Bacteria in Clothes

Carlyle gave us the philosophy of clothes; now Dr. Seitz, of Munich, gives us their bacteriology. On examining a worsted stocking he found 956 thriving colonies, while on a cotton sock there were 712. Both these articles had been worn, but no information is vouchsafed as to the personal habits of the wearer. Thirty-three colonies were found on a glove, 20 on a piece of woollen stuff and nine on a piece of cloth; none of these articles had been worn. On a piece of cloth from a garment that had been worn a week there were 23 colonies. Of the micro-organisms found on articles of clothing relatively few were capable of causing disease. The pathogenic species were almost without exception staphylococci. In one case, however, Dr. Seitz found the typhoid bacillus in articles of clothing from 21 to 27 days, and the staphylococcus pyogenes albus 19 days after they had been worn. The anthrax bacillus found in clothes was still virulent after a year. The microbe of erysipelas, on the other hand, could not be found after 18 hours, nor the cholera vibrio after three days. Dr. Seitz studied with special care the question whether in tuberculous subjects who sweated profusely the bacillus was conveyed by the perspiration to a piece of linen worn for some time next to the skin of the chest. The inoculation of two guinea-pigs, however, gave negative results.