ABSTRACT
This chapter looks specifically at efforts to patrol the borders of the social or national organism in order to control what penetrates and enters it. As the germ theory of disease transmission and its requisite prevention activities came to be embraced as a central factor in the maintenance of public health, this gave rise to the notion of the body as a protected fortress. Especially within the context of early twentieth century xenophobia and the call for restrictive immigration, the nation was frequently compared to a human body, threatened by those “alien” entities that attempted to cross our borders and corrupt our interior. Rhetoric and images that were indicative of the war metaphor were often juxtaposed alongside the organism metaphor, as penetration was viewed as a form of invasion. Such military metaphors have continued to typify the organism metaphor, as we wage wars against cancer and our bodies are constantly fighting encroaching viruses and bacterial agents that are determined to do us harm.
