THE WAY THE HUMAN BODY 

 FIGHTS DISEASE 



SCATTERED over the world, even to far Siam and 

 the jungles of Africa, bodies of men are at work, 

 not in quest of gold, or loot, or territory, but of 

 means to help their fellows, you and me, to ward 

 off sickness and unneedful death. Stately pageants 

 and triumphal arches are not for such as these, 

 for they make war, not upon men, not upon the 

 weak, but upon the malignant hosts of disease. 



Their efforts tend in two directions : the first to 

 ward off infection by a perfected hygiene, as, for 

 example, in the disappearance of yellow-fever from 

 Havana ; that came through the destruction of the 

 yellow-fever carrier, the mosquito; the second, in 

 arming the body with new weapons of defence 

 when the infection has come. Between these two 

 much has been, much more may be, achieved. 



Rather more than a century ago, a very young 

 physician thought to test a very old-folk remedy 

 against the greatest scourge of that day small- 

 pox. His method, slightly elaborated, has served to 

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