Natural Cure
by
Henry Lindlahr, M.D.
"Ho, ye
who suffer! Know ye suffer from vowselves. None else
compels--no other holds ye that ye live or
die. "~--Siddartha~
TO THE PROGRESSIVE PHYSICIANS OF THE AGE
There are two principal methods of treating
disease. One is the
combative, the other the preventive.
The trend of modern medical
research and practice in our great colleges
and endowed research
institutes is almost entirely along combative lines,
while the individual,
progressive physician learns to work more and more
along preventive lines.
The slogan of modern medical science is, "Kill the
germ and cure the disease." The usual
procedure is to wait until
acute or chronic diseases have fully developed, and
then, if possible, to
subdue them by means of drugs, surgical operations,
and by means of the morbid
products of disease, in the form of serums,
antitoxins,
vaccines, etc.
The combative method fights
disease with
disease, poison with poison, and germs with germs
and germ products. In the
language of the Good Book, it is "Beelzebub against
the Devil."
The preventive method does not wait until diseases
have fully developed and
gained the ascendancy in the body, but concentrates
its best endeavors on preventing, by
hygienic living and by
natural
methods of treatment, the
development of diseases. By these it
endeavors to put the human body in such a
normal, healthy condition
that it is practically
proof against infection or contagion by
disease taints and miasms, and against the
inroads of germs,
bacteria and parasites.
The question is, which method is the most practical,
the most successful and
most popular? Which will stand the test of "the
survival of the fittest" in the great
struggle for existence?
The medical profession has good reason to be alarmed
by the inroads made in its
work by irregular, unorthodox systems, schools and
cults of treating human
ailments; but instead of raging at the audacious
presumption of these interlopers, would it
not be better to inquire
if there is not some reason for the astonishing
spread and popularity of
these therapeutic innovations?
Their success undoubtedly is based on the fact that
they concentrate their
best efforts on preventive instead of combative
methods of treating
disease. People are beginning to realize that
it is
cheaper and more
advantageous to prevent disease than to cure it.
To create and maintain
continuous, buoyant good health means greater
efficiency for mental and physical work;
greater capacity for the
true enjoyment of life, and the best insurance
against failure and
poverty. Therefore, he who builds health is of
greater value to humanity
than he who allows people to drift into disease
through ignorance of
Nature's laws, and then attempts to cure them by
doubtful and uncertain combative methods.
It is said that in China
the physician is hired and paid by the
year; that he receives a certain stipend as
long as the members of the
family are in good health, but that the salary is
suspended as long as one
of his charges is ill. If some similar method of
engaging and paying for medical services were
in vogue in this country
the trend of medical research and practice would
soon undergo a radical
change.
The diet expert, the hydropath, the physical
culturist, the adjuster of
the spine, the mental healer, and Christian
scientist, do not pay much
attention to the pathological conditions or to the
symptoms of disease.
They regulate the diet and habits of living
on a natural basis,
promote elimination, teach correct breathing and
wholesome exercise,
correct the mechanical lesions of the spine,
establish the right mental
and emotional attitude and, in so far as they
succeed in doing this,
they build health and
diminish the possibility of
disease. The successful doctor of the
future will have to fall in
line with the procession and do more teaching
than prescribing.
I realize that many of the statements and claims
made in this volume will
seem radical and irrational to my colleagues of the
regular school of
medicine. They win say that most of my teachings are
contrary to the firmly established theories
of medical science. All I
ask, of them is not to judge too hastily; to
observe, to think and to
test, and I am certain that they will find verified
in actual experience many
of the teachings of the Nature Cure Philosophy.
Medical science has had to abandon
innumerable theories and
practices which at one time were as firmly
established as some of the
pet theories of today.
By none of the statements made in this book do I
mean to deny the necessity
of combative methods under certain circumstances.
What I wish to emphasize
is that the regular school of medicine is spending
too much of its effort along combative lines
and not enough along
preventive. It would be foolish to deny the
necessity of surgery in
traumatism, and in abnormal conditions which require
mechanical means of
adjustment or treatment.
Such necessity, for instance, will exist in certain
obstetrical cases, as long
as women have not learned, or are not willing to
live in such a way as to
make surgical intervention unnecessary in
child-birth. The same is true with regard to
the treatment of germ
diseases. As long as people persist in violating the
laws of their being, and
thereby making their bodies prolific breeding
grounds for disease
taints, germs and parasites which are bound to
provoke inflammatory,
feverish processes (Nature's cleansing and
healing efforts),
combative measures will have to be resorted to by
the physician, and
precautionary measures against infection will have
to be observed, but these
should be in harmony with Nature's endeavors,
not contrary and suppressive; they should
tend to conserve and not
to destroy.
Natural dietetics,
fasting, hydropathy, osteopathy, chiropractic, and
mental therapeutics, are combative as well as
preventive, but if properly applied they do not in
any way injure the organism or interfere with
Nature's intent and Nature's methods. This cannot be
said for much of the surgical and medical treatment
of the old school of medicine. We criticize and
condemn only those methods which are suppressive and
destructive instead of curative.
In many instances
already the warnings and teachings of Nature Cure
Philosophy have been verified, and had to be heeded
and accepted by medical science. The exponents of
Nature Cure protested against the barbarous practice
of withholding water from patients burning in fever
heat, and against the exclusion of fresh air from
the sickroom by order of the doctor. The cold water
and no drug treatment of typhoid fever, the water
treatment for other acute diseases, as well as the
open air treatment for tuberculosis, were forced
upon the medical profession by the Nature Cure
people. For more than half a century the latter have
been curing all inflammatory, feverish diseases, from
simple colds to scarlet fever, diphtheria, cerebro-spinal
meningitis, smallpox, appendicitis, etc., etc., by
hydropathy, fasting, and other natural methods,
without resorting at all to the use of poisonous
drugs, antitoxins and surgical operations.
For many years before
the terrible after-effects of X-Ray treatment, of
extirpation of the ovaries, the womb, and of other
vital organs, became so patent that the physicians
of the regular school could not ignore them any
longer, Nature Cure physicians had strongly warned
against these unnatural practices, and called
attention to their destructive after-effects.
As far back as ten years
ago, when the X-Rays were in high favor for the
treatment of cancer, lupus, and other diseases, I
warned against the use of these rays, claiming that
their vibratory velocity was too high and powerful,
and therefore destructive to the tissues of the
human body. Since the failure of the X-Rays and the
discovery of Radio-activity, the rays and emanations
of radium and other radio-active substances are
widely advertised and exploited as therapeutic
agents, but these rays also are far beyond the
vibratory ranges of the physical body in velocity
and power. Therefore, it remains to be seen whether
their injurious by and after-effects do not
out-weigh in the long run their beneficial effects.
The destructive action
of these high power rays, as well as of inorganic
minerals, is very slow and insidious, manifesting
only in the course of many years. This new field of
therapeutics, therefore, has not yet passed the
stage of dangerous experimentation.
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