NEW CONCEPTIONS IN SCIENCE 



from the positive or negative charge of electricity 

 they bear? This is but a surmise as yet, but it 

 seems a promising lead. 



Meanwhile, it is clear that the "valence," or the 

 number of electrical charges, plays an important 

 part. The poisonous working of a single-charged 

 negative ion may be offset by the addition of a 

 small quantity of a double-charged positive ion, 

 and, perhaps, of still less of one with a triple charge. 

 So, too, a triple charge may destroy the harmful ac- 

 tion of a double charge. It is just simply the 

 number of charges which counts. 



Here, then, are the most significant of the life 

 processes growth, reproduction, muscular action, 

 the influence of poisons brought back to the 

 play of the electrical ions, negative and positive 

 one, two, or three valent. Almost involuntarily 

 one turns round to ask what is the effect of the 

 food we consume each day. 



Apparently the chief role of food is not to be 

 digested and "burned" in the muscles and organs, 

 as present-day physiology assumes, but to supply 

 ions. The heat developed is a by-product. The 

 chief action is the production of electricity. The 

 body may be likened to an electric battery. Food, 

 then, is of value according to the amount and kind 

 of electricity it affords. Many, no doubt, have en- 

 tertained a suspicion of this for a long time. If it 



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