302 THE CAUSATION OF DISEASE. 



are taken inordinately, it often happens that no ill effects are 

 experienced at first ; but this must not lead ns to suppose that 

 no harm is being done, and that a resisting power is all the 

 time effectually combating the injurious influence. Suppose a 

 healthy countryman comes up to London and works on the 

 Underground Kailway, it may be many years before any evil 

 effect becomes manifest ; the evil is, however, all along at 

 work, silently and unperceived. The resistance is only 

 apparent. 



Hence, I maintain that if an individual has the power of 

 resisting an agent which is universally regarded as nocuous, 

 we are not justified in assuming a reserve power ; it is better 

 in such a case to look upon the individual as normal in regard 

 to that particular agent. Were the capacity of being un- 

 harmed by such nocuous agents in all cases in direct propor- 

 tion to bodily vigour, then, perhaps, it would be convenient to 

 speak of a reserve power, but this is not the case, for a sickly 

 individual may be less susceptible to a particular nocuous 

 agent than one of extraordinary vigour, and one cannot sup- 

 pose such a person to possess a resisting power in the shape 

 of excess of health, as Mr. Savory apparently assumes. The 

 explanation is rather this : what is normal to the one is ab- 

 normal to the other. 



