Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-04-14

pie in large measure by the very
abuses we have been considering.
In the British Medical Journal,
April II, 1913, Barr declares: "Rheu-
matoid arthritis is not due to the
action of bacteria or their toxines or
of the toXines developed in the in
testines as result of stass. The
cause is mild chronic acidosis which
extracts the lime salts from the
1orous tissues, muscles, nerves, car
tiiages, and bones. The extraction
of lime salts from fibrous tissue
causes 1t to swell and its vascularity
to increase.
Loss of lime salts causes irritable
| weakness of the muscles. Under such
loss the muscles waste and contract
readily. They frequently cramp and
deep refieXes are exaggerated, often
accompanied by rhythmic tremor.
Neuralgia pains result from the eX-
traction of some of the very small
amount of lime present in the nerve
tissue. With the continued absorp-
tion of the lime the particular tissues
swell and there is effusion into the
joints.
THE cartilages soon become in
Volved and this is followed by thin
ring and erosion. The lime and other
bases are SO necessary to the neu-
tralization of the acids elaborated by
the acid forming foods that they sur
render themselves to the actual de-
struction of the bones and tissues in
order that as long as possible the un-
natural condition may be tolerable.
Even when all the bases are with
drawn from our food the phosphates
and sulphates continue to appear in
the urine, showing that the body has
had to steal the alkaline bases from
iIs own tissue in order to carry on
life's processes. Surely no one i5 so
blind as to assume that this stealing
can go on continuously without en-
countering disaster.
THE fact that the disease is pres
ent chiefly among the poorer class
and in the female sex between the
ages of fifteen and thirty-fve years
lends support to this view," con-
tinues Barr, for in these there is a
deficiency of lime intake, and during
the active menstrual period there Is
a tendency to an increased lime meta
bolism.
THE relative absence of lime and
potassium in the refined food of the
poorer classes leads to a deficient mo-
tility of the stomach, and this in
| turn results in obstinate constipa-
ton with acid fermentation.
Apparently foods from which the
lime and potassium are largely re-
moved will not provide the intake of
these substances necessary to normal
metabolic processes"
In these comments Barr has sue
ceeded as much as any other investi-
gator in making clear the mystery
which has heretofore obscured the
origin ef cancer, beri-beri, pellegra,
tuberculosis, rheumatism, neuralgia,
ncuritis, and other forms of malnutri-
ton in which resistance to disease is
destroyed.
Herman Hille in Facts of Modern
| Science and Their Value in the Pre-
Vention and Cure of Disease" says,
mo vital process is possible without
the presence of mineral constituents,
as these elements and salts are gen.
orators of energy and are all equally
important with protein, carbonhy-
drates, fats, oxygen, and water, the
great calorie producers. The human
organism cannot exist without min
eral elements and salts in true or
ganic form, as they are indispensable
! foods"
Slowly but surely we begin to per-
ceive the folly of removing the bases
from all our prepared cereal foods
and breadstuffs and from the vege-
! tables cooked at home.