SAFEGUARDS OF THE BODY 131 
NATURE OF DISEASE 
We are so accustomed to personify disease, to think 
of it as a visitation of malign forces, and to talk of it 
in terms which belong in the era of superstition and 
personal devils, that clear notions of disease as a 
process, not a thing, are rare indeed. 
Disease is a perverted process of the living body 
cells. Bacteria are not the disease; they are only the 
inciters of disease; nor do they enter the body with 
sinister intent. If the chances of the hour bring them 
to rest among the living body cells, and if the condi¬ 
tions are favorable, they begin to grow, but with just 
as little purpose for good or evil as if they had lodged 
upon the surface of a rotten turnip. 
Many of the bacteria which enter the body do not 
grow at all. The soil is not to their liking, the envi¬ 
ronment is not congenial; they die and are hustled 
off forthwith by certain lowly organized cells—phago¬ 
cytes we call them—which are the scavengers of the 
body, and are ever moving here and there to keep the 
tissues clear and clean. Many bacteria, on the other 
hand, find in the living body conditions suitable enough, 
faute de mieux, for their simple life processes. But 
they are speedily devoured and digested by the scaven¬ 
ger cells, or are killed by destructive body juices, and 
so their tragedies end. 
But there is another side to the story when the bac¬ 
teria which are stranded within the tissues are not 
to be tolerated in a well-organized cell family. Then 
trouble begins. 
