Summer Meeting. 135 



of far too many homes has had the oxygen consumed by red hot stoves, 

 made heavy -with the carbolic acid gas of smoky lamps, or of still worse 

 smoky fathers, not to speak of the combination of impure breath coming 

 from the whole family. If we could look at it under a microscope we 

 should see it full of wiggling body exhalations, yet mothers and nurse^ 

 taboo opened windows — drafts are so dangerous! Put then first, most 

 important of all that feeds the baby — or the gro^^Ti up body as well — 

 oxygen in full unstinted measure. Xever be without a full stream flow- 

 ing from some source, for the good God has made it free to all creatures. 

 The amount we should take is more by weight than all the other food 

 elements combined. ISText to oxygen in importance we place water, for 

 it makes up from two-thirds to three-fourths of our bodies. This large 

 per cent must be supplied from some source. Since many elements used 

 for food are compounded of water we obtain much in this way — ^besides 

 we have a natural craving which would lead us to seek it, but as a matter 

 of fact modern scientists assert that we do not drink enough, nor for that 

 matter the right stuff, so much of our drink being mixed with mineral 

 and organic impurities. Besides air and water we must put into this 

 wonderful chemical laboratory of the body as heat producers, nitro- 

 genous and carbonaceous foods, for there is work to be done — energy 

 generated. As Mrs. Eichards says, "The power to do mechanical work 

 comes from the consumption of fuel, the burning of woods, coal or gas; 

 and this potential energy of fuel is often expressed in units of heat or 

 calories, a calorie being nearly the amount of heat required to raise two 

 quarts of water one degree Fahrenheit. The animal body also requires 

 its fuel, namely food, in order to do other work, its thinking, its talking 

 or even its worrvins;. The animal bodv is more than a machine. It 

 requires fuel to enable it not only to work but also to live, even without 

 working." We can not go directly to nature for this force power, that 

 is, we can not obtain the elements, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, 

 sulphur, sodium, etc., as such, for these mineral elements in a state of 

 nature are wholly useless as food; even nitrogen which forms about 

 four-fifths of the air we breath, can not come to us through the lungs, 

 as oxygen does, but must be taken from foods which contain it. We 

 can not as the plant does take food at first hand, for air, water and soil 

 fill its needs; we must take the products manufactured by plant life as 



