Practice of natural therapeutics   by Henry Lindlahr, M.D.
TREATMENT OF CHRONIC DISEASES

INTRODUCTION

Acute diseases represent Nature's efforts to purify and regenerate the human organism by means of inflammatory feverish processes, while in the chronic condition o system is not capable of arousing itself to such acute reactions. It must be prepared for this through natural methods of living and of treatment, as has been explained Volume I of this series.

    Natural treatment of acute diseases tends to relieve congestion, to facilitate the radiation of heat and elimination of morbid matter and systemic poisons from the body. In this way it eases and palliates the feverish processes and keeps them below the danger point without in any way checking or suppressing them.

    While our methods of treating acute diseases have a sedative effect, our treatment of chronic diseases is calculated to stimulate, that is, to arouse the sluggish organism to greater activity in order to produce the acute inflammatory reaction or healing crisis.

    If the unity of disease, as demonstrated in Volume I of this series be a fact in Nature, it must be possible to treat an chronic as well as all acute diseases by uniform methods, and the natural methods must correspond to the primary causes of disease.

    These natural methods may be divided into two groups:

    a) Those which the patient can apply himself, provided he has been properly instructed in their correct selection, combination and application;

    b) those which must be applied by or under the direction of a competent Natural Therapeutic physician.

    To the first group belong diet, fasting, bathing and other water applications, correct breathing, general physical exercise, psychological exercise, corrective gymnastics, air and sun baths, mental therapeutics.

    To the second group belong special applications of the methods mentioned under the first group, and in addition to these, hydrotherapy, Swedish movements, neurotherapy, orificial dilatation, medical treatment in the form of homeopathic remedies, non-poisonous herb extracts, and, most important of all, the right management of healing crises which develop under the natural treatment of chronic diseases.

   The treatment outlined in the following sections applies to all forms of disease listed on page 86 after they have entered upon the chronic stages. In addition to these, we may classify as chronic diseases the following:

Abscesses of Liver
Acne
Adenoids
Addison's disease
Amyloid kidney (a form of Bright's disease)
Anemia (Primary and secondary)
Aneurism
Angina pectoris
Apoplexy
Arterio-sclerosis
Arthritis deformans
Atrophy of bones
Barber's itch
Bedwetting
Calculi (stones, all kinds)
Carcinoma (cancer)
Carries of the bones
Chorea
Cirrhosis of liver
Comedones (blackheads)
Constipation
Congenital malformation of hip joint
Dandruff
Debility
Deformity of spine or other bony structures
Diabetes (functional or organic)
Dropsy
Dyspepsia
Eczema, all kinds
Emphysema of the lungs
Enlarged prostate
Enteritis
Epilepsy
Erysipelas
Fatty degeneration of liver
Fatty and fibroid degeneration of heart
Goiter
Gall-stones
Gastric and duodenal ulcers
Heart disease (all kinds)
Hemorrhoids (piles)
Hernia (rupture)
Herpes (shingles)
Hoarseness
Hookworm
Hydrothorax
Hyperemia of liver
Hypochondria
Impotence
Impetigo (chafing)
Infantile paralysis
Inflammation of bones (Periostitis) (Osteomylitis)
Insanity, many forms
Insomnia
Interstitial nephritis
Leukemia
Locomotor ataxia
Lungs, all diseases of
Lupus
Masturbation
Necrosis of bones
Nephritis, chronic (Bright's disease)
Nervous debility
Neuralgia
Neuritis
Night losses
Obesity
Edema of the lungs
Paralysis of all kinds
Passive hyperemia
Prolapsus of the rectum
Prostatitis
Pseudo-angina pectoris
Rectal diseases
Rachitis
Rickets (rachitis)
Rheumatism, all forms
Sarcoma
Scabies
Scrofula
Sleeping sickness
Suprarenal calculus
Tapeworm
Trichina spiralis
Tinea Tricophytina (Ring worm)
Tubercular enteritis
Tumors, all kinds
Ulcers, chronic
Varicocele
Varicose veins
Worm, all kinds
Writer's cramp
Wry neck

IMPORTANCE OF NATURAL DIET

   The ordinary meat-potato-white-bread-coffee-and-pie diet customary in the American home, restaurant or hotel is bound to create, sooner or later, disease conditions in the system. This combination of foods creates in the body large amounts of poisonous acids, alkaloids and ptomains, and does not contain enough of the alkaline mineral elements on which depend the purification of the system from morbid matter and poisons.

    The foods which are generally considered most nutritious,—meat, eggs, dried peas, beans, lentils and cereals,—are the greatest danger foods because they are exceedingly rich in acid producing starches, fats and proteins, and deficient in acid binding and eliminating alkaline elements. These purifying elements can be secured in sufficient amounts only in fruits and vegetables which run low in starches, fats and proteins, but contain large amounts of the mineral salts of iron, lime, potassium, sodium, magnesium and silicon.

    Among the thousands of young people reared in this country whom I have had occasion to examine by diagnosis from the iris, I have found very few who did not suffer to some extent from digestive troubles. It is a fact that the American people, notwithstanding all the natural advantages which they enjoy, suffer more from indigestion, malassimilation, and from the multitude of diseases growing out of these primary causes, than any other people on earth.

    The reason for this is that from the cradle up all the laws and principles governing right eating and drinking are continually violated. The child is allowed to eat and drink what it pleases, and since indulgence in unnatural food and drink creates abnormal appetite, he soon learns to crave those things which are most detrimental to health. As he becomes accustomed to meats, strong spices and condiments, pastry, coffee and tea, he loses all relish for fruits' and vegetables, especially the latter. Piping hot soups and meats are washed down with ice water and mixed with ice cream, which only too often is a mixture of skimmed milk, glue, chemical coloring and artificial flavoring corn-pounds. These unwholesome food combinations are supplemented by large quantities of white sugar and adulterated candies, all of which are very injurious to the system.

    Is it any wonder that the prosperous and well fed American people suffer almost universally from early decay of the teeth, digestive troubles, chronic constipation, hemorrhoids, nervous dyspepsia, appendicitis, rheumatism, cancer, tuberculosis and a host of other diseases directly caused by food and drink poisoning?

    Among the peasantry of European countries the meaning of the words "dyspepsia" and "dentist" is hardly known. A dentist can make a living only in the largest cities. The country people live closer to Nature than do our overfed but mineral starved Americans. In Europe, on account of the high cost of flesh foods, meat is used very sparingly. White sugar, coffee, tea and pastries are holiday luxuries. Ice water is not found even in the homes of the wealthiest people nor in the best hotels. The peasantry and middle class people in northern European countries live largely on whole grain bread, potatoes, vegetable's and dairy products. When they come to this country they are the picture of health and robust strength, but they eagerly adopt American customs of living, believing that meat, white bread and coffee three times a day constitute "high living". The natural result is that in a few years most of them lose their red cheeks and become dyspeptic and nervous like their new compatriots.

    I have frequently observed the gradual lowering of the health standard in descendants of immigrants. In many families you will find the grandfather and grandmother who came from the "old sod" hale and hearty in their old age; the second generation, at middle age, dyspeptic and nervous; and the grandchildren anemic, wearing glasses at a tender age and affected by all sorts of chronic ailments. Statistics show that in our largest cities, where surroundings and habits of living are most unnatural, the fourth city-bred generation dies out unless regenerated by the inflow of fresh, healthy blood of immigrants from Northern Europe, and of the sturdy young people who crowd in from the farming communities to be swallowed up by the insatiable maw of the great city.

   1. Proteins. The belief prevails that in order to make rich blood one must eat large amounts of meat and eggs. The science of Natural Dietetics, however, teaches that the richness of the blood depends not so much on sugars, fats and proteins, as on the positive mineral elements. Almost any ordinary food mixture will provide enough of the former elements of nutrition, but it is much more difficult to provide sufficient amounts of the mineral salts.

    In order to feed the blood with all the elements it needs in the right proportions and in that way to maintain it in a normal healthy condition, one half the diet should consist of fruits and vegetables, and the other half should be made up of starches, sugars, fats and proteins. Meats, if used at all, should be eaten very sparingly. Multitudes of enthusiastic vegetarians have proved that it is better to do without meat altogether. Eggs also should be used sparingly, at an average of not more than four a week.

   2. Coffees and Tea. Coffee and tea have no place in the Natural dietary. They contain powerful nerve stimulants. I believe that their influence on the system, in the long run, is worse than that of weak alcoholic drinks.

   3. White Flour. White bread and pastry should be avoided altogether or used very sparingly. Bread and other cereal products should be prepared from whole meal only. Nothing should be taken away from the grain in the milling process. As a result of the agitation against white flour by Nature Cure people, graham bread, entire wheat health breads and whole grain cereal foods are coming more and more into favor with the public. In this respect the stringent war regulations which by many were considered a great hardship were in reality a blessing in disguise.

    In order to comply with the popular demand for white flour, the hulls and life germs containing the mineral salts, vitamins and valuable ferments, as well as some of the gluten, which is equal in nutritious value to the high priced steak, are "refined" out of the flour and go into the bran. Our domestic animals wax fat and strong on the bran and life germs (shorts), while their masters, living on impoverished white flour products, grow constipated, dyspeptic and nervous. The excessive use of meat, white bread, coffee and white sugar is undoubtedly the most common cause of constipation and the resulting autointoxication.

   4. Vinegar and Condiments injurious. Green vegetables are most beneficial when eaten raw with a dressing of lemon juice and olive oil. Avoid the use of vinegar It is a product of fermentation and a powerful preservative which retards digestion as well as fermentation, both processes being very much the same in character. Lemon juice, being a live vegetable product, rich in vitamins, promotes digestion.

   Do not use pepper, salt or sugar on fruits and vegetables at the table. They may be used sparingly in cooking. Strong spices and condiments are more or less irritating to the mucous linings of the intestinal tract. They gradually benumb the nerves of taste. At first they stimulate the digestive organs, but, like all other stimulants, produce in time weakness and atrophy. Fruits and vegetables are rich in all the mineral salts in the live, organic form, and therefore the addition of inorganic mineral table salt is not only superfluous, but positively harmful.

    The juicy fruits and green leafy vegetables are not improved by cooking. The only foods that are made more digestible by cooking are grains, rice, potatoes and the legumes. Here cooking serves to break up and separate the hard starch granules and to make them more pervious to penetration by the digestive juices.

   5. How to Cook Vegetables—Steaming. After the vegetables are thoroughly washed and prepared place them in the cooking vessel, adding only enough boiling water to keep them from burning, cover the vessel closely with the lid, and let them steam slowly in their own juices. The leafy vegetables (spinach, Swiss chard, beet tops, etc.) contain enough water for their own steaming. If placed in a vessel over a slow fire enough juice will gather in a few moments to prevent burning.

    Cook all vegetables only as long as is required to make them soft enough for easy mastication. Do not throw away a drop of the water in which vegetables have thus been cooked. Use whatever is left for the making of soups and sauces.

   The following methods of cooking the savory vegetables are highly recommended, as they leave in the vegetable after cooking all the tenderness and delicacy of flavor of the raw article.

    For cooking cabbage have the water slightly salted and actively boiling when ready to toss in the finely chopped cabbage. This stops the boiling. Watch carefully for the first signs of bubbling again and immediately turn down the flame or set the vessel where the contents cannot possibly boil. The vessel must not be covered. The cabbage will gradually settle to the bottom and appear as if not cooking, but will be thoroughly done in about twenty-five minutes if the vegetable is fresh. When done it should be instantly removed from the fire, drained and served with butter or white sauce. The flavor is in the volatile oil within the cells, and this oil is thrown off into the air if the cabbage is cooked above the boiling point. Boiling also toughens the woody fiber. If cooked as above there will be no odor and the cabbage will have the same green and white color as before cooking.

    Cauliflower should be cooked in the same manner, first separating the florets.

    Onions should be cooked in the same manner, except that they may be allowed to boil gently.

    Turnips and vegetables of like nature, such as rutabaga and kohlrabi, should be cut in small cubes and cooked in much the same manner, uncovered, in boiling, slightly salted water. These vegetables may be allowed to boil very gently until transparent, and should be removed and drained as soon as the pieces can be pierced with a fork. They should retain their natural color and flavor. Serve with butter or white sauce.

    Cooked in this manner, below the boiling point, almost none of the mineral salts of the vegetables are leached to the water, which has, therefore, little value, but it y be used as a foundation for soups.

    If the vegetables, as is the usual custom, are boiled hard for a long time in a large quantity of water, then drained or, what is worse still, pressed out, they have their nutritive and medicinal value. The mineral salts have vanished down the sink pipe, the remains are insipid and indigestible and have to be soaked in soup stock and seasoned with strong condiments and spices to make them at all palatable. The natural flavors of the vegetables are the most delicious.

   6. In order to insure the full benefits of mouth digestion, the starchy foods should be thoroughly masticated and mixed with saliva.
    The drinking water must be of natural temperature as it comes from well or hydrant.

    Food and drink should never be taken hot or icy cold. This foolish habit will, in time, ruin the best stomach and the finest set of teeth.

    Do not eat when overtired or emotionally excited.
    Do not eat the heavy meal of the day between working hours.

    These are just a few of the more important rules which, if strictly followed, will soon improve the digestion and ensure better elimination and freer movement of the bowels.

    In many instances, however, even the best combination of food and drink will not overcome indigestion and malnutrition, because, through long continued abuse, the digestive organs have become so diseased and atrophied that they cannot properly digest and assimilate even the best of food materials. In such cases the digestive organs must be made more active and alive by the natural methods of sanitarium treatment, such as hydrotherapy, massage, neurotherapy, deep breathing, curative exercises, Swedish movements, air and sun baths, homeopathic remedies and last but not least, by the right mental and emotional attitude.

    For a splendid collection of vegetarian recipes and further advice on natural dietetics, see our Cook Book, 

   7. A General Vegetarian Regimen. Sample Menus. Breakfast should consist of acid and sub-acid fruits only; or berries only; or raw vegetable relishes only; or of a mixture of both fruits and relishes-for those who have a good digestion.

    If, however, for some reason it is better to take the raw food meal at noon or in the evening, the daily regimen may be adjusted accordingly. For instance, if the raw food is taken at noon, the luncheon foods may be taken in the morning. I find this advisable in cases where people leave early in the morning for work and would otherwise become hungry and faint before noon. In our sanitarium regimen we find the raw fruit breakfast most beneficial.

   Breakfast No.1. Raw acid and subacid fruits, such as orange, grapefruit, apple, grapes, berries, peaches, pears, apricots, cherries, plums, watermelon, cantaloupe, etc.

    Breakfast No.2. Raw vegetable relishes or a vegetable salad.

    Breakfast No.3. Raw fruit, in combination with stewed prunes, applesauce, rhubarb, baked apple, etc.

   Luncheon is served at noontime and consists of cereal foods, health bread, rye crisp with butter, cottage cheese, peanut butter or honey. To balance the starchy and protein food we serve vegetable relishes, vegetable salads and sweet alkaline fruits such as figs, dates or raisins.

    This does not mean that many of these foods should be taken at the same time; on the contrary, the more limited the variety representing the various groups, the better is the effect on the system. The weaker the digestive organs, the more care must be taken in the selection and combination of foods.

    In all chronic disease it is of great importance to limit the intake of starchy foods to a minimum, therefore not in more than one kind should be taken at a meal. For instance, if bread or rye crisp is taken, potatoes and cereal should be excluded, and vice versa.

   Luncheon No.1. Steamed wheat with honey and milk; celery or lettuce salad.

    Luncheon No.2. Health bread or crisp with butter or peanut butter; sliced tomatoes or cucumbers; radishes or young onions.

    Luncheon No.3. Shredded wheat biscuit, honey, milk; berries, figs or dates.

    Luncheon No.4. Baked potato, a vegetable salad, stewed fruit, raisins, figs or dates.

    Luncheon No.5. A raw vegetable relish, a cooked vegetable, baked or boiled potato, alkaline fruits, berries, nuts.

    Luncheon No.6. Vegetable salad, soft boiled or poached eggs, health bread or rye crisp, raw or stewed fruit or berries.

    Nuts, figs; dates or raisins may be taken in moderate quantities with any luncheon combination.

   Dinner No.1. Relish—cucumbers; Salad—raw carrot salad; Vegetables—beets and greens, new peas, steamed potatoes; Dessert—strawberries.

    Dinner No.2. Relish—celery, ripe olives; Salad—pineapple salad; Vegetables—buttered cabbage, macaroni and tomatoes; Dessert—raisins.

    Dinner No.3. Relish—radishes, ripe olives; Salad—fruit salad; Vegetables—vegetable roast and brown gravy, spinach, mashed potatoes; Dessert—ice cream.

    Dinner No.4. Relish—raw asparagus or cauliflower; Salad—tomato salad; Soup—vegetable soup; Vegetable — carrots and peas, baked potatoes; Dessert—fruit tapioca and cream.

    Dinner No.5. Relish—green onions; Salad—Waldorf Astoria; Vegetables—asparagus, vegetable stew, baked potatoes; Dessert—rhubarb pudding.

   8. Raw Food Diet. Sample Menus. A. This diet consists of raw foods,—fruits, berries and leafy, juicy vegetables. Vegetables may be taken with dressing of lime or lemon juice and olive or other vegetable oil. No starchy foods or vegetables such as bananas, potatoes, or cereals must be included.

    B. This diet takes in all fruits, berries, vegetables, nuts and cereals that can be relished in the raw state. It also includes all raw dairy products, honey and raw or soft-boiled eggs. The foods may be selected and combined for the various meals according to individual taste and requirements.

   Breakfast No.1. Vegetable relishes or vegetable salads.

   Breakfast No.2. One or two kinds of raw fruits or berries with or without milk or cream.

   Luncheon No.1. Dates, figs, raisins or currants with crushed cereals or vitamine or nuts.

    Luncheon No.2. Bananas, apples, nuts or vitamine with milk or honey.

    Luncheon No.3. Combination salad of grated beets or carrots, sweet corn, asparagus or cauliflower; nuts or bananas with any kind of vegetable salad.

    To any of these may be added milk, buttermilk, sumik, vitamine, raw eggs or honey.

   Vitamine. This is a very nutritious and palatable combination of cereals, nuts, and raisins or currants. On a hand grain mill crush wheat and rye, mix one pound of this with one quarter pound of crushed nuts or whole pine nuts. To this mixture add one quarter pound of seedless raisins or currants. One may also add ad libitum chopped dates, figs or prunes. It is best not to mix the vitamine with milk or cream, as this would prevent thorough mastication. Milk or other drink may be taken separately as required.

   9. Dry Diet. Our dry diet is a modification of the Schroth Cure much in vogue in European sanitariums. Under the latter regimen patients are fed on dry toasted bread with moderate doses of light wine. No other drink is given until excessive thirst forces it. The diet is accompanied by eliminative hydropathic applications such as wet packs, bed sweat baths, etc. While this has proved very effective in the treatment of the most stubborn chronic diseases, the dry fruit diet is to be preferred for the following reasons:

    The dry diet promotes elimination because it draws the fluids from the tissues and with these the pathogenic materials encumbering the system. But why use for this purpose food like toasted bread, when the large amounts of starches and proteins it contains tend to create more pathogenic materials? Why not use in its place dried fruits which are in themselves rich in the eliminative mineral elements and which serve as well the purpose of dehydrating the tissues?

    The thickening of the blood and lymph streams with pathogenic materials has a depressing effect upon brain and heart. This undesirable condition Scroth tried to overcome by giving light wine but alcoholic stimulation is always followed by corresponding depression and therefore nothing can be gained by it. 

 The dry diet, for obvious reasons, usually produces profuse mucoid elimination all through the system. It frequently hastens the development of healing crises.

    As a rule patients endure the dry food diet from one to two or three days only. It should then be followed by a raw food regimen. 

   10. Milk Diet. Milk is the only perfect, complete or standard food combination in Nature.

    This is evident from the fact that it contains all the elements of nutrition which the new born infant body needs, not only for its vital activities but also for the building of its rapidly multiplying cells and tissues. It is for this reason that Dr. Lehmann, one of the pioneers of Nature Cure, selected the chemical composition of milk as a standard, or yard stick, by which to measure all other normal food combinations. This has been fully described in the A B C of Natural Dietetics, Volume III of this series.

    The following analysis of cow's milk and human milk shows that there is very little difference between the two.

    As a matter of fact, cow's milk is to be preferred because it contains more positive mineral elements than human milk. This is due to the fact that cattle, especially those on pasture, consume more of natural foods fresh from the soil and rich in mineral salts. This is the reason why calves do not suffer from rachitic diseases, as do infants fed by anemic, mineral-starved mothers.

    This praise of milk as natural food frequently provokes the question, why then not live on milk entirely? To this I reply that while milk is the natural food for the new born and growing infant, it is not so well adapted to the adult. The digestive apparatus of the infant is especially adapted to the digestion of milk, while that of the adult requires more solid and bulky food. The advent of the teeth indicates that Nature intends to change from fluid to solid food.

    The liver is especially concerned in the digestion of milk. This organ is comparatively three times larger in the infant than in the adult. The digestive juice of the stomach in the infant is alkaline; it is acid in the adult. Therefore milk in the stomach of the infant curds; in the stomach of the adult it curdles.

    The stomach and upper parts of the intestines in the infant form almost a straight tube, and the contents of the former are easily discharged, while in the deep curvature of the adult stomach the milk easily stagnates. The more relaxed and atrophic the stomach, the worse for the digestion and discharge of milk. Furthermore, the digestive processes and peristaltic action in the young child are much more active than in the adult. This explains why not everybody can use milk as a food or medicine—why in many instances it causes biliousness, fermentation and constipation.

    Patients have come to us from institutions where practically everybody is subjected to the sweet milk diet. Under long continued, forced milk feeding they had become so constipated that the bowels could not be made to move by any means whatsoever. They were literally pasted together with colloid materials. It required several weeks of careful management and treatment to bring about a natural movement of the bowels. Milk causes constipation because it contains large amounts of soft, pulpy, cheesy matter, which tends to coagulation and slime formation. On the other hand, it does not contain sufficient tough cellulose matter which stimulates the peristaltic action of the bowels and acts at the same time as a most efficient scourer and cleanser. It is for this reason that we frequently find it advisable to give fruits and leafy vegetables with the milk diet.

    In cases where it is easily digested a straight sweet milk diet often proves very beneficial. We prescribe it frequently with splendid results. As a rule, however, it is better to take fruits or leafy vegetables with the milk.

    A great deal of chronic disease is caused by starch and protein poisoning, i.e., autointoxication, due to the pathogenic materials such as acids, ptomains, alkaloids and xanthins, resulting from starch and protein digestion.

    Since milk contains no starch at all, only low percentages of proteins and fats, and considerable amounts of mineral salts, it will be seen that a straight milk diet means a mild form of protein and starch starvation, which favors the elimination of pathogenic products. However, a study of the comparative analyses of milk, fruits and vegetables will show that juicy fruits and juicy, leafy vegetables are much lower in proteins and fats than is milk, and much richer in mineral salts. Furthermore, the tough, bulky cellulose waste of fruits and vegetable acts as good scouring material for the stomach and bowels. This is the reason why in most instances we prefer a fruit and vegetable diet to the milk diet.

    The prevalent idea that acid fruit juices do not behave well when taken with sweet milk is another popular fallacy. The only food material I know of with which fruit acids do not agree very well is starch, and milk does not contain starch. The digestion of protein materials in the milk requires an acid medium and the sugar or glucose in the milk is already predigested, therefore I do not know of anything in milk that is incompatible with fruit acids. Practical experience also proves this to be true. As a matter of fact, I have met with many confirmed dyspeptics who could not digest milk unless they took acid fruit juices with it.

    There is one method of forced milk feeding that is particularly revolting to me. It is patterned after the Weir Mitchell rest-cure and stuffing treatment. The patient is put to bed and prohibited from making the slightest exertion. He is then given one, two or three tumblerfuls of milk every half hour, according to his capacity. The most remarkable results in the way of flesh and energy building are claimed for this stuffing treatment. It is especially intended for patients who are extremely weak and emaciated. Often they gain a pound or more each day. One advocate of the milk diet describes its beneficial effects as follows:

   "Within two hours the action of the heart will have greatly accelerated, and within twelve to twenty four hours there will be a gain of about six beats to the minute. The pulse will be full and bounding, the skin flushed and moist, and the capillary circulation quick and active. This natural increase in the circulation results from the increased amount of blood assimilated by the stomach and intestines."

    In the first place, I do not consider the forced circulation a "natural" result. It is in reality caused, not by the increased amount of blood", but by the enormously increased amounts of water in the blood and tissues. This to some extent accounts for the increase in weight. Another reason for the sudden increase in weight is the abnormal fat formation. Large amounts of water in the tissues of the body deaden the processes of oxidation and favor fat formation, but this is an unhealthy process. A lymphatic or watery condition of the system is one of the principal causes of obesity.

    But suppose new flesh and fat cells are formed under the "masting" process, which, however, is hardly possible in so short a time; this would simply mean increasing disease in the system. To put flesh and fat on a diseased body means an increase of diseased cells and tissues. The new or "daughter" cells are formed by division of the mother" cells. The daughter cells are therefore of exactly the same material as the mother cells. In other words, if the protoplasm in the mother cells is abnormal or diseased it will be the same in the daughter cells.

    It is for this reason that under natural treatment we first endeavor to purify the blood and tissues of all abnormal products through natural diet and treatment. This usually entails some loss in weight, which we welcome as a sure indication of elimination and regeneration. After these stages of elimination and purification, with their healing crises, have been safely passed, then come the periods of regeneration and up building of new blood and tissues. What is thus gained will be pure and wholesome. Therefore we favor the various forms of milk diet during the last regenerative or up building stages of treatment.

    I make these statements backed by much experience in our institutional practice. We have treated many patients who had undergone the stuffing (masting) milk cure treatment for many months at a time, but the results had been only partly beneficial, and these in many instances were far outbalanced by detrimental after effects.

    A gentleman who has become one of the most efficient members of our staff suffered for twenty years from a bad form of arthritic rheumatism. Among many other things, he had taken for eight months the forced Milk Cure, but without receiving any appreciable benefit. Under our strict raw food diet and neurotherapy treatment he experienced marked improvement from the start. During the sixth month he passed through a remarkable healing crisis in the form of malarial fever. Such a fever had been "cured" with quinine twenty years before. From this suppression dated the beginning of his chronic "rheumatism". The healing crisis was treated in the natural way, and from that time on he improved more rapidly than ever and regained mobility of the ankylosed joints.

    Another young man who is now under our treatment had suffered for years from extreme emaciation and nervous weakness, due to indigestion and malassimilation. He also tried the forced milk treatment (forced milk feeding while lying in bed), but to no avail. He finally had to abandon it on account of the aggravation of all his symptoms. He is now gaining under natural diet and treatment, which had to change the abnormal condition of his ductless glands before he could gain by the milk or any other diet. The swamping of the system with enormous quantities of milk in this case had only aggravated the abnormal condition of these wonderful organs by increasing colloid obstruction and the percentage of leukocytes.

   a)  Straight Milk Diet. When the system, through natural diet and treatment, has been duly prepared for the up building process, then the straight milk diet may be applied to good advantage. Under this regimen the patient receives no 'other food but sweet milk. It is taken every hour or half hour, in quantities ranging from one to two glasses (one half to one pint).

    The milk should always be sipped slowly. Masticating is of no particular benefit, as it contains no starch. Those who enthusiastically advocate prolonged mastication of milk forget that the ferment (ptyalin) of the saliva acts starch only. On the other hand, it is certainly not advisable to take the milk down in great gulps. It is important that it should mix gradually and thoroughly with the gastric juice, which acts upon the protein matter the milk. If large quantities of milk create revulsion or unpleasant results, acid fruit juices, or better still the meat of acid fruits such as lemon, grape fruit, lime or orange will give relief and create better tolerance for the milk.

    If one finds it impossible to take large quantities of milk every hour or half hour, from the start, smaller quantities may be taken at intervals. For instance, one half pint every hour the first day, one pint every hour the second day, one pint every half hour the third day. The quantity of milk to be consumed per day depends upon the size and weight of the patient. It may range from three quarts per day for a person weighing from ninety to one hundred pounds and suffering from indigestion and malassimilation, to eight or ten quarts per day for a person large size and weight and endowed with fairly good digestive capacity.

   b) Milk Diet for Fleshy People. Those who suffer m an overabundance of fat and flesh must take milk lily in moderate quantities, say, from two to five quarts sweet skim milk daily. The cream, in such cases, would only tend to perpetuate and increase fat formation. In many cases of obesity a straight skim milk or buttermilk is a splendid remedy for reducing fat. As I said before, the milk diet means a mild form of starch and protein starvation. On the other hand, it increases the activity of the kidneys and flushes the capillaries. In such cases the sweet skim milk may be reinforced by acid fruits taken either with the milk or between the milk feedings.

   c) Buttermilk Diet. We find that with many people buttermilk agrees much better than whole milk or skim milk. Others cannot tolerate it at all. The buttermilk may be taken at intervals similar to those prescribed for sweet milk, but not in excessive quantities. I find by experience that on an average one half or one third of the sweet milk quantity is sufficient for the buttermilk. Buttermilk is especially beneficial in cases of low acidity of the stomach and a tonic for an atrophic condition of the intestines. Quite often it can only be determined by some experimentation whether sweet milk or buttermilk diet is most beneficial in a given case.

   d) Sour Milk, Clabber or Sumik Diet. Sour milk, may be prepared in various ways, either by exposing whole or skimmed sweet milk to warm air, or by enclosing unskimmed sweet milk in an air-tight jar or bottle. It is allowed to remain in ordinary living room temperature of from 60 to 70 degrees until the milk has become clabber. The clabber is produced by lactic acid fermentation under proper conditions. However, strictest cleanliness must be observed in the preparation of the sour milk, or germs of putrefaction may enter and create a dangerous product. The longer it is allowed to stand in a warm temperature the more acid it becomes. After being properly soured, or clabbered, it should be thoroughly stirred or aerated with an egg beater until it assumes the consistency of thick cream. This is called sumik. With some patients it agrees splendidly, while others cannot tolerate it. Sumik may be taken at intervals and in quantities the same as sweet milk or buttermilk.

   e) Natural Milk Diet. Under this regimen, whole or sweet skimmed milk, buttermilk, sumik or clabber may be taken at intervals and in quantities in accordance with the desire and capacity of the patient. In many instances this will prove the best of all methods. The patient should be encouraged to take milk as frequently and in as large quantities as he can easily tolerate.

    With the various milk regimens, water should be taken only when distinctly desired. Ordinarily milk contains more water than the system requires.

   f) Milk and Fruit Diet. I have found the following milk and fruit combination diet of greatest benefit in a majority of cases. While many patients can take acid fruits to good advantage with the milk, I have found it of greater benefit, in many cases, to give sweet alkaline fruits, such as figs, dates, prunes, raisins, dried currants, etc., with the milk, and acid or subacid fruits between the milk feedings.

   g) Milk and Acid Fruit Diet. Many people who become bilious and constipated on a straight milk diet or who develop quickly a revulsion to milk, will tolerate the milk and digest it much better if they take with it acid or subacid fruits, such as lemons, limes, grape fruit, oranges, or berries. They should be allowed to partake of fruit as often as desired but should be cautioned not to take any more fruit than necessary to counteract the unpleasant effects of the milk.

    The following mixed fruit and milk diet has proved beneficial to many patients who for some reason or another cannot take the straight milk diet:

    Breakfast: One to three pints of milk, sipped slowly. With the milk take any of the sweetish alkaline fruits, such as melons, pears, prunes, dates, figs, raisins, or raw vegetable relishes such as celery, raw cabbage, water cress, green onions, carrots, etc.

    At ten A.M.—One of the following fruits: Grape fruit, oranges, peaches, apples, apricots, berries, grapes or any other acid or subacid fruit.

    Luncheon: The same as breakfast.

    At three P.M.—The same as at 10 A.M.

   Supper: The same as breakfast.

    An orange or apple may be taken before retiring.

   11) The Exclusive Meat Diet. Through theoretical research as well as through actual experience in an extensive institutional practice, I have become convinced that in the great majority of diseases a well balanced vegetarian diet is essential to improvement and cure.

    However, there are exceptions to this, as to any other rule. In the treatment of certain negative physical and psychical conditions, when the vitality is below par, when the digestive organs have grown so weak that they cannot properly digest and assimilate the ordinary vegetable foods, we have found it advantageous to put these patients, temporarily, on a partial meat diet

    Then, again, there is a certain type of dyspeptic patient who, on account of abnormal conditions of the digestive organs, cannot digest and assimilate starchy foods. In these cases even small amounts of starches cause fermentation, gas formation and many other distressing symptoms. Usually these people are so weak that they cannot subsist on an exclusive fruit and vegetable diet. Both fruits and vegetables cause more or less distress in the way of indigestion and gas formation. In such cases we have found various forms of meat diet of temporary benefit.

    In the following pages I shall describe a few meat regimen that have proved beneficial in many instances.

   a) Salisbury Exclusive Meat Diet. One who has had much experience with this dietetic treatment describes the Salisbury exclusive meat diet as follows:

    "Dr. Salisbury claims that consumption (tuberculosis) is caused by fermentation of food in the stomach, and that the cure consists in excluding those foods which ferment and confining the diet to the most nutritious as well as the most easily assimilated food, beef being the best.

   Broiled round steak, from the third to the sixth cut, is as being the most nutritious and having the waste in the form of fat, bone or any undesirable tissues.

    "The best preparation for broiling is as follows: Remove the round bone, together with the outer rind of tissue and fat, also the tough fibers running through the beef, then cut into pieces small enough to go into a meat grinder and reduce the whole to a pulp. If one has no meat grinder, then the beef may be chopped in a tray, but care must be used that there be no stringy fibers left in pulp. Shape the beef into a compact layer, not over three quarters of an inch in thickness, using the edge of the knife to avoid pressing the beef into a livery, soggy mass. When ready to broil, slide from the plate onto a close meshed wire broiler, and cook over live coals or lit blaze until done through,—the redness of the meat gone—when it should be served hot, with salt and butter to taste. Salt after cooking, as salt applied before cooking hardens the beef.

    "If it is not convenient for one to broil the beef over or a bright blaze, then a spider or frying pan may be used if it is allowed to get very hot before sliding the beef into it from the plate. When ready to turn, put the plate over the beef and turn all the way over and slide the beef again into the spider, uncooked side down, and finish cooking." 

   * "Give seven mouthfuls of beef to one of toasted bread boiled rice,—whole wheat bread being preferred to white flour bread, which has been deprived of some of its desirable qualities."

* This is not in accord with Natural Dietetics as explained in Vol. III.

   b) Hot Water Drinking. This same authority advocates the drinking of hot water as a preserver of health and as a therapeutic agent in the treatment of chronic disease, but many of his claims in its behalf are directly contrary to the teachings of orthodox physiology and food chemistry as well as to Natural Therapeutic philosophy.

   It is evident why the Salisbury meat diet requires enormous quantities of hot water to counteract its bad effects upon the system. The ingestion of such large masses of meat, unbalanced by mineral salt, foods, would cause excessive accumulation of colloids, alkaloids of putrefaction and other pathogenic materials, if these were not washed out of the system by correspondingly large amounts of hot water. Excessive thirst, of which the author speaks, is caused by the increased oxidation of morbid products. Thirst disappears almost entirely under a well balanced vegetarian diet. This explains why an exclusive meat diet necessitates the hot water flushing.

   I would recommend the exclusive Salisbury meat regimen only in exceptional cases of incipient or advanced tuberculosis or in other cases which exhibit positive intolerance of starchy and vegetable foods.

    A meat diet may prove beneficial also in cases of abnormal psychism caused by negative physical and mental conditions described in Volume I. In such cases the meat diet has a tendency to fortify the animal magnetism of the psychic and thus to break contact with conditions on the spiritual plane. Even in most of these cases a vegetarian diet including the dairy products will bring all the good results without the danger of uric acid poisoning which is always present under an exclusive meat diet. I have seen many people cure themselves through the Salisbury method from carbonic acid poisoning due to an excessive starch diet, only to develop serious forms of uric acid poisoning, such as rheumatism, heart disease, high blood pressure, etc.

   c) Combination Meat and Vegetable Diet. Breakfast: Acid and subacid fruits. Dinner: A small portion of roiled Salisbury steak, rare broiled beefsteak, mutton, ire roast beef, or roast mutton, with raw vegetable relishes, salads and one cooked leafy (not starchy) vegetable. Supper: A raw or soft-boiled egg three times a week, together with a baked or boiled potato and vegetable relishes or salads. On other evenings a slice or two of health bread or a dish of cereal, together with vegetable relishes, salads, olives, figs, dates or raisins.

    Any one meal must not contain more than three of these varieties of foods. In cases where starchy foods are not tolerated, Salisbury steak or meat in some form may be substituted for cereals or bread. 

   d) Modified Combination Meat and Vegetable Diet. Under this regimen starchy foods are restricted to a minimum. A small portion of meat is allowed three or four times a week.

    Suitable foods besides meat are acid and subacid fruits, especially for breakfast: Raw vegetable relishes and salads, cottage cheese, cooked vegetables, olives, dates, figs, raisins, nuts in moderate quantities; eggs (raw, soft boiled or poached) in moderate quantities-not more than four a week; cereals, bread and potatoes, if used at all, in very moderate quantities only, but not in combination with meat or with acid fruits.

FASTING

   One of the most common complaints of the sick is that they have "lost their appetite". They seem to imagine that this is a terrible affliction. Quite the reverse is true however. In the majority of cases Nature takes away the appetite because a fast is needed. They do not know that the greatest blessing to them would be to "lose their appetite" long enough to find their hunger. Loss of appetite is simply an indication that the system is overcharged with pathogenic matter and that Nature is trying to stop the eating long enough to give these clogging, benumbing or irritating accumulations a chance to escape from the system, or it may be that the digestive organs are too weak to take care of large quantities of food. However, the laity for ages has been encouraged by the medical profession in the idea that to lose the appetite and miss a few meals is a great calamity; that this must be prevented by taking powerful stimulants in the form of appetizers and tonics. These serve to create a false and artificial appetite and cause the sufferer to stuff the weak stomach with more food, while that taken in previous meals is fermenting and putrefying, filling the system with noxious poisons.

    Many people are learning the trick of curing their colds, headaches, nervous spells and other acute troubles, by missing a few meals or taking a short fast. It is the quickest, simplest and most efficient method of relieving the overloaded, food poisoned system. We would be surprised if we knew how little food is actually required to keep the human organism in good condition. The majority of people are food poisoned,—even those who believe they are eating moderately.

    Cornaro, the great Italian Nature Cure apostle, who lived in Venice in the Fifteenth Century, proved these facts which humanity at large has not digested and taken advantage of even at this late day. At forty he was dying chronic diseases resulting from overeating, drinking and riotous living generally. Being gifted by nature with some intelligence and will power, he essayed to cure himself by reversing his habits of living, i.e., by reducing the daily allowance of food and drink to a minimum.

   For nearly forty years his daily allowance of solid food was not more than twelve ounces. Then he yielded to the urging of his relatives and friends, who believed that he was starving himself, and took a few ounces more of food than his former quota. The result was that he immediately began to feel most miserable, both physically and mentally and his former good health and energy did not return until he reduced his daily allowance to the old, accustomed twelve ounces.

    After the age of eighty he wrote several books on matters of health, and particularly his own experiences. His most pretentious work, which is even now in print and widely read, he finished when he was over one hundred years old. The history of this man and his experiences with moderate living and fasting should be taught in every school in the land. 

    1. The Physiology of Fasting. Fasting is undoubtedly of the most potent and incidentally the cheapest of all natural remedies. The reason why it is not more universally applied is that the laity at large, as well as the medical profession, are under the impression that the interruption of eating even for a brief period will greatly reduce the vitality of the individual.

    This popular fallacy is caused by the belief that food and drink are the only sources of strength. In other parts of these writings (see Philosophy of Natural Therapeutics and Nature Cure Cook Book) I have shown that this is not so—that the life force which is the real source of our vitality or strength is entirely independent of our material bodies (physical and spiritual) and of food, drink, medicines, tonics and stimulants; that this life force flows into us from the source of all life, intelligence and creative force in the universe; from that which we variously call God, Nature, Universal Intelligence, the Oversoul, the Will to Live, and by many other names. If people fully realized this fact they would not be in such great fear of missing a few meals or of undergoing a more or less prolonged fast.

    Fasting as a remedy is fully in harmony with our philosophy of the causes of disease. If disease is created through abnormal composition of blood and lymph and through accumulation of morbid matter in the system, it stands to reason that fasting will help to eliminate from the system waste matter and morbid accumulations. The most difficult feature about fasting is the breaking of the eating habit. Therefore the first three or four days of fasting are always the hardest. They are usually accompanied by craving for food, nervous disturbances, mental depression, headaches, sleeplessness, etc. We must remember that eating is the oldest and most firmly established of all habits. Therefore it is not easily broken.

    After the habit is broken, which usually requires two or three days, fasting becomes easier day-by-day. One reason for this is that about the third or fourth day the mucous membranes of the intestines begin to eliminate morbid matter. The processes of assimilation have come to a standstill. The membranous linings of the stomach and intestines, which ordinarily act as sponges for the absorption of food materials, are now throwing off effete matter from the system. The sponge is being squeezed. This is indicated by the fetid breath and coated tongue which reflect the foul condition of the digestive organs. These are not fit to digest or assimilate food; therefore hunger ceases.

    The system now has to draw for food upon its reserve stores. The waste and morbid materials are stirred up and eliminated first.

    When we consider that the digestive canal from mouth to anus is about twenty six feet long and lined all through with eliminating cellular and glandular structures, then we can better appreciate the purifying effect of a protracted fast. One need not fear the weakening effects of fasting, since of late years it has been proved in thousands of cases that fasts of even forty, fifty and sixty days duration have no perceptible weakening effect upon the system, unless the patient be greatly weakened and emaciated by disease at the beginning of the fast.

    One of our patients recently finished a forty nine day fast. At the end of it he felt actually stronger than he did at the beginning. Up to the last day he took long walks. At the same time the chronic troubles which were caused by drug poisoning and surgical operations were greatly alleviated.

    The foregoing explains why short fasts of from one to three days duration have not a decided curative effect. It takes that much time to start the eliminative processes the linings of the intestines. As soon as food is taken these processes are interrupted and reversed. I would consider seven days a short curative fast. Shorter fasts may be taken, however, in order that one may become gradually accustomed to the practice.

    In this as well as in many other things, much depends upon the right mental attitude. If one fears the effects of fasting and believes that it is going to weaken him, this causes mental and nervous depression which is bound to react disastrously upon his system. H, on the other hand, one becomes thoroughly convinced that rational fasting cannot injure the system, that whether eating or abstaining from food the life force will flow into the body just as abundantly, then the fasting will greatly facilitate the elimination of waste and pathogenic matter and there will be no mental apprehension and no nervous uneasiness to affect the system and to interfere with the grand house-cleaning.

    Many of our patients have undergone protracted fasts, but. I do not remember a single instance in which any one of them has been injured through the practice. We carefully observe the physical and mental condition of the patient from day to day and interrupt the fast when such action is indicated.

   2. Danger Signals in Fasting are rapid and prolonged loss of weight approaching the danger line; serious and prolonged mental depression and the appearance of psychical symptoms such as clairvoyance or clairaudience, which indicate abnormal psychism due to an extremely negative physical and mental condition. Also the fast should be interrupted when a patient shows great fear and apprehension of its weakening effects, as the destructive effects of anxiety and worry might overbalance the benefits to be derived from the fast. In such eases it is better to postpone a protracted fast to a time when the mental and emotional conditions are more positive.

   3. How Long Should One Fast? I never prescribe the length of a fast beforehand. Even when I am convinced that a prolonged fast of two, three or four weeks is indicated, I would not inform the patient to this effect. I usually tell him that we shall extend or shorten the fast according to the effects it produces; that we may continue it for a few days or for a week or more, according to changing conditions. This assures the patient that the fast is not going to be continued beyond his powers of endurance. It is much easier for him to fast from day to day than to look forward to a long fixed period.

    The practice of fasting until the tongue becomes dean, the breath sweet and natural hunger returns is a rather dangerous one. I have found in many eases that the symptoms of a foul condition of the digestive organs would not disappear after four or five weeks' of fasting nor would there be the slightest manifestation of hunger, and in several such eases it seemed doubtful whether breath and tongue would clear up before the patient was ready for the undertaker.

    It is much safer to break the fast before the desired results have been fully obtained and to repeat it after a period of recuperation. The digestive organs may be in such a diseased condition that it is impossible for them to become normal through one prolonged fast.

   Several patients have come under our care who had protracted the fast too long while waiting for the cleaning up. One of these patients is with us now, just recuperating from a complete collapse caused by excessive fasting. When she finally tried to eat, her digestive organs were so weak that they could not take care of any food whatsoever. She was brought to our institution on a stretcher, emaciated to the proverbial "skin and bones". It required considerable careful management and treatment to revive the paralyzed organs. In such cases only very small quantities of easily digestible food, such as white of egg, milk, sumik or buttermilk, must be given. 'With this we give subacid or sweet fruit juices. Careful massage and neurotherapy are required to revive the benumbed organs. Magnetic treatment also is of great value in accomplishing this.

   4. Preparation for Fasting. Most writers on fasting maintain that one can stop eating and start on a prolonged fast at any time without preparation. This, however, is not always advisable. It may be all right in certain cases which are not affected by serious chronic diseases. But where the organs of elimination are in an atrophic condition, and where the system suffers from mineral starvation and is overloaded with pathogenic matter, it is much safer to prepare the system for the fast through a low protein diet rich in positive mineral elements, or, better still through a raw food diet and through thorough systematic natural treatment. I have fully explained this in Chap. XXVII Vol. I.

    Large amounts of negative pathogenic materials eliminated from the tissues and thrown into the circulation as a result of fasting must be neutralized by the positive alkaline mineral elements and eliminated from the system. These neutralizing and purifying elements can be introduced into the system only through a fruit and vegetable diet, low in starches and protein matter and rich in the positive alkaline mineral elements.

    When the natural diet and treatment have purified the system sufficiently for the manifestation of a healing crisis, then the physiological and psychological moment for fasting has arrived. Then the system is not in condition for the digestion and assimilation of food.' Therefore fasting becomes imperative. The whole body, including the linings of the stomach and bowels, is engaged in the work of elimination; this results in loss of appetite, revulsion to eating, coated tongue, foul breath, mental and nervous disturbances, all of which would only be aggravated by eating.

    In order to prevent reabsorption of morbid excretions, enemas (Sec. XVIII) and treatment for constipation (Sec. XXVI, No.1), are indicated before and during a fast.

   5. Healing Crises Suppressed by Eating. I have frequently observed that good healing crises such as diarrheas', acute catarrh or febrile conditions were suppressed by eating. This is easily explained by the fact that healing crises are processes of elimination, while eating promotes the processes of assimilation. This is especially true of diarrhea, which is one of the most efficient forms of acute elimination or healing crisis. Forced absorption of food will frequently check the morbid discharges. Furthermore, it is dangerous to give food in cases of well established violent diarrhea because it only irritates the raw surfaces in the intestines and keeps them in an inflamed condition. The food is not absorbed, but only serves to prolong the purging, dysentery or bloody flux unnecessarily, and thus may cause perforation of the bowels, hemorrhage and even death.

    Not a morsel of food should pass the lips until the intestines have stopped moving and have had time to heal and to rebuild the sloughed membranes. Therefore fasting should be continued all the way from one day to a week after the cessation of purging, according to the severity and duration of the acute attack. For example, after a diarrhea lasting one or two days, no food should be taken for twenty four hours. After a diarrhea lasting four or five days fasting should continue for three days or longer. After eight days or more of violent purging, no food should be taken for at least seven days.

    One of the most remarkable healing crises I ever observed came in the form of a diarrhea which lasted four weeks. During this time the patient did not receive any food whatsoever, nothing but water mixed with acid fruit juices. The discharges were of a black, watery nature. The patient assured me that during this entire four weeks' period he did not sleep one wink. Still he did not suffer particularly in the daytime. He had sufficient energy to accomplish his usual amount of work. While this may seem incredible, and while it is possible that the man may have slept more than he was aware, we have witnessed many similar instances of remarkable endurance during healing Crises. The man had suffered all his life from chronic enteritis (inflammation of the bowels). The eyes showed several itch spots in the intestinal area indicating that the underlying cause of the trouble was suppressed itch. He remembered that such eruptions had been suppressed several times in his youth. This vigorous healing crisis eliminated the disease taint from his system, and he has enjoyed good health ever since.

   6. Fruit Juices in Fasting. In the majority of cases we prefer to give to those who are undergoing prolonged fasts moderate quantities of diluted acid and subacid fruit juices. In this I take issue with some of the best authorities on fasting. I cannot understand why acid and subacid fruit juices should in any way interfere with the good effects of a fast. They do not contain food elements which promote the processes of digestion. On the other hand, they are rich in mineral salts which are necessary to neutralized the negative pathogenic substances with which the circulation is flooded during the fast.

    Besides having this neutralizing and eliminating effect, they are splendid tonics and antiseptics and are rich in vitamins, or, as I have called them, the life elements (microzyma) which sustain and stimulate the vital activities. Pasting, therefore, is much easier to endure and more pleasant when the diluted fruit juices are taken.

   Fruit juices should not be taken pure or in large quantities because in this form they may excite the digestive processes. There is no danger of this, however, when they are taken in dilute form; for instance, the juice of half an orange or half a lemon to a tumbler full of cold water. The water should be of natural temperature as it comes from the hydrant or well. Ice water should not be used under any circumstances.

   7. Hot Water Drinking. In some cases where the stomach and intestines are in a very foul and slimy condition hot water drinking proves very beneficial From one to two glasses of water, as hot as can be swallowed without injuring the tender membranes of the mouth and throat, may be taken three times a day. I do not advise the continuance of hot water drinking longer than necessary to wash out the morbid accumulations in the digestive tract. This must be supplemented also by copious enemas every second or third day.

    The diluted fruit juices may be taken between the hot water flushings. I would advise the hot water regimen only in extreme cases where something of a radical nature has to be done to clear the digestive tract of its fetid accumulations.

   8. Exercises while Fasting. The idea prevails that during a prolonged fast one should have complete rest. This, however, is a serious mistake. There is no reason why one should not take the usual amount of exercise or accomplish the accustomed daily tasks, provided, of course, these do not strain the physical and mental energies to the point of exhaustion. As a matter of fact many of our patients feel stronger and display more endurance after the first week of fasting than during the first few days. This is easily explained by the fact that during the fast the system eliminates large amounts of clogging pathogenic matter (colloids and leukocytes). This allows freer circulation of the blood and nerve currents and a more unobstructed inflow of vital energy.

   9. Symptoms and Acute Reactions Caused by Fasting

   a) Gas Formation. One of the common symptoms exhibited after starting on a fast is excessive gas production accompanied by rumbling in the bowels and colicky pains. This is caused by the stirring up and disintegration of deposits of old fecal matter in the intestines, and by the elimination of pathogenic materials from the system. Usually the bowels soon stop moving when no food is taken. In such cases warm water enemas should be taken to flush the colon. (Sec. XVIII, No.4)

    The accumulations in the lower intestine during a fast are of a particularly poisonous nature, and should be removed in order to prevent reabsorption.

   b) Temperature. In many instances the temperature rises during the first day of the fast and sometimes a slight febrile condition prevails during the entire period or subsides after a few weeks. In other cases we observe a lowering of the temperature below the normal. All these and similar reactions are not of a serious nature, and nothing should be done to interfere with them. They become dangerous only by suppression.

   c) Cotton Mouth. Another unpleasant but perfectly natural symptom is the gathering in the mouth of thick and sticky viscous accumulations of saliva. This condition has been called "cotton mouth" by the laity. In other cases the mouth feels dry and burning hot. These symptoms are of course signs of greatly increased combustion of morbid materials and their elimination through the membranes of the mouth and throat. Similar conditions exist in the stomach and intestines.

   d) Bilious Vomiting. In some cases where the liver has been enlarged and engorged with morbid accumulations, bile discharges in large quantities into the intestine and from there regurgitates into the stomach, causing bilious vomiting of an extremely offensive character. This symptom also is more terrifying than dangerous. It is a rather unpleasant but nevertheless effective way of house cleaning.

    People who have taken a great deal of calomel or mercury in other forms often develop violent vomiting while fasting. This may continue for a week or more. If they are robust enough to stand the ordeal it is well to let the crisis ran its course, but if they are in a very weakened condition it may be advisable to interrupt the fast for the time being. In such cases it is best to give white of egg to soothe the inflamed lining of the stomach.

    It must be remembered that in these mercurial patients the liver and stomach are particularly affected and that these organs try to throw off the mercurial poison through vomiting. I have frequently perceived distinctly the peculiar metallic and mercurial odor of the breath and of the bilious discharges.

   e) Offensive Perspiration. Another unpleasant symptom which we frequently observe during prolonged fasting is a very offensive odor of perspiration, which indicates vigorous elimination of pathogenic materials through the skin. Frequent quick cold rubs will promote this form of elimination and at the same time remove the offensive excretions and thus prevent their reabsorption In some eases it may become necessary to employ warm water and soap to remove the offensive elimination.

   10. Fear of Fasting Unfounded. The majority of those who undergo their first long fast are most pleasantly surprised to find that the terrors of starvation exist only in people's minds. It has happened that people stranded on barren islands or lost in desert places or entombed in mines, even where they had water have died apparently from starvation in the course of a week or two. It is now fully proved by the thousands who have fasted for long periods ranging from forty to ninety days that death in such eases is not due to actual starvation. The real cause must be fear and apprehension,—proving again that the things we fear we materialize.

    We cannot reiterate too often that fear is a perversion of the great law of faith. It is faith in evil. By submitting to fear we give evil power over us. The most necessary requirement, therefore, for a successful fast is the profound conviction that it cannot harm us in any way, but that it will prove of great benefit, physically, mentally and morally, because it not only purifies the body but strengthens will power and self control.

   11. Fasting Regimen. Before, during, and after a therapeutic fast, everything mull be done to keep elimination active, in order to prevent the reabsorption of the toxins that are being stirred up and liberated.

    Fasting involves rapid breaking down of the tissues. This creates great quantities of worn out cell materials and other morbid substances. Unless these poison producing accumulations are promptly eliminated, they will be reabsorbed into the system and cause autointoxication.

    To prevent this, bowels, kidneys and skin must be kept in active condition. The diet, for several days before and after a fast, should consist largely of uncooked fruits and vegetables, and the different methods of natural stimulative treatment should be systematically applied.

    During a fast, every bit of vitality must be economized; therefore the passive treatments are to be preferred to active exercise, although a certain amount of exercise (especially walking) daily in the open air, accompanied by deep breathing, should not be neglected.

   While fasting, intestinal evacuation usually ceases, especially where there is a natural tendency to sluggishness of the bowels. Enemas are therefore in order and during prolonged fasts may be taken every few days.

    By "prolonged" fasts I mean fasts that last from one to four weeks, "short" fasts being those one, two or three days' duration.

    Moderate drinking is beneficial during a fast as well as at other times; but excessive consumption of water, the so-called "flushing of the system", is very injurious. Under ordinary conditions from five to eight glasses of water a day are sufficient; the quantity consumed must be regulated by the' desire of the patient.

    Those who are fasting should mix their drinking water with the juice of acid fruits, preferably lemon, lime, orange or grapefruit. These juices act as eliminators and are fine natural antiseptics.

    Never use distilled water, whether during a fast or at any other time. Deprived of its own mineral constituents, distilled water "leeches" the mineral elements and organic salts out of the tissues of the body and thereby intensifies dysemic conditions.

    While fasting, the right mental attitude is all important. Unless you can do it with perfect equanimity, without fear or misgiving, do not fast at all. Destructive mental conditions may more than offset the beneficial effects of the fast.

    To recapitulate: never undertake a prolonged fast unless you have been properly prepared by natural diet and treatment, and never without the guidance of a competent adviser.

   a) The Regular Fast. Under this regimen no food is taken, but sufficient water to quench the thirst. In some oases it may be advantageous to increase the quantity of drinking water in order to dilute the pathogenic materials in the circulation and thus to facilitate their elimination through the skin and kidneys. Thirst, therefore is a safe indicator for the amounts of fluid needed.

   b) The Dry Fast. This means total abstinence from food and drink. Most people cannot endure this radical fast more than two or three days. It is a very powerful agent for promoting elimination. When no fluids are taken, the tissues are drawn upon for the elimination of waste materials. It has been found that such fluid starvation, which is directly contrary to the popular idea of flushing, is a powerful method for promoting elimination of morbid matter and disease taints, especially from the systems of individuals who are obese or whose tissues are "water logged".

   c) The Seven day Fast. If no adverse symptoms interfere, we frequently prescribe a short fast of seven days. This in the great majority of cases cannot produce any harmful or weakening results, and, understanding the laws of periodicity, we prefer a seven day period. If developments arc favorable to a prolongation of the fast we endeavor to extend it to the fourteenth, twenty first, twenty eighth or subsequent seven day period (Chapter XXIII, Vol.1, Periodicity.)

   d) The Long Fast. Long fasts may extend from one to seven or more weeks, according to individual indications and the vitality of the patient.

    As already explained, we never fix a definite period for the fast beforehand but extend it from time to time according to conditions. We add small quantities of acid fruit juices to the drinking water as long as it agrees with the patient. If a revulsion to fruit acids develops, the' water may be taken pure.

    After the bowels stop moving naturally enemas must be taken from time to time, say once or twice a week, in order to prevent reabsorption of toxic materials from the lower intestine. Indications for breaking the fast have been described under "danger signals". 

    12. Breaking the Fast. The great benefit derived from a fast may be all lost, and may be followed by harmful after effects if the fast is not broken in the right way. In fact, the best effects of a fast depend upon the dietetic management after it is broken. The longer the fast, the more care must be taken in breaking it.

    The greatest danger lies in eating too frequently and too much at a time. After a long fast the digestive organs are in a condition of complete inactivity, and to overload them suddenly with a large amount of food may provoke acute attacks of indigestion and produce many other kinds of serious disturbances. The organs must be trained into normal activity gradually, beginning with very small quantities of light food. I have frequently found it very advantageous to break the fast with a few tablespoonfuls of freshly toasted popcorn, unsalted and unbuttered. This is a splendid scour for the membranous linings of the stomach and bowels, and its tough particles stimulate the peristaltic action of the intestines.

    The popcorn may be followed within an hour by some mild fruit juice, preferably lemon, lime, orange or grapefruit juice. Not more than the juice of half a grapefruit or of one orange should be taken at a time. The quantity of undiluted fruit juice may be gradually increased on the second day to three or four half tumblerfuls. On the third day the meat of acid or subacid fruits may be taken instead of the juice alone.

    After the third day the fruit diet may be supplemented and combined with raw vegetable relishes and salads. If a person be sensitive to the mixing of acid fruits with vegetables, they should be taken at separate meals. To this raw food diet may be added small quantities of nuts or a ripe banana. The raw food diet may be continued from a few days to many weeks, according to the individual condition of the patient. Or it may be followed, whenever it seems advisable, by the regular vegetarian diet.

    On the other hand, it may be advisable to follow the fruit diet after breaking the fast, by a straight or modified milk diet. This is especially indicated where milk agrees with the patient and where it is desirable to give animal food in order to overcome a negative mental and physical condition and to build flesh more rapidly.

    No hard and fast rules can be established concerning any of these regimen or practices. One must be guided entirely by individual conditions and requirements. It is dangerous for people to experiment along these lines without the guidance of a competent and experienced Natural Therapeutics. If the fast is broken in the right way it will be found that lost weight is regained very quickly. In many instances people gain much more, after a prolonged fast, than they weighed before. Moreover, the new blood and tissues will be purer and healthier than the old, effete tissues which have been eliminated through strict diet, natural treatment and fasting.

HYDROTHERAPY OR WATER TREATMENT

INTRODUCTION

   While in our treatment of acute diseases we use wet packs and cold ablutions to promote the radiation of heat and thereby to reduce the fever temperature, our aim in the treatment of chronic diseases is to arouse the system to acute eliminative effort. In other words, while in acute disease our hydropathic treatment is sedative, in chronic diseases it is stimulative.

The Good Effects of Gold Water Applications

   1. Stimulation of the Circulation. As before stated, cold water applied to the surface of the body arouses and stimulates the circulation all over the system. Blood counts before and after a cold water application show a very marked increase in the number of red corpuscles. This does not mean that the cold water has in a moment created new blood cells but it means that the blood has been stirred up and sent hurrying through the system, that the lazy cells which were lying inactive in the sluggish and stagnant blood stream and in the clogged and obstructed tissues are aroused to increased activity.

    Undoubtedly, the invigorating and stimulating influence of cold sprays, ablutions, sitzbaths, barefoot walking in the dewy grass or on wet stones and of all other cold water applications depends largely upon their electromagnetic effects upon the system. This has been explained in Chapter XXXIV, Vol.1.

   2. Elimination of impurities. As the cord water drives the blood with increased force through the system, it flushes the capillaries in the tissues and cleanses them from the accumulation of pathogen which is one of the primary causes of acute and chronic diseases.

    As the blood rushes back to the surface it suffuses the skin, opens and relaxes the pores and the minute blood vessels or capillaries, and thus unloads its impurities through the cuticle.

   3. Why We Favor Cold Water. In the treatment of chronic diseases some advocates of natural methods of healing still favor warm or hot applications in the form of hot water baths, various kinds of steam or sweat baths, electric light baths, hot compresses, fomentations, etc.

    However, the great majority of Nature Cure practitioners in Europe have abandoned hot applications of any kind almost entirely because of their weakening and enervating after effects and because in many instances they have not only failed to produce the expected results but have aggravated the disease conditions.

    We can explain the different effects of hot and cold water as well as of all other therapeutic agents upon the system by the law of action and reaction.

    Applied to physics this law reads: "Action and reaction are equal but opposite." I have adapted the law of action and reaction to therapeutics in a somewhat circumscribed way as follows: Every therapeutic agent affecting the human organism has a first, temporary, and a second, permanent effect. The second, lasting effect is contrary to the first, transient effect.

    The first, temporary effect of warmth above the body temperature, whether it be applied in the form of hot air, water, steam or light, is to draw the blood into the surface. Immediately after such an application the skin will be red and hot.

   The second and lasting effect, however (in accordance with the law of action and reaction), is that the blood recedes into the interior of the body and leaves the skin in a bloodless and enervated condition, subject to chills and predisposed to "catching cold".

   On the other hand, the first, transient effect of cold water applications upon the body as a whole, or upon any particular part is to chill the surface and send the blood scurrying inward, leaving the skin in a chilled, bloodless condition. This lack of blood and sensation of cold are at once telegraphed over the afferent nerves to headquarters in the brain and from there the command goes forth to the nerve centers regulating the circulation, "Send blood into the surface!"

    As a result, the circulation is stirred up and accelerated throughout the system and the blood rushes with force into the depleted skin, flushing the surface of the body with warm, red blood and restoring to it the rosy color of health. This is the second effect. In other words, the well applied cold water treatment is followed by a good reaction, and this is accompanied by many permanent beneficial results.

    The drawing and eliminating first effect of hot applications, of sweat baths,—etc., is at best only temporary, lasting but a few minutes, and is always followed by a weakening reaction, while the drawing and eliminating action of the cold water applications, being the second, lasting effect, exerts an enduring, invigorating and tonic influence upon the skin which enables it to throw off morbid matter not merely for ten or fifteen minutes, as in the sweat bath under the influence of excessive heat but continually by day and night.

   4. The Danger of Prolonged or Excessively Cold Applications. As I have pointed out, only water at ordinary temperature as it comes from well or hydrant should be used in hydropathic applications. It is positively dangerous to apply ice bags to an inflamed organ or to use icy water for packs and ablutions in febrile conditions.

    Likewise, icy or icy water should not be used in the hydropathic treatment of chronic diseases. Excessive cold is as suppressive in its effects upon the organism as are poisonous antiseptics or anti-fever medicines.

    The baths, sprays, douches, etc., should not be kept up too long. The duration of the cold water applications must be regulated by the individual condition of the patient and by his powers of reaction. It should be borne in mind that it is the short, quick application that produces the stimulating, electromagnetic effects upon the system.

    In Sections XIII and XV are described some of the baths and other cold water applications that are especially adapted to the treatment of chronic diseases.

COLD WATER APPLICATIONS

   1. Outdoor Bathing and Swimming. This is very invigorating and beneficial to those who are strong enough to secure reaction. The bathing or swimming should never be extended too long. Twenty minutes is sufficient even for a young and vigorous person. There must be no feeling of chilliness or exhaustion afterward. This would be a sign of overdoing. If the reaction is good there should follow a feeling of comfort and warmth, especially of the feet and hands. There will be a good appetite and the sleep will be sound and refreshing.

    Ocean bathing is more tonic than inland water bathing because the salts in the seawater have a positive electromagnetic effect upon the body.

   2. Foot Bath. Stand in cold water reaching up to the ankles for one to two minutes, according to the summer or winter temperature of the water. Dry the feet with a coarse towel and rub them vigorously with the hands, or walk about briskly for a few minutes. Repeat if necessary.

   3. Leg Bath. (a) Stand in water up to the calves, from one to two minutes, then proceed as above.

    b) Stand in water up to the knees, from one to two minutes, then rub vigorously or walk as directed.

   4. Barefoot Walking. Walk barefoot in wet grass or on wet stone pavements several times a day, from ten to twenty minutes at a time, or less in case of weakness. The early morning dew upon the grass is especially beneficial; later in the day wet the grass or pavement with a hose.

   After barefoot walking, dry and rub the feet thoroughly; and take a short, brisk walk in shoes and stockings.

   5. Indoor Water Treading. Stand in a bathtub or large foot-tub containing about two inches of cold water, step and splash vigorously for several minutes, then dry and rub the feet, and increase the circulation by walking around the room a few times.

   6. Foot Spray. Turn the full force of water from a hydrant or hose first on one foot, then on the other. Let the stream play alternately on the upper part of the feet and on the soles. The coldness and force of the water will draw the blood to the feet.

    These applications are excellent as a means of stimulating and equalizing the circulation, and a "sure cure', for cold and clammy feet, as well as for excessive perspiration of the feet.

    In this connection, we warn our readers most strongly against the use of drying powders or antiseptic washes to suppress foot-sweat. Serious nervous disorders have been traced to this practice.

   7. Partial Ablutions. Partial ablutions with cold water are very useful in many instances, especially in local inflammation or where local congestion is to be relieved. The "kalte Guss" forms an important feature of the Kniepp system of water cure.

    Sprays or showers may be administered to the head, arms, chest,—back, thighs, and knees or wherever indicated, with a dipper, a sprinkler or a hose attached to the faucet or hydrant. The water should be of natural temperature and the "Guss" of short duration.

   8. Limb Bath. Take up cold water in the hollow of the hands from a running faucet or a bucket filled with water, rub arms and legs briskly for a few minutes.

   9. Upper Body Bath. Stand in an empty tub, take water in the hollow of the hands from a running faucet or a bucket filled with cold water, and rub briskly the upper half of the body, from neck to hips, for two or three minutes. Use a towel or brush for those parts of the body that cannot be reached with the hands.

   10. Lower Body Baths. Proceed as in (9), rubbing the lower part of the body from the waist downwards.

   11. Hip Bath. Sit in a large basin or in the bathtub in enough water to cover the hips completely, the legs resting on the floor or against the side of the tub. While taking the hip bath, knead and rub the abdomen.

    Dry with a coarse towel, then rub and pat the skin with the hands for a few minutes.

   12. The Morning Cold Rub. The essentials for a cold rub, and in fact for every cold water treatment are warmth of the body before the application, coolness of the water (natural temperature), rapidity of action, and friction or exercise to stimulate the circulation. No cold water treatment should be taken when the body is in a chilled condition.

    a) Directly from the warmth of the bed, or after sunbath and exercise have produced a pleasant glow, go to the bathroom, sit in the empty tub with the stopper in place, turn on the cold water, and as it flows into the tub, catch it in the hollow of the hands and wash first the limbs, then the abdomen, then chest and back. Throw the water all over the body and rub the skin with the hands like you wash your face.

    Do this quickly but thoroughly. The entire procedure need not take up more than a few minutes. By the time the bath is finished, there may be from two to four inches of water in the tub. Use a towel or brush for the back if you cannot reach it otherwise.

    As long as there is a good reaction, the cold rub may be taken in an unheated bathroom even in cold weather.

   After the bath, dry the body quickly with a coarse towel and finish by rubbing with the hands until the skin is dry and smooth and you are aglow with the exercise, or expose the wet body to the fresh air before an open window and rub with the hands until dry and warm.

    A bath taken in this manner combines the beneficial effects of cold water, air, exercise, and the magnetic friction of the hands on the body (life on life). No lifeless instrument or mechanical appliance can equal the dexterity, warmth and magnetism of the human hand.

    The bath must be so conducted that it is followed by a feeling of warmth and comfort. Some persons will be benefited by additional exercises or, better still, a brisk walk in the open air, while others will get better results by returning to the warmth of the bed.

    There is no better means for stimulating the general circulation and for increasing the eliminative activities of the system than this cold morning rub at the beginning of the day after the night's rest. If kept up regularly, its good effects will soon become apparent.

    This method of taking a morning bath is to be preferred to the plunge into a tub! Filled with cold water. While persons with very strong constitutions may experience no ill effects, to those who are weak and do not react readily, the "cold plunge" might prove a severe shock and strain upon the system.

   b) When a bathtub is not available, take the morning cold rub in the following manner:

    Stand in an empty washtub. In front of you, in the tub, place a basin or bucket filled with cold water. Wet the hands or a towel and wash the body, part by part, from the feet upward, then dry and rub with the hands as before directed.

   13. The Evening sitzbaths. The sitzbath is best taken in the regular tub made for the purpose, but an ordinary bathtub or a washtub or pan may be used with equally good effect.

    Pour into the vessel a few inches of water at natural temperature as it comes from the hydrant, and sit in the water until a good reaction takes place that is, until the first sensation of cold is followed by a feeling of warmth. This may take from a few seconds to a few minutes, according to the temperature of the water and the individual powers of reaction.

    Dry with a coarse towel, rub and pat the skin with the hands, then, in order to establish good reaction, practice deep breathing for a few minutes, alternating with the internal massage exercise described on page 187.

    The morning cold rub is stimulating in its effects; the evening sitzbath is quieting and relaxing. The latter is therefore especially beneficial if taken just before going to bed. The cold water draws the blood from brain and spinal cord and thereby insures better rest and sleep. It cools and relaxes the abdominal organs, sphincters and orifices, stimulates gently and naturally the action of the bowels and of the urinary tract, and is equally effective in chronic constipation and in affections of the kidneys or bladder.

   14. The Head Bath. Loss or discoloration of the hair is generally due to the lack of hair building elements in the blood, or to sluggish circulation in the scalp and a diseased condition of the hair follicles. Nothing more effectually stimulates the flow of blood to brain and scalp or promotes the elimination of waste matter arid poisons from these parts than the head bath, together with scalp massage.

    Under no circumstances use hair tonics, dandruff or eczema cures or hair dyes. All such preparations contain poisons in the form of strong antiseptics and germicides. Dandruff is a form of elimination and should not be suppressed. When the scalp is in good condition, it disappears of its own accord.

    The diagnosis from the iris of the eye reveals the fact that glycerin, quinine, resorcin and other poisonous anti-septics and stimulants absorbed from dandruff cures and, hair tonics and deposited in the brain are, in many cases, the real cause of chronic headaches, neuralgia, dizziness, roaring in the ears, loss of hearing and sight mental depression, irritability and even insanity.

    Cold water is an absolutely safe and at the same time a most effective means to promote the growth of hair, as many of our patients can testify.

    If the hair is short, the head should be washed thoroughly with cold water each time the face is washed While doing this the scalp should be vigorously pinched, kneaded and massaged with the finger tips. When feasible, turn the stream from a hydrant or hose upon the head. This will add the good effect of friction to the coldness of the water.

    Where the hair is too long for such frequent washing, daily cold water treatment may be applied by dipping the finger tips in cold water and rubbing it into the scalp; progressively covering the whole surface and vigorously massaging as above. Frequent washing of the hair in cold water, without soap, and drying in the air will obviate the necessity of washing often with soap. When it becomes necessary to use soap for cleansing purposes (and it should be used no oftener than absolutely necessary), use only pure castile soap and tepid, never hot water, rinsing thoroughly in warm and then cold water. If plenty of cold water is used in finishing, the scalp thoroughly rubbed and the hair dried in the open air, there will be no danger of "catching cold" if one is living according to the natural regimen. Avoid the use of commercial shampoos.
   Have your hair cut only during the first quarter of the moon. The ladies may clip off the ends of their hair during that period. Skeptics may smile at this as "another evidence of ignorance and superstition". However, "fools deride, philosophers investigate".

WARM AND HOT WATER APPLICATIONS

   1. Tepid Baths. Tepid baths vary in heat from 70 to 90 degrees. Many find them refreshing, but those who have become used to the effect of cold bathing find them rather enervating and weakening.

   2. Tepid Sitzbath. The tepid sitzbath is taken by sitting in either an ordinary bathtub or a special sitz-tub, in four to six inches of water, the temperature of it ranging from 60 to 70 degrees. Such a lukewarm sitzbath is often indicated where there is retention of urine from a heated or inflamed condition of the urethra and bladder. It soothes and relaxes these structures and allows the urine to flow.

    If the temperature of the body is much above the normal the sitzbath should be taken in water of natural temperature, as it comes from the hydrant or well. In all cases of fevers, where the patient is able to arise from bed and take' the cold sitzbath, it will prove of great benefit. While in the bath the patient should lave the abdominal parts with the cold water.

   3. Warm and hot Baths. It is only on rare occasions that we recommend bathing at high temperature. Continually indulged in, it weakens the circulation, enervates the superficial nervous system and leads to atrophy of the cuticle. The effect of warm and hot bathing on the skin shows in the eyes through the heavy dark scurf rim in the outer border of the iris.

   4. Turkish Russian and Electric Light Baths. For reasons before mentioned the natural healer never uses these or other forms of sweating processes unless it is as a temporary application for the breaking of a cold or incipient fever as described under Sweating in Bed.

    While it is true that vigorous perspiration draws the blood to the surface and promotes the elimination of waste matter, such perspiration should be induced in a natural way, not through overheating the body artificially. The best perspiration is that induced through walking or other exercise in warm weather, or through wet packs in bed, which we shall describe hereafter.

    Sweating, if it can be produced without overheating the body unduly, is of especial value in dropsical conditions and in cases of incipient or advanced diabetes and Bright's disease. It is also very beneficial in all forms of chronic rheumatism.

   5. Sweating in Bed (Figs. la, b, c, d). This is best accomplished by means of the cold whole body pack, if necessary, assisted by hot water bottles or hot drinks. The procedure is as follows:

    Spread on a bed or couch two or three blankets, according to the season of the year, the warmth of the room and the heat of the patient's body. Over the blankets spread a bed sheet which has been wrung out in warm water if the temperature of the body is subnormal, in cold if the body is at fever heat; then wrap the wet sheet quickly around the body of the patient, tucking it in between the legs and between the body and the arms.

    Then pick up the top blanket and tuck it in around the body, folding the ends in over the feet and around the neck; then pick up the second and third blankets and do likewise. When finished, the patient and the pack look very much like an Egyptian mummy. The patient should react and begin to perspire, or at least to feel comfortably warm, within five or ten minutes. If he remains cold too long, put along each side of the body two or three hot water bottles or bricks heated in an oven and wrapped in flannels; then cover the whole over with a few more blankets. The patient should be allowed to remain in the whole body pack and perspire as long as he can stand it. This may be from ten to thirty minutes or more, but should not be extended so long as to exhaust the patient unduly.

    The removal of the pack must be followed immediately by a quick cold rub, standing up in the bathtub or in a washtub; or if the patient be too weak for this, by a cold friction rub in bed. The cold rub is frequently followed by a fine after-sweat which may continue from ten to thirty minutes, according to the vitality of the patient after this another cold bath or cold rub should be given. The patient is then allowed to rest. One or two such bed sweat baths or whole body packs are usually sufficient to break up a bad cold or incipient febrile disease. H it should not succeed in breaking up the congestion and aborting the fever, it will surely cause it to run a much easier course. This is accomplished in a perfectly natural manner through increased heat radiation and forced elimination of morbid matter through the skin. Perspiration will be greatly facilitated by drinking either cool or warm water, or hot lemonade. In extreme cases where the patient does not react to a whole body pack and is in danger of chilling, perspiration can be induced by giving hot lemonade or a small cup of hot coffee with lemon juice.

    If the patient is too weak to endure the rather heroic but very effective whole body pack treatment, partial packs such as trunk, throat and leg packs may be applied, reinforced by hot water bottles or hot bricks. These are more easily applied and endured. (For description of the partial packs, see Sec. XV, Nos. 9 to 19.)

    In an extensive practice, extending over a period of eighteen years, I have always found the sweating in bed preferable to the use of artificial apparatus, which is always more or less dangerous and more exhausting and injurious to the skin than the simple hot or cold wet packs, which have a powerful "drawing" effect upon the circulation and at the same time relax the pores of the skin.

    Sweating for the cure of disease is very much in favor among the Indians. While living in the Rocky Mountains I frequently had occasion to observe the Turkish bath contrivance of the Indians. The sweating treatment is given (no matter what the disease may be) by placing the patient under a wickerwork frame covered almost airtight with skins. Before the patient enters the low, box-like hut, several pails or tin pans have been set into holes in the ground. These are filled with boiling water and from time to time hot stones from a nearby fire are dropped into the hot water to keep up the production of steam. When the patient has perspired to the limit of his endurance he is taken out and plunged into a nearby creek or lake, or in the winter time h& is rubbed down quickly with snow.

    I relate this not because I approve of the steam bath but to draw attention to the fact that the natural instinct and good sense of the Indian has hit upon elimination as a therapeutic measure.

   6. Sweating by Exercise. The most beneficial perspiration is that induced by brisk walking or other exercise. This should be followed by a quick cold bath, spray or rub. The warmer the body, within natural limits, the quicker the reaction from the cold water application.

   7. Hot Compresses or Fomentations. To prepare a fomentation take a piece of flannel and fold it from six to ten times and form it into a roll. Dip this into water as hot as the patient can stand it. The temperature of the water should range from blood heat to about 110 degrees, according to the endurance of the patient. Wring out the roll, unroll it quickly and lay it on the part which is to be treated. This may be the chest or abdomen, or the whole front or back, or it may be an inflamed arm, leg or joint. The hot compress should be covered and held in place by a cloth around the body or the limb, pinned down with safety pins.

    We use hot fomentations or compresses only when the temperature is subnormal and when the patient 's vitality is so low that he cannot react to a cold pack or cold ablution It is a good sign if the body temperature rises as a result of the hot pack or compress. It means that the system, as a result of the tonic application, is arousing itself to acute febrile reaction, which we always welcome as Nature's purifying, healing effort.

    These procedures should be supplemented if possible by expert manipulative treatment.

WET BANDAGES AND WET PACKS

   1. Wet Bandages. Old muslin, linen sheeting, or soft, well worn toweling are the best materials for bandages and packs. Bandages are used mostly for extracting internal heat, for relieving internal congestion, and for promoting elimination of morbid matter through the skin. Cold water is best suited for these purposes, but where the patient is very sensitive to cold, or the temperature subnormal, the chill may be taken off or tepid water may be used. The bandages are soaked in the water, then lightly wrung out and applied to the body where desired.

   2. Wet Packs. The wet pack consists of the wet bandage before described plus a covering of dry flannel or woolen material, or of heavy toweling. The dry covering must overlap the upper and lower borders of the wet bandage about one half an inch. The dry covering serves to bring about a warm reaction and preserves the moisture in the bandage, and therefore the drawing effect of the pack is more powerful than that of the plain bandage.

    The dry flannel, woolen or cotton covering may consist of from one to three or even four layers wrapped around the wet bandage. The outer end of the dry covering is pinned down and held in place by safety pins. The number of wet and dry wrappings depends upon the heat of the body and the vitality and power of reaction of the patient. The higher the fever heat and the more vigorous the body, as in childhood and youth, the more wet wrappings and the less dry covering is required. The lower the fever and the lower the vitality and power of reaction of the patient, the less wet wrappings and the more dry, warm covering is required. In chronic cases, with low or subnormal temperature where packs are indicated to relieve inner congestion and pain, to induce sleep or to promote elimination, one wrapping of wet material is fully sufficient, and this must be covered with two or three wrappings of dry, warm material, in order to bring about the necessary reaction.

   3. Vinegar Bandages and Compresses. Some hydrotherapists recommend an addition of vinegar or Epsom salts (MgSO4) to the water from which the bandages or compresses are wrung out, about one half vinegar and one half water, or one tablespoon of Epsom salt to one quart of water (See article on Epsom 'salt treatment, page 159.)

   4. Potato Compresses. A compress made of grated raw potato, applied between pieces of thin linen or cotton cloth, is especially recommended in all forms of inflammation of the eye. It must be renewed before it becomes hot and dry.

   5. How Often Should the Wet Packs Be Renewed? This depends upon the severity of the fever; height of temperature, and upon the vitality of the patient. In an ordinary cold it may be sufficient to apply a throat and short body pack in the evening and to leave it on all night to be followed in the morning by a good cold rub and cold water sniffing.

    The more pronounced the fever and the higher the temperature, the oftener the wet bandages must be renewed. In fevers such as diphtheria, smallpox, typhoid, cerebrospinal meningitis, etc., the packs must be taken off and replaced by fresh ones as soon as they are hot and dry. In such cases it is advisable to have on hand several sets of bandages. Those which come from the body must be thoroughly washed, rinsed in cold water and hung up to dry in the fresh air and sunshine. In serious and prolonged cases of inflammatory feverish diseases it is advisable to alternate between throat, trunk and leg packs. For instance, at one time put on throat and trunk pack, then apply leg packs only, then again throat and so on. This tends to equalize the circulation.

   6. Ablution After Pack. Every time a bandage or pack has served its purpose and is taken from the body, the parts covered by the bandages or packs must be rubbed with a rough towel dipped in cold water. This serves several important purposes: first, to cleanse the skin of morbid matter and poisons which the bandage or pack has drawn to the surface; second, to secure a better reaction; third, to promote heat radiation; fourth, to increase the electromagnetic energies of the body.

   7. Whole Body Pack. (Figs. 1a, b, c, d). Spread on a bed or couch two or three blankets, according to the season of the year, the warmth of the room and the heat of the patients body. Over the blankets spread a bed sheet which has been wrung out in cold water; over this spread the muslin strip of a trunk pack wrung out in cold water. Wrap this strip about the trunk; then wrap the wet sheet quickly around the body of the patient, tucking it in between the legs and also between the body and the arms. Then pick up the top blanket and tuck it in around the body, folding the ends in over the feet and around the neck; then pick up the second and third blankets and do likewise, pinning in place with safety pins. When finished, the patient and the pack look very much like an Egyptian mummy.

   The patient should react and begin to perspire, or at least to feel comfortably warm, within five or ten minutes. If he remains cold too long, put along each side of the body two or three hot water bottles, or bricks heated in an oven and wrapped in flannel, then cover the whole over with a few more blankets. The patient should be allowed to remain in the whole body pack and perspire as long as he can stand it. This may be from ten to thirty minutes or more, but should not be extended too long as this might exhaust the patient unduly.

    The removal of the pack must be followed by a quick, cold rub, standing up in the bathtub or in a washtub; or, if the patient be too weak for this, by a cold friction rub in bed.

   8. Head Bandages. These bandages are much in favor for relieving headaches and earaches. A towel or strip of muslin or linen cloth is wrung out of tepid or cold water and wrapped around the head or over the ears in order to draw the blood to the surface and relieve inner congestion. This, however, is a doubtful proceeding for treating headaches or pains in the head, because all wet bandages have a tendency to draw the blood to the part where they are applied. In this case, though the head bandage may draw the blood to the surface of the skull, at the same time it has a tendency to draw the blood from other parts of the body to the head, thereby increasing congestion.

    For this reason I always advise using the body, leg or throat pack in order to draw the blood away from the head. Besides, these packs cover a greater surface' of the body and therefore have greater power to relieve the inner congestion in the head, as well as anywhere else in the body. At the same time the head, face and neck may be frequently washed or sponged with cold water. The evaporation of the water on the hot surface has a very cooling, refreshing and also electrifying effect.

   9. Throat Bandages. A piece of linen, muslin, toweling, or soft cotton, from two to four inches wide, according to the length of the neck, wrung out of cold water and wrapped from two to four or six times around the throat is a splendid application in cases of sore and inflamed throat, tonsils and glands of the throat and neck. It also the chest from the has a very cooling effect on the circulation in general, because the blood passes through the neck, back and forth through the large arteries and veins which supply the head and brain. Here large masses of blood course nearer to the surface than anywhere else in the body, and therefore it is the best place for extracting the heat from the blood through cold water bandages, packs or compresses.

    10. Throat-Pack. (Fig.2) The throat pack consists of a wet throat bandage plus a covering of dry flannel or woolen material.

   11. Chest Bandage. This is of great benefit when the lungs are infected by acute bronchial catarrh or pneumonia. The cold wet strip of muslin must be wide enough to cover the chest from the armpits to the border of the small ribs, and must be long enough to go around the body from one to four times, according to the amount of heat in the body, the vitality of the patient and his power of reaction.

   12. Chest Pack. The cheat pack consists of the wet chest bandage plus a covering of dry flannel or woolen material.

   13. Trunk Bandage. The trunk bandage is applied the same as the chest bandage, the only difference being that it extends from under the armpits to the upper border of the hip bone or to the pubis. The full length, from armpit to pubis, must be applied in cases of the inflammation of the bladder, appendix or ovaries. When any one of the organs is severely inflamed extra cold compresses may be placed in under the body pack and over the inflamed organ. This compress should consist of from two to six or even eight layers of muslin or toweling, and may be from six to twelve inches square, according to the size of the inflamed area and according to the heat in the parts. All bandages must be removed and renewed when hot and dry. The extra cold compresses may also be applied, under the chest or body pack, to inflamed areas in the lungs, liver or stomach.

   14. Trunk Pack.  The trunk pack consists of the wet trunk bandage plus a covering of dry flannel or woolen material.

   15. Eye Compress. The cold wet compress is very beneficial for relieving congestion and inflammation in the eyes. For this purpose a small compress made of several layers of muslin or linen is dipped in cold water and applied over the eyes. The compress is held in place by a dry bandage. Better than the water compress in cases of serious inflammation of the eyes is a poultice made of grated raw potatoes. The grated potato is wrapped in linen or muslin cloth and placed over the affected eye. The poultice is kept in place in the same way as the water compress. This treatment has proved very beneficial in cases of glaucoma and gonorrheal inflammation.

   16. Ankle, Knee and Hand Packs.  These are applied the same as all other wet packs, and are indicated in all local inflammations in the ankles, feet, toes, bands, wrists and arms. They are especially valuable in relieving inflammation in cases of inflammatory rheumatism. The results of the wet pack and general cold water treatment in the most violent cases of inflammatory rheumatism are little short of miraculous.

   17. Leg Pack. This may be applied from the hip to the knee or from the knee to the ankle, or may cover the entire leg from the hip to the toes. The method of application is the same as in all other packs. First the wet bandage, and around this the wrappings of dry material.

   18. T Pack. This consists of a narrow strip of muslin, adjusted as a belt about the abdomen just above the hip bone, to the back of which is attached a bandage (detail Fig. 2), cut a little narrower in the center. The wet bandage with its flannel covering is drawn forward between the legs and fastened to the belt in front with safety pins. This pack is especially valuable in inflammations in the rectum and genito-urinary organs. In cases of high temperature, extra cold compresses may be inserted inside the pack.

   19. Shoulder or Scotch Pack. This pack requires a bandage and flannel covering, six and eight inches wide respectively, and two and one-fourth yards long. The one who applies the pack stands in front of the patient and holds equal portions of the strip of muslin or flannel in each hand. The strip is placed around the body under the armpits of the patient, the ends crossed in the back and brought up over the shoulders to the front, crossing again over the chest. Figures 4 a, b, a show the successive stages of the application of this pack.

    After the shoulder pack itself has been applied it may be surrounded on the body by the chest or trunk pack. This pack is very valuable where the upper lobes of the lungs are affected by acute bronchial catarrh or pneumonia.

MUD AND CLAY TREATMENT

    Certain localities in Europe and in this country have attained considerable fame by the so-called mud bath treatment. We tried this form of treatment for several years in one of our institutions but with indifferent success. The effect of the treatment is very much the same u that of the wet packs described in Section XV.

    The effect of the wet pack, poultice or compress is very much the nine whether the material used be mud, clay, water cottage cheese, flaxseed or any other mild acting substance. The beneficial results are brought about because the cool moisture in and under the packs or poultices relaxes the pores of the skin, draws the blood into the surface, relieves inner congestion and pain and promotes heat radiation and elimination of morbid matter.

    I have found that on the whole the water applications produce fully as good results as mud, clay or other materials; besides, it has the advantage of being more cleanly and more easily applied. However, it is true that in many cases of chronic inflammation resulting either from internal disease, bruises or sprains, clay packs have proved of great benefit. The one advantage I have found in them is that this substance retains moisture and coolness much longer than a water pack or compress. They are, therefore, of special benefit in cases of subacute and chronic inflammations, of persistent soreness, and for all night packs or bandages.

   1. Clay Packs. The best way to apply clay packs is the following: Take yellow, or still better, blue potter's clay, macerate in warm water until it is reduced to a smooth paste. When cold spread this with a wooden paddle or broad knife over a strip of cloth wide enough and long enough to cover the part to be treated, then surround the clay bandage with a few wrappings of toweling, flannel or other protecting material. The clay packs or bandages may remain in place until they become hot or dry.

   2. Mud or Clay Baths. The mud or clay baths are applied in a manner similar to that of the clay packs but on a larger scale—to the entire body from neck to feet. The mud or clay must first be macerated and sifted so as to remove all pebbles, twigs or other foreign materials. The siftings are then mixed with hot water and reduced to a smooth paste. Mud or clay does not heat on the body as readily as a water pack, therefore it is best to beat the clay to 70 degrees F. before it is applied. The warm paste is spread on a sheet and this is wrapped around the body. One or two blankets, according to the warmth of the treatment room and the reactionary power of the patient are then wrapped around the mudpack. The mud bath is applied like the full sheet pack described under Section XV, No.7, the only difference being that the sheet, instead of being wrung out in water is covered with a layer of mud or clay as described under clay packs.

    Care must be taken that the mud or clay used for such treatments is free from impurities. It should not be taken from localities contaminated by human refuse. The mud or clay bath is followed by a cleansing warm spray and rub, and finished with a quick tonic cold spray.

    While it is true that many people suffering from rheumatism and kindred acid diseases have found temporary relief by patronizing the popular mud bath resorts, it is also true that these "cures" are not permanent. The reason is that in. these places practically no attention is paid to diet. The patrons live on the ordinary hotel and restaurant food which produces hyperacidity almost as fast as the mud baths reduce it.

    Neither do such patients receive the benefit of hydropathic, manipulative and other natural methods. The reality is that after resuming at home their accustomed mode of living, the "cured" patients soon again experience the old rheumatic aches and pains and other symptoms of hyperacidity. Many of our patients suffering from such ailments had time and again tried the various mud cures but experienced only temporary relief. It required the strict pure food diet, hydropathic and manipulative treatment, sun and air baths and the outdoor life to produce real and permanent cures.
 

EPSOM SALT TREATMENT

   I have received numerous inquiries from readers of Nature Cure Philosophy and Practice, many of these from practicing physicians, asking why I have neglected to mention Epsom Salt treatment which has proved so efficacious for the cure of acute and chronic diseases. I have had ample opportunity to observe the good and bad effects of Epsom salt upon the system, and will briefly state the result of my experience.

    The use of Epsom salt (magnesium sulphate, MgSO4) internally and externally, is in harmony with the Natural Therapeutics in so far as the alkaline magnesium tends to neutralize and to eliminate negative pathogenic substances, such as carbon and nitrogen compounds, from the system. While Epsom salt taken internally as a laxative, or externally in the form of baths, packs and compresses, is a powerful neutralizer and eliminator of acids, ptomaines and xanthins, we must not overlook the fact that the inorganic minerals it contains have a strong tendency to accumulate in the system and to form deposits which may in time become as harmful as the morbid materials which the salts are meant to eliminate from the system.

    Some time ago, one of our house physicians attended, at the Cook County Hospital, an autopsy performed on a woman who had died from chronic rheumatism and heart disease. It was found that the woman's heart muscle contained deposits of magnesium salts and of carbonate sodium, which she had taken through many years as cure for acidosis and rheumatism.

   These alkaline mineral elements when taken in the inorganic form show plainly in the iris. Before I became acquainted with the natural laws of living and of treatment, I had for several yearn taken large quantities of sodium bicarbonate and magnesium sulphate to neutralize hyperacidity of the stomach and of the system in general. The presence of the minerals in my system was revealed in the eyes by a broad white ring in the outer rim of the iris. Since I have ceased taking the minerals and have lived on eliminative foods, the ring in the iris has almost entirely disappeared; see illustrations and description in Iridiagnosis, Vol. VI.

   I have seen the signs of sodium, iron, potassium, calcium and magnesium in the eyes of people who had used these minerals in the form of medicines, or who had absorbed them in alkaline drinking water.

    In our work we do not employ these doubtful agents which may in the long run work more harm than good, because we have other means and methods to accomplish the same results in a less harmful and more natural way. A well balanced vegetarian diet, as described in Sec. I will prevent excessive formation of pathogenic substances in the system.

    The best way to eliminate these morbid materials, after they have created disease conditions, is to take in sufficient amounts of the positive alkaline mineral: elements in the foods classified under Group 5 (Food Table on page 88). These mineral elements when taken in the live organic form are the best neutralizers and eliminators, and they will not accumulate and form deposits in the system even when taken in excess. In addition to the alkaline diet we use hydrotherapy, neurotherapy and other methods of natural treatment to eliminate negative, pathogenic encumbrances from the system.

    I do not mean to intimate, however, that I condemn the use of Epsom salt under all circumstances. On the contrary, we quite frequently make use of it in the form of external applications in order to attain quick results in acute and emergency cases. Epsom salt baths, packs and compresses are very useful in cases of acute inflammatory rheumatism', gout, pneumonia, Bright's disease, appendicitis, ptomain poisoning and in all other feverish diseases, but under no circumstances would I use or recommend the salt for long continued treatment.

    The therapeutic action of magnesium sulphate, or common Epsom salt, consists in stimulating the eliminative activity of the skin, its pores and glandular structures. This result is also obtained in a lesser degree by ordinary' table salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) and by sea salt.

    All the positive alkaline salts applied to the skin in the form of packs, sponges, baths, etc., have a powerful electromagnetic effect upon the system. They arouse electromagnetic activity between the positive alkaline salts on the surface and the negative cell constituents in the body.

    Physiologist claim that minerals are not absorbed through the skin unless mixed with fats in the form of unguents or emulsions. The records in the iris prove that mercury, iodine, lead, zinc, silver, 'etc., in various chemical combinations are absorbed through the skin and then locate in the system in localities for which they exhibit a special affinity. If the Epsom salt is not absorbed the application can have no acid neutralizing effect within the system. If it is absorbed it is bound to assist in the formation of earthy deposits. This is sure to be the result if the salt is taken Internally for any length of time.

   The Epsom salt may be applied to the akin in warm or cold solutions, in the form of local applications in wet packs or compresses, as a general sponge bath, whole body bath or as a sitz or hip bath. The solution should contain from one to two ounces of magnesium sulphate (MgSO4) to one quart of water. The bandages or compresses may be soaked in the solution and applied in the ordinary way (Sec. XV).

    One of the most beneficial applications consists in sponging the entire body with the solution for from five to ten minutes and going to bed without drying. This draws the blood into the cuticle, makes the skin more alive and active, opens the pores and draws the pathogenic matter to the surface. It acts as a powerful stimulant to the glandular structures of the skin, promotes elimination and relieves the poisoned and overburdened heart and other vital organs. In similar manner it relieves the heat-regulating center in the medulla and thereby reduces the temperature in febrile conditions.

    Undoubtedly a great part of the beneficial effect is due to the action of the water itself in the ablutions and compresses. The Epsom salt solution may be applied also in the form of cooling hip or sitzbaths (Sec. XIII, Nos. 11, 13) or in the natural bath (Sec. XIII No.12, b). In all cases the salt will heighten the tonic effect of the water.

    One reason why I do not recommend the continued use of the salt in such applications is because we find that the cold water alone, used continuously in the form of tonic applications, is powerful enough to suffice for the requirements of the various regimens in health and disease. In acute febrile conditions, however, when rapid neutralization and elimination of pathogenic materials becomes imperative, tonic applications of sea salt and Epsom salts will be found very beneficial.

    The specific applications of this and other alkaline salts in the various acute diseases will be discussed in detail in Volume V of this series, which will deal with the specific treatment of special diseases.

ENEMAS, KLYSMAS OR COLONIC FLUSHING

   Introduction

    Injections of warm water into the rectum are taken in order to relieve the constipated intestines of accumulations of fecal material and thus to prevent the reabsorption of morbid matter and systemic poisons.

    The necessity for enemas is a sure sign that the person who needs them has not been living the natural life. If he had, he would not be constipated.

    We make use of enemas only in the treatment of acute diseases, during fasting and in stubborn cases of chronic constipation, in the beginning of treatment. We look upon enemas as a necessary evil, or "crutch" to be used only until, through natural living and treatment, the intestines have become more alive and active.

    Enemas taken habitually have a weakening effect upon the intestines. As the saying goes, they make them "more lazy". The reason for this is obvious. Dryness of the fecal matter is the stimulus for the secretion of mucous fluids by the membranous linings of the bowels. When the intestines are constantly flooded with water injected through the rectum, the stimulus to secretion is lacking and the cellular linings and glandular structures of the intestines become more inactive. Any function of the organism which we do not use atrophies.

    Continued flooding with warm water has a very relaxing effect upon the intestines. The tone of the muscular tissues is lowered from day to day and the intestines become distended, forming pockets for the retention of putrefying fecal matter. Like drugs and laxatives, the "internal bath" in the long, run creates the very conditions which it is supposed to cure, namely, greater inactivity and atrophy.

    The only way to restore the natural activity of the bowels in cases of chronic constipation is through natural diet, fasting when indicated, and through the various forms of massage and neurotherapy. Careful scientific manipulation of the spinal nerve centers and of the abdomen is the most efficient method for infusing the atonic organs with new life and vigor.

    It is impossible to cure many stubborn, chronic cases of constipation without massage and spinal treatment. Skill manipulation of the abdomen mechanically propels the impacted faeces onward toward the outlet and at the same time stimulates and strengthens the muscles of the intestines themselves. The passive manipulative treatment is especially valuable in cases where constipation is partly due to sedentary habits of life.

   1. For the passive treatment the patient should lie on the back, the knees slightly drawn up. The upper part of the body should be somewhat elevated.

    The manipulator takes his position on the right side of the patient and begins to knead the colon with the flattened fingertips in circular motion on the left side, in the region of the sigmoid flexure (in the left groin). He then gradually works upward along the descending colon, shoving the fecal matter always toward the rectum; then from left to right along the transverse colon; then downward along the ascending colon.

    Many instructors advise the opposite procedure. They commence the kneading in the right inguinal region (right groin) and work upward along the ascending colon, then along the transverse and downward along the descending colon. This procedure, however, has a tendency to pile up the contents of the large intestine long before they reach the outlet. It may cause serious impactions and obstructions. To me it seems more rational to commence the loosening of the fecal matter near the outlet and work continually toward it. 

   2. The abdominal massage exercise and also the exercises in bed and on the back  will prove of great benefit, and in many cases are absolutely indispensable.

   3. In cases of spasm of the sphincter muscle and the rectum, relaxation can be induced through rectal dilation, using various kinds of dilators, or by pressing the finger tips along both sides of the coccyx (the tip of the spinal column) for from one to three minutes at a time, two or three times a day.
   
   4. Temperature of Enemas. The water for enemas or for internal douches should never be cold, as many books and certain doctors advise. This is very dangerous. The sudden internal chilling may produce depression of the vital activities, collapse, and even death.

    A year ago I was called to attend a boy eight years old. I found him in the advanced stages of cerebro-spinal meningitis. The physician who was in attendance told me she kept the fever down easily by giving three or four cold enemas every day. This probably helped to turn the gastro-enteric fever with which the illness started into cerebro-spinal meningitis. I prescribed pack treatment and fasting instead of the cold enemas and "stuffing". The little patient made a perfect recovery.

    The water used for enemas or internal douches should be about blood temperature, from 90 to 100 degrees F. If no thermometer is at hand test the temperature by dipping the bare elbow into the water. The heat of the water should be just endurable to the sensitive tip of the elbow. The temperature will be about blood heat. For vigorous persons and in high fevers the temperature of the enema may be as low as 85 degrees. The lower the vitality and temperature of the patient the warmer must be the water. In cases of subnormal temperature, collapse and suspended animation, hot enemas of from 100 to 110 degrees F. act as powerful tonics. The tonic effects are increased if the water contains about one teaspoonful of salt to a pint (normal salt solution). 

    5. Application of Enemas. Enemas should never be taken in the sitting position nor while lying on the right or left side. When attempting to take an enema in either of these positions the rubber mouthpiece of the' syringe strikes the sigmoid flexure and the tube coils up. Fig. 5 will show why this makes impossible thorough irrigation of the descending colon. The best positions for taking enemas are lying on the back, and the knee-chest position. The former is more suitable for bed-fast patient too weak to assume the knee-chest position. The patient should lie on a bed or a couch or board with the knees raised. The head must lie lower than the feet. This can be attained by raising the lower end of the bed, couch or board.

   6. Knee-Chest Position. Fig. 6 illustrates why the knee-chest position is the best of all, provided a person is strong enough to assume it. It offers the least resistance to the passage of the warm water through the sigmoid flexure, descending colon and transverse colon. Under favorable conditions the water may descend even into the ascending colon.

    Care should be taken to dip the hard rubber nozzle of the tube into olive oil and the tube should not be inserted until all air has been expelled and until the water flows from the nozzle at the proper temperature. In cases where old, hard encrustation's have to be softened, a little castile soap may be dissolved in the water. The water should be retained in the intestines for five or ten minutes in order to allow the hardened fecal matter and encrustation's to soften.

   7. Directions for Colon Flushing. Apparatus necessary: a douche bag, or can with rubber hose, and a flexible rubber tube about twenty-six inches long. The latter is fitted to the end of the rubber hose by means of a hard rubber connection. Fill the bag with about two quarts of warm soapy water (the soap used should be super-fatty soap free from alkali, or, better, a good quality of castile soap).

   Lubricate the colon tube with olive oil. After allowing the water to flow until it comes from the tube at the right temperature, stop the flow and insert about two or three inches of the tube into the rectum. Release the clip on the hose and allow the water to flow. Then slowly and carefully work the tube, pushing it in two or three inches more and withdrawing it about half that distance. Continue this until the greater part of the tube is within the colon.

    If any obstruction is met with while the tube is being inserted, withdraw the tube and allow the patient to evacuate the contents of the rectum and then begin over again. Should the accumulation of too much water in some particular part of the colon cause pain, shut off the flow by pinching the tube, have the patient take a full breath, draw in the abdomen and hold it so until the pain passes, after which again allow the water to flow.

    Some difficulty may at first be experienced by the patient in following out this method. However, no disappointment should be felt if the results are not satisfactory from the first or second trial. The can should be placed only two or three feet above the level of the anus. No force is necessary. Should any distress be felt during the operation, it should be abandoned for the time and taken up again the next night. Continue these colon flushings for two or three nights in succession. The last night, instead of using soapy water, use one level teaspoonful of salt to a pint of water.

    If there is a feeling of too great relaxation in the rectum, or a feeling of irritation, the patient should apply cold cloths to the rectum or take an after injection of from one half to a full cupful of cool water, inserting the tube only about two inches.

    After the patient has become somewhat experienced in the use of the colon flushings, he should endeavor to retain the water for ten or fifteen minutes, while lying on the back and massaging the abdomen.

   8. Enemas in Acute Diseases. In all acute, inflammatory, febrile diseases we give enemas in the beginning daily, and after that at longer intervals, according to the nature of the case and the vitality of the patient. Fasting in acute disease and increased heat in the abdominal organs usually produce constipation. We overcome this difficulty by enemas. This empties the lower intestines of morbid accumulations and prevents reabsorption of poisonous excretions. The bowels should be emptied as nearly as possible during the early stages of a fever, as long as the vitality is unimpaired.

   9. Enemas while fasting. While fasting the bowels usually cease moving, though I have seen remarkable exceptions where the bowels kept moving daily for a few weeks, although no food was taken. If they cease to move soon after the fast is entered upon, it is best to give enemas in order to evacuate the intestines and prevent reabsorption of morbid and poisonous excretions.

MISCELLANEOUS TREATMENTS

   1. Treatment for Retention of Urine. Retention of urine may be due to many different causes, and the treatment must vary accordingly. It occurs frequently as a result of inflammation of the kidney, bladder or urethra. These inflammations may be caused by

    a) Toxic conditions created by almost any form of acute disease especially by acute or chronic gonorrhea;
    b) certain drug poisons;
    c) toxic conditions of the system resulting from hyperacidity or from large amounts of ptomains, alkaloids, xanthins and other systemic poisons excreted through the kidneys;
    d) mechanical obstruction,
    e) spastic or paralytic contraction;
    f) inactivity of the kidneys.

    The best and most efficient remedies in all such cases are cold bandages, compresses, packs, and cold hip and sits baths. When the urinary organs are in a sate of high inflammation the patient must remain in the hip or sits bath for an hour or more at a time. While the bath must be cooling, care should be taken not to chill the parts. The temperature must vary according to the condition of the patient and his power of reaction. The greater the internal heat, the colder may be the water and the oftener it must be renewed.

    Although the water or the bath is cold at the start, it will quickly warm up to the body heat of the patient, and when it looses its coolness fresh cold water should be added, In all cases where retention of urine is due to acute inflammatory conditions, neurotherapy must be relaxing and inhibitory. This will relieve the tension of the nerves and blood vessels and promote the excretion of the urine from the kidneys and its discharge from the bladder. Our coccygeal inhibition is of special value for this purpose. This consists in lacing the thumbs on the right and left of the coccyx (end of the spine) and exerting deep steady pressure for from three to five minutes. 

    If the patient is too weak to use a sitz bath or an ordinary bathtub, cold compresses, bandages and packs will be my best substitutes. The packs and compresses must be changed before they became dry or hot, and should always be followed by a quick cold rub with a rough towel dipped in cold water.

    In cases of great weakness or collapse, where the skin is cold and pale and the pulse weak, hot enemas of normal salt solution have a vivifying effect. In such cases a brisk cold rub should be given all over the body immediately after the hot enema. If suppression or retention of urine is caused by weakness and prostration the hot enemas are the best means of stimulating the urinary organs to renewed activity. The temperature of these hot enemas may range from 101 to 115 degrees F, according to the endurance of the patient. Warm enemas are usually followed by a more copious flow of the urine, indicating that they have a relaxing effect upon the kidneys and the bladder.

    In cases of weakness, prostration and atrophy of the urinary organs, tonic neurotherapy treatment is always of great value.

   2. The Treatment for Retention of Urine Due to Mechanical Obstruction. Obstruction to the passage of the urine may be caused by stones, large clots of blood, or by profuse excretion of mucous matter. In such cases the warm and even hot sitz bath may be of good service on account of their relaxing effect upon the tissues of the urinary organs. The passage of solid substance through the ureters and the urethra may be greatly facilitated by gentle downward stroking and manipulative treatment, also through relaxing neurotherapy (coccygeal) treatment.  For mechanical dilatation of the rectum, prostate and urethra, see "Orificial Treatment"

   3. Treatment for the Retention of Urine Due to Spastic Or Paralytic Conditions. This occurs frequently after the use of irritating diuretics and in the wake of hysteria and hypochondria. In all such cases lukewarm but cooling sitz baths will be beneficial. The most important treatment in such cues consists in inhibition of the nerve center by neurotherapy. In such cases, also, mechanical and manipulative dilatation of rectum and urethra as described under "Orificial Treatment", is indicated and often highly beneficial.

   4. Treatment for Retention of Urine Due to Inactivity of the Kidneys. This condition may be the result of chronic nephritis or of a clogging of the kidneys through long continued food, drink and drug poisoning.

    In order to cure this as well as all other chronic diseases the entire system must undergo a complete regeneration through natural living and treatment. But meanwhile the activity of the kidneys may be increased by the use of mild stimulants such as juniper berries eaten raw or in the form of tea. Kneipp's favorite prescription in such cases was as follows: Take three berries the first day, five the second, seven the third, and so on until the daily dose amounts to twenty one berries. Then the dose is reduced in the same way at the rate of two berries per day. After the course is completed a rest is taken for a few weeks and then the treatment is repeated if necessary.

   5. Juniper Berry Tea. This is prepared in the following manner: Upon half a dozen or more macerated juniper berries pour half a cupful of boiling water. Let this draw, and sip while warm. A little honey or maple or brown sugar (unrefined) may be added if desired. Two such doses, or, in severe cases, three doses may be taken in twenty-four hours.

   6. Asparagus Tea. The water in which fresh asparagus has been boiled for from ten to fifteen minutes is also a mild and harmless diuretic. It may be taken in half tea-cupful doses three or four times a day.

    These special treatments for retention of urine should always be accompanied by the general natural treatment, which tends to overcome the constitutional diseases back of the local trouble.

AIR, LIGHT AND SUN BATHS

What Is the Cause of Poor Skin Action?

   Man is naturally an "air animal". He breathes with the pores of the skin as well as the lungs. However, the custom of hiding the body under dense, heavy clothing, thus excluding it from the life giving influence of air and light, together with the habit of warm bathing, has weakened and enervated the skin of the average individual until it has lost its tonicity and is no longer capable of fulfilling its natural functions.

    The compact, almost air-tight layers of underwear and outer clothing made of cotton, wool, silk and leather prevent the ventilation of the skin and the escape of the morbid excretions of the body. Underwear, if worn at all, should be light and of porous weave, just close enough to absorb the perspiration but not close enough to prevent free escape of the poisonous exhalations of the skin. Thorough ventilation of the skin insures perfect evaporation of the perspiration, and this not only promotes cleanliness but has a wonderfully cooling effect upon the body in the heat of summer.

   1. The skin is an organ of absorption as well as of excretion; consequently the systemic poisons which are eliminated from the organism, if not removed by proper ventilation and bathing, are reabsorbed into the system just as the poisonous exhalations from the lungs are rein-haled and reabsorbed by people congregating in closed rooms or sleeping in unventilated bedrooms.

   Who would think of keeping plants or animals continuously covered up, secluded from air and light? We know they would wither and waste away, and die before long.

    Nevertheless, civilized human beings have for ages hidden their bodies most carefully from sun and air, which are so necessary to their well-being. Is it any wonder that the human cuticle has become withered, enervated and atrophied, that it has lost the power to perform its functions freely and efficiently? Undoubtedly, this has much to do with the prevalence of disease.

    In the iris of the eye the atrophied condition of the skin is indicated by a heavy, dark rim, called the "scurf rim". It signifies that the skin has become anemic, the surface circulation sluggish and defective, and that the elimination of morbid matter and systemic poisons through the skin is handicapped and retarded. This, in turn, causes systemic poisoning and favor the development of all kinds of acute and chronic diseases.

   2. The Importance of the Skin as an Organ of Elimination. Of late physiologists have claimed that the skin is not of great importance as an organ of elimination. Common experience and the diagnosis from the eye teach us differently The black rim, seen more or less distinctly in the outer margin of the iris in the eyes of the majority of people, has been called the "scurf rim" because it was found that this dark rim appears in the iris after the suppression of "scurfy" and other forms of skin eruptions, and after the external or internal use of lotions, ointments and medicines containing mercury, zinc, iodine, arsenic or other poisons which suppress or destroy the life and activity of the skin.

    Therefore, when we see in the iris of a person a heavy scurf rim, we can tell him at once: "Your cuticle is in a sluggish, atrophied condition, the surface circulation and elimination through the skin are defective and as a result of this there is a strong tendency to systemic poisoning; you take cold easily and suffer from chronic catarrhal conditions."

    For the same reasons a heavy scurf rim indicates what is ordinarily called a "scrofulous condition", it stands for impoverished and vitiated blood. This certainly shows the great importance of the skin as an organ of elimination and the necessity of keeping it in the best possible condition. It explains why an atrophied skin has so much to do with the causation of disease and why, in the treatment of both acute and chronic ailments, exposure to air and cold water produce such wonderful results.

    The favorite method of diagnosis employed by Father Kneipp, the great Water Care apostle, was to examine the skin of his patients If the "jacket", as he called it, was in fairly good condition he predicted a speedy recovery. If he found the "jacket" shriveled and dry, weakened and atrophied, he would shake his head and inform the patient that it would take much time and patience to restore him to health. He, as well as other pioneers of the Nature Cure movement, realized that elimination is the keynote in the treatment of acute and chronic diseases.

   3. How to Take the Air bath. Everybody should take an air bath daily, for twenty minutes or longer, if possible. It may be advantageously combined with the morning cold rub and exercises.

    Sixteen years ago we constructed the first open air bath on the roof of our Chicago Sanitarium. I predicted in the Nature Cure Magazine that the time would come when every up to date residence would have its air bath as well as its facilities for water bathing. This prediction is already being fulfilled. As a result of Nature Cure propaganda open air sleeping porches, sun parlors and air baths are rapidly increasing in popularity. All the hospitals built in the neighborhood of our Chicago Sanitarium have brick and iron enclosures on the roofs, similar to air bath construction. Their patients, however, still take the air and sun while heavily clothed and thus fail to receive the full benefit of air and sunlight.

    A regularly constructed air bath is open above (without roof) and surrounded by shutter-like walls constructed of outward and downward sloping slats mortised in the upright posts so as to allow free passage of air and exclude any view of the interior from neighboring buildings. If surroundings permit, it is better to have the air bath on the ground for reasons explained later. This allows not only nude exposure to the air but also nude contact with the earth that, in itself, is highly beneficial.

    An air bath on the level ground may be enclosed by shutter work, by solid board walls, or by canvas sheets. If possible, spend the hours of rest, and perform such daily tasks as may be feasible, in the air bath.

    If an open air bath cannot be provided, expose the body to air and light in a room best located for the purpose. In the seclusion of this room remain nude as much as possible. But, after all, the air of a room cannot have the electromagnetic effect of moving currents of open air breezes, saturated with ozone and sunlight. Many naturists, having experienced the benefits of lying nude in bed, never again wear night clothing even though the bedroom be swept through the night by vigorous breezes. These are the people who have lost the habit of catching cold.

    Only those who habitually practice air bathing can appreciate its soothing and tonic effect upon the millions of nerve endings all over the surface of the body. This explains the splendid results obtained by air, sun and cold water bathing in cases of nervousness, neurasthenia, and emotional and mental disorders. Several of the largest sanitariums in Europe depend upon nothing but air bathing and rest for their curative effects in the treatment of nervous disorders.

    Enjoying the luxury of an open air bath one need not envy the bathers at the seashore where police restrictions will not permit the appearance of women without shoes and stockings.

    Even among the adherents of natural healing methods there are those who think that air and light baths should be taken out of doors in warm weather only, and in winter time only in well heated rooms.

    This is a mistake. The effect of the air bath upon the organism is subject to the same law of action and reaction which governs the effect of water applications.

    If the temperature of air or water is the same, or nearly the same, as that of the body no reaction takes place,—the conditions within the system remain the same. But if the temperature of air or water is considerably lower than the body temperature there will be a reaction.

    In order to react against the chilling effect of cold air or water, the nerve centers which control the circulation send the blood to the surface in large quantities, flushing the skin with warm, red, arterial blood. The flow of the blood stream is greatly accelerated and the elimination of morbid matter on the surface of the body is correspondingly increased.

   4. Sun Bathing. All the good effects of air bathing are intensified by the influence of sunlight. We will see that the effects of sunlight cannot be overestimated when we consider that without it life on this planet would be impossible. Everything that draws the breath of life depends for vital energy upon the life-giving rays of the sun.

    Beginners, however, must be careful not to expose the body to intense heat and light for too long at a time. This might cause over-stimulation with its inevitable reaction, or serious burns. From ten to fifteen minutes may be sufficient to begin with. Dark skinned people, having more protective pigment, can stand more exposure than can light skinned people. As the skin bronzes or tans, exposure can be lengthened to twenty or thirty minutes, and gradually to several hours at a time. In the summer time, many of our patients spend all their leisure time in the air bath.

    If possible the air bath should contain a spray so that a cold shower can be taken in warm weather while exposed to the air and sun. Allow the body to dry in the sun and air. The alternating influences of air, sunlight and water are as beneficial to the human body as to plant and animal life. Never miss an opportunity to take a nude rain bath.

    People who are exceedingly sensitive to the effects of sunlight may at least temporarily wear a wrap of white gauze, or seek shelter in shady spots. In bright sunlight it is best to protect the head by a straw hat. Those who are subject to excessive blood pressure to the brain should lay a towel wrung out of cold water over the head. 

   5. Earth Magnetism. While in the air bath, if we lie eat on the earth on the back or stomach, we absorb the magnetism of Mother Earth. It is best to lie with the head towards the north in the direction of the magnetic currents of the earth. Such magnetic earth treatment is wonderfully soothing and refreshing. A good deal of the beneficial effect of barefoot walking is due to magnetic contact with the earth. In order to lie in harmony with the great magnetic earth currents, beds should always be placed with their heads to the north. Sensitives are strongly affected by lying crosswise of the currents; it causes restlessness and disturbed sleep.

    In many cases of chronic constipation we have observed splendid results from lying on the stomach on the bare ground. The earth magnetism has a tonic effect upon the solar plexus and other nerve ganglia of the sympathetic. Good effects may be obtained while clothed, but nude contact with the earth is better.

   6. Dry Brush Rub. While taking an air or sun bath rub the body thoroughly with a dry bristle brush, beginning with one not too stiff. The movements should be in one direction only. Sensitive persons prefer the stroking in the direction of the nerves, from the spinal cord outward. This dry rub not only stimulates skin action and circulation, but also removes dead cuticle and impurities from the surface of the body.

CORRECT BREATHING

   The lungs are to the body what the bellows are to the fires of the forge. The more regularly and vigorously the air is forced through the bellows and through the lungs, the livelier burns the flame in the smithy and the fire of life in the body.

    Practice deep, regular breathing systematically for one week and you will be surprised at the results. You will feel like a different person and your working capacity, both physically and mentally, will be immensely increased

    A plentiful supply of fresh air is more necessary than food and drink. We can live without food for weeks, without water for days, but without air only a few minutes.

   1. The Process of Breathing. With every inhalation, air is sucked in through the windpipe or trachea which terminates in two tubes called bronchi one leading to the right lung, one to the left. The air is then distributed over the lungs through a network of minute tubes to the air cells, which are separated only by a thin membrane from equally fine and minute blood vessels forming another network of tubes.

    The oxygen contained in the inhaled air passes freely through these membranes, is absorbed by the blood, carried to the heart and hence through the arteries and their branches to the different organs and tissues of the body, fanning the fires of life into brighter flame all along its course and burning up the waste products and poisons that have accumulated during the vital processes of digestion, assimilation and elimination.

   After the blood has unloaded its supply of oxygen, it takes up the carbonic acid gas which is produced during the oxidation and combustion of waste matter, and carries it to the lungs where the poisonous gases are transferred to the air cells and expelled with the exhaled breath. This return trip of the blood to the lungs is made through another set of blood vessels, the veins, and the blood, dark with the sewage of the system, is now called "venous" blood.

    In the linings the venous blood discharges its freight of excrementitious poisons and gases, and by coming in contact with fresh air and a new& supply of oxygen, it is again transformed into bright, red arterial blood, pregnant with oxygen, the life sustaining element of the atmosphere.

    This explains why normal, deep, regular breathing is all important to sustain life and as a means of cure. By proper breathing, which exercises and develops every part of the lungs, the capacity of the air cells is increased. This, as we have learned, means also an increased supply of life sustaining and health promoting oxygen to the tissues and organs of the body.

   2. Bad Effects of Shallow Breathing. Very few people breathe correctly. Some, especially women with tight skirt-bands and corsets pressing upon their vital organs, use only the upper part of their lungs. Others breathe only with the lower part and with the diaphragm, leaving the upper structures of the lungs inactive and partially collapsed.

    In those parts of the lungs that are not used slimy secretions accumulate and the tissues become devitalized. Thus a luxuriant soil is prepared for the tubercle bacillus, pnueumococcus and other scavenger germs.

    This habit of shallow breathing which does not allow the lungs to be thoroughly permeated with fresh air, accounts in a measure for the fact that one third of all deaths result from diseases of the lungs. To one individual perishing from food starvation thousands are dying from oxygen starvation.

   Lung culture is more important than other branches of learning and training which require more time and a greater outlay of money and effort. In the natural regimen breathing exercises play an important part.

   All important as are the elements of the air in the vital functions of the body, we take in something with the breath that is more essential to life than oxygen, and the is life itself. that which we call life force, which proceeds from the one central Source of life, intelligence and creative force and permeates all animate things in the sidereal universe, comes and goes, ebbs and flows with the breath. Every living thing inhales and exhales "the breath of life". This life force as it enters the organism is transmuted into the electro-magnetic energies and other life elements and vitamines.

   3. General Directions. The effectiveness of breathing exercises and of all other kinds of corrective movements depends upon the mental attitude during the time of practice. Each motion should be accompanied by the conscious effort to make it produce a certain result. Much more can be accomplished with mental concentration, by keeping your mind on what you are doing, than by performing the exercises in an aimless, indifferent way.

    Keep in the open air as much as possible, and at all events sleep with windows open.

    If your occupation be sedentary, take advantage of every opportunity for walking out of doors.

    While walking, breathe regularly and deeply, filling the lungs to their fullest capacity and also expelling as much air as possible at each exhalation. Undue strain should, of course, be avoided. This applies to all breathing exercises.

   Do not breathe through the mouth. Nature intends that outer air shall reach the lungs by way of the nose, whose membranes are lined with fine hairs in order to "'sift" the air, thus preventing foreign particles, dust and dirt, from irritating the mucous linings of the air tract and entering the delicate structures of the lungs. Also, the air is warmed and moistened before it reaches the lungs by its passage through the nose.

    Let the exhalations take about double the time of the inhalations. This will be further explained in connection with rhythmical breathing.

    Do not hold the breath between inhalations. Though frequently recommended by teachers of certain methods of breath culture, this practice is more harmful than beneficial.

   4. The Proper Standing Position. Of great importance is the position assumed habitually by the body while standing and walking. Carelessness in this respect is not only unpleasant to the beholder, but its consequences are far reaching in their effects upon health and the well being of the organism.

    On the other hand, a good carriage of the body aids in the development of muscles and tissues generally, and in the proper functioning of cells and organs in particular. With the weight of the body thrown upon the balls of the feet and the center of gravity well focused, the abdominal organs will stay in place and there will be no strain upon the ligaments that support them.

    In assuming the proper standing position, stand with your back to the wall, touching it with heels, buttocks, shoulders and head. Now bend the head backward and push the upper body forward and away from the wall, still touching the wall with buttocks and heels. Straighten the head, keeping the chest in the forward position. Now walk away from the wall and endeavor to maintain this position while taking the breathing exercises and practicing the various arm movements.

    Take this position as often as possible during the day, and try to maintain it as you go about your different tasks that must be performed while standing. Gradually this position will become second nature, and you will assume and maintain it gracefully and without effort.

    When the body is in this position, ,the viscera are in their normal place. This aids the digestion materially and benefits indirectly the entire functional organism.

    Persistent practice of the above will correct protruding abdomen and other defects due to faulty position and carriage of the body.

    Breathing exercises are intended especially to develop greater lung capacity and to assist in forming the habit of breathing properly at all times. The different movements should be repeated from three to six times, according to endurance and the amount of time at disposal.
 

Breathing exercises

   5. With hands at sides or on hips, inhale and exhale slowly and deeply, bringing the entire respiratory apparatus into active play.

   6. (To expand the chest and increase the air capacity of the lungs)

    Jerk the shoulders forward in several separate movements, inhaling deeper at each forward jerk. Exhale slowly, bringing the shoulders back to the original position.

    Reverse the exercise, jerking the shoulders backward in similar manner while inhaling. Alternate the movements, forcing the shoulders first forward, then backward.

   7. Stand erect, arms at sides. Inhale, raising the arms forward and upward until the palms touch above the head, at the same time rising on the toes as high as possible. Exhale, lowering the heels, bringing the hands downward in a wide circle until the palms touch the thighs.

   8. Stand erect, hands on hips. Inhale slowly and deeply, raising the shoulders as high as possible, then, with a jerk, drop them as low as possible while exhaling.

   9. Stand erect, hands at shoulders. Inhale, raising elbows sideways; exhale, bringing elbows down so as to strike the sides vigorously.

   10. Inhale deeply, then exhale slowly. While exhaling clap the chest with the palms of the hands, covering the entire surface.

   (These six exercises are essential and sufficient. The following tour may be practiced by those who are able to perform them and who have time and inclination to do so.)

   11. Stand erect, hands to sides. Inhale slowly and deeply, at the same time bringing the hands, palms up, in front of the body to the height of the shoulders. Exhale, at the same time turning the palms downward and bringing the hands down in an outward circle.

      12. Stand erect, the right arm raised upward, the left crossed behind the back. Lean far back, then bend forward and touch the floor with the right hand, without bending the knees, as far in front of the body as possible. Raise the body to original posture, reverse position of arms, and repeat the exercise. Inhale while leaning backward and changing position of arms, exhale while bending forward.

   13. Position erect, feet well apart, both arms raised. Lean back, inhaling, then bend forward, exhaling, touching the floor with both hands between the legs as far back as possible.

   14. Horizontal position, supporting the body on palms and toes. Swing the right hand upward and backward, flinging the body to the left side, resting on the left hand and the left foot. Return to original position, repeat the exercise, flinging the body to the right side. Inhale while swinging backward, exhale while returning to position.
 

Diaphragmatic Breathing

   The diaphragm is a large, flat muscle, resembling the shape of an inverted saucer, which forms the division between the chest cavity and the abdominal cavity. By downward expansion it causes the lungs to expand like wise and to suck in the air. The pressure of air being greater on the outside of the body than within, it rushes in and fills the vacuum created by the descending diaphragm. As the diaphragm relaxes and returns to its original size and position, the air is expelled from the body.

   15. To stimulate the action of the diaphragm, lie flat on floor or mattress, the head unsupported. Relax the muscles all over the body, then inhale deeply with the diaphragm only, raising the wall of the abdomen just below the ribs without elevating either the chest or the lower abdomen. Take about four seconds to inhale, then exhale in twice that length of time, contracting the abdomen below the ribs.

   16. Internal Massage. (Fig. 8) Lie on your back on a bed or couch, knees raised. Relax thoroughly, exhale, and hold the breath after exhalation. While doing so, push the abdomen out and draw it in and up as far as possible each way. Repeat these movements as long as You can hold the breath without straining, then breathe deeply and regularly for several minutes, then repeat the massage movements.

    Next to deep breathing, I consider this practice of greater value than any other physical exercise. It imparts to the intestines and other abdominal organs a "washboard" motion which acts as a powerful stimulant to all the organs in the abdominal cavity. Internal massage is especially beneficial in chronic constipation.

    This exercise may be performed also while standing or walking. It should be practiced two or three times daily.
 

Breathing Exercises to Be Taken in Bed

   17 With hands at side, inhale slowly and deeply, as directed in Exercise No.1, filling and emptying the lungs as much as possible, but without straining. Practice first lying on the back, then on each side.

   18. (Use one, or two pound dumbbells.)

    Position recumbent on back, arms extended sideways, dumbbells in hands. Raise the arms with elbows rigid, cross arms over the chest as far as possible, at the same time expelling the air from the lungs. Extend the arms to the sides, inhaling deeply and raising the chest.

   19. Lie flat on the back, arms at sides. Grasping the dumbbells, extend the arms backward over the head, inhaling. Leave them in this position for a few seconds, then raise them straight above the chest, and lower them slowly to the original position. Exhale during the second half of this exercise.

    As a variation, cross the arms in front of the body instead of bringing to sides.

   20. Rhythmical Breathing. We are told in the books of the Ancient Wisdom Religion of India that the life force or prana enters through the nostrils; that in normal rhythmical breathing exhalation and inhalation take place through one nostril at a time—for about one hour through the right nostril and then for a like period through the left nostril.

    The breath entering through the right nostril creates positive electromagnetic currents, which pass down the right side of the spine, while the breath entering through the left nostril sends negative electromagnetic currents down the left side of the spine. These currents are transmitted by way of the nerve centers or ganglia of the sympathetic nervous system, which is situated along side the spinal column, to all parts of the body.

    In the normal, rhythmical breath, exhalation takes about twice the time of inhalation. For instance, if inhalation require four seconds, exhalation, including a slight natural pause before the new inhalation, requires eight seconds.

    The balancing of the electromagnetic energies in the system depends to a large extent upon this rhythmical breathing, hence the importance of deep, unobstructed, rhythmic exhalation and inhalation.

    In order to establish the natural rhythm of the breath when it has been impaired through catarrhal affections, wrong habits of breathing or other 'causes, practice water sniffing (Sec. I, No.2), and the following exercise, not less than three times a day (preferably in the morning upon arising, at noon and at night). This will prove very beneficial in promoting normal breathing and creating the right balance between the positive and the negative electromagnetic energies in the organism.

   21. The Alternate Breath. Exhale thoroughly, then close the right nostril and inhale through the left. After a slight pause change the position of the fingers and expel the breath slowly through the right nostril. Now inhale through the right nostril and, reversing the pressure upon the nostrils, exhale through the left.

    Repeat this exercise from five to ten times, always allowing twice as much time for exhalation as for inhalation. That is, count three or four or six for inhalation and six, eight or twelve, respectively, for exhalation, according to your lung capacity. Let your breaths be as deep and long as possible but avoid all strain.

    This exercise should always be performed before an open window or, better yet, in the open air, and the body should not be constricted and hampered by tight or heavy clothing.

    Alternate breathing may be practiced standing, sitting or in the recumbent position. The spine should at all times be held straight and free. If taken at night the effect of this exercise will be to induce calm, restful sleep.

    While practicing the alternate breath, fix your attention and concentrate your power of will upon what you are trying to accomplish. As you inhale through the right nostril will the magnetic currents to flow along the right side of the spine, and as you inhale through the left nostril consciously direct the currents to the left side.

    There is more virtue in this exercise than one would suspect, considering its simplicity. It has been in practice among the Yogi of India since time immemorial.

    The wise men of India knew that with the breath they absorbed not only the physical elements of the air but life itself. They taught that this primary force of all forces, from which all energy is derived, ebbs and flows in rhythmical breath through the created universe. Every living thing is alive by virtue of and by partaking of this cosmic breath.

    The more positive the demand, the greater the supply.

   Therefore, while breathing deeply and rhythmically in harmony with the universal breath, will to open yourself more fully to the inflow of the life force from the source of all life in the innermost parts of your being.

    This intimate connection of the individual soul with 'the great reservoir of life must exist. Without it life would be an impossibility.
 

22. Warning

   While the alternate breathing exercises are very valuable for overcoming obstructions In the air passages, for establishing the habit of rhythmic breathing and for refining and accelerating the vibratory activities on the physical and spiritual planes of being, they must be Practiced with great caution these, and other Yogi breathing exercises, are powerful means for developing abnormal psychical conditions. They are therefore especially dangerous to those who are already inclined to be physically and mentally negative and sensitive. Such persons must avoid all practices which tend to refine excessively the physical body and to develop prematurely and abnormally the sensory organs of the spiritual body. The most dangerous of these methods are long extended fasting, raw food diet (that is, a diet consisting of fruits, nuts, oils and raw vegetables and excluding the dairy products), Yogi breathing and "sitting in the silence"—that is, sitting in darkness, in seclusion or in company with others, while keeping the mind in a passive, receptive condition for extraneous impressions. These practices tend to develop very dangerous phases of abnormal and subjective psychism such as clairvoyance, clairaudience, mediumship and obsession.

PHILOSOPHY OF EXERCISE

   Next to overeating, lack of exercise in the natural way is one of the leading causes of weakness and ill health. This is true because Nature in her wisdom so planned the mechanics and physiology of animal life that activity is essential to maintain normal conditions.

    In all our preventive and curative work it is of the greatest importance that we study carefully Nature's laws and Nature's methods and provide conditions as nearly as possible in harmony with them. In this way we may derive much help by studying the wonderful correspondences between vegetable, animal and human life based on the unit of life, the primitive single cell.

    In the plant kingdom we find that activity or exercise of the unit cell is provided for by the wind, rain, and by changes in temperature and light. In the animal kingdom exercise is called forth by the search for food, by play and by aggressive and defensive warfare. In the human kingdom exists the same necessity for activity in search for food, provision for shelter, in play, and in defense against Nature's destructive forces and against animal and human enemies.

    But man, loving leisure better than exertion and being a free moral agent, has followed the lines of least resistance. He enslaved the horse to draw his vehicles; invented railroad carriages, automobiles, bicycles and all kinds of labor saving machinery in order to gain speed and to avoid the necessity for physical exertion. The unnatural conditions of civilized society have overburdened some with hard physical labor and condemned others to indoor, sedentary occupations which compel almost complete physical inactivity.

    Systematic, corrective exercises are needed to counterbalance both extremes.

    Most persons who have to work hard physically are under the impression that they need not take special exercise.' This, however, is a mistake. In nearly all kinds of physical labor only parts of the body are called into action, certain sets of muscles are exercised while others remain inactive. This favors unequal development which is injurious to the organism as a whole.

    It is most necessary that the ill effects of such one sided activity be counteracted by exercise and movements that bring into active play all the different parts of the body, especially those that are neglected during the hours of work.

    Hard gymnastic exercises such as weight lifting, boxing, wrestling and athletic feats which require great physical exertion are not conducive to normal development and longevity. On the contrary, steady, hard physical labor and severe, long continued gymnastic and athletic training over-stimulate and overdevelop the muscular structures of the body at the expense of the vital organs and of the brain and nervous system. They cause a "muscle bound" condition which means congestion of the blood in the fleshy parts and a deficiency in the vital organs, the brain and nervous system.

    This tends to coarsen the body. The animal nature in time reveals itself in outward appearance in the coarsening of the features, in the disproportionate and distorted physique, and in stunted intellectual and esthetic development.

    For these reasons Natural Therapeutic philosophy does not favor strenuous physical and physiological exercise, but advises the lighter forms of physiological combined with psychological exercise.

PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE

   Aside from breathing gymnastics, general exercises should be taken every day. In case of illness or deformity special corrective and curative exercises should be taken.

    Physical exercise has effects upon the system similar to hydrotherapy, massage and neurotherapy. It stirs up the morbid accumulations in the tissues, stimulates the arterial and venous circulation, expands the lungs to their fullest capacity, thereby increasing the intake of oxygen, and most effectively promotes the elimination of waste and morbid materials through the skin, kidneys, bowels and the respiratory tract.

    Furthermore, well adapted, systematic physical exercises tend to relax and soften contracted and hardened muscles and ligaments and other connective tissues and to tone up those tissues which are weakened and abnormally relaxed. Such exercises should always be prescribed during and after the correction of lesions of the spinal column and of other parts of the framework of 'the body.

    Regular physical exercise means increased blood supply, improved nutrition and better drainage for all the vital organs of the body. By means of systematic exercise, combined with deep breathing, the liberation and distribution of electromagnetic energy in the system is also greatly prompted.

    Increased physical activity means increased oxidation of fuel and of waste materials which in turn necessitates a greater intake of oxygen and compels deeper and more rhythmic breathing. This means not only a fuller intake of the elements of the air, but also a greater inflow of the life force itself. This primary force of all forces comes and goes, ebbs and flows in all living beings with inspiration and expiration.

    The Hindu wise men call life the "breath of Brahm". Some use the expression "breath is life". To this I cannot subscribe. I would say breathing is the mechanical and physiological vehicle through which the life elements enter living forms. From this it follows that the deeper and more regular and more rhythmical the breathing, the greater the inflow of the life force into the living organism.

    As it enters the body through the sympathetic nervous system it is transmuted on the physical plane into electromagnetic energy; on the vegetable plane into vitochemical energy; on the animal plane into mental and emotional energy; and on the human plane, into the higher psychical activities. Each plane in addition to its higher properties retains the properties of the lower life elements. These life elements of natural philosophy are identical with the "newly discovered" vitamins of orthodox medical science.

    Systematic physical exercise is an absolute necessity for brain workers and those following sedentary occupations. They not only need breathing gymnastics and corrective movements mornings and evenings, but should take regular daily walks no matter what the condition of the weather. Unless they do this faithfully their circulation will become sluggish and the organs of elimination inactive. The cells and tissues of the body will gradually become clogged with morbid encumbrances and this will inevitably lead to physical and mental deterioration.

General Rules

   a) Weak persons and those suffering from malignant diseases such as cancer, tuberculosis, heart trouble, asthma, or front displacements and ruptures, or who are liable to apoplectic seizures, etc., should not take these or any other vigorous exercises except under the supervision of a competent physician.

    b) At least twice a day all parts of the respiratory apparatus should be thoroughly exercised (Sec. XXI). Deep breathing should accompany every corrective movement, whether it be a special breathing exercise or not.

    c) Begin the exercises each day with light movements and change gradually to more vigorous ones, then reverse the process, ending with light relaxing movements.

    d) When beginning to take systematic exercise do not make the separate movements too vigorous or continue them too long. If any of them cause pain or considerable strain omit them until the body becomes stronger and more flexible. The muscular soreness often resulting from exercise at the beginning is, as a rule, of little consequence and soon disappears. The various movements should be practiced in spite of it, because that is the only way to relieve and overcome this condition.

    e) Stop when you begin to feel tired.—Never overdo. You should feel refreshed and relaxed after exercising, not tired and shaky.

    f) Do not take vigorous exercise of any kind within an hour and a half after eating, nor immediately before meals. It is a good plan to rest and relax thoroughly for about fifteen minutes before sitting down to the table.

    g) Whenever practicable exercise out of doors. If indoors perform the movements near an open window or where there is a current of fresh air.

    h) Exercise undressed, if possible, or in a regular gymnasium suit that gives free play to all the muscles. If dressed, loosen all tight clothing. Women preferably should wear bloomers and loose blouse or smock. Of course no corsets should be worn, and but a single union undergarment of loosely knit light weight cotton. If a dress is worn it should be a simple, loose, one piece garment, short and full enough of skirt not to interfere with free leg movements. If shoes are worn they should be without heels, like tennis or gymnasium oxfords, wide enough to allow the toes to spread naturally when the weight is upon them.

    i) Always relax physically and mentally before taking exercise.

    j) Apparatus is not necessary to produce results. However, dumbbells, wands or Indian clubs may be used but they should not be too heavy. One pound dumbbells are sufficiently heavy in most cases. The exercises here described are intended for muscular control, flexibility, improvement of the circulation and increased activity of the vital functions rather than for mere animal strength.

    In the following paragraphs we offer a selection of corrective movements graduated from the more simple to those requiring considerable agility and effort.

    In practicing these exercises, it is best to alternate them, that is, to select, say, six or seven movements suited to individual conditions with a view to securing all-around general development and special practice for those parts and organs of the body that need extra attention. The time at your disposal will also have to be considered.

    Practice these exercises daily for a week. For the following week select six different exercises, then six more for the third week and so on, supplementing the list here given as may be required by your particular needs. Then start all over again in a similar manner.

    This is better than to do the same stunts every day. It promotes all round development of the body and keeps the interest from flagging.

Corrective Gymnastics

   1. Raise the arms forward (at the same time beginning to inhale), upward above the head, and backward as far as possible, bending back the head and inhaling deeply. Now exhale slowly, at the same time lowering arms and head and bending the body downward until the fingers touch the toes. Keep the knees straight. Inhale again, raising arms upward and backward as before. Repeat from six to ten times.

    For exercising the muscles between the ribs and the abdominal muscles in the back.

   2. Inhale slowly and deeply, with arms at side. Now exhale and at the same time bend to the left as far as possible, raising the right arm straight above the head and keeping the left arm close to the side of the body. Assume the original position with a quick movement, at the same time inhaling. Exhale as before, bending to the right and raising the left arm. Repeat a number of times.

    For making the chest flexible. Also excellent for the digestive organs.

   3. (Figs. 9 a, b, c) Chest Stretcher. This exercise must be performed vigorously, the movements following one another in rapid succession.

   Stand erect Throw the arms backward so that the palms touch (striving to bring them higher with each repetition), at the same time rising on the toes and inhaling. Without pausing, throw the arms forward and across the chest, the right arm uppermost, striking the back with both hands on opposite sides, at the same time exhaling and lowering the toes. Throw the arms back immediately, touching palms, rising on toes and inhaling as before, then bring them forward and across the chest again, left arm uppermost Repeat from ten to twenty times.

    An excellent massage and vibratory movement for the lungs.

   4. Exercises for filling out scrawny necks and hollow chests:

    a) Stand erect. Without raising or lowering the chin and without bending the neck; push the head forward as far as possible, then relax. Repeat a number of times. Push the head straight back in similar manner, making an effort to push it farther back each time. Do not bend the neck. Repeat

    b) Stand erect. Bend the head toward the right shoulder as far as possible, then relax. Do not rotate the head. Repeat.

    Bend the head to the left shoulder in a similar manner, then alternate the two movements.

    c) Stand erect. Bend the head forward as far as possible, making an effort to bring it down farther each time. Relax.

    Bend the head backward as far as possible.

    Bend the head, first forward, then backward. Repeat.

    5. For exercising the muscles of the chest and the upper arm:

    Stand erect, elbows to sides, hands closed on chest, thumbs inward. Thrust out the arms vigorously and quickly, first straight ahead, then to the sides, then straight up, then straight downward, then backward. Repeat each movement a number of times, then alternate them, each time bringing back arms and hands to the original position quickly and forcefully.

    As a variation, raise the elbows sideways to shoulder height with fists on shoulders, then strike vigorously as before, opening the palms and stretching the fingers with each thrust. Repeat from ten to twenty times, or until tired.

   6. Stand erect, hands on hips. Keeping the legs straight, rotate the trunk upon the hips, bending first forward, then to the right, then backward, then to the left. Repeat a number of times, then rotate in the opposite direction.

    Especially valuable to stir up a sluggish liver.

   7. Lie flat on your back on a bed or, better still, a mat on the floor, hands under head. Without bending knees, raise the right leg as high as possible and lower it slowly. Repeat a number of times, then raise the other leg, then alternate. As the abdomen becomes stronger, raise both legs at once, keeping knees straight. It is important that the legs be lowered slowly.

    For exercising the abdominal muscles and strengthening the pelvic organs. This and the following exercise are especially valuable for remedying female troubles.

   8. (Fig. 10) Lie flat on back, arms folded on chest. Place the feet under a chair or bed to keep them in position. Raise the body to a sitting posture, keeping knees, back and neck straight. Lower the body slowly to its original position. Repeat from five to ten times, according to strength.
 

Supplementary Exercises

   9. Stride-stand position (feet about one half yard apart). Raise the arms sideways until even with the shoulders, then, without bending the back, rotate the trunk upon the hips, first to the right, then to the left.

    As a variation of this exercise, rotate from the waist only, keeping the hips motionless.

    An excellent massage for the internals organs.

   10. See-saw motion:

    Stride-stand position, arms raised sideways. Bend to the right until the hand touches the floor, left arm raised high. Resume original position. Repeat several times, then bend to the left side, then alternate.

   11. Chopping exercise:

    Stride-stand position. Clasp the hands above the left shoulder. Swing the arms downward and between the legs bending well forward. Return to position and repeat a number of times, then repeat with hands on right shoulder, then alternate.

   12. Cradle rocks:

    Clasp hands over head, elbows straight. Bend the trunk to the right and left side alternately and without pausing, a number of times.

   13. Stand erect, feet together. Jump to the stride-stand position, at the same time raising arms sideways to shoulders, jump back to original position and lower arms. Repeat from ten to twenty times.

   14. Lie flat on back, arms at side, legs straight. Raise both legs till they are they are at right angles with the body. From this position sway legs to the right and left side alternately.

   15. Lie fiat on back, arms extended over head. Swing arms and legs upward simultaneously, touching the toes with the hands in midair, balancing the body on the hip bones and lower part of spine. Return to original position and repeat.

    This is a difficult and strenuous exercise, and should not be attempted at first.

   16. (Fig. 11) Lie flat on stomach, hands under shoulders, palms downward, fingers turned inward, about six inches apart. This will give free play to the muscles of the chest. Raise the upper half of the body on the hands and arms as high as possible, keeping the body straight Return to position and repeat until slightly fatigued.

   17. Same position as before. Raise the entire body on hands and toes, keeping arms and legs straight. Return to relaxed position and repeat the exercise.

    As a variation, sway forward and backward while in the raised position.

   18. Lie flat on stomach, arms extended in front. Fling the arms upward and raise the upper part of the body as high as possible, keeping the legs straight. Return to position and repeat but avoid excessive strain.

   19. Same position as before, but hands on hips or clasped in back. Raise upper part of body without assistance from hands or arms.

   20. Rocking chair motion. Sit on a mat or bed, legs straight, arms at side. Recline so that the upper part of the body almost touches the mat, at the same time swinging the legs upward. Return to original position and repeat without any pause between the movements, rocking back and forth until slightly tired.

    As you get stronger, clasp the hands behind the head.

    As a variation, rock with the knees bent, hands clasped below them.

Special Exercises for Reducing Flesh and Strengthening the Abdominal Organs

   21. Lie flat on stomach, heels and toes together, hands stretched out in front. Fling head and arms upward, at the same time raising the legs, knees straight. Avoid straining.

   22. Same position, hands clasped on back, feet together. Roll from side to side.

   23. Lie flat on back, seize a bar (bed rail or rung of chair) just behind the head. Keeping the feet close together, raise the legs as high as possible, then swing them from side to side. As a variation, swing legs in a circle without flexing the knees.

   24. Same position. Raise and lower the legs without letting them touch the floor, keeping the knees straight.

   25. Lie flat on the back, fold the hands loosely across the stomach. Raise and lower the upper body without quite touching the floor.

   26. Stand erect, heels together, arms raised above the head. Bend forward and downward, endeavoring to place the palms of the hands on the floor in front of the body without flexing the knees. Return slowly to original position and repeat.

   27. Stand erect, hands on hips. Keeping the body motionless from the hips downward, sway the upper part of the body from side to side and forward and backward, and in a circle to right and left.

   28. Stand erect raise the arms above the head. Rotate the trunk upon the hips with extended arms, bending as far as possible in each direction, but avoiding undue strain. These are strenuous movements and should not be carried to excess or performed very long at a time.

Physical Exercise for Invalids

   29. Persons who are very weak and unable to be on their feet for any length of time need not, for this reason, forego the benefits to be derived from systematic physical exercise.

    A low chair, with straight or very slightly curved back and no arms, or a rocking chair of similar construction with a wedge placed under the rockers in such a manner as to keep the chair steady at a suitable angle, is well adapted to the practice of a number of corrective movements, such as rotating of hips and waist, forward and sideward bending of the trunk, the various arm and neck exercises, bending and twisting of feet and toes, and the internal massage. (Sec. XXI No.16.)

PSYCHOLOGICAL EXERCISE

   You may ever so often go through the ordinary forms of physical gymnastic exercises in a listless, inattentive way without deriving much benefit aside from a certain amount of development of the muscular structures. In order to derive from exercise genuine curative effects, mind and will must govern and vitalize the purely physical activity.

    While it is true that the vital activities of the living organism continue independently of the individual consciousness, being under the control of the universal intelligence, we can learn to reinforce and to stimulate, or if necessary to relax and soothe the vital activities by the exercise of our own intelligence and power of will. This is proved by the following experiments: Let a physical culture class perform certain feats in weight lifting, instruct them to use all the physical energy at their disposal, and carefully record the results as to the amount of weight lifted, length of time required, etc. Then give to the class some brief explanation of the power of mind over matter and over the physical constituents of the body, and ask them to exert the power of their will to the uttermost while repeating the same feats. It will be found that the lifting power of the members of the class, thus reinforced by intellectual effort and the power of the will, can be increased from one third to one half.

    I have seen a weak little woman under the control of a hypnotist display sufficient physical energy to overcome the concentrated efforts of four strong men to lift her from the floor or to move her from her place. I have seen her lift weights which could not be raised by two or three strong men. On another occasion I saw a weak boy carry the hypnotist, a man weighing over a hundred and seventy pounds, on his outstretched, unsupported arm.

    The hypnotist in these Cases was not reinforcing his subjects by his own muscular strength. Their greatly increased physical strength and stamina was entirely due to the power of his will, acting on their subconscious minds through hypnotic control. I have explained the nature of this phenomenon more fully in Chapter XXX, Vol. I.

    I do not mean by this to extol the practice of hypnotism, which is always destructive in its effect upon the mind and soul of the subject as well as of the hypnotist, but these phenomena give us a marvelous demonstration of the power of concentrated will over matter and over the physical organism.

    The cells and organs making up the great commonwealth of the human body should be under the complete control of mind and will. The cells, tissues and organs of the body are or should be physiologically and psychologically negative to the positive mind. In most people the normal polarity is reversed. Their minds and souls are negative and subjective to the constituents of the physical body. The slightest pain or discomfort fills their minds with fear and anxiety.

    There is no better method to establish normal polarity,—the dominion of the conscious mind over the cells, tissues and organs of the body,—than systematic psychological exercise. Such exercise does not depend so much upon physical exertion as upon the action of mind and will on the nerves and nerve centers which control physical activity.

    For instance, if the shutting and opening of the hands is intensified by mental effort and by the conscious exertion of the will, it will be of more benefit to the vitalizing of the muscular structures of the arm, as well as to the energizing of the brain and nerve centers concerned in the transaction, than the lifting of heavy weights which would unduly exercise the fleshy structures at the expense of the brain and nerve centers!

    Psychological exercise becomes still more valuable for the strengthening of mental control over physical activity when the tensing of one part is accompanied by the relaxing of the companion part, for instance, when the tensing and bending of one arm is accompanied by simultaneous relaxation and unbending of the other arm. The same principle may be applied to all other companion parts of the body in so far as this is possible. The conscious tensing and relaxing exercises must be accompanied always by deep, rhythmic breathing.

    From the foregoing it becomes apparent that psychological exercise is one of the most important methods in the treatment of physical disease; for anything and everything that helps to normalize and energize the functions of the body remove the underlying causes of disease.

Effects of Psychological Exercises on Mental and Psychical Ailments

   In the treatment of mental and psychical disorders, psychological exercise is of special importance and of wonderful efficacy in bringing about improvement and cure where in the nature of the case that is at all possible. In all mental and psychical derangements one of the primary manifestations is a weakening of reason, will and self control and the gradual loss of coordination between mental and physical activities and the increasing loss of control of the mind and will over the physical functions of the body.

   For the reasons before explained it becomes evident that there can be no better way to strengthen will power and self-control, to reestablish coordination of mental and physical functions and thereby to strengthen the control of mind and will over the body and indirectly in other directions, than by systematic psychological exercises. It is, therefore, one of the most important features in our institution in the treatment of mental, emotional and psychical diseases.

Natural Exercise

   Regular outdoor work sufficient to produce good perspiration, where one is in closest touch with Mother Nature, is the best of all exercise for human beings. The work itself should be constructive to the extent that it provides some of the necessities of human life and calls forth the best instincts of human nature. There is none better than the tilling of the soil for the production of vegetables, fruits and flowers.

    Elimination through perspiration produced by vigorous outdoor work,—bareheaded and barefooted,—is best of all. Such natural activity should precede eating.

    Numerous experiments have demonstrated that perspiration resulting from actual work or play is far more effective in the elimination of morbid matter from the human body than perspiration induced by steam baths, hot air, electric light baths or other artificial contrivances. It is also true that actual outdoor exercise in the shape of work or play produces much better results than exercise taken with special apparatus in heated buildings.

    Next to the tilling of the soil, outdoor play is one of the best forms of exercise—such games as lawn tennis, golf, volley ball, football or baseball bring into activity the whole muscular system, provide the best possible exercise for the lungs, the heart and the vital organs, and at the same time call forth intense brain activity and concentration of mind by the competition and rivalry.

    Next to outdoor sport, the best natural form or exercise is walking. To attain the best results walks should be taken not alone but in company with some congenial companion. Select some objective point and make the walk vigorous and rapid, the arms swinging free from the shoulders, the breathing deep and vigorous, the carriage of the body erect. Now and then take a "chest lift". This is done while walking. Hold the entire body erect, draw in a breath; after a few seconds, without exhaling, draw in another and after a further interval of a few seconds, still another. After the third inhalation vigorously expel all the air. The object of this is to inflate the chest to its fullest capacity.

    Four or five miles are not too much for a good vigorous walk, although one or two miles a day may be all the average city dweller can afford. To get the best results from any form of exercise the clothing should be removed immediately afterward and a cold rub or cold sponge bath taken, followed by a brisk rub with a dry towel. This in turn should be followed by a few minutes rest or thorough relaxation in order to allow the system to resume its normal functions.

    Since a large proportion of people who live in cities find it absolutely impossible in their regular daily life to take natural exercise in the shape of work, play or walking, they must have some substitute in the way of indoor exercise. Many people believe that the chief object of exercise is to develop large muscles and unusual strength, and for that purpose all kinds of special apparatus, weights and various other contrivances have been devised and sold at fancy prices.

    Apparatus is entirely unnecessary for good physical development and for maintaining normal health. The leading authorities on physical culture agree that best results may be obtained by the simple exercises, resisting, tensing and relaxing, without the use of weights or special apparatus.

    Exercise in order to produce best results must be regular. Set aside a certain time each day for this purpose and adhere to it. The body becomes accustomed to duties of this kind, performed at regular times each day. The entire reserve force of the organism is brought into play at these times and great benefit is derived not only from the physical effects but also from the concentration of mind and will on the work in hand, and this will gradually extend to all other forms of physical and mental occupations.

    The following simple movements cover the whole range of psychological exercise. They may be modified or added to according to individual needs. The number of times each shall be done also depends upon individual conditions and requirements. Never hold the breath while exercising. At first continue the exercises until slight fatigue is felt. On an average fifteen to twenty times will be enough for each movement.

    As a final warning, remember that tensing in the sense used in these directions does not mean straining. Tensing to the point of straining and exhaustion would be decidedly harmful.

Psychological Exercises

   1. Stand erect, hands on chest, extend arms forward with a jerk, horizontally from the shoulders, tensing all muscles at the end of the movement. This should be done at the rate of about one movement per second.

   2. Same as No. 1, except that the arms are extended downwards at the sides full length.

   3. Strike out from the shoulder alternately with each arm, aiming at some imaginary point in front of you.

   4. Clinch the fist tightly and strike a vigorous Mow from the left hip towards the right ear and across the shoulders. Alternate with the right. As before, end the movement by tensing all muscles.

   5. Stand erect, bring up the knees alternately as high as possible, stopping the movement by tensing all the muscles.

   6. Stand erect, make a vigorous kick toward the front, first with the left and then with the right. Bring the leg to a sudden stop by tensing all the muscles. Extend the toes as far forward as possible when making the kick. The value of this exercise depends on the energy put into it. Do the same by kicking toward the rear.

   7. (Fig. 12) Stand erect. Clinch the right fist, contract the arm, and bring the hand up under the right shoulder, raising the shoulder in the meantime as far as possible, and tensing all the muscles at the end of the stroke. Do this alternately with the left hand. While tensing one arm, relax the other.

   8. (Figs. 13 a, b) Take an ordinary bath towel, grasp one end in the right hand, over the right shoulder, pass the left hand around below the waist and grasp the other end. Now raise the right arm to an extended position, resisting with the left arm Change to the left arm over the shoulder and the right arm down to the hips. The resistance must be continuous from the starting of the movement to the return to the first position.

   9. (Fig. 14) Grasp one end of a Turkish towel with the right hand raised to the shoulder, and the other end with the left hand raised to the shoulder, the towel passing behind the neck. Extend the right arm full length, resisting with the left arm. Return to first position, continuing the resistance until the movement is ended. Repeat this exercise with the towel passing in front of the neck.

   10. Stand erect, with both arms extended downward; tense the muscles of the upper forearm, hand extended, and raise the right hand to the shoulder, resisting the biceps muscles in the upper arm by the triceps muscles. Return to the original position, still tensing above muscles, at the same time raising the left arm to the shoulder.

   11. Extend the arms out to the sides in horizontal position, tense all the muscles of the arms and shoulders, and bring the arms down close to the body. Repeat.

   12. (Fig. 15) Raise the arms high above the shoulders and a little backward, tense all the muscles, and circle the arms outward and down in front of the body, crossing the hands in front of the abdomen, as shown in cut.

   13. (Figs. 16 a, b) Raise the hands straight above the head, inhaling a full breath; gradually assume a squatting position as close to the floor as you can get, with the arms down between the knees, the head bent over, and the diaphragm muscle contracted. This is for the purpose of expelling all the air from the lungs.

   14. Stand erect, with arms high over the shoulders. Bend over and touch the floor in front of the feet with the hands, the feet remaining flat on the floor, and the knees stiff. On returning to upright position tense the muscles in the small of the back.

   15. (Fig. 17) Stand erect, raise the right arm fully extended, swing it up over the head, bend the body as far as possible straight to the left, keeping both feet solid upon the floor; then swing the body as far as possible to the right, raising the left arm and lowering the right. Keep both feet solidly on the floor. Tense the muscles of the arms while doing the exercise.

   16. (Fig. 18) Stand erect, place the hands on the hips, the feet firmly on the floor, as shown in cut. Twist the body slowly to the right and then slowly to the left. Do not move the feet. Tense the muscles of the back and abdomen at the extreme end of each movement, and turn the head as far as possible in the direction of each movement.

   17. Lie flat upon the floor or upon a bed, arms extended above the head. Raise the arms and the head and shoulders as far as possible from the floor contracting or tensing the muscles of the abdomen. Relax, and lie again upon the floor. Raise the hollow of the back from the floor, drawing the hips up towards the shoulders, contracting or tensing the muscles of the back.

   18. (Fig. 19) Lie flat upon the floor, arms extended above head. Now raise both feet up over the chest, tensing muscles of the abdomen. This exercise flay be made more strenuous by tensing the muscles of the legs and raising them up and down from five to ten times without touching the floor. Also extend the arms above the head and grasp an iron bedstead or any other apparatus available, with the hands; then raise the logs from the floor and gradually the hips, until the legs pass over and beyond the head. You may also swing the legs from one side to another or in circle.

   19. Stand erect. Have the head well poised; bend it as far forward as possible till the chin touches the chest, and then as far backward as possible, without moving the body.

    Second, have the head well poised, and turn the head over to the right as far as possible, endeavor to touch the shoulder, then to the left as far as possible.

   20. (Fig. 20) Have the head well poised and turn it to the right and left alternately without moving the body. While doing this exercise tense the muscles of the neck, and if desired, you may resist the neck movements by either hand.

   21. Stand erect, heels close together, raise the body on the toes as high as possible. Resume normal position, lift the feet, the heels remaining on the floor. Repeat this with the feet ten inches apart. Repeat again with the feet eighteen inches apart.

   22. For cold feet sit upon a box or bench or chair high enough so that the feet swing clear of the floor; work the ankle joints vigorously, raising the ball of the foot as far as possible toward the knee, and then lowering it as far as possible. Do this for about one minute to begin with, and gradually increase to from two to five minutes. This will start the circulation of the blood in the feet.

   23. (Fig. 21) Raise arms horizontally at sides, palms up. Contract right arm bringing fist toward head and turning the face toward it simultaneously, resisting biceps muscle with triceps muscle, left arm extended outward relaxed-reverse (see cut).

   24. (Figs. 22 a, b) Hands on chest. Raise elbows up as high as possible and down again. Inhale while raising. Exhale while lowering. Then reverse.

NATURAL TREATMENT FOR THE EYES

   The health of the eyes, as well as that of all other parts of the body, depends upon perfect nutrition, drainage and nerve supply. Diseases of the eyes, unless caused by external injury, excessive strain under inadequate light or by exposure to brilliant light, are due to constitutional conditions.

    The sensory organs do not weaken and become diseased unless there is something wrong with the three primary life requirements-nutrition, drainage and nerve supply. Most of the work of eye specialists, as long as they do not treat constitutional causes, is, therefore, not curative but symptomatic and suppressive.

    The delicate mechanism of the eye becomes easily obstructed with pathogenic encumbrances which cause interference with the free circulation of blood, lymph and nerve currents. Cataract is nothing but an infiltration of the lens with pathogenic materials.

    The same uric acid, oxalic acid and crystalloid earthy substances that form deposits in the rheumatic joints also accumulate in the lenses of the eyes and cause them to become milky and impervious to light. All the various forms of inflammations of the eye, if not caused by injury from without are due to pathogenic obstruction, like all other forms of inflammation in the body.

    The natural treatment of the eyes, therefore, aims to remove pathogenic encumbrances and to adjust the mechanical lesions or abnormalities in such a way as to establish perfect nutrition, drainage and nerve supply. This accomplished, ailments of the eyes become a thing of the past and good sight may be maintained to the end of life.

    From the foregoing it follows that the treatment of the eyes must begin in the first place with the natural treatment of the body as a whole. This is accomplished by faithful adherence to the regimen for wholesome living outlined in Sec. I.

    This, with neurotherapy, has in many instances sufficed to cure serious chronic ailments of the eyes. Many people have come to us for the treatment of chronic constitutional disease, not expecting their weakened eyes to be especially benefited, believing this to be impossible. They were most pleasantly surprised when they found that together with constitutional improvement came also much better eyesight and keener hearing.

    But hand in hand with constitutional regeneration should also go special treatment of the eyes themselves. This consists in an adaptation of several important natural methods of treatment; namely, hydrotherapy, eye gymnastics and massage. In many cases it may be necessary to supplement this combination by neurotherapy in order to correct mechanical lesion and abnormalities in the spinal column and nerve tissues which may interfere with the blood and nerve supply of the eyes and with adequate drainage.

   1. Water Treatment. For the eye bath the temperature of the water should be as cold as the sensitive eyeball can stand, but not cold enough to cause serious discomfort. A few grains of salt may be added to make the water slightly saline.

    a) Submerge forehead and eyes in a basin of water, open and close the lids under water from six to eight times. Repeat a few times.

    b) Fill a glass or aluminum eyecup (which can be bought in any drug store or department store) with water, bend the head forward and press the cup securely against the eye; then bend backward and open and shut the lid a number of times.

    c) Bend over a stream of water running from a faucet or over a large dish containing cold water of natural temperature as it comes from the hydrant or well; then scoop up the water in the hollow of the hands and throw it into the open eyes, at the same time move the eyeballs sideways in circular or up and down motion. This is done in order to permit the water to reach all parts of the eyeball equally.

    The cold bathing is continued until the eyes cease smarting and perfect reaction is established. This may require about a minute.

   2. Massage and Vibratory Treatment. We have learned in other parts of these volumes that massage has very much the same effect upon the circulation of the blood, lymph and nerve currents as hydropathic treatment. It stirs up the pathogenic deposits in the tissues and actually squeezes them into the lymphatic and venous circulation, thus allowing a free inflow of the red arterial blood with its freight of life sustaining oxygen and other elements of nutrition. Like the cold water, it stimulates the flow of the sluggish, pathogen laden lymph and venous blood towards the heart and the organs of elimination.

    Another very important effect of the massage of the eyes lies in the fact that it makes the eyeball more elastic and resilient, thereby correcting abnormal depressions and inequalities of the surface; in other words, it rounds the eyeball more perfectly. This is a simple and natural way of curing astigmatism, which the oculist tries to overcome by specially ground lenses. It is easily to be seen which of these methods is the more natural and rational. The one endeavors to overcome a symptom; the other removes the cause and actually corrects the abnormal condition.

    Both massage and hydropathic treatment, aside from their mechanical effects upon the circulation, nutrition and drainage, also arouse and stimulate the latent electromagnetic energy. This, together with a more liberal supply of alkaline mineral elements in food and drink, raises the positivity of the organism, which means greater vitality and recuperating power The best massage movements adapted for the eye treatment are the following:

   3. Massage Movements. (a) Kneading. In order to execute this movement, press the eyeballs out of their sockets with the tip of one or two fingers of each hand. Continue this until the eyeballs have received a thorough kneading, as far back in the sockets as possible. You need not be afraid of injuring the eyes by this treatment unless you exert undue or excessive force.

    b) Vibrating. Vibrate the eyeball all over its surface as far as you can reach it, first with one, then with two and lastly with three fingers—the thumb, forefinger and middle finger brought to a point. The movement is executed by a quick vibratory motion of the hand in the wrist joint It may require some practice before perfect vibratory motion is attained, but when once acquired it is very beneficial for the purposes described in this treatise.

    After thoroughly vibrating the eyeball for about a minute, finish with the stroking movements.

    c) Stroking. This movement is executed by stroking the eyeball, first gently, then gradually more and more strongly, with one and later two finger tips. The stroking proceeds over the upper and lower lids from the inner corners of the eyes outward; then reverse and stroke from the outer corner of the eye in a half circular motion to the inner corner. These movements also are repeated from a dozen to two dozen times, according to the endurance and time available.

    The stroking is applied first gently and with gradually increasing pressure until the eyeball has become seemingly insensible. As before stated, none of these treatments, if executed with a little care and common sense, can possibly inflict any injury. Although the mechanism of the eye is very complicated and highly sensitive, it is at the same time very tough and resilient. Cures of serious eye troubles which are little short of miraculous have been effected by this simple treatment. If faithfully applied at least twice a day, or, if possible, in conjunction with the general regimen for natural living and with neurotherapy, it will do away in a great many cases with the necessity for the wearing of glasses, and will preserve excellent eyesight under strenuous usage, even to extreme old age.

   4. Eye Gymnastics. After the eyes have recovered sufficiently from the cold bathing, practice eye gymnastics. Stand erect, or if too weak assume a comfortable relaxed position in a chair, then move the eyes upwards and downwards, as far as the mobility of the eyeballs will permit, along an imaginary vertical line on the wall opposite you. Repeat this from twelve to twenty-four times.

    Then in like manner move the eyeballs as far as you can force them from right to left and left to right on an imaginary horizontal line in front of you on a level with your eyes. Move the eyeballs in similar manner diagonally from the highest point on the fight to the lowest point on the left, and then reverse.

    Finally roll the eyeballs in circular motion from fight to left and then from left to right. Each one of these movements should be repeated from twelve to twenty-four times, according to the time at your disposal.

    The special value of these eye exercises lies in the fact that the movements of the eyeball are regulated by four sets of muscle which pull the eyeball upward; downward, to the right and to the left.

    The ordinary use of the eyes in certain occupations such as reading, playing the piano, etc., may exercise the eye muscles unequally and thus overwork and strain some of them while others are weakened through lack of exercise. In time this is bound to result in unequal development of these muscles and in one-sided strain. This in turn results in unequal focusing of the eyes, which seriously interferes with normal vision. This is usually corrected by fitting lenses specially adapted for this purpose, but it is obvious that the better adjustment consists in equalizing the strength of the four muscles which control the movements of the eyeball.

CONSTIPATION

   Constipation is characterized by sluggish action of the bowels For some reason the evacuation of waste matter from the colon has become difficult. Normally an individual should have a copious movement of the bowels once in twenty-four hours-twice is better.

    Constipation has become so common among people of civilized countries that this has been called "the age of constipation". At least three-fourths of the chronic patients that come to us for treatment, suffer from chronic constipation in its worst forms. Many of them tell us that they have not had a natural movement of the bowels for many years. This alone is sufficient to show that the ordinary methods of living and of treating human ailments are faulty and inadequate.

    While itself a form of disease, constipation becomes in turn one of the primary causes of other constitutional diseases. Inactivity of the eliminating organs, the skin, kidneys and bowels causes retention of waste and morbid matter which results An systemic poisoning or auto-intoxication. Any system of treatment which cannot restore the normal activity of the organs of depuration cannot accomplish anything else.

    The medical treatment of constipation, consisting largely in the administration of laxatives and cathartics, gives only temporary relief and tends to benumb and paralyze the intestines more completely. This has been explained in Volume I, Chapter VII. All laxatives and purgatives are poisonous to the system or they would not produce their peculiar drastic effects. They do not act upon the system but the system acts upon the drugs. Being poisons, the organism tries to expel these enemies to health and life by copious excretions from the liver and from the walls of the intestines. This eventually produces an evacuation of the contents of the bowels, but every time such violent artificial stimulation is resorted to the liver and the membranous linings of the intestinal tract and the nerves which supply them, become more benumbed and inactive. This progressive atrophy is revealed in the iris by the darkening of liver and digestive areas, located directly around the pupil.

   As constipation becomes more stubborn, this region becomes darker, with brown discolorations, turning gradually black in places. In cases of serious atrophy of the membranes, the intestinal area presents a uniform black appearance. We find this frequently in people who have habitually used calomel or have taken other mercurial treatment. Quinin and the derivatives of opium also have a very paralyzing effect upon the digestive tract. The acute catarrhal conditions characterized by frequent purging are indicated in the iris by white signs in the intestinal area.

    Other causes of constipation are (1) congestion of the liver, causing deficient or abnormal secretion of bile; (2) interference with the blood supply of the intestines, causing insufficient secretion of mucous, thus reducing lubrication and causing excessive dryness of fecal matter. (3) interference with the motor nerve supply to the muscular walls of the intestines (partial paralysis) thus reducing the peristaltic action of the intestines, which in turn causes stagnation and fermentation of fecal matter; (4) spasm of the sphincter muscles of the rectum, inhibiting the act of evacuation; (5) mechanical pressure upon the intestines by new growths, tumors or adhesions.

   Chronic constipation is usually preceded by periods of diarrhea. Hyperactivity, due to excessive stimulation, is always followed by corresponding weakness and gradual atrophy. The ordinary high protein and starchy diet produces, as we have learned, excessive amounts of poisonous acids, ptomains, alkaloids, xanthins (collectively called pathogen). These morbid materials are powerful stimulants. Their effects are frequently mistaken for increased vigor, as in the case of meat and coffee poisons. They over irritate and over stimulate the liver and the membranes of the intestines, causing an excessive flow of secretions and increased peristaltic action of the bowels. This results at times, when the digestive organs become clogged with pathogenic matter, in periodic diarrheas. This is the rule during infancy and youth. Gradually, however, continual irritation and over stimulation, with the attendant purging, changes, in accordance with the laws of action and reaction, into the opposite condition of chronic constipation which is aggravated and made more stubborn by the use of laxatives and cathartics.

    Constant clogging of the liver with the morbid by products of a high protein and starchy diet leaves that organ in a congested and inactive condition. This interferes with the secretion of bile which in turn causes dryness of the contents of the bowels and deprives them of the lubricants necessary for easy evacuation of the feces.

    Continual over irritation and over stimulation resulting from pathogenic poisoning also benumbs and paralyzes the motor nerves which supply the muscular walls of the intestines, resulting in partial paralysis and diminished peristaltic action. This is aggravated by the continual intake of food materials deficient in cellulose and woody fiber, such as white flour products and polished rice. The hulls of cereals, which act as natural stimulants to the peristaltic action of the bowels, are removed in the modern "refining" milling process. The particles of hull in whole grain meals serve to keep the starchy parts of the cereals from coagulating into lumpy masses and thus facilitate the penetration of the digestive juices into the starchy mass. It is for this reason that the followers of nature cure have always advocated the use of whole grain foods and the liberal consumption of fruits and vegetables whose fibrous waste serves as scouring material for the intestinal tract and as a natural stimulant for peristaltic action.

    Spasm of the sphincter muscles of the anus, or spasm of the rectum, is usually caused by long continued over irritation with systemic poison or by the paralyzing effect of drug poisons. Many such cases I have traced back to suppression of gonorrhea or hemorrhoids. Such chronic paralysis and inhibition must be overcome through general constitutional treatment, cold tonic sitz baths and tonic manipulative treatment.

    Mechanical pressure upon and resulting obstruction of the intestines caused by tumors, new growths or adhesions must be removed through absorption of the abnormal growths and adhesions by natural living and treatment, with strict vegetarian diet and occasional fasting periods. Hydrotherapy and manipulative treatment are necessary to achieve satisfactory results. Such deep seated chronic conditions, therefore, require systematic institutional treatment.

    Mental and emotional conditions exert a powerful influence upon the alimentary tract. Certain emotions have a benumbing, others a stimulating effect upon the secretions and the peristaltic action of the bowels. A few days ago I read about certain experiments made with living animals. X-ray pictures were taken of a healthy cat whose peristaltic movements were normally active. The animal was suddenly confronted with an angry dog barking at her fiercely. Instantly, as the hair on her body and her tail went up as the result of sudden fright and anger, the peristaltic action of the stomach and bowels ceased entirely and did not revive until the animal had thoroughly recovered from its emotional excitement. It also has been proved by experiments on living animals that sudden emotional excitement stops the secretion of the gastric and pancreatic juices. The nature and treatment of nervous, mental and emotional disorders is fully discussed in Section XXIX, No.3, p.258.

    The most remarkable case of constipation that has come under my observation was that of a woman suffering from a severe attack of appendicitis and general peritonitis. She had been under Christian Science treatment for six days, her condition in the meantime becoming more aggravated until she was in a dying condition Cold water compresses and manipulative treatment relieved her intense suffering almost instantly. We tried to empty the colon by repeated flushings, but without success. The bowels did not move for twenty eight days, then they moved naturally without artificial aid. From that time on the patient made a rapid and perfect recovery.

    During the four weeks she had received no food whatsoever. The usual hydropathic and manipulative treatment controlled the fever and gradually revived the peristaltic action of the paralyzed intestines. Eating at any time during the period of constipation would have meant sure death.

    As before stated, habitual constipation means not only deficient elimination but also reabsorption of toxins from the putrefying materials in the intestinal canal, especially in the descending colon and rectum. Appendicitis is practically always preceded by an inactive, atrophic condition of the intestines, which favors the accumulation of fecal matter in the cecum and descending colon, which in turn leads to inflammation of the cecum and appendix.

   The causes and treatment of appendicitis have been fully described in Volume 1, Chapter XIIL

    In the urine of people suffering from chronic constipation we usually find considerable amounts of indican, a poisonous ptomain which forms in putrefactive processes in the intestines. This is absorbed into the general circulation and partially eliminated through the kidneys. In like manner many other alkaloids of putrefaction are absorbed from the stagnant, putrefying materials in the sluggish intestines, causing headache, nervousness, muscular fatigue, sluggish mentality and many other ailments. Arteriosclerosis, Bright's disease, diabetes and premature old age are caused or aggravated by the continual absorption of intestinal toxins.

    Post mortem examinations often show the lining membranes of the colon, cecum and of certain parts of the small intestines covered with adhesive, puttylike fecal materials. Such a clogged condition of the intestinal membranes interferes with assimilation 'as well as with elimination. This leaves the blood in an impoverished condition and overcharged with systemic poisons, causing on the one hand, nerve starvation and, on the other hand, nerve poisoning.

    This condition of the intestines is revealed in the iris by a darkening and brown discoloration of the digestive area and by the lymphatic rosary. Frequently when I tell patients that their intestinal tract is in a clogged and atrophic condition, they seem surprised, saying there is nothing the matter with their bowels because they move regularly. This, however, is not evidence that the bowels are in a normal condition or that the individual is free from intestinal autointoxication. As before explained the intestines, particularly the colon down as far as the sigmoid flexure, may be encrusted with adhesive fecal matter, leaving a clear way in the center for the passage of recently formed waste products. In such cases it is necessary to resort to measures which are somewhat drastic in order to quickly and thoroughly cleanse the colon.

   1. Treatment. It must be understood that the first requisite in the treatment of any disorder, and especially of constipation, is a change of diet. The diet for an individual suffering with constipation must be of such a nature as to preclude the possibility of the formation of toxins and at the same time to assist in the removal of morbid accumulations from the alimentary tract. Finally, the diet must contain the positive mineral elements necessary to neutralize the negative pathogenic substances in the circulation and in the tissues of the body.

    Meat, coffee, fermented cheese, fried foods, white bread, pastry and all other white flour products must be strictly avoided, as also the habitual use of condiments, spices and white sugar.

    A raw food diet, rich in fruit and vegetables, low in proteins, starches and fats; is best adapted to quickly bring about the desired results. All kinds of fruit, fruit juices and leafy, juicy vegetables are of the utmost value, but a mixture of many at one meal is not advisable. Salads, consisting of lettuce or other leafy vegetables, and raw carrots, turnips, parsnips, celery, young onions and radishes, with a dressing of lemon juice and olive oil, should form the basis of the diet. Bran biscuit, health bread, steamed wheat (Sec. X, No.3), dates, figs, raisins, grapes, acid and sub-acid fruits and berries will furnish sufficient nourishment and will serve to stimulate the peristaltic action of the bowels.

   2. A Sample Diet. Breakfast, any kind of acid or sub-acid fruit or berries. Luncheon, raw vegetable salads with dressing of lemon juice and olive oil; dates, raisins and a small amount of either whole wheat bread, bran biscuit, shredded wheat or whole steamed wheat. Dinner, raw vegetable relishes and salad of green, leafy vegetables with raw grated carrots or turnips; a cooked leafy vegetable such as spinach, cabbage or Swiss chard; one potato, or in place of it a slice of whole grain bread; some sweet, alkaline fruit for dessert; buttermilk or yogurt. Fruit juices, either pure or dilute, may be taken between meals. This diet should be followed for two or three weeks.

   3. A Natural Laxative. The treatment of constipation may begin by taking a mixture of bran, agar-agar and flaxseed to be used two or three nights in succession in the following proportions: Mix two tablespoonfuls of bran, one tablespoonful of agar-agar and one tablespoonful of flaxseed. This must be eaten dry before retiring.

    In order to soften and to remove old hard fecal encrustations from the colon a few colon flushings may be taken at the beginning of the treatment. Descriptions of colon flushing and of the necessary apparatus, posture, etc., are given in Sec. XVIII, No.7. While it is permissible to resort to a few thorough colon flushings at the beginning of the treatment, I am strongly opposed to the habitual use of enemas. This is bound to result in greater weakness and atrophy of the intestines. Filling the lower part of the intestinal tract habitually with large amounts of warm water not only dilates the already weakened intestinal wall but takes away the natural impetus to secretion. In other words, as the popular expression goes, "the more you flush, the more lazy the bowels become".

    I have met many victims of this weakening practice who assured me that the longer they used the "rubber doctor" the more relaxed and weakened the intestines became and the more they suffered from indigestion, fermentation, gas formation and the effects of systemic poisoning. Therefore we resort to colon flushing only as a "crutch" in the beginning of treatment until the intestines become alive and active under natural diet and treatment. We advise patients to resort to flushing only when it becomes absolutely necessary. In that way they learn to take enemas at increasingly long intervals, forcing Nature to do the work in the natural way. Natural evacuation will be hastened and facilitated by going to the stool at certain stated times.

   4. Hydrotherapy for Constipation. A cold sits bath should be taken every evening (with the usual restrictions for women). It has a splendid cooling and relaxing effect upon the abdominal organs. (Sec XIII, No. 13)

    The abdominal bandage has all effect similar to that of the sits bath. It is cooling and relaxing, thus relieving the overheated condition of the intestines.

   5. Exercises. The best exercises for overcoming constipation are those which bring the abdominal muscles into play. (Sec. XXI, No. 16 and Sec. XXIII, Nos. 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 23) Aside from these special exercises, brisk walks in the fresh air have a splendid tonic effect upon the muscular apparatus of the digestive tract.

   6. Massage. In stubborn chronic cases abdominal massage is absolutely necessary to attain speedy and satisfactory results. (Sec. XVIII, No. 1)

   7. Neurotherapy. If lesions are present in that region of the spine which gives rise to nerves that supply the intestines, no permanent results can be expected until these lesions are corrected.

   8. Orificial Dilatation is one of the most effective methods for the treatment of chronic constipation. It is fully described under Sec. XXVIII

HEADACHE

    Headache is usually but a symptom of disease Somewhere in the body, though it may be due to local irritation by systemic or drug poisons. Diseased conditions and infiltration anywhere in the system are telegraphed to headquarters in the brain and there manifest in the form of venous symptoms, the most frequent of which is headache. Sometimes it is caused by defects of vision, or eye strain and may be alleviated by properly fitted glasses. This, however, cannot take the place of removing constitutional causes. Frequently the wearing of "eye crutches" prevents the locating and removal of the underlying causes and thus condemns the individual to the life long use of glasses, to constantly weakening eyesight and to chronic constitutional disease.

    One of the most common causes of headache, as well as of eye trouble, is uric acid or pathogen poisoning. This has been fully described in Vol I, chap. XXIX. A typical uric acid headache is migraine or one sided headache, particularly annoying in the morning when the blood is loaded with pathogenic materials.

   1. Bilious or Sick Headaches. Another common type is the so-called bilious headache. While usually attributed to an inactive liver, it may be caused in various wars. Pathogenic clogging of the liver will interfere with the elimination of bile products; these will remain in the circulation and cause general symptoms of biliousness, jaundice, nausea, vomiting and headache.

    Pathogenic obstruction may be due to overeating, to the excessive intake of starchy, protein and fatty food, and to a deficiency of fruits and vegetables in the diet; or the discharge of the bile may be obstructed by sticky, colloid accumulations in the gall bladder and bile duct. In other cases the bile duct is contracted and obstructed through inflammation in the duodenum.

    Anything that interferes with bile formation in the liver or its discharge from the gall bladder or bile duct, not only causes surging back of the bile into the general circulation but also a deficiency of it in the intestinal tract, which in turn gives rise to acidity of the intestinal contents, indigestion, constipation, fermentation and gas formation. This intestinal toxemia is reflected to the brain in the form of congestion and headache, and favors the formation of emboli (obstructive plugs) and the development of apoplectic strokes. Anything that tends to cause constipation and thereby intestinal toxemia or auto intoxication will also help to produce acute or chronic headaches. The treatment for constipation is explained under Sec. XXVI, and also under Sec. XXVIII Orificial Treatment.

    The headaches so far described are of the congestive type, characterized by excessive blood pressure to the brain. Anything that tends to raise the blood pressure will therefore create or aggravate these ailments. A common cause is pathogenic obstruction in the capillary circulation, which results in active congestion in the internal organs and the brain; or pathogenic obstruction in the lymphatic or venous drainage which interferes with the flow of the blood from the brain and thus causes passive congestion.

    The foregoing remarks explain the effectiveness of a simple manipulative treatment which any layman can apply. The neck stretching movement is illustrated in Fig. 23a. The subject assumes a sitting position. The operator stands on either side, applies the thumb and the first and second fingers of one hand firmly to the base of the skull, while with the other hand under the jaw he lifts the head and stretches the neck gently but firmly upward and backward. The stretching should continue from thirty to sixty seconds.

   This movement kinks the arteries and straightens and drains the veins, thus relieving the congestion in the brain. After slowly releasing the pressure, the operator firmly strokes the neck downward along the course of the main arteries and veins, on both sides. The stretching should be followed by a magnetic treatment. The operator takes the head of the patient between his hands and with his thumbs stretches the skin of the forehead outward, half a dozen to a dozen times, and then makes the regular magnetic strokes from the forehead downward and outward along the neck and arms. The various forms of magnetic treatment are fully described in Chap. XXXIV, Vol. I.

    The operator while giving the manipulative and magnetic treatment must combine with these the right mental and psychical attitude as described in the chapter just referred to. If one of these combination treatments does not bring the desired result, it may be repeated if the attention of the subject can be temporarily distracted from his ailment so much the better. After an interval of five or ten minutes his headache will usually have disappeared.

   2. Anemic Headache. This type of headache is caused either by great impoverishment in the quality of the blood or a deficiency of it in the brain. This condition frequently obtains in cases of anemia, leukemia, pernicious anemia, or where the flow of the blood to the brain is interfered with by a tumor, aneurysm or other mechanical obstruction. While the congestive headache has violent, throbbing, paroxysmal pains, the anemic headache is accompanied by extreme dullness and lassitude. The former is characterized by heat and redness of the face, the latter by coldness, clamminess and pallor.

    The manipulative treatment for the anemia headache is similar to the other. The hands are applied to the nape of the fleck and under the jaw in the same manner, but instead of stretching the neck upward and backward, it is stretched upward and forward (Fig. 23b) This movement kinks the veins and straightens the arteries,thus allowing a greater flow of blood to the brain. The magnetic, mental and psychic treatments are the same in either case.

    In all types of headaches the dietetic treatment must build up the blood on a natural basis and eliminate pathogenic encumbrances. The various regimens for this purpose have been given under Secs. I and X. In headaches of the congestive type, fasting is of particular value. If the trouble is caused by indigestion, biliousness and a fetid condition of the stomach, copious draughts of water as warm as it can be swallowed sometimes gives quick relief. If the "warm water flushing" causes vomiting, so much the better.

   3. Nervous headaches may be caused by sudden fear, shock, excessive worry or anxiety. The preventive and curative treatment is given under "Nervous, Mental and Emotional Disorders." But even for nervous headaches constitutional treatment is essential. Persons in perfect physical condition are not likely to suffer from nervous, mental or emotional disorders of any kind.

   4. Mechanical Lesions. In many instances headaches are caused by the impingement of luxated bones or strained muscles or ligaments on blood vessels or nerves supplying the brain or eyes. Luxation of the atlas, the topmost bone of the spinal column which carries the skull, frequently gives rise to this sort of headache. Luxations of one or more of the cervical vertebrae may have a similar effect. Such mechanical lesions must be corrected by manipulative (neurotherapy) treatment.

   5. Drug Poisons. The most obstinate and severe types of chronic headaches are caused by drug poisoning. Nature has made ample provision for the elimination of systemic waste, but she never intended that the many forms of powerful poisons given under the guise of medicines, tonics and stimulants should enter human bodies. Therefore the organs of depuration have not been constructed for the elimination of these poisons. They accumulate in the system in certain parts and organs for which they exhibit special affinity, and there become the source of constant irritation, frequently of actual destruction. Through diagnosis from the iris we have traced hundreds of cases of stubborn chronic headache to the action of powerful drug poisons in the brain itself or in other organs. Many such cases have been described and illustrated in Iridiagnosis, Vol. VI of this series.

    The only way to overcome such headaches is to remove the poisonous irritants and stop their destructive effects by thorough systematic natural treatment as outlined under the sections dealing with chronic diseases.

ORIFICIAL TREATMENT

   The following principles underlie the various methods of orificial treatment.

   a) All the involuntary functions of the body such as circulation, respiration, digestion, secretion, elimination, etc., are under the control of the sympathetic nervous system.

    b) Each of the pelvic outlets of the body is guarded by two sphincter or circular muscle bands. The lower (external) sphincter is under control of the will and is supplied by the cerebrospinal nervous system. The upper (internal) sphincter is not under control of the will and receives its nerve supply from the sympathetic nervous system. In this way a most important connection is established between these two nervous systems.

    c) Over tension of these sphincter muscles produces impingement of the sympathetic nerve endings, thus lowering the vitality by exhausting the sympathetic nerve force, "on the same principle that electric energy is wasted by pressure on the button which rings the bell." In time such spastic contraction results in hypertrophy and atrophy.

    d) By dilating the abnormally tensed outlets, this irritation of the sympathetic nervous system is relieved. Thereby nervous energy is economized, undue tension removed and functional activity of all the internal organs enhanced.

    e) Dilatation of the sphincters of the orifices relaxes the vasomotor nervous system, which is under the control of the sympathetic, and thereby causes a widening and well marked flushing of the capillaries over the entire body thus aiding metabolism, oxidation and elimination of tissue waste and promoting the repair of diseased or injured tissues.

    Orificial surgery, as the name implies, in order to relax contraction of the sphincter muscles of the body relies to a large extent upon surgical treatment. This, however, is not natural treatment. We avoid wherever possible any and all mutilations of tissues and organs because these are always followed by more or less harmful after effects. Surgical treatment usually means serious injury to nerves, blood vessels, muscles, ligaments, and the formation of scar tissue or adhesions which, in turn, may cause impingement and interference with normal functions.

    From our viewpoint such surgical mutilations are not only harmful but in most cases absolutely superfluous, because in natural methods of treatment we possess the means for relaxing abnormal contraction of tissues in any part of the body. In the following I shall describe the most common lesions of this character and their natural treatment.

   1. Phimosis. Frequently the foreskin or prepuce of the penis of a male child or of an adult is so tightly contracted around the head or glans of the organ that it cannot be retracted. Sometimes the opening of the foreskin is constricted to the size of a pinhead, causing interference with the free discharge of the urine. Smegma, a sebaceous secretion of the glans of the penis, may accumulate under the tightly adherent foreskin and cause irritation, which frequently results in serious affections of the nervous system. The intolerable itching caused by such irritation not infrequently leads to masturbation.

    The remedy of the orificial surgeon, as well as of the medical profession in general, consists of circumcision, that is, complete surgical removal of the foreskin. I have never been able to conceive of a valid reason for this barbarous practice, which always means mutilation of one of the most highly sensitive nerve centers of the body. It is a fact well known to nature cure physicians that cooling applications in the forms of sitz bath or friction bath have a cooling and relaxing effect upon all the abdominal organs, indicating that there must be intimate nerve connection through the sympathetic and cerebrospinal nerves between the internal organs and the glans penis and prepuce.

    Mutilation of the sexual organs seems inexcusable when there are natural ways of attaining the desired results. In the majority of eases all that is necessary is to lave the head of the penis with cold water for a few minutes in Order to produce partial anesthesia, and then to exert gentle backward traction on the foreskin. This treatment usually succeeds in from two to ten days in loosening and drawing back the foreskin.

    If the constriction be so severe that traction does not succeed in overcoming it, or if the prepuce is adherent to the glans penis, a probe may be employed to loosen it or a small penile syringe may be inserted within the orifice of the foreskin so that water may be forced into the cavity between the glans and foreskin. Drawing the prepuce over the end of the syringe, an injection is made of warm water mixed with a little castile soap. This should be followed by two or three injections of clear warm water. This procedure not only removes fetid accumulations but also separates and dilates the adherent foreskin without irritation or injury to the parts. It expands the prepuce with an all around even pressure. This treatment also should be followed by gentle backward traction.

    Among several hundred cases thus treated I found only two which demanded surgical treatment, because the prepuce had grown so fast to the glans penis that it could not be removed by the natural treatment.

   2. Paraphimosis. Paraphimosis results when the contracted prepuce yields to traction or slips back of its own accord, causing strangulation of the neck of the penis back of the corona. This results in compression of the urethra, retention of urine, and in shutting off the circulation in the extremity of the organ. The gland becomes congested and inflamed, and the foreskin is swollen with serous exudates. In order to prevent ulceration and sloughing of the parts, the foreskin must be brought forward over the glans penis without delay. I have always succeeded in accomplishing this by cooling water applications and absorbent packs followed by gentle dilatation and forward pulling of the constricted prepuce. In no case was it necessary to resort to surgical treatment.

   3. Hooded Clitoris. The clitoris of the female corresponds anatomically and sexually to the penis of the male. It is a small erectile organ concealed beneath the labia minora, just in front of the urethra. The free extremity of this organ (glans clitoridis) is a small round tubercle of spongy erectile tissue and highly sensitive. This protuberance is not infrequently covered by a membrane under which secretions may accumulate as under the adherent male prepuce, resulting in nervous irritation. Many serious nervous ailments have been traced to this cause. The natural treatment here, also, consists in cooling applications and gentle backward traction or in loosening the skin with a probe. As a rule the difficulty is overcome more easily than in phimosis. In rare instances where the covering membrane is so tough and tightly adherent that it will not yield to the natural treatment, a small v shaped incision may have to be made in order to free the organ.

   4. Dilatation of the Lower Orifices of the Body. The sex organs, as well as the entire system, receive their influx of life force through the sympathetic. The tonicity of the sexual organs therefore depends upon the integrity of that part of the sympathetic which supplies the pelvic organs. Since the secretions of the ductless glands of the sex organs exert a profound influence upon the tonicity of the organism in general, it will be seen how important it is that the sympathetic nerve supply to these organs be not interfered with in any way. Such interference results when the genito-urinary organs are either in an over irritated or atrophic condition. Irritation of the urethra or prostate gland by acute or subacute inflammatory processes causes sexual hyperactivity and a great waste of nervous energy and, through the ramifications of the sympathetic, it produces by reflex action nervous irritation in neighboring or even the most distant parts of the body.

    Excessive irritation of the genital organs or the rectum, communicated to the vasomotor centers, may cause constriction of the blood vessels and thereby congestion, pathogenic obstruction and inflammation in nearby or distant parts of the body predisposed to these conditions.

    On the other hand, sexual weakness or atony diminishes the secretions of the sex glands, benumbs the nervous activities and retards heart action and circulation. Aside from excessive drainage of the sex fluids nothing else produces these debilitating effects upon the system like permanent contraction and hypertrophy of the rectal sphincters and of the tissues of the penis and the prostate gland. Such contraction may be the result of long continued irritation and hyperactivity due to excessive indulgence or self abuse, or it may be caused by gonorrheal inflammation, irritating drug poisons, or by long continued constipation with its deadening effects upon the sphincter ani.

    The expenditure of nerve force is reduced to a minimum through complete rest and relaxation and its expenditure through voluntary activities ceases entirely during sleep, sound sleep, as is indicated by the disappearance of the aura. Anything which causes abnormal irritation, while awake or asleep, involves unnecessary expenditure. At this point it may be well to enumerate the various causes of nerve waste described in this chapter and in connection with other subjects.

   a) Acute and subacute inflammatory processes affecting any part of the sympathetic or cerebrospinal system.

    b) Roughened surfaces of internal membranes, especially at the orifices, fissures, papillae, piles, incipient tumors and other adventitious tissues (new growths) in the rectum, genito-urinary organs or in any other part of the body.

    c) Nerve irritation caused by luxated vertebrae or other bony structures (chiropractic theory), or by impingement of connective tissues on nerve matter (naprapathic theory)

    d) Nerve irritation due to discordant and destructive mental and emotional activities such as impatience, irritability, fear, worry, anxiety, anger, rage, fury, jealousy, self pity, as described in Section XXIX of this volume.

    Nervous irritation from any of these causes if continued for a long enough time will result in atony, hypertrophy and atrophy of connective tissue and nerve matter, which in turn results in obstruction to the inflow of vital energy and its distribution through the organism. Acute and subacute irritation are indicated in the iris by white nerve rings; atony and atrophy by black nerve rings, as explained in Iridiagnosis, page 57

   5. How to Stop the Leaks. Aside from the ordinary natural methods of living and of treatment there is nothing more effective for the relaxation and invigoration of the lower intestinal tube and of the sex organs than dilatation of the rectal sphincters, male urethra, and of the sphincter muscles of the vulvae, vagina and uterus. Alternating compression and relaxation of the sphincters of these orifices has a wonderful relaxing and tonic effect upon the organs themselves and upon the entire organism.

    It relieves abnormal tension and thereby allows a more copious inflow of vital energy through the sympathetic and prevents its waste through continual irritation while waking and sleeping. This restores the normal tonicity of the rectum and of the sex organs, which in turn insures normal evacuation of feces and urine, increased secretion of the ductless glands, and greater activity of all the vital functions of the organism, physical as well as mental and psychical.

    Manual or mechanical dilatation of the lower orifices of the body is more invigorating than any medical tonic or stimulant, without producing deleterious after effects. It is a splendid means for reviving persons suffering from fainting fits, anesthesia, epileptic seizures, from opium or other poisoning, and from asphyxiation or drowning. Rectal dilatation is a splendid aid to promote recuperation from serious acute diseases, and to start the normal breath of the newborn infant.

    A writer on orificial surgery discusses diseases of the lower intestinal canal as follows:

    "Diseases of the lower portion of the intestinal canal are exceedingly common. There is probably no one organ or locality of the human body so subject to a variety and complexity of diseased conditions as this.

    "Experience and observation for many years have convinced us of the fact that rectal diseases are the foundation and cause of very many other grave forms of chronic disease which it is impossible to cure so long as the rectal lesion holds. Very many serious uterine affections that baffle the skill of the practitioner, are thus obstinate because he has failed to discover or cure the rectal complications.

   "We have no doubt but what many cases of mental aberration are caused by lesions of the intestinal canal and especially of the rectum."

   6. Contraction of the Sphincters of the Rectum. This condition interferes seriously with the evacuation of the feces; it frequently results in stubborn constipation, reabsorption of toxic materials from the lower sections of the intestinal canal and in all the evils of autointoxication.

Causes of Tight Sphincters

   7. Reflex Irritation. In many instances over tension of the sphincter muscles is due to reflex irritation associated with disturbances of the rectum, uterus, urethra, prostate, bladder, etc., caused by acute or chronic inflammation, tumors, hemorrhoids, fissures, rectal pockets which retain fecal matter, etc.

    In discussing the effects of rectal pockets and papillae, Dr. Pratt states that they "induce sexual over activity, disturb colonic peristalsis and lower vitality by inducing chronic over tension of the internal sphincter and shallowing respiration, inviting stomach, heart, lung and head troubles, as well as interfering with capillary circulation throughout the body."

    Granting that artificial dilatation will beneficially influence these conditions by relieving nervous irritation, the fact remains that the tightening of sphincters is a symptom, not a primary cause of the condition, and these primary manifestations of disease must be removed by natural methods of treatment.

   8. Technique of Rectal Dilatation. Alternating compression and dilatation of the sphincter and of the ganglion impar situated on the internal convexity of the coccyx, and of the sympathetic nerves which radiate from it to the lower part of the rectum and the pelvic organs, is best produced by manual treatment. The operator inserts the forefinger as deeply as possible and exerts firm pressure on the internal sphincter. The degree of pressure necessary to obtain the best results can be regulated much better by manual treatment than by a mechanical instrument. It offers the only means of forcing back into normal position the bent coccyx which frequently causes pressure on the rectum and ganglion impar, or tension of muscles and ligaments attached to the coccyx, which may result in spastic contraction of the rectum and the most stubborn constipation. A rubber glove is worn while giving the treatment.

   9. Mechanical Dilatation. Several types of rectal dilators are on the market for the use of the laity. The results of such home treatment are not always satisfactory because rectal dilatation requires the skill of a physician who can judge the degree of dilatation necessary in each case, the length of each treatment and the frequency with which it should be repeated.

    It is essential that the internal sphincter should be dilated without exerting undue force on the external sphincter. When this has been accomplished the speculum is withdrawn without closing it so as to dilate the external sphincter from within outward, thereby imitating Nature's way of evacuating the feces which produces natural dilatation of the sphincter ani with its tonic effects upon the system.

   10. How to Use Rectal Dilators. Dilators made of hard rubber, wood or glass may be procured in any drug store. They come in sets of four. One should begin with the largest size consistent with comfort. The dilator should be lubricated with clean olive oil, vegetable oil or pure castile soap.

    The size of the dilator to be employed depends upon the size and relaxability of the sphincters; the length of time it is allowed to remain should be determined by the individual condition and the amount of reaction to be desired. Respiration and capillary circulation are more profoundly stimulated by rectal dilatation than by the treatment of the genito-urinary orifices.

    The instrument is gently passed well into the rectum, as far as the flange or rim will admit it. The flange prevents the dilator from slipping in too far. The best position for the patient to assume is lying on the side with the knees drawn up. Hold the dilator in place a few moments, until the inner sphincter closes tightly around it. Then it will be retained. It may remain in position from ten minutes to half an hour, or as long as one or two hours.

    The dilator may be inserted either on retiring at night or on waking in the morning, or at any other convenient time during the day. In case of obstinate constipation it should be inserted after waking in the morning and retained about half an hour or more. This usually induces a natural bowel movement. If used at night it will promote natural, refreshing sleep. The patient should go to sleep if possible and not lie awake to time himself, as no harm can result if the dilator be retained all night. Dilatation may be repeated daily, every second day or a few times a week, according to individual needs.

    Since it has taken years of wrong living, neglect and abuse by drugs, to create the chronic conditions, results cannot be expected within a few days or weeks. While some stubborn cases show improvement at once, others require time and patience. As before stated, in order to attain quickest and best results the mechanical treatment must always go hand in hand with the general natural regimen and neurotherapy.

    By improving the nerve and blood supply and by establishing better drainage, rectal dilatation will not only help to overcome stubborn constipation but also promote the absorption of piles, fissures, rectal pockets, papillae and other abnormalities. More efficacious and safer than the ordinary rectal plug are instruments especially devised for this purpose, in the hands of the trained physician or nurse. Best adapted are the rectal speculum or instruments of similar construction.

   11. Dilatation of the Sphincters and Tubes of the Genital Organs. One of the common causes of sexual weakness or complete impotence, as already explained, lies in contraction, hypertrophy and atrophy of the sphincters of the rectum. These conditions curtail the inflow of vital energy into the sexual organs and obstruct the blood supply to the erectile tissues of the penis or the clitoris. Similar effects upon the sex functions result from contraction and strictures of the tissues of the penis and prostate glands.

    Aside from rectal dilatation, the passing of graded steel sounds, either cold or at blood heat temperature, is the best remedy for correcting the abnormalities just described. Sounds, as well as rectal plugs, have both local and general effects upon the circulation and the nervous conditions of the system.

    In case of excessive irritability and abnormal sexual excitation leading to involuntary emissions and masturbation, the mere introduction and removal of a warm sound will immediately reduce the hyperthesia and restore the sympathetic to its normal tone. Where excessive irritability has become chronic the treatment must be repeated daily or a few times a week until the desired results are obtained.

    In states of sexual weakness or impotency, which may result in a sluggish, indolent condition of the entire organism and in physical and mental debility, it may be best to leave a warm sound in position for from a few minutes to one or two hours, and to follow this with the introduction of a cold sound which should be left in position not longer than a few minutes. This treatment may be repeated once, twice, or in stubborn cases, three times a week, until normal tonicity of the sex organs and of the system in general has been restored or at least greatly improved.

    No routine rules for the use of sounds can be prescribed; the treatment must be adapted to individual conditions. The treatment is very beneficial for the cure of gleet and strictures. It is equally as serviceable in spastic contractions of the urethra and prostate as in relaxed and flabby conditions of these organs. In order to insure good results from the passing of steel sounds for any purpose whatsoever they should be made to pass as far as the interior of the bladder. Their good effects locally and constitutionally depend on their action upon the prostatic inch of the urethra.

   12. Dilatation of the Sphincters of the Female Organs. Dilatation applied to these parts is beneficial to relieve irritation and contraction as well as abnormal relaxation and atony. In other words, it is effective for the cure of spastic contraction as well as for atony, atrophy and paralysis. The former conditions of the vulvae, vagina and uterus occur most frequently in unmarried women and in those of the married who have never borne children. Abnormal relaxation of the parts is frequently the result of sclerosis of the spinal cord, of tubercular processes and of excessive strain in delivery.

    The various parts of the female sexual apparatus are so closely related and associated in construction and function that tension or relaxation in one part affects the other parts as well. Undue tension of the vagina may be overcome by careful dilatation with the rectal bivalve, but care must be taken not to injure the vaginal walls, as this might have a tendency to aggravate rather than to relieve the abnormal irritation and contraction of the parts. Dilatation of the uterus is accomplished in similar manner as that of the male urethra by the insertion of graded steel sounds; first smaller, then larger sizes are employed until resistance increases sufficiently to procure the necessary dilatation of the sphincters of the external and internal mouth of the uterus.

    Dilatation of the sphincters of the atonic female organs not only raises their tonicity but through increasing the supply of vital energy, stimulating the capillary circulation and procuring better drainage, greatly facilitates the absorption of roughened membranes, papillae, fissures, scars and incipient tumors; however, the treatment must be executed only by physicians well trained and experienced in the use of the instruments. The latter must always be well sterilized and dipped in clean olive oil before insertion.

   13. Dilatation by Neurotherapy Treatment. All the beneficial effects resulting from mechanical dilatation of the lower orifices of the body can be obtained also, more or less completely, by neurotherapy and hydrotherapy treatment. To procure the best results all three methods should be applied in proper combination.

   14. Coccygeal Lesions. (a) Anatomy of the Parts. The coccyx or end of the spine consists of four small bony segments which are fused into a single curved bone about one inch in length.

    At the junction between the coccyx and the sacrum, spinal nerves emerge that supply the external sphincter muscle which guards the lower opening of the bowel.

    b) Occurrence of Lesions. Notwithstanding the fact that injuries to the coccyx frequently give rise to obscure neurotic disorders, the literature on this subject is deplorably meager. Evidently the reason why so few eases are reported in professional journals and text books is because sufferers from an annoyance "at the end of the spine', will, from motives of delicacy, adopt semi-invalid ways rather than seek professional aid.

    Coccygeal lesions occur most frequently in women, and play an important part in a large number of diseases peculiar to the female genital apparatus.

   15. Causes of Lesions. (a) Falls or blows on the base of the spine are mishaps which the majority of us have experienced some time or other during our lives.

    b) Jars to this region frequently occur while riding on horseback.

    c) Faulty posture while sitting, if continued for any considerable period of time, frequently gives rise to coccygeal lesions.

    d) Childbirth. Injuries are frequently sustained to the coccyx at childbirth, due to the pressure of the child's head during its passage through the outlet of the pelvis. Normally the pelvis yields to the head of the child so as to increase the diameter of the pelvic outlet, but in cases where the pelvis is too small or where the head of the child is abnormally large, or in cases where women give birth to their first child at an age when the coccyx is partially or completely ossified to the end of the sacrum, the coccyx is very susceptible to injury. The exact manner in which these lesions as well as all other spinal lesions are produced is described in Vol. I, Chap. XXXII, on "Manipulative Treatment".

   16. Effects of Coccygeal Lesions. An abnormally anterior position of the coccyx encroaches upon the posterior wall of the rectum, thus mechanically giving rise to rectal constipation with its train of complex after effects.

    Impingement of the coccygeal nerves produces overtension of both internal and external sphincters of the anus and thereby wastes nerve energy as previously described.

   In individuals with rheumatic or gouty tendencies an inflammatory condition called Coccydynia frequently develops in the region of the coccyx after injury. Coccydynia is characterized by a severe distressing pain which is aggravated by walking, coughing, sneezing, defecation, sudden changes of posture from standing to sitting, or any movement which involves the muscles attached to the coccyx.' The usual allopathic treatment for this condition consists of administering salicylates and pain killing remedies. In obstinate cases the coccyx is excised. Such methods of treatment not only fail to remove the constitutional cause back of this condition but the surgical removal of the coccyx leads to chronic lifelong irritation of the sphincter muscles of the rectum.

   17. Coccygeal Relaxation. The same principle laid down for the treatment of other spinal lesions should be followed in case of coccygeal lesions (Vol. I, Chap. XXXII). The muscles attached to the coccyx should be thoroughly relaxed before any attempts are made at adjustment. In all cases where tenderness is present inhibition should be given.

    Inhibition in the region of the coccyx exerts a marked beneficial effect on a host of neurotic disturbances that fail to respond to other methods of treatment alone. This is probably accounted for by the fact that such inhibitive treatment exerts a profound relaxing influence on the sphincters, and through these on the entire sympathetic nervous system, by acting upon the ganglion impar (group of nerve cells) situated on the anterior surface of the coccyx. This ganglion constitutes the point of union between the left and the right sympathetic chains and with the end filaments of the cerebrospinal nervous system.

    This sympathetic relaxation is administered by applying externally strong and persistent inhibition on either side of the coccyx as well as on the following nerve centers along the spine:

    a) Tender spots along the sacrum.
    b) The posterior superior spine of the ilium.
    c) On both sides of the spinal column on the level with the spines of the scapulae.
    d) Over the superior angles of the scapula.

    This inhibition is given for about five minutes at a time on one or all centers. The treatment is repeated from twice a week to once in two weeks or longer. In many instances vigorous healing crises develop as a result of such treatment. For this reason it is wise for patients to be in an institution when such treatment is administered.

   18. Tonic and Relaxing Effects of Cold Water Treatment. The cold sitzbaths, Kuhne' friction baths and the application of cooling compresses and cold packs to the abdominal and pelvic parts undoubtedly have effects upon the sympathetic nervous system similar to those produced by mechanical dilatation and coccygeal inhibition. The cold applications to the lower orifices and glans penis produce temporary contraction followed by relaxation of the parts, flushing of the capillaries, and a decidedly tonic effect upon the nerve endings of the sympathetic and the cerebrospinal system in and around the orifices. Similar temporary contraction with following dilatation of the millions of tiny cutaneous orifices all over the body resulting in a general flushing of the capillaries and in profound excitation of nerve reflexes and peristaltic action of the blood vessels all through the body is obtained by the various cold water applications, such as the natural bath, cold ablutions, blitzguss, barefoot walking in the dewy grass, as well as the nude air and light baths.

   19. Dilatation of the Nasal Orifices. The beneficial effects of cold water sniffing are due not alone to the mechanical clearing of the nasal passages from pathogenic excretions, but also to the tonic effects of the cold water flushing upon the sympathetic and cerebrospinal nerve filaments in the membranes of the nasal passages. This undoubtedly explains the tonic effect of the cold water sniffing, not only upon the physical functions, especially the respiration, but also upon the mental activities.

    These natural methods with their profound effects upon the system make entirely unnecessary surgical dilatation of the orifices, curetments, shortening of ligaments, extirpation of piles and the surgical treatment of fissures, papillae and incipient tumors. Such surgical mutilation is suppressive, not curative, and is usually followed in time by serious chronic after effects—the "mysterious sequelae" of medical science. We must remember also that all the abnormal conditions discussed in this chapter are secondary effects, that the primary causes lie more or less in food poisoning, in the irritating and destructive effects of poisonous drugs, and in wrong thinking and feeling.

NERVOUS DISEASES

   It is safe to say that one-half of all the patients who come to us for consultation and treatment have been told that they suffer from nervousness. After having given a long recital of their aches and pains, they usually wind up by saying "All the doctors I have consulted tell me it is my nerves", or, "it is nervousness", or, "it is neurasthenia".

    What do these terms mean! Do they actually explain the nature and the causes of the patient's ailments! They do not. They are merely convenient terms for covering the doctor's ignorance. A well known nerve specialist in Chicago delivered a lecture before a medical society on the subject of neurasthenia. Addressing the assembled physicians, he began as follows: "A patient comes to you complaining that he is suffering from headaches, physical and mental weakness, pressure on top of the head, ringing in the ears, insomnia, irritability and most of the other symptoms of nervousness known to medical science. After a thorough examination you find that all his vital organs are intact; there is nothing wrong with him physically; in fact, you do not know what ails him—that is neurasthenia."

    There are many other Latin and Greek names for diseases which serve the same purpose to cover the doctors' ignorance. Still, the patient who has consulted the "great specialist" goes home perfectly satisfied so long as he gets a Latin name for his troubles. When he is told he has rheumatism, neuralgia or neurasthenia he thinks he knows what is the matter with him.

   It does not require a medical education to tell a patient that "it is the nerves" or "rheumatism" or "neurasthenia" when his body is racked by aches and pains and his mind is on the verge of insanity. The brain and the nerves will not give out unless there is some good reason for it, and the doctor's diagnosis, in order to be of any value to the patient, should define the causes of the weakness and irritation of brain and nerve matter.
 

1. The Chemical Causes of Nervous Diseases

   The diagnosis from the iris and the examination of the spine, as given in our institutes, throw considerable light on the causes and the rational treatment of nervous diseases. In the great majority of cases when examining the eyes of "nervous" and "neurasthenic" patients, the first thing to attract our attention is a darkening or decided (discoloration of the areas of the stomach and bowels, which are located directly around the pupil. The brownish, reddish, yellowish and other abnormal pigmentation indicate; various forms of drug poisoning that have resulted in a diseased condition of the organs. These signs in the iris mean that the membranous linings of the stomach and bowels are in a sluggish, atonic condition and this is bound to be followed by very serious consequences.

    The membranous linings of the digestive organs serve two purposes—elimination and assimilation. Certain cells and glandular structures in these membranes absorb the food materials and after purifying and modifying, transmit them into the blood and lymph streams. Other cell and glands in the intestinal membranes excrete morbid matter and systemic poisons.

    From the foregoing it becomes apparent that a sluggish inactive condition of the mucous membranes lining the digestive tract must have the following detrimental results:

   First: The food materials are not properly assimilated and so pass out of the body without being utilized. We must remember that the foods, while they remain in the intestinal tract, are not yet in the body. They do not pass into the body until they are absorbed through the walls of the intestines into the venous and lymphatic circulation. Defective assimilation of this kind is aggravated by the use of mineral oils. While these promote evacuation by creating a slippery condition of the bowels, they do not do anything to clear away the colloid substances which dog the absorbent lining of the intestines-therefore these oily laxatives prevent absorption of the food materials through the intestinal walls into the circulation. In time they aggravate chronic constipation because they obviate the necessity for natural effort.

   Second: The elimination of waste materials and systemic poisons through the intestinal membranes is seriously handicapped, which results in systemic poisoning or, as it is called by the medical men, autointoxication.

    Furthermore, under normal conditions the membranous linings of the intestinal tract throw off mucoid secretions which lubricate the bowels and facilitate tile movement and discharge of the food waste and feces. Certain cell linings in the stomach and bowels throw off secretions containing important digestive ferments on which depends the proper digestion of food materials.

    What are the inevitable effects of such abnormal conditions in the digestive organs? If the intestinal membranes do not absorb the food materials the blood and lymph streams are deficient in nutritive elements and cannot properly feed the brain and nervous system. These, as well as the rest of the body are starved.

    Somebody has expressed this in the words, "Nervousness is the cry of the nerves for food". While this is partially true, the nerves arc also irritated by the systemic poisons which circulate in the blood stream as the result of the retention of feces and defective elimination. No wonder the nerves weaken and cry with pain when they are thus starved and poisoned at the same time.

    Systemic poisoning is seriously aggravated by a sluggish, atrophic condition of the skin. This is indicated in the iris by a heavy black ring along the outer edge, which is visible more or less distinctly in the eyes of most people This atrophic condition of the skin is caused largely through warm bathing from the time of birth, the wearing of heavy, dense clothing, and through clogging and weakening of the skin with antiseptic powders, salves, lotions, etc., used for the suppression of skin eruptions, and by toilet preparations containing substances injurious to the life of the skin.

    When the bowels and the cuticle are in a semi-paralyzed condition the kidneys have to do more than their own share or the work of elimination and in turn become clogged and inactive. This is shown in the iris by chronic defects in the areas of these organs.

    From the foregoing it becomes apparent that malassimilation, malnutrition and defective elimination are the most common causes of nervous diseases. What is the usual treatment in such cases? The weakened nerves are artificially and temporarily stimulated by poisonous drugs and tonics, only to become more thoroughly paralyzed, for all artificial stimulation is followed by corresponding weakness and atrophy. The temporary stimulation may be produced by alcohol, coffee, tea or nicotin. Infinitely worse in their paralyzing effects upon the system than these food, drink and tobacco poisons are drug poisons like quinine, digitalis, arsenic, strychnine, etc., which constitute the active principles in medical tonics. The diagnosis from the iris proves conclusively that these drug poisons concentrate in certain parts of the body for which they have a special affinity and then become the cause of more serious troubles. In fact, as we have learned in other parts of this volume, the most serious nervous symptoms are due to the presence of drug poisons in the body.

    Aches and pains, restlessness and insomnia are suppressed with bromides, morphine, coal tar preparations and other sedatives, hypnotics and "pain killers". These poisons merely benumb and paralyze brain and nerve matter into temporary insensibility, leaving them in a still more weakened and diseased condition but doing nothing to remove the underlying causes of the nervous or neurasthenic ailments.

    The only way this can be accomplished is to build up the blood on a natural basis through proper diet and to make the organs of assimilation and elimination more alive and active through natural methods of living and treatment. A natural diet, well suited for this purpose; is outlined in Sections I and X. In the treatment of chronic ailments this general dietetic regimen must be modified or interchanged with periods of raw food diet, fasting, etc., according to the individual requirements and changing conditions of the patient. The various methods of manipulative treatment are important.
 

2. Mechanical Causes of Nervous Diseases

   Let us now consider the mechanical causes of nervous ailments. The nerves may be irritated or benumbed not only by food and drug poisons but also by mechanical lesions in the spine or in other parts of the framework of the body.

    According to physiological law, irritation at any point along the course of a nerve is communicated to all the branches of that nerve, similar to the way in which an electric current introduced at any point of a network of copper wires, if not checked or diverted, will travel over all the wires connected with that system.

    Thus irritation of a nerve trunk will be transmitted to all the cells and organs supplied by that particular nerve trunk and its branches. In this manner many serious disorders are brought about.

    Frequently patients come to us who have been treated for many years for "sciatic rheumatism". We find that one or both hip bones are subluxated (slipped innominate). In such cases a few manipulative treatments replace the bones, remove the abnormal pressure and tension and thus cure the "chronic sciatica". Other patients have suffered for years from chronic headaches, nervousness, insomnia, eye troubles, etc. They have swallowed large amounts of poisonous sedatives, anodynes and hypnotics. Upon careful examination we find spinal lesions in the region of the neck. When these lesions are corrected the nervous symptoms disappear. In similar manner irritation of any one of the nerves passing out from the spine may cause pain or abnormal function in the corresponding part of the body.

    For such conditions there can be but one remedy, namely, the correction of the mechanical lesions in the framework of the body which give rise to them.

    For a detailed discussion of this topic see section entitled "Manipulative Treatment" in Vol. I of this series.
 

3. Mental and Emotional Causes of Nervous Diseases

   While studying mental and emotional causes of disease we must realize that every mental and emotional vibration is instantly transmuted into the physical material vibrations of the physical body. I would define the fundamental law of mental therapeutics as follows: Vibrations originating on one plane of being—physical, mental or psychical—are by continuity transmuted into the vibratory conditions of the other planes.

   Thus physical vibrations become mental or psychical vibrations, and vice versa. "As from below so from above; as from above so from below."

    The trouble with many representatives of the physical and of the mental and spiritual schools of healing is that; they apply the law in only one of its phases. While it is true that habitual irritability will "sour the bile and poison the liver", it is just as true that an excruciating toothache or any other kind of long continued physical pain will affect the mental and emotional vibrations unless a person possesses superhuman self control.

    Every mental, emotional and psychical vibration is instantly telegraphed from the seat of consciousness in the physical and spiritual brain centers over the nerve trunks and filaments to every cell in the body, and there transmuted into the vibrations of physical health and well being, or into physical irritation and disease.

    In another chapter of this volume I have illustrated this transmutation of mental and emotional vibrations somewhat as follows: It is a well known fact that dry sand on a glass plate placed on top of a piano will arrange itself into harmonious designs in accordance with the musical sounds elicited from the instrument. Thus purely mental or emotional musical vibrations are transmuted into the material configurations of the sand. The melody produced from the instrument had its conception in the mind of the composer. This musical conception he transmuted into corresponding sound vibrations. These in turn were translated into written notes on paper, thus completing the transmutation from the purely mental and emotional into the physical ink and paper. Then again, the player translates the written notes into musical sounds from the piano and these musical sound vibrations cause the sand on the glass plate to be grouped into orderly configurations of geometrical designs. It would be interesting to know what sort of higher and finer vibrations paint the flowers and ferns on the frozen window pane.

    Another illustration in connection with this theme is the music roll of a pianola. Stretch out one of these sheets and observe the wonderfully symmetrical and geometrical designs in the arrangement of the perforations. The perforations stand for musical notes and these for musical sounds. Musical sounds interpret the emotions of the human soul—"music is the established harmonic relationship of the soul's emotions to the universe of sound". Every musical note expresses some vibration in the gamut of human emotions, from the deepest notes of misery and despair to the highest vibratory expressions of love and happiness.

    In the Nature Cure Catechism, I have defined health as "harmonious vibration of the parts and particles composing the human entity on the physical, mental and moral planes of being". Disease is defined as "inharmonious or discordant vibration of the parts and particles composing the human entity, on one or more planes or being".

    Health, self content and happiness constitute the music of the soul; discontent, unhappiness and physical disease, discordant, nerve-racking noise&

    With these facts in mind, how can we afford to play the discords of fear, anger, jealousy, revenge, greed and self-pity on the harp-strings of the soul!

    Let us see just how the mental and emotional discords become physical agony and disease.
 

4. Fear

    The most destructive of all emotions is fear. It has a benumbing and paralyzing effect upon the body. Its physiological effects resemble those of freezing. A person freezing to death and one agitated by great fear and anxiety present a similar appearance. In either case the body is bent, cramped and trembling, the face is blanched, the teeth chattering. Cold shivers chase down the spine and through the benumbed extremities. The blood vessels, nerve channels and cells of the body are benumbed and congealed, causing obstruction to the free flow of the nerve and blood currents, thus shutting off the influx of the vital force. It is this obstruction to inflow of the life force that causes death by freezing and also causes death under the stress of some fear or great anxiety.

    People indulging habitually and continually in the fear-and worry habit may not die at once from the effects of it, but they are nevertheless committing slow suicide through psychical refrigeration. They are effectually reducing the inflow of the life force, thus lowering their vitality and resistance to the destructive influences of systemic poisons and disease taints.

    Furthermore, as I have pointed out, these vibrations are directly transmuted into the corresponding conditions of physical disease in the tissues of the body. The atoms and molecules of the cells arrange themselves into disorderly configurations and produce inharmonious and discordant vibrations just as surely as noisy racket produced on the piano will throw the sand on the glass plate into disorder.

    People affected by these destructive thought habits may answer: "It is easy enough to say these things, but how can I prevent fear and worry thought from entering my mind!" As usual, ignorance is at the bottom of the trouble. People can control their thinking and feeling just as surely as their eating and drinking, but unfortunately they have never been taught self-control nor even the possibility of self-control in these matters. It is the lack of such psychological teaching and training from early youth that accounts for untold suffering, physically, morally and psychically.

   Fear manifests in many forms and phases, such as fright, terror, despair, apprehension, anxiety, mistrust, alarm, horror, despondency, melancholy, cowardice, doubt, suspicion, etc. These mental, emotional and psychical vibrations differ only in degree of destructiveness. All must be held in abeyance and eliminated by self-control. This will become easy when we consider the utter uselessness of fear in its various manifestations. While fear is a natural impulse of the soul and useful in so far as it gives us warning of approaching or imminent danger, weak surrender to this emotion robs us of our strength and clear vision, thus making it easier for the threatened evil to overpower us.

    Fear is faith in evil. It is a perversion of the great law of faith. He who fears a thing has faith that it can and will master him; thus he becomes a psychological coward and the thing he fears will surely overpower him. How much better is it to profit by the constructive workings of the law than to be destroyed by its evil effects. As surely as fear vibrations benumb and congeal the channels of life, just so surely will hope, faith and confidence in God and man and in the healing forces within relax the whole system, increasing the influx of vital force, thus invigorating and harmonizing the vibrations on all planes of being.

    All of us have been at times benumbed and paralyzed by sudden fear, and many when weakened by physical or mental disease have experienced the wonderfully tonic effects of sympathy, love and joyful emotions. Cheerfulness is the best of all tonics and love, the greatest physician. Increasing health, strength and happiness depend upon higher, more refined and more rapid vibrations on the mental emotional and psychical planes of being. The highest and finest vibration in the universe is love; therefore is the love vibration the greatest of all healers. Love for humanity and sympathy with its suffering was the secret of the healing power of the Master, Jesus. It is the modus operandi of magnetic and spiritual healing.

5. Anger

    While fear freezes, benumbs and paralyzes the organism, anger manifests in the opposite conditions of abnormally increased excitement and heat. As fear corresponds to freezing, anger and its kindred emotions affect the body like a consuming fire. They may 'well be called psychological combustion. Anger manifests in various phases and degrees of intensity, such as impatience, irritability, ill temper, resentment, hatred, rage, fury, revenge, bitterness, indignation, exasperation, malice and destructiveness.

    These violently destructive emotions act on the physical body like fire. A person thus agitated presents the appearance of one overheated. The face is flushed, the blood pressure to the brain is greatly increased, which may result in apoplexy or in heart failure. The brain is congested as if by the effects of alcohol. As congestion in the lungs or other vital organs of the body tends to destroy the tissues of the affected parts, so also congestion of the brain, caused by wrath and fury, disrupts the subtle molecular structures of brain and nerve substances. One who is inflamed with anger is as irresponsible as one intoxicated with fiery liquor. The crimes of rage intoxication are as frequent and as deplorable as those committed under alcoholic stimulation. Nothing corrodes and frazzles the nerves so badly and wastes nerve force so wantonly as the consuming fires of anger and kindred emotions.

    Excessive stimulation is always followed by corresponding depression, weakness and collapse. He who succumbs habitually to violent emotions slowly but steadily weakens his physical organism and lowers his power of resistance to destructive influences on the physical, mental and spiritual planes of being, thus inviting nerve exhaustion and paralysis.

    Any and all discordant and destructive mental and emotional vibrations interfere with and obstruct the inflow of the life force, lowering the vitality and undermining physical and mental health. This is true of anger as well as of fear and of all other forms of destructive vibrations. Furthermore, the psychical wireless connects the unhappy victim of wrath and fury with the abodes of the most vicious and cruel beings on the earth plane and on the astral and spiritual planes, thus opening his soul to influx from these hellish spheres of cruelty, remorse and despair, and thereby intensifying his own unhappy condition.

    The only remedy for these consuming diseases of the soul is self control; the making of new records in the plastic gray matter of the brain, records attuned to the vibrations of patience, forbearance, sympathy and brotherly love. We must either acquire constructive habits of thinking and feeling, or suffer the tortures of alternating nervous and emotional excitation and exhaustion. Thus we create within ourselves our own heavens or our own hells.

6. Self Pity

    Self pity in its vibratory nature and in its effect upon body, mind and soul, closely resembles the ravages of tuberculosis. It is psychological phthisis. A person affected by this degrading phase of emotional self-indulgence presents the miserable, haggard, negative appearance of a consumptive; The victim of self pity assumes that he is being unjustly dealt with by Providence, by fortune and by his fellowmen. He considers himself a martyr, enduring undeserved hardships, privations and injustice. This results in resentment, gloom and depression. It effectually kills cheerfulness, ambition and virile initiative.

    This type of psychical consumption affects those possessed of great wealth and of the most wonderful opportunities in life just as frequently as it does those who actually have to endure the greatest privations. The daughter of one of our best known multimillionaires has been confined for many years in a private sanitarium in France. She is obsessed by the delusion that she is facing extreme poverty and the poorhouse, or that she will die of starvation for lack of means to procure food. What a living travesty this is on the popular belief that great wealth secures happiness!

    Such cases are not at all uncommon among those possessed of immense wealth. They prove that the cause of this psychological disease does not lie altogether in outward circumstance, but rather in the emotional and psychical life of the sufferer. Such ego maniacs are the product of self centered egotism. If they had paid a little more attention to the real privations and suffering of their fellow beings instead of brooding over their own real or imaginary troubles, they would have escaped the ravages of psychical phthisis.

    Sometimes these victims of self-pity are aroused out of their miserable mental dejection by some real trouble or misfortune. A splendid illustration of this is "Mrs. Gummidge" in Dickens' story of "David Copperfield". For many years she had pitied and bemoaned herself as a "lone, lorn creetur"; but when real misfortune struck the family through the elopement of Emily, then sympathy and pity aroused her from her self centered condition and changed her into a veritable angel of mercy who lightened the gloom of the unhappy family by cheerfulness and unselfish service. Forgetting her own imaginary troubles and lonesomeness, she underwent a truly wonderful psychical chemicalization through the magical reagents of pity and sympathy.

    In my lectures I frequently take occasion to remind our friends that the best way to help themselves is to help other—that there is no better way of increasing the influx of the healing forces than by treating others for health and strength and happiness. I say to them, "There are those around you who need help just as much as or more than you do—some of them as yet unable to help themselves. Treat these weak ones mentally and spiritually; strengthen them by a kindly look and a word of encouragement. You will be surprised how this will increase the flow of vital energy into your own bodies." These higher and finer forces can be received only as we give. Selfish brooding on our own troubles and self pity effectually shut off the inflow on life force, while sympathy and unselfish service open wide the channels of life and stimulate the flow of vital energy.

    A well known ancient legend strikingly illustrates the utter foolishness of self pity. The people of a certain country had become very much dissatisfied with their sufferings. Each one believed his own cross was much larger and heavier than that of his neighbor. An angel of God appeared among them in human form and told them to bring their crosses and deposit them in one great heap, when everyone would be allowed to select a burden which he deemed lighter than his own. The people greatly rejoiced at this good fortune, discarded their crosses and proceeded to choose what they thought were lighter ones. However, their happiness at the change was not of long duration. One after another they soon returned, confessing dejectedly that the new cross was heavier and more painful to carry than the old one and asking to be allowed to take up again the old accustomed burden which a wise Providence had adjusted to each one's needs and powers of endurance.

    Those who consume themselves in self-pity forget that this life is not intended to be a continuous Sunday School picnic; that, on the contrary, it is a school of personal and persistent effort for self development of our latent faculties, capacities and powers, through the use of reason, will power and self control; that only through overcoming evil in its many forms can we educate and strengthen our mental and psychical muscle; that evil on all planes of being is constructive in nature and purpose; and that there is no suffering, disease or evil of any kind anywhere unless the law has been transgressed somewhere by someone. These transgressions of the law may be due to ignorance, to indifference or to willfulness and viciousness. The effects will always be commensurate with the causes.

    When we look upon evil from this viewpoint it loses its terrors. Then we look upon it as a healing crisis necessary to eliminate the destructive effects of ignorant or willful violation of Nature's laws. Thus we learn to overcome evil, not through anger, resentment and self-pity, but through cheerful compliance with the law.

    Many pity themselves as martyrs to duty, martyrs in the service of their relatives and friends, martyrs to social conditions. They never stop to consider in how far they, themselves, help to create these unfortunate conditions through their own destructive thinking, feeling and doing. A lady remarked to her friend, "I don't understand why it is, but every time I move I find bad neighbors." Her friend answered, "Is it not possible that when you move you take the worst neighbor with you?"

    If our surroundings and our neighbors do not suit us, it is a sign that we are not much better ourselves. If we were better than they we would probably be now in some higher sphere of life and action. The fact that we are here indicates that we need the lessons to be learned on this plane, and we shall not escape to more refined surroundings and better society until we become fit to maintain more refined and more sympathetic associations with our fellow beings. It is safe to assume that at each new birth, or as we now call it, at death, we gravitate to those spheres of life and action for which we are best suited. What would be the use of transplanting a drunken sot from his haunts of degradation and squalor to a home of culture and refinement? Unaccustomed to such intellectual surroundings, he would soon return to Ms filthy dive. The beautiful home would be hell enough for him. We may rest assured that life will sooner or later place us where we belong.

    If you suffer from great physical weakness and nerve exhaustion, find out whether it is not caused by psychological phthisis. If you cannot determine this for yourself, have a good psychologist give you a thorough examination. The trouble with many people who are seriously affected by mental, emotional and psychical diseases is that they are unable or unwilling to diagnose their conditions. Frequently they resent vehemently the intimation that they may be suffering from such psychical disorders.

7. Envy

    Envy represents a combination of the moods of anger and self-pity. Anger may be inspired by the thought that somebody else possesses the thing which we covet, and self pity because we are deprived of the thing we desire to possess. Envy, therefore, consumes and wastes the body, mind and soul of its unhappy victims by the combined effects of psychological combustion and psychical phthisis.

8. Jealousy

    Jealousy is a mixture of fear, anger and self-pity. We fear that somebody may take from us that which rightfully belongs to us, and anger results from such real or imaginary injury or injustice. Such fear and anger in turn provoke self-pity at the thought of the real or imaginary loss or injury. Thus we are torn alternately or all at once by the most powerful destructive emotions of the human soul. No wonder the victims of the "green monster" suffer the tortures of hell, that overcome by passionate resentment and the desire for revenge they commit unjust and cruel crimes against the innocent as well as the guilty. These terribly destructive emotions, even when seemingly justified, will never right a wrong, but only magnify its destructive effects on ourselves.

    That which rightfully belongs to us can never be taken away from us. The majority of people do not distinguish between their real and imaginary possessions. Quite frequently the things which they believe they possess or desire to possess are, in reality, their greatest burdens and their worst enemies. That which we have earned through faithful exercise of our natural capacities and powers, that is, our mental, moral and psychical characteristics, can never be taken away from us. They are the only possessions that will remain with us after the great transition. Nothing else besides this really belongs to us. We may enjoy the use of money, property and treasures of art for a day, a year or a lifetime, but they never become a part of ourselves and sooner or later we shall leave them behind us.

    If a friend deceives and deserts us, it simply means that he was not our friend and the sooner we are rid of him the better for us in the long run. Our real friend, the one that belongs to us, is waiting for us somewhere. It is the same with all material possessions. The greater our possessions the more extravagant our wants and needs. People do not possess wealth, but are possessed and obsessed by wealth. The more simple the life, the less the wants and needs, and the less the fear of loss and deprivation. Those who are used to simple and economical ways of living rejoice in them. Those deprived of great wealth and comfort are appalled and discouraged by the loss of it When we possess a thing we do not appreciate its value, but the moment we lose it we are overcome by unhappiness and resentment. Then why not do without it in the first place! Instead of wasting our vitality in spiteful resentment at our neighbor's prosperity, let us rejoice in his possessions and thereby make them our own.

    If these things be true, then why allow ourselves to be torn by the destructive emotions of fear, anger and self pity because of real or imaginary loss of some ephemeral, or at any rate transient possession, which after all is not essential to the well being of the real man, the soul man; especially so when these discordant and destructive psychical emotions invariably result in mental and nervous breakdown and physical weakness, disease and premature death?

    Diseases of the soul, created by perverted mental vision and lack of self control continue after death, afflicting the soul in the spiritual life just as heavily as on this side of the "Great Divide". while diseases of the physical body may terminate at death, abnormal conditions of mind and soul continue on the spiritual planes of life. Therefore our spiritual salvation, as well as physical health, depends upon the correction of our perverted mental vision and upon overcoming our lack of self-control.

    Self-control is the master key to the solution of all our troubles and of all higher development on the mental, moral and spiritual planes of being. Flow to strengthen the power of will and how to overcome evil habits and to develop good habits I have described in the last chapters of this volume.

INSANITY, OR MENTAL, EMOTIONAL AND PSYCHICAL DISORDERS

   In the discussion of this subject I shall not follow the official classifications given in standard scientific works. These orthodox classifications are of little value to us, as they are based on outward manifestations or symptoms of mental disorders, while they do not take into consideration their underlying causes and true nature. In most instances they are merely Latin or Greek names for outstanding symptoms.

    It is lack of understanding of the true nature and causes of mental and psychical disorders and lack of their rational treatment that accounts for the progressive increase of insanity, which keeps pace with advancing civilization in spite of the most determined efforts of medical science to stem the tide of this great danger that threatens the civilized nations.

    A prominent physician at the head of one of the largest sanitariums of this country, in a public lecture, made the statement that at the present rate of increase in insanity all the inhabitants of this country would be insane at a certain future date. Happily this gloomy prediction will not come true, thanks to the rapidly increasing popularity of the nature cure idea.

    I shall endeavor to treat the subject simply, as it has presented itself to me in actual experience, including under the term insanity all prolonged departures from the normal standards of thinking, feeling and acting.

    The table on page 273 may help to elucidate this complex subject. It will be seen that I divide all forms of insanity into two main groups, the physical and the psychical. By physical, mental and emotional disorders I mean all those morbid mental conditions that originate in abnormal functioning or organic degeneration of the physical organism and particularly of brain and nerve matter.

MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL DISORDERS DUE TO PHYSICAL CAUSES 

A. Hereditary and Congenital Disorders

   The physical-mental disorders are again subdivided into hereditary and congenital disorders. These may be of a functional or organic nature. They may result from abnormal prenatal influences of a mental or emotional nature; also from prenatal malnutrition, drug poisoning or trauma. A few days ago I examined a child four years old who had not yet learned to talk. The thyroid gland seems to be well developed and it is physically in normal condition The frontal region of the head, however, is very low and the sides and the parietal parts of the skull above the ears are somewhat caved in.

    The brown eyes of the child revealed three fully developed, heavy nerve rings, an extraordinary condition for a child of that age, indicating serious disorder of the nervous system. Both parents were in good physical condition before the conception of the child and have been ever since. The mother told me that during pregnancy from beginning to end she had been tortured by great homesickness, mental depression and melancholia. This was the only adverse influence I was able to trace in the case. Possibly it had a harmful effect upon the intellectual brain area of which the speech center is primary and basic. Significant also in this respect is the depression in the parietal bones over Brocha 's convolution, the location of the speech center. 

   A grown cretin and idiot whose eyes I examined showed in the brain region a very heavy scurf rim. The mother, during pregnancy, had taken enough calomel for liver trouble and constipation to produce the symptoms of salivation several times. The mercury sign was distinctly visible in her eyes. In all cases of so called hereditary syphilis it is the mercury, salvarsan, arsenic, iodine, potassium or other drug poison, not venereal disease, which produce the congenital defects in the offspring.

    It is a fact that syphilis is not communicated to a nursing child through the milk. Much less is it possible that the disease is conveyed from mother to child prenatally. Nature does her best to protect the young life against adverse influences. But Nature is powerless to prevent the introduction of virulent poisons into human bodies by the disciples of pseudo-science.

    Serious injuries to the abdomen of a pregnant woman may also cause congenital nervous or mental derangement or physical deformity of the offspring. A few weeks ago we examined in our open clinic a child a few months old whose lower ribs on one side were badly caved in. The mother had a serious fall during the last month of pregnancy. The deformity is rapidly yielding to manipulative treatment.
 

Congenital Deficiency of the Ductless Glands

   Congenital deficiency of the thymus and thyroid glands is responsible for most cases of cretinism, idiocy and backward development. Allopathic medicine endeavors to overcome these defects by the administration of thymus or thyroid extract. This, however, is only palliative. While these animal extracts may serve to a certain extent as a substitute and may stimulate the physical and mental development of the child, still the administration of these artificial preparations tends to retard the natural development of the glandular structures. Whenever the administration of the thyroid extract is interrupted, the improvement ceases and there is a strong tendency to retrogression. After all, these extracts artificially prepared from animal bodies are not congenial to the human organism and their constant administration tends to create abnormal conditions. This has been observed in many instances.

    Much better and more permanent results are obtained by natural management and treatment. All the tonic influences of the various methods of natural treatment especially massage and neurotherapy-manipulation of the nerve centers which supply the ductless glands tend to develop the defective organs in a perfectly natural manner. We have thus treated and cured many little patients suffering from congenital malformations, backward development, cretinism, defects of the sensory organs and idiocy.
 

B. Functional Disorders

1. Accidental Injury

   Functional disturbance may be caused by external violence such as concussion of the brain from blows on the head or from falls, etc. Spinal analysis frequently discloses lesions, particularly in the cervical region. The impingement on the blood vessels and nerves by suck bony displacements or contractions of connective tissues may produce mental and nervous disorders which will abate or disappear when the lesions are corrected by proper manipulative treatment.

    When mental or nervous disorders result from fractures or indentations of the skull, the fractured bones or splinters pressing upon the brain matter must be removed by surgical treatment.

2. Autointoxication

   Many forms of functional mental disorders are caused by systemic poisoning resulting from the accumulation of morbid matter and poisons produced in the system, such as acids, alkaloids, ptomaine and xanthins, which we designate collectively as pathogens. These morbid materials circulating in the blood may unduly exalt or depress the normal activities of the brain and nervous system. For instance, the acids of phosphorous have a powerfully irritating and stimulating effect upon brain and nerve matter, giving rise to nervous irritability, insomnia and hysterical manifestations, while carbon dioxide (CO2) has a benumbing, depressing effect.

    The normal structure and functioning of brain and nerve cells depends upon the quantity and quality of the blood supply. Therefore the normality of mental and emotional functions depends to a large extent upon the purity and normality of the vital fluids. If the blood stream which feeds the brain and nervous system is saturated with gluey, mucoid and gaseous materials, the mental and emotional activities will be sluggish and phlegmatic, resulting in impairment of memory and of the reasoning faculties.

    Excessive acid formation in the system may result in earthy deposits in the walls of the blood vessels, narrowing their lumen and obstructing the circulation, thus causing so called hardening of the arteries with its attendant depressive effects on brain functions, tendency to hemorrhages, embolism, etc.

    As we have learned in our study of dietetics, practically all pathogenic materials are formed by the excessive intake of starchy, protein and fatty foods because the elements composing these foods are electromagnetically negative and therefore pathogen forming substances. These foods at the same time are very deficient in the positive acid binding and eliminating alkaline mineral elements.

    The prevention and treatment of this class of disorders is, therefore, largely dietetic and must consist in reducing the protein, starchy and fatty foods and substituting foods rich in the positive alkaline salts of sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and iron. Other efficient methods for eliminating pathogenic materials are hydrotherapy, massage, neurotherapy, air and sun baths, proper breathing and curative exercises, homeopathic remedies, etc.

3. Alcoholism

   Alcoholism is another prolific cause of functional disorders of a toxic character, producing gradually degenerative changes in the tissues of the body, especially in the liver, spleen and kidneys. In advanced stages it causes degeneration of brain and nerve matter and may result in various forms of delirium and mania.

    The symptoms of alcohol poisoning cover a wide range, from simple nausea to violent delirium, coma and death.

    Alcoholic poisoning may result from the use of distilled liquors, such as whisky or of fermented liquors, such as wines, beer, ale, etc. Many patent medicines and medicinal tonics owe their stimulating effects to the large percentages of alcohol that they contain. Meat eating, coffee drinking, smoking and the use of habit-forming drugs all create a craving for alcohol, and vice versa.

    We find in our work that we cannot permanently break our patients from the use of one stimulant unless they give up all other stimulants. Many times we have weaned patients from meat eating, smoking, coffee toping, the use of alcoholic liquors and habit forming drugs, and after their systems had been thoroughly purified from these poisons all craving for them disappeared. Occasionally one would again fall victim to the old, destructive habits.

    Inquiry into the cause for backsliding usually brings out confessions like the following: "Oh, doctor, I felt so fine that I thought just a cup of coffee" or "just one or two cigars a day would not hurt me, but I find that my will power once weakened, I could not resist the temptation of indulging more freely. Every time I used a stimulant it seemed to create a craving for another one. When my system was in a purified condition, a piece of meat seemed to stimulate me more than once did a glass of whisky, but the taste of meat created a craving for a cup of coffee or a cigar, and so on until I became once more a slave to all the old habits and now I seem to be deeper in their bondage than ever before." "Give the devil your little finger and he will soon have the whole fellow in the bargain."

    When the body is thoroughly saturated with meat poisons, caffein, uric acid, drug poisons, etc., a dozen drinks or cigars a day, more or less, make little difference; but when the system is purified of these poisons and in normal condition, even small amounts of any kind of stimulant will affect the nervous system profoundly and excite a craving for yet stronger stimulation.

    That alcoholism is a hereditary disease has been proved beyond a doubt. This should be a matter of grave consideration for those who intend to assume the responsibilities of parenthood.

    Symptoms: The symptoms of alcoholism, like those of all other diseases, manifest in the acute and chronic forms. The light drinker awakens in the morning in a morose and irritable condition. He has no desire for food and is unfit for the work of the day until he has had his "eye opener". At a later stage of the disease the nausea develops into vomiting and the indigestion becomes more pronounced and chronic. Constant hyperemia of the stomach, liver and spleen are followed by gradual atrophy.

    The drinker of whisky develops 'the shrunken, hobnailed liver; the liver of the habitual beer drinker becomes greatly enlarged; sometimes weighing from twenty to forty pounds, but later on it also shrinks.

    The last stages of alcoholism are marked by malnutrition, emaciation, the loss of memory and intellectual faculties.

    Alcoholic poisons gradually benumb, paralyze and destroy the best qualities of the body, mind and soul, until the victim falls to the depths of physical, mental and moral degradation.

    All drug cures for this terrible disease are of questionable value. They may create a temporary revulsion for alcohol, but at best this is another case of Beelzebub against the devil. The drugs used in these cures have a bad effect upon the system and when the sedative effects of the drug treatment have lost their hold upon the patient, he relapses into the old, destructive habits. Exactly the same is true of hypnotic treatment for destructive habits. It is at best only temporarily suppressive. Hypnotic control still further weakens the will of the subject. He temporarily abstains from liquor, not of his own accord, but compelled by the dominating will of the hypnotist. When this begins to wane he has less control over his cravings than before.

    In this connection it must be remembered that a person cannot be hypnotized unless his own reason, will power and self-control are temporarily suppressed and completely in abeyance. If this takes place repeatedly, paralysis of these highest faculties and capacities of the mind and soul becomes permanent and the victim of hypnotism degenerates into the abject slave of every stronger influence. He becomes a negative weakling and drifter, frequently ending in an insane asylum.

    The only possible and permanent cure of alcoholism and of drug habits lies in a complete regeneration of the individual through natural methods of living and of treatment. If the patient is in the advanced stages of alcohol-jam, afflicted with organic diseases of the stomach, liver, kidneys or heart and subject to attacks of delirium tremens, it may be necessary to wean him gradually from the effects of the poison by allowing him graduated doses of alcohol, morphine or whatever the habit forming poison may be.

    An attendant must administer gradually decreasing doses at increasing intervals of time. The strength of the poison at the same time may be reduced without the knowledge of the patient. In many instances we have given such patients injections of pure distilled water when they imagined they were still getting strong doses of morphine. In such eases the power of suggestion frequently shows us its wonderful effects. Not long ago a patient came to us from a neighboring hospital. An operation had been performed on one of his limbs. It was then kept in a plaster cast for four months. The only remedy they had in the hospital for the terrific pain following the operation was morphine. When he was brought to our institution he was using as high as ten grains a day.

    Under the natural treatment the pains gradually abated and within a few weeks we succeeded in reducing the morphine to minimum doses, but whenever we refused to give him an injection he would yell at the top of his voice, claiming that he could not stand the pain and could not sleep. Pains did not trouble him and he was able to sleep when we injected distilled water. The water did the work just as well as the morphine as long as he was under the impression that morphine was being administered. We had to keep up the deception for three weeks, gradually decreasing the number of injections until he became convinced that he could do without the "morphine".

    The active treatment of alcoholism must include everything that is good in natural methods. Of primary importance is a strict vegetarian diet, alternating between raw food, dry food, milk diet and fasting regimen. Tonic cold water treatments, massage, Swedish movements, neurotherapy, curative gymnastics, air and sun baths and everything else conducive to a thorough regeneration of the system must be applied systematically. Such patients require constitutional treatment.

    During the first stages of treatment, while the victims of drag and liquor habits are helpless and without will power and self control, they need constant attendance and careful nursing day and night. The poison to which they are addicted must be administered in gradually diminishing doses at lengthened intervals and, unless confined in a padded cell, they must be guarded against escape or self-inflicted injury and suicide. When the system of such a patient has been thoroughly purified and regenerated, when he has become accustomed to and thoroughly enjoys a vegetarian diet, the craving for liquor, tobacco or drugs will have disappeared and will not return unless he willfully indulges in former habits.

    We have proved in many cases that such a thorough purification and regeneration of the system is a much better guarantee against relapses than all the poison cures in existence.

    Not the least potent among the regenerative influences of the Natural Therapeutic treatment are the daily lectures and private consultations through which the patient becomes acquainted for the first time in his life with the natural laws underlying the processes of health, disease and cure, which he must obey in order to attain perfect health and the greatest possible capacity for enjoying the pleasures of life and the highest efficiency in the performance of his share of the world's work. He now becomes aware that these highest and finest achievements of human life cannot be attained through any form of self-indulgence. Having learned his lesson through the great contrast between utter misery and degradation and the enjoyment of perfect health, he is willing to pay the price of self-control in the future.

    The best of drug treatment, while it may break the alcohol or drug habit more or less permanently, never leaves the system in the purified and regenerated condition such as results from natural treatment, which alone insures perfect health and the complete enjoyment of the good things of life.
 

4. Drug intoxication

    Alcoholism has been made the scapegoat for the increase in insanity among civilized nations and for the major part of defective heredity. Its influence, bad as it is, has been greatly overrated. This will be proved positively after national prohibition has become an accomplished fact in this country. Fully as destructive have been the effects of poisonous drugs, especially of mercury, iodine, quinine, arsenic, strychnine, bromides and coal tar preparations.

    Alcohol is in a way congenial to the human organism. It is manufactured in small quantities in most human bodies as a product of sugar fermentation in the intestines and is burned up in the system like other fuel material. It is probably for this reason that alcohol is not shown in the iris by a characteristic sign of its own.

    Nicotin and caffein do not show in the iris because they are chemically closely related to the uric acid group and are therefore congenial to the system. This indicates that these xanthins are eliminated with comparative ease.

   Whenever an habitual alcoholic quits taking the poison its effects are without great difficulty overcome by natural methods of living and of treatment. Poisonous drugs however, have a strong tendency to accumulate in those tissues of the body for which they have a special affinity, there to act as powerful irritants and poisons, creating many of the most destructive chronic diseases.

    The destructive effects of drug poisons are fully described in Iridiagnosis, Vol. VI of this series.

    Mental disorders caused by poisonous drugs are more difficult to cure than any other forms because they readily result in organic degeneration. (See Quinin, Mercury, Iodin, Coal Tar Products, etc. Vol. VI.)
 

C. Mental and Emotional Disorders Due to Organic Degeneration of Brain and Nerve Matter

   All functional mental disorders if prolonged by neglect or intensified by suppressive drug treatment may result in organic degeneration of brain and nerve matter, creating such conditions as paresis (softening of the brain), sclerosis of the spinal cord, anterior poliomyelitis, etc. It is evident that cures are much more difficult or may become impossible when the stages of organic degeneration have been reached.

    A few cases of organic insanity are caused by injury to the brain, but the great majority are due to the action of morbid matter and paralyzing or destructive poisons on the brain. These poisons may have been generated in the body by unnatural methods of living. They may be alcohol, nicotin, caffein or destructive acids and paralyzing alkaloids which are the waste products of faulty protein and starch metabolism.

    Morbid encumbrances and organic decay are frequently due to the suppression of scrofulous, psoric and syphilitic diseases. About sixty percent of all organic cases, however, are due to the ever-lengthening array of destructive drug poisons such as mercury, iodin, quinin, arsenic, bromin, acetanilid and other coal tar products.

    Organic defects may be created in the following manner: Earthy waste matter forms deposits in and clogs and hardens the minute blood vessels of brain and nerve centers. Xanthins and alkaloids of the uric acid type, or destructive drug poisons, cause obstruction, abnormal changes, decay and actual destruction of nerve and brain matter.

    To this group of organic insanity belong all nervous and mental disorders classed by the old school of medicine under locomotor ataxia, paresis, dementia paralytica, senile dementia, etc.

    This entire range of diseases is looked upon by the medical profession as incurable. Nevertheless, we constantly prove in our practice that all of these types of disorders can be alleviated and a large percentage of them cured by natural methods of treatment, provided there is sufficient vitality left in the organism to respond to treatment and provided also that actual destruction of brain and nerve matter is not too far advanced.

    The medical treatment of these disorders consists almost universally in the administration of mercury, iodin, arsenic, strychnin, salvarsan and coal tar products. Diagnosis from the iris, however, and the history of cases of this type, reveal the fact that almost without exception these diseases have been produced by the absorption of these same poisons earlier in life.

    How, then, can such cases be cured by the poisons which produce them? Is it any wonder that medical science calls them "incurable" when too much drugging is all that ails them? Is it any wonder they improve under Christian Science or any other non-suppressive treatment? Every ease of locomotor ataxia, paralysis agitans and paresis which has come under my observation has revealed the signs of drugs, and inquiry into the history usually confirms the drug records in the iris.

    It takes mercury from five to sixteen years to work its way into the brain and spinal cord—then its destructive symptoms begin to manifest. What is commonly called secondary and tertiary syphilis is nothing but mercurial and iodin poisoning. Syphilis and gonorrhea in themselves are easily curable by natural methods of treatment. If properly treated, without poisonous drugs, these taints can be completely eradicated from the system within four or five months' time. Not a single case treated by us from its incipiency, that is before suppressive treatment had been given, ever developed any secondary or tertiary symptoms or hereditary disease in offspring.

    The subject of defectives and venereal diseases has been fully treated in "The Black Stork".
 

MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL DISORDERS DUE TO PSYCHICAL CAUSES (GROUP II)

   The second main division of our diagram deals with psychical disorders. Under these we classify forms of insanity due to mental, emotional and psychical influences. All mental and emotional disorders may finally result in various forms of abnormal psychism such as hypersensitiveness, negativeness, clairvoyance, clairaudience, hypnotic subjection, mediumship, obsession and possession.

    Every form of perverted mentalism such as stubbornness, fear, worry, hypochondria, anger, fury, rage, jealousy or self pity may become permanent forms of destructive emotionalism. In our practice we are daily more and more impressed with the fact that any form of abnormal thinking and feeling may easily develop into the most terrible depressive or emotional insanity.

   Mania is frequently merely a natural tendency unduly exaggerated through loss of self-control. If parents could be made to realize that their fond indulgence of a child's selfishness, indolence, willfulness, irritability and temper may develop into the worst forms of nervousness, hysteria and insanity, they would employ the best means at their command to stimulate, educate and strengthen the will power and self-control of the child. In the weakening and loss of self-control lies the root of psychical disorders; in its restoration, the cure.
 

Paranoia, Monomania, Fixed Idea

   Forms of mental diseases classified by medical science under these heads are largely the result of destructive autosuggestion.

    I have not been able to find a better illustration of mental and emotional processes than the phonograph and kinematograph. The gray matter of the brain corresponds to the record cylinders in the phonograph or to the films in the moving picture machine. These plastic materials receive, register and retain impressions of sound and passing scenes and reproduce them automatically. So, also, the gray matter of the brain receives, registers and retains impressions from the outside world coming through the sensory organs and also impressions of thoughts and emotions generated in the mind of the individual. After these records in the brain matter have been established, they repeat themselves spontaneously or at the call of the will.

    All our distinctly human physical and mental capacities and functions have been created in that way. We had to make the centers or records in the motor or Rolandic area of the brain before we could walk or use our limbs for any other purpose. We had to create centers in Brocha's convolution in the frontal brain for every word we have learned to speak in our own or in any foreign language. In like manner we had to create molecular groupings or brain centers for everything we have gained in the acquisition of knowledge or in the execution of manual labor or artistic productions. Before we can solve a problem in arithmetic, acquire dexterity in the handling of a tool, play the violin or any other musical instrument, we must first establish the necessary centers in the gray matter of the cortex. After these molecular groupings in brain matter have been created, they work almost spontaneously and may control the physical 'organism and the mentality through what we call habit.

    It took many months of laborious effort to create in Brocha's convolution the molecular groupings for the pronunciation of the words "papa" and "mama" and of other words in an infant's vocabulary. But after the centers were once established, speech flowed freely at the slightest volitional impulse. Many months of laborious and persistent efforts were required to develop the centers in the brain area for muscular movement and coordination before we could make the first tottering steps, but after these centers in the area of Rolando and in the cerebellum were established the legs responded to the slightest impulse of the will.

    In similar manner all thinking and feeling impresses its paths, grooves and records in the plastic gray matter of the brain, and after having been firmly established these records of thought, ideas, feelings and memories repeat at the volition of the ego, or they may play their tunes spontaneously. Memory, habit, character, individuality, the subconscious or subjective mind, are made up of these records in the gray matter of the brain. These highly interesting' matters are more fully treated in Vol. IV, Natural Eugenics.

    Whether our memories and our habitual states of thinking and feeling are of a pleasant, cheerful and happy nature, or whether they are discordant, irritable, morbid, melancholy, unhappy, spiteful, critical, jealous or destructive in any other way, depends upon the kind of records we have made in the past, that is, the kind of thoughts and feelings we have entertained and allowed to impress themselves upon the plastic gray matter of the brain. Our future mental, emotional, moral, spiritual and psychical characteristics will depend upon the records we make from this moment on.

    When I explain these fundamental principles of psychology and mentalism, people ask, "How can I prevent unpleasant thoughts and feelings from entering my mind!" There lies the root of the trouble. People have never been taught that they have the power to control their thinking and feeling, as well as their eating and drinking. If these fundamental laws and principles of mentalism and emotionalism were impressed on the child mind from the awakening of understanding, what an amount of unhappiness, mental degeneracy and insanity might be prevented!

    While conversing with a friend about the terrible fate of the victims of autosuggestion, hypnotism, mediumship, obsession and other forms of subjective psychism, she remarked, "It seems incomprehensible why a kind Providence allows innocent and naturally good people to drift into these terrible conditions which must lead to indescribable suffering and final extinction of the individuality."

    I answered to this, "Somewhere, some time in the history of these individuals they drifted into abnormal ways of thinking and feeling, brooding over real or imaginary troubles, fear of impending poverty, of persecution or misfortune, fear of eternal damnation, of having committed the unpardonable sin or of other religious delusions.

   These fear records multiplied until they filled the mind to the exclusion of everything else and then played their direful tunes incessantly day and night, creating a living hell for the unfortunate victim of his own mental obsession. Others in similar manner drift into negative conditions of thinking and feeling, which make possible control and obsession by external influences and vicious intelligences in or out of the body."

    These victims of destructive autosuggestion begin to fear, worry and brood about something. There may be some reason for it, or the thing dreaded may be entirely imaginary-nine times in ten it is. This occurs usually among people who have not enough real work in their lives but too much time to think and brood. Every time they indulge in this sort of fear thought they impress it more deeply in the plastic gray matter of the brain.

    One idea sown in the subconscious mind keeps on growing and multiplying until it crowds out everything else. Thus arises the fixed idea, or monomania. The unhappy victim of his own delusion is no longer capable of thinking or feeling anything else. It fills his mind entirely, shows in his behavior and in his gloomy, melancholy features. Hundreds of thousands of people in this United States are thus slowly but surely creating for themselves the worst hells in the universe without realizing their danger, and nobody raises the danger signal because people do not understand the laws of destructive mentalism.

    I have come into contact with many of these unfortunates whose minds were filled with just one kind of discordant, destructive records playing their dismal tunes by day and night, without relief or intermission. Just now I have under observation a man twenty-eight years of age who has worked himself into such a deplorable condition. He belongs to a wealthy family, is well educated and has had every possible opportunity to make life a success. A few yearn ago he began to brood and worry over an unhappy love affair. His friends tell me the severing of this attachment was in reality most fortunate, because the object of his affection was not of good moral character, and according to her own confession tried to marry him only for his money. Notwithstanding this, he allowed the matter to occupy his mind to the exclusion of everything else. He imagined that he had wronged the young woman beyond the possibility of atonement. This brought up the idea that he was unworthy of respect and unfit for association with his fellow beings, and this in turn led to more introspection and seclusion, until these melancholy, morose and self accusatory ideas filled his mind so completely that he tried in various ways to end his misery by suicide.

    In spite of all this the man is endowed with splendid intelligence. Even during this mental obscuration he was able to vanquish some of the best checker and chess players in Chicago. Only a few days ago he mentioned to me from memory the telephone numbers of a dozen firms he dealt with two or three years ago. The telephone book proved his memory absolutely correct. Still, long continued and persistent explanations and persuasion have so far proved inadequate to lift his dismal mental obsession. His troubles undoubtedly originated by making the wrong kind of brain records.

    People do not realize that this sort of fear and worry thought is a form of destructive self-indulgence just as surely as is overindulgence in alcoholic liquors or in habit creating drugs. They have never been taught that destructive mentalism and emotionalism may be prevented by the exercise of will power and self control just as easily as alcoholism or the cigarette or drug habits.

Treatment of Monomania

   These forms of fixed idea or monomania cannot be successfully treated at home. Old surroundings, relatives, friends and accustomed scenes and objects constantly call up the old brain records and cause them to play their dismal tunes. Change of environment—new people, new sights, new ideas—is absolutely necessary to create new brain records and to throw the old ones into disuse and oblivion. We endeavor to hasten the mental regeneration by arousing interest in new ideas and higher ideals, by instilling new faith and the will to be well in place of the old doubt and despair thought.

    We have found that the best way to accomplish this is through daily health talks in which we explain to our patients how physical and mental ills are created through violation of Nature's laws of thinking, feeling, breathing, eating, drinking, bathing, etc., and how they must learn to help themselves by complying with Nature's laws in their habits of living.

    Nervous and mental patients who would resentfully reject any helpful suggestion in private consultation will allow the ideas propounded in a public lecture to sink into their inner consciousness without arousing antagonism and repulsion.

    Hand in hand with change of surroundings and suggestive treatment must go the purification and upbuilding of the physical body, as outlined in this volume.

    About a year ago a woman came to us for treatment who was firmly convinced that she had committed the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost, that she was damned to hell for all eternity and that there was no possibility of salvation for her. The unhappy condition of her mind may be easily imagined. For four months she exerted all her strength to refuse my helpful arguments and suggestions. Like most of these people she argued with the ingenuity of an accomplished lawyer trying to prove that she was indeed utterly depraved and lost, while in reality she had been the best and kindest of human beings all through her life, until these unfortunate delusions overwhelmed her.

   About two months after she had left for home I received a letter from her which contained the following passage:

    "Toward the end of my sojourn in your institution I began to realize that you were right and that I was altogether wrong in my foolish imaginings through which I had created for myself the worst imaginable hell of mental and emotional suffering. But through long continued habit and stubbornness of mind I was not ready nor willing to acknowledge my fault. But after I arrived home and had time and leisure to think matters over I became fully conscious of the absurdity and terrible consequences of my mental aberration. Now I have found my old self again and the dreadful delusions which obsessed and threatened to destroy me seem like a bad dream or dreadful nightmare."
 

Psychic Insanity or Abnormal Psychism

   The majority of psychical mental disorders are induced by negative, sensitive conditions on one or more planes of being. I mean by this that physical, mental and moral vigor and resistance have become weakened in some way or another and that as a result, reason, will and self control are benumbed and paralyzed to such an extent that the individual comes into abnormal contact with the lower spiritual planes of existence and lays himself open to hypnotic control by other intelligences in or out of the physical body.

    The paranoiac, the delusional maniac and the true medium are frequently hypnotically controlled by vicious intelligences on the physical or spiritual planes of being. The drunkard in delirium tremens actually sees things. The snakes and other horrid creatures which terrify him are not altogether hallucinations of a distorted imagination. In his ease the physical organism and its sensory organs, under the deadening influence of alcohol, have become so benumbed and paralyzed that the senses of the spiritual body are abnormally active. In other words, the victim of alcohol becomes clairvoyant on the lowest plains of spiritual life—the hell of the theologians.

    Our physical material plane of life corresponds, as far as location in space is concerned, to the lowest spiritual plane, the astral plane of the theosophists, and therein lies the awful danger of premature and abnormal psychical development through negative, subjective processes. All such experiments are extremely dangerous as long as the individual is bound by his heavy physical body and by heavy spiritual gravity to the lowest plane of spirit life.

    The doctors who have lately "weighed the soul" by observing and recording the loss of weight at the point of death were right in their conclusions. The spiritual body, mentioned by Paul and visible to the seer, is material just as is the physical body, and although this spiritual counterpart of the physical body consists of matter in a very rarefied form, still it occupies space and has some weight.

    Those who, by a weakening of will power and by subjective, negative processes of psychic development rashly expose themselves to psychic control and abnormal quickening of the spiritual organs of sense, come in contact with the slums and vicious inhabitants of the lowest planes of spiritual life.

    To the religiously inclined who doubt these statements I would say that if these things are untrue, then the New Testament is false from beginning to end. If abnormal psychism and obsession was a fact in Nature nineteen hundred years ago, it is a fact today.

    To the materialistic, skeptical scientist I would adapt the quotation and bid him remember "there are really more things in heaven and earth, my medical Horatio, than have been dreamed of in thy philosophy". Only he who has sincerely and earnestly investigated and tested these subjects has a right to speak and judge.

    When I took "incurable paranoiacs" from a state insane asylum, the doctors in charge smiled at my presumption and informed me that never yet in the history of the institution had a case been cured. Yet we have permanently cured several such eases within four to twelve months' time.

    It is not to be wondered at, however, that these patients are incurable under the conventional treatment when we stop to consider that insane asylums are veritable "hells on earth", where ignorant and vicious spirits congregate to obsess and vampirize defenseless victims. The latter are rendered more negative and subjective by idleness, improper diet, solitude, confinement, constant communication with other insane, by the vicious spiritual atmosphere, and by the paralyzing influence of sedative and hypnotic drugs which arc negative in their effects on the human organism.

    There are those who endeavor to restore lost self-control by "hypnotic suggestion", which, however, is a misnomer. An able writer on this subject draws the following distinction between suggestion and hypnotism:

   "It is safe to say that in its most common acceptance the word [suggestion] is intended to mean a deferential method of calling the attention of one person to the subject matter in the mind of another and inviting favorable consideration of the same.

    "For some reason, quite inconceivable at this time, the word has become inseparably connected and associated in thought with the subject of hypnotism. By a sort of tacit agreement or understanding, as it were, among writers and students generally, it has come to include almost, if not quite, all the means and methods by and through which a hypnotist impresses his own thoughts, impulses, desires and will upon the consciousness of his subject.

    "But it must be borne constantly in mind that in exact proportion to the depth or intensity of the hypnotic state the hypnotist controls the will, voluntary powers and sensory organs of his subject. Under these conditions the subject, to the extent that hypnosis exists, is deprived of the power of independent choice, without which the word 'suggestion' is entirely meaningless to him.

    " Indeed, every thought, every impression, every impulse of the will projected by a hypnotist upon the consciousness of his subject during the hypnotic relation has, just as far as the hypnotic process is able to carry it, the force and binding effect of a definite and inviolable command. It is not presented to the subject for his consideration as an independent self conscious and rational intelligence possessing discretionary powers. It is not submitted to the rational judgment of the subject at all. It is not offered upon the theory that it may possibly be rejected. On the other hand, it is forced upon him under conditions which, according to the laws of Nature, make its rejection an impossibility.

    "And yet, notwithstanding all this, it is called 'suggestion' by learned men who are wise enough to instantly discover many a less conspicuous error."

    Careful scientific investigation has demonstrated that hypnotism may not only produce insanity and physical death, but that it seriously interferes with the normal development of mind and soul and entails evils far greater than mere physical debauchery. In fact, hypnotism is debauchery of mind and soul.

    It is not to be questioned that hypnotism practiced in a helpful spirit may produce temporary results which seem in a measure to justify its use, but if these be observed in their unfolding it will be found that there has been no actual cure; that the results were merely the effects of a brain paralysis and the substitution of the will of the operator for the will of the victim. In other words, hypnotic treatment, like that by drugs, is suppressive, not curative.

    There is a single consideration which of itself should deter any self respecting and prudent person from submitting to hypnotic control. This process involves the temporary subjection and abeyance of reason, will power and self control of the subject. With each repetition, these highest attributes of the soul become more benumbed and paralyzed. This not only prevents the development of the higher faculties, capacities and powers, but starts the victim of hypnotic control on the downward road of mental and moral deterioration and retrogression. Such a person becomes an easy prey to any outside influence that may desire to control him for good or evil.

    Those who are regularly experimenting with this dangerous power, believing that they are accomplishing beneficial results, should ask themselves if they have a right to extinguish self consciousness and to usurp absolute control over the mind and soul of another individual when this means criminal intrusion upon the sacred rights of individual consciousness and personality for the sake of merely temporary and doubtful benefits.

    It is our highest and most solemn duty to maintain the waking consciousness and to guard the citadel of our being at all times against intrusion and control by outside intelligences. Any process which progressively weakens the victim's control over his own acts is in violation of the primary law of individual life the law of moral and personal responsibility.

    Reason, will power and self-control are the soul attributes which distinguish the human from the animal. Take these away and there is nothing left but an idiot or a lunatic. When these highest qualities of the human soul are permanently benumbed and paralyzed through the hypnotic process, the individual sinks below the animal plane, because he has not even animal instinct to guide him This is soul murder.

    I began to realize the destructive nature of hypnotism and mediumship when I was studying Nature Cure in Berlin. At that time I also took a course in "Suggestive Therapeutics" under Jacques Groll, at that time the most celebrated hypnotist in Germany.

    My fellow students appeared to enjoy the abject submission and helplessness of our clinical subjects when under hypnotic control, but from the beginning the pitiable condition of these wretches, deprived of reason, will and self-control, was revolting to me. Although endowed to a marked degree with the power to exert hypnotic control, I decided there must be other less harmful methods of curing human ailments and resolved never to employ subjective methods in any form whatsoever.

    There is no delusion more fatal than that encouraged by certain church organizations engaged in the work of psychic healing, namely, that will power can be restored and strengthened by hypnosis-the very process that destroys it more surely than any other known agency, a process which is the greatest crime which can be committed against a human being.

    We now come to the consideration of subjective psychism, in its various phases closely related to hypnotism. These states all have their incipiency in negative physical and mental conditions. By a negative condition we mean weakness, lack of resistance, susceptibility and submission to outside influences.

    Prominent factors in producing negative physical and psychical conditions are hereditary tendencies, debilitating diseases, drugs which exert a negative hypnotic influence upon the organism, a negative diet, vicious habits, such as alcoholism, sex perversion, etc.

    Habits not vicious, but which have been indulged in to the extent of jeopardizing self control, may lead to subjective psychism. Among these are religious emotionalism, over scrupulousness, concern about the future, morbid altruism, in fact any good habit exaggerated to a degree involving loss of equilibrium.

    Again and again physicians hear from the patient this complaint, "It is not that I like doing these things; I abhor and detest the very thought of them. A foreign influence seems to come over me and to control me. I feel as if it were another person." Indeed, it often is. All habits carried to a point producing loss of self-control open the door to control by outside intelligences having the same tendencies. Yet even so, hypnotism and the séance room may accomplish more harm in a few "sittings" than evil habits during a lifetime.

    Hypnotic control depends upon the temporary paralysis of reason, will and self-control. If persisted in it may result in the permanent loss of these capacities and powers that distinguish man from the brute.

    Under abnormal psychism I include all phases of psychism, from mere sensitiveness and awareness of conditions on the spiritual planes (clairvoyance, clairaudience, etc.) to actual obsession, which is the hypnotic control of an individual in the body by an intelligence outside of the body. Such control by a spiritual intelligence may result in complete possession of the physical organism by the obsessing influence.

    Not long ago I received from a distance a manuscript describing the author's experience in developing mediumship, from the time when she began to receive strange vibrations and to be impressed by peculiar sensations until she heard voices and came in actual contact with her "controls".

    These experiences became very annoying and interfered with her daily occupations as well as with rest and sleep. She begged her tormentors to leave her and threatened to disclose her true condition. They laughed and told her if she did she would be adjudged insane and would be confined in an asylum.

    When her condition became unbearable she related these experiences to her husband and to the family physician; the latter shook his head and left a prescription for her "nerves". A few days later, her husband took her for a walk and with her entered a large building. Presently she found herself before an assemblage of physicians and nurses and was asked to tell her story. After she had done so the doctors agreed that she was suffering from delusional insanity and committed her to the institution.

    In the manuscript she tells a piteous story of her experiences. During two years she was confined in three different asylums. "All this time," she says, "I was as sane as ever in my life, but the mere mention of my psychic experiences was sufficient to commit me."

    People no more insane than we are have been tortured by experiences which in many instances they are afraid to tell their nearest friends, lest they be committed to the insane asylum.

    Psychic exposure is brought about by a weakening of the physical body and its magnetic envelope, sometimes called the aura. The physical body and its magnetic envelope form the protecting wall dividing us from contact with the astral plane and the lower spiritual spheres. If between the room where I am sitting and the adjoining one there were a heavy brick wall, I should be unconscious of what is transpiring on the other side; but if the partition consist merely of wood and glass, I apprehend every sound and can hear distinctly the conversation in the other room. Thus it is with a person whose protective physical and magnetic envelopes have been weakened and attenuated to such an extent that the spiritual senses have become abnormally active on the lowest spiritual planes coexistent with our earthly plane.

    From what I have said it becomes apparent that the cure of abnormal psychism cannot lie in solitude, confinement, idleness, sedatives nor hypnotics, either in the form of drugs or of "suggestion", but in the application of natural tonic treatment. Fundamental is the right diet, rich in positive dairy foods and in positive vegetable foods that grow in and near the ground. Massage and neurotherapy are important because they stimulate in a natural manner the dormant nerve centers. Hydrotherapy and open air baths stimulate and invigorate the circulation and the vital activities of the skin. Daily physical culture drills, particularly the psychological exercises, not only strengthen the body but teach coordination of mind and muscle, thereby exercising in a most effectual manner will power and self control.

    Medicinal treatment, if administered, must be tonic, never depressive. Suggestion also plays its part, but it, too must be tonic, not depressive.

    That is, it must not be administered in the hypnotic trance, but directed to the waking consciousness, in order that the patient may accept it and respond to it by the exertion of his own will, not through coercion by the will of another. This is the danger line. Let the psychotherapist (Emanuel Movement) beware that he does not cross it.

    All phases of abnormal psychism are fully covered in Volume IV of this series, entitled Natural Eugenics.

SECTION XXXI

MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL HEALING

1. Telepathy, the Language of Impulse
Telepathy means the transmission of words and ideas from mind to mind through vibrations in the ether. That this is possible is now a matter of common experience among those who are physically and mentally sufficiently refined to become sensitive to such etheric vibrations. A few years ago materialistic science would have dismissed telepathy as "another evidence of hysterical self delusion or as tricks of pretenders and fakirs".

    This is hardly possible now in the days of wireless telegraph and telephone. If it is possible for metal instruments to transmit messages through thousands of miles of open wireless space, why should it be impossible to send mental vibrations from mind to mind and brain to brain through the all-pervading ether?

    What is now possible to a comparatively few physically and mentally refined and sensitive individuals will in the course of evolutionary development become the common capacity of all mankind. Those who have attained the power to travel in foreign lands—that is, in the spiritual planes of life-assure us that in the higher spiritual spheres telepathic communication, the language of impulse, becomes the common mode of expression. Though we may not be aware of it, it is a fact that all of us are more or less sensitive while waking and possibly more so while sleeping, to thought vibrations and emotional vibrations from our physical and spiritual surroundings.

   Every human brain and the consciousness back of it is a wireless telegraph with its sending and receiving apparatus. We live in a great sea of mental, emotional, spiritual and physical vibrations. Most of us are constantly sending forth our own vibrations and receiving those of other minds. Much of that which appears to us as our own thinking and feeling is thus inspired or forced upon us from without. This becomes particularly apparent in what has been called mob psychology. Our mental and psychical wireless connects us with all the planes and spheres of earth and heaven, of hell and purgatory, and with their inhabitants. The nature of the vibrations that we receive, whether they be cheerful or of a depressing nature, helpful or harmful, constructive or destructive, depends upon the quality of our own vibrations.

    In order to make communication between wireless instruments a possibility, the sending and receiving apparatus must be attuned to the same range of vibration. So also the human wireless receives and registers those vibrations only which are nearest in vibratory quality to its own.

    Thus the brain habitually attuned to the vibrations of hopelessness, fear, despair and melancholy will receive and register like vibrations from the earth plane and the lower and lowest spiritual spheres which are the abodes of gloom, remorse and despair.

    In like manner, vibrations of greed, jealousy, revenge and cruelty will attract and register like vibrations from other depraved and cruel minds. From this it appears that those who indulge in destructive mentalism and emotionalism intensify their own unhappy or depraved conditions through the operation of the law of spiritual attraction and repulsion.

    I use the word "indulge" advisedly because destructive mental and emotional habits are just as much forms of self indulgence as are the drug or liquor habits. The person who indulges in fear and worry thought is just as much a victim of intemperance as the drunkard and drug fiend.

    Lack of self-control is the cause of all vices; the exercise of self control the only remedy. The preacher of temperance may be surprised to learn that his fear and worry mania or his irritability and nervousness is just as much a matter of lack of self control and of intemperance as the liquor or cigarette habit of those whom he tries to reform by force of law.

    The trouble is that people have not been taught that they can and must control their thinking and feeling just as strictly as their eating and drinking. They grow up under the impression that they cannot help what they think or feel—that thoughts and feelings come and go "as the wind listeth"; they think of the brain and mind as an Aeolian harp which is played upon by the passing breezes. They do not realize that the brain is a musical instrument under the absolute control of the will of the ego, that the will is the artist who may elicit harmony or discord from his instrument as he desires.

    Fortunately the laws of spiritual attraction and repulsion work just as accurately in the constructive as in the destructive way. Just as surely as we can connect our mental, spiritual and psychical wireless with the astral planes and the deepest hells, just so surely can we connect them with the higher spiritual and celestial spheres and their inhabitants, with the invisible helpers and angels and with the all-pervading spirit of the universe whom we call God, the Father, the Logos, the Great Spirit, Brahm, and by innumerable other names.

    Just as surely as wireless connection with the lower spheres will fill our souls with the discords of unhappiness, remorse and despair, just so surely will connection with the higher spheres bring us an influx of more life, love and happiness, of "peace that passeth all understanding".

    To illustrate the foregoing, think of a hall in which an orchestra is performing a great symphony. The audience, instead of listening quietly and attentively, creates loud and disturbing noises. Naturally the beautiful music is drowned in the general clatter and merely serves to increase the nerve racking noise. In similar manner the influx of peace, harmony and healing power from the higher spheres of spiritual and celestial life cannot fill the soul, cannot have a harmonious effect upon the physical, mental and psychical conditions of a person if mind and soul be agitated by discordant and destructive mental and emotional vibrations.
 
 
 

2. The Secret of Spiritual Healing

   Mind and soul must be in a condition of perfect serenity and peace before they can receive the wireless vibrations of healing power from the source of all life. This is the modus operandi of true spiritual healing. It means the opening of our souls to the influx of almighty love from the source of all life and love in the universe.

    Life and love are identical in nature. Love is the highest vibratory activity of the human soul as well as of the universe.

    Why should we depend upon spiritual healers when within ourselves we have the shortest wireless connection between the human soul and the oversoul? A spiritual teacher cannot help us more effectively than by showing us how to establish this wireless connection and how to operate it.

    A sufferer, confined to bed for many years, said: "You ask me to make myself receptive to the healing currents coming from the innermost source of life and power within me; you say I must relax and fix my attention and desire on the spiritual and celestial ranges of vibratory activity.

    "I fail to understand how I can come into living con tact with heavenly vibrations while confined in this hell of ignorance, sin and suffering." Smilingly, she added:

    "Don't you think it a far call from Chicago to Heaven?" To this I replied: "It is within your power to receive as you desire—the discords of hell or the peace and harmony of heaven. Though the planes of mundane, spiritual and celestial life differ greatly in locality, the vibrations of the higher and highest spheres penetrate to the lower and lowest. Even the denizens of hell may catch glimpses of heaven.

    "You fail to understand how it is possible for you to be in heaven and hell at the same time, yet, in this great city all spheres are represented in the souls of its inhabitants—the highest spiritual and celestial spheres as well as the lowest abodes of hell. It is possible for you to be at the same time in closest touch with these Varying places and conditions.

    "Suppose your sick bed was surrounded with telephones, phonographs and kinetoscopes which transmitted to your eyes and ears the sights and sounds of these varying localities and conditions. What impressions you received would depend upon your desire, the direction of your attention and upon the refinement and receptivity of your physical and spiritual sensory organs. So your psychical wireless connects you with all the spheres of our planetary universe."

    The invalid to whom I allude—a woman of about thirty-five years of age—had been confined to her bed for four and a half years, unable to turn from side to side, her physical body being slowly eaten away by cancer—the result of five surgical operations.

    When I first called to attend her she had been suffering with the dread malady for two years Christian Science had been of no avail to ease her suffering. Morphine and other opiates brought only temporary relief. From the day I first met her until the day she died, she never took another dose of painkillers or hypnotics. The simple, natural methods of treatment and her own serene and exalted mental and spiritual attitude made her suffering bearable and enabled her, under the most distressing circumstances, to remain in a cheerful and even happy frame of mind.

    Her relatives and friends frequently assured me that instead of their having to console and cheer the sufferer, she was the sunshine of the home. As she became acquainted with the laws of constructive psychism and learned to control the higher and finer forces of mind and soul, it seemed that the spiritual predominated over the physical. Towards the end her consciousness was as active on the spiritual plane of life as on the physical. While her poor body was racked with pains, her spiritual eyes delighted in rapturous spiritual visions. It was undoubtedly the supremacy of the spiritual life over the physical which helped to keep her alive and which harmonized the physical vibrations sufficiently to ease her suffering and make it bearable.' She had learned to connect her mental and psychic wireless with the highest vibratory ranges of spiritual and celestial activity.

    This experience more than any other disclosed to me the marvelous possibilities of constructive mentalism and psychism as a healing power.