Other Enemies 7 



differentiate him from the lower animals, other more 

 subtle forms of lower life make themselves known 

 through the universal struggle for existence. These 

 are disease germs, whether transmitted through the 

 numerous pests which infest his household, or in the 

 air which he breathes or the water which he drinks. 

 At first, his ignorance and helplessness before these 

 obscure enemies of life lead him to attribute their bale- 

 ful influence to unseen agencies in the air about him, 

 to whom he offers his prayers or utters his threats with 

 childish, pathetic earnestness and simplicity. 1 Once, 

 however, he has grasped the truth that they too are 

 infinitesimal forms of life striving to feed on him, he is 

 placed in a more advantageous position to withstand 

 their onslaught. No tuberculous germ, no typhoid 

 germ can now masquerade as visitations of a hidden, 

 offended divinity. They are pernicious forms of lower 

 life, pernicious in that they militate against man's sur- 

 vival, and to be met and fought and conquered as such. 



Other Enemies 



But man in his race for life has many other enemies 

 to combat besides the lower types of life, be they wild 

 beasts or disease germs. Let me enumerate some of 

 the more important ones. Fierce tropical heats, the 

 intense cold of northern latitudes, sudden and mys- 

 terious blights of crops followed by wasting famines, 

 earthquakes, volcanoes, thunderstorms, floods, con- 

 flagrations, all militate against his survival as surely 

 1 Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa, pp. 98, 158. 



