Clje Cirtulattcrn; of ^itr00eit iit 
AN ACCOUNT OF SOME INDISPENSABLE 
MICROBES. 
By F. W. STODDAHT. 
HE purpose of my remarks to-night is to introduce 
to your notice some of those Liliputian labourers 
popularly known as ^' germs," but which in the present 
instance have none of the vicious propensities generally 
associated with that name. 
The progress of the science of bacteriology up to the 
present time may be roughly divided into three stages. The 
first stage, which may fitly be called the reign of terror, 
includes the discovery of the active agents of certain dis- 
eases. The specific orga^nisms of anthrax, typhoid, cholera, 
leprosy, glanders, tuberculosis, tetanus, and diphtheria — some 
of the greatest scourges of the human race — all made their 
bows within a very few years, and indeed followed one 
another in such quick succession that one fairly wondered 
how a single individual managed to survive the insidious 
onslaught of so many well-armed foes. 
But as time went on, and we were not all wiped out — as in- 
deed we were permitted to assume the attitude known to the 
adherents of a much older, and therefore, I presum^e, a much 
more respectable science, as sparring for wind " — Ave became 
conscious that the fight was not entirely one-sided ; that not 
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