CHAPTER XLII 



THE MICROBE OF DIPHTHERIA 



ANOTHER deadly foe. It is Rod-shaped. The 

 rods are slightly curved. One end is sometimes a 

 trifle enlarged. Sometimes both ends. It is ex- 

 ceeding minute. A million rolled into a little ball, 

 the ball would be no larger than, if as large as, a 

 common pinhead. It is rudely illustrated in Fig. 

 75. 



Yet this tiny being destroys the lives of not less 

 than 300,000 persons every year. Probably many 

 more. The majority are children. It is again 

 " The Slaughter of the Innocents." 



The disease makes its appearance two days after 

 infection. The patient may give the disease any 

 moment after its appearance until fourteen days 

 after the patient is apparently well. 



Many are the ways in which the disease may be 

 communicated. By contact of course, but in many 

 other ways. 



In the dry form, this germ may live many years 

 perhaps indefinitely. In furniture it may live 

 almost any length of time. A child two years old 

 died with the diphtheria. While sick, it occupied 

 the cradle. After its death, the cradle was placed 

 in the attic. Seven years after, the family was 



155 



