In addition, there are multitudinous specific signs of which we were not long ago in complete ignorance.  To cite only one of these, there is Widal’s agglutination test, by which the bacteriologist can usually make a diagnosis of typhoid fever far in advance of the time at which it could otherwise be distinguished.  The use of the Roentgen rays in diagnosis was one of the crowning achievements of the century, and now we seem about to enter upon a course of their successful employment in the treatment of disease—­even some forms of cancer—­as well as in its detection.

Beyond the vermin that infest the skin and the hair, tapeworm, and a few other intestinal worms, little if anything was known of morbific parasites before the Nineteenth Century; but the labors of Van Beneden, Kuechenmeister, Cobbold, Manson, Laveran, and others have now established the causal relationship between great numbers of animal parasites—­gross and microscopic—­and certain definite morbid states.  This has led to a great increase in our knowledge of the connection between the parasites of the lower animals and grave disease in human beings, and on this knowledge rest many of the precautions that we are now able to take against the spread of such disease.  From the consideration of animal parasites as the direct causes of disease, we naturally come to the contemplation of the subject of insects as the carriers of disease.  The later years of the century have witnessed the demonstration of the fly’s agency in the transmission of malignant pustule and typhoid fever, and that of certain mosquitoes in the conveyance of yellow fever and malarial disease.  We now know that bad air (the original meaning of the word malaria) has nothing to do with fever and ague, and that swamps are not unwholesome if they are free from infected mosquitoes.  The mosquito does not originate the malarial infection; it simply serves as the temporary host of the micro-organism (Plasmodium malarioe) which is the cause of the disease, having obtained its transient “guest” from some human being.  Consequently, marshy districts that are full of mosquitoes are not malarious unless the mosquitoes are of the kinds capable of lodging the plasmodium, and unless there is or has recently been present in the neighborhood some person affected with malarial disease.  Moreover, the most virulently malarious region is a safe place of residence for human beings, provided they protect themselves absolutely against the bite of the mosquito.  This has been strikingly demonstrated in the case of the Roman Campagna.

From the disease-producing animal parasites we come now to those that are believed to be of vegetable nature.  Under the general name of bacteria, there are multitudes of micro-organisms having pathogenic powers, each giving rise to some definite specific disease, and certain associations of different bacteria causing particular morbid conditions.  Generations ago physicians had a glimmering of what we now term