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 Ca