156 BIOLOGICAL PHYSICS 



fluid, and show, while chemically dissimilar in composition, 

 that they are identical in physiological operation or manner 

 of working, and that they make up among them a great 

 cycle of chemico-physiological activities through a material 

 or physical continuity of physiological fluidities or secre- 

 tions these latter ranging from, or consisting of, the chyle, 

 the blood, the lymph, and the special organic fluids, such 

 as are poured into the alimentary canal, concluding with 

 the exhausted and adynamic residual materials eliminated 

 from the various excretionary organs as alvine, renal, and 

 cutaneous evacuations. It is needless to point out that 

 water necessarily constitutes the fluid basis of every 

 variety of physiological liquid, and forms the vehicle of 

 conveyance and the medium in which all the chemico- 

 physiological phenomena of tissue integration and disinte- 

 gration take place ; it is, therefore, the sine qua non of 

 nutrition in all its phases, and the element most essential 

 in all varieties of alimentation and dietetic formularies. 



