CHAPTER II 



THEIR SPECIFIC NATURE 



IT is easy to identify all microbes as something 

 different from all other living beings. They are 

 all one-celled. Each one consists of the merest 

 speck of protoplasm, a jelly like substance, en- 

 closed in a minute sac. All other living beings 

 consist of many cells. The microbe alone is a 

 single cell. This speck of protoplasm is the first 

 form of life on the earth, and is as much a living 

 thing as any other living being. 



With comparatively few exceptions, all these 

 unicellular beings are transparent. If large 

 enough you could see through them as through 

 glass. In water they look like the water. In air 

 they look like the air. 



But in a few cases microbes are known to be 

 colored. Cast-off boots and shoes, laid in a damp 

 place, sometimes accumulate a greenish mold. A 

 microbe produces that mold and is of the same 

 color. The mold on bread is the work of the 

 microbe. When the mold is whitish or gray, the 

 microbe that produces it is of that color. When 

 the mold is reddish, the microbe is reddish. 



Instances have been known where the bread ad- 

 ministered in the Lord's Supper has been tinged 



