These activities are comprised within an accumulation of cells which
are by no means stationary, for life means nothing more than the
constant dying, of the old cells and the reconstruction of the new. It
means that the human body as a whole is continually in a state of
composition and decomposition.

Not until the accumulation of cells we call the body is recognized as
one complete correlated and inseparable entity and the absolute
interdependence of the separate cells, each one upon the others, is
likewise accepted as the verified fact that it is--not until then will
the erroneous and obsolete idea be discarded, by which the various
organs of the body have been professionally treated as separate and
independent considerations, even to the extent of being dealt with, in
cases of disease, as totally aloof from one another and conveniently
classed as proper subjects for submission to the expert opinion of that
superior class of physicians who devote their attention exclusively to
special organs and are accordingly termed "Specialists."

Thus the question arises: What is the cause of _disease_? The question
does not apply to any one particular form of disease or class of
diseases, but to disease generally, as a concrete term meaning any
disorder which may manifest itself by individual disturbances in the
body; for such disturbance is but a variation in quantity or quality of
one general disturbance, a variation in the mechanism that controls the
work of keeping the existing cells in proper condition and replacing
those cells which are constantly being destroyed. It is a variation in
the process of _regeneration, which we term life_.

METABOLISM is the process which is constantly going on in the human
system, whereby the cells that have been consumed by oxidation are