188 Microbes and You 



PUTREFACTION AND DECAY 



Decomposition of protein, including animal and vegetable mat- 

 ter, through the agency of microorganisms in the absence of air is 

 called PUTREFACTION. The end products of such decomposition in- 

 clude solid, liquid, and gaseous matters, some of which have a foul 

 odor. Decay is a term used to signify aerobic decomposition and 

 the process differs from putrefaction primarily in the state of oxi- 

 dation in which the products are left. Complete oxidation into 

 stable, non-foul smelling compounds is a characteristic of decay. 

 Both of these processes play important roles in keeping the ele- 

 ments in nature rotating for future generations of plants and ani- 

 mals. We who are living mav harbor elements once a part of the 

 living matter of a famous person, an outright scoundrel, or a lovely 

 rose. When our days are over, and our borrowed elements are 

 returned to nature to use as she sees fit, we may become a part of 

 future generations. 



Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act IV, Scene III, expresses this rotation 

 of elements when Hamlet points out to the King the whereabouts of 

 the dead Polonius in the following passages: 



King. Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius? 

 Hamlet. At supper. 

 KixG. At supper! Where? 



Hamlet. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten; a certain convoca- 

 tion of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor 

 for diet; we fat all creatures else to fat us; we fat ourselves for maggots. 

 Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, 

 but to one table; that's the end. 

 King. Alas, alas! 



Hamlet. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king; and 

 eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm. 

 King. What dost thou mean by this? 



Hamlet. Nothing, but to show you how a king may go a progress 

 through the guts of a beggar. 



COOPERATIONS AND ANTAGONISMS 



Although bacteriologists study organisms as pure cultures of 

 isolated species, that is not the way microbes are found in nature. 



