LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 233 



supply the loss which the blood has suffered, one of 

 these two things must happen ; it must either he 

 assimilated, or not assimilated; or, to use the com- 

 mon, erroneous language, digested, or not digested. 

 If it be assimilated that is, converted into blood 

 then it is clear that there will be more blood in the 

 vessels than there ought to be. Let me illustrate 

 again. Suppose the case of a healthy man so 

 healthy, that he cannot be healthier. Let us suppose 

 the whole quantity of blood in his body to be 

 thirty pounds. Let us further suppose, that, in 

 twenty-four hours, one pound of his blood is lost 

 in supplying the waste of the body. Now, if this 

 man eat, in one day, so much food as will produce 

 a pound and a half of blood, what follows ? Why, 

 that his blood has lost a pound of its volume, and 

 gained a pound and a half in its stead: or, in 

 other words, that the whole quantity of blood has 

 been augmented by just haff a pound; so that his 

 system now contains just half a pound too much. If 

 this man were to go on adding half a pound to his 

 stock of blood and if it were possible for him to 

 escape apoplexy or some other deadly disease and 

 if Nature, foreseeing that her children would turn 

 out to be gormandizers, had not, in some measure, 

 guarded against the evil it is plain that his blood- 



