Nutrition

Abstract

Nutrition, in the light we wish to consider it, is the acme of the physiological process of alimentation, assimilation, and res­ piration, the true nature of which, whether in highly organized parts, such as the brain, or in tissues, such as cartilage, nail, or horn, is unknown. These processes are physiological puzzles, which, it is to be feared, will always be beyond the grasp of science. They con­ stitute one of the mysteries always in the mind of every student of physiology, and may be compared with the question of the soul and its relations to the finite and the infinite, which humanity has been either compelled to admit upon the faith of revelation or to hopelessly abandon. It will always be interesting and satisfactory to those acquainted with Nature’s laws and willing to accept theories upon the subject concerning which it is im­ possible in the present condition of science to give any positive information. It has long been known that certain nitrogen compounds of the organism seem to have the power of reproduction or self­ generation ; and it seems that such a compound as protoplasm, with all the wonderful properties ascribed to it, would give us enough information concerning the formation of tissues to en­ able us to understand the process of nutrition, but, to the con­ trary, it simply covers up a multitude of unexplained processes between assimilation and disassimilation. It is a known fact that some tissues undergo decomposition, and that the end-products are excreted, while others, when once