Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-11-06
ABOUT BACTERIA.
A POPULAR TALK UPON THIS
INTERESTING SUBJECT.
Sketch from Lecture by Prof III.
f. Formal, OF the University
of Pennsylvania.

-
f. Formal, OF the University
of Pennsylvania.
Bacteria are very small organisms of a
vegetable nature, SO small that the naked
eye has very little knowledge of their ex-
istence. They are ubiquitous and play no
small part in disease. Hundreds of thou
sands of them can find ample room in
single drop of water. Their weight is so
small that to express it you would use up
pot of ink in writing down your fractions.
They are vegetable, and their constitution
does not differ much from that of q cab
bage. Although plants, many of them are
endowed with little propellers, by means of
which they move. Their motion appears,
although they have no brains or senses, to
be a hunt for food.
There are four chief forms of these germs.
There are round ones called micrococci,
elongated ones called bacteria, longer ones
known as bacilli, and spiral, screw-like
| ones answering to the names of screw bac-
| terra or spirilli. Then there are big ones
called mycelial fungi, which belong to the
molds
Bacteria are found absolutely every
where. The air in this room contains
plenty. 1t is approximated that there are
200 bacteria to every cubic meter of air.
| There is no substance at all in which they
are not present, except in oils, metals and
acids. There are multitudes on our bodies
and inside them. Different kinds of BAG
| 49, hoo
watermelons grow well in Jersey and some
weeds flourish best on sandy soils.
They have special likings for different
| kinds of food, as l have found out in my
| artificial culture of them. If | want to
raise certain kind of bacterium | have to
! give it potato, because it likes potato. An
other sort lives on bread. Still another
prefers gelatine. This sort (indicating) l
raise on chicken soup, because it is par
ticularly fond of chicken soup. That one
| over there gets its nourishment from blood
serum. 1t is the same in their liking for
diseases. Thus we find certain forms of
bacilli in cholera, others in consumption.
AS one description of bacillus likes chicken
soup, another likes relapsing fever The
relation of bacteria to dyeing and staining
| depends upon this principle
Bacteria are very useful in the economy
of nature. Their greatest use is in putrefac-
| ton. By living on animal material bacteria
decompose it into inorganic substances and
gases. By this means animals are resolved
into their constituents. Bacteria help to
keep up the cycle of nature, and the soil
could not exist without them. They are
necessary, too, in fermentation. The fer
mentation which results in pickle, vinegar
and preserves is caused by these small
bodies.
!, 6
ical substances and coloring matters they
are useful. We are afraid of them, and
that fear makes us keep our apartments
clean, and causes US to look after hygiene
generally. 1t forces the surgeon to be care
full in operation. Our whole alimentary
canal is botanical garden of bacteria, and
they live on our mucous membrane. With
this abundance of them it would be queer
if they hadn't some use. They help in the
digestion of food in the lower bowel and in
the mouth, perhaps by process akin to
fermentation.
Dr. Formal then had exhibited with the
stereopticon specimens of bacilli. There
were shown samples of ordinary mold,
magnifed two thousand times with the
microscope; micrococci, from a case of
diphtheria, very like clusters of eggs, but
with, in their natural state diameters of
only one-fifty- thousandth of all inch. Then
there were micrococci scraped from DR..
Formad's own tongue, and fermentation
| bacteria, such, explained the lecturer, as
are produced in sauerkraut; micrococci
from the blood of a diphtheritic child, and
! also from case of erysipelas.
| To find out what kind of bacteria are in
water, take ten drops of water and putinto
it some jelly. Pour the jelly on glass plate
and little colonies of bacteria will develop
| from the germs that happen TO be in the
water. The gelatine is a good food for
| them. You can readily read from their
appearance what the germs are, and you
can calculate the percentage of impurity in
| the water.
| The air can be easily examined for bac-
| terra. Cut clean potato in half and ex-
pose it to the atmosphere for few hours.
Some germs will fall on it, and, being on
nutritive material, they will begin to grow.
They reproduce at the rate of 10000 to 30
| 600 minute on potato. On this particu-
lar potato exhibiting one) four different
| kinds of bacteria have fallen. You can see
| that by the colors, white, brown, yellow
and so on. Plates of gelatine exposed de-
velop bacteria in the same way. Air can
| be examined for germs by passing it
| through tube on the bottom of which
gelatine is lying. The air can be measured
and thu percentage of germs calculated.
The Sanitary Era, speaking upon santa
ton of bacteria by ventilation, says:
In connection with the subject of ven
| tilation and atmospheric poisoning, we
have referred to the dispersion of poison
Gus exhalations, as if the best and most
necessary thing the atmosphere can do for
US were to dilute the Dose But the actual
sanitation of the poison of polluted air is
no less effective in nature than that of
| polluted water, and is affected by one Of
| the same agents, in the same way. Recent
investigation reveals q philosophy Of both
| bane and antidote that surprises US with
| its simplicity as much as with lis ef-
| ficiency. At the moment when humanity
| stands aghast ut the announcement
| that germs are not destroyed by
| disinfectants, comes the counter dis
| covery that they are rendered harmless by
oxygen. 1t seems that it makes no differ
ence, really, of what sort or from what
source are the bacteria that we take into
the blood. The only material differ
| ence to US depends on the sort of atmos-
phere in which their hourly generations are
bred. For example, the bacteria developed
in confined air from simple infusion of
hay, are found by experiment to be as
capable of generating that most terrible
of blood prisoners, the malignant pustule,
as are the bacteria taken from the pustule
itself
On the ether hand, the bacteria from the
malignant possible itself. after propagating
for few hours in pure and free air,
become perfectly harmless race, and
are actually injected into the blood with
impunity. The explanation of the strange
discovery is this: Note its extreme
simplicity-bacteria bred in copious oxy-
gen saon perish as a race for want of it in
the blood vessels whereas those Injured to
en- unyen1iated atmosphere for few gem
erations, which means only few hours,
are prepared to thrive and propagate in
iinitely within our veins, and that is the
whole mystery of blood-poisoning and
zymotic diseases. Taken in connection
with the narcotic or nerve poisoning power
of carbonic acid Ito which all the classes
of disease resulting from colds are due,
we have also in this simple but grand
discovery the whole mystery of the
question why free air is health, and why
sickness is purely domestic product. The
restitution OF natural health to mankind
depends on the constant diffusion in
copious and continuous floods of atmos-
pheric oxygen, of the nerve poisoning car
bonic acid of combustion torganic or in
organic) and of the blood poisoning bac-
terra of organic decomposition. whether in