118 THE BIOLOGY OF DAILY LIFE. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 



THE BANQUET OF ALMA, OR DIET OF HEALTH, NOT A 

 MEAGRE FARE, BUT WHILE SO CHEAP AS TO MAKE 

 STARVATION ALMOST AN IMPOSSIBILITY, WHEN ONCE 

 THE TRUTH IS FULLY KNOWN, CAN BE EVEN LUXURIOUS. 



LET us now bring the facts we have been discussing 

 to bear upon our food. 



To recapitulate the foregoing chapters. 



Man as an animal comes under the Law of Inter- 

 change, which teaches us that the plant is our proper 

 food-preparer, and that the more directly we obey 

 that law the better for us, because, though the materials 

 may be forthcoming in flesh and mineral, the forces 

 necessary are either diminished or altogether wanting. 



In addition to all this, the microscope reveals to us, 

 as present in the decaying vegetable, and in all even 

 the freshly killed and most healthy animal, the amoeba 

 of the blood, or leucocyte. Recognizing the extreme 

 value of Nature's cc Captain of the Guard," who is also, 

 as in ancient Egypt, the Chief Executioner,* viz., the 

 LEUCOCYTE, in his proper place, as head of the great 

 army of Scavengers, and so an all-important Sanitary 

 officer in the commonwealth of Nature, we yet do not 

 desire his services before the time. 



Therefore the " honest sonsie face" of Burn's " Great 

 chieftain of the puddin' race," and the perhaps equally 

 honest-looking round of the "roast beef of old 



* Joseph's Potiphar was " Captain of the Guard" to King 

 Pharaoh, the title means strictly, " Chief Executioner." 



