DR. WHITE’S EXPERIENCE.
One of the most thoro and able diagnosticians in America, if not in the
world, is George Starr White, M. D., of Los Angeles, Cal., discoverer
of the bio-dynamic method of diagnosis. I reproduce a small portion of
his experiences in zone therapy and zone anesthesia--as detailed in his
Lecture Course.
“A few years ago, while experimenting on the anesthetic effect of the
Tesla current, I observed that by giving a current that produced a
severe shock to the fingers, I was able to pierce them with needles and
not feel pain. I did not realize why these results were obtained. But
experiments on animals gave me a hint. For one of my horses backed into
a window, and got a large piece of glass into the sacral region (near
the tail). We tried, without success, to put her into a narrow stall
and tie her legs so we could operate, as a large incision had to be
made to extract the foreign body. Finally one of our men suggested that
we tie a slipper-noose, which he called a ‘twitch’, around the horse’s
nose. He made this ‘twitch’ out of a piece of thin rope, put it on the
horse’s nose, and we started to operate. The result was a collision
between the horse’s hind legs and my abdomen. I told the man to put
the ‘twitch’ on again, tie it tightly, and hold it for two or three
minutes. Then, altho I made a deep incision to take out the glass, the
horse did not flinch.
“I realize now that we used zone anesthesia, as the sacral region and
the nose are in the same zone. At other times we have had occasion to
do minor operations on cows and pigs on my experiment farm, and have
noticed that, by putting a ‘twitch’ on the nose, the animals did not
seem to experience any pain.
“Also, before anesthesia was so well known, I remember seeing surgeons
do minor operations on individuals who would take no chloroform. Almost
always the patients closed their teeth, or clinched their hands on some
rough substance. Then ‘they could stand anything.’
“Later I heard Dr. William H. Fitzgerald explain zone therapy. Then I
realized that we have always used zone therapy, although we did not
know it.
“After spending a few days with Dr. Fitzgerald, I met at a dinner
party, a lady who had a severe frontal headache. Obtaining her
permission to try a new ‘cure’, I exerted pressure upon the thumb,
first and second fingers, and within five minutes the headache had
disappeared. I had similar success in treating a toothache.
“I shortly afterwards called on a New York physician who had previously
been one of my pupils, and asked him if he knew anything about zone
therapy. He said he did not, but had read about it in some of the
journals, and thought ‘it must be all imagination.’ I then held his
fingers, pretending I was trying to see how much resistance there
was in his muscles. Within three minutes I laid a button hook on his
eyeball without his flinching. I took a stickpin from his cravat, and
pushed it into his cheek, and put several pins into his face, without
his feeling them. He could not bear the touch of a pin in any other
zone. He called his wife, and she was horrified when she saw him so
‘stuck up.’ I withdrew the pins and sterilized his face. He is now a
staunch believer in zone anesthesia.
“At several of our lecture courses in Chicago and elsewhere, I had
an opportunity to show these methods, and made some very interesting
observations. We found that light would not contract the pupil of the
eye that had been attacked through the finger zones to the same degree
as the pupil of the eye that had not been so attacked.
“One of the doctors in a Chicago class, on hearing of zone anesthesia,
told me that about two years previous he was suffering from inguinal
hernia (rupture) and a radical operation was advised. He went to the
hospital, and the anesthetist began to prepare him for the anesthesia.
He told them that he wanted no anesthesia, as he was going to have
the operation done without taking anything. The surgeon was loath
to operate without some kind of general or local anesthetic, but he
told him he wanted nothing, as he thought he could control himself.
The surgeon consented, but had ready chloroform and a hypodermic with
cocaine. The Doctor clinched his teeth and hands with all his might,
and put himself into as powerful a tension as possible for about three
minutes before lying on the table. He then laid down, relaxed, and
said ‘go ahead.’ From the beginning to the end of the operation all he
noticed, he said, was that there was something going on, but he felt
absolutely no pain. I looked at his teeth, and saw that the occluding
(biting) surfaces were very good indeed, which accounts in a great
measure for the efficacy of the zone anesthesia.
“Dr. Fitzgerald has treated many cases of cancer and tumor, and has
had some extraordinary successes with some of them. He carefully
avoids any reference to the value of zone therapy in these conditions,
but, to my mind, the results achieved warrant mention. I saw two most
interesting cases in his practice. One, a lady, about 55 years of
age, had a growth on the side of her neck, diagnosed as cancer. By
the bio-dynamic method, I confirmed this diagnosis. This growth was
as large as an ordinary sized orange, and very hard and unyielding.
The lady told us that, until she began being treated by means of zone
therapy and zone analgesia, she had not slept for months without some
opiate. For more than two years now she said she had taken no opiates,
and had rested without any pain when zone pressure anesthesia was used.
“When I saw this lady the size of the growth had diminished from
this treatment, until it would not be recognized except by palpation
(feeling with the fingers). I also saw her photograph, taken before she
began treatment, and the improvement was certainly remarkable. I do not
know whether zone therapy will ever cure this case, but we do know that
it is making life endurable to the unfortunate victim.
“Several of my pupils have used the Fitzgerald method for operation
on turbinate and other nasal obstructions, as well as upon obstetric
(childbirth) cases, with most gratifying results in all of them.
“Two or three cases out of ten will not, it seems, respond to zone
therapy. But the majority will. There is no doubt a good reason for the
failures, such as blocking of the ‘zone paths’ in some manner--as by
a tumor, growth, pus condition, or obstruction. Or again, failure may
be due to faulty technic. Better results will no doubt come with more
experience. It only requires that the method be tried out on a huge
scale, and by a large number of competent observers. Then the collated
results will furnish us a basis for accurate application of these most
wonderful and helpful principles.”