Il6 PLANT DISEASE 



I do not, of course, say that rice is incapable 

 of taking up the required minerals, but that 

 the paddy fields having remained unmanured 

 for hundreds of years, the soil has been ex- 

 hausted of those mineral constituents. Proper 

 manuring would, in all probability, render 

 rice a more wholesome food than chemical 

 analysis shows it to be at present. 



CONSUMPTION 



To turn to another disease, far more widely 

 spread than leprosy, namely, consumption, 

 the recognized medical treatment, which con- 

 sists largely of iron, phosphates and fats (e.g. 

 cod-liver oil) indicates clearly that the de- 

 ficiency of certain chemical constituents in 

 the consumptive patient is implicitly recog- 

 nized. This indicates, from my point of view, 

 that consumption is one of those diseases 

 dependent on food conditions, for, as I point 

 out with reference to leprosy, it is by proper 

 feeding, and not by the administration of drugs, 

 that the different elements can be most 

 satisfactorily replaced. 



Dr. Koch has lately laid great stress on his 

 experiments as tending to show that bovine 



