Boiling 
Clothes 
Natural 
Home of 
Bacteria 
30 HOUSEHOLD BACTERIOLOGY. 
The greatest argument in favor of boiling clothes 
in the laundry is based on the bacteriological reason. 
Body clothes, bedding, towels and handkerchiefs may 
all become soiled with discharges of the mucous mem¬ 
branes of the body or from some wound or pus 
formation. In most of these discharges there is sure 
to be bacteria. Soap has a slight disinfecting power, 
but the boiling is far more efficacious. Scalding or 
the pouring of boiling water over the clothes is not 
sufficient for disinfection, for only the top surface is 
subjected to the high degree of heat necessary to 
kill the germs. Soap or other alkali, boiling, fresh 
air, and sunshine are a sanitary quartet whose work 
results in sterilization—that is, in death tp the germs. 
The natural home of the bacteria is the soil. Here 
they are most numerous because here they have their 
greatest field of work laid out for them, which is to 
change any dead vegetable and animal matter that may 
be present into inorganic substances which can do no 
harm to life. 
When winds blow over the soil they raise the dry 
dust particles laden with bacteria into the air; rain 
washes millions of them from the air and soil into 
the brooks and rivers; therefore, all surface waters 
are seeded with bacteria. 
From the soil they may be directly brought into the 
house on shoes, or clothes, or hands; indirectly through 
dusty air. 
The cleaning of shoes on a mat, brush, or scraper 
