Show THAT PECK OF DI DIRT T I INot Not so long ago people were saying You have to eat a apeck apeck apeck peck of dirt before you die anyway with much the same sameI I comfort comfortable ble resignation that their fathers displayed in calling call call- calling ing ing an epidemic of disease a visitation of Providence As Asto Asto Asto to the bacteria themselves ever since their discovery they have been considered by the scientific ic world as in some mysterious way necessary to the life of the individual That belief is being shaken by the tremendously important experiments conducted at the Pasteur Institute in Paris B By Bythe Bythe Y the most painstaking and patient patient patient pat pat- processes plants and lower low low- er forms of animal life are being being being be be- ing developed in an absolutely aseptic environment environment- free from germ life In spite of the enormous t technical difficulties which were encountered says Doctor E. E Wollman Vollman of the Institute in inan inan inan an account recently published in the New York Times it was eventually shown that among such superior animals as chicks guinea pigs and goats aseptic individuals develop develop develop de de- in the aseptic state just justas as well or even better than the individuals that contain bac bac- teria Daily life in an aseptic test tube is not likely ever to be our lot as human beings We Ve shall probably have to go on living for a while with millions of nf bacteria friendly or unfriendly unfriendly unfriendly un un- un- un friendly without and within Fortunately we can reduce our own OVll dangers from them attention to the cleanliness of what we touch or eat Soap and water remove many bacteria by removing the dirt often invisible invisible invisible ible which harbors them The bathtub laundry and kitchen sink represent for most of us the nearest practical approach to the purity of the laboratory Life that flourishes without the elusive and present ever-present bacteria is assuredly safer and more enjoyable without that peck of dirt |