MICROBES IN THE TELEPHONE.

Progress, Volume III, Issue 11, 1 September 1908, Page 384

MICROBES IN THE TELEPHONE.

When the telephone settled down in our streets and effected entrance into our houses, we were jubilant in our welcome We called him, amongst other things, an unmixed blessing. It is true he was a blessing, but as we have to pay for him, he is therefore not unmixed. The debts we owe him are collected by his messengers, who are microbes. This was inquired into recently by the medical officer of Westminster, who, like other of the faculty, has a mind suspicious of everything, even the telephone. He proceeded one day to one of the telephone offices of his district, and there, not being announced, he bowled out some of the messenger microbes at their nefarious work. He adopted the simple expedient of wiping a mouthpiece with a "swab." The contents of this he collected, and with them he inoculated two guinea pigs. In three weeks the unhappy animals were grievously consumptive, and rapidly nearing death. No wonder the officers of the London Stock Exchange have contracted the habit of spraying their fifty telephones daily with disinfectants. Nor is this all. The Lancet declares that the call boxes are "very suitable places for spreading diphtheria and influenza, as well as consumption." On the whole, a good case is here made out for a daily dose to your telephone of vigorous "spring cleaning."

Canada's trade for the fiscal year ended March amounted to £127,678,058, being an increase over the previous year of £5,163,788 We require from buildings, as from men, two kinds of goodness — First, the doing their practical duty well; then that they be graceful and pleasing in doing it; which last is itself another form of duty.