8 BACTERIA IN DAILY LIFE 



by the most sensitive plate procurable, but when 

 gathered together in multitudes, the magnitude 

 of which even eight figures fail to express, these 

 phosphorescent bacteria enable the dial of a 

 watch to be easily read in the dark, whilst 

 photographs of the face of a watch taken in such 

 bacterial light have been so successful that the 

 time at which the photograph was taken could be 

 distinctly seen. 



Of bacteria it may indeed truly be said, as has 

 Maeterlinck of the labours of bees "though it 

 be here the infinitely little that without apparent 

 hope adds itself to the infinitely little, though our 

 eye with its limited vision look and see nothing, 

 their work, halting neither by day nor by night, 

 will advance with incredible quickness ! " 



Mention may perhaps appropriately be made 

 here of the highly interesting fact discovered by 

 Professor Percy Frankland, that ordina'ry bacteria 

 which do not phosphoresce are capable of affecting 

 a photographic film in absolute darkness, and can 

 by this means produce a picture of themselves. If, 

 however, a transparent piece of glass is placed 

 between the bacteria and the film no photograph 

 results, showing that glass interferes with their 

 activity in this respect. The author points out 

 that as this action upon the photographic film 

 does not take place through glass, it is in all 



