250 CIVIC BIOLOGY 



Keeping abreast of discovery. Bacteriology is a young 

 science, and hundreds of students are pushing discovery 

 forward so rapidly that we must " step lively " to keep up. 

 Have committees of the class invite members of the state 

 and local boards of health and public-spirited physicians to 

 come in and discuss their problems. Try to gain clear ideas 

 of just those problems in dealing with which the community 

 most needs to develop " cooperative good will," and make 

 a test of what a biology class can do to help. No matter 

 where it is, or how large or how small it may be, any com- 

 munity that can, by intelligent, united effort, demonstrate 

 accomplished control of such infections as tuberculosis, grippe, 

 common colds, pneumonia, diphtheria, typhoid, and summer 

 choleras of infants, may "go to the head " ; and the class of 

 young men and women who help to attain this result will 

 have a story to tell that the sick and tired old world has 

 waited thousands of years to hear. 



Problem summary. What do we mean by " clean hands " ? Are our 

 fingers generally clean enough to put into our own mouths or into the 

 mouths of other people, that is, to handle our own food with and that 

 of others ? Tests : Touch finger tips, unwashed and washed, to agar 

 plates, incubate, and compare growths. To determine how many germs 

 we may collect on the hands in a half-day's work, wash the hands with- 

 out soap (cleaning the nails thoroughly) in two liters of sterile water. 

 Inoculate a plate with 1 cubic centimeter, incubate, count colonies, and 

 estimate total number. Read " Dirty Hands and Typhoid Fever," 

 American Journal of Public Health, Vol. IV (1914), p. 141. 



Study conditions in local stores, bakeries, and candy shops. Are 

 foods and confections that go directly into the mouth handled with the 

 bare hands? Can you devise practical ways and means of doing away 

 with all such handling? 



Look up thoroughly hygiene of mouth, throat, and nose, and adopt 

 a definite plan that shall insure perfectly sound teeth, uninfected 

 tonsils or nares, and absence of adenoids. Arrange a campaign to see 

 that ordinances against spitting in public places are obeyed. Report 

 infractions to board of health. 



