281 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Germ 

 Germs 



pletely broken down by this method of dis- 

 continuous heating, three minutes being 

 found sufficient to accomplish what three 

 hundred minutes' continuous boiling failed 

 to accomplish. I applied the method, more- 

 over, to infusions of various kinds of hay, 

 including those most tenacious of life. Not 

 one of them bore the ordeal. These results 

 were clearly foreseen before they were real- 

 ized, so that the germ-theory fulfils the test 

 of every true theory, that test being the 

 power of prevision. TYNDALL Fragments of 

 Science, vol. ii, ch. 13, p. 321. (A., 1900.) 



1367. GERMS EVADE EXPERIMENT- 

 ERS Unharmed by Supposed Fatal Processes 

 Possibility of Exclusion. Germs will 

 pass unwetted and unscathed through sul- 

 furic acid unless the most special care is 

 taken to detain them. . . . The air 

 passes in bubbles through the bulbs ; and to 

 make the method [of purifying air by pass- 

 ing it through sulfuric acid] secure, the 

 passage of the air must be so slow as to 

 cause the whole of its floating matter, even 

 to the very core of each bubble, to touch the 

 surrounding liquid. But if this precaution 

 be observed, water will be found quite as 

 effectual as sulfuric acid. By the aid of 

 an air-pump, in a highly infective atmos- 

 phere I have thus drawn air for weeks with- 

 out intermission, first through bulbs con- 

 taining water, and afterwards through ves- 

 sels containing organic infusions, without 

 any appearance of life. The germs were not 

 killed by the water, but they were effectu- 

 ally intercepted, while the objection that 

 the air had been injured by being brought 

 into contact with strongly corrosive sub- 

 stances was annulled. TYNDALL Floating 

 Matter of the Air, essayS, p.281. (A., 1895.) 



1368. GERMS INDISTINGUISHABLE 



Structural Differences Notwithstanding 

 Oak Palm, Lichen. If a botanist be 

 asked the difference between an oak, a palm- 

 tree, and a lichen, he will declare that they 

 are separated from one another by the 

 broadest line known to classification. 'With- 

 out taking into account the outward differ- 

 ences of size and form, the variety of flower 

 and fruit, the peculiarities of leaf and 

 branch, he sees even in their general archi- 

 tecture types of structure as distinct as 

 Norman, Gothic, and Egyptian. But if the 

 first young germs of these three plants are 

 placed before him. and he is called upon to 

 define the difference, he finds it impossible. 

 He ^ cannot even say which is which. Ex- 

 amined under the highest powers of the 

 microscope, they yield no clue. Analyzed by 

 the chemist with all the appliances of his 

 laboratory, they keep their secret. DRUM- 

 MONO Natural Law in the Spiritual World, 

 essay 8, p. 257. (H. Al.) 



1369. Uniformity, Ap- 

 parent, of. All in Earliest Stage Gradual 

 Differentiation through Class, Order, Fam- 

 ily, Genus, Species Individual Repeating 

 History of Race. All animals start together 



as a single cell, so that man cannot be dis- 

 tinguished from the lobster or mollusk. An 

 embryo arises from this cell, which shows 

 itself to be a vertebrate in distinction from 

 an invertebrate, but is as yet not a mammal, 

 but more like a fish. With further develop- 

 ment it shows a slight approximation to- 

 ward the reptiles, but, instead of becoming 

 a member of this class, takes a different 

 course, and declares itself to be a mammal. 

 Next, it turns toward the direction of the 

 primates rather than rodents or ungulates; 

 then it exhibits the characteristics of an 

 ape, in distinction from the lemurs; and 

 finally, just before birth, it takes on the 

 features of man. And this story is repeated 

 in all cases, the line of development being 

 the sub-kingdom, the class, the subclass, the 

 order, the family, the genus, the species 

 thus coinciding with one treelike classifica- 

 tion of animals. CONN Evolution of To- 

 day, ch. 4, p. 148. (G. P. P., 1886.) 



1370. 



Vegetable and Ani- 



mal Worm wn,d Mam,. Compare next the 

 two sets of germs, the vegetable and the ani- 

 mal. And there is still no shade of differ- 

 ence. Oak and palm, worm and man, all 

 start life together. No matter into what 

 strangely different forms they may after- 

 wards develop, no matter whether they are 

 to live on sea or land, creep or fly, swim or 

 walk, think or vegetate, in the embryo as it 

 first meets the eye of science they are indis- 

 tinguishable. The apple which fell in New- 

 ton's garden, Newton's dog Diamond, and 

 Newton himself began life at the same 

 point. DRUMMOND Natural Law in the 

 Spiritual World, essay 8, p. 258. (H. Al.) 



1371. GERMS INNUMERABLE The 



Air Thick with Microscopic Life. It has 

 been a common objection of abiogenists 

 that, if the doctrine of biogeny is true, the 

 air must be thick with germs; and they re- 

 gard this as the height of absurdity. But 

 Nature occasionally is exceedingly unrea- 

 sonable, and Professor Tyndall has proved 

 that this particular absurdity may never- 

 theless be a reality. He has demonstrated 

 that ordinary air is no better than a sort of 

 stirabout of excessively minute solid par- 

 ticles; that these particles are almost 

 wholly destructible by heat, and that they 

 are strained off, and the air rendered optic- 

 ally pure, by being passed through cotton- 

 wool. HUXLEY Lay Sermons, serm. 15, p. 

 360. (A., 1895.) 



1372. GERMS, SIZE OF, BAFFLES 

 DESCRIPTION Infinitesimal Minuteness with 

 Power To Accomplish Vast Results. Ques- 

 tions of size are always difficult to settle or 

 determine from a popular point of view, 

 and, when we seek to gain some adequate 

 idea of the dimensions of germs, we are met 

 with the' difficulty of translating into terms 

 of common life those of the infinitely little. 

 If we speak of a germ which in length is the 

 one-ten-thousandth part of an inch that is, 

 equals one part of an inch which has been 



