22  Books  as  a  Source  of  Disease.        { A m™" 
A  series  of  cultures  from  the  hands  of  two  persons  in  the  labora- 
tory were  made  in  the  same  manner  and  these  showed  a  few  colonies 
of  saprophytes  and  Staphylococci  pyogenes  albus.  In  a  general 
way  these  cultures  were  similar  to  those  giving  positive  results  made 
from  the  books. 
The  method  employed  in  making  these  cultures  was  to  take  a  few 
drops  of  sterile  bouillon  and  with  a  platinum  wire  rub  it  upon  the 
place  from  which  the  inoculations  were  made  and  then  transfer  this 
loop  of  bouillon  to  the  blood  serum  boxes  used  by  the  department 
for  diagnosis  of  diphtheria.  These  were  placed  in  an  incubating 
oven  for  forty-eight  hours.  The  resulting  colonies  were  examined 
microscopically. 
Control  cultures  were  made  on  several  boxes  by  first  placing  the 
drop  of  bouillon  on  the  sterile  slide  and  then  transferring  it  to  the 
blood  serum  media. 
In  none  of  the  cultures  were  diphtheria  bacilli  found.  The 
Staphylococcus  pyogenes  albus  is  one  of  the  pus  bacteria  usually 
found  upon  the  skin  of  most  individuals.  The  saprophytes  are 
accidental  non-pathogenic  bacteria  from  the  air,  and  are  of  no 
consequence. 
Dr.  Kuflewski  states  that  "  after  personal  investigation  and  ex- 
amination of  three  sets  of  books  taken  at  random  from  the  shelves 
of  the  Chicago  Public  Library  I  am  prepared  to  state  that  I  found 
bacteria  in  large  numbers  in  all  the  samples  and  that  each  book 
was  more  or  less  infected.  These  bacteria  were  in  large  numbers 
and  were  both  pathogenic  and  non-pathogenic— the  word  pathogenic 
meaning  '  disease-producing.'  " 
In  many  instances  these  bacteria  do  not  harm,  not  even  the 
pathogenic,  because  of  the  resistance  of  the  tissue — being  unimpaired 
— or  because  of  the  comparatively  small  numbers  of  bacteria  which 
gain  access  to  the  tissues ;  but  under  favorable  circumstances,  such 
as  a  simple  exposure  to  cold  and  especially  to  bronchitis,  which  is  so 
prevalent  in  Chicago,  a  little  wound  or  an  abrasion  of  the  surface 
of  the  body,  a  little  scratch  of  the  mucous  membrane  or  of  the 
skin-,  which  as  we  all  know  is  often  treated  as  insignificant  and  is 
neglected,  may  be  the  means  of  introduction  into  the  system  of  the 
most  infectious  disease  germs.  It  is  well  known  that  a  fresh  wound 
absorbs  bacteria  and  their  toxins  very  rapidly. 
I  have  had  in  my  own  experience  a  case  in  which  I  satisfactorily 
proved  that  a  child  contracted  an  infectious  disease  in  the  eye,  from 
