88 Natural Salvation. 



generation of the somatic cell, that we must look for 

 happier and longer life. 



Is such a food possible? 



Beyond doubt. But at present we lack the data of 

 nutrition. We do not as yet understand how a cell 

 nourishes itself, nor how it might best be nourished. 

 The cell absorbs particles from the blood plasma, and we 

 have a general knowledge as to what those particles are ; 

 but of the modes and pi'ocesses of intra-cellular digestion 

 and nutrition we are ignorant. We do not know how 

 much of that food is actually assimilated in the cell, nor 

 how much is rejected. Beyond doubt the blood is a 

 comparatively dirty stream, and it is probable that the 

 cells suffer constant injury from the dirt which they 

 ingest. The intestinal tract, or passage along which the 

 ingredients of the blood are prepared for the villi to en- 

 gorge, is literally a howling wilderness of disgusting para- 

 sites and bacteria, many of which are hostile and destroy 

 the life of the host if they multiply beyond certain bounds 

 to which the vis medicatrix of a healthy organism' keeps 

 them down. 



As a first step in the study of improved food for the 

 future we have need to see what the primitive cell — the 

 protozoon — has done in this line. For better food has 

 been the object of long effort, since the first micro-organ- 

 ism appeared on the shores of the primeval sea. Proto- 

 zoons like the rhizopods, encysted food particles which. 



