The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1904-08-23
BACTERIoLOGY AND CLEANLINESS

1t may be true that health and life
are at the mercy of billions of bac-
terra, divided into millions of classes.
Science, which is only dimly compre-
hended by the many, Is following this
theory into endless ramifications. What
the outcome may be no one can tell
There are eminent men who think that
| the tendency to reduce men and women
| to automatic will not he a complete
success. If it We're necessary to
| analyze physical conditions and sur
| roundngs and infinitely to apply the
rigid laws of chemistry. as prelude
to meals, sleep. exercise and recrea-
| ton. individuality might be lost and
existence become a wearisome mono
tony.
A few ancient observations are still
applicable to modern condtions-as for
example; Cleanliness is next to Cod
liness." Cardinal Gibbons proclaimed
THE sanctity of dirt" but it is an ac-
tual fact that dirt may be clean. At
all events, 1t is a general opinion that
clean men are the healthiest, the most
productive and the longest-lived. The
bath of our ancestors has not yet lost
its sanitary uses. 1t has been seized
by science and treated and christened
in hundred different ways, but plain
cold water is still recognized as one of
the surviving agents of refreshment
and strength. A man who wears one
shirt for "A month rarely achieves more
than filthy distinction. Women who
limit their nicely to external dress may
be attractive abroad but they are re-
pellent at home.
The alliance between cleanliness and
civilization is not confined to the per-
son, but extends to food the relation
between which and the digestive APP
paratus is very close and, through that
medium, affects the blood the nerves
and the brain. The transmission of
meat, groceries, milk, fruit and vege-
tables, from the point of distribution
to the consumer. may be fraught with
dire consequences, not only to the body
but to the mind. One pointed illustra-
ton, not uncommon in Honolulu, may
be suggestive. a Chinese yender of
fruits and vegetables calls at twenty
or thirty houses in single morning.
At the first house, he deposits his bas-
kets on the ground, and little pet dog
sticks its nose, and for that matter
its feet, into the potatoes, the celery,
the lettuce, all the vegetables and
fruits of which the little cargo Is made
up, and takes a delicate nip of any
thing that strikes its fancy. The
vender placidly surveys the process,
while the cook gently pets the four
footed brute and then, with unwashed
l,,,,N 1,
household. AT the next place, couple
of purring cats take the dogs place.
And so the alterations continue with
unfrequent exceptions, to the end OF
the journey. When the last purchase
has been made, If there be any truth
in bacteriology, the deposited accumu-
lation should be sufficient to infect a
whole community. Unscientific people,
however, who observe the facts, will
ask whether, in the interests of old
fashioned cleanliness, everything they
eat ought not to be fumigated.
The law cannot handle these matters,
beyond a very limited extent. 1t en-
deavors, not always successfully, to
protect milk against inconvertible dirt
and nasty adulteration. But 1t cannot
accompany food or human beings in
all their DISCUSSES, transformations and
journeys. Cleanliness depends upon
training, discipline, habit, tone, OBJ
servation, and a hundred factors of
which civilized individuals are supposed
to be possessed. Good housewives,
who give little personal attention to
domestic details, every day prove the
truth of the axiom quoted, and are
potent adjuncts to the church and to
| decent society.