24 



From observation, thought and deduction, 

 I have concluded that earth, air and water are 

 replete with multitudinous, infinitesimal, ever 

 active creatures^ probably many of which are 

 too minute for our best microscopes to reveal 

 to the sense of sight. These pigmy, insignif- 

 icant-seeming and yet collectively formidable 

 beings are everywhere at work — born in myr- 

 iad numbers, propagating and expiring in a 

 brief season, like May-Plies, ere they hardly 

 have begun to live; they infect or disinfect 

 the air, alter the nature af the soil, and cleanse 

 or contaminate the water. Entering our sys- 

 tems through all of these facile mediums (we 

 inhale on an average about 2800 cubic feet of 

 air through our lungs in the short space of only 

 twenty four hours and swallow dust and wa- 

 ter in surprising quantities every day of our 

 lives) they soon obtain mastery over our weak- 

 ened bodies and it is surely their malefiant 

 effects that we behold in the horrid virulence 

 of small-pox, the dreadful malignancy of can- 

 cer and the melancholy ravages of consump- 

 tion. Kings evil, catarrh, malarial and scar- 

 let fever, measles, the putrid sore throat, gan- 

 grene, aye, dozens of other catching ails let 

 loose from a cursed Pandora's box among hu- 



