Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-09-16
WHAT THERE IS IN DIST
starch Grains and Other Things
Which Few People Think of

TO her to wonder what is this ever-aco,,,,,,
latlng dust of which she COMPLAINS yat
there are ever SO many strange things tn
be told about it,
Of all the materials of which dnst 60 co,r-
posed the most interesting is starch In
every pinch of dust there is more ar less
Oh thls ingredient in the shape of oval and
spherlcal grains. The dust found in collins
with old Egyptian mummies contains
starch grains just like those which fly
about in the air today
a scientist with an inquiring mind once
TOOK the trouble to examine under a .nicro-
scope specimens Of dust which had pene-
trateo the skulls Of animals embalme,i in
the days Of the Pharaohs. The samples re-
Vealed the same kind Of grains of starch.
Such grains are always in everybody's
clothes and on the hands. Press your
moistened finger upon a clean piece of
glass. and on looking at the latter with a
microscope you will discover several starch
grains. Wash your hands a dozen times
anu every repetition OF the experiment Will
produce the same result.
Where does all this starch coma from7 ,
Inc answer is: From the food of mankind
Nheat, barley, rice. potatoes etc are
largely composed of starch. Little grains
OF IL are widely scattered by the winds and
being very light are held in suspension
For the reason above mentioned much
more. starch is TO be found in the inst ~
cities than in that of the country, where
population Is comparatively sparse Thrs
IT may be said that in every town a ,.nad
OF starch always hangs in the air How
ever, the dust that blows through the
streets. which settles upon furniture end
makes work for the housewife contains
ever so many other things besides starch
rake small pinch OF II at random and ex
anime IL at leisure Perchance Won will cis
cover among II a fiber of wood a scale OF
human epidermis. a fragment of the hair
oi uog. piece of an insects claw the
snen OF an animalcule and the spore of a
pant awaiting proper resting place with
species. us
These are all organic Substances .n,r,.,
or vegetable. Dust contains much inor-
sanic matter, particularly small particles
OF silica On account of their size ana
shape such particles were for a long tin,s
mistaken Tor eggs Of some kind but this
notion was finally exploded by making
chemical analyses OF the alleged eggs The
history or single one of these fragments
would be most interesting to know.
Ever SO long ago perhaps IL was mart ~
rock. The waves wore it away from the
parent stone and threw IL into a bean or
SAND on the shore. After a while the wind
caught II and flung it upon the upland,
ram took 1t from the ground and hurried
II along to river. The river carried II 10
ehe sea From the sea water IL was taken
by an oyster to build the latter's she'll The
noil , was caught end eaten. and the
smell, belnS thrown away. was trampled
upon, powdered and dispersed by the
breezes. Thus the particle whose story Is
mere related was set afloat in the atmos-
phere. TO fall at length upon your library
tabie and to afford a subject for speculation
beneath your microscope
AS you walk down the street on one of
these breezy autumn days cloud of 6ust
Is blown In you- face, almost sitting you.
81 mix fn1ra c;x
fragments Of sand. But, IL YOU will take a
pinch OF IL home and subject IL to examina
ton, you will find that il contains an ey-
traordinary variety of other things such
as the broken fbers of plants pollen fine
hairs, fbers of clothing and other fairies
particles of lime and SCOT. the pulverized
excreta of various domestic animals. ashes
and clusters Of different kinds of micro
organisms
When ray Of sunlight streams into q
darkened room 1t reveals the finer dust
particles which always fill the air thouoh
ordinarily invisible to the eye Dr. Prud-
den who has made a study of this subject
says that the particles in question consist
mostly of fragments Of vegetable and ami
mai fbers, such as cotton and wool and of
an enormous variety of micro-o-ganisms
slngiy or IN masses such as bacteria and
the spores of mold plants Such are the
notes in the sunbeam" respecting which
so many poetic ideas have been expressed
NOT a Few or them are germs capable Of
tneN
happen to find Judgment in the human
system.
The authority above quoted says that
with every twenty breaths a human being
inhales from Ii to 376 germs together with
varying amount of inorganic matter In a
town. of course the micro-organisms are
much thicker than in the compa ra tixeIv
pure country air. Such foreign particles
are mostly caught in the mouth, nose and
upper throat or swallowed, while a certain
number pass into the air tubes or lungs
But to drive out all intrusive germs and
particles nature has established wonder
full arrangement The interior walls of the
windpipe and bronchial tubes are lined with
a sort of mosaic Of tiny cells. Each of
these cells stands on end and has a sort of
beard of very small hairs at its extremity
rms beard serves as a broom, with which
the little cell is constantly sweeping night
and day. So long as life stays in the body
these thousands of sweepers go on sweeping
all foreign material UP toward the mouth
In ract. they usually Keep at 1t for long
time after death has arrived, being the last
portions Of the body to give II up and die
Floating about the body with the blood
are numerous cells which seem to go around
on their own hook. In the lungs they are
found In great numbers When they come
across any disease germ other foreign
particle, they eat it up or carry 1t away TO
some place where 1t cannot do any harm.
Thus they serve the purpose Of scavengers
Unfortunately. so many wicked germs are
floating about in the dust that occa sionally
they make their way into the system oS .
healthy person and cause trouble Nost
dreadful Of all such micro-organisms ia the
bacillus of consumption, which breeds in tha
human lungs and destroys them. Cbolara
has been exciting much dismay of late h,t
1t Is complaint Of tritiing fmnortance
compared with consumption In Enrone
1000 persons die every day Of consumntinn
while in the United States the Same dis'
ease kills 100000 people a year
III you want to get notion of the nrev,-
fence of germs in the air. set a plass ..
fresh water on the mantepiece and leave ~
there for three or four days. At the en6
OF that time II will be covered with a sort
OF scum which looks like a layer Of ans,
This scum, when examined under a micro-
scope, will be found to be a mass OF Uyin,
In ordinary dust are many living nn,cro-
scopic animals, such as the rotifers These
little creatures may be dried for an in
definite period, but will come to life again
when moistened. 1t is said that individuals
have been desiccated and revived again q g
often as hfteen times. A romantic write-
has told the story of a rotifer which, hay-
ing seen something of life in a gutter at
ancient Memphis. was blown as dust to
Carthage, carried as dust TO Rome
thence conveyed to Constantinople, was
shaken from the Code OF Justinian, ac-
companied the crusaders to Jerusalem and
was eventually Brought back from the
Holy Land by modern eXcursionist to see
more of life in gutter in New York.
FOR sLEEPLEsSNESS