Show Tc Temperate Reflections On Bacteria War Scares The evidence that Germany has been experimenting In London and Paris to ascertain whether deadly bacteria can be drawn by the suction of ot trains and fans into subways subway there thereto to become a menace to civilians In time of ot war must be strong Indeed if It Wickham Steed Is willing to give It space In a reputable British mag mag- azine No doubt long experience In appraising rumors and spurious documents docu ments led him to protect himself with the observation that if the facts are not true the they arc are well invented But are the they 1 It seems strange that the Germans should send hirelings hirelings hire hire- lings to the Place de la Ia Concorde or Charing Cross to test the multiplying power of ot a rather harmless microorganism microorganism micro micro- organism In the Metropolitan or the Tube when they have an excellent Underground railway of ot their own In Berlin A As for the transmissibility of at bacteria It Jt is a matter of ot elementary elementary elementary ele ele- ele- ele knowledge th that t any small particle can be drawn into a tube big or little through which a current is streaming There Is no need to confirm the axiomatic at the great risk of ot detection So widespread is the belief belie that In Inthe Inthe Inthe the next war cities are arc to be devastated devastated devas devas- toted by typhus Infantile paralysis influenza tuberculosis and other communicable diseases that the league of ot nations could not j ignore nore it Ten years ears ago its study commission on chemical warfare requested Professors Professors Prot Pro Pro- t ors Bordet Madsen and Cannon to report on the possibility of ot wholesale Infection n. n The Tho response was reassuring Dropping bacteria bacteria- laden bombs or shells would be fu futile futile fu- fu tile We for tor the tho simple reason that the shock of at the discharge e and the heat and violence of the explosion would destroy all near by life Glass globes filled with microbes and released I from airplanes mi might ht be more effective effective effective tive but the suns sun's ultraviolet rays and the thousand and one natural defenses provided by the open air would probably reduce the danger to the negligible The case Is stronger for more direct direct di dl- methods Reservoirs and milk supplies might be polluted But the daily dally tests of city water and land milk made all over the world and the free use of chlorine in reservoirs would be a safeguard To rel release ase an army of ot typhus-carrying typhus rats or clouds of pestilential Insects would be as perilous perilous perilous peril peril- ous to the attacker as to the attacked After considering all these possibilities ties lies the l leagues league's commission was forced to the conclusion that our present knowledge of hygiene and microbiology y would limit the extension exten sion of any epidemic and that such epidemic would not hav hav an any decisive influence on the Jt issue U of hostilities New Nework york ork Times |