The Unity of Acute Diseases
In the last chapter I endeavored to explain the three primary causes
of disease, namely: (1) Lowered Vitality, (2) Abnormal Composition
of Blood and Lymph, (3) Accumulation of Waste, Morbid Matter, and
Poisons in the System.
We shall now consider some of the secondary manifestations resulting
from these primary causes. Consulting the table on page 18 (Chapter
2, internet version), we find mentioned as the first one of the
secondary causes or manifestations of disease, "Hereditary and
Constitutional Taints."
On first impression, it might be thought that heredity is a primary
cause of disease; but on further consideration it becomes apparent
that it is an effect and not a primary cause. If the parents possess
good vitality and pure, normal blood and tissues, and if they apply
in the prenatal and postnatal treatment of the child the necessary
insight and foresight, there cannot be disease heredity. In order to
create abnormal hereditary tendencies, the parents, or earlier
ancestors, must have ignorantly or wantonly violated Nature's Laws,
such violation resulting in lowered vitality and in deterioration of
blood and tissues.
The female and male germinal cells unite and form the primitive
reproductive cell--the prototype of marriage. The human body with
its millions of cells and cell colonies is developed by the
multiplication, with gradual differentiation, of the reproductive
cell. Its abnormalities of structure, of cell materials and of
functional tendencies are reproduced just as surely as its normal
constituents. Herein lies the simple explanation of heredity which
is proved to be an actual fact, not only by common experience and
scientific observation but also in a more definite way by Nature's
records in the iris of the eye.
The iris of the newborn child reveals in its diagnostic details not
only, in a general way, hereditary taints, lowered resistance, and
deterioration of vital fluids, but frequently special weakness and
deterioration in those organs which were weak or diseased in the
parents. Under the conventional (unnatural) management of the
infant, these hereditary tendencies to weakness and disease and
their corresponding signs in the iris become more and more
pronounced, proceeding through the various stages of incumbrance
from acute, infantile diseases through chronic catarrhal conditions
to the final destructive stages.
In the face of the well-established facts of disease heredity we
have, however, this consolation: If the child be treated in
accordance with the teachings of Nature Cure philosophy, the
abnormal hereditary encumbrances and tendencies can be overcome and
eliminated within a few years. If we place the infant organism under
the right conditions of living and of treatment, in harmony with the
laws of its being, the Life Principle within will approach ever
nearer to the establishment of the perfect type. Hundreds of "Nature
Cure" babies all over this country are living proofs of this
gladsome message to all those who have assumed or intend to assume
the responsibilities of parenthood.
Natural Immunity
Under Division II of "Secondary Causes or Manifestations of Disease"
we find mentioned germs, bacteria, parasites, inflammations, fevers,
skin eruptions, chronic sinus discharges, ulcers, etc.
Modern medical science is built up upon the germ theory of disease
and treatment. Since the microscope has revealed the presence and
seemingly entirely pernicious activity of certain microorganisms in
connection with certain diseases, it has been assumed that bacteria
are the direct, primary causes of most diseases. Therefore, the
slogan now is: "Kill the bacteria (by poisonous antiseptics, serums
and antitoxins) and you will cure the disease."
The Nature Cure philosophy takes a different view of the problem.
Germs cannot be the cause of disease, because disease germs are also
found in healthy bodies. The real cause must be something else. We
claim that it is the waste and morbid matter in the system which
afford the microorganisms of disease the opportunity to breed and
multiply.
We regard microorganisms as secondary manifestations of disease, and
maintain that bacteria and parasites live, thrive and multiply to
the danger point in a weakened and diseased organism only. If it
were not so, the human family would be extinct within a few months'
time.
The fear instilled by the bacterial theory of disease is frequently
more destructive than the microorganisms themselves. We have had
under observation and treatment a number of insane patients whose
peculiar delusion or monomania was an exaggerated fear of germs, a
genuine bacteriophobia.
Keep yourself clean and vigorous from within, and you cannot be
affected by disease taints and germs from without.
Bacteria are practically omnipresent. We absorb them in food and
drink, we inhale them in the air we breathe. Our bodies are
literally alive with them. The last stages of the digestive
processes depend upon the activity of millions of bacteria in the
intestinal tract.
The proper thing to do, therefore, is not to try and kill the germs,
but to remove the morbid matter and disease taints in which they
live.
Instead of concentrating its energies upon killing the germs, whose
presence we cannot escape, Nature Cure endeavors to in-vigorate the
system, to build up blood and lymph on a normal basis and to purify
the tissues of their morbid encumbrances in such a way as to
establish natural immunity to destructive germ activity. Everything
that tends to accomplish this without injuring the system by
poisonous drugs or surgical operations is good Nature Cure
treatment.
To adopt the germ-killing process without purifying and invigorating
the organism would be like trying to keep a house free from fungi
and vermin by sprinkling it daily with carbolic acid and other germ
killers, instead of keeping it pure and sweet by flooding it with
fresh air and sunshine and applying freely and vigorously broom,
brush and plenty of soap and water. Instead of purifying it, the
antiseptics and germ killers would only add to the filth in the
house.
All bacteriologists are unanimous in declaring that the various
disease germs are found not only in the bodies of the sick, but also
in seemingly healthy persons.
A celebrated French bacteriologist reports that in the mouth of a
healthy infant, two months old, he found almost all the disease
germs known to medical science. Only lately, a celebrated physician,
appointed by the French government to investigate the causes of
tuberculosis, declared before a meeting of the International
Tuberculosis Congress in Rome that he found the bacilli of
tuberculosis in ninety-five percent of all the school children he
had examined.
Dr. Osler, one of the greatest living medical authorities, mentions
repeatedly in his works that the bacilli of diphtheria, pneumonia
and of many other virulent diseases are found in the bodies of
healthy persons.
The inability of bacteria, by themselves, to create diseases is
further confirmed by the well-known facts of natural immunity to
specific infection or contagion. All mankind is more or less
affected by hereditary and acquired disease taints, morbid
encumbrances and drug poisoning, resulting from age-long violation
of Nature's Laws and from the suppression of acute diseases; but
even under the almost universal present conditions of lowered
vitality, morbid heredity and physical and mental degeneration it is
found that under identical conditions of exposure to drafts or
infection, a certain percentage of individuals only will take the
cold or catch the disease. The fact of natural immunity is
constantly confirmed by common experience as well as in the clinics
and laboratories of our medical schools and research institutes. Of
a specific number of mice or rabbits inoculated with particles of
cancer, only a small percentage develops the malignant growth and
succumbs to its ravages.
The development of infectious and contagious diseases necessitates a
certain predisposition, or, as medical science calls it, "disease
diathesis." This predisposition to infection and contagion consists
in the primary causes of disease, which we have designated as
lowered vitality, abnormal composition of blood and lymph, and the
accumulation of waste, morbid matter and poisons in the system.
Bacteria: Secondary, Not Primary,
Manifestations of Disease
In a previous chapter we learned how lowered vitality weakens the
resistance of the system to the attacks and inroads of disease germs
and poisons. The growth and multiplication of microorganisms depend
furthermore upon a congenial, morbid soil. Just as the ordinary
yeast germ multiplies in a sugar solution only, so the various
microorganisms of disease thrive and multiply to the danger point
only in their own peculiar and congenial kind of morbid matter.
Thus, the typhoid fever bacillus thrives in a certain kind of effete
matter which accumulates in the intestines; the pneumonia bacilli
flourish best in the catarrhal secretions of the lungs, and
meningitis bacilli in the diseased meninges of the brain and spinal
cord.
Dr. Pettenkofer, a celebrated physician and professor of the
University of Vienna, also arrived at the conclusion that bacteria,
by themselves, cannot create disease, and for years he defended his
opinion from the lecture platform and in his writings against the
practically solid phalanx of the medical profession. One day he
backed his theory by a practical test. While instructing his class
in the bacteriological laboratory of the university, he picked up a
glass which contained millions of live cholera germs and swallowed
its contents before the eyes of the students. The seemingly
dangerous experiment was followed only by a slight nausea. Lately I
have heard repeatedly of persons in this country who subjected
themselves in similar manner to infection, inoculation and contagion
with the most virulent kinds of bacteria and disease taints without
developing the corresponding diseases.
A few years ago Dr. Rodermund, a physician in the State of
Wisconsin, created a sensation all over this country when he smeared
his body with the exudate of smallpox sores in order to demonstrate
to his medical colleagues that a healthy body could not be infected
with the disease. He was arrested and quarantined in jail, but not
before he had come in contact with many people. Neither he nor
anyone else exposed by him developed smallpox.
During the ten years that I have been connected with sanitarium
work, my workers and myself, in giving the various forms of
manipulative treatment, have handled intimately thousands of cases
of infectious and contagious diseases, and I do not remember a
single instance where any one of us was in the least affected by
such contact. Ordinary cleanliness, good vitality, clean blood and
tissues, the organs of elimination in good, active condition and,
last but not least, a positive, fearless attitude of mind will
practically establish natural immunity to the inroads and ravages of
bacteria and disease taints. If infection takes place, the organism
reacts to it through inflammatory processes, and by means of these
endeavors to overcome and eliminate microorganisms and poisons from
the system.
In this connection it is of interest to learn that the danger to
life from bites and stings of poisonous reptiles and insects has
been greatly exaggerated. According to popular opinion, anyone
bitten by a rattlesnake, gila monster or tarantula is doomed to die,
while as a matter of fact the statistics show that only from two to
seven per-cent succumb to the effects of the wounds inflicted by the
bites of poisonous reptiles.
In this, as in many other instances, popular opinion should rather
be called "popular superstition."
In the open discussions following my public lectures, I am often
asked: "What is the right thing to do in case of snakebite? Would
you not give plenty of whiskey to save the victim's life?"
It is my belief that of the seven percent who die after being bitten
by rattlesnakes or other poisonous snakes, a goodly proportion give
up the ghost because of the effects of the enormous doses of strong
whiskey that are poured into them under the mistaken idea that the
whiskey is an efficient antidote to the snake poison.
People do not know that the death rate from snakebite is so very
low, and therefore they attribute the recoveries to the whiskey,
just as recoveries from other diseases under medical or metaphysical
treatment are attributed to the virtues of the particular medicine
or method of treatment instead of to the real healer, the~ vis
medicatrix nature,~ the healing power of Nature, which in
ninety-three cases in a hundred eliminates the rattlesnake venom
without injury to the organism.
To recapitulate: Just as yeast cells are not only the cause but also
the product of sugar fermentation, so disease germs are not only a
cause (secondary) but also a product of morbid fermentation in the
system. Furthermore, just as yeast germs live on and decompose
sugar, so disease germs live on and decompose morbid matter and
systemic poisons.
In a way, therefore, microorganisms are just as much the product as
the cause of disease and act as scavengers or eliminators of morbid
matter. In order to hold in check the destructive activity of
bacteria and to prevent their multiplication beyond the danger
point, Nature resorts to inflammation and manufactures her own
antitoxins.
On the other hand, whatever tends to build up the blood on a natural
basis, to promote elimination of morbid matter and thereby to limit
the activity of destructive microorganisms without injuring the body
or depressing its vital functions, is good Nature Cure practice. The
first consideration, therefore, in the treatment of inflammation
must be to not interfere with its natural course.
By the various statements and claims made in this chapter, I do not
wish to convey the idea that I am opposed to scrupulous cleanliness
or surgical asepsis. Far from it! These are dictates of common
sense. But I do affirm that the danger from germ and other
infectious diseases lies just as much or more so in internal filth
as in external uncleanliness. Cleanliness and asepsis must go hand
in hand with the purification of the inner man in order to insure
natural immunity.