61 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Automatism 

 Balance 



as for domestic purposes, and great num- 

 bers have been found, especially at Wangen 

 (Lake of Constance) and Concise (Lake of 

 Neufchatel). With a few exceptions they 

 are small, especially when compared with 

 the magnificent specimens from Denmark; 

 in length they varied from one to six inches, 

 while the cutting edge had generally a 

 width of from fifteen to twenty lines. Flint 

 was sometimes used, and nephrite or jade 

 in a few cases, but serpentine and diorite 

 were the principal materials. Most of the 

 larger settlements were evidently manufac- 

 turing places, and many spoiled pieces and 

 half-finished specimens have been found. 

 After having chosen a stone, the first step 

 was to reduce it by blows with a hammer 

 to a suitable size. Then grooves were made 

 artificially, which must have been a very 

 tedious and difficult operation when flint 

 knives, sand, and water were the only avail- 

 able instruments. Having carried the 

 grooves to the required depth, the project- 

 ing portions were removed by a skilful blow 

 with a hammer, and the implement was 

 then sharpened and polished on blocks of 

 sandstone. AVEBURY Prehistoric Times, ch. 

 6, p. 180. (A., 1900.) 



303. BACTERIA CAPTURE NITRO- 

 GEN FOR HIGHER ORGANISMS The 



Nitrifying Bacteria. The third group of 

 micro-organisms connected with the soil 

 exist in groups and colonies situated inside 

 the nodules appearing, under certain cir- 

 cumstances, on the rootlets of the pea, bean, 

 and other Leguminosce. It w r as Hellriegel 

 and Wilfarth who first pointed out that, 

 altho the higher chlorophyllaceous plants 

 could not directly obtain or utilize free nitro- 

 gen, some of them at any rate could acquire 

 nitrogen brought into combination under 

 the influence of bacteria. Hellriegel found 

 that the graminaceous, polygonaceous, cruci- 

 ferous, and other orders depended upon 

 combined nitrogen supplied within the soil, 

 but that the Leguminosce did not depend en- 

 tirely upon such supplies. NEWMAN Bac- 

 teria, ch. 5, p. 163. (G. P. P., 1899.) 



304. BACTERIA, UNIVERSAL PRES- 

 ENCE OF In Earth, Air, and Water, Every- 

 ivlicre. There are no other plants or ani- 

 mals so universally found in nature as the 

 bacteria. It is this universal presence, to- 

 gether with their great powers of multipli- 

 cation, which renders them of so much im- 

 portance in nature. They exist almost 

 everywhere on the surface of the earth. They 

 are in the soil, especially at its surface. 

 . . . They are in all 'bodies ot water, 

 both at the surface and below it. They are 

 found at considerable depths in the ocean. 

 They are in streams of running water in 

 even greater quantity than in standing 

 water. CONN Story of Germ Life, ch. 1, p. 

 38. (A., 1900.) 



3O5. Microscopic Organ- 

 isms Dormant in Dust. Wherever on the 

 face of nature there is a lodging-place for 



dust there w r ill be found bacteria. In most 

 of these localities they are dormant, or at 

 least growing only a little. The bacteria 

 . . . in pure water multiply very little. 

 When dried as dust they are entirely dor- 

 mant. But each individual bacterium or 

 spore has the potential power of multiplica- 

 tion, and as soon as it by accident falls upon 

 a place where there is food and moisture it 

 will begin to multiply. Everywhere in Na- 

 ture, then, exists this group of organisms 

 with its almost inconceivable power of mul- 

 tiplication, but a power helcTIn check by 

 lack of food. Furnish them with food and 

 their potential powers become actual. CONN 

 Story of Germ Life, ch. 1, p. 38. (A., 1900.) 



306. BACTERIOLOGY, PRACTICAL IM- 

 PORTANCE OF Municipalities are ex- 

 pending public moneys in water analysis, 

 in the examination of milk, in the inspec- 

 tion of cows and dairies, in the bacterial 

 treatment of sewage, and in disinfection 

 and other branches of public health admin- 

 istration. Again, the newly formed Na- 

 tional Association for the Prevention of Tu- 

 berculosis, our increasing colonial posses- 

 sions with their tropical diseases, even 

 medical science itself, which is year by year 

 becoming more preventive, make an increas- 

 ing claim upon public opinion. The suc- 

 cessful accomplishment and solution of 

 these questions ti ">end in a measure upon 

 an educated publ opinion respecting the 

 elements of bacteriology. Recently it was 

 urged [in the Contemporary Review, Nov., 

 1897] that "the first elements of bacteri- 

 ology should be shadowed forth in the pri- 

 mary school." This course was advised 

 owing to such knowledge being of value to 

 those engaged in dairying. As we shall 

 point out at a later stage, many of the un- 

 desirable changes occurring in milk are due 

 to bacteria, even as the success of the but- 

 ter and cheese industries depends on the 

 use and control of the fermentative proc- 

 esses due to their action. Much of the un- 

 certainty attending the manufacture of 

 dairy products can only be abolished by the 

 careful application of some knowledge of 

 the flora of milk. NEWMAN Bacteria, int., 

 p. 12. (G. P. P., 1899.) 



307. BALANCE OF FORCES ON OUR 

 GLOBE The Earth a Delicately Adjusted Ma- 

 chine Contrast of the Moon. In our near- 

 est neighbor among the planets the moon 

 the telescope has revealed to us the exist- 

 ence of a globe, in which the internal forces 

 have not been checked and controlled by the 

 operation of any external agencies for the 

 moon appears to be destitute of both at- 

 mosphere and water. Under these circum- 

 stances we find its surface, as we might ex- 

 pect, to be composed of rocks which appear 

 to be entirely of igneous origin; the moun- 

 tain masses, unworn by rain or frost, river 

 or glacier, being of most prodigious dimen- 

 sions as compared with those of our own 

 globe, while no features at all resembling 



