nature are incurable. In three or four generations they destroy the
strain affected by it, do what we will. Meantime it shows all the
signs and symptoms of a hereditary disease, for the children are born
suffering, showing a coppery rash, and old before they are young. And
when they get a little older they have no bridges to their noses,
their teeth are ill-formed, their vision is imperfect, their
intellects dull. It seems as if nature could not forgive crimes of
this nature. She seems to treat them as the unpardonable sin. If we
find cancer appearing in a family at 55 years of age in 3 or 4
successive generations, there is no proof of heredity in that. Inquire
and see if like causes acting on like organisms in 3 or 4 successive
generations have not produced the disease each time. The children are
not born cancerous, and our efforts to prevent the disease may
succeed. But children often _are_ born with specific disease, and
there is no doubt at all about its being a hereditary disease. Even
now I should not like to sanction marriage in the case of this man who
has heroically fasted for 56 days, although he seems for the present
to have got rid of his disease. But the outlook is hopeful, more
hopeful than I thought, and in the hope that the suggestion may convey
a message of hope to those who are willing to do penance for crimes
against the body, I send out these remarks. The opinion expressed by
the patient that he was getting rid of the Salvarsan which had been
injected into his blood to cure his disease is, of course, his own
only. I offer no opinion upon it. But I think the whole case very
instructive, and it will be deeply interesting to follow it up with
special regard to the inquiry whether the pathological test remains
negative. The reflective reader of these remarks will need no hint
from me to suggest how a study of questions of this sort raises in our
minds all sorts of other questions, physical, metaphysical,
philosophical, social, religious; what are laws of nature, how they
come to be what they are, whether they can be disregarded without
paying the penalty, and whether we men are bond or free. Each of us
will settle these questions for ourselves, for each of us is
responsible for his own conclusion. But as to the inevitableness with
which such questions do rise in our minds, I take it there can be no
difference of opinion.
A. RABAGLIATI.
HEALTHY HOMEMAKING.
_For the benefit of new readers it seems well to explain that this
series of articles is not intended for the instruction of experienced
housewives. It was started at the special request of a reader who
asked for "a little book on housekeeping, for those of us who know
nothing at all about it; and put in all the little details that are
presumably regarded as too trivial or too obvious to be mentioned in
the ordinary books on domestic economy."_
XXI. HIRED HELP.
It does not seem proper to conclude the present series of articles
without touching upon the "servant problem," but I do not pretend to
be able to solve it. It is a problem usually very difficult of
solution by the homemaker of small means. If she has but few persons
to cater for, and is not the mother of a young family, she is often
very much better off without hired help, except for a periodical
charwoman. But it is not always indispensable to the woman who has
other duties besides housekeeping.
I am not here concerned with the housewife who can afford to keep more
than one efficient servant. Indeed, I am hardly concerned with one who
can employ a really good "general" at from L20 to L25 per annum. The
person I am concerned with is the homemaker who can afford at most to
employ an inexperienced young girl at from L10 to L14 per annum.
I will draw the worst side of the picture first, for although it _is_
the worst side it is true enough, as so many harassed housewives know.
The young "general" often comes straight from a council school where
domestic economy had no place in the curriculum, and from a home in
name only. Such an one is usually slatternly and careless in all her
ways, has no idea of personal cleanliness, and regards her "mistress"
as, more or less, her natural enemy! She is "in service" only under
compulsion, and envies those of her schoolmates whose more fortunate
circumstances have enabled them to become "young lady" shop
assistants, typists and even elementary school teachers. If she had
her choice she would prefer labour in a factory to domestic work; but
either a factory is not available, or the girl's parents consider
"service" more "respectable" in spite of its hardships. Its hardships?
Yes, it _is_ its hardships that account for its peculiar unpopularity.
For there are hardships connected with domestic service in small
households that do not apply to other forms of much harder labour.
Everyone who is familiar with the small lower middle-class household
knows how often the life of the little "general" resembles that of an
animal rather than a human being. All day long she drudges in a
muddling, inefficient way, continually scolded for her inefficiency
yet never really taught how to do anything properly. Her work is never
done, for she is always at the beck and call of her employers; yet
she lives apart in social isolation, is referred to contemptuously as
the "slavey," and even her food is dispensed to her grudgingly and
minus the special dainties bought for Sundays and holidays. This is
domestic service at its worst, of course, but the prevalence of such
"places" in actual fact is undoubtedly at the root of the young girl's
objection to it. How can she help gleaning the impression that such
work is "menial," when her employers more or less openly despise her?
Being human, how can she but envy those of her old friends who have
their evenings to themselves? What contentment can she find in a life
of drudgery unenlightened by intelligent interest in learning how to
do something well? What wonder that all her hopes and ambitions become
centred in the possession of a "young man," and that reason--stunted
from its birth for lack of room to grow--being entirely absent from
her choice, she marries badly and too young, and becomes the mother of
a numerous progeny as helpless, hopeless, stunted and inefficient as
herself?
Some conscientious women try to remedy this state of things by
treating the girls they take into their homes as "one of the family."
This _may_ answer well sometimes, but it has its drawbacks, both for
the girl and the "family." Husband and wife, brother and sister,
inevitably find the constant presence of a stranger with whom they
have little in common very irksome. While the girl herself is equally
conscious of restraint when forced to spend her leisure time with her
employers. She would usually infinitely prefer the solitude of the
kitchen, if combined with a good fire, a comfortable chair and a story
book.
Among the girls I have spoken to on the subject I have not found
"socialist" households popular. One girl I met refused to stay in such
a place for longer than three days, because she "never had the kitchen
to herself." Another told me that she found it intensely boring to
take meals with the family, because she was not interested in the
things they talked about.
I think that the ultimate solution of the "servant problem" will not
be that every woman will do all her own housework, but that domestic
work will become, on the one hand, very much simplified and, on the
other, will be put on the same footing as teaching, nursing or
secretarial work. That we are beginning to move in this direction is
evidenced by the coming into existence of schools of domestic economy,
to which "ladies" do not disdain to resort for training. This will
undoubtedly result in domestic labour becoming a much higher-priced
commodity than it is now, the housewife will have to pay at least as
much for three hours help per day as she now does for nine hours, but
the fact that the help will be skilled, combined with the greater
simplicity of housework, will surely more than compensate for this.
But what is the homemaker of limited means, who must have some help,
to do under present conditions? This we must consider next month.
FLORENCE DANIEL.
HEALTH QUERIES.
_Under this heading Dr Knaggs deals briefly month by month, and
according as space permits, with questions of general interest._
_Correspondents are earnestly requested to write on one side only of
the paper, giving full name and address, not for publication, but as a
guarantee of good faith. When an answer is required by post a stamped
addressed envelope must be enclosed._--[EDS.]
BOILS: THEIR CAUSE AND CURE.
Miss L.C. writes:--I should be deeply indebted to you if you
would advise me in the following matter. I have been suffering
from a recurrence of boils on different parts of my body during
the last six months. I have consulted a local doctor, but he can
find no reason for their appearance, but suggested I should try a
mixed diet, to include some animal food, rather than adhere to
vegetarianism as I have done for some two years past.
My diet is about as follows:--
_On rising._--Tumblerful of hot water.
_Breakfast_ (eight o'clock).--One egg, toasted bread (wholemeal)
and butter, with either a little lettuce or marmalade and either
weak tea or cocoa.
_Lunch_ (one o'clock).--Steamed green or root vegetable, with
cheese sauce or macaroni cheese or similar savoury, or nuts.
Boiled or baked pudding or stewed fruit with custard or blanc
mange.
_Tea_ (four o'clock).--Tea or cocoa, with or without a little
bread and butter and cake.
_Supper_ (7 o'clock).--Vegetable soup, milk pudding and a little
cheese, butter and salad and wholemeal bread.
I am forty-nine years of age, lead a fairly active life,
frequently taking walking exercise. I am very tall and weigh
twelve stone. Have had no serious illness, but been more or less
anaemic all my life.
If you can tell me whether there is anything wrong in connection
with my diet and suggest the cause of, and treatment for, the
boils I shall be exceedingly obliged.
In order to help this correspondent to permanently get rid of these
boils, we must first ascertain what those troublesome manifestations
are and look to the causes which produce them.
A boil is a small, tense, painful, inflammatory swelling appearing in
or upon the skin, and is due to the local death or gangrene of a small
portion of the skin's surface. This eventually comes away in the form
of a core, and, until this has cleared away, the boil will not heal or
cease to be painful.
Boils occur chiefly on the neck, arms or buttocks. If very large they
are known as carbuncles, and if they occur on the fingers or toes they
are described as whitlows. It is often the friction of a frayed-out
collar or cuff, of tight waist clothing, or, in the case of whitlows,
the introduction of some irritant or poison between the nail and the
skin that determines the precise site at which they will come.
Boils, although rarely dangerous to life, are usually accompanied by
pain severe out of all proportion to the extent of surface involved.
This gives rise to much broken rest and loss of vitality, which at
once ceases when the boil has finished its course. Boils usually occur
in series or crops.
Now large numbers of people wear collars and cuffs with frayed edges,
or handle irritants with their fingers, but they do not necessarily
contract boils or whitlows. Therefore, we see that there must be other
factors to be taken into consideration to account for their presence.
The orthodox germ-loving practitioner may tell you that a boil is a
purely local disorder and that a certain form of microbe, known as the
_Staphylococcus pyogenes_, is the cause of it. This germ, he asserts,
lives normally on the surface of the skin and, when this surface
becomes broken, it enters the part and infects it, thereby starting
the boil.
If this is true every person who wears old collars or dabbles his
hands in dirt should without exception contract boils. This is
obviously untrue.
The factor to be considered, then, is this. What is it that induces
boils in one person and not in another under identical circumstances?
The answer is obvious. The boil is not a local disease at all, but is
a manifestation of some constitutional defect, or of some impurity of
the blood stream, which enables this microbe to find a congenial
breeding ground.
The people who suffer most from boils are young or middle-aged adults,
and we usually find the two extremes among sufferers. There is the
full-blooded, often overfed, individual and there is the pale,
debilitated and emaciated person whose constitution is broken down by
worry, overwork, sexual troubles, unhealthy surroundings or badly
selected foods.
If we inquire into the constitutional history of these cases we shall
almost invariably discover that the digestive or assimilative
processes of the body are not working smoothly. This may be due to the
worry or overwork, or to unhealthy surroundings which dis-harmonise
the digestive and nutritive functions, or to nervous exhaustion from
one cause or another, or it may be due to the wrong diet, which is
filling the colon (or large bowel) with fermenting poisons.
When the body is clogged in this manner nature often proceeds to get
rid of the accumulating waste through the skin. By a vigorous effort
on the part of the life-force the impurity is thrown outwards to the
surface. Looked at in this light a boil is really a most salutary
cleansing agent, and the Nature-Cure practitioner, who calls it a
"Crisis," often does everything in his power to produce boils when
treating chronic diseases.
The alternative is often some more deeply seated form of elimination,
resulting in serious organic disease of the organs or tissues. One of
the first signs of improvement in disorders like diabetes,
consumption, arthritis, Bright's disease, or even cancer, is the
appearance of boils, showing that the vitality has improved to an
extent sufficient to enable the foreign matter to be expelled by means
of relatively harmless boils. The hydropathic expert also tries to
induce this condition by means of his mustard and water packs.
If our correspondent wants to rid herself of her boils she must adopt
all means to improve her vitality and to cleanse her body of its
impurities. She can do this along many lines. She can take a holiday
and rest from her work; or by positive thinking she can set to work to
get rid of her worries. She can learn to laugh as often as possible,
and to breathe deeply, slowly and fully. If her house is unsanitary
she should make it sanitary, or move elsewhere.
Then she must restrict her diet and take only those forms of food
which create a minimum amount of poison in the system. _She must
cleanse the colon daily_ with warm water enemas, and encourage the
action of the kidneys in doing their rightful part in the elimination
of poisons by the drinking of distilled water or a good herbal tea on
rising, and of clear vegetable broth at night.
Clay packs, applied cold, are the best form of treatment for
application to the boils themselves. They should never be cut or
squeezed, as this only intensifies the trouble. Hot applications, as
poultices, are bad, because they induce the boil to mature
prematurely, and also are conducive to reinfection of the skin in
other parts. Drugs or medicines are of very little use in the
treatment of boils, because they do not go to the root of the
trouble. The only remedy that I have found of any avail is yeast. In
former times this was taken in the form of fresh or dried brewers'
yeast, and it was, if unpleasant, a very effectual remedy. Yeast
yields a free supply of what is called nuclein and nucleinic acid.
These, chemically, are identical with the same substances found in the
human cells. Nuclein is a powerful antiseptic. It has been found that
the toxins or emanations from diphtheria and other deadly germs are
precipitated and destroyed by nucleinic acid.
It is for this reason that yeast extracts, such as Marmite, often have
a beneficial effect in disorders accompanied by the formation of pus
matter.
Our correspondent's diet should be amended as follows:--
_On rising._--A cupful of unseasoned Marmite.
_Breakfast._--One scrambled or lightly poached egg with stale,
yeast-made, wholemeal bread and nut butter, with lettuce or other
salad food. No marmalade; no tea or coffee.
_Lunch._--1 to 2 oz. of grated cheese or flaked pine kernels, finely
shredded raw cabbage, or grated radishes, or grated raw roots with oil
and lemon dressing. No cooked savouries, no puddings, nor stewed fruit
with custard or blanc mange should be taken.
_Tea Meal._--Cupful of Marmite, only.
_Supper._--Clear, unseasoned, vegetable broth, with Veda or wholemeal
bread, or Granose biscuits, with nut butter and some fresh fruit.
_At bedtime._--A cupful of Marmite.
NOTE.--The unseasoned Marmite should be used, as the ordinary kind is
rather heavily salted.
A BAD CASE OF SELF-POISONING.
Mrs H.W. writes:--I should be very glad if you would give me
enlightenment on one or two points about my diet. I am suffering
from a somewhat dilated stomach, also a catarrhal condition of
nose, throat and alimentary canal, with constipation and much
flatulence in the bowels. My teeth are decaying quickly, my nails
have got softer, and I have become anaemic and generally
debilitated, being unable to properly assimilate my food. All my
joints crack when moved, and the knee joints creak as well. Is
this a uric acid condition, or do you think it merely due to a
lack of nourishment, causing a lack of synovial fluid? The joints
are not swollen and not painful, they merely crack. My whole
system seems to be over-acid, and my mouth gets sore and
ulcerated. I have got very thin, having lost a stone in twelve
months.
I notice that you always advise for dilated stomach greatly
restricting the liquid part of the diet. Will you tell me just
how much one _may_ drink in a day, because when I go without
drinking my constipation and other troubles are worse and the
urine gets thick and muddy.
You also deprecate milk. This puzzled me until you explained to a
correspondent last month in _The Healthy Life_. Will you tell me
if the same applies to dried milk--will it tend to increase
intestinal trouble? I am anxious to know this because I have been
relying somewhat on Emprote and Hygiama lately, for I had got so
that I could scarcely digest anything.
Do you consider it better to use the enema than to take a mild
aperient? I do not want to start with the enema again if I can
possibly manage to do without, because I found that my bowels
depended upon it. And that is why I want to ask if it is
absolutely necessary when on an antiseptic diet to entirely avoid
fruit. I find it so necessary to keep the bowels working
naturally.
I _do_ want you to answer me these questions, because I have got
so worried and fearful (people's theories are so varied) that I
scarcely dare eat any food at all. I am at present taking only
two meals daily (I like the two-meal plan best): at eleven A.M.
and 6 P.M. I take a cup of weak coffee on rising, without milk or
sugar--this warm drink seems to start the peristaltic action and
I then get bowel action. I think of changing the coffee for Sanum
Tonic Tea or Dandelion Coffee.
At eleven o'clock I have an egg with Winter's "Maltweat" bread
and almond butter, and some conservatively cooked vegetable
(celery or carrot or spinach).
At six P.M. I have one or two baked apples, a teaspoonful or two
of malted nuts, or Emprote, and more "Maltweat" bread and butter.
At four P.M. I take a cup of barley water or carrot water, and at
bedtime another cup of barley water.
Do you think that if I went on to a milk diet for a time it would
do good?
This correspondent seems to be suffering from auto-toxaemia, or
self-poisoning in a severe form, and a condition of what is termed
arterio-sclerosis or premature old age. Associated with it are
evidently symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, which is affecting her
joints and teeth. It is not one of ordinary gout or uric acid
poisoning. The trouble no doubt has been caused by past errors of
diet, so that the present efforts at reform have come too late to be
of service to her. Something more than diet is now needed to clear the
acids and toxins from the system. It is not a simple case of digestive
catarrh, for the whole body is affected. The present diet will answer
very well as it stands.
The first thing to do is to obtain a well-fitting dilatation belt.
This must have leg straps and firmly support the lower half of the
abdomen. The next thing is to promote skin action so as to
encourage the clearing out of poisons along this line of elimination.
Vapour baths, wet-sheet packs or alkaline hot baths can effect this
purpose. An alkaline hot bath should be of a temperature of 105
degrees Fahr. or more, and to the bath should be added 1/4 lb. of
bicarbonate of soda and 1/4 lb. packet of "Robin" starch. She should
remain as long as possible in this so as to well clear the acids from
the skin and induce as much skin action or perspiration as possible.
The _first_ baths must be of very short duration, and she should be
careful to avoid chill after the bath; it is best to lie prone and
completely relaxed for half-an-hour at least after the bath. Finally
massage and Swedish movements directed to the entire back will help to
disencumber the central nervous system, which is evidently very badly
depleted of its vital force. It is, of course, a pity the
correspondent cannot get away to a properly organised Nature-Cure home
and have the continuous attention and treatment which her condition
really necessitates.
H. VALENTINE KNAGGS.
CORRESPONDENCE.
AMANZIMTOTI, NATAL.
_To the Editors._
SIRS,
You will see that your little magazine finds its way even to this
out-of-the-way corner of the globe, and you may be sure that it is
appreciated. I am specially interested in Dr V. Knaggs'
contributions and should like to ask him a few questions. May I
say that I have some knowledge of chemistry and that I try and
take an interest in the scientific aspects of food reform.
(1) P. 237. What grounds has Dr Knaggs for speaking so definitely
about human magnetism and that of vegetables? How would he
recognise or test for either, and where can I get further
information (scientific) on the question of food magnetism.
(2) Same page. Dr Knaggs says salt added to cooking vegetables
converts organic salts into inorganic. I cannot follow that. _What_
organic salts are so converted? One or two examples would suffice.
(3) I have been reading Dr Rabagliati's _Conversations with Women
Concerning their Health and that of their Children_.[8] In it he
says that food is not the source (cause) of body energy, but is
used merely to replace waste material. Elsewhere I read that
"Professor Atwater's investigations into nutrition have shown in a
most convincing manner that the body derives _all_ its energy from
the food consumed. This may be regarded as established." Which of
these definite and contradictory assertions does Dr Knaggs support,
and why? Where can I get information _re_ Professor Atwater's
experiments and other recent works on similar subjects?
To me the questions involved are intensely interesting, hence my
queries. I hope they do not read as if I were hypercritical or
sceptical.
With all good wishes for the success of your healthy little
magazine. I am, yours, etc.,
W. BLEWETT.
[8] 5s. net. C.W. Daniel, Ltd., 3 Amen Corner, London.
We handed the above interesting letter to our contributor, Dr H.
Valentine Knaggs, and append his reply:--
HUMAN MAGNETISM.