GERMS. 



At first the germ theory was, oh, so easy, so delight- 

 fully simple. It was this: "Every contagious disease 

 was due to a specific germ. No germ; no disease; elimi- 

 nate the germ, cure the disease." This was a plain state- 

 ment which all could understand. But now the bacter- 

 iologists themselves admit that there are innumerable 

 cases of infectious disease where no germ can be found, 

 and also innumerable cases where the germs are pres- 

 ent, and no disease can be found, and as a result they 

 have tried to get out of the difficulty by saying: "Bac- 

 teriologists have come to recognize that not the pres- 

 ence of the germ, but some virulent condition of the 

 microbe causes the disease. In other words the dis- 

 eased condition seems to be common to both germ and 

 patient, and the problem which really confronts us is 

 to find out what ails the germ." We believe the germ 

 is all right, and respectfully inquire what ails the bac- 

 teriologists ? Again, if the "disease is common to both 

 germ and patient," let us ask, does the patient take 

 the disease from the germ, or does the germ take the 

 disease from the patient? 



The tendency of the bacteriologist is to lead the 

 medical profession, and to do this they think they must 

 get up something new, or they will not be popular; the 

 next thing is a large number of imaginary successes in 



