The butcher or the butter man has more or less grease on his fingers. He transfers some of it to the dollar bill you give him, and later on he pays out the bill to somebody else. It finds its way, perhaps, into the leather wallet of a car conductor whose hands are not overclean, and thereafter, as it passes along from hand to hand, it becomes steadily more begrimed and smeary, harboring a progressively increasing population of

bacteria.

Did you ever notice what an agreeable odor is that of a new piece of paper money? It is a particularly clean smell. But make the same experiment with the same bill after it has been in service for a few months, and its "bouquet" will be found to be most unpleasant. The perfume of soiled notes, indeed, is something quite unlike that of anything else in the world. To call it a "bouquet" is not inapt, inasmuch as it is a whole nosegay of minor blended.

stinks indescribably

If it were merely a matter of smell, nobody need care very much, but it signifies unhealthfulness as well. In the handling of dirty bills some of the microbes are pretty sure to be transferred to the fingers, and the latter are constantly being brought into contact with the tongue and lips. Thus germs of typhoid may easily find their way into the system. To avoid just such accidents, bank clerks, who are constantly engaged in counting money, are careful to moisten their finger-tips only with a wet sponge, kept on the counter for the purpose.

An exact study of this subject has been made recently by the Director of the Research Laboratory of New York, who, summing up his conclusions in a report, states that, as shown by microscopic examination, an average piece of paper money, moderately clean, carries 22,500 bacteria. On an average dirty bill there will be about 73,000 bacteria. Most bacteria, it should be understood, are harmless, but many species are the germs of dangerous diseases.

Women, particularly those of the lower classes, frequently make a habit of keeping their money in their stockings, next to the skin. It is a method likely to promote contagion, if the bills hap

pen to contain germs of any skin disease; and, incidentally, the paper, becoming saturated with perspiration, is rendered thereby a better "culture medium" for microbes. This is not a pleasant idea; but still less agreeable is knowledge of the fact that immigrants, who have not washed for many years perhaps, often hide money on their persons for long periods, eventually, of course, putting it into circulation.

In such ways scarlet fever or tuberculosis may easily be conveyed. Perhaps some of the money passes into the hands of the butcher and grocer with whom you yourself deal. By these tradesmen it is handled with fingers which are transferred directly to the meat or other food bought for your table. Diphtheria, a few days later, attacks the children. Its origin is a mystery. But you would not be one bit consoled if you could know the fact that the mischief-making germ came from a dollar bill which had been in the possession of a slum dweller who spent it to buy medicine for a child since dead of the disease.

In an effort to keep the paper money of the country fairly clean, the United States government redeems every year about $600,000,000 worth of it, replacing the old bills with new ones. But even thus the average dollar bill is obliged to do duty for about twenty months, while $5 notes remain in circulation for nearly three years, and those of higher denominations considerably longer. It is urged that the stream of new money ought to be made to flow out of the treasury more rapidly, and that, with this end in view, Section 3932 of the Revised Statutes. ought to be amended so as to permit holders of worn and defaced currency to forward it by registered mail, without charge, to Washington for redemption.

The paper money is kept too long in circulation. There is a perpetual shortage of notes of small denomination, and the banks are reluctant to send them in for redemption, because they need them. in their business. Hence, it is obvious that there should be more small bills. As for coins, they ought to be thoroughly cleaned and sterilized after reaching the treasury, before being thrown out again into the arteries of commerce.

seems to have thought that it might be a good idea to clean them first, though this might be accomplished, with incidental washing in a sterilizing bath, at small expense.

Once in a while a large business firm advertises that it will pay out to its customers, in change, nothing but brandnew money. This always proves a drawing card. People like new money, and highly appreciate it, when they are able to get it. Not long ago a concern in Boston adopted for a while the practice of putting all coins that passed through its hands into a sterilizing bath, polishing them afterwards on a buffing machine. The process attracted not a little attention, and people who came to the store stood around in crowds to watch it.

Elevated railroads, surface roads, ferries, and business concerns in certain lines of trade, such as the five and ten cent stores, take in immense quantities of small coin. It would not be much trouble to put each day's accumulation of such metal money through a sterilizing bath, afterwards polishing the pieces by placing them for a few minutes in revolving cylinders filled with basswood sawdust. If this were done, when a patron of the transportation company, or a shopping customer, handed out a bill, he would get his change in bright coins, looking and feeling as if they were just from the mint.

Children at school ought to be carefully taught never to put coins into their mouths. And it has been suggested that Clean Money Clubs ought to be established in every town, whose members would be pledged to wash in some germicidal solution every piece of metal money that came into their hands, before spending it. A weak solution of carbolic acid, or of peroxide, would serve the purpose. This seems like taking a good deal of pains, but it would surely be worth while, considering it merely as a precaution against the distribution of diseases. A sanitary currency, both of paper and metal, is badly needed, and the people at large, as well as the government, should be willing to help in securing it.

LKING-MACHINES of the "vacuum or pneumatic type," are well known, but inventors have been striving for years to eliminate certain well known objectionable features and reduce to a thoroughly practical form. With a view to producing a generallyimproved cow-milking-machine, Clarence C. Parsons, of Oberlin, Ohio, after making a thorough study of the anatomy of the teat and udder of the cow, determined to strike out from the trodden paths so unsuccessfully pursued by inventors, and after numerous and long continued experiments with various forms of "teat

dilators," has produced a thoroughly practical machine.

The primary or basic principle of construction of the Parson's machine comprises a plurality of teat-dilators adapted to be inserted in the several teat-openings, or ducts, and means for positioning and simultaneously manipulating the same with reference to the several teats of the udder or bag of the cow.

When the teat-openings or ducts have been dilated by means of the dilators to form artificial openings, the milk flows freely and automatically from the openings thus formed in a much more expeditious and natural manner than by the use of the ordinary suction milking-machine. In a recently witnessed test of the ma

chine, fourteen quarts of milk were drawn from the cow shown in the accompanying illustration, the machine being applied, operated, and removed in a period of time of but six and one-half minutes. In the first illustration, the supporting strap is lengthened, dropping the machine several inches below its natural position for the purpose of clearer illustration of the principal working parts, while in the second, the pail is shown detached from the frame of the machine,

ity and provided with an off-set notch or recess forming a seat or pocket for the reception of the upper end of the movable member, and of a depth corresponding with the thickness thereof, so that the movable member will normally rest flush with the sides of the stationary dilator shank.

The several dilators are adapted to be moved or positioned simultaneously to correspond with the relative position of the teats, by means of a slidably mounted

and strainer-cover removed. It will be observed that the upwardly-extending teat dilators, carried on the outer or free ends of adjusting arms, are very small.

Each dilator comprises a stationary dilator shank, preferably formed integral with a teat-cup at the base, and a movable dilator member pivotally mounted in the teat-cup, opposite said dilator shank. The dilator shank and movable member are of concavo-convex shape, in cross section, and when in their normal or closed position, form an upwardly tapering tubular teat opener or dilator, the stationary shank being pointed at its upper extrem

operating bar, extending forwardly on the supporting frame of the machine, and carrying one end of the adjusting bars. When the parts have been properly positioned, the operating bar may be locked in position.

As a means for simultaneously moving the movable dilator members, to open or dilate the respective teats to form an artificial opening or duet to permit a free flow of milk, the movable members are provided at their lower ends with connecting bars secured to the under side of a second or teat dilator operating bar, slidably mounted beneath the operating bar, for positioning the several dilators with respect to the teats. The bar may be fastened in any position desired holding the movable members of the dilators open, the milk flowing freely through the artificial openings or ducts thus formed and being conducted by the strainercover into the pail below.

By moving the teat dilator operating bar to its initial position, the movable dilator members are caused to assume their closed or normal position, and the teat dilators may be readily removed from the ducts of the teats.