A NEW TERROR.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10666, 10 June 1902, Page 2

A NEW TERROR.

Iw these days of plague scares and sanitary 'precautions, attention is directed to likely and unlikely methods of spreading plague and other infectious diseases or fever bacilli. The Lancet has started the latest crusade, and that in a direction that interests all. It is the custom, observes the medical journal, of many households to hare the morning's post, including letters, newspapers, and circulars, placed upon the breakfast table. In fact, the parlourmaid usually takes upon, herself the duty of sorting the post, placing the pockets according to whom they are addressed in front of the seats occupied at the breakfast table by the respective members of the household. The classification is made all the more exact in many instances, perhaps, by putting the documents on the plate, which, after they have been removed, serves for the toast or the roll and butter. The plan is convenient, but from a sanitary point of view it is appalling. It is undoniably a dirty practice. In nine cases out of ten the envelope containing a letter is licked, as is also the stamp," by the sender. Infection, therefore, may easily lurk here, especially as by the time the letter reaches its destination the stamp and sealed cover are dry. Any materies morbi present would be easily detached. Then there are the risks of infection to which a letter is exposed in transit. The sorter at the Post-office or the postman may not bo ag bactorio-

logically clean at i* desiraMe> The dust of the Wad m4y adhere to any ezgoseft fnm or the letters may bo dropped, and the bacteriology of road dust exhibits some well-known pathogenic organisms. Letters are frequently smeared with road mud. Amongst the microbes recognised in road sweepings are the miorobes of put, malignant oedema, tetanus, tttlttrald, uh'd sopticav mia. The post probably is a very wide distributing agency of all sorts and conditions of organisms, and this it would be difficult to prevent. But surely care might be taken to keep from association the plate upon which food is partaken and the letter or newspaper packet. It follows that, from a hygienic point of view lotters , should nevtr be opened or read during a meal. Good manners, moreover, would dictate the tame thing, and thus be in accordance with strict hygienic observance.