SAFEGUARDS OF THE BODY 131 



NATURE OF DISEASE 



We are so. accustomed to personify disease, to think 

 of it as a visitation of malign forces, and to talk of it 

 in terms which belong in the era of superstition and 

 personal devils, that clear notions of disease as a 

 process, not a thing, are rare indeed. 



Disease is a perverted process of the living body 

 cells. Bacteria are not the disease; they are only the 

 inciters of disease; nor do they enter the body with 

 sinister intent. If the chances of the hour bring them 

 to rest among the living body cells, and if the condi- 

 tions are favorable, they begin to grow, but with just 

 as little purpose for good or evil as if they had lodged 

 upon the surface of a rotten turnip. 



Many of the bacteria which enter the body do not 

 grow at all. The soil is not to their liking, the envi- 

 ronment is not congenial ; they die and are hustled 

 off forthwith by certain lowly organized cells phago- 

 cytes we call them which are the scavengers of the 

 body, and are ever moving here and there to keep the 

 tissues clear and clean. Many bacteria, on the other 

 hand, find in the living body conditions suitable enough, 

 faute de mieux, for their simple life processes. But 

 they are speedily devoured and digested by the scaven- 

 ger cells, or are killed by destructive body juices, and 

 so their tragedies end. 



But there is another side to the story when the bac- 

 teria which are stranded within the tissues are not 

 to be tolerated in a well-organized cell family. Then 

 trouble begins. 



