43 



The old herbalists believed that the Creator made no plant in vain ; 

 they believed that every plant had its uses, if we could only find it out. 

 Looked at in this light the lowly plants that produce disease may have 

 some use ; the cholera bacillus teaches our cities to clean up, and in pro- 

 portion as they clean up they escape the ravages of the disease. The ty- 

 phoid bacillus teaches us to look after the purity of our water supply, and 

 cities and individuals who heed the lesson escape the disease. Perhaps* 

 the tubercle l)acillus may teach us to clean up our cities and our homes 

 and meeting jilaces ; it may teach us the use of pure air. But if tubercu- 

 losis is a friend of the race, it needs watcliing as fire needs watching ; lilve 

 it, it may be an exceedingly bad master. 



We must look at the pre-tubercular stage in the light of a warning 

 to get out of the dusty and smoky cit>' ; the aches and pains and tlie coughs 

 and colds may subside very promptly in good air. If the individual re- 

 mains in the citj' the disease sets in in earnest, to attack the lungs, and 

 then it generates hope, and the Aictim wants to be up and about. And 

 he should heed the additional warning before it is too late; he should not 

 lie about the house or tiie dusty city ; he should go out into "God's green 

 country" and into the siuishine and pure air. 



When a' man has an acute alimentary tract affection, not to say dis- 

 ease, nature takes away his appetite and makes him gloomy ; he lies about 

 and refuses food, tiius imitating the lower animals; if he persists in eat- 

 ing she sends a violent i»ain and he will probably desist. Nature wants no 

 food and no work to do with an impaired alimentary tract ; she wants 

 rest, just as a broken bone wants rest to repair the damage. Men who heed 

 the warnings of nature, tlie little aches and pains that tell them to do 

 this and avoid that, are apt to live longest ; the chronic invalid who takes 

 care of himself may live on to old age, while the so-called strong or robust 

 man who never has an ache or a pain, no warnings from nature, may go to 

 pieces all at once and prematurely. 



The aches and pains of the pre-tubercular stage of consumption should 

 be heeded, and the hope generated by the disease itself should be acted 

 upon ; nature is showing the way. The elimination of the imprudent, and 

 of tliose not adapted to tlieir surroundings, has been going on for countless 

 ages. Diseases have killed off our weak, and the process still continues. 

 Our Indians scarcely came within the range of disease elimination; their 

 life was not conducive to the propagation of diseases, certainly not of tu- 

 berculosis. When the wbite man brought in tuberculosis the Indian was 



