70 MICROBES AND THE MICROBE-KILLER. 



tries to find out and to apply the remedy for their de- 

 struction. 



Let me not be misunderstood. I have not a word 

 against scientific investigation. I understand too well 

 its value. I would not disparage the spirit which leads 

 to a close examination of the minutest of Nature's 

 works. On the contrary, I am interested in their descrip- 

 tion. I prize the work which shows me their distinctive 

 peculiarities of structure, form, size, properties, mode of 

 existence and development ; and I appreciate the pa- 

 tience and the skill of those who pursue such a course of 

 investigation, and are capable of arranging for scientific 

 purposes these most wonderful organisms. But, at the 

 same time, I hold that, for purposes of curing only the 

 diseases to which the human body is subject, it is not 

 necessary that we should know the form, size, develop- 

 ment, and classification of the microbes that produce 

 disease. There may be one or a dozen, each producing 

 its own symptoms or affecting different parts. You do 

 not stop to examine them and give them their place in 

 the lists of science ; you only ask how to get rid of them, 

 how to restore the health and preserve the body from 

 their depredations. To delay for the sake of diagnosis 

 is simply to waste valuable time. It is one of the errors 

 of so-called scientific medicine, and should have nothing 

 to do with the cure. The thing of all importance is the 

 remedy. I am acquainted with a large number of vari- 

 ous forms of disease germs, but I do not know all, and I 

 could never learn to know them, because the micro- 

 organisms hybridize and produce new forms, and, of 

 course, each one exhibits some different characteristics 

 in habit and results, while they have their special pabu- 

 lum, some being found in plants or animals and others 

 in man. This I purpose to demonstrate by practical evi- 

 dence derived from observation of Nature, and I shall 

 certainly be able to sustain the truth of my position. 

 So much has been written which cannot be proved, so 

 many promises are made which cannot be kept, and in 

 various ways the people are held so much in ignorance 



