96 GELATINE. 



are affected by a change of the health, then, even should 

 the power of forming blood remain the same, the organic 

 force by which the constituents of the blood are trans- 

 formed into cellular tissue and membranes must neces- 

 sarily be enfeebled by sickness. In the sick man, the 

 intensity of the vital force, its power to produce meta- 

 morphoses, must be diminished as well in the stomach 

 as in all other parts of the body. In this condition, the 

 uniform experience of practical physicians shows, that 

 gelatinous matters in a dissolved state, exercise a most 

 decided influence on the state of the health. Given in a 

 form adapted for assimilation, they serve to husband the 

 vital force, just as may be done, in the case of the stom- 

 ach, by due preparation of the food in general. Brittle- 

 ness in the bones of graminivorous animals is clearly 

 owing to a weakness in those parts of the organism, whose 

 function it is to convert the constituents of the blood 

 into cellular tissue and membrane ; and, if we can trust 

 to the reports of physicians who have resided in the 

 East, the Turkish women, in their diet of rice, and in 

 the frequent use of enemata of strong soup, have united 

 the conditions necessary for the formation both of cel- 

 lular tissue and of fat. 



