The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-04-13

fled the work of the women connected with the Visiting Nurses association this afternoon when he addressed rhe organiza ton members and guests at the annual meeting.
 Honor, to whom honor is due,'' said MT. Godfrey You are not taking life to gain iTnpertshable renown in his tory Your work is devoted not only to saving the lives of those to whom you minister, but the lives of their neighbors, their families and their children.
 Spencer R.. Gordon, superintendent of charities addressed the association members and told of the necessity, of loonstructive work in charity. Reports were read and arrangements were made for the work of the year
 MT Godfrey's address follows:
 1T would first like to talk to you about bacteria, later draw your atten- ton to some truths connected with hygiene, and finally the work done by the state of Connecticut towards solving the tuberculosis problem. ''The tubercle-bacillus is 8 notion less, colorless, / excessively minute bacterturn. multiplying freely in eax- tra ordinarily great quantities in proper medica- It has a tough, waxy skin or coating, and so far as is known impervfous to the usual ac- tion of toxins or anti-toxins
 seWhat are toxins, baciln and anti  written on each of these subjects Today the lives of sofne of our bright est scholars are devoted to their | study. They are called 'bacteriolg- ists,' or students of the life and habits of bacterial Bacteria seemingly in habit all bodies, and there are prob ably iegions of different kinds. Bac- teria and bacilli both come from Greek-meaning a staff or a rod. They belong tos the vegetable king e s75 S-.&, kHa- harmful and beneficial pr. Darling ton informs me that they have dis covered forty-fonr kinds in the hu- man mouth. They are very minute, of different shapes and sizes, and their study presents perp1exinE prob= lems of different degrees of difficulty. ! The comma bacillus shaped like a. l comma causes cholera the pneumoc- GUS causes pm eunonia.; the staphy1oc- 1 ci cause boiIs; while the tubercie-z bacillis- cause tuberculosis.
 'HTuberele- baci1li were discovered i by Koch in Berlin: in s188 8z--thfrty
 three years ago, and the extraordi- ! nary cleverne of the discovery can be appreciated when we remember that some. of these nainute- bacteria are but one sexenteen-th housandths of an inch long nd that they are color 1 less anda notionlesss In the first place, it is well 5to grasp the signifi-. canoe of one seventeen -thousandthss of an Inch. These baeilH are shaped like a. match orsrod and are about | If we could place seventeen thousand. of them end to ends 1t would cover an inch in length, and it would like wise take one hundred and thirty -six: | thousand side by side to make an. I inch. In other words ito < cover a. I square inch Of surface. it would take over two billion of these bacteria.
 s'Put under a. n1iscrope. magnifi-
 cation of a thousand diameters is needed for examination. We can now appreciate the difficulties over cone by Koch, making 1t possible to I study these bacilh under different aspects. Taking some on a glass plate I and dropping on them little red aniline co1oring matter, and drying l the. whole over the flame of a lamp, I he produced a plate of a decided 1 pinkish color, on which were the tubercle-bacilh, also saturated by the | dye Then plunginE the whole plate 1 into an acid solution long enough to remove the dye from everything but the bodies of the bacteria, whose Maxys coating protected them from this bleaching, the microscope plain
 ly showed the bacilli stngly and in punches, stained pink.
 What I have said is merely the
 beginning of the subject of bacteria
 Expert scientists have studied their l different forms to a most astounding length and have already secured re- l suits which are most beneficial to
 the human race. All that is neces- tsary to know here is that the tubercIe- bacillus is carried by the blood to those portions of the body
 where the environment is satisfac- tory; viz; where it is dark, warm, and fwhere there is plenty of food.
 I Toxins are the dead bodies or the Eexcreta from the living bodies of bac- tteria. Every one knows that sur-
 rounded by decompositio from dead human bodies, it is impossible for us to live. The same with these bac- teria.
 'tWhen these bacterial toxins are Injected into the blood of an animal Ialready infected by the live bacteria,
 the blood gets busy ridding itself of
 the toxins, and to do this produces what are called 'anti-toxins' in such
 great amount that not only is the
 blood freed of the todnes, but the lsurplusage of anti-todnes attacks and
 destroys the live bacteria that had
 been keeping the animal sick.
 -''Anti-bodies, outside of the effects Ithey produce are absolutely unknown.
 We know. however, that there must
 be such bodies in the serum, because
 when the destruction of the toxin is
 completed something has been left in
 the blood which continues to render
 the. subject immune from attacks of
 those particular bacilh.
 We Swallow Consumption.
 ''Tubercle-bacilli are practically aI-
 ways taken into the system through
 the mouth and absorbed in the blood,
 the arteFta1 system carrying them to
 all portions of the body. The lungs l seem to afford them the most suitable environment. Many are destroyed by
 the well known action of the blood
 corpuscIes. You know that the blood is composed of a watery fluid called
 serum in which there are floating I bodies called red corpuscles and white
 corpuscles. Good health usually de-
 bends on the quantity of red
 corpusc1es in the blood. The white
 corpuscIes are the soldiers, who very
 often sacrifice their lives in defend
 ing the red corpuscles from the many E.ara t1ae,ir-