The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-09
SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE.
A Scientist and Expert Tells How 1T Is
Spreading Among the People.

ut Is astonishing how scientific ideas and
knowledge are spreading" said we'll
known druggist and chemist of this city
few days ago. The speaker has done as
much as any other person in the State to
disseminate meteorological knowledge, In
Guiding a demand for the fumigation of
schools books and slate pencils and a pop
ular horror of drinking twice out of the
same cup. 1.-THE spread of scientific knowl-
edge among the people," he said, lis really
astonishing. OF course, when l say the
people, mean the common people who get
their knowledge second hand and not from
original sources or analyses, either quanti-
tative or qualitative. The average man,
you know" continued the expert, ''imagines
that he is living while all the time he is dy-
ing at the rate of millions Of microbes a
second. For his own happiness it is best
that he should imagine he is living, but in
the interest of science it is infinitely i'm
portant that he should know he is dying,
and that every breath he draws and every
mouthful of food he eats contributes to his
early and inevitable dissolution. If it is
surprising that so many school children
survive the deadly slate-pencil and school
book era it is really amazing that
considerable number of adults should out
live the fatal tin cup, the decimating gourd,
and the numberless appliances by which
the propagandism of bacteria is kept up.
1t is very gratifying to us scientists to
kTsSssy that our efforts to disseminate this
kind of knowledge among the people are be-
ginning to bear fruit
"Only few days ago a gentleman, per-
haps l should say man, came into my
store and asked if we had Vichy water. /
said yes, and he asked for glass. was
about to draw it in one of my tumblers
when he said:. Stop, please; where, was
know, and he said: DO you know If the
materials used in it's manufacture have ever
been analysed, and if so what amount OF
organic matter they contained? l said
I did not, but that had every reason to
believe the glass was pure. Has any per-
son ever drank out of it?' asked the man.
1 told him that many persons had used it,
but that 1t had been often washed and
wiped. Then he wanted to know If the
water in which the glass was washed had
been analysed and if the towel with which
it was wiped had been fumigated: told
him we used only distilled water and
medicinal towels. But are you and your
clerks immune" he said | asked him what
the ultimate examination for bacteria and
microbes and received a certificate of consti-
tutional immunity?' / told him that, to be
frank, we had not, whereupOn he asked me
water in his own hands and he would drink
it that way. I will not trust your glasses
he said, but I am immune drew him
half a pint Of Vichy water and he drank
it out of his own hands. 1t was the best
illustration of poplar advancement in scien-
tific knowledge / ever saw. OF course, the
water might have killed him, because it
had only been boiled once and the pipe
through which it was drawn had never
been baked and was not porcelain lined, but
the confidence he showed in drinking it out
of his own hands, because they were i'm
mune was an inspiration to me. 1t showed
that scientific knowledge is spreading"