PART IX.

SOME HELPFUL SUGGESTIONS.

Disease is the result of the operation of natural law don't

dread it. Don't treat symptoms; treat the fundamental cause.

Pain is Nature's danger signal. Prevention is better than

cure. The elements of prevention. Importance of a knowledge

of physiology. The body, the vehicle of expression for the

mind. The strenuous life. Tear worse than wear. The

importance of reserve energy. The effect of the mind on the

body. The human body as a bank. The importance of a daily

balance. Cultivate cheerfulness. The habit of happiness. The

folly of squandering health. Medicine and surgery compared.

What children should be taught. The final word.

APPENDIX.

Instructions for massage. How to use the stomach bath by

three different methods. How to improvise the Turkish Bath

in your own home, without apparatus. How to use the wet

sheet pack. How to care for the "Cascade".

THE ROYAL ROAD TO HEALTH.

PART I.

DRUGGING PROVED UNSCIENTIFIC.

It is one of the most profound mysteries of our civilization, and has

been one of the most perplexing and discouraging phenomena of human

existence, that, while the world at large has maintained an ever

increasing "medical profession," whose members are popularly supposed

to be competent to deal with all the ills that flesh is heir to; still

there has always been a long list of what are termed "incurable

diseases." But the immense strides made, in recent years, in every

branch of modern science, has led the thinking public to consider such

a condition of things as an outrageous libel on the God of Nature, and

to question whether there can be such a thing as an incurable disease.

Health is such an inestimable blessing, that the individual who shall

devise means to preserve it, or to restore it, when lost, is deserving

of all the thanks and honors that a grateful community can bestow.

Unfortunately, there are very few who estimate life at its true value,

until they are confronted with the grim destroyer, Death. No one can

fully appreciate the priceless blessings of health, until they feel

that it has slipped from their grasp. The oft quoted phrase, "Health

is Wealth," is truly a concrete expression of wisdom, for without the

former, the latter is well nigh an impossibility. But its interference

with the activities of life is one of the least evils of sickness, for

perfect health is the very salt and spice of life; without it,

existence is "weary, stale, flat and unprofitable."

But let none despair, for it is my purpose to show how those who enjoy

the blessing of robust health may preserve it indefinitely, and how

those who have lost it may regain it with access of vigor, and once

more feel that life is indeed worth living. In presenting a new system

of medication, it is necessary to attack the existing systems, and

hence, I am placed in a delicate position, for of all the problems

ever presented for the ingenuity of man to solve, undoubtedly the most

difficult is, how to present new facts so as not to offend old errors;

for individuals are very prone to regard arguments levelled against

their opinions as direct attacks upon their personality; and not a few

of them mistake their own deeply rooted prejudices for established

certainties.

I shall endeavor to show that the practice of administering drugs to

cure disease is a fallacy, and in so doing, I am bound to incur the

condemnation of my brother practitioners, who prescribe drugs, and the

druggists who vend them.

It may safely be asserted that the drug system of treating disease

would be destroyed if it were to be critically examined; in fact, to

defend it is provocative of unmistakable damage to it. If it is once

subjected to the analysis of calm reason its defects become palpable

to the meanest understanding.

There are three principal schools of medicine, each with a distinctive

title, but they are all one in essential principles. They may differ

in unimportant details; but in the main premises they are a unit. They

all believe in the principle of "curing one disease by producing

another." In other words, their practice is, to induce a drug disease

to cure a primary one, for this is exactly what is done when drugs are

administered, in pathological conditions as we shall prove later on by

testimony from authorities on medical practice.

The materia medica of the schools, to-day, includes upwards of two

thousand substances the number increasing daily and when viewed

dispassionately it presents what? A list of drugs, chemicals, dye-

stuffs, all subversive of organic structures. They are all

antagonistic to living matter: all produce disease when brought in

contact in any manner with the living domain as a matter of fact, all

are poisons. Now, what logical standing can a system have, that

employs, as remedies for diseases, those things that produce disease

in healthy persons? No advocate of the drug system has ever advanced a

reason that would bear one moment's scientific examination, why

poisonous substances should be administered to the sick, and no one

will ever be able to give a satisfactory explanation of the theory

that underlies the practice, for none exists. When once the public

fully grasps the true import of this glaring anomaly, the days of the

drug system will be numbered.

Physicians of ability and long experience, who have devoted their

lives to the relief of suffering humanity, both in this and other

countries, have declared after close observation, that they were fully

and thoroughly convinced that medicines do not cure patients, that

they do not assist Nature's process of cure, so much as they retard

it, and, that they are more hurtful than remedial in all diseases. A

still larger number have reached the same conclusion with regard to

certain complaints, such as scarlet fever, croup, pneumonia, cholera,

rheumatism, diphtheria, measles, small-pox, dysentery, and typhoid

fever, and that in every case where they have abandoned

all medicine, abjured all drugs and potions, their success has been

marvellously increased.

Professor B. F. Parker, of the New York Medical College, once said to

a medical class: "I have recently given no medicine in the treatment

of measles and scarlet fever, and I have had excellent success."

Dr. Snow, Health Officer of Providence, R. I., reported for the

information of his professional brethren, through the Boston Medical

and Surgical Journal that he had treated all the cases of small-pox,

which had prevailed endemically in that city, without a particle of

medicine, and that all of the cases some of which were very grave ones

recovered.

Dr. John Bell, Professor of Materia Medica in one of the Philadelphia

Colleges, and also in the Medical College of Baltimore, testified in a

work which he published ("Bell on Baths"), that he and others had

treated many cases of scarlet fever with bathing, and without

medicines of any kind, and without losing a patient.

Dr. Ames, of Montgomery, Alabama, some years since published in the

New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal, his experience and

observation in the treatment of pneumonia. He had been led to notice

for many years, that patients who were treated with the ordinary

remedies--bleeding, mercury, and remedies--breeding certain

complications which always aggravated the malady, and rendered the

convalescence more lingering and recovery less complete. Such patients

were always liable to collapses and re-lapses; to "run into typhoid";

to sink suddenly, and die very unexpectedly.

He noticed particularly that patients who took calomel and antimony

were found, on post-mortem examinations, to have serious and even

fatal inflammation of the stomach and small intestines, attended with

great prostration, delirium, and other symptoms of drug poisoning.

These "complications" were nothing more or less than drug diseases.

And Dr. Ames found, on changing his plan of treatment to milder and

simpler remedies, that he lost no patients.

The late Professor Win. Tully, M.D., of Yale College, and of the

Vermont Academy of Medicine at Gastleton, Vt., informed his medical

class, that on one occasion the typhoid pneumonia was so fatal in some

places in the valley of the Connecticut River, that the people became

suspicious that the physicians were doing more harm than good; and in

their desperation they actually combined against the doctors and

refused to employ them at all; "after which," said Professor Tully,

"no deaths occurred." And I might add, as an historical incident of

some pertinency in this place, that regular physicians were once

banished from Rome, so fatal did their practice seem, so far as the

people could judge of it.

The great Magendie, of France, who long stood at the very head of

Physiology and Pathology in the French Academy which, by the way, has

claimed to be, and perhaps is, the most learned body of men in the

world performed this experiment. He divided the patients of one of the

large Paris hospitals into three classes. To one he prescribed the

common remedies of the books. To the second he administered only the

common simples of domestic practice. And to the third class he gave no

medicine at all. The result was, those who took less medicine did

better than those who took more, and those who took no medicine did

the best of all.

Magendie also divided his typhoid fever patients into two classes, to

one of whom he prescribed the ordinary remedies, and to the other no

medicines at all, relying wholly on such nursing and such attention to

Hygiene as the vital instincts demanded and common sense suggested. Of

the patients who were treated the usual way, he lost the usual

proportion, about one-fourth. And of those who took no medicine, he

lost none. And what opinion has Magendie left on record of the popular

healing art? He said to his medical class, "Gentlemen, medicine is a

great humbug."

In the face of such damaging testimony from prominent representatives

of the medical profession, it becomes exceedingly difficult to place

any reliance on the drug remedies prescribed by them.

The melancholy truth is, that drug medication has become an integral

part of our domestic economy. At no time in history has the

consumption of drugs even approximated the present rate. Enormous sums

of money are invested in manufacturing and distributing them, and the

physicians of the various schools, being educated to prescribe them, a

mutual bond of interest has grown up between doctor and druggist,

which is not at all surprising. The medical profession, as a whole is,

and ever has been eminently conservative, and this fact, in connection

with its traditional predilection for drugs causes its members to

resolutely set their faces against any remedial process that runs

counter to the theories they imbibed at college. They look askance

at all such things and regard them as dangerous experiments, and

assert that their dignity will not permit them to recognize any

irregular practice, or any form of quackery.

Dignity! When was dignity ever known to save a life? Most humanity

continue to suffer because the medical profession (blindly following

in the rut of custom) fail to see anything superior to the antiquated

system of treating disease by drugging, which many of its ablest

members condemn as unreliable?

It is with all schools of medicine as it is with each individual

practitioner of the healing art the less faith they have in medicine,

the more they have in Hygiene; hence those who prescribe little or no

medicine, are invariably and necessarily more attentive to Hygiene,

which always was, and ever will be, all that there is really good,

useful, or curative in medication. Such physicians are more careful to

supply the vital organism with whatever of air, light, temperature,

food, water, exercise or rest, etc., it needs in its struggle for

health, and to remove all vitiating influences all poisons,

impurities, or disturbing influences of any kind. This is hygienic

medication, the natural and rational method of cure, and the more

closely it is examined, the more strongly it will commend itself to

reason.

It is a lamentable fact that the preservation of health is not taught

in the medical schools, neither is it explained in their books, and

judging from general practice not much regard is attached to it in

their prescriptions. But when the inevitable typhoid or malaria

appears as an inevitable consequence of neglected precautions, the

physician can drug without mercy, and, as we contend, on most

illogical grounds.

Who imagines for one instant, that quinine is a poison? Who is not

aware that arsenic is a deadly poison? And yet physicians and medical

journals calmly and gravely assert that arsenic is the better article

of the two, and recommend it as a substitute for quinine. Can any

intelligent person believe that a comparatively harmless tonic, and an

intense poison are perfect equivalents for each other?

It is stated on reliable authority, that during the civil war,

hundreds of sick soldiers implored the nurses to throw away their

medicine. They feared drugs worse than bullets, and not without

reason.

It is a curious fact that young physicians prescribe more medicine

than the older ones.

Said the venerable Professor Alexander H. Stevens M.D., of the New

York College of Physicians and Surgeons: "Young practitioners are a

most hopeful class of community. They are sure of success. They start

out in life with twenty remedies for every disease; and after an

experience of thirty years or less they find twenty diseases for every

remedy." And again: "The older physicians grow, the more skeptical

they become of the virtues of medicine, and the more they are disposed

to trust to the powers of Nature."

The effect of drugging a person, is to lock up the actual causes of

the disease in the system; thus producing permanent and worse

diseases. It is in accordance with common sense that they should be

expelled, not retained. What is known as disease, is nothing more or

less than the struggle of Nature, to cast out impurities, and this

remedial effort should be regulated, and assisted, not obstructed by

administering drugs, which only complicate the situation, by producing

more disease.

No man can fight two enemies better than one, and, to give drugs to a

system already struggling to regain its normal condition, is like

tying the hands of a man who is beset by enemies. The truth is, that

the real nature of disease is misapprehended by the popular schools of

medicine, and until broader views obtain a lodgment among them, it is

useless to hope for any alteration or improvement in the antiquated

system of drugging. "Who shall decide, when doctors disagree ?" is an

oft Quoted sentence, and, the following conflicting opinions from

prominent physicians show conclusively how little is actually known of

the action of drugs upon the human system, by those who administer

them right and left.

Says the "United States Dispensatory," "Medicines are those articles

which make sanative impressions on the body." This may be important

if, true. But, per contra, says Professor Martin Paine, M.D., of the

New York University Medical School, in his "Institutes of Medicine":

"Remedial agents are essentially morbific in their operations."

But again says Professor Paine: "Remedial agents operate in the same

manner as do the remote causes of disease." This seems to be a very

distinct announcement that remedies are themselves causes of disease.

And yet again: "In the administration of medicines we cure one disease

by producing another." This is both important and true.

Professor Paine quotes approvingly the famous professional adage, in

good technical Latin,

"Ubi virus, ibi vitus,"

which, being translated, means, "our strongest poisons are our best

remedies."

Says Professor Alonzo Clark, M.D., of the New York College of

Physicians and Surgeons: "All of our curative agents are poisons, and

as a consequence, every dose diminishes the patient's vitality."

Says Professor Joseph M. Smith, M.D., of the same school: "All

medicines which enter the circulation poison the blood in the same

manner as do the poisons that produce disease."

Says Professor St. John, of the New York Medical College : "All

medicines are poisonous."

Says Professor B. R. Peaslee, MD., of the same school: "The

administration of powerful medicines is the most fruitful cause of

derangements of the digestion."

Says Professor H. G. Cox, M.D., of the same school: "The fewer

remedies you employ in any disease, the better for your patients."

Says Professor E. H. Davis, M.D., of the New York Medical College:

"The modus operandi of medicines is still a very obscure subject. We

know that they operate, but exactly how they operate is entirely

unknown."

Says Professor J. W. Carson, M.D., of the New York University Medical

School: "We do not know whether our patients recover because we give

medicines, or because Nature cures them."

Says Professor E. S. Carr, of the same school: "All drugs are more or

less adulterated; and as not more than one physician in a hundred has

sufficient knowledge in chemistry to detect impurities, the physician

seldom knows just how much of a remedy he is prescribing."

The authors disagree in many things; but all concur in the fact that

medicines produce diseases; that their effects are wholly uncertain,

and that we know nothing whatever of their modus operandi.

But now comes in the testimony of the venerable Professor Joseph M.

Smith, M.D., who says: "Drugs do not cure diseases; disease is always

cured by the vis medicatrix naturae."

And Professor Clark further complicates the problem before us by

declaring that, "Physicians have hurried thousands to their graves who

would have recovered if left to Nature." And again: "In scarlet fever

you have nothing to do but to rely on the vis medicatrix naturae."

Says Professor Gross: "Of the essence of disease very little is known;

indeed, nothing at all." And says Professor George B. Wood, M.D., of

Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia ("Wood's Practice of

Medicine"): "Efforts have been made to reach the elements of disease;

but not very successfully; because we have not yet learned the

essential nature of the healthy actions, and

cannot understand their derangements."

On the other side of the Atlantic the claims of the existing medical

schools to popular favor, do not appear to rest upon any surer basis

than they do here, if we may judge from the following opinions

expressed by some of the most eminent authorities in the British

Kingdom:

"The medical practice of our days is, at the best, a most uncertain

and unsatisfactory system; it has neither philosophy nor common sense

to commend it to confidence." DR. EVANS, Fellow of the Royal College,

London.

"There has been a great increase of medical men of late, but, upon my

life, diseases have increased in proportion." JOHN ABERNETHY, M.D.,

"The Good," of London.

"Gentlemen, ninety-nine out of every hundred medical facts are medical

lies; and medical doctrines are, for the most part, stark, staring

nonsense." Prof. GREGORY, of Edinburgh, author of a work on "Theory

and Practice of Physic."

"It cannot be denied that the present system of medicine is a burning

shame to its professors, if indeed a series of vague and uncertain

incongruities deserves to be called by that name. How rarely do our

medicines do good! How often do they make our patients really worse! I

fearlessly assert, that in most cases the sufferer would be safer

without a physician than with one. I have seen enough of the

malpractice of my professional. brethren to warrant the strong

language I employ." Dr. RAMAGE, Fellow of the Royal College, London.

"The present practice of medicine is a reproach to the name of

Science, while its professors give evidence of an almost total

ignorance of the nature and proper treatment of disease. Nine times

out of ten, our miscalled remedies are absolutely injurious to our

patients, suffering under diseases of whose real character and cause

we are most culpably ignorant." Prof. JAMEISON, of Edinburgh.

Assuredly the uncertain and most unsatisfactory art that we call

medical science, is no science at all, but a jumble of inconsistent

opinions; of conclusions hastily and often incorrectly drawn; of facts

misunderstood or perverted; of comparisons without analogy; of

hypotheses without reason, and theories not only useless, but

dangerous." Dublin Medical Journal.

"Some patients get well with the aid of medicine; more without it; and

still more in spite of it." SIR JOHN FORBES, M.D., F.R.S.

"Thousands are annually slaughtered in the quiet of the sick-room.'

Governments should at once either banish medical men, and proscribe

their blundering art, or they should adopt some better means to

protect the lives of the people than at present prevail, when they

look far less after the practice of this dangerous profession, and the

murders committed in it, than after the lowest trades." Dr FRANK, an

eminent author and practitioner.

"Our actual information or knowledge of disease does not increase in

proportion to our experimental practice. Every dose of medicine given

is a blind experiment upon the vitality of the patient." Dr. BOSTOCK,

author of "History of Medicine."

"The science of medicine is a barbarous jargon, and the effects of our

medicines on the human system in the highest degree uncertain; except,

indeed, that they have destroyed more lives than war, pestilence, and

famine combined." JOHN MASON GOOD, M.D., F.R.S., author of "Book of

Nature," "A System of Nosology," "Study of Medicine," etc.

"I declare as my conscientious conviction, founded on long experience

and reflection, that if there were not a single physician, surgeon,

man midwife, chemist, apothecary, druggist, nor drug on the face of

the earth, there would be less sickness and less mortality than now

prevail." JAS. JOHNSON, M.D., F.R.S., Editor of the Medico-

Chirurgical Review.

So it comes to this, that during three thousand years remedies have

been accumulating until between two and three thousand drugs are

recorded in the archives of the medical profession, and yet we have

the admission of some of the highest authorities on the subject that

the nature of disease is still a mystery, that the "modus operandi" of

drugs is equally obscure, and that in consequence there is profound

uncertainty as to the relation of drugs to the diseases for which they

are prescribed.

Can one cause cure another. Can a poison expel a poison? Can the human

system throw off two burdens better than one? If such a proposition

were submitted to us in any other domain we would indignantly resent

it as an insult to our intelligence.

There can be no question but that the public are largely responsible

for the existing condition of things, for whatever they demand they

can obtain, in obedience to the inexorable law of supply and demand:

which accounts for the rapidly increasing interest in hygiene. An

eminent authority on therapeutics says:

"The medical profession holds a most false relation to society. Its

honors and emoluments are measured, not by the good, but by the evil

it does. The physician who keeps some member of the family of his rich

neighbor on a bed of sickness for months or years, may secure to

himself thereby both fame and fortune; while the other who would

restore the patient to health in a week or two, will be neither

appreciated nor understood. If a physician, in treating a simple

fever, which if left to itself or to Nature would terminate in health

in two or three weeks, drugs the patient into half a dozen chronic

diseases, and nearly kills himself half a dozen times, and prolongs

his sufferings for months, he will receive much money and many thanks

for carrying him safely through so many complications, relapses, and

collapses. But if he cures in a single week, and leaves him perfectly

sound, the pay will be small, and the thanks nowhere, because he has

not been very sick!

"I know many of you will say, 'My physician is a very excellent man and

a good scholar I have all confidence in him.' But what if his system

is false? Is your confidence in him or in his system? If in his

system, you are to be pitied. If in him, take his good advice and

refuse his bad medicine."

The Caucasian has not much to learn from the Mongolian, it is true,

but the public might safely imitate the Chinese in dealing with their

physicians. A Chinaman of rank pays his physician a retaining salary

so long as he remains in health, but, the instant he gets sick, the

salary ceases. Manifestly, it is a common sense proceeding. The doctor

has a vital interest in preserving the health of his client, since

sickness entails a pecuniary loss; and best of all, the patient

escapes having his system drenched with drugs. There is no valid

reason why there should be any such thing as serious sickness; nor

would there be if Hygiene were taught, and practised, and the whole

materia medica consigned to oblivion. As Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes

said, "If all drugs were thrown into the sea, it would be so much

better for man, but so much worse for the fishes."

Now, the remedies of the Hygienic system, which I advocate, comprehend

everything except poisons. The drug system rejects almost everything

but poisons. My system rejects only poisons, and adopts everything

else. I welcome anything that possesses remedial value, provided it is

in accordance with the laws of Nature, and am equally ready to accept

suggestions from the laity, as from fellow practitioners. I am ready

to submit everything thus presented, to the test of experiment, and

employ it if found worthy.

In this regard I may, without vanity, lay claim to the possession of a

more progressive spirit than the members of the drug schools, for

their disincilination to adopt anything new in the treatment of

disease has passed into a proverb. It might naturally be supposed that

any one who should come forward with a discovery by which the

suffering portion. of the human family would be benefited, would be

welcomed with open arms by the medical fraternity, or, that at least

he would be allowed a hearing, but unfortunately it is not so.

Even if the discoverer be one of themselves, they are apt to regard

his proposition with a certain amount of distrust, but if he happens

to be a layman they instantly stand upon their dignity denounce all

irregular practice and raise the cry of quack.

In justice, however, it must be said that there are members of

liberal, broad minded men in the medical profession who recognize the

fact that brains are not monopolized by physicians, and who are

perfectly willing to accord credit where it is due, as the following

opinions will show.

Dr. A. O'Leary, Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia, says:

"The best things in the healing art have been done by those who never

had a diploma the first Caesarian section, lithotomy, the use of

cinchona, of ether as an anaesthetic, the treatment of the air

passages by inhalation, the water cure and medicated baths,

electricity as a healing agent, and magnetism, faith cure, mind cure,

etc."

Prof. Waterhouse, writing to the learned Dr. Mitchell, of New York,

says:

"I am, indeed, so disgusted with learned quackery that I take some

interest in honest, humane, and strongminded empiricism; for it has

done more for our art, in all ages and all countries, than all the

universities since the time of Charlemagne."

Professor Benj. Rush, of the greatest and oldest Allopathic College in

America, says:

"Remember how many of our most useful remedies have been discovered by

quacks. Do not therefore be afraid of conversing with them, and of

profiting by their ignorance and temerity. Medicine has its pharisees

as well as religion. But the spirit of this sect is as unfriendly to

the advancement of medicine as it is to Christian charity. In the

pursuit of medical knowledge let me advise you to converse with nurses

and old women. They will often suggest facts in the history and cure

of disease which have escaped the most sagacious observers of nature.

By so doing, we may discover laws of the animal economy which have no

place in our system of Nosology, or in our theories of physic. The

practice of physic hath been more improved by the casual experiments

of illiterate nations, and the rash ones of vagabond quacks, than by

all the once celebrated professors of it, and the theoretic teachers

in the several schools of Europe, very few of whom have furnished us

with one new medicine, or have taught us better to use our old ones,

or have in any one instance at all, improved the art of curing

disease."

Dr. Adam Smith says:

"After denouncing Paracelsus as a quack, the regular medical

profession stole his `quack-silver' mercury; after calling Jenner an

imposter it adopted his discovery of vaccination; after dubbing Harvey

a humbug it was forced to swallow his theory of the circulation of the

blood."

Professor J. Rodes Buchanan, Boston, says:

"Mozart, Hoffman, Ole Bull, and Blind Tom were born with a mastery of

music, as Zerah Colburn with a mastery of mathematics, as others are

born with a mastery of the mystery of life and disease, like

Greatrakes, Newton, Hutton, Sweet and Stephens, born doctors, and

score of similar renown."

Professor Charles W. Emerson, M.D., the well known resident of the

Monroe Conservatory of Oratory, of Boston, says:

"The progress in therapeutics has and still continues to come from the

unlearned. Common people give us our improvements and the school men

spend their time in giving Greek and Latin names to these

improvements, and building metaphysical theories around them."

This is a heavy indictment against the medical profession, as a body,

but truth and justice compel me to state that most of the foregoing

statements were made some years ago, and that intolerance can no

longer be charged against them as it could, even in the last

generation. Nor can we close our eyes to the fact that thousands of

highminded physicians are devoting their time and energies

to the amelioration of disease. Scarcely a month passes in which some

convention of physicians is not held to consider the best means of

dealing with some particular malady, and a large number of the

attending physicians at those conventions contribute their time and

experience at considerable financial loss to themselves.

In the ranks of the medical body there are able and honorable men who

would adorn any profession--men who have sacrificed health, wealth and

happiness in their devotion to the cause of suffering humanity the

pages of history are full of instances of such heroism. But of what

avail is it to have the most perfect examples of humanity for

physicians, if the system they practice is an erroneous one? It is

impossible to secure good results with bad methods. We must have a

sure foundation, if we expect to raise an abiding structure. And that

is why I am in opposition to the existing method of treating disease.

Not because of any feeling against the physician individually, but for

the reason that I consider their system based upon error upon a false

conception of the true nature of disease, and of the relation of drugs

to the human system.

There is a tradition in the orthodox medical schools, that all

curative processes are dependent upon, and act only in accordance

With, an established law the "Law of Cure."

But although all the schools are a unit in believing in the existence

and operation of such a law, no two of them agree upon a definition of

it. Their theories concerning this all important law are as

diametrically opposite as the poles. For instance, the Allopaths

define it as "contraria contrariis curantur," which is simply the law

of opposition. But the Homeopaths take a widely different view of the

matter, their definition of it being "similia similibus curantur,"

which is, practically, the law of agreement; while the Eclectics

declare that "sanative medication" is the law.

This diversity of opinion is not by any means unique, for the tendency

to disagreement among physicians is proverbial; but the unfortunate

layman who is the person most vitally interested in the matter, is at

a loss what to believe among this conflict of definitions, and

naturally asks, Who is right?

I answer, unequivocally, not one! They are all wrong. This so-called

"Law of Cure" is a purely imaginary affair; one of the many

misconceptions peculiar to the medical schools, originating in a false

conception of the true nature of disease. There is no such thing as a

law of cure! There is a condition of cure, and that is, obedience.

Nature has provided penalties for disobedience, and is inexorable in

exacting payment; but she does not provide remedies. If there is one

thing absolutely certain in nature, it is the unfaltering sequence of

cause and effect. Nature never stultifies herself. It is impossible to

imagine nature providing penalties for violation of her laws, and then

furnishing remedies to make those penalties negatory.

It is a lamentable fact that the medical profession, as a body,

entertain a totally erroneous conception of the true nature of

disease, and its legitimate function in the economy of nature. Instead

of recognizing it as a beneficent remedial process, which, if properly

aided, will work out the salvation of the patient, they antagonize it

at every turn, and endeavor to suppress the symptoms, which are its

legitimate expressions.

The whole thing is a huge misconception, the failure to understand the

true relation between living and dead substances. According to the

United States Dispensatory, medicines are those substances That make

sanative impressions on the body.

A false definition of a word leads to a false system of remedial

practice, based upon that definition. What is an impression? Is it the

action of a dead substance, which cannot act upon a living substance

that can? Assuredly not! Is it not rather the recognition by the

living substance of the lifeless one? The whole theory of drug action

is easily explainable on this hypothesis. Drugs--inert substances--do

not act upon the living organism, but are acted upon, with a view to

their expulsion from the living domain. If it were not so, if drugs

really acted upon the various organs, then their action should be

equally as effective after death as before. But no, nature resents the

introduction of foreign substances into the human economy, and exerts

all her powers to cast out the intruders.

Now, as all substances incapable of physiological use are foreign,

such as particles of worn out tissue, the waste products of digestion,

etc., and their presence in the animal economy inimical to the general

welfare, the depurating organs are called into active play to expel

the offending substances; and the increased physiological activity,

and (in the case of actual lesion) the increased flow of blood to the

parts, for the purpose of repair, cause a rise in temperature,

commonly known as fever, which is one of the most frequent symptoms of

what is generally recognized as disease; thus establishing the fact,

indisputably, that disease is purely and simply a remedial process,

either for purposes of repair or purification.

The practice, therefore, of increasing the deposits in the physical

system by the introduction of drugs (foreign substances) is in direct

opposition to physiological law, and has no scientific foundation

whatever.

From the countless remedies of the pharmacopceia we can select

substances that if administered to a healthy person will produce

almost any known form of disease thus: brandy, cayenne pepper and

quinine, will induce inflammatory fever; scammony and ipecac will

cause cholera morbus; nitre, calomel and opium, will provoke typhoid

or typhus fever; digitalis will cause Asiatic, or spasmodic cholera;

cod liver oil and sulphur promote scurvy, and all the cathartic family

inevitably cause diarrhcea, the disease in each case being nothing

more than the effort of Nature to get rid of these troublesome

intruders.

Drugs do not, as their advocates claim, select their special organ

with a view of acting upon it, but are acted upon by that particular

organ for the purpose of ridding the system of the drug.

It follows, therefore, as a perfectly legitimate and logical

deduction, that, if the system of administering drugs is founded upon

a wrong conception of their relation to the human organism, then any

theoretical "law of cure" predicated upon drug action must necessarily

be equally fallacious and untrustworthy.

As stated before, the simple fact is, that there is no law of cure,

only a condition and that condition--obedience, by which is meant a

course of treatment in harmony with Nature.

The older physicians grow the more they rely upon the vis medicatrix

naturae, which is, after all, the only remedial force, and one totally

beyond their control. The physician can no more perform cures than the

farmer can make his crops grow. In each case, all that can be done is

to employ all the methods that cumulative wisdom can suggest to make

the conditions as favorable as possible, and leave the rest to Mother

Nature, who is not in the habit of making mistakes, and whose unerring

methods would cure ninety per cent. of all diseased conditions, if her

beneficent intentions were not frustrated by well-meant, but

nevertheless pernicious, drug interference.

PART II.

THE TRUE CAUSE OF DISEASE.

At this point the reader will doubtless be tempered to exclaim: "Well,

you have demonstrated to your own satisfaction that the medical

profession entertains erroneous opinions as to the true nature of

disease, and also that drugs are absolutely useless--nay, injurious--in

such conditions: but is this all? Having destroyed our trust in drugs,

what have you to offer in their stead?" To which perfectly natural

query, I gladly reply, I have a system of treatment to propound, a

system that has triumphantly stood the test of years, a system that

must commend itself to every intelligent reader, because it is

strictly in accordance with natural law.

But before I proceed to explain it, I desire to announce my own theory

respecting disease--a theory essentially radical in its character, and

of which I am the originator, and that is:

THERE IS ONLY ONE CAUSE OF DISEASE.

This may sound strange, for the majority of people imagine that there

is a different and specific cause for every ailment, and physicians

generally do not combat the opinion. But as a matter of fact, there is

only one disease, although its manifestations are various, and there

is only one cause for it, and that is the retention of waste matters

in the system. These substances may be in the gaseous, liquid or solid

form, but they are foreign bodies, inimical to the welfare of the

organism, and their presence must result in derangement of bodily

function.

The great need of the present day is adequate instruction in

physiology and hygiene, that humanity may not only know how to secure

the restoration of health, when lost, but by attention to

physiological and sanitary laws may retain good health indefinitely.

The body is the theatre of constant change. The process of tearing

down and building up proceed without intermission during life. If

construction exceeds destruction, the result is health; but just as

surely as destruction exceeds repair, disease is the result. But

during every moment of life waste is being formed by the destruction

of tissue, and this effete material must be promptly removed if the

individual would enjoy health. Nature has provided adequate means for

the removal of these substances which are valueless to the economy,

the retention of which obstructs and irritates the complex mechanism

of the system, the principal avenues for its expulsion being the

lungs, the skin and the intestinal canal. The latter is infinitely

more important than the others, since by it the waste products of

digestion are expelled. If it fails to promptly fulfil its office,

every vital function is interfered with; and in addition the fluid

portion of the semi-liquid waste is re-absorbed directly into the

circulation, redepositing in the very fountain of life, matter which

the system has thrown off as worthless. Should the system be exposed

to a chill, while in this condition, a congestion of the surface

excretory vessels takes place; and practically the whole work of

elimination is thrown upon the already hard-worked kidneys, frequently

resulting in uraemic poisoning and death.

The presence of a grain of sand in a watch will retard its movements,

if not arrest them altogether. What, then, must be the result of an

accumulation of impurities in the physical system? The finely adjusted

balance that is capable of weighing the thousandth part of a grain,

is carefully protected under a glass cover, for even impalpable dust

would clog its movements. Reflect, then, upon the amount of friction

that must be perpetually going on in the human organism owing to the

retention of effete matter! And since not even the most cunning

product of man's handiwork can compare with the intricate mechanism of

the body, the importance of eliminating the waste becomes manifest.

Here, in a nutshell, lies the secret of disease.

Let us now consider how the retention of waste affects the system--how

the deleterious effects are produced. There are three factors at work

in this process, mechanical, gaseous and absorptive, the last named

being infinitely the most pernicious. We will first consider the

mechanical.

Nature has beautifully apportioned the space in the abdominal cavity,

each part of the viscera having ample room for the performance of its

special function, but any abnormal increase in size of any part of the

contents of the cavity must necessarily create disturbance. Now, when

the food leaves the stomach, where it has been churned into a

pulpaceous mass, it passes into the duodenum or second stomach, where

it receives an augmentation of liquid material from the liver and

pancreas; consequently, when it reaches the small intestine, where

absorption takes place, it is in a well diluted condition. During its

passage through the small intestine, the nutrient portion of the

ingesta is abstracted from it by the villi (small hair-like processes)

with which the small intestine is thickly studded, so that at the end

of its journey of about twenty-two feet (if digestion is normal) all

that is of value to the organism has been appropriated--the remainder

being refuse. This waste product passes into the colon, or large

intestine, and should be promptly expelled. If prompt expulsion does

not take place, this is what happens: The fluid portion of this semi-

liquid waste is re-absorbed through the walls of the colon directly

into the circulation, a percentage of the solids being deposited on

the walls of the intestine. This process of accretion goes on from day

to day, week to week, month to month, until it not infrequently

happens that the colon becomes distended to several times its natural

size. Instances are on record, where these abnormal accumulations of

faecal matter in the colon have been mistaken for enlargement of the

liver, and even pregnancy. A surgeon in London has a preparation of

the colon measuring some twenty inches in circumference, containing

three gallons of faecal matter, and even larger accumulations have

been reported. The foregoing instances are, of course, exceptional

ones, but it is safe to assert that seventy per cent. of the colons of

the human family (living under civilized conditions) are impacted, and

some of them terribly so. It is impossible to estimate the amount of

evil caused by an engorged colon monopolizing two or three times its

allotted space in the abdominal cavity, crowding and hampering the

other organs in their work.

But the effects of direct mechanical pressure are not the only ones.

The accumulations in the colon necessarily arrest the free passage of

the product of the small intestine, and that, in turn, causes undue

retention of food in the stomach, with consequent fermentation; while

the irritation, due to pressure on the nerve terminals by the

distension, and by the encrusted matter adhering to the intestinal

wall, is simply incalculable.

The effects of gaseous accumulations in the alimentary canal are not

thoroughly understood at present--that is--the pathological effects. The

more direct effects, as manifested in abdominal distension, and the

terrible distress that frequently follows eating, are unfortunately, but

too well known. The reader does not need to be told that during the

decomposition of organic substances, gases are evolved, and no matter

where the process goes on, the results are always the same. Owing to the

causes previously mentioned, the intestinal canal usually offers special

facilities for the production of gases, owing to the retention of

partially digested food, in a medium highly favorable to fermentation. A

moderate amount of sulphuretted hydrogen, and also carburetted hydrogen

is always present in the colon, normally, to preserve moderate

distention of the walls, while the gases usually found in the stomach

and small intestine, are oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbonic acid.

What functional disturbances may arise from the presence of these

gaseous substances in excess in the system is, at present, largely a

matter of conjecture, but it is known that a stream of carbonic acid

gas, or hydrogen continuously directed against a muscle will cause

paralysis of that structure. The expansive force of gases is too well

known to need comment, and the force with which they will at times

distend the abdominal wall points irresistibly to the conclusion that

such an amount of force exerted against vital organs cannot be otherwise

than productive of serious harm. It is not at all improbable that many

cases of hernia and uterine displacement may be due to this hitherto

unsuspected cause. That they penetrate the neighboring tissues is an

established fact, and it is quite conceivable that their action upon the

nervous system though the medium of the circulation may lie at the root

of many of the cases of neurasthenia that are now so prevalent.

But the auto-infection that results from the absorption of the liquid

waste into the blood supply is by far the most serious feature. The

blood is the life. From it the system obtains all the material for the

formation of fresh tissue, and it is a practical impossibility for

good, healthy structures to be built up from a tainted blood current.

Why is it that the vegetation on the banks of a stream, on which a

manufacturing town is located, is invariably stunted and withered?

Because the water that should nourish it is polluted by the refuse

poured into it, and no amount of deodorants or disinfectants will

prove of any avail to restore the devitalized vegetation, but will

rather aggravate the trouble. But cut off the source of pollution, and

in an incredibly short space of time the vegetation will take on a new

1ease of life.

This liquid refuse in the colon is composed of substances for which

the system has no further use--it has rejected them; consequently they

are foreign bodies, and as such, are the equivalent of poisons. The

colon, in this condition, is a perfect hot-bed for the breeding of all

kinds of poisonous germs, and the action of cathartics aggravates the

condition by filling the pouched portions of the colon with a foul

liquid which facilitates the absorption of the ptomaines and

leucomaines through the mucous coat of the intestine. It is known now,

that as much as three-fourths of this foul putrid substance may be

absorbed, carrying into the system poisonous germs and excrementitious

matter. Dr. Murchison states, "that a circulation is constantly taking

place between the fluid contents of the bowel and the blood, the

existence of which, till within the last few years, was quite unknown,

and which even now is too little heeded." And Dr. Parker says, "It is

now known, that in varying degrees there is a constant transit of

fluid from the blood into the alimentary canal, and as rapid

absorption." It is also stated on reliable authority, "that every

portion of the blood may, and possibly does, pass several times into

the alimentary canal in twenty-four hours." Prof. I. I. Metchinkoff

recently stated in a lecture at Paris: "Particularly injurious are the

microbes of the large intestines. Thence, they penetrate into the

blood and impair it alike by their presence and the products they

yield--ptomaines, alkaloids, etc. The auto intoxication of the organism

and poisoning through microbes is an established fact."

Having shown that the average colon is a fertile breeding ground for

all kinds of poisonous germs, and that they are conveyed into the

circulation by the interchange of fluids in that organ, it may be

interesting to explain how these germs are conveyed to, and deposited

in the various organs of the body.

We have in our bodies a system of canals called arteries and veins,

having their head at the heart, which is the main pump that keeps the

blood in motion. The arterial circulation consists of those channels

which convey the blood--supposed pure blood--away from the heart to the

different parts of the body, loaded with the life-giving principle of

sustenance, invigoration and heat, while the veins or venous

circulation conveys to the heart and lungs the impure blood, loaded

many times with disease-breeding germs.

Now, in the blood, as it courses through our bodies, are myriads of

little vessels called corpuscles; these are what give the blood a red

color. There are also a smaller number of white corpuscles, that are

known as phagocytes, whose mission is to destroy micro-organisms that

are prejudicial to life. In order that you may know their use, I, for

convenience sake and to make my meaning better understood, will call

them little war vessels, loaded with soldiers, and the soldiers have

in their vessels a furnace whose fire never goes out. These vessels

and their little warriors are continually sailing through our bodies,

hunting for germs of disease, that they catch and throw into their

furnace and burn them up. Now, suppose we take a violent cold, thus

closing the pores of the skin, and that at the same time the colon is

engorged, two of the most important outlets for the filth and decayed

matter of our bodies are closed up--for the life of our bodies is one

continual process of building anew and tearing down; these two most

important sewers are now closed. These little vessels now have their

hands full, catching disease-bearing germs that nature cannot throw

out through the colon or pores of the skin--both being closed--and we

call this condition of things fever. The white corpuscle has but two

dumping places now, the lungs or kidneys. Suppose that in the colon is

the tubercular ulcer, breeding the bacillus of consumption, and they

are absorbed into the circulation. Ordinarily the white corpuscles

would be able to destroy them, but now they are so overworked that the

tubercular germ lands in the lung tissue alive and well, ready to

commence his work of destruction and death. The person developes a

hacking cough, and finally goes to the doctor, and he, if he knows his

business, probably finds tuberculosis well established. Typhoid fever

has its nursery solely in the colon, and gets possession of the

citadel of life in the same way as any other germ or contagious

disease. What a terrible battle there must be going on in us between

our life-preservers and the germs of disease.

Is it any wonder that people die of premature old age, of apoplexy,

paralysis, dropsy, consumption, and the thousand and one maladies that

scourge humanity? And is it not unreasonable to pour a few grains of

diluted drugs into the stomach to purify the blood--even granting for

the sake of argument that such a purpose could be accomplished by that

means--when occupying nearly one-half of the abdominal cavity is an

engorged intestine reeking with filth so foul that carrion is as the

odor of roses compared to it, and which is being steadily absorbed

into the circulation? If a man were to act as foolishly as that in his

business, his friends would quickly petition the courts to appoint a

guardian for him.

It may be asked, why has not this discovery been made before? In the

first place, the colon has had but scant attention paid to it in the

dissecting room, until of late years the appendicitis craze has

awakened some interest in it. Its importance was not realized--the

circulatory and nervous systems receiving the lion's share of

attention. In the second place, in holding post-mortems the

organ was avoided, cut off, if in the way, and thrown into the slop

bucket. It was known to be always full, but no one ever asked whether

or not it was natural in its fullness of faecal matter, and as a

result, probably the profession knows the least about this important

organ, of any in the human body. Strange, is it not, that among the

seven thousand physicians ground out and polished in the mills of

wisdom each year, that there was not one who had originality enough to

ask the question, Is it natural that this scent bag of filth should

always be so full of putrid matter that we cannot abide one moment

with it? And, inasmuch as it is so, is it not a great detriment at

least to our health to carry this mass of filth around with us, from

day to day, from week to week, and from year to year--absorbing its

poison back into the circulation? Strange that these questions did not

present themselves to some one of the enterprising youths of our

original young America.

The muscular fibres of the intestines are circular and longitudinal.

In the large intestine the longitudinal fibres are shorter than the

tube itself, which length permits the formation of loculi (cavities).

These become the seat of faecal accumulations, only too often

unnoticed by the physician. It is undoubtedly a fact that the loculi

of the colon contain small faecal accumulations extending over weeks,

months, or even years. Their presence produces symptoms varying all

the way from a little catarrhal irritation up to the most diverse, and

in some instances serious, reflex disturbances. When the loculi only

are filled, the main channel of the colon is undisturbed. The most

common parts of the colon to become enlarged are the sigmoid flexure

and the caecum (see diagram in beginning of book), but accumulations

may occur in any part of the colon. The ascending colon is much more

often filled in life than the books would lead us to believe; indeed,

it may be said that chronic accumulations are oftener to be found in

the ascending than in the descending colon, which is also contrary to

the assertions of the authors. This is due partly to the fact that the

contents of the colon have to rise in opposition to gravity, and

partly to the semi-paralyzed condition of the muscular coat of the

colon through inactivity. When the accumulations are large, the

increased weight of the colon tends to displace it; and if in the

transverse colon, that portion may be depressed, even into the pelvis.

The mass may be so enormous as to press upon any organ located in the

abdomen, interfering with its functions; thus we may have pressure on

the liver that arrests the flow of bile; or, upon the urinary organs,

crippling their functions.

Of course, such excessive accumulations occur only exceptionally, and

it is not to these that attention is particularly drawn, because when

they are so excessive, any physician can detect them by palpation

(touch).

It is to the minor accumulations particularly, that I wish to draw

attention--the accumulations that we see in the majority of patients

who visit our offices. Such patients assure us that the bowels move

daily, but the color of their complexions, and the condition of their

tongues, are enough to assure us that they are the victims of

costiveness.

Daily movements of the bowels are no sign that the colon is not

impacted; in fact, the worst cases of costiveness that we ever see are

those in which daily movements of the bowels occur. The diagnosis of

faecal accumulations is facilitated by inquiring as to the color of

the daily discharges. A black or a very dark green color almost always

indicates the faeces are ancient.

Prompt discharge of food refuse is indicated by more or less yellow

color. It would be interesting to inquire why fresh faces are yellow

and ancient faeces are dark.

Such patients have digestive fermentations to torment them, resulting

in flatulent distension which encroaches on the cavity of the chest,

which in excessive cases may cause short and rapid breathing,

irregular heart action, disturbed circulation in the brain, with

vertigo and headache. An over-distended caecum, or sigmoid flexure,

from pressure, may produce dropsy, numbness or cramps in the right or

left lower extremity.

The reports of the Post-mortem examination of the colons of hundreds

of subjects reveals a series of horrors more weird and ghastly than

were ever penned by Eugene Sue, or Emile Zola. The mind shrinks in

dismay at the appalling revelations, and shudders at the possibly of

the "human form divine" becoming such a peripatetic charnel house.

Is it any wonder that the average human system, being thus saturated

with impurities, should succumb to the first exciting cause? Is it

not, in fact, a greater marvel that the rate of mortality is not even

higher than at present?

My object in publishing this book is to point out the true cause of

disease, together with the means for its prevention and cure, and

that, too, by a simple and inexpensive method of hygienic treatment,

which has proved eminently successful in tens of thousands of cases,

which is perfectly harmless and natural in its action, and absolutely

free from even the suspicion of a drug.

PART III.

RATIONAL HYGIENIC TREATMENT.

Having striven to explain in an intelligible manner the true nature

and cause of disease, and to point out the inadequacy of the drug

system of treatment to combat pathological conditions successfully

(not from any lack of intention on the part of the drug practitioners:

but from the unreliability of their methods), I shall now proceed to

lay before you the system of treatment which it is proposed to

substitute in its stead, and I unhesitatingly affirm that it will be

found so simple, so inexpensive and so obviously based on common sense

and true hygienic principles, that the thoughtful reader cannot fail

to give it his unqualified endorsement, and will be lost in wonder

that any one should fail to adopt it, when made acquainted with its

simplicity and its marvellous results.

In an old comedy, which used to delight our fore-fathers, the hero,

Felix O'Callaghan, defines the practice of medicine as "the art of

amusing the patient while Nature performs the cure." In that sentence,

the dramatist (unwittingly perhaps) embodied a great truth. Nature,

and Nature only, can effect a cure. Fresh air, sunlight, pure water,

diet and exercise are the great curative agents provided by Nature,

and all that the physician can do, no matter to what school be

belongs, is to remove as far as possible all existing impediments, and

to see that the hygienic conditions are made as favorable as possible.

For the rest, Nature, the marvellous builder, will, in her own

mysterious way, build up fresh tissue, and, slowly but surely, repair

the ravages made by disease. No one would dare to say that the farmer

made the corn grow. He does all that the science of agriculture tells

him is needful to furnish proper conditions for growth, but there he

must stop--the rest must be left to Nature. Then, since disease is a

wasting of tissue, and recovery a building up, it is a palpable

absurdity to credit a physician with a cure. All that he can do is to

cooperate with Nature, by seeing that none of her laws are violated,

and insisting that nothing whatever shall obstruct her beneficent

functions.

Whether for the preservation of health, or the treatment of disease,

when present, the chief thing is to cleanse the colon. It is useless

to attempt to get rid of the effects while the cause is present.

If the principal drain in a dwelling becomes choked, what is the

consequence? The noxious and pestilent gases generated by the

accumulated filth having no outlet, are forced back into the building,

poisoning the atmosphere, and breeding contagion among the

inhabitants. Deodorizing and disinfecting will simply be a waste of

time and material, until the drain is cleared. The colon is the main

drain of the human body, and if it be necessary, for sanitary reasons,

to keep the house drains clean, how vitally important is it to keep

the main outlet of the physical system free from obstructions.

Or, to use another homely illustration, when your coal stove has been

run continuously for a long time, as a natural result it becomes clogged

with cinders and ashes, causing the fire to burn badly. You encourage it

with fresh fuel, rake it and shake it but without avail--the

accumulations of debris are too great. You remove a portion, but its

place is taken by more substance from above. At length you resort to the

measure you should have employed at first--you "dump the grate" and start

a fresh fire. The moral is obvious: dump the grate of the human

system--in other words, empty the colon.

It has been previously shown that an impacted colon is neither more

nor less than a prolific hot-bed for the wholesale breeding of disease

germs--microbes--those infinitesimal organisms which science has

demonstrated to be the cause of many phases of disease, or rather, the

toxins (poisons) they produce, cause disease. Of course, there are

harmless micro-organisms as well as hurtful ones; in fact, a large

proportion of them are beneficial rather than otherwise; but some of

them (notably the tubercle bacillus) are so intimately associated with

disease that it is next to impossible to doubt their responsibility.

The sphere of the microbe is absolutely without limit. He is equally

at ease in the air, the earth, and the water. He makes himself at home

in our beverages and our foods. Our mouths furnish desirable lurking

places for him, our hair, and finger-nails are favorite posts of

vantage; while he delights to disport himself in our blood. He is the

active agent of decay, and the prime cause of disease. He is the most

selfish of parasites. The world for a long time disregarded him, but

now acknowledges him as one of the mightiest of conquerers; for while

other devastators have slain thousands, millions have fallen beneath

his insidious attacks. He is a foe to be dreaded, for he is forever

lying in ambush for fresh victims.

Microbes breed in fermentation, consequently, every particle of

undigested food remaining in the stomach or intestines becomes an

ideal nursery for their propagation. It has been demonstrated that

food that has been subjected to the action of the gastric juice

decomposes far more rapidly than that which has not--hence, with

imperfect digestion, fermentation quickly takes place. If microbes are

now introduced into the system, either by contact with sick persons,

inhaling impure air in crowded public buildings, or breathing in the

dust on ill-kept streets, there is danger ahead; for if the recipient

is not in a sound, physical condition, the microbes (finding congenial

lodgment), multiply with the most marvellous rapidity, permeating

every portion of the tissue--causing, in fact, DECOMPOSITION WHILE

STILL ALIVE.

Every particle of animal or vegetable matter, even if only a single

grain in weight, by exposure to the air, putrefies, breeds, and

attracts to itself thousands of microbes, and becomes a center of

infection. Thus, in a piece of street dirt containing organic matter,

we may find upon examination, the germs of typhoid fever, diphtheria,

scarlet fever, or consumption. When this piece of dirt is dried by the

sun and pulverized by horses' hoofs, the particles of dirt are caught

up by the wind, and sent whirling through the air, to be drawn into

the lungs by those within reach, Of course, every one who breathes in

the microbes of some particular disease does not catch it, or we

should soon all be dead, but those who have not the resisting power of

sound bodies to kill these germs, before they have time to set up

their peculiar inflammation, are apt to realize the evil effects, a

week, a month, or even a year afterwards.

It is evident then that to cure disease we must get rid of all

fermentation in the system, and thus prevent the further breeding of

microbes and to prevent disease we must get the system into such a

sound, healthy condition that disease germs cannot obtain a lodgment

in it.

Now, this can only be accomplished by thoroughly cleansing the colon,

and keeping it absolutely clean, thus preventing further contamination

of the blood current--the fountain of life.

The intelligent reader, recognizing the absolute correctness of the

foregoing proposition, will naturally ask, "Can such a thing be

accomplished, and how?" We beg to assure the reader, most

emphatically, that it can, but not by the means usually employed. It

is perfectly plain that the cleansing process cannot be effected by

cathartics, for at the best, they only afford temporary relief

(witness the growth of the cathartic habit), while on an impacted mass

such as is commonly present in the colon, the influence they can exert

is practically nil. The common experience of those afflicted with

constipation is, that they commence with a laxative, gradually

increasing the quantity and frequency of the dose until it fails to

act at all. Then they resort to a cathartic, with a similar

experience, when it is exchanged for a more powerful one, and then for

another still more powerful, until at last, it becomes impossible to

move the bowels without a powerful dose.

That this is no overdrawn picture many of my readers will bear

witness, and my brother practitioners can amply corroborate the

statement, for they fully recognize the vital importance of removing

the waste from the system. The pity of it is that they still persist

in employing such a crude and ineffective method.

Do any of my readers know how a cathartic acts?

It is popularly supposed that the drug passes from the stomach into

the small intestines, rendering their contents more liquid; then

passes into the colon, producing the same effect upon its more solid

contents, thus causing an evacuation. Many people have no conception,

whatever, of the modus operandi of a purgative drug, simply believing

that it acts in a certain mysterious manner, but the above described

process is generally believed to be the correct one by those who have

thought upon the matter, but lack physiological knowledge. It is a

huge mistake.

Any purgative drug, whether aperient, laxative or cathartic, is

dissolved in the stomach by the action of the gastric juice--in fact,

goes through the same digestive process as the food that is eaten,

that is, it passes into the small intestines and is there absorbed

into the circulation.

By its irritation of the nerves, the secretory and excretory processes

of the system are stimulated into abnormal action, and an extra quantity

of fluid is poured into the colon to dissolve the accumulated mass;

which is about as scientific a proceeding as pouring a quart of water

into a washbowl on the upper floor of a dwelling to clear away an

obstruction in the main drain of the building. And, again, as previously

stated, the action of laxatives and cathartics, especially the variety

known as hydrogo-cathartics (watery), fill the ano-rectal cavity and the

loculi, or folds of the colon, with a foul watery solution that is a

perpetual source of irritation to the sensitive mucous surface,

hastening and intensifying the process of auto-infection by absorption,

that is constantly going on.

And what about the enormous drain upon the vital forces? Who is not

familiar with the feeling of exhaustion when the reaction sets in

after the employment of such methods of relief? How can it be

otherwise? These stimulants to defecation are like the applications of

the whip to the jaded horse-they excite the system to make a supreme

effort in the required direction, but the reaction is disastrous in

the extreme. With the repeated demands upon the delicate nervous

system incidental to constant catharsis is it any wonder that we are

so constantly confronted with cases of nervous collapse? The wonder

would be if it were otherwise.

Nor are these the only objections to be urged against purgative

medication. Its effects upon the digestive functions is, in the

highest degree, destructive. It would be next to impossible to find an

individual addicted to the use of cathartics whose digestion was not,

practically, a wreck. It is true, that a large part of the digestive

disturbance in such cases is due to the obstructed condition

of the colon, and the consequent undue retention of food in the

stomach, until fermentation sets in; but no inconsiderable share of

the trouble is due to the action of the drugs, by repeated over-

stimulation of the nervous system, and perpetual irritation of the

delicate absorbent vessels.

Viewed from whatever standpoint we may choose, the employment of drugs

to relieve an overcharged colon is both unsatisfactory and

unscientific.

And yet there is a simple and effective method of dealing with this

trouble; of removing the accumulations, no matter how large they may

be; of thoroughly cleansing and purifying that important organ, the

colon, without the least demand upon the vital forces, and that is by

WASHING IT OUT.

In plain English, the preservation and restoration of health depends

entirely upon cleanliness, especially internal cleanliness, and to

attain that condition which we are told is next to godliness, there is

nothing equal to water--especially "hot water, which is the great

scavenger of nature."

Strange, that such an obviously common-sense proceeding should not be

universal, is it not? I do not claim to be the discoverer of this

method of internal purification, for it is in reality of ancient

origin, as we have it on good authority that it was practised by the

ancient Egyptians, who, it is believed, acquired their knowledge from

observing a bird called the Ibis, a species of Egyptian snipe. The

food of this bird, gathered on the banks of the Nile, was of a very

constipating character, and it was observed, by the earliest

naturalists, to suck up the water of the river and using its long bill

for a syringe, inject it into its anus, thus relieving itself. Pliny

says this habit of the Ibis first suggested the use of clysters to the

ancient Egyptian doctors, known to be the first medical practitioners

of any nation, not excepting the Chinese. [See Naturalis Historia,

Lib. VIII., Dap. 41, Hague 1518.

Another writer, viz., Christianus Langius, says, that this bird when

attacked with constipation at some distance from the river, and not

able to fly from weakness, would be seen to crawl to the water's edge

with drooping wings and there take its rectal treatment, when in a few

minutes it would fly away in full vigor of regained strength.

Nor do I even claim to have rediscovered this system of treatment,

although it is a common practice in these days to revamp old theories

and discoveries, and try to foist them upon the public as entirely new

propositions. The credit for the resuscitation of this ancient

remedial practice belongs, without doubt, to Dr. A. Wilford Hall, of

New York, who practiced the treatment on himself for forty years

before giving its principles to the public, thereby fully proving its

merits.

The following experience from the pen of Dr. H. T. Turner, of

Washington, affords incontestable proof of the allegation made, that

the colon is the seat of disease, and his testimony should be read

with extreme care. It is no fanciful, theoretical statement, but the

ghastly revelation of an appalling reality. While reading his

statement, the reader will do well to refer to the engraving,

representing the digestive apparatus, at the commencement of this

book, as it will greatly facilitate his comprehension of the matter.

"In 1880 I lost a patient with inflammation of the bowels, and

requested of the friends the privilege of holding a post-mortem

examination, as I was satisfied that there was some foreign substance

in or near the Ileo-coecal valve, or in that apparently useless

appendage, the Appendicula Vermiformis. (See explanation of

engraving.)

"The autopsy developed a quantity of grape seed and popcorn, filling

the lower enlarged pouch of the colon and the opening into the

Appendicula Vermiformis. This, from the mortified and blackened

condition of the colon alone, indicated that my diagnosis was correct.

I opened the colon throughout its entire length of five feet, and

found it filled with faecal matter encrusted on its walls and into the

folds of the colon, in many places dry and hard as slate, and so

completely obstructing the passage of the bowels as to throw him into

violent colic (as his friends stated), sometimes as often as twice a

month, for years, and that powerful doses of physic was his only

relief; that all the doctors had agreed that it was bilious colic. I

observed that this crusted matter was evidently of long standing, the

result of years of accumulation, and although the remote cause, not

the immediate cause of his death. The sigmoid-flexure (see engraving),

or bend in the colon on the left side, was especially full, and

distended to double its natural size, filling the gut uniformly, with

a small hole the size of one's little finger through the center,

through which the recent faecal matter passed. In the lower part of

the sigmoid-flexure, just before descending to form the rectum, and in

the left hand upper corner of the colon as it turns toward the right,

were pockets eaten out of the hardened faecal matter, in which were

eggs of worms and quite a quantity of maggots, which had eaten into

the sensitive mucous membrane, causing serious inflammation of the

colon and its adjacent parts, and as recent investigation has

established as a fact, were the cause of his hemorrhoids, or piles,

which I learned were of years' standing. The whole length of the colon

was in a state of chronic inflammation; still this man considered

himself well and healthy until the unfortunate eating of the grape

seed and popcorn, and had no trouble in getting his life insured in

one of the best companies in America.

"I have been thus explicit in this description, from the fact that

recent investigation has developed the fact that in the discovery

described above, I had found but a prototype of at least seven-tenths

of the human family in civilized life--the real cause of all diseases

of the human body, excepting the grape seed and popcorn. That I had

found the fountain of premature old age and death, for, as surprising

as it may seem, out of 284 cases of autopsies held of late on the

colon (they representing in their death nearly all the diseases known

to our climate), but twenty-eight colons were found to be free from

hardened, adhered matter, and in their normal healthy state, and that

the 256 were all more or less as described above, except, perhaps, the

grape seeds and popcorn. In many of them the colon was distended to

double its natural size throughout its whole length, with a small hole

through the center, and as far as could be learned, these last cases

spoken of had regular evacuations of the bowels each day. Many of the

colons contained large maggots from four to six inches long, and

pockets of eggs and maggots, while blood and pus were frequently

present."

The question is often asked, and naturally so, why this unnatural

accumulation is in the colon? The horse and ox promptly obey the call

of nature; they know no time or place, and are blessed with clean

colons. So are the natives of Africa. But the demands of civilized

life insist upon a time and place. Business, etiquette, opportunity,

and a thousand and one excuses stand continually in the way, and

nature's call is put off to a more convenient time and place.

How many people are not presentable to themselves or friends, owing to

the putrid smell of their bodies, so that in polite society strong

colognes and other perfumes are used. Show me a woman who girts her

waist with corsets or any tight clothing, and I will warrant you that

the smell from her body will be sickening in the extreme. The special

reason for this is, that the lacing comes immediately where the

transverse colon crosses her body. Now, if the sigmoid-flexure becomes

loaded, because of its folding upon itself, how much more will the

transverse colon become clogged if unnaturally folded upon itself by

compression from each side folding it, as demonstrated in some

instances, almost double the whole length, into two extra elbows,

where it, if natural; is straight (see engraving on next page). Many

reasons have been given by physiologists and humanitarians, why it is

injurious for the lady to lace, but this reason outweighs them all.

Wear the clothing loose, clean out the colon and heal it up, and you

will smell sweet, and life will be a continual blessing; for if the

main sewer in the body is closed or clogged, nature has but three

other outlets: the capillaries or pores of the skin, the lungs in

exhalation, or the kidneys. If the colon is clogged, the penned-up

acid permeations of the stomach and duodenum will have to seek other

outlets, which is indicated by the putrid smell of the body and a foul

breath with finally dyspepsia, and what is usually termed biliousness,

torpid liver, etc.

The condition of the colon (the physiological sewer) in the average

adult having been demonstrated, does it need any argument to convince

the intelligent thinker that the most rational and practical manner of

dealing with this hot-bed of filth and breeding place of disease, is

to wash it out?

With me, it has passed beyond the theoretical stage, for I have in my

office fully 15,000 grateful letters from patients who have used this

process, under my direction, with the most astounding results;

scarcely a disease known to humanity, but has been relieved, and in

ninety-five per cent. of cases, cures effected; while tens of

thousands of gratifying messages have reached me from time to time;

nor is the testimony in its favor confined to the laity, for hundreds

of physicians (including some of the most prominent authorities)

testify to the wonderfully beneficial results achieved by its use.

We now come to the most important feature of the subject--the means for

putting it into practice, for it will readily be admitted that such an

admirable and common-sense method of treatment should have the most

perfect means procurable for its application, but until the present

time the available means have remained crude and undeveloped. This,

however, is scarcely to be wondered at. It is the history of all

important discoveries.

Those great natural forces, steam and electricity, although their

value was recognized, yet required the aid of inventive genius to

develop their possibilities; in fact, it has required three-fourths of

a century to bring the locomotive to its present state of perfection,

while the potentialities of electricity are as yet only surmised. This

being so in matters that offer a rich pecuniary harvest to the

inventor, it is little matter for surprise that improvement in a means

of combating disease should progress slowly. In the first place, it

was a new departure, unheralded to the world, and frowned upon by the

members of the orthodox medical schools; consequently there was no

tempting bait of a handsome profit to encourage the inventor, and

until lately the indifference to matters pertaining to health was

proverbial.

When Dr. Hall commenced his famous experimentation upon himself, the

only appliance available for the purpose was the old-fashioned bulb

syringe, which is simply a flexible rubber tube with an egg-shaped

receptacle in the center. One end of the tube is inserted in the

rectum, while the other end is immersed in a vessel of water, the

injection of the fluid being accomplished by alternately compressing

and relaxing the bulbous portion. It is needless to say that the

process of "flushing the colon" copiously, the only effectual way, was

a tedious, inconvenient and imperfect matter with such a crude

appliance. After the lapse of a great number of years the "gravity" or

"fountain" syringe was invented, which consisted of a rubber bag with

a long flexible tube attached to its lower end. The bag was suspended

from a nail or hook several feet above the individual, the water being

forced into the body by gravity, the pressure being increased or

diminished by raising or lowering the bag. This was a distinct advance

upon the bulb syringe, but it still left a great deal to be desired.

In the first place, they are both exceedingly tedious, a serious

objection in the case of weakly or elderly people; secondly, both

methods necessitate the uncovering of the lower portion of the body,

which is decidedly unpleasant; and, most serious of all, it is

impossible to prevent the admission of air into the intestine, and

that is a fruitful source of pain and discomfort. It should, however,

be borne in mind that both of these appliances were devised for an

entirely different class of operation (namely, vaginal douching),

and were only used for intestinal treatment because there was nothing

better at hand.

Another method, sometimes employed by progressive physicians, consists

in using, in connection with the fountain syringe, a tube from

eighteen to twenty-four inches in length, made of a firm but flexible

variety of rubber. This was introduced (its entire length) into the

body, the theory being that it was necessary to get behind the

impacted mass and force it out ahead of the water, which was

theoretically correct, but in practice found sadly wanting. In the

first place, the opening in the eye of the tube became clogged with

the faecal matter, and, secondly, with the double tube employed for

the return flow, the opening was too small to allow of the passage of

solid substances. The introduction of the catheter is a process

requiring considerable skill, and a perfect acquaintance with the

anatomy of the parts, so that personal use of it is practically

impossible, or, at least, attended with considerable danger. An

examination of the diagram of the digestive apparatus at the beginning

of the book will enable the reader to understand the difficulties

attending its introduction, since it has to pass the sigmoid flexure

(No. 12), and the splenic flexure--that angle of the colon where the

transverse portion turns to descend. With such a tortuous road to

travel, the risk of injury to the sensitive mucous membrane is

excessive--hence this instrument should never be used by the patient

upon himself.

The author, however, felt that there must be an easier and more

effective method of irrigating that important organ--the colon--and one

unattended with any risk, and determined, if possible, to devise some

better way. After much patient and tireless experimenting he invented

and perfected the "J. B. L. Cascade," a mechanical appliance which

completely rids the process of all its objectionable features, and

enables young and old, weak and strong, to use the treatment without

the possibility of danger. It achieves the desired result far more

effectively than any other known apparatus, with the least possible

inconvenience to the patient, and yet so gently and easily that the

operation, so far from being distressing or disagreeable, becomes a

positive gratification.

The letters J. B. L. are the initials of the words Joy, Beauty, Life,

which aptly indicate its purpose and effects, for we confidently claim

that its use will infallibly confer these three great blessings, it

being the one safe and sanative method of regaining and preserving

health. Without health there is no joy in life, and perfect beauty

cannot possibly exist, while with health life becomes indeed worth

living.

One of the gravest objections to all the hitherto existing appliances

is the construction of the nozzle, or tube, that is inserted in the

body, and through which the water is conveyed. These are all (without

exception) made with an aperature in the end, or extreme tip, the

consequence being that a small jet of water is continuously directed

upon one spot in the delicate and sensitive mucous membrane. With

water at the necessary temperature this is a source of grave danger,

and likely to result in serious injury, by causing a separation of the

various layers of which the membrane is composed. When this separation

occurs little slits occur in the rectal lining, in which faecal matter

lodges, ultimately forming what are known as pockets, causing, first,

irritation, then inflammation, and, finally, results in "proctitis"--

chronic inflammation of the intestinal canal. The best authorities

agree in condemning the direct jet, while rectal specialists regard it

as one of their chief aids to income.

With these facts in view, the construction of my "injection point," or

entering tube, engaged the special attention, finally, with the result

that a most successful means of overcoming this dangerous objection

has been provided. Instead of the opening in the end, the tip is made

absolutely solid, so that the impact of the entering water is not felt

at all, while it is provided with six rows of perforations on the

sides, through which the water is evenly diffused over the walls of

the rectum, which is a most desirable thing in cases of hemorrhoids or

rectal inflammations. It is also so constructed that the natural

constriction of the sphincter muscles holds it firmly in position in

the rectum, and while affording the water free passage into the colon,

it prevents the escape of the fluid externally, thus rendering soiled

garments impossible.

But the simplicity of the operation is one of its chief advantages,

for the patient sits upon the appliance in ease and comfort while

receiving the cleansing stream, and by following the directions the

time occupied in the operation need not exceed fifteen minutes, or

about one-fourth of the time required by other methods--an unmistakably

valuable saving of time and strain to busy or weakly people. The

faucet is considered by experts as a most valuable feature, on account

of the "dome" portion, which accurately fits the natural arch formed

by the limbs when the body is in the seated position.

Many people are accustomed to use the bulb and fountain syringes in a

reclining position and some physicians recommend the patient to kneel

in the bath tub, with the body bent well forward: an irksome,

disagreeable position and quite unnecessary. The theory is, that the

water will flow into the body by gravitation, but they overlook the

fact that the ascending and descending portions of the colon, being

parallel in the body, the water, while flowing readily into the

descending portions, would have to flow uphill in the ascending

portions and by the time it reached there, the force would be

exhausted. The weight of the body furnishes greater force, which is

proportioned to the size and bulk of the patient, but is not

perceptible to him, on account of the solid construction of the tip of

the "injection point," while the steady, uniform pressure exerted

serves to distend the walls of the colon and thus liberate adherent

matter. By far the great majority of people, however, use these crude

appliances while seated over a vessel, which is decidedly injurious.

By reference to the diagram of the digestive organs it will be seen

that the "descending colon," that portion which terminates in the

rectum, is larger than either of the other divisions of that organ. In

fact, its capacity (in the average adult) is about three pints,

equivalent to three pounds. Now this weight, in a flexible organ like

the colon, must cause a sagging down, exerting a serious strain upon

its attachments to the abdominal wall, and by its pressure upon the

sphincters will induce prolapse of the rectum. That is one reason why

so many people find it almost impossible to receive enough water to

make the treatment successful. When a physician, or trained nurse, is

administering a high enema, it is a common practice to hold a folded

towel against the rectum, to guard against this pressure and its

possible results. The "dome" portion of the faucet (previously

referred to) affords the desired support, automatically and

effectually prevents any prolapse; while the handle of the faucet,

projecting forward, between the limbs, may be manipulated with the

greatest ease in controlling the flow of water; and, being seated on a

warm cushion, the patient experiences a pleasant, soothing sensation,

which completely allays any nervousness.

Moreover, realizing the immense advantage to be obtained by attacking

the germs of disease in their chief breeding place, an antiseptic

preparation is introduced into the water used in this remedial

process, which completely and speedily destroys the germs of disease;

but although so potent in its action upon micro-organic life, it is

perfectly harmless, even though a hundred times the necessary quantity

should be forced into the intestinal canal. But it is not alone a germ

destroyer, for it possesses admirable tonic properties, which act upon

the muscular coat of the colon and speedily restores it to its normal

condition.

Defecation, or the expulsion of waste substance from the bowel is

accompanied by the contraction of the circular fibres of the said

muscular coat, but when constipation has existed for any length of

time, the accumulated matter adhering to the walls of the colon

renders that organ partially, if not wholly rigid, hence the

difficulty of evacuation; consequently, through disuse, the

muscles become to a certain extent atrophied, and require stimulation

to resume their natural function even after the colon has been

cleansed. It is largely owing to the use of this antiseptic "tonic"

that the "Cascade Treatment" has been so successful in cases of

obstinate constipation, as by its use the intestine speedily regains

tone and power.

I unhesitatingly assert that if the colon be regularly cleansed and

disinfected by this means, any bacilli or bacteria that may have

obtained a lodgment in the system will be quickly destroyed and

expelled--it cannot be otherwise.

And once the germs of disease are destroyed and their chief breeding

place kept clean by this simple process, and the re-absorption of

poisonous liquid waste into the system thus prevented, Nature, the

great physician, will speedily assert itself and effect a restoration

to health.

NOTE.

If the water is not readily expelled do not attempt to force it out by

straining. Instead, flatten in the abdomen by forcibly contracting the

abdominal muscles.

PART IV.

HOW TO USE IT.

Having endeavored to show the true nature of disease, the rational

method of treating it, and the superiority of the "Cascade" over all

previously existing methods for carrying the treatment into effect, it

may be well to explain the actual manner of using the "Cascade."

In the first place, the reservoir should be thoroughly washed out with

slightly warm water, to get. rid of the factory dust. At one time it

was the practice to cleanse them all thoroughly before fitting them,

but purchasers got the impression that they had been used by other

persons, so it was decided to abandon that practice and send them out

with the dust of the factory in them, in proof of their newness.

Having cleansed the reservoir, the faucet should be shut off and a

level teaspoonful of the antiseptic tonic dissolved in a little warm

water in a cup or glass and poured into the reservoir, which should

then be completely filled with water as hot as the hand can

comfortably bear; not to simply dip the fingers in and withdraw them,

but so that you can immerse the hand and allow it to remain without

discomfort. If tested with a thermometer the water should be from 100

to 105 degrees Fahr., but the hand is a safer guide, as it prevents

any possible danger from a thermometer out of order, or mistaking a

figure in a poor light. If tested by the hand you are absolutely safe,

since water can he used twenty degrees hotter internally than

externally, but in its passage from the body it would he painful to

the external parts. Hot water is the best solvent for impacted faecal

matter, and, on the other hand, water below the temperature of the

body is likely to cause pain. If the hands are impervious to heat, an

excellent plan is to test the water with the tip of the elbow, which

is a most sensitive part of the body.

It is necessary that the reservoir should be absolutely full to insure

the exclusion of air, as that is also likely to cause pain, and, in

addition, its presence is likely to prevent the proper reception of

the water, as, according to an established law in physics, two bodies

cannot occupy the same space at the same time. For this reason it is

advisable to solicit the bowels before taking the treatment, as, if

even no faecal matter is expelled, pent-up gases are frequently

liberated.

The reservoir having been filled as directed and the above directions

carefully observed, the "Cascade" should be laid down and the

"injection point" screwed in. It is then ready for use. Being all

ready, the stick of rectal soap should be dipped in water--to moisten

it--inserted in the rectum and withdrawn. This is simply to lubricate

the passage and facilitate the admission of the "injection point."

Then, standing in front of the seat on which the "Cascade" is lying

(as if preparing to sit down), pass the left hand between the lower

limbs and grasp the handle of the faucet, to guide the "injection

point" into the rectum, and then carefully sit down upon the

"Cascade." When the "injection point" has been completely introduced

and you are comfortably seated, relax the muscles and allow the whole

weight of the body to rest freely on the "Cascade," and turn on the

faucet, partially at first, then, after a few seconds, turn it on

fully and you will readily receive the water.

The most convenient place to use the "Cascade" is in the bathroom,

placing it on the closet seat; or you will find the ordinary bedroom

"commode" a suitable article for the purpose, but if neither of these

are available, then any firm seat, such as a wooden-seated chair, will

do, but taking care to have a vessel at hand in which to discharge the

contents of the bowel.

As soon as the faucet is turned on and the water begins to flow into

the body, proceed to practise the following movements: Commencing in

the right groin; stroke firmly but gently, right across the pelvis, or

lower edge of the abdomen, to the left groin, then directly upward

with the hands to a point just above the umbilicus, or navel, then

straight across the body and down to the right groin. These movements

are directly over and along the course of the colon, and if they are

made gently but firmly, the water will be assisted on its course. A

study of the diagram of the digestive apparatus at the commencement of

the book will be of great assistance in enabling you to understand the

reason for and the method of these movements.

It sometimes happens that after a small quantity of water has been

injected there is a strong desire to expel it, which is sometimes due

to nervousness, induced by the novelty of the operation. If this be

so, shut off the faucet at once and resist the inclination, when, in a

few minutes, the desire will have passed away, then turn on the faucet

again. Be sure to allow the full weight of the body to rest on the

"Cascade," and have no fear. It is the weight of the body itself that

furnishes the motive power and to ease up the pressure defeats the

object.

As soon as all the water has entered that you feel it possible to

receive, turn off the faucet, rise from the "Cascade," sit over the

closet, or vessel, and allow the contents of the bowel to escape. At

the same time repeat the stroking movement previously described, but

this time reverse it, commencing in the right groin, up, across and

down to the left groin. These movements have a three-fold object: they

assist the water in its passage backward and forward, thus shortening

the time of the treatment; they force along the accumulated matter in

the colon with the current of water, and help to dislodge adherent

matter from the walls of the colon.

As we proceed on the assumption that the colon is more or less

impacted (which experience shows), we do not anticipate that more than

two quarts will be received at the first treatment, but as the

accumulations are removed by successive treatments, the capacity of

the colon is increased, so that at the end of the second week enough

should be received to completely fill the colon. The amount of water

varies, of course, with the bulk of the individual, but the capacity

of the colon, in the average well-grown adult, is about four quarts,

but even in the case of a person below the average size, it may safely

be assumed that three quarts of water are absolutely necessary for a

successful treatment.

The presence of from three to four quarts of water in the body will

naturally distend the abdomen and produce a little discomfort, but no

apprehension of any harmful result need be entertained. Rest assured

of this: it is absolutely impossible to rupture the colon, unless you

were to use a force pump, and even then, before the point of rupture

could be reached, the pain would be so intense that you would be

compelled to desist. Again, as we have pointed out, the colon is a

wonderfully elastic organ, and it would be an impossibility to distend

it with water to the same extent that it is frequently distended by

faecal accumulations.

Whenever pain is present during the treatment it is usually due to one

of two things: either the water has not been sufficiently hot, or the

reservoir has not been completely filled, but, if in spite of these

precautions, pain should be present, it will be found advisable, after

a small quantity of water has been injected (say from a pint to a

quart) to shut off the faucet, rise from the "Cascade" and expel it;

then, upon returning to the "Cascade," it will usually be found that

the cleansing of the lower portions of the bowel has removed the

trouble. The same method of procedure holds good when there is any

difficulty in injecting the water. In cases where pain is persistent,

even although all precautions are taken (although such are extremely

rare), a decoction of anise seed made by steeping a tablespoonful of

the seed in a pint of boiling water, added to the water used for

flushing (omitting the antiseptic tonic), will act as an anodyne on

the intestine, and completely subdue the pain.

The frequency with which the treatment is used will depend upon the

nature of the trouble and the length of time it has existed. In the

great majority of cases it is recommended to be used as follows when

commencing the treatment: The first week use it every night; the

second week every alternate night; after that use it twice a week, or

as occasion seems to demand it. For the simple preservation of health,

twice a week will be found amply sufficient. After using the "Cascade"

it will be found extremely beneficial to inject from a half pint to a

pint of cool water and retain it. This will be found not only a

valuable rectal tonic, but an excellent diuretic as well, as it will

pass off by way of the kidneys, cleansing and purifying those organs.

The "Cascade" should not be used within three hours after eating a

full meal, as, if both the stomach and transverse colon are distended

at the same time they press upon each other, and the stomach, being

the more sensitive of the two, nausea is likely to be produced; but

although (with the above proviso) the treatment can be used with

benefit at any period during the twenty-four hours, yet, just before

retiring at night is by far the best time to take it, for several

reasons. Firstly, it is usually the most convenient time for the

majority of people. Secondly, it invariably induces a good night's

rest; for no sleeping potion can equal its effects in that direction.

Thirdly, night is Nature's repairing season, when she is busy making

good the ravages of the day--replacing the waste by building fresh

tissue and by putting the system into a cleanly condition and

purifying the blood current; at that season you are co-operating with

Nature and may confidently expect, and will undoubtedly secure, the

best results.

After using the "Cascade" it is quite possible that there may not be a

movement of the bowels until late the following day. This must not be

considered as evidence of constipation, but simply a lack of matter to

discharge. In a perfectly natural condition of existence there should

be at least two movements of the bowels during the day, but it must be

remembered that the human system has acquired bad habits, and it will

require some time before perfect conditions are re-established. If,

however, from a half pint to a pint of hot water is sipped in the

morning, certainly not less than half an hour before breakfast, it

will stimulate the bowels to action, even though the "Cascade" had

been used the night before, while its cleansing effect upon the

stomach will assist the digestive functions in a marked degree.

It may be accepted as a truism that success invariably excites envy,

therefore, it is but reasonable that the astounding results that have

attended this method of treatment should have aroused a certain amount

of antagonism. The hardy individual who dares to propose a new

departure in the method of treating disease must be prepared to hear

his theories ridiculed, his system denounced, and, possibly, his

motives impugned. Consequently, it is not surprising that the "Cascade

Treatment" has some objections urged against it.

The first objection I am confronted with is, "it is not natural." I

willingly concede that point, and will add that neither is an

obstructed and engorged colon natural.

We are living (in a large measure) an artificial life. In his barbaric

state man obeyed the calls of nature without regard to time or place,

and it is safe to assert that under those conditions an obstructed

colon was an unknown quantity. But in deference to the demands of

civilized life we disregard Nature's calls and defer the response

until a convenient opportunity presents itself, and for this violation

of natural law, a penalty is inflicted.

An obstructed colon, therefore, being itself unnatural, man is

obviously justified in using the brains that Nature has endowed him

with to cleanse it. An artificial limb is unnatural, but would the

same objection hold good that because a man has had the misfortune to

suffer amputation, he must, therefore, limp through life on crutches,

rather than use the mechanical substitute that man's ingenuity has

devised?

Common sense teaches us, and experience has amply confirmed the

teaching, that flushing is not only the easiest, but the most

effectual means of accomplishing this purpose; and it is unmistakably

the most harmless, inasmuch as we use Nature's most simple and

effective cleansing agency in the process--pure water. Sickness is in

itself unnatural, and until the system can be restored to its natural

condition reason plainly shows us that we must co-operate with Nature

and assist in removing these impurities from the system, a task which

our disregard of her warnings has prevented her from accomplishing.

Cathartics simply excite the excretory processes, and stimulate Nature

to a violent effort to expel them, the unnatural exertion being

followed by a feeling of languor, for all purgative action is

debilitating. Flushing, on the contrary, acts directly on the

accumulated matter in the colon (which cathartics never do), and,

instead of causing an unnatural excitation of any of the natural

processes, it induces a calm, restful feeling and a sense of profound

relief.

"It is a debilitating practice," the objectors urge. Here, again, I

join issue. I am in a position to prove a decided negative.

I have the evidence of thousands of people to the contrary--people who

have tested the treatment, and, setting aside the weight of testimony,

even the most prejudiced mind must admit, that actual, personal

experience is more to be relied on than unsupported theory.

Dr. Contrary--people said that his patients who had used the treatment

for months, and even years, had steadily gained in strength and flesh

all the time.

Another favorite objection is that "it causes the intestines to become

weakened and dependent upon this unnatural method." To this I reply

that it is a well known fact that at least fifty per cent, of people

in civilized (?) communities are slaves to the purgative habit, the

system refusing to fulfil its functions without this unnatural

excitation; therefore, if dependence must be placed in something, we

should unhesitatingly give the preference to water, as against

cathartics, but the whole weight of evidence shows that the objection

has no foundation in fact.

On this subject Dr. Forrest said: "Flushing the colon does not cause a

weakening of the intestines. When this procedure is no longer

necessary, owing to restored health, the intestines have also been

restored and improved in tone and will carry on their functions

unaided."

Dr. Stevens, who has used the treatment upon himself and patients for

over twenty years, says that it in no wise interferes in his case with

the normal movement of the bowels. To test it in this respect he has

frequently discontinued its use for a week, with the result of a

regular movement, as soon as enough faecal matter had accumulated to

demand it.

He recommends flushing every two or three days as a preventive of

disease. For over twenty years he has practiced flushing upon himself

as a precaution, and, although now between seventy and eighty years

old, since beginning its use he has never known a day of sickness.

It is contended by some people, including a percentage of physicians

(who should know better), that the frequent use of this treatment will

so stretch the colon that it will remain permanently distended. This

argument is so totally opposed to physiological law, to say nothing of

experience and common sense, that it is almost laughable. The veriest

tyro in the matter of exercise knows that exercise develops a muscle;

that repeated flexion and extension of the arm, for instance, will

strengthen the muscles of that limb, not cause them to lose their

contractibility. All muscle fibres are alike in structure, except that

some are voluntary, others involuntary, but that difference is simply

due to the difference in the source of nerve supply. There is no

reason that can be shown why the muscles of the colon should lose

their elasticity through exercise in contra-distinction to all the

other muscles of the body, since they are not subjected to any

extraordinary strain, the extreme tension only lasting for a few

seconds, while as soon as the water commences to escape, relaxation

follows, and, in addition, heat acts as a stimulant. The objection

does not even merit serious consideration.

"It operates against peristalsis," we are told. I deny it, for the

energy evinced by the intestine in expelling the water is proof of

increased peristaltic vigor, if it is proof of anything. And even if

it did suspend peristalsis for a few minutes, is it not a fact that

other natural functions can be suspended for a much longer period,

only to be resumed with unabated vigor?

Equally absurd, and destitute of foundation, in fact, is the objection

frequently advanced that the washing of the interior surface of the

colon is injurious; as it washes away the fluid that Nature secretes

for the purpose of lubrication.

Where, in the name of common sense, do they get their authority for

such a statement? Do they not know that such a contention is in direct

opposition to physiological law? Does bathing the external surface of

the body prevent the further excretion of perspiration; or bathing the

eyes destroy the functions of the Meibomian glands? Does the drinking

of water prevent any further discharge of saliva into the mouth, or of

gastric juice into the stomach? If the washing away of a secretion

destroyed the power of the secreting gland, human existence would be

brief indeed.

The truth is that not one in ten thousand has any practical knowledge

of the subject. They may possess a smattering, and in the endeavor to

make it show to advantage, they draw upon their imagination to supply

the deficiency. On the other hand, I have been making this subject a

constant study for the past twenty years, having had experience in

thousands of cases, and, therefore, contend that my opinion is of more

value than that of the average man--whether physician or layman--and is

at least entitled to respectful consideration.

Whether the practice of the treatment is to be persisted in will, of

course, depend upon the nature and habits of the patient. If the

pernicious habits that caused the trouble are not abandoned, a

constant resort to the treatment will be necessary. If the patient is

naturally of a costive habit, and has thoroughly weakened his

intestines by a reckless and indiscriminate use of cathartics, it will

require a long persistence in reformed habits before the weakened

bowels will have gained sufficient strength to fulfil their functions

normally.

It is advisable for elderly people to use it more or less continuously

throughout life, for with advancing years the bowels naturally become

less active, and this simple process offers a valuable means of

assistance to flagging nature at the cost of little, if any, exertion;

in fact, after a, little experience no more will be thought of using

the "Cascade" than of taking a meal.

I would strictly impress on the minds of those who propose to give

this treatment a trial that, like every other undertaking in life,

thoroughness and persistence are absolutely indispensable to success.

No great end was ever yet achieved except by hard work,

conscientiousness and perseverance, and these three factors are in the

highest degree necessary to restore health to a system from which it

has long been estranged:

If a chronic, deep-seated disease can be cured in a year, by a home

process, so simple that a child can understand and practise it, the

individual so benefited should consider himself or herself most

fortunate; and few will deny that the end in view--restoration to

health--is a full and ample recompense for the thorough and persistent

effort necessary to attain it. If it were a question of large

pecuniary profit to the patient, it is scarcely necessary to say that

every nerve would be strained to its utmost tension to bring the

coveted prize within his grasp; yet here the reward is of infinitely

greater value, a prize compared with which riches are as dross in

comparison with gold. It is Health, without which the acquisition of

Wealth, is well-nigh impossible, and its possession as profitless to

the possessor as Dead Sea fruit.

I write thus strongly on this point because there is a large class of

people who dabble in every new system of treatment projected, and toy

with every medicinal device that is placed upon the market. They are

the class from whom the patent medicine vendor draws his enormous

annual profits. Like a bee in a garden of roses, they flit from one

remedy to another, but, unlike that energetic and acquisitive insect,

they do not gather the golden reward they are in search of--health. It

is the purveyor of the nostrum that secures whatever there is of gold.

They seem to be utterly incapable of continuity of effort, and, unless

they can discern a marked improvement within a week after commencing a

fresh method of treatment, get discouraged and abandon it. To this

class of people I say, in the most emphatic manner, that if they

propose to give this great remedial process a trial and expect to

derive benefit from it, that the cure rests entirely in their own

hands.

They must persevere. They must be thorough. They must not expect

miraculous results in a few days. Their diseased condition is the

growth of months, perhaps years, and it is the height of unreasoning

folly to expect to be cured in a few weeks. A merchant whose business

has been crippled and who starts in to rebuild it, will consider

himself an extremely fortunate man if, by watchful and untiring

endeavor, he can restore it to a sound and healthy condition in a few

years. Growth is necessarily slow--and this is especially the case with

the human system. Nature will not be hurried. But of one thing they

may rest assured, and that is that if they conscientiously and

persistently practise this simple hygienic treatment they will find

Nature a responsive and willing coadjutor.

"Heaven fights on the side of the strongest battalions," is a military

aphorism, and Nature ranges herself on the side of the individual who

co-operates with her most faithfully, who, in the struggle for the

regaining of health, brings the greatest amount of determination and

perseverence to the encounter.

What these irresolute dabblers in "medical fads" need most of all is

to be inoculated with good, sound common sense, but until some method

is discovered for the accomplishment of that psychological feat, they

will continue to run hither and thither after every new remedy,

dallying with all, and deriving benefit from none.

Here is the testimony of an intelligent man who realizes that the cure

of a chronic disease must necessarily be a gradual process:

"I was a great sufferer from kidney disease of long standing. The

doctors and the various remedies recommended for this complaint

afforded me no relief. I have now used your treatment for nearly six

months. It is working wonders. While I am not yet entirely cured, I am

a great deal better than I was, and am sure, with the rate of progress

made, in six months more I shall be entirely cured."

Perseverence in the treatment will achieve results that seem little

short of miraculous to those accustomed to the "hit or miss" methods

that have so long been in use. And best of all, the benefit attained

will be permanent, for the system being thoroughly cleansed, and kept

so, nothing but fresh, firm, healthy tissue is formed, so that after a

year's conscientious treatment the person practising it will be

practically a new being.

PART V.

PRACTICAL HYGIENE.

Of all the dangers by which we are menaced, none is so greatly to be

apprehended as ignorance. This is especially true with reference to

health. The majority of people fall easy victims to disease, simply

through ignorance of the fundamental principles that govern health. It

is because they do not rise superior to this ignorance concerning the

health of their bodies that they become the prey of the unscrupulous

charlatans who thrive upon the maladies of humanity, and the patent

medicine vendors whose specious advertisements beguile them of their

money. The humiliating part of it is that these same imposters (in a

large majority of cases) possess but little more knowledge of these

subjects than their dupes, but are absolutely devoid of conscientious

scruples. It behooves every intelligent individual to see that this

reproach is lifted from him. Knowledge is held to be a valuable

possession in every department of life; but in no instance will it yield

greater returns for the investment than in the field of hygiene--in

learning how to keep well.

It must not be imagined that because the treatment previously

described is such a wonderful curative and preventive of disease that

nothing more is necessary that all other hygienic measures can be

ignored. These bodies of ours were given us for a nobler purpose than

to be the sport of our caprice or neglect. It is our duty to treat

them as a divine trust.

There is no reason why any human being should die before eighty at

least. With proper care the century mark should be reached in the

majority of cases. This may sound like an extravagant assertion, but

it is absolutely true. It all depends upon taking care of the human

machine. Ask an engineer how long a locomotive would last if drawn at

express speed every day, or if left standing idly on a siding! He will

tell you that over work or disuse are fatal to mechanism, so far as

its capacity for lasting is concerned. Well, the most finished product

of man's handiwork in machinery cannot begin to compare with that

wonderful, complex piece of mechanism--the human body; and if care will

prolong the life of the lifeless machine, the veriest dullard cannot

fail to perceive that the same rule applies with ten-fold force to the

human organism, which possesses within itself the power of

recuperation--a living machine, every atom of which is being daily

replaced as fast as the friction of life disintegrates it. If the

locomotive were capable of being reproduced in like manner--of having

the daily waste of substance replaced during rest by proper attention

to its needs--do you think its owners would ever allow it to wear or

rust out? Would they not bend every energy to prolong its existence

indefinitely? Most assuredly they would. And is the body, the earthly

habitation of the real man, of less importance to himself than the

creations of his own hands? Common sense says, "No!" But daily

experience shows us that the bulk of humanity are far less careful of

the earthly husk that shelters the divine ego than of the machinery

that ministers to their wants. We repeat, there is no reason why man

should not live to be a hundred, or even more, if only proper care be

exercised. The hurry of modern life is fatal to the expectation of

longevity, so also is over-indulgence in the pleasures of the table,

which is one of the besetting sins of the present generation. If from

childhood the care of the human body was made the subject of constant

instruction, the second generation from now would see such a marked

change in the personnel of the race as would astound even the most

sanguine. What if a few less dollars were piled on each other? "Which

is the more to be desired, a perfect, healthful physique, or a full

purse?"

To preserve the body in health is an easy matter, if the individual

will only bring the same thoughtful intelligence to bear on the

subject that he does on the ordinary affairs of life. The natural

agencies for the preservation of health are, as previously stated,

Pure Water, Sunlight, Fresh Air, Diet and Exercise. he first three

are furnished "without money and without price" by the all-wise

mother, while the two last simply require a slight exertion of will

power, tempered with intelligence.

Of the quintette of agencies mentioned above, water is one of the most

important. Water is the original source of all animal life. From it

the earliest species were evolved, and by the natural law of

correlation, it continues to be one of the most important factors in

sustaining existence. Water enters more largely into the composition

of all organic substance than the majority of people dream of, and

this is notably true of the human body. Few people realize that

seventy per cent. of their earthly tenement consists of the fluid in

which they perform their ablutions, yet such is the fact.