Anything with life, when the entire species is eradicated or destroyed, with no live members or parents surviving, is absolutely gone for ever, save and except the Supreme deity sees fit to regenerate it.
In Honolulu, how uncomfortable we all feel when the South wind prevails, with its excess humid atmosphere; Headaches, Sweats, Sneezing, Lassitude and loss of appetite, etc., affects many of us, and coughs and sore throats; this is the Sick wind or atmosphere, so called by the Hawaiian; a condition of mild Flu producing weather; akin to Nitrogen plus air, and Oxygen minus, which the Author has suggested as an explanation of the cause of dormant Influenza, developing into an Epidemic.
WHY WERE MICROBES CREATED?
We have an abundance of non-disease producing microbes dwelling in our bodies, and also many other harmless micro-organisms pervade the lower strata of our atmosphere; the upper strata of the air are devoid of microbes, say five miles from the surface of the earth, but inasmuch as human beings cannot breathe in comfort at such a high elevation, we cannot escape germs of disease by residing at great heights.
The harmless microbes inhabiting our bodies are good friends and protectors; disease producing microbes may have been created for the purpose of maintaining a bacterial balance, not too much of one kind nor too little of the other.
If Providence intended to decimate mankind and destroy him by microbic diseases, one species of a deadly and virulent microbe would suffice.
Micro-organisms, in order to live and exist, must find suitable surroundings and pabulum; if these are lacking, they must perish. Man and animals, in the main, furnish the homes and food which enables a microbe to exist; and when death destroys the “host,” the parasitic microbe still lives in the body of its victim when buried in the ground; hence the necessity for cremation, which is the ideal and most efficient method of disposing of the corpses of those who have died of infectious diseases.
SPORES HAVE GREAT VITALITY.
The Creator, by introducing microbic life to our globe, must have intended it to live and propagate; bacteria are provided with a wonderful defense against eradication; this is evident in the protection designed for the Spore or Re-productive element of Bacteria, whose coat or outer cell envelope is one of “the most resisting substances to destruction in the Organic world.”
Agents, that cause other forms of life to succumb, fail to destroy it; the average spore when subjected to a dry heat temperature of 300° Fahr. for one hour is apparently still alive; it requires this same temperature to be maintained for several hours in order to destroy it.