MICROBES AS THE DEVILS OF DISEASE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 920, 19 November 1910, Page 4

MICROBES AS THE DEVILS OF DISEASE.

Mr R. W. Bruere describes in Harper’s lor September the microbe as social reformer, in view of the immense improvements that have been wrought in New York, thanks to the cholera invasion of 1892. On the authority of a missionary he tells how an Armenian priest persuaded his people to adopt certain rudimentary methods against the cholera that was threatening them. The disease was spreading rapidly, for its progress was greatly facilitated by the water supply that came from a near-by mountain and ran through the streets in open ducts. The priest, Hovsep Vartabed, was asked to explain to his congregation the nature of cholera. He replied that the women who prepared the food were too ignorant to comprehend the difference between a germ and a mountain lion. But he gathered his flock into the great Armenian Church, and when they were packed as close as they could sit on the floor, he put on his flowing clerical robes and harangued them as follows : “Flave I not told you, miserable sinners, that unless you repented and were more zealous in your religious duties, God would surely punish you ? Behold, He has permitted the water to swarm with little snakes, so that the people perish. Whence came these snakes ? Verily I say unto you that they are nought but devils that God has unloosed from hell to chasten you sinners. Disguised as little snakes, they have fled to the water to cool off. Woe unto them that drink the cup of Satan, or cook iu unhallowed water, for them the devils will surely seize and destroy. There is only one way of escape ; make the water so hot that the imps will be glad to run back to Gehenna, whence they came. When the water boils you may know that every bursting bubble is a devil that leaps from the pot! ”

This announcement was received with cries of alarm and moans of repentance. The women did not wait for the benediction ; they arose like startled pigeons, rushed home, and began boiling busily. And it was fully two mouths after the last case of cholera was reported that the kettles of Van cooled down.