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The nitrogenous portions go through the same series of decomposition and synthetical changes already described, and thus eventually the nitrogen seized from the air by the combined action of the legumes and the bacteria is converted into nitrates, and will serve for food for the next set of plants grown on the same soil.
Sometimes such a gelatinous secretion will unite great masses of bacteria into clusters, which may float on the surface of the liquid in which they grow or may sink to the bottom. When growing in solid media, such as a nutritious liquid made stiff with gelatine, the different species have different methods of spreading from their central point of origin.
The general similarity of the whole process to a bacterial fermentation leads us to believe at the outset that some of the differences in character are due to different kinds of bacteria that multiply in the cheese and produce decomposition therein. When the matter comes to be studied by bacteriology, the demonstration of this position becomes easy.
This may well be doubted, however, for seeds can apparently sprout well enough without the aid of bacteria. But, nevertheless, bacteria do grow in the seed during its germination, and thus do aid the plant in the softening of the food material. We can not regard them as essential to seed germination.
In order to pass through their walls, material must be in solution; solid bodies, therefore, are denied admission to the fetal circulation. The most significant result of this restriction is, perhaps, that so long as the coating of the villi remains intact and healthful, bacteria cannot gain access to the unborn child.
We are artists, informing material objects with a living spirit. We are more even than trained nurses. We are companions along the roads of pain, comrades, it may be, at the gates of death. Back of our willingness to do our full work must lie something profounder than lectures on bacteria, or interior decoration, or an invalid's diet or a baby's bath.
"The nitrite bacteria replace two of the hydrogen atoms in ammonia with one of oxygen, and insert another oxygen atom between the nitrogen and the remaining hydrogen, thus forming nitrous acid; H-O-N=O, or HNO2. "The nitrate bacteria then cause the direct addition of another oxygen atom, which is held by the two extra bonds of the nitrogen atom, which you will remember is a five-handed atom.
Now, by some entirely unknown process, the legume and the bacteria growing together succeed in extracting the nitrogen from the atmosphere which permeates the soil, and fixing this nitrogen in the tubercles and the roots in the form of nitrogen compounds. This, of course, furnishes a starting point for the reclaiming of the lost atmospheric nitrogen.
Vials were shown containing these tiny subterranean aids to the farmer, and large photographs showed in natural size the vast increase of crop due to the farmer's taking bacteria into partnership. To-day these little organisms are cultivated of set purpose, and quest is being made for similar bacteria suitable to be harnessed in producing wheat, corn, and other harvests.
The bacteria are usually all killed, but now and then, the apparatus does not work, and they develop in the can. That results in a 'blown can' the ends bulge a little bit. On opening, a gas escapes, the food has a bad odour and a bad taste. Sometimes people say that the tin and lead poison them; in practically all cases the poisoning is of bacterial, not metallic, origin. Mr.
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