DEATH GERM’ REPORTS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28802, 24 January 1959, Page 14

DEATH GERM’ REPORTS

R.M.A. Discounts Claims

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) , LONDON. January 22 British medical circles today discounted a news report which said that British scientists had developed a “death germ" capable of wiping out the world’s population. An article in the “News Chronicle” said that scientists working at secret defence laboratories in western England had “perfected” a germ known as botulinus.’’ It said; “A few specks of these germs are enough to kill more than a million people A pound of them is enough to depopulate the world and destroy al] animal life.” Whitehall refused to comment on the article. But a spokesman for the British Medical Association told Reutei that the germ had been known to the medical profession for a considerable time and it was “difficult to see” how it could depopulate the world, as one person could not infect another. The spokesman said that the botulinus germ, which is rare, originated in the soil and could only be spread artificially in water, for purposes such as germ warfare. But a "massive supply" would be necessary to contaminate the water supplies of an entire country. A London expert on poisons, commenting on the article, described the germ as “the most potent of all gastrointestinal ooisons.” But. he added, the absence of air was essentia! for the germ to oroduee its poison and for this reason it could occur In imoroperly canned foods.