In his experiments Fullerton used tobacco 

 juice obtained from the human mouth by chew- 

 ing plug tobacco. He also used a solution of 

 smoke obtained from a well seasoned pipe. 

 These were first thoroughly sterilized in order 

 to obtain a pure natural mixture of tobacco 

 and saliva. Cultures of well-known species of 

 bacteria were made using every laboratory pre- 

 caution so as to obtain accurate results. 

 Specimens of these bacterial cultures were then 

 submitted to the action of the tobacco juice. 

 It was found that exposure for one hour killed 

 or rendered innocuous 15 to 98 per cent of the 

 bacteria ; exposure for 24 hours acted similarly 

 on from 84 to 100%. Dr. Fullerton gives his 

 opinion, from his results, that it seems that a 

 pipeful of tobacco was more toxic to bacteria 

 than one chew; but chewing tends to loosen 

 retained food particles, foci of bacteria, etc., 

 and much of this is ejected from the mouth. 

 Fullerton's work agreed very well with the re- 

 sults obtained by other workers in the same line 

 of investigation. In Miller's Micro-organisms 

 of the Human Mouth, p. 246, it is stated that 

 the organisms of the mouth lead only a miser- 

 able existence in a mixture of an infusion of 

 tobacco, sugar and saliva ; and that the smoke 

 of the last one-third or the first one-fourth of a 

 Colorado Claro cigar sterilized ten cubic centi- 



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