96 
HOUSEHOLD BACTERIOLOGY 
Nature’s 
Disinfectants 
Conditions 
in the House 
from diphtheria has been reduced over one half. Its 
effects as a preventive measure and in lessening suffer¬ 
ing “have everywhere been most significant and en¬ 
couraging.” Antitoxines for lockjaw, for snake bites 
and for some forms of blood poisoning have been pro¬ 
duced and are used with more or less success. 
Constant efforts are being made to find an available 
antitoxine for every infectious disease. Many diffi¬ 
culties present themselves, because the same germs do 
not always cause the identical disease when introduced 
into the bodies of the lower animals that they produce 
in the body of man. 
SANITATION 
As sunshine and pure air are Nature’s free disin¬ 
fectants, their presence in the house is the greatest pre¬ 
ventive measure of all sickness due to micro-organ-' 
isms. They, then, are the foundation requirements 
for cleanness, because this means so largely the ab¬ 
sence of dust-plants. 
Inside our houses there can never be the same 
amount of sunshine and fresh air that proves so ef¬ 
ficient out-of-doors. The house, too, must be dry, and 
therefore dust cannot be held as it often is out of 
doors on damp surfaces. However, the absence of 
winds inside makes possible, after a little while, a com¬ 
paratively dust-free air, because the heavier particles 
which carry the bacteria and molds will settle on all 
surfaces, chiefly on the horizontal ones, as floors, 
