MICROBES-GOOD AND BAD

New Zealand Mail, 29 January 1902, Page 61

MICROBES-GOOD AND BAD

The word microbe is made up of two hreek words, one of which means small and the other life. Microbes, then, are small —very small—living creatures. hey are so small indeed that in order to be seen they have to be magnified from ten thousand to a million fold un--01 1 l, m 'eroscope. A bacterium is a vegetable microbe. The plural of the 'lord is bacteria. If tlie bacterium is long and rod-shaped it is called a bacillus. If it is coiled into the form of a spiral, it is a spirilla; and if it is g obular in form, it,is a coccus. Some or these creatures can “scull” themMdyes rapid y about in the liquid in ■ nch they live, by means of threadiike appendages or oars. The bacterium multiplies by fission, of by breaking up u o separate bacteria. They come to their maturity in half an hour of time, in t™ , ra ? ldly do tlie y multiply that will nv ty " fo ? r ho,lrs a single individual Piopagate millions of his kind. pa r °i f ound alm ost everywhere, CTir T, t ess numbers. They are in 'SKSr a il d fomentation of orwine, bcCT° tho h "J^t* kl ” S ”< 0f vinogar ’ souring of milk °f meat, the tor-in fact -S’ ? nd the s .P° lhn 6 of buttire breaking i deco ™P°sition, which is bodies into "or t^ 1 °i C0 ! 11 Pi f!X organic or inoSie c T? rdS) sim P lor organic truth the presenco St n? C ° S |-' 1? connectecl minute organism. » ,ty of i,lOSe *«ur lone ’ 1 „ Ty ndall and pas--8 L proved that without them

there coukL be no putrefaction. Toe writer once Tasted some mutton broth which Professor Johnson assured him he had kept sweet in the chemical laboratory at Yale College, U.S.A., for full ten years. It had been preserved all that time in a Florence cask closed only with a loose stopper of cottonwool. It had first been boiled in the flask until the bacteria had been killed or expelled, and then the loose plug of pptton was nut into the heck of the hot vessel. This kept ev.t “H Um bacteria that were plentifully floating in the atmosphere of the laboratory, and so no putrefaction took place. The temperature of 212 deg. Fall., the boiling point of. water, kills all bacteria; but a degree of cold near to the very nadir of temperature—a cold so intense as to freeze hydrogen into a solid—only denumbs, hut does not destroy them.

These minute creatures are of different kinds and characters. Some aro useful to us, and some are harmful. Some help us to live, and some bring death. Some of them, coming stealthily into our bodies on the air we breathe, or in the food and drink we take, or by touching tlio absorbent skin, bring all our diseases—all the “ills that flesh is heir to!” The friendly microbes,?on the othgr hand, fight our battles for us against the unfriendly ones, and modern medicine is fast finding out how to ward off the infection of the diseasehearing bacteria by means of antiseptics, or how to destroy them in our very bodies by sending in friendly bacteria to overmaster the unfriendly ones. So the physician can now kill the diphtheric germ with an antitoxin germ. It has been discovered that the disease-bearing bacteria generate a “toxin,” or poison, which performs the deadly work. Milk or buttermilk, or ice cream even, kept too long in unclean or unsterilised vessels, may generate a bad breed of bacteria that in turn produce a “ptomaine,” or poison, which the discoverer, Dr. Vaughan,'" calls tyrotoxicon. Some of these toxic products of bad bacteria have been injected into the veins of horses, or other domestic animals, in increasing doses, until the animal becomes inured to it, and no longer suffers much inconvenience from the poison. Then the blood of the animal is drawn, and with it the milder, or “attenuated” form of tlie poison, and after coagulation the remaining serum is saved for use. Now, if a human being is inoculntod with this s°rum. it either renders him immune to the original bao-teria-communicated disease, or else it may act as an anti-toxin, or antidote, to the disease itself. The diphtheria antitoxin, prepared on this principle, and hv this method, is now manufactured as a commercial article, and hv its U so the mortality from this frightful disease of childhood has been greatly lessened. So antitoxins have been prepared against typhoid-fever, tetanus, bubonic plague, hydrophobia., snake bite’, etc. Unfortunately, some of these aro not yet so perfected as to he always trustworthy, just as the vellow f<wor antitoxin of Dr. Cal das. the Brazilian expert. seems in the r«o"nt- trials in Cuba to he ineffectual either in curing the. dread disease or in rendering inoculated persons immune. Still, it is believed that the time is hopefully near when effective antitoxin treatment will he possible in the case of many of the worst diseases.

So the human body is the seat of war between our microbe friends and foes; when our little friends are in the ascendancy, then wo are in health; when our foes prevail, then we sicken and die. But these bacteria also touch other important though less vital intoi--ests. The procuring of pure water, the disposal of sewage, the production and preservation of many articles cf food and drink. Mho very cultivation of the soil, aro all matters largely affected by the presence and action of bacteria. The vinegar and the wine maker, the maltster and the brewer, the canner and the preserver of meats, fruits, and vegetables, and tho dairyman especially, must guard their operations against harmful bacteria, and must cultivate and encourage the helpful ones. Bad bacteria spoil the milk and the cheese; good ones, selected and bred for the purpose, “ripen” the cream so as to make tho best butter, or give the desired flavour to tho cheese-curd. Every particular variety of cheese owes its peculiar qualities to the wise dairyman’s selection and employment of tho proper “breed” of bacteria. Again, certain friendly bacteria in the little nodules on the roots of tho clovers and other leguminous plants enablo them to draw a part of their needed nitrogenous food directly from the free nitrogen of the air. If tho soil is first “seeded” with these" nitrogen-secreting bacteria, these clovers will grow with certainty and in abundance. Clover notably thrives best in old countries, and on long cultivated soils, where these microbes havo made abundant lodgment. Tho early settlers on tho new western lands of America used to say that you cannot raise clover until you get the “wildness” out of tho land. Clover can now bo quite easily raised as far west as tho further boundaries of Minnesota, though fifteen years ago tho safo clover limit was hardly west of the middle of

that State. Of course, getting the “wildness” out of the land is only getting it thoroughly impregnated with these clover bacteria.