Dr. Watkinson tells us that some years ago two scientists of
Vienna made a series of bacteriological experiments on a number
of bank-notes which had been in circulation for some time. The
result of their researches was sufficiently startling. On each
bank-note they discovered the presence of 19,000 microbes of
disease--some of tuberculosis, some of diphtheria, and some of
erysipelas. More than that, they found one bacillus peculiar to
the bank-note--the bank-note microbe, so to speak, because it
is found nowhere else. It thrives and fattens and multiplies on
the peculiar paper of which a bank-note is made. Is there not a
parable here?
If every evil use that is made of money were to leave its mark on the
coin or bill, how great would be the moral infection thus recorded.
(2092)
=Money Transmitting Disease=--See CONTAMINATION.