VITAL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS - McCann

7/31/2019 VITAL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS - McCann

1/54

VITAL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

CONCERNING15,000,000 PHYSICALLYDEFECTIVE CHILDREN

By ALFRED W . tycCANNMEMBER VIGILANCE COMMITTEE

ASSOCIATED ADVERTISING CLUBSOF AMERICA

C O P Y R I G H T , 1 913

F M BARTON PUBLISHER

C A X TO N B L D G C L E V E L A N D


2/54

IS YOUR CHILD ONE OF15,000,000 PHYSICALLY DEFECTIVE

CHILDREN IN THE UNITEDSTATES ?

150,000 children die each year.5.000.000 children are anaemic or tuber'

culous.6.000.000 children have adenoids or en'

larged tonsils.10,000,000 children have bad teeth.

Atthis rate the nation will become bank'rupt physically in one or two generations.

If you wish to join hands in this fight forpure food and healthy children, send forpost cards for distribution or mailing.


3/54

WHAT AM I?I am a being composed of body and soul.

WHAT IS MY BODY?My body is the instrument through which my

soul expresses itself. I t is formed of external mem-bers and internal organs, all of which work in orderand agreement with each other under the commandof an unseen general when I am in that state orcondition of life called health.WHO OR WHAT IS THAT UNSEEN GEN-

ERAL?That unseen general is the wonderful law of

nature which always operates for my good in a

fixed manner, unless interfered with by somethingfrom the outside which accident, ignorance or illwill puts in its way.WHAT IS THAT STATE OR CONDITION

OF LIFE CALLED HEALTH?Health is the product of the life that is in me.

Ash is the endproduct of combustion or fire. I t is

the thing that we deal with after the processes ofburning have been completed. I t is the end of thefire and the last product of the fire, and so we callit an endproduct. In the same manner my lifeprocesses produce an endproduct. When all myorgans, spleen, heart, liver, lungs, stomach, kidney,skin, etc., are working in harmony with each otherand each is doing its exact duty in obedience to the

commands of that unseen general, the product ofmy life procession is health.


4/54

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ONE OF MYORGANS BECOMES LAZY OR CRIP-PLED, OR IS INTERFERED WITH BYOVERWORK OR EXCESS OR ABUSEOR BAD NOURISHMENT OR STARVA-TION?

Another kind of endproduct is produced undersuch conditions. W e can name it disease or dis-order. I t is a bad endproduct, and nature abhorsit and wants it changed so that the good end

product which we call health may take its place.HOW DO WE KNOW THAT NATURE AB-HORS IT?

Because nature serves warning upon us in theform of a sign that we may know that somethingis wrong and thus use the intelligence which Godhas given us to remove or change the bad condi-tions that cause the disorder.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THOSE SIGNS BYWHICH NATURE TELLS US THATSOMETHING IS WRONG?

Pain, loss of feeling or sensation, unnatural sleep,or sleep that comes over us when we should beawake and at our work or our play; loss of appetiteor disgust at the sight of food, loss of strength, theblues or depressed spirits, loss of courage, un-easiness. In short, anything that makes us feel outof sorts is a sign that one or more of our organs isnot doing its proper share in keeping us well.H O W D O W E K N O W T H A T T H I S U N S E E N

GENERAL, OR FIXED LAW OF NATURE,ALWAYS OPERATES IN THE SAMEWAY?


5/54

Because no matter where we go, whether it be toChina or Greenland, to the United States or to thesmallest island of the most distant ocean, we findthat mans body is always composed of the sameelements and these same elements are always builtup or organized in the same way, and any interfer-ence with the number or nature of these elementsalways results in disease.

H O W MA N Y O F T H E S E F IX E D E L E ME N T S

ARE FOUND IN MANS BODY?About sixteen.

WH A T A R E T H E Y ?Hydrogen,Nitrogen,Oxygen,Carbon,

Iron,Calcium,Phosphorus,Sodium,Potassium,Magnesium,Silica,Sulphur,

Manganese,Chlorine,Fluorine,Iodine.

WH E R E D O T H E S E E L E ME N T S C O MEFROM?

From the earth.


6/54

IS THEN THE PHRASE, DUST THOU ARTAND UNTO DUST THOU SHALT RE-

TURN QUITE TRUE?Wonderfully true!BUT HOW IS IT THAT THESE SIXTEEN

ELEMENTS CAN POSSIBLY FORM THEBODY OF A MAN?

Because these elements are organized and com-pounded by the Creator in the most mysterious butorderly manner, and they unite with each other to

form the combination of bones, tissues, and bloodwhich we know as the human body.WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY ORGANIZING OR

COMPOUNDING THESE SIXTEEN ELE-MENTS?

To make this clear, let us take something whichwe can grasp and from it gather an idea of Godsoperations in planning and constructing the humanbody. Suppose we take the twentysix letters ofthe alphabet, and call them elements like the six-teen elements of which we are composed, iron,phosphorus, calcium, potassium, etc.

A Shakespeare with his wonderful ability toimagine, and his wonderful knowledge of men, takeswords made up of those twentysix simple elements,

or letters of the alphabet, compounds or organizesthem into phrases. He then groups or organizesthem into sentences; the sentences into paragraphs.The paragraphs are further organized into scenes,the scenes into acts. W e marvel at his genius andpower in combining and balancing the parts, ororganizing them into the body of singular beautyand meaning called the play of Hamlet. Of the


7/54

twentysix letters employed by Shakespeare in or-ganizing his play, five of them are used oftener thanthe others, and at least one of the five is found in

every word. These are the vowels aeiou. Insomewhat similar manner the Creator has used fourof the sixteen elements of which the human bodyis organized more often than the others. These fourelements are found in the air and water and arecalled oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon. Likethe vowels in words these four elements are founddistributed through all parts of the human body.

As the vowels are grouped with some of the otherletters of the alphabet to form words, so these fourelements have to be organized with the other twelveelements in order that we may have a perfect humanbody, or what is called an organic compound.W H A T A R E T H O S E O T H E R T W E L V E E L E -

MENTS CALLED?

The minerals of the body.ARE THE MINERALS THEN IMPORTANT?If we remove any one of them from the body, or

if we interfere with the power of the body to findany one of them, or if we change the nature of anyone of them by treating it with some foreign ele-ment (poison) the body sickens and dies!WH E R E T H E N D O E S T H E B O D Y F IN D

T H E S E T W E L V E M IN E R A L E LE M E N T S?* Only in food.IS FOOD THEN A MORE IMPORTANT

THING THAN IT IS USUALLY CONSID-ERED? V

Food is so important that it may be called thefoundation of all human happiness. Food of the


8/54

proper kind underlies all art, all science, all litera-ture, all progress. In proportion as man throughgluttony, wilful ignorance or stupid indifference,

ignores the natural (one might almost say thedivine) relationship existing between proper foodand normal life, he lessens or destroys the facultiesof body and mind through which the soul expressesits aspirations and desires. Mans body, throughimproper habits of eating and drinking, can becomeso disorganized and so out of tune with the naturallaw that from its disorderly operations every crime,including murder, may spring. Witness the crim-inal acts of the drunkard!IS IT THEN POSSIBLE THAT NATURE SO

ABHORS ANY TRIFLING WITH HERBENEFICENT LAWS THAT SHE DELIB-ERA TELY P U N I S H E S AND SERVESW ARNING ON EVERY OFFEN SE IN TH EFORM O F PAIN?

Undoubtedly this is jus t what nature does. Ifwe introduce discord into the divine harmonies ofthe human body, we destroy or impair its functions,outraging the work of the Creator who made thatwonderful body. W e have to deal with evil in theshape of sickness and pain, when by our own actsof omission or commission we abuse the marvelous

machine of the human body by subjecting it to con-ditions contrary to the laws of nature, which arethe laws of God.

Sickness and pain are not evils as people think,but insistent voices of warning crying to us to heedour ways. Pain is the conscience of the body, andsickness is the balance indicator whereby we may


9/54

determine how much short we come of reaching thestandard of health.DOES ALL FOOD CONTAIN THE SIXTEEN

ELEMENTS REQUIRED BY THE BODY?No!WHY IS THIS SO?

Chiefly because from unnatural demands for socalled refinement in the appearance or flavor offood, man changes the nature of many of thosecompounds or removes the elements partly or en-

tirely from the food which nature gives him.THEN EVERYTHING THAT MAN EATS ISNOT FOOD?

Food is not what man eats but what he digests.Food is those combinations of mineral salts withhydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and carbon, which giveto man in assimilable form the elements which formhis white and red blood corpuscles, his bodyjuices,(saliva, gastric and pancreatic solvents, bile, lymph,serum, enzymes, ferments, etc.), his bones, tissues,muscles, etc., and which keep these constantlychanging substances in daily repair, and supplyheat and energy.

Food of the proper kind containing these mineralsalts enables him to elaborate antibodies and to

resist the invasion of disease.It also carries on the life processes by which he

lives; the processes of assimilation, and of equalimportance, the processes of elimination. Throughthe latter he discards the poisonous endproducts ofthe living fires th at burn within him. Constantchemical changes are carried on by the action of the


10/54

mineral salts. W ithou t the vitalizing influence ofthese he dies.HAS SCIENCE DESCRIBED FOOD COR-

RECTLY?Science has divided food into carbohydrates,proteins and fat, dismissing as unimportant thedivision called ash under which all the mineralsalts are found. This mistake has allowed to growup unchallenged many commercial practices, where-by in an attempt to gain some advantage over acompetitor, natural foods have been denatured, im-poverished, debased, demineralized, refined.NAME A FEW SUCH PRACTICES.

The refining of the juice of the sugar cane,whereby its invaluable tissue salts or mineral saltsare removed.

The pearling of barley, which results in theremoval of threefourths of its vitalizing minerals,

to improve its appearance.The polishing of rice, for the same reason andwith the same results.

The degerminating and debasing of corn in themanufacture of corn meal, corn starch and glucosewith the same resultant loss of the most indispen-sable qualities.

The treatment of oats, whereby through steamingand bleaching a great part of the soluble salts islost or changed.

The milling of white flour, which for the greatAmerican bread eaters, the children of the poor, isthe sign and symbol of decay and death. In thescreening and bolting process, whereby the bran,

shorts, tailings, coarse middlings, fine middlings, and


11/54

clear flour are removed, the wheatberry in whichnature has gathered up for man all of the sixteenfood elements required by him particularly duringthe formative or growing period of his life, is robbed

of eight of these food elements. Then man foolishlythinks that his body with the remaining eight cando the same work as if it were supplied with thesixteen. The child fed on white bread is first of allconstipated, and then he suffers the loss of the ironand manganese necessary for his blood, the potas-sium for his tissues, the calcium and phosphorus for

his bones and teeth, and he also loses the combina-tion of these elements with the organic chlorine,silica and sodium which enter into the formation ofmany of the acid and alkaline bodyjuices.

Defective teeth and vision, lusterless eyes, palecheeks, bloodless lips, underdeveloped limbs, lowresistance to disease, physiological ,discord follow

in the wake of a white flour, or white bread, cake,pie, cracker and syrup diet.BUT WHEN WE EAT THE BRAN OR SI

LICIOUS MATTER OF THE WHEATBERRY DO WE NOT EAT WHAT, ASHAS B EEN SAID BY T H E F L O U R MILLERS, IS PRACTICALLY GROUND

GLASS?We no more eat ground glass in eating the branor silica of the wheatberry than we eat horseshoesin eating its iron, or matchheads in eating its phos-phorus, or whitewash in eating its calcium, or footpowder in eating its magnesium, or volcanic firesin eating its sulphur, or the enamel of teeth and thewhites of eyeballs in eating its fluorine.


12/54

First, because when ground with the whole wheatmeal, it assists digestion by surrendering to the

body the precious mineral solubles which it con-tains, and second, because it affords a natural,gentle and unfailing stimulation to the peristalticaction of the bowels, thereby promoting and assist-ing perfect elimination without which many gravedisorders are set up to curse the children of menand particularly the mothers of the children of men.

It is not the bran itself which stimulates this actionbut the mineral substances contained in the bran.If these mineral substances are extracted from thebran, it will not excite peristaltic action.

WHAT IS THE PERISTALTIC ACTION OF. T H E BOW ELS?

The peristaltic action of the bowels is a rhythm-ical wavelike contraction and expansion of themusclelayers of the intestines which gently butprogressively carry the food in its various stages ofdigestion along its course through the body. As thefood is carried from one zone to another it under-goes remarkable changes as the result of the actionof the acid and alkaline digestives of the body, and

the decomposing, or splittingup, action of the var-ious ferments and enzymes which attack it andbreakup its complex structure into simpler formswhich can be seized by the exceedingly delicatemachinery of assimilation. In this changed stateit is appropriated by the body and thus enteringthe blood stream is carried along to do its wonder-

ful work of keeping the body alive and well.


13/54

IS THIS PROCESS IMPORTANT?Through faulty food, too concentrated in form or

lacking in necessary bulk or fibre, or robbed of the

basic elements from which the chemical juices ofthe body are formed, this peristaltic action becomessluggish or enfeebled, and constipation and conges-tion follow. This congestion passes over into otherorgans, in the case of women to the ovaries. On adiet consisting largely of white bread the race un-born is handicapped and enfeebled before cominginto the world.

WHAT CAUSES WRINKLES OR PREMA-TURE AGE?

By this congestion the ability of the body to seizeupon the food elements which it needs, is impairedand the poisonous endproducts of intestinal decom-position are absorbed into the bloodstream instead

of being eliminated, and thus the skin, kidneys andlungs are taxed beyond their natural functions in aviolent effort of nature to purify and keep normalthe blood stream. In imposing these unnaturalburdens upon the skin we transform its millions ofpores into a vast sewer system, thereby destroyingits elasticity and vigor and robbing it of its fresh-

ness and brightness of appearance. In this mannerthe bloom of youth is lost and the skin, old beforeits time, sags, wrinkles and hardens into the firstsignpost of age. Cosmetics applied from the out-side will never act as a substitute for normal func-tioning within. Beauty* is skin deep and no deeper,but the health which underlies that skindepth is as

deep as the centermost organ of the body.


14/54

WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF MANY SURGICALOPERATIONS?

This derangement of function caused by improperfood gradually but surely spreads to the otherorgans and where natures margin of safety hasbeen overlapped by unnatural activities there isrebellion in the form of some acute disease. Unlessthe unnatural cause at this stage is corrected,chronic disease follows and the body is burdened toa degree that sometimes makes living intolerable.

Foodfollies have been indirectly responsible formore suicides than all other evils combined and isthe cause of 75 per cent of surgical operations.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE THINGS THATKEEP PHYSICIANS BUSY?

Cocktails,

Ginfizzes,Ginrickies,Whiskey,Brandy,Sulphurbleached wines,Alumhardened pickles,Sulphurbleached molasses,Sulphurbleached apricots, peaches, pears, apples,Coppercolored peas, spinach, stringless beans,Canned pumpkin, asparagus, cranberries and all

other canned foods containing the irritant salts oftin.

Fried eggs and liver,Maraschino cherries,

Lardlogged pastry,


15/54

Chemically preserved condiments, catsup, jams,soft drinks, mince meats,

Artificially colored foods of every kind and thehundred foodlessfoods which commercial inge-

nuity has attractively prepared behind fancy labels.IS WHITE FLOUR BREAD MORE DIGEST-IB L E T HAN W HOL E W HE AT B R E AD?

White bread undoubtedly digests in less timethan wholewheat bread, but water requires lesstime for absorption than white bread and on suchlines of reasoning water should be preferable to

bread of any kind. I t can be set down as a fixedlaw of nature that the time required in the diges-tion of any natural food is not a factor to be reck-oned with. Not time but thoroughness and effic-iency must be the standard of measurement.

The whole wheat gives to the body the elementsdemanded by the body. I t has more to give and it

gives in accordance with na tures law. That naturerequires more time in the process is as it should be.White flour does not give what has been taken

from it. W hite bread and water will not sustainlife. Whole wheat bread and water will sustain life.Time is an idle objection when by granting theobjection and acting upon it we put an end to time

as far as the body is concerned.IF IT IS LAUDABLE TO DENATURE OURBREAD IN THE BREAD STAGE OF OURDIET, SHOULD IT NOT ALSO BE LAUD-ABLE TO DENATURE OUR MILK INTHE MILK STAGE OF OUR DIET?

The mothers milk contains the sixteen elementsneeded by the growing babe, and the thought of


16/54

changing the nature of that food by removing oneor eight of its natural elements before permittingthe babe to consume it is revolting. I f mothers

food is normal the babe will receive normal milk.If her food is lacking in any of the elements de-manded by the milk, her own body is consumed innatures effort to produce a perfect milk for thegrowing infant. This consumption of bone, bloodand tissue continues to the point where the mother,like the wrongly fed cow, becomes afflicted with

tuberculosis. Her tissues have been so robbed oftheir vitalizing and protecting elements that theylose resistance and become a fertile field for the de-velopment of the tubercle bacilli.

Cows fed on brewers grain (demineralized anddenatured) and the artificial commercial foods withwhich the dairyman has sought to produce cheapmilk, succumb in large numbers to tuberculosis.Cows fed on natural or undenatured food, under theauspices of county medical societies for the produc-tion of certifiedmilk, remain, like the naturallyfed horse, immune to tuberculosis.WHAT IS THE EXACT QUANTITY IN

TERMS OF GRAMS OF PHOSPHORUS,IRON, CALCIUM, POTASSIUM, SILICA,

CHLORINE, SODIUM, SULPHUR, ETC.,W HICH W E SHOULD CONSUME EVERYDAY?

No chemist can ever tell us that. Nature hascunningly and skillfully arranged the schedule.Each natural food contains the right proportions ofthose chemical elements necessary to see it safely

on its journey through the body. In other words,


17/54

any given natural food contains the elements ofnutrition and in the exact proportion which it shouldcontribute to the processes engaged in its digestionand assimilation.DOE S IT FOL L OW T HE N T HAT T HE S IX -

T E E N E L E M E N T S FOUND IN T H EHUMAN BODY AND IN ALL EDIBLEVEGETABLES MUST APPEAR IN ALLSOIL CAPABLE OF SUPPORTING VEG-ETABLE LIFE?

A perfectly balanced soil must contain, chiefly,

twelve mineral elements. The other four elementsare obtained from the air and the rain. W here noeffort is made to restore the elements which havebeen appropriated by plant life and thus removedfrom the soil, stunted growth or crop failure followsuntil man puts back into the soil the elements hehas taken from it. In order that we may have a

new supply of phosphorus with which to replace ourannual drain upon the soil of this one element, thegovernment prohibits the exportation of our limitedsupply of phosphate rock. The absence of phos-phorus, like the absence of calcium, iron, postassium or any of the other mineral elements, meanssoil starvationsoil sickness. One little part of

phosphorus in a thousand parts of earth is all thatis necessary, but that one little part must bepresent or the mysterious compounder of life willnot perform its duty. Th is is true of the other ele-ments, each of which contributes in a special man-ner to the subtle elaboration of life.BUT IF MEN UNDERSTAND THE IMPOR-

TANCE OF ALL THESE ELEMENTS IN


18/54

THE FOOD OF PLANTS WHY IS ITTHAT THEY DO NOT RECOGNIZE THEIMPORTANCE OF THE SAME ELE-MENTS IN THE FOOD OF ANIMALS?

In a limited manner they do see the analogy andact upon it, as in the production of certifiedmilkcows, prize cattle, prize horses, prize hogs and prizepoultry. The ordinary dairy cow, for instance, re-ceives in her food between 15 and 30 lbs. of brewersgrain, from which much of the mineral content hasbeen leached out in the brewing process, whereas

the cow fed for vitality and sound milk receives nobrewers grain, but, on the contrary, is put on a dietof whole grains, corn and oats containing the ele-ments which nature put there.

The ordinary cow also receives on an averagetwo quarts of bran, whereas the specially fed cowis given as much as eight quarts of bran. The

brewers grain contains all the protein, fats andcarbohydrates that nature put there and whichdietetics make so much fuss over. In this sense itdiffers in no manner from whole, natural grain. Thedifference is simply a matter of mineral loss and theowner of the prize cow recognizes this differenceand provides against it.

WHY THEN DOES MAN NOT ADD THESEMINERAL SALTS TO HIS OWN DIET INTHE FORM OF SPECIALLY PREPAREDTABLETS OR DROPS TO TAKE THEPLACE OF THE MISSING ELEMENTS?

Man does try to do that. You have heard of thebeefironandwine tonic, the phosphate tonic, the

limewater remedy, the hydrochloric acid and pep-


19/54

sin prescription, etc. The physician, in treatinganemia, loss of vigor, nervous prostration, etc.,makes an effort to put back into the starved bodiesof men and women the elements of which they havebeen systematically robbing themselves by eatingrefined foods. His confessed failure is not his fault.He has the correct theory but nature does not assisthim because that is not natures way.WHY IS THAT NOT NATURES WAY?

As the bodys tissues are destroyed by the dailywear and tear, they are transformed into simplerchemical compounds and are passed out of the bodyas wasteproducts or useless endproducts. Inorder that the living body may replace its brokendown cells it must have a constantly renewedsupply of the elements from which those cells andtheir contents are evolved.

These elements as we find them in the soil or in

raw rock can be called inert or nonliving matter.The chemical processes which transform nonlivingmatter into living tissues are the same in plants andanimals with one exception.

Plants have the mysterious power of taking thenonliving matter from the earth and compoundingit into the wonderfully complex substances which

form their structure.Animals do not possess this power.Hence the pharmacist or physician or chemist

who attempts to replace natures subtle and marvel-ously compounded organic mineral salts withlaboratory preparations is handicapped from thebeginning because nature does not recognize his

feeble and imperfect technique and refuses to change


20/54

or suspend her inexorable laws to suit his purposes.Animals are dependent for their existence upon

foodstuffs prepared from the nonliving matter of

earth by the plants that have the power to preparethem.Plants obtain the energy which enables them to

do this mysterious work from the sunlight, andonly in the presence of sunlight can they carry onthe upbuilding, organizing processes which givethem their tissues. Green grass will not grow inthe dark.

The ability to bring about this translation of non-living matter into living cells depends on the pres-ence of a chemical substance found in the greenparts, which is called chlorophyl. Of the processesby which chlorophyl operates we know nothingother than the fact that the friendly rays of the sunare necessary to its activity. As nature provides

man with no capacity to make use of the nonlivingelements of the soil he cannot, like the plant, go forhis meals to a bed of earth or a stonepile. Theplant does that for him and he makes use of theplant. This fact explains the folly of attemptingto feed mankind artificially on tablets or mealsin miniature, for even though such food mightcontain the elements required by the body in order

to sustain life, they are not present in a form accept-able to the laws of nature and nature spurns them.WHAT DO WE MEAN BY THE TERMS

ENZYMES AND FERMENTS?Various parts of the plant and various organs of

the body contain peculiar substances called enzymesand ferments, such as pepsin, trypsin, ptyalin, etc.


21/54


22/54

subsequently surrender to man for his needs. So,even in the presence of all the necessary mineralsor mineral salts, if these ferments be absent, or en-

feebled, vegetable or animal life cannot existnormally.In the animal body some of these ferments, such

as pepsin, can act to advantage only under an acidcondition, hence nature takes certain of the mineralsalts from the foods as a base for the elaboration ofthe acid secretions of the stomach. Other fermentsact only in an alkaline medium and nature utilizes

other combinations of the mineral salts in her pro-duction of the alkaline saliva, pancreatic juices, etc.Fatsplitting ferments act only on fats; diastase

ferments act only upon starch and sugar; proteolyticferments act only upon albumens.WHAT DO WE KNOW OF THE CHEMICAL

COMPOSITION OF THESE FERMENTS?

Little that is definite. W e do know that food of 'the wrong kind, food badly prepared, food whichhas suffered a loss of some of its elements by refin-ing processes, can set up conditions hostile to theaction of these ferments and thus invites the inva-sion of disease.WHAT DO WE KNOW THAT IS DEFINITE

ABOUT THE FORMATION OF SOME OF

NATURES DIGESTIVE SOLVENTS?We know that the body takes from food sodium

chloride, potassium chloride, phosphate of mag-nesium and calcium in generating the alkalinepancreatic juice and that therefore the pancreasmust find a constant fountain of these supplies.This it cannot do if they are interfered with in the


23/54

preparation of the food, for how can the body takefrom food elements which have been removedfrom it?

We know that the body takes from food sodiumchloride, calcium chloride, potassium chloride, mag-nesium phosphate and iron in generating the hydro-chloric acid juices of the stomach. By preventingthe body from finding these elements we establishdiscord. The intricacies of the human laboratoryexcite admiration and amazement. The study ofthese conditions in the schools will inevitably befollowed by tremendous advances in the welfare ofthe hum an race. One generation of men, born andreared with a knowledge of the laws of nature, willproduce in the whole race physical and mental vigorof a type now produced only under the forces ofhappy accident, when by sheer goodluck this orthat individual ignorantly observes many of the laws

which make for good in his growth, developmentand normal sustenance. This is why the countryreared boy and girl, fed on the simple, naturalproducts of the field and orchard are so often su-perior to the citybred child whose lifeprocesses areonly too often enfeebled by a diet more or less arti-ficial in character.

IS THE CITY CHILD THEREFORE CON-DE M NE D T O INFIR M IT IE S W HIC H T H ECOUNTRY CHILD IS LIKELY TO ES-CAPE?

When the city childs food habits are simple andnatural, and his exercise is what it ought to be, andhis supply of fresh air is normal, he will enjoy the

advantages of a larger and fuller life, even though


24/54

the influences of the farm and hillside are never tobe underestimated in their beneficial effect uponthe character of men.

IS TH ER E ANY EVERYDAY PHEN OM ENO NWHICH WE MAY OBSERVE AND FROMWHICH WE MAY OBTAIN SOME STRIK-ING VIEW OF NATURES PROFOUNDOPERATIONS?

Let us look at the nail of our little finger. Noticehow delicately pink it is. Now pinch it betweentwo of the other fingers. The pale pink color is atonce intensified to a deep red. The change is in-stantaneous, bu t what does it signify? The palepink, hue indicates the general diffusion of the bloodwith countless millions of red corpuscles throughthe flesh under the nail. The pressure gives us aredder hue, for we have crowded these little redcorpuscles into a cramped area, and the increase in

their number makes them more noticeable.Now if we strike theT nail a bruising blow or cutthrough it into the flesh beneath, nature is arousedand all her energies are summoned to the injuredspot to begin the wonderful labor of reconstruction.

The little red and white corpuscles of the bloodstream, obedient to the orders of an unseen general,leap to their work of repair.

WH A T H A P P E N S ?Every corpuscle goes like a soldier in the army

with full instructions, doing its particular work withunerring precision.

The white corpuscles gather around the edges ofthe wound and pounce upon and destroy any invad-ing bacteria or germ life that may be on the skin


25/54

near the wound. They are the policemen or pro-tectors and stand on guard while their more numer-ous brothers, the red corpuscles, engage in the work

of building new tissue, bridging the rent in the fleshand repairing the injury. The Creator endowed thecorpuscles with apparent intelligence, for in obed-ience to some great unknown law these littlesoldiers of life go forth with full instructions as totheir duty. Each one travels its beaten path with-out interfering with the work of its neighbor andaccomplishes its purpose unless interfered with byan enemy from the outside, or unless they have beenreduced in .number and vitality by food of imperfectquality. Remember these corpuscles are the prod-ucts of digestion and they come from the food weeat.W H Y D O I N T E L L E CT U A L M E N H O L D

COOKERY IN SUCH CONTEMPT THATT H E Y I G N O RE I T A L T O G E T H E R?

Because they have not learned to properly rever-ence the human body nor its majestic laws by astudy of its functions in disease and health. Oncewe grasp the tragic significance of mans careless-ness when he trifles with his foods, or when throughfalse pride he commits the whole subject of nutri-tion to the haphazard control of the kitchendrudgeor to the commercial food factory, we will realizethe responsibility that rests upon them to whom isentrusted the stupendous task of keeping the racealive and well.BUT ARE WE NOT SO WONDERFULLY

MADE THAT IT IS NEEDLESS TO GIVE

MUCH C O N S I D E R A T I O N TO OUR


26/54

HABITS OF EATING AND DRINKING,RELYING INSTEAD UPON OUR NAT-URAL RESISTANCE TO DISEASE?

We must remember that any violation of natureslaws, whether they be broken in presumption, inignorance or in wilfulness, results in disease anddeath. In the United States during the year 1910,two hundred and thirtyfive thousand two hundredand sixtytwo children under ten years of age diedfrom preventable causes because in some manner

those laws were violated. The ignorance of theirparents and the evil practices of modern civilizationbrought about these untimely deaths. W e cannotpresume upon our strength nor laugh in the faceof natures laws without paying the price.W H Y C A N W E N O T T R I F L E W I T H T H E S E

LAWS NOR IGNORE THEM?

If we look upon the universe as a selfmade, selfexisting system of things, and man as the mosthighly developed member of it, we can then lookupon him as selfcontrolled, responsible only to self,limited indeed in power by external forces, butotherwise absolute master of his own actions.Viewed in this light there is no reason why heshould not exercise complete liberty, if there is no

being who can claim the right of commanding hisobedience to any laws.

But as we recognize that behind the wonderfulplay of Hamlet there must have been a more won-derful intelligence capable of conceiving and execut-ing that wonderful structure, we can easily believethat behind the sublime universe of which man is


27/54

but an integer, is an intelligence of infinite order,God, the Creator.

He it is, who after founding the material universe

and furnishing it with life, has imposed upon thatlife the laws by which it is sustained and by theviolation of which it is destroyed.

Man is therefore responsible to his Maker for theuse which he makes of his faculties and his liberty.God has placed man under the reign, not only ofmoral law but of physical law as well. The instinctsof selfpreservation and selfdevelopment are notmerely instincts. They are divinely appointed im-pulses keeping man to the main course that leadsto the ends for which he was created. The physicallaw and the moral law are so interwoven with eachother that they are not to be separated.

Once man recognizes that his life and its capa-bilities are the gift of God bestowed upon him for

the working out of his destiny, it follows that heis not himself to bring his career to a prematureclose.

Man may not hasten his end by the swift bulletnor by the slower but equally certain method ofsmall daily doses of poison, nor may he by the stillslower, but none the less sure, method of wilfully

ignoring the physical laws of his life. As food isthe foundation of all life, man must not underminethat foundation by his foolish commercial practicesunless he wilfully desires the whole structure totopple over upon him and crush out his life.W HAT AR E SOM E OF T HE KNOW AB L E

SIGNS BY WHICH MAN MAY BE CON-

VINCED T H A T T H E F O O D U P O N


28/54

WHICH HIS LIFE IS SUSTAINED PERFORM CERTAIN FIXED FUNCTIONSIN HIS LIFEPROCESSES, ANY INTER-

F E R E N C E W IT H W H IC H IS F O L L O W E DBY DISASTER?Medical science knows no drug which will cure

anemia or the emaciation due to a disturbance ofthe digestive processes, constipation, diarrhoea,Brights disease, cancer, nervous diseases and tuber-culosis. Medical science knows that violation of

natures laws is responsible for these morbid con-ditions and that the only preventive of them isorderly obedience to those laws.

In the Philippine Islands they have a diseaseknown as beriberi. We have similar diseases inthe United States but we call them during theirvarious stages, inanition, anemia, neurasthenia,nervous prostration, paralysis, death.

Beriberi journeys quickly from one stage to an-other through all these phases. Those who get itdie the death.

In the year 1910 Dr. V. G. Heiser, then Directorof Health of the Philippine Islands, Dr. Fraser ofSingapore, Dr. Aaron of the Philippine MedicalSchool, Dr. Highet of Siam and Dr. DeHaan of

Java produced evidence to show that beriberi iscaused by a diet of polished ricedenatured, demin-eralized rice. This rice, which is the kind consumedexclusively in the United States, is brushed andscoured between wire bristles and grinding stoneswhich remove the outer layer of the grain in whichnature has gathered the phosphorized fats, phosphorized albumens and other mineral constituents


29/54

and ferments of the grain, thereby robbing it, justas refined white flour is robbed of the natural vitaliz-ing elements which the body demands.

During January and February 1910 there was asevere outbreak of beriberi among the inmates ofthe Culion Leper Colony which resisted all medicaltreatment.

About the time of this outbreak some experimentswere being conducted on chickens, some of whichwere fed on polished or denatured rice and some onthe natural grain containing all the mineral elementswhich nature put there.

The birds fed on polished rice died. The othersthrived. As the results of this experiment seemedsignificant, all polished rice was at once withdrawnfrom the diet of the lepers and the natural browngrain substituted in its stead. The sick in the hos-pital were fed the rice polishings, the parts whichare removed in making the rice white, representingthe phosphorus compounds and other mineral salts,ferments and nitrogenous products of the grains.

The spread of the disease was promptly arrestedand complete cures followed.

After this fact had been demonstrated to the sat-isfaction of the physicians, it was again confirmed

by feeding polished and unpolished rice to twogroups of railway workers in the Straits Settle-ments.

The group of men who ate the denatured ricecontracted beriberi in approximately sixty days,and when changed to a diet of the natural grainpromptly recovered. The group which partook of

the natural grain remained immune to the disease.


30/54

After a period of sixty days the denatured rice wassubstituted for the natural grain, whereupon thesecond group after about two months diet on the

debased product developed beriberi just as themembers of the first group had done.When the facts were put before the Governor

General of the Islands he issued an executive order,June 3, 1910, forbidding the use of polished rice(demineralized rice) in all government workshops,prisons, hospitals and other public institutions.

On May 23, 1912, Dr. J. Tsuzuki announced the

treatment of beriberi in Japan by the administra-tion of a solution of antiberiberin, which was pro-duced from the alcoholic extract of rice bran. Thedaily treatment consisted of one injection anti-beriberin; six to ten antiberiberin powders; thirtyto fortyfive antiberiberin pills; three to five anti-beriberin capsules and eight to twentyfive grammesrice bran powder. This quantity is equivalent tofrom one to three ounces of solid and concentratedmineral food.

Sixtytwo beriberi patients were treated underthis schedule, of whom fortytwo recovered entirely,the average treatment lasting twentythree days.

This treatment consisted of restoring to the min-er allystarved bodies of the sick just those vitalizing

mineral elements which had been withdrawn fromtheir diet by polishing their rice, thereby removingfrom that rice those essential but frequently despisedelements which the Creator put there. Those whosee the evil consequences of debasing rice by thewhitening process to satisfy the demand for pleas-ing color, can judge what results follow the debas


31/54

( ing or refining of wheat by a process that robs itt of the same organic compounds of phosphorus, iron,

etc., in the same way., APART FROM THE FACTS CITED ABOVEI DO PHYSIOLOGISTS RECOGNIZE THAT

THE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS OF PHOS-PHORUS ARE ABSOLUTELY NECES-SARY TO THE HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF MAN?

Yes. Recognizing that man does not possess thepower of the p lant to manufacture its needed organic

compounds of phosphorus from inorganic or non-living, phosphorus, Dr. Alexander Bryce of Birming-ham, England, goes so far as to declare that it iseven probable that a daily supply of the differentcompounds of organic phosphorus is necessary inthe food, as no proof exists to show that nucleins,lecithins, phosphatides or phytins are capable of

being subtituted one for the other.To remove more than seventyfive per cent of allthe organic phosphorus compounds of our grainsbefore baking our millions of loaves of white bread,our millions of pounds of rolls, cakes, crackers, bis-cuits, doughnuts, etc., is to set aside all considera-tions of health and vitality, and all regard for

natures laws, in the idle pursuit of a perniciouscustom which is slowly but surely making us a na-tion of physical bankrupts.

W e know that beriberi owes its origin to adeficiency of the organic compounds of phosphorusand the other mineral salts among riceeating peo-ple, and that riceeating people not only do not con-

tract the disease when they live on rice as nature


32/54

produces it, but that even when they have developedthe disease by eating refined rice they can recovertheir health by going back to the natural rice grain.

In America we are not a riceeating people butwe are a breadeating people and a denatured graineating people, and while beriberi is not a diseasecommon to this country, due to the fact that ourdiet is not composed exclusively of rice or bread,yet in America polished rice and refined wheat flourare used very extensively by many classes, particu-larly the poor and the children of the poor.

The average wellfed business man, whose diet isgenerously varied, will probably obtain from thevariety of his food sufficient of the elements neces-sary to sustain life in a more or less normal con-dition. But for the school children we have anotherstory to tell. Then later, the hastily preparedluncheon, the denatured foundation of most hotel

and restaurant meals, and the unfitness of the com-mercial bakers products continue the degenerativework that commenced with infancy.

In addition we also debase, in like fashion, barleyin pearling it and corn meal in degerminating it.

ARE OUR CHILDREN SUFFERING TO ANYCONSIDERABLE DEGREE FROM SUCHVIOLATIONS OF NATURES LAWS?

We have seen that in the year 1910, 235,262children under 10 years of age died in the UnitedStates. These figures were prepared by the CensusDirector of Mortality Statistics at Washington,D. C. In the year 1912, Dr. Thomas D. Wood ofthe Teachers College, in a bulletin issued by the


33/54

United States Bureau of Education commentedupon the physical defects of school children.

Dr. Wood stated that in the United States today

400,000 of the school children have organic heartdisease.1.000.000 have tuberculosis in some form.1.000.000 have spinal curvature.1.000.000 have defective hearing.5.000.000 are suffering from malnutrition.6.000.000 have enlarged tonsils, adenoids or en-

larged cervical glands.10.000.000, or as high a^ 98% in some schools, have

defective teeth.15.000.000 need attention for physical defects which

are prejudicial to health and which arepartially or completely remediable.

IN BROODING OVER TH E ABOVE FIGURESSHOULD W E CONSIDER R E F O R MM O V E M E N T S O T H ER TH AN T H E M A I N T E N A N C E OF SANITARY,HE AL T HFUL SC HOOL E NVIR ONM E NT ,W IT H CLEAN S C H O O L H O U S E S ,ABUNDANT LIGHT AND GOOD AIR;RATIONAL SUPERVISION AND DIREC-TION OF PLAY, GAMES, ATHLETICS

AND ALL HEALTHFUL AND SATISFY-ING FORMS OF PHYSICAL EDUCA-TION; HYGIENIC INSTRUCTION ANDSCHOOL MANAGEMENT, WITH PAR-TICULAR ATTENTION TO INFLUENCEO F T E A C H E R U PON N E R V O U SHE AL T H OF PUPIL S?

The first part of this question is answered by


34/54

showing that proper nutrition demands the correc-tion of the foodsupply, and to answer the secondquestion we must ask two other questions:

W HA T IS NERVOUS HEA LTH? W HAT ISNERVOUS DISEASE?If we assert that a certain disease is nervous

do we mean that the nerves are diseased and there-fore are influencing the body to a state of ill healthor that a sick body has so affected the nerves thatthe latter react upon the disordered body?

The physician who administers nervines admin-

isters agents of unknown constitution to patientswhose constitution is likewise unknown. He trea tsthe nerves, but the nerves have been affected bywrong food or drink, or by unnecessary drugs, andit is the whole physical system that needs treat-ment.

It is true m a sense that all activity of the body is

controlled by the nervous system, and thereforethere is some foundation for ascribing disease to thefailure of the nervous system. But why does thenervous system fail? Nervous diseases are on theincrease and apart from the influence of coffee, tea,tobacco, morphine, cocaine, alcohol, syphilis, etc.,what causes that increase?

An excitable person with faulty digestion is said

to suffer from nervous dyspepsia and the nervesare blamed for the dyspepsia and treated accord-ingly. Are the nerves acting abnormally because ofthe dyspepsia or is the dyspepsia acting on thenerves? Which is the offender?

The nerves, like all other living tissues, are sub-ject to the laws of nutrition. They have to be fed,


35/54

repaired, kept in trim. The vascular channels carrytheir nourishing elements to the nerves and theblood of the body is the medium from which thenerves and tissues derive their nourishment. Bloodis the endproduct of digestion as we have seen.Now if the food is poor, does the heart possess somespecial discriminating function whereby it is ableto choose for the nerves alone any good elementsthat the poor food happens to possess?

If the food does not contain the elements neces-sary to normal digestion how can digestion remainnormal? How can abnormal digestion producegood endproducts? How can the bad endproductsof bad digestion produce good blood? How canbad blood impart proper nourishment to the nerves?How can badly nourished nerves preserve theirvitality?

Nervous health is not an endproduct of bad food

and nervous disease is not an endproduct of goodfood. The public schools must initiate food reformif they are to have anything to say concerning theinfluence of the teacher upon the nervous health ofthe pupil. %

Schaumann has shown that polished rice whichproduces tropical beriberi, or even the ship variety

of beriberi which arises in the European crews ofsailing vessels forced to live on food largely de-prived of its organic phosphorus, will also producepolyneuritis in fowls. Schaumann proved that bar-ley and white flour can induce the same disease.The writer can prove that ordinary corn meal (de-germinated behind the screens) can bring about the

same results.


36/54

Schaumann also showed that by demineralizingfoodstuffs of any kind through the action of solventsor by disorganizing those organic mineral sub-

stances by high temperature the same disease canbe induced. I t has also been shown tha t foods richin the organic compounds of phosphorus such aspeas, beans, wheat bran and middlings, barleypolishings, ricepolishings, gain germs, etc., whenadded to the demineralized or defective foodstuffswill prevent the development of the disease or cancure it when present.

Beriberi is the extreme or last stage of mineralstarvation.APART FROM THE UNOFFICIAL EXPERI -

MENTS OF INDIVIDUALS AND THE OB-SERVATIONS OF MEN INTERESTED INDIETREFORM, HAVE ANY OFFICIALO R N O T E WO R T H Y E X P E R IME N T SALONG TH ESE LINES BEEN RECORDED IN RECENT YEARS IN ENGLAND ORAMERICA?

Yes. The following are some of the details of theresearch work carried on during the years 1911 and1912 with whole wheat and refined white bread inthe BioChemical Department of the LiverpoolSchool of Tropical Medicine by Professor Benjamin

Moore and his aids:Groups of pigeons have been fed on fine white

bread made from white flour guaranteed to beunbleached and unadulterated, while similargroups of pigeons have been given an ordinaryquality of whole wheat bread. The whitebreadpigeons all speedily developed marked symptoms


37/54

of illnutrition and serious nerve derangement.Besides losing weight they sat listless and shiver-ing, lost power in their legs, suggesting nerve

paralysis and many developed convulsions.The whole wheat pigeons, on the other hand,kept healthy and up to normal weight.

In another series of experiments, pigeonswhich had developed grave nervous symptoms ona white bread diet recovered completely, whenafter a week of special nursing they were placed

on an exclusive whole wheat bread diet duringtheir convalescence.

All the recent work done in our biochemicallaboratories proves beyond question that in allcereals, such as wheat, barley, oats and rice,there are important substances incorporated inthe inner layer of the husk which are essential to

the nutritive value of the grain. If these elementsare eliminated in the milling or preparation of thegrain, a diet largely composed of cereals or breadthus denatured (cornflakes, breakfastfoods,farina, biscuits, sodacrackers, cakes, etc.), will notonly fail adequately to nourish the body but willtend to set up actual disease by lowering resist-

ance to a point where diseasebreeding bacteriacan gain control.

Our nerves as a nation are much less stablethan in the days prior to a white bread diet. Allour work suggests that the growing tendency ofthe age to neurasthenia, nerves/ is not unlikelydue to removing from our diet those very ele-

ments of cereal foods which nature has hid in the


38/54

husk of the grain and which man in his ignorancediscards.

Certain of the diseases of malnutrition among

children, notably rickets, scurvyrickets, tetanusand convulsions, present symptoms very similarto those we note in our whitebread pigeons. Sostriking is this similarity that physicians whohave followed up our work are already treatingcertain of their scurvyricket patients with a dietof whole wheat bread.Dr. Frederick Gowland Hopkins, University of

Cambridge, conducted a series of experiments alongthe same lines and, after definitely proving thatyoung animals grow with very much greater rapid-ity on whole wheat flour than on white flour, wasable to improve the tissuebuilding rate of the whiteflour subjects by adding to their white flour an ex-tract made from the brown flour, thereby ascertain-

ing that to make the best use of any food material,such as the proteins, etc., a variety of the organicmineral compounds must be present in definite pro-portions. His experiments were peculiarly like thosewhich we have noted with regard to antiberiberinextract made from rice bran.

Doctor E. S. Eddie and Dr. G. C. Simpson, of theresearch staff, University of Liverpool, reporting on

similar experiments, declared:It has been proved by Braddon and other

workers in the East that exclusive use of polishedrice as a diet leads to a form of peripheral neuritis.This disease does not occur in those native raceswho use whole rice as a diet. Our own experi-ments have been extended to similar work in


39/54

relation to the stripping of the outer case from thewheat berry so as to produce a white bread insteadof a whole wheat or standard loaf, and we findthat parallel results are often obtained when theouter layers are excluded from the diet with bothwheat and rice. These experiments clearlydemonstrate that the outer part of the grain con-tains the essential constituents for the nutritionof the nervous system, both in growing animalsand in adults.

HOW CAN TEACHERS INFLUENCE THE

NE R VOUS HE AL T H OF T HE IR PUPIL SIF THOSE PUPILS COME TO SCHOOLON A DENATURED BREAKFAST ANDGO HOME TO A DENATURED DINNER?

Not so much by moral processes as by the physic-al means of teaching them how to correct their dietin conformity with the laws of nature, disobedience

to which is really immoral.B UT W HE N W E C ONSIDE R T HE FAC TTHAT WE EAT A GREAT MANY STEAKSAND CHOPS, DO WE NOT SUPPLY INT HE SE FL E SH FOODS T HOSE E L E -MENTS WHICH THE CEREAL MANU-FACTURER AND BREAD MAKER TAKE

FROM US, THEREBY BALANCING OURDIET?The direct answer to this question is, No. But

there are many indirect answers.If you adopted the habits of meateating animals,

lions, tigers, vultures, etc., and ate the blood of theanimal as well as its bones and flesh, you would findall the elements of life which the flesh and blood


40/54

and bones contain, all the phosphates and oxides, allthe calcium and iron, all the nitrates and sulphatesof the animals organism; but when you kill your

meatproducing animals, you hang them up anddrain them of their blood and strip them of theirbones, saving nothing but the flesh with its mini-mum content of phosphorus and potassium. I t iseasy to bring about a condition in young dogs, re-sembling rickets in children, by feeding them onmeat and fat alone. If you add pulverized bone orcalcium carbonate or calcium acetate to their meat

and fat, the animals partially recover.Flesh which is minced and immersed for a fewhours in cold, distilled water loses its phosphorusand potassium salts and its color. If cooked in thiscondition it will be tasteless. If offered to dogs andcats they will eat a little then refuse to take moreuntil driven to do so by hunger. If fed on nothingelse they will die quicker than animals not fed at all, for, in addition to being deprived of substances thatwill sustain life, the animals fed on demineralizedmeat are obliged to dissipate their reserve vitalityat a rapid rate through the effort of their organs tothrow off the useless food imposed upon them,whereas the animal that is being starved outrightdoes not expend its strength faster than the laws of

starvation demand.WOULD NOT THIS TEND TO REDUCETHE CONSUMPTION OF MEAT?

We must not lose sight of the fact that Americahas introduced meateating to the world on a largerscale than was ever known before. The earlysettlers found meat absolutely free in America. All


41/54

they had to do was to go to the woods and shoot.Bison, bear, moose, squirrel, rabbit, deer, grouse,quail, duck, turkey were to be found in every clumpof trees. In the old country men had so little meatthat they sang songs of ecstacy when at Christmastime a boars head or a roast joint was brought tothe table. Meat in America everywhere and atevery meal, easy to obtain, easy to preparenowonder the meat habit became fixed when the meathungry European became a companion of* the wildanimals of the American mountain and plain.

A deer was shot; its loin was frizzled over a woodfire and the remainder of the carcass was left to rot.Men were not worried over the food question. Foodwas free. But settlers came in greater numbers andas they grew thicker wild meat grew scarcer. Menwere building cities, framing a constitution, plan-ning for a money supply, but no one thought of the

food question. Food was still comparatively free,even though it did not stalk up to the front of these ttlers hut to be shot as in the earlier days. Graz-ing lands were transformed into agricultural tracts.Where cattle once fed, onions, tobacco, cotton andcorn were planted. Towns and farms grew in num-ber, not so the crop of cattle. The product of the corn

fields was gradually turned into glucose, whiskey,corn starch, cattle food and breakfastfoodbut thebreakfastfood contained only part of the corn, theleast valuable part. The steer ate the cream of thegrainand man drank the alcohol, ate the cornsyrup, the corn flakes and the fattened steaks. Thecrowds continued to come and today there are amillion more mouths to feed than there were six


42/54

months ago, but there is not more meat to eat andthe robbery of the wheat and rice and corn goes on.Let us not forget that when America began meatwas free, but the day is near at hand when meatonce a week will be the rule, and after that it isinevitable, with our increasing millions, that cheapmeat will be a memory and meatatall a luxury.

Our children of today, as the men of tomorrow,should learn the truth, and learn the way of escapefrom starvation, and the high cost of living.

The American workman will come to the condi-

tion of the common people of Europe who ate meatonly at Christmas time. If the government does notplan to give him a plentiful supply of honest foodfree from the abuses and debasements of ouravaricious commercialism of today, we will havethe same scourge of famine and disease with whichthe older peoples of the world are cursed. No, meatdoes not balance a denatured diet and it never will!Even so, it is better as it is and will be better stillwhen meat is only a name, if we face the issue andreform the food we have. Already the children ofAmerica are paying the price of their fathers* ig-norance and indifference. Already the processes ofdegeneracy are at work in a land of supposedplenty!

Despite the establishment of this fact, tremendousand terrible in its significance, we carelessly destroythe organic mineral compounds for which physicianand surgeon even at the uttermost extremity ofdeath can find no adequate substitute in nature.Science has penetrated into the secrets of nature,she has multiplied mans power by arms of iron and


43/54

nerves of steel, she has won conquest for him overthe seas and the air, but she has not taught himobedience to natures laws nor has she shown theplain people how to eat their daily bread.

Springtime is the season of high spirits in nature.Man alone in the spring complains of lassitude. Allround him he witnesses the miracle of rising sap,the quickening strength that swells the bud, theenergy that forces the spear of grass up through thehard clod. Man needs his tonic, or thinks hedoes, because unlike nature he does not heed the

laws of life but sets up standards of his own. Un-happily his standards are at war with heaven andso he pays the price in death.

IS THE DEVITALIZING OF OUR GRAINSTH E ONLY FOODCAUSE OF TH E PH YS-ICAL DEFECTS OF 15,000,000 OF OURAMERICAN SCHO OLCHILD REN?

No, although it is the biggest single factor in thedegeneracy of this nation, it is not alone. Thesugarbowl and the candykitchen loom large in thebackground. Their insidious work is baffling theskill of our physicians and surgeons to a degreewhich we cannot understand until we have askedthe question, what is sugar as it is manufactured

today?The answer to that question stumbles overanother broken law of nature and still another, andagain we see man in his commercial skill defiant ofthe ruin which his greed is piling up around him.

The sugar cane is a good gift of nature and itsunrefined product, canesugar, is a valuable and a

natural food just as uifrefined honey and unrefined


44/54

maple sugar are valuable natural foods. But manspurns the juice of the sugar cane and will havenone of its fineflavored, rich brown crystals con-

taining the beneficent tissue salts which the planthas elaborated for his benefit. In the case of themaple tree he is inconsistently content to consumeits nutbrown sugar just as it leaves the kettlewhereas he asks that the sugar of the cane be de-mineralized and refined until its color is reduced toan artificial pallor.

We will examine the conduct of that mineral

hungry sugar a little later. Its companion,molasses, bleached and preserved with sulphurousacid, every barrel of it as manufactured in theUnited States, has a slightly different charge tomeet, but its first cousin, glucose, is included in thesame indictment. Millions of pounds of lifegivingcorn are destroyed and consumed annually in themanufacture of syrup which is simply an artificial, mineralfree conversion of the starch of the corn bythe hydrolizing action of muriatic or hydrochloricacid into the sweet, with which our children spreadtheir minerallyrobbed bread, and which the candymaker employs by hundreds of thousands of bar-rels in the preparation of his thousands of tons ofmineralfree bonbons, chocolates, caramels, sticks,

balls, beans, pellets, etc.WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY SAYING THATREFINED CANE SUGAR AND GLUCOSEARE MINERALFREE?

The chemical processes by which they are manu-factured destroy or remove the organic mineralcompounds organized for mans needs by nature in


45/54

the sugar cane and in the grain of corn. Man bylaying his ruthless hands upon those natural prod-ucts defeats the ends of nature and produces

instead an artificial shadow of the substance,foolishly believing that by so doing he is contribu-ting to the welfare of his fellows.WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY SAYING THAT

REFINED CANE SUGAR AND GLUCOSESYRUP ARE MINERALHUNGRY?

The answer to this question is most serious. If

we kill a frog and place its pulsating heart on a slabof marble the frogs heart will continue to beat forsome time. I t will of course eventually collapse andbecome flabby and lifeless. In order to prolong itspulsations for an hour or more we need only provideit with a solution of lime (calcium), (KC1 or NaClof proper strength produces the same effect), one ofthe sixteen simple elements of which we are com-posed. Under the mysterious influence of this com-monest of earths the cold marble slab will witnessin that dead heart for hours the manifestations oflife.B UT W HAT HAS L IM E T O DO W IT H DE -

NATURED SUGAR?Without the assistance of lime the digestive fer-

ments refuse to perform their complex functions.Rennet is a ferment. I t is employed in making

curd from milk, the first step in making ordinarycheese. In order to help the rennet do its work, thelime in the milk must be made soluble and kept sol-uble and, in order to accomplish this, the cheesemaker employs hydrochloric acid or some similar

solvent of calcium.


46/54

If the lime were not present in a soluble form thecurd would never become cheese. This is proved byadding a little oxalic acid to the milk or by decom-posing or precipitating the lime by boiling.

The oxalic acid throws the lime out of solutionthereby depriving the rennet of its aid, thereby in-hibiting the processes of fermentation, thereby pre-venting the making of the cheese. Lime is amysterious worker but an active one.

If you cut your finger the blood coagulates at thewound and you do not bleed to death, because of the

activity of the soluble lime that is present in theblood. I t is no t difficult to understand th at weshould permit no condition of nutrition which hasthe power to interfere with the presence of ourbloods normal content of lime. W e are gettingnearer to the answer to the question, What ismineralhungry sugar?

Let us look at the records that tell us of 10,000,000 school children with defective teeth. Thosedefective teeth are only the surface symptoms ofmuch deeper ravages. The dentist prescribes toothwashes and tooth pastes, advocates oral hygiene,fills cavities and fits bridges, ignoring the fact thatthe great cause of tooth destruction is to be foundon the one hand in lime and phosphorus starvation

and on the other in food (mineralhungry sugar)that has the power to steal lime from the body!Some dentists say that this candy and sugar

eating nation loses its teeth because the excesssugar that it takes into its mouth acts directly anddestroyingly on the surface enamel. They closetheir eyes to the fact that destruction starts in the


47/54

pulp of the teeth, beneath the crust of enamel. Thevital processes of the body cannot carry on theirwork without lime. W here there is a deficiency oflime salts in the food the body actually tears downits own structure in order to obtain this necessarymineral. I t burrows into the only available sourceof lime supply, the lime of the teeth and bones. Inthe teeth this lime is gradually consumed until itleaves only a shelllike arch over the weakened spot.Here the enamel sooner or later cracks and crum-bles under pressure and an avenue is opened up for

the entrance of bacteria from without to completethe ruin. The damage had been done before therewas any surface evidence of it.

Sugar and fruit acids have no effect on soundteeth. Such teeth can be immersed in solutions offruit acids and sugars for months and suffer noerosion.

Sugar (mineralfree and mineralhungry) has aremarkable affinity for lime, just as much as ironhas for oxygen.

When we consume an excess of limefree sugar,the sugar with insatiable thirst attacks the solublelime of the tissues and blood and uniting with itcarries it off. The blood and tissues retaliate by

sapping the bones and teeth, for in order to live andwork they must have lime. The drugg ist appre-ciates the remarkable affinity between sugar andlime and makes use of it in preparing his simplesyrup of lime. One thousand parts of distilled(mineralhungry) water will take up one part oflime. The addition of sugar to the water increases

its lime drinking capacity 3,500 per cent.


48/54

The babe in its mothers womb is a lime con-sumer. If the mothers food is robbed of the limethat belongs to it, and if she is a sugar consumer,both mother and babe pay the price but the motherpays it first. The wounds of a sugar consumer bleedprofusely and heel with difficulty. Profuse bleedingis characteristic of tissues fed by blood deficient insoluble lime.

If we are indifferent to the physical rights ofmotherhood and childhood, if we care nothing forher whose instrumentality in carrying on the work

of Gods creation is divinely appointed, if we aremore deeply interested in the unnatural titillationsof the palate and the artificial demands of the eyefor pale color, then let us go on in our commercialcrimes of robbing the grains and refining the sugars,and demineralizing both. The demineralized sugarhas just as much affinity for iron as it has for limeand the candy eater, as candy is now made, robs

his body of its iron in the same way.The candymaker dare not cook sugar in an iron

kettle because the sugar will actually unite with theiron and carry it off, thereby destroying the kettle.We ignore its destructive action on the body butsave the pots and pans. Sugar and glucose differ inth is : sugar does not kill bees or m ice; glucose does.

Glucose is not consumed as a sweet, it has to besweetened with sugar or Sachaarin. I t is used as afiller because it is cheap. The mineral salts takenfrom the corn in making glucose are taken from manand given to cattle, because cattle fed on the by-products of the glucose industry, die if the mineralsalts are not mixed with that byproduct.


49/54

CAN WE TEACH THESE THINGS TO CHIL -DREN IN THE SCHOOLS?

Yes, we can feed chickens on a limefree diet andnote the results. W e can feed dogs on meat, with-out bones, and note their tettered skin, their loss ofhair, their ugly disposition, their shortness of life.We can feed caged mice on refined corn meal, orwhite bread, or polished rice, and distilled water(limefree) and note their nerves, then their par-oxysms, then their convulsions. W e can study theculture of pneumonia germs which reaching a sta-

tionary growth are revived with lime. W e canstudy the twitching of the muscle that is deprivedof lime and we can remember that lime is only oneof the organized minerals without all of which inproper proportion life and health are failures.

The coaltar color schemes and the ethers com-monly employed in candymaking, soda water, soft

drinks and commercial baking, butyric ether, oenanthic ether, formic ether, benzoic ether, valerianateether, amyl ether, ethyl ether, acetic ether, etc., withthe antiferments or fermentdestroyers employed inthe making of condiments, sauces, jellies, jams,mincemeats, beverages, etc., are not substitutes forthe lifemaking, lifesustaining, natural food ele-

ments which modern foodfolly removes from ournational food supply, even though the commercialfood factory employs experts to declare themharmless. Food should be a human conserver nota human destroyer.ARE SWEETS THEN ESSENTIALLY INJUR-

IOUS TO T H E H E A L T H O F T H E

HUMAN FAMILY?


50/54

By no means. They are on the contrary quitenecessary to the human family and are found in allnature in a natural state.

Most vegetables are rich in natural sugar or in

sugar forming elements which by the action of thedigestive organs are converted into sugar. Thechild should not be fed with artificial sugar for thereason that it makes its own natural sugar. All thestarch consumed by a human being must bechanged into sugar before digestion can be com-pleted.

DOES TH IS MEAN THAT T H E ONLY SUGARWE SHOULD CONSUME IS THE SUGARFOUND IN FRUITS AND VEGETABLESSUCH AS THE GRAPE, PEAR, PEACH,DATE, FIG, BEET, CARROT, ETC.?

No, it means nothing of the kind.From the earliest recorded period of mans exist-

ence on this planet he has been a consumer of added natural sugar just as he has been a consumer ofadded water. His vegetables and fruits contain thequantity of water which they should contain butaccording to the variation of his conduct, exerciseor habits his need for more water increases. Insomewhat similar manner added natural sugarbecomes valuable to his diet. The patriarch Jacob

sent a present of honey to propitiate the dreadedprime minister of Egypt of whom he would buywheat. The Greeks made bread and cakes withflour and honey. Pythagoras who died at the age of90 lived on bread and honey and recommended suchdiet to his disciples. Besides the honey of the bees,the production and culture of which should be en


51/54

couraged on a vast national scale, the ancientsrecognized reedhoney or cane sugar. Theo-phrastus spoke of it as such and Dioscorides calledit honey of reeds.

In the East Indies, Arabia and China the sugarcane, a certain reed filled with a kind of honey,was cultivated for centuries before the dawn of theChristian era. I t was no t until the 15th century thatany attempt was made to refine the honey ofreeds, when a Venetian discovered a method ofwhitening the brown syrup and reducing it to loaf

form. Honey, the unrefined honey of reeds or canesyrup, the unrefined sugar of the cane, and thesyrup and sugar of the maple tree are naturalsweets, affording for preserving purposes, baking,candymaking and all other culinary purposes, atrinity of flavors which modern civilization has al-most forgotten, flavors so superior to the flavor of

the denatured granulated sugar of the grocery storethat they might be called the lost sweets ofparadise.ALL THIS REALLY ADVOCATES THE USE

OF IMPURE SUGAR, DOES IT NOT?If sugar, containing the salts of the cane that

nature put into the juice of the cane, can be called

impure (?) sugar it advocates that kind of sugar.Starch in nature is always combined or associ-ated with other elements. Sugar, too, in roots,fruits, reeds, trees, is combined in the same waywith other elements.

This is as it should be and we should allow noman to take anything out of our foods that natureput there.


52/54

Chemically pure sugar, Ci* H 22On, is a product ofthe laboratory, not of God.

If you have never had a hint of the delicacy of

these things beat two eggs, add them to a quart ofcertified milk, add to this mixture a half pint ofstrained honey or the same quantity of pure sapsyrup from the maple tree and freeze as you wouldfreeze icecream. A cake can be mixed with wholewheat meal, eggs, butter, honey or pure maplesyrup, sufficient water or milk to make a batter, withcream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda for raising,

which will start you on a career of restoring to thediet of your household the flour and sugar mixturesas they ought to be and as nature asks you to havethem. You cannot procure oldfashioned purebrown sugar nowadays but when enlightenedpeople decide in sufficient numbers to want it, theperverted cane sugar industry of modern times willreturn to you the inheritance which you have sur-rendered in exchange for the pallor of death in yoursugarbowl. Oldfashioned open kettle molasses,now a thing of the past, must be restored. I t wasan honest food, rich in the tissue salts of the caneand possessing a most delicious flavor. The miser-able molasses of today, treated with DEADLY sul-phurous acid, must be destroyed. Our children

demand its destruction and the only thing thatstands between them and their rights is the oldstock argument of every evil industry, Menace usand you throw hundreds of men out of work.

Why keep men at work when the fruits of theirtoil degenerate their children? Sulphurous acidmust go. I t plays a bad role in the tragedy of food


53/54

frauds, acting as an agent that prevents oxidizationin fruits and sugars, thereby bleaching them to alighter color. I t retards oxidization in the body inthe same manner and destroys the blood corpus-cles in its evil work.W H A T T H E N I S T H E P U R P O S E O F T H I S

SERIES OF QU ESTION S AND ANSW ERS?The reform of mans food by conserving the sol-

ubles of that food, by conserving its ferments andits organic compounds.

HOW IS THIS REFORM TO BE BROUGHTABOUT?By a vast scheme of education which will teach

the rising generation the meaning of food in itsrelationship to life, beginning with the most com-monplace of all foods, the cereals and sugars, untilthe dangers of denaturing, chemically preserving,chemically bleaching and chemically coloring foodsare fully understood.

Nature gives man an appetite.Nature supplies food for that appetite.Man by artifice and caprice wantonly changes the

character of natures food, thereby establishingconditions hostile to natures processes.

These unnatural conditions bring about misery,disease and untimely death. Tuberculosis followslow resistan ce; let th at be remembered. To preventthe unnecessary sorrow and pain that follow manssins against nature in relation to eating and drink-ing, our national food supply must be reformed.


54/54

^ ita l CSueiittott anb glnstoeris a forerunner or herald for StarvingA m erica by Alfred W . McCann.

I t is designed for wide distribution an dm ay be used as a textbook in dom es-

tic science department of schools.It has been adopted in the S tate Nor-mal Schools of Massachusetts.

Starving Am erica g ives full detailsof im portant m atters covered only by aquestion and answ er in this book. Andit covers many other subjects in its272 pages.

Starving Am erica

by Alfred W . McCann. Price $1.50.

Vital Questions and A nsw ersPrice SO cents three copies for $1.00.

How to live on $750 to $1500 a year.Full details of how twentyfive familiesovercame the high living cost. Price$1.00, postage 8c.

F . M. BARTON, PU BL ISHE RCaxton BuildingCleveland, Ohio

Date post:	05-Apr-2018
Category:	Documents
Upload:	paul-capell
View:	217 times
Download:	0 times

VITAL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS - McCann

Documents