A LADY'S DISCOVERY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 34, 1 June 1914, Page 4

A LADY'S DISCOVERY.

Madame Victor Henri, the lady bacteriologist, has made one of the most important discoveries in that branch of research for many years. She has, by subjecting bacteria to the action of ultraviolet rays, succeeded in creating a new species of bacteria, causing a new disease, from a species already known. The experiment was made with anthrax bacillus, which, from a rod shape was transformed into a spherical coccus and was injected into guinea pigs. The new bacteria caused a slowly developing disease, differing in every respect from anthrax. Mme. Henri deduces from her discovery that the law of evolution applies to bacteria a s to other living organisms, and she thinks that the multitudes of existing species may have come from a few primitive forms which, under action of the light, underwent numerous transformations and engendered a multitude of varieties responsible for diseases known to science. Particulars of the discovery have been communicated to the Academy *of Sciences by Dr. Roux, the Director of the Pasteur Institute, and have aroused the liveliest interest among that assembly, which is unanimous regarding the importance of the discovery not only from a practical standpoint, as showing the way to the efficacious treatment of a redoubtable affection, but also as opening up an entirely new horizon to the investigation of the history and evolution of the myriad species of bacteria and the diseases due to them.