156 



PLANTS WITHOUT CHLOROPHYLL 



typhoid in his milk bottles. Proper safeguarding of our water and 

 milk supply is necessary if we are to keep typhoid away. 



Blood Poisoning. The bacterium causing blood poisoning 

 is another toxin-forming germ. It lives in dust and dirt and is 

 often found on the skin. It enters the body through cuts or bruises. 

 It seems to thrive best in less oxygen than is found in the air. It 

 is therefore important not to close up with court-plaster wounds 

 which such germs may have entered. It, with typhoid, is respon 

 sible for four times as many deaths as bullets and shells in time 

 of battle. The wonderfully small death rate of the Japanese army 

 in their war with Russia was due to the fact that the Japanese 

 soldiers always boiled their drinking water before using it, and 

 their surgeons always dressed all wounds on the battlefield, using 

 powerful antiseptics in order to kill any bacteria that might have 

 lodged in the exposed wounds. 



Other Diseases. Many other diseases have been traced to 

 bacteria. Diphtheria is one of the best known. As it is a throat 



disease, it may easily 



be conveyed from 

 one person to another 

 by kissing, putting 

 into the mouth ob 

 jects which have 

 come in contact with 

 the mouth of the 

 patient, or by food 

 into which the germs 

 have been carried. 

 Another disease 

 which probably 

 causes more misery 

 in the world than any 



other germ disease is syphilis. Hundreds of thousands of new 

 born babies die annually or grow up handicapped by deformities 

 from this dread scourge. Syphilis and gonorrhea, both diseases 

 of the same sort and contracted in the same manner, hand down 

 to innocent wives and still more innocent children a heritage of 



This figure shows how a milk route might be instru 

 mental in spreading diphtheria. X is a farm on 

 which a case of diphtheria occurred that was re 

 sponsible for all the cases along milk routes A and 

 F in Hyde Park, Dorchester, and Milton. How 

 would you explain this ? 



