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the inert part is the fluid. However, do not suppose that I 

 am pushing the analogy too far. I do not mean to say 

 that the active, solid parts in these diseased matters are of 

 the same nature as living yeast plants ; but, so far as it 

 goes, there is a most surprising analogy between the two ; 

 and the value of the analogy is this, that by following it 

 out we may some time or other come to understand how 

 these diseases are propagated, just as we understand, now, 

 about fermentation ; and that, in this way, some of the 

 greatest scourges which afflict the human race may be, if 

 not prevented, at least largely alleviated. 



This is the conclusion of the statements which I wished 

 to put before you. You see we have not been able to have 

 any accessories. If you will come in such numbers to hear 

 a lecture of this kind, all I can say is, that diagrams cannot 

 be made big enough for you, and that it is not possible 

 to show any experiments illustrative of a lecture on such a 

 subject as I have to deal with. Of course my friends the 

 chemists and physicists are very much better off, because 

 they can not only show you experiments, but you can 

 smell them and hear them 1 But in my case such aids are 

 not attainable, and therefore I have taken a simple subject 

 and have dealt with it in such a way that I hope you all 

 understand it, at least so far as I have been able to put it 

 before you in words ; and having once apprehended such 

 of the ideas and simple facts of the case as it was possible 

 to put before you, you can see for yourselves the great and 

 wonderful issues of such an apparently homely subject. 



