How can we perform this imperative duty to mankind?
The solution of the problem of supplying these essential minerals
demands that our soil shall be properly fertilized for the growing of
wholesome vegetables and fruits and our cattle properly fed with a
ration rich in mineral content. Thus the food which we eat will contain
all of the elements necessary to the growth and maintenance of our
bodies in a state of health.
In the course of my effort to show why it is imperative that we pay
greater heed to the mineral content of our foodstuffs, and why it is
imperative that we enrich that content, I have shown basically how that
end is to be attained.
In conclusion I will cite the result of a series of experiments in
applying the principles of physiological chemistry to poultry, and I may
say that it took me twelve years to find the breed which would most
readily lend itself to my purpose. I experimented with 250 varieties of
hens before I found the one most amenable to my method of feeding and
breeding.
While living at Needham, Massachusetts, I made a thorough test of my
principles with the selected variety of hens. They were not only fed a
ration properly balanced for protein, carbohydrates and fat, but I gave
them a liberal supply of properly prepared mineral salts. I used three
different mixtures of feed, made up in 100 pound lots, in which the
proportion of albumen ranged from 13.50 to 18.00 pounds; of fat from
4.00 to 5.00 pounds; of carbohydrates from 41 to 44 pounds; and actual
nutritive salts from 4.50 to 5.00 pounds. The respective ratios being:
1:4, 1:3.5 and 1:3
It is not necessary to enter into discussion of the details of the
feeding method and the variation in the daily handling of the hens. The
result of this experiment, however, was completely satisfactory, as the
eggs produced by those hens not only contained a startling increase in
the quantity of mineral salts, but their fertility was far greater than
that of hens handled in the usual manner. The increase of fertility in
itself is, it seems to me, the best proof of the soundness of my
theoretical premises.
Some of the results of this experiment were published in the Reliable
Poultry Journal in 1905, and Dr. Woods offered confirmatory evidence of
the soundness of my conclusions two years later, after he had himself
experimented along the same line.
I will cite just one fact revealed by that experiment, namely, that
whereas 100 grams of dried egg yolk ordinarily contains only from 10 to
20 milligram of iron the eggs of those hens yielded from 30 to 80
milligrams. And all of the minerals were increased from 10 to 25 per
cent or more.
The method of applying the principles of physiological chemistry to the
enriching of the mineral content of our foodstuffs evolved by me is,
with due recognition of the difference between the vegetable and animal
kingdoms, equally applicable in the raising of all our foodstuffs with
an augmented mineral content. I will adduce just one result of my work
in the handling of small fruit: on the average, 100 grams of dried
strawberries will yield 8.6 to 9.3 milligrams of iron, but strawberries
raised by me yield from 30 to 40 milligrams per 100 grams.
In view of the facts with regard to the function of these minerals, it
is indisputably true that a ration is physiologically inefficient if it
does not contain a sufficiency of them in proper proportion. Moreover,
this is trebly true in the case of those whose constitution has been
weakened by loss of blood from rounds, by shell shock and trench fever,
and of those here at home whose nerve tissue has been degenerated and
whose blood has been weakened by anxiety and the strain of unwonted
manual labor. The last consideration applies with especial force to the
multitudes of women who have entered industry as manual laborers. What
kind of offspring can we expect from these people whose plasma is thus
degenerated? The children are the citizens of the future, and even
before they are born we must plan for their health.
What could be more effective in treating the anaemic condition of
wounded and crippled boys, and in treating the same condition in women
industrial workers, than haemoglobin eggs?
What could be more efficacious in treating conditions arising from shell
shock, from bad wounds and operations thereon, and neurasthenia in
general, than an abundance of lecithin (which, as you know, dear doctor,
is made from the yolk of the egg)?
What could be more successfully used in treating conditions arising from
shattered bones and from operations for the removal of bone tissue than
calcareous eggs in connection with a ration perfectly balanced as
regards all of the other essential elements.
For the regeneration of the blood and bone and nerve tissue of these
victims of war, something more than a sufficiency of nutritive food, as
that term is commonly used, is needed, and something more than medicine
is needed!
I am the last person in the world to deny that wonderful progress is
made in surgery every day, and the last to fail to applaud its
successful efforts, but you know quite as well as I do that in 90 out
of 100 cases recovery involves exhaustion of the patient's reserve
energy. Moreover, when the reserve energy has already been drawn upon
almost to the point of exhaustion, no matter how successful the
operation may be the recovery of the patient is a very doubtful
quantity. The first requisite in all surgical cases, as also in all
anaemic and neurasthenic cases, is to restore metabolism to its normal
condition and thus help the patient to regain his reserve energy in
order to prevent the collapse of the whole fabric.
It is indubitably true that healthy metabolism and the restoration of
reserve energy depends upon the organism being given the requisite
quantity of the sixteen essential elements of organic life in easily
digestible and assimilable form, and I am asking for the opportunity to
demonstrate how foods extremely rich in these elements may be produced
and used to aid nature. I have not entered into a full discussion of the
various aspects of my method of accomplishing that, but have confined
myself to consideration of the basic principles underlying it. Neither
have I attempted to show how these different minerals will serve as
regenerative agents in different dysaemic conditions. I am prepared to
discuss the matter from both of these viewpoints, however, and, more
than that, I am ready to practically demonstrate the soundness of my
theories, when given an opportunity under proper conditions to do so.
--Sapienti sat--