HYGIENE OF RESPIRATION 189 



mon among unlettered people which holds that disease 

 is a distinct thing, and that when God made the various 

 diseases, he made plants to grow, each of which contains 

 the infallible remedy for one of the diseases. Such per- 

 sons when they are ill, and after various treatments remain 

 ill, cherish the firm conviction that if they could only find 

 the .right remedy that is growing in some plant, somewhere 

 in the world, they would, immediately be cured, without 

 any attention to hygiene and the conditions necessary to 

 health and its recovery. Patent medicine venders particu- 

 larly foster this idea, although each one illogically adds 

 that his medicine will cure all diseases indiscriminately. 

 They give instances of the cat and dog that get sick and 

 cease eating meat for a time and are said to eat grass. 



330. This simple theory is opposed to all the facts. 

 The poisons in plants are waste products that the plant 

 seeks to remove. They are therefore found mostly in the 

 parts of the plant that will be shed, as the leaves, seeds, 

 and bark. The poisons serve meanwhile to protect the 

 plant from animals. The only animals (besides man) that 

 will touch the tobacco plant are the goat and the tobacco 

 worm; their bodies seem to have become used to the 

 poison. No sick cat eats nightshade, no sick cow eats 

 jimson weed. The very bitter or repulsive taste of most 

 poisons show them to be unsuited to the animal body. 

 No child would drink a liquid containing the bitter alkaloid 

 caffeine, unless it were influenced by the example of its 

 elders, and the bitter taste were disguised with milk and 

 sugar. 



APPLIED PHYSIOLOGY 

 EXERCISE I 



i. State how in the case of a person of poor figure, a gradual re- 

 molding of the cartilages (which ones ?), the strengthening of the 

 muscles (which ones ?), and the practice of deep breathing may each 

 contribute toward acquiring a correct and perfect figure. 



