The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1906-09-13
RADIUM AND BACTERIA.
Curious Results of Experiments Re-
Gently Made at Cambridge
University.

The English newspapers accord some
curious and intereSting results OF ex-
periments with radium at Cambridge
university. Some time ago a son Of Sir
William Cr0Okes showed that the ema-
nations Of radium we4e usually fatal to
bacteria exposed TO their influence,
particularly those encouraged to grow
in the broth or jelly Of gelatin-the
usual medium employed for their eulti-
walton. One Mr.. Butler Burke reversed
this process in the cayendish labOra-
tory at Cambridge. His proceeding is
thus described:
He sterilized some Of this gelatin
food, deprived It Of every vestige and
sign Of life-and there is no reason TO
doubt that he did it thoroughly-the
into il he placed some fragments of ra-
dium. If both the gelatin substance
and the radium we're sterilized nothing
should have happened. But. according
10 Mr.. Burke. in few days something
did happen. Something like tiny
growths appeared, which in appear
ance, when serutinized under the mi
croscope. were not unlike bacterial
growths-that is to say, the radium ap-
peared to have been influential in Gre
ating form Of life where there had
hitherto been no life.
Mr. Burke then made the experiment
with greater deliberation and more
care to avoid sources of error. He
plugged with cotton wool tubes of gel
attn containing radium and tubes of
gelatin without radium. and then sub
jected them. under pressure, TO a very
high temperature. That. according to
theory, ought to have killed any form
of life in either tube 1t did so in the
tubes without radium, but in those
which contained radium the gelatin
began to show the peculiar growth
that usually is characteristic when the
gelatin is infected with bacteria capa-
bic of growing in it.
These bodies were examined by Prof
Sims Woodhead. among others, and
though Prof Woodhead has decided
that they are not bacteria. they seemed
TO have some of the characteristics of
living things. They seemed to grow.
though they do not grow to a size
greater than the sixty-thousandth part
of an inch. They appear, like cells Of
living matter, to contain nuclei-but
..r.,oto1o ,,,foht la ,nfctolyor for fhoco
things; crystals grow These small
bodies, however. have one Characters
tic which marks them of definitely
from crystals. When they reach their
greatest dimension, the sixty-thou-
sandth part of an inch. they split The
subdivision has been photographed.
Moreover. when portions Of the growth
are removed from the influence of the
radium and placed in new gelatinous
matter. these portions continue to
grow.
In other words. radium does not APP
pear necessary for the support of the
life Of these things; it seems to act as
the initial force which creates a sufi-
cient change in the arteries or the
molecules Of the gelatin to set in mo-
ton something that has the power of
assuming some Of the attributes Of
living things. There may be some fatal
flaw in Mr.. Burke's precautions against
error. but his experiments are deeply
interesting. and it does not seem illogi-
cal 10 suppose that since radium is
capable of upsetting the atomic con-
stituency of inorganic matter, like met
ais or glass, and of producing what is
called acquired radio-activity in them,
il may also be able to disturb the
atomic constituency of inorganic mat
ter. and force it to take new forms re-
sembling living forms.