DRINKING MICROBES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 1 May 1925, Page 2

DRINKING MICROBES.

TEST'S BY SCIENTISTS;

FOOD POISONING BACTERIA

Daring experiments with the deadly microbes have been carried out by two scientists, Dr. B. Savage and Mr. P. White, who at Bristol University have been investigating for the Medical Research Council the action of microbes which cause food poisoning. They not only boiled microbes and 1 drank the emulsion but applied cultures to their arms. In the report recently issued much new light is thrown upon the mysterious action of subtle poisons which sometimes get into food. “Nearly nine-tenths of food poisoning outbreaks are due to organisms of”the Salmonella or Gaertner group of bacteria,-” says the report, which covers over 150 pages, and is to be. followed by another, detailing investigation into 100 actual recent outbreaksof food, poisoning in Britain. To get evidence -of the irritant substance in the Salmonella group of microbes Dr. White treated his arm. After cleansing the part with soap and water he scrubbed it with alcohol and then with ether. Rubber cups containing the wads soaked in test emulsions of the organism were applied and strapped into position. Dense emulsions of the bacteria, killed at 60deg Centigrade, or actually boiled, were applied for several hours. Several times slight local tingling was felt shortly after the application, and distinct fashing of the part occurred. In one of two experiments muscular stiffness fesulted. Often the afea. remained visible for several days as a slightly discoloured scaly rash. Dr. Savage then took his turn. He held the view that one' sort of microbe they were investigating would do no harm to human 'beings when boiled. This was an organism called “B. Pafa_ typhosus.” He took a strain recently isolated from a, human outbreak; tenderly cultivated it in his bacteriological garden, made an. emulsion with sterile water heated it for half an hour and deliberately drank the lot with impunity, if not with gusto! A few days later Dr. Savage had another bacterial “bout.” This time he boiled his microbes for 20 minutes at lOOdeg Centigrade. “All the emulsion was drunk,” triumphantly reported the doctor but he got a “head.”. A definite- advance in technical knowledge of these dangerous organisms has been gained by the novel work of two scientists, reports the council. It has been found that the food poisoning bacilli contain an irritant substance setting lip acute inflammation, and more irritant when the microbes are heated to lOOdeg Centigrade.