Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1912-08-15
A WORLD OUT OF SIGHT.

ands of millions of eyes have, during the
history of the world, watched the same
sight ? The Egyptian priests in their
temples, which were so arranged that
the sunlight should penetrate once year
at sunrise to the holy OF holies, must have
watched the fine particles of desert dust
in the long ray OF light that flooded the
altar, and wondered. But their minds
were busy with other things, with the
stars especially, and perhaps it is not sur
prising that they did not realize that in
the floating particles of microscopic dust
is a world quite as wonderful and quite
as important for the human race as the
the universe of suns and planetary bodies.
Men might be still watching sunbeams,
ignorant of everything not large enough
for the unaided eye to see, were it not Tor
the invention OF what for some time
seemed toy the microscope. Two
pieces of curved glass placed together
with their curved surfaces outward was
its beginning, and with it and its improv-
ed forms, man has been able to follow
trails into a wilderness more crowded
with fascinating beings than any forest
with all its wild animals-beings, more
over, even more dangerous to human
life.
The fly that buzzed into the sunlight OF
an Egyptian priests day-dream was to
him merely dark little creature that an
noyed him by its buzzing. Today we
know that it is a hideous beast with filthy
habits that carries into our houses the
worst enemies Of human life, and places
them just where they will be most dan
gerous.
With the microscope we have watched
him eat the germs OF disease, have even
photographed the tiny tail that each germ
possesses. We have looked into every
corner of his stomach and digestive tract.
We know how many fungus spores his
foot pads carry, and can determine what
kinds they are. We have cut him into
thousands of slices, thinner than the thin
nest tissue-paper, in order to look at ev-
cry part of him. We have watched his
development from the egg, and have ev-
en- followed with our eyes the growth OF
that egg from the union OF two micro
scopic cells.
We have pursued the same methods
with almost every living animal and
plant.
THE SCUM ON THE WATERPROOF.
The pioneers of microscopy began their
work with the green scum that grows on
stagnant wa;er-pools. They found that
these transparent plants were made up OF
short closed tubes fastened end to end
and they observed that although the plant
grew to many times its original length,
the individual tubes or cells elongated
only slightly. The only possible conclu-
sion was that these little cells divided.
They also found that each little cell
contained curious central body. The
natural question was: II each tube di-
vides into halves, what becomes OF the
central body7 Some investigators
thought that It disappeared and came
back again, but Strasburger found thai
long before the little tube formed the par
tition that made It into two tubes, the
central body or nucleus appeared as
spindle with number of radiating rods
on il.
This discovery suggested the thought
that there must be some mechanism to
divide this central body or nucleous so
that each half should get its share. OBJ
servers then began to study the begin
nings of plants and animals, and found
that they all started by the union OF two
cells, each of which had nucleous,
and that wheo the two cells were fused
into one, the same spindle with radlatlng
rods appeared in place OF the two nuclel,
and that the process ofdivision began as 1t
had been found to do in the individual
cells of the water scum. The nucleous
in the vast majority OF the countless myr-
lads of cells that compose the human
body has derived its material through this
same process.
That was all that could be determined
without the discovery Of a method OF see
ing these nuclei more clearly. Now we
can not only kill cell almost instantly,
harden il with alcohol, and impregnate it
with melted paraffin, but we can slice it
by means of a special razor or microtome
into shavings one twenty-five-hundredth
OF an inch in thickness, spread these
sfavings like long ribbons on thin glass
slides, dye them or stain them in all sorts
OF ways, and mount them in transparent
balsam almost as imperishable as the
glass itself.
Supplemented by the microtome, the
microscope has enabled US to follow step
by step the iusing Of two nuclei, the pro-
cess that lies at the very beginning OF ev-
cry living thing. 1t seems incredible that
eyery living creature, no matter what its
size, whether an elephant or the smallest
ant, begins by the union OF nuclei SO
small as to be invisible to the naked eye.
The development of these nuclei be-
fore they meet, the strange arrangement
of matter in them as they fuse into one
large globule, and the mechanism by
which they make the first division OF the
new cell that is the starting point OF the
individual, lie on the border OF the field
now known to microscopical research.
Who knows but that hidden in the SEEM
ingly complicated structure OF these nuc-
Ia; x,,ban onre understood will affect