96 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



exist without sorrow or pain. On the other hand, if those laws 

 are disobeyed, the body is weakened, its resisting forces are like- 

 wise weakened and therefore we cannot completely resist the 

 attacks of the enemies of life. It all depends upon the manner 

 in which these laws are violated as to what kind of disease will 

 attack the body. It may be a general disease, or it may be one 

 of those special diseases, brought about by certain violations of 

 tfhose immutable laws, or it may be caused by specific disease 

 which is nearly always pathegenic in character. 



There is a constant battle raging between the protective 

 forces of the body on one side, and the enemies of life on the 

 other. To illustrate: For instance, start a thousand babies on 

 the road of life, we will say, and many will fall by the roadside 

 before the first mile post is reached, many more between the 

 second and third, and finally when the seventieth is reached there 

 may be only one or two, perhaps none. Why did they not all 

 live to be seventy or more years of age? I will tell you why: 

 They disobeyed one or more of the fundamental laws of nature, 

 and by so doing, weakened their bodies by destroying their pro- 

 tective agencies to such an extent that they could no longer resist 

 the enemies of life. 



These common enemies cause a greater destruction of life 

 than all the other forms combined. Then there are the specific 

 enemies of life attacking the protective body which will, when 

 thrown in contact with them, produce disease. However, they 

 will not in all cases ; a small percentage of animals will resist 

 them. To illustrate: If you who are assembled here had never 

 been vaccinated, or never had smallpox, and if a smallpox patient 

 should come into this room and shake hands with every person 

 here, many of you would contract the disease and die in a short 

 period of time. Others would linger a longer period before 

 death, others would recover, others would have it in a light form, 

 and there would be a small percentage of you who would escape 

 entirely. This difference in form of the malady is due to the 

 different degrees of the resisting forces which the different in- 

 dividuals possess. 



