SECTION I
CHIROPRACTIC HYGIENE
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Origin of the Word Hygiene
Hygeia was the name given the Greek goddess of health. In her statues she was always represented as a woman of perfect health and beauty, and was worshipped as the goddess of health. She was supposed to be the daughter of Esculapius, the god of medicine. In Greek mythology Esculapius attained great fame as a physician, having power not only to prevent dis-ease, but also to raise the dead. A temple was erected to Hygeia near that of her father. Here the people came to worship. There was even a statue of Hygeia in the temple of her father. Thus we see, from time immemorial, health and medicine have been associated.
Hygiene Defined
From the word Hygeia we get the word hygiene, which means health. Hygiene is defined as the science and the art of promoting health; the science of the preservation of human health by the removal of the cause of dis-ease. It is sometimes defined as the science of health. Hygiene is divided into two classes, personal and public.
Personal Hygiene is the science of the promotion of the individual’s health and deals with personal habits, such as eating and drinking; personal cleanliness; personal activities such as work, recreation, self-restraint. The handling of children comes under this branch of hygiene. The human machine is limited by the limitations of the physical, which necessitates the observance of these laws governing the expression of life.
Public Hygiene deals with the methods and processes necessary to preserve and promote the health interests of the public. It deals with man collectively rather than individually. This includes consideration of the environment, such as cleaning of streets, disposal of the dead, and proper hygienic methods in buildings and in public places.
Sanitary Science
Sanitary science includes the sum total of the knowledge of those principles and processes necessary to maintain personal and public health. It is an inductive science and therefore depends upon observation and verification in determining the general laws and truths of health and the relation between cause and effect in public and personal health.
Sanitary Art
Sanitary art is the practical application of those principles which are necessary to create a proper environment for man in his present artificial state of living, not only for the individual, but for the public as well.
Distinction between Sanitation and Hygiene
The term sanitation or sanitary science is often used synonymous with the term hygiene although there is a difference in their meaning and usage. The term sanitation or sanitary science has been used largely in Great Britain and in this country, although both terms are used in America but with somewhat different meanings.
In reality there is a very important distinction between the two terms hygiene and sanitation. Hygiene may be considered the broader term which may be made to include everything relating to health, but more particularly those things which relate to the person. Sanitation or sanitary science relates more to the environmental conditions and their relation to the health of the individual or the community.
This distinction is drawn more sharply by reason of the developments along the line of sanitary engineering on the one hand and the biological and physiological developments on the other.
Sanitary science has been largely under the supervision and in the hands of sanitary engineers, while hygiene has been almost entirely in the hands of the medical profession.
Aim and Function of Hygiene and Sanitation
Medically the aim and function of hygiene is to increase the internal resistance of the individual and thus prevent dis-ease and prolong life. The aim and function of sanitation or sanitary science is to improve the environmental conditions and thus prevent dis-ease and prolong life of the individual.
Doctor Price gives the aim and function of hygiene as: “The prevention of dis-ease, the prevention of premature death, and the promotion of normal health of individuals and the community by the removal of the causes of dis-ease, destruction of the causes, improvement of the environmental conditions, and by the increase of the vital resistance of the individual and members of communities.” The premise here is correct, but the conclusions as to the methods which are to be used in accomplishing the desired end are erroneous.
Internal and External Cleanliness
There is a distinction between internal cleanliness and external cleanliness. It is a mistaken idea that because the external is clean, the internal will be correspondingly clean. Cleanliness is absolutely essential to health, but by this we mean internal cleanliness. There must be external cleanliness also, but perfect external cleanliness will not necessarily result in perfect health.
Vital resistance of the body is not determined by the degree of external cleanliness nor by the perfect sanitary condition of the environment. However, it can never be said that Chiropractic does not believe in cleanliness. Chiropractic, of all the sciences, lays great stress on hygiene and sanitation. Our greatest teacher in all things is Nature and if there is any one thing that Chiropractic insists upon more than any other, it is that we live according to the laws of Nature and the closer we live to Nature, the more normal will be our functions. When we study the laws of Nature, we find the secret of sanitation. Everywhere in Nature we find laws in operation which result in the destruction of waste material and in the purification of the environment.
From the standpoint of common decency we are interested in sanitation or cleanliness, yet an immaculately clean environment will not result in perfect health or in the cure of dis-ease. The streets and alleys of the city may be kept clean and in a sanitary condition, yet the inside of the homes may be filled with filth. So the environment of man may be in a perfect condition so far as sanitation is concerned, yet the body may be filled with all kinds of poison and refuse.
Sewerage System of the Body
The human body is a machine which performs certain functions and in order that these functions be performed there is a constant process of activity; this means that the tissues which make up the body are being constantly worn out the same as the part of any other machine. This necessitates a constant process of repair.
In order that this process of reparation be carried on, new material must be added to the machine; this is done by means of food. The food is taken into the mouth and properly masticated and mixed with the secretions of the glands of the mouth; it is then carried through the esophagus into the stomach. Here other digestive juices are added to it and thoroughly mixed by the vermicular motion of the stomach until the process of gastric digestion is completed; then this chyme, as it is now called, passes into the small intestines, where other secretions are added and chemical changes are brought about until this process of intestinal digestion is completed. This product is given the name of chyle.
During the time these processes have been going on, the process of absorption has been taking place whereby this digested food has been utilized in building up the tissue cells that are being constantly worn out by the activities of the body. The digested products are being taken up by the serous circulation and carried to every cell in the body. That which one cell gives off as an elimination, another may take up as food, finding just the chemical composition necessary to its life and development. Finally all of the waste material is collected and eliminated from the body through the organs of elimination. Innate Intelligence has provided a wonderful sewerage system for the purpose of taking care of the sewage of the body. This system is much more perfect than any system ever invented by man, but it is possible for it to get out of order. The remarkable thing about it is that the Intelligence within the body is capable of correcting the disorders if the interference with transmission to the affected parts is removed. All that is necessary from the outside is to remove that which is interfering with the transmission of the mental impulses.
As long as there is interference with the transmission of mental impulses we may apply all the laws and principles of hygiene and sanitation, yet the internal condition will not be hygienic or sanitary. We may, by an artificial means, remove the waste material that has accumulated, but this will not stop the process of accumulation.
In view of the fact that the above mentioned processes of absorption and elimination are taking place, let us assume that there is a subluxation at the kidney place (K.P.) impinging the nerves and interfering with the transmission of mental impulses to the kidneys. With decreased current the kidneys are unable to perform their normal amount of function and as a result the waste material, poisons, or in other words the sewage that is supposed to pass out through this channel of excretion, are retained in the body. The poison thus retained is spread over the entire body and there is likely to be excessive perspiration which will have a strong odor of urine. This is because the skin, in its excretory function, is called upon to throw off the waste material which normally should be excreted by the kidneys. Although there is no perspiration there will still be a very offensive and objectionable urinary odor from the patient’s body. From a hygienic standpoint it is necessary for that patient to bathe very often, but no matter how often he bathes, there is still that odor of urine and it is impossible for him to get rid of it. One may thoroughly and frequently cleanse that patient externally, but there will remain that unsanitary internal condition.
Trying to get rid of the odor of urine and to create a sanitary internal condition in a case of this kind by external bathing and by the observance of sanitary laws would be like trying to keep a boat from sinking by dipping the water out when it was running in twice as fast as one could dip it out. It would be better to stop the leak. If the roof of one’s house leaks he does not try to keep the house dry by mopping up the water and putting chlorid of lime about the rooms to absorb the moisture. This may be done as an adaptative measure to the condition that exists because of the defect in the roof, but to correct the condition one must go directly to the roof and repair it so that no more damage may be done the interior of the house.
So in the case of the K.P. subluxation and the unsanitary condition resulting from the accumulation of waste material in the body, it is folly to try to correct the condition by any other method than by removing the cause. The sewage must be carried out through the natural channels and any attempt to dispose of it by any other or artificial means will meet with absolute failure.
Three Viewpoints on Hygiene
According to Dr. B. J. Palmer there are three viewpoints of hygiene; that is to say, there are three aspects from which the subject of cleanliness may be considered: namely, the medical, layman’s and chiropractic hygiene. The chief differences are: the medical hygiene tries to make the internal condition sanitary by the application of external means; the layman’s hygiene makes the external condition sanitary by the application of external means; the chiropractic hygiene makes the internal condition sanitary by permitting the internal forces to operate unhindered in the body.
We see that from every viewpoint, hygiene means cleanliness. The only real difference in these viewpoints consists in the methods used to obtain this desired end. The layman maintains a sanitary external condition by observing the laws of Nature. When dirt accumulates on the outside which creates an unhygienic and objectionable condition, he uses soap and water to cleanse the outside. His unhygienic condition is outside of the body and he uses outside means to rid himself of that condition. It is very obvious that this is a perfectly proper procedure and if correctly and systematically applied it will produce a hygienic external in so far as that condition is influenced by external environment.
The most baffling unsanitary and unhygienic conditions are the internal, and yet if these conditions are considered in the light of the same common sense as is applied to the external conditions, no great amount of difficulty will be experienced in coping with them. However, great difficulties will be experienced if an effort is made to keep the internal in a proper sanitary condition by the application of external means. This has been well demonstrated in the application of medical hygiene. However, the author does not want to be understood as implying that a great deal of good has not been accomplished in the investigations that have been made along the line of hygiene and more especially in sanitary science. But when chiropractic philosophy is properly understood, it will be readily seen that it is far better to clean the inside from the inside than to attempt cleaning the inside from the outside. With all due regard it must be said that up to the time of the introduction of chiropractic hygiene all the efforts were to clean the inside from the outside, but Chiropractic says the inside must be cleansed from the inside and this contention has been amply proven in the results obtained through chiropractic adjustments.
Advantages of a Proper Sanitary Environment
The body is capable of great possibilities in intellectual adaptation. It is possible for Innate Intelligence to maintain a degree of health in widely different conditions. Even where the environment is extremely adverse and objectionable Innate will adapt herself to the abnormal condition and maintain the normal processes of life in the body. However, it must be remembered that a greater amount of internal force is required to bring about an intellectual adaptation to an adverse environment than to a normal, natural or more perfect environment.
There must be a constant process of adaptation to the environment even though that environment be a most desirable one. All internal processes must of necessity be adaptative to external conditions. Drummond says, “Life is uninterrupted correspondence with proper environment.” This is true of the expression of life. If the correspondence with the environment is interfered with there will be a corresponding interference with the expression of the life in the body.
The more adverse the environment the greater the amount of force required to bring about this adaptation. Likewise, the reverse is true—adaptation to a more desirable environment requires less internal force. We should not compel Innate Intelligence to do things that we could do educationally and save the body that extra amount of internal force. To illustrate, one should not unnecessarily expose his body to the cold and thus force Innate to expend internal energy to adapt the body to that condition. One might better put on proper clothing to protect the body. On the other hand, one should not go to the other extreme and make a hothouse plant of his body.
A proper sanitary environment should at all times be maintained that there may not be an unnecessary drain on the adaptative forces of the body.
Cause of Dis-ease
Chiropractic does not accept the theory that dis-ease is caused by extrinsic conditions. There may be a great variation in the environment and yet Innate Intelligence be able to maintain health. If there is sufficient interference with the transmission of mental impulses through the nerves, there will be dis-ease in the body regardless of the perfect environment that may be artificially produced. If the transmission is normal the individual may take the so-called dis-ease germs into his body and feel no ill effects for they will be excreted as so much waste material which can not be used in the metabolism of the body. But if there are subluxations which interfere with the transmission of mental impulses and reduce the process of excretion the tissues will become abnormal and proper culture media will be formed in which there will be developed the germs which act as scavengers for the purpose of destroying the waste matter which accumulates. The cause of dis-ease is within the body itself. The cause of dis-ease is interference with transmission of mental impulses from the brain to the periphery, thus preventing the organ from performing its full and normal function. This results in a lack of coördinate action between the organs of the body and interferes with the intellectual adaptation to external conditions.
The question may be raised at this time relative to the effects produced by the introduction of poison into the body and relative to germs being classed as poisons producing certain effects in the body.
We will not endeavor at this time to fully deal with these questions, for in order that the student understand thoroughly the chiropractic idea of these things, it will be necessary to study many points, both in connection with the hygiene and also with the philosophy of Chiropractic.
This point is thoroughly covered in the philosophy under the head of the Poison Cycle. We will simply state briefly here that a poison is anything which can not be used in the metabolism of the body and which, if allowed to remain in the body, will be carried to the tissue cells and do harm. In this event Innate will at once begin a process of elimination. If the channels of excretion are not normal and the organs are unable to do their work properly because of the interference with the transmission of mental impulses, it can readily be seen that the poison will be retained in the body and do harm. The character of the injury will be governed by the character of the poison retained.
Again, it is clearly explained in the philosophy how the introduction of poison into the body may produce subluxations and thus cause an interference with transmission and reduce the adaptative action on the part of Innate to the poison introduced. The student is referred to Volume V, Chiropractic Library, for further explanation on this point.
Sources of Communication
Generally speaking, there are two main sources whereby dis-ease is communicated: (a) man himself; (b) the animals. Almost all of the so-called communicable dis-eases of man are peculiar to man alone and are not found in animals except as they are communicated to them for experimental purposes. It is interesting to note that the lower animals are much more free from contagious dis-eases than man. As a matter of fact, the lower animals are seldom found to be infected. It is true that the domesticated animal is more susceptible to dis-ease than the wild animal living in the natural state.
Following is a list commonly given as communicable dis-eases peculiar to man and according to medical theory communicable from man to man. Even among those who accept this theory there is quite a difference of opinion as to the dis-eases that should be included in this list. Smallpox, chickenpox, cholera, leprosy, dengue, relapsing fever, measles, mumps, scarlet fever, infantile paralysis, typhus fever, yellow fever, malaria, syphilis, tuberculosis and typhoid fever. It is maintained by hygienists that the greatest source of infection is man himself. No longer is it thought that the environment is the main source of infection. It is believed by Rosenau and others that the water, soil, air and food may be the media conveying dis-ease from man to man; these, however, are not now considered as the main source of infection. Rosenau says, “Most of the microörganisms causing the communicable dis-eases of man are frail and soon die in our environment, as in the air, soil or water. Most of them are obligate pathogens and can not, or do not, grow and multiply under the adverse conditions of our environment.” And yet these frail little creatures are supposed to cause dis-ease in man. We wish the student to bear this in mind for we will have more to say in this respect later on.
It is sufficient to state here that the above named dis-eases maintained by some to be caused by germs are corrected by chiropractic adjustments. Chiropractic has proven that instead of dis-ease being caused by the germ the germ is produced by the dis-ease.