H G Wells

The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents H G Wells

"This again," said the Bacteriologist, slipping a glass slide under the microscope, "is a preparationof the celebrated Bacillus of cholera-the cholera germ."The pale-faced man peered down the microscope. He was evidently not accustomed to that kindof thing, and held a limp white hand over his disengaged eye. "I see very little," he said."Touch this screw," said the Bacteriologist; "perhaps the microscope is out of focus for you. Eyesvary so much. Just the fraction of a turn this way or that.""Ah! now I see," said the visitor. "Not so very much to see after all. Little streaks and shreds ofpink. And yet those little particles, those mere atomies, might multiply and devastate a city!Wonderful!"He stood up, and releasing the glass slip from the microscope, held it in his hand towards thewindow. "Scarcely visible," he said, scrutinising the preparation. He hesitated. "Are these-alive?Are they dangerous now?""Those have been stained and killed," said the Bacteriologist. "I wish, for my own part, we couldkill and stain every one of them in the universe.""I suppose," the pale man said with a slight smile, "that you scarcely care to have such thingsabout you in the living-in the active state?""On the contrary, we are obliged to," said the Bacteriologist. "Here, for instance-" He walkedacross the room and took up one of several sealed tubes. "Here is the living thing. This is acultivation of the actual living disease bacteria." He hesitated, "Bottled cholera, so to speak."A slight gleam of satisfaction appeared momentarily in the face of the pale man."It's a deadly thing to have in your possession," he said, devouring the little tube with his eyes. The Bacteriologist watched the morbid pleasure in his visitor's expression. This man, who hadvisited him that afternoon with a note of introduction from an old friend, interested him from thevery contrast of their dispositions. The lank black hair and deep grey eyes, the haggard expressionand nervous manner, the fitful yet keen interest of his visitor were a novel change from thephlegmatic deliberations of the ordinary scientific worker with whom the Bacteriologist chieflyassociated. It was perhaps natural, with a hearer evidently so impressionable to the lethal nature ofhis topic, to take the most effective aspect of the matter.