T
he last great
incision into the historical evolution of mankind is the
one that took place — we have often spoken of it —
in the first third of the 15th century, and that marks the
transition from the evolution more particularly of the
Intellectual or Mind-Soul to that of the Consciousness or
Spiritual Soul. For we live in an age when the evolution of the
Spiritual Soul is taking place, and it is an age that is
entirely bereft of true insight into the connections of the
human being with the deeper impulses and forces of Nature, or
rather of the Spirit that is in Nature. To-day, when we speak
of man and his constitution as physical man, we speak,
for instance, of the chemical substances, enumerating them
under the heading of what the chemist calls the elements.
But it is of about as much value for a man to know that
something he eats contains carbon and nitrogen as it is for a
watch-mechanic to know that the watch he has in his hand
consists of glass and, shall we say, silver and some other
substances. All this kind of knowledge that traces back the
real substance of man's nature to these material abstractions
— hydrogen, oxygen and the like — affords no true
knowledge of the human being. The mechanism of the watch has to
be understood by seeing in it a connected system of forces; and
similarly, if we would understand the nature and being of man,
we must recognise how the various impulses that are to be found
working in all the kingdoms of Nature work in the human being;
— for there they work differently than in the other
kingdoms of Nature. In modern times however there is no longer
any true vision of the connection of man with the Universe.
Until the 14th or 15th century this vision and knowledge
persisted; though degenerate, it was still present in greater
or less degree, and instinctively gifted natures were able
still to make use of it. But later on, save for a few men like
Paracelsus, Jacob Boehme and others, the true insight into
man's connection with the Universe, little by little, died
completely away.
What does the newer Natural Science, that has gradually grown
up since the 15th century, know of the relation, let us say, of
the plant world or of the animal world to the human being? The
scientist examines the plants in their chemical constitution
and tries by some means or other to study these same chemical
constituents of the plant as they appear in man. Finally
perhaps he tries to form an idea — generally he fails!
— of the influence of the substances on the healthy and
on the diseased human being. All this investigation however
results in a darkening of knowledge. The important thing
to-day, if we are really desirous of going forward in our
knowledge of man on the foundation of historical insight, is
that we should learn to know again what is the real relation of
the human being to the Nature that he finds around him.
Until the time of the last great revolution in men's
consciousness that took place in the 15th century, there
was still a clear perception of the great difference that
exists in the metals, as between those that are found in the
human being and those that are found in Nature. When we set out
to consider the various substances in man's physical nature,
certain metals show themselves in greater or less degree. For
example, iron is present in the human organism, in
combination with various other substances; magnesium is also
present, and we could name many others. Before the 15th century
men were keenly alive to the difference between such metals as
these we have mentioned, that are found when we examine
the human organism, and such metals as are present in external
Nature but are not at any rate quickly apparent in the human
organism. The men of these earlier times said: Man is a
microcosm; whatever is present in the world outside him, in the
macrocosm, is present in some form or other in him. And this
was for them no mere general principle in the abstract: had
they gone but a little way in initiation knowledge, it followed
inevitably from what they knew of the nature of man and of the
nature of the Universe. They knew that we can only come to a
true understanding of man when we bring together in one the
whole of Nature, with all her impulses, with all the substances
that she contains. Then we have a picture, an imagination of
the being of man. And a disturbing element enters the picture
when we meet with something outside in Nature that cannot be
found in man.
So
thought a student of Nature of the 9th, 10th or 11th century.
In those times, however, something else was known, namely, that
that which man receives by way of physical nourishment is only
a part, perhaps not even the most important part, of all that
serves to maintain his physical organism, or rather his whole
human organism throughout.
Now, to go beyond physical nourishment and include also
breathing presents no difficulty to the man of the present day;
for breathing too is a form of assimilation. But it would not
occur to him to go any farther. The earlier student of Nature
went farther. It was clear to him that when man uses his eye to
perceive things, he does not merely see with the eye, but
during the process of perception he receives through the eye in
infinitely minute quantities something of the substance of the
World-All. And not through the eye alone, but through the ear
and through other portions of the organism. And the medieval
student of Nature was fully aware of the very great importance
of those substances which occur in a slight measure only in the
human organism, such as, for example, lead, and which man
receives in infinitely minute quantities that may be found
where we little suspect their presence.
Lead is a metal that cannot immediately be demonstrated as
occurring in man. But lead is, as a matter of fact, distributed
throughout the entire physical Cosmos in a state of very fine
dilution, and the human being takes up lead from the Cosmos by
means of processes that are many times more delicate than the
process of breathing. The human being is perpetually excreting
substances, throwing them off from the periphery. You not only
cut your nails, you continually throw off substances from your
skin. But whilst substance is thus given off, other substance
is taken up and received into the organism.
This was the kind of thought in which a student of Nature
lived, who belonged to medieval times, — to the 9th,
10th, 11th or 12th century. He had no balances, he had none of
the coarser measuring instruments with which to determine how
the substances and forces worked; for him it was a matter of
entering deeply into the inner qualities of Nature, of
understanding her inner impulses and her connection with the
human being. And men were able in this way to know many things
that they will one day begin to know again. For, if truth be
told, nothing is known to-day of the real nature of the human
being.
You
know how when we investigate the constitution of man, we sum it
up in the following way, — in order to have some kind of
classification and plan: man is composed of physical body,
etheric body, astral body and ego, or ego-organisation. Well
and good. In the first instance these terms are mere words: but
it is good to begin with them, each person can form from them
some small idea of the truth. But if we want to make use of
this classification in practical life, especially if we want to
use it in medicine — admittedly a highly important
‘practice’ in life, and one that depends at every step on our
knowledge of the human being, — then we cannot possibly
remain at the words, we must enter into that which is behind
the words and gives them their content. We ask first: what
about the physical body? How can we gain a true idea of it?
(You will see presently why I am developing this line of
thought). Take any object on the Earth, outside the human
being; let us say, for instance, a stone. A stone falls to the
ground. We say, the stone is heavy, it is attracted by the
Earth, it has weight. We discover other forces working in the
stone. If it is formed into a crystal, then form-building
forces work in it. These too are related to the earthly forces.
In short, when we look around in the world, we find all about
us substances that are subject to the earthly nature.
Keep that clearly in mind: we have, to begin with, substances
that are subject to the earthly nature.
Someone whose thoughts on these things are not clear, will
perhaps come and show you a piece of coal, a piece of black
coal. What is it in reality? In the neighbourhood of the Earth,
it is coal; but the moment you were to take it but a short
distance — comparatively speaking — away from the
Earth, it would cease to be coal. What makes it coal is nothing
but the forces of the Earth. Thus you can say: Here is the
Earth, and the forces of the Earth are within it; but the
forces of the Earth are also in every single object that I find
here on the Earth. And the physical body of man, although of
course it is marvellously combined and held together, is
nevertheless essentially such an object, standing in subjection
to these physical forces of the Earth, the forces that come
from the centre of the Earth. The physical body of the human
being can therefore be described as that which is subject to
the forces coming from the centre of the Earth.
Now
there are other forces on the Earth besides. These other forces
come from the whole environment of the Earth, from the far
circumference. Imagine for a moment that you are going out and
out, away from the Earth into unmeasured distances. From these
unmeasured distances forces work upon the Earth, working
inwards to it from every direction. Yes, it is a fact, such
forces do exist, coming from all directions of the Universe and
working in everywhere towards the centre of the Earth. It is
possible to gain quite a clear and concrete picture of them in
the following way.
You
will remember that the most important substance that forms the
basis everywhere of the organism, whether it be of plant,
animal or man, is albumen. And albumen also forms the basis for
the germ of a new plant, animal or human organism. From a
fructified germ cell proceeds that which evolves into an
organism, and the substance of the germ is albumen. In these
days, instead of pursuing true science, men build up all kinds
of imaginations, and they make a picture to themselves of this
albumen as composed of substances in intricate chemical
combination. It is composed, so they say, of carbon, oxygen,
hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur, and a trace too of phosphorus, all
in complicate combination. And so the atomist comes to see in
albumen the example par excellence of chemical
combination. The atoms and molecules have to be thought of as
arranged in a most complicated manner. And in the mother-animal
or mother-plant arises this complicated albumen-molecule, or
whatever you choose to call it; it develops further and the new
animal comes to birth from it, arising, that is, purely through
inheritance.
From the spiritual point of view, all this is sheer nonsense.
The truth is that the albumen of the mother animal is not a
complicated chemical combination at all, it is all broken up,
destroyed and reduced to chaos. The albumen that is otherwise
contained in the body is still to some extent organised, but
albumen that forms the basis for propagation is distinguished
by this very characteristic, that it is in a condition of
complete disorganisation. The substances that are contained in
it are reduced to chaos and are in no sort of combination, they
are tossed and jumbled together to form a mere accumulation
without order or proportion; and on this very account the
albumen is no longer subject to the Earth. So long as the
albumen can by some means or other be held together in inward
cohesion, so long is it subject to the forces that work from
the centre of the Earth. The moment the albumen is inwardly
split up and destroyed, it comes under the influence of the
whole sphere of the Cosmos. Forces work in upon it from every
quarter. And then we have the tiny particle of albumen that
forms the basis for reproduction. This tiny particle is an
image of the entire Cosmos, because albumen substance has been
split up, destroyed and reduced to chaos — converted,
that is, into cosmic dust and thereby fitted to become exposed
to the working of the entire Cosmos.
Of
all this men have to-day simply no knowledge at all. They
imagine the old hen has the complicated albumen. This is
included in the egg, and thence arises the new hen. It is the
albumen continued, it has gone on evolving. Then the germinal
substance is developed once again; and so it goes on from hen
to hen. In actual fact it is not so. Every time the transition
takes place from one generation to the next, the albumen is
exposed to the whole Cosmos.
On
the one hand, therefore we have the earthly substances, subject
to the earthly or central forces. But we can also imagine these
earthly substances exposed in certain circumstances to
the forces that work in from all quarters, from the farthest
limits of the universe. The latter forces are the ones that
work in the human etheric body. The etheric body is subject to
the forces of the Cosmos. These are real conceptions of
physical body and etheric body.
Suppose you stand there and ask, what is my physical body? The
answer is, it is that body which is subject to the forces
proceeding from the centre of the Earth. What is my etheric
body? It is that in you which is subject to the forces
streaming in on all sides from the periphery. You can even show
it in a drawing. Imagine that this is the human being. His
physical body is the one that is subject to the forces that go
towards the centre of the Earth. His etheric body is the one
that is subject to the forces streaming in from all sides, from
the ends of the Universe. Here we have a system of forces in
man. There are forces that pull downward, — they are
really present in all organs that are upright, — and
there are forces that pour in from without, tending inward. You
can actually perceive in the form of man where the one kind and
the other are more represented. Study the legs and it is
obvious, their form is due to the fact that they are more
adapted to the earthly forces. The head is more adapted to the
forces of the periphery. In like manner you may also study the
arms, and this is not uninteresting. Hold your arms close to
your body, and they are subject to the forces that go towards
the centre of the Earth. Move them in a living way, and you
yourself will be subjecting them to the forces streaming in
from all sides of the periphery.
Such indeed is the difference between arms and legs. The legs
are invariably subject to the central forces of the Earth,
while the arms are so only in a certain posture, that is to
say, conditionally. Man is able to lift them out of the domain
of the earthly central forces and place them in the midst of
those forces which we call the ethereal forces, the forces
pouring in from the periphery. And so you can see for all the
single organs, how they are placed in the whole cosmic system.
Here then you have your physical body and your etheric
body.
How
is it with the astral body? In space, there is no other kind of
forces besides these two. The astral body receives its forces
from beyond space. While the etheric body receives them from
everywhere, from the periphery, the astral body receives them
from beyond all space.
We
can actually find certain places in Nature where the physical
forces of the Earth enter into the midst of the etheric forces
that stream in from all sides. You may imagine albumen to begin
with as a substance present in the physical Earth. So long as
sulphur, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen are in any way
chemically recognisable in it, the albumen is in fact subject
to the earthly forces. But the moment it enters the sphere of
the reproductive process, it is lifted out of the physical
forces. The forces of the circumference of the Universe begin
to work upon it in its disorganised condition. New albumen
comes into being as an image of the whole Universe.
But
you see, sometimes the following situation emerges. The
disorganisation, the breaking down of the albumen cannot go far
enough. You may have albumenous substance of this kind in
connection with some animal for instance. For reproduction to
take place, it should be possible for it to be divided, broken
down entirely, so that it may submit itself to the forces of
the whole Cosmos. But the animal is somehow prevented from
delivering, for purposes of reproduction, such albumenous
substance as would be able straight-away to submit itself to
the whole macrocosm. To be capable of reproduction, albumenous
substance must submit itself to the whole macrocosm. But the
animal in this case is in some way unable to form albumenous
substance capable of reproduction without further assistance.
This is how it is with the gall-fly. What then does the
gall-fly do? It lays its egg in some part of a plant. Again and
again you may find these galls, in oaks, and in other trees
where the gall-fly lays her eggs. In the leaf, for instance,
you can see these strange formations. Within each one is the
egg of a gall-fly. Why does it happen so? Why is the egg of a
gall-fly laid in an oak leaf, with the result that the
oak-apple is formed, holding within it the egg, which is
now able to develop? The reason for this is as follows.
The plant-leaf contains within it an etheric body, which is
adapted to the whole cosmic ether. It comes to the assistance
of the egg of the gall-fly. Left alone, the gall-fly's egg is
helpless. Hence the gall-fly lays it in a portion of a plant
which contains already an etheric body included in the whole
system of the cosmic ether. The gall-fly therefore approaches
the oak in order to get help in the breaking down of its
albumen, so that the world-periphery may be able to work
via the oak leaf, via the oak. Alone, the egg of
the gall-fly would be doomed to destruction, for it cannot be
broken down, it holds together too strongly.
Here we can gain an insight into a strange working of Nature.
But this same working is present in Nature in other places too.
Suppose for instance that the animal is not merely incapable of
providing germ substance which can expose itself to the cosmic
ether for the sake of reproduction; suppose it is not even able
to transform any substances within it into inner means of
nourishment, that is, to use them for its own inner
nourishment. The example of the bee lies near at hand. The bee
cannot eat anything and everything. It can only eat what the
plant has already prepared for it. And now observe something
very strange and remarkable. The bee goes to the plant, seeks
out the honey juice, absorbs it, assimilates it within itself,
and then builds up what we admire so, the wonderful cell
structure of the beehive. Here we observe two most strange and
wonderful processes: the bee sitting on the flower outside and
sucking in the juice, and then, having gone into the beehive,
building up from within itself in co-operation with the other
bees the cells of wax that will be filled with honey.
What is it that really takes place? You must look carefully at
the shape of the cells. They are like this and here comes
another joined on to it, and so on, and so on. They are small
cells, and similar in form to something else we find in Nature,
only there the hollow space is filled up; they are shaped like
quartz crystals, like the crystals of silicic acid. If you go
into the mountains and examine the quartz crystals, you will
find you can draw them, too, in that form. The drawing will, it
is true, show some irregularity of shape, but in the main the
form will be similar to the form of the bee-cells that are
arranged side by side. Only, the cells of the bee are made of
wax and the quartz is made of silicic acid.
When we follow up the matter, we find that long ago at a
certain point of time in the evolution of the Earth the
quartz-crystal was first formed in the mountains. It was formed
under the prevailing etheric and astral influences, with the
aid of silicic acid. There you have forces that come from the
circumference, working, as ethereal-astral forces, and building
the quartz crystals in the siliceous substance. Everywhere in
the mountains you will find these crystals with their wonderful
hexagonal forms. What you find in the solid crystals, you find
again as hollow forms — as hollow spaces —
in the cells of wax, in the beehive.
For
what happens? The bee takes from the flower that which once
upon a time brought the quartz crystal into being. The bee
fetches it up out of the flower and makes with the substance of
her own body imitations of the quartz crystal. A process thus
takes place between bee and flower that is similar to what took
place long ago in the macrocosm.
I
tell you these things that you may understand how necessary it
is not merely to take cognisance of the presence of carbon,
nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen, all of which analysis is
piteously abstract, but to observe and note the marvellous
formative processes, the intimate inner conditions that prevail
in Nature and her processes. Once, long ago, science was
instinctively built up on such observation. But that all passed
away in the course of the historical evolution of mankind; it
came to an end about the 15th century. We must win it back. We
must find our way again into the intimate connections of Nature
and of her relation with man. Only when we are able once more
to recognise such connections can we hope to find again a true
insight into the healthy as well as into the diseased human
being. Otherwise all pharmacology remains merely a matter of
testing and experimenting, without any perception of the inner
connections that are at work.
The
period from the 15th century until now may be described as an
unfruitful period in the evolution of the human spirit. It has
borne man down beneath its weight. Man has looked out upon
plant and animal, upon human being and upon mineral, and all
the while without any real knowledge of them whatsoever; he has
been brought right out of connection with the world and the
universe. Now at length it has landed him in chaos as far as
his relation with the great world is concerned; he lives
without knowing that he is in any sort of connection with the
world around him. In the days when men pondered and meditated
upon such things, it was known that every time reproduction
took place, the whole macrocosm speaks. In the germ or seed
that is capable of reproduction comes to birth a minute image
of the whole macrocosm. All around is the great world; and in
the tiniest germ is an offspring of the influences that stream
in from the great world from every direction.
In
the human being we may see working together, first of all the
forces that are the physical-central forces of the Earth. These
forces work in all the organs of the human being. But
everywhere in him work also, in an opposite direction, the
forces that stream in from all sides, the etheric forces. Look
at the liver, for example, or the lungs: you will only
understand them when you know that in them are working together
the forces that come from the centre of the Earth and the
forces that come in from every direction from the circumference
of the Universe. Then we have also certain organs that are
permeated by the astral body, or again by the ego-organisation,
whilst others are less permeated by these higher members. In
the condition of sleep, of course, the human being as a whole
has not his astral body and ego-organisation in him at all. Now
imagine that some organ, let us say one of the lungs has
through some circumstance become too strongly affected by the
forces that stream in everywhere from the Cosmic All. The lung
will in consequence become diseased, for a certain harmony and
balance is necessary between that which works in the lung from
the centre of the Earth and that which streams in upon it from
all parts of the circumference. If you can succeed in finding
mineral substances which will provide a counterpoise in the
lung to the too strongly working etheric forces, then you will
have a remedy wherewith to eliminate their over-activity. The
reverse may also happen. The etheric forces may become too
weak, and the physical forces that work from the centre of the
Earth grow correspondingly too strong. This time you will
search the whole kingdom of the plants to discover something
that shall strengthen the etheric forces in the organ where
they are weak; and then you will have your remedy for this
condition. It is quite impossible to find even the slightest
remedy by an observation of the physical body alone, for the
physical body of man has in itself no ground for telling
anything about its own constitution. The so-called normal
process that goes on in the physical body is a process of
Nature. But the process that goes on in illness is likewise a
process of Nature. If you have what is called a normal healthy
liver, you have a liver in which processes of Nature take
place. And if you have a liver in which there is an abscess,
you have also a liver in which processes of Nature take place.
The difference can never be found by investigating the physical
body. All you can do from investigation of the physical body is
to establish the fact that the appearance is different in the
one case from the other. You can learn nothing of the cause. If
you have an abscess on the liver, you will only be able to
discover the cause of it when you know that in such a case, for
example, the astral body enters much more powerfully into the
liver than it should. What you have to do is to drive out of
the liver the astral body, which has taken possession there too
strongly. From all this it is clear that there is really no
possibility of speaking about the healthy and the diseased
human being in a way that accords with the facts, unless we go
beyond the physical body and include also in our consideration
the higher members of man's being. We shall indeed only regain
a pharmacology when we go beyond the physical body, for the
nature of illness is simply not demonstrable from the physical
body alone.
At
the present time my purpose is merely to set forth these things
in their historical aspect and connections. It must, however,
be pointed out that with the gradual dimming and darkening of
that which has been brought over from olden times, all real
knowledge of the human being has died right away. And now
to-day we are faced with the necessity of acquiring once again
a knowledge of the human being. Such knowledge will be
attainable when we are once again in a position to understand
the relationship of the human being to the surrounding kingdoms
of Nature.
Suppose, then, we take our start from the ego-organisation of
the human being. If, through initiation science, we have
attained to imaginative cognition and are able to perceive the
ego-organisation of man, then we may ask ourselves: With what
portion of the human organism (in its present state) does this
ego-organisation stand in especially near relation? It stands
in an especial relation with all that is mineral in the human
being. Hence when you receive into yourself some essentially
mineral substance, — for example, when you take some salt
on your tongue — it is the ego-organisation in you that
immediately pounces upon this mineral substance. And as the
substance is carried further into the body, all the while,
— even when the salt substance is in the stomach —
the ego-organisation remains with it. The salt goes still
further, it undergoes various changes, it passes through the
intestines, — never once does the ego-organisation leave
hold of her salt! They behave like two closely related things,
two things that belong to one another: the ego-organisation,
and the salt that enters the human being.
It
is quite another matter when you eat, for example, a poached
egg, or any substance of a similar — albumenous —
consistency. The ego-organisation is very little concerned when
you have a piece of poached egg on your tongue. Afterwards, as
it slips down into the stomach, the astral body concerns itself
with it, but again only to a very small extent. Then it goes
further. And now, first the etheric and then the physical body
begin to act intensively upon it. They break down within you
the albumen that you receive into your organism with the egg.
The egg itself is now made entirely of mineral within you. It
is broken down and destroyed. All life is driven out of it. It
is destroyed within you. At the walls of the intestines the
albumen substance that you have taken into you from outside
ceases to be albumen in any sense, becomes entirely mineral in
character. And now it passes over into the ego-organisation;
from this point the mineralised albumen is taken up by the
ego-organisation.
Thus, the ego-organisation concerns itself only with what is
mineral. And all mineral substances are changed through its
action; in the human organism they become different from what
they were outside it. No mineral substance can remain the same
within the human organism as it is outside. The
ego-organisation has to look after this in a very thorough
manner. Nor is it only such substances as cooking salt and the
like that are seized upon by the ego-organisation and inwardly
changed to something quite different. The human being is
surrounded by a certain condition of warmth, but that external
condition of warmth must never be allowed to penetrate the
human being. You can never have your finger full of that which
is all around you as external warmth. This warmth can but act
as a stimulus, you yourself must create and produce the warmth
that you have within you. The moment you are merely, so to say,
an object and do not yourself create your own warmth or cold,
but let the warmth from outside extend its influence into you
exactly as it does into any external object, — in that
moment you become ill. The external warmth, — not even a
substance, but the warmth itself makes you ill. Suppose you
have here a towel or a sponge, and over there is a fire. The
warmth of the fire, which can spread out all around quite
easily, will permeate the towel or the sponge. The towel or
sponge only carries a little further the radiating warmth of
the fire. When, however, the warmth of the fire reaches the
skin of the human being and acts upon the senses, stimulating
them, then it must no longer simply spread in this way; then
the reaction must come, the inner warmth must be created from
within. If a person catches cold, his condition results from
the fact that he has not merely let himself be stimulated to
create his own inner warmth, but has let the external cold
enter to some extent beneath the skin. Thus he does not take
his place in the world as a fully active human being who fills
himself with his own activity and his own impulses, but plays
rather the part of an object that lets the activities and
influences of the outer world pass through him. That is the
essential nature of the ego-organisation that it takes up into
itself what is mineral and completely changes it from within,
converting it into something altogether different.
Not
until we have died does the mineral turn back again into the
mineral of external Nature. So long as we are alive on the
Earth, and have the mineral enclosed in our skin, so long does
the ego-organisation continue to change it perpetually.
Similarly, whatever we take up into ourselves that is of a
plant nature is perpetually changed by the working of the
astral body. It is in everything of a mineral nature that the
ego-organisation brings about a thorough metamorphosis;
not merely in the solid mineral, but also in the liquid and
gaseous mineral, and the mineral that is in the state of warmth
or heat.
Of
course, when we speak in quite an ordinary way, we may say:
Here is some water. I drink it. Now I have the water inside me.
The truth is, however, that the moment my organism receives the
water, then by reason of the action of my ego-organisation, the
water inside me is no longer the same as the water outside. It
only becomes the same again when I give it off in the form of
perspiration, or in some other way convert it into water.
Inside my skin water is not water, it is living fluid.
In
this manner we shall have to alter our thought about a great
many things. To-day I have only been able to give you small
indications. Think them over. Think how the albumen has to be
broken down and disorganised in order that it may be exposed to
the influences of the whole macrocosm. Think how the water I
drink becomes in me living fluid and is no longer the inorganic
water it was before, but is water permeated by the
ego-organisation. Think how, when you eat cabbage —
outside you it was cabbage, inside you the astral body receives
the cabbage into itself and transforms it into something new.
And here we come to the consideration of very important
processes in the human body. We learn to perceive how we have
in our metabolic system processes that are only one
evolutionary stage removed from the metabolisms that we have,
for example, in our brain — the metabolisms that go to
make up the nervous system, and so forth. I will speak further
on this to-morrow and make clear, in connection with these
processes, the radical difference between men of the 12th and
of the 20th century. We shall thus come to see the necessity
for new impulses to enter in, if there is to be progress in the
understanding of health and disease, and if the knowledge of
man is not to die out altogether and nothing more ever be known
of the healthy or of the diseased human being.
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