The essential nature and organisation of food energy and the application of the second principle of thermo-dynamics to food value and its active force / by M. Bircher-Benner ; translated by D. E. Hecht and E. F. Meyer.

  • Bircher-Benner, Max Oskar, 1867-1939.
Date:
1939
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The essential nature and organisation of food energy and the application of the second principle of thermo-dynamics to food value and its active force / by M. Bircher-Benner ; translated by D. E. Hecht and E. F. Meyer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    William Ostwald alone wrote that I was right. I have said that to speak of this law as the law of entropy is only to regard its final aspect—it should be called the law of the organisation of energy. Man’s food should be assessed in value according to this law, i.e. according to the organisation of energy that it con- tains. Many thousands of patients have been treated by me with the same diet of the highest potentiality and with astonishing success. This was long before the discovery of vitamins. Thirty-five years later Dr. Werner Kollath, Professor of Hygiene at Rostock, likewise wrote about the second principle of energetics and insisted that I was right. Latterly my profession has begun to make use of this law with regard to many problems of fife and disease. You will understand accordingly that your letter in The Times gave me great pleasure.” In acknowledging Kollath’s letter Dr. Bircher-Benner wrote : ‘ I have with pleasurable surprise taken cog- nizance of your recognition, since I had thought that this revolution would only come 50-100 years after my death.’ Owing to the author’s passing on January 24, 1939, the above extracts are necessarily based upon letters written by him and not intended for publication. April, 1939. Chas, E. Hecht.