OF DISEASE GERMS. 



3 2T 



sion on my mind concerning the utility of this plan 

 than to the apparently more accurate evidence which 

 is obtained by tabulating a number of cases. It 

 seems to me that at any rate we shall be less liable to 

 be misled concerning the value of remedial measures 

 if we avoid making tables in the first instance. This 

 plan is most valuable to test the truth of general 

 inferences, but statistics of the action of remedies in 

 a very limited series of cases of disease must always 

 be received with caution ; for, when once the process 

 of tabulation is commenced, the desire to prove 

 something definite becomes almost irresistible even 

 to an unbiassed observer, and a very exaggerated 

 importance may be given to facts which are, perhaps, 

 susceptible of an altogether different explanation. 



OF RESISTING THE ASSAULTS OF DISEASE GERMS. 

 As stated on page 85, it would be futile to 

 attempt so to protect our bodies as to render them 

 unassailable. A knowledge of the minute size of 

 disease germs, and the many ways in which they may 

 be carried from the seat of their development, their 

 power of living under adverse circumstances, and the 

 many channels through which they may pass from 

 the surface of the body and gain access to the blood, 

 are circumstances which lead us to conclude that no 

 matter what precautions we may take, we cannot cer- 

 tainly succeed in escaping attack. But whilst hundreds 

 and thousands of persons must be exposed to the 



