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Show MINfcRAl.8 ESSENTIAL TO LIFE Important Role Played by So-Called Inorganic Substances. That the minute traces of metallic substnnces found In living bodies are not accidental, but essential to tho performance of tho functions of life, Is asserted by Horrera, a French biologist. bi-ologist. He goes so far an to bay that Zoology and botany are but chapters of mineralogy, bo important Is tho role played In organic life by theso so-called Inorganic substnnces. For Instance, all the phenomena of movement In an animal are, ho asserts, as-serts, duo to oxldntlon. As to nutrition, nutri-tion, It Is Impossible, he says, when tho food Is deprived of Its mineral elements. Dogs fed on substances from which the snlt and other Inorganic Inor-ganic matter has been carefully removed re-moved die of starvation. At tho pet-torn pet-torn of our lta processes, asserts this writer, aro fermentation and oxidation, oxida-tion, or their analogues; and theso depend de-pend on tho presenco of certain mineral min-eral bodies In the tissues. Even tho rolo of pepsin In digestion seems to depend on tho presenco of Iron. In short, tho organic substances c" which llfo depends are, ho says, "p pared In Inorganic workshops w,t.. mineral reagents"; nnd thus n living being Is practically a member of tho mineral kingdom. Success. |