BOYS' OWN COLUMN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 15, 18 January 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

BOYS' OWN COLUMN.

A TALK ABOUT THE MICROBE. ONE OF THE EARLIEST FORMS OF LIFE. Dear Boys,— Hundreds and hundreds of million years ago the surface of the earth bore no fruits, the forests had not appeared, no animal moved among the rocks, and no /fish swam in the seas. Soon, however, the water, the sat and the air w/ere to become food for fungi, and that was the beginning o the microbe. At the very mention of the word, many people pull serious faces, and dread thoughts of awful disease pass through their minds. There is good reason for their conduct, too, because it is known that the microbe which causes only one disease has slain 50,000 English people in one year. It seems pitiful to think of all those deaths, and know all the time that if fresh ail" and sunshine were introduced more into the life of the town man, such a disease as consumption could almost certainly be stamped Cut j altogether. However, the fact remains, and, unfortunately, consumption is not the Only ill brought to the humari race by this little foe? and men have made themselves immortal by Combating the harmful bacteria, and making it possible for them to- be swept from the body of the person jjphom they are causing to Suffer. ' , When surgery was first practised, many, many lives wefe lost by what ■was known as hdspital gangrene, and so terrible did this prove that many people >Were afraid to have operations, and, indeed, doctors were afraid to perform them. In England, however, there was one man who Was studying the causes of these deaths, and that man was Joseph Litter, ' ■whose father had so improved the microscope as to make it » scientific instrument invaluable to the great frenchman, Louis Pasteur. Louis Pasteur, in France, had discovered that it was little things in the air. entering milk which caused it to go sour, and Lister realised that it was these microbes in the. air which, entering the wound made by the surgeon's knife, were the cause of gangrene. If then, these minute life forms could be prevented frdrirl entering the wound, gangrene Would cease to be. Lord Lister accomplished this by what We wduld call Sterilising the cut; he applied a strong disinfectant in which it was' impossible for germs to live. This scheme was further improved by sterilising everything that cbme in touch with the wound, and a spray in the Atmosphere of the operating theatre cleared the atmosphere of harmful bacteria. Thus had Lister revolutionised surgery, and by the careful study of ihicrdbes men have been able to stamp out many diseases, as Doctor Ross and Doctor Reed stamped out yellow fever* and malaria fever. So far we have dealt orily with the microbes' which are the enemy of ihanklnd, yet, astounding as the fact may Seefri, we could not live if the little armies of friendly microbes ceased to give us their service. The bread and butted On the dinner table are produced with the help of microbes, yeast causing carbdn di-dkide to form in tfie dough, making the bread rise, and other bacteria causing the Cream to go sour, Enabling butter to be manufactured, ft is the different kinds of microbe which ihfest the niilk which Account for the various savours in cheese, for milk invariably is the same, no matter in which country the cow Jives which {iroduces it. Louis Pasteur, was the great pioneer of bacteriology, and from him .We learn many things about our microscopic friierld and foe, but within the limits of this column if: is impossible to deal more fully With his WOrks. Of the friendly microbe we can >5% iay this, that we oW6 him a greater debt than ever we Can hope to pay, I J And in the unfriendly microbe we . 0/vQ*^ iee a deadly enemy upon whom we t ' htust wage relentless war.