CULTIVATION OF ORGANIC LIFE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7014, 1 February 1901, Page 4

CULTIVATION OF ORGANIC LIFE.

+* — . SOME INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS. MICROBE AND MICROSCOPE. AN INTER-TRIBAL WAR. ["Stab" Spjboiai;.] The study of organic life is at all times interesting, as indeed is all life fromi the powerful elephant with his mighty strength to the tiny invisible bacilli, millions of which anight rest on a fingen nail, and perhaps micro-organic life affords the most interesting study of all by reason of its universal presence and infinite littleness. Armed with a, powerful microscope, the "Star" special set forth upon one of his favourite rambles in search of something new in the shape of microbe life. A nor'-wester had given a new lease of life to the tiny citizens, and the special found them extremely busy, but still at home to an inquiry about the general state of their health. lit High Street, mot a hundred miles from the Cashel Street) corner, the microbe traffic was extremely congested ; in fact, an inter-tribal war was raging in all its fury, and troops were being hurried to tie front with remarkable mobility. The tribes from the sea were tough, hardy soldiers, and they seemed possessed' of demoniac strength as they grappled with the land forces. The dead were lying unburied in all directions, and the smell from the putrifying bodies was disgusting in the extreme, but the scientific special, deeply interested in the progress of tihe fight, soothing his olfactory nerves with, a handkerchief dr<ew near to the heart of the battle. Jusfc then the mighty decomposition contingent, the Ghoorkas of the sea forces, threw "themselves into the fight, amd the slaughter was fearful. Human beings, seeming, to the special's vision grown accustomed to the tiny life, like huge giants, moved to and fro, but avoided the battle as a pestilence, warned of its presence by some ill-defined sense other than eyesight, for the great fight was invisible to them. The movements of the opposing forces required millions of the tiny soldiers, but their work was accomplished, and terrible poisoned wounds inflicted which must end eithen in death or broken constitutioitSj At length, surfeited with the sight (and smell) of the carnage, and wondering why the governors of a great city permitted the importing, in. such vast numbers, of these interesting but loathsome little soldiers, into the principal thoroughfare, the special wandered on with a silent prayer in liis heart for 'Ms fellow humans beings who are obliged to work in a vicinity where organic life of eueh a character is cultivated m a wholesale manner. In Colombo Street and Lower Manchester Streeb the special found the micro^organio war raging with equal fury, and it dad not need the microscope to warn him of the vicinity of the battle, his sens© of saneiU ! making him aware of itis presence many yards away, and- alarmed by what he had seen (and smelt), he fled from the city into the fresh fields, crying from his hear*, "Oh, ye governors of the city, rise up in .wrath, rLgie up, for ye have a mighty work to do. '