THE BACTERIA SCARE 
1 63 
It is said that every form of error maybe traced to 
faulty logic; here the trouble seems to be that the 
premises are false. “Meat contains many bacteria. 
All bacteria are harmful, therefore, etc.” The inves¬ 
tigators do not state the kind of bacteria nor the way 
they came to be present in the meat, and evidently 
they believe that meat in and of itself is naturally 
and normally laden with these minute forms of life. 
As a matter of fact though results of a different 
character have been reported not infrequently, care¬ 
fully made and carefully controlled laboratory work 
with all precautions taken has shown that the raw 
flesh of healthy animals is stirile, and only in certain 
animal diseases is bacterial life present in the tissues. 
All living things, both plants and animals, are sub¬ 
ject to bacterial diseases, but if bacteria are found on 
raw or cooked meat from healthy animals it is safe 
to say that they were lodged there by passing air 
currents just as they are lodged on any other food 
thus exposed. Rightly interpreted then, the labora¬ 
tory experiments indicate that all foods should be 
protected from accidental contamination by bacteria, 
as harmful species may be present among them, not 
that meat should be excluded from the diet because 
bacteria happen to be found on it. 
A very few bacteria, not more than 50 or 60 
species, are known to be harmful, many are known 
to serve a useful function and it is thought that some 
varieties may even prove to be necessary to the 
digestive processes. The intestinal tract of man 
swarms with bacteria, and the experimenter has 
never been able to free from bacteria the digestive 
tract of an animal that has once lived under normal 
conditions. Of the foods we eat there are absolutely 
none free from bacteria, if we except cooked food 
