LIEING MICROBES AT WAR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2983, 17 May 1911, Page 98

LIEING MICROBES AT WAR.

-CINEMATOGRAPH MARVEL. An extraordinary series of pictures of microbes taken by the cinematograph were used by Professor Sir E. Ray Lankester to illustrate a .lecture on "Living Miorobes" which he recently gave before the National Health Society at ' Burlington Gardens. .' ~. . "There is a difficulty in showing living microbes under a miscrosoope to the 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 cinematograph of a series of instantaneous photographs of actual living microbss magnified about 56,000 times. "It is a great opportunity for realising what a microbe looks like," added the lecturer as he explained that attempts to project picture of the actual living microbe direct on to- the screen had been attended with failure, and it was only quite lately that the use of the cinematograph had become possible, the small and transparent objects being shown against a dark ground like lace against black velvet. The lights were then turned down, and the audience watched with absorbing interest the succession of photographs. Preliminary views of particles of blood the Ted and white corpuscles being a foot wide on the aoreen—were followed by films of the parasites which j are responsible for various diseases (including sleeping 'sickness). •. The blond of a young sucking rat was seen, invaded with trypanosomes, -scores of eel-like microbes about 20ft long on the screen twining and twisting in all directions knocking the corpuscles about and presenting a piture of terrible commotion. Occasionally a microbe was seen enaped 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 ' factum, "by knocking the corpuscles about. The mischief is done by the production of poison. The creatures I have shown really measuxo ono-thousandth of an 'inch." Specially interesting films were those ot Vincent's' Sprrochaete, which Sir Ray Lankester informed the audience were present in the mouths of nine persons out of 10. They were thinner than their predecessors and shot about with a spiral motion, bemjr driven by invisible filaments. Infusoria taken from a mouse were eeen turning round like wheefe by means of hairs at each end, and the professor passed on to something like a tragedy of low life. A number of Spirochaete had got inside a blood corpuscle, and being unable to get out again, were rushing hopelessly round and round inside. - One of the thinnest of the microbesmeasuring one-half a thousandth of a mil-limeti-e was yet stated to cause one of the most terrible diseases known. Finally, the lecturer showed a picture of the movements of the human stomach taken with the Rontgen rays. Ho said that such pictures as he had shown were of enormous educational value, a fact that was realised far' more in France than in England.