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Show W MOST HUNDRED AND EIGHT the moat terrible year of disaster In the his- tory of the modern world. Ttji IB That la the black record which Time has entered in his books for the year which has just closed. A quarter of a million people destroyed In awful ratacylsms, billions of dollars'' worth of property wiped out of existence, a Bum of pain and human anguish which can never be expressed in words or figures such is the balance which must be carried to the debit side of the world's account books. The mention of the word catastrophe will of course bring the thoughts of every one back to the great Italian earthquake, the greatest single disaster in the world's history, a tragedy wblch cost 125,000 lives and wiped out of existence great and historic cities. In the shadow of that terrible holocaust the world has failed to realize that it was merely the climax of a long series of horrors which followed one on the heeU of the other from the first day of January, 190S, to the first day of January, 1909. The chimes of the rejoicing bells that rang In the new year of 1908 had not died away when the grim fiend of destruction commenced its work in a mine at Carthage, N. M. ..Twelve miners were blown out of human rec ognition and the black year had opened. The first big blow fell 11 days later . when 300 people were incinerated in a restaurant fire at Canton, China. It was followed the next day by a.trag- edy In America which shook the country to the core and sent thousands into mourning. The opera house at Boyertown, Pa., was burned down during an amateur performance, and 172 charred and mangled bodies were subsequently taken from the ruins. The first; month of the oroLuous year waned to a close amid a series of minor disasters at home and abroad which were overshadowed by the horrors which preceded them and the yet greater horrors which were to come. The first of February ushered in the first cyclone, which devastated Mississippi, leaving 20 dead bodies and hundreds of ruined homesteads in its wake. Two days later news was flashed across the wires that a mine explosion in Japan had destroyed . 91 miners and that 21 lives bad been lost in a snowstorm in Algeria. Devastated by Cyclone. Scarcely a week bad elapsed before the cyclone fiend made its second ap pearance, sweeping through Minne sota and Texas, claiming 13 lives. On the same day a mine explosion in Natal put an abrupt end to the hazard- - TV WTIN'ETEEN - the earthquake at Lisbon In 1756, when 60,000 lives had been lost This terrible tragedy had been for ever a century and a half the object of the awful dismay of the world. It be comes almost Insignificant in view of the culamlty which befell in the clos- lng days of 1908. For every soul that Facls Their Development and How Milk May wen out at L sbon two were quenched Become Contaminated. mure unu in nuiiy liuiy una d.uuv were added for good measure. Another point of Interest, especially Bacteria are so small that It is dif few streams of milk. Sometimes, how for those who cherish the venerable ficult to form a conception of their di eve:-- , ti e growth may extend Into taw It Is 'smaller milk ducts, and the last part superstition anent the unlucklness of I mensions. a the number 13, Is the discovery that only when we con of the milk will contain nearly as there was a disaster on every thir sider them in the many bacteria as the first H teenth day of the month for the first that luflamnuitlou of Ihe udder or fensesv aggregate seven months of the year. The rec Z they reach units tation of the milk In the udder rarely ord was started on January 13, the of measure with occurs, because there Is only a very date of the Boyertown theater fire. A , which we are fa- small amount, or milk held, in the month later there was a boiler ex- miliar. It Is estiand moxt of the bacteria found mated that K plosion in Pennsylvania, folluwed in there have little or no effect on milk. ' March by an avalanche which took 18 average;slzed It is also true thut fresh milk, like Us 13 saw a flood lives In Siberia. April bacteria blood, contain gome substance which in China which cost 2,000 lives, and were placed end to has an Inhibiting Influence on bacteria, the same day in May a similar disas H- end their combined This influence is so slight that it is 'If ter was responsible for the loss of length would equal 10,000 people, while 42 people died In an Inch. The weight June 13 a a cyclone in Louisiana. of an average bacillus is so small dynamite explosion took nine lives in that it hat been Winnipeg, and on July 13 47 lives were lost 4a a storm off the coast of estimated it would '. , . take over 600,000.- Spain. Another curiosity is discovered in 000,000 of them to ele Influence of Tem equal one gram, connection with the highly-usefu- l Bscon perature snn nnn nnn .i .uv,vvv,wv,vator which has made possible sky . - n.JI II.. 000 to weigh one scrapers. While it is fairly common ""V T Milk. Found to hear of accidents in elevators, few ounce. i What the bacteria lack in size is made '.up in their great numbers and powers of reproduction. A cubic centimeter of milk, which contains about 25 drops, frequently contains thousands, sometimes millions, even buudreds of Fig. 3. Typical Bacteria millions, of bacteria. A single drop (Bacillus Type). In Some of Thew of sour milk may contain 40,000,000 Sporss Are Shown as Clear Areas. bacteria. Bacteria reproduce themselves by a probably of little practical Importance, very simple process, known as fission, but It may have some relation to the t The cell becomes elongated and a par comparatively slow development tltlon wall is formed across the mid macterla in the udder. die. The two cells'thus formed sepa The real contamination occurs after rate, and we have two bacteria. Higher the milk has left tbe udder. la spile plants may take weeks and months, or of careful milking, dirt, particles 1 dust, hairs, even bits of manure frees the flanks or udder of Ihe cow may fall Into the milk. All of these things invariably carry more or less bacterial contamination. Manure usually co-- . tains large numbers of bacteria, maay of them being kinds which produce very undesirable changes in milk; aad 1 s the dry dust of the stable floor great numbers and varieties ct bacteria. This dust soon settles, and an open milk pail culches a surpris ingly large amount. But the contamination doea not esd here. The pails or the cans may sot be properly cleaned, and the corners or seams may hold small particles of 1. Bacteria of the Spherical or Fig. or sour milk. These impurities dirt Coccus Type are full of bacteria, which quickly flnd even many years, to grow to maturity. their way Into the milk. Tbe clot These simple plants known as bac through which the milk Is strained terla, however, under favorable condl may not have been properly scalded, lions may complete their growth and and the bacteria are not only not all reproduce themselves in less than an destroyed, but have actually multiplied In the damp cloth. When the strainer hour, Tne. relation of bacteria to tempera is used agatn many of these bacteria ture is most interesting and Important, are wushed out by the milk. If a cooler Is used It may add to the A certain amount of heat Is essential and a certain amount Is fatal. Each contamination If It is placed so that particular variety of bacteria has an it catches the dust. Finally, tbe hot-upper and a lower temperature limit beyond which it does not grow and a certain temperature, called the op timum, at which It grows best. Most forms occurring in milk find their optimum temperature between 80 and 98 degrees Fahrenheit Few bac teria grow at all above 100 degrees and On the 13th people realize what a heavy toll it at 125 siblfl for 235 fatalities. degrees the weaker ones soon 57 lives were lost In a storm .off the takes on life. In the United States In die. An exposure of ten minutes at coast of Spain, and on the 15th a flood 1908 108 people were killed and 57 150 to 160 degrees Fahrenheit is fatal In Asia Minor swept away 2,000 neo- - Injured in elevator accidents. in npnrlv nt! liflptprtn whtrh Hn tint A significant feature of the list Is form RllorP)l r,Vin.iHiv me exceptionally nign numoer oi are Few Fatalities in August. mentioned, destroyed onlv bv i.ror t i .via rrBU,,e". S ru" . u- -. r- - I luf longed boiling, exposure to steam un August was tbe most merciful 1 month in tbe year. In the United In , spite of the elaborate precaution! dry neat Wkh dry hat iUch States the death roll was 170, prin" obtained in an oven, much higher tern Fig. 4. Bacteria with Hair-Lik- e A p. 87CU cipally caused by floods in North and handling of such material as dyna perature and longer exposures are nec The South Carolina and Georgia. pendages Which Enable Them le mite death marshaled a large army Swim About In Water or Milk. essary to secure the same results. In biggest disaster abroad was a cyclone of victims from premature explosions. the laboratory small flasks of milk are In Hungary which killed 74 people. It 499 lives were lost through tterillzed was closely followed by a mine ex- Altogether by holding them in a small ties In which the milk Is distributed this class of disaster. steam boiler at a temperature of 248 may uot have been properly washed plosion in England with 70 fatalities. Surround Earth's Delvers. , Dangers degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes, aud steamed, and thus may become The total deathroll for the remaining source of contamination. An examination of the figures brings (See Fig. 5.) disasters was 81, the' largest single The contamination from each indiIf the milk is cooled and held at 50 Item being 39 lives lost in forest fire home forcibly the terribly dangerous In British Columbia. conditions under which work tbe men degrees Fahrenheit or, better still, 40 vidual source may be small, but takes The United States was still fortun- who go down Into the earth to delve I degrees, growth Is checked at once end all together It has a serious Influence on the quality of the milk. If exate through September with a total for wealth. From every country In multiplication is very slow traordinary precautions are taken Is of fatalities merely an r.jntlug to 33, the world which owns mines was conprevent contamination, the number of but abroad the ominous figures com- tributed the tale of a grewsome un bacteria In the fresh milk may be kept menced to mount with a rush again. derground tragedy. In all 2,270 min down to a few hundred per cubic cenFive thousand Uvea were lost in a ers were sacrificed, and the universal timeter: with careful milking It may would flood in India and 140 through a ferry distribution of the disasters easily be kept within, a few thousand: seem to indicate that no precautions disaster at Symrna. w ith careless milking and handling the October was the month of the great can be taken which will guarantee number will vary greatly with circumto sub with the any certainty forest fires which devastated Michi- safety stances and may exceed 100.000. workers. terranean 50 $20,000,-00and lives gan, destroying The bacteria lu milk from cows In considering the statistics given worth of property. A typhoon in kept In stables may be different from the Philippines added its quota of 800 here It must not be forgotten that tho bacteria from cows un paw ture. souIb, and a second typhoon off China they do not Include many thousands Bacteria which occur rarely in milk claimed 5,000 victims. of violent deaths which would run the during the winter months may become Both al home and abroad November total far above its present tremend v numerous in the summer, and spectne innocuous ous total of over a quarter of a mil proved a comparatively fermentations which are almost mouth, although It was marked by two lion. No account is taken In these lu the summer may apjicar la as such Three of disasters. fatalities, figures single comparatively large autumn or winter. the Coccus 2. of Bacteria the lives were lost persons killed by street cars and In Fig. hundred and thirty-ninType It should not be assumed that all lu a mine explosion In Germany, and other thoroughfare nccldcnU and the Hanging Together In Chains. bacteria are harmrul cither to milk or Imll vliliml 123 deaths resulted from the burning Ini!tr lint fif ftpntha fnr it has been assumed by many wri to the human system. In fact, many of the steamer Sardinia at Malta. ih. iironrt- - . .nn..iiv that milk Is formed In the udder kinds of bnctcrlu will grow In milk for December and Yuletlde came and sponsible. Also the criminal statistics a long time without changing Its taste nUw,.,3r ,from iv?: ThJ. bl" 'ro" or exhausted humanity saw the black are not Included, and it is only too " '"i"appearance, while many of the ferof who ,,,,'ni" number true In the that to a close persona apparent year drawing some of which make milk undesirdoubt the matter mentations However, death from meet assassination their calm. They were looking forward to Wat authorities agree that ruilk Is able for direct consumption are used tbe new year In eager hope that the every year is a large one. Suicides bacteria free when formed, unless tbe In making butter and various kinds of evil days were over, when the great also are uot Included, nor the big number who lose their lives through udder Is so Injured or diseased thut cheese. Very few of the bacteria est blow of all fell. care there Is a direct passageway from the cause disease or pro lin e poisonous Ou December 28, 1908. occurred the Individual drowning accidents, less of the blood vessels to milk ducts. It should and firearms, handling the most great Italian earthquake, mat an injury so bo stupendous disaster of the world's bis numberless other stray hazards which slight that It would escape the most The Individual Hsn. Bear in mind life surround Even yet it is Impossible to tory. careful examination might be sufllclent thut there is more In the Individual If all these figures could be collected to allow the make an accurate estimate of what Its hen than In the breed, This has been pHssage of bacteria, cost was either In Ions of human life and added It Is not an exaggeration . la secreted barierlu proven by the milk If Even the Beginners or property. It Is known that 125,000 to say that It would be found that at free." It Is dllllcult to obtain It frequently blame the lie'd for failure very In but came 300.000 to actual fact violent a least people perished, persons sterile. Bacteria work their when the fault Is reully with them'' It Is probable that figure Is far below end during the fatal months of 1908, perfectly Into tho milk cistern through tbe selves or the Individual bens. Beway the real number of victims. In mate- That Is to sny that tbe year saw the nimntnif 111 thu lut ft.wt fttijl lh.ti.ci cause eggs are 40 cents a dozeo and rial loss it is impossible to name any violent destruction of a population of condlUoni n,,,.r whlch tn,y fan Krow hens are not laying Is no reason why a city almost as large as Pittsburg. As nd figure. This growth Is or din the breed of hens should be changsd. multiply. a mutter of fact tho true figures would Far Surpassed Lisbon Disaster, artly confined to the lower pari of the Perhaps the hens are nnn productive Up to the time of the Italian earth probably be much In excess of that udder, and the gnater number of the or they have not been properly led or quake the record disaster had been number, bacteria are washed out with the first cared for. a typhoon aud the total of her dead as increased 1,000. The following day ar.other thousand lives were sacri ficed in a mine fire at Kewang, China. June apparently despaired of ever competing successfully with her sister month. However, she continued to pile tragedy on tragedy. On the first of the month an accident on the Amur river in China resulted in 89 deaths, and 18 was added to the day's roll by On the fourth a flood iu Mexico. typhoon on the west coast of Australia wiped out 270 lives, and two days afterward another cyclone burst in Ne braska at a cost of 28 lives, to be followed the next day with another cyclone in Iowa which increased the list by five.. On the same day 20 persons were lost in a flood in Mexico and 18 in an explosion in Vienna. The month of roses concluded its list with a tor nado, which struck Ihe Portuguese coast and slew 400, while Oklahoma contributed 100 more of her citizens ' to another storm. As far as America was concerned uly was the most merciful month of the year. Fifty-twlives was the en tire tribute collected in the United States through the agencies of flood, fire and storm. This leniency was more than compensated, however, by the list of fatalities abroad. On the second Of the month Batavla, Java, was ravaged by a storm which de stroyed, 600 lives. On the same day a mine explosion in Russia was respon- - THE PRESENCE OF BACTERIA IN MILK by first of the month with an avalanche in which cost 61 lives, Switzerland among the lost being several Anierlcans. Three days afterward came the schoolhouse fire at Coliingwood, O. cbll One hundred and seventy-eigh- t dren burned, trampled and crushed to death! No adjectives and no words of de anv language could adequately scribe such an appalling event Violent death invested with terrors at ways strikes humanity with peculiar flendishness when it seizes as its prey helpless and innocent children. This holocaust of childhood stunned the country into oblivion of lesser calam ities, while the despairing shrieks of hundreds of mothers and fathers rang across the world. The month closed with an earthquake in Mexico In which 500 people were killed and a mine explosion at Havana, Wyo.. which added 70 more items to the long toll of the year's violent deaths. Fire and" earthquake gave place to flood and storm In April, and the loss of life leaped upward with terrific bounds. The first great disaster of the month occurred In China, where 2,000 neoule were drowned in a flood which . A tniinHntml the movince of few dava later two railway accidents, one In Australia and the other In Alberta, accounted for 68 more un On April 24 a series of fortunates. cyclones of unprecedented fury burst over the southern states, destroying 368 lives, annihilating villages, and devastating property to the extent of millions of dollars. Mississippi paid 229 lives to the rage of the storm taulsiana contributed 108, and Ala bama 31- Whlle the cyclones were still ravag lng the south. In far northern Alberta a snowslide buried 10 persons and obliterated a village. The last week of April saw a last aupreme effort put forth by the malign fates to make the first of the month of spring the most deadly of the dread year. Forty lives were lost in a railroad accident In Australia and 28 more in a similar disaster in Mexico. A landslide at Notre Dame de Sabelle, Canada, added 36 to the swelling total, and finally the Japanese cruiser Mutsushlm blew up and 240 members of It crew perished. Past Mere Foretaste of Future. It wight well have ieemed that the fury of the fates would have been ex hausted by this time, but instead hu manlty had only experienced the first few blows of the terrible scourging which was to be visited upon it. In the first three days of the next month 26 persons were burned to death in America, 13. In Norway, and the col lapse of a tenement in London accounted for 20 more. The following day a ferryboat capsized in Russia and Hu-plh- y Raardlna - aaV-der- 25,-00- 0 d .. , tV o J d . . t ... i cos-tain- WW) .,.,. unr .l , f" as-oth- er iiva Vwlt fiS?ffi liK'-fr- " rctm-muere- A passengers wero drowned. week later another terrific cyclone burst over the' doomed southern states and took toll of 42 lives in Loiilnlanft, 17 in east Nebraska, and 14 in Oklahoma. ' 30 Uvea. The sequel to this prelude came on As If each month was endeavoring to outdo In horror ils predecessors, the 13th, when 10.000 lives went out Mnrch opened with a record of terrible lu another Chinese flood at Hankow. disasters, among which is numbered Beside this appalling tragedy a railthe most heartrending American trag- road nccidcnl1 in Belgium with 60 fatalAl The ities weenie trivial. grand edy since the Iroquois fire. Hankow was struck carnival of destruction opened on the finale the miners. .Within two weeks slmilur accidents In England And Spain had railed 92 more men to their account, while a dynamite accident in California wa paid for with cut calling of 32 v 121 trap-nest- |