Nature Cure
by
Henry Lindlahr
Part 2 out of 7
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
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