Prudence & Paranoia
From the September 6, 1929, issue of the Swarthmorean.
In the past, the Swarthmorean occasionally published statements by Theodore B. Appel, who served as Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Health from 1927 to 1935. Dr. Appel, a former captain in the military’s medical corps, took his role to heart, dispensing advice about healthy and unhealthy behavior with the imprimatur of his office. On September 6, 1929, he cautioned the public against “germ mania,” reminding them that there were bad germs, like the ones that cause typhoid and tetanus, but that there are far more good ones, like “the lactic acid bacillus, the little fellow that does so much good for us by changing milk into buttermilk.” It’s not surprising that some people, with the deadly flu pandemic of 1918-19 in their recent past, had become “germ fiends.” As we endure the COVID-19 pandemic and struggle to find the sweet spot between prudent conduct and paranoid germophobia, we can understand the toll that fear of contagion took 91 years ago.
Retired history professor and former Swarthmorean Laurie Bernstein has been busying herself during the pandemic by developing a database from back issues of the Swarthmorean, starting with Volume I, Number 1 from 1929. From time to time, we will reprint an article she selects from our archives with her commentary.
