258 BACTERIA, YEASTS, AND MOLDS 



It is extremely important, also, to remember the sig- 

 nificance of dust in a schoolroom. A schoolroom with 

 children from many homes is likely to be a collecting 

 place of disease germs. The children frequently bring 

 such germs to the schoolroom, where they are distrib- 

 uted through the air, float around for a while, and even- 

 tually settle on the floor. If they remained on the floor 

 they would be harmless, but evety time the room is 

 swept or dusted the germs are stirred up again. Sweeping 

 and dusting a schoolroom decidedly increases the danger 

 of contagion. If feather dusters and brooms could be dis- 

 carded, their places being taken by damp cloths and vac- 

 uum cleaners, the amount of contagion would be materially 

 reduced. If the floors, window sills, desks, and tables 

 were wiped each day, the dust, instead of being scattered 

 through the room, would be collected and removed by the 

 damp cloth. The cloth should subsequently be rinsed and 

 occasionally washed in hot water. Where this method 

 has been adopted the results have been surprising. One 

 school, for example, with over four hundred pupils, burned 

 up the feather dusters and used damp cloths for cleaning. 

 During the following year there was not a single case of 

 contagious disease among the scholars, an altogether new 

 experience for the school. The same general facts would 

 apply equally well to the household. Brooms and dusters 

 simply distribute germs through the air, and should be 

 dispensed with as far as possible. Vacuum cleaners and 

 damp cloths should, where possible, take the place of brooms 

 and dusters. Woodwork should always be cleaned with a 

 damp cloth rather than by dusting. No simple rule will 

 be more useful in checking the distribution of contagious 



