PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 39 



allowed to parch or to become too wet ; if no sunlight be 

 permitted to have access to them, or if they be propa- 

 gated from sickly stock, they will soon become the rest- 

 ing place of microbes, which will accumulate upon them 

 in masses and very soon render the sickly flower a seat 

 of the most fatal disease. 



I have applied drugs, both directly and indirectly, to 

 the fungus, and in my selection I was at first guided by 

 a knowledge of what physicians use for destroying mi- 

 crobes in their patients. Dusting them over the affected 

 parts of the plants, I found the following to be worth- 

 less : sulphur, borax, boracic acid, salicylic acid, cam- 

 phor, tannic acid, acetic acid, tartaric acid, alum, calo- 

 mel, saltpetre, Epsom salts, lime, and various salts of 

 potassium and sodium. Many of these, if not all, are 

 employed by doctors in the treatment of diseases which 

 the doctors themselves attribute to the presence of micro- 

 organisms, yet they will not kill those same bodies on a 

 plant ; how, then, can they destroy them in the body ? 



When the air was warm and moist I found that fun- 

 goid growths appeared everywhere and multiplied with 

 astonishing rapidity. Under the same conditions milk 

 turns sour very rapidly, meat shows evidence of fermen- 

 tation, strawberries and other fruits become rapidly 

 covered with micro-organisms which spoil them quickly ; 

 and the microbes in my own body at the same time be- 

 came lively, so that I would have to lie down and protect 

 myself from the changes. Then at other times, espe- 

 cially after thunder-storms, no fungi were formed, and 

 I too felt better, breathing more easily and being more 

 free from pain. At the same time, too, meat and milk 

 would keep longer, and many forms of fungus disap- 

 peared, while my plants always looked better and were 

 more full of life. 



This observation opened my eyes. My reason told me 

 that I must look for that something which purified the 

 air and removed the germs of fungi and disease, acting 

 so powerfully and yet so harmlessly on the higher organs 

 of life, for its action was far more powerful than that of 



