Natural
Cure - Chapter V -
The Unity of Acute Diseases
In the last chapter I endeavored to explain the
three primary causes of disease, namely: (1)
Lowered
Vitality, (2)
Abnormal Composition of Blood and Lymph, (3)
Accumulation of Waste, Morbid Matter, and Poisons in
the System.
We shall now consider some of the secondary
manifestations resulting from these primary causes.
Consulting the table in
Chapter 2, we
find mentioned as the first one of the secondary
causes or manifestations of disease, "Hereditary and
Constitutional Taints."
On first impression, it might be thought that
heredity is a primary cause of disease; but on
further consideration it becomes apparent that it is
an effect and not a primary cause. If the parents
possess good vitality and pure, normal blood and
tissues, and if they apply in the prenatal and
postnatal treatment of the child the necessary
insight and foresight, there cannot be disease
heredity. In order to create abnormal hereditary
tendencies, the parents, or earlier ancestors, must
have ignorantly or wantonly violated Nature's Laws,
such violation resulting in lowered vitality and in
deterioration of blood and tissues.
The female and male germinal cells unite and form
the primitive reproductive cell--the prototype of
marriage. The human body with its millions of cells
and cell colonies is developed by the
multiplication, with gradual differentiation, of the
reproductive cell. Its abnormalities of structure,
of cell materials and of functional tendencies are
reproduced just as surely as its normal
constituents. Herein lies the simple explanation of
heredity which is proved to be an actual fact, not
only by common experience and scientific observation
but also in a more definite way by Nature's records
in the iris of the eye.
The iris of the newborn child reveals in its
diagnostic details not only, in a general way,
hereditary taints, lowered resistance, and
deterioration of vital fluids, but frequently
special weakness and deterioration in those organs
which were weak or diseased in the parents. Under
the conventional (unnatural) management of the
infant, these hereditary tendencies to weakness and
disease and their corresponding signs in the iris
become more and more pronounced, proceeding through
the various stages of incumbrance from acute,
infantile diseases through chronic catarrhal
conditions to the final destructive stages.
In the face of the well-established facts of disease
heredity we have, however, this consolation: If the
child be treated in accordance with the teachings of
Nature Cure philosophy, the abnormal
hereditary encumbrances and tendencies can be
overcome and eliminated within a few years. If we
place the infant organism under the right conditions
of living and of treatment, in harmony with the laws
of its being, the Life Principle within will
approach ever nearer to the establishment of the
perfect type. Hundreds of "Nature Cure"
babies all over this country are living proofs of
this gladsome message to all those who have assumed
or intend to assume the responsibilities of
parenthood.
Natural Immunity
Under Division II of "Secondary Causes or
Manifestations of Disease" we find mentioned germs,
bacteria, parasites, inflammations, fevers, skin
eruptions, chronic sinus discharges, ulcers, etc.
Modern medical science is built up upon the germ
theory of disease and treatment. Since the
microscope has revealed the presence and seemingly
entirely pernicious activity of certain
microorganisms in connection with certain diseases,
it has been assumed that bacteria are the direct,
primary causes of most diseases. Therefore, the
slogan now is: "Kill the bacteria (by poisonous
antiseptics, serums and antitoxins) and you will
cure the disease."
The Nature Cure philosophy takes a different view of
the problem. Germs cannot be the cause of disease,
because disease germs are also found in healthy
bodies. The real cause must be something else. We
claim that it is the waste and morbid matter in the
system which afford the microorganisms of disease
the opportunity to breed and multiply.
We regard microorganisms as secondary manifestations
of disease, and maintain that bacteria and parasites
live, thrive and multiply to the danger point in a
weakened and diseased organism only. If it were not
so, the human family would be extinct within a few
months' time.
The fear instilled by the bacterial theory of
disease is frequently more destructive than the
microorganisms themselves. We have had under
observation and treatment a number of insane
patients whose peculiar delusion or monomania was an
exaggerated fear of germs, a genuine bacteriophobia.
Keep yourself clean and vigorous from within, and
you cannot be affected by disease taints and germs
from without.
Bacteria are practically omnipresent. We absorb them
in food and drink, we inhale them in the air we
breathe. Our bodies are literally alive with them.
The last stages of the digestive processes depend
upon the activity of millions of bacteria in the
intestinal tract.
The proper thing to do, therefore, is not to try and
kill the germs, but to remove the morbid matter and
disease taints in which they live.
Instead of concentrating its energies upon killing
the germs, whose presence we cannot escape,
Nature Cure endeavors to in-vigorate the
system, to build up blood and lymph on a normal
basis and to purify the tissues of their morbid
encumbrances in such a way as to establish
natural immunity
to destructive germ activity. Everything that tends
to accomplish this without injuring the system by
poisonous drugs or surgical operations is good
Nature Cure treatment.
To adopt the germ-killing process without purifying
and invigorating the organism would be like trying
to keep a house free from fungi and vermin by
sprinkling it daily with carbolic acid and other
germ killers, instead of keeping it pure and sweet
by flooding it with fresh air and sunshine and
applying freely and vigorously broom, brush and
plenty of soap and water. Instead of purifying it,
the antiseptics and germ killers would only add to
the filth in the house.
All bacteriologists are unanimous in declaring that
the various disease germs are found not only in the
bodies of the sick, but also in seemingly healthy
persons.
A celebrated French bacteriologist reports that in
the mouth of a healthy infant, two months old, he
found almost all the disease germs known to medical
science. Only lately, a celebrated physician,
appointed by the French government to investigate
the causes of tuberculosis, declared before a
meeting of the International
Tuberculosis
Congress in Rome that he found the bacilli of
tuberculosis in ninety-five percent of all the
school children he had examined.
Dr. Osler, one of the greatest living medical
authorities, mentions repeatedly in his works that
the bacilli of diphtheria, pneumonia and of many
other virulent diseases are found in the bodies of
healthy persons.
The inability of bacteria, by themselves, to create
diseases is further confirmed by the well-known
facts of natural immunity to specific infection or
contagion. All mankind is more or less affected by
hereditary and acquired disease taints, morbid
encumbrances and drug poisoning, resulting from
age-long violation of Nature's Laws and from the
suppression of acute diseases; but even under the
almost universal present conditions of lowered
vitality, morbid heredity and physical and mental
degeneration it is found that under identical
conditions of exposure to drafts or infection, a
certain percentage of individuals only will take the
cold or catch
the disease. The fact of
natural immunity
is constantly confirmed by common experience as well
as in the clinics and laboratories of our medical
schools and research institutes. Of a specific
number of mice or rabbits inoculated with particles
of cancer, only a
small percentage develops the malignant growth and
succumbs to its ravages.
The development of infectious and contagious
diseases necessitates a certain predisposition, or,
as medical science calls it, "disease diathesis."
This predisposition to infection and contagion
consists in the primary causes of disease, which we
have designated as lowered vitality, abnormal
composition of blood and lymph, and the accumulation
of waste, morbid matter and poisons in the system.
Bacteria: Secondary, Not Primary,
Manifestations of Disease
In a previous chapter we learned how lowered
vitality weakens the resistance of the system to the
attacks and inroads of disease germs and poisons.
The growth and multiplication of microorganisms
depend furthermore upon a congenial, morbid soil.
Just as the ordinary yeast germ multiplies in a
sugar solution only, so the various microorganisms
of disease thrive and multiply to the danger point
only in their own peculiar and congenial kind of
morbid matter. Thus, the typhoid fever bacillus
thrives in a certain kind of effete matter which
accumulates in the intestines; the pneumonia bacilli
flourish best in the catarrhal secretions of the
lungs, and meningitis bacilli in the diseased
meninges of the brain and spinal cord.
Dr. Pettenkofer, a celebrated physician and
professor of the University of Vienna, also arrived
at the conclusion that bacteria, by themselves,
cannot create disease, and for years he defended his
opinion from the lecture platform and in his
writings against the practically solid phalanx of
the medical profession. One day he backed his theory
by a practical test. While instructing his class in
the bacteriological laboratory of the university, he
picked up a glass which contained millions of live
cholera germs and swallowed its contents before the
eyes of the students. The seemingly dangerous
experiment was followed only by a slight nausea.
Lately I have heard repeatedly of persons in this
country who subjected themselves in similar manner
to infection, inoculation and contagion with the
most virulent kinds of bacteria and disease taints
without developing the corresponding diseases.
A few years ago Dr. Rodermund, a physician in the
State of Wisconsin, created a sensation all over
this country when he smeared his body with the
exudate of smallpox sores in order to demonstrate to
his medical colleagues that
a healthy
body could not be infected with the disease.
He was arrested and quarantined in jail, but not
before he had come in contact with many people.
Neither he nor anyone else exposed by him developed
smallpox.
During the ten years that I have been connected with
sanitarium work, my workers and myself, in giving
the various forms of manipulative treatment, have
handled intimately thousands of cases of infectious
and contagious diseases, and I do not remember a
single instance where any one of us was in the least
affected by such contact. Ordinary cleanliness, good
vitality, clean blood and tissues, the organs of
elimination in good, active condition and, last but
not least, a positive, fearless attitude of mind
will practically establish
natural immunity
to the inroads and ravages of bacteria and disease
taints. If infection takes place, the organism
reacts to it through inflammatory processes, and by
means of these endeavors to overcome and eliminate
microorganisms and poisons from the system.
In this
connection it is of interest to learn that the
danger to life from bites and stings of poisonous
reptiles and insects has been greatly exaggerated.
According to popular opinion, anyone bitten by a
rattlesnake, gila monster or tarantula is doomed to
die, while as a matter of fact the statistics show
that only from two to seven per-cent succumb to the
effects of the wounds inflicted by the bites of
poisonous reptiles.
In this, as in many other instances, popular opinion
should rather be called "popular superstition."
In the open discussions following my public
lectures, I am often asked: "What is the right thing
to do in case of snakebite? Would you not give
plenty of whiskey to save the victim's life?"
It is my belief that of the seven percent who die
after being bitten by rattlesnakes or other
poisonous snakes, a goodly proportion give up the
ghost because of the effects of the enormous doses
of strong whiskey that are poured into them under
the mistaken idea that the whiskey is an efficient
antidote to the snake poison.
People do not know that the death rate from
snakebite is so very low, and therefore they
attribute the recoveries to the whiskey, just as
recoveries from other diseases under medical or
metaphysical treatment are attributed to the virtues
of the particular medicine or method of treatment
instead of to the real healer, the~ vis medicatrix
nature,~ the healing power of Nature, which in
ninety-three cases in a hundred eliminates the
rattlesnake venom without injury to the organism.
To recapitulate: Just as yeast
cells are not only the cause but also the product of
sugar fermentation, so disease germs are not only a
cause (secondary) but also a product of morbid
fermentation in the system. Furthermore, just as
yeast germs live on and decompose sugar, so disease
germs live on and decompose morbid matter and
systemic poisons.
In a way, therefore, microorganisms are just as much
the product as the cause of disease and act as
scavengers or eliminators of morbid matter. In order
to hold in check the destructive activity of
bacteria and to prevent their multiplication beyond
the danger point, Nature resorts to inflammation and
manufactures her own antitoxins.
On the
other hand, whatever tends to build up the blood on
a natural basis, to promote elimination of morbid
matter and thereby to limit the activity of
destructive microorganisms without injuring the body
or depressing its vital functions, is good
Nature Cure practice.
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