Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1910-05-13
Number of Microbes in a Dish of
the Confection Exceeds Two
Billions.
FOUND BY PROFESSOR BILLINGS
As the Age Of the Delicacy Increases
the More Bugs One Gets for
His Money.

When one purchases a dish of ice
cream he buys, in addition to the
cream, 2,522,656,OO0 germs and he
eats that number when he consumes
the ice cream, says the New York
correspondent Of the Cincinnati En-
quirer. That is the number of mic
robes found by Prof. F. II. Billings of
the Kansas University, psychological
laboratories, in ten cents worth of
fresh ice cream. Prof. Billings has
been conducting experiments in
germs in ice cream for six months,
and his conclusions are that there are
never fewer than 2,500,000,000 kicking
squirming microbes in the average
dish of real fresh ice cream-that
which is not more than day old.
AS the age OF the cream increases
the more bugs one gets for the same
money. The smallest number of mic
robes found in ice cream three days
old was 3,941 ,666,666 These figures
are for the cleanest, purest and best
of Ice cream that Prof. Billings could
buy. The number of microscopic or
gan1sms in cream prepared under
none too strict sanitary conditions is
very much greater than these figures
show. The university has just sent
out bulletin on the subject of germs
in Ice cream. This says in part:
Gold Is unquestionably unfavor-
able to the activity of the germs, but
the experiments showed that germs
are the most resistant to extremes of
temperature of all known organisms.
Often one thinks nothing of using ice
from a river when one would not
think of drinking the water from the
same stream. The process of freezing
removes some of the germs, but others
will live in the ice all summer and
have their activity restored when they
are put into pitcher with the ice to
make cooling drink.
"The experiments proved that germs
increased in number in stored ice
tested 100000 germs to the cubic
centimeter. After three days storage
in frozen state the number of germs
in the same sample had gone up to
25,000,000 to each cubic centimeter.
Tuberculosis germs have lived for
forty-ive days in the laboratories
when they were kept at temperature
of 345 degrees below freezing. The
germs lost none of their vitality or
virulence in that time. Other germs
have stood equally severe tests with
out injury.
"Cold cannot be depended upon as a
germ exterminator, but the winter is
bad time for the microbes. They
have fewer opportunities to get in
their deadly work. The cold weather
renders the germs less active and they
are not so harmful. Sufficient use of
ice during the summer months will
stop the ravages of the germs in warm
weather. 1t is impossible to find milk
that is free from germs. Some milk
has many millions fewer germs than
other milk, depending upon the sani-
tary conditions of the dairy and how
the milk is handled. The fifth germs
kill many bottle-fed infants, and in
FAINT mortality is most prevalent in
warm weather, when the germs are
most active. Keeping the milk cold
in warm weather does not reduce the
number, in fact, 1t increases the mum.
ber, but 1t makes the germs less active
and hence less harmful"