It is not to be presumed that in the present age of popular enlightenment
people do not know better than to trifle with germs. It is, therefore,
alarming to note that with light they will continue to practically commit
suicide by a failure to observe the most ordinary rules of hygiene. In
the mad pursuit of pelf and position little heed is being given to the
omnipresence of bacilli, bacteria and other mischievous, pernicious and
fatal agencies. Why will people supinely continue to court death in
street cars, theaters, churches and at crowded entertainments, where the
most casual movement sets into motion myriads of germs that are inhaled,
eaten and absorbed by those present? And why will they disregard common
caution by eating food in hotels, cafés, restaurants, Pullman cars and at
home, when all food is known to be gorged with murderous molecules of one
sort or another? And why perpetuate the dangerous habit of washing when
both soap and water are teeming with baleful bacteria? There are still a
few who continue to take water into their system in full realization that
it contains something more than a million germs per drop. And is there
no way of impressing the public with the fatal consequence of sleeping
in beds and sitting in chairs, and of riding and walking through streets
surrounded by air which is composed largely of corrosive sublimate—a
deadly poison? And as for kissing? Only Igorrote, Hottentots and Russians
can be forgiven for not knowing better. So deathly does modern research
recognize this primitive and all but obsolete practice to be, that it
is being seriously considered of adoption as a pleasing and more humane
substitute for chloroform as an antique exterminator. Why not conform
to the simple necessities and observe the rational precaution of doing
nothing without first being sterilized and aerated? And let those
determined to drink remember to recognize as sanitary only those fluids
commonly known to be strongly germicidal. It would seem that the present
generation will never reach a true realization of its peril until it has
already become extinct.