The recognition of the importance of the "living cell" is in keeping with the development of science. It is also in keeping with the growth of the desire to perpetuate life and establish youth, as no special effort would be made to retain the cells of food in a vital state until a desire for more than than "mere existence" and the gratification of taste dominates the mind. It is not a part of nature's economy that the secrets of higher civilization be given to primitive races.

It was not until after the invention of the compound microscope that the existence of the cells composing animal and vegetable tissue was known. In 1835 Johannes Muller discovered that the cells of the animal resembled those of the plant. Soon afterwards Robert Brown and others discovered the nuclei in plant cells. From this time many theories were advanced regarding the nature and growth of cells until it was established that all cells were much alike, thus "the unity of life" of all organized beings and living things, has since been generally accepted by standard Histologists.

Shultz defines a cell as "a nucleated mass of protoplasm, with or without an investing membrane".

The cell contains in its protoplasm:

1. Coloring matter - green (chlorophyll).

2. Starch - which is formed within chlorophyll grains during sunlight.

3. Oil globules.

4. Proteine chrystals (living substance).

5. Albumoid grains (living substance).

6. Cell sap - water with minerals.

In many cells not only the nucleated protoplasm but the whole cell contents may disappear under misuse, leaving only the cellulose wall filled with air. In diseased conditions and old age many cells become deficient in protoplasm then, without reproducing themselves, cease to exist entirely, leaving the body feeble and shriveled, or a plant brittle and dry. Old age is nothing but the lack of cells to do the work and keep the body free from poison, hardening deposits, and fatty tissue.

While a variety of elements in each cell is essential, in some the starch grains predominate, in others fat globules are more abundant, while in others still proteid for tissue building is the most marked characteristic. This predominance depends upon the use of the cell and the same kind of a cell must be selected for similar use in the human body.

The best authorities agree that the animal cell is a tiny, delicate living individual, not entirely independent, yet performing all of the functions of the body of which it is a part within itself.

1. It contracts like the muscles.

2. It is sensitive and irritable like the nerves.

3. It is receptive and assimilative like the digestive system.

4. Its protoplasm undergoes incessant destructive and constructive changes - the waste must be utilized in other ways or be disposed of - as in respiration, secretion, and the excretory apparatuses.

5. It is reproductive - its nuclei are fertilised by the living nuclei of cells of food taken for nourishment, thus quickening and multiplying to sustain the growth and repair of the body.

6. It dies or disintegrates and passes into atomic life for other purposes, in case of disease or lack of nourishment to sustain it for its proper maturity, or lack of fertilization by living nuclei of food cells, it dies before it reproduces itself. In extreme exhaustion from excesses many cells die before the new growth of cells can fill their places resulting in nervous prostration that can only be corrected by long rest during which the cells develop strength.

The vegetable cell is very similar in character to that of the animal - its action sustaining the growth of the plant. The vegetable cell has the cellulose covering which is a non-conductor of heat, and as it contracts upon coming in contact with heat it pro-tects the contents of the cell for a short time, while the animal cell is without an investing membrane, permitting the outer cells of a piece of meat to be instantly seared and destroyed by high degrees of heat, however, this process protects the inner cells unless the same degree of heat is allowed to penetrate to the interior.

The vegetable cell creates or organizes proteid, or the tissue building part of food, as well as the mineral elements used in growth, from inorganic chemical substances of the cell or atomic life, but all biologists agree that the animal cell, except the plant-animal yeast germ or torula, which in a formless state is found in the ferments of the digestive fluids, does not possess this power. It must acquire its proteid, or nucleated fertilizing protoplasm as well as its mineral elements already constructed or organized from other forms of animal life or from the vegetable kingdom, hence the great necessity of the cells of food containing the proteid and chemical element being provided in a perfect living state else the work of nature is undone and the system suffers for the proper nutriment to reproduce its tissues, even though it may have plenty of the kind of food for heat and energy to maintain action for some time. As the working energy is easily maintained during youth, man has been deceived regarding cell nourishment.

The dead nuclei of the cells used as food can no more rally and fulfill the duties of reproduction and growth to assist or replace the exhausted body cells than lifeless pollen can fertilize the blossom of the apple, or the germ of a hard boiled egg or the seed of a flower that has been baked, can be rallied to life action.

It must be kept in mind that the life element in the cell is manifest in more than one way. The first and most vital is that of the living nuclei, or the reproducing power, possessed by all forms of life. A cell may grow and work the same as may a man, but die without issue to perpetuate its kind, if the conditions for quickening the Divine spark are lacking. The living substance (or nuclei) predominating in the cells of the tissue building part of food is especially intended to aid in cell reproduction for body growth and repair of tissue.

Another form of life is that of organic mineral elements which are used by the cells in their own construction, and that of the intercellular tissue of bone and muscle, as well as in the various kinds of work that must be done in the body, as in the formation of all of the digestive juices, fluids, and antitoxins for protecting the system against poison.

These mineral elements abound in all food substances, even in the nucleated cells.

Vegetable cells take these elements from the soil, atmosphere and water, organizing them into compounds suited to the uses of animal life. The animal cell cannot do this. When these compounds are subjected to the degree of heat required for boiling, their organic nature is destroyed and they again become inorganic. The animal* system cannot assimilate or use inorganic elements, hence they remain as poison in the blood until they can be eliminated. For instance, an apple has potash, lime, and magnesia, a peach abounds in iron, and an onion contains sulphur, all of which are in form to be appropriated by the body cells, but if taken in inorganic form as iron in medicine, or from substances that have been boiled, they are practically useless.

Still another form of life is that of the fully organized cell itself. As has already been shown it is a complex, wonderfully formed structure with its different elements brought into a state ready for action. When this organization is dissolved Nature's effort to assist man is almost entirely lost.

The cell organization of all life being similar, it is interchangeable, yet there is no doubt an adaptation - some change in its nature in the lymphatic glands distinguishing a human cell from an animal cell, that is beyond man's discernment, however, the cells of a human body serve as food for an animal as truly as those of an animal or vegetable serve as food for man.

The nucleus of the cell - one, two, or even a greater number - is the life germ of the cell and thrives in its proper element, under the right conditions the same as the germ in a grain of wheat thrives in the proper soil. Many theorists advocate the germ of seeds as the most vital food because of its generative qualities, but it has no greater value than the cell life surrounding it, which is rich in phosphorus and proteid, as the individual germ is not quickened at all by the process of digestion - in fact, it is killed, as it could only reproduce its kind - wheat reproduces wheat, or the germ of the egg produces a chick under right conditions. Its individuality is lost when it is used as food, but the individuality of the cells composing it as a part of the kernel is preserved providing the nuclei are not killed by excessive heat. As life can never be entirely destroyed, when the cell is killed or disintegrates it becomes atomic life, or unorganic substance ready to be again taken up by vegetation and some phases of animal action and passed through another cycle of existence, or it may even be reduced to the finer essence of Infinite mind before being again condensed into matter or brought into organic form.