At first glance the extreme readiness of the atmosphere to carry dust and bacteria does not seem a point in its favor. In reality it is. Most bacteria are really allies of the human race. They benefit us by producing fermentations and disintegrations of soils that prepare them for plant food. It is a pity that the few disease breeding types of bacteria should have given the family a bad name. Without bacteria the sheltering atmosphere would have nothing but desert rock to protect. Further, rain is accounted for only by the dust. Of course this sounds very near the world's record in absurdities. But it is a half truth at least, for moisture cannot condense on nothing. Every drop of rain, every globule of mist must have a nucleus. Consequently each wind that blows, each volcano that erupts is laying up dust for a rainy day. Apparently the atmosphere is empty. Actually it is full enough of dust-nuclei to outfit a fullgrown fog if the dewpoint should be favorable. If there were no dust in the air all shadows would be intensest black, the sunlight blinding. But the dust particles fulfill their greatest mission as heat collectors,--they and the particles of water vapor which have embraced them. It is in reality owing to these water globules and not to the atmosphere that supports them that we are enabled to live in such comfortable temperatures. For the air strata above seven miles where the tides of oxygen and nitrogen have rid themselves of water and dust absorb very little of the solar radiation. The heat is grabbed by the lowest layer of air as it goes by. The air snatches it both going and coming. The little particles get about half of it on the way down and when it is radiated back very little escapes them. So it comes about that the heavy moist air near the earth is the warmest of all. It would, of course, get very warm if, as it collected its heat, it didn't have a tendency to rise. As it rises, moreover, it must fight gravity, that arch enemy of all rising things. And as it fights it loses energy, which is heat. So high altitudes and low temperatures are found together for these two reasons. But after the limit of moisture content has been reached the temperature gets no lower according to reliable investigations. Instead a monotony of 459° below zero eternally prevails--459° is called the absolute zero of space.