ISO BACTERIA IN DAILY LIFE 



Again, with what solicitude those of us who 

 have gardens wait to see what will have survived 

 the iron grip of winter in our favourite flower 

 borders, and how frequently we have to face 

 blanks in the ranks of some of its most cherished 

 occupants ! Numerous bacteriologists, however, 

 have now confirmed this fact, the fields of ice and 

 snow have been repeatedly explored for micro- 

 organisms, and it has been shown how even the 

 ice on the summit of Mont Blanc has its comple- 

 ment of bacterial flora, that hailstones as they 

 descend upon the earth contain bacteria, that 

 snow, the emblem of purity, is but a whited sepul- 

 chre, and will on demand deliver up its bacterial 

 hosts. Quite apart from its general scientific in- 

 terest, the bacterial occupation of ice is of import- 

 ance from a hygienic point of view, and a large 

 number of examinations of ice as supplied for 

 consumption have been made. Thus, Professor 

 Fraenkl and also Dr. Heyroth have submitted the 

 ice-supply of the city of Berlin to an exhaustive 

 bacteriological examination. These investigations 

 showed that the bacterial population of ice as 

 supplied to Berlin is a very variable one, and 

 fluctuates between great extremes, rising to as 

 many as 25,000 bacteria in a cubic centimetre 

 (about twenty drops) of ice-water, and falling to 

 as few as two in the same measure. 



