HOW WE POISON OUR BLOOD. 299 



which can only breed in your throat when your blood is 

 impure. 



A Remarkable Change. 



When the oxygen has combined with the poisons in the 

 blood and removed them in the form of carbonic acid gas, the 

 blood, instead of being a purplish colour, is now bright red. It 

 has been changed from venous blood, to arterial blood. It is 

 now pure again, loaded with oxygen. The tiny blood vessels 

 gradually merge one into another, like a multitude of little rivulets 

 running together. Larger and larger become the vessels or tubes, 

 until they all merge into great channels through which the blood 

 is poured into the auricle or top chamber of the left side of the 

 heart. From here it runs down into the ventricle or bottom 

 chamber, and with a mighty throb, the heart drives it all over 

 the body. It rushes out, dividing and sub-dividing into smaller 

 and smaller channels, until they are so small that a strong micro- 

 scope is needed to see them. Through the walls of these tiny 

 blood vessels nourishment is supplied to the cells of the body, 

 and the dead used-up material absorbed ; so that, as it slowly' 

 makes its way along, it gives off all the nourishment it is capable 

 of for the time being, and with its load of poison, it hurries away 

 back to the heart, to be pumped once again into the lungs, to 

 be re-vitalized, cleansed, and purified by the oxygen in the air 

 we breathe. 



How WE Poison our Blood. 



There are more ways of poisoning our blood than breathing 

 impure air. A good many of the liquids and foods which we 

 swallow also poison the blood. People make themselves ill by 

 eating wrong foods, or too much food, and instead of fasting 

 they swallow great quantities of poisonous drugs. Drugs should 

 not "be taken, unless by a physician's orders. 



If the foods which we eat are not thoroughly digested they 

 ferment and become putrid, especially animal food, in the 

 bowels. The liquid portion of this putrid mass is sucked up by 

 little vessels known as lacteals, and poured into the blood, fouling 

 and poisoning it. The phagosytes or white blood corpuscles are 



