120 
HOUSEHOLD BACTERIOLOGY 
Perhaps there are other doctors in other towns who 
would be glad to help the people “to see things.” 
Some inquiring minds met difficulties, however, in 
unexpected places. A student who was “as thirsty 
after information as ever” was discouraged for the 
time being by the fact that she had borrowed a micro¬ 
scope from a physician who was not recognized by the 
“regulars.” The city bacteriologist who had promised 
to furnish “microbes” for examination under said mi-, 
croscope refused “because the Board of Health 
wouldn’t like it,” if their cultures were used by a 
physician “who advertised.” 
Disinfection needs no further explanation to one 
who has before her the picture which she describes in 
this way: “Some years ago while traveling in Mexico 
we had occasion to pass through a yellow fever dis¬ 
trict. Fearing that the disease germs might contam¬ 
inate the oranges peddled at the station by the Mex¬ 
icans and of which we wished to purchase, a member 
of the party sterilized the fruit on the outside by dip¬ 
ping them in alcohol and burning it off immediately.” 
That yellow fever is transmitted only by the sting of a 
certain species of mosquito was not then proved. That 
there may have been other germs on the fruit is not at 
all unlikely and while the alcohol bath may have been 
sufficient, the fire was certainly an ingeniously sure 
method of sterilization. 
A practicing physician among the students says that 
she “wishes every wife, mother and home-maker could 
