SUNSHINE AND LIFE 67 



to light than the spore form, while Momont, in 

 a classical series of experiments, not only fully 

 confirmed these observations, but showed also 

 that the intensity of the action of light depends 

 to a very large extent on the environment of the 

 organism. Thus, if broth containing anthrax 

 bacilli is placed in the sunshine, the latter are 

 destroyed in from two to two and a half hours, 

 whilst if blood containing these organisms is simi- 

 larly exposed, their destruction is only effected 

 after from twelve to fourteen hours of sunshine. 

 This difference in resistance to insolation was also 

 observed in the case of dried blood and broth 

 respectively eight hours' exposure killing the 

 bacilli in the former, whilst five hours sufficed in 

 the latter. 



This is an instance of the apparent idiosyncrasies 

 possessed by micro-organisms, which render their 

 study at once so fascinating and so difficult, and 

 it is through being thus constantly confronted with 

 what, in our ignorance, we mentally designate as 

 "whims," that we can hardly resist the impres- 

 sion of these tiny forms of life being endowed 

 with individual powers of discernment and dis- 

 crimination. Indeed, these powers of selection 

 and judgment are in certain cases so delicately 

 adjusted that in some of the modern chemical 

 laboratories micro-organisms have become indis- 



