36 NUTRITION NOT CHEMICAL. 



going on in living beings to which I would draw the atten- 

 tion of Physicians and Physiologists. The following 

 chemical and mechanical doctrines, expressed or implied in 

 this work, seem to me open to serious objection. By 

 oxidation " used organs " are made soluble or volatile, to 

 facilitate their removal from the body. Heat acts by dilating 

 the capillaries, and thus permitting freer circulation. Cold 

 acts by constricting the capillaries. The solid parts of the food 

 increase chemical action in the stomach. Nutrition is a great 

 chemical process. Nutrition and oxidation are always taking 

 place in each particle of the human body during life. 



Dr. Bence Jones also remarks, that We are jttst ceasing to 

 regard the nervous force as the origin of all the power in the body. 

 We have ceased to look on the human machine as a creator of 

 vital force. But when and by whom was the nervous force 

 regarded as the origin of all the power in the body, and the 

 human machine considered to be a creator of vital force ? I 

 am not aware of a single memoir or book published during 

 the last fifty years, in which these things are stated. Imagi- 

 nary people are credited with imaginary views in order that 

 doctrines never entertained should be demolished. 



With regard to " the two great chemical processes of oxida- 

 tion and nutrition," which are " always taking place in each 

 particle of the human body during life," and which consti- 

 tute the mainspring of those forces which are summed up 

 in the word " life," I venture to remark : 



i. That nutrition cannot properly be termed a chemical 

 process, because the term " nutrition " implies much more 

 than either physical or chemical change, or both; while there 

 is no known chemical process or action which resembles the 

 process of nutrition, as it occurs in things which " live." 



