Medicine: Good Germs
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4) " Retting " of flax, i.e.. removing the stalks of the plant from the long linen fibers by immersion in bacterial streams.
5) Tanning of leather, by the fermentation of hemlock bark.
6) Production of artificial rubber by fermentation from starch (intermediate stages: butyl alcohol and " isoprene ").
7) Manufacturing of vinegar by action of acetic acid bacteria (obtained from "mother of vinegar") on alcohol and the oxygen of the air.
8) Souring or curdling of milk for preservation in warm climates (by lactic acid bacteria).
9) Protection of nursing children against intestinal diseases by luxuriant growth of lactic-acid bacteria in the alimentary canal. Cow's milk is less favorable to this growth than mother's milk.
10) Use of lactic acid cultures as " starters" in churning butter, in the manufacture of sauerkraut, and in preparing ensilage on farms.
* Bacteria (singular, "bacterium) is the correct scientific name for all microscopic unicellular organisms of the vegetable kingdom, except the yeasts, molds, etc. Germs and microbes are popular names for the same thing. The corresponding animal organisms are called protozoa. The distinction is rather arbitrary. Bacteria are divided into three groups, the cocci (spherical or berry-shaped), the bacilli (elongated or rod-shaped), the spirilla (twisted or spiral-shaped). The bacilli are by far the most numerous.
†CIVILIZATION AND THE MICROBEArthur I. Kendall Houghton, Mifflin $2.50).
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