56 THE STORY OF THE BACTERIA. 



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 work 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 commu- 

 nity, 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 permanently 

 maintained by their fellows. Patriotism and 

 esprit du corps are very markedly typified in 

 the cell communities of which our bodies are 

 made up. 



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 

 disorder in the co-ordinating mechanism, the 

 failure in what we may term the rhythm of the 

 body's activities constitutes what we call disease. 



The part which may be the seat of the dis- 



