Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1890-02-05
6AcTsRfA AND DISEASE.
a Popular Account of q Simple But wo
derfuI Organism.

Oh " SlInpie But won.
derfuI Organism.
So small are the bacteria. and so
simple in their structure and activities.
that 1t has not been an easy task for
scientific men to decide whether they
belonged among animals or plants. It
is now definitely settled, however, that
they are plants, and are closely related
to the alge. The bacteria vary good
deal in shape, but in general they arc
either spheroidal or ovoidal, like q
billiard-ball or an egg; or rod-shaped,
like lead-pencil; or spiral al-shaped, like
cork-screw.
Ihey are generally so very small that
We can hardly form conception of them
except by comparison with some we'll
known objects. One of the most COM
mon of bacteria is little rod, so small
that If you were to put ], 800 of them end
to end, the line would scarcely reach
across the head of an ordinary pin.
II you look at them with a magnify
Ing power so great that, if it could
be applied to him, it would make man
look about four times as big as Mount
Washington, they do not look larger
than this. We can make out however,
that they are made up of slightly
granular material surrounded by a some
what denser envelope. The bacteria
appear under the microscope as pale
translucent bodies, and the student usu-
ally finds it necessary, ia order to see
their outlines distinctly, to stain them
with some one of the aniline dyes-red,
or blue, or violet-when they become
very distinct,
Warmth, moisture, oxygen and a GER
tain amount of organic matter are re-
qu1red for the existence of the bacteria.
80 rapid is the process of reproduction
tnat single germ by this process Of
growth and subdivision may give rise to
more than 16,500, 900 of similar
organisms within twenty-four hours,
1t has been calculated by
an eminent biologist that, IL the proper
conditions could be maintained, little
rod-like bacterium, which would meas
ure only about thousandth of an inch
IN length, multiplying in this way.
would In less than five days make a
mass which would completely fill as
much space as is occupied by all the
oceans on the earth's surface, supposing
them to have an average depth of one
mile.
There is really very little difference,
far as wholesomeness is concerned, be-
tween the few thousand vegetable cells,
called bacteria, which may be clinging
to the surface of grape, and few hun
dred vegetable cells of larger size of
which the grape itself is composed.
Both are alike worked over by the di-
gesive organs, under ordinary condi-
tions, into nutritive material for the
uses OF the body. Milk is a most
excellent food for many forms of
bacteria. and among those which
are commonly present in milk is one
which causes it to become sour when
left to itself. Other forms of bacteria
develop those peculiar chemical COM
pounds which give to cheese its special
and varying navors. It is, in fact, a
very motley group of chemical sub
stances which these bacteria set free in
feeding themselves on natures waste
organic materials. Some times they are
very bad smelling gasses, sometimes
aromatic substances, sometimes they
are sweet, sometimes they are sour.
But sooner or later they are used by
cOA1O amman VI p1dLb, anu so again
enter the domain of life. Thus ever in
ceaseless alterations between life and
death these elemental combinations
come and GO. And ever since life
emerged from its primal simple forms
on earth, the bacteria have silently gone
on tearing the worn-out and useless
to pieces and turning It over in new
combination to other forms Of hfs.--
Philadelphia Press.