The Gardener and the Bacillus

You will conceive a bunch of grapes… which are covered by some infinitesimal but noxious bacillus. The gardener passes it through a disinfecting medium. It may be that he desires his grapes to be cleaner. It may be that he needs space to breed some fresh bacillus less noxious than the last. He dips it into the poison and they are gone. Our Gardener is, in my opinion, about to dip the solar system, and the human bacillus, the little mortal vibrio which twisted and wriggled upon the outer rind of the earth, will in an instant be sterilized out of existence.

Professor Challenger The Poison Belt (1913) by Arthur Conan Doyle

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Context: Challenger explains to his friends what he believes is about to happen to humanity.

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Source: Chapter II: The Tide of Death

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