The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1891-02-26
THE BACTERIA FAD,
Science Gone, Mad In tho Hands of Enth
slasts. rl8

q
Science Gone, Mad In the Hands of Enthu-
siasts.
These doctors are q wearisome lot,
observes the Milwaukee Sentinel If
the world. were foolish enough to at
tempt to follow all their suggestions
and to avoid all that hygienic cranks
declare to be dangerous, living would
be impossible except under conditions
that would make living intolerable.
The latest fad, next to the disposition
of surgeons to extirpate all the impor-
tant organs Of the body, is to find
bacteria everywhere, and to warn
people against doing, for fear Of bac-
terra, what 1t is necessary to do in order
to get along at all. A Buffalo doc
tor has found nothing better to oc-
cupy his time or no better way to adj
vertise himself than to examine under
the microscope the straps in the street
cars by which unhappy wretches MAIN
tain an upright position when the cars
are crowded. He finds these straps
fairly reelking with bacteria" This
is a strange use of the word reek. We
might as we'll speak of the atmosphere
as reeking with birds. Reel1ing means
steaming or smoking. Bacteria have
just as much right to be everywhere as
birds anC butterflies have to fly in the
air, and they are for the most part as
harmless. The idea the doctors seek to
convey is that where there is micro
scopic life there is danger to health. If
there is space on earth where micro
scopic life does not exist, man can not
exist on that spot. The air we breathe,
the water we drink, is full of harmless
animalculae, and would not be life-sus-
tanning otherwise.
We are warned against sneezing, ex-
cept into bacterium receiver, for fear
ofletting loose into the air destructive
bacteria to attack the nasal membranes
OF other folks. We are warned against
receiving money-hardN money or paper
mohey-without first putting it through
disinfecting process. We are told to
go through the world with strainer
over the nose and the mouth, with car
bolized gloves, and SO on. In short, if
we are to stand any show of living to q
reasonable age we are to shut ourselves
up in gauze saturated with disinfecting
preparations, drink distilled water, alb
stain fromfevery thing we like, and have
no other concern in the world than the
care of health.
There are certain reasonable sanitary
rules based on a few facts of observa-
tion that are worthy of serious atten-
ton. They are not attended to ordi-
narily, because hygienic Gran ks urge so
many ridiculous and impossible rules
and SO constantly shock the common
sense of mankind. To ask q rational
being to refrain from grasping friends
hand for fear Of bacteria, to deny him
self the pleasure of osculation, and all
that, is too much. II these doctors per-
sist In pointing out microscopic life
wherever they find It the thing is to rec
ognize the fact that microscopic life is
edible and wholesOme-raw, fried,
stewed. baked or in any other form.
We areonade up-all Of us and in every
part of us-of microscopic organisms.
A man is simply collection of such or
ganisms, every minute particle of his
being having an independent life. There
is nothing to be frightened at Bacteria
have been in the world good while,
and enough people have managed to
live to make 1t pretty active world.