In the same manner that sulphuric acid controls and regulates the
phosphoric acid of ammonium phosphate, so lime and magnesia act on the
ammonia of this same ammonium phosphate.

Phosphatic ammonium carbonate lodges in the gelatinous cartilage and
stretches it, when there is a deficiency of lime and magnesia in the
food, resulting in rickets. Such a growth of cartilaginous tissues is
controlled by lime and magnesia, as they change the pliant cartilage
into bony barriers in which small particles of magnesia combine to
produce phosphate of ammonium and magnesium which checks the further
deposit of cartilage.

Lime and magnesia are indubitably quite as effective agents in the
control of ammonia as sulphur is in the control of phosphorus. If we
consider the minerals as the foundation and mortar which give stability
to the vital machine, leaving out chlorine and fluorine, we find that
iron, manganese, potash, soda, and silicic acid play this role. Sulphur,
because it possesses the property of becoming gaseous, is able to take
part directly in the formation of albumen, that variable basis of body
material, whereas all of the other mineral substances except silicic
acid can only be assimiliated in so-called binary compounds in the form
of salts.

I will give a brief review of them, beginning with iron, as thus the
significance of augmentation of the mineral content of vegetables and
small fruits and eggs will be made much clearer.

Normal blood albumen is essentially a compound of calcium and sodium
into which iron and sulphur both enter. A deficiency of calcium commonly
makes itself known by dental defects, just as lack of sulphur reveals