CHAPTER XIV. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF DISEASE GERMS. 



The propagation and growth of microbes is governed 

 by air, heat, and moisture. They also need a certain 

 seed bed in which to grow, just hke plants. For in- 

 stance, the fungi that grow on a rosebush do not grow 

 on a geranium. The fungus that grows on a pear will 

 not grow on an apple, orange, plum, or cherry. The 

 microbes that grow and produce disease in a horse are 

 not necessarily harmful to a cow. Even children are 

 attacked by different microbes, hence they suffer from 

 diseases different from those w^hich attack adults. In 

 fact, each and every species of microbe needs a certain 

 seed bed and temperature before it can propagate. 



Disease germs only which propagate and grow in the 

 human body are the cause of our diseases, although 

 there are many different kinds of these germs, and con- 

 sequently they cause the different classes of so called 

 diseases. All other germs or microbes which may enter 

 our system, but do not find there the proper seed bed 

 and temperature for their existence, are perfectly harm- 

 less. Some physicians say that^there are good and bad 

 microbes, and that both are necessary for our existence 

 in order to produce digestion and fermentation. This is 

 not true. In a clean, healthy stomach the food never 

 ferments, but is digested before it has time to ferment. 

 Food eaten in a certain state of fermentation will affect 

 the stomach and produce sickness, in the same way that 

 fresh stable manures just in the state of fermentation 

 will produce sickness in plants if placed around their 

 roots. Any fermentation that may go on in the food at 

 the time we eat it produces sickness at once. Whoever 

 has eaten stale meat or spoiled food of any kind knows 



