64 The Story of the Bacteria 



cells will carry a certain amount of oxygen 

 in their ceaseless rounds of visits to the tissues, 

 though the air from which they get it through 

 the lungs be as foul and meagre as it is in 

 some of our fashionable theatres and churches 

 and school-rooms. And if certain cells or 

 groups of cells should be forced to work awry, 

 they always tend to get back to their proper 

 business and conditions, even against great 

 obstacles, just as soon as they can. 



Even when large numbers of cells or cell 

 groups are entirely removed from the com- 

 munity, as by an injury, new cells can form 

 out of those which are left, or the duties of 

 the lost cells are assumed and may be per- 

 manently maintained by their fellows. Pa- 

 triotism and esprit du corps are very markedly 

 typified in the cell communities which to- 

 gether constitute the republic or common- 

 wealth called the body. 



When important cell communities are seri- 

 ously injured or changed in structure so that 

 they cannot do well the things which they 

 ought to do, or when they fail to act in har- 

 mony, through some fault of their own or some 



