saliva

[P3D <gosfield@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

hi

i can tell you for a fact that your saliva is full of an amazing variety 
of nasty bacteria, yeast, etc.  As a matter of fact, one of the problems 
we have with getting sputum samples from sick people, for diagnosis, is 
that frequently they spit out a sample, instead of coming up with a good 
'lunger' (am i grossing out the non-medical? sorry).  We get the report 
back as "normal mouth flora".  

A human bite is one of the dirties wounds you can get.  Much worse than 
a dog or cat bite.

I am astonished that a conservator would recommend spit as a safe cleaning
solvent.  I guess the mouth bugs don't like gelatin.  But saliva
contains ptyalin (amylase) and other carbo breaking enzymes too. 

For goodness sake, don't ever rinse your contact lenses out in your 
mouth.  You will imperil your stereo future.

What is wrong with film cleaning fluid for cleaning stereo views?

best wishes

ted gosfield


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