88 STATES OF THE RIVER PLATE. 



juice, through the instrumentahty of which digestion is 

 effected. 



The digested food thence passes into the ahmentary 

 canals, which are lined with absorbent glands, which 

 latter take up the nutritive matters of the food, prepared 

 respectively by the saKva and kyle. 



Eamified in every direction, and in contact with these 

 glands, is the complex system of blood-vessels, into which 

 these nutritious juices enter as blood, and are conveyed 

 through the great vein-trunks into the lungs, where, 

 coming into contact with the oxygen of the atmosphere 

 inhaled, combustion takes place ; and this burned, or 

 oxydised blood, is forced into the arteries, by them con- 

 veyed through the system, and, under the so-called vital 

 action, becomes flesh, fat, tissue, bone, &c. &c. Every 

 portion, every organ of the body, being endowed with the 

 power of selection, absorbs its own constituents, which 

 become elaborated into it, replacing the incessant waste 

 of substance resulting from action and hfe, and adding to 

 the bulk of substance, flesh, or fat, any excess over such 

 waste. 



Should there be any deficiency in the component parts 

 of food taken — a single item, mineral, albuminous, or 

 hydro-carbonic, wanting, or deficient in quantity, the 

 substance, or organ, of the body requiring such ingre- 

 dient in excess of the quantity contained in the food, 

 would necessarily suffer, as its ' waste ' would not be 

 replaced, and uniform development would be impossible. 

 Thus, in the absence of hme in the food, bone could not 

 be formed ; the absence, or deficiency, in alkahes, and the 

 liquefaction of the blood, would be impossible or defective ; 

 a deficiency of starch, sugar, or oleaginous matter, and 

 fatty tissue could not be formed. On the same principle, 

 within limits, we may graduate the proportions of food 



