56 THIRTY CENT BREAD 



From the fruit and vegetable as well as from 

 unbolted cereals we obtain iron, lime, potassium, 

 magnesium, silicon, sodium, fluorine and iodine. 

 Without these mineral salts no arimy can withstand 

 the rigors of trench life and no civilian can escape 

 anaemia, tuberculosis and the himdred other evils 

 which follow in the wake of a restricted mineral diet 

 with its accompanying loss of vitality and feeble 

 resistance to disease. 



The, last word on this subject, which should go 

 straight home to every department of our national 

 government interested in the production and distri- 

 bution of foodstuffs, comes through E. B. Forbes, 

 chief of the laboratory of the Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station at Wooster, Ohio. 



§ 40 — SCIENCE 



Forbes enumerates the functions of the mineral 

 salts in animal nutrition as follows: 



"As bearers of electricity the mineral elements 

 dominate the whole course of metabolism. 



"They conduct nerve stimuli, and play a Jeading 

 role in the general process of cell stimulation. ^ 



"They govern the contraction of the muscles, in- 

 cluding those of the heart. 



"They compose the central agency for the main- 

 tenance of neutrality in the blood. 1 



"They enter into the composition of every living 

 cell. 



"They compose supporting structures. 



"They assist in the co-ordination of the digestive 

 processes. 



"They activate enzymes, and through their con- 



