"Infantile Paralysis cannot be cured by means of medicines. The physician must of necessity limit his ministrations to easing the pain, providing for easy movement of the bowels and so forth, but otherwise he must let nature take its course."
Medical reference books vaguely define the disease with diverse and indefinite theories, showing that science on the subject is practically mute.
But the medically "unprofessional," random remark of the New York press-man has exactly hit the mark: "Let nature take its course."
The fact is that nothing very clear or absolute can be said about Infantile Paralysis; for observation shows that it is apparently a matter of racial conditions and environment and that only from the general application of the Laws of Nature, as taught by biology can we reasonably hope to solve the problem or cure the disease.
As the result of careful study of many cases I simply confirmed the fact that Infantile Paralysis belongs strictly to the class in which in the foregoing chapter I have placed it, and is subject to the same rules, influences and treatment. In most of the cases treated I have not failed to discover the existence of spinal trouble in one or other of the parents. This, engendering predisposition to similar complaints in the children of the opposite sex, which, acted upon by the irritants bred of poor or irrational nutriment and unhygienic environment in greater or lesser degree, results in attacks of this disease, in plain or epidemic form as the case may be, to which all children so predisposed are liable. Thus, incidentally, is my recently discovered "Law of the Cross-Transmission of Characteristics" amply verified.
As to the cause which leads to the development of this predisposition in the children, the answer, of course, is improper nourishment; and amongst the contributory causes I would specially indicate, "Pasteurized" and "sterilized" milk which has been absolutely banned by science on the basis of Physical Chemistry, according to which it was definitely proved in a report laid before the Paris Academy of Sciences, that valuable bone-forming ingredients in the milk, (a combination of carbonic and phosphoric lime,) are lost in course of Pasteurization, since at the temperature necessary for the process they are transmuted by heat into insoluble elements, (phosphate and carbonate of lime) which, precipitated by chemical action, either drop to the bottom in sediment or cling to the surface coating and, in either case, are eliminated and lost to the child to an extent which constitutes a serious deterioration in its food and one likely in any case to promote rickets. Milk also contains important constituents which change into necessary food elements in the course of natural fermentation—gelatine for instance—which being, as has been shown, so vital a factor in the building up of tissue, it needs no argument to prove the disastrous consequences its depletion must engender in the child and it may be likewise safely left to the intelligence of the reader to grasp the obvious fact that for the prevention or healing of Infantile Paralysis the one and only safeguard is Regeneration through the course already indicated of Hygienic-Dietetic treatment which will, if applied beforehand, eliminate the tendency to disease or, in the event of its occurrence, will conduct it along safe and natural lines to a quick recovery.
This brief sketch of the subject must suffice for the present purpose but a special article[C] with full and interesting details has been devoted to the subject, which will appear in my greater work, "Regeneration or Dare to be Healthy."
"FACIAL DIAGNOSIS" AND "THE CLINICAL EYE."
It is an incident common to the experience of all Natural Hygienic Physicians for the patient to exclaim in quasi protest: "But Doctor! How can you tell?"
Accustomed to the pompous pantomime of the orthodox physician—the gold watch and chain trick, while pulse and tongue reveal their hidden records—and then the well known questions which call forth the personal predilection in the fashion of disease and diet, (prescriptions which are often not untinged by the physician's own proclivities), at first the patient misses the old familiar presence. If ill he must be, he expects that the process should proceed from the outset on the old accustomed, "strictly respectable" lines, and something like resentment stirs him when, in place of questioning, a physician presumes to tell him at a glance the substance of his malady unasked.
But such is the method of real efficiency and such the qualification of the men who practice the new philosophy which shall save the world from shams.
Facial diagnosis is the determining factor of the logical and never failing science of natural therapy which is coming to the rescue of mankind, in spite of legal and commercial obstruction.
The "Clinical Eye" is, emphatically, not the sad old "Eye of Faith" which has sent its millions to their doom, but the sober, steady, practiced introspective hopeful eye of knowledge and experience.
The external symptoms visible to the clinical eye of a physician worthy of the name, vastly outweigh in important significance, all the objectionable detailed examination of parts and organs which from long use has become the habit of the old-school practitioner. Moreover the swift impressions gathered under the clinical eye are spontaneous and reliable whereas, as the result of questioning or the description of the patient, they possibly are not, but rather represent too often some preconceived notion of alleged heredity or devotional pessimism, sometimes original but more probably the suggestion of relatives and friends.
The subject is a vitally important one and, with a view to clearing away the obstruction of old superstitions from the mind of the reader, I shall trespass upon my allotted space in order to give a brief extract of my remarks thereon as expressed in my greater work: "Regeneration or Dare to be Healthy."
DIAGNOSIS, PHYSIOGNOMY AND PSYCHOLOGY.
The biological healing system, based on the laws of nature and the acknowledgment of the fact that no two cases of disease are exactly alike, requires much broader knowledge and much deeper insight on the part of the physician than did the old-school of medicine with its search for symptoms of special diseases and its occult prescriptions.
Since the object is to get at the root of the evil in order to regenerate the patient thoroughly, it becomes imperative to obtain, what is hardest to elicit from him perhaps, the accurate truth about himself and his ailment.
And though expert in recognizing external symptoms, it is unwise to rely entirely thereon and research must continue into realms where the patient himself only can lead us and where, willing or otherwise, he is apt to mislead.
Psychology teaches how to find the way into the darkness of a patient's soul. Physiognomy teaches, not only to read in the face and external appearance, the story of a life which is written there in characters which only experience may decipher, but also to realize when the patient employs physiognomical expressions to hide what we persistently seek; namely, the truth.
And again, in regard to healing, psychology teaches how to influence the patient so that he may discontinue to be his own worst enemy; that he may recognize his mistakes as such and discard them, although possibly he may have grown so addicted to his tastes as to prefer to continue therein in place of daring to be healthy.
In the plan of production of a regenerated and healthy humanity, every individual of this kind must be regarded as a foe who interferes with the prevention of disease both now and in futurity. To win such an one over, to make him an enthusiastic believer in the theory that health is a necessity, and, a task less easy, to prevent his relapse into his previous degenerate manner of life and health,—this is another branch of science for which psychology and physiognomy are more needful than anything else.
Here again it is the true physician's principle to enlighten the layman, and not to surround his methods with a mysterious, but imposing wall of secrecy.
We do not hesitate to reveal the main points of our system of diagnosis, which is much broader than the old system of scholastic medicine,—the performance with auscultation, percussion, X rays and the rest. Certain knowledge of these things will lead every one, ere long, to submit all disturbances of health to the hygienic physician while prevention is still probable and possible, instead of waiting until disease has taken firm hold. It will also enable men to realize that the old-school practitioner who pronounces them sound while they feel for themselves that there is something wrong within has yet "a something" left to learn.
The realm of psychology, however, is beyond the scope of my present endeavour, save in so far as it may serve to show that we are fortified with this particular knowledge, and to the end that this book may constitute a help to the aspiring hygienic-dietetic physician, calling his attention to the necessity of acquiring as profound a knowledge of psychology as may be.
I will confine myself at present, therefore, to the external symptoms which must be observed, though they are not generally considered as symptoms of disease; and yet they indicate disease or the disposition thereto, individual or hereditary, as the case may be.
I shall consequently deal with the peculiarities of hands and feet, nails and hair, eyes and ears, nose and teeth, mouth, forehead, tongue, chin, cheeks, neck, chest, abdomen, legs, and general constitution.
Nature has endowed us with strong discriminating faculties against certain external indications of disease. We experience a pleasant feeling when the hand is pressed by another hand that is warm and dry, but we shrink from the hand that is cold and moist and clammy.
Perspiring hands and feet are a sure indication that some process of degeneration is going on within the body, the production of diseased cells being in excess of what the body, under normal conditions, is able to excrete, and therefore they seek unusual channels of leaving the body, that is, through the skin and mucous membranes.
Perspiring feet are a symptom of disposition to colds and possibly tuberculosis, while perspiring hands indicate certain nervous diseases and disposition to gout; constantly cold hands and feet are usually found in people who suffer from scrofulosis or anaemia.
In many cases the quality of nails leads to the conclusion that there is a thorough disturbance of the process of nutrition. If they are fragile and brittle, there is no question but that there is lack of certain nutritive salts in the blood. Swollen and deformed nails indicate special disturbances in circulation, chronic heart and lung diseases.
Hair, or rather the absence of hair, especially in early life, is sometimes another indication of faulty nutrition.
Baldness or premature gray hair is usually a pathological indication, as is also the dishevelled hair of nervous people and children suffering from scrofulosis, while rich, glossy hair is always a sign of good health.
The development of the hair depends upon the activity of the skin, the nerves and the composition of the blood. The blood of dark-haired people is lacking in water and fat, but richer in albuminous matter. Poor quality of hair is indicative of living in bad air, poor nutrition of the skin, hard mental work, pain and sorrow. Sexual excesses during youth are often the cause of premature baldness and thin hair.
The eyes present a picture that manifests the general condition of the body, whether it be healthy, disposed to disease, or suffering from disease.
Protruding eyes are the sure symptom of the disease known as Basedow's disease; they indicate also short-sightedness, and hereditary epilepsy.
The condition of the mucous membranes of the eyes permits certain conclusions as to the genital organs.
If the eyes are abnormally small, we draw the conclusion that there is general weakness and deficiency in nutrition. They indicate retarded development, which may be seated in the central nervous system. The eyes usually recede during severe diseases. A hyperaemic condition of the eyelids, with or without inflammation, is always a symptom of a dysaemic condition of the entire system (scrofulosis). In some cases of scrofulosis there is not another visible sign on the entire body, and yet the eyelids and eyelashes, which sticks together most of the time, tell the story of an inherited condition of dysaemia.
A yellowish hue of the eyes indicates disease of the liver.
The color of the iris does not indicate much in itself, although the theory of Liljequist, which deserves some attention, claims that if a person deteriorates in health, the eyes, if originally light blue, darken more and more and finally change into brown or the color of the hybrid race. Liljequist's scale of healthy eyes reads: Light blue, medium blue, dark blue; then light, medium and dark brown. However, brown eyes do not represent sickness; they but indicate nervousness and sensibility.
According to Liljequist, individuals belong to the hybrid race when they are born of parents one of whom has blue eyes and the other brown eyes. The weaker race transmits the brown colour of its iris to the middle part of the iris of the child, while the colour of the stronger race reappears in the outer part of the iris; not, however, as pure blue, but tinted with a delicate shade of green, in consequence of the light brownish-yellowish colour which emanates from the central part.
When death is imminent, the iris displays a grayish-black, muddy gray or muddy brown colour.
The pupil of the eye is irritated in cases of nervous disease and indicates this condition. In cases where only one pupil is dilated, a local disease of the optic nerve or one side of the brain is evident. If the pupils are insensible to external irritations and remain rigid, the conclusion is that the brain or the spinal cord is badly affected.
It may be stated in a general way that clear, brilliant eyes, (when not caused by fever) are usually an indication of the good quality of the blood as well as of all other humours of the body, together with normal activity of all the central organs.
The mouth and tongue: Pathological indications manifested by the mouth are principally displayed by the lips, which are clear red in healthy people, while a hectic red indicates fever and pulmonary disease. Pale lips indicate anaemia and chlorosis, and lips of a bluish hue are signs of a generally weakened organism. Frequent, vivid contractions of the lips (usually thin in this case) indicate great nervousness.
The color of the mucous membrane of the tongue is a very fair indication of health or sickness. If a person is in health, the tongue is rosy and not coated. But any disturbance in the intestines causes a more or less coated tongue, and consequently shows the detrimental influence these particular ailments exert upon the brain and nerves. Hence, a coated tongue affords a valuable indication in making a correct diagnosis, especially in case of chronic catarrh of the stomach, this being one of the main causes of depression, and melancholia, as stated by Piderit.
The forehead, or rather the record traced thereon, in lines of nature's unimpeachable calligraphy, warrants certain conclusions as to mentality and character; and these may be important in determining the truthfulness of the patient's stories of suffering and other items which facilitate or impede a correct diagnosis.
The interpretation of such features, however, belongs to the realm of pure psychology, this is also true of similar conclusions drawn from the outlines of the chin.
Of much more importance for the purpose of diagnosis is the nose.
Even a child understands what the red nose of the habitual drunkard signifies. A bloated nose with a tendency to become sore is an indication of a disposition to scrofulosis.
Other indications of disease are displayed to the experienced physician by the condition of the nose.
The nose is one of the most typical of the human organs; it is also in the closest connection with the entire system with its groups of organs—the brain, intestines, breast and even the sexual organs.
The infinite variety of nasal formation has attracted the intense interest of the physiognomist to this organ.
The most important function of the nose lies in its action as a respiratory organ. Bad habits or faulty construction which prevent it from serving in this capacity, lead to much suffering and disease, and it is always important to determine whether the channels of the nose are clear and open and efficiently serve their purposes.
The function of the nose as an olfactory organ must also rank highly in its importance. In this case, however, the nose of the physician plays the important part; not the nose of the patient. In fact, most of the famous authorities, among them Professor Jaeger of Stuttgart, Dr. Heim of Berlin and Dr. Lahmann of Dresden, have made very valuable discoveries in this respect.
Dr. Heim has found methods of determining the nature of certain acute diseases from the odour emitted from the person.
Dr. Lahmann distinguishes the hypochondriacal, the melancholic and the hysteric odours, which, as he says, are most characteristic.
The same applies to the odour of diabetics and other people who suffer from disturbances of digestion, and patients who suffer from cancer and other diseases involving a process of putrefaction.
The fact that most patients diffuse unpleasant odours is of the greatest importance to married people, as it easily produces antipathy, and especially in the case of chronic diseases, is frequently made the basis of separation and divorce.
Were this defect known to be but the symptom of a curable disease, the husband or wife would probably prefer to consult the hygienic physician rather than the lawyer. Knowledge in such case would mean the preservation of domestic happiness.
The teeth: The parents of a young man once complained to me that their son had been rejected as a cadet at West Point upon physical examination, because two of his teeth were filled.
The authorities are certainly justified in their decision.
The lack of perfect teeth indicates faulty digestion. Usually the teeth are ruined during youth because children breathe through the mouth instead of through the nose,—either on account of the physical condition of the nose or because the tonsils are enlarged.
The lack of sufficient nutritive salts in the diet is often revealed by the condition of the teeth.
From a physiological standpoint the teeth are no less important than the brain, the eyes and the hair; and the conclusion that perfect eyes, hair and teeth indicate a perfect brain is absolutely justified, while the lack of perfection in these organs shows internal deficiencies long before they appear in external manifestation in the form of disease.
Since healthy blood is the basic condition of healthy teeth, the fact that people have clean white teeth, set in regular line, indicates the existence of healthy blood. On the other hand, a bad composition of the blood is manifested by short, irregularly set, yellowish teeth.
The teeth of healthy people are always somewhat moist, dry teeth are accordingly a bad sign.
The only advantage of yellowish teeth rests in the fact that their dentine is, as a rule, stronger. Extremely bluish white teeth often consist of a soft, porous and tender dentine.
Faulty structure of the teeth indicates weak bones in general.
Crippled teeth and the late appearance of teeth in infants,—that is, not before the ninth month,—are symptoms of rachitis. Healthy children have their teeth between the fifth and seventh months.
The teeth of diabetics become loose without any formation of tartar, (an incrustation of phosphate of lime and saliva).
Extremely yellow teeth indicate jaundice, while reddish teeth show hyperaemia of the dentine. Carious teeth are a result of disturbed circulation.
The gums are also very indicative of disease. If they are of a pale pink colour, they indicate anaemia or chlorosis; if bluish red on the edge, they indicate tuberculosis.
Some of the most striking indications of existing disease are demonstrated by the neck. By feeling the neck and carefully watching its external appearance, the experienced scientist will obtain much valuable information that will aid in his diagnosis, and give him additional knowledge as to the processes going on within the body of the patient.
The significance of the formation of the thorax (chest) is well known, even to many laymen. Flat chest, so-called chicken chest, indicates imperfect development of the lungs, and when extreme, even tuberculosis.
A flabby abdomen indicates disposition to hernia and stagnation of the blood, frequently causing hemorrhoids or inflammation of the prostate gland in men, and all kinds of diseases—inflammatory or catarrhal—in women.
As to the legs, the so-called varicose veins are indications of weak blood-vessels and intestinal hemorrhage, while inflamed nerves lead to the conclusion of gouty diathesis and the danger of paralytic strokes.
The skin usually affords more indications that aid in forming a correct diagnosis than is usually recognized.
If examination were made of the excreta through the pores of an individual during 24 hours, some conclusion might be definitely arrived at as to any germs of disease present in the body and in course of expulsion in this way.
All bacteria incident to detrimental processes proceeding within the human organism, are to be found in the perspiration.
Freckles indicate a certain predisposition inherent in the blood, while some forms of eczema point to the conclusion that there are diseased processes in action within the body.
It is most important under this system to determine the chemical condition of the body in each individual case.
Acids or alkalines prevail. If the former, patients have bad teeth, a disposition to gout, diabetes and cancer. The normal condition is the predominance of alkalines.
In such cases as the former, physiological chemistry will point to the counterbalancing of the acids to establish a correct composition of the blood, and thus to prevent the impending danger. The biological system of health which is rapidly taking the place of all others, is equipped with so searching a knowledge of the human organism that no disease, be it ever so adroitly concealed, can escape its minute attention; not excepting even the disposition to disease.
The old adage is still true that "prevention is better than cure" and the intelligent person will probably recognize the wisdom of so safe and sane a course and endeavor to prevent the evils to which he may be exposed. Thus, for his own satisfaction, if he be wise he will adopt these two simple precautions:
(1) Examination by an accredited hygienic-dietetic physician.
(2) Regulation of his mode of living in accordance with the course prescribed.
The words of the famous Moleschott ring true today, more than in the past, when he said: "One of the principal questions a patient should ask his physician is, how to make good, healthy blood." Experience shows that there is but one method to attain good blood,—that priceless factor upon which our thinking, our feeling, our power and our progeny depend, and that is by means of correct food and nutrition.
FOOTNOTES:
[B] See special article on Influenza, page 408.
[C] This article is also printed in pamphlet form and may be had from the author for 50c. Postage paid.
CHILDREN'S DISEASE.
'twixt Deity and Demon."
Why is thy countenance sad, and why are
Thine eyes red with weeping?"
I have opened this chapter with somewhat startling mottos, for its pathetic theme is Children and children's disease; and it seems to me appropriate, in view of what it portends, to send forth in this form a world-thought, as a harbinger of sympathy—a foreword which may set in motion the thought-waves of pity. For of all living creatures born into this world of pompous ignorance and maudlin solicitude to struggle for precarious existence from the cradle to the grave, by reason of the unnatural conditions of our vaunted hygienic and educational systems—generously termed "civilization"—there is surely nothing quite so "poor," so woefully devoid of practical protection, and, in its exceptional helplessness, so weakly gushed over and little understood as the child of frail humanity.
"The cause of the poor"—thus the legend runs—"in deity's or demon's name." For truly, of the two angels which, we are told, attend upon the birth of credulous mankind and the initial stages of development, the malign influence would seem to be ever in the ascendant, irrespective of the social status of the, more or less, pre-natally affected, innocent reproduction wherein is focused the latent follies and delinquencies of the race, as portrayed in the course of its long pangenesis.
Now, incredible though it may seem and deplorable though it be, the secret which has revealed itself with absolute force and conviction to the judicial minds of unemotional scientific observers is simply this: that the children of the present generation are, as an incontestable matter of actual fact, really brought into this world alive and some attain to maturity, not through maternal intelligence, but rather, in spite of mothers. This is a hard saying but none the less a truth. They survive in spite of the idiosyncracies of their fondly irrational, untutored mothers rather than because of any practical, efficient effort these contribute towards the well being and survival of their offspring. This, as a general rule, is unhappily beyond question. It is a rule which has, naturally, many exceptions,—many brave and brilliant ones—these however only serve to confirm it.
Comte, writing as an authority on the subject, made the assertion that there is hardly an example on record of a child of superior genius whose mother did not possess also a superior order of mind. As an example he cites: The mother of Napoleon Bonaparte, high-souled, heroic and beautiful; the mother of Julius Caesar, a singularly fine character, wise and strong; the mother of Goethe,—affectionately termed: "The delight of her children, the favourite of poets and princes—one whose splendid talents and characteristics were reproduced in her son." There are also, we know full well, unnumbered hosts of others, whose kindly light has been shed in many an humble or secluded home, whose beloved names have been called blessed by thousands though unrecorded in historic page—who have lived and loved and passed on to higher realms—to the world, to eulogy and to fame unknown.
In ancient days, when Athens was the centre of culture and of learning, the Greek mothers were more prone to regard the significance of pre-natal influences than are the mothers of the present day of putative advancement. The hereditary tendencies of child-life, with all its complexities of racial and ancestral character and the qualities resulting from the dual source of parentage, were then perhaps better understood, or at least more seriously considered; also the obvious but grossly disregarded fact that the cradled infant of today may be the responsible citizen of the future, was kept more effectively in mind and its significance to the State more fully recognized. The wisdom of Solomon was never more clearly demonstrated than when he said: "Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." It is a piece of world philosophy which has reigned unquestioned throughout the ages—a policy upon which human discernment, in Church and State, has relied with unfailing effect; "for the thoughts of a child are long, long thoughts"—those well-remembered words, how true; for those "long thoughts"—the mental environment of the formative period of child-life—do inevitably determine the future character of the individual, and the immediate result of neglect in these vitally important stages is painfully and promptly apparent in the aggressive and unchildlike deportment of the turbulent young neophytes of both sexes, so disproportionately in evidence in all directions throughout the community of the present, as to bring into ridicule and utter contempt existing methods of control. This dire defect in individual restraint may be largely ascribed to both physical and mental degeneracy, of hereditary origin; and when to this is added the attempts of parents to maintain the tranquility of the home by threats, bribery and fatuous promises—undue severity on the one hand and undue licence on the other—serious developments are not far to seek. It has been well said that children who are governed through their appetites in their infancy are usually governed by their appetites in maturity. Thus it is, by unwise methods of control which appeal wholly to the spirit of greed, emulation and selfishness in the child—the purely animal instincts—with perhaps the occasional degrading influence of corporal punishment, as a later development, that so many young lives are wrecked and the downward path made easy which leads through duplicity to crime. The infantile precosity of the age leaves little scope for the old-time sentimental prudery of parents who fail to discriminate between innocence and ignorance; but it has been stated by a well known American authority on the subject of child-culture, whose experience of child-life and schools is nation-wide, that only about one child in a hundred receives proper instruction early enough to protect it from vice. Then again there supervenes the evil of the competitive school system which, too frequently, forces the education of a child beyond the natural order of growth. Countless numbers of little ones are injured by enforced premature development, thereby diverting the vital forces to the development of the brain which should be devoted to the development of the body.
Encompassed by such a chain of adverse circumstances as the combined result of parental egotism and pedantic, pedagogical ignorance, is it wonderful, I would ask, that the ghastly record of the hideous sacrifice of child-life is what it is, and that the young lives which do by chance escape the horrible holocaust, still reap the prevailing harvest of prolific ills of which the coming explanation will give some adequate conception.
Often the fondly futile questions fall from the anxious lips of maternal foreboding: What has the future in store for me? Will my child live? Will providence grant me this long-sought blessing? A thousand such thoughts continually assail the heart in a mother's intense solicitude; but not in vain will her hopes be set, if haply, she may reverently follow the course of Mother Nature's laws and precepts, into which I will endeavor to give you some insight.
Every thinking man must shudder to find it recorded in statistical tables how insane asylums and prisons are overflowing, how suicides and crimes against life and soul are but common incidents. It is not hard for each one of us to see the demon of greed and avarice in the eyes of those we meet, ready and eager to snatch away the very bread from the lips of his fellow man because he, too, is hungry and lacking life's necessities. The egotism of mankind grows constantly stronger; all are in haste to become rich, that thus they may enjoy life before its little span is spent. What has become of the youths exuberant in strength, who once were wont to set out, all jubilant with song, in their heyday of freedom, to revel in nature and bathe their lungs in its balsamic atmosphere—to return strengthened to their sleep at early evening, and who really sought to retain their health? They who were the pride of their parents, the joy of their sisters, the blissful hope of a waiting bride. Can we recognize such in the average youth of today,—the citizen of the tomorrow—these effigies of men, degraded by the demons of alcohol and nicotine, by the gambling passion, and by the company of loose women, into dissipated dissolute invalids unwholesome in themselves and a menace to the race?
Let us pass on rather to the gentler sex.
Where are the sprightly, modest maidens with cheeks rosy with healthy blood, graceful in figure with well developed forms—the chaste, pure spirit shining in their eyes, with witchery and common sense combined? Where are the fathers and mothers whose good fortune it is to possess such children as these? Can it be that they should deem these caricatures of fashion worthy of their fond desire?—these whose days are spent in idling, who find their pleasure in the streets, the shops, the theatres and the like they term "society?"
Those men are old at forty years.
Those youths too often die at twenty, dissipated wrecks, holding as a mere ceremony the marriage they expect eventually to consummate; or married, now and then produce a single child that had far better never have been born.
What of those mothers who cannot nourish their own offspring, but fain would make shift with all imaginable unnatural substitutes and bring up children in whom a predisposition to disease has already been born?
Oh nature! High and mighty mistress! A bitter penalty dost thou exact from these thine erring progeny.
And rightly so.
Cruelly plain dost thou stamp thy mark on the tiny brow of the unborn child to mark in what degree its parents have departed from thine eternal ways of truth.
When a great man, recently, in his address before the body of a famous university, solemnly asserted that mankind is growing better, day by day, he must have had before his inner eye fair visions of a future race—the Future of Truth, which come it must—some day—but now lies dormant in the lap of the gods, its alluring, visionary, transcendental form depicted, for an optimistic instant, in the fervent, hopeful heart of a sincere but far-sighted reformer. But it is written: false prophets must come, deceiving in respect to all things in heaven and earth. "Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur." (The world wishes to be deceived, therefore, let it be deceived.) The world elects to be deceived. It is so—often on the most paltry of pretences. And here lies the fatal and prolific cause which has ever, throughout the ages, wrought infinite harm and impeded the progress of the world: The world's indifference to truth.
For the proper understanding and radical cure of any disease it is of primary importance to have before the mind's eye a distinct picture of its character and developments, thus tracing it back step by step to its source, so that the therapeutic, or healing measures employed may be properly adjusted to its various stages.
Nature has her foes, chief amongst which are ignorance, indulgence and fear; and these foes have ever waged fierce warfare upon her from time immemorial. But today a positive spiritual revolution is being wrought among men, for Mother Nature is calling defaulting humanity back to herself with no uncertain voice.
Back to Nature is now the cry.
Never before were homilies on food so manifold and the ability to profit by them so diminished; never were remedies so abundant and conditions of health so bad; never were deeds of charity so numerous and the poor so discontented; never were measures of reform so prominent and their results so meagre; never was production of commodities so enormous and the cost of living so excessive; never were the resources of all the world so accessible and counterfeits so plentiful; never was enlightenment so widely diffused and sound judgment so restricted; never were the avenues of truth so open, yet never was falsehood so widespread, as in our time.
Our age—well named by Dr. Rudolph Weil, the Age of Nerves—has brought to our service the most significant development of natural forces—electricity in all its forms of application, to medicine and industry and traffic; the expression of motive power in terms of machinery—railroads, ocean travel, air navigation, and endless appliances from the almost limitless scope of which, in the hands of man, the master, not even the very wild beasts escape. Meanwhile however—most strange anomaly—mankind degenerates in body and still more in mind.
The race has become diseased, is suffering, cries out for a betterment of its conditions, grows constantly more embittered and renounces its faith in the powers, human and divine.
Epidemics of terrific proportions sweep their recurring millions into the arms of death; diseases of stupendous mortality, such as tuberculosis, cancer, syphilis, diabetes, and the extensive array of so-called contagious diseases of children, are continually increasing, in spite of doctors, hospitals, sanatoria, hydros, hygienics, asylums, nostrums and serums, and continue to afflict humanity, taking their ghastly toll in daily thousands, despite the vaunted but theoretical advancement of Medical Science.
In the field of medical science the controversy rages at full blast today.
An endless succession of hypotheses, conjectures and dogmas lies widespread before us—a troubled sea of uncertainties—a complex labyrinth of doubt.
The "doctors of medicine" are many but responsible physicians are few, while disease is constantly on the increase among mankind.
It is really little that the people have to learn, for instinct has taught them there is little to be hoped of succour from the professional source. But the world-old habit of superstitious fear and reverence for the "Medicine Man" fetish yet holds its grip upon the race—alike in the savage or the Senate and, despite the knowledge of its fallacy, humanity, still faithful, turns to it weakly, fear-driven, in its hour of distress, knowing no self-reliance and no safer refuge.
The reader will pardon this digression, since it is better that from the outset we should divest ourselves of all delusions and recognize existing conditions as they really are in order that it may help to eliminate these ignorant superstitions from the public mind and implant therein the wholesome fact that there is no magic in medicine but simply an ordinary problem of cause and effect.
Existence is movement; the whole visible world is progress, development. These are facts which, in truth, are daily becoming more generally known. But man—even modern man—is still so stubbornly unyielding in his faith that what he learns in an instant becomes immovably rooted in his mind to the utter exclusion, generally, of anything new, which even though it be a matter of demonstrated fact, it matters not if at variance with this earlier knowledge; to him it is an impossibility.
How often the fallacy of such ultra-conservative principles has been demonstrated has no bearing upon the case; the fact remains—irrational, stupid though it be—that, sublimely indifferent to criticism, it survives, with all the wrong and persecution that follows in its train.
But one of the most noticeable surprises of this description occurred in the year 1896, when Professor Roentgen made public his discovery of the X-rays; for through this discovery facts were disclosed such for instance, as the permeability of solid bodies by luminous rays and the possibility of photographic examination of bony tissues in living creatures—facts entirely incompatible with prevailing ideas and teachings. But these facts were not only intrinsically veracious but were capable of occular demonstration, beyond all possibility of doubt, and thus, as nothing could be changed or refuted, science found itself compelled, for once, to honour the truth in its initial stage—to receive them gracefully unto itself and adopt them in its teachings.
This discovery of the X-rays was followed closely by that of the N-rays, by the two Curies, husband and wife. This further discovery was a still greater surprise to the scientific world than the former one; for by its aid was established nothing less than the inconstancy of matter. Hitherto science, dealing not with knowledge, but with opinions, had held the belief that the atom is the ultimate form of matter and that no chemical or physical force can divide it, a teaching held to be incontrovertible.
First, the discovery of the X-rays had markedly disturbed this belief, and then, on the discovery of the N-rays, it soon became indubitably clear that a constant destruction is taking place within the atom, an uninterrupted throwing off of smaller particles.
But it is not our task to show how one discovery after another was made. We are merely interested in knowing that, because of these discoveries, we find today in the atom—not in the radium atom alone, but in every atom as such—only a union of particles identical with one another, the so-called electrons, being but special forms of electro-magnetic forces.
Professor Gruner writes as follows: "The atom is no longer the accepted, final unit of matter, but has given place to the electron.
The atom is no longer an individual compact particle of matter, but an aggregate of thousands of tiny bodies.
Furthermore, the atom is not indestructible; it can throw off successive electrons or groups of electrons from its numerous contents and so keep up a gradual, but veritable destruction."
Professor Thomson, who won the "Nobel" prize for his work on natural science, makes these distinct assertions:
"(1) The electron is nothing more than a form of electricity.
(2) Each electron weighs 1/770th of a fluid atom. Of an atom, that is, which, hitherto had been regarded as the smallest individual particle.
(3) A fluid atom consists of 770 electrons and is formed of electricity without any other material.
(4) The atoms of other elements, besides radium, are also composed of electrons and of nothing else.
The number of electrons varies in different elements; for instance, an atom of quicksilver is composed of 150,000 electrons.
Hitherto we have been taught to consider our bodies and their organs from no other standpoint than that of their elements. For if we attribute all the life of the body to the cells, these must consist only of primary matter, like the atoms of which they are formed. But we have now come to know that atoms, and, therefore, our bodies as well, are formed of electrons, or we might say, of crystalized electricity, consequently, we are compelled to recognize in the body a human machine operated entirely under the direction of electrical forces. For electrons cannot lose their electrical character, merely because they are grouped together in atoms and form our bodies.
It is a well known scientific fact that atoms attract and repel each other, just as is the case with electro-magnetic forces.
Our bodies, then, are not only formed of electrons, which unite into atoms, but they are absolutely filled with free electrons; for every atom is surrounded with an envelope of free electrons, or, in other words, is the centre of a molecule of electrons, and carries its envelope of electrons precisely as the earth carries its envelope of air.
Thomson asserts on the basis of his latest observations that: