Thanks to these studies, a considerable field has been opened up for biological research, but in this, which is not our subject, I shall notice one point only.  It has been proved that vital germs—­bacteria, for example—­may be kept for seven days at -190 deg.C. without their vitality being modified.  Phosphorescent organisms cease, it is true, to shine at the temperature of liquid air, but this fact is simply due to the oxidations and other chemical reactions which keep up the phosphorescence being then suspended, for phosphorescent activity reappears so soon as the temperature is again sufficiently raised.  An important conclusion has been drawn from these experiments which affects cosmogonical theories:  since the cold of space could not kill the germs of life, it is in no way absurd to suppose that, under proper conditions, a germ may be transmitted from one planet to another.

Among the discoveries made with the new processes, the one which most strikingly interested public attention is that of new gases in the atmosphere.  We know how Sir William Ramsay and Dr. Travers first observed by means of the spectroscope the characteristics of the companions of argon in the least volatile part of the atmosphere.  Sir James Dewar on the one hand, and Sir William Ramsay on the other, subsequently separated in addition to argon and helium, crypton, xenon, and neon.  The process employed consists essentially in first solidifying the least volatile part of the air and then causing it to evaporate with extreme slowness.  A tube with electrodes enables the spectrum of the gas in process of distillation to be observed.  In this manner, the spectra of the various gases may be seen following one another in the inverse order of their volatility.  All these gases are monoatomic, like mercury; that is to say, they are in the most simple state, they possess no internal molecular energy (unless it is that which heat is capable of supplying), and they even seem to have no chemical energy.  Everything leads to the belief that they show the existence on the earth of an earlier state of things now vanished.  It may be supposed, for instance, that helium and neon, of which the molecular mass is very slight, were formerly more abundant on our planet; but at an epoch when the temperature of the globe was higher, the very speed of their molecules may have reached a considerable value, exceeding, for instance, eleven kilometres per second, which suffices to explain why they should have left our atmosphere.  Crypton and neon, which have a density four times greater than oxygen, may, on the contrary, have partly disappeared by solution at the bottom of the sea, where it is not absurd to suppose that considerable quantities would be found liquefied at great depths.[10]

[Footnote 10:  Another view, viz. that these inert gases are a kind of waste product of radioactive changes, is also gaining ground.  The discovery of the radioactive mineral malacone, which gives off both helium and argon, goes to support this.  See Messrs Ketchin and Winterson’s paper on the subject at the Chemical Society, 18th October 1906.—­ED.]