CLEANLINESS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16875, 27 October 1922, Page 10

CLEANLINESS.

HEART AND SOUL OF SANITATION. (Cntributed.) * Cleanliness is the heart and soul of sanitation. One its inclined to place it even before godliness, for cleanliness of body, cleanliness of mind and soul, an i cleanlines of surroundings are essential to a full appreciation of the .spiritual virtues. The conception of cleanliness Ims greatly changed with the advance in knowledge of the kinds of dirt, the degrees of dirtiness, and the nature of these dangers. BIOLOGICAL CLEANLINESS. One can no longei be satisfied with physical or aesthetic cleanliness, but must insist upon biological cleanliness. A tetanus spore upon the shining blade of a surgeon’s knife makes that instrument filthy, whereas many such spores on th© skin of a chicken may be harmless when ingested. One cannot see the i infection upon the common drinking cup, upon the roller towel, upon the I point of a pencil that has just been moistened with saliva, or in water, milk or food, although one well knows the danger of such invisible “ dirt ” that these objects mav harbour. CLEAN AND DIRTY DIRT. „ It requires a bacteriologist to tell the difference between clean dirt and dirty dirt! The layman, lacking a sixth sense, or microscopic eye, to see and distinguish the harmful germs, must practico scrupulous cleanliness, and educate the people to the biological meaning of this term. Long experience has taught the lesson that cleanliness offers a protection against disease; that clean surroundings are apt to be free of infection ; and that clean, food is apt to be safe food. CLEANLINESS OF PERSON. Cleanliness of pe. son and environment results in the diminution of the number and perhaps the virulence oi the disease-producing organisms, especially those which cause festering.

Cleanliness of the type that approaches asepsis, that is, surgical cleanliness, would prevent much sickness and the loss of many lives through diminishing the risk of' infections. Hill believe* that the mildness of modern infectious tribution of the matter producing organisms formerly bred in hospitals and in wounds promiscuously. Many houses, especially in the poorer sections of cities lack the proper facilities foi laundry work. Public launderics, such us. arc provided in many European countries, would material! v help in the campaign of general cleanliness. FILTH DISEASES. At one time the theory of the filth j diseases reached the dignity of a spec - 1 ial name—the pvthogenic theory, first * propounded by Murchison in 1858. Typhoid fever was lon- regarded as the j type of a filth disease, and, while the j term is now being dropped, it should not be forgotten that typhoid fever "<? I really a filthy disease, for each cas< means that a. short circuit has been established betwee.n the discharges from one person and the mouth of another Therefore the aim should he as in dividuals and as a collective community to raise the type of cleanlineess to that approaching the surgical. Corresponding improvemant in he-alth both to the individual and com muni tv must result, and there would be nothing then to seriously offend the eye and nose.