42 MICROBES AND HEALTH. 



that he ever degenerated to the ape family. Thanks 

 to bacteriology for saving us from the ravages of at 

 least one germ. 



The bulletin enumerates four different germs, any 

 one of which may cause pneumonia. The solution of 

 this is very simple. Different germs may be found in 

 the lungs during an attack of pneumonia, having been 

 conveyed there by respiration. The bulletin say<: 

 "While there is a general consensus of opinion among 

 investigators that the germ diplococcus intracellularis 

 meningitis is usually the specific cause of cerebro- 

 spinal meningitis, there is abundant evidence to show 

 that the germ of pneumonia is frequently responsible 

 for this disease." First, they tell us that any one of 

 four germs may cause pneumonia, then they add one 

 more, making five, any one of which may cause cerebro- 

 spinal meningitis, but the solution is the same as the 

 one just given. 



The different germs pass from the mouth into the 

 stomach, and when the stomach is unhealthy some 

 germs find their way into the circulation, and during 

 cerebrospinal meningitis, which is inflammation of the 

 membrane covering the brain and spinal cord, some 

 germs lodge in that part of the membrane destroyed 

 by disease. They have had nothing to do with pro- 

 ducing the disease, and their numbers will depend upon 

 the amount of tissue the inflammation destroys. If 

 they could have produced disease they would not have 

 waited until they reached the brain. 



Green's Pathology says, page 428, that the so called 

 pneumonia germ has been found in ulceration of the 



