GERMS. 41 



best girl is fraught with dangers too numerous to men- 

 tion and too terrible to contemplate. A germ bulletin 

 published by one of our State Boards of Health for 

 August, 1899, Bulletin No. 17, referring to what they 

 call "Dangerous communicable disease/' says that each 

 one of these diseases is caused by one or more specific 

 germs. 



Eef erring to influenza the bulletin says: "The 

 presence of the germs corresponds with the course of 

 the disease, and they disappear with the cessation of 

 the purulent bronchial secretions." That is not evi- 

 dence that influenza is caused by a germ, but is the 

 very best evidence that it is not caused by a germ. 

 While the mucous membrane was inflamed there was 

 more or less destruction of tissue, and it was necessary 

 that such tissue be reduced and eliminated, and germs 

 were present for that purpose. By their power to pro- 

 duce fermentation they formed the "purulent" matter, 

 but as soon as the mucous membrane returned to 

 health the germs were expelled without ceremony. 



Again, the germ bulletin says: "Only upon apes 

 and rabbits have inoculation experiments with this 

 germ been successful in producing symptoms of the 

 disease." Here, again, after inoculation; i. e., injecting 

 the germs beneath the skin and into the system, they 

 could not produce the disease, and even in "apes and 

 rabbits" they could only produce "symptoms." That 

 ought to satisfy the most sensitive mind. "Only upon 

 apes and rabbits." A man may and sometimes does 

 make a monkey of himself, but there is no evidence 



