Page:Food and cookery for the sick and convalescent.djvu/40

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R. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES is reported to have said, "I can count on the fingers of one hand the drugs commonly used by the general practitioner." Drugs are used at the present time to a less extent, and administered in smaller doses, than ever before. The physician of to-day knows that the recovery to health from disease is a natural process, and administers drugs to assist nature rather than to effect a cure. The study of foods and their effect on the individual is of equal importance to the study of drugs.

All infectious diseases are due to bacterial action. Germs enter the system in different ways.
 * 1. Through the blood,—by inheritance.
 * 2. Through the skin,—by bruising or bites.
 * 3. Through air passages.
 * 4. Through the lungs.

Drugs do not kill bacteria; exception must be made, however, to the valuable discovery of anti-toxins, which have done so much for the advancement of medical science.

The healthy person is constantly coming in contact with disease germs, but he is immune from the disease of which they are the cause, as anti-toxins are constantly being formed within the body which neutralize the poisonous effects of the germs.

Health may be defined as a sound mind in a sound body. The necessary conditions for health are:—
 * 1. A correct supply of food.
 * 2. The proper cooking of same.