174 MICROBES AND THE MICROBE-KILLER. 



however, UDtil he had experimented with all the drugs 

 obtainable in the drug stores of his city. Still he was 

 unsuccessful. It was then that Mr. Kadam resorted to 

 gases. None of the known gases produced the desired 

 results. For days and nights Mr. Eadam worked. His 

 friends thought he was wasting his time, but, as they 

 knew he had only a short time to live, they humored him. 

 Like Ponce de Leon in his search for the spring of life, 

 Mr, Eadam was seeking something which would give 

 him life. It was always before his eyes, but like the 

 will-o'-the-wisp it eluded his grasp and mocked him. 

 Day after day the desired something seemed within his 

 reach. He closed his fingers upon it, but it was not 

 there. With his bits of fresh meat and his gases he 

 worked day after day, then went to bed only to dream 

 he had found what he was looking for. 



One day Mr. Kadam mixed a combination of gases, 

 some obtained by chemical extraction and others ob- 

 tained by burning certain drugs, and placed the result 

 in a glass can with a piece of fresh meat. The next 

 morning the meat looked fresher than did the results of 

 his other experiments. This encouraged him and he 

 left it several days. Soon the meat began to ferment, 

 but Mr. Eadam knew he was on the right track. If he 

 €Ould only make the gas stronger, then he would have 

 accomplished the results desired, and the fresh meat 

 would keep forever. Under pressure he passed a quan- 

 tity of this gas through water. He found that the water 

 absorbed eight hundred times its own volume of the gas. 

 That is, one cubic inch of water would absorb eight 

 hundred cubic inches of gas. This gave him just eight 

 hundred times as powerful an agent with which to con- 

 duct his experiments. Into a bottle containing some of 

 this impregnated gas Mr. Eadam placed a piece of fresh 

 meat. After leaving it there three weeks he took it out. 

 Every cell in the meat was as perfect as when he had 

 placed it in the impregnated gas. He ate the meat and 

 felt no evil effects. Then he began taking internally 

 some of the impregnated water. Within a few days he 



