oduction of
lecithin in the requisite quantities.

(2) That strenuous and unaccustomed physical and mental exertion
may involve a consumption both of nerve substance and muscular
tissue, greater than the outcome of the ordinary diet is able to
compensate.

(3) That a protracted term of emotional strain and agitation may
adversely affect both appetite and digestion while rapidly
consuming the substance of the nerves.

In discussing the causes of disease Julius Hensel lays great stress upon
the emotions. He goes so far as to say that they "_undoubtedly occupy
the first place amongst the factors causing disease_, and we must not
evade the consideration of them. _We shall find that their action also
amounts to an electro-chemical process._" I would not for an instant be
understood to contend that the emotions alone are sufficient to explain
the origin of disease--not at all. There are other factors--jointly or
severally dominant--diet, occupation, changes of weather, climate, or
conditions.

In the matter immediately under review, however, the world-wide pandemic
of "Spanish Influenza," there can remain no shadow of doubt in the mind
of any unbiased observer who follows the question fairly along the lines
of electro-chemical biology, but that the general emotional
disturbances incident upon the war conditions of the world, combined
with the chaotic dietetic position with its anxieties and privations
under strenuous and unwonted physical demands, do undoubtedly afford a
sound and reasonable explanation of the cataclysmal outbreak which has
recently fallen upon the nations.

The brazen blast of war, in 1914, with all its ruthless wreck and
carnage, shook the universal fabric of the sphere. Fear, fraud and
famine were met together, duplicity and greed had kissed each other.
Short rations and with some, starvation, were soon the order of the day.
The corners of the earth were swept of stale forgotten stores and
profiteers waxed fat and prices soared, whilst the vitals of the working
world were vastly underfed. The ranks of labour, depleted of its men,
were filled by females uninured to toil and dangerous nerve racking
environments. Relentless time brings its revenges fast; but still they
worked and suffered while malnutrition sapped the life-blood of the
race. In the homes of the fighting men fear reigned supreme--ever the
sword of Damocles suspended at the hearth. And then the deat