38 BACTERIA IN DAILY LIFE 



consumption bacillus, the lock-jaw or tetanus 

 bacillus, bacteria associated with diphtheria, ty- 

 phoid fever, pulmonary affections, and various 

 septic processes. Such is the appetising menu 

 which dust furnishes for our delectation. 



There can be no doubt, therefore, that dust 

 forms a very important distributing agent for 

 micro-organisms, dust particles, aided by the wind, 

 being to bacteria what the modern motor-car, with 

 its benzine or electric current, is to the ambitious 

 itinerant of the present day. Attached to dust, 

 bacteria get transmitted with the greatest facility 

 from place to place, and hence the significance 

 of their presence in dust. 



Mention has been made of the fact that the 

 germs of typhoid fever have been discovered in 

 dust, and the belief in the possibility of this 

 disease being spread by dust is gaining ground. 



An interesting case in point is afforded by 

 an outbreak of typhoid fever which occurred in 

 Athens a few years ago, and in which the starting- 

 point or nucleus was discovered to be a group 

 of labourers who were engaged upon excavating 

 .the soil in a street through which a sewer had 

 once been taken. The epidemic subsequently 

 spread to those districts of the city swept by 

 the prevailing wind, which passed over the place 

 where the soil had been turned up and exposed. 



