Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 March 1901 — Mud as a Life Saver. [ARTICLE]

Mud as a Life Saver.

In London it was noticed that when the streets were muddy there was a marked diminution of diseases that were prevalent when dust is blowing. Bowel troubles are plentiful when people are compelled to inhale dust. Consumption, too, often gets its start from the dust. Other illnesses almost equally grave follow from the breathing of flying particles of filth. Add sufficient water to transform the dust into mud, and the power for harm is gone, for mud is not inhaled. The germs that infest dry dust become inert in mud, because these germs, vicious as they are, are too lazy to go anywhere unless they are carried. Moreover, mud is very likely to get ultimately into the drain pipe, and the germs are carried off where they can do no harm. Even when mud dries on the clothing and is brushed off the dust that arises therefrom does not appear to be as dangerous as that which has not been recently wet.