80 MICROBES AND THE MICROBE-KILLER. 



although, the land may be of the same nature, it is cov- 

 ered with weeds. In the one the corn is strong and vig- 

 orous, the stalks and leaves are clean, and the plants 

 show every indication of thriving. In the other the 

 stalks are small and slender, the leaves are sickly and 

 pale in color, and in every probability there is evidence 

 of fungus having attacked it. This, if left to itself, feeds 

 upon the unthrifty plants, and soon they die for want 

 of air and sustenance, crowded out of existence by a 

 host of enemies that followed quickly on the impover- 

 ished condition caused by the weeds surrounding them. 

 So in the case of a person suffering from chronic disease. 

 He has something that, like the weeds, impoverishes the 

 soil, feeds on his life blood, and gradually drags him 

 down to death. Then where a neglected cornfield is 

 cleaned and the weeds removed you may have observed 

 how it looks shocked ; it has an appearance as though 

 it were going to die, and continues so until it gets a 

 start. Then, there being nothing around it to draw 

 nourishment away from the soil or to deprive it of the 

 vivifying effects of the air, it grows thicker and stronger, 

 blossoms, bears fruit, perfects its seed, and, having ful- 

 filled its mission, it dies of old age. 



It is necessary I should mention these things in order 

 to carry conviction to the mind of the great public con- 

 cerning the methods of Nature in working out her laws. 

 I want to enlighten the public, to teach them that things 

 which they have hitherto felt to be complicated and 

 difficult to understand are simple and quite within the 

 comprehension of all. 



The discovery is an unusual one. It involves so much 

 that people have a just claim to insist upon complete 

 conviction. They are right in demanding absolute 

 proof. The risk is too great to justify any one being 

 satisfied with a mere assertion. When anybody is sick 

 he does not want to experiment with himself, or to be 

 experimented on by others ; he wants to be cured. He 

 must find something that is useful, not something that 

 will probably prove ineffectual and which may be inju- 



