Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-07-13
Recent Laboratory Achievements Show
That Microbes Instead of Killing Us
and Making Us Sick Can Be Induced
to Work for Us and Save Our Lives
From HEARST'SMAGAZINE,J july

they could settle or by leaving the air to stand
in box coated on its sides with sticky mate
rails, so that when the spores touched the
sides Of the box they would adhere. Expert
ments in which one or other OF these precau-
tons were adopted to exclude spores, accord
ing to Tyndall gave only negative results.
Professor Bastian, however, is still uncon-
vi ed; and although most investigators re-
main unconverted TO his conclusions, he
maintains his ground
II It may be permitted to outsider to risk
an opinion It is that the question is not one
which can ever be settled. For on first
grounds, It would appear not unlikely that
Nature is always producing life; but it is also
almost certain that no one could recognize
,pr.-yrdial organisms, on account Of their ex-
IRENE minuteness and simplicity Of form If
such organisms are being formed. and if they
exist, no doubt they would in the course of
ages develop into one of a recognizable form;
but proof would appear to be almost impos
sible.
The modern science Of bacteriology began
with the investigation Of precisely the fer
ments which yield wine. beer and vinegar.
. ong the thousands Of workers in this science
two stand out as pioneers-Pasteur and Lister
The former showed the part played by mic
robes in producing disease and indicated the
lines of action to be adopted in overcoming
their power; the latter applied this knowledge
10 surgerv and taught the world that opera
tions of the most serious kind can be carried
out with absolute freedom from risk of nfam-
nation, with all its attendant evils.
In 1854, processes of fermentation we're not
regarded as vital phenomena; 1t taught by
Liebig that the change of sugar into alcohol
in presence of yeast was due to the decompo-
sition of dead yeast granules not to the &C
tiyity of living cells The first fermentation
studied by asteur was that which takes place
in milk when it turns sour; he observed the
dc 1sition of a greyish substance, which in
creased during the process. On examining it
under a microscope 1t was seen to be wholly
different in appearance from yeast; it consist
e. of very minute corpusces. and these added
to a solution of sugar, produced the same LID
which is formed when milk sours. namely
Tactic acid
The first practical lesson which Pasteur
gave was to the vinegar-makers of Orleans He
taught them that if a small quantity of the
mother of vinegar" the Mycoderma aceti, was
sown on the surface of a vat containing a
mixture of wine and vinegar, and if the tenn
peratures were kept at rs degrees Fahrenheit,
vinegar could be made in tel days, instead Of
I > customary couple of months. Yet Pasteur
wa not the first to discover the process nor
the living ferment nor to connect the
process with the life of the organism; it was
in placing the manufacture on the firm ba~s of
reasoned experiment that he made his mark.
The greatest discoveries are often, as it
were. thrust on the discoveries; the beginning
of Pasteur's researches on disease, his investi-
cation of the cause of silkworm disease, was I'M
dertaSen by him, after much protest as to AS
tota. ignorance of the subject, and after re-
peated urging 10y Dumas, then the high priest
Of chemistry in France. For five years he in
vestigated the disease of silk-worms, and
devised means for their prevention. He then
turned his attention to anthrax or "wooLsort-
- disease" malady often fatal to cattle