10 THE BIOLOGY OF DAILY LIFE. 



BODY, AS A PORTION OF ITS TRUE STRUCTURE, IF PRE- 

 SENTED TO THAT BODY IN AN UNORGANIZED STATE ; 

 AND FURTHER, THE MORE CLOSELY THE FOOD (AS CAN- 

 DIDATE FOR ASSIMILATION INTO THE ANIMAL ORGANISM) 

 CAN BE- PRESENTED TO THAT ANIMAL ORGANISM IN THAT 

 EXACT STATE OF ORGANIZATION IN WHICH IT EXISTED IN 

 THE VEGETABLE STRUCTURE, THE MORE FULLY WILL THE 

 LAW OF INTERCHANGE BE FULFILLED.* 



All chemical processes disorganize the tissues of 

 plants or animals. They tend to bring them nearer 

 the condition of inorganic matter. Chemical treat- 

 ment, whether in the kitchen, the store, or the 

 laboratory, draws the food further away from that 

 state in which it existed in the vegetable ; and by so 

 doing renders it so much less fit for the aliment of the 



* I say state of organization, not mechanical state. A vege- 

 table structure may be squeezed, pounded, pulped, or pulverized, 

 stewed or baked, only not incinerated, and its intimate molecular 

 structure, as an organized aliment, be untouched. 



In the above corollary we leave out of consideration the absorp- 

 tion of oxygen in respiration. We are dealing only with food. 

 We can never be sufficiently on our guard against theories which 

 tend to obliterate or obscure natural distinctions. For instance, 

 the protoplasmic theory, while it emphasizes the distinction 

 between the mere mineral and the organism, tends to obliterate 

 the no less important distinction between organisms themselves, 

 into vegetal and animal protoplasm belonging apparently 

 to both vegetable and animal kingdoms. Again, the chemical 

 method of appraising the value of foods and chemical classifica- 

 tions of food, have resulted in water being classed along with 

 various saline matters as " Inorganic principles of food." (See 

 "ALIMENT" quoted above.) Now water (i.e., as such, not 

 worked up into an organized compound) is not food at all, it is 

 DRINK, the solvent, or " vehicle," and in fact " maid of all work" 

 as well as chief factor, in both vegetable and animal structures. 



