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some nasty stuff to kill the germs which is supposed to have a 
selective action —that is to say, to kill those germs which will do 
us harm and the good germs it will leave alone. Germs are 
supposed to be certain organisms carrying certain disease ; they 
are always about, sometimes in large quantity sometimes in 
small. If in small quantity, even enfeebled nature can resist 
them ; but if in large quantity, it requires the vital powers of our 
strong man to resist them. 
Disinfectants are supposed to kill these germs. Now it looks 
as if a man swallowed a lot of germs the best thing to do would 
be for him to swallow a disinfectant; but this is not so. You 
must catch the germs before they settle, and kill them with the 
disinfectant. However, as we do not know the habits of these 
enemies, we place our disinfectants all over the place. But like 
all other evil things, they seem endowed with that power of 
evading their enemy. 
Disinfectants are powerful poisons such as carbolic acid, 
perchloride of mercury, and some others which will undoubtedly 
kill disease germs, if they come in contact with them. Seeing 
that we have to use the disinfectants blindly, it is probable that 
we may make mistakes and use them either at the wrong time 
or place. 
In Lincolnshire malaria has almost been completely abolished 
by deep draining of the soil. It would make too long a story to 
show how certain soils favour certain diseases. 
Sir John Simon states that damp soils encourage consumption. 
But certain soils have been shown to cause typhoid fever, and 
it has also been shown how they do it. Certain other soils cause 
diphtheria. Whether living on these soils produces the disease 
under certain circumstances, or renders the inhabitants liable to 
the disease, I will not say. So that if you build a house in a 
certain locality, diphtheria to the inhabitants will be the result 
sooner or later—typhoid the same. Made soils, that is soils 
made from ashpit and other refuse, have been proved to be 
productive of disease to people living in the houses built on them, 
until the soil had exhausted its virus. 
Certain localities—apart from the actual composition of the 
soil, but from the topographical position — favour certain 
diseases. When the causes have been fairly well made out and 
the remedy has been applied, the diseases have disappeared, but 
lives have had to be sacrificed first. 
Many years ago typhus fever was most prevalent, now it is 
rare. Typhoid, measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, however, still 
crop up and claim their thousands, giving rise to such evils that 
nothing can remedy. Families are broken up from what must 
