INTERLUDE IN COURT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19532, 13 March 1926, Page 2

INTERLUDE IN COURT

SCIENTIFIC DEMONSTRATION. I CAUSE OF SALT-BURN IN HIDES The routine of examination of witness and the crossing of legal swords was broken in the Auckland Supreme Court, and the Courtroom assumed the aspect of a science laboratory. Mr Justice Herdman with studious concentration gazed through a niiscroscopc upon exhibits showing cultures of the bacteria claimed to be the cause of the diseased condition of salted hides known to the trade as ‘‘saltburn.” The judicial bench was temporarily made use of, and Mr F. L. Armitage, Government bacteriologist at Auckland, mounted the steps to the Judge’s sanctum. Meanwhile learned counsel and others interested in the case gathered round. A casual stroller into the Court might have been pardoned for imagining that he had inadverentely entered the science building of the University The exhibits which provided a sideissue in-a civil action for alleged negligence in the storage of hides, were the work of Mr Armitage, who since last June has been investigating the cause of ‘‘salt-burn," a matter of considerable moment to those engaged in the hide and skin industry. He claims to have discovered the cause of ’‘saltburn,” which has long presented a puzzling problem. The condition of ‘‘salt-burn," Mr Armitage told the Court, is <lue entirely to bacteria and not in any way to iron or chemical impurities in the salt. Certain bacteria, he said, have the power of growing in the presence of large amounts of salt. One type of bacteria is pink in colour and this gives to the diseased hide is characteristic reddish colour. Salt-burn is not the disease of one organism but of a variety. Other cultures isolated from the dark stains in hides were also exhibited. One of the most interestiong points of the research, Mr Armitage said, is that the source of these pink and other organisms was found to be the imported salt used in curing the hides. The practical application of these discoveries still remains to be put into effect, requiring further experimentation under trade conditions.

His Honour expressed the opinion that the discovery made as the result of the investigation would prove of great value to those engaged in the hide and skin industry.