The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-09-19

motion observed the microscopic fluid can
/ be taken. remagnified thousands of times
and thrown upon a screen, where they
may be studied in clearest detail.
| The value of such an apparatus to
| science at this time is of very great I'M
| portance, for the whole world of biology,
/ on the study of all cell life of blood and OF
bacteria with a keen sense of their value
in explaining life and disease The action
and changes taking place in the living
i cells must be relied upon to explain many
of their Pre- Dund phenomena as yet only
slightly Understood or wholly unknowns
for the study of the blood. by photograph
ing the changes of the cells and the action
of the serum IN the formation of a clot.
A drop of blood will live from half hour
TO an hour and sometimes longer. after
being drawn There are three or four sorts
of action steadily taking place during this
| time. The red cells are changing their
! forms the white cells are EXPANDING and
contracting Ike amoeba, and changes are
also going on in their nuclei. while the
serum is slowly or rapidly thickening &C
cording to it's condition. into a clot. The
amorbo:d motion of the white cell and the
forI1 aTion of the clot are the most I'M
poE,ant action taking place in the blood,
and continuous photographs of these ac-
tions, though slow, are worth z great deal
more as a record than what Nne can see
with his trained eye.
MOTIONS OF WHITE CELLS
The contracting and expanding motions
of the white cells are not easy TO watcA
and they are possessed OF a word Or
meaning. The degree Of their energy IS
the most reliable Of all witnesses as to
the degree of resistance OF the BODY
against disease. SUPPOSE every policeman
in the city should NOPE about the streets
with his eyes half shut and his head
down, it would not be long before crime
and disease would take the city. That is
almost exactly what takes place in the
human body when the s, white nio9 & rs
how to time their acton, as noted in a
series of pictures taken with the micro
notoscope. If they are lusty, and wary.
and alert, they will snow it. The thick
and rapid formation of a c}ot especially
into long web-footed lines, is an uncontra-
dicsed witness of some fatal Hlaiady TURK
ing in the boCV. The blood clotS in most
cases of apopIexy and bursts an artery in
the brain. so also it clots in the brain ar
teries in paralysis. 1t ciot5 in the arte-
ries of the head in nearly all heaIt di-
seases. 1t clots at joints and exposed
places in rheuma tisGn. The expert sees the
clot forming in the drying blood, but ne
sees it in all its progressive details IL the
picture on the screen.
The changes going on In the red biood
cells are not yet well understood. but this
action is one of the highest functions OF
the blood. for it IS from the red cells that
the serum receives its supply of oxygen
and ii is from the serum that the tissues
receive theirs, or rather their oxldized ma
terial. II the red cells are active in their
changes of form. it is pretty certain they
are doing their duty. No blood mas ever
been photographed in actual circulation,
except series of micro-motograpnS Pr
Watkins succeeded in making or the
blood stream in a frogs foot. This pic
ture was taken at the rate of about 1900
per minute and when pictures were
thrown on the screen, adj the changes go
ing on in the cells and serum We're plainly
seen and all the above observations OF
changes in drawn blood We're connrme1
If living tissue can be seen with the mi
ar
of reasons for believing that 1t can. the
mfcro-motoscoDe will become one of the
most invaluable inventions In science
INTELLIGENT MICROBES.
But in the sphere of bacteriology it
Will certainly open new and wonderful
world. The study of bacteria aside from
their connection with disease is or absorb
ing interest. for it has been shown from
a number Of reliable experiments made
by such men as Kleb5, Dusany and
of micro-organism are possessed of
qualities akin TO intelligence itself. They
behave under certain circumstances very
like creatures OF much higher organiza-
ton. Some of these bacteria, under the
influence of electricity. light. heat. me-
caanical action and the temptation of
food or poison. manifest a sense of in
stability greed fear etc that is surpris-
have never been photographed. In slet,
living bacteria have never been photo
graphed at all. The pictures in the bo1ks
show only tae stained dead ones. and
psychologists have long been ac-
customed to speak of bacteria as without
motion. but THIS is incorrect, as has lately
been shown Some families under
Stimulus move, with the sw!ftness of fi;e5
and mosquitoes. The picture of the
bacteria here Reproduced Is of one of the
Very smallest families of bacteria known
to science. Tt1esmotion Is not in evidence,
and DR. Watkins says 1t is due 10 IFS
popularity which is always perpen-
dicular. He hopes 10 show this per-
pendicular motion which may be seen