Where are 
living things 
found? 
14 WORLD OF INVISIBLE LIFE 
forms, shapes, and sizes as are the creatures in 
the world we see about us. Some of the tiny 
folk of this other world are beautiful and in¬ 
teresting. 
When we enlarge the drop still more, to 
about iooo times its actual size, we can see some 
even smaller living things. They look like 
little straight sticks, or spirally twisted threads, 
or tiny round dots. 
Scientists have found that not only is the 
water full of this invisible life, but that life of 
this kind is everywhere about us. The air is 
filled with tiny living things, and so is the soil 
of the earth. They are on everything we touch 
and in everything we eat or drink. Most of 
them are harmless, and many are useful to us. 
However, there are certain kinds which make 
us ill, or spoil our food, or in some other way 
are dangerous to us. They are all known as 
microbes , and each separate kind has its own 
name as well. 
At first, all the microbes in the drop of water 
under the microscope seem to be merely black, 
