20 



ON THE 



CULTIVATION & MICROSCOPICAL EXAMINATION 



OF 



•MICRO-ORGANISMS 



BY 



THOMAS MOORE, Esq., F.R.C.S., S.ScC. Camb., 



MAY ijth, 1885. 



Under the name Micro-organisms are included several 

 varieties of Microscopic Fungi,* which, although so 

 minute that the lens has probably still to be invented that 

 will show the smallest of them, are yet setting the scientific 

 world by the ears, and have produced a vast amount of ill- 

 feeling and bitter argument. 



It would be superfluous for me to go into their general 

 history and morphology now, as that subject was so ably 

 dealt with by your late President, Dr. Francis Tayler, in 

 his inaugural address last year, which has been printed in 

 the Society's transactions. It is necessary, however, for 

 the elucidation of this paper, to remind you of certain 

 facts about them. 



They and their spores exist in myriads, in the soil of 

 the earth, and in water, especially if it be stagnant, and 

 contain much organic matter, in fact, wherever decom- 

 position is going on. Thence they are easily displaced, and 

 wafted about by the slightest breath of wind, for they are 

 so light, that a single moist bacterium has been estimated 

 to weigh but the ten thousandth part of a milligramme. 

 They are found consequently, in great numbers in the air, and 

 their presence there is the great difficulty to be contended 

 with in making artificial cultivations of them. 



* Called also Microbes, from yniKpo's little, and ^io% life; and 

 Micro-zymes, from fxiKpo^ and ^vfiy ferments. 



