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mankind, are simply the direct or indirect re 

 suits of these almost invisible atoms. 



The drop of water we sip, the breath of air 

 we breathe, the particle of dust that finds in- 

 sidious entrance to our bodies, may be to us 

 the unseen jDrecnrsor of terrible disease, the 

 unheard knell of fateful doom, the silent fore 

 runner of early, torturing, ghastly death. 



Only nearly perfect, very healthy, vigorous 

 bodies can successfully resist these parasitic 

 wanderers, (Ishmael-like roamers through the 

 universe) when they are at their best and we 

 are exposed to their attacks : hence we note a 

 favored few who defy plague and pox and 

 cholera ; epidemics of all fateful kinds and re- 

 main serene, incautious and unscathed. But 

 wo to the weak, the ailing or the debauched ! 

 they fall an easy prey to the fatal onslaughts 

 of these tiny destroyers, everywhere watch- 

 ful, voracious, insatiate ; even as the Harpies 

 of fable or the vulture that preyed on Promo 

 theus. Why this is so, I am unable to say ; it 

 is doubtless for the same reason that a stunt- 

 ed, set back, or sickly plant yields to the 

 massed attacks of aphide hosts while health- 

 ier close by vegetation of the same kind is 

 nearly free from the vermin destroying the 



