The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1905-09-22
MILLION BACTERIA
GERMS THE LIMIT
MORE IN CUBIC cENTlMETER OF
MILK BARS PRODUCT.
Interesting Lecture by Albert vii.
lisms, Former Graduate Of the
Canton High School.


Albert williams, a graduate of the.
class of '01 of the local high school, but
who is now attending the University of
Pennsylvania, was at the high school
all day yesterday and lectured to the
different classes in physics and chem
istry on the subject, Bacteria" Mr..
Williams is studying medicine and is
making special study of bacteria His
addresses were very interesting and
much useful knowledge was gained by
the pupils in these branches.
Mr.. Williams said in part: Most
people have an erroneous idea of bac-
terra, the common impression being
that they are small terrors lurking in
the cutters, in our food, ETC., which are
only awaiting chance to prey upon a
human being. In a measure this is
correct, but as general idea 1t is
wrong, for only very small amount of
the bacteria that are In the world are
harmful, while the greater part are
productive of good and are really nee
essary to human life. They are also
of much use among the manufacturers;
for example, the brewing companies
breed colonies of bacteria to use in the
fermentation of their products. This
Is very great item in their work.
"The bacteria will, under favorable
circumstances, multiply once in every
20 to 80 minutes, and, taking one germ
as beginning, and placing 1t under
the right conditions, in about "a hours
we will have over 5000, 100000 bac-
terra germs. The germs live on organ
ic matter, and unless such matter is
present the germs will not multiply
but they have a peculiar property that
will allow them to lie dormant under
adverse circumstances, but when again
placed in proper surroundings they will
again multiply. This is especially true
of the tuberculosis germ, but not so
much so of the diphtheria germs as is
commonly supposed.
THE law allows that not over 1,000,-
900 bacteria germs must be contained
in milk to the cubic centimeter. II
there are more than this, the law will
not allow the milk to be sold.
"As an example Of the development
of diseases, we will take the typhoid
fever germ. If glass of infected wat
er is taken by person, the chances
of getting fever are small, for 1t is
likely that not more than half a dozen
of the germs will be found in the glass
of water, and these few. the system is /
able to take care of and throw off. |
However, suppose that in washing a
pan with such water, one germ is left
in the pan and then milk placed there
in. Inside of "a hours this one bac-
terra will have multiplied to about
100000. Then 1t is that the human
system cannot throw off the effect of
the germs These germs ssinfect the
blood and form what are called toxins,
and these are what cause the disease.
In the stomach is a certain amount of
hydrocloric acid and in the intestines is
the bile both of these are for the pur-
pose of destroying the germs, but in
case the germs are so great in number
that neither of the above mentioned
acids will throw them off, the white
corpuscles in the blood give off sub
stance which we style anti-toxine. This
is largely used In the treatment of
diphtheria cases"
Mr.. Williams then continued, telling
of the way in which the anti-toxine
was secured from infected cows and
horses His address was of especial in
terest at present on account of the
presence of diphtheria in the city.