The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-05-15
HEALTH AND SPIRIT,
A SERMON FOR THE Selfish.
Microbes and Eggs and Stars and
Other Things.


pie were rendered wretched by the
terrors of superstition:-the moan Of
the night wind was a Banshee; the
bowling of a dog was a prophecy of
evil; the devils Indignantly scattered
the thunderbolts right and left;
Burns grandmother saw Aud Nick in
harmless wild-bird,-
Away he squattered: like drake,
On whirring Wings"
the church yards were full of ghosts:
the dead came out OF their graves, as
vampires, to suck the blood of the
living; warlocks and witches were con-
stantly executing vengeance against
the unfortunate victims of their hate;
and life was continual torture, from
ten thousand visible and invisible
agents.
Luckily the race has out-grown
nearly all this nonsense, but of late
years 1T has been imposing upon itself
new set of terrors. The microbes
have take the place of the ancient de-
mons of forest and flood. We were
told that we could not drink a glass Of
water or milk, or swallow a mouthful
OF bread or meat, without introducing
into our system innumerable deadly
enemies. Notwithstanding monsters
were revealed by the microscope in
every drop OF water; and youth and
beauty could not press their lips to-
gether, in the good old fashion of
Adam and Eve, but that the kiss
transmitted from one to the other
whole colonies of diabolical bacilli.
The old devils were nothing like as
omnipresent or dangerous as the new
ones. Life was hardly worth having
on such terms;-all its joyous abandon
was gone.
But new light is being thrown on
these questions. We quote:
1.-THE ubiq uitous microbe is known
character. One is that of a disease
producing organism, the other that of
the beneficient remover of decaying
matter. writes DR.. Andrew Wilson,
and Of actually assisting the animal
body to perform certain of it's ordin-
airy vital functions-diges tion, to-wit
To what extent the animal may be
dependent on microbes for its actual
welfare Is an open question, but if
certain'researches undertaken by Dr.
S. Kijanizin, of the University of
Kieff, are to be credited, there may in
deed exist a closer alliance between
germs and their hosts than has hith-
erto been deemed possible. This in
vestigator experimental upon ami
mails, feeding them on food which has
practically been sterilized, and giving
them air which had been rendered
wholly sgermless. One result of this
regimen was to limit the assimilation
of heterogeneous matter; the idea here
being that the presence of microbes
In the digestive tract is necessary to
effect this desirable end of nutri-
tion. The microbes left in the intes-
tines, or originally present there, no
doubt accomplished so much of the
work; but the conclusion is that the
microbes received with the food con-
stitute an essential feature Of healthy
assimilation. Death was not the un-
common fate OF many of the animals
supplied with the sterilized food and
air. This result may, perchance,
arise from processes of self-poisoning
such as the microbes, naturally pres
emit in air and food, obviate and pre-
vent.
What strikes me as specially inter-
esting however, is the new analogy
which DR.. Kijanizin's experiments re-
veal between the animal and the
plant worlds. Certain plants can only
assimilate nitrogen through the ac-
tion and aid of the microbes which
live in nodules on their roots. In the
absence of these friendly germs no as
similation of nitrogen is possible.
Therefore the case of the plant would
seem to be closely related to that of
the animal, if it be proved that the
nutrition of the latter cannot proceed
naturally without the aid of the help
full microbes.
1t moreover appears: by an examin-
alton Of the bodies of young men,
killed by accident, in the very prime
Of perfect health. that the microbes
of consumption existed all through
their tissues, and yet they exhibited
no signs of pulmonary disease. The
inference is that we each and all of us
carry in .us the germs of many fatal
disorders, but they do not manifest
themselves, In dangerous force, until
some shrinkage of the vital powers
permits them to rise up and seize up
on and destroy the whole organism
And this being true we need not shud-
der at the sight of glass of milk or
stand guard over our mouths with a
seive and club. Hence all this up
roar about pleura-pneumonia and in
ternational inspection Of cattle is per-
haps largely unnecessary and useless.
God placed in the blood Of man a kind
Of living creatures, microbes, If you
choose, called the "white corpuscles;"
they go swimming around through US
and. when they find in our blood any
germs that ought not to be there, they
open their mouths and devour them.
They even squeeze their way through
the texture OF the blood-yessels and
60 out in countless numbers, like a
lot Of soldiers, to fight any hostile
forces that assail the fortress of life.
And thus waking or sleeping, idling or
working. the good God who made you,
and who holds you together by mil
lion hourly miracles, has his invisible
and unpaid agents at work; and con-
tinual battles are fought within you,
Waterloos and Gettysburgs multiplied
a thousand fold,-with incalculable
slaughter; and all this to enable you
to live and eat your meals and-read
The REPRESENTATIVE!