FOOD CYCLES AND MICROBES 125 



committed all life on tlie earth. The air is the 

 great storehouse. From this bounty these guard- 

 ian angels carry full sustenance to every living 

 being that walks the earth, wings the sky, or; swims 

 the sea. Blockade one all is over. The round 

 earth is dead. No spark to send one ray into the 

 blackness of desolation. 



In the solar system stop one planet in its course, 

 that system goes to smash. In the system of life 

 on this round earth stop one food cycle, that sys- 

 tem ends with a crash. Happily, run by sun 

 power, the continuity of each cycle is assured. 



But where do microbes come in? The least and 

 lowest of all beings, what have they to do with 

 these giant life-preservers? Fed, themselves, by 

 these endless chains of food, in each chain they 

 form a most vital link. Break that link, all is 

 paralyzed. 



Water, carbon and nitrogen, in going the rounds 

 of their cycles, are detained on their way, as be- 

 fore stated, to serve the vegetable and animal king- 

 doms as food. Thus they become imprisoned in 

 the bodies of plants and animals. Here they 

 would be forever chained, were it not for the mi- 

 crobes of putrefaction. As soon as life becomes 

 extinct, these beings seize the dead bodies, open \ 

 the prison doors, and make it possible for chemical 

 forces to do the rest. Thus, by virtue of these tiny 

 cleansers of the earth's surface, these three cycles, 

 water, carbon, nitrogen, move on, free, com 

 plete, permanent, forever. 







