The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-10-08
HOME HEALTH CLUB
E7d1ted by Dr. David H. Reeder,

WHY DO WE EAT AND DRINK? (Contfnuation of pr. IT. Ldnd1ahr's special series on dietetics). The major fty of people would reply: Why, ev- eFybody knows thatl From food and drink we derive our strength
 Are you so sure of this? Do you really believe that the large amount of animal heat and vital energy which 4 the human body manufactures, ra- diatess and. expeAds every tWenty-four hours is derived from the few pounds of food consumed in the course of a day? Amy hard-worHing laborer OF athlete spends in energy the equiva- lent of several horse powers of steam a day. A healthy individual may con- tinue to do this for several weeks without taking any food whatever. ThAs has been proved by our. fasting faddists. Many of these Marathon fasters have kept up their regular oc- cupatiou for forty days or longer at a time without the slightest difference in body temperature It may be ar Sued that this expenditure of animal heat and vital energy during a fast takes place at the expense of the tiss- ues of the body, which are consumed in place of food However, the aver age loss in weight during strict fast does not amount to more than about one pound a day. How can one pound of flesh furnish the fuel material nee essarv to supply the enormous amount of animal heat and vital energy pro- 7uced and used by the body in tWen- ty-four hours?
 To cite from personal observation: One of our patients suffering from ty- phofd malaria did not take any food except water for seven weeks. At the end of that time his body temperature waE normal During the last two weeks of the fast he lost only two pounds.
 Another patient afflicted with can cer of the stomach lived for two years r,f oil temperature was normal almost to the last whether sweltering under the tropical sun of the equator or freezing with arctic cold, the temperature of the body is exactly the same. If it should drop or rise a few degrees be- low or above the normal, death en- sues This regulation of the bodily heat regardless of the surrounding temperature and, within certain linn it's. of the quantity and quality of food consumed, is one of the greatest mysteries of the wonderful human organism These considerations force us to the conclusion that there must be another source of heat and energy besides food. This is indeed the case.
 In order to understand the relation ship of food to vital energy, we must first endeavor to get a clearer under standing of the true nature of strength ,'' vital force,'' and of 'life'' itself. In Mature Cure, Philosophy and Practfce,'' manuscript of which is now with the printer, have given the following definitions of vital force from two radically opposed view points:
 There are two prevalent, but widely differing conceptions of the nature of Life or Vital Force: The material and the vital The former looks upon life or vital force with all it's physical, mental, and psychica1 phenomena as manifestations of the electric, mag netic and chemical activities of the physica1-material elements composing the human organism. From this point of view, life is a sort Of spontaneous combustion" or, one scientist ex- DEsssed 1t a succession Of fermenta- Hons'' This materialistic conception of life. however, has already become obsolete among the more advanced biologists as a result of the wonder fuI discoveries of modern science, which are fast bridging the chasm be- tween the material and the spiritual realms of being.
 But medical science as taught in the regular schools is still dominated by the old, crude mechanical concep- ton of vital force and this, as we shall see, accounts for some of it's grayest errors of theory and of practice. The vital conception on the other hand, regards life as the primary force of all forces, coming from the great cen traI source of all power.
 This force, which permeates, heats and animates the entire created uni verse, is the expression of the divine will, the 'Togos,' the word of the great creative intelligence. It is this divine energy which sets in motion the whir1s in the other, the electric corpuscles and ions that make up the different atoms and elements of mat ter
 The corpusc1es and ions, of which the atoms are composed, are positive and negative forms of electricity. Elec- trfcity is a form of energy. It is in Eefafgent energy; otherwise it could not move with that same wonderful pre- r1sf6h fnlthe electrons of the atoms as In 4he1suns and planets of the sider- gal universe. This intelligent energy can have but one source; the will and the intelligence of the Creator, as Bwedenborg expressed: ''t1e Great cen fraI sun of the universe" If this su- premB intelligence should withdraw it's