CHAPTER VI. 



DEVELOPMENT OP THE MICROBE-KILLER. 



Knowing that fermentation goes on in the stomach, I 

 felt the value of discovering something that would stop 

 that process. I placed some of the contents of my own 

 stomach into a bottle of medicine, and I found that the 

 process of fermentation continued, and that microbes 

 were multiplied and propagated and flourished exceed- 

 ingly. This showed to me, as plainly as is the sun at 

 noonday, that the same process goes on in the stomach. 

 I from time to time added different medicines to the 

 same, and still the fermentation was not checked. The 

 microbes grew in spite of the medicine, telling me that 

 this was useless as a curative agent. Under such cir- 

 cumstances it became no longer any source of wonder 

 to me that I did not get well, or that instead of improv- 

 ing I steadily became worse. When people are sick it 

 is not alone money that they care for ; the cost of 

 drugs and the doctor's fees are a secondary considera- 

 tion. But when disease is not stopped they become 

 discouraged ; their pain and suffering continue, and 

 money is of little consequence to one who feels that if 

 he cannot get help death is before him. 



I have often felt pain in the stomach, either from 

 overeating or from drinking too much water, and then 

 I almost always get relief with whiskey. This shows 

 that good whiskey or alcohol will stand the test ; but if 

 whiskey or alcohol be mixed with water, fermentation is 

 not stopped. Drugs are now generally preserved in 

 alcohol or whiskey, these in a pure state being the 

 most harmless of antiseptics. But give a patient a pint 

 of alcohol in twelve hours, and you not only intoxicate 

 him, you kill him. It is not desirable to give it as an 



