50 MICROBES AND HEALTH. 



contain different food-elements, hence when diseased 

 they are inhabited by different germs. 'Nature did not 

 design that the different germs should all absorb nour- 

 ishment from one kind of diseased and worn out tissue 

 any more than all kinds of plant-life should absorb 

 nourishment from one kind of soil, or that all animal 

 life should live upon one kind of food. The result is 

 perfectly natural. In each case the presence of the 

 germ corresponds to a universal law; and, as already 

 stated, the action of the germs separates the elements 

 of the tissues destroyed by disease, and thus aids in 

 elimination. 



Doctor Osier says : "The food supply of many germs 

 consists of dead animal and vegetable materials, a few 

 living tissues, while a small number exists wholly upon 

 mineral salts, and even the nitrogen of the air." 



The germ doctors tell us that a consumptive expec- 

 torates, the sputum dries and as the wind caroms 

 around some corner it gathers up some of these germs 

 and they go whirling through the air until they are 

 inhaled by some passer-by, and then he is a "goner." 



That reminds us of the following words, which are 

 said to be indelibly stamped upon the brain of every 

 Californian, by reason of so many health-seeking con- 

 sumptives : 



"What e'er you do, where e'er you go, 

 From Golden Gate to Shasta's snow, 

 From Pablo Bay to Phoenix sands, 

 O'er peak, o'er plain, through all the lands 

 That form the vast Pacific slope, 

 I pray you, and I truly hope 

 That as you go from state to state 

 You never will expectorate. 



