Microbe

“ But the crucial test as to the relationship of a certain species of microbe to a particular disease is made as follows: Take, as above, the microbes from an individual suffering from a well-known infectious disease, cultivate them to complete isolation and perfection, and introduce them by inoculation into the blood or tissues of a healthy person. Here they must undergo a period of development or incubation, requiring just the number of days and hours as in the culture-tube. This fully developed disease must be strictly the same as that which furnished the test germs. ”

“ Having glanced hastily at the history of bacteriology, we may next consider some facts concerning the germs themselves. What are they? To the lay mind the words germ, microbe, bacterium, and bacillus often convey confused ideas of invisible, wriggling, worm-like creatures, enemies of mankind, ever on the watch to gain a stealthy entrance into our bodies, where they wreak harm and death. Scientifically considered, however, they are the smallest of living things yet known. They are not animals, but are members of the vegetable kingdom, and are possessed of definite yet varying shapes. ”

“ The whole field of the microscope is in motion; hundreds of bacteria, resembling minute transparent worms, are swimming in every direction with an undulatory motion like that of an eel or snake. Some are detached, others united in pairs, others in chains or chaplets or cylindrical rods....All these forms represent the different transformations of Bacterium termo, or the microbe of putrefaction. ”

“ We have no disposition to ignore the existence of four or five species of microbes, the destructive effects of which appear to be well established, such as the anthrax-bacteria, the septic vibrion, Obermeyer's spirill, the micrococcus of the hen-cholera, and some other less well-known bacteria. ”

“ Up to that time life exists in the vase exposed to air and heat, If we examine the virulence of the culture at the end of two days, four days, six days, eight days, etc., it will be found that long before the death of the culture the microbe has lost all virulence, although still cultivable. Before this period it is found that the culture presents a series of attenuated virulences. Everything is similar to what happens in respect to the microbe in chicken-cholera. ”

“ The Microbe is so very small
You cannot make him out at all,
But many sanguine people hope
To see him through a microscope. ”

“ These examples show that there are extremely multiplied processes that may expose men living in society directly to infection by microbes, while mechanisms not less complex and equally of social origin may prepare the organic ground for the invasion of the microbe by changing either the structure or the working of the organism. ”

“ Furthermore, it has been demonstrated in a large proportion of these diseases that the essential principle of infection in the virus is the living germ called the pathogenic microbe.
The literally vital relation of microbic to human life can be observed in the following general statement: The pathogenic microbes cause four fifths of all diseases of the human family; they destroy more lives than war, famine, fire, murders, shipwreck, and all other casualties ”

“ One cell makes two or more, which form themselves in wreaths; the cells become detached, and the process recommences. In these cells real germs are not usually seen. The microbe of chicken cholera and many others behave in this way, so much so that the cultures of this microbe, although they may last for months without losing their power of fresh cultivation, perish finally like beer-yeast which has exhausted all its aliments. The anthracoid microbe in artificial cultures behaves very differently. ”

“ We have already seen how many organisms exhibit their energy in the formation of many coloured pigments. They are, as a rule, "innocent" microbes. Oxygen is required for some, darkness for others, and they all vary according to the medium upon which they are growing. Red milk, yellow milk, and green pus afford examples of pigment produced by bacteria.
2. Gas. Quite a number of the common bacteria, like Bacillus coli, produce gas in their growth; hydrogen (H) , carbonic acid (CO2) , methane (CH4) , and even nitrogen (N) being formed by different bacteria. ”

“ Does the respiration of woman differ from that of man? Give experiments with Indian women. What lessons do we draw from these facts? What rule should be observed in regard to the size of a bodice? What are bacteria or microbes? How is their existence revealed? What does the Germ Theory of Disease teach in regard to microbes?
301. What can you say about the microbe of putrefaction? How can you obtain it for examination? What office in Nature do bacteria seem to serve? Give the theory in regard to propagation of special disease germs. Do they always cause disease when taken into the body? ”

“ Finally, we must refer to the numerous bacteria that occasion putrefaction in vegetable or animal organisms. These microbes, which float in the air, fall upon dead animals or plants, develop thereon, and convert into mineral matters the immediate principles of which the tissues are composed, and thus continually restore to the air and soil the elements necessary for the formation of new organic substances. ”

“ There is such an extraordinary amount of misconception concerning bacteria that, it will be time well spent if we attempt to clear up all misunderstanding at the start. Bacteria, often called microbes or germs, are looked upon with considerable awe by most people, who associate them in some vague way with disease. ”

“ It is true that the microbes I have found are not pathogenic, but the importance of the studies can nevertheless be comprehended. If common microbes, brought in by the waters that fall on the plateau, can be found eight hundred feet below it, there is nothing to prevent noxious microbes—those, for example, of typhoid fever, diphtheria, or cholera—which may live in the water from being found there. ”

“ They are all ready when, with food or by respiration, or by a scratch of the tissues, they enter a living organism anew, to determine in it, if circumstances are favorable, the disease characteristic of them. So do the microbes of cholera, tetanus, etc. Social influences play an important part also from this point of view. All kinds of microbes may be carried to long distances by the solid matters of every kind that are employed in innumerable ways in the life of society. ”

“ The solids may transport the microbes just mentioned as living in the external medium, and also those which come direct from a diseased subject. This distribution of agents of infection by solids is of extreme importance, but has attracted attention only within a few years. ”

“ Accommodative Cultivation of Infections Organisms.—Dr. A. Wernich has considered, in "Kosmos," the extent to which the molds, the microbic parasites of the body, and the germs of infection, are able to adapt themselves to new conditions of existence, assume new forms, and produce different effects. When microbes are observed in great numbers, as they may be sometimes in the tissues and secretions even of healthy persons, much more of sickly ones, the temptation is very strong to associate them with the production of disease, and is apt to mislead. ”

“ To come to a knowledge of why foods spoil, it will be well to note that nature abounds in micro-organisms, or living things so minute as to be invisible to the naked eye. These micro-organisms are known to science as microbes and germs, and they are comprised of bacteria, yeasts, and molds, a knowledge of which is of the utmost importance to the physician and the farmer, as well as the housewife. ”

“ These tiny organisms are called germs, microbes, or micro-organisms. One great and important group of them belongs among the microscopic plants called bacteria. These bacteria as a class are important in their economy of nature, because they live for the most part on dead organic material—that is, such material as has once formed a portion of some living thing. ”

“ Among the inferior organisms, all do not resolve themselves into those corpuscle-germs which I was the first to point out as one of the forms of their possible development. Many infectious microbes do not resolve themselves, in their cultures, into corpuscle germs. ”

“ In fact, I am assured that nothing exists which gives anything like so full a study of microbiology.” In the volume are considered the general func­tions of microbes, the microbes of the human system, the form and structure of microbes, the physi­ology of microbes, the pathogenic protozoa, toxins, tuberculin and mallein, immunity, applica­tions of bacteriology, vaccines and serums, chemical remedies, etc. ”

“ When we consider, also, that hospital wards are occupied day and night, and continuously for weeks, it is not to be wondered at that microbes are abundant therein.
I want especially to dwell upon the fact that foci, and probably productive foci, may exist outside the body. It is highly probable, judging from the results of experiments, that every collection of putrescible matter is potentially a productive focus of microbes. ”

“ Innumerable small organisms (known as microbes, bacteria, bacilli, or germs) exist in the air, and in or upon nearly all substances. These organisms or germs are so small that they are invisible to the eye unless a powerful microscope is used. They are so small that thousands of them can assemble on the head of a pin or in the smallest drop of water. |Harmless bacteria.| Most of them are harmless; and some of them render useful service. Without the aid of these little organisms we could not make cheese or vinegar. ”

“ The skin is similarly exposed. Among these microbes there are also others, the relics of infectious diseases, with which the subject, now well, has been formerly attacked. All these microbes live in the normal condition of a later life; they are sometimes useful, as we have seen in regard to digestion; more frequently inoffensive in the face of the resistance opposed to them by the cellular coverings of the organic cavities or by the activity of those zealous defenders of the organism, the white globules, or by the chemical action of the organic liquids. ”

“ An instrument called a microscope makes them appear so large that their form and growth are easily studied. These little plants are called germs or microbes. They are also named bacteria. They are so small that a million laid side by side would not cover the head of a pin. ”

“ The process is repeated many times, until the microbes are far removed from their original source in the blood and tissues, and a drop of the last cultivation, whether it be the fiftieth or the hundredth, is inserted under the skin of a healthy animal selected for the experiment. If it be true, as stated by the experimenters, that the original disease is thus reproduced with the microbes of at least three or four distinct maladies, this age is distinguished by one of the most important discoveries ever made in pathological studies. ”

“ In a short time, if the little culture-vase is placed in a temperature of 25° to 35°, you will see the liquid become turbid, and full of tiny microbes, shaped like the figure 8, but often so small that, under a high magnifying power, they appear like points. ”

“ During the last twenty years the whole attitude of the study and investigation of disease-causing microbes has advanced from the preliminary step of merely identifying certain microbes as the causes of certain diseases to a further step, viz. that of attempting to defend the animal and the human body against their attacks in the manner already so finely started by Pasteur. ”

“ Roux and some other eminent bacteriologists suggest that bacteria should be classified according to their method of spore formation.
20
THE INFLUENCE OF EXTERNAL CONDITIONS ON GROWTH OF BACTERIA
Nutritive Medium. In the very earliest days of the study of micro-organisms it was observed that they mostly congregate where there is pabulum for their nourishment. The reason why fluids such as milk, and dead animal matter such as a carcass, and living tissues such as a man's body contain so many microbes is because each of these three media is favourable to their growth. ”

“ We can well imagine that the decomposition of the bodies of dead micro-organisms, without the direct participation of the microbes themselves, will give rise to various disturbances; and we might certainly expect secondary disturbances in the harmonic processes of the whole metabolism of the host, without the micro-organisms as such exerting any direct action. ”

“ The zoologist shrugged his shoulders. "I'm just as capable of a good action as you are."
"Is drowning a man a good action?" asked the deacon, and he laughed.
"Laevsky? Yes."
"I think there is something amiss with the soup . . ." said Samoylenko, anxious to change the conversation.
"Laevsky is absolutely pernicious and is as dangerous to society as the cholera microbe," Von Koren went on. "To drown him would be a service."
"It does not do you credit to talk like that about your neighbour. Tell us: what do you hate him for?" ”

“ Many pathological observations have proved, that certain micro-organisms require a so-called mixed infection, that is, that certain bacteria alter the cell substance of the host in such a way, that some other kind of bacterium finds conditions favourable for its existence. ”

“ By working through some such scheme as the above we are able to detect what quantity and species of organisms, saprophytic or parasitic, a water or similar fluid contains. For, observe what information we have gained. We have learned the form (whether bacillus, micrococcus, or spirillum) , size, consistence, motility, method of grouping, and staining reactions of each micro-organism; the characters of its culture, colour, composition, presence or absence of liquefication or gas formation, its rate of growth, smell, or reaction ”