Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1905-10-19

from which the harvest is cut; yet if
there is anything unwholesome in the
ice he sells his customers are quick
70 place the blame on him. For him
1.-THE industrial biologist puts samples
lof ice from each supply pond to the
tests for water purity, and examines
1.-THE source Of supply itself, from the
lpoint of view of the sanitarian. There
are good many people, especially in
the larger cities, who want to know
something about where the ice comes
FROM" and the dealer who can tell
them something about it and guaran-
tee the purity of what he sells is the
man who gets the trade.
The modern canning industry, which
embraces nearly every imaginable
kind of food, owes quite a measure OF
its present development to methods
devised and obstacles overcome in the
biological department of the Institute
Iof Technology. Mr.. w. Lyman Under
wood and Professor Prescott have de-
voted years of study to it's peculiar
problems. When the canning of lob
sier began, packers found that In
some mysterious way can after can
disclosed, when opened, black mass
with no resemblance to the delicate
crustacean, which had been sealed up
In 1t fresh from the kettle and treated
with the greatest care. After all man
ner of experiments the biologists
found little bacteria that crept in
somewhere during the various pro-
cesses and lay quiescent until they
had been safely enclosed and sent
along to a grocery store Then they
set to work to discover a way of get
ting rid of this Objectionable little
creature. and when they mad found 1t
the whole difficulty disappeared.
Canned vegetables were at one time
very subject to fermentation and
would sometimes generate enough gas
to swell the tins in which they were
packed or even burst them This,
again, was traced to the activity of
micro-organisms and was remedieG, as
most things have to be in this world,
by removing the cause. All sorts of
puzzllng conditions have arisen in
manufacturing processes that involve
alcoholic fermentation and many of
these, too, are now known To be the
work Of bacteria.
In some departments of his work
there is a SORT of converse to the in
dustIial psychologists proposition.
For example, a man who has formu-
lated q new disinfoctant which he is
! trying to sell to drug houses and
grocers and is anxious 10 introduce
tn boards of health, must prove that il
Will not only kin doors and destroy
some kinds of disease germs, but that
1t will absolutely annihilate every
sort of germ. The physician is not
satisfied with any but a laboratory
proof; and in the cupboards OF the
bio-chemical laboratory are sets OF
test tubes in which, carefully nurtured
OH beef broth and gelatine, are flour.
ishing little colonies of all sorts OF
medical terrors-the germs of tubercu
losis, typhoid. diphtheria, CHAMBERS and
the rest of the list. When a disln
fectant is brought in for test, bacteria
are taken out of each of these tubes
; and subjected to the liquid. Thus
Just what it will do is proved con
clusively.
The industrial bacteriologist' 5
clients include almost everybody from
the producer through the wholesaler
and jobber to the consumer. He is a
most useful ally for the physician
whc can have a certain amount of his
/, investigating done by the board OF
health, of course, but frequently
wants special examinations for his
own satisfaction. The branch of this
sort of investigation which plays sc
important a part in modern crimina
: cases, the examination of blood anC
blood stains, is one of the fields the
germ hunter is taking to himself
/, Though he has but just hung out his
single, so TO speak, the industrial
biologist has evidently set a new pro
fession going, one which win grow ant
spread, no doubt, In the same marve
Gus fashion and with the same excel
: lent results as the experience of tn,
industrial chemist has shown.