THE STORY OF THE BACTEKIA. 137 



sight seem to make life under modern condi- 

 tions less simple and attractive, and Nature, if 

 we may so personify her, less man's friend. 

 But after all there are few things more dis- 

 quieting and unpleasant and unfriendly, to 

 most people, than are disease and death, and 

 these, sooner or later, will thrust themselves 

 into the attention of everybody, be he cognizant 

 or not of the varied disregard of nature's laws 

 which for the most part they follow. 



It should not be forgotten by those who are 

 disposed to close their eyes to the disagree- 

 able and malign influences which, in the guise 

 of disease-producing bacteria so frequently 

 surround them, that the rights of others, as well 

 as their own mental ease, are at stake in this 

 matter. One has the right, so far as he is 

 himself concerned, to indulge in almost any 

 dietetic uncleanliness, or disregard of sanitary 

 rule with which he may elect to be satisfied ; 

 but he has no right to expose himself unneces- 

 sarily to the acquirement of such diseases as 

 will render him a source of either positive or 

 possible danger to his fellow men. 



Among all th^ myriads of invisible agencies 



