The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents

The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents by H. G. Wells is a collection of short stories that blends scientific speculation with comic alarm and darker consequences. The title story follows a baffled plot around a dangerous laboratory organism, while the rest of the collection ranges through schemes, curiosities, and encounters where modern knowledge becomes unstable once it leaves the lab or the city. Wells likes to begin with a sharp premise and then let it wobble.

H. G. Wells uses these stories to explore invention, risk, and the gap between expertise and real control. Characters often think they understand the forces around them, only to discover that technology, ambition, or fear has altered the terms. The tone can be witty, unsettling, or slyly satirical, but it stays alert to what happens when ideas meet the world.