THE WAR WITH THE MICROBES. 495 



rise to the formation of disagreeable thio-ethers, and esters or some 

 amines the butter is poor and bad. 



Now, by isolating different germs found in the milk and cultivating 

 them separately, so as to discover their own peculiar product, it is pos 

 sible to always make butter of the same sort and flavor by first destroy- 

 ing the other germs present by Pasteurization and then inoculating the 

 cream with the particular germs desired. A number of germs have 

 been isolated from milk which will produce good butter, and any one 

 of them is, perhaps, as satisfactory as the other, the ethereal product 

 being slightly different and more palatable to different individuals. Of 

 course a great many germs have been found in milk which produce dis- 

 agreeable compounds, and it is not possible to tell from their appear- 

 ance simply which will be desirable plants, but it is easy to cultivate 

 them in a small quantity of milk, note the results, and select the desir- 

 able plant cells. 



Fortunately or unfortunately, the use of these germs has been pat- 

 ented, so that in the near future we may see branded upon particularly 

 fine butter and cheese "Patented in 1893," "Amended 1896," "Reissued 

 1908," etc. May we expect soon a patented process for sterilized breath- 

 ing, eating, and sleeping"? 



Recently it has been found that malt if inoculated with a particular 

 ferment from the skin of the grape will be converted into wine, the 

 ferment used giving rise to the formation of characteristic ethers, so it 

 is certainly not beyond the limits of possibilities that in the near future 

 American beer after a voyage to France may return as excellent cham- 

 pagne. When we discover too a germ (as had been done recently) that 

 converts starch into cellulose, we are almost led to wonder if it might 

 not be possible to produce cotton in a culture flask if the particular 

 germs were supplied with nutritious food and a sufficient amount of 

 carbon dioxide, oxygen, and water. 



The flavor of many luscious fruits and foods is due to the products 

 either directly or indirectly of one or more of these useful bacteria, and 

 on the other hand similar germs play an important and as yet unknown 

 role in the formation of poisonous alkaloids. 



Many bacteria form beautifully colored substances, reds, yellows, 

 blues, greens, and delicate shades which the art of man has not been 

 able to imitate and the nature of which he has not yet learned. These, 

 too, are only hiding their secrets with a thin veil, which investigation 

 will soon withdraw. 



But it is not only in simple industrial processes that the products of 

 germs are important. Man's very existence, while menaced on the one 

 hand by a few germs, is on the other dependent upon their activity. 

 The germs which in the soil produce nitrous and nitric acid and ammo- 

 nia, and aid their assimilation by the plants, those which facilitate the 

 decomposition of phosphates and bring the phosphorous, a so necessary 

 constituent for the life of plants and animals, into an available form, 



