THE LAWS OF PROTOPLASM 1 27 



betterment. Some of these are experiments 

 which will prove to be a failure, while others will 

 be of great value. One should keep an open mind 

 toward all public health movements for they fur- 

 nish the sole means for human betterment so far 

 as good health is concerned. As valuable as all 

 such measures are, they can never deal with the 

 inherited constitution of man nor give to him that 

 natural immunity which is his most valuable pos- 

 session as a protection against disease. Let us 

 first examine the contribution that science has 

 made in analyzing the causes of disease and later 

 discuss some of the methods employed for human 

 betterment. 



Disease is a broad and ill-defined term. While 

 it may be applied to sickness arising from drugs 

 or mechanical injury, it is restricted in this dis- 

 cussion to derangements caused by specific or- 

 ganisms. 



That man may be sick is granted by nearly all, 

 but the extent of sickness is realized by only a few. 

 A recent report on the conservation of national 

 vitality estimates that there are always 3,000,000 

 sick persons in the United States of whom 1,000,- 

 000 are in the working period of life. These 

 persons are estimated to lose in earnings $5,000,- 

 000 per year. To this must be added the expense 

 for medicines, special foods, etc. The conclusion 

 of the whole matter is that there is an estimated 



