THE BACILLUS. 213 



tribes, each of which represents some form or other of 

 disease or death, and the scientific men who are so actively 

 busying themselves in counteracting its work are very chary 

 of describing its personal peculiarities. When these are 

 more generally understood it will probably lead to a revolu- 

 tion in art. The artist of other days who wished to convey 

 to the beholder that the personage depicted was in imminent 

 peril of his life could find no better means of doing so than 

 by placing behind him a shadowy figure with a death's 

 head and skeleton arms holding a dart. This childish re- 

 presentation can no longer be tolerated, and the artist of 

 the future will have only to depict hovering over the prin- 

 cipal figure a bacillus, and the beholder will at once under- 

 stand not only that death is impending, but will be able to 

 distinguish from the characteristics of the bacillus whether 

 it will take the form of consumption, typhoid, small-pox, or 

 other disease. This will be of vast utility in the painting of 

 historical personages, as no questions can arise centuries 

 later as to the cause of their death, the disease of which they 

 died being clearly indicated by the accompanying bacillus, 

 which, of course, will in future be appended to every 

 posthumous portrait. 



It is mortifying to human vanity to reflect that for some 

 sixty centuries, at the shortest computation, man has been 

 taking all sorts of pains to protect himself against minor 

 dangers, in absolute ignorance of the bacillus fiend in his 

 midst. Against the wild beast and the snake he has waged 

 open warfare. He has covered himself with armour to 

 protect himself from the weapons of human foes. He has 

 furnished his ships with lifeboats, he has placed trap-doors 

 in the roofs of his houses to afford an escape in case of 



