INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 39 



thistles and their seeds. In addition to their very effective means of 

 flight, many varieties of "disease germs " are judged to possess great 

 power of vitality. The microscope reveals many organisms which 

 appear to be indestructible by ordinary agencies. Water is the 

 medium of their activity — but they do not die when deprived of 

 water ; they dry up, and yet survive for an indefinite time, reviving 

 and becoming active as before on the occurrence of favorable condi- 

 tions. There is reason to believe that many disease germs are equally 

 tenacious of life. They may lurk about our dwellings till circum- 

 stances may cause them to resume their activity, when the signs of 

 their presence appear sooner or later. They are no doubt always 

 around us more or less. Perhaps we have an example of their abund- 

 ance in what is observed in mildew, a fungus of which there are many 

 varieties, all having this in common, that in favorable conditions 

 they appear with promptness, and in great abundance. We know 

 that in given circumstances we may expect crops of it in our cup- 

 boards and in other close places. The undisturbed contact of moist 

 organic matter with air at any temperature short of freezing is suffi- 

 cient for its appearance. It can be understood that disease pro- 

 ducing fungi may, like mildew, be rapidly produced in organic refuse, 

 lying undisturbed and unobserved about our dwellings, and that by 

 being parasitical, they obtain entrance into our living organ- 

 isms, assimilating to themselves such constituents as are useful to 

 their own growth, not unfrequently destroy the bodies, at the. 

 expense of which they thrive and multiply. Among the diseases famil- 

 iar to us, which are regarded as being due to germ infection are 

 typhoid fever, scarlatina, and diphtheria, deadly troubles very 

 often, as we all too well know, but all to a great degree capable of 

 prevention or mitigation by judicious precaution. 



Individual precaution is not of much avail, there being such a 

 wide spreading cause to deal with. The means to be adopted must 

 be by the general consent, and must be carried out as a public meas- 

 ure. There may be, among more or less near neighbors, some who 

 may be propagating about their premises, poison enough for them- 

 selves and all around, but who, owing to the level of the soil, the 

 prevailing winds or other causes, are not even suffering inconvenience 

 from the state of things surrounding them, while others, perhaps 

 among the most careful, are enduring the greatest suffering. 



