PROTECT THE STREAM OF LIFE 167 



opening. A crack, a scratch, a wound of one kind or another, 

 is all that is needed. Into this opening the microbes make 

 their way. They may go either from the sore itself or from 

 something that has touched the sore and become contaminated 

 by the microbes. Once in, these microbes travel about in the 

 blood stream and establish themselves in fresh tissues, where 

 they multiply fast. 



3. A cracked, moist mucous membrane is an ideal place 

 of entrance for the microbes. Lips, therefore, are often very 

 vulnerable, for they are easily chapped and parched and 

 cracked. 



When a cracked mucous membrane comes in contact with 

 one of the sores, it is like the offer of a new home to over- 

 crowded microbe residents. They accept the offer at once 

 and establish themselves in the new place with extraordinary 

 rapidity. Twelve hours after the first contact is made, even a 

 surgical operation will not avail to cut them out. They are 

 intrenched beyond recall. And yet — and here is the most 

 alarming factor in the case — no symptom of the disease, no 

 sign of sore, will show itself until several weeks after the 

 first contact was made. 



Notice the date of the banquet, March fourth ; notice the 

 dates scattered along afterwards when sores made their 

 appearance. It is true that if the trouble is discovered at 

 once, if it is reported to the doctor without delay, and if 

 special treatment is persisted in for three or four years after- 

 wards, a person may hope to be entirely cured. It is also 

 possible that a remedy which has recently been discovered 

 may cure more rapidly. Nevertheless, the appalling fact re- 

 mains that the disease itself is one of the most terrible of 

 the contagious maladies which man is fighting, and unfortu- 

 nately it is seldom reported when it first appears. 



