GERMS. 37 



started they began to deluge them with corrosive sub- 

 limate solution, carbolic acid solution and all other 

 known disinfectants. They froze them, dried them, 

 and through their influence the country has spent 

 millions of dollars to check their growth and toxicity. 



Did they succeed? 



"We are surrounded by bacteriologists and quarantine 

 officials, and by them the confines of civilization are 

 marked off with a line of formaldehyde, and the four 

 corners of Christendom are stacked with barrels of 

 carbolic acid, and into these we must be dipped before 

 we can enter the aseptic realm of the bacteriological 

 field. And as we enter the holy of holies we remember 

 the germs we leave behind are in duplicate quadrillions 

 in every swamp, frog-pond and alley. 



The records show that just as many people, or just 

 as many sick people, die now with disease any dis- 

 ease as twenty-five years ago. Out of a given number 

 of cases of pneumonia, consumption, diphtheria or any 

 other disease, just as many people die now as before the 

 germ theory. A man dying of consumption to-day, 

 and ignorant of the germ theory, would not die one 

 day sooner, or if he knew all about the germ theory he 

 would not live one day longer. Bacteriology does not 

 help the consumptive to breathe any deeper, to digest 

 his food any better, to sleep any better, or cough any 

 less. 



In any city may be found the number of deaths each 

 month in the year. These records may show that 

 deaths from certain diseases are becoming gradually 

 less, but the death-rate among a given number of sick 



