TAA i.3.9.28

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I think, highly improbable that any other spores or seeds can

have retained their viability or power of germination. Why the

bacteria should have dried we cannot tell, since conditions

would not seem to be adverse to the prolonged dormancy of spores.

To say that they have dried because of the long interval of time

is no answer, from a scientific point of view:/<.> Some definite

change must take place within the spore.

          We hope to confirm our result by analysing further swabs

taken this year in the inner shrine or in boxes, but that depends

largely on whether Mr. Lucas will have the same facilities for

taking the swabs as he had last year.

          In examining microscopically some of the dust which

came in the swab tubes we were rather interested to see some

fragments of fibres among the dust. Since at the bacteriological

laboratory at Holten Heath some of us are concerned <with,> among other

things<,> with the deterioration of fabrics, I wrote again to Mr.

Lucas and asked if he could send us a few fragments of fabric

from the tomb, so that we could do some tests on them. This he

was kind enough to do, and I have brought some of them here with

me this evening. I hope those of you who kno/<e>w I was bringing

these specimens did not expect me to turn up with a trunk full

of gowns like a travelling "Galleries Lafayette". The pieces

of garment/<fabric> are quite small and fragmentary, but they will repay

your inspection<,> since they present several points of interest,/<.> In

the first place, they are all linen. Linen was known in Egypt

hundreds of years before Tutankhamen's time whereas cotton

apparently was not at that time either cultivated or used in the

Nile Valley. Its use was not introduced into Europe until about

the 6th or 7th. century before Christ, but possibly a little