MICROBES AT WAR.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 11110, 6 May 1911, Page 9

MICROBES AT WAR.

NEW MARVEL ACHIEVED BY TUB KINEMATOGKAPH. An extraordinary scries of pictures of microlws taken by tho kinemntogrnph were used by Professor Sir E. Hay' Lankester (o illustrate a lecture on "Living Microbes," whieli lie gave before tho National Health Society in London on Jlarcli 10.

"There is a difficulty in showing living microbes under a microscope to ilie casual visitor," said the lecturer, "and my object.now is to bring before you what I consider to be one of the most marvellous productions of human ingenuity—the representation by the kinomatograph of a scries of instantaneous photographs of actual living microbes magnified about 50,000 times.

"It is a great opportunity for realising what a microbe looks like," added (h<; professor as he explained (hat attempts to project pictures of the actual-living microbe direct on to the screen had been attended with failure, and it was only cjuilo lately that the use of tho kincmntograph had become possible, the small and transparent objects being shown against a dark ground like lace against black velvet. lhe lights were then turned down, and the audience watched-with absorbing intflrest the .succession of photographs. Preliminary views of particles of blood—the red and white corpuscles being a foot wide on the screen—were followed by films of the parasites which are responsible for various diseases (including sleeping sickness). The blood of a young sucking rat was seen, invaded with' trypanosomes, scores oi , eel-like microbes about two feet long on the screen twining and twisting in all directions, knocking the corpuscles about and presenting a picture of terrible commotion. Occasionally a microbe was seen shaped something like a roach. The confusion increased till the last pictures taken a few hours before the rat s death,

"They don't do so much harm as you might think," said the lecturer, "by knocking the corpuscles about. The mischief is done by tlio production of poison. Tho creatures I have shown really measure, one-thousandth of an inch." Specially interesting iilms were those of Vincent's Spirochaote, which Sir liay Lankestor informed tho audience were present in the months of nine persons out of ten. They were thinner than their predecessors, and shot about with a tspiral motion, being driven by invisible tilaments. Infusoria taken from a mouse were seen' turning round like wheels by means of hairs at each end, and tho professor passcd on to something like a tragedy of low life. A number of Spiracliac'tc had ;,-ot inside a.blood corpuscle, and, being uik able to get out aijtin, were rushing hopelessly round and round inside. One of tlie thinnest of the microbes—measuring , onc-hnlf a thousandth of a millimetre—was yet stated to teiiso one of the most terrible diseases known. Finally, the lecturer showed a picture of the movements of Hie human stomach taken with the Kontgenrays. He said that such pictures as ho had shown wero" of enormous educational value—a fact that was realised far more in Franco, than in liuglnd. '