not find the expected beehive, he very naturally thinks it must be under the heap of stones which are sometimes used to support the post. These stones he at once begins to scatter about in all directions; but though the humming is as distinct as ever, there is no trace of the honey-store to be found, and the hungry bear has only his labour for his pains. At first, this scattering of the stones was a puzzle to the officials, until the finding of the marks of bears' claws in the posts led to the discovery of the real cause. It is alleged that in certain districts formerly infested by wolves, the introduction of the telegraph-wire has had the effect of frightening these terrible pests away. But the evidence for this is not well substantiated, other causes being in operation in those districts which might be conceived to have a similar restraining effect upon the wolves. THE VINE DISEASE-SUGGESTED REMEDY. The damage which the vineyards of France have sustained from the ravages of the Phylloxera, has led to many experiments being made for the purpose of getting rid of this most troublesome and destructive insect. A suggestion on the subject comes to us from China, which has the appearance of being feasible. It is made by Dr Macgowan of Shanghai, and is derived from the practice of the Chinese, who, in the matter of orange-culture, employ a certain species of ants as insecticides. In many parts of the province of Canton, the land is devoted to the cultivation of orange-trees, which being subject to devastation from insects, require to be protected in a peculiar manner, namely, by importing ants from the neighbouring hills for the destruction of the dreaded parasites. The orangeries themselves supply ants which prey upon the enemy of the orange, but not in sufficient numbers; and resort is had to hill-people, who throughout the summer and winter find the ant-nests suspended from various kinds of trees. There are two varieties of these ants, red and yellow; and their nests resemble cotton bags. The 'orange ant-breeders,' as these hill-people are termed, are provided with pig or goat bladders which are baited inside with lard; and the orifices of these being applied to the entrance of the nests, the ants are induced to enter the bags. They thus become a marketable commodity at the orangeries. The orange-trees are thereafter colonised by depositing the ants on their upper branches; and to enable them to pass from tree to tree, all the trees of an orchard are connected by bamboo rods. A SUMMER'S DAY. Ir was a lovely day, a summer's day- Suddenly, The spell is rudely snapt; for, rushing on On rustic seat beneath yon spreading tree, That which perchance her heart had known before. 'Tis sad to know such peace may change to storms, N. J. H. The Conductors of CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL beg to direct the attention of CONTRIBUTORS to the following notice: 1st. All communications should be addressed to the 'Editor, 339 High Street, Edinburgh.' 2d. To insure return in case of ineligibility, postagestamps should accompany every manuscript. 3d. MANUSCRIPTS should bear the author's full Christian name, surname, and address, legibly written; and should be written on white (not blue) paper, and on one side of the leaf only. Dr Macgowan asks if the orange is the only plant thus susceptible to protection from parasitic pests; and adds his opinion that the particular species of ants above referred to are not the only species capable of being utilised as insect-killers. He also suggests that entomologists and agriculturists would do well to institute experiments with a view to further discovery in this line of research. It might even be possible for the Société d'Acclimatation of France to import 4th. Poetical offerings should invariably be accompanied a number of the ants used in Chinese orangeculture, and by practical tests in the vine-fields to ascertain whether or not they would be serviceable in checking the destructive work of the Phylloxera, by reducing the numbers of the latter. by a stamped and directed envelope. Unless Contributors comply with the above rules, the Editor cannot undertake to return ineligible papers. Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Paternoster Row, LONDON, and 339 High Street, EDINBURGH All Rights Reserved. POPULAR LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART. CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS. DISEASE GERM S. THE composition of the atmosphere has been regarded for years as a subject which chemists have long since decided with an exactness which can scarcely be improved upon. Text-books inform us that the air we breathe is in the main a mixture of the well-known gases oxygen and nitrogen, together with a small but uniform proportion of carbonic acid gas. PRICE 1d to exist between the motions of a star and the life of a human being; yet we are indebted to them for a great deal of our earlier astronomical knowledge. The alchemists who spent their lives in the search for the philosopher's stone, and the mechanicians who devoted years to their quest of perpetual motion, did not spend their lives altogether in vain; for in many departments of chemistry and mechanics, we are now reaping the fruits of their labours. Hence, also, in more recent times the search after the beginnings of life-the dream of spontaneous generation-while fruitless in its direct endeavour, has already conferred upon us blessings great and manifold. Such is, indeed, the composition of pure air; but life is so widely diffused over the globe that except in high Alpine regions, the atmosphere everywhere contains impurities of a more or less detrimental character. Our fires and lights pour into the air innumerable particles of solid carbon, In 1837, Schwann, a Berlin scientist, made the and vapours of petroleum, creosote, and sulphurous important announcement, that when a decoction of acid. Our bakers send into it annually some meat is effectually screened from the atmosphere, millions of gallons of alcohol from the fermenting putrefaction never sets in. Practically, the same process connected with bread-making; dead and principle is the secret of success in the modern decaying animals and vegetables supply their trade of preserving meat in tin cans by exclusion quota of gaseous materials; while the industries of the air. Twenty-two years after Schwann's which bring us much of our wealth, diffuse announcement, a book appeared from the pen of throughout the air numerous small particles of an eminent Frenchman, F. A. Pouchet, giving the starch, wool, cotton, brickdust, arsenic, and other results of numerous experiments altogether opposed substances. But these impurities, considerable to Schwann's conclusions. Deeply interested in though they may appear, are really of minor the discussion, Pasteur, a young French chemist, importance. The winds and rains, which we determined to take the matter in hand, and comvaguely speak of as 'clearing the air,' carry off menced a series of experiments which have yielded most of the suspended particles and wash the the most interesting and valuable results. Startsoluble gases into the soil. There is another ing with the air, he found that many of the floating class of atmospheric impurities, however, so particles are not mere specks of inanimate dust, universal in their diffusion, and of such vast but organised bodies containing the germs of importance in their effects, that a thorough life. Some of these he introduced into animal acquaintance with them will be fraught with incalculable benefit to mankind. These we are familiar with as the motes which dance in the sunbeams, the floating matters in the air, now known to consist, in part at least, of Disease Germs. Nowadays, people are inclined to scoff at the aims of the old philosophers; but we ought to remember how much modern science owes to these early investigators. The astrologers may be held as mistaken in supposing any connection and vegetable infusions, which he had previously boiled, to destroy any living organisms which might be present in the liquid, the result being that he soon obtained an abundance of microscopic life, and in a short time the infusions invariably became putrid. On the other hand, when similar infusions were thoroughly protected from the entrance of these atmospheric particles, not the slightest indication of life appeared in the liquid, even after months and years; but when the smallest drop of any decomposing liquid was added, or ordinary air obtained access to the clear infusions, life began to manifest itself, and soon the water teemed with myriads of microscopic organisms. In this way Pasteur established the fact, that just as oaks grow from acorns, or thistles from thistle-seed, so these minute living organisms are produced according to the common law of generation, springing from previously existing germs or seeds, but never growing spontaneously, or giving the slightest indication that life ever proceeds from anything which has not itself owed its existence to some previous life. Since then, innumerable experiments conducted by our illustrious countryman Professor Tyndall, have fully corroborated Pasteur's researches. Now, let us glance at several widely separated departments of every-day life, and investigate a few facts which have apparently but little connection with each other. When milk is long exposed to the air, it becomes sour or putrid; and if we place a drop of sour milk under the microscope, we shall find a number of small organisms linked together like beads upon a string. These are the cause of the sourness; for they have decomposed the sugar of the milk into lactic acid, the substance which imparts the sour taste. The organism which produces this change is similar in nature and appearance to the well-known yeast-plant, which changes sugar into alcohol. Taking, now, a drop of putrid milk, we find it exhibits a different appearance from that which is simply sour; for it swarms with rapidly moving specks, which receive the common name of bacteria. These organisms are very minute, much smaller than those producing sourness, and they are in every case the active agents in producing putrefaction. Expose milk, or meat, or vegetables to the air, and in a short time they will swarm with bacteria. Keep the air from them, and not one of these organisms will be found. Let us now turn our thoughts for a moment to France. About twenty years ago, a disastrous silkworm disease reduced the produce of cocoons from fifty-two million pounds in 1853 to eight million pounds in 1865, involving a loss of some hundred million francs. Examined under the microscope, the blood of the diseased silkworm was found to contain innumerable animated vibratory corpuscles; the silk-bag was filled with these, instead of with the clear material from which the silk is spun; and these organisms were present in still larger size in the mature moths. Starting with these facts, M. Pasteur attacked the problem, and by securing healthy eggs produced by healthy moths, and by carefully guarding against contagion, restored to France her valuable silk husbandry. But while the practical results he accomplished attest the accuracy of his views and predictions, the observations which led to these results are more immediately interesting. From moths untainted by disease he obtained healthy worms, and on these he conducted his experiments. Taking a diseased worm, and rubbing it up in water, he mixed a little with the food of healthy silkworms; the result being that all the latter became infected, and finally died. A single meal was sufficient to poison them, and the progress of the disease was always attended by a gradual increase in the number of the above animalcular corpuscles found in their blood. During these investigations, M. Pasteur proved that the disease was spread by the worms scratching each other with their claws, and thus introducing the disease germs into the wound. He found too, that the refuse of diseased worms contained infectious organisms, and this adhering to the mulberry leaves, spread infection among other worms feeding on these leaves. The same distinguished chemist had his attention drawn to the losses frequently sustained by the wine-growers and vinegar-makers of France. The wines would often become unaccountably acid or bitter, and millions of money were in this way lost to his countrymen. Setting to work in his usual thorough and scientific fashion, he soon discovered that the wine disease was due to the presence of numerous microscopic organisms on the skin of the grape, which, finding their way into the wine, set up putrefactive changes which entirely altered the character of the liquor. Having ascertained the cause, his next task was to find a remedy; and before long he made the discovery, that by simply heating the juice of the grape to a certain temperature, these putrefactive germs were all destroyed, without in any way damaging the quality of the wine. All three diseases, the wine, the vinegar, and the silk, he traced to their living causes; and eventually discovered remedies for each by determining the conditions which prove fatal to these organisms, or which prevent their development. Passing now into the surgical ward of an English hospital, let us examine an amputated limb which is not healing well. It has begun to putrefy. Taking a little of the matter, we examine it under the microscope, and find it swarming with minute organisms similar to those which we observed in putrid milk. This wound has been exposed to the air. In the next room is a somewhat similar amputation, except that the wound was dressed in such a way as to prevent any of the so-called dust of the air from coming in contact with it. A spray of dilute carbolic acid was kept playing over it all the time it was being operated upon, and now it is healing beautifully, for no living germs have obtained access to it. A word or two about an animal disease known as splenic fever will bring us to the well-known zymotic diseases which carry off so many human beings. As early as 1850 it was observed that the blood of animals which had died from splenic fever teemed with microscopic organisms resembling minute transparent rods; and it has been placed beyond all doubt that this fever is due to the growth and develop-i ment of these minute organisms. Placed under favourable conditions, the rods grow till they often become a hundred times their original length. After a time, little dots appear in them, which finally grow to minute egg-shaped bodies, presenting an appearance somewhat like a long row of seeds in a pod. By-and-by the pod-as we may call it goes to pieces, and the seeds or spores are let loose. Many experiments have been made with both rods and spores. Guineapigs, rabbits, and mice were inoculated with the blood of diseased animals containing the rods, the result being that within twenty or thirty hours they invariably died of splenic fever. By drying the blood which contained only the rods, it was found that it did not retain its infectious properties longer than about a month; but blood containing the developed spores, dried and reduced to dust, even after being kept four years, proved as deadly as at first. tending to weaken or impair the bodily organs furnishes favourable conditions, and thus epidemics almost always originate and are most fatal in those quarters of our great cities where dirt, squalor, and foul air render sound health almost an impossibility. Thus, too, armies suddenly transferred from the regularity and comparative comfort of barrack-life to the dangers, In 1868, M. Chauveau made some interesting toil, and exposure of the battlefield and the discoveries concerning the infectious matter in trenches, are often attacked by epidemics. Having cow-pox, sheep-pox, small-pox, hydrophobia, once got a beginning, epidemics rapidly spread. glanders, and syphilis. Taking some of the The germs are then sent into the air in great matter, he found that it consisted of a fluid in numbers and in a moist state; and the probawhich were numerous minute granular particles, bilities of their entering, and of their establishing some of them so minute as to pass through the themselves even in healthy bodies, are vastly finest filters. When diluted with water, the increased. For the same reasons, one disease larger particles subsided, the finer granules, not unfrequently follows another. The latter however, remaining suspended in the water, is commonly said to have changed' into the and the liquid still retaining its infectious pro- former; but probably the two are entirely disperties; but by diffusion in distilled water, tinct, the second being simply due to the weakthese minute particles were completely sepa-ening of the system. rated, and the liquid then proved harmless. It was thus shown that the infection was communicated by these minute organised particles, and that even a single one of these possesses such inconceivable fecundity that it will produce quite as powerful effects as if a large quantity of concentrated matter had been introduced into the system. Sufficient evidence has thus been obtained to prove that many diseases are propagated by minute organisms; and it is now a well-ascertained fact that scarlatina, diph-ence on the vitality of these germs. Cold is a theria, measles, typhus and typhoid fevers are spread in the same fashion. Another widespread belief is that foul smells give rise to disease. It is not, strictly speaking, the foul gases, but the germs present in them, that produce the diseases. The effluvia, however, are themselves injurious to health, while they are indications of a state of matters much more dangerous; and it is never sufficient to destroy evil odours without searching out and removing the causes that produce them. Climate and the weather have also much influ preventive against some diseases, heat against others. But we have still much to learn regarding their behaviour under varying conditions. Tyndall found that sunlight greatly retarded and sometimes entirely prevented putrefaction; while dirt is always favourable to the growth and development of the germs. Sunshine and cleanliness are undoubtedly the best and cheapest preventives against disease. Let us then briefly sum up what is at present known about the Germ Theory of disease. Experiments having shown that no life is known to spring from inanimate matter, we may reasonably conclude that just as wheat does not grow except from seed, so no disease occurs without some disease germ to produce it. Then, again, we may take it for certain that each disease is due to the development of a particular kind of germ. If we plant small-pox germs, we do not reap a crop of scarlatina or measles; but just as wheat springs from wheat, each disease has its own distinctive germs. Each comes from a parent stock, and has existed somewhere previously. It is true that complications occur, several diseases running their course at one time, or one after the other; but however uncommon, none of them are new. After a forest is cut down, a new variety of trees may spring up; but nobody supposes them to have grown spontaneously; the seeds existed there before, and their growth was due to the occurrence of conditions favourable to their development. So the disease germs which are always floating about may frequently be introduced into our bodies; but it is only when they meet with suitable conditions that they take root and produce disease. Under ordinary circumstances, these germs, though nearly always present, are com- In the case of diseases such as typhoid, which paratively few in number, and in an extremely attack the stomach, disease germs are removed dry and indurated state. Thus, they may fre- along with the excreta; and if, as is often the case, quently enter our bodies without meeting with the drainage of the town flows into a river, and the conditions essential to their growth; for that river is used in some after-portion of its course experiments have shown that it is very difficult as the water-supply of any town near its banks, moisten them, and till they are moistened there is great danger of disease being communithey do not begin to develop. In a healthy cated by the water which we drink; for however system they remain inactive. But anything well it may be purified and filtered, we have no The method in which these diseases are spread demonstrates the necessity and value of thorough disinfection. A person suffering from one of these zymotic diseases is affected, say, in the throat; well, every time he spits or coughs, or perhaps with every breath, he discharges from his throat a great number of the organisms whose development has produced the disease. These may pass directly into the body of some one near, and thus set up disease in a second person, and so on; or falling on the ground, or settling upon clothes or carpets, they may dry up like particles of dust, and be shaken off the clothes, perhaps many months after, or be carried by the wind to places at a considerable distance. In either case, still retaining all their virulence, they will give rise to a fresh outbreak of disease whenever they meet with favourable conditions. Thorough fumigation or other method of destroying their vitality, largely or entirely prevents this. How these organisms may be destroyed in cases of disease without injury to the person or animal affected, is the great problem which awaits solution. Wine-making, brewing, silkworm rearing, and surgery, have already shown the immense importance and practical value of a knowledge of this subject. Nowadays, in surgical operations every part of the flesh laid bare is washed with a dilute solution of carbolic acid, which effectually prevents the growth of these germs, and the consequent mortification which used to render amputation so frequently fatal. It is also known that consumption, which is probably a disease set up by some of these organisms, has in a measure been retarded, if not cured by inhalation of carbolic acid. Oxygen, we know, when in excess, proves a deadly poison to these organisms, and its entire absence is equally fatal; but the difficulty in adopting this remedy is that it might prove equally fatal to the person suffering from the disease. We know enough, however, about Disease Germs to show us in what direction future research may be most profitably engaged; and it is to be hoped that before long we shall obtain either a safe and unfailing remedy, or an efficient preventive against those diseases which, set up perhaps by a microscopic particle, eventually decimate continents, and thus afford us convincing evidence of the vast importance of so-called 'little things.' VALENTINE STRANGE. A STORY OF THE PRIMROSE WAY. BY DAVID CHRISTIE MURRAY. CHAPTER XXV.-'HE'S AN AWFULLY ODD FISH IS STRANGE.' HAD Gerard known that Constance was going to London, he might perhaps have been more ready to accompany his father thither. But, as a matter of fact, the visit was unpremeditated. The maiden aunt in Chesterfield Street, Mayfair, had money, and was known to be kindly disposed to Constance. When, therefore, the old lady, learning from her brother that he was about to visit London, expressed a strong hope that he would bring Constance with him, Mr Jolly accepted the desire as a command. He was not unaware of the importance of money; and though Constance seemed already fairly provided for, it would still be unwise not to conciliate the maiden aunt, who was naturally anxious to learn at cult to persuade Constance; for, to tell the truth, she was beginning to find the social atmosphere of the Grange a little stifling. Her father's dull pomposities and shallow aphorisms were insufferably tedious. There are a good many dull and pompous fathers in the world, whose daughters, aided by Love, revere and admire them. Constance was unhappily without Love's aid, and her father wearied her exactly as any other prosy person would have done. In his inmost soul, Mr Jolly had an idea that his style was Disraelian. He was Conservative in politics, and modelled himself naturally on the lines of his party chief. But it is not everybody who can fight in Saul's armour, and the Disraelian style, handled by Mr Jolly, was a cruel thing to suffer under. Reginald found it endurable, because it awakened his own sense of humour. He saw the fun of it; but Constance, who, like many charming women, had but a limited perception of fun, saw and felt only its dreariness. The house itself was somewhat dull after that fever of festivity into which Mr Jolly had for a time plunged it, and she was willing to welcome any reasonable pretence which called her away from it. These two were the reasons which she admitted to herself; but there was another which had more weight than both of them, although she was reluctant to own it-she was weary of Gerard. Admiration is a pleasant thing to endure, but the signs of it may be so presented as to grow tedious. Gerard had no small-talk, and his icy divinity froze him. He was not happy in her presence; but his dreams of her presence made him happy. There was not the faintest doubt in his mind that when once they were married they would live a life of pattern felicity. The old truth which it was Pope's good fortune to crystallise for English-speaking people, operated here as elsewhere: Hope springs eternal in the human breast; The future was roseate; the present, misty. alone makes life worth living, lay about toAlways that wonderful glamour, which perhaps morrow, but never about to-day. Whether it were an old device or a new one, I cannot say, but I remember that in the year 1865 I witnessed an acted morality or mystery, the memory of which has remained with me. The scene was the cavalry barracks at Cahir, in County Tipperary-the occasion, the annual regimental sports of the Fourth Royal Irish Dragoon Guards. When the sword-exercise and foil-play and boxing, the running, walking, leaping, and vaulting matches were over-when the men had raced behind wheelbarrows and jumped in sacks, and the tug-of-war was lost and won, there came, to crown the festival, a donkey-race. Private Paddy Byrne, a regimental -this is not first-hand the details of her niece's engagement. unit attached to the F Troop when, did it And if Lucretia-that was the name of the maiden aunt—should express any intentions with respect to her testamentary dispositions, Mr Jolly was quite persuaded that at such a juncture nothing could be more natural. It was not diffi fiction, but history, and when, cross Paddy's mind that an old comrade would put him in a novel ?-with a wonderful laughable Irish grin on the Hibernian face of him, perched himself an inch or two for'ard of his donkey's tail, and laid between the moke's ears a switch, |