64 MAN, THE ANIMAL 



muscle, is about as far as science has advanced in 

 explaining what makes our bodies go. 



In living processes, there always remain waste 

 products. Between the stage where foods are 

 actually built into living protoplasm and the forma- 

 tion of wastes, there is a gap in our information. 

 Non-living bodies never form wastes and there is 

 no parallel between the wasting away of rocks and 

 the use of this term in connection with living mat- 

 ter. The waste products of protoplasm cannot be 

 used by the same organism that produces them. 

 Yet carbon dioxide, the waste product of respira- 

 tion in all forms of life, contains energy which the 

 green plant in a different vital process must have 

 if it is to manufacture food, which emphasizes the 

 intricacy and mutual dependence of living things. 



All of the results of the studies on what makes 

 the body go mean that one cannot get something 

 from nothing. There is no patented road to 

 health. After a time adequate food, hygienic liv- 

 ing and rest are all unsuccessful in preventing the 

 end. Life ceases while the body is abundantly 

 supplied with food energy, which suggests that dif- 

 ferent methods must be devised before man un- 

 ravels the mystery of death. 



The numerous experiments of Atwater, Bene- 

 dict, and others indicate clearly that there is 

 more energy in the food which man eats than is 

 rendered available by the metabolic process. 

 These studies are particularly enlightening as we 



