2 THE HOUSE FLY 



Alas ! that it should be so, but the people whose lives 

 are at stake stand by and heed not, feverishly chasing 

 the will-o'-the-wisp of so-called pleasure ; and to secure the 

 money to continue the chase, they shut out all that matters 

 from their minds. They heed not when men of science 

 tell them of the terrible dangers they run of disease and 

 premature death. " Eat, drink and be merry," say they, 

 while the microbe army hovers around claiming its vic- 

 tims in millions. 



It would matter little or nothing to posterity if they alone 

 were eliminated, but the pity of it is that it does not end 

 there. 



" The sins of the parents are visited on the children, even 

 to the third and fourth generation." This apparently 

 seems distinctly cruel and unjust. It is, however, a law 

 of Nature, and we must submit. It lays a terrible, an 

 awful responsibility on parents, for both physical and mental 

 weaknesses are transmitted to the children. Active disease 

 is not handed on, but the tendency to it is. If both parents 

 have the consumptive tendency, then it is inevitable that 

 the children will be specially liable to contract tuberculosis 

 and die of it. Abuses of the various parts of the body 

 react most disastrously on the children. Traits of character 

 are similarly handed down. 



It is the parent who is determining the future destiny of 

 the race for good or ill. The human race can be improved 

 as easily and as steadily as the experienced stock farmer 

 improves his stock. Disease of the mind can only be 

 stamped out by practising self-control in all things ; and 

 by educating the higher brain centres. We are here con- 

 cerned, however, with physical disease. This can be elimi- 



