102 MICROBES AND THE MICROBE-KILLER. 



any particular remedy stands the test. In order that it 

 shall be efficient as a medicine it must be of such a na- 

 ture that it can be taken like water, so as to saturate the 

 body, permeating all the tissues. A small quantity 

 taken into the stomach is of no use. You may take 

 strong alcohol and it will stand the test, but can you 

 saturate your body with it ? You may, indeed, go on 

 experimenting until you have covered all the drugs 

 known to the doctors, and still you will not find one 

 that will effectually kill microbes without also killing 

 the patient. 



Many things will give relief. Chloroform, morphine, 

 mercury, and numberless drugs will, on occasion, do 

 that : but relief is not cure. Many persons have told me 

 — some personally, others by letter — that years ago they 

 had some form of disease ; that they went possibly to 

 some celebrated doctor and got well ; then, sometimes 

 later, they had another attack of the same disease, and 

 again they got well under some physician's care ; and 

 now they have it again. The truth is, these people 

 never were cured. They were simply relieved either by 

 a partial suppression of the microbes or by driving them 

 to other parts of the body 



Persons have often come to me who had suffered from 

 cancer. They showed me where it had been removed by 

 the knife or checked by plasters. At the time they had 

 thought themselves cured, but now evidences of cancer 

 were appearing in various parts of their bodies, and it 

 was more severe than it had been at first. Cutting 

 away portions of the human body that are diseased in 

 that way is evidence of the grossest ignorance. If a 

 person have cancer of the tongue a removal of that 

 organ will not cure him. If he have cancer in the 

 throat the removal of a portion will not cure him. The 

 amputation of a leper's limbs would not remove the 

 leprosy. Whereas, if we can purify the blood, there is 

 no occasion even to think of the knife, and this refers to 

 almost any kind of surgical operation. 



They say that exceptions prove the rule, and I will 



