6 
MODERN MIRACLE MEN 
This was incredible. It was contrary to the books and it upset 
everything connected with diet practice. The scoffers began to pay 
attention to him. Recently the Southern Medical Association, real¬ 
izing the hopelessness of trying to remedy nutritional deficiencies 
without positive factors to work with, recommended a careful study 
to determine the real mineral content of foodstuffs and the variations 
due to soil depletion in different localities. These progressive medical 
men are awake to the importance of prevention. 
Dr. Northen went even further and proved that crops grown in a 
properly mineralized soil were bigger and better; that seeds germinated 
quicker, grew more rapidly and made larger plants; that trees were 
healthier and put on more fruit of better quality. 
By increasing the mineral content of citrus fruit he likewise im¬ 
proved its texture, its appearance and its flavor. 
He experimented with a variety of growing things, and in every 
case the story was the same. By mineralizing the feed at poultry 
farms, he got more and better eggs; by balancing pasture soils, he 
produced richer milk. Persistently he hammered home to farmers, to 
doctors, and to the general public the thought that life depends upon 
the minerals. 
His work led him into a careful study of the effects of climate, 
sunlight, ultraviolet and thermal rays upon plant, animal, and human 
hygiene. In consequence he moved to Florida. People familiar 
with his work consider him the most valuable man in the State. I 
met him by reason of the fact that I was harassed by certain soil 
problems on my Florida farm which had baffled the best chemists 
and fertilizer experts available. 
He is an elderly, retiring man, with a warm smile and an engaging 
personality. He is a trifle shy until he opens up on his pet topic; 
then his diffidence disappears and he speaks with authority. His 
mind is a storehouse crammed with precise, scientific data about soil 
and food chemistry, the complicated life processes of plants, animals, 
and human beings—and the effect of malnutrition upon all three. 
He is perhaps as close to the secret of life as any man anywhere. 
“Do you call yourself a soil or a food chemist?’’ I inquired. 
“Neither. I’manM.D. My work lies in the field of biochemistry 
and nutrition. I gave up medicine because this is a wider and a more 
important work. Sick soils mean sick plants, sick animals, and sick 
people. Physical, mental, and moral fitness depends largely upon an 
ample supply and a proper proportion of the minerals in our foods. 
Nerve function, nerve stability, nerve cell-building likewise depend 
thereon. I'm really a doctor of sick soils.” 
“Do you mean to imply that the vegetables I'm raising on my farm 
are sick?" I asked. 
“Precisely! They’re as weak and undernourished as anemic 
children. They’re not much good as food. Look at the pests and 
the diseases that plague them. Insecticides cost farmers nearly as 
much as fertilizer these days. 
“A healthy plant, however, grown in soil properly balanced, can and 
will resist most insect pests. That very characteristic makes it a 
better food product. You have tuberculosis and pneumonia germs 
in your system but you’re strong enough to throw them off. Simi¬ 
larly, a really healthy plant will pretty nearly take care of itself in 
