Chapter IV: Introduction (3)

In this, my scrutiny of nature's deep designs, I did not rest content when only the composition of all the tissues of the body had been laid bare; but I delved deeper and discovered that certain electric currents and reactions of these elements were the causes of accelerating or retarding the natural processes of metamorphosis and metabolism,--provoking disturbances of the normal, which express themselves as disease.

Excessive growth, and lack of growth, are thus explained, together with other phenomena which in this short chapter it is impossible to give in scientific detail. It is my object now merely to show that in their apparent simplicity the manifestations of life require special technical knowledge such as cannot be expected of the layman in any adequate degree.

Notwithstanding this free and open statement of cause and cure available to the patient and to the world at large, the hygienic-dietetic physician himself can by no means be dispensed with in case of the appearance of disease, for only by his knowledge, experience, and skilled advice can the aforesaid natural system of healing be applied with effect in each individual case. And here it must always be borne in mind that, of the countless individual organisms that this world contains, no two, even, are exactly alike; and that consequently only the skilled and accustomed practitioner =will be able to regulate such hidden, internal processes as cause the visible disturbance, and thus bring about healing and regeneration, which simply means a return to the normal=.

=His methods will prevent the use of the surgeon's knife, which only removes the symptom, leaving the cause untouched and inflicting useless and irreparable harm. The specialist, with his poisonous specific remedies for forms of disease, which after all are only degrees of chemical exhaustion, will also disappear, together with all similar treatment which enervates the body making it an easy prey to new attacks of the same chemical anomalies which must and will most certainly return so long as they are not rectified according to the principles of biology.=

THE TWELVE TISSUES.

Bearing the above principle of unity in mind, we may now proceed one step further, and study the most important details upon which the method of healing, as applied by the hygienic-dietetic physician, is based.

As previously mentioned, the cells of the human body are organized into twelve distinct tissues, some of which are the component parts of the various organs as discernible by form and function.

These twelve tissues are the following:

1. The plasmo tissue (blood plasma).
2. The lymphoid tissue.
3. The nerve tissue.
4. The bone tissue.
5. The muscular tissue.
6. The mucous membrane tissue.
7. The tooth and eye tissue.
8. The hair tissue.
9. The skin tissue.
10. The gelatigenous tissue.
11. The cartilage tissue.
12. The body tissue in general.

1. _The plasmo tissue_: This tissue is a liquid, the blood plasma, which is one of the important component parts of the life-giving substance, blood. It is the blood serum--blood-water and fibrogen--which harbours the white and the red corpuscles. The red corpuscles are the carriers of oxygen to the various tissues, which the body draws from the atmosphere, and of the other nutriments. They exchange it for the carbonic acid which is forming in the body, and while the blood in flowing through the system of arteries, brings the oxygen, it carries away, through the veins, the poisonous carbonic acid which is exhaled into the atmosphere.

The red corpuscles, after having performed their duties, enter the liver and are used to build the gall.

The proper quality of the plasma alone regulates the speed of blood circulation and ensures its entrance into the finest capillaries--the ultimate branches of the blood-vessels--hence, its capacity to carry supplies of nutriment to the tissues. The disturbance of this proper quality is among the main factors of constitutional disease.

2. _The lymphoid tissue_: The lymph is another of the life-giving liquids of the body, which through a vascular system of its own, draws certain nutritive substances from the food and carries them to certain organs which it feeds, especially the nerves.

After this slow task is completed, the rest of the lymph enters the blood and is carried by it to other parts of the body where only smaller quantities of lymph are needed for nourishing purposes.

The proper quality and chemical composition of the lymph, which is different from that of the blood, is of no less importance than that of the plasma for the preservation and regeneration of the organism.

What the plasma is to the blood, the lymph is to the nerves.

3. _The nerve tissue_: A particular aggregation of cells forms the nerves, which, emanating from their center in the brain and spine, run as another separate system all through the body.

This system, however, is not one of vessels; but the nerves may best be compared to the wires of a telephone system, establishing connection between the remotest parts of the body and its central point, from which the directions for both voluntary and involuntary movement are given and transmitted through the nerves.

They are of a peculiar chemical composition in which the nerve fat (lecithin) plays a very important part, since its frequent presence in insufficient quantity is among the most common causes of a great number of nervous and other diseases.

4. _The bone tissue_: The bones consist of a special and very distinct tissue in which lime predominates. This gives them the strength and solidity which enables them to act as support to all the other organs.

The bones too are fed by the blood, and it is through the blood that the necessary constituent parts for the regeneration of their tissue is conveyed to them.

While naturally their power of resistance is greater than that of any other organ, they are nevertheless subject to a number of structural disturbances, other than traumatic, the causes of which are sometimes hereditary, sometimes acquired through deficient properties of the nourishing blood.

Certain tissues which form the connection between the bones and the rest of the organs, and the gradual transition into other tissues, are subjects separate and distinct and will be treated separately.

5. _The muscular tissue_: As to quantity, the muscular tissue represents the maximum of any in the human body.

The muscles do not only consist solely of this one tissue, but of several others, as do most of the other organs; but here, as in all other cases, the principal component element is called after the organ in which it is chiefly found.

The structure of the muscular tissue varies according to its function, so that we distinguish between the striated and the unstriated or smooth muscles. This, however, has no influence on their chemical composition, a distinctive element of which is muscular fibrin, which has the particular property of contractibility.

6. _The mucous membrane tissue_: The mucous membrane forms the covering of many of the organs, and its chemical and structural composition is identical in all parts of the body.

It is characterized by a viscid watery secretion from the mucous glands, which are always found in the mucous membrane.

Its extremely delicate nature renders it subject to all sorts of irregularities in chemical composition.

This is the cause of numerous diseases, most of which are due either to overproduction or underproduction of the secretion which regulates numerous functions of the body.

7. _The tooth and eye tissue_: While very different in external appearance, functions and physical qualities, the teeth and the eyes have nevertheless, the most important part of their chemical composition in common; namely, _the fluoric acid_, which distinguishes them from all other tissues.

In the process of natural healing the replacing of any element lacking through destructive causes in either tissue will practically be the same.

8. _The hair tissue_: Certain chemical component elements are only found in the tissue which is called the hair, and which receives its nourishment like all other tissues, through the blood.

While the hair may seem to be in apparently slight connection with the rest of the body, it is in reality, none the less an organic portion of the same, and dependent, like the rest upon the same central system of supply.

9. _The skin tissue_: With reference to this tissue, much the same remarks apply as already mentioned in regard to the mucous membrane. It, however, has certain chemical elements, which are characteristic to its various layers.

Since the skin forms the most important intermediary between the external elements and the chemical and structural elements of the interior of the human body, it is of the greatest importance that its chemical composition should always be correct, and that it should not be subject to decomposition such as improper nourishment engenders.

It should be borne in mind that the skin, like all other organs of the body, grows from the inside outward, so that any ailment concerning the skin, which is not of a traumatic nature, must be based upon wrong or insufficient nourishment, and cannot be cured in any other way than by internal regenerative means.

10. _The gelatigenous tissue_: This tissue, chemically and otherwise peculiar as it is, forms the chief component part of many of the human organs, and it may be truly said that the lack of attention which its peculiarities have received in the past is responsible for more disease and its fatal issue than almost anything else.

The gelatigenous tissue contains a number of special component elements, which require special nourishment through proper diet; and in view of the fact that the gelatigenous tissue pervades so many of the various organs, its effect upon the functional abilities of a great number of them is obvious.

The elasticity of most organs which work by contraction and expansion, depends entirely upon the gelatigenous, rubber-like tissue of which they are so largely composed.

11. _The cartilage tissue_: Practically the same applies to the cartilage tissue; but it is only recently that it has been found to what extent this is the case.

Although entirely different in nature and chemical composition, the cartilage tissue serves to maintain certain outlines of form and feature in the human body, which are not based on the still stronger forms of supporting material, such as the bone tissue and the gelatigenous tissue.

12. _The body tissue in general_: This comprises the red blood corpuscles and all tissues which are in any way different from the distinct tissues just described, but which nevertheless cannot be classified as separately and distinctly independent.

It may be justly presumed that all elements of the other tissues are to be found in these final tissues which share the unity of the organism.

* * * * *

By devising a specially nourishing dietary system for the body tissue in general, all component elements profit, in like degree, and such disturbances as attack practically all the tissues and organs of the body severally and conjointly; will be effectively prevented or cured in the regular course of nature, in strict accordance with biological principles.

DEGENERATION OF TISSUES.

Speaking biologically, if through some disturbance in the normal chemical composition of the tissues, degeneration sets in, we speak of it as disease.

Such degeneration may attack one tissue or several at the same time.

_To reduce the elements to their proper proportions, to force them thereby to reassume their normal functions, means to restore health, or, to heal._

As previously explained, it has been the great achievement of hygienic-dietetic science, based on the natural laws of biology, to discover that so many diseases which for centuries were considered as entirely different from each other in cause and treatment, were essentially the same. It was found that they were nothing but the natural consequence of impure or imperfect blood, the result of malnutrition of the vital fluid, the malign effect of which increases in degree and manifestation the longer the impurity passes, by process of heredity, from one generation to another.

Instead of following the natural tendency to return to the normal, the blood becomes the fertile soil in which all manner of irregularities may germinate in abundance, and combine in strong attacks on the normal healthy organs, which will fast relax their natural power of resistance.

The system of natural healing, while adhering closely to the principle of the unity of the body as well as of the unity of disease, has by no means ignored that such differences are due to the differences in the twelve tissues and _according to the said differences, the constitutional diseases are grouped under the accustomed titles, as follows_:

1. Degeneration of the plasmo tissue: Anaemia, Chlorosis,
Pernicious Anaemia, etc.
(A.) Scrofulosis.
(B.) Tuberculosis.
(C.) Syphilis.
(D.) Cancer.

2. Degeneration of lymphoid tissue: (See I.--A. B. C. D.)

3. Degeneration of the nerve tissue: Neuralgia, Neuritis,
Neurasthenia, Asthma, Epilepsy, St. Vitus's Dance, etc., etc.

4. Degeneration of the bone tissue: Rickets, Osteomalacia and
similar diseases.

5. Degeneration of the muscular tissue: Muscular Rheumatism,
Sciatica or Nerve Rheumatism, Atrophia, Amyloid heart, kidney and
liver.

6. Degeneration of the mucous membrane tissue.
(A.) Catarrh in all its forms: Bronchitis, Pleurisy, Pneumonia,
Inflammation of nose, throat, bowels, stomach, bladder, etc.
(B.) Hemorrhoids, Polyps, Adenoids.

7. Degeneration of the tooth and eye tissue: All tooth and eye
diseases.

8. Degeneration of the hair tissue: All hair diseases.

9. Degeneration of the skin tissue: All skin diseases.

10. Degeneration of the gelatigenous tissue.
(A.) Stomach and Intestinal diseases--acute forms.
(B.) Stomach and Intestinal diseases--chronic form.

11. Degeneration of the cartilage tissue: Ankylosis, Gout,
Arthritis deformans.

12. Degeneration of the body tissue in general.
(A.) Locomotor ataxia.
(B.) Basedow's disease. (Graves disease.)
(C.) Diabetes mellitus.
(D.) Obesity.
(E.) Bright's disease.
(F.) Arterio-sclerosis.

THE A.B.C. OF MY SYSTEM OF HEALING.

Setting aside for the time being the special groups of more complicated diseases, such as are characterized by the degeneration of several of the tissues at the same time, I will now give a short and comprehensive description of the several distinct groups of disease. In each case, as already shown, there must be a joint co-operation of these three factors:

(A.) _Diet_, or the natural means of providing both healthy and degenerating tissues alike with such substances as will support and strengthen the healthy tissues, enabling them to resist the danger of disease and consequent decomposition, and will also arrest degeneration and prepare the way for the regeneration of the tissue which is already affected.

(B.) _Nutritive compositions._ Such as will in each case introduce into the system in a pure and proportionate combination, the necessary quantities of the sixteen nutritive elements, the lack of which is the characteristic factor of all disease and which diet unaided could not adequately produce with the needful speed and proportion, unless supplemented in this simple and effective manner.

(C.) _Physical treatment_, for the purpose of assisting the proper distribution and assimilation of these nutritive factors--(A. and B.)--and promoting the proper circulation of the blood.

DIET.

This is a subject of vast and vital importance. It comprises the science of alimentation, which forms one of the indispensable functions of life; it is thus, of necessity, a serious preoccupation under all conditions.

I have treated this important subject in my greater work with the minute detail, which it deserves; thus, in following the advice given, therein, in chapter XVIII, the reader will be able to ascertain the foods that are best suited to various conditions, and how to prepare them in the most sensible way.

At present, I can treat it only in a short and general way, giving the principal groups of diet prescribed, with more or less variation, in each case of disease as a part of the general treatment.

A few words may show _why_ diet plays so important a part in this system of healing.

In the body there is a laboratory which produces spontaneously everything necessary to maintain life.

This laboratory has various branches which are busy day and night without interruption.

Here the life blood is created.

Prominent amongst these branches are:

The stomach with its prolonged intestines;
The liver;
The kidneys;
The lungs, and
The skin.

Each one of these branches has a distinct part, or function to perform.

The stomach serves as the sorting house. Here the food is mixed with the gastric juice which aids digestion and dissolves those ingredients necessary to produce blood, flesh, fat, bones, etc.

Each of the other branches receives that portion of the ingredients needed to perform its share of the work.

A structure cannot be constructed without a frame upon which every part depends. In order to stand erect, the body must possess such a framework. The skeleton is the same to the body as the frame is to the building. This frame, then, or skeleton, together with the flesh, blood, etc. are all formed from the material furnished by the food.

A residue of the digested food is removed from the body as useless; everything else is utilized.

The portion of the food used, therefore, must contain all those ingredients which go to make up and maintain the body in perfect working order.

Experience has suggested certain groups of suitable diet which for the sake of convenience I shall enumerate under the title of _Forms No. I to No. VI_.

These food forms contain everything of which patients may safely partake, and from these selection, in each case, must be made.

They are as follows:

_Form I. Complete elimination of the stomach in the nourishing process._

To allay thirst, moisten the mouth with pure or carbonized water, melting small pieces of ice on the tongue. Small sips of water either lukewarm or cold, according to the condition of the stomach. Otherwise, only introduce water by clyster--i.e.--injection, and if the stomach cannot be disturbed for more than one or two days, introduce nourishing substances by way of the rectum.

_Form II. Purely liquid nourishment, "soup diet."_

Consomme of pigeon, chicken, veal, mutton, beef, beef tea, meat jelly (which becomes liquid under the influence of the heat of the body,) strained soups or such as are prepared of the finest flour with water or bouillon, of barley, oats, rice (thick soup), green corn, rye flour, malted milk. All of these soups, with or without any additions, such as raw eggs, either whole or the yolk only, if well mixed and not coagulated, are easily digested.

_Form III. Nourishment which is not purely liquid, but partly glutinous._

Milk and milk preparations (belonging to this group on account of their coagulation in the stomach):

(a) Cow's milk, diluted and without cream, dilution with 1-2 to 2-3 barley water, rice water, lime water, vichy water, weak tea, or pure water.

(b) Milk without cream, not diluted.

(c) Unskimmed milk.

(d) Cream, either diluted or undiluted.

(e) All of these milk combinations with an addition of yolk of egg, well-mixed, whole egg, cocoa, also a combination of egg and cocoa.

Milk mush made of flour for children, arrowroot, mondanin, cereal flour of every kind, especially oats, groat soups with tapioca or sago and potato soup.

Egg,-raw, stirred, or sucked from the shell; or slightly warmed in a cup; any of these, either with or without the addition of a little sugar or salt.

Biscuit and crackers, softened or well masticated and salivated, taken with milk, mush, etc.

_Form IV. Diet of the lightest kind, containing meat, but still mainly glutinous._

Noodle soup, rice soup.

Mashed boiled brains or sweetbread, or puree of white or red roasted meat, in soup.

Brains and sweetbread boiled.

Raw scraped meat (beef, ham, etc.)

Lean veal sausages, boiled.

Mashed potatoes prepared with milk.

Rice with bouillon or with milk.

Toasted rolls and toast.

_Form V. Light diet, containing meat in more solid form_:

Pigeon, Chicken boiled.

Small fish with little fat, such as brook or lake trout, boiled.

Scraped beefsteak, raw ham, boiled tongue.

As delicacies: Small quantities of caviar, frogs' legs, oysters, sardelles softened in milk.

Salted potatoes crushed, spinach, young peas mashed, cauliflower, asparagus-tips, mashed chestnuts, mashed turnips, fruit sauces.

Groat or sago puddings.

Rolls, white bread.

_Form VI. Somewhat heavier meat diet. (Gradually returning to ordinary food)._

Pigeon, chicken, young deer, hare, everything roasted.

Beef tenderloin, tender roast beef, roast veal.

Boiled pike or carp.

Young turnips.

All dishes to be prepared with very little fat, butter to be used exclusively. All strong spices to be avoided.

=NOTE=:--For special dietary in all diseases, see under each separate tissue degeneration in the succeeding Chapter on Therapy.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] In the following chapter, several important paragraphs given in the foregoing had to be repeated as the readers who were not interested in the "Club" proposition, would miss these points.

NUTRITIVE COMPOSITIONS

In order to convey a better understanding of these nutritive compositions, I deem it necessary to outline and explain more emphatically and in greater detail their wonderful scope and possibilities, in perhaps a more impressive manner, by giving the reader the benefit of an article entitled:

"The functions of minerals in our food
How they may be greatly increased"

Of these I have sent some 560 copies to all our Senators and Congressmen, as well as to our chief Government Physicians, for their information and disposition, with the intention of placing my knowledge and equipment freely at the disposal of the United States Government. I have made this purely disinterested proposal at this critical and trying juncture, in the interest, first, of our war-worn soldiers; next, of our women, enervated by unaccustomed labour and restricted means; and lastly, of the children, born, and yet to be born of them--the future Citizens of the Republic--all, in short, who, under stress of injury, strain and hardship abroad, or the sometimes equally strenuous privations of war conditions at home, may, in their respective degrees, be suffering from nervous breakdown or depleted vitality and the various disorders which my proffered remedial measures are so admirably fitted to successfully overcome, bearing, as they must untold relief, comfort and renewed health to thousands.

I have not spared expense in putting this matter fairly and fully before the Authorities--and indeed the initial cost of so doing has already absorbed some $300 or more. That is merely a detail. But the main point is this: That I have offered this valuable knowledge--(practically the work of a lifetime)--to the Nation, together with the prescriptions of my compositions, free of cost, as an earnest of my sympathy and goodwill; and had the Government, seen fit to accept my proposal, the immediate effect would have been that these compounds, which at present, through reduced manufacture and the consequent great scarcity of chemicals (necessarily of the finest description and purity) are very costly, would have been brought by extensive and organized production within the reach of every citizen, removing at once that paramount difficulty of my system, so far as the general public is concerned; namely, the expense.

I append hereto a copy of the article referred to, together with copy of an accompanying letter.

My dear Senator:

The disarrangement of the habits of life of our civilian
population, and the physical needs of our boys who will return from
Europe wounded and crippled, prompts me to offer my services to the
Government for the development of specially enriched foodstuffs to
maintain the health of our people under the strain of the war, but
particularly to aid in the speedy recovery of our boys who return
shattered from the trenches. I have spent more than thirty years in
the study of physiological chemistry and biology, and this study
has been devoted to the application of scientific principles in the
treatment of various diseases.

Hitherto our food experts and medical men have been satisfied with
a ration properly balanced as regards protein, carbohydrates and
fat, but the mineral salts in our food have been given little if
any serious consideration. Indeed, they have usually been dismissed
as "ash." As a matter of fact, however, as the statement I am
sending you under separate cover will show clearly, even to a
layman, mineral salts perform an important function in keeping the
body strong and healthy.

I am prepared to demonstrate that the quantity of essential
minerals in vegetables, small fruit and eggs can be multiplied
several times by scientific fertilization and nutrition. If I can
do this (and I am prepared to prove that I can) the Government
should be willing to arrange for the production of such foods in
connection with every military hospital and convalescent camp, both
here at home and behind the lines in Europe. Moreover, given a
central experimental station with proper equipment, it would be an
easy matter to train men to teach this knowledge to soldiers at
every reconstruction camp.

The statement is made by Dr. Mae H. Cardwell, of Portland, Oregon,
one of the investigators for the Federal Children's Bureau that
millions of children are suffering from lack of sufficient food and
from improper feeding, and she adds that not only the parents but
the doctors, in many cases, need education with respect to what
constitutes proper feeding for children. I think that when you have
read and digested my statement of the function of the mineral salts
in the human economy, you will agree with me that the need for just
what I am asking the government to give me an opportunity of doing
is very great indeed.

I trust that I may count upon your co-operation, not only in
getting this matter before the proper officials, but also in seeing
that an opportunity for a fair demonstration is accorded me.

The dissemination of this knowledge and the production of such
foods would make America the ALMA MATER of the world in scientific
nutrition, thanks to the application of physiological chemistry. As
things are now done in agriculture and in aviculture, however, very
little can be expected along this line.

I will give you two concrete illustrations of what can be done in
the way of augmenting the mineral content of food, and then I will
point out the significance of that fact. We will consider eggs:
ordinarily 100 grams of egg yolk contains from 10 to 20 milligrams
of iron, but eggs laid by hens fed by my method yield from 30 to 80
milligrams of iron per 100 grams of dried yolk. This is an
increase, as you see, of between 300 and 400 per cent. Such eggs
might be justly classed as haemoglobin eggs, and they would be a
godsend to our boys suffering from anaemia due to wounds or
operations. At the same time, my method of handling chickens
greatly enriches the lecithin, or nerve substance, in the eggs, and
they are, therefore, of special value in dealing with cases of
shell shock and nerve exhaustion.

What is true in the case of iron and lecithin content of eggs
produced by my method, is equally true with respect to their
content of all the other essential mineral elements; they are all
multiplied several times.

This is made possible of accomplishment by the application of the
principles of physiological chemistry to the breeding and feeding
of the poultry.

Needless to say, I am prepared to submit to the test of scientific
examination of my claims. No, not merely a theoretical examination
of myself, but, rather, to submit the claim I make for eggs
produced under my direction to the test of chemical analysis. It is
a very easy matter to determine thereby whether my claims are well
founded.

I cannot state my desire to serve the government in this way too
strongly; as I have spent more than thirty years of my life in the
study of biology and physiological chemistry, I feel that it is my
duty to offer to the Government the benefits of my knowledge and
experience. All that I can ask in this connection is to be given an
opportunity to prove that my claims are sound and practical.

I believe that you will realize the full value of such a course of
action as outlined, if it can be proven practicable. The
opportunity of offering proof under direction of the proper branch
of government is, I repeat, all that I ask at the moment, as the
results will tell their own story far more eloquently than mere
words.

Thanking you for giving this matter your attention, and trusting
that my hope of serving in the ranks of those seeking to rebuild
our boys will not prove vain, I am, Sir,

Yours truly,

L. DECHMANN.

THE FUNCTION OF MINERALS IN OUR FOOD:

HOW THEY MAY BE GREATLY INCREASED.

By LOUIS DECHMANN.

1918.

When physiological chemistry has isolated and classified the component elements of the various organs, tissues and fluids of the body, it must analyze and classify the vegetables, fruits and meats on which man feeds in order that we may not only know how to arrange a perfectly balanced ration for the healthy, but shall be able to add lacking elements to the diet of the diseased. This classification of foods naturally leads, if there be a deficiency of any essential element, to the analysis of the soil on which this food was raised.

In the course of my studies in physiological chemistry and biology, which have extended over a period of more than thirty years, I have been led to grappel with problems in agriculture, in horticulture, and in aviculture, for the purpose of finding solutions to problems in human nutrition. Very early in my studies I learned the value of the mineral elements in our foodstuffs. I was led to attempt to augment the quantity of mineral salts in various foods, and my efforts were crowned with success. But this is not the point, however, to enter into a detailed discussion of that aspect of the subject.

It may be wise for the sake of clearness to divide this statement into two parts, as follows:

1. A brief summary of the function of minerals in the human economy.

2. A short argument showing how we can and why it is imperative that we should augment the mineral content of our vegetables, small fruits and eggs.

In the case of eggs, for example, I am able to increase their iron content 300 or 400 per cent. More than that, I can multiply every item in their mineral content several times, thus producing specific eggs for those suffering for lack of any mineral. In other words I am able to produce special eggs for a given tissue degeneration as, for instance, haemoglobin eggs for degenerate blood; lecithin eggs for the nerves; calcareous eggs for the bones, and kaliated eggs for the muscle.

So much by way of preface.

I.

The following explanations are made for the purpose of showing you that I have made extensive studies along these lines, and are not, naturally, intended to be taken as a lesson to you personally.

There are sixteen chemical elements absolutely essential to healthy human life, which are classified by physiological chemistry as the elements of organic life. In the composition of vital tissues we constantly find these basal elements: Carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, chlorine, potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium, iron, manganese, fluorine, silicon, and iodine. The function of these elements will be discussed in a moment.

I would here lay stress upon the fact that the absence of the tiniest ingredient necessary to the growth and functioning of an organ will, according to the Law of the Minimum as laid down by Justus von Liebig, result in disease, improper functioning and degeneration of that organ or tissue.

Although the chemical salts constitute but a small part in the composition of our bodies, and are a very small item in our daily diet, their importance cannot be too strongly emphasized. They are the main sources for the development of electro-magnetic energy in the blood and nerves, and perform other services. I am of the opinion that "vitamines" are neither more or less than these chemicals in proper proportion and relation, but whether you agree or disagree with this conclusion, you will instantly agree that the elements named above are indispensible to perfect metabolism.

It goes without saying, of course, that no action in the world occurs of itself, that is without impulse, hence the body must be given impulse to growth. A series of chemical and physical facts indicate that phosphorus plays this vital part. The property of phosphoric acid of uniting with carburetted hydrogen to form carbonic acid and phosphureted hydrogen certainly is of fundamental importance, as phosphureted hydrogen readily ignites on coming into contact with oxygen. Since cerebrin consists of a combination of phosphoric acid with gelatine which contains ammonium and with oleine, it is easy to infer that the light of the soul may be due to the phosphoric acid in the nerves, and still further the potassium phosphate forming the mineral basis of the muscles. Thus we come to the conclusion that the phosphates, combinations of phosphoric acid with basic substances, possess in general the property of imparting the true impulse to growth, that is to accumulation of organic matter.

Like every other structure, however, the body requires supports and props and, above all, a firm foundation on which to rest. Iron and lime, whose union is secured by their opposition to one another, bring into conjunction materials of contrary disposition for the creating of organic forms of the nature of plant and animal bodies.

The sulphuric compounds are related and yet opposed to the growth determinating phosphoric compounds. All organic building material (protein) contains phosphorus and sulphur, in varying proportions, and all indications are that sulphur plays the part of a regulator in organic growth. Just as an engine requires a governor to regulate its pace, so the human body requires a controlling factor to ensure definite stability. It is interesting to observe that normal blood contains about twice as many sulphates as phosphates. When there is great scarcity of sodium sulphate in the blood, abnormal growths develop from the phosphatic nerve tissues, and they continue to develop so long as the blood and lymph are deficient in sulphur, particularly the sulphates. This is, I believe, the genesis of polyps, tumors and cancers.

In the same manner that sulphuric acid controls and regulates the phosphoric acid of ammonium phosphate, so lime and magnesia act on the ammonia of this same ammonium phosphate.

Phosphatic ammonium carbonate lodges in the gelatinous cartilage and stretches it, when there is a deficiency of lime and magnesia in the food, resulting in rickets. Such a growth of cartilaginous tissues is controlled by lime and magnesia, as they change the pliant cartilage into bony barriers in which small particles of magnesia combine to produce phosphate of ammonium and magnesium which checks the further deposit of cartilage.

Lime and magnesia are indubitably quite as effective agents in the control of ammonia as sulphur is in the control of phosphorus. If we consider the minerals as the foundation and mortar which give stability to the vital machine, leaving out chlorine and fluorine, we find that iron, manganese, potash, soda, and silicic acid play this role. Sulphur, because it possesses the property of becoming gaseous, is able to take part directly in the formation of albumen, that variable basis of body material, whereas all of the other mineral substances except silicic acid can only be assimiliated in so-called binary compounds in the form of salts.

I will give a brief review of them, beginning with iron, as thus the significance of augmentation of the mineral content of vegetables and small fruits and eggs will be made much clearer.

Normal blood albumen is essentially a compound of calcium and sodium into which iron and sulphur both enter. A deficiency of calcium commonly makes itself known by dental defects, just as lack of sulphur reveals itself by the falling out and poor growth of hair. Insufficiency of iron in the blood is evidenced, apart from lack of spirit, by paleness of face and blue lips; insufficient sodium by glandular tumors and abnormal cartilaginous growths.

The entire amount of iron in the blood of an adult person is, on the average under normal conditions, four grams, as much as a nickel weighs. We may well judge that this amount is not sufficient to set the motive power of our bodies in action, if we overlook that complex factor the circulation of blood. The left side of the heart has the capacity of containing about six ounces of blood, and every heart beat drives this amount through the aorta. With seventy beats to the minute, twenty-five pounds of blood is pumped from the heart every minute. What is the result? That the four grams of iron keep up such an incessant movement that they pass from the heart into the aorta sixty times an hour or 1440 times in 24 hours. It may be asserted, therefore, that in 24 hours 13 pounds of iron (that is 1440x4 grams) pass from the heart into the aorta. Can it be doubted, in view of this, that the iron serves to produce an electro-dynamic force?

In respect to the generation of electricity, it matters not whether there be an entirely new supply of iron passing a given point, or whether the same iron pass that point anew each minute. Two factors work together in the circulation of the blood, namely, the active attraction of nerve tissue and the passive susceptibility of the blood contents to that attraction. Faraday has conclusively shown that blood is magnetic in character because of the iron it contains. If four grams of iron is the normal quantity in the blood, it is clear that the reduction of this amount, say by two grams, will lessen its susceptibility and slacken its circulation. The electrical nerve ends will then strain in vain for the electricity which the blood current should yield, and the result will be neuralgia.

It is the magnetic iron in haemoglobin which makes every sort of nervous function possible, in the cerebral (brain) and in the sympathetic (intestinal) tracts, and since it is thus made clear that intellectual activity on the one hand and breathing and digestion and excretion on the other are dependent on the iron content of the blood, we must also recognize that, as iron attends every nerve action, the secretion of urine too takes place under the influence of haemoglobin. Insofar as haemoglobin hastens the departure of the excrementitious matter in urine out of the system, there is a daily loss of iron in the urine. This loss in the form of urohaematin may total four centigrams, or a hundredth part of our supply.

This loss of iron if not replaced by eating suitable food will soon make itself felt. In the course of a day the reduction by four centigrams will diminish the energy of nervous activity about 1440 times the apparent loss, so that even a four weeks-tropical fever, during which no meat is eaten, may completely exhaust the strength of an individual. Moreover, iron conditions bodily warmth as it combines with oxygen in a higher and a lower degree. In the lungs it is highly oxidized by the respired oxygen, but in contact with the nerve ends it gives itself only to a part of the oxygen present, and burns a certain portion of the lecithin to water, carbonic acid and phosphates, thus creating body warmth to a considerable extent.

In response to the chemical consumption of lecithin a new oil flows down the axis cylinders of the nerve fibrils, which are arranged like lamp wicks. The duration of the flow of this oil is, on the average, about eighteen hours. When the cerebro-spinal nerves refuse longer to perform their function, fatigue and sleep ensue, and the current of blood leaves the brain and seeks the intestines. While the cerebro-spinal system rests, the sympathetic system takes up its task of directing the renewal of tissue and supplying the nerve sheaths through the lymph vessels, which draw their material from the digestive canal, with a new supply of phosphatic oil. Thus the brain and spinal nervous system are prepared for another day's work. For the fulfillment of these processes, the magnetic blood current forms the intermediary.

The presence of formic and acetic acid supplies the blood with fresh electricity to stimulate the nerves. "Under normal conditions," says Julius Hensel, "this function is assigned to the spleen. This organ takes the part of a rejuvenating influence in the body in the manner of a relay station, and does so by virtue of an invisible but significant device. In every other region of the body the hairlike terminals of the arteries which branch out from the heart merge directly in the tiny tubes (capillaries) of the veins, which lead back to the heart again: in the spleen this is not the case. Here rather the arteries end suddenly when they have diminished to a diameter of one one-hundred-and-fortieth of an inch and end in a bulb (the Malpighian bodies). Under such circumstances the sudden stoppage, particularly the impact of the magnetic blood stream against the membrane of a Malpighian body, exemplifies the physical law of the induction of electricity, in accordance with which the blood that enters the spleen is changed into plasma and exudes through the membrane of the Malpighian bodies. The event indicates some fluidity of the red blood cells, which is a change effected in the body by the impact of electric sparks, and one which electrical therapy also brings about locally to prevent increase in the solid constituents of the blood."

The numerous Malpighian bodies in the spleen act as so many electrical conductors, and the product of their electrical activity is found in the formic and acetic acid of the fluid plasma which filters through the Malpighian corpuscles and supplies the acid tissue of the spleen (pulpa splenica). These acids are the electrolytic division products of lecithin. In the splenic pulp arise the capillaries of the splenic veins whose acid blood is carried directly to the liver, where certain cells formed like galvanic elements possess the property, through the electrical action of formic and acetic acid, of extracting from blood albumen the opposite of acids, namely, alkaline bile. The normal functioning of the liver, therefore, is dependent upon that of the spleen, and since the bile produced by the liver goes to aid the digestive activity of the duodenum, disturbance of digestion must result when the quality of the bile is inferior.

One of the substances contained in bile, lecithin, is of wide importance. When it was referred to a moment ago, I spoke only of its individual chemical nature as a fat in combination with ammonium phosphate, as by so doing I avoided error in connection with its apparently complicated formula, which includes glycerophosphoric acid, trimethylamin, palmitic and stearic acids. As it is a fatty substance, the only question that arises, is, what does it contain besides fat? This may be answered by a process of substraction:

2 (C_{21} H_{42} O_{4}) C_{42} H_{84} O_{8} which represents tallow or stearate of glycerine. Lecithin, C_{42} H_{84} O_{9} NP, differs from this only by a larger amount of NP. The significance of this difference becomes clear when two atoms of water are added. Then ammonium phosphate, PO_{3} H_{4}, N is formed. The two atoms of water needed for the condensation of the ammonium phosphate from the stearate are obtained by separating them away from two of glycerine.

The bile contains lecithin in a partially oxidized form. The chemical "remainders" are biliverdin and cholesterin. The latter when normal has, as you know, the power to neutralize snake venoms and other poisons, and thus acts as a natural anti-toxin. In addition, the bile contains combinations of stearine with gelatine and with carbonate and sulphate of sodium, which theoretical chemists believe are twin compounds of glycocholate and taurocholate. These fatty compounds depend upon stearine partly oxidized, that is deprived of a certain number of atoms of hydrogen.

As the compounds of fatty acids with ammoniacal blood gelatine and sodium carbonate, the ingredients of the bile also, develop into a peculiar soap. In the economy of the body the bile acts as a soap. When it is discharged into the duodenum, it changes the fats into so fine an emulsion (chyle) that the microscopically fine drops of fat may be drawn into the orifices of the lymph canals and conveyed to the circulatory system, and the cleavage products of albumen produced by gastric digestion, the peptones (leucin and tyrosin) are carried along with them for the renewal of tissue cells consumed in respiration.

If a soda soap is requisite for the purpose just stated, it follows that soda in the food is essential, as otherwise the supply of soda in the blood albumen cannot be renewed, and the bile cannot get its necessary supply of soda from blood albumen devoid of soda. Consequently, the entire nutritive process is dependent upon bile, and the bile cannot properly perform its function if denied soda.

In addition to carbonates of sodium, especially the hydrocarbonate known as glycolate, the bile apparently contains ammonium sulphate combined with hydrocarbon (taurin); but this results from the transposition of sodium sulphate and gelatine. Gelatine contains six atoms of hydrocarbon joined with two of ammonium carbonate, a group which is separable by chemical action into five of carburetted hydrogen with ammonium carbonate (leucin or gelatine milk), C_{5} H_{10}, CO_{2}, NH_{3}, and into one of carburetted hydrogen with ammonium carbonate (glycin or gelatine sugar), CH_{2}, CO_{2}, NH_{3}. This latter substance, gelatine sugar, is not produced in the liver, as it exists already in the blood gelatine. In an isolated condition it has the property, in virtue of its ammoniacal acids and its carbonic acid bases and, therefore, of both combined, its salts, of producing chemical fixation. This property is conveyed to the undivided blood gelatine in which the gelatine sugar is contained intramolecularly.

Since normal blood albumen is inconceivable without sulphur it is absolutely essential, in accordance with our knowledge of the constituents of the bile and their origin, that our nutriment should contain a sufficiency of sodium sulphate, if normal blood serum is to be produced. The use of pepsin for this purpose cannot serve nature's purpose, as it contains neither sodium carbonate nor sodium sulphate. Our blood must be given a fresh and sufficient supply of sodium carbonate and sodium sulphate via our food, if it is to produce normal bile and supply the requisites of normal nutrition.

It is erroneously held that sodium sulphate is simply a laxative, even Borner's "Royal Medical Calendar" so classifies it. Often it discharges this function, it is true, in concentrated solution (one to five). But it is an important ingredient of healthy blood albumen (one to one thousand), and in this proportion assists in the formation of normal bile.

The blood of the Caucasian race is found to contain about ten parts of salt to the thousand, and this proportion of salt denotes firm tissue material. If the quantity of salt in the blood is diminished, the bi-concave red blood cells swell to a spherical form from access of water and lose their ability to unite for the production of connective tissue. Moreover, to the extent salt in the blood cells is decreased the connective tissue and muscle and tendon substance absorb water and the tissues become spongy, especially in the kidneys, so that the thinned blood albumen seeps through (urea albumen).

Phosphate of potassium is the mineral basis of muscle tissue, phosphate of lime with a small amount of magnesium phosphate the basis of bones, and phosphate of ammonium the bases of nervous tissue. There is a sufficient quantity of phosphate in all healthy foods. When the milk fed to nurslings, however, is greatly thinned with water instead of firm muscle fibers and solid lymph glands we find loose and spongy tissues. This is a scrofulous condition.

In the formation of healthy bones and teeth, calcium fluoride is essential. It is insoluble in plain water, but is made soluble by the aid of the glycocoll in blood gelatine and changed into ammonium fluoride. It appears in this form in the cartilaginous matter of the eye lenses, and lack of calcium fluoride in the food results in the clouding of these lenses.

Silicic acid is not only indispensible to the growth of hair, but it forms a direct connection between blood and nerve tissues. It is found in birds eggs, both in the white and the yolk. It is a conservator of heat and electricity as it is a good insulator. It also possesses eminent antiseptic qualities. Its mere presence in the intestinal canal, even its simple passage through the canal; conserves the electrical activity of the intestinal nerves and thus influences the whole sympathetic nervous system.

This brief review, cursory as it is, of the function of the minerals in the renewal of substances undergoing tissue change, makes it clear that our daily food must contain a sufficient quantity of them if healthy metabolism is to be maintained.

Chemically considered the human body is one individual whole, its characteristic chemical basis being gelatine. Lieut. C.E. McDonald, U.S.A. Medical Corps, recognized this when he recently wrote: "The similarity of chemical compositions explains why, when any particular region falls a prey to chemical decomposition, others quickly become affected."

Oxygen gas is the medium through which chemical combustion is carried on in the body for the purpose of preparing materials to enter into its composition. The mineral salts already named not only form the solid basis of the various tissue but also serve as conductors or insulators of electricity in the body. The absence of one of them for a protracted period is sufficient to explain widespread degeneration in the system.

In view of the fact that these various minerals play an indispensable part in healthy metabolism it is imperative that a sufficiency of them should be supplied in proper proportion in our daily food. It is imperative, if we desire to retain or to restore health to the body.

These mineral elements are to be found in the first instance in the earth, but they are of no use to the body in that form. We cannot digest and assimilate inorganic matter no matter how finely it may be pulverized. But plants can assimilate them from the earth and organize them in such form as to make them easily assimilable by animals and man.

If the soil on which our food is produced is itself deficient in some of these elements, our food must also lack them. If, moreover, we cannot for any reason add the missing elements to the soil, we must supply them to the human system in the shape of prepared nutritive salts. It is preferable, of course, that our food should contain all of the elements necessary for the proper nourishment of the body.

Thus we are forced to return to consideration of the soil. It is an established fact that our fields were originally formed from decayed rock, and analysis shows that this primitive rock contains the same minerals as healthy blood. But if our agriculturists are taught that stable manure and three or four other things are all that is necessary for the fertilization of their fields, where shall the other minerals essential to human metabolism come from?

What a man is, largely depends upon what he eats. Hence man is very largely a product of the fields. When the soil is denuded of any of the elements essential to plant and animal life, it must be properly fertilized. Incomplete or improper fertilization can have but one result, to-wit, it will produce sickly vegetation, and this in turn must produce unhealthy cattle, and since man is dependent upon plant and animal life for his food a sickly race of human beings is the ultimate result.

Is not barrenness of the soil responsible for disease in potatoes, for San Jose scale, Phylloxera, and other similar phenomena. The fields are manured profusely, it is true, but the very chemical elements which are not only essential to the development of wholesome plant tissue but which would also enable the plant to protect itself against parasites, are not used. Every farmer has observed, for instance, that grass grown upon cow dung in pastures is not eaten by cows, oxen or sheep. The instinct of the animals is correct.

In using the term incomplete fertilization, I mean supplying only potash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen, and possibly lime and sulphur, when the soil is denuded of several other elements. No matter how rich a field may be made in these things if it lacks other elements healthy vegetation cannot be grown in it.