Amongst the forms of Degeneration of the Muscular Tissue the reader will
have noticed that of Infantile Paralysis or Poliomyelitis.
The startling prominence that this complaint quite recently acquired was
due to its world-wide ravages in epidemic form and the absolute and
confessed inability of the combined sagacity of the whole faculty of the
orthodox medical profession to cope with it or to cure it--to fathom its
cause and origin or to curtail its increasing rate of mortality. I am
therefore constrained, so far as space permits, to give the matter
special and particular consideration.
The scientific name, "Poliomyelitis," is derived from the Greek words:
polios, grey and myleos, marrow; for its chief feature is a softening of
the grey spinal marrow.
First noticed by the medical world no later than the year 1840,
statistics show that in the last decade it has appeared in various parts
of the world in epidemic form, notably in Sweden and Norway. In America,
epidemics occurred in 1907 and 1908 and again in 1916. It was promptly
and energetically dealt with by the Rockefeller Institute of New York
where the proof was established of the possibility of transmission by a
living virus taken from the spinal marrow of a victim; but whether this
disseminator may be correctly termed a bacillus, or fungus or a germ,
medical-science has been unable lo determine; neither has it succeeded
with the most powerful microscope in discovering the individuality of
this "carrier," whilst all experiments with re-agents have been bare of
results. Thus the researches of science have merely brought us back to
the starting point; namely, that there is a "something" which exerts a
degenerating influence upon the cellular tissue of the spinal marrow and
causes the morbid enlargement of its cells.
The New York Board of Health, cites eight different forms in which the
disease may appear and acknowledges a startling failure to determine
either any uniform period of incubation (i.e. the time between contagion
and the appearance of the symptoms,) or the period of infection (i.e.
how long a sick person may be a danger to others).
The New York press accepts the situation philosophically; as follows:
"Infantile Paralysis cannot be cured by means of medicines. The
physician must of necessity limit his ministrations to easing the
pain, providing for easy movement of the bowels and so forth, but
otherwise _he must let nature take its course_."
Medical reference books vaguely define the disease with diverse and
indefinite theories, showing that science on the subject is practically
mute.
But the medically "unprofessional," random remark of the New York
press-man has exactly hit the mark: "Let nature take its course."
The fact is that nothing very clear or absolute can be said about
Infantile Paralysis; for observation shows that it is apparently a
matter of racial conditions and environment and that only from the
general application of the Laws of Nature, as taught by biology can we
reasonably hope to solve the problem or cure the disease.
As the result of careful study of many cases I simply confirmed the fact
that Infantile Paralysis belongs strictly to the class in which in the
foregoing chapter I have placed it, and is subject to the same rules,
influences and treatment. In most of the cases treated I have not failed
to discover the existence of spinal trouble in one or other of the
parents. This, engendering _predisposition_ to similar complaints _in
the children of the opposite sex_, which, acted upon by the irritants
bred of poor or irrational nutriment and unhygienic environment in
greater or lesser degree, results in attacks of this disease, in plain
or epidemic form as the case may be, to which all children so
predisposed are liable. Thus, incidentally, is my recently discovered
"Law of the Cross-Transmission of Characteristics" amply verified.
As to the cause which leads to the development of this predisposition in
the children, the answer, of course, is improper nourishment; and
amongst the contributory causes I would specially indicate,
"Pasteurized" and "sterilized" milk which has been absolutely banned by
science on the basis of Physical Chemistry, according to which it was
definitely proved in a report laid before the Paris Academy of Sciences,
that valuable bone-forming ingredients in the milk, (a combination of
carbonic and phosphoric lime,) are lost in course of Pasteurization,
since at the temperature necessary for the process they are _transmuted
by heat into insoluble elements_, (phosphate and carbonate of lime)
which, precipitated by chemical action, either drop to the bottom in
sediment or cling to the surface coating and, in either case, are
eliminated and lost to the child to an extent which constitutes a
serious deterioration in its food and one likely in any case to promote
rickets. Milk also contains important constituents which change into
necessary food elements in the course of natural fermentation--gelatine
for instance--which being, as has been shown, so vital a factor in the
building up of tissue, it needs no argument to prove the disastrous
consequences its depletion must engender in the child and it may be
likewise safely left to the intelligence of the reader to grasp the
obvious fact that for the prevention or healing of Infantile Paralysis
the one and only safeguard is Regeneration through the course already
indicated of Hygienic-Dietetic treatment which will, if applied
beforehand, eliminate the tendency to disease or, in the event of its
occurrence, will conduct it along safe and natural lines to a quick
recovery.
This brief sketch of the subject must suffice for the present purpose
but a special article[C] with full and interesting details has been
devoted to the subject, which will appear in my greater work,
"Regeneration or Dare to be Healthy."
"FACIAL DIAGNOSIS" AND "THE CLINICAL EYE."
It is an incident common to the experience of all Natural Hygienic
Physicians for the patient to exclaim in quasi protest: "But Doctor! How
can you tell?"
Accustomed to the pompous pantomime of the orthodox physician--the gold
watch and chain trick, while pulse and tongue reveal their hidden
records--and then the well known questions which call forth the
personal predilection in the fashion of disease and diet, (prescriptions
which are often not untinged by the physician's own proclivities), at
first the patient misses the old familiar presence. If ill he _must_ be,
he expects that the process should proceed from the outset on the old
accustomed, "strictly respectable" lines, and something like resentment
stirs him when, in place of questioning, a physician presumes to _tell
him_ at a glance the substance of his malady _unasked_.
But such is the method of real efficiency and such the qualification of
the men who practice the new philosophy which shall save the world from
shams.
_Facial diagnosis_ is the determining factor of the logical and never
failing science of natural therapy which is coming to the rescue of
mankind, in spite of legal and commercial obstruction.
_The "Clinical Eye"_ is, emphatically, _not_ the sad old "Eye of Faith"
which has sent its millions to their doom, but the _sober, steady,
practiced introspective hopeful eye of knowledge and experience_.
The external symptoms visible to the clinical eye of a physician worthy
of the name, vastly outweigh in important significance, all the
objectionable detailed examination of parts and organs which from long
use has become the habit of the old-school practitioner. Moreover the
swift impressions gathered under the clinical eye are spontaneous and
reliable whereas, as the result of questioning or the description of the
patient, they possibly are not, but rather represent too often some
preconceived notion of alleged heredity or devotional pessimism,
sometimes original but more probably the suggestion of relatives and
friends.
The subject is a vitally important one and, with a view to clearing away
the obstruction of old superstitions from the mind of the reader, I
shall trespass upon my allotted space in order to give a brief extract
of my remarks thereon as expressed in my greater work: "Regeneration or
Dare to be Healthy."