At the turn of the twentieth century Victor Galippe experienced on the origin of life taking inspiration from the ancient theories of seeds of rock.
The life in our planet, according to alchemists, does actually imply an origin from the element Earth. The element in which the quintessential Seed of Metals must be turned to be fixed. Although the french physician Galippe certainly ignored Alchemy, some reminiscence probably remained when he looked for a starting theory to solve the problem he saw in organic compounds, that’s to say he considered them too vulnerable to be fully able to keep and transmit life.
So it seemed to Galippe a logical consequence to simply think of inseminating, following the classical bacteriological method, culture media (broth or agar) with semi-precious stones, various rocks, fossils, meteorites, volcanic lavas. The sample was ground to a powder in a mortar of Abisch, then in the agate mortar. It was then heated to temperatures of the order of 300 ° C and even higher, until red-hot (800 ° C). Sometimes it was treated with caustic soda, others still with sulfuric acid, or hydrochloric. One can obviously accuse Galippe of not knowing how to work aseptically. In fact he did not tell us whether he has observed proper precautions for the culture media and the inseminating practices as well.
Back to the years that were close to 900, another french scientist, Gaube de Gers, held at the medical school of Paris a course on biological mineralogy, studying the role and importance of mineral elements in living matter. The central notion of Gaube de Gers was: “The living matter is a complex of mineral gangue in an organic vein.” He observed that the constituent materials of living tissue were not of albumin but rather albuminates of calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium; that the circulating liquids were electrolytes, salt solutions of the metals. Nevertheless the ideas of de Gaube Gers produced in the listeners only a partial practical use, that’s to say the mineralization of the body when its problems are due to a demineralization.
In 1921 Dr. Victor Galippe publishes a booklet entitled “La Vie de la Matière” , or the life of matter. In a few pages, he supports the view of the extreme spread of the vital property in the most diverse materials presented by nature. The rest of the booklet is a collection of accounts of experiences.
Most inseminations provide the species of crops where one can see swarm of microscopic particles, called “organites” by Galippe. They are driven by rapid movements, but not always. The culture conditions, chemical treatment, heating, choice of the ore, are varied depending on the degree of author’s imagination. Despite this, the pullulation is the rule.
His conclusion is that the organites were born from the ore, but they need a chemical organic medium to develop and evolve. This conclusion poses a problem, that of the appearance of the organic compounds in nature without the intervention of living organisms, if, for “living” we mean constructions based on mineral-organic compounds: this problem does not frighten the modern chemistry as it would scare the chemistry of the past, for many modern constructions are now total syntheses which we know and practice both in laboratory and in factory.
Galippe doggedly pursued the same experience from 1887 to 1921 making a lot of variations. As example I translated and published the most extreme series of experiments, on what he defines hard rocks subjected to extreme treatment of fusion: quartz, basalt, granite. But, among them, I choose the first because its treatment reached the extreme point of fusion.
La vie de la matière: “Crystallized silicic acid (SiO2) D = 2.65. The experiences practiced on Quartz seem to us to present such an interest that we had to give them a special chapter. For our first experiments we used the technique that we have described so far. After thoroughly washed with distilled water and sterilized, the quartz crystals were sterilized for 48 hours in distilled water supersaturated with ether and shaken frequently. Then the crystals were placed in contact with the pure ether for more than 24 hours. After flamed with the Bunsen burner, are pulverized in a mortar of Abisch sterilized. Then the powder was treated with a solution of caustic soda lye also at 36 ° (10 drops per 15 cc. of sterilized distilled water ).
Before this, the powder was subjected to a direct microscopic examination : This examination has revealed the presence of a large number of ovoid bacilli and sticks with very lively movement .
We also notice some translucent fragments, colored in yellow and filled with micrococci piled on each other.
The day after the insemination, the culture liquid shows numerous ovoid bacilli still refracting and little chains of strongly colored numerous sticks. It is noted again the presence of microorganisms in the translucent fragments, especially in those colored yellow.
The Agar contains ovoid and refracting bacilli, still sticks which have not yet set a coloring matter.
Twenty-four hours later, the culture liquid is covered with a white abundant, corrugated , easily dissociable veil, made of little chains short and piled sticks. They are very colorful and those isolated put in display very quick oscillating movements.
The Agar is covered with a yellowish light veil consisting of a large number of short sticks and ovoid moving bacilli with.
A second experience is made by keeping the same technique, with the only difference that the quartz fragments were previously left 14 days in the pure ether.
The direct microscopic examination of the powder has revealed that it was the seat of an intense life: one can see a large number of ovoid corpuscles and micrococci with lively movements. That even in the crystalline fragments.
The day after the insemination, the little chains of sticks are already formed in the culture medium. One can see the sticks gathered in clusters, isolated or associated two by two, setting the coloring material and have an oscillating motion. It is noted the presence of numerous colored ovoid bacilli and with oscillating movement as well.
Agar has not given anything that day.
48 hours after insemination, the culture medium is covered with a white abundant and adherent veil. It is constituted by a prodigious number of little chains of very fine sticks and forming a very tight tracery. They hardly take color. Only the contained microorganisms take color vigorously.
But it is only 5 days after insemination that Agar is covered with a white and smooth veil, consisting mainly of short and piled sticks, isolated or associated two by two. They are very colorful . We also notice a number of ovoid uncolored bacilli.
Quartz melted at 1800 ° C.
It is known that the industry is likely to make up with melted quartz at 1800 ° C , different laboratory apparatuses , such as pipes, crucibles , capsules, etc .
Our experience has led to several devices and they seem to have a considerable extent from the point of view of the ideas we defend in this work.
A piece of quartz tube was pulverized and the obtained powder taken for precautionary measure at a temperature of 310 ° C.
Before heating, the quartz powder was subjected to direct microscopic examination and showed to contain numerous ovoid corpuscles with movement. The transparent particles will contain as well.
Two inseminations have been carried out when the quartz powder is still warm and without prior treatment.
The next day the culture medium showed a considerable number of ovoid bacilli and micrococci. The ovoid bacilli are irregularly colorful, the micrococci are all moving very lively, as well as the rest of the ovoid bacilli.
24 hours later, the tube n . 1 is covered with a white thick veil consisting of little chains of sticks very colorful and piled, in their turn enclosing sticks , ovoid bacilli and micrococci . These latter are often assembled two by two and colored, together they make some little chains, the colored lonely sticks are moving very vividly.
The tube n. 2 is cloudy , but no veiled. Encloses numerous colored ovoid bacilli that are moving oscillating. One sees also numerous very colorful and animated motion micrococci. There has been only rare sticks.
48 hours later, the same tube was covered with a white abundant and thick veil consisting of clusters formed by little chains of sticks generally colored, but one can see also little chains whose elements are differently colored: some are not. The free sticks and ovoid bacilli in the preparation are generally colored, but a large number did not fix the coloring matter.
These experiments were repeated and give comparable results.”
We can stop here. The booklet runs along these lines, apart from the material names: basalt, granite, obsidian, onyx and so on.
Conclusion: Galippe doesn’t provide enough datas on the sterilization of culture media and inseminating practices. As a a researcher in Alchemy I can only add that all this only vaguely brings to the Alchemical Seeds of Metals, which anything else are but our Mercurius ( a substance out of reiterated salts volatilizations during preliminary works), which we believe to be the First Matter, Prima Materia, Quinta Essentia, Universal Dissolvent, Alkahest. Being this Mercurius too much volatile, is then fixed in Mercurius Philosophorum, that’s to say it turns back to element earth, in so doing retaining all the dissolving, transforming and vegetative power as it was volatile.
That’s our real Alchemical Seed of Rock, not Galippe’s.
Surprisingly enough, Henri la Croix-Haute dedicates an entire chapter of his “Propos sur les deux Lumières” to Galippe’s experiments and, in my opinion, goes too far in his belief that chemical reactions can be explained according to Alchemy. But, as we will see in a next article, it will be interesting to deep his theory of light action on minerals.