2 MICROBES AND THE MICROBE-KILLER. 



man energy necessary to bring about even the present 

 condition of the race has been enormous, something 

 beyond computation, beyond, indeed, anything that the 

 mind can reaUze. Sometimes we hear of great discov- 

 eries being stumbled over unexpectedly, but such stories 

 are too often fiction. 



To be successful we must learn from Nature how she 

 destroys. We are unable to say with certainty how 

 Nature begins her work, but we can see how she pro- 

 ceeds after she has begun, and we can carefully study 

 the processes employed in the never-ceasing law of 

 change. Nature is a teacher with an always open book 

 before us. Whoever ignores her book and her teach- 

 ings will fail, no matter to what science he may belong. 

 Organic bodies are adapted to the conditions that sur- 

 round them. Reference is made particularly to condi- 

 tions of atmosphere, temperature, and moisture. The 

 vegetation of the tropics is vastly different from that 

 in northern latitudes, and marine and aquatic plants 

 differ in construction from those which flourish in the 

 air as much ?.s fishes differ from the amphibia. In both 

 the animal and the vegetable kingdoms, again, parasites 

 exist in the utmost variety of form and in the greatest 

 number, plants passing through the whole course of 

 their existence on other plants, and both vegetable and 

 animal formations preying upon the highest forms of 

 organic life. Some are absolutely microscopical, not 

 visible to the naked vision, appearing as discoloration s 

 only under a low power, but developing into well- formed 

 organisms when submitted to the eye through the me- 

 dium of high magnifying instruments. 



Microbes grow to their full size in a few moments, or 

 hours at the longest. They have two ways of propaga- 

 tion. From spores so minute that it requires the most 

 powerful microscopes to see them, they attain their 

 full growth in an incredibly short time. Then, in addi- 

 tion, suddenly a microbe will break into two parts, each 

 part a perfect microbe. These parts have the same 

 power of propagating by means of spores or of break- 



