The Hawaiian gazette., 1905-11-21

TO enter, perhaps, into the erection OF
other and modern structures. So the
busy workmen, known as bacteria, by
seizing upon certain elements of the
dead material which they select as
food produce the chemical changes
which we call putrifaction or decom-
position, or rotting, but 1t is simply
taking down the old wornout struc-
ture and converting the building nate
rial. the carbon. the oxygen, the nitro
gen. the hydrogen. the lime and what
not to other uses. Nothing lost or
wasted in nature. nothing is ami
hilated. the building material is avail
able for use again and again over and
over. The hymn-writer who said
Change and decay in all around I see'
was literally correct. Were 10 not
so, this earth, with its piled UP ac-
cumulation of dead vegetable and ami
NAL matter would soon become unin-
habitable. And not only on land, in
field, and forest. in mountain and val
ley do we find this incessant work GO
ing on of disintegrating dead animal
and vegetable matter. but in rivers and
and lakes as WE'LL 1t has long been
observed that the water of a river re-
ceiving the sewage of whole city
showed a tendency to cleanse and puri-
fy itself so that few miles down
stream. the water became as clear and
fresh as that above the city, but In
recent years only have we learned
that the true scavensers were the bac-
terra contained in the sewage itself
destroying its physical character by
setting UP chemical action, thus trans
mitting its very nature into soluble
and innocuous forms. Acting upon the
hint thus derived from nature, a re-
cent method of disposing of sewage
known as the alter bed process al
though wrongly named as 1t is not a
filter at all, consists ny conducting
the city's sewage out of town to a
lower level into great shallow basins
or reservoirs where in few days
time, by bacterial action, 1t Is abso-
lutely physically ana chemically
changed into new compounds. sanitary
and inoffensive. This marvellous
agency of nature in thus disposing Of
dead animal and vegetable matter by
decomposition ordinarily offensive to
the smell and repulsive to the sight,
becomes endowed with a fascinating
interest as we discover the process and
the cause. The present writer is forci-
bly, reminded of a classroom remark of
our professor of Moral Philosophy in
college many years ago, Gentlemen,
there is nothing disgusting in the uni
verse-except sim"
1t Is only in very recent times that
we have come to appreciate the very
important agency of these bacteria
which inaugurate the chemical changes
by which the worlds great process of
self-cleansing are accomplished. In the
work of these little omnipresent, but
invisible micro-organisms, we read the
secret of Natures eternal freshness. +"
DIR. Mcdonald then passed to the con-
sideration of the beneficent bacteria in
relation to agriculture. In the very
formation of the soil itself, and the work
OF the so-called "nitrifying bacteria" in
producing nitrites and nitrates In the
soil for the use Of growing plants and
their intimate relation to the chemistry
of fertilizers.
The Doctor next took up the bacteri-
ology Of dairying, butter and cheese
making, showing that the choice aromas
and fiavors in the most wholesome but
ter and cheese are due to bacteria. He
also briefly reviewed the invaluable
work of bacteria in arts and manu-
factures. affirming that for every yard
of linen In use in the world today we
are indebted directly to bacteria for
softening the cementing substance
which binds together the long valuable
fibres of flax to the worthless woody
portion of the stalk and no other de-
vice for their separation independent
of bacteria has yet been devised.
OTHER PAPERS.
In the absence OF DIR. Dinegar, his
paper went over until Monday.
Dr. Goodhue was also absent, but
part of his paper advocating a school
of tropical medicine in Honolulu like
those in London and Edinburgh was
read by DR.. Cooper. He says that
many tropical and substantial diseases
which were of very little interest to the
United States before the Spanish war
have now become intimately associat-
ed with the nation and need attention.
The exceptional opportunities offered in
Hawaii, with practically all Of the sub
tropical races of the American possess
sions represented here, were enlarged
upon, and at the close of the paper
Drs. Sinclair, Cofer and Goodhue were
appointed a committee to consider the
proposition and report next year.
DR.. Judd here announced that the
clinic at the Queens Hospital would be
held at nine o'clock instead of eight
thirty.
DIR. W. f. Taylor presented a very
interesting address of a technical ma
ture upon pecullarlties of certain
diseases of the throat, or more exact
ly, the trachea, or windpipe.
The association will go to waialua
this afternoon for an outing.
The program for the banquet to be
given Monday evening is as follows:
Our Committee of Arrangements DIR.
Armitage; our Out of Town Mem
bers," DR.. Bond; our Honorary Mem
bers," DR.. Cofer; "The American Medi-
cal Association" DR.. Wayson,' late
delegate thereto from Hawaii; "The
Territorial Board of Health" President
Pinkham; "Our Patients" DR.. Judd;
THE Ladies'" DR.. Humphris; and lie