220 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 



four pounds of minerals in each hundred, and in 

 the juices there are certain remarkable agents 

 which are crystallizable, which have an alkaline 

 reaction, and which unite with acids to form salts. 

 These are creatine, creatinine, osmazome, etc. We 

 hardly know where to class these agents, but they 

 are undoubtedly of the highest importance in nour- 

 ishing our bodies. 



In case of deficiency of mineral compounds in 

 the economy, it is possible to supply a part of 

 them by the use of the substances themselves, but 

 there are others which can enter only through 

 the "food. 



Common salt (chloride of sodium) furnishes 

 directly and readily the sodium salts and com- 

 pounds. Iron can be supplied to the blood by ad- 

 ministering it in various forms and combinations, 

 or by giving the pure metal in powder. 



Perhaps lime in some of its soluble forms is 

 assimilable, and the same may also be said of phos- 

 phorus, as held in the weaker chemical combina- 

 tions, as in hypophosphorous acid, and in the alka- 

 line hypophosphite salts. ' If invalids who need the 

 lime and phosphorus compounds would use whole 

 wheat bread, they would secure the mineral food in 

 a perfectly natural way. In the outer covering of 

 the wheat terry, for some good reason, those ele- 

 ments are mainly stored up, and if we sift out and 



