Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-11-10

are some kinds of microbes which have been
found to preserve their vitality after being
frozen in water for 81 DAYS The bacilli ol
onsumption-properly called tuberculosis
of the lungs-are very hardy. The sweep.
ings of q prison cell occupied two years
previously by a consumptive convict have
Welded multitudes of tubercular bacilH in
lively condition.
Given proper conditions of temperature
and dryness, and bacteria generally will
live for an indefinite time, though COM
pletely dessicated, just as eel-w will
do. All that is needed Is moisture to re-
store them to active life. A piece of chalk
cut from q quarry, effective precautions
being taken to prevent any bacteria from
getting into it from the air, is discovered
to contain quantities of microbes, which
become lively when the chalk is moistened,
though they have been lying torpid ever
since the chalk was originally formed, hun
dreds of thousands of years ago. Coal is
found to be filled with microbes, but they
are dead 1t is believed that they took an
important part in the making of the coal
Getting Rid of Cholera Forever.
The baeterloIogists say that some of the
diseases most fatal to mankind could be en-
tirely eradicated from the world, SO that
they would never be heard of again, if a
proper sanitary system was adopted every
where. Asiatic cholera, for example,
would disappear wholly, if all food and
water consumed by people for a while were
cooked, this complaint depending on human
beings for its propagation and distribution.
1t is q puzzle how the hostile bacteria
originally became parasites on man and pro-
ducers of diseases in his body. They must
all once have been feeders on dead matter,
and it may be supposed that after thousands
of years they accidentally acquired pro-
pertIes which rendered them dangerous to
the human race.
1t is tie boast of municipal and other
authorities in this country that our sanitary
ar langements are SO admirable Is to render
a serious epidemic of cholera in the United
States practically impossible. This is not
the view entertained BY the Government ex-
perts at Washington. They say that the
system of water supply all over the Union
is a menace to the public health, and that,
in case of trouble next summer, hardly q
community would be safe from defamation
from this source.
SteriIizing Milk for Babes.
The mortality OF the human race would be
enormously reduced BY boiling all drinking
water. Already the percentage of deaths
among infants has been greatly diminished
by the sterilizing OF milk fed to them, which
process destroys hosts of microbes that
swarm in the Tactic fluid, especially during
warm weather Before long it may be ex-
pected that the giving of uncooked milk to
little children will be thing of the past.
Most species of bacteria are friendly to
mankind. The world could hardly get
along without them, their most important
function being to make the processes of de-
cay and putrefaction. Without their
intervention all bodies after death would
retain their forms as in life, like the num-
mics of Egypt and the giants sunk in Dan
ish moors. In the mummies and in the
bogs chemical mixtures hinder the develop
ment of microbes and thus act as preserva-
tive agents. These micro-organisms are
part of the endless chain which sustains the
equilibrium of nature. Plants draw their
nourishment from mineral salts in the soil,
and are themselves eaten by animals An
imals in their turn are eventually devoured
by microbes, returning by putrefaction to
the condition of mineral salts, which are
distributed in the soil and serve anew for
the nutrition of plants