332 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



sake of the progress of science and that of humanity, 

 their endeavours proved futile ; but there is always 

 a danger in this democratic country that ignorant 

 fanaticism may have a temporary success. 



One of the most active and unscrupulous of these 

 opponents was a late well-known divine. He wrote 

 several offensive letters to The Times, containing state- 

 ments of the most unwarrantable character. As some 

 of these statements impugned the nature of the work 

 which we were doing at the Institute, I ventured one 

 day to call upon him to ask him upon what authority 

 he made them, informing him that if he had taken the 

 trouble to inquire from myself or others connected 

 with the Institute he would have found that his allega- 

 tions were altogether devoid of foundation. As one 

 example of the absurd ideas which he held, I may 

 mention that he described as a danger to the neigh- 

 bourhood the existence of an imaginary insect which 

 he termed "the hydrophobia fly." This would, in his 

 opinion, inoculate and poison the whole district with 

 this dreadful disease. I told him that this was a mere 

 figment of his morbid imagination, and that, moreover, 

 there was no intention on our part of having anything 

 to do with the cure of hydrophobia for reasons which 

 I have already mentioned. His wife, who appeared 

 even more entdte'e than he, became abusive ; but this 

 did not affect me, and I left with the satisfaction of 

 having, at any rate, given these people a piece of 

 my mind not that for a moment I imagined that 

 anything one could say would change their opinion. 

 Argument has no effect upon fanatics, and as for 

 reasoning with them, you had better, as the North- 

 country people say, "Save your breath to cool your 

 porridge." 



Good sense, however, in the long run prevails. And 



