Narration: Three hundred cultures went bad at the outset. The symptoms were usually the same.

Narration: First the specimen would grow at a vigorous rate,

Narration: after which the whole thing would crackle faintly and crumble into a fine dust.

Narration: Replacing the ocular with an eight hundred power lens, Trurl examined one of these cultures and found only charred ruins and smoldering ashes, among which lay tattered banners with inscriptions too small, unfortunately, for him to make out.

Narration: All such slides were quickly thrown into the wastebasket.

Narration: Other cultures, however, fared better. Hundreds progressed and prospered so well that they ran out of space and had to be moved to other slides. In three weeks Trurl had more than nineteen thousand of these stains.