26 MICROBES AND HEALTH. 



from whose center there has radiated leucomaines* 

 ptomains, trouble, anxiety, visions, worry, fright, infec- 

 tion, contagion, sickness, disease and death. 



Germs do not signify so much after all. Their pres- 

 ence or absence amounts to little, except to those who 

 preside with tireless and sleepless watchfulness over the- 

 test tubes and incubators. 



It has been stated that a germ is only a vegetable 

 cell; that the term cell and germ may be used inter- 

 changeably, yet because the word germ has become so- 

 fixed in the public mind, the term will be used in the 

 succeeding pages of this chapter. 



While germs cannot affect healthy tissue, they can 

 and do affect tissue that is destroyed by disease, be- 

 cause if such tissue were allowed to remain in the sys- 

 tem it would act as an irritant like any other foreign 

 body. Again, such tissue is of no further use in the 

 system, and so according to the changes that take place 

 everywhere, this one is made through the medium of 

 germs. Their influence separates the elements of the 

 dead tissue, some in the form of gases, while some 

 liquefies in the form of pus. This is nature's plan to 

 aid in elimination. If in the lungs, some may be 

 expectorated; if in other parts, an abscess may form. 

 The surgeon completes his operation, and sews up the 

 wound. A few days later an abscess is discovered fol- 

 lowing one of the stitches. This is called a stitch 

 abscess. Then the surgeon concludes that the sutures 

 used were not sterile, or that some of his assistants did 

 not have their hands thoroughly disinfected. 



