Bannertail 



alembic that distils it breaks, as a boiler 

 bursts if it be fired while dry. Thence- 

 forth the toxin that it overcame has viru- 

 lence and power; that food, once whole- 

 some, is a poison now. 



A "surfeit" men call this breaking of 

 the flask; all too well is it known. By 

 this, unnumbered healthful foods — straw- 

 berries, ice-cream, jam, delicate meat, 

 eggs, yes, even simple breads can by the 

 devastating drain of one rash surfeit be 

 turned into very foods of death. The 

 poison always was there, but the secret, 

 neutralizing chemical is gone, the elixir is 

 destroyed, and by the working of the law 

 its deadly power is loosed. As poor sec- 

 ond now to this lost and subtle protec- 

 tion, the All-Mother endows the body 

 with another, one of a lower kind. She 

 makes that food so repellent to the un- 

 wise, punished creature that he never 

 more desires it. She fills him with a 



[ 208 ] 



