LIFE WITHOUT MICROBES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 86, 11 December 1913, Page 4

LIFE WITHOUT MICROBES.

iTlic possibility of animal life under '.conditions quite free from microbes is I occupy in g the attention of experi.montors, and the Paris* scientist Guye-

not uses the common fly for this purpose (Drosophila ampelophila), obtaining their reproduction and following their descendants. He now possesses a collection of specimens dating from two years past and comprising a great number ofgenerations. Development from the egg to the imago, at 24dog. Cent., lasts for twelve days,j and t!it> females commence to lay on the first and second days after hatch-! ing. In this way lie obtains two generations in a month, and each generation contains at least 10,000 flies. The lines followed by him since! Miiy, 1911, includes some 40 generations, or 40,OIK) specimens. [ T nderj these conditions, living in n medium i free from microbes and feeding upon specially-prepared food, the specimens! do not show any lessening in strength

of fecundity, but, on the contrary.} their development takes place underj exceptional conditions winch are not found in nature. "While in the ordinary case the mortality during development is often great for larvae and pupae, it is practically nothing! in the present case.