£*•

104 ESOTERIC ANTHROPOLOGY.
perform the function of some infernal organ. In torpid
states of the liver the skin is filled with bile. In dis
ease of the kidneys, the perspiration has sometimes the
distinct odor of urine ; in obstinate constipation of the
bowels, it has the smell of foscal matter. In the same
way, each of the secreting organs may act vicariously
for some other.
Thus much here of the relations of the blood to its
means of purification.
We shall need all this when we
pass from physiology to its applications in hygiene,
pathology, and therapeutics.
I humbly avow my inability to explain all the vital phe •
nomena exhibited in the functions of the organic sys
tem. In the simplest plant there are mysteries of
organism
and of function which I can not solve. Let
my guesses at truth be taken for no more than they are
worth. You have, or may have, all the facts upon
which my opinions are founded.
The evolution of animal heat seems, at the first
glance, to be as simply a matter of chemistry as the
the combustion of coal in a
warming of my house by
furnace. But is it so really ? True, our food contains
carbon and hydrogen. We take in at every breath a
portion of oxygen. The oxygen combines with the
carbon to produce carbonic acid, and with the hy
drogen to produce water. This is a real combustion,
going on all over the body, and heat is the necessary
product of combustion. The chemists have weighed
all these elements, and their products, and there can
be no mistake about the facts; but there is still an
element to be taken into the account—the element of
nervous power or vitality. That controls the circula-