The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-09-30
Is The MiCrObe A BOgy And
Are We Daft On Germs?

! kept informing us that we were made
of clay. They also said that man was
/ dust and would turn to dust again.
/ But this was too much for us, and de
spite our respect for the Holy Book
and our fear of the switch we had
/ hard work swallowing those stories.
Wen, our teachers were right. The
! tiny human beings that disport them
selves on the earth's surface are of
/ the same material as the earth. Man
is no. only a child Of the earth; he is
identical with it, The arrangement
varies, no doubt, but the primitive ma
terials are the same. Memento homo
Quia pulvis es.
The highest part of the cosmic mil
leu is the atmosphere, which, as
everybody has heard, is composed Of
oxygen, hydrogen and azote. Then
comes the oceans mass, whose dens-
ity is first; next comes the rocks, with
a greater density, and finally there
are the heavy metals, lying deep
down. AS this cosmic milieu existed
before living matter, it naturally fur
nished the substances entering into its
composition. Naturally, also, the ma.
terials on the crust of the planet were
the ones employed. AS Mr.. Delage
says: Mature takes what she can get
and does with it what she can"
Oxygen is the most widely distrib-
uted of all the elements, so to oxygen
was assigned the duty of maintaining
life. United with iron-the only one
of the heavy metals that goes to the
making of our bodies, because it is
the most abundant and the most gen
erously observation-disclosures is car
ried by blood globules all through our
tissues.
After oxygen, the torch-bearer,
comes water. 1t forms four-fifths of
the organism. Charged with salt, it
casts out poisons 1t joins other ele-
ments in making new cells. 1t is the
Jack of All Trades in our insides.
Next in order come carbon, hydro
gen, and azote, then calcium, sodium,
potassium, aluminium, silicium, phos-
phorus, sulphur, iodine, huor, arsenic,
chlorine-all of them handy materials.
But let me not tarry too long over
! this matter of chemistry. l need only
/ point out the uses Of the metals, some
of which engender and assure life,
while others arrest and sterilize it
wherever they meet it. Among the
first, | would have you remember cal
cium, phosphorus, sulphur, chlorine;
among the second, mercury, lead and
silver. Let us note in passing that
we moderns are getting back to the
ideas of the alchemists, who divided
metals into the good and the bad, and
gave them souls.
Now, what l mean to show is this:
The human body was made for our
cells and not for microbes. AS long
as the human soil is good, the mi
crobes have a brief and miserable ca
reer there. On the other hand, you
may say that when a metal goes out
a microbe comes in.
Then do you conclude that our mil
leu is wholly understood, so that when
any one material runs short, fresh
! supply can be laid in? Alas, the prob
! lem is not so simple Nature seems
to have forbidden us to get our ma,
terials straight from the earth. There
must be a go-between-animal or veg
etable.
/ However, this much is clear. The
human soil is radically unfavorable tC
, the life of the microbe, and we know g
still more important thing-namely
) the constancy of that human milieu
In all races and in all attitudes, the
, bodys' composition is the same. Al
> ways the identical proportion of salts
z albumen and water. And the grea
e. purpose Of this constancy is to see t.
70 it that our tissues shall remain anti
= septic.
Instead of Fostering our souls abou
l microbes, let us keep attentive t.
+ what defends us against them. lie
z us fix our interest upon our human
soil and not upon germs outside il
= Let us try to observe the moral tina
J. underles the old Greek myth of Al
taeus, who, in his struggles agains
u his enemies, regained his strengt
every time his feet touched tn
y ground.
. -e-s-C---
y "THAT TIRED FEELING"