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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
IO
Paul, were due to the revival of germs that were
lying dormant, protected from being swept away
by daily cleaning in the cracks of the floor, or
between the "keys of the instrument. All that
was necessary was a current of air to set them
in motion and carry them on to a ground suit-
Is the Piano Anti=Hygienic?
able for their development, in other words, a
man in bad order either through fatigue or in-
testinal
disturbance, to see typhoid fever or
TUBERCLE BACILLI IN A TRUMPET—MEANS SUG-
cholera break out and follow their course with
GESTED FOR CLEANING AND DISIN-
all their evil results.
FECTING INSTRUMENTS.
Is it to be inferred from this that the piano has
become
a social danger or an anti-hygienic in-
HERE seems to be nothing whatever free
strument
? Some say so, but for my part I do
from microbes, and our food, clothes, dwell-
not
think
that their conviction is a very serious
ing, everything that is in us, on us or about us
one,
as
the
dust that accumulates inside this in-
may be infested by them. Even coins, and more
strument
seems
to me under usual circumstances
particularly bank notes, are likely to become a
to
be
relatively
harmless. An exception, how-
source of risk, as I showed in these columns a
ever,
should
be
made
for cases in which a piano
little while ago. To tell the truth, many a per-
comes
from
a
room
in
which there has been a
son would be quite content to run this risk, and
person
sick
with
cholera,
typhoid fever or diph-
would take bank notes without hesitation from
theria
;
in
such
cases
the
danger is for the per-
the hands of cholera, typhoid or tetanus patients,
sons
who
take
to
pieces,
clean
and repair the in-
relying on the powerful effect of antisepsis to
struments,
so
that
the
mad
career
of the young
render their deadly germs inoffensive.
ladies and intrepid dilettanti, whom others are
But to-day it is not of the bank notes that I
trying to terrify in this way, will not yet, un-
wish to speak—I should meet in the domain of
fortunately, be brought to a close.
practical life too many heretics on hygiene in
*
this connection. I wish to speak of the accusa-
tion that has been brought against pianos of
We are only too well aware that tuberculosis
propagating contagious diseases.
is a terrible curse. It is lying in wait for us on
No one can deny that all dust is rich in germs all sides and our most unremitting vigilance is
of various kinds, or that this infectious dust set- not sufficient to guarantee us from its onslaughts.
tles on everything. Daily cleaning and periodi- The germ from which it springs lurks in the
cal disinfection may protect us relatively from most unthought of places. M. Maljean, medecin-
its misdeeds, but not completely. The cases of major, recently called attention to one of these
typoid fever that have been known to appear in sources of danger that had not been hitherto sus-
barracks after the relaying of a floor, the cases pected and showed the risk that musical instru-
of cholera reported during the last epidemic at ments can present on this point of view. He has
Hamburg among the workmen in a piano manu- published in the Archives deMedicine Militaire for
factory in the thickly populated quarters of St. March, 1890, a series of researches on some liquid
flusical Instruments
and Microbes.
f
taken from a trumpet that had been used for
several months by a consumptive musician.
Three hundred grammes of sterilized water
was poured into the instrument after removing
the mouth-piece. This liquid was then poured
back into a conical glass and left to settle for
twenty-four hours. At the end of that time it
had separated into two layers, a lower one con-
taining a black deposit and an upper one thick
and white. The latter, after being decanted and
filtered through a piece of fine linen was used in
inoculating some guinea pigs.
The result seemed to indicate virulent tuber-
culosis, characterized by reproduction in a con-
tinuous series, but the scarcity of the specific
bacilli might have thrown some doubt on the
nature of the infection conveyed, had not a suc-
cession of comparative inoculations been made
with an authentic preparation of bacilli, supplied
by the bacteriological laboratory of the Val-de-
Grace.
The experiments that were made, both with
the water with which the trumpet had been
washed out and with the preparation of bacilli,
showed in the liver and spleen of the inoculated
animals lesions that were identical, but that
were noticeable on account of the few bacilli
they contained.
WHERE THE DANGER LIES.
However this may be, one fact is certain, that
saliva collecting in an instrument may contain
the bacillus of tuberculosis. Although the latter
seem to be not very virulent, on account of the
dampness on the interior part of the instrument,
which prevents the formation of infectious dust,
still the danger is latent, since if the same in-
strument be set aside its inside surface will be-
come dry, and the air that is drawn through it
may contain infectious germs. The danger may
lie not only in the tuberculosis bacilli, but in the
The "Opera" Piano
A HIGH GRADE INSTRUMENT.
The "EUTERPE" PianD
A MEDIUM
GRADE
INSTRUMENT.
Both Manufactured by
SOJV . -
NEW YORK.
Catalogue, Prices, Terms, etc., on both instruments sent upon application,
WRITE FOR UNOCCUPIED TERRITORY,