130 HOUSEHOLD BACTERIOLOGY 



Now let us see how these germs are able to do such 

 serious damage in the living body. This body is 

 made up of a bony framework, around which various 

 tissues and organs are securely and compactly grouped. 

 Each one of these tissues and organs is composed of 

 tiny structures called cells. The cells are little centers 

 of energy stored up from the food we eat and the air 

 we breathe little laboratories in which chemical pro- 

 cesses of the most subtle character are constantly go- 

 ing on. And the life of the body is simply the sum 

 of the more or less independent but co-ordinated lives 

 of the cells which compose it, all acting in har- 

 mony. * * * 



All these delicate and exquisitely adjusted elements 

 of the body are able to adapt themselves to many 

 vicissitudes without serious disturbance to that sensi- 

 tive equilibrium which we name health. We may 

 starve them, surfeit them, overwork them, and poison 

 them in the most abandoned fashion. But they sway 

 back to their respective tasks again when our abuse 

 ceases. Unless we go too far; and then they may 

 struggle on, but only in the halting, perverted way 

 which we call disease. 



Now, what happens when into this happy family of 

 cells, each nicely adjusted to the others, and all en- 

 gaged in their various tasks, living bacteria enter, hav- 

 ing escaped the outer safeguards ? 



But before we try to discover this, let us brush 

 away a few cobwebs. 



