Bacteria as Man's Invisible Foes 69 



Dyspepsia, the disease, was only the process 

 of reaction or defence against the pudding. 



So if we choose to be dramatic in our speech 

 we may still say that disease attacks a man. 

 But let us hold it in the back of our heads, 

 that we do not really blame the disease but 

 the bacteria or other factors which have set 

 it going. 



It is well to do this, not only for the sake 

 of clearness of conception, but because when 

 we try to cure or prevent disease, it is the incit- 

 ing factors which we must strive to control, 

 and not only, or chiefly, the symptoms, which 

 characterize but do not constitute the disease. 

 For in a large proportion of cases the symp- 

 toms of disease are only the marks of the 

 efforts of the body to protect itself against 

 some offending condition or invading thing. 

 Fever and pain, cough and headache, the 

 halting appetite and laboring heart these 

 may all be only signs of wholesome resistance 

 to damage, or warnings against improper 

 or unsafe modes of life. 



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