THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 149 



disease. It is not only the duty of the physician to help nature in 

 the cure of disease, but it is also part of his work to seek out and 

 remove the primary cause. He must examine the dwelling inside 

 and out, the cellar beneath, the food the family eat ; the water they 

 drink and the air they breathe. In fact it is preeminently his duty 

 to prevent as well as cure disease. 



It is requisite in investigating for a first cause, that the physic- 

 ian should examine closely into the modes and ways and living of 

 the people immediately surrounding the patient. One great cause 

 of disease of the people with whom I was brought in contact, was 

 the ill-advised custom of storing their winter supply of vegetables 

 and provisions in the cellars of their houses. It is a fact demon- 

 strated beyond the possibility of a doubt, that such a thing as per- 

 fectly healthy fruit or vegetable is rarely to be found. The unde- 

 tected incipient potatoe rot has frequently done its work of death 

 by the production of blood poison. It is almost impossible to find 

 an unblemished apple, pear, peach, plum, cherry or berry. They 

 all have spots or blemish of some kind, and wherever you find fer- 

 mentation and decay, you will also find fungi. 



The fungi as germs of disease are always present both in the air 

 and food. Go to a market, tell the fruit dealer that you want a 

 bushel of apples without speck or blemish, and that for that bush- 

 el you will give him the price of a barrel. His answer to you will 

 be: 



" I could not do that sir, for the price of four barrels, and I 

 doubt if I could do it at all." 



This is not only the case with fruit, but with all vegetables and 

 cereals. 



Now in view of all this, is it not patent that we are constantly 

 taking the germs of disease ? Most assuredly it is. Our circula- 

 tion and tissues are full of disease-bearing germs, only awaiting 



