Show BACILLI IN POSTAGE STAMPS A new Dl covery and biow it isa stamp collectors Collect org according to the latest stories of medical science the power of the microbe is daily becoming greater and greater bays the new york world at first the item went around that the bacillus of disease lurked in the kiss then that infinitesimal thousands of bacilli were hidden within the dirt in crusting the dollar bill lastly it has come to be known that an almost equal danger medically lies in the pages of old books A far more wonderful phase of microbial crobia mi though is told in the recent discovery of a french physician aliis is that the innocent appearing and cleanly looking postage stamp is a vehicle that cannot be surpassed as a transmitter ninety nine out of every postage stamps are fastened on their envelopes after being well moistened with the tongue saliva as is well known is almost invariably if not entirely so the headquarters as it were of the disease bacilli that infest any one person upon the sticking on of each postage stamp literally thousands of these are carried away adhering to the gum and many it is assured find their way in the course of handling directly into other organisms of course the danger most likely comes to the man or woman who re corves the letter particularly if he or she be a stamp collector following put aliis french theory an interesting table of statistics might be made upon the prevalence of contagious diseases in families who have a stamp collection in their nast in default of this ever having been attempted one authenticated instance of the transmission of diseases germs has been given out A certain french gentleman was made miserable quite recently by a parasitical malady which spread over his beard and caused him intense distress his physicians aid having been invoked it was discovered strange to say that while the disease was well known to medical science it existed only in colombia south america the patient biad never been to colombia however nor had he even crossed the ocean at any time of his life the only possible clew that the doctor coald get was that the young man frequently received letters from a correspondent or two residing within colombians Colom bias boundaries quite sufficient was this to cause the doctor to make a further investigation he found upon inquiry that the young man was more or less an enthusiastic stamp collector and that in the case of these colombian stamps he had torn them off the envelope and soaked them in water it was quite conceivable the physician argued that while engaged in aliis pastime he might readily have stroked his beard with his dripping or even moist hands and thus transferred the bacilli imprisoned in the gum to his face the disease he was affected with was known as cledra pl edra and in the opinion of french scientists there seems to be little question that he got g ot it in the way stated above |