The Wrangell sentinel., 1922-08-03
Washing Disease Away

Dr. Thomas W. Ross, editor of The Medico, has an interesting article in the current issue of that publication. The Medico is a maga- zine distributed primarily among physicians and surgeons. Under the heading Washing Diseases Away" Dr. Ross says:
 There is no commercial agency actually preventing disease like the present-day laundry. Yet, laundries are never mentioned by authorities on disease prevention because they are cold-blooded business affairs and not fussy committees or societies.
 "It requires little stretch of the imagination to picture the primitive laundries along the banks of any av- craze European stream from its be- ginning as tiny brooklet to it's sluggish river formation. The women are gathered for miles and miles along this stream, rubbing and scrubbing their filthy family wash ings. The inhabitants are gathered ings. The inhabitants close to the stream, for the most part, use this diluted wash water for drinking purposes. These people drink di- lutedly of that which the inhabit- ants upstream have worn undiluted- ly.
 From the rubbing stones to the wash tub, there is a step forward, inasmuch as the wash tub water is usually disposed of as surface water, but from the wash tub to the mod ern laundry there is a thousand league leap of progress. Our present day laundry begins its health cru sade at the start It does not pol lute water supplies. The laundry does not merely dilute dirt and re- sisting bugs-it scientifically re- moves dirt, and painlessly causes all bugsto expire. There is enough water used in the modern laundry to di- yorce the clinging wash tub inti- macy of Sister Sues unmentionables with the boarder's union suit. Laun- dries don't start the white things through few gallons of warm wa ter and then successively run every other bit of soiled clothing through the same solution. No home laundry invention has ever solved the problem of producing lots of hot water for the tired housewife without making extra work.
 '"The laborer's underwear and Aunt Lucy's brassiere both come home from the laundry clean and sweet. They are not only clean, white and sweet, but they are practically as sweet, but they are practically as sterile as the surgeons gown. The bleaches which the laundry uses are the agents that make this possible Every bleach is an oxidizing agent, and the process of oxidization is germicidal. When people remark that laundries do not "clean," they speak unthinkingly. Laundries clean and in addition they kill mill lions of organisms that resist the tepid water of tub washing and flab- by basement suds. Without laun- dries every large city in the country would be constantly in the throes of epidemics of contagious skin dis eases. What part the laundry plays in the prevention of communicable diseases is hard to estimate; how ever, when one pauses to think that these diseases have taken a decided slump since the spread of the modern laundry idea, it is reasonable to suppose that they have played no in- considerable part.
 Tt is not high-brow idea to have laundry wash your towels and intimate things. They go smack dab against your skin and. they should be as near sterile as they should be free of dirt. It is more comforting to have them bleached a bit than have them sharing the aroma of Willie's coveralls or a neighbours eczema. The modern 
 laundry has stopped millions of fe- male backaches. It has prevented thousands of divorces and it has brought content and smiles to thou sands of homes. Monday is no long,