THE MICROBES THAT MAKE US SICK 79 
antitoxin for this disease. If it is applied to the 
wound very quickly, it will kill the tetanus 
germ before the germ has time to get very far. 
However, the use of the antitoxin is of little 
help after the germ has been in the body for 
more than thirty hours. 
You can readily see the great danger in 
neglecting any deep and dirty cut. Such a 
cut should always be treated at once, in order 
to prevent the growth of this fatal microbe. 
Malaria is caused by a microbe that is an 
animal and not a plant, and is therefore different 
from the microbes that give us the other diseases 
that we have been talking about. It exists in 
almost all temperate and tropical climates. It 
is a strange microbe. It spends part of its life 
in man and part in a special kind of mosquito. 
It can live, therefore, only where there are 
mosquitoes. It gets into the blood-stream of 
a human being through the mosquito’s bite. 
As soon as it enters the blood, the microbe 
attaches itself to the structure called a red 
corpuscle. It grows there and destroys the 
What is 
malaria? 
