Microbes : what they are, and the parts they play / [John Glaister].

  • Glaister, John, 1856-1932.
Date:
[1896?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Microbes : what they are, and the parts they play / [John Glaister]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    they account for the difterence between German and English beers—the former containing a lower percentage of alcohol and more nutritive material. Vinegar is also the product of microbic action. The admission into a wine-vat of the My coderma Vini—the name of this micro-organism— causes a complete alteration of its contents. Instead of wine, vinegar is produced. It is very discriminating in its action, for it will only begin to operate upon the alcohol when present in very dilute solutions. While the sluggard may be sent to the ant for an example, the hard drinker might take example from this organism. Koumiss—a drink which has been largely prescribed of late years for invalids—was originally composed of the fermented milk of mares, but the process is now applied to cow’s milk. It also is an alcoholic fermentation, the sugar of the milk being the source of the alcohol. By the action of microbes in the soil, nitrogenous substances, as in manures, become available for plant-food by being converted into nitrates of soda and potash. Fortunes have been made from the huge deposits of these substances which have been discovered in certain parts of South America, and all due to the lowly microbe. We have now seen something of the variety of action of micro-parasites of the grosser form. Let me now draw your attention to what are scientifically known as microbes, and which have been variously called germs, bacteria, bacilli, etc., in the scientific and lay press. For their examination we require to call to our aid the highest powers of the microscope—powers of magnification not less than 800 and extending up to 1500. They vary in size. A fair average size measures the 200,000th part of an inch, and it has been calculated that four hundred millions of them (400,000,000) might be comfortably accommodated side by side on one square inch of surface. The mind fails to comprehend what these figures imply, and it is only by the finest and most delicate scientific measuring appliances, called micrometers, that it is possible to do so. The presence of microbes in a fluid containing organic material is not difficult to demonstrate by the aid of a good micro-