Newspaper Page Text
H
\r
IT
IG
1 i* '
■ net
Ill's
is <
ac
a
h
h:in
the
rati
irhei
ma
In
r ro
ke-
F*£
U*
ter
|co
pai
i
|rei
/•
A
IS
foj
1(
5
Hit}
fcr-
fyo
t,
r ]
Hi
to
i
0
!C
1
|th«l
nt
Cheerind
and V
ery
Discouraging
Facts About
Oar Children Will Wonder Why Certain Diseases Made Us Sick—And Why
We Were Nevei Bothered with Some of Their
New Ailments
A LL ^f/ms are not bad for us. There are some
/’called "benevolent,” which are valuable to us
and help keep us alive. Professor Metehinkoff,
for instance, gathered some germs in Bulgaria and has
been breeding them by the billion and shipping them all
over the world to be eaten alive as a remedy for di
gestive troubles.
Germs are generally thought of as tiny animals. They
are really plants and it In e sort of justice that they
attack us all our lives Rnd In the end consume us Man
and all animals live upon the vegetable kingdom. Even
the creatures that oat only meat prey upon vegetarian
animals, as all food is of vegetable origin. All fermen
tation and decay are caused by germs.
To prevent fermentation or decay it is neces-
ra v to sterilize by he*: or pobmns like benzoate
of soda and then keep mil all other serins by
Sealing.
Contagious diseases are ho <> carried by a ma
lignant germ. To "catch” a disease it is neces
sary to absorb into the system more than one
germ. One lone germ of typhoid or tuberculosis
or scarlet fever, for instance, is harmless and will
soon die It requires the invasion of a considera
ble number of germs to cause an infection.
When the invading germ have multiplied,
formed a colony, and are pouring quantities of
poison into the system, we feel sick, not from the
presence of the germs, but from their poison.
It is a strange fact that living germs do not.
hurt us so much as dead ones. When germs die
they disintegrate and give off poison. Germs are
tender, short-lived thing .and would he harmless
were it not for their ability to multiply. The tate
at which a colony of germs can increase staggers
the science of mathematics.
The body is a natural chemical laboratory, always
busy providing poisons which kill germs, antidote^
which neutralize their poisons and ways tc get rid of
the dead germs.
For many years it. has been the ideal of medicine to
discover a "grand sterilizer” v/hie.h could be Injected
into the blood and would kill every hostile germ in the
entire body It was generally supposed that this ideal
was as impossible as the "elixir of life.” Probably no
substance will ever remove all hostile organisms, but
«• *a»v
III- • K 'V/>VI§'
G©-‘
A Collection of Microbes Taken from
the Lungs after an Automobile Kide.
In the Collection Are Germs of Pneu
monia. Tuberculosis. Typhoid Fever
and Other Deadly Enemies of Man.
Profe- sor Elirlich, of Germany, has
proved that tiie body may be ster
ilized completely in every nook and
corner, as far as one or two disease
germs are concerned, without injury
to the patient himself. Eacli germ
requires a special poison, which, un
fortunately, will not greatly disturb
other germs.
Most germs have narrow limita-
To Teach Every Woman to BAKE BETTER BREAD
A-r-filWRE will soon be
should lie obliged
Government 1» ma
lion- Diphtheria germs cannot prosper anywhere but
on a mucous membrane. Cholera germs operate in the
stomach; typhoid in the intestines; erysipelas under the
skin; but tuberculosis germs thrive anywhere, from the
lungs to the eye.
Animals are immune from most germs of different
animals, but there are exceptions. Anthrax, a sheep's
diseas". is rapidly fata! to human beings. Chickens
are ordinarily immuife to anthrax, even when the germs
are actually rubbed into cuts in their skin. But if a
chicken is made to stand in cold water for a while, un
til its feet are thoroughly chilled, it loses its Immunity
for a while and can then be readily inoculated. This
is a warning to human beings to keep their feet, and,
•n fact, their entire bodies warm at all times, and ex
plains how r we “catch cold.”
Every breath we take, except in the wilderness, is
full of "cold” germs of one kind or another. Ordinarily
the system is immune and they' die harmlessly. If our
feet are wet or a draft is blowing on us we may for
feit our immunity for the time being, and the ever
present germ lias time to found his colony. Yet in the
frozen wilderness it is possible to endure frightful ex
posure and almost freeze to death without “catching
cold” because it’s too cold for the “cold" germ. Esqui
maux have neither “colds” nor pneumonia nor con
sumption in the frozen North, but as soon as they reach
civilization they are tormented with all three and usu
ally do not live more than a y f ear or two.
It appears that scarlet fever is less virulent and fatal
than it used to be with our mothers and grandmothers.
The reason is that each generation of human beings has
a better developed resistance to the poisons of the
scarlet fever germ. Another hundred years and we
will soon he no reason why anyone
to eat poor bread. The
iking an exhaustive study
oi bread-making Hiid expects soon to have the
subject reduced to such simple terms (but, even
tjie mos; in< pepienced cook will be able to cook
healthful and delicious bread, rolls and biscuits.
Some time .. o the 1>< partment of Agriculture
began te'ting Hour* for their purity and cleanli
ness. It wa soon found that all the chtunii ;;1
analyses and protein and carbohydrate tests
often full to a ir v or the question whether ilom
makes good ' read or not So :i bakery was
started in Washington and Miss Hannah L.
Wessling in-tailed as Chief Bread Baker for the
United States Government.
Miss Wessling’s laboratory Is fitted with stone
mixing-jars with glass covers, sc the fermenta-
.ion of the dough may be watched without dis
turbing its temperature, a kneading knife, a
raising closet, and a number of ovens, both gas
and electric. Miss Wessling considers the tem
perature the most important part of the proceed
ing, except of course good Hoar to begin with.'
She is extremely careful about the amount of
heat that comes in contact with her dough, and
even watches the temperature of her mixing
howls.
When the materials have been mixed and
made into dough. Miss Wessling puts the batch
into the raising closet, wherein a temperature of
sc degrees F. Is maintained. During the raising
process tiie dough ts carefully watched, as Is
also the temperature, and the dough Is three
times taken out and kneaded. After the third
kneadi a the loaf is placed in a baking pan, cov
ered with a daihp cloth and put into the closet.
Alongside of it, in a graduated glass, is placed a
tiny loaf pinched from the larger portion When
this little sample loaf has risen to the desired
amount, the large loaf is taken out and at once
placed in the oven. The temperature in the
oven is about 400 degrees F„ and forty minutes
is generally allowed for baking.
When the bread is baked it is carefully tested
for weight, volume, color, texture and flavor.
Not only does the Department intend to teach
every woman to hake better bread, hut it hopes
to discover some flour that is less costly than
wheat and as nutritious. Experiments are being
made with flours made from potatoes and bananas
and meals made from dasheens, soy beans, kafir
corn and chestnuts.
Why Mr. Rockefeller’s OIL TRUST
IOAL is out of date for fighting ships. It. has been
definitely decided that the vessels of the United
States Navy shall In future burn oil. But this
announcement causes no joy in Standard Oil circles for
Uncle Sam will fill the Navy oil can from his own wells
and refineries and will not he a customer of the trust.
All of the newly planned battleships, cruisers, de
stroyers and submarines will be driven by petroleum.
Even the auxiliaries, such as colliers, tank ships and
tugs will burn oil. Already eight of our battleships
are -equipped for burning either oil or coal—provision
for use of the
Why There Should lie DEPARTMENT STORES for the SICK
yi is the man of moderate means who. with tils fain
I it- suffers most for lack of expert medical or surgi
cal attention. The service of the best physicians
and surgeons which tlje wealthy man commands in hi -
home or a private hospital, nutl the almost equally
good service which the pauper obtains In a free hos
pital, are denied the small salaried man because he
cannot afford the high prices charged by the great spe
cialists and because his self-respect forbids his accept
ing charity.
Take, for example, the case of a workingman who
earns, soy, $77 or $100 a month His wife falls 111 and
• he takes her to his faintly physician. As the examina
tion proceeds it Is found that the services of an ocu
list, a cystoscoplst, a roentgenologist, a pathologist and
perhaps several other specialists are necessary to com
plete an accurate diagnosis of the woman's trouble.
The charges which all these specialists demand are,
of course, entirely beyond the man’s means, and, if the
family physician Ik not scrupulously holiest, they may
be made even heavier by the commission which he
claims from the total
To remedy tills unjust condition of affairs aiul as
s’-re the worthy middle classes as good medical atten
tion as the very poor and the very rich now receive,
Dr George W. Guthrie ami Dr. Richard Cabot recom
mend applying Hip department store idea to medicine
and surgery. Under this arrangement physicians and
surgeons representing the various specialties would be
gathered Into convenient groups. In the larger cities
there would, of course, be several of these groups,
while the smaller places would have only one.
Instead of going first to his family physician ami
then making the rounds of a series of specialists and
paying each of them separately for a hit of advice, the
ailing person would go direct to one of these groups of
specialists .lust as the department store houses under
one roof everything you need to eat, drink and w r ear,
so each of these groups would include all the knowl
edge and experience necessary to diagnose and treat
all sorts of disease? And In every case the lump -urn
charged for this service would be based on what the
uatlent was able to pay.
The famous Mayo clinic at Rochester, Minn., is the
tie?, example of the success with which this Idea has
been worked out In actual practice. Last year about
14,000 patients were admitted to this clinic and exam
ined A careful diagnosis was made in each case.
About half the number of patients examined were
found to require operations. The fees charged for ex
amination and treatment ranged all the way from $10
or $1,7 for persons of moderate means to $700 or more
for those who could well afford to pay the larger
amounts.
"A combination of medical men representing the
various specialties,” says Dr. Guthrie, "is, to a greater
or less degree, possible In'every community. Call it
the department store idea applied to medicine or what
you will, its a needed change that is necessary and
justifiable because it will bring to the great middle
classes the best aid of the medical profession. The )
grouping of medical men representing special lines ot S
work and study is the only way In which men aud
women of moderate means can command the best ad- <|
vice unless they pauperize themselves and enter char- )
ity hospitals.”
Under the plan Dr. Guthrie proposes the family
physician will continue to hold an important position
in the community. In fact, It will be necessary for
him to keep in closer touch with the most advanced
professional ideas than, as a general rule, he now Is
Very often 1t will be possible for patients to return t.o
their family physicians for observation or treatment
after tlieir cases have been scientifically diagnosed by
one of these groups of specialists.
latter being made because they may
sometimes find themselves in parts
\ of the world where petroleum is not
) readily obtainable. One transport and
( one supply ship are being fitted to
burn either coal or oil.
’ When a sufficient number of tank
ships have been provided, one such
vessel will accompany each squadron
of fighting ships, to carry oil tor fuel.
By this means the Navy will be ren
dered independent of local supply;
and it is intended that all vessels in
the service now building, or to be
built, shall burn petroleum exclusive
ly. Four battleships, forty-one de
stroyers, thirty submarines, three
tank ships, one collier and a number
of minor auxiliaries, now built or
building, are fitted for burning noth
ing but oil.
FEET WEIGH MOKE When We’re ASLEEP
Y
Oil often hear a person complain of his
head feeling “heavy” after a long sleep.
As a matter of fact, his head is eonsid
erably lighter and his legs and feet just that
much heavier when he gets up than when he
went to bed.
Experiments have shown that if a man goes
to sleep on a bed suspended exactly at the mid
dle point of his weight his head begins to tip
slowly up and his feet go down. This is due
How SOCIALISM Midht CURE
S OCIALISM as a cure for dyspepsia, a kind
word for the much-abased quick-lunch and
condemnation for the cabaret are among
the interesting findings of a conference of diet,
specialists recently held in London.
Dr. Elmer Faunce stated that if food were
distributed on a socialistic basis nobody would
overeat and nobody would starve, but probably
every one would get just a little less than he
wanted. This state of things would bring an end
to nearly all digestive troubles. Dr. Faunce be
lieves that one-half our ailment; come from eat
lng too much and the other half from not eating
enough.
If you want to eat less per day the meal you
should skip or give up entirely is breakfast. This
is not trtie for men who perform heavy labor,
hut for those whose work is wholly or largely
mental. The body starts the day in good work
ing order after a night’s rest- The cells are thor
oughly nourished aud the whole machine is
ready for action. A large amount of food taken
in at this time is in the way unless our muscles
are working hard enough to ourn up our re
serves very fast.
The noonday meal should be small, and for
this reason the quick-lunch is coming into favor
with the doctors. A quick-lunch is certain to
be a moderately small one. and usually includes
And Now the 303-EGG HEN!
A WEEK or two ago
In these columns
were printed the
details of the newest tri
umph In scientific poultry
raising. Professor James
Dryden, of the Oregon
Agricultural College, had
succeeded In raising a hen
that laid 291 eggs In a
year—the champion egg
producer of the world.
On November 17 another
one of Professor Dryden's
hens completed her year's
labors with a record of 303
.. .fggs. This newest world's
* ousmpion heats the prev
ious highest year’s record
by 12 eggs.
it should be remembered
that the conditions under
which both the old and the
new champion were bred
were such as could easily
he met by any prac
tical breeder or farm
er No expensive foods
sere used, and the hens
aho mada the records
2
The New Champion Egg Producer.
were of no
lected breeds.
At the time the prev
ious champion completed
her wonderful record of
laying 291 eggs in a year,
Professor Dryden an
nounced that he believed
there was a strong prob
ability that another hen
might soon pass her in
the race. This prophecy
was fufllled on November
17. when the new cham
pion rounded out her year
of laying with her i§0”d
egg
Professor Dryden is au
thority for the statement
that th® normal hen has
a potential egg capacity
of ,3.000 or more eggs. He
is directing the efforts of
the experiment station of
which he is the head to
developing the maximum
amount of this capacity
for eggs. and poultry
breeders all over the world
are watching with the
greatest interest the prog
ress of his work.
only simple, digestible food.
The objection that not enough time is taken
is not. quite so true as it seems. The only pro
ceeding that may not be safely hurried is that
of chewing. A quick-luneher eliminates ihe talk
and delays between courses and, though he may
chew a little faster, he probably chews his food
as thoroughly.
Dinner at night, after work is done and relaxa
tion is ahead, should provide the bulk of the
day’s nourishment. The system lias suffered
various drains and needs much of certain mate
rials. little of others. The appetite then de
mands just the right sorts of food and the body
“stocks up” with what it really needs.
Even in this meal it is bad
to dally too long Music and
entertainment which tempt
the diner to linger and eat
J and drink more than his ap
petite craves work for harm.
As soon as dinner vq over ev
ery one should leave the ta
ble. If these rules are fol
lowed better digestion will
result, and less trouble from
surplus fat. '
to the fact
that when we
sleep the
blood ill the
brain goes off
to the other
parts of the body. ,The moment the brain wakes
t.o life again it draw's the blood back.
Another of the curious facts brought to light
by the scientists who are fond of trying to solv®
the mystery of sleep is that when one is fast
asleep some part, of his brain or several parts
of It may at the same time be awake. A man
may walk, talk, sing or solve mathematical prob
lems, and yet at the same time be safely in the
land of nod.
Tt seems hard or impossible to decide what
part of the bra in really does sleep. Our sense of
time, for instance, is stronger when w r e sleep
than when we are awake. Experiments con
ducted some years ago on a number of men and
women between the ages of twenty and thirty
-howed that 00 per cent of them were able
wake up in the morning at any Gnu they had
do.c4dwl upon the night before. As some one lia-
aptly expressed it. the resolve seems to win-!
up something in the subCmiseiou brain, an .
when the hour has arrived this lomething
in some mysterious wav the alarm and the eye-
A Way to Prevent Bern
*jli
carefuily se-
VBR since man began to realize what, death means-
he has been haunted more or less by fear of the
possibility that he may be placed in his coffin
and buried while there Is still life in his body. In 3pite
of all the care of physicians and undertakers, it seems
likely that cases of premature burial do occur even now,
and in England there Is a society devoted to the work
of pre-'enting such unfortunate mistakes.
Dr. Icard, of Marseilles, France, announces that there
is no longer any necessity for dreading this horror, be
cause he has discovered a remarkable new method of
testing absolutely whether an apparently dead person
Is really dead. The new method has been made the
subject of many experiments in France, and has proved
thoroughly successful.
Dr. Icard’s method Is based on the fact that while a
spark of life remains In the body there is some motion
Why Laughter, Anger and the “BLUES
“L
Copyright. 1913, by
AUGHTER is an antidote to sympathy,”
says Dr. W. McDougall in a recent paper
on the explanation of laughter. Dr.
McDougall and others have at last found a plaus
ible explanation of laughter, sorrow, the "blues”
and other strange human actions which have
always seemed useless and even harmful.
To understand laughter we must first under
stand the things it relieves. In the first place,
nature evolved sympathy in the human race not
because it is a beautiful sentiment, but because
it helps to preserve the race, just the same as
eyes, hands and intelligence do. Sympathy in
the time of our wild ancestors was a sort of life
insurance. A sympathetic man or woman natu
rally lived among sympathetic neighbors. When
t hey were in trouble he helped them out. T lis
did him no good, but when he was in trouble
« "• a Rights Reserved.
‘hey helped him. Sympathy was the emotion
which made possible the first foundation of civi
lization.
Anger, of course, is easily understood. An
angry man was a better fighter, better able to
protect his family and his own life and limb.
Sorrow' probably was valuable in making a last
ing impression on the mind which prevented the
same mistake being made twice. But the ‘‘blues.”
ttaose long spells of depression, when one is
unable to work or eat or do anything well, how-
can they he of any value to a living being?
They are nature’s days of economy, when the
Individual pays for past extravagances and lays
up a little something for the future. The human
engine is only running at half speed, the bear
ings are given time to cool and the storage
batteries of the nervous system to fill up wit',
energy.
■r
may be able to regard this disease as lightly as the
chlckenpox.
At the present time in America we suffer from grip.
This is to us a new disease.- It has long been known
In Russia, but was not until recently imported into this
country. As the microbe of grip was new to us our
systems had had no opportunity to produce an antidote
to the particular poison the grip microbe secretes. But
In a few generations our children will probably he
either Immune to Its effects or nearly so—our blood
will have gradually learned how to fight this germ.
Germ diseases are the products of evolution, just as
our bodies are. Any of the harmless germs may at any
time develop the ability to give off poisons while in the
human systems. As soon as a previously harmless
germ evolves the ability to create a poison in the sys
tem which will either Interfere with Its action gen
erally or paralyze the white corpuscles or the circula
tion locally, we have a brand new disease. Within his
toric tirfies several new diseases have made their ap
pearance—as the grip, for instance, was new to America.
It Is entirely probable that new diseases will keep
appearing from time to time in this way, as they have in
the pact. It seems that a new disease flourishes at
the expense of its victims because it Is new-. The hu
man race either falls before it or evolves anti-toxins
or other forms of immunity. In succeeding generations,
by weeding out those who have lesser immunity,the race
develops a steadily increasing resistance, until finally
the disease becomes milder and milder and at last de
generates to the mumps and measles class before it
disappears altogether.
With such plans In view, the Navy Is naturally anx
ious to get its supplies of oil as cheap as possible. It
does not wish to have to depend for them upon the
trust or any other commercial concern, and sh It Is
arranging to provide a source of supply of its own,
from which it may draw for an indefinite period.
President Wilson has set aside about 100 square
miles of oil-producing lands in California as a "petro
leum reserve” for the Navy. These lands are situated
in the highly productive Elk Hills and Buenp. Vista
fields, and are estimated to he capable of yielding a
total of not less than 250,000,000 barrels.
The Navy Department Intends to hold this oil in
the ground as an emergency supply, and as a precau
tion against sudden decline of oil production in the
United States. Such decline would necessarily cause
the price of petroleum to climb.
Huge tanks for the storage of oil for the service
have been built at Boston (36,000 barrels), at Melville,
R. I. (36,000 barrels), at Norfolk, Va. (36,000), at
Charleston (36,000 barrels), at Key West (36,000 bar
rels), at Guantanamo, Cuba (223,000 barrels), and at
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (200,000 barrels). Tanks will
also he established at New York, San Francisco, San
Diego, Puget. Sound, Guam and Cavite (Manila Bay),
and the storage facilities Will he Increased to keep
pace with the number of oil-burning vessels commis
sioned.
Other “petroleum reserves” have been set apart by
the President in Oklahoma, in Utah, in Wyoming and
in Alaska—the Idea, being to make sure of an adequate
supply of oil for the Government’s own use through
centuries to Come.
lids open. Another curio 1 ;-- fact about sleep
that the further the part of the body is iwa*
from the brain the less soundly it. sleep;,, v
touch on the toe will awaken one much ooi-o
readily than a touch on the shoulder.
ri/iTi
of the blood in the veins and arteries, even though it
be too alight to be detected in the usual way. !u order
to prove whether a supposed corpse is really a corpse
or only in a state of suspended animation, a small quan
tlty of fluorescein, an entirely harmless but very violent
coloring matter la injected Into the body.
If there be the slightest motion of the blood, the fluor
escein will be carried into the circulation, quickly
stain every inch of the body a vivid golden yellow and
turn the eves a deep emerald green. If, on the other
hand, the person ts really dead and there is no move
ment of the blood, the coloring matter will not he dis
persed and the skin and eyes will show no change in
color.
So rapid is the action of fluorescein that if there is
any flow of blood it will produce Us effect on the body
in less than thirty minutes.
Animals experience the same depression. The
polar bear, starving on his slowly melting ice
berg, lies quiet, wrapped in a despondency which
keeps him from wasting his vitality in pacing up
and down awaiting his chance to swim for life.
Hibernating animals enter their Winter trance
through a stage of gloom and depression.
^-Laughter is the antidote for all these things.
Laughter sets the blood flowing, opens the gates
of our reserves of nervous energy and puts us
on edge. It would be a very serious matter if
all the multitude of minor pains and misfortunes
of ou’’ neighbors made us suffer sympathetically.
Suppose every time some one bumped his shin
or sat down on his hat or made a fool of himself
we grieved in sympathy instead of laughing; the
world would be a perpetual vale of tears. So we
laugh at small misfortunes that we may live to
grieve and repair big ones.