Bacteria, Yeasts, and Molds in the Home #252401

Bacteria, yeasts, and molds comprise a series of plants commonly known as microorganisms, or more popularly as microbes. It has for sometime been recognized that together they form a group of the utmost importance not only to the physician but also to the agriculturist. Today it is beginning to be appreciated that their rela tion to the ordinary household, and hence to the house wife, is even more intimate than to the physician. We are learning that many of the tasks of the housekeeper, some of which may be more or less unpleasant, have their foundation in bacteriology, and we are beginning to recog nize that these microorganisms constitute the foundation of the demand for cleanliness so forcibly emphasized in modern times. In the household microorganisms have an important bearing in three directions: I. They are the cause of the decay and spoiling of foods and many other products.