With all good wishes for the success of your healthy little magazine. I am, yours, etc.,
W. BLEWETT.
[8] 5s. net. C.W. Daniel, Ltd., 3 Amen Corner, London.
We handed the above interesting letter to our contributor, Dr H.
Valentine Knaggs, and append his reply:--
HUMAN MAGNETISM.
There is very little information available from ordinary scientific sources anent the question of the life-force or of the animal magnetism which animates our bodies and is the motive force common to all organic structures whether animal or vegetable. We do know that fresh fruits and vegetables are strongly magnetic because the magnetism which they emit can be gauged by means of delicate galvanometers. It has been found that leaves, flowers and seeds are positively, and roots negatively, charged. We also know that the same conditions are found in the human subject, since Dr Baraduc, who is a celebrated French Psycho-Therapeutist, in his book, "The Vibrations of Human Vitality," tells us that he has invented a machine called a biometer to test these very vibrations. I have had one of these machines myself and have experimented with it a great deal. By its aid we can make the machine work differently with different persons, and by careful tabulation of records Dr Baraduc has been able to elicit some very remarkable information about the magnetic currents which are constantly flowing into and out of the human body. If our correspondent really wants to know more about the wonders of human magnetism he should read some of the voluminous literature upon the subject published by the Theosophical Society. Just recently also a Dr Kilner has invented a form of coloured screen by which he and others who have some psychic sight can actually see the magnetic emanations which flow through a person placed in a darkened room.
SALT-COOKED VEGETABLES.
The one object of the vegetable kingdom is to build up, for the use of the animal or organic realm, the const.i.tuents found in the mineral or inorganic kingdom. These mineral const.i.tuents are dissolved, sorted out and built up in the right proportions for the use of animals when taken as foods. Whenever these foods are not so eaten they are sent back again to the earth by the aid of microbes during the process of decay, to be again available for plant use. Cooking is a process invented by man which is a.n.a.logous to that of decay, for it dissolves and disintegrates the structures which Nature has built up. When man eats food that is partially disintegrated he does not obtain from it the right sort of nutriment which Nature intended him to have. To intensify the wrong-doings of the cook, man further hastens the disintegrating process by adding to the things that he cooks a due proportion of a common and very stable mineral, called salt. It is powerful, because it is not easily disintegrated. The salt greatly expedites the process of decay, whether in the natural form of fermentation, or whether by the application of heat, as in cooking.
Salt is used in Nature to promote the flow of those electric and magnetic currents which are a manifestation of the universal life-force which pervades all things seen and unseen. It is an essential const.i.tuent of the sea because the ocean is the life-blood of the earth. It is an essential const.i.tuent of our own blood, because it is needed to make the blood stream a good conductor of magnetic currents. When you put this salt into water and then proceed to boil vegetables in it, it quickly sucks out all the life-force from them, and if persisted in reduces them to the state of minerals from which they were originally constructed.
FOOD AND THE SOURCE OF BODILY ENERGY.
Dr Rabagliati and Professor At.w.a.ter are, I believe, both right, but the former does not always explain himself clearly to the lay mind.
The life-force or animal magnetism is the real source of bodily energy, and it manifests itself only when it has something that resists or regulates its flow.
It does this just as certain forms of wire, or other materials, which possess indifferent conducting power, resist the flow of electricity through them.
Electricity cannot manifest as light in the usual electric lights used in our houses, as heat in the electric culinary appliances or stoves, or even as power in the motors which run our trams and trains, unless it be given the requisite apparatus to bring about the manifestation required.
In exactly the same way life cannot manifest itself as consciousness, with its flow of thoughts, emotions and bodily activities, without the food which is daily supplied to the body.
It consequently depends considerably upon how we select our daily rations as to how this vital force will manifest within us.
H. VALENTINE KNAGGS.
HOLIDAY APHORISMS.
A Sun Bath needs no Soap.
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Man was made for the Weather, not the Weather for man.
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A long drink often makes a short walk.
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You may bring a man to the Sea, but you cannot make him think.
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A tanned face doesn"t make a healthy body.
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Dew paddling should be done in the dark.
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The only things that bathing machines make are cowards.
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It is better to board yourself than let others be bored by you.
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"A bore is one who thinks his opinions of greater importance than your own."
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People who throw pebbles into the sea shouldn"t dive near sh.o.r.e.
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A toothbrush is what many forget but few should need.
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Scotland Yard is not in the Grampians.
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Cheap food is often dearly bought.
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Lyons have no depots in Skye.
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Orange-trees never yet sprang from scattered peel.