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

among industrial scientists. 1t Is his
business to drive from cover all the
mischievous microbes that worry
folks so nowadays, and tell the
anxious layman how they may be kept
out of their favorite lurking places.
And he is not only a purveyor of the
accumulated knowledge of the ages,
but an investigator and experimenter
in fields the pure scientist" has no
occasion TO enter.
That germ hunting should become a
commercial occupation is characters
tic of the twentieth century. When
the germ theory was first conclusively
proved-what came very near being a
panic resulted. Everything, from eat
ing to kissing, was declared to be
frought with microbic danger. But in
a dozen or fifteen years scientists
have put germs in their proper place,
and while good many things which
once seemed mysterious have been
traced to malicious little micro
organisms, many of the bugs" once
so dreaded because so little known
are now identified as harmless, and
many others as even helpful.
Practical biology, as one might call
the industrial application of the scien-
tific study of germs, has been an inn
portant department at the Massachu-
sets Institute of Technology for many
years. in fact, no small share of it's de-
yelopment is due TO work done there.
The institute established the first
water filtration and sewage disposal
experiment stations in this country,
and 1t gives much attention to train
ing sanitary engineers.
Specially interesting, though, at this
time, when the subject of pure food
is being so widely agitated, is the
other side of industrial biology-the
examination of milk, ice, fresh and
canned meats, vegetables and fruit;
the consideration OF processes of fer
mentation, as in vinegar making or
brewing; the study of the part played
by bacteria in manufacturing indus
tries, even, like tanning, and SO on,
The farmer and dairyman have found
how to make good microbes" help
them sweeten their butter and ripen
their cheese, as well as fertilize their
fields, and now comes the industrial
biologist as assistant to the consumer,
too.
The success already made by the
biochemical interchangeable first in
the country-just opened by Professor
S. C. Prescott of the institute reveals
a new field for the man of modern
scientific training. It Is predicted that
It will not be long before every city In
the country will be provided with one
OF these new-fangled laboratories, anc
that the industrial biologist WILL in
the near future, be as important q
person in his way as the industrial
chemist already is.
The problems that are brought t.
Professor Prescott's Investigators ar,
intensely interesting an6 intensel!
practical. For instance. large mill
contractor serving hundreds of pa
irons in tho city, is anxious to know
the exact condition of his supply
which he buys from 200 or NOR,
dairies ana farms scattered about New
England. Not only is ii good busi
ness" for him to make sure he is civ
Ing his patrons only what is pure an,
wholesome, but. by their searching In
spection methods, boards of healtl
and local authorities generally arr
leading dealers in all manner of house
nold supplies to have closer regar
for the quality of what they sell thar
used to be thought necessary.
The board of health inspectors hav
such enormous quantities of this
that and the other to look into that
naturally, they cannot keep the dali,
supervision over every shipment tina
comes into market. The millSmal
cannot depend on them to be poste,
as To how well his farmers and dairy
men are living up to their contract
all the time. So he engages the in
dustrial biologist to examine his SUI
ply for him, find just how near tn
standard that part OF 1t furnished b
each producer is, and recommend an.
measures that viii improve the qua
ity and thereby help his. trade. Tn,
biologists work goes beyond mer
laboratory examination of sample:
He visits each dairy; observes tn
methods it employs, notes its ID
gree of cleanliness and the way
cares for It's cattle, its cans and II
buildings; tests the water supply an
pasturage-for both of these ar
known to have no little effect on tn
quality of milk: and reports that tn
remedy for the deficiency lies in tn
hands of the veterinary, the sanitar
engineer, or the farmer and his hell
ers, as the case may he.
Milk has been so much talked abou
as a conveyance of germs that peopl
are more particular about milk tina
any other kind OF fool, probably. We
the ice dealer is in a position not yer
different from the milk contractor
He buys from the owners of a score {
different lakes and ponds; he cannc
IA, 4