Show SUNLIGHT TO KILL MICROBES Dr Henrlot of the Paris Board of Health has startled the theatergoers of the French capital by telling of the large numbers of harmful microbes that fill the air in the playhouses and lie in wait for the spectator He has found that the worst places arc thse with the least air and sunlight Plush seats and draperies caUse a marked Increase In-crease in the bacilli but the organisms exist In abnrmaT numbers wherever the room Is not frequently opened tothe outside air and light Ordinary ventilation merely scatters the microbes mi-crobes through the atmosphere without with-out removing them Dr Henrlot says the only sure preventive of the dangers that lurk In the theaters Is to be found In better natural aeration and in the construction of large windows to let in lie sunlight Apparatus like that used by the French scientist would undoubtedly show similar results not only In our theaters but In churches and even In residences from which the sunlight Is excluded It Is one of the important discoveries of bacteriology that sunlight sun-light Is the deadliest natural enemy of microbes The light has as much to do with the purifying of a contaminated contami-nated river as has the aeration Sunshine Sun-shine and lack of moisture will kill almost any kind of microbe In a short time In a recent lecture before the Royal Institution of Great Britain Dr Allan Macfadyen of the Tenner Institute Insti-tute of Preventive Medicine laid especial stress on the bactericidal effects of sunlight He said a scientist could find no surer way of losing the cultures In his test tubes than by ox posing them to the light of day Even diffused sunlight weakens the bacilli and renders them harmless Direct rays of the sun are fatal to the typhoid bacillus In from half an hour to two hours and to the diphtheria diph-theria bacillus in a somewhat shorter time The rays at the violet end of the spectrum are the most deadly Dr Macfadyen stated that the continuous con-tinuous dally action of the sun along with desiccation is an important physical agent in arresting the development de-velopment of the dlsaase germs that are expelled from the body The health of the people will he mUoh better protected when this scientific fact Is generally understood and acted upon in the care of our homes churches and places of amusement Chicago Tribune |