The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-10-11
SANITARY METAL MONEY.

When it is remembered that money
clreulates daily in all classes of people
we little wonder at the spread of dis
ease. IT the reader will pause a min
ute and trace silver quarter or dime
through its various travels he or she
Will see that it is not always in good
company. Start with a dime, for in
stance. 1t is tossed to the diseased
peggar, who puts it down in his dirty
pocket until his thirst for drink impels
MIN to slide it over the filthy bar of
the dive saloon for beer. 1t is drop
pea INTO the till with numerous other
questionable characters, and melted out
IN cnange, when money of larger de-
nomination comes in, perhaps to some
other 1requenter whose cleanliness and
health are not beyond reproach. He
may take it home and to amuSe the
Daoy. While his wife is preparing sup
per, let 1t have the coin to play with
1he instinct of all babies is put every
thlng they get in their hands on into
thelr mouths. If disease is not here
communicated to the baby it, in a. ne
elected moment, swallows the dime,
and it is lost, but for a time only. for
IT'S appearance is watched for, and on
being regained, none the worse for its
intrinsic value, it is sent to the baker
or butcher for something more palat-
aple. Here it is soon turned back to
another customer, perhaps the lemon
c0lOred almond eyed, pig tailed, opium
hend-a Monaghan, who carries it to
MS den, where vile diseases. even lep-
rosy, may exist. He waddles out to
deliver some ones laundry and takes
the dime for car fare. In order to
| have it in a convenient place, not be-
D TrTC rrlaT
both of them occupied, ne sticks it in
his ear, as is his custom. Sitting across
from the Chinaman is perchance a
lady one who is pointed at as a leader
OF fashion. She got on the car hur-
rIedly and is completing the toilet by
putting a dainty pair of kid gloves on
dainter pair of hands. In this she
is absorbed. and sees none of her fell
low passengers. Between her lips she
has put a. quarter to pay her fare. The
conductor comes in, collects her quar-
ter, and returns as part of her change
the dime which the Chinaman takes
from his ear. She. in her innocent OBJ
livion, puts the two dimes between
her lips. much to the amusement OF
other passengers, and possibly to the
degrade ton of her health. This is only
one of the many by-paths a little piec9
of money may take.
No material is more adapted for the
. use of money to the common people
than silver. Its chemistry fits it for
this use. Gold is less susceptible to
chemical changes. hence germs may
adhere to it and live. Silver forms
many chemical changes which are an
tagonistic to germ life. Even in the
atmosphere it becomes coated with an
| oxide. Where there is sulphur fumes.
ever 50 mild, a sulphide forms, and in
many cases a nitrate. All of these
products are germacides, and but very
small quantities of the silver are alb
sorbed. Dr. Young II. Bond of st.
Louis. attributes a marked part of pre-
antiseptic successful surgery to the usa
of silver wire sutures.
Paper money is a regular hot bed for
| disease germs. though it is handled far
more carefully than gold or silver Tt
| being soft and porous. moist. and hav-
ing a large absorbing surface, tends to
cultivate whatever adheres to it. Gold
is inactive and nOn-corrosive to germ
life. Silver Of its own accord and
naturally tends to disinfect itself. Thus
we observe that silver Is a natural
scientific medium of exchange. and if
fnanciers and politicians cannot ar.
range for its use as money. the scien4
fists should. II. n. MAYO, M. d.