While it is certainly true that this quote is wrong, the underlying
ecological principle is correct. During Franklin's time water was considered
an unsafe drink, and in general it was. Sanitation was poor and beverages
like beer and cider were safer and thus considered preferable. According to
some sources Franklin actually was more of a water drinker than most people
of his time, but the erroneous quote accurately reflects the ecological
views of the time.
These attitudes persist to the present time and account for the popularity
of bottled water.
Bill Silvert
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Matt Chew" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, September 12, 2010 9:40 PM
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Spontaneous fermentation
It has been politely suggested that the Franklin "bacteria" quotation is
dubious. It is worse than that, in two ways.
First, the salient facts are readily available but were apparently never
checked or even questioned before they were posted. Such naive and
incurious assertions should not be emanating from ESA email addresses – no
matter how useful they seem for promotional purposes.
Second, as the instructor for an upper-division undergraduate (BIO-)
course
in the History of Biology, I regret to report that ecology students (and
the
professionals they become) share today's generally profound historical
illiteracy–and apathy. This is a pity in a field whose motivations,
hypotheses and conclusions are so deeply affected and occasionally even
determined by cultural and intellectual fashions.
If you don't know the history of ecology, you don't know ecology.
Matthew K Chew
