146 MICROBES AND THE MICROBE-KILLER. 



there are certain things which cannot be done by chem- 

 ists. It is one thing to tell approximately what a sub- 

 stance contains, but it is altogether another thing to 

 tell by a chemical analysis how the substance can be 

 made. A chemist, for instance, can analyze wood, but 

 he cannot make wood. Now, the analysis made in the 

 above suit may have given something of an idea of the 

 microbe-killer, yet the microbe-killer could not be made 

 according to that analysis, as was admitted during the 

 trial. There is abundant reason for this. In the first 

 place, the microbe-killer is not made of chemicals directly, 

 but of certain substances so treated that only the gases 

 remain, which, when purified, are mixed in such pro- 

 portions that a certain result is achieved. What sub- 

 stances were employed or how they were treated to pro- 

 duce these gases, or what the gases actually are, could 

 never be told by a chemical analysis. What they seem 

 to be would be of little use in making the microbe- 

 killer. 



The curative and antiseptic powers of the microbe- 

 killer are the result of the method by which the gases are 

 made and of the proportions and according to the con- 

 ditions with which and under which they are mingled 

 or mixed. It is well known that certain substances or 

 gases in themselves possess no power, but, when mixed 

 in certain proportions with other gases or substances, de- 

 velop a wonderful power. Sulphur, saltpetre, and char- 

 coal separately are powerless, but combined in a certain 

 proportion they form gunpowder. So it is with all ex- 

 plosives and substances. It is simply the manner in 

 which they are compounded and the proportions of each 

 used that bring about a certain result. That the mi- 

 crobe-killer has a slight acid taste indicates nothing. So 

 do oranges and apples and all fruits. The right sub- 

 stances, rightly treated, and the resultant gases mingled 

 in correct proportions make the microbe-killer. This gas, 

 then passed through water, is condensed by the water, 

 so that several hundred volumes of gas are made to be 

 held in solution by one volume of water. 



