Bacterial Flora of the Semi -Desert Region of New Mexico. 211 



THE BACTERIAL FLORA OF THE SEMI-DESERT 

 REGION OF NEW MEXICO, WITH ESPECIAL 

 REFERENCE TO THE BACTERIA OF THE AIR. 



By John Weinzirl. 



The study of the bacterial flora of the semi-desert region 

 of New Mexico was begun about two years ago, the work 

 being undertaken for several reasons. 



First, the writer is not aware that any similar attempt has 

 been made in this country, and disregarding occasional 

 experiments, perhaps no similar study has been made any- 

 where under the same conditions. The results, then, of such 

 a study possess considerable interest from a purely scientific 

 point of view. In the second place, the results may possess 

 some practical bearing, although this point is not especially 

 emphasized. To mention only a single instance of the pos- 

 sible practical bearings, we may cite the practice of promis- 

 cuous expectoration of the numerous consumptives who 

 gather in this region. This may be partly due to the general 

 belief that bacteria cannot live at an altitude of 5,000 feet or 

 above.* The utter falsity of this idea is made only too 

 evident by the experiments presently to be recorded. 



No attempt will be made to review the mass of literature 

 that has been accumulated on the subject of air bacteria, for 

 such a review would be quite as useless as it would be 

 laborious. Reference to a few of the historic land-marks in 

 the problem may, however, prove of interest. 



It is quite certain that the ancient Greeks suspected the 

 existence of organisms in air, causing fermentation and decay, 

 but they possessed no means for their actual demonstration. 

 The Greeks loved speculation more dearly than scientific 

 demonstration, and so this truth, surmised by them, w~s 

 destined to remain a secret until Antony von Leeuwenhock, 

 a Dutch lense-maker with scientific inclinations, discovered 

 the bacteria in putrid solutions, in the saliva of the mouth, 



* The altitude of Albuquerque is approximately 5,000 feet. This, then, would be 

 practically the upper limit of germ life. 



Jour. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. XIX, No. 7. 



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Printed December 28, 1900. 



