DUST AND DISEASE 



3. Scares and Wonders 



There are certain subjects which come within my ken 

 upon which paragraphs are published in the papers nearly 

 every other day of a wildly romantic and misleading 

 character. These subjects may be classified as : (1) 

 Living and extinct monsters. (2) Cures for cancer and 

 tubercle. (3) Unsuspected dangers of infection by 

 disease-germs. It would hardly be pleasant for me to 

 quote these paragraphs in order to deny their statements. 

 They are often headed, " For the Little Ones," or 

 " From a Foreign Correspondent." The old-established 

 and better title for such announcements is " For the 

 Marines." I shall endeavour to mention as they occur 

 to me, among other things, new and duly-certified facts 

 relating to monsters, and to the investigation of disease. 

 With reference to reports which have been seriously put 

 forward during the past year, I may say that the alleged 

 discovery of a mammoth in North America 71ft. long 

 and 40ft. tall is nonsense. In the announcement to 

 which I allude, the measurements have been altered from 

 some original and more correct statement and made to 

 appear astonishing by error or design. 



No new facts of importance bearing upon the treat- 

 ment of either cancer or tubercle have been lately dis- 

 covered which can be explained to the general public. 

 Work is proceeding nevertheless. No new source of 

 danger from disease-germs has been detected since this 

 time last year. It is true that the dust in railway 

 carriages, and especially in sleeping-cars, which are not 

 properly cleaned every day after occupation by travellers, 

 is full of microbes, and, like the dust of rooms which 

 have been crowded by human beings, may be a source of 

 disease infection. The remedy for this is careful cleans- 

 ing after each journey, and a special construction of the 



