BACON'S REBELLION 



537 



BACTERIA 



prison, without books or instruments. Though 

 free from persecution for the next ten years, 

 he was imprisoned a second time in 1278, 

 through the ill-will of the head of the Fran- 

 ciscan Order. About 1288 he was permitted to 

 return to Oxford, where he remained until his 

 death. 



Bacon held some of the incorrect ideas of 

 his own time, but deserves honor for the new 

 knowledge he gave the world on the subject 

 of light and vision, for several discoveries in 

 chemistry, for pointing out the errors in the 

 calendar, and for establishing scientific method 



Berkeley executed a number of the leaders in 

 the affair. Though nothing was gained, the 

 uprising showed the courageous spirit of the 

 Virginia colonists. 



BACTERIA, bakte'ria, AND BACTERIOL- 

 OGY. Bacteria are the most minute organisms 

 known to man. The name is derived from a 

 Greek word, baktron, meaning a little staff or 

 stick. The first bacteria discovered really 

 looked like rods, but many of them are now 

 known to be round, oval and of various other 

 shapes. They are found everywhere, in the 

 food we eat, in the water we drink, in the 



BACTERIA, VERY MUCH ENLARGED 



(a) Tetanus (lockjaw) bacilli; (6) anthrax bacilli ; (c) diphtheria bacilli; (d) tuberculosis 

 bacilli; (e) malarial fever parasites, in black; the corpuscles are red; (/) typhoid bacilli. 



in the investigation of all objects and phe- 

 nomena. A copy of the corrected calendar 

 which he made in 1263 is now in the library 

 of University College, Oxford. His most im- 

 portant writing is the Opus Ma jus (Great 

 Work), an encyclopedia of the different 

 sciences. 



BACON'S REBELLION, an uprising of the 

 Virginia colonists, occurring in 1676 and di- 

 rected against the mismanagement of affairs by 

 Governor Berkeley. It was headed by NA- 

 TH \MIL BACON, a young planter who had 

 settled in Virginia in 1673. He soon became a 

 member of the governor's council, and won 

 the affection and trust of the colonists by his 

 kindly manners. With his fellow colonists he 

 had been bitterly dissatisfied with the policy 

 of the home government and of Governor 

 Berkeley, their chief causes for complaint I- 

 unequal taxation, the payment of unjust 

 tobacco duties and unfairness in the voting 

 system. 



discontent became open rebellion when 

 tin- governor refused to protect the people 

 from outbreaks of the Indians. When his 

 plantation on the site of the present city of 

 Richmond had been attacked, Bacon asked the 

 governor to permit him- to head a band of 

 troops against the Indians. When Berkeley 

 refused, Bacon led out a company without that 

 otiiccr's consent. Some fighting took place 

 :ml Jamestown was burned, but the sudden 

 death of Bacon put an end to the rebellion. 



air we breathe and growing in our bodies. It 

 is due to bacteria that milk sours, butter 

 becomes rancid and meat becomes "gamey," or 

 even spoils. The phosphorescence of sea water 

 is often caused by bacteria. 



General Characteristics. Bacteria are vege- 

 table organisms, and they can be distinguished 

 only when examined through a microscope. It 

 has been estimated that 1,500 of the rod- 

 shaped kind, placed end to end, would just 

 reach across the head of an ordinary pin. A 

 single bacterium, so we are told, weighs no 

 more than three-two-hundredth billionths of a 

 grain. Many bacteria are able to move about 

 by using their flagclla, which resemble hairs. 

 These flagclla project from the body and can 

 be whipped back and forth to drive the bac- 

 teria through any liquid. This peculiarity first 

 led scientists to suppose that bacteria were 

 animals, but it is now understood that they 

 are tiny plants. 



According to their shapes, bacteria are di- 

 \i<i(.l into three classes: (1) the bacillus 

 (plural, hncilli) is rod-shaped ; (2) the spirillum 

 (plural, spirilla) is longer than the bacillus, but 

 is curved or spiral; (3) the micrococcus (plural. 

 micrococci) is more or less spherical. Each of 

 these classes shows many yarn-In-;. Bacilli. 

 for example, may be found singly, in pairs, or 

 in long strings. Spirilla may look like commas, 

 or they may be long, thin spirals or short thick 

 ones. If micrococci are arranged in rows like 

 strings of beads they are called streptococci. 



