124 HOUSEHOLD BACTERIOLOGY 



ing jelly for the juice. In this the bacteria flourished 

 better than the molds. One of the gardens which she 

 tried was turned to liquid in a week. 



She was fortunate to receive from a bacteriologist a 

 pure culture of b. prodigiosus or the "miracle germ." 

 This she planted in the yolk of a hard-boiled egg and 

 in a week it had transformed the yolk to a red mass 

 mingled with much liquid. This was well covered and 

 kept in darkness. She one day found that the hecto- 

 graph had become a garden of molds and bacteria. 

 Under the right conditions it might have been lique- 

 fied. 



That childen can be readily taught by observation 

 is shown by a report from the same teacher. A girl 

 insisted that her hands were clean, but a tablespoon 

 of the water in which she washed her clean hands 

 when introduced into milk proved an efficient aid in its 

 putrefaction. "The cooking class never forgot to 

 wash their .hands." 



A class of farmers' daughters found many sugges- 

 tions for their future care of milk products from va- 

 rious experiments in the cultivation in milk of the dif- 

 ferent species which turn it sour, putrid, bitter, etc. 



Such reports as these should stimulate other teach- 

 ers to interest, to instruct, to educate, by similar ex- 

 periments, the children under their care. Anything 

 which will raise the standard of personal cleanness or 

 that of food supplies and general house conditions will 

 tend toward health and greater economy. 



