226 PROTECTION FROM A 



as such persons hold, contrary to all reason, that the 

 living differs only in degree from the non-living, in fact 

 deny that there is any absolute difference between a 

 thing living and the same thing dead, they will fail 

 to appreciate or to understand vital phenomena ; and, 

 so far from assisting the progress of biology their 

 misdirected efforts only too effectually retard it. 



The action of disease germs in the organism is in 

 every essential particular, utterly unlike the action 

 of any non-living substance whatever, for there is no 

 example of the non-living growing and multiplying 

 a million fold, and leaving a state of things totally 

 different from that which existed before the remark- 

 able changes induced by its presence commenced. A 

 living disease-germ of a certain kind is introduced 

 into a healthy organism. It grows and multiplies 

 freely, and in the process causes derangement of most 

 of the normal phenomena, and brings about a state of 

 disease more or less serious. After a definite time, 

 the countless multitudes of germs cease to multiply 

 further. Many of them die, and the products of their 

 decay are eliminated from the body, while many may 

 escape in a living state from the organism and gain 

 access to other living beings. But the remarkable 

 fact is that after an organism has ' been the seat of 

 these changes, its state is everywhere completely 

 altered, inasmuch as similar disease germs, and in 

 some instances germs of another kind, will no longer 

 grow and multiply. The living particles may get 



