30 MICROBES AND THE MICROBE-KILLER. 



the atmosphere is supposed to be purer and free from 

 the debihtating influences of the plains. This I could 

 not do, nor do I feel sure that I would have done it if I 

 had been able. The demands of my business forbade 

 my leaving home, and then I had never seen any one re- 

 turn from Colorado who had been cured of consumption, 

 which my friends feared for me. 



My condition was, nevertheless, desperate. The mal- 

 arial fever had affected me for seventeen years, during 

 the last two of which it had been complicated with 

 sciatica and articular rheumatism, and I had become 

 literally a physical wreck. It can well be understood 

 that, amid such long-suffering, and the total failure of 

 doctors to afford me the necessary relief, I had made 

 myself acquainted with all advertised remedies and pro- 

 prietary medicines. Still the physicians did not leave 

 me. They were my constant visitors, prescribing one 

 thing to day and another to-morrow, only to discover 

 that every new prescription was, like its predecessor, a 

 failure. Two years before I discovered the microbe- 

 killer I lost two children — a boy and a girl. They had 

 not been strong. They were brought up by hand, my 

 wife being too weak to nurse them. Microbes affected 

 the milk (see Plate VI.), which in turn carried disease 

 to the stomachs of the infants. They became ill. Their 

 stomachs presently refused food. Paregoric, soothing 

 -syrup, and all the remedies that the doctors could devise 

 from their drug lists were tried without effect, and the 

 children died. The medicines killed them, and the rea- 

 sons I shall be prepared to explain. 



This loss distracted my attention from my business. 

 .Up to that time I had devoted myself closely to my busi- 

 jaess as a florist. All books and literature of my occupa- 

 tion I read. I was an earnest subscriber to every floral 

 magazine that came within my knowledge, for I always 

 found in them something that was useful and instruc- 

 tive. I am anxious to give full credit to such publica- 

 tions, for I am much indebted to them, since it was in 

 them that I found the first hints which led me on to ex- 



