192 MICROBES AND HEALTH. 



cesses comprised in the terms fermentation and putre- 

 faction are due to the action of vegetable organisms." 



The results just described are perfectly natural. 

 Thousands of times before, germs have been present 

 in this same system, but there was no disease, and the 

 germs were promptly destroyed by the fluids of the 

 stomach or other secretions of the body; and, even 

 when typhoid fever is present the fluids of the stomach 

 may still destroy the so called typhoid germ, and that 

 is the reason there are so many cases of typhoid fever 

 where this particular germ is absent. 



That is the reason Koch, Gaffky and others men- 

 tioned can find the germ in only one-half the cases 

 they examine. There were other germs present, how- 

 ever, and they decomposed the dead tissue and formed 

 the ulcers in Peyer's glands. 



Self-infection from the digestive tract may give the 

 symptoms of typhoid fever so closely that it is impos- 

 sible to decide, yet sometimes we meet those who, upon 

 entering the house, and before seeing the patient, ex- 

 claim: "Typhoid fever!" In the minds of some this 

 is an exhibition of remarkable intelligence. After that 

 it is typhoid fever, of course, and the case is treated 

 accordingly. 



Say to a man: You look sick. You are threatened 

 with nervous prostration, or: You are going to have 

 a run of the fever, and you may have a very sick pa- 

 tient on your hands. That is blind submission, and 

 causes bodily suffering or increases it, by admitting its 

 reality. Instruct the same patient to meet the ap- 



