Science
The theme of science is probably the main one in the story. It deals with different phenomena and with bacterium of deathly infectious diseases in particular in the story. What the scientists do is very important: they study different germs with the goal of their destruction and search for medicine which would kill these bacterium. But at the same time this work is very dangerous as it is not known how the things will go. The theme of science in the story is deeply connected with the theme of biological weapons.
Biological weapons
This is a great threat when there is no stability in society when anarchists are trying to destroy the world, even sacrificing their own lives for the sake of imaginary ideals that are illusory and far from true. And what would happen if a similar situation, which the author describes would happen in reality, to happen to the world if one uses biological weapons. After all the story was written in 1894 - and already then a thought about weapons of mass destruction was urgent, where the main reason for the destruction of people would be a bacillus, a virus, a microbe that is not so easily detected, much less get rid of it 100%, cleanse all living things from this "poison." The story is funny, but it has a serious warning.
Anarchism
Anarchism is the denial of state power, the replacement of it by public self-government. For adherents of this direction, the highest value is freedom. This freedom is based on social equality and is based on free ties of people and requires neither state nor religion. The theme of anarchism is not the main of the story but still it is touched very softly and masterfully. Anarchists are those who adhere to free thinking, which includes such norms and theories that oppose the manifestation of any kind of compulsory state administration. In the story we see two representatives of anarchism – the bacteriologist and the visitor. But the difference between them is that the bacteriologist is passive anarchist and the visitor is active anarchist.
