HEALTH AND THE LAWS OF MECHANICS 143 



Let us examine the experiment as to fatigue. 

 Charron and Eoger, subjecting white rats to 

 excessive fatigue, succeeded in depriving them of 

 their immunity. 



Let us not forget that in all these experiments 

 the point is to get animals to contract a disease 

 from which they are normally immune. 



In this case, as in the previous ones, the matter 

 reduces itself to an alteration in the chemical 

 mechanics through loss of energy ; there is an 

 excessive amount of waste and a loss of repair, 

 from which results a disorganisation in the normal 

 biological formula, which formerly adjusted the 

 balance of waste and repair; and all that is 

 required to upset this equilibrium is to open the 

 door to infectious diseases, among them tubercu- 

 losis, the victims of which are annually counted by 

 thousands. 



I cannot stop to detail case by case the thousands 

 of times that the right of humanity is thereby 

 violated ; but whenever the air is impure, the 

 water undrinkable and scarce, the nourishment 

 insufficient or unwholesome, and where there is an 

 abuse of human powers, then a crime is committed 

 entailing an immense responsibility. 



It is incumbent upon society, the State, and 

 above all the medical faculty, to intervene, but 

 unfortunately the time is still far off to which 



