It would probably astonish you to see him eat. If not, it would be because you did not know what he was doing. His food is a liquid, an artificial preparation digested and assimilated ready for absorption by the tissues. He does not take it in at the mouth, but by an orifice leading into the abdomen. This orifice is in the position of the navel, and is the opening of the umbilical cord through the outer wall of the abdomen to its connection with the vascular system inside. “In ancient times the umbilical cord through which the embryo received its nourishment became pinched off on the outside after birth, while the part of it that remained inside of the body cavity became reduced to a mere string, a useless rudiment. But now that inside piece is kept in use from birth, the child being fed in the same way after as before birth. This opening by hereditary habit has developed wonderful changes for which, however, the long ages of use have furnished ample time for adjustment into a perfect adaptation of the parts and functions concerned. But really the changes are by no means so radical as they seem at first view. The change made in the mode of life of a new infant is in reality the same in effect now that it was in your day. The essential operation in both cases is the introduction of nourishment into the blood and it is accomplished in both cases by osmosis. The history of this evolution is interesting, but I can give you only a bare outline of it. “As the business of the world came to be done almost exclusively by machinery directed by men’s brains, there was but little use for muscular exertion, especially of the legs and body. The use for legs in locomotion was also superseded by artificial modes of conveyance. Every road and street in the world was as smooth and clean as a parlor floor. On these were unlimited facilities for inexpensive transportation, public and private, the power being electric. Besides these were the flyers, also public and private. The life became almost exclusively a sitting life, even when in motion, sedentary in the most literal sense. This was, however, accompanied by the most intense activity of the brain. These conditions were decidedly antagonistical to the old system of the nourishment of the body by the stomach and intestines, because that system had been developed in connection with an active muscular body, and could be kept in good health only by vigorous muscular activity. Formerly four-fifths of the blood went to support digestion and muscular activity, and one-fifth went to the brain to support the mind. Increasing mental activity diverted more and more of the circulation towards the brain, until now it consumes three-fifths, muscular work takes not quite two-fifths and digestion and assimilation almost none. The result of the changes that constantly pressed in this direction, was that the first millennium was an age of dyspepsia. The increasing disability of