Moving Plants

Bacteria are not insects or "bugs," ■aya the Popular Science News, but plants. Tliey have, however, the power of spontaneous motion. Like other living things they take in matter and potential energy and givo oft' matter and manifest energy. In common with all vegetables not ssing chlorophyll they raquire organic food for the maintcnance ol Ufe, but they can fnibsist uponfood that contains QO proteid, being able t; take nltrogen and sulplrar from inorganic sources and carbon from prganio BOurces, and witli water tln-v build up proteid material. They share respira tion in common with all living things, taking In oxygen and giving off carbon dioxide: Cartain boeten, lumever, do not reqiiire free oxygen, bèiiïg able ia nnlocii it from tlie substatices ia wliich thi'v c.iit: and ecrtain ehomical pro: riiratable to them vidently depend Upou tlis povA-r of unlocking oxygen from sta,ble compound. liacW iili ';y (i:-.i :il.nt-.'d. being present in the atmosphere in vast mimbers, and also in earth and water. They cover the snrface of our bodicf. and line car entire alimentary cnnals; fortnnatoly, however, they are chi'.'üy of the benign variety, which will not thrive iri living tissues - henee caücd non-pathogenic. Thefeé mlcro-organisnis are amongthe smallest objects whieh the microscope reveáis. A very common form of bacteria is that known as the bacterium fermo, whieh is an elongated, rod-like cell about 1-25,000 of an inch in breadth and less than twice its breadth in length. It is non-pathogenic, easily killed by antiseptics, and is always found in putrefying or septie fluids; henee it is sometimes called the carrion or septie fungus. Cold (S:J degrees Pahrenheit) snspends the antmátíon of bacteria, but does not kill tliein; nany witlistand a much lov.-cr tempcrature. Hoiüng water kills many bacteria, bnt those that aro in the eondition of spores can withBtand a muoh hijher temperature or can withstand the tempcrature of B19 degrees Pahrenheit íor a much longer time than can the mature bacterium. In general terras extremes of heat have a more destructivo action to bacteria than extremes of cold. lieat without molsturc does not necessarily destroy the liv":i of all bacteria, but rendars some simply in'actïve.