CHAP. XIV. 



NUTRITION. 



" BESIDES the function of distributing oxygen through the system, 

 and removing carbon, the principal use of the blood is to afford 

 nourishment to the body in general, and to the secreting organs 

 the peculiar fluids which they possess the power of deriving from 

 it. Nutrition shall be first examined. 



" Nutrition is the grandest gift of nature, and the common and 

 highest prerogative of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, by 

 which they, beyond measure, surpass, even at first sight, all 

 human machines and automatons. Upon these no artist can 

 bestow the faculty, not to say of increasing and coming to per- 

 fection, but even of existing independently, and repairing the 

 incessant losses incurred from friction. a 



" By the nutritive faculty of the body, its greatest and most 

 admirable functions are performed; by it we grow from our first 

 formation and arrive at manhood ; and by it are remedied the 

 destruction and consumption which incessantly occur in our 

 system during life. b 



" Respecting the nature of this consumption, there has been 

 much dispute whether it affects the solids c , or whether, accord- 



a " * Nutrition, in fact, appears to be a continued generation,' according to 

 the old observation of the very ingenious Ent. See his work, already re- 

 commended." 



b " Th. Young, De corporis humani viribus conservatricibus. Getting. 1796. 8vo. 



Fl. J. Van Maanen, De natura humana sui ipsius conservalrice ac medicatrice. 

 Harderv. 1801. 8vo." 



" See the great J. Bernoulli's Diss. de nutrit. Groning. 1669. 4to. He 

 estimates the continual, though insensible, loss and reparation of the solids so 

 high, that the whole body may be said to be destroyed and renewed every three 

 years." 



