The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-08

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 some- thing about 1t and guarantee the puri- | ty 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 measures of it's present development to methods de- vsed and obstacles overcome in the biological department of the Institute | of Technology. Mir. w. Lyman Under wood and Professor Prescott have de- voted years of study to it's peculiar
 ster began. packers found that in some mysterious way can after can dis closed. when opened, n black mass with no resemblance to th6 delicate crusta- cean. which had been sealed up In it fresh from the kettle and treated with
 the greatest care. After all manner of experiments the biologists found during the various processes and lay quiescent until they had been safely | enclosed and sent along to a grocery store. Then they set to work to dis cover a way of getting rid of this ob- | jectionable little creature, and when | they had found 1t the whole difficulty disappeared.
 
 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 remedied. as most things have to be in this world. by removing the cause. All sorts of puzzling 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 dustrial bacteriologist's proposition. For example. man who has formulat- ed a new disinfectant which he Is try ing to sell to drug houses and grocers and is anxious to introduce to boards of health, must prove that 1t will not only kill odors and destroy some kinds of disease germs but that 1t will abso- lutely annihilate every sort of germ. The physician Is not satisfied with any but laboratory proof: and in the cup boards of the bio-chemical laboratory are sets of test tubes in which. care fully nurtured on beef broth and gela- tine. are 1ourishing little colonies of all sorts of medical terrors--the germs of tuberculosis, typhoid, diphtheria. glanders and the rest of the list. When dlsinfectant is brought in for test bacteria are taken out of each of these tubes and subjected to the liquid. Thus, just what 1t will do is proved conclusively. 8
 The industrial bacteriologist's clients include almost everybody from the producer through the wholesaler and Jobber to the consumer. He is a most useful ally for the physician, who can have a certain amount of his investi- gating done by the board of health. of course. but frequently wants special examinations for his own satisfaction. The branch of this sort of investiga- tion which plays so important a part in modern criminal cases, the examina- tion of blood and blood stains, Is one of the fields the germ hunter is taking to himself Though he has but just hung out his shingle, so to speak. the industrial biologist has evidently set a new profession going, one which will grow and spread. no doubt, in the same marvellous fashion and with the same excellent results as the experience of the industrial chemist has shown.