How would you prove to a nonscientist that (A) Infectious diseases are caused by living organisms and (B) Electric currents are caused by the flow of particles?
A man like any other organism is subject to disease and decay. When a person is ill and diseased there is something wrong with his or her system, that is quite obvious. When he is not able to go about his duties properly the various organs do not function well and the person is ill. We know it through symptoms like headache, fever, cold and cough, rashes on the body, and wrong bowel movements. These symptoms are not diseases though very often in common parlance, people speak of them as diseases. They indicate there is something out of normal in the body. When the body is healthy the functions take place quite normally. So, the body itself could not have created difficulty by itself.
Then there must be something from outside that ought to have got in. Since the infection grows there must be some living organism involved. If the foreign body entering the body is lifeless like a particle of dust in the eye, the symptom may be localized. But in the case of infectious diseases, it is not the case; the whole body is involved. A little reflection will show there is the growth of the foreign body within, with all the concomitant results. The foreign body multiplies in conducive conditions and in so doing produces toxic materials which enter the blood system or other tissues to play havoc sooner or later. The higher temperature, headache, and motions are only symptoms as mentioned above and they give the warning.
Now it has been proved beyond doubt these diseases are caused by micro-organisms, very microscopic in nature; some of them are, in fact, ultramicroscopic. With the invention of powerful microscopes, man’s knowledge of these organisms has grown and today, thanks to the work of great pioneers like Louis Pasteur the nature of these organisms has been known, with the result that man is able to fight them back. Really speaking, he has succeeded in completely eradicating most of them.
When a piece of zinc and copper is placed in dilute sulphuric acid or acidulated water, it can be shown that an electric current flows.
In the reaction bubbles of hydrogen can be seen moving. It can also be seen that when the flow of hydrogen is stopped or blocked there is no current. So naturally, there is a relationship between the flow of current and the flow of hydrogen particles. Hydrogen particles carry power or in scientific parlance, they are charged particles. As they go and attack the copper, the charge is set free from copper.
To understand this one must know the nature of conductors like copper and other metals. They are elements and their electronic (atomic structure) has been studied. They have electrons moving in their outer orbits. When a charge of the same nature comes into them there cannot be any chemical reaction, the extra charge overflows. Thus, the flow of electricity is nothing but a flow of particles.
