!86 THE STORY OF GERM LIFE. 



cially strong action upon the bacteria. Its germi- 

 cide action on the bacteria should be so strong 

 that a dose which would be fatal or very injurious 

 to them would be too small to have a deleterious 

 influence on the body of the individual. It has 

 not proved an easy task to discover drugs which 

 will have any value as germicides when used in 

 quantities so small as to produce no injurious 

 effect on the body. 



A second difficulty is in getting the drug to 

 produce its effect at the right point. A few 

 diseases, as we have noticed, are produced by 

 bacteria which distribute themselves almost 

 indiscriminately over the body ; but the majority 

 are somewhat definitely localized in special 

 points. Tuberculosis may attack a single gland 

 or a single lobe of the lung. Typhoid germ is 

 localized in the intestines, liver, spleen, etc. 

 Even if it were possible to find some drug which 

 would have a very specific effect upon the tuber- 

 culosis bacillus, it is plain that it would be a very 

 questionable method of procedure to introduce 

 this into the whole system simply that it might 

 have an effect upon a very small isolated gland. 

 Sometimes such a bacterial affection may be local- 

 ized in places where it can be specially treated, as 

 in the case of an attack on a dermal gland, and in 

 these cases some of the germicides have proved to 

 be of much value. Indeed, the use of various dis- 

 infectants connected with abscesses and super- 

 ficial infections has proved of much value. To 

 this exten'., in disinfecting wounds and as a local 

 application, the development of our knowledge 

 of disinfectants has given no little aid to curative 

 medicine. 



Very little success, however, has resulted in the 



