10 



that the Ipguminnug crops (ppas, beans, and 

 vetches) greatly enriched the soil with nitrofijenous 

 products, nnd, taking advantage of this, the agri- 

 culturist, by a judicious rotation of crops, periodi- 

 cally renews the fertility of the soil by their meansi, 

 after it has been exhausted by a crop of cereals and 

 grain. This property of the vetches and other 

 leguminious plants resides mainly in numerous 

 swellings, or tuberosities, in their roots, which are 

 remarkably rich in nitrogen, and swarming with 

 bacteria, as is also the soil around them. Dr. 

 Krankland has puccepded in isolating this nitrify- 

 ing bicillus. Now. it is a carious fact that these 

 fertilizing germs are to be found only in theupppr 

 layers of the soil, and cannot live beyond a depth 

 of about eighteen inches or so. and n<iar the sur- 

 tftc* they abound in countless myriads. By their 

 silent and unseen agency, dead and rotten animal 

 and veifetahle matters are converted into the 

 material for new life, soon to be builtup into plant 

 and fl.wer, shrub and tree. The gardener and the 

 agriculturist have learnt that it is of no use to 

 plant or to dig or to plough bnlow this level, 

 i'aateur commenced the investigation of the 

 nature and cause of a fearfully fatal malady, 

 affocfing cattle, but also communicable to man, 

 and known by the various names of splenir* fever, 

 malignant pustule, anthrax, ar.d wool-sorters' 

 diseasH, according as it was met with in animals 

 or man ; the latter being chieHy among wool- 

 sorters and tanners, who handle the skins of 

 cattle after death. Pasteur found the blood of 

 animals which had died from the disease to be 

 swarming with a peculiar bacterium, the bacillus 

 of anthrax In the course of his studies and 

 experiments, Pasteur discnvered that the virulence 

 of these bactllj was greatly weakened by cultivating 

 them in blood-serum at a high temperature, so 

 that by the end of about forty days the culture so 

 prepared was no longer fatal to animals inoculated 

 wiih it, but that they were thereby protected from 

 any further attack of the disease. In May, 18SI, 

 Pasteur inoculated a number of sheep and cattle 

 with this attenuated or weakened virus, and 

 .shortly after re-inoculated them with the anthrax 

 poison, toyether with ps many sheep and cattle 

 which had not been previously treated with the 

 cultivated virus, with the result that all the 

 animals innculated with the anthrax poison. 

 Without the previous protective inoculation, dipd 

 of the dlsense, wh-reas not, one of the previously 

 in-'cultted anim <ls was aflFpct*^d by the disease at 

 all. S nee that time, M, Patteur. writing to our 

 own L' rd Lister, in 189:i, reports that, two and a 

 half million sheep, 320,000 oxen, and 2,860 horses, 



had bRpn protected from this fatal disease; and. 

 since that time the protective miterial prepared 

 in the Pasteur Institute has been distributed all 

 over the world, and even elephants in India have 

 been inoculated with it. The Toxins, or Ptomaines, 

 which are the names given to poison generated in 

 the animal body by disease-producing microbes, 

 (according to whether they are generated before or 

 after death), have since been investigated by many 

 competent observers, among whom Professor Koch, 

 of Berlin, stands perhaps first Tubercular disease, 

 diphtheria, asiatiu cholera, tetanu*' or lockjaw, 

 typhoid fevpr, the plague in man, and, lastly, the 

 dt-adly cattle plajue, have all been shown to be 

 due to specific bacilli and to the poisons secreted 

 by them. And in several of these diseases, notably 

 diphtheriaand both the human and cattle plagues, 

 it has been found that inoculation with a serum 

 prepared by cultivation of the bacilli, as in the 

 case of anthrax, has enormously diminished the 

 mortality of the disease, and is now the most ap- 

 proved method of treatment. The phenomenal 

 success attained by Pasteur in the treatment of 

 hydrophobia by inoculating the victims of the bite 

 of a mad dog with a serum prepared from the 

 brain and spiral marrow of an animal which had 

 died from that terrible disease, is probably one of 

 the grandest achievements of modern science. 

 After a long series of patient and elaborate experi- 

 ments, Pasteur found that animals so inoculated 

 were proof against even the most violent hydro- 

 phobia. In July, ]s85, M. Pasteur treated his first 

 human patient, a little child which bad been bitten 

 by a dog undoubtedly mad. The cnild recovered. 

 What a triumph ! What a reward for a patient 

 peeker after truth ' the untiring student of Nature. 

 First the lives of fowls, then of shepp and o.cen,. 

 saved by thousands and tens of thousands from 

 certain death, and now a little child snatched from 

 a hideous and terrible death ! And since that time 

 a long series of patients have been treated with 

 extraordinary success. In conclusion, I have had 

 to speak in the latter part of my lecture of the 

 evil doings and mischievous effects of some of the 

 microbes ; but I would have uiy audience rather 

 carry away with them more kindly thoughts of 

 our tiny friends, and think of them as beneficient 

 in their action, and even essential to man's welfare,. 

 guarding him from disease and harm, and keeping 

 the world sweet and clean. 



The lecture was illustrated by means of a 

 magnificeDt series of coloured lantern slides, and 

 at its close a very hearty vote of thanks was passed, 

 to the lecturei'. 



EIGHTH WINTER MEETING.— FEBRUARY 21st, 1905. 



" A HOLIDAY TOUR IN BELGIUM."— By Mr. W. G. AUSTEN. 



A lantern lecture by Mr. W. G. Austen on "A 

 Holiday Tour in Belgium " formed the special 

 feature at the meeting held at the Beaney Insti- 

 tuto OD February 21, under the presidency of Mr. 

 Sidcey Harvey. The information and the views 



were the result of a nine days' stay in the pleasing thanks. 



and interesting Belgian country, visits being paid 

 to Brussels, Antwerp, Malines, Namur, Dioant, 

 Liege, and other towns. Mi. Austen's address was 

 interspersed with some amusing anecdotes, and at 

 the conclusion he was accorded a hearty vote of 



