It was thus finally discovered that there are _twelve different main
aggregations of such elements_, which groups of equal elements we call
_tissues_.

Through this discovery we have arrived at the great truth that _it is
not to the purpose, in healing, to turn attention to the various organs,
but rather to the various tissues_.

The influence which can be exercised on these tissues is exercised
through the blood which nourishes all of them alike, and which has the
wonderful capacity of carrying to each of them their necessary building
and rebuilding, or regenerating materials,--_provided, of course, that
these are, as they should be, present in the blood_.

THE CONSTITUENT ELEMENTS.

Research in physiological chemistry, has so far determined that there
are sixteen definite and discernible elements--and a seventeenth is now
in course of determination--which, in their various combinations and
aggregations, form the different tissues of which the various organs of
the human body are constructed.

The preponderance of one or more of these elements in a certain tissue
forms the main or governing feature, or tissue of any organ. Thus the
prevalence of potassium phosphate forms the muscle tissue, the
prevalence of ammonium phosphate (lecithin) forms the nerve tissue.

For the purpose of general explanation it is sufficient to know that
each of the various tissues consist of some of these elements, and that
each of the tissues, at whatever part of the body it exists, is affected
by the lack of any one of these elements.

The greatest chemist of the age, Justus von Liebig, maintains that if
one of the necessary elements in a chemical composition is missing, the
rest cannot fulfil their duties, and the consequence of such deficiency
is that the cell in question must become diseased and degenerate.

This discovery, known as "the law of the minimum," has thrown an
additional reassuring light upon the practice of the new school of
medicine.

_To bring to the tissue the lacking constituent element or elements by
way of the blood is the only means of regenerating that tissue, that is,
of healing its diseased cells._

DYSAEMIA THE CAUSE OF ALL CONSTITUTIONAL DISEASES.

Within the limits of this abstract I do not propose to deal with the
disturbances in the system caused by traumatic influences, such as
wounds, etc. We are treating only of _constitutional_ diseases which,
whether of acute or of chronic character, are a