The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents
by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

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Title: The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents

Author: H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

Release Date: June 26, 2004 [EBook #12750]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE STOLEN BACILLUS AND OTHER INCIDENTS

BY H.G. WELLS

AUTHOR OF "THE TIME MACHINE"

METHUEN & CO.
36 ESSEX STREET, STRAND
LONDON
1895
_Colonial Library_

TO

H.B. MARRIOTT WATSON

Most of the stories in this collection appeared originally in the
_Pall Mall Budget_, two were published in the _Pall Mall Gazette_,
and one in _St James's Gazette_. I desire to make the usual
acknowledgments. The third story in the book was, I find, reprinted
by the _Observatory_, and the "Lord of the Dynamos" by the Melbourne
_Leader_.

H.G. WELLS.

CONTENTS

I. THE STOLEN BACILLUS

II. THE FLOWERING OF THE STRANGE ORCHID

III. IN THE AVU OBSERVATORY

IV. THE TRIUMPHS OF A TAXIDERMIST

V. A DEAL IN OSTRICHES

VI. THROUGH A WINDOW

VII. THE TEMPTATION OF HARRINGAY

VIII. THE FLYING MAN

IX. THE DIAMOND MAKER

X. AEPYORNIS ISLAND

XI. THE REMARKABLE CASE OF DAVIDSON'S EYES

XII. THE LORD OF THE DYNAMOS

XIII. THE HAMMERPOND PARK BURGLARY

XIV. A MOTH--_GENUS NOVO_

XV. THE TREASURE IN THE FOREST

THE STOLEN BACILLUS

"This again," said the Bacteriologist, slipping a glass slide under
the microscope, "is a preparation of the celebrated Bacillus of
cholera--the cholera germ."

The pale-faced man peered down the microscope. He was evidently not
accustomed to that kind of 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. Eyes vary 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 of pink. And yet those little particles,
those mere ato