OUR BABIES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 9, 15 May 1913, Page 2

OUR BABIES.

(By Hygeia.) Published under the auspices ol the Society for the Health of Wotnei and Children. “It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to main tain an ambulance at the bottom.” SOME BACTERIA OF EVERYDAY LIFE. Dr. Champtaloup, Professor of Public Health and Bacteriology, delivered the annual address on the above subject at the meeting of the Dunedin Society. The lecture was profusely illustrated by kinematograph pictures and lantern slides, which had entailed an enormous amount of personal work. The lecture-demonstration was intensely interesting, and, although the pictures cannot be reproduced here we feel sure that our readers will share the general appreciation of the sub-ject-matter, from which we extract the following:— BACTERIOLOGY. Bacteriology is one of the youngest of the sciences, and the one that is probably to-day making the most rapid strides. Within the last ten years the subject has become of great importance, and has grown to sdch an extent that, instead of the general bacteriologist, we now have the pathological bacteriologist or worker with disease-produc-ing bacteria, the veterinary becteriologist, the agricultural bacteriologist, and so on—all with wide fields of unexplored territory still before them. HOSTILE AXD FRIENDLY BACTERIA. As the subject is so 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 labours of health officials, bacteriologists, and such societies as yours are really directing their attention. If you consider for one moment the valuable work which this Society is carry--1 ing out, and if you dissect every object and aim of the Society, you will find that, much of the mischief against which y6u contend is due to the in-nocent-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 little use, others are necessary to our bodily economy, while others play 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 tissues of dead trees and plants and animals asunder.

The .surface of the hotly, 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 kinematogj’aph 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 manipulate nitrogen from the atmosphere. We are all familiar with the nodules on the roots of clover, peas, and beans, and it has been found that these nodxdes are largely made up of rod-like 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 of depriving a plant of these' nitrogen-assimilating ba.ctcria. 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' euro tobacco leaf are all jugglers on a large scale with the capacities and whims of special forms of living bac-

teria. 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 favorable conditions, they increase—reproducing themselves by subdivision. Dr. Champtalonp then showed us a few of the bacteria which commonly produce disease in infants. In speaking of diphtheria, lie 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 and their products. The effects of the serum are marvellous. It acts by neutralising the poison produced hy 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 prevents its harmful action. I \FA XTTLK DIARRHOEA. With regard to infantile diarhoca, the lecturer said: This disease is largely one of infants, 80 per cent, of the mortality occurring under two years of ago, while its incidence is by far the greatest on band-fed infants. It is due in many cases to the consumption of tainted food, and as milk forms the hulk 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 usingi pasteurised milk, which process destroys the germs which cause this disease. Dr. Hope, of ■Liverpool, conducted an inquiry among infants, of artisan parents, and ,he found that for every death from diarrhoea amongst breast-fed OUR BABIES ohnfhoa—,o IHS go infants 22 occurred among the entirely artificially fed. These figures will appear mope startling when I state that there die annually in England and Wales about 19,000 infants under one year of age from diandxoeal complaints alone. In ling.mto think that such minute New Zealand the average for 0 number of years is 360 deaths per annum under one year of age from diarrhoeal complaints. It is appalbacteria can be 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 life. Do not altogether blame the little germ. It can do j 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 harrier against the inroads of hostile bacteria is a sound body, built up strong and restive to disease by careful attention to all the essentials for Health;