Excerpt from Animal Parasites and Human Disease One of the most appalling realizations with which every student Of nature is brought face to face is the universal and unceasing struggle for existence which goes on during the life of every living organism, from the time of its conception until death. We like to think of nature's beauties; to admire her outward appearance of peacefulness; to set her up as an example for human emulation. Yet under her seeming calm there is going on everywhere - in every pool, in every meadow, in every forest murder, pillage, starvation and suffering. Man Often considers himself exempt from this interminable struggle for existence. His superior intelligence has given him an insuperable advantage over the wild beasts which might otherwise prey upon him; his inventive genius defies the attacks of climate and the elements; his altruism, which is perhaps his greatest attribute, protects, to a great extent, the weak and poorly endowed individuals from the quick elimination which is the inevitable lot of the unfit in every other species of animal on the earth. Exempt as we are, to a certain extent, from these phases of the struggle for existence, we have not yet freed our selves from two other phases of it, war and disease. We have some reason for hoping that after the present world-wide con fiagration of war has burned itself out and its ashes, the flesh and bones of its countless victims, have disintegrated and disappeared from view, we may be able to free ourselves from the probability of ever again taking part in or witnessing such a spectacle. That the helpless bondage in which we were once held by disease Will never again be our lot, we can say with more assurance. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.