38 MICKOBES AND HEALTH. 



people is as large as before; the death-rate among the 

 whole population is less, because fewer people are sick. 

 Why are fewer people sick? Because there are more 

 sewers in the towns and cities, less filth in the alleys, 

 more attention paid to ventilation; because contagious 

 swamps, lowlands and frog-ponds have been cleared 

 up, and an air of general cleanliness pervades many 

 localities that in former years were dumping grounds 

 for all kinds of filth. In a word, because of the advance 

 in hygienic science for which bacteriology can claim no 

 credit. 



Epidemics that swept away large percentages of the 

 population in earlier years are practically exterminated, 

 not by the bacteriologist, but for the reasons just given 

 and because fields have been cultivated, thus exposing 

 unhealthy soil to the purifying effects of the atmo- 

 sphere and the sun's rays. Again, people are .better 

 fed and better clothed, hence better able to resist. 



These are the reasons that fewer people are sick, 

 and these are conditions with which bacteriology has 

 lad nothing to do, absolutely nothing. Banish dirt 

 and disease disappears. Havana and Santiago had for 

 years been pest holes for yellow fever, but when Amer- 

 cans went over and carried away the heaps of ancient 

 rubbish, and emptied the overflowing cess pools, yellow 

 :ever vanished. 



Influenza, or grip, is present in different parts of the 

 country nearly all the year round. We do not fear it 

 as we do diphtheria, smallpox or cholera because it 

 seldom causes death directly, yet disease resulting from 

 it, pneumonia, bronchitis, consumption, etc., cause* 



