The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-08
roo MANY rADDrsrs.

A Mississippi contemporary is grow ing worried over the way science is endeavoring to control everything con nected with our lives and thus com plains:
 This fearsome prying Into every drop of water one drinks: the melan- choly questioning of food values with every spoonful one swallows. the un- breath deeply enough to pump all the vitalized air from his lungs; the rest destroying doubts as to whether one should sleep with his heels higher than to destroy that mental equipoise so es- sential to perfect health. ''Oh, wish had lived before germs were discov- cred" a young mother sighed in our nearing: and we could not but echo the wish.
 No doubt there are many who feel as this woman does, even though they may not express 1t, and not few Of them will echo the words of our some- what disgusted contemporary. The Savannah Press adds it's testimony, thus:
 Tn these days science, or what passes
 
 ically. a kind of nuisance The late Bishop Becker said that he believed largely in the germ theory until he passed safely through g visit to the Holy Land, where every malignant bacillus is supposed to have venerable and chronic existence. A French doc- tor gathered all the malignant geryns ne ne could Ind and swallowed them. They never phased him. Another French physician. dousting yellow fe- yer infection, slept with patients thus amicted and even draDk--in the inter- contracting the malady; yet auaran- tines are enforced.
 Evidently The Press Is almost as dis gusted or dissatisfied as the other pa- per, and is at least doubtful as to the infallibility of the germ theory. The evidence 1t quotes would seem like g setback to those who hold that some member of the microbe family must bear the blame for all, or nearly all human ailments. But then we are confronted with the other fact that as far as human beings can be sure of anything many diseases have beep traced directly to germs. And then. too, we are to answer the question: If contagious and infectious diseases are not carried and communicated bv germs how can we explain them? That Is a facer.
 But without expressing an opinion. pro or con, on the germ question, we are free to say that there are amonu so-called medical experts no end of fads' and notions calculated to make any one tired. We are continually be- ing assured that certain actions. pos- lures and movements are not only im- proper but dangerous, and that we al- most literally take our lives in our hands when we indulge in them. For example, here Is an over-knowledgable expert who declaims loudly against the common habit of crossing one knee or leg over the other when sitting down. He cites half-a-dozen human ailments which he attributes to this cause. -.''.
 Is not this rather running a fad be- yond the limit? We doubt very much If one of the diseases, among which he mentions scfatica. paralysis, lame- ness and several others. can be traced to habit which Is doubtless as old as humanity. It is highly probable that when Adam had something serious to think of, or some housekeepine problem to settle, he seated himself and crossed his legs to have a good thing, and people have been at 1t from that day to this. We are continually meeting with just such fancies as this. put forward in the name of science. and are fast getting to the condition of the Mississippi woman. There is not too much real science but too much that isn't real.
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 It would be a good joke on thnt o,.