Immunity is the power of the organism to resist infection. It is opposite in meaning to the word susceptibility and both these words are relative terms. Immunity may be complete, or it may be so weak as to be hardly appreciable. The term resistance is usually applied to general protection, whereas the term immunity is usually applied to general protection against a specific organism.
A variable quantity that is always related to immunity is the virulence of the disease producing organism. Virulent means poisonous or deadly. The different strains of germs vary in their virulence or ability to injure the body just as persons vary in their powers of resistance.
It is not very difficult to conceive of a nation thirsting for world power and opposing the welfare of the great body or humanity outside it. The people of such a country may represent the germs of a disease. The inhabitants of such a nation usually appear innocent enough and, like the germs of the disease, quite similar to their harmless neighbours. There finally arises an opportunity for the invasion of other lands, and these people makes war upon the rest of the world just as the germs enter into a struggle with the human body. If they are successful, the life of the invaded nations comes to an end; if they are not successful, they are eliminated from the territory they have overrun.
A variable quantity that is always related to immunity is the virulence of the disease producing organism. Virulent means poisonous or deadly. The different strains of germs vary in their virulence or ability to injure the body just as persons vary in their powers of resistance.
It is not very difficult to conceive of a nation thirsting for world power and opposing the welfare of the great body or humanity outside it. The people of such a country may represent the germs of a disease. The inhabitants of such a nation usually appear innocent enough and, like the germs of the disease, quite similar to their harmless neighbours. There finally arises an opportunity for the invasion of other lands, and these people makes war upon the rest of the world just as the germs enter into a struggle with the human body. If they are successful, the life of the invaded nations comes to an end; if they are not successful, they are eliminated from the territory they have overrun.