nually added
to, that the general health of the nation is far different from what we
have every reason to believe it ought to be. However much we may have
become accustomed to it, we cannot suppose ill-health to be a _normal_
condition. Granted, then, that the general health of the nation is far
from what it should be, and looking from effects to causes, may we not
pertinently enquire whether our diet is not largely responsible for this
state of things? May it not be that wrong feeding and mal-nutrition are
at the root of most disease? It needs no demonstrating that man's health
is directly dependent upon what he eats, yet how few possess even the
most elementary conception of the principles of nutrition in relation to
health? Is it not evident that it is because of this lamentable
ignorance so many people nowadays suffer from ill-health?

Further, not only does diet exert a definite influence upon physical
well-being, but it indirectly affects the entire intellectual and moral
evolution of mankind. Just as a man thinks so he becomes, and 'a
science which controls the building of brain-cell, and therefore of
mind-stuff, lies at the root of all the problems of life.' From the
point of view of food-science, mind and body are inseparable; one reacts
upon the other; and though a healthy body may not be essential to
happiness, good health goes a long way towards making life worth living.
Dr. Alexander Haig, who has done such excellent and valuable work in the
study of uric acid in relation to disease, speaks most emphatically on
this point: 'DIET is the greatest question for the human race, not only
does his ability to obtain food determine man's existence, but its
quality controls the circulation in the brain, and this decides the
trend of being and action, accounting for much of the indifference
between depravity and the self-control of wisdom.'

The human body is a machine, not an iron and steel machine, but a blood
and bone machine, and just as it is necessary to understand the
mechanism of the iron and steel machine in order to run it, so is it
necessary to understand the mechanism of the blood and bone machine in
order to run it. If a person understanding nothing of the business of a
_chauffeur_ undertook to run an automobile, doubtless he would soon come
to grief; and so likewise if a person understands nothing of the needs
of his body, or partly understanding them knows not how to satisfy them,
it is extremely unlik