The illusion of absolute sterility: Bacterial resilience and the limits of hygiene

“ This application of biology to life and its problems has in recent years been nowhere more marked than in the realm of bacteriology. This comparatively new science, associated with the great names of Pasteur, Koch, and Lister, furnishes indeed a stock illustration of the applicability of pure biology. Turn where we will, we shall find the work of the unseen hosts of bacteria daily claiming more and more attention from practical people. Thus biology, even when clothed in the form of microscopic cells, is coming to occupy a new place in the minds of men. ”

“ The essential distinction between Mother Earth, that bringeth forth flowers and fruits, and grass for our herds, and dirt or filth, the especial opprobrium of the hygienist, is that the latter carries germs of bacteria. Cleanness, in the hygienic sense, is freedom from pathogenic germs; and when the doctors tell us that the marked improvement in health conditions recently observable in Germany and Switzerland, and pre-eminently in Sweden, is due to their exceptional attention to cleanliness, they use the term with particular reference to the provoking causes of preventable sickness. ”

“ CLEANLINESS AND SANITATION—WATER SUPPLY AND SEWAGE
Filth and disease have gone hand in hand from the beginning of the world; but only during the last quarter-century have we known the true cause of infection, and why it is so closely associated with dirt. The danger of uncleanliness lies in the existence of certain microscopic organisms belonging to the vegetable kingdom, known popularly as microbes or germs, but more properly as bacteria. Bacteria, like the plants with which we are more familiar, thrive in moisture and moderate heat, but differ from them in many respects. ”

“ HOW TO GIVE THE BABY’S BATH—CARE OF THE VARIOUS ORGANS—THRUSH AND ITS TREATMENT—SPECIAL BATHS FOR DELICATE CHILDREN—HABITS OF CLEANLINESS
Cleanliness is one of the foundation-stones on which is reared the beautiful structure of baby’s good health and good temper. When it is neglected, all sorts of weaknesses, discomforts and irritations creep in.
Uncleanliness invites disease and furnishes a lodging-place for germs. Moreover, the baby that starts off life by being comfortable through cleanliness forms habits of neatness, which it never loses. ”

“ Matters relating to water-supply, drainage, disposal of refuse, lighting, ventilation, dry foundations and dry walls to houses, stoves and fireplaces, cookery and kitchen arrangements, washing and drying appliances, cleanliness of person and of garments, cleanliness of rooms and of bedding, special arrangements for unwholesome but necessary trades and employments, provision for the sick that may not be perilous to other persons, moderation in diet and regimen, avoidance of vicious indulgences—all these and many other subjects have engaged the attention of thoughtful persons in a marked degree ”

“ Rigid observance of the laws of cleanliness is necessary if we would travel with Wellville’s happy throng.
CleanlinessOne of the first essentials to health is a clean dwelling place. Disease germs lurk in damp and darkness and dirt. Fresh air and sunshine drive these foes of health from their dwelling places. The vacuum sweeper swallows dirt instead of tossing it into the air like the old-fashioned broom. Sterilization with disinfectants, cleansers, and scalding water kills germs and makes the house a safe place for the human body. ”

“ The destruction of all germ life in or on an object is known as sterilization. From the standpoint of hygiene sterilization is unnecessary except in dis-eases such as anthrax, tetanus, and other spore-bearing dis-eases, the spore being highly resistive and not so easily destroyed as the vegetative cells. Sterilization will disinfect but disinfection will not necessarily sterilize. Disinfection is thoroughly efficient in almost all cases. Sterilization destroys all life. ”

“ Bacteria are those minute organisms which under various names are the active causes not only of diseases but of all putrefaction, fermentation and like changes in dead organic matter. Like all living 386things they may be killed, and on this is based the whole theory of disinfection. Some are more hardy than others, under conditions which are frequently supposed to be unfavorable to them. Merely to destroy an unpleasant odor or to admit fresh air into a room does not mean to disinfect, and it is necessary to understand this clearly in the effort to purify rooms in the event of infection. ”

“ If the surroundings are too hot, too cold, or too dry, or if they are not supplied with a proper quantity and quality of food, the bacterium becomes inactive until the surrounding circumstances change; or it may die absolutely. The spores, which finally become full-fledged bacteria, are able to stand a more unfavorable environment than the adult bacteria. ”

“ That diphtheria germs can remain for a long time in a living and, what is more, virulent condition in dust has been clearly demonstrated by Germano, amongst other investigators, this organism being specially endowed with the capacity for resisting the, to other microbes, lethal effect of getting dried up.
Bacteria, however, survive this desiccation process much better when they are herded together in large numbers than when they have to face such untoward conditions as isolated individuals. ”

“ Extreme or prolonged cold paralyses but does not kill micro-organisms. Few, however, survive being raised to a temperature of 1341⁄2° F. Boiling for ten to twenty minutes will kill all bacteria, and the great majority of spores. Steam applied in an autoclave under a pressure of two atmospheres destroys even the most resistant spores in a few minutes. Direct sunlight, electric light, or even diffuse daylight, is inimical to the growth of bacteria, as are also Röntgen rays and radium emanations. ”

“ We have no standards for safety. Our enemies are no longer Indians and wild animals. Those were the days of big things. Today is the day of the infinitely little. To see our cruelest enemies, we must use the microscope. Of all our dangers, that of uncleanness leads—uncleanness of food and water and air—uncleanness due to unsanitary production and storage, to exposure to street dust, or to cooking and serving of food in unclean vessels. Such conditions result not only in actual disease, but in lowered vitality and lessened work power. ”

“ The number of bacteria in the air is very variable, but is much greater in houses than out of doors, and is naturally increased by attempts to clean the rooms.
Parasitic Nature. The number of species of pathogenic germs is comparatively small compared with the number of all the varieties of germs, for the latter are practically innumerable. Indeed, the wonderful qualities of resistance in animal tissues is the only thing that makes animal life [Pg 8] possible and it is this power of resistance that allows certain wounds to heal by primary union when left without protection or care. ”

“ The terms of intimacy, so to speak, which we have been now able to establish with bacteria has enabled us to discover details of their life and habits which before were shrouded in mystery. Their distribution in air has led to renewed endeavours on the part of sanitary authorities to procure efficient ventilation in our hospitals and public institutions; dust has acquired a fresh horror since it has been shown how disease germs may be disseminated by its means ”

“ We have seen how bacteria may be distributed by dust, how they may linger in crowded tenements and badly ventilated buildings, that insanitary surroundings provide, in fact, for the scientist a well-stocked bacterial covert, where he may with ease bag his thousands of germs of various descriptions. ”

“ In the mad pursuit of pelf and position little heed is being given to the omnipresence of bacilli, bacteria and other mischievous, pernicious and fatal agencies. Why will people supinely continue to court death in street cars, theaters, churches and at crowded entertainments, where the most casual movement sets into motion myriads of germs that are inhaled, eaten and absorbed by those present? And why will they disregard common caution by eating food in hotels, cafés, restaurants, Pullman cars and at home, when all food is known to be gorged with murderous molecules of one sort or another? ”

“ The conditions governing their growth involve many complex problems, but a few of the chief factors concerned are moisture, air, food, temperature, and light. All bacteria must have moisture, else they die sooner or later, depending upon the hardness of the species, and none can multiply without it. A supply of air is by no means essential to all germs. ”

“ It is evident that one of the first considerations of a thoughtful and intelligent housekeeper toward securing one condition at least of good health should be absolute cleanliness in all things— that cleanliness which excludes as much as possible all kinds of extraneous ferments from food and its surroundings. We know that micro-organisms are the agents of fermentation; we know the factors necessary to their life, namely, food, warmth, and moisture; deprived of any one of these, their growth is stopped and they become inert, or die. ”

“ Outside the body, bacteria may be killed by starvation, by want of moisture, by being subjected to high temperature, or by the action of certain chemical agents of which carbolic acid, the perchloride and biniodide of mercury, and various chlorine preparations are the most powerful. ”

“ The subject of bacteria in foods has of late become a matter of careful scientific study, and the fact has been established that milk is one of the most subtle of disease-carriers. Hence every careful mother, before giving it to her children, subjects it to the sterilizing process, which is simply raising it to the degree of heat which destroys the germs. ”

“ It is far safer to send a mattress to the cleaner to be steamed than to try to sterilize such bulky objects at home. It requires about twenty-four hours with the room tightly closed to generate enough gas so that the bacteria which may have found their way onto the walls or floor or ceiling or into the air of a room will be surely killed. ”

“ Bacteriology has shown us that the long skirt disseminates germs as it trails along the ground; in fact, it stirs them up for other people to breathe, and the culprit herself carries off as her fair share a large quantity which settles on her dress. ”

“ It is impossible for the guilty soul to emancipate itself from the consciousness of sin. Dr. Seedham-Green, in his work on “The Sterilization of the Hands,” proves the absolute impossibility of cleansing the hands from bacteria:
Simple washing with soap and hot water, with use of sand or marble dust, however energetically done, does not materially diminish the number of microbes ”

“ We must find the fault in hygiene, generally constipation or overwork, or lack of sleep, causing a lowering of the body's vital resistance, whereby the germs, the staphylococci, which are deep in our skin and never to be rubbed off by any washing or sterilization, begin to multiply. The soil has become such that they can multiply.
I have tried to suggest the importance that we ought to attribute to soil as well as to seed. Modern doctrine about the cause of disease has called our attention to the tremendous importance of seed, that is, germs, bacteria. ”

“ If all of us are threatened alike by the invisible enemies in the air we breathe, how is it that so many escape? If we expose a hundred flasks of meat-broth to the same atmosphere, they will all become tainted alike, and in the same time. But the animal body is not a dead soil in which bacteria can vegetate without disturbance. Though our blood and juices are the most perfect food the parasites require, though the animal temperature gives them the best conditions of life, they must still struggle for their existence with the cells of the animal body. ”

“ But if there are subluxations which interfere with the transmission of mental impulses and reduce the process of excretion the tissues will become abnormal and proper culture media will be formed in which there will be developed the germs which act as scavengers for the purpose of destroying the waste matter which accumulates. The cause of dis-ease is within the body itself. The cause of dis-ease is interference with transmission of mental impulses from the brain to the periphery, thus preventing the organ from performing its full and normal function. ”

“ Nevertheless, though I was tempted to give the sub-title “A Study in Sterility” to this essay, I do not believe that our soil is wholly sterile. Beneath the surface barrenness stirs a germinal energy that may yet push its way through the149 weeds and the tin-cans of those who are afraid of life. If the genteel tradition did not succumb to the broad challenge of Whitman, his invitations have not been wholly rejected by the second generation following him. The most hopeful thing of intellectual promise in America to-day is the contempt of the younger people for their elders ”

“ The first method is effected by cleanliness of Man’s
Defenses the person. It may be affirmed that cleanliness, without and within, absolutely protects every203 man, woman, and child from the most common disease-producing bacteria. ”

“ The germs of putrefaction and fermentation abound in the free atmosphere, but they only grow and multiply where they find suitable food. The hygienic uses of cleanliness here find their explanation and scientific foundation. The refuse from houses, dissolved or suspended in water, forms an excellent nutritive material for the lowest organisms which are so harmful to us. ”

“ The dangerous germs nearly all live in dust and dirt and in dark places. When we clean house and dispose of waste material and bring air and sunlight into dark and dirty places we are doing more than removing [267] unpleasant sights and smells, we are destroying the breeding places of disease.
Every girl wants a clear skin. Proper food, water and exercise give this; but it is also necessary to keep the surface clean by taking a hot bath with soap at least twice a week, and a cold or tepid sponge and rubdown the other days. ”

“ That even the most feeble minded may be able to regulate their habits so as to secure an adequate supply of food both in quality and quantity, and the prompt removal of waste matter, so as to secure that degree of cleanliness of internal organs essential to escape from bacterial attacks, the mechanism of the body is endowed with instincts that make it automatic in its action. ”

“ It is not sufficient to keep the skin clean by daily baths, while the mouth, nose, throat, and other internal surfaces and organs are covered or filled with effete matter. We must be every whit clean if we would escape the results of the scavenging processes of bacteria of some variety or species. ”

“ Some have advanced the theory that, after a certain time, the human tissues acquired such a degree of tolerance to the specific bacteria or their specific products that no result followed their action in the body. The tissues become acclimatised to the disease.
4. The Phagocyte Theory. This theory, which gained so many adherents when first promulgated by Metschnikoff, attributes to certain cells in the tissues the powers of "scavenging," overtaking germs of disease, and absorbing them into their own protoplasm. ”

“ It protects by favoring the lodgment near the orifices of organisms which are in the inspired air, for when bacteria touch a moist surface they cannot be raised from this and carried further by air currents. The moisture is a source of danger in that it favors the growth of bacteria which lodge on the surface. The respiratory surface which is most exposed to infection from the air is further protected by the cilia, which are fine hair-like processes covering the cells of the surface and which by their constant motion sweep out fine particles of all sorts which lodge upon them. ”

“ In diseases which 140proceed from a relaxed state of the solids, the cold bath, and other parts of the gymnastic regimen, will be found equally beneficial.
Few things are of greater importance in the cure of diseases than cleanliness. When a patient is suffered to lie in dirty clothes, whatever perspires from his body is again resorbed, or taken up into it, which serves to nourish the disease and increase the danger. Many diseases may be cured by cleanliness alone ”

“ This is not a theoretic matter only, for again and again have the living and virulent germs been found clinging to the walls and furniture and bedding and handkerchiefs of consumptive persons, and in the dust of the rooms in which they dwell. A malady whose victims far outnumber those of all other infectious diseases put together, sparing neither rich nor poor, seizing upon life while it is as yet only a promise, but most inexorable in the fulness of its tide—this malady can be largely prevented by the universal and persistent practice of intelligent cleanliness. ”

“ You will control your own life and not allow a dusty room—be it never so dusty—to destroy your comfort and peace of mind, and that of your loved ones.
When a woman of this worrying type has children she soon learns that she must choose between the health and happiness of her children and the gratification of her own passionate desire for spotless cleanliness. This gratification, if permanently indulged in, soon becomes a disease, for surely only a diseased mind can value the spotlessness of a house more than the health, comfort, and happiness of children. Yet many women do—more's the pity. ”