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by Henry Lindlahr
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Title: Nature Cure
Author: Henry Lindlahr
Release Date: July, 2003 [Etext #4273]
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[This file was first posted on December 27, 2001]
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The Project Gutenberg Etext of Nature Cure
by Henry Lindlahr
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Submitted by Steve Solomon
Nature Cure
Philosophy & Practice Based on the Unity of Disease & Cure
Henry Lindlahr, M.D.
"Ho, ye who suffer! Know ye suffer from vowselves. None else
compels--no other holds ye that ye live or die. "~--Siddartha~
TO THE PROGRESSIVE PHYSICIANS OF THE AGE
There are two principal methods of treating disease. One is the
combative, the other the preventive. The trend of modern medical
research and practice in our great colleges and endowed research
institutes is almost entirely along combative lines, while the
individual, progressive physician learns to work more and more along
preventive lines. The slogan of modern medical science is, "Kill the
germ and cure the disease." The usual procedure is to wait until
acute or chronic diseases have fully developed, and then, if
possible, to subdue them by means of drugs, surgical operations, and
by means of the morbid products of disease, in the form of serums,
antitoxins, vaccines, etc. The combative method fights disease with
disease, poison with poison, and germs with germs and germ products.
In the language of the Good Book, it is "Beelzebub against the
Devil."
The preventive method does not wait until diseases have fully
developed and gained the ascendancy in the body, but concentrates
its best endeavors on preventing, by hygienic living and by natural
methods of treatment, the development of diseases. By these it
endeavors to put the human body in such a normal, healthy condition
that it is practically proof against infection or contagion by
disease taints and miasms, and against the inroads of germs,
bacteria and parasites.
The question is, which method is the most practical, the most
successful and most popular? Which will stand the test of "the
survival of the fittest" in the great struggle for existence?
The medical profession has good reason to be alarmed by the inroads
made in its work by irregular, unorthodox systems, schools and cults
of treating human ailments; but instead of raging at the audacious
presumption of these interlopers, would it not be better to inquire
if there is not some reason for the astonishing spread and
popularity of these therapeutic innovations?
Their success undoubtedly is based on the fact that they concentrate
their best efforts on preventive instead of combative methods of
treating disease. People are beginning to realize that it is cheaper
and more advantageous to prevent disease than to cure it. To create
and maintain continuous, buoyant good health means greater
efficiency for mental and physical work; greater capacity for the
true enjoyment of life, and the best insurance against failure and
poverty. Therefore, he who builds health is of greater value to
humanity than he who allows people to drift into disease through
ignorance of Nature's laws, and then attempts to cure them by
doubtful and uncertain combative methods.
It is said that in China the physician is hired and paid by the
year; that he receives a certain stipend as long as the members of
the family are in good health, but that the salary is suspended as
long as one of his charges is ill. If some similar method of
engaging and paying for medical services were in vogue in this
country the trend of medical research and practice would soon
undergo a radical change.
The diet expert, the hydropath, the physical culturist, the adjuster
of the spine, the mental healer, and Christian scientist, do not pay
much attention to the pathological conditions or to the symptoms of
disease. They regulate the diet and habits of living on a natural
basis, promote elimination, teach correct breathing and wholesome
exercise, correct the mechanical lesions of the spine, establish the
right mental and emotional attitude and, in so far as they succeed
in doing this, they build health and diminish the possibility of
disease. The successful doctor of the future will have to fall in
line with the procession and do more teaching than prescribing.
I realize that many of the statements and claims made in this volume
will seem radical and irrational to my colleagues of the regular
school of medicine. They win say that most of my teachings are
contrary to the firmly established theories of medical science. All
I ask, of them is not to judge too hastily; to observe, to think and
to test, and I am certain that they will find verified in actual
experience many of the teachings of the Nature Cure Philosophy.
Medical science has had to abandon innumerable theories and
practices which at one time were as firmly established as some of
the pet theories of today.
By none of the statements made in this book do I mean to deny the
necessity of combative methods under certain circumstances. What I
wish to emphasize is that the regular school of medicine is spending
too much of its effort along combative lines and not enough along
preventive. It would be foolish to deny the necessity of surgery in
traumatism, and in abnormal conditions which require mechanical
means of adjustment or treatment.
Such necessity, for instance, will exist in certain obstetrical
cases, as long as women have not learned, or are not willing to live
in such a way as to make surgical intervention unnecessary in
child-birth. The same is true with regard to the treatment of germ
diseases. As long as people persist in violating the laws of their
being, and thereby making their bodies prolific breeding grounds for
disease taints, germs and parasites which are bound to provoke
inflammatory, feverish processes (Nature's cleansing and healing
efforts), combative measures will have to be resorted to by the
physician, and precautionary measures against infection will have to
be observed, but these should be in harmony with Nature's endeavors,
not contrary and suppressive; they should tend to conserve and not
to destroy.
Natural dietetics, fasting, hydropathy, osteopathy, chiropractic,
and mental therapeutics, are combative as well as preventive, but if
properly applied they do not in any way injure the organism or
interfere with Nature's intent and Nature's methods. This cannot be
said for much of the surgical and medical treatment of the old
school of medicine. We criticize and condemn only those methods
which are suppressive and destructive instead of curative.
In many instances already the warnings and teachings of Nature Cure
Philosophy have been verified, and had to be heeded and accepted by
medical science. The exponents of Nature Cure protested against the
barbarous practice of withholding water from patients burning in
fever heat, and against the exclusion of fresh air from the sickroom
by order of the doctor. The cold water and no drug treatment of
typhoid fever, the water treatment for other acute diseases, as well
as the open air treatment for tuberculosis, were forced upon the
medical profession by the Nature Cure people. For more than half a
century the latter have been curing all inflammaory, feverish
diseases, from simple colds to scarlet fever, diphtheria,
cerebro-spinal meningitis, smallpox, appendicitis, etc., etc., by
hydropathy, fasting, and other natural methods, without resorting at
all to the use of poisonous drugs, antitoxins and surgical
operations.
For many years before the terrible after-effects of X-Ray treatment,
of extirpation of the ovaries, the womb, and of other vital organs,
became so patent that the physicians of the regular school could not
ignore them any longer, Nature Cure physicians had strongly warned
against these unnatural practices, and called attention to their
destructive after-effects.
As far back as ten years ago, when the X-Rays were in high favor for
the treatment of cancer, lupus, and other diseases, I warned against
the use of these rays, claiming that their vibratory velocity was
too high and powerful, and therefore destructive to the tissues of
the human body. Since the failure of the X-Rays and the discovery of
Radio-activity, the rays and emanations of radium and other
radio-active substances are widely advertised and exploited as
therapeutic agents, but these rays also are far beyond the vibratory
ranges of the physical body in velocity and power. Therefore, it
remains to be seen whether their injurious by and after-effects do
not out-weigh in the long run their beneficial effects.
The destructive action of these high power rays, as well as of
inorganic minerals, is very slow and insidious, manifesting only in
the course of many years. This new field of therapeutics, therefore,
has not yet passed the stage of dangerous experimentation.
Inorganic minerals prove injurious and destructive to the tissues of
the human body because they are too slow in vibratory velocity, and
too coarse in molecular structure.
It is the intent and purpose of this volume to warn against the
exploitation of destructive combative methods to the neglect of
preventive constructive and conservative methods. If these teachings
contribute something toward this end they will fulfil their mission.
The Author
Chicago, Nov., 1913.
INTRODUCTION
It was the following letter from Mr. William Louden to the editor of
~"Health Culture"~ which prompted the author to issue the ~"Nature
Cure Magazine"~ (published from November, 1907, to October, 1909).
In the series of books of which this is the first volume, he will
endeavor to collect and systematize all his former writings in the~
"Nature Cure Magazine," "Health Culture," "Life and Action,"~ the
~"Naturopath,"~ the ~"Volksrath,"~ and other publications, and to
amplify these by new material obtained through further research and
wider experience.
Mr. Albert Turner,
Editor of ~"Health Culture."~
DEAR SIR--I write to ask what you consider the best book or pamphlet
to put into the hands of people generally, in regard to the
preservation of health. I know ther e are a number of very excellent
publications, but as a rule they deal with certain details or phases
of the question, and do not begin with the great underlying
principles in such a way as to attract and hold the attention of the
masses. One advocates one plan, and another an entirely different,
and sometimes a directly opposite plan--such as uncooked vs.
thoroughly cooked food; a strictly vegetarian diet, and mental
culture in place of attention to either, etc. Such a state of
affairs makes it confusing to average people and gets them to
believe that health reformers are all at sea, and what is good for
one is not good for another, or, in common language, "what is one
man's meat is another's poison."
Now, I know it is natural, and doubtless best, that there should be
a difference of opinion on any question, but at the same time, if
any movement is to be crowned with great success, there should be
some underlying principles upon which all should agree, and these
should be pressed to the forefront, so as to attract and hold the
attention of the people, in place of the divergent details upon
which they disagree. If these fundamental laws and principles are
thoroughly studied and well defined, it may be found that they would
explain the discrepancies between the different theories, and that
under certain conditions, one plan is best, and that under different
conditions another plan is more applicable, etc. The pushing of
these fundamental principles to the front would also tend to correct
errors into which the different theorists have fallen, and would
certainly tend to make the different theories more homogeneous and
more easily understood by people in general, than at present.
In my opinion, the general fundamental principles of life and health
are what people need to understand more than anything else. Without
this, most of the details will be meaningless or at least confusing
dogmas. I don't mean by these fundamental principles the details of
anatomy, or, for that matter, the details of anything else, but the
general rules governing life and death, so that people may know
which way they, are tending, and may understand the many illusions
with which life and death, as well as all else in nature are beset.
Yours truly,
WILLIAM LOUDEN
Louden Mfg. Co.,
Fairfield, Iowa.
The present volume and others of the "Nature Cure Series" which are
to follow are an attempt to answer Mr. Louden's inquiry and to
formulate and elucidate the fundamental laws of health, disease and
cure for which he and many others have been vainly seeking. Who
among you at some time or another, has not thought and felt like Mr.
Louden and in doubt and perplexity voiced Pilate's query,
What Is Truth?
The exact information and rational method of teaching which Mr.
Louden is seeking, has heretofore been wanting in health-culture
literature.
Many, indeed, stand ready and willing to show the way to physical,
mental and moral perfection. Hundreds, yes, thousands, of different
cults, isms, teachers, books and periodicals treat of these
subjects, but their teachings are so manifold, so contradictory and
confusing, that one becomes bewildered amid the ever increasing
testimony. As is often the case in the study of complicated
subjects, the more one reads and the more one hears, the less one
knows. I believe that no one has described more strikingly this
state of general perplexity than Mr. Louden in his excellent letter.
Nevertheless, these simple fundamental laws and principles really
exist. They must exist, because everything in Nature, including the
processes of health, of disease and cure, of birth, of life and
death, are subject to law and order.
Allopathy, or Old School Medical Science, admits that it does not
know these fundamental principles; that it reasons, not from
underlying causes, but from external symptoms and personal
experiences. It is, therefore, self-confessedly full of doubts,
errors and confusion; in short, empirical--and necessarily, a
failure.
Many teachers of Nature Cure, Hygiene and Health cults have stumbled
accidentally upon some of the natural laws and true methods of
healing, but have failed to grasp and to formulate the broad
underlying principles. For this reason they are often partly right
and partly wrong and very apt to overdo certain methods to the
neglect of others just as effective and essential, or even more so.
I shall endeavor in these volumes to formulate and elucidate some of
the fundamental laws and principles underlying the phenomena of life
and death, health, disease and cure, and shall try to ascertain in
the light of these laws how much of truth and how much of error, how
much of usefulness and how much of harmfulness there may be
contained in the various theories and systems of living and of
healing.
Nature Owe an Exact Science
One of the reasons why Nature Cure is not more popular with the
medical profession and the public is that it is too simple. The
average mind is more impressed by the involved and mysterious than
by the simple and common-sense.
However, it remains a fact that "exact science" reduces complexity
and confusion to simplicity and clearness. Science becomes exact
science only when the underlying laws which correlate and unify its
scattered facts and theories have been discovered.
These simple laws rightly understood and applied will do for medical
science what the law of gravitation has done for physics and
astronomy, and what the laws of chemical affinity have done for
chemistry, they will place medical science in the ranks of exact
sciences. The understanding and proper application of these truths
will explain every fact and phenomenon in the processes of health,
disease and cure, and will enable the student to reason from simple,
natural laws and principles to their logical effects. The "Regular"
school of medicine, so far, has endeavored to build a medical
science on the observation of "effects" and "experiences," but
since one fundamental law of nature may produce a million seemingly
differing effects it becomes self-evident that it is utterly
impossible to found an exact science on such uncertain and
conflicting evidence.
The primary laws and principles once understood, it becomes easy to
reason from and to explain through them, the various phenomena which
they produce. Herein lie the merit and achievement of the Nature
Cure philosophy.
THE UPAS TREE OF DISEASE
EVIL IS NOT AN ACCIDENT, NOT AN ARBITRARY PUNISHMENT, NOT ALWAYS AN
"ERROR OF MORTAL MIND." IT IS THE NATURAL AND INEVITABLE RESULT OF
VIOLATIONS OF NATURE'S LAWS. IT IS INSTRUCTIVE AND CORRECTIVE IN
PURPOSE, AND WILL REMAIN WITH US ONLY AS LONG AS WE NEED ITS
SALUTARY LESSONS.
Chapter I
What ~Is~ Nature Cure?
It is vastly more than a system of curing aches and pains; it is a
complete revolution in the art and science of living. It is the
practical realization and application of all that is good in natural
science, philosophy and religion. Like many another world-wide
revolution and reformation, it had its inception in Germany, the
land of thinkers and philosophers.
About seventy years ago this greatest and most beneficent of
reformation movements was inaugurated by Priessnitz in Grafenberg, a
small village in the Silesian mountains. The originator of Nature
Cure was a simple farmer, but he had a natural genius for the art of
healing.
His pharmacopeia consisted not in poisonous pills and potions but in
plenty of exercise, fresh mountain air, water treatments in the
cool, sparkling brooks, and simple, wholesome country fare,
consisting largely of black bread, vegetables, and milk fresh from
cows fed on nutritious mountain grasses.
The results accomplished by these simple means were wonderful.
Before he died, a large sanitarium, filled with patients from all
over the world and from all stations of life, had grown up around
his forest home.
Among those who made the pilgrimage to Grafenberg to become patients
and students of this genial healer, the simple-minded
farmer-physician, were wealthy merchants, princes and doctors from
all parts of the world.
Rapidly the idea of drugless healing spread over Germany and over
the civilized world. In the Fatherland, Hahn the apothecary, Kuhne
the weaver, Rikli the manufacturer, Father Kneipp the priest,
Lahmann the doctor, and Turnvater Jahn, the founder of physical
culture, became enthusiastic pupils and followers of Priessnitz.
Each one of these men enlarged and enriched some special field of
the great realm of natural healing. Some elaborated the water cure
and natural dietetics, others invented various systems of
manipulative treatment, earth, air and light cures, magnetic
healing, mental therapeutics, curative gymnastics, etc., etc. Von
Peckzely added the Diagnosis from the Eye, which reveals not only
the innermost secrets of the human organism, but also Nature's ways
and means of cure, and the changes for better or for worse
continually occurring in the body.
In this country, Dr. Trall of New York, Dr. Jackson of Danville, Dr.
Kellogg of Battle Creek, and others caught the infection and crossed
the ocean to become students of Priessnitz. The achievements of
these men in their respective fields of endeavor will stand as
enduring monuments to the eternal truths revealed by the genius of
Nature Cure.
Quimby, the itinerant spiritualist and healer, became successful and
renowned by the application of the natural methods of cure. At first
his favorite methods were water, massage, magnetic and mental
treatment. Gradually he concentrated his efforts on metaphysical
methods of cure, and before he died, he evolved a complete system of
magnetic and mental therapeutics.
Quimby's teachings and methods were adopted by Mrs. Eddy, his most
enthusiastic pupil, and by her elaborated into Christian Science,
the latest and most successful of modern mental-healing cults.
Dr. Still of Kirksville, Missouri, made a valuable addition to
natural methods of treatment by the invention of Osteopathy, a
system of scientific manipulation of the bony structures, nerves and
nerve centers, muscles and ligaments. A later development of
manipulative science is Chiropractic, originated by Dr. Palmer of
Davenport, Iowa. Thus the simple pioneers of German Nature Cure,
every one of them gifted by Nature with the instinct and genius of
the true healer, who is born, not made, laid the foundation for the
worldwide modern healthculture movement.
They were not blinded or confused by the conflicting theories of
books and authorities, or by the action of a thousand different
drugs on a legion of different symptoms, but applied common-sense
reasoning to the solution of the problems of health, disease and
cure.
They went for inspiration to field and forest rather than to the
murky atmosphere of the dissecting and vivisection rooms. They
studied the whole and not only the parts, causes as well as effects
and symptoms. Realizing that man had lost his natural instinct and
strayed far from Nature's ways, they studied and imitated the
natural habits of the animal creation rather than the confusing
doctrines of the schools.
Thus they proclaimed the "return to Nature" and the "new gospel of
health," which are destined to free humanity from the destructive
influences of alcoholism, red meat overeating, the dope and tobacco
habit, and of drug poisoning, vaccination, surgical mutilation,
vivisection and a thousand other abuses practiced in the name of
science.
When parents learn how to create children in accord with natural
law, how to mold their bodies and their characters into harmony and
beauty before the new life sees the light of day, when they learn to
rear their offspring in health of body and purity of mind in harmony
with the laws of their being, then we shall have true types of
beautiful manhood and womanhood, then children will no longer be a
curse and a burden to themselves and to those who bring them into
the world or to society at large.
These thoughts are not the mere dreams of a visionary. When we see
the wonderful changes wrought in a human being by a few months or
years of rational living and treatment, it seems not impossible or
improbable that these ideals may be realized within a few
generations.
Children thus born and reared in harmony with the law will be the
future masters of the earth. They will need neither gold nor
influence to win in the race of life--their innate powers of body and
soul will make them victors over every circumstance. The offspring
of alcoholism, drug poisoning and sexual perversity will cut but
sorry figures in comparison with the manhood and womanhood of a true
and noble aristocracy of health.
Chapter II
Catechism of Nature Cure
The philosophy of Nature Cure is based on sciences dealing with
newly discovered or rediscovered natural laws and principles, and
with their application to the phenomena of life and death, health,
disease and cure.
Every new science embodying new modes of thought requires exact
modes of expression and new definitions of already well-known words
and phrases.
Therefore, we have endeavored to define, as precisely as possible,
certain words and phrases which convey meanings and ideas peculiar
to the teachings of Nature Cure.
The student of Nature Cure and kindred subjects will do well to
study these definitions and formulated principles closely, as they
contain the pith and marrow of our philosophy and greatly facilitate
its understanding.
(1) What Is Nature Cure?
Nature Cure is a system of building the entire being in harmony with
the constructive principle in Nature on the physical, mental, moral
and spiritual planes of being.
(2) What Is the Constructive Principle in Nature?
The constructive principle in Nature is that principle which builds
up, improves and repairs, which always makes for the perfect type,
whose activity in Nature is designated as evolutionary and
constructive and which is opposed to the destructive principle in
Nature
(3) What Is the Destructive Principle in Nature?
The destructive principle in Nature is that principle which
disintegrates and destroys existing forms and types, and whose
activity in Nature is designated as devolutionary and destructive.
(4) What Is Normal or Natural?
That is normal or natural which is in harmonic relation with the
life purposes of the individual and the constructive principle in
Nature.
(5) What Is Health?
Health is normal and harmonious vibration of the elements and forces
composing the human entity on the physical, mental, moral and
spiritual planes of being, in conformity with the constructive
principle of Nature applied to individual life.
(6) What Is Disease?
Disease is abnormal or inharmonious vibration of the elements and
forces composing the human entity on one or more planes of being, in
conformity with the destructive principle of Nature applied to
individual life.
(7) What Is the Primary Cause of Disease?
The primary cause of disease, barring accidental or surgical injury
to the human organism and surroundings hostile to human life, is
violation of Nature's Laws.
(8) What Is the Effect of Violation of Nature's Laws on the Physical
Human Organism?
The effect of violation of Nature's Laws on the physical human
organism are:
Lowered vitality. Abnormal composition of blood and lymph.
Accumulation of waste matter, morbid materials and poisons.
These conditions are identical with disease, because they tend to
lower, hinder or inhibit normal function (harmonious vibration) and
because they engender and promote destruction of living tissues.
(9) What Is Acute Disease?
What is commonly called acute disease is in reality the result of
Nature's efforts to eliminate from the organism waste matter,
foreign matter and poisons, and to repair injury to living tissues.
In other words, every so-called acute disease is the result of a
cleansing and healing effort of Nature. The real disease is lowered
vitality, abnormal composition of the vital fluids (blood and lymph)
and the resulting accumulation of waste materials and poisons.
(10) What Is Chronic Disease?
Chronic disease is a condition of the organism in which lowered
vibration (lowered vitality), due to the accumulation of waste
matter and poisons, with the consequent destruction of vital parts
and organs, has progressed to such an extent that Nature's
constructive and healing forces are no longer able to react against
the disease conditions by acute corrective efforts (healing crises).
Chronic disease is a condition of the organismin which the morbid
encumbrances have gained the ascendancy and prevent acute reaction
(healing crises) on the part of the constructive forces of Nature.
Chronic disease is the inability of the organism to react by acute
efforts or healing crises against constitutional disease conditions.
(11) What Is a Healing Crisis?
A healing crisis is an acute reaction, resulting from the ascendancy
of Nature's healing forces over disease conditions. Its tendency is
toward recovery, and it is, therefore, in conformity with Nature's
constructive principle.
(12) Are All Acute Reactions Healing Crises?
No, there are healing crises and disease crises.
(13) What Is a Disease Crisis?
A disease crisis is an acute reaction resulting from the ascendancy
of disease conditions over the healing forces of the organism. Its
tendency is toward fatal termination, and it is, therefore, in
conformity with Nature's destructive principle
(14) What Is Cure?
Cure is the readjustment of the human organism from abnormal to
normal conditions and functions.
(15) What Methods of Cure Are in Conformity with the Constructive
Principle in Nature?
Those methods which:
Establish normal surroundings and natural habits of life in accord
with Nature's Laws. Economize vital force. Build up the blood on a
natural basis, that is, supply the blood with its natural
constituents in right proportions. Promote the elimination of waste
matter and poisons without in any way injuring the human body.
Arouse the individual in the highest possible degree to the
consciousness of personal accountability and the necessity of
intelligent personal effort and self-help.
(16) Are Medicines in Conformity with the Constructive Principle in
Nature?
Medicines are in conformity with the constructive principle in
Nature insofar as they, in themselves, are not injurious and
destructive to the human organism and insofar as they act as tissue
foods and promote the neutralization and elimination of morbid
matter and poisons.
(17) Are Poisonous Drugs and Promiscuous Surgical Operations in
Conformity with the Constructive Principle in Nature?
Poisonous drugs and promiscuous operations are not usually in
conformity with the constructive principle in Nature, because:
They suppress acute diseases or reactions (crises), the cleaning and
healing efforts of Nature. They are in themselves harmful and
destructive to human life. Such treatment fosters the belief that
drugs and surgical operations can be substituted for obedience to
Nature's Laws and for personal effort and self-help.
(18) Is Metaphysical Healing in Conformity with the Constructive
Principle in Nature?
Metaphysical systems of healing are in conformity with the
constructive principle in Nature insofar as:
They do not interfere with or suppress Nature's healing efforts.
They awaken hope and confidence (therapeutic faith) and increase the
inflow of vital force into the organism.
They are not in conformity with the constructive principle in Nature
in so far as:
They fail to assist Nature's healing efforts. They ignore, obscure
and deny the laws of Nature and defy the dictates of reason and
common sense. They substitute, in the treatment of disease, a blind,
dogmatic belief in the wonder-working power of metaphysical formulas
and prayer for intelligent cooperation with Nature's constructive
forces for personal effort and self-help. They weaken the
consciousness of personal responsibility.
(19) Is Nature Cure in Conformity with the Constructive Principle in
Nature?
Nature Cure is in conformity with the constructive principle in
Nature because:
It teaches that the primary cause of weakness and disease is
disobedience to the laws of Nature. It arouses the individual to the
study of natural laws and demonstrates the necessity of strict
compliance with these laws. It strengthens the consciousness of
personal responsibility of the individual for his own status of
health and for the hereditary conditions, traits and tendencies of
his off-spring. It encourages personal effort and self-help. It
adapts surroundings and habits of life to natural laws. It assists
Nature's cleansing and healing efforts by simple natural means and
methods of treatment which are in no wise harmful or destructive to
health and life, and which are within the reach of everyone.
(20) What Are the Natural Methods of Living and of Treatment?
Return to Nature by the regulation of eating, drinking, breathing,
bathing, dressing, working, resting, thinking, the moral life,
sexual and social activities, etc., on a normal and natural basis.
Elementary remedies, such as water, air, light, earth cures,
magnetism, electricity, etc. Chemical remedies, such as scientific
food selection and combination, specific nutritional augmentation
with natural food concentrates, homeopathic medicines, simple herb
extracts and the vitochemical remedies. Mechanical remedies, such as
corrective gymnastics, massage, magnetic treatment, chiropractic or
osteopathic manipulation and, when indicated, surgery. Mental and
spiritual remedies, such as scientific relaxation, normal
suggestion, constructive thought, the prayer of faith, etc.
Chapter III
What Is Life?
In our study of the cause and character of disease we must endeavor
to begin at the beginning, and that is with LIFE itself, for the
processes of health, disease and cure are manifestations of that
which we call life, vitality, life elements, etc.
While endeavoring to fathom the mystery of life we soon realize,
however, that we are dealing with an ultimate which no human mind is
capable of solving or explaining. We can study and understand life
only in its manifestations, not in its origin and real essence.
There are two prevalent, but widely differing, conceptions of the
nature of life or vital force: the material and the vital.
The former looks upon life or vital force with all its physical,
mental and psychical phenomena as manifestations of the electric,
magnetic and chemical activities of the physical-material elements
composing the human organism. From this viewpoint, life is a sort of
spontaneous combustion, or, as one scientist expressed it, a
succession of fermentations.
This materialistic conception of life, however, has already become
obsolete among the more advanced biologists as a result of the
wonderful discoveries of modern science, which are fast bridging the
chasm between the material and the spiritual realms of being.
But medical science, as taught in the regular schools, is still
dominated by the old, crude, mechanical conception of vital force
and this, as we shall see, accounts for some of its gravest errors
of theory and of practice.
The vital conception of life, on the other hand, regards it as the
primary force of all forces, coming from the great central source of
all power.
This force, which permeates, heats and animates the entire created
universe, is the expression of the divine will, the "logos," the
"word" of the great creative intelligence. It is this divine energy
which sets in motion the whirls in the ether, the electric
corpuscles and ions that make up the different atoms and elements of
matter.
These corpuscles and ions are positive and negative forms of
electricity. Electricity is a form of energy. It is intelligent
energy; otherwise it could not move with that same wonderful
precision in the electrons of the atoms as in the suns and planets
of the sidereal universe.
This intelligent energy can have but one source: the will and the
intelligence of the Creator; as Swedenborg expresses it, "the great
central sun of the universe."
If this supreme intelligence should withdraw its energy, the
electrical charges (forms of energy) and with it the atoms,
elements, and the entire material universe would disappear in the
flash of a moment.
From this it appears that crude matter, instead of being the source
of life and of all its complicated mental and spiritual phenomena
(which assumption, on the face of it, is absurd), is only an
expression of the Life Force, itself a manifestation of the great
creative intelligence which some call God, others Nature, the
Oversoul, Brahma, Prana, etc., each one according to his best
understanding.
It is this supreme power and intelligence, acting in and through
every atom, molecule and cell in the human body, which is the true
healer, the vis medicatrix nature, which always endeavors to
repair, to heal and to restore the perfect type. All that the
physician can do is to remove obstructions and to establish normal
conditions within and around the patient, so that the healer within
can do his work to the best advantage.
Here the Christian Scientist will say: "That is exactly what we
claim. All is God, all is mind! There is no matter! Our attitude
toward disease is based on these facts."
Well, what of it, Brother Scientist? Suppose, in the final analysis,
matter is nothing but vibration, an expression of Divine Mind and
Will. That, for all practical purposes, does not justify me to deny
and to ignore its reality. Because I have an "all-mind" body, is it
advisable for me to place myself in the way of an "all-mind"
locomotive moving at the rate of sixty miles an hour?
The question is not what matter is in the final analysis, but how
matter affects us. We have to take it and treat it as we find it. We
must be as obedient to the laws of matter as to those of the higher
planes of being.
Life Is Vibratory
In the final analysis, all things in Nature, from a fleeti g thought
or emotion to the hardest piece of diamond or platinum, are modes of
motion or vibration. A few years ago physical science assumed that
an atom was the smallest imaginable part of a given element of
matter; that although infinitesimally small, it still represented
solid matter. Now, in the light of better evidence, we have good
reason to believe that there is no such thing as solid matter: that
every atom is made up of charges of negative and positive
electricity acting in and upon an omnipresent ether; that the
difference between an atom of iron and of hydrogen or any other
element consists solely in the number of electrical charges or
corpuscles it contains, and on the velocity with which these vibrate
around one another.
Thus the atom, which was thought to be the ultimate particle of
solid matter, is found to be a little universe in itself in which
corpuscles of electricity rotate or vibrate around one another like
the suns and planets in the sidereal universe. This explains what we
mean when we say life and matter are vibratory.
As early as 1863 John Newlands discovered that when he arranged the
elements of matter in the order of their atomic weight, they
displayed the same relationship to one another as do the tones in
the musical scale. Thus modern chemistry demonstrates the verity of
the music of the spheres--another visionary concept of ancient
mysticism. The individual atoms in themselves, as well as all the
atoms of matter in their relationship to one another, are
constructed and arranged in exact correspondence with the laws of
harmony. Therefore the entire sidereal universe is built on the laws
of music.
That which is orderly, lawful, good, beautiful, natural, healthy,
vibrates in unison with the harmonics of this great "Diapason of
Nature"; in other words, it is in alignment with the constructive
principle in Nature.
That which is disorderly, abnormal, ugly, unnatural, unhealthy,
vibrates in discord with Nature's harmonics. It is in alignment with
the destructive principle in Nature.
What we call "Inanimate Nature" is beautiful and orderly because it
plays in tune with the score of the Symphony of Life. Man alone can
play out of tune. This is his privilege, if he so chooses, by virtue
of his freedom of choice and action.
We can now better understand the definitions of health and of
disease, given in Chapter Two, "Catechism of Nature Cure" as
follows:
"Health is normal and harmonious vibration of the elements and
forces composing the human entity on the physical, mental, moral and
spiritual planes of being, in conformity with the constructive
principle of Nature applied to individual life."
"Disease is abnormal or inharmonious vibration of the elements and
forces composing the human entity on one or more planes of being, in
conformity with the destructive principle of Nature applied to
individual life."
The question naturally arising here is, "Normal or abnormal
vibration with what?" The answer is that the vibratory conditions of
the organism must be in harmony with Nature's established harmonic
relations in the physical, mental, moral, spiritual and psychical
realms of human life and action.
What Is an Established Harmonic Relation?
Let us see whether we cannot make this clear by a simile. If a watch
is in good condition, in harmonious vibration, its movement is so
adjusted that it coincides exactly, in point of time, with the
rotations of our earth around its axis. The established, regular
movement of the earth forms the basis of the established harmonic
relationship between the vibrations of a normal, healthy timepiece
and the revolutions of our planet. The watch has to vibrate in
unison with the harmonics of the planetary universe in order to be
normal, or in harmony.
In like manner, everything that is normal, natural, healthy, good,
beautiful must vibrate in unison with its correlated harmonics in
Nature.
Obedience the Only Salvation
Orthodox medical science attributes disease largely to accidental
causes: to chance infection by disease taints, germs or parasites;
to drafts, chills, wet feet, etc.
The religiously inclined frequently attribute disease and other
tribulations to the arbitrary rulings of an inscrutable Providence.
Christian Scientists tell us that sin, suffering, disease and all
other kinds of evil are only errors of mortal mind, or the products
of diseased imagination (though this in itself admits the existence
of something abnormal or diseased).
Nature Cure philosophy presents a rational concept of evil, its
cause and purpose, namely: that it is brought on by violation of
Nature's Laws; that it is corrective in its purpose; that it can be
overcome only by compliance with the law. There is no suffering,
disease or evil of any kind anywhere unless the law has been
transgressed somewhere by someone.
These transgressions of the law may be due to ignorance, to
indifference or to wilfulness and viciousness. The effects will
always be commensurate with the causes.
The science of natural living and healing shows clearly that what we
call disease is primarily Nature's effort to eliminate morbid matter
and to restore the normal functions of the body; that the processes
of disease are just as orderly in their way as everything else in
Nature; that we must not check or suppress them, but cooperate with
them. Thus we learn, slowly and laboriously, the all-important
lesson that "obedience to the law" is the only means of prevention
of disease, and the only cure.
The Fundamental Law of Cure, the Law of Action and Reaction, and the
Law of Crises, as revealed by the Nature Cure philosophy, impress
upon us the truth that there is nothing accidental or arbitrary in
the processes of health, disease and cure; that every changing
condition is either in harmony or in discord with the laws of our
being; that only by complete surrender and obedience to the law can
we attain and maintain perfect physical health.
Self-Control, the Master's Key
Thus Nature Cure brings home to us constantly and forcibly the
inexorable facts of natural law and the necessity of compliance with
the law. Herein lies its great educational value to the individual
and to the race. The man who has learned to master his habits and
his appetites so as to conform to Nature's Laws on the physical
plane, and who has thereby regained his bodily health, realizes that
personal effort and self-control are the Master's Key to all further
development on the mental and spiritual planes of being as well;
that self-mastery and unremitting and unselfish personal effort are
the only means of self-completion, of individual and social
salvation.
The naturist who has regained health and strength through obedience
to the laws of his being, enjoys a measure of self-content, gladness
of soul and enthusiasm which cannot be explained by the mere
possession of physical health. These highest and purest attainments
of the human soul are not the results of mere physical well-being,
but of the peace and harmony which come only from obedience to the
law. Such is the peace which passeth understanding.
Chapter IV
The Unity of Disease and Treatment
There exists a close resemblance between the mechanism and the
functions of a watch and of the human body. Their well-being is
subject to similar underlying laws and principles. Both a watch and
a human body may function abnormally as a result of accidental
injury or unfavorable external conditions, such as extreme heat or
cold, etc. However, in our present study of the causes of disease we
shall not consider accidental injury and hostile environment, but
confine ourselves to causes arising within the organism itself.
The watch may cease to vibrate in accord with the harmonics of our
planetary universe for several reasons. It may lose time or stand
still because (1) the wound spring has spent its force, or (2) its
parts are not made up of the right constituents, or (3) foreign
matter clogs or corrodes its mechanism.
Similarly, there exist three primary causes of disease and of
premature death of the physical body. These are:
Lowered vitality. Abnormal composition of blood and lymph.
Accumulation of morbid matter and poisons.
In the ultimate, disease and everything else that we designate as
evil are the result of transgressions of natural laws in thinking,
breathing, eating, dressing, working, resting, as well as in moral,
sexual and social conduct.
In Tables I and II, I have endeavored to present in concise and
comprehensive form the primary and the secondary causes or
manifestations of disease and the corresponding natural methods of
treatment.
TABLE I
~THE UNITY OF DISEASE AND TREATMENT~
Barring trauma (injury), advancing age and surroundings uncongenial
to human life, all causes of disease may be classified as given
below.
Violations of Nature's Laws in thinking, breathing, eating,
drinking, dressing, working, resting and in moral, sexual and social
conduct result in the following:
Primary and Secondary Causes of Disease
Primary Causes
Lowered vitality due to overwork, nightwork, excesses,
overstimulation, poisonous drugs and ill-advised surgical
operations. Abnormal composition of blood and lymph due to the
improper selection and combination of food, and especially the lack
of organic mineral salts and other essential nutritional elements.
Accumulation of waste matter, morbid matter and poisons due to the
first two causes, as well as to faulty diet, overeating, the use of
alcoholic and narcotic stimulants, drugs [both street and
prescription], vaccines, accidental poisoning and, last but not
least, to the suppression of acute diseases (Nature's cleansing and
healing efforts) by poisonous drugs and surgical operations.
Secondary Causes
Hereditary and constitutional taints of sycosis, scrofula, psora,
syphilis; mercurianism, cinchonism, iodism and many other forms of
chronic poisoning. Fevers, inflammations, skin eruptions, chronic
sinus discharges, ulcers, abscesses, germs, bacteria, parasites,
etc. Mechanical subluxations, distortions and displacements of bony
structures, muscles and ligaments; weakening and loss of reason,
will, and self-control resulting in negative, sensitive and
subjective conditions which open the way to nervous prostration,
control by other personalities (hypnotic influence, obsession,
possession); the different forms of insanity, epilepsy, petit mal,
etc.
Table II
~THE UNITY OF DISEASE AND TREATMENT~
In correspondence with the three primary causes of disease, Nature
Cure recognizes the following:
Natural Methods of Treatment
1. Return to Nature, or the establishment of normal habits and
surroundings, which necessitates:
Extension of consciousness by popular general and individual
education. The constant exercise of reason, will and self-control. A
return to natural habits of life in thinking, breathing, eating,
dressing, working, resting and in moral, sexual and social conduct.
Correction of mechanical defects and injuries by means of massage,
chiropractic or osteopathy, surgery and other mechanical methods of
treatment.
2. Economy of Vital Force, which necessitates:
Prevention of waste of vital force by the stoppage of all leaks.
Scientific relaxation, proper rest and sleep. Proper food selection,
magnetic treatment, etc. The right mental attitude.
3. Elimination, which necessitates:
Scientific selection and combination of food and drink. Judicious
fasting. Hydrotherapy (water cure). Light and air baths, friction.
Chiropratic or osteopathy, massage, and other manipulative
treatment. Correct breathing, curative gymnastics. Such medicinal
remedies as will build up the blood on a normal basis and supply the
system with the all-important mineral salts in organic form.
In the following chapters I shall endeavor to show that all the
different forms, phases and phenomena of disease arising within the
human organism, provided they are not caused by accident or external
conditions unfavorable to the existence of human life, can be
attributed to one or more of three primary causes (as outlined in
Tables I and II). When we succeed in proving that all disease
originates from a few simple causes, it will not seem so strange and
improbable that all disease can be cured by a few simple, natural
methods of living and of treatment. If Nature Cure can accomplish
this, it establishes its right to be classed with the exact
sciences.
The Three Primary Causes of Disease
We shall now consider the three primary causes of disease one by
one.
Lowered Vitality
There is a well-defined limit to the running of a watch. When the
wound spring has spent its force, the mechanism stops.
So also the living forms of vegetable, animal and human life seem to
be wound by Nature to run a certain length of time, in accordance
with the laws governing their growth and development. Even the
healthiest of animals living in the most congenial surroundings in
the freedom of Nature do not much exceed their allotted span of
life, nor do they fall much below it. As a rule, the longer the
period between birth and maturity, the longer the life of the
animal.
All the different families of mammalia, when living in freedom, live
closely up to the life period allotted to them by Nature. Man is the
only exception. It is claimed that according to the laws of
longevity his average length of life should be considerably over one
hundred years, while according to life insurance statistics, the
average is at present [1913] thirty-seven years. This shows an
immense discrepancy between the possible and the actual longevity of
man.
Even this brief span of life means little else than weakness,
physical and mental suffering and degeneracy for the majority of
mankind. Visiting physicians of the public schools in our large
cities report that seventy-five percent of all school children show
defective health in some way. Diagnosis from the Eye proves that the
remaining twenty-five percent are also more or less affected by
hereditary and acquired disease conditions. Christian Science says,
"There is no disease." Nature's records in the iris of the eye say
there is no perfect health.
These established facts of greatly impaired longevity and universal
abnormality of the human race would of themselves indicate that
there is something radically wrong somewhere in the life habits of
man, and that there is ample reason for the great health-reform
movement which was started about the middle of the last century by
the pioneers of Nature Cure in Germany, and which has since swept,
under many different forms and guises, all portions of the civilized
world.
When people in general grow better acquainted with the laws
underlying prenatal and postnatal child culture, natural living and
the natural treatment of diseases, human beings will approach much
more closely the normal in health, strength, beauty and longevity.
Then will arise a true aristocracy, not of morbid, venous blue
blood, but pulsating with the rich red blood of health.
However, to reach this ideal of perfect physical, mental and moral
health, succeeding generations will have to adhere to the natural
ways of living and of treating their ailments. It cannot be attained
by the present generation. The enthusiasts who claim that they can,
by their particular methods, achieve perfect health and live the
full term of human life, are destined to disappointment. We are so
handicapped by the mistakes of the past that the best which most of
us adults can do is to patch up, to attain a reasonable measure of
health and to approach somewhat nearer Nature's full allotment of
life.
Wild animals living in freedom retain their full vigor unimpaired
almost to the end of life. Hunters report that among the great herds
of buffalo, elk and deer, the oldest bucks are the rulers and
maintain their sovereignty over the younger males of the herd solely
by reason of their superior strength and prowess. Premature old age,
among human beings, as indicated by the early decay of physical and
mental powers, is brought on solely by their violation of Nature's
Laws in almost all the ordinary habits of life.
Health Positive--Disease Negative
The freer the inflow of life force into the organism, the greater
the vitality, the more there is of strength, of positive resisting
and recuperating power.
In the book~ Harmonics of Evolution~ we are told that at the very
foundation of the manifestation of life lies the principle of
polarity, which expresses itself in the duality and unity of
positive and negative affinity. The swaying to and fro of the
positive and the negative, the desire to balance incomplete
polarity, constitutes the very ebb and flow of life.
Disease is disturbed polarity. Exaggerated positive or negative
conditions, whether physical, mental, moral or spiritual, tend to
disease on the respective planes of being. Foods, medicines,
suggestion and all the other different methods of therapeutic
treatment exert on the individual subjected to them either a
positive or a negative influence. It is, therefore, of the greatest
importance that the physician and every one who wishes to live and
work in harmony with Nature's Laws should understand this
all-important question of magnetic polarity.
Lowered vitality means lowered, slower and coarser vibration, and
this results in lowered resistance to the accumulation of morbid
matter, poisons, disease taints, germs and parasites. This is what
we designate ordinarily as the negative condition.
Let us see whether we can explain this more fully by a homely but
practical illustration: A great many of my readers have probably
seen in operation in the summer amusement parks the "human
roulette." This contrivance consists of a large wheel,
board-covered, somewhat raised in the center, and sloping towards
the circumference. The wheel rotates horizontally, evenly with the
floor or ground. The merrymakers pay their nickels for the privilege
of throwing themselves flat down on the wheel and attempting to
cling to it while it rotates with increasing swiftness. While the
wheel moves slowly, it is easy enough to cling to it; but the faster
it revolves, the more strongly the centrifugal force tends to throw
off the human flies who try to stick to it.
The increasing repelling power of the accelerated motion of the
wheel may serve as an illustration of that which we call vigorous
vibration, good vitality, natural immunity or recuperative power.
This is the positive condition.
The more intense the action of the life force, the more rapid and
vigorous are the vibratory activities of the atoms and molecules in
the cells, and of the cells in the organs and tissues of the body.
The more rapid and vigorous this vibratory activity, the more
powerful is the repulsion and expulsion of morbid matter, poisons
and germs of disease which try to encumber or destroy the organism.
Health and Disease Resident in the Cell
We must not forget that health or disease, in the final analysis, is
resident in the cell. Though a minute, microscopic organism, the
cell is an independent living being, which is born, grows, eats,
drinks, throws off waste matter, multiplies, ages and dies, just
like man, the large cell. If the individual cell is well, man, the
complex cell, is well also, and vice versa. From this it is apparent
that in all our considerations of the processes of health, disease
and cure, we have to deal primarily with the individual cell.
The vibratory activity of the cell may be lowered through the
decline of vitality brought about in a natural way by advancing age,
or in an artificial way through wrong habits of living, wrong
thinking and feeling, overwork, unnatural stimulation and excesses
of various kinds.
On the other hand, the inflow of vital force into the cells may be
obstructed and their vibratory activity lowered by the accumulation
of waste and morbid matter in the tissues, blood vessels and nerve
channels of the body. Such clogging will interfere with the inflow
of life force and with the free and harmonious vibration of the
cells and organs of the body as surely as dust in a watch will
interfere with the normal action and vibration of its wheels and
balances.
From this it is evident that negative conditions may be brought
about not only by hyperrefinement of the physical organism, but also
by clogging it with waste and morbid matter which interfere with the
inflow and distribution of the vital force. It also becomes apparent
that in such cases the Nature Cure methods of eliminative treatment,
such as pure food diet, hydrotherapy, massage, chiropractic,
osteopathy, etc., are valuable means of removing these obstructions
and promoting the inflow and free circulation of the positive
electric and magnetic life currents
Abnormal Composition of Blood and Lymph
As one of the primary causes of disease, we cited abnormal
composition of blood and lymph. The human organism is made up of a
certain number of elements in well-defined proportions. Chem-istry
has discovered, so far, about seventeen of these elements in
appreciable quantities and has ascertained their functions in the
economy of the body. These seventeen elements must be present in the
right proportions in order to insure normal texture, structure and
functioning of the component parts and organs of the body.
The cells and organs receive their nourishment from the blood and
lymph currents. Therefore, these must contain all the elements
needed by the organism in the right proportions, and this, of
course, depends upon the character and the combination of the food
supply.
Every disease arising in the human organism from internal causes is
accompanied by a deficiency in blood and tissues of certain
important mineral elements [organic salts]. Undoubtedly, the
majority of these diseases are caused by an unbalanced diet, or by
food and drink poisoning. Wrong food combinations, on the one hand,
create an overabundance of waste and morbid matter in the system
and, on the other hand, fail to supply the positive mineral elements
or organic salts on which depends the elimination of waste and
systemic poisons from the body.
The great problem of natural dietetics and of natural medical
treatment is, therefore, how to restore and maintain the positivity
of the blood and of the organism as a whole through providing in
food, drink and medicine an abundant supply of the positive mineral
salts in organic form.
Accumulation of Morbid Matter and Poisons
This is the third of the primary causes of disease. We have learned
how lowered vitality and the abnormal composition of thevital fluids
favor the retention of systemic poisons in the body. If, in addition
to this, food and drink contain too much of the waste-producing
carbohydrates, hydrocarbons and proteins, and not enough of the
eliminating positive mineral salts then waste and morbid materials
are bound to accumulate in the system and this results in the
clogging of the tissues with acid precipitates and earthy deposits.
Such accumulation of waste and morbid matter in blood and tissues
creates the great majority of all diseases arising within the human
organism. This will be explained fully in the following chapters
which deal with the causation of acute and chronic disease.
More harmful and dangerous, and more difficult to eliminate than the
different kinds of systemic poisons, that is, those which have
originated within the body, are the drug poisons, especially when
they are administered in the inorganic mineral form. Health is
dependent upon an abundant supply of life force, upon the
unobstructed, normal circulation of the vital fluids and upon
perfect oxygenation and combustion. Anything that interferes with
these essentials causes disease; anything that promotes them
establishes health. Nothing so interferes with the inflow of the
life force, with free and normal circulation of blood and lymph and
with the oxygenation and combustion of food materials and systemic
waste as the accumulation of morbid matter and poisons in the
tissues of the body.
This I have endeavored to explain more fully in connection with
lowered vitality. Let us now see how disease and health are affected
by mental and emotional conditions.
Mental and Emotional Influences
Our mental and emotional conditions exert a most powerful influence
upon the inflow and distribution of vital force. The author of The
Great Work [~The Great Work: The Constructive Principle of Nature in
Individual Life, ~by John Emmett Richardson {1853-1935},
Indio-American Book Company, Chicago, IL. 1907.] has described most
graphically in the chapter on Self-Control how fear, worry, anxiety
and all kindred emotions create in the system conditions similar to
those of freezing; how these destructive vibrations congeal the
tissues, clog the channels of life and paralyze the vital functions.
He shows how the emotional conditions of impatience, irritability,
anger, etc., have a heating, corroding effect upon the tissues of
the body.
In like manner, all other destructive emotional vibrations ob-struct
the inflow and normal distribution of the life forces in and through
the organism, while on the other hand the constructive emotions of
faith, hope, cheerfulness, happiness and love exert a relaxing,
harmonizing influence upon the tissues, blood vessels and nerve
channels of the body, thus opening wide the floodgates of the life
forces, and raising the discords of weakness, disease and discontent
to the harmonics of buoyant health and happiness.
Let us see just how mind controls matter and how it affects the
changing conditions of the physical body. Life manifests through
vibration. It acts on the mass by acting through its minutest
par-ticles. Changes in the physical body are wrought by vibratory
changes in atoms, molecules and cells. Health is satisfied polarity,
that is, the balancing of the positive and negative elements in
harmonious vibration. Anything that interferes with the free,
vigor-ous and harmonious vibration of the minute parts and particles
composing the human organism tends to disturb polarity and natural
affinity, thus causing discord or disease.
When we fully realize these facts we shall not stand so much in awe
of our physical bodies. In the past we have been thinking of the
body as a solid and imponderable mass difficult to control and to
change. This conception left us in a condition of utter helplessness
and hopelessness in the presence of weakness and disease.
We now think of the body as composed of minute corpuscles rotating
around one another within the atom at relatively immense distances.
We know that in similar manner the atoms vibrate in the molecule,
the molecules in the cell, the cells in the organ and the organs in
the body; the whole capable of being changed by a change in the
vibrations of its particles.
Thus the erstwhile solid physical mass appears plastic and fluidic,
readily swayed and changed by the vibratory harmonies or discords of
thoughts and emotions as well as by foods, medicines and therapeutic
treatment.
Under the old conception the mind fell readily under the control of
the body and became the abject slave of its physical conditions,
swayed by fear and apprehension under every sensation of physical
weakness, discomfort or pain. The servants lorded it with a high
hand over the master of the house, and the result was chaos. Under
the new conception, control is placed where it belongs. It is
assumed by the real master of the house, the Soul-Man, and the
servants, the physical members of the body, remain obedient to his
bidding.
This is the new man, the ideal progeny of a new and higher
philosophy. Understanding the structure of the body, the laws of its
being and the operation of the life elements within it, the superman
retains perfect poise and confidence under the most trying
circumstances. Animated by an abounding faith in the supremacy of
the healing forces within him and sustained by the power of his
sovereign will, he governs his body as perfectly as the artist
controls his violin and attunes its vibrations to Nature's harmonies
of health and happiness.
Chapter V
The Unity of Acute Diseases
In the last chapter I endeavored to explain the three primary causes
of disease, namely: (1) Lowered Vitality, (2) Abnormal Composition
of Blood and Lymph, (3) Accumulation of Waste, Morbid Matter, and
Poisons in the System.
We shall now consider some of the secondary manifestations resulting
from these primary causes. Consulting the table on page 18 (Chapter
2, internet version), we find mentioned as the first one of the
secondary causes or manifestations of disease, "Hereditary and
Constitutional Taints."
On first impression, it might be thought that heredity is a primary
cause of disease; but on further consideration it becomes apparent
that it is an effect and not a primary cause. If the parents possess
good vitality and pure, normal blood and tissues, and if they apply
in the prenatal and postnatal treatment of the child the necessary
insight and foresight, there cannot be disease heredity. In order to
create abnormal hereditary tendencies, the parents, or earlier
ancestors, must have ignorantly or wantonly violated Nature's Laws,
such violation resulting in lowered vitality and in deterioration of
blood and tissues.
The female and male germinal cells unite and form the primitive
reproductive cell--the prototype of marriage. The human body with
its millions of cells and cell colonies is developed by the
multiplication, with gradual differentiation, of the reproductive
cell. Its abnormalities of structure, of cell materials and of
functional tendencies are reproduced just as surely as its normal
constituents. Herein lies the simple explanation of heredity which
is proved to be an actual fact, not only by common experience and
scientific observation but also in a more definite way by Nature's
records in the iris of the eye.
The iris of the newborn child reveals in its diagnostic details not
only, in a general way, hereditary taints, lowered resistance, and
deterioration of vital fluids, but frequently special weakness and
deterioration in those organs which were weak or diseased in the
parents. Under the conventional (unnatural) management of the
infant, these hereditary tendencies to weakness and disease and
their corresponding signs in the iris become more and more
pronounced, proceeding through the various stages of incumbrance
from acute, infantile diseases through chronic catarrhal conditions
to the final destructive stages.
In the face of the well-established facts of disease heredity we
have, however, this consolation: If the child be treated in
accordance with the teachings of Nature Cure philosophy, the
abnormal hereditary encumbrances and tendencies can be overcome and
eliminated within a few years. If we place the infant organism under
the right conditions of living and of treatment, in harmony with the
laws of its being, the Life Principle within will approach ever
nearer to the establishment of the perfect type. Hundreds of "Nature
Cure" babies all over this country are living proofs of this
gladsome message to all those who have assumed or intend to assume
the responsibilities of parenthood.
Natural Immunity
Under Division II of "Secondary Causes or Manifestations of Disease"
we find mentioned germs, bacteria, parasites, inflammations, fevers,
skin eruptions, chronic sinus discharges, ulcers, etc.
Modern medical science is built up upon the germ theory of disease
and treatment. Since the microscope has revealed the presence and
seemingly entirely pernicious activity of certain microorganisms in
connection with certain diseases, it has been assumed that bacteria
are the direct, primary causes of most diseases. Therefore, the
slogan now is: "Kill the bacteria (by poisonous antiseptics, serums
and antitoxins) and you will cure the disease."
The Nature Cure philosophy takes a different view of the problem.
Germs cannot be the cause of disease, because disease germs are also
found in healthy bodies. The real cause must be something else. We
claim that it is the waste and morbid matter in the system which
afford the microorganisms of disease the opportunity to breed and
multiply.
We regard microorganisms as secondary manifestations of disease, and
maintain that bacteria and parasites live, thrive and multiply to
the danger point in a weakened and diseased organism only. If it
were not so, the human family would be extinct within a few months'
time.
The fear instilled by the bacterial theory of disease is frequently
more destructive than the microorganisms themselves. We have had
under observation and treatment a number of insane patients whose
peculiar delusion or monomania was an exaggerated fear of germs, a
genuine bacteriophobia.
Keep yourself clean and vigorous from within, and you cannot be
affected by disease taints and germs from without.
Bacteria are practically omnipresent. We absorb them in food and
drink, we inhale them in the air we breathe. Our bodies are
literally alive with them. The last stages of the digestive
processes depend upon the activity of millions of bacteria in the
intestinal tract.
The proper thing to do, therefore, is not to try and kill the germs,
but to remove the morbid matter and disease taints in which they
live.
Instead of concentrating its energies upon killing the germs, whose
presence we cannot escape, Nature Cure endeavors to in-vigorate the
system, to build up blood and lymph on a normal basis and to purify
the tissues of their morbid encumbrances in such a way as to
establish natural immunity to destructive germ activity. Everything
that tends to accomplish this without injuring the system by
poisonous drugs or surgical operations is good Nature Cure
treatment.
To adopt the germ-killing process without purifying and invigorating
the organism would be like trying to keep a house free from fungi
and vermin by sprinkling it daily with carbolic acid and other germ
killers, instead of keeping it pure and sweet by flooding it with
fresh air and sunshine and applying freely and vigorously broom,
brush and plenty of soap and water. Instead of purifying it, the
antiseptics and germ killers would only add to the filth in the
house.
All bacteriologists are unanimous in declaring that the various
disease germs are found not only in the bodies of the sick, but also
in seemingly healthy persons.
A celebrated French bacteriologist reports that in the mouth of a
healthy infant, two months old, he found almost all the disease
germs known to medical science. Only lately, a celebrated physician,
appointed by the French government to investigate the causes of
tuberculosis, declared before a meeting of the International
Tuberculosis Congress in Rome that he found the bacilli of
tuberculosis in ninety-five percent of all the school children he
had examined.
Dr. Osler, one of the greatest living medical authorities, mentions
repeatedly in his works that the bacilli of diphtheria, pneumonia
and of many other virulent diseases are found in the bodies of
healthy persons.
The inability of bacteria, by themselves, to create diseases is
further confirmed by the well-known facts of natural immunity to
specific infection or contagion. All mankind is more or less
affected by hereditary and acquired disease taints, morbid
encumbrances and drug poisoning, resulting from age-long violation
of Nature's Laws and from the suppression of acute diseases; but
even under the almost universal present conditions of lowered
vitality, morbid heredity and physical and mental degeneration it is
found that under identical conditions of exposure to drafts or
infection, a certain percentage of individuals only will take the
cold or catch the disease. The fact of natural immunity is
constantly confirmed by common experience as well as in the clinics
and laboratories of our medical schools and research institutes. Of
a specific number of mice or rabbits inoculated with particles of
cancer, only a small percentage develops the malignant growth and
succumbs to its ravages.
The development of infectious and contagious diseases necessitates a
certain predisposition, or, as medical science calls it, "disease
diathesis." This predisposition to infection and contagion consists
in the primary causes of disease, which we have designated as
lowered vitality, abnormal composition of blood and lymph, and the
accumulation of waste, morbid matter and poisons in the system.
Bacteria: Secondary, Not Primary,
Manifestations of Disease
In a previous chapter we learned how lowered vitality weakens the
resistance of the system to the attacks and inroads of disease germs
and poisons. The growth and multiplication of microorganisms depend
furthermore upon a congenial, morbid soil. Just as the ordinary
yeast germ multiplies in a sugar solution only, so the various
microorganisms of disease thrive and multiply to the danger point
only in their own peculiar and congenial kind of morbid matter.
Thus, the typhoid fever bacillus thrives in a certain kind of effete
matter which accumulates in the intestines; the pneumonia bacilli
flourish best in the catarrhal secretions of the lungs, and
meningitis bacilli in the diseased meninges of the brain and spinal
cord.
Dr. Pettenkofer, a celebrated physician and professor of the
University of Vienna, also arrived at the conclusion that bacteria,
by themselves, cannot create disease, and for years he defended his
opinion from the lecture platform and in his writings against the
practically solid phalanx of the medical profession. One day he
backed his theory by a practical test. While instructing his class
in the bacteriological laboratory of the university, he picked up a
glass which contained millions of live cholera germs and swallowed
its contents before the eyes of the students. The seemingly
dangerous experiment was followed only by a slight nausea. Lately I
have heard repeatedly of persons in this country who subjected
themselves in similar manner to infection, inoculation and contagion
with the most virulent kinds of bacteria and disease taints without
developing the corresponding diseases.
A few years ago Dr. Rodermund, a physician in the State of
Wisconsin, created a sensation all over this country when he smeared
his body with the exudate of smallpox sores in order to demonstrate
to his medical colleagues that a healthy body could not be infected
with the disease. He was arrested and quarantined in jail, but not
before he had come in contact with many people. Neither he nor
anyone else exposed by him developed smallpox.
During the ten years that I have been connected with sanitarium
work, my workers and myself, in giving the various forms of
manipulative treatment, have handled intimately thousands of cases
of infectious and contagious diseases, and I do not remember a
single instance where any one of us was in the least affected by
such contact. Ordinary cleanliness, good vitality, clean blood and
tissues, the organs of elimination in good, active condition and,
last but not least, a positive, fearless attitude of mind will
practically establish natural immunity to the inroads and ravages of
bacteria and disease taints. If infection takes place, the organism
reacts to it through inflammatory processes, and by means of these
endeavors to overcome and eliminate microorganisms and poisons from
the system.
In this connection it is of interest to learn that the danger to
life from bites and stings of poisonous reptiles and insects has
been greatly exaggerated. According to popular opinion, anyone
bitten by a rattlesnake, gila monster or tarantula is doomed to die,
while as a matter of fact the statistics show that only from two to
seven per-cent succumb to the effects of the wounds inflicted by the
bites of poisonous reptiles.
In this, as in many other instances, popular opinion should rather
be called "popular superstition."
In the open discussions following my public lectures, I am often
asked: "What is the right thing to do in case of snakebite? Would
you not give plenty of whiskey to save the victim's life?"
It is my belief that of the seven percent who die after being bitten
by rattlesnakes or other poisonous snakes, a goodly proportion give
up the ghost because of the effects of the enormous doses of strong
whiskey that are poured into them under the mistaken idea that the
whiskey is an efficient antidote to the snake poison.
People do not know that the death rate from snakebite is so very
low, and therefore they attribute the recoveries to the whiskey,
just as recoveries from other diseases under medical or metaphysical
treatment are attributed to the virtues of the particular medicine
or method of treatment instead of to the real healer, the~ vis
medicatrix nature,~ the healing power of Nature, which in
ninety-three cases in a hundred eliminates the rattlesnake venom
without injury to the organism.
To recapitulate: Just as yeast cells are not only the cause but also
the product of sugar fermentation, so disease germs are not only a
cause (secondary) but also a product of morbid fermentation in the
system. Furthermore, just as yeast germs live on and decompose
sugar, so disease germs live on and decompose morbid matter and
systemic poisons.
In a way, therefore, microorganisms are just as much the product as
the cause of disease and act as scavengers or eliminators of morbid
matter. In order to hold in check the destructive activity of
bacteria and to prevent their multiplication beyond the danger
point, Nature resorts to inflammation and manufactures her own
antitoxins.
On the other hand, whatever tends to build up the blood on a natural
basis, to promote elimination of morbid matter and thereby to limit
the activity of destructive microorganisms without injuring the body
or depressing its vital functions, is good Nature Cure practice. The
first consideration, therefore, in the treatment of inflammation
must be to not interfere with its natural course.
By the various statements and claims made in this chapter, I do not
wish to convey the idea that I am opposed to scrupulous cleanliness
or surgical asepsis. Far from it! These are dictates of common
sense. But I do affirm that the danger from germ and other
infectious diseases lies just as much or more so in internal filth
as in external uncleanliness. Cleanliness and asepsis must go hand
in hand with the purification of the inner man in order to insure
natural immunity.
Chapter VI
The Laws of Cure
This brings us to the consideration of acute inflammatory and
feverish diseases. From what has been said, it follows that
inflammation and fever are not primary, but secondary,
manifestations of disease. There cannot arise any form of
inflammatory disease in the system unless there is present some
enemy to health which Nature is endeavoring to overcome and get rid
of. On this fact in Nature is based what I claim to be the
fundamental Law of Cure.
"Give me fever and I can cure every disease." Thus Hippocrates the
Father of Medicine, expressed the fundamental Law of Cure over two
thousand years ago. I have expressed this law in the following
sentence: "Every acute disease is the result of a cleansing and
healing effort of Nature."
This law, when thoroughly understood and applied to the treatment of
diseases, will in time do for medical science what the discovery of
other natural laws has done for physics, astronomy, chemistry and
other exact sciences. It will transform the medical empiricism and
confusion of the past and present into an exact science by
demonstrating the unity of disease and treatment.
Applying the law in a general way, it means that all acute diseases,
from a simple cold to measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, smallpox,
pneumonia, etc., represent Nature's efforts to repair injury or to
remove from the system some kind of morbid matter, virus, poison or
microorganism dangerous to health and life. In other words, acute
diseases cannot develop in a perfectly normal, healthy body living
under conditions favorable to human life. The question may be asked:
"If acute diseases represent Nature's healing efforts, why is it
that people die from them?" The answer to this is: the vitality may
be too low, the injury or morbid encumbrance too great or the
treatment may be inadequate or harmful, so that Nature loses the
fight; still, the acute disease represents an effort of Nature to
overcome the enemies to health and life and to reestablish normal,
healthy conditions.
It is a curious fact that this fundamental principle of Nature Cure
and Law of Nature has been acknowledged and verified by medical
science. The most advanced works on pathology admit the constructive
and beneficial character of inflammation. However, when it comes to
the treatment of acute diseases, physicians seem to forget entirely
this basic principle of pathology, and treat inflammation and fever
as though they were, in themselves, inimical and destructive to
health and life.
From this inconsistency in theory and practice arise all the errors
of allopathic medical treatment. Failure to understand this
fundamental Law of Cure accounts for all the confusion on the part
of the exponents of the different schools of healing sciences, and
for the greater part of human suffering.
The Nature Cure philosophy never loses sight of the fundamental Law
of Cure. While allopathy regards acute disease conditions as in
themselves harmful and hostile to health and life, as something to
be cured (we should say suppressed) by drug or knife, the Nature
Cure school regards these forcible housecleanings as beneficial and
necessary, so long, at least, as people will continue to disregard
Nature's Laws. While, through its simple, natural methods of
treatment, Nature Cure easily modifies the course of inflammatory
and feverish processes and keeps them within safe limits, it never
checks or suppresses these acute reactions by poisonous drugs,
serums, antiseptics, surgical operations, suggestion or any other
suppressive treatment.
Skin eruptions, boils, ulcers, catarrhs, diarrheas, and all other
forms of inflammatory febrile disease conditions are indications
that there is something hostile to life and health in the organism
which Nature is trying to remove or overcome by these so-called
"acute" diseases. What, then, can be gained by suppressing them with
poisonous drugs and surgical operations? Such practice does not
allow Nature to carry on her work of cleansing and repair and to
attain her ends. The morbid matter which she endeavored to eliminate
by acute reactions is thrown back into the system. Worse than that,
drug poisons are added to disease poisons. Is it any wonder that
fatal complications arise, or that the acute condition is changed to
chronic disease?
Why Does the Greater Part of Allopathic Materia
Medica Consist of Virulent Poisons?
The statements made in the preceding pages are a severe indictment
of regular medical science, but they point out the difference in the
basic principles of the "Old School" of healing and those of the
Nature Cure philosophy.
The fundamental Law of Cure quoted in this chapter explains why
allopathic medical science is in error, not in a few things only,
but in most things. The foundation, the orthodox conception of
disease being wrong, it follows that everything which is built
thereon must be wrong also.
No matter how learned a man may be, if he begins a problem in
arithmetic with the proposition 2x2=5, he never will arrive at a
correct solution if he continue to figure into all eternity. Neither
can allopathy solve the problem of disease and cure as long as its
fundamental conception of disease is based on error.
The fundamental law of cure explains also why the great majority of
allopathic prescriptions contain virulent poisons in some form or
another and why surgical operations are in high favor with the
disciples of the regular school.
The answer of allopathy to the question, "Why do you give poisons?"
usually is, "Our materia medica contains poisons because drug poison
kills and eliminates disease poison." We, however, claim that drug
poisons merely serve to paralyze vital force, whereby the deceptive
results of allopathic treatment are obtained.
The following will explain this more fully. We have learned that
so-called acute diseases are Nature's cleansing and healing efforts.
All acute reactions represent increased activity of vital force,
resulting in feverish and inflammatory conditions, accompanied by
pain, redness, swelling, high temperature, rapid pulse, catarrhal
discharges, skin eruptions, boils, ulcers, etc.
Allopathy regards these violent activities of vital force as
detrimental and harmful in themselves. Anything which will inhibit
the action of vital force will, in allopathic parlance, cure (?)
acute diseases. As a matter of fact, nothing more effectively
paralyzes vital force and impairs the vital organs than poisonous
drugs and the surgeon's knife. These, therefore, must necessarily
constitute the favorite means of cure (?) of the regular school of
medicine.
This school mistakes effect for cause. It fails to see that the
local inflammation arising within the organism is not the disease,
but merely marks the locality and the method through which Nature is
trying her best to discharge the morbid encumbrances; that the acute
reaction is local, but that its causes or feeders are always
constitutional and must be treated constitutionally. When, under the
influence of rational, natural treatment, the poisonous irritants
are eliminated from blood and tissues, the local symptoms take care
of themselves; it does not matter whether they manifest as pimple or
cancer, as a simple cold or as consumption.
The Law of Dual Effect
Everywhere in Nature rules the great Law of Action and Reaction. All
life sways back and forth between giving and receiving, between
action and reaction. The very breath of life mysteriously comes and
goes in rhythmical flow. So also heaves and falls in ebb and tide
the bosom of Mother Earth.
In some of its aspects, this law is called the Law of Compensation,
or the Law of Dual Effect. On its action depends the preservation of
energy.
The Great Master expressed the ethical application of this law when
he said:
"Give, and it shall be given unto you. . . . For with the same
measure that ye mete it shall be measured to you again."--Luke 6:38.
In the realms of physical nature, giving and receiving, action and
reaction balance each other mechanically and automatically. What we
gain in power we lose in speed or volume, and vice versa. This makes
it possible for the mechanic, the scientist and the astronomer to
predict with mathematical precision for ages in advance the results
of certain activities in Nature.
The great Law of Dual Effect forms the foundation of the healing
sciences. It is related to and governs every phenomenon of health,
disease and cure. When I formulated the fundamental Law of Cure in
the words, "Every acute disease is the result of a healing effort of
Nature," this was but another expression of the great Law of Action
and Reaction. What we commonly call crisis, acute reaction or acute
disease is in reality Nature's attempt to establish health.
Applied to the physical activity of the body, the Law of
Com-pensation may be expressed as follows: "Every agent affecting
the human organism produces two effects: a first, apparent,
temporary effect, and a second, lasting effect. The secondary,
lasting effect is always contrary to the primary, transient effect."
For instance: The first and temporary effect of cold water applied
to the skin consists in sending the blood to the interior; but in
order to compensate for the local depletion, Nature responds by
sending greater quantities of blood back to the surface, resulting
in increased warmth and better surface circulation.
The first effect of a hot bath is to draw the blood to the surface;
but the secondary effect sends the blood back to the interior,
leaving the surface bloodless and chilled.
Stimulants, as we shall see later on, produce their deceptive
effects by burning up the reserve stores of vital energy in the
organism. This is inevitably followed by weakness and exhaustion in
exact proportion to the previous excitation.
The primary effect of relaxation and sleep is weakness, numbness and
death-like stupor; the secondary effect, however, is an increase of
vitality.
The Law of Dual Effect governs all drug action. The first,
temporary, violent effect of poisonous drugs, when given in
physiological doses, is usually due to Nature's efforts to overcome
and eliminate these substances. The secondary, lasting effect is due
to the retention of the drug poisons in the system and their action
on the organism.
In theory and practice, allopathy considers the first effect only
and ignores the lasting aftereffects of drugs and surgical
operations. It administers remedies whose first effect is contrary
to the disease condition. Therefore, in accordance with the Law of
Action and Reaction, the secondary, lasting effect of such remedies
must be similar to or like the disease condition.
Common, everyday experience should teach us that this is so, for
laxatives and cathartics always tend to produce chronic
constipation.
The secondary effect of stimulants and tonics of any kind is
increased weakness, and their continued use often results in
complete exhaustion and paralysis of mental and physical powers.
Headache powders, pain killers, opiates, sedatives and hypnotics may
paralyze brain and nerves into temporary insensibility; but, if due
to constitutional causes, the pain, nervousness and insomnia will
always return with redoubled force. If taken habitually, these
agents invariably tend to create heart disease and paralysis, and
ultimately develop the patient into a dope fiend.
Cold and catarrh cures (?), such as quinine, coal-tar products,
etc., suppress Nature's efforts to eliminate waste and morbid matter
through the mucous linings of the respiratory tract, and drive the
disease matter back into the lungs, thus breeding pneumonia, chronic
catarrhs, asthma and consumption.
Mercury, iodine and all other alteratives, by suppression of
external elimination, create internal chronic diseases of the most
dreadful types, such as locomotor ataxy, paresis, etc.
So the recital might be continued all through orthodox materia
medica. Each drug breeds new disease symptoms which are in their
turn cured (?) by other poisons, until the insane asylum or merciful
death rings down the curtain on the tragedy of a ruined life.
The teaching and practice of homeopathy, as explained in Chapter
Twenty-Six, is fully in harmony with the Law of Action and Reaction.
Acting upon the basic principle of homeopathy: ~Similia similibus
curantur,~ or like cures like, it administers remedies whose first,
temporary effect is similar to the disease conditions. In accordance
with the Law of Dual Effect, then, the secondary effect of these
remedies must be contrary to the disease conditions, that is,
curative.
Chapter VII
Suppression Versus Elimination
My claim that the conventional treatment of acute diseases is
suppressive and not curative will probably be denied by my medical
colleagues. They will maintain that their methods also are
calculated to eliminate morbid matter and disease germs from the
system.
But what are the facts in actual practice? Is it not true that
preparations of mercury, lead, zinc and other powerful poisons are
constantly used to suppress skin eruptions, boils, abscesses, etc.,
instead of allowing Nature to rid the system through these skin
diseases of scrofulous, venereal and psoric taints?
Some time ago Dr. Wiley, the former Government Chemist, published
the ingredients of a number of popular remedies for colds, coughs
and catarrh. Every one of them contained some powerful opiate or
astringent. These poisonous drugs relieve the cough and the
catarrhal conditions by paralyzing the eliminative activity of the
membranous linings of the nasal passages, the bronchi and lungs, the
digestive and genitourinary organs; but in doing so, they throw back
into the system the morbid matter which Nature is trying to get rid
of, and add drug poisons to disease poisons.
Equally harmful is suppression by means of the surgeon's knife. It
may be a quicker and apparently more effective process to remove the
inflamed appendix or the diseased tonsils than to cure them by
building up the blood and inducing elimination of systemic poisons
by natural methods. But operative treatment is not eliminative. It
does not remove from the system the original cause of the
inflammation or deterioration of tissues and organs, but it does
remove the outlet which Nature had established for the escape of
morbid materials.
These morbid encumbrances, forcibly retained in the body, weaken and
destroy other parts and organs, or affect the general health of the
patient.
My own observations during nearly fifteen years of practical
experience, confirmed by many other conscientious observers among
Nature Cure practitioners as well as physicians of other schools and
of allopathy itself, prove positively that the average length of
life after a major operation, performed on important, vital parts
and organs, is less than ten years, and that after such an operation
the general health of the patient is in the great majority of cases
not as good as before.
In the following paragraphs are mentioned some very common instances
of suppression and some of their usual chronic aftereffects
(sequelae).
Diarrhea is suppressed with laudanum and other opiates, which
paralyze the peristaltic action of the bowels and, if repeated, soon
produce chronic constipation. Gonorrheal discharges and syphilitic
ulcers are checked and suppressed by local injections, cauterization
and by prescriptions containing mercury, iodine and other poisonous
alternatives which effectually prevent Nature's efforts to eliminate
the venereal poisons from the system.
Gonorrheal discharges and syphilitic ulcers are checked and
supressed by local injections, cauterizatin, and by prescriptions
containing mercury, iodine, and other poisonous alternatives which
effectually prevent Nature's efforts to elminate the venereal
poisons from the system.
All feverish diseases are more or less interfered with or suppressed
by antiseptics, antipyretics, serums and antitoxins. The best books
on ~Materia Medica~ and the professors in the colleges teach that
these remedies lower the fever because they are "protoplasmic
poisons"; because they paralyze the red and white blood corpuscles,
benumb heart action and respiration, and depress all vital
functions.
Nervousness, sleeplessness and pain are suppressed by sedatives,
opiates and hypnotics. Every one of the drugs used for such purposes
is a powerful poison which paralyzes brain and nerve action, in that
way interfering with Nature's healing efforts and frequently
preventing the consummation of beneficial healing crises.
Epileptic attacks and other forms of convulsions are suppressed, but
never cured, by bromides which benumb and paralyze the brain and
nerve centers. All that these sedatives accomplish is to produce in
the course of time idiocy and the different forms of paralysis and
premature senility.
However, is he not considered the best doctor who can most promptly
produce these and many similar deceptive results through artificial
inhibition or stimulation by means of the most virulent poisons
found on earth?
Dandruff and falling hair are caused by the elimination of systemic
poisons through the scalp. The thing to do, therefore, is not to
suppress this elimination and thereby cause the accumulation of
poisons in the brain, but to stop the manufacture of poison in the
body and to promote its removal through the natural channels.
Dandruff cures and hair tonics contain glycerine, poisonous
antiseptics and stimulants which are absorbed by scalp and brain,
causing dizziness, headaches, loss of memory, neurasthenia,
deaf-ness, weakness of sight, etc.
Head lice and similar parasites peculiar to other parts of the body
live on scrofulous and psoriotic taints. When these are consumed,
the lice depart as they came, no one knows whence or whither.
This is confirmed by the fact that these noxious pests do not remain
with all people who have been exposed to them, but only with those
whose internal or external filth conditions furnish the parasites
with the means of subsistence.
In a number of instances we have seen "healing crises" take the form
of lice. At that time the patients were living in the most clean
surroundings, taking different forms of water treatment every day
and infection was practically impossible.
These people invariably recalled that they had been infested with
parasites at some previous time, and that strong antiseptics,
mercurial salves, or other means of suppression had been applied.
We prescribe for the removal of lice only cold water and the comb.
Even antiseptic soaps should be avoided.
The Results of Suppression of Children's Diseases
Sycotic eruptions on the heads and bodies of infants, also called
milk scurf, if suppressed by salves, cream, unsalted butter or
merely by warm bathing, are often followed by chorea (St. Vitus'
dance), epilepsy, a scrofulous constitution and in later life by
tuberculosis.
Measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, spinal meningitis and other
febrile diseases of childhood, if properly treated by natural
methods, are curative or at least corrective in their effects on the
system, and represent well-defined, orderly natural processes for
the elimination of inherited or acquired disease taints, drug
poisons, etc. But if arrested or suppressed before they have run
their natural course, before Nature has had time to reestablish
normal conditions, then the abnormal condition becomes fixed and
permanent (chronic).
In addition to this, the poisons and serums employed to arrest the
disease process very often affect vital parts and organs
permanently, causing the gradual deterioration of cells and tissues,
and paving the way for tuberculosis, chronic affection of the
kidneys, cancer, etc., in later years.
These self-evident facts, which can be verified by any unprejudiced
observer, account for the "mysterious sequelae" of drug-and
serum-treated acute diseases, which never occur where natural
methods of healing have been correctly employed. Some of these
chronic aftereffects are deafness, blindness, heart and kidney
diseases, nervous affections, idiocy, infantile paralysis, etc.
These are merely a few ordinary examples of the results of
suppression. They could be multiplied a hundred fold, yet medical
science assures us that the causes of cancer and other malignant
diseases are unknown.
Good Nature Cure Doctrine from an Allopathic Authority
The following utterances of the late Dr. Nicholas Senin strongly
confirm our claims as to the nature and cure of disease. Coming from
the lips of a celebrated surgeon and physician, these statements
should carry some weight with those who, being unable to reason for
themselves, worship at the feet of "authority." The quotations
referred to are taken from the report of an interview granted by the
doctor to Chicago newspaper representatives on his return from his
trip around the world.
[Chicago American, August 5th, 1906.]
GERMS PLANTED BY TIGHT LACING
Over-Feeding and Over-Dressing Given as Causes of Cancer
"Dr. Nicholas Senn brought back from Africa, from whence he returned
to Chicago yesterday, confirmations of his belief that cancer is a
'civilized' disease.
"Dr. Senn spent from $2,000 to $3,000 worth of time--at the cash
value per hour of his time on his first day at home for four months,
telling a half dozen newspaper men more than all the world, except
himself and a score of specialists like him, know about the fearful
disease. He summed up his own learning in the statement that the
disease is still incurable except by the knife in its incipient
stages and that the best preventive is clean, plain living.
"His investigations of the natives of Africa served to strengthen
his conviction that cancer is a product of civilization, 'like
apoplexy and scores of other exotic ailments,' Dr. Senn said. He
could not find or hear of a case of cancer among the 'Hamites,' as
he termed them. And from the fact that he found the disease, to be
an unknown one to the Esquimaux of Greenland, he is assured that
climate has nothing whatever to do with it. Climate did not cause
it, and climate will not cure it."
Cancer Caused by Over-Living
"'The nearer the human race approaches the animals in habits and
particularly in the matter of diet and dress, the freer it is from
cancer,' he said. 'Cancer comes from over-feeding and over-living.
"'Drinking, gourmandizing, unnatural habits of women, like lacing,
all those things help to plant the seeds of cancer in the child.
"'And as we have not learned to cure it the best thing to do is to
prevent it when we can. If children were brought up in simplicity by
natural mothers; then, if care should be taken to prevent
hypernutrition, there would be much less danger from cancer. Cancer
itself is an over-fed thing--tissue that never matures, for if I
could mature the cells I could cure the disease. The thing for
people to do who fear they may have inherited it, is to live
simply--there are many cases among people with a tendency to obesity
to one among those of a scanty habit of living--and particularly to
remove all sources of irritation, like bad teeth, tobacco, and
clothes that chafe.'"
Studies African Race
"Besides his hobby, as he calls it, Dr. Senn studied the African
generally in his voyage along the East Coast of that continent.
"'It was a fine trip,' he said, 'with so many things to learn.
Ethnologically I am certain Africans are of common stock. The negro
is a negro wherever you find him. From Kaffir to Bushman and pygmy
they are all Hamites.
"'They are mostly a fine people physically, lean and tall, except
the dwarfs. There is little tendency toward obesity; they have no
apoplexy, no distended veins as we have in civilization. Hence their
freedom from cancer. They live naturally, and are vegetarians
mostly, while the Northern Esquimaux are meat-eaters, but both races
eat naturally to sustain life, hence their immunity from that
disease. It is where eating is made an art that cancer is most
prevalent.
"'They are free from many other diseases that pester us also.
Tuberculosis is hardly known, and only along the coast, where it has
been taken by the whites. The real curse of the coast country is
malaria. It is bad all up and down the East shore. I kept away from
it myself by taking five grains of quinine and the juice of a lemon
once a day on an empty stomach. That is a good remedy for malaria,
for in all my running around I have never had it."
(Editor's Note.--Dr. Senn died January 2, 1908. The papers stated
after his death, that the doctor had never been well since the
return from his long voyage, that his heart and nervous system had
been seriously affected by the altitudes of the Andes and of other
mountains. We wonder whether the "high altitudes" or the "five
grains of quinine daily" were to blame for the celebrated
physician's heart disease and death.)
Suppression, the Cause of Chronic Diseases
Dr. Senn was right. If men and women lived more naturally, the
majority of diseases would disappear.
The primary cause of disease is violation of Nature's Laws.
"Civilization" has largely stood for artificiality of life and for
unnatural habits. A higher civilization, yet to come, will combine
the most exquisite culture of heart and mind with true simplicity
and naturalness of living. Excessive meat eating, strong spices and
condiments, alcohol, coffee, tea, overwork, night work, fear, worry,
sensuality, corsets, high heels, foul air, improper breathing, lack
of exercise, loveless marriages, race suicide, all of these and many
other evils of hypercivlization have contributed their share in
creating the universal degeneracy of civilized nations commented
upon by Dr. Senn.
When the unnatural habits of life alluded to have lowered the
vitality and favored the accumulation of waste matter and poisons to
such an extent that the sluggish bowels, kidneys, skin and the other
organs of elimination are unable to keep a clean house, Nature has
to resort to other, more radical means of purification or we should
choke in our own impurities. These forcible housecleanings of Nature
are colds, catarrh, skin eruptions, diarrheas, boils, ulcers,
abnormal perspiration, hemorrhages and many other forms of
inflammatory febrile diseases.
Sulphur and mercury may drive back the skin eruptions, antipyretics
and antiseptics may suppress fever and catarrh. The patient and the
doctor may congratulate themselves on a speedy cure; but what is the
true state of affairs? Nature has been thwarted in her work of
healing and cleansing. She had to give up the fight against disease
matter in order to combat the more potent poisons of mercury,
quinine, iodine, strychnine, etc. The disease matter is still in the
system, plus the drug poison.
Proof positive of the retention of drug poisons in the organism is
furnished by the Diagnosis from the Eye. This will be explained more
fully in another chapter.
When vitality has been sufficiently restored, Nature may make
another attempt at purification, this time, possibly, in another
direction; but again her well-meant efforts are defeated. This
process of suppression is repeated over and over again until blood
and tissues become so loaded with waste material and poisons that
the healing forces of the organism can no longer react against them
by acute diseases. Then results the chronic condition, which in the
vocabulary of the "Old School" of medicine is only another name for
incurable disease.
The more skilled the allopathic school becomes in the suppression
and prevention of acute diseases by drugs, knife, x-rays, serums,
vaccination virus, etc., the greater will be the increase of chronic
dyspepsia, nervous prostration, insanity, locomotor ataxy, paresis,
cancer, secondary and tertiary syphilis, tuberculosis and many other
so-called incurable diseases. Thus, the standard medical practice is
self-supporting; the treatment of acute conditions assuring a
lifelong supply of chronic conditions for the doctor to treat.
Suppression of acute diseases, by drugs and knife, is the
all-important factor in the creation of malignant diseases which Dr.
Senn had overlooked in his discourse on the causes of distructive
ailments. If he had steudied his experiences in foreign lands in the
light of these explanations he would have found that these scourges
of mankind exist only in those parts of earth where the drug store
flourishes.
These statements may seem exaggerated; but allow me to cite a few
typical cases of suppression and their effects upon the system from
our daily practice.
Paresis, locomotor ataxy and paralysis agitans are not, as is
usually assumed, due to secondary and tertiary syphilis, but to the
mercury administered for the cure of luetic and other diseases. In
less than six months' time we cure the so-called specific diseases
by our natural methods, provided they are not suppressed and
complicated by mercury, iodine or other poisonous drugs. We never
interfere with the original lesion, but allow Nature to discharge
the poisons through the channels established for this purpose.
Under this rational treatment, discharge and ulcer act as fontanels
to the system. Not only the specific poison, but much of hereditary
and acquired disease matter also are eliminated in the process; and
after such a cure, blood and tissues of the patient are purer than
they were before infection.
The foregoing statement has nothing to do with the moral aspects
involved in acquiring venereal diseases. In this connection we are
dealing solely with the rational or irrational treatment of the
infection after it has been contracted. We do not wish to intimate
that it is advisable to cure the body by killing the soul.
Nevertheless, we must deal with the facts in Nature as we find them.
Furthermore, a great many persons, especially women and children,
acquire these diseases innocently. Are we not justified in relieving
their minds of needless fear and in showing them the way to prevent
the dreadful sufferings of the secondary and tertiary stages brought
on by suppressive drug treatment by means of mercury, the iodides,
"606," etc.?
These poisonous drugs suppress the initial lesion and diffuse the
disease poison through the system. Nature takes up the work of
elimination by means of skin eruptions and ulcers in various parts
of the body, but these also are promptly suppressed with mercurial
ointments and other alternatives. This process of suppression is
continued for months and years, until the organism is so thoroughly
saturated with alterative poisons that vital force can no longer
react by acute reactions against the original syphilitic poisons.
This state of vital paralysis is then called a cure.
The medical professor, however, knows better. He instructs the
students from the lecture platform: "When, after two or three years
of mercurial treatment, syphilitic symptoms cease to appear, you may
permit the patient to marry--but never guarantee a cure."
Why not? Because the professor is aware that the offspring of such a
union are born with hereditary symptoms well known to every
physician, and because the patient thus cured (?) may turn up in the
doctor's office at any time thereafter with a hole in his palate,
ulcers on his body, caries of the bones or with other secondary and
tertiary symptoms.
Mercury has an especial affinity for the bony structures. It will
work its way through the vertebrae of the spine and the bones of the
skull into the nerve matter of the brain and spinal cord, causing
inflammation, excruciating headaches, nervous symptoms, girdle
pains, etc. These stages of acute inflammation are followed in a few
years by sclerosis (hardening) of nerve matter and blood vessels,
resulting in paresis, locomotor ataxy or paralysis agitans.
Neither is it necessary to contract specific diseases in order to
fall a victim to these dreadful conditions: mercury, iodine and
other destructive alternatives are given in a hundred different
forms for a multitude of other ailments.
A few years ago we had under our care a patient in the last stages
of locomotor ataxy, who for years had been suffering the tortures of
the damned. There had never been a taint of specific disease in her
system, but four different times in her life she had been salivated
by calomel (a common laxative containing mercury). This dreadful
poison was given to her in large doses for the cure of liver trouble
and constipation. She was only fourteen years old when, on account
of this, she first suffered from acute mercurial poisoning.
Another patient who, after fifteen years of slow and torturous dying
by inches, succumbed to the same disease, absorbed the mercurial
poison in his boyhood days while attending a boarding school. He was
twice salivated by mercurial ointments applied to cure the itch
(scabies), a disease which was epidemic at times among the boys. He
likewise never had a syphilitic disease.
A young man, insane at the age of thirty, absorbed the infernal
poison when four years of age. He had at the time a psoric skin
eruption, but the family physician suspected syphilitic infection
from the nurse girl and kept the child under mercury for six months.
How do we know that the diagnosis of syphilis was false? Because the
iris of the eye revealed "psora" as the cause of the suspicious
eruption which reappeared several times later in life, and because
the servant girl was afterwards absolutely exonerated by competent
physicians.
Proofs by the Diagnosis from the Eye
We have treated many hundreds of cases of so-called chronic
neuralgia, neuritis, rheumatism, neurasthenia, epilepsy and idiocy,
due to the pernicious effects of quinine, iodine, arsenic,
strychnine, coal-tar products and other virulent poisons taken under
the guise of medicine.
How do we know that this is so?
Because the Diagnosis from the Eye plainly reveals the presence of
these poisons in the system. Because the drug signs in the eye are
accompanied by the symptoms of these poisons in the system. Because
the record in the eye is confirmed by the history of the patient.
Because, under natural living and treatment, diseases long ago
suppressed by drugs or knife reappear as healing crises. Because, in
these healing crises, drugs indicated by the signs in the iris of
the eye are frequently eliminated under their own peculiar symptoms.
Because, to the extent that a drug is eliminated from the system by
a healing crisis, its sign will disappear from the iris of the eye.
To illustrate:
The Diagnosis from the Eye reveals heavy quinine poisoning in the
region of the brain. This enables us to say to the patient, without
questioning him, that he suffers from severe frontal headaches and
ringing in the ears, that he is very irritahle, and so on through
the various symptoms of quinine poisoning. The history of the
patient reveals the fact that he has taken large amounts of quinine
for colds, la grippe or malaria. Under our methods of natural living
and treatment, the patient improves; the organism becomes more
vigorous, and the organs of elimination act more freely; the latent
poisons are stirred up in their hiding places; healing crises make
their appearance. The processes of elimination thus inaugurated
develop various symptoms of acute poisoning. The eliminating crises
are accompanied by headaches, ringing in the ears, nasal catarrh,
bone pains, neuritis, strong taste of quinine in the mouth, etc.
Every healing crisis, if naturally treated, diminishes the signs of
disease and drug poisons in the eye.
Chapter VIII
Inflammation
From what has already been said on this subject, it will have become
apparent that inflammatory and feverish diseases are just as
natural, orderly and lawful as anything else in Nature, that,
therefore, after they have once started, they must not be checked or
suppressed by poisonous drugs and surgical operations.
Inflammatory processes can be kept within safe limits, and they must
be assisted in their constructive tendencies by the natural methods
of treatment. To check and suppress acute diseases before they have
run their natural course means to suppress Nature's purifying and
healing efforts, to court fatal complications and to change the
acute, constructive reactions into chronic disease conditions.
Those who have followed the preceding chapters will remember that
their general trend has been to prove one of the fundamental
principles of Nature Cure philosophy, namely the Unity of Disease
and Cure.
We claim that all acute diseases are uniform in their causes, their
purpose, and if conditions are favorable, uniform also in their
progressive development.
In former chapters I endeavored to prove and to elucidate the unity
of acute diseases in regard to their causes and their purpose, the
latter not being destructive, but constructive and beneficial. I
demonstrated that the microorganisms of disease are not the
unmitigated nuisance and evil which they are commonly regarded, but
that, like everything else in Nature, they, too, serve a useful
purpose. I showed that it depends upon ourselves whether their
activity is harmful and destructive, or beneficial: upon our manner
of living and of treating acute reactions.
Let us now trace the unity of acute diseases in regard to their
general course by a brief examination of the processes of
inflammation and their progressive development through five
well-defined stages. We shall base our studies on the most advanced
works on pathology and bacteriology.
The Story of Inflammation
To me the story of inflammation has been one of the most wonderful
revelations of the complex activities of the human organism. More
than anything else it confirms to me the fundamental principles of
Nature Cure, the fact that Nature is a good healer, not a poor one.
Before inflammation can arise, there must exist an exciting cause in
the form of some obstruction or of some agent inimical to health and
life. Such excitants of inflammation may be dead cells, blood clots,
fragments of bone and other effete matter produced in the system
itself or they may be foreign bodies such as particles of dust,
soot, stone, iron or other metals, slivers of wood, etc.; again,
they may be microorganisms or parasites.
When one or more of these exciting agents of inflammation are
present in the tissues of the body in sufficient strength to call
forth the reaction and opposition of the healing forces, the
microscope will always reveal the following phenomena, slightly
varying under different conditions:
The blood rushes to the area of irritation. Owing to this increased
blood pressure, the minute arteries and veins in the immediate
neighborhood of the excitant dilate and increase in size. The
distension of the blood vessels stretches and thereby weakens their
walls. Through these the white blood corpuscles squeeze their mobile
bodies and work their way through the intervening tissues toward the
affected area.
In some mysterious way they seem to sense the exact location of the
danger point and hurry toward it in large numbers like soldiers
summoned to meet an invading army. This faculty of the white blood
corpuscles to apprehend the presence and exact location of the enemy
has been ascribed to chemical attraction and is called ~chemotaxis.~
The army of defense is made up of the white blood corpuscles or
leukocytes and of connective tissue cells which separate themselves
from the neighboring tissues. All these wandering cells possess the
faculty of absorbing and digesting microbes. They contain certain
proteolytic or protein-splitting ferments, by means of which they
decompose and digest poisons and hostile microorganisms. On account
of their activity as germ destroyers, these cells have been called
germ killers or ~phagocytes~. In their movements and actions these
valiant little warriors act very much like intelligent beings,
animated by the qualities of patience, perseverance, courage,
foresight and self-sacrifice.
The phagocytes absorb morbid matter, poisons or microorganisms by
enveloping them with their own bodies. It is a hand-to-hand fight,
and many of the brave little soldiers are destroyed by the poisons
and bacteria which they attack and swallow. What we call pus is made
up of the bodies of live and dead phagocytes, disease taints and
germs, blood serum, broken-down tissues and cells, in short, the
debris of the battlefield.
We can now understand how the processes just described produce the
well-known cardinal symptoms of inflammation and fever; the redness,
heat and swelling due to increased blood pressure, congestion and
the accumulation of exudates; the pain due to irritation and to
pressure on the nerves. We can also realize how impaired nutrition
and the obstruction and destruction in the affected parts and organs
will interfere with and inhibit functional activity.
The organism has still other ways and means of defending itself. At
the time of bacterial infection, certain germ-killing substances are
developed in the blood serum. Science has named these defensive
proteins ~alexins.~ It has also been found that the phagocyte and
tissue cells in the neighborhood of the area of irritation produce
antipoisons or natural antitoxins, which neutralize the bacterial
poisons and kill the microorganisms of disease.
With the Evil, Nature Provides the Cure
Furthermore, the growth and development of bacteria and parasites is
inhibited and finally arrested by their own waste products. We have
an example of this in the yeast germ, which thrives and multiplies
in the presence of sugar in solution. Living on and digesting the
sugar, it decomposes the sugar molecules into alcohol and carbonic
acid. As the alcohol increases during the process of fermentation,
it gradually arrests the development and activity of the yeast
cells.
Similar phenomena accompany the activity of disease germs and
parasites. They produce certain waste products which gradually
inhibit their own growth and increase. The vaccines, serums and
antitoxins of medical science are prepared from these bacterial
excrements and from extracts made of the bodies of bacteria.
In the serum and antitoxin treatment, therefore, the allopathic
school is imitating Nature's procedure in checking the growth of
microorganisms, but with this difference: Nature does not suppress
the growth and multiplication of disease germs until the morbid
matter on which they subsist has been decomposed and consumed, and
until the inflammatory processes have run their course through the
five stages of inflammation; while serums and antitoxins given in
powerful doses at the different stages of any disease may check and
suppress germ activity and the processes of inflammation before the
latter have run their natural course and before the morbid matter
has been eliminated.
The Five Stages of Inflammation
What has been said in former chapters confirms my claim that all
acute diseases are uniform in their causes and in their purpose.
From the foregoing description of inflammation it will have become
clear that they are also uniform in their pathological development.
The uniformity of acute inflammatory processes becomes still more
apparent when we follow them through their five succeeding stages,
that is: Incubation, Aggravation, Destruction, Abatement and
Reconstruction, as illustrated in the following diagram:
I. Incubation. The first section of the diagram corresponds to the
period of Incubation, the time between the exposure to an infectious
disease and its development. This period may last from a few minutes
to a few days, weeks, months or even years.
During this stage morbid matter, poisons, microorganisms and other
excitants of inflammation gather and concentrate in certain parts
and organs of the body. When they have accumulated to such an extent
as to interfere with the normal functions or to endanger the health
and life of the organism, the life forces begin to react to the
obstruction or threatening danger by means of the inflammatory
processes before described.
II. Aggravation. During the period of Aggravation the battle between
the phagocytes and Nature's antitoxins on the one hand, and the
poisons and microorganisms of disease on the other hand, gradually
progresses, accompanied by a corresponding increase of fever and
inflammation, until it reaches its climax, marked by the greatest
intensity of feverish symptoms.
III. Destruction. This battle between the forces of disease and the
healing forces is accompanied by the disintegration of tissues due
to the accumulation of exudates, to pus formation, the development
of abscesses, boils, fistulas, open sores, etc., and to other morbid
changes. It involves the destruction of phagocytes, bacteria, blood
vessels, and tissues just as a battle between contending human
armies results in loss of life and property.
The stage of Destruction ends in crisis, which may be either fatal
or beneficial. If the healing forces of the organism are in the
ascendancy, and if they are supported by right treatment which tends
to build up the blood, increase the vitality and promote
elimination, then the poisons and the microorganisms of disease will
gradually be overcome, absorbed or eliminated and, by degrees, the
tissues will be cleared of the debris of the battlefield.
IV. Abatement. The absorption and elimination of exudates, pus,
etc., take place during the period of abatement. It is accompanied
by a gradual lowering of temperature, pulse rate and the other
symptoms of fever and inflammation.
V. Resolution or Reconstruction. When the period of Abate-ment has
run its course and the affected areas have been cleared of the
morbid accumulations and obstructions, then, during the fifth stage
of inflammation, the work of rebuilding the injured parts and organs
begins. More or less destruction has taken place in the cells and
tissues, the blood vessels and organs of the areas involved. These
must now be reconstructed, and this last stage of the inflammatory
process is, therefore, in a way the most important. On the perfect
regeneration of the injured parts depends the final effect of the
acute disease upon the organism.
If the inflammation has been allowed to run its course through the
different stages of acute activity and the final stage of
Reconstruction, then every acute disease, whatever its name and
description may be, will prove beneficial to the organism because
morbid matter, foreign bodies, poisons and microorganisms have been
eliminated from the system; abnormal and diseased tissues have been
broken down and built up again to a purer and more normal condition.
As it were, the acute disease has acted upon the organism like a
thunderstorm on the sultry, vitiated summer air. It has cleared the
system of impurities and destructive influences, and re-established
wholesome, normal conditions. Therefore acute diseases, when treated
in harmony with Nature's intent, always prove beneficial.
If, however, through neglect or wrong treatment, the inflammatory
processes are not allowed to run their natural course, if they are
checked or suppressed by poisonous drugs, the ice bag or surgical
operations, or if the disease conditions in the system are so far in
the ascendancy that the healing forces cannot react properly, then
the constructive forces may lose the battle and the disease may take
a fatal ending or develop into chronic ailments.
Suppression During the First
Two Stages of Inflammation
It may be suggested that suppression during the stages of Incubation
and Aggravation need not have fatal consequences if followed by
natural living and eliminative treatment. To this I would reply:
"Such procedure always involves the danger of concentrating the
disease poisons in vital parts and organs, thus laying the
foundation for chronic destructive diseases."
Furthermore, it is not at all necessary to suppress inflammatory
processes by poisonous drugs and other unnatural means, because we
can easily and surely control them and keep them from becoming
dangerous by our natural means of treatment.
I shall now endeavor to prove and to illustrate the foregoing
theoretical expositions by following the development of various
diseases through the five stages of inflammation. I shall first take
up the commonest of all forms of disease, the cold.
Catching a Cold
According to popular opinion, the catching of colds is responsible
for the greater portion of human ailments. Almost daily I hear from
patients who come for consultation: All my troubles date back to a
cold I took at such and such a time, etc. Then I have to explain
that colds are not taken suddenly and from without but that they
come from within, that their period of Incubation may have extended
over months or years, that a clean, healthy body possessed of good
vitality cannot take cold under the ordinary thermal conditions
congenial to human life, no matter how sudden the change in
temperature.
At first glance, this may seem to be contrary to common experience
as well as to the theory and practice of medical science. But let us
follow the development of a cold from start to finish. This will
throw some light on the question as to whether it can be caught, or
whether it develops slowly within the organism; also whether this
development or incubation may extend over a long period of time.
Taking cold may be caused by chilling of the surface of the body or
part of the body. In the chilled portions of the skin the pores
close, the blood recedes into the interior, and as a result of this
the elimination of poisonous gases and exudates through these
portions of the skin is suppressed.
This catching a cold through being exposed to a cold draft, through
wet clothing, etc., is not necessarily followed by more serious
consequences. If the system is not too much encumbered with morbid
matter and if kidneys and intestines are in fairly good working
order, these organs will take care of the extra amount of waste and
morbid materials in place of the temporarily inactive skin and
eliminate them without difficulty. The greater the vitality and the
more normal the composition of the blood, the better the system will
react in such an emergency and throw off the morbid matter which
failed to be eliminated through the skin.
If, however, the organism is already overloaded with waste and
morbid materials, if the bowels and the kidneys are already weakened
and atrophied through continued overwork and overstimulation, if, in
addition to this, the vitality has been lowered through excesses or
overexertion and the vital fluids are in an abnormal condition, then
the morbid matter thrown into the circulation by the chilling and
temporary inactivity of the skin cannot find an outlet through the
regular channels of elimination and endeavors to escape by way of
the mucous linings of the nasal passages, the throat, bronchi,
stomach, bowels and genitourinary organs.
The waste materials and poisonous exudates which are being
eliminated through these internal membranes cause irritation and
congestion, and thus produce the well-known symptoms of inflammation
and catarrhal elimination: sneezing (coryza), cough, expectoration,
mucous discharges, diarrhea, leucorrhea [vaginal dis-charge], etc.
In other words, these so-called colds are nothing more or less than
different forms of vicarious elimination. The membranous linings of
the internal organs are doing the work for the inactive, sluggish
and atrophied skin, kidneys and intestines. The greater the
accumulation of morbid matter in the system, the lower the vitality,
and the more abnormal the composition of the blood and lymph, the
greater will be the liability to the catching of colds.
What is to be gained by suppressing the different forms of catarrhal
elimination with cough and catarrh cures containing opiates,
astringents, antiseptics, germkillers and antipyretics? Is it not
obvious that such a procedure interferes with Nature's purifying
efforts, that it hinders and suppresses the inflammatory processes
and the accompanying elimination of morbid matter from the system?
Worst of all, that it adds drug poisons to disease poisons?
Such a course can have but one result, namely the changing of
Nature's cleansing and healing efforts into chronic disease.
From the foregoing it will have become clear that the cause of a
cold lies not so much in the cold draft, or the wet feet, as in the
primary causes of all disease: lowered vitality, deterioration of
the vital fluids and the accumulation of morbid matter and poisons
in the system.
The incubation period of the cold may have extended over many years
or over an entire lifetime.
What, then, is the natural cure for colds? There can be but one
remedy: increased elimination through the proper channels. This is
accomplished by judicious dieting and fasting, and through restoring
the natural activity of the skin, kidneys and bowels by means of wet
packs, cold sprays and ablutions, sitz baths, massage, chiropractic
or osteopathic manipulation, homeopathic remedies, exercise, sun and
air baths and all other methods of natural treatment that save
vitality, build up the blood on a normal basis and promote
elimination without injuring the organism.
Suppression During the Third
Stage of Inflammation
Should the inflammatory processes be suppressed during the stage of
Destruction, the results would be still more serious and
far-reaching. We have learned that during this stage the affected
parts and organs are involved in more or less disintegration. They
are filled with morbid exudates, pus, etc., which interfere with and
make impossible normal nutrition and functioning. If suppression
takes place during this stage, it is obvious that the affected areas
will be left permanently in a condition of destruction.
Here is an illustration from practical life: Suppose necessary
changes and repairs have to be made in a house. Workmen have torn
down the partitions, hangings, wallpaper, etc. At this stage of the
proceedings the owner discharges the workmen and the house is left
in a condition of chaos. Surely, this would not be rational. It
would leave the house unfit for habitation. But such a procedure
would correspond exactly to the suppression of inflammatory diseases
during the stage of Destruction. This also leaves the affected
organs permanently in an abnormal, diseased condition.
That accounts for the mysterious sequelae or chronic after-effects
which so often follow drug-treated acute diseases. I have traced
numerous cases of chronic affections of the lungs and kidneys, of
infantile paralysis and of many other chronic ailments to such
suppression. In the following I shall describe a typical case, which
came under our care and treatment a few years ago.
Suppression by Means of the Ice Bag
A few years ago several gentlemen of Greek nationality called on me
with the request that I visit a friend of theirs who had been lying
sick for about two months in one of our great West Side [Chicago]
hospitals. On investigation I found that the patient had entered the
hospital suffering from a mild case of pneumonia. The doctors of the
institution had ordered ice packs. Rubber sheets filled with ice
were applied to the chest and other parts of the body. This had been
done for several weeks until the fever subsided.
As a matter of fact, ice is more suppressive than antifever
medicines. The continued icy cold applications chill the parts of
the body to which they are applied, depress the vital functions and
effectually suppress the inflammatory processes.
The result in this case, as in many similar ones which I had
occasion to observe during and after the ice-bag treatment, was that
the inflammation in the lungs had been arrested and suppressed
during the stage of destruction, when the air cells and tissues were
filled with exudates, blood serum, pus, live and dead blood cells,
bacteria, etc., leaving the affected areas of the lungs in a
consolidated, liver-like condition.
As a consequence of suppression in the case of this Greek patient,
the pneumonia had been changed from the acute to the subacute and
chronic stages and the doctors in charge had told his friends that
he was now suffering from miliary tuberculosis, and would probably
die within a week or two.
After receiving this discouraging information, the friends of the
patient came to me and prevailed upon me to take charge of the case.
He was transferred to our institution, and we began at once to apply
the natural methods of treatment. Instead of ice packs we used the
regular cold-water packs, strips of linen wrung out of water of
ordinary temperature wrapped around the body and covered with
several layers of flannel bandages.
The wet packs became warm on the body in a few minutes. They relaxed
the pores and drew the blood into the surface, thus promoting heat
radiation and the elimination of morbid matter through the skin.
They did not suppress the fever, but kept it below the danger point.
Under this treatment, accompanied by fasting and judicious
osteopathic manipulation, the inflammatory and feverish processes
suppressed by the ice packs soon revived, became once more active
and aggressive, and were now allowed to run their natural course
through the stages of destruction, absorption (abatement) and
reconstruction.
The result of the Nature Cure treatment was that about two months
after the patient entered our institution, his friends bought him a
ticket to sunny Greece. He had a good journey, and in the congenial
climate of his native country made a perfect recovery.
I have observed a number of similar cases suffering from
consolidation of the lungs and the resulting asthmatic or tubercular
conditions, which had been doctored into these chronic ailments by
means of antipyretics and of ice.
Equally dangerous is the ice bag if applied to the inflamed brain or
the spinal column. Only too often it results either in paralysis or
in death. In many instances, acute cerebrospinal meningitis is
changed in this way by drug and serum treatment or by the use of ice
bags into the chronic, so-called incurable infantile paralysis.
We say so-called incurable because we have treated and cured such
cases in all stages of development from the acute inflammatory
meningitis to the chronic paralysis of long standing.
In our treatment of acute diseases we never use ice or icy water for
packs, compresses, baths or ablutions, but always water of ordinary
temperature as it comes from the faucet. The water compress or pack
warms up quickly, and thus brings about a natural reaction within a
few minutes, while the ice bag or pack continually chills and
practically freezes the affected parts and organs. This does not
allow the skin to relax; it prevents a warm reaction, the radiation
of the body heat and the elimination of morbid matter through the
skin.
Suppression During the Fourth and
Fifth Stages of Inflammation
Let us see what happens when acute diseases are suppressed during
the stages of abatement and reconstruction. If the defenders of the
body, the phagocyte and antitoxins, produced in the tissues and
organs, gain the victory over the inimical forces which are
threatening the health and life of the organism, then the symptoms
of inflammation, swelling, redness, heat, pain and the accelerated
heart action which accompanies them, gradually subside. The debris
of the battlefield is carried away through the venous circulation
which forms the drainage system of the body.
When in this way all morbid materials have been completely
eliminated, Vital Force, "the physician within," will commence to
regenerate and reconstruct the injured and destroyed cells and
tissues.
If, however, these processes of elimination and reconstruction are
interfered with or interrupted before they are completed, then the
affected parts and organs will not have a chance to become entirely
well or strong. They will remain in an abnormal, crippled condition,
and their functional activity will be seriously handicapped.
The After-effects of Drug-Treated Typhoid Fever
In hundreds of cases I have told patients after a glance into their
eyes that they were suffering from chronic indigestion,
malassimi-lation and malnutrition caused by drug-treated typhoid
fever; and every time the records in the eyes were confirmed by the
history of the patient.
In such cases the outer rim of the iris shows a wreath of whitish or
drug-colored circular flakes. I have named this wreath "the typhoid
rosary." It corresponds to the lymphatic and other absorbent vessels
in the intestines, and appears in the iris of the eye when these
structures have been injured or atrophied by drug, ice or surgical
treatment. Wherever this has been done, the venous and lymphatic
vessels in the intestines do not absorb the food materials and these
pass through the digestive tract and out of the body without being
properly digested and assimilated.
During the destructive stages of typhoid fever, the intestines
become denuded by the sloughing of their membranous linings. These
sloughed membranes give the stools of the typhoid fever patient
their peculiar pea soup appearance. In a similar manner the
lymphatic, venous and glandular structures which constitute the
absorbent vessels of the intestines atrophy and slough away.
If the inflammatory processes are allowed to run their normal course
under natural methods of treatment through the stages of
Destruction, Absorption and Reconstruction, Nature will rebuild the
membranous and glandular structures of the intestinal canal
perfectly, convalescence will be rapid and the patient will enjoy
better health than before he contracted the disease.
If, however, through injudicious feeding or the administration of
quinine, mercury, purging salts, opiates or other destructive
agents, Nature's processes are interfered with, prematurely checked
and suppressed, then the sloughed membranes and absorbent vessels
are not reconstructed, and the intestinal tract is left in a denuded
and atrophied condition.
Such a patient may arise from his bed thinking that he is cured; but
unless he is afterward treated by natural methods, he will never
make a full recovery. It will take him, perhaps, months or years to
die a gradual, miserable death through malassimilation and
malnutrition, which usually end in some form of wasting disease,
such as pernicious anemia or tuberculosis. If he does not actually
die from the effects of the wrongly treated typhoid fever, he will
be troubled all his life with intestinal indigestion, constipation,
malassimilation and the accompanying nervous disorders.
A Change for the Better
Speaking of typhoid fever, we are glad to say that for this
particular form of disease the most advanced medical science has
adopted the Nature Cure treatment, that is, straight cold water and
fasting, and no drugs, as it was originated by the pioneers of
Nature Cure in Germany more than fifty years ago.
This treatment, which medical science has found so eminently
successful in typhoid fever, would prove equally efficacious in all
other acute diseases if the regular doctors would only try it. It is
a strange and curious fact that so far they have never found it
worth while to do so. All Nature Cure physicians know from their
daily experience in actual practice that the simple water treatment
and fasting is sufficient to cure all other forms of acute diseases
just as easily and effectively as typhoid fever. By this is proved
the unity of treatment in all acute diseases.
Both in typhoid fever and in tuberculosis, progressive medical men
have now entirely abandoned the germ-killing method of treatment.
They have found it absolutely useless and superfluous to hunt for
drugs and serums to kill the typhoid and tuberculosis bacilli in
these, the two most destructive diseases afflicting the human
family. They were forced to admit that the simple remedies of the
Nature Cure school, cold water and fasting in typhoid fever and the
fresh-air treatment in tuberculosis, are the only worthwhile methods
to fight these formidable enemies to health and life.
If they would continue their researches and experiments along these
natural lines, they would attain infinitely more satisfactory
results than through their germ-hunting and germ-killing theories
and practices.
Chapter IX
The Effects of Suppression of Venereal Diseases
Another good illustration of suppression may be found in the
allopathic treatment of venereal diseases. Almost invariably the
drug treatment suppresses these diseases in the stages of incubation
and aggravation, thus locking them up in the system. The venereal
taints and germs, however, are living things which grow and multiply
until the body has been completely permeated by them. Then they must
find an outlet somehow and somewhere, and consequently they break
out in the manifold so-called "secondary" and "tertiary" symptoms.
The drug poisons which are used to "cure" (suppress) these symptoms,
greatly aggravate the disease. They create conditions in the system
infinitely worse than the venereal diseases themselves. Thus the
acute, easily curable stages of these ailments are changed into the
dreadful and obstinate chronic conditions. It is in this way that
venereal diseases are made hereditary and transmitted to future
generations.
In a special article on this subject entitled "Venereal Diseases,"
published in ~"The Naturopath,"~ January, 1913, I have substantiated
the following claims:
"Venereal diseases are not necessarily chronic in their progressive
development. "They are essentially acute and self-limited. But may
become chronic through neglect or through suppressive drug
treatment. "The chronic, so-called secondary and tertiary
manifestations of venereal diseases, such as ulceration of bones and
fleshy tissue, gummata of the brain, sclerosis of the spinal cord,
arthritic rheumatism, degeneration and destruction of other vital
parts and organs of the body, are not so much the result of the
original gonorrheal or syphilitic infection, as of the destructive
drug poisons which have been taken to cure or rather to suppress the
primary lesions and acute inflammatory symptoms. "Venereal diseases
in the acute inflammatory stages are easily and completely curable
by natural methods of living and of treatment. "Venereal diseases
treated and cured by natural methods during the acute inflammatory
stages are never followed by any chronic after-effects or secondary
and tertiary manifestations whatsoever. "When venereal diseases have
reached the secondary and tertiary stages, they are still curable by
natural methods of living and of treatment, providing there is left
sufficient vitality to respond to treatment and providing the
destruction of vital parts and organs has not advanced too far.
"Hundreds of cases of well-developed locomotor ataxy, paresis, and
other so-called secondary and tertiary diseases of the brain and the
nervous system, of bony and fleshy tissues, and of vital organs have
been cured by our natural methods of treatment.
"It is self-evident, however, that the treatment and cure of the
chronic conditions require more patience and perseverance than the
cure of acute conditions not tampered with and suppressed by drugs.
"Venereal diseases treated and cured by natural methods are never
followed by chronic after-effects. On the other hand, mercury,
iodine, quinine, and coal-tar poisons produce all the so-called
secondary and tertiary symptoms of syphilis in people who never in
their lives were afflicted with venereal diseases, but who have
taken or absorbed these drug poisons in other ways.
". . . These facts are proven beyond doubt by the Diagnosis from the
Eye. All, destructive poisons taken in sufficient quantities will in
time reveal their presence and exact location in the body through
certain well-defined signs or discolorations in the iris.
"These poisons undermine the structures of the body and deteriorate
vital parts and organs so slowly and insidiously that the
superficial observer does not trace and connect cause and effect."
The Wasserman and Noguchi Tests
Medical men may say to the foregoing that the Wasserman and Noguchi
tests furnish positive proofs of syphilis in the system. These
chemical tests are supposed to reveal with certainty the presence of
venereal taints in the body,--at least, the public is left under
this impression.
I am convinced, however, that in many instances the "positive"
Wasserman or Noguchi tests are the result of mercurial poison
instead of syphilitic infection. In a number of cases where these
tests proved "positive," that is, where, according to the theory of
allopathic medical science, they indicated a luetic condition of the
system, the subjects of these tests had never in their lives shown
any symptoms of syphilis nor, as far as they knew, had they ever
been exposed to infection, but every one of them showed plainly the
sign of mercurial poisoning in the iris of the eye, and had taken
considerable mercury in the form of calomel or of other medicinal
preparations for diseases not of a luetic nature, or they had been
"salivated" by coming in contact with the mercurial poison in mines,
smelters, mirror factories, etc.
This leads me to believe that, sooner or later, medical science will
have to admit that the Wasserman and Noguchi tests reveal, in many
instances at least, the effects of mercurial poisoning instead of
the effects of syphilitic infection. And this would not be
surprising since it is well known that mercury has very similar
effects upon the system as syphilis.
It takes the mercurial poison from five to ten and even fifteen
years before it works its way into the brain and spinal cord, and
there causes its characteristic degeneration and destruction of
brain and. nerve tissues which manifest outwardly as locomotor
ataxy, paralysis agitans, paresis, apoplexy, hemiplegia, epilepsy,
St. Vitus dance, and the different forms of idiocy and insanity.
Mercurial poisoning is also in many instances the cause of deafness
and blindness.
When the symptoms of mercurial destruction begin to show, then they,
in turn, are suppressed by preparations of iodine, the "606," or
other "alteratives," and so the merry war goes, on: poison against
poison, Beelzebub against the Devil, and the poor suffering body has
to stand it all.
In this way the system is periodically saturated with the most
virulent poisons on earth, until the undertaker finishes the job.
And this is miscalled "scientific treatment." There never was
invented by cruel Indian or fanatical inquisition worse torture than
this. They mercifully finished the sufferings of their victims
within a few hours or, at the worst, days; but this torture
inflicted upon human beings in the name of medical science continues
for a lifetime. It means dying by inches under the most horrible
conditions for ten, twenty, thirty years or longer.
In this connection it may be well to quote the testimony of
Professor E. A. Farrington of Philadelphia, one of the most
celebrated homeopathic physicians of the nineteenth century. He
says, in his ~"Clinical Materia Medica,"~ third edition, page 141:
"The various constitutions or dyscrasia underlying chronic and acute
affections are, indeed, very numerous. As yet, we do not know them
all. We do know that one of them comes in gonorrhoea, a disease
which is frightfully common, so that the constitution arising from
this disease is rapidly on the increase.
"Now I want to tell you why it is so. It is because allopathic
physicians, and many homeopaths as well, do not properly cure it. I
do not believe gonorrhoea to be a local disease. If it is not
properly cured, a constitutional poison which may be transmitted to
the children is developed. I know, from years of experience and
observation, that gonorrhoea is a serious difficulty, and one, too,
that complicates many cases that we have to treat.
"The same is true of syphilis in a modified degree. Gonorrhoea seems
to attack the nobler tissues, the lungs, the heart, and the nervous
system, all of which are reached by syphilis only after the lapse of
years."
The Destructive After-Effects of Mercury
Concerning the destructive after-effects of mercury, of which
homeopaths have made a most careful study, Professor Farrington
says, on pages 558-559 of the same volume:
"The more remote symptoms of mercurial poisoning are these: You will
find that the blood becomes impoverished. The albumin and fibrin of
that fluid are affected. They are diminished, and you find in their
place a certain fatty substance, the composition of which I do not
exactly know. Consequently, as a prominent symptom, the body wastes
and emaciates. The patient suffers from fever which is rather hectic
in its character. The periosteum becomes affected, and you then have
a characteristic group of mercurial pains, bone pains worse in
changes of the weather, worse in the warmth of the bed, and
chilliness with or after stool. The skin becomes rather of a
brownish hue; ulcers form, particularly on the legs; they are
stubborn and will not heal. The patient is troubled with
sleeplessness and ebullitions of blood at night; he is hot and
cannot sleep; he is thrown quickly into a perspiration, which
perspiration gives him no relief.
"The entire system suffers also, and you have here two series of
symptoms. At first the patient becomes anxious and restless and
cannot remain quiet; he changes his position; he moves about from
place to place; he seems to have a great deal of anxiety about the
heart, praecordial anguish, as it is termed, particularly at night.
"Then, in another series of symptoms, there are jerkings of the
limbs, making the patient appear as though he were attacked by St.
Vitus' dance. Or, you may notice what is more common yet, trembling
of the hands, this tremor being altogether beyond the control of the
patient and gradually spreading over the entire body, giving you a
resemblance to paralysis agitans or shaking palsy.
"Finally, the patient becomes paralyzed, cannot move his limbs, his
mind becomes lost, and he presents a perfect picture of imbecility.
He does all sorts of queer things. He sits in the corner with an
idiotic smile on his face, playing with straws; he is forgetful, he
cannot remember even the most ordinary events. He becomes
disgustingly filthy and eats his own excrement. In fact, he is a
perfect idiot.
"Be careful how you give mercury; it is a treacherous medicine. It
seems often indicated. You give it and relieve; but your patient is
worse again in a few weeks and then you give it again with relief.
By and by, it fails you. Now, if I want to make a permanent cure,
for instance, in a scrofulous child, I will very seldom give him
mercury; should I do so, it will be at least only as an intercurrent
remedy."
Chapter X
Suppressive Surgical Treatment of Tonsillitis and Enlarged Adenoids
The following paragraphs are taken from an article in the ~Nature
Cure Magazine~ May, 1909, titled "Surgery for Tonsillitis and
Adenoids." They will throw further interesting light on the
dangerous consequences of suppressing acute and subacute diseases.
"The tonsils are excreting glands. Nature has created them for the
elimination of impurities from the body. Acute, subacute and chronic
tonsillitis accompanied by enlargement and cheesy decay of the
tonsils means that these glands have been habitually congested with
morbid matter and poisons, that they have had more work to do than
they could properly attend to.
"These glandular structures constitute a valuable part of the
drainage system of the organism. If the blood is poisoned through
overeating and faulty food combinations, or with scrofulous,
venereal or psoriatic poisons, the tonsils are called upon, along
with other organs, to eliminate these morbid taints. Is it any
wonder that frequently they become inflamed and subject to decay?
What, however, can be gained by destroying them with iodine or
extirpating them with the surgeon's scissors or the 'guillotine'?
"Because your servants are weakened by overwork, would you kill
them? Because the drains in your house are too small to carry off
the waste, would you blockade or remove them? Still, this is the
orthodox philosophy of the medical schools applied to the management
of the human body.
". . . In case of any morbid discharge from the body, wherever it
be, whether through hemorrhoids, open sores, ulcers or through
tonsils, scrofulous glands, etc., a fontanelle has been established
to which and through which systemic poisons make their way. If such
an outlet be blocked by medical or surgical treatment the stream of
morbid matter has to seek another escape or else the poisons will
accumulate somewhere in the body.
"Fortunate is the patient when such an escape can be established,
because wherever in the system morbid excretions, suppressed by
medical treatment, concentrate, there will inevitably be found the
seat of chronic disease.
"After the tonsils have been removed, the morbid matter which they
were eliminating usually finds the nearest and easiest outlet
through the adenoid tissues and nasal membranes. These now take up
the work of 'vicarious' elimination and, in their turn, become
hyperactive and inflamed.
"Sometimes it happens that the adenoid tissues become affected
before the tonsils. In that case, also, relief through the surgeon's
knife is sought and then the process is reversed: after the adenoids
have been removed, the tonsils develop chronic catarrhal conditions.
"When both tonsils and adenoids have been removed, the nasal
membranes will, in turn, become congested and swollen. Often the
mucous elimination increases to an alarming degree, and frequently
polyps and other growths make their appearance or the turbinated
bones soften and swell and obstruct the nasal passages, thus again
making the patient a 'mouth breather.'
"But in vain does Nature protest against local symptomatic
treatment. Science has nothing to learn from her.
"When the nose takes up the work of vicarious elimination, the same
mode of treatment is resorted to. The mucous membranes of the nose
are now swabbed and sprayed with antiseptics and astringents, or
'burned' by cauterizers, electricity, etc. The polyps are cut out,
and frequently parts of the turbinated bone and septum as well, in
order to open the air passages.
"Now, surely, the patient must be cured. But, strange to say, new
and more serious troubles arise. The posterior nasal passages and
the throat are now affected by chronic catarrhal conditions and
there is much annoyance from phlegm and mucous discharges which drop
into the throat. These catarrhal conditions frequently extend to the
mucous membranes of stomach and intestines.
"When the drainage system of the nose and the nasopharyngeal
cavities has been completely destroyed, the impurities must either
travel upward into the brain or downward into the glandular
structures of the neck, thence into the bronchi and the tissues of
the lungs.
"If the trend be upward, to the brain, the patient grows nervous and
irritable or becomes dull and apathetic. How often is a child
reprimanded or even punished for laziness and inattention when it
cannot help itself? In many instances the morbid matter affects
certain centers in the brain and causes nervous conditions,
hysteria, St. Vitus' dance, epilepsy, etc. In children the
impurities frequently find an outlet through the eardrums in the
form of pus-like discharges. This may frequently avert inflammation
of the brain, meningitis, imbecility, insanity or infantile
paralysis.
"If the trend of the suppressed impurities and poisons be downward,
it often results in the hypertrophy and degeneration of the
lymphatic glands of the neck. In such cases the suppressive
treatment, by drugs or knife, is again applied instead of
eliminative and curative measures. The scrofulous poisons,
suppressed and driven back from the diseased glands in the neck, now
find lodgment in the bronchi and lungs, where they accumulate and
form a luxuriant soil for the growth of the bacilli of pneumonia and
tuberculosis.
"In other cases, the vocal organs become seriously affected by
chronic catarrhal conditions, abnormal growths and in later stages
by tuberculosis. Many a fine voice has been ruined in this way.
"The prevention and the cure of all these ailments lie not in local
symptomatic treatment and suppression by drugs or knife, but in the
rational and natural treatment of the body as a whole."
Chapter XI
Cancer
Let us see how our theories of the Unity of Disease and Cure apply
to cancer, the much-dreaded and rapidly increasing disease which is
considered absolutely incurable by both the laity and the medical
profession.
Allopathy says that the only possible remedy is "early operation."
Nevertheless, in the textbooks of medical science and in medical
schools and colleges it is taught that cancer and all other
malignant growths "always return after extirpation." In fact, every
student of medicine is expected to state this in his examination
papers as part of the definition of malignant tumors.
The great majority of medical practitioners hold, furthermore, that
cancer is a local disease. This is proved by the fact that they
apply local, symptomatic treatment.
In reality, however, the disease is constitutional. Therefore, after
removal of the growth by surgery, the electric needle, x-rays, etc.,
the cancer or tumor is liable to break out again in the same place
or in several places.
The surest way to change insignificant, so-called "benign" (not
fatal to life) fibroid or fatty tumors into malignant cancer or
sarcoma is to operate upon them. Wens and warts are often made
malignant by surgical interference or other local irritation.
In my article titled "What We Know About Cancer" in the August,
1909, issue of the ~Nature Cure Magazine~ I quote from an article by
Burton J. Hendrick, the cancer expert, published in the July, 1909,
number of ~McClure's Magazine,~ as follows:
"Clinical observation long ago established the fact that any
irritating interference with a cancer almost always stimulates its
growth. In his earliest experiments Dr. Loeb found that, by merely
drawing a silk thread through a dormant or slowly developing tumor,
he could transform it into a rapidly growing one. Cutting with a
knife produced the same effect. This accounts for the commonly
observed fact that, when extirpated cancers in human beings recur,
they increase in size much more rapidly than the original growth."
The late Dr. Senn, the great cancer surgeon, admitted these facts in
an interview given to Chicago press representatives upon his return
from his trip around the world in 1906. The press clipping reads as
follows.
"Avoid Beauty Doctors"
"Incidentally, Dr. Senn advises women who worry over their
disfigurement of moles about their heads and shoulders to have those
so-called beauty spots removed early in life, but he tells them they
should not go to beauty doctors to have the operations performed.
"He knows of hundreds of cases, he says, where cancer has resulted
from the irritation of moles by an electric needle, or by constant
picking it. 'Have a surgeon cut the mole out,' is his advice, as it
will hurt little and leave no scar."
To this we answered in our comments on the interview: "If the little
knife of the beauty doctor causes cancer, what about the big knife
of the surgeon?"
In point of fact, our office records show that a large percentage of
malignant growths are the direct result of surgical operations.
Cancer Not a Local, But a Constitutional Disease
For many years I have been teaching in my lectures and writings as
well as in private advice to patients that cancer is a
constitutional disease; that it is rooted in every drop of blood in
the body; that it is caused by the presence of certain disease
taints or of food and drug poisons in the system; that these poisons
irritate and stimulate the cells in a certain locality and cause
their abnormal multiplication or proliferation in the forms of
benign or malignant tumors.
I also claim that meat eating has much to do with the causation of
cancer.
Certain discoveries by Dr. H. C. Ross of London, England, confirm my
claims that cancer is not at all of local and accidental origin, but
that it is constitutional, and that it may be caused by the gradual
accumulation in the system of certain poisons which form in decaying
animal matter.
One day, while experimenting in his laboratory, Dr. Ross brought
white blood cells or leucocytes into contact with a certain aniline
dye on the slide of a microscope and noticed that they began at once
to multiply by cell division (proliferation). This was the first
time that cell proliferation had been observed by the human eye
while the cells were separated from their parent organism.
Dr. Ross realized that he had made an important discovery and
continued his experiments under the microscope in order to find out
what other substances would cause cell multiplication. He found that
certain xanthines and albuminoids derived from decaying animal
matter were the most effective for this purpose and induced more
rapid cell proliferation than any other substances he was able to
procure.
Dr. Ross obtained these "alkaloids of putrefaction," as he called
them, from blood which had been allowed to putrefy in a warm place.
He found that albuminoids derived from decaying vegetable substances
did not have the same effect.
His discoveries led him to believe that the alkaloids of
putrefaction produced in a cut or wound by the decaying of dead
blood and tissue cells are the cause of the rapid multiplication of
the neighboring live cells, which gradually fill the wound with new
tissues.
Thus, for the first time in the history of medicine, a rational
explanation of Nature's methods for repairing injured tissues has
been advanced.
Dr. Ross applied his theory still farther to the causation of benign
and malignant growths, reasoning that the alkaloids of putrefaction
produced in or attracted to a certain part of the body by some local
irritation are the cause of the rapid, abnormal multiplication of
cells in tumor formations.
In benign tumors the abnormal proliferation of cells takes place
slowly, and they do not tend to immediate and rapid decay and
deterioration.
In malignant tumors the "wild" cells, created in immense numbers,
decay almost as rapidly as they are produced because the abnormal
growths are devoid of normal organization. They have no established,
regular blood and nerve supply, nor are they provided with adequate
venous drainage. They are, therefore, cut off from the orderly life
of the organism and doomed to rapid deterioration.
The processes of decay of these tumor materials liberate large
quantities of alkaloids of putrefaction, and these, in turn,
stimulate the normal, healthy cells with which they come in contact
to rapid, abnormal multiplication.
The malignant growth, therefore, feeds on its own products of decay,
aside from the systemic poisons and morbid materials already
contained in the blood and tissues of the body. These morbid
products permeate the entire system. They are carried by the
circulation of the blood into all parts of the body. This explains
why cancer is a constitutional disease, why it is, as I stated it,
"rooted in every drop of blood."
It also explains why cancer, or rather the disposition to its
development (diathesis), is hereditary.
If the original cancerous growth is removed by surgical
intervention, x-rays, the electric needle, cauterization or any
other form of local treatment, the poisonous materials (alkaloids of
putrefaction) in the blood will set up other foci of abnormal, wild
proliferation. Medical science has applied the term metastasis to
such spreading and reappearing of malignant tumors after
extirpation.
Dr. Ross' findings throw an interesting light on the relationship
between cancer and meat eating. Is it not self-evident that in a
digestive tract filled most of the time with large masses of
partially digested and decaying animal food enormous quantities of
alkaloids of putrefaction are created? These are absorbed into the
circulation, attracted to any point where exists some form of local
irritation and then stimulate the cells in that locality to abnormal
proliferation.
"But," it will be said, "meat eating alone does not account for
cancer, because vegetarians also succumb to the disease." This is
true. Alkaloids of putrefaction are constantly produced in every
animal and human body. They form in the excretions of living cells
and in the decaying protoplasm of dead cells, and if the organs of
elimination do not function properly, these morbid materials will
accumulate in the system.
Furthermore, the Diagnosis from the Eye furnishes positive proof
that Hahnemann's theory of psora is based on truth. I quote from my
article in the ~Nature Cure Magazine~ August, 1909:
"For a hundred years, Hahnemann's theory of psora has been scouted
and ridiculed by the allopathic schools and even among homeopaths
only a few have accepted it. Now we are confronted by the remarkable
fact that, at this late day, the Diagnosis from the Eye confirms the
observations and speculations of the great genius of homeopathy.
"After suppression of itchy eruptions, lice, crab lice, etc., spots
ranging in color from light brown to dark red appear in different
places in the iris of the eye. These 'itch spots' indicate the
organs and localities of the body in which the suppressed disease
taints have concentrated.
"Such suppressions represent not only the scrofulous taints which
Nature was trying to eliminate by means of eruptions and parasites,
but, in addition to these, the poisons contained in the bodies of
the parasites and the drug poisons which were used to suppress or
kill them.
"It has been found that the bodies of the itch parasites (~Sarcoptes
scabici ~) contain an exceedingly poisonous substance which the
homeopaths call 'psorinum'. When these minute animals burrowing in
and under the skin are killed by poisonous drugs and antiseptics,
the morbid taints in their bodies are absorbed by the system and
added to the psoriatic poisons which Nature has been trying to
eliminate.
"Thus, after suppression of itchy eruptions or parasites, the
organism is encumbered with three poisons instead of one: (1) the
hereditary or acquired scrofulous and psoriatic taints which the
cells of the body were throwing off into the blood stream and which
the blood was feeding to the parasites on the surface, (2) the
morbid substance contained in the bodies of the parasites, (3) the
drug poisons used as suppressants. (Such poisons may lie latent in
the system for many years before they become active and, in
combination with other disease taints and with food and drug
poisons, create the different forms of chronic destructive
diseases.)
"These facts explain why the itch spots in different areas of the
iris of the eye so frequently indicate serious chronic, destructive
disease conditions in the parts and organs of the body corresponding
to these areas, why; for instance, in asthma and tuberculosis we
often find itch spots in the region representing the lungs or why in
cancer of the liver or of the stomach itch spots show in the area of
stomach or liver.
"That the itch or psoriatic taint is actually at the bottom of the
cancerous diathesis is attested by the fact that all cancer patients
whom we have treated and cured, with two exceptions (whose healing
crisis took the form of furunculosis), broke out with the itch at
one time or another during the natural treatment. In most of these
cases the bodies of the patients were inflamed with fiery eruptions
for days or even weeks at a time.
"Nature Cure allows these healing crises to run their course
unhindered and unchecked; in fact, we encourage them by air and sun
baths, cold-water treatment and homeopathic remedies."
What has been said verifies my claim that benign and malignant
tumors can be cured only by thorough purifying the system of all
morbid and poisonous taints and by building up the blood to a normal
basis, that is, by providing it with the proper elements of
nutrition, especially with the all-important organic salts.
That this is not merely theory, but actual fact has been proved in
the great cancer institutes in Europe and in this country. The
scientists in charge of these institutions report that they have
found a positive cure for cancer in animals. The treatment is as
follows:
The blood is pumped out of the body of a dog or other animal
afflicted with cancer and immediately afterwards the blood of a
healthy animal which has shown immunity to cancer inoculation is
pumped into the body of the diseased animal. It is reported that in
nine cases out of ten thus treated the cancerous growths disappear.
This treatment, of course, entails the death of the animal which had
to give up its life blood to cure the other and therefore this
method of cure is not adaptable to human beings. Even though an
individual, with suicidal intent, would be willing to give up his
life for a stipulated legacy to his relatives, the law would not
sanction the transaction.
However, we of the Nature Cure school say that it is not necessary
to pump the diseased blood out of the organism. In the natural
methods of living and of treatment we possess the means of purifying
and regenerating that blood while it is in the body. That this is
possible we have proved in a number of cancer cases.
It is obvious, however, that the earlier the disease is treated by
the natural methods, that is, before the breaking-down process has
far advanced, the easier and quicker will be the cure.
In the case of tumors, then, we see again verified the fundamental
law of Nature Cure: the Unity of Disease and of Treatment. We see
that the tumor is not of local, but of constitutional, origin, that
its period of incubation may extend over a lifetime or over several
generations.
Chapter XII
Women's Suffering
Certain ailments peculiar to the female organism have become almost
universal among civilized races. Probably the majority of surgical
operations are performed for so-called women's diseases. That women
suffer untold agonies during menstruation, in childbirth and at the
climacteric is looked upon as unavoidable and a matter of course.
The fact that the native women of Africa, of the Sandwich Islands,
the South American bush and our western plains are practically
exempt from these ailments indicates that the cause of female
troubles must lie in artificial habits of living and in the
unnatural treatment of diseases.
Many are beginning to recognize these truths. For them is dawning a
new era, when knowledge will free Woman from physical suffering as
it has freed her from other bondage.
Instances like the following are of common occurrence in our free
clinics for Diagnosis from the Eye:
A lady tells us that she has been suffering for many years from a
complication of female troubles. Her eyes show a heavy scurf rim,
indicating an inactive, atrophied skin, poor surface circulation
and, as a result of this condition, defective elimination through
the skin and accumulation of waste matter and systemic poisons in
the system. The areas of stomach and intestines reveal the signs of
chronic catarrhal affection and atrophy of the membranous linings
and glandular structures. This, of course, means indigestion,
fermentation of foods, gas formation, constipation and a multitude
of resulting disturbances.
The signs in the iris also indicate an atonic, relaxed and prolapsed
condition of stomach, bowels and other abdominal organs. This is
likely to cause sagging of the genital organs, relaxation of the
bands and ligaments which hold them in place and, as a result of
this relaxation, misplacement of the womb.
We tell the patient of our findings in her eyes and she admits all
the conditions and symptoms which we describe, but she is not
satisfied because our diagnosis does not agree with that of the
great specialists and professors of medicine whom she has consulted.
Every one of them has told her that all her troubles are due to the
fact that her uterus is flexed and retroverted, that it presses on
the rectum (this being the cause of her chronic constipation and of
the obstructed menstrual flow, the congestion, pain, etc.), and that
the womb must be placed in its normal position by a surgical
operation.
In this and many similar cases that have come to us for treatment,
it was the relaxed and prolapsed condition of the stomach and
intestines that caused the sinking (prolapsus) of the uterus with
the attending distressing symptoms. In some instances the womb and
with it the bladder had fallen so low that they protruded from the
vagina. In all of these cases, as the patients without exception
told us, the professors and specialists assured them that surgical
treatment, shortening of the ligaments, the insertion of pessaries,
the cutting loose and raising of the womb, etc., were the only
possible means of curing these ailments.
So we explain to the lady that the relaxed and prolapsed condition
of the genital organs, the misplacement of the womb, etc., are not
causes of disease, but only the effects of the weakened and relaxed
condition of the digestive organs, and that this, in turn, is due to
indigestion, malnutrition, defective elimination through skin,
bowels and kidneys; that, therefore, the only possibility of cure
lies in correcting and overcoming these constitutional conditions
through an eliminative diet, blood-building remedies and other
natural methods; that the blood must be built up on a normal basis,
and that the digestive tract and the other abdominal organs must be
made more alive and active through hydropathic treatment, massage,
spinal manipulation, general and special exercises, air and sun
baths, etc.
In thousands of cases we have thus cured female troubles without
poisonous drugs or surgical operations, simply by improving the
digestion, purifying the blood and invigorating the abdominal organs
in a natural manner.
On the other hand, almost daily we meet with instances of untold
suffering as the direct consequence of operations, the use of
pessaries, etc., which only served to weaken the genital organs
still more and resulted in all sorts of complications,
inflammations, adhesions, etc., and in many cases in malignant
tumors.
In this connection I would warn especially against the use of
pessaries. They are at best only a mechanical contrivance, and do
not add anything to the improvement of the diseased condition. On
the other hand, they irritate the abdominal organs by excessive
pressure, which in many instances produces inflammation of the
neighboring tissues and abnormal growths.
Suppressing inflammation of the genital organs by poisonous
antiseptics, sprays, tampons or other local applications only tends
to aggravate the chronic conditions. Curetting (scraping) the womb
does not cure the catarrhal affection, but only serves to destroy
its delicate mucous lining and to suppress catarrhal elimination.
Holding up the womb by means of a pessary in order to strengthen its
muscles and ligaments is about as reasonable and effective as to try
to strengthen a weak arm by carrying it in a sling. Replacing or
removing misplaced or affected organs by means of surgery does not
contribute anything toward correcting the causes of these abnormal
conditions, but in many instances makes a real cure impossible. How
can an organ be cured after it has been extirpated with the knife?
It is a fact known to every observing physician that from fifty to
seventy-five percent of all women have some kind of misplacement of
the genital organs and that only a comparatively small number of
these suffer from local disturbances, indicating that, in most
cases, misplacement alone will not create serious trouble.
It is ridiculous to assume that the small, flabby uterus of an
anemic woman can block the rectum and cause disease, but it is an
excellent talking point, as effective in bringing victims to the
operating table as appendicitis with its fairy tales of seeds and
foreign bodies lodging in the appendix vermiformis.
While studying Nature Cure in Germany, I took special courses in the
Thure-Brandt Massage. By means of this internal manipulative
treatment, weakness of ligaments and muscles, displacements,
adhesions, etc., can be corrected without the use of knife or drugs.
During my first years in practice, I frequently resorted to the
internal manual treatment with good results; but I found that in
most cases it was not at all necessary in order to produce perfect
cures.
I saw that chiropractic and osteopathic correction of spinal and
pelvic lesions and consequent removal of irritation and pressure on
the nerves, the cure of chronic constipation and malnutrition by
pure food diet and hydrotherapy, the strengthening of the pelvic
muscles and nerves by means of active and passive movements and
exercises, were fully sufficient to correct the local symptoms in a
natural manner. Thousands of cases cured by us by these methods
attest the truth of our statements; while those who failed to
understand the simple reasoning of the Nature Cure philosophy or
lacked will power to withstand the arguments of friends and
physicians followed the siren call of the operating table and have
been sorry for it ever since.
In case of operation for misplacement of the womb, it is necessary,
in order to keep the womb in its new position, to stitch it to the
frontal abdominal wall. Very frequently it will not stay there,
breaks loose, and relapses into an abnormal position. Granted that
it remains fixed, woe to the woman if she becomes pregnant. The womb
cannot assume the constantly changing positions of pregnancy, and
the result is either abortion or malformation of the fetus, together
with great and constant suffering to the woman.
The operation has done nothing to correct unnatural habits of living
or to purify the system of its scrofulous and psoriatic taints, of
drug and food poisons. Frequently these gather in the parts that
have been weakened and irritated by the antiseptics and by the
surgeon's knife, and set up new inflammations, ulcerations and only
too often malignant tumors. As a result, one operation follows
another.
We cannot cut in the genital organs without cutting in the brain.
The nervous system is a unit, and the brain is directly and
intimately connected with the complex and highly sensitive nerve
centers of the genital organs. Mutilation of the genital nerve
centers, therefore, invariably affects the brain, and thus the
intellectual and emotional life of a woman. It is almost axiomatic
that a woman whose uterus or ovaries have been removed or mutilated
is afterward mentally and emotionally more or less abnormal.
Nervousness, irritability and only too often nervous prostration and
insanity are the sequelae of operative treatment.
In medical colleges, among students and professors, these facts are
freely admitted and discussed, but the prospective patient hears a
different story. "Cut loose the womb, shorten the ligaments, put it
into the right position, and everything will be well." This sounds
plausible and seductive; but everyday experiences expose the
inadequacy and the destructive aftereffects of local symptomatic
treatment.
The Climacteric or Change of Life
Under our artificial methods of living, the ~climacteric~ or change
of life, has become the bugbear of womanhood. It seems to be
universally assumed that this period in a woman's life must be
fraught with manifold sufferings and dangers. It is taken as a
matter of course that during these changes in her organism a woman
is assailed by the most serious physical, mental, and psychic
ailments which may endanger her sanity and often her life.
Like rheumatism, neurasthenia, neuralgia and hundreds of other
medical terms, "change of life" is a convenient phrase to cover the
doctor's ignorance. No matter what ailments befall a woman during
the years from forty to fifty, may the causes be ever so obscure,
the diagnosis is easy. "You are in the climacteric, you are
suffering from the change of life," says the doctor, and the patient
is satisfied and resigns herself to the inevitable.
Frequently women come to us for consultation, and after reciting a
long string of troubles they conclude with the remark: "Of course,
doctor, I'm in the change, and I know that lots of these things are
natural at my time of life."
Is it true that all this suffering is natural and inevitable? Among
the primitive races of the earth suffering incident to the change of
life is practically unknown. The same is true in a lesser degree of
the country population of Europe. The causes of it must, therefore,
be sought in the artificial modes of living peculiar to our
hypercivilization and in the unnatural methods of treating disease
as commonly practiced.
Which are the specific causes of the profound disturbances so often
accompanying the organic changes of the climacteric?
Aside from their other physiological functions, the menses are for
the woman a monthly cleansing crisis through which Nature eliminates
from her system considerable amounts of waste and morbid matter
which, under a natural regime of life, would be discharged by means
of the organs of depuration, that is, the lungs, skin, kidneys and
bowels.
The more natural the life and the more normal, as the result of
this, the woman's physical condition, the shorter and less annoying
and painful, within certain limits, will be the menstrual periods.
Through unnatural habits of eating, drinking, dressing, breathing
and through equally unnatural methods of medical treatment, the
kidneys, skin and bowels have become inactive, benumbed or
paralyzed. As long as the vicarious monthly purification by means of
the menses continues, the evil results of the torpid condition of
the regular organs of depuration do not become so apparent. The
organism has learned to adapt itself to this mode of elimination.
But when, on account of the organic changes of the climacteric,
menstruation ceases, then the systemic poisons, which formerly were
eliminated by means of this monthly purification, accumulate in the
system and become the source of all manner of trouble. All
tendencies to physical, mental or psychic disease are greatly
intensified. The poisonous taints circulating in the blood
overstimulate or else depress and paralyze the brain and the nervous
system. As a consequence, mental and psychic disorders are of common
occurrence; the more so because the waning of the sex functions is
accompanied by a tendency to negativity and hypersensitiveness.
How Can the Ailments of the Climacteric Be Avoided or Cured?
Is it not self-evident that the easiest way to sidestep the troubles
incident to this critical period and to reestablish the perfect
equilibrium of the organism lies in restoring the natural activity
of the organs of elimination?
This is what Nature Cure accomplishes easily and successfully with
its natural methods of treatment. Air and sun baths, water
treatments and massage bring new life and activity to the enervated
skin. Pure food diet, chiropractic and osteopathic treatment,
curative gymnastics, homeopathic or herb remedies restore the
natural tonicity and functioning of the stomach, liver, kidneys and
intestines. Mental therapeutics, systematically practiced, make
every cell in the body vibrant with the higher and finer forces of
the mental and spiritual planes of being.
When the natural equilibrium of the organism is thus restored, there
is absolutely no occasion for the troubles of the climacteric. We
have proved this in hundreds of cases. As kidneys, skin and bowels
begin to function normally and freely, physical and mental
conditions commence to improve, and one after another the dreaded
symptoms disappear.
Let us compare with this common sense, natural treatment the
orthodox medical practice in such cases:
The medical treatment, as usual, is entirely symptomatic. The
sluggish organs of elimination are prodded by poisonous cathartics,
laxatives, diaphoretics, cholagogues and tonics, all of which, after
temporary stimulation, leave the organs in a more weakened and the
system in a more poisoned condition. If brain and nerves are
irritated and aching, sedatives and hypnotics are given to stupefy
them into insensibility. If the heart action is weak and irregular,
it is whipped up by poisonous stimulants; if too fast, it is checked
and paralyzed by sedatives and depressants.
Thus, instead of removing the underlying causes, every symptom is
promptly suppressed. Drug poisons are added to the waste and morbid
matter which are already clogging the channels of life. And, of
course, under such unnatural treatment, in many instances things go
from bad to worse. Flushes, headaches, rheumatic and neuralgic
pains, melancholia, irritability, mental aberration, partial
paralysis and a multitude of other symptoms appear and gradually
increase in severity.
When the family physician has arrived at the end of his wits, the
surgeon has his innings, and leaves the patient in a still worse
condition of chronic suffering.
These experiences are so common that the manifold troubles of the
climacteric are regarded as unavoidable and as a matter of course.
Here, as in so many other instances, people fail to see that it is
the treatment which prevents the cure. If the efficiency of common
sense, natural treatment were more widely known and recognized, how
much unnecessary suffering could be avoided.
Chapter XIII
The Treatment of Acute Diseases by Natural Methods
In the preceding chapters we have described the results of the
wrong, that is, suppressive treatment of acute diseases. We shall
now proceed to describe the simple and uniform methods of natural
treatment.
If the uniformity of acute diseases be a fact in Nature, then it
follows that it must be possible to treat all acute diseases by
uniform methods.
That it is possible to treat all acute diseases most successfully by
natural methods, which anybody possessed of ordinary intelligence
can apply, has been demonstrated for more than seventy years by the
Nature Cure practitioners in Germany, and by myself during the last
ten years in an extensive practice.
One of the many advantages of natural treatment is that it may be
applied right from the beginning, as soon as the first symptoms of
acute febrile conditions manifest themselves. It is not necessary to
wait for a correct diagnosis of the case.
The regular physician, with his specific treatment for the multitude
of specific diseases which he recognizes, often has to wait several
days or even weeks before the real nature of the disease becomes
clear to him, before he is able to diagnose the case or even to make
a good guess. The conscientious medical practitioner has to postpone
actual treatment until the symptoms are well defined. Meanwhile he
applies expectant treatment as it is called in medical parlance,
that is, he gives a purgative or a placebo, something or other to
placate, or to make the patient and his friends believe that
something is being done.
But during this period of indecision and inaction very often the
best opportunity for aiding Nature in her healing efforts is lost,
and the inflammatory processes may reach such virulence that it
becomes very difficult or even impossible to keep them within
constructive limits. The bonfire that was to burn up the rubbish on
the premises may, if not watched and tended, assume such proportions
that it damages or destroys the house.
It must also be borne in mind that very frequently acute diseases do
not present the well-defined sets of symptoms which fit into the
accepted medical conception of certain specific ailments. On the
contrary, in many instances the symptoms suggest a combination of
different forms of acute diseases.
If the character of the disease is ill-defined and complicated, how,
then, is the physician of the "Old School" to select the proper
specific remedy, Under such circumstances, the diagnosis of the case
as well as the medical treatment will at best be largely guesswork.
Compare with this unreliable and unsatisfactory treatment the simple
and scientific, exact and efficient natural methods. The natural
remedies can be applied from the first, at the slightest
manifestation of inflammatory and febrile symptoms. No matter what
the specific nature or trend of the inflammatory process, whether it
be a simple cold, or whether it take the form of measles, scarlet
fever, diphtheria, smallpox, appendicitis, etc.--it makes absolutely
no difference in the mode of treatment. In many instances the
natural treatment will have broken the virulence of the attack or
brought about a cure before the regular physician gets good and
ready to apply his specific treatment.
In the following I shall describe briefly these natural methods for
the treatment of acute diseases which insure the largest possible
percentage of recoveries and at the same time do not in any way tax
the system, cause undesirable aftereffects or lead to the different
forms of chronic invalidism.
The Natural Remedies
The most important ones of these natural remedies can be had free of
cost in any home. They are: air, fasting or eliminative diets,
water, and the right mental attitude.
I am fully convinced that these remedies offered freely by Mother
Nature are sufficient, if rightly applied, to cure any acute disease
arising within the organism. If circumstances permit, however, we
may advantageously add corrective manipulation of the spine,
massage, magnetic treatment, advanced regenerative modalities (like
the Magnatherm) and homeopathic, herbal and specific nutritional
supplementation.
The Fresh-Air Treatment
A plentiful supply of pure fresh air is of vital importance at any
time. We can live without food for several weeks and without water
for several days, but we cannot live without air for more than a few
minutes. Just as a fire in the furnace cannot be kept up without a
good draft which supplies the necessary amount of oxygen to the
flame, so the fires of life in the body cannot be maintained without
an abundance of oxygen in the air we breathe.
This is of vital importance at all times, but especially so in acute
disease, because here, as we have learned, all the vital processes
are intensified. The system is working under high pressure. Large
quantities of waste and morbid materials, the products of
inflam-mation, have to be oxidized, that is, burned up and
eliminated from the system.
In this respect the Nature Cure people have brought about one of the
greatest reforms in medical treatment: the admission of plenty of
fresh air to the sickroom.
But, strange to say, the importance of this most essential natural
remedy is as yet not universally recognized by the representatives
of the regular school of medicine. Time and again I have been called
to sickrooms where by order of the doctor every window was closed
and the room filled with pestilential odors, the poisonous
exhalations of the diseased organism added to the stale air of the
unventilated and often overheated apartment. And this air starvation
had been enforced by graduates of our best medical schools and
colleges. This unnatural and inexcusable crime against the sick is
committed even at this late day in our great hospitals under the
direct supervision of physicians who are foremost in their
profession.
It is not the cold draft that is to be feared in the sickroom. Cool
air is most agreeable and beneficial to the body burning in fever
heat. What is to be feared is the reinhalation and reabsorption of
poisonous emanations from the lungs and skin of the diseased body.
Furthermore, the ventilation of a room can be so regulated as to
provide a constant and plentiful supply of fresh air without
expos-ing its occupants to a direct draft. Where there is only one
window and one door, both may be opened and a sheet or blanket hung
across the opening of the door, or the single window may be opened
partly from above and partly from below, which insures the entrance
of fresh, cold air at the bottom and the expulsion of the heated and
vitiated air at the top. The patient may be protected by a screen,
or a board may be placed across the lower part of the window in such
manner that a direct current of air upon the patient is prevented.
In very cold weather, or if conditions are not favorable to constant
ventilation of the sickroom, the doors and windows may be opened
wide for several minutes every few hours, while the patient's body
and head are well protected. There is absolutely no danger of taking
cold if these precautions are taken. Under right conditions of room
temperature, frequent exposure of the patient's nude body to air and
the sunlight will be found most beneficial and will often induce
sleep when other means fail.
I would strongly warn against keeping the patient too warm. This is
especially dangerous in the case of young children, who cannot use
their own judgment or make their wishes known. I have frequently
found children in high fever smothered in heavy blankets under the
mistaken impression on the part of the attendants that they had to
be kept warm and protected against possible draft. In many instances
the air under the covers was actually steaming hot. This surely does
not tend to reduce the burning fever heat in the body of the
patient.
"Natural Diet" in Acute Diseases
From the appearance of the first suspicious symptoms until the fever
has abated and there is a hearty, natural hunger, feeding should be
reduced to a minimum or better still, entirely suspended.
In cases of extreme weakness, and where the acute and subacute
processes are long drawn out and the patient has become greatly
emaciated, it is advisable to give such easily digestible foods as
white of egg, milk, buttermilk and whole grain bread with butter in
combination with raw and stewed fruits and with vegetable salads
prepared with lemon juice and olive oil.
The quantity of drinking water should be regulated by the desire of
the patient, but he should be warned not to take any more than is
necessary to satisfy his thirst. Large amounts of water taken into
the system dilute the blood and the other fluids and secretions of
the organism to an excessive degree, and this tends to increase the
general weakness and lower the patient's resistance to the disease
forces.
Water may be made more palatable and at the same time more effective
for purposes of elimination by the addition of the unsweetened juice
of acid fruits, such as orange, grapefruit or lemon, about one part
of juice to three parts of water. Fresh pineapple juice is very good
except in cases of hyperacidity of the stomach. The fresh,
unsweetened juice of Concord grapes is also beneficial.
Acid and subacid fruit juices do not contain sufficient carbohydrate
or protein materials to unduly excite the digestive processes, while
on the other hand they are very rich in Nature's best medicines, the
mineral salts in organic form. Sweet grapes and sweetened grape
juice should not be given to patients suffering from acute, febrile
diseases because they contain too much sugar, which would have a
tendency to start the processes of digestion and assimilation, to
cause morbid fermentation and to raise the temperature and
accelerate the other disease symptoms.
Fasting
Total abstinence from food during acute febrile conditions is of
primary importance. In certain diseases which will be mentioned
later on, especially those involving the digestive tract, fasting
must be continued for several days after all fever symptoms have
disappeared.
There is no greater fallacy than that the patient must be sustained
and his strength kept up by plenty of nourishing food and drink or,
worse still, by stimulants and tonics. This is altogether wrong in
itself, and besides, habit and appetite are often mistaken for
hunger.
A common spectacle witnessed at the bedside of the sick is that of
well-meaning but misguided relatives and friends forcing food and
drink on the patient, often by order of the doctor, when his whole
system rebels against it and the nauseated stomach expels the food
as soon as taken. Sedatives and tonics are then resorted to in order
to force the digestive organs into submission.
Aversion to eating during acute diseases, whether they represent
healing crises or disease crises, is perfectly natural, because the
entire organism, including the mucous membranes of stomach and
intestines, is engaged in the work of elimination, not assimilation.
Nausea, slimy and fetid discharges, constipation alternating with
diarrhea, etc., indicate that the organs of digestion are throwing
off disease matter, and that they are not in a condition to take up
and assimilate food.
Ordinarily, the digestive tract acts like a sponge which absorbs the
elements of nutrition; but in acute diseases the process is
reversed, the sponge is being squeezed and gives off large
quantities of morbid matter. The processes of digestion and
assimilation are at a standstill. In fact, the entire organism is in
a condition of prostration, weakness and inactivity. The vital
energies are concentrated on the cleansing and healing processes.
Accordingly, there is no demand for food.
This is verified by the fact that a person fasting for a certain
period, say, four weeks, during the course of a serious acute
illness, will not lose nearly as much in weight as the same person
fasting four weeks in days of healthful activity.
It is for the foregoing reasons that nourishment taken during acute
disease is not properly digested, assimilated and transmuted into healthy
blood and tissues. Instead, it ferments and decays, filling the
system with waste matter and noxious gases. interferes seriously
with the elimination of morbid matter through stomach and intestines
by forcing these organs to take up the work of digestion and
assimilation. diverts the vital forces from their combat against the
disease conditions and draws upon them to remove the worse than
useless food ballast from the organism.
This explains why taking food during feverish diseases is usually
followed by a rise in temperature and by aggravation of the other
disease symptoms. As long as there are signs of inflammatory,
febrile conditions and no appetite, do not be afraid to withhold
food entirely, if necessary, for as long as five, six or seven
weeks. In my practice I have had several patients who did not take
any food, except water to which acid fruit juices had been added,
for more than seven weeks, and then made a rapid and complete
recovery.
In cases of gastritis, appendicitis, peritonitis, dysentery or
typhoid fever, abstinence from food is absolutely imperative. Not
even milk should be taken until fever and inflammation have entirely
subsided, and then a few days should be allowed for the healing and
restoring of the injured tissues. Many of the serious chronic
aftereffects of these diseases are due to too early feeding, which
does not allow the healing forces of Nature time to rebuild sloughed
membranes and injured organs.
After a prolonged fast, great care must be observed when commencing
to eat. Very small quantities of light food may safely be taken at
intervals of a few hours. A good plan, especially after an attack of
typhoid fever or dysentery, is to break the fast by thoroughly
masticating one or two tablespoonfuls of popcorn. This gives the
digestive tract a good scouring and starts the peristaltic action of
the bowels better than any other food.
The popcorn may advantageously be followed in about two hours with a
tablespoonful of cooked rice and one or two cooked prunes or a small
quantity of some other stewed fruit.
For several days or weeks after a fast, according to the severity of
the acute disease or healing crisis, a diet consisting largely of
raw fruits, such as oranges, grapefruit, apples, pears, grapes,
etc., and juicy vegetables, especially lettuce, celery, cabbage
slaw, watercress, young onions, tomatoes or cucumbers should be
adhered to. No condiments or dressings should be used with the
vegetables except lemon juice and olive oil.
Hydropathic Treatment in Acute Diseases
We claim that in acute diseases hydropathic treatment will
accomplish all the benefcial effects which the "Old School"
practitioners ascribe to drugs, and that water applications will
produce the desired results much more efficiently, and without any
harmful by-effects or aftereffects upon the system.
The principal objects to be attained in the treatment of acute
inflammatory diseases are:
To relieve the inner congestion and consequent pain in the affected
parts. To keep the temperature below the danger point by promoting
heat radiation through the skin. To increase the activity of the
organs of elimination and thus to facilitate the removal of morbid
materials from the system. To increase the positive electromagnetic
energies in the organism. To increase the amount of oxygen and ozone
in the system and thereby to promote the oxidation and combustion of
effete matter.
The above-mentioned objects can be attained most effectually by the
simple cold water treatment. Whatever the acute condition may be,
whether an ordinary cold or the most serious type of febrile
disease, the applications described in detail in the following
pages, used singly, combined or alternately according to individual
conditions, will always be in order and sufficient to produce the
best possible results.
Baths and Ablutions
Cooling sprays or, if the patient is too weak to leave the bed, cold
sponge baths or ablutions, repeated whenever the temperature rises,
are very effective for keeping the fever below the danger point, for
relieving the congestion in the interior of the body and for
stimulating the elimination of systemic poisons through the skin.
However, care must be taken not to lower the temperature too much by
the excessive coldness or unduly prolonged duration of the
application. It is possible to suppress inflammatory processes by
means of cold water or ice bags just as easily as with poisonous
antiseptics, antifever medicines and surgical operations.
It is sufficient to reduce the temperature to just below the danger
point. This will allow the inflammatory processes to run their
natural course through the five progressive stages of inflammation
and this natural course will then be followed by perfect
regeneration of the affected parts.
In our sanitarium we use only water of ordinary temperature as it
flows from the faucet, never under any circumstances ice bags or ice
water. The application of ice keeps the parts to which it is applied
in a chilled condition. The circulation cannot react, and the
inflammatory processes are thus most effectually suppressed.
To recapitulate: Never check or suppress a fever by means of cold
baths, ablutions, wet packs, etc., but merely lower it below the
danger point. For instance, if a certain type of fever has a
tendency to rise to 104 degree F. or more, bring it down to about
102 degree. If the fever ordinarily runs at a lower temperature, say
at 102 degree F., do not try to reduce it more than one or two
degrees.
If the temperature is subnormal, that is, below the normal or
regular body temperature, the packs should be applied in such a
manner that a warming effect is produced, that is, less wet cloths
and more dry covering should be used, and the packs left on the body
a longer time before they are renewed. More detailed instruction
will be given in subsequent pages.
Never lose sight of the fact that fever is in itself a healing,
cleansing process which must not be checked or suppressed.
Hot-Water Applications Are Injurious
Altogether wrong is the application of hot water to seats of
inflammation as, for instance, the inflamed appendix or ovaries,
sprains, bruises, etc. Almost in every instance where I am called in
to attend a case of acute appendicitis or peritonitis, I find hot
compresses or hot water bottles, by means of which the inflamed
parts are kept continually in an overheated condition. It is in this
way that a simple inflammation is nurtured into an abscess and made
more serious and dangerous.
The hot compress or hot-water bottle draws the blood away from the
inflamed area to the surface temporarily; but unless the hot
application is kept up continually, the blood, under the Law of
Action and Reaction, will recede from the surface into the interior,
and as a result the inner congestion will become as great as or
greater than before.
If the hot applications are continued, the applied heat tends to
maintain and increase the heat in the inflamed parts.
Inflammation means that there is already too much heat in the
affected part or organ. Common sense, therefore, would dictate
cooling applications instead of heating ones.
The cold packs and compresses, on the other hand, have a directly
cooling effect upon the seat of inflammation and in accordance with
the Law of Action and Reaction their secondary, lasting effect
consists in drawing the blood from the congested and heated interior
to the surface, thus relaxing the pores of the skin and promoting
the radiation of heat and the elimination of impurities.
Both the hot-water applications and the use of ice are, therefore,
to be absolutely condemned. The only rational and natural treatment
of inflammatory conditions is that by compresses, packs and
ablutions, using water of ordinary temperature, as it comes from the
cold water tap.
By means of the simple cold-water treatment and fasting all fevers
and inflammations can be reduced in a perfectly natural way within a
short time without undue strain on the organism.
The Whole-Body Pack
The whole-body pack is most effective if by means of it the patient
can be brought into a state of copious perspiration. The pack is
then removed and the patient is given a cold sponge bath.
It will be found that this treatment often produces a second profuse
sweat which is very beneficial. This aftersweat should also be
followed by a cold sponge bath.
Such a course of treatment will frequently be sufficient to
eliminate the morbid matter which has gathered in the system, and
thus prevent in a perfectly natural manner a threatening disease
which otherwise might become dangerous to life.
How to Apply the Whole-Body Pack
On a bed or cot spread two or more blankets, according to their
weight. Over the top blanket spread a linen or cotton sheet which
has been dipped into cold water and wrung out fairly dry. Let the
blankets extend about one foot beyond the wet sheet at the head of
the bed.
Place the patient on the wet sheet so that it comes well up to the
neck, and wrap the sheet snugly around the body so that it covers
every part, tucking it in between the arms and sides and between the
legs. It will be found that the sheet can be adjusted more snugly
and smoothly if separate strips of wet linen are placed between the
legs and between the arms and the sides of the body.
The blankets are now folded, one by one, upward over the feet and
around the body, turned in at the neck and brought across the chest,
the outer layers being held in place with safety pins.
The patient should stay in this whole-body pack from one-half hour
to two hours, according to the object to be attained and the
reaction of the body to the pack. If the pack has been correctly
applied, the patient will become warm in a few minutes.
The Bed-Sweat Bath
If the patient does not react to the pack, that is, if he remains
cold, or if, as is sometimes the case in malaria, the fever is
accompanied by chills or if profuse perspiration is desired, bottles
filled with hot water or bricks heated in the oven and wrapped in
flannel should be placed along the sides and to the feet, under the
outside covering.
This form of application is called the bed-sweat bath. It may be
used with good results when an incipient cold is to be aborted.
After the pack has been removed, the body should be sponged with
cold water, as already stated. Use a coarse cloth or Turkish towel
for this purpose rather than a sponge, as the latter cannot be kept
perfectly clean. Dry the body quickly but thoroughly, and finish by
rubbing with the hands.
In the meantime the damp bed clothing should be replaced by dry
sheets and blankets (a second cot or bed will be found a great
convenience), and the patient put to bed without delay and well
covered in order to prevent chilling and also to induce, if
possible, a copious aftersweat. The patient is then sponged off a
second time, put into a dry bed, and allowed to rest.
If the patient is too weak to leave his bed, the cold sponge may be
given on a large rubber sheet or oilcloth covered with an old
blanket, which should be placed on the bed before the pack is
applied. After removing the pack, put a blanket over the patient to
prevent chilling and wash quickly but thoroughly first the limbs,
then chest and stomach, then the back, drying and covering each part
as soon as finished. Remove the rubber sheet from the bed and wrap
the patient in dry, warm blankets, or lift him into another bed.
How to Apply the Short-Body Pack
A wide strip of linen or muslin, wrung out of cold water, is wrapped
around the patient from under the armpits to the thighs or knees in
one, two or more layers, covered by one or more layers of dry
flannel or muslin in such a manner that the wet linen does not
protrude at any place.
Similar packs may be applied to the throat,* the arms, legs,
shoulder joints or any other part of the body.
The number of layers of wet linen and dry covering is determined by
the vitality of the patient, the height of his temperature and the
particular object of the application, which may be to lower high
temperature to raise the temperature when subnormal to relieve
inner congestion to promote elimination.
If the object is to lower high temperature, several layers of wet
linen should be wrapped around the body and covered loosely by one
or two layers of the dry wrappings in order to prevent the bed from
getting wet. The packs must be renewed as soon as they become dry or
uncomfortably hot.
If the object is to raise subnormal temperature, less wet linen and
more dry covering must be used, and the packs left on a longer time,
say from thirty minutes to two hours. If the patient does not react
to the pack, hot bricks or bottles filled with hot water should be
placed at the sides and to the feet, as explained in connection with
the whole-body pack.
If inner congestion is to be relieved, or if the object is to
promote elimination, less of the wet linen and more dry wrappings
should be used.
When packs are applied, the bed may be protected by spreading an
oilcloth over the mattress under the sheet. But in no case should
oilcloth or rubber sheeting be used for the outer covering of packs.
This would interfere with some of the main objects of the pack
treatment, especially with heat radiation. The outer covering should
be warm but at the same time porous, to allow the escape of heat and
of poisonous gases from the body.
Local Compresses
In case of local inflammation, as in appendicitis, ovaritis,
colitis, etc., separate cooling compresses may be slipped under the
pack and over the seat of inflammation. These local compresses may
be removed and changed when hot and dry without disturbing the
larger pack.
In all fevers accompanied by high temperature, it is advisable to
place an extra cooling compress at the nape of the neck (the region
of the medulla and the back brain), because here are located the
brain centers which regulate the inner temperature of the body
(thermotaxic centers), and the cooling of these brain centers
produces a cooling effect upon the entire organism.
Enemas
While ordinarily we do not favor the giving of injections or enemas
unless they are absolutely necessary, we apply them freely in
feverish diseases in order to remove from the rectum and lower colon
any accumulations of morbid matter, and thus to prevent their
reabsorption into the system. In cases of exceptionally stubborn
constipation, an injection of a few ounces of warm olive oil may be
given. Allow this to remain in the colon about thirty minutes in
order to soften the contents of the rectum, and follow with an
injection of warm water.
Just How the Cold Packs Produce
Their Wonderful Results
(1) How Cold Packs Promote Heat Radiation
Many people are under the impression that the packs reduce the fever
temperature so quickly because they are put on cold. But this is not
so, because, unless the reaction be bad, the packs become warm after
a few minutes' contact with the body.
The prompt reduction of temperature takes place because of increased
heat radiation. The coldness of the pack may lower the surface
temperature slightly; but it is the moist warmth forming under the
pack on the surface of the body that draws the blood from the
congested interior into the skin, relaxes and opens its minute blood
vessels and pores, and in that way facilitates the escape of heat
from the body.
In febrile conditions the pores and capillary blood vessels of the
skin are tense and contracted. Therefore the heat cannot escape, the
skin is hot and dry, and the interior of the body remains
overheated. When the skin relaxes and the patient begins to perspire
freely, we say the fever is broken.
The moist warmth under the wet pack produces this relaxation of the
skin in a perfectly natural manner. By means of these simple packs
followed by cold ablutions, the temperature of the patient can be
kept at any point desired without the use of poisonous antifever
medicines, serums and antitoxins which lower the temperature by
benumbing and paralyzing heart action, respiration, the red and
white blood corpuscles, and thus generally lowering the vital
activities of the organism.
(2) How Cold Packs Relieve Inner Congestion
In all inflammatory febrile diseases the blood is congested in the
inflamed parts and organs. This produces the four cardinal symptoms
of inflammation: redness, swelling, heat, and pain. [Rubor, tumor,
colar and dolar.] If the congestion be too great, the pain becomes
excessive, and the inflammatory processes cannot run their natural
course to the best advantage. It is therefore of great importance to
relieve the local blood pressure in the affected parts and this can
be accomplished most effectively by means of the wet packs.
As before stated, they draw the blood onto the surface of the body
and in that way relieve inner congestion wherever it may exist,
whether it be in the brain, as in meningitis, in the lungs, as in
pneumonia, or in the inflamed appendix.
In several cases where a child was in the most dangerous stage of
diphtheria, where the membranes in throat and nasal passages were
already choking the little patient, the wet packs applied to the
entire body from neck to feet relieved the congestion in the throat
so quickly that within half an hour after the first application the
patient breathed easily and soon made a perfect recovery. The
effectiveness of these simple water applications in reducing
congestion, heat and pain is little short of marvelous.
(3) How Cold Packs Promote Elimination
By far the largest number of deaths in febrile diseases result from
the accumulation in the system of poisonous substances, which
paralyze or destroy vital centers and organs. Therefore it is
necessary to eliminate the morbid products of inflammation from the
organism as quickly as possible.
This also is accomplished most effectively and thoroughly by the
application of wet packs. As they draw the blood into the surface
and relax the minute blood vessels in the skin, the morbid materials
in the blood are eliminated through the pores of the skin and
absorbed by the packs. That this is actually so is verified by the
yellowish or brownish discoloration of the wet wrappings and by
their offensive odor.
One of the main causes of constipation in febrile diseases is the
inner congestion and fever heat. Through the cooling and relaxing
effect of the packs upon the intestines, this inner fever heat is
reduced, and a natural movement of the bowels greatly facilitated.
If constipation should persist in spite of the packs and cooling
compresses, injections of tepid water should be given every day or
every other day in order to prevent the reabsorption of poisonous
products from the lower colon. But never give injections of cold
water with the idea of reducing fever in that way. This is very
dangerous and may cause fatal collapse.
The Electromagnetic Effect of
Cold Water Applications
One of the most important, but least understood, effects of
hydropathic treatment is its influence upon the electromagnetic
energies in the human body. At least, I have never found any
allusions to this aspect of the cold-water treatment in any books on
hydrotherapy which have come to my notice.
The sudden application of cold water or cold air to the surface of
the nude body and the inhalation of cold air into the lungs have the
effect of increasing the amount of electromagnetic energy in the
system.
This can be verified by the following experiment: Insert one of the
plates of an electrometer (sensitive galvanometer) into the stomach
of a person who has remained for some time in a warm room. Now let
this person inhale suddenly fresh, cold outside air. At once the
galvanometer will register a larger amount of electromagnetic
energy.
The same effect will be produced by the application of a quick, cold
spray to the warm body.
It is the sudden lowering of temperature on the surface of the body
or in the lungs and the resulting contrast between the heat within
and the cold outside, that causes the increased manifestation of
electromagnetic energy in the system.
This, together with the acceleration of the entire circulation,
undoubtedly accounts for the tonic effect of cold-water applications
such as cold packs, ablutions, sprays, sitz baths, barefoot walking,
etc., and for the wonderfully bracing influence of fresh, cold
outside air.
The energizing effect of cold air may also explain to a large extent
the superiority of the races inhabiting the temperate zones over
those of the warm and torrid southern regions.
To me it seems a very foolish custom to run away from the
invigorating northern winters to the enervating sameness of southern
climates. One of the reasons I abandoned, with considerable
financial sacrifice, a well-established home in a Texas city which
is the Mecca of health-seekers, was that I did not want to rear my
children under the enervating influence of that beautiful climate.
I, for my part, want some cold winter weather every year to stir up
the lazy blood corpuscles, to set the blood bounding through the
system and to freeze out the microbes.
In our Nature Cure work we find all the way through that the
continued application of warmth has a debilitating effect upon the
organism, and that only by the opposing influences of alternating
heat and cold can we produce the natural stimulation which awakens
the dormant vital energies in the body of the chronic.
Increase of Oxygen and Ozone
The liberation of electromagnetic currents through cold-water
applications has other very important effects upon the system
besides that of stimulation.
Electricity splits up molecules of water into hydrogen, oxygen and
ozone. We have an example of this in the thunderstorm. The powerful
electric discharges which we call lightning separate or split the
watery vapors in the air into these elements. It is the increase of
oxygen and ozone in the air that purifies and sweetens the
atmosphere after the storm.
In acute as well as in chronic disease, large amounts of oxygen and
ozone are required to burn up the morbid materials and to purify the
system. Certain combinations of these elements are among the most
powerful antiseptics and germicides.
Likewise, the electric currents produced by cold packs, ablutions
and other cold-water applications split up the molecules of water in
the tissues of the body into their component parts. In this way
large amounts of oxygen and ozone are liberated, and these elements
assist to a considerable extent in the oxidation and neutralization
of waste materials and disease products.
The following experiment proves that sudden changes in temperature
create electric currents in metals: When two cylinders of dissimilar
metals are welded together, and one of the metals is suddenly
chilled or heated, electric currents are produced which will
continue to flow until both metals are at the same temperature.
Another application of this principle is furnished by the oxydonor.
If both poles of this little instrument are exposed to the same
temperature, there is no manifestation of electricity; but if one of
the poles be attached to the warm body and the other immersed in
cold water or exposed to cold air, the liberation of electromagnetic
currents begins at once. These electric currents set free oxygen and
ozone, which in their turn support the oxidation and neutralization
of systemic poisons.
According to my experience, however, the cold-water applications are
more effective in this respect than the oxydonor.
The Importance of Right Mental and
Emotional Attitude in Acute Disease
We have learned that in the processes of inflammation a battle is
going on between the healing forces of the body, the phagocytes and
natural antitoxins on the one hand and the disease taints, germs,
bacilli, etc., on the other hand.
This battle is real in every respect, as real as a combat between
armies of living soldiers. In this conflict, going on in all acute
inflammatory diseases, mind plays the same role as the commander of
an army.
The great general needs courage, equanimity and presence of mind
most in the stress of battle. So the mind, the commander of the vast
armies of cells battling in acute disease for the health of the
body, must have absolute faith in the superiority of Nature's
healing forces.
If the mind becomes frightened by the inflammatory and febrile
symptoms and pictures to itself in darkest colors their dreadful
consequences, these confused and distracted thought vibrations are
conveyed instantaneously to the millions of little soldiers fighting
in the affected parts and organs. They also become confused and
panic-stricken.
The excitement of fear in the mind still more accelerates heart
action and respiration, intensifies the local congestion and greatly
increases the morbid accumulations in the system. In the last
chapters of this volume we shall deal especially with the
deteriorating influence of fear, anxiety, anger, irritability,
impatience, etc., and explain how these and all other destructive
emotions actually poison the secretions of the body.
In acute disease we cannot afford to add to the poisonous elements
in the organism, because the danger of a fatal ending lies largely
in the paralysis of vital centers by the morbid and poisonous
products of inflammation.
Everything depends upon the maintenance of the greatest possible
inflow of vital force; and there is nothing so weakening as worry
and anxiety, nothing that impedes the inflow, distribution and
normal activity of the vital energies like fear. A person overcome
by sudden fright is actually benumbed and paralyzed, unable to think
and to act intelligently.
These truths may be expressed in another way. The victory of the
healing forces in acute disease depends upon an abundant supply of
the positive electromagnetie energies. In the initial chapters of
this volume we have learned that health is positive, disease
negative. The positive mental attitude of faith and equanimity
creates positive electromagnetic energies in the body, thus infusing
the battling phagocytes with increased vigor and favoring the
secretion of the antitoxins and antibodies, while the negative,
fearful and worrying attitude of mind creates in the system the
negative conditions of weakness, lowered resistance and actual
paralysis.
In the paragraphs dealing with the effects of cold-water treatment
upon the body we learned that the electric currents created in the
organism split up the molecules of water in the tissues into their
component elements (hydrogen and oxygen), thus liberating large
amounts of oxygen and ozone; and that these, in turn, support the
processes of combustion and oxidation in the system, burn up waste
and morbid matter, and destroy hostile microorganisms.
However, the electromagnetic forces in the body are not only
increased and intensified by positive foods, exercise, cold-water
treatment, air baths, etc., but also by the positive attitude of
mind and will.
The positive mind and will are to the body what the magneto is to
the automobile. As the electric sparks from the magneto ignite the
gas, thus generating the power that drives the machine, so the
positive vibrations, generated by a confident and determined will,
create in the body the positive electromagnetic currents which
incite and stimulate all vital activities.
Common experience teaches us that the concentration of the will on
the thing to be accomplished greatly heightens and increases all
physical, mental and moral powers.
Therefore the victory in acute diseases is conditioned by the
absolute faith, confidence and serenity of mind on the part of the
patient. The more he exercises these harmonizing and invigorating
qualities of mind and soul, the more favorable are the conditions
for the little soldiers who are fighting his battles in the inflamed
parts and organs. The blood and nerve currents are less impeded and
disturbed, and flow more normally. The local congestion is relieved,
and this favors the natural course of the inflammatory processes.
Therefore, instead of being overcome with fear and anxiety, as most
people are under such circumstances, do not become alarmed, nor
convey alarm to the millions of little cells battling in the
inflamed parts. Speak to them like a commander addressing his
troops: "We understand the laws of disease and cure, we know that
these inflammatory and febrile symptoms are the result of Nature's
healing efforts, we have perfect confidence in her wisdom and in the
efficiency of her healing forces. This fever is merely a good
house-cleaning, a healing crisis. We are eliminating morbid matter,
poisons and germs which were endangering health and life.
"We rejoice over the purification and regeneration now taking place
and benefiting the whole body. Fear not! Attend to your work quietly
and serenely! Let us open ourselves wide to the inflow of life from
the source of all life in the innermost parts of our being! The life
in us is the life of God. We are strengthened and made whole by the
Divine life and power which animate the universe."
The serenity of your mind, backed by absolute trust in the Law and
by the power of a strong Will, infuses the cells and tissues with
new life and vigor, enabling them to turn the acute disease into a
beneficial, cleansing and healing crisis.
In the following we give a similar formula for treating chronic
constipation.
Say to the cells in the liver, the pancreas and the intestinal
tract:
"I am not going to force you any longer with drugs or enemas to do
your duty. From now on you must work on your own initiative. Your
secretions will become more abundant. Every day at--o'clock the
bowels will move freely and easily."
At the appointed time make the effort, whether you are success-ful
or not, and do not resort to the enema until it becomes an absolute
necessity. If you combine with the mental and physical effort a
natural diet, cold sitz baths, massage and osteopathic treatment,
you will have need of the enema at increasingly longer intervals,
and soon be able to discard it altogether.
Be careful, however, not to employ your intelligence and your will
power to suppress acute inflammatory and febrile processes and
symptoms. This can be accomplished by the power of the will as well
as by ice bags and poisonous drugs, and its effect would be to turn
Nature's acute cleansing efforts into chronic disease.
The Importance of Right Mental and Emotional
Attitude on the Part of Friends and Relatives
What has just been said about the patient is true also of his
friends and relatives. Disease is negative. The sick person is
exceedingly sensitive to his surroundings. He is easily influenced
by all depressing, discordant and jarring conditions. He catches the
expressions of fear and anxiety in the looks, the words, gestures
and actions of his attendants, relatives and friends and these
intensify his own depression and gloomy forebodings.
This applies especially to the influence exerted by the mother upon
her ailing infant. There exists a most intimate sympathetic and
telepathic connection between mother and child. The child is
affected not only by the outward expression of the mother's fear and
anxiety, but likewise by the hidden doubt and despair in the
mother's mind and soul.
Usually, the first thing that confronts me when I am called to the
sickbed of a child is the frantic and almost hysterical mental
condition of the mother, and to begin with, I have to explain to her
the destructive influence of her behavior. I ask her:
"Would you willingly give some deadly poison to your child?"
"Certainly not," she says, to which I reply:
"Do you realize that you are doing this very thing? That your fear
and worry vibrations actually poison and paralyze the vital energies
in the body of your child and most seriously interfere with Nature's
healing processes?
"Instead of helping the disease forces to destroy your child, assist
the healing forces to save it by maintaining an attitude of absolute
faith, serenity, calmness and cheerfulness. Then your looks, your
voice, your touch will convey to your child the positive, magnetic
vibrations of health and of strength. Your very presence will
radiate healing power."
Then I explain how faith, calmness and cheerfulness on her part will
soothe and harmonize the discordant disease vibrations in the
child's body.
Herein lies the modus operandi or working basis of all successful
mental and metaphysical treatment.
Summary
Natural Methods in the Treatment of Acute Disease
~I. Fresh Air~
A plentiful supply of pure air in the sickroom. Frequent exposure of
the nude body to air and sun light. Patient must not be kept too
warm.
~II. Natural Diet~
The minimum amount of light food, chiefly fruit and vegetable
salads, no condiments. Only enough water to quench thirst,
preferably mixed with acid fruit juices. In serious acute febrile
conditions and during healing crises no food whatever. In diseases
affecting the digestive organs fasting must be prolonged several
days beyond cessation of febrile symptoms. Great care must be
observed when breaking fast.
~III. Water Treatment~
Cooling sprays or sponge baths whenever temperature rises. Fever and
inflammation must not be suppressed by cold-water applications, but
kept below the danger point. Neither ice nor hot applications should
be used. Wet packs followed by cold ablutions for elimination of
systemic poisons. Separate compresses over seat of inflammation,
also at nape of neck. Kind and duration of pack to be determined by
condition of patient and object to be attained. Injections of tepid
water to relieve constipation when necessary.
~IV. Medications~
No poisonous drugs, nor any medicines or applications which may
check or suppress the feverish, inflammatory processes. Homeopathic
medicines, herb decoctions and specific nutritional remedies when
indicated.
~V. Manipulative Treatment~
Osteopathy, massage or magnetic treatment when indicated and
available.
~VI. Mental Attitude~
Courage, serenity and presence of mind are important factors. Fear
and anxiety intensify disease conditions, poison the secretions of
the body and inhibit the action of the healing forces. Do not
suppress acute inflammatory and feverish processes by the power of
the will. The right mental and emotional attitude of relatives and
friends exerts a powerful influence upon the patient.
Chapter XIV
The True Scope of Medicine
Anyone able to read the signs of the times cannot help observing the
powerful influence which the Nature Cure philosophy is already
exerting upon the trend of modern medical science. In Germany the
younger generation of physicians has been forced by public demand to
adopt the natural methods of treatment and the German government has
introduced them in the medical departments of its army and navy.
In English-speaking countries, the foremost members of the medical
profession are beginning to talk straight Nature Cure doctrine, to
condemn the use of drugs and to endorse unqualifiedly the Nature
Cure methods of treatment. In proof of this I quote from an article
by Dr. William Osler in the ~Encyclopedia Americana,~ Vol. X, under
the title of "Medicine":
Dr. Osler on Medicine
"The new school does not feel itself under obligation to give any
medicines whatever, while a generation ago not only could few
physicians have held their practice unless they did, but few would
have thought it safe or scientific. Of course, there are still many
cases where the patient or the patient's friends must be humored by
administering medicine or alleged medicine where it is not really
needed, and indeed often where the buoyancy of mind which is the
real curative agent, can only be created by making him wait
hopefully for the expected action of medicine; and some physicians
still cannot unlearn their old training. But the change is great.
The modern treatment of disease relies very greatly on the old
so-called natural methods, diet and exercise, bathing and
massage--in other words, giving the natural forces the fullest scope
by easy and thorough nutrition, increased flow of blood and removal
of obstructions to the excretory systems or the circulation in the
tissues.
"One notable example is typhoid fever. At the outset of the
nineteenth century it was treated with 'remedies' of the extremest
violence--bleeding and blistering, vomiting and purging, and the
administration of antimony and mercury, and plenty of other heroic
remedies. Now the patient is bathed and nursed and carefully tended,
but rarely given medicine. This is the result partly of the
remarkable experiments of the Paris and Vienna schools in the action
of drugs, which have shaken the stoutest faiths; and partly of the
constant and reproachful object lesson of homeopathy. No regular
physician would ever admit that the homeopathic preparations,
'infinitesimals,' could do any good as direct curative agents; and
yet it was perfectly certain that homeopaths lost no more of their
patients than others. There was but one conclusion to draw--that
most drugs had no effect whatever on the diseases for which they
were administered."
Dr. Osler is probably the greatest medical authority on drugs now
living. He was formerly professor of materia medica at the Johns
Hopkins University of Baltimore, U. S., and now holds a
professorship at Oxford University, England. His books on medical
practice are in use in probably every university and medical school
in English-speaking countries. His views on drugs and their real
value as expressed in this article should be an eye-opener to those
good people who believe that we of the Nature Cure school are
altogether too radical, extreme, and somewhat cranky.
However, what Dr. Osler says regarding the "New School" is true only
of a few advanced members of the medical profession.
On the rank and file, the idea of drugless healing has about the
same effect as a red rag on a mad bull. There are still very few
physicians in general practice today who would not lose their bread
and butter if they attempted to practice drugless healing on their
patients. Both the profession and the public will need a good deal
more education along Nature Cure lines before they will see the
light.
In the second sentence of his article, Dr. Osler admits the efficacy
of mental therapeutics and therapeutic faith as a "curative agent,"
and ascribes the good effects of medicine to their stimulating
influence upon the patient's mind rather than to any beneficial
action of the drugs themselves.
With regard to the origin of the modern treatment of typhoid fever,
however, the learned doctor is either misinformed or he
misrepresents the facts. The credit for the introduction of
hydropathic treatment of typhoid fever does not belong to the
"remarkable experiments of the Paris and Vienna schools." These
schools and the entire medical profession fought this treatment with
might and main. For thirty years Priessnitz, Bilz, Ruhne, Father
Kneipp and many other pioneers of Nature Cure were persecuted and
prosecuted, dragged into the courts and tried on the charges of
malpractice and manslaughter for using their sane and natural
methods. Not until Dr. Braun of Berlin wrote an essay on the good
results obtained by the hydropathic treatment of typhoid fever and
it had in that way received orthodox baptism and sanction, was it
adopted by advanced physicians all over the world.
Through the Nature Cure treatment of typhoid fever, the mortality of
this disease has been reduced from over fifty percent under the old
drug treatment to less than five percent under the water treatment.
But the average medical practitioner has not yet learned from the
Nature Cure school, that the same simple fasting and cold water
which cure typhoid fever so effectively, will just as surely and
easily cure every other form of acute disease, as, for instance,
scarlet fever, diphtheria, smallpox, cerebrospinal meningitis,
appendicitis, etc. Therefore, we claim that there is no necessity
for the employment of poisonous drugs, serums and antitoxins for
this purpose.
Referring to the last two sentences of Dr. Osler's article,
homeopaths have, as a matter of fact, lost less patients than
allopaths. The effect of homeopathic medicine, moreover, is not
altogether negative, as Dr. Osler implies. The discovery of the
minute cell as the basis of the human organism on the one hand and
of the unlimited divisibility of matter on the other hand explains
the rationality of the infinitesimal dose. Health and disease are
resident in the cell; therefore, the homeopath doctors the cell, and
the size of the dose has to be apportioned to the size of the
patient.
When Dr. Osler says that most drugs have no effect whatsoever, he
makes a serious misstatement. While they may not contribute anything
to the cure of the disease for which they are given, they are often
very harmful in themselves.
Almost every virulent poison known to man is found in allopathic
prescriptions. It is now positively proved by the Diagnosis from the
Eye that these poisons have a tendency to accumulate in the system,
to concentrate in certain parts and organs for which they have a
special affinity and then to cause continual irritation and actual
destruction of tissues. By far the greater part of all chronic
diseases are created or complicated on the one hand by the
suppression of acute diseases by means of drug poisons, and on the
other hand through the destructive effects of the drugs themselves.
Dr. Schwenninger, the medical adviser of Prince Bismarck, and later
of Richard Wagner, the great composer, has published a book entitled
~The Doctor.~ This work is the most scathing arraignment and
condemnation of modern medical practice, especially of poisonous
drugs and of surgery. Dr. Treves, the body physician of the late
King Edward of England, is no less outspoken in his denunciation of
drugging than Drs. Osler and Schwenninger.
Just a few men like these, foremost in the medical profession, who
have achieved financial and scientific independence, can afford to
speak so frankly. The great majority of physicians, even though they
know better, continue in the old ruts so as to be considered ethical
and orthodox, and in order to hold their practice. It is not the
medical profession that has brought about this reform in the
treatment of typhoid fever and other diseases. They have been forced
into the adoption of the more advanced natural methods through the
pressure of the Nature Cure movement in Germany and elsewhere.
Dr. Osler's statements, made with due deliberation in a contribution
to the ~Encyclopedia Americana,~ are certainly a frank declaration
as to the uselessness of drug treatment, and on the other hand, an
unqualified endorsement of natural methods of healing.
But it seems to me that Dr. Osler pours out the baby with the bath
water, as we say in German. That is, I am inclined to think that his
opinion regarding the ineffectiveness of drugs is entirely too
radical. There is a legitimate scope for medicinal remedies insofar
as they build up the blood on a natural basis and serve as tissue
foods.
Many people who have lost their faith in "Old School" methods of
treatment have swung around to the other extreme of medical
nihilism. In fact, Dr. Osler himself stands accused of being a
medical nihilist.
Many of those who have adopted natural methods of living and of
treating diseases have acquired an actual horror of the word
medicine. However, this extreme attitude is not justified.
It also appears that some of the readers of my writings are under
the impression that we of the Nature Cure school absolutely condemn
the use of any and all medicines. This, however, is not so.
The Position of "Nature Cure" Regarding Medicinal Remedies
We do condemn the use of drugs insofar as they are poisonous and
destructive and insofar as they suppress acute diseases or healing
crises, which are Nature's cleansing and healing efforts; but on the
other hand we realize that there is a wide field for the helpful
application of medicinal remedies insofar as they act as foods to
the tissues of the body and as neutralizers and eliminators of waste
and morbid materials.
In every form of chronic disease there exists in the system, on the
one hand, an excess of certain morbid materials, and on the other
hand, a deficiency of certain mineral constituents, organic salts,
which are essential to the normal functions of the body.
Thus, in all anemic diseases the blood is lacking in iron, which
picks up the oxygen in the air cells of the lungs and carries it
into the tissues, and in sodium, which combines with the carbonic
acid (coalgas) that is constantly being liberated in the system and
conveys it to the organs of depuration, especially the lungs and the
skin. In point of fact, oxygen starvation is due in a much greater
degree to the deficiency of sodium and the consequential
accumulation of carbonic acid in the system (carbonic acid
asphyxiation) than to the lack of iron in the blood, as assumed by
the regular school of medicine.
Foods or medicinal remedies which will supply this deficiency of
iron and sodium in the organism will tend to overcome the anemic
conditions.
The great range of uric acid diseases, such as rheumatism, calculi,
arteriosclerosis, certain forms of diabetes and albuminuria, are
due, on the one hand, to the excessive use of acid-producing foods,
and on the other hand, to a deficiency in the blood of certain
alkaline mineral elements, especially sodium, magnesium and
potassium, whose office it is to neutralize and eliminate the acids
which are created and liberated in the processes of starchy and
protein digestion.
In another chapter I have explained the origin and progressive
development of uric-acid diseases. Our volume on Natural Dietetics
will contain additional proof that practically all diseases are
caused by, or complicated with, acid conditions in the system.
Any foods or medicines which will provide the system with sufficient
quantities of the acid-binding, alkaline mineral salts will prove to
be good medicine for all forms of acid diseases.
The mineral constituents necessary to the vital economy of the
organism should, however, be supplied in the organic form. This will
be explained more fully in subsequent pages.
From what I have said, it becomes apparent that it is impossible to
draw a sharp line of distinction between foods and medicines. All
foods which serve the above-named purposes are good medicines, and
all nonpoisonous herb extracts, homeopathic and vitochemical
remedies that have the same effect upon the system are, for the same
reason, good foods.
The medical treatment of the Nature Cure school consists largely in
the proper selection and combination of food materials. This must be
so. It stands to reason that Nature has provided within the ranges
of the natural foods all the elements which Man needs in the way of
food and medicine.
But it is quite possible that, through continued abuse, the
digestive apparatus has become so weak and so abnormal that it
cannot function properly, that it cannot absorb and assimilate from
natural foods a sufficient quantity of the elements which the
organism needs. In such cases it may be very helpful and indeed
imperative to take the organic mineral salts in the forms of fruit,
herb and vegetable juices, extracts or decoctions. Among the best of
these food remedies are extracts of leafy vegetables such as
lettuce, spinach, Scotch kale, cabbage, Swiss chard, etc. These
vegetables are richer than any other foods in the positive mineral
salts. The extract may be prepared from one or more of these
vegetables, according to the supply on hand or the tolerance of the
digestive organs and the taste and preference of the patient. They
should be ground to a pulp in a vegetable grinder, then pressed out
in a small fruit press, which can be secured in any department
store. One or two teacups per day will be sufficient to supply the
needs of the system for mineral salts. This extract should be
prepared fresh every day.
Then there are the Kneipp Herb Remedies. Most of these are the
Hausmittel [home remedies] of the country population of Germany
which have proved their efficacy since time immemorial. Their
medicinal value lies in the organic mineral salts which they contain
in large quantities and in beneficial combinations.
The homeopathic medications, as will be explained at length in
another chapter, produce their good results because they work in
harmony with the Laws of Nature.
We never hesitate, therefore, to prescribe for our patients
homeopathic medicines, herb decoctions and extracts, and the
vitochemical remedies which assist in the elimination of morbid
matter from the system and in building up blood and lymph on a
normal basis, that is, remedies which supply the organism with the
mineral elements in which it is deficient in the organic, easily
assimilable form. Herein lies the legitimate scope of medicinal
remedies.
All medicinal remedies which build up the system on a normal,
natural basis and increase its fighting power against disease
without in any way inflicting injury upon the organism are welcome
to the adherents of the Nature Cure methods of treatment.
On the other hand, we do not use any drugs or medicines which tend
to hinder, check or suppress Nature's cleansing and regenerating
processes. We never give anything in the least degree poisonous. We
avoid all anodynes, hypnotics, sedatives, antipyretics, laxatives,
cathartics, etc. Judicious fasting, cold-water applications and, if
necessary, warm-water injections in case of constipation will do
everything that is claimed for poisonous drugs.
Inorganic Minerals and Mineral Poisons
For many years past, physicians of the different schools of
medicine, diet experts and food chemists have been divided on the
question whether or not mineral substances which in the organic form
enter into the composition of the human body may safely be used in
foods and medicines in the inorganic form.
The medical profession holds almost unanimously that this is
permissible and good practice, so that nearly every allopathic
medical prescription contains some such inorganic substance, or
worse than that, one or more virulent mineral poisons, as mercury,
arsenic, phosphorus, etc.
So far, the discussion about the usefulness or harmfulness of
inorganic minerals as foods and medicines was largely theoretical
and controversial. Neither party had positive proofs for its
contentions.
But Nature's records in the iris of the eye settle the question for
good and for ever. One of the fundamental principles of the science
of Diagnosis from the Eye is that "nothing shows in the iris by
abnormal signs or discolorations except that which is abnormal in
the body or injurious to it." When substances which are uncongenial
or poisonous to the system accumulate in any part or organ of the
body in sufficient quantities, they will indicate their presence by
certain signs and abnormal colors in the corresponding areas of the
iris.
In this way Nature makes known by her records in the eye what
substances are injurious to the body, and which are harmless.
Certain mineral elements, such as iron, sodium, potassium, calcium,
magnesium, phosphorus, sulphur, etc., which are among the important
constituents of the human body, may be taken in the organic form in
fruits and vegetables, or in herb extracts and the vitochemical
remedies, in large amounts, in fact, far beyond the actual needs of
the body, but they will not show in the iris of the eye, because
they are easily eliminated from the system.
If, however, the same minerals be taken in the inorganic form in
considerable quantities, the iris will exhibit certain well-defined
signs and discolorations in the areas corresponding to those parts
of the body in which the mineral substances have accumulated.
Obviously, Nature does not intend that these mineral elements should
enter the organism in the inorganic form, and therefore the organs
of depuration are not able to neutralize and eliminate them.
Thus, for instance, any amount of iron may be taken in vegetable or
herb extracts, or in the vitochemical remedies, but this will not be
seen in the eye. Whatever is taken in excess of the needs of the
body will be promptly eliminated.
If, however, similar quantities of iron be taken for the same length
of time in the inorganic, mineral form, the iron will accumulate in
the tissues of stomach and bowels, and begin to show in the iris in
the form of a rust brown discoloration in the corresponding areas of
the digestive organs, directly around the pupil.
In similar manner sodium, which is one of the most important mineral
elements in the human body, if taken in the inorganic form, will
show in a heavy, white rim along the outer edge of the iris. Sulphur
will show in the form of yellowish discolorations in the area of
stomach and bowels. Iodine in the medicinal, inorganic form,
prepared from the ash of seaweeds, shows in the iris in well-defined
bright red spots. Phosphorus appears in whitish streaks and clouds
in the areas corresponding to the organs in which it has
accumulated.
An interesting exception to this rule is our common table salt
(sodium chloride), which is an inorganic mineral combination. So
far, diagnosticians from the eye have not discovered any sign in the
iris for it. There seems to be something in its nature that makes it
akin to organic substances or, like other inorganic minerals and
their combinations, it would show in the iris.
This might explain why salt is the only inorganic mineral substance
which is extensively used as food by humanity in general. Also
animals who, guided by their natural instincts, are the finest
discriminators in the selection of foods and medicines, do not
hesitate to take salt freely (salt licks) when they would not touch
any other inorganic mineral.
Nevertheless, we do not wish to encourage the excessive use of salt,
either in the cooking of food or at the table. Taken in considerable
quantities, it is undoubtedly injurious to the tissues of the body.
Before the days of canned goods, scurvy was a common disease among
mariners and other people who had to subsist for long periods of
time on salted meats and were deprived of fresh vegetables. The
disease manifested as a breaking down of the gums and other tissues
of the body, accompanied by bleeding and much soreness. As soon as
these people partook of fresh fruits and vegetables, the scurvy
disappeared.
The minerals contained in these organic salts foods furnished the
building-stones which imparted tensile strength to the tissues and
stopped the disintegration of the fleshy structures.
The Nature Cure regimen aims to provide sodium chloride as well as
the other mineral elements and salts required by the body in organic
form in foods and medicines.
When the use of inorganic minerals is discontinued and when the
proper methods of eliminative treatment, dietetic and otherwise, are
applied, these mineral substances are gradually dislodged and
carried out of the system. Simultaneously with their elimination
disappear their signs in the iris and the disease symptoms which
their presence had created in the organism.
In this connection it is a significant fact that those minerals
which are congenial to the system, that is, those which in their
organic form enter into the composition of the body, are much more
easily eliminated if they have been taken in the inorganic form,
than those substances which are naturally foreign and poisonous to
the human organism, such as mercury, arsenic, iodine, the bromides,
the different coal-tar preparations, etc.
This is proved by the fact that the signs of the minerals which are
normal constituents of the human body disappear from the iris of the
eye much more quickly than the signs of those minerals which are
foreign and naturally poisonous to the system.
The difficulty we experience in eliminating mineral poisons from the
body would seem to indicate that Nature never intended them to be
used as foods or medicines. The intestines, kidneys, skin, mucous
membranes and other organs of depuration are evidently not
constructed or prepared to cope with inorganic, poisonous substances
and to eliminate them completely. Accordingly, these poisons show
the tendency to accumulate in certain parts or organs of the body
for which they have a special affinity and then to act as irritants
and destructive corrodents.
The diseases which we find most difficult to cure, even by the most
radical application of natural methods, are cases of drug-poisoning.
Substances which are foreign to the human organism, and especially
the inorganic, mineral poisons, positively destroy tissues and
organs, and are much harder to eliminate from the system than the
encumbrances of morbid materials and waste matter produced in the
body by wrong habits of living only. The obvious reason for this is
that our organs of elimination are intended and constructed to
excrete only such waste products as are formed in the organism in
the processes of metabolism.
Tuberculosis or cancer may be caused in a scrofulous or psoriatic
constitution by overloading the system with meat, coffee, alcohol or
tobacco; but as soon as these bad habits are discontinued, and the
organs of elimination stimulated by natural methods, the
encumbrances will be eliminated, and the much-dreaded symptoms will
subside and disappear, often with surprising rapidity.
On the other hand, mercury, arsenic, quinine, strychnine, iodine,
etc., accumulate in the brain, the spinal cord, and the cells and
tissues of the vital organs, causing actual destruction and
disintegration. The tissues thus affected are not easily rebuilt,
and it is exceedingly difficult to stir up the destructive mineral
poisons and to eliminate them from the system.
Therefore it is an indisputable fact that many of the most stubborn,
so-called incurable diseases are drug diseases
The Importance of Natural Diet
While certain medicinal remedies in organic form may be very useful
in supplying quickly a deficiency of mineral elements in the system,
we should aim to keep our bodies in a normal, healthy condition by
proper food selection and combination. A brief description of the
scientific basis of "Natural Dietetics" will be found in the chapter
on Diet.
Undoubtedly, Nature has supplied all the elements which the human
organism needs in abundance and in the right proportions in the
natural foods, otherwise she would be a very ignorant organizer and
provider.
We should learn to select and combine food materials in such a
manner that they supply all the needs of the body in the best
possible way and thus insure perfect health and strength without the
use of medicines.
Why should we attempt to cure anemia with inorganic iron,
hyperacidity of the stomach with baking soda, swollen glands with
iodine, the itch with sulphur, ricket conditions in infants with
lime water, etc., when these mineral elements are contained in
abundance and in live, organic form in fruits and vegetables, herbs
and in the vitochemical remedies?
Unfortunately, however, a great many individuals, through wrong
habits of living and of treating their ailments, have ruined their
digestive organs to such an extent that they are incapable of
properly assimilating their food and require, at least temporarily,
stimulative treatment by natural methods and a supply of the
indispensable organic mineral salts through medicinal food
preparations.
In such cases the mineral elements must be provided in the most
easily assimilable form in vegetable extracts (which should be
prepared fresh every day), and in the vitochemical remedies.
What has been said is sufficient, I believe, to justify the attitude
of the Nature Cure school toward medicines in general. It explains
why we avoid the use of inorganic minerals and poisonous substances,
while on the other hand we find a wide and useful field for
medicinal remedies in the form of blood and tissue foods.
Chapter XV
Homeopathy
When we recommend the use of homeopathic remedies, the medical
nihilist says: "Don't talk homeopathy to me! I didn't come to you
for drugs; I have had enough of them."
When we explain that these remedies are so highly refined that they
cannot possibly do any harm, he becomes still more indignant. "I
don't need any of your mental therapeutics in homeopathic form," he
exclaims. "I, too, believe in the power of mind over matter, but I
have no faith in your sugar of milk pellets; they are poor
substitutes for the real article. That kind of sugar-coated
suggestion might work on some people, but it doesn't on me."
When I first entered upon the study of medicine, I, too, did not
believe in the curative power of homeopathic doses; but experience
caused me to change my mind. The well-selected remedy administered
at the right time often works wonders.
True homeopathic medicines in high-potency doses are so highly
refined and rarefied that they cannot possibly produce harmful
results or suppress Nature's cleansing and healing efforts; on the
contrary, if employed according to the Law of Homeopathy: "like
cures like," they assist in producing acute reactions or healing
crises, thus aiding Nature in the work of purification and repair.
Homeopathy Works with the Laws of Cure, Not Against Them. ~Similia
similibus curantur~ (like cures like) translated into practice means
that a drug capable of producing a certain set of disease symptoms
in a healthy body, when given in large, physiological doses, will
relieve or cure a similar set of symptoms in the diseased organism
if the drug be given in small, homeopathic doses.
For instance, ~belladonna,~ given in large, poisonous doses to a
healthy person, will cause a peculiar headache with sharp, stabbing
pains in forehead and temples, high fever, violent delirium,
dilation of the pupils, dryness and rawness of the throat, scarlet
redness of the skin and extreme sensitiveness to light, jars and
noises.
It will be observed that this is a fair picture of a typical case of
scarlet fever. A homeopathic prescriber, when called to a scarlet
fever patient exhibiting in a marked degree three or more of the
above-described symptoms, would give a trituration of belladonna,
say 6x. In numberless cases the fever has subsided and its symptoms
have rapidly disappeared under such treatment.
The reader may say: "I do not see any difference between this and
the allopathic suppression of disease by drugs."
There is a great difference. The allopathic physician may use the
same remedy, belladonna, in the same case, but he will give from ten
to twenty drops of tincture of belladonna, repeated every three or
four hours. These doses are from twenty to forty thousand times
stronger than the homeopathic 3x or 6x.
Herein lies the difference. The allopathic dose allays the fever
symptoms by paralyzing the organism as a whole and the different
vital organs and their functions in particular. This is frankly
admitted in every allopathic materia medica. But by such dosing
Nature is forcibly interrupted in her efforts of cleansing and
healing; the acute reaction is suppressed, but not cured.
If fever is a healing effort of Nature, it may be controlled and
modified, but must not be suppressed. A minute dose of homeopathic
belladonna, acting on the innermost cells of the organism which the
coarser allopathic doses would paralyze, stimulates these cells to
effort in the right direction. It brings about conditions similar to
those produced by Nature, and thus assists her; it is cooperation
instead of counteroperation.
After this brief discussion of the practical application of
homeopathy, let us now ascertain in how far its laws and theories
agree with and corroborate the laws and principles of the Nature
Cure school.
Hahnemann discovered the Law of ~similia similibus curantur
~accidentally, while investigating the effects of quinine on the
human organism. Ever since then it has been applied successfully by
him and his followers in treating human ailments.
However, this law has been used empirically. Neither in the Organon
nor in any other writings or teachings of Hahnemann and the
homeopathic school can be found a clear and concise explanation of
why like cures like. The proof offered has been negative rather than
positive.
Therefore the allopath says: "You tell me that ~'like cures like,'
~and that you can prove it at the sickbed; but unless you can give
me good and valid reasons why it should be so, I cannot and will not
believe that it is your 'similar' which cures the patient. How do I
know it is your 'potency'? The patient might recover just as well
without it."
With the aid of the three laws of cure, I shall endeavor to give the
reasons and furnish the proofs for our contentions. The laws alluded
to are: The Law of Cure, the Law of Dual Effect and the Law of
Crises.
~Similia similibus curantur~ is only another way of stating the
fundamental Law of Nature Cure: "Every acute disease is the result
of a cleansing and healing effort of Nature."
If a certain set of disease symptoms are the result of a healing
effort of Nature, and if I give a remedy which produces the same or
similar symptoms in the system, am I not aiding Nature in her
attempt to overcome the abnormal conditions?
In such a case, the indicated homeopathic remedy will not suppress
the acute reaction, but it will help it along, thus accelerating and
hastening the curative process.
In the last analysis, disease resides in the cell. The well-being of
the organism as a whole is dependent upon the health of the
individual cells of which it is composed. This has been explained
more fully in connection with the action of stimulants.
In order to cure the man, we must free the cell of its encumbrances.
Elimination must begin in the cell, not in the organs of depuration.
Laxatives and cathartics, by irritating the digestive tract, may
cause a forced evacuation of the contents of the intestinal canal,
but they do not eliminate the poisons which clog cells and tissues.
In stubborn chronic diseases, when the cells are too weak to throw
off the latent encumbrances of their own accord, a well-chosen
homeopathic remedy is often of great service in arousing them to
acute reaction.
For instance, if the system is heavily encumbered with scrofulous
taints and if its vitality is lowered to such an extent that the
individual cell cannot of itself throw off the morbid encumbrances
by means of a vigorous, acute effort, sulphur, if administered in
doses sufficiently triturated and refined to affect the minute cells
composing the organism, will start disease vibrations similar to
those of acute scrofulosis, and thus give the needed impetus to
acute eliminative activity on the part of the individual cell.
The acute reaction, once started, may develop into vigorous forms of
scrofulous elimination, such as skin eruptions, glandular swellings,
abscesses, catarrhal discharges, etc.
Are High-Potency Doses Effective?
The question now arises: How large or how small must the dose be in
order to affect the minute cells?
In the administration of medicines, the size of the dose is adjusted
to the size of the patient. If half a grain of a certain drug is the
normal dose for an adult, the proper dose of the same drug for a
small infant, say, less than a year old, may be about one
twenty-fifth of the adult dose. How small, in proportion, should
then be the dose given to a cell a billion times as small as the
infant?
The dose given to an adult would paralyze or perhaps kill an infant.
In like manner the minute cell would be benumbed and paralyzed by
the drug suited to the infant's organism.
But this is how allopathy effects its fictitious cures. It
suppresses inflammatory processes by paralyzing the cells and organs
and their vital activities.
Homeopathy adapts the smallness of the dose to the smallness of the
cell which is to be treated. Herein lies the reasonableness of the
high-potency dose.
The Personal Responsibility of the Cell
The cell resembles Man not only in physical and physiological
aspects, but also in regard to the moral law.
Elimination must commence in the cell and by virtue of the cell's
personal effort. Its work cannot be done vicariously by drugs or the
knife. Large, allopathic doses of medicine may be given with the
idea of doing the work for the cell by violently stimulating or else
paralyzing the organism as a whole or certain ones of the vital
organs; but this is demoralizing and destructive to the cell. The
powerful doses calculated to affect the body and its organs as a
whole make superfluous or paralyze the individual efforts of the
cells and thus intensify the chronic disease conditions in cells and
tissues.
Alms-giving, prison sentences and capital punishment have a similar
allopathic effect upon Man, the individual cell of the social body.
Instead of providing for him the proper environment and the
opportunity for natural development and for working out his own
salvation, they take this opportunity away from him and weaken his
personal effort or make it impossible.
The Efficacy of Small Doses
The late revelations of chemistry, Roentgen rays, x-rays,
radio-activity of metals, etc., throw an interesting light upon the
seemingly infinite divisibility of matter. A small particle of a
given substance may for many years throw off a continuous shower of
corpuscles without perceptibly diminishing its volume.
For an illustration we may take the odoriferous musk. A few grains
of this substance will fill a room with its penetrating aroma for
years. When we smell musk or any other perfume, minute particles of
it bombard the end filaments of the nerves of smell in the nose.
Therefore the musk must be casting off such minute particles
continually without apparent loss of substance.
With the aid of this recent knowledge of the true nature of matter,
of the minuteness and complexity of the atom, we can now understand
how the highly triturated and refined (attenuated) homeopathic
remedy may still retain the dynamic force of the element, as
Hahnemann has expressed it, and how a remedy so attenuated may still
be capable of exerting an influence upon the minute cell. Since
chemistry and physiology have acquainted us with the finer forces of
Nature, demonstrating that they are mightier than the things we can
apprehend by weight and measure, the claims of homeopathy do not
appear so absurd as they did a generation ago.
Undoubtedly, the good effect produced by a well-chosen remedy is
heightened and strengthened by the mental and magnetic influence of
the prescriber. The positive faith of the physician in the efficacy
of the remedy, his sympathy and his indomitable will to assist the
sufferer affect both the physical substance of the remedy and the
mind of the patient.
The varying mental and magnetic qualities of prescribers have
undoubtedly much to do with the varying degrees of efficaciousness
of the same remedy when administered by different physicians.
The true Hahnemannian homeopath, who believes in his remedies as in
his God, will concentrate his intellectual and spiritual forces on a
certain remedy in order to accomplish certain well-defined results.
The bottle is not allowed to become empty. Whenever the graft runs
low, it is replenished with distilled water, alcohol, milk sugar, or
another "vehicle." Every time he takes the medicine bottle into his
hands, these potent thought forms are projected into it: "You are
the element sulphur. You produce in the human body a certain set of
symptoms. You will produce these symptoms in the body of this
patient."
If there is any virtue at all in magnetic, mental and spiritual
healing, the homeopathic remedy must be an effective agency for
transmitting magnetic, mental and psychic healing forces from
prescriber to patient.
Transmission of these higher and finer forces, whether directly,
telepathically or by means of some physical agent, such as
magnetized water, a charm or simile, etc., is the modus operandi in
all the different forms of ancient and modern magic, white or black.
It is the active principle in mental healing, Christian Science,
sympathy healing, voodooism, witchcraft, etc.
Homeopathy and the Law of Dual Effect
I have formulated the Law of Action and Reaction in its application
to the treatment of diseases as follows:
"Every agent affecting the human organism has two effects: a first,
apparent, temporary one and a second, lasting one. The second effect
is directly opposite to the first."
Allopathy, in giving large, physiological doses, takes into
consideration only the first, apparent effect of the drug, and
thereby accomplishes in the long run results directly opposite to
those which it desires to bring about. It produces the very
conditions it tries to cure. As an example, note the permanent
effects of laxatives, stimulants and sedatives upon the system. This
has been explained more fully in Chapter Six.
On the other hand, the homeopathic physician may use the same
remedies as the allopath, provided they produce symptoms similar to
those of the disease, but he administers the different drugs in such
minute doses that their first effect is noticed only as a slight
"homeopathic aggravation," while their second and lasting effect is
relied upon to relieve and cure the disease.
In other words, homeopathy produces as the first effect the
condition like the disease, and counts on the second and lasting
effect of the drug to bring about a permanent change.
If, in accordance with the Law of Dual Effect as applied to drugs,
the primary, temporary effect of the homeopathic remedy is equal to
the disease, it is self-evident that the secondary, lasting effect
of the remedy must be equal to the cure.
This law has been proved by homeopathy for over a hundred years. An
experienced homeopathic prescriber would no more doubt it than he
would doubt the Law of Gravitation.
Homeopathy and the Law of Crises
Therefore, if the remedy be well chosen in accord with the Law of
~similia similibus curantur,~ the first homeopathic aggravation,
which corresponds to the crisis of Nature Cure, will be followed by
speedy and perfect readjustment. Nature has her way, the disorder
runs its course, and the return to normal conditions will be quicker
and more perfect than if the homeopathic remedy had not been
employed or if Nature's healing processes had been forcibly
interrupted and suppressed by large, poisonous allopathic doses.
Homeopathy assists Nature in removing the old encumbrances, whereas
allopathy changes the acute, inflammatory healing effort into
chronic, destructive disease.
The Economics of Homeopathy
The Law of ~like cures like~ is of great practical importance from
another point of view, namely, that of economics.
The best engineer is the one who accomplishes the maximum of results
with the minimum of expenditure of force and with the least
friction. The same is true of the physician and his remedies.
We have learned that drugs given in the coarse allopathic doses
attack and affect the organism as a whole. If, for instance, there
is a catarrhal affection of the serous and mucous membranes of the
respiratory tract accompanied by fever, the allopath will give
quinine in large doses to change this condition. He may accomplish
his aim; but if so, he does it by paralyzing the heart, the
respiratory centers, the red and white blood corpuscles and the
excreting cells of the mucous membranes. The body as a whole and
certain parts in particular are saturated with the drug poison and
correspondingly weakened. As allopathy itself states it: "Quinine
reduces fever by depressing the metabolism" (the vital functions).
Homeopathic materia medica teaches that ~Bryonia~ has a special
affinity for the mucous and serous membranes of the respiratory
tract and that its symptomatic effects correspond closely to those
described in the preceding paragraph.
If, in accordance with the Law of ~similia similibus curantur,~ a
homeopathic dose of Bryonia be given to a patient exhibiting these
symptoms, the remedy, as has been demonstrated, will assist Nature
in her work of cure; and in doing this, it will not attack and
affect the entire organism, but only those serous and mucous tissues
for which it has a special affinity and which, as in the case of
this patient, are the most seriously affected.
To state it in another way: the large, allopathic dose paralyzes the
whole organism in order to produce its fictitious cure. The small,
homeopathic dose, on the other hand, goes right to the spot where it
is needed, and by mild and harmless stimulation of the affected
parts, assists and supports the cells in their acute eliminative
efforts.
Homeopathic medication, therefore, is not only curative in its
effects, but also conservative and in the highest degree economic.
Homeopathy, a Complement of Nature Cure
Having proved the accuracy of Hahnemann's Law of ~similia similibus
curantur,~ and having occasion daily to observe its practical
results in the treatment of acute and chronic diseases, we should
not be justified in omitting homeopathy from our system of
treatment. The attenuated homeopathic doses of certain drugs may be
of great service in bringing about the acute reactions which we so
earnestly desire, especially in the treatment of chronic diseases of
long standing.
I am aware of the fact that in severe and obstinate conditions
homeopathy is often apparently of no avail. But when the system has
been purified and strengthened by our natural methods, by a rational
vegetarian diet, hydrotherapy, chiropractic or osteopathy, massage,
corrective exercise, air and sun baths, normal suggestion, etc., the
homeopathic remedies will work with much greater promptitude and
effectiveness.
It is the combination of all the different healing factors which
constitutes the perfect system of treatment.
No disease condition, whether apparently hopeless or not, can be
called incurable unless all these different healing factors,
properly combined and applied, have been given a thorough trial. It
is no charlatanic boasting, but the simple truth, when we affirm
that the different natural methods of treatment, as we of the Nature
Cure school apply them, can and do cure so-called incurable
diseases, such as tuberculosis, cancer, locomotor ataxy, epilepsy,
eczema, neurasthenia, insanity and the worst forms of chronic
dyspepsia and constipation, always providing that the patient
possesses sufficient vitality to react to the treatment and that the
destruction of vital parts and organs has not advanced too far.
Chapter XVI
The Diphtheria Antitoxin
In this country the antitoxin treatment for diplitheria is still in
high favor, while in Germany, where it originated, many of the best
medical authorities are abandoning its use on account of its
doubtful curative results and certain destructive after-effects.
According to the enthusiastic advocates of this treatment among the
"regular" physicians in this country, the antitoxin is a "certain
cure" for diphtheria; but how is this claim borne out by actual
facts?
The Health Bulletins sent regularly to every physician in the City
of Chicago by the City Health Department show an average of from
fifteen to twenty deaths every week from diphtheria treated with
antitoxin.
I do not deny that the antitoxin treatment may have reduced somewhat
the mortality percentage of this disease, allowing even for the
great uncertainty of medical statistics. But we of the Nature Cure
school claim and can prove that the hydropathic treatment of
diphtheria shows a much lower percentage of mortality than the
antitoxin treatment.
The crucial point to be considered in this connection is: What are
the after-effects of the different methods of treatment?
This is a very important matter. I make the following claims:
that the antitoxin, being itself a most powerful poison, may be and
often is the direct cause of paralysis, or of death due to
heart-failure. That diphtheria treated with antitoxin may be and
often is followed by paralysis, heart-failure, or lifelong
invalidism of some kind after the patient has apparently recovered
from the disease. That these undesirable after-effects of diphtheria
do not occur when the disease is treated by natural methods, but
that they are the result of the antitoxin treatment and of its
suppressive effect upon. the disease.
To prove my claims, I submit the following facts: I have in my
possession clippings from newspapers from different parts of the
country stating that death had followed the administration of the
diphtheria antitoxin for prevention or "immunization," that is,
where the individual had been in good health at the time the
antitoxin was given.
Several cases of this kind created quite a sensation in Germany
about fifteen years ago. Dr. Robert Langerhans, superintendent of
the Moabit Hospital in Berlin, a strong advocate of the antitoxin
treatment and also of vaccination, had been one of a committee of
three appointed by the municipal government of the German metropolis
to investigate the efficiency of the diphtheria antitoxin. As a
result of his findings, he had recommended its free distribution to
the poor of the City of Berlin.
Not long thereafter the doctor's cook was suddenly taken ill with
severe pains in the throat and sent to the hospital. It was thought
to be a case of diphtheria, and the doctor, to protect his little
son, one and one-half years old, against possible infection,
administered an injection of antitoxin. Shortly afterward the child
developed symptoms of blood-poisoning and died of heart-failure
within twenty-four hours.
It is customary in Germany to insert a death-notice in one of the
local newspapers and to invite the friends of the family to the
funeral. In his announcement in the columns of the "Lokalanzeiger,"
Dr. Langerhans stated explicitly that his little son had died after
an injection of diphtheria antitoxin for immunization.
Another similar case is that of Dr. Pistor, a prominent Berlin
physician, whose little daughter contracted a slight inflammation of
the throat. The child was given an injection of antitoxin, and this
was followed by a severe and protracted illness.
Very significant, in this connection, are certain utterances of Dr.
William Osler in his "Practice of Medicine." He says, on page 150:
" Of the sequelae of diphtheria, paralysis is by far the most
important. This can be experimentally produced in animals by the
inoculation of the toxic material produced by the bacilli. [This is
the active principle in the antitoxin. Author's note] The paralysis
occurs in a variable proportion of the cases, ranging from 10 to 15
and even to 20 per cent. It is strictly a sequel of the disease [of
the disease treated with antitoxin?--Author's note], coming on
usually in the second or third week of convalescence. . . . It may
follow very mild cases; indeed, the local lesion may be so trifling
that the onset of the paralysis alone calls attention to the true
nature of the disease. . . .
"The disease is a toxic neuritis, due to the absorption of the
poison. . . .
"Of the local paralysis the most common is that which affects the
palate. . . . Of other local forms perhaps the most common are
paralysis of the eye muscles. . . . Heart symptoms are not uncommon.
. . . Heart-failure and fatal syncope (death) may occur at the
height of the disease or during convalescence, even as late as the
sixth or seventh week after apparent recovery."
It appears to me that the mystery of these "sequelae" can easily be
explained. It is certain that a mere "sore throat," not serious
enough to be diagnosed as diphtheria, cannot produce paralysis or
heart-failure; but we know positively that the antitoxin can do it
and does do it. The cases that Dr. Osler refers to undoubtedly
received the antitoxin treatment, because it is administered on the
slightest suspicion of diphtheria, nay, even to perfectly healthy
persons "for purposes of immunization."
Then is it not most likely that these "mysterious after-effects" are
caused rather by the highly poisonous antitoxin than by the "sore
throat?"
In my own practice, I am frequently consulted by chronic patients
whose troubles date back to diphtheria "cured" by antitoxin. Among
these I have met with several cases of idiocy and insanity, with
many cases of partial paralysis, infantile paralysis, and nervous
disorders of a most serious nature, also with various other forms of
chronic destructive diseases.
In the iris of the eye, the effect of the antitoxin on the system
shows as a darkening of the color. In many instances, the formerly
blue or light-brown iris assumes an ashy-gray or brownish-gray hue.
My secretary who is taking this dictation and who has brown eyes,
tells me that her mother informed her that up to her tenth year her
eyes had been of a clear blue. About that time she had several
attacks of diphtheria and a severe "second" attack of scarlet fever,
which were treated and "cured" under the care of an allopathic
physician. She does not remember whether she was given antitoxin,
but recalls that her throat was painted and her body rubbed with
oil, and that she had to take a great deal of medicine. Since that
time her eyes have turned brown. They show plainly the rust-brown
spots of iodine in the areas of the brain, the throat, and other
parts of the body.
The effect upon the iris of the eye would be very much the same
whether the attacks of diphtheria had been suppressed by antitoxin
or by the old-time drug treatment. A significant fact in this
connection is that, since Mrs. C. is with us, following natural
methods of living and under the effects of the treatments which she
has been taking regularly for several months, her eyes have become
much lighter and in places the original blue is visible under the
brown. The nerve rings in the region of the brain, which were very
marked when she came to us, have become less defined. There is a
corresponding improvement in her general health, and especially in
the condition of her nerves.
In regard to my claim that undesirable after-effects do not occur
under treatment by natural methods, I wish again to call attention
to the fact that for fifty years the Nature Cure physicians in
Germany have proved that hydropathic treatment of diphtheria is not
followed by paralysis, heart-failure, or the different forms of
chronic, destructive diseases.
This has been confirmed by my own experience in the treatment of
diphtheria and other serious acute ailments.
A Reply to My Critics
My discussions of the germ-theory of disease and of the vaccine,
serum, and antitoxin treatment in a series of articles entitled:
"Harmonies of the Physical" and published in "Life and Action"
called forth a great deal of adverse criticism from physicians of
the regular school of medicine. The following paragraphs are
extracts from a letter sent by one of these critics to the editor of
the above-named magazine:
" . . . I am convinced that some statements have been published in
this particular issue [October-Decemher, 1912] which have no proper
place in this magazine, the earnest champion of the cause of Truth
and the official organ of expression of the U. S. headquarters of
the movement which you evidently have at heart."
Dr. E. then refers to certain passages in my article in the
October-December, 1912, number of "Life and Action," and comments
upon them by quoting Drs. Osler and Andrews in favor of the
antitoxin treatment in diphtheria and by giving his own opinion on
the subject. He concludes his arguments as follows:
"I am a subscriber to this magazine and have also had my sister's
name put on the mailing list. She has a little boy about two years
old. Now, suppose she should read that article of Dr. Lindlahr's,
and as a result, refuse to permit the use of antitoxin, and if the
boy should get diphtheria, with a fatal issue as a result, I could
hardly feel gratified over the fact that I had placed that
reading-matter at her disposal. I fully appreciate the fact that
such an unhappy result might easily ensue in some one or more of the
families who read 'Life and Action' and look upon its columns as a
source of the truly higher light."
Perhaps Dr. E. has not read one of Dr. Osler's latest and strongest
utterances, his unqualified endorsement of natural methods of
healing in the Encyclopedia Americana, quoted on page 154 of this
volume.
Nature Cure in Germany
That it is possible to cure all kinds of serious acute diseases by
drugless methods of healing, has been proved by the Nature Cure
practitioners in Germany, nearly all of whom were laymen who had
never visited a medical school. For over half a century, many
thousands of them have been practicing the art of healing in all
parts of Germany. With hydrotherapy and the other natural methods
they have treated successfully typhoid fever. diphtheria, smallpox,
appendicitis, cerebro-spinal meningitis and all other acute
diseases.
It is a significant fact that, in spite of the most strenuous
opposition and appeal to the law-making powers on the part of the
regular school of medicine, the lay doctors could not be prevented
from practicing the natural methods of treatment in law-and
police-ridden Germany.
On the contrary, during the last few generations there have been
practicing in Germany at all times an ever increasing number of
Nature Cure physicians, most of them laymen.
This freedom of Nature Cure practice in Germany is entirely due to
the success of its methods.
And this success has been demonstrated in spite of all kinds of
opposition and attempted restriction. While the Nature Cure
practitioner is permitted to treat those who come to him for relief,
he does not have the right to cover his mistakes with six feet of
earth. If one of his patients dies, a doctor of the regular school
of medicine has to be called in to testify to the fact and issue the
death-certificate.
Thus the "lay doctors," the "Nature Cure physicians," were and are
at present constantly exposed to the strictest critical supervision
by the "regulars," and if the latter can prove that a patient has
died because the natural methods were inefficient or harmful, the
lay practitioner can be prosecuted for and convicted of malpractice
or man-slaughter.
But in point of fact, while a number of these lay physicians were
brought before the courts, in no instance could the actual
harmfulness of the methods employed by them be proven. The natural
methods of treatment became so popular that, as a matter of
self-preservation, the younger generation of physicians in Germany
had to fall in line with the Nature Cure idea in their practice.
Since Dr. E. so strongly questions the efficacy of our methods, I
may be permitted to say something about my own professional
experience.
Nature Cure in America
During the last ten years, I have treated and cured all kinds of
serious acute diseases without resorting to allopathic drugs. In a
very extensive practice, I have not in all these years lost a single
case of appendicitis (and not one of them was operated upon), of
typhoid fever, diphtheria, smallpox, scarlet fever, etc., and only
one case of cerebro-spinal meningitis and of lobar pneumonia. These
facts may be verified from the records of the Health Department of
the City of Chicago.
After the foregoing statements, I leave it to my readers to judge
whether the Nature Cure philosophy is inspired by blind fanaticism
and based upon ignorance and inexperience, or whether it is
justified in the light of scientific facts advanced by the Regular
School of Medicine itself and demonstrated by the wonderful success
of the Nature Cure movement in Germany, which in its different forms
has attained world-wide recognition and adoption.
There is a popular saying: "The proof of the pudding is in the
eating." The following letter will explain itself:
January 20, 1913.
Dear Dr. Lindlahr:--
You may remember that last winter, Mrs. White and I attended your
Sunday afternoon lectures in the Schiller Building. Those lectures
were an education--I might better say a revelation and an
inspiration.
On the 11th of November last, our boy, aged thirteen years, was
taken ill with diphtheria. I called at your office and asked your
advice. You replied: "You know what to do--wet packs, no food except
fruit juices, osteopathic treatment and no antitoxin."
We called an osteopathic physician, who at once sent a specimen from
the boy's throat to the city laboratory, where it was pronounced
diphtheria. A physician from the Board of Health came and
quarantined us and inquired if we had used the antitoxin treatment.
When Mrs. White replied "No," he said: "I suppose you know that the
percentage of deaths of those who do not have it is very high." She
said: "Yes, I know, but we do not intend to use it."
The boy had all the acute symptoms, was drowsy, with headache, and
on the second day his temperature went to 105 degrees. We applied
the wet body pack and by night had reduced his temperature to 100
degrees. With the aid of the osteopathic treatment, which he had
each night, the boy slept well all through big illness. On the fifth
day, the membrane spread from his throat to his nose, and his
temperature rose again; but the wet body packs again reduced it so
that it was never again over 100 degrees.
The boy was bright, his mind was clear, he was able to read, and
after the first week was able to play chess with his mother. The
only unfavorable symptom he had at all was an irregular pulse. He
took no medicine and no food except fruit juices. We used
occasionally the warm water enema. On the tenth day he took a little
lamb broth, but refused it the next day, and again asked for fruit
juices. It was not until two weeks had passed that his appetite
returned and he began to eat. He lost flesh, but did not lose
strength in the same degree--he was able to go to the bathroom each
day unaided.
On the 21st day, the osteopathic physician sent a specimen to the
city laboratory which they pronounced "positive," and the city
physician found it necessary to take as many as four or five
additional specimens before he pronounced him free from the
diphtheria germ. The boy was not released from quarantine until five
weeks had passed.
During all this time his only attendant was his mother and the
osteopathic physician who came daily. The boy has fully recovered
and has suffered no bad results that often follow such diseases.
In contrast to this experience of ours, I would like to cite the
case of a neighbor of ours whose little girl died of the disease
under the antitoxin treatment. She recovered from the diphtheria,
but her heart failed and she died suddenly. They had a regular M. D.
and a trained nurse. Her mother took ill, but recovered. The father
told me that their drug bill alone amounted to $75.
We want to express to you our gratitude for the knowledge and
confidence that you have so freely given to us, and you are at
liberty to make whatever use of this letter that you desire.
Sincerely yours,
HINTON WHITE
1443 Cuyler Ave., Chicago, Ill.
This letter proves that my claims and assertions regarding the
curability of diphtheria by natural methods are not extravagant or
untrue. In this case, as in many others, I gave directions for
treatment verbally and over the telephone without having seen the
patient personally.
I am convinced, furthermore, that this patient would have made just
as good a recovery without the osteopathic treatment. I recommended
the attendance of an osteopathic physician in order to ease the
burden of responsibility on the part of the parents. If the child
had died, they would have been blamed by friends and relatives for
their seeming foolhardiness.
The experience of Mr. White's neighbor is another proof of the fatal
effect of the antitoxin treatment. The antitoxin "cured" the
diphtheria, but-the child died!
Once more I repeat: The hydropathic treatment will give equally good
results in appendicitis, meningitis, scarlet fever, and all other
forms of acute diseases. If this be a fact, why should not my
colleagues of the Regular School of Medicine give the hydropathic
method a fair trial, the more so since in Germany, even among the
physicians of the Regular School, hydropathy as a remedy is fast
superseding antitoxin! Is it not worth while when the "mysterious
sequelae" referred to by Dr. Osler, and the many cases of chronic
invalidism which he does not connect with the disease or its
treatment, might thus be avoided?
Chapter XVII
Vaccination
The pernicious aftereffects of vaccination upon the system are
similar to those of the various serum and antitoxin treatments.
Jenner, an English barber and chiropodist, is usually credited with
the discovery of vaccination. The doubtful honor, however, belongs
in reality to an old Circassian woman who, according to the
historian Le Duc, in the year 1672 startled Constantinople with the
announcement that the Virgin Mary had revealed to her an unfailing
preventive against the smallpox.
Her specific was inoculation with the genuine smallpox virus. But
even with her the idea was not an original one, because the
principle of isopathy (curing a disease with its own disease
products) was explicitly taught a hundred years before that by
Paracelsus, the great genius of the Renaissance of learning of the
Middle Ages. But even he was only voicing the secret teachings of
ancient folklore, sympathy healing and magic dating back to the
Druids and Seers of ancient Britain and Germany.
The Circassian seeress cut a cross in the flesh of people and
inoculated this wound with the smallpox virus. Together with this
she prescribed prayer, abstinence from meat and fasting for forty
days.
As at that time smallpox was a terrible and widespread scourge, the
practice of inoculation was carried all over Europe. At first the
operation was performed by women and laymen; but when vaccination
became popular and people were willing to pay for it, the doctors
began to incorporate it into their regular practice.
Popular superstitions run a very similar course to epidemics. They
have a period of inception, of virulence and of abatement. As germs
and bacteria become inactive and die a natural death in their own
poisonous excreta, so popular superstitions die as a natural result
of their own falsities and exaggerations.
It soon became evident that inoculation with the virus did not
prevent smallpox, but, on the contrary, frequently caused it; and
therefore the practice gradually fell into disuse, only to be
revived by Jenner about one hundred years later in a modified form.
He substituted cowpox virus for smallpox virus.
Modern allopathy, in applying the isopathic principle, gives large
and poisonous doses of virus, lymph, serums and antitoxins, while
homeopathy, as did ancient mysticism, applies the isopathic remedies
in highly diluted and triturated doses only.
From England vaccination gradually spread over the civilized world
and during the nineteenth century the smallpox disease (variola)
constantly diminished in virulence and frequency until today it has
become of comparatively rare occurrence.
"Therefore vaccination has exterminated smallpox," say the disciples
of Jenner.
Is that really so? Is vaccination actually a preventive of smallpox?
This seems very doubtful when the advocates of vaccination
themselves do not believe it. "What," I hear them say, "we do not
believe in our own theory?" Evidently you do not, my friends. If you
believe that vaccination protects you against smallpox, why are you
afraid of catching it from those who are not vaccinated? If you are
thoroughly protected, as you claim to be, how can you catch the
disease from those who are not protected? Why do you not allow the
other fellow to have his fill of smallpox and then enjoy a good
laugh on him? The fact of the matter is you know full well that you
are not safe, that you can catch the disease just as readily as the
unprotected.
German statistics are more reliable than those of any other country.
In the years of 1870-71 smallpox was rampant in the Fatherland. Over
1,000,000 persons had the disease, and 120,000 died. Ninety-six
percent of these had been vaccinated and only four percent had not
been protected. Most of the victims were vaccinated, once at least,
shortly before they took the disease.
In 1888 Bismarck sent an address to the governments of all the
German states in which it was admitted that numerous eczematous
diseases, even those of an epidemic nature, were directly
attributable to vaccination and that the origin and cure of smallpox
were still unsolved problems.
In this message to the various legislatures the great statesman
said: "The hopes placed in the efficacy of the cowpox virus as a
preventive of smallpox have proved entirely deceptive."
Realizing this to be a fact, most of the German governments have
modified or entirely relinquished their compulsory vaccination laws.
"But," our opponents insist, "you cannot deny that smallpox has
greatly diminished since the almost universal adoption of
vaccination."
Certainly the disease has diminished. But so have diminished and, in
fact, nearly disappeared the plague, the Black Death, cholera, the
bubonic plague, yellow fever and numerous other epidemic pests which
only recently decimated entire nations.
Not one of these epidemics was treated by vaccination. Why, then,
did they abate and practically disappear?
Not vaccination, but the more universal adoption of soap, bathtubs,
all kinds of sanitary measures, such as plumbing, drainage,
ventilation and more hygienic modes of living generally have subdued
smallpox as well as all other plagues.
Many of us remember how the yellow fever raged in Havanna during the
Spanish occupancy. Within two months after the energetic Yankees
took possession and gave the filthy city a good scouring, yellow
fever had entirely disappeared--without any yellow fever
vaccination.
The question is now in order why, of all the dreaded plagues of the
past, smallpox alone survives to this day.
The answer is: on account of vaccination. If scrofulous and
syphilitic poisons were not artificially kept alive in human blood
by vaccination, smallpox would by this time be as rare as cholera
and yellow fever.
Thanks to the oft-repeated compulsory vaccination of every citizen,
young and old, we as a nation have become saturated with the
smallpox virus. Is it any wonder that every once in a while this
latent taint breaks out in acute epidemics?
Undoubtedly, the almost universal systematic contamination and
degeneration of vital fluids and tissues, not alone with vaccine
virus, but also with many other filthy serums, antitoxins and drug
poisons, account in a large measure for the steady increase of
tuberculosis, cancer, insanity and a multitude of other chronic
destructive diseases unknown among primitive people that have not
come in contact with the blessings (?) of vaccination.
By weakening the system's reactionary powers against one disease,
its reactionary powers against all diseases are weakened. In other
words, creating in the body a form of chronic smallpox by means of
vaccination favors the development of all kinds of chronic diseases.
Quit sowing the seed, gentlemen, and you will cease reaping the
harvest. By the mercurial suppression of syphilis and by means of
vaccination you are perpetuating smallpox.
What has syphilis to do with smallpox? They are very closely
related, and similar in appearance, symtomatology and in their
effects upon the organism.
A German physician, Dr. Cruwell, who studied the subject thoroughly,
says: "Every vaccination with so-called cowpox virus means
syphilitic infection. Cowpox is not a disease peculiar to cattle; it
is always due to syphilitic or smallpox infection from the diseased
hands of human beings. Cowpox pustules have been found only on the
udders of milk cows which came in contact with human hands. Cattle
roaming in pasture and prairie have never been affected by cowpox,
nor have domesticated steers and oxen. If this disease were a
disorder peculiar to cattle, both sexes would be equally affected.
Jenner's cowpox was caused by the diseased hands of the syphilitic
milkmaid, Sarah Nehnes."
Vaccination of healthy children and adults is often followed by a
multitude of symptoms which cannot be distinguished from syphilis,
viz., characteristic ulcers and eczematous eruptions, swellings of
the axillary and other lymphatic glands, atrophy of the mammary
glands in the breasts of women and of girls above the age of
puberty, etc.
This explains the constantly growing demand for "bust foods" and
"bust developers." A perfectly developed bust has become so rare
that many hundreds of beauty doctors and of business concerns that
make a specialty of developing the flat-bosomed realize thousands of
dollars annually. One firm in this city, and a small concern at
that, has made from $2,500 to $5,000 a year and has over ten
thousand names on its constantly increasing list of patrons.
It is reasonable to assume that almost without exception these ten
thousand women had been vaccinated from one to three times before
the age of puberty. When this is realized, and the fact that
vaccination dries up the mammary glands is taken into account, is it
not time to pause and consider?
The figures of this one small concern represent the report of only
one out of several hundred such firms doing business in all parts of
the country.
Some years ago, a disease similar to smallpox broke out among the
sheep in certain parts of Scotland. As a preventive, the sheep were
vaccinated. In the course of a few years it was noticed that a great
many ewes were unable to nourish their lambs. With the
discontinuance of vaccination this phenomenon disappeared.
Does this help to explain why nowadays over fifty percent of human
mothers are incapable of nursing their babies?
Looking Forward
At present the trend of allopathic medical science is undoubtedly
toward the serum, antitoxin and vaccine treatment. Practically all
medical research tends that way. Every few days we see in the daily
papers reports of new serums and antitoxins which are claimed to
cure or create immunity to certain diseases.
Suppose the research and practice of medical science continue along
these lines and are generally accepted or, as the medical
associations would have it, forced upon the public by law. What
would be the result? Before a child reached the years of
adolescence, it would have had injected into its blood the vaccines,
serums, and antitoxins of smallpox, hydrophobia, tetanus (lockjaw),
cerebro-spinal meningitis, typhoid fever, diphtheria, pneumonia,
scarlet fever, etc.
If allopathy were to have its way, the blood of the adult would be a
mixture of dozens of filthy bacterial extracts, disease taints and
destructive drug poisons. The tonsils and adenoids, the appendix
vermiformis and probably a few other parts of the human anatomy
would be extirpated in early youth under compulsion of the health
departments.
What is more rational and sensible: the endeavor to produce immunity
to disease by making the human body the breeding ground for all
sorts of antibacteria and antipoisons, or to create natural immunity
by building up the blood on a normal basis, purifying the body of
morbid matter and poisons, correcting mechanical lesions and by
cultivating the right mental attitude? Which one of these methods is
more likely to be disease-building, which health-building?
Just imagine what human blood will be like in coming generations if
this artificial contamination with all sorts of disease taints and
drug poisons is to be forced upon the people!
Chapter XVIII
Surgery
The discoverers of anesthetics are classed among the greatest
benefactors of humanity, because it is believed that ether,
chloroform, cocaine and similar nerve-paralyzing agents have greatly
lessened the sum of human suffering. I doubt, however, that this is
true.
Anesthetics have made surgery technically easy and have done away
with the pain caused directly by the incisions; but on the other
hand, these marvelous effects of pain-killing drugs have encouraged
indiscriminate and unnecessary operations to such an extent that at
least nine-tenths of all the surgical operations performed today are
uncalled for. In most instances these ill-advised mutilations are
followed by lifelong weakness and suffering, which far outweigh the
temporary pains formerly endured when unavoidable operations were
performed without the use of anesthesia.
We do not wish to be understood as condemning unqualifiedly any and
all surgical interventions in the treatment of human ailments. An
operation may occasionally be absolutely necessary as a means of
saving life. Surgery is also indicated in cases of injury, such as
wounds or fractured bones, in certain obstetrical complications and
in other affections of a purely mechanical nature.
In all such cases anesthetics prevent much suffering which cannot be
avoided in any other way. But anyone who has had an opportunity to
watch the prolonged misery of the victims of un-called-for
operations will not doubt that anesthesia has been a two-edged sword
which has inflicted many more wounds than it has healed.
Many physicians have recognized more or less distinctly the
uselessness and harmfulness of "Old School" medical treatment.
Dissatisfied and disgusted with old-fashioned drugging, they turn to
surgery, convinced that in it they possess an exact scientific
method of curing ailments. They seem to think that the surest way to
cure a diseased organ is to remove it with the knife--fine reasoning
for school boys, but not worthy of men of science.
I, for my part, cannot understand how an organ can be cured after it
has been extirpated and, preserved in alcohol, adorns the specimen
cabinet of the surgeon.
Destruction or Cure--Which Is Better?
"But," the surgeon says, "we do not remove organs from the body
unless they have become useless."
However, this claim is not borne out by actual facts. During the
past ten years thousands of patients have come under our
treatment, both in the sanitarium and in the downtown offices, whose
family physicians had declared that in order to save their lives
they must submit to the knife without delay. With very few
exceptions these people were cured by us without using a poisonous
drug, an antiseptic or a knife.
Several women who, years ago, were confronted with removal of the
ovaries, are today the joyful mothers of children. Many of our
former patients, who were treated by "Old School" physicians for
acute or chronic appendicitis and were strongly urged to have the
offending organ removed, are today alive and well and still in
possession of their vermiform appendices. Other patients were
threatened with operations for kidney, gall and bladder stones;
fibroid and other tumors; floating kidneys; stomach troubles;
intestinal and uterine disorders, not to mention the multitude of
children whose tonsils and adenoids were to have been removed. All
of these onetime surgical cases have escaped the knife and are doing
very well indeed with their bodies intact and in possession of the
full quota of organs given them by Nature.
Is it not better to cure a diseased organ than to remove it? Nature
Cure proves every day that the better way is at the same time the
easiest way.
Thousands of men and women operated upon for some local ailment
which could have been cured easily by natural methods of treatment
are condemned by these inexcusable mutilations to lifelong
suffering. Many, if not actually suffering pain, have been
unnecessarily unsexed and in other ways incapacitated for the normal
functions and natural enjoyments of life.
Cases of this kind are the most pitiable of all that come under our
observation. When we learn that a major operation has been performed
upon a consultant, our barometer of hope drops considerably. We know
from much experience that the mutilation of the human organism has a
tendency to lessen the chances of recovery; such patients are nearly
always lacking in recuperative power.
A body deprived of important parts or organs is forever unbalanced.
It is like a watch with a spring or a wheel taken out; it may run,
but never quite right; it is hypersensitive and easily thrown out of
balance by any adverse influence.
The Human Body Is a Unit
We are realizing more and more that the human body is a homogeneous
and harmonious whole, and that we cannot injure one part of it
without damaging other parts and often the entire organism. Cutting
in the vital organs means cutting in the brain. It affects the
functions of the nervous system most profoundly.
A physician in Vienna has written a very interesting book in which
he shows that the inner membranes of the nose are in close
relationship and sympathy with distant parts and organs of the body.
He located in the nose one small area which corresponds to the
lungs. By irritating this area with an electric needle he could
provoke asthmatic attacks in patients subject to this disease. By
anesthetizing the same area he could stop immediately severe attacks
of asthma and of coughing. Another area in the nasal cavity
corresponds to the genital organs. The doctor proved that by
electric irritation applied to this area abortions could be
produced, and that by anesthesia of the same area in the nose,
uterine hemorrhages could be stopped.
These and many other facts of experience throw a wonderful light
upon the unity of the human organism. The body resembles a watch.
You cannot injure one part of it without affecting its entire
mechanism.
The evil aftereffects of surgical operations do not always manifest
at once. On the contrary, the surgical treatment is frequently
followed by a period of seeming improvement. The troublesome local
symptoms have been removed, and aftereffects of the mutilation have
not had time to assert themselves. But sooner or later the old
symptoms return in aggravated form, or a new set of complications
arises. The patient is made to believe that the first operation was
a perfect success and that this latest crop of difficulties has
nothing to do with the former, but is something entirely new. At
other times he is assured that the first operation did not go deep
enough, that it failed to reach the seat of the trouble and must be
done over again.
And so the work of mutilation goes merrily on. The disease poisons
in the body set up one center of inflammation after another. These
centers the surgeon promptly removes; but the real disease, the
venereal, psoriatic or scrofulous taint, the uric or oxalic acid,
the poisonous alkaloids and ptomaines affecting every cell and every
drop of blood in the body, these elude the surgeon's knife and
create new ulcers, abscesses, inflammations, stones, cancers, etc.,
as fast as the old ones are extirpated.
Those who have studied the previous chapters carefully will readily
comprehend these facts. They will know that acute and subacute
conditions represent Nature's cleansing and healing efforts, and
that local suppression by drug or knife only serves to turn Nature's
corrective and purifying activities into chronic disease.
The highest art of the true physician is to preserve and to restore,
not to mutilate or destroy.
Chapter XIX
Chronic Diseases
The "Old School" of medical science defines acute diseases as those
which run a brief and more or less violent course and chronic
diseases as those which run a protracted course and have a tendency
to recur.
Nature Cure attaches a broader and more significant meaning to these
terms. This will have become apparent from our discussion of the
causes, the progressive development and the purpose of acute
diseases in the preceding pages.
From the Nature Cure viewpoint, the chronic condition is the latent,
constitutional disease encumbrance, whereas acute disease represents
Nature's efforts to rectify abnormal conditions, to overcome and
eliminate hereditary or acquired morbid taints and systemic poisons
and to reestablish normal structure and functions.
To use an illustration: In a case of permanent or recurrent itchy
psoriasis, the "Old School" physician would look upon the itchy skin
eruption as the chronic disease, while we should see in the external
eczema an attempt of the healing forces of Nature to remove from the
system the inner, latent hereditary or acquired psora, which
constitutes the real chronic disease.
It stands to reason that the exterior eruptions should not be
suppressed by any means whatever, but that the only true and really
effective method of treatment consists in eliminating from the
organism the inner, latent psoric taint. After this is accomplished,
the external "skin disease" will disappear of its own accord.
As another illustration of the radical difference in our respective
points of view, let us take hemorrhoids (piles). The regular
physician considers the local hemorrhoidal enlargements in
themselves the chronic disease, while the Nature Cure practitioner
looks upon hemorrhoids as Nature's effort to rid the system of
certain morbid encumbrances and poisons which have accumulated as a
result of sluggish circulation, chronic constipation, defective
elimination through kidneys, lungs, and skin and from many other
causes.
These constitutional abnormalities, which are the real chronic
disease, have to be treated and corrected. After this has been done,
the hemorrhoidal enlargements and discharges will take care of
themselves.
It is, therefore, absolutely irrational, and frequently followed by
the most serious consequences, to surgically remove the piles or to
suppress the hemorrhoidal discharges and thereby to drive these
concentrated poison extracts back into the system.
In a number of cases we have traced paralysis, insanity,
tuberculosis, cancer and other forms of chronic destructive diseases
to the forcible suppression of hemorrhoids.
Chronic disease, from the viewpoint of Nature Cure philosophy, means
that the organism has become permeated with morbid matter and
poisons to such an extent that it is no longer able to throw off
these encumbrances by a vigorous, acute eliminative effort. The
chronic condition, therefore, represents the slow, cold type of
disease, characterized by feeble, ineffectual efforts to eliminate
the latent morbid taints and impediments from the system. These
efforts may take the form of open sores, skin eruptions, catarrhal
discharges, chronic diarrhea, etc.
If acute diseases are treated in harmony with Nature's laws, they
will leave the body in a purer, healthier condition. But if the
treatment is wrong, if under the "Old School" methods fever and
inflammation (Nature's methods of elimination) are checked and
suppressed with poisonous drugs, serums and antitoxins or if,
instead of purifying and invigorating cells and tissues, the
affected parts and organs are removed with the surgeon's knife,
Nature is not allowed to get rid of the disease matter, and the
poisonous taints and morbid encumbrances remain in the organism.
In this way originate the worst forms of chronic diseases which now
afflict civilized races.
The truth of this assertion is proved by the fact that chronic
diseases we know are rare among the primitive peoples of the earth,
such as the early indiginous people of Africa and Australia or the
Eskimos of the arctic regions. They are not found among people who
do not use drugs. All the different forms of venereal disease,
chronic rheumatism, chronic indigestion, etc., are unknown in those
countries whose inhabitants live in harmony with Nature. The reason
is that these people have not learned to suppress Nature's acute
purifying and healing efforts by poisonous drugs and surgical
operations.
The Cell
Let us now study the actual condition of the cells, tissues and
organs of the body in chronic disease.
We know that the human body is made up of billions of minute cells
of living protoplasm. Though these cells are so small that they have
to be magnified under the microscope several hundred times before we
can see them, they are independent living beings which are born,
grow, eat, drink, throw off waste matter, multiply, decline and die
just like the large conglomerate cell which we call Man.
Each one of these little cells has its own business to attend to,
whether it be assimilation, elimination, nervous activities and
functions, etc.
If these little beings are well individually, the man is well. If
they are starved or ailing, the entire man is similarly affected.
The whole depends upon the parts. In the human body as well as in a
nation or a city, the welfare of the entire community depends upon
the well-being of its individual members.
If governing bodies would realize and apply these truths, and pay
more attention to providing wholesome surroundings and proper
conditions of living for their subjects, to an adequate supply of
pure food and a normal combination of work and rest, instead of
concentrating their best efforts upon restrictive and punitive
measures (allopathic treatment), there would be no social problems
to solve.
It is our duty to provide the most favorable conditions of living
for the little cells that make up the individual human organism. If
we do that, there will be no occasion for disease. Natural immunity
will be the result.
Herein lies the vital difference between the attitude of Nature Cure
and that of the allopathic school toward disease. The latter spends
all its efforts in fighting the disease symptoms, while the former
confines itself to creating health conditions in the habits and
surroundings of the patient, from the standpoint that the disease
symptoms will then take care of themselves, that they will disappear
on account of nonsupport. It is the application of the injunction
"Resist not Evil" to the treatment of physical disease.
Under the influence of wrong habits of living and the suppressive
treatment of diseases, all forms of waste and morbid matter (the
feces of the cells), together with food, drink and drug poisons
accumulate in the system, affect the cells and obstruct the tiny
spaces (interstices) between them. These morbid encumbrances impinge
upon and clog the blood vessels, the nerve channels and the other
tissues of the body. This is bound to interfere with the normal
functions of the organism, and in time lead to deterioration and
organic destruction.
In this connection we wish to call attention to a difference in
viewpoint between the school of osteopathy and the Nature Cure
school. Osteopaths and chiropractors attribute disease almost
entirely to "impingement" (abnormal pressure) upon nerves and blood
vessels due to dislocations and subluxations of the vertebrae of the
spine and of other bony structures. They do not take into
consideration the impingement upon and obstruction of nerve channels
and blood vessels all through the system caused by local or general
encumbrances of the organism with waste matter, morbid products, and
poisons that have accumulated in cells and tissues.
The Life of the Cell
Every individual cell must be supplied with food and with oxygen.
These it receives from the red arterial blood. The cells must also
be provided with an outlet for their waste products. This is
furnished by the venous circulation, which represents the drainage
system of the body. If this drainage is defective, the effect upon
the organism is similar to the effect produced upon a house when the
excretions and discharges of its inhabitants are allowed to remain
in it.
Furthermore, every cell must be in unobstructed communication with
the nerve currents of the organism. Most important of all, it must
be in touch with the sympathetic nervous system through which it
receives the Life Force which vivifies and controls all involuntary
functions of the cells and organs in the human body.
Each individual cell must be supplied with nerve fibers which convey
its sensations and needs to headquarters, the nerve centers in brain
and spinal cord. Also, each cell must be connected with other nerve
filaments which carry impulses from the cranial, spinal and
sympathetic centers to the cell, governing and directing its
activities.
For instance, if the cell be hungry, thirsty, cold or in pain, it
telegraphs these sensations to headquarters in the brain or spinal
cord and from there directions necessary to comply with the needs of
the cell are sent forth in the form of nerve impulses to the centers
controlling the circulation, the food and heat supply, the means of
protection, etc.
This circuit of communication from the cell over the afferent nerves
to the nerve centers in the brain or spinal cord, and from these
centers over the efferent nerves back to the cell or to other cells
is called the reflex arc.
Let us use an illustration: Suppose the fingers come in close
contact with a hot iron. The cells in the finger tips experience a
sensation of burning pain. At once this sensation is telegraphed
over the afferent nerves to the nerve centers in the brain or spinal
cord. In response to this call of distress the command comes back
over the efferent nerve filaments: "Withdraw the fingers!" At the
same time the impulse to withdraw the fingers is sent over the motor
nerves to the muscles and ligaments which control the movements of
the hand.
If the means of communication between the different parts of the
organism are obstructed or cut off entirely, the individual cell is
bound to deteriorate and to die, just like a person lost in a barren
wilderness and cut off from his fellowmen must perish.
In warfare it is a well-known fact that if one of the contending
armies succeeds in cutting off the telegraphic communication of the
other army with its headquarters, the activities of that other army
are seriously handicapped. So the waste materials in the system, the
disease taints, narcotic and alcoholic poisons, etc., obstruct the
nerve passages, and thus interfere with the functions of the cell by
cutting off its means of communication.
What has been said will serve to elucidate and emphasize the
necessity of perfect cleanliness, inside as well as outside of the
body. It justifies the dictum of Kuhne, the apostle of Nature Cure:
"Cleanliness is Health." Anything that in any way interferes with or
obstructs the circulation of vital fluids and nerve currents in the
system is bound to create the abnormal conditions and functions
which constitute disease.
When the morbid encumbrances and obstructions in the organism have
reached the point where they seriously interfere with the
nourishment, drainage and nerve supply of the cells, the latter
cannot perform their activities properly, nor can they rid
themselves of the impediment. They may be compared to people who are
forced to live in bad, unwholesome surroundings and who cannot do
their best work under these unfavorable conditions from which they
cannot escape.
In this way originates chronic disease, which means that the cells
have become incapable of arousing themselves to acute eliminative
effort in the form of inflammatory febrile reactions.
In my lectures I sometimes liken the cell thus encumbered with
morbid matter and poisons to a man buried in a mine under the debris
of a cave in such a manner that it is impossible for him to free
himself of the earth and timbers which are pinning him down. In such
a predicament the man is unable to help himself. His fellow workers
or his friends must come to his aid and remove the obstructing
masses until he can assist them and free himself.
This is a good illustration of the condition of the cells of the
body in chronic disease. They also have become unable to help
themselves and need assistance until they can once more arouse
themselves to self-help by means of an acute eliminative effort.
What can we do to help them? We must endeavor in the first place to
furnish the cells with the right nourishment. We must abstain from
everything that may be injurious to the body in food and drink, so
as to relieve the cells of all unnecessary work.
Whatever one may think of vegetarianism as a continuous mode of
living, a little consideration will make it plain that a rational
vegetarian diet is the ~sine qua non~ in the cure of chronic
diseases. It builds up the blood on a normal basis, excludes all
food and drink poisons and thereby gives the organism an opportunity
to throw off the old accumulations of waste and morbid materials.
In chronic disease, every drop of blood and every cell of the
organism is affected. In order to produce a cure, the old tissues
must be broken down and removed and new tissues built up. The more
thorough the change in diet, the greater and more rapid will be the
changes for the better in cells and tissues, especially if only pure
and eliminating foods are used.
For these reasons it is advisable to omit most red-blooded meat
while under the natural treatment. All animal flesh contains the
morbid secretions and other waste products of the animal organism,
and this means additional work for the cells already overburdened
with systemic poisons.
Then we must work for elimination. Cold water applied to the surface
of the body is the most powerful stimulant to the circulation. It
actually pumps and pushes the blood through the system. One feels
the blood rushing through the arteries and veins with greater force.
The cold-water treatment makes the skin more alive and active, stirs
up and accelerates the circulation throughout the system and thus
promotes the elimination of systemic poisons through the skin.
This stimulating effect of cold water upon the organism has been
proved by counting the number of red blood corpuscles in a drop of
blood before and after the application of the cold "blitzguss." They
were found to have doubled in number. That does not mean that in an
instant again as many red blood corpuscles had come into existence,
but it does mean that before the cold "guss" one-half of them were
dozing lazily in the corners. The cold water stirred them up, forced
them into the circulation, made them travel and attend to business.
Another powerful means to promote elimination is thorough,
systematic massage. The kneading, rolling, twisting and clapping
actually squeezes the stagnant morbid matter and the waste products
out of the tissues into the circulation, to be carried off through
the venous drainage and allows the red blood with its nourishment
and fresh supply of oxygen to flood the cells and organs.
Massage is also very effective as a means of regulating the blood
supply in the system. In every chronic disease there is obstruction
or congestion in some part of the organism, causing high blood
pressure in the interior of the body and insufficient blood supply
to the external parts, especially the extremities. Massage
distributes the blood quickly and evenly.
Of great importance is osteopathy. All dislocations, luxations and
subluxations of bones and ligaments should be corrected by expert
manipulation. As a matter of fact, hardly a person can be found
today whose spine is not abnormal in one way or another, just as
there is hardly a single normal human eye [as far as iridology
markings are concerned].
Manipulative treatment adjusts the lesions of the spine and other
bony structures, thus removing abnormal pressure upon the nerves and
blood vessels and establishing a free and abundant flow of nerve and
blood currents.
Air and light baths, by stimulating the skin in a natural manner to
increased activity, also contribute to the attainment of the various
good results just described.
Next comes physical exercise. Corrective and curative movements
combined with deep breathing promote the combustion (oxidation) of
morbid materials and in this way facilitate their elimination from
the system.
Life itself is dependent upon breathing. The Life Force enters the
body with every breath we draw. Show me a man with well-developed,
full-breathing lungs, and I will show you a man with good vitality.
Last but not least among the natural methods of treating the cell in
chronic disease we mention the right mental and emotional attitude.
Fear, anxiety and all kindred emotions congeal the nerve matter and
thereby shut off the supply of nerve force. The cells and tissues
starve and freeze. On the other hand, the emotions of hope,
confidence and cheerfulness relax and open blood vessels and nerve
channels and allow the free and unobstructed inflow and circulation
of vital energy.
The different methods of natural treatment and their practical
application in chronic diseases will be discussed in detail in
subsequent chapters.
When through natural methods of living and of treatment the morbid
encumbrances have been removed sufficiently to provide and maintain
normal blood supply, better venous drainage and the unobstructed
flow of the nerve currents, when lesions of the bony structures have
been corrected by skilful adjustment, and when, through right mental
attitude, a free and abundant inflow of Life Force has been
established, then the cells and tissues of the body become once
again able to arouse themselves to an acute eliminative effort, and
the organism is ready for a healing crisis.
Chapter XX
Crises
Crisis in the ordinary sense of the word means change, either for
better or for worse. In its relation to medicine, the term "crisis"
has been defined as "a decisive change in the disease, resulting
either in recovery or in death."
We of the Nature Cure school distinguish between healing crises and
disease crises, according to the character and the tendency of the
acute reaction. If an acute disease is brought about through the
accumulation of morbid matter or the invasion of disease germs to
such an extent that the health or the life of the organism is
endangered, in other words, if the disease conditions are forcing
the crises, we speak of disease crises.
But if acute reactions take place in the system because conditions
have become more normal, because the healing forces have gained the
ascendancy and forced the acute inflammatory processes, we call them
healing crises.
Healing crises are simply different forms of elimination by means of
which Nature endeavors to remove the latent, chronic disease
encumbrance from the system. The most common forms of these acute
purifications are colds, catarrhal and hemorrhoidal discharges,
boils, ulcers, abscesses, open sores, skin eruptions, diarrheas,
etc.
Healing crises and disease crises may seem very much alike. Patients
often tell me: "I have had this before. I call it an ordinary boil
(or cold, or fever)."
That may be true. The former disease crisis and the present healing
crisis may be similar in their outward manifestations. But they are
taking place under entirely different conditions.
When the organism is loaded to the danger point with morbid matter,
it may arouse itself in self-defense to an acute eliminative effort
in the shape of cold, catarrh, fever, inflammation, skin eruption,
etc. In these instances, the disease conditions bring about the
crisis and the organism is on the defensive. These are disease
crises.
Such unequal struggles between the healing forces and disease
conditions sometimes end favorably and sometimes unfavorably.
On the other hand, healing crises develop because the healing forces
are in the ascendancy and take the offensive. They are brought about
through the natural methods of living and of treatment and always
result in improved conditions.
A simple allegory may assist me in explaining the difference between
a healing crisis and a disease crisis:
For years a prizefighter holds the championship because he keeps
himself in perfect physical condition and before every contest
spends many weeks in careful training. When he faces his opponent in
the ring, he has eliminated from his organism as much waste matter
and superfluous flesh and fat as possible by a strictly regulated
diet and a great deal of hard exercise. As a consequence, he comes
off victorious in every contest and easily maintains his
superiority.
These victories in his career, like healing crises in the organism,
are the result of training and preparation.
The prizefighter in the one case and Vital Force in the other are on
the offensive from the beginning of the struggle and have the best
of the fight from start to finish.
Rendered overconfident by long-continued success, our champion
gradually permits himself to drift into a weakened physical
condition. He omits his regular training and indulges in all kinds
of dissipation.
One day, full of self-conceit and underestimating the strength of
his challenger, he enters the ring without preparation and is
ingloriously defeated by a man who, under different circumstances,
would not be a match for him.
So, in the case of a patient in a disease crisis, fatal termination
may be due to the excessive accumulation of waste and morbid matter
in the system, to lowered vitality and to lack of preparation.
Victory or defeat in acute reactions as well as in the ring depends
on right living and preparatory training.
In the healing crisis, vitality is the stronger and gains the
victory in the struggle; in the disease crisis, disease conditions
have gained the ascendancy and may bring about the defeat of the
healing forces.
Under conditions favorable to human life, a body of normal
structure, healthy blood and tissues and good vitality cannot be
affected by acute disease. Such an organism is practically immune to
all forms of inflammatory febrile reactions. These always indicate
that there is something wrong in the system which Nature is trying
to correct or get rid of.
Healing Crises
In Chapter Two "Catechism of Nature Cure," we defined healing
crises as follows: "A healing crisis is an acute reaction, resulting
from the ascendancy of Nature's healing forces over disease
conditions. Its tendency is toward recovery, and it is, therefore,
in conformity with Nature's constructive principle." The possibility
of producing healing crises and thereby curing chronic ailments
depends upon the following conditions:
The patient must possess sufficient vital energy and powers of
reaction to respond to the natural treatment and to a change of
habits. The destruction and disorganization of vital fluids and
organs must not have advanced too far.
Some patients become frightened at the idea of crises. They exclaim:
"I came here to get well, not to grow worse."
However, there is no occasion for alarm. Healing crises occur in
mild form only because, under the influence of natural living and
treatment, Nature has the best of the fight. The healing forces of
the organism have gained the ascendancy over the disease conditions.
In fact, Nature never undertakes a healing crisis until the system
has been prepared for it, until the organism is sufficiently
purified and strengthened to conduct the acute reaction to a
favorable termination.
Furthermore, it is well to remember that crises cannot be avoided,
because it is through fevers and inflammatory processes that Nature
effects the cure--that she tears down the old to build up the new.
On the other hand, if patients are possessed of exceptionally good
vitality and if the organs of elimination are in good working order,
the purification and adjustment of the organism may occasionally
proceed gradually without the occurrence of marked acute reactions
or crises.
Healing Crises, When Properly Conducted,
Are Never Fatal to Life
When well assisted by the right, natural methods of living and of
treatment, healing crises are never dangerous or fatal to life. The
only danger lies in suppressing these acute reactions by drugs,
knife, the ice bag or any means whatever.
If acute reactions are suppressed, the constructive healing crisis
may be changed into a destructive disease crisis. Therefore we
earnestly warn our patients never to interfere in any way with a
healing crisis lest the chronic condition (which resulted from the
suppression of the original disease) become worse than before.
When Nature, with all the force inherent in the human organism, has
finally worked up to the point of a healing crisis, another defeat
by a new suppression may be beyond her powers of endurance and
recuperation. Fatal collapse may then be the result.
Therefore, take heed! If you are not willing to endure the healing
crises, do not undertake the treatment. When you have conjured up
the hidden demons of disease, you must have the courage to face and
subdue them. Nothing good in life comes to us except as we pay the
price. He who is too cowardly to conquer in a healing crisis may
perish in a disease crisis.
Drugs Versus Healing Crises
Our explanations of the natural laws of cure and of natural
therapeutics are often greeted by "Old School" physicians and
students with remarks like the following:
"You speak as if you had the monopoly of eliminative treatment and
of the production of crises. With our laxatives, cathartics,
diuretics, diaphoretics and tonics, we are doing the same thing.
What is more effectual for stimulating a sluggish liver and
cleansing the intestinal tract than calomel followed by a dose of
salts? What will produce more profuse perspiration than pilocarpin;
or what is a better stimulus to the kidneys than squills or buchu?
Can we not by means of stimulants and depressants regulate heart
action to a nicety?
"We accomplish all this in a clean, scientific manner, without
resorting to unpleasant dieting and to barbarous applications of
douches, packs and manual treatments. Isn't it more dignified and
professional to write a Latin prescription? How much better the
impression on the laity than soaking and rubbing!"
Let us see if these statements are true, if laxation, urination or
perspiration produced by poisonous drugs are identical in character
and in effect with the elimination produced by natural living and
natural methods of treatment through healing crises.
Mercury, in the form of calomel, is one of the best-known
cholagogues [an agent designed to increase the flow of bile and,
thereby, stimulate lower bowel action, ~ed.~]. It is the favorite
laxative and cathartic of allopathy. The prevailing idea is that
calomel acts on the liver and the intestines; but in reality these
organs act on the drug.
All laxatives and cathartics are poisons; if it were not so, they
would not produce their peculiar, drastic effects. Because they are
poisons, Nature tries to eliminate them from the system as quickly
and as thoroughly as possible. In order to do this, the excretory
glands and membranes of the liver and the digestive tract greatly
increase the amount of their secretions and thereby produce a forced
evacuation of the intestinal canal.
Thus the system, in the effort to eliminate the mercurial poison,
expels also the other contents of the intestines. This may effect a
temporary cleansing of the intestinal tract, but it does not and
cannot cleanse the individual cells throughout the body of their
impurities.
The Lasting Effects of Artificial Purging
In accordance with the Law of Action and Reaction, action and
reaction are equal and opposite; the temporary irritation and
overstimulation of the sensitive membranes of the digestive organs
are followed by corresponding weakness and exhaustion, and if this
procedure be repeated and become habitual, by gradual atrophy and
paralysis. As atrophy progresses, the dose of the purgative must be
increased in order to accomplish the desired result and this, in its
turn, hastens the degenerative changes in the system.
Such enforced, artificial purging may flush the drains and sewers,
but does not cleanse the chambers of the house. The cells in the
interior tissues remain encumbered with morbid matter. A genuine and
truly effective housecleaning must start in the cells and must be
brought about through the initiative of the vital energies in the
organism, through healing crises, and not through stimulation by
means of poisonous irritants.
When, under a natural regimen of living and of treatment, the system
has been sufficiently purified, adjusted and vivified, the cells
themselves begin the work of elimination.
This is what takes place: The morbid matter and poisons thrown off
by the cells and tissues are carried by means of the venous
circulation to the organs of elimination, the bowels, kidneys, lungs
and skin, and to the mucous membranes lining the interior tracts,
such as the nasal passages, the throat and bronchi, the digestive
and genitourinary canals, etc.
These organs of elimination become overcrowded with the rush of
morbid matter and the accompanying congestion and irritation cause
the acute inflammatory processes and feverish symptoms
characterizing the various forms of colds, catarrhs, skin eruptions,
diarrheas, boils and other acute forms of elimination, which we call
healing crises. In other words, what the "Old School" of medicine
calls the disease, we look upon as the Cure.
Acute elimination brought about in this manner is Nature's method of
housecleaning. It is a true healing crisis, the result of
purification and increased activity from within the cell, produced
by natural means.
Here interposes Friend Allopath: "You claim that you bring about
your acute reactions by natural means only, and that these are never
injurious to the organism. What difference does it make if the
circulation is stimulated and elimination increased by a cold-water
spray or by digitalis? The cold-water stimulation produces a
reaction just as digitalis does, and the one must therefore be as
injurious as the other."
To this we reply: "The stimulating effect on heart and circulation
produced by digitalis is the first action of a highly poisonous
drug; the second lasting effect is weakening and paralyzing. On the
other hand, the first action of a cold-water spray is depressing; it
sends the blood into the interior of the body and benumbs the
surface. The sensory nerves at once report this sensation of cold to
headquarters in the brain, and immediately the command is
telegraphed to the blood vessels in the interior of the body: 'Send
blood to the surface!' As a result, the blood is carried to the
surface, and the skin becomes warm and rosy with the glow of life.
In this case the stimulation is the second and lasting effect of the
water treatment, from which there is no further reaction."
Similarly, the stimulation produced by exercise, massage,
manipulation or the exposure of the nude body to light and air is
natural stimulation, produced by harmless, natural means. It is
entirely due to the fact that conditions in the system have been
made more normal, as explained in other chapters.
Drugs, stimulants and tonics, while they produce an artificial,
temporary stimulation, do not change the underlying abnormal
conditions in the organism. Likewise, the flushing of the colon with
water, the use of laxative herb teas and decoctions or forced
sweating by means of Turkish or Russian baths, though not as
dangerous as inorganic minerals and poisonous drugs, cannot be
classed among the natural means of cure. These agents, which by many
persons are looked upon as natural treatment, irritate the organs of
elimination to forced, abnormal activity without at the same time
arousing the cells in the interior of the body to natural
elimination.
Dr. H. Lahmann, one of the foremost scientists of the Nature Cure
movement, made a series of interesting experiments. His chemists
gathered the natural perspiration of certain patients, produced by
ordinary exercise in the sunshine. These excretions of the skin were
evaporated and analyzed, and were found to contain poisons powerful
enough to kill rabbits.
If profuse sweating was produced in the same patients by the high
temperature of the hot-air box or the electric-light cabinet, their
perspiration, when evaporated and analyzed, was found to contain
only small amounts of toxins. Thus Dr. Lahmann proved that:
Sweating and the elimination of disease matter are two different
processes. Artificially induced sweating does not eliminate disease
matter. The organism cannot be forced by irritants and stimulants
and artificial means, but eliminates morbid matter only in its own
natural manner and when it is in proper condition to do so.
In a lesser degree, this applies also to fasting. Under certain
conditions it becomes a necessity; but it may easily be abused and
overdone.
Do We Never Fail?
Certainly we fail, but our failures are usually due to the fact that
sick people, as a rule, do not consider Nature Cure except as a last
resort. The methods and requirements of Nature Cure appear at first
so unusual and exacting that people seek to evade them so long as
they have the least faith in the miracle-working power of the poison
bottle, a metaphysical healer or the surgeon's knife. When health,
wealth and hope are entirely exhausted, then the chronic sufferer
grasps at Nature Cure as a drowning man clutches at a straw. But
even though ninety percent of these cases which come to us are of
the apparently incurable type, our total failures are few and far
between.
If there is sufficient vitality in the body to react to natural
treatment and if the destruction of vital parts and organs has not
too far advanced, a cure is possible. Often the seemingly hopeless
cases yield the most readily.
Our success is due to the fact that we do not rely on any one method
of treatment, but combine in our work everything that is good in the
different systems of natural healing.
The Law of Crises
Everywhere in nature and in the world of men we find the Law of
Crises in evidence. This proves it to be a universal law, ruling all
cosmic relations and activities.
Wars and revolutions are the healing crises in the life of nations.
Heresies and reformations are the crises of religion. In strikes,
riots and panics, we recognize the crises of commercial life.
Staid old Mother Earth herself has in the hoary past repeatedly
changed the configurations of her continents and oceans by great
cataclysms or geological crises.
When the sultry summer air has become pregnant with poisonous vapors
and miasmas, atmospheric crises, such as rainstorms, thunder,
lightning and electric storms, cool and purify the air and charge it
anew with life-giving ozone. In like manner will healing crises
purify the disease-laden bodies of men.
Emanuel Swedenborg gives us a wonderful description of the Law of
Crises in its relationship to the regeneration of the soul. We quote
from the chapter in which he describes the working of this law,
entitled, "Regeneration Is Effected by Combats in Temptation."
"They who have not been instructed concerning the regeneration of
man think that man can be regenerated without temptation. But it is
to be known that no one is regenerated without temptation; and that
many temptations succeed, one after another. The reason is that
regeneration is effected for an end, in order that the life of the
old man may die, and the new life which is heavenly be insinuated.
It is evident, therefore, that there must be a conflict [healing
crisis--~author's note ~]; for the life of the old man resists and
determines not to be extinguished; and the life of the new man can
only enter where the life of the old is extinct.
"Whoever thinks from an enlightened rationale, may see and perceive
from this that a man cannot be regenerated without combat, that is,
without spiritual temptations; and further, that he is not
regenerated by one temptation, but by many. For there are very many
kinds of evil which formed the delight of his former life, that is,
of the old life. These evils cannot all be subdued at once and
together; for they cleave tenaciously, since they have been inrooted
in the parents for many ages back [the scrofula of the
soul--~author's note~ ] and are therefore innate in man, and are
confirmed by actual evils from himself from infancy. All these evils
are diametrically opposite to the celestial good [perfect
health--~author's note~ ] that is to be insinuated and which is to
constitute the New Life."
Thus the inspired Seer of the North draws a vivid picture of what we
call healing crises in their relation to moral regeneration.
We cannot help recognizing the close agreement of physical and
spiritual crises; this, again, demonstrates the continuity and exact
correspondence of Natural Law on the different planes of being. [The
Law of Hermes: ~As above, so below; as in the inner, so in the
outer; as in the lesser, so in the greater.~]
We of the Nature Cure school know that this great Law of Crises
dominates the cure of chronic disease. Every case is another
verification of it; in fact, every decided advance on the road to
perfect health is marked by acute reactions.
The cure invariably proceeds through the darkness and chaos of the
crises to the light and beauty of perfect health, periods of marked
improvement alternating with acute eliminating activity (the
"spiritual temptations" and "combats" of Swedenborg), until perfect
regeneration has taken place.
Chapter XXI
Periodicity
In many forms of acute disease, crises develop with marked
regularity and in well-defined periodicity. This phenomenon has been
observed and described by many physicians.
It is not so well known, however, that in the cure of chronic
diseases also, crises develop in accordance with certain laws of
periodicity.
Periodicity is governed by the Septimal Law or Law of Sevens, which
seems to be the basic law governing the vibratory activities of the
planetary universe.
The harmonics of heat, light, sound, electricity, magnetism and of
atomic structure and arrangement run in scales of seven.
The Law of Sevens governs the days of the week, the phases of the
moon and the menstrual periods of the woman. Every observing
physician is aware of its influence on feverish, nervous and psychic
diseases.
The Law of Sevens dominates the life of individuals and of nations
and of everything that lives and has periods of birth, growth,
fruitage and decline.
Over two thousand years ago Pythagoras and Hippocrates distinctly
recognized and proclaimed the Law of Crises in its bearing on the
cure of chronic diseases. They taught that alternating, well-defined
periods of improvement and of crises were determined and governed by
the law of periodicity and by the law of numbers (the Septimal Law).
The following quotations are taken from the ~Encyclopedia
Britannica,~ Vol. XV, p. 800:
"But this artistic completeness was closely connected with 'the
third cardinal virtue' of Hippocratic medicine--the clear
recognition of disease as being equally with life a process governed
by what we should now call natural laws, which could be known by
observation and which indicated the spontaneous and normal direction
of recovery, by following which alone could the physician succeed.
"Another Hippocratic doctrine, the influence of which is not even
yet exhausted, is that of the healing power of Nature. Not that
Hippocrates taught, as he was afterwards reproached with teaching,
that Nature is sufficient for the cure of diseases; for he held
strongly the efficacy of art. But he recognized, at least in acute
diseases, a natural process which the humours went through--being
first of all crude, then passing through coction or digestion, and
finally being expelled by resolution or crisis through one of the
natural channels of the body. The duty of the physician was to
foresee these changes, 'to assist or not to hinder them,' so that
'the sick man might conquer the disease with the help of the
physician.' The times at which crises were to be expected were
naturally looked for with anxiety; and it was a cardinal point in
the Hippocratic system to foretell them with precision. Hippocrates,
influenced as is thought by the Pythagorean doctrine of numbers,
taught that they were to be expected on days fixed by certain
numerical rules, in some cases on odd, in others on even
numbers--the celebrated doctrine of 'critical days.' It follows from
what has been said that prognosis, or the art of foretelling the
course and event of the disease, was a strong point with the
Hippocratic physicians. In this perhaps they have never been
excelled. Diagnosis, or recognition of the disease, must have been
necessarily imperfect, when no scientific nosology, or system of
disease* existed, and the knowledge of anatomy was quite inadequate
to allow of a precise determination of the seat of disease; but
symptoms were no doubt observed and interpreted skilfully. The pulse
is not spoken of in any of the works now attributed to Hippocrates
himself, though it is mentioned in other works of the collection."
*The author of this article in the Encyclopedia Britannica does not
see that it is the modern [then as now] orthodox "scientific
nosology, or system of disease" which obscures the simplicity and
precision of the Hippocratic philosophy of disease and cure.
"In the treatment of disease, the Hippocratic school attached great
importance to diet, the variations necessary in different diseases
being minutely defined. In chronic cases diet, exercises and
natural methods were chiefly relied upon."
These wonderful truths, with other wisdom of the ancients, were lost
in the spiritual darkness of the Middle Ages. Modern medicine looks
upon these claims and teachings of the Hippocratic School as
"superstition without any foundation in fact." However, the great
sages of antiquity, drawing upon a source of ancient wisdom, deeply
hidden from the self-satisfied scribes and wise men of the schools,
after all, proclaimed the truth.
Every case of chronic disease properly treated by natural methods
proves the reality and stability of the Law of Crises. It is
therefore a standing wonder and surprise to one who knows, that this
all-important and self-evident law is practically unknown to the
disciples of the regular schools.
The Law of Sevens
In accordance with the Law of Periodicity, the sixth period in any
seven periods is marked by reactions, changes, revolutions or
crises. It is, therefore, looked upon by popular intuition as an
unlucky period. Friday, the sixth day of the week, is regarded as an
unlucky day; Friday is hangman's day; according to tradition the
Master, Jesus, was crucified on Friday.
Counting from the first sixth or Friday period in any given number
of hours, days, weeks, months, years or groups of years, as the case
may be, every succeeding seventh period is characterized by crises.
This explains why 13 is considered an unlucky number. It represents
the second critical or Friday period.
However, there is really no cause for this superstitious fear of
Friday and the number 13. It is due to a lack of understanding of
Nature's Laws. By intelligent cooperation with these laws we may
turn the critical periods in our lives into healing crises and
beneficial changes.
We should not fear the crises periods of the larger life and the
changes in our outward circumstances which they may bring any more
than we should fear crises in the physical body.
A thorough understanding of the nature and purpose of healing crises
in acute and chronic diseases has taught me the nature and purpose
of evil in general. It has made me understand more clearly the
meaning of "Resist not Evil" and of the saying: "We are punished by
our sins, not for our sins." It has shown me that evil is not a
punishment or a curse, but a necessary complement of good, that it
is corrective and educational in its purposes, that it remains with
us only as long as we need its salutary lessons.
The evil of physical disease is not due to accident or to the
arbitrary rulings of a capricious Providence, nor is it always
"error of mortal mind." From the Nature Cure philosophy and its
practical applications we have learned that, barring accidents and
conditions or surroundings unfavorable to human life, it is caused
in every instance by violations of the physical laws of our being.
So the social, political and industrial evil of the larger life is
brought about by violations of the law in the respective domains of
life and action.
So long as transgressions of the physical laws of our being result
in hereditary and acquired disease encumbrances, we must expect
reactions which may become either disease crises or healing crises.
Likewise, so long as ignorance, selfishness and self-indulgence
continue to create evil in other domains of life, we must expect
there also the occurrence of crises, of reaction and revolution.
When knowledge, self-control and altruism become the sole motives of
action, evil and the crises it necessitates will naturally
disappear.
Therefore, we should not be afraid of changes and crises periods but
cooperate with them clear-eyed and strong-willed. Then they will
result in improvement and further growth.
Life is growth, and growth is change. The only death is stagnation.
The loss of friends, home or fortune may seem for the time being an
overwhelming calamity; but if met in the right spirit, such losses
will prove stepping-stones to greater opportunity and higher
achievement.
Many of our patients formerly looked upon their diseased condition
as a great misfortune and an undeserved punishment; but since it
brought them in contact with the Nature Cure philosophy and showed
them the necessity of complying with the laws of their being, they
now look upon the former evil as the greatest blessing in their
lives, because it taught them how to become the masters of fate
instead of remaining the plaything of Nature's destructive forces.
Why should we fear even the greatest of all crises, physical death,
when it, also, is only the gateway to a larger life, greater
opportunities and more beautiful surroundings? Why should we mourn
and grieve over the death of friends and relatives, when they have
only emigrated to another, better country?
Suppose we ourselves had to enter upon the great journey today or
tomorrow, shouldn't we be glad to meet some of our friends on the
other side and to be welcomed, advised and guided by them in the new
surroundings?
Therefore we should not fear, nor endeavor to avoid the crises in
any and all domains of life and action, but meet them and cooperate
with them fearlessly and intelligently. They then will always make
for greater opportunity and higher accomplishment.
The Law of Sevens Applied to Individual Life
Applied to the life of the individual, the Law of Periodicity
manifests itself as follows:
Human life on the earth plane is divided into periods of seven
years. The first seven years represent the period of infancy. With
the next seven, the years of childhood, begins individual
responsibility, the conscious discernment between right and wrong.
The third group comprises the years of adolescence; the fourth marks
the attainment of full growth. Nearly all civilized countries take
cognizance of this fact by fixing the legal age at twenty-one.
The twenty-eighth year, the beginning of the fifth period, is
another milestone along the road to development.
The sixth period, beginning at the age of thirty-five and ending at
forty-two, is marked by reactions, changes and crises. It may,
therefore, seem an unlucky period; but if we understand the law and
comply with it, we shall be better and stronger in every way after
we have passed this period.
During the seventh period, the effects of the sixth or crises period
continue and adjust themselves. It is a period of reconstruction, of
recuperation and rest, and thus the best preparation for a new cycle
of sevens which begins with the fiftieth year.**
**Those who are interested in the Law of Periodicity as applied to
life in general, will find much valuable information in a book
entitled ~Periodicity~ by J. R. Buchanan, M.D., published by the
Kosmos Publishing Co., 2112 Sherman Ave., Evanston, Il.
In this connection it is interesting to note that the Mosaic law
recognized the law of periodicity and fixed upon Sunday as the first
day or "birthday" of the week, and upon Saturday (the Sabbath) as
the last or "rest" day, in which to prepare for another period of
seven days.
Orthodox science now admits that the normal length of human life
should be about one hundred and fifty years. This would constitute
three cycles of forty-nine years each, the first corresponding to
youth, the second to maturity, and the third to fruition.
The Law of Sevens in Febrile Diseases
If we apply the Laws of Periodicity to the course of acute febrile
or inflammatory diseases, we find that the sixth day from the
beginning of the first well-defined symptom marks the first
Friday-period or the first crisis of the disease, and that every
seventh day thereafter is also distinguished by aggravations and
changes, either for better or for worse.
The Law of Sevens in Chronic Diseases
Applied to the cure of chronic diseases under the influence of
natural methods of living and of treatment, the Laws of Crises and
of Periodicity manifest as follows:
When a chronic patient, whose chances of cure are good, is placed
under proper (natural) conditions of living and of treatment he
will, as a rule, experience five weeks of marked improvement.
The sixth week, if conditions are favorable, usually marks the
beginning of acute reactions or healing crises. This means that the
healing forces of the organism have grown strong enough to begin the
work of acute elimination.
By all sorts of acute reactions, such as skin eruptions, diarrheas,
feverish, inflammatory and catarrhal conditions, boils, abscesses,
mucopurulent discharges, etc., Nature now endeavors to remove the
latent, chronic disease taints from the system.
The character of the healing crises and the time of their occurrence
in any given case can often be accurately predicted by means of the
Diagnosis from the Eye (see Chapter XIII), from Nature's records in
the iris.
But the best of all methods of diagnosis is the cure iself, because
weak spots and morbid taints in the organism are revealed through
the healing crises.
The Same Old Aches and Pains
Frequently we hear from a patient in the throes of crises: "These
are the same old aches and pains that I had before. It is exactly
the same trouble I have been suffering with for many years. This is
not a crisis!--I have caught a cold, or I have eaten something which
does not agree with me."
The patient has forgotten what we taught him regarding the Law of
Crises. He loses sight of the fact that healing crises are nothing
more or less than a coming-up-again of old disease conditions, an
acute manifestation of ailments which had become chronic through
neglect or suppression.
Of course they are "the same old aches and pains." Nature Cure does
not create new diseases. Crises mean the stirring up and eliminating
of hereditary and acquired taints and poisons. Under the right
methods of treatment, any previous disease condition suppressed by
drugs or knife or by mental effort may recur as a healing crisis.
They are the same old aches and pains which so often gave trouble in
the past, but they are now running their course under different
conditions because the patient is now living in harmony with
Nature's Laws.
Under the natural regimen, Nature is encouraged and assisted in her
cleansing and healing efforts. She is allowed in her own wise way to
tear down the old and build up the new.
The "Old Schools" of healing proclaim Mother Nature a poor healer.
But we of the Nature Cure school believe that the wisdom which
created this wonderful, complex mechanism which we call the human
body knows also how to preserve and to repair it. Every healing
crisis passed under natural conditions assisted by natural methods
of treatment leaves the body purified and strengthened and nearer to
perfect health.
Our critics and opponents frequently ask us how we know that our
methods are natural and in harmony with Nature's laws.
To this we reply: The timely appearance of healing crises, their
orderly development and favorable termination constitute the best
criterion of the correctness and naturalness of the methods of
treatment employed. The prompt arrival and beneficial results of
acute reactions are a certain indication that the healing forces of
the organism are in the ascendancy and that the treatment is in
conformity with the natural laws of cure and with the constructive
principle in Nature.
Another question sometimes asked of us is: "Do healing crises
develop in every chronic disease under natural treatment?" Our
answer is: If the condition of the patient is not favorable to a
cure, that is, if the vitality is too low and the destruction of
vital parts too far advanced, the healing crises may be
proportionately delayed or may not occur at all. In such cases the
disease symptoms will increase in severity and complexity and become
more destructive instead of more constructive, until the final fatal
crisis. The end may come quickly, or the patient may decline
gradually toward the fatal termination.
Again, patients ask us: "Through how many crises shall I have to
pass?" We tell them: Just as many as you need; no more, no less. So
long as there is anything wrong in the system, crises will come and
go; but each crisis, if successfully passed, is another milestone on
the road to perfect health.
It is intensely interesting to observe how orderly and intelligently
Nature proceeds in her work of healing and repair. One problem after
another is taken up and adjusted.
First of all, the digestive organs are put into better condition,
because further progress depends upon proper assimilation and
elimination. The bowels must act freely and naturally before any
permanent improvement can take place. A treatment which fails to
accomplish this first preliminary improvement will surely fail to
produce more important results.
In this connection it is a significant fact that nearly all our
patients, when they come under our care, are suffering from very
stubborn constipation in spite of (or possibly on account of)
lifelong drugging. Neither medicines nor operations had given them
anything but temporary relief and the trouble had grown worse
instead of better.
If the "Old School" methods of treatment were not successful in
relieving simple constipation, what else can they be expected to
cure, since the overcoming of constipation is evidently the primary
necessity for any other improvement?
A system of treatment which cannot accomplish this cannot accomplish
anything else. It is strange, therefore, that a school of medicine
which has not succeeded, with all its vaunted knowledge and wisdom,
to cure simple constipation, flatly denies that natural methods can
cure cancer, epilepsy, locomotor ataxy and other so-called incurable
diseases.
Our Greatest Difficulty
The greatest difficulty in our work lies in conducting our patients
safely through the stormy crises periods. The first, preliminary
improvement is often so marked that the patient believes himself
already cured. He will say: "Doctor, I am feeling fine! There is
nothing the matter with me any more! I cannot understand why I
shouldn't go home and continue the natural regimen there!"
This feeling of mental elation and physical well-being is usually
the sign that the first general improvement has progressed far
enough to prepare the system for a healing crisis. Therefore my
answer to the overconfident patient may be something like this:
"Remember what I told you. The first improvement is not the cure, it
is only the preparation for the real fight. Look out! In a few days
you may whistle another tune."
And sure enough, usually within a few days after such a conversation
the patient is down in the slough of despond. His digestive organs
are in a wretched condition. He is nauseated, his tongue is coated,
he is suffering from headache and from a multitude of other symptoms
according to his individual condition. In fact, many of the old
aches and pains which he thought already cured come up again with
renewed force.
Healing crises, representing radical changes in the system, are
always accompanied by physical and mental weakness, because every
bit of vitality is drawn upon in these reconstructive processes. The
entire organism is shaken up to its very foundation; deep-seated,
chronic disease taints are being stirred up throughout the system.
The eliminative processes of the healing crises are often
accompanied by great mental depression and a feeling of strong
revulsion to the natural regimen and everything connected with it.
The patient thinks that, after all, Nature Cure is not for him, that
he is growing worse instead of better. In proportion to the severity
of the changes going on within him, he becomes disheartened and
despondent. Often he exhibits all the mental and emotional symptoms
of homesickness. In these critical days it requires all our powers
of persuasion to keep the depressed and discouraged patient from
giving up the fight and from taking something to relieve his
distress. He insists that "something must be done for him," and
cannot understand how he will ever get out of his "awful condition"
without some good strong medicine.
If our patients were not continually and thoroughly instructed
regarding the Laws of Crises and of Periodicity and if we did not
strongly advise and encourage them to persevere with the treatment,
few of them would hold out during these critical periods.
This explains why so many people fail to be cured and it also
explains why natural living and self-treatment often do not meet
with the desired results if carried on without the instruction and
guidance of a competent, experienced Nature Cure physician.
So long as the improvement continues, everything is lovely and hope
soars high. But when the inevitable crises arrive, the sufferer
believes that, after all, he made a mistake in taking up the natural
regimen, especially so when friends and relatives do their best to
destroy his confidence in the natural methods of cure by ridicule
and dire prophesies of failure.
Frightened and discouraged, the patient returns to the "flesh-pots
of Egypt" and to the good old pills and potions and ever afterwards
he tells his friends that "he tried Nature Cure and the vegetarian
diet, but it was no good."
Mother Nature remains a "book sealed with seven seals" to those who
mistrust, despise and counteract her, who rely on man-made wisdom
and the ever-changing theories and dogmas of the schools.
But on the other hand, every crisis conducted to a successful
termination in accordance with Nature's laws becomes an inspiration
to him who follows her guidance and assists her with intelligent
effort and loving care.
Chapter XXII
What About The "Chronic"? It Takes So Long
"Yes, Nature Cure is all right, but it takes so long." Now and then
we hear this or a similar remark. Our answer is: "No, it does not
take long. It is the swiftest cure in existence."
The trouble is that, as a rule, we have to deal with none but the
most advanced cases of so-called incurable diseases. People go to
the Nature Cure physician only after all other methods of treatment
have been tried and found of no avail.
As long as there remains a particle of faith in the medicine bottle,
the knife or the metaphysical formula of the mind healer, people
prefer these easy methods, which require no effort on their part, to
the Nature Cure treatment, which necessitates personal exertion,
self-control, the changing or giving up of cherished habits. This,
however, is what most of us evade as long as we can. "Exercise, the
cold blitzguss, no red meat, no coffee?--I'd rather die!"
Afraid of Cold Water
The most-dreaded terror on the threshold seems to be cold water.
Undoubtedly, it has kept away thousands from Nature Cure and thereby
from the only possible cure for their chronic ailments. If we could
achieve equally good results without our heroic methods of
treatment, the sidewalks leading to our institution would be crowded
with people clamoring for admission.
After all, this foolish fear is entirely groundless. Cold water is
no more to be dreaded than the bogey man. It is one of our
fundamental principles of treatment never to do anything that is
painful to the patient. We always "temper the wind to the shorn
lamb," the coldness of the water and the force of the manipulations
to the sensitiveness and endurance of the subject. Beginning with
mild, alternately warm and cool sprays, which are pleasant and
agreeable to everyone, we gradually increase the force and lower the
temperature until the patient is so inured to cold water that the
blitzguss becomes a delightful and pleasurable sensation, a positive
luxury.
It is amusing to watch the gradual change in the attitude of our
patients toward the cold-water treatment. In some instances we have
had to spend hours in earnest persuasion before we could induce a
particularly sensitive person to try the first mild spray. A few
weeks later if, perchance, something interfered with the cold water
applications, the patient would indignantly refuse to take the other
treatment if there was to be no cold water.
There is certainly no finer tonic than cold water, no more
exhilarating sensation than that produced by the artistic
application of alternating douches and the blitz.
The real cause of this cold-water scare, we believe, is to be found
in the boasting of the veterans. When, with protruding chest and
chin in air, they brag to the newcomers or to their friends about
their heroism and the coolness with which they allow the cold-water
hose to be turned on them, the listener shudders and exclaims: "This
cold water may be all right for you, but it would never do for me."
No doubt, it is this bravado of the initiated that keeps many a
novice from the first plunge into the mysteries of Nature Cure. If
these timid ones only knew what they miss!
Business Versus Cure
From a business point of view it would, perhaps, be better to omit
the cold water altogether. It would certainly be much less trouble;
but then, the rugged honesty of Father Kneipp, the champion of the
cold-water treatment branch of German Nature Cure, has descended
upon his followers and compels them to tell the whole truth and
nothing but the truth, to make use of everything that is likely to
be of benefit to the patient and to effect a real and lasting cure.
Our friends, the osteopaths, have only a pitying smile for our
arduous labors. They ask: "Why fool with cold water and drive
patients away, when pleasant manipulations bring the business?" If
we query in return: "Do your pleasant manipulations cure obstinate
chronic ailments?" They answer: "We do not expect to cure them. The
effort involves too much labor and spoils the reputation of our
work. Not one in a hundred chronics has the patience and
perseverance to be cured. Besides, if a patient comes too long to
the office for treatment he drives others away."
Some of the most successful osteopaths in this city make it a rule
not to treat a patient longer than six weeks or two months.
In a number of cases this may be sufficient to produce marked
primary improvement, but it is not enough to launch the patient into
a healing crisis and, therefore, does not produce a real cure
because it does not remove the underlying causes of the disease. If,
after a while, the latent chronic condition again manifests in
external symptoms, the patient returns for another course of
treatment; he was "cured" so quickly before and thinks he will be
helped again.
In justice to the osteopaths it must be said that we are not
referring to those chronic diseases which are directly caused by
lesions of the spine or other bony structures. If such dislocations
or subluxations be the sole cause of the trouble, their correction
by manipulative treatment may produce a cure within a few weeks.
But notwithstanding the teachings of orthodox osteopathy, the
majority of chronic ailments have their origin in other causes. In
most cases, the existing spinal lesions are themselves the result of
other primary disease conditions which must be removed before the
bony lesions will remain corrected.
The mode of treatment depends upon the object that is to be
accomplished. If it is to make the patient feel better with the
least possible expenditure of time, money, personal effort and
self-control on his part, and the least amount of exertion on the
part of the physician or healer, then osteopathic manipulations or
meta-physical formulas may be in order. But if the object is to cure
actually and permanently a deep-seated chronic disease, all the
methods of the natural treatment, intelligently combined and adapted
to the individual case, will be required in order to accomplish
results.
Pull the Roots
Cutting off their heads does not kill the weeds. The first sign of
improvement in the treatment of a chronic disease does not mean a
cure.
Diagnosis from the Eye, borne out by everyday practical experience,
reveals the fact that symptomatic manifestations of disease are due
to underlying constitutional causes; that the chronic symptoms are
Nature's feeble and ineffectual efforts to eliminate from the system
scrofulous, psoric or syphilitic taints and the disease products
resulting from food and drug poisoning, or to overcome the
destructive effects of surgical mutilations.
An abatement of symptoms is, therefore, not always the sign of a
real and permanent cure. The latter depends entirely on the
elimination of the hereditary and acquired constitutional taints and
poisons.
When, under the influence of natural living and methods of
treatment, the body of the chronic becomes sufficiently purified and
strengthened, a period of marked improvement may set in. All disease
symptoms gradually abate, the patient gains in strength, both
physically and mentally, and he feels as though there was nothing
the matter with him any more.
But the eyes tell a different story. They show that the underlying
constitutional taints have not been fully eliminated--the weeds have
not been pulled up by the roots.
This can be accomplished only by healing crises, by Nature's
cleansing and healing activities in the form of inflammatory and
feverish processes; anything short of this is merely preliminary
improvement, "training for the fight," but not the cure.
When you order a suit of clothes from your tailor, you do not take
it away from him half-finished; if you do, you will have an
unsatisfactory garment.
No more should you interfere with your cure after the first signs of
improvement. Continue until you have thoroughly eliminated from your
system the hidden constitutional taints and the drug poisons which
have been the cause of your troubles. After that you can paddle your
own canoe; right living and right thinking will then be sufficient
to maintain perfect health and strength, physically, mentally and
morally.
Is the Chronic Patient to Be Left to His Fate
Because Allopathy Says He Is Incurable?
Frequently we have been severely criticised by our friends, our
coworkers or our patients for accepting certain seemingly hopeless
chronic cases. They exclaim:
"You know this man has locomotor ataxy and that woman is an
epileptic: you certainly do not expect to cure them," or, "Doctor,
don't you think it injures the institution to have that
dreadful-looking person around? He is nothing but skin and bones and
surely cannot live much longer."
Sometimes open criticism and covert insinuation intimate that our
reasons for taking in incurables are mercenary.
If we should dismiss today those of our patients who, from the
orthodox and popular point of view, are considered incurable, there
would not remain ten out of a hundred; and yet our total failures
are few and far between. Many such seemingly hopeless cases have
come for treatment month after month, in several instances for a
year or more, apparently without any marked advance; yet today they
are in the best of health.
Yes, it is hard work and frequently thankless work to deal with
these patients. It would be much easier, much more remunerative and
would bring more glory to confine ourselves to the treatment of
acute diseases, for it is there that Nature Cure works its most
impressive miracles. On the other hand, to achieve the seemingly
impossible, to prove what Nature Cure can accomplish in the most
stubborn chronic cases, sustains our courage and is its own
compensation.
The word chronic in the vocabulary of the "Old School" of medicine
is synonymous with "incurable." This is not strange; since the
medical and surgical symptomatic treatment of acute diseases creates
the chronic conditions, it certainly cannot be expected to cure
them. If, by continued suppression, Nature's cleansing and healing
efforts have been perverted into chronic disease conditions, the
following directions are given in the regular works on medical
practice:
"When this disease reaches the chronic stage, you can no longer cure
it. You may advise the patient to change climate or occupation. As
for medication, treat the symptoms as they arise."
We know that the symptoms are Nature's healing efforts; when these
are promptly treated, that is, suppressed, it is not surprising that
the chronic does not recover. In fact, it is the treatment which
makes him and keeps him a chronic.
Why Nature Cure Achieves Results
Nature Cure achieves results in the treatment of chronic diseases
because its theories and practices are entirely opposite to those
just described. However, when the Nature Cure physician claims that
he can cure cancer, tuberculosis, epilepsy, paralysis, Bright's
disease, diabetes or certain mental derangements, the regular
physician shows only derision and contempt. He will not even
condescend to examine any evidence in support of our claims.
Since, then, Nature Cure offers to the so-called incurable the only
hope and the only possible means of regaining health, why not give
him a chance? Many times apparently hopeless cases have responded
most readily to our treatment, while more promising ones offered the
most stubborn resistance. Even with the best possible methods of
diagnosis, it is hard to determine just how far the destruction of
vital organs has progressed, or how deeply they have been
impregnated with drug poisons.
Therefore, it is often an impossibility to predict with certainty
just what the outcome will be. This can be determined only by a fair
trial. In the past we have treated many a case that, according to
the rules and precedents of orthodox science, should be dead and
buried long ago; yet these individuals are today alive and in the
best of health.
Every now and then incidents like the following renew our enthusiasm
and our faith in Nature Cure: Recently, we had three new cases, sent
by three former patients who had been under treatment several years
ago. These three had been among the worst cases ever treated in our
institution. When they came to us, one was supposed to be dying with
cancer, the second was in the advanced stages of tertiary syphilis
and the third, a lady, had survived several operations for the
removal of the appendix and the ovaries. At the time she took up our
treatment she had been advised to undergo another operation for the
removal of the uterus.
These incurables had been exceedingly trying. More than once one or
another had quit, discouraged and disgusted, only to return, knowing
that, after all, Nature Cure was their only hope. After they left
us, we lost track of them and often wondered how they were getting
on. Imagine our pleasant surprise when all three were reported by
the newcomers as being in good health. What if it did take months or
even years to produce the desired results? What would have been the
fate of these three patients if it had not been for slow Nature
Cure?
Discouraged patients frequently ask: "Why do others recover so
quickly when I show so little improvement? This cure seems to be all
right for some diseases, but evidently it does not fit my case."
This is defective reasoning. True Nature Cure fits every case
because it includes everything good in natural healing methods. In
stubborn cases Nature Cure is not to blame for the slow and
unsatisfactory results: the difficulty lies in the character and
advanced stage of the disease.
Chapter XXIII
The Treatment of Chronic Diseases
Let us now consider the best methods for producing the healing
crises referred to in the preceding chapters, that is, the best
methods for treating the chronic forms of disease.
We found that acute diseases represent Nature's efforts to purify
and regenerate the human organism by means of inflammatory feverish
processes, while in the chronic condition the system is not capable
of arousing itself to such acute reactions. The treatment must
differ accordingly.
The Nature Cure treatment of acute diseases tends to relieve inner
congestion, to facilitate the radiation of heat and the elimination
of morbid matter and systemic poisons from the body. In this way it
eases and palliates the feverish processes and keeps them below the
danger point without in any way checking or suppressing them.
While our methods of treating acute diseases have a sedative effect,
our treatment of chronic diseases is calculated to stimulate, that
is, to arouse the sluggish organism to greater activity in order to
produce the acute inflammatory reactions or healing crises.
If the unity of diseases as demonstrated in a previous chapter is a
fact in Nature, it must be possible to treat all chronic as well as
all acute diseases by uniform methods, and the natural remedies must
correspond to the primary causes of disease.
The Natural Methods of Treatment
Natural methods of treatment may be divided into two groups:
Those which the patient can apply himself, provided he has been
properly instructed in their correct selection, combination and
application. Those which must be applied by a competent Nature Cure
physician.
To the first group belong diet (fasting), bathing and other water
applications, correct breathing, general physical exercise,
corrective gymnastics, air and sun baths, mental therapeutics.
To the second group belong special applications of the methods
mentioned under group 1, and in addition to these hydropathy,
massage, manipulation, medical treatment in the form of homeopathic
medicines, nonpoisonous herb extracts and the vitochemical remedies,
and most important of all, the right management of healing crises
which develop under the natural treatment of chronic diseases.
Diagnosis
Correct diagnosis is the first essential to rational treatment.
Every honest physician admits that the "Old School" methods of
diagnosis are, to say the least, unsatisfactory and uncertain,
especially in ascertaining the underlying causes of disease.
Therefore we should welcome any and all methods of diagnosis which
throw more light on the causes and the nature of disease conditions
in the human organism.
Two valuable additions to diagnostic science are now offered to us
in osteopathy and in the Diagnosis from the Eye.
Osteopathy furnishes valuable information concerning the connection
between disease conditions and misplacements of vertebrae and other
bony structures, contractions or abnormal relaxation of muscles and
ligaments, and inflammation of nerves and nerve centers.
The Diagnosis from the Eye is as yet a new science, and much remains
to be discovered and to be better explained. We do not claim that
Nature's records in the eye disclose all the details of pathological
tendencies and changes, but they do reveal many disease conditions,
hereditary and acquired, that cannot be ascertained by any other
methods of diagnosis.
Omitting consideration of everything that is at present speculative
and uncertain, we are justified in making the following statements:
The eye is not only, as the ancients said, "the mirror of the soul,"
but it also reveals abnormal conditions and changes in every part
and organ of the body. Every organ and part of the body is
represented in the iris of the eye in a well-defined area. The iris
of the eye contains an immense number of minute nerve filaments,
which through the optic nerves, the optic brain centers and the
spinal cord are connected with and receive impressions from every
nerve in the body. The nerve filaments, muscle fibers and minute
blood vessels in the different areas of the iris reproduce the
changing conditions in the corresponding parts or organs. By means
of various marks, signs, abnormal colors and discolorations in the
iris, Nature reveals transmitted disease taints and hereditary
lesions. Nature also makes known, by signs, marks and
discolorations, acute and chronic inflammatory or catarrhal
conditions, local lesions, destruction of tissues, various drug
poisons and changes in structures and tissues caused by accidental
injury or by surgical mutilations. The Diagnosis from the Eye
positively confirms Hahnemann's theory that all acute diseases have
a constitutional background of hereditary or acquired disease
taints. This science enables the diagnostician to ascertain, from
the appearance of the iris alone, the patient's inherited or
acquired tendencies toward health and toward disease, his condition
in general and the state of every organin particular. Reading
Nature's records in the eye, he can predict the different healing
crises through which the patient will have to pass on the road to
health. The eye reveals dangerous changes in vital parts and organs
from their inception, thus enabling the patient to avert any
threatening disease by natural living and natural methods of
treatment. By changes in the iris, the gradual purification of the
system, the elimination of morbid matter and poisons, and the
readjustment of the organism to normal conditions under the
regenerating influences of natural living and treatment are
faithfully recorded.
This interesting subject will be treated more fully in a separate
volume (~Iridiagnosis,~ published in 1919 by Dr. Lindlahr). In this
connection I shall confine myself to relating briefly the story of
the discovery of this valuable science.
The Story of a Great Discovery
Dr. Von Peckzely, of Budapest, Hungary, discovered Nature's records
in the eye, quite by accident, when a boy ten years of age.
Playing one day in the garden at his home, he caught an owl. While
struggling with the bird, he broke one of its limbs. Gazing straight
into the owl's large, bright eyes, he noticed, at the moment when
the bone snapped, the appearance of a black spot in the lower
central region of the iris, which area he later found to correspond
to the location of the broken leg.
The boy put a splint on the broken limb and kept the owl as a pet.
As the fracture healed, he noticed that the black spot in the iris
became overdrawn with a white film and surrounded by a white border
(denoting the formation of scar tissues in the broken bone).
This incident made a lasting impression on the mind of the future
doctor. It often recurred to him in later years. From further
observations he gained the conviction that abnormal physical
conditions are portrayed in the eyes.
As a student, Von Peckzely became involved in the revolutionary
movement of 1848 and was put in prison as an agitator and
ringleader. During his confinement, he had plenty of time and
leisure to pursue his favorite theory and he became more and more
convinced of the importance of his discovery. After his release, he
entered upon the study of medicine, in order to develop his
important discoveries and to confirm them more fully in the
operating and dissecting rooms. He had himself enrolled as an
interne in the surgical wards of the college hospital. Here he had
ample opportunity to observe the eyes of patients before and after
accidents and operations, and in that manner he was enabled to
elaborate the first accurate Chart of the Eye.
Since Von Peckzely gave his discoveries to the world, many
well-known scientists and conscientious observers in Austria,
Germany and Sweden have devoted their lives to the perfection of
this wonderful science. The regular schools of medicine, as a body,
have ignored and will ignore it, because it discloses the fallacy of
their favorite theories and practices, and because it reveals
unmistakably the direful results of chronic drug poisoning and
ill-advised operations.
In our work we do not confine ourselves to the Diagnosis from the
Eye, but combine with it the diagnostic methods (physical diagnosis)
of the regular school of medicine and the osteopathic diagnosis of
bony lesions, as well as microscopic examinations and chemical
analyses.
Thus any one of these methods supplements and verifies all the
others. In this way only is it possible to arrive at a thorough and
definite understanding of the patient's condition.
The "Key to the Diagnosis from the Eye" outlines with precision the
areas of the iris as they correspond to the various parts of the
body. This colored chart of the iris has been prepared by Dr. H.
Lahn, author of "The Diagnosis From the Eye," and can be obtained
from the Kosmos Publishing Co., 2112 Sherman Ave., Evanston, Ill.
Chapter XXIV
Vitality
In Chapter Four, we named, as the first of the primary causes of
disease, lowered vitality.
What can we do to increase vitality? "Old School" physicians and
people in general seem to think that this can be done by consuming
large quantities of nourishing food and drink and by the use of
stimulants and tonics.
The constant cry of patients is: "Doctor, if you could only
prescribe some good tonic or some food that will give me strength,
then I should be all right! I am sure that is all I need to be
cured."
We fully agree with the patient that he needs more vitality to
overcome disease, but unfortunately this cannot be obtained from
food and drink, from stimulants and tonics.
Vitality, life, life force, whatever we may call it or whatever its
aspect, is not something we can eat and drink. It is independent of
the physical body and of material food. If the body should "fall
dead," as we call it, the life force would continue to act just as
vigorously in the spiritual body, which is the exact counterpart of
the physical organism.
The physical-material body as well as the spiritual-material body
are only the instruments for the manifestation of the life force.
They are no more life itself than the violin is the artist.
But just as the violin must be kept in good condition in order to
enable the artist to draw from it the harmonies of sound, so food
and drink are necessary to keep the physical body in the best
possible condition for the manifestation of vital force. The more
normal our physical and spiritual bodies are in structure and
function, the more harmonious our thought life and emotional life,
the more abundant will be the influx of vital force into the twofold
organism.
This important subject has been treated more fully in Chapter IV.
Ignorance of these simple truths leads to the most serious mistakes.
Physicians and people in general do not stop to think that excessive
eating and drinking tend to rob the body of vitality instead of
supplying it.
The processes of digestion, assimilation and elimination of food and
drink in themselves require a considerable expenditure of vital
force. Therefore all food taken in excess of the actual needs of the
body consumes life force that should be available for other
purposes, for the execution of physical and mental work.
The Romans had a proverb: "Plenus venter non studet libenter"--"A
full stomach does not like to study." The most wholesome food, if
taken in excess, will clog the system with waste matter just as too
much coal will dampen and extinguish the fire in the furnace.
Furthermore, the morbid materials and systemic poisons produced by
impure, unsuitable or wrongly combined foods will clog the cells and
tissues of the body, cause unnecessary friction and obstruct the
inflow and the operations of the vital energies, just as dust in a
watch will clog and impede the movements of its mechanism.
The greatest artist living cannot draw harmonious sounds from the
strings of the finest Stradivarius if the body of the violin is
filled with dust and rubbish. Likewise, the life force cannot act
perfectly in a body filled with morbid encumbrances.
The human organism is capable of liberating and manifesting daily a
limited quantity of vital force, just as a certain amount of capital
in the bank will yield a specified sum of interest in a given time.
If more than the available interest be withdrawn, the capital in the
bank will be decreased and gradually exhausted.
Similarly, if we spend more than our daily allowance of vital force,
"nervous bankruptcy," that is, nervous prostration or neurasthenia
will be the result.
It is the duty of the physician to regulate the expenditure of vital
force according to the income. He must stop all leaks and guard
against wastefulness.
Stimulation by Paralysis
This heading may seem paradoxical, but it is borne out by fact.
Stimulants are poison to the system. Few people realize that their
exhilarating and apparently tonic effects are produced by the
paralysis of an important part of the nervous system.
If, as we have learned, wholesome food and drink in themselves do
not contain and therefore cannot convey life force to the human
body, much less can this be accomplished by stimulants.
The human body has many correspondences with a watch. Both have a
motor or driving mechanism and an inhibitory or restraining
apparatus.
If it were not for the inhibiting balances, the wound watchspring
would run off and spend its force in a few moments. The expenditure
of the latent force in the wound spring must be regulated by the
inhibitory and balancing mechanism of the timepiece.
Similarly, the nervous system in the animal and human organism
consists of two main divisions: the motor or driving and the
inhibitory or restraining mechanisms.
The driving power is furnished by the sympathetic nerves and the
motor nerves. They convey the vital energies and nerve impulses to
the cells and organs of the body, thus initiating and regulating
their activities.
We found that the human body is capable of liberating in a given
time, say, in twenty-four hours, only a certain limited amount of
vital energy, just as the wound spring of the watch is capable of
liberating in a given time only a certain amount of kinetic energy.
As in the watch the force of the spring is controlled by the
regulating balances (the anchor), so in the body the expenditure of
vital energy must be regulated in such a manner that it is evenly
distributed over the entire running time. This is accomplished by
the inhibitory nervous system [the parasympathetics].
Every motor nerve must be balanced by an inhibitory nerve. The one
furnishes the driving force, the other applies the brake. For
instance, the heart muscle is supplied with motor force through the
spinal nerves from the upper dorsal region, while the pneumogastric
[vagus] nerve retards the action of the heart and in that way acts
as a brake.
Another brake is supplied by the waste products of metabolism in the
system, the uric acid, carbonic acid, oxalic acid, etc., and the
many forms of xanthines, alkaloids, and ptomaines. As these
accumulate in the organism during the hours of wakeful activity,
they gradually clog the capillary circulation, benumb brain and
nerves, and thus produce a feeling of exhaustion and tiredness and a
craving for rest and sleep.
In this way, by means of the inhibitory nervous system and of the
accumulating fatigue products in the body, Nature forces the
organism to rest and recuperate when the available supply of vital
force runs low. The lower the level of vital force, the more
powerful will become the inhibitory influences.
Now we can understand why stimulation is produced by paralysis.
Stimulants precipitate the fatigue products from the circulation
into the tissues of the body. They do this by overcoming and
paralyzing the power of the blood to dissolve and carry in solution
uric acid and other acids and alkaloids that should be eliminated
from the organism. Thus will be explained more fully in the volume on
"Natural Dietetics."
Furthermore, stimulants temporarily benumb and paralyze the
inhibitory nervous system. In other words, they lift the brakes from
the motor nervous system, and allow the driving powers to run wild
when Nature wanted them to slow up or stop.
To illustrate: A man has been working hard all day. Toward night his
available supply of vitality has run low, his system is filled with
uric acid, carbonic acid and other benumbing fatigue products, and
he feels tired and sleepy, At this juncture he receives word that he
must sit up all night with a sick relative. In order to brace
himself for the extraordinary demand upon his vitality, our friend
takes a cup of strong coffee, or a drink of whisky, or whatever his
favorite stimulant may be.
The effect is marvelous. The tired feeling disappears, and he feels
as though he could remain awake all night without effort.
What has produced this apparent renewal and increase of vital
energy? Has the stimulant added to his system one iota of vitality?
This cannot be, because stimulants do not contain anything that
could impart vital force to the organism. What, then, has produced
the seemingly strengthening effect?
The caffeine, alcohol or whatever the stimulating poison may have
been has precipitated the fatigue products from the blood and
deposited them in the tissues and organs of the body. Furthermore,
the stimulant has benumbed the inhibitory nerves; in other words, it
has lifted the brakes from the driving part of the organism, so that
the wheels are running wild.
But this means drawing upon the reserve supplies of nerve fats and
of the vital energy stored in them, which Nature wants to save for
extraordinary demands upon the system in times of illness or extreme
exertion. Therefore this procedure is contrary to Nature's
intent. Nature tried to force the tired body to rest and sleep, so
that it could store up a new supply of vital force.
Under the paralyzing influence of the stimulant upon the inhibitory
nerves, the organism now draws upon the reserve stores of nerve fats
and vital energies for the necessary strength to accomplish the
extra nightwork.
At the same time, the organism remains awake and active during the
time it should be replenishing energy for the next day's work, which
means that the latter also has to be done at the expense of the
reserve supply of life force.
During sleep only do we replenish our reserve stores of vitality.
The expenditure of vital energies ceases, but their liberation in
the system continues.
Therefore sleep is the "sweet restorer." Nothing can take its place.
No amount of food and drink, no tonics or stimulants can make up for
the loss of sleep. Continued complete deprivation of sleep is bound
to end in a short time in physical and mental exhaustion, in
insanity and death.
That the body, during sleep, acts as a storage battery for vital
energy is proved by the fact that in deep, sound sleep the aura
disappears entirely from around the body.
The aura is to the organism what the exhaust steam is to the engine.
It is formed by the electromagnetic fluids which have performed
their work in the body and then escape from it, giving the
appearance of a many-colored halo.
With the first awakening of conscious mental activity after sleep,
the aura appears, indicating that the expenditure of vital force has
recommenced.
In the above diagram we have an illustration of the true effect of
stimulants upon the system. The heavy line A-B represents the normal
level of available vital energy in a certain body for a given time,
say, for twenty-four hours. At point C a stimulant is taken. This
paralyzes the inhibitory nerves and temporarily precipitates the
fatigue products from the blood.
As we have seen, this allows an increased, unnatural expenditure of
vital energy, which raises the latter to point D. But when the
effect of the stimulant has been spent, the vital energy drops from
the artificially attained high point not only back to the normal
level, but below it to point E.
The increased expenditure of vital energy was made possible at the
expense of the reserve supply of vitality; therefore the depression
following it is in proportion to the preceding stimulation. This is
in accordance with the law: "Action and reaction are equal, but
opposite."
The falling of the vital energy below the normal to point E is
accompanied by a feeling of exhaustion and depression which creates
a desire to repeat the pleasurable experience of an abundant supply
of vitality, and thus leads to a repetition of the artificial
stimulation. As a result of this, the expenditure of vitality is
again raised above the normal to point F, only to fall again below
the normal, to G, etc.
In this way the person who resorts to stimulants to keep up his
strength or to increase it, is never normal, never on the level,
never at his best. He is either overstimulated or abnormally
depressed. His efforts are bound to be fitful and his work uneven in
quality. Furthermore, it will be only a matter of time until he
exhausts his reserve supply of nerve fats and vital energy and then
suffers nervous bankruptcy in the forms of nervous prostration,
neurasthenia or insanity.
Such a person is acting like the spendthrift whose capital in the
bank allows him to expend ten dollars a day, but who, instead, draws
several times the amount of his legitimate daily interest. There can
be but one outcome to this: in due time the cashier will inform him
that his account is overdrawn.
The same principles hold true with regard to stimulants given at the
sickbed.
One of the arguments I constantly hear from students and physicians
of the "Old School" of medicine is: "Some of your methods may be all
right, but what would you do at the sickbed of a patient who is so
weak and low that he may die at any moment? Would you just let him
die? Would you not give him something to keep him alive?"
I certainly would, if I could. But I do not believe that poisons can
give life. If there is enough vitality in that dying body to react
to the poisonous stimulant by a temporary increase of vital
activity, then that same amount of vitality will keep the heart
beating and the respiration going a little longer at the slower
pace. Nature regulates the heartbeat and the other functions
according to the amount and availability of vital force. If the
heart beats slow, it is because Nature is trying to economize
vitality.
In the inevitable depression following the artificial whipping up of
the vital energies, many times the flame is snuffed out entirely
when otherwise it might have continued to burn at the slower rate
for some time longer.
However, I do not deny the advisability of administering stimulants
in cases of shock. When a shock has caused the stopping of the
wheels of life, another shock by a stimulant may set them in motion
again.
The Effects of Stimulants upon the Mind
The mental and emotional exhilaration accompanying the indulgence in
alcohol or other poisonous stimulants is produced in a similar
manner as the apparent increase of physical strength under the
influence of these agents. Here, also, the temporary stimulation and
seeming increase of power are effected by paralysis of the governing
and restraining faculties of mind and soul: of reason, modesty,
reserve, caution, reverence, etc.
The moral, mental and emotional capacities and powers of the human
entity are governed by the same principle of dual action that
controls physical activity. We have on the one hand the motor or
driving impulses, and on the other hand the restraining and
inhibiting influences.
In these higher realms appetite, passion, imagination and desire
correspond to the motor nervous system in the physical organism, and
the power of the will and the reasoning faculties represent the
inhibitory nervous system.
The exhilarating and stimulating influence of alcohol and narcotics
such as opiates or hashish upon the animal spirits and the emotional
and imaginative faculties is caused by the benumbing and paralyzing
effect of these stimulants upon the powers of will, reason and
self-control, the brakes on the lower appetites, passions and
desires which fire the emotional nature and the imagination.
However, what is gained in feeling and imagination, is lost in
judgment and logic.
Alcohol, nicotine, caffein, theobromine, lupulin (the bitter
principle of hops), opium, cocaine, morphine, etc., when given in
certain doses, all affect the human organism in a similar manner.
In small quantities they seemingly stimulate and animate; in larger
amounts they depress and stupefy. In reality, they are paralyzers
from the beginning in every instance, and their apparent, temporary
tonic effect is deceptive. They benumb and paralyze not only the
physical organism, but also the higher and highest mental and moral
qualities, capacities and powers.
These higher and finer qualities are located in the front part of
the brain. In the evolution of the species from lower to higher, the
brain gradually developed and enlarged in a forward direction. Thus
we find in the lowest order of fishes that all they possess of brain
matter is a small protuberance at the end of the spinal cord. As the
species and families rose in the scale of evolution, the brain
developed proportionately from behind forward and became
differentiated into three distinct divisions: the medulla oblongata,
the cerebellum, and the cerebrum.
The medulla oblongata, situated at the base of the brain where it
joins the spinal cord, contains those brain centers that control the
purely vegetative, vital functions: the circulation of the blood,
the respiration, regulation of animal heat, etc.
The cerebellum, in front of and above the medulla, is the seat of
the centers for the coordination of muscular activities and for
maintaining the equilibrium of the body.
The frontal brain or cerebrum contains the centers for the sensory
organs, also the motor centers which supply the driving impulses for
the muscular activities of the body, and in the occipital and
frontal lobes, the centers for the higher and highest qualities of
mind and soul, which constitute the governing and restraining
faculties on which depend the powers of self-control.
Thus we see that the development of the brain has been in a forward
direction, from the upper extremity of the spinal cord to the
frontal lobes of the cerebrum, from the low, vegetative qualities of
the animal and the savage to the complex and refined activities of
the highly civilized and trained mind.
It is an interesting and most significant fact that paralysis of
brain centers caused by alcohol and other stimulants, or by
hypnotics and narcotics, proceeds reversely to the order of their
development during the processes of evolution.
The first to succumb are the brain centers in the frontal lobes of
the cerebrum, which control the latest-developed and most-refined
human attributes. These are: modesty, caution, reserve, reverence,
altruism. Then follow in the order given: memory, reason, logic,
intelligence, will power, self-control, the control of muscular
coordination and equilibrium and finally consciousness and the vital
activities of heart action and respiration.
When the conscious activities of the soul have been put to sleep,
the paralysis extends to the subconscious activities of life or
vital force. Respiration and heart action become weak and labored,
and may finally cease entirely.
In order to verify this, let us study the effects of alcohol, the
best-known and most-used of stimulants. Many people believe that
alcohol increases not only physical strength, but mental energy
also. Regular medical science considers it a valuable tonic in all
cases of physical and mental depression. It is often administered in
surgical operations and in accidents with the idea of prolonging
life. I have frequently found the whisky or brandy bottle at the
bedside of infants and on it the directions of the attending
physician.
Watch the effect of this tonic on a group of convivial spirits at a
banquet. Full honor is done to the art of the chef, and the wine
flows freely. The flow of animal spirits increases proportionately;
conviviality, wit and humor rise by leaps and bounds. But the
apparent joy and happiness are in reality nothing but the play of
the lower animal impulses, unrestrained by the higher powers of mind
and soul.
The words of the afterdinner speaker who, when sober, is a sedate
and earnest gentleman, flow with unusual ease. The close and
unprejudiced observer notices, however, that what the speaker has
gained in eloquence, loquacity and exuberance of style and
expres-sion, he has lost in logic, clearness and good sense.
As King Alcohol tightens his grasp on the merry company, the
toasters and speakers lose more and more their control over speech
and actions. What was at first mischievous abandon and merry jest,
gradually degenerates into loquaciousness, coarseness and querulous
brawls. Here and there one of the maudlin crowd drops off in the
stupor of drunkenness.
If the liquor is strong enough and if the debauch is continued long
enough, it may end in complete paralysis of the vital functions or
in death.
Hypnotism and Obsession
Again, we find the seeming paradox of stimulation by paralysis
exemplified in the phenomena of hypnotism and obsession. The
abnormally exaggerated sensation, feeling and imagination of the
subject under hypnotic control are made possible because the higher,
critical and restraining faculties and powers of will, reason and
self-control are temporarily or permanently benumbed and paralyzed
by the stronger will of the hypnotist or of the obsessing
intelligence.
There is a most interesting resemblance between the effects of
stimulants, narcotics or hypnotic control and blind, unreasoning
faith. The latter also benumbs and paralyzes judgment and reason. It
gives full sway to the powers of imagination and thus may produce
seemingly miraculous results.
This explains the modus operandi of faith cures as well as the
fitful strength of the intoxicated and the insane, or the beautiful
dreams and delusions of grandeur of the drug addict.
The close resemblance and relationship between hypnotic control and
faith became vividly apparent to me while witnessing the performance
of a professional hypnotist. His subject on the stage was a young
woman who, under his control, performed extraordinary feats of
strength and resistance. Several strong men could not lift or move
her in any way.
What was the reason? In the ordinary, waking condition her judgment
and common sense would tell her: "I cannot resist the combined
strength of these men. Of course, they can lift me and pull me here
and there." As a result of this doubting state of mind, she would
not have the strength to resist.
However, the control of the hypnotist had paralyzed her reasoning
faculties and therewith her capacity for judging, doubting and not
believing. Her subconscious mind accepted without question or the
shadow of a doubt the suggestion of the hypnotist that she did
possess the strength to resist the combined efforts of the men and
as a result she actually manifested the necessary powers of
resistance.
It is an established fact that the impressions (records) made upon
the subconscious mind under certain conditions as, for instance,
under hypnotic influence absolutely control the activities of the
physical body.
Does not this throw an interesting light on the power of absolute
faith, on the saying: "Everything is possible to him who believeth?"
Blind, unreasoning faith benumbs and paralyzes judgment and reason
in similar manner as hypnotic control or stimulants and in that way
gives free and full sway to the powers of imagination and
autosuggestion for good or ill, for white magic or black magic,
according to the purpose for which faith is exerted.
It also becomes apparent that such blind, unreasoning faith cannot
be constructive in its influence upon the higher mental, moral and
spiritual faculties. These can be developed only by the conscious
and voluntary exercise of will, reason and self-control.
From the foregoing it will have become evident that we cannot
increase vital force in the body through any artificial means or
methods from without, by food, drink or stimulant. What we can and
should do, however, is to put the organism into the best possible
condition for the liberation and manifestation of life force or
vital energy.
The more normal the chemical composition of the blood, and the more
free the tissues are from clogging impurities, poisons and
mechanical obstructions, such as lesions of the spinal column, the
more abundant will be the liberation and the available supply of
vital energy.
Therefore perfect, buoyant health, which ensures the greatest
possible efficiency and enjoyment of life, can be attained and
maintained only by strict adherence to the natural ways of living
and, when necessary, by the natural treatment of diseases.
Chapter XXV
Natural Dietetics
The chemical composition of blood and lymph depends upon the
chemical composition of food and drink, and upon the normal or
abnormal condition of the digestive organs.
The purer the food and drink, the less it contains of morbid matter
and poison-producing materials and the more it contains of the
elements necessary for the proper execution of the manifold
functions of the organism, for the building and repair of tissues
and for the neutralization and elimination of waste and systemic
poisons, the more "normal" and the more "natural" will be the diet.
The system of dietetics of the Nature Cure school is based upon the
composition of MILK, which is the only perfect natural food
combination in existence.
In its composition, milk corresponds very closely to red, arterial
blood and contains all the elements which the newborn and growing
organism needs in exactly the right proportions, providing, of
course, that the human or animal body which produces the milk is in
good health and lives on pure and normal foods.
Therefore, if any food combination or diet is to be "normal" or
"natural," it must approach in its chemical composition the chemical
composition of milk or of red, arterial blood. This furnishes a
strictly scientific basis for an exact science of dietetics, and
proves true not only in the chemical aspect of the diet problem, but
also in every other aspect and in its practical application.
The "regular" school of medicine pays little or no attention to
rational food regulation. In fact, it knows nothing about it,
because "natural dietetics" are as yet not taught in medical
schools. As a result of this condition, the dietary advice given by
the majority of Old School practitioners is something as follows:
"Eat what agrees with you: plenty of good, nourishing food. There is
nothing in dietetic fads. What is one man's meat is another man's
poison, etc."
However, if we study dietetics from a strictly scientific point of
view, we find that certain foods--among these especially the highly
valued flesh foods, eggs, pulses and cereals--create in the system
large quantities of morbid, poisonous substances, while on the other
hand fruits and vegetables, which are rich in the organic salts,
tend to neutralize and to eliminate from the system the waste
materials and poisons created in the processes of protein and starch
digestion.
The accumulations of waste and systemic poisons are the cause of the
majority of diseases arising within the human organism. Therefore it
is imperative that the neutralizing and eliminating food elements be
provided in sufficient quantities.
On this turns the entire problem of natural dietetics. While the
"Old School" of medicine looks upon starches, sugars, fats and
proteins as the only elements of nutrition worthy of consideration,
Nature Cure aims to reduce these foods in the natural dietary and to
increase the purifying and eliminating fruits and vegetables.
In this volume we cannot go into the details of the diet question.
They will be treated in full in our ~Vegetarian Cookbook~ and in our
volume on ~Natural Dietetics.~ We shall say here in a general way
that in the treatment of chronic diseases, with few exceptions, we
favor a strict vegetarian diet for the reason that most chronic
diseases are created, as before stated, by the accumulation of the
"feces of the cells" in the system.
Every piece of animal flesh is saturated with these excrements of
the cells in the form of uric acid and many other kinds of acids,
alkaloids of putrefaction, xanthines, ptomaines, etc. The organism
of the meat eater must dispose not only of its own impurities
produced in the processes of digestion and of cell metabolism, but
also of the morbid substances that are already contained in the
animal flesh.
Since the cure of chronic diseases consists largely in purifying the
body of morbid materials, it stands to reason that a "chronic" must
cease taking these in his daily food and drink. To do otherwise
would be like sweeping the dirt out of a house through the front
door and carrying it in again through the back door.
Whether one approves of strict vegetarianism as a continuous mode of
living or not, it will be admitted that the change from a meat diet
to a nonmeat diet must be of great benefit in the treatment of
chronic diseases.
The cure of chronic conditions depends upon radical changes in the
cells and tissues of the body, as explained in Chapter Twenty. The
old, abnormal, faulty diet will continue to build the same abnormal
and disease-encumbered tissues. The more thorough and radical the
change in diet toward normality and purity, the quicker the cells
and tissues of the body will change toward the normal and thus bring
about a complete regeneration of the organism.
Anything short of this may be palliative treatment, but is not
worthy the name of cure.
Natural Foods
In the following I shall give the outline a natural diet regimen
which has been found by experience to meet all requirements of the
healthy organism, even when people have to work very hard physically
or mentally. In case of disease, certain modifications may have to
be made according to individual conditions. Persons in a low,
negative state, whether physical, mental or psychical, may
temporarily require the addition of flesh foods to their diet.
Dietetics In A Nutshell
Food Classes
Predominant
Chemical
Elements
Functions in Vital Processes
Foods in Which the Elements of the Respective Groups Predominate
GROUP I
Carbohydrates
Starches and Dextrines
Carbon
Oxygen
Hydrogen
Producers of Heat and Energy
CEREALS: The inner, white parts of wheat, corn, rye, oats, barley,
buckewheat and rice. VEGETABLES: Potatoes, pumpkins, squashes.
FRUITS: Bananas. NUTS: Chestnuts
GROUP II
Carbohydrates
Sugars
Carbon
Oxygen
Hydrogen
Producers of
Heat and
Energy
VEGETABLES: Melons, beets, sorghum. FRUITS: Bananas, dates, figs,
grapes, raisins. DAIRY PRODUCTS: Milk. NATURAL SUGARS: Honey, maple
sugar. COMMERCIAL SUGARS: White sugar, syrup, glucose, candy. NUTS:
Cocoanuts.
GROUP III
Hydrocarbons
Fats and
Oils
Carbon
Oxygen
Hydrogen
Producers of
Heat and
Energy
FRUITS: Olives. DAIRY PRODUCTS: Cream, butter, cheese. NUTS:
Peanuts, almonds, walnuts, cocoanuts, Brazil nuts, pecans,
pignolias, etc. COMMERCIAL FATS: Olive oil, peanut oil, peanut
butter, vegetable-cooking oils. THE YOKES OF EGGS
GROUP IV
Proteids
Albumen
(white of egg)
Gluten
(grains)
Myosin
(lean meat)
Carbon
Oxygen
Hydrogen
Nitrogen
Phosphorus
Sulphur
Producers of Heat and Energy;
Building Materials for Cells and Tissues
CEREALS: The outer, dark parts of wheat, corn, rye, oats, barley,
buckwheat, and rice. VEGETABLES: The legumes (peas, beans, lentils),
mushrooms. NUTS: Cocoanuts, chestnuts, peanuts, pignolias (pine
nuts), hickorynuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, etc. DAIRY PRODUCTS:
Milk, cheese. MEATS: Muscular parts of animals, fish, and fowls.
GROUP V
Organic Minerals
Organic
Mineral
Elements
Sodium
Na
Ferrum (Iron)
Fe
Calcium (Lime)
Ca
Potassium
K
Magnesium
Mg
Manganese
Mn
Silicon
Si
Chlorine
Cl
Flourine
Fl
Eliminators:
Bone, Blood, and Nerve
Builders;
Antiseptics:
Blood Purifiers;
Laxitives;
Cholagogues;
Producers of
Electro-magnetic Energies
THE RED BLOOD OF ANIMALS. CEREALS: The hulls and outer, dark layers
of grains and rice. VEGETABLES: Lettuce, spinach, cabbage, green
peppers, watercress, celery, onions, asparagus, cauliflower,
tomatoes, string-beans, fresh peas, parsley, cucumbers, radishes,
savoy, horseradish, dandelion, beets, carrots, turnips, eggplant,
kohlrabi, oysterplant, artichokes, leek, rosekale (Brussels
sprouts), parsnips, pumpkins, squashes, sorghum. FRUITS: Apples,
pears, peaches, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, plums, prunes,
apricots, cherries, olives. BERRIES: Strawberries, huckleberries,
cranb \erries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, gooseberries,
currants. DAIRY PRODUCTS: Milk, buttermilk, skimmed milk. NUTS:
Cocoanuts.
In the accompanying table entitled "Dietics In A Nutshell" we have
divided all food materials into five groups:
GROUP:
(Carbohydrates): Starches. (Carbohydrates): Dextrins and sugars.
(Hydrocarbons): Fats and oils. (Proteids): white of egg, lean meat,
the gluten of grains and pulses, the proteins of nuts and milk.
(Organic Minerals): Iron, sodium calcium, potassium, magnesium,
silicon. These are contained in largest amounts in the juicy fruits
and the leafy, juicy vegetables.
As a general rule, let one-half of your food consist of Group V and
the other half of a mixture of the first four groups.
If you wish to follow a pure food diet, exclude meat, fish, fowl,
meat soups and sauces and all other foods prepared from the dead
animal carcass.
This is brief and comprehensive. When in doubt, consult this rule.
Also do not use coffee, tea, alcoholic beverages, tobacco or
stimulants of any kind.
Good foods are:
Dairy Products: milk, buttermilk, skimmed milk, cream, butter, fresh
cottage cheese. fermented cheeses, as American, Swiss, Holland and
DeBrie, should be used sparingly. The stronger cheeses like
Camembert and Roquefort should not be used at all
Eggs: Raw, soft-boiled or poached, not fried or hard-boiled. Eggs
should be used sparingly. Two eggs three times a week or on an
average one egg a day, is sufficient.
White of egg is much easier to digest than the yolk, therefore the
whites only should be used in cases of very weak digestion. Beaten
up with orange juice, they are both palatable and wholesome; or they
may be beaten very stiff and served cold with a sauce of prune juice
or other cooked fruit juices. This makes a delicious and very
nutritive dish.
Honey is a very valuable food and a natural laxative. It is not
generally known that honey is not a purely vegetable product, but
that in passing through the organism of the bee it partakes of its
life element (animal magnetism).
Honey is one of the best forms of sugar available. The white sugar
is detrimental to health, because it has become inorganic through
the refining process. The brown, unrefined granulated sugar or maple
sugar should be used instead.
Figs, dates, raisins, bananas and all the other sweet fruits are
excellent to satisfy the craving of the organism for sweets.
Cereal Foods: Rice, wheat, oats, barley, are good when properly
combined with fruits and vegetables and with dairy products. Use
preferably the whole-grain preparations such as shredded wheat or
corn flakes. Oatmeal is not easily digestible; it is all right for
robust people working in the open air, but not so good for invalids
and people of sedentary habits.
Thin mushes are not to be recommended, because they do not require
mastication and therefore escape the action of the saliva, which is
indispensable to the digestion of starchy foods.
Avoid the use of white bread or any other white-flour products,
especially pastry. White flour contains little more than the starchy
elements of the grain. Most of the valuable proteins which are equal
to meat in food value and the all-important organic salts which
lodge in the hulls and the outer layers of the grain have been
refined out of it together with the bran. The latter is in itself
very valuable as a mechanical stimulant to the peristaltic action of
the bowels.
In preference to white bread eat Graham bread or whole rye bread.
Our health bread forms the solid foundation of a well-balanced
vegetarian diet. It is prepared as follows:
Take one-third each of white flour, Graham flour and rye meal (not
the ordinary Bohemian rye flour, but the coarse pumpernickel meal
which contains the whole of the rye, including the hull).
Make a sponge of the white flour in the usual manner, either with
good yeast or with leavened dough from the last baking, which has
been kept cold and sweet. When the sponge has risen sufficiently,
work the graham flour and rye meal into it. Thorough kneading is of
importance. Let rise slowly a second time, place in pans, and bake
slowly until thoroughly done.
By chemical analysis this bread has been found to contain more
nourishment than meat. It is very easily digested and assimilated
and is a natural laxative. Eaten with sweet butter and in
combination with fruits and vegetables, it makes a complete and well
balanced meal.
A good substitute for bread is the following excellent whole wheat
preparation: Soak clean, soft wheat in cold water for about seven
hours and steam in a double boiler for from eight to twelve hours,
or cook in a fireless cooker over night. Eat with honey and milk or
cream, or with prune juice, fig juice, etc., or add butter and dates
or raisins. This dish is more nutritious than meat, and one of the
finest laxative foods in existence.
Nuts are exceedingly rich in fats (60 percent) and proteins (15
percent), but rank low in mineral salts. Therefore they should be
used sparingly, and always in combination with fruits, berries or
vegetables. The coconut differs from the other nuts in that it
contains less fats and proteins and more organic salts. The meat of
the coconut together with its milk comes nearer to the chemical
composition of human milk than any other food in existence.
Vegetables
Leguminous Vegetables, such as peas, beans and lentils in the
ripened state are richer in protein than meat (25 percent), and
besides they contain a large percentage of starchy food elements (60
percent); therefore they produce in the process of digestion large
quantities of poisonous acids, alkaloids of putrefaction and noxious
gases.
They should not be taken in large quantities and only in combination
cooked or raw vegetables. As a dressing use lemon juice and olive
oil.
Peas and beans in the green state differ very much from their
chemical composition in the ripened state. As long as these
vegetables are green and in the pulp, they contain large quantities
of sugars and organic minerals, with but little starch and protein.
As the ripening process advances, the percentages of starches and
proteins increase, while those of the sugars and of the organic
minerals decrease. The latter retire into the leaves and stems
(polarization).
In the green, pulpy state these foods may, therefore, be classed
with Group II (Sugars) and with Group V (Organic Minerals), while in
the ripened state they must be classed with Groups I (Starches) and
Groups IV (Proteids).
Dried peas, beans and lentils are more palatable and wholesome when
cooked in combination with tomatoes or prunes.
The Leafy and Juicy Vegetables growing in or near the ground are
very rich in the positive organic salts and therefore of great
nutritive and medicinal value. For this reason they are best suited
to balance the negative, acid-producing starches, sugars, fats and
proteins.
Lettuce, spinach, cabbage, watercress, celery, parsley, savoy
cabbage, brussels sprouts, Scotch kale, leek and endive rank highest
in organic mineral salts. Next to these come tomatoes, cucumbers,
green peppers, radishes, onions, asparagus, cauliflower and
horseradish.(See also Group V in "Dietetics in a Nutshell.")
Splendid, cooling summer foods, rich in the blood-purifying organic
salts, are watermelons, muskmelons. cantaloupes, pumpkins, squashes
and other members of the melon family.
The green vegetables are most beneficial when eaten raw, with a
dressing of lemon juice and olive oil. Avoid the use of vinegar as
much as possible. It is a product of fermentation and a powerful
preservative which retards digestion as well as fermentation, both
processes being very much of the same character.
Use neither pepper nor salt at the table. They may be used sparingly
in cooking. Strong spices and condiments are more or less irritating
to the mucous linings of the intestinal tract. They paralyze
gradually the nerves of taste. At first they stimulate the digestive
organs; but, like all other stimulants, in time they produce
weakness and atrophy.
Cooking of Vegetables
While most vegetables are not improved by cooking, we do not mean
that they should never be cooked. Many diet reformers go to extremes
when they claim that all the organic salts in fruits and vegetables
are rendered inorganic by cooking. This is an exaggera-tion. Cooking
is merely a mechanical process of subdivision, not a chemical
process of transformation. Mechanical processes of division do not
dissolve or destroy organic molecules to any great extent.
Nevertheless, it remains true that the green leafy vegetables are
not improved by cooking. It is different with the starchy tubers and
roots like potatoes, turnips, etc., and with other starchy foods
such as rice and grains. Here the cooking serves to break up and
separate the hard starch granules and to make them more pervious to
penetration by the digestive juices.
How to Cook Vegetables
After the vegetables are thoroughly washed and cut into pieces as
desired, place them in the cooking vessel, adding only enough water
to keep them from burning, cover the vessel closely with a lid and
let them steam slowly in their own juices.
The leafy vegetables (cabbage, spinach, kale, etc.), usually contain
enough water for their own steaming.
Cook all vegetables only as long as is required to make them soft
enough for easy mastication. Do not throw away a drop of the water
in which such vegetables as carrots, beets, asparagus, oyster plant,
egg plant, etc., have been cooked. Use what is left for the making
of soups and sauces.
The organic mineral salts contained in the vegetables readily boil
out into the water. If the vegetables, as is the usual custom, are
boiled in a large quantity of water, then drained or, what is still
worse, pressed out, they have lost their nutritive and medicinal
value. The mineral salts have vanished in the sink, the remains are
insipid and indigestible and have to be soaked in soup stock and
seasoned with strong condiments and spices to make them at all
palatable.
Fruits and Berries
Next to the leafy vegetables, fruits and berries are the most
valuable foods of the organic minerals group. Lemons, grapefruit,
oranges, apples are especially beneficial as blood purifiers. Plums,
pears, peaches, apricots, cherries, grapes, etc., contain large
amounts of fruit sugars in easily assimilable form and are also very
valuable on account of their mineral salts.
The different kinds of berries are even richer in mineral salts than
the acid and subacid fruits. In the country homes of Germany they
are always at hand either dried or preserved to serve during the
winter not only as delicious foods but also as valuable home
remedies.
Fruits and berries are best eaten raw, although they may be stewed
or baked. Very few people know that rhubarb and cranberries are very
palatable when cut up fine and well mixed with honey, being allowed
to stand for about an hour before serving. Prepared in this way,
they require much less sweetening and therefore do not tax the
organism nearly as much as the ordinary rhubarb or cranberry sauce,
which usually contains an excessive amount of sugar.
Cooking of Fruits
It is better to cook apples, cranberries, rhubarb, strawberries, and
all other acid fruits without sugar until soft, and to add the sugar
afterward. Much less sugar will be required to sweeten them
sufficiently than when the sugar is added before or during the
cooking.
Dried fruits rank next to the fresh in value, as the evaporating
process only removes a large percentage of water, without changing
the chemical composition of the fruit in any way. Prunes, apricots,
apples, pears, peaches and berries may be obtained in the dried
state all through the year. Dates, figs, raisins and currants also
come under this head.
Olives are an excellent food. They are very rich in fats (about 50
percent), and contain also considerable quantities of organic salts.
They are therefore a good substitute for animal fat.
Avoid factory-canned fruits. In the first place, they have become
deteriorated by the cooking process and secondly, they usually
contain poisonous chemical preservatives. Home-preserved fruits and
vegetables are all right providing they do not contain too much
sugar and no poisonous preservative.
Bananas differ from the juicy fruits in that they consist almost
entirely of starches, dextrines and sugars. They belong to the
carbohydrate groups and should be used sparingly by people suffering
from intestinal indigestion.
However, we do not share the belief entertained by many people that
bananas are injurious under all circumstances. We consider them an
excellent food, especially for children.
Mixing Fruits and Vegetables
Many people, when they first sit down to our table, are horrified to
see how we mix fruits and vegetables in the same meal. They have
been taught that it is a cardinal sin against the laws of health to
do this. After they overcome their prejudice and partake heartily of
the meals as we serve them, they are greatly surprised to find that
these combinations of vegetables and juicy fruits are not only
harmless, but agreeable and highly beneficial.
We have never been able to find any good reason why these foods
should not be mixed and our experience proves that no ill effects
can be traced to this practice except in very rare instances. There
are a few individuals with whom the mixing of fruits and vegetables
does not seem to agree. These, of course, should refrain from it. We
must comply with idiosyncrasies until they are overcome by natural
living.
Eating fruits only or vegetables only at one and the same meal
limits the selection and combination of foods to a very considerable
extent and tends to create monotony, which is not only unpleasant
but injurious. The flow of saliva and of the digestive juices is
greatly increased by the agreeable sight, smell and taste of
appetizing food and these depend largely upon its variety.
With very few exceptions, every one of our patients (and we have in
our institution as fine a collection of dyspeptics as can be found
anywhere) heartily enjoys our mixed dietary and is greatly benefited
by it.
Mixing Starches and Acid Fruits
Occasionally we find that one or another of our patients cannot eat
starchy foods and acid fruits at the same meal without experiencing
digestive disturbances. Whenever this is the case, it is best to
take with bread or cereals only sweet, alkaline fruits such as
prunes, figs, dates, raisins, or, in their season, watermelons and
cantaloupes or the alkaline vegetables such as radishes, lettuce,
onions, cabbage slaw, etc. The acid and subacid fruits should then
be taken between those meals which consist largely of starchy foods.
A Word About the Milk Diet
When we explain that the natural diet is based upon the chemical
composition of milk because milk is the only perfect natural food
combination in existence, the question comes up: "Why, then, not
live on milk entirely?" To this we reply: While milk is the natural
food for the newborn and growing infant, it is not natural for the
adult. The digestive apparatus of the infant is especially adapted
to the digestion of milk, while that of the adult requires more
solid and bulky food.
Milk is a very beneficial article of diet in all acid diseases,
because it contains comparatively low percentages of carbohydrates
and proteins and large amounts of organic salts.
However, not everybody can use milk as a food or medicine. In many
instances it causes biliousness, fermentation and constipation.
In cases where it is easily digested, a straight milk diet often
proves very beneficial. As a rule, however, it is better to take
fruits or vegetable salads with the milk.
Directly with milk may be taken any sweetish, alkaline fruits such
as melons, sweet pears, etc., or the dried fruits, such as prunes,
dates, figs, and raisins, also vegetable salads. With the latter, if
taken together with milk, little or no lemon juice should be used.
All acid and subacid fruits should be taken between the milk meals.
A patient on a milk diet may take from one to five quarts of milk
daily, according to his capacity to digest it. This quantity may be
distributed over the day after the following plan:
Breakfast: One to three pints of milk, sipped slowly with any of the
sweetish, alkaline fruits mentioned above, or with vegetable salads
composed of lettuce, celery, raw cabbage slaw, watercress, green
onions, radishes, carrots, etc
10:00 A.M.: Grapefruit, oranges, peaches, apples, apricots, berries,
grapes or other acid and subacid fruits.
Luncheon: The same as breakfast.
3:00 P.M. The same as 10 a.m.
Supper: The same as breakfast. An orange or apple may be taken
before retiring.
When it is advisable to take a greater variety of food together with
large quantities of milk, good whole grain bread and butter, cream,
honey, cooked vegetables, moderate amounts of potatoes and cereals
may be added to the dietary.
Buttermilk
Buttermilk is an excellent food for those with whom it agrees. In
many instances a straight buttermilk diet for a certain period will
prove very beneficial. This is especially true in all forms of uric
acid diseases.
Sour milk or clabber also has excellent medicinal qualities and may
be taken freely by those with whom it agrees.
Drinks
It has been stated before that coffee, tea and alcoholic beverages
should be avoided.
Instead of the customary coffee, tea or cocoa, delicious drinks,
which are nutritious and at the same time nonstimulating, may be
prepared from the different fruit and vegetable juices. They may be
served cold in hot weather and warm in winter. Recipes for fruit and
vegetable drinks will be included in our new Vegetarian Cookbook,
now in preparation.
If more substantial drinks are desired, white of egg may be added or
the entire egg may be used in combination with prune juice, fig
juice or any of the acid fruit juices. Other desirable and
unobjectionable additions to beverages are flaked nuts or bananas
mashed to a liquid.
The juice of a lemon or an orange, unsweetened, diluted with twice
the amount of water, taken upon rising, is one of the best means of
purifying the blood and other fluids of the body and, incidentally,
clearing the complexion. The water in which prunes or figs have been
cooked should be taken freely to remedy constipation.
As a practical illustration, I shall describe briefly the daily
dietary regimen as it is followed in our sanitarium work.
Breakfast consists of juicy fruits, raw, baked or stewed, a cereal
(whole wheat steamed, cracked wheat, shredded wheat, corn flakes,
oat meal, etc.), and our health bread with butter, cottage cheese or
honey. Nuts of various kinds, as well as figs, dates, or raisins,
are always on the table. To those of our patients who desire a
drink, we serve milk, buttermilk or cereal coffee.
Twice a week we serve eggs, preferably raw, soft boiled or poached.
Luncheon is served at noontime and is composed altogether of acid
and subacid fruits, vegetable salads or both. We have found by
experience that, by having one meal consist entirely of fruits and
vegetables, the medicinal properties of these foods have a chance to
act on the system without interference by starchy and protein food
elements.
Dinner is served to our patients between five and six. The items of
the daily menu comprise relishes, such as radishes, celery, olives,
young onions, raw carrots, etc., soup, one or two cooked vegetables,
potatoes, preferably boiled or baked in their skins, and a dessert
consisting of either a fruit combination or a pudding.
We serve soup three times a week only, because we believe that a
large amount of fluid of any kind taken into the system at meal time
dilutes and thereby weakens the digestive juices. For this reason it
is well to masticate with the soup some bread or crackers or some
vegetable relish.
As drinks we serve to those who desire it water, milk or buttermilk.
Prunes or figs, stewed or raw, are served at every meal to those who
require a specially laxative diet.
Chapter XXVI
Acid Diseases
The origin, progressive development and cure of acid diseases are
very much the same whether they manifest as rheumatism,
arteriosclerosis, stones (calculi), gravel, diabetes, Bright's
disease, affections of the heart or apoplexy.
The human body is made up of acid and alkaline constituents. In
order to have normal conditions and functions of tissues and organs,
both must be present in the right proportions. If either the acid or
the alkaline elements are present in excessive or insufficient
quanitities, abnormal conditions and functions, that is, disease
will be the result.
All acids, with the exception of carbonic acid, exert a tensing
influence upon the tissues of the body, while alkalies have a
relaxing effect. The normal functions of the body depend upon the
equilibrium between these opposing forces.
Acidity and alkalinity undoubtedly play an important part in the
generation of electricity and magnetism in the human organism. Every
electric cell and battery contains acid and alkaline elements; and
the human body is a dynamo made up of innumerable minute electric
cells and batteries in the forms of living, protoplasmic cells and
organs.
It has been claimed that what we call vital force is electricity and
magnetism, and that these forces are manufactured in the human body.
This, however, is but a partial statement of the truth. It is true
that vital force manifests in the body as electricity and magnetism,
but life or vital force itself is not generated in the system.
Life is a primary force; it is the source of all activity animating
the universe. From this primary force other, secondary forces are
derived, such as electricity, magnetism, mind force, nerve and
muscle force, etc.
These secondary, derived forces cannot be changed back into vital
force in the human organism. Nothing can give life but LIFE itself.
When the physical body is dead, as we call it, the life which left
it is active in the spiritual body. It is independent of the
physical organism just as electricity is independent of the
incandescent bulb in which it manifests as light.
After this digression we shall return to our study of the cause and
development of acid diseases. Nearly every disease originating in
the human body is due to or accompanied by the excessive formation
of different kinds of acids in the system, the most important of
which are uric, carbonic, sulphuric, phosphoric and oxalic acids.
These, together with xanthines, poisonous alkaloids and ptomaines,
are formed during the processes of protein and starch digestion and
in the breaking down and decay of cells and tissues.
Of these different waste products, uric acid causes probably the
most trouble in the organism. The majority of diseases arising
within the human body are due to its erratic behavior. Together with
oxalic acid, it is responsible for arteriosclerosis, arthritic
rheumatism and the formation of calculi.
Dr. Haig of London has done excellent work in the investigation of
uric-acid poisoning, but he becomes one-sided when he makes uric
acid the scapegoat for all disease conditions originating in the
organism. In his philosophy of disease he fails to take into
consideration the effects of other acids and systemic poisons. For
instance, he does not mention the fact that carbonic acid is
produced in the system somewhat similarly to the formation of coal
gas in the furnace; and that its accumulation prevents the entrance
of oxygen into the cells and tissues, thus causing asphyxiation or
oxygen starvation, which manifests in the symptoms of anemia and
tuberculosis.
Neither does Dr. Haig explain the effects of other destructive
by-products formed during the digestion of starches and proteins.
Sulphurous acid and sulphuric acid (vitriol), as well as phosphorus
and phosphoric acids actually burn up the tissues of the body. They
destroy the cellulose membranes which form the protecting skins or
envelopes of the cells, dissolve the protoplasm and allow the latter
to escape into the circulation. This accounts for the symptoms of
Bright's disease, the presence of albumen (cell protoplasm) in blood
and urine, the clogging of the circulation, the consequent
stagnation and the accumulation of blood serum (dropsy) and the
final breaking down of the tissues (necrosis) resulting in open
sores and ulcers.
Excess of phosphorus and the acids derived from it overstimulates
the brain and the nervous system, causing nervousness, irritability,
hysteria and the different forms of mania.
An example of this is the distemper of a horse when given too much
oats and not enough grass or hay. The excess of phosphorus and
phosphoric acids formed from the protein materials of the grain, if
not neutralized by the alkaline minerals contained in grasses, hay
or straw, will overstimulate and irritate the nervous system of the
animal and cause it to become nervous, irritable and vicious. These
symptoms disappear when the rations of oats are decreased and when
more fresh grass or hay is fed in place of the grain.
Similar effects to those produced upon the horse by an excess of
grains are caused in the human organism, especially in the sensitive
nervous system of the child, by a surplus of protein foods, of meat,
eggs, grains and pulses.
Still, when patients suffering from overstimulation of the brain and
nervous system consult their doctor, his advice in almost every
instance is: "Your nerves are weak and overwrought. You need plenty
of good, nourishing food (broths, meat and eggs), and 'a good
tonic.'"
The remedies prescribed by the doctor are the very things which
caused the trouble in the first place.
As stated before, uric acid is undoubtedly one of the most common
causes of disease and therefore deserves especial attention. Through
the study of its peculiar behavior under different circumstances and
influences, the cause, nature and development of all acid diseases
will become clearer.
Like urea, uric acid is one of the end products of protein
digestion. It is formed in much smaller quantities than urea, in
proportion of about one to fifty, but the latter is more easily
eliminated from the system through kidneys and skin.
The principal ingredient in the formation of uric acid is nitrogen,
one of the six elements which enter into all proteid or albuminous
food materials, also called nitrogenous foods. Uric acid, as one of
the by-products of digestion, is therefore always present in the
blood and, in moderate quantities, serves useful purposes in the
economy of the human and animal organism like the other waste
materials. It becomes a source of irritation and cause of disease
only when it is present in the circulation or in the tissues in
excessive amounts.
How Uric Acid Is Precipitated
The alkaline blood takes up the uric acid, dissolves it and holds it
in solution in the circulation until it is carried to the organs of
depuration and eliminated in perspiration and urine. If, however,
through the excessive use of nitrogenous foods or defective
elimination, the amount of uric acid in the system is increased
beyond a certain limit, the blood loses its power to dissolve it and
it forms a sticky, glue-like, colloid substance, which occludes or
blocks up the minute blood vessels (capillaries), so that the blood
cannot pass readily from the arterial system into the venous
circulation.
This interference with the free passing of the blood is greater in
proportion to the distance from the heart, because the farther from
the heart, the less the force behind the circulation. Therefore we
find that slowing up of the blood currents, whether due to uric acid
occlusion or any other cause, is more pronounced in the surface of
the body and in the extremities than in the interior parts and
organs.
This occlusion of the surface circulation can be easily observed and
even measured by a simple test. Press the tip of the forefinger of
one hand on the back of the other. A white spot will be formed where
the blood has receded from the surface on account of the pressure.
Now observe how quickly or how slowly the blood returns into this
white patch.
Dr. Haig says that, if the reflux of the blood take place within two
or three seconds, the circulation is normal and not obstructed by
uric acid. If, however, the blood does not return for four or more
seconds, it is a sign that the capillary circulation is obstructed
by colloid uric acid occlusion.
In this connection I would call attention to the fact that the
accumulation of carbonic acid in the cells and tissues, and the
resulting oxygen starvation, may produce similar interference with
the circulation and result in the same symptoms, including the slow
reflux of blood after pressure, as those which Dr. Haig ascribes to
the action of uric acid only.
When this obstruction of the circulation by uric or carbonic acid
prevails throughout the body, the blood pressure is too high in the
arterial blood vessels and in the interior organs, such as heart,
lungs, brain, etc., and too low in the surface, the extremities and
in the venous circulation. The return flow of the blood to the heart
through the veins is sluggish and stagnant because the force from
behind, that is, the arterial blood pressure, is obstructed by the
uric acid which clogs the minute capillaries that form the
connection between the arterial and the venous systems.
Because of this interference with the normal circulation and
distribution of the blood, uric acid produces many annoying and
deleterious effects. It irritates the nerves, the mucous membranes
and other tissues of the body, thus causing headaches, rheumatic
pains in joints and muscles, congestion of blood in the head,
flushes, dizziness, depression, fainting and even epilepsy.
Other results of uric acid irritation are: inflammatory and
catarrhal conditions of the bronchi, lungs, stomach, intestines,
genitourinary organs; rapid pulse; palpitation of the heart; angina
pectoris; etc.
These colloid substances occlude the minute excretory ducts in
liver, spleen, kidneys and other organs, interfering with their
normal functions and causing the retention of morbid matter in the
system.
All these troublesome and destructive effects of uric acid poisoning
may be greatly augmented by excessive accumulation of sulphuric,
phosphoric and other acids, and by the formation of ptomaines and
poisonous alkaloids during the metabolism of proteid substances.
The entire group of symptoms caused by the excess of uric acid in
the system and the resulting occlusion of the capillary blood
vessels by colloid substances is called ~collemia~ [a glutinous or
viscid condition of the blood].
If in such a condition as collemia the amount of uric acid in the
circulation is still farther increased by the taking of uric
acid-producing food and drink and the saturation point of the blood
is reached, that is, if the blood becomes overcharged with the acid,
a curious phenomenon may be observed: the collaemic symptoms
suddenly disappear as if by magic, giving way to a feeling of
physical and mental buoyancy and strength.
This wonderful change has been wrought because the blood has lost
its capacity for dissolving uric acid and holding it in solution and
the acid has been precipitated, thrown out of the circulation and
deposited in the tissues of the body.
After a period of rest, that is, when no uric acid-or
xanthine-producing foods have been taken for some time, say,
overnight, the blood regains its alkalinity and its capacity for
dissolving and carrying uric acid and begins to reabsorb it from the
tissues. As a consequence, the blood becomes again saturated with
uric acid and the collaemic symptoms reappear.
This explains why the hilariousness and exaltation of spirits at the
banquet is followed by "Katzenjammer" [hangover] in the morning. It
also explains why many people do not feel fit for their day's work
unless they take a stimulant of some kind on arising. Their blood is
continually filled with uric acid to the point of saturation and the
extra amount contained in the coffee or alcohol repeats the process
of uric-acid precipitation, the temporary stimulation and relief.
Every time this precipitation of uric acid from the circulation is
repeated, some of the morbid materials remain and accumulate in
different parts and organs. If these irritating substances become
lodged in the joints and muscles, arthritic or muscular rheumatism
is the result. If acids, xanthines and oxalates of lime form earthy
deposits along the walls of arteries and veins, these vessels harden
and become inelastic, and their diameter is diminished. This
obstructs the free circulation of the blood and causes malnutrition
of the brain and other vital organs. Furthermore, the blood vessels
become brittle and break easily and there is danger of hemorrhages.
This explains the origin and development of arteriosclerosis
(hardening of the arteries) and apoplexy.
Apoplexy may also be caused by other acids and drug poisons which
soften, corrode and destroy the walls of the blood vessels in the
brain.
In individuals of different constitutions, accumulations of uric
acid, xanthines, oxalates of calcium and various other earthy
substances form stones, gravel or sandy deposits in the kidneys, the
gall bladder and in other parts and organs.
The diseases caused by permanent deposits of uric acid in the
tissues are called arthritic diseases, because the accumulations
frequently occur in the joints.
Thus we distinguish two distinct stages of uric acid diseases: the
collaemic stage, marked by an excess of uric acid in the circulation
and resulting in occlusion of the capillary blood vessels, and the
arthritic stage, marked by permanent deposits of uric acid and other
earthy substances in the tissues of the body.
During the prevalence of the collaemic symptoms, that is, when the
circulation is saturated with uric acid, the urine is also highly
acid. When precipitation of the acid materials from the blood into
the tissues has taken place, the amount of acid in the urine
decreases materially.
I have repeatedly stated that xanthines have the same effect upon
the system as uric acid. Caffeine and theobromine, the narcotic
principles of coffee and tea, are xanthines; and so is the nicotine
contained in tobacco. Peas, beans, lentils, mushrooms and peanuts,
besides being very rich in uric acid-producing proteins, carry also
large percentages of xanthines, which are chemically almost
identical with uric acid and have a similar effect upon the organism
and its functions.
From what has been said, it becomes clear why the meat-eater craves
alcohol and xanthines. When by the taking of flesh foods the blood
has become saturated with uric acid and the annoying symptoms of
collaemia make their appearance in the forms of lassitude, headache
and nervous depression, then alcohol and the xanthines contained in
coffee, tea and tobacco will cause the precipitation of the acids
from the circulation into the tissues of the body, and thus
temporarily relieve the collaemic symptoms and create a feeling of
well-being and stimulation.
Gradually, however, the blood regains its alkalinity and its
acid-dissolving power and enough of the acid deposits are reabsorbed
by the circulation to cause a return of the symptoms of collaemia.
Then arises a craving for more alcohol, coffee, tea, nicotine or
xanthine-producing foods in order to again obtain temporary relief
and stimulation, and so on, ad infinitum.
The person addicted to the use of stimulants is never himself. His
mental, moral and emotional equilibrium is always unbalanced. His
brain is muddled with poisons and he lacks the self-control, the
clear vision and steady hand necessary for the achievement of
success in any line of endeavor.
We can now understand why one stimulant craves another, why it is
almost impossible to give up one stimulant without giving up all
others as well.
From the foregoing it will have become clear that the stimulating
effect of alcohol and of many so-called tonics depends upon their
power to clear the circulation temporarily of uric and other acids.
Those who have read this chapter carefully, will know why this
effect is deceptive and temporary and why it is followed by a return
of the collaemic symptoms in aggravated form, and how these are
gradually changed into chronic arthritic uric acid diseases.
In order to give a better idea of the various phases of uric acid
poisoning, I have used the following illustration in some of my
lectures:
A man may carry a burden of fifty pounds on his shoulders without
difficulty or serious discomfort. Let this correspond to the normal
solving-power and carrying-capacity of the blood for uric acid.
Suppose you add gradually to the burden on the man's back until its
weight has reached one-hundred and fifty pounds. He may still be
able to carry the burden, but as the weight increases he will begin
to show signs of distress. This increase of weight and the attendant
discomfort correspond to the increase of uric acid in the blood and
the accompanying symptoms of collaemia.
If you increase the burden on the man's shoulders still further,
beyond his individual carrying-capacity, a point will be reached
when he can no longer support its weight and will throw it off
entirely. This climax corresponds to the saturation point of the
blood, when the limit of its acid-carrying capacity is exceeded and
its acid contents are precipitated into the tissues.
The Treatment of Acid Diseases
The treatment of acid diseases is the same as of all other diseases
that are due to the violation of Nature's laws: purification of
blood and tissues from within and building up of the vital fluids
(blood and lymph) on a natural basis through normal habits of
eating, dressing, bathing, breathing, working, resting and thinking
as outlined in other parts of this volume.
In severe cases which have reached the chronic stage, the treatment
must be supplemented by the more aggressive methods of strict diet,
hydrotherapy, curative gymnastics, massage, manipulation and
homeopathic medication.
Chapter XXVII
Fasting
Next in importance to building up the blood on a natural basis is
the elimination of waste, morbid matter and poisons from the system.
This depends to a large extent upon the right (natural) diet; but it
must be promoted by the different methods of eliminative treatment:
fasting, hydrotherapy, massage, physical exercise, air-and sunbaths
and, in the way of medicinal treatment, by homeopathic, herb and
vitochemical remedies.
Foremost among the methods of purification stands fasting, which of
late years has become quite popular and is regarded by many people
as a panacea for all human ailments. However, it is a two-edged
sword. According to circumstances, it may do a great deal of good or
a great deal of harm.
Kuhne, the German pioneer of Nature Cure, claimed that "disease is a
unit," that it consists in the accumulation of waste and morbid
matter in the system. Since his time, many "naturists" claim that
fasting offers the best and quickest means for eliminating systemic
poisons and other encumbrances.
To "fast it out" seems simple and plausible, but it does not always
prove to be successful in practice. Fasting enthusiasts forget that
the elimination of waste and morbid matter from the system is more
of a chemical than a mechanical process. They also overlook the fact
that in many cases lowered vitality and weakened powers of
resistance precede and make possible the accumulation of morbid
matter in the organism.
If the encumbrances consist merely of superfluous flesh and fat or
of accumulated waste materials, fasting may be sufficient to break
up the accumulations and to eliminate the impurities that are
clogging blood and tissues.
If, however, the disease has its origin in other than mechanical
causes, or if it is due to a weakened, negative constitution and
lowered powers of resistance, fasting may aggravate the abnormal
conditions instead of improving them.
We hear frequently of long fasts, extending over days and weeks,
undertaken recklessly without the prescription and guidance of a
competent medical adviser, without proper preparation of the system
and the right subsequent treatment. Many a good constitution has
thus been permanently injured and wrecked.
When Fasting Is Indicated
Persons of sanguine, vital temperament, with the animal qualities
strongly developed, enslaved by bad habits and evil passions, will
be greatly benefited by occasional short fasts. In such cases, the
experience affords a fine drill in self-discipline, strengthening of
self-control and conquest of the lower appetites.
Vigorous, fleshy people, positive physically and mentally,
especially those who do not take sufficient physical exercise,
should take frequent fasts of one, two, or three days' duration for
the reduction of superfluous flesh and fat and for the elimination
of systemic waste and other morbid materials. Such people should
never eat more than two meals a day, and many get along best on one
meal.
However, different temperaments and constitutions require different
treatment and management. People of a nervous, emotional
temperament, especially those who are below normal in weight and
physically and mentally negative, may be seriously and permanently
injured by fasting. They should never fast except in acute diseases
and during eliminative healing crises, when Nature calls for the
fast as a means of cure.
People of this type are usually thin, with weak and flabby muscles.
Their vital activities are at a low ebb and their magnetic envelopes
(aura) are wasted and attenuated like their physical bodies. The red
aura, which is created by the action of the purely animal functions
and forces, is more or less deficient or entirely lacking. Such
people have the tendency to become abnormally sensitive to
conditions in the magnetic field (the astral plane).
Next to the hypnotic or mediumistic process, there is nothing that
induces abnormal psychism so quickly as fasting. During a prolonged
fast, the purely animal functions of digestion, assimilation and
elimination are almost completely at a standstill. This depression
of the physical functions arouses and increases the psychic
functions and may produce intense emotionalism and abnormal activity
of the senses of the spiritual-material body, the individual thus
becoming abnormally clairvoyant, clairaudient and otherwise
sensitive to conditions on the spiritual planes of life.
This explains the spiritual exaltation and the visions of heavenly
scenes and beings or the fights with demons which are frequently,
indeed uniformly, reported by hermits, ascetics, saints, yogi,
fakirs and dervishes.
Fasting facilitates hypnotic control of the sensitive by positive
intelligences either on the physical or on the spiritual plane of
being. In the one case we speak of hypnotism, in the other of
mediumship, obsession or possession. These conditions are usually
diagnosed by the regular practitioner as nervousness, nervous
prostration, hysteria, paranoia, delusional insanity, double
personality, mania, etc.
The destructive effects of fasting are intensified by solitude,
grief, worry, introspection, religious exaltation or any other form
of depressive or destructive mental and emotional activity.
Spirit controls often force their subjects to abstain from food,
thus rendering them still more negative and submissive. Psychic
patients, when controlled or obsessed, will frequently not eat
unless they are forced or fed like an infant. When asked why they do
not want to eat, these patients reply: "I mustn't. They will not let
me." When we say: "Who?" the answer is: "These people. Don't you see
them?" pointing to a void, and becoming impatient when told that no
one is there. The regular school says delusion; we call it abnormal
clairvoyance.
In other instances the control tells the subject that his food and
drink are poisoned or unclean. To the obsessed victim these
suggestions are absolute reality.
To place persons of the negative, sensitive type on prolonged fasts
and thus to expose them to the dangers just described is little
short of criminal. Such patients need an abundance of the most
positive animal and vegetable foods in order to build up and
strengthen their physical bodies and their magnetic envelopes, which
form the dividing and protecting wall between the terrestrial plane
and the magnetic field.
A negative vegetarian diet, consisting principally of fruits, nuts,
cereal and pulses, but deficient in animal foods (the dairy
products, eggs, honey) and in the vegetables growing in or near the
ground may result in conditions similar to those which accompany
prolonged fasting.
Animal foods are elaborated under the influence of a higher
life-element* than that controlling the vegetable kingdom, and foods
derived from the animal kingdom are necessary to develop and
stimulate the positive qualities in man.
*This subject will be treated more fully in another volume of this
series entitled "Natural Dietitics."
In the case of the psychic, who is already deficient in the physical
(animal) and overdeveloped in the spiritual qualities, it is
especially necessary, in order to restore and maintain the lost
equilibrium, to build up in him the animal qualities.
How to Take an Occasional Therapeutic Fast
Before, during and after a therapeutic fast, everything must be done
to keep elimination active, in order to prevent the reabsorption of
the toxins that are being stirred up and liberated.
Fasting involves rapid breaking down of the tissues. This creates
great quantities of worn-out cell materials and other morbid
substances. Unless these poison-producing accumulations are promptly
eliminated, they will be reabsorbed into the system and cause
autointoxication.
To prevent this, bowels, kidneys and skin must be kept in active
condition. The diet, for several days before and after the fast,
should consist largely of uncooked fruits and vegetables and the
different methods of natural stimulative treatment to assure proper
bowel action should be systematically applied.
During a fast, every bit of vitality must be economized; therefore
the passive treatments are to be preferred to active exercise,
although a certain amount of exercise (especially walking) daily in
the open air accompanied by deep breathing should not be neglected.
While fasting, intestinal evacuation usually ceases, especially
where there is a natural tendency to sluggishness of the bowels.
Injections [salt and baking soda enemas are best] are therefore in
order and during prolonged fasts may be taken every few days.
By prolonged fasts we understand fasts that last from one to four
weeks, short fasts being those of one, two or three days' duration.
Moderate drinking is beneficial during a fast as well as at other
times; but excessive consumption of water, the so-called flushing of
the system, is very injurious. Under ordinary conditions from five
to eight glasses of water a day are probably sufficient; the
quantity consumed must be regulated by the desire of the patient.
Those who are fasting should mix their drinking water with the juice
of acid fruits, preferably lemon, orange or grapefruit. These juices
act as eliminators and are fine natural antiseptics.
Never use distilled water, whether during a fast or at any other
time. Deprived of its own mineral constituents, distilled water
leeches the mineral elements and organic salts out of the tissues of
the body and thereby intensifies dysemic [blood deterioration]
conditions.
While fasting, the right mental attitude is all-important. Unless
you can do it with perfect equanimity, without fear or misgiving, do
not fast at all. Destructive mental conditions may more than offset
the beneficial effects of the fast.
To recapitulate: Never undertake a prolonged fast unless you have
been properly prepared by natural diet and treatment, and never
without the guidance of a competent Nature Cure doctor.
Fasting in Chronic Diseases
At all times some of our patients can be found fasting; but they do
not begin until the right physiological and psychological moment has
arrived, until the fast is indicated. When the organism, or rather
the individual cell, is ready to begin the work of elimination, then
assimilation should cease for the time being, because it interferes
with the excretory processes going on in the system.
To fast before the system is ready for it, means mineral salts
starvation and defective elimination.
Given a vigorous, positive constitution, encumbered with too much
flesh and with a tendency to chronic constipation, rheumatism, gout,
apoplexy and other diseases due to food poisoning, a fast may be
indicated from the beginning. But it is different with persons of
the weak, negative type.
Ordinarily, the organism resembles a huge sponge, which absorbs the
elements of nutrition from the digestive tract. During a fast the
process is reversed, the sponge is being squeezed and gives off the
impurities contained in it.
However, this is a purely mechanical process and deals only with the
mechanical aspect of disease: with the presence of waste matter in
the system. It does not take into consideration the chemical aspect
of disease. We have learned that most of the morbid matter in the
system has its origin in the acid waste products of starchy and
protein digestion.
In rheumatism and gout, the colloid (glue-like) and earthy deposits
collect in the joints and muscular tissues; in arteriosclerosis, in
the arteries and veins; in paralysis, epilepsy and kindred diseases,
in brain and nerve tissues.
The accumulation of these waste products is due, in turn, to a
deficiency in the system of the alkaline, acid-binding and
acid-eliminating mineral elements. In point of fact, almost every
form of disease is characterized by a lack of these organic mineral
salts in blood and tissues.
Stones, gravel (calculi), etc., grow in acid blood only, and must be
dissolved and eliminated by rendering the blood alkaline. This is
accomplished by the absorption of the alkaline salts, contained most
abundantly in the juicy fruits, the leafy and juicy vegetables, the
hulls of cereals and in milk.
How, then, are these all-important solvents and eliminators to be
supplied to the organism by total abstinence from food?
Prolonged fasting undoubtedly lowers the patient's vitality and
powers of resistance. But natural elimination of waste products and
systemic poisons (healing crises) depends upon increased vitality
and activity of the organism and the individual cells that compose
it.
For these reasons we find, in most cases, that proper adjustment of
the diet, both as to quality and quantity, together with the
different forms of natural corrective and stimulative treatment,
must precede the fasting.
The great majority of chronic patients have become chronics because
their skin, kidneys, intestines and other organs of elimination are
in a sluggish, atrophied condition. As a result, their system is
overloaded with morbid matter.
Moreover, during the fast the system has to live on its own tissues,
which are being broken down rapidly. This results in the production
and liberation of additional large quantities of morbid matter and
poisons, which must be eliminated promptly to prevent their
reabsorption.
However, the atrophic condition of the organs of elimination makes
this impossible and there are not enough alkaline mineral elements
to neutralize the destructive acids. Therefore the impurities remain
and accumulate in the system and may cause serious aggravations and
complications.
Is it not wiser first of all to build up the blood on a normal basis
by natural diet and to put the organs of elimination in good working
order by the natural methods of treatment before fasting is
enforced? This is, indeed, the only rational procedure and will
always be followed by the best possible results.
When, under the influence of a rational diet, the blood has regained
its normal composition, when mechanical obstructions to the free
flow of blood and nerve currents have been removed by manipulative
treatment, when skin, kidneys, bowels, nerves and nerve centers, in
fact, every cell in the body has been stimulated into vigorous
activity by the various methods of natural treatment, then the cells
themselves begin to eliminate their morbid encumbrances. The waste
materials are carried in the blood stream to the organs of
elimination and incite them to acute reactions or healing crises in
the form of diarrheas, catarrhal discharges, fevers, inflammations,
skin eruptions, boils, abscesses, etc.
Now the sponge is being squeezed and cleansed of its impurities in a
natural manner. The mucous membranes of stomach and bowels are
called upon to assist in the work of housecleaning; hence the coated
tongue, lack of appetite, digestive disturbances, nausea,
biliousness, sour stomach, fermentation, flatulence and occasionally
vomiting and purging.
These digestive disturbances are always accompanied by mental
depression, the blues, homesickness, irritability, fear,
hopelessness, etc.
With the advent of these cleansing and healing crises the
physiological and psychological moment for fasting has arrived. All
the processes of assimilation are at a standstill. The entire
organism is eliminating.
We have learned that these healing crises usually arrive during the
sixth week of natural treatment.
To take food now would mean to force assimilation and thereby to
stop elimination and perchance to interfere with or to check a
beneficial healing crisis.
Therefore we regard it as absolutely essential to stop eating as
soon as any form of acute elimination makes its appearance and we do
not give any food except acid fruit juices diluted with water until
all signs of acute eliminative activity have subsided, whether this
require a few days or a few weeks or a few months.
Some time ago I treated a severe case of typhoid malaria. No food,
except water mixed with a little orange or lemon juice, passed the
lips of the patient for eight weeks. When all disease symptoms had
disappeared, we allowed a few days for the rebuilding of the
intestinal mucous membranes. Thereafter food was administered with
the usual precautions. The patient gained rapidly and within six
weeks weighed more than before the fever. During the entire period I
saw the patient only twice, the simple directions being carried out
faithfully by his relatives.
Chapter XXVIII
Hydrotherapy Treatment of Chronic Disease
While in our treatment of acute diseases we use wet packs and cold
ablutions to promote the radiation of heat and thereby to reduce the
fever temperature, our aim in the treatment of chronic diseases is
to arouse the system to acute eliminative effort. In other words,
while in acute disease our hydropathic treatment is sedative, in
chronic diseases it is stimulative.
The Good Effects of Cold-Water Applications
(1) Stimulation of the Circulation. As before stated, cold water
applied to the surface of the body arouses and stimulates the
circulation all over the system. Blood counts before and after a
cold-water application show a very marked increase in the number of
red and white blood corpuscles. This does not mean that the cold
water has in a moment created new blood cells, but it means that the
blood has been stirred up and sent hurrying through the system, that
the lazy blood cells which were lying inactively in the sluggish and
stagnant blood stream and in the clogged and obstructed tissues are
aroused to increased activity.
Undoubtedly, the invigorating and stimulating influence of cold
sprays, ablutions, sitz baths, barefoot walking in the dewy grass or
on wet stones and all other cold-water applications depends largely
upon their electromagnetic effects upon the system. This has been
explained in Chapter Ten, "Natural Treatment of Acute Diseases."
(2) Elimination of Impurities. As the cold water drives the blood
with increased force through the system, it flushes the capillaries
in the tissues and cleanses them from the accumulations of morbid
matter and poisons which are one of the primary causes of acute and
chronic diseases.
As the blood rushes back to the surface it suffuses the skin, opens
and relaxes the pores and the minute blood vessels or capillaries
and thus unloads its impurities through the skin.
Why We Favor Cold Water
In the treatment of chronic diseases some advocates of natural
methods of healing still favor warm or hot applications in the form
of hot-water baths, different kinds of steam or sweat baths,
electric light baths, hot compresses, fomentations, etc.
However, the great majority of Nature Cure practitioners in Germany
have abandoned hot applications of any kind almost entirely because
of their weakening and enervating aftereffects and because in many
instances they have not only failed to produce the expected results,
but aggravated the disease conditions.
We can explain the different effects of hot and cold water as well
as of all other therapeutic agents upon the system by the Law of
Action and Reaction. Applied to physics, this law reads: "Action and
reaction are equal but opposite." I have adapted the Law of Action
and Reaction to therapeutics in a somewhat circumscribed way as
follows: "Every therapeutic agent affecting the human organism has a
primary, temporary, and a secondary, permanent effect. The
secondary, lasting effect is contrary to the primary, transient
effect."
The first, temporary effect of warmth above the body temperature,
whether it be applied in the form of hot air or water, steam or
light, is to draw the blood into the surface. Immediately after such
an application the skin will be red and hot.
The secondary and lasting effect, however (in accordance with the
Law of Action and Reaction), is that the blood recedes into the
interior of the body and leaves the skin in a bloodless and
enervated condition subject to chills and predisposed to "catching
cold."
On the other hand, the first, transient effect of cold-water
applications upon the body as a whole or any particular part is to
chill the surface and send the blood scurrying inward, leaving the
skin in a chilled, bloodless condition. This lack of blood and
sensation of cold are at once telegraphed over the afferent nerves
to headquarters in the brain, and from there the command goes forth
to the nerve centers regulating the circulation: "Send blood into
the surface!"
As a result, the circulation is stirred up and accelerated
throughout the system and the blood rushes with force into the
depleted skin, flushing the surface of the body with warm, red blood
and restoring to it the rosy color of health. This is the secondary
effect. In other words, the well-applied cold-water treatment is
followed by a good reaction and this is accompanied by many
permanent beneficial results.
The drawing and eliminating primary effect of hot applications, of
sweat baths, etc., is at best only temporary, lasting only a few
minutes and is always followed by a weakening reaction, while the
drawing and eliminating action of the cold-water applications, being
the secondary, lasting effect, exerts an enduring, invigorating and
tonic influence upon the skin which enables it to throw off morbid
matter not merely for ten or fifteen minutes, as in the sweat bath
under the infiuence of excessive heat, but continually, by day and
night.
The Danger of Prolonged or
Excessively Cold Applications
As we have pointed out in the chapter dealing with water treatment
in acute diseases, only water at ordinary temperature, as it comes
from well or faucet, should be used in hydropathic applications. It
is positively dangerous to apply ice bags to an inflamed organ or to
use icy water for packs and ablutions in febrile conditions.
Likewise, ice or icy water should not be used in the hydropathic
treatment of chronic diseases. Excessive cold is as suppressive in
its effects upon the organism as are poisonous antiseptics or
antifever medicines.
The baths, sprays, douches, etc., should not be kept up too long.
The duration of the cold-water applications must be regulated by the
individual conditions of the patient and by his powers of reaction;
but it should be borne in mind that it is the short, quick
application that produces the stimulating, electromagnetic effects
upon the system.
In the following pages are described some of the baths and other
cold-water applications that are especially adapted to the treatment
of chronic diseases.
How to Keep the Feet Warm
The proverb says: "Keep the head cool and the feet warm." This is
good advice, but most people attempt to follow it by "doctoring"
their cold feet with hot-water bottles, warming pans, hot bricks or
irons, etc. These are excellent means of making the feet still
colder, because "heat makes cold and cold makes heat."
In accordance with the Law of Action and Reaction, hot applications
drive the blood away from the feet, while cold applications draw the
blood to the feet. Therefore, if your feet are cold and bloodless
(which means that the blood is congested in other parts of the
body), walk barefoot in the dewy grass, in a cool brook, on wet
stone pavements or on the snow.
Instead of putting a hot-water bottle to the feet of a bedridden
invalid, bathe his feet with cold water, adding a little salt for
its electric effect, then rub and knead (massage), and finish with a
magnetic treatment by holding his feet between your hands and
willing the blood to flow into them. This will have a lasting good
effect not only upon the feet, but upon the entire organism.
The following cold-water applications are very effective for curing
chronic cold feet:
(1) Foot Bath
Stand in cold water reaching up to the ankle for one minute only.
Dry the feet with a coarse towel and rub them vigorously with the
hands, or walk about briskly for a few minutes. Repeat if necessary.
(2) Leg Bath
(a) Stand in water up to the calves, then proceed as above.
(b) Stand in water up to the knees, then rub vigorously or walk as
directed.
(3) Barefoot Walking
Walk barefoot in wet grass or on wet stone pavements several times a
day, from ten to twenty minutes at a time, or less in case of
weakness. The early morning dew upon the grass is especially
beneficial; later in the day wet the grass or pavement with a hose.
After barefoot walking, dry and rub the feet thoroughly and take a
short, brisk walk in shoes and stockings.
(4) Indoor Water-Treading
Stand in a bathtub or large foottub containing about two inches of
cold water, step and splash vigorously for several minutes, then dry
and rub the feet and increase the circulation by walking around the
room a few times.
(5) Foot Spray
Turn the full force of water from a hydrant or hose first on one
foot, then on the other. Let the stream play alternately on the
upper part of the feet and on the soles. The coldness and force of
the water will draw the blood to the feet.
These applications are excellent as a means of stimulating and
equalizing the circulation and a sure cure for cold and clammy feet,
as well as for sweaty feet.
In this connection, we warn our readers most strongly against the
use of drying powders or antiseptic washes to suppress foot-sweat.
Epilepsy and other serious nervous disorders have been traced to
this practice.
(6) Partial Ablutions
Partial ablutions with cold water are very useful in many instances,
especially in local inflammation or where local congestion is to be
relieved. The "Kalte Guss" [cold water splashing] forms an important
feature of the Kneipp system of water cure.
Sprays or showers may be administered to the head, arms, chest,
back, thighs, knees or wherever indicated, with a dipper, a
sprinkler or a hose attached to the faucet or hydrant. The water
should be of natural temperature and the "guss" of short duration.
(7) Limb Bath
Take up cold water in the hollow of the hands from a running faucet
or a bucket filled with water, rub arms and legs briskly for a few
minutes.
(8) Upper Body Bath
Stand in an empty tub, take water in the hollow of the hands from a
running faucet or a bucket filled with cold water and rub briskly
the upper half of the body from neck to hips, for two or three
minutes. Use a towel or brush for those parts of the body that you
cannot reach with the hands.
(9) Lower Body Bath
Proceed as in (8), rubbing the lower part of the body from the waist
downward.
(10) Hip Bath
Sit in a large basin or in the bathtub in enough water to cover the
hips completely, the legs resting on the door or against the sides
of the tub. While taking the hip bath, knead and rub the abdomen.
Dry with a coarse towel, then rub and pat the skin with the hands
for a few minutes.
The duration of the hip bath and the temperature of the water must
be adapted to individual conditions. Until you are accustomed to
cold water, use water as cool as can be borne without discomfort.
(11) The Morning Cold Rub
The essentials for a cold rub, and in fact for every cold-water
treatment, are warmth of the body before the application, coolness
of the water (natural temperature), rapidity of action and friction
or exercise to stimulate the circulation. No cold-water treatment
should be taken when the body is in a chilled condition.
Directly from the warmth of the bed, or after sunbath and exercise
have produced a pleasant glow, go to the bathroom, sit in the empty
tub with the stopper in place, turn on the cold water, and as it
flows into the tub, catch it in the hollow of the hands and wash
first the limbs, then the abdomen, then chest and back. Throw the
water all over the body and rub the skin with the hands like you
wash your face.
Do this quickly but thoroughly. The entire procedure need not take
up more than a few minutes. By the time the bath is finished, there
may be from two to four inches of water in the tub. Use a towel or
brush for the back if you cannot reach it otherwise.
As long as there is a good reaction, the "cold rub" may be taken in
an unheated bathroom even in cold weather.
After the bath, dry the body quickly with a coarse towel and finish
by rubbing with the hands until the skin is dry and smooth and you
are aglow with the exercise, or expose the wet body to the fresh air
before an open window and rub with the hands until dry and warm.
A bath taken in this manner combines the beneficial effects of cold
water, air, exercise and the magnetic friction of the hands on the
body (life on life). No lifeless instrument or mechanical appliance
can equal the dexterity, warmth and magnetism of the human hand.
The bath must be so conducted that it is followed by a feeling of
warmth and comfort. Some persons will be benefited by additional
exercise or, better still, a brisk walk in the open air, while
others will get better results by returning to the warmth of the
bed.
There is no better means for stimulating the general circulation and
for increasing the eliminative activities of the system than this
cold morning rub at the beginning of the day after the night's rest.
If kept up regularly, its good effects will soon become apparent.
This method of taking a morning bath is to be preferred to the
plunge into a tub filled with cold water. While persons with very
strong constitutions may experience no ill effects, to those who are
weak and do not react readily, the cold plunge might prove a severe
shock and strain upon the system.
When a bathtub is not available, take the morning cold rub in the
following manner:
Stand in an empty washtub. In front of you, in the tub, place a
basin or bucket filled with cold water. Wet the hands or a towel and
wash the body, part by part, from the feet upward, then dry and rub
with the hands as directed.
(12) The Evening Sitz Bath
The morning cold rub is stimulating in its effects, the evening sitz
bath is quieting and relaxing. The latter is therefore especially
beneficial if taken just before going to bed.
The cold water draws the blood from brain and spinal cord and
thereby insures better rest and sleep. It cools and relaxes the
abdominal organs, sphincters, and orifices, stimulates gently and
naturally the action of the bowels and of the urinary tract, and is
equally effective in chronic constipation and in affections of the
kidneys or bladder.
The sitz bath is best taken in the regular sitz bathtub made for the
purpose, but an ordinary bathtub or a washtub or pan may be used
with equally good effect.
Pour into the vessel a few inches of water at natural temperature,
as it comes from the faucet, and sit in the water until a good
reaction takes place--that is, until the first sensation of cold is
followed by a feeling of warmth. This may take from a few seconds to
a few minutes, according to the temperature of the water and the
individual powers of reaction.
Dry with a coarse towel, rub and pat the skin with the hands, then,
in order to establish good reaction, practice deep breathing for a
few minutes, alternating with the internal massage described in a
later chapter.
(13) The Head Bath
Loss or discoloration of the hair is generally due to the lack of
hair-building elements in the blood or to sluggish circulation in
the scalp and a diseased condition of the hair follicles. Nothing
more effectually stimulates the flow of blood to brain and scalp or
promotes the elimination of waste matter and poisons from these
parts than the head bath together with scalp massage.
Under no circumstances use hair tonics, dandruff or eczema cures, or
hair dyes. All such preparations contain poisons or at any rate
strong antiseptics and germcides. Dandruff is a form of elimination
and should not be suppressed. When the scalp is in good condition,
it will disappear of its own accord.
The Diagnosis from the Eye reveals the fact that glycerine, quinine,
resorcin and other poisonous antiseptics and stimulants absorbed
from scalp cures and hair tonics and deposited in the brain are in
many cases the real cause of chronic headaches, neuralgia,
dizziness, roaring in the ears, loss of hearing and sight, mental
depression, irritability and even insanity.
Cold water is an absolutely safe and at the same time a most
effective means to promote the growth of hair, as many of our
patients can testify.
Whenever you have occasion to wash the face, wash also the head
thoroughly with cold water. While doing so, vigorously pinch, knead
and massage the scalp with the finger tips. When feasible, turn the
stream from a hydrant or a hose upon the head. This will add the
good effect of friction to the coldness of the water.
Have your hair cut only during the third quarter of the moon. The
ladies may clip off the ends of their hair during that period.
Skeptics may smile at this as another evidence of ignorance and
superstition. However, "fools deride," etc. The country people in
many parts of Europe, who are much closer and wiser observers of
Nature and her ways than the conceited wise men of the schools, do
their sowing and reaping in accordance with the phases of the moon.
In order to insure vigorous growth, they sow and plant during the
growing moon; but their cutting and reaping is done during the
waning moon.
(14) The Eye Bath
For the eye bath the temperature of the water should be as cold as
the sensitive eyeball can stand, but not cold enough to cause
serious discomfort. A few grains of salt may be added to make the
water slightly saline.
Submerge forehead and eyes in a basin of water, open and close the
lids under water from six to eight times; repeat a few times. Bend
over a basin filled with water and with the hands dash the water
into the open eyes. Fill a glass eye-cup (which can be bought in any
drug store or department store) with water, bend the head forward
and press the cup securely against the eye; then bend backward and
open and shut the lid a number of times.
Many ailments of the eyes, for instance, the much-dreaded cataract,
are caused by defective circulation and the accumulation of
impurities and poisons in the system in general and in the mechanism
of the eyes in particular. All such cases yield readily to our
combination of natural methods of treatment, such as water
applications, massage and special exercises, combined with the
general Nature Cure regimen.
In a large number of cases treated in our sanitarium, patients who
had worn glasses for years were able to discard them. Weakened
eyesight and many serious so-called incurable affections of the eye,
including cataract and glaucoma, have been permanently cured.
Chapter XXIX
Air and Light Baths
Even among the adherents of Nature Cure there are those who think
that air and light baths should be taken out of doors in warm
weather only and in winter time only in well-heated rooms.
This is a mistake. The effect of the air bath upon the organism is
subject to the same Law of Action and Reaction which governs the
effects of water applications.
If the temperature of air or water is the same or nearly the same as
that of the body, no reaction takes place, the conditions within the
system remain the same. But if the temperature of air or water is
considerably lower than the body temperature there will be a
reaction.
In order to react against the chilling effect of cold air or water,
the nerve centers which control the circulation send the blood to
the surface in large quantities, flushing the skin with warm, red,
arterial blood. The flow of the blood stream is greatly accelerated,
and the elimination of morbid matter on the surface of the body is
correspondingly increased.
What Is the Cause of Poor Skin Action?
Man is naturally an air animal. He breathes with the pores of the
skin as well as with the lungs. However, the custom of hiding the
body under dense, heavy clothing, thus excluding it from the
life-giving influence of air and light, together with the habit of
warm bathing, has weakened and enervated the skin of the average
individual until it has lost its tonicity and is no longer capable
of fulfilling its natural functions.
The compact, almost airtight layers of underwear and outer clothing
made of cotton, wool, silk and leather prevent the ventilation of
the skin and the escape of the morbid excretions of the body. The
skin is an organ of absorption as well as of excretion; consequently
the systemic poisons which are eliminated from the organism, if not
removed by proper ventilation and bathing, are reabsorbed into the
system just like the poisonous exhalations from the lungs are
reinhaled and reabsorbed by people congregating in closed rooms or
sleeping in unventilated bedrooms.
Who would think of keeping plants or animals continuously covered
up, away from the air and light? We know they would wither and waste
away, and die before long.
Nevertheless, civilized human beings have for ages hidden their
bodies most carefully from sun and air, which are so necessary to
their well-being. Is it any wonder that the human cuticle has become
withered, enervated and atrophied, that it has lost the power to
perform freely and efficiently its functions of elimination and
absorption? Undoubtedly, this has much to do with the prevalence of
disease.
In the iris of the eye the atrophied condition of the skin is
indicated by a heavy, dark rim, the so-called scurf rim. It
signifies that the skin has become anemic, the surface circulation
sluggish and defective, and that the elimination of morbid matter
and systemic poisons through the skin is handicapped and retarded.
This, in turn, causes autointoxication and favors the development of
all kinds of acute and chronic diseases.
The Importance of the Skin as an Organ of Elimination
Of late physiologists have claimed that the skin is not of great
importance as an organ of elimination. Common experience and the
Diagnosis from the Eye teach us differently. The black rim seen more
or less distinctly in the outer rim of the iris in the eyes of the
majority of people has been called the scurf rim, because it was
found that this dark rim appears in the iris after the suppression
of scurfy and other forms of skin eruptions and after the external
or internal use of lotions, ointments and medicines containing
mercury, zinc, iodine, arsenic or other poisons which suppress or
destroy the life and activity of the skin.
Therefore, when we see in the iris of a person a heavy scurf rim, we
can tell him at once: "Your cuticle is in a sluggish, atrophied
condition, the surface circulation and elimination through the skin
are not good and as a result of this there is a strong tendency to
autointoxication, you take cold easily, and suffer from chronic
catarrhal conditions." Therefore, a heavy scurf rim frequently
indicates what is ordinarily called "a scrofulous condition."
This certainly shows the great importance of the skin as an organ of
elimination and the necessity of keeping it in the best possible
condition. It explains why an atrophied skin has so much to do with
the causation of disease and why in the treatment of both acute and
chronic ailments air and cold water produce such wonderful results.
The favorite method of diagnosis employed by Father Kneipp, the
great water cure apostle, was to examine the skin of his patients.
If the "jacket," as he called it, was in fairly good condition, he
predicted a speedy recovery. If he found the "jacket" shriveled and
dry, weakened and atrophied, he shook his head and informed the
patient that it would take much time and patience to restore him to
health. He, as well as other pioneers of the Nature Cure movement,
realized that elimination is the keynote in the treatment of acute
and chronic diseases.
When Air Baths Should Be Taken
On awakening in the morning and several times during the day, if
circumstances permit, expose your nude body to the invigorating
influence of the open air and the sunlight.
During the hot season of the year and in tropical countries the best
time for taking air and sun baths is the early morning and the late
afternoon.
Persons suffering from insomnia or nervousness in any form are in
nearly every case greatly benefited by a short air bath taken just
before retiring, either preceding or following the evening sitz
bath, as may be most convenient.
Where Air Baths Should Be Taken
If at all possible, air baths should be taken out of doors. Every
house should have facilities for air and sun baths, that is, an
enclosure where the nude body can be exposed to the open air and the
sunlight.
If the air bath out of doors is impracticable, it may be taken in
front of an open window. But indoor air, even in a well-ventilated
room, is more or less stagnant and vitiated, and at best only a poor
substitute for the open air.
It is the breezy, moving outdoor air, permeated with sunlight and
rich in oxygen and ozone, that generates the electric and magnetic
currents which are so stimulating and vitalizing to everything that
draws the breath of life.
This is being realized more and more, and air-bath facilities will
in the near future be considered as indispensable in the modern,
up-to-date house as is now the bathroom.
We predict that before many years the roofs of apartment houses will
be utilized for this purpose and people will wonder how they ever
got along without the air bath.
Our sanitarium has two large enclosures on its roof, open above and
surrounded on all sides by wooden lattice work, which allows the air
to circulate freely, but excludes observation from neighboring roofs
and windows and the streets below. One compartment is for men and
one for women, each provided with gymnastic apparatus and a separate
spray room.
How Air Baths Should Be Taken
At first expose the nude body to cool air only for short periods at
a time, until the skin becomes inured to it.
Likewise, unless you are well used to the sun, take air baths of
short duration, say from ten to twenty minutes, until your skin and
your nervous system have become accustomed to the influence of heat
and strong light. Prolonged exposure to the glaring rays of the
noonday sun might produce severe burning of the skin, aside from a
possible harmful effect upon the nervous system.
The novice should protect head and eyes against the fierce rays of
sunlight. This is best accomplished by means of a wide-brimmed straw
hat of light weight. In cases where dizziness results from the
effect of the heat upon the brain, a wet cloth may be swathed around
the head or placed inside a straw hat.
It will be found very pleasurable and invigorating to take a cold
shower or spray off and on during the sun bath and to allow the air
to dry the body. This will also increase its electromagnetic effects
upon the system.
The Friction Bath
While taking the air bath, the skin may be rubbed or brushed with a
rough towel or a flesh brush in order to remove the excretions and
the atrophied cuticle. The friction bath should always be followed
by a spray or a cold-water rub.
At the time of the air bath, practice breathing exercises and the
curative gymnastics appropriate to your condition. (See Chapters
Twenty-Eight and Thirty on "Correct Breathing" and "Physical
Exercise.")
If the air bath is taken at night, before retiring, the less active
breathing exercises, as numbers 1, 3, 7 and 13, may be taken with
good results, but all vigorous stimulating movements should be
avoided.
As the plant prospers under the life-giving influence of water and
light, so the cuticle of the human skin becomes alive and active
under the natural stimulation of water, air and sunlight. From the
foregoing paragraphs it will be seen why the air and light baths are
regarded among the most important natural methods of treatment in
all the great Nature Cure sanitariums of Germany.
Chapter XXX
Correct Breathing
The lungs are to the body what the bellows are to the fires of the
forge. The more regularly and vigorously the air is forced through
the bellows and through the lungs, the livelier burns the flame in
the smithy and the fires of life in the body.
Practice deep, regular breathing systematically for one week, and
you will be surprised at the results. You will feel like a different
person, and your working capacity, both physically and mentally,
will be immensely increased.
A plentiful supply of fresh air is more necessary than food and
drink. We can live without food for weeks, without water for days,
but without air only a few minutes.
The Process of Breathing
With every inhalation, air is sucked in through the windpipe or
trachea, which terminates in two tubes called bronchi, one leading
to the right lung, one to the left. The air is then distributed over
the lungs through a network of minute tubes, to the air cells, which
are separated by only a thin membrane from equally fine and minute
blood vessels forming another network of tubes.
The oxygen contained in the inhaled air passes freely through these
membranes, is absorbed by the blood, carried to the heart and thence
through the arteries and their branches to the different organs and
tissues of the body, fanning the fires of life into brighter flame
all along its course and burning up the waste products and poisons
that have accumulated during the vital processes of digestion,
assimilation and elimination.
After the blood has unloaded its supply of oxygen, it takes up the
carbonic acid gas which is produced during the oxidation and
combustion of waste matter and carries it to the lungs, where the
poisonous gases are transferred to the air cells and expelled with
the exhaled breath. This return trip of the blood to the lungs is
made through another set of blood vessels, the veins, and the blood,
dark with the sewage of the system, is now called venous blood.
In the lungs the venous blood discharges its freight of
excrementitious poisons and gases, and by coming in contact with
fresh air and a new supply of oxygen, it is again transformed into
bright, red arterial blood, pregnant with oxygen and ozone, the
life-sustaining elements of the atmosphere.
This explains why normal, deep, regular breathing is all-important
to sustain life and as a means of cure. By proper breathing, which
exercises and develops every part of the lungs, the capacity of the
air cells is increased. This, as we have learned, means also an
increased supply of life-sustaining and health-promoting oxygen to
the tissues and organs of the body.
Bad Effects of Shallow Breathing
Very few people breathe correctly. Some, especially women, with
tight skirtbands and corsets pressing on their vital organs, use
only the upper part of their lungs. Others breathe only with the
lower part and with the diaphragm, leaving the upper structures of
the lungs inactive and collapsed.
In those parts of the lungs that are not used, slimy secretions
accumulate, irritating the air cells and other tissues, which become
inflamed and begin to decay. Thus a luxuriant soil is prepared for
the tubercle bacillus, the pneumococcus and other disease-producing
bacilli and germs.
This habit of shallow breathing, which does not allow the lungs to
be thoroughly permeated with fresh air, accounts in a measure for
the fact that one-third of all deaths result from diseases of the
lungs. To one individual perishing from food starvation, thousands
are dying from oxygen starvation.
Lung culture is more important than other branches of learning and
training which require more time and a greater outlay of time, money
and effort. In the Nature Cure regimen, breathing exercises play an
important part.
Breathing Exercises
General Directions
The effectiveness of breathing exercises and of all other kinds of
corrective movements depends upon the mental attitude during the
time of practice. Each motion should be accompanied by the conscious
effort to make it produce a certain result. Much more can be
accomplished with mental concentration, by keeping your mind on what
you are doing, than by performing the exercises in an aimless,
indifferent way.
Keep in the open air as much as possible and at all events sleep
with windows open.
If your occupation is sedentary, take all opportunities for walking
out of doors that present themselves. While walking, breathe
regularly and deeply, filling the lungs to their fullest capacity
and also expelling as much air as possible at each exhalation. Undue
strain should, of course, be avoided. This applies to all breathing
exercises.
Do not breathe through the mouth. Nature intends that the outer air
shall reach the lungs by way of the nose, whose membranes are lined
with fine hairs in order to sift the air and to prevent foreign
particles, dust and dirt, from irritating the mucous linings of the
air tract and entering the delicate structures of the lungs. Also,
the air is warmed before it reaches the lungs by its passage through
the nose.
Let the exhalations take about double the time of the inhalations.
This will be further explained in connection with rhythmical
breathing.
Do not hold the breath between inhalations. Though frequently
recommended by teachers of certain methods of breath culture, this
practice is more harmful than beneficial.
The Proper Standing Position
Of great importance is the position assumed habitually by the body
while standing and walking. Carelessness in this respect is not only
unpleasant to the beholder, but its consequences are far-reaching in
their effects upon health and the well-being of the organism.
On the other hand, a good carriage of the body aids in the
development of muscles and tissues generally and in the proper
functioning of cells and organs in particular. With the weight of
the body thrown upon the balls of the feet and the center of gravity
well focused, the abdominal organs will stay in place and there will
be no strain upon the ligaments that support them.
In assuming the proper standing position, stand with your back to
the wall, touching it with heels, buttocks, shoulders and head. Now
bend the head backward and push the shoulders forward and away from
the wall, still touching the wall with buttocks and heels.
Straighten the head, keeping the shoulders in the forward position.
Now walk away from the wall and endeavor to maintain this position
while taking the breathing exercises and practicing the various arm
movements.
Take this position as often as possible during the day and try to
maintain it while you go about your different tasks that must be
performed while standing. Gradually this position will become second
nature, and you will assume and maintain it without effort.
When the body is in this position, the viscera are in their normal
place. This aids the digestion materially and benefits indirectly
the entire functional organism.
Persistent practice of the above will correct protruding abdomen and
other defects due to faulty position and carriage of the body.
The following breathing exercises are intended especially to develop
greater lung capacity and to assist in forming the habit of
breathing properly at all times. The different movements should be
repeated from three to six times, according to endurance and the
amount of time at disposal.
(1) With hands at sides or on hips, inhale and exhale slowly and
deeply, bringing the entire respiratory apparatus into active play.
(2) (To expand the chest and increase the air capacity of the
lungs.)
Jerk the shoulder forward in several separate movements, inhaling
deeper at each forward jerk. Exhale slowly, bringing the shoulders
back to the original position.
Reverse the exercise, jerking the shoulders backward in similar
manner while inhaling. Alternate the movements, forcing the
shoulders first forward, then backward.
(3) Stand erect, arms at sides. Inhale, raising the arms forward and
upward until the palms touch above the head, at the same time
raising on the toes as high as possible. Exhale, lowering the toes,
bringing the hands downward in a wide circle until the palms touch
the thighs.
(4) Stand erect, hands on hips. Inhale slowly and deeply, raising
the shoulders as high as possible, then, with a jerk, drop them as
low as possible, letting the breath escape slowly.
(5) Stand erect, hands at shoulders. Inhale, raising elbows
sideways; exhale, bringing elbows down so as to strike the sides
vigorously.
(6) Inhale deeply, then exhale slowly, at the same time clapping the
chest with the palms of the hands, covering the entire surface.
(These six exercises are essential and sufficient. The following
four may be practiced by those who are able to perform them and who
have time and inclination to do so.)
(7) Stand erect, hands at sides. Inhale slowly and deeply, at the
same time bringing the hands, palms up, in front of the body to the
height of the shoulders. Exhale, at the same time turning the palms
downward and bringing the hands down in an outward circle.
(8) Stand erect, the right arm raised upward, the left crossed
behind the back. Lean far back, then bend forward and touch the
floor with the right hand, without bending the knees, as far in
front of the body as possible. Raise the body to original posture,
reverse position of arms, and repeat the exercise. Inhale while
leaning backward and changing position of arms, exhale while bending
forward.
(9) Position erect, feet well apart, both arms raised. Lean back,
inhaling, then bend forward, exhaling, touching the floor with both
hands between the legs as far back as possible.
(10) Horizontal position, supporting the body on palms and toes.
Swing the right hand upward and backward, flinging the body to the
left side, resting on the left hand and the left foot. Return to
original position, repeat the exercise, flinging the body to the
right side. Inhale while swinging backward, exhale while returning
to position.
Diaphragmatic Breathing
The diaphragm is a large, flat muscle, resembling a saucer, which
forms the division between the chest cavity and the abdominal
cavity. By downward expansion it causes the lungs to expand likewise
and to suck in the air. The pressure of air being greater on the
outside of the body than within, it rushes in and fills the vacuum
created by the descending diaphragm. As the diaphragm relaxes and
becomes contracted to its original size and position, the air is
expelled from the body.
(11) (To stimulate the action of the diaphragm)
Lie flat on floor or mattress, the head unsupported. Relax the
muscles all over the body, then inhale deeply with the diaphragm
only, raising the wall of the abdomen just below the ribs without
elevating either the chest or the lower abdomen. Take about four
seconds to inhale, then exhale in twice that length of time,
contracting the abdomen below the ribs.
(12) (Internal massage)
Lie on your back on a bed or couch, knees raised. Relax thoroughly,
exhale and hold the breath after exhalation. While doing so, push
the abdomen out and draw it in as far as possible each way. Repeat
these movements as long as you can hold the breath without
straining, then breathe deeply and regularly for several minutes,
then repeat the massage movements.
Next to deep breathing, I consider this practice of greater value
than any other physical exercise. It imparts to the intestines an
other abdominal organs a "washboard" motion which acts as a powerful
stimulant to all the organs in the abdominal cavity. Internal
massage is especially beneficial in chronic constipation. This
exercise may be performed also while standing or walking. It should
be practiced two or three times daily.
Breathing Exercises to Be Taken in Bed
(13) With hands at side, inhale slowly and deeply, as directed in
Exercise Number (1), filling and emptying the lungs as much as
possible, but without straining. Practice first lying on the back,
then on each side.
(14) Using one-or two-pound dumbbells, position recumbent on back,
arms extended sideways, dumbbells in hands. Raise the arms with
elbows rigid, cross arms over the chest as far as possible, at the
same time expelling the air from the lungs. Extend the arms to the
sides, inhaling deeply and raising the chest.
(15) Lie flat on the back, arms at sides. Grasping the dumbbells,
extend the arms backward over the head, inhaling. Leave them in this
position for a few seconds, then raise them straight above the
chest, and lower them slowly to the original position. Exhale during
the second half of this exercise.
As a variation, cross the arms in front of the body instead of
bringing to sides.
Rhythmical Breathing
It is a fact not generally known to us western people (our attention
had to be called to it by the "Wise Men of the East"), that in
normal, rhythmical breathing exhalation and inhalation take place
through one nostril at a time: for about one hour through the right
nostril and then for a like period through the left nostril.
The breath entering through the right nostril creates positive
electro-magnetic currents, which pass down the right side of the
spine, while the breath entering through the left nostril sends
negative electro-magnetic currents down the left side of the spine.
These currents are transmitted by way of the nerve centers or
ganglia of the sympathetic nervous system, which is situated
alongside the spinal column, to all parts of the body.
In the normal, rhythmical breath exhalation takes about twice the
time of inhalation. For instance, if inhalation require four
seconds, exhalation, including a slight natural pause before the new
inhalation, requires eight seconds.
The balancing of the electro-magnetic energies in the system depends
to a large extent upon this rhythmical breathing, hence the
importance of deep, unobstructed, rhythmic exhalation and
inhalation.
In order to establish the natural rhythm of the breath when it has
been impaired through catarrhal affections, wrong habits of
breathing, or other causes, the following exercise, practiced not
less than three times a day (preferably in the morning upon arising,
at noon, and at night), will prove very beneficial in promoting
normal breathing and creating the right balance between the positive
and the negative electro-magnetic energies in the organism.
The Alternate Breath
Exhale thoroughly, then close the right nostril and inhale through
the left. After a slight pause change the position of the fingers
and expel the breath slowly through the right nostril. Now inhale
through the right nostril and, reversing the pressure upon the
nostrils, exhale through the left.
Repeat this exercise from five to ten times, always allowing twice
as much time for exhalation as for inhalation. That is, count three,
or four, or six for inhalation and six, eight, or twelve,
respectively, for exhalation, according to your lung capacity. Let
your breaths be as deep and long as possible, but avoid all strain.
This exercise should always be performed before an open window or,
better yet, in the open air, and the body should not be constricted
and hampered by tight or heavy clothing.
Alternate breathing may be practiced standing, sitting, or in the
recumbent position. The spine should at all times be held straight
and free, so that the flow of the electro-magnetic currents be not
obstructed. If taken at night before going to sleep, the effect of
this exercise will be to induce calm, restful sleep.
While practicing the "alternate breath," fix your attention and
concentrate your power of will upon what you axe trying to
accomplish. As you inhale through the right nostril, will the
magnetic currents to flow along the right side of the spine, and as
you inhale through the left nostril, consciously direct the currents
to the left side.
There is more virtue in this exercise than one would expect,
considering its simplicity. It has been in practice among the Yogi
of India since time immemorial.
The wise men of India knew that with the breath they absorbed not
only the physical elements of the air, but life itself. They taught
that this primary force of all forces, from which all energy is
derived, ebbs and flows in rhythmical breath through the created
universe. Every living thing is alive by virtue of and by partaking
of this cosmic breath.
The more positive the demand, the greater the supply. Therefore,
while breathing deeply and rhythmically in harmony with the
universal breath, will to open yourself more fully to the inflow of
the life force from the source of all life in the innermost parts of
your being.
This intimate connection of the individual soul with the great
reservoir of life must exist. Without it life would be an
impossibility.
Warning
While the alternate breathing exercises are very valuable for
overcoming obstructions in the air passages, for establishing the
habit of rhythmic breathing and for refining and accelerating the
vibratory activities on the physical and spiritual planes of being,
they must be practiced with great caution. These, and other "Yogi"
breathing exercises, are powerful means for developing abnormal
psychical conditions. They are therefore especially dangerous to
those who are already inclined to be physically and mentally
negative and sensitive. Such persons must avoid all practices which
tend to refine excessively the physical body and to develop
prematurely and abnormally the sensory organs of the spiritual body.
The most dangerous of these methods are long extended fasting, raw
food diet, that, is, a diet consisting of fruits, nuts, oils and raw
vegetables and excluding the dalry products, "Yogi" breathing, and
"sitting in the silence." That is, sitting in darkness, in seclusion
or in company with others, while keeping the mind in a passive,
receptive condition for extraneous impressions. These practices tend
to develop very dangerous phases of abnormal and subjective
psychism, such as clairvoyance, clairaudience, mediumship and
obsession.
Chapter XXXI
Physical Exercise
Aside from breathing, gymnastics in general--or in the case of
illness or deformity, special corrective and curative
exercises--should be taken every day.
Physical exercise has similar effects upon the system as
hydrotherapy, massage and manipulative treatment. It stirs up the
morbid accumulations in the tissues, stimulates the arterial and
venous circulation, expands the lungs to their fullest capacity,
thereby increasing the intake of oxygen, and most effectively
promotes the elimination of waste and morbid materials through skin,
kidneys, bowels and the respiratory tract.
Furthermore, well-adapted, systematic physical exercises tend to
correct dislocations of spinal vertebrae and other bony structures.
They relax and soften contracted and hardened muscles and ligaments
and tone up those tissues which are weakened and abnormally relaxed.
Regular physical exercise means increased blood supply, improved
nutrition and better drainage for all the vital organs of the body.
By means of systematic exercise, combined with deep breathing, the
liberation and distribution of electromagnetic energies in the
system are also greatly promoted.
Most persons who have to work hard physically are under the
impression that they need not take special exercises. This, however,
is a mistake. In nearly all kinds of physical labor only certain
parts of the body are called into action and only certain sets of
muscles exercised, while others remain inactive. This favors unequal
development, which is injurious to the organism as a whole. It is
most necessary that the ill effects of such one-sided activity be
counteracted by exercises and movements that bring into active play
all the different parts of the body, especially those that are
neglected during the hours of work.
Systematic physical exercise is an absolute necessity for brain
workers and those following sedentary occupations. They not only
need breathing gymnastics and corrective movements mornings and
evenings, but should take regular daily walks, no matter what the
condition of the weather. Unless they do this faithfully, their
circulation will become sluggish and their organs of elimination
inactive. The cells and tissues of their bodies will gradually
become clogged with morbid encumbrances, and this will inevitably
lead to physical and mental deterioration.
General Rules
Weak persons and those suffering from malignant diseases, such as
cancer, tuberculosis, heart trouble, asthma, or from displacements
and ruptures, or who are liable to apoplectic seizures, etc., should
not take these or any other vigorous exercises except under the
supervision of a competent physician. At least twice a day all parts
of the respiratory apparatus should be thoroughly exercised (see
Chapter Twenty-Eight on Breathing Exercises). Deep breathing should
accompany every corrective movement, whether it be a special
breathing exercise or not. Begin your exercises each day with light
movements and change gradually to more vigorous ones, then reverse
the process, ending with light, relaxing movements. When beginning
to take systematic exercise, do not make the separate movements too
vigorous or continue them too long. If any of them cause pain or
considerable strain, omit them until the body becomes stronger and
more flexible. The muscular soreness often resulting from exercise
at the beginning is, as a rule, of little consequence and disappears
before long. The different movements should be practiced in spite of
it, because that is the only way to relieve and overcome this
condition. Stop when you begin to feel tired. Never overdo; you
should feel refreshed and relaxed after exercising, not tired and
shaky. Do not take vigorous exercise of any kind within an hour and
a half after eating, nor immediately before meals. It is a good plan
to rest and relax thoroughly for about fifteen minutes before
sitting down to the table. Whenever practicable, exercise out of
doors. If indoors, perform the movements near an open window or
where there is a current of fresh air. Exercise undressed, if
possible, or in a regular gymnasium suit that gives free play to all
the muscles. If dressed, loosen all tight clothing.~ ~Ladies should
wear their garments suspended from the shoulders by means of
shoulder braces, or so-called reform waists, the skirts being
fastened to these. Always relax physically and mentally before
taking exercise. Apparatus is not necessary to produce results.
However, dumbbells, wands or Indian clubs may be used, but they
should not be too heavy. One-pound dumbbells are sufficiently heavy
in most cases. The exercises described here are intended for
muscular control, flexibility, improvement of the circulation and
increased activity of the vital functions rather than for mere
animal strength.
In the following paragraphs we offer a selection of corrective
movements, graduated from the more simple to those requiring
considerable agility and effort.
In practicing these exercises, it is best to alternate them, that
is, to select, say, six or seven movements, suited to individual
conditions with a view to secure all-around general development and
special practice for those parts and organs of the body that need
extra attention. The time at your disposal will also have to be
considered.
Practice these exercises daily for a week. For the following week
select six different exercises, then six more for the third week,
and so on, supplementing the list here given as may be required by
your particular needs. Then start over again in a similar manner.
This is better than doing the same stunts every day. It promotes
all-around development of the body and keeps the interest from
flagging.
Corrective Gymnastics
(1) Raise the arms forward (at the same time beginning to inhale),
upward above the head, and backward as far as possible, bending back
the head and inhaling deeply. Now exhale slowly, at the same time
lowering arms and head and bending the body downward until the
fingers touch the toes. Keep the knees straight. Inhale again,
raising arms upward and backward as before. Repeat from six to ten
times.
For exercising the muscles between the ribs and the abdominal
muscles in the back:
(2) Inhale slowly and deeply, with arms at side. Now exhale, and at
the same time bend to the left as far as possible, raising the right
arm straight above the head and keeping the left arm close to the
side of the body. Assume the original position with a quick
movement, at the same time inhaling. Exhale as before, bending to
the right and raising the left arm. Repeat a number of times.
For making the chest flexible. Also excellent for the digestive
organs:
(3) Chest Stretcher: This exercise must be performed vigorously, the
movements following one another in rapid succession:
Stand erect. Throw the arms backward so that the palms touch
(striving to bring them higher with each repetition), at the same
time rising on the toes and inhaling. Without pausing, throw the
arms forward and across the chest, the right arm uppermost, striking
the back with both hands on opposite sides, at the same time
exhaling and lowering the toes. Throw the arms back immediately,
touching palms, rising on toes and inhaling as before, then bring
them forward and across the chest again, left arm upper most. Repeat
from ten to twenty times.
An excellent massage and vibratory movement for the lungs.
(4) Exercises for filling out scrawny necks and hollow chests:
Stand erect. Without raising or lowering the chin and without
bending the neck, push the head forward as far as possible, then
relax. Repeat a number of times. Push the head straight back in
similar manner, making an effort to push it farther back each time.
Do not bend the neck. Repeat. Stand erect. Bend the head toward the
right shoulder as far as possible, then relax. Do not rotate the
head. Repeat.
Bend the head to the left shoulder in a similar manner, then
alternate the two movements. Stand erect. Bend the head forward as
far as possible, making an effort to bring it down farther each
time. Relax.
Bend the head backward as far as possible.
Bend the head first forward, then backward. Repeat.
(5) For exercising the muscles of the chest and the upper arm.
Stand erect, elbows to sides, hands closed on chest, thumbs inward.
Thrust out the arms vigorously and quickly, first straight ahead,
then to the sides, then straight up, then straight downward, then
backward. Repeat each movement a number of times, then alternate
them, each time bringing arms back and hands to the original
position quickly and forcefully.
As a variation, raise the elbows sideways to shoulder height with
fists on shoulders, then strike vigorously as before, opening the
palms and stretching the fingers with each thrust. Repeat from ten
to twenty times or until tired.
(6) Stand erect, hands on hips. Keeping the legs straight, rotate
the trunk upon the hips, bending first forward, then to the right,
then backward, then to the left. Repeat a number of times, then
rotate in the opposite direction.
Especially valuable to stir up a sluggish liver:
(7) Lie flat on your back on a bed or, better still, a mat on the
floor, hands under head. Without bending knees, raise the right leg
as high as possible and lower it slowly. Repeat a number of times,
then raise the other leg, then alternate. As the abdomen becomes
stronger, raise both legs at once, keeping knees straight. It is
important that the legs be lowered slowly.
For exercising the abdominal muscles and strengthening the pelvic
organs. This and the following exercise are especially valuable for
remedying female troubles:
(8) Lie flat on back, arms folded on chest. Place the feet under a
chair or bed to keep them in position. Raise the body to a sitting
posture, keeping knees, back and neck straight. Lower the body
slowly to its original position. Repeat from five to ten times,
according to strength.
Supplementary Exercises
(9) Stride-stand position (feet about one-half yard apart). Raise
the arms sideways until even with the shoulders, then, without
bending the back, rotate the trunk upon the hips, first to the
right, then to the left.
As a variation of this exercise, rotate from the waist only, keeping
the hips motionless.
An excellent massage for the internal organs:
(10) See-saw motion:
Stride-stand position, arms raised sideways. Bend to the right until
the hand touches the floor, left arm raised high. Resume original
position. Repeat several times, then bend to the left side, then
alternate.
(11) Chopping exercise:
Stride-stand position. Clasp the hands above the left shoulder.
Swing the arms downward and between the legs, bending well forward.
Return to position and repeat a number of times, then repeat with
hands on right shoulder, then alternate.
(12) Cradle rock:
Clasp hands over head, elbows straight. Bend the trunk to the right
and left side alternately and without pausing a number of times.
(13) Stand erect, feet together. Jump to the stride-stand position,
at the same time raising arms sideways to shoulders, jump back to
original position and lower arms. Repeat from ten to twenty times.
(14) Lie flat on back, arms at side, legs straight. Raise both legs
till they are at right angles with body. From this position sway
legs to the right and left side alternately.
(15) Lie flat on back, arms extended over head. Swing arms and legs
upward simultaneously, touching the toes with the hands in midair,
balancing the body on the hip bones and lower part of spine. Return
to original position and repeat.
This is a difficult and strenuous exercise, and should not be
attempted at first:
(16) Lie flat on stomach, hands under shoulders, palms down-ward,
fingers turned inward, about six inches apart. This will give free
play to the muscles of the chest. Raise the upper half of the body
on the hands and arms as high as possible, keeping the body
straight. Return to position and repeat until slightly fatigued.
(17) Same position as before. Raise the entire body on hands and
toes, keeping arms and legs straight. Return to relaxed position and
repeat the exercise.
As a variation, sway forward and backward while in the raised
position.
(18) Lie flat on stomach, arms extended in front. Fling the arms
upward and raise the upper part of the body as high as possible,
keeping the legs straight. Return to position and repeat, but avoid
excessive strain.
(19) Same position as before, but hands on hips or clasped in back.
Raise upper part of body without assistance from hands or arms.
(20) Rocking chair motion:
Sit on a mat or bed, legs straight, arms at side. Recline so that
the upper part of the body almost touches the mat, at the same time
swinging the legs upward. Return to original position and repeat
without any pause between the movements, rocking back and forth
until slightly tired.
As you get stronger, clasp the hands behind the head. As a
variation, rock with the knees bent, hands clasped below them.
Special Exercises for Reducing Flesh and
Strengthening the Abdominal Organs
(21) Lie flat on stomach, heels and toes together, hands stretched
out in front. Fling head and arms upward, at the same time raising
the legs, knees straight. Avoid straining.
(22) Same position, hands clasped on back, feet together. Roll from
side to side.
(23) Lie flat on back, seize a bar (bed rail or rung of chair) just
behind the head. Keeping the feet close together, raise the legs as
high as possible, then swing them from side to side. As a variation,
swing legs in a circle without flexing the knees.
(24) Same position. Raise and lower the legs up and down without
letting them touch the floor, keeping the knees straight.
(25) Lie flat on the back, fold the hands loosely across the
stomach. Raise and lower the upper body without quite touching the
floor.
(26) Stand erect, heels together, arms raised above the head. Bend
forward and downward, endeavoring to place the palms of the hands on
the floor in front of the body without flexing the knees. Return
slowly to original position and repeat.
(27) Stand erect, hands on hips. Keeping the body motionless from
the hips downward, sway the upper part of the body from side to side
and forward and backward, and in a circle to right and left.
(28) Stand erect, raise the arms above the head. Rotate the trunk
upon the hips with extended arms, bending as far as possible in each
direction, but avoiding undue strain. These are strenuous movements
and should not be carried to excess or performed very long at a
time.
Physical Exercises for Invalids
Persons who are very weak and unable to be on their feet for any
length of time need not, for this reason, forego the benefits to be
derived from systematic physical exercise.
A low chair, with straight or very lightly curved back and no arms,
or a rocking chair of similar construction with a wedge placed under
the rockers in such a manner as to keep the chair steady at a
suitable angle, is well adapted to the practice of a number of
corrective movements, such as rotating of hips and waist, forward
and sideward bending of the trunk, the various arm and neck
exercises, bending and twisting of feet and toes, the internal
massage (Exercise Number 12) and "Breathing Exercises to be Taken in
Bed," in previous Chapter.
Chapter XXXII
Manipulative Treatment Massage
Massage has very much the same effects upon the system as the
cold-water treatment. It accelerates the circulation, draws the
blood into the surface, relaxes and opens the pores of the skin,
promotes the elimination of morbid matter and increases and
stimulates the electromagnetic energies in the body.
We have learned that one of the primary causes of chronic disease is
the accumulation of waste matter and systemic poisons in the tissues
of the body. These morbid encumbrances clog the capillaries, thus
obstructing the circulation and interfering with or preventing the
normal activity of the organs of elimination, especially the skin.
The deep-going massage, the squeezing, kneading, rolling and
stroking, actually squeezes the stagnant blood and the morbid
accumulations out of the tissues into the venous circulation, speeds
the venous blood, charged with waste products and poisons, on its
way to the lungs and enables the arterial blood with its freight of
oxygen and nourishing elements to flow more freely into the
less-obstructed tissues and organs.
Through manipulation of the fleshy tissues, the blood is drawn to
the surface of the body and in that way the elimination of morbid
matter through the relaxed and opened pores of the skin is greatly
facilitated.
Very important are the electromagnetic effects of good massage upon
the system. The positive magnetism of the operator will stir up and
intensify the latent electromagnetic energies in the body of the
patient, very much like a piece of iron or steel is magnetized by
rubbing it with a horseshoe magnet. The more normal and positive,
morally and mentally as well as physically, the operator, the more
marked will be the good effects of the treatment upon the weak and
negative patient.
Magnetic Treatment
The beneficial effect of magnetic treatment is not so much due to
the actual transmission of vital force from operator to patient as
to the arousing and stimulating of the latent, inactive
electromagnetic energies of the latter, the polarizing of his
magnetic forces.
The horseshoe magnet does not impart its own magnetism to the piece
of iron which is rubbed with it, but the electromagnetic energies in
the magnet arouse to vibratory activity the latent electromagnetic
energies in the iron. This is proved by the fact that both magnet
and iron will remain magnetic as long as they are used for
magnetizing other substances, but through disuse both will lose
their magnetic qualities.
I am often asked by my operators and others: "How can I best develop
my magnetism?" and "Is there danger of losing my vitality and
becoming 'negative' by treating the sick in this way?" It is true
that manipulative work, like everything else, can be overdone and
produce harmful effects upon the operator. But within reasonable
limits, massage and magnetic treatments will not deplete the person
giving them, providing he keeps his system in good condition. His
own vibrations must be harmonious on all planes of being, the
physical, mental, moral and spiritual. He must be inspired and
actuated by the faith that he CAN heal, by the positive will to
heal, and by sympathy for the one he is trying to benefit.
Such an operator makes himself the instrument for the transmission
of life force, which is healing force, from the Source of all life.
"As he gives, so he receives"; for this is the basic law of the
universe, the Law of Compensation. If he gives the treatments in the
right spirit, he will gain vital force instead of losing it. He will
actually feel his own intensified life vibrations and after treating
he will experience a feeling of buoyancy and elation which nothing
else can impart to him. "He who loses his life shall find it."
Like a musician who tunes up (puts in harmonious vibration) the
relaxed strings of his instrument, so the magnetic healer tunes up
and harmonizes the weakened and discordant vibrations of his
patient.
Good massage will produce electromagnetic effects even though the
operator is not aware of it and does not understand the underlying
laws; but his work will gain in power and effectiveness in direct
proportion to the conscious efforts he makes to benefit his patients
by the influence of these higher and finer forces.
I have frequently noticed in my own manipulative work how much the
conscious and concentrated effort of the will has to do with its
effectiveness. Often, when I had given the usual massage or
osteopathic treatment and the patient still complained of pain in a
certain locality of the body, I would lay my hands on the affected
area and concentrate my will upon dissolving the congestion in that
particular part or organ and upon harmonizing its discordant
vibrations. Very shortly, usually within a few minutes, the
congestion would be relieved and the pain would subside.
The electromagnetic energies of the organism can be controlled by
the will and either concentrated to or sent away from any part of
the body, just as the circulation of the blood can be controlled.
The latter I saw done by a hypnotist who made the blood flow into
and out of the arms and hands of one of his subjects simply by the
power of his will.
While this was accomplished by means of a destructive process, it
taught me a most valuable lesson regarding the power of the will to
control physical conditions.
Try it yourself. Next time when you have one of your annoying
headaches, recline comfortably in a chair or on a couch, relax
completely and then Will the blood to flow away from the brain in
order to relieve the congestion and the attendant pain. Many of my
patients have learned to treat themselves successfully in this way.
It is obvious that magnetic treatment will not remove pain
permanently if the latter is due to irritation caused by a
subluxated bone or by some foreign body or by local accumulation of
morbid matter and poisons in any part or organ. In all such cases
the local cause of the irritation must be removed before the pain
can subside or disappear.
Spinal Manipulation and Adjustment History
In many European countries "bonesetters" have, in a crude way, been
treating strains and sprains of the spinal column since time
immemorial. These bonesetters usually belong to the peasantry and
the art has been transmitted in the same families from father to son
for many generations.
Incidentally, these simple people observed that their treatment
relieved not only sprained, tired and painful backs--the result
primarily aimed at--but frequently exerted a favorable influence
upon disease processes in remote organs and parts. This empirical
discovery has gradually led to a wider application of this method of
treatment.
The various modern systems of spinal manipulation, namely,
osteopathy, chiropractic, naprapathy, neuropathy, spondylotherapy
and our own neurotherapy, are all of distinctly American origin.
During the last quarter century millions of Americans through
personal experience have become staunch adherents to one or more of
these systems of treatment. This fact has been instrumental in
directing the attention of numerous sincere and scientific
investigators to the spinal column with its associated structures as
a mechanism through which to apply therapeutic measures. It
therefore behooves every health seeker to acquaint himself with the
theories and claims of these various systems of manipulative
treatment.
Osteopathy
The autobiography of Dr. A. T. Still contains the following
interesting statement:
"In the year 1874 I proclaimed that a disturbed artery marked the
beginning to an hour and a minute when disease began to sow its
seeds of destruction in the human body. That in no case could it be
done without a broken or suspended current of arterial blood, which
by Nature was intended to supply and nourish all nerves, ligaments,
muscles, skin, bones and the artery itself. The rule of the artery
must be absolute, universal and unobstructed or disease will be the
result. I proclaimed then and there that all nerves depend wholly on
the arterial system for their qualities such as sensation, nutrition
and motion, even though by the law of reciprocity they furnish
force, nutrition and motion to the artery itself."
It may be argued that as early as 1805 the Ling System of Swedish
Movement was founded on the same principle, namely, "permanent
health through perfect circulation." The evidence at hand, however,
strongly suggests that the founder of osteopathy arrived at his
conclusions independently.
The further claims of Dr. Still as to the cause and cure of disease
are briefly as follows: Partial displacements of any of the various
bones of the body exert pressure on neighboring blood vessels,
thereby interfering with the circulation to the corresponding
organs. These displacements, called "bony lesions," are best
"reduced" by manipulations called osteopathic "moves."
Chiropractic
In 1895, Dr. D. D. Palmer put forth the following claims as to the
cause and cure of diseases: Sprains of the spine result in partial
displacement of one or more of the vertebrae which go to make up the
spinal column, thus exerting pressure on the neighboring nerves.
This shuts off the vitality of the organs supplied by the affected
nerves, hence disease results. These displacements, called
"vertebral subluxations," are best "adjusted" by means of
manipulations in the form of chiropractic "thrusts."
As soon as osteopathy and chiropractic were properly established,
the more broad-minded exponents of both systems began mutual
investigation and amalgamation. As a result, we find that only seven
years after the birth of chiropractic, osteopathic literature began
to mention vertebral subluxations as pressing on nerves, thereby
causing disease. On the other hand, advanced chiropractors soon
began to realize the importance of relaxing tense muscles prior to
delivering their thrusts. They also began to pay attention to the
bony lesions other than those occurring in the spine. Many of the
chiropractic principles and much of its technique of today has been
gleaned from osteopathy, while the reverse statement holds equally
true.
Naprapathy
The "connective tissue doctrine of disease" was first proclaimed by
Dr. Oakley Smith in 1907. It may be briefly stated as follows: A
vertebra does not become misplaced without being fractured or
completely dislocated. What is called a bony lesion by the osteopath
and a subluxation by the chiropractor, is in reality a "ligatight,"
that is, a shrunken condition of the connective tissue forming the
various ligaments that bind the vertebrae together.
Ligatights are best "corrected" by means of naprapathic "directos."
These differ from chiropractic thrusts in that they aim not at
adjusting subluxated vertebrae but at stretching definite strands of
shrunken connective tissue. Ligatights occur not only in the spine
but also in other parts of the body.
Neuropathy
This system of manipulative treatment was originated in 1899 by Drs.
John Arnold and Harry Walter of Philadelphia. Their claims may be
briefly stated as follows: Morbid matter, poisons and irritants of
various kinds, acting upon the vasomotor nerves which control the
blood vessels, produce abnormal changes in circulation which, if
perpetuated, finally lead to disease manifestations. The nerve
impulses coming from diseased parts travel to the spinal cord and,
like all other nerve impulses, are transmitted along those branches
of the spinal nerves which supply the structures (muscles, blood
vessels, etc.) along each side of the spine. Here these impulses
bring about abnormal circulatory changes similar to those found in
the diseased organs or parts.
Since nerve impulses are transmitted from diseased organs to the
spine, it is evident that they can be made to travel also in the
reverse direction. Neuropathic treatment, therefore, consists of
manipulations and thermal applications which aim at correcting the
abnormal circulatory changes as found in the spine, thereby
correcting corresponding abnormal processes in the organs or parts
supplied by the nerves coming from that region of the spine.
These men also emphasized the fact that the circulation within the
blood vessels, being propelled by the heart, needs less attention
during disease than the circulation of the fluids in the spaces
between the cells and through the lymph vessels and glands.
Neuropathy, therefore, also lays great stress on applying
manipulation and thermal applications to the lymphatic system.
Neurotherapy
While the exponents of the above systems of spinal manipulation
differ widely in their theories as to the cause of disease and the
means of removing such cause, their methods of treatment furnish
considerable evidence of satisfactory results. This seems to suggest
that there must be some real value in each system and that a great
deal of the difference between these apparently opposed methods of
treatment lies in the claims of their exponents. It will be shown
presently that, in their final analysis, the osteopathic spinal
lesion, the chiropractic subluxation and the naprapathic ligatight
represent one and the same thing.
Natural Therapeutics is broad enough to embrace all methods of
treatment, no matter what their source, provided they harmonize with
the fundamental laws of cure.
Gradually, therefore, after having gathered the constructive
elements from all the various methods of manipulation, after
considerable spinal dissection and, above all, after close
observation of the results obtained in hundreds of obstinate acute
and chronic cases, we of the School of Natural Therapeutics have
evolved our own system of spinal manipulation and have named it
neurotherapy.
The Relation of Neurotherapy to
Other Manipulative Systems
Osteopathy, chiropractic, naprapathy, neurotherapy and
spondylotherapy, as we have learned, are various systems of
maipulative treatment which have been devised mainly to correct
spinal and other bony lesions, shrinkage and contracture of muscles,
ligaments and other connective tissues.
Important as these methods are in the treatment of acute and chronic
diseases, by themselves they are not all-sufficient because they
deal only with the mechanical causes of disease, not with the
chemical, thermal or with the mental and psychical. The most
efficient spinal treatment cannot make good for the bad effects of
an unbalanced diet which contains an excessive amount of
poison-producing materials and is deficient in the all-important
mineral elements or organic salts. Just as surely as mental
therapeutics and a natural diet cannot correct bony lesions produced
by external violence, just so surely is it impossible to cure
dementia praecox, monomania or obsession, or to supply iron, lime,
sodium, etc., to the system by correcting spinal lesions.
The trouble with the manipulative schools and their graduates is
that they adhere too closely to the mechanical theory and treatment
of disease; that they reject practically all natural methods of
treatment aside from manipulative and that so far as the osteopathic
school is concerned its practitioners show a strong tendency to fall
back upon the "Old School" methods of drugging and of surgical
treatment. This is due to the fact that in many types of diseases
manipulative treatment by itself has proved insufficient to produce
satisfactory results.
In order to do justice to our patients and not neglect our
responsibilities toward them we must use in the treatment of disease
all that is good in all the natural methods of healing. In serious
chronic cases any single one of these methods, whether it be pure
food diet, hydrotherapy, massage, spinal treatment, mental
therapeutics or homeopathy, is not by itself sufficient to achieve
satisfactory results or to produce them fast enough.
To use an illustration: Suppose a wagon full of freight requires the
combined strength of six horses to move it and suppose that number
of horses is available, would it not be foolish to try to move the
load with one, two, three, four or even five horses? Would not
common sense suggest the saving of time and effort by putting all
six horses to work at once?
In Natural Therapeutics every one of the various methods of
treatment is supplemented and assisted by all the others.
The manipulative schools of healing maintain that practically all
disease is caused by mechanical abnormalities of the spinal column
or of muscles, ligaments and other connective tissues, due to
abnormal strain or injury. The philosophy of Natural Therapeutics,
on the other hand, points out that a large percentage of such spinal
and other mechanical lesions are secondary manifestations of
disease, not primary causes; that acute or subacute inflammatory
conditions in the interior of the body may cause nervous irritation
and thereby contraction of muscles and ligaments and, as a result of
these, subluxations of vertebrae or of other bony structures.
The naprapathic theory of disease postulates that it is the
shrinkage and contraction of the connective tissues, which serve as
a support and protection for the nerve matter contained in the nerve
trunks and filaments, that cause interference with the normal nerve
supply of cells and tissues and thereby abnormal function and
disease.
The philosophy of Natural Therapeutics points to the fact that this
shrinkage and contraction of the connective tissues surrounding and
permeating the nerve trunks and filaments is caused by certain acids
and other pathogenic materials which are produced by faulty diet and
defective elimination and that the same causes produce accumulation
of waste and morbid matter in the tissues of the body which, all
through the system, interfere just as effectually with nutrition,
drainage and innervation of the cells and tissue as do spinal
lesions and ligatights.
While the other systems of manipulative treatment confine themselves
almost entirely to the correction of bony and other connective
tissue lesions, to "pressing the button," as it is called,
neurotherapy, besides this, aims at other very important results.
In disease the tissues are either in an abnormally tense and
contracted or in a weak, relaxed condition. The functional
activities are either hyperactive as in acute inflammation, or
sluggish and inactive as in chronic atonic and atrophic conditions.
These extremes can be powerfully influenced and equalized by
manipulative inhibition, relaxation or stimulation.
During an acute attack of gastritis, for instance, the
neurotherapist would exert strong inhibition on the nerves which
supply the stomach. This is accomplished by deep and persistent
pressure on the nerves where they emerge from the spinal openings
(foramina). This diminishes the rush of blood and nerve currents to
the inflamed organ and thereby eases but does not suppress the
inflammatory process and the attending congestion and pain.
In case of extreme tension in any part of the system, relaxation of
the shrunken tissues can be brought about by gentle but persistent
stretching of the nerves and adjacent muscles and ligaments, in a
manner similar to that of the naprapathic directos.
When the vital organs and their functions are weak and inactive or
when nerves, muscles, ligaments and other connective tissues are in
a relaxed, atonic or atrophic condition, certain stimulating
movements applied to the nerves where they emerge from the spinal
column will energize the vital functions all through the system.
Many patients imagine that such manipulative treatment is
superficial. To them it is just "rubbing" and seems all alike. They
do not realize that manipulative stimulation applied to the nerves
near the surface of the body travels all along their branches and
filaments like electricity along a complicated system of copper
wires and thus reaches the innermost cells and organs of the body,
making them more alive and active. This internal stimulation of
vital activities is attained also by good massage through energizing
the nerve endings all over the surface of the body.
The Fundamental Difference Between Neuratherapy
and Other Manipulative Systems
The following paragraphs will explain the fundamental difference
between neurotherapy and the older systems of manipulative
treatment. The older systems, the same as the allopathic school of
medicine, look upon acute diseases as destructive processes
dangerous to health and life; therefore they endeavor to check or
suppress them as quickly as possible by their various methods.
Neurotherapy so far is the only system of manipulative treatment
that bases its work on the fundamental laws of Natural Therapeutics.
According to these laws every acute disease is the result of a
purifying, healing effort of Nature. Therefore neurotherapy would
not suppress acute processes by manipulative treatment any more than
by drugs, ice, antitoxins, surgery or any other suppressive method.
To illustrate: Supposing that spontaneously or as a result of
natural living and treatment a patient suffering from chronic
constipation, indigestion, etc., develops a vigorous purging, which
we of the Nature Cure school would consider a splendid healing
crisis. Under allopathic as well as under the treatment of other
manipulative schools such an acute reaction would be immediately
suppressed. This can be accomplished very easily by a few
manipulative moves, but it would mean the suppression of a purifying
healing crisis and this would result in throwing the patient back
into his old chronic condition. The underlying causes of disease
must be removed before we can cure chronic disease and bring about a
normal condition of the organism.
Suppose manipulative treatment should succeed in stopping a fever
instantaneously. This would suppress Nature's purifying,
regenerating efforts, the patient would continue to "load up" more
morbid materials (especially since these schools do not teach the
importance of natural living) and it would only be a matter of time
until the morbid accumulations in the body would excite new acute
reactions, necessitating more adjustments. This may be all right for
the practitioner; but what about the patient? In the long run it can
only have one result, and that is chronic disease.
Chapter XXXIII
Legitimate Scope and Natural Limitations
of Mental and Metaphysical Healing
During the last generation people have perceived more or less
clearly the fallacies of "Old School" medicine and surgery. They
have grown more and more suspicious of orthodox theories and
practices. From allopathic "overdoing" the pendulum has swung to the
other extreme of metaphysical nihilism, to the "underdoing" of
mental and metaphysical systems of treating human ailments.
Some of these systems and cults of metaphysical healing have met
with success and wide popularity and this is looked upon by their
followers as a proof that all the claims and teachings of these
cults and isms are based upon absolute truth.
However, a thorough understanding of the fundamental Laws of Cure,
as I have explained them in this volume, will reveal in how far
their teachings and their practices are based upon truth and in how
far they are inspired by erroneous assumptions.
Let us then apply the yardstick and the weights and measures of
Nature Cure philosophy in testing the true value of the claims of
metaphysical healers.
For ages people have been educated in the belief that almost every
acute disease will end fatally unless the patient is drugged or
operated on. When they find to their surprise that the metaphysical
formulas or prayers of a mental healer or Christian Scientist will
"cure" baby's measles or father's smallpox just as well as, and
possibly better than, Dr. Dopem's pills and potions, they are firmly
convinced that a miracle has been performed in their behalf and
straightway they become blind believers in and fanatical followers
of their new idols.
They simply exchange one superstition for another: the belief in the
efficacy of drugs and surgical operations for the belief in the
wonder-working power of a metaphysical formula, a self-appointed
savior or a reason-stultifying and will-benumbing cult. They have
not been taught that every acute disease is the result of a healing
effort of Nature and therefore fail to see that it is vital force,
the physician within, that, if conditions are favorable, cures
measles and smallpox as easily as it repairs the broken blade of
grass or heals the wounded deer of the forest.
"That is exactly what we say," exclaim healer and scientist. "Have
unlimited faith in the God within and all will be well."
True, faith is good, but faith and works are better. Though we
cannot heal and give life, we can in many ways assist the healer
within. We can teach and explain Nature's Laws, we can remove
obstructions and we can make the conditions within and around the
patient more favorable for the action of Nature's healing forces.
When the Great Master said: "Go forth and sin no more, lest worse
things than these befall you," he acknowledged sin, or the
transgression of natural laws, to be the primary cause of disease,
and made health dependent upon compliance with the Law. The
necessity of complying with the Law, in all respects and on all the
planes of being, is still more strongly emphasized in the following:
"For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point,
he is guilty of all."
The skeptic and the superficial reader may reply: "This saying is
utterly unreasonable. Stealing a penny is not committing a murder;
overeating does not break the law of chastity; how, then, is it
possible to break all laws by breaking any single one of them?"
There is, however, a deeper meaning to this seeming paradox which
makes it scientifically true.
Self-Control, the Whole Law
Obedience to all laws on all planes of being depends primarily on
self-control. Self-control is, therefore, in a sense, the whole law,
for man cannot break any one law unless he breaks first this
fundamental Law of all Laws. This implies that the demoralizing
effect of sinning or law-breaking, on any one of the planes of
being, does not depend so much upon the enormity of the deed as upon
the loss of self-control. Continued weakening of self-control in
trivial things may therefore, in the end, prove more destructive
than a murder committed in the heat of passion. If there is not
self-control enough to resist a cup of coffee or a cigar, whence
shall come the will-power to resist greater temptations?
Truly, lack of self-control in small things is the "dry rot" of the
soul. Is it not, then, somewhat unreasonable to expect God or Nature
to strain and twist the immutable laws of Nature at the request of
every healer in order to save us from the natural consequences of
overeating, red meat eating, whisky drinking, smoking, tobacco
chewing, drugging and a thousand and one other transgressions of
natural laws?
In spite of the finest-spun metaphysical sophistries, we continue to
burn our fingers in the fire until we know enough to leave it alone.
Herein lies the corrective purpose of that which we call
evil--suffering and disease. The rational thing to do is not to deny
the existence of Mother Nature's punishing rod, but to escape her
salubrious spankings by conforming to her Laws.
What about the "Cures"?
As in medicine, so also in metaphysical healing, men judge by
superficial results, not by the real underlying causes. The usual
answer to any criticism of Christian Science or kindred methods of
cure is: "That may be all right; but see the results! Nobody can
deny their wonderful cures," etc.
Let us see whether there really is anything wonderful or
supernatural about these cures or whether they can be explained on
simple, natural grounds.
In another chapter we explain the difference between functional and
organic disease and show how in diseases of the functional type the
life force or healing force, which always endeavors to establish
normal conditions and the perfect type, may work unaided up to the
reconstructive healing crises and through these eliminate the morbid
encumbrances from the system and reestablish normal structure and
function.
It is in cases like these that metaphysicians attain their best
results simply because Nature helps herself.
On the other hand, in cases of the true organic type, where the
vitality is low and the destruction of vital parts and organs has
progressed to a considerable extent, the system is no longer able to
arouse itself to self-help.
In such cases, faith alone is not sufficient to obtain results. It
must be backed and assisted by all the natural methods of treatment
at our command.
Healers Work with Laws that
They Do Not Understand
In our critical analysis of "Old School" methods we found that by
far the greater part of all chronic ailments is due to drugging and
to surgery. People commence doctoring for little troubles, which are
aggravated by every dose of medicine and every surgical operation
until they end in big troubles.
Is it marvelous that such patients improve and that many are cured
when they are weaned from drugs and the knife?
Metaphysical healers unwittingly do their best and most beneficial
work because they induce their followers not to suppress acute
diseases and healing crises by drugs and surgical operations, thus
allowing them to run their natural course in harmony with the
fundamental law of Nature Cure, which states that every acute
disease is the result of a cleansing and healing effort of Nature.
People will refrain from the suppressive drug treatment under the
influence of metaphysical teachings, which appeal to the
miracle-loving element in their nature, when they cannot be
convinced by common sense Nature Cure reasoning.
Thus metaphysicians assist Nature indirectly by noninterference and
directly by soothing fear and worry, by instilling faith, hope and
confidence. Frequently they also aid Nature by prohibiting the use
of tobacco, alcohol and pork, and by regulating otherwise the life
and habits of their followers.
Let us consider the problem from another point of view. Let us
assume, for argument's sake, that the average person passes in the
course of a lifetime through a dozen different diseases. He recovers
from eleven of these, no matter what the treatment. It is only the
twelfth to which he succumbs. Yet, whosoever happened to treat the
first eleven diseases claims to have cured them and, perhaps, to
have saved the patient's life when, as a matter of fact, he
recovered very often in spite of the treatment and not because of
it.
These explanations account for the seemingly miraculous results of
metaphysical healing. If healers and Christian Scientists were to
explain their cures by the laws and principles of Nature Cure
philosophy, mystery and miracle would be taken out of their
business.
"Faith Without Works" Is Dangerous
To believe that God or Nature will overcome the natural effects of
our ignorance, laziness and viciousness by wonders, signs and
metaphysics, or to deny the existence of sickness, sin and
suffering, must lead inevitably to intellectual and moral stagnation
and degeneration. I am a thorough and consistent optimist and New
Thought enthusiast, but I do not overlook the fact that in this, as
in everything else, there lurks always the danger of overdoing and
of exaggerating virtue into fault.
The greatest danger of this revulsion from old-time pessimism to
modern optimism lies in the fact that the Higher Thought enthusiast
may cut from under his feet the solid ground of reality; that he may
become a dreamer instead of a thinker and doer; and that he may
mistake selfish, emotional sentimentalism for practical charity and
altruism.
This unhealthy "all-is-good, there-is-no-evil" emotionalism leads
only too often to weakening of personal effort, a deadening of the
sense of individual responsibility and thereby to mental and moral
atrophy; for any of our voluntary functions, capacities and powers
which we fail to exercise will in time become benumbed and
paralyzed. Unprejudiced observers who come in close contact with
metaphysicians cannot help perceiving the pernicious effect of their
subtle sophistries on reason and character.
A chronic invalid who had been under the treatment of a faith healer
for several years exclaimed, when we gave her our various
instructions for dieting, bathing, breathing exercises, etc.: "How
glad I am that you give me something to do! I fear I have been
imposing too long on the goodness of the Lord, expecting Him to do
my work for me." Often afterwards, while recovering from lifelong
ailments, she expressed her happiness and contentment in that she
herself was doing something which in her opinion was rational and
helpful because it assisted Nature's healing efforts.
We believe firmly and fully in the influence of mind over matter, in
the fact that vibrations of the physical plane by continuity create
corresponding vibrations on the mental and psychical planes and vice
versa. We know that, in accordance with this law, anything which
affects the mind or the moral life of a person affects also his
physical condition; but instead of hypnotizing the minds of our
patients by law-defying, reason-and will-benumbing dogmas and
formulas, we strengthen and harmonize their mental vibrations by
appealing to reason, by teaching and explaining natural laws instead
of obscuring and denying them.
The more intelligent the patient, the more amenable he will be to
such normal suggestions based on scientific truth and on the
dictates of reason and common sense.
While nonresistance to Nature's healing efforts is better than
suppression by drugs or the knife, there is something more helpful
and rational than the negative attitude toward disease on the
physical plane assumed by metaphysical healing cults. That
"something" is intelligent cooperation with Nature's cleansing and
healing efforts.
Where the Old School fails by sins of commission, the Faith Schools
fail by sins of omission. Many patients are sacrificed daily through
fanatical inactivity, when their lives might be saved by a wet pack
or a cold sponge bath, by an internal bath, rational diet, judicious
fasting, scientific manipulation or some other simple yet powerful
remedy of natural healing. To permit a patient to perish in a
burning fever, depending solely upon the efficacy of prayers,
formulas and mental attitude, when wet packs and cold sponging would
in a few minutes reduce the temperature below the danger point, is
manslaughter, even though it be done in the name of religion.
Incidents like the following are common in our practice: A little
girl in the neighborhood of our institution was taken with
diphtheria. The mother, an ardent Christian Scientist, called in
several healers of her cult, but the child grew worse from day to
day, until the false membranes in the throat began to choke her to
death.
A boarder in the house, who was a follower of Nature Cure, finally
induced the mother to call upon us for advice by threatening to
notify the City Health Department. Within an hour after the
application of the whole-body packs and the cold ablutions, the
blood was sufficiently drawn away from the local congestion in the
throat into the surface of the body, so that the child breathed
easily and freely, and from then on made a splendid recovery.
Another instance: A man had been suffering from sciatic rheumatism
for fifteen years. He had swallowed poisonous drugs to no avail. For
several years he had been under Mental Science treatment, but the
suffering had grown more intense.
When he applied to us for help, we found that the right hip bone
(the innominate) had slipped upward and backward. A few manipulative
treatments replaced the bone where it belonged, and the sciatic
rheumatism was cured.
In this case, the combined concentration and prayers of all the
metaphysical healers on earth would not have succeeded in replacing
the dislocated hip bone, which required the full strength of a
trained manipulator.
Metaphysicians could not have accomplished this feat any more than
they could have moved, by their mental efforts, a hundred-pound
weight from one place to another. Mechanical lesions of that kind
(and there are many of them) require mechanical treatment.
Another factor which makes converts to metaphysical healing cults by
the hundreds and thousands is the get-rich-quick instinct in human
nature, the desire to get something for nothing, or with as little
effort as possible. Herein lies the seductive pull of old-time
drugging and of modern metaphysics. "It does not matter how you
live; when you get into trouble, a bottle of medicine or a
metaphysical formula will make it all right." That sounds very easy
and promising, but the trouble is--it does not always work.
Our forefathers were too pessimistic; higher thought enthusiasts are
often too optimistic. While the former poisoned their lives and
paralyzed their God-given faculties and powers by dismal dread of
hell's fire and damnation, our modern healers and Scientists have
drifted to the other extreme. They tell us there is no sin, no pain,
no suffering. If that be true, there is also no action and reaction,
no Law of Compensation, no personal responsibility, no need of
self-control, self-help or personal effort.
The ideal of the faith healer is the ideal of the animal. The animal
trusts implicitly, it has absolute faith; guided by instinct, God,
or Nature, it follows the promptings of its appetites and passions
without worrying about right or wrong. It acts today as it did ten
thousand years ago.
In man, reason has taken the place of instinct; we must think and
manage for ourselves. We are free and responsible moral agents. If
we deny this, we deny the very foundations of equity, justice and
right. It behooves us to use the talents which God has given us, to
study the laws of our being and to comply with them to the best of
our ability, so that enlightened reason may take the place of animal
instinct and guide us to physical, mental and moral perfection.
Chapter XXXIV
The Difference Between Functional and Organic Disease
Much confusion concerning the curability of chronic diseases by the
various methods of treatment arises because people do not understand
the difference between functional and organic chronic disease.
For instance, there is a close resemblance between pseudo-and true
locomotor ataxy. Often it is difficult to distinguish functional
lung trouble from the organic type of the disease. In our practice,
several cases of mental derangement which had been diagnosed as true
paresis proved to be of the functional type and under natural
treatment recovered rapidly.
Functional diseases may present a very serious appearance and may be
labeled with awe-inspiring Greek or Latin names, and yet yield
readily to natural methods of living and treatment.
In diseases of an organic nature, however, right living and
self-treatment are usually not sufficient to obtain satisfactory
results. In such cases all forms of active and passive treatment
must be applied, and even then it is frequently difficult and
sometimes impossible to produce a cure.
Chronic diseases of a functional nature develop when an otherwise
healthy organism becomes saturated and clogged with food and drug
poisons to such an extent that these encumbrances interfere with the
free circuation of the blood and nerve currents, and with the normal
functions of the cells, organs and tissues of the body.
Such cases resemble a watch which is losing time because its works
are filled with dust. All that such a waste-encumbered watch or body
needs, in order to restore normal functions, is a good cleaning.
Pure food diet, fasting, systematic exercise, deep breathing, cold
bathing and the right mental attitude are usually sufficient to
perform this physical housecleaning and to restore perfect health.
Functional disorders yield readily to the various forms of
metaphysical treatment. Remove such patients from the weakening and
destructive effects of poisonous drugs and of surgical operations,
supplant fear and worry by courage and faith, and the results often
seem miraculous to those who do not understand the power of the
purifying and stimulating influence of clean living and of the right
mental attitude.
In diseases of the organic type, however, good results are not so
easily achieved. A body affected by organic disease resembles a
watch whose mechanism has been injured and partly destroyed by rust
and corrosive acids. If such be the case, cleaning and oiling alone
will not be sufficient to put the timepiece in good working order.
The watchmaker has to replace the damaged parts.
This is easy enough in the case of the watch, but it is not so
easily accomplished in the human body. Besides, in many instances
the corroding acids are the very medicines which were given to cure
the disease and the injury and destruction of vital parts and organs
is only too often the direct or indirect result of surgical
operations.
The watchmaker may remove those parts of the watch which are
suffering from organic trouble, and replace them by new ones. This
the surgeon cannot do. He can extirpate, but he cannot replace.
Operative treatment leaves the organism forever after in a mutilated
and therefore unbalanced condition, and often prevents and
frustrates Nature's cleansing and healing crises.
The Limitations of Metaphysical Healing
In the writings of metaphysical healers we often meet the assertion
that they can cure organic diseases as easily and quickly as
functional ailments. If they understood better the difference
between functional and organic disorders as explained in the
foregoing pages, they would not make such deceptive and extravagant
claims. They would then realize the natural limitations of
meta-physical healing.
I do not underestimate the great value of mental, metaphysical
and spiritual healing methods. Of these I shall speak more fully in
subsequent chapters. But I do claim that we can and should aid
Nature's healing efforts not only by the right mental attitude and
the prayer of faith, but also by natural living and many different
methods of physical treatment.
Mental attitude alone will not clean the watch. To concentrate on
the work of housecleaning without using broom, soap and water is not
sufficient. Reason and common sense teach us that the removal of
physical, material encumbrances can be, to say the least,
accelerated by the use of physical or physiological agents. Anyone
who has observed or himself experienced the efficacy of natural
diet, cold-water treatment, massage and osteopathy in dealing with
the morbid accumulations in the system will never again
underestimate the practical value of these "brooms."
In our study of the nature and purpose of acute diseases we have
found that Nature tries to purify the system from its morbid
encumbrances through inflammatory, febrile processes (acute
diseases) and that these cleansing efforts of Nature are generally
prevented, checked and suppressed by allopathic methods of medical
and surgical treatment, and thus changed into chronic disease
conditions.
The metaphysical healers do away with these suppressive methods of
treatment and allow Nature's acute cleansing and healing efforts to
run their natural course. Thus they profit by the fundamental laws
of cure without understanding them. The acute disease, whose very
existence they deny, is in reality the cure.
Furthermore, rational mental and metaphysical treatment supports
Nature's efforts actively by supplanting the weakening and
paralyzing fear vibrations with relaxing and invigorating vibrations
of hope, confidence and faith in the supremacy of Nature's healing
forces. Under these favorable conditions, the organism will arouse
itself to the purifying and constructive healing crises (the
chemicalizations of Christian Science) and through these eliminate
the morbid encumbrances and restore normal structure and functions.
While functional disorders, in nearly every case, yield
readily enough to the natural methods of living and of treatment and
to the right mental attitude, it is different with organic diseases.
When waste matter, ptomaines or poisonous alkaloids and acids
produced in the body as a result of wrong diet and other violations
of Nature's laws have brought about destruction and corrosion in
vital parts and organs--when dislocations and subluxations of bony
structures, or new growths and accumulations in the forms of tumors,
stones or gravel obstruct the blood vessels and nerve currents, shut
off the supply of the vital fluids and thus cause malnutrition and
gradual decay of the tissues--when, in addition to this, the
organism has been poisoned or mutilated by drugs and surgical
operations, then its purification and repair becomes a tedious and
difficult task.
Not only must the mechanism of the body be cleansed and freed from
obstructive and destructive materials, but the injured parts must be
repaired, morbid growths and abnormal formations dissolved and
eliminated and lesions in the bony structures corrected by
manipulative treatment.
In organic diseases, the vitality is usually so low and destruction
so great that the organism cannot arouse itself to self-help. Even
the cessation of suppressive treatment and the stimulating influence
of mental and metaphysical therapeutics are not sufficient to bring
about the reconstructive healing crises. This can only be
accomplished by the combined influences of all the natural methods
of living and of treatment.
It is in cases like these that metaphysical healing and hygienic
living find their limitations. Such organic defects require
systematic treatment by all the methods, active and passive, which
the best Nature Cure sanitariums can furnish. It may be slow and
laborious work to obtain satisfactory results, and if the vitality
is too low or the destruction of vital parts and organs has too far
advanced, even the best and most complete combination of natural
methods of treatment may fail to produce a cure.
However, this can be determined only by a fair trial of the natural
methods. The forces of Nature are ever ready to react to persistent,
systematic effort in the right direction and when there is enough
vitality to keep alive there is likely to be enough to purify and
reconstruct the organism and in time to bring about improvement and
cure.
This, then, explains why, in the organic types of diseases,
metaphysical methods of treatment alone are insufficient. At least
one-half of the patients that come to the Nature Cure physician have
faithfully tried these methods without avail, but the failures are
easily excused by lack of faith, wrong mental attitude or something
wrong with the patient or his surroundings.
In our experience with patients who had formerly tried metaphysical
methods of healing faithfully, but without results, we sometimes
come face to face with a curious and amusing phase of human nature.
As our patients improve under the natural regimen and treatment,
they gradually return to their first love and ascribe the good
effects of natural treatment to a better understanding of "the
Science." As health and strength return, they say: "Formerly I did
not know just how to apply the Science, but now I know, and that is
why I am growing better."
I suppose this form of self-deception which we have frequently
observed is due to the fact that people feel flattered by the idea
that Providence has taken a special interest in their case and cured
them by miraculous intervention. It is so much more interesting to
be cured by some occult principle than by diet and cold water.
Undoubtedly it is this miracle-loving element in human nature that
makes metaphysical healing so much more popular than plain,
commonsense Nature Cure.
Not long ago Professor Munsterberg investigated the claims of
Christian Scientists that they were constantly curing diseases of
the organic type. He reported his findings in a series of articles
in McClure's Magazine (1908), stating that he inquired personally
into one hundred cases said to have been cured by Christian Science
and found that ninety-two of them had been of the functional type,
while eight were claimed to have been organic, but that in no
instance could this be proved beyond doubt.
Chapter XXXV
The Two-fold Attitude of Mind and Soul
The following is an extract from a letter sent to me by a reader of
my articles in ~The Nature Cure Magazine.~
"Sometimes you say we must rely on our own personal efforts and at
other times you teach dependence upon a higher power. This, to me,
is contradictory and confusing. I cannot understand how,
consistently, we can do both at the same time. Which is right? Is it
best to rely upon our own power and our personal efforts or upon the
'Higher Power'?"
Similar inquiries have come from other friends. I shall now endeavor
to answer these and other questions.
There is nothing contradictory or incompatible in the teachings of
the Nature Cure philosophy concerning the physical and metaphysical
methods of treating human ailments. Both the independent and the
dependent attitudes of mind and soul are good and true and may be
entertained at the same time. It is necessary for us to rely on our
own personal efforts in carrying out the dictates of reason and of
common sense. But this need not prevent us from praying for and
confidently expecting a larger inflow of vital power and intuitional
discernment from the Source of all intelligence and power in the
innermost parts of our being.
This two-fold attitude of mind and soul is justified not only by
reason and intuition, but also by the anatomical structure of the
human organism and its physiological and psychological faculties,
capacities and powers.
The activities of the human organism are governed by two different
systems of nerves, the sympathetic and the motor. The sympathetic
nervous system is the conveyor of vital force to the organs and
cells of the body. Just what this vital force is and where it
ultimately comes from, we do not know. It is a manifestation of that
which we call God, Nature, Life, the Higher Power or the Divine
Within.
Heart action, the circulation of the blood, respiration, digestion,
assimilation of food, elimination and all other involuntary
activities and functions of the human organism are controlled by
means of the sympathetic nervous system. The nature of the
controlling force itself is not known to us. We do know that it is
supremely powerful, intelligent and benevolent.
The more we study the anatomy, physiology and psychology of the
human organism, the more we wonder at its marvelous complexity and
ingenuity of structure and function. Every moment there are enacted
in our bodies innumerable mechanical, chemical and psychological
miracles. Who, or what, performs these miracles? We do not know. Yet
every moment of our lives depends upon the infinite care and wisdom
of this unknown intelligence and power.
Why, then, should we not trust the One so faithful? Why should we
not ask aid from One so powerful? Why not seek enlightenment from
One who is so wise and so benevolent?
However, not all of the human entity is dependent upon a controlling
power, nor are all its functions involuntary. Within the house
prepared by the Divine Intelligence, there dwells a sovereign in his
own right and by his own might. He is endowed with freedom of
desire, of choice and of action. He creates in his brain the nerve
centers which control the voluntary activities of the body and from
these brain centers he sends his commands through the fibers of the
motor nerves to the voluntary muscles and makes them do his bidding;
some he commands to walk, others to laugh, to eat, to speak, etc.
This independent principle in man we call the ego, the individual
intelligence. It imagines, desires, reasons, plans and works out, by
the power of free will and independent choice, its own salvation or
destruction, physically, mentally, morally and spiritually. By means
of the motor nervous system, this thinker and doer directs and
controls from the headquarters in the brain all the voluntary
functions, capacities and powers of the human organism.
This part of the human entity can evolve and progress only through
its own conscious and voluntary personal efforts.
In this, Man differs from the animal creation. The animal is able to
take care of itself shortly after birth. It inherits, already fully
developed, those brain centers for the control of the bodily
functions which the newborn human must develop slowly and
laboriously through patient and persistent effort in the course of
many years.
Of voluntary capacities and powers the newborn infant possesses
little more than the simplest unicellular animalcule, that is, about
all it can do is to scent and swallow food. Its cerebral hemispheres
are as yet blank slates, to be inscribed gradually by its conscious
and voluntary exertions. Before it can think, reason, speak, walk or
do anything else, it must first develop in its brain special centers
for each and every one of these voluntary faculties and functions.
Through these persistent personal efforts, reason, will and
self-control are gradually evolved and developed; while the animal,
being hereditarily endowed with the faculties and functions
necessary for the maintenance of life, has no occasion for the
development of the higher faculties and powers and therefore remains
an irresponsible automaton, which cannot be held accountable for its
actions.
To recapitulate: Freedom of choice and of action distinguish the
human from the animal. In the animal kingdom, reasoning power and
freedom of action move in the narrow limits of heredity and
instinct, while Man, through his own personal efforts, is capable of
unlimited development physically, mentally, morally and spiritually,
both here and hereafter. We say physically advisedly, for in the
spiritual realms, in the life after death, the physical
(spiritual-material) body also is capable of deterioration or of
ever greater refinement and beautification.
Through the right use of his voluntary faculties, capacities and
powers, Man is enabled to become the master of himself and of his
destiny.
Thus we find that the human organism consists of two distinct parts
or departments, the one acting independently of the ego and deriving
its motive force from an unknown source and the other under the
conscious and voluntary control of the ego.
This two-fold nature of the human entity justifies the two-fold
attitude of mind and soul, on the one hand the prayerful and
faithful dependence upon that mysterious power which flows into us
and controls us through the sympathetic nervous system and on the
other hand the conscious and voluntary dominion over the various
faculties, capacities and powers with which Nature has endowed us.
It is our privilege and our duty to maintain both attitudes, the
dependent as well as the independent. The desire and the will to
plan, to choose and to perform are ours, but for the power to
execute we are dependent upon a Higher Source.
Chapter XXXVI
The Symphony of Life
Human life appears to me as a great orchestra in which we are the
players. The great composition to be performed is the "Symphony of
Life," its infinitude of dissonances and melodies blending into one
colossal tone picture of harmony and grandeur. We players must study
the laws of music and the score of the Great Symphony and we must
practice diligently and persistently, until we can play our part
unerringly in harmony with the concepts of the Great Composer. At
the same time we must learn to keep our instrument, the body, in the
best possible condition; for the greatest artist, endowed with a
profound knowledge of the laws of music and possessed of the most
perfect technique, cannot produce musical and harmonious sounds from
an instrument with strings relaxed or overtense, or with its body
filled with rubbish.
The artist must learn that the instrument, its material, its
construction and its care are just as subject to law as the
harmonics of the score.
In the final analysis, everything is vibration acting in and on the
universal ethers, which are held to be the primordial substance.
Possibly the ethers themselves are modes of vibration.
That which is constructive is harmonious vibration. That which is
destructive is inharmonious or discordant vibration.
Against this it may be urged that devolution has its harmonics as
well as evolution, that every symphony is made up of dissonances as
well as of harmonies. To this I answer: "Unadulterated harmony may,
solely for lack of change, become monotonous; but discords alone
never create melody, harmony, health or happiness."
As the artist seeks vibratory harmony between his instrument and the
harmonics of the universe of sound, so the health-seeker must
endeavor to establish vibratory unison between the material elements
of his body and Nature's harmonics of health in the physical
universe.
The atoms and molecules in the wood and strings of the violin, as
well as the sounds produced from them, are modes of motion or
vibration. In order to bring forth musical and harmonious notes, the
vibratory conditions of the physical elements of the violin must be
in harmonious vibratory relationship with Nature's harmonics in the
universe of sound.
The elements and forces composing the human body are also vibratory
in their nature, the same as the material elements of the violin.
They also must be kept in a certain well-balanced chemical
combination, mechanical adjustment and physical refinement before
they can vibrate in unison with Nature's harmonics in the physical
universe and thus produce the harmonies of health and strength and
beauty.
If our instrument is out of tune, or if we ignorantly or willfully
insist on playing in our own way, regardless of the score, we create
discords not only for ourselves, but also for our fellow artists in
the great orchestra of life.
Sin, disease, suffering and evil are nothing but discords, produced
by the ignorance, indifference or malice of the players. Therefore we
cannot attribute the discords of life to the Great Composer. They
are of our own making and will last as long as we refuse to learn
our parts and to play them in tune with the Great Score. For in this
way only can we ever hope to master the art and science of right
living and to enjoy the harmonies of peace, self-content and
happiness.
Chapter XXXVII
The Three-fold Constitution of Man
The following diagram and accompanying explanations will serve to
illustrate "Three Planes of Being," the corresponding "Three-fold
Constitution of man," and their analogy tothe artist and his
instrument.
The Three-fold Constitution of Man
~Planes of Being~
~Three-fold Constitution of Man~
~Analogy~
Psychical or Moral
Soul
Music, Laws of Harmony
Mental
Mind
Player
Material
Bodies
(Physical and Spiritual)
Violin
Man lives and functions on three distinct planes of being: the
physical-material and spiritual-material, the mental and the soul
(psychical or moral) planes.
He may be diseased upon any one or more of these planes. The true
physician must look for causes of disease and for methods of
treatment upon all three planes of being.
The purely materialistic physician concentrates all his study and
effort upon the physical-material plane of being. To him, mental,
spiritual, psychical, and moral phenomena are merely chemical and
physiological actions and reactions of brain and nerve substance. He
has nothing but contempt and derision for the man who believes in or
knows of a spiritual body or a soul.
He is like an artist who says: "My violin is all there is to music.
The musician's art consists in keeping his instrument in good
condition. Technique and the laws of harmony are a matter of
imagination and of superstitious belief."
On the other hand, mental healers, Christian Scientists and faith
healers concentrate all their efforts upon either the mental or the
soul plane, frequently making no distinction between the two. In the
treatment of disease, they ignore the conditions and needs of the
physical body, and some of them even deny its existence.
These metaphysicians are like the artist who devotes all his time
and energy to the study and practice of technique, counterpoint and
harmony, neglecting his instrument and taking no heed whether its
mechanism is out of order or its interior filled with rubbish. His
knowledge of the laws of harmonics and his execution may be ever so
perfect; but with his instrument out of tune and out of order he
will produce discords instead of harmony.
The true artist realizes that MIND, the player, must study SOUL, the
harmonics; and that the mind must also have its instrument, the
BODY, in perfect condition in order to interpret perfectly and
artistically the harmonies of the symphony of life. Likewise, the
Nature Cure physician will look for causes of disease and for means
of cure upon the material, mental and psychical planes of being.
Thus will higher civilization and greater knowledge lead back to the
natural simplicity of primitive races, where physician and priest
are one.
After all, physical health is the best possible basis for the
attainment of mental, moral and spiritual health. All building
begins with the foundation. We do not first suspend the steeple in
the air and then build the church under it. So also, the building of
the temple of human character should begin by laying the foundation
in physical health.
We have known people who had attained high intellectual, moral and
spiritual development and then suffered utter shipwreck physically,
mentally and in every other way, because ignorantly they had
violated the laws of their physical nature.
There are others who believe that the possession of occult knowledge
and the achievement of mastership confer absolute control over
Nature's forces and phenomena on the physical plane. These people
believe that a man is not a master if he does not miraculously heal
all manner of disease and raise the dead.
If such things were possible, they would overthrow the Laws of Cause
and Effect and of Compensation. They would abolish the basic
principles of morality and constructive spirituality. If it is
possible in one case to heal disease and to overcome death through
the fiat of the will of a master, then it must be possible in all
cases. If so, then we can ignore the existence of Nature's laws,
indulge our appetites and passions to the fullest extent, and when
the natural results of our transgressions overtake us, we can go to
a healer or master and have our diseases instantly and painlessly
removed, like a bad tooth.
I say this with all due reverence for, and faith in, the efficacy of
true prayer and with full knowledge of the healing power of
therapeutic faith, but I do not believe that God, or Nature, or a
master or metaphysical formulas can or will make good in a
miraculous way for the inevitable results of our transgressions of
the natural laws that govern our being.
If such miraculous healing were possible and of common occurrence,
what occasion would there be for the exercise of reason, will and
self-control? What would become of the scientific basis of morality
and constructive spirituality?
All this leads us to the following conclusions:
"If there is in operation a constructive principle of Nature on the
ethical, moral and spiritual planes of being, with which we must
align ourselves and to which we must conform our conscious and
voluntary activities in order to achieve self-completion,
self-content, individual completion and happiness, then this
constructive principle must be in operation also in our physical
bodies and in their corelated physical, mental and emotional
activities. If the constructive principle is active in the physical
as well as in the moral and spiritual realms, then the established
harmonic relationship of the physical to the constructive law of its
being must constitute the morality of the physical; and from this it
follows that the achievement of health on the physical plane is as
much under our conscious and voluntary control as the working out of
our individual salvation on the higher planes of life."
To recapitulate:
First, our well-being on all planes and in all relationships of life
depends upon the existence, recognition and practical application of
the great fundamental laws and principles just explained.
Second: Physical health, as well as moral health, is of our own
making. We are personally responsible not only for our own physical
and mental health, but we are also morally responsible for the
hereditary tendencies of our offspring toward health or disease.
Third: The attainment of physical health through compliance with
Nature's laws is just as much a part of the Great Work as our
ethical, moral and psychical development.
The Unity and Continuity of the Law
That which we call God, Nature, the Creator or the Universal
Intelligence is the great central cause of all things and the
vibratory activities produced by or proceeding from this central or
primary cause continue through all spheres of life, in like manner
as the light waves of the sun, moon and fixed stars penetrate
through the intervening spheres of life to our plane of earth.
Therefore all powers, forces, laws and principles which manifest on
our plane proceed and continue from the innermost Divine to the most
external plane in physical nature. This explains the continuity,
stability and correspondence on all planes of being of that which we
call Natural Law. In other words, "Natural Law is the established
harmonic relationship of effects and phenomena to their causes and
of all particular causes to the one great primary cause of all
things."
Chapter XXXVIII
Mental Therapeutics
The new psychology and the science of mental and spiritual healing
teach us that the lower principles in Man stand or should stand
under the dominion of the higher. The physical body, with its
material elements, is dominated and guided by the mind. The mind is
inspired through the inner consciousness, which is an attribute of
the soul. The soul of man is in communion with the Oversoul, which
is the Source of all life and all intelligence animating the
universe.
Wherever this natural order is reversed, there is discord or
disease. Too many people think and act as though the physical body
is all in all, as though it is the only thing worth caring for and
thinking about. They exaggerate the importance of the physical and
become its abject slaves.
The physical body is the lowest and least intelligent of the
different principles making up the human entity. Yet people allow
their minds and their souls to become dominated and terrified by the
sensations of the physical body.
When the servants in the house control and terrify the master, when
the master becomes their slave and they can do with him as they
please, there cannot be order and harmony in that house.
We must expect the same results when the lower principles in Man
lord it over the higher. When physical weakness, illness and pain
fill the mind with fear and dismay, reason becomes clouded, the will
atrophied and self-control is lost.
Every thought and every emotion has its direct effect upon the
physical constituents of the body. The mental and emotional
vibrations become physical vibrations and structures. Discord in the
mind is translated into physical disease in the body, while the
harmonies of hope, faith, cheerfulness, happiness, love and altruism
create in the organism the corresponding health vibrations.
Have you ever noticed how the written or printed notes of a tone
piece or the perforations on the paper music roll of an automatic
player are arranged in symmetrical and geometrical figures and
groups? Dry sand strewn on the top of a piano on which harmonious
tone combinations are produced shows a tendency to arrange itself in
symmetrical patterns.
In this you have a visual illustration of the translation of
harmonious sound vibrations, which express the harmonics of the
soul's emotions, into correspondingly harmonious arrangements and
configurations in the physical material of the paper roll.
A jumble of discords of sound, if reproduced on a music roll, would
present a chaotic jumble of perforations.
Thus the purely mental and emotional is translated into its
corresponding discords or harmonies in the physical.
As the perforations on the paper music roll arrange themselves
either symmetrically or without symmetry and order, in strict
accordance with the harmonies or discords of the composition, so the
atoms, molecules and cells in the physical body group themselves in
normal or abnormal structures of health or of disease in exact
correspondence with the harmonious or the discordant vibrations
conveyed to them from the mental and emotional planes.
Another Illustration: Two violins, as they leave the shop of the
maker, are exactly alike in material, structure and quality of tone.
One of the two instruments is constantly used by beginners and
persons incapable of producing pure notes. The other passes into the
hands of an artist who understands how to use the instrument to the
best advantage and who draws from it only musical tones that are
true in pitch and quality.
After a few years, compare the two violins again. You will find that
the one used by the tyros in music has deteriorated in its musical
qualities, while the one in the hands of the artist has greatly
improved in quality and purity of tone. What is the reason? The
atoms and molecules in the wood of the two instruments have grouped
themselves according to the discords or the harmonies that have been
produced from them.
If this rearrangement of atoms is possible in dead wood, how much
easier must be this adjustment of atoms, molecules and cells to
discordant or harmonious vibratory influence in the living, plastic
and fluidic human organism!
What harmony is to music, hope, faith, cheerfulness, happiness,
sympathy, love and altruism are to the vibratory conditions of the
human entity. These emotions are in alignment with the constructive
principle in Nature. They harmonize the physical vibrations, relax
the tissues and open them wide to the inflow of the life force.
Swedenborg truly says: "The warmth of life is the heat of the divine
love permeating and animating the universe." The more we possess of
hope, faith, love and their kindred emotions, the more we open
ourselves to the inflow and action of the vital energies. The
good-natured, cheerful, sympathetic person is more alive than the
crabbed, morose or selfish individual.
It has been proved over and over again by everyday experience that
mental and emotional conditions positively affect the chemical
composition of the tissues and secretions of the body. The
destructive emotions of fear, worry, anger, jealousy,
revengefulness, envy, etc., actually poison the fluids and tissues
of the body. The bite of an angry man may cause blood-poisoning and
prove as fatal as the bite of a mad dog. Sudden fear, anger or any
other destructive emotion in the nursing mother may cause illness or
even death of the infant.
In psychological laboratories it has been found by scientifically
conducted experiments that under the influence of destructive mental
and emotional conditions, the secretions and excretions of the body
show an increase of morbid and poisonous elements.
Selfishness, fear and worry contract and congeal the blood vessels,
the nerve fibers, and the other channels through which the life
forces are conveyed from the innermost source of life to different
parts and organs of the physical body. The flow of the life currents
is impeded and diminished. Such are the actual physiological effects
of fear, anxiety and egotism on the physical organism.
A man under the influence of great fear and one exposed to freezing
present the same outward appearance. In both cases death may result
through the congealing of the tissues and the shutting out of the
life currents. The person afflicted with the worry habit may not die
suddenly like the one overcome by great and sudden fear.
Nevertheless, the fear and worry vibrations maintained constantly
will surely obstruct and diminish the inflow of the life force,
lower the vitality and therewith the resistance to the encroachment
of influences inimical to the health of the organism.
The cells in the body are negative, or, at least, they should be
negative to the positive mind. The relationship of the mind to the
cell should be like that of hypnotist to subject. If the mind could
not exert such absolute control over the cells and cell groups, it
would be impossible for us to walk, talk, write, dodge danger, etc.,
with almost automatic ease.
The cells are not able to reason upon the truth or untruth of the
suggestions conveyed to them from the mind. They accept its
promptings unqualifiedly and act accordingly.
Thus, if the mind constantly thinks of, say, the stomach as being in
a badly diseased condition, unable to do its work properly, the
mental images of weakness and disease with their accompanying fear
vibrations are telegraphed over the efferent nerves to the cells of
the stomach and these become more and more weakened and diseased
through the destructive vibrations sent to them from the mind.
I often advise my patients to procure a book on anatomy and
physiology and to study and keep constantly before their mind's eye
the normal structure and functions of a healthy stomach or liver or
whatever organ may be involved in any particular case.
Positive Affirmations
This explains why affirmations of health are justified in the face
of disease. The health conditions must be first established in the
mind before they can be conveyed to and impressed upon the cells.
The well-being of the human body as a whole depends upon the health
of the billions of minute cells which compose it. These cells are so
small that they have to be magnified several hundred times under a
powerful microscope before we can see them. Yet they are independent
living beings which grow, assimilate food, multiply and die like the
big cell, Man.
These little cells are congregated in communities which form the
organs and tissues of the body and in these communities they carry
on the complicated activities of citizens living in a large city.
Some are carriers, bringing food materials to the tissues and organs
or conveying waste and morbid matter to the excretory channels of
the body. Other cells manufacture chemical substances, such as
sugar, fats, ferments, hormones etc., for the production of which
man requires complicated factories. Still others act as policemen
and soldiers which protect the commonwealth against bacteria,
parasites and other hostile invaders.
The marvelous work performed by these little organisms, as well as
observations made in the dissecting room and under the microscope,
strongly indicate that these cells are endowed with some sort of
individual intelligence. They do their work without our aid or
conscious volition. But, nevertheless, they are greatly influenced
by the varying conditions of the mind. While their activities seem
to be controlled through the sympathetic nervous system, they stand
in direct telegraphic communication with headquarters in the brain
and every impulse of the mind is conveyed to them.
If there be dismay and confusion in the mind, this condition is
telegraphically conveyed over the nerve trunks and filaments to
every cell in the body, and as a result these little workers and
soldiers become panic-stricken and incapable of rightly performing
their manifold duties.
The cell system of the body resembles a vast army. The mind is the
general at the head of it. The cells are the soldiers, divided into
groups for special work.
Much of the work of an army is carried on through different
well-established departments, as the commissariat, the hospital
service, the scouts and pickets, etc. Though the life and the
activities of the army are so well regulated that they seem
automatic, nevertheless much depends upon the commander.
The vital processes of the human organism, digestion, assimilation,
elimination, respiration, the circulation of the blood, etc., are
going on without our volition, whether we be awake or asleep. These
involuntary activities are impelled by the sympathetic nervous
system, while the voluntary functions of the body are controlled
through the motor [voluntary] nervous system. This division,
however, is not a sharp one, and the two departments frequently
overlap one another.
The sympathetic nervous system resembles the commissarial department
of the army, which attends to the material welfare of the soldiers,
while the motor nervous system, with headquarters in the brain,
corresponds to the commander with his executive staff, the nerve
centers in the spinal cord and other parts of the body being the
subordinate officers in the field.
While the physical well-being of the army depends upon the almost
automatic work of its different departments, its mind and soul is
the man commanding it. He determines the spirit, the energy and the
efficiency of the vast organization.
If the commander-in-chief lacks insight, force and determination,
the discipline of the army will be lax and its efficiency greatly
impaired. If he is a craven, without faith in himself and in the
cause he represents, his lack of courage, his doubt and indecision
will communicate themselves to the whole army, resulting in
discouragement and defeat.
The most successful commanders have been those who were possessed of
absolute confidence in themselves and in the efficiency of their
army, who in the face of gravest danger and discouraging situations
pressed on to the predetermined goal with dogged courage and
resolution. Determination and pertinacity of this kind create the
magnetic power which imparts itself to every individual soldier in
the army and makes him a willing subject, even unto death, to the
will of his commander.
When the plague was invading Napoleon's army, that great general
entered the hospitals where the victims of the plague were lying,
took them by the hand and conversed with them. He did this to
overcome the fear in the hearts of his soldiers, and thus to protect
them against the dread disease. He said: "A man whose will can
conquer the world, can conquer the plague."
To my mind, this was one of the greatest deeds of the Corsican. At a
time when "New Thought" was practically unknown, the genius of this
man had grasped its principles and was making them factors in his
apparent success. "Apparent" because, while we admire his genius, we
deplore the ends to which he applied his wonderful powers.
At times when the battle seemed lost, Napoleon would go to the front
where the danger was greatest; and by the mere sight of him the
hard-pressed soldiers under his command were inspired to super-human
effort and final victory.
As long as the glamour of invincibility surrounded him, Napoleon was
invincible, because he infused into his soldiers a faith and courage
which nothing could withstand. But when the cunning of the Russian
broke his power and decimated his ranks on the ice-bound steppes,
the hypnotic spell was broken also. Friends and enemies alike
recognized that, after all, he was but a man, subject to chance and
circumstance; and from that time on he was vulnerable and suffered
defeat after defeat.
The power of the mind over the physical body and its involuntary
functions (the functions which are regulated and controlled through
the sympathetic nervous system) may be illustrated by the
demonstrated facts of hypnotism. Through the exertion of his own
imagination and his will-power, the hypnotist can so dominate the
brain and through the brain the physical body of his subject, as to
influence not only the sensory functions, but also heart action and
respiration. By the power of his will the hypnotist is able to
retard or accelerate pulse and respiration, and even to subdue the
heart beat so that it becomes hardly perceptible.
If it is possible thus to control by the power of will the vital
functions in the body of another person, it must be possible also to
control these functions in our own bodies. Many a Hindu fakir and
yogi have developed this power of the mind over the physical body to
a marvelous extent.
Here lies the true domain of mental therapeutics. We can learn to
dominate and regulate the vital activities and the life currents in
our bodies so that they will do their work intelligently and
serenely even under the stress of illness or of danger. We can, by
the power of will, direct the vital currents to those parts and
organs which need them most and we can relieve congested areas by
equalizing the circulation, by drawing from the surplus of blood and
nerve currents and distributing the vital fluids over other parts of
the body.
We must be careful, however, to use our higher powers in conformity
with Nature's intent; that is, we must not endeavor to suppress
Nature's cleansing and healing efforts. It is possible to do this by
the power of will as well as with ice bags and drugs.
Mentally and emotionally, as well as physically, we must work with
Nature, not against her. When we understand the fundamental laws of
disease and cure, we cannot well do otherwise.
Chapter XXXIX
HOW SHALL WE PRAY?
Shall we say: "Father, give me this Father, do for me that!"? Or
shall we say: "Behold, I am perfect! Imperfection, sin and suffering
are only errors of mortal mind!"?
Or shall we pray: "Father, give me of Thy strength that I may live
in harmony with Thy law, for thus only will all good come to me!"?
The first way is to beg, the second, to steal, the third, to earn by
honest effort.
"Father, give me this!"--"Father do for me that!" Thus prayed our
fathers, not understanding the great law of compensation, the law of
giving and receiving, which demands that we give an equivalent for
everything we receive. To receive without giving is to beg.
The lily, in return for the nourishment it receives from the soil
and the sun, gives its beauty and fragrance. The birds of the air
give a return for their sustenance by their songs, their beauty of
plumage, and by destroying worms and insects, the enemies of plants
and men. Every living thing gives an equivalent for its existence in
some way or other.
With Man, the fulfillment of the law of service and of compensation
becomes conscious and voluntary, and his self-respect refuses to
take without giving.
"Behold, I am perfect! Imperfection, sin, and suffering are only
errors of mortal mind!" Such is the prayer of certain metaphysical
healers.
To assume the possession of goodness and perfection without an
earnest effort to develop and to deserve these qualities, means to
steal the glory of the only Perfect One. The assumption of present
perfection precludes the necessity of striving and laboring for its
attainment. If I am already all goodness, all love, all wisdom, and
all power, what remains for me to strive for?
Herein lies the danger of metaphysical idealism. While it may dispel
pessimism, fear, and anxiety, it inevitably weakens the will power
and the capacity for self-help and personal effort.
The ideal of the metaphysician is the ideal of the animal. The
animal does not worry about right or wrong, nor, with few
exceptions, does it make provision for the future. Its care and
forethought extend only to the next meal. But this perfect, ideal,
passive trust in Nature's bounty causes the animal to remain animal
and prevents its rising above the narrow limitations of habit and
instinct.
The inherent faculties, capacities, and powers of the human soul can
be developed only by effort and use. The savage, living in the most
favored regions of the earth, depending for his sustenance in
perfect faith and trust on Nature's never-failing bounty, has
remained savage. Through ages he has risen but little above the
level of the beasts that perish.
The great law of use ordains that those faculties and powers which
we do not develop remain in abeyance, and that those which we
possess weaken and atrophy if we fail to exercise them.
The Master, Jesus, emphasized this law of use in many of his
parables and sayings.
"For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more
abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even
that he hath."
What does this mean? Those who have the desire and the will to work
out their own salvation, acquire greater knowledge and power in
exact proportion to their well-directed efforts; but those who have
neither the desire nor the will to help themselves, lose their
natural endowments and the possibilities and opportunities which
these would have conferred upon them.
The anatomy and physiology of the human brain reveal the fact that
for every voluntary faculty, capacity, and power of body, mind, and
soul which we wish to develop, we have to create new cells and
centers in the brain. In this respect, Nature gives us no more and
no less than we deserve and work for. If we "try to cheat" by
usurping the perfection and the power which we have not honestly
earned and developed, then sometime, somewhere we shall have to
"square the balance."
The Right Way to Pray
After all, the only true prayer is personal effort and self-help.
This does not mean that we should not invoke the help of the Higher
Powers, of those who have gone before us, of the Great Friends and
Invisible Helpers, and of the Great Father, the giver of all life,
all wisdom, and all power. But we should pray for strength to do our
work, not to have it done for us. The wise parent will not do for
the child the home tasks assigned him at school. Neither will the
powers on high or the Great Friends perform our allotted tasks for
us.
This life is a school for personal effort. If it were not so, life
would be meaningless. From the cradle to the grave, our days are
one continuous effort to learn, to acquire, to overcome difficulties.
Only in this way can we develop our latent faculties, capacities,
and powers. These cannot be developed by having our tasks done
for us, nor by assuming that we already know and possess everything.
The athlete must do his own training. No one else can do it for him.
The assumption of superiority over his opponent will riot develop
his suppleness of body and strength of muscle. To be sure, faith and
courage are essential to--victory, but they must be backed by
careful and persistent training. Vainglorious boasting alone will
not win the contest.
So in the battle of life, the more faith we have in God, in the
Great Friends, and in our own powers, the wider do we open ourselves
to the inflow of wisdom and strength from all that is good and true
and powerful in the universe. But through persistent and
welldirected effort alone can we control the powers and fashion the
materials which Nature has so lavishly bestowed upon us.
The creative will, actuated by desire and enlightened by reason,
brings order and harmony out of chaotic forces and materials. And
yet certain metaphysicians tell us that we ourselves must do nothing
to overcome weakness, sin, and suffering, that we must depend
entirely upon the efficiency of metaphysical formulas, that the
deity and the powers of Nature are jealous of our personal efforts,
that we must not try to help ourselves lest we forfeit their good
will.
Is it not blasphemous to assume that God would blame us and withhold
his aid because we dared to use the faculties, capacities, and
powers with which he has endowed us? You say, "Nobody is foolish
enough to claim such things." But this is the teaching of a powerful
healing-cult. Its members are forbidden, on penalty of expulsion, to
use in the treatment of human ailments the most innocent natural
remedies. The giving of an enema, or the common-sense regulation of
diet are regarded as sufficient to nullify the power of their
metaphysical formulas and to prevent the working of Nature's healing
forces.
One of our patients who had been under such treatment until she was
in a dying condition, told us afterwards that her bowels often did
not move for a week, and that, when she complained to her "healer"
about this condition and asked permission to take an enema, he
answered her: "Pay no attention. The Lord is taking care of that in
some other way."
The man who said this had been a prominent allopathic physician
before he turned "healer." He, too, like so many others ignorant of
Nature's simple laws, had swung from one extreme to the other, from
allopathic overdoing to metaphysical underdoing. In this instance,
the Lord "took care" of the patient's bowels until she was taken
down with a severe attack of appendicitis and peritonitis.
Amidst all the extremes, Nature Cure points the common-sense middle
way. Basing its teachings and its practices on a clear understanding
of the laws of health, disease, and cure, it refrains from
suppressing acute diseases with poisonous drugs or the knife,
realizing that they are in reality Nature's cleansing and healing
efforts. Neither does it sit idly by and expect the Lord, or
metaphysical formulas, or the medicine bottle and the knife, to do
our work and to make good for our violations of Nature's laws.
Understanding the Law, Nature Cure believes in cooperating with the
law; in giving the Lord a helping hand. It teaches that "God helps
him who helps himself," that He will not become angry and refuse His
help if His children use rightly the reason, the willpower, and the
self-control with which he has endowed them, so that they may
achieve their own salvation.
Nature Cure from beginning to end is one grand, true prayer. It
teaches The Law on all planes of being, the physical, the mental,
the moral, and the spiritual; and it insists that the only way to
attain perfect health of body, mind, and soul is to comply with the
law to the best of our ability. When we do that, we place ourselves
in allgnment with the constructive principle in Nature, and in exact
proportion to our intelligent and voluntary co-operation with the
laws of our being, all good things will come to us.
Therefore we pray: "Father, give me of Thy strength that I may live
in harmony with Thy law, for thus only will all good come to me."
Chapter XL
Scientific Relaxation and Normal Suggestion
Under the strain of work-a-day hurry and worry, your nerve
vibrations are apt to become more and more intense and excited. They
run away with you until, as the saying goes, "you are flying all to
pieces."
A good illustration of this condition of the nervous system may be
found in a team of horses shying at some object in their path. The
driver, panic-stricken, has dropped the reins, the frightened horses
have taken the bits between their teeth and are dashing headlong
down the road, until their master regains control, checks the
animals in their maddened course, and compels them to resume their
ordinary pace.
So the high-strung, oversensitive individual must gain control over
his nervous system and must subdue his runaway mental and emotional
activities into restful, harmonious vibrations.
This is done by insuring sufficient rest and sleep under the right
conditions and by practicing scientific relaxation at all times.
The "nervous" person gets easily excited. Comparatively little
things will cause an outbreak of intense irritation or emotional
hyperactivity.
Usually, the victim of unbalanced nerves is of the high-strung,
sensitive type, naturally inclining to more rapid vibrations on all
planes, capable of greater achievement than the stolid, heavy,
slow-vibrating person who doesn't know that he has any nerves, but
he is also in greater danger of mental and emotional overstrain and
physical depletion as a result of the excessive and uncontrolled
expenditure of life force and nervous energy.
Relaxation while Working
At first glance this expression may seem paradoxical, but experience
will teach that it is not only possible, but absolutely necessary
that we perform our work in a relaxed and serene condition of body
and mind. The most strenuous physical or mental labor will then not
cause as much exhaustion as light work done in a state of nervous
tension, irritability, fretfulness or worry.
Relaxation while working necessitates planning and system. Most
nervous breakdowns result not so much from overwork as from the
vitality wasted through lack of orderly procedure. Therefore, take
some time to plan and arrange your work and form the habit of doing
certain things that have to be done every day as nearly as possible
in the same way (making sure that it is the right way) and at the
same time of the day. Such orderly system will soon become habitual
and result in saving much valuable time and energy.
Always cultivate a serene and cheerful attitude of mind and soul,
taking whatever comes as part of the day's work, doing your best
under the circumstances, but absolutely refusing to worry and fret
about anything. Do not cross a bridge before you get to it, and do
not waste time regretting something that cannot be undone.
Relaxation while Sitting
Sit upright in a comfortable chair without strain or tension, spine
and head erect, the legs forming right angles with the thighs (the
chair should be neither too high nor too low), feet resting firmly
upon the floor, toes pointing slightly outward, the forearms resting
lightly upon the legs with the hands upon the knees. This must be
accomplished without effort, for effort means tension.
Dismiss all thoughts of hurry, care, worry or fear and dwell upon
the following thoughts:
"I am now completely relaxed in body and mind. I am receptive to
Nature's harmonious and invigorating vibrations--they dispel the
discordant and destructive vibrations of hurry, worry, fear and
anger. New life, new health, new strength are entering into me with
every breath, pervading my whole being."
Repeat these thoughts mentally, or, if it helps you, say them aloud
several times, quietly and forcefully, impressing them deeply upon
your inner consciousness.
After practicing relaxation in this manner, lie down for a few
minutes' rest--if circumstances permit--or practice rhythmical
breathing (see Chapter Twenty-Eight). Then return to your work and
endeavor to maintain a calm, trustful, controlled attitude of mind.
If you are inclined to be irritable, suspicious, jealous,
fault-finding, envious, etc., dwell on the following thought
pictures:
"I am now fully relaxed, at rest and at peace. The world is an echo.
If I send forth irritable, suspicious, hateful thought vibrations,
the like will return to me from other minds. I shall think such
thoughts no longer. God is love, love is harmony, happiness, heaven.
The more I send forth Love, the more I am like God; the more of love
will God and men return to me; the more shall I realize true
happiness, true health, true strength and true success."
Relaxation Before Going to Sleep
When ready to go to sleep, lie flat on your back, so that as nearly
as possible every part of the spine touches the bed, extend the arms
along the sides of the body, hands turned upward, palms open, every
muscle relaxed. Dismiss all thoughts of work, annoyance or anxiety.
Say to yourself: "I am now going to sleep soundly and peacefully. I
am master of my body, my mind and my soul. Nothing evil shall
disturb me. At .... A. M., neither earlier nor later, I shall awaken
rested and refreshed, strong in body and mind. I shall meet
tomorrow's tasks and duties promptly and serenely."
Simple as this formula may seem, it has helped cure many a case of
persistent insomnia and nervous prostration. Having thus set your
mental alarm clock, with a few times, practice you will be able to
wake up, without being called, at the appointed time and to
demonstrate to yourself the power of your mind over your body.
The quality of your sleep and its effect upon your system depend on
the character of the mental and psychic vibrations carried into it.
If you harbor thoughts of passion, worry or fear, these destructive
thought vibrations will disturb your slumbers and you will awaken in
the morning weak and tired. If, however, you repeat mentally a
formula such as the above, suggesting harmonious, constructive
thoughts, until you lose consciousness, you will carry into your
slumbers vibrations of rest, health and strength, producing
corresponding effects upon the physical organism.
After a perfectly relaxed condition of body and mind has been
attained, it is not necessary to remain lying on the back. Any
position of the body may then be assumed which seems most restful.
My patients frequently ask what position of the body is best during
sleep. It is not good to lie continuously in any one position. This
tends to cause unsymmetrical development of the different parts of
the body and to affect unfavorably the functions of various organs.
It is best to change occasionally from one position to another, as
bodily comfort seems to indicate and require.
Many persons fret and worry if sleep does not come as quickly as
desired. They picture to themselves in darkest colors the dire
results of wakefulness. Such a state of mind makes sleep impossible.
If persisted in, it will inevitably lead to chronic insomnia.
Instead of indulging in hurtful worry, say to yourself: "I do not
care whether I sleep or not! Though I do not sleep, I am lying here
perfectly relaxed, at rest and at peace. I am strengthened and
rested by remaining in a state of peaceful relaxation."
However, the "I do not care" must be actually meant and felt, must
not be merely a mechanical repetition of words.
Nothing is more conducive to sleep, even under the most trying
circumstances, than such an "I-don't-care" attitude of mind. Try it,
and the chances are that just because you do not care, you will fall
fast asleep.
Chapter XLI
Conclusion
Our critics say: "If Nature Cure is all that you claim for it, why
is it not more generally accepted by the medical profession and the
public?"
The greatest drawback to spreading the Nature Cure idea is the
necessity of self-control which it imposes. If our cures of
so-called incurable diseases could be made without asking the
patients to change their habits of living, without the demand of
effort on their own part, Nature Cure sanitariums could not be built
fast enough in this country.
No matter how marvelous the results of the natural methods--when
investigators learn that the treatment necessitates the control of
indiscriminate appetite and self-indulgence and the persistent
practice of natural living and all that this involves, they exclaim:
"The natural regimen may be all right, but who can live up to it?
You are asking the impossible. You are looking for a perfection
which does not exist. Your directions call for an amount of
willpower and self-control which nobody possesses."
Fortunately, however, this is not true. Human nature is good enough
and strong enough to comply with Nature's laws. Furthermore, the
natural ways must be the most pleasant in the end or Nature is a
fraud and a cheat. True enjoyment of life and happiness are
impossible without perfect physical, mental and moral health and
these depend upon natural living and natural treatment of human
ailments.
Strengthening of Will-Power and Self-Control
If I were asked the question: "What do you consider the greatest
benefit to be derived from the Nature Cure regimen?" I should
answer: "The strengthening of willpower and self-control."
This is the very purpose of life. Upon it depends all further
achievement. Self-control is the master's key to all higher
development on the mental, moral and spiritual planes of being; but
before we can exercise it on the higher planes, we must have learned
to apply it on the lower plane, in the management and control of our
physical appetites and habits. When we have learned to control
these, higher development will come easy.
A good method for strengthening the willpower is autosuggestion. The
most opportune moments in the twenty-four hours of the day for
practicing this mental magic are those before dropping to sleep. At
this time there is the least disturbance and interference from
outside influences, the mind is most passive and susceptible to
suggestion and impressions made under these favorable conditions
upon the "phonograph records" of the subconscious mind are the most
lasting and the most powerful to control physical, mental and moral
activities.
When thoroughly relaxed, at rest and at peace, say to yourself:
"Whatever duties confront me tomorrow, I shall execute them
promptly, without wavering or hesitation. I shall not give in to
this bad habit which has been controlling me. I shall do that only
of which reason and conscience approve."
In order to be more specific and systematic and to obtain results
more surely and quickly, concentrate upon one weakness at a time.
When that has been overcome, take up another one, until in this way
you have attained perfect control over your thoughts, feelings and
actions.
Suppose you have acquired the habit of remaining in bed and dozing
after your mental alarm clock has given its signal to arise and you
dread the effort of going through your morning exercises and
ablutions. Then, the night before, impress upon the subconscious
mind deeply and firmly the following suggestions: "Tomorrow morning,
on awakening, I shall jump out of bed without hesitation and go
through my morning exercises with zest and vigor."
Or, suppose you are subject to the fear and worry habit. Say to
yourself: "Tomorrow or any time thereafter when depressing, gloomy
thoughts threaten to control me, I shall overcome them with thoughts
of hope and faith, and with absolute confidence in the Divine power
of the will within me to overcome and to achieve."
In this manner you may give the subconscious mind suggestions and
impressions for overcoming bad habits and for establishing and
strengthening good habits.
If a serious problem is confronting you, and you are unable to solve
it to your satisfaction, think upon it just before you are dropping
off to sleep and confidently demand that the right solution come to
you during the hours of rest. The inner consciousness is always
awake. It is the watchman who awakens you at the appointed time in
the morning. It will work upon your problem while your physical
brain is asleep. In this lies the psychological justification for
the popular phrase: "Before I decide the matter I'll sleep over it."
In the practice of mental magic, as in everything else, success
depends upon patience and perseverance. It would be entirely useless
to go through these mental drills occasionally and in a desultory
fashion; but if persisted in faithfully and intelligently, they will
prove truly magical in their effects upon the development of
willpower and self-control, and on these depend the mastery of
conditions within and without, the conquest of fate and destiny.
PAIN'S SOLILOQUY
By C. J. Buell, President Minnesota Health League
I
I am Pain--most people hate me,
Think me cruel, call me heartless,
Study ways to bribe and fool me,
Try by every means to slay me,
Dope themselves with anaesthetics,
Fill themselves with patent nostrums,
Call the doctor with his poisons,
Seek the Christian Science healer,
Beat the tom-tom of the savage,
Build the altar, burn the incense,
Seek to sate the wrath of devils,
Pray to saints, and Gods, and angels;
Not to cure the ills within them,
Not to cleanse and purify them,
Just to calm the pain that hurts them,
Just to-kill the guide that warns them.
II
Pain am I, but when you know me,
When you once have learned my secret,
How I come to help and bless you,
Warn you, guide you, teach and lead you
When you know my loving nature,
How at first I gently twinge you,
Lightly twinge you as a warning,
Hoping thus, by kind reminder,
You will bear my voice and listen--
Sure am I that when you know me,
You will gladly then embrace me,
Call me friend and give me welcome,
Call me friend and ask my message.
III
This the message I would bring you,
This the reason for my visits,
This the warning I would give you,
This the secret I would teach you:
When you learn to live as Nature
In her great and boundless mercy,
In her tender, loving kindness,
In her wisdom and her goodness
Meant that men should live and labor,
When you learn to shun the by-ways
Leading off to vicious habits,
When you learn to keep your body
Strong and clean and pure and active,
Give it work in right proportion,
Give it air, and food, and water,
Fit to build its every member,
Fit to nourish every function,
When you teach your mind and spirit
Pure and noble thoughts to harbor,
Drive out fear, and hate, and malice,
Cherish love and kindly motive,
When you learn these things I've told you,
~When you know them, when you do them,
~Then I will depart and leave you,
Then no more will Pain be needed.
IV
This is, then, the truth I bring you,
That I hurt you but to warn you,
Not to harm you but to heal you,
That I come to guide and teach you.
I am God's most blessed angel,
Sent to point the way to virtue,
Sent to teach the noblest manhood,
Sent to fill the mind with wisdom,
Sent to rouse the soul to action.
V
Love me, trust me, heed my message;
I will bring you peace and bless you!
End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Nature Cure
by Henry Lindlahr
