The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-07
BLEEDING BREAD"
How Science Explains This and Sim
liar MediaevaI POrteDts.
Good Words.


In the middle ages when science was dead
and superstition was rife the blood por-
tent was one Of those things most feared
and dreaded. AT certain rare times the milk
or the bread of a household would be found
covered with moist blood-red spots, and the
popular mind at once saw in the phenome-
non either presage of some terrible ca
Iamlty or revelation OF deed of blood
already secretly consummated. Or perhaps
the holy waters in a church were found
stained with blood, and then the aWe-Struck
community held that some act of awful
guilt had caused the wounds of Christ to
bleed anew, and they would search in right
eous indignation for the offender, and hum
BILE themselves in penitt zee and prayer; and
In those days of lawles. ness and bloodshed
1t was seldom indeed tnat they could not
ma something to justify their suspicious
But however much one may be inclined to
doubt the casual relations implied in these
stories. there is yet no doubt that there
scribed Bleeding bread and bloody
sweat (another not too euphonious term
applied by our forefathers) are well-estab-
Hshed facts but it has been left to the
nineteenth century to discover their real
nature, and to divest them of that miracu-
lous odor which has clung to them for so
many hundreds of years.
A certain Observation-Disclosures prodigio-
sus-is responsible for the apparition, it's
biood-red color and it's comparatively rare
occurrence giving rise to its ''portent' as
pect. This bacterium appears at times sud-
denly and without apparent reason or cause
on substances rich in starch, such white
bread, dressed potatoes, any rice stuffs;
or the characteristic red patches NAV one
morning be found floating on the surface of
mix. And though 1t is not a common phe-
nomenon, yet like others of the bacterium
class, it is most persistent when it has
once put in an appearance. 1t can stand a
long period of desiccation and great
changes of temperature without it's vitality
being At all impaired. Under the microscope
mo1stened patches resolve themselves into
a great assemblage of enthusiastically small
round or egg-shaped cells. sometimes iso-
lated. sometimes connected in chain-ke
RrJllDS. whether
in chains, each Is a distinct organism pro-
viding its own nutriment and living it's own
life. At times, if the growth of the bacteri-
UNI is slower, the elliptical shape becomes
intensified, and we have rod or thread
like form presented.
Still closer investigation shows that each
tiny cell is composed of an inner gelatinous
mass of protoplasm varying in density at
different points, and an outer limiting mem
brane--a skin or sheath which incOses and
protects it. In certain stages of their life
history soft, jelly-like matriX surrounds
the organisms and binds them together
after the manner of frog spawn, and thus
we have a number of single bacteria all ly-
ing closely together in mucilaginous bed.
the cause of the moistness of the patches,
and is usually associated with the repro
duction of the species.
The crimson cOloring matter of such no.
torety is worthy of note in several points.
In the first place, it does not permeate the
whole Individual but is located only in the
sheath, though the mnuteness of the bac-
terum prevents this being seen except I'M
Tho inner living protoplasm is really a
colorleSS gray mass and the bright red pig
ment is merely a product of it's activity re-
Sultlng from the decomposition of dead
organic substance from which it draws its
power of living. This process is better I'M
darStood if we remember that the bacteria
are very elementary forms of the great
class of fungi-many of them being only
on the border line of visibility-but all
agreeing with the highest fungal types in
being utterly devoid of green coloring mat
ter-chlorophyll-and therefore requiring a
complex form of nutriment. They cannot
build up food for themselves from the air
and soil, nor extract the energy of life from
the sunlight, as green plants can through
the agency of their chlorophyll, but in
stead they must prey upon organic matter,
and act upon it in such way as to decom-
pose ii into various constituents. The de-
composition involves a setting free of ener-
gy of which the bacterium avails itself and
the formation of various new products
some of which serve as food, others are
simply waste products while some again
are pigments, for decomposition is almost
invariably associated with change of color:
witness the beautiful tints of autumn
leaves. One of the results of decomposition
effected by this special bacterium is the
formation of Tactic acid, and this is pro-
duced in sufficient quantity to curdle the
milk on which it grows. But-and this is
a second curious fact concerning the Grim
son coloring-if the temperature is raised
from that of a cOoliSh room to blood heat
the scarlet patches fade away. Apparently
heat alters the powers of the bacterium
and chemical analysis shows that the ener-
matter is now directed in another channel
namely. in an increased production of Tactic
acid Why this happens is not at all easily
explained, but the fact remains; the bac-
terium is still present but it has lost its
most striking characteristic And in the
mysterious and sudden appearance of this
bacterium and in its sudden disappearance
under ce tain conditions G. the materi | fo-
much sensation to those ignorant of the
scientific aspect of the case Thus it is
easy to imagine how a housewife might be
struck with CONSERVATION on finding on a
loaf of her bread a sprinkling of as she
thought. blood stains; their rapid increase
would augment her awe, and then, should
by any accident the bread be moved into
warmer corner by the fire. the equally
rapid and unaccountable disappearance of
the awful apparition would not unnatural-
ly lead her to see in the whole cycle OF
events sign of terrible import