750 Reading-Course for Farmers' Wives, 



indicates that some of the cells or groups of cells are not performing their 

 work properly. 



Care of the body means care and protection of its individual members, 

 the cells. The whole construction of the body is to serve the cell. The 

 long alimentary tract, which includes mouth, stomach and intestines, 

 is a sort of factory where food is sorted and the part that is extracted 

 is made over into a form which can pass into the blood vessels and by 

 them may be carried to the cells. After the food material has been 

 gotten into the right condition the blood vessels transport it from the 

 alimentary tract to the most remote parts of the body and each cell has 

 an opportunity of selecting the foods needed for its own special work. 

 Bone cells may choose the mineral matter which they deposit about 

 themselves, and the other materials needed for their construction; 

 muscle cells choose the substances they need for growtli and energy ; and 

 so on until each cell is provided for. The little red corpuscles of the 

 blood, which give it its color, have as their part of the body's work the 

 task of carrying oxygen to all the cells. 



THE FOODSTUFFS 



The food problem may now be explained. It is to supply each little 

 worker in the body, muscle cell, nerve cell, bone cell, blood cell, skin cell, 

 and the rest, with those materials which are needed for the particular 

 kind of work the cell has to do. A part of the same problem is to see 

 that the systems which are concerned with carrying the food to the cells, 

 and removing waste products are kept flushed, clean and in good con- 

 dition. If in man's daily food there is a lack of some one or more of the 

 materials needed in constructing bone, nerve, muscle, red corpuscles, 

 digestive juices, etc., then it means that the cells concerned suffer a 

 kind of starvation and undergo hunger, a condition which may gradually 

 undermine the health of the organism by weakening the ability of its 

 workers to perform their functions in the right way. 



Power to do work must always have some source. The steam engine 

 derives its power from the fuel which is burned in its grates. The same 

 material that is used as a fuel for the engine has not, however, the 

 ability to replace its worn parts, to lubricate, cleanse and repair it. 

 We do not try to burn bricks and iron in the furnance, nor, on the other 

 hand, do we attempt to repair it with bits of coal and wood. The body 

 is often and aptly compared to an engine, needing both fuel and build- 

 ing material. Food must supply this twofold need. It must furnish 

 a source of power for the manifestation of the various activities of the 



