38 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



polluted air, an opinion which in other words agrees with those who 

 say that the disease is one of those which are infectious. Lately a 

 German physician has startled those of us who hold to old beliefs as 

 to the nature of this malady, by proclaiming a discovery that with 

 consumption there is associated a parasite which he and many with 

 him regard as pointing to the origin of the disease in germ infection. 

 If the German, Koch, is right in his conclusion it will be seen that the 

 other observers were right too, as far as they went, and that water 

 seems the habitat of the destructive organism according to all the 

 theories of the causation of consumption. 



Now, if those are right who tell us that so many of the most 

 dangerous diseases by which we are affected are due to " germ infec- 

 tions," that is, to the introduction into our bodies of small seeds, or 

 germs of a vegetable nature, does it not become us to carefully 

 surround ourselves with conditions which are not favorable to the 

 life of those deadly little organisms. These organisms are of various 

 kinds, and each kind of them seems to make its presence known in 

 its own peculiar way. They are invisible to ordinary sight and their 

 national history cannot be said to be known, but, let us illustrate by 

 what we can see and know of vegetation of larger growth, the mode 

 in which this minute vegetation may come in contact with us, its 

 victims. For example, we often see thistle down floating in the air, 

 sometimes sailing into our houses. We express no surprise ; we have 

 seen that so often. We do not know, perhaps, of any thistles near 

 us from which the down may come, and yet, when we see our houses 

 entered by it, or in our gardens a growth of young thistles giving 

 proof of " thistle infection" we raise no question with ourselves or 

 others. as to whence the trouble has come, we just proceed to clean up 

 and root out. And we become watchful against the re-appearance 

 of the intruders. Many of the mischief-causing little bodies which 

 we are considering, seem to possess means of migration quite equal 

 to those shown by thistle down. We need not be surprised, there- 

 fore, when we are unexpectedly visited by them,- nor complain of the 

 hardship of their presence, although there may have been all possible 

 care on our part to prevent access by them to our dwellings. It 

 looks as if they must have time, and be in quantity before much 

 harm arises from them. Let us be always examining, turning over 

 and cleaning as is our course when we wish to rid ourselves of 



