JuxE IG, 1882.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



37 



and repeated only intermittently, whereas it should 

 be carried on daily, and for a limited time only. 

 A calf-skin bag, fourteen or fifteen inches in diameter, 

 hung by a stout cord from the ceiling (if there is a 

 beam to it, or from a cord stretched between two high nails 

 on opposite sides of the room), will make a capital dumb 

 boxer. The bag should hang at about the height of the 

 chin, so that its highest part is opposite the eyes and its 

 lowest part opposite the chest. Pound away at this as if 

 it were the head and shoulders of a living opponent Hit 

 out from the shoulder so that it Hies up to the ceiling ; 

 catch it " a good one " as it flies back towards you ; advance 

 a step, and hit it so that at the next rebound it flies over 

 your head ; spring sharply round, and meet it on that side ; 

 hit it upwards till the cord loops ; hit it round arm, so that 

 if you are not quick enough, it catches you on the back of 

 the head. In five minutes' time, (which, later, you may 

 extend to ten), you will be pulling and panting like the 

 conventional grampus. You can then rest, or turn to some 

 other less active exercise among those to be hereafter 

 described. 



But there is an excellent and too much neglected 

 exercise for the chest which requires no apparatus at all, 

 and can be taken without leaving your room, or even your 

 seat It is simply the steady inhaling of air (at the 

 nostrils) until the lungs are fully distended, holding the air 

 there for a while, and then slowly expelling it. A time- 

 keeper is useful with this exercise, so that its effect in 

 improving the capacity of the lungs and increasing tlie 

 power of the breathing apparatus generally, may be tested. 

 In a capital little book, by Sir. W. F.lackie, bearing the 

 same title as this series of papers, the following case, illus- 

 trating the good effects of a practice in effect identical 

 with this, is cited : — 



"Some years ago. Dr. G., of Boston, showed us a 

 photograph of himself taken several years previously. The 

 shoulders were warped forward, the chest looked flat, 

 almost hollow, and the face and general appearance sug- 

 gested a delicate man. He was inclined, he said, to be 

 consumptive. Well, by practising breathing (not in an 

 ordinary ' blowing machine,' where you empty your lungs 

 of about all that is in them, but an inspirometer, from 

 which, instead, you inhale every inch of air you can), and 

 by practising vigorous working of his diaphragm, he had so 

 expanded his lungs that he could inhale three hundred and 

 eighty cubic inches of air at one breath ! Certainly, the 

 depth of his chest at the later period was something 

 astounding, it being, as nearly as we could judge without 

 calipers, fully fourteen inches thi-ough, directly from breast- 

 bone to spine, while it was a strikingly broad chest as well. 

 An even more astonishing feature was the tremendous 

 power of his voice. He said he could run two blocks 

 (nearly a tenth of a mile) at one breath." 



Tins case maj-, of course, be exceptional, still it is ex- 

 tremely significant. 



{To he continued.) 



A STUDY OF MINUTE LIKE. 



Bv Henry J. Slack, F.G.S., F.R.M.S. 



GREAT interest is felt in the history of minute living 

 organisms, called microferments, on account of the 

 discoveries by Pasteur, and others, showing their action in 

 the production of various diseases aflliiting domestic 

 animals and mankind, and in many cases indicating how the 

 mischief may be prevented. These bodies are related to the 

 lower fungi — moulds, and so forth — and as they feed upon 



moist organic compounds, they assimilate certain of their 

 elements for their own use and growth, and cause, or leave, 

 the rest to reconstitute themselves in simpler forms. If 

 this sounds too complicated to be easily intelligible, a few 

 instances will make the principle clear, chemical formula; 

 and figures being avoided, because, although they are 

 extremely useful to those accustomed to their appearance, 

 they perplex beginners. 



All living creatures are composed of highly complex 

 materials, and life processes are only carried on in the 

 presence of sufficient moisture to give mobility to their 

 particles. Sugars, fats, and starches are examples of one 

 group of these substance?, and white of egg or albumen 

 represents another group. Chemists find cane sugar to be 

 made up of a gi-eat number of particles — atoms— of carbon, 

 hydrogen, and oxygen ; and it is never quite free from 

 other matters. Carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen are ranged 

 amongst the simple substances, or "elements;" but this 

 means no more than that no one has succeeded in resolving 

 them into simpler constituents. However this may ulti- 

 mately be settled, they, like other bodies in the " simple " 

 list, combine in definite proportions, and the smallest 

 portion capable of so doing is commonly called an atom, 

 and has a definite weight distinguishing it from an atom of 

 anything else. Hydrogen being the lightest known sub- 

 stance, is taken by chemists as their standard, and the 

 atomic weight of a body is stated in comparison with that 

 of hydrogen. Thus, reckoning an hydrogen atom as 

 weighing 1, an atom of oxygen weighs 16, and one of carbon 

 6. The reader will exclaim, " What has this to do with 

 microferments and yeast 1 Wait a bit and see. 



Sugar is built up of a multitude of the combining par- 

 ticles of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen ; twelve of the 

 first, twenty-two of the second, and eleven of the third go 

 to make the smallest possible piece of cane sugar. Now, 

 just imagine what a complicated pattern can l>c made with 

 forty-five balls, and when one pattern containing all of 

 them is broken up, how many simpler patterns may be 

 made by unions of balls in twos, threes, and all sorts of 

 numbers. 



When cane sugar is dissolved in water, besides its own 

 forty-five particles, there are its water particles, two of 

 hydrogen and one of oxygen. The minutest drop of the 

 solution, therefore, consists of forty-eight particles, and 

 when living yeast is put into it and feeds upon it, a great 

 disturbance takes place amongst them. 



If a small portion of brewers' yeast, or the so-called 

 German yeast — so much used by bakers, and which comes 

 over from Dutch distilleries in a putty like mass — is 

 placed on a glass slide in a drop of water and viewed with 

 the microscope and a power of about 400 linear magnifi- 

 cation, it is seen to be composed of little tiny bl.idders, more 

 or less round. It woiild take from two and a half to three 

 thou.';and of these little cells placed in a row to make up 

 one inch in length. Each one is, however, a minute plant, 

 capable of carrying out a complete cycle of vital processes 

 if the appropriate conditions are provided. Brcwera' yeast 

 is the best to experiment with, as the cells are rather 

 larger, and at a summer temjierature grow very quickly. 

 The common brewers' yeast rises to the top of the fluid it 

 causes to ferment i" consequence of the rapid formation of 

 carbonic acid gas bubbles which buoy it up. In (lorman 

 breweries, a slower process, at a lower trnipcrnturo, is 

 carried on, and the yeast falls to the bottom of the 

 fermenting vessels. 



Supposing the reader takes up as much yeast as equals a 

 pin's head in size, puts it in a small cell with sugar and water 

 under the microscope, and keeps it in a warm room ; some of 

 the little bubbles will soon swell, smaller bladders will grow 



