AND ITS RELATION TO ANIMAL LIFE 115 



cannot, so to speak, overcome the inimical 

 action offered by the tissues. . . . This power of 

 resistance of tissues can, however, be greatly 

 reduced, or even abolished, by certain means, 

 such as depression of their vitality." 



Now, it is a noticeable fact that no medicinal 

 treatment is a success in leprosy, the reason 

 being that in this, as in many other diseases, 

 the stomach is not strong enough to assimilate 

 the required minerals in their crude form, and 

 their administration, therefore, does more 

 harm than good by further upsetting the 

 stomach, and rendering it incapable of per- 

 forming its functions in relation to food. We 

 are thus driven to the conclusion that it is 

 only by food that the necessary minerals can 

 be conveyed satisfactorily to the system. 

 And so long as rice remains the staple food in 

 the countries under notice, it seems impossible 

 to hope for the extirpation of the disease, as 

 that cereal not only fails to provide the 

 minerals required, but owing to its lack of 

 nitrogen and carbon, is incapable of forming the 

 proteids which would render the individual 

 immune to the attacks of leprosy bacteria. 



