I ll ————————————————————
Bellefonte, Pa., April 27, 1923.
AS
WHAT EVERY ONE OUGHT TO
KNOW ABOUT GERMS.
By William C. Miller, M. D.
With few exceptions, the communi-
cable diseases, those which you term
“catching,” are contracted by breath-
ing in or swallowing germs.
Your town, your home, your body
can be protected from germs, first, by
the strict enforcement of public health
laws; second, by the intelligent pre-
cautions which you take as an individ-
ual.
“Germs” is the common term ap-
plied to the different forms of bacteria
which produce disease. :
If your imagination has pictured
disease germs as fantastic shapes with
forked tongues and lashing tails, the
glamour will fade when you view them
under the microscope, for there you
will see only objects which look like
finely chopped hair, groups of dots, or
pale corkscrews. They cannot be seen
except by the aid of a high power mi-
croscope. Some are so small that 10,-
000 can nestle comfortably on a fine
line an inch long.
They are vegetable in character and
reproduce by dividing in half. In
about thirty minutes the two germs
thus formed will be fully developed
and ready to divide again. In the next
half hour the four thus produced be-
come eight, and so on. Billions are
lost in the struggle for existence, but
a pencil and paper calculation of the
24-hour progeny of a single germ will
astonish you.
HOW GERM
DISEASES ARE CON-
TRACTED.
If you breathe in or swallow some
of these microscopic germs they may
find lodgement in your system. When
an individual is “fit,” as we say, the
natural power of resistance is often
able to prevent disease germs from
finding such lodgement. When, how-
ever, the vitality is lowered or the
membrane of the mouth and nose is
irritated by a cold, the likelihood of
infection is greatly increased.
The dread communicable diseases
against which all public health agen-
cies are fighting are: Bubonic plague,
cholera, leprosy, small-pox, typhus fe-
ver, yellow fever, anthrax, infantile
paralysis, cerebro-spinal meningitis,
chicken pox, german measles, glan-
ders, diphtheria, malarial fever, mea-
sles, mumps, relapsing fever, scarlet
fever, typhoid fever, and whooping
cough.
You may smile at those words, “bu-
bonic plague, cholera, typhus fever,
smail-pox and yellow fever,” and say
that American sanitation has stamped
them out. In America, to a large ex-
tent, yes. ]
But in Europe, war and revolution
swept, plagues are raging. Men,
‘nent protection against diphtheria.
women and children are dying by hun-
dreds of thousands. And on two
oceans, steamers are plying between |
insanitary Europe and Asia and san-
itary America. In every American |
port, health officials are scrutinizing
incoming passengers for disease car- |
riers, killing rats which might carry |
plague from steamships to piers, and |
delonsing those wretched immigrants |
whose bodies and garments might be
infested with the insects which carry |
the deadly typhus germs.
An eminent public health expert;
who recently visited the plague swept |
countries of Europe has stated that if |
typhus be permitted to touch the port |
of New York, it will claim millions of |
victims in the metropolis, and sweep |
across the North American continent
like a prairie fire. GE
Therefore, it behooves every citizen |
in every city, town, village and rural |
community to turn from the picture |
of horror and death in Russia, Poland |
and the Far East to reinforce commu- |
nity and individual household Profec-|
tion against other germs.
Pure water and pure (pasteurized) |
milk are almost infallible protection |
against typhoid fever. |
A BIG “IF.”
You will reduce danger from these:
If you rid your town of these: Bu-
bonic plague, typhus fever, yellow fe-
ver, malarial fever, relapsing fever,
rats, lice, mosquitoes, flies, ticks, fleas,
bedbugs.
When you think of the rats in the
alley and the flies at the market house ;
it may appear a hopeless undertaking,
but begin today clearing your town cf
oth.
The scope of this article will not
permit details as to the methods of
ridding communities of rats, fiies,
mosquitoes, or that variety of vermin
the presence of which the housewife is
wont to regard as a reflection upon
her administrative ability, but it is
quite possible to get rid of the entire
let. Write your State Department of
Health for instructions.
The spread of more common diseas-
es, such as infantile paralysis, scarlet
fever, diphtheria, measles and whoop-
ing cough, can be checked quickly by
intelligent co-operation between pub-
lic health officials and individual citi-
zens. The agencies used include strict
quarantine, injections of toxin and an-
ti-toxin, and the simplest precautions
on the part of individuals.
The start or first symptom of many
a serious illness, especially among
children, is the so-called “cold in the
head.”
Just how much blame for the dis-
tribution of diseases may be placed at
the door of the “common cold” no one
can say. When the public shall have
been educated in protection against
colds, we shall probably know.
In the meantime an outline as to
how colds are conveyed from one per-
son to another may be taken as an ex-
ample for the transmission of other
diseases, such as meningitis, diphthe-
ria, measles, scarlet fever, mumps,
whooping cugh, ete.
In common cold the mouth, nose and
throat contain myriads of germs which
at the earlier stage of the disease are
especially active and virulent. When
the patient coughs or sneezes, droplets
often so small as to be invisible, yet
loaded to the full with the germs, are
thrown into the air. If breathed in by
another person of low resistance, there
will be a new case of cold in the morn-
ing, If a person with a cold puts his
hands to his mouth or nose, and then
shakes hands with a friend, there is a
transfer of germs of which neither is
conscious, and the next day another
man comes down town with a red nose.
Persons who have colds should avoid
crowds and public conveyances, and, if
possible, stay at home until recov-
ered. They should always cough or
sneeze into a handkerchief. Lowered
vitality because of a cold renders the
individual much more susceptible to
other infections.
YOUR OWN DEFENSE AGAINST GERMS
In all communicable diseases there
is a similarity of defense as well as
attack.
When the hostile germs succeed in
entering the system, with their in-
crease in the numbers they throw off,
into the blood stream, waste substanc-
es which, because they are poisonous
to the body, are called toxins. These
stimulate the protective functions of
the body and the blood begins at once
to produce substances to overcome
them. These substances are called
anti-bodies, or anti-toxins.
If the patient has average strength
and the disease is not too virulent,
enough anti-toxins, or anti-bodies will
be made to neutralize the disease tox-
ins, and the result will be recovery.
Because some anti-toxins remain in
the blood, you do not get certain dis-
eases a second time.
The blood of animals inoculated
with disease toxins, also makes anti-
toxins. The use of diphtheria and oth-
er anti-toxins, from the blood of the
horse, is widespread. However, when
animal anti-toxin is used, as for in-
stance in diphtheria, while its action
is the same as that of the anti-toxin
which might have been made by the
patient, had there been time, it soon
passes out of the system and perma-
nent immunity cannot be promised.
PERMANNET IMMUNITY AGAINST
DIPHTHERIA.
There is a way to establish perma-
If
you would do your bit toward check-
ing disease you will join the forces |
which are trying to eliminate diphthe-
ria from the category of diseases by
making the administration of toxin
anti-toxin a requirement for admission
to school, just as vaccination against
small-pox is now compulsory in many
States.
SCHICK TEST.
The injection between the layers of
the skin of a minute qantity of a spe-
cial laboratory product will show with-
in 48 hours, by the presence or ab-
sence of reaction, whether or not the
person so treated is susceptible to
diphtheria, a disease to which many
are naturally immune. This is known
as the Schick Test, and it should be
administered only by a physician.
TOXIN, ANTI-TOXIN,
If the Schick Test shows that the
individual would probably contract
diphtheria if exposed to it, then toxin
anti-toxin should be administered.
This means that enough prepared
diphtheria toxin is injected beneath
the skin to stimulate the natural man-
ufacture of anti-toxin by the blood and
to produce permanent immunity. Mix-
ed with the toxin is a sufficient amount
of anti-toxin to render it harmless.
It is given in three doses, a week
apart.
Babies under six months, on ac-
count of a temporary immunity to
diphtheria derived from their mothers,
often fail to respond to the Schick
Test, and thus may be created a false
sense of security, which experience
does not justify.
It is not a bad practice to adminis-
ter toxin anti-toxin without the for-
mality of the Schick Test, to babies
between six months and two years of
age.
2 (Concluded next week.)
Wearing of Parachutes Ordered by
Government.
All persons riding in government-
owned aircraft are now required to
wear a parachute on every flight, ac-
cording to officers at Chanut Field, at
Rantoul, Ill. A parachute course has
been added to the train-in courses at
the field and during the last year, fif-
teen Naval Air Service and Marire
Air Service men came from the Unit-
ed States and Hawiian department for
instruction in this course.
The course is extended over ten
weeks of intensive training during
which time each student is required |
to make several jumps and is instruct-
ed in the care, construction, repair
and use of the parachute.
The Air service has adopted two
styles of parachutes, according to the
officials. One is the seat pack and
the other the lap pack. The seat pack
folds up and acts as a cushion for the
men to sit on. Both styles are about
twenty-eight feet in diameter when
open and are made of a high grade of
silk, having a tensile strength of for-
ty-five pounds to the square inch.
These styles have been in use for
about one year and to date have never
failed to open, according to the offi-
cers, who state that thousands of tests
have been made under every possible
condition, such as tying knots in the
cords, folding the parachute in tan-
gles and releasing them in all kinds
of weather. It is stated that when
the trip cord is pulled the parachute
will open in about three-fifths of a
second and with a two hundred pound
weight attached will fall at the rate
of about sixteen feet a second. —Ex-
change.
State Will Pay $25 fr eBars.
If bears are too plentiful in Potter
| county, Pa., this year, the Game Com-
{mission will allow their capture for
| stocking purposes in other counties
|of the State, but otherwise the game
{limit is the same as elsewhere.
If “search and seizure” is desired
iby the denizens, the commission will
‘so order, and pay $25 for each bear
| caught in log traps delivered crated
tat the nearest railroad station for
| shipment May 1st to October 31st.
INVESTMENT
is your home a safe one ?
OUR own home is an
ideal investment,
under your personal
tion, adding to your enjoyment
while it adds to your wealth.
But have you protected that in-
vestment against deterioration?
Permanence costsbut little more
than temporary construction.
Ask the help of your building
material dealer. He
the best types of construction
and the best materials
always
protec-
knows
to use,
PORTLAND CEMENT, SEPeES
he Standard by which all other makes are measured”
Shoes. Shoes.
SE EEN Te a Ee A A A AEE Ne a le SN
in 3
FL Ut
3 13
i di
i o
3] r=
Oc I
H oh
i =h
i Ls
3] Lc
AL af]
if -
= i
i Hs
| Large Size Shoes ©
1] Ir
arge Size Shoes §
: ]
Lc 5h
uc He
= Ae
2 for Large Women §
on el
So J
Ic We can fit the very largest of}
foot with Stylish Shoes and Oe
give comfort.
Ho
EE
1=]jl
Fil
iE ai
=i =
= oi]
21 Ls
3h oH
iL Ur
Th Sr
or 9 be
Le IE
© Yeager's Shoe Store &
=1j) Si
0c le
f2 THE SHOE STORE FOR THE POOR MAN FO
ri
=] Bush Arcade Building 58-27 BELLEFONTE, PA. 2)
1 =
| ih
RE
i Sh 1
MILES OF BELL TELEPHONE WIRE
IN PENNSYLVANIA = 1919-1922
V
alr
AN |] |.
ine
HH?
il
A UV
Hiro
Be K0 Wu en
HALF A MILLION MILES OF NEW WIRE WILL
BE ADDED TO THE BELL TELEPHONE
SYSTEM IN PENNSYLVANIA THIS YEAR
Thars an increase of twenty per cent.
in the total Bell wire mileage in the state.
This new wire alone would encircle the
earth at the equator twenty times. It
would reach the length of the state of
Pennsylvania more than 1600 times.
More wire was placed
any previous year. We will place nearly
twice as much in 1923.
This is one phase of our effort to meet
the demand for telephone service in
Pennsylvania.
THE BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY
OF PENNSYLVANIA
C. W. Heilhecker
in 1922 than in
Come to the “Watchman” office for High Class Job work.
Lyon & Co. Ee Lyon & Co.
visit to our store will convince
you that we have on display
an array of Spring Styles that will
please and delight the Woman or
Miss who is in quest of a Spring
Coat, Suit, Cape, Dress or Blouse, at
attractively low prices.
New Line of Sweaters and Scarfs
just arrived—a beautiful combination of
colorings in Silk and Wool.
Hosiery
Attention, Kiddies-----The new hot weather
SocksJare now on display—all colors, all
lengths, in plain and fancy.
Ladies Silk Hose in all colors.
Carpets and Draperies
Make your Spring house-cleaning easy
and your home attractive by buying your
Carpets, Rugs, Draperies and Curtains
here. Prices to suit all economical buy-
ers.
Shoes
We have Shoes to suit everybody—
Mens Working Shoes
Ladies Oxfords
Childrens Shoes—in All Colors
Lyon & Co.
Mens Fine Dress Shoes
Ladies Dress Shoes
Ladies 1 and 2-Strap Oxfords
Lyon & Co.
64-10