"Where millions of microbes dance: on the pin's summit.  This illustration shows the point of an ordinary pin (much magnified), which, though it appears to be very sharp, is in fact full of inequalties.  It has been said millions of microbes can dance on the point of a pin.  Lilliputian man would not find it easy to get into a position to perform the same feat."  From The Sketch, 1910.

What do you call a group of microbes?  A government.  From The Sketch, 1906.

From a 1908 ad in The Sketch.

"Kissing through disinfected silk gauze."  From Popular Mechanics, 1909.

Here's what lurks within a drop of whiskey.  From Pick Me Up, 1889.

"A melodrama of germs."  From Wayside Tales, 1906.

Here are looming viruses of the common cold, from a Dutch aspirin advertisement, date uncertain.

"Effect of the Grouch Germ on persons who become infected by associated with the Chronic Grouch."  From The Medical Pickwick, 1920.

The fever demon takes away the children.  From Judy, Or The London Serio-Comic Journal, 1887.

They tell us that paisley is merely a design or a symbol, but don't believe their lies.  In this figure from Behavior of the Lower Organisms by Herbert Spencer Jennings, 1906, we see that paisley behaviour is carefully studied, if not fully understood.  The top right arrow shows the direction the paisley turns in response to stimulation, while the three interior arrows indicate the direction of the beat of the cilia.  "What form of life is paisley, exactly?" asks Jude Stewart in Salon.  Common answers include an uncurling date palm shoot, a cypress pine, a leech, a lotus, and a mango, but the truth may have us reaching for our hankies.

Meanwhile, Uel Aramchek posits that paisleys are artifacts from a parallel universe.