ON THE INGEST A AND EGESTA 9 



debris^ after complete metabolism. The materials so 

 egested, if we could possibly succeed in weighing them, 

 would exactly, of physical necessity, correspond to the sum 

 of the material ingested, plus, or minus, irregularity (if 

 any) for the time being ; the various chemical and physio- 

 logical changes undergone by the ingest a and egesta 

 would likewise represent the quantity of energy released 

 and expended on the total functional work of the entire 

 organism during the time occupied in the processes of 

 ingestion and egestion. 



The processes of ingestion and egestion must, therefore, 

 balance each other, and form the counterparts of one great 

 integrative and disintegrative process or whole, the various 

 portions or parts of which, if health is to be secured and 

 maintained, must completely dovetail and follow each 

 other in unbroken succession and harmony. 



Errors, therefore, in quantity or quality of the ingesta 

 must inevitably be followed by egestive derangement, and 

 consequent disturbances of the condition of health, while 

 active or passive interferences with the process of egestion 

 must likewise be followed by departures from the standard 

 condition, proportionate to the nature and amount of the 

 errors and interferences ; thus obesity or accumulation 

 may follow the former, and ailments accruing from 

 emaciation or waste the latter. A large portion of the 

 whole list of morbid entities, infirmities, and sufferings of 

 humanity may, therefore, be said to be due to such errors 

 and interferences with the balance which ought ever to 

 exist between the quantity and quality of the food taken 

 into the body and the amount of waste material given out. 

 In pursuing the subject as thus outlined, we would take 

 up more especially the latter half, viz. the process of 

 egestion, or excretion, exudation, and exhalation, or the 

 methods by which the body is relieved of its encumbering, 

 or effete, materials ; this process is a great compound 

 process, whereas the process of ingestion, in at least its 

 early details, is somewhat more simple. It is concerned 

 with the final ejection of disintegrated and effete, or worn 

 out, organic matter, in the forms of solid, liquid, and gas, 

 or vapour, and is accomplished by appropriate excretionary 

 agencies or mechanisms located at the most convenient 



