61 
on which they live, and, as in the case of yeast, the very alcohol 
which they form is very deadly to them. 
I notice that whenever one talks to those who have not 
studied the matter much, that at once they say: “ Kill them with 
chemicals.” This would be all right if organisms existed, like 
green fly, on the surface, but when you consider that every small 
lymphatic is packed with myriads of these minute organisms, 
you will see that it is impossible to get at them, and chemicals 
only lower the vitality of the body cells, which are trying their 
utmost to resist the infection. 
Prevention, or a wide cleanliness, is what is wanted. 
Our grandmothers and mothers, I am afraid, taught us quite 
erroneously. Mud, for instance, is quite a clean thing. I used 
to be quite satisfied that a wound of a navvy’s hand would be 
all right if it was covered with good, clean mud, but let that 
man be a gardener, or get his wound in the street with horse dung 
and, possibly, Tetanus bacillus admixed, then he would run a 
good chance of losing his life. You may wash as you like, you 
cannot clean your skin. Look into a modern Hospital, and you 
will get a good object lesson in wide cleanliness, for not only can 
a hose be put on any part of an operating theatre, but there 
should never be an ashpit outside, or, indeed, any putrescent 
matter capable of being carried by flies, etc. 
Dust has been defined as matter in a wrong place, and nothing 
puts it in a wrong place better than the ordinary Spring clean¬ 
ing. The method of cleaning a railway carriage (I should call it 
dirtying) is all wrong. 
I got into a railway carriage at a London station the other 
day to find a porter in thick moleskins (a beautiful material for 
carrying dust), who had just finished “ cleaning.,” I was quite 
unable to see for dust whether anybody occupied the far seat or 
not. 
Abroad and in America the porters wear washable overalls, 
and the carriages are hosed out at the end of each journey. 
We made some experiments in railway carriages, and found 
tubercle and other organisms in multitudes, especially in first- 
class carriages. 
You constantly hear it said, “ I got my cold from that open 
window ” ; fresh air never gave anybody a cold, it may give 
you a stiff neck, but a cold or pneumonia is contracted from 
person to person, and where you congregate people in public 
places, extra precautions must be taken to protect them. 
Phagocytes or the little white cells of the blood, about 
8,000,000,000 in a tablespoonful of blood, protect us by devouring 
these bacilli and throwing out a poison, an antitoxin, and lastly 
various vaccines protect us. 
Many insects are killed annually by parasitic fungi, the mildew is often 
noticed round an insect on a window pane. 
