ON RESPIRATION 519 



of health, dynamic and material, or both. As to this 

 latter aspect of the matter, however, it is impossible to 

 think, although we may have had what we consider ocular 

 demonstration, that the dynamic and material conditions 

 can be altered independently of each other, so we must 

 universally regard them as complementary of each other, 

 and as mutually essential for the making up of any and 

 every vital procedure, be it physiological or chemical, or 

 both, and that, therefore, their simultaneous occurrence is 

 implied in all instances of departure from the normal, as 

 well as abnormal, standard. 



Defective or impure air supply presupposes, therefore, 

 the defective performance of metabolism, with material 

 and functional defect in the physiological condition of 

 vitality in all its phases, material and dynamic, in propor- 

 tion to the extent and continuance of the aerial defect or 

 impurity, and in degree varying from the non-perceptible 

 to the incidence of the most advanced non-oxygenation or 

 haemal autotoxis. The immediate and remote effects, 

 therefore, of the due performance of respiration "loom 

 largely " as etiological factors in the incidence of a large 

 area of diseased conditions, and as a determining influence 

 in human happiness and individual usefulness in the affairs 

 of the world and the progress of civilisation and human 

 destiny. Thus it behoves the individual and the nation 

 to endeavour to make the supply of atmospheric air as 

 absolutely pure and undefiled as nature originally provides 

 it, so as to secure one great health-giving element in all 

 human and vital concerns generally, and the element, 

 above all natural elements, in the maintenance of the 

 health and happiness of the human race and the whole 

 animal kingdom. Air, pure air, and plenty of it, must, 

 therefore, ever be sought after as a means of preserving 

 the health of the individual and the nation, besides 

 retrieving the disasters of malaSration so frequently ob- 

 served at the present day throughout the length and 

 the breadth of the land, which are at present calling 

 aloud for aid to both the laity and the profession of 

 medicine. 



Air is provided by nature ; food, including water and 

 clothing, are the only other human requirements for the 



