CKK.MATIDN. 81 



If, then, heat is the instrument ordained for the reproduction of 

 livinjj from dead forms, l)y natural or artificial combustion, advocates 

 of the hitter should doubtless be expected to prove its superiority to 

 the former. It may be su<,'i;osted that as Nature, when artificial aids 

 are absent, is determined to burn the dead in her own silent mode of 

 slow, so-called spontaneous combustion, why trouble ourselves about 

 such work? Why not leave it to Nature? Certainly her patience 

 is wonderful. She is still at work on the ancient mummies. The 

 cunninfi of the embalmer only retards, it does not absolutely suspend 

 disintegration. If our sense of smell did not inform us of the fact, the 

 gradual loss of weight is clear proof. 



Sanitary science, the pages of which book we are constantly cutting, 

 is teaching us, lesson by lesson, that the production of diseases, of the 

 Zymotic class at any rate, is as dependent upon seeds of " their kind " 

 as is the husbandman for his harvest upon seeds previously buried. 

 Following the simile a little further, we know that if grain be sub- 

 jected to but a moderately high temperature, its germinating power is 

 permanently destroyed. 



We are but slowly realising or appreciating the fact that Nature 

 has selected a co le of laws which, with a glorious impartiality, are 

 as much in favour of one form of life as another. We are learning 

 that the world was not made for us aIo:ie, or indeed more for us than 

 other forms of life. Tliat struggle for existenc3 which is so universal 

 seems most severe for man. However that may be, Nature does not 

 hesitate to use and sacrifice its noblest and loveliest forms, as hot-beds 

 for the production of life, in forms so minute, and, so far as we can at 

 present perceive, so utterly valueless and superfluous to Natural 

 Economy, as to excite our bewilderment, and wound our self-esteem. 



Self-preservation, the first law of nature, a constant iucontive to 

 animal and vegetable action, is exercised most by man. His superior 

 iutelligeuce bast enables him to destroy or circumvent antagonistic 

 forces. Slaying his fellow-men often calls forth his utmost energy 

 and secures his most anxious consideration. He fosters the lives of 

 many animals only to destroy them for food. 



The advent of a little beetle from America has more than once 

 sent a thrill of alarm through the country, involving considerable 

 exercise of thought and means in order to secure its living absence. 

 Whilst thus exercising our intelligence, we are fairly chargeable with 

 being inconsistent to an extraordinary degree. The man who could 

 be guilty of purposely introducing a plague of such insects would 

 certainly deserve the worst possible fate ; and yet in a perfectly legal, 

 and publicly approved method we are perpetuating forms infinitely 

 more destructive to hunaan life. 



Germatologists, if I may, so far as I know, coin a word whereby to 

 distinguish the Tyndalls and Pasteurs of science, have clearly proved 

 that those diseases which are classed as preventable are due to the 

 presence in the body of the patient of organic forms of extraordinary 

 minuteness, and in nunil)er.3 beyond computation. The death of the 



