254 THE NEW ZEALAND FAMILY HERB DOCTOR, 
reducing the whole to a well-considered theory, which might 
be summed up in a sentence, viz:—In heat is the principle of 
life; death is the absence or loss of heat. Those who Lave 
read Dr. Coffin on this subject will fnd Thompson's ideas set 
forth in a very clear way, but there is one thing that must be 
noticed by devout persons in both Thompson and Coffin, they 
lose sight of the Author of life, as not only the great Cause, 
but the Source and Sustainer of it. The iJustration used very 
frequently for human life is that of a Iccomotive. The 
machine is complete in all its parts, the water in the boiler, 
but there is no life till the great principle, heat, is applied 
when the fire is lighted. The water is turned into the motive 
power, steam, which conveys its power to the piston, then to 
the wheels, and thus the machine is started into action. So, itis 
said by Coffin, our stomach is the furnace, the food is the fuel, 
the blood the water, which, heated, sets the human machine into 
action. This illustration may be very good in its way, 
but it falls immeasurably short of the truth. Oflate years the 
microscope has revealed the fact that the source of life is not 
confined to one organ, or part of the body, but that living 
minute cells constitute each section of it. Thus tke heart 1s 
a centre of life in itself, so also are the Jungs, the brain, the 
blood, liver, kidneys, and muscles. Doubtless they all 
require heat to remain in health or life, but there is a 
sustaining cause behind all, which we, as Christians, recognise 
as God, the Fountain of life, for in Him we live, move, and 
have our being. We do not say that Thompson, Coffin and 
others denied this, but it is almost the same if it is tot 
acknowledged. Thompson summed up the thecry upon which 
he built in these lines :— 
‘* My system’s founded on this truth— 
That man’s air, water, fire and earth— 
That death is cold and life is heat ; 
These tempered well, your health’s complete.”’ 
As far as weare concerned in this life, we are prepared to 
admit the truth of his theory. Heat is the outward manifest- 
ation of life, and there cannot be health if the heat of our 
