130 THE STORY OF THE BACTERIA. 



Impure Ice. 



The use of ice in preserving food and for 

 drinking purposes has become a very impor- 

 tant factor in modern life, and a means of 

 incalculable benefit to all classes of people. 



It was formerly believed that freezing de- 

 stroyed in large measure the impurities of 

 water, and within certain limits this is true. 

 But it has been found, as the result of a long 

 series of careful experiments by numerous in- 

 vestigators, that those important contaminating 

 elements in polluted water, the bacteria, may 

 resist for long periods the influences of cold. 

 Good ice is so clear and beautiful that it is 

 difficult to believe that it may harbor among 

 its crystals larg-e numbers of even such tiny 

 bodies as the bacteria, but this is nevertheless 

 quite true. 



It has been found that the ice which is 

 delivered in New York and in many other 

 large cities actually contains large numbers of 

 bacteria. 



It has been further found that that most 

 dreaded form of bacteria, the typhoid bacillus, 

 may remain for long periods living and viru- 

 lent in solid ice blocks. 



