78 MICROBES AND THE MICROBE-KILLER. 



were. In place of going the way of worthless quack 

 medicines, the microbe-killer has become an essential in 

 thousands of homes, and it has cured thousands of peo- 

 ple also whom the doctors had failed to relieve. It has 

 risen rapidly into public favor. 



Every one who has been cured by it recommends it, and 

 so the microbe-killer goes over the world on its merits. 

 Its success has demonstrated its merits, and it has shown 

 also that it supplied a want, that people's confidence in 

 medical science was failing, that they were ready to 

 grasp at something that promised to enlighten them 

 and cure them. 



Other physicians treated the matter less lightly. In- 

 stead of ostensibly regarding it as of no importance and 

 soon to perish for want of support, they cautioned their 

 patients against it. Some said boldly that it was dan- 

 gerous, that it would destroy the tissues and intensify 

 disease instead of mitigating it. In reply to such ima- 

 ginings people came forward who had been cured, and 

 others mentioned the names of friends who had likewise 

 been cured. Of course there was no getting over facts 

 like that, so then the doctors took other ground. They 

 acknowledged that possibly it might have some benefi- 

 cial effects in diseases produced by microbes, but that it 

 would be absolutely worthless and even dangerous in 

 such diseases as are not caused by microbes. When I 

 heard this I offered to give my check for one hundred 

 dollars to any one who would name a disease that is not 

 caused by microbes, and who could prove his position. 

 The offer has not yet been accepted, and it still remains 

 open. Here is a chance for some of the young students 

 at our medical schools and colleges, to any one of whom 

 I shall be most happy to render that amount of pecuni- 

 ary assistance if he will earn it by complying with the 

 conditions. His discovery would immortalize him. He 

 might carry his piece of parchment out into the world 

 with the fame of having been a successful explorer in a 

 region where others had groped in darkness. He would 

 have made a discovery that never has been made, de- 



