In any attempt to unravel the tangled skein of cause and circumstance
which surrounds the subject of the world-sweeping pandemic which
masquerades under the misleading title of the "Spanish Influenza," the
first and most important initial step must be a keen and careful sifting
of the facts and forces, natural and artificial, which control or
dominate the situation.
The debatable questions appear to be chiefly the following:
(1) The fundamental causes that underlie the great-epidemics or
pandemics that the world experiences from time to time--the present
one in particular.
(2) The fact or fallacy of the germ as a causative factor or merely
an effect or product of disease conditions.
(3) The alternative course, origin and medium of transmission and
finally
(4) The soundness and efficiency or otherwise of the preventive and
curative measures with which the combined intelligence of the
Medical Faculty has risen to the dire emergency of the moment for
the protection of the people who have relied so confidently, as by
law compelled, upon the standard of their acumen and official aid
as competent guardians of public safety.
The findings, as to the first question, are to the effect that it
appears, from the earliest recorded annals of disease, that epidemics
corresponding to the present outbreak have occurred at irregular periods
all up the centuries under names and conditions peculiar to the times,
and following usually in the wake of some great social cataclysm, strain
or upheaval, the result of wars, persecutions, famines and
distress--causes which clearly illustrate the close reactive connection
between the mental and physical action of disease.
The great pandemics seem to have originated largely in the Orient--the
region of vast congested populations and racial struggles and
starvation--the advent of their apparent influence upon the western
world depending chiefly upon the rate of commercial or popular
intercourse, the movements of armies or the ingress or egress of
peoples. The logical establishment of direct proof of the connection
between these visitations and local epidemics in distant lands is a
problem as yet unsolved. The weight of evidence, at first sight, would
seem to lie rather in the other direction--to indicate that such
epidemics are the direct outcome of existing local conditions, mental
and physical.
For example: At the end of that strenuous period in England's history,
between the reign of the first Charles and the fall of the Commonwealth,
an epidemic broke out which, as the historian tells us, converted the
country into "one vast hospital." The malady--which by the way was fatal
to Cromwell--the Lord Protector himself--was then termed "the ague." The
term "Influenza" was first given to the epidemic of 1743 in accordance
with the Italianizing fashion of the day, but was eventually superseded
by the French expression "La Grippe," usually held to represent a more
modified form of the disease which appears to vary in intensity and
virulence according lo its provocation and derivation.
The old school hypothesis and the deductions therefrom would seem
therefore, to be this: That a super-malignant contagium imported from
some foreign source falls upon organisms predisposed to infection by
mental stress or physical privation and over-strain or both combined;
and the contagion thus generated through the medium of some unsuspected
"carrier" seizes upon and sweeps through that portion of the community
so predisposed, in the form of a great, general epidemic with a maximum
of mortality. At later intervals the same repeats itself with less violence
and reduced mortality, because a great proportion,--representing the
sufferers in the original epidemic,--being now thereby immune, the onus
falls upon that section of the younger generation unprotected by individual
resistant force who consequently become the chief sufferers--as in the case
of the present epidemic, the pandemic form of which is obviously due to the
fact that equal conditions of unrest, privation and distress prevail
universally throughout the entire nerve plains of the Planet.
The first recorded outbreak in America occurred in the year 1647,
followed by a second in 1655 and again in 1789 and 1807. In these the
mortality appears to have been confined, after the first outbreak, to a
few mere modest thousands whereas in the present visitation a
conservative estimate places the figures of the horrible world-holocaust
at no less a sum than 18 _million lives_ in all.[D] The ravages in
America have been appalling including many of the medical profession.
We pass on then to the second item--the question of the germ.
The illusive germ has come to be regarded by the layman with
reserve--nay more--with suspicion. The part of the bacteriologist has
been somewhat overdone. The conditions of popular credence are not what
they were. A great change has awakened the masses of the people and a
new intelligence is born which now discerns that disease is one great
Unity just as the body is one inseparable interdependent whole--that
_the cause of disease is in the blood_ and dependent upon its
nourishment and moreover, that the _physical forces of the body can be
exhausted as much by mental strain,--causing the too rapid burning up of
nerve fat (lecithin),--as by excessive physical exertion_. For example.
Mental disturbance--grief, worry, excitement--produce immediate physical
effect in headache, palpitations and the like. Physical
exhaustion--privation, hunger and over-work--on the other hand produce
mental depression and collapse. The inevitable law of compensation
rules.
Thus the germ, bacillus, or microbe, as a direct _cause_ of disease is
an exploded fallacy. They are now recognized as the _result_ of
disease--_not the cause_: releasing irritants perhaps and possibly
carriers or transmitting mediums to other diseased or predisposed
organisms.
It follows accordingly that Sero-Therapy or Inoculation with specific
serums derived from such germs, as a preventative of disease is simply a
pernicious farce; "pernicious," since the introduction of such poisons
by inocculation into the blood constitutes in itself a serious menace to
life and health.
This has never been more clearly demonstrated than in the present
singularly futile efforts of the Regular Medical Faculty to stay the
on-rush of the Influenza Epidemic or to save or safeguard its victims--a
fact which compels the people in their thousands to turn to the less
pretentious but more successful members of the eclectic or Irregular
schools among whom both help and healing may be found.
And this is the history of the Influenza germ:
The bacterial criminal was located. We know it, for the discovery was
officially proclaimed and vouched for by the press with all due pomp and
circumstance. True, it was "so minute as to be _invisible to the most
powerful microscope_;"--but it was sensed by science, none the less, and
handed over captive, for "culture" to the _manufacturing chemist_.
Inoculation followed freely--the people in their thousands and our
gallant troops alike submitted to the mandate of the powers that be--the
soldiers voiceless and under penalty.
America breathless, awaited the result. There was none.
Finally scare-heads in the Press astonished the land. They were these:
"_Medical World is Baffled by the 'Flu'._"--"_Exhaustive Experiments
Leave Doctors Mystified._"--"_Every Test a Failure._"--"_Explosion of
Accepted Theories Causes Science to Grope for Light._"
It appears that, through the heroism of a _hundred_ of our naval men who
volunteered for the purpose at the risk of life, the Medical Authorities
in desperation were enabled to try every possible method of infection
with the alleged Influenza Germs, our boys submitting to inoculation and
even to the repulsive ordeal of introduction into the nose and throat of
diseased mucous from and close contact with coughing and spitting bed
patients in the severest forms of the disease. The experiments were made
simultaneously at San Francisco and Boston under the direction of
Surgeons McCoy and Goldberger of the U.S. Health Department and the
Naval Authorities.
The astounding negative result as indicated by the press, was described
as "The Sensation of the day," for the fact was revealed that _Not one,
of the hundred who underwent these drastic and determined tests,
developed any symptoms of Influenza._ This picture of failure was
surmounted by the summing up of the situation on the part of the highest
Medical Authority; to this effect:
"These new experiments in the transmission of Influenza," said Surgeon
General Blue, "show how difficult is the Influenza Problem."
The result points clearly to a state of natural immunity enjoyed by
those who, like these men of the Naval Service, lead an hygienic,
contented well regulated life with the simple accessories of good and
sufficient food, fresh air and regular exercise.
The same principle has been recently demonstrated in England in the same
connection by the annual report of one of the great public schools
celebrated for hygienic methods, where amongst a total of 800 students
not a single case of influenza appeared--although no preventive measures
were employed beyond the simple rules of health and cleanliness.
Finally, as regards serums and specifics, the judgment of Dr. Karl F.
Meyer, of the Hooper Institute of Medical Research of the University of
California, may be accepted as focusing the consensus of unbiased
opinion on the subject. It was as follows: "Serums have not yet been
introduced which produce immunity from Spanish Influenza. The serums now
employed are of no use whatsoever. You have no idea how really and truly
helpless we are. As an example, take the advice given us by the Public
Health Department when we asked what should be done if the epidemic
struck West. They said: '_Organise your hospitals and undertakers_.'" In
the same statement Dr. Meyer declared that the Medical fraternity _is in
total darkness as to the cause and nature of the epidemic_.
Of other preventive measures resorted to--Masks, Quarantine and the veto
upon public gatherings--proved equally mistaken and futile. Masks of a
texture calculated to baffle the most determined attempts of the minute
invisible homicide were made compulsory, and in the great cities
masquerading millions became a constant feature of the streets, until an
idea of the danger of masks, _as microbe preservers and carriers_,
dawned upon the official mind. Thus, beyond fostering fear and
depression amongst the citizens nothing was achieved in the direction
desired, but rather the reverse; since it is now very generally
recognized that such mental conditions with their consequently lowered
vitality are a common prelude to disease.
At the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association in
Chicago, following a two days' discussion of preventive measures against
Influenza and Pneumonia, Dr. Chas. J. Hastings, president of the
organization said: "A tremendous amount of damage is done by interfering
with nature, when nature would have done better had she been left alone.
We have very little power over pneumonia. I am convinced that as many
patients have been _killed_ by physicians as have been _cured_."
The talented "Health" editor of the Los Angeles Times, commenting upon
these matters, writes: "The handling of this epidemic by 'health boards'
and doctors who have been running around like wet chickens--their eyes,
however, fastened on the feed box--has furnished another striking
evidence of the futility of what is misnamed 'Medical Science.'"
All this carries one back 50 years to the memory of Sir John Forbes,
Court Physician to the late Queen Victoria of England, and the eminent
Editor of the British and Foreign Medical Review, who thus tersely
recorded the scientific conclusions arrived at in the course of his
long, professional experience, in connection with drugs, drug medication
and allopathy, under the title of "Why we should not be poisoned because
we are sick:" "Firstly,--that in a large proportion of cases treated by
allopathic physicians, the disease is cured by nature and not by them.
Secondly,--that in not a small proportion, the disease is cured by
nature in spite of them. Thirdly,--that consequently, in a considerable
proportion of diseases it would fare as well or better with patients if
all remedies, especially drugs, were abandoned;" and he emphatically
adds: "Things have come to such a pass that they must either mend or
end." This, be it remembered, was in 1868,--50 years ago--and such
frankness would not have been tolerated from other than "Sir John"--for,
as was said by an inspired American: "He who dares to see a truth not
recognized in creed must die the death." And now indeed is revealed the
wisdom of Shakespeare when he said: "Ignorance is the Curse of God;" or
of Bolinbroke's bitter assertion: "Plain truth will influence half a
score men at most in a nation or an age, while _mystery will lead
millions by the nose_."
I am not prepared to endorse the cynical saying of Voltaire: "Regimen is
superior to medicine--especially as from time immemorial out of every
hundred physicians ninety-eight are charlatans." But this much is
certain, that they have found the needs of nature too laborious--the
pathway of their leader--the Great Hippocrates--of Galen, Sydenham,
Boerhaave, too tame, and have listened to the lure of Paracelsus, and
adopted, with its high pontificial manner and medication, the more
luxurious empiricism of the medicasters of five centuries ago.
But the time has come when the reign of bigotry, drugs and mystery must
have an end--the chartered lien on human life must cease and the antique
secret consistories so long omnipotent, must be brought to the
enlightened level of the day.
We have come to the parting of the ways, where it becomes the bounden
duty of every earnest, fair-minded physician to cast off the manacles of
professional caste and secret obligation and to advance with open mind
across the wholesome confines of eternal truth. This as much in their
own interest as in that of their patients. For there is disaffection in
the once solid phalanx, and we find strictures such as these in the
standard works of the profession: "It cannot be denied that
practitioners in medicine stand too low in the scale of public
estimation and, something is rotten in the State of Denmark."
A series of articles appearing recently, in the English Review, from
the daring and masterly pen of George Bernard Shaw, deals with the
subject with an ungloved hand, taking as opportunity a vitriolic
controversy recently raging between exalted lights of the medical
profession in London, which raises abruptly the long-drawn curtain of
mystery and exposes the secret skeleton to the view of a wondering
world. Speaking of the absolute, autocratic powers of the medical
monopoly and the superstitious, hopeless complacency of the public, the
writer says: "The assumption is that the 'registered doctor' or surgeon
knows everything that is known, and can do everything that is to be
done. This means that the dogmas of omniscience, omnipotence and
infallibility, and something very like the theory of the apostolic
succession and kingship by anointment, have recovered in medicine the
grip they have lost in theology and politics. This would not matter if
the 'legally qualified doctor' was a _completely qualified healer_: but
this is not the case; far from it. Dissatisfaction with the orthodox
methods and technique is so widespread that the supply of technically
qualified _unregistered_ practitioners is insufficient for the
demand.... The reputation of the unregistered specialist is usually well
founded. _He must deliver the goods._ He cannot live by the faith of his
patients in a string of letters after his name."
From all sides the same dissatisfaction is told showing that, with the
sick and simple majority, what is termed "the attractive bed-side
manner" of the polished practitioner has vastly out-weighed--in the
past--the more vital advantage of superior skill on the part of
practitioners of the drugless and natural systems which are winning
their way to favour, in spite of the organized opposition of the
orthodox profession and the powerful "vested interests" of the
medicine-men.
To return to the subject proper: The summing up as to the efficacy of
inoculation, drugs, serums and specifics for Influenza may best be found
in the supplements to the U.S. Public Health reports, and vouched for by
Surgeon-General Rupert Blue and the Government experts:
"Since we are uncertain of the primary cause of Influenza, no form of
inoculation can be guaranteed to protect against the disease itself."
"No drug has as yet been proved to have any specific influence as a
_preventive_ of influenza.
"No drug has as yet been proved to have any specific _curative_ effect
on influenza--though many are useful in guiding its course and
mitigating _is symptoms_.
"In the uncertainty of our present knowledge considerable hesitation
must be felt in advising vaccine treatment as a curative measure.
"The chief dangers of influenza lie in its complications, and it is
probable that much may be done to mitigate the severity of the affection
and to diminish its mortality _by raising the resistance of the
body_...."
It is not my purpose in adducing these startling facts to impugn the
Allopathic system or to disparage the elder branch of the Profession of
Healing. They are simply assembled for the purpose of proving a case in
favour of the newer or Hygieo-Dietetic System.
But here in consecutive order of testimony is a truly terrible
denouncement--the testimony, as it were, of two hemispheres of the
terrestrial globe proclaiming the positive failure of the section of
science upon which, for very existence, their inhabitants have been
accustomed to rely!
Now Health and Disease are dependent upon degrees of positive and
negative vibrations, as is every form of life in the great Cosmic Unity
of the Universe. Both are tones with endless modulation, but the
integral fact, in either case, _is one_. Disease, then, is a Unit--a
degenerate function of the blood--and, such being the case, the failure
of any curative principle or system aspiring to remedy that degenerate
functioning, in any degree, is a failure of that principle or system as
a whole.
The sensational admission, therefore, of the chiefs of the Profession in
America and England, as herein cited, amounts in plain language to the
tacit admission that drugs and serums are powerless to produce any
"preventive influence" or any "curative" effect upon Influenza, (or as
it rationally and logically follows, upon any other disease) although,
as openly stated in this official proclamation, they may influence the
"symptoms."
But, finally--And here is the supreme announcement, wherein at length
the Truth comes out triumphant--"The severity of the disease may be
mitigated and its mortality diminished _by raising the resistance of the
body_."
This in one single sentence is the sum total of the teachings of the
eclectic, independent and legally debarred and officially unrecognized
Physiologico-Chemical, Hygieo-Dietetic School of Natural Science which I
have the honor to represent.
The true teaching of Hippocrates, surnamed "The Father of
Medicine"--the ostensible leader, for all time, of the "regular school"
of Medicine was comprised in one phrase: the _Vis Medicatrix
Naturae_--The Healing Power of Nature.
The teaching of our New, Independent School is identically the
same--plus the physiologico-chemical discoveries of the intervening
centuries. They are plain and natural precepts, surrounded by no
fearsome atmosphere of mystery. They are to this effect:
That the human organism, together with all its interdependent parts,
organs and functions, is an inseparable whole--a Unit--subject
absolutely to Natural Laws. As said St. Paul: "And whether one member
suffer, all the members suffer with it." (Cor. 12-26.)
That disease, therefore, is likewise a unit with a diversity of
manifestations which, like all conflicting elements, develop in the
individual organism along the lines of least resistance, according to
the weakness--hereditary or acquired--of the individual. This we term
predisposition.
The cause of predisposition to disease, centres absolutely and entirely
in the blood, causing obstructions to normal circulation, the
obstructing materials being poisons and impurities, either hereditary or
acquired through malnutrition or the introduction of unassimilable
matter into the system in the form of improper food, drugs, medicines or
vaccines which remain as poisons in the blood.
Disease is the remedial effort of Nature to throw off such
obstructions--a process of purification and regeneration--and its
symptoms should be assisted and regulated rather than resisted and
suppressed.
"Doctors prescribe--but only Nature cures," is an ancient axiom, but it
faithfully represents the "_vis medicatrix naturae_."
The question has recently been publicly propounded "Is sickness
criminal?" Very certainly, disease is the outcome of personal neglect,
in past or present; but the nature of the question is a sign significant
that the laity are awakening to the truth that the healing power of
nature rests wholly in the generation and conservation of latent reserve
energy.
As regards the influenza controversy the Official verdict is, as we have
seen, that the Regular Medical Profession as a whole, has failed in its
endeavor to fathom the mystery and is at present "_really and truly
helpless_." Let us therefore, seek the cause of this disastrous failure
and strive to solve the problem along other lines.
If so poor be the harvest, what of the soil? is the natural enquiry. And
it must be generally admitted that this spectacular failure lies in the
superficial teaching of the medical schools--its search for causes in
the mature, and "specialized," anatomical organs in place of the
fundamental physiological, chemical and embryonic causes from which, in
their appointed order those various organs are evolved;--first the brain
and nervous system, afterwards the tissues and the bones. Thus, unversed
in the deeper phases of causation, men are hurried unprepared into ranks
of a noble profession to struggle as best they may, through lack of
deeper knowledge, with the serious symptoms of disease--at first by
rote but later, are tempted to tamper empirically with its issues.
It has been said by a great scientific authority that, in order to
thoroughly comprehend and cure any form of disease it is necessary, in
the first place, to mentally map out and visualize the course of its
growth and to follow it backward, step by step, to its source before it
is possible to formulate curative treatment adapted to its cause and
phases.
To commence then at the initial stage, let us bring upon the scene one
of the greatest chemists of the age: Justus von Liebig, the discoverer
of "The Law of the Minimum," which is this: That of the sixteen known
constituents of the blood essential to the healthy growth and
maintenance of the organs and tissues of the body, the absence of any
proportional ingredient, however small, will cause degeneration in the
organism and interfere with the proper functioning of one or more of the
activities concerned.
_Upon this Law is based the attested, dominant fact that all our mental
and physical activities--powers of thinking, feeling, motion and every
action, including the reproduction of species are equally dependent upon
our blood--and our blood, in turn, depends upon proper nutrition._ The
ancient aphorism: "Man is as man eats," is therefore true in theory and
in fact.
Human diet and human life being thus closely allied, it becomes a
consideration of the first magnitude to see that all food contains in
well balanced degree a correct proportion of the sixteen essentials:
carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, iron, sulphur, phosphorus, chlorine,
potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium, manganese, fluorine, silicon and
iodine.
Amongst the chemical salts of such scientific nutrition may, or may not,
be found the famous "Vitamines," long sought of science; but what they
certainly do supply is the electro-magnetic energy, the impulse of
growth and vital function, the secret of bactericide blood and its power
of circulation.
It is the magnetic iron in the blood which promotes nerve function in
both the brain and the intestinal tract, producing on the one hand
intellectual activity and on the other, breathing digestion and
excretion. Similar causal action in corelation to the integral elements
of food prevails throughout the organs of the body, demonstrating the
vital importance of the quality of our daily food for the renewal of
tissue and the maintenance of healthy metabolism.
In an attempt to define the _primary cause of Influenza_, Prof.
Kuhnemann, a well known authority on practical and differential
diagnosis, gives a minute description of its various _symptoms_,
terminating with a weak suggestion that the already discredited bacillus
_may be regarded as the cause_.
This is, in detail, as follows: "Fever is always present," Prof.
Kuhnemann says, "but not of any certain type. At times, after short
periods of Apyrexie there is a rise in temperature sometimes swelling of
the spleen. There is no characteristic change in the urine; sometimes
Albuminuria. There is an inclination to perspire freely; consequently
Miliaria is often present; also Herpes, less frequently other Exanthema,
Petechien. The mucous membranes are inclined to hemorrhage (Epistaxis,
Hematemesis, Menorrhagia, Abortion).
"Complications and after effects:
(1) Of the respiratory system:--Croupose and Broncho-pneumonia of
atypical progress (atypical fever of protracted course, relatively
strong Dyspnoe, Cyanosis, feeble pulse) and high mortality; after
effects serous or mattery Pleuritis, Lung abscesses, Phthisis.
(2) Of the circulatory system:--Myocarditis, Endocarditis,
Thrombosis.
(3) Of the digestive tract:--Chronic stomach and intestinal
catarrh, Dyspepsia.
(4) Of the nervous system:--Any form of Neuralgia, Paralysis,
Neuritis, Psychosis, etc.
(5) Of the sense organs:--Otitis media; Nephritis and Muscular
Rheumatism are also observed. Influenza aggravates any case of
sickness, especially lung trouble."
All this seems to constitute a very formidable and perplexing
indictment, sparkling with learning and bristling with difficulties. But
when these mellifluous mysticisms are once translated into "the vulgar
tongue" they prove to be, strange to say, easily within the
comprehension of the ordinary layman.
For instance, "Apyrexie" means Free from fever; Albuminuria--Albumen
present; Miliaria--an acute inflammation of the sweat-glands
(Abnormal sweating); Herpes--an inflammatory skin disease
characterized by the formation of small vesicles in clusters (Fever rash);
Exanthema--Skin eruption; Petechien--Spots; Epistaxis--Nose-bleeding;
Hematemesis--vomiting blood; Menorrhagia--Excessive menstruation;
Croupose--resembling croup; Broncho-pneumonia--Inflammation of the
lungs; Atypical fever--irregular fever; Dyspnoe--Hard breathing;
Cyanosis--Blue discoloration of the skin from non-oxidation of
the blood; Pleuritis--Pleurisy; Phthisis--consumption; Myocarditis
and Endocarditis--Inflammations of the heart; Thrombosis--coagulation
of blood; Intestinal Catarrh--Inflammation of the bowels;
Dyspepsia--Indigestion; Neuritis--Nerve inflammation; Psychosis--Mental
derangement; Otitis media--Inflammation of the ear; and
Nephritis--Inflammation of the kidneys.
"Aetiology:--The influenza bacillus (found in blood and excrement) is to
be regarded as the cause. The malady is highly contagious. Period of
incubation given as, from two to seven days. Runs its course in one or
two weeks, recovery as a rule favorable; though convalescence is often
protracted. Unfavorable results are brought on through complications,
most often by Pneumonia.
"Diagnosis:--Easily determined during an epidemic or marked symptoms.
The catarrhal form of influenza differs from simple catarrh of the
mucous membranes of the respiratory tract through the presence of
nervous symptoms and a more abrupt beginning. The symptoms may be
similar to those of Measles or Abdominal typhus. In each case,
complications with Pneumonia must be considered.
"The proof of the presence of the Influenza bacillus," he concludes, "is
of little value in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis in medical
practice as the bacillus cannot be distinguished with enough accuracy
through the microscopic examination, which must be a very minute
culture proceeding."
This is the final dictum of medical Science on the subject--Science
which however, adds nothing to our knowledge and leaves us still in
darkness and uncertainty, while memory brings a well known couplet to
the mind:
He holds the threads of Wisdom's way
Loosely, with palsied hand.
Why lacks he now, for pity's sake,
The grace to understand?