52 The Story of the Bacteria 



and the dough set aside in bake-shops over- 

 night to rise has not infrequently been found 

 in the morning resplendent with colors which 

 fairly rivalled those of the rising sun. 



There is a species of bacteria in every good 

 collection, and a veritable Nestor among the 

 forms known to man, which has a curious 

 ecclesiastical history. Among all the in- 

 numerable natural phenomena which, by their 

 striking character, infrequent occurrence, and 

 lack of apparent cause, were in early times 

 relegated to the domain of the supernatural, 

 none perhaps was more strange and uncanny 

 than the sudden appearance on the moist 

 surfaces of articles of food of little bright-red 

 shiny droplets, which, gradually spreading, 

 at length formed large shiny, deep, rich-red 

 masses, looking very like drops, or masses, 

 or clots of blood. The story is long and 

 tragic of the dire calamities, unmentionable 

 crimes, and swift retributions which these 

 strange appearances of blood were supposed 

 to foreshadow. 



This miracle of the bleeding Host has 

 appeared again and again in the hands of the 



