The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1908-08-07
DEATH IN SCHOOL DRINKING
CUPS.

| ,(By Alvin Dawson, MS, Phi. ID
Professor of Biology On Lafayette
College, and author of The Human
Body and Healthy hA
The greatest achievement of sci
ence in the opening of the twentieth
century Is the awakening of the peo
pie to the fact that most human dis
eases are preventable and large
proportion of early deaths avoidable
At least TOO, 900 of the million and q
half deaths occurring annually In the
United States result from the minute
parasitic plants and animals gaining
access to the body. These invisible
foes wage continual warfare
against both strong and weak, rich
and poor. Civic duty as well as sell
preservation demands that these life
destroyers should as far as possible
be shut out of the human system.
The death rate in any locality OF
country is usually true index OF
the habits and education of the peo-
pie in reference to the protection OF
health. In benighted Spain, twenty
seven out of every thousand inhabi-
tants annually, while in enlightened
Norway death claims yearly only IA
of each thousand residents. In New
Orleans the death rate among colored
the death rate among the colored
people is Al per thousand while
among the white race 1t is only 81
per thousand. Ignorance and negli-
gence in regard to the laws of SAM
tation invite sickness and death.
The chief avenue by which bacteria
enter the body is the mouth. The
air, food, water, and especially the
drinking cup are the usual means by
which the disease-producing para
sites are transferred from one person
to another. The purpose of this pa
per is to consider only the latter In
| it's relation to health.
| The evidence condemning the use
of the common drinking vessel upon
any occasion whether at school,
church or home is derived from three
sources: /. The frequent presence
| of disease-producing bacteria in the
mouth; 2. The detection of patha-
genie germs on the public cups; and
8. The discovery that where num-
Der of persons drank from cup
previously used by the sick, some of
them became i'll.
Recent Investigations show that
the germs of diptheria and grip fire.
quently remain from one to three
months in the mouths of the patients
after they have recovered from the
disease. The very extensive and care
full observations of the Minnesota
State Board of Health demonstrated
that in our half of the dipthera
cases, virulent germs remained in the
nose and throat of the patients three
weeks after recovery. Most careful
examinations by expert bacteriolo-
gists show that many of the common
sore ,llroats are really light cases of
diptheria. OF the 203S mild sore
threats examined in the school chill
dren of Hartford, Connecticut, 591
were shown to be due to the true
diptheria germ. The bacilli now un-
iversally employed in the making of
diptheria anti-toxin were first isolat-
ed from a mild sore throat. Bacteria
which in one person cause only slight
illness may when transferred to an
other individual produce serious dis
ease and death. This widely differ
ent effect of the same germ may be
due to the variation in the germ-kill-
ing power of the body tissues, or it
may result from new association with
other germs.
1t is an established fact that con-
siderable number of well persons
harbor in their mouths the germs of
grip, pneumonia, diptheria and tom
silitis. Examination of 1850 persons
by the Massachusetts Association of
the Boards of Health showed that
over one hundred of them carried
in their mouths virulent diptheria
germs. Pennington in 1907 found
virulent diptheria bacilli in nearly 5
percent of large number of appar-
emily healthy school children in Phil
adelphia. In Minnesota, true dip
iberia germs were found in the
mouths of 70 persons in every 1000
examined. The average results of a
large number of Investigations DEM
onstrate that nearly one per cent of
well persons carry in their mouths
true diptheria germs. In Boston 60
per cent of all cases of common ca
tarrh examined showed the presence
of grip bacilli. Considerable evidence
is at hand showing that the germs of
sore throat, pneumonia and bronchi-
tbs are present in many people who
mingle with the well and drink from
the public cups.
During the past six months I have
investigated by means of direct mi
croscopic examination, by cultures
and guina pig injections, the deposits
present on various public drinking
vessels. Cup No. l which had been
in use nine days in school was
clear thin glass. 1t was broken into
a number of pieces and properly
stained for examination with mi
croscope magnifying 1000 diameters.
The human cells scraped from the
lips of the drinkers were SO numer-
Gus on the upper third of the glass
that the head of a pin could not be
placed anywhere without touching
several of these bits of skin. The
saliva by running down on the in
side of the glass had carried cells
and bacteria to the bottom. Here,
however, they were less than one
third as abundant as at the brim.
BY counting the cells on so differ
ent areas on the glass as seen under