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Show Is It Foolish to Try t Dodge the Deadly Microbes?! By PROF. JOHN ADAMS, LL.D., OF LONDON MBRICA lia3 become intensely hygienic. a Time was when Englishmen claimed pre-eminience for the frequency with which they used the bath, and for the low temperature tem-perature of the water Nov.' tho Americans tell stories among themselves of the scarcity of baths nt English hotels, and even go the length of referring to the Englishman's weekly tub. The American desire for a separate bathroom bath-room is only one symptom of a widespread distrust of each other's ailments. Infection and contagion are bo much feared that regulations regu-lations are being made and enforced all over the States for' the protection of the healthy citizen against the unhealthy. On the railway cars It Is now Illegal to provide pro-vide a common drinking cup for tho UBe of all comers. Each passenger In an ordinary car must provide his own drinking cup, while on the Pullman cars tho colored porter supplies each passenger who applies for It with a paper drinking cup. This consists of a flat paper bag which is carefully enclosed In a transparent transpar-ent tissue paper envelope, so that there can be no contamination by tho porter's fingers. In towns and cities the danger of contamination contamina-tion from one's fellows Is avoided by having the drinking fountains so arranged that they spout goully upwards. The drinker has only to bend over and suck up tho flowing water. It is true that where water is somewhat scaroo the town authorities cannot afford to have it flowing all tho time. A tap is accordingly provided, and sometimes it is difficult for the inexpert drinker to avoid squirting water up his nostrils and all over his face. But, after all, the application of water to the face is itself hygienic. Perhaps one of the main causes of the increasing in-creasing prominence given to hygiene is tho conspicuous success that has marked the Americans' efforts to clean up Cuba and other places into which they have been more or lesn unwillingly lured. Their brilliant success in the foreign field has without doubt encouraged the Americans in their persistent attempts to save themselves from contaminating each other. The world is full of honest admiration of. how the Americans have fought yellow fever and other disagreeable things, but ono wonders whether the lesson of this success is to establish estab-lish a sort of isolation in communion. Can. we escape from each other? Are we taking the best means to escape? It seems a little comical to tako nil these elaborate precautions pre-cautions about separate drinking cups, and yot to allow tho colored porte'r to handle the ice that is to be put into tho tank. There is, however, another possible lino of advance. Instead of dealing with the drink we may deal with the drinker. We may defy the mlcrobo either by eluding him or by fighting fight-ing him. We may use our separate cups and thus prevent the microbe from entering the system, or we may to f M it will successfully resist the "WW microscopic foes. (ir,ments (mB It has been found byPcrl with' the consent of the flM on United States sold iers ft the tunl cnn be ;m and that persons thu iw f( contaminated water without W consequences. t aD lready men about to s faW or other expeditions , tag fe supply is deJ(3BSIClflre VSkM selves inocfu,f whaterer ""fl the risks of drinking ; w j rcctive for seven care- ,d to rH Itself. , Tho tajM A still more galIineits rear of other P e''5! In the "nine-foot sheet eve JM districts. Th s insists P t hotel bed y.0,n,Bj5el'. d S IsU our flesh creep. mWwHM But, after t to s SM |
