CHAPTEE LVIII 



MICROBE OF THE SMALLPOX PLAGUE 



THE microbes which cause this disease are ex- 

 ceedingly small rods, Fig. 96. They occur single 

 or in chaplets. 



The germ is so small that it easily floats in the 

 air. It can hardly help it. Infection therefore oc- 

 curs in the usual ways, but especially by breathing 

 the germs. 



Kolled into little balls, the germs, on the average, 

 are about the one-fifty thousandth part of an inch 

 in diameter. It is a tiny drop of water that meas- 

 ures only the one twenty-fifth of an inch in dia- 

 meter. 



But the two spheres are to each other as the 

 cubes of their diameters. The cube of ^V is T^TS 

 The cube of TS-^TTS is -nmnnFTtTnnnnrviF. The for- 

 mer cube divided'by the latter is 8,000,000,000. 

 Therefore eight thousand millions of the microbe 

 that causes the smallpox may be packed within 

 the space occupied by the tiny drop. 



Any wonder that this germ floats in the air? 

 Any wonder that the disease is so " catching " ? 

 That people fear it as they fear the Devil? 



In eight or ten days after one is exposed, the dis- 

 ease comes on in full force. Chills shake; fever 



206 



