BANISHING THE PLAGUES 



University, who have sought to generate life in the 

 test tube through the aid of radium salts, Mr. Burke's 

 experiments, which were so much talked about for a 

 time, consisted in sprinkling a radioactive salt upon 

 the surface of a sterilized solution of meat extract 

 or bouillon. In due course there developed in the 

 bouillion minute particles, which increased in size, 

 developed what looked- like nuclei, and ultimately 

 multiplied by division very much as do living micro- 

 organisms. In a word these "radiobes," as they were 

 christened, showed very curious resemblance to liv- 

 ing organisms, somewhat of the nature of bacteria. 



Presently, however, the curious particles were seen 

 to split up into bodies much more closely suggestive 

 of microscopic crystals. Moreover, these crystalline 

 bodies could be dissolved in water, which of course 

 is not true of any bacterium. So it was very clear 

 that the radiobes differed widely from any known 

 form of life. 

 ^ In general biologists are disposed to consider that 



he radiobes represent disintegration products of the 

 organic substances in the bouillon rather than pro- 



oplasmic bodies. Mr. Burke, however, holds to the 

 view that the radiobes bridge, more or less roughly, 



he gap between living and non-living matter, and 



hat it is at least possible that they give a clue to the 



Beginning and the end of life. 



LIGHT AS A GERMICIDE 



It is obvious, then, that the strange radiations that 

 emanate from the new radioactive substances sustain 

 very curious relations to organic matter. Meantime 



239 



