45o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



vidual, no matter where his dwelling place, is more or less subject to 

 tubercle bacilli; for, besides the utmost restriction of their prevalence 

 by sanitary effort, unless the individual is possessed by an organism 

 sufficiently fortified to resist and overcome conflict with them — for the 

 conflict is certain everywhere — he is liable to contract tuberculosis. 

 Hence it is that about one quarter of all the deaths recorded of man- 

 kind during adult life, is caused by tuberculosis, and nearly one half 

 of the entire population, at some time in life, acquires the disease. 



Tubercle bacilli are, indeed, abroad everywhere, a constant menace 

 and challenge to one's power of resistance. Every intelligent person 

 knows that the power of resisting the ordinary exciting causes of ill- 

 ness, such as sudden changes of temperature, exposure to damp soil, 

 room or sheets, or night air with the windows closed, depends upon 

 one's state of health. The power of resisting tubercle bacilli is no 

 exception. 



Health fortified by such conditions as the organism depends upon 

 for its fabrication and maintenance opposes itself to all exciting causes 

 of disease by the relative integrity, strength and vigor of all the organs 

 and functions of the body. A person thus equipped, if beset by 

 tubercle bacilli or other microbes, effectually resists them, devours 

 them by oxidation and casts them off. 



Feebleness, on the contrary, though not always appreciated, and 

 sometimes cultivated, indeed, by the practise of that altogether too 

 popular fad, abstemiousness, is always and everywhere a prevailing 

 'predisposition' to disease; and, associated as it commonly is with in- 

 adequate nourishment, it is the most frequent of all incitants to tuber- 

 culosis. Abstemiousness, however, is variable in its practise, and 

 uncertain; one may over-eat and yet abstain from some essential food 

 necessary for the maintenance of health. Adequate nourishment and 

 stamina depend upon the supply of nutriment in the kinds and pro- 

 portions required by our bodies. Food is required for a two-fold pur- 

 pose; (1) to supply material for the construction and repair of tissue, 

 and (2) to supply fuel for its maintenance, the production of heat and 

 energy. 



It is not necessary to our present purpose to pursue the subject of 

 the origin and nature of food in its general sense, but to emphasize 

 the importance of the essential elements of food comprehended in the 

 various organic and inorganic compounds of which food consists, as 

 follows: Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, 

 chlorin, iodin, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium and iron. 



It is not by any means necessary that a food should yield all these 

 elements, indeed there is but one such food — milk — that is complete 

 in this respect, and perfect, upon which the young of all mammalian 

 animals are, or should be, for a time exclusively nourished. Neither 



