THE EVERLASTING MICROBE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 184, 4 August 1900, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE EVERLASTING MICROBE.

At the meeting- of the Royal Society at Burlington House, London, the other afternoon, a paper was read describing some of the results of .a remarkable investigation which lias been undertaken by Professor Dewar, Sir James Crichton-Browne, and Professor Macfadyen. These gentlemen have submitted a large number of dis-ease-causing microbes —those responsible for typhoid fever, diphtheria, cholera, and others —for prolonged periods to the temperature of liquid air, which is 190 centigrade, and have found that they are not a bit "the worse. After twenty hours of this frigid regimen these lively bacteria proved as lively as ever, and set np with punctuality and precision their appropriate maladies. Grave doubt is thus thrown on the popular belief that a sharp frost can cut short epidemic disease, for frost is genial warmth when compared with the terrible chills administered in the laboratories of the Royal Institution. The photogenic or light-giving bacteria went out when immersed in liquid air, but resumed their luminosity when thawed and warmed up again. The microbes are to have a dose of liquid hydrogen shortly, and it is said if they can stand that they will stand anything.