The Link between Life and Death

All animal life - including man, since man and animal have a common life-style on this planet- is nourished directly or indirectly by plants.

Plant life is the processing device by which Nature extracts foot elements from th sun, soil and water and prepares then for assimilation. Ancient alchemists searched for a process that would transmute base metal into gold, and never found it. Yet plants do that mysterious task with ease. Inorganic, lifeless mineral matter is converted into living organic material which, when presented to the human body, is hungrily absorbed. These inorganic substances, if obtained without the intervention of plant life, cannot sustain life, in fact, many of them are poisonous and will destroy tissue.

Take the case of oxalic acid, which is found in combination with sodium potassium, calcium, iron an manganese in the juice of many plants. When oxalic acid acid is prepared by man by oxidizing sugar and starch with nitric acid, it is one of the most powerful poison known. One dram will quickly prove fatal, destroying the organic structure of any tissue it touches, eating away the tissues of the mouth, stomach, duodenum, finally perforating the peritoneum and, approximately thirty minutes after ingestion, bringing death after great pain and suffering.

Yet the same acid in the form of iron oxalate, potassium or sodium or calcium oxalates as found in rhubard, sorrel leaves, cinchona, oak bark, spinach, etc, is quite harmless and is consumed by man and animals in large quantities.

The difference between inorganic and organic is no longer important once the material has been processed by man's greatest friend, the abundant plant life gracing this planet.