Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“

which the wind of evening was now beginning to blow coolly. The sound of footsteps roused him. He turned round quickly, with the words, "Who wants me? I am here." Before he had time to speak again, or to make any movement of defence, the four assassins raised their pieces and fired upon him in a volley. All four shots took effect. He fell back, dying, against the stonework of the window, and sank thence to the ground, with the faint cry, "Ah, ungrateful traitors !" Almost before the words were spoken, the rattle was in his throat. In another moment he was dead.

Salvator Cattaneo threw himself upon the body, and severed the head from the shoulders with a knife. A spear was brought, the head was fixed upon it, and the band of conspirators, bearing it aloft, rushed out into the streets.

Nothing could illustrate more strikingly the tremendous power which the dead man had wielded than the sensation which was excited by the tidings of his death. The news spread like wildfire through the city. His own followers seemed struck with stupor; his enemies went wild with fierce delight. One band rushed forth into the market-place, and took down from their place of infamy Carafa's head and foot. Another hastened to the convent, sought out the headless body of their enemy, and hauled it by a rope out of the cloisters. The Viceroy left the castle and rode to the Cathedral, where doubtless he gave thanks to St. Gennaro for having blessed his plot. Soon all the horde of smaller tyrants and oppressors began to crawl in swarms out of their cellars, caves, and convent cells, to feast their eyes upon the sight of the head of the terrible fisherman going up and down the city on a pole, and to have a kick at his carcase as it was dragged along the kennels. At length the head was fixed upon a spike above the gateway of the Holy Spirit; and the body was hurled into a ditch near the Nolana gate.

Such was the fall of Masaniello. But it was his fate to illustrate, beyond example, the mutability of human things. And the last scene of the strange drama was not yet.

The great mass of the people still revered the name of their deliverer. The savage violence of his madness had

troubled and estranged them. But his death struck them with consternation; | and in a few hours nothing was recollected but his greatness. Night had not come before tens of thousands were murmuring his name with blessings, and calling upon each other, with tears of shame and rage, to remember all they owed to Masaniello. The hearts of his enemies, which had been thrilling with delight, began to feel a chill; and soon their bands, which had been going up and down so gayly, vanished like mist before the gathering of the multitude. That night, preparations were set on foot for a burial worthy of a people's hero; and before morning all was ready.

The corpse was taken from the ditch into which it had been thrown. The head was brought down from the pinnacle above the gate, and fastened to the shoulders by a thread of silver. The body, washed and drenched with perfumes, was laid, clothed in a vestment of white linen, upon an open bier, and carried to the chapel of Our Lady, where it was placed in front of the great altar. A crown was fixed upon the head, and a sceptre set in the right hand; and thus, in pomp and splendor, as at the burial of a king, the corpse of Masaniello lay in state. For many hours the crowd continued to stream past the spot; a rain of flowers fell ceaselessly upon the body; and the tolling of the bell, and the mournful music of the organ, were mingled with the constant sound of weeping.

At length, when the sun was sinking, the bier was placed upon a lofty car, and drawn by coal-black horses through the streets. Five days before, along that very road, the hero of the hour had passed in triumph, amid the blaze of banners and the shouting of the crowd. Now, black hangings drooped from every window; faces dark with sorrow crowded both sides of the way. Before the hearse a thousand priests, in stoles of white, walked with censers in their hands and crosses lifted; behind it, muffled drums and trumpets played a solemn march. Then came a company of men-at-arms, with spears reversed and colors drooping; and then thousands, and tens of thousands, of the people.

The solemn pageant wound its way

through all the quarters of the city. At length it turned again toward the church. The organ broke forth into the last majestic service of the dead. A stone was lifted in the marble pavement; and

there, with more than royal splendor, amid the blaze of torches and the strains of solemn music, the dark house closed forever above the dust of Masaniello.— Temple Bar.

THE CREATURES WE BREATHE.

BY DR.

PERCY FARADAY FRANKLAND.

THAT the air we breathe is more or less laden with living organisms is a fact which is far from acceptable to most persons, and yet it would require but little persuasion to convince the majority of mankind that air without organisms would be undesirable indeed; for without one micro-organism at least, which is very widely distributed in the air, we should have to forego those numerous, complex, and much appreciated pleasures which are derived from the consumption of alcohol in its various forms. How many would vote the earth flat and stale but for the products which are alone elaborated by yeast, which was the first micro-organism to receive attention, and which, in spite of the many powerfully organized endeavors to undermine its position, is likely also to be the last to absorb the interest of man.

But there are other micro-organisms in the air besides yeast, and it is the firm conviction that many zymotic diseases are propagated by means of aircarried microbes, that renders the investigation of the subject of aerial microorganisms peculiarly interesting and attractive.

The systematic examination of the aerial microbia commences with those marvellous discoveries with which the name of Pasteur is so inseparably connected, and with which the latter half of the nineteenth century will forever be associated.

These now classical researches of Pasteur's on the presence of microorganisms in the atmosphere were undertaken in connection with the fierce controversy which raged thirty years ago on the Spontaneous Generation of Life.

The supporters of this doctrine contended that the presence of the smallest

particle of air was sufficient to determine the generation of low forms of life in certain highly putrescible substances, such as milk, blood, broth, and the like. But the opposition to this theory, marshalled by M. Pasteur, contended that it was not the air, but certain living germs suspended in the air, which, gaining access to these putrescible materials, give rise to those growths which make their appearance in them.

That Pasteur succeeded in proving the truth of this assumption is now well known, and it was in connection with the elaborate and beautifully planned investigation which he conducted, to place it beyond all reach of doubt, that we have handed down to us the first systematic series of experiments made on the presence of micro-organisms in the atmosphere.

Pasteur exposed specially prepared flasks containing some highly nourishing fluid, such as clear broth, in various places, with the following striking results.

Of twenty exposed in the open country of Arbois, eight became subsequently turbid, or, in other words, eight had become contaminated with micro-organisms.

Of twenty exposed on the lower heights of the Jura mountains, five became affected, while out of twenty others exposed at the Montanvert, close to the Mer de Glace, at a height of upward of six thousand feet, only one flask broke down.

Thus it appears that the higher the altitude reached, and the greater the distance from human habitations, the purer, as regards the presence of microorganisms, is the atmosphere. These are facts which subsequent experiments by other methods have fully borne out.

The beautiful experiments which Professor Tyndall carried out in this coun

try on the presence of micro-organisms in air are well known to all, and it is to him we owe the important discovery of the rapid subsidence of these microbes in calm air. Miquel again has shown how dependent is the distribution of these microbes in air upon their surroundings, by the experiments made at Montsouris at different seasons of the year; but the following results obtained in London, and by a more recent and more accurate method, show very clearly that the maximum number are to be found in the hottest months of the year.

Thus, in a volume of air equal to about two gallons (ten litres) collected on the top of the Science and Art Department buildings at South Kensington, at a height, therefore, of some seventy feet from the ground, and so removed from any local disturbance of the air, I found the following numbers of micro-organisms in the several months of the past year :—

[blocks in formation]

In the country, as might have been anticipated, I have found a very appreciably smaller number of micro-organisms than in air in London. Moreover, the more remote the place is from houses and from the frequented thoroughfares of traffic, the dust of which is always rich in refuse organic matter, the freer does the air become from suspended microbes. Thus the air of an extensive heath near Norwich was found to contain from five to seven micro-organisms in the two gallons of air, while in that of a garden near Norwich were found as many as thirty-one. Again, on the Chalk Downs in Surrey I found on one occasion only two; this, however, was very early in the year (February, 1886), and snow was on the ground; later on, at the end of May in the same year, I found thirteen, but in a garden near Reigate on the same day there were twenty-five, So that there is a considerable difference found in the microbial richness of the air in different places in the country. I have also tested the London air under the most favorable conditions, viz. in the open spaces in

the parks, and these experiments show that although such air generally contains fewer microbes than the air even on the roof of the Science Schools (at a height of seventy feet), yet the number is in excess of that found in the country, although the situations chosen were large surfaces of grass from which little or no dust could be blown about. But the air in the streets was found to contain numbers immensely in excess of anything that was discovered in the country, the result being in some instances as high as 554 in the two gallons of air. This last figure was obtained in the Exhibition Road on a dry and dusty day when vast multitudes of people were thronging to the Colonial and Indian Exhibition which was then open.

The striking contrast to the number of micro-organisms found in the various places previously referred to is the number found in the air at sea. I have not myself had an opportunity of making any experiments at sea, but some have recently been made by Dr. Fischer, a From his surgeon in the German navy. experiments it would appear that the maximum distance to which, under ordinary circumstances, micro-organisms can be transported across the sea lies between 70 and 120 sea miles, and that beyond this distance they are almost invariably absent. A point of particular interest in connection with Dr. Fischer's experiments is that they show in a very striking manner that the microbes, which are always abundantly present in ordinary sea water, are not communicated to the air, excepting in the closest proximity to the surface, even when the ocean is much disturbed.

Before passing on to the microbial condition of the air within doors, I will just briefly refer to some experiments which I made at different altitudes, fully confirming those of Pasteur to which reference has already been made. Two gallons of air examined on the top and at the bottom of Primrose Hill, gave respectively nine and twenty-four microorganisms. Again, the same volume of air examined at Norwich Cathedral on the top of the spire (300 feet) gave seven, on the tower (180 feet) nine, while on the ground eighteen were found.

Again, at St. Paul's Cathedral, the Golden Gallery yielded eleven, the Stone

Gallery thirty-four, while the churchyard gave seventy.

Within doors we find that the number of micro-organisms suspended in the air depends, as we should have expected, upon the number of people present, and the amount of disturbance of the air which is taking place. In illustration of this the following experiments made at one of the Royal Society's conversaziones held at Burlington House last year may be mentioned. At the commencement of the evening, when a number of persons were already present, and the temperature was at 67° Fahr., the two gallons of air examined yielded 326 organisms; later on, as the rooms became densely crowded, as indicated by the temperature rising to 72° Fahr., the number reached 432. The next morning, on the other hand, when the room was empty, the air yielded only 130, but even this is doubtless in excess of the number which would be present in the room in question under normal conditions, in which, judging from experience, I should expect to find about 40 to 60 in the same volume of air. Again, I found that the air in the large entrance hall of the Natural History Museum in Cromwell Road yielded under ordinary conditions from 50 to 70 organisms in the same volume, but on Whit Monday, when an immense number of visitors were present in the building, I found as many as 280. Again, on a paying day at the South Kensington Museum, I found about 18, but on the Saturday, when no entrance fee is charged, there were as many as 73 organisms present in the same volume.

As an instance of the immense num ber of microbes which may under given circumstances be found suspended in the atmosphere, the following experiments, showing the number falling on one square foot in one minute, may be mentioned. The first experiment was made in a railway carriage (third class) on a journey from Norwich to London. Soon after leaving Norwich I tested the air; there were at the time four persons in the carriage, one window was closed, the other open, and the experiment was made near the open window. I found that under these conditions 395 organisms were falling on the square foot in one minute. On reaching Cambridge, the carriage

was taken possession of by a number of men returning from Newmarket races, and remained quite full (ten persons) to London. About halfway between Cambridge and London I made a second experiment, one window being shut, and the other was only open four inches at the top; the air was tested near the closed window, with the result that no less than 3,120 organisms were found to be falling on the square foot in one minute. On another occasion I made an experiment in a barn in which flail-threshing was going on. The atmosphere was visibly laden with dust, and on testing it I found that upward of 8,000 organisms were falling on the square foot in one minute. It would probably be difficult to find a place in which the number of suspended microbes was greater than this, the great abundance of bacterial life in the material under treatment, the dryness of the latter, and the violent commotion occasioned by the threshing being all highly conducive to the distribution of an enormous multitude of micro-organisms throughout the air.

The careful study of the various micro-organisms present in air has hitherto received but little attention; it is, however, well known that important functions are performed by them in the laboratory of nature, but only in very few cases has any particular action been identified with a specific micro-organism. Apart from the theoretical interest attaching to the particular work performed by specific micro-organisms, there is the question of the influence which is exerted by these micro-organisms on health. Now, although there have been so far practically no organisms discovered in air which are known to be connected with any of the diseases to which man is subject, yet there cannot be a doubt that, in the immediate vicinity of the foci of infection, such harmful organisms are present, and that their distribution and conveyance through the atmosphere must take place in just the same manner as in the case of those micro-organisms which we have been considering. It is, moreover, this familiarity with the circumstances which are favorable or unfavorable to the dissemination of micro-organisms in general which should guide us in avoiding distributive influences coming into play in cases of zymotic disease

and in the management of the sick-room generally. Thus it was from considerations of this kind that the principles of antiseptic surgery were laid down by Sir Joseph Lister. The manner in which the presence of micro-organisms in air should be regarded has been recently most concisely described by Professor Burdon Sanderson in the following words:

Considering that we know the living dust of the air does contain organisms which are capable of producing putrefaction and inflammation in wounds-for that is a thing about which we are certain—and that it may contain the distinctive or specific poisons of particular dis

eases; therefore, just as when rabies is prevalent among dogs all dogs should be taken care of, or as in countries where there are poisonous snakes care is taken to keep all snakes out of houses, so it behooves every one to be as careful as possible to maintain the air as free as possible from these minute organisms, not because they are all dangerous, but because we do not know where the danger lurks. And hence the importance of acquiring a complete scientific knowledge of everything relating to their natural history, for it is only by the possession of this scientific knowledge that we can hope to become masters of the conditions which influence the development and growth, the origin and existence in the air and water and other media, of these more dangerous organisms on which disease is directly dependent. -Nineteenth Century.

COUNT LEO TOLSTOI.

BY JULIA WEDGWOOD.

THE record of that vicissitude of event and circumstance which makes up a nation's life is left not only on the page of history. It may be traced less plainly, but more indelibly inscribed on the tastes, the feelings, the predilections, of that nation's most ordinary sons and daughters. Even the literature which has no aim but amusement, proclaims, in no uncertain voice, the influence of a national past. Take up a German and an English novel of equal power, you miss at once in the foreign workthough, perhaps, you could not name the lack-the hurry, the compression, the organized literary effect which you find in the English one. A German novel is apt to make one doubt whether Germans turn to fiction with some wish quite different from the desire for amusement which animates the subscriber to the circulating library here. Let the reader who questions this take up Goethe's" Wahlverwandtschaften" and read the scene in which the hero and the two heroines lay the foundations of a summerhouse. He will surely agree with the present writer that nothing equally tedious could have been written by an Englishman or Frenchman of genius. The German language has yet to absorb the hurry of political life-in other words, it has yet to become literary. But Nature, as the sage says in Rasselas," sets her gifts on the right

[ocr errors]

hand and on the left, and if the political races be more literary we should expect the non-political to be more scientific. For the student of the physical world never permits himself to use the word "trivial." He knows no hierarchy of statements; for him all facts stand on one level. All German writing seems to us permeated with this canon of science-dare we add?-heresy of literature; English writing shows comparatively little of it, French of course is the typical example of its absence. Let us make the most of our inalienable privileges. The Germans may rob us of our pre-eminence in trade, in empire, in national prestige; they never can rival us in a long national past.

Signs are not wanting, however, that if the fact is unchangeable, its influence on literature is somewhat less than it was. The ideal of the non-historic nations seems spreading; even in fiction plot goes for less than it did, verisimilitude of detail for far more.

Men seek

to know life as it is; much description and narrative that has no other merit is justified if it be a faithful transcript of experience. We must thus admit a chronological arrangement of fiction, which somewhat confuses that which we have suggested in our division of the historic and non-historic races. If the simplicity and distinctness of the Greek drama be naturally associated with the

« AnkstesnisTęsti »