Marshall County independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1894-1895, 1895-10-18
MICROBES rs SOCIAL LEVEL
Frs.

III recent years that contagious diseases
are caused by infinitely little" organ
isms called microbes" aad that con
tagious diseases produce microbes
which. either as microbes or tAeir prod
uctS VIII in turn produce the disease in
those who are well. By this discovery
and subsequent reasonings men have
learned how 10 fight disease il way
unjreamed OF by cur fofefatheIs. II is
the aim of all true physicians now % so
guard ter patients as 10 have 10 dis
ease 10 treat. The work of BoarGs IF
HealtA has 5een rayolU.ionized by tue
discovery of tle microbes and of tie
work they do, and it is wonderf ally
successful - comparison with the
ancient method Of relying solely ON
quarantine or on running away in The
case IF contagious diseases. The record
of the worl. of the Board Of Health Of
the City OF New York in fs92 is TN eX-
ample o. absolute cout.ol q col taejous
disease. There We're eleven eases OF
cholera, bat not one secondary ease, not
one in which the con.agion Travelled
from The sick 10 the well The mi
erobes Of the disease were destroyed as
fast Is they appeared. It would be
impossible to-day for the plague to
rayage any city in the civilized world
as it ravased London in 1868.
Dr Cyrus Edsoa makes subs antially
tins statement Of thee case II the october
number Of the North American Review.
and he notes Chat tie study reveals
mere clearly day By day the close con
nection that exists between the health
interests o. al members OF the com
muni.y, rich as well rs poor The
microbe Of disease Is no respec,er OF
persons. Il cannot be guarded against
by Z large bank account. 1t IS true
that if the body be well nourished,
warmly clad, and properly housed,
wealth protects, for one whose health
is not weakened by external conditions
IS less APT 20 contract disease But eX-
cessiye demands ON nervous strength
are even worse than those on the physi-
cal in .essening the ability to resist
disease, Tor which reason The conditions
surrounding those who have wealth in
this american life are such as 10 lessen
its value as safeguard against the
microbes beginning their deadly work
Hence the micro5e has a socialistic
side. We may only fight diseases in Il
community by meeting it everywhere,
and there is direct and very great in
tereSt to The man of wealth in the well
being Of the man of poverty. Absence
OF food III the room of the latter means
that sooner or later disease will break
out IL the room, and the microbes or
their specs will III time pass the heavy
curtains on the windows of the man
sion to find their prey inside Nay, the
connection extends far beyond any
single community. 1t embraces the
world. The crops in five provinces of
Russia failed almost entirely in 1889
y widespread famine was the result
and many thousands died. These poor
people were attacked by simple IN
huenza, VIII N under the law discovered
by lasteur was intensified III its char |
acter by their il! fed condition. Thus
virulent form Of grippe was produced,
a contagious disease which spread rap
idly along the travelled roads OF com !
merce TO Germany, France, England
and the United States. so there We're |
many funerals in this country because
thousands of Russian peasants were re-
duced TO starvation. This is only one |
instance out of many. The Board of |
Health of New York had to fight the |
cholera because there was an unusual |
drought in Persia, near the City of |
MeShed, when the pilgrims gathered |
there in 1891 at the tomb of Moham- |
medan saint. During the great famines
that afflicted the countries of Europe |
and Asia III the middle ages and since
for every death that occurred from star
walton and its subsequent exhaustion
ten persons lost their lives from infec-
tious diseases that originated or were
intensified by the privations entailed by
distress. And the frIghtful conditions
of the prisons and the sufferingS of the
prisoners in the sixteenth century
caused an outbreak of typhus-fever,
which killed not alone the wretched
criminal but also the Judges on the
bench, who thus were punished for
their tolerence of the conditions in
which the disease found its birth. This
G tho Iaccop fauubf nv bictory which