SOILED PAPER MONEY 161 



three or four other species were observed. No animal inoculations 

 were made. 



Writing on " Money as a Carrier of Infection," 5 in 1895, C. I. 

 Wendt says : " A thoughtful man and careful student will want some 

 positive information on this subject." He reports upon the experi- 

 ments of Professor Bolton, on coins, showing that when a coin is placed 

 in the center of a sterile Petri dish, and agar which has been inocu- 

 lated with pathogenic organisms is poured over it, the medium imme- 

 diately surrounding the coin reveals no growth, but remains sterile, 

 due to the slight solution of copper, as shown by the potassium ferro- 

 cyanide reaction. These experiments should prove of some interest 

 and value by setting at rest any fears which might have been enter- 

 tained as to the power of coins to act as carriers of disease germs, and 

 by reason of grease and dirt on them, to allow of bacterial growth. 



Thus we see that this subject has received no truly scientific study, 

 and those investigations that have been made show little or no merit. 

 Of the various forms of bacteria found upon the dirty bills only 

 Bacillus sub tilis was identified, and no trace of any pathogenic forms 

 could be found, through either cultures or animal experiments. Inocu- 

 lations were made in only a few cases, and these all proved negative. 

 In the study upon coins no attempt was made to find what forms of 

 bacteria are common on them, and the results given above do not show 

 coins to be incapable of carrying disease germs, but merely indicate 

 that coins placed in certain media yield enough copper for solution to 

 prevent the growth of bacteria. Coins, as we handle them, do not 

 usually have moisture upon them, and the dry alloy has no antiseptic 

 action ; so we should expect to^ find some bacteria upon coins, as on 

 the bills. 



My attention was first called to the present agitation for clean 

 money by articles appearing in the New Haven Register and other 

 papers, some weeks after the beginning of this study. Eeference was 

 made to " Clean Money Morrison," whom I found on inquiry to be 

 A. Cressy Morrison, of New York, and the origin .of all the articles in 

 the daily press and magazines of the country, to be his pamphlet 

 " Clean Money— Can We Have It ? If Not, Why?" Inquiring of 

 Mr. Morrison for reference to any work that he might have done along 

 this line, I was referred to an enclosed copy of his pamphlet and cir- 

 cular letter. This pamphlet was " offered to a carefully selected list 

 of 1,000 of the leading newspapers and magazines of the country, . . . 

 and, with a view to the great value of simultaneous publication, a date 

 of release was placed upon the article, ... it being presented for 

 editorial comment, judgment and criticism, with the hope that all or 

 part of it be printed." 



8 Hahnemannian Institute, Philadelphia, Vol. II., No. 4, p. 4, February, 1895. 



vol. Lxxni. — 11. 



