Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 February 1894 — Microbes Carried by Ballets. [ARTICLE]

Microbes Carried by Ballets.

Some interesting experiments were lately made by Dr. Mesmer, says the London News, by way of solving the question whether or not rifle bullets are liable to carry infection with them in their course of entry into the body. He made his trial with bullets which had been infected with germs of a particular kind, and the infected bullets were shot into tin boxes from distances varying from 225 to 250 meters—a meter being nearly 3 feet 3| inches. Inside the boxes was placed gelatine peptone in a sterilized or germless condition, so that whatever germ developments were found in the peptone (which is a great growing medium for microbes) would be presumed to have come from the bullets. The tracks of the bullets through the gelatine were duly scrutinized, with the result that in each case germ growth took place corresponding to the particular microbes with which the bullets had been respectively infeceted. In another series of investigations the burets were made to pass through infected flannel before penetrating the gelatine, the bullets being of ordinary kind. Here, again, microhicgrowths appeared in the gelatine, showing that the flannel had yielded up its microbes to the bullets as they traversed it. If noninfected and ordinary bullets were used, thegelatine developed only the ordinary germ life, such as the air contained. The bullet is, therefore, a germ carrier of very decided kind, and it is also clear that if clothing is penetrated by a bullet prior to its entrance into the tissue, the missile will be liable to carry into the wound it makes the bacteria resident on the clothing.