BIOlogical TRANSmutations

FOREWORD

This English edition of the works of Louis Kervran is intended for everyone: scholar, layman, or college student. It could have been directed toward a scholar's mind exclusively, presenting itself to him in cold scientific terms, but this would have slowed down progress. If, in Mr. Kervran's words, scientists "have made of science another job," it would not be ethical to present it to them alone. The problems of ecology, medicine and nutrition, and the alarming rise of radioactivity are too acute to be dealt with solely through academic channels. It is within everyone's ability to comprehend the biological transmutations as long as there is a desire for true knowledge. To understand the biological transmutations requires nothing more than to cast aside all rigid thought while studying them. Transmutation is no more and no less than a reality, which teaches us about change. In change we find life, and by change we create life. Our only constant is our goal of becoming Man.

The principles of the biological transmutations affect every phase of our existence. They are already being applied without patent or license by industrial, dietetic and pharmaceutical products based on Kervran's research. Transmutations are now recognized in medicine. They have opened the door to new treatments and therapeutics for reputedly "incurable" diseases. There are solutions already projected for curing arteriosclerosis, rheumatism, excessive arterial tensions, decalcification, kidney stones, hormonal deficiencies, etc., in a natural way, without danger to the patient. Agronomists are already practicing Kervran's findings on a large scale. Dietitians are the biggest beneficiaries, because dietetics is too close to man's body and soul to remain an academic and isolated science. In accordance with this law of the change of elements, which Louis Kervran uncovered, there is now a movement by hundreds of thousands of people to eat in a natural way.

The U.S.A. is ecologically in bad shape. Only through the understanding and practice of biological transmutations can this alarming problem be solved. The land is not only polluted but is in some parts barren. Heavy chemicals have killed it. No ecological problem can be solved on the surface; it can only be remedied as its name indicates: ecologically. This means that it can be done only through natural law. Ecology starts with man, mind and body. If his body is clean, his environment will be clean, naturally. If our tastes are sensorial, if our measure of happiness and health is comfort, then ecology is relegated to a mere science with man as a hopelessly retarded child who must be dealt with by caresses and long walks for a year or two or three, until the end of his invalid life. Ecology is often synonymous with attractive environment. Cans of beer are removed from beaches; hands are cleaned; everyone returns home satisfied. That is merely a good cleaning job.

What about man? What about his body and mind? If the food being consumed does not change, the problem of ecology will worsen. If scientists do not change their minds about nutrition, man, a biological part of this earth, will soon be extinct. Intestines must be healed, since they are as polluted as our streams. The populace must be educated to choose food that does not come canned, bagged in plastic, or chemically treated. From the need of the consumer, from this need only, can the ecological problems be considered-and solved. From a good earth one regenerates one's health. Our blood is but the product of an agent, the earth. The biological creates the physiological. Has this become a secret, or has man become so mechanical, so enslaved to fast relief in any possible way, that he has become accustomed to the "miracle pill"? His pain is relieved in seconds. This is proof enough for him to believe in the "scientific way." But that is not true science.

In a letter to the author of this English version, Louis Kervran wrote: "I hold the same conception as you do: if one desires to bring about a deep change in science, it is not to the high scientific spheres that he should address himself, but to the masses. Not being narrow-minded like the specialist, they can see the synthesis of things and not just their details. This is how I have been progressing in this world during the last ten years ... But one should not be so absolute in judgment as to say that all scientists are narrow-minded. I have found great support among known personalities, but they are a minority. They are lost in the crowd all cannot vanquish the obstacles and inertia created by the too many. Science has become a petty job. Fifty years ago there were a few thousand men of science; now it is by the hundreds of thousand that one counts them, so that the average level of quality has greatly diminished."

What Mr. Kervran means is that man has become mechanical in his thinking and doing. The physiological, which is what we "are," and the biological, from which our daily nourishment comes, are but a shadow of what man used to be when he was free. What is freedom if it is not to be free in every way, from our most minute cell to our most expansive dreams? He is free who can afford to let the interactions between cell and spirit take place in the most harmonious way. There is no freedom in intellect. "Freedom" of that sort lasts for the duration of a though of an act. To be truly free is to be able to establish peace between all opposites within us. That is at least the beginning of freedom Mr. Kervran, with his discovery of biological transmutation, has given this chaotic and scientific world the Alladin's Lamp by which we can save ourselves and our diseased earth. From mechanical men we will raise ourselves to physiological and spiritual: beings. That which is mechanical does not believe in change, nor in beauty, nor even in man. The mechanical mind lives within the hour. If it projects an idea for the future, it is but a steel-like construction erected out of stress, a protection from the "invaders". The mechanical man is afraid. He thinks the enemy is outside of him, so he protects himself a bit more every day until he loses tl1 natural immunity he inherited from this just world.

With biological transmutations we are taught a lesson about freedom. We learn that an element is free to become another when it meets its opposite. It travels from one state to another procreating newborn atoms. It is the hope of Mr. Louis Kervran and this author that biological transmutations will be applied to the fullest extent in the U.S.A. and in the whole world.

In 1799 the French chemist Vauquelin was so intrigued by the quantity of lime excreted every day by hens that he decided to put a hen in a cage and feed it oats exclusively. Having measured the quantity of lime that was present in a pound of oats, he gave the oats to the hen. When the grains had been eaten, he analyzed the quantity of lime excreted through the eggs and fecal matter. The hen was found to have excreted five times more lime than it had taken in the food. Vauquelin concluded that lime had been created, but he could not determine the cause.

In 1822 Prout, an Englishman, was the first to clearly define the problems of the transmutation of elements. He systematically studied the increase of limestone (a compound consisting chiefly of calcium carbonate) inside an incubating chicken egg, proving that limestone is not contributed by the shell.

In 1831 the Frenchman Choubard let watercress seeds germinate in an insoluble dish (sand, glass, etc., washed with acids, rinsed with water, heated). He verified that the young plants contained minerals, which had not existed in the seeds.

Others followed. In 1844 Vogel experimented with watercress seeds placed under a large bell jar. Keeping the air "analyzed," he added a nutritive solution containing no sulfur whatsoever. After their germination he analyzed the young plants, finding that they contained more sulfur than the seeds from which they stemmed. This phenomenon remained obscure to Vogel, who concluded that either sulfur is not a simple body or there was an unknown source of sulfur.

A few years later Lauwes and Gilbert considered the weight variation of ashes during vegetation. They observed, in analyzing the ashes, an inexplicable variation in the amount of magnesium. In 1875 von Herzeele went a step further by verifying a weight increase in the ashes of young plants stemmed from germinating seeds. He made a culture without soil in a well-studied medium. Later on he carried out experiments related to Vogel's earlier study of the weight variation of magnesium, already considered by Lauwes and Gilbert. Von Herzeele then concluded that there was a transmutation of elements.

He seems to have been the first to research the origin and destination of an element. His remarkable work remained without echo in the scientific world. In 1950 Hauschka took it out of the dark to publish von Herzeele's findings in one of his books.

Branfield, Lakhovsky, Spindler and Freundler, among others followed. None of them arrived at clear conclusions.

Baranger, chief of the laboratory of organic chemistry at the Ėcole Poly technique in Paris, became acquainted with von Herzeele's work. In 1960 he published the first results, handed to him by A. Spindler, of the variations of phosphorus and calcium in germinated seeds. Baranger concluded that a transmutation of elements had occurred, but his research, like that of his predecessors failed to show the mechanism by which the discrepancy was produced.

It was in 1959 that Louis Kervran started publishing his discoveries. At about that time the coincidental works of the above scientists became known to him. In the summer of that same year Mr. Kervran came to a conclusion concerning his many years of systematic research. He did his best to prove his conviction to the scientific world, a conviction that none before him had been able to put down in clear formulas. Having waited for years, witnessing thousands of convergent analyses, he succeeded in demonstrating that not only molecules but (also) atoms themselves can be transformed. He verified that there is transmutation of matte from one simple body to another, from one atom to another.

All the proof was presented, yet Kervran encountered violent opposition from skeptical people who were reluctant to accept something new. On the other hand, warmest congratulations and encouragement poured in from very great personalities of science who now saw light in what had always been obscure to them. Already in 1959 Kervran had found solid help among those having true scientific spirit.

In July 1960 a French scientific review published an article on Louis Kervran. That was enough for the public to know what many scholars had refused to see. Magazines, radio and television gave millions the chance to be informed about the "transmutations." It was not until 1962 that Biological Transmutations was published by Librarie Maloine. In a matter of a few months, the first edition was sold out and reprinted. A third one was to follow two years later. Successively came Transmutations Naturelles, Transmutations à Faible Energie, Preuves Relatives à l'Existense des Transmutations Biologiques, and Transmutations Biologiques en Agronomie.

In the preface of Transmutations Naturelles Jean Lombard, a geologist of worldwide reputation, wrote these words: "The true workers of science, who are always ready to welcome new suggestions, sometimes ask themselves if the greatest obstacle to the progress of science is not bad memory on the part of the scholars; they wish to remind the latter that some of their predecessors were burnt because they proposed 'interpretations' which have now become foremost truths. If pioneers of science were still being burnt, I would not give much for Louis Kervran's skin."

In January 1963 a group of scientists listened to Louis Kervran. After that meeting a report was written by Fischoff, saying: "We are convinced that there is here a series of observations and phenomena of the highest importance for the progress of our knowledge in physics, biology, geology, cosmology, etc. ... The great merit of Louis Kervran is to have felt strongly that there was something strange in the facts he brings to us and that there was a need for something 'new' to explain it. He obstinately followed an idea and patiently, for many long years, accumulated facts, observations, and results – having no apparent link – at last assembling all these converging facts and ideas to form a daring hypothesis, solid and thrilling. Daring, for it appears to be opposed to the classical conception of nuclear physics and biology. Solid, for the invoked and observed facts are very many, sustained by an infallible reasoning argument. Thrilling, for it opens new perspectives and horizons in biology, medicine, energetics, physics, cosmogony, etc."

Twelve years have passed since Biological Transmutations became public. The debate of the times continues. France is now divided into two camps, those for Kervran and those against him. English scientists have invited Louis Kervran to give a series of lectures and demonstrations. Scientists from Switzerland, Italy and Belgium have already heard him and are starting to put transmutations into practice. Russia contacted Kervran. All books about transmutations have been translated into Russian, but not yet on a commercial scale. They can be consulted now in the Moscow Library. Russian scientists are now organizing a congress exclusively dedicated to transmutations, to be held in 1973. The Chinese Embassy officially and insistently invited Kervran many times to go to Peking for three months to give Chinese scholars a chance to learn about his work. Nine years ago the Dow Chemical Company invited Kervran to come to the U.S.A. Mr. Kervran, however could not honor the invitation at that time.

* * * * *

After I had finished the present book and had written the major part of this Foreword, I went to see Mr. Louis Kervran in Europe to make corrections. What I had done was to put all his book into one. It was not an easy task. Choosing the most essential parts was the first difficulty, for everything seemed essential. All other difficulty kept arising at almost every sentence. Kervran's statements were directed at French scientists, who do not as for as much precision as their American colleagues do. My problem then was to remain loyal to the text while rendering it in manner suited to the American scientific mentality. In other words, what was required was a first-class writer who reasoned as well as he wrote, who was thoroughly familiar with English an French, chemistry, biology, nuclear physics, etc., and who was flexible enough to trust the concept of transmutation as a "new science."

If I ever chose myself to do the present work it was not because I am that kind of a writer, but simply because I could not find anyone even half-qualified to do it. There are not many scientists who know French well enough to decipher Kervran's texts. I reasoned and convinced myself thus: this is a new way of looking at science; it is up to the reader – whoever he may be, scientist or layman – to go ahead and grow with it. My role will be limited to that of a catalyst.

This I may have done well, but I humbly declare myself incapable of doing what really ought to have been done. Being busy with studying and teaching, I could afford to spend only six months on the book (twelve hours daily). Truly it needed another six months. In short, this book needed a man richer than I in all respects, one who would have spent a year or two at his desk thinking and working only on the transmutations.

This book is not a textbook or something to use in the laboratory. Its sole purpose is to stir the minds of those who are still truly concerned about this earth ecologically. I would never finish if I were to cite all the possible applications of the biological transmutations. Of special importance is the place they will occupy between the scientist and the metaphysician. So far there has never been a direct dialogue between the two, because of the differences in language. Now I believe their meeting is possible, for the biological transmutations teach us about the movement of life. From this movement the scientist will see that science can no longer limit itself to the study of the physical alone, for movement also implies elevation toward the metaphysical, not entropy. From this same movement, animating the invisible elements, the metaphysician will learn that life is worth studying in its most singular aspects. He will discover in the minute that which he always knew, that life is a continual renewal of self and cell.

I would like to end this foreword by presenting, in a few words, Mr. Kervran. I had expected to meet a scientist with whom I would discuss – as men usually do when they meet – philosophy. But things did not happen as I anticipated, for he showed himself such a dragon in science that nothing but science was discussed. Mr. Kervran knew his subject well; he seemed to have read all the scientific books and articles published all over the world, to know the work of every living scientist. And when I told him that he had given to science a new direction and hope, he answered, his face growing red, "I simply pointed out what has always existed."

The chapters of this book have been placed in the best possible order for the reader who is unfamiliar with the biological transmutations to become acquainted with them.

The reader will perhaps meet some difficulties which I myself met upon first reading Mr. Kervran's books. For this reason I advise him to read this book more than once, or, if he wishes, to go directly to the chapter of his choice (Medicine, Agriculture, etc.). In this manner he will learn rapidly where the biological transmutations can be applied.

May this book be the instrument of a new era in which men of good will and understanding bring justice and peace on earth.

The English and often the sense of the following text were made clear by Susan Hatsell. Robert Jones and Hinda Zweig made pertinent remarks contributing greatly to the clarity of many difficult parts.

For all these I am grateful.

M.A.

On incandescent stoves

In the elementary school classroom in the borough where I lived, we were heated by a rudimentary stove made of cast iron. There was a key on the pipe to regulate the draft – or we could push or pull the ashtray. Old oak was mainly used. When the wood caught fire, the stove very quickly began to "snore" and became red. Then everyone complained of headaches. That is why an "officer in charge" was appointed to turn off the key or push the ashtray when the stove started growing red.

The headaches, the teacher told us, came from the carbon monoxide emitted by the stove at the red-hot point. At school, however, the belief was that slow combustion gives off carbon monoxide (CO), while fast combustion produces carbon dioxide (CO₂), which is less dangerous. We were advised against sleeping in a room having a stove with a slow draft.

I couldn't make up my mind. If the stove becomes red, it is precisely because it has a good draft system, a very good one, and there should be no formation of carbon monoxide. All the explanations given to the questions I later asked my teachers were so little convincing that this mystery also stayed in my subconscious.

The scientific answer is this: red-hot cast iron becomes porous and allows the CO within the stove to seep out instead of leaving by way of the smoke pipe. If I objected that there could not then be carbon monoxide from a fast, complete combustion, the reply was that CO₂ went through the red-hot cast iron, became rich in carbon, and then became carbon monoxide. This meant that the cast iron would eventually lose its carbon! I have never seen a few hundred grams of coal (approximately 40 grams per kilo of cast iron) disappear from a cast iron stove to produce a stove of steel! These hundreds of grams of carbon would have burned quickly! Even if cast iron is porous when incandescent, I do not believe carbon monoxide is produced at the contact of CO₂ with cast iron. If carbon monoxide (CO) were formed, it would burn immediately to give CO₂. Thus, to make things worse, we are considering unreal conditions, since if the stove draws well it is because there is depression. This means that if the cast iron is porous, there won't be any gas seeping out. On the contrary, there will be an "air call" through the porous wall!

But what really happened? Undeniably a red-hot stove in a closed room brings about intoxication, sometimes deadly, from carbon monoxide.

The explanation of all this came to me indirectly when I was fifty years old, although when I was still a child the problem had already repeatedly presented itself. I had to wait until 1955 for a convergence of mortal accidents to make me doubt the theory of the "invariance of matter." Notwithstanding the current respect for official prescriptions, there were nonetheless many people who had met death by carbon monoxide intoxication, although it was attested to by many analyses that the victims could not have inhaled carbon monoxide. I crossed the Rubicon, and with coworkers (eleven were engineers from the finest schools of France) undertook a long series of experiments. We secured the help of official laboratories along with the cooperation-for blood analysis -of many M.D.'s. I abandoned my postulate concerning the invariance of matter in order to confirm or nullify my hypothesis about the real cause of death, intending to concentrate only on results, whatever they might be.

In the meantime, in the spring of 1959 I was led to conclusions, which revealed the explanation. Balance sheets had been established on teams of workers. The Minister of the Sahara himself, Jacques Soustelle, an ethnologist, had given me the opportunity to make a close study near petroleum wells. In spite of the prevalent classicism, I decided in the summer to publish these aberrant balance sheets established from chemical and physical points of view, but resulting from research I had made with the cooperation of the most eminent specialists of organic chemistry, together with professors of medicine who believed that I was on solid ground.

As a high official of the French government, I had the unique privilege of using any official laboratory. I could thus have the collaboration of the most eminent specialized chiefs of laboratories, professors of universities, etc. (for it is impossible nowadays to ask the same laboratory to make different experiments). This privilege proved very useful to me. Without such a synthesis of disciplines my task would have been impossible. No isolated specialist could have succeeded. I thank all the eminent men of science who brought me the support of their high qualifications, permitting me to prove and confirm the validity of my theories.

On welders

In 1935 I made an observation, which left me perplexed. A blowtorch welder was mortally intoxicated by carbon monoxide. My job was to investigate the conditions surrounding the accident in order to determine the causes and eventually prevent them. Nothing enabled me to discover the source of this carbon monoxide.

Many times after that such accidents occurred, and on no occasion, could I find the link, which would lead me to the origin of the inhaled carbon monoxide. These facts remained in my subconscious until 1955. It was not until that year that I saw the light. That same year in the space of a few months, three oxyacetylene welders died. I received all the detailed reports, including autopsies. All evidence indicated that the welders, who were all steel cutters, had died from oxycarbonaemia and not from nitrogen oxides.

Analysis showed that the inhaled air had too small a percentage of carbon monoxide to be dangerous. It was then decided, with the assistance of M.D.'s working for the companies, to make blood analyses on all the victims' comrades, although they looked in rather good health. We found that those doing the same work were deeply affected with chronic oxycarbonaemia, some to a level approaching that of fatal accident.

I put together all I had and imputed the fault to working conditions, although analysis of the air inhaled by the workers proved that there was no source of carbon monoxide anywhere. Investigations were made in different places. The impregnation with oxycarbonaemia was general. After four years of research, using the most delicate of methods, I could conclude:

1) that the strong blow-torches with which the workers cut metal do not liberate carbon monoxide, but do bring a large surface of ferrous metal to incandescence.

2) that those workers who were bending down to their work and only they, not their helpers standing by – inhaled the air which licked the ferrous and incandescent metal.

3) that the analysis of the inhaled air showed an absence of carbon monoxide, meaning that the air was always a combination of nitrogen and oxygen. This explained the fact that never, even though a great number of investigations were made the world over, was carbon monoxide found in the inhaled air.

4) that carbon monoxide – being detected in the blood of the workers, not in the blood of the helpers – could only have an endogenous formation when this air is breathed. In other words, it was activated by the air's contact with a ferrous and incandescent metal. This would shed light on the observations made in places using cast iron stoves heated to incandescence.

The oxygen in the inhaled air was not sufficient to allow a formation of CO in the organism. There is O, but C is needed. From where does it come? After much research I thought that it was activated nitrogen, which produced carbon in the organism (at the level of red corpuscles irrigating pulmonary alveoli). This question hasn't been cleared up. The nitrogen molecule (there is never free atomic nitrogen; isolated nitrogen is always in the form of N₂) contains two nuclei of nitrogen enveloped by the electrons of the molecular orbit. In the heart of the molecule the two nuclei vibrate at a known frequency. Were this submitted to a vibratory and outer energy more or less of the same period, could it be a resonance which at a certain time provokes the passage of a proton with its neutron from one nucleus to another? All this occurs without any change of the peripheral electrons. On one hand, there remains a nucleus with one proton missing, thus carbon; the other nucleus acquires one more proton and becomes oxygen. It is thus a phenomenon having nothing to do with nuclear physics; one remains at the molecular state. But we have here an internal remodeling by the removal of a proton from one nucleus to another. The measurements taken show that in the molecule N₂ the distance between the two nuclei of nitrogen is 1.12 Angstroms, whereas in the CO molecule the distance between the C and O nuclei is 1.09 Angstroms.

MOLECULE N₂ MOLECULE CO

(PROTONS of the ATOMS)

Fig. 1 The change of place of a proton – arrow on the left – makes an N₂ molecule become a CO molecule.

This removal of a nuclei when a proton and its neutron exchange change places does not seem radioactive: it could occur under the energetic action of an unidentified enzyme at the level of the pulmonary air cells, or perhaps in the thickness of the membrane of the erythrocytes going through the air cell. It has not yet been proved that I was mistaken.

Controversies arose when I published the above explanation in 1960. A specialist advanced the following opinion: the heat of the inhaled air led to a dilation, a reduction of density, thus to the rarefaction of the inhaled air. From this would result a diminution of the oxygen pressure, which is conducive to "bad combustion" in the blood, hence CO is formed instead of CO₂. It is easy to see that this hypothesis has no value whatsoever. The breathing in of hot air would not lead to the same effect if there were no contact with an incandescent metal.

Nevertheless, a systematic study* was made in 1963 by a friend, Professor Desoille, and his colleague Truffert, both holding high official positions. They demonstrated that the phenomenon was independent of oxygen pressure. In 1964, I also showed that this phenomenon does not occur when the metal sheet is brought to a temperature of 400º C; one needs at least the deep red, and when the sheet is bright red the effect is quick. Oxygen is not the cause; thus my first publications in 1960 were confirmed. Nor does this same effect occur if one exchanges the nitrogen of the air with helium. Nitrogen alone is the origin of this endogenous production of carbon monoxide. The phenomenon being clarified, since my position in the scientific world permitted it, I notified "inspectors" of the measures to be taken in factories to avoid oxycarbonic intoxication once and for all.

[* H. Desoille, Absence de corrélation entre la pression de l' oxygène et l' oxyde de Carbone dans le sang, Arch. Mal. Prof., July 1963.]

II POTASSIUM

It appeared useful to me to gather together all the results of my research concerning the aberrant metabolism of potassium. This research has permitted me to verify

1) that the vital phenomenon is not of a chemical order; it goes deeply into the atom, starting in the nucleus. Organic chemistry is only the final stage of molecular rearrangement.

2) that the nucleus of the atom in light elements is quite different from what nuclear physics regards as the average type, the latter having value only for the heavy elements.

3) that Nature moves particles from one nucleus to another particles such as hydrogen and oxygen nuclei and, in some cases, the nuclei of carbon and lithium. There is thus a transmutation.

4) that biological transmutation is a phenomenon completely different from the atomic fissions or fusions of physics; that it reveals a property of matter not yet seen prior to this work.

My research was directed mostly towards the reactions taking place inside the nuclei of sodium, magnesium, potassium, calcium, nitrogen, and in a lesser degree, phosphorus, sulfur and chlorine, etc. The major role of potassium appeared to me to be a biological regulator; it can be produced endogenously from sodium. This reaction allowed me to calculate the endothermal energy necessary to tie a nucleus of oxygen to a nucleus of sodium, giving a nucleus of potassium:

This process necessitates only one millionth the energy of a reaction of nuclear physics in vitro.

Relation between potassium and temperature

There is abundant literature concerning this subject. Here are a few experiments cited by Reinberg:

It seems that it was Bachrach who first studied this phenomenon: he made cultures of lactic bacteria and brewer's yeast in a hyperpotassic medium at different temperatures. After one month the multiplication of these unicellular organisms was maximum in media richer in potassium, at the highest temperature. (With high temperature but a small amount of potassium the results are different.)

Ets and Boyd (study on the sciatic nerve of the frog) showed that cold is inhibitory. When potassium is added, this blocking occurs – but only at higher temperatures; the effect is even more accentuated when the K rate is higher.

Hundreds of experiments of this sort have revealed a correlation between the temperature at which the metabolism of living tissue occurs and the tissue's potassium content. But the nature and cause of this relation have not been determined.

E. G. Martin verified that an excess of potassium stops the heart of a fresh-water turtle cultured in a cold medium. If the temperature is raised, the potassic inhibition ceases. There is then a maximum potassium concentration not to be exceeded and a minimum, which must remain in proportion to the temperature. Let us note that, for man, the "fork" in the plasma is from 150 to 200 mg/l, variable with every individual, but beyond 300 mg/l there is danger. If a relation between K and temperature has been seen, it does not seem to have perceived that this is a relation of opposition: an excessively high temperature slows or stops physiological activity; the organism reacts by secreting K.

Relation between potassium, oxygen and hydrogen

The relation between potassium, oxygen and hydrogen has been perceived and various works contain references to it, but here, too, no general explanation has been seen.

a) Relation between potassium and oxygen

It has become apparent that potassium is most abundant where oxygen is present, i.e. where the metabolism is very active and the breathing deep – thus, in fully active tissue.

It is necessary to keep in mind the reaction Na + O = K, in order to understand that endogenous potassium is possible only if it has access to oxygen for its formation. This fact sheds light on the following findings:

Latshaw and Miller established that in corn, on the average, 45% of the plant's total potassium is in the leaf (where respiration is strong), 35% in the stem, 13% in the kernel, 4% in the bale, and 3% in the root. These values vary, of course, according to the age of the plant, to season, and also to light (which is not surprising, since respiration is linked to chlorophylian photosynthesis). It has been verified that in potato leaves K is at its maximum during the day and at its minimum at night.

Broyer showed that a small amount of oxygen increases the potassium content in the roots of barley, tomatoes and rice. The same is true of man and animals, where the potassium content is directly proportional to breathing activity or to the activity of tissues, which require much oxygen.

That is why cancerous tumors are richer in K, a fact having been verified in man and in the sarcoma of the chicken (Moravek).

An increase in K content leads to an elevation of arterial tension, to the activation of the vasomotor reactions. (The opposite is true with Mg and Ca). An increase of K from an injection in the cerebro-spinal liquid provides an intense breathing stimulation.

An animal is put to sleep with an injection of Mg and awakened with K (by an injection in the infundibulary area, with no effect in other areas of the brain). Oxygenation slows down during sleep or under the influence of narcotics. Potassium does the same. During sleep the metabolism is slowed down. There are less exchanges, less O, and thus less K; this reduction of K at the end of the sleeping period can attain to 16.6% in the plasma.

An excess of K diminishes the frequency and amplitude of the systols; at the extreme there is heart failure, the muscles and arteries having been loosened. Muscular activity necessitates oxygen, thus leading to an increase of K in the extra-cellular medium. Tipton verified this on the cat, Heppel on the rabbit, Bureau on the frog, Fenn on man, etc.

Heart failure in man occurs when K = 9 to 12 m Eq/1 in the plasma (approximately 350 to 450 mg/1).

For more details concerning the effect of K on the heart I refer the reader to specialized books. It follows that there is a Na/K relation, which must remain within limits, and that this required balance also implies limits for the K/Ca relation. One sometimes studies the Na + K / Ca + Mg relation. Darrow showed that the K variation greatly affects the electrocardiogram, which reveals a hyper or hypo "potassemia" or "kalemia"; this is due to a lack of polarization which is itself dependent upon the relation between Na and K on each face of the superficial layer of the nervous fiber. The ratios of concentration between Na in the outer medium and K in the nervous cell modify the difference in potential.

A young rat needs 15 mg of K per day. It needs only 2 mg when it is an adult. The average amount of K necessary for a human baby is 9 grams per day, which means that a nursing mother's milk, is relatively rich in K (500 mg/l) but poor in Na.

b) Relation between potassium and hydrogen

If there is abundant literature showing that the presence of K is dependent on the availability of oxygen, there are also several experiments showing its relation to hydrogen, for according to our reaction, K + H = Ca. In other words, if K is too abundant in the presence of H, it will give Ca.

The presence of H is linked to acidity (low pH). An excess of H ions signifies an acidity that might become dangerous for the cell. However, in that case K can join an H nucleus to produce Ca,

thereby establishing alkalinity and an optimum Ca/K ratio. The agent of equilibrium is thus K. The effects between K and Ca are opposite in appearance only; they are in fact complementary.

Hoagland writes that there is a clear tendency toward acidification of the cellular medium, freezing H⁺ ions; the addition of K⁺ ions leads to the alkalinization of the cellular liquids.

Reinberg notices that "the alkalinization of the cellular liquids with K is well known by arboriculturists, who use potassium nitrate to speed up fruit maturation."

It is of interest to point out that the proportions of K and Ca are of the same order in animal life – in the plasma as well as in seawater, where life began. Here is a Reinberg table:

Contents in m Eq/l

K Na Ca Mg Cl

Sea water 10 450 20 100 530

Rat 6.2 145 6.2 3.2 116

Dog 4.7 142 4.9 1.8 108

Man 4.5 140 5 2 102

If one compares the weights in milligrams, one finds that Na/K in seawater is from 25 to 27, in the plasma of man from 17 to 18 (varying from 15 to 22 according to the individual), but in cells it is K, which predominates. In the red globule, the vehicle of oxygen, Na gives an abundance of K. Na + O = K, because K/Na = approximately 180!

In sea animals the percentage is almost the same as in seawater. In fresh-water or land animals it is lower, but there the K/N a ratio is much higher. This indicates a more active life and more oxygenated blood, since K and O "go hand in hand," while Na decreases.

However, in land animals we find that the K/Ca ratio in the plasma is very close to 1, due to the reversibility of the reaction

K₃₉ + H₁ <=> Ca₄₀

Conditions are different inside the cell; it is here that the reaction takes place. Na penetrates the cell and fuses with O to give K; thus there is less Na and more K, but little Ca.

The following is another of Reinberg's charts: (m Eq/l)

K Na Ca Mg Cl

Octopus' muscle 101 81 3.7 12.7 93

Cat's muscle 151 28.5 1.2 15.4 18

Man's red blood corpuscle 105 10 0 5.5 80

The cells of land plants are richer in potassium and Ca and poorer in sodium than those of animals. A few examples:

K Na Mg Ca

Mushroom 102 8.7 4 11.5

Potato 115 8.7 25 7.5

Chestnut 135 8.7 33 20

Wheat (grain) 118 8.7 112 22.5

Corn (germ) 197 36 440 34

Date 165 4.3 52 32.5

Asparagus 64 1.3 9.1 12.5

Strawberry 40 2.2 17.5 22.5

Grape 64 2.7 8.3 5

Darrow pointed out that a K increase in the cell decreases the cell's acidity because it causes a decrease in H. Thus the alkalinization takes place when K takes H to give Ca. Ca is taken back by the outside liquid and excreted, producing a negative Ca balance sheet. More Ca is excreted than ingested, but the main source of Ca is Mg:

The internal equilibrium of the animal cell postulates a large K content and a small Ca content. The reactions with H help to reduce acidification, since H is taken away.

It has been found that micro-organisms in the soil excrete H ions which acidify the soil; however, K neutralizes this acidity when it comes in contact with the roots.

If the calcium concentration in the nutritive medium is increased, there is a smaller absorption of K. This can be explained by the fact of reversibility:

K + H <=> Ca

This specific reaction allows a biological equilibrium to be maintained.

We shall learn more about the metabolism of potassium in other chapters. This present chapter was intended to acquaint the reader with some simple facts as a basis for helping him understand what the book hopes to convey.

III SODIUM – POTASSIUM

We have seen how sodium can be transmuted into potassium. This reaction is very important in animal biology. I have described it many times in my earlier books.

I confirmed this phenomenon, thanks to the ethnologist Jacques Soustelle, Minister of the Sahara, who gave me the opportunity to make experiments on teams of workers. The latter were busy drilling wells under extremely difficult conditions. It is common knowledge that in the Sahara Desert it is dangerous to remain too long in the sun. The fact that people could work hard on metallic platforms unshaded from the hot summer sun remained unexplained. Systematic research was conducted with the help of a military doctor and his assistants.

A voluntary team was followed carefully for six months. Everything they ingested and excreted was weighed and reported. The balance sheet showed that during great heat the potassium emitted through perspiration was greatly increased. However, sea salt ingestion increased also. The workers were given extra salt in the form of tablets, which they sucked. But this ingested salt was not entirely secreted. What happened to it? It could not possibly have been stored in the body, because the difference between ingestion and excretion was so great that an accumulation of it would have been impossible.

The biggest mystery lay in the thermal balance sheet. By their work and food, and by the heat endured in the sun and in the shade (ambient temperature was higher than body temperature), the workers averaged 4,085 kilocalories per day in those six months, reaching more than 7,000 kilocalories per day in the summer. Perspiration averaged 4.12 liters per day, and due to the extreme dry heat it did not even drip, but evaporated instantly. 540 kilocalories are needed to evaporate a liter of water. With such an imbalance the workers should have died from "hyperthermia" because the heat could be released only through perspiration – that is, 540 X 4.12 = 2,225 kilocalories, and 4,085 – 2,225 = 1.860 kilocalories per day, according to the classical balance sheet. Such an excess is obviously impossible.

I came to the conclusion that it was sodium which, disappearing to become potassium, created an endothermal reaction (thus causing heat to be absorbed.) Hence by instinct one consumes more salt in a dry and hot country. This is why salt is so important in Africa, the Middle East, etc., where caravans travel up to 1,000 kilometers to bring back salt. In Taoudeni, a unique city in the middle of the Sahara 1,000 kilometers north of Timbuktu, the monetary unit is the salt bar. Also, notice the importance given salt in the Bible.

The transmutation from sodium to potassium was confirmed by another experiment made in a more arid part of the Sahara with the help of the Marine Militaire. This experiment took eight months. Systematic research was carried out in a physiology laboratory where it was found that a man making a major physical effort during three hours, in a temperature of 39° C (102.2° F) with a humidity of 60%, would experience an increase of three times his usual rate of potassium in proportion to sodium, in his urine. This reaction has a biological significance. It has been commonly known that people struck with a lesion in the surrenal glands reject much more potassium, even if it is not given to them. It was never understood from where this potassium came – the small reserve, which the organism can mobilize, does not justify such a massive excretion! (On the other hand, salt has been found to disappear in the organisms of people inflicted with Addison's disease.)

Blood plasma is very rich in sodium chloride (sea salt), containing approximately 7 grams per liter. However, the rate of sodium chloride diminished in the blood even with normally salted food. This enigma was classified and forgotten among the mysterious phenomena of life, the sodium-potassium relationship ignored.

M.D.'s have seen the blood's potassium increase at a dangerous rate. Excess potassium diminishes nerve excitability, making the electric potential equal in the two faces of the nervous cell wall.

Normally the outer medium of the cell is richer in sodium and poorer in potassium than the interior of the cell. The ratio between the ions of potassium in the interior and exterior of the cell defines the membrane's potential. Abnormal balance results in a paralysis of the nerves of the heart and lungs; this in turn causes syncope and ultimately death. Some doctors thought that by replacing plasma too rich in potassium with an artificial serum containing only sodium chloride, they would achieve good results Unfortunately this attempt was followed by the immediate death of the patient.

The reader has probably discerned that the potassium came from sodium and that whenever fresh sodium is injected into the organism, it is immediately transmuted into potassium.

Professor Perrault, a "famous hospital boss" and a member of the Faculté de Medecine of Paris, once asked me to give his students a lecture explaining what was really happening. It had been found that aldosterone had provoked this transmutation. In cases of surrenal lesion the opposite hormone is not sufficiently secreted and the balance is lost.

Reactions of this kind occur in accordance with the physiological condition of the patient. Thermal balance sheets of food calculated by dietitians have a relative value; according to chemical experiments made in laboratories, chemical energy is released only by the combustion of carbon in food, most of all in carbohydrates (sugar).

The sodium-potassium link presents itself in many varied forms A study made on terrestrial and marine iguana showed that some species secrete from a special nasal gland a liquid containing up to 190 times more potassium than is in their blood plasma, at a rate of 190 cm³ per hour. A solution of sodium chloride added to the cesspool of these reptiles stimulated a potassium increase in the excretion of their nasal glands, but no sodium increase. If potassium chloride has been added, the potassium concentration and the glandular flow would still have increased.

Dr. Jullien* (from the Faculté des Sciences of Besançon) has proved that if tenches are put in water salted with 14%0 sodium chloride, the rate of potassium chloride rises from 3.95 g/l to 5.40 g/l after four hours, i.e. a 36% increase.

[*Annales Scientifiques de l' Université de Besançon, 2" Śerie Zoologie et Physiologie fasc. 13-1959]

The same result can be achieved in three days (72 hours) using water salted with 8% NaCl. KCl passes from 3.95 g/l to 5.39 g/l. The calcium chloride content remains 0.300 g/l from beginning to end in the experiment. In order to be sure that it is not the cellular potassium of the blood globules that enters into the plasma, one must take the precaution of measuring the total K in the blood (plasma + globules).

This potassium increase cannot be attributed to a loss of water, for the relative concentration of all the salts would then be uniform. We have seen that the concentration of calcium salt does not change; there is absorption of NaCl only, hence a slight sodium chloride increase in the blood. The NaCl content increases from 5.10 g/l to 6.60 g/l after four hours in water salted to 14%0, and to 6.40 g/l in 72 hours in water salted at 8%0, which is a 25;; increase as opposed to 36% for potassium chloride (with no variation in the calcium chloride content) .

Fig. 2 Variation of Na, K, and Ca in the blood of a tench in water containing 14% NaCl.

The problem of the passage from sodium to potassium is of great importance in physiology. This valuable mechanism of nature insures the thermal regulation of the organism. The reader will recall the experiment made in the Sahara, in which case the variation of the K/Na balance sheet was remarkably parallel to that of the thermal balance sheet.

Fig. 3 K/Na and thermal balance sheets.

The body was receiving more heat than it received while it temperature remained normal, due to evaporation, perspiration etc. In physiology laboratories, experiments made on men have shown an increase in potassium excretion under hot conditions if the organism can dispose of sodium. (This observation justifies such "empirical" practices as giving hot, salty vegetable broth in cases of fever.)

An addition of potassium allows a tissue in culture to continue living at a higher temperature. The secretion of potassium is thus a defense reaction by the organism, occurring in cases of accidental increase in temperature. It establishes a new equilibrium. (For example, the fever remains constant at 39° C. {102.2° F.}) It appeared that here was the explanation of how an organism combats fever: the transformation from sodium to potassium is made through a strongly endothermal nuclido-biological reaction (sodium + oxygen). From the K/Na and thermal balance sheets, which I had made in the Sahara on two similar teams, I obtained a quantitative comparison indicating the value of the endothermal energy resulting from this reaction. Let us recall the practical applications, such as salty drinks for the prevention of hyperthermia among workers being exposed to dry heat. M.D.'s and professors of medicine are now better able to understand the mechanisms of fever; for it is obvious that the thermal equilibrium's being at an unusually high temperature does not result from the perspiration evaporating. Thus the specific heat of the evaporated water does not affect heat loss, whereas the inflammation, which is the cause of hyperthermia, continues to supply calories. It is an endogenous and endothermal reaction, which maintains the equilibrium by an intense excretion of potassium, showing that the potassium is produced in the organism, which then rejects the excess.

Much research in biology has been done concerning oxygen consumption in cases where sodium increases and potassium decreases. "The oxygen consumption of some invertebrates (as seen in the snail's heart, mussel, etc.) increases, depending on the Na/K ratio," writes Reinberg in Sodium and Life. If there is a shortage of oxygen, there is no longer a diminution of Na accompanying an increase in K. Na and O are thus necessary for verifying the increase in K.

In Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (July 1966), a collective volume of more than 600 pages, dedicated to the recent progress in the study of biological membranes, we find under the signature of H. H. Ussings: "The excess oxygen consumption seems to derive from some anomaly in the handling of sodium" (p. 544); or, "It is seen that in all experiments the oxygen consumption per equivalent ion (of sodium) is much higher than normal" (p. 545); and, "The oxygen consumption is increased in proportion to the amount of sodium transported" (p. 553). The author verifies these facts without attempting to explain them.

The "transport" of sodium is generally considered to be an exchange with potassium through the cellular wall – potassium being more abundant in the intra-cellular medium than in the exterior one. This is a classical theory. There is no reason to doubt it; the number of experiments and their variety provide confirmation of this phenomenon. But one is almost always satisfied with such an explanation – an explanation mistakenly generalized, which might be true qualitatively but not quantitatively.

There is no simple exchange through the wall. Liechtenstein and Leaf (1966) recognize this fact. They say, "However, previous studies have demonstrated no quantitative relationship between net sodium transport and potassium uptake from the serosal sodium," and, faced with the contradictions of classical hypotheses in opposition with the facts, they add, "Further studies, in fact, have led us to the somewhat uncomfortable conclusion that the major effect of removing potassium from the serosal medium is to somehow reduce the mucosal barrier's permeability to sodium, so that insufficient sodium can gain access through that surface."*

[*Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, July 1966.]

The authors came to another uncomfortable conclusion. They saw a possible explanation from the classical point of view: that there is no proportionality between the potassium extracted from the serosal medium and the sodium that is removed. Thus it is not a case of exchange, as has always been maintained by the orthodox, for we have seen that it is impossible to postulate a one direction movement of potassium without stipulating a disappearance of sodium to achieve a quantitative equilibrium of matter and electric charges.

This observation enables us to understand why a great specialist of hormonal problems, Perrault, professor at the Faculty of Medicine and chief of a department of a large hospital in Paris, could have verified long ago that "potassium was coming from nowhere." Without being supplied, potassium appears in great quantities; it can only have been created on the spot. In 1963 he introduced the only explanation possible in view of these verifications (in the cell): (1) no introduction of Na; (2) diminution of Na; (3) increase of K; (4) oxygen consumption. In other words, it could only be the reaction producing the biological transmutation that we have described: ₁₁Na + ₈O :=: ₁₉K. Three years later many research workers all over the world were obliged to recognize that the exchange through the walls is a partial view only, insufficient quantitatively speaking, and that the four experimental facts mentioned above are indissolubly bound and occurring simultaneously. Even before Perrault made his observations, at least three Sorbonne professors, to my knowledge, had introduced this phenomenon in their teachings. Since 1963 many more university professors have joined them, as I learned by accident. I have also the names of a few professors in colleges and schools of agriculture, engineers and agronomists who have presented these notions in class teachings, newspapers, or lectures. There is, to my knowledge, at least one brochure edited by a group of teachers explaining a few of the biological transmutations of the elements, for the purpose of enlightening primary school teachers. An agricultural correspondence school devotes a whole chapter to it.

I should never finish if I were to cite all the observations that have been made concerning the relation between Na and K. In Reinberg's book* alone there are pages about it. For example: "The optimum temperature, corresponding to the maximum work of the heart, is proportionally lower when the value of the Na/K relation in the medium is higher. There is a contractile inhibition in the sodic medium; one increases it by adding K."

[*Potassium et la Vie, P.U.F. Pub., 1955.]

In a culture in vitro one should add potassium, for an isolated tissue cannot produce it; the aldosterone, which is secreted by the cortex of the surrenal (according to a mechanism by which the hypophysis intervenes) is the main hormone performing this reaction. "An excessive supply of sodium can determine the increase of the urinary elimination of potassium" (Reinberg).

The studies are many and all converge in one direction. Watan has shown that kidneys continue to secrete potassium even when a special diet deficient in potassium is followed for several weeks. Lehman (Director of the physiology laboratory of Dortmund) declares, "The excretion of potassium does not make us appreciate its absorption." He also writes, "The increase in potassium excretion during work at high temperatures is not due to a larger supply of potassium."

It must be made clear that experiments and discoveries of this kind show that in abnormal conditions the organism proceeds with an accelerated transmutation from sodium to potassium.

One should not then conclude that potassium is not useful under normal conditions, since sodium can produce it. The sodium-potassium relation should be put into perspective in order to answer certain questions asked by dietitians.

IV CALCIUM

This chapter won't involve a detailed study of the verified abnormalities in calcium metabolism. It will simply attempt to attract attention to the origins of calcium in order to show how the reactions that I have established modify present views in fields other than biology.

Calcium is one of the most abundant elements in the earth's crust (3.25 %). Oxygen comes first

(49.13 %), then Si (26.0%), Al (17.45%), and Fe (4.2%).

If the great formations of limestone are from the Secondary Era, how is it that one nevertheless finds them before the Primary Era, in the Pre-Cambrian? They are being formed nowadays in animals and plants, and we see that calcium has three origins:

– It can come from potassium:

K₃₉ + H₁ => Ca₄₀

– from magnesium:

Mg₂₄ + O₁₆ => Ca₄₀

– from silicon:

Si₂₈ + C₁₂ => Ca₄₀

These three potential origins of calcium are by far the most important; from them alone I have gleaned valuable observations and experiments.

Does this mean that there are no other possible origins? I would not risk making such an assertion. Let me say only that I have grounds on which to base such research. What I can say for time being is that these other origins are quantitatively of little importance.

Isotopes of calcium

I would like to point out that heavy hydrogen (²H) or deuterium (D) rarely enters into these nuclido-biological reactions, nor have I ever found such to be the case throughout my research. I will neglect, then, the deuterium reactions, since I have never been able to bring them to light. This does not mean that they do not exist; one could perhaps find transmutations made with ²H. However, they are rare and of small quantitative importance. Here are the reactions that I have verified in my research concerning the origin of calcium:

a) Potassium as a base:

K₃₉ + H₁ => Ca₄₀

K₄₁ + H₁ => Ca₄₂

b) Magnesium as a base, with stable isotopes of oxygen:

Mg₂₄ + O₁₆ => Ca₄₀

Mg₂₆ + O₁₆ => Ca₄₂

Mg₂₅ + O₁₇ => Ca₄₂

Mg₂₅ + O₁₈ => Ca₄₃

Mg₂₄ + O₁₈ => Ca₄₂

Mg₂₆ + O₁₈ => Ca₄₄

c) From stable isotopes of silicon and carbon:

Si₂₈ + C₁₂ => Ca₄₀

Si₃₀ + C₁₂ => Ca₄₂

Si₂₉ + C₁₃ => Ca₄₂

Si₃₀ + C₁₃ => Ca₄₃

Thus Ca₄₀, Ca₄₂, and Ca₄₃ can come from K, Mg, or Si; but Ca₄₄ can only come from Mg.

One must then be prepared to admit that the calcium formed by shells and originating from the magnesium of seawater is richer in Ca₄₄, more so than if the shells' formation had taken place on land. Organisms succeed in doing the transmutations better with heavy isotopes, making a greater proportion of heavy isotopes necessary in elements of organic origin. (This proportion is extremely variable, so much so that the proportion indicated in the tables of nuclear physics can be only approximate.) Thus one should avoid using the numbers given in the Periodic Table of Elements, where one is presented with raw forms of mineral elements, which are mixings of isotopes having no value in biology. The given figures of these tables are used in chemistry, but are too gross to be used in the study of the nuclido-biological reactions where nature operates at the level of the nucleus. (Chemistry deals with the molecular level.)

As an example, let us take the reaction Si + C => Ca. The tables give:

¹⁴Si + ⁶C

28.06 + 12.01 = 40.07

But these same tables give 40.08 as the atomic mass for Ca, not 40.07. There is indicated a mass gain, thus an emission of energy, if these inaccurate figures are referred to.

The following is an example proving that one should not use the Table of Elements' atomic mass numbers in studying the nuclido-biological reactions. As a matter of fact, the same applies to calcium, whose origin is either potassium or magnesium.

K + H => Ca

39.096 + 1.008 = 40.104 (false figures for Ca = 40.08)

Mg + O => Ca

24.32 + 16 = 40.32 (false figures for Ca = 40.08)

There is always a mass gain indicated, which is false.

We have seen that a priori, according to the laws that we have deduced from experiments, there should be more Ca₄₄ in shells and in other animal and vegetal organisms that make their calcium from the magnesium of seawater. This has been verified: the more active the organism, the more oxygen it consumes and the richer it will be in Ca₄₄. An organism's activity is proportional to the existing temperature: its metabolism is more active in warm media than in cold. It follows that a shell will have a higher Ca₄₄/Ca₄₂ ratio if the animal, which secreted it, is from a warm sea. A study of this Ca₄₄/Ca₄₂ ratio in fossil shells has been proposed, to determine the temperature of the sea during the epoch corresponding to the fossil's life.

Calcium production by plants

Von Herzeele established around 1850 that germinating seeds without a supply of calcium saw a calcium increase in the young plants analyzed 30 days after the germinating process.

The results were contested because they were contrary to Lavoisier's law. However, the operatory precision von Herzeele employed left no room for doubt. P. Baranger, Chief of the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry at l'Ecole Polytechnique de Paris thought that von Herzeele's analyses were insufficiently precise, and had the curiosity to conduct the experiment all over again with all modern scientific rigor.

The results of his analysis executed on three equal portions of 200 identical seeds, each one weighing 7.2 gr, were submitted to a professional statistician in order to detect any possible operatory error. Taking only the most typical case, where the seed sprouts had only a supply of doubly-distilled water (water distilled only once is not pure enough), and with all chances of systematic error having been averted, there was more calcium found after the germination.

Thus scientific proof that calcium can be created in biological reactions has been acquired in one of our most celebrated schools. But no interpretation of the phenomenon was offered.

V POTASSIUM – CALCIUM

Reversible Transmutations

My youthful observations gave birth to a subsequent idea of a possible transmutation from potassium to calcium. Hens in a granitic region devoid of limestone can lay eggs with calcareous shells every day; but these hens, free to move around in the yard, scratch about for fragments of mica strewn on the ground.

In a clayey area hens need limestone, but not if mica is present. The difference between clay and mica is that the latter contains some silicate of potassium.

1) Hens kept in a chicken coop on clayey soil were without a source of limestone. After a few days their reserves were exhausted and the deficiency became apparent as eggs with soft shells began to be produced. On that same day, purified mica was given to them. The hens jumped on it and began scratching around it very rapidly, panting over it; then they rested, rolling their heads on it, threw it into the air, and began scratching it again. The next day eggs with normal shells (weight 7 gr) were laid.

Thus, in the 20 hours that intervened, the hens transformed a supply of potassium into calcium. Two eggs are never produced at the same time; one egg is laid and the shell of the next one begins to be formed a few hours later. The egg composition is determined by the food eaten the week prior to the laying of the egg. But the shell, on the contrary, is formed by a rapid excretion. An experiment of this kind, using the same mica, was undertaken with guinea-fowls over a period of forty days. The administering of the mica was suspended three times and each time a soft-shelled egg was laid, providing new evidence to complement the numerous observations which have shown that potassium cannot be stored in the organism.

2) One of the observations that intrigued me and contributed to my "conversion" was the presence of saltpeter in the limestone on walls. This phenomenon is not new to man. Saltpeter was used in making gunpowder before man learned, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, how to make saltpeter (which is potassium nitrate) from potassium chloride.

Saltpeter has been ex traded not only from limestone on walls, but from soil of calcareous regions having a humid, warm climate alternating with a dry season. Right at the beginning of the dry season the soil is covered by a thick white layer resembling snow. The first gathering of saltpeter can be followed by a second one only a short time later.

On the walls of my house at the seashore I noticed that saltpeter sprang up continually, despite my frequent efforts at scraping it. It is doubtful that the limestone contained such quantities of potassium, for I had removed the saltpeter many times a year for eleven years.

I thought then that only calcium could be the origin of potassium ( calcium – hydrogen = potassium).

₂₀⁴⁰Ca – ₁¹H := ₁₉³⁹K

I compared this experiment with the one in which hens made eggs with calcareous shells without the use of limestone, after they had consumed mica. (Mica contains potassium silicate.) In the hens the opposite reaction occurs: potassium + hydrogen = calcium.

Thus there is a reversible reaction in nature. The parallels between these two reactions helped lead me to the hypothesis that transmutation occurs with an addition or subtraction of hydrogen, by the removal of a proton only, at the level of the nuclei.

This experiment on hens proved that there is a calcium–potassium relation, with potassium becoming calcium. This reaction is opposite the one that produces saltpeter. A transformation from potassium to calcium is also verified in man, in whom it aids calcification (but only in a very small degree).

Here is a nuclido-biological reaction with + H (which means that it is reversible, but not in the same organism):

₁₉³⁹K + ₁¹H :=: ₂₀⁴⁰Ca

Passage from calcium to potassium

In a report made on the formation of granite G. Choubert cites an aberrant observation. Limestone of the second Pre-Cambrian Age can give potassic adinolites containing up to 12% K20. The author writes, "The limestone is first transformed into marble. Then suddenly, without undergoing any transition, it changes into adinolite. What process other than some mysterious one could explain a transformation from limestone to a silico–potassic rock at the contact of a calco-magnesian magma?"* (These caleo-magnesian rocks are the dolerites, gabbros, and pyroxenolites. )

[* "L'origine des granites et la physique nucléaire," published in the bulletin Notes du Service Géologique, Vol. VI, Rabat 1952.]

A study of certain adinolites has shown the latter to have been formed from a contact with dykes and dolerites incapable of producing such quantities of potassium. Mr. Choubert writes, "The potassic input could have come from nowhere ... hence potash is born on the spot by atomic reaction."

We can thus see how in 1952 Mr. Choubert had perceived the situation clearly. An explanation of this phenomenon was afforded by our experiments, which showed that transmutation did occur on the specific element cited by Choubert.

VI PRODUCTION OF CALCIUM FROM SILICON

For those who doubt the reaction Si + C => Ca, showing that at the nuclear level calcium can come from silicon, it will be enough to point out a few observations made by different scientists.

After I had discovered the reaction Dr. Charruyer, Chairman of the Department of Physics at the Medical School of Limoges, mentioned to me that he had found in primitive grounds geodes of calcite in slaty rocks which were very hard, compact, and absolutely impermeable. These rhomboidal forms of calcium carbonate can be very big and weigh many kilos, but due to their impermeability, there is no possibility that they could have come by migration. They could only have had an endogenous origin in one of the components of the schists. In my opinion they could only have come from the reaction given above, since C also comes from the schists in the reaction Si => C + O.

The ability of silica to change into limestone has been recognized for ages, since in antiquity horsetail (Equisetum) was used for recalcification. (Horsetail is rich in silica.) It was also used for curing tuberculosis because it speeds up calcification of the lung caverns, thus promoting quicker healing. In 1846 Pierre Jousset, one of the great masters of homeopathy, showed in a thesis the effect of silica on people stricken with tuberculosis.

P. Van Thieghem had pointed out in Traité de Botanique (1899) that in the thallus of fucus, which grows in siliceous rocks, there is a high proportion of calcium sulfate.

This production of limestone by organic silica, as explained by the reaction Si₂₈ + C₁₂ => Ca₄₀, has only recently attracted the attention of modern scientists ... even though the phenomenon was generally known in antiquity.

The therapeutic method of recalcification has been used only rarely, for the most part by doctors who are traditionalists, healers, and homeopaths, etc., believing in natural remedies.

Wasn't it heresy to say that silica could recalcify? It was a denial of Lavoisier's chemistry, still official. That is probably why plants rich in silica, such as horsetail, were very recently erased from the pharmacopoeia in France.

In fact it is not unusual to meet people who still use horsetail in decoction or infusion. Some laboratories make an extract of it. It has been put on sale in pharmacies, but in order that the label conform with the pharmacopoeia, tricalcic phosphate is added to it.

Another horsetail extract, prepared differently by another laboratory, does not contain added calcium; it is presented as a dietetic product for all those wishing to avoid the risk of decalcification. Many pregnant women use it.

Nature has many ways to prevent a deficiency resulting not from the lack of an element but from an insufficient production of the enzyme that carries out the transmutation. Calcium is not assimilable, at least not for man-unless it is proved otherwise. Decalcification may occur when there is a deficiency of the enzyme, which transmutes sodium into magnesium, but it usually occurs because of a deficiency of the enzyme, which transmutes magnesium into calcium. It is much better to recalcify with potassium and organic silica.

Decalcification can then occur when saltless diets are prescribed, especially diets without chloride.

There has never been a counter-indication for the use of silica, except in excess as with any kind of food; however, the body's silica tolerance is great.

Organic silica's action is fast: nails cease breaking and become normal after fifteen days if extracts are used; a longer time is required for horsetail decoctions.

Spectacular results have been obtained in the repairing of broken bones, but this we shall see in a chapter specifically dedicated to medicine. I shall demonstrate that fractures are repaired and healed faster with organic silica extracts than with the administration of calcium. Mineral calcium is a residue and the organism does not assimilate it; it is found in this terminal stage in man and in higher animals. However, plants have the opposite reaction and can use calcium directly.

For man, organic silica (which can only be found in plants in the springtime) must be used, because mineral silica has the opposite effect: it decalcifies.

* * * * *

The relation of silicon to calcium is also apparent in a careful study made on an egg in incubation. A chicken just hatched has a skeleton of bones and thus of calcium. However, there is an insufficient amount of calcium in the egg. Nevertheless, at the time of birth the chick's skeleton contains four times more calcium than the egg (both yoke and white).

It has been debated that the calcium comes from the shell again a groundless assertion. Many research workers intrigued by the disproportion between the calcium in the skeleton and that of the egg wanted to see if there really was a migration from the shell. However, the latter has never been proved.

One can point out that the composition of batrachians and fish eggs is approximately the same as that of birds, and they have no noticeable calcareous envelopes. At its hatching the little one nevertheless has a calcareous skeleton, even in a fresh-water area lacking in calcium.

Research workers have discovered that the calcium weight in the egg does not change up to the 10th day. At the moment the membrane under the shell breaks away from it, the air chamber grows bigger – there is no possibility of migration of calcium toward the egg.

This membrane under the shell contains organic silica – approximately 0.5% in the outer leaf – in proportion to the fresh matter weight.

Limestone increases in the egg at an average of 0.04 g on the 10th day to 0.05 g the 14th day and 0.06 g the 16th day; then ossification comes about suddenly and the limestone attains 0.10 g on the 17th day, 0.13 on the 18th day, 0.17 on the 19th day, and 0.18 on the 20th. Thus from the 16th to the 20th day the limestone triples.

Most recent research shows that limestone "grows" when it comes in contact with the outer leaf of the shell. Dr. A. Charnot, Chief of the laboratory in Rabat, has verified that the membrane under the shell contains, for 100 g:

154.79 mg of silica (SiO₂) in the inner leaf

464.80 mg of silica in the outer leaf.

For further information on the production of calcium from silicon, see the chapter on medicine and nutrition.

VII MAGNESIUM

Endogenous Production

The link between "dolomie" and limestone is well known, although it has never been explained. It has been verified and that is all! In their uncertainty, specialists use terms such as "consanguinity of calcium carbonate and magnesia," "genetic consanguinity," "unitarian genesis," etc. The enrichment of dolomie in magnesia is called "metasomatism." This change of "soma" is in fact a transmutation perhaps identical to one of the bacteria-generated reactions occurring in the genesis of raw saltpeter. The latter contains magnesium nitrate in addition to potassium nitrate. The magnesium derives from calcium according to the reaction Mg₂₄ => Ca₄₀ – O₁₆. The term "dolomite" has a precise meaning as a mineral: it is the magnesium carbonate, which is found in varying quantities in rocks. Dolomie is the association of minerals. Limestone almost always contains some dolomie. The rare banks of dolomie are sought for the fabrication of cement.

In warm marine waters, plants (calcareous seaweeds) fix magnesium calcite; Ca and Mg are not separated. These seaweeds fix the magnesium of seawater and transmute Mg into Ca so that one always finds a mixture of these two elements. The same applies to shells in warm waters. Dolomites are prevalent in corals at a depth of 200 meters. Do the animalcules of the coral have difficulty in producing a transmutation at this depth with a 20 kg cm² pressure? Either the temperature is too low at that level or the factors of depth and temperature both come into play. A third possibility is that cold impedes the development of the coral – and Mg is linked to both cold and heat Cold provokes the reaction Na + H => Mg, Mg affording protection against cold, whereas Na ± 0 => K provides protection against heat. Cora1 beds in cold environments produce Mg; those in warmer and more oxygenated waters are, as they approach the surface, able to easily transmute magnesium into calcium (Mg + O => Ca) making the coral at the surface a non-magnesian limestone.

Meanwhile, some authors* had shown aberrant analyses for magnesium. In 1856 Lauwes and Gilbert verified that there was less magnesium in the ashes of grass receiving magnesia salts than in plants receiving no fertilizer. Branfield, in Continuous Creati01 (1950), writes that the chloroplasts of plants cultured in water free of magnesium contain chlorophyll and thus magnesium. In 1929 Gortner established that there is 4.5% MgO in the ashes of chlorophyll.

[* a) A. Ronna, Rothamsted, "Un Demi-Siecle d'Experience en Agronomie p Lauwes and Gilbert," La Maison Rustique, Paris 1900.

b) Brochures published from 1875 to 1883 by Verlag von Hermann, Pete Berlin.]

In the past, deeper and more precise research had shown that magnesium is related to other elements, but no one could see the nature of the link.

Von Herzeele noted an increase of magnesia in plants germinated without the help of magnesium. He also thought he had found the relation between Na and K with Mg; but he had always used Ca in a complex solution. Because of this his deductions were contested.

Barbier and Craminade declared that "each of the Na, Mg, an K cations present in small quantities is exchanged as if the mass of other cations were constituted only of calcium."

The link between Na, Mg, K and Ca is thus perceived. D. Bertrand writes that the movement of magnesium "supposes a close correlation between the development of the micro-organisms an the development of the plant, and this has never been studied.**

[** Le Magnesium et la Vie, P.U.F. Pub., Paris.]

In 1942 Hunter, experimenting on lucern grass, conclude( "One often admits that K + Ca + Mg is practically constant." ] 1947 Prince, Simmerman and Beau, studying lucern in twenty different soils, say "The most significant and simple factor influencing the amount of Mg absorbed by lucern is the K content. If in cases of successive culture this content decreases, the magnesium content increases, even if the lucern grows in a soil deficient in Mg." The authors did not even ask themselves how there could be an increase in magnesium.

"Agronomists engage themselves in perfectly useless expenses by needlessly compensating a presumably insufficient magnesium content," writes D. Bertrand. He adds, "The liming can modify in great proportions the quantities of magnesium absorbable or absorbed by the plants."* No one could be closer to the truth . . . and not see it!

[*Le Magnesium et la Vie, P.U.F. Pub., Paris.]

The Imperial Bureau of Soil Science in England makes the following statement: "A significant magnesium deficiency in the soil is undoubtedly more common than we have thought until now."

But, Bertrand writes, "It does not seem to preoccupy anyone anymore." The agronomist does not seem to care that magnesium comes by itself!

Endogenous production

Magnesium is considered to be one of the most important elements in life – not only in plants, where the chlorophyll molecule is built around an atom of magnesium, but also in animal life.

The importance of magnesium is such that in 1960 D. Bertrand wrote a whole book about it, called "Magnesium and Life".

Aberrant results

A) VEGETAL

The results given by D. Bertrand are completely aberrant: no magnesium fertilizer is given to the soil, yet the vegetal matter takes away great quantities of magnesium.

A few examples:

Mg taken away in Kg/ha *

Wheat 12.8 (grain and straw)

Corn 54.5 (grain and straw)

Potatoes 24.5 (haulm and tubercule)

Sugar beets 37.2 (leaves and roots)

Fodder beets 35.2 (leaves and roots)

Artichoke 20.5 (head)

Cauliflower 40.9

* 1 ha = 2.471 acres

However, virgin land contains, in its arable soil, from 30 to 120 kg of Mg per hectare (ha). Regarding this fact D. Bertrand writes, "The major part of arable lands would very quickly be exhausted, a conclusion which this experiment invalidates." So? He does not see any explanation.

B) ANIMAL – THE RAT

In 1918 Osborn and Mendel made very careful experiments on the rat. Concerning this, D. Bertrand wrote, "They could verify that the rat requires a small amount of magnesium. But in spite of their care it was not possible for them to prove that magnesium is necessary to a rat's life." These results were contested, the precision of the methods of analysis called into question. However, the most precise methods of analysis were at that time confirming the aberrant behavior of magnesium. D. Bertrand declares, "The experiment made on the rat proved that the latter keeps the magnesium rate of its organism constant. Medes, Bukner and Peter fixed the Mg at 45 mg for 100 grams of fresh weight, but found that no matter how old the rat – 29, 60, or 90 days old – the amount of magnesium in its diet had a very small influence on the amount of magnesium in its organism."*

[* Transmutation à Faible Energie, 2nd revised edition, p. 100, Maloine Pub. (Paris).]

Thus it is of little importance whether there is a deficiency in ingestion. Here again, however, practical means for solving the problem were seen. D. Bertrand cites Mendel, Benedict and Bogerth who say, "A diet rich in calcium increases the elimination of magnesium and thus increases the need for it." This last assumption is erroneous, for no one saw that it is Ca which produces Mg and that the more Ca is added, the more Mg will be found, as happens in plants!

C) MAN

I will state here only a few experiments made in the Sahara with the cooperation of Prohuza, an official organization. I had been sent there officially in 1959 by the ethnologist Jacques Soustelle. I was able to observe the working conditions and have access to the detailed results of all the analyses (research coordinated by D. Borrey).

The experiment took place near Ouargla with a team of petroleum workers; it lasted six months. Here is a magnesium balance sheet (values in milligrams, per man per day):

Fig.4 Average variation of Mg in petroleum workers in the Sahara. (Between the two graphic curves, the negative balance sheet = excess in excretion.)

Ingested Excreted Balance sheet

April 288 290 – 2

May 247 354 – 107

July 348 528 – 180

Sept. 5-9 198 420 – 222

Sept. 12-16 211 286 – 75

Average 258.4 375.6 – 117.2

These aberrant results were to be verified with the cooper: of the French Marine Militaire. Prohuza, which was really interested in the problem of living in a hot climate, made the experiment again; this time using a physiology laboratory situated drier climate near Tindouf. The experiment lasted eight months. Here is the magnesium balance sheet. I will give only general average, per man per day,

Ingested Excreted Excess

314 570 256

which equals 80% more rejected than ingested.

Thus no matter who the team of research workers or which laboratory of analysis (first experiment by the Pharmacy Faculty of Strasburg, second experiment by the laboratory of the Marine Nationale de Toulon) it was confirmed that during great dry heat an organism secretes more magnesium than it receives and in such quantities that there can be no question of an error or a mobilization of reserves. The amount of magnesium able to be mobilized in the human body is only 5 grams; but the August figures (from the second experiment) reveal:

Ingested Excreted Excess

395 1047.5 652

It is quite obvious that in eight days these people would have lost all the magnesium they could mobilize; they nevertheless "survived" eight months.

Let me point out that the balance sheets of sodium were the contrary, positive; i.e. in this hot and dry climate the organism was absorbing more sodium than it excreted, and no sodium accumulation was observed. It is interesting to know that the salt in a hot and dry country is richer in magnesium than sea salt. That most of the waters of arid, warm regions are salted and very: rich in magnesium.

This continuous increase of magnesium comes from sodium by means of the reaction Na + H => Mg. (The sodium in plasma is the source of the magnesium production in animals.) We have the formula ₁₁²³Na + ₁¹ H :=: ₁₂ ²⁴Mg.

Fig.5 Passage from sodium 23 to magnesium 24: ²³Na + ¹H :=: ²⁴Mg

The occlusion of H would take place in the boron ¹¹B to give carbon ¹²C.

Note: The two parts of the nucleus are superimposed. For diagrammatical clarity we are representing these figurations side by side, indicating the liaison orbits by dotted lines.

Ed. Note: We advise the reader to consult all the books about magnesium that he can find on the market. He will be able, after reading this book, to make sense out of almost all the aberrant metabolisms of this element. He may also obtain much information from J. I. Rodale's book Magnesium: The Nutrient That Could Change Your Life,* from which he will learn the multiple and important role of magnesium.

[*Prevention/Pyramid Publishers.]

VIII MAGNESIUM – CALCIUM RELATION

There is abundant literature on calcium, but there is relatively little systematic research available on magnesium, the central constituent of the chlorophyll molecule (having a porphyric structure of one magnesium atom fused with four nitrogen atoms). The harvesting of crops involves the removal of the soil's magnesium. Nevertheless, it is rare to find an author who advises restitution of magnesium to the soil, as Liebig's theory* would warrant. Why is Liebig not heard? Quite simply because in most fields magnesium is inexhaustible. There is a magnesium autogenesis, which has remained one of the enigmas of agronomy.

[*The qualitative restitution to the soil of the quantity taken by the harvest.]

Already in 1858 Malagut and Durocher had written, "Although magnesium is found in almost all vegetal life, one should not conclude that the importance of this matter in arable soil is as great as that of lime (CaO). It has been observed that when magnesia is missing, lime can replace it; but the opposite does not hold true."

Experiments

The following experiment was carried out: a group of animals fed with a diet deficient in magnesium was compared to another animal group receiving a normal diet. Since 1918 different countries have conducted intensive research of this kind, considering the male/female factor as well, since the latter has an influence on quantitative variations. But the direction was found to be the same in all animals.

Some scientists varied the phosphorus, calcium, and magnesium amounts in the diet and verified the resulting weight differences in the animals. The result of this was an attempt to fix in the food an optimum Mg content in any way possible; for example, with calcium (Ca/Mg), with potassium (P/Mg), or by keeping P/Ca constant.

If the magnesium percentage is decreased to 2.5 mg for 100 grams of food (which implies the purging of the food in order to take out the Mg normally present), the magnesium deficiency is such that rats become rachitic, their hair dull and shaggy and their tails depilated.

Variations of Ca in proportion to Mg

The influence of magnesium on the assimilation of carbohydrates (vegetarian diet, large bread consumption, etc.) has been shown. The need for magnesium in man and animals is greater whenever their nourishment is rich in carbohydrates. That is why a generous supply is always given to animals who are being fattened by an increased ingestion of carbohydrates.

Demolon studied the balance sheet of calcium (and phosphorus) in dairy cows and found a negative balance sheet,* These animals secrete more calcium than they ingest. I have made the same verification with regard to hens.

[*Le Phosphore et ill Vie (P.U.F. 1949).]

There has been a mystery concerning the formation of the shellfish carapace. It has been said that the animal "fixes" the calcium of the sea, but this is another unfounded assertion.

One day my grandchildren brought me a crab that was in the process of molting; it was a soft mass. So that it would continue to live, we placed it in a cave containing a very small amount of seawater. The next day it had already acquired a firmer carapace, which was completed the day after. In approximately thirty hours a crab forms its carapace, which, for a 17 X 10 cm size, weighs 350 grams. The calcium content of seawater is very small (on the average, Ca = 0.042%). The molting shellfish is unprotected from marine animals and, being very vulnerable, it hides and does not hunt.

A body analysis of the crab has shown that its hepato-pancreas alone stocks a small amount of limestone (calcium carbonate) before the molting, but that its carapace contains forty times more limestone than its pancreas. Then?

We have seen that the magnesium (and potassium) found in seawater (5% magnesium salts and 0.5% potassium salts) can give calcium and that it is essentially magnesium, which is utilized by the shellfish to make its carapace.

At the Maritime Laboratory of Roscoff, a crayfish was put in a seawater basin from which limestone had been removed by precipitation; the animal made its shell anyway.

Chemical analysis made on animals secreting their shells has revealed that limestone is formed on the outer side of a membrane although on the opposite side of the membrane, where matter enters, there is no limestone. This fact has left specialists perplexed.

Of course, scientists who have been experimenting in this field are criticized by other analysts; that is in the order of things. But the innovator is not always wrong; nothing is perfect (the perfect being inaccessible to man) and someone will always find a point to criticize, for that is how progress is made. I will therefore refrain from claiming that the methods I have used thus far are perfect. However, I judge results valuable when they are of relative value when measured against variations obtained by the same method.

I have accepted the research of the authors cited, insofar as they provide strong guarantees. With this research the chemists-biologists demonstrate, themselves, that with regard to living matter there are inadequacies in Lavoisier's law concerning the conservation of matter. Thesis judges concur with them, thus showing that our conclusions concerning the failure of Lavoisier's law in the field of biology are beginning to be officially admitted.

IX THE LINK OF MAGNESIUM WITH CALCIUM AND PHOSPHORUS

Until now it has been impossible to refute here the classical explanations popular among most scientists. This would have taken too much time and would have lent a polemical character to this work, diluting a substance, which I wanted, above all, to be objective. Furthermore, I have always supposed that the reader knows as well as I the scholastic explanations, making it a waste of time to discuss them.

Many of my correspondents and colleagues have told me that it is unnecessary to discuss the arguments of "systematic opponents." One of them wrote to me, "Expurgate your work of . . . stagnant opinions. Make a clean sweep of ignorance." Nevertheless, I believe it will be beneficial to give the reader, in what follows, an example of objections he may confront from persons wishing to debate certain issues.

Various studies concerning the magnesium-calcium link

We have seen that calcium could have had many origins, one of which is magnesium (₁₂Mg + ₈O :=: ₂₀Ca). Geologists believe that magnesium was twelve times more abundant in the Pre-Cambrian era. We know that in seawater, strongly deficient in calcium but containing magnesium, a molting crustacean can make its shell. We also know that in the germinating seeds of certain plants, magnesium diminishes while calcium increases. (In certain plants K decreases while Ca increases.)

The link between magnesium and calcium has now been widely studied by many research workers. In 1964, in one of the laboratories of the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (I.N.R.A.), P. Larvor and his colleagues* conducted an experiment with calves in order to demonstrate that the skeleton does not develop at all when the diet is deficient in magnesium. The calcium rate in the blood and muscles becomes too low and tetany results. Eventually death occurs, preceded by convulsions, if the magnesium deficiency is prolonged. Conversely, an overdose of magnesium helps develop the skeleton and also promotes a rapid increase in weight.

[*P. Larvor et coll., Effets du magnésium sur la croissance du veau, I.N.R.A., Paris 1964.]

A study by Dr. L. Bertrand** on spasmophilia, comprising 83 references, shows that in cases of magnesium deficiency hypocalcemia occurs, causing tetany (spasmophilia). The administration of calcium cannot re-establish the normal calcemia. On the other hand, a magnesium ingestion causes a calcium increase. (Magnesium is most often administered in the form of chloride.) It would be impossible to cite all the applications now being made of the established fact that without magnesium the organism cannot have calcium. I have also verified a link between calcium and phosphorus, and these discoveries are developed in many of my books.

[**2 La Spasmophilie, edit. Les Cahiers Sandoz, Paris, June 1966.]

The link with phosphorus hasn't been investigated a great deal by other research workers, however. Whatever was studied came to my knowledge only incidentally, during the magnesium-calcium study. However, despite the many experiments on the subject of the magnesium-calcium link, some critics nonetheless declared that what had happened was either:

a) a "mobilization" of calcium, causing it to leave the skeleton, thereby increasing the calcium rate in the muscles and blood, or

b) a "catalytic" action by magnesium (necessary for the "fixing" of calcium).

However, nothing of that sort occurs. Decalcification was verified, by any means. The bone became more solid and developed in young subjects. A catalytic action by magnesium did seem valid either, for a catalyst remains intact at the end of reaction.

Experimental procedure

a) Animals

Forty-eight female mice weighing an average of 25 grams each were divided into two equal lots. One lot was put aside to serve as a control. The remaining lot was given, through an oesophagus probe, a dosage of 100 mg per kg of magnesium chloride per day. The animals were put in different cages – twelve to a cage. Their feces were collected in Erlenmayer type bottles. Plenty of water was provided and food was given by cramming. Three times a day each animal received 1.5 ml of mash made of crackers reduced to a powder with water added (1 gram of powder for 2.5 ml of water).

The experiment lasted five days. On the sixth day the animals were sacrificed with ether after a twenty-four hour fast.

b) Mineralization analysis

Both batches of mice were dissolved in nitro-sulfuric acid. The collected excreta were added to each corresponding lot of mice. After mineralization with perchloric acid, the phosphorus content was determined by a colored reaction employing sulfuric aminonaphtol sulfonic-molybdate. The calcium was first measured by direct complexometry in raw solution.

c) Results

Control Treated

Total weight before experiment 614g 604g

Total weight after experiment 628g 620g

Calcium weight 1.87g 2.48g

Phosphorus weight 1.83g 2.40g

Fig. 6 Ca and P contents in 24 mice, with and without magnesium supplement.

d) Commentary

In order to facilitate the comparison, I have arranged that the total animal weight be equal for the total of each of the two lots, assuming that P and Ca are proportional to weight. The treated lot was 10 g lighter at the outset. If the difference is rounded off to the 1/6Oth and if the control mice weighed as much as the treated ones, we would have for the control lot:

Ca = 1.84

P = 1.80

Assuming an equal weight for the two lots, the receivers of magnesium saw an increase of

2.48 – 1.84 = 0.64 g (or 34.78%) for Ca

2.40 – 1.80 = 0.60 g (or 33.3 %) for P

e) Conclusion

Hence we see clearly and beyond any mathematical or statistical contestation that calcium and phosphorus increase when magnesium is given in overdose, and that this occurs within a few days. If an error had resulted from the analytic method, it would have taken the same direction for the two lots and the difference would have remained the same. We can therefore assert beyond the shadow of a doubt that magnesium was the source of the rapid increase of calcium and phosphorus.

Let us recall that in the organism certain mechanisms often enter into play: calcium and phosphorus may have other origins. (Calcium may come from silicon and potassium, phosphorus from sulfur and nitrogen.) Due to the metabolic complexities of the animal, complementary experiments were made on grains and microorganisms, the sole purpose being to clarify Nature's mechanisms.

The following objection, among others, was given to me: the weight increase in the animals receiving magnesium resulted from their being bloated with water. If that were the case it would follow that those receiving Mg would have been thirstier. Observation shows, however, that magnesium chloride does not cause thirst; one may take it regularly and still remain "as thin as string." The Mg⁺⁺ ion does not cause retention of water in the tissues; it is Na⁺ that provokes water retention at the level of the renal tube, hence the impression of thirst. That is why taking sodium chloride is not advisable in a case of oedema.

To the objection that the experiment was rather short, it is easy to answer that an experiment's duration is proportional to the subject's speed of metabolism, thus to the subject's growth rate and weight increase. In the case of microorganisms, we have seen that an experiment may last 2 days; for mice, weighing an average of 25 grams, we adapted our research to 6 days. Larvor experimented on calves weighing 50 kg before the experiment. With an overdose of Mg, they weighed 75 kg after 4 weeks. But with magnesium deficiency they weighed only 65 kg.

Ed. Note: A few other experiments concerning the magnesium-calcium link will be given, with commentary, in the chapter on nutrition and medicine. I placed them thus because I felt that the latter chapter would attract the attention of the layman who, at this time, is drawn to subjects related to the improvement of his health.

X PHOSPHORUS

Phosphorus is very often linked to sulphur; it is found in amino acids. A vital element of the highest importance, it not only has an important role in the bones, in gray matter, and in the envelopes of neurons, but it is in fact a constituent element of the nucleic acids.

In the chain of DNA molecules a phosphoric group alternates with a deoxyribose. Phosphorus is thus one of the constituents of deoxyribo-nucleic acid, which carries the hereditary genetic code.

It is also found in ribonucleic acid (RNA). Phosphorus and sulfur, which are major elements of life, are linked in the relation P + H <=> S, which allows nature to go from one to the other in case of a deficiency.

The reader will recall these previously shown relations:

Na + H => Mg

Na => Li + O

Mg + Li => P

Mg + O => Ca

These reactions explain the P/Ca equilibrium and the chemical combinations in the form of calcium phosphate occurring in the bones.

However, the organic phosphorus of nucleic acids seems also to derive from sulfur, which is a "condensate" or "doublet" of oxygen.

The phosphorus and sulfur link is brought out in the following remark by A. Voisin: "Giving mineral phosphate to the soil does not modify the phosphate content of a cereal, but increases its thiamin content" (Vitamin B1).*

[*"Sol, Herbe, Cancer," La Maison Rustique, Paris 1959.]

The P /S balance shows why the organism cannot accept a local excess of P and explains the brutal effects of some phosphoric esters used as insecticides.

It is certain that nature has other methods of producing phosphorus.

The layers of phosphates in ores are calcium phosphates. This is not astonishing since P and Ca have a common origin, but the fluorine content of the ores is also considerable (F/P₂O₅ = 9%, on the average). It seems that the following reaction occurred:

P₃₁ <=> C₁₂ + F₁₉

The phosphorus "birth" was never explained; plants make it, and A. Demolon and A. Marquet say, "The essential characteristic of phosphorus is its fixation and its concentration in the superficial zone of cultivated soils, always noticeably richer underground."**

[**Le Phosphore et la Vie, P.U.F. edit, Paris 1949.]

Mr. P. Dahiez from his laboratory of soil study points out a reaction opposite in direction from the one cited by A. Voisin. He writes, "Some soils treated with derivatives of sulfur, when analyzed, gave high percentages of phosphorus, whereas other soils evidenced a phosphorus deficiency." He also cites for us other "quite curious facts whose explanations cannot he given by the data ordinarily yielded in agronomy."

In the animal organism the fabrication of phosphorus may follow another process, deriving from the chlorine of the blood's sodium chloride:

Cl – O => F

F + C => P

This is a possibility. However at this time we do not have, even from exceptional cases, a cross-reference confirming that this reaction is possible except in the presence of fluorine in phosphate lies. This fluorine possibly comes from seawater.

Fig. 7 Diagrams of the nuclei of phosphorus and sulfur. One recognizes, on the left (solid lines), the two nuclei C (2.C => Mg). The isolated vertical plan on the right is Li, and Mg + Li => P. Li, linked to the set, can receive H. When H is added we have P + H => S. It is clear (dotted lines) that the set is also equivalent to 2.0 – H => P. If H is added the result is 2.0 => S.

Phosphorus deficiencies impede plant development, preventing protein molecules from being formed. So, because the amino acids cannot be formed, phosphorus was believed to be linked to nitrogen. The establishing of this link rests upon the fact the ratio of the total nitrogen in phosphorated fats (phosphatides) is constant in the different plants. In fact, there is no direct link. It is a phosphorus deficiency, which impedes the formation of the amino molecules, also causing a reduction of the other elements. But it is also the sign of a deficiency in elements, causing the plant to make up for the deficient phosphorus.

The phosphorus-calcium link is commonly known. When much phosphorus is produced in an animal, much calcium is also produced.

Negative balance sheets of P and Ca are also cited by Demolon, who indicates that the weights of these elements given for dairy cows "are noticeably inferior to the quantities of these elements which leave the animal's body with the milk"* (approximately 3 grams of P and 3 grams of Ca for every liter of milk). But the cow has other needs for these elements in the maintenance of its body, and it excretes through the urine and fecal matter quantities, which, together with what the milk takes away, exceed significantly that which food brings to it. A declaration such as "The cow borrows calcium and phosphorus from its own reserves" is unacceptable. One good dairy cow, weighing 700 kilos and giving 30 liters of milk a day, needs 111 grams of P per day (3 grams per liter of milk + 3 grams per 100 kilos of weight). Another cow was given 98 grams of P per day, which is a daily deficit of 13 grams compared to that of the first cow. In 100 days it would have taken 1,300 grams of P, although its whole body (skeleton, flesh, blood) contained only 4500 g. It is obviously impossible to reduce the amount of phosphorus to such proportions. There is, then, an endogenous production of phosphorus (which is also true for calcium, and in the same relative proportions).

[*Le Phosphore et la Vie, P.U.F. Pub., Paris 1949.]

Application for Geology

In some parts of my books references are cited pertaining to the simultaneous presence of Li and P (in plants, bones, ores). This is surely a case of fortuitous association.

If P – Li => Mg, we have seen that Mg and P are precisely linked to such an extent that if the organism excretes more P than it receives, it also excretes more Mg than it ingests. The negative balance sheets of P always corresponded – with the same subjects, within the same time – to the negative balance sheets of Mg. The average on the observed negative balance sheets was 134 mg of phosphorus excreted per day per man. These balance sheets were calculated simultaneously with the negative balance sheets on calcium. The calcium represented 321 mg/day per man, whereas the negative balance sheets of magnesium averaged 163 mg for the same days.

The opposite is equally true: whenever there is a positive balance sheet for Mg, there is a positive balance sheet for P and Ca, showing not an association but a filiation. P is born from Mg, but only in the presence of Li, which, in organisms of higher animals, comes from the sodium of the blood plasma (Na – O => Li).

P can also be formed in magnesium rocks by "frittage" of Mg, with Li coming from potassium (K – 2.0 => Li), thus indicating that phosphorus can be found in the soil without sea water being present.

But we also saw in the formation of the dolomies that Mg can derive from calcium (Ca – O => Mg). A lie of limestone influenced, I believe, by bacteria, can give Mg. If there are alkali (Na or K) present, there is a possibility of producing phosphorus which, along with calcium, can give calcium phosphate.

This is another method of forming calcium phosphates, and it is probable that the two types of lies (marine and continental) exist.

The phosphorus in lies is linked to the presence of bacteria. This seems to show that P has an endogenous formation due to a specific enzyme yet to be investigated.

This enzyme needs Mg, or at least it seems that Mg is the most abundant origin of P. Furthermore, the phytin in plants is a magnesium salt of a phosphoric ester.

Research is being done in many laboratories to clarify this formation of P. Here are those discoveries, which were brought to my attention after I had published my discoveries.

a) In the germination of seeds there is a P variation between the seed and the young plant having germinated without a P supply.

b) During the activity of yeasts the P content also changes.

c) A seaweed rich in calcium (where, for example, Ca/Mg = 6) has been sown with bacteria in order to study the P genesis.

Phosphorus variation in the germination of seeds

The variations of organic forms during plant maturation is a solely chemical operation, a rearrangement of atoms and molecules. Y. Colin made a study on sunflower seeds during maturation.* He saw some aspects of the phospho-organic compounds' variations in the seeds and in wheat germ. We will only expose the results of the total phosphorus variation during germination, which is a case of the transmutation of one element.

[*Y. Colin, "Evolution des Composés Phosphoriques au Cours de la Germination," Bulletin Soc. Chim. Biology, 1934.]

Methods of dosage

There is no room here to condense the 84 pages of the Colin thesis, but it appears useful to make a rapid survey of the difficulties of such a problem. With a reaction which appears as the separation of a compound one runs the risk of blocking, in a totally insoluble form, another compound no longer able to be dosed. This is why research on the separation of various compounds has given birth to a different problem.

Phosphorus is found in the form of phosphoric esters, such as the phospho-lipids and the phospho-amino-lipids. In the phospho-lipids one finds lecithins and, most of all, the derivative of glycerophosphoric acid. Also present are the phosphoric esters of sugars such as monophosphoric ester, disphosphoric-hexose, monophosphoric-hexose, etc.

The phospho-lipids vary during germination. W. Maxwell, in 1891, may have been the first to put this into prospective. Others followed, using different seeds. In 1910 Miller verified that in sunflower seeds the lipidic reserves decrease from 55.6 to 13.5% after 13 days. In 1902 Iwanow found that in vetch the lipidic phosphorus, which is 11.6% of the total phosphorus present at the beginning of the germination, is only 6.6% after 20 days. The protein content falls from 52.5 to 13.7%.

In 1912 Bernadini and Morelli showed that during the germination of 500 seeds of wheat the phosphotidic phosphorus increased from 19 mg to 55 mg in the light, whereas it disappeared completely after a few days in the dark.*

[*Colin, "Evolution des Composés Phosphoriques au Cours de la Germination."]

Experiments in the light

In an experiment done in the Museum of Natural History greenhouses, half of the basins received light and half were covered with black paper. The greenhouse temperature at the moment of maximal insolation was 30° C (in May). The rapidity of germination made possible the first harvest after two days, the second after three days, the third after six days, and the fourth after nine days.

Here are some figures, in mg, on sample gatherings consisting each time of 400 seeds of lentils, which were germinated, in the light:

Lipidic Nucleic Phytinic Mineral Total

Before germination 12.67 mg 10.4 mg 50.63 mg 18.30 mg 92.00 mg

After two days 11.85 9.76 48.38 21.81 91.80

After three days 11.35 11.15 38.31 30.84 91.65

After six days 10.25 12.50 12.64 54.61 90.00

After nine days 9.45 15.25 0 62.30 87.00

'Thus along with the variations in the different compounds of phosphorus, an important fact is established: the total phosphorus diminishes up to 5.43 %.

Fig.8 Variations of total P in the germination of lentils (May).

Another experiment was conducted from the 23rd of June the 4th of July (12 days). This time it was conducted on portions of 325 seeds of lentils, but on porous paper imbibed with double distilled water. The average weight of every portion of lentils was 26.63 grams.

P Total

June 23 (before germination) 112 mg

June 27 (after 5 days) 111

June 30 (after 8 days) 110

July 4 (after 12 days) 105

There was a 6.25% decrease in phosphorus (experiment made in the light).

All experiments concerning the total phosphorus variation during germination converge and one must conclude, beyond any dispute, that there is a certain disappearance of phosphorus, varying with the particular species of seed, the germinating conditions, and the time of year – but always in a highly significant degree. No error can be imputed to these results since, whatever the methods, the laboratories that were employed had the most modern equipment, the operators were different, and the result always pointed in the same direction.

Fig. 9 Another variation of total P in lentils germinated in the light (summer).

XI ABERRANT METABOLISM OF SOME LIVING ORGANISMS

a) Life sustained with clay: a shrimp living in the dark

In a medium entirely composed of humid clay, life is possible. The humid clay is compact, thus air cannot enter. This clay is impermeable to carbon and oxygen. Oxygen can, nonetheless, be produced by dissociation of the water molecule – and we understand how plants use the oxygen from water. The oxygen that plants reject into the air does not come from the absorbed air, of which the plants would have retained the carbon of the available carbon dioxide. Would the living organisms in the clay then be able to extract their oxygen? This question remains unanswered, but let us admit such a possibility.

Another problem remains to be solved: carbon is necessary to any organic life. Animal and vegetal tissues are composites of carbon. They develop by making new tissues, thus by taking carbon. Furthermore they breathe, ultimately rejecting carbon dioxide (CO₂). This means that the carbon supply must be renewed because animals do not take back the carbon dioxide, which they excrete – it is a poison for them. In clay, animals avoid these rejected gases by moving continually from one place to another. The rejected carbon dioxide, being at a pressure superior to that of the ambient gas, is little by little diffused. The carbon dioxide on the outside cannot enter because of the great pressure inside the clay.

It has been known for a long time that living organisms inhabit clay while having no organic supply from the outside. This fact has intrigued research workers and an important study was made in a laboratory installed in the cave of Moulis, France; the results were published in several French scientific magazines.

Let us note the case of the Niphargus shrimp, a small animal half-an-inch in length that lives in the clay of caves. If a shrimp is given organic matter (meat, etc.), it vegetates and dies. It also dies if it is not kept in humid clay. Experiments have shown that it grows normally in pure clay to which nothing has been added. Research workers therefore thought that the shrimp lived on clay and nothing but clay, an impossibility according to the laws of biochemistry. Actually, it cannot live thus in clay alone, but this clay contains microorganisms which work for the shrimp, making vitamins, various mineral products, nitrogen, phosphorus, and calcium, etc.

b) Earthworms

The earthworms' role has long been ignored. They were thought to be good only for the mechanical function of making the soil lighter. Notwithstanding, some research workers have demonstrated that annelids modify the chemical composition of the earth.

In his "Treatise on Microbiology of the Soil"* Pochon, of the Institut Pasteur, gives various experimental results. The earthworms increase the quantity of limestone in the soil. Their glands excrete CO₃Ca so that the pH of soil containing earthworms increases. Earthworms are most abundant in neutral or slightly acidic soil and can be found in good soil by the hundreds of thousands per acre. Some authors declare that each worm ingests l/l0th of a gram of earth per second, which is three tons per year. Darwin gives a higher figure, but one should be careful with such calculations since earthworms have resting periods in winter and in dry seasons. Other believable figures, which resulted from observations made in England, indicate that a field of earthworms rejects an average of 57 tons/ha/year (23 tons per acre per year): the equivalent of four spreadings of farm manure per year. But this constitutes only the amount of earth rejected on the soil's surface. One cannot deduce from this the exact weight of earth having passed through the digestive tube of each worm. Compared to the surrounding soil, these rejected excrements were five times richer in nitrogen, two times richer in calcium, two-and-a-half times richer in magnesium, seven times richer in phosphorus, and eleven times richer in potassium.

[*Dunod Publ. (Paris 1954).]

c) To live on an iron wire

In one of my books I noted the curious case of plants commonly called "Spanish Moss" which grow in green masses, most often on copper wires. Their botanical name is Tillandsia. They are usually found in humid, warm regions on telephone wires. They adhere to the wire by means of viscous disks and can also cling to branches, dead trees, and rocks.

According to Pfeiffer, the analysis* of these plants shows that they contain approximately 17% Fe₂O₃ in their ashes, but little noticeable amounts of copper, although the analysis was made on plants growing on copper wires.

[*Fécondité de la Terre, p. 152-156.]

These curious plants grow without roots; they have no contact with the soil. That is what intrigued everyone: where did they obtain the minerals revealed in the analysis? One may suppose that water, carbon, and nitrogen were obtained from the air, but what of the other minerals?

Everything that has been written about the origin of these minerals is but groundless assertion. It has been proposed that the rain brings them – in minute traces, of course – and that they accumulate with time. Others say that they come from dust. All this to respect the dogma of the non-creation of matter. But these hypotheses are unsatisfactory.

H. Friedel, in his work "Les Conquêtes de la Vie", also writes about these plants: "I must confess that all my notions about the vegetal have been overthrown in Antibes in the Hennessy garden, where I saw Bromeliaceae develop in the air on an iron wire. ... In order to adopt oneself to such a 'territory' one must really be a vegetal."**

[**Larousse, 1967, p. 128.]

What allows us to reject the above hypothesis is that these plants can acclimatize themselves in a greenhouse. In Alsace, France, successful experiments have been made on copper wires in greenhouses. The hypothesis given about atmospheric dust and rain is then of no value. In the greenhouses there was only air, sun, water vapor from the humidity of the air, and symbiosis with copper. No copper was found in the plant, but iron was found. No chlorine was in the air either, although there was some in the plant.

There are other examples, too numerous to list. Here is one that Pfeiffer cites: "The Sarothamnus vulgaris is quite an amazing plant. It is particularly rich in lime ... moreover, its roots secrete lime which is deposited in circles on the bark, so much so that it is the plant which provides limestone for the soil. But the Sarothamnus vulgaris grows almost exclusively in siliceous fields. That is why it is particularly appropriate for the preparation of fallow fields!"*

[*Fecondite de la Terre p. 157.]

Fig. 12 Variations of K, Ca, Mg and Mo in corn leaves, depending on the K input in the soil (according to Benton Jones).

This experiment leads us to a general statement: the origin of the molybdenum cannot be detected. But an interesting conclusion to which this experiment brings us is that a plant rich in potassium will be poor in molybdenum (one of the most important oligo-elements).

Agronomists should then know that an excess of potash, even if it is supplied by manure, leads to a deficit in molybdenum. It is well known that a fruit sickness called "bitter pit" in the U.S.A. results from an overly rich supplement of K in comparison with Ca. Tomatoes have a Ca deficiency if too much K is present.

One may compensate with Mg which, becoming Ca, will reestablish K/Ca.

If potassic fertilizers are exhausted some day it would not be so catastrophic for the agronomists who use them. They may be obtained either industrially or directly from the soil in at least two ways. Yeasts and microscopic seaweeds can produce potassium from sodium; other microorganisms can produce it from calcium.

Already a few companies are producing microorganisms to be utilized in agriculture. Yeasts of all kinds are made industrially, molds (penicillin, etc.) as well.

The problems of deficiency in animals and vegetals require closer study. Cattle breeders and agronomists will be forced to recognize the phenomenon of biological transmutations, a phenomenon that, although everyone has already observed and used it, is not understood – thus its application has been limited. This is the prediction of the leaders of all the associations, which advise and apply the biological culture in France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, England, etc. These leaders are the elite of the agricultural world. They have observed that chemistry does not explain all of biology, that too much confidence in chemistry, where biology is concerned, is an error responsible for much damage.

Excess in any domain is inevitably paid for one day or another. We are often advised to use 250 kilos per ha (100 kilos per acre) of potassic fertilizers at 50% K₂O, or 625 kg/ha of sylvinite at 18% K₂), although cereals on the average do not take away more than 40 kilos per ha of K₂O per year. Thus ¾ of the K₂O is lost. How much land is lost in America! In the west of Europe the harm is less visible for the time being, for the common sense of the peasant has helped to postpone the reckoning.

The development of parasites is also a consequence of biological imbalance. Thus agronomists have had to consult their colleagues who understand the necessity for developing biological culture.

The mechanism of these biological transmutations teaches us what to give the soil, according to the following conditions: that the soil be alive, that it be rich in microorganisms, and that the proliferation of the latter be possible. If the soil is too much damaged by chemical abuse, one must reconstitute it. This can take time, especially if there is no humus (an essential part of living soil).

A simple experiment: the formation of calcium in the germination of cereals

Here is a simple and convincing way to demonstrate the validity of biological transmutation. For practicality I have chosen to give a simple and essential experiment with germinating seeds. (Experiments on man and animals are very complex.) The experiments involving microorganisms give rise to problems, which can be handled only with great skill.

Many kinds of seeds have been used and the variation of different elements has been studied. Nevertheless, for the sake of illustration it would be better to limit ourselves to an experiment in which the variations are quite great. Here is our example: let cereals germinate in a medium without calcium and witness the increase of calcium after germination.

The author conducted this experiment using wheat and oat seeds from a biological culture. One hundred hand-selected homogeneous seeds were incinerated in order to determine their calcium weight. (The figure obtained was compared to the average weight found in different seeds, from dozens of analyses of thousands of seeds. This was done in order to insure that no grave error had been committed during the manipulation or analysis of this 100 seed lot.)

One hundred identical seeds were germinated in vats, on porous ashless paper saturated with a fertilizing solution of salts dissolved in water. The solution was free of calcium. After six weeks the vegetation was arrested by placing the young plants in an electric oven. The plants were then incinerated and analyzed in the same manner as that used with the first lot of seeds.

More than twenty such experiments were performed, essentially on oats, by changing the moment when the sprouting was begun, extending or shortening the time of culturation, or using different varieties of seeds. Here are the results obtained. The values are given in milligrams per unit (for every seed or for every plant). For lots of one hundred seeds, these numbers must obviously be multiplied by 100. One may operate on lots involving many hundreds of seeds.

Wheat Oats Oats

"Roux clair" "Noire du Prieudé" "Panache de Roye"

Weight 32.98 37.96 24.48

Calcium (in one seed) 0.0386 0.0372 0.0235

Calcium (in one plant) 0.129 0.155 0.106

There is 3.34 times more calcium in the wheat; 4.16 and 4.51 times more calcium in the oats.

Augmentation of this kind cannot be the result of errors in computation of results. Nevertheless, the chemical analysis was confirmed by a modern and specific physical method of great sensitivity: analysis by spectrophotometry of atomic absorption. The converging results were communicated to the Head of Agriculture of France on the 1st of December 1971, by the chemist-engineer Z. E. Zündel.

Commentary

These numerical values ask for some remarks. In biology one should never generalize. These experiments have shown us that calcium increases in great proportions in some plants. Every plant reacts differently (or, rather, every species of plant). That is why the increase is greater for oats, whereas in some plants – ryegrass, for example – the calcium does not increase. Hence we learn a lesson: plants able to make their own calcium can grow very well in clayey and siliceous soil, whereas others cannot make their own calcium and must be given it. (The variations of Mg and K in oats were also studied.)

Other observations of ours have proved interesting to many scientists. For instance, the effect of the moon is very important for the formation of calcium. In the previously mentioned experiment, the germination operation was begun at the new moon and terminated at the second full moon, which followed in approximately six weeks.

I can give only an outline of this relatively simple research on the germination of seeds. However, I remain at the disposal of all those who can afford to reproduce such an experiment, to whom I can give all the useful details. If they do not have the material means for the analysis, they may entrust the analysis of their seeds and plants to a laboratory equipped for such research.

The importance of such an experiment in terms of its application is in knowing whether the calcium increase occurs during the germination only, or whether the whole plant becomes richer in calcium (to the detriment of another element which is transformed into calcium – here, potassium). In the latter case the soil's composition would be modified by the stubble remaining in place after harvest. There is here a very interesting study to be made by a laboratory of biological agriculture.

I have reported the qualifying observations made by Pfeiffer on different plants (e.g. the daisies in the grass), which enrich the soil with limestone. Another example, very well known by horticulturists, is the case of azaleas. A culture of these plants was made in a soil of heath, an acid soil devoid of limestone. The soil analysis showed that it became too rich in limestone and the cultivation could be continued only by removing a layer of soil and replacing it with the soil of heath, or by cultivating plants, which cannot make calcium. This example is another illustration revealing a substitution of calcium with another simple body, which would have to be determined in the case of every cultivation.

The whole secret of biological culture is yet to be discovered with the study of substitution. This phenomenon cannot be studied by reason alone; it must include concrete experimentation.

The present form of agriculture, to which our biological agriculture is opposed, leads to the ruin of soil and heath and will eventually bring about the death of humanity. Already man is poisoned by all sorts of pesticides or by mineral excess. Phosphates, while favoring the proliferation of some plants, which invade the waters, simultaneously deprive the water of oxygen and, little by little, make all life – animal and vegetal – impossible.

Let us then heed the advice of the specialists of agro-biology in order to insure the good health of the vegetal kingdom and of man.

XXI NUTRITION

It is universally known that one of the chief concerns of the times is the problem of nutrition. Vitamin pills have great success among those who are not sure that they are getting the proper diet. The source of protein is a mystery quickly solved by the nutritionist who gives his impatient patient as much protein as he fears he needs.

Theories about nutrition are based upon the old academic chemistry, which declares that nothing is lost, and nothing created; everything is transformed. Therefore, to be safe, extras of everything are given – plus always a little something in case of a leakage. Thus a chemical accountancy is forced upon modern man whose mind is centered on the capitalization of matter. Health is synonymous with capital. Proteins, minerals and vitamins are caused to be retained internally in any way possible. If the iron's desire is to leave the body, one employs a fixative so that it will remain there long enough to provide energy for meeting the day's activities. In such a way chemistry has sold its soul to the merchants, the muses of the research workers; these workers are told what to produce in accord with the needs of the times.

Medical doctors often do not know the contents of the drugs they prescribe. Merchants provide them with brief pamphlets, which are too seldom read. More time is spent in the politics of big business than in curing the patient.

It is hoped that biological transmutation, which is intended for everyone's understanding, will awaken man from his lethargy. There is no need to surrender oneself to strangers who aim to manipulate consumption during the next decade. This new science with its clarity of exposition, its thousands of proofs, and its chief witness – the order of the world – will guide man in such a way that he will be able to choose his food himself, according to his own needs.

* * * * *

The findings concerning calcification alone should suffice to convince anyone concerned with proper nourishment, about the significance of biological transmutation. It does not help in any way to take into account the mineral calcium found in the food, for our organism rejects the majority of this calcium and fixes the rest of it but imperfectly. (When it is hot, especially, one rejects more of this element than one ingests.)

The phenomenon of transmutation, unobserved by dietitians, proves the caloric balance sheets based solely on the chemical reactions of carbon oxidation to be inadequate. The research done with the calorimeter will not prove satisfactory since some elements, due to enzymes and various physiological conditions, can be transmuted with absorption or emission of energy. This is enough to show how incompatible are the complex determinations of the energetic balance sheets, setting forth the simplistic view accepted to this day by almost everyone.

We have seen the impossibility of relying completely on chemistry. Several medical doctors understand that a diet rich in calcium does not necessarily strengthen the bones. Decalcification is sometimes caused by a deficiency of the enzyme, which transmutes sodium into magnesium. If, however, it is due to a deficiency of the enzyme, which transmutes Mg into Ca, it is advisable to strengthen the bones with potassium and organic silica. When calcium is being used by plants, this element, with the help of other enzymes, may produce potassium and magnesium (as do the bacteria of saltpeter).

Decalcification may then occur when salt-free diets are prescribed, especially chloride-free diets.

Silica seems to be a superior element for the strengthening of the bones. One must still refrain from excessive intake, as with any kind of food, but the tolerance is great. That is why it can possibly be used without medical control. The excess is eliminated by the urine, thus horsetail is a diuretic for many people.

The action of horsetail is rapid: nails which break easily, an early sign of decalcification, become normal within two weeks with a horsetail extract; horsetail decoctions take a while longer.

Spectacular results have been obtained with fractured bones. An experiment was made in a specialized nutritional laboratory where young rats were subjected to a controlled diet.*

[*Transmtttation à Faible Energie (2nd edit.), Maloine Pub., 1972, p. 100.]

Fig. 13 Action of vegetal silica in recalcification. Broken femurs of rats – 10th day.

Photos 2 and 3: controls receiving a diet normal in calcium. (One can see that the repair has lust begun.) Photos 4 and 5: rats receiving a supplement of vegetal silica. (The soldering is neat and the callus is forming.)

These rats were divided into two lots of three each. One of the lots received a normal diet, which included a fairly generous amount of calcium. The other lot had an extract of horsetail added to its food. X-rays of all the rats were taken ten days after their bones were broken. It was clear that the ingestion of vegetal silica had already healed the bones. An X-ray taken on the 17th day showed that the cure was complete, whereas with calcium alone, X-rays taken on the 17th day showed that the bones were not yet healed.

Fig. 14 Action of vegetal silica in recalcification. Broken femurs of rats – condition on 17th day.

Photos 2 and 3: slow progress in controls (diet with normal amount of Ca). Very little change in 7 days.

Photos 4 and 5: rats receiving a supplement of vegetal silica. Almost complete soldering. The callus shows from its opacity that the limestone density is greater than in the remaining part of the bone, which is transparent (4).

– Horsetail –

On the other hand, Professor Delbet demonstrated many times to the Academy of Medicine that it is beneficial to increase the usual allowances of magnesium. The cases of decalcification, much more frequent nowadays, are due in part to our "industrial" modem diet, which is deficient in magnesium. White bread and white salt are preferred for business and aesthetic reasons, to the detriment of our health.

It would be beneficial if a systematic study were made, under medical control, in nurseries, kindergartens and high schools. There is much to be learned from the conclusions that would be made concerning the food that is provided there.

Statistics taken from January 1957 to November 1963 in Copenhagen showed that 80 children, from three to four months old, died suddenly. Although they had been given milk, their deaths were caused by a lack of calcium. Accidents of the same type were observed in a hospital in Paris. A post-mortem study showed that these sudden deaths, occurring in the cradle without warning, were caused by a spasm of the glottis, which turned upside-down and obstructed the trachea.

Many hospital dietitians and even pediatricians do not yet know that these spasms, which are caused by a lack of calcium in the contractile cells of the blood, cannot be fought with calcium. Only magnesium can cure these spasms; the same applies to rickets. It seems that these unfortunate children had a deficiency of an enzymatic order; therefore, they had difficulty in transmuting sodium into magnesium. They should have been given more magnesium directly. Of course, one should be careful to give a supplement of magnesium to patients subjected to salt free diets, to avoid decalcification.

Cereals and whole flours are richer in magnesium than meat products. We do not advise taking magnesium in the form of sulfate, this salt being purgative and irritating to the mucous membrane of the intestines.

When animals travel by truck or rail it is advisable to triple their intake of magnesium a few weeks before the trip, in order to strengthen their skeletons. This will permit them to travel without the risk of a fracture, especially the pig and calf that, due to modern methods, have "grown too fast."

More could be written about dietetics in the light of the biological transmutations. It is expedient to expose the problem of decalcification since that is the most classical among the problems of nutrition. The reader will have to go back to previous chapters if he wants to understand more about the subject, succinctly treated here. In order to understand the problem of decalcification he will have to study closely all of the chapters in which calcium is involved. Once again, this book is intended only as a catalyst; its goal is to arouse in the reader – and hopefully in the minds of scientists – enough curiosity so that they will pursue the subject on their own.

I shall end this chapter with a story, which illustrates in the most dramatic and clear manner the problem of nutrition.

A doctor advised a pregnant woman to take iron when he discovered that she was deficient in this element. But because iron cannot be fixed in the body he also advised her to take with the iron something to fix it in the intestines. The woman, who did not believe in taking too many pills, was somewhat shaken by the "news" that she was lacking iron. She went home and told her husband, who was well acquainted with the phenomenon of biological transmutation. The husband reassured her that everything was all right, but that she would simply have to take more cereals and chew them more thoroughly in order to assimilate the manganese well and activate her metabolism. The husband then advised her to make her next appointment with the doctor in the afternoon instead of in the morning. A month later she went to the doctor, who declared that she had done well to follow his advice for there was plenty of iron now!

What happened was this: cereals (especially whole wheat, brown rice, etc.) are rich in manganese. But we know that manganese changes into iron (Fe₅₆ – H₁ => Mn₅₅). The pregnant woman had a slow metabolism, so her husband advised her to see the doctor in the afternoon; by that time the manganese had changed into iron. A woman with a more active metabolism has plenty of iron within a few hours after breakfast.

Iron content varies with every individual and must not be administered mechanically. The biological transmutations promote the serenity of the physiological man as compared to the paranoia of the world of the "quick" pill.

XXII MEDICINE

A time will come when the biological transmutations will be fully instituted and practiced in medicine. The health that modern man has is temporary, lasting just for the time it takes for the last pill to wear off. When a symptom of a sickness begins to appear one shuts it in mechanically with whatever new pill is on the market. If one unit is not enough, one takes two, etc. – for months, or even for life. Rather than seeking quality, one turns to quantity. Quantity overwhelms the sickness and baffles it for a while, but like a balloon pressed against the water, the sickness springs out stronger than ever in another place. In medicine, as it is practiced by many doctors, there is no intelligence involved. Everything is arranged so that nothing will be lost. When something disappears, everyone is worried and hurries to replace it immediately – and, to insure the success of this mechanical operation, a supplement is administered. From a comprehensive physiological understanding man has shifted to the purely mechanical. The body is but a factory without a foreman where all the machines run wild. A man is hired to put things together. But the task is so difficult that he gives up the job and another is hired.

The "replacement" of an element is a primitive approach, born out of defects in understanding. This mechanical attitude makes man a frightened being who is out of place in this world. This pattern of thinking and practice impedes progress and, worse, leads man to the loss of his mental faculties. With the proper understanding he could evolve and become the man he is meant to be, not a compulsively busy one, wasting his time patching up his sorrows and pains.

The phenomenon of biological transmutations brings man back to life and reality. By studying and making use of them man will recover the health he lost a long time ago. Health means not only to be able to do one's work with a certain required strength, but also to be a clear thinker who can spend time learning about the wonders of this world. To be healthy is to be able to grow and perceive; it is also the ability to learn from others with humility. An artificially induced physical health is temporary. True and complete health must encompass the mind as well as the body; it implies happiness and understanding. The application of the biological transmutations can be a guide for the safe conduct of man.

Calcium is not always the answer

The problems of decalcification and the strengthening of the bones must be investigated all over again. We have seen how fractured bones can be healed rapidly by means of organic silica (see chapter entitled "Production of Calcium From Silicon"). We have learned how horsetail, which is quite poor in calcium, can help heal fractured bones. Spring horsetail, as compared to summer horsetail, is rich in organic silica – not in mineral silica, which is, on the contrary, decalcifying.

Fresh green vegetables (young plants), radishes, etc., contain a large amount of silica. We now know it is due to the ingestion of fresh grass that milk-cows can excrete more calcium than they ingest, without decalcifying. The pregnant woman who breastfeeds her baby may correct her diet by adding a small amount of horsetail to her food in order to avoid decalcification. This is now recognized without dispute and is being applied commercially in France.

Many articles include names of authors* who have referred to my work, citing spectacular results obtained in the attempt to strengthen the bones with organic silica. The chief surgeon of a hospital asked for my assistance when he found himself confronted by a delicate case: a young man with bones broken very badly in an accident. The classical treatment of Vitamin D plus a phospho-calcic salt failed to bring about any improvement. However, the administration of organic silica healed the bones rapidly. I could cite various other examples.

[*R. Haegel, "Calcifications et Transmutations Biologiques," La Nouvelle Hygiène, Paris, Sept. 1966.]

At that time Professor Delbet had already arrived at the understanding that it does not help much to ingest calcic phosphates. He wrote, "It is questionable whether calcium phosphate is formed in the bones," and, "we do not know how the calcic phosphates come to the skeleton," for calcium has never been found approaching the bone.

In 1962 a Canadian author, H. Selye, wrote a whole book about what he called "calciphylaxis," which he defines as "a diffuse hypersensitivity" in which "the tissues react ... because of an intense and local calcification" – a purely dialectical explanation. Unfortunately, he concludes, "The nature of the local mechanism of calcification is one of the most important problems of biochemistry which has not been resolved." He had no knowledge of my work.

The question of calcification commands us to revise all our notions about dietetics, for it is useless to take into account the mineral limestone found in food. Our organism rejects most of this limestone and fixes the rest but poorly. In general, one rejects ingested calcium when it is hot. The mineral limestone comes in part from magnesium, when the latter is produced in excess.

Charnot's research*

In the autopsy of a tuberculous patient, Charnot noticed a strengthening of the bones and a simultaneous anomaly in the percentage of magnesium, accompanied by a lack of silicon in the bones.

[*"Le Silicium dans l'Osteomalacie le Dannous et la Turbulculose," C.R. Acad. Med., Paris 1947.]

Magnesium and silicon are two of man's main sources of limestone. The verification of this fact served as the starting point for systematic research on tuberculous guinea pigs, establishing that tuberculosis is always accompanied by decalcification. Silicon disappears before calcium; that is an early sign of decalcification. But when organic silica is given, a rapid calcification of the caverns occurs.

When silica disappears, calcium leaves the bone. If organic silica is administered, the calcium returns. Whatever interpretations one may conceive, one fact is irrefutable: the two elements are linked.

Charnot also remarked that there is a link between potassium variation and decalcification. (See chapter entitled "Potassium Calcium.") This fact inspired him to utilize the actions of silicon and potassium in the treatment of rheumatism.

To a patient whose rheumatism was so bad that it deformed her fingers and joints, Charnot gave bicarbonate of potassium with an extract of organic silica. An X-ray was taken before the treatment. After 6 days of treatment another X-ray was taken. It revealed a complete cure.

To another patient, suffering from a decalcification of the knees, he again gave organic silica, this time extracted from plants. The silica was given with bicarbonate of potassium. After a month of daily treatment the knee was healed.

To a woman who was badly decalcified he gave, for several consecutive days, an amount of calcium superior to the amount she was excreting; nevertheless, she excreted more silica than she ingested.

Though one can learn from this that potassium and silicon bring calcium to the bone, thus curing rheumatism without having to depend on the ingestion of calcium, he should be careful not to generalize. Excessively heavy doses of silica – especially the mineral ones – cause decalcification. Charnot's experiment is cited here as an example for the reader of how biological transmutation occurs in man's body.

The impracticability of an absolute reliance on chemistry has become clear to several doctors. For example, a diet rich in calcium does not necessarily strengthen the bones properly. This is the understanding of those concerned about promoting efficient diets. One of them, Dr. Plisnier (Belgium), made various observations, which make sense in the light of biological transmutation. In his book "Save Your Health" he states a few observations, which I can cite but incompletely:

a) A delayed dental growth in children receiving a diet normal in calcium (according to the old, classical dietetics, which prescribes fruits, vegetables, milk, cheese, and meat) was corrected in a matter of a few weeks. The children were given instead a regimen excluding milk and cheese (which are considered great sources of assimilable calcium).

b) This same diet, poor in calcium, allowed the rapid repair of a fracture. The patient was a woman in her sixties who had broken her femur, which, in spite of two operations and a diet rich in calcium, could not be healed.

In medical reviews, authors are universally recognizing the contradictions, which present themselves – concerning sodium, potassium, magnesium, or, most of the time, calcium.

Let us not accept blindly the dictums taught us. We have been told that the practice of substitution is essential, that if calcium appears it is because it has been displaced – by magnesium, for example. This is a position taken for the sake of conformity, to satisfy the "non-creation" dogma. Those who affirm the substitution theory have never weighed the magnesium and calcium before and after the experiment.

Those who believe in the substitution theory say that the total Mg + Ca is constant. This is an unfounded assertion, for the relative constance they have observed results from the fact that Mg decreases and Ca increases. The sum of Mg + K + Ca is constant. But as far as some scientists are concerned, the element lost from an organ has gone to some other place!

I remind the reader of the experiments made in the Sahara Desert where for six months petroleum workers excreted an average of 320 mg more calcium every day than what they ingested, and this without decalcification!

All that has been written on the metabolism of calcium, which does not take into account the biological, transmutations must be studied all over again, as there are important facts medicine must begin to use.

The thyroid and the metabolism of calcium

In the chapter entitled "Sodium and Potassium" I indicated that the transmutations of the latter seem to depend on the aldosterone. But in the chapter devoted to magnesium, I made no allusion to the endocrinal secretions on which the magnesium-calcium link may depend. In order to orient research, which would help determine the enzyme capable of accomplishing the transmutations, it seems useful to cite a few findings:

The role of the thyroid in the regulation of mineral metabolism has been studied in vertebrates and especially in fish, by M. Fontaine (1954).*

[*Archives Soc. Physiologie, 7, C.55 to C.78 (Paris).]

The lowering of the water salinity of the outside medium stimulates the thyroidian formation of the fish, says M. Olivereau (1948), whereas the opposite, the elevation of the salt rate in the inside medium, makes the thyroid decrease its activity.*

[*C.R. Soc. Biologie, p. 124, 176 (Paris).]

Nigrelli (1952) believes that it is the variation of the Ca/Mg ratio in the water which influences the thyroidian activity of the fish.* This is also recognized by Professors Berg and Rasquin; Olivereau admits it also (1955). Etienne (1958) studied the actions of the K, Mg, and Ca ions on the thyroidian function of trouts.** There are many others, such as Koch (1942), who studied the influence of the thyroidian hormone on the osmotic regulation of the fish.***

[*Zoologica, 37, 185-189 (Paris).]

[**C.R. Soc. Biologie, 152, No.2, p. 308-312 (Paris).]

[***Ann. Soc. Roy. Zool. Beige, 73, p. 164-172.]

Hence many individual discoveries have shown that the enzyme, which regulates the relation between Mg and Ca, seems to be secreted by the thyroid. The stimulating action would depend on Mg, which leads one to believe that Mg provokes an increased thyroidian activity.

This dependency of the Ca/Mg ratio on the activity of the thyroid is extremely variable according to the species of fish, all of which do not react in the same manner to a concentration of the Na, K, Mg, and Ca ions in the water. It seems that this dependency is apparent – in varying degrees – in all vertebrae; in the case of man, Leriche has verified links between calcic excess and hyperpara-thyroidism.

A fault in calcium metabolism thus seems to be linked to a modification of the thyroidian and para-thyroidian activity.

All endogenous formations of calcium seem to be connected with the thyroid and parathyroid. The action of K has also been studied: K increases thyroidian activity, as does Mg; Ca does not.

But calcium may also come from silica (and there could be a simultaneous action of Mg, K and Si, producing Ca) so that one must find a link between organic silica and the activity of the thyroid.

It has been established that people with tuberculosis suffer a decalcification. Dr. A. Charnot proceeded with an analysis of 29 organs or parts from both a healthy guinea pig and a tuberculous one so he could weigh the silica. Here are some results, given in grams for 100 grams of fresh organs:

Organ Healthy Guinea Pig Tuberculous Guinea Pig

Lungs 0.0059 0.0058

Liver 0.0053 0.0068

Kidneys 0.0046 0.0055

Brain 0.0093 0.0104

Heart 0.0072 0.0073

Pancreas 0.0061 0.0044

Thyroid 0.0234 0.0533

Surrenal 0.0418 0.0390

Blood 0.0452 0.0554

Cerebellum 0.0663 0.0686

Teeth 0.0505 0.0463

Bone 0.0491 0.0412

Skin 0.0657 0.0573

Hair 0.0899 0.0530

The silica rate is the same in the spleen as in the pancreas. Young guinea pigs have a thymus rich in silica.

One can see that in the teeth and bones the silica rate is high in the healthy guinea pigs but low in the tuberculous ones. This reduction of silicon precedes the reduction of calcium, as if it were the lack of silica, which caused the lack of calcium. This is interesting because falling hair and nails is the early sign of decalcification.

One can see that the thyroid is relatively much richer in silica than the other organs. Here the tuberculous subject has a silica rate twice as high as that of the healthy subject.

This relative abundance of silica suggests that the thyroid plays an important role in the metabolism of calcium. I do not think that this observation has been made before. That is why it will be fruitful to compare all the research made concerning the role of the thyroid in the metabolism of Mg, K, Si, and Ca.

There are some other cases where the action of the thyroid could be associated with magnesium. I have already stated the variations of Mg in cancer, as cited by Delbet. If the thyroid is removed when the cancerous tumor is operated on, the reappearance of cancerous tissue is much more pronounced.

Would this not come from the fact that the regulation of the Mg metabolism together with that of K and Si is perturbed? Wouldn't this be an ideal ground for the cancerous proliferation?

Heart failure

Groups of M.D.'s (some of them professors at the Faculty of Medicine) wishing to learn more about the basic problems of their discipline asked me to teach them the mechanism which had so far remained unexplained by biochemistry: the potassium increase in the blood despite a diet deficient in potassium. They had read my first books where I explained how the endogenous production of potassium was possible. This knowledge had opened for them new horizons in the explanation of the mechanism producing heart failure. (Death occurs when there is an exaggerated increase of potassium in the blood serum.)

It is known that the body cell (the nervous cell is no exception) is rich in potassium, although it lives in the midst of a nourishing liquid rich in sodium.

The potassium can go from the inside to the outside of the cell wall (called cellular body) and back again. In some cases the same is true with sodium – a normal balance is achieved by a much higher potassium content inside the cell. Because of this, there is outside the cell an intermediate potential between K and Na, leaning toward K. In the serum there is a potential leaning toward that of Na.

Let us recall that compared to that of the hydrogen electrode, the potential of sodium is negative: -2.175 volts. The potassium potential is even more negative: – 2.924 volts; thus K behaves more negatively than Na which has 0.209 volts. One can imagine a battery where the positive pole is Na and the negative pole is K. (The reader will recall that the differences of potential to which the nervous fibers are sensitive consist only of some tens of millivolts. There is a degree of rest and a degree of excitation. Thus great mixings of K and Na are possible, since in a pure state there would be 209 millivolts difference.)

However, if one ends up with a ratio such that the difference between the potentials on each side of the nervous cell wall is too small, excitation is not possible. The nerves are blocked and heart failure results.

In the case of heart failure the potassium increase in the plasma can rise so high that the difference of potential from that of the inside of the nervous cell becomes insufficient and there is a blocking of the nervous influx. This, of course, is a simplified figuration, for the biological reality is always much more complex.

(For a more proper explanation see ... http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/riddick/ )

In order to prevent a dangerous increase of K in the blood, some doctors thought to maintain a severe regimen including a minimum of potassium. In spite of a significant deficiency of K in the food, the potassium level continued to rise, causing an eventual accident.

Confronted with such a failure, others thought that the dangerous K increase in the blood called for removal of this serum too rich in K and the injection of an artificial physiological serum at 9% of NaCl, containing no K. Unfortunately, this direct injection of sodium into the blood circuit provoked an immediate death.

There is, in the logic of the biochemist, another reason for believing that sodium should be given. When the potassium increased, there was an intense, unexplained "leakage" of sodium. The subsequent reasoning was thus: since the sodium goes away and there is not much of it left, we must give it to the organism! The nuclido-biological reactions, which I had observed, helped to explain what was happening. A hormonal disorder (of the surrenal) provokes the continual synthesis of the aldosterone, thus transmuting the blood's sodium into potassium.

Hence, in this case the potassium increase in the blood has nothing to do with the oral ingestion of potassium, because it is the sodium of the blood plasma, which becomes potassium. It is only the sodium ingestion that one should change, and it is understood that by an injection of artificial serum – water salted with sodium chloride – the blood receives a fresh and abundant afflux, which transmutes immediately into potassium and causes death. A salt-free diet is traditionally imposed, but for a lasting cure one should act on the surrenal.

Addison's Disease

In December 1963 a chief endocrinologist of one of the largest hospitals in Paris asked me to give some doctors an expose on potassium. This professor wanted to show his assistants, interns, students, pharmacists, laboratory chiefs, etc. the formation process of potassium and the disappearance of sodium, since the sodium "leakage" and the potassium risings remained unexplained. A typical example is Addison's Disease, where the percentage of sodium in the blood plasma decreases while the percentage of potassium increases.

It had been established in 1927 by Bauman and Kurland that the potassium increase in the blood serum was caused by a malfunctioning of the cortico-surrenal.

In 1931 Hastings and Compere, in a surrenalectomy on a dog, verified that on the second day the increase of K in the plasma can exceed the normal balance by 50%, causing death to occur a few days later (at which time there is six times more K than normal).

The potassium also increases in the cell. Harrison and Darrow in 1938, Buell and Turner in 1941, verify this in the rat.

This observation invalidates the arguments of people who say that the increase of K in the blood serum is caused by a "leakage" of K from the cell. The researchers previously cited provided proof that it is the total potassium, which increases; it is not a case of the simple removal of an ion.

In Addison's Disease the symptoms are aggravated by an excessive supplement of potassium in the diet. The disastrous role of potassium with regard to cortical malfunctioning has been confirmed on surrenalectomized animals by Allen, Nilson, Kendall, Cleghorn and Mc Vicar.

The plasmatic sodium, which falls in cases of cortical malfunctioning, rises under the effects of D.C.A. or cortisone. The plasmatic potassium, which rises in cases of cortical malfunctioning, is decreased by D.C.A. or cortisone. The opposite effect, which these have on Na and K, was established in 1948 by Green, in 1939 by Kuhlman, and in 1940 by Tookes. D.C.A. can act so intensely that it can cause a loss of the K stored in the cell.

Darrow demonstrated that under the influence of D.C.A. a deficit of intracellular K causes an alkalosis. This alkalosis (increase of Ca), linked to K, has been confirmed by specialists of endocrinology.

Thorn, in 1941, demonstrated a different effect caused by cortisone on Na and K in Addison's Disease. An excess of cortisone (or D.C.A.) can lead to such a loss of K that decalcification results. It was never understood why the lack of K caused the lack of Ca!

Rheumatism treatments with cortisone (200 mg/day) modify the Na/K equilibrium. Long treatments can lead to fatal troubles by causing the atrophy of the gland, which secretes these hormones (resulting in a reduction of the cortex matter).

In this treatment of rheumatism, as in the treatment of Addison's Disease, the amount of potassium excreted is greater than the amount ingested. This negative balance sheet is accompanied by a negative calcium balance sheet, showing that the disappearance of K is accomplished directly by the transmutation of the latter into Ca.

Cushing's Disease

Here, the opposite is true: a hormonal excess leads to a sodium increase in the blood.

The alkalosis in this disease is corrected simply by giving potassium.

Cushing's Disease is caused by excess surrenal activity, which in turn is often produced by a tumor of the hypophysis, no longer able to control the Surrenal. The latter then produces an abnormal quantity of cortisone and other steroid hormones. One knows the effects of excessive injections of cortisone. Excess tension, a loss of minerals in the skeleton and a poor endocrinian function are the consequences, and together they may ultimately cause death.

Cushing's Disease has been considered incurable. It has always been treated by surgery: by the partial removal of the surrenal and the removal of the tumor in the hypophysis. It has also been treated with gamma or X-rays, an attempt which always causes damage to adjoining tissues.

* * * * *

People who undergo cortisone treatment typically excrete more K than they ingest. For us this fact was one of the leads in researching the enzyme which provokes the transmutation of Na and K and which seems to be of the same group.

The secretion of ACTH from the hypophysis under traumas such as hemorrhages, severe burns, violent physical effort, acute infections, bad wounds, operational shocks, strong emotions, etc., also causes a large secretion of K. I believe that in this case we should study the possibility of giving a physiological serum (Na). Whoever deals with the excretion of K must also consider the Na consumption, since Na is needed to replace K. Hence water, salted with NaCl, should be given as liquid intake to avoid a possible loss of K.

Above all, one should not commit the grave error – which is still being made – of saying that since the organism is losing K, one should introduce more of this element. (This is similar to returning to an organism its wastes!) Actually a large injection of KCl could be dangerous because it might cause a local and lethal concentration in the cells.

It is by using precise balance sheets that we have established the reality of the biological transmutations. It can be seen that this "new" science clarifies much that has remained mysterious thus far (concerning the metabolism of potassium, for example). This evidence must surely oblige everyone to return to his studies in biology. Indeed, the facts have been seen for a long time. It was no disappointment for me to learn that they had been discovered before me. Quite the contrary – I was thrilled, for this merely proved me to be correct.