BACTERIA
IN DAILY LIFE
BY
Mrs. PERCY FRANKLAND
FELLOW OF THE ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY; HONORARY MEMBER OF BEDFORDCOLLEGE, 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
PREFACE
The title of this little volume sufficiently explains its contents; itonly remains to add that much of the text has already appeared fromtime to time in the form of popular articles in various magazines. Ithas, however, been carefully revised and considerably added to inparts where later researches have thrown further light upon thesubjects 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 withalmost incredulous astonishment the announcement that "beer yeastconsists of small spherules which have the property of multiplying,and are therefore a living and not a dead chemical substance, thatthey further appear to belong to the vegetable kingdom, and to be insome manner intimately connected with the process of fermentation."
When Cagniard Latour communicated the above observations on yeast tothe Paris Academy of Sciences on June 12, 1837, the whole scientificworld was taken by storm, so great was the novelty, boldness, andoriginality of the conception that these insignificant particles,hitherto reckoned as of little or no account, should be endowed withfunctions of such responsibility and importance as suggested byLatour.
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