Safeguards against Disease 145 



take in a very nondescript mess of chemical 

 substances, and incidentally a good many mill- 

 ions a day of bacteria. The intestinal processes 

 spell death to myriads of bacteria with which 

 our uncooked foods are mingled. The chemi- 

 cal substances are pulled to pieces by the diges- 

 tive juices, and a part of this refined food-stuff 

 gets into the blood. The residue is regularly 

 and safely disposed of. The part which gets 

 into the blood is robbed of some of its harm- 

 ful ingredients in the liver or elsewhere. The 

 rest of the internal waste gets out through 

 the kidneys or lungs or by the sweat-glands 

 of the skin. The selected elements of the 

 food finally come to the body cells, which 

 proceed to tear it further to pieces, use what 

 they want, and again set free another set of 

 residues, some of them very poisonous if 

 retained in the body, but in health got safely 

 rid of again by the kidneys, lungs, and skin. 

 Thus it is that while in the ordinary course 

 of life we are constantly beset with varied 

 and subtle poisons, the mechanism of the 

 body is so nicely adjusted that we are saved 

 from harm by our cells, some of which feed 



