HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES THE AUTHOR HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES By DR. JOHN H. DEQUER ILLUSTRATED PRESS OF GRAFTON PUBLISHING CORPORATION LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA Fourth Edition Copyrighted 19 21 By Dr. John H. Dequer ACKNOWLEDGEMENT THE author desires to express his deepest appre- ciation for the valuable hints and actual assis- tance rendered in the preparation of this work by the following friends both inside and outside the healing art. Foremost among them are Doctors George F. Stevenson, Ph. G., M. D., formerly of Wills Eye Hospital, Philadelphia; Dr. R. E. Reddell of London, England; Dr. William Penrose; C. Edgar Johnston, M. D.; Dr. Chas. H. Ervin; St. Louis Esetes, D. D. S., President of "The American Raw Food and Psychology Clubs, "and Editor of Back to Nature Magazine;" J. Haskel Kritzer, M. D., Inter- national authority on Iridology, and author of a standard text book on that science. Henry Lindlahr, M. D., late president of the Lindlahr Sanitariums. Dr. William Boyd Secrest; Mr. Charles Caldwell, prominent character analyst. Mr. Ralph Fulcher, Secretary of "The International Society of Applied Psychology;" Dr. W. E. Reynolds, prominent lec- turer and naturopath; Mr. T. L. Rippey and Mr. C. H. McGhee, Minister of the Gospel, and several other men and women in prominent walks of life who have assisted in the revision of the manuscripts, and sup- plied material of value for these pages. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. General Considerations 15 Health Building, 18; Kidneys, 19; Lungs, 19; Skin, 20; Nutrition, 22; Sleep, 24; Night, 24; Emotions: Fear, 26; Worry, 26; Anger, 27; Suppression, 28; Sex, 28. II. Some Heresy 31 Serum, Albumen-Pathogen, 34; The Cell Au- tonomous, 36; Course of Muscular Motion, 37; Fat, 40; Activity Needed, 41; Dynamic Fac- tors, 42; Lindlahr's Conception, 43; Abrams, Idea, 46; The Human Aura, 48. III. Exercise 51 Bed Exercises, 62; Tension-Vibratory, 66; Breath, 68; What Can be Done, 62; History, 69. IV. Theory and Practice of Dietetics . . . 71 Prevalent Ideas, 73; Man's Prehistoric Devel- opment, 74; Lessons From Life, 75; Lessons from the Rocks, 76; Lessons from Archeology, 76; The Human Engine, 78; Effects of Vibration, 80; Human Milk, 80; Protein, 80; Fats, 81; Sugar, 82; Honey, 82. V. Food Values 91 Minerals, 91; Starch, 91; Cooking, 93; Should Cooking be a Dying Art, 94; Salt, 99; Black Death, 101; A Cause of Cancer, 101; A Cause of Dropsy, 102; Water, 103; Dis- tilled Water, 105; Scientific Diet, 105; Ad- vantage of Racial Purity, 106; Prophylactic Diet, 107; Meat, 109; Demand of Culture, 110. VI. Therapeutic Diet 113 Spring Requirements, 115; Summer Require- ments, 116; Starch and Sugar Diseases, 116; Diet Not a Cure, 116; Normal Foods, 117; General Anti Autointoxication Diet, 117; Fall and Winter Diet, Breakfast, 119; Coffee, 120; Spring and Summer Breakfast, 120; Fall and Winter Luncheon, 121; Spring and Summer Luncheon, 122; Winter Diet, 123; Fall and Winter Dinner, 124; Spring and Summer Din- ner, 125; Acid and Citrus Fruits, 125; Bran Tea, 125; Anti-Acid Diet, 126; Fattening Diet, 128; Fat Reduction, 128; Antitoxic Diet, 128. VII. Stimulants and Narcotics-their Effect . 131 Material-Cocoa, 133. VIII. How To Prepare Foods . . . . 135 Menus, 136; Menus For Winter, 137; Menu Summer, 138; Transition, 139; Diet For Children, 140; Anti-Acid Diet, 142; Prepon- derant Diet For Summer, 142; A Few Don'ts, 143. IX. Care of the Body 145 Teeth , 145; Care of the Teeth, 147; Clean- ing Mouth and Tongue, 148; Care of the Bowel, 149; Murphy Drip, 151; Preparation of the Patient, 152; Additional Food Thoughts, 153. X. What To Do And When 157 Caution, 158; Crisis Not to be Suppressed, 159; The Law of Crisis, 159; Common Crisis, 160; Disease Crisis, 161; Colds, 161; Sore Throat, 162; Measles, 163; Summer Complaint, 164; Chills, 164; Typhoid, 165; Inflammatory Rheumatism, 166; Chronic Diseases, 167; General Debility, 167; Dropsical Condition, 168; Rheumatism, 170; Diabetis, 172; Bright's Disease, 173; Asthma, 174; High Blood Pressure, 174; Paralysis, 175; Head- aches, 176; Hemorrhoids, 177; Female Trou- bles, 177. XI. Observations 179 Constipation, 180; Natural Treatment of Syphilis, 180; Treatment of Tuberculosis, 182; Rheumatism, 183; Female Troubles, 183; Kidney Trouble, 184; Vitamines, 188. XII. Coal Tar Products 193 Dangers Of, 196; Saccharine-A Coal Tar Product, 196; Soft Drinks, 200; Artificial Perfumes, 201; Is Tomato Catsup Wholesome, 201; Baccilus, 203. XIII. Eugenics 205 Wrong Motives, 206; The Early Code, 208; Redfield's Doctrine, 209; Natural Selection, 213; The Great Mystery, 215. XIV. Psychology 219 Psychic Phonemena, 219; The Word Mis- used, 221; It's Strictly Essential, 222; The Mechanism of Consciousness, 223; The Sub- conscious, 224; Habits, 225; Instincts, 227; Gland Secretions, 229; Emotions, 231. XV. Suggestions 233 Coue, 234; Subconscious Mind, 235; The Great Problem, 236; Faith, 240. XVI. Psycho-Analysis 245 Definition, 245; St. Elizabeth's Hospital, 246; Origin, 247; Intellectual Prejudice, 249; Origin of Instincts, 250; Evolution of the Pleasure Urge, 252; Complexes, 253; A Form of Energy, 253; The Nature of a Complex, 254; Ego and Soul, 255. ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Frontispiece Human Aura 49 Figure 1 56 Figure 2 57 Figure 3 58 Figure 4 59 Figure 5 60 Figure 6 62 Figure 7 63 Figure 8 64 Kicked Out 93 In Competition 103 Spring Foods 114 Summer Foods 115 Fall Foods 118 Winter Foods 124 Tearing Asunder 129 Murphy Drip 151 Triplecoil Blanket 157 I HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS Perfect health should be our usual state, but unfortunately this is not true of civi- lized man today. The great majority is in some way afflicted. The nations are in pain. This condition admitted by every one is an obstacle to the growth and development of happiness and idealism without which we perish. Virile and noble thought does not flow from minds imprisoned in pain racked bodies. One might as well expect beautiful roses from a bush planted in sour soil on the north side of a barn, as to look for a high average of physical and mental health in a viscious environment. Men and women are not unlike roses; they too need the sunlight, the air, and dew, as well as wholesome food, if they would bloom 16 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES in purity and splendor. But unlike the rose, man may modify his environment. He can come from behind the barn, out from the noisome recesses that are inhospitable to his growth and development, and enter the sunlight and starlight of health. I say he can do this; if not individually, then collec- tively; but it can be done. HEALTH IS NATURE'S REWARD FOR OBEDIENCE TO HER LAWS. DISEASE, WITH RARE EXCEP- TIONS, IS A CRIME. Ninety per cent of all disease may be at- tributed to ignorance of the laws governing our bodily functions, but ignorance of the law is no excuse, as is evident from the con- ditions in which mankind finds itself. Ig- norance concerning the laws of health is so prevalent as to be practically universal. One actually meets people who take a sort of perverted pride in their afflictions; they love to talk about their nauseas, their rheu- matism, their biliousness, as if they were rare possessions. These good people would not think of going without a bath, or of eat- ing with unwashed hands; yet each day of GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 17 their curtailed lives they defile themselves in various ways. Outwardly, they are clean -inwardly, they are literal tombs of un- cleanliness. Is it any wonder they are dis- eased ? It may be stated as a general proposition that disease is systemic filth, from which it follows that cure must be systemic cleans- ing. Disease does not come like a thief in the night; it slowly accumulates in the tissues; it represents the combined work of EVIL DESIRES, POOR VENTILATION, OVER-DRESSING, FAULTY EATING OF IMPROPERLY SELECTED AND PREPARED FOODS, HOT BATHING, AND DRUG MEDICATION. Continuous violation of natural law tends to load down the system with unused and unusable ma- terial, which becomes the ground work for the vast majority of chronic diseases. Thus we find that while serums or medicines may and often do stop symptoms of acute dis- ease, they do not cleanse the intercellular structures, and therefore change acute into chronic trouble. They affect the filth-en- 18 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES cumbered body in much the same way that a whip affects a tired horse. Their influ- ence is stimulative or suppressive; it is sel- dom, if ever, corrective. MEDICINE IS ONLY TOO OFTEN AN ADDED BUR- DEN TO AN ALREADY OVER WORKED ORGANISM. Hot springs, Turkish baths, all kinds of bake-oven and hot-pack treatments, as given at various institutions and health resorts, are a standard advertisement to the ultimate inadequacy of medical treatment. They work on the principle, whether it is admit- ted or not, that the way to restore a pa- tient to health is to eliminate from his sys- tem the ground work of disease. Hanne- man's theory of psora (disease soil) is one of the few scientific high lights in our thera- peutic knowledge. HEALTH BUILDING Health building then, ought to begin with an understanding of our physical require- ments, and the foremost factor in the ap- plication of such knowledge is the care of the eliminative organs. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 19 KIDNEYS The kidneys eliminate the greater part of the waste matter from the body. When- ever the bowels or skin become incapable of adequate function their work falls upon the kidneys. As a result we find indican and other abnormal products in the urine. If this condition is not relieved the ten- dency is for the blood pressure to go up, and for heart trouble and dropsy to make their appearance. It is therefore necessary to keep them in proper functional condition. Next to be considered are the lungs. They are the bellows of the living forge. They take the oxygen from the air and send it through the body, via the blood. They take the carbon from the blood, and, in the form of carbon-dioxide, expel it from the body. Hence in order that every organ may at all times have an abundance of oxygen, with which to carry on its functions, it is neces- sary that pure, fresh air be at all times available, and supplied by a proper develop- ment of the respiratory function. LUNGS 20 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES SKIN We cannot leave this subject without con- sidering the skin with its millions of pores for the elimination of waste matter. It is a very important and little understood elimi- native organ, having several distinct func- tions : (1) As a regulator of temperature. (2) As an auxiliary to the kidneys in the expulsion of surplus fluids from the body. (3) Asa protection for the deeper struc- tures. To excite a dormant skin to activity in order that it may do its share in the elimi- native work, is a favorite practice with near- ly all schools of healing. Some do it by means of drugs (Pilocarpin), others do it by means of bake ovens, electric light cabi- nets, hot baths, mud baths, exercise and cold packs. Doubtless the very best way to activate the skin is to exercise every part of the body while it is exposed to the open air. This ex- ercise should be of sufficient intensity to thoroughly excite all sweat glands; but GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 21 where this cannot be done, on account of weakness or pain, we prefer a properly wired electric blanket, for the following rea- sons : (1) The patient enters this appliance at atmospheric temperature, and the Blanket gradually warms, giving the system a chance to make the needed physiologic readjust- ment. (2) The patient can lie down or recline at ease, thereby putting the least possible strain upon the nervous system. (3) The current, from the house wire, running through twelve hundred feet of es- pecially insulated cable, develops a magnetic field, which has a tonic effect upon all tis- sues of the body. (4) The lines of force generated by such a blanket are cut by the circulating blood, increasing the electrolytic activity in the organs, causing them to increase their functional capacity; it also aids in dissolv- ing various abnormal crystals and wastes, thereby facilitating their elimination from the body. (5) By dissolving the waste, toning up 22 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES the tissues and relaxing vaso-motor tension, this method perfects the circulation, and in- creases both nutrition and drainage. The reason we say <!a properly wired elec- tric blanket," is to safeguard the reader against the numerous makes of these blan- kets now on the market that are nothing more than large heating pads, their loud claims to magnetism notwithstanding. Their wires are sewed in such a way that they neutralize their magnetic effect by counter electro-motive force. All the patient gets from them is a pleasant heat. This, how- ever, is not always enough for therapeutic purposes. We therefore recommend the blanket known as the "TRIPLE-COIL MAGNETIC INDUCTION BLANKET." NUTRITION Our bodies consist of a bony frame work, to which is fastened a system of some five hundred muscles, and these are ramified by the nervous and circulatory system. Every structure is supplied with blood from the arteries and drained of its functional waste by the veins. Between the arteries and veins GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 23 ramifying the entire cellular structures are the minute blood vessels called capillaries. Through these the blood cells pass single file, giving up their oxygen and nutritive mate- rial to the cells, and in return they take up the waste, and by way of the veins and elimi- native organs expel it from the system. Now it goes without saying, that if a muscle re- mains unexercised, this regular exchange of nourishment and waste does not take place, with the result that the capillaries become obstructed with colloid material. This colloid material undergoes oxidation and fermentation, causing inflammation and other symptoms too numerous to mention. From which it follows that full and com- plete exercise of every structure is abso- lutely essential if we wish to enjoy perfect health. Nutrition is of prime importance. In this we are apt to sin rather by commission than by omission. Eating, so necessary to the proper maintenance of vital currents, has for civilized beings become an art. Food is frequently not eaten to meet the require- ments of life, but rather to satisfy the sense 24 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES of taste. This leads to harmful results. Assimilation and nutrition depends upon a constant supply of all the food elements needed by the body for its structure and function. To withhold any of these elements means mal-nutrition. To over-supply any of them, leads to toxemia, poisoning by food waste. Diet and exercise must therefore bal- ance one another. SLEEP Sleep is the restorative function; it is the only perfect rest. During our waking hours we may relax, and change our activity; but during sleep we rebuild and restore that which is broken down. The sleep before midnight is the most re- freshing. From this it follows that those who habitually lead a night life, are unduly taxing their vitality. NIGHT Man is not a nocturnal animal. There is a reason for this not generally considered in physiologic literature. During the day the earth, or rather that portion of it which we GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 25 inhabit, is in the direct blaze of the solar energy, which intensifies the life processes, through the electro-magnetic stimulation. It is the solar light that causes plant growth and activity. As soon as the sun sets, plant growth stops. The flowers close their petals at night. In high latitudes where the sum- mers are very short, farming succeeds only because of the almost continuous daylight. Light has a quickening influence on life; from which it follows that our activities should be confined as far as possible to the hours of daylight. It is a well known fact that most deaths occur during the' small hours of the morning, when our earth is turned away from the sun, bringing vitality to the lowest ebb. It was a common saying among doctors during the recent 44flu" epi- demic, 4 4 Support the heart during the small hours of the night," which they did, not by intensifying the magnetic field about the patient, but by means of drugs, such as digi- talis, strychnine and kindred substances, with the result that 44crosses, row on row" rewarded their efforts. 26 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES EMOTIONS: FEAR Fear blanches the skin-that is, it with- draws the peripheral circulation. It stops secretions by inhibiting glandular activity. It causes weakness and trembling, which proves that it has paralyzing effects upon the nervous system. Under certain condi- tions it suddenly relaxes all available en- ergy in a few moments, leaving the body completely exhausted. It has been proved that when a rabbit hears the barking of a dog, its heart immediately speeds up, its di- gestion stops, and sugar is thrown into its muscles. Through the emotion of fear, Nature prepares the rabbit for flight, which is its only means of defense. The important thing to note is that fear stops digestion and essential secretions. An acute attack has been known to cause paralysis. People have been frightened into life-long helpless- ness, a sudden fright practically destroying their nerve power in a single moment. WORRY Worry is a state of chronic fear; its ef- fects are less intense, but identical in char- GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 27 acter with those of acute fear. It hinders secretion, digestion and circulation, ulti- mately lowering nutrition and accentuating toxidity. Thoughs of fear are thoughts of death. Worry is the process of dying. Christian Science, by denying the existence of disease, removes the fear activity from the brain. The fear being removed, normal secretion and circulation restore health. Fear and worry kill by lowering the vitality. Their effects are similar to those of freez- ing. "Scared stiff" is a vulgar expression, reflecting an unconscious recognition of the fact that the effects of fear and frost upon the human organism are very similar. ANGER Anger is another extreme of human de- fensive emotions, and has, in certain re- spects at least, the opposite effect of fear. It increases the temperature, and poisons the blood. It is worse than fear in its destructive ef- fects. We must therefore control our anger and obey the Scriptural injunction, "Let 28 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES not the sun set on thy wrath." In other words, do not poison yourself with your spleen. SUPPRESSION To suppress any emotion may drive it down into the subconscious and from there it will work secretly; but not less destruc- tively. If you are frightened or angry ad- mit it to yourself, talk about it to some trusted friend and as soon as possible change your center of interest and you will experience little harm from either fright or anger. SEX This is perhaps one of the most vital as well as the most complicated of human func- tions. It occupies, directly or indirectly, one-half of all human thought. Its phys- ical influence affects the entire body. It should be exercised normally. Voluntary celibacy, except for some exalted purpose, is insanity; however, that is no argument for lust. What is needed from a health viewpoint, is that the sexes should be mated so that they may have expression in normal GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 29 ways. Suppression leads to perversion and perversion to death. The sexual question is one of such funda- mental importance, and is so interwoven with our religious, social and political insti- tutions, that it is a subject most difficult to treat in the small space available in this work. It is no longer a simple procreative function. It has for the race today a far wider significance. All that we can say here is that through the thousands of years that women have been slaves to the male pas- sion, a secondary sexual characteristic has grown up in the human race. This char- acteristic is closely allied in its importance to the reproductive faculty. It is essential to the continuous sense of dependence be- tween the man and woman, and that alone makes possible the home and civilization. It has been argued that a woman clings to a man for bread, and that a man clings to woman for gratification. Careful observa- tion will show the fallacy of this position. Subconsciously, both feel that sex expres- sion is a physical need which cannot go un- assuaged. In the process of our social evo- 30 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES lution, sex expression has become a socio- physiologic necessity. Civilization is found- ed upon sex pleasure, regulated to meet the economic requirement of the race. The fam- ily is an institution adapted to modern needs. It may have its faults, but so far, though many schemes have been tried, noth- ing more practical or fundamentally just has been discovered than the monogamous union. It protects the woman in mother- hood. It tends to guarantee to the child a home; and it causes man to exercise that restraint over his passions which ought to distinguish him from the brute. II SOME HERESY In our first essay we discussed the factors entering into health and disease in a gen- eral way. Let us now consider the causes of disease, old age and death. Here it will become necessary to forsake the conven- tional text books, and listen for a while to therapeutic heretics, and see if they appeal directly to Nature which is the Court of last resort on all controversial subjects. Let us therefore ask, first of all, what is life ? Life is probably the simplest and the most potent form of energy. When the truth is finally known we will probably find that it is not the result of material interaction, but that material interaction is the result of it. I CONCEIVE IT TO BE THE ORGAN- IZING FORCE IN THE UNIVERSE. From which it follows THAT LIFE AND DEATH ARE CO-EVAL AND CO- 32 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES ETERNAL, the rhythmic swing of the or- ganic pendulum. It is, then, in its ultimate nature, like all other manifestations of na- ture, a form of energy-and this leads us to the question: How long ought it to endure ? Before we answer this however, let us look into the nature of disease. Barring accidents, we may say that three main factors are active in the disease pro- cess. The first of these is improper food; second, inadequate exercise; and third, too intense, or insufficient light; or other forms of energy, such as thermal, electric, mag- netic, psychic, and vital modes of vibration. We shall consider these factors in the order named, beginning with food as a pos- sible factor in disease. The late Thos. Powell, M. D., in his book "Fundamentals of Health and Disease," says that after a life time spent in unique and original in- vestigation into the causes of human afflic- tions, he was forced to the conclusion that disease, old age and death, in the animal organism, are natural results of protein ac- cumulating in the blood stream. He main- tains that even the small quantity of pro- SOME HERESY 33 tein and other unassimilable matter in nor- mal food, is enough to ultimately bring on senility and death. In his enthusiasm he may have gone too far at certain points, but the fact remains that his ideas coincide remarkably with observed facts. He denies the commonly accepted dictum of medical and physiologic scientists that the body undergoes continual destruction and repair, except at its surface and lining tissues. He maintains when protein is no longer needed for cell-building purposes, that it accumulates in the blood in the form of a serum-albumen, gradually thickening that fluid, obstructing its capillary circula- tion and, if nothing worse, bringing on the phenomenon of old age. From this he in- fers that if it were possible for us to walk in a path of perfect dietetic rectitude, (that is, if after our maturity we could live on a practically protein-free diet), that then, everything being equal, our blood would re- main youthful, its circulation perfect, the nutrition and drainage of the cells at all times adequate, and death theoretically un- necessary. Still the fact remains that life 34 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES subsists on life, and that all living substance, being composed of cells, must of necessity have a protein base. Therefore, neither man nor animal can help taking this substance in excess of physiological requirements, mak- ing death inevitable through thickening of the blood. SERUM-ALBUMEN-PATHOGEN Dr. Powell further argued that this se- rum-albumen absorbed from our food in the process of digestion finds no place in the non-vegetative processes of the cells, and therefore, makes an excellent culture media for those scavangers, which we are pleased to call disease bacteria. Bacteria decom- pose useless protein material into secondary products, the toxic action of which, gives rise to various combinations of symptoms, classified as so many diseases. But, as some- times happens, the body makes an inde- pendent effort to expel this useless material by way of the mucus membranes of the nose, throat, lungs, or intestinal tract. Then we have such manifestations as colds, catarrh and other muco-purulent discharges; a sort SOME HERESY 35 of house cleaning on the part of Mother Nature. If, however, the house cleaning does not take place, and this material is de- composed within the body, either through chemical or bacterial action, it gives rise to such substances as uric acid and other de- structive compounds. To this albuminoid substance, Dr. Powell gave the technical name "pathogen," which in plain language means "STUFF WHICH CAUSES SUF- FERING." He advanced, in connection with the theory of the pathogenic origin of disease, the equally revolutionary concept, already alluded to, of the permanent endurance of all, but our covering and lining tissues, con- tending that when the body has once grown to maturity, its cells do not break down, as commonly thought, but that they are co-eval with the life of the organism to which they belong. Generally speaking, we are the same cell aggregate at eighty that we were at twenty-five. Nutrition in the adult body is almost wholly expended in function. The function of movement is probably the most prominent activity of the body, yet, accord- 36 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES ing to Powell, it does not depend upon pro- tein, but upon carbon. The mineral salts, which modern man denies himself so care- fully, are of course needed in the formation of secretions; from which it follows that the habit of stuffing the body with the little need- ed protein compounds, cannot be anything but destructive. The question now presents itself; if the body cells do not break down as a result of exertion, where does the nitrogeneous waste products observed in the excreta come from ? Dr. Powell answers that they do not result from the destruction of the tissues but from the combustion of nutrient matter within the cells. He argued that the carbon from the food, and the oxygen from the air, meet in the blood and are carried to the cells where they are combined under the influence of nerve energy, in a way similar to that by which carbon and hydrogen are united in plant tissues, under the influence of sun- light. The cell leads a practically autonomous existence. If supplied with the proper THE CELL AUTONOMOUS SOME HERESY 37 media it will endure, yea, even grow and multiply apart from the body (vide the Car- rell experiments). It is only through the process of evolution that it has become a part or an organism, in a way not unlike that in which a worker bee is a part of its colony. It has given up its reproductive function for the privilege of individual sur- vival, during the life of the organism as a whole. The individual cell, if continually supplied with proper nutriment would be immortal. For it there is no natural death; it must be killed. But, as the body manifests subjective and objective functions, so the individual cells have functions dealing with their own sur- vival, and others, which play a part in the survival of the organism to which they be- long. Therefore, in order that we may un- derstand the causes of ill health in the body, we shall have to learn something concern- ing the individual cells of which it is com- posed. The source of mechanical motion in the animal organisms, according to Powell, is CAUSE OF MUSCULAR MOTION 38 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES not due to the action of the supposedly very nutrious protein, but of the relatively less prized carbon. Chemists tell us that when oxygen unites with carbon, energy is set free equal to a pressure of forty atmospheres. It is this suddenly liberated energy in the cell, which causes the muscles to contract as they do in all movement. Once this work is performed, the carbon-dioxide escapes by way of the veins, and is carried to the sys- temic exhaust valves-the lungs-to be ex- pelled from the body. Thus, the carbon of the carbo-hydrates in the food and the oxy- gen from the air, and not the nitrogen, sul- phur and phosphorous of protein, cause the phenomena of muscle power in living things. Organic carbohydrates and the essential negative elements to give the necessary dia- magnetic quality to the blood for the produc- tion of the proper nerve force, should, on the basis of this theory, be as near an ideal diet as the human race may hope to attain. And on this point, Dr. Hinhede, who was in charge of the food situation for the Danish nation during the World War, gives some SOME HERESY 39 interesting information, on which we will touch later. What I wish to make clear, above every- thing else, is the fact that the blood, must continually supply carbon and oxygen to the muscular tissues for their mechanical functions. It makes no difference if the energy of these functions be expended on a base ball diamond, or in the peristaltic ac- tion of the bowels, or in the beating of the heart; they all depend upon the formation of carbon-dioxide within the bodies of the cells composing the tissues involved, while the nerve energy, that makes the formation of this substance possible, is in all proba- bility due to the fact that the circulation of the blood cuts the magnetic lines of force in the earth's field, in a way analogous to a dynamo in a power house. We realize that this statement means but little to the average layman or physician. It will however, carry a meaning to any one versed in the science of electricity. The fact that the circulating blood is of the same resistance to magnetism as is copper, gives the human, and for that matter animal 40 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES bodies generally, a power which in many re- spects is analogous to that of a dynamo, or generator. The blood transforms magnetic force in to a form of vital electricity, and it is this vital electricity, which comes into play when the blood sugars are being trans- formed into lamp black with the consequent liberation of muscular power. It does not strike me as unreasonable that blood which is loaded down with a sticky colloid substance flows more slowly than it would if it were not so encumbered. The re- sult is a lessened supply of vital electricity with a consequent weakening of the func- tional powers in every department of the body, presenting the paradoxical condition of starvation as a result of over-feeding. FAT Dr. Powell tells us that fat is not due to the formation of new cells, but that it is fuel and nourishment stored up by the body for future use. It is energy-bearing material, which is not immediately needed for active work, and so is passed on through the cell walls into the intercellular spaces where it SOME HERESY 41 remains until called upon by the organism in times when food is not available. The fact that civilized man allows Nature to store up such a surplus and gives her no op- portunity to consume it, is a sad commen- tary on his intelligence. It is my opinion- and I shall speak of it more in detail later -that man should so order his life as to be- come moderately lean once a year; that is, he should subject himself to an annual cleansing of the flesh. Continuous fatness is only too often an evidence of laziness and in- ternal filth. ACTIVITY NEEDED After "pathogen" in the blood streams as a result of an excess of protein compounds in the diet, and fat a,s a result of overfeed- ing, we must consider another hardly less potent cause of disease, i. e., the lack of use or exercise of the structures. LIFE IS AC- TIVITY; CESSATION OF ACTIVITY IS DEATH. The bodily structures not ex- ercised gradually shrivel or soften, and when filled with waste, which acts as food for bacteria, rot. REST IS RUST; rust 42 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES is destruction. There can be no doubt that the modern elevator, motor and trolley car are no small factors in the increase of de- structive diseases. For we must not forget that it is the heat of physical exertion that activates the skin glands so they may do their allotted one-half of the eliminative work of the body. Physical inactivity then is another great cause of disease. Man was not created to fill a swivel chair or a cush- ioned seat all his days. He must expend an amount of energy equivalent to his nourish- ment, or the unused, food as pointed out in previous paragraphs, will become first an encumbrance and later a poison. DYNAMIC FACTORS In the first part of this discussion we have stressed Powell's concept of disease-patho- genic obstruction. Let us now consider the dynamic concept. Dynamic factors were, until Abrams and White got busy, the stamping grounds of the metaphysicians. And it must be said to the credit of the lat- ter, that many of their theories which were ridiculed by the scientists are, in many in- SOME HERESY 43 stances being mechanically and mathe- matically verified. For instance, the psy- chometry of Buchanan written fifty years ago, foreshadowed the Electronic Reactions of Abrams, and his Law of Periodicity has since been verified by Mendelljeff in chem- istry, Hertz in electricity, and Lindlahr in disease. In the same way, time has verified many of the concepts of such men as Jules Verne, Edward Bellamy and Count Tolstoi. LINDLAHR'S CONCEPTION Some years ago Henry Lindlahr, M. D., inspired by the inductive writings of Bu- chanan T. K., and others, published his book 11 Nature Cure Philosophy," in which he formulated definitions of health and disease. These were sneered at and called consum- mate nonsense by many orthodox physi- cians. He wrote: "Health is the normal and harmonious vibration of the elements and forces composing the human entity, on the physical, mental and moral planes of being, in conformity with the constructive principle in Nature applied to individual life." And disease, he said, is "Abnormal 44 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES or inharmonious vibration of the elements and forces composing the human entity on one or more planes of being, in conformity with the destructive principle in Nature ap- plied to individual life." He then mentions three paths through which disease may enter: (1) "Lowered Vi- tality," that is, inadequate energy, or the dynamic factor; (2) "Abnormal Composi- tion of Blood and Lymph," the pathogenic factor, which is naturally inter-related with the dynamic factor, as all chemical change is accompanied by, or rather consists in a play of thermal, electrical, magnetic and ra- diant forces; (3) "The Accumulation of Waste, Morbid Materials, and Poison." This last factor is hardly needed, as waste, morbid matter and poisons are all foreign substances capable of undergoing chemical change. Thus, Lindlahr's three factors re- duce themselves to two-the dynamic and the chemico-obstructive factors. But the point which interests us here is that disease is a question of the flow of substance and the vibration of sub-material forces in those bundles of matter we call men and beasts. SOME HERESY 45 That vital force exists has been believed from time immemorial. It is referred to in all religious literature, probably because the cell manifests an almost transcendental wis- dom. Science being unable to weigh and measure this force for want of sufficiently sensitive instruments, tried to rule it out of Court. In the hands of Abrams and White, however, the cells of the stomach muscle proved to be sensitive to energy which the most intricate instruments born of human ingenuity could not detect, so that once more the intuitive faith of mankind is verified by science. We discover that superstition is but distorted science, and that science is but rectified superstition. Disease is therefore not to be looked upon as the natural result of cells gone wrong or germs gone wild, but as being a derangement of the interacting life current. I believe that what Abrams now calls "Electronic Reactions," will sooner or later be more justly called "Vi- tal," or "Bionic Reactions," recognizing that we are dealing with what is not pri- marily an electrical but rather a magnetic or possibly a submagnetic force. 46 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES The writer of these pages is fully aware that the claims of Dr. Albert Abrams are being disputed by those who have not taken the time to master the work. But this does not alter the truth that the phenomena he describes do occur. As I write, I have before me the works of Dr. Geo. Starr White of Los Angeles, and also a copy of the British Homeopathic Journal, and in both these works, I find descriptions of the work under somewhat different names, and I might also add that Dr. Geo. Crile of Cleveland has re- cently made statements to the public press in which he affirmed his belief that life was basically an electrical phenomena, so whether the reader may have been preju- diced against the work of Doctor Abrams or not, this does not alter the truth that the cardinal princple of his work is being constantly verified and will ultimately have to become a part of the recognized thera- peutic art. ABRAMS' IDEA Abrams in his "New Concepts in Diag- nosis and Treatment" tells us that "Dis- ease is regarded as an entity only because SOME HERESY 47 we do not know enough about it to specify it as a reaction of a symptom." And again on page 177 he says, "Just as there is a 'Periodic Law' with reference to the pe- riodicity of the elements, so may we antici- pate a similar law with relation to morbid processes. We must not only content our- selves in determining the energy evolved, but also determine its polarity, vibration rate and wavemetric index. ' ' And on page 203, he comes to the conclusion that where- as we have been taught Pathology (disease) is the "physiology of the sick," from his viewpoint it might more properly be called "the physics of disharmonious vibration." We therefore conclude that in the care of one's health, and in the treatment of dis- ease, we ought to take into consideration these three factors: (1) Perfect nutrition. (2) Complete and sufficient exercise. (3) The dynamic requirements of our organism realizing that these are to no small extent under the control of thought pro- cesses. 48 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES THE HUMAN AURA Recent research in this domain of nature has brought to light much confirmatory evidence concerning the dynamic nature of life, although we, with the natural attitude of superiority characteristic of half know- ledge-have sneered at those who claimed ability to see it. "Of course" we argued "there is no such a thing," and insisted that any fool knew it, and it turns out that in the "fool" part of our contention we ex- pressed the truth-for even if we look upon those who claimed that they could see a misty, or mystic atmosphere about the hu- man body, as deluded or bent upon deluding others, we have to take the results of me- chanical instruments differently. The camera does not lie when properly focused. To Dr. Walter J. Kilner, B. A., M. B., M. R. C. P., late of St. Thomas' Hospital, London, England, belongs the credit of clearing, at least the honest ones of the aura seeing folk, of the charge that they were deluded, or that they endeavored to delude others, and incidentally convicted some of SOME HERESY 49 us wise men of being rather cruelly stupid and conceited. For our attitude when ana- lyzed amounted to this, what we could not see, no one else could unless they were "lo- Above: The Aura of a Healthy Woman. This Is a Per- fectly Shaped Aura of Average Width Enveloping a Young Woman, 23 Years Old. The Color Was Blue Grey. This Is a Very Fine Specimen of Aura. A Dicyanin Screen Is Usually Required to Make the Aura Visible, but After Becoming Used to the Effect Many Experts Can See It Without the Screen. This Shows an Aura of a Healthy Woman and Also Shows as Well the Rare Phenomenon of "Rays" Breaking Out from Various Parts of the Body. These Rays, However, Are Non- luminous. They Are Simply an Emanation. The Age of the Subject Was Twenty-three Years. coed." Then, Dr. Kilner devised a screen by which the human aura becomes visible to anyone-so that its existence is no longer a controversional proposition, but a fact-a legitimate object for scientific investigation. The accompanying cut taken from May, 50 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES 1921, issue of "Science and Invention Maga- zine" by permission of the publisher, shows graphically just how this phenomenon ap- pears when seen through two plates of glass one-eighth of an inch apart, the space be- tween being filled with an alcoholic solution of dicyanin. To our physical and chemical means we will sooner or later have to add dynamic means; that is, we will have to not only re- move the mice nests from our tissues, but also put the instrument we call our body back in tune. This tuning process we an- ticipate will be the chief work of the physi- cian of the future. III EXERCISE That the full and complete exercise and function in the body is absolutely essential to the maintenance of health, is a fact so well known as to need no argument. In what such exercise should consist, and how, and when, as well as why it should be sys- tematically practiced, is, however, not so well understood and may, therefore, be profitably explained and discussed. One of the most prevalent, as well as the most harmful misconceptions concerning the nature of our bodily functions, is that our ordinary occupations, many of which are indeed strenuous enough, are sufficient to meet all the requirements of health. This is a grave mistake. Work is not exercise in the true sense of the word. It may bring in- to play only a small part of our musculature. To illustrate: a stenographer may work 52 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES hard at the keys of a typewriter, thoroughly exercising her fingers and, to a less degree, certain muscles of the arm, but this leaves the rest of her body in a comparatively quiescent position. And what is true of the stenographer is also true of the vast major- ity of the professional, office, clerical, and, to no small degree, industrial workers. The high degree of specialization required by the vocations incident to the conduct of mod- ern civilization, involuntarily leads us to de- velop specialized sets of muscles and other organs. It is a well known fact that when we over- develop any set of tissues, we do so at the expense of others. This is known as the law of compensation; it proves that we can not get anything out of Nature without giving an equivalent in return. If, for a time, we seem to succeed, we need not be deceived into the idea that we will ultimately triumph; for the law in exorable. In the end we or our progeny must pay. Those who think that a person can not de- velop powerfully on a vegetarian or raw food regime, would do well to read the fol- EXERCISE 53 lowing article reprinted from NATURO- PATH, for April, 1924: "India claims the strongest man in the world-Ram Murti Naidu. "Ram Murti Naidu is five feet six inches tall and weighs about two hundred and ten pounds. His chest measurement is forty- eight inches, and it has an expansion of nine inches. He can swim for two hours con- tinuously and can run twelve miles at a stretch. "As a test of strength Ram Murti has a heavy iron chain passed around his shoul- ders and then two ends of it bound to a heavy post. He slowly lifts his shoulders and the chain breaks in two. "For another test Ram Murti has a gi- gantic elephant, weighing about four tons, enter the ring. A thick plank is then placed over Naidu's chest and abdomen; the ele- phant gently walks on it and after seesaw- ing for several minutes walks off. Naidu immediately jumps to his feet and smilingly greets his audience as unconcernedly as if nothing had happened. "Naidu never eats meat of any kind, or 54 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES fish, not even eggs. He is strictly a vege- tarian. He is very fond of cold water, of which he drinks an abundance. He never drinks tea or coffee. "As a boy Ram Murti Naidu was sickly. The reading of the lives of historical strong men inspired him to become a physical giant. At first he took up the western method of dumb-bell and bar exercises, but soon dis- covered that his constitution was not suited for that kind of exercise. Consequently he adopted the Hindu system of ground exer- cises. Constant and regular exercise, bull- dog pertinacity and, above all, his strong mind, turned him from a weakling into a physical marvel. "By personal experience he discovered that it was neither food nor the form of ex- ercise that made a man strong, but that it was the mind that developed the muscles. Naidu says he believes, as did Napoleon, that it is mental strength, mental energy and control of the mind that make a man strong, and that a weak mind can never ex- pect to develop a strong body. "Naidu's life and strength bear testimony EXERCISE 55 to his theory. Every day for about two hours he practices concentration and medi- tation and also the different breathing ex- ercises to increase his power of oxygenation. " 'When you think in the afternoon that you are feeling weak because you could not afford to have lamb chops for lunch, even if you had plenty of vegetables and beans and rice, you are just creating a mental con- dition which reacts on the physical,' says Naidu. 'Meat is not necessary to make one strong.' " "Exercise" does not mean work at a spe- cial occupation or trade, it does mean the activation, at stated intervals, of all those structures which are in constant danger of neglect. We wish to point out that keeping ourselves physically fit is a duty we owe to ourselves and future generations. For this reason we have worked out a simple plan for keeping the body in a functional equilib- rium. But, be it understood at the outset, that its rules must be modified somewhat in extreme sickness, weakness, or old age, also in cases of injury. In this as in all things one must temper rules with reason. 56 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES 1. Upon arising in the morning, stand erect, take a full breath, taking special care Fig. 1 to expand the muscles of the abdomen, and while holding the breath, rotate the head to EXERCISE 57 the right, describing as large a circle as pos- sible. Exhale, thoroughly emptying the lungs, and relax. After a few seconds re- laxation, inhale as before, and rotate to the left, again describing as large a circle as possible, exhale and relax as before. Fig. 2 58 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES Next, try to bend the neck as far back as possible, having first inhaled the breath, and then bend it forward, exhaling. Then try to lay the head first on the right and then on the left shoulder. Your own shoulder should Fig. 3 be used for this exercise, those of other peo- ple having no special value from a thera- EXERCISE 59 peutic viewpoint. Repeat all these exercises from three to eight times. 2. Next, with hands and arms extended horizontally to the side, bend the body forcibly to the right as far as possible, and Fig. 4 then to the left, keeping the arms in posi- tion. Do this three or four times in rapid succession, with lungs well filled. Then ex- hale vigorously and relax. 3. With heels together and toes out at an angle of forty-five degrees, vigorously 60 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES rotate the body from the hips up, first to the right with lungs well filled and abdomen Fig. 5 inflated, three or four times. Exhale and relax. Then repeat, turning to the left. 4. Dip with the knees, arms extended to the side, four or five times. This exercise EXERCISE 61 should be taken while balancing the body on the toes. Let the body go down so that the buttocks touch the heels. From this posi- tion arise without support to standing po- sition, and repeat four or five times. Ex- hale and relax. 5. Rise on your toes and return to a flat- footed position and repeat. Do this from eight to ten times under conditions as out- lined. 6. With one hand against a wall or other suitable object of support, rotate the limbs first forward and then backward, describing the utmost circle. Do this first with one limb and then with the other; also kick from three to eight times in every direction for which you have muscles of movement. Re- member that, within certain limitations, there are no restrictions to be placed on these exercises on account of age, sex, or condi- tion. They should always be taken where there is plenty of fresh air, and on the open ground if possible, for reasons which we shall discuss later. I now wish to call your attention to the following illustrations. These exercises 62 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES may be taken twice a day by people who are bed fast. Five minutes to each seance. BED EXERCISES Fig. 6 1. Begin the system by executing the movement illustrated in figure one, five EXERCISE 63 times, and increase one every third day un- til you can take thirty. Of course you may Figure 7 be able to take thirty the first time, but do 64 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES not do it. Even the will sometimes needs discipline. Figure 8 EXERCISE 65 2. Now take the exercise illustrated in figure 7, same as above, and so on through the entire list of illustrations. Similar exercises may be taken with arms and neck, as circumstances may require. There are other and special exercises de- vised for the development of special muscle groups so as to bring out their strength and skill. This is illustrated by exercise for the fingers to gain proficiency on musical instru- ments, and the larger muscle groups which are designed to hold poses for dance, stage, or artistic effect. There are also exercises devised for the correction of physical de- formities such as crooked spines, legs, and necks. It would take a volume to discuss each of these separately, and must, there- fore, be omitted here. It must be remembered that not only does physical exercise tend to keep the body in healthy condition, but if wisely used, helps in the cure of many chronic diseases. Medi- cal gymnastics for therapeutic purposes are employed the world over. Those who wish to follow this matter in detail will get much 66 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES valuable information from "Physical Cul- ture Magazine" and other health publica- tions. TENSION-VIBRATORY I may yet discuss a few simple but very ef- fective forms of exercise before I close this statement. They are what I call the ten- sion-vibratory movements. They may be taken alternately with the exercises already described. (a) Hold arms rigidly from the shoul- ders in a horizontal sidewise position and forcefully and swiftly vibrate the fingers up and down. (b) Hold the arms rigidly before you, palms inward, and vibrate your hands in and out. (c) Arms rigidly upward, and vibrate as above. (d) Vibrate breast and abdomen by an effort of the will. (e) With limb extended backward and forward alternately, vibrate each foot. (f) Stand on tiptoes and vibrate the en- tire body. EXERCISE 67 These exercises should be continued until the parts become tired, but should not be kept up until they are fatigued. In all exer- cise fatigue is to be avoided. However, it is well to continue them until a sense of weariness is felt. I have given you only what are called the active movements, that is, movements which are executed under the direction of the will -and let me point out that they are the only movements which actually stimulate growth and development in the tissues. There are also systems of movement which are exe- cuted upon the person by an operator, gen- erally a Nature Cure doctor or a Swedish Masseur, and to a less degree by all drugless doctors. This form of exercise, while very beneficial in cases where the patients are too weak to execute voluntary movement, is not to be compared with the effects of self- directed exercise. To obtain the greatest benefit the mind must take a joyous part in the work. A slave does not grow, he vege- tates. Anything done with a feeling of obli- gation is slavery. To get healing effects our soul must enter into the work of reconstruc- 68 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES tion. We must set for ourselves a mental standard of perfection and diligently work until it is realized in our life. BREATH Every one knows that breath is an impor- tant function and that pure air is a fore- most essential, but the knowledge that by the proper use of the breath we may vir- tually compel health and banish disease, is by no means so well known. There is a science of breath which gives us the key to physical reconstruction, providing we learn how to use it wisely and constructively. Un- fortunately this science cannot be accurate- ly described on the printed page. It must be demonstrated by a teacher, and the pupil must be personally coached if he is to master the secret of the oxygenation of the body. Those who want to learn how to breathe for greater physical or mental power should take these instructions under the direct tute- lage of a master of the art. To read direc- tions and follow them is dangerous. You must be guided carefully until you learn how to control the breath and the muscle pressure so as to make the work effective. EXERCISE 69 WHAT CAN BE DONE By means of dynamic breath we can clear the mucus out of the nasal passages and overcome nasal and throat catarrh. We can intensify the circulation of the blood in the brain, and bring about better brain ac- tion. We can dissolve many forms of ad- hesions and develop many organs and parts of the body which are deficient in develop- ment. Breath is life. HISTORY From time immorial there have been men in India and other countries who devoted their time to the physical and mental im- provement of their race. The experience of generations of earnest workers in this field, handed down to us from father to son, and from teacher to pupil, is now available to the Western world under the title of Yogi breathing. This is a well worked out system and meets the re- quirements of Oriental psychology and phy- siology exactly. They are, however, in their original form, not suited to the average Western student, who, in contra-distinction 70 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES to his Eastern brother, lives mostly on a flesh diet. The Westerner, therefore, has to follow a different technique and it is this to which we must call careful attention in our public and private teaching. As a man breathed so is he.-Estes. The first and last act of life is breath. "He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." -Bible. Life is absolutely dependent upon the act of breathing. "He breathed upon them and they received the holy ghost."-Bible. Breath is the vehicle of inspiration-inspiration is the light of the soul,-the soul is that which is really human. Normally we ought to breath through the nose, but when we wish to saturate our bodies with oxy- gen we should draw the air in through the mouth, and then contract the appropriate muscles of the body. IV THEORY AND PRACTICE OF DIETETICS Slowly but surely we are compelled to rec- ognize that proper dietetic practice is one of the main factors in the problem of health; for even a casual survey makes it plain that our present day commercial foods do not meet the requirements of our physical or- ganism. It is indeed a sad commentary on our intelligence that in this twentieth cen- tury, when man boasts of victories over the forces of Nature, he has not yet learned to ask the question: "How and what, under my present environment, shall I eat that I and my race may endure. ' ' To this question the schools, it is true, endeavor to give answers; but so far they have succeeded in evolving but a mass of enigmatic and contradictory propositions, oftentimes so hopelessly out of harmony with biological law that even the layman becomes convinced that the sages are only too often hiding their ignorance un- 72 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES der clouds of words, or are having their opinions made by those who make and sell commercial compounds regardless of their effect upon the people. If the reader should think that this state- ment is exaggerated, let him ask ten doctors of the same school, or of different schools, for a diet list, say for a rheumatic sufferer, and then note the result. Should he feel that the average doctor is not a dietitian, he will find that scarcely two agree. The Hon. Charles Edward Russell, speaking before the American Medical Liberty League at Chicago some time ago, said that while he was City Editor of one of the New York City papers, he sent a reporter to thirty different doctors, with instructions that he detail the same symptoms to each, and get a prescription. The reporter brought back a literal wilderness of drug names, hardly two of which were identical. And this is the state of the healing art today in the domain of drugs. Our experience is, when it comes to foods, that ignorance is even more dense. THEORY AND PRACTICE OF DIETETICS 73 PREVALENT IDEAS ' ' Eat what you like. " " Let your appetite be your guide." "Eat good nourishing food"-and by that is meant the bread-meat- potato-coffee and condiment concoctions looked upon as nourishing food by the av- erage man and woman. Such is the advice of many men high in authority today, which illustrates the confusion in high places. Desire, when normal, may be a safe guide; but how is one to determine off-hand what is normal ? The drunkard, the smoker, the coffee and morphine habitues, all have de- sires in various degrees of development. It is the desire to assuage these cravings that causes them to experiment with drugs. Most of our dope fiends are unintentionally made by doctors and nurses, in the course of medi- cal treatment. Nature does not rely on desires and crav- ings as a guide by which to nourish her spe- cies. She feeds them according to types and seasons. The organism of animals in a state of Nature is adapted by natural selection to the seasonal bounty of the year. No mat- ter how much a rabbit, on the plains of Da- 74 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES kota may desire green leaves in winter, Na- ture supplies only dried grass. And if the greens are artificially supplied, the wild rab- bit ignores them; however, should starva- tion force him to eat them, he soon sheds his hair and dies from cold. Physiologically it is adapted to that which Nature has season- ally provided. Man is an omnivorous creature, with a strong frugivorous leaning due to an un- doubted period in the life history of the race when, as a result of his tree-dwelling habits, he chiefly subsisted on fruits and nuts. This period, known as the "arboreal age," occu- pied the latter part of the Tertiary Geolo- gic Era. Thus an inclination toward a pre- dominant fruit diet lies at the very founda- tion of our food psychology. For hundreds of thousands of years, we may have lived this arboreal life, with the result that this tendency became so deeply rooted, that sub- sequent environmental changes were unable to entirely eradicate it from our mental processes. MAN'S PREHISTORIC DEVELOPMENT THEORY AND PRACTICE OF DIETETICS 75 Let us not forget, however, that in nature completely frugivorous diet is an impossi- bility. Fruit is naturally seasonal. Per- sonally, I know of no tree, with the possible exception of breadfruit, which bears fruit the year round and of no country where it is at all times abundant; hence, even in the frugivorous age, it is more than likely that, like the present monkeys, we also were in- sectivorous. LESSONS FROM LIFE While the cow, and for that matter all herbivora, can build their entire structure, from grasses alone, man is not so consti- tuted. A study of his internal anatomy shows him to be of a mixed type. His teeth show both a nut and a meat-devouring char- acter. His salivary glands and other secre- tory organs along the alimentary tract show him to be adapted to dry starch products. The length of his intestines would indicate him to be a natural fruit eater. Taking it all in all, he is an omnivorous creature and must nourish himself accordingly. There are, however, great differences in various 76 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES types of man, due to the environmental changes through which the race has passed in its march upward from the primordial cell. Originating, as man probably did in the tropics that environment must have basically influenced his food requirements. LESSONS FROM THE ROCKS Geology teaches us, according to Haekel and other scientists, that the continent of Lemuria, where man probably originated, went down prior to the last glacial period. The Hindoo legend of creation tells us that the first human couple came from the islands to the south, were hindered from re- turning by the sinking of the connecting land. These early legends shed a faint light on the physical conditions of our primitive home. LESSONS FROM ARCHEOLOGY Archeology, legend and history prove that man's food supply has been subjected to va- rious more or less drastic changes from the fruit and insect eating arboreal days to the probably almost exclusive meat diet of the THEORY AND PRACTICE OF DIETETICS 77 glacial epoch, and the later centuries of pas- toral existence. There came a change with the introduction of agriculture; and again when the arts of salting, cooking and pre- serving made their appearance; and now once more the organism of man is called upon to make a re-adaptation-this time to denatured, demoralized, and often positive- ly poisonous food. He has now taken the problem of his nu- trition out of the hands of God, and put it into the keeping of doctors, who of course, know more about such things than the Al- mighty ever dreamed of knowing. The re- sult is a wild profusion of literature, telling what is good and bad in the way of food, but ignoring the fact that man evolved by, and is adapted to, the pure unadulterated products of Nature. Thus we are told that we must eat foods which will evolve a suffi- cient number of heat units (calories) to ade- quately supply the physical and thermal en- ergies required by our bodies, and this idea has led to stuffing the system with inordi- nate quantities of starch proteins and fats, entirely forgetting the vitamines and elec- 78 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES tro-magnetic mineral salts which are found in the green leaves of vegetables, as well as in the hulls of grain and the peelings of fruit. They are absolutely essential to the digestion and assimilation of all other food substances. THE HUMAN ENGINE Man may be likened to an internal com- bustion engine, and, although we have treat- ed our bodies as such since the advent of modern commercial food, we forged that such an engine needs a battery or magneto, which liberates dynamic power, necessary to make the energy on the other food com- pounds available. It is nervous energy which breaks up and recombines the starch, sugar, and fat molecules, liberating their dynamic energy at a temperature of about 104 degrees F., a heat which can be accom- plished in the laboratory only at the tem- perature of the electric arc, which is many hundred times higher. The transforming process in our bodies, then, is not one of mere oxidation, but depends upon an inter- change of electro-positive and the electro- THEORY AND PRACTICE OF DIETETICS 79 negative chemical constituents acted upon by the properly polarized organs of the body, from all of which it follows that lab- oratory findings are worthless when it comes to a determination of food values. Nature, however, gives us a perfect food standard in the composition of human milk. It is Nature's standard food for the young: Red arterial blood which supplies all the tissues of the body with nourishment throughout the entire span of life, also is a natural standard for those who are inter- ested in the chemistry of foods. But let me warn you that to merely sup- ply the needed elements does not in itself spell nutrition, but is just as likely to be de- structive. It is not only a fact that we need certain elements but also that they must be tuned to the organic rate of vibration. The difference between living and non-living matter being a difference of periodicity. Both milk and blood carry all the nutritive elements in perfect combination, and we can have no scientific system of diet unless we take these combinations and their radio-ac- tivity into account. 80 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES EFFECTS OF VIBRATION There can be no doubt that life is power- fully affected by the solar and other electro- magnetic vibrations of its environment. These vibrations differ greatly with the lat- titude and longitude at which one finds him- self, and also with the altitude and atmo- spheric density and pressure of the particu- lar locality. Adaptation may simply be a tuning process, and if so, it follows that not only should one eat according to the sea- sonal bounty of the year, but also see to it that his food is grown under the same light effects and other conditions under which he himself lives. HUMAN MILK Human milk contains 87.2 per cent water and 12.56 per cent solid negative matter, 3.50 per thousand of positive mineral matter. Water being an element of all food, we shall not discuss in this, but shall take up the solids in the order of their appearance. PROTEIN (1) Protein: This is the first compound THEORY AND PRACTICE OF DIETETICS 81 of elements that comes to our notice when analyzing milk. It is composed of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur in organic molecular combination. These elements are also present in such foods as nuts, the gluten of grains, eggs, meat, dairy products, peas, beans, mush- rooms, etc. In milk there is only 2.36 per cent, from which it follows that when we make it sixty or seventy per cent of our food, we are stuffing the body with an ex- cess not only far beyond its requirements, but beyond its power to eliminate, as well. It is more than possible that the apparent strength we feel after a heavy protein meal is only the defensive battle of Nature against this folly, and, as has been pointed out, it may lead to disease and ultimately destroy the life-sustaining power of the body. FATS (2) The next compound found in milk is fat. It represents 3.94 per cent of the total bulk. It is also found in such foods as butter, meat, lard, vegetable oils, etc. And, if taken in excess, as frequently it is, 82 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES it also calls upon the energy of the body in order that it may be eliminated. (3) Sugar is of similar chemical combi- nation as fats and oils, being composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and it con- stitutes 6.26 per cent of the total volume of the milk. It is represented in the norma] foods of the adults by such products as honey, white parts of grains, potatoes, sweet fruits, beet sugar, etc., from which it fol- lows that if these things are taken greatly in excess of this proportion, they become a detriment to our well being. SUGAR HONEY There can be no doubt that unprocessed natural honey is the most wholesome sweet for the human race. It should be on every table in place of the refined or rather de- natured white sugar, syrup, and candies, which now ruin the teeth of children and fill the systems of adults with acid. Honey is as we have said elsewhere one of the few complete food products. It was probably THEORY AND PRACTICE OF DIETETICS 83 for this reason that the land of Palestine was described as flowing 'with milk and honey. Some years ago we had the pleasure of spending some days at wfliat was, at the time, the greatest bee ranch in the country, and while there the proprietor, Mr. L. A. Co- blentz, who is not only a wizard at bee cul- ture but a Nature Cure enthusiast as well, gave us much valuable information concern- ing the ways of the bees, and the physical effect of honey upon the human system. So thorough was his discussion of these mat- ters that we asked him to put some of his ideas in writing for this volume, which he did in the following letter. 132 North Avenue 52, Los Angeles, Calif., April 15, 1924. Dr. John H. Dequer. Dear Friend: Yours received and will comply with your request for a statement concerning the food value of honey and how one may determine the purity of its different forms. In order 84 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES to make the subject plain, let us ask first of all: WHAT IS HONEY? Honey is the nectar of flowers gathered by bees. No, bees do not make honey; they only gather the nectar and bring it to their laboratory, called the hive-and when they have ripened it by evaporating the water, taking care of it in their own special way, we have honey. Remember honey takes its flavor from the perfume of the particular flower from which the nectar is gathered. There are therefore, as many kinds of honey as there are nec- tar-producing flowers. The quality of the honey naturally varies quite as much as ap- ples, peaches, and other fruits; some kinds of honey being delicious, while others are not. Some kinds are white and mild, others dark and strong, while there are a few va- rieties which are almost inedible. The most common kinds of honey are sage, orange blossom, cotton, white clover, sweet clover, buck wheat, linden, and alfalfa. Honey is put upon the market in two forms-comb and extracted-I do not think THEORY AND PRACTICE OF DIETETICS 85 there is any strained honey now, as it was produced by mashing or melting combs with the bee bread, and was of poor quality. Ex- tracted honey is simply honey thrown out of the comb by a honey extractor. In this way the combs can be used over and over again, saving the bees much time and labor. Ex- tracted honey, when properly ripened, is in every way as wholesome and delicious as comb honey. A vast majority of people today, owing to the educational propaganda during the war, are using extracted honey. I will, therefore, confine myself at this time exclu- sively to a discussion of this form. Extracted honey will granulate or candy in time. This, however, varies with the source from whence the nectar was gath- ered. The sage honey of California retains the liquid form for a long time, while the orange blossom readily granulates. This granulation of honey has been looked upon with suspicion by a great many who are ignorant of this phenomenon. The truth is that this very granulation is proof of its purity. 86 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES Here is a point to which I wish to call your special attention. It is how our deli- cious and healthful honey is ruined by the honey dealers. They make a practice of heating it too near the boiling point and keeping it at that temperature for several days. What they sell is "cooked honey," with the possible exception of sage honey, at least nine-tenths of all extracted honey on the market has been so treated. No ladling out of chunks of honey; they just turn the faucet and fill your jars; it's easy! When honey is heated, two changes takes place in its composition. First: the delicious flavor and fragrance of the flowers are de- stroyed. It is now only a commercial sweet. But this is not the most serious change that has taken place, for the cooking breaks up its vital principle, putting it in the same category with syrups and sugars. We must now deal with the food value of honey. In that wonderful laboratory, the hive, bees deposit for us a sweet that needs no digestion. It has been prepared for im- mediate assimilation without taxing the stomach or kidneys. THEORY AND PRACTICE OF DIETETICS 87 Some authorities maintain that honey is assimilated in from six to eight minutes, but when cooked it is no longer honey, and should not be so labeled, as now in the pro- cess of digestion, it has the same effect as other cooked sweets. So, unless it is sage honey, always insist on getting the natural granulated uncooked product. Sugar is an acid producer, and a nerve de- pletes Honey being a natural sweet, does not fall in this category. It is a health buil- der and nerve food. There are many in- stances where people, who are troubled with constipation, have been cured by a continu- ous use of honey. Not because the honey acts as a cathartic, but, for the reason that by its use the health of the individual is built up to a point where the organism can func- tion properly. From personal knowledge, I know that sugar ferments. I used to get what is known as the "sugar alcohol kick," before I quit its use. Once or twice a week I could eat enough sweets to set up a fermentation, then I would become sick, and in a few days I was ready for another usugar drunk." 88 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES By an exclusive use of honey I overcame that abnormal appetite for sweets. The honey being quickly assimilated, forms no acid in the stomach, and I believe it was this acid which caused the Graving for sweets. Since I discontinued white sugar there have been no more sugar drunks for me. Professor A. J. Cook, distinguished ento- mologist and naturalist, says that when cane sugar is taken into the stomach, it cannot be assimilated until first changed by di- gestion, into grape sugar and an over-taxed stomach fails to do this, hence sour stomach and various dyspeptic symptoms are the re- sult. Again, if cane sugar is absorbed with- out change, it will be removed from the body through the kidneys. The fact that honey builds up resistance to disease, is evident from the fact that my family of six, escaped the "flu," though we were all exposed to it, and I personally waited on several cases of this trouble with no ill effects. If you do not wish to use the granulated honey, and want it in syrup form, it is easy THEORY AND PRACTICE OF DIETETICS 89 to liquify, if you know how. Honey will melt at 120 degrees, and can be heated up to 150 degrees, and not be damaged. If you want liquid honey, take what you wish to use, put in a cup, pan, or bowl, and set it in a vessel of hot water. Be sure to liquify the honey at the lowest possible tempera- ture. Liquify slowly and you will have honey that is delicious, and of full vital strength. Now, doctor, I fear I have already writ- ten too much, but when I get started on the bee question, I scarcely know when to stop. For the past seven years I have produced over 100,000 pounds of honey a year, and my wife and I disposed of the greater part of it directly to the consumer. All of it was sold in the natural, granulated, un- cooked form. I was told that I could not do this; that the people were dense, and that if I did not cook my honey and reduce it to a syrup, they would think it was only sugar. But being desirous that the people have the best, I printed many thousands of circulars, stating the facts herein set forth, and we 90 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES have had nothing to regret financially or otherwise. My advice to all is: " Eat it yourself, give it to your children, and teach them to ab- stain from all unnatural sweets." Respectfully, L. A. COBLENTZ, White sugar, white plague, and the white death, are partners in business. "The body makes its own sugar, all it can use, from non-sugar foods and even though deprived of every form of commercial sugar, man, woman, or child, can and does obtain all the fruit, vegetable, and cereal sugars necessary to health and life." Old men and women consume little or no sugar. Babies that live consume very little. Sugar eating infants do not survive. Men who drink alcoholic beverages rarely eat sugar. The victims of diabetes avoid sugar.-McCann. Think this over! V FOOD VALUES MINERALS (4) The last group of elements found in milk are the positive mineral alkaline ele- ments. Potassium, sodium, iron, lime, and magnesium. These constitute 2.40 per thou- sand of the total food mass. The heat-producing power of milk is 320 calories per pound and it may be put down as common observation that an ordinary lusty infant expends a good deal more heat and energy than 320 calories for every pound of milk it consumes. STARCH This is not found in milk, its place being taken by sugar. It should compose nearly one-half of our food. By this, we do not mean that you should make one-third of your food grains and potatoes, or that one- third should be solid fat, but that it should 92 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES consist of preponderately starch-bearing foods. Sugar and starches, as well as fats and oils, are found in all fruits and vege- tables in wonderfully effective combina- tions. The positive mineral elements should be taken together with all of the foods men- tioned ; for, without them, the process of di- gestion and nutrition is impossible. This would be a difficult thing to do were it not for the fact that Nature properly combines all food, so that if we eat what Nature pro- vides and do not tamper with it, we can make no mistakes. Natural food combinations furthermore depend on the species to be considered. A cow, for instance, is a vegetarian from her nose back. She may feed on grass alone and from it build her own body and nourish her calf. If several bales of hay were reduced to their chemical constitutents and the car- cass of the cow were similarly reduced, there would be found little discrepancy in the ele- ments thus obtained. FOOD VALUES 93 COOKING The body needs approximately sixteen ele- ments tuned Io the rate of organic vibration, if it is to function perfectly. These elements must be taken into the body as food. Cook- ing disorganizes some, and frying destroys the normal vibratory or radio activity of others. Hence, people who have poor di- gestion should abstain from all fried foods. Fruits and raw vegetables should constitute the major portion of their food. In that way the life elements are more assimilable and also more abundant, and therefore, help in the recuperative work. 94 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES Some years ago the author wrote the fol- lowing for the Magnet and it is reproduced here because of its basic truth: SHOULD COOKING BE A DYING ART Some years ago the immortal Lincoln lib- erated the negro slave, and some years from now some other immortal will arise and lib- erate the kitchen slave. For as the libera- tion of the black slave was a moral victory for the white race, so the liberation of the kitchen slave will be a physical victory for the human race. The ownership of the black slave gave us a perverted sense of moral justice, and the eating of cooked and manufactured prod- ucts gives us faulty digestion with its at- tendant evil, mental and nervous manifesta- tions. The almost universal stomach, liver and intestinal troubles are the results of a more or less unconscious sabotage executed by our cooks and food manufacturers. Like Sampson of old they pull down the pillars of our digestion, though they perish with us in the act. Don't blame the cooks, miser- able slaves that they are, but liberate them FOOD VALUES 95 from their bondage and yourself from the curse incumbent on your dietetic sins. Let the cooks get away from the steam- ing pots, stewing pans and frying skil- lets out into the air and sunlight, and note how that peevish temper will sweeten un- der the benign influence of the ozonized breezes; how that grouchy face will light up in unison with the flowers. Yes, let us write a new emancipation proc- lamation, this time for the cook and the kitchen drudge, for in doing so we will free ourselves from many an ill. But I hear you cry, ' ' Who shall feed us if we turn loose the cook, where shall we get our T-bones smothered in onions, and hot biscuits, fried eggs, macaroni, spaghetti, pickles and other messes which we have been taught to call food by the kitchen slaves?" Peace, be still! Feed yourself as did your ancestors before they learned to build and control a fire. The race ate food for many a year before they learned to make the flame, which spoiled their food and their diges- tion. There are people now who live on raw 96 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES food exclusively. It is a hard job. Like the ants who have made slaves of the aphids so long, that now they cannot live without their ministrations. So we have enslaved the cook until we have become her victim to the extent that we now can hardly live without her service. It has been ever so, the enslaver sooner or later becomes the victim of the one he enslaved. Thus it happens that many of us at present really cannot get along with- out some cooked food, but that is not saying that it would not be to our advantage to be- gin a campaign for our own deliverance by curtailing their work and eating more of the God-given unadulterated products of Na- ture. Now let us see what cooking-and in that term I include all the processes of food re- fining and denaturing, such as milling, bleaching, pickling, preserving, frying and roasting now practiced by civilized men-is doing for us, or rather, to us. The body needs approximately seventeen elements, tuned to the rate of organic vibra- tion, if it is to function perfectly. These FOOD VALUES 97 elements are found in most natural raw foods, such as the whole grains, leaves of plants, fruits of different kinds, nuts and roots. They are found also in the blood of animals and in milk, but they are not found in meat, for that is muscle and hence does not have the substance of such parts as bone, gristle, nerve or glands and the substance of their secretions in adequate proportions for the needs of life. All that the body needs may be found in the vegetable world from which it follows that even if ages of meat eating have given us a slight kinship to the buzzard and the jackal, that with a knowledge that the vege- table world contains the essentials of life it should be comparatively easy to adjust ourselves to a meatless and ultimately to a cookless existence. In the living grain (for grain is alive or it would not grow), in the living roots, nuts and plants, the vitamines (life units) are present. These are to a great extent de- stroyed by the process of boiling and baking, while frying almost entirely annihilates them. Life is a mode of motion, and ex- 98 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES treme temperature destroys that motion. Highly organized animals live, with the sole exception of man, chiefly on living matter. With them disease is the exception, with man it is the rule. But how shall we begin our emancipation from the flesh pots of Egypt? My advise would be that we do it by degrees. First of all let us banish from our kitchen the salt cellar, by which wre destroy the natural taste of things and which plant, too, within us, the seed of cancer. You will be surprised at the taste of your food when you have left off salt for six weeks. Next, I would banish Heinze's fifty-seven varieties of indigestion, preserves, pickles, spices and the like, and with that you will find that the impulse to immorality lessens. For remember that even saints have their temptations in direct ratio to their nervous irritation. You will also do away with many melancholy moods and fits of anger. There are people who think they have religion when it is only indi- gestion. It is difficult to worship on a sour stomach. Next, I would banish white flour. That FOOD VALUES 99 concentrated essence of death has so little food value that we have to stuff ourselves with four or five times the amount needed in order to get sufficient nutrition to sur- vive, hence the overworked bowels give out and chronic constipation is the result. Let us cure them by throwing the white flour makers out of a job. Let us eat the whole grain, for that has not seven, but sixteen of the needed life elements. It is not ash, but food. Next I would banish the white sugar and sulphur, cured fruits and machine-made sausages, establishing myself on the propo- sition that all food is good food if manufac- turers haven't fooled with it. When it comes to nutritive values let us admit that God knows a little more than we. SALT Civilized man has developed many per- nicious habits. He dotes on suicide, although he vehemently denies it. In his frenzy to keep up with the pace set by that great hum- bug called "Civilization," he resorts to every chemical and mechanical expedient within reach. Probably one of the most 100 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES harmful of these is his constant and inordi- nate use of common salt. (NaCl). Salt is a very stable substance composed of two elements. One a metal (soda) and the other a gas (Chlorine). The first is positively and the other negatively polar- ized, and as unlike poles attract salt is an almost unbreakable compound. That is the reason it is not broken up to any great ex- tent in the system, but is thrown out of the body unchanged. We have neither time nor space in this work to go extensively into the chemistry of this compound or its physiological effects. Suffice it to say that salt is not needed in the human economy except in the minutest quantities. Persons who live on natural food have little or no desire for it. True, a cow eats salt, but man is not a cow, and the cow does not salt every bite of grass she eats. This habit belongs ' ' to homo saphead ' ' alone. Again, the argument that deer and antelope go to salt licks, ought to be amend- ed-for it is only the pregnant doe that seeks these places-not for the salt alone, but also FOOD VALUES 101 for the other mineral elements associated with it in such 11licks." Meat eating animals do not crave it. To birds, especially songsters, it is a poison. Life can adapt itself to only a certain amount of it. The great Salt Lake and the Dead Sea are practically lifeless. BLACK DEATH The Black death of the Tenth century in Europe is said to have been caused by pickled meat. The Scurvy (Scrobutus) which was the bane of all sailors before the advent of steam, was known to be a salt disease. The cure for it was an abundant supply of raw green vegetables, eaten salt- less. In all my experience I have never seen a person suffering from cancer who did not use a great deal of salt. A CAUSE OF CANCER Now I do not wish to maintain that salt is the direct cause of this malady. I give vaccination credit for that, but I do aver that if the body has been polluted with vac- cine, that then an excess of salt may start 102 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES the cancerous process. For the rest, salt, by irritation of taste buds, causes a false appetite so that we overeat. Overeating is overloading of the digestive tract. Over- loading leads to the exhaustion of function. Exhaustion of bowel function leads to con- stipation. Constipation gives rise to putre- faction and fermentation. Putrefaction and fermentation produces auto-intoxication. Auto-intoxication is the major cause of dis- ease. A CAUSE OF DROPSY Aside from these rather important con- siderations, it has a constrictive effect upon the vitaline membrane of the cell, causing it to contract, so that it disgorges its albu- men. Here it becomes the direct cause of Brights disease and kindred disorders. Dr. J. H. Kirtzer in his book on Iradiag- nosis cites several cases of dropsy which were cured by simply putting the patient on an entirely salt-free diet. By its great affinity for water, common salt exhausts the cells along the Alimentary canal interfering with the normal absorp- FOOD VALUES 103 tion of nutriment by the system. These are but a few of the reasons for reducing the amount of salt in our food. WATER The body needs a certain amount of water. It should be taken in the cool natural state. If taken in any other form, it acts as a solvent or poison. Drink water only when you are thirsty. If your diet contains plenty of raw fruits and vegetables without the ad- dition of table salt-which, beyond the very moderate amount probably needed in the inorganic form by the blood, is nothing more than an excitement of dormant and worn- out taste-buds-we will experience very lit- tle, if any thirst. Water taken in large 104 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES quantities adds weight to the blood stream, and puts additional strain on the heart and kidneys, especially if the skin has been rendered inactive by hot baths or other means discussed in previous essays. In hot weather our bodies need more fluid than in cold weather. The system needs the additional moisture to compensate for the perspiration continually thrown out upon the skin by the action of the heat regulating mechanism of the body. A good rule to fol- low is 4never drink unless thirsty,' and to do nothing medically or otherwise to excite the sense. It should be borne in mind that, if during hot weather we abstain from all meats and protein products and reduce our intake of sugars, fats, and starches to a min- imum, living as nearly as possible upon the fruits and vegetables, we will suffer but lit- tle from heat during the hottest days. The reason for this, being that we do not take into the body any excessive heat-producing compounds, but only such foods as are rich in water and the non-heating chemical salts, together with sufficient carbo-hydrates for mechanical requirements. FOOD VALUES 105 DISTILLED WATER The habit of drinking distilled water should always be discouraged. Our bodies were not evolved in a distillery, neither did the race originate in a sterilizer. We need oxygenated and moderately mineralized drinking water; for such is all water in its natural state. Water is the greatest sol- vent known to science. The power to dis- solve substances increases with its purity, making distilled water especially active; so that, when taken into the body, it has a ten- dency to leach away important mineral ele- ments from the tissues, causing weakness, of both structure and function. Dynamic breathing greatly increases one's thirst for pure water. SCIENTIFIC DIET From the foregoing, it becomes evident that a science of dietetics for the human race must take into account the individual. It must ask, what has been in the race his- tory of this man? Is he a blond, with the propensities developed in the ice age still in his physical make-up, or is he a brunette, 106 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES whose ancestors have not gone through this experience, except to the degree that his blood is mixed with the blond's in later ages? Is he neither one or the other, but a mixture of both. In other words, what is the food to which heredity has adapted his organism. Next, what were the seasonal variations of food to which his ancestors adhered for the last twenty or thirty generations; for it is evident that the history of an Italian, liv- ing chiefly on vegetables and fruits, is quite different from that of the Norwegian or Swede, who lives chiefly on fish and grain, or of the desert Bedouin, "gorged on his leek green lizard meat." Where, as frequently happens in this country, two types inter- marry, the problem naturally becomes com- plicated. ADVANTAGE OF RACIAL PURITY Racial purity in blood and a close adher- ence to the customary dietetic habits of one's ancestors, is the best prophylaxis against disease imaginable. Apart from our com- paratively new methods of eating and almost FOOD VALUES 107 catholic vaccination, much of the affliction found in the American people may be traced to mixed types. Pure-blooded races, when fed on their normal fare, even if unsanitary, generally prosper, while the weakness of the half-breed is proverbial. Hybrids are exceptionally vigorous, says Redfield, and Burbank agrees with him, but a human half- breed is not a hybrid-he is a mongrel, and of those the reverse is true. PROPHYLACTIC DIET A prophylactic diet must be based upon a historic and individual analysis of the per- son in question, and must take into consider- ation the climatic condition under which the person now lives. A blond man will consume large quanti- ties of fat in Alaska with apparently no ill effects. I have noticed Italians and Greeks who endured terrific cold, nourished only on cereals and raisins, the organism of these people being especially adapted to the han- dling of raisins and other fruits in winter. Their types are evolved in a grape country, hence, their ability to subsist on this fare, 108 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES even in terrific cold, while an Englishman or Dane, having been raised in fish and meat countries, will consume large quantities of protein and fats, and does not fare well on a raisin diet in low temperature. From this, it follows that, when the Italian goes further south, he fares better on still more acid fruit, and the Englishman, if he goes further south, will thrive far better on an added supply of green vegetables. Summer, to the Italian, means more acid fruit in the diet, and to the dweller in the Northland it means more vegetable chlorophyl. The coming of the Chinese gardeners to the tropics with their lettuce, spinach, cab- bage, and other greens, has done more to preserve the white men in these regions than all the medical science evolved in all the uni- versities of Christendom. When there is no winter, a man should not eat winter food, and by parity of reasoning, where there is no summer, he should not eat summer food. The dried vegetables sent to Alaska, being sun-cured foods, naturally prepared for winter, have done more to abolish disease in FOOD VALUES 109 a single year than all the drugs and serums ever made could possibly have accomplished. We cannot close this phase of our discus- sion without saying a few words on the ques- tion of flesh foods; and by that we mean meats of all kinds obtained by the slaughter of any kind of animal, be they of high or low degree. It cannot be denied that man has a strong carnivorous leaning. This lean- ing is not being weakened to any degree in modern times, if we take the immense slaughter plants of Swift, Armour and Cudahy as criteria. Man still slays that he may live and we may well add, suffer. But this is not all. In the past he arose, slew and ate fresh meat laden with life. Now he ripens his meat in cold storage until it mellows with age (rots). He no longer preys like the wolf, lion and tiger; he scavenges like the hyenas, buzzards and gulls. He no longer eats flesh, but tries to subsist on carrion. To this his body is not adapted, and disease is the result. Again, in the past, he ate the flesh of MEAT 110 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES healthy animals, living a healthy life on the free and open ranges; but now he eats the flesh of domestic animals, who are, as a rule, over-fed and under exercised and conse- quently diseased. DEMAND OF CULTURE Laying aside this aspect of the problem, let us point out the fact that higher cultural development, must of necessity be in the di- rection of greater humanity and justice, and therefore away from killing for food, fur or plumage. Some day we will loathe the sick- ly sentimentalism of an age that fondles a dog and clothes itself in his skin. For higher culture then, a strict vegetarian life, made consistent by the refusal to wear or use any animal product, is absolutely necessary. But there are only a few who care for higher self expression. Most people are devotees of "the belly full," and to these we say, if you think you cannot do without it, then go ahead, eat meat, but avoid carrion. Eat it sparingly as did your ancestors. Eat it fresh. Eat it broiled, baked or roasted- never fried. Eat it in late fall and winter, FOOD VALUES 111 but not in spring and summer. In this way it will do you the least harm-although it will at best do you but little good. Making speed on a down grade demonstrates no skill. "He knew not what to say and so he swore."- Byron. "Caress sin and you will embrace remorse."- White. Compulsory vaccination ranks with slavery and religious persecution. "Do good for good is good to do: Spurn bribe of Heaven and threat of Hell." "We medicine men know little or nothing of the real action of drugs."-Osler. "No man is good enough to govern another with- out the other's consent."-Lincoln. "Cease then to mumble rotten bones; And strive to cloth with flesh and blood The Skel'ton; And to shape a form That all shall hail as fair and good." 112 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES Nor wage on shadows useless war. "Burnt offerings" are a sign of devotion. Some cooks must worship their employers if Let us try to walk through life looking forward and upward. "The exact line between Life and Death is still undetermined." "Germs are bound to be recognized as mere scav- engers. ' '-Abrams. Who, but a mad man, dares to cry: ' 'Tis I am right you all are wrong'?" "In my opinion all beverages containing caffein are harmfull."-Harvey W. Wiley, M. D. "As palace mirrored in the stream, as vapor mingled with the skies, So weaves the brain of mortal man the tangled web of truth and lies." VI THERAPEUTIC DIET In the foregoing paragraphs, we have dis- cussed how man should eat in order to re- tain health. Let us now consider how he should eat in order to regain it when lost. Remember that disease is generally due to the accumulation of morbid matter in the system, as a result of overeating and im- proper food. We must not forget that the greatest offender in the category of our foods is protein. Protein produces serum albumen, or pathogen, which decomposes in- to uric acid, to say nothing of leucamian, cadaverin and other poisons. These poi- sons give rise to nerve trouble and all the fifty-seven varieties of rheumatism, also Bright's disease and many other chronic af- flictions. Protein-poisoning being a prolific source of disease, it follows that protein starvation for a period of time is the first essential element in a cure. Hence we rec- 114 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES ommend for the meat-gorged American peo- ple a predominantly vegetarian and frugiv- orous diet, using grains, dried fruits, and fresh sweet fruits during the winter months. Where such diseases are pronounced the Spring Foods grains should be eliminated from the die- tary and juicy fruits such as grapes, apples and pears substituted. I am speaking now of the white man belonging to the predomi- nantly white races, living in this natural habitat between the 25th and 50th parallels of latitude. THERAPEUTIC DIET 115 SPRING REQUIREMENTS In the spring, they should eat the young fresh greens which Nature provides at that time of the year-dandelions, lettuce, young onions, and radishes, and all things green that grow at that time of year. I do not Summer Foods say that these should be the exclusive diet, but they should constitute a large part of the regimen. At all events, meats, nuts, eggs, cheese, etc., should be entirely excluded from the diet of those who are protein-poisoned. A little dairy product is about all the pro- tein that should be taken by such individuals until the last vestige of their disease has disappeared. 116 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES SUMMER REQUIREMENTS During the summer, the fruits and vege- tables should be the predominant diet, and toward fall bread and cereals may be added to the fruits of the season. STARCH AND SUGAR DISEASES Those who are suffering from diseases that directly result from an over-ingestion of starch and sugar, chief among which is con- stipation, with its associated chain of evils, such as hemorrhoids, appendicitis, diabetes, gastritis, cancer, pelvic troubles, and a great many other afflictions, should eat as above outlined, but should eliminate all grains and sugar products from their food until their symptoms abate. It should not be inferred from what has preceded that proper diet alone will always cure the results of long-continued excesses. We simply wish to emphasize that it is an absolute essential in any treatment of dis- ease. Faulty diet being a cause, it goes without saying that correct diet must have DIET NOT A CURE-ALL THERAPEUTIC DIET 117 a place in the cure of disease. In cases where an excess of sugar or starch has produced an abnormality of function, it must be great- ly reduced or entirely eliminated, even in fall and winter, and the organs gradually re- educated when the condition has been cor- rected. The normal food for man is that which the seasons bring forth in the region where he and his ancestors have lived for several generations. The reason that the South has so large a percentage of physical inefficiency is doubtless due to the fact that they eat Scotch, .Dutch and Danish diet in a Spanish, Italian and Grecian climate. The result is pellagra, malaria, rheumatism, asthma, and numerous other afflictions running far above ordinary percentage. If the Southern peo- ple would only forget their pork, hot biscuits and fried eggs, and eat only the sweet whole- some products of Nature, with which they are so abundantly surrounded, they would be the healthiest portion of American peo- ple. NORMAL FOOD 118 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES GENERAL ANTI AUTO-INTOXICATION DIET As auto-intoxication is the child of consti- pation and constipation is the mother of fully three-fourths of the diseases commonly affecting mankind, it goes without saying that the re-establishment of proper bowel Fall Foods condition must precede all attempts at cur- ing disease. It has been our experience that if the av- erage patient of Anglo-Saxon, Teutonic, Celtic, or Latin blood will adhere to the fol- lowing dietetic rules, constipation is invar- iably cured in a comparatively short time. Upon arising in the morning drink one or THERAPEUTIC DIET 119 two glasses of cold water, to which the juice of half a lemon has been added, one-half to one hour before breakfast. This is a good rule for all to follow, whether they are sick or well. Then follow this by a few dynamic breaths, and a breakfast according to the season and the case. FALL AND WINTER DIET BREAKFAST This meal during the fall and winter months should consist of such foods as shred- ded wheat biscuit, whole wheat bread and butter, with a liberal amount of sweet fruits, such as figs, prunes and raisins. Insist on the sun dried kinds and refuse all sulphured and lye scalded products. You have a body of flesh and blood, built to handle organic food products. You are not a crude chem- ical works for the reduction of sulphur diox- ide and calcium chloride and other danger- ous substances. Insist upon the natural foods always! To the above may be added a soft boiled or poached egg-every other day-and milk, cottage cheese and other dairy products as 120 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES desired. If a warm drink is needed, milk, at a temperature a little above the blood is to be preferred, although cereal coffee and fruit juices are good. COFFEE Coffee should not be used, as the best one can say for it is that it is dirty water, and the worst, that it is a poison responsible for a good deal of headache, rheumatism and heart trouble. If, however, you are ad- vanced in years, and have used the stuff the greater part of your life, it may take more will power than you possess to break the habit. Under such circumstances I advise that you take a small cup for breakfast, and sympathize with the drunkard and the dope fiend who are bound with similar chains. SPRING AND SUMMER BREAKFAST At this meal, in the spring one should eat freely of asparagus, radishes, lettuce and the young green onions, and gradually re- duce the amount of his cereal food. Eggs are the normal proteid of this season. THERAPEUTIC DIET 121 To those who crave sweets, honey, maple sugar, and cane syrup, also dark brown sugar, may be allowed, unless especially counter-indicated by diabetic, or fermenta- tive conditions. Sweets are necessary foods during all but the hottest summer months. SPRING SUMMER BREAKFAST For all those who are suffering from the toxic or acid conditions referred to, the all melon and summer fruit breakfast helps the badly overworked bowels to regain their normal tone and activity more quickly than any other one thing. We advise the eating of a liberal portion of cantaloupe, musk- melon, watermellon or casaba, together with fresh peaches, apricots, plums, summer pears, or other sub-acid fruits without an admixture of anything else. During the hot weather this will prove to be sufficient for all but the heaviest workers. Winter luncheon for all sufferers from the above named conditions, except perhaps FALL AND WINTER LUNCHEON 122 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES those who do heavy work, or those who are exposed to extreme cold, should consist of fruit and winter vegetable salads. These salads should be composed of raw grapes, apples, pears, peaches, etc., and such vege- tables as celery, cabbage, carrots, rutabagas, turnips, etc. Not all of these in each salad, but different combinations at different times. (Hothouse summer vegetables are not winter food). To this may be added warm baked potatoes, with butter, whole wheat bread, nuts, dairy products, and honey. For drink: water, milk, postum or fruit juice may be used. In the fall the fruits should lead while during the winter, grains, fats, sugars and roots are in order. SPRING AND SUMMER LUNCHEON During the spring, the roots and fruits of the salad, should give way to the garden vegetables, and strawberries, while during the summer such things as cucumbers, green peppers, and the cresses should be used. Let it not be forgotten that sorrel is a splendid THERAPEUTIC DIET 123 spring time food and may well be eaten with- out stint at each meal where grains and grain products are not used. Asparagus and dandelion greens may be used with grain products. As has been said, during the heat of the summer the grains should almost disappear from the diet, while new potatoes and fresh young garden roots take their place. Milk remains a good drink throughout the year, but it is best not to use it when the diet is largely fruit. Custards and rice pudding, may be used sparingly when they cause no fermentation. WINTER DIET The normal winter foods in North Tem- perature latitudes are nuts, grains, sweet fruits, dried fruits, potatoes, and all other edible roots which retain their vitality dur- ing the winter months. These in their va- rious combinations make a most excellent winter diet. The habit of living on green vegetables during extreme cold weather I have found to be productive of more harm than good. 124 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORGES FALL AND WINTER DINNER As one's dinner is generally the heaviest meal of the day, we generally prescribe two cooked vegetables, baked potatoes, whole grain bread and unless especially counter- indicated dairy products, nuts, sweet fruits, and milk, or other drinks, barring coffee Winter Foods and "boot-leg booze." It must be under- stood that with this meal the whole grain and vegetables should lead, and meat, if any, should not be a daily affair. Its place is splendidly taken by nuts, peas, beans and lentils, as well as dairy products. Baked potatoes are a splendid food and the vege- THERAPEUTIC DIET 125 tables may be chosen from any of the list appended hereto, according to the require- ments of the case. SPRING AND SUMMER DINNER This meal remains much the same dur- ing the year in its general character, except, that in summer creamed new potatoes, take the place of the baked variety, while grains and sugars are greatly reduced and the fruits and salads have the more prominent place. ACID AND CITRUS FRUITS These are valuable in sickness when it is well to let them constitute at times the sole article of diet. Generally, however, we ad- vise that they be eaten between meals, as they frequently cause starches to ferment and create unpleasant conditions. Grape- fruit is good for the strong, but dangerous to those who are weak. Take one part of bran and ten parts of water, and steep just below the boiling point BRAN TEA 126 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES for ten hours. Strain off the bran and drink the resultant liquor, adding either honey or lemon juice as the taste may require. Drink a glass at bed time, and one in the morning if the system is very acid. Other good acid and poison breakers are fruit juices, raw vegetables and fruit salads, potatoes and potato-water. Vegetable juices and, in summer, the different members of the melon family are not to be despised. ANTI-ACID DIET To those who suffer with excessive acid, baked potatoes, buttermilks, fruits of all kinds and bran tea are especially indicated. To those who suffer excessively with the heat in summer, the following foods are of special benefit: Artichokes, cauliflower, cel- ery, cabbage (raw) current, cucumbers, en- dive, potatoes, onions, greens of all kinds, sorrel, radishes and spinach. The accompanying lists are appended in the hope that they may make the theoretical ideas contained in this essay more practical, or at least easier of practical application. As constipation is an almost universal THERAPEUTIC DIET 127 ailment, and as it results in no small amount of suffering, we herewith append a list of foods which will prove to be a laxative at any season of the year- Fresh fruits Acid fruit juices Lemonade Fruit soup Stewed raisins Prunes Buttermilk Nuts and nut oils Carrots Irish potatoes Asparagus Cauliflower Spinach Tomatoes Butter Olive oil Ripe olives Bran bread and tea made from wheat bran; also, po- tato-water. 128 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES FATTENING DIET People who are lean from other than hereditary causes should strictly adhere to the following foods, in addition to the prod- ucts natural to the season and country: Unpolished rice Cream Meltose Potatoes Nuts (for growing people) Honey People who want to gain flesh should not eat too great a variety of foods at any one meal. FAT REDUCTION Cut the quantity of all foods in half, and double your amount of exercise, but above all abstain entirely from salt and salted foods. People who suffer from auto-intoxication should religiously abstain from all such food as milk, meat, eggs and all animal fats, with the possible exception of butter. I find that they get the quickest and most lasting ben- efit when put on fruit, fruit juice and salad diet in summer, to which a liberal quantity ANTITOXIC DIET THERAPEUTIC DIET 129 of potatoes may be added in fall and winter. In very severe cases, honey, fruit juices, and melons are most effective. "Am I mad that I should cherish That which bears but bitter fruit, I shall pluck it from my bosom Tho' my heart be at the root." -Locksley Hall. 130 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES Calling names does not refute facts. Animals die sooner when fed on demineralized food, than when starved outright. McCann says that the modest little raisin is satu- rated with iron in its most assimilable form. Iron is an essential of life, but unless it has been prepared in the Vegetable Kingdom it is worthless for the human system. In California where nature supplies us with large quantities of raisins, we should be fully alive to the fact that this form of fruit makes for the purest red blood. Bread has been called the staff of life, but if it be made from demineralized flour it were better to call it the staff of death. Raisins not only are rich in iron, but they also provide lime for bones, phosphorus for the nerves and magnesum for the teeth, and potassium for the blood. VII STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS-THEIR EFFECTS Stimulants are divided into (I) Alkaloids and Narcotics, (II) Alcohols. The alkaloids are derived from vegetable sources. They effect the nervous system. Tobacco, tea, cof- fee and cocoa as well as many patent medi- cines and drugs. Tobacco is probably the most detrimental of all the narcotics, with the possible exception of opium. The nico- tine is one of the most deadly poisons known. It has a tendency to partially paralyze the nervous system and uses up sexual vitality. Tea is very much like coffee in its effects. Thein is its chief stimulating ingredient, but tannin has a very destructive action on the lining of the stomach; we have but to keep in mind leather that has been prepared in the tannery and nothing more need be added. 132 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES Coffee has caffeine as its most active prin- ciple. It acts very much in the same way that thein does in over-stimulating the nerv- ous system with its consequent reaction. In time both wear out the bodily vigor, ending in premature decay and death. Cocoa-This drink has as its basic ingre- dient the alkaloid theobromine, a stimulant first, but ending in sedation. As the action and reaction are equal, stimulation must have a reaction to correspond, and that means a state of depression, which must in- hibit the normal action of the organs of the body. But as all is not gold that glitters, so all is not cocoa that is sold under that name as the following laboratory report will show. Department of Tests Dayton, Ohio. Dr. F. G. Barr. An anlysis of the sample of COCOA re- cently submitted, shows that it contains no COCOA whatsoever. This material is com- posed almost entirely of inorganic matter. However, there is a small amount of Violet Dye present. STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS 133 MATERIAL-COCOA Cocoa None Alcohol Extract Pale Violet H2O Extract Colorless Alkaline Organic Matter Trace Silica 1.73 per cent Iron and Aluminum Oxides 15.90 per cent Calcium Carbonate 47.30 per cent Sodium Oxide 25.37 per cent Moisture (by diff.) 11.72 per cent The above is a copy of a laboratory report sent in by our representative, in Dayton, Ohio, together with a statement concerning a little girl; who had been made desperately ill after she had taken one cupful of this healthful drink. Alcohol-as this stimulant has been pre- scribed as a beverage in this country, we need not consider it under that head, but there are other forms in which it may be found, viz.-Patent medicine, extracts, etc. People buy these Elixirs of Life by the bot- tle, for the stimulating effects of the poor grade alcohol they contain. 134 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES He evidently did not know the value of greens as a laxative. "The spirit of open-mindedness and impartiality is to the intellectual world, what the spirit of brother- hood is to the ethical world."-Hyslop. "Doctors put drugs of which they know little, into patients of whom they know less, for diseases of which they know nothing."-Voltaire. The bran of the wheat, the peeling of the potato, the juices of the vegetables are all rich in mineral matter, and ought to be a constant part of our food. There is going on in the human body a constant struggle between positive and negative forces which tend to neutralize each others power. The most important factor in this struggle is the conflict be- tween acids and alkalies. When food is normal its neutralization is easily accomplished but when the mineral bases are deficient the acids soon damage the body. VIII HOW TO PREPARE FOODS Vegetables Vegetables should be covered with only enough water to prevent burning. When they are done, nothing should remain but the vegetables and a thick juice. In this way we retain the life-giving mineral salts. Steam or tireless cooking is the best method, as the juices are all retained. Season to suit the taste, but use nothing except a little salt. Better even to omit this too if you can, for salt is an inorganic mineral. The best way to cook vegetables is on a fireless stove. Meat-How To Cook It If eaten at all, meats should be roasted or boiled-never fried. Fish-are better baked or boiled, but should never be eaten fried. 136 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES Beans These should be soaked overnight and when cooking use the same water they have been soaked in, as the minerals are neces- sary, the same as potatoes or other vege- tables. Beans are, however, not to be rec- ommended, as they are digested with diffi- culty, and produce a great deal of gas. Health Soup A very nutritious soup may be made as follows: Take carrots, parsnips, turnips, spinach, celery, tomatoes, potatoes, onions- boil for four hours in water just sufficient to cover. Drain off the liquid and drink as much as needed and follow with some whole wheat bread. This is especially good for those who suffer from weak stomachs. MENUS Before discussing the menus that are to follow let us say a word on the effects of sudden change. When dealing with life and health one can not go from one extreme to the other without producing certain un- pleasant affects in a majority of cases. We HOW TO PREPARE FOODS 137 must shade in from one to the other as it were. If you have been a heavy meat, pie, bread and potato eater, and this diet has put you out of commission, do not flop over into a Simon pure raw vegetable regime. The chances are that this would do you no ap- preciable good, and make you extremely un- comfortable. Shade in! Start with more raw food and keep increasing the whole grain bread, and lessening meat, eggs and fish. Do not eat raw food and dwell men- tally on fried steak. Remember, "resist not evil but overcome evil with good." For people of sedentary occupations the menus that follow are a good and sufficient diet. They may, however, be varied so as to meet the requirements of all. Breakfast Fruit, such as Dates, Figs, Prunes or Raisins, Cereal, Whole Wheat Bread, Butter and Milk Lunch Fruit and Nut Salad, Whole Wheat Bread, Milk or Buttermilk MENUS FOR WINTER 138 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES Dinner Soup Baked Potatoes, Eggs if desired, Two Vegetables Salad of Celery, Cabbage and Sweet Onion, dressed with Olive Oil and Lemon Juice Rye Krisp, Nuts MENU-SUMMER Breakfast Fresh Fruit-as before Lunch Rye Krisp Fruit or Vegetable Salad Dinner Rye Krisp Celery or Tomato Soup Spinach Baked Potato Salad String Beans MENUS FOR THOSE LEADING ACTIVE LIVES Breakfast Muffins or Corn Bread Honey and Baked Apple or some other Sweet Fruit HOW TO PREPARE FOODS 139 Lunch Salad Tomato or Vegetable Soup Baked Potato Carrots Parsnips or Turnips Dinner Salad Melons or Fruit Two boiled Vegetables Baked Potatoes TRANSITION While changing to the natural way diet, we have found it to be a good rule to begin with one meal per day as here outlined and to add some natural way food, to each of the other meals, gradually increasing to a point where the right food constitutes the whole diet. For instance it is a good prac- tice to have the rye krisp and the raw rai- sins constantly on the table, and to eat some of these before each meal. Luncheon Toast (Whole Wheat) Baked Apple Butter Milk 140 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES Dinner Egg Potato (baked) Spinach or Lettuce Salad Nuts or Raisins Breakfast Bran Muffins or Biscuit Honey Milk Luncheon Whole Wheat Bread and Milk Sweet Fruit Dinner Salad Two Vegetables Rye Krisp or Whole Wheat Bread Dessert Breakfast Fruit (Apple, Orange) Dates, Figs or Raisins Luncheon Whole Wheat Bread or Milk Rye Krisp and Sweet Fruit Dinner Rice Spinach Boiled Onions Salad Whole Wheat Bread and Butter, also Nuts and Honey DIET FOR CHILDREN 8 to 16 Years of Age Breakfast Oatmeal Milk Egg Whole Wheat Bread HOW TO PREPARE FOODS 141 Luncheon Toast (Whole Wheat) Baked Apple Butter Milk Dinner Egg Potato (baked) Spinach or Lettuce Salad Nuts or Raisins Breakfast Bran Muffins or Biscuit Honey Milk Luncheon Whole Wheat Bread and Milk Sweet Fruit Dinner Salad Two Vegetables Rye Krisp or Whole Wheat Bread Breakfast Fruit (Apple, Orange) Bates, Figs or Raisins Luncheon Whole Wheat Bread and Milk Rye Krisp and Sweet Fruit Dinner Rice Spinach Boiled Onions Salad Whole Wheat Bread and Butter, also Nuts and Honey The foods to be avoided by all those who 142 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES suffer from auto-intoxication are meats of all sorts and all cereals, eggs, cocoa, coffee, tea, and heavy cheese, also all condiments such as mustard, pepper and salt. ANTI-ACID DIET Baked potatoes Fruits (all kinds except bananas) Buttermilk Bran tea PREPONDERANT DIET FOR SUMMER Potatoes Spinach Artichoke Cauliflower Greens (of all kinds) Celery Onions Sorrel Radishes Cucumbers Cabbage (raw) Currants Strawberries Endive HOW TO PREPARE FOODS 143 It must be remembered that the articles here listed are not to be the sole food, but the preponderant food, at the time, and for the condition indicated. A FEW DON'TS Don't eat pickles in any of their fifty- seven denatured forms. They are absolute- ly unfit for human consumption. They are simply vehicles for introducing acetic acid, salt, and alcohol into the system. Don't eat them! If you want to eat cucumbers, eat them fresh from the garden, skin and all, without the addition of salt, vinegar, or pepper. Don't, on any pretext, use vinegar; it coagulates and destroys protoplasm of your cells and shortens your life. You may as well use alcohol. Don't eat or drink anything at an exces- sively high temperature. Our bodies are not supposed to endure extreme heat in this world. Don't eat anything that is fried. Frying destroys much of the food value, and de- velops dangerous acids. 144 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES Don't over-eat on protein. Chittenden has demonstrated that the amount of protein ordinarily taken is more than three times the amount required by the system. And Doctors Hinehede and Powell have proved that even this one-third is far more than is actually needed. Protein, although neces- sary to growth, becomes the cause of death when the organism is matured. "Nothing cheers the spirit like a dose of salts." -Byron. We locate mentality in the brain, but in reality the whole body participates in intelligence. "I believe that the orthodox method of feeding milk and eggs kills more people with tuberculosis than the disease itself."-White. IX CARE OF THE BODY TEETH A study of the food problem ought really to begin with a desertation on the teeth, as they are situated at the very entrance of our digestive mechanism. With them, as it is said of certain cigarettes, it is always best to "roll your own." The artificial tooth is not a good substitute for the natural va- riety. The natural tooth is our best friend, and he will stay with us as long as he is well treated. The treatment of the tooth is no different from any other living structure. It grew in our mouths for a specific purpose, and it will stay there as long as we give it a chance to exercise itself in that purpose. What would you think if you went to a friend's house and he insisted on putting you in an arm chair or a straight jacket, and gave you 146 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES nothing to eat. You would depart at the first convenient moment. So with your teeth. They are made to grind grain, crack nuts, bite on roots and occasionally to sup- port the weight of the body. If they do these things they will remain in fighting trim. But our doctors and dentists, placing their intellect above that of the Creator, tell us not to use the teeth. And so we eat mashed potatoes, sausage, soup, pudding and pie, with the result that our teeth decay for want of exercise. ' ' The tooth that idleth shall rot. ' ' If you want good muscles, use them. If you want good teeth, use them. Next, if you want good teeth, feed them. This is very important. The teeth need lime, phosphates, silicates and other earthy matter. This matter comes from the outer coating of grain, the juices of vegetables, the peeling of potatoes, etc. These needed foods our cooks and food manufacturers throw away, with the result that our teeth depart, first for want of work, and next for want of food. Given vigorous exercise and proper CARE OF THE BODY 147 nourishment, your teeth will feel quite at home in your mouth. There is no better treatment for pyorrhea than vigorous biting on tough and resistant substances so as to improve the circulation at the roots of the teeth, and a diet rich in mineral salts, es- sential to their proper nourishment. This, however, should be supplemented with dy- namic oxygenation of the face, according to the principles taught by Dr. Estes, and re- ferred to, from time to time in these pages. CARE OF THE TEETH Do not take substances which are very hot into the mouth. If you do so inadvertently, do not follow them up at once with cold or ice water. The sudden expansion and con- traction may crack the enamel of your teeth, making them subject to decay. Give the teeth some vigorous exercise each day. Crack some nuts, eat a raw carrot, or bite on wood. Anything to bring the pres- sure of the jaws to bear on the teeth. See to it that there are sufficient mineral salts in your diet to supply the teeth with structural matter. 148 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES Clean them once or twice a day with tooth brush and lemon juice, and occasionally with a little common salt. Do not permit a dentist to put anything less than gold into your teeth. The so-called silver and amalgum used contain mercury, and is often absorbed by the system giving rise to numerous ailments. Those who doubt this are referred to Nature Cure Philosophy by Henry Lindlahr, M. D. and Estes Raw Food Manual, by Dr. St. Louis Estes, D. D. S. CLEANING MOUTH AND TONGUE After cleaning the teeth, rub the tongue thoroughly with the inside of the lemon peel and rinse the mouth with cold water. Put the juice of half a lemon in a glass of water and drink it. If there is a tendency to con- stipation, it is well to grasp the tongue with a clean silk or linen handkerchief while it is being rubbed with the lemon peel. This has a splendid effect upon the bowels. If you feel an inclination to laugh do so, the laugh- ing will do you good, and it makes the tongue pulling treatment all the more effective. CARE OF THE BODY 149 CARE OF THE BOWEL While constipation is an ailment so com- mon as to be looked upon as natural by a great many people; it is nevertheless a fore- most cause of many disease forms. Let us therefore say a few words about it here. It is caused first of all by faulty diet. White bread, boiled and fried potatoes and skimmed milk being probably the foremost offenders. Next, sedentary habits, lack of exercise, and neglect of the body as a whole are also potent causes. Again, the modern toilet bowl which causes one to sit for defecation as though he sat on a chair, contributes its share to this affliction. The normal position during evacuation is to rest the body on the toes and balls of the feet, and squat so as to bring the buttocks to rest upon the heels. This position throws the abdominal wall inward, helping nature to expel the waste without undue strain. Then there are such causes as tumors, folds, sagging of the bowels, misplacements of the uterus in women and enlarged pros- 150 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES trates in men, but as these conditions are themselves often the result of constipation we shall not discuss them here. The treatment for this malady is plain- Remove the cause-If it be wrong eating- eat right. If it be faulty posture, correct it. If it be mechanical interference, treat it. While the cause is being removed it is fre- quently necessary to aid nature. For this purpose the enema is the only practical de- vice. And even here we are treading on dan- gerous ground, for the enema, like all other artificial aids to our body functions, is easily overdone, and when wrongly or too force- fully applied is positively dangerous. It should not be used when good action can be induced without the use of drugs. But on the other hand it is greatly to be desired when compared with drugs. One of the dangers of the enema is in tak- ing the water under too high pressure. Hell could not have devised a more vicious sys- tem than that known as the Cascade! This is a water-bag so arranged that the patient sits on it and in this way forces the water in- to the bowel under the pressure of the body MURPHY DRIP CARE OF THE BODY 151 weight. What such pressure will do to an inflamed and badly ulcerated colon, I will leave to the imagination of the prospect and to the memory of the victim. Scarcely better is the high elevation of the water bag above the body with the patient in the knee-chest position. This too gives an over pressure, causing cramps and discom- fort to say nothing of irritation. Such an enema while sometimes permissible should not be used if it can possibly be avoided. MURPHY DRIP To thoroughly cleanse the bowel there is no better system than that known as the "Murphy Drip." This consists of an ordi- nary rubber hot water bag, or metal can to which the usual tube is affixed (see illustra- tion). The tube is equipped with a screw cut-off, and with a regular "Murphy Drip Bulb." As the water passes from the bag to the bowel it passes through this bulb where the flow can be regulated by means of the cut-off screw. The water ought to be passed into the bowel slowly through a soft rubber catheter or colon tube. The en- 152 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES tire outfit may be bought in any standard drug store at a reasonable price, and it ought therefore to be a part of the health equipment of every home. PREPARATION OF THE PATIENT Let the patient lie on the right side with left limb slightly drawn up, and the foot end of the couch elevated about eight or ten inches. Now insert the Catheter, well lubricated with oil or vaseline into the rec- tum as far as it will pass easily. Turn the screw in the cut-off clamp so as to cause the water to flow at the rate of about sixty-five or seventy drops per minute. In this way it will pass into the colon with little or no discomfort. This takes a little longer than the ordinary way, but the additional time required is more than paid for in results obtained. It should also be pointed out that a metal can is better than the usual rubber bag if one wants to administer large quantities of water by the drip system. The mouth of the can being large permits of an electric light bulb being hung in such a way over the fluid CARE OF THE BODY 153 as to hold it at proper temperature. Plain water at about 100° F. is the best for all or- dinary purposes. Sometimes a little lemon juice, or a few drops of kerosene oil or olive oil are indicated, but that need not be dis- cussed here. ADDITIONAL FOOD THOUGHTS I am inserting a little additional informa- tion in this, the fourth edition of this book at the very last minute, because of the im- portance of its character. The reason I did not incorporate it in former editions, was that until recently, I had not sufficiently certified its principles to put them before the public. But during the last year, special study and continuous observation have con- vinced me fully of their basic importance in the work of health and body building. Let me state the principles briefly: First of all, man is the only animal on earth that imports food, or much of it, from afar. Animals in a state of nature eat that which nature provides in the locality where they live. They eat the food which grows under the same conditions of atmospheric 154 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES pressure, temperature, magnetic, electrical and solar stimulation as they do themselves. In other words, they eat the products grown under similar vibratory conditions as are their own bodies. This keeps their bodies in tune with their environments as far as food is concerned. To be in tune with one's enviromnent means health. Man is not healthy, that is, he is out of tune-sick-dis- eased most of the time, and the eating of exotic food predisposes him to this condi- tion quite as much as any of the factors mentioned in this book. Government experiments have proven the relatively immense influence of light on the growth of plants. The same species of plant will differ materially in its form and structure when cultivated in different re- gions. Even the type and pigment of our race is influence by the light conditions un- der which we live, and it is therefore only logical that these same influences should have an affect upon our food supply. We hold then, that for the good of our health, we ought to eat, as nearly as possible, the foods CARE OF THE BODY 155 which are grown in the country and locality in which we live. Second, we should note that nature has different color effects for the different sea- sons. You see very little that is green out of doors in winter or in late fall. Most of the food is of a brown or dark tint. As ex- amples we may consider wheat, rye, and po- tatoes among the more staple foods, and figs, prunes and raisins among the fruits which nature preserves for winter. The roots too, are of a darker hue than the natural spring and summer foods. On the whole, I say, these things which nature provides for cold weather have colors which fall well below the middle of the spectrum, that is, they have a slow color vibration and are there- fore heat producing. The heat waves are just below the red in the spectrum. Thus when nature is cool, it gives us foods which are of a vibratory quality which gives heat. Or I may put it differently yet and say, that when it is cold on the outside we are given food which produces heat on the inside. The spring and summer fruits and vege- tables, as every one knows, are predomi- 156 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES nantly yellow and green, that is, they are colored at a high vibratory rate, green be- ing a mixture of yellow and blue, and there- fore cool in its vibratory effect, a condition which is ideal for hot weather. When the heat is outside we should nourish ourselves with those things which are cool in their vi- bratory effect. Summing up the situation we may say that we should eat the things which are grown in our immediate neighborhood; that we ought to use, as much as possible, the living greens in the spring time blended with some grain and roots which are as yet preserved from the former year; that in summer we ought to use the lighest of foods from a color viewpoint and then gradually go to the darker foods as fall and winter ap- proach. All food is good food if manufacturers have not fooled with it.-McCann. To be well preserved does not mean that you have to be pickled. A TRIPLE COIL BLANKET WITH LOCALIZING INDUCTION PAD IN PLACE -PATIENT IS BEING TREATED FOR A PAINFUL SHOULDER. X WHAT TO DO AND WHEN In the preceeding essays we have dwelt at some length on the laws governing our phy- sical and mental health. We have also dis- cussed among other things, non-poisonous, yet very effective media by which health may not only be retained, but in many cases, regained. We have prepared this essay with the idea of further elaborating the principles of Natural Therapuetics so as to make them easily understandable as well as applicable to a great variety of disease man- ifestations. In all conditions mentioned in this essay, the scientific use of a Dequer Triple-Coil Blanket will prove of great value. The author never travels without one of these appliances, as he feels it gives him control over many of the ordinary ills of life. The accompanying illustration shows a young 158 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES man being treated in a Dequer Triple-coil Blanket. The plate like device seen at the shoulder is a pad containing a series of relatively powerful electro-magnets which are connected to the foot end of the blanket, and used in the treatment of local conges- tion or pain. These pads are not simple heat appliances but radiate an energy which has a distinctly tonic effect upon the parts treated. CAUTION Before attempting to follow the directions herein outlined, one should first make a careful study of the proceeding essays, so as to familiarize him or herself with the causes of disease, for only then can one understand why one form of treatment is effective in a comparatively large number of disease con- ditions. Never forget that disease is due to persist- ent violations of natural law and that cure can only be effected after a more or less ex- tended period of rigid obedience thereto. Only cures resulting from basic re-educa- tion of the system are lasting and worthy of WHAT TO DO AND WHEN 159 the name. All others are mere make shifts. CRISES NOT TO BE SURPRESSED The one thing to be impressed upon the mind, is the fact that we too often mistake Nature's curative efforts for disease. This causes us to resort to the medicine bottle in order to stop these often unpleasant mani- festations. It is this medical stopping of coughs, colds, eruptions, and so forth that seals the poisons up in our bodies and lays the foundation for the so-called chronic and incurable diseases. A good axiom to follow is this "Never suppress, but control, an acute condition." THE LAW OF CRISIS When through over-eating, poor ventila- tion, under exercise, and destructive emo- tional states, the body becomes laden with filth, Nature starts a bonfire in the shape of a cold or fever, which runs its course through five typical stages: 1. Incubation-Germs setting fire to the waste products in the body. 2. Inflammation-The process of burn- ing away the rubbish. 160 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES 3. Destruction-In this the involved tis- sues are wasted away. 4. Resolution-Preparation of the waste for the elimination from the body. 5. Reconstruction-Or, the re-building process. Such a process is called a healing crisis and unless it runs a complete course, it leaves a ground work for chronic trouble. Elimination must therefore be encouraged by all natural means when possible, or by harmless artificial means when natural means are not available. It is unfortunate that the medical profes- sion has labeled the different forms of cleansing processes (Healing crises) with disease names, spreading the idea that each one ought to be separately treated as a dis- tinct entity, while the truth is that with few exceptions, all that is needed in such cases is abstinence from food, and encouragement in elimination. COMMON CRISES The most common form of healing crises are colds, sore throat, bronchitis, swollen WHAT TO DO AND WHEN 161 tonsils, and lymphatic glands of the neck, if not associated with deep seated chronic diseases, diarrehoea, measles, grippe, erysi- pelos, boils, exzemas, rashes, etc. All these may be successfully treated by abstaining from everything in the line of food except diluted orange and lemon juice until the crises is over, meanwhile, cleansing the colon with a Murphy Drip, enema and controlling the fever with appropriate cold packs. Ac- tivating the skin by approved methods whenever possible. DISEASE CRISIS A disease crisis is a state in which the above processes continue in their ravages until essential organs of the body are de- stroyed and death results. COLDS Colds are generally caused by getting chilled after over-eating or by the habit of excessively hot bathing or lack of any bath- ing, also by the lack of exercise and insuffi- cient pure air. Treatment-Correct the causes. Abstain 162 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES from food for one or two meals, longer if not taking active exercise. If there is a ten- dency to sore throat, a cloth wrung out in cold water should be placed about the af- fected parts and changed from time to time until the inflammation goes down. A couple of glasses of hot water or lemonade just be- fore going to bed and activating the skin by approved methods, so as to produce a pro- fuse perspiration is a valuable remedy. If, as frequently is the case, there is a tendency toward constipation, the bowels should be forth-with cleansed with a Mur- phy Drip enema, taken with hips elevated above the head. This, together with ap- propriate exercise and dynamic breathing, will break a cold in a short time and restore the organism to the proper function. Rather neglect than suppress a cold. SORE THROAT We use this term to cover most of the maladies designated as tonsillitis, croup, quinsy, bronchitis, laryngitis, pharyngitis, and all other afflictions of an inflammatory nature that have their focus in the throat. WHAT TO DO AND WHEN 163 No mistake can be made in these cases if you follow up the treatment as outlined for colds. Only the cold packs about the throat should be changed more frequently and the acid fruit juice diet persisted in for a longer period of time. If there is fever present, it may be necessary to control it by means of cold throat packs, cool sponge baths, or other natural means. Here too, the dynamic breath will prove to be of great value. If odor of the breath be very offensive- the fever persistent, and the throat shows white or gray or yellow patches, a com- petent physician should be called at once, as more serious trouble may be suspected. MEASLES Treat carefully, only use tepid, instead of cold water. Control the fever by means of warm sponge baths. Keep patient warm and well shaded. If a Dequer Triple-Coil is available, one good treatment will bring out the measles in full after which good nurs- ing in a well-shaded room is all that is neces- sary. Diet and ventilation as in all acute conditions. In such conditions, however, a 164 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES physician ought to be called so as to safe- guard against complications and contagion. SUMMER COMPLAINT Use a fruit juice diet and cold body packs. Also give enemas to wash out the surplus poisonous organisms from the bowels. Make frequent and firm pressure with the thumbs along both sides of the spine up and down the middle of the back. Apply cool com- presses to the abdomen. Do not feed any- thing except a little highly diluted fruit juice until the vomiting and purging have ceased for at least twenty-four hours. CHILLS Correct dietetic errors. See Chapter IV, and activate the skin by approved methods. There is nothing that so quickly breaks up a chill as this electro-magnetic application if taken in conjunction with proper diet and other essential measures. When the fever comes on, the treatment may be given with the full cold pack as de- scribed in Chapter 1, the cold pack may be used alone. In any case, a good sweat should WHAT TO DO AND WHEN 165 be induced. Eliminate all meats and fried products from the diet. TYPHOID CALL AN EXPERIENCED PHYSI- CIAN. Treat as in summer complaint. Only per- sist in the fruit juice diet until the tongue clears. It makes no difference if it takes twenty days. Apply short body packs fre- quently, so as to hold down the fever. Give frequent high enemas. Give no medicine, except that prescribed by the physician. Hot applications are very grateful to the small of the back when it is painful, but do not use them on the abdomen. Here only, cold packs (no ice) should be used. There is little danger of perforation of the bowels if the patient is not fed solid foods. Sponge baths should be given after each pack when the skin should be exposed to the air for an hour or more if the patient does not chill. All excrement should be cremated, and all water, if there be an epidemic should be boiled. 166 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES INFLAMMATORY RHEUMATISM Call an experienced physician. This type of ailment is so painful as to be almost unendurable, hence the physician is frequently tempted to use depressing drugs in order to give relief, which in turn lower the vitality and thereby prolong the disease and frequently render it chronic. Use no liniments. Do not rub the joints, or you are liable to drive the disease to the heart, from which will result other complications and possible death. In such cases The Dequer Triple-Coil Blanket baths work their great- est marvels. From three to five baths taken at twelve-hour intervals generally relieve all symptoms and if the bath is reinforced with a natural diet and proper ventilation, re- covery is rapid and sure. Cold packs on the most painful areas fre- quently helps to allay the pain. A special diet for this, as in all inflamma- tory cases, should be acid fruit juices diluted one part fruit to four parts water, and this should be persisted in until all symptoms have disappeared, when the patient happens to be old, weak, or emaciated. WHAT TO DO AND WHEN 167 Where the Dequer Triple-Coil Blanket is not available, the cold sheet packs may be used to produce a free perspiration. This will ease the pain and prove valuable in the cure of the disorder. After seven years of constant experiment and observation I have proven definitely that the use of the Triple-Coil system greatly shortens the time needed to rebuild the body. CHRONIC DISEASES What has been said so far gives us a fair outline of how to handle acute conditions. Let us now consider some of the most pre- valent types of chronic diseases. GENERAL DEBILITY This is a problem in which diet, exercise, climate and the scientific use of psychologi- cal principles play an important part. In fact, every case is a problem in itself which may be simple or greatly complex, according to the type of the individual in question, and the environment through which he has passed, so that the treatment of these con- 168 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES ditions, as here outlined, must be considered general and not specific. Medicine, except some forms of iron, bearing vegetable, such as spinach, cabbage, beets, etc., prove beneficial in such cases. This is supplemented with proper dietetic, psychological and physiological proceedure, frequently produces splendid results. Persons suffering from these conditions should not rely upon haphazard treatment but seek the help of a competent health and body builder. They must learn and obey the principles of natural living as outlined in this work. DROPSICAL CONDITIONS Dropsy is not a disease in itself. It is a sign of a weakened condition of the heart or kidneys, and unless rightly treated, often proves fatal. The problem is to take the load off the kidneys and to facilitate the cir- culation. This is accomplished by produc- ing a profuse perspiration and toning up the vaso-motor nervous mechanism. Both these objects are achieved by the use of Modern Approved Methods, which generally remove WHAT TO DO AND WHEN 169 such symptoms in a remarkably short time. To make the cure permanent, however, the principles laid down in Essays I and II, V and VI, ought to be rigidly adhered to. In these cases, exercises should be min- imized until the symptoms have disappeared and the patient has been built up. The diet ought to be taken through a rapid transition from the usual bread-meat-pota- to-fried meat-pie-coffee and carrion combin- ation to a strictly raw fruit and vegetable regime which should be continued until health is regained and thereafter until the final curtain falls on the last scene of life. Breathing exercises forcing the breath low down in to the abdomen, retaining it for some time, and then expelling it with an effort of the will, is valuable. Chief reliance must be placed upon the raw fruit and veg- etable, and may be combined to suit the taste. When dropsical conditions are severe the patient ought to be placed in the hands of a competent physician, one who knows the value of skin elimination in such conditions. Just because a doctor has a license, is no criterion that he knows his business. 170 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES RHEUMATISM The rheumatoid family includes such well known members as lumbago, neuralgia, neu- ritis, sciatica, myalgia, gout, anginapectoris, pericarditis according to the structures in- volved. They, like all other chronic and acute ills, are caused by violation of natural law, and can be eradicated only by a return, and adherence to this law. To this there is one exception that we should note. It is arthritis deformans, or bone deforming rheumatism as it is often mis-called. The writer has never seen more than mild im- provement in this condition, while other forms of rheumatism seem to yield readily. What follows, therefore, pertains to rheu- matism, and not to arthritis deformans. Treatment-Abstain from all meats in whatever form. Use dairy products, but few eggs, Eat plenty of raw fruit and veg- etables. If you are in the habit of drinking excessively hot drinks or use highly spiced or salted foods, desist. Eat whole wheat bread and an occasional baked potato. Cooked vegetables may also be eaten once a day. If in the summer, melons, cucumbers, WHAT TO DO AND WHEN 171 and berries, or fruits of any kind, are espe- cially advised. Drink plenty of distilled or rain water. If your feet do not sweat, which is fre- quently the case with rheumatics, walk bare- foot in dewy grass every morning until the feet begin to glow. Also frequently expose the whole body to the air and sunlight. This practice is to be advised in all chronic di- seases of whatever nature. Man must con- tact the earth. Do not take excessively hot steam or water baths, cold packs if you are blonde, and warm packs if you are brunette, help to acti- vate the skin and improve the circulation. If a Dequer Triple-Coil Blanket is available, its constant use with a moderate observance of the above dietetic and hygienic rules will break up the condition in a short time. In the absence of the above mentioned appli- ances, dynamic breathing will prove to be very effective. If constipated, use the Murphy Drip ene- ma. And if your rheumatism is due to a venereal infection, seek competent assist- 172 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES ance, for in that case, then, your fight will be more difficult. DIABETIS This is not, as layman generally suppose, a kidney disease. It is due to a breakdown in that part of the organism which handles the sugars and starches. Its treatment is best affected by putting the patient on a fruit and vegetable diet in the summer time to which a moderate allowance of meat and fat may be added in the winter in northern climates. In the southern climates this pre- caution need not be taken. We know of no cure for this disease. A rigid diet and the practice of dynamic breathing will generally keep the patient in fair health. Due to the powerful induction of mag- netic force into the system by appropriate appliance, such as the blanket mentioned, and its consequent transformation into elec- trical energy by the circulation of the blood, the oxidizing powers of the body are greatly improved, thereby resting the sugar-trans- WHAT TO DO AND WHEN 173 forming organs, and improving the oxida- tion. Note: It is a good practice in this ail- ment to have a urine analysis made at least once a month in a good laboratory. BRIGHT'S DISEASE As diabetis is a disease in which the body has lost its sugar transforming power, so Bright's Disease is a condition in which the protein substances are wasted away in the shape of albumin; a condition in which the body has lost its protein assimilating power. The symptoms are various, albumin in the urine, being the first and most definite indi- cation. Dropsy of the limbs, headaches at the base of the brain, blurring of the vision base are indicative of kidney inflammation, for that is what Bright's Disease really is. Treatment-Rest the kidney by activating the skin, is the first consideration, then gen- eral cold packs for blondes and warm packs for brunettes, together with the correct breathing and diet are the most effective remedies in such conditions. Nuts, all meats, fish, eggs, peas, beans, and 174 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES lentils, as well as the heavier dairy products ought to be eliminated from the diet. Fruits and vegetables, both raw and cooked, whole wheat bread, butter, honey and olive oil should constitute the food supply. The patient should be kept as quiet as pos- sible until the swelling has subsided. Kumiss, skimmed milk and buttermilk are good kidney washes and healing. ASTHMA This disease is too well known to need description. It generally resists all treat- ment. However, if the patient will persist with The Dequer Triple-Coil Blanket Baths with chest pad attachment, and live up to the rules laid down in these essays, they in- variably get highly satisfactory results, in from three to four months. Scores of asth- ma sufferers have tried this treatment and testify to this result. Electronic vibration, according to the Abram's system, has many advocates. HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE A man is as old as his arteries. High WHAT TO DO AND WHEN 175 blood pressure is generally due to an infil- tration of foreign substance or contraction of the vessel-wall. It is also due to an over- tone of the vaso-motor nervous system and to a too rapid and forceful action of the heart. Its symptoms are, ringing in the ears and deafness, flushing of the face, diz- ziness, especially upon stooping, numbness, generally on one side of the body, and its dangers are the breaking of a blood vessel and consequent paralysis or death. Treat-General manipulation by masseur or osteopath is to be recommended. If con- stipation exists, it should be immediately re- lieved by the Murphy Drip system. A breakfast consisting entirely of acid and sweet fruits and rigid abstinence from cof- fee and other stimulating foods, must be insisted upon. PARALYSIS Generally caused by a rupture in hard- ened arteries of the brain, causing a blood clot on that organ. Cure depends upon absorption of that clot. This may be aided by the methods of living we have indicated 176 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES in these pages, but the cure chiefly depends upon time. Of course there are other causes for paralysis than the ones mentioned above. Some of them are tuberculosis of the cord, loco-motor ataxia, syphilis, and trauma. The best advise we can give is that when one feels the symptoms of high blood pressure, that he forsake at once the errors of his ways, and study the laws for proper feeding and the proper cleansing of the body. HEADACHES These arise from various causes, chief among which are ,constipation, catarrh, eye- strain, sinus trouble, stomach and menstrual trouble. In fact, from various toxic condi- tions. These conditions are themselves re- sults of some violation, or violations of natural law and these must be corrected before a permanent correction of headache can be made. A headache "knocked out" is not cured. Do not use any variety of coal tar preparations. Phenacetine, antipyrene, artifibrine, acetanaline, etc., are coal tar poisons and ought to be avoided. Headaches are further caused by over- WHAT TO DO AND WHEN 177 eating and under-exercising. Also from the wearing of restricting garments and seden- tary habits. The cure lies in following a general corrective regime as outlined in pre- vious essays. If this does not bring results, then we may suspect rectal trouble, faulty position of the coccyx, ptosis of the bowels, mechanical conditions or eye strain, and a competent proctologist or oculist ought to be consulted. HEMORRHOIDS (Piles) Correct the constipation as directed above. Take a cold sitz bath two or three times a day if possible, of from three to five minutes duration. In severe cases a three- weeks fruit juice fast and the use of cocoa butter suppositories has cured many stub- born cases. The dynamic breath we have found to be almost a specific in many cases of piles. FEMALE TROUBLES These are so numerous that volumes have been written on this subject alone. But with the exception of venereal infections, they all 178 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES arise from faulty habits of living and when these are corrected most of them pass away. Wherever tumors, ulcers, fistulas, serious prolapsed or misplaced conditions are sus- pected, competent therapeutic aid should be sought. In ordinary cases, however, the cor- rection of constipation, the use of the cold sitz bath, and manipulative treatment rein- forced with the tonic effect of dynamic breathing does wonders. In cases of de- layed menstruation, if not due to pregnancy, also in all painful and cramping conditions, this blanket, with its auxiliary pad, has been found most useful. It may be stated for the benefit of those who can avail themselves of the Electro- Magnetic form of treatment as applied with the blanket, mentioned that this garment cannot harm anyone. We have found it especially beneficial in the treatment of ex- pectant mothers having a strengthing and tonic effect upon both mother and child. Gentle massaging of the abdominal walls also has a very beneficial effect. Make it your object to adapt your organism to raw food. XI OBSERVATIONS From the question blanks filled out and sent into this office during the month of November, 1923, we gather the following- significant data. In sixty typical cases of toxicosis and acidosis as the ground work for the diver- gent disease names ranging from syphilis to enteroptosis-we find that all but thirteen lived on the typical American diet of white bread, denatured cereals, fried meat and eggs, coffee and tea, with little or no fruits or vegetables, and what little of these were taken were nearly always cooked and the juices removed so as to reduce their food value to the minimum, thus compelling the victims to overload their system with almost lifeless substance in order to get sufficient nutrition. The result of this pernicious practice is first evident in the fact that all but eleven 180 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES suffer with chronic constipation-a direct result of overworking the bowels. Of the thirteen who are living on a natural diet, only two report constipation, but it is noteworthy that these two have only eaten rationally since hearing of the McCann sys- tem, which was only for two weeks in one case and six in the other, besides one case of a woman whose condition is due to retrover- sion of the uterus; a result of a long history of white bread constipation. The absorp- tion of fermenting and putrefying food masses lying dormant in exhausted and drug paralyzed bowels gives us the further fact that out of sixty cases above referred to, thirty-two had been under the surgeon's knife for operations ranging from the re- moval of tonsils to that of the complete unsexing of women, which, with the prob- able exception of those cases due to serious venereal infection could be prevented by the simple correction of the causative constipa- tion. A natural diet and the proper use of water, exercise and breath, will do this in a majority of cases. This work we find is greatly aided by a judicious use of the prac- OBSERVATIONS 181 tice of dynamic breathing. In cases where it is not possible to take prolonged and drastic exercise, which is the only other alternative. CONSTIPATION Constipation is indeed our national ail- ment, and its cause is chiefly white flour, re- fined sugar and cold storage meats. Again among the sixty cases referred to, we find under the heading "Physician's Di- agnosis" the following conditions: Syphilis, 1; Tuberculosis, 3; Rheumatism, 11; Arthritis, 4; Female troubles, such as Ovaritis, Salpingitis, Uteritis, Parametritis, Retro and Antiversion, Prolapsus, etc., 18; Gall Stones, 4; Neuritis, 6; Bright's Disease, 4; Diabetes, 2; Asthma, 6; Enteroptosis, 1; Total, 60. NATURAL TREATMENT OF SYPHILIS To begin with, we may say that the person diagnosed as having syphilis may be as free from that disease as a lily. The Wasser- man and Noguchi tests upon which it was based are notoriously unreliable. Many people who have the disease actively get a 182 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES negative Wasserman or Noguchi test, while some who have it not, get a positive reaction, and what is more, many such cases clear up under a proper regime of raw food and dynamic breathing, proving that the symp- toms were of toxic rather than a syphilitic nature. This case was also complicated with tuberculosis, a disease which frequently gives a positive Wasserman. The diagnosis of syphilis is still further clouded by the fact that the patient lives on a very faulty diet, with the consequent constipation which pre- pares the body for the disease picture pre- sented. The physician treated the case by the methods set forth in this book, and our last information is to the effect that there had been a constant improvement. NATURAL TREATMENT OF TUBERCULOSIS Tuberculi baccilli in the sputum are not always proof that the patient has consump- tion, but they do prove that the patient has something in his system on which these bugs may feed. Thus we find that if such patients help the body to throw oft its toxic overload Nature generally restores them to health. OBSERVATIONS 183 Two of the three patients listed as tuber- cular lived badly as to food, and suffer with constipation. Yet both report benefit from the proper breathing and a changed diet. RHEUMATISM In the eleven cases of rheumatism listed, all but three were constipated and all but one had literally swallowed miniature drug stores. And in all but four, the diet was badly proportioned and worse in quality. Two of the three reported as not constipated stated that they had used calomel and pluto water in years gone by, but that now they had changed their diet and did not need these drugs. All report benefit from nat- ural living and these benefits will be perma- nent if they do not slide back into their die- tetic sins. FEMALE TROUBLES 1. Corsets and high heels. 2. White bread, sugar and other dead foods. 3. Lack of proper and sufficient exercise. 4. Venereal infection due to the wander- 184 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES ing habits of some men who call themselves husbands. But the fact that sixteen out of the eigh- teen listed suffer from chronic constipation, and that fifteen of these have been under the knife for prolapsus, version and other ab- normalities of position, speaks eloquently for the theory that the weight of constipated bowels press these organs downward, and that a lack of exercise, together with toxic blood, weakens the ligaments, for which many operations are performed, with, as a whole, questionable success. KIDNEY TROUBLE Kidney disease is one of the most trouble- some and by no means the least dangerous of human afflictions. It is a form of dis- order for which medicine can do but little, as is evident from the fact that many doctors die in middle life of one or another of its numerous forms. Yet it is in afflictions of the kidneys that Electro-Magnetism as applied by The De- quer Triple-Coil Blanket, does its greatest work. I have before me as I write a letter OBSERVATIONS 185 written to the Reverend Maurice Nichols of Colorado Springs, Colorado, concerning a friend. From it I quote the following pas- sage as it is typical of hundreds of letters re- ceived in this office at the present time. "He tells me money could not buy it if he couldn't buy another. He doesn't or rather hasn't been taking a bath every day for the past couple of weeks. Just warms up and goes to sleep in a blanket (a bad practice) and slept until two in the morning. He surely sleeps fine every night and never thinks about getting out of bed during the night; something wonderful for him. While (before the treatment) eight or ten times a night was nothing unusual. I can't tell you how thankful we are to both you and the blanket for I believe Will, would not have been here today if he hadn't got the treatment." Statements like these encourage us to go ever deeper into the unseen powers and forces with which we are surrounded and of which, until recently, neither doctor nor patients have had any substantial knowl- edge. 186 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES The reasons for the prevalence of kidney disease are four-fold: First the modern bath tub with its hot water in which peo- ple love to loll, while they turn on more and more hot water under the mistaken notion that it cleanses the skin. The truth is that warm water cleanses just as much or more effectively. The millions of sweat pores continually secreting moisture and pouring it upon the surface, makes the skin an easily cleansed structure. Excessively hot water exhausts the sweat glands which normally do one-half the cleansing work of the body, thus throwing a serious overload upon the kidneys. Second: What has been said of the tub is even more true of the conventional cabinet, mud and hot spring baths, the after effects of which are serious enough to merit dis- cussion by themselves. Third: The lack of physical exercise due to the specialized nature of our modern oc- cupations. The sweat glands do not become activated and the waste is not dispatched from the system in due time, thus adding to OBSERVATIONS 187 the overload and increased toxidity of the secretions. Fourth: The faulty habit of eating the excessive amounts of meat, eggs, especially in preserved, salted or fried forms. These excessive proteins must be oxidized and if this cannot be done the overload taxes the kidneys beyond their strength, thus permit- ting the albumen and other matter to float in the blood, obstructing circulation and re- ducing vitality. From this it follows that the body toning effect of dynamic breathing and the acti- vating of the sweat glands by correct methods will benefit kidney disease in the following manner: First, it tones up the sweat glands and thereby removes the over- load from the kidneys; second, it promotes oxidation, thereby preparing the waste mat- ter for elimination, and third, it perfects circulation, thereby aiding the body as a whole to carry on its functions. There is no restoration without reformation. To condemn a thing without knowing the prin- ciples involved in it, is ignorance. 188 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES VITAMINES Dr. John H. Dequer Well, Doc, I've dropped in for a confab- We won't talk of bottles and pills, There's no kind of dope Offers me any real hope To cure my old bodily ills. I've been through the mills with you doctors, To your counsel I've surely been true. An' I wish I had back All the oodles of "jack" That it's cost me to follow it too. My teeth I laid first on the altar, An' I jedge they were sound as a rock. Soon I looked like a hound, Fer I lost twenty pound, Before I got over the shock. My chin came clear up to my nostrils, When I met any person I'd blush, An' when others ate steak, It sure made my heart ache, To sit there an' gum at my mush. OBSERVATIONS 189 Then out came my healthy appendix, An' the bill from the Doc made me pale, All I've got now is a scar, Fer to show it ain't thar, An' the Doc has my bundle of kale. Then they told me my tonsils were rotten- "A hot-bed fer vile germs to grow; I would sure get relief, An' the pain would be brief." All I got was relief of more dough. Then I fasted five weeks for one faddist, Went to bed an' employed a trained nuss; But it done me no good Fer to pass up that food, An' to lay there an' mumble an' cuss. Now I read t'other day in the paper, About vitamines-somethin' like that, An' I thought I would try 'em, If I knew where to buy 'em, But my pocketbook's mighty nigh flat. The doctor looked kindly upon me, As he mournfully thought of my past, 190 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES And he said, "My old friend, Now your troubles will end, For I feel that you've stuck it at least. We know that the Lord of the harvest Meant for man to be healthy and strong, But we've tried to improve, On the gifts of His love, 'Till we've certainly gotten in wrong. Our food's been refined and denatured, And polished and processed and such, 'Till a chemist will find They've left little behind, That in food value's worth very much. Now these vitamines-Well's it's so sim- That's why they have gone by the board. Why, they're all round your feet, In a form most complete, By Dame Nature so cunningly stored. In the figs and dates, nuts and raisins, In the peaches, the apple, the pear, 'Tis the fruits and green peas, OBSERVATIONS 191 And the milk, eggs and cheese, Where we find all the vitamines rare. In the lettuce and spinach and carrots, The tomatoes, and cabbages, and cheese- These are rich in the things That vitality brings, And give us a feeling of ease. These things that we buy from the huckster, Are rich in this life-giving force, But the cook in her zeal, Gives us quite a "raw deal," And they're lost as a matter of course. Raw deal? No, that's a misnomer; For to eat them all raw is a treat, It's the boiling and baking, That's really been making A wreck of a lot that we eat. For the vitamines held in solution Are either destroyed by the heat, Or by those who don't think, They are drained down the sink, Thus vanished the part we should eat. 192 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES Eat freely of natural products, Unspoiled by the hand of the cook, And take it from me, We will very soon see, Your face wear a different look. Wall, I swan! Is it really so simple ? Why you make it as plain as my face. The Docs have my wealth, But I'll get back my health, An' once more I will enter the race. A man is best measured by his ability to weigh the ultimate against the immediate consideration. Regardless of how rogues may triumph the heart of humanity seeks after honor, sincerity, and truth, and when it finds them, it seeks to dwell with them forever. The ultimate effect of truth is always good, while the ultimate effect of falsehood is always bad. Un- fortunately, immediate considerations frequently cause men to decide in favor of falsehood, thus build- ing the house of their character on shifting sand. XII COAL TAR PRODUCTS To those who "do not take much medi- cine," who in fact do not like it, but who nevertheless take a little aspirin for their headaches now and then, because their good doctor told them that this stuff would do them no harm, we recommend that they read the following article, reprinted from the "Text-Book of Iridiagnosis " by J. Haskel Kritzer, M. D., by permission of the author. Dr. Kritzer points out how the various coal tar products, now extensively used and ad- vertised, effect the human organism; their effects being visible in the eye of the patient years after this so-called harmless stuff has been taken. To those who are unfamiliar with Iridi- agnosis, the editor wishes to say that any substance which in any way injures the body, either temporarily or permanently, 194 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES leaves a distinct mark or discoloration in the colored portion of the eye (iris) and the scientific interpretation of these marks con- stitutes the Science of Iridiagnosis. The following is a verbatim copy of Chap- ter XVIII in this book, which, by the way, ought to have a prominent place in the liter- ature of every enlightened home. ' ' The coal tar sign must be differentiated from a bromide crescent which is whitish- blue, and covers a smaller area of the upper part of the iris. Bromide is rather like a crescent pasted on the surface of the iris. It should also be distinguished from a bluish crescent denoting cerebral anemia, appar- ently a continuation of the sclerotic coat of the eye, overlapping the iris. Among coal tar products are classed most of the anodines and analgesics-pain re- lievers-as well as various antipyretics. There are numerous derivatives of coal tar. The leading preparations are acetanilid, aspirin, phenacetin, antipyrin, antikamnia, etc., all of which are found among the vari- eties of patent medicines for headaches, COAL TAR PRODUCTS 195 fevers, and various other ailments particu- larly of a nervous origin. The antipyretic action of the coal tar products is positively detrimental because of its depleting effect upon the patients' vital force. It is not surprising, therefore, that acute disease thus treated claim so many deaths. The wonder is that there are not many more fatalities which result under the old way of treating acute diseases. It is probably due to the fact that those who do not succumb are endowed with such natural vitality that they survive in spite of the treatment. It is also interesting to note that the ac- tion of most of the coal tar products are antpyretics does not begin before one hour after their administration, which is one hour lost, as compared with the instantaneous action of the cold water application, which materially reduces the temperature immed- iately after the application. The greatest of all remedies in Materia Medica-WATER, judiciously applied-invigorates the pa- tient, promotes speedy elimination ,and in- creases the patient's recuperative powers in 196 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES contrast with the paralyzing effect of the coal tar antipyretics. DANGERS OF COAL TAR PRODUCTS Coal tar products may be absorbed through the use of home remedies, such as oil of Wintergreen, cinnamon oil, lysol, vase- line, kerosene, benzol, alcohol, napthol, saly- silic acid, etc. They are also absorbed through vanilla extracts synthetically pro- duced from crude oil, flavorings of ice cream sodas, orangeades, pink lemonade, 4 4 doc- tored" cherries, the coloring matter of the cheap candies, and many of the canned foods, preserved with coal tar products. SACCHARINE-A COAL TAR PRODUCT It should be mentioned that some un- scrupulous corporations in their over-zeal- ous 44patriotism" to conserve food during the war, capitalized the sugar shortage, urg- ing through page advertisements in the metropolitan dailies, the use of saccharine "as a sugar substitute." Knowing the ill effects brought about by the cumulative ac- tion of the coal tar products upon the brain COAL TAR PRODUCTS 197 and nervous system, one shudders to think of the number of idiots future generations may develop on account of the use of sac- charine as a sugar substitute. While sac- charine is claimed to be about five hundred times sweeter than sugar, thus deceiving the sense of taste, it cannot, however, deceive the sensitive nervous system, and sooner or later nature exacts a heavy penalty-ill health, as indicated by the signs in the iris of coal tar products. The use of saccharine is strongly condemned by authorities of in- ternational reputation as may be seen from the following cable to the Chicago Tribune- New York Times, dated Vienna, May 31, 1920: 11 SACCHARINE USE INJURES HEART, SCIENTIST SAYS. Prof. Heit- ler, the well known authority on heart di- seases, published the result of his examina- tions on the 'eugenic' side of the sugar shortage problem. While sugar stimulates activity of the heart, Heitler demonstrates that the use of saccharine reduced it. Heart pulses become weaker as saccharine is used. "Heitler comes to the conclusion that sac- 198 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES charine has a directly injurious effect on the heart. "Those who are sound of heart can use it under force of circumstances with the great- est possible restriction, but those with weak or affected hearts should avoid it alto- gether. ' ' Some very interesting facts were brought to light by expert witnesses in the suit brought by the United States Government against Monsanto Chemical Works, a cor- poration which was charged by the govern- ment with violating the Pure Food and Drug Act by selling saccharine labeled as "A perfect sweetener, healthful and posi- tively harmless." Against this infamous claim many expert witnesses for the govern- ment, nationally known as authorities, such as Dr. A. J. Carlson, of the University of Chicago, testified, as reported in the St. Louis Press, December 20,1920: ' ' That he had used saccharine, had studied its use among the people of Europe and had conducted widely diversified tests to determ- ine the physiological effect of the chemical upon the body. Men, women, dogs, and COAL TAR PRODUCTS 199 goats, were used in his research work. ' The presence of saccharine delays the formation of red blood corpuscles,' he stated. "Another expert government witness, Dr. Solomon Cohen, former professor of phar- macology at the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, testified: 'That his observa- tion of the effects of saccharine on human beings during a period of nearly twenty years had convinced him. it was harmful, interferring with digestion, frequently caus- ing heartburn, distaste for food, nausea and headaches. "Dr. Carlson and Dr. Hugh McGuigan, professor of Pharmacology at the Univer- sity of Illinois, both testified concerning actual experiments with saccharine, which they said convinced them that its use re- sulted in a fifty per cent loss of appetite, and a decrease in the efficiency of the digestive processes of the human body." It should be remembered that most of the cheap candies contain saccharine, and vari- ous coal tar dyes. In all probability our infant mortality rate may be attributed, to a great extent, to the consumption of such 200 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES sweets. A prominent physician told me a steady patient, a child, who developed con- vulsions on Sundays, which he attributed to the child consuming samples of colored candy brought home by its father, who was a traveling candy salesman, returning home for the week-end. This item from the Chi- cago Daily News, May 18, 1921, is inserted while going to press: "CHILD IS KILLED BY POISONED SWEETS-13 OTHERS ARE VICTIMS. The death from poisoning of a child in the Gresham district and the serious illness of some thirteen others in the same neighbor- hood today brought a sweeping investiga- tion into the manufacture and distribution of cheap licorice candy in Chicago. "The principal victim was Raymond Doolittle, four years old, 616 West 103rd Street, who died early today after an illness of several days, directly traceable to a visit to a confectionery shop near his home. "Raymond became ill last Friday after- noon after eating some licorice sticks. ' ' '4 SOFT" DRINKS-HARMFUL I was reliably informed by another prom- COAL TAR PRODUCTS 201 inent physician of three cases of epilepsy and other cases of convulsions of a milder form in children, following their outings to the city parks on Sundays, where they par- took liberally of "soft" drinks. His inves- tigation proved that they developed con- vulsions only on and after the days on which they drank these "harmless" and widely advertised beverages. ARTIFICIAL PERFUMES-DETRIMENTAL A man whom I knew well, died of coal tar poisoning through the inhalation of perfume of coal tar origin. The man never consid- ered himself well groomed without saturat- ing his hair and clothes with perfumes. He was found dead in his room in which every- thing was saturated with his favorite coal tar perfume. The coroner's verdict ascribed this as the cause of his death. Numerous sudden deaths usually attri- buted to unknown causes or to "heart fail- ure," may in reality have been caused by coal tar poisoning in one form or another. IS TOMATO CATSUP WHOLESOME? Several cases that came to my notice 202 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES pointed to a hitherto unsuspected channel of coal tar absorption. Two young women con- sulted me about having "bloody sweat" un- der the axilla, and as they had also suffered from occasional dysmenorrhea, I was led to believe that it was a form of vicarious men- struation. But one day a student inquired for an explanation of his developing "red sweat" under the arm pits after partaking of tomato catsup. From that we learned that it was not "bloody sweat," but the anilin dye used to preserve the red tomato catsup, which was thus eliminated through the axilla. Coal tar derivatives are also used as sed- atives and hypnotics for nervous headaches, neuralgia, gout, rheumatism, etc. It is also found among the various patent headache remedies. "An Acetanilid Death Record." The above is a headline of an article by S. H. Adams, who compiled a list of twenty-two fatalities made up from statements pub- lished in various newspapers, giving the names, addresses, dates of death and stat- ing, "in every case the person who died had COAL TAR PRODUCTS 203 taken to relieve a headache or as a bracer, a patent medicine containing acetanilid without a doctor's prescription," (doctor's prescription does not prevent acetanilid's deadly action-Author), adding, " this list does not include the case of a dog in Altoona, Pa., that died immediately on eating some sample headache powders. The dog did not know any better. ' ' To cure a person of bodily ill, and leave the mind uncured leaves the person as sick as before.-White. BACCILUS O nasty Baccilus When lips come to thrill us They tell us you lie there in wait, That the kiss we desire You change to fire That consumes us both early and late. It is not real nice To change our love's spice, Attractive as the petals of flowers, To tombs of black death, From which every breath Sends forth pestilential showers. You do this-I know it, The wise Docs, they show it To me with a powerful glass. But they go on a-kissing And leave me a-wishing That I was not such a gullible ass. 204 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES Hope may be dope to the pessimist but it keeps most people alive at that. It is one kind of dope that we can take in large doses and experience no ill ef- fects. Man is not a dog, then why dismember that animal in an effort to learn things concerning human life. Vivisection only keeps the tiger and the ape alive in the human breast. It is a singular fact, and not one to be overlooked, that while nature has furnished us with only one mouth by which to take in food, she has supplied us with four avenues through which to eliminate waste. "The history of every human being, healthy or unhealthy, is written in terms of energy. Normally this energy manifests as vim, vigor, vitality, vivacity, versatility, mentality, pugnacity, endurance and strength, also as animal heat, muscular power and nervous energy. But the history of the abnormal man is written in terms expressive of languor, lassi- tude, debility, idiocy, imbecility, senility, insanity, prostration, exhaustion, and death."-White. XIII EUGENICS As birth control is in reality a measure in eugenics we cannot help but disagree with those well meaning, but we believe mistaken, people who seek to place the question of race improvement in the hands of governmental authority. Governments are not co-eval with the race; and should, therefore, not de- termine its development. Governments must serve the race, at no time should the race serve the government. Yet we realize that birth control will be an increasingly pressing problem, upon the scientific solu- tion of which the future of civilization will in no small degree depend. As the race multiplies and the sources of food supply diminish, the struggle for existence must ultimately become even keener than it is now, and in this struggle keen intelligence and vigorous power will be ever more in de- 206 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES mand. The very needs of social evolution will make it necessary for humanity to de- velop a consciousness which shall place the common good above the mere desire for self- gratification. WRONG MOTIVES Too frequently, the motives behind many ill-considered marriages are social or finan- cial advantage, or, as is quite as frequently the case, brute thoughtlessness of its social consequences. We forget that Nature is not interested in either society or finance, but works in accordance with the laws govern- ing variation, selection and biodynamic re- sistance. We should avoid the mating of incompatible types as we avoid incest. Our conception of parenthood must be changed so that we shall not ask some official doctor, "May I have children?" but ask ourselves, "How shall I mate so that if I do have chil- dren they will be useful and healthy, and not defective members of society?" That is the main reason why we urge the develop- ment of race consciousness. We must learn to place the social and racial good above our own individual gratification or safety. EUGENICS 207 Up to the present, mating for a majority of the people has been little more than a response to the primal impulse which im- pels the sexes to unite, although it must be said that this is modified by the customs and regulations which grew up during the evo- lution of society. Long before the advent of the commercial age, man realized that in- stinct was an unsafe guide in matters of procreation. But today the customs which were developed during the savage, barba- rian and hand tool stages of social evolu- tion are no longer adequate for race re- quirements. The environments which gave rise to these customs, modern civilization has swept away, making it necessary for the race to readapt itself to changed conditions, not only in selection of food, ventilation, ex- ercise and emotional activity, but also in the selection of mates for the work of race- perpetuation. This last is probably more important than any other factor. We will have to bestow a little thought upon the child before as well as after it is born. "Now," someone says, "this puts love upon a cold, calculating, materialistic basis. 208 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES It robs youth of its poetry and. romance, which in a measure compensates for the dull and. prosy life which falls to the lot of most of us after marriage. It does away with that joyous abandon that sprinkles the pathway with sunlight and. starlight, caus- ing us to forget that there is such a thing as reality. To reason upon such matters places upon the shoulders of youth a premature burden of care and leaves out of considera- tion the providence of God. ' ' The answer naturally is, that the laws of Nature are the words of God; that life must readapt itself to changing environment, and that our concepts in philosophy, morals, pol- itics and religion must change with it. Noth- ing is eternal but the law of change. THE EARLY CODE In savagery man learned to eschew incest, not because God told him it was wrong, but because experience proved it to be detri- mental ; and so it became the moral law not to mate within his immediate family. The elders urged the young men to go out and steal or capture a wife from another tribe. EUGENICS 209 Of course, a child could not go out and cap- ture a wife from a hostile tribe, and hence he had to wait until he had accumulated strength and experience to do so. This did away with the natural tendency to excessive- ly young mating, giving the children the benefit of a more matured parentage. Red- field's investigations tend to prove that the habit of interfering with early mating prac- ticed by nearly all tribes and nations of men, is responsible for man's mental elevation above the brute. REDFIELD'S DOCTRINE He points out as a noteworthy fact that tribes which, for one reason or another, have made it difficult for the sexes to unite have made the most rapid progress toward civi- lization. And not only toward civilization but toward longevity as well. Very old peo- ple, centenarians for instance, are fre- quently the children of comparatively old people, showing not only that mental acu- men but that physical strength and long- evity as well, are in a measure inherited. Birth control should, then, be practiced by 210 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES the young until they have reached their full maturity. Parenthood should be forbidden until the father is approximately thirty years of age and has done a definite amount of mental and physical work. Mere age means nothing but time, but the use we make of time is all important. Percentages of Births to Fathers of Dif- ferent Ages: Age of Fathers In Normal Pedigrees In Pedigrees of Eminent Men Relative Value of Father Age 24 and under 9.06 1.63 1.000 25 to 29 23.05 9.77 2.356 30 to 34 26.00 16.63 3.557 35 to 39 19.67 19.19 5.426 40 to 44 13.39 20.23 8.406 45 to 49 5.50 14.53 14.670 50 to 54 2.22 10.12 25.328 55 to 59 0.72 4.30 33.138 60 and over 0.39 3.60 51.562 It may be well to point out at this point that Redfield does not contend that just be- cause a man becomes a father late in life he must of necessity beget a brilliant son. Quite the reverse may be true. What he does con- EUGENICS 211 tend, however, is that a father who is men- tally and physically active will accumulate mental and physical power, and may be- queath a relatively greater capacity to these things for his offspring. He then goes on and cites facts from history and biography to establish his contention. Mr. Redfield then continues: "This table shows that normally more than nine per cent of all children are born when their fathers are less than twenty-five years of age, but that in the pedigrees of eminent men, less than two per cent are the offspring of such young fathers. Normally more than twenty-three per cent of children are born after the fathers are twenty-five and before they are thirty, but in pedigrees of eminent men less than ten per cent are the offspring of such young fathers. Con- tinuing the comparison, it is seen that emi- nent men are not produced in the same man- ner that ordinary people are produced." "The last column is calculated from the other two in a well-known manner. It shows to what extent added age in the father helps to give the son a good mental inheritance. ' ' 212 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES It is conceivable, then, that further im- provement can be made by applying the known laws of life to man as well as to hogs. Or, do higher education and greater refine- ment render us incapable of reason and ab- solutely dependent upon the capricious promptings of primal impulses, which were not suited to savage life, to say nothing of civilized existence? "But," say other good people, "marriage is a divine command, with which human rea- son should not tinker." But one might an- swer, ' ' If God wants us to pass into parent- hood through a fairy land of poetry, then he should not have made the laws govern- ing heredity." But let us not be frightened by the sayings of the ancients. Gods, like patriotism, are too frequently used by those who are interested in keeping the mass in ignorance. An enlightened man is useless to those who profit from stupidity. Modern civilization makes it necessary to evolve new customs. It is only a small step in evolution from the realization that the mating of relatives will hinder the progress of the race, to a recognition of the fact that EUGENICS 213 the mating of certain types and ages is det- rimental to the collective weal. New needs will force new race habits in these as in other matters. NATURAL SELECTION The old biology taught that a toothless woman should not marry a toothless man, unless indeed they wished to foster a tooth- less race. But the new biology says that people with defective teeth can exercise and strengthen them. By exercise we can build up that which is defective. This later light on the problems of life is the more beautiful because more constructive and dynamic. And if man would not mate until he had made himself what he should be, we should not have to blame Providence for millions of mentally defective and idiotic children re- sulting from our present ignorant spawn- ing. For when all is said, parenthood is the keynote of marriage, the only valid excuse for a legal contract between man and wom- an. If it were not for the fact that mar- riage makes man responsible for his chil- 214 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES dren, it would be but a ceremony to gag Mother Grundy. The child is and ever will be the foundation and tower of the home, that is, if the child is the fruit of normal love and desire and not the poor waif be- gotten of ignorance and accident, resented before and exploited after birth. For excepting the weakened character- istics due to faulty heredity, we also have to contend with this menace, which, for the want of a better name, we might call psychic blastorphia. An unwanted child is born with a blight, severe in direct proportion to the mother's resentment of its conception. Anger and resentment should not be permit- ted to poison the blood of an expectant mother. No woman should bear children against her will. It injures both the mother and the child. The great causes of anti-social types with which our reformers and criminologists have to deal are: (a) Improperly matched parenthood. (b) Unwilling motherhood. (c) Mental depression due to economic and social uncertainty. EUGENICS 215 (d) Mating of young and inexperienced parents. Of course, many good people still hold their breath when the laws that govern the phenomena of life and sex are discussed. They are not yet emancipated from the Phallic worship of their ancestors. In one breath they will tell you that the subject is too nasty and in the next, that it is too sacred to be publicly discussed. If it is nasty, then the organs involved should be removed from the motives of hygiene; and if sacred, then knowledge concerning these functions should be propagandized from motives of duty. The fact is, we are simply ignorant of the laws of life, and hide that ignorance behind the clouds of sacredotal and mean- ingless twaddle. THE GREAT MYSTERY From remote ages our leaders and teach- ers have kept our minds awed by the mys- tery of life, so that we are afraid to tear away the veil and see the light, lest it blind us. Again many are too indolent to think of anything but lust. What matters children, 216 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES what matters the race when gratification is at stake ? If this be our state of mind, then we have not yet progressed very far above the brute, and will not profit from what is written here. We may as well concede that progress in mental and physical power lies not in the enactment of laws compelling proper mat- ing, but in the repeal of laws hindering edu- cation. Knowledge is the key to the temple of freedom. Law regulates human conduct. Education purifies the mind and frees it from that ignorance which alone makes laws necessary. As long as there is ignorance, there will have to be restraint. But we cannot leave this subject without saying a word about those who cannot or will not be educated. It has been contended that unless the ignorant are restrained, they will continue to breed and finally overpower by their numbers the more enlightened and conservative elements of society. This ob- jection, however, is hardily valid. For as society becomes more complex, it also be- comes ever more difficult for the hopelessly ignorant to survive, except during periods EUGENICS 217 of war, when normal men are called to bat- tle and an abnormal demand for labor is awakened in industry. In what we are pleased to call normal times, those who can- not measure up to a certain degree of effi- ciency and cunning drift into the army of unemployed and casual workers if they are male, and beyond the Great White Way if they are female. Here is no procreation. Society rots at the bottom, and a rotten tree makes but little growth. At the top the families of the mighty are extraordinarily small. The people who oppose birth control the hardest, practice it the most zealously. We may profitably speculate on the reasons for this paradoxical condition, but at pres- ent it would take us too far afield. We do not wish to write a brief for the so-called race suicide. Our aim is not death, but a fuller and more complete life. Race per- petuation is by far the most serious busi- ness in which man can be engaged upon this planet, and it is our endeavor to take it out of the realm of accident and chance, and place it under the control of reason and sci- ence. 218 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES We should think seriously before we thrust life upon a little child. Remember we take them out of sweet oblivion and hurl them into the pain and struggle for exist- ence, and expect them to thank us for it. Let us not forget that we owe everything to the child. They who thoughtlessly bring children into the world under a handicap are not far from criminal. It is our duty to be pre- pared for parenthood before we add life to this teeming world. Barring accidents the surgeon is called only where the Doctor has failed to understand the natural law governing the case. For the hygienic care of the mouth and teeth there is nothing that quite equals lemon juice. "Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, a touch that never hurts."-Dickens. XIV PSYCHOLOGY Psychology from the Greek word "Psyche"-the Mind; and "Logos"-the Word, is the name given to that branch of physiology which deals with the function of the brain and nerve cells as they manifest through organic bodies. It is differentiated from brain anatomy, in that it deals pri- marily with function. It is the science of mental phenomena in contradistinction to what are called psychic phenomena. PSYCHIC PHENOMENA Psychic phenomena as commonly under- stood are often physical in their nature, and should, therefore, granting that they exist, come under the head of biodynamics. In this essay, however, I shall try to confine myself to a discussion of the Thinker and his thoughts. 220 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES From this it must not be inferred that I exclude from the subject matter of psychol- ogy all things investigated by those who are interested in psychic research. Such objects as telepathy, intuition, premonition, and other phases of conscious and unconscious mental activity, are, and forever will be, legitimate material for the psychologist. But when it comes to a quest after an ex- carnate world, and its inhabitants, we are beyond the field of psychology and enter the domain of the meta-physician. This is not a denial that an ex-carnate world exists. On the contrary, I realize that science has, in the last decade, increased, rather than decreased, our faith in its proba- bility, although there are as yet no definite facts available. Since the atom has been dethorned as the ultimate unit in Nature, and the electron and quantelle have come to proclaim the ex- istence of a sub-stratum of something which, for want of a better name, we call the ether, we cannot help but feel that things physical are not what in the last century we thought them to be, ultimate realities, but only a few PSYCHOLOGY 221 steps in the cosmic process. It is not pos- sible that, in these sub-material forms, there may be beings highly organized and capable of setting up etheric motion which our brains intercept as thought. I do not say this is so, for I have no desire to start a church; I only say that, while we cannot prove it, neither can I prove the contrary. In the realms beyond matter, most of us are brothers in ignorance. All that we know is that something finer than matter causing the phenomena of life in its various degrees of intensity exists and that it acts upon and through natural media. Life and Mind, to me, are similar terms. That is, if by "Mind" we are to understand selective power. THE WORD MISUSED There are numerous ways in which the word "psychology" is being misused, nor is this misuse always due to ignorance. It is well for us to remember that psychology is the study of mental processes as biology is the study of life, and geology the study of earth phenomena. It is in no sense a relig- 222 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES ious creed or fanatical scheme. Its purpose is to know the forces that manifest through the brain of man, so as to enable us to ex- plain, rather than to condemn, human con- duct ; it aims to study its effect upon the self and upon the collectivity to which that self belongs. It wants to know how it is that we know, or think we know. It may be called the physiology of the ego as it functions through brain. It will not necessarily bring us in touch with those who have gone before, neither will its mere study bring us wealth. It will, however, broaden our understanding of mankind and thereby deepen our sympa- thy with human weaknesses. It also will give us the power better to adapt ourselves to our environment and to those with whom we are associated. IT'S STRICTLY ESSENTIAL I consider the study of psychology a fore- most essential in our struggle for existence. The known laws of mind ought to be taught in every school, so that the rising genera- tion should be fully conversant with the dual aspect of our mental life. The fact that our PSYCHOLOGY 223 mentality operates through conscious, and subconscious phases, and that there are rep- resented by the cerebro-spinal and sympa- thetic nervous systems, is of the greatest im- portance. Everybody should know that the conscious mind is the individual in the mak- ing ; that creation was not finished in Eden, but is going on now; what food is to the growing child, sense impressions are to the unfolding brain. THE MECHANISM OF CONSCIOUSNESS Sense impressions enter the consciousness and become habits, and as such become an integral part of the individual. A habit once established seems to affect the germ cells in such a way as to influence the offspring, giving rise to memory. If these impres- sions are repeated often, they form what may be called a proclivity to perform a cer- tain act or combination of acts. If these acts are essential in the struggle for exis- tence, then such impressions will be rein- forced from generation to generation, until finally the habit needs no longer to be ac- quired-it has become an instinct. 224 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES An instinct is a race memory, or, better still, a race habit; after long persistence, it tends to become a reflex-that is, an uncon- scious act over which the will has lost power. The conscious mind, then, is that phase of life which takes in and reacts to sense per- ceptions. Sense perceptions may be termed external stimuli to the memory-storing brain centers. THE SUBCONSCIOUS The subconscious mind, on the other hand, is that phase of our mentality which registers sense impressions and makes them an integral part of our structural being. Now, it is evident that we do not always build useful habits and just to that extent do we lessen our chances for happiness and success. It is man's privilege to take part in the process of his own creation. The es- tablishment of habit builds the individual and the race. But this statement ought not to go with- out some qualification; for, while it is true that we may all acquire habits which may help or hinder us in the struggle for exist- PSYCHOLOGY 225 ence, in proportion as they are wisely or foolishly formed, it is also true that we can- not all acquire habits with equal ease. Types differ. For instance, no matter how I might struggle to acquire the habit of music, I would never succeed, I know; for I have spent both time and money in an endeavor to acquire such knowledge. I have no sense of rhythm, or whatever it is that makes a musi- cian. A color-blind person can never de- velop a keen sense of chromatic discrimina- tion. There is a lack somewhere in this heredity. Peculiar thought modes can only manifest through definite brain cells, and if the brain cells are absent it is evident that these modes can not be established. In some people the herd instinct is strong enough that they easily acquire the habit of co-operation; while others simply cannot subdue their ego. They may try very hard, but the habit will not establish itself. These people are not evil. They are simply differ- ent. Others can acquire habits only when they are young. After a certain age their charac- HABITS 226 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES ters seem to set and new ideas or principles do not affect them. They are static. They are not more stupid than other folks; their brains are ripe, and hence incapable of further growth. They have ceased to turn memory images into habit factors. They use their heads to live rather than to grow. Leaving the types for the moment, let us consider how the establishment of habit af- fects the organism as a whole. The exercise of a muscle, if performed to accomplish a purpose, causes it to develop and gather strength; it also may become more delicate in function, as is shown in the case of sleight of hand performers and others whose work demand great muscular dexterity. This illu- strates law of nourishment and use, which applies with equal force to muscle and brain. In other words, those whose brains have not grown static, may improve them by proper use, and through the proper use of the brain, may improve their bodies as a whole. We may acquire the habit of health with a great deal more profit than we may acquire the habit of disease. For remember, disease is PSYCHOLOGY 227 as frequently a habit, as a result of faulty habits. It is of the utmost importance that our children acquire constructive habits. Much of the time in our present-day schools is spent in an effort to break faulty formed habits of speech and conduct, replacing them with others, often quite as detrimental. This waste of time and energy could be en- tirely avoided if parents and teachers were thoroughly trained in the arts of applied psychology and psycho-analysis. We would then not try to force things upon children for which their brains were not prepared or never evolved. INSTINCTS As has been pointed out, our various sub- conscious acts are nothing more than race habits, which have become a part of our mental life by repetition through countless generations. All that happens in us subcon- sciously was, at some time in our existence, performed consciously, and became success- ively, habit, instinct and reflex as it was re- peated through the ages. We all know how 228 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES hard it is to break a habit, once it is estab- lished. We have all sympathized with the struggle of the liquor, tobacco, coffee and drug fiends. One can always tell a public speaker who has been a preacher; he simply cannot forget his clerical mannerisms. But, as it is difficult to break a habit, it is often more difficult to establish them along lines in which the race has not been moving. Habits are the stuff of which our daily lives are made, and we bequeath a tendency to their formation to our offspring. That is why a drinking father may bequeath a tendency to drunkenness to his boy, even though he has ceased to drink before that boy is born. He has given him the inclination. This in- clination may be so strong that the horrible consequences of drink which ought to appeal to his reason do not in any way seem to warn the victim. His inherited habit ten- dency is stronger than his reason. We could go on indefinitely giving ex- amples of how habit affects the race, but time and space forbid. We must pass on to the next phase of our discussion. Emotion is a state of feeling which is ini- PSYCHOLOGY 229 tiated like a brain storm, causing disturb- ances throughout the entire organism. The effect of emotion is apparent in muscular and bodily expression; it also causes chemic changes in the secretions of the internal or- gans. It is a well-known fact that, if a person assumes a certain attitude, the emo- tional characteristic of that attitude will manifest itself more or less intensely. When an actor assumes a defiant attitude, he ac- tually feels anger; if he does not, his acting is a failure. A man cannot walk with a girl's mincing step without feeling frivolous. Thus, we see that induced emotions will re- flect themselves in bodily attitudes; and that bodily attitudes have a tendency to create emotional states. GLAND SECRETIONS As this work is primarily intended to as- sist people in regaining and retaining their health, it is well to call attention to the fact that, all things being equal, the man who forms the habit of smiling will keep his in- ternal secretion in good order. Normal se- cretion always follows and makes the prob- 230 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES lem of acquiring health easier, hence the in- vigorating influence of an optimistic atti- tude of mind. The proof that the internal secretions are influenced by our emotional states is found in the fact that excited individuals have the quantity of phosphates in their urine in- creased. Many a doctor has made the mis- take of treating a frightened heart as if it were weak. A diagnosis of weak heart can- not be made at one sitting. The patient must become accustomed to the physician and his methods of examination, before the influ- ence of fear upon the heart's action may be excluded. Nervousness may cause the se- cretions of the mouth to dry up, the lips to parch, and, in many cases, will cause dia- rrhea. Some of the experiments made by Prof. Gates have demonstrated that differ- ent chemical substances appear in the hu- man breath as a result of different emotions. He found that when his patient was angry, a brownish substance appeared, and that if this substance was injected into other men or animals, symptoms of excitement and anger were the results. He also discovered that PSYCHOLOGY 231 sorrow causes a gray, and remorse a pink, precipitate. We have all heard how mothers, both ani- mal and human, have poisoned the young with their milk while they were under the emotion of anger or fright. The celebrated John Hunter, who suffered from heart dis- ease, said that his life was at the mercy of any scoundred who should make him angry. At a meeting, he was contradicted by one of his colleagues, and an attack of angina occurred; he ceased speaking, and fell dead in the arms of a friend. EMOTIONS Emotions have a most powerful effect upon the arterial structure, enlarging the capillaries in blushing, and contracting them in blanching. They may be either construc- tive or destructive. It is therefore to our advantage to cultivate the constructive phases of our emotional lives, and to ignore the destructive urges which will from time to time obtrude themselves upon our con- sciousness. The power of emotions is well illustrated 232 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES in the stigmatization found in certain re- ligious fanatics during the middle ages. These unfortunates worked themselves into such a frenzy that they produced on them- selves skin markings, resembling the wounds on the feet and hands of Christ. This was not a miracle, but an unusual influence of the mind on the vaso-motor system; an in- stance in which the consciousness was lashed to so high a pitch as to take charge of the sympathetic and the vaso-motor nervous sys- tem, causing these to respond to the will. Certain Hindu sorcerers, not regarded as saints by Christians, have the power of vol- untary inhibiting the action of their hearts. There are many other phases of mind which might profitably be discussed in a sep- arate series of essays, but enough has been said here to give us some idea of the inter- action of mental and physical factors. XV SUGGESTION In the last essay of the old series I said that psychology is a science and not a re- ligious creed or cult. I now wish to add that suggestion is a factor in that science and has nothing to do with religious belief or disbelief. It is simply a method of get- ting ideas, good or bad, into the subcon- scious, where they operate according to their nature for good or ill on our mental or phys- ical economy. Suggestion is a common fact in everyone's experience, and which we must learn to utilize for our physical and mental welfare, not as is so often imagined, to get ahead of the other fellow, but rather to bring out the best in ourselves. Ever since the advent of scientific psy- chology we have known that when a sugges- tion enters the subconscious, it becomes a dynamic factor in our lives, but how to get the subconscious to accept the needed sug- 234 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES gestion without the dangerous process of hypnosis has been a problem with which psychologists until recently have wrestled in vain. It is probable, however, that the work of Emile Coue if preceded by the psy- cho-analyses of Freud may partially solve this problem and give to the world a fairly workable formula for reaching the deeper and dynamic recesses of our psychic life. We may then accomplish the things other psychologists have felt ought to be accom- plished, but in which they failed because they appealed to the will rather than to the faith of the patient. They overlooked the fact that faith inspires courage, while the will defeated produces despair. The very simplicity of the Coue method is probably its saving grace. For were it a system a little more complicated, like, for instance, the psycho-analysis of Freud or the suggestive therapeutics of Weltmer, it would in all probability also lend itself as "sucker bait" to a host of charlatans and fakirs, who would graft it on to some pseudo COUE SUGGESTIONS 235 religion to fleece the weak and the unwary of their substance. The simplicity of Cone's method lies in the fact that his system feeds the subcon- scious mind with the proper ideas as a good cook feeds the body with proper food. He points out that in suggesting to your subcon- scious, you are setting in motion the con- structive power within you. If the sugges- tion is wholesome and constructive, it will realize itself in your mental and physical life as such; if destructive you will realize its effect in kind. All this is but a restate- ment of the ancient dictum, "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he." The heart in this instance is the symbol of the subcon- scious. SUBCONSCIOUS MIND Now the question presents itself: What is the subconscious mind? What are its powers ? Its limitations ? In the first place let us define consciousness as a state of life so intense as to be actively aware of the changes going on in its environment. In short, a state of awareness. Subconscious- ness then is a lesser state (not necessarily 236 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES a lesser quality) of awareness. It is the mental life that does not react to, but records and acts upon, the sense impressions re- ceived from the outside world. Conscious- ness really is but the light or radiance of the subconscious. The subconscious is what heredity and environment have made us, our real selves. First of all, the subconscious is a recep- tacle of impressions, which it stores for fu- ture use. Secondly, it is the constructive factor, for it modifies the organs of the species through successive generations, so as to meet the re- quirements of an ever changing environ- ment. Thirdly, it is directive. When not ham- pered by the conscious, it uses the organs which it has built up, with an absolute ac- curacy. Witness all instinctive acts of men and beasts, such as migrating and homing or the incredible feats of somnambulists. THE GREAT PROBLEM The great problems of psychologists to solve are how to make the store of our sub- SUGGESTIONS 237 conscious knowledge available for conscious use, and how to store the subconscious with constructive instead of destructive material. All educated men today know that physi- cal evolution is a fact of nature, but in what the adapting and evolving power consists is of course as yet a matter of controversy. My conception is that the cell is innately in- telligent, and that the subconscious is but the sum total of the intelligence of all the cells comprising the organism, as the phy- sical body is the result of a combination of the sum total of its cells. And as the phy- sical body is resisted by the pressure of en- vironmental factors, so the inner or subcon- scious is set in motion to adapt the organi- sm to that pressure. Naturally there are limits beyond which the adaptive power of the cell cannot go in one generation, but what it can do in many generations is amply evident when we study the diversity of life upon the earth. When we consider that all life forms evolved and are still evolving from single cells, we get some idea of the wondrous power of responding to sug- gestion inherent in these microscopic organ- 238 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES isms. For a study of biology convinces us that each species is what its environment has suggested it to be. These environmental suggestions have given the bittern a beak like a rapier and the eagle one like a hook; they have given stripes to the tiger so that its color might harmonize with the gray shadows of the jungle, and spots to the leop- ard so that its color might harmonize with those of its native forest. According to the suggestion that each received from its environment, so the cells organized them- selves. The wTord of creation is a suggestion to the life force operative through the cell. Do not misunderstand me. I do not say that suggestion, auto or otherwise, can change John Smith into a racoon, or a ra- coon into a wolf. What I do say is that a suggestive force which causes an organism, be it that of John Smith or of a racoon or of any other being to exercise itself in a given direction will in the course of generations so modify the structure of that organism as to perfectly meet all its life requirements, or rather it will develop new specie char- acteristics in the progeny of those organ- SUGGESTIONS 239 isms. Whether such new characters are good or bad from our viewpoint does not concern us. What we wish to point out is that suggestion is a stimulant to the con- structive factor in the unconscious, which makes for chemical and dynamic changes in the first generation, and if the stimulation continues, for structural changes in succeed- ing generations. Now what environmental suggestions such as rain, wind and frost, mountain, hill and dell, can do in the formation of species, the spoken word can do in the formation of bodily states, that is, if that word succeeds in reaching the subconscious, carrying to it the desired idea. To illustrate: When a person in whom you have no confidence tells you of an im- pending danger, it does not go through to the subconscious but is intercepted by the judgment and rejected. But if a trusted family physician or your legal advisor speaks the word, it probably goes on through to the subconscious and sets the fear mech- anism in motion, with the result of emo- tional and chemical change in your organ- 240 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES ism. If the suggestion is one of injustice, anger or resentment, with their concomitant phenomena, will be the result. The reports of danger and injustice may not be true, but that makes no difference; as long as your subconscious accepts them as being true, the effect will be the same. FAITH Belief is the key which opens the door to suggestion. Doctors would starve for want of business if they had to rely on their remedies for their success. The successful physician is he who inspires confidence in his means, be they what they may. He must dress to look the part; his office must contain an impres- sive array of books, instruments or relics, according to the mental status of his client- ele. All these things impress the laymen with the ponderosity of the doctor's knowl- edge-a fact which gives confidence-and when once the confidence is gained sug- gestion wisely given will work beneficient wonders in the physical condition of the patient. And per contra, when wrongly or SUGGESTIONS 241 maliciously given, may prepare him for a painful or expensive operation. Notice that in all this the will does not play a part. You cannot will to believe or disbelieve. Belief is not a matter of voli- tion; it cannot be compelled. You cannot suggest sea-sickness to a sailor and produce nausea, but in mercy do not try it on a pas- senger who has crossed the bar for the first time. In the first instance the sailor is confident of his immunity, and hence your suggestion is rejected. In the second place, the pas- senger is convinced of his susceptibility, and he takes the suggestion at once and his or- ganism responds to it. The boy who is learning to ride a bicycle feels sure he cannot miss a post at the road- side, and straightway runs into it. He does not what he wills, but what he believes. He thinks he cannot miss, and he does not. If he were confident he could miss it, the con- trary would be true. We might go on multi- plying illustrations of how belief in a thing predisposes us to the receipt of suggestions and how we unconsciously act on them. 242 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES Herein lies the often weird power of the most silly superstitions over some persons' lives. Being believed in, the omens frequ- ently suggest to the subconscious the very acts which are a seeing fulfillment. This has been proved over and over again by the re- searches of Freud. In view of these facts it is interesting to note that the teachings attributed to Christ hold that faith rather than will is the es- sential element in mental therapeutic work. "Thy faith hath saved thee," and "thy faith hath made thee whole," are expressions which occur frequently in the gospels. He realized that a person cannot be healed against his will, nor, paradoxical as it may sound, with his will. For a contrary will debars the suggestion from the subconscious where alone it can become a reality, and a positive will, in a consciousness skeptic of the means, is powerless to overcome the skepticism, which is an attribute of judg- ment. Hence Coue recommends that we suggest health to ourselves when we retire, just as we enter sleep. Then the will is most quies- SUGGESTIONS 243 cent, and the door to the subconscious is ajar. The suggestion of health can now enter and do its work. Another good time for implanting a suggestion is just after awaking, before the consciousness is fully active. Then too the way is open to the con- structive power of the body. He further tells us not to suggest any spe- cific strength for a specific organ but to sug- gest general perfection, leaving it to the sub- conscious to distribute the energy released by the suggestion, according to existing re- quirements. Coue says that his now famous formula, "Every day in every way I am getting bet- ter and better," is probably the best. But do not forget that talking to yourself is not enough. In fact it is in many cases wrong. There are conditions of a purely psychic nature that give rise to physical symptoms, and these conditions will have to be resolved by anaylsis before the Coue formula can get in its work in a constructive way. Then again, no matter how diligent you may be in charging the mind with good sug- gestions, you will not get good permanent 244 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES results unless you balance your life. The conscious practice of constructive principles is the only absolute road to health. We must learn the law and train ourselves to obedi- ence on the physical, mental and spiritual planes of our being. Learn to breathe with a dynamic breath. To convince one who suffers that he cannot get well is not far removed from murder. Make exercise of all your body a sacred duty; cul- tivate a happy state of mind, and health is yours. If we all knew the laws that govern the different forms of energy, we would know the secret of life. If you can do nothing else you can inspire faith, and fan the dying fires of hope. These are Nature's first commandments to the physician. XVI PSYCHO-ANALYSIS "Health Through Natural Forces" would not be complete were we to neglect the greatest healing force of them all,-the science of Psycho-analysis. Among the factors which tend to unbalance our vitality and cause us to suffer our unconscious con- flicts easily come first. They often express themselves in physical symptoms which defy all accredited methods of healing. This leads us naturally to the question: What is Psycho-analysis ? DEFINITION Psycho-analysis as the structure of the word implies is a method by which we are enabled to re-arrange the soul content of an individual, and eliminate from it those fac- tors which derange his physical and mental life. It has also been defined as "the sci- 246 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES ence of the unconscious," as "a method of treating nervous disorders mentally." In short it is a method by which we may bring a person face to face with his inner self, and show him just what he is and why. ST. ELIZABETH'S HOSPITAL The greatest experimental station for the furtherance of the science of psycho-an- alysis is St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Wash- ington, D. C. Here Doctors White, Kempf, and others, have carried on this work for several years, and satisfied themselves as well as an ever-growing group of scientific men, thaf many of our so-called diseases have their origin in thwarted hopes and am- bitions, in secret fears and suppressed emo- tions. And what is of more importance, they find that these conditions yield when their true cause is brought to the atten- tion of the patient. It is, therefore, evi- dent that those who are interested in the promotion of health can not afford to re- main in ignorance of this science, for it goes without saying that what Doctors White, Kempf, and others can do for the patients PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 247 under their care, we can also do for our- selves in our daily lives, if we will but take the time and trouble. ORIGIN Psycho-analysis as such originated chiefly with Freud, a Viennese physician, and a close student of human mentality. Unfortunate- ly his interpretations of the mental reac- tions he so carefully observed, were colored by what probably is peculiar bias. This has made his work, to say the least, misunder- stood. His friends say that the reason for this misunderstanding by many of his erst- while disciples, is because he comes too close to the naked truth for human comfort, when he says that the primal urge of the ego is sexual. There may be more truth in this contention than we like to admit, but we can not believe that it is the correct way of stat- ing the truth. Be this as it may we find that the tendency for men of science is to take a dissenting position on this phase of his work. But when all is said the fact remains that it was Freud who gave us the mother lode 248 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES from which others have smelted, and, let us hope, purified the gold. To those who are not familiar with Freud's work we wish to say that he is not infrequently placed in a wrong light by both friend and foe. His weakness lies in the fact that he calls the soul's quest after or- ganic pleasure, "sexual," or "the libido." The libido is the soul's drive toward en- joyment-the will to pleasure. This will to pleasure is a basic factor in our psychic life. To call it sexual may be right when viewed from Freud's point of view, but it does not sound right to the ears of the average reader. It is not our purpose to disagree with him, but we do feel that his termin- ology is unfortunate. The word "sexual" to the average mind means that part of our physiologic and psychologic life which di- rectly or indirectly has to do with the pro- creative functions. Freud himself is not unaware that this is the case, for he tells us in his "Introduction to Psycho-analysis" that with two of its assertions his science offends the whole world. PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 249 First of all it contradicts the commonly accepted idea that the Psyche (the Soul) and the conscious (the mind) are identical; second, it asserts that the sexual (pleasure) urge lies at the basis of all human instincts and impulses. INTELLECTUAL PREJUDICE That the last of these two assertions is basic and of vast theoretic and practical im- portance will become evident as we proceed. The intellectual prejudice is of secondary importance. Accepted science asserts that the consciousness is the self; and to assert the contrary is held to be merest dreamery, unworthy of one's time or attention. No wonder then that Freud did not meet with ready acceptance when he boldly asserted that the consciousness was not the psyche, but only a manifestation of the psyche. It was when he said that the psyche could not be conscious until it was cognizant, and that it could not become cognizant until it could compare stimuli with previous impressions, that he became heterodox. But regardless of prejudice, this concep- 250 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES tion of our mental life leads to some very important conclusions, which lie far outside our present purpose. Be it enough to say that this conception of our mental life will be amply verified as we enter into a deeper study of this subject. We shall therefore accept the proposition that the conscious- ness is the work of self, psyche, or ego. It may become still plainer to the reader if we say that consciousness is not the "I" but its result. A careful observation of the evolution of the pleasure urge shows us several distinct phases of normal development. Each phase gives off several branches, or modifications, called instincts. The instincts are offshoots of the pleasure urge raised to individually and socially needed values. A little reflection will make it clear to any thinking mind that this is as it should be. Life is interested primarily in its own per- petuation. To it, persistence is the eternal problem. It can not persist in the individ- ual, and it must, therefore, perpetuate itself ORIGIN OF INSTINCTS PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 251 in the race. It is, therefore, only natural that the organic pleasure urge should grow into that of race perpetuation. In the adult it is not the only but one of the fundamental urges. It being one of the strongest, it is naturally difficult to tame, in fact it is never successfully tamed. In all walks of life we find it breaking through in temperamental and neurotic expression. If neurotic we have illness; if temperamental we have trou- ble. A neurosis is a mental manifestation of suppressed emotional energy which breaks out as headaches, indigestion, cramps, etc., while the libido is the technical name for what we have called the pleasure urge, no matter how it manifests. It may function positively as pleasure or negatively as pain. EVOLUTION OF THE PLEASURE URGE In the child in what Freud calls the pre- genital period, the pleasure life is rather loosely organized. It does not have the power which later conies in the form of the passions of various kinds. These passions for pleasure are in the adult often so acute as to be positively painful so that when they 252 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES are denied by circumstances over which the individual has no control, they not infre- quently invert, causing him to hate what he formerly loved, and that hate is often in di- rect proportion to the intensity of his desire. COMPLEXES A complex is where two urges or motives are in conflict in the soul. They both seek for expression but in doing so they meet the resistance of the individuals training or pre- judice as the case may be. The will to do and not to do are brought into conflict. To hold the taboo desire down takes power and if these desires are more powerful than the individual the strength is used up in an ef- fort to hold down his unsocial or taboo de- sires. This leads to nervous exhaustion, and this in turn leads to many other physical manifestations which we can not begin to enumerate here. A FORM OF ENERGY It is in the resolution of these complexes and in liberating the soul from these con- flicts that the discoveries of Freud are the PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 253 most valuable. They give an insight into many of the phenomena of life which here- tofore were looked upon as evil. The psy- chic life can not develop along its own lines. If it did civilization could not exist. If nat- ural urges are suppressed, they hide away into the inner self and seek expression throughout the life of the individual in the form of neurosis, temperament or hysterics, if not as actual physical diseases, such as bright's disease or diabetes. THE NATURE OF A COMPLEX In the limited space at our disposal we have tried to give a little insight into the resistance the natural urge of the soul to- ward pleasure meets as it encounters the difficulties of mundane life. The world will not let the individual have his own sweet way. At every turn of the road the soul of man must compromise with circumstances. These compromises when forced upon us, wound the soul as it were. The tendency is for unpleasant experiences to be taken out of the conscious life, and, as we say are forgotten. That is the soul denies the mem- 254 HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FORCES ory of the incident to the mind. It, however, retains the scar as a tender spot in the in- ward life, and cause him to behave accord- ingly whenever he is brought face to face with anything that in any way reminds him of the psychic wound he experienced. EGO AND SOUL We realize that what has been said may raise the question as to what we mean by "The Ego," as it is often used, and by the soul as we have used the term. In most of the literature on psycho-analysis we find those terms used as synchronous. This, how- ever, is not the way we understand it. To our mind "the Ego," is the spark of deity in human flesh; the immortal principle of which this life is but a temporary manifes- tataion. It is the sun of the world we call our body. The Ego is incorruptible, and in- destructable, while the soul may be defined as the light of the ego; the connecting link between the real man and his environment. It is the soul which gathers the experiences of mortal life and passes them on to the ego as its food and drink. The soul, then, is PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 255 affected by its environment while the ego is affected by the soul. Thus when we use the word soul we mean what the psycho-an- alysts call the subconscious, and when we use the word ego we mean the ultimate self. But we have probably gone far enough afield to indicate that in what is called the mental world there are as yet vast unex- plored regions where our Laboratory Sci- entists have as yet not had the courage or power to enter. We shall now draw this subject to a close with the advice that before you begin the study of Freud, Jung, Adler, Brill, Tridon, Stekel, Jackson and others of the so-called scientific school, that you care- fully read the works of such writers as R. Swinburne Clymer, Max Heindel, Richard Engeles, C. C. Zain, Mabel Collins and others, for they will give you an insight into what may be known of the inward nature of things by other than laboratory methods. Appetizing Menus for the Week MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY Breaklast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Dewberries, r Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Fruit, Fresh Pineapple Hot Buttered Cereal, rig®, Soft Cooked Eggs, Broiled Bacon, Eggs Scrambled with Toast, Graham Muffins Bread Crumb Coffee. Griddle Cakes, with Anchovies, Powdered Sugar, i Apple Jelly or with Raisins, Waffles, Luncheon Toast, Tea Biscuits, Cereal, Apple Sauce, Coffee. Syrup, R • , r ,f, Coffee Substitute. Coffee Substitute. Creamed Coffee Substitute. Luncheon Coffee. ra£. in * Luncheon Luncheon Dried Beef, Dinner . . . Luncheon . r •. Bread Crumb loast, Boned Loin ot Onions m Luncheon Macaron, Border, Fratt Cup Timbales, Coffee or Lamb Roasted, Casserole, Egg and Heart Salmon and Marshmallow Coffee Substitute. Potatoes, Nut Bread. Asparagus Salad, Lettuce Salad, Green Pea Salad, Gingerbread Luncheon Black Currant Dinner Mayonna.se Date Bread, Whole Wheat Tea Baked Stuffed jcl,y or Sweet Creamed Shrimp, DrReS.S.,ng' Tea' ?rCad' Dinner Green Peppers, Pickles, in Swedish - c ' Dinner Lemon Cold Sweet Cucumber, Shredded Cabbage Timbale Cases Cocoa Frappe. Breaded CupCakes. Fried Chicken, Thin Corn Bread, with Cooked (Edge of Cases Dinner Lamb Chops, Dinner Sweet Corn or | Iced Tea. i Dressing, Dipped in White Hot Boiled Tomato Sauce, Baked.Rice Corn Fritfers, Dinner Caramel Custard, of Egg and Then Tongue with Mashed Potatoes, Croquettes, Currant Jelly, Deviled Crab Supper in Finely Minced Cherries, String Beans, Cheese Sauce, Raspberry Meat in Shells, Lettuce and Lamb Parsley); Scalloped French Dressing Lettuce and Shortcake Asparagus Salad, Sandwiches, Lettuce, Radish Egg Plant, (with Onion Stuffed (Made from Tea Old-Fashioned Dutch Apple Cake and Cucumber Orange Salad, Juice); Tomato Salad, Biscuit Dough Peach Dumplings, with Salad; Cream Cheese, Grape Juice Peach Ice Cream, Prepared for Whipped Cream Lemon Sauce, Pineapple Cake. Wafers. Sponge. Angel Cakelets. Breakfast), ' or Hard Sauce. Iced Tea.