412 BACTERIOLOGY. 



times of cholera epidemics have, with reference 

 to the wretched conditions that existed during 

 the cholera epidemic at Hamburg in 1892, 

 been well characterized by Else Hueppe : 

 " Whoever wished to eat, drink and live 

 strictly according to the way prescribed must 

 almost forego the habit of eating and drink- 

 ing, must change his whole mode of life with- 

 out receiving anything better in exchange. 

 This necessarily leads to the greatest absurdi- 

 ties. Of what use is it to recommend spring 

 water or red wine to a man when he has only 

 bad brandy with bad water? The thirsty 

 man drinks even out of a pool ! What is a 

 poor devil to think when he hears of investiga- 

 tions upon the relations of the comma bacillus 

 to caviar or to tropical fruits while he is hardly 

 able to obtain a piece of bread or a potato ? " 



We need an education in hygiene which 

 shall not inculcate the fear of disease ; such 

 an education is both an individual and a 

 social question and sharp separation of the 

 two is simply impossible. As with the in- 

 dividual the sins of the father are visited 

 even upon the fourth generation, so social 

 ills affect the innocent together with the 

 guilty. The minors, individual and social, 

 need our protection against commercial ex- 

 ploitation and need also a hygienic protec- 



