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.

Improper fertilization is another matter. It may consist in dressing a

field with nothing but stable manure, or of applying crude sulphur or

brimestone instead of using calcium sulphate--plus the other lacking

elements. The advocate of crude sulphur certainly does not know how

truly criminal his advice is. It is not to be denied that at the outset

sulphur will increase the crop yield. But in the end--what? The sulphur

will dissolve all of the essential minerals in the soil, and in the

course of four or five years they will all be leached out and it will be

so barren that not even wild grass can be grown upon it. Improper

fertilization may also consist of a dressing of carbonate of lime

applied at the wrong time or in excessive quantity. The effect of this

course will be equally as harmful, namely, the transformation of the

nitrogenous material into free nitrogen which will ascend to heaven.

Without nitrogen albumen cannot be formed, and without albumen the

formation of vegetable and animal tissue is impossible.

Wholesome soil may, then, be defined thus: It is such ground as contains

a sufficient supply of humus and nitrogen and all of the essential

mineral components of organic tissue. The problem of fertilization,

therefore, consists of supplying any or all of these elements in which

the soil is deficient. The aim of fertilization, as a rule, is merely to

increase crop production. But this may prove to be not merely

shortsighted, it may turn out to be a social crime. It is criminal,

indeed, as a great many diseases are directly traceable to incomplete

and improper fertilization.

Let us face the effect of attempting to fertilize our fields with

nothing more than stable manure, which, it is true, supplies phosphoric

acid, potash and nitrogen. We know that phosphorus forms the foundation

of nerves, and too much of it provokes nerve irritation in exact ratio

to the deficiency of sulphur. There should be twice as many sulphuric

salts as phosphoric salts in the blood, if it is to be normal and the

nerves are to be steady. Foodstuffs from fields that have been

fertilized in this manner must, of course, contain a superabundance of

phosphoric salts and be deficient in sulphuric salts. Is it strange,

then, that the present age presents a picture of restless, irritated

nervous activity and thoughtless action?

We must return to the primitive rock and humbly learn the lesson it has

for us, and upon this rock we must rear our science of fertilization and

nutrition. This rock consisted of granite, porphyry, gneiss and basalt,

and these are still found upon the earth in immense quantities in

practically the same condition they were thousands of years ago. Both

Justus von Liebig and Julius Hensel, as a matter of fact, advocated that

this rock should be finely pulverized and used as a compost to assist in

restoring and maintaining the original fertility of the soil and thus

aid the development of healthy plant and animal life.

Indeed the instincts of both animals and human beings lead them under

certain conditions right back to the rock and its lesson. Note the

avidity with which hens confined in arid runs devoid of vegetation,

worms, insects and small stones devour a compound of lime and ground

bones and oyster shells. Observe a child whose ration is deficient in

mineral elements eating egg shells, wall plaster, chalk and other earthy

substances. What do these things mean? Nothing more than this: both

chicken and child express a natural craving for the essential elements

to build bone and form the basis for the tissue.

I have discussed the important part the minerals play in both the

vegetable and animal kingdoms for the purpose of laying stress upon our

great need of more of them in our daily diet, and I may add that this is

equally as true in the case of those we call healthy as of those who are

diseased. No matter how carefully the diet may be regulated as regards

the quantity of protein and carbohydrates and fats and the ratio between

them, healthy metabolism is impossible without a sufficiency of the

essential minerals.