BIOCHEMISTRY. 
By W. S. Ensign, Phys. Ch., Battle Creek, Mich. 
Biochemistry is the chemistry of life. The 
name has been given to a system of treatment of 
disease, in which only the natural elements of 
the human body are used. The theory is that 
when a person becomes ill be does so through a 
deficiency of one or more of the cell-salts. This 
deficiency is brought about by an extraf demand 
for the particular salts, occasioned by over-ex- 
ertion, continued strain of mind and body, errors 
in diet or mode of living, which would create a. 
demand beyond the power of the system to sup- 
ply. As the secretory organs have their own par- 
ticular elements to assimilate and supply, this, 
overwork weakens them, as it would weaken, 
your arm to use it too much, and there would be 
loss of ability to assimilate or to prepare for 
assimilation, which causes a still greater defi- 
ciency, even after the strain is withdrawn in- 
many cases, and matters go from bad to worse. 
(From The Columbus Medical Journal.) 
The above is a picture of an acquired case of. 
cell deficiency and consequent diseases. But ai 
child may have an inherited weakness which de- 
prives it of functional capacity and thus occa- 
sions deficiencies in certain elements from its 
birth. This would mean an inability to assimilate 
or to take out of the food these elements, al- 
though ordinary food contains plenty. Thus a 
child may not take from its food enough lime 
to make good bone, and its bones are weak and 
pliable, and it does not grow, or it cannot walk, 
or its teeth do not come as they should, and they 
decay when they come. 
The food contains plenty of lime, but the child cannot assimilate it or prepare it for assimila- 
tion. And no matter how much lime you may 
pour into such a system, the inability to assimi- 
late prevents any benefit being derived from it. 
It is here that the biochemist introduces his 
triturated and potentized lime, which is ready 
for immediate assimilation, the deficiency is sup- 
plied, function is restored, and the system is able 
to take care of itself in an orderly, healthy way. 
This is not only a theory, but a theory substan- 
tiated by practice and fact. 
Dr. Grativogl, of Germany, was the first man 
to present the idea of this kind of reasonable, 
rational treatment, but Dr. Schuessler was the 
first to put it into general practice. Schuessler 
only used as remedies twelve tissue salts. He 
obtained these by analyzing the ashes of human 
bodies after cremation. He and his followers 
performed many wonderful cures with the twelve 
salts, and these are used generally by biochemists 
today. But other investigators saw a weakness 
in the Schuessler position. There were certainly 
elements used in the activities of life other than 
those found in the ashes of the dead body. This 
is very readily proven to be true. 
Simply pumping out the stomach of a healthy 
person an hour after eating will prove this. 
Schuessler rejected the carbonates on the very 
queer ground that they did not appear in the 
ashes as such. Certainly not. If you burn any 
substance down to the dead ashes the carbons 
are gone, but if you leave the least cinder they 
are there. Carbon is a constant constituent of 
all organic bodies. All plants, fruits and foods 
contain it, and it is an invariable constituent of 
the human body. This is so certainly true that 
organic chemistry is frequently called “the chemistry of the carbon compounds.” To give 
reference which can be easily obtained, see Ency- 
clopedia Britannica, vcl. V., page 544. I would 
also call attention to lecture vii. on “The Inor- 
ganic Food-Stuffs” (tissue salts), page 87, of 
Bunge’s Text-Book on Physiological and Patho- 
logical Chemistry, a paragraph of which we 
quote: 
“Proteid contains from one-half to one and 
one-half per cent, of sulphur which, in the de- 
composition and oxidation of proteid, is convert- 
ed into sulphuric acid. Eighty per cent, of the 
sulphur taken in food appears in this form in 
the urine. Under normal conditions this sul- 
phuric acid is united with the bases which are 
taken up with every form of animal and vegeta- 
ble food. Animal food contains basic phosphates 
of the alkalies, carbonates of the alkalies, and 
alkali-albuminates; vegetable food yields in ad- 
dition the alkaline salts of vegetable acids, such 
as tartaric, citric, malic, etc., which in the or- 
ganism are converted into carbonates by oxida- 
tion. 
“These bases saturate the sulphuric acid form- 
ed from proteid. If the basic salts are removed 
from the food, this powerful acid finds no bases 
at hand to neutralize it and consequently attacks 
those bases which are integral constituents of 
the living tissues; figuratively, it may be said 
to wrench individual bricks out of their places, 
and thus to induce the destruction of the edi- 
fice.” 
Carbonate of soda is contained in the pancre- 
atic secretion, and the intestinal juice is very 
rich in it. It is a necessary agent in emulsifying 
fats. The blood and lymph contain it. There 
may be a deficiency of hydrochloric acid in the 
stomach, and since this acid is now known to be 
intended to prevent the development of putre- 
faotive organisms, this shortage is marked by 
the development of gas, the more the greater the 
shortage. The deficiency of hydrochloric acid is not to 
be supplied by pouring the acid into the stom- 
ach, for that would give but temporary relief, 
but by supplying the tissue salts, the deficiency 
of which causes the deficiency of acid. The min- 
eral acids are derived from alkaline bodies. 
A person does not need to go very far into the 
subject to prove that the twelve-salt system of 
Schuessler and his followers is abortive, and far 
short of perfection. The numerous failures in 
the practice of this system certainly indicates 
that there is something lacking. It has been 
the practice to denominate all diseases which 
fail to yield to a particular system as incurable, 
when the real fact is that a perfect system should 
cure every disease, and when it fails it is be- 
cause we have not discovered what is ready and 
waiting for us, if we will only look for it and 
find it. We are too prone to close the subject 
without proper investigation. 
Biochemistry is a curative system, and when 
we know enough about it, it will be a science. 
No other system of medicine or treatment has 
such a promise before it. 
Mrs. John Mcßvers, of Rennie, N. D., writes us: 
“We will be only too glad to have you use the case 
of our son in your literature. He had St. Yitus 
Dance and was pronounced incurable. None of 
our neighbors thought he would ever be cured, 
as he was unable to dress himself, or even feed 
himself, and was almost helpless. I could see 
an improvement in less than a week after he 
began taking your Remedies. He now weighs 
40 lbs. more than he did when he began using 
the Remedies, and has no sign of the disease. 
We cannot express in writing how thankful we 
are for his cure, and hope others will receive 
as much benefit as he did.” Only one treatment 
was used in this case, and the total cost was 
$2.00.