Interesting Discovery.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3790, 4 July 1917, Page 4

Interesting Discovery.

Dr. Roux, of the Pasteur Institute, has announced an important discovery made by Madame Henry, a worker in the laboratory. She noticed something very peculiar as she was turning the glass tubes containing myriads of microbes under the ultraviolet arc lamp. They seemed to undergo transformations, .and they finally evolutionisecl into quite new varieties, so much so that she had doubt at first whether she had not mistaken the tube of one set of microbes for another. She triod tin* 2xperiment several times, ar:ri i-?^ time hundreds of millions of imert,bes of one variety became transformed into microbes of quite a different appearance. The original microbes b'ing those of anthrax, she subjected them to a prolonged exposure to tho altra-violet rays-, and they be^anm transformed into microbes coir, eying an infection which has more analogy to diphtheria than the anthrax. Th.-.v were inoculated into guinea pigs, n.ul it was immediately observed that they communicated a diseare that did not come under any pariicuhuClassification. The theory is, therefore, advanced that all disease germs may be evolved from one species. It is a hopeful theory, for if ono set of rays can cause so definite an evolution, we may yet discover the rays that will cause an involution of disease germs, until we only have the original form to cope with.