THE STORY OF THE BACTERIA. 135 



their own observations, or to claim as world- 

 reforming discoveries the results of imperfect 

 observation or misinterpreted facts. 



The hope of the widespread prevention of 

 misery and disease, even in the dim dawn of 

 this new day, is so bright and cheering, and 

 so full is the air of high-sounding promise of 

 new and beneficent revelations, that one is 

 reminded of the description by Lowell of the 

 advent of a new phase of thought many years 

 ago in New England. " The nameless eagle," 

 he says, " of the tree Ygdrasil was about to sit 

 at last, and wild-eyed enthusiasts rushed from 

 all sides, each eager to thrust under the mystic 

 bird that chalk egg from which the new and 

 fairer creation was to be hatched in due time." 



But in spite of mistakes and misinterpreta- 

 tions, in spite of the runaway enthusiasms 

 which now and again lead the disciples of the 

 new light to ignore the solid groundwork of 

 experience which was founded in the old, we 

 are daily gaining new facts and more com- 

 manding points of view, and the science of 

 medicine has entered upon a new and brilliant 

 epoch in its history. 



