CONSUMPTION AND THE CORNET.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 978, 28 November 1890, Page 31

CONSUMPTION AND THE CORNET.

As the world spins onward down the grooves of change, it cannot be said that the position of the nervous man or the nervous woman is at all bettered by the discoveries of science, medical or otherwise. , Civilisation may conduce to longevity, but it does not always tend to produce that “ smooth and steadfast mind, gentle thoughts, and calm desires ” of which the Elizabethan poet spoke. Of all these incentives to panic none has been more fruitful in discomfort to the timorous than the microbe. The übiquitousness of these minute but malignant organisms is constantly being impressed upon us by ingenious researchers. The latest instance of this disquieting process comes from France, where a military surgeon, as the result of a series of experiments on wind instruments, has discovered that the germs of consumption may lie dormant in a wind instrument for months. However, there are two sides to the question, and it is an ill-wind instrument that blows nobody good. As the British Medical Journal remarks, “Persons of refined musical sensibility may possibly fortify themselves to bear this new addition to the terrors of life by the reflection that it tends to the natural extinction of brass bands.” In the present case, however, it is reassuring to learn that short of so heroic a remedy, the evil can be combated by one cr other of two very simple methods. The Bicnplqr of these may be summed qp ip th.e following advice to those about to. play other people’* instruptents—don’t. B,ut if from necessity or absence of fastidiousness a person does employ a cornet, trombone, horn, trumKt, or any other manner of music whioh a already been usedby anyone else, then let him first thoroughly “ sterilize” it* by immersion in boiling water or filling it with a 5 per cent solution of oarbolic acid. We may now expect to hear, as a consequence of the new discovery, of orchestras conducted on the strictest antiseptic principles.