for longer than 200 years. One should perhaps say this seems improbable as scientifically educated men, such as engineers and professors, have brought corn back with them from their visits to the grain silos of pharaohs, and saw them germinated with their own eyes. How can one explain this?

In a letter to Grisson, Professor of Botany at the Gigoner School, who had asked for information from him, Masperon said the following with regard to this: "One must differentiate between two different groups of experiments: 1. those concerning seeds that have been bought from the Fellahin as coming from the graves of mummies; 2. those concerned with seeds that researchers themselves have found, or by the people themselves who passed them on to the researcher. In the first instance, the corn almost always geminates but, as far as I am aware, it never has in the second. The conclusion to be drawn from this is obvious. The Fellahin are always looking for profit, and they mix some modern seed into the genuinely old corn that they sell, so that the quantity is doubled; the old seeds do not germinate but the others do. I have found many seed corns in graves from crops, barley, hemp, flax and other plants. Some had been lightly baked, some dunked in a chalk milk, as can still be recognised, some had been laid in the graves with no preparation as can still be recognised at the moment of discovery. Not one of that final group has ever germinated, and just as few as the others."

One must divorce oneself from the concept of such eternal earthly existence of one and the same organism, from the thought that there are living things that can retain the ability for ever and, like Sleeping Beauty, are waiting for a kiss from nature to be reawoken to new life.

An index of more of my translations of old Kosmos articles can be found at:

Kosmos Translations Archive

A number of Mesozoic (and post-Mesozoic) location summaries can be found at Localities.