Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1909 — TAINTED MONEY IS HARMLESS. [ARTICLE]

TAINTED MONEY IS HARMLESS.

Tainted money, from the viewpoint of Warren W. Hfldltch, of Yale University, means money with bacteria. He used the most soiled money he could obtain from railroad, trolley and theater ticket offices, banks, drugstores and individuals. Some bills were more worn than others, soft, cracked and soiled, with frayed edges. The numbers of bacteria in the 'bills ranged from 14,000 to 586,000, with an average of .?l Mils of 142,000. . There seems to be no connection between the amount of dirt and the number of bacteria presen.t.'*\The cleanest bill he used had next to the highest count, 405,000. The bill that looked most soiled had but 38,000. When a bill has been in circulation for a short time and has become cracked and its peculiar worn off, the bacteria easily cling without the presence of dirt and grease. He inoculated guinea pigs, but none of them gave any indtcatton of even temporary- -fitaess; Mt. Hilditch does not believe that soiled money is dangerous as a transmitter of disease. He thinks that money constitutes an unimportant factor in the transmission of disease. But he does not regard his exepriments as conclusive. In order to obtain any conclusive evidence on this point it would be necessary to make a careful study of hundreds or even a thousand bills from hospitals and private sick rooms, drugstores and various other sources. A bank teller said: “If one stops to think, money can’t be a common means of transmision, for if it were there wouldn’t be so many of us alive today; the escape from sure death of those whose duty calls for the constant handling of money is certainly not merely due to chance.”' —Chicago Thibune.