A CENSUS OF THE AIR.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1679, 5 October 1887, Page 3

A CENSUS OF THE AIR.

["New Zealand Times."] When no bird or winged indent is m sight, there yet are round about us m the attuospheie of many districts millions of living creatures called microbes, some of which, therefore, we must needs draw into our lungs if we breathe at all. Except that certain of them are manufacturers of alcohol the/c is nothing to be said m their favor, and there ia reason to believe that among them are occasionally to be found others that give ris9 to special diseases m mankind, while all. alike help to lower the vitality of the human frame. Tt is, therefore, of importance to know where they abound, and m what spots we may hope to be most free from their company. To learn this, Dr Percy Frankland has been .taking stock of them In different places, and making a rough census of their numberp, with results which are described by him m the Nineteenth Century for this month. An estimate has been formed of their propoitions m the open country of France, on the Jura Alps, on the glaciers of Cimmouix, m the crowded streets, and on the solitary sea ; on the top 3 of the educational buildings of Kensington ; on a heath near Norwich, and on the cathedral of lhat city ; on the downs of Surrey ; Bt the bottom and at the top of Primrose hill ; In the room at Burlington House m which the Royal Society was holding its soiree ; In the Natural History Museum, both on an ordinary day and on a pnblic holiday ; In a railway carriage with its usual average of passengers, and m the. same carriage when crammed with racing men } and In a barn where threshing was In full awing. By such investigations it baa been ascertained that the microbes abound m to-vna and houses ; that they increase with the heat of the weather and the number of people ; that where dost Is thee they are. and that where it is not, as far out at sen, there they cannot be found; that the wind dlßtribu<e3 them high and wide; and that In oalm air they fall to its lower levels. The same volume of air that yielded only four miorobea m January yielded 105 m Auguat, and while an open heath yielded but seven In a certain quantity of air, a garden near yielded 31. The room In which the Royal Soclevy meets yielded, when empty, 180 per two gallons of air, but when crowded 432. The highest result was reaohed m the dusty barn, where 8000 organisms fell od a rquare foot of ant face m one minute. This ceneu3 of our unseen foes ia the firßt j step to getting rid of them,