HOW DISEASE CAN BE CURED AND LIFE PRESERVED. 97 



cilli, but the result is the same whether they be in the 

 form of simple cells or as tubular or spiral bodies (see 

 Plate IV.). 



The process of fermentation has always been known, 

 at any rate so far as history carries us, and it is under- 

 stood among savages, but it was only about twelve hun- 

 dred years ago that it was identified with putrefaction. 

 The air containing micro-organisms in large quantities, 

 if these fall upon a wound or an ulcer there will be some 

 which will find it a suitable place for reproduction, and 

 then fermentation, inflammation, suppuration, and pos- 

 sibly gangrene may be the consequence. But if this be 

 stopped, as it may be by the prompt application of the 

 microbe-killer, the wound heals, the process of Nature 

 being uninterrupted, and none of those dangerous results 

 ensue. The rationale of this must be clear. 



It is my firm conviction, taught me by experience, that 

 if a child dies it is from some cause that might be pre- 

 vented. I do not refer to children who inherit disease 

 from parents to such a degree that their lives are for- 

 feited as soon as they are born, but to all ordinary cases 

 of disease. For example, the remedy may be applied too 

 late, or in insufficient doses, or in a manner contrary to 

 directions, or it may have been given irregularly or not 

 continued long enough. When death occurs in such 

 circumstances it is the fault of the nurse, not of the 

 medicine. 



Nothing is easier than to cure children, if action be 

 prompt and effective. They are easily affected by dis- 

 ease, but so, too, their system readily yields to medicine, 

 and with competent attention rules are more easily car- 

 ried out. 



It is much more difficult to cure chronic disease, 

 whether it be of years' or only of months' duration. 

 And, to return to my former similes, the florist finds it 

 in truth more difficult to attend to his seedlings and to 

 protect them from fungus than it is to defend children 

 from the attacks of microbes, of which most doctors 

 know nothing. 

 7 



fc 



