The Washington times., 1901-07-21
USEFULNESS OF MICROBES
Billions of Them Working in Be
half of the Human Race.
The New Science of Industrial HI
oIoGy Likely to Revoiutionize Man
ufacturinG ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
in Nassachusetts Laboratories.

BOSTON, July pa paper recent
read before the Boston Society OF Ma
tural History by Samuel c. Prescott
of the Massachusetts Institute
Technology. deals with subject o
unusual interest-what may popuiafi l.
he called. perhaps, a yindication of tn
microbe as a useful factor in society
From this paper which is founded OF
a long series of experiments under
taken in the biological laboratories o
the institute, it appears that not only
as is comparatively well known-are
certain sorts of bacteria now used as
scavengers to fight their disedse-pro-
ducing kindred, and not only is it gen
orally recognized that all life depends
upon bacterial activity. but that in
long list of important industries sue
cess is quite impossible without their
assistance. knowingly or not, the
brewer uses microbes to secure certain
definite qualities in his product, and
the farmers wife in ripening her cream
for churning gives the bacteria when
1t contains an opportunity TO improve
the taste and aroma of her butter In
the case of scores of products-often
the best known and most generally
used-people have for centuries con-
stantly profited by bacterial processes
without suspecting that they were do
ing SO, and, consequently, with uncer-
tain success in the results obtained
But within a few years, experiments,
/of which Nr. Prescotts are among the
most recent, have resulted in what
may fairly be called a new science,
that of industrial biology, the prac-
teal benefit of which can even now
hardly be calculated.
Investigations into the processes of
baking, brewing. and wine making, the
preparation of skins for tanning, the
dairy and sugar industries, and a great
number of changes and reactions for
merly believed to be purely chemical
in character, have shown that the real
work is done by living organisms. 1t
is all a question of fermentation, the
meaning of the word having extended
TO cover multitude of changes which
are alike in having a living cell as
their first cause; so that industrial BIZ
ology, broadly speaking, becomes tie
science of fermentation, the bacteria
being studied in connection with vari-
Gus kinds of mold and yeast A mold
is colorless. branching organism that
grows like a plant and when sub
merged in sugar solutions, without ac-
cess to air, gives rise to vigorous al
coholic fermentation. The various
yeasts are small oval or rounded or
ganisms which rapidly increase in
number under favorable conditions by
process of budding, and have an in
dustrial value dependent upon their ac-
tivity as producers of alcohol and car
bon dioxide. The bacteria, which are
smaller and presumably simpler than
either molds or yeast. have great
er diversity of fermenting power, and
are found nearly everywhere in enor-
nous number-in air. in water, in earth,
and in food. They may be rod-shaped
like bit of slate pencil, spherical
like pea, or twisted like a corkscrew.
They appear to vary in size, although
the average diameter is roughly given
as one twenty-five thousandth of an
inch, which would mean that some
where near billion could be contained
in the space of single grain of gran
ulated sugar. When these micro-or-
ganisms find themselves in any suit
able nutriment they grow active and
multiply by ''fission," as the bacteriol-
oeists call it; that they are constantly
being cut in two, so that single mi
crobe may become a million in the
course of a few hours. And this enor-
nous multiplication continues until |
further growth is choked off BY lack of |
space or by the exhaustion of the food |
supply.
1t is comforting-and a little surpris- |
ing, perhaps-to learn that org anisms |
SO numerous and ubiquitous are in the |
main the friends and allies of human
ity. Most persons. too will probably |
have kinder feeling toward the bac- |
terium and its various functions when |
they learn that 1t has a vegetable |
rather than an animal character For
a time it was maintained that it was |
animal because it often had hairlike |
tentacles by means of which it seemed |
TO be capable of moving from place to |
place. The authorities have at last |
definitely decided, however, that bac-
terra constitute the lowest order of |
plant life ana may be sown to produce
certain results just as the seeds of
larger vegetables are sown.
Perhaps one of the best illustrations
Of the application of industrial biology
is in butter making. Milk, as is well
known, is particularly good medium
for the growth Of bacteria. They be-
gin to appear in it from the time 1t
leaves the COW and are the cause of
the souring which. is SO universal that
for long time ii was supposed to be
a purely natural change When
milk is 10 be used as such it is better
without bacteria. Cream which is to
be used In butter making, on the
other hand. produces the best results
when it has undergone a "ripening"
ocess-fermentation. in other words
by certain kinds of micro or
yanisms. Just as distilled water is
.asteless and insipid. so butter made
rom perfectly fresh cream is simple
at, and lacks the distinguishing ia
yor and aroma which makes it pala-
able. When cream is allowed to stand
n the dairy enough cf the right sort
# bacteria usually get into it to start
he proper fermentation, although in
'eceiving these it may also receive
thers less desirable, which cause the
utter to become rancid. II
With the idea of reducing uncertain
y to certainty the bacteriologlst has I
f,rceeded In CClgpiZirp the pec,tIo = |