The Conway log cabin., 1901-08-13
BATTLE OF GERMS.
Destructive Agencies Combated by
 Friendly Parasites.
Vast Field of scientiHs sInvestfEntton Which May Yield Valuable Re- suits to Animal and Vege-
 table Life,

secrets of nature the more wonderful
 the balancing of forces appears, and
 not the least of these marvels of ad- Justmeut is the counteracting or
 breaking down of agencies destructive
 to life by the activity of other or ganisms.
 In vague way this balancing of
 the forces of life and death was real ized long ago, but now investiga tion has revealed much that was formerly hidden.5 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 Cleve- 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 are 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 intinitesimal to prey upon these pcrnicious 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.
 Wcll-known and very significant facts indicate that just such agencies may yet be used to break the power of deadly germ diseases. Nature might well have some. such way of preserving fit and wholesome bal ance between life and death in the highest of all her organic forms.
 It is well understood, for example, that when a virulent disease is intro- duced where it never before existed it's ravages are far worse than any havoc which it causes in countries where it has been a curse for genera tions or centuries. Smallpox simply the Indians of America when it was brought into this con tiuent from Europe. Pulmonary 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 psradies.
 On the other hand, in countries like Japan. where 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 1t always is, more or less. by disease germs. appears to have been so devel- oped by the survival of the Attest, 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- lv 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- ton 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 dts 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 Ia nous forever in the history of our race.