THE LITTLEST LIFE.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 June 1924, Page 4

THE LITTLEST LIFE.

o (By Dp Edwin E. Slo-son, Director Seient;' Service. \t iMiiugtoM). “How many angels can Dantl outlie paint- ol a pin?” was debated by the v.i-e men cl the Dark Ages. I; was a good question lor debate of Hie sort, they delighted in been Us-, they never 'on 1.1 and put .and 1 1 t lie.i could ii would tune made no dilfereuce t" anybody. “How many inieiobos tan stand on the point of a pin?" i- the qiit—Don that inlefe-t- the wise men ol model'll time-, not for the fu:i of tli-eus-ioii, but betatise llir.i can Mini out and because our live- depend upon their finding out. For a single microbe may be more than a match for a man hi -ingle eombat in spite of their disparity in size. Goinpnicd wilt this, the duel between David and Goliath was a fair fig'lit oil equal fooling. The man, let its sav, is live feet ten incite- tall. Against him we will pit it microbe ol moderate size, ,-av a bacillus measuring only :t

micron in height. A mici-nn is a miliiunlh of a metre, or. if von prefer, a t wenty-five-thnusnmlth of an inch. It-ueli a microbe is not afraid to Cackle ;i mail, who is 1 .“oII.IHIO time- as trill ami ,f iO." ! .(V. It 1.1 It It »,< lt». 1.11: If >. 11< It > times Itis lighting weight. Vet t lie lnierolie often succeed' io knocking him ottr. l-’or although the microbe has -neli mills against him on the stall, they ■Io not -lay so. for the mierohe «mtvs faster than the man ami is slicker tit multiplication. The Asiatic cholera germ. for instance, doubles every Io minutes. Tt nnlimiled in space and food, its progeny would equal the mass of a man in the coitr-c of some Io hours. That is to 'tty, a mierohe that gets it lodgment in a man might e:it him up in less than a day if the man were entirely edible and provided adequate aeeom modal ion.

To ref urn to lilt* point. 1 havt- just tried to measure tilt* diameter of tlif point ot n pin, Iml my desk rule is not line eiionali. so I measured tlie head ol it. It is not one of these tiotvlusliiiiued round-lie.id jiins, Imi c the eniumnii metnl kind, and its heatf i” two inilinietres aeros that is, two thousand mierons. .Vow the bacillus of typhoid fever i- two mierons lone; and one wide. So that a thousand of them could be end to end across the pinhead or two thousand lying side hv side. lint these are bij; ones compared

with sumo. It was formerly supposed that water could Ijo made germ-free hy forcing it through a filter of unglazod oartliomvaro, hut it is not known that oil distinct diseases are caused hy germs >o small that they will pass through the pores of porcelain. Among these are such well-known human «li- j senses as influenza, smallpox, hydro- j , pliohia, and measles, and a long list of j

; plant diseases, especially lho.«e recognisable by mosaic discoloration of tlie leaves. Must bacteria measure aliout a micron, but the one that carries the ’flu infection, and is know as pneumosintes, may be only a tenth of that length. The cliieken plague and the mosaic diseases of tobacco are carried by something still smaller, say a fortieth of a micron. Sow, when the biologist gets down .'U fm.t n'< rllfs; lin r*ntnf»c intn

with tho chemist. For a single molecule of lromeglobin, the red colouring matter of tlie Mood, is bigger thait one of these creatures —if they are creatures. Jf they are not. how is it that they can grow mid multiply and carry their specific characteristics over front < no animal or plant to another. Hut if they are living organisms they trutsT he largely composed of protein, and the protein molecule is so large that the chemist can only allow the biologist a few hundred or at most a few thousand molecules out of which to construct the necessarily somewhat complicated machinery of ihoso virulent bodies. j Hut in spite of the criticism of the

chemist the biologist continues to discover minuter bodies which possess some of the functions of life. Ilaetcria are found to he devoured by somethin;' that d’llerciic, of the Pastcur Institute, calls ‘•bacteria eaters,” or if you insist upon the (Ireelt of it, "bacteriophages.” These also are filter-passers, and must lie much smaller than the bacteria on which they prey, hut whether they belong to the fciilm of chemistry or biology is still in dispute. Possibly the question may he settled in the cml by (hiding that there is no Tfelinito dividing line between tlie two realms.

TAP ANTI'I.A ODPK. I,t).\DON, .March ’.M M. 0.-.-c tdowsUi’s ‘‘.Man ami Mysterv in A-ia" is the work of a wellknown mineralogist and authority 01 Ventral Asia who is now a pro‘es-ol on the Polis.li Ceneral Stair and win dm inn the war was sent on a sperm investigating expedition into .Mongolia

lie writes in collaboration wth Air 1.. S. Palcti, and give.- us some of Lite most astonishing tales wc have* ever read, which certainly prove—if they are to he accepted as literal, unvarnished fact—Unit truth is much stianger than fiction, 'i hcv ate entirelv concerned with his experiences ami advent it res i:t the wildest and least-know it pel ts ol Siberia. lie tell.- cl the exlratiftlinary plants and creatures found north of the Altai |{atigo. Tara.'iltlias are molt. When he and it friend were bathing in a -alt lake, his friend called to him : ‘•(let out as Ottiek as you call!'’ With some reluctance I followed him. | tile out tin immense tarantula spider walking with its lung hairy legs on the water. It threateningly advanced it- feelers and carried its bond high. It passed fairly close to me with the warlike expression of a battleship with all its guns run out. ,M. Ossi-iidoivski declares that the sheep i- the worst foe of this hid •mis spider. Putting its tongue right into tin--pider’s huh*, it wails until the rn'l tident lut'd uf battle fasti its the w.itm tongue with teeth and hairy feet: then, witii a visible appreciation of tit'agreeable sensation, the slu-ep elfisys it- eves with enjoyment and swaPaw.the angry taran! ttla its we swal'.i-.v a lllue Point or l.vnnhaven. i.itly wttii out lemon. lie also tells us that innkeepers i:■ the Bokhara route keep "tarantula wine” with which to "dope” (lie travellers whom tltev rub. It is made from tarantulas maddened before ileatli. snaked in alcohol. A few drops added In any drink cause almost *mmeiliate laiutncss, which passes alter some hours, but leaves, however, in the victim a form of madness n| long duration, loss of memory, and itieo-hen-tit movement' and wolds. The \ i*■ tim cannot remember w hat befell bull hi w here In- la-! w as. Another strange tale is of a dolmen -if monument- ol -sixteen big cnluinns which refused to he phi-lograph- . I made two pholugtaiih- from ditferi"it -ides ol the dolmen. The same evening I develnned my negatives. How astonished I was to lind notliing on the plates! In the morning I went I" i I-- dolim-u lu Ii t again, having leaded In ranicrn with fresh (dates from a new box. On developing I found nothing on the plates. This duhiica. la- learn later, was the haunt.-I ti’inb of one Abtik Khan, lie made attutller titlempt oil it and took tliree pitotogi'atihs, but when ott his way to develop tin-ill he was llung from his wtigon. I light.-d oh a heap of stones amt smash,-tj my photographic apparatus s . i cnmnli-ii-iy that the lens and the eases were reduced to fragments.