Valere aude (dare to be healthy)
by Louis Dechmann · English · Gutenberg #14985 · 612,419 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Valere aude (dare to be healthy)
or, The light of physical regeneration
Author: Louis Dechmann
Release date: February 8, 2005 [eBook #14985]
Most recently updated: December 19, 2020
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14985
Credits: Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Karen Dalrymple and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team.
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VALERE AUDE (DARE TO BE HEALTHY) ***
Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Karen Dalrymple and the Online
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Valere Aude
(DARE TO BE HEALTHY)
_or_
THE LIGHT _of_ PHYSICAL REGENERATION
A vade mecum on
BIOLOGY _and the_ HYGIENIC-DIETETIC
METHOD _of_ HEALING
By
Dr. Louis Dechmann
Biologist _and_ Physiological Chemist
Second Edition (Compendium) 1919
SEATTLE. WASHINGTON
Christmas 1918
WASHINGTON PRINTING COMPANY
SEATTLE USA
1919
DEDICATION
"Dispel this cloud, the light of Heaven restore;
Give me to see, and Ajax asks no more!"
(Pope)
To you of that great voiceless multitude,
"THE PEOPLE"--
You whose bewildered cry is still for light; whose silent tragedy our
well beloved Longfellow could so well portray:
"O suffering sad humanity!
O ye afflicted ones, who lie
Steeped to the lips in misery,
Longing, and yet afraid to die,
Patient, though sorely tried!"
To you and your needs this brief epitome of a coming greater work is
given as a fitting Christmas offering--
"LET THERE BE LIGHT!"
It is the cry which despairing, deluded humanity, in the darkness of its
frenzied ignorance, has flung back hopelessly to heaven since first the
spirit of an Infinite Intelligence brooded upon the race. It is the
appeal of man's immortal unity to the All-Father, from age to age, for
knowledge sufficient for its hourly needs, since ever, back in the far
dim ages of the earth, primeval man, beetle-browed, furtive and
fashioned fearsomely, first felt the faint vibration of a Soul; and,
like an awakened giant, that chief of human faculties, a Mind took form
which, pressing on along the uncertain way, has scaled the giddy heights
of knowledge where genius, enthroned, does battle with an envious world
of shams and greed and venal prejudice. Led by the resistless pulse of
power it follows still that "banner with a strange device:
Excelsior!";--for, ever onward yet it wends its way where'er the devious
pathway trends, whose troubled, varied course is time, whose bourne is
in eternity.
But where seek we, then, the answer to a cry so shrill, that smites the
high face of heaven from a world in pain?
Shall we seek it where false learning leads us in the quest?--Ah no.
It comes, not in the crash of Sinai's thunders with the rockings of a
riven sphere, as in the allegoric stories of a puerile past.
Softly it falls--yes, almost fearfully--from the fervid lips of some
lone world-neglected persecuted man--some patient toil-worn son of
science, whom Genius loves to call her own--though, haply, to the
schools, to fortune and to fame unknown. One whose transcendent,
superconscious mind has dared, Prometheus-like, to snatch from heaven
the fire of the immortal gods and offer it in benefits to all mankind.
Thrice happy he upon the sensory surface of whose open mind such seeds
of knowledge and of wisdom fall, and happy the land where one and all
may dare to warm chill hands and hearts before its sacred flame; that
halcyon land, the Ultima Thule of our fond imaginings, wherein true
freedom reigns; wherein the legalized tyranny of the chartered
libertines of a so-called learned profession shall be finally relegated,
in common cause to the limbo of a sordid and degraded past. For these
are they who seek to maintain a strangle-hold on science, who paralyze
the arm of individual research and, even in this advancing age, still
block the path of progress and of peace, of universal freedom and
equality of intellect, to all beyond the narrow limits of their own
elect.
Thus then, to the free fraternity of the open mind I dedicate this
brief resumé of the product of long years of study and of toil,
steadfastly believing that therein is found the missing dimension for
their urgent need, suited alike to all who hold that to maintain the
health of body and of mind is a worthy object for enlightened man. To
you, mothers of the land, who recognize your duty, towards God and to
the State, to rear your children healthy, strong and good to look upon.
To all whose keener common-sense looks upon Nature, the Creator, as
logically therefore, the healing power also. To all endowed with wit to
understand the obvious truth that, not by poisonous drugs is healing
wrought, but by such reasonable help as man's intelligence can afford,
to second nature's effort to that end; and further, that, in order to
achieve success, it is useless to attack, suppress or remove the
symptoms of disease by force of drugging or the knife, whilst the
_cause_ of the evil is left untouched, unthought of, and, too
frequently, unknown. Truth and reason alike proclaim: remove the cause
and the symptom _must_ disappear.
To all, then, to whom the ever blessed triad of health, hope, and
happiness on earth, are dear, the sanctity of child-life and the
improvement of the race; and especially to those whose clearer mental
vision can grasp the stupendous fact of eternal Universal Unity--the
oneness with that mighty Primal Cause, the great Life Principle,
immanent and active throughout all nature; can grasp and assimilate the
idea that everything that has life is, each in its separate form and
degree, but a medium through which the Infinite Universal Source of
Life--that vast, ineffable power which we, blindly, designate as God--or
Good--seeks expression in the scheme of evolution whose aim sublime is
pure perfection, as its ultimate, attainable, though far off goal.
Directed and attracted by an intelligence we call divine, it is a hope,
instinct with ability, implanted by that Power in the soul of man, as
patent in his ceaseless struggle upward toward the light of fuller
knowledge; it is a power, restricted, only in degree, by that individual
sense of human limitations fostered by false prophets and grounded in
the vitals of the race.
To you all, this brief precis is presented, as a guide, with the
author's benediction, coupled with the fervent hope that, reading the
scientific deductions and precepts therein contained you, too, may see
Regeneration's Light and seeing, may
"_Dare to be Healthy._"
LOUIS DECHMANN,
_Christmas, 1918. Seattle, Wash._
"Dare to be Healthy"
FORE-WORD
_To the Reader_:
The volume, shortly to be published, and to which the ensuing pages are
designed to serve the purpose of stepping-stone or forecast, has been
compiled for the purpose of placing before the public the experiences of
thirty-five full years of my life as a biologist and physiological
chemist, devoted to the sifting and solution of vital problems of health
and eugenics and in the practice of the resultant knowledge of the laws
of life discovered in the course of my research.
I would beseech you, in your own vital interest, to peruse these pages
thoughtfully and with an open mind. There are throughout America
already, thousands of steadfast disciples who are daily reaping the
benefits of the teachings contained therein; and I would that you also
may be added to that goodly multitude, to enjoy together with them the
best advantages emanating from systematic study along the most advanced
lines of modern thought and science. The facts are correlated and
simply expressed with the earnest desire to bring within the scope of
the layman the good that may accrue. It is, however, not for the laymen
alone that this work is undertaken, but for unprofessional and
professional alike, be he medical student or practitioner or other
interested person; for to each and all I present herein the best that a
lifetime of research has enabled me to wring from nature's secret store
for the betterment and conservation of human life and the help of human
kind.
In the development of my movement I have formulated a system under which
all may participate in the benefits of my message, though possibly
prevented by circumstances in some cases from coming within direct
personal contact with myself.
This system comprises the following:
The "Dare to be Healthy" Club.
The "Dare to be Healthy" Lecture Course.
The "Dare to be Healthy" Hygienic Dietetic Course.
Full particulars regarding these will appear at a subsequent point in
this prospectus.
LOUIS DECHMANN.
INTRODUCTION
"... Argentea proles,
Auro deterior, fulvo pretiosior aere."
(Ovid)
Succeeding times a silver age behold
Excelling brass, but more excelled by Gold.
Hessiod, in his celebrated distribution of mankind, divides the species
into three orders of intellect.
"The first place," says he, "belongs to him who can, by his own powers,
discern what is fit and right, and penetrate to the remoter motives of
action.
"The second place is claimed by him who is willing to hear instruction
and can perceive right and wrong when they are shown to him by
another;--but he who hath neither acuteness nor docility--who can
neither find the way by himself, nor will be led by others, is a wretch
without use or value."
"You are seeking truth," quoth Adalbert von Chamisso, "_Remember that
the world clings more firmly to superstition than to faith_,"--or, to
borrow expression from an equally inspired source,--remember that
perverse humanity rarely fails to favour, rather, what Shakespeare terms
"_The seeming truth which cunning times put on to entrap the wisest._"
Courageous, then, must be the knight who sets his lance in rest to tilt
against the windmills of the world.
Nevertheless, although the truth is still banned as "heterodox" by
common consent--or tacit connivance--an attitude patent to commercial
instincts in view of the cataclysm which must naturally ensue, with
deadly results to the vested interests of orthodoxy, so soon as the
long-trusted barriers of plausible and pretentious mystery and
importance shall be swept away by the rising tide of popular
indignation. When the masses become educated to discriminate between
truth and falsehood and thus shall come into their rights, then and not
till then, will the dawn of physical salvation break.
Still, I maintain, there are, and have been all along the way, eminent
medical men of high intelligence, who, unlike the drones of the medical
hive, have dared to think for themselves and have even dared to speak
their thoughts.
Thus, for instance, spoke Sir William W. Gull, Physician to her late
Majesty Queen Victoria: "Having passed the period of the goldheaded cane
and horsehair wig, we dare hope to have also passed the days of pompous
emptiness; and furthermore, _we can hope that nothing will be considered
unworthy the attention of physicians which contributes to the saving of
life_."
Again, an authority of the first rank, Prof. Oesterlin, says in his
noted work on the Materia Medica:
"_The studious physician of our century will hardly expect to accomplish
by force, through some strange drug or other, that which only nature can
bring about when assisted by all the rational accessories of hygiene and
dietetics._
_Nature alone can furnish the beneficient means, sufficient for all
needs_,"--which the science of medicine never has afforded and never
can.
As we survey the civilization of our age and its medical science, we
see, on the one hand, the crude superstitions of the masses, the subtler
superstitions of the educated classes; gross materialism, bewildering
Darwinism, pessimism, and degenerate political economy; on the other
hand, unmitigated quackery and cupidity, with its weight of oppression
on humanity,--everywhere confusion instead of harmony.
Very surely,--and perhaps more speedily than we think--a reaction will
come, when our present degenerate system of medical subterfuge--misnamed
science--will have passed away, to be replaced by accredited methods of
natural healing consistent with the dignity of an enlightened,
self-respecting people.
"Ignorance is the curse of God:
Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven"
(Shakespeare)
THE HYGIENIC-DIETETIC METHOD OF HEALING
Biology, the Science of life, has developed under my hand that system of
natural healing which I practice, in common with some of the most
successful physicians on the continents of Europe and America.
Although based upon the same biological laws, their systems of
therapy--or healing--differ materially from one another. My system is
entirely my own, developed during the last thirty-five years to that
degree of perfection it has attained today.
I am, naturally, honestly proud of the success achieved during this
strenuous period, yet am I still as anxiously imbued as ever with the
spirit and habit of research which is now directed to the endeavour to
further simplify my method of treatment, by further discoveries in the
realm of that most abstruse of the sciences, _Physiological Chemistry_.
In this baffling but wonderful domain I am inspired by the ambitious
hope that some, at any rate, of the many unsolved problems of the
Science of Life may yet give up their secrets to the demand of my
persistency, exerted in the interest of the well-being of humanity.
After centuries devoted by the faculty to a futile and arrogant attempt
to counteract the disturbances of health, which we call diseases, in the
stereotyped manner known as "orthodox;" after endless complications,
infinite "specializing"--in itself a futility--and unblushing complicity
with the powers that be, we find them now at length, baffled,
discredited, but unashamed, cast back, discomforted, upon Mother
Nature's kindly breast, their victims humbly seeking healing in simple
unity from her ample store.
Based upon this firm foundation, we term the new departure the "Natural
Method of Healing."
The greatest physicians of all time, from Hippocrates to our own day,
were satisfied to be simply _natural_ physicians. They were not
satisfied to merely suppress the symptoms of suffering and to quiet the
sufferer by abnormal appliances. Their higher, more ambitious aim was to
reach the active source of distress--and in this they succeeded.
For, not only did they achieve where others failed, but, in addition to
healing, they also _prevented the recurrence_ of disease, and, more
noteworthy still, they established a system of Prophylactic Therapy,
which is the highest function of the healing art; namely, the
_prevention of disease_ by treatment _before full development_, or, in
other words, the _preservation of health_.
It is not the object of this brief brochure to enter into the devious
details which a full explanation of this practical, successful, modern
method would require. It is designed merely for those who, after
experiencing disappointment and failure in other directions, have had
recourse, as a last alternative, to advice and assistance, from myself.
Such patients, as a rule, have heard of my method from others; have
heard that it differs widely, in its frank simplicity, from the empty
pomposity of the old-school "orthodox" elements, though of the
principles of the old-school teaching they have really little or no
conception, beyond a crude, unwholesome, fear of the unknown, consequent
upon the, _very necessary_, veil of mystery with which its votaries
surround themselves--a semi-superstitious sentiment inherited from a
malignant past and one which does little credit to the vaunted modern
civilization of today.
On this point of difference they ask for enlightenment, and naturally
enquire as to the nature of both, but especially of this new hope which
is held out to them as a refuge in their hour of despair.
This information it is equally my duty and my desire to give, and in the
most convenient and simple form, shorn of all shroud of mystery; for my
object is to educate and not to conceal.
It is my chief desire that patients should thoroughly understand the
methods and principles of the New-School of Healing and should exercise
their own intelligence as to its merits as compared with the old, and,
being once thoroughly convinced--not by faith, or fear, or fashion, nor
yet biased by the unfair influence of the false prestige of a legalized
monopoly detrimental to the interest of the people--they should
forthwith honestly test the new deliverance by faithfully following my
advice and instruction, to their own unfailing ultimate benefit and
relief.
As a labour of love towards the world in general and the people of my
adopted country in particular, I have made it my duty to formulate the
substance of my researches in the field of science--researches which
represent the struggles of a lifetime--in a large and comprehensive work
which, to the scientist as well as to the laymen, will constitute in the
most detailed and complete degree a reliable guide to the conservation
of health which, even now, in the immediate present, has come to be
regarded not only as a scientific phase of education, but as a duty
incumbent upon every citizen. Should sickness supervene, as well it may
sometimes, despite all reasonable precaution, the knowledge and
instructions contained therein are sufficient, if closely followed, to
prevent, for the most part, the serious consequences of disease and to
afford the patient the necessary enlightenment to enable him to
co-operate with the hygienic-dietetic physician in the task of restoring
him to health and ability.
This book, entitled "_Regeneration_" or "_Dare to be Healthy_," will
consist of some three thousand or more pages. It will be published
shortly; and, in the common interests of human health will, I trust,
find prominent place on the book-shelf of every home whose inmates
either belong to the ever increasing number of the followers of my
patients, or who, by careful study of my teachings therein contained,
may be finding their independent way back from the dreary depths of
suffering to the glad plains of health.
In following up the general outline of the "New Regeneration" these
pages will not lend themselves to the otherwise necessary encounter with
what are now admitted to be the recognized errors of the, temporarily
dominant, medical school, save in so far as it may be requisite to
remove from the mind of the layman pernicious and antiquated ideas to
which he has been long and persistently educated, or to protect those
who have ceased to believe in them from the pitfalls to which, as an
alternative, they may be exposed amongst the numberless unscientific,
quasi-miraculous, healing cults, or the equally pernicious nostrums of
the spectacular advertising medicine vendor, both of whom reap golden
harvests among the ranks of the so justly disappointed and despairing
people.
* * * * *
It is, nevertheless, an imperative duty to issue this necessary warning;
namely, that the public should safeguard itself against the absurd, but
possible mistakes of confusing the Legitimate Scientific School of the
Hygienic Dietetic Method of Biological Healing with the nebulous cults
aforesaid. There is no vestige of resemblance between them, either in
thought or principle, and nothing could be more fatal and foreign to the
truth.
* * * * *
There is one thing, and one only, which, like the rest of the community,
we share with them in common, and this is that _growing spirit of
profound distrust_ with which all classes seem daily more and more
constrained to regard the Medical Fraternity and all its ways.
It is the general knowledge of the existence of this sentiment which has
called into being the present epidemic of curious cults and
catholicons--due, it would appear, more to this insidious temptation to
such _commercial enterprise_ than to any other cause--and which form so
prominent a feature throughout all sections of the community--and
especially in the press--throughout the length and breadth of the land.
To such, in an alarming degree, the public turns, in protest, as it
were, against the tyranny and turpitude of this "learned profession,"
with its kindred corporations and its studied callous disregard of
scientific advancement in any direction which might tend to jeopardize
or reduce the profitable exercise of its own obsolete methods, its
system of poisonous medicaments, and dangerous operations and
anti-toxins.
There is no possible efficacy or help to be derived from other
teachings, whatsoever they may be, except from those based absolutely
upon the solid foundation of biological fact. Since Johannes Müller
(1833) wrote the first book on physiology and its chemistry, more than
a thousand so-called "Authorities" in that branch of science have tried
to find some of the secrets of nature pertaining to physiology. A very
few (about 10 or 12) may be named as great men who discovered certain
laws and solved certain problems. But the majority added nothing to
Müller's discoveries. Most of them became teachers or authors, one
plagiarizing the work of the other, eulogy being very liberally
distributed on all sides, but valuable deductions from the great
masters, very few have been able to make, and even those were more or
less suppressed by the "orthodox school." In less than half the time
since 1833, i.e. 85 years, it was my good fortune to give more valuable
deductions and practical applications to the student and the reader,
than the mediocre talents of the "old school" were able to give.
* * * * *
I pretend to no miracles and expect none; nor do I arrogate to myself
any so-called _super_-natural secrets or powers; I simply maintain that,
aided by the erudition of the great scientists of the past and present,
this system has finally been brought to a point which should rightly
have been always the chief aim of Medical Science, namely, an _exact
knowledge of human nature and the human organism, as it is_.
With this vital knowledge at command I have been able to successfully
formulate a system for supplying the individual organism with any of the
various constituents of which it may be deficient, in a manner in which
it can best receive and assimilate the same, thereby maintaining a
correct balance between the constituents of the blood wherein lies
hidden the sole criterion of health and the fatal secret of disease.
Simple as this may sound, the way has been long and lonely until that
elusive goal was reached; and, even now, in the heat of the controversy
which ensues, we find ourselves sometimes in a somewhat parlous
position, placed, as it were, between two fires; on the one side are
those who, though not without sympathetic feeling for the
well-intentioned, earnest-minded believers in the errors now being
exposed, yet cast aside all scruples in the interest of humanity and
truth. On the other side are those obsessed by care and compunction for
these accredited practitioners who by reason of age or temperament are
unable or unwilling to assimilate new ideas or to relinquish the
theories of a life time in order to enter the field of competition with
the men of a younger generation.
Such is the impasse before which we stand.
REGENERATION OF THE RACE
BY THE LIGHT OF BIOLOGY AIDED BY PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY.
"For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members
of that one body, being many, are one body:... whether one member
suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured,
all the members rejoice with it."
(St. Paul, I Corinthians, XII. 12 & 26.)
"_DYSAEMIA, or Impure Blood is the cause and source of disorder in
all constitutional diseases. So spoke the Master. Believe it who
will, that, in a nutshell, is 'the burden of my song'--the Alpha
and Omega of my teaching_."
(From Chapter X. "Dare to be Healthy.")
_The Process of Natural Healing_ is the art of curing diseases by
natural methods.
As natural remedies, only those may be included which stand as vital
conditions in constant relation to the organism, assimilable thereby.
Among these are no poisons or chemical preparations, such as were
promulgated by Paracelsus and the medicasters; for these are elements
abnormal to the body, and call forth its reactionary powers, and so,
being useless, they are eliminated; or, after having served an improper
purpose, to _suppress_ some symptom of disease, they become embedded in
the tissues, there causing various forms of medicinal complication or
morbid condition.
Do we not produce blood poisons enough by our irrational diet and modes
of living? The human body is a microcosm--a world in minature--and as
such, exists in constant interchange with universal nature.
A definite relationship exists between it and the solid, fluid and
gaseous elements.
Solid food, water and air, elements of the universe, must become
elements of our bodies, if relations of universal unity are to be
maintained.
There must be a constant interchange of organic matter, and this
inter-transmission is the cause of life, of health, and of disease;
therefore, we must first of all see that the conditions of this process
are uninterrupted.
Food, air, water, light, exercise, must be so provided that they
condition the process of nutrition and metamorphosis.
Skin, lungs, kidneys, intestines, must always be in condition to
eliminate the abnormal products of decomposition.
If then disease be a derangement of the life process, it is self-evident
that disease is not confined to one organ alone, but that the whole body
is diseased.
The body, thus, being in fact an indivisible unity, the treatment we
employ in disease must, logically, act upon it as a united whole.
The modern school of medicine in its present, bacteria ridden frame of
mind or mania, looks upon the bacillus, or microbe, as the sole cause of
disease.
The cause, however, is not the bacillus, but rather the impure blood
which prepares a fertile soil for the development of those destructive
germs.
He who lives strictly in accordance with the rules of hygiene need not
fear the bacillus, for man is not born to sickness; he creates sickness
for himself by his irrational mode of living.
What does the world profit by bacteriological institutions if the people
continue to live in the old sins against health and hygiene?
Man may be born with a predisposition to disease, but not with disease
itself.
Our health depends entirely upon the conditions of our life.
In cases of predisposition to disease, therefore, as well as in disease
itself, according to the principles of hygiene, we must employ only the
hygienic and dietetic methods of treatment.
Is the medical science of the day, then, totally incompetent? You may
well ask.--Have the patient studies and researches of nearly two
thousand four hundred years, since the days of Hippocrates, been all in
vain?
The reply lies ready to your hand, from the lips of one of the brightest
scientific spirits that ever illumined this dull earth of ours with
knowledge and sincerity.
In Goethe's Faust the following lines are found,--lines which sad memory
brings back to the minds of many an unfortunate who, according to the
dictates of the medical science of today, is pronounced incurable--a
sufferer from one or other of the so-called chronic diseases--and in
dire need of both physical and spiritual support.
"I have, alas, philosophy,
Medicine, jurisprudence too,
And, to my cost, theology
With ardent labour studied through,
And here I stand with all my lore,
Poor fool, no wiser than before"
Like Faust, such sufferers study day and night the opinions of learned
doctors and follow their prescriptions with ardent zeal. The more they
study, the more doctors they consult, the more rapidly does strength
fail them, until at length they realize that, in spite of all their
lore, they are but "poor fools, no wiser than before."
For more than two thousand years it has been, in fact, as it is to a
great extent today; the physician prescribes to the best of his
knowledge, medicines compounded according to certain rules dogmatically
laid down in the schools.
Here we have at once the fatal mistake at a glance.
Instead of studying nature and the laws of nature, instead of using
natural means to _heal disease_, they administer deadly poisons to
_allay suffering_, poisons, which doubtless may be able to repress pain
or to temporarily suppress the symptoms of disease; but can _never
remove the cause_, which alone may rightly be called healing.
The drugs prescribed by thousands of physicians today, with but a casual
acquaintance with their action, are bound by their nature to produce
evils worse than the disease itself.
To cite an instance:
Physicians prescribe creosote in cases of consumption to stop the
expectoration of blood.
Creosote will do this, and may suppress the cough, as well as the
accompanying pain; but will it cure consumption or destroy or remove the
cause of this deadliest of diseases?
On the contrary, it inevitably produces laryngeal phthisis after a very
short time. It destroys the head of the windpipe and the patient dies in
consequence of the destruction of one of the most important organs of
the body.
In most instances the physician is either oblivious or unaware of these
facts. He follows those old-standing doctrinal sophisms laid down by
human "science" but discredited by nature.
His courage is called "audacity" by those who have not lost all feeling
for humanity.
Meanwhile, those who regard medical science from a business standpoint
only, are very quick to pronounce judgement upon any natural treatment
of disease and to condemn the most successful natural physicians as
charlatans and frauds.
In order to be competent to decide upon a correct course in the
treatment of disease the physician must possess a thorough chemical
knowledge of all the fundamental substances of which the human organism
is constructed. With the patient therefore rests the responsibility of
choosing his physician, since no physician can be of any assistance who
cannot define what substances are deficient in the blood, and who does
not possess the requisite technical knowledge to supply this deficiency
by adequate dietetic means.
In my nutrition cell-food therapy for constitutional diseases, I have
followed consistently upon the lines of one of the greatest masters of
physiological chemistry that the world has known, who, in one of his
medical colloquies spoke as follows: "In order to thoroughly understand
any form of sickness or disease, so as to undertake the cure of the
same, it is first of all necessary to picture before one's mental
vision the ways and means of its inceptive formation, and by degrees to
trace its origin, step by step, before one is enabled to decide upon
adequate remedial measures conformable to the individual stages of the
same."
In this sense it has ever been my strenuous endeavor to fathom the
secret of the inception of constitutional diseases; but the entire
medical literature did not advance me further than pathological anatomy,
which informs us that the original cause of disease is a change in the
form of the cellular elements of different digestive organs,--in
explanation of which the customary technical terms are used, such as
"atrophy," "degeneration," "metamorphosis," etc. But, I reasoned with
myself, this surely cannot be seriously regarded as the origin of
disease!
The cause of the visible changing of the cellules must be sought in the
conditional interstitial substances which cause the invisible changes or
shiftings of the cellular forms, and which are scientifically termed
"_Changed nutritional conditions_."
By the aid of physiological chemistry I was successful in finding a
pathway to the centre of those mysterious occurrences of life.
And this was my course of reasoning: As the cellules, which are the
smallest individual elements of the human system, are only _products of
the blood_, and for their composition require the different chemical
substances in sufficient quantities, it is obviously necessary to fathom
what those chemical elements of the cellules may be, what form they take
in their mutual relation to the separate parts of the body, and in what
way they enter the organism.
In this manner I obtained a clear insight into the actions of the
so-called _mineral material_ in the organism, and it gradually became
obvious to me that everything is dependent upon the introduction of the
proper _sanguifying or nutritive_ mineral salts into the blood.
On this basis I founded the so-called "_organic nutritive cell-food
therapy_" (called the Dech-Manna therapy).
The point may be raised that the elements of the food we eat or drink
are heterogeneous and that the mineral matter in them is naturally and
casually acquired, according to the properties of the soil they grow in.
This is the general opinion, but not the fact. Our vegetables, grain,
meat and milk contain too much phosphoric acid and sal ammoniac, and
this is due to the use of artificial and animal fertilizers, while the
sulphurics are very often entirely missing.
Von Liebig says: When we consider that the sugar refineries of Waghausel
have an annual output in the market of 600,000 lbs. of potassic salt,
which is taken from the soil by the turnips of the Baden fields without
being replaced, and that there is cultivated in Northern Germany, year
by year, with the assistance of guano, an immense amount of potatoes
solely for the manufacture of spirits, and that these potato fields are
consequently robbed of the essential ingredients which potatoes should
contain, and as these elements are only partially replaced by the
insufficient component parts of the guano, we cannot be in doubt as to
the condition of these fields. The ground may be ever so rich in
ingredients, but it is exhaustible. The analysis of our blood indicates
that, in order to remain healthy, it must contain twice as many
sulphuric as phosphoric salts.
We talk glibly about a natural mode of living, a simple diet; but where
in our civilized countries can we find food that really serves healthy
sanguification?
The crux of the question is this: Why do we propose to _heal naturally_
and not also to _nourish naturally_?--The latter is, to say the least of
it, just as important as the former. But if both were practiced
conjointly, a beneficial object might be more quickly and surely gained.
It is true, we are taught to eat more vegetables than meat; that our
bread lacks the chief nourishing qualities, and so on; but we have
hitherto been in no wise informed as to the substances that are
relatively harmful or beneficial to us.
Why is it then that the science of the sanative power of nature, as well
as medical science, is still in doubt in regard to the relation that
must absolutely exist between the separate component parts of our
nourishment in order to obtain normal healthy sanguification?
_The reason is that the application of a real chemistry of life has
never been comprehended until now._
According to my judgment it is Von Liebig and Julius Hensel who showed
us the paths we are to take to the field of enquiry most important of
all; for without a sound body all the coveted acquisitions of modern
times are worthless to us.
The solution of the question how to prevent the degeneration of mankind
would be a simple and natural one, if history and proverb had not taught
us that as often as a new truth appears "the very oxen butt their horns
against it." They cannot help this, the "disposition" is natural; for
when Pythagoras had found the Master of Arts, Mathesios, he was so
overjoyed that he sacrificed one hundred oxen to the gods, and ever
since that time oxen are attacked with an hereditary fright whenever a
new truth appears,--the human ox is no exception.
Of what use to us, for instance, are the Roentgen X-rays in diseases of
the nerves when there is a generally diseased condition of the blood,
which, as we now know, is also the primary cause of lung, liver, stomach
and kidney troubles, cancer, scrofula, rheumatism, gout, obesity,
diabetes, and the rest?
In such cases _chemistry_ is necessary, in order to ascertain what
ingredients are missing in the blood; they cannot be detected
microscopically.
What blunders are continually committed in the treatment of nerve
diseases! No one considers the physiological law that _no parts of the
nerves can perform their functions lastingly and naturally unless they
are continually supplied with blood permeated_ with oxygen; and for this
purpose iron is most necessary as an adequate ingredient.
Physicians of the old-school do prescribe iron plentifully, but in
inorganic form; and because it is not organized it is indigestible and
is excreted. That is why the treatment of the diseases of the nerves,
which are so general and widespread, has been so unsuccessful.
It is not generally known that organized ammonium phosphate (Lecithin),
which is the mineral foundation of the Neurogen I prescribe, will
regenerate the nerve cells if consumed in the proper proportions. It is,
likewise, little known that although a person with diseased lungs be
placed under conditions where he may acquire an ample quantity of pure
air--that is oxygen--and may consume as much as four quarts of milk
daily, he will nevertheless most certainly be doomed to perish if his
food does not contain the elements of iron, lime and sulphur in
sufficient quantities.
These simple physiological laws have been ignored and medical men have
given us instead, the teachings of the school of bacteriology with its
pitiful illusions and its endless train of suffering and sorrow.
The testimony of many patients who have undergone treatment in the best
physical culture and so-called, natural healing establishments both in
Europe and America, serves to show that their success has been but
partial and one-sided; that is, they have abandoned their wrong albumen
theory, and their state of health has consequently improved. But,
practically, the treatment has failed; for complete and final
recovery--that is, full and correct nutrition and strengthening of the
nerves, has not been accomplished. Such failure is due to the fact that
certain essential constituents have not been supplied. These vital
constituents my organic nutritive cell-food therapy is designed to
provide.
What is lacking in the field of practical science, as authoritatively
voiced by the unprogressive faculty of today, is an absence of chemical
knowledge, especially on the part of the physician and the naturalist;
and, as likewise, the so-called scientific farmer upon whose assurances
we so naturally rely for the wholesome production of food is woefully
ignorant on matters of agricultural chemistry, the logical consequence
is that in all civilized countries great mistakes have been
unconsciously made and perpetuated, detrimental to the health of man and
beast alike and vitally prejudicial to the healthy sustenance of the
race.
_Where are the most vitally necessary mineral substances_ to be found in
nature?
It is an established fact that the fields, on which our nutritive salts
or cell-foods--our vital sustenance--are grown, were originally formed
from decayed primitive rock and _this primitive earth-crust matter is
composed of the same mineral substances that are found in normal blood_.
Therefore, our physical welfare and our capacity to resist disease is
clearly dependent upon the condition of our fields. We must always bear
this in mind--the old truism--that,
"AS A MAN EATS, SO IS HE."
_We are thus, directly, the products of our fields._
Wrongly fertilized, our fields must produce sickly vegetation, and this
in turn will produce a sickly race and disease in cattle.
Primitive rock consists of granite, porphyry, gneiss and basalt,
deposits which are still found upon the earth in immense quantities, and
in the same condition as thousands of years ago.
As a matter of fact, proposals have been made by noted scientists to
utilize pulverized rock of this kind as compost to _assist_ the fields
in a natural way, and so to restore them to their former producing
power, which would thus enable plants, animals, and man, alike, to
regain those substances indispensable to proper sanguification and
general growth.
The agricultural experiments performed with this stone dust fully
confirm this assumption.
One of the most important tasks of today is to indicate to the farmer
new ways and means of promoting and increasing growth for the food
supply of the nations.
Why, then, I imagine I can hear it asked, if this fact be true and
demonstrated, has it not been applied?
This question may be answered by another. Why does not the natural
system of Hygienic Dietetic Healing find general application in cases of
sickness, since its success is so obviously greater than even that
claimed by medical science?
To this vital question upon which so much of human life and happiness
depends, the weak and degrading answer must suffice; to the effect that
the last vestige of public respect for the sciences would be shaken, and
many wise theories would fail of their imaginary virtues and succumb,
before humanity's best birthright--the quality of healthy blood, kind
nature's ample gift to all,--could be wrested from the selfish hand of
tyranny and mankind enabled to secure from nature's willing hand the
succour that an Infinite Providence offers to disease.
A physician to whom I once explained my theories, heard me for some
minutes and then he said "Well, and so you want to create healthy blood
in this way?" "Yes, surely," I replied. "We have no use for that," he
callously exclaimed, "there would _be no business in that_."
_Hence Mankind must degenerate and Disease of all kinds ride rampant_
through the land, rather than upset the firmly rooted fallacies of the
past or foil the ghoul-like greed of a certain set of conscienceless
practitioners.
To the first of these the terse old Latin satire would apply:
"Homine imperito nunquam quidquam injustius
Qui, nisi quod ipse fecit, nihil rectum putat."
(Terentius.)
"Who is there so unreasoning as he, that learned drone,
Who reckons nothing perfect save what he himself hath known."
(M.B.)
To the second let an outraged public reply.
* * * * *
But meanwhile, as the hideous holocaust proceeds, the mills of God grind
slowly but mysteriously secure. The eternal law of equity is working
still; and from every evil there proceeds a good. Truth may be hidden in
the nether deeps, but some day the strained tension breaks, the balance
reversing brings it to the light. Its spirit works for ever, like a
ferment, hidden long, deep down in the Universal heart of things; for
with majestic, unimpressionable tread, sublimely the silent force of
human progress moves; slow and inevitably sure, the great indwelling
spirit of a vast eternal energy leading man ever upward to the True and
Best.
Against this axiom, alas, graceless and suicidal seems the unwisdom of
the world, in action against all who offer it salvation from its pain;
aye, though he be Christ or Commoner.
Rather be wrong in league with wealth and power than be right--and stand
alone. This is now the worldly wisdom of the sage.
Genius at grips with material and religious power, fares ill; as with
far-famed Copernicus, or "starry Galileo and his woes"; or, in a brave
woman's daring words:--"He, who dares to see a truth not recognized in
creeds, must die the death."
"A time of transition is a time of pain," is a truism well recognized by
all, and he who would press Regeneration upon the world--weak, weary and
unthinking as its people are--must run the gauntlet of the bitter
antagonism of the exploiting clans on this benighted sphere, though
later he may see, across the bourne that bounds life's earthly day, a
stately monument, perchance, by gratitude upreared, where pious crowds
pay tribute to his name.
HYMN OF HEALTH
(From the Greek)
Health, thou most frangible of heaven's dower,
With thee may what remains of life be spent;
Cease not upon me, thus, thy gifts to shower,
And in my soul to find a tenement.
For what is there of beauty, wealth or power,
Of gentle offspring, or the wiles of love,
But owes its solace, sweet, in every hour,
To thee, thou regent of the powers above.
The spring of pleasure blooms if thou but bless,
And every step upon the Autumn way
Is lit by thee, parent of happiness!
Without thee sadly sounds life's roundelay.
(M.B.)
Health is one of those intangible inestimably precious possessions, like
life and liberty, to which all are entitled by natural Law. Yet are
there but few who are careful to conserve this priceless heritage. It is
a boon all too often unappreciated until lost, and once lost, it may not
always be regained, though intense be our regrets and our endeavours
exhaust the field of human resource.
Again, although the possession of passable health may be ours, it is a
condition rarely totally untroubled and continuous and, therefore,
cannot be correctly classified as perfect health.
These simple definitions may seem to the reader trite and trivial; but
how many of us, let me ask, give thought to their vital vast
significance.
Never to need a physician; ever to be unconsciously guarded against all
access of disease; to maintain the fair form and vigor of the body
without effort, so that no depleting influences can find a hold; this is
the health ideal by nature set, the standard to which the earliest
progenitors of our race may doubtless have conformed, but upon which
succeeding generations have sedulously turned their backs.
Philosophers have defined this physically perfect state.
Historians have immortalized it in heroic tomes.
Poets have extolled it in great epic verse.
Artists have depicted it in portraiture and tapestry.
Sculptors have expressed it in the life-like stone.
The sick have longed for it.
Saints have prayed for it and, in the search for its fabled, false elixir,
alchemists have sacrificed their lives. It remained for the smug, "sober
judgment" of our day to pronounce it "unattainable"--unattainable!
This, however, is a matter of small moment; for, as Whittier reminds us:
"The falsehoods which we spurn today were the truths of long ago"--and
although men part reluctantly with favorite--and lucrative--fallacies,
and "Faith, fantastic Faith, once wedded fast to some dear falsehood,
hugs it to the last," nevertheless this false belief, like so many other
sapient pronouncements of human wisdom, must be subjected to final
reversal.
The ideal state of health is, truly, "unattainable" when we refuse to
yield obedience to the simple laws of nature--when we continuously
persist in interference with her work and embarrass her with artificial
substitutes, defying her august hygienic precepts by our manner of life.
Not so, however, if we yield to her inducements, fulfil her
requirements, and submit ourselves freely to her unerring will.
There is less of fault than of weakness in the fact that so many of us
fail to give nature the opportunity to rear us as healthy men and
women, to keep us more free than we are from suffering and disease.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness and follow on the lines of the veriest
simplicity.
The preservation of health must needs, then, move along these self-same
simple lines.
It is ignorance, in most cases, rather than unwillingness that brings
upon the race the punishment we call disease.
But how can they be expected to learn who have no teacher? And how can
they teach who are themselves untaught?
It is incumbent upon those who have acquired knowledge to impart
life-saving truths, and _there is no greater benefactor of his kind than
he who reduces life's problems to their simplest terms_.
"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under
the shadow of the Almighty." Such is the dictum of King David, the
psalmist, as expressed in the Hebrew Scriptures.
All that man's intellect can conceive of the Almighty is bounded by its
expression in Nature.
It is neither arrogant, nor irreverent, then, to claim with reasonable
confidence that the devoted service of long years of close application
to research in Nature's secret dwelling-place may entitle such an one to
share the guidance of the Almighty mind and inspire him to share its
favours with his fellow man.
* * * * *
This then, the Author of this brochure, realizing vividly and with
sympathy, humanity's sore need, has been constrained to formulate, for
the benefit of those desirous to learn;--a means of enlightenment
suitable and accessible to all. For although, to quote from Goethe,
whose transcendent mind was almost omniscient in all mundane things:
"Allwissend bin ich nicht; doch viel ist mir bewusst."
(Omniscient am I not, though much I know.)
Yet "Unity is strength," and in conjunction with associated minds, such
knowledge as I have may amply suffice to save many a sad sufferer from
hereditary doom.
The scheme, or, to be more explicit, the Club, I purpose to inaugurate,
is fully expounded in detail in the succeeding pages.
THE DARE TO BE HEALTHY CLUB
All other things the mandate, "must", obey,
Man only has the power, "I will", to say.
(After Schiller.)
(M.B.)
Thoughtless and imitative, men follow custom, careless where it may
lead, and unconsciously imitate each other.
Strong harmful habits grow, which overcome the opposing will and fickle
fashion rules where common sense should reign.
Such instances are common to us all.
A combination opposed to such influences is the force we need and for
this purpose I propose to establish a Club for the study of the ways and
means of health.
THE DARE TO BE HEALTHY CLUB.
The Club will be comprised of those who desire to pursue a course of
Health Study by correspondence.
This combination will constitute the first and only Club of its kind in
the world.
It will unite in its membership a group of independent thinkers,
representative of all parts of the American Continent.
The purpose of the Club will be to teach the science of Regeneration--to
teach them to "dare to be healthy" according to the laws and teachings
of biology.
These teachings will consist of a two years' course in _Biology_,
dealing with its most important branches, in _Physiology_, _Anatomy_,
_Hygiene_, _Physiological Chemistry_, _Pathology_, according to
biological facts, and _Therapy_ in accordance with biological and
physical laws and precepts.
All methods of _natural healing_ will be explained in detail, including
diet, breathing exercises, and rest.
The comprehensive aim will be to inculcate the principles which govern
the process of perfect metabolism--that is to say, the changes of
nutritive matter within the body--as the means of bringing into being a
race endowed with health and beauty and therefore predestined to
happiness.
The course of instruction will be based upon the literature of science,
including certain fundamental teachings from the pen of the author of
the present pamphlet, which comprises, moreover, extracts from the
works of distinguished scholars whose theories have been tried and
tested during the last thirty-five years.
Its precepts will be based upon personal experience and actual practice,
the outcome of careful and patient observation.
The series throughout will be formulated with a view to the purpose of
graduating later from among those who follow the course, a body of
competent instructors capable of transmitting the knowledge they have
acquired to others, privately or professionally. But remember the axiom
of Cicero:
"Not only is there an art in acquiring knowledge but also a rarer
art in imparting it to others."
The first question, then, which will naturally arise in the mind of the
reader will be:
_What is This Method of Regeneration?_
The reply to this question is in reality a simple one, but in order to
explain and define the word "Regeneration" from a purely scientific
standpoint, it will be necessary to cite the results of the author's
researches and to outline his method of healing by regeneration, showing
how he purposes to lead the way from a dark past and a dull present
into a brighter future.
Before doing so, however, it may perhaps conduce to a better
understanding if I quote from the remarks of an eminent local authority
on the chemical composition of the body--a subject "new," as it appears,
to the general medical practitioner of the day though, for over a
quarter of a century freely expatiated upon by the great Biologists of
the period.
The extract is taken from a recent article by Assistant Surgeon General
Dr. W.C. Rucker, of the United States Public Health Service, and reads
as follows:
"Much of the advance of modern medicine has been accomplished through
the development of physiological chemistry which is even yet a new
science.
"Although so new, it is assuming such importance as to make it manifest
that the physiology of the future will be written largely in terms of
chemistry.
"We have come to realize that the body is in a literal sense of the
word, a chemical laboratory. The foods we eat, the fluids we drink, the
gases we breathe are complex chemical compounds which the body must
take apart and put together again in such a way that the materials may
be delivered in a shape that will enable the cells to store them. It is
then the business of the cells to utilize these materials for TISSUE
BUILDING and in the production of energy, in the form of work and heat.
The body manufactures different kinds of products, some beneficial,
others harmful. Thus for example, excessive muscular effort throws into
the bloodstream fatigue products that are poisonous. A person utterly
tired out is really suffering from acute poisoning. On the other hand,
to resist invasion by infectious diseases, the body manufactures
anti-poisons that kill the enemy germs--making in other words, its own
medicine."
The physical processes here mentioned by Dr. Rucker are fully explained
in my book, "Dare to be Healthy," chapter VI, VII, VIII, and the natural
principles involved have been practiced by me for over 30 years. I
mention the fact simply as corroborative evidence of the authenticity
and value of the work shortly to be published.
"Art may err, but Nature cannot miss,"--is an aphorism attributed to
the poet Dryden. It adequately supports Dr. Rucker's wise, significant
and timely pronouncement and reminds me of an illustrative incident
recorded in connection with the world famed physician Boerhaave of
Leyden,--Holland's chief centre of learning--who lived some 250 years
ago, when doctors knew less than at present of the circulation and
functions of the blood.
Boerhaave, it appears, conceived the idea of a sort of posthumous
pleasantry, of a distinctly lucrative nature, at the expense of his
medical brethren. Professional ignorance and popular superstition had
alike surrounded his name with a halo of mystery and he was credited
with almost miraculous powers of healing and the possession of the
Secret of Disease and Health.
At the sale of effects, following his death, there was a great gathering
of the most celebrated physicians of the day and his books and records
fetched fabulous prices. But one special tome, ponderous, silver-clasped
and locked, entitled: "Macrobiotic, The True and Complete Secret of
Long, Healthy Life," was the cynosure of every avaricious eye. The
auctioneer shrewdly reserved it until the last. Amidst a scene of
unparalleled excitement and competition the Great Book was at length
knocked down to a famous London physician for no less a sum than seven
thousand Gulden. When opened with eager anticipation before the
disappointed bidders, its pages were found to be blank--with one
exception. Upon this one was inscribed in the handwriting of Boerhaave
himself, only these ten words:
"_Keep the head cool, the feet warm, the bowels open._"
Turning to an excited audience it was thus the great London authority
spoke:
"I once heard it said that the world is simple; that health is simple;
that it is the folly of man that causes all complications, and that it
is the delicate task of the true physician to reduce everything to its
original simplicity. Heaven knows that our great Master, Boerhaave, has
solved life's problem. To me this truth is well worth the 7,000 Gulden I
pay to secure it; while to you, my friends, who have travelled from
distant parts of the globe in search of it, receive from me the legacy
of our Master and also be, likewise, content."
The moral that this story teaches is the same eternal lesson of all
time, as expressed through the medium of Biology: that not by art or
artifice can health be cheaply snatched at will from the Infinite
Sources of Life, but that by consistently following the guidance of
Nature's Laws the healthy functions of the human organism may alone be
correctly maintained, or, when driven by ill-treatment into decline, it
is the rational scientific assistance we afford to the efforts of
Nature, by which alone we may hope to re-establish that normal condition
of health. For, in the worthy words of Wordsworth I may say: "So build
we up the being that we are."
The writer does not claim for this method so great a degree of
simplicity. But he does base it upon the same truth that simplicity and
a return to natural conditions are the only ways of effectively healing
the diseased body.
Guided by the great masters of biology and physiological chemistry, his
object has been to determine the elements of which the twelve main
tissues of the human body are composed and to learn in what manner these
tissues suffer from the various diseases which attack them.
Were I desirous of emulating the illustrious Boerhaave, I might
concentrate my work into these few words: _Supply the system with the
necessary constituents of its tissues and at the same time assist the
organism by means of simple and natural appliances, and REGENERATION
will continue until the desired physiological condition is reached._
In so doing, I fear, I should bequeath but little to the comprehension
of humanity.
I desire that all shall benefit by the diligent research work of my
life. I desire to leave my legacy to humankind clearly and distinctly
defined, in rules carefully expressed in the Course of Study I have
prepared.
I do not expect them to be accepted without controversy. Nor do I look
for gratitude from those whom I seek to benefit. I have no delusions and
the satisfaction of having delivered my message will be my sole reward.
I can only trust in this more enlightened age, that history as poetized
by Pope may not repeat itself:
"Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land?
All fear, none aid you, and few understand."
My solace, even so, for the nonce would be the knowledge of life and
health restored to the faithful, though, comparatively, few and the
confidence that truth must, in the issue, at length prevail, convincing,
victorious over all.
Before proceeding further I wish it to be distinctly understood that it
is no part of my scheme or intention to seek in any way to eliminate the
physician.
As there are, in fact, no two human organism exactly alike, so also is
there divergence, more or less, in each individual case, in disease; and
however apparently similar the symptoms may be, the knowledge and
experience of a physician becomes necessary in order to determine
correctly what the ailment is and how general principles should be
applied in each particular case.
On the contrary, I purpose to explain fully the secret causes of disease
and their removal, in pursuance of the belief held in common with
fair-minded physicians the world over, that a better knowledge of the
human organism and hygiene on the part of the layman, would be of equal
advantage alike to physician and patient.
Drawing aside the veil from professional secrecy and allowing the
patient to know the why and the wherefore of things, means positive
success for my hygienic-dietetic system of healing, because it is the
only system which can ultimately survive in the light of general
knowledge and wisdom.
No knowledge, no precautions, will always prevent disease. It is the
natural incidence of the law of cause and effect that man, collectively,
cannot expect to go through life unmolested by disturbances of health.
From the very outset the tendency to disease is inherited; and indeed
today, although we have now learned how to combat the enemy, yet
opposing hosts are seen to be so vast and strongly entrenched about us
that we realize to some extent the years that must elapse before mankind
can be entirely set free from his hideous heritage, the harvest sown by
past ignorance, deception and neglect.
But, from the malignant evil of internecine strife Universal Good is
rising with an awakened nation's cry--a cry for freedom and release from
the ever-lengthening chains of pernicious interests and obsolete
institutions. The moment of release is at hand: That pyschological
moment of which James Russell Lowell sings:
"Once to every man and nation
Comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood,
For the good or evil side."
And knowing what the People know--they who have borne so long, in grimly
impotent silence, under the guise of Freedom, the fortunes of the
slave--can we for one moment doubt what view their lawful, reasoning
demand for redress will take and whether or no it will prevail? The
hundred million voices of the Union sternly answer: NO!
In effecting this release, so far as the Science of Healing is
concerned, my system, which I claim to be entirely original, will be
found particularly efficacious, for it presents plainly and
convincingly, in the light of the most recent discoveries, the truth
that _all constitutional diseases are but the variations of one basal
deficiency_; that the entire art of rational healing lies in a knowledge
of the component parts of the body tissues, in a determination of the
tissues involved in the process of degeneration in each specific
instance, and in the subsequent treatment thereof by means of supplying
to the blood the elements necessary to regenerate the tissues in
question.
From this brief explanation may be judged the importance of the
hygienic dietetic physician in cases of sickness. The quack and
charlatan it is who persuade people to believe that they do not need the
physician, and compel them to pay for this belief in money and in
health. It is the obvious duty of every one to seek aid in case of
sickness from some physician who is a profound and professed advocate of
the only sensible, practical method of treatment; but, at the same time
I would make it possible for all to acquire sufficient knowledge to
enable them to judge for themselves whether the attendant summoned
responds in some measure to this requirement, the simple and logical
course of which contains at least some ray of hope for all who suffer.
* * * * *
It may not be amiss to cite here a brief outline of the teachings of the
four bright particular stars who have served as beacon lights in the
history and development of medicine. Not only does the modern medical
world acknowledge the doctrines of these four men as the foundation upon
which the practice of healing has been raised to a science, but
moreover,--_a point much more important for our consideration_,--it
also admits that the least essential part of the work of Hippocrates,
the "Father of Medicine;" namely, his _statement of theory_, is the part
which has been accorded permanent prominence, whilst the portion of
greatest value in his labours; that is to say, the _practical part_, has
been neglected and ignored.
The following passages are taken from the article entitled "History of
Medicine" in the Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th. Edition, vol. XVIII,
pages 42-51.
"_Hippocrates_, called the 'Father of Medicine,' lived during the age of
Pericles, (495-429 B.C.), and occupied as high a position in medicine as
did the great philosophers, orators, and tragedians in their respective
fields.
His high conception of the duties and position of the physician and the
skill with which he manipulated the materials that were at hand,
constituted two important characteristics of Hippocratic medicine.
Another was the recognition that disease, as well as health, is a
process governed by what we call natural laws, learned by observation,
and indicating the direction of recovery. These views of the 'natural
history of disease' led to habits of minute observation and careful
interpretation of symptoms, in which the Hippocratic school excelled and
has been the model for all succeeding ages, so that even now the true
method of clinical medicine may be said to be the method of Hippocrates.
One of the important doctrines of Hippocrates was the healing power of
nature. He did not teach that nature was sufficient to cure disease, but
he recognized a natural process of the humours, at least in acute
disease, being first of all _crude_, then passing through _coction_ or
digestion, and finally being expelled by resolution or crisis through
one of the natural channels of the body. The duty of the physician was
to 'assist and not to hinder these changes, so that the sick man might
conquer the disease with the help of the physician.'"
"_Galen_, the man from whom the greater part of modern European medicine
has flowed, lived about 131 to 201 A.D. He was equipped with all the
anatomical, medical, and philosophical knowledge of his time; he had
studied all kinds of natural curiosities and was in close touch with
important political events; he possessed enormous industry, great
practical sagacity, and unbounded literary fluency. At that time there
were numerous sects in the medical profession, various dogmatic systems
prevailed in medical science, and the social standing of physicians was
degraded. He assumed the task of reforming the existing evils and
restoring the unity of medicine as it had been understood by
Hippocrates, at the same time elevating the dignity of medical
practitioners.
In the explanation and healing of diseases he applied the science of
physiology. His theory was based upon the Hippocratic doctrine of
humours, but he developed it with marvelous ingenuity. He advocated that
the normal condition of the body depended upon a proper proportion of
the four elements, hot, cold, wet and dry. The faulty proportions of the
same gave rise, not to disease, but to the occasions for disease. He
laid equal stress upon the faulty composition or dysaemia of the blood.
He claimed that all diseases were due to a combination of these morbid
predispositions, together with injurious external influences, and thus
explained all symptoms and all diseases. He found a name for every
phenomenon and a solution for every problem. And though it was precisely
in this characteristic that he abandoned scientific methods and
practical utility, it was also this quality that gained for him his
popularity and prominence in the medical world.
However, his reputation grew slowly. His opinions were in opposition to
those of other physicians of his time. In the succeeding generation he
won esteem as a philosopher, and it was only gradually that his system
was accepted implicitly. It enjoyed great, though not exclusive
predominance until the fall of Roman civilization."
"_Thomas Sydenham_, (1624-1689) was well acquainted with the works of
the ancient physicians and had a fair knowledge of chemistry. Whether he
had any knowledge of anatomy is not definitely known. He advocated the
actual study of disease in an impartial manner, discarding all
hypothesis. He repeatedly referred to Hippocrates in his medical
methods, and he has quite deservedly been styled the English
Hippocrates. He placed great stress on the 'natural history of disease,'
just as did his Greek master, and likewise attached great importance to
'epidemic constitution,' that is, the influence of weather and other
natural causes on the process of disease. He believed in the healing
power of nature to an even greater degree than did Hippocrates. He
claimed that disease was nothing more than an effort on the part of
nature to restore the health of the patient by the elimination of the
morbific matter.
The reform of practical medicine was effected by men who advocated the
rejection of all hypothesis and the impartial study of natural
processes, as shown in health and disease. Sydenham showed that these
natural processes could be studied and dealt with without being
explained, and, by laying stress on facts and disregarding
_explanations_, he introduced a _method_ in medicine far more fruitful
than any discoveries. Though the dogmatic spirit continued to live for a
long time, the reign of standard authority had passed."
"_Boerhaave._ In the latter part of the seventeenth century a physician
arose (1668-1738) who was destined to become far more prominent in the
medical world than any of the English physicians of the age of Queen
Anne, though he differed but little from them in his way of thinking.
This was _Hermann Boerhaave_. For many years he was professor of
medicine at Leyden, and excelled in influence and reputation not only
his greatest forerunners, Montanus of Padua and Sylvius of Leyden, but
probably every subsequent teacher. The Hospital of Leyden became the
centre of medical influence in Europe. Many of the leading English
physicians of the 18th century studied there. Boerhaave's method of
teaching was transplanted to Vienna through one of his pupils, Gerard
Van Swieten, and thus the noted Vienna school of medicine was founded.
The services of Boerhaave to the progress of medicine can hardly be
overestimated. He was the organizer and almost the constructor of the
modern method of clinical instruction. He followed the methods of
Hippocrates and Sydenham in his teachings and in his practice. The
points of his system that are best known are his doctrines of
inflammation, obstruction, and 'plethora.' In the practice of medicine
he aimed to make use of all the anatomical and physiological
acquisitions of his age, including microscopical anatomy.
In this respect he differed from Sydenham, for the latter paid but
little more attention to modern medicine than to ancient dogma. In some
respects he was like Galen, but again differed from him, as he did not
wish to reduce his knowledge to any definite system. He spent much time
in studying the medical classics, though he valued them from an
historical standpoint rather than from an authoritative standpoint. It
would almost seem that the great task of Boerhaave's life a combination
of ancient and modern medicine, could not be of any real permanent
value, and the same might be said of his Aphorisms, in which he gave a
summary of the results of his long experience. And yet it is an
indisputable fact that his contributions to the science of medicine form
one of the necessary factors in the construction of modern medicine."
* * * * *
These extracts represent the principles of that bright constellation of
Master Minds who have gone before us and guided our footsteps through
tedious and tentative wanderings into the pathway of Truth. May their
undoubting, united testimony act as a reassuring, convincing influence
which will carry the reader back to the very fountain head of Medical
jurisprudence, through the medium of the Encyclopedia Britannica, the
highest accepted authority and criterion of authenticity in the English
speaking world; for, at the same time it will also provide a positive
and perfect safeguard and assurance of the solid basis and absolute
authenticity of my methods and teachings besides indicating definitely
the source and direction whence they are derived and establishing their
classical trend and legitimate purpose.
SYSTEM OF REGENERATION
In order to bring the entire system of regeneration under review, I
shall here endeavour to present in condensed form all the essential
points in my teachings. The reader will thus be enabled to picture to
himself his body, with its vital organs, clearly as in a mirror; he will
become familiarized with its composition and twelve principal tissues,
as well as with the sixteen elements of which they consist.
Man is a unit, and the human body an accumulation of millions of
separate cells, which are centres of life and which, in different
groupings and combinations, form the various organs that render
existence possible.
This existence is the natural sequel of the existence of former human
beings. They generated the life that is to be transferred by us to other
living beings.
The several functions of the organism combine to form a chain of
activities in which there must not be a single link missing, if life is
to continue.
These activities are comprised within an accumulation of cells which
are by no means stationary, for life means nothing more than the
constant dying, of the old cells and the reconstruction of the new. It
means that the human body as a whole is continually in a state of
composition and decomposition.
Not until the accumulation of cells we call the body is recognized as
one complete correlated and inseparable entity and the absolute
interdependence of the separate cells, each one upon the others, is
likewise accepted as the verified fact that it is--not until then will
the erroneous and obsolete idea be discarded, by which the various
organs of the body have been professionally treated as separate and
independent considerations, even to the extent of being dealt with, in
cases of disease, as totally aloof from one another and conveniently
classed as proper subjects for submission to the expert opinion of that
superior class of physicians who devote their attention exclusively to
special organs and are accordingly termed "Specialists."
Thus the question arises: What is the cause of _disease_? The question
does not apply to any one particular form of disease or class of
diseases, but to disease generally, as a concrete term meaning any
disorder which may manifest itself by individual disturbances in the
body; for such disturbance is but a variation in quantity or quality of
one general disturbance, a variation in the mechanism that controls the
work of keeping the existing cells in proper condition and replacing
those cells which are constantly being destroyed. It is a variation in
the process of _regeneration, which we term life_.
METABOLISM is the process which is constantly going on in the human
system, whereby the cells that have been consumed by oxidation are
removed through the excreta--the faeces, the urine, the perspiration,
and the exhalations from the lungs--to be replaced by new ones.
_Metabolism_, means change of matter. It signifies the course by which
nutritive material, or food, is built up into living matter. This
process is accomplished through the blood, which distributes the
necessary material to all parts of the body where cells need to be
replaced and carries away the consumed portions.
In the marvelous performance of its functions, when properly supplied,
it carries the elements that are essential to regeneration in the
correct proportions. When not properly supplied, these proportions
become incorrect and foreign formations may arise which are disturbing
to the organism.
In nature there is a constant tendency to counterbalance disturbances in
the proper proportion and by distribution of cell building material to
restore the normal condition. We may thus speak of the overwhelmingly
curative tendency of nature.
Metabolism is the function of the body which most constantly requires
attention. So, therefore, it is always through the blood that we must
assist nature in the process of counterbalancing and rectifying or
healing abnormal conditions.
It follows then, that, despite the apparent variety in _constitutional_
diseases, they are all practically the same. They are all disturbances
of metabolism through some irregularity in the quantitative or
qualitative condition of the blood.
Professor Jacob Moleschott, the great physiologist, has crystallized
this truth in the immortal words: "One of the principal questions to be
always asked of the physician is this: How may good healthy and active
blood be obtained? View the question as we may, we shall be forced to
acknowledge openly and explicitly or guardedly and indirectly that our
volition, our sensations, our strength, and our pro-creative powers are
dependent upon our blood and our blood upon our nutrition."
If such unity exists, why then the great difference in the human organs?
How is it that a bone in its stonelike hardness is essentially the same
as the exquisitely sensitive eye?
This is owing to the adaptive property of the cells, in the course of
their enormous accumulation, to different functions, which, again,
depends upon the varied arrangement of the constituent elements. These
elements all find lodgement in the blood, and are carried by it in
necessary quantities to the points where they are needed to assist the
organs in replacing consumed matter.
The difficulty found in grasping this idea of _unity_ has led to the
most momentous errors in modern medical science.
One result has been the undue attention paid to the study of anatomy,
insomuch that the different organs are regarded as wholly distinct
groups of cells. This is convenient from a descriptive standpoint, but
it tends too much to draw attention away from the source of life, and of
health. Only by noting the common characteristics of the cell
accumulations termed organs, are we enabled to supply the necessary
elements that may be lacking. And thus we arrive at the subject of _the
chemical analysis of the human body_ and its various organs, a subject
that has been badly neglected throughout the centuries.
It has been determined that the entire human body consists of a certain
number of chemical elements, appearing in different aggregations in
different parts. These aggregations repeating themselves in the various
organs.
Twelve principal aggregations of chemical elements have been established
and designated by the term _tissues_.
This fact led to the discovery of the truth that in the process of
healing attention must be given, not to the various organs, but to the
various tissues.
These tissues are dependent directly upon the condition and contents of
the blood, whose office it is to nourish them and which exhibits the
wonderful property of conveying to each tissue its selective
regenerative materials, _provided of course, that these elements are
present at the time in the blood_.
Sixteen definite elements have been established--and a seventeenth will
probably soon be added thereto--which, in their various combinations and
aggregations, form the different tissues of which the organs in the
human body are composed.
The prevalence of one or several of these elements in a certain tissue
forms the main or governing feature of that tissue. Thus, the prevalence
of potassium phosphate characterizes muscle tissue, the prevalence of
ammonium phosphate (lecithin) nerve tissue. Each one of the various
tissues consists of certain of these elements, and each tissue at every
point where it occurs is affected by the lack of any of its elements.
One of the greatest physiological chemists, Justus von Liebig, maintains
that, if one of the necessary elements in a chemical composition is
missing, the rest cannot fulfill their duties and the respective cells
must become diseased and degenerate.
This discovery, known as "the law of the minimum," has thrown additional
light upon the tasks before the new school of medicine.
Upon the basis of a careful diagnosis, the necessary nutritive salts or
cell-foods, carefully compounded in accordance with the law of
chemotaxis must be administered. This law discovered by _Engelmann_,
requires that these cell-foods must be administered in digestible and
assimilable forms so that the cells will be attracted by the chemical
reaction, which may be of a positive or a negative character.
This being so, we can easily build up the tissues, by studying their
chemical composition and supplying to the system that which is
necessary, in the form of food. The cell will take care of the rest.
Each tissue has its specific cell-system, and each cell will be
attracted only by those ingredients which are needed for the mother
tissue.
_To bring to a tissue through the blood the lacking constituent element
or elements is the only means of regenerating and healing diseased
cells._
In this connection we are considering only constitutional diseases.
It has been shown that the lack of certain chemical elements from the
blood signifies disease and that the variety of the disease depends on
which of the elements are either lacking entirely or are present in
incorrect proportion.
After this lack has been determined, the course to pursue in curing the
disease is to supply the lacking chemical elements in the form of
concentrated cell-food in _addition_ to the regular food.
This method displaces entirely the old system of filling the body
with poisonous drugs in order to _counteract the effects of the
disease_. Such a system may suppress the symptoms by benumbing the
nerves and preventing pain, it may counteract the natural process of
healing of which inflammation, fever and pain, are the outward
manifestations;--_but it can never cure_.
The discovery of dysaemia, or impaired blood supply, as the governing
cause of disease, has destroyed another idol of modern fetish worship in
medicine.
Since the discovery of various species of bacilli, which accompany
nearly every form of disease in some form or other, these have been
commonly declared to be the causes of diseases, and the tendency is to
find some poison that will kill the bacilli in order to cure the
disease.
The bacillus, on the contrary, is only the consequence, or symptom, of a
disease. The diseased and decomposing parts furnish fertile soil
suitable to the propagating of bacilli because of the lack of the normal
chemical elements in the blood and tissue. But to kill them, while the
underlying conditions for their reproduction remain unchanged, can,
obviously, never effect a cure. So the great hopes that have attached to
sero-therapy are doomed to disappointment, and the application of
anti-toxins prepared from the serum of animals, are fated shortly to
vanish in the wake of others of those strange temporary crazes which
periodically obsess mankind for a while and pass away.
The discovery that a dysaemic condition of the blood leads to certain
destructive processes termed diseases, was soon followed by the
apprehension that one of the principal factors in bringing about such
disturbance is _predisposition_,--in many cases heredity.
The term "Hereditary disease" signifies that the improper chemical
composition of the blood of one or both parents is transmitted to the
offspring, and that it causes in them likewise a degeneration of certain
tissues and of the organs composed of those tissues.
The hygienic-dietetic system of healing does not, however, regard
heredity as an invincible enemy, especially since my discovery of the
"Law of the Cross-Transmission of Characteristics."
It is in the solution of this problem of "hereditary disease" that my
system will eventually come into its own and will ere long be recognized
as the most rational and effectual therapy ever applied since the
beginning of the art of healing. It may be years before it is accorded
the proverbially tardy acknowledgment of the "orthodox" schools, but
that it will, nay _must_ be eventually adopted is virtually a foregone
conclusion--that is, if it be indeed the function or policy of the
physician of the future to adequately seek to succour the suffering and
regenerate the races of mankind. Of the physician of the present it can
at best be said in Goethe's incisive words:
"Er halt die Theile in seiner Hand,
Doch fehlt ihm leider das gelst' ge Band."
He holds the parts within his hand,
But lacks the mental grasp of all.
For full explanation of the significance of my law, I must refer you to
the first lecture in my book entitled "Within the Bud,"--and the lesson
therein on the theory of "Pangenesis," which space forbids my repeating
here. This lesson will convey conclusively to any thinking mind what
heredity really means. After a brief study of this interesting subject
the importance of the "Law of the Cross-Transmission of Characteristics"
will become amply apparent and the intelligent reader will undoubtedly
wonder why it has not been applied and acknowledged long ago. For
answer, I must refer you to the schools, whose policy it has ever been
to, at any rate, abstain from assisting, if not absolutely to
diplomatically hinder the development of fresh scientific discoveries.
But the time is fast approaching when a sharp and decisive end to this
iniquity will be demanded by the will of an enlightened people; only
then will the existing orthodox power be compelled to loosen its
obstructive grip which the interests of humanity have, so far, been
powerless to unclasp. But, to quote the stirring words of one who looked
with prophetic, faithful eye into the tangled problems of futurity:
"The people will come into their own at last,--
God is not mocked for ever."
My Law of the Cross-Transmission of Characteristics may be simply stated
as follows:
Under all conditions, the matter of sex is determined in the egg-cell at
the moment of fertilization.
Under all conditions, the sex is determined by a struggle for the
mastery in the egg-cell, between the energy of that egg-cell and the
energy of the male spermatozoon. In a crisis, when the life of one of
the two seeds is trembling in the balance, one of them--through the
exertion of its "Latent Reserve Energy," dominates, and engenders a
child of the opposite sex. This reversal of the sex is in conformity
with the Law of the _Cross-Transmission of Sex_; that is, the mother is
represented in the male offspring and the father in the female,--this
being the normal expression of the Law of Cross-Transmission of
Characteristics.
The "Latent Reserve Energy" is provided by nature for the "Preservation
of Species," and through this provision an impulsive, vehement energy
can, at the final moment of a crisis, be called upon for the salvation
of its kind.
A _seeming_ exception to this is due to the "Law of the Dominant" which
overrides the action of "Latent Reserve Energy," and is a provision of
nature for the preservation of the "Dominant," which is the most
prominent quality in nature.
When the subject is properly understood, this _seeming_ exception will
also become clear.
In the natural course, the study of heredity leads to the understanding
of _predisposition_. In other words, if you have understood heredity, it
will be easy to understand predisposition; for it means that the
protoplasm or seed, from whichever organism it may proceed, must contain
some of the salient characteristics of its ancestors, good and bad,
dominant and recessive. Not only will it contain characteristics from
father and mother, but from _all_ the direct ancestors. It is impossible
to know exactly which points will manifest themselves, but a good many
_bad_ points _may be_ eliminated by studying the ancestral line; and the
direct diseases or bad characteristics of a parent, _must be_ eliminated
by applying the Law of the Cross-Transmission of Characteristics.
For example: If the father has a certain disease or positive symptoms
of that disease, by no means create a girl, as she will certainly be
predisposed for that disease, and may pay the penalty, if "Regeneration"
is not begun early. The same principle applies to the mother. If she is
diseased, do not create a son, until "Regeneration" has been brought
about.
Furthermore, it will be possible to improve the offspring by encouraging
and promoting the good points, especially after studying and applying
the above law, as well as my law of the "Determination of the Sex at
Will."
Looking at the question from this point of view, we begin to realize the
enormous significance of my discovery. This supplies the main reason for
the study of the laws, for the "_Prevention of Diseases_."
Only when we know that every acquired characteristic may be transmitted
to the offspring will we become conscious of the _terrible
responsibility_ we assume when we reproduce offspring, and realize that
we may create more pain and suffering instead of eliminating it.
As Nature _demands_ that we reproduce ourselves or be punished for
disobeying her laws, what is to be done?
Study and follow the advice given in this book, and you will awake to
the fact that Nietsche's words were not "Utopian" when he commanded us
to "reproduce something better than we are."
Together with the predisposition to disease, the child also acquires the
hereditary tendency to regeneration; and thus rational hygienic-dietetic
treatment may be able to eliminate the diseases which were formerly
pronounced incurable. This can only be effected by the effort to remove
the cause and strengthen the weak points by means of Regeneration.
The reader will now plainly understand that in order to heal, according
to the hygienic-dietetic system, the blood must be supplied with the
chemical elements that are missing from the tissues.
There are three ways of accomplishing this; namely, by diet, by
nutritive preparations, and by physical treatment.
The first and most natural way is by means of proper diet.
Since the chemical elements are introduced into the body through the
food, the quantity and quality of the food must be regulated. The
patient must receive food that will help in regenerating his blood;
particularly such food as contains the elements that are lacking in the
affected tissues in his body.
The regular supply of food is however usually insufficient to overcome
the process of destruction, and it is therefore necessary to add the
missing elements in purer form and larger quantity. These nutritive
preparations contain only such chemical elements as exist in the human
body; they also contain them in the proper chemical proportion and are
entirely free from poisonous substances. They promote a general
regeneration of the blood that will eventually lead to a complete cure.
Physical treatment may be made to assist the proper circulation of the
blood, opening at the same time the pores of the skin for the withdrawal
from the body of disease elements and the introduction of desirable
material. Massage, gymnastics, ablutions, and various kinds of baths and
packs constitute the most of the healing measures of this description
resorted to.
This is indeed the legitimate field for Osteo-Chyropractice.
In order to understand the method of treatment which I apply, it is
necessary to understand one of the great laws of physiological
chemistry, acknowledged as such by the great masters of chemistry, such
as Liebig and Hensel.
This law demonstrates that _nature is a unit, its component parts a
given number of elements, each of which has distinct qualities, and the
combination of which produces the various manifestations of life_.
These elements are classified as combining to form minerals, plants and
animals. They are all closely interrelated. The plant draws the mineral
elements from the soil, and after certain processes of combination,
conveys them as food to the animal. The animal substances that man
consumes make up the balance of the elements that are required to build
up the human body.
It is a matter of comparatively new discovery that the minerals are just
as important a part of the human body and of its food as the other basic
chemical elements. The discovery showing of what minerals the necessary
ingredients of the different body tissues are composed and in what
combination and quantity, in order that they may become incorporated
into the organism, has made it possible to supply them to the diseased
body in the purest and most effective way through nutritive
preparations, while their existence in food also furnishes an indication
as to the regulation of diet.
I have already given, in the preceding pages, the frank expression of
favourable opinion upon this vital topic generally, as voiced with
unmistakable, conviction by no less an authority than Assistant
Surgeon-General, Dr. W.C. Rucker of the United States Public Health
Service. I will now cite, in further corroboration, the opinion of the
distinguished Editor of "The Fra," as addressed to myself personally, in
special relation to an advance section of the book "Dare to be Healthy,"
together with other similar matter, and which, coming as it does from
one who is himself a leader in the van of the advancing phalanx of the
followers of Truth and Enlightenment, may be safely held to constitute a
just criterion of the literary and technical value of the work. It is
expressed as follows:
_From John T. Hoyle, Managing Editor of "The Fra."_
"From my reading of your 'Lessons,' and especially from 'Dare to be
Healthy,' I can see that you have evolved a new concept in
medicine, or rather 'Nature Healing,' which promises great results.
I trust you will be able to put the whole into a printed book that
we may all have the benefit of your discoveries. Unlike most
physicians, while you treat of the most profound and vital
scientific subjects, your language is so well chosen and your
method of presentation is so clear, that no intelligent person
would have difficulty in following your thought. You have
undertaken a monumental work, and that success may attend your
efforts is our heartfelt wish."
_From Elbert Hubbard._
"What I have read of it is intensely interesting and shows that you
have a keen insight into the philosophies of life."
There are other spontaneous and unexpected testimonials of an equally
encouraging and complimentary nature from men whose knowledge and
attainments entitle their opinions to the tribute of respect. These
might well be likewise added here, but for the necessary limitations of
space.
When Moses saved the hosts of Israel from starvation in the desert, by
obtaining the solid and liquid food requisite for their deliverance, he
called the name of that food "Manna." in like manner, both as a just
tribute to the success they have achieved in the past and as an earnest
of the deliverance they are destined to achieve in the future, I have
designated my preparations by a similar term and called them the
_"Dech-Manna" Nutritive Preparations_.
Although presented in so condensed a form, the preceding outline cannot
fail to inspire in the mind of the reader a vivid conception of the
simple grandeur of nature's handiwork, more especially as regards her
provisions in relation to health and disease--secrets revealed, through
microscope and alembic, to those who, in spite of organized
discouragement, have attempted to fathom the erstwhile mysteries of
human suffering and to carry hope and freedom into the hostile camps of
Fear, Disease and Death.
To bring these considerations within the comprehension of all, and to
win all, so far as possible, to the practical observance of the means
and precepts of Health and Safety is the object of the projected course
of study of which the following is the business proposition.
THE DARE TO BE HEALTHY CLUB
BUSINESS PROPOSITION
The course of study in connection with the above consists of
A SERIES OF ONE HUNDRED LESSONS
to be issued in weekly instalments, the whole course to extend over a
period of two years.
Each lesson will consist, approximately, of some twenty-two to
twenty-five full-sized pages (i.e. 25/28 lines of 8/12 words each) which
will be mailed to every subscriber weekly prepaid.
It is necessary, in view of contingent expenses that a membership of
_One thousand subscribers_ should be obtained, as only when such an
amount of support is guaranteed would the printing of the hundred
lectures under the easy and advantageous terms offered be at all
justified.
If, however, it should be represented to me by those most immediately
interested, that it is their desire to Confine the Club to narrower
limits, I might, though with some reluctance, consider the advisability
of reducing the minimum membership to _One hundred students_ provided
that these should agree to contribute the sum total of the fees for the
two years course in advance.
With every twentieth lesson will be forwarded to the subscriber, gratis,
one of five well bound volumes of superior literary attraction and
interest.
These five volumes are as follows:
ATLAS OF HUMAN ANATOMY (profusely illustrated with coloured plates
and containing folding manikin) especially compiled for the
student.
MANUAL OF PHYSIOLOGY, especially compiled for the student.
MANUAL OF PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY, especially compiled for the
student.
MANUAL OF BIOLOGICAL THERAPY, Dechmann's system, (500 pages).
MEDICAL DICTIONARY (pocket edition in flexible leather with gilt
edges, giving 30,000 definitions.)
At the end of the course each student in good standing, will receive
free of cost a Membership Diploma in the form of a beautifully artistic
colour plate, the facsimile of which will appear herewith.
"Within the Bud; the Procreation of a Healthy, Happy, and Beautiful
Child of the Desired Sex, by L. Dechmann, Biologist." This is a book of
302 pages, the paper bound edition retailing at $3.00, the edition de
luxe at $5.00, can be obtained at any book store or direct from the
author.
The above literature cannot be otherwise procured, and its cost actually
amounts to nearly one-half the subscription for the entire course of
lessons.
At the close of the course a beautiful engraved cover design for binding
the 100 lessons may be obtained at the price of $1.00.
Separate file binders and perforators for the lessons, each cover
holding some 300 pages, may be obtained at the nominal cost of about 50
cents each; one of these will be delivered free with the first lesson.
CELL-FOODS.
In addition to these advantages, all members of the Club will be
entitled to procure any supplies they may need of the Dech-Manna
Cell-Foods at special (wholesale) prices.
LOUIS DECHMANN.
_Biologist and Physiological Chemist._ 127 North 59th Street, Seattle,
Wash., U.S.A.
THE BASIS OF PROCEEDINGS _of_ THE DARE TO BE HEALTHY CLUB
In the ensuing pages I shall endeavour to give the reader a necessarily
brief and cursory, glance into the subjects which will form the
underlying motif of the vast and manifold deliberations which will
constitute the fundamental basis of the projected course of study which
will be brought under the consideration of the members of the proposed
association and will constitute the schedule, as it were, of the
periodical dissertations of these matters of world-wide and vital
individual significance to be comprised in the Series of One Hundred
Lessons.
I have been at some pains to avoid as far as possible the use of
technical and professional phrases and terminology, for the express
purpose of bringing within the scope of every faculty of understanding
these subjects which are equally _a matter of life and death importance_
to every man, woman and child, in all the wide and varied range of
nationalities and languages which constitute so large a part of our
great Republic and upon whose health and efficiency so much of our
national life depends.
The great and ominous unrest, so much in evidence of late, is ample
proof of a latent popular dissatisfaction with the conditions of life
and it is equally significant of the prevailing nervous tension--the
obvious result of malnutrition of the system--which is one of the most
prominent popular features of the worry-worn denizen of today.
Life, Health, Happiness--that vital interdependent triad--are surely a
preoccupation strong enough and precious enough to startle the minds of
the most complacent; and it is with the object of awakening all to their
possibilities--in health or in disease--of protection of the one, and
hope and regeneration under the other, that the course of study has been
inaugurated of which the following is but a bare outline.
MAN AS A UNIT.[A]
The human body is an accumulation of millions of separate cells, which
are the bearers of life, and which in various groups form the different
organs, the combined action of which constitutes our individual
existence.
This existence itself is the natural issue of the existence of our
predecessors, who generated the new life which will be transmitted by us
and reappear in our offspring.
In like manner all the functions of the body form an endless chain in
which not a single link must be faulty or missing, if healthy organic
life is to continue.
This accumulation of cells, however, is by no means inactive. On the
contrary, organic life is nothing but the constant dying of the old and
the reconstruction of new cells; it means that we are in a perpetual
condition of composition and consequently of decomposition throughout
our entire being, its different parts and organs.
As soon as we are able to recognize this accumulation of cells as one
individual whole and thus arrive at the idea of their absolute
interdependence, we shall get rid of the prevalent idea, that the mere
structural differences between the respective organs of the body make
them separate and independent things which may be treated irrespective
of one another in case of disease, or dealt with by different
specialists.
We arrive then at the one great question: _What is the cause of
disease?_ Not of one or other form of disease or class of diseases, but
of disease as a whole.
_There is, in fact, only one disease._
What appear to us as different disturbances of the normal condition of
our body, are only variations, in quantity or in quality, of the one
thing. It is the variation of the controlling element which performs the
necessary work of keeping the existing cells in proper condition and
replacing those which in the course of nature are destroyed. In a word,
the work of _perpetual regeneration, which is life_.
METABOLISM.
This continuous changing of the entire human body,--the removal of the
discarded cells, burned up by oxidation and expelled from the body in
the urine, the perspiration and other excretions, and their replacement
by new ones,--is called metabolism, that is, "change of matter."
This change is brought about by means of a vital fluid in the body,
which circulates from the moment in which the spermatozoon, or male
seed, touches the female egg in the womb of the mother, until the time
of our last breath. That fluid is _the blood_,--the carrier of nature's
supplies to all parts of the body for the rebuilding of cells; the exact
and equitable distributor in quantities of material which determines the
quality of the cells.
In its marvelous performance of this function, the blood is the bearer
of the sole existing condition of health; namely the necessary elements
of cell-building in the right proportions.
This is health, and the lack thereof is disease.
The demand of nature for upbuilding and rebuilding is the strongest
instinctive impulse of our being; and this being so, a wrong proportion
may cause the upbuilding of things which are different and disturbing to
the normal organism.
But, on the other hand, kindly nature exhibits an ever existent
inclination to counterbalance any disturbance in the right proportion,
and to bring back conditions to uniformity.
We may thus justly speak of _the overwhelming healing tendency of
nature_.
Metabolism is, therefore, the one great dominant function of the body
which, accordingly, must have our especial care.
It is the blood, consequently, to which alone we can resort if we desire
to assist nature in its process and tendency of balancing and healing.
This again indicates that, notwithstanding the apparent great variety of
_constitutional diseases, they are all practically one and the same
disease. They are all disturbances of proper metabolism, by some
irregularity of the quantitative or qualitative condition of the blood_.
This governing truth the great physiologist, Prof. Jacob Moleschott, has
formulated in the memorable words: "It is one of the chief questions
which humanity must always ask of the physician: how to attain good,
healthy and active blood. And, view the question as we may, all who give
it serious thought, are forced by experience to acknowledge explicitly,
or otherwise, that _our mental and physical capacity, and likewise the
power of reproduction, are directly dependent upon our blood, and our
blood on our nutrition_."
VARIETY OF ORGANS.
Why then, you may ask, if such unity exists, why this dissimilarity in
the tissues of the respective bodily organs? How is it that a bone in
its stonelike hardness is essentially the same as the infinitely tender
tissues of the eye? This difference is due to and accounted for by the
adaptation of certain portions of the immense accumulation of cells to
diverse functions, which has necessitated the variable conformity of the
supporting elements. But all of these elements are in the blood, which
carries them in the necessary quantities to the different organs to
which they belong and where they are utilized to replace used-up matter.
I do not overlook the difficulty of grasping this idea of unity.
The fact, that it is so difficult to realize, has led to the greatest
errors in present day medical science.
It seemed at first sight, so obviously necessary to study the different
organs as entirely different groups, to work out a careful system of
bones, of intestinal organs, of blood-vessels, of nerves, and so on; all
of which is of course very valuable, in its place, but only from a
descriptive standpoint.
Anatomy shows us what life has produced in the construction of a human
form, but it does not indicate the source of life, nor, consequently,
the source of health.
It is well to know the different forms of cell accumulations, which are
called organs, but if we desire to keep them in good order, we must
watch closely what is common to them all; for it is only from this point
of view, that we are able to determine the necessary, and possibly, the
lacking elements for purposes of healing.
Thus, as one of the greatest achievements of modern science, we come to
the one most vital thing, so sorely needed and yet so badly neglected
throughout the centuries: _The chemical analysis of the human body and
its different organs._
A new light has now dawned upon the subject most essential to the
inauguration of a new and effective system of healing.
The physiological chemist has at length discovered that the human body,
and every organ of that body consists of a certain number of chemical
elements, which appear in different parts in different aggregations.
These aggregations, however, repeat themselves in the various parts or
organs.
It was thus finally discovered that there are _twelve different main
aggregations of such elements_, which groups of equal elements we call
_tissues_.
Through this discovery we have arrived at the great truth that _it is
not to the purpose, in healing, to turn attention to the various organs,
but rather to the various tissues_.
The influence which can be exercised on these tissues is exercised
through the blood which nourishes all of them alike, and which has the
wonderful capacity of carrying to each of them their necessary building
and rebuilding, or regenerating materials,--_provided, of course, that
these are, as they should be, present in the blood_.
THE CONSTITUENT ELEMENTS.
Research in physiological chemistry, has so far determined that there
are sixteen definite and discernible elements--and a seventeenth is now
in course of determination--which, in their various combinations and
aggregations, form the different tissues of which the various organs of
the human body are constructed.
The preponderance of one or more of these elements in a certain tissue
forms the main or governing feature, or tissue of any organ. Thus the
prevalence of potassium phosphate forms the muscle tissue, the
prevalence of ammonium phosphate (lecithin) forms the nerve tissue.
For the purpose of general explanation it is sufficient to know that
each of the various tissues consist of some of these elements, and that
each of the tissues, at whatever part of the body it exists, is affected
by the lack of any one of these elements.
The greatest chemist of the age, Justus von Liebig, maintains that if
one of the necessary elements in a chemical composition is missing, the
rest cannot fulfil their duties, and the consequence of such deficiency
is that the cell in question must become diseased and degenerate.
This discovery, known as "the law of the minimum," has thrown an
additional reassuring light upon the practice of the new school of
medicine.
_To bring to the tissue the lacking constituent element or elements by
way of the blood is the only means of regenerating that tissue, that is,
of healing its diseased cells._
DYSAEMIA THE CAUSE OF ALL CONSTITUTIONAL DISEASES.
Within the limits of this abstract I do not propose to deal with the
disturbances in the system caused by traumatic influences, such as
wounds, etc. We are treating only of _constitutional_ diseases which,
whether of acute or of chronic character, are all caused by the lack of
such chemical elements as described.
It has been shown that the blood supplies all the chemical substances to
the different tissues, and that, consequently, it is the lack of these
elements in the blood, which causes the tissues to degenerate, or, in
other words, _the lack of certain chemical elements in the blood is
disease_.
It is, therefore, merely a question as to _which of the elements are
missing or which do not exist in correct proportion_, that determines
the different forms of disease.
When once this fact is established, the method of healing consists
mainly in supplying in the regular way, that is, _by certain additions
to the regular food_, the missing chemical elements in organic form; and
medical science has but _to determine which elements are wanting_, and
consequently, must be supplied.
_It goes without saying that in this system the old, pernicious drug
method of filling the body with various poisons to counteract the
effects or symptoms of disease, has no place whatever._ Certain
poisonous drugs may prove effective to suppress certain symptoms by
benumbing the nerves and preventing pain; they may, and do counteract
the natural process by which nature exercises her power in various ways
in the spontaneous effort to throw off disease, in the form of
inflammations, fevers or pains; _but they can never heal, or eradicate
disease_.
With the discovery of dysaemia as the governing cause of disease,
another idol of regular medicine has been cast down.
Since the discovery of the bacillus or microbe, which in varied form
accompanies nearly every variety of disease, it has become a dogma of
the at present dominant school of medicine that the various bacilli are
the actual causes of the different varieties of disease, and the
tendency has been to find some poison that would kill the bacilli in
order to heal the disease.
The truth is that the bacillus is not the cause, but the effect of
disease; in fact is nothing but another consequence or symptom of a
specific form of disease. Bacilli grow spontaneously in the ready soil
which the diseased and decomposing tissues provide, through lack of the
necessary chemical elements; but to attempt to exterminate them, while
the underlying conditions for their reproduction remain unchanged, can,
of course, never bring about healing.
And thus the high hopes and claims attached to the sero-therapy
inocculation process, the injection into the blood of anti-toxins
prepared with the serum of animals, have positively vanished.
Hundreds of thousands of human beings have perished in the course of
this delusion; but countless numbers will have cause, yet in our day,
to rejoice at the exposure of the stupid and unnatural theory, so long
legally enforced, that the introduction into the human system of such
poisonous substances could remove or overcome the natural consequences
of constitutional disease.
HEREDITY.
The discovery that a diseased condition of the blood leads to certain
bodily disturbances which we call disease, was soon followed by the
realization of the fact that one of the main conditions which bring
about such disturbances is predisposition, which in many cases is
hereditary.
"Hereditary disease" simply means that the improper chemical composition
of the blood of one or both parents has become duplicated in the
offspring, and that it has similar consequences in causing the
degeneration of certain tissues, and consequently of the organs composed
thereof, as may have been the case in the parents.
It is at least reassuring to know, however, _that to the modern
hygienic-dietetic system of healing, heredity, though perhaps more
tenacious, is by no means an invincible enemy_.
With a predisposition to disease the child acquires also the hereditary
tendency to self-protection, and thus rational hygienic-dietetic
treatment may be able to eliminate, in a comparatively short time, the
chain of diseases which in former years, generations have carried
hopelessly to the grave.
HEALING.
It has been already stated that healing, under the modern
hygienic-dietetic system, means supplying to the blood such chemical
elements as will replace what are missing in defective tissues of the
body.
I will now outline the methods of carrying it into effect.
In a general way there are three means of doing this:
No. 1. _Diet_: The first and most natural way is by proper diet.
As the normal chemical elements are introduced into the body as
constituents of the regular daily food, the task which, in the first
place, confronts the hygienic-dietetic physician is that of regulating
the quantity, quality and description of food.
Too little importance has heretofore been given to this question and,
beyond prohibiting certain dishes and obviously detrimental viands,
little attention was paid by the average physician to the matter of the
every-day nourishment of the patient.
The hygienic-dietetic physician on the other hand, employs the utmost
care in giving to the patient everything that will help to regenerate
his blood, laying particular stress on such foods as contain the largest
proportion of the chemical elements that are missing in the affected
tissues.
No. 2. _Nutritive compositions_: The process of destruction, however,
which has to be met, in more or less advanced stages, in nearly every
case requires supply, in quantity of the pure material to compensate the
deficiency of the missing elements, beyond that which could be derived
in the ordinary way of digestion from every-day food.
To meet this difficulty, certain condensed preparations have been
devised.
These nutritive compositions contain only such chemical elements in like
chemical proportions as exist in the human body. They are of the purest
material and contain no injurious elements whatsoever, while they foster
that general regeneration of the blood which will finally bring about a
complete cure.
No. 3. _Physical treatments_: It is the object of these treatments to
assist the proper circulation of the blood; to automatically open the
pores of the skin for the external treatment of certain diseases; to
withdraw elements of disease from the body, and to introduce certain
material influences, through the pores.
Massage, gymnastics, ablutions, various kinds of baths and "packs,"
constitute the chief features of the healing methods in this department.
Following this general explanation of the system, I may now go a little
deeper into the question of the constituent elements, the tissues formed
therefrom, the degeneration of these tissues, and the species of
degeneration which constitutes the various forms of disease commonly
known to us.
After this I will give a concise and simple general idea as to how my
methods should be applied.
THE UNITY OF NATURE.
To fully understand the method of healing which I apply, it is necessary
to understand one of the great natural laws, the discovery of which by
the great chemists, Justus von Liebig and Julius Hensel, has shown us
the path along which to proceed.
This law demonstrates that, in the last analysis, _nature is a unit, a
composition of a number of elements, each one possessing distinct
qualities, the combination of which produces the various manifestations
of life_.
These are classified, for convenience, according to their main
qualities, as minerals, plants or animals.
All of them are closely interrelated and one transmits the basic
elements to the other. It is the plant which draws the mineral elements
from the soil, and after certain processes of composition conveys them
as food to the animal, including the human being, while such animal
substances as are used for human food, contribute the balance of the
elements for the upbuilding of the human body.
It is a matter of comparatively new discovery that minerals are thus
just as important as a component part of the body and of its food as are
other basic chemical elements.
The discovery as to the mineral constituents of the body, their nature,
proportion and in which composition and in which quantity as necessary
ingredients of the different body tissues, in order that they may become
a part of the organism, has made it possible to administer them to the
diseased body in the purest condensed and most effective way in
_nutritive compositions_, while their proportionate existence in food is
also a criterion of diet, not only for the sick, but also as a
preventative of disease.
THE CHEMICAL PROCESS OF DISEASE.
In this, my scrutiny of nature's deep designs, I did not rest content when
only the composition of all the tissues of the body had been laid bare; but
I delved deeper and discovered that certain electric currents and reactions
of these elements were the causes of accelerating or retarding the natural
processes of metamorphosis and metabolism,--provoking disturbances of the
normal, which express themselves as disease.
Excessive growth, and lack of growth, are thus explained, together with
other phenomena which in this short chapter it is impossible to give in
scientific detail. It is my object now merely to show that in their
apparent simplicity the manifestations of life require special technical
knowledge such as cannot be expected of the layman in any adequate
degree.
Notwithstanding this free and open statement of cause and cure available
to the patient and to the world at large, the hygienic-dietetic
physician himself can by no means be dispensed with in case of the
appearance of disease, for only by his knowledge, experience, and
skilled advice can the aforesaid natural system of healing be applied
with effect in each individual case. And here it must always be borne in
mind that, of the countless individual organisms that this world
contains, no two, even, are exactly alike; and that consequently only
the skilled and accustomed practitioner =will be able to regulate such
hidden, internal processes as cause the visible disturbance, and thus
bring about healing and regeneration, which simply means a return to the
normal=.
=His methods will prevent the use of the surgeon's knife, which only
removes the symptom, leaving the cause untouched and inflicting useless
and irreparable harm. The specialist, with his poisonous specific
remedies for forms of disease, which after all are only degrees of
chemical exhaustion, will also disappear, together with all similar
treatment which enervates the body making it an easy prey to new attacks
of the same chemical anomalies which must and will most certainly return
so long as they are not rectified according to the principles of
biology.=
THE TWELVE TISSUES.
Bearing the above principle of unity in mind, we may now proceed one
step further, and study the most important details upon which the method
of healing, as applied by the hygienic-dietetic physician, is based.
As previously mentioned, the cells of the human body are organized into
twelve distinct tissues, some of which are the component parts of the
various organs as discernible by form and function.
These twelve tissues are the following:
1. The plasmo tissue (blood plasma).
2. The lymphoid tissue.
3. The nerve tissue.
4. The bone tissue.
5. The muscular tissue.
6. The mucous membrane tissue.
7. The tooth and eye tissue.
8. The hair tissue.
9. The skin tissue.
10. The gelatigenous tissue.
11. The cartilage tissue.
12. The body tissue in general.
1. _The plasmo tissue_: This tissue is a liquid, the blood plasma, which
is one of the important component parts of the life-giving substance,
blood. It is the blood serum--blood-water and fibrogen--which harbours
the white and the red corpuscles. The red corpuscles are the carriers of
oxygen to the various tissues, which the body draws from the atmosphere,
and of the other nutriments. They exchange it for the carbonic acid
which is forming in the body, and while the blood in flowing through the
system of arteries, brings the oxygen, it carries away, through the
veins, the poisonous carbonic acid which is exhaled into the atmosphere.
The red corpuscles, after having performed their duties, enter the liver
and are used to build the gall.
The proper quality of the plasma alone regulates the speed of blood
circulation and ensures its entrance into the finest capillaries--the
ultimate branches of the blood-vessels--hence, its capacity to carry
supplies of nutriment to the tissues. The disturbance of this proper
quality is among the main factors of constitutional disease.
2. _The lymphoid tissue_: The lymph is another of the life-giving
liquids of the body, which through a vascular system of its own, draws
certain nutritive substances from the food and carries them to certain
organs which it feeds, especially the nerves.
After this slow task is completed, the rest of the lymph enters the
blood and is carried by it to other parts of the body where only smaller
quantities of lymph are needed for nourishing purposes.
The proper quality and chemical composition of the lymph, which is
different from that of the blood, is of no less importance than that of
the plasma for the preservation and regeneration of the organism.
What the plasma is to the blood, the lymph is to the nerves.
3. _The nerve tissue_: A particular aggregation of cells forms the
nerves, which, emanating from their center in the brain and spine, run
as another separate system all through the body.
This system, however, is not one of vessels; but the nerves may best be
compared to the wires of a telephone system, establishing connection
between the remotest parts of the body and its central point, from which
the directions for both voluntary and involuntary movement are given and
transmitted through the nerves.
They are of a peculiar chemical composition in which the nerve fat
(lecithin) plays a very important part, since its frequent presence in
insufficient quantity is among the most common causes of a great number
of nervous and other diseases.
4. _The bone tissue_: The bones consist of a special and very distinct
tissue in which lime predominates. This gives them the strength and
solidity which enables them to act as support to all the other organs.
The bones too are fed by the blood, and it is through the blood that the
necessary constituent parts for the regeneration of their tissue is
conveyed to them.
While naturally their power of resistance is greater than that of any
other organ, they are nevertheless subject to a number of structural
disturbances, other than traumatic, the causes of which are sometimes
hereditary, sometimes acquired through deficient properties of the
nourishing blood.
Certain tissues which form the connection between the bones and the rest
of the organs, and the gradual transition into other tissues, are
subjects separate and distinct and will be treated separately.
5. _The muscular tissue_: As to quantity, the muscular tissue represents
the maximum of any in the human body.
The muscles do not only consist solely of this one tissue, but of
several others, as do most of the other organs; but here, as in all
other cases, the principal component element is called after the organ
in which it is chiefly found.
The structure of the muscular tissue varies according to its function,
so that we distinguish between the striated and the unstriated or smooth
muscles. This, however, has no influence on their chemical composition,
a distinctive element of which is muscular fibrin, which has the
particular property of contractibility.
6. _The mucous membrane tissue_: The mucous membrane forms the covering
of many of the organs, and its chemical and structural composition is
identical in all parts of the body.
It is characterized by a viscid watery secretion from the mucous glands,
which are always found in the mucous membrane.
Its extremely delicate nature renders it subject to all sorts of
irregularities in chemical composition.
This is the cause of numerous diseases, most of which are due either to
overproduction or underproduction of the secretion which regulates
numerous functions of the body.
7. _The tooth and eye tissue_: While very different in external
appearance, functions and physical qualities, the teeth and the eyes
have nevertheless, the most important part of their chemical composition
in common; namely, _the fluoric acid_, which distinguishes them from all
other tissues.
In the process of natural healing the replacing of any element lacking
through destructive causes in either tissue will practically be the
same.
8. _The hair tissue_: Certain chemical component elements are only
found in the tissue which is called the hair, and which receives its
nourishment like all other tissues, through the blood.
While the hair may seem to be in apparently slight connection with the
rest of the body, it is in reality, none the less an organic portion of
the same, and dependent, like the rest upon the same central system of
supply.
9. _The skin tissue_: With reference to this tissue, much the same
remarks apply as already mentioned in regard to the mucous membrane. It,
however, has certain chemical elements, which are characteristic to its
various layers.
Since the skin forms the most important intermediary between the
external elements and the chemical and structural elements of the
interior of the human body, it is of the greatest importance that its
chemical composition should always be correct, and that it should not be
subject to decomposition such as improper nourishment engenders.
It should be borne in mind that the skin, like all other organs of the
body, grows from the inside outward, so that any ailment concerning the
skin, which is not of a traumatic nature, must be based upon wrong or
insufficient nourishment, and cannot be cured in any other way than by
internal regenerative means.
10. _The gelatigenous tissue_: This tissue, chemically and otherwise
peculiar as it is, forms the chief component part of many of the human
organs, and it may be truly said that the lack of attention which its
peculiarities have received in the past is responsible for more disease
and its fatal issue than almost anything else.
The gelatigenous tissue contains a number of special component elements,
which require special nourishment through proper diet; and in view of
the fact that the gelatigenous tissue pervades so many of the various
organs, its effect upon the functional abilities of a great number of
them is obvious.
The elasticity of most organs which work by contraction and expansion,
depends entirely upon the gelatigenous, rubber-like tissue of which they
are so largely composed.
11. _The cartilage tissue_: Practically the same applies to the
cartilage tissue; but it is only recently that it has been found to what
extent this is the case.
Although entirely different in nature and chemical composition, the
cartilage tissue serves to maintain certain outlines of form and feature
in the human body, which are not based on the still stronger forms of
supporting material, such as the bone tissue and the gelatigenous
tissue.
12. _The body tissue in general_: This comprises the red blood
corpuscles and all tissues which are in any way different from the
distinct tissues just described, but which nevertheless cannot be
classified as separately and distinctly independent.
It may be justly presumed that all elements of the other tissues are to
be found in these final tissues which share the unity of the organism.
* * * * *
By devising a specially nourishing dietary system for the body tissue in
general, all component elements profit, in like degree, and such
disturbances as attack practically all the tissues and organs of the
body severally and conjointly; will be effectively prevented or cured in
the regular course of nature, in strict accordance with biological
principles.
DEGENERATION OF TISSUES.
Speaking biologically, if through some disturbance in the normal
chemical composition of the tissues, degeneration sets in, we speak of
it as disease.
Such degeneration may attack one tissue or several at the same time.
_To reduce the elements to their proper proportions, to force them
thereby to reassume their normal functions, means to restore health, or,
to heal._
As previously explained, it has been the great achievement of
hygienic-dietetic science, based on the natural laws of biology, to
discover that so many diseases which for centuries were considered as
entirely different from each other in cause and treatment, were
essentially the same. It was found that they were nothing but the
natural consequence of impure or imperfect blood, the result of
malnutrition of the vital fluid, the malign effect of which increases in
degree and manifestation the longer the impurity passes, by process of
heredity, from one generation to another.
Instead of following the natural tendency to return to the normal, the
blood becomes the fertile soil in which all manner of irregularities may
germinate in abundance, and combine in strong attacks on the normal
healthy organs, which will fast relax their natural power of resistance.
The system of natural healing, while adhering closely to the principle
of the unity of the body as well as of the unity of disease, has by no
means ignored that such differences are due to the differences in the
twelve tissues and _according to the said differences, the
constitutional diseases are grouped under the accustomed titles, as
follows_:
1. Degeneration of the plasmo tissue: Anaemia, Chlorosis,
Pernicious Anaemia, etc.
(A.) Scrofulosis.
(B.) Tuberculosis.
(C.) Syphilis.
(D.) Cancer.
2. Degeneration of lymphoid tissue: (See I.--A. B. C. D.)
3. Degeneration of the nerve tissue: Neuralgia, Neuritis,
Neurasthenia, Asthma, Epilepsy, St. Vitus's Dance, etc., etc.
4. Degeneration of the bone tissue: Rickets, Osteomalacia and
similar diseases.
5. Degeneration of the muscular tissue: Muscular Rheumatism,
Sciatica or Nerve Rheumatism, Atrophia, Amyloid heart, kidney and
liver.
6. Degeneration of the mucous membrane tissue.
(A.) Catarrh in all its forms: Bronchitis, Pleurisy, Pneumonia,
Inflammation of nose, throat, bowels, stomach, bladder, etc.
(B.) Hemorrhoids, Polyps, Adenoids.
7. Degeneration of the tooth and eye tissue: All tooth and eye
diseases.
8. Degeneration of the hair tissue: All hair diseases.
9. Degeneration of the skin tissue: All skin diseases.
10. Degeneration of the gelatigenous tissue.
(A.) Stomach and Intestinal diseases--acute forms.
(B.) Stomach and Intestinal diseases--chronic form.
11. Degeneration of the cartilage tissue: Ankylosis, Gout,
Arthritis deformans.
12. Degeneration of the body tissue in general.
(A.) Locomotor ataxia.
(B.) Basedow's disease. (Graves disease.)
(C.) Diabetes mellitus.
(D.) Obesity.
(E.) Bright's disease.
(F.) Arterio-sclerosis.
THE A.B.C. OF MY SYSTEM OF HEALING.
Setting aside for the time being the special groups of more complicated
diseases, such as are characterized by the degeneration of several of
the tissues at the same time, I will now give a short and comprehensive
description of the several distinct groups of disease. In each case, as
already shown, there must be a joint co-operation of these three
factors:
(A.) _Diet_, or the natural means of providing both healthy and
degenerating tissues alike with such substances as will support and
strengthen the healthy tissues, enabling them to resist the danger of
disease and consequent decomposition, and will also arrest degeneration
and prepare the way for the regeneration of the tissue which is already
affected.
(B.) _Nutritive compositions._ Such as will in each case introduce into
the system in a pure and proportionate combination, the necessary
quantities of the sixteen nutritive elements, the lack of which is the
characteristic factor of all disease and which diet unaided could not
adequately produce with the needful speed and proportion, unless
supplemented in this simple and effective manner.
(C.) _Physical treatment_, for the purpose of assisting the proper
distribution and assimilation of these nutritive factors--(A. and
B.)--and promoting the proper circulation of the blood.
DIET.
This is a subject of vast and vital importance. It comprises the science
of alimentation, which forms one of the indispensable functions of life;
it is thus, of necessity, a serious preoccupation under all conditions.
I have treated this important subject in my greater work with the minute
detail, which it deserves; thus, in following the advice given, therein,
in chapter XVIII, the reader will be able to ascertain the foods that
are best suited to various conditions, and how to prepare them in the
most sensible way.
At present, I can treat it only in a short and general way, giving the
principal groups of diet prescribed, with more or less variation, in
each case of disease as a part of the general treatment.
A few words may show _why_ diet plays so important a part in this system
of healing.
In the body there is a laboratory which produces spontaneously
everything necessary to maintain life.
This laboratory has various branches which are busy day and night
without interruption.
Here the life blood is created.
Prominent amongst these branches are:
The stomach with its prolonged intestines;
The liver;
The kidneys;
The lungs, and
The skin.
Each one of these branches has a distinct part, or function to perform.
The stomach serves as the sorting house. Here the food is mixed with the
gastric juice which aids digestion and dissolves those ingredients
necessary to produce blood, flesh, fat, bones, etc.
Each of the other branches receives that portion of the ingredients
needed to perform its share of the work.
A structure cannot be constructed without a frame upon which every part
depends. In order to stand erect, the body must possess such a
framework. The skeleton is the same to the body as the frame is to the
building. This frame, then, or skeleton, together with the flesh, blood,
etc. are all formed from the material furnished by the food.
A residue of the digested food is removed from the body as useless;
everything else is utilized.
The portion of the food used, therefore, must contain all those
ingredients which go to make up and maintain the body in perfect working
order.
Experience has suggested certain groups of suitable diet which for the
sake of convenience I shall enumerate under the title of _Forms No. I to
No. VI_.
These food forms contain everything of which patients may safely
partake, and from these selection, in each case, must be made.
They are as follows:
_Form I. Complete elimination of the stomach in the nourishing
process._
To allay thirst, moisten the mouth with pure or carbonized water,
melting small pieces of ice on the tongue. Small sips of water either
lukewarm or cold, according to the condition of the stomach. Otherwise,
only introduce water by clyster--i.e.--injection, and if the stomach
cannot be disturbed for more than one or two days, introduce nourishing
substances by way of the rectum.
_Form II. Purely liquid nourishment, "soup diet."_
Consommé of pigeon, chicken, veal, mutton, beef, beef tea, meat jelly
(which becomes liquid under the influence of the heat of the body,)
strained soups or such as are prepared of the finest flour with water or
bouillon, of barley, oats, rice (thick soup), green corn, rye flour,
malted milk. All of these soups, with or without any additions, such as
raw eggs, either whole or the yolk only, if well mixed and not
coagulated, are easily digested.
_Form III. Nourishment which is not purely liquid, but partly
glutinous._
Milk and milk preparations (belonging to this group on account of their
coagulation in the stomach):
(a) Cow's milk, diluted and without cream, dilution with 1-2 to 2-3
barley water, rice water, lime water, vichy water, weak tea, or pure
water.
(b) Milk without cream, not diluted.
(c) Unskimmed milk.
(d) Cream, either diluted or undiluted.
(e) All of these milk combinations with an addition of yolk of egg,
well-mixed, whole egg, cocoa, also a combination of egg and cocoa.
Milk mush made of flour for children, arrowroot, mondanin, cereal flour
of every kind, especially oats, groat soups with tapioca or sago and
potato soup.
Egg,-raw, stirred, or sucked from the shell; or slightly warmed in a
cup; any of these, either with or without the addition of a little sugar
or salt.
Biscuit and crackers, softened or well masticated and salivated, taken
with milk, mush, etc.
_Form IV. Diet of the lightest kind, containing meat, but still mainly
glutinous._
Noodle soup, rice soup.
Mashed boiled brains or sweetbread, or puree of white or red roasted
meat, in soup.
Brains and sweetbread boiled.
Raw scraped meat (beef, ham, etc.)
Lean veal sausages, boiled.
Mashed potatoes prepared with milk.
Rice with bouillon or with milk.
Toasted rolls and toast.
_Form V. Light diet, containing meat in more solid form_:
Pigeon, Chicken boiled.
Small fish with little fat, such as brook or lake trout, boiled.
Scraped beefsteak, raw ham, boiled tongue.
As delicacies: Small quantities of caviar, frogs' legs, oysters,
sardelles softened in milk.
Salted potatoes crushed, spinach, young peas mashed, cauliflower,
asparagus-tips, mashed chestnuts, mashed turnips, fruit sauces.
Groat or sago puddings.
Rolls, white bread.
_Form VI. Somewhat heavier meat diet. (Gradually returning to ordinary
food)._
Pigeon, chicken, young deer, hare, everything roasted.
Beef tenderloin, tender roast beef, roast veal.
Boiled pike or carp.
Young turnips.
All dishes to be prepared with very little fat, butter to be used
exclusively. All strong spices to be avoided.
=NOTE=:--For special dietary in all diseases, see under each separate
tissue degeneration in the succeeding Chapter on Therapy.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] In the following chapter, several important paragraphs given in the
foregoing had to be repeated as the readers who were not interested in
the "Club" proposition, would miss these points.
NUTRITIVE COMPOSITIONS
In order to convey a better understanding of these nutritive
compositions, I deem it necessary to outline and explain more
emphatically and in greater detail their wonderful scope and
possibilities, in perhaps a more impressive manner, by giving the reader
the benefit of an article entitled:
"The functions of minerals in our food
How they may be greatly increased"
Of these I have sent some 560 copies to all our Senators and
Congressmen, as well as to our chief Government Physicians, for their
information and disposition, with the intention of placing my knowledge
and equipment freely at the disposal of the United States Government. I
have made this purely disinterested proposal at this critical and trying
juncture, in the interest, first, of our war-worn soldiers; next, of our
women, enervated by unaccustomed labour and restricted means; and
lastly, of the children, born, and yet to be born of them--the future
Citizens of the Republic--all, in short, who, under stress of injury,
strain and hardship abroad, or the sometimes equally strenuous
privations of war conditions at home, may, in their respective degrees,
be suffering from nervous breakdown or depleted vitality and the various
disorders which my proffered remedial measures are so admirably fitted
to successfully overcome, bearing, as they must untold relief, comfort
and renewed health to thousands.
I have not spared expense in putting this matter fairly and fully before
the Authorities--and indeed the initial cost of so doing has already
absorbed some $300 or more. That is merely a detail. But the main point
is this: That I have offered this valuable knowledge--(practically the
work of a lifetime)--to the Nation, together with the prescriptions of
my compositions, free of cost, as an earnest of my sympathy and
goodwill; and had the Government, seen fit to accept my proposal, the
immediate effect would have been that these compounds, which at present,
through reduced manufacture and the consequent great scarcity of
chemicals (necessarily of the finest description and purity) are very
costly, would have been brought by extensive and organized production
within the reach of every citizen, removing at once that paramount
difficulty of my system, so far as the general public is concerned;
namely, the expense.
I append hereto a copy of the article referred to, together with copy of
an accompanying letter.
My dear Senator:
The disarrangement of the habits of life of our civilian
population, and the physical needs of our boys who will return from
Europe wounded and crippled, prompts me to offer my services to the
Government for the development of specially enriched foodstuffs to
maintain the health of our people under the strain of the war, but
particularly to aid in the speedy recovery of our boys who return
shattered from the trenches. I have spent more than thirty years in
the study of physiological chemistry and biology, and this study
has been devoted to the application of scientific principles in the
treatment of various diseases.
Hitherto our food experts and medical men have been satisfied with
a ration properly balanced as regards protein, carbohydrates and
fat, but the mineral salts in our food have been given little if
any serious consideration. Indeed, they have usually been dismissed
as "ash." As a matter of fact, however, as the statement I am
sending you under separate cover will show clearly, even to a
layman, mineral salts perform an important function in keeping the
body strong and healthy.
I am prepared to demonstrate that the quantity of essential
minerals in vegetables, small fruit and eggs can be multiplied
several times by scientific fertilization and nutrition. If I can
do this (and I am prepared to prove that I can) the Government
should be willing to arrange for the production of such foods in
connection with every military hospital and convalescent camp, both
here at home and behind the lines in Europe. Moreover, given a
central experimental station with proper equipment, it would be an
easy matter to train men to teach this knowledge to soldiers at
every reconstruction camp.
The statement is made by Dr. Mae H. Cardwell, of Portland, Oregon,
one of the investigators for the Federal Children's Bureau that
millions of children are suffering from lack of sufficient food and
from improper feeding, and she adds that not only the parents but
the doctors, in many cases, need education with respect to what
constitutes proper feeding for children. I think that when you have
read and digested my statement of the function of the mineral salts
in the human economy, you will agree with me that the need for just
what I am asking the government to give me an opportunity of doing
is very great indeed.
I trust that I may count upon your co-operation, not only in
getting this matter before the proper officials, but also in seeing
that an opportunity for a fair demonstration is accorded me.
The dissemination of this knowledge and the production of such
foods would make America the ALMA MATER of the world in scientific
nutrition, thanks to the application of physiological chemistry. As
things are now done in agriculture and in aviculture, however, very
little can be expected along this line.
I will give you two concrete illustrations of what can be done in
the way of augmenting the mineral content of food, and then I will
point out the significance of that fact. We will consider eggs:
ordinarily 100 grams of egg yolk contains from 10 to 20 milligrams
of iron, but eggs laid by hens fed by my method yield from 30 to 80
milligrams of iron per 100 grams of dried yolk. This is an
increase, as you see, of between 300 and 400 per cent. Such eggs
might be justly classed as haemoglobin eggs, and they would be a
godsend to our boys suffering from anaemia due to wounds or
operations. At the same time, my method of handling chickens
greatly enriches the lecithin, or nerve substance, in the eggs, and
they are, therefore, of special value in dealing with cases of
shell shock and nerve exhaustion.
What is true in the case of iron and lecithin content of eggs
produced by my method, is equally true with respect to their
content of all the other essential mineral elements; they are all
multiplied several times.
This is made possible of accomplishment by the application of the
principles of physiological chemistry to the breeding and feeding
of the poultry.
Needless to say, I am prepared to submit to the test of scientific
examination of my claims. No, not merely a theoretical examination
of myself, but, rather, to submit the claim I make for eggs
produced under my direction to the test of chemical analysis. It is
a very easy matter to determine thereby whether my claims are well
founded.
I cannot state my desire to serve the government in this way too
strongly; as I have spent more than thirty years of my life in the
study of biology and physiological chemistry, I feel that it is my
duty to offer to the Government the benefits of my knowledge and
experience. All that I can ask in this connection is to be given an
opportunity to prove that my claims are sound and practical.
I believe that you will realize the full value of such a course of
action as outlined, if it can be proven practicable. The
opportunity of offering proof under direction of the proper branch
of government is, I repeat, all that I ask at the moment, as the
results will tell their own story far more eloquently than mere
words.
Thanking you for giving this matter your attention, and trusting
that my hope of serving in the ranks of those seeking to rebuild
our boys will not prove vain, I am, Sir,
Yours truly,
L. DECHMANN.
THE FUNCTION OF MINERALS IN OUR FOOD:
HOW THEY MAY BE GREATLY INCREASED.
By LOUIS DECHMANN.
1918.
When physiological chemistry has isolated and classified the component
elements of the various organs, tissues and fluids of the body, it must
analyze and classify the vegetables, fruits and meats on which man feeds
in order that we may not only know how to arrange a perfectly balanced
ration for the healthy, but shall be able to add lacking elements to the
diet of the diseased. This classification of foods naturally leads, if
there be a deficiency of any essential element, to the analysis of the
soil on which this food was raised.
In the course of my studies in physiological chemistry and biology,
which have extended over a period of more than thirty years, I have been
led to grappel with problems in agriculture, in horticulture, and in
aviculture, for the purpose of finding solutions to problems in human
nutrition. Very early in my studies I learned the value of the mineral
elements in our foodstuffs. I was led to attempt to augment the quantity
of mineral salts in various foods, and my efforts were crowned with
success. But this is not the point, however, to enter into a detailed
discussion of that aspect of the subject.
It may be wise for the sake of clearness to divide this statement into
two parts, as follows:
1. A brief summary of the function of minerals in the human economy.
2. A short argument showing how we can and why it is imperative that we
should augment the mineral content of our vegetables, small fruits and
eggs.
In the case of eggs, for example, I am able to increase their iron
content 300 or 400 per cent. More than that, I can multiply every item
in their mineral content several times, thus producing specific eggs for
those suffering for lack of any mineral. In other words I am able to
produce special eggs for a given tissue degeneration as, for instance,
haemoglobin eggs for degenerate blood; lecithin eggs for the nerves;
calcareous eggs for the bones, and kaliated eggs for the muscle.
So much by way of preface.
I.
The following explanations are made for the purpose of showing you that
I have made extensive studies along these lines, and are not, naturally,
intended to be taken as a lesson to you personally.
There are sixteen chemical elements absolutely essential to healthy
human life, which are classified by physiological chemistry as the
elements of organic life. In the composition of vital tissues we
constantly find these basal elements: Carbon, oxygen, hydrogen,
nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, chlorine, potassium, sodium, magnesium,
calcium, iron, manganese, fluorine, silicon, and iodine. The function of
these elements will be discussed in a moment.
I would here lay stress upon the fact that the absence of the tiniest
ingredient necessary to the growth and functioning of an organ will,
according to the Law of the Minimum as laid down by Justus von Liebig,
result in disease, improper functioning and degeneration of that organ
or tissue.
Although the chemical salts constitute but a small part in the
composition of our bodies, and are a very small item in our daily diet,
their importance cannot be too strongly emphasized. They are the main
sources for the development of electro-magnetic energy in the blood and
nerves, and perform other services. I am of the opinion that "vitamines"
are neither more or less than these chemicals in proper proportion and
relation, but whether you agree or disagree with this conclusion, you
will instantly agree that the elements named above are indispensible to
perfect metabolism.
It goes without saying, of course, that no action in the world occurs of
itself, that is without impulse, hence the body must be given impulse to
growth. A series of chemical and physical facts indicate that phosphorus
plays this vital part. The property of phosphoric acid of uniting with
carburetted hydrogen to form carbonic acid and phosphureted hydrogen
certainly is of fundamental importance, as phosphureted hydrogen readily
ignites on coming into contact with oxygen. Since cerebrin consists of a
combination of phosphoric acid with gelatine which contains ammonium and
with oleine, it is easy to infer that the light of the soul may be due
to the phosphoric acid in the nerves, and still further the potassium
phosphate forming the mineral basis of the muscles. Thus we come to the
conclusion that the phosphates, combinations of phosphoric acid with
basic substances, possess in general the property of imparting the true
impulse to growth, that is to accumulation of organic matter.
Like every other structure, however, the body requires supports and
props and, above all, a firm foundation on which to rest. Iron and lime,
whose union is secured by their opposition to one another, bring into
conjunction materials of contrary disposition for the creating of
organic forms of the nature of plant and animal bodies.
The sulphuric compounds are related and yet opposed to the growth
determinating phosphoric compounds. All organic building material
(protein) contains phosphorus and sulphur, in varying proportions, and
all indications are that sulphur plays the part of a regulator in
organic growth. Just as an engine requires a governor to regulate its
pace, so the human body requires a controlling factor to ensure definite
stability. It is interesting to observe that normal blood contains about
twice as many sulphates as phosphates. When there is great scarcity of
sodium sulphate in the blood, abnormal growths develop from the
phosphatic nerve tissues, and they continue to develop so long as the
blood and lymph are deficient in sulphur, particularly the sulphates.
This is, I believe, the genesis of polyps, tumors and cancers.
In the same manner that sulphuric acid controls and regulates the
phosphoric acid of ammonium phosphate, so lime and magnesia act on the
ammonia of this same ammonium phosphate.
Phosphatic ammonium carbonate lodges in the gelatinous cartilage and
stretches it, when there is a deficiency of lime and magnesia in the
food, resulting in rickets. Such a growth of cartilaginous tissues is
controlled by lime and magnesia, as they change the pliant cartilage
into bony barriers in which small particles of magnesia combine to
produce phosphate of ammonium and magnesium which checks the further
deposit of cartilage.
Lime and magnesia are indubitably quite as effective agents in the
control of ammonia as sulphur is in the control of phosphorus. If we
consider the minerals as the foundation and mortar which give stability
to the vital machine, leaving out chlorine and fluorine, we find that
iron, manganese, potash, soda, and silicic acid play this role. Sulphur,
because it possesses the property of becoming gaseous, is able to take
part directly in the formation of albumen, that variable basis of body
material, whereas all of the other mineral substances except silicic
acid can only be assimiliated in so-called binary compounds in the form
of salts.
I will give a brief review of them, beginning with iron, as thus the
significance of augmentation of the mineral content of vegetables and
small fruits and eggs will be made much clearer.
Normal blood albumen is essentially a compound of calcium and sodium
into which iron and sulphur both enter. A deficiency of calcium commonly
makes itself known by dental defects, just as lack of sulphur reveals
itself by the falling out and poor growth of hair. Insufficiency of
iron in the blood is evidenced, apart from lack of spirit, by paleness
of face and blue lips; insufficient sodium by glandular tumors and
abnormal cartilaginous growths.
The entire amount of iron in the blood of an adult person is, on the
average under normal conditions, four grams, as much as a nickel weighs.
We may well judge that this amount is not sufficient to set the motive
power of our bodies in action, if we overlook that complex factor the
circulation of blood. The left side of the heart has the capacity of
containing about six ounces of blood, and every heart beat drives this
amount through the aorta. With seventy beats to the minute, twenty-five
pounds of blood is pumped from the heart every minute. What is the
result? That the four grams of iron keep up such an incessant movement
that they pass from the heart into the aorta sixty times an hour or 1440
times in 24 hours. It may be asserted, therefore, that in 24 hours 13
pounds of iron (that is 1440x4 grams) pass from the heart into the
aorta. Can it be doubted, in view of this, that the iron serves to
produce an electro-dynamic force?
In respect to the generation of electricity, it matters not whether
there be an entirely new supply of iron passing a given point, or
whether the same iron pass that point anew each minute. Two factors work
together in the circulation of the blood, namely, the active attraction
of nerve tissue and the passive susceptibility of the blood contents to
that attraction. Faraday has conclusively shown that blood is magnetic
in character because of the iron it contains. If four grams of iron is
the normal quantity in the blood, it is clear that the reduction of this
amount, say by two grams, will lessen its susceptibility and slacken its
circulation. The electrical nerve ends will then strain in vain for the
electricity which the blood current should yield, and the result will be
neuralgia.
It is the magnetic iron in haemoglobin which makes every sort of
nervous function possible, in the cerebral (brain) and in the
sympathetic (intestinal) tracts, and since it is thus made clear that
intellectual activity on the one hand and breathing and digestion and
excretion on the other are dependent on the iron content of the blood,
we must also recognize that, as iron attends every nerve action, the
secretion of urine too takes place under the influence of haemoglobin.
Insofar as haemoglobin hastens the departure of the excrementitious
matter in urine out of the system, there is a daily loss of iron in the
urine. This loss in the form of urohaematin may total four centigrams,
or a hundredth part of our supply.
This loss of iron if not replaced by eating suitable food will soon make
itself felt. In the course of a day the reduction by four centigrams
will diminish the energy of nervous activity about 1440 times the
apparent loss, so that even a four weeks-tropical fever, during which no
meat is eaten, may completely exhaust the strength of an individual.
Moreover, iron conditions bodily warmth as it combines with oxygen in a
higher and a lower degree. In the lungs it is highly oxidized by the
respired oxygen, but in contact with the nerve ends it gives itself only
to a part of the oxygen present, and burns a certain portion of the
lecithin to water, carbonic acid and phosphates, thus creating body
warmth to a considerable extent.
In response to the chemical consumption of lecithin a new oil flows down
the axis cylinders of the nerve fibrils, which are arranged like lamp
wicks. The duration of the flow of this oil is, on the average, about
eighteen hours. When the cerebro-spinal nerves refuse longer to perform
their function, fatigue and sleep ensue, and the current of blood leaves
the brain and seeks the intestines. While the cerebro-spinal system
rests, the sympathetic system takes up its task of directing the renewal
of tissue and supplying the nerve sheaths through the lymph vessels,
which draw their material from the digestive canal, with a new supply of
phosphatic oil. Thus the brain and spinal nervous system are prepared
for another day's work. For the fulfillment of these processes, the
magnetic blood current forms the intermediary.
The presence of formic and acetic acid supplies the blood with fresh
electricity to stimulate the nerves. "Under normal conditions," says
Julius Hensel, "this function is assigned to the spleen. This organ
takes the part of a rejuvenating influence in the body in the manner of
a relay station, and does so by virtue of an invisible but significant
device. In every other region of the body the hairlike terminals of the
arteries which branch out from the heart merge directly in the tiny
tubes (capillaries) of the veins, which lead back to the heart again: in
the spleen this is not the case. Here rather the arteries end suddenly
when they have diminished to a diameter of one one-hundred-and-fortieth
of an inch and end in a bulb (the Malpighian bodies). Under such
circumstances the sudden stoppage, particularly the impact of the
magnetic blood stream against the membrane of a Malpighian body,
exemplifies the physical law of the induction of electricity, in
accordance with which the blood that enters the spleen is changed into
plasma and exudes through the membrane of the Malpighian bodies. The
event indicates some fluidity of the red blood cells, which is a change
effected in the body by the impact of electric sparks, and one which
electrical therapy also brings about locally to prevent increase in the
solid constituents of the blood."
The numerous Malpighian bodies in the spleen act as so many electrical
conductors, and the product of their electrical activity is found in the
formic and acetic acid of the fluid plasma which filters through the
Malpighian corpuscles and supplies the acid tissue of the spleen (pulpa
splenica). These acids are the electrolytic division products of
lecithin. In the splenic pulp arise the capillaries of the splenic
veins whose acid blood is carried directly to the liver, where certain
cells formed like galvanic elements possess the property, through the
electrical action of formic and acetic acid, of extracting from blood
albumen the opposite of acids, namely, alkaline bile. The normal
functioning of the liver, therefore, is dependent upon that of the
spleen, and since the bile produced by the liver goes to aid the
digestive activity of the duodenum, disturbance of digestion must result
when the quality of the bile is inferior.
One of the substances contained in bile, lecithin, is of wide
importance. When it was referred to a moment ago, I spoke only of its
individual chemical nature as a fat in combination with ammonium
phosphate, as by so doing I avoided error in connection with its
apparently complicated formula, which includes glycerophosphoric acid,
trimethylamin, palmitic and stearic acids. As it is a fatty substance,
the only question that arises, is, what does it contain besides fat?
This may be answered by a process of substraction:
2 (C_{21} H_{42} O_{4}) C_{42} H_{84} O_{8} which represents tallow or
stearate of glycerine. Lecithin, C_{42} H_{84} O_{9} NP, differs from
this only by a larger amount of NP. The significance of this difference
becomes clear when two atoms of water are added. Then ammonium
phosphate, PO_{3} H_{4}, N is formed. The two atoms of water needed for
the condensation of the ammonium phosphate from the stearate are
obtained by separating them away from two of glycerine.
The bile contains lecithin in a partially oxidized form. The chemical
"remainders" are biliverdin and cholesterin. The latter when normal has,
as you know, the power to neutralize snake venoms and other poisons, and
thus acts as a natural anti-toxin. In addition, the bile contains
combinations of stearine with gelatine and with carbonate and sulphate
of sodium, which theoretical chemists believe are twin compounds of
glycocholate and taurocholate. These fatty compounds depend upon
stearine partly oxidized, that is deprived of a certain number of atoms
of hydrogen.
As the compounds of fatty acids with ammoniacal blood gelatine and
sodium carbonate, the ingredients of the bile also, develop into a
peculiar soap. In the economy of the body the bile acts as a soap. When
it is discharged into the duodenum, it changes the fats into so fine an
emulsion (chyle) that the microscopically fine drops of fat may be drawn
into the orifices of the lymph canals and conveyed to the circulatory
system, and the cleavage products of albumen produced by gastric
digestion, the peptones (leucin and tyrosin) are carried along with them
for the renewal of tissue cells consumed in respiration.
If a soda soap is requisite for the purpose just stated, it follows that
soda in the food is essential, as otherwise the supply of soda in the
blood albumen cannot be renewed, and the bile cannot get its necessary
supply of soda from blood albumen devoid of soda. Consequently, the
entire nutritive process is dependent upon bile, and the bile cannot
properly perform its function if denied soda.
In addition to carbonates of sodium, especially the hydrocarbonate known
as glycolate, the bile apparently contains ammonium sulphate combined
with hydrocarbon (taurin); but this results from the transposition of
sodium sulphate and gelatine. Gelatine contains six atoms of hydrocarbon
joined with two of ammonium carbonate, a group which is separable by
chemical action into five of carburetted hydrogen with ammonium
carbonate (leucin or gelatine milk), C_{5} H_{10}, CO_{2}, NH_{3}, and
into one of carburetted hydrogen with ammonium carbonate (glycin or
gelatine sugar), CH_{2}, CO_{2}, NH_{3}. This latter substance, gelatine
sugar, is not produced in the liver, as it exists already in the blood
gelatine. In an isolated condition it has the property, in virtue of its
ammoniacal acids and its carbonic acid bases and, therefore, of both
combined, its salts, of producing chemical fixation. This property is
conveyed to the undivided blood gelatine in which the gelatine sugar is
contained intramolecularly.
Since normal blood albumen is inconceivable without sulphur it is
absolutely essential, in accordance with our knowledge of the
constituents of the bile and their origin, that our nutriment should
contain a sufficiency of sodium sulphate, if normal blood serum is to be
produced. The use of pepsin for this purpose cannot serve nature's
purpose, as it contains neither sodium carbonate nor sodium sulphate.
Our blood must be given a fresh and sufficient supply of sodium
carbonate and sodium sulphate via our food, if it is to produce normal
bile and supply the requisites of normal nutrition.
It is erroneously held that sodium sulphate is simply a laxative, even
Borner's "Royal Medical Calendar" so classifies it. Often it discharges
this function, it is true, in concentrated solution (one to five). But
it is an important ingredient of healthy blood albumen (one to one
thousand), and in this proportion assists in the formation of normal
bile.
The blood of the Caucasian race is found to contain about ten parts of
salt to the thousand, and this proportion of salt denotes firm tissue
material. If the quantity of salt in the blood is diminished, the
bi-concave red blood cells swell to a spherical form from access of
water and lose their ability to unite for the production of connective
tissue. Moreover, to the extent salt in the blood cells is decreased the
connective tissue and muscle and tendon substance absorb water and the
tissues become spongy, especially in the kidneys, so that the thinned
blood albumen seeps through (urea albumen).
Phosphate of potassium is the mineral basis of muscle tissue, phosphate
of lime with a small amount of magnesium phosphate the basis of bones,
and phosphate of ammonium the bases of nervous tissue. There is a
sufficient quantity of phosphate in all healthy foods. When the milk fed
to nurslings, however, is greatly thinned with water instead of firm
muscle fibers and solid lymph glands we find loose and spongy tissues.
This is a scrofulous condition.
In the formation of healthy bones and teeth, calcium fluoride is
essential. It is insoluble in plain water, but is made soluble by the
aid of the glycocoll in blood gelatine and changed into ammonium
fluoride. It appears in this form in the cartilaginous matter of the eye
lenses, and lack of calcium fluoride in the food results in the clouding
of these lenses.
Silicic acid is not only indispensible to the growth of hair, but it
forms a direct connection between blood and nerve tissues. It is found
in birds eggs, both in the white and the yolk. It is a conservator of
heat and electricity as it is a good insulator. It also possesses
eminent antiseptic qualities. Its mere presence in the intestinal canal,
even its simple passage through the canal; conserves the electrical
activity of the intestinal nerves and thus influences the whole
sympathetic nervous system.
This brief review, cursory as it is, of the function of the minerals in
the renewal of substances undergoing tissue change, makes it clear that
our daily food must contain a sufficient quantity of them if healthy
metabolism is to be maintained.
Chemically considered the human body is one individual whole, its
characteristic chemical basis being gelatine. Lieut. C.E. McDonald,
U.S.A. Medical Corps, recognized this when he recently wrote: "The
similarity of chemical compositions explains why, when any particular
region falls a prey to chemical decomposition, others quickly become
affected."
Oxygen gas is the medium through which chemical combustion is carried on
in the body for the purpose of preparing materials to enter into its
composition. The mineral salts already named not only form the solid
basis of the various tissue but also serve as conductors or insulators
of electricity in the body. The absence of one of them for a protracted
period is sufficient to explain widespread degeneration in the system.
In view of the fact that these various minerals play an indispensable
part in healthy metabolism it is imperative that a sufficiency of them
should be supplied in proper proportion in our daily food. It is
imperative, if we desire to retain or to restore health to the body.
These mineral elements are to be found in the first instance in the
earth, but they are of no use to the body in that form. We cannot digest
and assimilate inorganic matter no matter how finely it may be
pulverized. But plants can assimilate them from the earth and organize
them in such form as to make them easily assimilable by animals and man.
If the soil on which our food is produced is itself deficient in some of
these elements, our food must also lack them. If, moreover, we cannot
for any reason add the missing elements to the soil, we must supply them
to the human system in the shape of prepared nutritive salts. It is
preferable, of course, that our food should contain all of the elements
necessary for the proper nourishment of the body.
Thus we are forced to return to consideration of the soil. It is an
established fact that our fields were originally formed from decayed
rock, and analysis shows that this primitive rock contains the same
minerals as healthy blood. But if our agriculturists are taught that
stable manure and three or four other things are all that is necessary
for the fertilization of their fields, where shall the other minerals
essential to human metabolism come from?
What a man is, largely depends upon what he eats. Hence man is very
largely a product of the fields. When the soil is denuded of any of the
elements essential to plant and animal life, it must be properly
fertilized. Incomplete or improper fertilization can have but one
result, to-wit, it will produce sickly vegetation, and this in turn must
produce unhealthy cattle, and since man is dependent upon plant and
animal life for his food a sickly race of human beings is the ultimate
result.
Is not barrenness of the soil responsible for disease in potatoes, for
San Jose scale, Phylloxera, and other similar phenomena. The fields are
manured profusely, it is true, but the very chemical elements which are
not only essential to the development of wholesome plant tissue but
which would also enable the plant to protect itself against parasites,
are not used. Every farmer has observed, for instance, that grass grown
upon cow dung in pastures is not eaten by cows, oxen or sheep. The
instinct of the animals is correct.
In using the term incomplete fertilization, I mean supplying only
potash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen, and possibly lime and sulphur,
when the soil is denuded of several other elements. No matter how rich a
field may be made in these things if it lacks other elements healthy
vegetation cannot be grown in it.
Improper fertilization is another matter. It may consist in dressing a
field with nothing but stable manure, or of applying crude sulphur or
brimestone instead of using calcium sulphate--plus the other lacking
elements. The advocate of crude sulphur certainly does not know how
truly criminal his advice is. It is not to be denied that at the outset
sulphur will increase the crop yield. But in the end--what? The sulphur
will dissolve all of the essential minerals in the soil, and in the
course of four or five years they will all be leached out and it will be
so barren that not even wild grass can be grown upon it. Improper
fertilization may also consist of a dressing of carbonate of lime
applied at the wrong time or in excessive quantity. The effect of this
course will be equally as harmful, namely, the transformation of the
nitrogenous material into free nitrogen which will ascend to heaven.
Without nitrogen albumen cannot be formed, and without albumen the
formation of vegetable and animal tissue is impossible.
Wholesome soil may, then, be defined thus: It is such ground as contains
a sufficient supply of humus and nitrogen and all of the essential
mineral components of organic tissue. The problem of fertilization,
therefore, consists of supplying any or all of these elements in which
the soil is deficient. The aim of fertilization, as a rule, is merely to
increase crop production. But this may prove to be not merely
shortsighted, it may turn out to be a social crime. It is criminal,
indeed, as a great many diseases are directly traceable to incomplete
and improper fertilization.
Let us face the effect of attempting to fertilize our fields with
nothing more than stable manure, which, it is true, supplies phosphoric
acid, potash and nitrogen. We know that phosphorus forms the foundation
of nerves, and too much of it provokes nerve irritation in exact ratio
to the deficiency of sulphur. There should be twice as many sulphuric
salts as phosphoric salts in the blood, if it is to be normal and the
nerves are to be steady. Foodstuffs from fields that have been
fertilized in this manner must, of course, contain a superabundance of
phosphoric salts and be deficient in sulphuric salts. Is it strange,
then, that the present age presents a picture of restless, irritated
nervous activity and thoughtless action?
We must return to the primitive rock and humbly learn the lesson it has
for us, and upon this rock we must rear our science of fertilization and
nutrition. This rock consisted of granite, porphyry, gneiss and basalt,
and these are still found upon the earth in immense quantities in
practically the same condition they were thousands of years ago. Both
Justus von Liebig and Julius Hensel, as a matter of fact, advocated that
this rock should be finely pulverized and used as a compost to assist in
restoring and maintaining the original fertility of the soil and thus
aid the development of healthy plant and animal life.
Indeed the instincts of both animals and human beings lead them under
certain conditions right back to the rock and its lesson. Note the
avidity with which hens confined in arid runs devoid of vegetation,
worms, insects and small stones devour a compound of lime and ground
bones and oyster shells. Observe a child whose ration is deficient in
mineral elements eating egg shells, wall plaster, chalk and other earthy
substances. What do these things mean? Nothing more than this: both
chicken and child express a natural craving for the essential elements
to build bone and form the basis for the tissue.
I have discussed the important part the minerals play in both the
vegetable and animal kingdoms for the purpose of laying stress upon our
great need of more of them in our daily diet, and I may add that this is
equally as true in the case of those we call healthy as of those who are
diseased. No matter how carefully the diet may be regulated as regards
the quantity of protein and carbohydrates and fats and the ratio between
them, healthy metabolism is impossible without a sufficiency of the
essential minerals.
II.
How can we perform this imperative duty to mankind?
The solution of the problem of supplying these essential minerals
demands that our soil shall be properly fertilized for the growing of
wholesome vegetables and fruits and our cattle properly fed with a
ration rich in mineral content. Thus the food which we eat will contain
all of the elements necessary to the growth and maintenance of our
bodies in a state of health.
In the course of my effort to show why it is imperative that we pay
greater heed to the mineral content of our foodstuffs, and why it is
imperative that we enrich that content, I have shown basically how that
end is to be attained.
In conclusion I will cite the result of a series of experiments in
applying the principles of physiological chemistry to poultry, and I may
say that it took me twelve years to find the breed which would most
readily lend itself to my purpose. I experimented with 250 varieties of
hens before I found the one most amenable to my method of feeding and
breeding.
While living at Needham, Massachusetts, I made a thorough test of my
principles with the selected variety of hens. They were not only fed a
ration properly balanced for protein, carbohydrates and fat, but I gave
them a liberal supply of properly prepared mineral salts. I used three
different mixtures of feed, made up in 100 pound lots, in which the
proportion of albumen ranged from 13.50 to 18.00 pounds; of fat from
4.00 to 5.00 pounds; of carbohydrates from 41 to 44 pounds; and actual
nutritive salts from 4.50 to 5.00 pounds. The respective ratios being:
1:4, 1:3.5 and 1:3
It is not necessary to enter into discussion of the details of the
feeding method and the variation in the daily handling of the hens. The
result of this experiment, however, was completely satisfactory, as the
eggs produced by those hens not only contained a startling increase in
the quantity of mineral salts, but their fertility was far greater than
that of hens handled in the usual manner. The increase of fertility in
itself is, it seems to me, the best proof of the soundness of my
theoretical premises.
Some of the results of this experiment were published in the Reliable
Poultry Journal in 1905, and Dr. Woods offered confirmatory evidence of
the soundness of my conclusions two years later, after he had himself
experimented along the same line.
I will cite just one fact revealed by that experiment, namely, that
whereas 100 grams of dried egg yolk ordinarily contains only from 10 to
20 milligram of iron the eggs of those hens yielded from 30 to 80
milligrams. And all of the minerals were increased from 10 to 25 per
cent or more.
The method of applying the principles of physiological chemistry to the
enriching of the mineral content of our foodstuffs evolved by me is,
with due recognition of the difference between the vegetable and animal
kingdoms, equally applicable in the raising of all our foodstuffs with
an augmented mineral content. I will adduce just one result of my work
in the handling of small fruit: on the average, 100 grams of dried
strawberries will yield 8.6 to 9.3 milligrams of iron, but strawberries
raised by me yield from 30 to 40 milligrams per 100 grams.
In view of the facts with regard to the function of these minerals, it
is indisputably true that a ration is physiologically inefficient if it
does not contain a sufficiency of them in proper proportion. Moreover,
this is trebly true in the case of those whose constitution has been
weakened by loss of blood from rounds, by shell shock and trench fever,
and of those here at home whose nerve tissue has been degenerated and
whose blood has been weakened by anxiety and the strain of unwonted
manual labor. The last consideration applies with especial force to the
multitudes of women who have entered industry as manual laborers. What
kind of offspring can we expect from these people whose plasma is thus
degenerated? The children are the citizens of the future, and even
before they are born we must plan for their health.
What could be more effective in treating the anaemic condition of
wounded and crippled boys, and in treating the same condition in women
industrial workers, than haemoglobin eggs?
What could be more efficacious in treating conditions arising from shell
shock, from bad wounds and operations thereon, and neurasthenia in
general, than an abundance of lecithin (which, as you know, dear doctor,
is made from the yolk of the egg)?
What could be more successfully used in treating conditions arising from
shattered bones and from operations for the removal of bone tissue than
calcareous eggs in connection with a ration perfectly balanced as
regards all of the other essential elements.
For the regeneration of the blood and bone and nerve tissue of these
victims of war, something more than a sufficiency of nutritive food, as
that term is commonly used, is needed, and something more than medicine
is needed!
I am the last person in the world to deny that wonderful progress is
made in surgery every day, and the last to fail to applaud its
successful efforts, but you know quite as well as I do that in 90 out
of 100 cases recovery involves exhaustion of the patient's reserve
energy. Moreover, when the reserve energy has already been drawn upon
almost to the point of exhaustion, no matter how successful the
operation may be the recovery of the patient is a very doubtful
quantity. The first requisite in all surgical cases, as also in all
anaemic and neurasthenic cases, is to restore metabolism to its normal
condition and thus help the patient to regain his reserve energy in
order to prevent the collapse of the whole fabric.
It is indubitably true that healthy metabolism and the restoration of
reserve energy depends upon the organism being given the requisite
quantity of the sixteen essential elements of organic life in easily
digestible and assimilable form, and I am asking for the opportunity to
demonstrate how foods extremely rich in these elements may be produced
and used to aid nature. I have not entered into a full discussion of the
various aspects of my method of accomplishing that, but have confined
myself to consideration of the basic principles underlying it. Neither
have I attempted to show how these different minerals will serve as
regenerative agents in different dysaemic conditions. I am prepared to
discuss the matter from both of these viewpoints, however, and, more
than that, I am ready to practically demonstrate the soundness of my
theories, when given an opportunity under proper conditions to do so.
--Sapienti sat--
FINIS.
NUTRITIVE COMPOSITIONS.
The sixteen substances,--nutritive cell foods,--of which all of the
tissues of the body are composed are: carbon, oxygen, hydrogen,
nitrogen, potassium, soda, lime, magnesia, iron, manganese, phosphor,
sulphur, silica, chlorine, fluorine and iodine.
My nutritive compositions consist of these same sixteen nutritive salts,
each composition mixed in the same proportion as they are found in the
healthy tissue for the regeneration of which they are prescribed.
Since in various diseases not only one but several tissues are affected,
it must be decided individually in each case whether only one, or
several, of the nutritive compositions will require to be taken, and in
what proportion.
In accordance with the system of the twelve tissues of the body, the
twelve nutritive compositions, commonly known as "DECH-MANNA"
Compositions, are the following:
No. 1. Plasmogen Bloodplasma-Producer.
No. 2. Lymphogen Lymph-Cell-Producer.
No. 3. Neurogen Nerve-cell-Producer.
No. 4. Osseogen Bone-cell-Producer.
No. 5. Muscogen Muscle-cell-Producer.
No. 6. Mucogen Mucous membrane-cell-Producer.
No. 7. Dento-Ophthogen Tooth and Eye-cell-Producer.
No. 8. Capillogen Hair-cell-Producer.
No. 9. Dermogen Skin-cell-Producer.
No. 10. Gelatinogen Gelatigenous-cell-Producer.
No. 11. Cartilogen Cartilage-cell-Producer.
No. 12. Eubiogen Healthy body-cell-Producer.
In addition to these I use only a few specialities in certain cases of
disease, viz.:
A. Oxygenator A radium emanation for the bath.
B. Eubiogen Liquid Same as No. 12, but liquid form.
C. Tonogen A stimulating tonic.
D. Tea. Diabetic, Dechmann
E. Tea. Laxagen, after Kneipp
F. Salve. Lenicet, after Dr. Reiss
G. Massage Emulsion, Dechmann
H. Propionic acid for steam atomizer
I. Oxygen Powder, after Hensel
J. Anti-Phosphate, Dechmann
(These specialities are used only in certain individual cases, according
to prescription).
NUTRITIVE COMPOSITIONS.
In discussing the various preparations of Dech-Manna-Diet, I refrain
from detailed prescription and analysis. My intention is to explain them
in such a way that it may become apparent to everyone that they are
rational remedies for every properly diagnosed constitutional disease.
If I should do more than this, it would be simply placing a premium upon
unscrupulous imitations. For the present therefore, I prefer to have the
remedies prepared exclusively by accredited and absolutely reliable
chemists of first class local standing, in order that I may myself
assume the entire responsibility. In cases of illness, however, it is
always necessary to consult a biological-hygienic physician. The
Dech-Manna-Diet remedies, for the time being, will always be obtainable
on application to myself, to be administered in accordance with such
medical directions. I trust that very shortly when official and general
recognition will permit, I shall be enabled to entrust the detailed
prescriptions to a wider circle of practising physicians and chemists.
In order to illustrate how necessary it is to abstain from more detailed
description of my remedies, I will cite but one of several incidents
which happened to me in course of practice.
In the year 1905, I wrote a number of articles for the "Reliable Poultry
Journal" on the scientific feeding of chickens, and gave, amongst other
tables, two food-formulas of the mineral contents of _chicken food
rations_. (Both formulas were copyrighted). I gave the same gratis, for
private personal use. A certain "Chicken Specialist" from the Orange
River Colony, South Africa, first wrote a glowing article upon the
wonderful success he had secured with my prescriptions. Not satisfied
with this, however, he conceived a brilliant idea of great possibilities
of future income to be derived therefrom. He left South Africa and came
to America, the country of unlimited possibilities, and settled in Los
Angeles, California, where he floated a company, which sells my
copyrighted prescriptions for poultry feeding, to all and sundry as
specifics for all possible and impossible ailments. This ambitious
gentleman even went so far as to offer my labouriously earned
discoveries to the United States Government.--But further comment is
unnecessary!
This is but one of numerous instances of the kind some of which are
embodied in a little treatise I have published, free to my friends,
entitled "A Message to the Thinker."
Patients sometimes ask me what my methods have in common with
"Schuessler's Tissue Remedies."
I answer: Nothing--absolutely nothing, as the explanation will show.
Schuessler's therapy claims that the minerals are needful to build up
the system; but he only uses one trillionth part of a gram and
_imagines_ that the remainder is to be found in the food. Now anybody
with a fair understanding can easily figure that if a patient of middle
age eventually loses through disease about 200 grams of lime, it is
simply a farce to claim that the above dose of 1/100,000,000,000 of a
gram (which is the homeopathic dose of Schuessler), will cure or replace
the lime which was lost.
There are other equally erroneous pretentions in Schuessler's therapy
which are really too silly to go into in detail. Time and space are too
valuable to squander on any such puerile hypothesis.
DECH-MANNA-DIET. MENTOR TO PRESCRIPTIONS.
It may be well to preface this summary of prescriptions with the
following explanatory remarks; namely,
(1) That while my compositions are usually taken in the form of powders,
they may be taken in the form of capsules or tablets, in which case the
dose given is always exact.
They may also be mixed with Eubiogen or various kinds of food, except
where this is strictly forbidden by the physician.
Such mixtures cannot be harmful, since they consist of components from
which our body-cells are constructed. They may be taken either singly,
or as compounds.
(2) As regards the matter of quantities:--
Whenever one-fourth teaspoonful is mentioned, the meaning is that
one-fourth of a _heaping_ teaspoonful be taken.
Whenever a _level_ one-fourth teaspoonful is meant, as in the case of
plasmogen, it is because the basic remedy is heavier and, therefore, the
smaller quantity renders an equal amount in weight.
Every dose mentioned herein contains the exact amount of the necessary
constituents, and the harmonious system of dosage which I have worked
out, consists of reducing every compound dosage to one gram, which
weight is equal to about one quarter teaspoonful of the regular
preparation, made lighter and fluffier through trituration with
milk-sugar.
This trituration is a manual process and requires some three hours
steady and continuous rubbing of the ingredients with pestle and mortar,
for each separate composition.
All my compositions should be kept in a dry and cool place. It is best
to put them into wide-mouthed bottles with glass stoppers, as they are
all hygroscopic, that is, sensitive to moisture.
DECH-MANNA COMPOSITION No. 1.
PLASMOGEN (PLASMA PRODUCER.)
Plasmogen--Blood-plasma producer. (The red and white blood-corpuscles
are produced by using Eubiogen, XII).
(a). Blood-plasma, is the habitat of the red and white blood-corpuscles.
It can be readily understood that the more sanitary a place, the better
will be the condition of those who live in it. Therefore, the plasma,
(blood-plasma), must first be made as perfect as possible in accordance
with the teachings of science and especially of biology,--a theory which
my own experience has proved to be correct.
No matter how perfect the red or white corpuscles may be, if they live
in diseased blood-plasma, they cannot perform their functions properly
and, as a consequence, the resistant power of the system is crippled.
(b). Plasmogen contains all the constituents in the proportions in which
they should be contained in perfect plasma.
The Law of the Minimum teaches that if one of the ingredients is lacking
in the food, the cells _must_ become diseased. This the great Justus v.
Liebig emphasized when he said: "If the most minute component is
lacking, the rest cannot perform their functions." Taken as directed,
the plasmogen is also in its natural dosage.
It was only after years of ardent study that I was enabled to produce
this composition in the perfect form in which it is furnished today.
Since the plasmogen contains all the salts necessary to keep the blood
in perfect harmony, the circulation as well as the resistant power will
be maintained, the heart relieved, the fighting capacity of the white
corpuscles strengthened, and therefore the power of disease very greatly
reduced.
(c). In all cases of constitutional disease, plasmogen is used to bring
about a proper regeneration and preservation of the blood-cells. In all
cases of acute, febrile diseases its purpose is to bring about a proper
circulation and fluid condition of the blood-cells.
The most wonderful results will accrue through the use of plasmogen in
_all acute_ febrile cases, particularly in the case of children; also by
using the same as directed in individual cases of constitutional
diseases. It is indispensable in producing bactericide blood, which is
necessary to regenerate the body-cells. Therefore, I recommend It in
_all_ Regenerative Treatments.
How many thousands of children may be saved by this single remedy alone
only the biologist who has studied life according to the teachings of
nature's laws, is able to appreciate today. It will take some time
before the general medical practitioner will realize the truth of this
statement, because the old-school medicine does not teach these facts.
Therefore it is the duty of every thoughtful mother to prevent harm to
her children resulting from the drugs they favour. All anti-febrile
chemicals are rank poisons and contrary to nature's way. _Only by
producing a higher temperature is nature able to throw off impurities_;
but in many cases this becomes dangerous, because so very few know how
to avoid an over-taxation of nature's strength. Instead of assisting
nature by keeping the head cool, the feet warm and the bowels and pores
open, the anxious mothers will wrap their babies up nicely, give them
some patent or other obnoxious medicine, and really kill nature's
efforts by means of narcotics and other poisons. Results are always
fatal. The mother must learn to use correct, harmless remedies and to
follow the instructions given nearly 3000 years ago by the wise
Hippocrates, the "Father of Medicine," who warned every medical
practitioner with these words: "Nil nocere." (Never do harm).
(d). _Dose_: In acute cases, that is to say, in emergency cases where
the patient, for instance a child, has developed a high temperature, and
the doctor has not as yet diagnosed any special form of disease, or has
been unable to do so because the time of incubation of the germ has not
passed, give the patient a dose of plasmogen, that is, one gram, or as
much as will lie on a ten-cent piece, or one-fourth of a level
teaspoonful. Dissolve it in one-half tumbler of water, (or milk if
prescribed), and let the patient drink it slowly at intervals, as seems
necessary.
In ordinary cases individual directions should be followed.
DECH-MANNA COMPOSITION No. II.
LYMPHOGEN (LYMPH CELL PRODUCER.)
(a). In nearly every tissue and organ of the body there is a marvelous
network of vessels, called the lymphatics. These are busily at work
taking up and making over waste fluids or surplus materials derived from
the blood and tissues generally. The lymphatics seem to spring from the
parts in which they are found, like the rootlets of a plant in the soil.
They carry a turbid, slightly yellowish fluid, called lymph, very much
like blood without the red corpuscles. The lymph is carried to the
lymphatic glands where it undergoes certain changes to fit it for
entering the blood.
It is a fact that very few doctors know, that the whole nervous system
can only be fed by the lymph, whose central station is the so-called
ductus thoracicus (thoracic duct), in the upper region of the chest. As
there is no pulsation or magnetism connected with the same, the body
must lie down and rest at night. Then and only then is the system
enabled to feed all the nerve centers, especially through the influence
of the sympathetic nerve system, which may be said to work in the form
of a relay station, through its inherent power from the very beginning.
Therefore, it becomes quite a task to regenerate a broken-down nervous
system, for those practitioners who are not familiar with physiological
chemistry--that is, life chemistry, which teaches the composition of the
tissues. The law of chemotaxis will explain it. The lymphatic system
also plays a great part in constitutional diseases of the blood. Every
degeneration of the blood cells, or dysaemia, is influenced more or less
by the perfect condition of the lymphatic fluid. All cachectic or
morbid nutrition conditions are due to imperfect lymph.
(b). Lymphogen contains all the organic minerals in the same proportion
in which they are contained in perfect lymph, and if taken as directed,
will always restore the lymphatic system and allow it to perform its
important function.
(c). The great importance of perfect lymph will be understood from the
previous remarks, especially those pertaining to the feeding of the
whole nervous system. If the lymphatic system is impeded by underfeeding
or inanition of the nerve-cells, how can any one with common sense
expect such a system to be in perfect working order and harmony? This
applies particularly to those constitutional diseases where the
lymphatic system and the lymph itself are degenerating through causes
due to heredity, predisposition or acquisition of such conditions.
(d). _Dose_: Twice daily I gram or one-fourth heaping teaspoonful or, if
in tablet form, I tablet, dry or with a little water or in foodstuffs;
to be taken at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. or as specially directed.
DECH-MANNA COMPOSITION No. III.
NEUROGEN (NERVE CELL PRODUCER).
(a). The nerves are the cord-like structures which convey impulses from
one part of the body to another.
The tremendous importance of their absolute health is obvious, since the
co-operation of all parts of the human body depends upon it, while, on
the other hand, their very delicate structure exposes them to numerous
and easily acquired forms of disease.
(b). This composition contains all the constituents required to generate
nerve tissue. The most important and expensive is lecithin. Pure
lecithin, the kind I use, is made from the yolks of fresh eggs. In this
composition I supply nutritive cell-food for generating lecithin in
exactly the same form in which it is found in a healthy, perfect
nerve-cell. It is absolutely digestible and assimilable, and is
triturated with the finest milk sugar.
(c). All morbid conditions caused by imperfect nerve-cells can be
regenerated through this composition as long as there is some foundation
left on which to work.
Under an endless variety of names--as a matter of fact, a big book
would not be sufficient to describe all so-called "nervous diseases"--it
can be readily seen in what a brainless way some "nerve specialists"
classify patients of this kind. Not knowing the constituents of the
nerve-cells, they still attempt to prescribe for neurasthenic patients.
The results are in accordance with such travesty of treatment. The
increase in the number of Insane Asylums gives, or should give, a true
picture of existing conditions. What is needed is a little more
knowledge of physiological chemistry, but as it is too much to expect of
the ordinary so-called "nerve specialist" to be familiar with this
science, we must per for
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