Newport weekly independent., 1901-07-05
THE MICROBES AT WAR.
Friendly Germs mt W ori> Against De- structivc Parasites Preserve An
 imal and Vegetable Life.

ktrHctiNc lsnrasitcS Preserve An imal and Vegetable Life. The deeper science digs into the secrets of nature the more wonderful the balancing of forces appears, and not the least of these marvels of ad- justment is the cOunteracting or breaking down of agencies destructive to life by the activity of other or ganisms.
 In a vague way this balancing of the forces of life and death was real ized long ago, but now investigation has revealed much that was formerly hidden. It has even become possible for man to protect himself and his property, to some extent, against harm by using minute living organ isms to check and undermine those which are his foes, says the Cleye- land Leader.
 The most striking recent instance of this kind is afforded by the work of the department of agriculture in combating the insects that prey upon the fruit trees of California. Parasites of organisms which are themselves parasites of the trees arc saving or chards and groves by destroying the foes of the fruit. A destructive scale, as the little creature is called, eats the trees, and it. in turn, is eaten by a ladybug imported from Australia. So the balance is restored, and benefi- cent forms of life, viewed from the human standpoint, at least, have their due advantage over the forces of destruction.
 The success of such ingenious levy ing of microscopic warriors for some of mans hardest fighting suggests the possibility of destroying the smallest germs of disease which are living organisms by discovering some thing still more infnitesimal to prey l upon these pernicious forms of de- structive energy, as they do upon man. It would be rash to say that this is going too far for human knowledge or resources.
 Well-known and very significant facts indicate that just such agencies may yet be used to break the power of deadly germ diseases. Nature might we'll have some such way of
 
 ance between life and death, in the highest of all her organic forms.
 It is we'll understood, for example, that when a virulent disease is intro- | 6uced where it never before existed it's ravages are far worse than any havoc which it causes in countries where it has been curse for genera tions or centuries. Smallpox simply slaughtered the Indians of America when it was brought into this con- tinent from Europe. Pulmonary tuberculosis, or consumption of the lungs, has practically depopulated certain islands of the South seas where the natives seemed not to have encountered the disease before white men brought it into their earthly paradise.
 On the other hand, in countries like Japan, where a race has been settled for many hundreds of years, with lit- tie change in the essential habits or conditions of life, the resisting pow CT of the body when assailed, as it always is, more or less, by disease germs, appears to have been so devel- oped by the survival of the fittest, or otherwise, that many cases of con- | sumption result in cures which would be deemed wonderful in other lands. Is it not possible that this growing ability to come in contact with dead ly germs and still retain good health may be due to the development of the right kind of organism or secre- tion of the body to attack in turn, and destroy the most fatal foes of man?
 There is vast field of investiga- tion opening in this direction which may yield results which now seem less substantial than any of the fairy tales of science. It may be that dis coveries are to be made in the con- trol of natural forces affecting the health and strength of the human body, it's lie and duration, which will be as revolutionary and epoch-mak- ing as any of those marvels of inven- ton which made the last century fla nous forever in the history of our race.
 A WOman's Invention. | H