The philosophy of eating. By Albert J. Bellows, M.D.

EACH ORGAN SELECTS ITS OWN FOOD.

19

The Wants of the Human System, and the Reason
for them.
In the foregoing tables are found fourteen different
elements of which the human system is composed, not
one of which is permanently fixed in the system, but
each, after performing the duties assigned it for a time,
shorter or longer, according to the nature of those
duties, becomes effete, and gives place to other particles
of the same elements, which must be supplied in food.
Each organ requires different elements, and has the
power of taking such as are required from the mass of
elements circulated together in the blood, and of rejecting all other elements; and while these fourteen elements, all having been organized in some plant or
vegetable, are supplied as they are wanted, peace and
harmony prevail in the system, and perfect health is
enjoyed; but let any other elements enter the circulation and an excitement is produced, and each organ
makes an effort to reject them. Take alcohol, for
example, and the stomach is first excited and heated
by efforts to expel it. It is then thrown into the
circulation so as to be expelled by the lungs, or skin,
or kidneys, and the whole system becomes excited,
especially the brain, in efforts to eject this enemy to
all its functions.
Phosphorus, iron, and all other disorganized substances, whether elements of the human system or
not, are thus rejected with more or less excitement,