Biology, the Science of life, has developed under my hand that system of
natural healing which I practice, in common with some of the most
successful physicians on the continents of Europe and America.
Although based upon the same biological laws, their systems of
therapy--or healing--differ materially from one another. My system is
entirely my own, developed during the last thirty-five years to that
degree of perfection it has attained today.
I am, naturally, honestly proud of the success achieved during this
strenuous period, yet am I still as anxiously imbued as ever with the
spirit and habit of research which is now directed to the endeavour to
further simplify my method of treatment, by further discoveries in the
realm of that most abstruse of the sciences, _Physiological Chemistry_.
In this baffling but wonderful domain I am inspired by the ambitious
hope that some, at any rate, of the many unsolved problems of the
Science of Life may yet give up their secrets to the demand of my
persistency, exerted in the interest of the well-being of humanity.
After centuries devoted by the faculty to a futile and arrogant attempt
to counteract the disturbances of health, which we call diseases, in the
stereotyped manner known as "orthodox;" after endless complications,
infinite "specializing"--in itself a futility--and unblushing complicity
with the powers that be, we find them now at length, baffled,
discredited, but unashamed, cast back, discomforted, upon Mother
Nature's kindly breast, their victims humbly seeking healing in simple
unity from her ample store.
Based upon this firm foundation, we term the new departure the "Natural
Method of Healing."
The greatest physicians of all time, from Hippocrates to our own day,
were satisfied to be simply _natural_ physicians. They were not
satisfied to merely suppress the symptoms of suffering and to quiet the
sufferer by abnormal appliances. Their higher, more ambitious aim was to
reach the active source of distress--and in this they succeeded.
For, not only did they achieve where others failed, but, in addition to
healing, they also _prevented the recurrence_ of disease, and, more
noteworthy still, they established a system of Prophylactic Therapy,
which is the highest function of the healing art; namely, the
_prevention of disease_ by treatment _before full development_, or, in
other words, the _preservation of health_.
It is not the object of this brief brochure to enter into the devious
details which a full explanation of this practical, successful, modern
method would require. It is designed merely for those who, after
experiencing disappointment and failure in other directions, have had
recourse, as a last alternative, to advice and assistance, from myself.
Such patients, as a rule, have heard of my method from others; have
heard that it differs widely, in its frank simplicity, from the empty
pomposity of the old-school "orthodox" elements, though of the
principles of the old-school teaching they have really little or no
conception, beyond a crude, unwholesome, fear of the unknown, consequent
upon the, _very necessary_, veil of mystery with which its votaries
surround themselves--a semi-superstitious sentiment inherited from a
malignant past and one which does little credit to the vaunted modern
civilization of today.
On this point of difference they ask for enlightenment, and naturally
enquire as to the nature of both, but especially of this new hope which
is held out to them as a refuge in their hour of despair.
This information it is equally my duty and my desire to give, and in the
most convenient and simple form, shorn of all shroud of mystery; for my
object is to educate and not to conceal.
It is my chief desire that patients should thoroughly understand the
methods and principles of the New-School of Healing and should exercise
their own intelligence as to its merits as compared with the old, and,
being once thoroughly convinced--not by faith, or fear, or fashion, nor
yet biased by the unfair influence of the false prestige of a legalized
monopoly detrimental to the interest of the people--they should
forthwith honestly test the new deliverance by faithfully following my
advice and instruction, to their own unfailing ultimate benefit and
relief.
As a labour of love towards the world in general and the people of my
adopted country in particular, I have made it my duty to formulate the
substance of my researches in the field of science--researches which
represent the struggles of a lifetime--in a large and comprehensive work
which, to the scientist as well as to the laymen, will constitute in the
most detailed and complete degree a reliable guide to the conservation
of health which, even now, in the immediate present, has come to be
regarded not only as a scientific phase of education, but as a duty
incumbent upon every citizen. Should sickness supervene, as well it may
sometimes, despite all reasonable precaution, the knowledge and
instructions contained therein are sufficient, if closely followed, to
prevent, for the most part, the serious consequences of disease and to
afford the patient the necessary enlightenment to enable him to
co-operate with the hygienic-dietetic physician in the task of restoring
him to health and ability.
This book, entitled "_Regeneration_" or "_Dare to be Healthy_," will
consist of some three thousand or more pages. It will be published
shortly; and, in the common interests of human health will, I trust,
find prominent place on the book-shelf of every home whose inmates
either belong to the ever increasing number of the followers of my
patients, or who, by careful study of my teachings therein contained,
may be finding their independent way back from the dreary depths of
suffering to the glad plains of health.
In following up the general outline of the "New Regeneration" these
pages will not lend themselves to the otherwise necessary encounter with
what are now admitted to be the recognized errors of the, temporarily
dominant, medical school, save in so far as it may be requisite to
remove from the mind of the layman pernicious and antiquated ideas to
which he has been long and persistently educated, or to protect those
who have ceased to believe in them from the pitfalls to which, as an
alternative, they may be exposed amongst the numberless unscientific,
quasi-miraculous, healing cults, or the equally pernicious nostrums of
the spectacular advertising medicine vendor, both of whom reap golden
harvests among the ranks of the so justly disappointed and despairing
people.
* * * * *
It is, nevertheless, an imperative duty to issue this necessary warning;
namely, that the public should safeguard itself against the absurd, but
possible mistakes of confusing the Legitimate Scientific School of the
Hygienic Dietetic Method of Biological Healing with the nebulous cults
aforesaid. There is no vestige of resemblance between them, either in
thought or principle, and nothing could be more fatal and foreign to the
truth.
* * * * *
There is one thing, and one only, which, like the rest of the community,
we share with them in common, and this is that _growing spirit of
profound distrust_ with which all classes seem daily more and more
constrained to regard the Medical Fraternity and all its ways.
It is the general knowledge of the existence of this sentiment which has
called into being the present epidemic of curious cults and
catholicons--due, it would appear, more to this insidious temptation to
such _commercial enterprise_ than to any other cause--and which form so
prominent a feature throughout all sections of the community--and
especially in the press--throughout the length and breadth of the land.
To such, in an alarming degree, the public turns, in protest, as it
were, against the tyranny and turpitude of this "learned profession,"
with its kindred corporations and its studied callous disregard of
scientific advancement in any direction which might tend to jeopardize
or reduce the profitable exercise of its own obsolete methods, its
system of poisonous medicaments, and dangerous operations and
anti-toxins.
There is no possible efficacy or help to be derived from other
teachings, whatsoever they may be, except from those based absolutely
upon the solid foundation of biological fact. Since Johannes Müller
(1833) wrote the first book on physiology and its chemistry, more than
a thousand so-called "Authorities" in that branch of science have tried
to find some of the secrets of nature pertaining to physiology. A very
few (about 10 or 12) may be named as great men who discovered certain
laws and solved certain problems. But the majority added nothing to
Müller's discoveries. Most of them became teachers or authors, one
plagiarizing the work of the other, eulogy being very liberally
distributed on all sides, but valuable deductions from the great
masters, very few have been able to make, and even those were more or
less suppressed by the "orthodox school." In less than half the time
since 1833, i.e. 85 years, it was my good fortune to give more valuable
deductions and practical applications to the student and the reader,
than the mediocre talents of the "old school" were able to give.
* * * * *
I pretend to no miracles and expect none; nor do I arrogate to myself
any so-called _super_-natural secrets or powers; I simply maintain that,
aided by the erudition of the great scientists of the past and present,
this system has finally been brought to a point which should rightly
have been always the chief aim of Medical Science, namely, an _exact
knowledge of human nature and the human organism, as it is_.
With this vital knowledge at command I have been able to successfully
formulate a system for supplying the individual organism with any of the
various constituents of which it may be deficient, in a manner in which
it can best receive and assimilate the same, thereby maintaining a
correct balance between the constituents of the blood wherein lies
hidden the sole criterion of health and the fatal secret of disease.
Simple as this may sound, the way has been long and lonely until that
elusive goal was reached; and, even now, in the heat of the controversy
which ensues, we find ourselves sometimes in a somewhat parlous
position, placed, as it were, between two fires; on the one side are
those who, though not without sympathetic feeling for the
well-intentioned, earnest-minded believers in the errors now being
exposed, yet cast aside all scruples in the interest of humanity and
truth. On the other side are those obsessed by care and compunction for
these accredited practitioners who by reason of age or temperament are
unable or unwilling to assimilate new ideas or to relinquish the
theories of a life time in order to enter the field of competition with
the men of a younger generation.
Such is the impasse before which we stand.