OUR BABIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 567, 14 May 1913, Page 6

OUR BABIES.

(By Hygeia).

Published under the auspices of the Society for the Health of Women and Children. " It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." SOME BACTERIA OP EVERYDAY LIFE.

Dr Champtaloupj Professor of Public Health and Bacteriology, delivered the annual address, on the above sub ject, at the meeting of the Dunedin Society. The lecture was profusely illustrated by kinematograph pictures and lantern slides, which had entailed an enormou3 amount of perßonal work. The lecture-demonstration was intensely interesting, and, although the pictures cannot be reproduced here we fed sure that our readers will share the general appreciation of the subject matter, from which we extract the following: BACTERIOLOGY;. Bacteriology is ons of the youngest of sciences, and the one that is probably to-day making the most rapid strides. Within the last ten years the subject has developed to such an extent that, instead of the general bacterioloigst, we now have the pathological bacteriologist or worker with disease-producing bacteria, the veterinary bacteriologist, the agricultural bacteriologist, and so on—all with wide fields of unexplored territory still before them. HOSTILE AND FRIENDLY BACTERIA.

As the subject is bo vast, I intend to confine my remarks principally to those harmful or disease - producing bacteria which are connected with infant life. It is against these that the labourß of health official, bacteriologists, and such societies as yours are really directing their attention. If you consider for one moment the valuable work which this society is carrying out, and if you dissect every object and aim of the society, you will find that much of the mischief against which you contend is due to the innocent-looking and yet potent group of germs called bacteria. We must not imagine for one moment that all bacteria are harmful. Far from it. Many are apparently of littlft use, others are necessary to our bodily economy, while others ply a great part in manufacturing processes. Without bacteria all refuse and decaying organic matter would remain with us, and be difficult to dispose of. The germs of putrefaction rapidly reduce this organic matter to simple and harmless elements, and pull the tißsues of dead trees and plants and animals asunder.

The surface of the body, the mouth, and intestines are laden with bacteria, and yet they do us no harm, and even in some cases do good so long as we keep them in their place, and do not suffer our bodily strength to fall below par. In one of the kinematograph films which you will presently see, thousands of these bacteria are represented in a living and active state in the intestinal canal. It is only by some derangement of our body tissues that they can gain entrance to forbidden grounds, and there set up various disease processes. In plant life certain bacteria mani pulate nitrogen from the atmosphere. We are all familiar with the nodujes on the roots of clover, peas, and beas, and it has been found that these nodules are largely made up of rodlike bacteria, which are able to seize upon atmospheric nitrogen, and work it up into an available form for the use of the plant. In the slide represented you see the effect ot depriving a plant of these nitrogen-assimilating bacteria. In commercial life bacteria play an important part. Those who tan leather, those who rot the flax plants to get them ready for the making of linen thread, and the people who cure tobacco leaf are all jugglers on a large scale with the capacities and whims of special forms of living bacteria, The lecturer then explained the nature and structure of bacteria, pointing out that they are really minute plants. He described the technique of their cultivation, and the wonderful rapidity with which, under favourable conditions, they increase reproducing themselves by subdivision. Dr Champtaloup then showed us a few of the bacteria which commonly produce disease in infants In speaking of diphtheria, he said:— "It is in connection with this disease that we see the splendid results of scientific treatment. A case of diphtheria is now treated by injection under the skin of a serum prepared by injecting a horse with increasing doses of dead diphtheria bacilli ana their products. The effects of the serum are marvellous. It acts by neutralising the poison produced by the germs, and Which is circulating in the blood. The earlier this serum, or anti-toxin, as it is called, is administered the sooner will it neutralise the poison and prevent its harmful action." INFANTILE DIARRHOEA.

With regard to infantile diarrhoea, the lecturer said: — "This disease is largely one of infants, 80 per cent, of the mortality occurring under two year of age, while its incidence is by far the greatest on hand-fed infants. It is due in many cases to the consumption of tainted food, and as milk forms the bulk of the food partaken of at this age, the tremendous loss of life from this cause surely warrants every precaution being taken in milking and in handling and storing milk prior to use. Where the milk supply is doubtful the baby's health may be safeguarded by using pasteurised milk, which process destroys the germs which cause this diaease. Dr Hope, of Liverpool, conducted an inquiry among infants of artisan parents, and he found that for every death amongst breast-fed infants 22 occurred among the entirely artificially fed. These figures, will appear more startling when I state that there die annually in England and Wales about 19,000 in-

diarrhoea complaints alone. In New Zealand the average for a number of yearß is 360 deaths per annum under one year of age from diarrhoeal com plaints. It is appalling to think that such minute bacteria can he responsible for so many thousands of deaths, when a little care in the handling of milk and the observance of the ordinary rules of cleanliness would be the saving of much of this waste of human lite. Do not altogether blame the little germ. It can do no harm if kept in its proper place, but when by gross neglect it gains entrance to the baby's milk it cannot help producing those diseases peculiar to itself." Always bear in mind that the most effective barrier against the inroads of hostile is a sounJ body* built up strong and resistive to disease by careful attention to all the essen tials for health.