Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1922-08-30
THE LITTLE ENEMIES OF MAN
By DIR. Edwin f. SIossOn
(Cciauca Carvical

Early in the history of the human
race man learned how to conquer the
mastodon. He has yet to learn how
to master the microbe. Whales and
elephants are now almost extinct, but
mice and flies still increase and null
tiply, and the bacteria, smallest and
most dangerous of all, find new ways
of attacking us. 1t is only within the
last few years that man has learned
which his greatest enemies are, and
he has not yet found weapons against
them. The explorer in tropical jung
les used to fear the lions, tigers and
pythons; now he protects himself most
carefully against the mosquitoes, and
esetse. Mars has afflicted the human
race less than Beelzebub.
Although we theoretically accept the
conclusion of science that mans foes
are those of his own household, we
are not yet aroused to the necessity
of waglng war in earnest against
them. We have a Secretary of Navy
and we give him millions for defense,
but we have no Secretary of Santa
ton, though that is more necessary
Office. 1t is quite improbable that any
American viii be killed by an invad-
ing army this year, but our land is
invaded by millions of mosquitoes and
flies armed with deadly weapons and
certain to slaughter thousands. Years
of study and experimentation will be
necessary before we learn how to fight
our insect foes, but already enough
has been done to show what can be
accomplished if we go about it in the
right way. Many of the sanitary
measures of the past we now know to
be crude, clumsy and misdirected, yet
they are fixed in the popular mind
and remain on our statute books. Peo-
pie still talk about the dangers of mi
aSma and sewer gas, and think a de-
oderizer is disinfectant
We are far from acting up to our
lights. The housewife wages war
against vermin, but she does not real
ize that they are more dangerous than
trolley cars.
She gets more excited at the discov-
cry ia moth than fly, although the
former only attacks clothing. not its
contents. We have drani pipes in our
walls to carry off disease, but beside
them are conveniently arranged pass
ages by which reaches can carry dis
eases from fiat to fiat, so that every
body has a fair chance to catch what
ever is going. Our windows are hos
pitably open to the malarial mosquito
and typhoid fly. Over our
clothing on the street cars crawl I'M
mentionahle insects carry unmention-
able diseases. In the fashionable no.
tel and restaurant the napery and por-
celain are immaculate and the walters
are scrupulous; what goes on behind
hhe screen and in the market is an
other story. We have got past the
days when we kept the pig in the par
Tor, but we still keep the dog in the
parlor, which is quite as bad. On
the street we see the pet dog gnawing
decaying bone and nosing the foul
est spot to be found, and moment
later he is cuddled in the arms of his
fair and fastidious mistress and lick
ing her cheek. We have yet to real
ize that it is the dogs which are not
mad that are the more dangerous.
They injure more people by hteir kiss
es than their bites.
In primitive days man had to as
sociate with the lower animals. He
needed dogs and horses and he very
properly made friends of them. He
is now learning how to do without
them, and he should, like snob who
has risen in the world exclude them
from his circle of intimates. The
house is not intended as a geological
garden. Our cities will be truly hab-
table only when they contain no life
but human life. Machinery may
smash US, but it does not poison our
blood, rot our bones and corrode our
flesh. All creeping, crawling things
are unclean. All our insects and ami
mails are our enemies.