102 THE MICROSCOPICAL NEWS. 
(vinous, acetic, lactic, butyric, &c.) is dependent upon the life of 
a specific organism or bacterium, microphyte, schizophyte, or 
microbe, as it is variously and generically called. Dr. Charles 
Cameron, in a paper read before the Philosophical Society of 
Glasgow, says, ‘The Zorula cerevisie in the every day develop- 
‘ment of its life resolves sugar into alcohol; an organism very 
similar in appearance, but much smaller, produces lactic acid; a 
third, the Microderma aceti, oxidizes alcohol into acetic acid; a 
fourth, a lively vibrio, reduces fermentable matter to butyric acid 
with the liberation of hydrogen, which, when the matter ferment- 
ing contains phosphorus or sulphur, unites with them, and pro- 
duces the unsavoury odours characteristic of putrefaction ; 
another organism again, a little micrococcus, decomposes urea 
into ammonia, and hippuric acid into benzoic acid and glycocole ; 
the transformation of tannic acid into gallic is the work of a sixth ; 
the artificial conversion of ammoniacal waters into nitre appears 
to be due to the intervention of a seventh ; and I might mention 
as many more instances of specific fermentation without exhausting 
the list of those of which the specific microbe has been demon- 
strated or studied.” ‘Thus the microscope has proved that these . 
fermentative changes are physiological, and not merely chemical 
in their nature. These microbes can easily be destroyed by 
boiling, drying, exposure in some cases to oxygen, in others to 
carbonic acid, or by the application of weak antiseptic solutions. 
The germs of these microbes, however, survive all these processes. 
Nothing appears to kill them but the flame. The germs them- 
selves are unassailable ; the organisms to which they give rise are 
soon overcome. ‘These organisms have been found in the bodies 
of man and the lower animals. The germs are doubtless taken in 
with the air we breathe, and the food we consume. Pasteur 
discovered in human septiccemia and pycemia two specific 
organisms, in the former a vibrio, in the latter a micrococcus. ‘The 
genius of Lister, who had heard of some of Pasteur’s researches on 
fermentation, led him to originate the antiseptic treatment of 
wounds, which has been of untold benefit to humanity. Microbes 
have been found in the secretions of patients suffering from 
zymotic fevers, and recent researches lead us to believe that each 
infectious and contagious disease is accompanied by the presence 
of its specific microbes. ‘They multiply at the expense of the 
patient, a struggle for existence goes on between the parasites and 
the vital cells of their host, and the result is death on the one 
side and victory on the other. We know that fevers have a 
tendency to run through certain courses, and the life-histories of 
these microbes may be regarded as affording some explanation 
of those courses. 
Some forms of these micro-organisms have been found in the 
