Yeast And Bacteria

Categories: THE DISEASES OF PLANTS

Can you imagine a plant so small that it would take one hundred plants

lying side by side to equal the thickness of a sheet of writing-paper?

There are plants that are so small. Moreover, these same plants are of

the utmost importance to man. Some of them do him great injury, while

others aid him very much.



You will see their importance when you are told that certain of them in

their habits of life cause reat change in the substances in which they

live. For example, when living in a sugary substance they change the

sugar into a gas and an alcohol. Do you remember the bright bubbles of

gas you have seen rising in sweet cider or in wine as it soured? These

bubbles are caused by one of these small plants--the yeast plant. As the

yeast plant grows in the sweet fruit juice, alcohol is made and a gas is

given off at the same time, and this gas makes the bubbles.




_A_, a single plant; _B_, group of two budding cells; _C_, group of

several cells]



Later, other kinds of plants equally small will grow and change the

alcohol into an acid which you will recognize as vinegar by its sour

taste and peculiar odor. Thus vinegar is made by the action of two

different kinds of little living plants in the cider. That these are

living beings you can prove by heating the cider and keeping it tightly

sealed so that nothing can enter it. You will find that because the

living germs have been killed by the heat, the cider will not ferment or

sour as it did before. The germs could of course be killed by poisons,

but then the cider would be unfit for use. It is this same little yeast

plant that causes bread to rise.



When you see any decaying matter you may know that in it minute plants

much like the yeast plant are at work. Since decay is due to them, we

take advantage of the fact that they cannot grow in strong brine or

smoke; and we prepare meat for keeping by salting it or by smoking it or

by both of these methods.



You see that some of the yeast plants and _bacteria_, as many of these

forms are called, are very friendly to us, while others do us great

harm.



Some bacteria grow within the bodies of men and other animals or in

plants. When they do so they may produce disease. Typhoid fever,

diphtheria, consumption, and many other serious diseases are caused by

bacteria. Fig. 118, _e_, shows the bacterium that causes typhoid fever.

In the picture, of course, it is very greatly magnified. In reality

these bacteria are so small that about twenty-five thousand of them side

by side would extend only one inch. These small beings produce their

great effects by very rapid multiplication and by giving off powerful

poisons.




_a_, grippe; _b_, bubonic plague; _c_, diphtheria; _d_, tuberculosis;

_e_, typhoid fever]



Bacteria are so small that they are readily borne on the dust particles

of the air and are often taken into the body through the breath and also

through water or milk. You can therefore see how careful you should be

to prevent germs from getting into the air or into water or milk when

there is disease about your home. You should heed carefully all

instructions of your physician on this point, so that you may not spread

disease.