MICROBE OF GREAT WHITE PLAGUE 211 



when the disease begins. It comes on slowly, in- 

 sidiously. Little by little it steals its way, slowly 

 making more and more inroads npon the system, 

 until the patient knows that he stands face to face 

 with the enemy, and has all he can do every moment 

 to struggle for existence. 



The disease lasts sometimes a longer, sometimes 

 a shorter, time. Usually several years are required 

 to run its course. Sometimes the individual 

 bravely fights the foe for twenty years, or more, 

 only to be conquered at last. Think of the suffer- 

 ing in this single case, gradually wasting 

 energies, fading hopes, disappointed ambitions, the 

 long continued care and anxiety of loving friends, 

 the sorrow, the final mourning. 



Think of all this suffering, then multiply it by 

 10 for every minute ; by 620 for every hour ; by 14,- 

 880 for every day ; by 446,428 for every month ; by 

 5,257,142 for every year; by 218,285,714 for every 

 forty years. The total amount of suffering in one 

 generation is utterly incomprehensible. All the 

 suffering caused by the ravages of war, of accidents 

 on railways and steamships, in coal mines and by 

 fires, in the comparison, dwindle into insignifi- 

 cance. The suffering caused by all the other great 

 plagues, leprosy, the bubonic plague, the syphilis- 

 tic plague, smallpox, cholera, all put together, 

 does not begin to equal the suffering of the one 

 Great White Plague. 



All this misery, hanging from century to century, 

 like a pall over the world, is caused by an almost 



