184 On the Campus 



and perpetuated forms which until recently the human 

 eye had never seen ! Here is yeast, for instance, a tiny 

 plant that has the wondrous power of converting sugar 

 into alcohol ; men have been using this microscopic plant 

 through thousands of years, using it and excluding other 

 similar forms and yet they never saw nor even suspected 

 the organism they handled. It is said that the ancient 

 dynasties of Egypt understood the art of brewing. And 

 so from generation to generation we have handed down 

 our yeast ; even to this day from hand to hand. 



But there are stranger illustrations still. In the old 

 European world in days gone by, as we know, there were 

 scores of little principalities and states. Now nearly 

 every little community, every Lilliputian commonwealth 

 or kingdom had its own particular kind of cheese. There 

 is Chilton cheese, and Cheddar cheese, and Cheshire 

 cheese, in England; Edam cheese, Limburger cheese, 

 Schweitzer cheese, Parmesan cheese, Eocquefort cheese, 

 Neuchatel cheese, Guyere cheese, Bris cheese, and so on, 

 and so on. Now all these differ decidedly one from the 

 other, not in composition merely but especially in flavor ; 

 and we have lately learned that the particular flavor in 

 every case is due to the particular microscopic plant that 

 in the ripening of the product bears the upper hand. 

 One tiny microbe presides over the soft delicacy of 

 Neuchatel ; another is dominant when the die is cast that 

 summons forth the rich sweetness of the Dunlap or the 

 Chilton; still another warms the Edam globe with its 

 peculiar pungency, while the microscopic demons that 

 bring to the famous Limburger its bouquet, far-reaching 

 and far-famed, are, we may be certain, different still! 



