The record-union., 1899-03-21
CONCERNING DISEASE GERMS
how SOME OF THEM May BE
AVOIDED.
Simple Precautions by Which At
tacks Of Deadly Microbes
May be Resisted.
(By John H. Girdner. A. b.. NJ. D., II
MunSeY'S MagaZine.O

OF all the blessings that mortal man
can receive and enjoy, there is none
SO great as good health Riches, honor
1ame. and all the other prizes for when
men labor are insignificant when COM
pared to the possession of a sound mino
in sound body
This is no new bit of wisdom. 1t mas
been said many times, ever since Inc
days of King Solomon; but it comes
with new meaning in these modern
days. For by reason of the enormous
increase of our knowledge Of the causes
that produce many of the most COM
mon and fatal maladies, it has come
about that in no period of the world
history could the individual do SO much
to protect himself and others from sick
ness and death as in these closing years
of the nineteenth century.
The publisher of this magazine once
said to me: IF you want to educate
the public on any great question, the
place to begin is at the fireside. Strip
your information of technicalities, and
put it in such a way that the mothers
can understand it, I shall endeavor to
follow his advice in this paper, and, II
possible, to add something to the gen.
eral fund of information on the way to
keep well.
Those who conduct the domestic af-
fairs of the home, as well as those who
make our laws, in both State and
nation, have so far failed to take
full advantage of the discoveries of
modern science m protecting the pri-
vate and public health, and we are to a
large extent deprived of the blessings
vxrit tir7I, 10 SC
state of things is not surprising when
we remember how recent are the med
ical discoveries which have taught us
that the most common and fatal dis
eases are caused by taking into the
body, in one way or another specific
poisons in the form of living germs.
Fifteen or twenty years covers the pc
riod Of these scientific revelations, and
it is unreasonable to expect that the
lay mind could have kept pace with
them
In the old days, when we We're in
almost total ignorance of the cause and
means of preventing such common dis
eases as tuberculosis of the lungs (con-
sumption), typhoid fever, ETC., books
and papers were written for the laity
telling them how to cure these ailments.
and nearly every family had it's DO
mestic Medicine" Household Doctor"
Or some such volume of more or less
doubtful value. Now they need litera-
ture teaching them how to prevent these
scourges. The old proverb that IAN
ounce of prevention is worth pound of
cure" should now read: AN ounce of
prevention is worth ten pounds OF
cure
There is a striking analogy between
what may be called the visible and the
invisible world of animal life. When
We lock around US with the natural OF
unaided eyes we see a vast number of
species of animals, birds. fishes, and
reptiles, all included in what is known
as the animal kingdom. We are more
Or less familiar with the life history of
each of them. We know their habitat
the conditions under which they can
lve-in short, all the principal facts
connected with their life, death, and
reprodllo ton.
Now the modern microscope, which
is nothing else but an artificial eye, has
increased mans power of vision many
thousands of times. 1t has revealed an
other and a heretofore invisible world
os animal life Like the visible world,
this is composed of many varieties of
microscopic creatures. For instance,
several hundred different species of
microbes may be found in the scrapings
from the tongue of perfectly healthy
person.
ONLY a comparatively few of the
forms Of life which are found under the
microscope are capable of attacking or
n -r,f., +I,o
vast horde of microbes we find one that
is the cause of tuberculosis, another
that produces typhoid fever, and so
forth; and as the field is more fully ex-
plored. doubtless many other important
discoveries will be made.
Let US imagine an Individual COM
ing to this world from another planet
without any knowledge of the visi-
BILE animal world by which he would
probably be very much afraid of a horse
or a COW, but would consider rattle
snake or a tarantula beautiful play
thing. His lack of knowledge would
certainly render him incompetent to
guard his health and life against injury.
We are very much in the same position
as this imaginary visitor with regard to
the germ life by which we find our
selves surrounded.
tuberculosis destroys more lives
than any one disease in the world 1t
kills more than a hundred thousand
people each year in the United States.
Yet the person who contracts tuber-
culosis has simply sustained an acci-
dent-as much an accident as if he had
been bitten by dog or kicked by a
horse. He has been Set upon by the
microbe known as the tubercle bacillus
which, having affected lodgment in
the lungs, and found congenial sur
roundings establishes itself, forms coll
onies, and gradually destroys the
health, and too often the life itself. of
its unfortunate victim. Comparatively
little can be done to cure the disease,
but much can be done to prevent the
accident which caused it. If foreign
foe-the Spaniards, for instance-or
some other member of the visible ami
NAL world, were killing hundred thou
sand of our inhabtants- each year, it
would require no argument and no urg-
ing to induce the people to drive out
such a foe or render extinct the OBJ
noxious animal which was causing such
wholesale slaughter.
It should be noted that we have been
speaking only of the deaths from this
cause The suffering Of those who are
attacked by this microbe and are for
tupate enough to recover-in other
words, the wounded-must also be
considered in summing up its devasta-
tion. The fact that the particular form
of animal life (the tubercle bacillus)
which is actually causing all this suf-
fering and death can be seen only with