154 THE CONTEOL OF LIFE 



even scrutinise his food as a monkey does), because 

 Man has all sorts of ways of evading Nature's sifting 

 of the weakened and of circumventing consequences ; 

 because social sentiment protects the weakly and dis- 

 eased, which is right, and sometimes allows them to 

 multiply, which is all wrong. Indoor life, crowded 

 workshop life, crowded home life, urban life — all 

 favour disease, but their evil influences can be largely 

 counteracted. 



We have already referred to the great strides which 

 have been made in modern times towards the mastery 

 of disease., Man has control of smallpox, diphtheria, 

 bubonic plague, typhoid fever, syphilis, and some 

 other diseases. Every one knows that smallpox and 

 typhus are now rare diseases in Great Britain ; so it 

 will be with other microbic diseases. Modificational 

 diseases can also be brought under control. Thus, one 

 man of energy and insight, Sir Thomas Ohver, has 

 enormously reduced the miseries of lead-poisoning. 

 The constitutional diseases will last longest, but it is 

 likely that their expression can be increasingly curbed 

 by careful dieting and the like. Public opinion will 

 probably create an enlightened prejudice against 

 allowing the more serious constitutional proclivities, 

 like epilepsy, to spread. 



Danger Ahead. — Involved in the achievement of 

 conquering disease, however, there lurks a danger — 

 the danger of forgetting causes when we evade con- 

 sequences. To get injected with an antitoxin that 

 makes one immune to a disease is great gain, espe- 



