Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1912-05-02
GOOD WORK OF
PUBLIC HEALTH
LABORATORY

One of the three branches of the
state public health laboratory was es
tablished at the capitol in 1910 and is
doing a great work in aiding physici
ans throughout the state in making
diagnosis and to this end makes, free
of charge, examination of sputun
from persons suspected of having tu'
berculosis, blood from cases Of ty
phoid fever, etc. The work is in charge
of Alfred Larson, a skilled bacteriol
Ogist, and he says that it is the gen
eral impression that all bacteria ex
lists simply for the purpose Of causing
disease The varieties that do this
however, are few in number compared
with a great host, taat indirectly are
working for the good of man. The
soil bacteria causing decay are the
latter kind. In damp soils every
clump of earth is the home of mil
lions of germs that are busily dissolv-
ing dead animals and vegetable mat.
ter changing sewage, animal remains
and dead vegetation into substances
that can be taken up and used as food
by the growing plants.
These bacteria act in double ca
pacitq. First as scavengers, they are
natures way Of burning up waste &C
the surface Of the earth. Secondly,
they prepare food for the plants. Man
ure, dead animal and vegetable matter
are of no use to plant life until these
bacteria have changed them into very
simple chemical substances 1t is
were not for these bacterial processe
plants would starve however rich the
soil would be with dead vegetation.
Each substance thrown upon the
soil is attacked by a special kind of
bacterium. The fermenters of the cell
lulose of paper and wood fibre, do not
act upon starch found in the grains,
nor will the years and bacteria that
dissolve the starch live upon the cell
lulose. To B. Mycoides, B. Vulgaris.
B. Magatherium and no doubt many
other kinds not yet discovered are
given the task Of dissolving the nitro
gen containing portion of dead animal |
and vegetable matter, first into a sub
stance called peptone and then chang
ing this into ammonia. This is &C.
companied by the production of other
substances having vile odors, especial.
ly is this true in decaying meat An.
other set Of germs will add oxygen to |
this ammonia first forming a nitrate
and then nitrates. It is only when
this process is completed that the de-
caying vegetable and animal matter
can be absorbed by ehetlets and be-
come a part of the growing plants.
1t may not be amiss to refer to the
relation Of these processes of putre-
faction to disease. Decaying matter
however foul will not of itself cause
a disease like Typhoid fever. 1ndi-
rectly it may, as person living
among such bad sanitary surroundings
as decaying garbage and other filth
will have his vitality lowered and be-
come more susceptible to sickness.
But he will not become sick with ty-
phoid fever until his food and drink
Ing water have in some way become
with germs from a IT,
phoid patient. This holds true for the
other common diseases. The direct
cause of our ordinary infectious dis
eases cannot live in the soil The
bacteria that thrive in 1t are only
those that are busy at work, dissolv-
ing and changing over dead animal
and vegetable matter preparing It for
another generation Of plants.