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CONIOLOGY. 

 By Robert Hessler. 



(Abstract.) 



Ill tills ]i;iiier. illustrated by charts, an attempt was made to sin \v the 

 need for a new science, Coni.ilogy, the science that treats of dust. 



Until recently the importance of dust was not understood and appar- 

 ently no serious attempt has been made to bring together the literature. 

 To write a treatise that does the subject justice wduld reriuire the co-oi)er- 

 atioii of many .scientists, and the investigation of special problems would 

 require the methods peculiar to different sciences. The aims and methods 

 of the physicist, of the .astrononuu'. the i)hy^i<-ian. of the bacteriologist, etc.. 

 differ radically. 



There are all kinds of dust.' 



Cosmic, v<ilcaiiie and desert dusts cillectively are the dust of the 

 physicist, the astrduomer and the meteorologist. Dust is (tf '.rreat iniimi-t- 

 aiice in the matter of light and shade, of sunshine and rain. 



Dusts due to the activity of man are chiefly of three kinds, street, 

 house and factory dust. These are concerned in the modern dust problem. 

 The very practical aspect of the diist problem is of course that of keeping 

 the house, the streets and cities clean; it is a constant warfare with dust 

 and dirt. 



With an increase in occup.'itions there is an increase in the special 

 kinds of occupational dusts; some of them are very injurious. 



Dust particles in the air arc estimated by the number per c.c. The 

 first three forms of dust, the dust of the physicist, occur sparingly on 

 high mountains; there may be from a few to several hundred particles per 

 c.c. Over the ocean they run from a few hundred to several thousand. 

 When we come to the dust of everyday life matters change. Street dust 

 runs from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands per c.c. ; house dust 

 from hundreds of thousands to millions. The amount of factory dust 

 depends largely on ventilation, how fully it is carried off. 



Dust on high mountains and over the ocean is usually sterile, that is 

 free from microbe.s. Dust in crcnvded conmiunities, on the other hand, is 



1 See Proceedings for 1911, page 415. 



