60 FROM DUST TO DUST. 



That we were quite unable to conceive the first beginning of 

 life — how or when it originated — but that it was probable 



That the ocean was the first home of life. 



That the earliest differentiated forms of life appear as a rod 

 and a simple cell. 



That the rod-form, or bacterium, was capable of thriving in 

 inorganic matter, and building up protoplasm for higher forms 

 of life to exist. 



That — leaving the small amount of nitric acid and ammonia, 

 which some plants may, at intervals, obtain from the air after 

 lightning, out of consideration — these nitrifying bacteria are neces- 

 sary to produce a supply of nitrogen (which is a necessary constit- 

 uent of all protoplasm), for the growth and development of 



plant life. 



That inorganic matter by the action of the rod and cell forms 

 of life was started on its cycle through the vegetable kingdom. 



That vegetable life supports animal life by means of unorgan- 

 ised yet vital ferments, provided by the animal economy; but that 

 the conversion of carbo-hydrates, proteids, and fats, is assisted by 

 many bacteria, to which I have given the generic name of Anabi- 

 otic, or builders up of life in contradistinction to the Katabiotic 

 bacteria, or destroyers of life, which we are accustomed to call 

 Pathogenic bacteria. 



That bacteria were friends and foes ; and that many diseases 

 were produced by life in the wrong place. 



That in such disease a conflict takes place between the rod 

 and the cell forms of life, in which, happily for us, the cell is often 

 victorious, though sometimes the reverse occurs, causing degenera- 

 tion and death. 



That putrefactive organisms are beneficial to the world of life, 

 by restoring the mineral and gaseous elements to a form which can 

 be again utilised to create another world of life. 



And, finally, that these bacteria are the factors of change both 

 in the evolution and dissolution of all organic matter. 



Such is a brief outline only of this most interesting subject, 

 and no one more than myself realises how inadequate it is to explain 

 what we desire to know. I have striven to state as facts only those 

 that have been well proven, and to base deductions upon them. 



