f
hypo-or glycerophosphates, and (or) lecithin are sold annually.

All phosphorus compounds are reduced to inorganic phosphates in the
digestive tract, absorbed and eliminated, so that, as with iron, if
phosphates are needed, the form in which they are taken is of no moment.
Why, then, pay huge sums for organic-phosphorus compounds (synthesized from
inorganic phosphates) when they are immediately reduced to the same
constituents from which they were constructed, the only value in the
reduction process being seen in the immense fortunes which patent-medicine
proprietors accumulate?

Lecithin is isolated from animal brain, or egg-yolk, and commercial
lecithin is impure. Not only does the ordinary daily diet contain ample
lecithin (5 grammes), but two eggs will double this, while liver or
sweetbread, both rich in phosphorous, may be eaten.

The much-vaunted glycerophosphates are decomposed to and excreted as
phosphates. Sollmann's remarks apply to all similar proprietary articles:

"A proprietary compound of glycerophosphates and casein has been widely
and extravagantly advertised as 'Sanatogen'. It is a very costly food,
and in no sense superior to ordinary casein, such as cottage cheese."

Hypophosphites have been boomed by various people, chiefly for financial
reasons. Five or six of them are usually prescribed, with the addition of
cod liver oil, and perhaps quinine, and (or) iron and strychnine, the
complexity of the prescription being expected, apparently, to compensate
for the uselessness of its various ingredients.

To deduce rational remedies, it is first necessary to elucidate the causes
of inefficiency; and to expect a brain which is out of order to function in
an orderly manner simply because it is supplied with one of the substances
necessary to its normal functioning (regardless of whether a deficiency of
that substance is the cause of the disorder), is as rational as it would be
to expect to restart an automobile engine, the magneto of which was broken,
by filling up the half-empty petrol tank.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXI

TRAINING THE NERVOUS CHILD

"When shall I begin to train my child?" said a young mother to an old
doctor.
"How old is the child, madam?"
"Two years, sir!"
"Then, madam, you have lost just two years," answered the old
physician, gravely.

Neuropathic children are super-emotional, and from them come prodigies,
geni