MICROBE OF GREAT WHITE PLAGUE 221 



the natives would not need be told that the fly is 

 responsible. 



So, if tuberculosis, in all countries, came on as 

 soon after exposure as does the smallpox, no one 

 would need be told it is "catching." All would 

 know it only too well, and fear its coming as they 

 would fear the coming of forty cyclones. 



Under existing circumstances, therefore, how to 

 stamp out the plague is the great problem. Its 

 grip is tightly clinched on the world, and the 

 world is poorly prepared to shake it off. 



But the world's pioneers are beginning to wake 

 up to this evil and demand that something be 

 done. Already a beginning is made. The prob- 

 lem is attacked by attempting to cure certain 

 cases. If properly treated in its very earliest 

 stages, no doubt tuberculosis may sometimes be 

 cured. Sanatoriums are now being built for this 

 purpose, and quickly filled with the supposed cura- 

 bles. So far, so good. But the experiment has 

 not yet been tried long enough to determine what 

 per cent., if any, of the supposed cases may be 

 completely and permanently cured. 



Meanwhile, the world is waiting for the discov- 

 ery of the true consumptive antitoxine. In many 

 laboratories throughout the world scientists are 

 searching for a poison, or something to create a 

 poison, which, taken at the right time and in 

 proper doses, by the consumptive, shall counteract 

 and destroy the poison generated by the consump- 

 tive microbes, and thus enable the patient to re- 



