The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-04

eater or the human system. he SHOWS
cheerful willingness to stay with us; If
necessary, to board not only with, but
within US, to fraternize with his fellows,
breed, multiply and form colonies; and
the name we give to this city of microbes.
this community of enforced robbers and
malefactors, is disease; and we try to
eradicate them with more poison, which
we call medicine, and for which We pay
dearly.
Does it not seem strange that God, hav-
ing made man IN his own image, has also
created these liliputian reptiles and in
seets and serpents, seemingly for the pur-
pose OF prematurely destroying that I'M
age?
We understand and enjoy the cats
being, as Victor Hugo says, revised
proof-sheet of the mouse; we see why one
class of vermin should be trained by nature
to eXterminate another; but why man,
whom God has taken so much pains to
create, should, in the midst of his career,
be executed, whether innocent or guilty,
by millions of invisible murderers, made
and commissioned for the purpose, would
naturally be set down as death-framed
puzzle.
But the question appears, as it true?
Are all these tiny creatures intended and
equipped as man-eaters, or may they be
part of the order of the universe, without
which it would lose its balance and cease
to exist?" Nature, in the administration
of her kingdom, knows no high or low,
large or small. Perhaps microbe is of as
much Importance to her schemes as is
planet or sun. Perhaps, indeed, he has
his legitimate mission and his inalienable
rights.
Maybe the long fotillas and caravans of
bacllli that constantly pass through our
systems are merely travelling upon their
own business, and have no desire to mo-
lest us, until by our carelessness or mali
ciousness we choke the channels through
which they would sail, spoil the highways
over which they would tread and compel
must board with us. Ii we eonstrain them
to camp within our bodies, they must live
and eat there; and their presence and
their foraging we still call disease.
1t has been shown that the above-men-
toned comma microbe, which causes
cholera, is healthier, stronger and happier
when residing outside the human body
than when penned within; that it lives
better and thrives more Justify If we let
it go upon its way; that it poisons and
eats US only when obliged to; and no
doubt this is true of several of the microbe
nations-perhaps all.
What are we to do then? To keep all
the roads within the body in good repair;
to delay not for a moment this great pro-
cession of miniature pilgrims that is con-
stantly passing along; to give them all
godspeed, and tell them by no means to
delay for the infnitesimal fraction of q
moment on our account.
What are the great road-repairers-th
great encouragers of microbe travel and
radiance?
Water, Air and Light.
Water!-The angel that lays soothing
hands upon fevered brow-the deliverer
that can put out burning thirst--the
guardian that grasps and carries away the
Water that had to wait scores of
centuries for the human mind to learn
and acknowledge, it's value. Who
ever knows how to rightly use this ele-
ment, and has the energy and persever-
ance to do SO, has gone a long way toward
perfect health. Few diseases of stomach
ever existed where plenty of water had
been.
Pure airl-The divine breath of God
whenever he walks this earth Nourish-
ment, stimulus, restoration-all so free
and plenty that there is nothing with
which to compare it! No disease of the
respiratory organs can take root where
plenty of air is allowed, or, if need be,
forced, to go.
Sunlight Every ray is friendly arrow
from heaven-loaded with life and mag
netism. tits from the klngstars, which
received it from God himself it cures
when nothing else will or can. The poor
consumptives that went to live in the
Mammoth Cave found there. or carried
there, everything to feed and cure them
excepting sunlight; some of them persisted
before they could get out and the remain
der of them fed.
Whether the microbe theory be true or
not, whoever understands and practices
the science of water, air and light, adding
to it the proper amount of work and play,
with temperance of body, mind and SOUL
can, in most cases. live as long as any one
need wish to in this disorderly world, and
merge his present life into the next one so
gently and healthily that no jar can be
felt at the change. WILL CARLETON.