The Washington times., 1901-12-08
USEFUL GERMS
TOLL FOR MAN.
Life Impossible Without the Exis-
tence of Microbes.
NOT so BAD AS WE SUPPOSE
Found Working Away for the Bene-
ht of the Human Race i'm Dnirics.
bakeries, and Many other Places

/ man beings a year. Everyone who dies OF
| smallpox. fever. plague, consumption, or
any other of the long list of diseases
known TO humanity, is killed by microbes
Of various degrees of malignance. So 1t
/ seems. at first sight, that the greatest
boon which could be conferred upon the
4 human race would be the abolition of mi
crobes from the face of this planet.
| II this could be actually accomplished.
and all microbes wiped out in a moment,
| infectious diseases would certainly dis
appear; but so also would good many
other things. Like fire, microbes are bad
masters, but, on the other hand, such
good servants that without them life
would be impossible for week.
In the Dairy.
Ever since the first farmer turned cream
| into butter man has been making mi
crobes work for him. A microbe shaped
| like little rod ferments cream, and with
| out it no amount OF shaking or churning
would turn the cream into butter. simi-
| lar microbe converts curd into cheese.
| The butter and cheese microbes must
have air, and cheese like Roquefort and
| Gruyere differ in flavor from having been
exposed to the air for longer or shorter
time.
The yearly liquor allowance of a Brit
ish inhabitant is about 1874 gallons. But
I for microbes, there would be no such
thing as wine, beer, or spirits. Beer
yeast is nothing but microbe which
/ grows SO quickly that one becomes thirty
nve thousand in forty-eight hours. II
works SO hard turning sugar into spirit
/ that unless 1t is given full play 1t will
/ burst a cask or bottle like so much gun
powder. These microbes, when under
microscope, look like strings of roughly
made beads.
The microbe that turns grape Juice into
wine resides on the skin OF the grape;
/ the one that makes the malt and hop liq-
uor seethe and work is generally started
to business by putting into the mixture
some OF the scum from old fermented
| beer.
Useful to bakers.
Bakers would be bedly off indeed If mil
| lions of slaves in the way of microbes
were not ready to work for them. a NOR
!
and water. and masses OF little workers
/ Immediately turn to and convert the
starch Of the flour into sugar, and-when
this is done-the sugar into alcohol and
carbonic acid gas. The gas rises, and
turns the stodgy dough into a light
sponge. leaving the baker nothing to do
but mold his loaves and put them into the
oven.
Another useful little microbe Is always
toiling away turning cider or wine into
vinegar for our pickles and salads.
Mother OF vinegar" as this little crea-
ture is known, looks. when maguified, like
/ a series OF tiny chains with rather long
links. 1t does its work quite unsided. All
1t asks is TO be kept from great cold.
Vinegar makers usually put 100 pints of
vinegar into a barrel with ten pints of
wine. In a week this is all vinegar. Ten
pints are drawn off. ten plnts of fresh
wine added. and the work begins anew.
Present In Gunpowder.
Guupowder seems an odd thing to owe
to microbes; but gunpowder could not he
made without saltpetre. and saltpetre is
the result OF the long continued industry
of millions Of microbes. This special mi
crobe feeds on decomposing animal mat
ter, and. where there is any potash near
| by. produces saltpetre. All those enor-
nous beds OF saltpetre which made mil
lionaires OF Chilean miners like the late
Colonel North could never have existed
but for this particular microbe.
Saltpetre, or nitre, in some form is abb
solutely necessary for the growth of
plapts. so here. again, the microbe is do
ing good work for the farmer. 4 certain
kind of microbe is so fond of nitrogen
that 1t steals it from the air. field of
wheat, the soil OF which has been inocu-
lated with this micrObe, grows magnili-
Gently, and produces snlendid crops. The
farmer OF the future will carry his fer
tilization TO his farm in a small glass
bottle, instead of hauling it by the ton
with heavy horses and carts.
Producers of Chalk.
A freshiy-cut piece of chalk taken from
a chalkpit with all possible precautions.
to exclude air germs. furnishes numbers
OF living microbes. 1t is now believed
that we owe all the huge existing beds of
that very useful substance to microbe.
If this is the case, house builders would
have had no lime, and consequently no
mortar, but for this busy form OF inyisi-
BILE life.
Now that every existing disease, from
leprosy down TO a boil. has been found
to result from the misdirected energy Of
some microbe, science has harnessed
these evil growths. dwarfed them. and
is using them to fight their parents. Two
centuries ago Turkish doctors were max
ing the smallpox microbe help them,
though at that time no one had ever
heard OF a microbe. Lady Mary Wortley
Montague wrote home TO England from
Belgrade In the --ear 1918. telling how her
| bow had been inoculated for smallpox.
That was of course long before Jenner
had discovered that cowpoX microbes
we're just as good and much less danger
Gus. for smallpox than were the smallpox
microbes themselves.
As Life Savers.
Vaccination having proved such an i'm
raense success. Pasteur and others con-
sidered that all diseases might possibly
be fought in the same kind of way. Pas
teur's most famous experiments have been
for the cure OF hydrophObia. This terri
BILE form of madness is caused by 4 poison
inoculated by the teeth OF mad dog or
other animal. The poison from VOLTS
mouth is the worst; from that Of dog.
next In vlrulence. Pasteur discovered
that hydrophobia germs from monkey
we're not so virulent as those from dog.
and that, by inoculating a rabbit or a
guinoapig the poison might be still fur
| thnr rnhr..na In, ..rnnnth