Nutrition in health and disease : a contribution to hygiene and to clinical medicine / by James Henry Bennett.

  • James Henry Bennett
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nutrition in health and disease : a contribution to hygiene and to clinical medicine / by James Henry Bennett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    and undefined; because the watery atoms of which it is composed succeed each other so rapidly that no stagnation, no corruption, is possible. If dead leaves, stray fragments of wood, or any decayed substances, fall into it, they are hurried on, and do not contaminate its waters; it still remains the pure mountain torrent. Its sister in the plain, dragging her sluggish course through fertile prairies, with a scarcely perceptible current, is in a different con- dition. The leaves, the fragments of wood, the decayed substances, all but remain where they fall, and gradually decomposing contaminate the sur- rounding waters. Such is life. The rapid, pure mountain stream is the organization in which all the organs, with- out exception, are actively exercised, in which molecular disintegration and renovation are con- stantly occurring, and in which, consequently, the phenomena of nutrition are taking place vigo- rously and healthily. In such an organization the entire economy being healthy, if the constitution be originally good, and surrounding circumstances be favourable, the ordinary causes of disease are victoriously resisted. The lowland stagnant stream is the organization in which the nutritive changes are slowly, sluggishly accomplished, in which the phenomena of molecular nutrition are feebly carried out, and in which, consequently, all morbific agencies have full scope for their development. From what precedes, it will be at once evident