LIFE IN HOT WATER

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 1, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 22.

LIFE IN HOT WATER.

THE highest temperature at which a living organism can exist is probably 89° Centigrade, or 193° F. This is the temperature of hot springs, in which filamentous micro-organisms have been found by Professor W. A. Setchell. He searched carefully for life in the geysers of Sonoma County, California, which are still hotter, but was unsuccessful. The limits of life in water containing silica are considerably lower, and they are lower still in water containing lime. No organisms were found in acid waters, and all the strictly thermal organisms are of very low grade. The cell structure is peculiar, and the protoplasm must be different from the ordinary kind, for that would be coagulated by the heat. The exact nature of this difference, however, is yet undiscovered.—Success.