176 MICROBES AND HEALTH. 



as to the cause of consumption. Scientists are agreed 

 that the consumptive germ is the ultimate cause of all 

 so called tubercular processes/' 



Have the health boards stated the case fairly, or have 

 we clearly shown by some of the greatest living author- 

 ities that such statements are not true ? Since the germ 

 theory has become so popular, a leading medical college 

 has made the remarkable discovery that it requires 

 seventeen consumption germs to produce the disease in 

 a healthy subject. 



In a healthy subject! And so germs can produce 

 disease in a healthy subject, yet the population of the 

 United States has increased from the first settlement 

 in Virginia from one hundred to about ninety millions 

 at the present time. Instead of advertising themselves 

 through the newspapers and by circular; instead of 

 trying to pass laws compelling people to submit to 

 quarantine regulations, or placing the consumptive in 

 some hospital already filled with those whose pallid 

 faces, hollow cough, wasted bodies and ghastly looks 

 meet you on every hand, a place where each patient 

 drags out his remaining days in one long nightmare 

 of despondency and disgust. Instead of doing this, 

 why don't the bacteriologists come out squarely and 

 honestly and cure just one case of consumption? If 

 they could cure consumption there would be no need 

 of laws compelling people to accept their treatment, for 

 all who suffer with the disease would go willingly and 

 gladly. The people who would be brought under the 

 influence of quarantine had better secure an appropria- 

 tion for educating the people in that particular com- 



