Man and Microbes. 95 



Nor must we forget the role that the filthy house fly plays in 

 transferring the germs from infected sputum to food. 



The tubercle is both aristocrat and proletariat, as it attacks 

 both rich and poor alike. Spinoza philosophized while his very 

 lungs were being devoured. Likewise Schiller, Sterne and 

 Keats were early victims of the disease. Stevenson's years 

 were early numbered, and Chopin composed his own funeral 

 march to the note and rhythm of the invincible and fatal ad- 

 vance of these minute destroyers within his body. 



Propably one million and a half of the world's population 

 succumbs annually to tuberculosis. The mortalities at the 

 Marne, the Somme and Verdun, excruciating as they have 

 been to our sense of humanity, do not equal in numbers the 

 yearly victims of tuberculosis. In the United States alone 

 150,000 are destroyed. With what horror and wrath would 

 we receive word that 100,000 of our young men had been slain 

 in France ! Yet at our very doors murder of even more gigan- 

 tic proportions goes on, and with every victim countless mil-' 

 lions of destructive mines are sown which only await the un- 

 suspecting passer-by. 



As a result of Koch's triumph, and a host of workers who 

 have followed him in the investigation of tuberculosis, the 

 disease has been robbed of much of its terrors. We no longer 

 regard it as a heritage. Further, we have learned that cleanli- 

 ness, fresh air, sunlight, substantial food and the maintenance 

 of high bodily resistance are the catholicons of prevention 

 and cure. All patent medicines purporting cure should be 

 shunned. 



In 1886 cholera began its sixth gigantic and destructive 

 march from Asia into Europe. Cities were left without a 

 single inhabitant. When it was heralded in Europe that 

 cholera had once more broken out and was running amuck, a 

 number of young scientists went to Alexandria with a view of 

 determining its etiology and combating the disease, Quiller, 

 one of the great martyrs to man's welfare, lost his life. It 

 was Koch who first isolated the germ — the comma bacillus of 

 cholera. He then went to India, the breeding hole of this 

 microbe, and there offered his services to the British govern- 

 ment. He was not well received; the attitude of the officials 

 there was one of wonder why a German scientist should con- 

 cern himself with British affairs. At the present time there 



