The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-08-15

little. all human beings have
 Microbes to right of them,
 Microbes to left of them,
 Microbes in front of them.
 and we are being taught that all of us not only have microbes all around us but all over us and inside of us. Dr. Wiley is fast becoming the great mi- crober, if we may coin word, and of him and his teachings The colum- bia State says;
 There would be something positively alarming about Dr. Wiley's discovery of colonies of germ-cells in unexpected corners of the pantry. If one had never heard of these hale and frisky cente- narians that grace every healthy com- munity. They came on earth before the germ theory was even a factor, and 1 flourished like the gren bay tree, in suspicion of antiseptics. Possibly. they | tremb1e now when they glance back ward and see the darkness through which they walked unknowingiy. But 1t is a safe wager that they smile con
 It would not be merely foolish, but | ungrateful, not to give pr. Wiley his l due. He has done things. But 1t is the way with man that absorption in fne l line of thought will tend to make him l exaggerate its importance. Doubtless | the person who gathers and carefully classifies sea-sheiis considers he IS doing a great thing for the world in | general.
 The learned Doctor is finding the lit- tie pests fin everything of late. They are in everything wS eat. drink, wear l sn al breathe, and he has even found them in the soap with which we have been wont to believe we were clearing our- selves of all dangerous members of the population. When we breathe through either mouth or nose We inhale some hundreds or millions of them. we are not sure which. and we are not sure that they do not enter with sound and sight. Evidently they are without lim- itation, nor Is any place or thing free of them.
 Like our contemporary, we cannot help wondering how any human being lived and hourished even a century ago. We are told by some writer that where ignorance is bliss 1t is folly to be wise" and evidently ignorance was bliss in the past. Knowing what we do of the long life and robust health of many of our ancestry we are forced to one of two conclusions: eith- CT the entire germ family Is a modern edition to animate life or else the eld- CTS lived long and healthily because of their Ignorance of germs. Forum ately for the continued existence of life on earth only comparatively small per centage of the great microbe family are harmful. but the worry with the average layman is that he can't tell which are the good germs and which the ferocious ones; that leaves us always in a condition of dodginess and uncertainty. Will not Dr. Wiley and the others let up a while?
 And yet there comes into the dark and germ-laden atmosphere a bright and hopeful ray of light, and an inti- nation that the world is not to be en- tireIy given over to the germ family From beyond the great salted ocean comes the announcement from a learn ed London doctor that the fumes aris- Ing from all sorts of motor vehicles are among the best germ destroyers yet located Tn London autos are put to all uses, not only for pleasure and re- creation but for business. They have become so common that there Is much complaint about them. not only on ac' count of the noise and the danger tC folks on the streets, but people aver that the smoke and the scent form ar almost unbearable nuisance.
 But here comes this wise medico ant informs all the people that they arc badly misinformed, and that they ar' raising objections to their best pro tector He notes that London Is reek' ing with disease germs of all kinds endangerlng the health and the lives of the millions of London's vast popu laton. Then he declares that the huidl