24 CHELTENHAM COLLEGE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
“THE GERMS OF DISEASE,” 
BY W. A. SHENSTONE, ESQ. 
gN Saturday, February 17th, 1894, a most interest- 
ing lecture was given to the Natural History 
Society by Mr. W. A. Shenstone, Senior Science 
Master of Clifton College, on “the germs of 
disease,” illustrated by the lantern and actual 
specimens. 
EAS: The lecturer commenced by saying that 
though we iret connected microbes and germs with the idea of 
something hurtful and deadly, it was really the case that on the whole 
they were more our friends than our enemies. In proof of this he 
told us how the vegetable world, from which we derive our food and 
the oxygen we breathe, could not be alive if it were not for microbes 
which manufacture the nitric acid necessary for its existence ; and 
further instanced the important discovery, which has lately been 
made, of the power of the pea-flower tube (peas, beans, clover, &c.) 
to absorb the nitrogen of the air into their roots, telling us that this 
power, which adds enormously to the productiveness of the soil, is 
due also to the presence and action of certain microbes. 
Introducing us to a picture of M. Pasteur, he explained the 
methods by which the great savant succeeded in cultivating and 
propagating microbes such as those which cause anthrase, the fatal 
disease in cattle which M. Pasteur’s discoveries have done so much 
to diminish. He also showed us actual specimens of ‘“ bleeding 
bread” which has been more than usually common during the last 
year, and is caused by a microbe so small that two hundred million 
of them could lie on a postage stamp without being inconveniently 
crowded. This is the curious growth, which by its occurence on the 
_ sacred wafer in Roman Catholic countries has often caused supersti- 
tious alarms. We were then shown in succession the bacilla of many 
“deadly diseases such as erysipelas, tuberculosis, tetanus or lock-jaw, 
typhoid-fever, and the comma shaped bacillus of Cholera discovered 
by Dr. Koch. Of these the bacillus of typhoid-fever with its numerous 
twisting legs gave the most disagreeable animated appearance, and it 
