Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-12
BESETTING DANGERS.
Importance That Attaches to Modern
Newspaper Warnings.
BAC1LLI AND MICRO-ORGANISMS.
Recent Discoveries as to Disease Germs In
Ice and Fish.
FACTS OF A REASSURING NATURE

There are probably few items among the
vast mass Of genuine information to be
found in ones newspaper nowadays that
would seem 70 carry with them q greater
amount ofcertainty of being read than do
those premOnitory paragraphs, occasionally
met with, culled usually from the pages Of
some medical journal. in which the dangers
that beset US in connection with our ordi-
nary mode Of living, but more especially
perhaps in regard to our food, are set forth
with directness and with such an apparent
disregard of the varying susceptibilities Of
individuals as to be to some of US, it is to be
feared. at times almost startling. 1t is, Of
course, says a writer in the Weekly
Chron1cte of Newcastle, Eng, quite beyond
doubt that these cautions or warnings are
not only timely and very necessary, but also
mighty salutary. There are, no doubt, those
among US, however, who are prepared 10
urge that this continually holding up to
view the thousand and one dangers with
which the tates have so ruthlessly streWed
our paths, and this eagerness to point at any
new peril almost before it has clearly dis
covered itself, are scarcely productive
Of all the good intended, but tend rather to
make us either reckless Of consequences, or,
in view Of the great number who survive to
reach stages on lfe's journey well beyond
the allotted span, to doubt the dangers thus
held up are really, after all, so serious as it
is sought to have US believe them to be.
But then cavaliers are 10 be found in every
connection as well as in this.
COME FROM HIGH AUTHo RITY.
Of fcourse, these paragraphs are in their
proper element, and through their medium
VIC told IF the L
which we are beset, such, for example. as
the existence and omnipresence Of the 7ari-
Gus tribes Of baeilh and other miero-organ-
isms, which we are further informed infest
our daily food, and, indeed, are to be found
in such a number of other directions that,
were it not for the high character Of the au-
thority, the uninitiated would no doubt feel
some difficulty in giving to a great deal Of
this information anything like unqualified
credence.
Who, for instance, among the uulearned
could ever have credited that ice, now so in
dispensable for surgic and medicinal pur-
poses, and which, by virtue of its cool and
refreshing qualities, is at times regarded
as one of the most refreshing beverages, may
possibly contain the germ of a fever, than
which at the present day no febrile disease
is held in greater dread. Such, however,
would appear to be only too certainly the
case. For according to the Journal des
Debdts, at a recent weekly meeting of the
Consulting Committee on Public Hygiene
in France, DR.. Connil. senator, dWeIt on
the facility with which ice lent itself to the
propagation of contagious diseases, especially
typhoid fever. Sufficient importance was
not attached to the choice of the ice which
was intended to be used in connection with
the treatment SOf certain maladies, and for
which it had now become to be deemed al
most wholly indispensable.
TYPHOID BACILLI IN ICE.
Ice, it had been proved, he continued. was
favorable to the storing up and preservation
of typhoid bacilli, and consequently it be-
came q matter of the first importance that
closer attention should be given than was
usually the case to the nature of the locality
at which it was gathered. And, in eonelu-
sion. the doctor urged that in every case in
which ice was required for the treatment Of
disease especial care should be taken that
the water from which it was derived was
really and anmistakably aqua pura, and he
said the only way to insure this being the
case was to first boil the water before sub
mitting it to the freezing process.
Then, again, recent number Of the
British Medical journal, quoting DIR.
Edington's report to the Fishery
Board of Scotland, informs US of the pres
ence of micro-organisms in salt fish, and
states that the cause of the condition known
as red cod is probably due to a bacillus; and
as the bacillus was also found in the salt
used for the process of curing, it was possi-
bic that in this way the infection was car
ried. It further adds that though these
organisms isolated are not hurtful to man,
yet the very fact that they grow there shows
that such fish might at any moment be con-
taminated with organisms of a VIrulent
type.
TRICHINE ARE FORGOTTEN.
So much for examples all tending to prove
he omnipresence of baeilli, which, BY the
way, seem to have succeeded in supplanting
n the learned prints in question the once
nuch-talked of triehina that were wont to
receive so much serious attention, but in re-
sard to which one now hardly ever sees any
illusion. From this fact it might be in
erred that in the world of microbes and
parasites, as is the case we are told in that
# the canine race one and all, each has his
lay.
Truly the plot against US would seem to
hicken. One can almost feel the force OF
he sentiment borrowed, believe, from 3
Greek tragedian, which says that "Not to
,e born at all beats the whole tale; but after
hat, to go hence whence one came, as
quickly as possible, is easily second best.
But let us hasten to reassure ourselves.
Happily there is plenty of material at
land to enable US to do so. After all, many
4 us needn't go far to find ourselves in the
,resence of octogenarians of either sex,
eady TO entertain us with CHEEKY remi-
Iiscence of what befel them in their young
lays, to say nothing of the eentenarians Of
Vhom one reads in ones newspaper, and
Vho, judging by the comparatively fire.
uent mention therein, would seem to be
-. a., Ala innrnnsa ihnn othn-,uinn