574 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
results of other observers, that the injected bacteria 
disappeared from the blood within a short time.^^ 
Space, however, forbids my replying to the whole 
article, the value of which may be gauged by one 
point. I had drawn attention to the wild assertion 
that, “ at every breath, w^e are inhaling thousands ” of 
bacteria, and pointed out that three bacteria per in- 
spiration was the highest number ever observed, while 
one in eighteen inspirations was the average. For 
these exact statements I am soundly lectured ; and, in 
order to convict me of error, a reference is made to 
Dr. Miquel, whom I had previously cited, and, to 
refute me, a supposed calculation is based upon his 
data. This concludes that every cubic inch of air at 
midday contains 825, and at 8 p.m. 16,500, bacteria 
— a deliverance positively comical in its extravagance. 
My censor has only mistaken a cubic metre for a 
cubic centimetre, and so his results are just one 
million times too great — a degree of accuracy which 
would argue that no single cell of honey should be 
sold for less than ;^40, and that a good queen should 
weigh one-quarter of a ton. It is possible, nay, 
probable, that Mr. Cowan did not go, as his article 
would have us suppose, to La Sejnaine Medicate ^ now 
lying before me, but to an abstract in the Royal 
Microscopical Society's Journal^ as here a printers 
error occurs ; but this is unimportant, as either way 
it would appear incredible that any person having the 
least knowledge of the subject could have fallen for 
a moment into such errors, much less have made 
them the subject of a calculation, and an attack not 
conspicuous by its modesty. Culture tubes can be 
