Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1912-09-21 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

THE STORY OF A BOIL.  The first question alid answer in George litae donald's beautiful ea.techisin, " Baby," repneselit: about all the. ordinary luau knows concerning I.ll‘  origin of boiLs stlys Dr. it. Wat.-on. Is the poe. says, "Where did you oome from, baby dear:" and supplies the vague clue, "Out of the everywhere into here," so the uninspired possessor of a boil might loosely locate the source of his torment. Occa&ionally he blames his blood, conceives tha4 fluid grumbling like lava inside the clay crust 0.1 him and finally bursting into volcanic eruptioai— each Vesuvius a boil—the crater! And both attitudas are wrung and right, but chiefly wrong.  Microbes and human akin are the principal actors  ir. this particular story. The former belong to the order, eouiprising several types, of germs of suppuration.; and they are the villaius of the piece-call them murderers, amarchists, pirates. or. if you wish a tale of bold invasion, Germans. They come "out of the everywhere." They are upon the cleanest parts of your skin from long, before the story commences. Much wahine, "all the perfumes of Arabia," even long immersion in strong disinfectant solutions, cannot quite rid the skin of these parasites, but a boil only develops when a notable number of germs of the same kind are congregated together. And they must be helped through the epidermis, the hard outer texture of the skin. A scratch may do it, slight, not sufficient to draw blood, not even enough to catch the eye; but mere chafing or rubbing will generally suffice, and that is why the commonest sites for boils are pots where the clothing causes friction: such spots are the neck and wrists, where collar and cuffs pLay, the armpits and the buttocks, where • movement or the provocation of a hard seat may  annoy. Once into the tissues, the war between invading, germs and resLsting cells of the body begins. 'Phii scout °ells notify headquarters. The army of defence masses as strongly as it can around the camp of the foe; there are outpost skirmishes contim. ually; those complaisant roads. the blood-vessel dilate to carry more blood, more defenders to OA front. Sometimes the struggle ends at this staget with only a little pain, a little smelling and redness often the invaders establish themselves too strongll to be conquered at once. Then, multiplying, thel. push through the lines of the massed defenders, seize more territory (your flesh, my suffering friend). and there is fresh excitement. more swell. ing, an exterbsion of the reddened area, and more throbbing pain. The invaders can poison the blood-stream, less or more, and punish to 601110 extent the whole system—in shiveriness, headache, disturbed digestion_ fever, etc. Sooort or late in the history of every boil, how. ever, these comes a time when the defenders Call pretty accurately hem in their enemies, and the fortification of this ring is inade closer and stronger. Inside it the battle rages. Finally, the piece of tissue given over to this hardest, culminating wrestle dies; and you have a bit of dead flesh locked in inflamed living tissue. Part of the in aS3 melts into matter Or pus. The skin yields in places. It helps immensely to have the little oozing holes cut into one free opening, through which the dead mass (the boil's core) may escape as soon as the tougher strands of its tissue have dissolved. So far, no word has been said to justify the individual who blames his blood for his boils. But the natural resistance of the body to infection do. pends largely on the mood in which the invasion discovers the blood. The whole campaign is fought in fluid derived from the blood, so the "mood" matters. Scientists do not say " mood" ; they talk about the opwnic index, a gauge they make of the blood's capacity for overeoming any particular variety of germs and rendering that an easier prey to the body-cells. Am I certain diseases like diabetes, and drugs like iodides and bromides, seam adversely to affect the. owonio richness of the blood. Even one's food limy exert an influ.nce.  / / /;4  A  \