136 MICROBES AND THE MICROBE-KILLER. 



creasing and growing, feeding for the time on the mate- 

 rial in which it is placed, and, like an animal, giving out 

 carbonic acid. 



Some organisms cease to exist when the process of 

 putrefaction to which they gave rise has attained to a 

 certain excess, as if the results of the chemical changes 

 were themselves sufficient to destroy life. But this con- 

 dition is beyond my province to notice except as a matter 

 of interest. Disease germs in a state of activity sufficient 

 to reproduce disease may be conveyed, as already ex- 

 plained, directly from the body or discharges, including 

 the exhalation from the skin, also from the clothes or 

 bedding, or through the air or articles of food, or by dust 

 that settles on the walls or floor, or from the soil, or 

 through defects in sewerage. Fire is the only absolutely 

 perfect disinfectant, but other means will suffice if ac- 

 companied by proper precautions. 



From what I have previously said it is easy to see how 

 germs may be taken into the system from the atmo- 

 sphere. Those ordinarily there may not be productive 

 of disease, but that is of no practical import. I have 

 shown the danger arising from the too prevalent habit 

 of expectoration. But if we pass from outdoors into the 

 sick-room it is greatly increased. A person suffering 

 with diseases such as scarlet fever, measles, etc., may 

 be the means of allowing microbes to get into the bed 

 coverings. This will dry up and remain there until di s 

 turbed, when immediately they float about the air and 

 may pass into the lungs of other individuals. This, 

 again, indicates two points that are not sufficiently 

 attended to. One is the folly, before referred to, of hav- 

 ing draperies, curtains, and hangings about the sick- 

 chamber ; and the other the mistake that is often made 

 in the use of disinfectants after illness, since it is shown 

 that germs in a dry state will resist antiseptics that 

 would be effectual if they were merely moistened. It is 

 for this reason that chlorine and sulphurous acid gas so 

 frequently fail to produce the effect desired. Thus people 

 are often very unnecessarily surprised when, after what 



