166 MICROBES AND THE MICROBE- KILLER. 



WTiat to do for Microbes — A Texas Florist Discovered 



what Scientists Could Not — Disease is Fermentation — 



Microbes the Cause, and to Cure all Diseases you . 



Must Kill the Germs — Badam Bivals Pasteur — 



An Antiseptic Gas Harmless to Life, but 



Death to Microbes, discovered amid 



Flowers — The Gas Saved the Life of 



the Invento! — Now it is Saving 



the Lives of Thousands. 



A singularity of many great inventions and discover- 

 ies is that they were brought about by men who were 

 least suspected of being able to solve the problems in- 

 volved. Where a thorough understanding of mechan- 

 ics was necessary, often the man unfamiliar with me- 

 chanical principles stepped in and did what others could 

 not. Where a carefully grounded knowledge of science 

 was deemed indispensable, the man who knew nothing 

 about science became the enlightener of the scientific 

 world. Instead of the professor it has generally been 

 the student under him who has originated new combi- 

 nations and applied new principles. The inventor of 

 the steamboat was neither a sailor nor a mechanic. A 

 priest discovered smokeless gunpowder. An apprentice 

 first made dynamite. Edison had as competitors men 

 who knew a thousand times more about electricity than 

 he did, and yet he accomplished scores of things they 

 could not. 



There is an easy solution to this apparent mystery 

 regarding the origin of inventions and discoveries. In 

 every branch of industry there is a deep rut. Once a 

 man falls into that rut he seldom gets out. The ten- 

 dency is always to do things as others did them. Had 

 Edison attended college, and had he been taught elec- 

 tricity by a college professor, he would undoubtedly to- 

 day be caring for some small electric lighting plant, 

 while the phonograph, the duplex telegraph, the stock 

 ticker, and the kinetograph would still be visions and 

 impossibilities. A prominent manufacturer of New 



