Am.  Joun  Pharm.  j  j^^^  jj jj^^^^        DiseUSe.  .  453 
Among  the  first  of  well-known  men  to  proclaim  the  virtues  of 
these  substances,  as  found  in  coal  tar,  was  George  Berkeley,  Bishop 
of  Cloyne,  Ireland,  who  died  in  1753.  You  have  all,  no  doubt  heard 
his  prophetic  slogan,  that  has  become  a  household  expression: 
"Westward  the  course  of  Empire  takes  its  way."  You  probably 
also  know  that  California  has  honored  him  by  calling  the  university 
city  of  that  State  by  his  name.  He  extolled  tar  water  as  a  panacea 
for  many  ills  and  this,  together  with  his  then  unpopular  philosophy, 
brought  ridicule  upon  him.  Pope,  the  great  English  poet,  however, 
came  to  his  defence  and  in  one  poem  says : 
"Truth's  sacred  fort  the  exploded  laugh  shall  win, 
And  coxcombs  vanquish  Berkeley  with  a  grin." 
His  supposedly  erratic  defense  of  tar  water  has  been  vindicated  by 
modern  research  and  the  scriptural  claim,  that  "The  leaves  of  the 
trees  shall  be  for  the  healing  of  the  nations,"  is  also  vindicated.  In 
these  leaves  are,  and  always  have  been,  produced  the  world's  supply 
of  the  best  known  paracitisides  and  antiseptics.  All  of  our  food 
proteins  are  leaf  products,  so  far  as  they  contain  phenylalanin  and 
tyrosin,  as  are  also  all  coal  tars,  so  far  as  they  contain  the  benzol 
nucleus.  Through  this  discovery  we  are  but  beginning  to  see  that 
throughout  living  nature  a  battle  with  parasites  is  going  on  in  which 
these  constitute  the  implements  of  war.  To  successfully  vanquish 
individual  diseases  we  must  pursue  the  methods  of  nature  in  the 
way  it  holds  in  abeyance  the  countless  millions  of  actual  and  potential 
disease -producing  parasites  that  menace  all  other  living  things. 
The  way  she  controls  disease  we  must  control  it,  and  the  weapons 
she  uses  against  microbes  we  must  use,  in  order  to  be  successful. 
Fifty  years  ago  little  was  known  of  these  invisible  foes  and  a  century 
ago  only  the  larger  parasites  had  any  place  of  recognition  in  our  text- 
books of  medicine.  Now  we  have  discovered  them  to  be  the  con- 
stant enemies  of  every  thing  that  lives.  There  are  now  catalogued 
from  5  to  over  20  different  kinds  for  each  particular  species  of  plant 
and  of  animal.  Over  sixty  have  been  catalogued  and  named  as 
enemies  of  the  oak  trees.  Not  a  single  soul  within  the  hearing  of  my 
voice  is,  at  this  very  minute,  free  from  them.  We  are  all  disease 
carriers.  Streptococci,  staphylococci,  pneumococci,  and  Bacillus 
coll  communis  are  now  waiting  upon,  and  within  our  bodies,  for  some 
favorable  opportunity  to  start  disease.  They  are  being  held  at  bay 
by  the  antiseptic  substances  we  have  named  as  present  in  skin  and 
