avorable to man, he kills and lives upon the forms of
life which he considers exist solely for his pleasure and benefit.

To nature the germs of disease, as a form of life, are equally as
important as the other forms of life that "breathe and have their
being."

When conditions are favorable to the virus of influenza and pneumonia,
we have what is known as an epidemic, and when conditions are favorable
to the growth of cancer, it has what we might term a "Roman Holiday" by
destroying a third of our population.

Germs of disease are merely invisible wild animals.

They are forms of life that thrive upon the soil of the human body.

Prayer has about as much effect upon them as it would have upon the
hungry tiger ready to devour you.

A bullet from a gun would be far more effective against the tiger, and
knowledge of the nature of the germs of disease, and the discovery of
the methods of destroying them, are comparable to the invention of the
gun and its use against the ferocious animal.

The knowledge of the one protects you against the invisible enemies of
destruction, while the invention of the gun protects you against being
destroyed by the wild beasts.

The germs of disease and the hungry tiger are both determined upon the
same objective--your destruction--one by eating you in "chunks" and the
other by minutely gnawing you away "piecemeal."

The results are identical.

It is not necessary to moralize upon the difference.

But this we know, that in our present scheme of life, as Ingersoll so
eloquently states, "The hands that help are better far than lips that
pray."

Our bodies are as much "meat" for the disease germs that eat us as the
animal that furnishes the meat for our appetites.

Or as Shakespeare puts it:

"... in the sweetest bud
The eating canker dwells."

In a broader and more comprehensive concept of disease, Shakespeare
says, it is, as if a

"God omnipotent
Is mustering in his clouds...
Armies of pestilence; and they shall strike
Your children yet unborn and unbegot...."

Who are you to say which one is the more favored in this scheme of
life--the germs of disease or man--which one is preferred by nature;
which one is more important than the other, since the ends accomplished
are the same?

The life of the disease germ came into existence by the same process as
did the life of man.

It is just as much a part of nature as is the dimpled babe.

If