The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-12-27
MICROBES IN FOOD.
Nothing Surely Free from Disease
 Germs Unless Cooked.

Germs Unless Cooked.
 Prevention as well as the cure has come to be one of the objects of mod ern medicine. To this end an article appearing in the monthly publication of the New York Post-Graduate Hos pital emphasizes the importance of guarding more carefully than is done at present against infection through food and drink. Even eggs which now the public regards as one of the few absolutely safe foods, are objects of suspicion, and are said to contain harmful microbes that have sealed be- meath the shell in the process of form ation before the egg is laid,
 "There can be no doubt" says the article, that the whipped cream of pastries, which sometimes causes very serious illness, owes it's harmfulness to raw or insufTiciently boiled white of egg.'
 Boiling or the application of suffi- cient degree of dry heat, is the pana- cea for microbes in all cases, and no food or drink, it is held, should be taken which has not been so sterilized
 While the public nowadays is con- vinced of the wisdom of boiling water for drinking purposes, there is an equ- ally widespread prejudice that such water tastes bad" and is unwl1ole- some. In reality, it is held, boiled water tastes no different from the raw article, and simple experiment, as- cribed to noted Italian scientist. seems to prove it. Fill a number of -.Ia al Tor from the same source, and then have the samples tasted by some one who does not know which is which, AL most invariably the taster is unable to differentiate between the two kinds of water. As to it's healthfulness the boiled water is said by physicians to be satisfactory in every respect. While people generally are thus aware of the efficacy of Eterilizing drinking water, even though they do not always act upon their knowledge, it is not clearly understood that solids require the same treatment Tn point of fact, nothing should be allowed to enter the digestive tract through the mouth until 1t has been adequately cooked. Once within the body food microbes proceed to the intestinal and then, if circumstances are propitious, enter the blood by penetrating it's walls, producing various diseases. This Is now known to be a likely method for tuberculosis infection, ex- periments carried out upon sheep and goats having proved conclusively that when the animals were forced to swal- low food carrying the tubercle bacilli tuberculosis ensued. It is said that directly after a meal has been. eaten the microbes of the digestive tract is the most likely period for their es- cape through the intestinal walls into the blood A curious fact in this con- nection is that the white corpuscles whose duty 1t is to wage perDet- ual warfare upon all dangerous invad- ing microbes and parasites, are pre- sent In the blood in greater number directly after a meal than at any other time
 But if this method of entry for many forms of disease is incontrovertible it is just as true that by scrupulous and persistent care the evil may be almost entirely obviated. In fact, 1t is a far easier task than guarding against dis eases, such as yellow fever, that are spread by the bites of various insects. The mosquito which innoculatels with this scourge is ever vigilant and is likely at any moment to take one unawares. and this may be said also of the parasites that cause such dis eases as Texas fever, relapsing fever, sleeping sickness and bubonic plague. Yet these diseases have all been checked. Typhus, tuberculosis, in short, any of the germs of which en- ter through the mouth might almost become unheard of if individuals would insist upon eating and drinking only that which had been sterilized, and measures, irksome at first, perhaps for killing microbes in food would soon become a part of the daily routine.
 Milk, which Is admitted to be fre- ouent source of infection, and about which so much has been said, should under no circumstance be taken raw if one wishes to be absolutely safe. This is particularly emphazied when It is used as a babieis' food even despite the fact that raw milk is said to be l!t- tie more easily digested. Physicians say that this defect will scarcely ever be of weight if sufficient care is taken to keep feeding bottles and spoons clean.
 All vegetables states the author of the article in the "Post-Graduate," should unquestionably be boiled. Ra- dishes. lettuces and celery eaten raw are likely to introduce into the system death dealing microbes, which under favorable circumstances may escape from the intestinal canal, wher they properly belong. A case is cited in which germ laden vegetables were re- sponsible for several cases of appen- dictis in one family with such fre- uuency that an investigation was con- ducted by the physician to discover the cause. Four of the family owning the estate ravaged by appendicitis had been forced to undergo operation, and a number of the servants exhauted symptoms of the disease. Investiga- tion disclosed the fact that everything about the estate was kept with scrul- ous care. In the garden which sup piled the place with fresh vegetables was discovered the source of infection, despite the fact that apparently there was no way in which 1t could have