File:Triumphs and wonders of the 19th century, the true mirror of a phenomenal era, a volume of original, entertaining and instructive historic and descriptive writings, showing the many and marvellous (14596885470).jpg

Identifier: triumphswonderso01boyd (find matches)
Title: Triumphs and wonders of the 19th century, the true mirror of a phenomenal era, a volume of original, entertaining and instructive historic and descriptive writings, showing the many and marvellous achievements which distinguish an hundred years of material, intellectual, social and moral progress ..
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: Boyd, James Penny, 1836-1910
Subjects: Progress Inventions
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa., A. J. Holman & Co
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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culates ajelly composition which he has placed in a test-tube, stuffs a wad of absorbentcotton in the mouth of his tube and puts it in a warm chamber or incubator.If there are any microbes present, they will begin to grow, and the expertbiologist can tell the bacteria from its manner of growth as readily as thegardener can distinguish between his radishes and lettuce when they sproutin the spring, and in this way is able to report the nature of the germs. Ifhe is in doubt, he carries his cultivation further and employs other tests toprove his observation. The biologist has also rendered great aid to sanitary science in discover-ing many other species of bacteria that are helpful to man. Our pollutedwaters could not be purified, our air could not be cleared from foul odors,nor the proper decomposition of organic matters go on, without the aid ofbacteria. These little vegetable growths, while working much harm uponhumanity, contribute far more to their comfort, well-being, and happiness
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278 TRIUMPHS AND WONDERS OF THE XIXth CENTURY than they do to their ill. Possibly no better illustrations can be given ofthe value of bacteriology to sanitary science, and the great progress it hasbrought about, than to contrast a cholera outbreak of a few years ago withone occurring more recently; or to point to the efficacy of purifying waterby the assistance of bacteria. Another disease, pulmonary consumption, mayalso be noticed, but the triumph here is not so marked as yet. The first outbreak of cholera in the United States occurred in 1832. Inone special hospital in New York city, 2030 patients were received in thenine weeks from July 1 to September 1, and of these 850 died. An eye-witness, who was personally known to the writer, one not given to exaggera-tion, said that the state of dread and alarm had been increasing until, whenthe disease first made its appearance in New York, fully one half of thepopulation had left the city, many of the physicians fleeing with the rest.There

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