Amongst some of the curiosities to be found on the shelves of
microbe-museums may be mentioned bacteria which give out light, and
thus, like glowworms, reveal themselves in the dark. These
light-bacteria were originally discovered in sea-water and on the
bodies of sea-fish, and cultures of them have been successfully
photographed, the only source of light being that provided by the
bacilli themselves. The amount of light emitted by a single bacillus
might indeed defy detection by the most sensitive plate procurable,
but when gathered together in multitudes, the magnitude of which even
eight figures fail to express, these phosphorescent bacteria enable
the dial of a watch to be easily read in the dark, whilst photographs
of the face of a watch taken in such bacterial light have been so
successful that the time at which the photograph was taken could be
distinctly seen.
Of bacteria it may indeed truly be said, as has Maeterlinck of the
labours of bees--"though it be here the infinitely little that without
apparent hope adds itself to the infinitely little, though our eye
with its limited vision look and see nothing, their work, halting
neither by day nor by night, will advance with incredible quickness!"
Mention may perhaps appropriately be made here of the highly
interesting fact discovered by Professor Percy Frankland, that
ordinary bacteria which do not phosphoresce are capable of affecting a
photographic film in absolute darkness, and can by this means produce
a picture of themselves. If, however, a transparent piece of glass is
placed between the bacteria and the film no photograph results,
showing that glass interferes with their activity in this respect. The
author points out that as this action upon the photographic film does
not take place through glass, it is in all probability due to the
evolution by the bacteria of certain volatile chemical substances
which either directly or indirectly enter into reaction with the
sensitive film. Similar phenomena have been discovered in regard to
many metals as well as organic substances, but this is the first
observation which has been recorded of the action of living structures
on sensitive films in the dark.
We have already referred to the important services which Pasteur has
rendered by distinguishing between different varieties of yeast, and
separating them out according to their functions and properties--pioneer
work which has been followed up by and borne such splendid fruit in
the hands of the renowned Danish investigator, Emil Christian Hansen
of Copenhagen. This work of isolating out individual varieties of
micro-organisms has been not only pursued with the energy familiar to
all in the case of bacteria associated with disease, but has been
pursued in various other, though perhaps less well known, directions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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