Even with the usual developed tolerance for toxins, there is all through life, usually, a rather frequent occurrence of acute reactions against increasing auto-intoxication, expressing as bilious attacks, sick headaches, diarrhoeas, vomiting attacks, each an evidence that Nature cannot go on in the face of this accumulating debris and seeks to lessen this total by rapid elimination of the amount above the present toleration point.

This only partially rectifies the trouble, however, for with the years toleration increases, and may rise to such height that no more crises will appear, and the body continues to create and retain increasing amounts of toxins, till chronic disease develops in the form of diabetes, Bright's disease, or failure to overcome some of the transient infections that we call the eruptive or contagious fevers, and many a little grave is filled through just such mode of procedure.

If each acute reaction of the body thoroughly cleaned house there would be freedom from the toxic state, but each one only frees the system down to, or a little below, its acquired toleration point, and again the saturation proceeds, till the system reaches a point where function cannot proceed, and again there is this temporary and partial housecleaning, with temporary respite from the evidences of a toxic state, but without eradication of this.

In a later chapter foods will be discussed freely, but at the present time it is well to lay down the principles of such feeding as will forever end all toxic accumulation, with the idea that reiteration is necessary to impress any unusual fact, such a fact as seems to upset accepted belief and tradition.

Every food that grows out of the ground and edible in the form in which Nature produces it is natural food, nothing else is.

Natural foods in their natural state, if eaten in not too great excess, and combined in such a manner as to remove all chemical incompatibilities, are sufficient guarantee against toxin formation, and will insure long life in perfect working efficiency.

Disease develops always and only from violation of these simple tenets of Nature's immutable laws, and can in every case be obviated by strict adherence to these.

Nature does not, evidently, design the use of starches or sugars till after full development of the teeth, as she makes no provision for conversion of these ordinary sources of energy till after this period is reached.

The saliva of the infant below the age of full dentition contains but a trace of ptyalin, just sufficient to convert the milk sugar to primary dextrose and no more, which should be very good evidence that not till full dentition should the concentrated starches and sugars be used, as they will clearly never be properly split before reaching the stomach, where no provision is made for their further conversion.

Yet it is common practice always to add gruels, malt extracts, or even mushes to the food of the infant even before the end of the first year, and it is to wonder how much fermentation and acid formation result from this introduction of fermentable material that cannot be perfectly digested till after the saliva contains its full quota of ptyalin.

Volumes could be written from the experience of this one observer alone on the effects of this early addition of carbohydrate foods to the diet of the infant before the end of the second year when full dentition guarantees the presence of sufficient ptyalin in the saliva to take care of this highly concentrated mass that is the usual source of fermentations all through life.

Every sort of disorder has responded to the simple elimination of starches from the diets of little sufferers from fermentation before the end of the second year, from eczema to adenitis, and such a thing as adenoids will never be seen in the absence of this too early introduction of starches and sugars.

But leaving out the question of too early introduction of this carbonaceous group we still have the menace of a too high standard of protein intake, one egg a day being far too much protein for any child of less than eight or ten years of age, and if such child is taking a quart of milk daily there will be in this alone a very considerable preponderance of protein above all possible body needs.

Keeping well, avoiding the formation of disease or the conditions that predispose to disease, is a matter of stopping this tendency to accumulation of debris of acid character, from either too much concentrated protein or the fermentation of the carbohydrate foods, chiefly, so that instead of being under compulsion of developing a progressively higher tolerance for acid debris, we inhibit the formation of this entirely, or nearly so, when the system will not have to divert so much energy to the creation and maintenance of this wall of resistance.

This is not difficult, and the means necessary will be thoroughly developed in later chapters so that no mother may ever again say that she does not know how to feed her child so as to guarantee freedom from illnesses of all kinds.

"Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined," and care in the early period of growth will insure good health later in life, as habits of eating formed before the seventh year are very likely to be permanent throughout life.

This puts on each parent, particularly on each mother, a great responsibility, for on her early training in diet will depend much of the future efficiency and development of her child. And it is true that this responsibility devolves chiefly on the mother, for to her is left the purveying of the family foods, their preparation and selection, and their mode of combination. If every mother could take a course in foods and their uses the world would promptly feel the change in its state of health, its efficiency, and its happiness.

We are living in a great age, and never before was the desirability, not to say the necessity, for good health in more urgent need. The high degree of civilization has carried us very far from natural conditions, and if we but know how to eat every day we need flunk none of the enjoyments of modern life, for we will be safeguarded against physical failure by a proper application of the food knowledge now available.