178 BACTERIA 



With our increasing knowledge of these diseases we are 

 learning to combat them. We are learning how to cure patients 

 suffering from them and also how to prevent them. It is an 

 old saying that " an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of 

 cure," and we are learning that proper sanitation, the removal 

 of filth in which the bacteria breed, the protection of drink- 

 ing water, the destruction of flie^, mosquitoes and other insects 

 that carry bacteria, and personal cleanliness are great helps in 

 the prevention of bacterial diseases. 



The study of bacteria has resulted in the development of 

 a branch of applied botany known as bacteriology which is re- 

 ceiving a great deal of attention, especially in our Universities 

 and Medical Colleges. 



The Myxomycetes (Mycetozoa) or Slime Mounds. These 

 are forms of life which possess both plant and animal charac- 

 teristics. They are truly on the border between the plant and 

 animal kingdoms. They are found in the water or on wet soil 

 or decaying vegetables as naked slimy masses of protoplasm, 

 called plasmodia. They move very slowly by a peculiar creep- 

 ing movement similar 1 to that of the amoeba, which is one of the 

 lowest forms of animal life. This plasmodium has the char- 

 acteristics of the species to which it belongs and finally produces 

 great numbers of spores, similar to those of some of the fungi. 

 These spores eventually give rise to minute one-celled amoeboid 

 individuals which unite to form a new and growing plasmodium. 

 One species of this group (Plasmodiophora, brassicce) is the 

 cause of the very common and serious club root disease of 

 cabbage. 



EXERCISES WITH BACTERIA. 



1. Put a few small shreds of meat into two flasks of water. Boil both 

 for thirty minutes or more; plug one with cotton immediately; leave the 

 other open and set both away for a few days. Examine them from time 

 to time and note differences in their appearance. When they show very 



