NOURISH THE GELATINOUS TISSUES. 99 



same, the organic force by which the constituents 

 of the blood are transformed into cellular tissue and 

 membranes must necessarily be enfeebled by sick- 

 ness. In the sick man, the intensity of the vital 

 force, its power to produce metamorphoses, must be 

 diminished as well in the stomach as in all other 

 parts of the body. In this condition, the uniform 

 experience of practical physicians shews that gela- 

 tinous matters in a dissolved state exercise a most 

 decided influence on the state of the health. Given 

 in a form adapted for assimilation, they serve to 

 husband the vital force, just as may be done, in the 

 case of the stomach, by due preparation of the food 

 in general. Brittleness in the bones of graminivo- 

 rous animals is clearly owing to a weakness in those 

 parts of the organism whose function it is to convert 

 the constituents of the blood into cellular tissue- 

 and membrane ; and if we can trust to the reports 

 of physicians who have resided in the East, the 

 Turkish women, in their diet of rice, and in the 

 frequent use of enemata of strong soup, have united 

 the conditions necessary for the formation both of 

 cellular tissue and of fat. 



H 2 



