The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1914-10-20
HIGH AUTHORITY ON RUBLlC HEALTH
DECLARES CLEAR ICE IS GERM FREE
D Hugh s. Cummings Says the Process of Crystaznq Expes
Matter Even in Rivers Known to Be PoIued-Tests Are
Made IN Ponds-Some Danger When Ice Is Dragged
Across Streets and Exposed to Dirty Hands,

Washington.-Dr. Hugh s. Cum
'mfngs of the United States public
health service, has written cheerful
story of ice that tends to dispel much
of the fear that disease may be pro-
duced as readily by ice as by water.
Moreover, the story is readable, for
Doctor Cummings has the art of max
ing his subject attractive, even though
the subject is only frozen water.
According to Doctor Cummings,
clear ice, frozen in plenty of free wa
ter which can take up the unsanitary
particles of bacteria expelled by the
freezing process, is of itself as free
from danger of conveying infectious
disease as we need wish. Dirty or
cloudy ice may be dangerous and
should not be placed in water or on
food when it is to be eaten uncooked.
We may eliminate all danger by avoid
ing the handling of ice with dirty
hands, by washing the ice with pure
water and by using only clear ice.
How Hindus Make Ice.
Going into the romantic origin of the
art of cooling food and drinks, Doctor
Cummings points out how the Hindu
in the northern provinces of India
from time immemorial has wrapped
his porous jug, filled with water boiled
to expel air, with wetter cloths, tho
evaporation from which makes ice
during cold, clear nights. The In
dian of the tropics and the cowboy OF
the plains still take advantage of the
abstraction of heat by evaporation. Ro-
nance tells us how the chivalrous
Saracen, Saladin, sent to his crusader
enemy, him of the lion heart, snow
ice from the mountains to assuage his
fever. But until last century the stor-
ing and use of ice was a merely local
matter
With the increased necessity for
transporting food long distances and
the demand for ice in places to which
it was difficult to. deliver natural ice,
attempts were made to invent some
practicable method of artificially pro-
ducing ice.
Artificial Ice Now Common.
sAbout 1868 Care invented his ice
machine, and later Doctor Gorrie,
whose statue now in the Statuary hall,
in the national capitol, shows Floridas
appreciation of his worth, increased
it's usefulness. 1t was not until the
late SOS, however, that the artificial
production of ice became a CONNER
cial success. Within these thirty-odd
years methods have been perfected
until nearly every hamlet in our great
country has its ice supply; and none
but the poorest and most isolated Of
our people are deprived of it's bless
ings.
But one principle is involved in the
formation of ice, which is that when
two substances of unequal tempera-
ture are in contact the warmer sub
stance gives up heat until both are
of the same temperature.
Important phenomena occur during
this change. First, like most other
substances, water contracts as it
grows colder until it reaches de-
grees centigrade, or 39.1 degrees Fab
renheit 1t then begins to expand,
so that ice is lighter than water. Were
this not. true, our northern waters
would be frozen from the bottom and
all fish killed
Foreign Matter Expelled.
The second phenomenon, one COM
mon to the capitalization of all sub
stances, and one we'll known to chem
lists, but until recently overlooked by
sanitarians, is that during crystalliza-
ton nearly all eXtraneous substances
either in suspension or solution are eX-
PEELED from the crystal; indeed, crys-
utilization is common method en-
ployed by chemists to obtain chemi-
cally pure substances.
Doctor Cummings makes it clear
that ice. whether natural or artificial,
may, and sometimes does carry dis
ease, and that heat will destroy bac-
terra much more readily than cold,
nevertheless he shows that the freez-
ing process operates powerfully to rem
der ice safe for human consumption.
This ice while freezing expels about 80
per cent of the organisms living in it,
provided it is surrounded by enough
free water to give these place to 60.
For this reason ice cut in shallow
ponds may be less wholesome than
that taken from deep water.
Freezing Kills Typhoid Germ.
Again, freezing destroys large per-
centage of typhoid bacilli. Sedgwick
and Winslow found in one experiment
that only Al per cent were alive IA
minutes and % per cent six hours
after freezing. More, important than
this even is the factor Of time, for
neither water nor ice is suitable me-
dunn for the multiplication Of typhoid
bacilli, and there is progressive de-
crease. So far as this element is
concerned, it is manifest that natural
ice has the advantage of longer stor-
age.
Edward Barlow, director of the H.
| linois state water survey, found in one
caSa with 10 000 bacteria in the raw