144 GLIMPSES OF NATURE. 



the people could only be well trained up in the sani- 

 tary ways wherein they should safely and readily 

 walk. 



But all our germs are not hurtful, as we have seen, 

 and some exercise in the domain of Nature a decidedly 

 useful function. Long ago, De la Tour showed the 

 \vorld that fermentation was not a result of death, but 

 a consequence of life. It was the result of the growth 

 and multiplying of the yeast-plants in their appropriate 

 soil. Similarly, we open our eyes to the fact that putre- 

 faction and decay are really works and actions wherein 

 the omnipresent "germs" are playing the beneficent 

 part of natural scavengers. They are removing from 

 the earth's surface the fragments of life, and are pre- 

 venting the world from becoming a perennial charnel- 

 house. 



Still further may you dive into the useful ways of 

 germs, aided by the eye of science. Darwin has told 

 us of the part played by the earthworm as an under- 

 ground farmer. Fertility of ground is brought about 

 by the perpetual turn-over which the sub-soil receives 

 at the hands of the worm. Our germs probably 

 accomplish as much for us in this latter direction. 

 They break up and decompose the refuse of life and 

 aid its incorporation with the soil everywhere. 



If the world might be much the better for the absence 

 of certain germs, it is no less true it would certainly 

 be rendered much the worse by the absence of others. 

 If, on the one hand, certain germs kill or wound us, 

 others, again, make the world purer and sweeter as 

 the result of their work. It is in this, as in so many 

 other things, we are apt to grumble at things as they 

 are because we do not see, or care to notice, the 

 reverse and kindlier side of the medal. 



