Theory of nutrition : the treatment of disease, and philosophy of healing, without medicine / by Laroy Sunderland.

  • Sunderland, La Roy, 1802-1885.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Theory of nutrition : the treatment of disease, and philosophy of healing, without medicine / by Laroy Sunderland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    Look at the teeth. Man wants solid food, as well as liquid. His nature is best conserved, when, he has a use for his teeth. And yet, these very teeth were designed for rendering solid food, liquid! Put a dry crust in your mouth. Observe how quickly it becomes moistened by the saliva, deposited in the glands near by for this very purpose. You masticate until it becomes, comparatively, liquid, else it could not be passed into the stomach. Now, observe, a certain quantity of Negative matter, or solid food, (like the bran of wheat) tends to excite the Egestive motions of the bowels. It is innutritious and must, there- fore, be expelled. Hence, to restore Harmony between the Ingestive, Retentive, and Egestive movements of the organism, a certain quantity of Negative or Innutritious matter must be received into the Stomach and Lungs. If the air we breathe were all oxygen, death would soon ensue, as it would, if our aliment were all nutritive, all fluid, or all solid. Thus, a person would actually starve to death, if confined to what might be considered the purest diet, such as the white of eggs, if it did not contain a suitable proportion of indigestible matter. All vegeta- bles contain salts, or negative matter, peculiar to their tribe, besides those compounds of soda, potash, iron, mag- nesia, lime, manganese, with sulphuric and phosphoric acids, and silica and chlorine. Substances which contain no soda, potash or lime, conjoined with some acid, are not fit for food, as they cannot be changed into blood, unless some such salts as those above named are combined with them. The solid, or innutritious parts of food, therefore, are as necessary, for carrying on the processes of Life, as those Positive parts which are assimilated and become components of the living body.