AMONG THE MICROBES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 16, 14 October 1907, Page 8

AMONG THE MICROBES.

AN HOUR IN A VET.'S LABORATORY. SOME CURIOUS SIGHTS. •'.'.'

lo Saw Them.) ' ■■■ ■ Probably tho happiest ivorking hours of ,a Go'orriinont . veterinary surgeon's life are : spent' n' his laboratory, sur•ounded by hideous spe;ime"ns of .internal or*ans , and millions of leadly microbes, the lames of which mako ;ho outside world shudler. ■ Itis in such queer ;ompany as. this that ;hb ' Chief ' Government 'Vet.," , Mr. Gilruth, ind his colleaguo, Mr. Reakesj carry. on their, •esearches at Wallacerille. . . . •;•;:. The building is md brightly coloured,' ;ho paths are neat and viridirig, and everything without, on tho 140. lores of .grass and itones, speaks of poaee ind Health. But . , r — .nside the symbols of disoase and agony and death abound. Hundreds of bottles on a hundred shelves contain lurid specimens of organs cut from animals, now dead—sheep's livers,with hydatids; long, flat, fluted tapeworms, to show what a hyatidcan produce; intestines and lungs pocked with tubercles; cancers galore. . As an exhibition of some of the queer unlooked-for products of the farm wo commend this establishment.Mingled Sensations. :. , ..: Annexed is a long, low structure, exposed to the open air, where the guinea pjgs—so indispensable to the cult.of.the bacteriologist —sit and blink and. make noses at one another, all unconscious of the purpose for which they are kept. And a taller building' 'close by is tho morgue, where tho interiors of defunct animals are rudelyinterfered with, and diagnoses are verified and specimens gouged out. .One. views all these things'with an ili-fitting mixture of curiosity, and abhoronco, now interested,,now shocked. ; - The Inner Mysteries. > r \ .. ■' .' ■'■-'•:'. ■ - ' ■•' 1 '•' •<V : " ■■' ': ■•' But all these outside matters: are more appendages—inero tools—mere, raw material —useful certainly, even indispensable,'but'. still not tbo sort of 'objects', to tlirow tho "vet." and the-visitor into raptures. Those . deoboT mysterious things— -.real, fascrnatbrs.,,.of the ; ilabo'ratoryr ; -asist. inside, where the microscopes are with their slide's, and where frbin miniature- racks • protrude the bulgity-stoppered heads; of culturo .tubes.' Peculiar objects are these' tubes. ; The., cotr ton.wool which.forms the stopEer has been- scorched in a gas ame, and can, theroforo, be guaranteed . sterile , outsido. But it is: different inside, Tho jelly-like content ia a culture medium on' whieli the granulations in this tube,.,or 'the coloured,, crooked streak in that, represent a vigorous crop cf germs of some foil disease They prove the,accuracy—or may it bo the error? —of a recont diagnosis under wmeft. someDody's pet cow or sheep or mongrel hen was condemned to death. ',"..' y. Visitors Admitted. A visit to this place will interest.any farmer or farmor's •wife , or daughter':who. cares to undertako tho journey; Wallacoville is about , an hour's rail journey• from AYellington, and the laboratory is alpngsido tho station.. .'■. REPULSIVE : :" i The gontloman who showed us the ..wondera of tho Wallaceville laboratory was aH;.entliusiast at his work,' and know all hismicro'scopical pets by name. . , Stranec Eauipment- . , The inside of tho, laboratory room was barricaded all round with bottles of weird contents, '■ 'and- with ■ box-liko objects— which wero incubators for .- hatching : germs—and dozens and dozens of glass tubes, some straight, , others:.. ; constricted likp the , 'waist 'of; a lady, and - all ■ something which produced questions! : ,' : This was . au. ideal place, for Tan inquisitive mind to feast on scientific . entertainment 1 ; as dispensed by 'tho specialist.' We, .therefore, felt content to stay, and \ see, -and listen. '; ',;;.■ : : ; ;•• ,-':- : Cenns and Their Deadly Work. i : ; ; ' ''This;! , said the "lecturer,", lifting.,up, , an object .in' a largo; bottle, "is ,a,guinea-pig, iHth bubonic plague.' That liunp on the liver is a aubo.;; ■ This specimen shows tubercles on the iniestines of a cow. There is a ltiiig affected) and liero are a.fish.and a,towl itriokon , i ;'. i .'..witli ..; cancer,. Those watery .lumps 'on the liver, of 'a .sheep liydatids: fromi'which .the tape worm derives its 0ri- .'.;.,; ■:■■;: gin. Hero is a tapeworm. , !' Our sense of tho ! gruesome .was lost hi the depth of our interest. ', , .:.,;: Mounting the Microbes. -: \ Unstoppering a tube containing a culture ef bacilli roared'in ordinary milk, bur.friend ■ ■'■■■•'' proceeded to' prepare a slide for us'to examine the, little organAsms through a-micro-, scope. .'Holding tho tube aslant,, so that no ' ■ foreign germs might fall'mtp it from tho atmospherei' lio inserted the tip of. .i wire first into the gas flame : to.lcill anygerms that might.bo on.it, ; and' then v into : £ho culture. : Meanwhile 'a glass slide was sterilised by'■'■ holdiiig it also in tho flame of ; - ■; .. thogtts,-and then tho . wire, withdrawn; from the. tube, was,, drawn across tho gkss' slide. Th'owiro tip was l again sterilised.in the flame and'laid aside, and our slide was now alive with the microbes which had boon taken from" th'e milk. '■'."'- ■ ■"" .: Small but Powerful. ' ,'".'.' It-was certainly a very tiny matter for : the size of tho harm it was apparently capable of doing, but. the speed with which it could multiply no doubt compensated for its smailness. However, although it was' mounted on tho slido it was not yet ready for ..vision. Without the assistance of a colouring agent the individual germs would bb . too transparent to, bo seen. Thoreforo a fragment of a drop of a certain red fluid was. added. A Beautiful Picture. :■ The slido was then placed' beneath the microscopo, the focus was adjusted, - and a wonderful sight was depicted. Mounted.in y, '.. 'a' red i back-ground wore groups:of dots--called staph.yllococci, from tlioir 'bunchiiig 'together liko grapes l^ magnifipd a thousand times. They wpfo tho microbes, but , thfey \.wer.e not red. .' Thoy had changed the huo of tho colouring ~ agent, ■ and, unlike their red surroundings,' they, wore bright blue. Staphylococci. . , .. ~ ,: :. ; : It was a striking picture, which no uncoloured skotch can fully convoy. Thediseasenaino of this germ was not stated, but it . appoarod to resemble the coccus discovered, iu January, 10C4, causing acuto dermatitis

on the faco and oars of merino sheep on a South Island station, and described by Mr. Gilnith in tho annual report of 1906. Anthrax and Tuberculosis. The bacillus of anthrax, also , stained, was Similarly e x a'm 1n o d from a culture of blood serum. It was rodshaped, and was partly arranged in lines tandem-fashion._ Tuberculous bacilli, smaller, but still rodshaped', . which had been dragged from the lung of. a dead victim,, wero also mounted for our gaze, Sleeping Sickness. ■'. I . -A novelty, not grown in New Zealand,' was the animal germ wbinh certain African mosquitoes prick into the • flesh of human beings to -produce sleeping sickness. It'was larger, than the bacteria; somewhat fish-shaped, and, when alive, is said to travel backwards, following its long , conspicuous tail._ Scientists are trying—and ■ hoping—to .find a Sleeping Sickness Germ, cure for this little pest. It is comforting to: know that the Wallacovillo specimens,are themselves " sleeping." '. ' ,