qualities, as minerals, plants or animals.

All of them are closely interrelated and one transmits the basic
elements to the other. It is the plant which draws the mineral elements
from the soil, and after certain processes of composition conveys them
as food to the animal, including the human being, while such animal
substances as are used for human food, contribute the balance of the
elements for the upbuilding of the human body.

It is a matter of comparatively new discovery that minerals are thus
just as important as a component part of the body and of its food as are
other basic chemical elements.

The discovery as to the mineral constituents of the body, their nature,
proportion and in which composition and in which quantity as necessary
ingredients of the different body tissues, in order that they may become
a part of the organism, has made it possible to administer them to the
diseased body in the purest condensed and most effective way in
_nutritive compositions_, while their proportionate existence in food is
also a criterion of diet, not only for the sick, but also as a
preventative of disease.

THE CHEMICAL PROCESS OF DISEASE.

In this, my scrutiny of nature's deep designs, I did not rest content when
only the composition of all the tissues of the body had been laid bare; but
I delved deeper and discovered that certain electric currents and reactions
of these elements were the causes of accelerating or retarding the natural
processes of metamorphosis and metabolism,--provoking disturbances of the
normal, which express themselves as disease.

Excessive growth, and lack of growth, are thus explained, together with
other phenomena which in this short chapter it is impossible to give in
scientific detail. It is my object now merely to show that in their
apparent simplicity the manifestations of life require special technical
knowledge such as cannot be expected of the layman in any adequate
degree.

Notwithstanding this free and open statement of cause and cure available
to the patient and to the world at large, the hygienic-dietetic
physician himself can by no means be dispensed with in case of the
appearance of disease, for only by his knowledge, experience, and
skilled advice can the aforesaid natural system of healing be applied
with effect in each individual case. And here it must always be borne in
mind that, of the countless individual organisms that this world
contains, no two, even, are exact