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BACTERIA IN DAILY LIFE


BY

MRS. PERCY FRANKLAND

FELLOW OF THE ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY; HONORARY MEMBER OF BEDFORD
COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON;

JOINT AUTHOR OF "MICRO-ORGANISMS IN WATER," "THE LIFE OF PASTEUR,"
ETC.


    "Spirits, when they please,
    Can either sex assume, or both; so soft
    And uncompounded is their essence pure,
    Not tied or manacled with joint or limb,
    Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,
    Like cumbrous flesh; but, in what shape they choose,
    Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure,
    Can execute their aery purposes,
    And works of love or enmity fulfil."

    MILTON.


LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK AND BOMBAY
1903

_All rights reserved_




Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected
without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have
been retained as printed. Words printed in italics are noted with
underscores; _italics_. The cover of this ebook was created by the
transcriber and is hereby placed in the public domain.




PREFACE


The title of this little volume sufficiently explains its contents; it
only remains to add that much of the text has already appeared from
time to time in the form of popular articles in various magazines. It
has, however, been carefully revised and considerably added to in
parts where later researches have thrown further light upon the
subjects dealt with.

    G. C. FRANKLAND

    NORTHFIELD, WORCESTERSHIRE,
    _November, 1902_




CONTENTS


                                                                 PAGE

BACTERIOLOGY IN THE VICTORIAN ERA                                   1

WHAT WE BREATHE                                                    34

SUNSHINE AND LIFE                                                  65

BACTERIOLOGY AND WATER                                             93

MILK DANGERS AND REMEDIES                                         118

BACTERIA AND ICE                                                  149

SOME POISONS AND THEIR PREVENTION                                 168




BACTERIA IN DAILY LIFE




BACTERIOLOGY IN THE VICTORIAN ERA


A little more than sixty years ago the scientific world received with
almost incredulous astonishment the announcement that "beer yeast
consists of small spherules which have the property of multiplying,
and are therefore a living and not a dead chemical substance, that
they further _appear_ to belong to the vegetable kingdom, and to be in
some manner intimately connected with the process of fermentation."

When Cagniard Latour communicated the above observations on yeast to
the Paris Academy of Sciences on June 12, 1837, the whole scientific
world was taken by storm, so great was the novelty, boldness, and
originality of the conception that these insignificant particles,
hitherto reckoned as of little or no account, should be endowed with
functions of such responsibility and importance as suggested by
Latour.

At the time when Latour sowed the first seeds of this great gospel of
fermentation, started curiously almost simultaneously across the Rhine
by Schwann and Kuetzing, its greatest subsequent apostle and champion
was but a schoolboy, exhibiting nothing more than a schoolboy's truant
love of play and distaste for lessons. Louis Pasteur was only a lad of
fifteen, buried in a little town in the provinces of France, whose
peace of mind was certainly not disturbed, or likely to be, by rumours
of any scientific discussion, however momentous, carried on in the
great, far-distant metropolis. Yet, some thirty and odd years later,
there was not a country in the whole world where Pasteur's name was
not known and associated with those classical investigations on
fermentation, in the pursuit of which he spent so many years of his
life, and which have proved of such incalculable benefit to the world
of commerce as well as science.

Thanks to Pasteur, we are no longer in doubt as to the nature of yeast
cells; so familiar, in fact, have we become with them, that at the
dawn of the twentieth century we are able to select at will those
particular varieties for which we have a predilection, and employ
those which will produce for us the special flavour we desire in our
wines or in our beers