THE SANATORIUM. How to Treat the Sick 
WITHOUT MEDICINE. 
BY 
JAMES C. JACKSON, M.D. 
CONSULTING PHYSICIAN 
TO 
OUR HOME ON THE HILL-SIDE, 
THE SANATORIUM, DANSVILLE, LIVINGSTON CO., N. Y. 
'Tis Nature cures the sick ; 
Like God, she touches weakly things, and they 
Revive, and put forth wondrous beauty. Bring 
Your sick and suffering ones, where gently she 
Can handle and caress, and nurse them. Then 
Their forms, though delicate ajuLfrail,*balkgKW--3 
To strength and large endura ice. Jjl 11A K 
SURjlCNCjLUaHAlS 
ELEVENTH EDITION. 
OUR HOME PUBLISHING DEPARTMENT, PUBLISHERS, 
DANSVILLE, LIVINGSTON CO., N. Y. ; 
BAKER, PRATT & CO., 19 BOND ST., NEW YORK. 
1881. Entered according to Act of Congress, in tho year 1868. by 
\TTSTIN, JACKSON & CO.. 
in the Clerk's Office of tho District Court of the United States for the Northern 
District of New York. 
E. 0. JENKINS, 
STEREOTYPE!! AND PRINTER, 
20 N. WILLIAM ST., N. Y. MY BELOVED DAUGHTER AND FRIEND, 
TO YOU I DEDICATE THIS BOOK, 
BECAUSE TO YOU MOKE THAN TO ANY OTHER PERSON AM I INDEBTED FOB THB 
HEALTH AND STRENGTH WHEREBY I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO WRITE IT, 
AND ALSO FOR THE SYMPATHY 
WHICH, UNDER MY ARDUOUS PROFESSIONAL LABORS, WAS 
NECESSARY TO MAKE THE TASK OF WRITING 
IT A LABOR OF LOVE. 
I am, for the redemption of the People from 
Sickness and Premature Death, 
Ever yours, most truly, 
JAMES C. JACKSON. 
Och Home on the Hill-Side. 
Dansville, N. Y. CONTENTS. 
CHATTER. FAQS 
I. -My Methods of Treating the Sick. . . 9 
II. -What is Disease ? 18 
III. -The True Materia Medica . . . 22 
IV. Air . , 30 
V.-Food ... 32 
VI.-Water 35 
VII.-Time for Taking Baths 45 
VIII.-Sunlight ........ 49 
IX.-Dress , . . .61 
X.-Exercise . ... 82 
XI.-Sleep and its Recuperations .... 94 
XII.-The Sick Chamber and its Surroundings . . 107 
XIII. -Children and their Diseases . . . . 115 
XIV. -Teething - Teething Diarrhoea - Summer Com 
plaint-Fits 120 
XV.-Tetter-Scald Head-Common Itch . . 123 
XVI.-Measles 133 
XVII.-Croup 145 
XVIII.-Diphtheria 153 
XIX.-Scarlet Fever - Whooping Cough . . 171 
XX.-Summer Complaint - Dysentery . . . 181 
XXL-Diseases of Grown Persons - Baldness - Deaf- 
ness - Blindness - Inflammation of the Eyes 185 
5 6 
CONTENTS. 
XXII.-Nasal Catarrh - Nose-Bleed . . . . 193 
XXIII.-Apoplexy - Inflammation of the Brain - Hydro- 
cephalus, or Dropsy of the Brain . . . 198 
XXIV.-Paralysis ....... 206 
XXV. -Epilepsy 213 
XXVI.-Insanity 218 
XXVII.-Drunkenness 223 
XXVIII.-Hysteria 236 
XXIX. -St. Vitus' Dance 246 
XXX. -Pulmonary Consumption - Mumps - Salivation 252 
XXXI.-Quinsy - Bronchitis - Inflammation of the 
Lungs 261 
XXXII.-Pleurisy - Spitting of Blood, or Hemorrhage of 
the Lungs - Asthma 273 
XXXIII.-The Heart and its Diseases 286 
XXXIV.-Dyspepsia• 290 
XXXV.-Colic 802 
XXXVI.-Cancerous Conditions »f the Stomach . . 807 
XXXVII.-Diseases of the Spleen . . . . . .311 
XXXVIII.-Diseases of the Liver 318 
XXXIX.-Calculi - Jaundice 333 
XL.-Diseases of the Intestines - Duodenitis - Bowel 
Colic . . 338 
XLI.-Inflammation of the Bowels - Peritonitis . 850 
XLH.-Dropsy of the Peritoneum 362 
XLIIL-Lead Colic 367 
XLIV.-Inflammation of the Mesenteric Glands . . 873 
XLV.-Diseases of the Kidneys - Congestion - Inflam- 
mation- Diabetes - Gravel . . . 884 
XLVI.-Bright's Disease of the Kidneys - Urinary Dis 
ease ........ 401 CONTENTS. 7 
XLVH.-Neuralgia of the Bladder - Paralysis of the 
Bladder - Inflammation of the Coats of the 
Bladder 410 
XLVHL-Worms 423 
XLIX.-Piles 428 
L.-Sexual Organs 443 
LI.-Rheumatism .... . . 448 
LIL-Intermittent Fever, or Fever and Ague . . 459 
LIII.-Remittent Fever - Congestive Chills . . 474 
LIV.-Typhus and Typhoid Fevers .... 483 
LV.-Erysipelas, or St. Anthony's. Fire - Purpura 
Hemorrhagica - Acne .... 491 
LVI.-Ulcers - Boils and Carbuncles .... 498 
LVII.-Burns and Scalds - Goitre, . . 511 
LVIII.-Varicose Veins 518 
Bvthb, and How to Take Them. . . 523 
7 HOW TO TREAT THE SICK 
WITHOUT MEDICINE. 
CHAPTER I. 
MY METHODS OF TREATING THE SICK. 
There are two ways of treating human invalids; 
the one by means which are abnormal or unnatural, 
and in which agents are sought to be used, which are 
of such a nature or character as, when used by persons 
in health, make them sick or tend to make them sick ; 
the other, by means which are normal or natural, and 
which confines itself to the use of agents, instrumen- 
talities and influences, whose effect on the human body, 
in health, is to keep it in health. The former way 1 
discard; the latter way I accept and follow. 
I most readily acknowledge that, in making my 
selection, I am left in a very large minority: it being 
true that ahnost all the physicians who have ever prac- 
ticed the healing art, or who are now practicing it, 
accept and adopt the former method; while only a few 
persons are with me in my theory and practice. It 
may readily be seen, therefore, that after the present 
state of opinion, I am unpopular; because to be in the 10 
MY METHODS OF TREATING THE SICK. 
minority with reference to any set of ideas or system 
of conduct is to be unpopular. While, however, as 
regards the popularity of my methods there can be no 
question, it does not necessarily follow that I am not 
right; for, necessarily, with mankind new truths arc 
unpopular, only those truths which, through various 
and powerful obstructions, have pressed their way to 
human consciousness and secured its respect, being 
entitled to be considered popular. 
Notwithstanding the essential unpopularity of new 
truths, I have great respect for the people. Not a 
demagogical respect; but an honest, manly regard, 
founded upon a recognition of the essential and in- 
trinsic worthiness of human nature-such a worthiness 
as grows up under the constitution and appreciation 
of its essential capacities. However these may be per- 
verted, from want of training or from bad education, 
they nevertheless exist, and bespeak for themselves 
large respect. Because they have all the worth of 
human nature, and because men and women in the 
main, representing human nature, constitute the people, 
I honor them; and therefore feel that I can afford, for 
their benefit, to be the advocate of ideas which, when 
not understood, may be looked upon with disfavor, but 
which are yet of so much intrinsic value that, when 
comprehended, are sure to be looked upon with favor. 
This matter of knowing how to treat the diseases to 
which human beings are liable, so that the sick, instead 
of remaining sick, shall get well, shall not die, but 
Live, is of very great importance to the people. At MY METHODS OF TREATING THE BICK. 
11 
present it is understood by the people at large that 
they have no particular interest in the matter; that, 
when sick, it is expected that means will be pro- 
vided for their recovery; but what these means are, 
or how they will be employed, it is not expected of 
them, nor do they desire, to know. A sick person, 
therefore, places himself in the hands of some medical 
man or woman of whose qualifications he knows no- 
thing except in the vaguest manner. He may be of 
one drug-school or another, and, because of this, the 
invalid may prefer or reject him; but he can give no 
reason why he does so, except on the ground of prefer 
ence, for w'hich he has no basis except in prejudice. 
Knowledge of the subject he has not. Why an allo- 
pathist is to be preferred to a homeopathist, or an 
eclectic to either, the sick man cannot tell. He makes 
a choice; but he does it blindly. Having made it, he 
is no longer inquiring or anxious; his reason resigns 
itself. He takes the physician at just such an estimate 
as any person would any other professional of the 
theory of whose art or the philosophy of practicing it 
he had no well-founded and rational information. 
It is not in human nature, in any direction, thus to 
place one's interests under the supervision and manage- 
ment of another without becoming a blind devotee, 
and so refusing to raise questions as to the soundness 
or substantial truth of the course pursued. Hence, in 
this country, there are no devotees so set in their ways, 
so impervious to the influence of truth, so difficult to 
induce to make progress in any direction, as those on 12 
MY METHODS OF TREATING THE SICK. 
the subject of the treatment of disease. For want of 
Knowledge of the laws of life, they have been induced 
to surrender all management of their bodies into the 
hands of such physicians as they respectively may have 
chosen. They think, therefore, not at all on the sub- 
ject. They yield themselves up sacrificially to their 
notions, and regard the whole issue from so narrow a 
view as this: that whether they live or die is of less 
consequence than whether they are treated after the 
manner which they regard as scientific. 
Now, in the nature of the case, there is no reason in 
this view, nor can there be any justification for such an 
intellectual relation to it. God has made the human 
frame in such a way that it is not difficult to under- 
stand and largely comprehend the leading principles 
upon which its healthful management depends. The 
laws of health and life are so related in the understand- 
ing of them to human consciousness that any human 
being may so far appreciate them, as, by following 
them, to keep in health, or, in other words, not to be 
sick. 
This statement comports with the reason of the case. 
Certainly it is not to be supposed that the Creator has 
related a human creature so to the laws which govern 
its health and life as to make it more difficult for him 
to understand and be governed by them than is a mere 
animal to the laws which regulate its functions of life. 
Sheep get along from birth to death, on the whole, 
with comparatively little sickness. Though there are 
i great many sheep raised in the United States, there MY METHODS OF TREATING THE SICK. 
13 
arc very few sheep doctors. There are a great many 
dogs, but very few canine doctors. There are a great 
many domestic birds, and birds which live independent 
of man, but there are amongst them no physicians 
Yet of animals there are many species whose organ i 
zation will be found to be not less delicate than man's. 
The horse, perhaps, approaches, in the fullness and com- 
prehensiveness of his bodily structure, nearest to man's. 
Yet when he runs wild, not having been brought into 
contact with man so as to be subdued and made to 
serve him, but, on the other hand, is permitted to fol- 
low his corporeal instincts and be made thoroughly 
subject to the laws of his being, the percentage of 
those which are sick, in proportion to the whole num - 
ber, is very much smaller than can be found to exist 
amongst human creatures of the largest reason, highest 
culture, and the best civilized, and Christian arrange- 
ments of living. One such fact incorporates into it 
significance enough for a volume of history. 
If, then, it be true that God so careth for animals 
which are the creatures of His hand, that where they 
are left free to hold natural relations to life and health, 
there is but little or no sickness; or, where this exists, 
it is, for the most part, in consequence of deviation 
from the laws of life and health occasioned by accident 
or by casualty; how much truer ought it to be of 
human beings that they might live without sickness ? 
Does it not commend itself to human reason that the 
Creator in making two structures respectively, having 
in view use of them, establishes securities therefor 14 
MY METHODS OF TREATING THE SIOK. 
proportionate to the ends sought by their use ? If it 
be true that, in making man, God intends to put him 
to uses involving results much higher and more valu- 
able than those to which he intends to put any mere 
animal, does it not follow logically that, as an all-wise 
Creator, He would furnish man with securities and 
guaranties for the use of his powers in proportion to 
the importance of the results He intends to be wrought 
out under the use of such powers? In fact, may it 
not be accepted as a self-evident truth, needing for its 
establishment no demonstration, but only the statement 
of it, that every organization is furnished by the 
Creator with securities for answering its end propor- 
tionate to its rank in the scale of being ? To me the 
conclusion is accepted the moment the premise is 
fairly stated. I feel no necessity for reasoning on the 
subject. To conclude otherwise, with me, is to impugn 
the Divine wisdom. If I assume that God is all-wise, 
and as truthful as wise, then I conclude that whenever 
He exercises His creative faculty in the direction of 
the formation of any living organism, He necessarily 
must have two objects in view: one to make manifest 
and the other to show Ilis goodness. The 
first, if I may so say, involves genius, to be displayed 
by the very great variety of organizations which He 
creates. To show the latter, involves His wisdom to 
be displayed in the difference in rank of these organ- 
isms-this difference manifesting itself quite as much 
in the largeness and perfectness of the guaranties fur- 
nished to the organisms to answer the end for which MY METHODS OF TREATING THE BICK. 
15 
He designed them, as in the difference of powers and 
faculties with which they are clothed; it always being 
evident to the close observer that according to the rank 
in scale of being is the creature furnished with the 
means of protecting itself, and, therefore, of reaching 
the end for which it was made. . 
Of all the living organisms inhabiting the earth, 
none rank in scale anywhere near to man. He is so 
far above them all as justly to be termed their lord and 
master. His relations to them are such that he owns 
them. Their powers are at his disposal; his powers are 
not at their disposal. God has made him to rank them 
all, and to be so much above them as to place their 
very existence in his hands for his service. Can it be 
argued, then, for a moment, with any degree of sound- 
ness of reason, that man's relations to life and health 
are, for the purposes for which he is made, less secure 
than are the relations to life and health of animals for 
the purposes for which they are made ? If not, then 
his guaranties should be as much more numerous and 
his securities against disease and death as-much more 
ample as his rank is above theirs. Proportionally, 
then, as much less in number of human beings than of 
mere animals should die of disease as the grade of rank 
of a human being is above that of animals; because 
his grade of rank, as compared with that of animals, 
furnishes the exact degree of security above that of 
animals which God in making him gives him whereby 
to protect himself against disease and death. If of the 
whole number of human beings a greater percentage 16 
MY METHODS OF TREATING THE SICK. 
dies of disease than does of animals, it is because 
human beings live so much worse than animals as not 
only to break down all their superior securities for pro- 
tection against disease and death, but to show tha 
their methods of living, so as to protect themselves 
against disease and death, are obviously inferior to 
those which exist on the part of animals. It seems to 
me that no one can get away from this view of the 
case, and that it tells a sorry tale for the influences 
which human reason has over human conduct. It is a 
sad commentary on the laws of God, as these are writ- 
ten on the human constitution, and illustrates very 
forcibly and vividly, I think, the extent of divergence 
from God's plan of life for man, as well as the degree 
jf d( pravity which man has reached. 
I am sure that there is no sort of necessity, and 
therefore no well-grounded reason, and therefore no 
justification, for such condition of human life as in- 
volves the subjects of it in so much sickness and prema- 
ture death. In fact, there is no need of persons being 
sick; they can live without it. There is no need of 
persons dying as they do; they might avoid it. Three- 
fourths of all the deaths that take place in this country, 
within a given period of time, need not occur if such 
persons only knew how to live. For, if they had this 
knowledge they would not be sick, unless their sickness 
was induced by some extraordinary intervention: since, 
as the matter of man's relations to life stands in the 
Divine mind, it is morally certain that God's idea is 
that the common, ordinary, habitual conditions of MY METHODS OE TREATING THE SICK. 
17 
existence should be those of health, and only the extra- 
ordinary, incidental, or accidental conditions should be 
those of sickness. 
If this be true of his relations to health, it is quite 
as true of his relations to life within a given period of 
time. The Creator's plan for man's living or dying 
may, therefore, be fairly stated thus: while living, to 
be healthful-to die only of old age. 
If this view be true, is it not worthy of thought, and 
of candid and profound reflection, whether, under such 
conditions of living as exist with our people, a great 
cform is not necessary ? and if so, whether an inquiry 
and an investigation into our ways, manners, methods, 
habits, modes and fashions of living not only are neces- 
sary, but also a looking into, and a searching analysis 
of, our methods of treating disease ? If our people 
live so badly that the most of them are sick, and when 
sick, are so badly treated for their diseases that a great 
many of them die, when, by the laws of their being, 
they should not be sick, or if sick should be only 
slightly so, and scarcely ever die from sickness, does it 
not follow that a reform in these directions is needed ? 
I think so; and because I do I have written this book, 
that the people may not only be made intelligent in 
respect to safe methods of treating the sick, so that 
they shall recover their health, but also in respect to 
sound methods of preserving their health. CHAPTER II. 
WHAT IS DISEASE ? 
An intelligent and precise writer, Dr. R. T. Trail, 
defines disease to be Abnormal Vital Action. In my 
own phrase, I call it Vital Action in excess. With 
physicians generally, as I understand them, disease is 
supposed to be a substance of some sort, existing in the 
system, which is to be ferreted out and expelled by 
medicine. At any rate, under the various definitions 
which medical men of different schools have given of 
the term, I am only able to conclude that such is their 
idea of it. I do not believe that disease is anything 
but a morbid condition of the system, or results of mor- 
bid conditions; that it is to be characterized, therefore, 
only as a manifestation of vital force;-in some in- 
stances, parts of the body having vital force excessively 
shown, while at the same time, in other parts of the 
body it is deficiently shown. The disease may be located 
at the point where the deficiency is shown or felt, but 
this does not weaken the correctness of my statement. 
For instance, a man may have cold feet, and it may 
be, that when he undertakes to describe his conditions, 
he will speak of them in such a way as to convey no 
other idea than that both the origin and the seat of the 
18 WHAT IS DISEASE ? 
19 
difficulty are in his feet; but the cause cf his having 
cold feet may be a disturbed circulation, the blood going 
from the extremities to the upper portions of the body 
and there, being in excess, produces congestion of brain. 
From this determination of the blood to the head away 
from the feet, the sensation of coldness is made to exist. 
If warm feet are to be had, the blood must be made to 
return from the head to the feet. The man himself 
would say that his disease was in his feet; a physician 
who understood his case, decidedly would say that he 
was suffering from congestion of the head. 
A like illustration, and a very pertinent one, may be 
had in the case of constipation of bowels Very many 
persons suffer excessively from inactivity of the bowels, 
no natural motion taking place, but only a motion 
induced by the influence of medicated agents internally 
or externally applied; describing his case a sufferer 
from chronic costiveness would speak of his disease as 
beginning and existing in his lower bowel; but a physi- 
cian would know almost instantly that the constipation 
from which the person suffered was the natural and 
legitimate result of an over-taxed brain. As soon as 
the brain became so over-worked that it could not 
remain in a healthy state, congestion of it took place, 
defective action of bowel followed, to ir crease in its fre- 
quency and severity until a constant, habitual and 
severe constipation was established. 
In these cases, which may serve as illustrations for 
hundreds of others similar to them, the organ or struc- 
ture made to suffer is the focal point at which the vital 20 
WHAT IS DISEASE ? 
force shows itself abnormally, but in deficiency; and the 
reason why it does is because at some other point of 
the system the vital force exists in excess, thereby orig- 
inating disease. Thus a man may have his difficulty 
originate in his brain and manifest itself in his lower 
bowel. So it does not follow that there is no vital 
action anywhere in the system in excess, simply because 
at some particular point of the structure of the body 
vital force exists insufficiently to enable the parts to 
carry on their functions healthfully. Wherever then, 
one part of the body has too much vitality distributed 
to it, and another part has too little, you have a dis- 
eased condition necessarily at one point and not un- 
likely at both. At w hatever point the morbid manifes- 
tation is seen, there you will have it according to the 
nature and uses of the structure affected. Disease, 
therefore, if it is to be, especially characterized at all, 
may be said to be a unit, inasmuch as the subject 
of it is a unit. Much more largely may this be 
said to be the case, because of the fact, that where- 
ever a given structure serves the use of several organs, 
to have that structure diseased, so as to affect different 
organs, a manifestation of morbidity will be shown cor 
responding exactly to the nature of the organ affected. 
Take the mucous surface, or internal skin, which 
extends from one part of the system to the other. Let 
unhealthy conditions of it be established at a given 
point and there will be a form of disease corresponding 
to the nature of the structure affected. If the mucou? 
membrane of the stomach becomes affected, you have WHAT IS DISEASE ? 
21 
gastritis; if the mucous membrane of the eye becomes 
inflamed, you have ophthalmia; if the mucous mem- 
brane of the ear becomes inflamed, you have otitis ; if 
of the throat, you have bronchitis, or inflammation of the 
lining membrane of the bronchial tubes ; if of the nasal 
passages, you have nasal catarrh; if of the buccal or 
cheek cavities, then you have swelling of what is called 
epithelium. In all these cases, however, it is the 
mucous membrane which is diseased, and its effects are 
modified by the nature and uses of the organ involved. 
If one wants to cure disease, therefore, let him find 
out just how far the abnormal vital action exists, and 
then let him proceed to treat the case on the basis of 
reinstituting healthy vital action. When this is done 
the disease is cured ; for no one can have disease who 
has such a condition of body that his vital &rce works 
through it precisely according tj the laws which are 
made to govern it. CHAPTER HI. 
THE TRUE MATERIA MEDICA. 
Every physician feels that in order to treat human 
diseases skillfully, he must have proper medical mate- 
rials. With most physicians, these are largely made 
up of substances whose natural, ordinary and legiti- 
mate effect upon the human body, when taken into it, 
in a healthy state, is to make it sick. They may be 
characterized, therefore, as unfriendly to the health of 
the body, and are to be denominated poisons-a poison 
being any substance or thing which, when taken into 
the circulation, destroys the health or the life of the 
body, or tends to destroy these. How it has come 
about that rational creatures should conclude that a 
substance or thing whose effect upon the human sys- 
tem, when in health, is to disturb, derange, disease, or 
kill it, may be regarded as a safe medicament when it 
is already diseased, I cannot say. It seems strange to 
me that it should be so, because it is clear to me that 
it is irrational. I can readily understand that if the 
diseases which human beings for the most part have, 
were of a nature or kind to involve the direct action 
of chemical laws, drugs and medicines might be made 
to subserve a salutary or therapeutic purpose; but as 
22 THE TEUE MATEEIA MEDICA. 
23 
the converse of this condition is true, persons, for the 
most part, who are diseased being sick after such a 
manner that there can be no direct therapeutic action' 
of chemical laws, the drugs and medicines which are 
given to them cannot serve a therapeutic, but only a 
destructive purpose. 
For instance, if a man has a disease of the liver and 
a physician administers to him calomel, there can be 
no chemical action set up in the system such as will 
change the nature of the calomel and the nature of the 
matter of his liver, so as to produce a new or third 
substance, to be classified or termed calomelate of liver. 
Where chemical laws operate by bringing two sub- 
stances into connection which can affiliate, or operate, 
or work by the law of elective affinity, the original sub- 
stances thus brought together and mutually acted upon 
are lost, and a new substance is created. But phy- 
sicians of the drug-giving schools, by whatever name 
these may be called, do not pretend, much less assert, 
that in the giving of their various poisons, these, under 
their introduction into the circulation and passage 
through the system by means thereof, meet substances 
which are themselves poisonous, and, therefore, directly 
productive of the ill-health or sickness from which the 
subject suffers, and with which substances their medica- 
ments unite, and so, a neutralization taking place, the 
disease is cured and the health of the person restored. 
Probably, outside of those derangements which occa- 
sionally are caused by the taking into the human sys- 
tem by mistake of deadly poisons, no medicines known 24 
THE TRUE MATERIA MEDICA. 
to the materia medica of any of the drug-giving schools 
are administered, whose curative effects are wrought 
out under a chemical union between such so-called 
remedies and poisons already existing in the system. 
If, then, it be true that chemical laws do not tend 
generally to produce curative results where persons 
being sick recover from their sickness, the drug-giving 
theory substantially and essentially is a fallacy. For, 
when chemical laws are not in operation vital laws are; 
and these in their nature and in their influence on the 
human body utterly forbid the taking into it, for any 
purpose whatever, either to sustain it or cure it of dis- 
ease, any substance or thing whose nature or compo- 
sition is such as to make it unfriendly to the health of 
the subject taking it; and whatever is legitimately and 
naturally unfriendly to the health of a person is, to a 
certain degree, unfriendly to his life. The vital or liv- 
ing forces are all established and placed in command 
of the physical organism for the purpose of maintain- 
ing and preserving life. Whatever, therefore, tends to 
injure or to destroy life, necessarily arranges the vital 
forces against it. 
In looking around, then, for a materia medica where- 
with to treat the diseases of the human body, I was 
led to discard all those substances, no matter how high 
in repute they stood, or might stand, with the medical 
profession at large, which, in their making up, were 
composed of constituent elements to be denominated 
as unhealthy or life-destroying. Having excluded all 
these, I accepted all those substances whose organiza THE TRUE MATERIA MEDICA. 
25 
non is such that their constituent elements are friendly 
to health, and, therefore, to the support of life. 
These, and these alone, constitute my materia medica. 
On them I have depended during my twenty years of 
practice, in which time it has been my fortune to treat, 
undoubtedly, a larger number of sick persons by far, 
than any other man has ever treated who has never 
given drugs or medicines. In my entire practice I 
have never given a dose of medicine; not so much as 
I should have administered had I taken a homeopathic 
pellet of the seven-millionth dilution, and dissolving 
it in Lake Superior, given my patients of its waters. 
On the other hand, I have treated every variety of 
chronic disease known to the medical men of North 
America, and have also treated a very large number 
of the acute diseases known to them. My success has 
been such as to justify the statement, that at least 
ninety-five per cent of all who have come under my 
professional supervision have been so helped during 
the time they stayed with me, or have been thoroughly 
cured while under my care, as to be perfectly satisfied 
with the benefits received. When it is taken into con- 
sideration that chronic diseases are much worse to treat 
than acute, because the active, vital force is much less; 
because also, in many instances the subjects have been 
drugged until their morbid conditions have assumed a 
fixed habit which requires a great effort of nature to 
break up, ny success, I think, speaks for itself, and 
must go far to overcome prejudice, and to create con- 
fidence in its correctness and competency. 26 
THE TRUE MATERIA MEDICA. 
I have used, in the treatment of the diseases ot my 
patients, the following substances or instrumentalities : 
First, air; second, food; third, water; fourth, sun- 
light ; fifth, dress; sixth, exercise; seventh, sleep; 
eighth, rest; ninth, social influences; tenth, mental 
and moral forces. 
The combinations which a thoughtful physician can 
make of these agencies and instrumentalities are very 
comprehensive and efficient. The necessity for their 
use is more or less admitted by physicians of all 
schools; but, relying on their specific medicaments 
as they do, they fail to study how to combine these, 
and so often fail to overcome the morbid conditions 
under which their sick ones are placed. 
Take, for instance, that terrible disease, pulmonary 
consumption. However far it may have advanced in 
its ruinous effects, inside of producing organic lesion to 
the lungs, it is most clearly curable; and there are of 
hygeio-therapeutic agencies three or four, each of 
which, standing by itself, is of great value in the pro- 
duction of cure; but when all are properly combined, 
their effectiveness is much more than arithmetically 
increased. 
Air is necessary to human life and health, so is food, 
so is water, so also is sunlight. If the first mentioned 
of these agents alone be used, so as to give to it its 
largest effectiveness, either in the prevention or in the 
cure of disease, while the others are not used so as to 
give by any means their largest effectiveness in the 
same direction, but are so employed as greatly to THE TRUE MATERIA MEDICA. 
27 
diminish their efficiency, then air, in the way in which 
it is used, becomes much less therapeutic in its influ- 
ence than it would be were the others properly con- 
nected with it, and so a skillful combination of them 
all were established. Many consumptive persons are 
aware that they can only live by thoroughly aerating 
the blood. They therefore are particularly careful in 
their efforts to do this; but, while in this special direc- 
tion they do all that is needful, they fail in other direc- 
tions where carefulness in the use of hygienic agents is 
quite as important. I have known a great many per- 
sons who were troubled with pulmonary diseases tc 
take particular pains to live in the open air; but they 
were entirely careless in respect to the use of foods, 
styles of dress, exercise, rest and taxation of their 
nervous systems; and they certainly cared nothing for 
sunlight, nor did they make any substantial curative 
use of water. 
In treating human diseases, I early became aware 
how much greater additional force could be gained for 
the recovery of the sick by a skillful combination of 
various therapeutic agents. I knew that men who 
gave drug-medicines sought to make such combinations 
of them as would add to the sum total of effect de- 
sired. I reasoned also that the same principles might 
be made to add to the efficiencies of my practice; and 
so 1 took into account the propriety of large and com- 
prehensive combinations, and have always sought tc 
make my treatment compound in its nature, and pro- 
portionally effective. 28 
THE TRUE MATERIA MEDICA. 
In placing myself as a hygienic physician before the 
public, having charge of an institution, I determined 
that I would have the largest -possible combinations, 
and the most comprehensive arrangements of means 
possible to get. So in seeking to locate myself I sought 
a place where I should have not only good air but 
plenty of sunlight; and not only these, but where I 
could readily and easily procure the very best materials 
for food, and also where I could have in plentiful 
quantity, pure, soft, living water. I also took into 
account the importance of being so situated as to give 
to my sick ones quiet, freedom from social interfer- 
ence, freedom from conventional rules, freedom from 
artificial, fashionable and false methods of living ; 
where also they could have social influences of the 
highest order, and thus have for their use the best and 
highest combinations of natural therapeutic agents. 
Thus convinced, and thus determined to have what I 
wanted, I succeeded in finding them, and so have been 
able to make their application in a broad, comprehen- 
sive and successful manner. 
My treatment has been Psycho-hygienic-by which 
term I mean treatment according to the laws of life 
and health. It does not necessarily follow that be- 
cause one is treated according to the laws of health he 
is, therefore, treated according to the laws of life. 
The lesser does not include the greater, and the laws 
of life are greater than the laws of health; for those 
take hold of the essential, incorporeal part of a man, 
and they reach his responsible nature, governing, what THE TBUE MATERIA MEDICA. 
29 
we are pleased to call, his soul as well as his body. 
They are intended to train, culture, educate and per- 
fect his spiritual as well as his bodily organization. 
So they range on a higher plane of action than those 
simple rules whose sphere is confined to the body alone. 
I have come to regard, therefore, the Psycho-hygienic 
as a superior method of treatment to that of the simply 
hygienic. I think I have good reason for my prefer- 
ence: for many persons, first and last, have come to 
me to be treated for diseases which were of such a 
nature as to baffle the best application of drug-medica- 
ting physicians; to baffle also the skill of the simply 
hygienic physician; but which diseases were rapidly 
cured under the application of the Psycho-hygienic 
treatment. Counting in the influence of mental and 
moral causes in the production of diseases, I have 
found that mental and moral therapeutics, added to 
those which are simply hygienic, have enabled me in 
many instances to succeed where others had failed, and 
where, had I not used them, doubtless I also should 
have failed. I recognized, however, as of very great 
effectiveness, the use of the ordinary hygienic agents. CHAPTER IV. 
AIK. 
It is of very great importance in a large class of dis- 
eases that persons in order to recover should have pure 
air, and plenty of it, to breathe. Almost all the dis- 
eases (and they are quite numerous) which arise from 
deterioration of blood or from bad and imperfect circu- 
lation of it, may be said in good measure to be caused 
by want of proper aeration of the blood. Almost all 
diseases of the lungs are to be largely accounted for 
under defective use of air, springing either from want 
of it or from the impurity of it. Many of the diseases 
of the skin have their predisposing, and some of them 
their proximate origin in defective or insufficient use 
of air. Not infrequently are diseases of the bowels to 
be attributed to the same cause. Air, therefore, may not 
be simply regarded with great favor as a prophylactic 
agent-an agent whereby disease may be prevented; 
but as a therapeutic agent-an agent whereby disease 
may be cured. But in order to have it as efficient as 
possible it needs to be pure atmospheric air; not such 
gases as are found in cesspools, in pestilential districts 
of country, in large cities, in crowded halls, in unven- 
tilated churches, in close and unaerated sleeping rooms. 
30 AIR. 
31 
but such air as is pure, and therefore free from noxious 
or destructive elements. 
It will take a great while for the medical world, and 
a good deal longer for the people at large, to learn that 
in the treatment of any disease arising from non-aera- 
tion of blood, no remedy can be found to work with 
such therapeutic surety as pure atmospheric air, rightly 
applied. Until the medical profession discerns this 
and instructs the people in it, resort will be had to all 
sorts of agencies supposed to be particularly curative 
for the overcoming of lung diseases. Meanwhile the 
whole system of practice will continue to be as it has 
hitherto been, a decided failure, and the subjects of such 
treatment will continue to die. 
As the Psycho-hygienic treatment comes to be under- 
stood, death from diseases of any and every kind will 
be steadily less frequent, until at length persons who 
have accepted and followed this philosophy of living, 
will know nothing about sickness. They will live from 
birth, to death by old age, without aches or pains. 
And when this philosophy of life comes to be univer- 
sal, sickness, except from casualties or accidents, will 
cease to be. Children will be born, and have no dis- 
eases in childhood, in youthhood, at adolescence, at adult 
or middle age, but will go from the cradle to the grave 
without being sick, dying when their time comes. CHAPTER V. 
FOOD. 
If there be a class of diseases arising from the use of 
impure air, and therefore dependent for their cure upon 
the use of pure air, it is also true that a very large class 
of diseases originates in the use of unhealthy food. 
Probably there is no so powerful predisposing and pro- 
vocative agent in the production of the diseases com- 
mon to our country, as improper food, and it would not 
surprise any one that it is so, were he to reflect, after 
seeing to what degree the people of this country eat 
unhealthy food,-food which in its very nature is cal- 
culated to produce diseased conditions of their bodies, 
-food whose effects cannot be otherwise than to produce 
diseased conditions of their bodies. Yet they eat with- 
out any question, and, when sick, yield themselves with 
the blindest devotement to the hands of men who, how- 
ever much they may justly claim from their learning, 
have never yet found out a better way to treat a human 
creature who is sick, than to give him, for the purpose 
of curing him, some substances or things which, if they 
were administered to him when he was in flush of 
health, would be sure to make him sick. 
Gluttony is a very great cause of disease. It is a 
32 FOOD. 
33 
prevalent vice with our people. Its existence depends 
largely upon the kinds of food eaten by them. Were 
they to eat different kinds of food from what they do, 
they would cease to be gluttons. While they eat as 
they do, they must be gluttons. If one knows enough 
about the question to understand how a depraved state 
of the blood can produce disease, he will find, if he 
stops to think, that a very large class of diseases can 
have no other origin than this. 
If we begin with the head and travel downward to 
the feet of the human body, we can readily arrive at 
some definite and certain data on this point. Bad food 
can be the direct cause of scald-head; sick headache ; 
neuralgia in the face; sore eyes; blind eyes; deaf ears; 
ringing in the ears ; sore external ears ; internal ulcers 
of the ears; nasal catarrh of the front and back pas- 
sages ; bronchitis ; goitre ; sore mouth ; carious teeth ; 
swelled tongue ; ulcerated larynx ; follicular ulceration 
of the pharynx; tubercles in the lungs; inflammation 
of the lungs ; palpitation of the heart; inflammation 
of the diaphragm; acute inflammation of the stomach; 
dyspepsia in all its protean forms ; torpidity of liver ; 
enlargement of the liver; ulceration of the liver ; cal- 
careous formations in the liver; chronic irritation of 
the duodenum and chronic inflammation of it; chronic 
inflammation of the large intestines ; scrofulous deposi- 
tions in and around the mesenteric glands, establishing 
marasmus, or consumption of the bowels; congestion 
of the kidneys; congestion or inflammation of the 
neck of the bladder; seminal emissions in men; leu- 34 
FOOD. 
corrhoea in women; piles; neuralgia of the legs and 
and feet; rheumatism of the muscles, of the joints, of 
the nerves ; paralysis ; apoplexy ; bilious fever ; fever 
and ague; remittent fever; typhoid fever; typhus 
fever; spotted fever; congestive chills; diarrhoea; 
dysentery, and many other diseases. 
Does it not stand to reason if these diseases owe 
their origin, as they often do, to the use of bad foods, 
in connection also in many instances with an improper 
use of other hygienic agents, that if food and these 
other agents were properly used, persons would not 
have these diseases. Does it not also follow, that hav- 
ing thus lived so as to produce these diseases, to stop 
using food, and other hygienic agencies improperly, 
and to set about using them properly, such persons, if 
curable, must get well more surely than by the use of 
any other agents or instrumentalities. In my judg- 
ment, to state the question to an honest mind, is affirma- 
tively to answer it. Hence the Psycho-hygienic treat- 
ment of disease is sure to result in curing it, where 
the method is fairly adopted and faithfully applied, in 
all those cases where the diseases have been caused bv 
unhygienic methods of living. CHAPTER VI. 
WATER. 
The hygienic., as well as the curative, properties cf 
water have been more or less known for thousands of 
years. As far back as we have a written record of 
nations, Asiatic or European in their origin, there are 
proofs going to show that water by them was regarded 
not only as a preservative to health, but as a curative 
of disease. From its nature, it is the only universal 
solvent, and alone can serve that purpose to man. I 
need not make this chapter a lengthy essay on its 
nature. It ought to be, and doubtless will be, sufficient 
for me fairly to call the reader's attention thereto. Its 
organic elements are two gases, hydrogen and oxygen; 
their relative proportions, eighty parts hydrogen to 
twenty of oxygen. These, united in this proportion, 
make water. Under any other proportion they will 
not make water. Pure water, therefore, consists of 
these two gases in the degree of union which I have 
stated. 
It is of great consequence in the maintenance of 
human health, and of quite as great consequence in 
the restoration of it, that so far as water is concerned 
and is to be used, it should be pure. Whenever it is 
35 36 
WATER. 
so, it is soft. It becomes hard only by the introduction 
of some substance or substances into it. To the de- 
gree that it is impregnated with these does it lose its 
essential properties as water. If, for instance, there is 
held in suspension in it the carbonate of lime, the 
water becomes hard. If to this be added magnesia, 
soda, iodine, common salt or sulphur, it becomes me- 
dicinal ; one cannot use it for purposes of external 
ablution, nor as a diluent by drink, expecting to have 
it serve him the same purpose or produce the same 
result as though it were pure. As a preventive to dis- 
ease, and, consequently, as a curative thereto, it is 
superior in its pure state to any which has admixtures 
of other substances in it. This statement may seem 
to be extravagant, but it nevertheless is strictly true. 
Within the last twenty years there have been growing 
up evidences of this. It will take twenty years more, 
perhaps fifty, to create such an accumulation of proofs 
as will be convincing to the great mass of the people. 
But such conviction is sure to come as the proof 
gathers; and when it does, the value of pure water 
over water impregnated with earthy salts, no matter 
what the combination of these may be, will be clearly 
understood, and, I hope, at least measurably appre- 
ciated. 
When it is considered that five-sixths of the entire 
human structure is made up of water, it may count 
somewhat in aiding persons to understand why water 
should be regarded as such an efficient curative agent. 
Viewed only as a detergent or skin-washer, one ow- WATER, 
37 
not well overestimate its curative effects. The people 
of all nations have ever felt this more or less to be so. 
Ignorant of physiology as they, for the most part, have 
been, not being able to give a scientific explanation of 
its use, they have used it, doubtless, in a great many 
cases, in ways and forms that have been mysterious; 
but, nevertheless, they continued to use it, instinctively 
feeling that their health, on the whole, was made bet- 
ter by it. Some few facts have been gathered up, 
from time to time, by men who have travelled largely 
and made themselves acquainted with the personal and 
social habits of different peoples, going pretty conclus- 
ively to demonstrate, that wherever the inhabitants of 
any nation have lived after a fashion inducing them 
to frequent and somewhat long-continued bathing, they 
have been free, in large measure, from the diseases 
common to the people of countries who bathe little or 
none. 
I am disposed myself to accept the conclusion, that 
in all cases of constitutional scrofula, where the exter- 
nal or the internal skin becomes the legitimate recep- 
tacle and exhibitor of the impurities of the blood which 
has either been defectively organized or reorganized, 
by living largely in the use of water as a cleanser of 
the external skin, and by drinking it as a cleanser of 
the internal skin, such diseases can be clearly kept 
within the narrowest manifested bounds, or can be 
thoroughly and completely cured. 
For instance, take a scrofulous child and place it in 
relation to the uses of pui'e water, where every day it 38 
WATER. 
shall be bathed or bathe itself in it from one minute 
to one hour in the form of a swimming-bath, which, 
perhaps, would be the best bath, given to it as soon as 
it shall acquire the capacity to swim, and follow up 
this habit by the drinking largely of water and the 
eating largely of foods of which water is a chief or im- 
portant constituent, the disease of such child will 
necessarily and surely disappear. The child, instead 
of being puny, will become robust-such change tak- 
ing place in it as will amount to a constitutional recast- 
ing of its forces. 
I think that daily bathing by swimming would be 
of the very highest service to all children, provided 
always that the water in which they should swim was 
soft; and provided, also, that they were accustomed to 
it from a very early period in life. Occasional swim- 
ing-baths are more likely than not to be detrimental; 
but constant and frequent baths in this direction would 
be of essential service. 
I say swimming-baths, in distinction from all other 
kinds of baths; because to be in the water and to be 
actively exercising one's muscles, as must be done in 
the act of swimming, is to produce a very different 
result, both as regards the efficiency of the excretory 
organs not only, but of those whereby tissue is formed. 
For it is not to be overlooked that the activity of those 
organs whereby tissue is broken down and the matter 
eliminated from the system, is, in many instances, 
directly favorable to the action of those organs whereby 
tissue is made up. To have healthy assimilation, one WATER. 
39 
needs to have healthy excretion. Where the latter is 
deficient, as is often and almost always the case with 
scrofulous persons, to improve this is to improve the 
former. One of the best ways to give action to the 
excretories in the human body is to set the muscles at 
work while the body is in water. Swimming, there- 
fore, is of itself a very great means to this end. 
Many persons fall into the error of supposing that 
salt water is better adapted as a curative than fresh 
water, and therefore prefer to bathe in it; but there is 
nothing of force in the view. Salt water may be pre- 
ferable to bathe in to fresh water from one considera- 
tion : its specific gravity is greater than that of fresh 
water; its composition, therefore, is denser, and the 
person who can swim but poorly, or ever so well, swims 
easier in it than, he could do in fresh water. It has 
this advantage and no more. In other respects, it has 
its disadvantages. Whatever may be the curative 
effects produced by swimming in it, these, as in fresh 
water, are to be attributed largely to the increased 
action of the excretories induced by it when the 
muscles are in exercise. If one could contrive to get, 
in his own house or in any public institution for the 
treatment of the sick, baths so arranged as to be ad- 
ministered to persons only when they were in active, 
bodily exercise, a great advantage would be gained. 
In fact, in order to have such effect produced as is de- 
sirable, physicians, in giving baths to the sick, have 
found it necessary to get up a substitute for the phys- 
ical exercise of the patient while taking them. Thus, 40 
WATER, 
when one needs or wishes to have general ablution, 
physicians, particularly of the Water-cure school, have 
all come to feel that the subject of such bath will be 
netter affected by it, to have his skin well rubbed and 
washed in the water of the bath by one or more at- 
tendants. To sit down in water, though it should be 
to the immersion of the whole body up to the neck, 
and remain motionless, though the bath were continued 
for an hour, would not excite the excretories to their 
proper energy and use to the degree that would be 
done in five minutes were the patient vigorously rubbed 
all over his body by an attendant. This simple fact 
goes to show the value of taking baths in ways and 
forms that can induce exercise while taking them. A 
good swimmer can stay in the water ten times as long 
without injury, and with positive benefit to himself, as 
he could do were he unable to swim. In such cases, 
therefore, where there is constitutional or functional 
inertia of the eliminative organs, frequent bathing is 
advisable, provided, always, the person is habituated to 
it from early life, and also is so constituted as to be 
able to take it in a form that subjects him to active 
muscular motion. 
If this statement be true with reference to diseases 
which are scrofulous, it is also true with reference to 
all those diseases where more rapid metamorphoses of 
the tissues than exists is to be desired. As a great 
many diseases originate in, and are dependent upon 
faulty excretion, in this direction bathing becomes of 
great consequence. To the degree that action of the WATER. 
41 
external skin is more desirable than action of the 
mucous membrane, does bathing possess a superior 
importance to catharsis. It is the common practice 
with our people whenever sick from faulty excretion, 
to seek to rectify the defective condition by induc- 
ing increased action of the mucous surfaces of the 
bowels. This is not, by any means, so desirable a 
method of getting up the necessary vigor of the excre- 
tories as that of increasing the action of the external 
skin. Physiologists tell us that five-sevenths or six- 
tenths of all the waste matter which is carried out of 
the human body in a healthy person passes through the 
external skin. This is a very large proportion in itself 
considered; but when it is remembered that the lungs, 
bowels and kidneys are also excretories, the propor- 
tional effectiveness of the skin is seen to be very great. 
In very many ways, therefore, may bathing be made 
productive of the most desirable results. I am not 
only not an advocate for frequent bathing as this is 
carried on in most Water Cures and in private families 
whose members are believers in water-cure, but I am 
decidedly opposed to it. This arises, however, largely 
from the way or manner in which baths have to be 
administered. To sit down in a tub three or four times 
a day, for from five to thirty minutes each time, is to 
bathe after a style or method quite likely to induce 
diseases far more difficult to cure than those from which 
the patient, by his bathing, seeks to be relieved. Such 
have been the destructive effects of sedentary or mo- 
tionless baths, as these have been given, or have been WATER, 
42 
advised to be given, by water-cure physicians in the 
United States, that I do not think I exaggerate when 
I say that there have been ten times as many persons 
injured by water-cure as have been benefited by it. 
The cause of these ill results has not been in the want 
of the adaptability of water to the disease treated, nor 
yet in the inadaptation of the body to the use of water 
in itself considered, but in the way in which the water 
has been applied. Had the same amount of bathing 
been given to such person in a manner calculated to 
increase the action of the blood-forming organs, while 
the eliminative or tissue-destroying organs were at 
work, health, instead of ruinous disease and death, 
would have been the result. 
Take, for instance, the disease called pulmonary con- 
sumption. If a person knows anything about the 
nature or working of this disease, he knows that its 
destructiveness generally consists in the fact that the 
tissues of the body, already organized, are being broken 
down faster than by means of food and drinks new 
tissues can be made; so the body becomes consumed, 
and this is what gives the name of consumption to the 
disease. Now, if it could be so contrived that, while 
the tissues were being rapidly broken up, by reason of 
the excessive activity of the excretory organs, the nutri- 
tive or accretory organs could be so quickened as to 
enable them to make tissue faster than it is wasted, 
the person could not only not die of consumption, but 
he would get well. 
As bathing has been generally practiced in this conn- WATER. 
43 
try in the last twenty years in Water Cures and in pri- 
vate families, the effects on persons of constitutional 
consumptive habit of body, or on persons already hav- 
ing the disease, have been so ruinous that there has 
come to exist a wide-spread impression that whatever 
may be the curative efficiency of water in many dis 
eases, its effects necessarily are most destructive and 
deadly in all cases where consumptive tendencies or 
conditions 'exist. This popular conclusion has grown 
out of the want of knowledge on the part of hydropa- 
thic physicians or of private hydropaths how to apply 
water in such ways, as, while purifying the body by aid- 
ing to excrete from it waste matters, acrid and poison- 
ous in contact with living tissue, to build up at the 
same time new health and life-sustaining material. Let 
it be understood, therefore, that for consumptives, 
motionless bathing is bad. Wherever water is applied, 
it should be so as to get up readily and surely externa. 
capillary circulation. One bath a week to a consump 
tive in such a way as without his own particular agency 
to secure thorough circulation to the skin, is worth a 
dozen where the skin has no external appliance made to 
assist it in establishing a thorough flow ©f blood through 
it. All persons having diseases, therefore, arising from 
faulty excretion or from faulty nutrition, in the one 
case needing a more efficient action of the lymphatics, 
and in the other of the nutritive absorbents, should 
take their baths in such a way as to insure positive vol- 
untary or involuntary muscular exercise according to 
their strength. Bathing, therefore, connected with 44 
WATER. 
swimming, or bathing connected with what is called 
Movement Cure, would make a compound treatment oi 
very great service. 
The curative effects of water depend, or may depend, 
largely upon combining its use with other hygienic 
agents. Properly united to these, its therapeutic value 
cannot be overstated. Doubtless it is the most efficient 
of all remedial agents. Greater effect for good can be 
produced by it in a given time, than by any other 
agent known to man ; for greater changes can be pro- 
duced by it. When it is combined with other hygienic 
agencies it may have its efficiencies greatly increased. 
The people of the United States do not by any means 
bathe enough ; they would be far healthier if they 
bathed more, and the more they do bathe, if they only 
act with some common sense in the application of water, 
the more they will come instinctively to understand 
and appreciate the value of other hygienic agencies 
both in the way of preserving health and curing dis- 
ease. CHAPTER VII 
TIME FOR TAKING BATHS 
As to the time for taking baths, my observations and 
experiments unite to commend that as the best in 
which the human body is in the highest degree of legit- 
imate vigor. It is not always true that the strength 
which a person shows is legitimately exhibited. Cir- 
cumstances may conspire to evoke it, so that the period 
when it is manifested and the way of its use are abnor- 
mal. For instance, some persons are stronger in the 
afternoon than they are in the forenoon ; some early in 
the morning rather than at eleven o'clock; some per- 
sons are much weaker at midnight than at any other 
period of the twenty-four hours. My opinion is, that 
in a healthy state and under natural conditions of liv- 
ing, the human body is, by the law of its organization 
and its action, stronger at or about mid-day, than at 
any other period in the day; because then does the 
largest combination of hygienic agents exist to affect it, 
and as the primal use of these is to invigorate the body 
and preserve it from debility and decay, when they are 
in their largest measure of unity they will the most 
powerfully affect it, and when they do, it will be in the 
highest degree of its strength. 
43 46 
TIME FOR TAKING BATHS. 
Strength is developed in the body by various means 
The air we breathe evokes it if there be plenty of oxy- 
gen in it; the light which falls upon us, if we are 
rightly related to it, is a tonic. The water we drink 
tends to give tonicity to the system. The temperature 
of the atmosphere is bracing, if it is rightly related to 
us, and we to it. So that of a truth it may be said, 
that to the degree a man's body is naturally related to 
its uses, and to the causes which affect it to invigorate 
it, are its conditions of resistance to disease more favor 
able than otherwise. When, therefore, one finds ort 
just at what point of time, according to the laws of his 
organization and the laws of agencies and influences 
that affect that organization, his body is the strongest, 
that time is the best to bathe, whatever the form of 
bathing may be. 
Beginning at the time of waking in the morning, the 
strength of a man cannot be as great as after he has 
been up awhile. Sleep not only relaxes the muscles, 
but sedates the nerves of the muscles. Sleep also tends 
directly to lessen the action of the heart. Other tilings 
being equal, the pulse is always slower when a person 
sleeps than when he is awake. One having slept all 
night, and waking up in the morning, scarcely ever 
feels as strong as he does after he has been up awhile. 
The reason is a good one, and is obvious. He has lost, 
by his entire suspension of his mental and physical 
activities, temporarily the use of his powers; he must 
have a little time, at least, to take them up and get them 
under command. To bathe, therefore, when one gets TIME FOR TAKING BATHS. 
47 
out of bed in the morning, is, if it can be avoided, unde- 
sirable. If there is a choice to be made between morn- 
ing and evening, I should say the evening wras far to be 
preferred to the morning; because when one's work for 
the day is done, and he looks forward to a period of rest, 
there need be no objection to his bathing. The bath, 
however, should not be warm or cold; it should be sim- 
ply tepid. After it, the bather should retire without 
delay. A recumbent posture of the body and plenty 
of warmth are prerequisites to successful results. 
If one cannot bathe in the morning, and had better 
bathe in the evening of the two, still better would it be 
for him to bathe at or about twelve o'clock, and tl .e» 
lie down for an hour or two. But this is available to 
persons only who eat two meals a day; say, break! ist 
from seven to eight, and dinner from two to three. If 
three meals in the day have to be eaten, one of whi ch 
comes at about twelve o'clock, no person should bat be 
at a time closely proximate to his dinner. Many ill 
results might ensue from bathing too soon before dim er, 
or too soon after it. In some instances I have known 
almost fatal effects to follow the taking of a bath just 
after a dinner. But if one can see the value of infre- 
quent indulgences in food, and can courageously and 
satisfactorily arrange his times of eating to twice a day, 
say at eight o'clock in the morning and three o'clock in 
the afternoon or thereabouts, and so can take an hour 
or two to rest at about twelve o'clock, then about that 
time is the true time for bathing; for then will the 
reaction be all the more vigorous, and at the same time 48 
tdie for taking baths. 
it will be all the more effective. I think that a great 
advantage which patients get who come to our Institu- 
tion is to be attributed to our two-meals-a-day system; 
for in following it out as we do with great regularity, 
we are able to map out the whole twenty-four hours of 
our people with a distinctness and carefulness which 
I does not generally obtain in houses whose members live 
upon three meals a day, and who perform their other 
duties with more or less uncertainty and indecision. 
Of the forms of bathing which we adopt, I take 
pleasure in commending my readers to an enumeration 
made of them by Miss Harriet N. Austin, M.D., Editor 
of u The Laws of Life," which is to be found in the 
back part of this volume. CHAPTER VIII. 
SUNLIGHT. 
The influence of sunlight in changing morbid ccndi- 
tions of the human body is coming to be regarded as 
quite effective. I look upon it as one of the best hygi- 
enic as well as therapeutic agents at present known. In 
the prevention of disease it has long been considered 
of large import; but it is only within a few years that 
it has come to be regarded as particularly valuable in 
the cure of disease. I do not know of any man in this 
country who has made as constant use of it as I have; 
and I can say that according to the use I have made 
of it have correspondingly desirable results followed. 
Particularly in the treatment of diseases induced by 
derangements of the circulation, and of diseases of the 
nervous system, has its competency been very largely 
proved. 
The Institution over which I preside stands on a 
hill-side, with a south-western exposure. The light of 
the sun falls on the slope soon after the sun rises; and, 
if the day be clear, there is but little shadow, except 
where shade has been made, until the sun goes down. 
Out of the one hundred and seventy-five to two hun- 
(49) 50 
SUNLIGHT. 
dred patients that we have during the summer pro 
bably two-thirds of them take sun baths. Our plan 
of giving them is as follows : 
A large blanket or comfortable is spread down upon 
the green grass. A shawl or cushion or pillow serves 
for the place on which the head rests. When the 
patient lies down, a small parasol, umbrella, or small 
shelter-tent protects the head from the rays of the sun, 
and the rest of the body lies unshaded, clad in as light 
colored clothing as the patient may be able to wear. 
The bath is taken from a duration of twenty-five min- 
utes to three hours. In some instances the patient lies 
four or five hours. When this is done, it is under the 
express order of one of the medical staff, and because a 
certain result is desired to be produced. To have from 
seventy-five to one hundred and twenty-five persons 
lying down on the beautiful green slope thus exposed 
to the sun, for sixty to ninety days in the summer sea- 
son, is a sight worth seeing. The effect on the per- 
sons is quite as astonishing as the sight to the new 
observer is strange. Many of these persons who have 
failed under the application of the best tonics and ano- 
dynes soon become so strengthened and innervated as 
to be able to sleep, not only w'hen they go to bed at 
night, but also while taking their sun-baths. I have 
on various occasions gone around among my patients 
as they lay stretched on their comfortables or india- 
rubber blankets, and found two-thirds or three-quarters 
of them fast asleep. This sleep is very refreshing SUNLIGHT. 
51 
because of the great sedation through which the ner- 
vous system temporarily passes. 
I have observed that persons who could not be made 
to sleep by administration of opiates in any of their 
various forms of preparation and administration are 
peculiarly good subjects for nervous sedation under sun- 
light ; and that persons who are readily affected to 
sleep by the use of opium in one or other of its vari- 
ous forms of preparation, do not readily go to sleep 
when lying down in the sun. Such persons go to sleep 
better in shade. I think it will be found true, as a gen- 
eral fact, that all persons who take opiates fall asleep 
better in darkened than in lightened rooms ; and that 
persons who are made wide awake by the use of opi- 
ates go to sleep better in light or sunshine than in 
shaded or darkened rooms. 
Many persons out of the whole number who come to 
us for treatment have taken a great deal of narcotic 
medicines. They are in conditions of reaction to their 
use; that is, their nervous systems have become so 
accustomed to their presence in the circulation as to be 
unable to show any natural relation to their uses, and 
therefore can only show reactionary activity. In this 
condition, of course, the more they take of any of the 
narcotic medicaments the more nervous they become, 
and so their physicians are compelled to dispense with 
them. Unfortunately, when one who has long taken 
narcotics for the purpose of producing sedative condi- 
tions of the nervous system has gotten so that he can 
UOt produce sedation, but only its counterpart, irrita- 52 
BUNLIGHT, 
tion, lie has reached the point where he can neither 
comfortably do with it nor without it unless substitu- 
tion of some other sedative is made. 
I doubt not many persons have observed, without 
being particularly impressed by it, what I have been 
led to observe, and professionally have been called to 
reflect upon and draw conclusions with respect to, that 
persons of peculiarly feeble conditions of body, who 
have long been shut up in the house, when favorably 
situated so as to take out-of-door exercise, either by 
walking a little while and then sitting down in an easy- 
chair in the sun, or riding in a buggy with the sun- 
light striking them fairly, readily go to sleep. I do 
not know how many hundreds of feeble men and 
women I have, in my day, seen go to sleep by being taken 
out of their shady rooms into the sunlight and there 
permitted to sit awhile. Almost always they go to sleep, 
Sunlight, therefore, may be said to have two great 
influences upon the human body : a direct effect on 
the nervous system, immediately energizing it and 
making the person feel strong and sleepless; and the 
indirect effect of making the person feel tired and 
sleepy. Therapeutically considered, it is to be regarded 
as one of our most powerful remedial agents, and has, 
in my estimate, come to fill so important a place in 
Nature's materia medica as to give me great confidence 
in being able to use it in the treatment of certain 
diseases with a success that challenges my highest 
satisfaction. 
There is another aspect in which sunlight may be SUNLIGHT, 
53 
considered as a therapeutic agent. It is the effect 
which it has in breaking down the tissues of the 
human body. Its influence over the eliminative forces 
is confined almost entirely to their effect on the 
muscles. On the accretive forces its influence is con- 
fined almost entirely to the building up of the nerves. 
A man, therefore, who lives out in sunlight will grow 
thin in flesh but full in nerve. His muscles will dimin- 
ish, but as they diminish his nerves become increased 
in size and strengthened, and their action on the mus- 
cles is such as decidedly to strengthen these; so that 
when one comes to look at him and judge of his 
strength by his apparent bulk, if he does not under- 
stand and fully appreciate the effect of living largely 
in the sunlight, he will greatly misjudge his muscular 
capacities. It is because of its greater prevalence dur- 
ing the long days of summer that men, other things 
being equal, become thinner in flesh than they do dur- 
ing the winter. They grow spare because of the rapid 
metamorphoses of the muscular tissue which their 
exposure to the sunlight induces ; but they always are 
able to work harder and stand more taskwork than they 
are during those portions of the year when, the days 
being shorter, their exposure to sunlight is less. Not- 
withstanding the heat of our climate during the 
summer solstice, our working-men are always able to 
do more work than they possibly can do in the winter. 
It is owing to the innervation which their nervous sys- 
tems take by being exposed to sunlight. 
Still another view of the effect of sunlight on man 54 
SUNLIGHT. 
is worthy t e notice, in the conditions of brain which 
it induces, affecting thereby his mental, moral and 
spiritual faculties. The more a man lives in sunlight, 
other things being equal, the more vigorous will his 
brain be; the more vigorous this, the more energetic 
and competent to their office will his mental faculties 
be. On the brain, particularly, the effect of sunlight 
is to magnetize it; and magnetism is, in itself, a very 
powerful though a very occult force. Whoever has a 
brain which is largely magnetic, though in size it may 
be much smaller than some other brain which is not 
magnetic, has a central force which the unmagnetized 
brain can never show. The difference between men 
and women in this direction is particularly observable. 
Men, living so much more in the sunlight than women 
do, are magnetically charged daily. When in the per- 
formance of their duties their mental faculties have 
been so exercised as to use up the nervous force which 
the brain had at their disposal, rest from work and 
thought, with proper food and subsequent life in the 
open air, again fully charges their nervous systems with 
magnetism. 
Thus, if you take a man who comes from work into 
the house at night, so tired as hardly to be able to 
move one foot before the other, and give him nutrient 
food which is unstimulating, and rest, pure and simple, 
he will wake up in the morning feeling refreshed but 
not invigorated; he will feel rested but not strong. 
Rising from his bed and dressing himself, he goes out 
into the sunlight. In a little while his strength comes SUNLIGHT, 
55 
back to him. Now, this strength is the result of the 
magnetic influence of the sun's rays on his body. Con- 
taining both light and heat, as these do, the circulation 
is quickened, the nervous centres are charged with an 
electric or magnetic force which the rays contain, and 
so his whole system is re-energized. The benefit of 
light to him is seen in the fact that, other things being 
equal, he will uniformly feel stronger in a sunshiny 
than in a shady day. There may be as much heat at 
disposal, and many other external surroundings, all of 
which are favorable to the re-invigoration of his 
body ; but he cannot feel as strong when the sun is in 
cloud as he can when it shines down upon him through 
the pure blue of heaven. Then he becomes magne- 
tized to that degree that he will be all the more vigor- 
ous for having felt its rays. This is true of him, if he 
is habituated to it, up to the point where his nervous 
system can bear it. It is not for want of invigoration 
that a man feels debilitated in a bright, sunshiny, hot 
summer day; it is because the heat of the sun's rays 
is disproportionate to the man's capacity, or, because 
by the purity of the atmosphere, the sun's rays emit so 
much light that this overcharges him and induces im- 
mediate reaction, and so he becomes weak from being 
over-magnetized, as a man becomes weak from being 
overfed, or becomes weak by drinking of stimulating 
liquors. Keep him within the natural bounds of hi? 
capacity to absorb and take in the magnetism which 
the sun's rays furnish, and the man is always made 
the better by it-better, not only in respect to those 56 
SUNLIGHT. 
capacities whereby pure muscular strength is to be 
shown, but greatly better in those directions where 
vigor of mental faculties is to be desired. A magnet- 
ically charged brain is a substance containing wonder- 
ful force. According to the organization of the 
mental faculties, in and through the brain, will this 
force be specifically or generally shown. If there be 
in the structure of the brain such an organization of 
the faculties as to give to one or more of these predom- 
inating influence, then when you charge the whole 
brain with magnetism, will these particular organs be 
made the recipients of an amount of vigor proportional 
to their size and importance. 
Say that you wish a man largely endowed with the 
purely intellectual faculties to show their best and 
greatest efficacy on a given occasion, you can find a 
more competent influence in the sun's rays by five 
hundred per cent than you can in the best prepara- 
tions of alcoholic liquor that you can procure for him. 
Let him have an opportunity to go out of doors, and to 
stay there long enough to feel directly and positively 
the effect of sunlight upon him, and then set him to 
big intellectual task-work, and he will do it as much 
better than he can under the influence of liquor as 
one can imagine. 
If this be true in the direction of energizing one 
particular order or class of faculties, it is equally true 
with respect to any other order or class, and also 
equally true with respect to all of the faculties con- 
sidered each by itself or in combination. SUNLIGHT. 
57 
Under this view of the case, one is prepared to make 
some sort of just comparison between the intellectual 
and moral forces which men and women show, and to 
make a just allowance for the difference, based not on 
the constitutional superiority of one over the other 
but based on the superior conditions of living of one 
over the other. I think it may be said with perfect 
truth, that no living organism, of whatever species, 
whose subject has a brain, a pair of lungs, stomach, 
bowels and back-bone, can ever be equal in the exhibi- 
tion of capacities, if it be kept in shaded sunlight, to 
what it would be if permitted to follow out its own 
habits in unshaded sunlight. A dog kept in the woods 
will degenerate and become wolfish; a wolf kept in 
the open fields, where sunlight could shine on him, 
would gradually find his wolfishness disappearing, and 
inchoate dog-qualities taking their place. So all 
along up the grades of animal life, superior qualities 
are uniformly found existing in animals of the same 
species as these live in unshaded sunlight. This is 
just as true of Humans as it is of animals; whoever 
lives habitually in shadow grows weak ; whoever lives 
habitually in the sunlight grows strong. This is not 
only true of the body itself in its various parts, but is 
true of all the intelligent and responsible faculties 
which reside within the body. If women lived in the 
open air as much as men do, they would have capa- 
cities as much greater than now as men have now 
greater capacities than they would have if they lived 
in houses like women. At least, if women are now 58 
SUNLIGHT, 
fifty per cent inferior to men, and a social condition 
were to arise wherein they were to be called upon to 
do such duties or to work such work as would compel 
them, in the doing of it, to live in the sunlight, and 
the men were to be called upon to do such duties as 
would keep them altogether in the shade, not a genera* 
tion would pass by before the relative conditions of 
these parties would change. The women would be 
then as much superior to the men as the men are now 
superior to them. Of course collateral influences 
would assist to produce this result. I do not mean 
here to affirm the equality in the powers of the sexes; 
that does not involve itself in the point I am urging; 
but I do mean to say, that so far as magnetic influence 
is dependent upon sunlight, and men have more of 
sunlight than women, it accounts for their superior 
mental vigor; and that if one wishes to increase the 
strength and active capacity of woman's mind, in 
this country no single thing can better subserve that 
purpose than to give her large opportunity to live in 
the sunlight. I am disposed to think that such would 
be the effect upon her brain and her ganglionic nervous 
centres as largely to increase the capacity of her natri- 
tive system; and wherever you find in a person a 
vigorous cerebro-nervous system and a vigorous or- 
ganic-nervous system, you find in that person marked 
elements of character. Give to him opportunities to 
work these up into shape and form and you have a 
man or woman of character. 
Life, therefore, in the open air, where one can get all SUNLIGHT. 
59 
the sunlight he needs, does directly tend to promote 
largeness of character. In this respect, to turn woman 
out of the house into the open air and give her sun- 
light instead of shade, would produce two very im 
portant results in the production of which no doctoi 
would be needed. First, her body would become so 
invigorated thereby as to overcome, by its own vital 
energy, in large measure, the diseases to which she is 
subject; and these diseases are very numerous and 
very obstinate, and in a great degree defy the drug- 
medicating remedies. Second, it would, by invigorat- 
ing her health and particularly strengthening her brain 
and blood-making system, produce a modification in 
her desires, wishes, aspirations and hopes. She would 
take to things of a more substantial and enduring 
nature on which to expend her intelligence and her 
affections. She therefore would become more manly 
and less effeminate, while she would not take on any 
more of the masculine nor lose any of the feminine 
which constitutionally and properly belongs to her. 
Every way, then, she would be an abler representative 
of womanhood than now. 
In my observations of the effect of sunlight upon 
living organisms, I have been led to conclude that, 
while in a human being the effect is to hasten the 
metamorphoses of tissues, in many animals its effect is 
to check that change. I account for this on the 
ground that in man the cerebro-nervous system predom- 
inates over the organic-nervous system, while in the 
animal the organic-nervous system predominates over 60 
SUNLIGHT. 
the brain-nervous system. I think this difference in the 
relative conditions of the two nervous systems in the 
two organisms will sufficiently explain the difference 
in effect CHAPTER IX. 
DRESS. 
Persons who are sick should cover the body with 
clothing so as to insure, as far as possible, a proper 
circulation of the blood, and preserve the equilibrium 
of the nervous system. Many diseases arise from dis- 
turbed circulation, inducing ofttimes congestions of a 
• severe character. Where these exist they may not 
infrequently be entirely relieved by inducing a better 
circulation through improvement in dress. 
For instance, I have cured a man of a very severe 
and painful headache, lasting through a period of ten 
years, simply by changing his head-gear. He always 
wore a stiff hat, the rim of which around his head 
pressed so upon the integumental circulation as seri- 
ously to impede it. By changing the hard hat for a 
soft one-a small hat which would stay on his head by 
reason of its pressure, for a large one which he had to 
keep upon his head by an india-rubber elastic undei 
his chin, his headache entirely disappeared. So, also, 
in several instances have I relieved persons who were 
suffering from severe congestion of the lower part of 
the forehead, or of the frontal sinus, by no other method 
than to induce them to take off neck-ties or necker- 
61 62 
DRESS. 
chiefs. In a good many instances have I succeeded in 
curing clergymen of the disease commonly known as 
" minister's sore throat," from which they had suffered 
for years, notwithstanding they had applied various 
remedies recommended to them by members of the 
medical profession, by inducing them to take off their 
neckerchiefs, and let their beards grow. I cannot tell 
bow many, many women, suffering from congestion of 
the throat and lungp, it has been my good fortune en- 
tirely to relieve, simply by imposing upon them the 
wearing of loose-waisted dresses; for one of the most 
active causes in the production of diseases of the lungs 
is that which compresses the chest. The lungs, in order 
to be healthy, must have through their cells plenty of 
atmospheric air in circulation. If there be in them what 
doctors call " residual air," it must be there in quantity 
sufficient to expand the air-cells thoroughly. Conges- 
tion of the lungs necessarily takes place whenever, 
from any cause, the air-cells are shut up. Then the 
blood-vessels become turgid and swollen with blood, 
and so incipient disease is instituted. 
So, also, have I succeeded in relieving a great many 
persons of painful and severe sensations in the stom 
ach, by causing them to wear loose dresses. In truth, 
though it is not generally supposed, dyspepsia is as fre- 
quently induced by pressure from clothing over the 
stomach, as lung disease is by pressure over the lungs. 
I have been led to think that Nature more thoroughly 
dislikes outrages of any and every kind committed 
upon the stomach than upon any other vital organ in DRESS 
63 
the body. It maj be that such outrages can be borne 
better than by the lungs, liver, heart, or kidneys, but 
it does not follow, because there is an intense vital 
resistance to ill conditions belonging to the stomach, 
that, therefore, the injury is proportionally less. For, 
wherever vital resistance is to be made against the 
establishment of morbid conditions of any organ, the 
sum total of vital power is proportionally diminished ; 
so that organ, though successful for the time being, is 
made ultimately to wear out and break down all the 
sooner. It should not be forgotten that thousands on 
thousands of persons in this country die every year 
simply from loss of organic power of the stomach. It 
becomes worn out. It is as easy for the human body 
to become incompetent to answer its purposes, and so 
die, by reason of a single organ in it being broken 
down, as it is for any other machine. If a wagon is 
so related to its use that the axle-tree breaks, the whole 
structure becomes useless; and if the body is so used 
that its stomach wears out, the whole becomes of no 
account. As the stomach, of all the organs of the 
'human body, is the most severely taxed under the 
various habits of life common to the American people, 
so dyspepsia has come to be the great prevailing house- 
hold disease with our people. 
Dress has very much to do in laying the foundation 
of those difficulties in the stomach which are preva- 
lent with us as a people. More particularly has it to do 
in this direction with women ; because, while they eat 
us badly as men, they dress worse with respect to the 64 
DRESS. 
vital action of organs connected with the making, the 
distribution and the purification of blood. No evil 
connected with dress, as it is commonly worn by the 
women of this country, save one, is greater than this 
of bringing to bear external pressure upon the body at 
the point of the stomach. All bands, belts, cinctures, 
strings of every kind, should be taken off from a person 
whenever he or she is sick. The most thorough free- 
dom from external pressure over the stomach, as every- 
where, should be had whenever one is compelled by 
sickness to take a recumbent posture. I have seen a 
good many persons who were so sick as to be compelled 
to keep to their beds, and be under the care and over- 
sight of physicians, whose invalid dresses were very 
objectionable. If they were men, they perhaps wore 
shirts whose neck-bands met in front, and buttoned so 
tightly as to check the circulation to and from the 
head. They also had their shirt-sleeves buttoned at 
the wrist so tightly, as to check the circulation down 
and up the arm. They not infrequently had upon 
them dressing-gowns, as they are called, tied around 
their waists by a silken-tasseled cord. If women, they 
not only had in their dresses the same obstructions, 
but in their other arrangements had additional ones. 
Where -persons are chronic invalids, and are not en- 
tirely confined to their beds, the style of dress usually 
worn by women in this country predisposes not only to 
disease-not only causes certain diseases-but positively 
maintains them and prevents their cure. 
Of all predisposing and provoking causes to disease DRESS 
65 
by means of dress, no one is so powerful as that of 
long skirts. These, commencing at the termination 
of what is usually described as the waist, are so 
arranged to the body at that point as to establish a 
pressure'on the bowTels, inducing mechanical displace- 
ment of them. As these are forced down into the 
cavity of the abdomen, they press upon the organs 
situated in the pelvis, and, throwing them out of place, 
induce quite a large class of morbid conditions. Thus, 
piles is often induced by falling of the bowels; so is 
relaxation of the muscles of the lowest portion of the 
intestine, causing a falling of the bowel, very uncom- 
fortable not only, but establishing such connected rela- 
tions with other organs closely allied to it as to pro- 
duce morbid conditions of them. In men, ofttimes, 
falling of the bowels affects the bladder and the geni- 
tals ; in the bladder, causing irritation of its neck, 
thereby making it uncomfortable for the person for 
any length of time to keep water in it; affecting also 
the genital structures, creating reactive irritation in 
them, and inducing a secretion and involuntary flow 
of seminal fluid, establishing spermatorrhoeic condi- 
tions of the structures, greatly debilitating the person, 
and occasionally making him a very great sufferer. 
In women, mechanical displacement of the bowels, 
inducing fall of them, establishes more extensive and 
complicated diseases than in men. For instance, crowd- 
ing the bowels down by means of pressure from dress 
upon the waist, creates an elongation of the round and 
□road ligaments by which the uterus is suspended in the 66 
DRESS. 
pelvic cavity, and thus causes it to piolapse. When- 
ever prolapsus of the womb takes place, it cannot be 
decided beforehand just what condition it will assume. 
It may be pushed in a direct line down the vagina- 
that makes simple prolapsus. It may be turned, its 
lower part backward and its upper part forward-that 
would be ante-version. It may be pushed with its 
lower part forward and its upper part backward-that 
would be retroversion. Whatever be the exact position 
it may take, its being pushed out of its place by pres- 
sure from above, renders its condition morbid, and so 
establishes a morbid condition of other organs. Dis- 
eases of the vagina are often established by having the 
uterus displaced. So are diseases or derangements of 
the bladder and rectum. The most inveterate consti- 
pation of bowel sometimes is to be attributed entirely 
to the pressure of the top of the uterus backward upon 
the lower bowel, thus hindering, by mechanical obstruc- 
tion, the descent of the faeces and their passage. The 
same may be said of the bladder. Women not infre- 
quently are made severely sick by derangements in the 
organs of the pelvic cavity, and these are caused by 
their bad style of dress. 
It was with reference to a better method of treating 
diseases peculiar to women, that Miss Austin and my- 
self were led to invent the American costume, which, 
by the way, is about as nearly like what is commonly 
known as the Bloomer costume, as an elephant is like 
a rhinoceros, but which persons in the community gen- 
erally suppose to be in style and effect on the body DKESS. 
67 
synonymous with it. Being called upon to care for a 
very large number of invalid women, afflicted with 
diseases peculiar to themselves, we set ourselves at 
thought to know, if possible, how these diseases came 
about. It is hard work to deal with effects unless one 
becomes considerate of, and intelligent in respect to, 
the causes which produce them. If you cannot find 
these out, your treatment is, at best, empirical. What 
made our lady guests sick in the direction where their 
diseases manifested themselves, became, therefore, a 
matter of very serious and earnest inquiry. We asked 
ourselves, Were they made sick from want of original 
vital powrer ? We answered this inquiry in the nega- 
tive. Were they made sick by drug medication ? We 
said, no ; they were only Icept sick by it. Were they 
made sick by faulty diet ? We said, no ; notwithstand- 
ing we felt that in this direction they had greatly erred, 
and ofttimes to that degree to constitute depraved or 
deteriorated conditions of blood, which predisposed 
them to sickness, but not to the particular disease, 
to be treated for -which they came to us. For it is 
rather a curious fact that of the thousands on thou- 
sands of women that have consulted Miss Austin and 
myself, having been before treated for diseases peculiar 
to them as women, many of them complained of no 
general ill-health. They would each' say to us, "Were 
I free from this local difficulty, I should be in good 
health ; but I suffer such pelvic bearing down; such 
urinary irritation; such rectal inflammation; such 
vaginal weakness, as to render my life wretched. 1 68 
DRESS. 
cannot walk, nor sit up straight; nor ride in a carriage 
nor exercise my arms. I am dropping to pieces. I am 
being cut in two. There is a knife-cutting, needle-stick- 
ing sensation in and through my body just at the hips." 
Now, not overlooking the influence of general causes 
in the production of disease, wre could not account for 
the establishment of these conditions through their 
influence alone. We said there must be some particu- 
lar morbid force at work to create this particular class 
of diseases. As the result of our reflection and inves- 
tigation, we found no cause so powerfully inductive of 
sexual debility, of genital congestion, of uterine inflam- 
mation as that of dress. 
Having satisfied ourselves as to the cause, it was easy 
to define a remedy. This remedy was twofold. First, 
to take off the pressure from above by loosening the 
skirt at the waist and shortening the skirt below ; and, 
second, to clothe the lower limbs with warm covering, 
the direct tendency or marked effect of which would 
be to promote in them a better circulation. Thus we 
relieved the organs by taking away the mechanical 
forces whose pressure had displaced them, and we also 
removed the congestion of the blood-vessels of such 
organs by establishing a healthy circulation through 
them and through the lower limbs. 
Women who wear " the American costume" are in 
many communities laughed at and ridiculed. In some 
communities they are disturbed as they walk the streets. 
This should not surprise any one. The American 
people are organized so as to be able to be very narrow- DRESS. 
69 
minded, and, unfortunately, they are educated to be sq 
What, therefore, to them is new is more likely than 
otherwise to be untrue. They reason, with reference to 
what takes place, from their own limited observation 
and education. So whenever they see a woman dressed 
in a sensible, healthful, appropriate costume, such as 
Miss Austin and many other women in this country 
wear, they are led to judge of them in the light of 
their own knowledge and culture. This being quite 
narrow with reference to the great doctrine of liberty, 
they are disposed to interfere with the freedom of such 
persons by instituting, if possible, conditions of dis- 
comfort for them. But these in nowise operate upon 
any sensible woman to dissuade her from taking such 
measures as are physiologically necessary to maintain her 
own health; for while it is true that a great many 
women in this country can wear a style of dress such 
as is usually worn by our country-women, and not con- 
sciously suffer severely from loss of health, there are a 
great many who cannot wear it without being made 
sick by it. 
That society should regulate itself toward woman in 
such a way as to make her sick in order to keep her 
within its ideas of propriety, seems to me to be morally 
wrong ; at least it does not seem to me to be logically 
right. Every human being has a right, as against every 
other human being, to use his own powers to the con- 
firmation of his own happiness, when in doing so he 
does not invade the rights of others. If, in the pur- 
suit of his own undoubted right, others are made un- 70 
DRESS. 
comfortable, their remedy lies in removing from his 
neighborhood, getting away from him, leaving him in 
the possession of what they are compelled to acknowl- 
edge as his rightful liberty while they go where they 
also can be free. 
A reform, therefore, in the dress of woman from the 
very facts of the case has to be made. Dressing as she 
does, she cannot be healthy. Dress differently she 
must, or else become sick and remain so. Whoever 
undertakes to say that it is the natural condition of 
women to be unhealthy, utters an untruth; for sickness 
is not the natural condition of any class of human 
beings, and to be natural in our relations to life is our 
God-given right. Neither one nor many, neither a 
single person nor society, neither society nor government, 
has a right to say that any human being shall so live 
under social rules and regulations as necessarily and 
inevitably to be made sick thereby. Whatever restraint 
is imposed by fashion, custom, etiquette, or statutory 
law upon any person, this must not be so laid as to 
invade his natural rights to the healthful use of all his 
faculties and powers. 
Of all the causes which induce derangements of the 
sexual structure of women, indicating, as these derange- 
ments do, debility or want of power of the organs to 
act normally within their sphere, I know of none so 
potent in producing them, so efficient in maintaining 
them, as the clothing of the legs in long skirts. The 
wearing of these directly tends to induce local derange- 
ments of the pelvic oigans in two ways: First, Dis DRESS. 
71 
turbing the circulation of the blood through the legs. 
It is a fact that the habitual wearing of long skirts so 
deranges the circulation of the blood in the legs that a 
great majority of women suffer from a low tempera- 
ture of the lower limbs without being conscious of it. 
Their feet and ankles and legs will be cold to the touch 
of the physician when they themselves are not con- 
scious of their being cold. In my professional relations 
to women suffering from uterine diseases, I probably 
have found as large a proportion as seventy-five per 
cent of the whole number thus unconsciously affected. 
Feet, ankles and knees clammy cold, and they affirming 
their limbs to be warm I While the nerves of motion 
have not been affected in any way to loss of action, the 
nerves of sensation have been seriously affected and 
impaired. They do not know that their limbs are 
cold. Their legs are in the same conditions to sensa- 
tion that one's finger is at its tip when it is girted quite 
tightly below the first joint. Every one knows that if 
aft elastic, seeming only at first to press slightly upon 
the finger, is placed around it below the first joint, and 
left there for any length of time, the finger becomes at 
its extreme end less sensitive. It will be found to be 
the case where persons are in the habit of wearing 
finger-rings, as many women do, that the fingers on 
which they are worn are less sensitive at the tip than 
the other fingers are. Whenever the hand gets cold, 
the ring-finger is less cold than the others. There is 
less sensibility there. Insensibility is produced by dis- 
turbed circulation. 72 
DRESS. 
Second, Women so dress themselves as to wear 
garters just below the knee, and belts just above the 
hips. In the passage of the blood down the action of 
the heart is somewhat impaired by these obstructions ; 
but the force to return the blood backward is greatly 
impaired, and the blood itself, in its return, greatly im- 
peded by this sort of pressure. Where one man will 
be found in this country to have varicose veins in the 
legs, fifty women will be found to have them, not 
infrequently having them above the knee, because of 
the impeding of the blood in its passage upward by 
means of the ligatures placed around the leg below 
the knee and around the body above the hip. When- 
ever from any cause a lack of sensibility to the condi- 
tion of a given structure in the human body is estab- 
lished, great disease of that structure may be made to 
exist without the person knowing it or even suffering 
from it. 
If you take a horse whose foot, from having in it 
chronic inflammation, is so tender as to make him, 
whenever he uses it, go lame, and perform an act of 
neurotomy on him, by severing the nerve running down 
on the inside of his leg, you destroy sensation in the 
limb entirely. The horse then cannot go lame. Drive 
him over the hardest pavement, and he goes as well as 
he ever did in his life ; because there is no connection 
kept up between the sensorium and the limb whose 
nerve has been cut. Girt a woman's leg, or girt a 
woman's body just above the hips, so as to impede the 
action of the nerves of sensation, and insensibility to DBE8S. 
73 
n. certain degree is induced, and then she cannot tell 
when her legs are cold. Iler power instinctively to 
appreciate and discern the condition is gone, and, prac- 
tically, this is the case with a great proportion of the 
women of this country. They are so abnormalized by 
their style of dress that they do not know when their 
legs are cold. 
Coldness is the absence of heat, and heat is induced 
in the human body by means of the blood. The blood 
contains the heat. Heat is generated in the system by 
vital processes ; the blood is the distributor of it. A 
man could not have heat in. his body if his blood were 
cold. You could not warm up his flesh and leave his 
blood cold. You can keep his blood hot and leave his 
flesh cold ; but the coldness of the flesh is simply be- 
cause, at the particular point where the sensation of 
cold is found, the blool does not circulate sufficiently ; 
if it did, it would keep him warm. In any tempera- 
ture, no matter how low, if you can keep up a good 
circulation of the blood through the system, you can 
keep up heat. In no temperature, however high, can 
heat of the body be maintained unless the circulation 
is kept up. So derange the circulation of the blood 
through any part <f the body that it is lessened in 
quantity or freedom of flow at that point, and sensa- 
tion of chilliness will be felt unless sensation be im- 
paired. So derange the circulation of the blood at any 
point of the body that it is excessive in quantity, and 
an undue sensation of heat is established unless sensar 
tion be impaired. 74 
DRESS. 
Under the present style of dress commonly worn by 
the women of this country, imperfect circulation of the 
blood becomes an habitual condition. As the legs come 
to have less blood flow through them than is natural, the 
organs of the pelvis come to have more blood flow 
through them than is natural; so these latter become 
congested, then irritated, then inflamed, and not infre- 
quently made to take on a suppurative state. 
In the production of the morbid conditions of the 
sexual organs of women, there is another cause, origin- 
ating in their style of dress, to be counted in addition 
to that of defective circulation in the lower limbs. It 
is the unnatural motion to which the legs have to be 
put when in use. No woman wearing, a long-skirted 
dress, no matter whether this be petticoat or gown, 
can, in the act of walking, use her legs naturally. 
The propelling power of the human leg, physiologically 
considered, is divided between the muscles above the 
knee and those below, so that the latter centre in them- 
selves about sixty-six per cent. In walking, one goes 
over ground rapidly, not chiefly because of the size 
and power of action of the muscles of the legs lying be- 
tween the knee and the hip, but mainly by the size of 
the muscles of the legs lying between the knee and the 
ankle. All celebrated pedestrians have been found to 
have the muscles of the calves of their legs proportion- 
ately much larger than the muscles of the calves of the 
legs of persons who did not possess great power to 
walk, over and above that proportion which exists 
between the muscles of their thighs respectively. Let DRESS. 
75 
a person keep up the bulk of the muscles of the body 
at large, aud yet, from some cause, have the muscles 
of the calves of his legs diminish, and he will be able 
to do hard work which does not require him to walk 
very much as thoroughly as he ever wras. Let him 
diminish the muscles of his body at large, so as to make 
him incompetent to lift or do hard work of a seden- 
tary character, if he can but keep up the muscles of 
the calves of his legs, he will be able to walk better 
than he can do anything else. The muscles of the 
calves of the legs in a human being concentre his pro- 
pelling power, as the hind legs of a horse concentre in 
themselves his propelling power. All horses which 
are able to get over the ground rapidly have their 
propelling power concentred largely in their hind 
legs. The calves of the legs to a human being are 
to him his hind legs. They furnish the means of his 
ready propulsion. The thighs of a human being in 
their muscles constitute the fore-legs. They help him 
to keep his equilibrium when in motion, to maintain 
his centre of gravity. That is their chief object. 
At once it can be seen, from an organic or structural 
view, how needful it is in the act of walking to have 
the legs free, from the knee down, from all obstacles 
which impede their action at that point. Whenever 
a human being brings her dress below the knee, it 
unfits her decidedly for the act of natural and easy 
walking. It is not the weight of the skirt that does 
the damage, it is the length of'it. Make it of gauze, 
for what I care, and you create the difficulty. Make 76 
DRESS. 
it of broadcloth, and if the muscles of the thighs, the 
small of the back, the dorsal muscles, and abdominal 
muscles, are strong enough to enable the person to bear 
the weight, she does not add a particle of difficulty to 
her act of walking thereby. Of course, if these are 
feeble, she cannot carry the weight; but if these are 
strong, she can carry the weight, and walk just as well 
with a long skirt made of broadcloth, as with one made 
of silk or barege. The difficulty, then, does not lie in 
the weight of the skirts which women wear, but in the 
fact that they are so related to the use of the limbs, 
that freedom of motion cannot be given to them below 
the knee, and so, being hindered in their use, they are 
impeded in their motion. 
Just at this point comes into operation one of the 
fundamental laws of nature, with reference to the uses 
of the human body. It is this: that whenever an 
obstruction arises to the use of a given organ of the 
human body, the principle of substitution or accom- 
modation shall be made active. If the blood cannot 
flow through one set of veins, immediately substitu- 
tion of another set of veins is made. If one set of 
muscles cannot be used for the purpose of propelling 
the human body, another set of muscles must be used. 
When in the act of walking, the muscles of the calves 
of the legs are only partially permitted to work, an- 
other set of muscles is instinctively summoned up to 
do the work. These are the muscles of the upper por- 
tion of the thigh, of tile seat of the body and of the 
lumbar region. DRESS. 
77 
Just think, then, of dressing a human body and set- 
ting it going, after a way or manner greatly to impede 
the action of those muscles whose particular office it is 
to propel it, or enable it to move from place to place, and 
putting the locomotive labor on another set of muscles 
whose office it is, mainly or largely, to keep the body 
in erect position while it is moving from place to place. 
It is easy to see what must be the consequences sooner 
or later of doing so. These are three-fold. First, the 
walking-muscles, or those of the calf of the leg, shrink, 
and ultimately become greatly diminished in size and 
vigor, in the cases of thousands of women, to that de- 
gree that their legs below the knee are frequently not 
much larger at the largest point than they are at the 
ankle. Second, the act of moving becomes unnatural, 
lacking, of course, ease and beauty. Third, pelvic 
congestion takes place because of the unusual task- 
work to which the muscles of the thigh, the small of 
the back, and the abdomen are put. Here, then, we 
have the pathological conditions made clear which the 
wearing of the long skirts legitimately creates. They 
are of various sorts in their nature, and ruinous both 
to the health and symmetry, and to the activity of the 
bodies of those on whom they are imposed. 
I take it upon me to say, without fear of successful 
contradiction, that no woman can habitually wear a 
long-skirted dress, and have a healthy, symmetrical 
body, and a natural style of walking. Vv hen ladies 
come to us broken down with ill-health, and suffering 
from local diseases? as hundreds of them do every year, 78 
DRESS 
the uniform testimony which they themselves furnish 
is, that when the short skirts are substituted for the 
long skirts they do not know how to use their legs. 
Some of them say th fey feel* as if they should fly, as if 
their specific gravity had suddenly become lighter than 
that of the atmosphere, and as if they should float in 
the air. Others say that they do not know how to 
walk, their support has been taken away ; they feel as 
awkward in their attempt to move about with their 
limbs thus unshackled as a man would feel awkward 
to appear before an audience on a broad rostrum who 
had been accustomed to speak from behind a breast- 
work called a pulpit. Such a man would not know 
what to do with his legs. Their perfect exposure 
would very likely entirely disconcert him. But this is 
but a small consideration compared with the fact that 
almost all the women in our country have deformed 
legs. If not deformed in their structure, they are posi- 
tively deformed in their action. When they walk, the 
main propelling motion is seen to originate in, and dis- 
pense itself through, the muscles of the hips and thighs; 
and thus, as they put one leg before the other, there is 
a peculiar outward segmentary swing to it, such as is 
never seen in a man who is naturally as well con- 
structed in the locomotive organs as women are. Upon 
taking off the long skirts, and dressing them in a style 
that permits entire freedom of the leg below the 
they seem to have no power to bring the propelling 
muscles into action; hence, their walk is more like a 
'•'Idle or a wiggle than anything else. First, one side DRESS 
79 
of the body gets itself on, then the other. They seem 
to have no power to direct straightforward propulsion 
of the leg. It is such a deformity as is very much to 
be deplored, and its consequences are ternble by rea- 
son of the transference of the propelling power from 
the muscles which are constituted to exercise it, to mus- 
cles whose chief office is other than this ; and in caus- 
ing them to appropriate, more blood than they ought, 
induces congestion of those organs that lie within the 
pelvic cavity. 
At first this view of the case may be thought far- 
fetched, but my observation and experiments, consti- 
tuting my experience, have demonstrated its correct- 
ness beyond doubt to me. At any rate, so far am I 
satisfied of the truth of the view, that for the last seven 
years in the treatment of female diseases at our Insti- 
tution, no matter what their particular form has been, 
we have never felt ourselves called upon to make spe 
cifically restorative application to them. For leucor- 
rhosa, or whites; prolapsus-uteri, or falling of the womb; 
for ante-version, or retroversion ; for ulceration of its 
internal cavity, or for chronic inflammation of its neck, 
we have not been under the necessity of doing any- 
thing specific beyond the simple application of deterg- 
ent or cleansing baths. But of all the instrumentali- 
ties which we have used, we have never found a single 
one so curatively efficient as a change in the style of 
dress from that usually worn by women to the Amer- 
ican costume. 80 
DRESS, 
Such a fact, it seems to me, is entitled to challenge 
the respectful attention of all persons who desire to 
have their country-women have good health. When 
it comes to be considered that our invalid women have 
not only come to us very sick or debilitated, or physic- 
ally enfeebled, so as to be incompetent to the perform- 
ance of their ordinary duties for which, in other re- 
spects, they are, for the most part, well fitted; but 
that, in addition to this, they have come to us after 
having tried the remedies of the drug-medicating 
schools until they were tired of them, and not unfre- 
quently have also gone to Water Cures where they 
have been treated as well as the physicians knew how, 
and yet got no benefit; but upon coming to us and 
being placed under our regimen, and adopting the 
American costume, they immediately began to get 
well, and went on until they thoroughly got well; the 
statement incorporates into itself very greatly addi 
tional significance. How is such a fact as this to be 
accounted for ? One cannot laugh it down, nor sneer 
it down, nor ridicule it down, nor make it go down by 
despising it; nor can it be mobbed down, nor legis- 
lated down, nor adjudicated down. Forever it rises 
to the surface, commanding the attention of all those 
before whom it is fairly and legitimately presented. 
So we, then, of " Our Home on the Hillside " think 
dress has its great recuperative aspects, and of these 
we mean to make all the use we can. To all invalid 
women suffering from diseases of the organs of circu- DRESS. 
81 
• 
lation, nutrition, excretion and muscular motion, 1 de 
most earnestly recommend the American costume, as I 
do to all women who, not having such diseases, wish 
to avoid them. CHAPTER X. 
EXERCISE. 
The disease-preventing effects of well-regulated ex 
ercise physicians of all schools acknowledge. They 
are often led to say to men whose health is rather deli- 
cate and who wish to improve it, or whose health be- 
ginning to fail than they feel the need of invigorating: 
" Your lives are too sedentary; you need more exer- 
cise. If you will walk, row, ride on horseback, play 
ball, go a-fishing, hunt, or change the conditions of 
your life by changing the scenes of it, you will prevent 
your sickness." This advice is good. When properly 
followed, its effects rarely fail to be seen. The ther- 
apeutic effects of exercise are not so well-understood 
by physicians as they ought to be ; or, if they are, they 
are not sufficiently pressed upon those who place them- 
selves in their care. This may be in part owing to the 
minds of such physicians as rely largely on the reme- 
dial efficacy of drugs, being prepossessed with the value 
of their specific remedies. Or, it may in part be owing 
to their never having acquainted themselves with the 
therapeutic effects of muscular movements. 
Exercise, to be of decided therapeutic value, needs 
82 EXERCISE. 
83 
to be systematized and brought to bear upon debili- 
tated parts with regularity.' Some diseases contra- 
indicate exercise of certain portions of the body, while 
at the same time other parts of it may be greatly bene- 
fited by being put in motion. I have no doubt of the 
advantage to the sick to be derived from what is termed 
" The Movement Cure." Necessarily, however, its 
advantage is limited, and, therefore, it should not be 
presented to the consideration of the public as a spe- 
cific for a very great class of diseases. To the degree 
that medical men advocating it have lifted it into such 
importance as to make the sick rely upon it as a cure 
for whatever ailments human beings may have, to that 
degree have they done truth and their own represen- 
tations injustice. Connected with the use of other 
hygienic agents, it may be, and often is, curatively of 
great service; but to thiiik of making it of any very 
great benefit to any person who is an invalid because 
his habits or general manner of living in other direc- 
tions is objectionable, is absurd. A man may have a 
torpid liver, or a half-withered arm, but exercise of the 
arm or manipulations of the muscles over the liver, 
will not bring about curative results, while every day 
of his life he is bearing himself to the great question 
of nutrition or elimination, so as to keep up a decided 
and positive disturbance of his body in the direction 
where restoration is needed. Very many persons can 
be found who are suffering from shriveled muscles of 
the lower limbs, one leg being much smaller than the 
other, who can never be cured by any rubbing, bend- 84 
EXERCISE. 
ing, patting, extension of the muscles of the Unit 
involved, while they eat and drink and sexualize as 
they do, and do many other things directly calculated 
to overtax and debauch the nutrient and motory ner 
vous systems. Exercise, therefore, of any muscle, must 
be valuable just to the degree that change of its mole- 
cules or constituent particles is needed ; if too large, 
by reducing them ; if too small, by increasing them ; 
how to do this being the question. He who has at 
hand in the largest measure, the resources of the gen- 
eral system to aid him in producing this specific effect, 
is, by all odds, the best physician, and the surest to 
cure. For it should never be forgotten that all specific 
effects in the highest measure are to be induced just 
in proportion as the general resources of the system 
can be wrought up to that end. If vitality at large 
is to be expended in a dozen different directions at 
once, it stands to reason that where a great result in 
one of these is desirable, there is not so much proba- 
bility of its being brought about as though there was 
more power at command. Expending power in one 
direction forbids results being produced by the proper 
expenditure of it in another direction. One cannot 
have power at command for one purpose, while he is 
using it, or has used it, for another. 
Right here, it may, perhaps, be as well for me to say 
what I think in respect to the misapplication of vital 
power in the treatment of a great many diseases: 
since, by such misapplications of power are the fail- 
ures of physicians in a great manv instances to be EXERCISE, 
85 
accounted for. The law of curative action is the same 
in the human body as it is in all organized bodies, 
specific effects being wrought out only as vital power 
is used in conformity with those general principles upon 
which life and health are maintained in such organ- 
isms. The art-curative, therefore, is but a special 
application of the art-preservative. Who wants to 
cure a sick person or thing, must, necessarily for his 
success, be dependent upon, first, the use of vital force; 
second, upon such use of it as is in entire conformity 
and subordination to its general action in the system 
of the person or thing to be cured. Hence, specifics, 
in the treatment of disease, are good for nothing unless 
they play into the hands of the preservative force. 
Whoever undertakes to cure any living creature of any 
disease which it may have by the use of means or sub- 
stances, agents or influences, which are not conform- 
able to the preservation of the health of such creature, 
is sure to be defeated of his object. 
This principle being true, specific treatment for dis- 
ease of any and every kind, is much less necessary than 
is generally supposed, the law of special action being 
largely dependent upon the law of general action. It 
is not objectionable to use specific means to induce 
special results ; but there is less necessity for it in the 
treatment of most diseases than physicians and pa- 
tients generally suppose. In truth, if the general 
principles upon which the health of the body is de- 
pendent were carried out, specific diseases would be 
greatly lessened in number. I have no question but 86 
EXERCISE. 
what a large proportion of the diseases which now 
challenge the attention of medical men, would in a 
very few years entirely disappear, if the laws of life 
and health were once accepted and obeyed by our 
people. Almost al] the diseases that aifect adults 
would soon cease, and, in time, be forgotten. 
The truth of this statement may in part be made 
clear by the simple assertion of the fact that many 
diseases which were known a thousand, five hundred, 
three hundred, one hundred years ago, no longer exist. 
The influence of personal habits, of society, of political 
and governmental institutions, of religious agencies, 
has so modified the conditions of human bodies, that 
they have ceased to be predisposed or liable to them 
A fair inference from this is, that, notwithstanding 
persons live so that they become sick, and show what 
is in common language termed special or particular 
diseases, if their habits of living were to be made con- 
formable to the general principles of life and health, 
these diseases would in like manner disappear. It is, 
therefore, also fair to infer, that where diseases do exist, 
and have to be treated curatively, a falling back upon 
the vital force under its general administration would, 
in a great many instances, render specific treatment 
unnecessary. 
I see this to be true because I sec that many minor 
maladies are cured in this way. For instance, a man 
has a gouty toe. I believe physicians of all schools 
world recognize the correctness of that treatment which 
she ild impose upon that man the falling back upon EXERCISE. 
87 
the general action of his vital force. They would say, 
" The best way, sir, to cure your gout is to improve 
your general health. Anything that may be done for 
you with special reference to the condition of the toe, 
eaving the conditions of the body at large out of the 
question, will fail to cure you. An apparent cure may, 
perhaps, be made; but it would prove ultimately to 
have been a mistake. Your toe is inflamed by reason 
of the disturbance of your system at large. To cure 
it, you must fall back upon the treatment of the body 
at large. As gout is, in many instances, caused by bad 
living, in various ways disturbing the healthy action 
nf the general system, so cure of it must be substan- 
tially and effectively made by correcting one's habits 
of living in whatever ways these have been unfriendly 
to the health of the general system." 
AV hat is true of gout is found to be true with refer- 
ence to a large class of diseases that are local only as 
regards their manifestation, but are dependent upon 
general disturbance. Either the general nervous sys- 
tem has become deranged, or the blood- making system, 
or all put together, have come to be greatly disturbed; 
and out of this disturbance a specific morbidity has 
made its appearance. I do not know how many cases 
of nasal catarrh, Sore eyes, inflamed ears, bronchial 
sore throat, congestion of the lungs, arthritic rheuma- 
tism, sciatic rheumatism, diseased stomach, deranged 
liver, engorged spleen, hemorrhoidal condition of the 
lower bowels, multiform disturbances of the sexual 
system, it has been my good fortune to cure by simply 88 
EXERCISE, 
correcting general ill habits-ways and methods of 
expending vital force. 
In my earliest practice I used to think, much more 
than now, that certain diseases needed specific treat- 
ment ; and by this I mean a course of treatment, the 
effect of which I sought to produce upon the particular 
structure affected. I have come to feel that it is of 
less consequence to make special efforts to induce par- 
ticular effects; but that what is needed to be done is 
to arrange the vital force so that its distribution of 
energy shall be equilibric, and specific results are pro- 
duced without any particular intervention of mine. 
To illustrate: there is a certain class of diseases with 
which women in this country are afflicted to a very 
great extent. They are known as female diseases. 
The practice of the profession of all schools, including 
the hydropathic school, is to treat these diseases speci- 
fically. One particular manifestation of abnormalism 
it is common for the profession to treat after one par- 
ticular manner. Where a woman's uterus is ulcerated, 
the application of nitrate of silver, either in solution 
or in substance, to the part thus affected is pre-emi- 
nently the fashionable mode of inducing a cure. My own 
method of treating such a disease corresponds exactly 
to my idea of its causation. Believing that it is the 
result of a derangement of the general system, I let 
the disease entirely alone, beyond the mere application 
of cleansing baths, and set myself to work to restore 
the general health. As the conditions of brain, lung, 
stomach, liver, bowels and blood are improved, the ulcera- EXERCISE. 
89 
tion ceases, the inflammation disappears, the irritation 
no longer is manifest, the congestion no longer exists, 
the uterus becomes well. 
In this way I have one great advantage over the me- 
dical profession, I think, in the treatment of this par- 
ticular disease. Doctors, by their course, ofttimes me-, 
tastasize the disease; that is, they produce a vital 
action, the effect of which is to determine the disease 
from the uterus to some other part of the system. 
Perhaps I have had, in the course of my treatment, 
five hundred women who have been treated for ulce- 
rated uteri, and have been declared to be cured, and, 
in appearance, they were cured; but they were cured 
there to be diseased as badly, and ofttimes more fatally, 
at the throat, stomach, or lungs. 
I have digressed thus far from the discussion of the 
topic immediately under consideration, in order to 
show my confidence in the use of vital force generally 
applied as against vital force specifically applied in 
cases of disease where exercise is needed, as in many 
other kinds of disease. For, where diseases have come 
to exist from want of exercise of the body at large, 
or of particular portions of it, it is coming to be a 
fashion in this country to treat such morbid conditions 
by the use of the action of particular muscles, leaving 
out of question the necessity of using those muscles 
which involve the activity of the entiie body. This 
treatment, therefore, as it shall come to be fashionable, 
and regarded as available by reason of its specialty, 
will practically prove itself a failure, just as the caustic 90 
EXERCISE, 
treatment in the cases of ulcerated uteri of women hat 
come to be a failure. 
I recommend walking to all who have particular or 
special diseases, which have arisen from the failure on 
their part to give to their bodies general exercise, if 
they are physically able to adopt the plan of doing so. 
On the whole, it will be found better than any specific 
movement can, because the specific diseases from which 
they suffer have arisen from the want of general mus- 
cular exercise. The cause of their diseases being such, 
the cure will be found certain by using proper means 
to counteract it. 
Of all forms of exercise designed to affect the entire 
body, there is none so health-preservative, and there- 
fore none so efficaciously curative, as walking. No 
matter what may be the disease, if it has arisen from 
lack of exercise of any particular organs, the best cura- 
tive to come to it by exercise, is that kind which will 
involve and affect the entire body. No person can 
affect the circulation of the blood by any sort of mo- 
tions so much as by the act of walking. Place a man 
where he shall be stationary, and set his entire body 
above the hips into the most active motion, and you 
cannot induce as thorough a circulation of the blood 
through his system as you can by giving him free mo- 
tion of the legs, and such corresponding motions to 
the arms and trunk and head as necessarily must be 
had in the act of walking. The legs, therefore, are 
the structures through whose motions circulation is 
kept better equalized and the nervous force couibbric EXERCISE. 
91 
than any other structures in the human body whose 
motions are dependent on the action of the will. To 
use them regularly, habitually, plentifully, is one of the 
surest preventives to all forms of disease; and they 
are quite as effective in the cure as in the prevention 
of disease. Whenever I can get a person suffering 
from disease-no matter if it be deafness or dysentery, 
no matter if it be from bilious fever or from gout, no 
matter if it be from inflamed eyes or prolapsus uteri- 
to walk according to the ability then and there at dis- 
posal, my rule is to make such person walk. The 
amount of exercise, of course, has to be regulated ac- 
cording to the ability of the person; but if only from 
chair to bed, from one side of the bed to the other, from 
a recumbent to a sitting position, to take two or three 
steps, I regard it as in the very best measure curative. 
If the person is so feeble as not to be able to walk, 
and has to take passive-active motion, I wrould rather 
have flexure and extension of the legs, induced by an 
attendant wfliile the patient lies recumbent, for pur- 
poses of affecting the circulation and distribution of 
nervous force than any other forms, systems, or plans 
of motions of any other set or sets of muscles in the 
body. 
To try this, is to be satisfied of its good effects; and 
it is not difficult to try it. Take, for instance, a person 
lying in bed, and give to his arms swinging motion up 
and down and sidewise. The motion has to be violent 
in order to sensibly affect the pulse, the heart's action 
ddes not seem particularly to be increased; but you 92 
EXERCISE. 
cannot take hold of the leg and bend it upon the body 
and bend the limb below the knee upon the thigh, up 
and down as far as you can, three times, before the 
pulse is quickened, and sensible increase of the heart'? 
action is seen. You may do it slowly, but the effect 
will be visible. Carry this on for ten or fifteen min- 
utes, the person lying perfectly easy, and the attendant 
making the motions, as nearly as they possibly can be, 
purely mechanical, and the patient will begin to sweat. 
One of the best means of increasing the action of the 
sudoriferous glands is in flexing and extending the 
legs by passive motions. All the better if they are 
active-passive; that is, if when the attendant under- 
takes to bend the leg the patient is able to exert a little 
resistance, and when the attendant wishes to extend 
the leg the patient can make a little resistance. I wish 
that in cases of piles, dyspepsia, torpid liver, con- 
gested lungs, inflamed eyes, sore throat, persons would 
try this remedy, doing it regularly. The difficulty in 
the matter of taking exercise by walking is that per- 
sons who are sick and feeble overdo the thing. Then 
they get abnormal vital action or reaction, which in- 
duces an aggravation of the disease; but to do the 
thing rightly is wonderfully efficacious. Where there 
is plenty of strength in the body, so that walking can 
be taken in considerable or large degree, depend upon 
it that, in union with other hygienic agents, it is one 
of the very best therapeutic instrumentalities. If it 
were accepted, and persistently and judiciously fol- 
lowed, by persons laboring under some particular EXERCISE. 
93 
chronic disease, which makes them feel all the while 
that they are invalids, they would, under its use, find 
that what I here state is true, and that gradually they 
would get rid of their ailments and come back to enjoy 
very good and substantial health. CHAPTER XI. 
SLEEP AND ITS RECUPERATION'S. 
O SLEEP t 
With gentle witcheries thou wooest man 
Away from sorrow, and dost carry him 
To climes so calm and peaceful as to make 
The fields in which he travels like 
Elysium. 
The babe that nestles in its mother's lap 
Knows of thy wondrous workings. And the boy 
Of growing form, whose eye is bright at mom, 
Falls into thine arms, and passes 
Into that new sphere of being 
Over which thou swayest rule supreme. 
Man, the stalwart and the strong, 
Feels running through the -currents of his life 
Thy gentle force, and honors thee by yielding. 
And the poor invalid, whose daily turnings 
On his couch, so plainly signify 
Of pain and great discomfort, hears thy voice 
When in the distance, and his eye lacks lustre 
As thou closest it, and makest him 
Thine own. 
All animals which have backbones, so far as we 
Know of their habits, sleep. Of their necessity of 
passing periodically from a state of consciousness to 
one of unconsciousness, there can be little doubt; and 
the importance of this change is measured by the rela- 
tive rank which they hold. Of all living creatures 
94 SLEEP AND ITS RECUPERATIONS. 
95 
that dwell upon the earth, man stands at the head; 
and to none of them is sleep more important than to 
him. 
In speaking of sleep in its bearings upon health, the 
first point I make is that night is the best time for it. 
Evidently, by a law that is vital in its operations, the 
Creator has made that portion of our time, when the 
sun is hidden from the earth, the appropriate period 
for sleep. There are no traditions existing among the 
race running to the contrary of this view. No phil- 
osopher, nor physiologist, nor speculator upon the laws 
of human life and health, whether these be organic or 
functional, has ever taken ground that the period most 
appropriate to sleep is the day-time, and the night the 
most appropriate for labor. That human beings work 
nights and sleep days is true; and it is particularly 
true of men given to thought, but no one defends it on 
philosophic grounds. He may argue in its favor from 
habit, from long custom, from the circumstances which 
surround persons, and from the necessities of their 
condition, or from the peculiarities of their business; 
but he never stretches the argument until it reaches 
a point where the practice is asserted to be abstractly 
right. 
But if night is the better time to sleep, then it may 
be said that the general principle prevails that the 
amount of sleep should be regulated by the dividing 
line between light and darkness. That this view may 
be accepted as the correct one is determinable from 
analogy, it being true that animals living in the tern- 96 
SLEEP AX'D rrs RECUPERATIONS. 
per ate latitudes accept and act upon it. Take the year 
together, day and night are about equal; and were 
mankind within the temperate latitudes to live accord- 
ins: to the laws of life and health in other directions, 
they would sleep while darkness is on the face of the 
earth, and be active only during the period in which 
flight is abundant. As a habit and fashion with our 
people, they sleep too little. By all who are compe- 
tent to speak on the subject, it is admitted that the 
people of the United States, from day to day, do not 
get sufficient sleep. From the preponderance of the 
nervous over the vital temperament, they need all the 
recuperative benefits which sleep can offer during each 
night as it passes. A far better rule than that which 
usually prevails, would be to get at least eight hours 
of sleep during each day, and, including sleep, ten to 
'twelve hours of recumbent rest. It is a sad mistake 
that some make, who suppose themselves qualified to 
speak on the subject, in affirming that persons of a 
highly-wrought nervous temperament need - as com- 
pared with those of a more lymphatic or stolid organ- 
ization- less sleep. The truth is, that where power 
is expended with great rapidity, by a constitutional 
law it is regathered slowly ; the reactions after a while 
demanding much more time for the gathering up of new 
force than the direct effort demands in expending that 
force. Thus, a man of nervous temperament, after he 
has established a habit of overdoing, recovers from the 
effect of such over-action much more slowly than a 
man of different temperament would, if the balance StEEP AND ITS RECUPERATIONS. 
97 
between his power to do and to rest were destroyed. 
As between the nervous and the lymphatic tempera- 
ments, therefore, where exercise by work is demanded, 
it will be seen that at the close of the day's labor, 
whether it has been of muscle or of thought, the man 
of nervous temperament who is tired finds it difficult 
to fall asleep, sleeps perturbedly, wakes up excitedly, 
and is more apt than otherwise to resort to stimulants 
to place himself in conditions of pleasurable activity ; 
while the man of lymphatic temperament, when tired, 
falls asleep, sleeps soundly and uninterruptedly, and 
wakes up in the morning a new man. The facts are 
against the theory that nervous temperaments recu- 
perate quickly from the fatigues to which their posses- 
sors are subjected. Three-fourths of our drunkards 
are from the ranks of the men of nervous tempera- 
ment. Almost all the opium-eaters in our country- 
and their name is legion - are persons of the nervous 
and the nervous-sanguine temperaments. Almost all 
the men in the country who become victims of narcotic 
drug-medication, are of the nervous or nervous-san- 
guine temperaments. Nine-tenths of all the persons 
in this country who become insane, are persons of the 
nervous or nervous-sanguine temperaments. That the 
very general habit of dependence upon stimulants, or 
stimulo-narcotics, is largely confined to persons of the 
nervous temperament, shows that the taxations to which 
they subject themselves are not readily reacted from, 
and that under their methods of living they find it 
difficult to depend upon their natural forces to make 
5 98 
SLEEP AND ITS RECUPERATIONS. 
good their losses within the time they allot to such 
purpose. The rule, therefore, should be the other way 
from that which is supposed to be the true one; namely, 
that persons of highly-wrought nervous organization 
need but little sleep. It should be the habit of such 
persons to sleep largely, to insist upon such freedom 
from exercise, both of body and mind, and upon such 
external conditions of repose, as gradually to bring the 
brain to acknowledge such relations to the general 
structure, as will enable its various organs to become 
so refreshed that they may, when duty is resumed, 
perform it with accustomed yet healthy vigor. 
Sick persons in this country, and, for that matter, 
healthy ones also, generally sleep upon beds which are 
unhealthy. Wherever feathers are used, either for the 
bed or for the pillow of the bed, they are decidedly 
unhealthy. Ofttimes they constitute a very important 
influence in determining the non-recovery of the sick 
who use them. They are great non-conductors of heat, 
and, therefore, should never be used to sleep upon. If 
used at all, they should serve only as an external cover- 
ing. A light comfortable of feathers, thrown over the 
outside of the bed, is the least objectionable mode of 
using this article. Feathers, have in their quills a 
glutinous matter which is easily brought into a semi- 
fluid state when wrought upon by moisture from the 
air or the insensible perspiration of the human body. 
Not infrequently will it be found by those whose sense 
of smell is keen, that after having lain in a bed which 
«»t first appears to be perfectly inodorous, the occupant SLEEP AND ITS RECUPERATIONS. 
99 
comes to find an unpleasant stench arising from it. 
This is poisonous, and though not so much so as car- 
bonic acid gas, is next to it. It is only equalled in its 
unhealthinqss by the effluvia of the pest-house and 
privy, and should be avoided at all hazards, especially 
by persons of a scrofulous constitution, whose blood in 
its elementary constituents is easily deranged. The 
practice, therefore, with invalids, of sleeping upon 
feather beds, and especially upon feather pillows, can- 
not be too strongly condemned. Thousands of women 
and children have had their scrofulous diseases de- 
veloped into the incurable stage, and thereby been con- 
signed to their graves at an early day with scrofulous 
consumption, who never would have had it, though 
living in other respects as they had done, but for the 
practice of sleeping on feathers. No health reformer 
should ever keep geese. He neither needs them for 
the purpose of picking off their feathers nor of eating 
their flesh. 
For invalids better beds than those made of feathers 
jan be made of good, clean oat straw, though here a 
criticism can be properly made; for much of the straw 
that is used to fill beds is mildewed or smutty, and can- 
not be used without impregnating the air with poison- 
ous particles, which, though impalpable to the touch 
and invisible to the eye, are easily inhaled by the lungs; 
and when so breathed into them are always destructive 
to their healthy conditions. Perhaps the cleanest straw 
for beds is unmildewed wheat straw. Clean wheat straw, 
well whipped, and not -worn until it becomes as fine as 100 
SLEEP AND ITS RECUPERATIONS. 
cl aff, makes a good bed. Good clean corn husks 
make a good bed, though unpleasant to some persons 
from the noise which is created whenever the sleeper 
turns upon his bed, by reason of the different husks 
passing over each other's surface. I have known 
nervous persons to be unable to sleep upon a corn-husk 
bed. This, in a good degree, can be avoided by hav- 
ing the husks cut in a straw-cutter, and the tick, which 
is filled with them, quilted at convenient spaces. 
Whittlings of white birch or white cedar make an 
excellent bed, and in some parts of the country are 
used in large quantities. Machines have been invented 
for shaving them off from boards or wood so that they 
will curl. Then they are kiln-dried, not to destroy 
their elasticity, but to prevent them from straightening 
out. Dried sea-grass is, perhaps, the best bed upon 
which a sick person can sleep, unless it is curled hair ; 
and it makes a very good substitute for that article. 
Throughout our country great numbers of mattresses 
<ire sold known as sea-grass mattresses. These are such 
beds as we generally use in our Cure, and, when covered 
by a mattress of cotton, make a very easy, comfortable 
bed, both for the invalid and the person in health. 
Hair makes the best bed; but great caution is required 
in its preparation that it may be healthy by being per- 
fectly inodorous. Some mattresses of curled hair are 
nearly as objectionable as geese feathers. 
Of clothing that should cover the invalid in bed, in 
order that he may the better sleep, the inner sheets 
bad better be made of bleached cotton than of linen. SLEEP AND ITS RECUPERATIONS. 
101 
This article does not so readily conduct heat as linen, 
and therefore is not so cool to the skin. Of all sub 
stances usually worn for clothing, linen is the greatest 
conductor of heat; hence one always feels cooler with 
linen on his body than with any other material of 
clothing. For bed-clothing, therefore, except in the 
hottest weather, or unless the person is suffering from 
acute fever, linen is objectionable. As a general thing, 
sick persons sleep under too much clothing ; they need 
less; would be better for using less. It is better to 
have a number of coverings that shall make up suffi- 
ciency in retaining the warmth of the body so as to in- 
duce sensation of comfort than it is to have only one; 
for the reason that, in this way, less weight is had. 
Clothing which will keep a sick person warm, and yet 
has a minimum pressure upon him, is preferable to 
that which is heavier, though productive of the same 
warmth. So far as the advantage arising from retain- 
ing animal heat is concerned, there is always a stratum 
of dead air lying between two coverings, and this serves 
as a non-conductor. Between a pair of blankets and a 
coverlid there will be two strata of this air, and the 
effect, so far as warmth is concerned, will be the same 
as is seen in having two doors to a cellar with a space 
between them. There is an advantage in using this 
stratum of air as a protection against too rapid elimi- 
nation of the heat of the body. A great security for 
keeping warm in bed is to secure the best and most 
vigorous circulation of the blood; and next, to be ap- 
propriately covered, and to retain so much of heat ip 102 
SLEEP AND ITS RECUPERATIONS. 
the bed and around the body as to establish a uniform 
sensation of warmth. 
Of course, it is always desirable to a sick person 
lying in bed who wishes to sleep, that a feeling of com- 
fort should be present; and this can never be when 
the feeling of warmth is absent. To be warm, there- 
fore, in bed is one of the prerequisites to the obtain- 
ment of the advantages which one seeks in going to 
bed. Posture has very much to do in the procurement 
of the sense of warmth and of consequent comfort. 
Very few persons know how to lie in bed so as to be 
comfortable. The practice of lying crooked is, by many, 
assumed to be instinctive. I doubt it. It does not 
look reasonable. That a person will, at times, for pur- 
pose of rest, by change of posture, flex his limbs and 
back-bone and sink his head forward and throw his 
hips backward, I do not deny. But, after all, he does 
this at the expense of warmth; for whenever the body 
is bent upon itself, and the legs and arms upon them- 
selves, the circulation is enfeebled. Circulation by 
flexion of any part of the body is increased only by 
having connected with it alternate extension. When 
one wishes to make himself warm by bending his legs, 
he must connect with this act of bending the act of 
straightening them; in other words, he must keep in 
motion. To sit down in a cramped position, and to con- 
tinue to sit thus, thereby expecting to get warm, is to 
have one's expectations unrealized. A straight position 
is far better as a means whereby to secure positive ex- 
ternal capillary circulation than one in which the body SLEEP AND ITS RECUPERATIONS. 
103 
is bent upon itself largely. The Indian who sleeps 
upon the bare earth, or the Rocky Mountain trapper 
wrapped up in his blanket, will be found in his deepest 
sleep as straight as a liberty pole. To cultivate the 
habit of lying in bed straight, is, therefore, of great ser 
vice, and especially to all persons who, being sick, are 
desirous to recover their health. 
Lying upon the back is one of the best postures 
which an invalid can possibly adopt. Notwithstand- 
ing so much has been said about the superiority of 
lying on the right side, or the left side, or both, a 
man lies more naturally, breathes more easily, sleeps 
less dreamfully upon his back than in any other posi- 
tion he can assume. If it is true, as is generally sup- 
posed, that to lie upon the back is more productive of 
imperfect circulation, and, therefore, of particular con- 
ditions of the circulation described as " night-mare," 
I have only to say that this does not arise from lying 
upon one's back, but from the conditions in which the 
organs have been placed by the bad habits in other 
directions of the person who suffers. There are very 
great advantages that may arise to the invalid from 
lying habitually upon his back. First, the back-bone 
itself is kept warm by it. Heat radiates from the 
centre to the surface just in proportion to the extent 
to which that surface is supplied with nerves. Where 
the nerves are the most numerous, there will the per- 
son find himself in such conditions as to allow of great 
radiations of heat. There is no spot on the body bet- 
ter supplied with nerves than the bottoms of the feet. 104 
SLEEP AND ITS RECUPERATIONS. 
There is no place, therefore, where a man more readily 
has the sensation of cold. This does not arise from 
the fact that the blood is imperfectly supplied to the 
bottom of the feet, and they are, therefore, unprotected, 
because where there is an abundant supply of nerves 
there is a corresponding supply of blood-vessels; but 
it does arise from the superior sensibility of the parts 
to c eternal impressions, because of the superabundant 
supjly of the organs of sensibility. Up and down a 
man's back runs the spinal marrow; from it radiate 
nerves to different parts of the body. Great sensi- 
bdity to external impressions is consequently estab- 
lished along the whole track of the spine. When a 
man shivers from a cold sensation, the shiver travels 
up and down his back-bone more readily than any- 
where else. Let him step upon a piece of cold zinc, 
m an instant he feels a sensation of cold running up 
and down his telegraph w'ire, which is his spinal mar- 
row. A person will sleep under less clothing, and 
keep warn by lying upon his back with his arms by 
his side, oi crossed low down upon his abdomen, bet- 
ter than in any other position. 
There is this advantage also in it, that the sick man 
while in this position keeps all his parts in the natural 
relations The whole lung structure is as it should be, 
the muscles are related to themselves naturally, and 
all ths parts of the organism sustain, each to all, their 
natu -al connection. There is no undue pressure upon 
any part; no displacing of any ligament, sinew, ten- 
don or muscle; no pressure upon any membrane. 105 
SLEEP AND ITS RECUPERATIONS. 
Everything is just as nature intended it. Lying 
upon the side, whether it be the right or the left side, 
is not as natural as to lie upon the back. The lungs 
are not as carefully guarded. They press down upon 
the heart; they press down upon the spleen and liver. 
The same is true of the pressure of the stomach on the 
spleen, or the liver on the stomach. The same is true 
of the bowels. And it is a fact, that whenever any 
one of the thoracic or abdominal organs becomes dis- 
eased, less sensibility, less consciousness of disease is 
manifested in lying upon the back, than in any posturo 
the invalid can assume. The dyspeptic always lies 
upon his back more easily ; the consumptive lies upon 
his back more easily; a person with congested liver, 
engorged spleen, chronic inflammation of the bowels, 
or inflammation or irritation of the kidneys, or pro- 
lapsus uteri, or inflammation of the neck of the blad- 
der, lies upon the back more easily. 
In lying in bed, the practice is a bad one of having 
the sick person sleep with the head much elevated. 
One soon comes to dislike it if he accustoms himself 
to sleep on his back. The least elevation is the best; 
the highest is the worst. One pillow made of cotton 
or hair, but never of feathers, about three inches in 
thickness, is abundant elevation for the head. All 
persons troubled with weak lungs, and, therefore, with 
tendencies to pulmonary consumption, should Le on 
the back, and with the head as nearly on a line paral- 
el with the rest of the body as possible. This posture 
aids very materially in the use of the abdominal mus- 106 
SLEEP AND ITS RECUPERATIONS. 
cles, and these are of essential service to the organs of 
respiration. 
Invalids, if possible to avoid it, should never sleep 
with other persons. To say the least, such a course is 
unphysiological, and unfriendly to health. As a gen- 
eral rule, a person is healthier to sleep alone, very few 
invalids being found well-calculated by physiological 
or pathological considerations to sleep together. Chil- 
dren quite often are made sick by sleeping together, 
and a sick child is often kept sick by having a healthy 
child sleep with it. Parents quite frequently make 
their infant children sick by having them sleep in the 
bed with themselves. When we come to understand 
just what relations two human bodies can establish 
between themselves, we shall find that one of the most 
powerful means of transmitting or withdrawing energy, 
is by physical contact. CHAPTER XII. 
THE SICK-CHAMBER AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 
Having called attention to the hygienic agencies 
which may readily be used for the cure of the sick, it 
naturally follows that I should say something in respect 
to their accommodations and general management, 
before attempting to describe the diseases which they 
may have, and the special application of remedial 
agents with a view to their recovery. With the 
American people there is much less good sense dis- 
played in the care of their sick than with European 
nations. Strange as this statement may seem, it is 
strictly true. The want of care which we give to our 
sick is not from want of affection or interest in them, 
but from want of a knowledge of what they need. 
We treat them, in a measure, as we treat each other 
when we are well. A sense of self-consciousness per- 
vades the entire social relations of the American peo- 
ple. To a certain degree, each person expects, and is 
expected, to take care of himself. To a good degree, 
therefore, when sick, he is supposed to be able to get 
along without particular and personal oversight from 
others. Whenever persons are sick, unless they are 
dangerously so, they are left hour after hour alone; 
107 108 
THE SICK-CHAMBER AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 
or, if not, then the other extreme is adopted, and thej 
are never or scarcely ever left alone. For want of 
proper nursing, therefore, many persons die who other- 
wise would live. It becomes a matter of a good deal 
of consequence then, how properly to look after and 
tend the sick. Because of this I offer the following 
suggestions: 
1. Wherever one is sick, if possible the room in 
which he lies should be elevated from the ground. 
Houses are always healthier to be built at least two 
stories high, and to have their lodging-rooms in their 
upper part. In many districts of country where mist 
und fog arise from the condensation of vapors dur- 
ing the night, to have sleeping-rooms in the second 
story is of very great utility. As the poisonous and 
condensed vapors are heavier than the atmosphere 
they sink to the earth, and to be lifted above their 
range of circulation while one is sleeping, is to escape 
many of the diseases with which, otherwise, the inhabi- 
tants of such districts would be likely to be affected. 
Other things being equal, then, in any given case of 
sickness, the patient should lodge above stairs if he 
can. If not, then on as high a bedstead below stairs as 
is convenient to attend him. Where children are sick, 
low beds, or, as they are termed, trundle-beds, should 
give way to a high bedstead; for even so slight a 
change as this has its importance. 
2. The sick room should be on that side of the 
house, if possible to have it, where during the day 
there will be the most sunlight; because, while it is THE. SICK-CHAMBER AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 
109 
not desirable always to have sunlight in a room, it 
may be of great service to have it, and so the possi- 
bility of having it should be taken into account. 
3. If it can be done, the bed of the patient should 
be so placed as to have the head to the north. This at 
first may be considered as a whimsical suggestion, but 
*t is not. If it be true that the mariner's compass or 
needle always, when unobstructed, points to the north 
pole, it is not devoid of significance that the magnetic 
conditions thus established, may indicate correspond- 
ing magnetic conditions between the brain of a hu- 
man creature and the great source of magnetism to 
our globe. I hold that animal magnetism is exactly 
correspondent to, and coincident with what is called 
metallic magnetism ; that it is because of a great con- 
stituent property in human blood that magnetic con- 
ditions of the human body exist; and that these are in 
their nature the same, with such necessary modifica- 
tions as the bodily structure imposes, as the metallic 
magnetism which science has discovered, and of which 
it is coming, for its own peculiar purposes, more and 
more to make use. There is no question in my own 
mind of the influence of metallic magnetism upon the 
nervous system, and upon the circulation of the blood 
:n the human body. So assured am I of this, that I 
venture to offer the suggestion with reference to the 
location of the position of the body of the sick person. 
I have tried it in too many instances not to know that 
it may have its influence. It does not always percepti- 
bly have it, because persons are not always related to 110 
THE SICK-CHAMBER AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 
magnetic force so as t) be the subjects of its visible in- 
fluence ; but they not infrequently are. Thus, I have 
calmed down the twitchings of a person suffering from 
St. Vitus' Dance by putting into her hand a common 
steel magnet, or some other piece of magnetized iron 
or steel. Thus, I have held in my own hands a highly 
charged magnet for a little while, and then have held 
the hands of a sick person, and induced calm and quiet 
conditions of the nervous system. That what is termed 
animal magnetism, which is not now denied to exist, is 
the same as metallic magnetism, with the simple dif- 
ference of manifestation arising from difference of the 
organization involved, is clear to my own mind. I think 
it decidedly possible to have the needle of a compass 
swerve from its true direction by the influence of the 
magnetism of the human body placed in close contact 
with it. If I could, therefore, I always would have a 
person, sick from any disturbance of the nervous sys- 
tem, lie with his head to the north. Where it cannot 
be, one must do the next best thing to insure right 
magnetic condition. Where it can be, it is worth 
the trial. 
4. It is of very great consequence in the manage- 
ment and care of sick persons that they should have 
proper persons for their care-takers or nurses. To de- 
cide this, various considerations are to be taken into 
account. 
(a.) If possible, the nurse should be an acquaintance 
of the patient, and one toward whom in health he 
is kindly related. Better not to have a blood-relative, THE SICK-CHAMBER AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 
111 
unless there is considerable contrast in temperament; 
for matters regulate themselves better under the con- 
verse than the direct relationship. 
(6.) To the degree that propriety will admit, the 
nurse should be of the opposite sex. This is admitted by 
everybody who is sick to be a correct view, the rule work- 
ing only one way, men always preferring women to per- 
sons of their own sex to care for them. It is not gen- 
erally supposed to be the case that women prefer men, 
but they do ; and to the degree that they can properly 
have them, they should. The rule, to be good for 
much, should be applied both ways. 
(<?.) A sick person should have a pair of nurses at 
least; and, where he is very sick, should have two 
pairs, one for the day and the other for the night, they 
making their relays so frequently as not themselves to 
get tired out. A worn-out, sleepy, stupid nurse is one 
of the most deleterious agents that can be made active 
in and around the sick room. Whenever from service 
a tired feeling begins to come over a nurse, he or she 
should immediately be changed for one who is bright, 
active, wakeful, sprightly, and in good magnetic or 
electrical states of the nervous system and the blood. 
But these changes should be kept within the bound of 
the nurse list. 
(<Z.) Changes in the nurses should not be made so as 
to introduce strangers. The practice of having strange 
men or women to watch at night with a sick person is 
very objectionable. I know that difficulties lie in the 
Way; but, in most cases, they are not insurmountable 112 
THE SICK-CHAMBER AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 
a 
if the parties are intelligent with reference thereto. 
Physicians, in this respect, can help along the case a 
good deal. In truth, if they themselves were clear- 
headed as to the benefits to be derived from proper 
nursing, they could mainly direct the affairs ; for they 
could have their own nurses. I have often thought 
that if I were a peripatetic physician, I would have 
three or four women, and two or three men, as the 
extent of my practice might demand, who should hold 
themselves in readiness to be called upon to take care 
of any sick persons that might place themselves under 
my medical administration, and that I would have the 
right to say that such persons should be employed, and 
no other while my patients were in conditions to need 
particular nursing; for human life is very sacred, and 
cannot be cared for too assiduously. Until persons 
learn how to live so as not to be sick, the next best 
thing they can learn is how not to die when they are 
sick. In this direction, one of the very best securities 
against such a result is to be well cared for when sick. 
5. Sick persons confined to their rooms should, at 
least once in twenty-four hours, have their personal 
clothing changed. In fact, it is better, though there 
may seem to be no apparent necessity for it, to have 
it changed every twelve hours, at morning and at 
night. The garments thus taken off may not need 
any further cleansing than that which will arise from 
being exposed to good air currents; but not infre- 
quently great exhalations by the skin take place in 
persons who are sick, and these aro of such a nature THE SICK-CHAMBER AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 
113 
as substantially to fill the interstices of the clothing, 
and leave the garment an air-tight fabric, thus decid- 
edly affecting for ill the conditions of the person wear- 
ing it. 
6. Quiet. The sick-chamber should be a holy 
place. Within its precincts the unhallowed, or those 
who have no business there, should not come. The 
practice, common all over the United States, of having 
neighbors and friends who can do no good, come into 
the rooms of sick persons and sit, and talk, and chat, 
and ask questions, is very objectionable; not infre- 
quently prolific of very great mischief. If the pa- 
tient is not himself addressed, and so, perhaps, dis- 
turbed, the conversation, in one way or another, is of 
a kind to excite him, and, therefore, to derange his 
nervous system and the circulation of his blood. 
Neighbors and friends, therefore, who can be of no 
service, should not be permitted to see those who 
are sick. Only when they can be of service (and very 
often they can be,) should they be permitted to come. 
Where the disease from which the person suffers is 
chronic, and so slow in its operations, there is less need 
of guarding against any intrusion. In such a case, 
the society of pleasant, agreeable friends may be very 
desirable. I have known the tone, temper and mental 
feeling of a sick person change vastly for the better by 
having a dear, good friend come to see him. But, not- 
withstanding such happy results may flow, it is always 
well and only prudent, to consult the patient before 
permitting a friend to visit him. 114 
THE SICK-CHAMBER AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 
In this direction, it is of more consequence that con 
sent should be obtained if the person sick be a female, 
because women, after their present education, are more 
sensitive to external surroundings than men are. They 
do not like to be seen in an unprepared state to receive 
a friend. The room may not be in order; their own 
personal clothing may require adjustment, and, in addi- 
tion, they may want the opportunity to refuse to see 
the particular person. In this latter respect persons 
of the male sex do also require to be consulted. I can- 
not forbear saying that good nursing constitutes good 
doctoring in the philosophical meaning of the term. 
If we ever get to the point of intelligence where out 
people shall understand that drug-medicaments are not 
common-sense instrumentalities for the cure of disease ; 
are unphilosophical manifestations; are, in many in- 
stances, either good for nothing or positively injurious, 
the department of nursing of the sick will acquire 
additional importance. Then the medical man will 
understand that those sick persons who are nursed with 
the most skill are likely, other things being equal, to 
recover the me st certainly. CHAPTER XIII. 
CHILDREN AND THEIR DISEASES. 
Of the human diseases for which I propose new 
methods of treatment, I present first those which re- 
late to children. In order to do this intelligently, so 
that they shall be readily comprehended by my read- 
ers, I wish, first, to say some things with reference to 
the manner of training and treating children who are 
not sick; because the better one understands the na- 
ture of the child, its predispositions and tendencies 
when in health, the better will he be prepared to relate 
himself curatively, with the means he uses, to the child 
when sick. For children are much more susceptible to 
constitutional predispositions and their corresponding 
influences, than persons of adult age are. In the lat- 
ter case, counteractive causes may exist, having been 
organized and brought to bear through the habits, 
manners and ways of living of the person. But chil- 
dren are as largely subjects of the momentum which 
the life-force has given to them, by the mere act of 
birth, as by the conditions of existence subsequent 
thereto. To treat a child with reference to any dis- 
ease which he may have, as a grown person may safely 
be treated, is to overlook, in many respects, the V'Cry 
115 116 
CHILDREN AND THEIR DISEASES. 
essentially different conditions which exist between the 
parties, and, in doing so, to neglect some of the most 
available and efficient means for its recovery. I kniw 
that it is said that " men are but children of lai ger 
growthnevertheless, the difference in growth does 
modify the difference in relations to life, and, of course, 
to health. Two persons, therefore, one quite young 
and a child, the other adult and a man or woman, 
having apparently or really the same disease, may not 
be treated in the same way for it. In the child, the 
ante-natal conditions of its existence may still exercise 
over it a very important influence. In truth, I think, in 
most cases, they do have much to do in the shaping of 
its life up to puberty. This side of adolescence, chil- 
dren hold different relations and conditions to life 
from what they do when adult age has been reached. 
For want of knowledge of these facts, many a child 
has been sent to its grave by those who have had its 
management, when sick, in their hands. Some sug- 
gestions in this direction, therefore, may not be out of 
place. 
Constitutional Peculiarities.-The practice is quite 
common for parents to treat all their children alike in 
their bringing up, except so far as it may be thought 
fit to institute diffeionce arising from sex. Boy-chil- 
dren are cared for, looked after, managed, treated, 
trained and educated, in quite early life, differently from 
what girl-children are, though the difference in these 
directions confines itself to a very narrow sphere. CHILDREN AND THEIR DISEASES. 
117 
Now, the differences which arise from sex are not by any 
means as marked, and, therefore, as influential, as those 
which often arise between persons of the same sex, but 
of different temperaments. To treat two girls or two 
boys alike who are of different temperaments, simply 
because they are girls or boys, is to commit a greater 
outrage, by far, than it would be to treat a girl and a 
boy alike though of different sex. Herein is a very 
great mistake made by parents. As it begins in the 
nursery, and is continued when the child passes out of 
the nursery into the family circle, it also is carried into 
the sick-room whenever one of the children in the 
family is unfortunately its occupant. In the treatment 
of the sick, constitutional influences, or those conditions 
of existence which are under the sway of the organic 
forces of the sick person, must be taken into account if 
the highest curative results are to be secured. 
For instance, a child of light hair, very light skin, 
light-blue and quite prominent eyes, of small muscles, 
small bones, having small hands and taper fingers, very 
delicate and thin nails, small feet, but quite large and 
protuberant bowels, with a head two-thirds of the 
brain of which is in front of the ears, with a very 
small back-bon®, with a long, slim neck, and sloping 
shoulders, with a wide pelvis, and the legs set on the 
body so that when it walks it turns its feet out, should 
never be treated for any disease which it has, in the 
same general or particular way as a child of exactly a 
different build; such, for instance, as one who has 
lark skin, dark gray or bluish eyes, with a heavy, low- 118 
CHILDREN AND THEIR DISEASES. 
located back brain, with rather a low frontal brain 
with straight, square shoulders, broad chest, small bow 
els, narrow pelvis, big legs, and toes turning in a little. 
If two such children are suffering from measles, sum- 
mer complaint, stomach-colic, fever and ague, remit 
tent fever, whooping-cough, or any disease, no matter 
what, they must not be substantially alike related to 
the use of therapeutic agents. While these are to bo 
used in both cases, their application is to be made to 
suit the difference in the constitutional peculiarities of 
the children, otherwise one of them stands a fair chance 
to die. Which of the two it will be, can very readily 
be decided beforehand, if it can be beforehand decided 
what is the nature of the disease. If it be a disease 
which primarily involves the nervous system, the first 
named child will die. If it be on the other hand, a 
disease which primarily involves the health of the 
blood and its circulation, it will be the latter. Where- 
as, if parents knew how to make proper discriminations 
in their methods of treatment, based upon constitution- 
al or organic differences in these children, neither of 
them would die-it being true that about four-fifths of 
all the persons who die in this country have their lives 
come to a close, not from want of power to live, intrin 
sically considered, but from want of knowledge on 
their own part, or on the part of those who have them 
in care, how properly to make the power which they 
possess available to their protection. It is sad to con- 
template the havoc of human life which is made by 
medical men, and those who, along with them, have tc CHILDREN AND THEIR DISEASES. 
119 
take care of sick persons, simply from want of know- 
ledge how to make vital power practically efficient in 
its own vocation; for it is the office of the vital power 
to protect a person in his life, and not to let him die. 
When I come to treat of special diseases, I shall 
have more to say in this particular direction ; for it is 
of very great importance in the treatment of the dis- 
eases of children, that the conditions which manifestly 
exist in their organizations, shall be kept in view as hav- 
ing bearing upon their development and proper educa- 
tion when in health not only, but quite as much so 
upon their treatment with a view to their recovery. CHAPTER XIV. 
TEETHING 
After a child is born, the diseases with which it is 
afflicted up to the time when teething fairly begins, 
generally arise from the bad state of health of the mo- 
ther, and the unhealthy condition of her milk. It is 
not generally understood by parents, though it is pretty 
well known to physicians, that children can be made 
quite sick from derangements of their nervous systems 
in consequence of being handled and tended in lap a 
good deal by their mothers, when these are themselves 
out of health. Very often children cry, being appa- 
rently in pain, when their mothers are caring for them, 
who, if transferred to other persons, will soon cease to 
cry. This grows out of the fact that the nervous sys- 
tems of the mothers are a good deal disturbed, and 
their children take on these disturbances by sympa- 
thetic relations. Under such circumstances their mo- 
thers make very poor care-takers and nurses, and 
should have nothing to do with their children in their 
general management, nor yet in their nursing. Where 
a child, by being handled by its own mother, is made 
restless, uneasy, peevish and crying, it is conclusive 
proof that it ought not to be nursed by her. Uidess 
a wet-nurse can be found for it, it had Better be brought 
120 Teething. 
121 
up, as the term is, " by hand because, where the gen 
eral conditions of the mother's health are such us greatly 
and sensibly to herself to disturb her nervous system, it 
follows surely that such a derangement affects her milk, 
and this the child ought not to be permitted to take as 
nutriment. The milk of a wet-nurse is, or can be, 
highly charged with healthy or unhealthy vitativeness. 
Milk makes good food for a child, not only because it 
possesses the proper nutrient constituents, but because 
it can be, and in the earlier period of the nursing con- 
ditions of woman is, charged largely with her own 
magnetism. If this be unhealthy, then the child is 
made sick by it. In truth, I have known a good many 
persons whose general health was rather feeble, but 
who made excellent wet-nurses to young children be- 
cause they happened to be in just those magnetic con- 
ditions whereby the milk became positively charged, 
and, therefore, was particularly good food for them. 
It is difficult to describe the diseases or derange- 
ments with which children are afflicted during the 
earlier periods of their existence, arising, as these do 
for the most part, as I have stated, from being handled 
and nursed by their mothers or wet-nurses who them- 
selves are decidedly out of health. Some of the symp- 
toms which children thus show are wind-colic, consti- 
pation of the bowels, coldness of feet and hands, with 
undue heat of head, flushed face, enlarged pupil of the 
eye, quite often a working of the under jaw upon the 
upper, as is done during teething, when a grating sound 
is heard. The best remedy for these difficulties gen er - 
G 122 
TEETHING, 
ally, is to change the food of the child, also to have ii 
handled by some one else than its mother, and to keep 
its body clean and cool by gentle ablutions, and its 
clothes well aired and cleanly on its person. Where 
mothers are scrofulous, and by hereditary descent pre- 
disposed to consumption, I think it of great conse- 
quence to the future as well as the present health of 
their children, that th6y should not nurse them. But 
such children should be put out to wet-nurse, or brought 
up by hand. When a child has arrived at an age suf- 
ficient to have the process of teething begin, it is more 
likely than not to show abnormal conditions. If the 
habits of women were more natural than they are, and 
so their bodies more healthy and their blood in better 
conditions and in better circulation, and their nervous 
systems more substantively related to their office-work, 
invigorating the blood-making organs and keeping the 
body at large in equilibrium of force, the process of 
teething in children would be as simple and as devoid 
of manifested derangement of their health, as it is in 
young animals, whose food for a period after birth is 
milk drawn from their mothers. We have no evidence 
that lambs, pigs, calves or colts suffer in their health 
from teething. I have no recollection now of ever 
hearing of any of these animals being thrown off their 
food, indicating thereby a disturbed relation of the cir- 
culation and irritation of the nervous system from the 
mere act of their teething. On the contrary, m this 
direction, as in most others, the contrast between their 
relations to life and those of children is greatly in -heir TEETHING. 
123 
favor. I think it is worthy the attention of parents 
that such is the fact. For one does not really feel very 
much elated when the natural processes of growth in 
an animal, involving its dentition, are all carried on 
with such ease, yet with such entire subjection to the 
laws which govern its life and maintain its health, as 
to have it know no disturbance or suffering ; while in 
children these processes are carried on, almost always, 
so as to indicate suffering, and not infrequently severe 
sickness. This all might be changed in the child's 
favor by conformity of its parents to the demands which 
Nature herself makes. To have children healthy from 
birth to teething-time, must be a source of very great 
comfort and peace to their parents. 
We have had residing at " Our Home on the Hill- 
side " a man and wife who had one child. This child 
was about eight months old; had been up to that time 
so judiciously reared as to give to its parents, and its 
mother in particular, little or no trouble. It nevei' had 
slept in a cradle, nor, after the few nights immediately 
succeeding its birth, in the same bed with either of its 
parents, but it slept on a couch by itself. Up to that 
time it had been as quiet and peaceable a child as one 
could ask, never crying except for obvious cause. I 
inquired of its mother in respect to its habits and con 
ditions. She stated that it had a good many times 
gone to bed and to sleep at six o'clock in the evening, 
and lain until six o'clock the next morning without any 
attention from any person, waking up in the morning 
at sunrise, and lying in bed thereafter for an hour, 124 
TEETHING DIARRHCEA. 
making no complaint whatever, but kicking up its 
heels, and showing that its sensations were of the most 
gratifying and pleasant nature. What was true of this 
child might be true of nearly all children. 
Teething Diarrhoea.-The indications of this dis- 
ease are restlessness on the part of the child, attended 
with a good deal of retching, with frequent crying and 
sudden cessation therefrom in the earlier stages of the 
disease. The face becomes alternately flushed and 
pale; the hands are cold, but sweating in the palms; 
the feet are cold, but sweating in the soles; the knees 
are cold at the knee-pan; the child shows extreme 
sensibility over the lower part of the abdomen on ex- 
ternal pressure; and the lower jaw wrorks as if the 
child were in pain. After these symptoms have shown 
themselves for twenty-four to thirty-six hours, the 
diarrhoea commences. The stools are of a light or a 
dark-greenish color, sometimes giving to the diapers a 
bluish tinge. The passages are quite watery and 
frequent, not uncommonly passing with little or no 
strain upon the abdominal muscles. Whenever the 
disease shows itself, it may be set down as a fact that 
the liver, stomach and external skin are at fault in 
their respective and mutual action. The irritation of 
the stomach and bowels is caused by the irritation of 
• the general nervous system consequent on teething. 
The disease is not at all dangerous, and scarcely ever 
has a fatal termination. From want of good sense on 
'he part of parents and sometimes compli- SUMMER COMPLAINT. 
125 
cations are created, and the original disease is made 
to give way to one which has been induced under drug- 
medication. If good care is given to the child during 
the first ten or twelve days after the appearance of 
the disease, though the diarrhoea may last for weeks 
and the child grow poor, meanwhile showing consider- 
able sickness, there is no danger. Teething does not 
naturally induce such irritations of the nervous system, 
nor such disturbances of the circulation as to endanger 
a child's life. If some confidence on the part of the 
parents in Nature is had, and hygienic treatment of 
the child is followed, by thus having it in care, there 
need be no fear as to the result. It is not such a dis- 
ease, by any means, as cholera infantum, or what is 
known as summer complaint with children. 
Summer Complaint.-I recommend for the child 
thus affected food made of two-thirds new cows'-milk 
and one-third water, with a little sugar in it and a little 
unbolted wheat flour, the coarser parts of the bran 
being sifted out. Let the child have this in preference 
to nursing its mother,* if she be of nervous tempera- 
ment and a hard worker with a good deal of care upon 
her; for the child will be the better for not nursing 
her, and the mother will be the better for not being 
nursed. I would also recommend that the child be 
bathed all over in water, at a temperature from 98° 
down to 90°, being rubbed with soft towels to wipe 
dry, and the naked, soft hand of the attendant to make 
the skin smooth and velvety to the touch. If there is FITS. 
126 
considerable disturbance of the bowels, give injections 
to wash them out, and lay cool, wet cloths across the 
■abdomen covered by dry ones, provided the sickness 
comes on during the hot or summer term. Largely the 
life of such a child should be spent in the open air. A 
carriage, in which a bed can be made, should be pur- 
chased, and the child placed in it and drawn about 
where the sun shines and the air is pure. Under such 
circumstances, the process of teething will go on, the 
summer complaint will be entirely manageable, and 
the child will come out of it with no loss of constitu- 
tional or functional vigor. 
Fits.-During the process of teething children some- 
times are seized with convulsions, accompanied by a 
temporary unconsciousness. This state or condition is 
denominated a fit. Mothers are almost always alarmed, 
but in large measure unnecessarily, whenever their 
children pass into these conditions. 
The treatment needed in such cases, generally, is to 
cleanse the bowels by tepid water injections, and to 
promote circulation to the extremities and to the ex- 
ternal surface at large by such baths as are necessary. 
A short pack, though the child be young, is often pro- 
ductive of almost immediate relief. I have seen a 
great many children suffering in this way, but under 
hygienic treatment they have readily recovered. It is 
better, however, to prevent such a morbid manifesta- 
tion than it is to treat it curatively; and this can be 
readily done if the child is carefully and judiciously FITS. 
127 
managed in its general habits, securing to it cleanliness 
of skin, natural aperiency of bowel, good general ex- 
ternal circulation, proper food eaten at proper times, 
and regular sleep. I much doubt whether a child 
tvhose conditions of living in the main were right would 
ever have any sort of convulsive attack, ending in un- 
consciousness, by reason of the excitement through 
which the nervous system would pass from teething. 
At any rate, generally where children have fits during 
the period of dentition, these are to be ascribed more 
directly to bad habits of living than to the particular 
exacerbation of the nervous system consequent upon 
the inflammation of gums preceding the cutting of 
teeth. Like many other diseases of children at a 
very early age, this of fits is to be guarded against by 
careful oversight; but when it comes, like other dis 
eases, it is much more readily cured by a course of 
treatment which looks well to the rectification of any 
ill conditions existing in the child's life than by any 
specific administration of drug-medicines. If parents 
hope to have their children not only healthy when 
infants, but when quite young along up into adolescent 
years, and from thence onward to adult age, through 
middle into mature life, and down to old age, let them 
avoid the giving to them of medicaments of the nature 
of which they know nothing, or of the effects of which 
they know but little; because almost all of these, by 
whatever school administered, are more or less poison- 
ous to the healthy structures, and thus directly tend 
to induce unhealthy conditions of them. CHAPTER XV 
TETTEK. 
This is a common name for a class of diseases in- 
dicated by eruption of the skin. Physicians have 
divided them off under different names. It is not ne- 
cessary that I should make this distinction, because, 
whatever modification in appearance they may respect- 
ively show, the difference has nothing to do with the 
treatment. They all are to be classified under one 
general head, and need substantially the same treat- 
ment. The name Tetter does not cover all eruptive 
diseases, but it does cover a class of them, all of which 
may be readily understood and known as soon as one 
of them is understood and known. No description of 
these is necessary in order to be able to form a correct 
diagnosis, because no other disease of the skin, such 
as measles, scarlet fever, kine or chicken-pox, or small- 
pox, bears any resemblance whatever to the disease 
known under the name of Tetter. 
The disease arises from impurity of blood, caused 
generally by derangements of the nutritive or blood- 
making organs. Sometimes the subject may be said 
to have inherited a tendency thereto. Sometimes the 
disease is communicable to another by contact with a 
128 TETTER. 
129 
person having it. More commonly it originates in a 
depravation of the blood from unhealthy food, insuf- 
ficient clothing, want of exercise in the open air, and 
want of sunlight, and from the use of impure water 
Where a combination of these causes exists, the blood 
becomes so deteriorated in quality as in its organiza- 
tion to make very unhealthy tissue. And when this 
is broken up under the eliminative processes to be car- 
ried out of the system, the skin becomes poisoned bj 
the acridity of the waste material. 
For all this class of diseases nothing will be found 
so efficient as the following: First, farinaceous and 
fruit foods; second, the use, as a drink, of pure soft 
water; third, general daily ablutions in water at as 
low a temperature as the patient can take and react 
healthfully-say eighty-five degrees ; fourth, daily ex 
posure of the body, unclad (for as long a time as the 
subject can bear it and not be debilitated thereby), to 
sunlight and air; fifth, regular action of the bowels; 
sixth, regular exercise and abundant sleep; seventh, 
time to make the necessary changes. 
I recollect to have had a young man come to me 
afflicted with a lettered skin, the eruption being so 
complete that one could scarcely find a spot on his body 
as large as a common wafer, which was free from the 
disease. lie had been so for years, and had exhausted 
the resources of the drug-school. I placed him under 
Psycho-hygienic treatment, and in nine months com- 
pletely and entirely cured him, so that his skin was as 
smooth as that of a young child, and he has never 130 
SCALD HEAD. 
had a return of the disease. There is no treatment 
that can be made half as effectual in this class of dis- 
eases as the Psycho-hygienic. The worst possible forms 
of the disease give way before it. In truth, there is no 
possibility of 'failure to cure any case where there is 
life-force enough to justify the expectation that the 
subject can live. 
Scald Head.-This disease is said to be catching or 
contagious in some instances. Doubtless it is. But 
wherever it is communicated, there must be a predis- 
posing tendency, on the part of the person taking it, to 
catch it. Hygienic children will not catch it. At 
least, I infer so, because in a good many instances I 
have known them to be exposed thereto, by associating 
with those who have had the disease in its worst and 
most repulsive forms. Essentially, I regard it as a 
scrofulous disease, originating in enfeebled blood-mak- 
ing organs, and dependent upon depraved conditions 
of blood. It is not in an exact sense a local disease. 
Showing itself as it does on the scalp, it nevertheless 
lias its causal conditions in an imperfect action of the 
digestive and assimilative organs. Where the trans- 
mutative organs are so related to their office that when 
they come to change food eaten into blood, they cannot 
make it healthy, there may begin such a morbid condi- 
tion as, when it shows itself, to do so in the form of 
this particular disease. The peculiarities of the disease 
are, that it appears upon the scalp, sometimes occupy- 
ing patches of it only, sometimes involving the entire SCALD HEAD. 
131 
integument of the upper and back part of the skull, 
making such deep and ulcerous sores as to kill out the 
hair-bulbs, and thus destroy that structure entirely. I 
have had to treat a number of cases where there was 
but very little hair left upon the head ; and though the 
subjects of it under my treatment got entirely well, 
the scalp never afterward came to be covered with hair. 
Here and there were patches of hair, but the persons, 
though young, were essentially bald. In some cases, 
however, as bad as the former, the hair came in after 
the scalp was healed, and grew as luxuriantly as before. 
I never had but one case of this disease to treat where 
some sort of external curative, poisonous in its com- 
ponent parts, had not been applied. Some of them 
had had applied the most poisonous unguents which 
chemists could make, but with no effect, except in 
every instance to impair the general health. In two 
instances where such ointments or lotions had been 
applied, the patients were made very sick, and came 
very near losing their lives. Out of some thirty-five 
eases of scald head which I have had to treat, more or 
less severe in extent and chronic in duration, I have 
never failed to cure a single instance. 
My treatment has been, in the main, as follows: 
First, a diet made up almost exclusively from prepara- 
tions of unbolted wheat flour and ripe subacid fruits, 
a moderate amount of milk, an almost entire disuse of 
sugar, and a complete disuse of salt. Also, an entire 
disuse of flesh meats of every kind. Food to be eaten 
wice in twenty-four hours. No drink except pure, 132 
SCALD HEAD. 
soft, cold water. No medicines of any kind, or nar- 
cotic or alcoholic beverages. A wet-sheet pack three 
times a week at the least, and as much oftener, up to a 
pack every day, as the patient's robustness would per- 
mit. After each pack either a dripping-sheet, or a 
pail-douche, or a plunge, or a half-bath - as the cir- 
cumstances of the case would permit - the water at 
as low a temperature as the patient could take and get 
thoroughly warm after it. Alternating with this treat- 
ment would be sitz-baths, at a temperature of from 
ninety to seventy-two degrees, continued from five to 
twenty minutes, as the case may be. Abdominal 
bandages worn all around the body night and day. 
A linen head or skull-cap worn night and day, wet. 
A cleansing of the scalp every day in warm soap-suds, 
followed by pouring upon the head water, as cold as 
the patient could bear, for the space of from one to 
three minutes, with such intervals of suspension as 
were necessary to make the process, if not entirely 
comfortable, yet endurable. A daily evacuation of the 
bowels ; if need be, by tepid injections. Exercise mod- 
erate, and such as not to excite the heart or heat up 
the blood. 
In several instances coming under my care the dis- 
ease has metastasized ; that is, it has gone from the 
head to some other part of the body. 'Whenever it has 
done so, the scalp has healed nicely and become smooth, 
and, to the degree that the hair-bulbs were not killed, 
new hair has come out. At the place where the dis- 
ease was transferred, there would be violent burning, COMMON ITCH. 
133 
rash, and boils ol arger or lesser size. I recollect one 
instance wherein there came on the patient's body cov- 
ered by what I call an abdominal bandage, not less 
than thirty boils, one after another, resulting in the en- 
tire purification of the blood and the tissues of the body 
at large. The person got entirely well. 
I wish here to impress upon my readers who may 
have reason to know how to treat this kind of eruptive 
disease, the necessity of a proper system of diet for the 
patient. Diet and bathing constitute the two impor- 
tant and essential remedial agencies. Of course, proper 
habits of life in other directions are not to be over 
looked ; but, unless the person being treated can have 
proper food to eat, proper water to drink and to apply 
to the external surface, there is little or no use in mak- 
ing attempt at cure. If such attempt is made after 
the common medical practice, and it results in a cure, 
it is more likely than not that the patient will have 
some vital organ, like the lungs, stomach, liver or bow- 
els, take on the disease ; and then incurable conditions 
follow inevitably. But under the Psycho-hygienic treat- 
ment there is no danger of ill result. The vital forces 
are made to assume entire control of the organism ; and 
to the degree that morbid matters are excreted and 
the blood and tissues made pure, will the general ner- 
vous system and the blood-making organs show larger 
and more efficient capacity. 
Common Itch.-This is a disease of the skin, with 
which almost all adult persons, at least once in their 134 
COMMON ITCH. 
lives, have been made familiar. Scientific investiga- 
tion has shown that it is an eruptive or pustulous con- 
dition of the skin, caused by the imbedding beneath it 
of a parasite, an infinitesimal insect, which is communi- 
cated from one person to another by their coming into 
contact, or by one wearing the clothes of another, or 
sleeping in the same bed linen as the other. There is 
but little chance for any one who has had the disease 
to mistake it for any other kind of skin eruption. The 
diagnostic symptoms are pimples, watery at first, break- 
ing out between the fingers, and itching intensely. 
Subsequently the pimples become pustular, or have in 
them thick matter, and at last, becoming confluent, 
grow into sores. These extend over the back of the 
hands, and all along the inner side or under side of the 
arms. They also, at a later or more advanced stage, 
appear on the calves of the legs, or about the ankles, 
and in the hollow of the leg at the knee. They also 
show themselves on the upper part of the chest, just 
below the upper end of the breast bone, or midway be- 
tween the breasts. In some instances they show them- 
selves on the back, over the region of the shoulder- 
blades, and down across the small of the back, and 
pretty well down upon the sides. The disease, if al- 
lowed to progress, comes sometimes to make quite ex- 
tensive and very painful sores. It scarcely ever shows 
itself upon any part of the face, or upon the palms of 
the hands, or the bottoms of the feet, though I have 
seen cases in which sores broke out as badly between 
the toes as between the fingers. COMMON HVJH. 
135 
For the cure of it, all poisonous ointments should be 
dispensed with. The mercurial preparation commonly 
known as " unguentum," or the other preparation known 
as "red precipitate," should never be employed. No 
such virulent poisons can do good without doing harm. 
True, they will kill the parasite, and cure the itch , 
out not infrequently at such an expenditure of vitality 
as to leave the patient broken down in constitution and 
ruired in health. Their use should, therefore, be sedu- 
lously discouraged. If anything in the way of oint- 
ment has to be used, I think the safest preparation is 
pulverized brimstone (not the sulphur of the shops) and 
hog's-lard, or any other animal oil which one may pre- 
fer. Make these two into a consistent unguent, and 
apply it to the sores for three or four nights succes- 
sively, and the itch will disappear with less danger 
than by the use of any other ointment which I haye 
ever yet seen. I mention this, because in many in- 
stances, persons having this apparent skin eruption are 
so situated that they cannot take Psycho-hygienic treat- 
ment, which, whenever it can be applied faithfully, will 
prove a thorough and substantial curative. No para- 
site under the human skin, nor, for that matter, in the 
human bowels cau long withstand the effects of a 
thorough application of Psycho-hygienic treatment. 
My manner of treating it where I can command the 
time and attention of the patient under the application 
of hygienic resources, is, in the main, as follows : First, 
a very careful and spare diet. Second, no drink but 
water ; this, soft and pure. Third, abundant bathing, 136 
COMMON lien. 
bordering on the heroic style. For instance, where the 
person is otherwise vigorous, I would give daily sweat- 
ing of a pretty effectual kind, to be followed by tonic 
half-baths, or dripping sheets, or plunges. Packing in 
cold, wet sheets, with the person lying in long enough 
to get up a condition of the skin approximating to a 
decided sweat, followed by cold effusions, or some form 
of cold baths, will, in a little while, prove very effec- 
tual. I think it quite competent for the itch to be 
starved to death while the patient eats plenty of food 
himself. Unless the tissues are very foul, and so in a 
good state of preparation to take on the disease, there 
is but little risk of one's catching it. I have handled, 
m the last twenty years, a hundred patients having the 
itch, and never had it communicated to me at all. I 
fear it but little more than I should yellow fever. 1 
believe the time is to come when a great many of the 
diseases now supposed to be contagious, will entirely 
disappear-at any rate, will not be communicable to 
persons whose conditions of living from birth have 
been thoroughly hygienic, nor will they be exposed to 
take them in any form. My reasons for thinking so 
are, that as far as I have been able to make my own 
life, and the lives of the immediate members of my 
family, hygienic, have we come to be and to feel our- 
selves to be unsusceptible to a great many forms of 
disease to which a great many persons are, and feel 
themselves to be liable. I seriously doubt whether a 
child born of healthy parents if it were taken from the 
period of its weaning, and fed up to adult age upon COMMON ITCH. 
137 
food composed entirely of unbolted wheat-meal and 
good soft water, in such forms of preparation as might 
be possible under a commingling of these two sub- 
stances, and in addition thereto have the use of ripe 
fruits in their natural state, could under any circum- 
stances have the itch. At any rate, the disease would 
be very light, and would readily yield to Psycho-hygi 
anie curatives. CHAPTER XVI. 
MEASLES. 
This disease is the product of modern civilization. 
At least, it was not known among the ancients in the 
form in which it now shows itself. It corresponds in 
the human subject to a disease common to swine; is 
essentially a skin disease, caused by changes which the 
blood undergoes from the introduction of specific poi- 
son into it. Originally it must have been in conse- 
quence of such depravation of blood as arose from 
inaction of the liver and kidneys, bowels and skin. 
Whenever the liver and kidneys take on a specific 
abnormalism, and, in consequence, the bowels become 
inert, and the skin defective in its action, waste matter 
accumulates in the system, and as it remains there un- 
dergoes- chemical changes, making it not infrequently 
decidedly poisonous. When the system becomes charged 
with it, eliminations of it by the skin produce skin dis- 
ease. This undoubtedly was the way in which measles 
at first originated. Whether by the food eaten, or the 
water drunk, or the drugs taken, a specific poison 
was introduced into the system, I am not able to say. 
Of this fact I strongly surmise, that the poison was in- 
troduced into the system through the flesh of the hog. 
138 139 
MEASLES. 
t infer this because I have seen, in a great many in- 
stances, the flesh of that animal having the same ap- 
pearance that the flesh of the human subject has 
when thoroughly infiltrated and externally covered with 
measles. The external surface of a measly swine corre- 
sponds as near in appearance to that of the external 
appear am/e of a human being well broken out with 
the measles, as the difference in structure will permit; 
and the interior of the flesh of a measly hog is filled 
with the measly coloring. 
It is not difficult to conceive that human beings may 
have been poisoned by eating such flesh, the disease 
once fixed in them becoming accommodated to the 
peculiar nature and qualities of the human body so 
as to be readily transmitted by contact one with an- 
other, whenever the disease palpably exists. It is as 
easy to transfer measles to the human system, and alter 
it in some of its constituent elements, as it is to take 
the eruption which is on the bags of cows, and intro- 
duce it into the circulation of a human being, and thus 
produce what we call kine-pox. If it be true that 
measles did originate in the use of swine's flesh, or of 
the flesh of some other animal susceptible like the 
swine to such a poisoned condition of the blood and 
tissues, why is it not fair to.infer that persons who shall 
live in the disuse of animal food long enough to have 
changes in their blood and organized tissues so made 
as to amount to a constitutional recast of them, may 
become competent to transmit this new condition to 
their offspring, and these to others, until at length a 140 
MEASLES. 
class or breed of persons shall exist upon whom the 
specific poison of measles will have no effect. If dis- 
eases which at one period of the world affect human 
beings in general, do die out, by reason of the modify- 
ing influences of climate, and changes in the general 
habits of life of human beings, so that they cannot 
take on such diseases, why may not my hypothesis with 
reference to this and other eruptive diseases be true ? 
I do not see why it may not be. In fact, I do not see 
why, under a proper respect to, and application of, the 
laws of life and health, carried on from generation 
to generation, through a period of time long enough 
to produce all the constitutional modifications for the 
better of which the human body is capable, persons 
may not become so related to life as to have no disease 
ut all. 
There are cases now and then of just this kind hap- 
pening. Every little while in some newspaper will be 
an account of a man or woman who died at an ad- 
vanced age, never having been sick a day in his life. 
Here and there, also, will appear- in some newspaper 
a fact that a person has lived in districts where the 
neighbors have had some particular disease year after 
year, and he has not been touched by it. One such 
fact as this involves the existence of the universal 
law. The reason why its efficiency is not made uni- 
versal, is because the conditions necessary thereto are 
wanting. Set to work and create the conditions, and 
the law makes itself applicable to all persons who are 
in such conditions The possibility of such a result MEASLES, 
141 
should never be doubted while one such fact exists 
Measles may be diagnosticated as follows: First, a 
dull heavy headache comes on, together with some 
slight fever, generally attended with a dry, hacking- 
cough, a furred tongue, swollen eyes, flushed face, hot 
head, cold hands, cold feet, and either a lack of or a 
voracity of appetite. In some instances, just before 
the eruption breaks out, the person will have a fit, not 
convulsive, but fainting, not infrequently coming on 
during the meal-time ; if at such time, to be followed 
very soon, if all the circumstances be favorable, by an 
eruption, beginning either on the bowels or on the feet 
or face, extending over the entire body. The period 
of incubation, or hatching, as it is termed, varies in 
different persons, and, therefore, can furnish no guide 
for the inquirer. When the eruption appears on one 
part, to have the patient do well it should speedily 
cover the whole body. If it cover only patches, then 
the patient is likely to be sick, having a severe fever. 
In such a case nothing is so good in the way of treat- 
ment as ablutions of the skin. Of these, no form is so 
good as the wet-sheet pack, if the patient is so situated 
as to have it applied; if not, then towel-washings or 
sponging in tepid water all over the body, keeping the 
person from getting chilly. If the weather be warm, 
there is no need of any particular care in this direc- 
tion ; but if the weather be cold, there shoul il be a fire 
in the room while the bath is being given. When the 
bath is given and the person is in bed, well-covered, 
the windows may be opened, or such other means of 142 
MEASLES. 
ventilation used as may be available, so that the patient 
shall have plenty of pure air, for the effluvia arising 
from the measly body is vastly diffusible, and can min- 
gle itself up with the atmosphere of the room so as to 
impregnate the air, and soon make it foul. Give, then, 
to the patient plenty of air ; but see to it that he does 
not become exposed so as to check the cutaneous circu- 
lation, because to promote it is the object of taking the 
oath. It is always well as soon as a person gives signs 
of being measly sick, to secure an emptying of the 
bowels. This is readily and safely done by injections 
of tepid water plentifully administered, ofttimes in such 
quantities as to fill the bowel up to the sigmoid flex- 
ure, carrying in its downward passage all feculae, and 
nnsing and washing the bowel out thoroughly. 
There are four rules for the treatment of measles 
worth popular and professional notice : First, keep the 
head cool and the feet warm ; second, keep the skin in 
good circulation ; third, keep the patient quiet, letting 
him not see company; fourth, keep him on a fluid or 
semi-fluid farinaceous diet, until convalescence is thor- 
oughly begun. Then be careful about exposure to 
lower temperatures of air than he has been accustomed 
to. Also be careful that he is not overtaxed. Under 
such circumstances, not one person in ten thousand - 
child or adult-meed die. Of course, this statement 
does not include the complication of other diseases 
with measles. If the child is excessively scrofulous, 
or if the adult has dyspepsia, or congestion of the 
lungs, or liver complaint, and is attacked by the mea- MEASLES. 
143 
sles, in sp te of everything to the contrary such per- 
son may die. But where, up to the time that a person 
takes on measles, he has shown freedom from other 
diseases, there is not the least danger of his dying if 
carefully and hygienically managed. Doctors of all 
schools, I believe, will recognize the correctness of 
this statement; for they themselves scarcely ever give 
any medicines to persons afflicted with the disease, pro- 
vided it is measles pure and simple, and the only dis- 
ease which the person has. 
Where one child or person in a family has been ex- 
posed to it and taken it, unless there are strong reasons 
why another or all other members of the family should 
not have it, it is better to let it run through the entire 
household. For, first, the family has to adjust itself to 
its presence in the case of one person at least, and, 
appearing as it does in that case, it will go through the 
family in successive stages, and will cause less trouble, 
less anxiety of mind, and less difficulty to manage it 
then, than at any future time. I know it is a common 
thing for parents to try to keep their children from 
catching it when it is in a neighborhood, but if they 
would only make their children live hygienically they 
need not fear it at all. In fact, hygienists as a general 
thing think nothing about it. I have known a lady 
friend of mine, whose children had never eaten any 
meat or butter, but had lived upon grains, Vegetables 
and fruits, very simply cooked, and whose conditions 
of personal cleanliness were habitual, deliberately to 
expose her children to take the measles, and, when 144 
MEASLES, 
they did so, to pay no sort of attention to them beyond 
that which she usually gave, saying that she was not 
at all afraid that her children would have them so as 
to lay them up, and, in truth, they did not. They only 
had a slight manifestation of the disease, not sensibly 
affecting their conditions for over twenty-four hours. 
, An additional reason for having persons have the 
measles when they are young is, that the disease is less 
likely to affect them constitutionally than after they 
have become adult. Men and women are sicker when- 
ever they catch the measles than children are, and are 
apt to have their health more seriously affected by the 
indirect results than children are. But as regards the 
treatment which they need, what is fit for the child is. 
fit for the full-grown person, making such difference in 
the vigor of the remedial application as the difference 
in the confirmed vigor of the system demands. Any 
person who finds himself about to have the measles, 
may accept my suggestions with perfect confidence 
that he will come out of it all right, provided, always, 
he is not already sick. If he be, then he must be all 
the more careful, and all the more patient, and all the 
more trusting to nature and to good nursing. CHAPTER XVII. 
This disease is common to children of the United 
States in almost all parts of it. It is an inflammation 
of the wind-pipe; is distinguished from the common 
inflammation of the upper part of this organ by a pre- 
disposition to the formation of false membrane. I think 
it substantially the same disease as diphtheria, with 
the exception that the latter always passes into the 
stage of false membranous formation before death 
ensues, whereas croup ofttimes produces death by pure 
inflammation without any false membrane forming. 
The disease may be regarded, however, as so nearly 
like diphtheria as to justify the same treatment in the 
one case as in the other, though diphtheria is usually 
a severer manifestation of inflammation than* croup. 
Croup has one peculiarity attaching to it which diph- 
theria has not; it is confined entirely to children, 
whereas diphtheria attacks persons of all ages, from the 
child to the person of mature life. Children only of a 
definite age are usually attacked by croup. The period 
in which the disease appears is that between the first 
and the eighth year of age. In the first months they 
do not have it; older than this, they seldom, if ever, 
CROUP. 
145 146 
CROUP. 
have it, though cases are seen where this law of action 
does not obtain. 
Croup has been divided by medical men into two or 
three stages. The first, that wherein premonitory 
symptoms are seen, attended by nasal catarrh, the 
throat becoming at th'e same time hoarse, while the 
subject is, along toward the evening, somewhat debil- 
itated and fretful, showing a complaining, peevish, 
irritable disposition, with irascibility, forgetting what 
it usually remembers-distinctions in age, position and 
relationship. A croupy child will behave just as badly 
towards its parents, or persons who are so much older 
than itself as commonly to make it respectful, as it will 
to one of its own age. This symptom is one of the 
best which we can get at whereby to distinguish this 
disease from any other affection of the throat. There 
is always in the premonitory stage, with other symp- 
toms, a dry, hacking cough, sometimes resembling the 
bark of an old dog; the child will coinplain of irrita 
tion and burning in the windpipe, and say that it is in 
pain there. At this period the breathing is always 
labored,- and the child carries its head a little forward. 
Not a very clear indication can be had from the pulse, 
though this is what doctors call dry and hard; but the 
face is usually suffused with a flush, looking as if the 
child had been running hard. Croup often attacks 
children between the hour of going to bed and mid 
night; generally, if in the night, before rather than 
after twelve o'clock. When the disease appears in the 
night, its progress is much more rapid than when it CROUP. 
147 
appt ars during any period of the day-time, especially 
if the day be warm and sunshiny. When children are 
as far along in age as they can be and yet be liable 
to croup, they complain of burning about the throat 
as if they had drunk an infusion of red pepper. Where 
this burning sensation exists, the voice soon after be 
comes hoarse in a marked degree, and wheezing com 
mences. About this time the external surface of the 
body becomes hot and feverish to the touch, the pulse 
becomes quicker, and the eyes have a vacant stare. 
This may be termed the second stage, from which, if 
the disease is not checked, the subject passes readily 
into the third stage. Then comes the disposition to lie 
upon the back, to refuse to talk, and if a coughing fit 
shows itself the face becomes very anxious. From this 
period not more than twTenty-four hours usually trans- 
pire before the child dies. 
In croup, as in diphtheria, what is done should be 
done quickly. The old Latin maxim is very pertinent 
in this disease: " He does a thing twice who does it 
quickly." I have never had a great many cases of 
croup to treat, my experience having been summoned 
in the direction of the treatment of diphtheria; but 
as diphtheria is by all.means the severer disease, I 
have felt, in whatever cases of croup my services 
were demanded, that the treatment which has proved 
so eminently successfully in diphtheria must prove, 
in the same ratio, successful in the treatment of 
croup. So I always considered that, with the ex- 
ception of the difference in severity of symptoms, 148 
CROUP. 
and in the fact that diphtheria attacks persons of 
all ages, while croup scarcely ever attacks persons 
older than eight years, that the treatment of diph- 
theria would be proper in croup. I have followed 
it, therefore, with such modifications as difference of 
age and constitution and severity of affection might 
demand, and have never lost a case out of over fifty 
cases of croup which I have had to treat. I never lost 
a case of diphtheria out of hundreds where I was called 
before any drug-physician had been called. 
The treatment for croup, therefore, I recommend, is, 
as follows: First, just as soon as a child of scrofulous 
diathesis or habit of body begins to show symptoms 
like a common cold, either in the direction of hoarse- 
ness of the throat or catarrh of the nose, prompt meas- 
ures should be taken to prevent the disease from fixing 
itself upon the larynx or windpipe; for a common 
catarrh of the nose, when once it extends itself to the 
windpipe of a scrofulous child, readily becomes trans- 
formed into croup. Therefore to prevent a croupy state 
is simply good sense on the part of the parent or who- 
ever has the child in care. To do this nothing further 
is needed than to keep the child from exposure to fur- 
ther changes in the circulation; to avoid exposure to 
getting wet or chilly on the surface of the body ; to 
secure by tepid injections of water an active move- 
ment of the bowels; to lower the circulation by dis- 
pensing, foi the time, with food; to give the child 
plenty of pure soft water to drink, in order that blood- 
washing may take place, and the blood become purified CROUP. 
149 
by having waste matters carried off through the various 
excretories; to add to this vigor of excretion by having 
the external surface of the body thoroughly cleansed 
from all lodged perspirable matter, by washing it in 
water of a mild temperature; to keep the child in the 
house, and quiet, the room where he is confined being 
well ventilated; to secure soon after the appearance of' 
the first symptoms of the disease a good sound, quiet 
sleep for him-all these combined serve a curative pur- 
pose to the life force, which can scarcely fail of complete 
and thorough efficacy. In such a case, the child will 
be relieved from all the manifested symptoms in twenty- 
four hours, though retaining a great susceptibility to a 
re-appearance of the disease unless care is had for 
several days. But when, from any cause, primary 
symptoms have been neglected and nothing therefor 
has been done until the disease has passed into the 
second stage, the treatment which I have recommended 
for diphtheria should then immediately be employed. 
Take, then, a child in the second stage of croup, and, 
as soon as possible, put him into a bath of water at a 
temperature as high as he can bear. I have often used 
water at a temperature of 105°. If it be possible to 
do so, immerse the body from feet to neck, lea-sung 
nothing out but the head. There let him sit until 
thorough sweating takes place. If such a thorough 
submerging of the body cannot be had, then cover the 
body with blankets, wrapped about the neck and ex- 
tending over the tub in which he sits, until the heat 
cannot readils escape, and thus produce sweating. If 150 
CROUP. 
Jiis cannot be done, wrap the body up in wrung 
out of hot water as often as is necessary to produce 
the desired sweating. After having sweat flie child 
thoroughly, take him out, and wrap him up in a Wet 
sheet dipped in cold water; one need not be afraid 
that it will be unpleasant. After having been heated 
up as he has been by his sweat, the cold sheet will feel 
pleasant. Wrap him up, therefore, in it, and wrap 
around him plenty of blankets, and lay him away on 
the bed, putting a cold cloth on his head. Leave him 
there for half an hour, if he does not complain of be- 
ing chilly or in any way particularly uncomfortable; 
and if he falls asleep, then leave him for an hour or 
two; for sleep is a better restorative under such cir- 
cumstances than any other which can be used. Be 
this as it may, when he is taken out he should have a 
cool effusion, or a cold wet sheet or towel-rubbing, rub- 
bing the whole body vigorously, especially the chest 
and throat, not forgetting the necessity of keeping a 
thorough circulation in the extremities, to secure which, 
vigorous and long continued friction should be used. 
Wipe dry after this washing, and then put on a wet 
throat bandage ; if dipped in ice-water, all the better. 
Over this put a dry one. Put on a pair of chest-jack- 
ets, the inner one wet in cool water and wrung out, so 
that it will not drip; the outer one dry. (For the 
knowledge how to make it, see " How to take Baths," 
in the back part of this volume.) Put also, around the 
abdomen, or lower bowel, a wet compress; on the head, 
a head-cap or band wet in ice-water, rewetting it as CROUP. 
151 
often as is necessary to keep it cool. Wrap the lower 
limbs up in hot flannels, and lay the child away in bed. 
In ninety-nine cases in a hundred the patient will go 
to sleep. When he wakes up, there will be no croup 
Io be found; an entire change will have been wrought, 
and nothing more is needed but to give to the child op- 
portunities for the most thorough quiet and the complet- 
es! rest. In case, however, the symptoms are not abated, 
but are only slightly mitigated, go through with the 
same thing over again. It will not hurt the child, but 
will benefit him. And if when the second process has 
been wrought out there is no benefit, try the third. 
There is no danger, or, at least, not half as much of 
doing the child injury under his circumstances by treat- 
ment as by letting him alone. The true treatment of 
croup is by increasing the circulation to the skin, not 
by the bowels, nor by the kidneys, nor, of course, by 
the lungs. Determine insensible as well as sensible 
perspiration in the largest possible measure to the skin, 
and the child cannot die. Fail to do this, and the 
chances of life are against him. 
Whenever the symptoms have improved and the dis- 
ease seems to have abated, and it looks as if the victory 
had been won, let no such mistake be made as is often 
made by allowing the child to resume at once its ordin- 
ary conditions of life. For days, the greatest care will 
be needed in the direction of the use of food and of 
bodily exercise, and particularly of exposure of the 
body to sudden suppressions of its external circulation. 
The child shoull wear his throat and chest jacket for 152 
CEOUP. 
several days after disease has apparently disappeared. 
He also should have, for two or three days, nothing hut 
fluid or semi-fluid foods, and these of an anti-phlogistic 
or uninflammable kind. Farinaceous and fruit foods 
are better for him than any other. All animal foods, 
together with sugars and oily aliments, should be kept 
from him. He should have only those which are nutri- 
ent and unexciting. The heat-forming foods, therefore, 
should be dispensed with. His bowels should be kept 
open by injections of water; and every day, until his 
health is fully restored, he should receive a good, vigor- 
ous, tonic bath. 
Such treatment, applied under such circumstances, 
■will cure in all cases, except those where there is such 
scrofulous development, seen in very great enfeeble- 
ment of body, as clearly to indicate a constitutional 
inability to react against any severe abnormalism 
When the disease has been permitted to pass to the 
third stage, there is no help for it. It is then incur- 
able. The most that can be done by any treatment is 
to palliate the conditions of the sufferer somewhat, that 
he may die as easily as possible. With reference to 
this disease, as with all others, it is better to have the 
child so live that it cannot have it, than to live so as to 
have it, and then to 3ure it. CHAPTER XVIII. 
DIPHTHERIA. 
The word diphtheria is derived from two Greek words, 
signifying a membrane. The name was given by M. 
Brettonneau to a class of diseases which are character- 
ized by a tendency to the formation of false membranes, 
and affect the mucous membranes, and sometimes the 
skin. It is not a contagious, nor an infectious disease, 
but only epidemic. 
The causes that produce it are of two classes: 
1. The predisposing, or those which operate to fit 
the organism to take on such abnormal conditions as 
are indicated by the disease. 
2. The proximate, or those which immediately oper- 
ate to produce these conditions. 
The predisposing causes are to be found in the gen- 
eral habits of life common to the people of our coun- 
try. Till attention is called to it, thinking persons are 
not aware how uniformly and strikingly similar the 
habits of all children are. As for instance, in the 
sphere of dietetics, almost all children eat the same 
kinds of food, prepared in nearly the same ways. 
Culinary preparations, at the beginning of the autum- 
nal season, and so on through the winter and spring, 154 
DIPHTHERIA. 
partake largely of oleaginous materials. Butter is one 
of these, and is used largely ; fat pork is another, and 
lard another. So also sugar, or syrup is used largely, 
and so, as a condiment, is common salt. Now, with 
grains, vegetables and fruits as a base for our foods, 
with butter and lard intermixed, and flesh-meats, as 
staple articles of diet, together with narcotic beverages, 
in more or less use, the conditions of the blood, of the 
fleshy tissues, and of the nervous systems of children 
are such as greatly to predispose them, under circum- 
stances unfavorable to health, to take on diseases of 
the mucous membrane. Add to these predisposing in- 
fluences those which grow out of confinement in school- 
rooms, where the occupants are compelled for hours to 
sit upon benches and study, while the air which they 
breathe is quite impure, oi' if not so, is of such a tem- 
perature that the stratum in which their feet are bathed, 
is from 5° to 10° lower than that which envelops their 
heads, and you have another predisposing cause to the 
production of this disease. To this add another in 
dress, and you have efficient causes enough to predis- 
pose the bodies of such persons to take on the disease. 
Consider with me now the proximate causes. These 
may be regarded in the main as two : 
1. Sudden and great changes in the degree of tem- 
perature of the atmosphere. 
2. Suppression thereby of the circulation of the blood 
on the external surface of the body, and the forcing of 
it thereby violently upon the internal skin, or, as it is 
called, the mucous membrane, thus inducing severe DIPHTHERIA. 
155 
congestion it the throat, in the case of such persons as, 
by the opei ition of the predisposing causes before al- 
luded to, have had their vital resistance weakened, and 
so are specially fitted to take on such congestion. Under 
(the general habits of living common to our adult and 
child-population, therefore, and the imperfect action of 
the inherent forces of the living organism, in the de- 
partment of the circulation of the skin, together with 
the sudden changes of temperature common to our cli- 
mate in the autumnal, winter and spring seasons of 
the year, are to be found the efficient causes for the 
existence of this disease. 
It is a curious fact, which statistics most certainly 
show, that of adult persons or children, who take the 
disease, females, a i compared with males, in the best 
ratio rank as two i a three, and in the worst ratio they 
rank as three in fo ir. Thus, under the most favorable 
view, two-thirds of the persons attacked are females, 
and under the mosi unfavorable view, three-fourths are 
females. It is easy to account for this from two simple 
considerations: 
1. In the case of adult females, women eat nearly 
as much carbonaceous material for food as men, yet 
they live so as to get very much less pure, and very 
much more impure air than men. As a consequence 
their blood becomes less perfectly aerated, or oxyge- 
nated. as it is termed. From want of aeration it be- 
comes foul, its constituents being made up largely of 
materials which have been separated from the solid 
tissues, and received into the blood with a view of be- 156 
DIPHTHERIA 
.ng passed through the various eliminatory departments 
which are the lungs, the bowels, the kidneys, and the 
skin. Not being carried off as they should be, they 
become acrid and poisonous. When under sudden 
changes of the temperature, therefore, the blood is 
forced from the capillary blood vessels of the skin 
back upon the capillary vessels of the mucous mem- 
brane, the impurities in the blood become a source of 
irritation and inflammation. 
In the case of children, the dress of girls may ac- 
count for their preponderance in numbers of those who 
take the disease. Has your attention ever been directed 
to the unhealthy way in which, for the most part, pa- 
rents dress their girls, especially during the colder sea- 
sons of the year ? A boy has thick covering for his 
feet and legs in the shape of high-topped boots, with 
thick soles, and woolen stockings, and a pair of panta- 
loons coming over his boots down to the ankle. A 
girl has a pair of calf-skin bootees, with stockings, a 
pair of pantalettes coming a little below the knees, to- 
gether with a short skirt which serves no other purpose 
in the world, save to hide her nakedness, but that of so 
arranging the lower portion of her body as to bathe it 
continually in air, which, if of low temperature, must 
necessarily produce constant and uninterrupted chilli- 
ness of the surface. As an illustration of the truth of 
this view, one has but to carry an umbrella over his 
head when currents of cold air exist, to find how much 
sooner, with the umbrella, the upper part of the body 
becomes chilled, than if he did not have it. Now, thus DIPHTHERIA. 
157 
to chill the lower extremities from want of proper 
clothing, and by means of the ill adaptation of such 
clothing as the girl wears, is to force the circulation to 
the upper portions of the body, and, when the tempera- 
ture is cold, to drive the blood from the external sur- 
face of the upper extremities to their internal surfaces, 
thus producing the congestions which are termed diph- 
theritic. 
What then is Diphtheria ? It is a disease of the 
mucous membrane of the throat and air passages, 
caused by their sudden inflammation. So far it is like 
croup, and simulates common influenza, as this is often 
seen in its incipient stages. The points of difference 
between these diseases and diphtheria are frequently 
noticeable in their incipient stages, but become more 
obvious in their advanced stages, through the more 
complicated conditions in diphtheria than in croup, 
influenza or scarlet fever. Persons taken with croup, 
nine times out of ten show like symptoms; so they do 
in cases of influenza and scarlet fever. In croup, es- 
pecially, may the disease be said to be local, scarcely 
dependent upon any general derangement of the organ- 
ism. Children may be, to all appearance, very healthy 
and almost instantaneously show croupy symptoms. In- 
fluenza is almost always preceded by headache. In scar- 
let fever, a child, as a condition precedent to any exhi- 
bition of difficulty of the throat, in a majority of in- 
stances shows disturbed condition of digestion. I have 
never seen one taken down with scarlet fever, who, as a 
condition precedent to its unmistakable manifestation 158 
DIPHTHERIA. 
did not show m _>re or less irritation of the digestive or 
gans lor some time previous. The complications of 
diphtheria are as numerous and as variable as the per- 
sons attacked by it, and they differ very much by reason 
of the temperament, age, special conditions of sex at the 
time of being taken down, etc. I have seen persons, both 
children and adults, attacked with diphtheria, exhibit 
some or other of the following symptoms : Very sudden 
vertigo, with blindness; very sudden nausea, with vomit- 
ing ; very sudden ringing in the ears, with deafness; ex- 
cessive palpitation of the heart, with great faintness; the 
most violent neuralgic pffins in the lower portions of the 
legs, especially in the heels; sudden and unconquerable 
desire for stool, with diarrhoetic flow; violent pain in the 
bladder, with great difficulty of making water ; irregu- 
lar, painful and sudden menstruation ; chills, as severe 
as those in the chilled state of fever and ague; great 
mental irritability, producing mental excitement with 
out cause, in some cases indicating great fearfulness, in 
others an audacity unusual, amounting in a few in- 
stances to temporary aberration of mind, in other cases 
exhibiting immoderate and excessive laughter ; very 
difficult and painful respiration, in some cases amount- 
ing in severity to the worst cases of asthma,-in all 
such instances, however, these varied symptoms last 
but a little while, and pass away, to be followed by 
peculiar conditions of inflammation of the throat and 
air passages, now known to be unmistakable exhibitions 
of diphtheria. No such varied introductory exhibi- 
tion of morbid conditions has it been my lot to witness DIPHTHERIA. 
159 
in connection with any other disease. For the most 
part the symptoms of any disease are, with slight modi- 
fications, the same in all persons. Scarlet fever, croup, 
bilious colic, fever and ague, typhoid fever, whooping- 
cough, yellow fever, acute dyspepsia, inflammatory rheu- 
matism, inflammation of the bowels, dysentery, and so 
on, show so nearly, in all persons, the same morbid con- 
ditions, as to enable physicians of any experience, to 
determine, almost instantly, when brought within the 
range of observation, what the matter is with the per- 
son or persons affected. 
But so far as my experience has gone, the introduc- 
tory stages of diphtheria are quite likely to be different 
• in different persons. Thus, out of the great number 
of adults whom I have treated, I might specify the 
following. A German hired girl, at work in my fam- 
ily, was taken with sudden blindness and vertigo, and 
fell to the floor. In thirty minutes the symptoms of 
diphtheria were unmistakable. A German hired man, 
who had not been sick in ten years, to my great dis- 
service, upon splitting wood, and stooping over to pick 
up a stick, was taken with such violent congestion of 
the lungs as with great difficulty to breathe. In half 
an hour diphtheria was most manifest. A gentleman 
sustaining intimate business relations to me, and a 
member of my family, was taken all of a sudden with vio- 
lent coughing. In a very little time the diphtheritic symp- 
toms were in full exhibition. A woman cleaning house 
for me, was taken with violent pains in her heels, and in 
a little while showed particular affection of the throat- 160 
DIPHTHERIA. 
Children whom I have treated have been attacked 
with a great variety of morbid conditions ; some com- 
plaining of darting, sharp pains in the eyes, some of 
ringing in the ears, some of pains in the bowels, others 
of chills running up and down their backbones, pains 
in their legs, and so on. 
My treatment of this disease began years ago. At 
the outset I had in my own mind no very clear ex- 
planation to offer of the causes of the disease, and, 
therefore, I could not satisfy myself as to its nature. 
I, however, saw the unsuccessful results of the course 
then pursued by physicians of the Allopathic school, 
and in view of their want of success pursued a course 
of treatment converse to theirs. They seemed desirous 
to produce relief by increased action of the mucous 
tissue of the stomach and bowels. Some of them, 
therefore, gave emetics, but most of them gave cathar- 
tics. As most of their patients died, I saw no use in 
pursuing that course, so I turned my attention to the 
external skin, and sought to produce changes in the 
circulation of that structure, hoping thereby to produce 
the desired end. I know of but few men who have 
treated so many cases of diphtheria as my associ- 
ates at Our Home, and myself. We have never yet 
lost a case. We have been the means of saving many 
persons who were considered to be in advanced stages 
of the disease, and many more who, having taken 
the disease, passed under our care in its incipient 
stages, and were saved, though they were members of 
families wherein from two to five persons had pre- DIPHTHERIA. 
161 
viously died under the drug-medicating plan of treat- 
ment. 
Our success has been so great, while as yet our plan 
of treatment has been so simple, as really to introduce 
a decided change in the medical practice, in this par- 
ticular disease, in this locality. I do not know of a phy 
sician of any school in this town, who has not practically 
abandoned the administration of cathartics in cases of 
diphtheria, and with such modifications of our plan of 
treatment as his own individuality would naturally 
prompt him to make, adopted, in fact, our method. 
The result has been that, whereas great numbers of 
persons four years ago died of the disease in this town, 
and whose deaths caused a real panic among' the peo- 
ple, the disease has come no more to be feared than 
any other morbid condition of body common to our 
people. Owing to our residence here, and as the result 
of our teachings on the subject of health, or to some 
silent influence affecting the views of the people of 
this town, there is much more care given to the condi- 
tions of living of children, especially in the cold sea- 
sons of the year than foimerly. This, of itself, in my 
judgment, is a very great security, for it stands to rea- 
son that if one can manage the predisposing causes he 
need not fear the proximate causes of disease. The 
best course to be pursued in any family, or in any com- 
munity, in respect to this fearful scourge, is that of 
prevention, and to look well after the general habits of 
life is greatly to add to the securities against its appear 
ance. 162 
DIPHTHERIA. 
There is one feature connected with its exhibition 
and progress to which I feel bound to call public atten- 
tion. It is its greater prevalence in families which 
are hereditarily scrofulous, and thereby predisposed to 
diseases of the throat and air passages of the lungs, 
than in families not thus affected. I have been able 
by personal advice and by personal examination in this 
direction, to forewarn parents of the liabilities under 
which they themselves and their children rested. A 
scrofulous child, permitted to eat pork, and, if a girl, 
to dress and live as do most children in our society, is 
predisposed to take on diseases of the air-passages, and 
when diphtheritic conditions of these exist, is as sure 
almost to die as he or she is to be attacked. Nothing 
under such circumstances saves the child, but the pos- 
session on its part of great vitality, and a medical ad- 
ministration marked by great judiciousness and care. 
The public does not know it, but it is hone the less a 
fact, that scrofula has come to be a household disease 
in the United States. I can pick out a scrofulous man 
or woman, or child, just as far as I can see him. Such 
persons, more likely than not, are high livers, eat gross 
and high-seasoned foods, and in great quantities, and 
are, therefore, liable to take on inflammatory diseases, 
and to have these located in or about, the throat and 
air-passages. 
To live so as to be able to avoid disease is a very 
great attainment. That it can be done, and to such 
degree as to lessen in very large measure the number 
of persons who are likely to suffer from diphtheritic DIPHTHERIA. 
163 
inflammation, is as certain in my own mind as is the 
existence of the law of gravitation. There is no need, 
in the first place, of our children, nor of ourselves, 
having this disease, and in the second place, if, by rea- 
son of some carelessness on our part, in the way of 
simple, uncomplicated exposure, we find ourselves or 
our children attacked with it, there is no more need of 
our or their dying with it, than from a common cold 
in the nose. Two things we only want to know ; one 
is, how to live so as to keep our bodies in the best possi- 
ble relations to life; and, second, if from causes that 
are unhealthful we become sick, and diphtheria is the 
form of our sickness, to know how to treat it in view 
of the causes that have produced it. 
My method of treatment has been as follows : When 
I repeat that out of the hundreds of cases which have 
come under my professional handling, I have never yet 
lost a case, I leave the public to estimate the value of 
the suggestions I now offer. 
Treatment.-In all cases, no matter whether the 
subjects are children or adults, I have uniformly, as 
the first thing to be done, given a hot bath. Its tem- 
perature and duration were regulated by the age, sex, 
and vitality of the patient, the bath ranging from 98° 
to 110°, the person sitting in it from five to thirty min- 
utes ; always, however, until profuse sweating was pro- 
duced. The bath I choose to make in such a way as 
to render it feasible to be given by any private family. 
Hence, it has been my practice to give a sitz-bath, for 164 
DIPHTHERIA. 
which purpose any wash-tub will answer, by putting a 
block under the back side so as to tip it forward a lit- 
tle, and filling it as full of water as possible without 
having it run over when the patient sits down in it, 
and taking a common keeler, or pail, if the former 
cannot be had, fill it up partly full of warm water, 
for the purpose of immersing the feet, setting it down 
in front of the sitz-bath. 1 then place the patient in a 
sitting posture and wrap a heavy blanket round him 
in front, bringing it across his shoulders in the rear, 
and tucking it smoothly down. Then I bind his head 
in the shape of a wreath or band, with a towel wet in 
cold water, and let him sit till perspiration is induced. 
If the patient is a child, quite small, the arrangements 
must be made to suit size and age. In many instances 
an attendant is directed to kneel down, and lifting up 
one side of the blanket, dip his or her hand in water, 
and rub the upper portion of the chest of the person. 
If sweating is not readily induced, some of the watei 
is dipped out, and hotter water poured in until as high 
temperature is raised as the patient can bear. I have 
never had a case where the primary symptoms were 
not mitigated, in some measure, as soon as increased 
action of the circulation by the skin was manifest. 
Upon taking the person out my uniform practice has 
oeen to pack him. This, as most of my readers will 
know, consists in spreading upon a bed two or three 
woolen blankets, or a woolen blanket and comfortable, 
the woolen blanket at the top, and over these one or 
twro linen sheets wet in cool water, and left so wet aj DIPHTHERIA. 
165 
simply not to drip, and upon coming out, having him 
lie down and be enveloped in this wet sheet from head 
to foot, with additional cloths laid over the chest, and 
coming up close round the throat, these being cold or 
hot as my own judgment, derived from the sensations 
of the patient, might dictate. In this envelopment, 
just taken out of a hot bath, he feels very pleasant 
bodily sensations. The effect upon the nervous sys- 
tem is decidedly sedative, so much so, as, in a majority 
of instances, to induce sleep. If sleep is induced, I 
allow the nap to continue undisturbed, even though it 
be prolonged for three, four or five hours. If the per- 
son does not go to sleep, I generally permit the pack 
to continue from forty-five minutes to an hour and a 
half, as the patient's sensations may indicate. 
During the period that the patient is in the bath, 
and while being put in the pack, the room is kept 
thoroughly warm, but upon being wrapped up in the 
wet sheet, the windows are opened, and thorough ven- 
tilation and lowering of temperature is secured, so that 
he may be sure to have the coldest air that can be 
given to him. 
When ready to come out of the pack, the windows 
are shut, the temperature of the room raised, and when 
well warmed, the envelopments are thrown off; the pa- 
tient lying upon the bed, an attendant proceeds to rub 
him with dry towels, until all moisture is removed 
from the body, and then rubs with the dry hand ovei 
the entire body until the skin is dry and velvety. 
I then wrap the patient's throat and chest in wet 166 
DIPHTHERIA. 
bandages. These are made so as to fit the parts well, 
and are covered by dry ones of the same shape as the 
wet. Thus enveloped, the patient is placed in bed, 
with a wet cap upon his head, and hot flat-irons, or a 
jug of hot water, or hot dry woolen blankets at the 
feet. An attendant is placed in charge of the room, 
which, if very much exposed to light, is shaded, and 
perfect quiet, if possible, thereafter is insured. 
It gives me pleasure to say that, whether in my own 
cure, or at the houses of private families, I have never 
found this treatment to fail in mitigating the severities 
of the attack, no matter in what form it has appeared. 
The course pursued afterward has been nearly as fol- 
lows, qualified somewhat, as I have before said, with 
reference to the age, sex, and vital power of the subject: 
1. Having induced, I have sought to keep up, 
thorough circulation on the entire surface. 
2. To insure it in plentiful degree at the extremities, 
my object being two-fold-to relieve the over-burdened 
internal blood vessels, and especially those of the mu- 
cous membrane ; and, second, to relieve the blood ves- 
sels of the lungs, throat and head. To do this, frequent 
application of warm cloths, wet or dry, to the extremi- 
ties, or rubbing them with the dry warm hand has been 
practiced. 
Next, freedom from mental anxiety, to as perfect a 
degree as possible, and to this end no visitors in the 
room, and no change of attendants, except such as was 
originally provided for. The practice of having half a 
dozen different persons have charge of a patient suffer- DIPHTHERIA. 
167 
ing from diphtheritic inflammation, is productive of 
such mental disturbance as, in many instances, to 
amount to anxiety of mind, and directly tends to, and 
not infrequently produces, cerebral congestion. From 
the family, therefore, two or three persons must be 
chosen to have the entire care of the case until all 
danger is past, and no other members of the family 
must, on any pretence whatever, enter the room unless 
desired to be seen by the patient. 
Next comes the giving of food. Whether infant, 
child or adult, male or female, I never allow a particle 
of food to be given until I am sure that nature has re- 
acted sufficiently to establish healthful circulation, and 
quite natural conditions of the nervous system. In 
some instances I have made my patients go three days, 
in others, four days, without taking a particle of food, 
permitting them, however, in the meanwhile, to drink 
freely of soft water. Until one tries it, he is not aware 
how well a person, whose organism is under inflamma- 
tory conditions, will find hunger assuaged by the free 
use of soft water taken internally. When the collective 
symptoms indicate such change as to relieve the patient 
from all danger, food may be given ; but this should be 
of a fluid form, and should not be of a carbonaceous 
character. 
Connected with the treatment, the furnishment of 
p ire air is of prime importance. The disease is essen- 
tially one derived from imperfect aeration of blood, 
with imperfect elimination of waste matter. L then 
the treatment can be of such a nature as to set the 168 
DIPHTHERIA. 
eliminative organs, especially the skin, which is the 
structure generally at fault, at work, and thus secure 
the thorouo;h removal of waste materials from the 
blood, and the solid tissues, while, at the same time, 
the blood is properly aerated, there can be no failure 
of recovery to the subject. I have no doubt that one 
of the best things that could be done, in the treatment 
of this disease, wwre it readily practicable, would be 
the inhalation of oxygen gas. In default, however, of 
means to do this, the next best thing, as a curative, is 
to secure the free use of pure atmospheric air, which, 
by the way, would be, if freely used, a great preven- 
tive. I take it upon me, therefore, always to secure 
thorough ventilation, even though I have to knock a 
pane of glass out of the room where the sick person lies, 
or punch a hole through the wall so as to let the air in. 
The attempt, on the part of doctors and nurses, to 
have sick persons do well under their treatment in the 
absence of pure air, is characterized by such folly as to 
make one wonder why it is so persistently pursued. 
There are some other points connected with the treat- 
ment of diphtheria to which it may be well for me to 
allude. One is, that many persons who are killed by 
the disease die from suffocation, this resulting from the 
formation of what the doctors call a " false membrane " 
in the air passages. This false membrane is formed 
out of thick mucus secreted from the mucous glands, 
and almost irmnediately thereupon forms into a thick 
imperfectly organized membranous shape, filling up 
the cavities of the air tubes, and thus rendering it im- DIPHTHERIA 
169 
possible for the patients to breathe. The method of 
treatment which I have pursued has had the effect, 
while increasing the flow, to render the expectoration 
of the mucus perfectly within the control of the pa- 
tient, and it has been wonderful to myself and to oth- 
ers to observe the quantities that have thus been se- 
creted and coughed up in the course of twelve hours. 
Some of my patients have raised a quart, others half a 
gallon ; one man in the course of forty-eight hours rais- 
ed not less than six quarts of this slippery-elmish sub- 
stance, and lost nine pounds in weight. The man's 
tissues must have been as foul as corruption itself. No 
other treatment that I have ever been made acquainted 
with, has seemed to produce this effect, which I consi- 
der of great importance. 
Another consideration worthy of attention is the 
danger of relapse. It has been my practice, therefore, 
to keep my patients free from physical or mental fa- 
tigue for some days, and some of them for weeks, after 
all danger seems to have passed away. For, many of 
them, upon convalescence, show nearly the same con- 
ditions that persons do who have been taken with con- 
gestive chills, or with typhoid fever, and recovered. 
There can be no doubt that in many instances of diph- 
theritic attack, the cerebral disturbance is very great, 
the brain and lungs, and sometimes the liver and bow 
els being excessively congested, and that by the rapid- 
ity with which these organs have been relieved by the 
determination of blood to the surface, has recovery to 
the patient been insured. 170 
DIPHTHERIA. 
Thus, have I tried, in common phrase, so that the 
most unlearned or unlettered person may understand 
me, to mark out the views which I cherish, and the 
course I pursue in the treatment of diphtheria. 
Besides the cases treated personally by myself and 
associates, Miss Dr. Austin and myself have received 
hundreds of letters from persons who, having followed 
our directions in the main, have succeeded in the re- 
covery of their patients. Some of these patients have 
been men, others women, others children, and with 
slight, modifications they all tell the same story as to 
the results produced. Whenever my method of treat- 
ment has been taken in the early stages, and has been 
the only treatment pursued, it has been successful. To 
apply it to scrofulous children in the more advanced 
stages of the disease, and especially where these have 
been previously drugged, is to render the probability 
of success much less than it would otherwise be. But 
early attention to it, and a persistent following of it, I 
am satisfied will save a great majority of children who 
may be so unfortunate as to be attacked. It is far bet- 
ter so to bring up children as to reduce their liabilities 
to so low a point as practically to amount to nothing, 
than it is to rear them in such a way as to have them 
greatly exposed to take disease and when taken sick 
almost sure to die. CHAPTER XIX. 
SCARLET FEVER. 
This disease is of the febrile type, eruptive in its 
character, and showing itself in its first stages upon 
the external surface, where efflorescence makes itself 
manifest. It spreads over the body, and termi- 
nates in cure or death from the fifth to the seventh 
day. The fever is usually accompanied with a more 
or less severe involvement of the kidneys, of the throat, 
or of some other organ or organs, not uncommonly, 
when death does not result from it, followed by dropsy. 
It seldom occurs but once to the same person. It has 
prevailed in the United States at times from their first 
settlement. In a history of epidemic and pestilential 
diseases published in Hartford, Conn., in 1799, it is 
said that it prevailed during a wet, cold season in New 
Hampshire in the year 1735, and was called " The 
Throat Distemper." The symptoms were a swelled, 
sore throat, with white or ash-colored specks, and 
efflorescence of the skin, great debility of the whole 
system, and a tendency to putridity. Of the first forty 
patients diseased, not one recovered. Very few chil- 
dren escaped. Although the disease was considered as 
very infectious, the writer says it took the young in the 
171 172 
SCARLET FEVER. 
most sequestered situations, and without a possible 
previous communication with the sick. Many families 
lost three and four children. The writer also says that 
scorbutic people, and those who lived chiefly on pork, 
and, of course, the poor, suffered the most. In some 
families it was mild, and in others malignant, and like 
a plague. Gradually the disease travelled westward ; 
was two years in reaching the river Hudson from 
Kingston, N. IL, where it first appeared - distance 
about two hundred miles in a straight line. Few 
adults were affected, its principal ravages being among 
persons under puberty. For many years it was epi- 
demic, breaking out in different places, a striking proof 
that such disease ,will not become epidemic by the sole 
power of infection, but that some general cause must 
aid its propagation, or it will perish in its incipiency. 
Scarlet fever, like croup, has been by doctors divided 
into three stages. First, that which precedes the erup- 
tion ; second, that of the eruption, and, third, that of 
desquamation or sloughing of the skin. One writer 
says that when scarlet fever proceeds in its regular 
or usual course, these periods are very distinct. My 
own experience with the treatment of the disease, 
which has been large, does not warrant these minute 
distinctions. I think, as in croup, measles and many 
other diseases where eruptions on the skin constitute 
one of the manifestations, the nice distinctions which 
doctors draw are, for the most part, fanciful. They do 
not help to determine either the nature of the disease 
or the methods which should be employed in its treat- SCARLET FEVER, 
173 
ment, because they do not show themselves with any 
regularity in all cases, and therefore can be no safe 
guide. There are certain symptoms which do show 
themselves, and these must be observed by the unpro- 
fessional, or else the treatment, except under the care 
of a physician, can be of no particular utility. Scarlet 
fever, in all cases, is attended in its first symptoms by 
general uneasiness, headache and vertigo. The patient 
is more likely to show the first marked symptoms of 
the disease during the eating of food, if such takes 
place soon after the first complaint of sickness is made. 
A child, about to have or having scarlet fever, will, as 
soon as the febrile symptoms come to exist, so as to 
make the skin hot and the face red and the head ache, 
oftener than otherwise ask for food, saying that it is 
hungry. If food is given, it will eat it voraciously, 
and almost always immediately after ceasing to eat be 
taken sick at the stomach and vomit. Following this 
regurgitation of food come chilliness and rigors with 
increased headache, the child asking to go to bed. 
Being in bed, it will go off to sleep and moan and 
groan and turn from side to side, avoiding the light if 
possible to do so. There will be aching of back and 
legs, increased sensibility, not unfrequently delirium, 
and sometimes convulsions. If at first the fever is 
slight, unless the disease is held in check it becomes 
severe, skin dry and hot tc the touch, the face either 
congested or slightly reddened; if the mouth is exam- 
ined, the fauces and pharynx will be red, and the tonsils 
will be swollen ; and congestion will exist in the back 174 
SCARLET FEVEE. 
nasal passages, ofttimes so as to produce pain. Thif 
will be the manifestation of the disease on the first day. 
On the second day, the eruption will appear; some- 
times, some writers say, as early as within twelve hours 
after the child has first complained. With the excep- 
tion of one or two instances in my practice, I have 
never seen the eruption break out as early as this, 
except where vigorous hydropathic treatment had been 
applied immediately upon the child's first making com- 
plaint of illness ; then, almost immediately after the 
application of such treatment, the eruption has shown 
itself. I think the law of the case will admit in its 
action of great modification in view of treatment given. 
Where internal remedies, whether homeopathic or 
allopathic, are administered, the eruption or efflor- 
escence will not show itself until the second, some- 
times not until the third day; but if upon complaint 
of fever the hydropathic treatment is applied, in the 
form of wet-sheet packing, bathing and bandaging, 
within twelve hours thereafter the eruption will appear. 
Whenever this does appear there is no danger to the 
child, provided the eruption can be kept active and 
permanent. To do this, nothing is needed but good 
common-sense treatment, ail to be described 'within 
this statement: Keep the head cool and the feet warm, 
the circulation to the surface, the bowels open, the 
mind quiet. Keep away all food, and especially animal 
food; to eat nothing is better. Keep the room in 
which the patient is in shaded light, the house free 
from noise. Let the child have one set of nurses; and SCARLET FEVER. 
175 
.et Nature have her way. Unless the child is scrofulous 
or has been suffering from some acute or chronic dis- 
ease previously, in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases 
out of a thousand the patient will recover. 
Now, one would think that such a formula of treat- 
ment was easy enough to follow, yet so ignorant are 
most persons of good nursing-knowledge that the ma- 
jority of them would not in such case know how to do 
what I have told them above; hence a necessity of 
specifying how to do it. In all eruptive diseases there 
is no application so good as that of external bathing. 
This should be given, if possible to do it, in the form 
the least exhausting and the most sedative. This form is 
the wet sheet-pack. To know how to take it, see Miss 
Austin's tract on baths, in the latter part of this book. 
The effect of a wet sheet applied in the form of a pack 
is so sedative while as yet it is so efficacious in pro- 
ducing a flow of blood into the capillaries of the skin, 
that no other method of giving water on the body of a 
sick person who needs perfect quiet or as little distur- 
bance as possible can equal it. If Vincent Priessnitz 
had never done anything else for mankind but to have 
discovered and brought into use this form of bath, he 
would have done enough to make him immortal. It is 
by all means, and without question, the best form of 
oath, and should be as common as it is uncommon in 
families, with the healthy as with the sick. It is, by 
all means, the best sedative which I know. It may be 
taken with perfect impunity by the feeblest, as well as 
oy the strongest, if it is properly applied. A bad 176 
SCARLET FEVER. 
application of it is that which connects with it the tak- 
ing of an additional ablution in the form of a dripping 
sheet, a half bath, a pail douche, a spray, a plunge, or 
some other form of application of water. To make 
the pack just what it should be to a very feeble person, 
its application should be made but for a short time, 
and on coming out no water put on the body; but dry 
towel rubbing, followed by hand rjibbing for five to 
ten minutes, should be substituted. Then, if the per- 
son is able to exercise, well and good ; if not, he should 
be placed in bed. I mention this at this point because, 
in many instances, children who have scarlet fever are 
constitutionally scrofulous, and therefore of delicate 
organization, and show but little vitality at best, and 
when afflicted with this disease cannot bear in any de- 
gree vigorous remedial measures. If, however, the 
subject of scarlet fever has a good degree of vital 
robustness, then a wet-sheet pack may not only be had, 
but it may be followed by cold ablution without dan- 
ger, the application of bandages as in the case of croup, 
and so, in the main, treatment the same as croup. It 
is not a dangerous disease if treated Psycho-hygien- 
ically, but if treated after the ordinary form of drug- 
medication, the subject is, in my judgment, more likely 
to die than to live. At any rate, under the common 
medical methods of treatment such ill success has 
ensued that the disease is almost as much feared by the 
common people as is the small-pox. 
I need not describe the third stage of the disease, 
because, unlike croup, diphtheria, or any other erup- SCARLET FEVER. 
177 
five disease which has its several stages, the third stage 
is self-curable. It is what is called the period of des- 
quamation. What, therefore, is to be done should be 
done during the first and second stages. 
For preventive measures, they lie within the range 
of hygiene, and so much within that range as to war- 
rant my saying what I have said under the head of 
measles, that if we were to live hygienically for a 
period sufficiently long to have children take on the 
constitutional tendencies to health in as marked a de- 
gree as, under our present habits of living, they have 
taken them bn to disease, scarlet fever would be a thing 
unknown ; the vital resistance in such persons would 
be thoroughly prophylactic, and the disease w'ould 
not exist; or, if it did exist, it would take on only 
the slightest type and never assume the malignant 
form. 
Perhaps I ought to say something with reference to 
the complications of scarlet fever. The most impor- 
tant of these are, first, diffusive inflammation extend- 
ing from the throat to other organs in proximity and 
having sympathetic relations therewith. Thus, oft- 
times, the mucous surface of the ear becomes so affected 
as to suppurate, and organic lesion takes place, and 
the subject becomes deaf; or, second, congestion or pas- 
sive inflammation of the mucous lining of the intes- 
tines ; or, third, of the urinary organs. Some phy- 
sicians say that the membrane or substance of the brain 
becomes involved; so also of the lungs, not infrequently 
of the synovial membranes with effusion in the joints. 178 
SCARLET FEVER. 
I think that the kidneys become ofttimes seriously 
affected in the early stages of the disease. One emi- 
nent English physician gives it as his opinion that they 
are always more or less affected at an early period of 
the disease. "Wherever I have seen the kidneys affected, 
it has been during certain seasons of the year. Dr. 
Johnston, an English physician, says, that in his prac- 
tice he often observed the face to be much bloated and 
sallow, the neck swollen, with cadaverous look, and 
the whole body edematous to such a degree that impres- 
sion made with his finger upon it remained fixed. At 
the third or fourth day the breath becomes fetid, and 
the patient spits off large quantities of purulent mucus, 
very offensive. Another writer says that he cannot 
hesitate to state his conviction that in many cases 
which terminate fatally at an early period of the dis- 
ease, where the eruption being abundant or scanty is 
suppressed, this is due, in great measure, to the early 
implication of the kidneys, and that this condition of 
them was overlooked. In cases where there is a diffu- 
sive inflammation of the intestines, it may be caused 
by the passage of the purulent secretions in the throal 
to the stomach, especially in children. Dr. Johnston 
says that one reason why children are attacked with 
violent griping, dysentery and excoriations of the lower 
bowel, is because the pus which they swallow retains 
its virulence throughout the entire alimentary canal 
Sometimes diarrhoea complicates this disease, and then, 
in children, convulsions or insensibility not uncommonly 
are seen ending in death. When, however, the diarrhoea WnOOriNG-COUGH. 
179 
is moderate, and the child does not vomit, there is less 
likelihood of an unfavorable termination. 
1 have said in the opening remarks on scarlet fever, 
that sometimes dropsy follows. This dropsy, I think, 
arises from the derangements to which the kidneys are 
subjected. Its cure is to be insured by establishing a 
much more permanently active condition of the circu- 
lation of the surface of the body. 
As scarlet fever is generally considered to be infec- 
tious, it is always well to take proper measures to keep 
any person having it as secluded as may be; and in 
order to render the probabilities of others having the 
disease as few as possible, all hygienic measures which 
are available should be adopted. As soon, therefore, 
as one member of a family is seized with scarlet fever, 
the other members should be placed promptly under 
the best possible conditions of vital energy; hard labor 
should cease, less food should be eaten, abundant sleep 
should be had, thorough cleanliness of body should be 
insured and proper defecation of the bowels should 
also be had ; pleasant, social conditions should exist; 
irritating and perturbing influences should be prevented. 
In this way disease-preventing conditions could be 
greatly increased, and so not unlikely the other mem 
bers of the family would escape, a thing very desirable 
to bring about, if possible. 
Whooping-cough.-This disease is described by an 
eminent writer to be a convulsive and suffocative 
cough, accompanied with a reiterated whoop, occurring 180 
WHOOPING-COUGH. 
in paroxysms, ending with expectoration of phlegrr 
and frequently with vomiting; is infectious, and ap- 
pears but once through life. It is generally supposed 
to be a disease not materially to be modified by any 
kind of treatment, having its natural stages to run, 
and not being so dangerous as to warrant any other 
remedial measures than those which are palliative. My 
own practice in its treatment has been sufficient to 
cover *the various forms which it assumes, from those 
which are mild to those which are very severe, and 
which, when connected with other complications, have 
ended in death. I have never found any difficulty in 
treating the disease, and my best methods have been 
those which w'ere Psycho-hygienic, sustaining the 
strength of the child by proper habits of living, and 
allowing it to take its chances. 
I therefore have nothing to say on the subject be- 
yond this simple advice, to give every child as good 
conditions in general as it is possible to do, and when 
it has caught the whooping-cough, with the exception 
of little palliatives to relieve a present paroxysm, 
nothing more specific than what has been previously 
done should be attempted, leaving the child to nature, 
with good nursing on the part of those having it in 
charge. Under such circumstances, the likelihood is 
that ultimate complications which would be destructive 
to the health of the child will be avoided; and when 
the disease has run its usual course, the child will 
recover from it and no permanent ill results ensue. CHAPTER XX. 
SUMMER COMPLAINT. 
This disease is ofttimes termed by doctors " cholera 
infantumis supposed to have its origin, many times, 
in disturbance of the nervous system, and so of the 
circulation, consequent upon teething; but I make a 
distinction between teething diarrhoea and ordinary 
summer complaint common in the United States. The 
latter disease, I think, is attributable, generally, to bad 
habits of living, chief of which are bad food and the 
use of bad water as a drink, and such other habits of 
living as involve a derangement of the external circula- 
tion. Of these I may mention want of cleanliness of 
skin and insufficient clothing to the lower limbs. Tc 
avoid summer complaint, therefore, nothing is needed 
but to make children eat healthy food, the chief of 
which should be the farinacese and good ripe fruits, 
and to take daily or tri-weekly ablutions, and good 
covering to the legs, with such other hygienic measures 
as are easily to be employed, involving, as these would 
do, regular habits of rest, exercise and recreation. 
When, therefore, a child is attacked with summer 
oomplaint, regulate its food, bathe it every day, give it 
plenty of sleep, keep its lower limbs warm, keep the 
bowels clean by tepid injections, keep it away from 
181 DYSENTERY 
182 
exciting associations, and nature will take care of the 
case. In fact, the treatment is all the more efficacious 
the simpler it be. There is no danger from the diar- 
rhcea, provided, meanwhile, the kidneys, lungs and skin 
can be made to perform their natural offices. Undei 
any such circumstances, the disease goes away in the 
course of three or four days, and the child in a week 
or ten days will be well. Where parents administer 
powerful internal remedies " to act," as they call it, 
upon the liver, stomach and bowels, they are more 
likely to cure the diarrhoea by substituting for it a 
bloody dysentery than otherwise. They, therefore, 
better let nature have her own way, confining them- 
selves to the customary sphere. 
Dysentery.-This differs from diarrhoea in that the 
former is the result of an enfeebled condition of the 
mucous membrane of the bowel, while this is the re- 
sult of an enfeebled or devitalized condition of the 
blood-vessels of the bowels. With this distinction, the 
causes that produce the one are the same as produce 
the other - bad habits of living in the use of foods and 
drinks; want of cleanliness of skin, and disturbed cir- 
culation arising from insufficient clothing. Whether 
the disease attacks a child or an adult, the causes in the 
main are the same, and the treatment in the main 
should be the same, the modifications being such as 
arise ft jm difference in strength, development, and 
general conditions of life. 
Put a dysenteric patient to bed as soon as he is DYSENTERY. 
183 
seized', keep his bowels clean by tepid injections, and 
tone up the blood-vessels of the mucous membrane, by 
cool or cold injections. These injections, should be ad- 
ministered after every passage of the bowels. To a 
child, having the bloody dysentery, I once administered 
sixty injections in twenty-four hours. To a man who 
had it in the worst form of any patient I ever had in 
my life, out of hundreds whom I have had to, treat, I 
administered over two hundred injections in eighteen 
days. Connected with cleansing of the bowels, keep 
the skin as active as may be, using wet-sheet packs, 
towel-washings, fomentations over the stomach and 
liver, followed by wet, cold compresses worn all the 
time; freedom from food and from anxiety; pleasant 
social surroundings ; a good, airy room ; freedom from 
noise; and good nursing, involving such care of the 
circulation as to keep the parts which are hot, cool, and 
the parts which are cool, warm; and the patient, unless 
very constitutionally scrofulous, or having some other 
serious disease, wrill not die. 
In the year 1865, when bloody dysentery raged in 
the village of Dansville, where I now reside, where 
quite a percentage of those afflicted with the disease 
who took drug-medication died, I had over sixty cases 
- some of them of the very worst type - to treat, and 
never lost one. My success was so marked as to pro- 
duce a profound sensation within the sphere of my im- 
mediate acquaintance. There is nothing like trusting 
to Nature. She is in the grandeur of her resources 
God's appointed representative. 184 
DYSENTERY. 
I may as well say here, once for all, that whatever 
diseases children are likely to have, which grown per- 
sons also are as likely to have, are to be treated in the 
same way and manner in both cases, with such modi- 
fications as the difference in developed vitality, conse- 
quent upon age, may indicate. Difference in treatment 
is measured and concluded simply by this distinction; 
for men are but children of larger growth, and the 
same great laws which govern the one govern the 
other. Fix these ideas in one's mind, and it simplifies 
the whole subject of treating disease. CHAPTER XXI. 
DISEASES OF GROWN PERSONS. 
Baldness.-This, in strict phrase, would hardly be 
called a disease, arising, as it is supposed, in most cases 
from age, or from constitutional predispositions ; but as 
I entertain the idea that constitutional tendencies may 
be entirely overcome, if properly connected causes are 
brought to bear, I count in baldness as a disease or 
morbid condition of the scalp, dependent for its exist- 
ence, and largely for its perpetuity, upon bad methods 
or ways of treating the hair and the bulbous glands in x 
which its roots are situated. 
Baldness in the United States is seen much more fre- 
quently among men than women. The cause thereof 
is that men wear upon their heads covering the direct 
effect of which is to derange the circulation through 
the blood-vessels upon which the glands depend for 
their vitality, and in which the roots of the hair are 
fixed. 
I have known very fine results to accrue in a goo3 
many cases of baldness, from washing the hairless parts 
in cold water two or three times a day, giving them 
vigorous rubbing afterward, and then wearing a line# 
cap, such as we term a "head-cap," wet constantly dur- 
185 186 
DISEASES OF GROWN PERSONS. 
ing the day, in some instances during the night also. 
In several cases where the top of the head was entirely 
bald, I have known fresh, new hair to come out. In 
my own case, I succeeded in keeping the top of my 
head from becoming entirely bald, and in bringing out 
hair which, though thin, has grown to its usual length, 
relieving me in this respect considerably. 
Deafness.-Many persons are deaf; some a little 
in one or both ears ; some a good deal in both ears, or 
only in one ear. The causes which produce the disease 
are as various almost as the persons who suffer from 
the loss of hearing. Largely, however, two causes 
operate to produce the disease: a depraved state of the 
blood, causing topical inflammations either in the lin- 
ing membrane of the ear, or in the lining membrane 
of the eustachian tube (a little tube which, starting in 
the back of the nostrils, terminates in the auditorium 
of the ear). 
Where the disease arises from a depraved state of 
the blood, debility of nervous system in general, and 
of the nerve of the ear in particular, partially break- 
ing up sensibility, and so destroying the capacity to 
distinguish sound, general hygienic treatment is the 
proper remedy. Such a course of treatment would 
involve no special applications to the ear. It would 
require unstimulating but nutrient food, thorough 
cleansing of the skin, habitual aperiency of the bow 
•Is, freedom from taxation of the sexual organs, free- 
dom from overwork of body or of brain, with abundant DISEASES OF GROWN PERSONS. 
187 
sleep, and such other surroundings as in their nature 
would be calculated to promote the mental and bod- 
ily quiet of the patient. Invigoration of body by 
change of labor from that which is in-door and seden- 
tary to that which is out-door and active, connected 
with this plan of treatment, often proves very ser- 
viceable. 
Where the disease arises from inflammation of the 
eustachian tube, or of the mucous lining of the com- 
mon ear-passages, local applications, in connection with 
general hygienic treatment, may be of much service. 
Of these I may mention the wearing around the neck 
of a wet bandage covered by a dry one, with lappets 
running up under the ear and tying on the top of the 
head. In several instances of eustachian-tube deaf- 
ness, I have succeeded in entirely curing the person. 
It is a much surer way than it is to open the tube by 
probing it; because in the latter case there is danger 
that irritation may be set up in the process, and inflam- 
mation follow, and then deafness ultimately returns. 
Where the mucous lining of the ear is inflamed, it is 
well to syringe the ear, in which case, I think, nothing 
but pure soft water should be used, of a temperature at 
first tepid, but afterward quite cool, and ultimately cold, j 
Of partial deafness in one or both ears, my success 
under-these methods of treatment has been all I could 
wish, and I recommend them to all perse ns who may 
be suffering from imperfect hearing. 
Blindness.-The causes of blindness are various, of 188 
DISEASES OE GROWN PERSONS. 
wliicli the worst that I have had to deal with is amau- 
rosis, or that disease of the eye which, involving loss 
of sight either part or total, arises from an affection of 
the optic nerve. I have treated over two hundred 
cases of amaurotic disease of the eye; in only seven 
cases have I failed. All the rest have been substan- 
tially and permanently benefited, and have gone on to 
ultimate recovery after they have passed from under 
my care, or have been cured while under it. Almost 
all the persons whom I have had to treat have been 
persons suffering from indigestion, involving chronic 
inflammation of the coats of the stomach, torpor of 
liver, constipation of the bowels, very severely con- 
gested kidneys, and an inactive skin, with more or less 
of debility or deranged action of the sexual organs. 
I think it would be very difficult to find a person in 
this country suffering from amaurosis, whose kidneys 
could fairly be said to be in a healthy state ; nor one, 
either man or woman, who was not suffering from some 
derangement of the genital system. In all cases com- 
ing under my own professional management, the pa- 
tients have shown quite decided derangement of skin 
circulation. 
The treatment which I have given has uniformly 
been such as to affect and change the conditions of tire 
general system ; first, by improving the blood ; second, 
by invigorating the nervous system ; third, by a better 
circulation of the blood, so making the stomach digest- 
ively healthy, the liver active, bowels vigorous, skin 
sfficient, and the genital system to take on a natural DISEASES OF GROWN PERSONS. 
189 
tone. In a few cases I have applied local treatment, 
not to the eyes, but to the back of the head and the 
nape of the neck. The time taken to produce satisfac- 
tory results has ranged, according to the constitutional 
peculiarity of the patients and the severity of the cases, 
from three * months to two years. In a few instances, 
where I have not been able to restore the sight, which 
was rapidly failing, I have checked the disease com- 
pletely, so that the sight for years failed no more ; and 
this I regard as a great achievement. 
Inflammation of the Eyes.-Of this disease, no 
matter what type it assumes, nor what peculiar name 
is given to it, it may be said that, injury to the struc- 
ture of the eyes aside, it arises from a generally de- 
ranged circulation. In most instances the stomach, 
and in many instances the liver, is involved primarily. 
The kidneys, bowels and skin come to be involved 
secondarily. 
Of a great number of cases which I have treated 
Psycho-hygienically, and with entire success - for I 
never had a case of inflamed eyes, no matter how bad, 
either acute or chronic, which I did not cure if the 
person followed my directions implicitly - the treat- 
ment has been general. Out of hundreds of cases, I 
never found it needful tc make any sort of application 
to the eyes except to keep them clean. If they run 
rheum and become dirty, they were simply washed 
out; but beyond that nothing special was done. No 
eye-baths were given, either by the direct use of water, 190 
DISEASES OF GROWN PERSONS. 
or by the use of compresses ; nor have I ever found it 
necessarv in the severest cases to shut liffht from the 
•/ o 
eyes of the patient beyond the degree of simply mel- 
lowing it or making it a shaded light. I have cured 
cases where films had passed over the eyes to that de- 
gree that light was only observable, but no form of 
object could be seen, so that the persons to-day are com- 
petent to perform any act involving the keenest vision. 
I have found the worst forms of inflammation of the 
eyes in persons of scrofulous habit of body, who, pre- 
viously to their eyes being affected, had had, and had 
been treated for, some eruptive disease. In some cases 
it had been measles, in others common itch, in others 
glandular swellings on the neck or under the arms, and 
in one or two cases in the groins. In other cases they 
had had ulcers on the legs, especially about the feet 
and ankles, of which diseases they were cured, to be 
afflicted soon after with inflammation of the eyes. In 
some other cases I have known them to have pimples 
upon the face, arising from bad conditions of the liver 
and the skin, for which they applied powerful re-agents, 
and in making the skin smooth, they brought on in- 
flammation of the eyes. Some of the worst cases of 
chronic inflammation of the eyes have been dependent 
upon habitual and very severe costiveness. One case 
I recollect, where a person had been almost blind for 
two years, whose habit of body was to have a passage 
of the bowels only once in eight days ; within one fort- 
night after coming under Psycho-hygienic treatment 
he became regular in his bowels, and the eyes decidedly DISEASES OF GROWN PERSONS. 
191 
improved. Quite a number of cases have I had to treat 
where the difficulty of the eyes grew out of powerfully 
re-active conditions of the sexual organs; some of these 
were women who had been cauterized for some vaginal 
or uterine derangement. One very severe case was 
that of a man who for years had piles, and hearing of 
a celebrated remedy, applied it, and was cured of piles 
to be seized in four days with inflammation of the eyes, 
which had been upon him, when he came to us, for 
twenty months, and most of that time so severely as to 
hinder him from using his eyes for any purpose what- 
ever. But the majority of cases of inflammation of 
the eyes have clearly depended upon deranged or de- 
bilitated conditions of the stomach, liver and external 
skin. 
In all cases the treatment was general, usually in- 
volving such change of diet as to deprive the patient 
of the use of flesh meats, of butter, common salt, all 
spices, all raised bread, hard water and drug medicines, 
making his food of meal or flour of unbolted wheat 
mingled with water and baked, vegetables very simply 
cooked, of fruits with very little sugar in or upon them, 
of milk in very moderate quantities, not eating it when 
sugar was eaten, nor eating fruit when vegetables were 
eaten. With such a regimen, involving the use of 
wet sheet packs-for I never use the dry pack-half 
baths, dripping sheets, sprays, alternating with sitz- 
baths, foot-baths, hand-baths, and the constant use of 
abdominal bandages, but never so put around the body 
as to hinder a free circulation, my patients have gotten 192 
DISEASES OF GROWN PERSONS. 
well. Of course, in connection with these, great care 
has been given to exercise; rest and quiet of mind, in 
whatever way these could best be secured, being spe 
dally enjoined. CHAPTER XXII. 
NASAL CATARRH. 
Tins is a disease arising from an inflammation of the 
mucous membrane of the front and back nasal passages, 
involving also, in many instances, inflammation of the 
pituitary gland. The worst forms of catarrh with which 
I have ever had to deal have been those of persons 
who were clearly and unmistakably scrofulous. Long 
ago, therefore, I came to the conclusion that the pre- 
disposing cause of its existence was a depraved state 
of the blood; the provoking cause, such conditions at 
the outset as induced an acute inflammation of the 
membrane and gland heretofore mentioned. 
Chronic catarrh is a very difficult disease to treat, 
especially so when it has reached such a point as to re- 
sult in ulceration of the back nasal passages. A great 
many persons are afflicted with it in this severe and 
very unpleasant form, secretions of purulent mucus not 
infrequently being made so largely as to run down 
through the back passages of the throat, producing a 
very disgusting taste, and, after a while, a diseased con- 
dition of the membrane of the upper portion of the 
throat, in instances not a few establishing bronchial 
inflammation. 
193 194 
NASAL CATARRH. 
Where it is confined to the membrane of the front 
nasal passage, the disease is much more manageable, 
though, perhaps, none the less difficult to cure. 
From the nature of it, I was early led to feel that it 
must have its causal force in disturbance or diseased 
condition of other organs than those immediately af 
fected. To examine the whole matter, by carefully 
gathering up data and making comparison of cases of 
persons afflicted with it, that I might come to some 
safe conclusions, was an object with me, and after years 
of patient investigation I am decided in my own mind 
as to the nature of the causes which operate to induce 
and perpetuate it, and of the best methods of curing it. 
The first and most effectual cause of catarrh is im- 
perfectly organized blood. I doubt whether a person 
ever had it of long standing whose assimilative system 
transmuted food into proper blood. Secondly, an im- 
perfect circulation of the blood, not merely through 
the organs directly affected, but through other organs. 
The kidneys play a large part in the origination and 
perpetuation of catarrhal disease; so does the ffladdei 
in some instances. In fact, all the organs which have 
a free mucous surface are liable to be involved in its 
creation and maintenance. 
A general plan of treatment, therefore, involves ef- 
fects that can only be produced by and through the 
action of the vital organs at large. Severe dieting, 
efficient bathing, plenty of exercise (active or passive- 
active), life out-of-doors in the sunlight, pure air, plenty 
of sleep, a plentiful use as a drink of pure soft water- NASAL CATARRH. 
195 
these, so combined as to make the most efficient thera- 
peutics, constitute the only successful remedy for this 
terrible disease In the treatment of my own catarrh 
which was of twenty years standing, and was so severe 
that I *ost completely the sense of smell, and for six 
years had no passage of air through one nostril, mak- 
ing me also partially deaf, and at one time seriousb 
threatening me with bronchial consumption, I followed 
out the plan just mentioned foi ever four years before 
positively improved conditions were manifest. Fron 
that time on my catarrh gradually and steadily yielded 
and now, for years, I have had none of iL My sense of 
smell has returned ; my deafness, so fai as it depended 
upon that, has entirely ceased; my voice is sound and 
sonorous, and I am entirely rid of it. 
One case which, perhaps, was nearly as bad as mj 
own, was that of a maiden lady who came to consul' 
me, and whom I cured by inducing her to pursue thf 
following course: For six months she never ate any 
thing but unleavened bread and sub-acid fruits, nor dranl 
anything but soft water, washing her body over in tepid 
water every other day, and the alternate day taking » 
sitz-bath at 85° of 15 minutes, 80° of 10 minutes, weai 
ing abdominal bandages night and day, wet in front, se 
curing an evacuation of the bow'els daily by injections o' 
tepid water, and walking from one to three hours dailj 
in the open air. She got entirely well of the disease 
has since married, and is the mother of healthy chi) 
dren, and has never had the least recurrence of catarrh 
I do not think that the worst forms of the disease 196 
NOSE-BLEED. 
this side of the incurable, can be cured by any means 
that do not involve thorough change in the general 
tissues of the body. A breaking up of old organized 
tissues and the reorganization of new, are necessary to 
a cure. Hence, time and patience, and skillful appli- 
cation of Psycho-hygienic instrumentalities must be 
had. Where these are used the cure is certain. Of 
course, the disuse of all substances which ordinarily 
have the effect to deteriorate and deprave the blood 
must be had. 
Nose-bleed.-This can scarcely be said to be a dis- 
ease. It may be well enough, however, for me to men- 
tion it, and to say in passing that it arises not by any 
means, as is generally supposed, from an overplus of 
blood, but oftener than otherwise from a want of it; 
for, quite as frequently as not, the subject of it is a quite 
pale, rather thin in flesh, feeble-looking boy or girl. 
Be this as it may, the cause is a general one, arising 
out of disturbed circulation, with more of blood to the 
head and less in other parts of the body than ought to 
exist in a healthy condition, and, therefore, the treat- 
ment needs to be such as is calculated to equalize the 
circulation. Whenever a child has nose-bleed, it will 
be found to be dependent on some cause or causes which 
are deranging to the circulation, and cold feet and 
hands, with sweatiness on the soles of the feet or the 
palms of the hands, will be found to exist. 
Foot-baths and hand-baths of a warm temperature, 
should be used, followed by application of cold water. NOSE-BLEED. 
197 
while at the same time cool applications are made to 
the head and hack of the neck. One of the best local 
remedies for nose-bleed is to have the patient sit in a 
chair partially reclining, and breathe air into the nos- 
trils just as powerfully and with as long-continued 
inspirations as possible. It will surprise the subjects 
of it to see how, after two or three inspirations, the 
nose becomes sensibly cold ; the air will seem to be of 
very much lower temperature than before; and, in 
fact, it will be, the effect being to coagulate the blood 
at the point of effusion, and so forming a clot the nose 
will cease to bleed. But where the nose-bleed is habit- 
ual, general treatment should be had; none better than 
dripping sheets, or some form of bath to the whole 
body of a tonic character. But when cold water is 
applied to the body, in such cases the patient should 
have the feet certainly, and, if possible, the hands also, 
in warm water, while the other parts of the body are 
being washed in cool or cold water. Whenever this is 
done, before wiping the feet and hands dry, they should 
be taken out of the warm water and dipped into cold. 
All baths of every kind should be followed by vigorous 
rubbing; and if the patient is feeble he should lie down 
immediately after, otherwise should walk some little 
warmly dressed, and then come in and lie down. Giv- 
ing the patient nutritious food and proper bathing, in 
a little while the tendency to nose-bleed can be over- 
come, and so the condition cease. CHAPTER XXIII. 
APOPLEXY. 
This is a disease of the brain ; is generally indicat ed 
by the person falling down suddenly, as if struck with 
a hammer on the back of his head. lie lies without 
sense or motion, except that if one feels of his pulse it 
beats with apparent regularity. The causes of the dis- 
ease are various, oftentimes arising from sudden dis- 
turbance of the circulation consequent upon over-eat- 
ing ; sometimes the result not remote of over-sexual 
indulgence; sometimes also the immediate result of a 
severe shock to the nervous system by the reception of 
unpleasant news. The attacks do not always occur in 
the same forms. 
The disease has been divided into two kinds; namely, 
that which is called sanguineous apoplexy, or gorging 
of blood into the ventricles of the brain, and the other 
has been named serous apoplexy. 
Dr. Abercrombie, the celebrated Scotch physician, 
lias pointed out three different ways in which the dis- 
ease may occur. He says in the first form the patient 
falls down suddenly, and lies like a person in a deep 
sleep, his breath is like that of one snoring, the pulse 
full and not frequent. In the second form of the attack, 
198 APOPLEXY. 
199 
the disease begins with sudden pain in the head, the 
patient becomes pale, faint, sick at the stomach, and 
often vomits. Sometimes he does not fall down, the 
attack of pain being accompanied by only a transient 
confusion. The third form of attack is characterized 
by sudden loss of power on one side of the body, fre- 
quently by loss of speech; the patient is sensible, lis- 
tens to and comprehends your questions. 
Dr. Watson says that the pattern of body which is 
most prone to apoplexy is denoted by a large head with 
red face, short and thick neck, and a short, stout, squatty 
build; but that apoplexy is often common enough in 
men and women who are thin, pale and tall. Corpu- 
lent people are more in danger of apoplexy than spare 
people, but it attacks both one and the other. The 
predispositions are very numerous and of various char- 
acter, but he says the hereditary tendency to apoplexy 
cannot be exterminated, nor can the plan upon which 
the body is constituted be remodeled. In this respect 
I take liberty to differ with so distinguished an author- 
ity, for in two instances in apoplectic families have I 
been called to the management of their children, and 
have, by conditions of living imposed upon them, so 
changed their family order of bodily growth as to make 
them entirely different in physical aspects, and, as I 
think, completely removed any inherited tendency to 
apoplexy. 
The treatment for apoplexy is the depletive treat- 
ment, not by blood-letting, but by abstinence from food 
md also by increasing the eliminations through the 200 
APOPLEXY. 
various excernents. Almost all persons who have apo- 
plexy will be found, previous thereto, to have had some 
check in the action of the lymphatics. The excretions 
of the body have been stopped. I think, in the ma- 
jority of instances, the kidneys and the skin will be 
found to have been less than normally active, and so 
disturbance of the circulation has been induced until 
hemorrhage of the brain has taken place; for in my 
experience in the treatment of apoplexy the proportion 
of those who have had sanguineous and those who have 
had serous apoplexy has been as nine to one.. Giving 
baths, therefore, to create a better insensible perspira- 
tion or natural excretion by the skin, keeping the 
bowels open, and being sure to have the kidneys and 
bladder perform their offices well, and also to have the 
patient live for a time upon low diet, with dress which 
shall not bind any part of the body, while, at the same 
time, it keeps it warm, together with proper exposure 
to sunlight and pure air, are remedial as well as pre- 
ventive means of the very best order; for, among 
the premonitory symptoms of apoplexy, headache or 
vertigo without any headache, or blindness or deafness 
which is transient, is frequently indicated, so that the 
subject is not left without means to prevent an attack if 
he will only use them in time. It is not at all uncom- 
mon for persons who have had one attack of this dis- 
ease, thoroughly to recover from it under proper 
hygienic treatment. In truth, many persons have been 
cured who have had two attacks. It is said, with a 
good deal of apparent truth, that the third attack APOPLEXY. 
201 
usually proves fatal. The majority of persons whom I 
have had to treat had had but one attack. Of all 
these only one or two, I think, had a second attack, 
which arose from their forgetfulness of their liabilities 
to a recurrence of the disease, and they therefore, under 
bad habits of living, exposed themselves to it. 
Inflammation of the Brain.-This disease arises 
from various causes; often from blows producing a 
contusion upon the head; often also from bad general 
conditions of the circulation, greatly deranging the 
nervous system. The incipient symptoms are very 
similar to those which belong to other diseases; and, 
therefore, the treatment at the introductory stages 
should be the same. A man may be taken sick from 
a derangement of the liver or from the introduction of 
some poison into his blood like that of small-pox, or 
from severe indigestion, and the symptoms of the dis- 
ease which the head itself will show may be very 
like those which always exist in cases of incipient 
inflammation of the brain. It matters not so much to 
the observer what the actual disease is at this stage of 
it, as that certain essential things should be done; for 
if one is attacked with bilious fever or with sudden 
congestion of the kidneys, or with indigestion in the 
stomach, and with great pain in the head, with heat on 
the back or top of it, with suffused eyes and red face, 
the treatment to be had at this stage is the same aa 
though the disease was incipient inflammation of the 
brain itself instead of some other organ. 202 
INFL ANIMATION OF THE BRAIN. 
Therefore, the true treatment is to produce a better 
condition of the circulation. If the morbid conditions 
be severe, then let the treatment be prompt and ready. 
Put the feet into warm water, wrap cold cloths 
about the abdomen, produce by enemas, defecation of 
the bowels, wash off the entire surface of the body, if 
there be any necessity for it growing out of previous 
neglect in this direction, or from present needs. Wrap 
the head in cloths wet in cold water, often to the cold- 
ness of ice water, and keep the head enveloped in them 
all the time. Place the patient in a well-ventilated 
room, and so located, if possible, as to let in sunlight 
when it may be desired. Arrange for his care one set 
of nurses, and have no others about him. Make the 
house inside and out in his immediate vicinity to be as 
quiet as may be. Take away all food from the person 
for at least thirty-six hours, within which time the 
symptoms under this treatment will become so modified 
as to enable any person to determine what the peculiar 
features of the case are. The general treatment will 
have operated to this end, and no .question need remain 
as to the nature of the disease after this length of 
time has elapsed. The patient will either be manifestly 
better or worse. If better, the disease is not* inflamma- 
tion of the brain ; if not, it is either that or such severe 
congestion of the brain as to border upon it, in which 
case time and persevering hygienic applications are 
needed. 
It is popularly supposed that inflammation of the 
brain, like inflammation of the lungs, is a very difficult INFLAMMATION OF THE BKAIN. 
203 
disease to treat, and therefore very dangerous: but this 
is not true, provided hygienic measures are used. If 
powerful drug-medicines are given, and bleeding and 
blistering arc resorted to, then complications may ensue 
which will make the ultimate result desired difficult, 
and the patient may die. Let alone, therefore, all 
the usual remedial applications and fall back upon 
those which are in their nature Psycho-hygienic. Let 
that be understood distinctly and there is no danger. 
The disease will run from three to eight days before a 
thorough critical change takes place. 
If from previous habits of living the patient has 
established what may be termed an inflammatory 
diathesis or habit of body, in spite of everything that 
can be done to the contrary delirium or temporary 
derangement may take place; but if so, let the treat- 
ment correspond to the severity of the condition. Wet 
sheet packs are capital where the patient can be taken 
by a couple of attendants and laid from one bed to 
another. Dr. Shew, in his " Family Physician," thinks 
it not well to move the patient; but I have no caution 
to administer in that direction. Make as vigorous an 
effort as the nature of the case will demand, and the 
result will be, that if there is constitutional vitality to 
«arry on life's functions to the turning-point, the patient 
will live and recover, and, what is very desirable, will 
have a good vigorous constitution after it, which is sel- 
dom the case where persons suffering from the disease 
are treated after the drug-medicating style. 204 
DEOPSY OF THE BRAIN. 
Hydrocephalus, or Dropsy of the Brain.-This ia 
a disease which ordinarily begins early in the life of 
the subject of it, but not infrequently affects persons 
of adult age, in which case it arises from general condi 
tions of body, the reflex effects of which upon the brain 
are to induce specific morbid conditions. I doubt 
whether an adult ever has the disease without having 
it to be attributed to some derangement of the general 
nervous system, growing out of his general habits of 
life. It is often mistaken by medical men for softening 
of the brain, for these two diseases in their symptoms 
simulate each other. I have treated two cases success- 
ully where evidently water had settled on the brain, 
at least that was the opinion of several eminent medi- 
cal gentlemen whom the patients had consulted before 
coming to me, and, without knowing their opinion, my 
own diagnosis had reached the conclusion that they 
had water on the brain. One of the patients was 
treated Psycho-hygienically, and lived for four or five 
years afterwards, performing his business relations with 
eminent success, and afterwards died of a fall. It is 
supposed, by many physicians, that persons having this 
disease inherit predispositions to it. Of this I think 
there can be no question ; but all predispositions which 
are inherited can readily be overcome by placing the 
subject of them under Psycho-hygienic treatment early 
in life. The best methods of treatment for incipient 
dropsy on the brain, as for softening of the brain, no 
matter what may be the differences which exist between 
the two diseases, are those which involve deteimina- DROPSY OF THE BRAIN. 
205 
tions of blood away from the brain, so as to give to the 
absorbents an opportunity to act vigorously, and so 
take up and carry off the water. If this can be done 
the patient may be saved; if not, the disease goes on 
to its consummation, and the person becomes idiotic 
and dies. Fortunately for mankind, the disease is of 
unusual occurrence; but when such a case does occur 
in any household, it is well that he should be placed 
under the care of some skillful physician. In fact, 
when any person is sick from any cause or causes which 
seriously affect the normal conditions of the brain, it is 
better that the advice and counsel of some good phy- 
sician should be had. If one of the hygienic school 
cannot readily be obtained, then of the homeopathic or 
allopathic school, frankly stating to him when you send 
for him that you want his advice as to the nature of 
the disease, but do not wish to have him administer 
medicines. In this way advantage may be gained to 
the patient and credit to the physician, CHAPTER XXIV. 
PARALYSIS. 
I may as well consider this disease at this point as at 
any other, because it is essentially a disease of the ner- 
vous system arising from deranged conditions of brain, 
or else involving the brain so as to produce deranged 
conditions. The word is of Greek origin, and means 
loss of sensibility or of motion. Usually, it is classed 
under two forms, which are called hemiplegic and para- 
plegic ; the former meaning a paralysis of one-half of 
the body longitudinally, or of one side from head to 
foot; the latter meaning a paralysis of one-half of the 
body, but confined to the lower limbs. Where a few 
muscles only are involved, it is called local palsy. Dr. 
Dunglison in his medical dictionary says, that it is 
commonly symptomatic of disease of the brain, or of 
the nerves themselves, and is frequently the successor 
or precursor of apoplexy. He thinks the immediate 
cause is by pressure either by blood effused, or by 
serum, or by vascular turgescence. 
Under the allopathic treatment, which consists of 
stimulants to the paralyzed parts or mucous mem- 
branes, with frictions, blisters, electricity, galvanism, 
purgatives, etc., the disease generally admits only of 
palliation, and is extremely apt to recur. But undei 
206 PARALYSIS. 
207 
Psycho-hygienic treatment thorough cures can be had. 
In my practice of twenty years, I have treated either 
at my institution, or under my directions for treatment 
at home, seventy paralytics up to January, 1868. Of 
those treated at home, the majority were benefited but 
few cured. Of those treated at our cure, nearly all 
were benefited, and the great majority of them ulti- 
mately got entirely well, I myself, being as remarkable 
an instance of recovery as any case I ever knew, hav- 
ing had paraplegia, or paralysis of the lower limbs 
from an injury to the spine in the small of the back, 
by a blow from a stick of wood, which knocked my 
legs out from under me as quickly as if my back had 
been broken ; also having had hemiplegia, or paralysis 
of the entire left side, from the effects of which I en- 
tirely recovered, except in the loss of the use of the 
left ear, which I have never had at all since the stroke. 
The best treatment for paralysis is what may be 
termed constitutional treatment; for, however much 
the brain may be involved, there is little doubt but 
what the disease is provoked by derangements of the 
organic nervous system, in some department of which 
violent irritation has been .set up, caused by overtaxa- 
tion of it. I never knew a man to have paralysis, 
either hemiplegic, or paraplegic, or local, who did 
not either drink liquors, eat flesh meat, or take drugs, 
or do ah of these. I doubt whether a hygienic liver 
ever did have it, or ever can have it, except from phy- 
sical injuries received to some portion of the nervous 
system. 208 
PAEALYSIS. 
A powerfully predisposing cause to paralysis, no mat- 
ter wdiat the form it takes, is gluttony or liquor drink- 
ing. Connected with these will often be found taxation 
of the nervous system involving violent reaction from 
sexual indulgence; but such reaction necessarily i 
confined to persons who eat high-seasoned food and 
drink spirituous liquors. Where persons live simply in 
all their dietetic habits, they are not usually lecher- 
ous ; but, on the contrary, are more apt than others to 
be sexually chaste; so paralysis is not likely to arise 
from nervous reaction in this particular direction. 
My treatment for paralysis has been to induce great 
alterations in the circulation, reasoning that if I could 
produce these and make the change permanent, invig- 
oration of the nerves affected must ultimately ensue. 
While therefore I have sought to change the conditions 
of the system by modifying the distribution of blood in 
it, and so in some instances temporarily debilitating 
the body, I have at the same time sought to keep up a 
good condition of the general system by increasing the 
energy of the nutritive system. To break down old 
tissues and carry off their substance through the vari- 
ous excernents of the body, while at the same time the 
secernents or repairing organs are furnished with new 
blood-pabulum to make more than good the waste, by 
organizing healthier tissue, is of great consequence in 
treating paralytic cases. 
My theory is that as all the tissues of the body are 
being worn out under vital action, so they should con- 
stantly be undergoing repair from vital action. Now PARALYSIS. 
209 
to take an old worn out set of nerves which are good 
for nothing, and by vital processes get rid of them, 
supplying meanwhile their place by the furnishment 
of healthy material out of which new sets of nerves 
can be formed, is to change the relations to life so as 
to have a paralytic thoroughly recover. In many casest 
of paralysis, apoplexy, brain-softening, chronic conges- 
tion of the brain, inflammation of the brain, and so on, 
portions of that viscus become substantially unhealthy, 
the disease exhibited in any given case not arising from 
simple derangement of the functions of that organ 
alone, but more from the fact that whatever functional 
derangements are seen, are dependent upon the inca- 
pability of the brain to do its normal work ; the brain 
being little or no better than a mere foreign substance 
lying in the skull. To disintegrate it, decompose it, 
carry it off, get rid of it by processes which are consti- 
tutionally and functionally proper, and, of course, of a 
vital nature; to supply as against this loss, good healthy 
substance of brain through furnishment by the nutri- 
tive system of good healthy blood out of which the 
brain can be made, is to cure the patient. It is a pro- 
cess entirely as available and to be made as substanti- 
ally effective as that of repairing a shriveled muscle. 
A man loses the use of his arm or leg in certain direc- 
tions because of the perishing of one of his muscles. 
Its use is restored by the building up of the muscle. 
Just so is it of nerve or nerves. Just so may it be 
with the brain in parts of it. Many persons lose their 
power to exhibit their ordinary mental ability in 210 
PARALYSIS. 
certain directions, because certain portions of the brain 
through which such mental force displays itself are 
worn out. A man, therefore, may be able to do cer. 
tain things well, while at the same time certain other 
things that he has been accustomed to do he cannot do 
at all. It may arise entirely from the fact that those 
portions of the brain upon which the doing well of 
such things depends are no longer structurally and vi- 
tally competent to serve their legitimate purpose. Now 
to make such person do such things, restoration of the 
particular portion of the brain must be had. 
In the treatment of paralysis, therefore, my idea has 
oeen to change the conditions of the person ; to speak 
after a certain manner, to get rid of the subject in 
hand entirely, abolishing him, demolishing him, de- 
stroying him, removing him, getting him out of the 
way, so that there will be nothing of him left as there 
was when he went under treatment, and making up in 
his stead a new person, reconstitutionalizing him, there- 
fore, and so reconstructing and reorganizing him. That 
this is capable of being done has already been made 
patent to the observation of thousands of persons who 
have seen the treatment at " Our Home on the Hill- 
side." It has been done in all directions involving 
morbid conditions of the human body, of all orders of 
show, and in none more successfully than in paralysis. 
In giving treatment, therefore, for the disease, I rely 
upon the use of nutritive but unstimulating substances 
for food, sunlight, air, water, dress, rest and the right 
sort of social surroundings. Under such circumstances, PARALYSIS. 
211 
with, plenty of time, the paralytic if not so devitalized 
as to be incurable because of want of vital power where- 
by to be cured, can and will get well. 
1 cannot well describe the making of combinations 
of these instrumentalities; for each case has to be 
treated on its own merits, no general classification be- 
ing admitted. Where, therefore, the person can come 
to my Institution to be treated, I frankly say his pros- 
pects of recovery are largely dependent upon his doing 
io. If he cannot come because he lacks means to come, 
then I am ready to do the best I can for him at home 
at a moderate expense; but the disease is one which 
needs the oversight and care of a physician, because 
the changes through which the patient must go to health 
are necessarily such, that if he is well-managed he will 
recover, and if he is ill-managed he may have another 
and fatal stroke. 
Local Palsy.-Of local palsy one of the more com- 
mon forms is paralysis of the face, generally affecting 
one side ; the face being drawn to the sound side mak- 
ing that side appear shorter than the paralyzed side. 
In all such cases the expression of the face is peculiar. 
Having lost the use of the muscles of the paralyzed 
side, the whole action of the sound side of the face be- 
comes distorted. If he laughs, or cries, or undertakes 
to talk, or coughs, the distortion is made particularly 
manifest. Such cases, after my view, arise almost al- 
ways from deranged conditions of the stomach and 
liver, or from sexual excess. One of the most power- 212 
PARALYSIS. 
fully predisposing, and not infrequently provoking 
causes, is long continued constipation of the bowels 
Another equally as powerful is the use of tobacco, par- 
ticularly the smoking of it, which is much worse in its 
effect upon the nervous system in all cases than that 
of chewing. 
Local or facial palsy can be easily cured. I have 
never yet failed in any case completely and thoroughly 
to cure it. It is often the precursor, however, of either 
of the other forms of palsy which I have mentioned. 
There is a kind of palsy called general palsy or shak- 
ing palsy, in which the whole muscular system is in- 
volved. This arises oftener than otherwise from drug- 
medication ; and of the various poisons which are taken 
into the system, none are so efficient in its production 
as the various preparations of mercury and of lead; 
though arsenic is sometimes an exciting cause of palsy. 
Whatever may be the particular form of it, the disease 
is so formidable that the friends of the patient should 
secure the best medical advice, and place him at once 
for treatment in the hands of the physician whom they 
may consult. Home treatment is to be considered of 
little or no curative avail. The conditions of the pa- 
tient may be palliated and somewhat improved, but 
cure requires such a combination of agencies as are not 
to be found in any ordinary private house, however 
skill fill the application of the means at hand may be. CHAPTER XXV. 
EPILEPSY. 
This disease is essentially a brain disease. ' It may 
be regarded," so a distinguished writer says, " as either 
idiopathic, symptomatic, spontaneous or accidental, oc- 
curring in paroxysms with uncertain intervals between. 
Frequently the fit attacks suddenly. At other times it 
is preceded by indisposition, vertigo and stupor. The 
ordinary duration of the fit is from five to twenty min- 
utes. Sometimes it goes forth in a few seconds ; other 
times it lasts for hours." In all well-developed cases 
there is accompanying it, first, a sudden shiver, fol- 
lowed by a vocal exclamation, contraction of the lower 
limbs, usually accompanied by throwing up the arms, 
and then a falling of the patient. The hands become 
convulsed, legs drawn up, then rigid. The face be- 
comes suffused with black blood from venous conges- 
tion, turning very purple, sometimes almost black, the 
eyes strained open, staring, and not infrequently blood- 
shot, entire unconsciousness supervening. In many in- 
stances which I have witnessed the patients lay uncon- 
scious for from half an hour to an hour' and a-half; 
then coming back to semi-consciousness, knowing things 
but not persons, to go off into deep snoring sleep, to re- 
213 214 
EPILEPSY. 
main in it for two or three hours, to wake up as well as 
ever, save with a temporary loss of usual muscular 
strength. In many instances one of the symptoms is 
that of grating the teeth, not infrequently biting of the 
tongue, with heavy frothy foaming of saliva at the lips. 
Up to this time, 1868, I have treated more than 
seventy-five cases of epilepsy, some of them ranging 
from three months to ten years of duration. I have 
been so successful as to cure over seventy-five per cent 
of them. I think the disease usually baffles the skill 
of physicians of the drug-schools. This is not to be 
wondered at, for it is not obviously or readily discern- 
ible how its cure is to be effected under the use of poi- 
sonous medicaments. Its nature is such, and the parts 
of the body are such in their structural uses and capac- 
ity for morbid manifestations, as to render the hypoth- 
esis of cure by drug-medicines extremely unreliable. 
In the treatment of the disease, I rely upon changes 
going on in the circulation, and in the cerebro-spinal 
system, to be of essential consequence. Unless these 
could be made, the disease has been considered by me 
to be essentially incurable. If they could be made, 
I have felt sure of cure. So my remedies have been 
applied with this view, and in such directions as to 
insure the desired results. 
Whenever I treat an epileptic I deal largely, in my 
applications, with the spinal column. There I make 
my strongest appliances. While I have felt that great 
eare in diet was necessary, and, therefore, have sub- 
•ected my patients to use the simplest kinds of food EPILEPSY. 
215 
which could serve the necessities of the system in the 
making of blood, I have given baths with special refer- 
ence to making changes in the circulation of the blood, 
and in the conditions of the spinal column. 
One of the best appliances I have ever used has been 
fomentations along the track of the spine. Wetting 
woolen cloths in water as hot as they could be wrung 
out by an attendant, I have ordered them to be applied 
for fifteen or twenty minutes over the nape of the neck 
and the lower dorsal vertebrae, while from them down 
to tlie coccyx I have laid cold cloths, or ice-cloths, or 
in winter have used snow appliances. 
In a few instances the change has been most mar- 
velously rapid. I recollect one case of epileptic fits of 
eight or ten years standing, which was cured in nine 
days, the person never having.had a fit since. In an- 
other case, the patient was only under my treatment 
for three weeks, and was cured, to all appearance, by 
the taking of a single bath. He was plunged into 
water of the coldest temperature just as the fit was 
coming on, and came out of the bath relieved from the 
attack, and has never had one since. 
I do not mention these cases as representative cases. 
They were both very desperate cases, and justified a 
resort to the most heroic measures. Fortunately for 
them they were entirely successful, and the patients 
have been ever since, I am sure, quite thankful for 
their recovery. 
Compound baths applied to the spinal column are 
very efficacious in this disease. Thus, rubbing the 216 
EPILEPSY. 
whole length of the back-hone, now with hot cloths 
then with ice-cold cloths, has subserved a most capital 
purpose. In one case wherein I was successful, 1 
applied hot cloths every day from the nape of the neck 
to the point of the shoulder-blade, and then rubbed 
the lower part of the back with snow-balls, from five 
(to fifteen minutes, making such intervals of suspension 
as were compatible with the sensibilities of the patient, 
producing the most thorough reaction in the circula- 
tion and in the conditions of the nervous column and 
spinal marrow. Usually, such applications are followed 
with a tonic half-bath, wherein two attendants rub the 
body of the patient for five minutes, he sitting in a tub 
of water at a temperature of 85°. 
I have also treated several cases of epilepsy success- 
fully by the use of sunlight. In one case the subject 
was feeble, and had no baths of water given to her 
save those which were simply ablutionary, but was put 
upon a strict diet, and compelled to live in the open 
air all the time, and to take sun-baths from three to five 
hours a day. In the course of eight months she en- 
tirely recovered, and is to-day a healthy woman. 
There is much to be learned by the medical faculty 
in respect to the treatment of nervous diseases, and as 
they come to learn it they will find that the use of 
hygienic agents is so much more available to their cure 
than drug-medicaments are, as to challenge their par- 
ticular respect for those physicians who rely upon them 
chiefly or wholly. 
Epileptic persons should never be treated for the EPILEPSY. 
217 
cure ot their diseases without having right protection. 
No person having epilepsy is safe to be left alone if 
he is under medical care ; for when the fit may attack 
him, or how he may be situated when it does attack 
him, nobody can prognosticate. In my Institution I 
never take epileptics without attendants. It is not 
right that they should be alone ; the treatment in many 
cases aggravates the disease ; they have more frequent 
attacks than they would if they were undergoing no 
changes. Hence, they should be watched over and 
cared for thoroughly. The disease does not admit <. 
treatment at home. CHAPTER XXVI. 
INSANITY. 
This is a word of Latin derivation, and in its pre- 
cise meaning signifies a derangement of the health. 
It has come, however, under general use, to have a 
specific expression, meaning such an abnormal condi- 
tion of the mental faculties as is indicated by aberra- 
tion of mind, or loss of reason or understanding. The 
subject is too vast in its nature and bearing for me to 
discuss it here at length. I can only offer a few sug- 
gestions with respect to it. There is less need of my 
saying much in detail with reference to it or its treat- 
ment, because society has decided and very justly, I 
think, that from its nature it requires special medical 
management, and that in order to obtain it, asylums 
should be built to which insane persons should be 
taken, where they can be treated according to their 
necessities, and without interference from outside par- 
ties. Insane persons are generally more difficult to 
manage the more they are brought into contact with 
persons whom they do not know, or of whom they do 
not retain their previous knowledge. So seclusion 
from general society becomes a matter of prime im- 
218 INSANITY. 
219 
portance as one of the remedial means to be success* 
fully used in their restoration. 
Some years ago I received a letter from a distin 
guished gentleman residing in Massachusetts who had 
become acquainted with the fact that I had treated 
successfully two or three cases of insane persons whom 
I had had under my care, asking me if I w'ould consent 
to accept of the position of physician-in-chief of an 
Insane Asylum where Psycho-hygienic treatment should 
be employed, no drug-medicines being given. I had to 
reply in the negative, because my own health at that 
time would not justify me in taking the position, and 
nothing further came of the proposition. But the day 
must come when Psycho-hygienic treatment will have 
to be acknowledged as vitally necessary to the highest 
possibilities of success in the treatment of the insane. 
Situated as I am, I do not accept of insane persons 
unless they are those who are laboring under mono- 
mania or melancholic insanity ; for the other forms of 
mental derangement, numerous as their classification 
is, are generally manifested in connection with so much 
of physical violence as to forbid the subjects of them 
to be introduced into the Infirmary over which I pre- 
side. But I fiave no question as to the successful re- 
sults of Psycho-hygienic treatment upon them, it it 
could properly be brought to bear. In such cases of 
monomania or melancholic or hysterical insanity as I 
have had in charge, the treatment heretofore used by 
me has been uniformly successful. Without reference 
to my book of records, I think I may venture the 220 
INSANITY, 
statement, that in my practice I have treated success- 
fully not less than fifty cases of insanity up to this 
time, 1868. Some of these have been very marked 
and interesting cases of recovery, challenging the ad- 
miration of the friends of the patients, and insuring 
their respect and regard for the plan of treatment 
adopted. In the cases treated may be counted in quite 
a large number of persons suffering from derangement 
of the moral faculties, affecting them in the direction 
of their religious feelings, imposing on them wrong im- 
pressions as to their personality, and leading them to 
believe themselves to be other persons than they were ; 
leading them also to believe that they were in rela- 
tions to God such as made Him their mortal enemy, 
causing them to manifest mental despair, and character- 
izing them in their actions by a feeling of hopelessness 
and wretchedness of the darkest description. 
In most of the cases I found morbid conditions of 
the following organs to exist, and whose morbidity, 1 
think, constituted the provoking, if not both the pre- 
disposing and provoking causes of their diseases: 
First, severe passive inflammation of the coats of the 
stomach, involving torpidity of liver and engorgement 
of spleen ; second, long-continued and very severe con- 
stipation of the bowels; third, sexual debility; fourth, 
marked inactivity of the skin. As a necessary conse- 
quence other involvements existed, but they were de- 
pendent upon these as primaries. Whatever, then, may 
have been the influence of other causes in determining 
the quality or peculiarity of mental derangement which INSANITY. 
221 
the subject of it showed, I have not usually been able 
to satisfy myself that these did not play substantially a 
secondary part to those first mentioned. 
My treatment, therefore, has been administered under 
this view of the case. I have always insisted stren- 
uously upon giving to my patients a very simple and 
unexciting diet. I think it absurd in a case of unique 
derangement, or that which is confined to but one 
object, or an aberration of mind involving hysterical 
diathesis of body, to give to him what is usually termed 
stimulants, excitants, nervines, tonics, etc., whether these 
be in the form of medicines or foods or beverages. 
The various preparations of medicines, therefore, to- 
gether with the exciting foods usually fed to such per- 
sons, I discard. Flesh meats I seldom use. I regard 
them as decidedly calculated to add to the difficulty; 
and as the derangement is a result of an abnormal con- 
dition of portions of the corporeal structure, so its cure 
is dependent upon altering the conditions of the body. 
Farinaceous and fruit foods are better than a mixed diet, 
and simple water far better as a drink than other bev- 
erages. In truth, I think that some of the most marked 
improvements which I have ever been able to make, 
in some cases within a short period of time, have 
resulted largely, and are to be attributed essentially, 
to the change in the diet and the drink of my patients. 
Food, therefore, plays an important part in the com- 
bination of remedial agencies employed, and so does 
water, both as a diluent and detergent. It is surpris- 
ing to see what an effect will be produced, in some in- 222 
INSANITY. 
stances in a comparatively short space of time, on de- 
ranged persons by giving them good, vigorous, daily 
baths. As the pores of the skin open and the lym- 
phatics begin to work, and molecular changes are 
made throughout the entire body, what to them seems 
to be pressure on the brain is let up; and their mental 
faculties begin to play after their normal measure, 
greatly to their delight, as well as to that of all who 
are interested in their recovery. 
In general terms, then, let me say that while the 
insane who are violent should be carried to asylums, 
and preference given to such Institutions as more or less 
adopt the hygienic treatment, the milder forms of tho 
disease may be readily treated at home in a Psycho 
hygienic way; or, if not at home, at Institutions where 
the therapeutics of Psycho-hygiene are accepted and 
followed. 
For the encouragement of those who may have 
friends laboring under monomania or melancholic 
aberration, and who cannot come to my Institution, I 
have to say that I shall be happy to give any informa- 
tion to such persons that I may be able to do, at a very 
moderate price, recommending them, however, in all 
cases where the subjects are manageable, to pay very 
great attention to the condition of stomach, kidneys 
and skin, resting assured that as they may be able to 
establish normal action in any or all of these, will the 
derangements of the patient give way and his sanity be 
re-established. CHAPTER XXVII. 
DRUNKENNESS* 
It is said that there are, at least, six hundied thou- 
sand drunkards in the United States; and that of these 
sixty thousand die annually, their number being made 
good from the ranks of the drinkers of ardent spirits*. 
That the evil is a very great and growing one; that 
well-considered and very united and vigorous efforts 
on the part of the sober portion of the American people 
must be made by some means to check or to put a stop 
to the progress of drunkenness, or substantially their 
health and their character will be destroyed, admits 
not of question. For the last forty years good men 
and women have been at work to this end, and argu- 
ments of the most reasonable and conclusive nature 
have been presented to the consideration of a large 
portion of our inhabitants throughout the country. 
Many have been convinced by them, and have adopted 
the only safe means, namely, that of total abstinence 
from all intoxicating substances. Yet the evil does not 
abate. In the judgment of many weL-informed per- 
sons it has increased, till the thoughtful, patriotic, pub- 
lic - spirited, benevolently - minded, religiously - disposed, 
humane men and women in our country are at tbeij 
223 224 
DRUNKENNESS. 
wits' end, well-nigh, as to the best and most successful 
means to be employed in order to put a stop to its 
further growth. 
In this direction, my reflections have led me to form 
some very conclusive opinions, which I take the liberty 
here to state, because I think the subject is one which 
legitimately falls within the scope of thought to be set 
forth in this book. 
I regard drunkenness essentially as a disease, requir- 
ing for its cure medical treatment, and demanding of 
society such exercise of its plenary right to control the 
conditions of any persons to such degree as is necessary 
for the safety of the whole, and to inaugurate and 
establish proper means whereby the drunkard can be 
restored to sobriety; and he should be placed under 
their operation without his consent unless he gives it. 
For, philosophically speaking, drunkenness is not only 
a disease, but is one which is to be classified with aber- 
rative diseases. A drunkard is an irresponsible sick 
man, and one whose bodily diseases are such as to 
induce mental derangement. He is not, therefore, to 
be supposed to have such a sense of consciousness of 
personal responsibility as to be adjudged liable for 
what he does, and, therefore, cannot be accorded the 
liberty of saying what he will or will not do. 
Society has already settled that it has a right to deal 
with persons whom it recognizes as insane, without 
asking their consent. A man running up and down 
the streets of any village half-naked, hallooing and 
acting violently towards those whom he should meet, DRUNKENNESS. 
225 
would be regarded by all who shculd see him as in- 
sane ; or for the time being so bereft of his reason as 
to justify, on the score of the public welfare and the 
safety of the inhabitants of such place, that he should 
be restrained. What society needs to do for the pub- 
lic safety is properly to classify and deal with drunk 
enness. 
Every man who is intoxicated is not only a diseased 
man, but his disease is substantially one, pro tempore, 
of mental derangement. He is not, therefore, at lib- 
erty to be his own master, and a public or private 
infirmary is the proper place for him, to which he 
should go voluntarily, or to which he should be sent. 
It matters not how he came to be mentally deranged 
or drunk. This does not enter essentially into the ques- 
tion of how he shall be dealt with. 
Nothing will ever come of the temperance reform in 
this country, to the substantial good of the people, 
which does not involve in its discussion and settlement 
a right diagnosis of drunkenness. When it shall come 
to be understood that drunkenness is a disease, and 
that, in order to its cure, proper remedial agencies 
must be used, and that, in order to prevent it, proper 
prophylactic measures must be taken, and that these 
must involve a larger basis of action than that of sim- 
ple pledge of persons to total abstinence from all intox- 
icating drinks, then the evil can be met and success- 
fully checked, if not entirely cured. Until this is done, 
few drunkards will be restored to sobriety and to per- 
sonal and social usefulness, and no proper security 226 
DRUNKENNESS. 
Against the sober being turned into drunkards will be 
furnished. For, if drunkenness be a disease, involving 
morbid conditions of certain structures or organs in 
the body, then predispositions or strong liabilities exist 
just in proportion to the existence of the morbid con- 
dition of such structures or organs. If these can be 
made to become deranged without the use of ardent 
spirit at all, but only so deranged as to wake up in the 
person a most vigorous and insatiable appetite for 
strong drink, then it seems to me that no complete 
security against the use of alcohol can be had simply 
by reason of a promise or pledge on the part of the 
person not to use it. 
Suppose that a person were voluntarily and over his 
own signature to pledge himself and to promise others 
that he would not eat, does it stand to reason to expect ' 
that he would, for any great length of time, keep that 
pledge, after he should have so long gone without food 
as to become seized by insatiable hunger ? I take it, • 
that under such circumstances his moral sense, or his 
obligation to keep his promise, would grow faint in his 
consciousness, until it completely faded away, and no 
impression of it was left on his memory, hunger hav- 
ing completely absorbed it, and he, forgetting, or if 
not entirely forgetting that he had thus made a pledge, 
caring nothing for it. 
This is a good illustration of the relation to the 
pledge of total abstinence made by any person whose 
nabits, methods and conditions of physical life are 
such, in general, as to create and awaken in him a DRUNKENNESS. 
227 
strong desire for stimulating drinks. Let him but 
have the feeling creep upon him that he must have 
something to overcome his present sense of physical 
debility, and his moral sense of the impropriety of 
resorting to stimulants grows feeble, and his sense of 
moral obligation to keep any pledge which he has 
made not to drink gradually dies out of him. If it 
still remains in him, sufficient to have some influence 
on him under a direct form of presentation to his con- 
sciousness, then he will set to work to find some indi- 
rect methods of being relieved from it. If he does not 
feel encouraged straightforwardly to violate the pledge 
and so drink liquor openly, if possible he will find a 
justification for doing it in the expressed opinion of a 
medical man. If there is any sense of a diseased con- 
lition which challenges, in the mind of the subject 
vho suffers, the necessity of medical advice and medi- 
cal treatment, it is that feeling of debility which, com- 
ing over him, awakens the instinctive necessity of rous- 
ing up his vital force to renewed expressions of energy 
by the introduction into his circulation of some sub- 
stance which has the power to produce such effect. 
Now, by every association of ideas into wrhich the 
children as well as the adults of our country are 
educated, alcoholic stimuli are regarded as the most 
efficient, the most appropriate, and the most easily 
available of any. When one feels weak, if he is to be 
made strong by taking anything into his circulation, 
nothing so readily suggests itself to him, and is so easy 
to be procured, as some form of alcoholic beverage. 228 
DRUNKEXNESS. 
Pledge him, therefore, as strong as we may, not to 
touch it, his pledge furnishes no certain security, when- 
ever in his bodily conditions a sense of debility makes 
him conscious of the necessity of using it. If his 
pledge is of such a character as to forbid him to use 
it at all, then he immediately reasons that it was made 
under a very different set of conditions of body from 
what he has then present. So he justifies himself in 
not keeping it, and, therefore, drinks. If his pledge is 
Mich as to forbid him to use it in health, but to permit 
him to use it when out of health, as a medicine, then 
under these conditions of debility he feels himself en- 
tirely at liberty to use it, because he is not only not 
healthy but positively sick. 
Whatever conditions or habits of living, therefore, 
tend to produce or do actually produce a certain order 
of debility in a human body, tend to make or do actu- 
ally make any pledge on the part of any person to ab- 
stain from all intoxicating drinks quite insecure, and 
not by any means to be relied upon. There is, then, 
no security of any person against the use of intoxicat- 
ing drinks, except in the establishment of such condi- 
tions and habits of bodily life as to render to the con 
sciousness of such person their use uncalled for. Over- 
feed a man until Iris stomach refuses to perform its 
office, and a consciousness of enfeeblement of that or- 
gan comes to exist to that degree as to be described 
only by a sense of goneness and faintness of it. No 
man pledged to the disuse of ardent spirits would think 
anything of such pledge for a moment after he should DRUNKENNESS. 
229 
be made to fee' that a glass of brandy would relieve 
him from that terrible suffering. Overwork a man 
until be is so tired that he can scarcely put one leg be 
fore the other, and convince him that to drink a glass 
of brandy may relieve him from such terrible suffer- 
ing as such a sense of fatigue always creates, and he 
will drink brandy against all the pledges in the world. 
Over sexualize a man until there is not a nerve or a 
muscle in his body that does not carry to his sensorium 
its own debility and press it home there upon his con- 
sciousness, and he will drink against any pledge hereto- 
fore made, if he can be induced to think that by so do- 
ing his debility will give way and vigor take its place. 
It is hard fighting against bodily instincts. Even the 
moral sense of a man, in the long run, gives Way be- 
fore their all-powerful sway. 
The fact is, that any person in order to become a 
drunkard must have one particular organ or portion of 
his bodily structure diseased. Until it is so, he cannot 
become a drunkard ; the thing is physically impossible. 
I care not what other organ or organs are deranged, he 
never will become an inebriate until he has congestion, 
or irritation or inflammation of the solar plexus of 
nerves. I do not mean to say that he may not become 
intoxicated ; but even this cannot take place until con- 
gestion of the solar plexus exists. Protect this net- 
work of nerves, if it werb possible, against the effects 
of alcoholic poison, and a man may drink a barrel of 
fourth-proof brandy and he would not stagger nor show 
any mental abnormalism more than were he to drink 230 
DRUNKENNESS. 
so much water. But introduce into the circulation 
poison enough to affect the action of these organic, 
nerves, and the man's brain as well as his muscular 
system will give way. Poison his circulation by the 
introduction of alcohol into it so frequently as to es- 
tablish what may be called a bodily diathesis or habit 
of dependence on it, and this net-work of nerves be- 
comes not only congested or irritated, but passively 
inflamed, and then the man has a burning desire for 
liquor; unless he is deprived of food he never can 
have enough of it so long as he is conscious of any- 
thing. Drink he wiZZ, for drink he must. There is 
no more hope of saving him -without so altering his rela- 
tions to life as to reduce that inflammation, and restore 
that net-work of nerves to something like healthy ac- 
tion, than there is of making a deaf man hear while he 
remains deaf, or a blind man see while he remains blind. 
Whatever methods of living tend to induce, or do in- 
duce, congestion of the blood-vessels of the stomach 
and of the net-work of nerves lying behind it, also 
tend to create conditions which to the man's conscious- 
ness render the use of stimulating drinks needful to 
him. As soon, therefore, as under his lodllj condi- 
tions there seems to be a necessity for theD use, how, 
under any action of his moral sense, is ho to be kept 
from +heir use ? I never knew a man whose moral 
sense deterred him from doing that which he thought 
was necessary for him to do. In the department of 
morals, as in every other department of human life, 
necessity rises above all law ; it know* none. Make a DRUNKENNESS. 
231 
mar., therefore, to feel that liquor is necessary to his 
health and to his strength, to his sense of enjoyment, 
and to the use and proper fulfilment of his powers, 
and that he cannot have these without it, and of what 
force is to him a pledge that he never will take intoxi- 
cating liquors ? It is like burnt tow wherewith to bind 
Samson ; it amounts to nothing. 
To check, therefore, the tide of intemperance in this 
country, we must go into a discussion and examination 
of the general habits of living of our people. If we 
cannot make them live so there will be no instinctive 
desire in them for stimulants, pledges will be of no 
avail wherever such desire exists, because under its ex- 
istence the use of stimulants is consciously and obvi- 
ously a necessity ; and, I repeat it, pledges are no secu- 
rity against any indulgence which in his own estimation 
is necessary to the person. He is then under exceptional 
conditions, and, if he keeps up the necessity, the condi- 
tions will exist, and ultimately come not to be excep- 
tional, but ordinary; and thus the man is in just the 
line of travel which places him in the conditions of a 
drunkard. Drunkenness, therefore, being a disease, 
must be prevented by healthier conditions of life for 
our people; must be cured by changing the habits of 
life of all such as have become its victims. 
Now for the treatment. Deal with the drunkard as 
if he were a nervous dyspeptic, and his disease can be 
cured as thoroughly as can nervous dyspepsia; for, in 
truth, drunkenness is but the counterpart of nervous 
dyspepsia. The difference between them is only appa 232 
DRUNKENNESS, 
rent, for nervous dyspepsia puts on protean changes. 
Now it is hypochondria, now hysteria, then sciatic 
rheumatism, then congestion of the lungs, then seminal 
emissions, then spasmodic twitchings of the muscles, 
then congestion of the brain; now epilepsy, now apo- 
plexy, now paralysis, now typhoid fever, now drunken- 
ness. In other words, a large class of diseases have 
their predisposing causes in imperfect digestion and 
assimilation of food, and their provoking causes in an 
inflammation of the nerves of the stomach, liver, spleen, 
kidneys and bowels. 
I have treated over fifty cases of paroxysmal or ha- 
bitual inebriety where most of them had lost self-con- 
trol, ordinarily or at times, pitiable to behold. Some of 
them were men in middle life, others young men just 
starting out in life, others mature women, and, in three 
or four instances, girls. In the cases of the women 
and of the girls, if I recollect rightly, the liking for 
alcoholic liquor was kindled as the result of its medi- 
cinal use. I treated them all on the basis that the 
nerves of the stomach were inflamed, and that where 
the appetite was paroxysmal, amounting to mania 
a potu, or craziness for drink, the paroxysm was brought 
on from some cause producing it in the external circu- 
lation. Not infrequently this change would be obvi- 
ously dependent upon the modification of the tempera- 
ture of the atmosphere. If it sunk in the scale 20° or 
30°. making the air pass from a quite warm to a chilly 
temperature, the external capillary blood-vessels would 
be contracted, blood driven out of them upon the inner DRUNKENNESS. 
233 
issues, particular and especial irritation of the blood- 
vessels of the mucous membrane of the stomach would 
be established, irritation of the organic nerves follow, 
the brain be affected, and the desire for liquor at the 
time would be awakened, and become intolerable. Be- 
fore any such appetite all considerations of propriety 
vanish like a fog before the sun's rays. Home, friends, 
character, are nothing. To use the phrase of one 
of them, the victim's legs would be operated upon 
by an invisible force, and as against all the influences 
that could be brought to bear upon him through his 
judgment an*d moral sense, he would go to a groggery 
and drink until complete unconsciousness ensued. The 
paroxysm would last under the law of periodicity until 
reaction of the nerves, and so of the circulatory sys- 
tem, would take place, when, for the time being, he 
would be as disgusted with the idea of liquor as he had 
previously been drawn to its use. 
In case of paroxysmal drunkenness, consequent upon 
occasional use, as of daily drunkenness consequent upon 
habitual use, my plan of treatment under my reflec- 
tions on the subject came to be such as directly tended 
to relieve the blood-vessels of the stomach and the ad- 
jacent structures from their overplus of blood, and so 
relieve the nerves of their inflamed condition. To do 
this, tonic baths were given, daily, to the surface of the 
entire body. Fomentations were laid over the region 
of the stomach, liver and spleen, every day for half an 
hour, followed by washing the parts thus covered in 
cold water, and then putting on abdominal bandages, 234 
DBUNKENNESS. 
which would be worn night and day, except when the 
person was in bath. The person was placed on anti- 
phlogistic food, made up largely of grains and fruits. 
Oily substances, such as butter and crearn, were dis- 
pensed with. Common salt was not used at all. To- 
bacco, tea, coffee, and all the condiments, were strictly 
prohibited. The patient was taken away from business 
and placed under kind but thorough oversight. He 
was not permitted to go to town, nor in any direction 
to associate with persons who, drinking alcoholic li- 
quors, perfumed the air more or less with their breath. 
A system of manly obedience was required of him, and, 
if necessary, an attendant was dispensed to him, and 
went with him, walked with him, cared for him, roomed 
with him. From three to twelve months have been 
taken up in restoring such cases. 
Although, in a few instances where injudiciousness 
of friends has been manifest, and in a few instances 
where overwork has induced debility, the parties have 
returned to their drunkenness, yet out of the entire 
seventy not more than four or five have ultimately be- 
come drunkards again; the rest are, or were, when 
I heard from them all in good health, and sober, use- 
ful, honest, upright men and women. I, therefore, am 
firm in my belief that I have discovered the seat of the 
disease not only, but the means of curing it. I would 
as soon expect a reformed drunkard to remain sober 
if he were to return to the use of fermented and dis- 
tilled liquors, as I would if he were to use tobacco oi 
opium, DRUNKENNESS 
235 
Although it may seem very strange to all who may 
read what I have said with reference to drunkenness 
and its cure, I nevertheless cannot forbear to say that 
I do not believe reformed inebriates, generally, can be 
kept sober after they are pronounced cured, if they are 
permitted to eat largely of flesh meats seasoned with 
the various spices in common use with our people, or 
to use tobacco, or to drink tea or coffee. A simple 
nutrient diet, the use of pure cold water for a drink, 
and personal cleanliness, with abundant sleep, will 
prove to be the only securities to the reformed drunk- 
ard. It is not necessary, in order to awaken in him 
the appetite for liquor, so that he will drink and be- 
come a drunkard, that he shall use liquor of any kind 
whatever. Tea, coffee, tobacco, pepper, mustard, salt, 
flesh meat, will create such a condition of the organic 
nerves, and of the mucous lining of his stomach, as to 
re-establish the desire for liquor, and then he will drink, 
come what may to his pledges or his social position. CHAPTER XXVIII. 
HYSTERIA. 
This disease has its name from a Greek word signi- 
fying uterus. It is confined to women, and is to them 
what hypochondria is to men. Essentially, it is a dis- 
ease of the hypogastric region, as hypochondria is of 
the epigastric region. It is not simply a supposed dis- 
ease, but is a real affection of certain nerves, and can 
only be cured by such alteration in the condition of 
the circulation as to change the conditions of the nerves 
affected. It is neuralgic in character, meaning thereby 
that it involves certain nerves, so as to make them mor- 
bidly active, and according to the constitution and 
quality of organization of the patient will the diseased 
manifestation be. 
It, therefore, is a matter worthy of some note, in 
order to decide upon just what is necessary to be done 
in the way of treatment and cure, that the physician 
should be able to understand the peculiar organization 
of the patient; for in one case one class of influences 
must operate; in another, quite a different set of means 
will only prove successful. I have found that whatever 
would serve the purpose of sedation to the general ner- 
vous system, without subsequent violent reactions, was 
236 HYSTERIA. 
237 
the best remedy which I could employ. I have never 
heard of any permanent benefit derived from the ad- 
ministration of the usually accepted medicinal ner 
vines. They all created conditions of temporary im- 
provement to ultimate loss. Hence, hysterical women, 
who have for years taken opiates, anodynes, nervines, 
of one sort or another, have, as far as my observation 
has gone, and my experience in the matter has been 
had, been made worse therefrom. 
I have found that the Psycho-hygienic treatment is 
altogether the best; much better than the simple 
hygienic. In truth, I came to be a Psycho-hygienist 
instead of a mere hygieo-therapeutist, because of the 
necessities of my position in the treatment of hysterical 
diseases. I have found under long and varied applica- 
tion of mere hygienic treatment, that this class of dis- 
eases baffled my skill ; that in many instances I could 
not reach them. Bathing, life in the open air, the use 
of simple, nutrient food, and the use of other mere 
hygienic agents did not prove successful. There were 
conditions of the system which would not yield. I 
found these to be of the mental or spiritual kind, 
originating in - if one pleases to have it so - an$ de- 
pendent upon, morbid conditions of some particular 
portion of the physical organism, but nevertheless 
manifesting morbidity which the use of the merely 
material, hygienic agents would not reach. So I said 
to myself, psychology as well as physiology must come 
into play. I must understand what are the mental 
and spiritual conditions of such persons ; for only by 238 
HYSTERIA. 
such knowledge can I hope to reach their cases. 1 
therefore studied out what, for want of a better phrase, 
I am pleased to call Psycho-hygiene, and by which, as 
I have said elsewhere, I mean a knowledge of the laws 
of life and health ; for it can readily be discerned that 
these do not always wmrk together, but often against 
each other, it being true that many persons, notwith- 
standing they are in decided ill-health or very sick, 
nevertheless continue to live. 
I wanted to find some plan or process of so treating 
disease as that when it could be said of a person that 
he is alive, it would be said of him conclusively that 
he is healthy. So thinking the whole matter over, and 
bringing to bear my experience, I finally came to the 
conclusion that I had discovered methods whereby in 
much , larger degree than I had before been able, and 
than I believed anybody else to be able to do, I could 
treat all diseases successfully. Making use of my meth- 
ods, I found no class of persons more readily to derive 
benefit therefrom than those unfortunates who are 
cursed with hysterical and hypochondriacal morbidities. 
The worst forms of hysterics I have treated and am 
treating with success. The worst forms of nervous 
dyspepsia are also being treated at " Our Home on the 
Hillside" with thorough success. Opium drunkards, 
hasheesh drunkards, liquor drunkards, tobacco drunk 
ards, gluttons, sexually-debilitated persons are, undei 
the Psycho-hygienic treatment, cured of their diseases. 
Jn this direction, I may as well say, perhaps, at this 
point as at any other, what I wish to say upon HYSTERIA. 
239 
female diseases; because these are largely hysterical 
in their nature, and are dependent upon proper meth- 
ods of treatment for their cure. It is known to the 
profession, and to a good degree to persons of observa- 
tion who are laymen, that the most fashionable, because 
the most common diseases with which women are 
afflicted now-a-days in this country, are those which 
are known as female diseases; a class of ailments 
that are peculiar to women, and which are supposed to 
have their seat, if not their origin, in some portion of 
their sexual or reproductive system. 
The phases which such diseases assume are as varied 
as are the conditions of the structures of the reproduc- 
tive organs. In one it is prolapsus of the womb; in 
another it is anteversion or tipping forward; in 
another, tipping backward of the uterus; in another 
it is acute disease of it; in another, chronic inflamma- 
tion of the neck of the womb. Again, it is debility 
of the mucous membrane of the lower part of the 
vagina; in another, of the top of the vagina; in 
another it is ulceration of the neck of the uterus; in 
another, of the interior lining membrane of the uterus; 
in another it is blind piles; in still another it is me- 
chanical displacements; in another it is excessive con- 
stipation, caused by physical displacement - the uterus 
pressing upon the rectum, and hindering the descent 
of the faeces through the lower bowel. Thus the mor- 
bid conditions arc to be described. The reflex influ- 
ence of these is manifest on the general health and 
vigor of the body of the patient and also upon tho 240 
HYSTERIA, 
mind. The body becomes enfeebled or comparatively 
so; the mind of the patient becomes uncertain, unre 
Hable, vacillating, manifesting now the extreme of im- 
pulsive energy, and now lack of it. 
In all such cases, I have found the social conditions 
of the person to have had much to do wit*h the origina- 
tion of her difficulties, or having much to do with their 
continuance. Hence, I have found that, whatevei 
might be the need of hygienic appliances, the respon 
sible consciousness of the person must be made fc 
work in the right direction. Means, in themselves 
most admirably adapted to the cure of such forms of 
disease, will prove of little avail unless the intellect 
and the intuition of the patient can be brought to 
their aid. 
The first thing in a hysterical case, involving uterine 
derangements, which is all-important to be done, is to 
get possession of the patient; to inspire her with great 
confidence in the means to be used. To do this, the 
means themselves must be of the right sort, and not 
only so, but she must be brought under the direct in- 
fluence of some person who can make her believe that 
they are of the right sort. If she questions their 
utility, she will practically disprove it; if they are use- 
ful, and she believes it, she can be readily cured. Such 
are the mental conditions of hysterical women, and 
such the mental conditions of hypochondriac men, +hat 
they can be more readily affected by means which are 
altogether inapt, and therefore intrinsically useless to 
the restoration of their health, if they can be made HYSTEBIA. 
241 
to believe in their use than they can be by the use of 
means which are admirably calculated to aid in the 
cure of their disease, but in whose application they 
have no confidence. Psychology, or that science where- 
by you control the life-force through its own instinc- 
tive or intelligent consciousness, is the power which, in 
such cases, must be brought to bear. A physician 
whose relation to the patient will enable him to ac- 
quire the largest amount of confidence over her, can 
make her improve faster under the application of 
water and bread-pills, if she believes in him and in his 
remedies, than he can, if she disbelieves in him, by the 
use of the most competent medicines known as belong- 
ing to the materia medica or outside of it. 
In saying this, I am not talking devoid of sense, nor 
in contradiction of science. Too many proofs of the 
truth of what I have to say lie all along the track of 
human life to justify doubt in the matter. Nor will 
it do to question the actual existence of the diseased 
conditions of persons so cured. Dr. Austin and myself 
have had to deal with some of the very worst forms of 
disease where the structures of the uterus were in- 
volved in long-continued and painful ulcerations, which 
have been cured by the patient use of hygienic means 
psychologically applied, where these same means had 
failed when simply hygieo-therapeutically applied. It 
is not uncommon for us to have persons come to us 
who have been treated hygieo-therapeutically, hydro- 
pathically, homeopathically, electropathically without 
any benefit, who being Psycho-hygienically treated by 242 
HYSTERIA. 
us get veil. And the cause of our success, and the 
cause of the failure of others who have treated them, 
is to be accounted for on the ground that our treat- 
ment involved the action and approval of the con 
sciousness of the patient, where in the other courses of 
treatment the patient was simply passive. 
When therefore, I have a patient belonging to the 
hysterical class, the first thing I do is to try to get pos- 
session of her, just as I do to get possession of a man 
when he is a hypochondriac. If I succeed in making 
her or him exercise faith in me, I ask no odds of the 
disease unless it be in the very nature of the case incur- 
able. In most instances this is not the condition ; for, 
of the number of bedridden women, of those who are 
suffering from chronic female complaints; or, of the 
nervous dyspeptic men, of those who are suffering from 
hypochondria, there is not one in five hundred in this 
country who is not capable of being restored to good, 
sound, substantial health. 
In the treatment of hysterical diseases, involving 
uterine morbidity, the fashionable or regularly-ac- 
cepted medical method is the application to the dis- 
eased parts of counter-irritants. Where ulceration 
exists, as in many cases it does, the plan is to apply 
caustics, either nitrate of silver or some preparation of 
potash, hoping thereby to change the action of the cir • 
culation, and so change the condition of the nerves of 
the uterus, and by reactive sympathy the conditions of 
the general nervous system, and thus restore the pa- 
tient's health. There is one very conclusive objection HYSTERIA, 
243 
tc this method of procedure. It is that metastasis, or 
the removal of the disease to some other part of the 
system is likely to take place, which, it should be 
understood, is not only no cure, but is more likely 
than not to be more positively injurious to the health 
and life of the patient than the original disease was. 
Where such action is set up and so a substituted condi 
tion takes place, and a new disease is established, the 
transfer is often from an organ whose diseased state 
does not peril the life of the patient to an organ whose 
diseased state does peril her life. Under such a change, 
therefore, the patient gains nothing, but may lose. I 
have had, probably, not less than five hundred lady 
patients who have been treated for uterine diseases by 
caustics, and have been said to be, and were supposed 
to be, cured thereof, who, within a period of one to 
three months after their cure, manifested forms of dis- 
ease as much more destructive to their lives, and of 
course to their health, than the disease for which they 
were treated by caustic, as an organic disease is worse 
than a mere functional derangement. In some in- 
stances they have had hemorrhages of lungs and stom- 
ach and nose set in; in others, a development of tuber- 
cles in the bowels or lungs, or both; in others, the 
worst forms of nervous diseases; in others, soreness of 
throat, acute catarrh, inflamed eyes, deafness, and, in 
some cases, very severe, and apparently unmanageable 
cutaneous eruptions, breaking down their constitutions, 
and, in the case of most of them, inducing organic 
lesions of some particular structures. 244 
HYSTERIA. 
Therefore, oince I have come to be Psycho-hygienic 
in my practice, I recognize, essentially, uterine diseases 
as creating hysterical complications, and, therefore, to 
be treated after methods that shall challenge the action 
of the vital forces as largely as may be tlirough and 
under the uses of the body entire. Head, lungs, stom- 
ach, liver, spleen, kidneys, skin, muscles, nerves, bones, 
mind, soul, heart, spirit, must all play their parts in 
overcoming the morbid conditions of the special organ 
involved. My treatment, therefore, may justly be con- 
sidered as general and not local, as Pyscho-hygienic 
vid not simply as hygieo-therapeutic. It would in- 
clude, of course, all such local applications as a morbid 
condition of any structure might demand; but the main 
plan would be so to relate the patient to general rules 
of life, as to bring the entire nervous and nutritive sys- 
tem under their influence as effectively as the constitu- 
tional organization and functional conditions of the 
patient would admit. 
In this direction, the manner of living at " Our Home 
on the Hillside " shows its superiority over the ordinary 
methods of living common with our people. Walking 
and riding in the open air in the morning and toward 
evening; plentiful use as a drink of soft water, the 
effect of which, as a diluent and solvent, is in many in- 
stances very great; the use of unbolted wheat flour 
cooked into simple food in the forms of bread, or pud- 
ding or gruel, with the more nutritious vegetables, and 
the sub-acid fruits ; sunlight-baths ; the wearing of the 
American costume as a dress; the establishment of HYSTERIA. 
245 
regular hours of retiring and rising, thus invoking and 
securing plenty of sleep ; pleasant social surroundings; 
mental quiet; and the cherishing and exercise of large 
faith in the goodness of God, work with most wonder- 
ful curative efficacy. Under such arrangements as these, 
a great many women broken down in health, and made 
more thoroughly diseased by the use of poisonous medi- 
cines which they had taken, have been so benefited, or 
so thoroughly restored to health, as greatly to gratify 
their friends, and make life to them a pleasure and a 
source of happiness, instead of a heavy burden with 
the carrying of which they had a great many times felt 
a strong desire to dispense. CHAPTER XXIX. 
ST. VITUS5 DANCE. 
This disease shows itself in such spasmodic action of 
certain muscles of the body as to produce twitchings, 
jerkings, or involuntary use of these muscles. It is 
essentially a nervous disease. It is said to have taken 
the common name which it bears because of the cure 
performed upon certain women of disordered mind, 
who paid a visit to the chapel of St. Vitus, near Ulin 
in Suabia, and who exercised themselves in dancing 
until they became tired out. The disease it is said re- 
turned every year, and was as regularly cured by the 
same process. 
A singular case of this disease has been related by 
Dr. Watson in the Medico - Chirurgic al Transactions, 
in which a girl, ten years of age, kept up the most ex- 
traordinary movements and exercises for five weeks, 
sometimes for twenty hours a day. 
In my own practice, I have had three or four as ex 
traordinary cases as I have ever heard about, one of 
them I think more extraordinary than any that has 
ever come to my knowledge. She was a young girl 
about fifteen years of age, the daughter of a "wealthy 
man. and when brought to me had so far reaehed an 
246 ST. VITUS' DANCE. 
247 
advanced morbid condition as to have no constraining 
or resisting power to the action of any muscle in her 
body. The twitching of all the muscles "was not con 
Btant, but the involuntary action of some of them was 
unintermitting. Usually the most rapid and violent 
exhibition of twitching was seen in the muscles of the 
face, which would be twisted into all sorts and manner 
of shapes in the course of a little time, causing her to 
make up the most wry and unpleasant faces, expressing 
thereby the whole round of passional and emotional 
exercises. Ilers was the only case wherein, under the 
action of the muscles, the countenance was made, appa- 
rently, to show the feeling or the intelligent conscious- 
ness of the person. Another case, somewhat different 
from hers, but not less interesting, is that of a young 
lady who, in addition to the contraction and expansion 
of the muscles of the body, had become blind. Iler 
entire body was in a constant muscular activity, except 
when she was asleep. But as in the former case, so in 
her own, did entire passivity immediately succeed the 
loss of consciousness by sleep. 
The first case was under our treatment a little over a 
year, and was thoroughly restored to health. The sec- 
ond case was under our treatment a year, and was 
greatly improved. Having left us but a few weeks at 
the time of this writing,* I am not able to report her 
case as to cure ; for she is following up my treatment 
at home, making steady progress ; has become able to 
* Eighteen months having elapsed since writ ing the above, I am 
able to report that the lady has recovered her health and sight, and 
s fully able to fulfill her ordinary duties. 248 
ST. VITUS' DANCE. 
walk a little, which she could not do when she came to 
us to the taking of a single step. She has also reached 
a point where very acute sensibility to light has returned 
to her eyes, indicating, as I think, most unmistakably, 
a revitalization of the optic nerve, and promising to 
her, in time, restoration to sight. 
I have treated over twenty cases of St. Vitus' Dance, 
or Chorea, as the physicians call it. Only in four cases 
have I failed. These were three men and one woman, 
all of whom were incurable, by reason, as I think, of 
being drug-poisoned. 
In the methods employed for the cure of this disease, 
I have found none so immediately palliative, and in the 
long run so curative, as the use of warm water applied 
over the stomach, liver and bowels, connected as such 
application always has been with ablutions of the whole 
body, the use of proper food, exercise, rest and proper 
mental associations. The results of my treatment have 
led me to conclude that the seat of the disease, what- 
ever may be its origin, is in deranged conditions of 
liver, stomach, spleen and transverse colon, involving 
great irritation, if not inflammation, of those nerves 
which are spread out over and through these organs. 
The disease begins always, I think, in congestion of 
the mucous membrane of the stomach, to involve the 
liver and the spleen, and then to .make such other com- 
plications as each case may show. 
In the wray of treatment, what the patient shall eat 
and drink becomes a matter of great importance. Most 
rhoreic persons like high-seasoned food and stimulating ST. VITUS' DANCE. 
249 
or naicotic drinks. In quite a number of instances, I 
think the derangement of the stomach, and liver, and 
spleen, which, when it had reached a certain point, pro- 
duced the disease, was caused by the very liberal and 
debauching use of coffee. Next to tobacco, I think 
coffee the most efficient agent in the production of this 
morbid condition. I do not know, on the whole, but it 
is quite as efficient as tobacco. Where the disease is 
seen in boys, almost always solitary vice has had some- 
thing to do with it. Instruction on the part of parents 
and teachers should, therefore, be given to young lads 
with reference to the direful effects which may follow 
from their premature excitement of the reproductive 
organs. Where very young girls have had it, I have 
found in many instances that- the menstrual function 
was involved. Either it had not appeared when it 
ought, or from some cause had become irregular in its 
show, or entirely suppressed. As a preventive, there- 
fore, to the disease, it is quite needful in young persons 
of both sexes that they should be trained to simple and 
healthful habits. In a great many cases, where this and 
other severe diseases show themselves in young persons, 
they might be entirely prevented by proper hygienic 
care. I scarcely know of a disease more to be deplored, 
because of the entire transformation of bodily appear- 
ance under its manifestation, than St. Vitus' Dance. 
It is exceedingly painful to witness the helplessness and 
want of control which some persons show who have it. 
The Psycho-hygienic treatment is admirably adapted 
to its jure, but, in the great majority of instances, I 250 
ST. VITUS5 DANCE. 
think it will be found that those who are suffering frnn 
it will have to take treatment away from their homes, 
and that this will be the case for many years to come, 
because the means of living hygienically in private 
families are much less complete and available than in 
a public institution, by reason of the influence which 
society exercises over the freedom of those who consti- 
tute the members of such families. I have not found 
it necessary to speak disparagingly of home treatment, 
as of avail in the cure of a large class of diseases with 
which the American people are afflicted, by reason of 
the abstract difficulty of making a proper diagnosis ol 
the condition of sick persons, nor yet because of the 
incompetency of making proper suggestions in the form 
of prescriptions for their treatment; but because when 
the right understanding is had of the diseases of such 
persons, and the right methods of treatment indicated, 
a proper enforcement of such treatment is hardly ever 
made. 
I account for this on the ground that the persons to 
whom the treatment of sick persons at home is com- 
mitted, have not the courage to do what is required, 
if in the doing of it the general ideas of fitness and 
propriety, as entertained by society, have .to be tra- 
versed. When in every village and town in our coun- 
try, there shall be found so many health-reformers as 
to insure, on the part of society, entire toleration for 
them in their ways and manners of living, then I think 
hygieo-therapeutic treatment can be applied more or 
less successfully to the sick at their own homes. Untu st. virus' dance. 
251 
such toleration exists, sick persons who want Psycho- 
hygienic treatment will have to go to an Institution 
where it is administered Unless they do so, the means 
for their cure will either not be at command, or if so, 
will not be employed CHAPTER XXX. 
PULMONARY CONSUMPTION 
This disease, which produces a larger number of 
deaths than any other to the inhabitants of America, I 
have had to treat in so large a degree as, in my own 
view, to justify a detailed statement of its causes, both 
predisposing and proximate, and of the best methods 
of curing it. I therefore have published a work of 
four hundred pages, entitled, " Consumption ; How to 
Prevent and How to Cure it," and take the liberty to 
refer all persons who may wish for information on the 
matter to that work. 
Mumps.-This disease is a swelling of the salivary 
glands. It prevails in large portions of the United 
States, and is generally epidemic. It is also communi- 
cable or catching; one person in a family having it 
exposes the other members of the family to it, if they 
have not had it. It is seldom known to affect the same 
person twice, though there are instances on record where 
this has happened. It is not a dangerous disease, 
except in cases of very scrofulous persons. It usually 
affects children, though adults occasionally have it. 
Sometimes one side of the neck is affected, but oftener 
252 MUMPS. 
253 
both. While the inflammation is in progress, the en 
largement of the glands and the contiguous textures 
occasionally becomes great, so as to produce a decided 
deformity, and is attended with general fever, though 
not often very severe. The disease reaches its height 
in about four days, when resolution takes place and 
the patient is relieved. The best treatment for it is 
that which is general, so far as to keep down fever, 
involving the use of tonic baths, unstimulating food, 
rest, and plenty of good air to breathe. Unless a per- 
son is of scrofulous habit, and is predisposed to rapid 
deterioration of blood, there is no danger. Under any- 
thing like fair management, as to the ultimate result, 
the patient will recover. 
There is one peculiarity about it, however. Where 
the disease is treated medicinally, and the swelling of 
the neck and throat subsides quickly, metastasis takes 
place, and swelling of the testicles, in the male, and of 
the breasts, in the female, succeeds. It is said that the 
testicle, which is on the same side as the salivary gland 
which is inflamed, is sure to take on inflammation 
whenever substituted action is set up. This is a mis- 
take ; for in several cases in my own practice I have 
known the converse of this statement to be true. 
When the disease attacks a very scrofulous patient, 
and metastatic or substituted condition takes place, 
after a certain period of swelling of the testicle or 
breast, as the swelling recedes the structure involved 
diminishes in its natural size, insomuch that in a few 
instances 1 have known boys to have one of the genital 254 
MUMPS. 
glands completely absorbed. I have also known two 
girls who, having had mumps, recovered and grew to 
womanhood, but had only one breast left, the other one 
having been nearly or quite destroyed. Some doctors 
have supposed that where there is a necessity for metas- 
tatic action, it is favorable that the testicle or breast 
becomes involved, because this saves metastasis to the 
brain ; but I do not see any conclusive ground for this 
supposition. Inasmuch, however, as metastasis does 
take place, the treatment of the disease in very scrofu- 
lous persons should be mild and gentle. 
Sometimes in this disease severe salivation takes 
place. When this is the case, of all applications which 
I have had occasion to employ, none is so prompt in 
healthy reactive results as that of the wet-sheet pack. 
Under such circumstances it should be employed as 
frequently as the patient can take it, and indicate no 
special debility therefrom. In one case of mumps which 
I had to treat, the salivation was so great as for two or 
three days to amount to over a pint in a day. I cured 
it in the course of two or three days, by the applica- 
tion of the wet-sheet pack. In two or three instances 
which have fallen under my care, where boys who had 
reached puberty had the mumps, and the salivary glands 
were incited to profuse action, after recovering from the 
specific form of the disease the flow of sali va remained, 
and the amount of secretion w'as so great that they 
could not swallow it; it became disgusting to them. 
I entirely cured then of the disease, which had been 
on them for several years, by a course of wet-sbect SALIVATION. 
255 
packing, with a tonic dripping-sheet bath applied regu- 
larly every day for about three months. These were 
the only cases that I have had where the salivation 
seemed to be the result of the disease alone. 
Salivation.-Several cases of salivation I have had 
to treat where persons, having had the mumps, had had 
mercury administered, and after their recovery the pty- 
alism continued. I subjected them to pretty much the 
same methods as where the disease seemed to be idio 
pathic or spontaneous, and they recovered. 
Speaking of salivation in connection with mumps, 
suggests to me to mention the case of a middle-aged 
man, which to me was in its manifestation very inter- 
esting, because very peculiar. He was in size large, of 
almost pure bilious temperament, with black hair, dark 
eyes, and of very dark skin. lie weighed one hundred 
and fifty pounds ; a very healthy man until within two 
years of the time when he came to us for treatment. 
He had been a large eater of high-seasoned food, a 
large drinker of beer, an active, energetic, untiring 
worker. He had not been sick, until all of a sudden 
his liver refused to act. He consulted a homeopathic 
physician who gave him some medicines which osten- 
sibly did him no good. When the season for visiting 
mineral springs and watering-places came about, he 
was induced to go to Saratoga. There he stayed for a 
few weeks, and drank abundantly of the water of Con- 
gress spring. While drinking it, his salivary glands 
began to flow, and kepi increasing in the quantity of 256 
SALIVATION. 
saliva secreted. He consulted physicians of one school 
and another, took drug-medicines, tried everything 
almost, until he was advised to come to " Our Home 
on the Hill-side." On examination, I found three 
points of interest, which seemed to me to account for 
the abnormal action of the salivary glands. One was 
that his skin was very harsh. On inquiry, he said that 
be sweat little or none. The other, that he made but 
very little water ; the other, that he had but very small 
defecation ; and, as a consequence of all these, that he 
had very fetid breath. With these, was immense flow 
of saliva, attended by great physical debility, great 
mental depression, and a sense of general illness. I 
said to him that I could cure him if he would give me 
six months in which to do it. He said he would will- 
ingly appropriate six years. I put him upon the sim- 
plest food, gave him all the soft water that he could 
drink - which was a good deal - packed him for the 
space of forty minutes three times a week; gave him for 
baths a dripping-sheet, of the temperature of 80° to 
72° ; opened his bowels by tepid injections. In less 
than sixty days I reduced him forty pounds. In less 
than one hundred and twenty had him back again to 
quite or nearly his usual weight, with as clear a skin, 
active kidneys, active bowels, as any healthy man ever 
had, with inodorous breath, and the secretion from the 
salivary glands reduced to the natural quantity. A 
happier man I never knew. 
In stating to me the sensations which he felt when 
liis salivary glands first began to flow, he said that he SALIVATION. 
257 
was drinking Congress -water -when, all of a sudden, the 
feeling of heaviness, which he had carried for months 
m and around his stomach, went to his throat. It 
seemed to him when the transference of impression 
took place, that his stomach became as light as a cork, 
and that the heavy weight had been hung around his 
throat. That sense he carried until he began to im- 
prove under my treatment, when gradually it passed 
away. 
I have had two other cases of profuse flow of saliva 
which were so peculiar as to justify me in the one case 
in calling the attention of a celebrated dentist to it, 
and in the other, of two or three medical men of local 
celebrity to notice it. One was the case of a lady who, 
being under treatment in my Institution, had a critical 
action in which the gums began to grow. In the 
course of ten or fifteen days they grew so rapidly, all 
the while profuse salivation existing, as entirely to 
cover all the teeth she had in her head. She had been 
for years an invalid ; had taken a great deal of medi- 
cine, of wThich a fair share was calomel and opium. 
The odor of her breath during these morbid manifesta- 
tions was similar to that which exists in the case of a 
mercurially salivated person. But it was not the flow 
of saliva so much that astonished me as the rapid 
growth of the gums. I took a sharp-pointed, slim 
pair of surgical scissors, and ran along the base of her 
molar teeth, and cut strips of gum off, and took them 
out of her mouth an inch and a-half in length, and 
in thirty-six hcurs the gums were entirely grown over 258 
SALIVATION. 
again. The teeth which had up to this time been 
solid in their sockets, soon began to be loose, and 
thrust, as it were, downwards out of their places. I 
accounted for this on the ground of deposit at the 
bottom of the teeth crowding them out, or else of sud- 
den absorption of the bone of the jaw enlarging the 
cavity and leaving the teeth loose. 
The case became so peculiar that I sent for my den- 
tal friend. When he came to see the case he said that 
Dr. Harris in his " Dental Surgery " had reported a case 
exactly like the one then before him, but for which Dr. 
Harris had received the distrust of his dental brethren 
to such a degree as to involve him in their minds in 
the charge of having manufactured his case, none of 
them having ever seen one like it. At my suggestion 
he took out of the patient's mouth twenty-four teeth 
at one sitting, she suffering no pain whatever. Confi- 
dentially he told me that he did not think she could 
live ; confidentially I replied to him that I thought she 
was sure to live-he thinking such a morbid manifesta- 
tion destructive, I thinking it curative. My own 
opinion proved the right one, for the woman got en- 
tirely well. 
The other case was that of a gentleman who came 
to me to be treated, weighing about one hundred and 
fifty pounds. He had been sick for two years ; was 
treated after the best medical skill resident in Canada, 
but to no purpose. He kept constantly failing, and as 
a last, desperate resort he came to me. He said the 
most unpleasant sensation, which amounted to actual SALIVATION, 
259 
suffering, which he had to endure was that of chilliness 
of the surface. He could not keep warm at night. It 
seemed to him as if he would freeze. Though it was 
October he slept with a fire in his room, and blankets 
and comfortables were piled upon him until they were 
of no use. I finally sent for his wife. She came, and 
I stated to her my views of his condition, which were 
that he would live and get well, though he was a drug- 
poisoned man. What he had taken I did not know ; 
very likely I should know before I had done with him; 
but that he would have to be very much reduced in 
flesh. This alarmed her, for he was already thin as 
compared with his usual weight. However, it w'as a 
desperate condition he was in, and she told me I must 
do what seemed proper. So I put him under Psycho- 
hygienic treatment, and he began to lose flesh. He 
ran down from one hundred and fifty to ninety-eight 
pounds; but when at his lowest point he was so much 
warmer than when I began with him as to be able to 
sleep comfortably all night with a moderate amount of 
clothing. This loss of weight occurred chiefly through 
the action of the salivary glands. We estimated that 
he spat out of his mouth in the course of forty days 
not less than six gallons of fluid of the most puru- 
lent and stinking odor. It was wonderful to see it. 
It ran right out of his mouth. For days he did noth- 
ing but lie and drool, as a heated dog would drool, 
from the tip of his tongue. 
When he had gotten so low in flesh and was com- 
petent to keep warm uix Uie tourxace, lie began to rally. 260 
SALIVATION. 
and very rapidly gained strength, living upon simple 
food, gained flesh, and kept gaining until he reached 
nearly two hundred pounds. Though this transpired 
sixteen years ago, he is now a healthy, hardy, active 
man. On the whole, it was a very remarkable cure, 
challenging the attention of a large circle of very intel 
ligent friends and acquaintances. CHAPTER XXXI. 
QUINSY. 
Tins is the popular name for a swelling of the tonsils, 
ft differs from croup or diphtheria mainly from the 
fact of its originating in, and being confined to, a dif- 
ferent structure from that which is affected by either 
of those diseases. In severe cases of quinsy, the ad- 
jacent parts also become inflamed. The salivary 
glands swell so that there is visible enlargement on the 
outside of the neck, and sometimes the structures be- 
low the tonsils are also involved; but ordinarily the 
swelling begins in the tonsils, and is mainly confined 
to them; and where suppuration does not take place, 
usually lasts from four to five days. When pus is 
formed and the tonsils break, the disease lasts from 
eight to nine days. 
Quinsy, like croup, is ordinarily seen to aflect chil- 
dren ; but where a person has a scrofulous constitution, 
and is thereby predisposed to diseases of the blood, and 
so of the glandular system, he may have quinsy though 
he be grown uj Some of the worst cases I have had 
to treat have been those of adults, and, in a few in- 
stances, of persons past middle life, who had had sup- 
261 262 
Quinsy. 
purativc quinsy as often as once in three years from 
the time of early childhood. 
The disease is not to be considered as dangerous, but 
rather as painful and vexatious, and is itself commonly 
found in that class of persons who are of scrofulous 
habit, and who intensify their depravation of blood by 
bad habits of living, which might be prevented, in 
most cases, by subjecting the persons to hygienic habits 
of life. With no class of persons can diseases be pre 
vented more effectually than with that class usual!) 
known as scrofulous persons. While persons of scrof- 
ulous habit of body are liable to abnormal conditions 
of body, which not infrequently prove destructive, 
they are quite as susceptible to proper methods of life, 
and so to good health, as they are to diseases under ill 
ways of living. Where a person, then, is subject to 
quinsy, the best way in reality to cure it is so to live, 
to speak paradoxically, as not to have it. And this 
is not at all difficult. There need not be any very 
sore self-denial, unless the person is in the way of in- 
dulgences which ought to be restrained. 
All persons of scrofulous habit of body, and predis- 
posed to glandular and membranous inflammation, 
should avoid the use of flesh meats, narcotic bever- 
ages, stimulating drinks, and all condiments. To do 
so, and to keep their bowels open, skin clean, and not 
overtax the nervous system in any direction, is to in 
dace such conditions of body as thoroughly to protect 
them against quinsy ; and this as truly after they have 
had it many times as though they had not had it; for QUINSY. 
263 
the human body can have its predispositions as it can 
its actual conditions thoroughly changed, so that it 
shall be, as it were, another body. 
I recollect having two persons, one a lady and the 
other a gentleman, both of whom, for twenty years, 
had had quinsy as regularly each year as the winter 
came around. The lady was a great sufferer. Iler 
attack lasted, between the first swelling of the throat 
and the suppuration and breaking of the abscess, from 
ten to twelve days, meanwhile not being able to eat 
solid food at all, and for part of the time not to drink, 
and the latter part of the time not to speak, suffering 
nearly all the time from high fever, with face Hushed, 
pulse up to 120°, general functions of the system 
greatly disturbed, and, on the whole, herself greatly 
distressed. 
When she came to me, she told me of the nature of 
her difficulty, and offered me any time which I might 
need for her cure. I said without hesitation, that she 
could be thoroughly and completely relieved from it. 
She stayed with me a year; had one very severe attack 
while under treatment. Soon after it she went away 
from me, and, though eleven years have elapsed from 
that time to this present time, she has never had ai& 
currence of the disease nor anything like it. 
The treatment which I give for quinsy is constitu- 
tional as well as functional. I assume that the disease 
has its predisposing cause in the quality of the bicod 
manufactured in the person. Blood necessarily in its 
qualities partakes somewhat of the qualities of the food 264 
QUINSY. 
out of which it is made. Thus, a person eating fari- 
naceous and fruit foods will make a different pabulum 
out of which a different quality of blood will be made, 
than though he ate flesh-meats, exclusively or largely. 
Hence, as it is important to change the quality of blood 
of any given person, it may ~be important to change the 
i kinds of food he eats. In most cases of persons of 
scrofulous habit, I have found this a condition prece- 
dent to success in the treatment of whatever diseases 
they might have. I have never treated successfully 
a case of pulmonary consumption where I have not 
found it necessary to alter the food the person had been 
accustomed to eat. I think the same is true in all cases 
of quinsy which I have had to treat; for I do not re- 
collect that I ever knew a person who had never eaten 
any meat or spices to have had quinsy. 
The first thing, then, to be done in treating a case of 
quinsy, not with a view to enable the patient to be re- 
lieved from a specific attack only, but to be relieved 
from it and from liabilities to have subsequent attacks 
as well, is to set about making for him a better quality 
of blood. Second, to improve the conditions of the 
nervous system. Third, to secure a more vigorous, 
and, therefore, a more equal circulation of the blood. 
Fourth, as a result of these foregoing changes, to secure 
a thorough elimination of the waste matter from the 
system. 
When these are done and he has recovered from any 
given attack, there will be no danger while these con- 
ditions continue of having another attack. Making, BRONCHITIS, 
265 
therefore, the treatment in any special case as constitu- 
tional as one can, while meeting present abnormal con- 
ditions of the system, the special, treatment which I 
have used and noted in special cases, has been to 
foment the part affected frequently, alternating the ap- 
plication of hot wet cloths with ice-cold wet cloths. I 
have found that where there are greatly congested con- 
ditions of any part, threatening inflammation, this 
compound treatment checks the progress of the disease, 
and enables the system to recover by resolution rather 
than by suppuration. But if the case be such that 
this cannot be done, and abscess formation must take 
place, then the suffering is greatly palliated by the use 
of this compound treatment. 
Connected with this local treatment, T have generally 
employed packing, dripping sheets, injections of tepid 
water to open the bowels, foot-baths to keep the circu- 
lation established in the low'er extremities, cool cloths 
to the head, and as soon as the patient could swallow 
a plentiful use of cool, soft water as a drink. In this 
way, all the cases -which I have ever had to treat have 
been treated successfully; and, as the patients after 
wards have been induced to live hygienically, they have 
been free from subsequent attacks. 
Bronchitis.-This disease in popular phrase is called 
" ministers' sore-throat," owing to the fact that in the 
United States it first made its general manifestations 
in that class of our people. A great many clergymen 
ail over the country began all of a sudden to have it. 266 
BKONOHITIS, 
Its location is at the upper part of the wind-pipe, affect- 
ing the larynx, or that part of the breathing tube which 
is situated at the top of it, and so affecting the struc- 
ture below along down it, until a point is reached wdiere 
the wind-pipe divides, one part of it going to the right 
and the other to the left lung. In its ineipiency it is a 
mere inflammation of the upper part of the wind-pipe. 
As it progresses downward,* affecting the mucous lin- 
ing, it finally reaches the air-cells of the breathing 
tubes of the lungs. Thenceforward the inflammation 
becomes chronic ; ultimately affecting the substance of 
the lungs, then the person has bronchial consumption 
of the lungs. 
It is a catarrhal disease in its origin, the secretion of 
the mucous membrane being of whitish thickness. Af- 
ter a while, as the disease progresses, the secretion be- 
comes of a thick yellowish hue, from which period, un- 
less the disease is checked, ulceration of the follicles of 
the mucous membrane takes place, and then organic 
disease of the part exists. The patient's voice becomes 
hoarse from the dryness of the fauces, or back part of 
the throat. The larynx or upper part of the wind-pipe 
also is affected, the valve or epiglottis to it does not 
play up and dowm smoothly; and so there is created 
not only a hoarse, but a hissing sound to the into- 
nation. 
It is a difficult disease to cure, because along with it 
are involved conditions of the digestive and excretory 
organs. Most persons who have it are scrofulous, either 
of the light or dark variety of scrofula ; though, I think bronchitis. 
267 
it will be found upon extended examination by others, 
as it has been by myself, that the majority of persona 
who are afflicted with it and ultimately die of it, have 
black hair, black or very dark eyes, and a dark skin, 
with more or less of a bilious habit of body, and a 
disposition under favorable circumstances to. an affec- 
tion of the general glandular system. 
My treatment for it has been such as to involve, if 
possible, the improvement of the blood-making organs, 
for I think that, at the beginning, the fault lies with 
them. The blood of the bronchial person is organically 
depraved. Make better blood, and the disease is easily 
cured. With imperfectly organized blood it is difficult 
to cure it. 
I therefore have prescribed antiphlogistic food, such 
as the grains and fruits, particularly the latter. I think 
that sub-acid fruits, or fruits which are only a little sour, 
eaten habitually and in abundance, constitute a most 
excellent kind of food for bronchial persons. 
Of the grains to be eaten, Indian corn should be dis- 
couraged. It is, from its oleaginous properties, heating. 
It is not, therefore, as good as wheat or oats. Most 
persons having this disease have torpidity of liver, dys- 
peptic conditions of stomach, poor assimilation, impel - 
feet action of skin and costive bowels. These condi 
tions should be sought to be overcome by diet, bathing, 
exercise, etc. If the patient can stand it, a wet-sheet 
pack three times a week, followed by a good dripping 
sheet immediately on coming out of the pack, at a tem- 
perature of 85° to 80° in warm, and 90° to 85° ir cold 268 
BRONCHITIS. 
weather, well cared for in its application by a good at* 
tendant, who will rub him until his skin is free from 
moisture and in a reddish glow, together with sitz-baths 
at 85° of loz; 80° of 10' in warm, and 90° of 5Z in 
cold weather; and the wearing of a bandage wet in 
front night and day, all the while, except when in 
bath ; horseback exercise if he or she can take it-if a 
woman, to ride like a man, and not on a side-saddle ; 
or, if too feeble thus to ride, to ride every day in a car- 
riage; to walk a little, but not too much; to live as 
much as possible, even though not in active exercise, 
in the open air; and to take abundant rest with regu- 
larity, and always for an hour after bathing. These 
will prove efficacious appliances. 
In a good many instances, I have found great local 
relief to come .from wearing a wet neck bandage, cov- 
ered by a dry one all the while, night and day, and to 
gargle the throat frequently, first with warm water and 
then with cold, for the space of five minutes at a time. 
The safety in the treatment of such cases, however, 
lies in treating them early. When organic lesions of 
the structure have come about, there is no surety that 
the disease can be cured. In some instances success 
has followed my applications after positive ulceration, 
accompanied with almost entire loss of voice, great 
emaciation and constant fixed cough; but in such 
instances the person has undergone a most thorough 
reconstitutionalization before renovation showed itself. 
Inflammation of the Lungs.- Physicians of all INFLAMMATION OF THE LENGS. 
269 
schools and in all times, have differed as t< the exact 
place or part where, in this disease, the inflammation 
begins. My own opinion is, that the entire texture of 
the part inflamed is involved in the process of inflam- 
mation at the same time. The first indication of the 
disease is the congestion or engorgement of the 
The substance of the lung becomes filled with blood, 
or with bloody serum. There is no difficulty at this 
stage of the case in treating the disease successfully. 
In fact, in any of its curable stages, the disease is one 
of the easiest to treat of the entire class of acute dis- 
eases to which the American people are liable. 
Congestion usually precedes active inflammation by 
the space of twenty-four hours. It is easy enough for 
any one of ordinary observation, to become aware of 
the congestion, and, in a great majority of instances, 
by proper treatment to check it. Whenever a person 
complains of difficulty of breathing, so that he feels as 
if his lungs were filled up, and that there is no space 
for air, but no pain attending it, with the eyes suffused 
and the face flushed with blood, and the motions of the 
person, however active naturally, heavy and lacking 
elasticity, such conditions are the forerunners of an 
attack of pneumonia. 
At this period, to promote circulation to the lower 
extremities; to keep the brain in as vigorous conditions 
as possible, by applying cool cloths to it; to apply 
warm woolen cloths over the lungs for the space of 
three-quarters of an hour at a time, two or three times 
in twenty-four hours, to be followed eych tin e by cold 270 
INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS. 
compresses over the lungs, to be retained there ; to keep 
the bowels open, and to promote general circulation by 
thorough skin-washings, constitute the remedial means 
to break up an incipient condition of this disease. 
When, however, from neglect the congestive has 
passed into the inflammatory stage, more active treat- 
ment is needed. First, there should be an entire disuse 
>f foods of all kinds, even those which might be offered 
in the form of gruels, or teas, or coffees; next, there 
should be such ablutionary measures taken as will 
necessarily determiue blood to the external capillaries, 
and fill them full, and keep them so. This is best done 
by wet-sheet packing, with tonic dripping-sheets, and 
washing-baths after it, repeated if there are manifesta- 
tions of external fever until the heat of the body is 
reduced to its natural degree, and the pulse lowered to 
nearly its natural standard; for it is a fact, however 
acute and severe a general fever may be under an at- 
tack of inflammation of lungs, the fever can be reduced 
and kept in manageable form. It is well to put on 
bandages around the neck and over the chest not only, 
but also over the abdomen. By packing with drip- 
ping-sheets after it; by keeping the bowels open and 
the bladder well-emptied, and feet warm and the head 
cool; by removing all mental causes of excitement, and 
surrounding the patient with just as pleasant external 
conditions as may be; giving him plenty of pure air, 
without which he never can get well; and sunlight to 
as great a degree as will not be painful to his eyes, 
there is no difficulty in treating the disease. I have INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS. 
271 
never yet lost a case of inflammation of the lungs, 
though I have treated several hundreds of all ages, 
sizes, sexes and conditions. 
I recollect, in one instance of a young lad, the attack 
was so severe, that between six o'clock in the evening 
and four o'clock in the morning, I packed and gave 
baths after the pack, seven times. The pulse was so 
high when I began as to be uncountable ; the distress 
was very severe; the case looked as if it would be 
fatally concluded in a few hours, and yet, by produ- 
cing vigorous reactions in the circulation, I saved the 
boy. 
There is no need of persons dying of inflammation 
of lungs, who have vitative force enough to live at all. 
All that is necessary in order not to have a person die 
smitten with the disease, is to make the right applica- 
tions at the right time, and thus aid the vital force in 
overcoming the abnormal conditions then existing, and 
re-establishing the body in its natural state. 
The disease is so common in this country as to merit 
a word or two as to its predisposing causes. I have 
found upon large examination, covering hundreds of 
cases, that the proportion of human females who have 
it to human males, is as seven to four. This is to be 
accounted for largely, I think, on the ground that wo- 
men have no such natural relations to life as to culti- 
vate in their bodies a habit of vital resistance to mor- 
bid conditions of the inflammatory type. They live sc 
much in the house, and get so little pure air and sun- 
light thereby ; they dress so badly, from the child fom 272 
INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS. 
years old up to the matron, that the circulation of the 
blood is almost always more or less disturbed, and de- 
bility of the nervous system more or less exists. Boys 
as compared with girls, live very much more in the 
open air, and, therefore, become habituated to expo 
sure. They have, therefore, a better vital resistance to 
anything like disease than girls have. . 
The same is true of young men, and of middle-aged 
men, as compared with women of the same age and 
condition in life. I -would advise parents who have 
children to rear, to accustom them to life in the open 
air. Perhaps I need say nothing on this point bearing 
upon the conditions of living of boys; but so far as 
girls are concerned, they should have given to them 
greatly improved opportunities over those at present 
accorded to them. Unless they do, they will be ex- 
posed to acute diseases; and, of these, none more fre- 
quently and none more likely to make itself manifest 
in deadly form, than that of inflammation of the lungs CHAPTER XXXII. 
PLEUEI8Y. 
Teis is a disease which affects adults oftener than 
children. It is an inflammation of the membrane that 
incases the lungs. Its physical signs are manifested by 
the person complaining of a sudden, sharp, darting 
needle-like pain in one side of the body, soon followed 
by difficulty of breathing; also, as the disease pro- 
gresses, soon followed by an indisposition or incapa- 
bility to lie upon the side where the pain is. In some 
cases the side of the body becomes enlarged ; for pleu- 
risy oftener affects one lung, than both lungs at the 
same time. It is a dangerous disease, having three 
stages or conditions of it; one of which is the termina- 
tion of it without effusion of water into the lung; an- 
other by effusion, and another by suppuration or form- 
ation of abscess. 
Under the Psycho-hygienic treatment, when the dis- 
ease is taken in its incipient stages, it can be termi- 
nated by resolution this side of the secretion of water, 
or the formation of pus upon the lung. If I had no 
other evidence of the superiority of the Psycho-hygienic 
treatment over that of the hygienic treatment, than 
such as is furnished in the results flowing therefrom in 
273 274 
PLEURISY. 
cases of inflammation of the pleura, this would thor- 
oughly satisfy me. 
Out of over one hundred and fifty cases of pleuritis 
which I have had to treat in twenty years of practice, 
some of them of the severest kind; I have never had 
Due which I took at the beginning, where I was not 
able to terminate the disease by resolution ; nor have I 
had a case, except in cases of the most depraved drug 
medication or alcoholic depravation, where I have not 
been able to cure the patient. 
For the disease in its early stages, and in its acute 
form, my treatment has been the application of hot 
cloths to the part affected. In the early period of 
hydropathic treatment in this country, the plan was to 
apply cold water to the parts affected. But I have not 
done so, except as alternating with the application of 
hot water. For all diseases of membranes, I prefer 
the use of hot and cold rather than of either exclu- 
sively. I think that where diseases arise from conges 
tion, warm and cold cloths are better than either alone 
The same is true of diseases arising from inflammation. 
When a person, therefore, is attacked with pleurisy, 
the first thing is to get him into a semi-reclining pos- 
ture, where he will be entirely easy, and then lay over 
the part woolen cloths, 'wrung out of water as hot as 
he can bear them. Apply these from half an hour 
to three hours, as the case may demand, changing them 
as often as their temperature shall become sensibly 
lower than when they were first put on. If they be- 
come uncomfortable to him, after a while alternate PLEUKISY. 
275 
them 'with cold cloths, which will relieve him from any 
unpleasant nervous sensibility, and so enable him to 
endure the application longer. When relief comes, 
though it be only temporary, give him a thorough 
ablution, washing the whole body off, and wiping it 
dry, and rubbing it vigorously. Be sure to keep the 
feet warm. Generally, to move the bowels is one of 
the primary means employed to check the disease. Be 
sure to have the room well-aired, and to keep the pa 
tient quiet by the exclusion of company, and by keep- 
ing the house still. Having done this in the first in- 
stance, pursue the same course as the circumstances 
may indicate, and not one person in a thousand, unless 
he be addicted to the use of spirituous liquors, or has 
so exhausted his general force that he has nothing to 
Live upon, or has been accustomed for long periods to 
the use of poisonous drugs, will die. It is a disease 
which scarcely ever, under such management as this, 
need pass to its second stage, and its first stage, being 
curable, is never dangerous. 
Of course, what the patient shall eat or drink is of 
great consequence in the procurement of his recovery. 
While the disease is active, therefore, no solid food 
should be given. All persons suffering from inflamma- 
tions of any kind, do better on fluid than on solid foods, 
and on farinaceous than on flesh-fluid foods. Feed, 
therefore, in this case, arrowroot, or sago, or tapioca, or 
wheat-flour gruels. Indian meal gruel is not as good 
as either of these, and should not be used when any of 
these can be had. 276 
SPITTING OF BLOOD. 
Spitting of Blood, or Hemorrhage from the 
Lungs.-Persons of scrofulous habit, and of sanguine 
nervous temperament, are constitutionally liable, under 
circumstances favorable to disease of the lungs, to spit 
blood. An experienced physician can pick out of a 
congregation of persons those who are subject to this 
form of disease. A proper knowledge of the liabilities 
of their children in this respect is of great importance 
to parents ; for it would enable them so to train their 
children, physically, as to lessen their liabilities in this 
direction very much. 
Generally, when a person spits blood, it is attended 
with coughing, and with other symptoms more or less 
severe. 
There are three varieties of the disease; first, that 
which arises from effusion of blood into the air-cells 
second, that which is caused by the rupture of a blood- 
vessel ; third, that which arises from what is termed 
congestion of the lungs. I think these distinctions 
which doctors make, like many other of their distinc- 
tions, are finical, because they have nothing particular 
to do with the treatment of the patient subsequent tc 
the hemorrhage. Whether blood flows through the 
coats of the blood-vessels into the air-cells, and is 
coughed up, or whether the blood-vessel bursts and the 
blood runs through into the air-cells, and is coughed 
up, is of no substantial consequence, except as it may 
determine the severity of the case. A person bleed- 
ing from a burst blood-vessel is in more dangerous 
conditions than though the blood were simply effused, SPITTING OF BLOOD. 
277 
and he coughed it up. Aside from this, it matters not 
how it transpires. The causes which produce it in any 
case are one of three ; either by strain, or from nervous 
debility, or from the erosion of the blood-vessel under 
the softening of tubercles in the lungs. 
Where accidents do not happen and blood-vessels 
break; where, also, effusion does not take place be- 
cause of a weakened condition of the coats of the 
blood-vessels, thus permitting the blood to pass through 
these vessels into the air-cells, hemorrhage will be found 
to confine itself to that class of persons from which 
come our pulmonary consumptives. Probably the 
larger number of persons who die of consumption of 
lungs, at some period of their lives have hemorrhage 
of the lungs. This usually arises because of the tuber- 
culous changes which the lungs undergo. I think I am 
not incorrect in this statement, for I have inquired of 
thousands of consumptives, and whether the hemoi 
rhage has been slight or severe, the most of them have 
had lung-bleeding. 
Where a blood-vessel has not been burst, it is not in 
itself alarming; for if the patient be taken in hand 
and radical measures employed on the first manifesta- 
tion, the conditions of the system under which hemor- 
rhage was caused can be so changed as to render a sub- 
sequent attack quite out of question. Where the per- 
son is debilitated, what he needs is tenacity given to 
the part. This can be done by Psycho-hygienic treat- 
ment with the most thorough certainty. There is 
no trouble about it whatever. Afy practice in this 278 
SPITTING OF BLOOD. 
respect has been so large as to justify me in this asser- 
tion. 
Where the disease is caused by tuberculous gather- 
ing in the lungs, the case is more difficult to treat, but 
still curable. The measures to be employed, however, 
are constitutional, demanding change both in the action 
of the assimilative and of the eliminative organs. Tu- 
bercles in the lungs can be resolved and carried out so 
as to leave the lungs entirely free. 
Where tubercles in the lungs exist in large quan 
tities, it is not infrequent that, from causes inexplicable, 
small numbers of them become inflamed and soften, 
and, in the process, small blood-vessels are involved, 
their coats getting destroyed, and slight hemorrhage 
taking place-the inflammation existing being confined 
to a very small number of the tubercles, and, of course, 
to a very small space of the lungs; so that where hem- 
orrhage arises from softening of tubercles, only few 
in number, it does not follow that subsequent hemor- 
rhage will be had. Prompt treatment immediately 
succeeding hemorrhage checks the tendency to further 
inflammation of tubercles, and may result in the ab- 
sorption and elimination of the remaining tubercles in 
the lungs so as to make the person's health a great deal 
better, and his chance for life a great deal better than 
it ever had previously been. 
I speak from actual knowledge in this respect, for, in 
die treatment of thousands of persons, their conditions 
have been so changed as to have them have good 
health, whore before they had always had poor health, SPITTING OF BLOOD. 
279 
which result was produced simply by causing the for- 
mation of tubercles to cease, and the removal of what 
tubercles they already had in bowels and lungs. 
No treatment, therefore, of which I have any knowl- 
edge is so substantially effective for spitting of blood 
as the Psycho-hygienic treatment. It reaches the worst 
cases more effectually by far than the drug-medicating 
treatment does. It is far better than simple hygienic 
treatment; decidedly better than mere hydropathic 
treatment; for it includes these in itself, and makes 
use of them each in its proper place, while, at the same 
time, it goes further than either of them, being more com- 
prehensive, and, therefore, more thoroughly curative. 
When a person bleeds at the lungs, the first thing to 
be done is to relieve him from fear. The impression is 
universal that bleeding from the lungs is, in itself, 
dangerous. It is not true. A great many persons 
bleed from the lungs and afterwards become just as 
healthy as though they had bled from the nose only. 
A great many persons live from early adult to old age, 
and bleed from the lungs with great regularity. I have 
known a woman live to be sixty and bleed as regu- 
larly once a year from thirteen until she was forty-five 
years of age as the year came around ; and during 
the intervals of her hemorrhage she was as vigorous 
and healthy as any woman in her neighborhood. I 
have known a physician to have a large practice, which 
he followed with success for many years, during the 
whole of which period he bled regularly once in three 
non ths. At first it greatly debilitated him, but this 280 
SPITTING OF BLOOD. 
was by reason of fear. When he came to find that he 
recovered from it; in fact, that it was rather a vica- 
rious effort, and decidedly reactive, relieving him from 
other difficulties which were sources of a good deal of 
suffering and annoyance to him, he ceased to pay any 
attention to it either prospectively or reflectively, only 
being careful to suspend labor during the week in 
which he suffered from it. 
Whoever, therefore, has hemorrhage of the lungs 
should be made to assume, if possible, a calm mental 
state. All excitement under such circumstances is 
wrong. Let the patient be perfectly calm, if possible 
to make him so; then put him into a semi-recumoem 
posture. Take off all his clothes and put him to bed, 
wrapping up his feet in warm wet cloths, or putting 
them into a foot-bath; put also his hands in warm 
water and lay cool cloths on his head, and warm cloths 
on his chest. 
At first warm cloths are better than cold ones. The 
idea of putting on cold cloths is to coagulate the blood, 
as you would apply severe cold to an incised wound to 
make the blood form a clot, and thus stop it. But 
what is needed is better circulation in the lungs when 
hemorrhage exists, and warm cloths induce that more 
directly than cold. Cold cloths should only bo em- 
ployed after the bleeding has ceased, because, unlike an 
incised wound, hemorrhage is produced by congestion, 
and congestion is slow circulation. Increase the circu- 
lation, and you make it pass through the blood-vessels, 
from which effusion takes place, SPITTING OF BLOOD. 
281 
Having done this, keep the patient quiet, and wait 
for twenty-four hours to pass. If within that period, 
or within twelve hours after, he does not bleed again, 
there is no danger of a near return of the hemorrhage, 
provided prompt measures to keep it off are put in force. 
These should be the inducement of mental calmness, 
good circulation to the lower extremities, warmth of 
the external surface of the body, natural yet perfectly 
easy action of the bowels, frequent relieving of the 
bladder so as to have no irritation produced in that 
jrgan, a good ventilated room with plenty of light in 
it, and a set of attendants who will take care of the 
person, and have no others see him except his physician, 
unless it be some member of the family whom he may 
desire to see. It is not well to have the patient talk 
much until after the period of reaction is passed. 
Then, in low voice and in measured tone, and in mode- 
rate degree, the organs of speech may be used without 
danger. 
When the patient has recovered so as to be about, a 
course of tonic or constitutional treatment should be 
begun, and should be pursued until, if the person is not 
scrofulous, his vigor of body reaches its maximum ; or if 
scrofulous, complete and thorough change in his system 
is produced. I have had several eases where, under 
Psycho-hygienic treatment, the scrofulous conditions 
have been so completely overcome, and healthy condi- 
tions of body made to ensue, as to alter the external 
appearance of the patient surprisingly. They came 
to appear so different in form and feature and action 282 
ASTHMA 
as to challenge the astonishment of those who had 
known them for years. In this direction lies the great 
superiority of the Psycho-hygienic plan of treating 
disease. Under it diseased persons can be reconsti- 
tutionalized, and made to have better conditions of 
structure of body, as well as better functional condi- 
tions of it. 
Asthma.-This disease is fairly described when it is 
said to be difficulty of breathing. Doctors have classi- 
fied it into a half-dozen or more forms; but such 
division is of no practical consequence, and therefore 
is not made here. Generally speaking, the disease is 
chronic in its nature, and of secondary origin; that is, 
it depends for its existence upon some other organ than 
that of the lungs being first diseased. I doubt whether 
asthma is ever idiopathic. Either the liver, stomach, 
genitals, or blood must be first deranged before the 
lungs take on such a condition as to be fairly described 
as asthmatic. 
In the cases with which I have had to deal, one or 
the other of three organs besides the lungs has been 
primarily involved in its production ; the stomach, the 
genitals, or the skin. In most instances, more than 
one of the three, and often all of the three, have I been 
able to trace as having themselves been deranged be- 
fore the patient showed asthma. Asthmatic persons 
usually are scrofulous, and have diseased conditions of 
the blood and nervous system. Usually they are neglect- 
ful of correct habits of living. They eat bad food. ASTHMA, 
283 
drink unhealthy drinks, indulge altogether too much 
sexually, and are uncleanly in the skin. Correct these 
conditions thoroughly, and the disease is at least mit- 
igated So correct them that constitutional changes in 
the subject take place, and the disease is cured. 
Some of the worst cases of asthma which 1 have had 
to treat have been caused by cutaneous absorption into 
the blood of poisons. Persons have had the itch, or 
tetter, or some form of skin disease, and have tried to 
cure it by anointing, and have succeeded in making 
the skin smooth; but by the time they succeeded, 
asthma appeared, from which they never got complete 
relief until reactionary conditions of the circulation 
were once more established, and the eruption again 
appeared on the external surface of the body. 
For the cure of asthma, no matter what form it may 
take, food of a nutritive but unexcitable nature is neces- 
sary. Grains and fruits make the best foods. In a 
few instances I have found that asthma was greatly 
mitigated by living upon fruit alone, especially if it is 
subacid. In some instances, great relief has been 
secured by eating food prepared from wheat or oat- 
meal. But the surer and better way of treating the 
disease is to eat food, at long intervals, made of grains 
and fruits, and quite moderately in quantity on the 
whole, taking daily ablutions, creating good skin re- 
action, and avoiding all excess of nervous excitement. 
To do this, one needs pleasant life in the open air, with 
rest and sleep and freedom from mental anxiety. 
I have never yer failed, but in two instances, to cure 284 
ASTHMA. 
asthmatic patients, though some persons who have been 
under my care have arrived at advanced age. In some 
cases the asthma had been constant from childhood up, 
and at times very distressing. 
I may mention three cases. One, that of a lady who 
had had it for fifteen years, having brought it on by 
suppressing a skin eruption. She had suffered in- 
tensely. She came to us and was placed under treat- 
ment, and at the expiration of six months an eruption 
over the whole surface of her body broke out anew. 
We cured it by purifying the blood, and so exhausting 
its source; and though twelve years have since trans- 
pired she is now alive and in good health, never having 
had a recurrence of the disease. 
Another case was that of a man who had had it for 
nearly twenty years, it having come upon him in his 
early childhood. His case was very severe. He had 
sat up six or seven days and nights with it, without 
being able to lie down. He is now well, and has had 
no relapse of the disease in two years. 
The other is also the case of a young man, who had 
suffered all his life long with it; was under our treat- 
ment for fifteen months, but had no attack in the last 
six months, and bids fair to be free from it in time to 
come. 
I might mention a great number of examples, but 
these are exemplary cases; they illustrate in marked 
degree the virulence of the disease, and the entire re- 
covery from it which persons can be made to undergo 
under Psycho-hygienic treatment. asthma. 
285 
In the main, then, what is needed is proper change in 
the organization of the blood, in its distribution, both 
in secretion and excretion, and in maintenance of proper 
tone of nervous system. This done, the disease has to 
give way to the improvement of the system at large. I 
cannot give the exact method of treatment, because 
each case has to be decided on its own merits, and any 
one of my readers can get at my practice by appre- 
hending my main thought with respect to the nature 
of the disease and the general plan of treatment. CHAPTEK XXX11I. 
THE HEART AND ITS DISEASES. 
No organ is of more consequence to the general vital 
operations of the human body than the heart. When 
it cannot act, death immediately ensues. Fortunately 
however, it is so organized as not readily to become 
diseased, the Creator of the body having taken care 
that each organ should be protected in its official func- 
tions in proportion to its importance to the body at 
large. 
A great many persons first and last have come to me 
for professional advice who had been reported to have 
heart disease, but who, upon a thorough examination, 
proved not to have it. 
I recollect one case so peculiar as to be marked in 
this respect. A grand-daughter of a very celebrated 
Quaker in the State of New York was supposed by 
the family physician to have disease of the heart. She 
was taken to Philadelphia and examined by a cele- 
brated medical professor. lie himself also stated that 
she had disease of the heart and proceeded to treat her 
according to his science. She was under his care for a 
year, during which time he made no curative impres- 
sion. Then her friends suggested that I should be con 
(286) THE HEAKT AND ITS DISEASES. 
287 
suited, ana she came to me. I was satisfied, upon look 
ing at her, that her physician had made a mistake 
The professor had forbidden her to go up and down 
stairs, to walk rapidly, or to take, in any form, violent 
exercise. She was not permitted to put her hands 
above her head, nor' even upon her head to comb, her 
hair, nor even was she to stoop down to tie her shoes. 
Life to her, in its physical activities, had become nar- 
rowed down to such a degree that she might about as 
well have been dead as alive. 
She stayed with me under our treatment for some 
months, during which time I gradually dispossessed 
her mind of previous impressions, and thus gave her 
larger liberty of action, until she came to be able to 
walk, run, row, and do anything she chose to do, the 
whole disease having been nothing but nervous, instead 
of structural, derangement of the organ. Mainly her 
difficulty was cerebral. She had been a close student. 
She got well, and, as I have incidentally learned, has 
married and borne children. 
A good many similar cases have fallen under my 
professional care. I do not mean to be understood as 
saying that there can be no disease of the heart, for 
there can ; but it is uncommon. I think that not more 
than one person in ten pronounced by physicians to 
have heart disease ever has it. 
Of those organs which affect the heart's action more 
than others, the stomach and the genitals are the more 
prominent. Dyspepsia, especially nervous dyspepsia, 
seminai emissions in males, and whites in females, are 288 
THE HEART AND ITS DISEASES. 
provoking derangement to the heart's abnormal action. 
Keep up a good tone of the digestive and blood-making 
organs ; keep the general nervous system from becom- 
ing debilitated under severe sexual indulgence; and 
keep the skin clean, and heart disease will seldom if 
ever exist. 
This, then, is the idea or plan of management to pre- 
vent it, and the same may be regarded as the proper 
curative. Keep the skin clean and in good circulation, 
the bowels open, the nutritive system in good action, 
and the genitals in vigor, and any derangement of ac- 
tion of the heart which so often leads physicians to 
suppose that the structure of the heart has been altered, 
will give way. In truth, where the structure has been 
altered as in the following cases; where the walls of 
the heart itself are thickened, where the valves have 
become also thickened, where there is a thickening up 
of the outer encasement of the heart-not infrequently 
will curative reaction take place when the causes which 
have produced such alteration cease, and so the diseased 
portions become healthy again. In several instances 
where disease of the structure did exist, Psycho-hygi- 
enic treatment continued for a year or two has resulted 
in the thorough and complete restoration to normal con- 
ditions of the structures involved. 
Persons having heart disease or heart derangements 
should not take poisonous medicines, nor should they 
live upon exciting food, but upon nutrient foods, and 
these largely farinaceous. Vegetables for persons hav- 
ing the heart disease are not good especially if these THE HEART AND ITS DISEASES. 
289 
grow beneath the surface of the ground. I would ad- 
vise, 'whatever may be the form of heart disease 
that any person may have, he should never eat vege- 
tables. Fruits are vastly better if he can get them. 
And if he cannot get fruits and wants vegetables, then 
let him eat those which grow and ripen above the 
earth's surface. 
In derangements of the heart, bathing can be made 
to play a very important curative part; but baths when 
administered under such circumstances, should be given 
at a time when the body is in its best vigor, and never 
given, if it is possible to avoid it, so as to produce a 
sensible shock. The blood should not be suddenly 
driven into the heart and through it in increased 
volume. 
In the early stages of medical practice, and for that 
matter until the present century, physicians of all 
schools have regarded the cure of disease of the heart 
as quite improbable ; but latterly more favorable ideas 
are held on the subject, and with these a much better 
style of practice, doctors of medicine seldom, if ever, 
giving much, but rather recommending hygienic ap 
plications. CHAPTER XXXIV. 
DYSPEPSIA. 
No one of the vital organs in the hnmai body holds a 
more important office than the stomach. It is the pen- 
dulum to the whole system. Under its action, processes 
are carried on most wonderful in their nature. Substan- 
ces which are entirely inert, having in them no visible liv- 
ing sustaining elements, become transformed through its 
action upon them ; and, in connection with the action 
of other vital organs, become charged with life. How 
it is that a substance like wheat, or potatoes, or the 
flesh-meat of animals, or fruits of any kind, can be 
transformed into blood, this being so constituted as to 
have in it the materials out of which bone and muscle, 
membrane and sinew can be formed, is a phenomenon 
always interesting, and profoundly astonishing when 
one comes to reflect upon it. 
Of all the vital organs, no one, under the habits of 
the American people, is so abused and outraged as the 
stomach. It is charged with comparatively little sensi- 
bility, and, therefore, bears the burdens which are put 
upon it uncomplainingly. In some instances, years of 
ill-treatment of it have to elapse before diseased condi- 
tions are so manifested as to leave no doubt of the 
abuse it has suffered. 
290 DYSPEPSIA. 
291 
Of the more common and ordinary forms of the dis- 
eases which the stomach sutlers, dyspepsia stands promi- 
nent. This-may be classified into two kinds; one 
mucous, and the other nervous dyspepsia. Some 
writers make a third, and call it muco-nervous dys- 
pepsia, it being a compound of the other two; but in 
this, as in many other instances, the classifications of 
disease by medical men in former days, as at present, 
prove to be quite fanciful. The distinction between 
mucous and nervous dyspepsia may be considered as 
clear; but minor divisions are of little or no account. 
The signs or symptoms of mucous dyspepsia are to 
be found, first, in the build of the individual, whose 
temperament is either of the nervous-bilious or else of 
the bilious-lymphatic, and is typified by a stout, rather 
burly, square-built organization, with plenty of blood 
and consequent fulness of habit. Mucous dyspep- 
sia, whether found in man or woman, will be repre- 
sented by persons who work, whose order of organiza- 
tion compels them rather to labor with their hands than 
with their brains. The disease locates itself upon the 
mucous membrane of the stomach, and reflects itself 
upward or downward by means of that structure. 
Nasal catarrh is mucous dyspepsia in the nose; inflam- 
mation of the mucous membrane of the eye is mucous 
dyspepsia in that organ ; deafness, arising from inflam- 
mation of the eustachian tube, is mucous dyspepsia in 
the ear ; bronchitis is mucous dyspepsia in the throat; 
blind piles is mucous dyspepsia in the lower bowels. 
The signs of it are generally to be found, as I have 292 
DYSPEPSIA. 
already said, in the quality of the making-up or the 
temperament of the person suffering. It is a disease 
easily managed in its earlier stages, and curable in 
almost any of its stages by reference to correct living, 
involving, of course, diet, rest, exercise, sleep, employ- 
ment, and sexual continence. To take care of one's 
self, therefore, is not to have it; to take care of one's 
self after having it is to get rid of it; and to know 
how to take care of one's self one only needs to under- 
stand the principles and philosophy of Psycho-hygiene. 
To eat twice a day of simple food ; to wash the body 
off, at least, three times a week, and in water at a tem- 
perature that may be called tonic; to keep the bowels 
open either by the eating of aperient food or by 
enemas and sitz-baths and abdominal bandages con- 
joined ; to secure to one's self labor which shall not be 
exhausting, but only either pleasantly invigorating or 
moderately fatiguing; to avoid the excitement of any 
of the intenser passions; to secure plenty of good air 
to breathe, and plenty of sunlight-these constitute 
not only the materia modica but the therapeutics 
whereby mucous dyspepsia can be cured. In many 
instances, however, this compound of curative agents 
can be only hygienicdll/y applied at home, and there- 
fore if the patient be one who needs to have Psycho- 
hygienic treatment applied, he must go to an Institu- 
tion where Psycho-hygiene prevails. For it is as 
necessary to know how to live according to the laws 
of life in order sometimes to recover from disease, as it 
is to Li v e according to the laws of health; the mind or DYSPEPSIA.. 
293 
zoul of the person needing attention and care and 
proper therapeutics as much as the body itse.f. 
Nervous dyspepsia is of much more significance, be- 
cause it never exists in a well-developed form without 
passive inflammation of the solar plexus of nerves. 
Physiologists in studying the human body with a 
to elaborate the science of human life have, in my view 
of their efforts, altogether failed to give sufficient im 
portance to the influence of this net-work of nerves 
While I think it has been determined that the brain 
is the seat of mind, I am not sure that the solar plexus 
is not the seat of the soul. I make a distinction in my 
view between the mind and soul. I do not think that 
mind and soul are synonymous in any philosophical 
statement to be made of them. They constitute differ 
ent representations of that responsible consciousness, 
the sum total of which we call man; and as the 
cerebro-nervous system represents the mind, so the 
organic-nervous system, or the ganglionic-nervous sys- 
tem, with the solar plexus at its head, may represent 
what we call soul. 
Any disease of this organization produces abnormal 
effects upon the body, or certain portions of it, and 
causes certain abnormal moral manifestations. While 
derangements of other organs in the body which affect 
the brain produce certain mental abnormalisms, dis- 
eases of certain other parts of the body, which involve 
derangement of the organic-nervous system, produce 
certain moral abnormalisms. If, therefore, we are to 
reason from phenomena to structure, from facts to 294 
DYSPEPSIA. 
principles, from effects to causes, we shall see that who- 
ever has a derangement of the nutrient system, in- 
volving the solar plexus of nerves and of the ganglionic- 
nervous system at large, will show types of disease far 
different in their manifestations, and in their effects 
on his personal action, than those which will be seen 
where the cerebro-nervous system alone is affected. 
Now, nervous dyspepsia is a disease resulting from 
abnormal vital action of the solar plexus. Its different 
stages are made to appear by the different degrees of 
involvement of this net-work of nerves. Where con- 
gestion of it only exists, a nervous dyspeptic puts on 
one order of manifestation ; where irritation exists, he 
puts on another phase; where passive inflammation 
exists, he puts on quite another. This net-work of 
nerves has its conditions determined mainly by the 
conditions of the stomach. Whatever other organs are 
diseased, if the stomach remains apparently healthful, 
the solar plexus does not become materially affected; 
but when the stomach gets to be diseased, this struc- 
ture becomes also more or less deranged, and, as a con- 
sequence, in the long run, transmits its own derange- 
ments to the cerebro-nervous system. So that it is not 
uncommon to see a person suffering from nervous dys- 
pepsia rendering it almost impossible for him to digest 
food without great corporeal suffering, and also without 
great disturbance of the moral faculties, so that the 
cerebro-nervous system, sympathizing with the organic 
nerves, becomes also deranged. So the person comes 
to suffer diseases of body which result from the de- DYSPEPSIA. 
295 
ranaement of the brain, and also from derangements of 
those mental faculties which, for their action, are de- 
pendent upon the action of the brain. 
To find the most unhappy man, not only in the 
physical but in the mental and moral suffering which 
he endures, one needs to find a dyspeptic whose organic 
nerves are passively inflamed, and whose brain is 
severely congested in consequence thereof; for when 
nervous dyspepsia comes to be fairly established in any 
given case, so as to be well defined and easily discerned, 
congestion of the brain is as sure a concomitant as is 
passive inflammation of the organic nerves. Nervous 
dyspeptics are persons who, whatever other forms of 
disease they may have, are sure to have congestion of 
brain. They never can be cured by any system of 
treatment that does not involve with this irritation 
lemoval of the congested conditions of the brain. 
To treat nervous dyspepsia, therefore, with any skill, 
one must have control and supervision of the life and 
action of the patient. It is of no more use to under- 
take to cure such disease in the way in which doctors 
usually attempt it than it is to attempt any other im- 
possibility. Nervous dyspeptics, in a very important 
meaning of the term, are deranged persons ; they have 
lost mental and moral balance. They are persons, 
therefore, who are fit subjects of supervisory remedial 
measures, such as shall not originate merely in the 
mind, and under the advice of the physician, without 
any administrative action on his part in their use; but 
they need treatment which necessarily imposes upon 296 
DYSPEPSIA. 
him not only proper exhibitions of proper 
but proper administration of them. They should sub- 
mit to the dictation of whomsoever as a physician they 
shall employ. They should be under his watch 
care. What they shall eat and drink, how they 
shall d ress, how sleep, how exercise, what associations 
they shall have, what active exercise of mind, what 
suspension of the action of the mental forces, what 
moral and spiritual forces they shall be under, are 
all matters for him to determine. A nervous dyspeptic 
is essentially an incompetent man. He may take pan- 
aceas and potions, boluses and tinctures, pills and pel- 
lets ; he may take patent medicines that are represented 
as panaceas, they will amount to nothing, no matter 
by whom administered, unless the man is socially and 
spiritually subjected to some person other than himself 
who is, for the time being, to say what he shall do and 
how he shall act. To have his own way is never to get 
well, no matter what the remedial means used, be 
these drug-medicines or hygienic agents. In not one 
instance in ten thousand will a nervous dyspeptic re- 
cover from his own application of these, no matter 
who advises it. He must be practically subject to 
some other management than his own. For he is 
mentally and morally a diseased man, and cannot be 
a nervous dyspeptic, in the true sense of that term, un 
less he is mentally and morally diseased. 
Of all the diseases which I have ever had to treat, 
nervous dyspepsia is the most vexatious, and, while 
fairly curable, the most difficult to cure. Were I to DYSPEPSIA. 
297 
illustrate the various peculiarities and diseased phases 
of mind and spirit, united with diseased bodily action, 
which patients who have been under my care and 
have got well have shown while under treatment, it 
would make a book, I think, of so much interest in 
the direction of eccentric or aberrative mental and 
moral manifestations as to create surprise with think- 
ing persons. 
Until one has to do with this disease as extensively 
as I have had to do with it, he can have no conception 
of the various half-crazed mental moods which its 
victims exhibit. More unreasoning and unreasonable 
creatures I have never seen. Not by any means, in 
the popular judgment, to be regarded as fit subjects for 
lunatic asylums, they are as unfit for ordinary associa- 
tion with their fellows, and for the right performance 
of the ordinary duties of life, as though they were 
stark, staring mad. I know how to pity them, to sym- 
pathize with them, to labor for them, and to cure 
them; for I myself have been one of the fraternity. 
Men in health, or men who suffer merely from the 
diseases which are common to our people, are often 
times at a loss to account for the peculiar moral eccen 
tricities which certain persons show. A man or woman 
in any given community all at once becomes the ob- 
served of all observers by some strange and apparently 
uncalled-for course of conduct. In business, he will do 
some strange thing in running counter to the generally- 
received proprieties or discretions that pertain to the 
sphere of human action. His neighbors cast around 298 
DYSPEPSIA. 
to find, if possible, the motives that prompted him to 
do it, and are as much at a loss at the conclusion of 
their effort as they were at the beginning. 
With no class of persons do you see this kind of 
eccentric moral action more common than with those 
who make politics their study and .their business. Two- 
thirds of all the apostasies from truth and right which 
we see amongst our public men are to be attributed to 
bodily conditions, clearly indicating the existence of 
nervous dyspepsia. 
In large measure the unhappiness which is to be seen 
in social life is to be attributed to this disease. As I 
have said in another chapter, drunkenness is only one 
form of this disease. I think no human being ever 
committed suicide whose solar plexus of nerves was 
not inflamed. This may be a startling statement, but 
I believe it is nevertheless true. You can twist a man 
all up with rheumatism so that he cannot sit straight; 
you may make him suffer in any form you please, if 
you do not involve his organic-nervous centers, and you 
cannot make him kill himself. But when these become 
inflamed, no matter what the form of the disease be 
of which he complains, it may be one thing or another, 
he then will be seized with strong tendencies to do 
away with himself. And under certain stages of it, 
or when he is under certain conditions through it, if 
he is not looked after and cared for-especially if he 
be a man of nervous, sanguine temperament-he will 
be likely to put an end to his life. If he does not, it 
will not be because he is not tempted to do it. For if DYSPEPSIA. 
299 
:-ne man or woman who has been a nervous dyspeptic 
and consulted me with reference to his curability has 
told me that he or she had been tempted a great many 
times to take his life, I believe five thousand have done it. 
Nervous dyspepsia will be found almost exclusively 
to affect men and women of the sanguine-nervous oi 
the nervous-sanguine temperaments. The man of nerv- 
ous-bilious, or pure bilious or bilious-lymphatic tempera, 
ment seldom, if ever, has it. There must be some strong 
and powerful cause for a long while actively operative 
upon his body to involve the solar plexus so that it shall 
become inflamed, if he is of the temperament last de- 
scribed. But the American people present as a type, 
or breed, or build, the sanguine-nervous or nervous-san- 
guine temperament in excess. Ultimately, I should 
hope that this kind of temperament would not be the 
prevailing one with our people. Immigration will do 
much for us in this respect; for the class of persons 
who come here from Europe are not of the more mer- 
curial ' temperaments. The Germans, Swiss, Swedes, 
Irish, Poles, Hollanders, do not classify in this direc- 
tion. Nor do all the English, nor the Italians, nor the 
French; so that a large majority of our immigrant popu- 
lation furnishes a countervailing force in the direction 
needed. I think there can be no reasonable doubt that 
the American people in, their temperament and order 
of physical structure, and the degree of vital stamina 
which they will show, will be greatly superior in haft 
a century to what they are now. Causes are at work 
in this direction of very great present efficiency, and 300 
DYSPEPSIA. 
which are likely to be lasting and permanent in their 
results. But at present the great majority of the Amer- 
ican people are thinkers, having large brains, compara- 
tively small nutritive organs, and so make too little 
blood whereby their bodies, under the uses to which 
they put them, can be kept in health They, therefore, 
in early life show intellectual precocity, accompanied 
as this always is, by nervous excitability, to show in 
more advanced stages of life excessive nervous sensi- 
bility, to be followed by great nervous irritability, and 
thence onward such diseases of body as to render them 
practically incompetent to active effort, and such dis- 
eases of mind and moral sense as to make their condi- 
tions in life very unhappy. As a people, our invalids 
are the most complaining, petulant, fault-finding, whin- 
ing, peevish set of sick folks the world has ever seen. 
In the nature of things they seem to be so. There is 
no cure for it but to live differently from what they do. 
If one does not wish to be a nervous dyspeptic, and 
so have a strong desire to hang or drown himself, let 
him abandon, once and forever, the ordinary methods 
of life as it is worked up in the habits, ways, methods 
and fashions of living common to the American people.1 
Let him become a Psycho-hygienist, adopting a correct 
philosophy of life, and he will not only, if curable, re- 
cover from his diseases, but he will find that life can 
be made a source of great happiness to him. 
No nervous dyspeptic should ever eat flesh-meats ha- 
bitually ; nor should he drink tea or coffee; nor should he 
in any way use tobacco or alcoholic liquors; nor should DYTPEPSIA. 
301 
no in any direction take drug-medicines; nor if he is 
not a nervous dyspeptic, but by his peculiarity of physi- 
cal structure and of nervous organization is predisposed 
to be one, should he do this. lie should live simplj on 
farinaceous foods and fruits ; drink nothing as a bever- 
age but water, and never forget to impose upon himself 
plenty of physical exercise, as distinguished from intel- 
lectual and spiritual activity. All persons who are so 
constituted as readily to become nervous dyspeptics, or 
who are such, unless these latter have gotten so far 
along down the slope to their graves as to be incompe- 
tent to physical labor, should have regular physical ex- 
ercise ; and this, too, under circumstances calculated to 
make them cheerful and happy. The land is full of 
these wretched ones, searching in vain for curatives and 
finding them not. Like the man in the Bible, they 
wander up and down the earth seeking rest, and find- 
ing none. They answer more clearly to that class of 
persons described by our Saviour as being possessed of 
the Devil than any other class of diseased persons 
among us. And whether they are or are not actually 
possessed, one thing is true, they are so badly deranged 
in all the actions and functions of their bodies and of 
their souls, as to come within the statement that if 
they are to be cured, they must be placed where the 
laws of their nature can be brought to bear upon them 
with steady, unremitting persistency. CHAPTER XXXV. 
COLIC. 
I ha i idly need to call the attention of my readers to 
any diseases of the stomach other than those which are 
included in one or the other of the forms of dyspepsia 
to which I have already alluded; because almost all 
the derangements of the stomach come from indiges- 
tion. While dyspepsia, whether mucous or nervous, 
may generally be said to be chronic in its nature, and 
so may not include some forms of derangement of the 
stomach which are acute in their manifestations, a. 
nevertheless is true that, owing to the fact of long ex-, 
isting dyspepsia, acute derangements in the stomach 
often arise. Of these, what is termed wind-colic is 
worthy of notice. 
This kind of colic is mainly dependent upon the pres- 
ence of undigested food in the stomach at the time 
wherein the colic appears. It is to be attributed to the 
presence of food and the incapacity of the stomach 
properly to disintegrate and chymify it. Where food 
lies in the stomach for a length of time not acted upon 
by it, decomposition of some of its particles and also of 
302 COLIO. 
303 
the mucus of the stomach takes place, and in this pro- 
cess of change gas is evolved, filling the stomach full 
and distending it, thereby causing pressure upon the 
nerves of the stomach, producing the pain which is 
termed colic. 
The stomach, like the lungs or the bowels, can easily 
be made to assume particular abnormalisms under im- 
proper conditions of living, especially with respect to 
food and clothing. The stomach once or twice having 
failed to digest food taken into it, and colic resulting 
therefrom, becomes predisposed to the inertia which in- 
digestion always indicates. One having had colic once, 
like one having had hemorrhage of the lungs once, is 
more likely to have it again than if he had not had it 
at all. Having had it twice or thrice or four times, he 
is more likely to have it the fifth time than if he had 
not had it so many times. What is curious enough in 
the matter is that having thus had it at a given time 
of day, say after breakfast or dinner, he is likely to 
have it again, if at all, at the same time of day. 
One ought not to have colic more than two or three 
times before being able thoroughly to overcome it, and 
to stop the rising tendency to it. This can be done 
without great trouble by being careful in the food eaten, 
and also to keep the body warm by clothing, and clean 
by ablutions. 
For the cure of wind-colic nothing is better than to 
drink plentifully of warm water, even, if need be, to a 
producing of a revulsion of the action of the stomach, 
and, by vomiting, to eject the food taken into it. But 304 
COLIO. 
if one does not need to produce such severe and ulti- 
mate reaction, then let him drink plentifully of hot 
water, which does not create the desire to vomit as 
simple blood-warm water will do; and, at the same 
time, assuming a recumbent posture, have woolen 
cloths wrung out of hot water applied as fomentations 
over the stomach. The heat of the water drunk and of 
the wet cloths applied quickens the circulation of the 
part, relieves it therefore from present congestion, causes 
the gas to be regurgitated from the stomach or to pass 
through into the lower bowels, and to be ejected from 
thence quite rapidly, and so the patient gets present 
and entire relief. 
Where persons have been long habituated to frequent, 
sudden and violent attacks of wind-colic, causing a great 
deal of suffering, and, on the whole, becoming more 
and more difficult to cure, a very careful and rigid diet 
is necessary. In truth, in all affections of the stomach 
involving congestions which are painful, or inflamma- 
tions, either light or severe in their nature, a very care- 
ful dietary regimen is necessary, both to present relief 
and actual and permanent cure. 
Almost all diseases to which the human stomach 
is subject are relievable by being careful in the food 
eaten. And though certain kinds of food are healthier 
than other kinds, and therefore preferable, both as re- 
spects the prevention of disease and the cure of it 
when it exists, I am clearly of opinion that very many 
of the diseases of the stomach are to be attributed, not 
so much to the bad food eaten, as to bad c* mbinations COLIC. 
305 
of good food, ?<nd the eating of it at improper times. 
Where the person is subject to wind-colic, it will be 
found that he will be less liable to attack from eating 
at a given meal food which is homogeneous. With our 
people the habit exists of eating food which is hetero- 
geneous ; thus, for instance, vegetables and fruit at the 
same meal, or meat and a large variety of vegetables, 
or meat, vegetables and fruit at the same meal. Now, 
if persons whose stomachs are susceptible to sudden 
congestions or inflammations would select out of the 
various edibles common to our people one or two 
articles which should make a combination at a given 
meal, or for a number of meals, and touch nothing else 
than those, though they were to eat plentifully of them, 
and though these in their nature were not the best 
foods which they could get, they would be less likely 
to have colics and other diseases of the stomach, either 
acute or chronic, than though they ate larger varieties 
of articles of food, each, in itself, quite unobjectionable. 
Not infrequently when colic exists will it be found 
that the bowels are quite inert, or the kidneys quite 
inactive, or the skin not doing its full amount of excre- 
tory labor. It is, therefore, always well as soon as a case 
of colic arises that inquiry should be made of the sub- 
ject as to the conditions of action of these organs; 
and where there exists evidence that they are not act- 
ing with their usual vigor, applications to induce action 
should be unhesitatingly made. A good bath, warm 
rather than cold, of the entire body sometimes will 
produce almost instantaneous relief. I have known 306 
COLIC. 
some very bad colics cured very quickly by procuring 
a full movement of the bowels, and in a good many 
instances have I found colics of the stomach, of pretty 
severe character, relieved by increasing the action of 
the kidneys. CHAPTER XXXVI. 
CANCEROUS CONDITIONS OF THE STOMACH. 
I have never known a person to have incipient or 
developed cancer of the stomach who had not been a 
habitual drinker of ardent spirits,, or who had not been 
an immoderate user of tobacco, or who had not so 
lived as to be in the quite frequent use of powerful 
drugs. Ardent spirits, tobacco and poisonous medicines 
are the great provocatives to cancer of the stomach. 
In fact, I think they are so to the exhibition of cancer 
wherever it may appear. 
For cancer of the stomach there is no cure unless it 
be such as arises from the change made in the blood, 
through change made in the food eaten, and through 
general habits of living of the patient. My grand- 
mother was cured by an uncle of mine of a cancer of 
long standing, and which would have killed her ulti- 
mately, by means no other than hygienic; and the 
chief of which was dietary. A skillful physician of 
the allopathic school, and of large practice, he readily 
saw that the disease was not curable by medicines nor 
yet by the knife. So, as a last resort, he subjected the 
patient to a rigid and careful diet; I think, as neai as 
the facts can be got at under the tradition of the case, 
307 308 
CANCEROUS CONDITIONS OF THE STOMACH. 
to nothing but bread and water, on which she lived fol 
a long time without any sensible effects fox* the better 
being produced; but continuing to live in the same 
manner, after a still longer period changes in the sys- 
tem were wrought of such an organic or constitutional 
character as to affect the cancerous growth, which all 
disappeared under these changes, and she lived to be a 
comparatively healthy woman for many years after the 
cure was effected. 
I have no question but what many of the scirrhous 
or cancerous diseases with which persons are afflicted, 
and which generally, sooner or later, kill them, could 
be overcome by ordinary hygienic methods of living, to 
which should be added a diet to consist mainly of sub- 
acid fruits without much else, or if to it anything 
else should be added, it should be only food made out 
of unbolted wheat-flour and water. 
In all diseases of the stomach, no matter what these 
may be, no worse element in the way of food can be 
readily introduced than that of yeast, whether it be 
taken in the form of bread or in any other form. To 
the stomach of a human being a substance like that of 
yeast is, in its nature, unhealthy. Raised bread, there- 
fore, is one of the worst foods eaten by the American 
people. In many instances the fungi of the yeast are 
so infinitesimally small as to pass, by interstitial ab- 
sorption, directly into the blood, and create, when 
there, inflammatory states of it, ofttimes producing 
fevers of the most violent and perhaps fatal nature 
Thousands of persons have been led to have dyspepsia CANCEROUS CONDITIONS OK THE STOMACH. 
309 
which nothing would cure; thousands of persons have 
bad colics which they could only overcome for the time 
being, but which would reappear again in a little 
while with more than usual violence; a great many 
persoi.s have had cancerous growth in the stomach or 
scirrhous conditions of it, either induced, or aided to 
be induced, by the use of foods in which the yeast 
principle had been incorporated. 
Not unlikely many persons in reading this statement 
will think me fanciful; but I assure them that, under 
my experience, I am not likely to be fanciful. The 
causes of diseases - especially of those of abnormal 
growths like cancers or scirrhous tumors, or tumors of 
a purely fibrous nature-lie beyond superficial observa 
tion. To find out what these are, one has to investi 
gate very closely. Having had, from the necessities of 
my position, carefully to look at the effects upon the 
blood, upon the stomach, and upon the muscular tissue 
of the human body of the substance called yeast, 
worked up as this is into our bread foods and used 
constantly, I am satisfied that it provokes, as well as 
predisposes to, a very large number of diseases, and to 
none not even in colic-more than in the production 
of cancers. 
In the treatment of the incurable cancer,'the hygienic 
appliances may be regarded as great palliatives, even 
keeping down the physical suffering of the patient to a 
degree measurably to be borne. If cancer of the stom- 
ach exists, the application of warm cloths over its sur- 
face will ofttimes produce almost instantaneous relief, 310 
CANCEEOUS CONDITIONS OK THE STOMACH. 
for the time being, to the spasm of suffering. For, 
strange as it is, it nevertheless is true that a person hav- 
ing cancer in the. stomach has periods wherein pain is 
much greater than at other times. This arises from 
the sudden congestion of the blood-vessels of the stom- 
ach whereby pain is produced. CHAPTER XXXVII. 
DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN. 
Thk opleen is an organ situated below the stomach, 
on the left-hand side of the body nearly opposite to the 
liver. What its use is physiologists have not as yet 
determined ; for some hold to one view, and others hold 
to another with respect to it. One school thinks it to 
be a reservoir for superabundant blood ; another, for 
superabundant nervous force; and still another, as an 
organ where nervous force is generated. Respectively 
they bring facts as proofs in favor of their views. 
1 am more interested just now in the statement of 
the derangements which the organ can and does take 
on, and of the effects of its diseases upon other organs 
in the body, and upon the body at large. 
It is said by medical writers who have gathered up 
statistics on the subject, that men, owing to their more 
uniform exposure to morbid influences, and to their 
worse habits, are more likely to have diseases which de- 
pend upon derangements of the spleen than women are. 
The more common causes of disease of the spleen, 
so a distinguished writer says, are long marches in 
malarial countries, long-continued running, extreme 
fatigue, falls, injuries or blows on the left hypochon- 
drium, drinking c->ld fluids when the body is over- 
311 312 
DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN. 
heated and perspiring, unwholesome beverages and 
irregularities in diet. 
How this may be with reference to those persons 
who live in tropical climates, I cannot, from personal 
observation, declare. This, however, from many cases 
that have fallen under my own notice, I can affirm with 
reference to persons living within the northern and 
middle States of our Republic, that women suffer much 
more from splenic diseases than men do. I attribute 
the fact largely to their faulty style of dress, and other 
correlative faulty habits, such as living largely in the 
house, eating at all hours, and of stimulating rather 
than nutritious food, and, when within the conjugal 
relations, to decided sexual incontinence. So common 
are diseases of the spleen amongst our women, as to be 
observable and understandable by everybody; for, 
whenever a woman is sick from any derangement 
which is not readily obvious, those who know her are 
more likely than not to use a common phrase, and say 
that she is " spleeny." Many of the hysterical morbid 
manifestations which women show, I think are clearly 
attributable to derangements of the spleen. Wherever 
you see periodical anxiety of mind manifested under 
paroxysmal debility of body you may be sure that the 
spleen is deranged. 
A common form of disease of the spleen is engorge- 
ment of its blood-vessels, which produces the more com- 
mon hysterical manifestations. Acute congestion of 
spleen is one of the forms of disease that is common to 
the women of our country. •DISEASE'S OF THE SPLEEN. 
313 
A celebrated medical writer attributes splenic dis- 
eases to what he is pleased to call the existence of " a 
high dew-point," by which he means a high climatic 
temperature. Thus, he declares that, other things 
being equal, a person living in a tropical clime is more 
likely to have splenic diseases than if he lived in a 
temperate clime. 
One of the forms cf disease of the spleen is described 
as a painful sensation in it, a dull, heavy aching, often 
as suddenly occurring without any accompanying symp- 
toms of fevered action as it is by riding on horseback 
or by running rapidly. 
When this occurs in a man, it is not difficult to re- 
lieve or cure; but when it occurs in a woman, it is 
ofttimes obstinate, being connected with some derange- 
ment of the uterine system, and is, therefore, a second- 
ary affair; and being dependent upon uterine con- 
gestions, or chronic passive uterine inflammation, it can 
only be cured by overcoming its cause, though it can 
be relieved readily by applying hot fomentation cloths 
over the part. 
When it results from running or from riding on 
horseback it will pass away by rest. Sometimes it is 
neuralgic, and then it is only manageable by such 
changes in the habits of general life of the person 
suffering from it as to produce a thorough alteration 
of the circulation. 
Where it is only a simple congestion, it often arises 
from its connection with other derangements. I have 
seen a great many cases where its existence was to be 314 
DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN. 
attributed to agues. I notice that a voluminous writer 
an the diseases of the spleen says, that congestions of 
the spleen are most commonly met in connection with 
agues, with obstructions to the portal circulation, and 
with other diseases incidental to warm and malarious 
climates. Where inflammation of the organ exists, the 
symptoms are generally found to be a pain, or heavy 
oppression in the left side, connected with a fever, 
which is either continuous or intermittent. . I think 
that the provoking causes to inflammation of the spleen 
may all be absorbed into two main influences; one, 
that of a hot, sultry and yet suddenly changeable 
climate, forcing the capillary circulation to extreme 
changes; the other, the use of bad food and drink. 
While these two influences exist as causes, it is very 
difficult to have persons living under them remain 
free from derangements of this structure. Where these 
two influences do not exist, I think that only care is 
needed to keep the spleen in health. 
For all its morbidities, therefore, I should advise 
prophylactic as well as therapeutic measures, the keep- 
ing of the skin clean, regularity of the bowels, simple- 
ness of food, and as little exposure as may be to the 
influences of the atmosphere at those periods of each 
day when it is at its lowest temperature. I think 
where extremes of temperature in any climate are com- 
mon within a period of twenty-four hours, the persons 
living there should overcome these by artificial means 
as much as possible. Hence, where the mornings are 
and the air is damp from dew and from vapor, DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN. 
315 
persons should live within the house until the sun is 
risen, and the vapor is in a measure dispelled. And 
at night when the dew begins to fall, as we say, and 
the air becomes cool and misty, they should go in-doors, 
and have the rooms which they inhabit warmed by fires. 
The most common form of disease of the spleen 
which I have had to treat, has been chronic congestion 
or passive inflammation of it. For this I have found 
that antiphlogistic or nitrogenous food is one of the 
best aids to cure I could employ. Baths given in the 
form of packs, dripping-sheets, sitz-baths, abdominal 
bandages, fomentations, enemas, with plenty of good 
soft water to drink, have been the hydropathic means 
employed. Right social relations and freedom from 
business have been the mental and the moral means 
employed. 
A great many persons have come to me whose spleens 
were much enlarged. For these, long-continued treat- 
ment has been necessary, and in most cases, if I have 
been able to keep them as long as I desired, they have 
gone away cured. 
It may not be uninteresting nor unprofitable for me 
to say that, as between the eastern and western por- 
tions of our republic, a much larger proportion of the 
inhabitants of the West than of the East have diseases 
of the spleen. In looking for the causes of this pre- 
ponderance, I have not been able to attribute them to 
climatic influences. I am disposed to attribute the 
difference to the more frequent use of powerful drug- 
medicines. Neither here, nor in the South, nor in the 316 
DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN. 
Canadian provinces, nor yet in the West India Islands, 
have I found so much medicine of a destructive kind 
given to sick persons as I have found to be given in 
our western or northwestern States. I doubt whether 
there is an equal population on the globe, amongst 
civilized or savage nations, where the inhabitants drug 
and dose for morbid conditions of the human body as 
much as in our western States. How to account for it 
I do not know, except on the hypothesis that persons 
living in comparatively new countries lack, or think 
they lack, many of the means for preserving health, 
and, therefore, are more predisposed to diseases than 
they otherwise would be, and so feel at liberty to use 
poisonous medicaments as well to prevent as to cure 
disease. I cannot say how many, but a very great 
number of the persons who have consulted me with 
reference to the probabilities of their being cured of 
diseases which made their lives very wretched and 
miserable, have confessed to me that they had long 
been in the habit of taking medicines to keep off ague, 
to keep off unusual nervousness, to make them sleep 
well, so that they would not be sick, to give themselves 
appetites as well as to tone up and give vigor and 
strength to their bodies. Thus calomel and quinine, 
opium and alcohol, are in constant use with large num- 
bers of the population of the western States, not for 
the purpose of curing disease, but for the purpose of 
preventing it. How intelligent persons can so far 
forego the use of their reason as to fall into such a 
terrible way, surprises me. A great reform in this DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN. 
317 
respect, however, has been inaugurated, and nowhere 
will it make its way more rapidly nor more thoroughly, 
than with the people of the northwestern portion of 
our republic. For once set at thought in the right 
direction, they will keep thinking until the whole 
problem of how to keep well by obedience to the laws 
of life and health will be solved by them, and then 
good-bye tc sickness, to drugs and doctors. CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
DISEASES OF THE LIVER. 
The liver is an organ situated on the right side ol 
the body below the lungs and stomach. Its import- 
ance in the animal economy ranks differently in the 
estimation of men of different medical schools; and 
its diseases, therefore, are regarded accordingly. Some 
look upon them as of primary, others as only of sec- 
ondary importance. A certain class of physiologists, 
and of physicians who accept the conclusions of the 
physiologists, hold that the liver in the performance of 
its full functions not only exercises an excreinentitious 
or depurating influence, but directly and positively aids 
in assimilation. Others, and I think the majority of 
medical men of all schools, have come to the conclusion 
that its main, if not its exclusive, office is depuratory, 
being that of taking out of the blood carbonaceous and 
hydrogenic matters, thus co-operating with the lungs in 
this direction. I am disposed to this view myself. For 
under the closest analysis of the bile it does not appear 
to possess any constituents which in any way can serve 
a nutrient purpose. Under no circumstances does it 
appear that it is re-organized into blood, nor that it 
forms by itself a constituent of the blood. As such, 
bile is never found ir. the blood of a healthy person ; 
318 DISEASES OF THE LIVER. 
319 
only the elements out of which bile is made are found 
in healthy blood. If under the application of chemi- 
sal tests, bile as such is found in blood, such blood 
must be of a person decidedly and obviously out of 
health. Perhaps the reason for his being so is as much 
because of the presence of bile in his blood as from 
any other cause whatever. 
Diseases or derangements of the liver are very com- 
mon and very numerous with our people. Yet notwith- 
standing their number and the extent of their classifi- 
cation by doctors, they are all, when curable at all, 
readily subject to Psycho-hygienic treatment in its sim- 
pler applications. I have had cause a great many times 
to be surprised at seeing how diseases of the liver would 
give way to the use of very simple Psycho-hygienic 
treatment remedially applied, when to cure them phy- 
sicians, very learned and of high repute, had failed un- 
der the use of their most imposing drug-medicaments. 
In some or other of the morbid manifestations which 
the liver can assume, or of diseases of other organs 
which can only exist by reason of the sympathetic re- 
lations which such organs hold to the liver when it is 
diseased, I have had very extended occasion for personal 
observation and treatment. I do not know that I ever 
had a dyspeptic who did not have, in some form, dis- 
ease of the liver. I am sure that I never had a con- 
sumptive whose pulmonary disease was not dependent 
upon, or at least directly connected with, derangements 
of the liver. I think there never was a case of bleed- 
ing piles without previous disease of the liver ; nor will 320 
DISEASES OF THE LIVER. 
there ever be a case of it so long as the liver remains 
healthy. I think no person ever had the sick headache 
until the liver had first become in some way incompe- 
tent or inactive in the performance of its functions. 
More than one half of the cases of common colds which 
the people of the United States show, originate in tor- 
por of liver and inaction of external skin. And this 
condition of the skin, oftener than otherwise, arises at 
least from want of proper action of the liver. 
This view of the case does not become clouded at all 
under the simple consideration that the liver is merely 
a depuratory organ, its office not being constructive, 
but rather destructive ; for to remove elements which, 
if they remained, would prove fatal to the repairs and 
upbuilding of the system, is as vitally necessary to its 
constructive processes as though the work to be done 
was essentially and primarily constructive. It is quite 
as necessary to get obstructions out of the way in order 
to build, as to get into the way the materials by which 
building is to be done. During each twenty-four hours, 
or, in fact, during such period of time as under the 
changes through which the human body has to go new 
supplies of food become necessary, the liver has its work 
provided. For, whenever food is needed, wastage has 
to be carried off. This is a universal law, and applies 
to every existing living organism. For the work of 
repair is co-extensive with the work of destruction, and 
the work of destruction is co-extensive with the work 
of repair. The change is constant and reciprocal, and 
the liver has its work to do in carrying off waste mate- DISEASES OF THE LEVEE. 
321 
rials as much as the lacteals have their work to do in 
supplying upbuilding matter. 
Perhaps there is no organ more easily affected by ex- 
ternal influences, healthy or unhealthy, than the liver. 
In fact, it is more susceptible to derangements than any 
other organ. It does not seem to me to be able to re- 
sist unfavorable conditions with anything like the force 
that the stomach, the bowels, the lungs or the external 
skin can. And because of its inability thus to resist, is it 
to be accounted for that these other organs never become 
deranged until after the liver is sick. It would be a 
phenomenon in pathology to see a healthy liver and 
unhealthy lungs5 or a healthy liver and an unhealthy 
stomach, or unhealthy kidneys, or unhealthy bowels, or 
unhealthy skin and a healthy liver. But ofttimes the 
converse is witnessed. After the liver becomes decid 
edly deranged, the lungs resist its morbid conditions ; 
so does the stomach or the kidneys, the bowels or the 
skin. Necessarily, sooner or later, they must come to 
be diseased if it remains diseased; and, strictly speak- 
ing, they cannot be absolutely healthy while it is un- 
healthy. But apparently so they are. Oftentimes a 
man with most manifest symptoms of liver derange- 
ment will be able to eat and drink and digest hie food 
without any apparent difficulty whatever ; the stomach 
working as well under a superficial view as though the 
liver were healthy, and so with the other organs ; but, 
notwithstanding their capacity for vital resistance, the 
process of derangement in them begins whenever the 
liver itself has become seriously affected. It has nc 322 
DISEASES OF THE LIVER. 
power to resist the nfluence of morbific causes acting 
upon it or through it as have the other vital organs. 
Its extreme susceptibility to disease, and the very 
great sympathy which exists between it and the othe-'" 
vital organs, make it quite necessary to delineate in 
minute form the derangements which it shows, and the 
true method of preventing and curing these. This is 
all the more necessary, because with physicians of the 
drug-schools, there is no other organ in the body for the 
diseases of which they so ruthlessly prescribe powerful 
and poisonous re-agents as for the liver. Thus, if a 
man has any disease of the stomach, a physician may 
stop to think whether it would not be better to suggest 
hygienic treatment of his stomach. So also, if the 
lungs have become diseased, he will at least stop to 
consider whether mild will not be quite as serviceable 
as more potent drugs. So also, has it come to be, nowa- 
days, in reference to inaction of the bowels. Drastic 
purgatives are not given as much for inertness of bow- 
els as formerly. The same is true of the skin, and also 
of the kidneys. But let a physician of any of the drug- 
medicating schools make up his mind that the liver of 
his patient is itself sick, and so is the cause of the pa- 
tient being sick, and he will not think of giving any 
remedy which does not have in it a deadly potency. 
Nor will he think of administering it in any form but 
that which if he were to give it to a man in health 
would make him sick, and perhaps would kill him. 
They seem to think that an actual onslaught on this 
organ, of the severest kind, is not only justifiable but DISEASES OF THE LIVER. 
323 
positively demanded by the foots of the case, no mat- 
ter what the nature or character of these facts are, so a 
dear indication is had that the liver is out of order. 
For congestion of liver, or inaction of liver, for passive 
inflammation of liver, or acute inflammation of liver, 
down the throat of the patient must go some infernal 
drug, which if given to a man, were he well, would 
make him sicker in all probability than he was when 
the drug was administered to him for cure. 
Why this is I do not know, except because physi- 
cians have learned that whenever the liver becomes de- 
ranged in its functions, the intimacy of the relationship 
existing between it and other vital organs is legitimately 
so great that they also readily become diseased. To 
prevent this the liver must be doctored furiously. So 
at it they set to work, never stopping to think that just 
in the ratio of its susceptibility to become diseased un- 
der conditions unfavorable to its health, is it susceptible 
to become rid of its diseases when brought under con- 
ditions favorable to its health. For in this direction 
action and reaction are equal as in every other direc- 
tion. Where there is very great vital resistance to dis- 
ease, constitutionally or organically existing in a struc- 
ture, this being once overcome, and disease being made 
to exist there, the difficulty of overcoming this disease 
and re-instating the structure in health is exactly pro- 
portionate to the difficulty in the flrst instance of mak- 
ing the organ become diseased. Hence, men of strong 
constitutions, when once fairly sick, are the most diffi- 
cult of all persons to cure 324 
DISEASES OF THE LIVER. 
Now, the extreme susceptibility of the liver to dis- 
ease rationally contra-indicates severe treatment, for 
after a rational plan its diseases are readily curable. 
If treated irrationally, it becomes diseased ofttimes so 
as to make its restoration to health quite difficult, be- 
cause under such circumstances its structure becomes 
changed, and thus we have organic as well as func- 
tional difficulties to meet. However numerous the 
derangements, therefore, or whatever may be the par- 
ticular manifestations of disease which the liver at any 
time may show, these can all be readily brought within 
the range of very simple modes and methods of cure. 
To be taking calomel and quinine, and opium and 
arsenic, and podophyllin, is unnecessary. It argues, 
on the part of those who administer these poisons, and 
on the part of those who take them, a want of percep- 
tion of the nature of the structure and of the functions 
of the liver, and of its legitimate relations to other 
organs in the body, and to the body as a whole. It 
argues bad practice on the part of those who exhibit 
it, and needs to give way to more sensible and rational 
ideas, both in the direction of the remedies to be used, 
and of the results to be produced. 
As all acute diseases of the liver which have fallen 
under my professional care to treat have yielded most 
read ily and permanently to the simplest forms of treat- 
ment-such as cleaning the stomach from any undigest- 
ible substance that may be in it, relieving the bowels 
from any hard feces, or from soft feces lying higher up, 
which remain there from want of action of the descend DISEASES OF THE LIVER. 
325 
ing colon, such also as the applying of wet he t cloths 
over the region of the stomach, bowels and liver, or the 
use of warm sitz-baths followed by cold, together with 
the use of general ablutions and of the abdominal band- 
age, absence from food, quiet of mind, and recumbent 
posture indicating rest, until the ailment, whatever it 
may be, passes away; I do not think it necessary to 
describe these forms of disease under the head of dis- 
eases of the liver, but to pass to the treatment of those 
which are chronic in their nature, and which are much 
more common as specific involvements of this organ than 
the diseases known as liver diseases, which are acute. 
The commoner form of chronic disease of the liver 
which I have had to treat, has been what is popularly 
known as " liver complaint." It consists of conges- 
tions of the blood-vessels of the liver, whereby what 
is termed the portal circulation, or the passage of the 
blood through the portal vein, is interfered with. As 
a consequence of the obstruction of blood through this 
vein and its adjunct vessels, the depuratory office of 
the gland is very much enfeebled; and so the liver 
itself, after a while, becomes engorged, and hyper-sen- 
sibility takes place. 
When this condition exists pain follows as a conse- 
quence, sometimes sharp and darting, sometimes dull 
and heavy, sometimes in the liver, sometimes at points 
remote from it. More frequently than otherwise, after 
the derangement is fairly established, the point of sen- 
sibility is under the right shoulder-blade, pretty near 
to the fourth or fifth dorsal joint. 326 
DISEASES OF THE LIVER. 
The common remedies for this disease are calomel 
and jalap combined, or calomel followed by salts and 
senna, if the patient be treated allopathically ; if ho- 
meopathically, calomella is administered with, perhaps, 
pulsatilla following it. Or, if these do not provoke the 
liver to action, then modifications of the minor medi- 
cines are given ; but calomel in some form is the chief 
remedy with those who give mineral poisons; while 
amongst the botanic or eclectic practitioners, podo- 
phyllin is regarded as the most efficient and thorough 
medicine. 
Could it be always remembered by persons who have 
this, or any other form of liver disease, or, for that mat- 
ter, any disease that involves the nutritive or excretory 
organs, that whenever congestion, little or much, or in- 
flammation light or severe exists, depletion is necessary, 
and that one of the best ways to secure it is to abstain 
from heavy foods, or, perhaps, from all food for awhile, 
increasing, as far as might be, the action of the skin, 
bowels, kidneys and lungs, by processes easy to work, 
and with results decidedly to be admired for their effi- 
cacy, poisonous drugs would not be taken by persons 
suffering from what is known as liver complaint, as 
they now are taken. Were it also remembered that 
when the liver has been slowly, though perhaps im- 
perceptibly, for a long time becoming morbid, get- 
ting ready, as it were, to put on that degree of morbid 
condition which should challenge the patient's con- 
sciousness, and make him aware that the gland was out 
of order, tl at under any disease of it of which he at DISEASES OF THE LIVER. 
327 
last lias become conscious, a good deal of time has pre- 
viously passed in order that such conditions might thor- 
oughly be established, and that whenever any such 
chronic derangement comes to be known and felt by 
him, any remedy applied for immediate or sudden 
relief, from that very fact is objectionable, persons suf- 
fering from chronic disease of the liver consequent upon 
its torpidity would be willing to take longer time than 
they now do, and would be ready to use much simpler 
means to induce cure than they are. AH changes of 
diseased organs from bad to good, from worse to better, 
induced suddenly where the diseased conditions have 
long existed, are made to the disadvantage of the gen- 
eral health of the person treated. Nature never, in her 
free moods, makes changes for the better in the condi- 
tions of existence of any human being rapidly. The 
process, to be sure and of the highest value, as I have 
elsewhere said, must be slow. If the disease be local, 
and is essentially acute, the treatment may be vigorous 
and the results rapid; but if it be long existing, and 
not merely local, the restoration should not be sought 
to be made sudden and complete ; for in the doing of 
it, vital power is more likely than not to be determined 
away from other structures m order to produce the 
local result, or to be sc exhaustively expended as <'O 
leave the body greatly, and not infrequently perma- 
nently, debilitated thereby. 
I have not space to tell how many persons have had 
their general health made permanently worse by 
powerful remedies, producing rapid changes-and for 328 
DISEASES OF THE LIVER. 
the better, too-in some particular organ which haa 
been diseased. For piles suddenly cured, I have seen 
pulmonary consumption set in; for nervous dyspepsia, 
I have seen rheumatism; for congestion of the lungs, 
the worst forms • of congestion of the liver; for tor- 
pidity of liver, the worst kind of joint rheumatism; 
for constipation of bowels, the worst form of conges- 
tion of the lungs ; for diarrhoea, the worst form of con- 
gestion of the brain ; for dysentery, typhoid fever; 
for typhoid fever, bloody dysentery; for bilious fever, 
typhoid fever; for mucous dyspepsia, fixed neuralgia 
of the lower limbs; for inflammation of the bowels, 
enlargement of the liver or of the spleen ; for inaction 
of the liver, the most thorough and complete inaction 
of the bowels; and so on. 
It is not good practice, therefore, to seek suddenly 
or instantaneously to overcome morbid conditions of 
the liver though these have long existed. Time is 
needed to produce the changes desired, and if time can 
be had, then gentle methods may be employed. 
For the disease now under consideration, change of 
food from that which is exciting to that which is simply 
nutrient, made up as this must be, for the most part, 
of grains, vegetables and fruit simply prepared ; change 
in drink, substituting for hot drinks, cool, and for the 
ordinary table beverages, pure, soft water; using sitz- 
baths and general ablutions two or three times a week; 
using enemas of tepid, soft water, unimpregnated with 
any cathartic substance; the application of fomenta- 
tions ; the wearing of an abdominal bandage night DISEASES OF THE LIVES. 
329 
and day; pleasant social surroundings; life in the 
open air, and great regularity of habit will certainly 
produce the result desired if the person being treated 
is curable. How to combine the means and efficiently 
employ them, may demand the skill of the physician 
and his daily oversight; for I take it that it will be 
only when the knowledge how to keep from being sick 
has become quite general with the American people, 
that it will do for them to dispense with the care and 
management and application of skill of physicians. 
Physicians are necessary when persons are sick, because 
the latter are not competent when sick to manage their 
own cases. lie who is his own physician when sick 
has a fool for a patient; just as he who, going to law, 
has a fool for a client if he pleads his own cause. 
But though physicians will be necessary to determine 
the diseases of which persons may be sick, and to pre- 
scribe the proper remedies, and to enforce their appli- 
cation under their own personal oversight and manage- 
ment, it will not be needful for those who are sick to 
take as remedies destructive substances. Those reme- 
dies which are ordinarily called medicines will not be 
used. On the other hand, those agents which, because 
they are not regarded as medicines, are now seldom 
brought into use by medical men will be used, being 
in themselves constructive or curative, because appro- 
priable by the vital force of the human body to the 
maintenance of its health when not sick, and therefore 
to the restoration of it when it is sick. 
Li"er complaint, therefore, or chronic congestion of 330 
DISEASES OF THE LIVER. 
the liver, can better be treated by simple methods 
which shall sweep over considerable space of time 
than by the use of substances whose effect on it is to 
induce powerful yet sudden changes, and to leave it 
ultimately in a more congested and inert condition 
than before the process of cure was begun. 
Where chronic congestion, or chronic irritation, oi 
passive inflammation of the liver exists, it is frequently 
the case that all the lobes of the liver are not in- 
volved. Nor is it always the case that all of a single 
lobe is involved. Sometimes it may be that the outer 
surface of the liver is mainly diseased ; in other cases, 
that the inner or under side of it is only affected. I 
have found -when this is the case symptoms corres- 
ponding thereto are obvious. Where the outer sur- 
face of the liver is unhealthy the person can lie on the 
left side better than on the right; where the under 
or inner surface is involved, he can lie better on the 
right side than on the left.. In the one case, if he lies 
upon the left side, he finds a drawing sejisation as if 
the livei* were a heavy weight in his body, and bearing 
down upon the structures immediately adjacent. In 
the other case he finds that, if he lies upon the right 
side, the sense of weight is increased with the absence 
of the drawing or bearing-down sensation. 
This, perhaps, is of no account in determining what 
shall be the treatment. As in many instances of other 
organs which are diseased, the understanding of the 
exact portions of them which are diseased aids not at 
in determining the quality or quantity or form of DISEASES OF THE LEVEK. 
331 
treatment to bo given. In this direction the classifica 
tion of diseases is quite finical, and, as I have elsewhere 
said, I believe the treatment which doctors administer 
is also finical, having no substantial merit whatever 
in it. 
Where inflammation of the liver exists, as a general 
thing, once well-established, it goes to suppuration and 
abscesses form. This is dangerous, and not infrequently 
fatal to the health of the patient, if not to his life. 
I have had but two cases of inflammation of liver 
ending in abscess. Both of these persons lived, and, 
for aught I know, are living to-day ; but while I knew 
them, which was for years after, neither of them had 
good health. I have had a good many cases of inflam- 
mation of liver where, I think, under the medical reme- 
dies usually employed, abscess would have resulted and 
death ensued; but under the Psycho-hygienic treat- 
ment resolution took place. Some of the persons re- 
covered and have had good health since, I am happy 
to be able to say ; but others of them have been deli- 
cate, and have had to take great care of themselves in 
order to live. It is far better, I think, so to care for 
one's self as not to have inflammation of the liver than 
to live so as to have it expecting to be able to cure it, 
and have the health good notwithstanding. 
Whenever I have had cases of inflammation of the 
liver to treat, my main instrumentalities have been in 
the direction of foods, using gruels made of wheat- 
meal and water, and subacid fruits. I have, given little 
or no so-.id foods, and have dispensed entirely with 332 
DISEASES OF THE LEVER. 
vegetables of every kind, with all condiments and 
spices, and peremptorily forbidden the use of common 
salt, of ardent spirits in any form, of all drug-reme- 
dies and of tobacco. 
The baths which I have given have been usually the 
wet-sheet pack, followed by the dripping-sheet, tonic in 
temperature, to keep down general fever; enemas to 
keep the bowels open ; plenty of soft water to drink 
as a blood-washer ; and hot cloths followed by cold ones 
over the liver, with derivative sitz-baths, and the wear- 
ing constantly of the wet cold compress over the liver, 
stomach and bowels. 
Where inflammation of the liver exists, though the 
attack be mild, the most thorough cleanliness of the 
person should be had; the room in which he lies 
should be, if it can, so situate as to let in sunlight when 
lesired, and should be, though holes have to be knocked 
through its walls, so thoroughly ventilated as to give to 
the patient the benefit of pure air. Then with quiet 
surroundings, intelligent and hopeful nurses, and proper 
management on the part of the physicians, or whoever 
has the case in hand, the patient, unless very scrofulous, 
is more likely than not to get well; whereas under the 
ordinary medical practice he is more likely than not 
to die; or, if not to die, never more to have good 
health. CHAPTER XXXIX. 
CALCULI. 
Where calculi exist in the liver, whatever may be 
the particular form of these, the person must be sick 
while they remain in it, and must suffer great pain in 
Lheir eliminations. No medicines can cure this dis- 
ease , for no medicines can protect the person suffering 
from the formation of new calculi, if the old ones, by 
any means, are expelled. Security against their re-for- 
mation can only be had by the person changing his 
dietetic and drinking habits. If he will drink ardent 
spirits and hard water as a daily beverage, and eat food 
made up largely of greases and gravies, of flesh meats 
with their spices, of bread made of superfine wheat- 
flour, of vegetables which get their growth below the 
surface of the earth, and calculi or calcareous concre- 
tions have been formed in his liver, there is no security 
to be had for him that, once expelled, new formations 
will not take place. They are more likely than not to 
do so ; and the probability is that he will die in some 
effort of his system to expel them. 
A.S predisposing, and, as I think, active, causes 
in the formation of stony substances in the liver or in 
the bladder, ardent spirits habitually drunk, ami hard 
333 334 
CALCULI, 
water used as an ordinary beverage, cannot be exceeded. 
Ardent spirits in this direction are very potent, by rea- 
son of the checking of the metamorphoses of the tis- 
sues, thus leaving in the system and in the blood sub- 
stances which, when the blood passes through the liver, 
are there deposited, or when the urine is secreted by 
the kidneys and filtered down into the bladder, remain 
n the urine, and are there deposited. Hard water is 
a means for the formation of stones in the liver or in the 
bladder, because it contains in solution the material of 
which the calculi are made. In being taken into the 
stomach the water passes through its coats immediately 
into the veins, and in the process of absorption filter- 
ing does not take place; the earthy substances which 
are held in it in suspension pass, therefore, with it, and 
are only separated from it when the blood, of which 
this water makes a part, passes through the liver, or 
when it is filtered from the blood by the kidneys and 
reaches the bladder, and then separation takes place. 
The earthy salts remain and organize themselves into 
amorphous shapes, while in the one case the bile passes 
into the bowels and is carried off in the faeces, and in 
the other the urine passes out by ordinary action. 
No matter, therefore, who the person may be, though 
not so predisposed to this disease as some other person 
is, he nevertheless is liable to it, and, therefore, as a 
security against it, he should entirely let alone the use 
of ardent spirits, and never for a long period of time 
uninterruptedly use hard water. There is no need of 
using it by any person who is a fixed resident: for. JAUNDICE. 
335 
with a little effort, he can catch rain water and filter 
it, and thus avoid all exposure. If he be a peripatetic 
being, here to-day, and somewhere else to-morrow, he 
can always get, by a little painstaking, water which 
has been boiled, and this, though hard, is far better, 
because much less hard for having been boiled. 
There is no such thing as cure for stones in the liver 
or bladder that does not secure their ejection and after- 
ward prevent their re-formation. Hence, to deal with 
such cases successfully, requires on the part of the pa- 
tient large vital force to endure suffering when the 
stones are passing through the gall-ducts of the liver, 
or from the kidneys to the bladder, or from the bladder 
down the urethra, and also requires, to thus be success- 
fully accomplished, such conditions of living as to ren- 
der it impossible for the calculi to be re-formed in these 
organs. This done, the disease no longer exists nor can 
exist; and to this end the use of Psycho-hygienic reme- 
dies, in my judgment, are far more effective because 
far less destructive; are far more successful, because 
they reach the prospective as well as the actual condi- 
tions of the case, than drug-remedies in any form can be. 
Jaundice.-This disease may fairly be considered as 
chronic in its nature, for, although it appears suddenly 
in many instances, the active causes of it must have 
existed a good while before it appeared. Its diagnosis 
need hardly be stated, because whoever sees a jaundiced 
person knows him to be so at first sight, the color of 
the skin being more or less yellow, shading from a light 336 
JAUNDICE, 
saffron to a dark yellowish brown. Usually, the first 
indications of the disease arise in the eyes, then in the 
face and over the whole body. Whenever the disease 
becomes general the feces are of a whitish or light 
clayish cast, the urine becomes very dark-colored and 
scanty, and digestion much deranged. Not infrequently 
] with this disease there is a heavy, tense pain in the 
region of the liver. 
The reason why I count jaundice as among chronic 
diseases of the liver is, that more frequently than other- 
wise it appears without one's being able to refer it to 
any one exciting cause. The principal causes, how- 
ever, are indigestion; suppression of the external cir- 
culation ; the taking into the stomach of substances 
which are poisonous ; reactionary conditions of the liver 
set up from having taken powerful emetics or power- 
ful purgatives ; derangements of liver arising from the 
presence of gall-stones in the bladder, or, once in a 
great many instances, the appearance of worms in the 
biliary ducts. With persons of a peculiar combination 
of intellectual and moral faculties, powerful mental 
emotions will serve as a predisposing, if not exciting 
cause, to the disease. There should bo counted in also 
as predisposing causes, irregular habits of living ; large 
and habitual indulgence in strong drinks; gluttonous 
habits of eating; excessive sexual indulgence, and 
long-continued and frequent administration of power- 
ful cathartic medicines. 
The remote diseases arising from jaundice are dropsv, JAUNDICH 
337 
general wasting away of the flesh, and pulmonary con- 
sumption attended with hectic fever. 
In all the cases of this disease which I have had to 
weat-and they have been a goodly number - there 
nave been only two women; all the others have been 
men. I never had but one case of jaundice to treat 
in the person of a child, and that was a boy. I never 
lost a case of jaundice. My patients always got well 
under the proper diet and such treatment as leads to 
the establishment of natural action of the bowels, and 
kidneys, and the skin. It is surprising to see with 
what certainty the application of the wet-sheet pack 
followed by a dripping-sheet, or spray, or half-bath, at 
a temperature of 85° to 80°, accompanied with fomen- 
tations for half an hour, once a day, over the liver, 
with enemas also to produce daily evacuation of the 
bowels, will change the condition of the blood, and 
carry off through the various excretories all the inspis- 
sated bile, whose presence gives the tinge or color to 
the skin of the person suffering under the disease. In 
the course of a week or two the worst cases which I 
have treated began to show improvement. I have had 
some very remarkable cases which have been cured 
under the Psycho-hygienic treatment. One need not 
be afraid of the disease so it is taken in time and dealt 
with fairly. CHAPTER XL. 
DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES. 
Duodenitis.-Physiologists divide the bowels into 
three departments: The duodenum, which is some- 
times called the second stomach ; the small intestines ; 
and the colon, which is the large bowel. 
The chief disease of the duodenum is termed duo- 
denitis, which means inflammation of that portion of 
the small intestines which is joined on to the stomach 
at the pyloric orifice, and is about twelve inches in 
length, thus being named after two words which mean 
two and ten, or duo-denum. 
It is at this point of the intestinal canal, wrhen sub 
acute or passive inflammation exists in its inner lining, 
that in many instances the suffering of dyspeptics origi- 
nates. The proof of this is found in the fact that upon 
eating food the dyspeptic has no disturbance whatevei 
for the time in which it remains in the stomach; but 
when having been turned into chyme it passes out of 
the stomach into the duodenum, then pain or agony 
begins. The mucous lining of the intestines is so in- 
flamed as to be extremely sensitive, and when the chyme 
comes into it, its presence there creates extreme sensi- 
338 DUODENITIS. 
339 
bility of the part, and in many instances great pain is 
induced. The disease is then called either acute or 
chronic duodenitis; meaning thereby that the duode- 
num is inflamed, and that food cannot pass through it 
without determining the blood there, and so for the pe 
riod of the passage of the food the distress of the per 
son is greatly increased. 
From what peculiarity in the structure of the bowel, 
or from what peculiar susceptibility of it to take on dis- 
eased conditions, it so happens that when the duodenum 
becomes diseased, and especially so by chronic inflamma- 
tion of its mucous surface, it constitutes a more diflicult 
structure to cure than any other in the body, I -do not 
know. Of this, however, I am aware, that of all the 
diseases which I have ever had to treat, no matter what 
these may have been, none has ever caused me more 
trouble to cure than this. Physicians of the drug-schools 
long ago gave it up as impossible, declaring it to be the 
opprobrium of the profession. In this view, I think, 
water-cure physicians generally concur. I know it is 
a vastly more troublesome disease than any form of 
dyspepsia with which the medical profession has to 
deal, except that form of nervous dyspepsia involving 
the solar plexus. It seems almost impossible to rein- 
state the organ in its natural health after once it has 
become diseased. Perhaps one reason for it is the men- 
tal restlessness which those who suffer from it almost 
always show, and, therefore, the difficulty in inducing 
die patient to take the quiet conditions that he ought. 
But, be this as it may, it is a very difficult disease tq 340 
DUODENITIS, 
treat, and time, and patience, and skill and opportunity 
are necessary to success. 
My treatment for it has been, first, the most rigid and 
careful dietetics, making the patient conform to the scale 
I have thought best to mark out. Many patients who 
have been under my care for duodenitis I have put 
upon a very rigid diet, made of 'wheat-meal and water 
made into bread and padding, letting them have noth- 
ing else, keeping them on it for months at a time. Of 
course this has been prepared in as varied a form as it 
could be done, and have the proximate elements of the 
dour not changed. 
I doubt whether a long existing inflammation of the 
intestines can be cured by any means known to man 
except such as shall involve chiefly, if not exclusively, 
the use of farinaceous foods, and soft water as a drink. 
I never heard of a case of chronic duodenitis cured by 
medicine, nor by medicinal waters, nor by electricity, 
nor magnetism, nor galvanism. Apparent cures have 
been made, and both physicians and patients have con- 
gratulated themselves upon the result; but, in hun- 
dreds of such cases which have come to my knowledge, 
they have, after the lapse of a little while, been greatly 
disappointed and depressed at the recurrence of the 
difficulty. 
I think I must have had as many as a hundred per- 
sons who have visited Saratoga Springs and drunk of 
their waters, and so far recovered as to call themselves 
cured, upon whom the disease returned after a disuse 
of those waters for from three to six months. In the DUODENITIS. 
341 
majority of instances I have been able to restore them 
to health so that they have remained in health, some 
of them having now been cured for years. But in all 
such cases I have found that under the use of medicinal 
waters no account was made of food, the patients eat- 
ing pretty much what they wanted; and so soon as 
they departed from the Springs and got home and 
fairly resumed their usual habits of life, the disease 
came back upon them with greatly increased aggrava- 
tions. So I was led to think that it was worse than 
useless to undertake to cure the disease unless I kept 
out of the stomachs of the sick aliments which are not 
nutritious. 
Entering into my methods of treatment of this dis- 
ease is also the use of soft water as a drink in quite 
large quantities. Hard water being a very bad bever- 
age it should always be boiled before being drunk, or 
the lime in it should be neutralized or changed by the 
union with it of an alkali put into the water, making it 
soft. Flesh-meats should not be eaten by a person hav- 
ing duodenic inflammation, nor should spirituous liquors 
be drunk, nor drug-medicines taken. 
Sympathetically related to the disease, and calculated 
directly to aggravate it and render its cure obstinate, 
if not impossible, is sexual indulgence. No man or 
woman suffering from it should be other than strictly 
continent. The disease contra-indicates the use of the 
sexual organs. 
Where constipation exists in connection with it, as 
in many instances it does, there should be taken enemas 342 
DUODENITIS. 
of tepid water, so as to produce daily aperiency cf the 
bowels. The external skin should be kept soft and ac- 
tive in its circulation by gentle ablutions. Fomenta- 
tions may be applied to most excellent purpose over the 
part inflamed. Much benefit can be derived from eat- 
ing whatever food is taken at long intervals. The pa- 
tient should live in the open air, and should have such 
exercise as is calculated to strengthen, but not fatigue, 
the muscles of the abdomen. Freedom from care and 
study should constitute most certainly a condition in 
the plan of cure. 
Of forms of baths, the wet-sheet pack, the dripping 
sheet, the stomach and bowel washing, and rubbing by 
the hand of an attendant, fomentations, abdominal band- 
ages and sitz-baths, each in its place or in connection 
with others will be found, when fairly and judiciously 
applied, to be of most excellent service. Whoever 
has this disease and has long suffered from it, must 
calculate to suffer a good while longer, whenever he 
shall begin treatment, before thorough cure is estab- 
lished. 
In the direction of avoiding aggravations of the dis- 
ease, I might as well say that nothing is more likely to 
increase and intensify the derangement, and make the 
cure all the more difficult than to eat too much of 
proper food, unless it be to eat too much of improper 
food. It is at best a terrible disease to deal with, and 
those who have not got it should be careful not to get 
it; and to escape having it, they must live temperately 
and hygienically in all their conditions of life. BOWEL COLIC. 
343 
Bowel Colic.-Colic in the bowels may be divided 
ander two heads-simple and complicate. 
Simple colic is caused generally by the evolution of 
<*as or accumulation of wind in the bowels. It is a 
different kind of colic from that which takes place 
under the presence of gas in the stomach, and I there- 
fore have made the distinction. It arises not from 
the presence of undigested substances in the bowel, as 
colic of the stomach arises from the presence of undi- 
gested substances in it; but often from suppression of 
the external circulation, and the consequent pouring of 
blood into the vessels of the abdomen, and especially 
of the intestines. 
To illustrate : when a person has eaten food, and it 
has been disintegrated in the stomach, and passes 
through the pyloric orifice into the duodenum, and 
from that into the small intestines, supposing him to 
be exposed to low temperatures, and to become chilly 
on the surface of his body, and to have the blood recede 
therefrom rapidly and in large measure to the deeper 
blood-vessels, not unlikely he might then have an attack 
of colic. It would not be what is called bilious colic ; 
but wind-colic in the bowels-just such kind of colic 
for a man as a horse has, when over-driven and heated, 
he is placed where the external circulation is suddenly 
suppressed, and the blood-vessels of the abdomen be- 
come overcharged with blood, and the intestine's, within 
whose walls food still remains unassimilated, take on 
severe congestion or irritation, producing a chemical 
change in their contents, thereby creating the gas whose 344 
BOWEL COLIC. 
presence under the circumstances creates the pain called 
colic. This is the rationale of the thing. 
Very seldom if a person has eaten food, and time 
enough has elapsed to have it passed out of the duo- 
denum into the intestines, will he have simple bowel 
colic, if he keeps the surface of his body warm, and 
does not get over-fatigued until the nutrient particles 
have been absorbed into the blood, and the factitious 
matter has passed into the colon. 
When colic of this form arises, nothing better can 
be done than to increase the circulation upon the sur • 
face. A general warm or hot bath will be of great 
service. If this cannot be had, hot, wet cloths laid 
over the bowels will be good. The drinking of hot 
water until the blood is so hot as to affect the sweat- 
ing glands, making the body perspire freely, is good. 
Warm enemas, as warm as the blood, and, if possible, 
still warmer, will be found to be of service if thrown 
up the large bowel until it is filled as high as the sig- 
moid flexure. Sometimes relief will be had by chang- 
ing the conditions of the circulation by means of a hot 
foot-bath. 
Seldom, if ever, is this kind of colic dangerous, but 
only provocative of severe suffering while it continues. 
Whenever any one has an attack of simple colic, it 
is well not to exercise laboriously for the next few 
hours, nor to eat heartily for the next twenty-four 
hours, and to be particularly careful to dress so warmly 
as to keep the surface of the body in good circulation. 
Complicate colic is that kind of colic which arises BOWEL COLIO. 
345 
from the involvements of other structures, mainly such 
as deranged liver, constipation of the bowels, dyspep- 
sia of stomach, sudden congestion of kidneys, or large 
suppression of the circulation of the blood through the 
external skin. A complicate colic is, therefore, a. diffi 
cult thing to treat; because, while it may not be 
difficult to reach it and relieve from a given attack, it 
is very difficult to prevent tlie recurrence of such attack 
I have known persons who for months would be suffer 
ing most all the time from this kind of colic, a con 
stant, griping, bearing-down pain, for which there 
seemed to be no remedy, relief not being obtainable 
except for a little while. The pain would be appa- 
rently located in the abdomen, anywhere between the 
lower part of the pelvis and the epigastrium. The 
bowel would be sore and painful to the hand's touch. 
In some instances there was chronic peritoneal inflam- 
mation ; in others, severe derangements of the kidneys. 
One of the worst cases of colic I ever knew, and 
which baffled my effort for a while, until I came to 
discover its cause, proved to originate in, and be de- 
pendent upon, chronic congestion of the kidneys. It 
was early in my practice that I made the discovery that 
the kidneys, when congested, will produce abdominal 
colic. Since that time I have found that congestion of 
the uterus will produce in women the same condition. 
The popular idea is that where colic is caused by, 
and dependent upon, some other condition than that 
of gas in the stomach, the bowels and liver must be 
involved in its manifestations; but this view is incor- 346 
BOWEL OOLIO. 
rect. While bilious colic is often dependent upon do 
rangement of the liver, uterine colic is dependent upon 
derangement of the uterus; kidney colic, upon de- 
rangement of the kidneys. 
I have known one case where a very severe colic, 
bearing all the signs, and showing all the external 
symptoms which colic in the bowels ever shows, origin- 
ated in the reactionary conditions of the genital organs. 
Now, when one complains of colic of this sort, the 
first thing to be done is to diagnosticate clearly. Nev- 
ertheless, there is less need, in order to reach the case, 
of a clear understanding of the cause that produced it, 
if you apply Psycho-hygienic treatment, than there 
would be in the matter of giving drugs; for such are the 
therapeutic efiects of Psycho-hygienic treatment that, 
though one does not clearly ascertain the causes which 
produce the colic, the treatment is so comprehensive as 
to reach the morbid conditions established, and to pro- 
duce relief. For instance, suppose that you have colic 
arising from congestion of the uterus in the woman, or 
colic arising from congestion of the kidneys in the 
man, and you do not know that it arises from this 
cause, but suppose it be from wind, or from sudden 
congestion of the bowels; if you give to the patient 
under such circumstances just what you would give 
for acute congestion of the bowels, you would produce 
a cure just as decidedly as though you knew that the 
colic arose from congestion of the kidneys or uterus. 
A hot sitz-bath will produce relief as quickly in one 
of these cases as it will in the other. For, as soon as BOWEL COLIC. 
347 
the blood is made to flow through the kidneys or the 
uterus normally, relief will be had; and if the colic 
were caused by congestion of the bowels, as soon as 
the blood was made to flow naturally through their 
vessels relief would be had. 
Now, in the drug-medicating practice this might not 
je. One may take a powerful cathartic for a colic sup- 
posed to be abdominal, and not get one particle of 
relief from it were the colic caused by congestion of 
the kidneys or the uterus. In this direction the Psy- 
jho-hygienic treatment is far more effectual, and, I 
diink, mainly so because far more comprehensive. A 
aitz-bath has a broader remedial value than any single 
drug-medicine can have, even supposing that the latter 
has the quality of producing satisfactory effect. 
Wherever colics or anything of the kind exist, pro- 
ducing congestion in their early stage, and, if not re- 
lieved, running congestions into acute inflammations, 
the best special means to be used is the application of 
hot water in every way in which it can be applied - 
to drink it, to apply it externally, to throw it up the 
bowel; and to be prompt about it as soon as the case 
can be taken in hand. 
Where colics arise from long-continued inflammations 
which have become passive, and which, therefore, 
may be immediately provoked by sudden depressions 
of the circulation or debility arising from rapid, violent 
and fatiguing expenditures of nervous force, they are 
to be considered as dangerous, or likely immediately to 
produce destructive effects. In many instances they 348 
BOWEL COLIO. 
pass away by the habitual reaction to which the system 
has long been subjected. Thus I have known many 
persons to have neuralgic colic, and suffer very intense- 
ly, who would not do anything in the way of treat- 
ment for it because their own experience had taught 
them that, after suffering from it a certain length of 
time, it would cease of itself; the conditions of the ner- 
vous system having changed, the paroxysm passes away. 
Whenever a person is taken with a sudden attack 
of colic which produces great pain, it is always well, 
before going under any general or specific treatment, 
to make an examination to see if there is a possibility 
of its arising from hernia. Some of the worst colics 
which physicians have to deal with are attributable to 
this cause. In this case it may be tliat the colic arises 
by means of obstructions of the bowels kept there be- 
cause of the hernia; in some instances what is called 
intussusception taking place. If so, it becomes, after 
the colic appears, a very dangerous disease-the condi- 
tion being that of the bowel being pushed in upon 
itself, as you would push one end of a tube back upon 
itself, soon setting up irritation, which soon passes into 
inflammation, and fixes, in a little time, by adhesion/ 
the part introduced to the walls of the part into which 
it is introduced. Whenever this is the case, whatever 
is done to break up the inflammation and force the 
intestine back into its natural condition, must be done 
quickly. Fortunately, however, the cases of colic 
caused by this mechanical derangement of the bo we] 
are very few as compared -with the whole number. BOWEL COLIC. 
349 
Aside from simple wind-colic, either of the stomach 
or bowels, the most numerous of the cases which I 
have had to treat are those which are usually denomi- 
nated bilious colic. This kind of colic arises from the 
presence of undecomposed bile in the intestines in con- 
nection with unassimilated food. I never yet knew a 
person to have bilious colic who, within twenty-four 
hours preceding it, had not committed gluttony. Usually 
bilious colic appears in about ten to twelve hours after a 
meal. Occasionally it appears in from three to six hours 
thereafter, but ordinarily about twelve hours intervene. 
Whenever I am called to such a case, the first thing 
is to clean out the stomach of any possible food which 
may be there; for sometimes food still remains in the 
stomach at the time of the attack. This is done by 
water emetics. I relieve the bowels of any contents 
they may have. This is done by water enemas. 
Then comes the process of fomentations to keep down 
inflammations. Hot cloths are laid upon the bowels 
until sweating takes place, and then a good tonic bath 
is given. If relief is not then produced, I give the 
patient hot water to drink-so hot as to render vomit- 
ing unlikely, keeping on the hot fomentation cloths. 
When he sweats, if the pain is not so severe as to 
render it impossible, I wrap him up in a wet-sheet 
pack, and let him lie until thorough circulation of the 
skin is established} when I take him out and give him 
another tonic or washing-bath. I have never lost a 
ease of bilious colic, and have usually been able to 
relieve my patients ,'n from one to three hours. CHAPTER XL1. 
INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS. 
This is a disease arising from a variety of sauses 
such as suppressed external circulation, nervous exhaus- 
tion, the presence of undigested or unassimilated food 
within their walls, derangement of contiguous organs, 
the presence of powerful poisons given as remedies, 
injuries received from blows or falls producing contu- 
sions, external or internal injuries. 
It does not always follow that the disease arises from 
a cause or causes which have been at work but a little 
while in setting up the inflammation. Predisposing 
causes may lie far back, the system not being ready to 
have this form of disease show itself. No matter, how- 
ever, whether this be so or not, when the disease shows 
itself the symptoms will be sharp, darting pains in the 
abdomen, with soreness both internal and external, 
with indisposition on the part of the person to sit up, 
with accompanying fever, quickened pulse, labor of 
respiration, loss of appetite and suspension of the ordi- 
nary action of the bowels, and, in most instances, 
almost entire suspension of urine. 
The cure of it is to be made by applications of water 
properly used. If the fever inns high, the water 
350 INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS. 
351 
should, be cool. If there be a low fever, and of a pre- 
dominant nervous type, as in some cases there is, then 
the water should be made tepid or warm. The patient 
should be placed in a bed, with the room well-venti- 
lated, and in charge of good nurses, and given such 
general treatment as it is proper to give in cases of 
general fever; and then he should be left to nis recovery. 
The disease is not dangerous if taken in hand early. 
Of course, in this disease, food is not to be given 
while the inflammation runs high; and when it is 
greatly modified, or has apparently ceased, the patient 
should eat food only of a fluid kind, and this at long 
intervals, once or twice a day. It is better to be made 
weak by want of food than to be made strong-by in- 
flammation. 
Where, under the drug-treatment, metastasis would 
take place, and the patient very likely have sloughing 
of the bowels established, and be very likely to take on 
bloody flux and die, or have the disease give way in the 
bowels to reappear in the brain and so die, under Psy- 
cho-hygienic treatment the patient will have the abnor- 
mal condition overcome through the normal action of 
the vital force, and, though sick for some time, never- 
theless will get weh. In my judgment it is the height 
of bad practice to administer poisonous drugs to a per- 
son suffering from inflammation of the bowels. Like 
inflammation of the lungs, it is an entirely manageable 
disease if taken in time, and properly attended to. 
Let no one, therefore, be frightened out of his self-pos- 
session who may be called upon to treat such a case, ij 352 
1ERITONITIS, 
he can only have charge of it at the outset, and have 
means to apply which in themselves are therapeutic. 
Peritonitis, or Inflammation of the External Lin- 
ing Membrane of the Bowels.-This disease is called 
by physicians " Peritonitis," which means inflammation 
of the peritoneum, that being the technical name for 
the serous membrane that covers the bowels. Various 
causes conspire to induce inflammation of this struc- 
ture. Whatever these may be, the symptoms or signs 
by which disease of it may be known are generally 
obvious, though sometimes it is difficult to tell whether 
the person suffering from inflammation has it seated on 
the inner and mucous membrane of the bowels. Expe- 
rience, which is made up of observation and experi- 
ment, generally will enable one to determine the differ- 
ence. But I have known persons treated for mucous 
inflammation when it was peritoneal, and for peritoneal 
when it was mucous. 
A person having peritoneal inflammation will show 
tenderness over the region of the bowels upon external 
pressure; will find it difficult to sit up without suffering 
sharp darting pains ; will be disposed to take recumbent 
posture and to lie upon the back, and to draw the legs up. 
Unless a person has typhoid fever, involving inflamma- 
tion of the peritoneum as well as of the mucous surface, 
or unless she be a hysterical girl, if, upon lying down, 
the disposition of the body is in such form as to lie upon 
the back and draw the feet up, one may pretty safely 
conclude that inflammation of the peritoneum exists. PERITONITIS. 
353 
whether it be merely a patch of that membrane, or 
pretty thoraughly extended over it. Connected with 
its origin ofttimes, as a cause therefor, is what is termed 
child-bed, or puerperal fever. This is one of the most 
awful disorders that a doctor has to meet. Dr. Watson 
says in his work entitled " Practice of Physic," that 
" Of forty-four cases of well-marked puerperal fever 
which fell under the observation of Dr. Robt. Lee, in 
which the bodies were carefully examined, the peri- 
toneum and the uterine appendages were found in- 
flamed in thirty-two of them; that is, in eight cases 
out of every eleven. The inflammation commences no 
doubt in the uterine portion of the membrane, and 
spreads thence over the larger part of its surface." I 
am disposed to think that where peritonitis is involved 
with uterine inflammation, constituting cases of child- 
bed fever, the subjects almost always have the inflam- 
mation set up under the influence of cold. 
It is well understood among physicians that the 
disease is epidemical, and the impression quite widely 
exists that among parturient women it is propagable 
by contagion ; but I do not believe this, never having 
had any good reason to believe it. Whether it arises 
from mechanical injuries, from disturbed circulation of 
the blood, by what is termed catching cold, by the 
sympathetic connection which the membrane sustains 
to the uterus whenever this is inflamed, or from what- 
ever cause it arises, the treatment must be prompt, the 
main object being to reduce the inflammation. 
As I have already said, in the treatment of inflamma 354 
PEKITONTTIS. 
tion of any of the structures of the body, one of the best 
remedies is the application of cloths wet in hot water, 
constituting thorough fomentation of the part involved, 
so I repeat, with reference to this particular disease, 
one of the best things that can be done is to keep hot 
cloths over the part until the patient becomes either 
sensibly relieved therefrom, or is made nervous and irri- 
table thereby; in which latter case the hot should be 
exchanged for cold cloths, which will act sedatively 
upon the nervous system for the time being, and create 
such a reaction of the nervous sensibility as will jus 
tify the re-application of the fomentations. 
I recollect to have had two cases of peritonitis very 
marked in their character, and very dangerous in their 
aspects, in both of which my treatment was successful. 
One was the case of a man suffering from typhoid fever. 
I was called to him when lie was almost death-struck. 
His physicians had given him up. His abdomen was 
frightfully swollen, and had assumed a purplish hue on 
the external surface. The man was unconscious ; his 
eyes were set in his head ; feet cold and legs clammy 
to his knees, and hands as cold as were his feet. I 
supposed him to be past all help ; but his friends had 
sent for me, and I felt bound to make an effort while 
life lasted. So I ordered a woolen sheet to be cut up 
into such strips as would enable me to have cloths four 
or five thicknesses, about the length and width of the 
part I wished to cover. Then, having a pair of these, 
I set to work, and for eight hours myself and another 
person did nothing but wring these cloths out of as PERITONITIS. 
355 
hot water as we could, and apply them over the abdo- 
men, changing them as often as once in three minutes. 
No impression was made until half that time had 
passed, when the breathing of the patient became less 
labored, the eyes began to relax their stare, and the lids 
to be more movable. At six hours the patient was 
asleep; at eight hours our work was done, and in 
thirty-six hours from that time the patient was sitting 
up in bed, and asking for something to eat. I left him, 
and he lived a week, gaining every day, until his appe- 
tite became so good that, in a moment of weakness 
on the part of his friends, he was permitted to eat some 
high-seasoned food, and in three hours the inflammation 
returned, and in twenty-four hours he was a dead man. 
The other case was one of child-bed fever. A lady 
bore her first child ; was quite comfortable for two or 
three days ; was so smart as to feel that she might get 
up, and did so; took cold, and in twenty-four hours 
thereafter was in great agony The doctor who had 
attended her was sent for; he came and gave his 
remedies, but they amounted to nothing; the disease 
marched on with steady steps. At length I was called 
in, and having previously had such grand success in 
several cases under the application of water treatment, 
I set to work. For eighteen hours I had hot cloths laid 
over the patient's abdomen, changed as often as once 
in fifteen minutes, in which time we had taken out the 
entire tumefaction, the bowels had become soft and 
easy under pressure, the pain had gone, the woman 
went to sleep, and in due course of time got well. 356 
PERITONITIS. 
For inflammation of both the mucous and serous 
membranes, I have never found any remedy so good as 
the application of hot water in the form of fomenta- 
tions unless it be the alternation of hot and cold wa 
ter. I believe that in five cases out of six when per 
sons are taken down with typhoid fevers, indicative in 
the first instance of large congestion of the bowels, fol- 
lowed, as it often is, by inflammation and sloughing, if 
the application of hot cloths followed by cold were 
promptly made, the disease would give way, running 
but a day or two. 
I much prefer to use the hot and cold compresses 
over the bowels to what is termed the sitz-bath; be- 
cause you can keep down all sensation of cold, and 
can keep down any external sweating beyond the pe- 
riod needed, inasmuch as without any difficulty you 
can exchange a cold compress for a hot one ; and thus 
you can keep the capillary circulation within the limit 
desired ; whereas if the patient has to be set down in 
a tub of hot water, the heat absorbed into the blood is 
much greater in quantity, and, therefore, general sweat- 
ing much more likely to take place, with no opportu- 
nity for modifying the temperature of the circulation 
All forms of application of water which will permit 
of modification of the temperature while the bath is 
kept up, are preferable to those where modification can 
only exist by taxing the strength of the patient, and sc 
acting disadvantageously. It is much better, therefore, 
to apply it in the form of abdominal compresses than 
by the sitz-bath. If it be desirable, as in many install- PHETTONITIS 
357 
ces of peritonea, inflammation or of the inflammation 
of other structures within the abdomen it is, to have 
water applied to the back as well as to the belly, then 
this can be done by simply laying a folded woolen blanket 
crosswise on the bed, and then wetting a sheet of the 
proper width of the part to be covered, laying it on 
the blanket and laying the patient upon it, bringing it 
over the abdomen with the blanket brought over also, 
and you have as nice an envelopment of the portion of 
the body you wish in water as though the patient sat in a 
sitz-bath. It is one of our favorite applications-what 
we call a hip-pack, which is a modified form of sitz- 
bath, the result of its application being much happier 
than when you give a sitz-bath, because it can be con- 
tinued for hours, the patient lying down and being well 
covered up, and being thoroughly warm. For all dis- 
eases of the abdomen I think it one of the most suc- 
cessful appliances. 
Of course in the treatment of peritoneal inflamma- 
tion, as of the inflammation of any or all other struc- 
tures of the bowel, the dietetic considerations are of 
value. One can readily see that where there is an in- 
flammatory condition existing, food must be rather ni- 
trogenous than carbonaceous, nutrient rather than excit- 
ing or stimulating. In this particular form of inflam- 
mation fluid foods of a starchy character are rather to 
oe preferred. They may be joined with foods made of 
fruits which are not highly sweetened nor yet very sour. 
In the treatment of peritonitis great care should be 
had to keep the nervous system quiet, and in order to 358 
PERITONITIS. 
this the patient should be placed in as comfortable 
quarters, and surrounded by as many conditions which 
are pleasant as may be. Good ventilation in the room 
where he sleeps should be secured, and abundant sun- 
light, with opportunity to shade it when needed, should 
be had. Good nurses should be employed, and these 
should not be frequently changed. The physicians and 
nurses, or whoever sees the patient, should be cheerful 
and hopeful and courageous. Taken in time, the dis- 
ease is readily managed; neglected for a time it be- 
comes not only difficult but dangerous. Of the persons 
who die in this country of acute diseases, a large pro- 
portion die of this alone, or as complicated with other 
diseased structures. 
It may be well to warn my readers against the use 
of bleeding, mercury and opium, which are the reme- 
dies used largely by allopathic physicians. I am glad 
to say that, on the whole, the practice of bleeding and 
giving purgatives in this disease is gradually going 
into disuse; for men are coming to see that the indi- 
rect good which sometimes results from their use is 
small as compared with the terrible havoc created there- 
by. If purgatives are contra-indicated in the disease, 
so do I think opiates are. Nothing is gained in the 
case by placing the subject of peritoneal inflammation 
where the nervous system becomes greatly depressed. 
What is needed is not the setting up of additional irri- 
tation in the system by cathartics, nor the prostration 
of the nervous system by opiates; but such treatment 
as will increase the natural vigor of the circulation, PERITONITIS. 
359 
aid thus establish as rapidly as possible a normal con- 
dition of it in the part diseased. Once break up the 
disturbance, and set the resisting forces at work to its 
further extinction, and the patient is saved. Fail to 
do this and the patient will die, no matter how much 
opium and calomel are given. 
In the treatment of chronic diseases, which constitute 
largely the diseases which I have had to treat, chronic 
peritonitis is often a consequence or sequel of acute in- 
flammation of that organ. In this case the serum of 
the blood is effused and the absorbents do not take it 
up. Passive inflammation continues, and so steadily 
the vital powers recede, and at no long distance of 
time the patient dies. 
For this disease I think there is no remedy that can 
be relied upon with any certainty which is of a drug 
nature. I never heard of a case which was cured. 
Whenever a person thus afflicted consults and employs 
a poison-giving doctor, he gets no benefit. In truth, I 
think his physician must know that he can do nothing 
for him. The only remedy which I have ever found to 
be good for anything in such cases is the application of 
water externally, in various forms of baths of different 
temperatures; internally, in the form of injections at 
about 85°, taken regularly as often, at least, as once a 
day, and of very liberal use of water as a drink. 
In one case of chronic peritonitis involving granular 
secretions on the membrane, which by many physicians 
are described as tubercles, I succeeding in restoring 
my patient to health by giving him as food nothing 360 
PERITONITIS. 
but unbolted meal, made with soft water into gruel, 
and giving him very large quantities of soft water to 
drink. In all cases of passive inflammation and where 
there is necessity to use water as a solvent as well as a 
diluent, hard water should not be drunk. In this case 
my patient lived three months on gruel, eating no solid 
jfood, and drinking from a half gallon to six quarts of 
water in twenty-four hours. I was surprised to see how 
marked was the curative effect of so large a quantity 
of water introduced into the system and into the circu- 
lation. Previous to my adopting this method with him, 
the skin was dry and rough, the secretion of the kid- 
neys but scanty and dark colored, the secretions in the 
bowels were scarcely none at all, and yet when the pa- 
tient came to me he was quite a large eater, very much 
of the secretions of the system were made through the 
lungs, giving to him a very offensive breath. He was 
very feeble; had a marasmic look, and had been pro- 
nounced by the doctors to be dying of mesenteric in 
flammation. Under the treatment which I gave him 
he fleshed up, became quite vigorous, and got well. Of 
course I kept his skin clean by bathing, made him live 
as much in the open air as possible, gave him exercise 
of a passive character daily, and, in every way I could, 
by good nursing sustained his body. But I thought at 
the time, and do now, that he owed his recovery mainly 
to my keeping him on fluid food of the kind I allowed, 
and making him to drink very largely of soft water. 
In all cases of active or passive inflammation, soft wa- 
ter may be used largely as a drink. PERITONITIS. 
361 
Sometimes along with chronic peritonitis there exists 
mesenteric inflammation. This, of course, is seen only, 
or mainly, in scrofulous persons. A distinguished French 
physician says that the tubercles that are sometimes 
found in the peritoneum indicate the presence of them 
also in the pulmonary tissues. But in this direction 
physicians differ, some saying that well-marked granu- 
lar disease of the abdomen is often found where no tu- 
bercles can be found in the pulmonary tissues. I am 
disposed to think that it is more commonly the case 
that enlargement of the mesenteric glands takes place 
in persons of scrofulous diathesis, and, consequently, 
slow inflammation of the peritoneal membrane is set 
up, than that this membrane first comes to be in- 
flamed, to be followed by enlargement of the mesenteric 
glands. However this may be, it is nor to be doubted 
that there are instances where both the mesenteric 
glands and the peritoneum are inflamed at the same 
time. Where this is the case the condition of the 
patient is very desperate, and may be set down on gen- 
eral principles as incurable. For where it does exist 
and one person gets well, ten who have the complica- 
tion die. CHAPTER XLI. 
DROPSY OF THE PERITONEUM. 
Connected with diseases of the peritoneum of a 
chronic character is that of dropsy. Physicians de- 
nominate it "Ascites," by which they mean a peculiar 
form of dropsy. 
This kind of dropsy is different from a general dropsy 
which covers the whole body, and 'which is known as 
" anasarca." It also differs from what is called cedema- 
tous dropsy, or that which is confined to the legs and 
feet. Ofttimes when it exists the water seems to be 
encased in a nag, and, if the quantity be large, it is not 
likely, under any methods of treatment, to be re-ab- 
sorbed, but can only be gotten out of the system by the 
process called tapping. To this there is no objection, 
nor, as a general thing, is there any danger, the punc- 
ture through the outer walls of the abdomen into the 
sack not producing any inflammation worthy of notice. 
It does not follow, however, that by drawing off the 
water in this way a cure is insured, though it is better 
to commence curative measures with water let out than 
while it is retained. 
Having undergone the process of tapping, if the 
accumulation of water be considerable, curative treat- 
(3G2) DROPSY OF THE PERITONEUM. 
363 
ment consists in strengthening the system as much as 
possible, and causing the kidneys, skin and bowels to 
perform their several functions vigorously. Nutrient 
but unstimulating food should be given, and plenty of 
soft water - strange as it may seem - should be given 
the patient to drink. Almost perfect rest for a while 
after tapping has been performed should be insured, 
and with the appliances which induce better action of 
the skin, kidneys and the bowels, the result will be the 
restoration of the patient to health. 
I think I have had in my twenty years of practice, 
forty cases of abdominal dropsy, and except in a few 
cases where the patients got discouraged, and could not, 
or would not, wait for the completion of the course of 
treatment to which I wanted to subject them, I do not 
now recollect a case where, under the treatment, the 
person was not cured. 
In four or five cases where there was a good deal of 
accumulation of water, the patients recovered without 
the process of tapping, nature herself setting up reac- 
tionary conditions, and the patients, passing into a 
urinary crisis, got well. 
One of these was a very remarkable case, where for 
weeks after being placed under Psycho-hygienic treat- 
ment there were very great modifications in the condi- 
tions of the disease. The system began to undergo a 
complete revolution, and was set going apparently by 
means the most insignificant. Soon after beginning to 
live upon a farinaceous and fruit diet, instead of a diet 
largely made up of meat, secretion by the kidneys 364 
DROPSY OF THE PERITONEUM. 
began to increase. Previous thereto thej had been 
for a good while quite torpid; but now it seemed 
as if all the waste matters of the system were to make 
their outlet through the urinary organs. The person 
had been a high liver, and exposed to a great deal of 
violent reaction, and had taken a good deal of medi- 
cine. In fact, I thought his dropsy was caused by 
medicine. For days he urinated from four to six quarts 
of water. At one time I thought the disease was about 
to change from abdominal dropsy into diabetes ; but a 
close examination of the quality of the urine under 
some simple tests, decided me that this was not so. 
But except in a case of diabetes, or in some other cases 
of urinary crises, when great flow from the kidneys 
existed for a little while, I never saw so much water 
pass a human body by urination as in the case of this 
person. Before he got well I made a rough estimate 
that he had within thirty days made not less than 
thirty gallons of water. He thought, as did some 
others quite as well qualified by their observation to 
judge, that he had made sixty gallons. But when 
his extreme secretions by the kidneys ceased, his 
dropsy was also gone, and, though as poor and thin 
in flesh as any person whom I ever saw who was able 
to keep upon his feet, he rapidly gained flesh and got 
well. 
I attribute his recovery entirely to the radical change 
in the condition of his system which was made, and 
this too by very simple methods employed to induce 
Such change. DROPSY OF THE PERITONEUM. 
365 
It may seem strange, but my practice has satisfied 
me of its correctness, that in cases of general dropsy, 
or of local dropsy, not including dropsy of the head or 
heart, one of the best remedies employed is a free use 
as a drink of soft water. Keep the person quiet and 
in good spirits because of pleasant social relations, and 
if he or she has general, or abdominal, or renal, or 
ovarian dropsy, one of the best things to be done is to 
set the patient to the use of large quantities of soft 
water as a drink. For sometimes, and not infrequently, 
I think, dropsical affection, wherever it may be, is 
caused by the want of a sufficiency of water in the 
system properly to fluidize the blood and to carry off 
waste matters through the various emunctories. 
A celebrated Canadian physician of the allopathic 
school, who came to bring a patient to me who had 
been a patient of his, and of whose case he had had 
the handling for several months without any benefit to 
the patient, took occasion to say that he thought that 
one secret of my success in the treatment of diseases 
was, that I continued to keep the blood clean by fre- 
quent washings of it, giving it as his opinion that the 
blood of a man needed to be washed just as much as 
did his shirt, and in many instances more, because it 
sooner got dirty. lie was a man of full habit, and said 
that he found it for his health necessary to wash liis 
blood quite frequently, and that in order to do it, he 
found it needful to drink great quantities of soft water, 
for which he had no desire until he created an artificial 
thirst. So, while his ordinary habit was to eat but 366 
DROPS V OF THE PERITONEUM. 
little salt upon his food, once in two or three weeks he 
ate a good deal, thus setting up a thirst to satiate which 
he was compelled to drink large quantities of water; 
the effect of which was to dilute his blood, act power- 
fully as a solvent, and thus help in the disintegration 
of tissues, and thereby to carry off through the skin 
and kidneys, and to some extent through the bowels 
and lungs, waste matters which otherwise would have 
remained in his body and made him sick. 
I told him of my method of treatment in dropsical 
cases, and he seemed to be impressed with the soundness 
of my view, and the philosophy of treatment founded 
thereupon. Curious enough it may seem to account 
for the existence of local or general dropsy on the 
ground of want of water in the system; but it is no 
more surprising than that a piece of ground in which 
their seems to be no moisture for some way beneath its 
surface should always have upon its surface the heaviest 
dew. Explain the one and yon can readily explain the 
other; for though the difference in the subjects be 
wide the cases are exactly analogous. Whoever has 
dropsy, except that of the head and heart, may well 
accept the use of soft water in different ways and 
shapes, and as a drink, as one of the best remedies 
at present known for the cure of the disease. CHAPTER XLII. 
LEAD COLIC. 
This is a disease of the bowels, originating in the 
poisoning of the blood through the fumes of lead. The 
technical name for it is colica pictonum, or colic of 
paint. 
In my practice I have had seven cases only of this 
disease to treat, and yet it is a disease causing so much 
suffering that it is worth while to notice it. Five per- 
sons who came to me for treatment were men; two 
■were women. The men were house-painters; the 
women worked at making carriage-tops in a wagon- 
manufactory, and the room in which they sat opened 
into the paint-shop. There they worked week in and 
week out, breathing the fumes of paint. Of these 
cases four of them were persons who had come to suffer 
intensely. Their whole nervous systems seemed to be 
more or less deranged, and all showing some marked 
conditions with such modifications as each person's 
peculiarities would necessarily create. Each of them 
was subject to colic. They had been attacked, in the 
first instance, with loss of appetite, an unusual flow of 
saliva, and, in one or two cases, with nausea. One of 
them, when he was attacked, vomited severely, the 
C367) 368 
LEAD COLIC. 
contents of the stomach being largely charged with 
bile, and he having, for a few days thereafter, a high 
fever. One of them was attacked by falling down in 
a fit, and one of them by having the muscles of the 
arm and wrist lose their contractility so that the hands 
dropped. One of the women was attacked by painful 
menstruation, follow'ed by an entire suppression, which 
had continued completely up to the time of her consult- 
ing me. 
In one of the cases there was a sort of blue line 
along the edge of the gums next to the teeth as if there 
had been a very dark blue tint given to the gums. 
I notice that Dr. Watson, in his " Practice of Physic, 
says this was so in some cases which fell under his ob 
servation. Only one of the patients which I had 
showed this coloring. 
All complained of being much more troubled with 
colic w'hen lying down than when sitting or standing 
in an erect position. 
I confess that I was at a loss what to do with the 
first patient I had. There was clear indication that he 
would ultimately come to have a paralysis of his hands 
and arms, and it seemed to me, when I examined him, 
that if this should happen, there was such a disturbed 
state of the circulation and of the nervous system, that 
he would become incurable, never getting back the use 
of his arms. 
I struck out a practice for myself. I said, " May it 
not be that this very severe congestion of the blood- 
vessels of the bowels, and their pressure on the nerves, LEAD COLIC. 
369 
may produce the pain of which he complains ? May 
it not be also that there is congestion of the sheath 
of the spinal column ? At any rate, I will see what 
treatment will do whose legitimate effect is to quicken 
the circulation and so remove local congestion." 
I therefore adopted a practice somewhat similar to 
that I so successfully use in the treatment of epilepsy. 
I sweat the patient thoroughly and then gave him cold 
bathing. 
To the man whom I had first to treat, and who had 
the blue line along the gums, I gave two sweating-baths 
a week, after which I sent him into the plunge, to come 
out and be wiped and rubbed well until warm, and 
then to go to bed for an hour and a half. I put him 
upon a very simple diet, regulated all his habits, and 
had the pleasure, in six months, of seeing him thor- 
oughly cured. 
Out of the seven cases, I failed only in one; and 
that I think I should have succeeded in if I had been 
able to command and insure the application of treat- 
ment as I wanted it. While there was a difference in 
the treatment of these cases, so far as the application 
of baths was concerned, I found the best plan for each 
to be that which applied generally for all-mild diet, 
soft water to drink, freedom from care and work, 
pleasant social surroundings, life in the open air, with 
such baths as I thought each case demanded. In the 
treatment of them all I found use for all the forms of 
bathing which are customary at Our Home. Some 
took sitz baths with packs, afterwards followed by half 370 
LEAD COLIC. 
batlis some took fomentations followed by packs; 
some took standing shallows, or sweating baths, in one 
form or another, followed by cold ones, the difference 
in the application of water being made to accommo- 
date the different conditions of the patients. 
While these are all the cases of lead colic which I 
nave had, they do not constitute a tithe of the diseases 
which I have had to treat caused by the introduction 
of lead poison into the circulation. These, however, 
have shown themselves under different involvements, 
and therefore will come to be treated in their proper 
place. 
The difference which exists between inflammation of 
the bowels creating a pain like colic, and a sudden con- 
gestion of the bowels creating what is called wind 
colic and painter's colic, may be found in this direc- 
tion-that, after one or two attacks of lead colic, the 
system begins to accommodate itself to the presence of 
poison which is in the body, and so the pain is mani- 
fested paroxysmally; there are exacerbations or aggra- 
vations of it with remissions and relief from it. These 
are much longer, so some writers say, than are those 
of ordinary colic. 
My own observation has led me to believe that lead 
colic is much more painful during the night than the 
day-time. However this may be, it differs from wind 
colic in not being increased by pressure. 
Dr. Condie, of New York, says that external pres- 
sure in painter's colic so produces relief that in some 
instances those who have had it have been known to LEAD COLIC. 
371 
bear the weight of two or three persons standing on 
the belly. lie describes the abdomen as invariably 
hard or flat from the contraction of its muscles, saying 
that the navel is sometimes drawn in so as almost to 
approach the spine. He also says that there generally 
occur 'within the first day or two, sometimes within 
the first few hours, of the attack, a headache, and a 
dull, anxious, or depressed expression of countenance. 
Dr. Watson in his lecture on this subject says that 
when the disease is badly managed the patient is apt 
to have loss of voluntary motion in the extremities, 
and after a few days becomes affected with giddiness, 
great debility and torpor, the pains in the abdomen 
and extremities abating as the torpor increases. 
What is wanted in the treatment of the disease, in 
order to success, is action, particularly on the part of 
the bowels. Whatever will do this will help toward 
restoration. I think that warm injections, even hot, if 
they can be borne, will be found to be the source of 
almost immediate relief from the paroxysm, if they are 
thrown up into the bowels slowly. 
It may not be devoid of benefit for me to suggest 
means whereby persons can be protected against lead 
poisoning. Those -who w'ork in lead mines or in estab- 
lishments where lead is used in the construction of 
articles which are made, should take particular pains 
to protect themselves against inhaling the fumes, and 
also take particular pains to protect themselves against 
the drinking of water which may have the poison in 
suspension; also to be very careful to keep the body 372 
LEAD COLIC. 
clean and the clothes as clean as possible. Some 
writers recommend that clothes worn by persons ex- 
posed to bad fumes should not be made of wool, but 
should be made of the strongest and most compact 
linen. As prevention is better than cure, whatever 
care can be taken to protect one against the disease 
should be taken, because as the nervous system is often 
greatly involved, and paralysis follows as a result, 
whenever this does take place cure becomes almost im- 
possible. It is very seldom that a person who has had 
lead colic until paralysis takes place ever gets well. A 
paralysis of nerves, more or less extensive, may be 
cured if originating in less destructive causes; but 
that kind of loss of muscular power resulting from the 
enervation of the particular nerves, when this is in- 
duced by so virulent a poison in the blood as the 
preparations of lead almost universally are, is seldom, 
if ever, thoroughly restored. CHAPTER XLIV. 
INFIAMMATION OF THE MESENTERIC GLANDS. 
I come now to consider a disease of the bowels which 
causes more death, probably, than any other disease to 
which the human body is subject: I allude to chronic 
inflammation of the mesenteric glands. 
This disease shows itself chiefly in persons of a scrofu- 
lous organization; but as scrofula has come to be a 
household disease with the people of America, it can 
readily be seen why mesenteric inflammation should be 
so common and so destructive with our people as it is. 
It lies at the foundation of nearly all the consumptions, 
whether of bowels or lungs, which take place with our 
people. 
I may as well consider the various forms of scrofu- 
lous manifestations which are common to our people 
under this head as under any other; because where 
scrofula exists there are tubercles lodged in the me- 
sentery and abdomen as frequently as in the lungs. 
Where mesenteric inflammation shows itself, it is 
certain that the person having it has a scrofulous con- 
stitution, scrofula being properly defined to be that con 
dition of the lacteal and lymphatic systems wherebj 
fe»d is imperfectly changed to blood, blood iin 
(373) 374 
INFLAMMATION OF THE MESENTERIC GLANDS. 
perfectly distributed, and waste matter imperfectly and 
defectively excreted. Whoever, then, has such condi- 
tions of his blood-making organs as not to be able to 
supply his system with good blood and enough of it, 
and at the same time has a defective action of the lym- 
phatics, is a scrofulous person. Many persons are born 
with this kind of defective organization, the cerebro 
nervous system being large and the organic-nervous 
system being small, the digestive and assimilative 
organs corresponding in size and vigor to the vigor of 
the nerves on which they depend. 
Two classes of persons in this country are subject to 
mesenteric inflammation. They may be denominated 
as scrofulous persons of the light and dark varieties. 
Of the light variety, he or she is a good illustration 
who has, when a child, very delicate skin; with light 
hair, almost flaxen ; with large blue eyes, standing out 
in their sockets very prominently; with long, slim, 
taper fingers; with small, curling, half purplish nails; 
with round, full mouth, yet thin in the lips ; a pointed 
chin ; small, long, tapering neck; low sloping shoulders; 
round full bust, if of adult age ; with very large, promi- 
nent and protuberant abdomen if a child; with nar- 
row and rather small loins if a man ; with wide pelvis 
if a woman ; with round, fleshy, yet not over compact 
lower limbs in their upper portion; with full, round, 
heavy calf in the lower portion of the leg, and a small 
foot, compared with the whole body, so situated on the 
ankle and the ankle to the knee and the knee to the 
hip and the hip to the body as, when the person walks INFLAMMATION OF THE MESENTERIC GLANDS. 
375 
naturally, to make the toes turn out and give a broad 
base thereto. Such a person is scrofulous by hered- 
itary predisposition, and is exactly of the order or 
type of build which will make him or her, as the case 
may be, readily take on derangements of the blood- 
making organs by and through the deposition of scrofu- 
lous matter in the form of tubercles in, around and 
upon the mesenteric glands. 
The other variety of scrofulous persons may be re- 
presented in one who has long, black, fine hair ; dark 
skin; black or very dark eyes; high cheek-bones; 
rather full lips, and large, wide mouth, with the lips 
set firmly together; pointed chin, if a man, with black 
beard ; if a woman, with tendency to have hairs grow 
upon the chin, which itself is not pointed, but rather 
round; with a long, thick neck, high shoulders, flat 
chest, large shoulder-blades, strong muscle, large joints, 
and a more or less ungainly gait, the whole locomotive 
apparatus being so constructed and arranged as when 
set in motion to make the toes turn in rather than out. 
Such a person is predisposed to mesenteric inflamma- 
tion. But whereas in the light variety pulmonary con- 
sumption in the form of abscess is the culmination of 
the disease, in the dark variety involvement of the 
small as well as the large glands is apt to show itself. 
Out of these two classes of persons we make our con- 
sumptives in this country; and consumption is a 
more destructive disease than any other we have, so a 
larger proportion to the whole number of this class of 
persons are afflicted with mesenteric difficulties thais 376 
INFLAMMATION OF THE MESENTERIC GLANDS. 
can be found suffering from any other disease kr.own 
to cur climate and people. 
It is really surprising to see how many persons in 
any given congregation which may be made up, are 
developing marasmus or consumption of the bowels in 
its various stages. Some just beginning to have dys- 
pepsia, some diarrhoea, some dysentery, some piles, some 
uterine difficulties of one sort or another, some erup- 
tions on the skin, some ulcers on the body, some inter- 
nal or external abscess, some salt rheum, erysipelas, 
tetter, and so on through a large class of different de- 
grees of morbid conditions does this destructive disease 
make its way, until it culminates in the incurable, and 
the subject dies. 
To one who has come to be familiar with scrofula in 
its various stages, a scrofulous person can be picked out 
from a group just as soon as one sees him. lie gives 
unmistakable signs of the tendencies that are in him 
to the development of consumption of the bowels. 
Now, I am sure that all constitutional or inherited 
tendencies to this disease can be entirely overcome very 
easily, if the subject is placed under proper manage- 
ment early in life. Not so easily, but nevertheless cer- 
tainly, if taken later in life, provided there is at a later 
period no breaking up of the structures, so as to involve 
serious organic lesions. I think that the Psychodiy- 
gienic theory of living healthfully, as well as of treat- 
ing disease curatively, comprehends influences and in- 
volves the action of vital forces, to a degree that will 
justify the statement that any consumptive family pre- INFLAMMATION OF THE MESENTERIC GLANDS. 
377 
disposed by descent, first to consumption of the bowels, 
and last to consumption of the lungs, can have such 
alterations made in it as to bring into existence a new 
set of arrangements under which consumption will be 
impossible. So great alterations can be made in this 
respect as substantially to change the entire order of 
development in a given person, making him or her to 
be as unlike the other members of the family of the 
same sex, as though there were no blood relations exist- 
ing between them, or as though they were entirely of 
different temperaments. If this can be done - and I 
affirm it can - then no other plan of development nor 
of treatment of diseases can compare with the Psycho- 
hygienic theory or system in its comprehensiveness and 
its intrinsic value. 
There are five or six leading agents or instrumentali- 
ties which are necessary, under proper combination, to 
produce this result. One is food and drink; another 
is air; another, forms of exercise or labor; another is 
clothing; another is light; another, sleep; another, 
social surroundings; another, intellectual and moral 
culture. Combine these properly, and bring them to 
bear continuously on the subject, and a child born of a 
consumptive mother, and having tubercles on its mesen- 
tery and in its lungs, at birth or beyond it, can be so 
changed as to have taken out of it every tubercle, and 
to have its constitutional tendencies to tuberculous de- 
velopment completely and thoroughly overcome. 
That this is true I know, for I have seen it wrought 
put not in one, nor ten, nor fifty, nor a hundred, but 378 
INFLAMMATION OF THE MESENTERIC GLANDS. 
in more than a thousand instances during my practice 
There is no more need of scrofulous children dying 
from mesenteric or pulmonary disease, than there is 
for the strongest man becoming scrofulous. All that 
is necessary is simply to have the conditions of living 
wrought for the child, and to have him brought under 
them and kept under them, and nature sets herself at 
work to make her modifications of a radical character, 
and if uninterfered with, will continue to make them 
until the whole organization of the subject is rearranged. 
So far can this thing be carried as to destroy all con- 
scious likeness between the child and other members 
of the family who are left tainted. Thus you can 
take a child whose- natural tendency is to develop a 
moderate height, yet quite good breadth, to large de- 
velopment of muscle in the lower limbs and small in 
the upper, and, by Psycho-hygienic treatment, turn 
him right around, and make him develop conversely to 
the order of his own family. Thus you can take a 
child having a very large head, and, therefore, a pre- 
dominant nervous organization, with small organic 
nervous force, and by proper training so change him 
that he shall have relatively a much larger organic 
nervous force than he had when you began ; in which 
case you change entirely the order or style of growth 
which otherwise would have existed. A child with 
large head and feeble blood-making organs, cannot 
grow up into the same shape of man that he would if 
he had a large head with vigorous blood-making organs. 
If, then, you can contrive to direct vitality to the mi- inflammation of the mesenteric glands. 
379 
tritive organs, and so increase their power, you change 
outwardly the -whole form of the person under opera- 
tion. And if you change him outwardly you must 
change him inwardly; for nothing is more certain than 
that a man's intellectual and moral nature are depend- 
ent in their manifestation upon the style and qualify 
of his physical organization. If, then, a short child can 
be made tall, and a slim, tall child can be made broad 
and less tall; if a weak child can be made strong by 
proper culture, and a child constitutionally strong can 
be made weak for want of it, as the facts may exist, so 
will these have to do with and affect both the order 
and quality of the intellectual and moral character he 
will show. 
Every one knows that external circumstances pro- 
duce differences in breeds of people. The English work- 
ingman of the present day, descended through twenty 
generations of ancestors holding substantially the same 
conditions to life, is a very different human being in all 
that goes to make him up characteristically from an 
English nobleman, who is himself a fair representative 
of his ancestors for a thousand years. When you bring 
the two together, they not only manifest different shades 
of character, but they manifest in their bodies an entire t 
lack of consanguinity. They are both Englishmen, but 
for all the likeness which exists between them, one 
might as well have been born in Russia and the other 
in England, as to have both been born and reared on 
her soil. 
Italic this broad ground because I know it tc be 380 
INFLAMMATION OF THE MESENTERIC GLANDS. 
true, and because, if I can make others believe it as 
certainly as I know it, a reform can be commenced in 
the rearing of children in this country which would 
pretty much abolish the mesenteric diseases now so 
prevalent with children and adults. 
Whenever, therefore, any form of mesenteric or scrof- 
ulous inflammation, whether active or passive, shows 
itself in any person, the only successful and effectual 
remedy is to set to work to reconstitutionalize the sub- 
ject. All the drugs in the world will do no good; 
they only help to kill. A complete revolutionary, radi 
cal, reformatory process must be set at work. Where 
inflammation shows itself, as it does ofttimes in enlarge- 
ment of the mesenteric glands, attended with soreness 
of the bowels involving the peritoneum, the inflamma- 
tion must not only be reduced, but the habits of the 
person must be so changed that his blood-making or- 
gans will be additionally vitalized, and so invigorated 
that out of a given quantity of food they shall be able 
to make better blood and more of it than before. When 
this process is begun then restoration is begun; until 
it is there is no cure, whatever skillful patchwork 
may do. 
To do this three things are necessary: First, raw 
material of the right kind must be found, out of which 
to make healthy blood; second, vitality must be used 
expertly, no more of it being involved in the process 
of changing food into blood, in distributing blood, anc1 
in organizing it into the various tissues than is actually 
necessary; third, no more vitality must be used in INFLAMMATION OF THE MESENTERIC GLANDS. 
381 
breaking up tissues, carrying off waste matters, and 
keeping the body in good health than is necessary. 
Take all the hygienic agents, whatever they may be, 
and make them operate in this direction, and to the 
degree that you are successful in combining them will 
you produce the result. 
Of foods for mesenteric patients, or for persons pre- 
disposed to mesenteric disease, wheat is the best article 
known to man. Of drinks, soft water is better than 
any other thing. Next to wheat stands the other 
grains, of which, however, corn and buckwheat are the 
most objectionable ; oats, rye and barley being better. 
Hard water should not be habitually drunk by a per- 
son of scrofulous diathesis suffering from actual mes- 
enteric disease. Flesh-meats are essentially bad for 
scrofulous persons of every grade, shade and age. The 
disease is such as necessarily to contra-indicate their 
use. Sub-acid fruits are next best to the grains, only a 
few vegetables ranking highly as nutrients to such per- 
sons. Cow's milk united with bread of unbolted wheat 
meal is one of the best foods for scrofulous persons, 
either children or adults, which I know. Some of the 
most desperate looking cases of scrofulous children have 
been cured at " Our Home " after every resource had 
failed their parents, by putting them upon a diet of 
milk and wheat meal, boiled together in the form of a 
gruel, feeding them quite moderately at first, but in- 
creasing the quantity as they improved in appetite and 
in digestion. Water baths in all cases of scrofula are 
essential, to be mildly administered, and rather of a 
tonic character. 382 
INFLAMMATION OF THE MESENTERIC GLANDS. 
In acute mesenteric inflammation, fomentations are 
of vc ry great advantage, followed always, of course, by 
cold applications over the part fomented. Injections 
of tepid water are also valuable. Sitz-baths taken every 
other day with dripping sheets are good. 
In cases of chronic mesenteric inflammation, the ab- 
dominal wet compress is of prime importance, so is the 
injection into the body of cool water, so also is drinking 
largely of cool water which is soft, the taking of packs 
followed by dripping sheets, and sitz-baths of a tonic 
character on alternate days. 
Where the abdomen is not too sore and the strength 
of the patient will allow, whether man or woman, horse- 
back-riding, man-fashion, is of great value. I was in- 
strumental in assisting a very feeble bowel-consump- 
tive to health, by inducing him to take a journey of 
five hundred miles on horseback. lie did nothing but 
that, different from what he had been doing for himself 
at home for three years. Before he got over his five 
hundred miles-for he was not able to ride more than 
three miles a day when he first began, and at no time 
more than fifteen to twenty miles at best-he was so 
improved that in one year thereafter he was in excel- 
lent health. 
I was successful in assisting to health the wife of a 
gentleman who herself had long been afflicted with 
chronic mesenteric inflammation, by processes which 
were very simple, including, of course, careful diet and 
proper cleanliness of skin with regularity of habit in 
various directions, and horseback riding astride. It was INFLAMMATION OF THE MESENTERIC GLANDS. 
383 
rather a delicate thing to do in the community where 
she lived; hut it was life or death with her, and she 
had such faith in my suggestions that she consented, 
and her improvement was so great as actually to rejoice 
those who knew her, to that degree that their opposi- 
tion to the means employed was entirely silenced. 
Give to Nature the scrofulous children in this coun- 
try, and let her have them to train and to treat, and 
they need not and will not die till their timw comes- CHAPTER XLV. 
DISEASES OF THE KIDNEYS. 
These organs, as is generally understood, lie in the 
body just above the small of the back on the back side 
of the body. Their shape is oblong-oval; their main 
function is to secrete urine, and by two tubes called 
ureters to carry it to the bladder, whence it is ejected 
by urination. Under common and fair habits of living, 
the kidneys seldom become diseased. I doubt, except 
from injury, whether they would be so, unless in per- 
sons exceedingly scrofulous, were water the only bever- 
age, and grains, fruits and vegetables the only aliments 
eaten. Where persons, however, live on animal food 
largely, and use along with it spices, and especially 
common salt freely ; where they drink heating drinks, 
either narcotic or stimulant, and live badly other ways, 
taking for every little ailment which they may have 
powerful drastic purgatives or other drug-medicines, 
these organs almost always become deranged, and do 
their full share in inducing morbid conditions of other 
organs. A great many persons who die of pulmonary 
consumption, of bronchial consumption, of chronic bron- 
chitis, of asthma, of derangements of the stomach, 
amounting in some instances to cancerous conditions. 
384 DISEASES OE THE KIDNEYS. 
385 
of diseases of the heart, occasionally of diseases of the 
brain, and of diseases of the lower bowels and the 
bladder, have had derangements of these organs insti- 
tuted and carried to their final consummation from 
condition of the kidneys. 
The most ordinary form of disease of these organs is 
what is called congestion of the kidneys. This will be 
found to exist in much larger proportion amongst 
women than amongst men, owing, as I think to their 
habitual bad style of dress, there being much compres- 
sion on the body over the kidneys. I think that a 
large proportion of all the women whom I have ever 
had to treat, no matter how complicated their ail- 
ments, have had congestion of the kidneys. I think 
two-thirds of all the persons who were suffering, or 
supposed to be suffering, from derangements of the 
uterus, were suffering also from derangements of the 
kidneys and lower bowel. I doubt not that this is as 
truly the case with all the women who suppose them- 
selves to have, and are generally treated by medical 
men as having, some form of derangement of the ute- 
rus. In a great many instances disease of the kidneys 
simulates disease of the uterus. The pain is where 
women often complain of having pain, when they think 
or are told that they have uterine displacement. A 
great many women have come under my professional 
notice as having retroversion of the uterus, when noth- 
ing ailed them but chronic congestion of the kidneys. 
I think it well worth the while of professional men to 
pay moro attention in their diagnoses to the kidneys, 386 
DISEASES OE THE KIDNEYS. 
especially when women are their patients, than they 
are in the habit of doing. Because, owing to the kind 
of life which women live, the work they do-which is 
generally done in a partially stooping posture, such as 
cooking, washing dishes, setting tables, cleaning rooms, 
keeping house in order, tending children if they have 
them, making beds and so on-by reason of the liga- 
tures around the waist and the hips the venous circula- 
tion is impeded, the blood being hindered on its passage 
upward to the heart, and so congestion takes place, 
producing a group of symptoms readily understandable 
if one turns his attention that way, but as readily to 
be misunderstood unless the attention be directed to 
these organs. 
A moment's reflection will convince even an unpro- 
fessional person that the kidneys hold a very important 
position in the organism, and are intended to serve a 
very important function in the preservation of the 
health of the body. They are so located as to be easily 
subjected to disturbance and positive injury, nothing 
protecting them from external injury but the soft muscu- 
lar parts which superficially overlie them. Small pres- 
sure here, long-continued, can be productive of great 
and lasting injury to them, so far, at least, as respects 
anything like healthy functional action. When they 
are diseased, no matter from what cause, the secondary 
complications are quite frequently permanently damag- 
ing to the health of the person suffering therefrom, 
and, I might say, almost as frequently destructive to 
life. The Psycho-hygienic practice of living would DISEASES OF THE KIDNEYS. 
387 
prevent much of this, because it would impose on per- 
sons essentially such" a style of living as would be of 
great service in maintaining health, and so in prevent- 
ing disease; and wherever this was carried out the 
kidneys would have all the benefit of the course pur- 
sued. 
Congestion of the kidneys, if the same causes that 
produce it are permitted to operate, is likely to pass, 
sooner or later, into inflammation of the kidneys, 
which in the outset is acute, and is a very painfid and 
dangerous disease; but which if in the main it is re- 
duced still exists in the form of chronic or passive in- 
flammation of the kidneys. 
Where acute inflammation of the kidneys exists, it is 
attended by the following symptoms: rigors, shivers, 
or decided chills, incapacity to lie on -the side of the 
kidney diseased-for it is seldom if ever, except from 
injuries, that both kidneys are inflamed at the same 
time-a disposition to urinate frequently, but with no 
power to do so; sharp darting pains along the track of 
the ureters into the neck of the bladder; severe pain in 
the direction of the lower bowels, terminating in the 
bowel at the anus, and in the bladder at the outer ter- 
mination of the urethra. General fever is always a 
concomitant of inflammation of the kidneys. 
When the disease is treated unskillfully, metastatic 
or substituted action takes place, and the kidneys are 
relieved thereby, the stomach or liver or lungs or 
throat being affected. It is never good practice to set 
up this metastatic action. Sometimes where strong 388 
DISEASES OF THE KIDNEYS. 
sympathy exists between the diseased organ and one 
aot diseased, the physician finds it favorable to the 
recovery of the patient to have substitutive action in- 
duced. Thus one may have a very bad condition of 
liver from which he can only be relieved by having it 
transferred to the skin : thus one may have a very bad 
condition of the lungs from which he can only be re- 
lieved by having it transferred to the bowels: thus one 
may have a very bad condition of the stomach from 
which he can only be relieved by having it transferred 
to the lining membrane of the nostrils, and so on. 
Where disease of the kidneys exists of such a kind as 
to render it imperative, nature herself will set up a 
metastatic action, taking the disease away from the 
kidneys and fixing or fastening it on to some other 
organ, thus allowing the kidneys to recover their natu- 
ral condition, and ultimately the substituted organ also 
to recover its health. 
As a general practice, however, it is better to treat 
directly the organ diseased. Whatever be the mani- 
festation it puts on, let that be the guide to the treat- 
ment of it. If, then, the symptoms are such as to show 
acute congestion, acute inflammation or chronic inflam- 
mation of the kidneys, let them, be treated directly as 
well as indirectly. Of course to the degree that there 
is involvement of other organs, or of the body at large, 
should the treatment correspond to such complication. 
Hence, as there is almost always in acute congestion of 
the kidneys general fever, wet-sheet packing of the 
whole body will be found to be very serviceable. As DISEASES OF THE KIDNEYS. 
389 
there is also more or less likelihood of involvement of 
the liver, lower bowels and genital organs, these should 
have also proper treatment. For such involvements 
the ha]f-wet-sheet pack, and the sitz-bath at 85°, tepid 
injections, hot fomentations, followed by cold com- 
presses, as the symptoms may indicate, will be found 
very serviceable. 
If there be pain in the head, more likely than not it 
is because the circulation is too great in the blood- 
vessels of the brain. When this is the case, coldness 
of the feet will be an accompaniment, and almost 
always sweatiness of the palms of the hands. Under 
such circumstances, frequent ablutions of warm br cold 
water will be found very serviceable. 
When, under chronic inflammation of the kidneys, 
bronchial symptoms are seen to exist, or a dry, hacking 
cough, then there should be general treatment given, 
because then the stomach, liver, lungs, or circulation at 
large, and the nervous system are all involved, and 
what may be termed constitutional treatment is then 
as necessary as mere local treatment would be under 
acute and limited disease of these organs. 
Where there is scantiness of urine, natural diuretics 
are of service. Of these, none are so good as sub-acid 
fruits in the way of foods, and none so good in the way 
of drink as pure soft water. I have had some diseases 
of the kidneys of a very marked character to treat, 
wherein the persons suffering from them were greatly 
and almost immediately relieved by the free use of 
poft water. 390 
DIABETES. 
Diabetes.-TLere is a form of disease of the kidneys 
commonly known as diabetes, which term is derived 
from a Greek word, meaning to pass through. It com- 
monly is understood to mean excessive flow of urine. 
It is acknowledged by physicians to be one of the most 
difficult diseases to cure with which they are called to 
deal. In fact, I think it is regarded by them, on the 
whole, as the most difficult of any. I notice that in 
all medical books of the different schools, written to 
illustrate their styles of practice, it is set down as a 
disease which, when once fairly established, is regarded 
by them as incurable. Like advanced pulmonary con- 
sumption, they know of nothing which will serve as 
an effectual corrective or curative. I think that I have 
been able, under the Psycho-hygienic practice, thor- 
oughly to demonstrate the fallacy of such conclusion. 
I am sure I have if my practice has been sufficiently 
extensive to justify my drawing .conclusions therefrom 
with reference to the curability of the disease. 
I have had, in twenty years practice, between forty 
and fifty cases of well-marked diabetes, if by this is 
meant excessive flow of sweet or sour urine, accompa- 
nied by dryness of skin, great thirst, emaciation, pur- 
plish-colored finger-nails at the roots, or curling up of 
the toe-nails, scanty faeces, voracious appetite, very dry 
and rough condition of the hair, unpleasant dreams 
when asleep, irritability of temper when awake, petu- 
lance or fault-finding under little provocation, or else, 
instead, a dullness and stupor of mind. If these symp- 
toms are such as commonly accompany diabetes, then DIABETES. 
391 
the cases which I have had to treat were clearly forma 
of this disease. 
Of the whole number treated by me, not more than 
three were original cases; all the others had been in 
the hands of other physicians. The majority of the 
whole number had each had the services of several 
physicians of different schools. Only in a few cases 
had there seemed to be any improvement, as far as 
each patient for himself could judge. 
Whether it is true as a general fact or not, it has 
been true with me, that nine-tenths of those whom I 
have had to treat have been men, certainly not more than 
one in ten, women. In many statistics which I have 
been able to gather up by my reading, I get no light 
in the matter, no hospital accounts, nor statements of 
private practitioners mentioning the relative proportion 
of men and women suffering from the disease, who have 
been treated therein or thereby. In some cases of per- 
sons who put themselves under my care, the disease had 
existed two or three years. Many of them were of a 
very interesting nature. I will take the liberty to men- 
tion two or three. 
O ae was the case of a man about forty-six years of 
age, who had had the disease about eight months, dur- 
ing which time he had been in the hands, first of an 
allopathic physician, who at last said he could do him 
no good. While under his management ho took great 
quantities of medicine, of the nature of which he knew 
nothing. He then employed a homeopathic physician, 
who treated him about an equal length of time to no 392 
DIABETES, 
benefit. He then tried a clairvoyant, who was certain 
he could cure him, but failed. As a last resort, he 
sought my assistance. I found him a skeleton, making 
from eight to ten quarts of water in twenty-four hours, 
making much more, however, during the night than 
during the day, and much more when recumbent than 
when sitting, and much more, though recumbent, when 
asleep than awake. The urine was secreted into the 
bladder in such quantities as to fill it in a very little 
while. When he was asleep, if it became filled, the 
principle of the syphon was set at work and it over- 
flowed, passing from him involuntarily. This was so 
disagreeable and offensive that he had to have a reser- 
voir of India-rubber, which was affixed to his body 
when he lay down, so that when the water ran out it 
would empty into this reservoir, which was large enough 
to hold all that flowed into it during the time of his 
sleeping. He was suffering from an overpowering 
thirst; had been denied almost entirely the use of 
water, and had been kept upon fresh meat exclusively 
as a diet, or nearly so. His skin was dry and scaly ; he 
had an evacuation of the bowels only once in 3 or 4 days, 
unless produced by cathartic medicines. The man was 
as 'wretched a looking object as one could readily find. 
It was summer-time when he came to me. I exam- 
ined him in my office, close by which there was running 
soft water. The murmur of it as it flowed along 
reached his ear, and he turned around and said : 
" Oh, you cannot tell how much I would give for all 
the -water I could drink !" DIABETES, 
393 
I said to him, " You may have all the water you 
want; go out there and drink your fill." 
lie rose out of his chair and said, "Are you in earnest 
" Yes," said I; " drink all you want." 
I watched him as he went to the spring, and he took 
the dipper and filled it and drank, and filled and drank, 
and filled and drank, until I myself became almost 
frightened at the quantities he was taking into his 
stomach ; but I said, " I will risk it." 
When he had drunk all he wanted, he came back and 
said, " You are the blessedest man I have seen since 
I was sick. I have not drunk as much water in six 
months, I believe, put it all together, as I have drunk 
within three minutes." 
That night I gave him a half-bath, scouring and 
scrubbing his skin until the water in which he sat was 
covered with flakes of cuticle, as if you had scattered 
wheat bran into it. I could not make him lie down in 
our bed, because he said he was afraid, having drunk 
so much water, he should urinate a great deal more 
than usual, and he should very likely wet the bed, and 
spoil it. But I said, " No," to that view. " You are 
less likely to urinate freely than if you had not drunk. 
I think you will be more likely to sweat, and if so, to 
make less water." But he insisted on sitting up in the 
rocking-chair. So we fixed him for the night, and left 
him, and at midnight he began to sweat - sweat pro- 
fusely, making, however, a good deal more water than 
usual, but the next morning feeling better as far as 
thirst was concerned. 394 
DIABETES, 
I gave him for breakfast unleavened bread and j. ud* 
ding, with a little sub-acid fruit. On that day I packed 
him, gave him a half-bath after it, and at night gave 
him a sitz-bath of a mild temperature for three-quar- 
ters of an hour, put around him wet compresses, and 
let him have all the water he wanted to drink. 
It was with difficulty that he could walk half a 
mile when he came to me. In fourteen days he had 
gained fourteen pounds ; his urination had dropped 
down to two quarts a day, or thereabouts, and he 
walked four miles. In six weeks from that time he 
was a hale, hearty, healthy man to all appearance, car- 
rying on his business at home on his farm, with alacrity 
and cheerfulness, and for years after that was as free 
from that, or any other disease, as any man in his 
neighborhood. He said, in speaking of his case to me, 
that he felt new life, as it were, infused into him while 
he was drinking his first draught of soft water at our 
spring. 
Another case was that of a gentleman residing in 
New Hampshire, who had incipient diabetes, or what 
perhaps might be called inordinate urination. His dis- 
ease had not progressed so far as the case related above, 
but had gotten along where from four to six quarts of 
water were made in a day. I examined him, and told 
him I thought he could be helped without much diffi- 
culty, and placed him under treatment, giving him 
packs, sitz-baths, dripping-sheets, abdominal bandages, 
enemas, and making his diet to consist entirely of un- 
leavened bread or pudding, made of unbolted wheat DIABETES, 
395 
meal and water, with a little sub-acid fruit, and plenty 
of soft water as a drink. In sixty days he was thor- 
oughly well. 
His case was a marvellous one in this respect, that 
he weighed two hundred and four pounds when he 
came to me, and he went away weighing one hundred 
and fifty-five pounds, and yet his urinary excretions 
had lessened from the very great quantity made daily 
to those of an ordinary healthy man. 
In treating diabetes, and, in fact, all forms of inconti- 
nence of urine, I have never found so good food as wheat 
meal, or what we term Graham flour. I doubt whether 
there is an edible substance in the world so well calcu- 
lated to restbre the blood to natural conditions, and the 
kidneys to healthy action, as wheat bran. I think one 
of the best drinks for a diabetic patient would be a de- 
coction of bran; say, pour hot water upon it, and let 
it stand until it gets cold, and then, putting in the 
juice of some sub-acid fruit just to acidulate it a trifle, 
let him drink it. But I prefer to have the person eat 
bran as food in the proportions which it sustains to the 
glutinous parts of wheat, the whole of the wheat being 
made into bread and pudding, and the person eating 
these as food and drinking soft water as a drink. I am 
satisfied that the treatment of diabetes by physicians, 
generally, is entirely indefensible from the dietetic point 
of Hew. 
A diabetic patient should have all the water he wants 
to drink, no matter how much, once accustomed to its 
use ; should eat not more than twice a day, better in 396 
DIABETES 
many instances if not more than once a day, and should 
be confined to farinaceous and fruit foods. Meat he 
should let entirely alone. Vegetables he would do bet- 
ter without. 
I know that in this I run counter to the general 
opinion of medical men, but with all due respect to 
them, I must be permitted to say that I have not great 
confidence in their opinions, because these are not 
formed from original observation and experiment, but 
are adopted and followed after routine. What one man 
has tried and recommends in a book, some other man 
tries, accepting it as the only true method of treatment. 
Their opinions uttered in this form of reiteration, I do 
not count as worth much. I believe that if once the 
idea that flesh meat was the best kind of food for per- 
sons suffering from diabetes were questioned, the result 
would be an entire change of front with reference 
thereto. I am glad to be able to say that a distin- 
guished English physician has admitted that he has 
found in his treatment that bread made of wheat bran 
is one of the best foods that a diabetic patient can eat. 
Whoever has this disease, or any other form of kidney 
disease, should not on any occasion nor on any account 
use hard water. It is as bad to drink hard water in 
such a case, as it is to drink alcoholic liquors. All 
wines and spirituous liquors of every kind are to be 
avoided. All the ordinary table beverages are to be 
dispensed with. The drink should be soft water and 
nothing else, unless it should be so prepared as to con- 
stitute food as well as drink, in which case I think GRAVEL, 
397 
water gruel made of wheat meal constitutes the best 
possible food and drink combined. 
Gravel.-This is a disease of the kidneys caused by 
small calculous concretions which, forming in the kid- 
neys, are passed along the ureter to the bladder, and 
are there passed out through the urethra. In many 
instances these concretions become so large as to render 
it difficult for them to be passed along the track of the 
urethra, and whenever this is the case the patient suf- 
fers very great pain. 
In numbers of cases which I have had to treat, 1 
have found that while in the usual conditions the pa- 
tient would have to suffer very great pain, injections 
of warm water into the bowels, or the application of 
hot fomentations over the kidneys and bladder, or the 
immersing of the body in a warm sitz-bath, with a 
warm foot-bath, would induce very great temporary 
relief. 
In a few instances I have noticed this effect, that 
where the person was permitted to endure the suffer- 
ing, nothing being done to relieve him, and thus pass 
the stone under active urination, that by giving him a 
warm bath not only was great relief insured, as com- 
pared with the suffering he had to undergo when noth- 
ing was done, but in such case the stones seemed to 
be triturated, or ground into fine sand, and thus were 
passed in the urine with comparatively little pain. 
If persons who suffer from gravel want to be cured 
of it, the best remedy is the prophylactic or the pro- 398 
GEAVEL. 
ventive remedy. It is not difficult at all to cure the 
disease so that one who has had it for years shall have 
no more of it. To do this, however, the remedy must 
be preventive ; for, though you do cure such person by 
Psycho-hygienic treatment, you cannot keep him cured 
unless you keep up the Psycho-hygienic methods of 
living. 
To illustrate: take a patient having gravel; treat him 
after my methods; cure him ; let him go home and eat 
and drink as he had been accustomed to do before going 
under treatment, and the disease will come back. But 
put him under the Psycho-hygienic treatment, and cure 
him, and send him home to live Psycho-hygienically, 
and he never will have the gravel again. The disease 
is caused by bad food and drink. Abandon these, and 
use proper food and drink, and once relieved from it 
one will never have more of it. 
Now, flesh meats and hard water are the predispos- 
ing, and not infrequently the provoking, causes to 
gravel. The best foods in the world are farinaceous, 
vegetable and fruit foods; the only proper drink is 
soft water. It would seem that one might know by 
first impression that having calculous formations in the 
kidneys he should not use hard water. 
Within three miles of me, as I am now writing, 
lives a man who, about two years ago, came to me for 
consultation. He had had several attacks of gravel, 
the last one almost killing him. His physician seemed 
aot to know what to do for him; had exhausted his 
remedies ; so, at his wife's solicitation, he came to me GRAVEL. 
399 
He is a rich farmer, but an active, energetic, enter- 
prising, hard-working man. He had eaten and drunk 
what seemed good to him ; had not, up to the time of 
his calling on me, been told that it was bad for him to 
eat and drink as he had done. I made a diagnosis of 
his case; made him out a prescription and sent him 
home. Fortunately for him he accepted my view of 
his case most heartily, and carried out my prescription. 
Six months passed before I heard from him; he then 
wrote to me telling me how he was; that he had not 
had a return of the attack; had gained flesh; his 
dizziness of head had left him, and his bowels had be- 
come regular. At the end of the year he was a new man. 
It is now two years, or nearly, and he has had no sign 
nor symptom of a recurrence of the disease; is hearty 
and healthy. I did nothing for him but to recommend 
the use of hygienic diet and drink; to wear a wet 
bandage all round his body night and day, keep his 
bowels open, skin clean, and not work hard : so simple 
and yet so effective is the Psycho-hygienic treatment. 
When I last saw him he said that if a man would 
give him a good farm he would not accept it to part 
with the knowledge how to keep well which his fifteen 
minutes' conversation with me furnished him ; that he 
had never known in his whole life his health to be bet- 
ter, if as good as then. 
Many persons who suffer from gravel do so because 
of the hard water which they use, not living where 
soft water springs can be had. But this is no excuse ; 
for all over the United States it rains, and water cap 400 
GRAVEL, 
be caught in pails, barrels, hogsheads, cisterns and 
troughs, and then filtered, and thus be perfectly good 
to drink. All persons who use hard water, no matter 
what earthy salt may be held in suspension in it to 
make it hard, are without excuse. Water with lime in 
it, alum in it, sulphur in it, or any kind of salt which 
makes it hard, is unfit, to drink at all, and is not to be 
drunk except in extreme cases where thirst is to be 
quenched, and nothing else can be got at the time. CHAPTER XLVI. 
bright's disease of the kidneys. 
This disease is not very common with the American 
people, especially that portion who are to he considered 
as, in the main, temperate and moral in their habits. 
Unless injury is inflicted on the kidneys by contusions 
or falls, there is little danger that the disease will show 
itself in any person whose general habits of life are 
temperate. But where persons live intemperately, as 
by gluttony, or by the use of alcoholic liquors or drug- 
poisons, the disease does show itself, and is, as a genera, 
thing, incurable from its first obvious manifestations; 
for it is an occult disease, not sensibly affecting the 
kidneys until they are organically or structurally dis- 
eased so far as to render cure difficult. 
The disease may be classed among the dropsies, and 
may be called dropsy of the kidneys. It consists in a 
fatty degeneration of the structure of the kidneys, or 
what is sometimes called fatty granulation. The 
symptoms of the disease in its earlier stages are so 
much like those which are seen in diseases of the liver 
and the lower bowel, or which are sometimes seen in 
nervous dyspepsia as to mislead the patient and the 
practitioner as to its nature. Thus, in many instances, 
401 402 
bright's disease ot the kidneys 
where there is obstructed liver, the patient will suffei 
from pain across the small of the back, or pain low 
down in front, with a desire to make urine quite fro 
quently; and were the physician finding these symp- 
toms to say that the patient was suffering from "liver 
complaint," he would diagnosticate the case rightly; 
but just such symptoms in early stages would show 
themselves in Bright's disease of the kidneys. As dis- 
ease of the liver in some form or other of it is much 
more common to the people of the United States than 
Bright's disease of the kidneys is, any practicing 
physician is therefore more likely to be familiar with 
the symptoms of that than of this disease. So when 
called to a patient, if certain symptoms which show 
themselves in both of these diseases in early stages 
are present, being much more familiar with disease of 
the liver than with this form of disease of the kidneys, 
the physician would diagnosticate the case as disease 
of the liver. Should he do so, and proceed to treat 
the patient accordingly, he would make a mistake, and 
instead of doing him good would do him harm, if in 
no other way, by failing to discern the true state of the 
case, and so let the disease go on untouched by any 
remedies which he might administer. 
From this cause alone it is more difficult to treat 
this form of disease of the kidneys than any other dis- 
ease, except some diseases of the heart, with which 
physicians have to deal. I doubt whether there is a 
single morbid manifestation that the human body 
usually takes, or may take on, the symptoms of which bright's disease of the kidneys. 
403 
are so peculiar, and therefore so likely to mislead, as 
Bright's disease of the kidneys. It seems to me, from 
what little experience I have had in the matter, and 
from what knowledge I have been able to get by con 
versing with other physicians, and by reading, that this 
is one reason why the disease has come to be regarded 
by all physicians as essentially incurable; for one can- 
not know whether the kidneys are diseased or not until 
the disease has become structural instead of functional. 
It is therefore very difficult to be able to cure i i. 
I have never had but four cases to treat, in two of 
which the disease was incipient. Happening to make 
a correct diagnosis at the outset, I was successful in 
overcoming the difficulty. In the other two cases, the 
disease had passed beyond all help, the persons having 
already become so skeletony as to have little or no 
nutrient power, and having also fever and night-sweats, 
with incontinence of urine at times. 
My advice, therefore, to any person having symptoms 
like the following, is to place himself, as soon as these 
appear, under some Psycho-hygienic physician, and re- 
main under his treatment until the symptoms entirely 
disappear : Pain in the small of the back, now on one 
side then on the other; pain in making water accom- 
panied by frequent desire to urinate when there is but 
little secretion in the bladder ; pain along down inside 
of the legs to the heels, and chilliness of the lower ex- 
tremities ; great sensitiveness to cold across the small 
of the back ; pain in the morning in the back of the 
neck, especially iu the back of the head low down ; 404 
bright's disease of the kidneys. 
chills always when sitting where a current of air can 
blow upon the hack ; dyspeptic conditions soon after 
eating; constipation of bowels to-day, to be followed 
by looseness to-morrow ; restlessness in the night, wak- 
ing up frequently, and having sharp, darting pains 
across the small of the back; uncertainty of mental 
condition, such as great exhilaration and hilarity to-day 
and great depression and unusual taciturnity to-mor- 
row ; indisposition to sit up straight; disposition to put 
the hand around upon the small of the back ; soreness 
to the touch upon rubbing over the kidney. Such 
symptoms and their like are worthy of notice. 
For treatment, I would suggest wet bandages over 
the stomach and abdomen night and day; sitz-baths 
every day, of a temperature upon first going in and 
for a little while after-say five to ten minutes-as 
high as that of the blood, to be followed by a tempera- 
ture as low as 85°, the patient to sit in thereafter fifteen 
to twenty minutes; injections of tepid water up the 
bowel every day, no matter whether a movement bo 
had or not; a most liberal use of soft water as a drink 
free from any commixture, no other beverage being 
drunk ; a farinaceous and fruit diet, the coarser vego 
tables being unused; general ablutions as often as twice 
a week, riding in a carriage for exercise rather than 
walking; a cheerful, sunny, social life, having good 
true-hearted, pleasant, agreeable friends; a reverent 
and pious, but not superstitious, state of mind; plenty 
of sleep ; food only twice in twenty-four hours dress 
ing of the limbs so warmly as to protect them from URINARY DISEASE. 
405 
cold; loose dressing so as utterly to prevent obstruc- 
tion to the circulation of the blood; sexual continence 
entire while under treatment, and entire avoidance of 
drug-medicines. 
Such would be the general regimen which I would 
mark out. But I do not think that any person having 
disease of the kidneys of any sort is justified in trying 
to cure himself, provided he is so situated as to be able 
to consult and obtain the medical oversight and care of 
a good Psycho-hygienic physician ; because, as I have 
said, the disease is only curable when taken in its early 
stages, and also, because even in its early stages, the 
mind of the patient is apt to be so affected as to render 
his own judgment of what is best to be done unreliable. 
He therefore needs to place his case in the hands of 
some skillful and disinterested observer, who can apply 
the Psycho-hygienic treatment to advantage. 
Urinary Disease.-The urine, as everybody knows, 
is a fluid secreted from the blood. It is composed of 
excrementitious matter which, in order to the health of 
the body, it is necessary should be cast out of it. In 
all vertebrated animals, the bladder, therefore, is to be 
found, it being a cyst or bag into which the excremen- 
titious matters held in suspension in the water of the 
blood are carried, and thereby cast out in the act 
of urination. From the very fact that the fluid is ex* 
cremeutitious, it is impossible in all cases to deter- 
mine by it what the morbid conditions of the body at 
large may be. There is a class of physicians who stjle 406 
URINARY DISEASE. 
themselves Uroscopic doctors, who claim that they can, 
by the examination of the urine of any person, tell 
whether he is in health or sickness, and if sick, what is 
the disease under which he labors. In my earlier prac- 
tice I gave a good deal of attention to the theory which 
these physicians set up, analyzing the urine of hun 
dreds of persons, undertaking thereby to determine the 
nature of the diseases under which they suffered. But 
I found that the basis for diagnosis was altogether too 
narrow. And while it is true that one may, in many 
instances, come to very safe general conclusions in re 
gard to the diseases under which certain persons suffer, 
the diagnostic basis is altogether too incomprehensivo 
for general practice. The Uroscopians, therefore, have 
necessarily to confine themselves to special diseases, and 
hence cannot rise to eminence in general practice. For 
diseases of the liver, kidneys and bladder, the Uroscopic 
theory presents some advantageous considerations; but, 
on the whole, cannot be worthy of the regard which is 
claimed for it by its advocates. 
As far as my own practice has gone, I have found 
that urinary diseases, as a general thing, are secondary, 
the bladder and its adjunctive structures being unlikely 
to take on diseases belonging exclusively to itself and 
them. Idiopathic diseases therefore of the bladder and 
its auxiliary structures are seldom seen, unless arising 
from mechanical or physical injuries. 
More likely than otherwise, then, when there is dis- 
ease of the bladder it is to be found as arising in, and 
dependent upon, 'disease of some other organs. Ono URINARY DISEASE. 
407 
of the most common causes of urinary diseases is dis- 
ease of the blood. When the blood is apparently healthy 
or ordinarily healthy, urinary disease will scarcely ever 
be found to exist, except from mechanical injuries of 
the bladder or its immediate auxiliaries. 
Inflammation of the bladder is generally a disease of 
its mucous lining. Disease of the neck of the bladder 
is either congestion, or inflammation, or suppuration 
of it. Where disease of the neck of the bladder ex- 
ists, whether in congestion, or passive, or active inflam- 
mation of it, disease of the urethra or the canal through 
which the urine passes to expulsion is likely to exist. 
Many persons suffer from painful urination, the sensi- 
bility being at the outer termination of the urinary pas- 
sage. This almost always indicates irritation or in- 
flammation of the neck of the bladder. 
Aside from injuries, no person need have disease of 
the minary organs, provided he lives within the line 
of temperateness in food and drink, and keeps the other 
organs of his body in such natural conditions as that 
they shall perform their functions properly. I do not 
think one person in five hundred thousand ever had 
disease of the urinary organs if he lived so as to keep 
the other organs of his body in anything like fair health. 
But where one eats like a glutton and drinks like a de- 
bauchee j where he dresses so as to check the external 
circulation, and relates himself to the action oi the 
bowels so that these shall become necessarily unhealthy; 
where sedentary habits exist and imperfect clothing of 
the lower limbs is had, and care and anxiety are con- 408 
URINABY DISEASE. 
Btantly affecting his mental and moral nature, urinary 
diseases may arise; and under such circumstances oft- 
ener than from any other set of causes do arise. 
What one wants, therefore, to do in the way of pre- 
vention, is to live hygienically, and whenever a case of 
disease of the urinary organs is clearly manifest, what 
one wants to do for its cure is to be treated Psycho- 
hygienically. 
For inflammation of the bladder, when it is active or 
acute, one of the best things to be done is, having given 
the patient a thorough ablution, accompanied with good 
hand dry-rubbing, to put him upon a nitrogenous diet, 
keeping out of his food carbonaceous or heat-forming 
substances, to give him soft water to drink, and this 
only; to make him take a recumbent posture, and in 
the main to keep it; to lay upon his bowels over the 
bladder hot fomentation cloths, and keep them on until 
the pain, if it be acute, has sensibly subsided ; then to 
keep upon him cool compresses all the time-if he can 
bear them all around so much the better; to give him 
sitz-baths two or three times in twenty-four hours, while 
the acute manifestations exist, and the colder these are, 
up to the point where they do not feel uncomfortable, tlie 
better for him ; to keep his feet warm by frequent rub- 
bing of the hand, aiding the circulation, or else by wrap- 
ping them in heated flannels; to keep his head cool, 
and especially the back part of it, having preparations 
so made as to be able to lay wet, ice-cold cloths right 
in the nape of his neck once or twice a day ; also to 
rub the whole length of his spine with icc-cold cloths, UEINAEY DISEASE. 
409 
determining the circulation to the skin, and answering 
the ends of cupping; if this cannot be done by the 
application of cold cloths alone, then to have hot cloths 
laid up and down the back-bone, as hot as he can bear 
them, followed by cloths as cold as ice-water can make 
them, thus changing the circulation both of the blood- 
vessels and of the nervous system as much as may be. 
For where inflammation of the bladder comes on sud- 
denly, being an acute disease it must be broken up as 
soon as it can be, even at the risk of some strain to the 
constitutional vigor of the patient. But where the 
disease exists in chronic form, having been long pre- 
ceded by continued congestion of the bladder, either 
of its body or its neck only, and so has come at length 
to take on what might be termed passive inflammation, 
then there is less necessity for immediate executive 
results, in which case the better plan is to treat the 
patient generally as well as locally. 
Where chronic inflammation of the bladder exists, 
I have always found the wet-sheet pack to be one of 
the best remedial instrumentalities I ever used. In 
truth, if you can get up a very active cutaneous excre- 
tion, relief to the patient becomes almost immediately 
sensible, and though such relief does not argue positive 
cure, it does argue positive curability, and is a source 
of very great conscious comfort to the sufferer; for to 
carry about with one consciously such condition of the 
bladder as passive inflammation of it often establishes, 
is to be in about as uncomfortable a physical condition 
as one can be placed from any disease of any organ 410 
URINARY DISEASE. 
or organs of his body, where great and painful suffer 
ing is a constant attendant. 
In women, irritability of the bladder is quite com 
mon, and is indicated by a desire to pass urine fro 
quently in many instances, which, when done, causes 
a painful sensation, sometimes extremely so. This con- 
dition, I doubt not, arises largely from their style of 
dress, which produces mechanical displacement of the 
contents of the abdomen, pushing the bowels down so 
as to affect the natural and healthy relations of the 
organs of the pelvis, of which the bladder is one. 
Whenever such mechanical pressure is produced and 
continued for a long time, more or less of displace- 
ment results, and the bladder is made to suffer thereby 
"Where, however, this cause does not exist to produce 
the irritability, and the consequent desire to frequent 
urination, other conditions of living belonging to wo- 
man help to create it. The confinement to house life ; 
the frequent bearing and nursing of children; the 
anxiety which is ever present with married women with 
reference to the management of their households, pro- 
ducing, when connected with their dietetic habits, hys- 
terical conditions, serve to cause this disease. 
Where women are of the nervous temperament, and 
naturally, therefore, of weak, irritable and anxious dis- 
position, they are predisposed to the disease. So, also, 
are those who are liable to be afflicted with nervous 
dyspepsia or vertigo, and especially those who are liable 
to chronic cutaneous eruptions. Often it exists in wo- 
men who are pregnant, and ar1 sea from the pressure URINARY DISEASE. 
411 
upon the bladder, caused by their being with child. 
It also oftentimes may arise from piles, or from irrita- 
tion in the lower bowel by small worms. Dysentery 
sometimes causes it, but, on the whole, more frequent 
causes are those which are to be referred to the state 
of the urine, arising, as a distinguished physician thinks 
" From the nature of the ingesta, or from the changes 
consequent upon primary or secondary assimilation of 
them." Dr. Prout observes that " Causes of irritability 
of bladder depend on functional derangement of the 
kidneys, usually resulting from the unnatural proper- 
ties of the urine. Deviations from the normal condi 
tion of the urine, whether in deficiency or in excess, 
are recognized by the concomitant organs, and may 
prove a source of irritation in the bladder." Dr. Cop- 
land says that " The use of unripe fruits, especially by 
children, and often by adults, frequently occasions the 
complaint." He also says that gonorrhoea and mastur- 
bation are among the most frequent causes of irritabil- 
ity of bladder. 
My own observation has led me to feel that however 
varied and influential may be the causes producing 
irritability of the bladder, all others put together do 
not equal in influence and importance those which 
arise from the use of drug-medicaments. All the dras- 
tic purgatives which are prescribed by allopathic phy- 
sicians tend directly to cause irritability of this organ. 
All the class of diuretics particularly are so calculated, 
and whenever I find a patient of mine to have fixed 
irritability of the bladder, I am quite as much disposed 412 
URINARY DISEASE. 
to search for the cause, direct or remote, in the use of 
some drug-poison which he has been taking, or is tak- 
ing, as in any other direction. 
My practice, therefore, with this disease, even when 
it is seen in the form of incontinence of urine in chil- 
dren, or indicated by the want of power to retain urine 
in any considerable quantity by adults, is so to change 
the action of the general system as to remove, as far as 
may be, the more obvious causes of irritation. Hence, 
a change in regimen is of great import. I should 
never think of allowing a patient of mine who had 
irritability of bladder, and who wanted to urinate 
every half hour, or as often as every two hours, to eat 
flesh meats at all; nor should I permit him under any 
circumstances, except such as should be adjudged purely 
transitional, to use common salt. The use of this sub- 
stance, I think, is very provocative of the disease ; and 
wherever the disease exists, while it is used it utterly 
precludes cure. 
I recollect not long since of meeting a gentleman 
who was troubled with irritability of bladder, not being 
able to contain more than a gill, and generally not 
more than half a gill of urine without being painfully 
desirous to micturate; a man of pretty full habit of 
body, living highly, and therefore having a good deal 
of waste matter in twenty-four hours to pass out of 
his system through this great excretory. He had 
either to undergo great pain, or else to pass water as 
often as once an hour, or not infrequently, under great 
mental excitement, as often as once in thirty miuntes. URINARY DISEASE. 
413 
Ho had consulted various physicians, and they had 
foolishly given him diuretics, supposing, in their mis- 
taken notions of his case, that what ailed him was a 
want of secretion of urine. He got no relief from 
them. Under the use of some of their medicines he 
was made worse. Meeting him, he begged the priv- 
ilege of stating his case to me, saying that although 
he didn't know much about my methods of treatment, 
he had heard of me frequently, and would like to state 
his case to me. I said to him I would be very glad to 
give him any information or advice that I could. So 
he told me how he was affected. 
Curious enough, although he was quite a user of 
spirituous liquors, a great tobacco chew'er; was not, 
by any means, sexually continent, and approximated 
nearly to the state of the glutton in the indulgence of 
his appetite for food, my suspicions, under his descrip- 
tion of his case, were awakened, particularly w'ith 
respect to his use of common salt, and so I said to him: 
" Do you use common salt ?" 
"Well, yes," said he, "I eat quite moderately of 
salt." 
" How much do you eat ?" 
"Well," said he, "you know these little salt-cellars 
(hat are on the tables of hotels; I suppose I eat two 
or three of those full at a meal." 
Now, that any man should do so and yet think that 
he did not eat much salt, surprised me. I said to him, 
" I think you wi 1 find yourself greatly relieved by a 
substantial disuse of salt; in fact, if you could do with- 414 
URINARY DISEASE. 
out it entirely, I think in one month you would be very 
greatly benefited." 
He said he could. And ho did. 
I saw him about three months after, and he came 
to me and took hold of my hand, and the tears stood 
in his eyes while he said-"You cured me. I do not 
suffer at all. I sleep all night. I have not eaten a tea- 
spoonful of salt in ninety days." 
The poor fellow had been suffering for years in this 
way, and the more he suffered, curious enough it was 
the more salt he had come to eat. In this case, the 
simple disuse of the irritating substance cured him. 
I am very glad to be able to say that distinguished 
physicians of the allopathic school agree with me in 
their views of the hurtfulness of animal food, especially 
where persons have what is termed the gouty rheu- 
matic and uric-acid diatheses; and that they also con- 
sider that malt liquors and spirits are still more in- 
jurious, and that wine is of no service whatever. 
I would here call attention to the fact that where 
irritability of the bladder exists in females, they should 
particularly defer the act of urination as long as pos- 
sible. Advice given to a lady who consulted me on 
this subject resulted, in the course of a few months, in 
almost entire relief, she finding after a little that when 
the point of secretion of a certain quantity of urine 
in the bladder had been passed, desire to urinate grew 
less and less until the bladder became thoroughly filled, 
and then she could pass it with less pain than when 
there was only a small quantity secreted. This rather URINARY DISEASE. 
415 
encouraged her, and as soon as under her own determi- 
nation to break up the habit of frequent urination she 
had succeeded, and established the habit of going 
'onger, the disease was essentially mitigated. CHAPTER XLVII. 
Neuralgia of the bladder, or what is termed 
spasms of the bladder, is a very painful affection. I 
myself have suffered from it, as I have from irrita- 
bility of the bladder for many years, and from acute 
passive inflammation of that organ. I know what it 
is to have daily paroxysms, or every other day parox- 
ysms of the bladder, occurring at about the same time 
in the day. The attack often begins with a sense of 
discomfort in the region of the perineum, attended 
with numbness or a tickling in the internal part, 
seeming as though it was just below the skin, gradu- 
ally extending along backward to the anus, and then 
slowly changing into a painful itching, crawling sensa 
tion, as if just inside thereof there were worms crawl- 
ing about. It is one of the most uncomfortable sensa- 
tions that one ever suffers from a disease of this part. 
Sometimes the neuralgic pain passes along to the scro- 
tum and rises up into the bowels, affecting the sper- 
matic cords in the male, and in the female affecting 
the uterus. When the pain is severe, it also sometimes 
affects the sacral and lumbar regions. When the parox- 
ysm passes off, it generally goes away gradually, leav- 
ing no other than a sense of soreness. This descrip- 
416 NEURALGIA OF THE BLADDER. 
417 
tion of the case is made by various distinguished 
physicians, and it corresponds to my own observation, 
and, in fact, to my own personal experience. 
When it goes so far as to pass into a positive spasm, 
resulting in a very sudden and painful attack in the 
region of the bladder, the treatment foi it is fomen- 
tations on the outside, and injections up the bowel as 
warm as the patient can possibly bear. After the 
spasm has passed, cool tonic sitz-baths are valuable 
for it. 
I shall never forget while I remember anything, how 
terribly I suffered at one period of my life from spasms 
of the neck of the bladder. My physician gave me 
everything to relieve me, but without curative effect, 
the spasms returning at stated intervals, and causing 
me, if possible, increased suffering at every new ap- 
pearance. At last one doctor suggested the use of 
chloroform, and I was put under it. Relief was 
almost instantaneous, and this side, too, of loss of con- 
sciousness ; but such an abnormal condition of mind 
was created as I never had under the influence of any 
other drug, and such, too, as gave me a very thoughtful 
experience. It led me to a settled opinion as to the 
effect of that anesthetic on my sexual system, and as to 
the moral effect on my consciousness. While under 
the influence of chloroform I became seized with the 
impression that a certain lady was taking improper 
liberties with me, and that impression-though I knew 
it not to be true because of the impossibility of its hav- 
ing been true-is just as strong on me to-day as 418 
PARALYSIS OF THE BLADDER. 
though it had been true; and whenever I think of it 
I can only think of it as having been true. I made 
up my mind, after the whole matter had passed by 
sufficiently long for me to reflect upon it, that I never 
could be made to believe under any circumstantial 
evidence the truth of an averment on the part of any 
person in respect to having been made the subject of 
improper liberties from another person while under the 
influence of chloroform. 
I allude to this simply because it was, in my case, 
very suggestive as going to show that the charges 
which have been made at different times by different 
women of having had improper liberties taken with 
them by gentlemen who were performing dental opera- 
tions for them while they were under the influence of 
chloroform might be altogether fictitious. 
Paralysis of the Bladder.-Whether this disease 
is partial or complete, it depends, in the language of a 
distinguished writer, " on loss of power, either originat- 
ing in the organ itself, or affecting it, consequent upon 
injury or disease of the spinal cord or of the brain or 
of the other membranes." It sometimes occurs as a 
consequence of low nervous fevers, or of typhoid fever 
of a debilitating character, and also of fever of a hectic 
type, and in organic diseases in their last stages. I 
think, however, that in cases of fever the disease sel- 
dom is exhibited, except where powerful drug-medicines 
are given remedially. 
Where paralysis is complete, of course the power to PARALYSIS OF THE BLADDER. 
419 
retain urine is lost; the bladder, therefore, acts on the 
principle of the syphon, and when it is full the water 
runs out. For this disease there is no cure except in 
the restoration of the health of the general system. 
Where the disease arises from old age, there is no- 
thing to be done for it. Where it arises in middle age, 
being a result of impaired health, no matter how this 
is caused, if there is any possibility of the general 
health being restored, the bladder itself may recover its 
lost t< ne. So the treatment of it becomes, in the first 
place, constitutional, or with reference to the improve- 
ment of the general health, and in the next place, local. 
Some physicians think that in its treatment the local 
should precede the constitutional, mainly because of 
the great necessity there is of obtaining speedy relief. 
Where the treatment is to be constitutional, it must 
depend largely upon the peculiarities of the case, as 
these may present themselves to the consideration of 
the physician. I have found in some cases of it that 
tonic treatment, such as arises from falling-douche 
baths, succeeding the appliance of warm sitz-baths was 
of decided service. 
There is a paralytic condition of the bladder, some- 
times caused by masturbation, and where this exists 
the case is incurable except under moral influences of 
the most rigid and unintermitting kind. 
Where there is a paralysis of the neck of the blad- 
der, or relaxed state of it, as in the case of children, 
the best method of treatment for it is unstimulating 
diet, a hard bed to sleep on, accustoming the child to 420 
INFLAMMATION OF THE COATS OF THE BLADDER. 
but very little clothing over the body when asleep, life 
in the open air, vigorous general and local baths given 
daily, and regularity of habit in every direction. 
Inflammation of the Coats of the Bladder.-This 
disease is technically described as cystitis. It is said 
more frequently to occur than otherwise upon one or 
other of the forms of inflammation of the mucous lin- 
ing of the bladder. It is rarely a primary, but more 
commonly a consecutive disease. It is regarded by 
medical men as a severe and dangerous disease, and 
needs the promptest treatment. 
Its symptoms are generally severe pain in the region 
of the os pubis, with an uneasy feeling in and around 
the perineum, with a bearing-down sensation of the 
lower bowel, and heat and irritating sensibility along 
the track of the urethra. The patient has frequent 
calls to pass urine. Sometimes the disease is occasioned 
by a sudden suspension of hemorrhoids, or, in women, 
of the menstrual flow, or of whites ; but whatever may 
be the cause of it, it is a dangerous disease, and often 
runs its destructive course within three or four days; 
more commonly than otherwise before the end of the 
first week. 
Medical men who have had much opportunity to 
know of it say, that it terminates either in what is 
called ulceration, or a modification of the symptoms 
of it, or it passes into a chronic stage, leaving tender 
ness in the region of the bladder with painful urina 
tion, or it ends in suppuration, and then oftener tha> INFLAMMATION OF THE COATS OF THE BLADDER. 
421 
otherwise in an incurable, and, sooner or later, fatal 
disease. 
Of those diseases of the bladder which are connected 
with deposits within its walls of a calculous formation, 
there is nothing in a work like this legitimate to say 
further than that when calculous formations have come 
to exist in any marked or noticeable degree, the case 
passes within the province of the surgeon. 
How and why these depositions are formed may be 
considered a matter of some consequence, but a descrip- 
tion of them would take up altogether too much space 
in this volume. I therefore have only to say with 
respect to them, that where they are not already formed 
there is no necessity of their being so, provided persons 
will regulate their dietetics and beverages according to 
the hygienic standard. The eating of proper food and 
the drinking of proper drink, is a sure preventive to 
anything like urinary calculi in the bladder. 
An eminent physician says that " Sedentary habits 
and luxurious feeding are more or less influential, 
according as they may be associated with other causes, 
in occasioning urinary concretions. The former im- 
pairs very largely the functions of the skin, and pre- 
vents that amount of blood depletion, which these 
functions effect; the latter furnishes the pabulum from 
which urinary concretions are in a great part derived." 
When these habits exist with, or are joined to, a gout}' 
diathesis, the occurrence of gravel or calculi is often 
observed, and much more remarkable when a meat diet 422 
INFLAMMATION OF THE COATB OF THE BLADDER. 
or stimulating liquors are indulged in. The evil pro- 
duced by animal food used in excess-and many use it 
in excess-is a very forcible cause in the production of 
the disease. Highly nitrogenized animal diet furnishes 
a rich and abundant chyle, which, during its circula- 
tion in the blood through the several viscera, become? 
oxy di zed and otherwise changed, and if proper elim 
inations are not attained by the kidneys, skin and 
mucous surface, the materials in the blood accumulate, 
and become highly animalized and morbid, occasion- 
ing serious diseases, among which gout and urinary 
concretions are the most common. CHAPTER XLVIII. 
WORMS. 
There are three kinds of worms which usually infest 
»he human body. One is the long, round worm, gene- 
rally, at full size, from twelve to fourteen inches in 
length ; another, an articulated worm, having joints in 
it, known in common phrase as the tape worm; the 
third a small worm, not more than an inch in length. 
The first inhabits the upper bowel, and sometimes 
the stomach, as instances are not infrequent of worms 
having crawled up the esophagus into the mouth. 
The second usually inhabits the upper part of the large 
bowel. The third inhabits the lower part of the large 
bowel. 
The remedies usually applied for the cure of worms 
are called anthelmintics. They consist of substances 
which either destroy the worms by reason of the poi- 
sonous effects on them from their having absorbed tlie 
medicines into their structures ; or by stupifying them 
so that they are carried out of the body under the con- 
tractile action of the bowels in the process of defecation 
t>f them, 
423 424 
WORMS. 
I have found no difficulty in curing adults by the 
Psycho-hygienic treatment, who have been troubled 
with long, round worms, or with pin-worms, though in 
some cases their presence in the bowels has been very 
afflictive and productive of great distress. 
I recollect in one case where by simply changing the 
conditions of the nerves, and so of the circulation, I 
succeeded in expelling large quantities of worms from 
the bowels of an adult patient, in the course of thirty- 
six hours. My treatment consisted of an entire absti- 
nence from food, drinking very largely of water, pour- 
ing cool water over the region of the stomach and 
bowels for the space of five or ten minutes, with hand- 
rubbing downward in the region of the descending 
colon, and injections of tepid water quite frequently. 
The result was that the worms -were forced, under the 
defecatory action of the bowels, into the lower bowel, 
and then were washed out by heavy injections which 
were taken, so much water being thrown up the gut as 
to fill it full to the sigmoid flexure. 
I once had a patient who was so troubled with worms 
that when she fell asleep they would crawl up the esoph- 
agus, and would almost choke her. In one instance 
when she was asleep one crawled into, and was pulled 
out of her mouth. The case baffled the skill of the 
physicians who had dealt in anthelmintics, but I cured 
her by taking away the food on which the worms lived, 
and by subjecting her to a mild course of hydropathic 
treatment, keeping up a good condition of the skin, and 
putting her upon a farinaceous diet, and of the smallest WORMS, 
425 
possible quantity which she could eat. In less than a 
month's time she had pass from her no less than sixty 
large round worms, every one of which to all appear 
ances was dead upon leaving the body; she recov- 
ered her health, and became robust and strong. 
For the treatment of the small pin-worm, three tilings 
are needed: First, to eat farinaceous food and fruits, 
letting alone vegetables and flesh-meat; second, to keep 
up good excretory action of the skin, thus purifying the 
blood; third, to wash the ascarides from the lower bowel 
whenever they are germinated and lodged there. In a 
few weeks, or months at least, the patient can be en- 
tirely relieved from their presence in his bowels. 
Of tape-worm I have never treated but few cases; 
two of these successfully. I am well satisfied, however, 
that if I could have a patient suffering from that dis- 
ease under hygienic regimen long enough to produce a 
thorough constitutional change in the blood and in the 
tissues formed out of it, I could cure him however 
much suffering therefrom, if he had vitality enough 
to undergo such reconstruction. I do not believe that 
a tape-worm, any more than a round or a pin-worm, 
can live in a human body when the blood becomes nor- 
mal. Essentially it is the product of imperfect assimil- 
ation and defective elimination, and whenever a healthy 
condition of the nutritive system can be established so 
that good blood can be formed, and a healthy condition 
of the lymphatics exists, so that waste matters are car- 
ried off through the various excrctorcs with rapidity and 
certainty, a tape-worm cannot live ir the human body 426 
WORMS. 
In all cases of children who have worms it is more 
difficult to treat them Psycho-hygienically, except in 
the way of prevention, than for any other disease which 
they have. There is no reason to be appealed to, no 
moral sense to be awakened, no appreciation of the 
laws of relation to be entertained by them. They, there- 
fore, are passive subjects, and are under no such rela- 
tion to life as to submit to processes of cure which, 
while they may be more tedious, are nevertheless all 
the surer and more certain therefore. A child suffer- 
ing from worms knows of nothing but the desire to be 
relieved, and hygienic treatment will not give relief as 
quickly, in many instances, as will drug-treatment. 
Poisons taken by the child kill the worms. If the 
child lives the remedy is regarded as of great virtue; 
but if, under the remedy, the child does not get relief 
but dies, it never dies from the poison taken, but always 
from the worms ! Or, to speak more reverently, " It 
dies under the Providence of God !" 
In this, however, as in any other disease where time 
is to be had in order to produce thorough restoration, 
the Psycho-hygienic treatment is preferable to the drug 
treatment though its visible effects are less speedy; for 
when the child has been treated Psycho-hygienically 
and is cured, there is no recurrence of the disease to be 
feared, provided the manner of living is proper. But 
when a child is or has been cured by drug-treatment, 
there is no safety against the recurrence of the disease 
under ordinary methods of living. It is much better, 
therefore for parents who have children, to have them worms. 
427 
so live that they shall never have worms to trouble 
them, than it is to have them live so that they will 
have them, and then have them cured by drug-medi- 
cation. CHAPTER XLIX. 
PILES. 
There is no disease which we have ever had to treat 
in which we have had better success than in the treat- 
ment of hemorrhoids, or piles; and yet no persons have 
ever come to us with any disease which has received at 
the hands of the medical profession more empirical man- 
agement than have those who have come to us afflicted 
with piles. Very much has been written, and that dog- 
matically and ignorantly, in regard to hemorrhoids. The 
treatment usually administered by physicians is quite 
out of the line of scientific certainty, and is not only not 
productive of cure, but, oftener than otherwise, involves 
complications of a constitutional and very serious na- 
ture. I cannot count up the number of cases where 
metastatic, or substitutive, action has resulted in cases 
of piles from the treatment administered for their cure. 
I have known severe congestions of the liver to result 
from the administration of so-called remedial agencies 
for their cure. I have also known severe hemorrhages 
of the ] Ungs to result from the sudden cessation of the 
flux of the bowels, under the remedies employed to 
cure the piles. I have also, in several instances, known 
severe congestions of the brain to take place, in two or 
428 PILES. 
429 
three instances inducing complete coma, within eight- 
and-forty hours after medical appliances for piles had 
been made. 
I have treated during the time in which I have been 
Ji charge of a health infirmary, over seven hundred 
and fifty cases of piles. The majority of persons suf- 
fering from the disease (and the worst cases which I 
have ever had to treat) have been males. I am dis- 
posed to think that during the period of menstruation 
woman is much less susceptible to hemorrhoids than 
man, though, from the time the change of life takes 
place, there is, perhaps, no essential difference in their 
liabilities, other things being equal. 
The disease has been, by a distinguished writer, de- 
fined as follows: "Pain, with great weight, heat, or 
other uneasy sensation in the rectum and anus, accom- 
panied or followed by tumors in these parts, or by a 
flow of blood, recurring at intervals, and sometimes 
periodically." 
Persons afflicted with piles, owing to the injudicious 
method of treatment employed by the medical faculty, 
generally lack intelligence to understand the conse- 
quences which may result from ill-management, and, 
therefore, are left in their ignorance to use all sorts of 
empirical applications, in the hope that they may be 
cured by some of them. Of quack medicines which 
are found in every drug-store, grocery-store and gro- 
cery-bazaar, there are no specifics offered for the cure 
of any disease so numerous as panaceas for piles. There 
are now advertised in the various newspapers in this PILES. 
430 
country, over seventy-five specific remedies for the cure 
of this disease, and it may be said with entire truth, 
that there is not one of them but what adds to the diffi- 
culty under which the person labors ; or, if under their 
use relief is produced, it is either merely temporary, or 
if permanent, is made so by the substitution of some 
other disease for the piles, more injurious to health and 
life, and altogether more difficult to manage under ju- 
dicious means, than are the piles themselves. It is esti- 
mated there are over four millions of dollars in value of 
piles specifics sold annually in the United States, and 
that of this sum twenty-five per cent, is net profit, thus 
making a million of dollars clear gain from the sale of 
these panaceas. Divide this among the seventy-five 
different varieties of specific remedies, and you have 
about twelve thousand dollars annual profit to each 
one from the sale of this class of medicines alone. 
From my own professional observation I feel quali- 
fied to say, that at least ninety out of each hundred 
persons who use these specifics for the cure of their 
piliary difficulties, are decidedly injured by their use, 
and that the remaining ten, though not sensibly in- 
jured, are not sensibly benefited. The reason for this 
universal failure to cure the piles by specific applica- 
tion, grows out of an entire misapprehension of the 
nature of the disease. For this misunderstanding, phy- 
sicians of learning and skill are somewhat responsible. 
Under their practice they have led the people to take 
on the impression, at least, that the disease is local in 
its origin, as well as in its nature; whereas the actual FILES. 
431 
truth, is that piles are always of a secondary nature-• 
never original, but always derivable from or dependent 
upon some one or other morbid conditions of the sys- 
tem. Generally speaking, the disease is the product of 
originally deranged conditions of the stomach and liver. 
Under the efforts of the patient or his physicians to re 
lieve himself of these by powerful medicines, drastic in 
their nature, constipation takes place, and subsequently 
thereto inflammation of the very lower portion of the 
bowels, called the rectum, sets in, more or less active at 
first in its character, but after a while becoming pas- 
sive, resulting in tumorous growths in the inner coat 
of the bowel, which give to the disease the name of 
hemorrhoids. 
Where the disease does not originate in the taking 
into the stomach of poisonous medicaments, it is very 
apt to occur where the subject is a thinker, of seden- 
tary habits, educated to the use of concentrated, highly 
seasoned and stimulating food, without any regulation 
of habit of stool, and, not unlikely, neglectful of clean 
liness of skin. Of course, to sit still, as in the case sup- 
posed, day after day, to eat stimulating food, concen- 
trated in its nature-thus leaving but very little facti- 
tious matter to pass through the alimentary canal, 
helping to create fecal bulk, while nervous energy is 
drawn away from the stomach, liver and bowels by in- 
tellectual task-work-is to so derange the relation be- 
tween the functional exercise of the bowels and the 
nervous energy upon which such activity depends, as 
at length to leave the bowels decidedly deficient in 432 
PELES. 
vitalization. Congestion of the blood-vessels of the 
parts under such processes having long existed, at 
length morbid or tumorous growths ensue, which be- 
come excessively painful; whenever the person passes to 
stool, the veins become large, and under the pressure 
of the sphincter muscle, in an attempt to move the 
bowels, become so overloaded with blood that effusion 
takes place from their coats, and the person has what is 
called bleeding-piles. 
Now, every organ in the human body becomes strength- 
ened or weakened by habit, as the case may be. When 
a person has suffered from bleeding of the bowels a 
number of times, a predisposition to bleed gradually 
establishes itself, by-and-by this becomes habitual, and, 
under unfavorable conditions arising from constipation, 
the habit becomes an active and ever-present one, so 
that each time the person goes to stool a passage of the 
bowels is attended with a flow of blood from the rectal 
veins. This may be more or less debilitating and dan- 
gerous. In many instances it is, in the long run, quite 
destructive of physical vigor. In some instances it en- 
dangers life. There have been reported by medical men, 
through the medical journals in the country, instances 
not a few of persons bleeding to death while at stool. 
The general character and symptoms of hemorrhoids 
may be described by slight pain, or heat, connected 
with weight, or fullness, at the extremity of the lower 
bowel, or higher up across the sacrum, with, sometimes, 
sharp, darting pains, extending into the perineal region, 
and attended with bearing down, or severe pain at stool. j?ILES. 
433 
Not infrequently is an added sensibility of the urethra 
and neck of the bladder established, and, in women, 
there is such a bearing down pain, low down in front, 
as to make them mistake the disease for prolapsus of 
the womb, which is another and quite different disease. 
A great many cases of supposed falling of the womb 
have come under my professional care, when, upon a 
close diagnosis of the case, it was proved certain that 
the persons supposed thus to be suffering had nothing 
but blind piles, with some little irritation of the neck 
of the bladder and the neck of the womb. In the 
early stages of piles, the first indication is a slight col- 
oring of the faeces with blood of a bright color. When- 
ever this takes place, almost always it may be regarded 
as critical. Thereafter the indications temporarily sub- 
side. When, however, this discharge does not take 
place, while as yet it is evident that the person is suf- 
fering from, piles, he may rest assured that tumors 
larger or lesser in size have begun their formation, and 
that in time, when at stool, they will appear upon the 
turning down of the bowel. These tumors, as they 
grow, are accompanied by a pricking, or an itching 
sensation, so that one has a feeling of small ascarides, 
oi' pin-worms, in the bowel. Many persons suppose 
themselves to be troubled with worms, when they have 
them not-the feeling being the result of the growth 
of the hemorrhoids in the rectal passage. In the early 
stages these tumors sometimes remain dry, or the feces 
are covered with serum. After a while, the symp- 
toms all disappear, and the person supposes himself 434 
PILES. 
well; but no sooner does he take this satisfaction to 
himself than they re-appear, in added growth and with 
additional suffering. When this takes place, persons 
thus afflicted suffer more when standing, or walking, 
or sitting, and the pain oftentimes extends down the 
inside of the thighs, occasionally darting clear down to 
the feet, and sometimes along their bottoms to the balls 
of the feet; then blood flows in larger quantity than at 
first, the tumors being larger. When they disappear 
they leave corrugated flaps of skin, so that there is a 
serrated condition of the bowel at its termination. The 
disease originating, as I have said, in derangements of 
the stomach, liver and skin, oftentimes, especially in 
persons of highly nervous organizations, results in de 
cided impairment of the general health. You will find 
such persons to be subjected to bloodlessness of the ex- 
ternal skin, inducing chilliness, alternating with flushes 
of heat, and, sooner or later, attended with great pallor 
of countenance and an inability to exercise. Labor, 
which formerly was a pleasure, becomes a burden, and 
intellectual activity seems to be entirely beyond the 
control of the person's will. For it he is dependent 
upon the introduction into his circulation of stimulat 
ing drinks-they only reacting on the inflamed condi- 
tions of the bowels to add to the disability to relieve 
the patient. Thus the whole thing passes in a regular 
current, resulting steadily, though sometimes at length- 
ened intervals, in diminution of normal power, until, 
after a while, the subject becomes the victim, not onlj 
of diseased conditions of the rectum, but of such gen PILES. 
435 
erai derangement that to him life is of little or no com- 
fort, unless under the hope that he may be relieved of 
his maladies. Not infrequently, in scrofulous constitu- 
tions, piles are associated with highly sensitive, if not 
actually morbid conditions of the lungs. Wherever 
such sympathy exists, the lungs are temporarily relieved 
from any overburdened conditions which congestion in- 
duces, by a bleeding of the bowels ; but if the bleeding 
is sufficiently extended to act upon the general system 
in a debilitating manner, then, when reaction comes 
the person of weak or diseased lungs is all the more 
weakened and debilitated in lungs thereby. 
Dr. Copland, in his dissertation on piles, says that 
" Until lately hemorrhoids were divided into internal and 
external, or into bleeding and blind piles, according to 
their situation and to their connection with the sanguin- 
eous discharge. He thinks that there are three kinds 
of tumors, differing essentially both in their structure 
and appearance. The first, or most common kind, is 
first seen in the form of fleshy tubercles of a brownish, 
or pale red color, situated in the anus, or descending 
from the rectum. When these tumors are external, they 
are paler and more elastic, and are infiltrated by serum. 
« The next formation of tumors is caused by a vari- 
cose state of the veins of the rectum. They seldom at- 
tract attention until they have made some progress; for 
the distention takes place slowly. They are not so dis- 
posed to enlarge at particular periods, and are more per- 
manent and less painful than the first form. Commonly 
they are of a dark, or bluish color. When compressed 436 
PILES. 
by the finger they become sensibly less, but return to 
their former state when the pressure is removed. 
" The third form differs from either of the others in 
being soft and spongy to the touch, with distinct ves- 
sels on the surface of a purplish color. At stool one, 
or two, or more of these tumors generally protrude. In 
the early stages of-the disease the protruded parts retire 
spontaneously, but in advanced stages they require to 
be replaced by the hand. Evacuation of the bowel, in 
this, is followed by pain, which, especially when the dis- 
ease is prolonged, does not cease for a number of hours, 
and is attended by losses of blood which sometimes oc- 
casion exsanguine exhaustion." 
In my own practice, I have found the hemorrhoidal 
discharges to be extremely various, though, in many 
instances, they return with periodical exactness. In 
some instances, with women, the hemorrhoidal takes 
-the place of the menstrual discharge, particularly when 
persons have arrived at change of life; and then it is 
almost sure to assume a periodical form. In different 
persons the pain of hemorrhoids varies decidedly. With 
some it is almost unintermittent; others have an aggra- 
vation of it whenever they have a passage of the bow- 
els. With some persons it is eased under severe pres- 
sure, while with others it is increased. I have known a 
great many persons to have hemorrhoidal attacks to 
come on as the result of slight attacks of colic, and in 
instances not a few have the pains occurred with severe 
bleeding when the subjects of them have been particu- 
larly excited in mind for a length of time, PILES. 
437 
Acconq anting the existence of hemorrhoids there is 
often a severe irritation of the neck of the bladder and 
of the prostate glands in males, while in females there 
is, as I have already noticed, a decided congestion of 
the neck of the uterus, ultimately passing into a chronic 
inflammation, with such bearing down sensations as to 
make the person feel as if she were suffering from de- 
cided falling of the uterus. 
The more remote consequences from the existence of 
hemorrhoids, which have been witnessed in my practice, 
have been prolapsus ani, with such irritation of other 
organs adjacent to the bowels, as not infrequently to 
produce very severe distress. 
My treatment in piles has been, for the most part, 
constitutional. I regard them, in general, as of a secon- 
dary nature, originating, usually, in great derangement 
of the stomach, liver, bowels and external skin. When- 
ever, therefore, I have to do with the disease, in the 
main the treatment has been such as would naturally 
be indicated under such diagnosis. 
We have to treat two classes of persons who suffer 
from piles. 
1. Those who are thinkers, of sedentary habit and 
careless eaters. 
2. Persons of active life, who are gluttonous in their 
dietetic habits, while at the same time they are neglect- 
ful of the calls of nature, in reference to relieving the 
the bowels of whatever fecal matter may have come 
within their walls. 
It may not be uninteresting to the readers of this PILES. 
438 
book tc haze me report two or three cases, succinctly, 
by way of illustrating in general our methods of treat- 
ment. 
CASS I. . 
In the year 1851, there came to my house a young 
man who had been suffering intensely, and for a num 
ber of years, from piles. He had been a gross liver, 
was at the time such a drinker of ardent spirits as 
almost to pass the line of moderation, in the common 
meaning of that phrase, and a tobacco chewer and 
smoker. His case, in some of its aspects, was the most 
remarkable I have ever had to treat. For nearly four 
months after he came to our house, he never had a 
movement of the bowels without passing blood in such 
quantities as greatly to deplete and exsanguine him. 
To that degree did the bleeding take place that his skin 
became more thoroughly bloodless and pallid than that 
of any other person I have ever seen. 
My treatment was injections, to enable him to pass 
the matter of the bowels without strain, then imme- 
diately to turn the bowel back by hand pressure, to set 
him down in a sitz-bath, at 80°, for twenty minutes, 
and then let him lie in bed for one or two hours. 
Every day I gave him a thorough ablution of the 
whole body, attended with vigorous dry hand-rubbing 
after the water had been wiped off with a sheet. Satis- 
fied that he never could be cured without change in 
his iietetic and beverage habits, I took away from him 
q.11 stimulating foods and drinks, and gave him soil PILES. 
439 
water only as a drink. After about four months of 
treatment the hemorrhoidal tumors became suppurated, 
broke, and discharged large quantities of matter. At 
this time he was very thin in flesh, and quite feeble. 
Many persons thought that he would die ; but such was 
my confidence in Nature and her recuperative efforts, 
that I did not yield my conviction that he would ulti- 
mately get well; and after the suppuration of the 
hemorrhoids took place the bleeding ceased entirely, 
the young man's bowels became regular, his appetite 
was natural, and in six months from the time that he 
came to us he left our house much improved, and within 
four months after he left us he was in the enjoyment 
of as fine health as a man could ask, and within one 
year was weighing one hundred and seventy pounds. 
case n. 
A Philadelphia gentleman came to us who had had 
piles twenty years, and, to use his own language, had 
suffered pangs worse than death itself. lie was in 
feeble health, carried with him a most thoroughly ala- 
baster look-a sort of dead, sallowish white, indicative 
of great bloodlessness of the general system. 
He was treated on constitutional grounds. On two 
days in the week he took a half-bath at a temperature of 
85°, one minute. On one day in the week he took a pack 
which enveloped his whole body in a wet sheet, lying in 
it from thirty to forty minutes, and upon coming out 
he passed into a bath at a temperature of 82° for one 
minute, rubbed by two attendants, when taken out 440 
PILES. 
wiped dry and put bed. Three days in the week he 
took a sitz-bath at 85°, ten minutes ; 80°, five minutes; 
followed by wiping at the hand of an attendant. He 
wore abdominal bandages night and day, wet all 
around all the time. His head was covered during the 
day with a wet head-cap. His appetite, which had been 
poor, gradually increased in intensity, and we finally 
put him upon a fruit and grain diet exclusively. In 
the course of seven or eight months he was so well that 
when he left us he bore testimonies to our success, and 
his recovery was everywhere regarded by those who 
knew him as most remarkable. 
case ni. 
A gentleman living in one of the western cities, who 
had been a great sufferer from hemorrhoids for many 
years, came to us as a patient. Perhaps from the growth 
of this particular structure he had suffered more than 
any other patient whom I have ever treated. Con- 
nected with his piles there was such torpidity of liver 
as to indicate very great derangement of that organ- 
the skin being of a decidedly yellow hue, so that he 
looked like a light-colored yellow Indian. His health 
had become greatly impaired under his disease, and he 
came to us and was treated by us for some six or eight 
months, during which time his skin became white, his 
Blood increased in quantity, and the confidence of his 
friends in his recovery was greatly enhanced. When 
he left us, his improvement had been so great as to 
cheer us with the almost sure prospect of his entire PILES. 
441 
recovery. We hav: since heard from him, and learn 
that he is in good health and able to perform a great 
deal of business. 
Let these rules, then, be laid down for the treatment 
of piles: 
1. Purgatives should never be taken. Persons who 
take internal medicine for piles make a mistake. No 
one is ever benefited by them. Nor is there any real 
benefit derivable from any one of the panaceas. Quack 
medicines are all delusions, thorough cheats, doing no 
good. If one is relieved thereby he is, as I have be- 
fore stated, more likely than not to have, as a substi- 
tute for the piles, a disease still worse. 
2. Whoever having piles would get rid of them 
must eat unstimulatmg, simple food. Meats, cakes, 
dressings of rich gravies for the table, must be aban- 
doned, and in their place grains and vegetables, simply 
cooked, and fruits, substituted. Then, if the person is 
so situated as not to overtax the nervous system by 
labor or thought, and can give to himself or herself 
plenty of time in the open air whereby to re-invigorate 
the blood and make it pure, there is good chance that 
the person may recover. 
If persons would rear their children hygienically 
they never would have piles. If persons having piles 
will live hygienically, for the most part they will get well. 
Surgical operations which are performed for hemor- 
rhoidal tumors are of questionable use, and are not 
justifiable on the score of philosophy or success ; for 442 
FILES. 
very many of those who seek relief in this way are sorelj 
disappointed. By a person troubled with piles hard 
water should never be used as a drink, nor should any- 
thing be done which tends to constipate the bowels. 
When paroxysms of suffering occur, the best remedy 
is sitz-baths, followed by a recumbent posture, and 
during the paroxysms as little food should be taken as 
may be. CHAPTER L. 
SEXUAL ORGANS 
I do not in this book propose to treat at length of 
the diseases of the genital and reproductive organs. 
The reason for this is that I have already written a 
work on the " The Sexual Organism and its Healthful 
Management," which covers, in the main, my ideas on 
the subject of diseases of the sexual structure. Whoever, 
therefore, wishes to get at my thoughts with reference 
to the diseases of the genitals of man or woman, can do 
so by procuring that work, wherein will be found a much 
more thorough and complete statement of my views 
than I can make in these pages. I therefore shall 
only take liberty to refer herein to some of the leading 
ideas which I have entertained with reference to the 
causes of sexual diseases, and the true method of treat- 
ing them. 
Sexual diseases in man or woman may be divided 
into two classes; those which are constitutional and 
those which are functional; and again subdivided into 
those which are acute and those which are chronic. 
Certain persons are born with predisposition to de- 
bility or disease of the sexual organs. Such persons 
arc uniformly scrofulous and constitute a class from 
443 444 
SEXUAL ORGANS. 
which pulmonary consumptives are furnished. In the 
male line, persons thus predisposed, when their habits 
and conditions of living are such as are favorable to 
development of actual disease, will be found to have 
diseases which arise from debility of the sexual organs, 
such as seminal emissions in various phases, and which 
ofttimes prove very destructive to the health, and, not 
infrequently, to the life of those who are afflicted there- 
with. 
In the female line, those who are thus constitutionally 
predisposed under such conditions of living as are un- 
favorable to healthy living, wall have leucorrhcea or 
whites of a very debilitating and enervating character; 
will also have prolapsus of the vagina; will also have 
chronic inflammation of the neck of the uterus, and 
not infrequently will have tumorous growths upon the 
uterus, or, if not upon that, have enlargement of the 
ovaries. I do not think that I have ever had to notice 
a case of ovarian disease where the subject of it was 
not substantially scrofulous, the original or primal 
cause being a defective assimilation, the blood-mo king 
organs transforming food into blood defectively, <md 
thus creating an enfeebled nutrient and nervorx con- 
dition. 
Where the disease is functional it arises from much 
more varied causes ; in many instances from masturba- 
tion ; in other instances from poisons introduced into 
the system in the act of cohabitation between man and 
woman; or, in the woman, from too frequent child- 
bearing ; or, in the man, from too great sexual indul- SEXUAL ORGANS. 
445 
gence, though it be within the conjugal pale. The 
functiona. derangements of the genitals, therefore, may 
be considered as much more numerous than those 
which arise from constitutional causes. 
Now, the way to treat all these diseases, whatever 
their name or nature, is on the Psycho-hygienic basis; 
to revitalize devitalized parts, and to do this by making 
the effort at the centers of vitalization. This demands, 
necessarily, an improved condition of the nervous sys- 
tem, and, of necessity, of the nutritive system. Who- 
ever has a defective or diseased state of the sexual sys- 
tem, can have the disease cured better by and through 
an improved condition of the nervous and blood-mak 
ing system than he can by any specific remedy applied 
to the part especially diseased. 
In case of seminal emissions this is pre-eminently 
true. The Psycho-hygienic treatment is, beyond all 
question, superior to the drug-medicating treatment. 
I have had occasion to treat over seven thousand per- 
sons afflicted with seminal emissions, and I believe, 
out of the whole number, I have never failed to cure 
ten of them. The same is true of those diseases with 
which women are particularly afflicted, known in gen- 
eral terms as female diseases; such as falling of the 
womb, anteversion of it and retroversion of it; such as 
vaginal prolapsus, chronic inflammation of the neck of 
the womb, chronic inflammation of the internal lining 
membrane of the womb, ulceration of that membrane, 
ulceration of the neck of the womb, vaginal ulcera- 
tion, debilitated condition of the vaginal membrane, in- 446 
SEXUAL ORGANS. 
ducing leucorrhoeal flow, or what is known as whites; 
ulceration of the mouth of the vagina. All these and 
other forms of disease of the sexual organs of women, 
I have treated better by the Psycho-hygienic methods 
than they were ever treated by any drug-medicating 
methods however applied. I have treated over eight 
thousand women troubled with various forms of female 
weaknesses, and have never had, except in the earlier 
periods of my practice, to use any particular means, 
locally applied, for their recovery. Both with men 
and women I have found that their progress to cure 
was better, safer, and even more expeditious, other 
things being equal, than in cases of other persons, in 
like manner affected, who were in the hands of phy- 
sicians who gave them medicines and applied remedies 
of a medicated character to the parts diseased. 
I am satisfied, therefore, that, as a grand fact, all 
the functional derangements with which either sex is 
afflicted, which are not caused by the introduction into 
the circulation of some virulent poisons, such as vene- 
real poisons, are more easily and permanently cured 
by Psycho-hygienic treatment than by any other 
method known. Where a diseased condition of the 
sexual organs exists, caused by the introduction of a 
specific poison into the circulation, whether it be in the 
form of gonorrhoea, acute or chronic, or syphilis pri- 
mary or secondary-but especially of the secondary type 
-the Psycho-hygienic treatment is more thoroughly and 
decidedly curative than the drug-treatment can be. It 
uas, in this direction, one advantage over the drug- SEXUAL ORGANS. 
447 
treatment of diseases, just as it has in the direction of 
the treatment of other diseases-that it does not im- 
pair the constitution nor waste the vitality of the pa- 
tient, nor fix upon him or her a diathesis or habit of 
body from which there is no escape. Drug-treatment 
does this in a great many instances, and it does it in 
the way of establishing, by constitutional involvement, 
a secondary disease, from which it is very difficult to 
relieve the patient even under Psycho-hygienic treat- 
ment. Secondary syphilis, therefore, is, in many in- 
stances, much more difficult to cure than primary 
syphilis would be, because it has been induced by the 
introduction into the system, as remedies, of poisons 
which, instead of acting as re-agents, and so overcom- 
ing the original disease, have only partially reacted, and 
therefore have left the organism in conditions more 
difficult out of which to deliver and restore it to health 
than it would have been had the drug-poisons never 
been taken. 
I therefore most seriously recommend to all persons 
having any form of weakness or derangement or dis- 
ease of the sexual system, to avoid the use of drug- 
medicines, especially if these are in their nature poison- 
ous, and to seek for their recovery only through the 
Psycho-hygienic treatment. 
For further information in respect to the treatment 
of specific diseases, I most respectfully refer my readers 
to the work already alluded to, entitled " The Sexual 
Organism and its Healthful Management." CHAPTER LI. 
BHEUMATISM. 
Tins disease may be divided into three kinds: first, 
that of the muscles ; second, that of the joints; tliird, 
that of the nerves. Physicians differ as to the nature 
of the disease, as well as to the causes which induce it, 
some thinking it to be a disease simply arising from 
disturbed circulation; others as stoutly claiming that 
it is entirely dependent for its existence upon the de- 
fective organization of the blood; others upon a de- 
praved condition of the blood. It seems to me that it 
may fairly be attributed to all these; for under the treat- 
ment of the very many cases with which I have had 
to deal it has appeared that its existence in any form is 
dependent upon a scrofulous diathesis. I do not re- 
collect ever to have had a case of it wherein the sub- 
ject did not most clearly show this form of organiza- 
tion. 
The provoking causes to its appearance are very 
many, and so unlike, as, to a superficial observer, to 
seem to bear no natural connection with each other. 
A person of scrofulous constitution may have at dif- 
ferent periods in his life, and under circumstances quite 
different, all the kinds of rheumatism. Where one 
448 .RHEUMATISM. 
449 
does have them, the usual order of appearance is that 
which I have described, rheumatism of the muscles 
appearing first, then that of the joints, and lastly 
nervous rheumatism. 
When one first begins to suffer from muscular rheu- 
matism, it is not difficult for him to be cured if 
Psycho-hygienically; but if he be treated from the 
drug-standpoint, it is likelier than otherwise that when 
he has rid himself from the disease in his muscles, he 
will find that he is not cured, but that he has changed 
the form of appearance of it, and that it will show 
itself with more or less severity in his joints. If he 
then proceeds to treat it by the administration of drug- 
poisons, he may, after a "while, become relieved of it; 
and if he knows no better he may consider himself 
very fortunate. But if he thoroughly understand the 
nature of his ailment, and the effect of drug-medica- 
tion thereupon, he will be looking rather anxiously, 
and somewhat expectantly, for its appearance in the 
form of nervous rheumatism. It is not often that 
drug-medication serves to fix a rheumatic condition 
while the muscles only are affected; but it is not 
infrequently the case that where it has passed from the 
muscles to the joints, and the patient takes powerful 
drug-medicines for its cure, so far from being re- 
lieved thereby the disease takes on a chronic form, and 
the joints become so affected as to render any pros- 
pect of relief by the administration of drug-remedies 
altogether out of the question. It is almost always the 
ease that when it has passed from the muscles to the 450 
RHEUMATISM. 
joints, and from these to the nerves, and one comes 
to have what is usually considered and regarded as 
nervous rheumatism, the case passes beyond the re- 
actionary effects of drugs, insomuch that they can 
have no influence whatever in the production of cure. 
Rheumatism, whether of the muscles or of the joints, 
or of the nerves, or all three, whether arising from de- 
rangements of the blood or from defective organization 
of it, or of depraved condition of it, usually shows in 
connection with it, dyspepsia, torpor of liver, conges- 
tion of the kidneys, and very great inactivity of the 
skin. I now do not recollect a decided case of rheu- 
matism of any sort where the person could say with 
truth that the digestion was unimpaired. It might 
never have been obvious to him under the conditions 
under which he placed himself; for his stomach may 
have been made to take on tone by the introduction 
into the circulation of diffusible stimulants or of ner- 
vines, or of tonics, other than those which are furnish- 
able in the food one eats ; but if a change be wrought 
out under a disuse of these particular or specific sub- 
stances, and the system is left to show just such vital 
conditions as must exist in their absence and under 
the use only of proper nutrients, then dyspepsia is cer- 
tain to appear, and then more likely than not liver 
derangement, as also derangement of the kidneys and 
the skin, will be manifest. But if not all these are 
shown in connection with dyspepsia, some of them 
will be sure to appear, and the case becomes a compli 
cated one. Where you have dyspepsia alone; where RHEUMATISM. 
451 
the stomach seems to be the main vital organ which 
has come to be deranged, then one may look for simple 
muscular rheumatism • but where the liver, as well 
as the stomach, is deranged, then one may calculate 
not merely on having rheumatism of the muscles but 
rheumatism of the joints as well. Where chronic con- 
gestion of the kidneys is marked as a feature in the 
case, then one may calculate on seeing, along with 
rheumatism of the muscles and of the joints, that of 
the nerves. 
Of course wherever there be a derangement of the 
blood caused by imperfect assimilation of food, so mak- 
ing a defective quality of blood, or where there is de- 
fective distribution of blood already made; or where 
there is depraved condition of it arising from imperfect 
or insufficient action of the eliminative organs, thus 
keeping the blood impure, there will be less difficulty 
in treating the disease than if all three of these pro- 
vocative causes for its existence should clearly show 
themselves. 
Oi iginating as the disease does, no matter what its 
form of appearance, in one or the other of these con- 
ditions of the blood, the curative treatment is readily 
indicated. First and foremost as a curative must be 4 
the use of proper food. In this direction, I think the 
Psycho-hygienic idea to be worthy all that we claim 
for it. A rheumatic person should not eat flesh meats, 
nor should he eat highly-seasoned food either of an 
animal or vegetable nature. A great many per- 
sor s suffering from rheumatism might be cured by means 452 
RHEUMATISM. 
just as sin pie as one needs to employ. To eat only 
such food as can easily be made into blood, exciting for 
that purpose only such a modicum of vital force as may 
be described as minimum in its measurement; to keep 
up a healthy action of the secreting organs, thus mak- 
ing abundant blood and yet of a healthy quality; to 
keep in good conditions the excretory organs; and to 
see to it that on each day as it goes by the patient has 
ample opportunity afforded for recreation as against 
fatigue;-do this, and if the case be a new one, and 
the patient therefore has escaped heavy drug-medica- 
tion for this or for any previous disease, his recovery 
may be considered as not only certain but compara- 
tively easy. 
At any rate, such has been my experience when 
called to cases which may be clearly regarded as hav- 
ing been simple in their nature; and I have always 
seen the best results arise from an application of the 
Psycho-hygienic treatment demonstrated in such simple 
form as to challenge the wonder, if not the surprise, 
of the looker on. In spite of himself he would say 
that, marked as the results were, the means used did 
seem to him to be altogether incommensurate with 
them ; and, if he were disposed to be incredulous, it 
would be difficult to make him believe that sucli con- 
sequence could flow so readily from only such a course. 
In quite a number of cases 1 have had medical men ex- 
press it as their opinion that the patients must have 
had administered to them some form of medicinal reme- 
dies, it seeming to them utterly impossible that cure RHEUMATISM. 
453 
should be made without their use, they always having 
had their faith in their admitted principle of cure so 
actively in exercise as not to justify the belief that such 
results could be produced by means so simple. 
But if they were made to wonder when they saw 
how readily simple cases of muscular rheumatism 
yielded to the Psycho-hygienic treatment in its more 
obviously simple forms of appearance, their wonder has 
become surprise, and this, astonishment, when they 
have been told both by patients and physicians that rheu- 
matism of the joints, in some instancesof the worst forms, 
and of the nerves also, has been entirely overcome and 
permanently cured by the Psycho-hygienic treatment. 
I do not know that any disease that it has been my 
good fortune to treat Psycho-hygienically with success 
has in its cure created more surprise amongst physicians 
than rheumatism. This might rationally be expected, 
because it is one of the most difficult diseases with which 
they have to deal under their methods of practice. I 
would not do them injustice nor speak in any way de- 
tractively of themselves or of their methods of prac- 
tice ; but truth compels me to say that where the 
simplest form of rheumatism is cured by the taking of 
poisons either allopathically, homeopathically, or eclec- 
tically administered, or in whatever form taken, fifty 
cases out of a hundred are not only not cured, but 
made very much worse from taking such poisons ; the 
effect of taking them, if not to make the disease more 
complicated, being to make it assume a chronic instead 
of an acute form. 454 
RHEUMATISM. 
In this respect much is lost and nothing gained ; fot 
any disease is more difficult to cure when it passes from 
the acute into the chronic form. Where physicians 
have had acute rheumatism, whether of muscle, bone 
or nerve to treat, and have administered their drug- 
remedies with a view to its cure, and have failed, and 
the disease has become, under their administration, 
chronic in its nature-when such case or cases have 
passed into my care, I have uniformly found that a 
worse condition existed than could well have been if 
no drug-medicines had been given. Had such persons 
been left to the treatment of nature alone, no physi- 
cians having been employed at all, they would have 
been better off, I feel sure, than they were ; for in the 
latter case their diseases had become worse ; while in 
the former view, considerable many of them would, in 
time, have got entirely well. 
Let any person, then, who has rheumatism of any 
kind, and wishes to get well, avoid taking into his sys- 
tem, for remedial purposesj anything like poisonous 
medicines. If he will doctor with medicinal remedies, 
let these be of the simplest and most innoxious nature. 
If it be neccessary, in order to keep up his hope and 
make his faith active, that something in the form of 
remedies should be given, then let such be compounded 
of what may be termed the simples. I would, how- 
ever, most urgently and respectfully press upon the 
consideration of all persons afflicted with rheumatism, 
as I would for all other kinds or forms of disease, that 
the Psycho-hygienic treatment be employed, and that RHEUMATISM. 
455 
they follow it with perseverance and the most thorough 
patience. If they will do so, they certainly will re- 
cover their health if they are curable. 
AV here rheumatism of the muscles or of the joints 
exists, hydropathic treatment may he regarded, in con 
flection with other means used, as of prime quality 
The wet-sheet pack for the whole body, followed by 
the half-bath or the dripping-sheet, or the towel-wa?h, 
vigorously given; or a derivative sitz-bath, in some 
instances quite warm or hot, given for a little while, 
say for ten minutes, to be followed by a haht-bath 01 
dripping-sheet, at a temperature as low as eighty or 
seventy-five, will be found of most excellent service. 
The hot foot-bath taken for five or ten minutes, fol- 
lowed by a douche as cold as eighty-five or eighty 
over the parts particularly affected; the hot and cold 
spray or fomentation cloths over the parts affected (tho 
latter following immediately the former) with a half- 
bath or dripping sheet, will be found of most excellent 
effect. 
In connection with whatever form of water treat- 
ment may be given, opening of the bowels should 
also be secured, and abundant rest should be had both 
ff body and mind. Food which is nutritious tut un- 
exciting should be used. In all cases of muscular or 
joint rheumatism, I think the conditions of the blood 
indicate a free use of sub-acid fruits. Of the far- 
inaceous foods to be eaten none is so good as wheat. 
Of vegetable-, none better than soup made of peas, 
either green or dried, and the various preparations of 456 
RHEUMATISM. 
potato. Hard water should be sedulously avoided. 
Sugar should be eaten, at most, only in small quanti- 
ties. Milk, where it does not create sensible disturb- 
ance, may be used in moderate quantity with benefit. 
Coimnon salt should be dispensed with, as should all 
fatty and highly carbonaceous foods, whether animal or 
) vegetable. Alcoholic liquors should be foregone en- 
tirely, whether fermented, like wine, or distilled, like 
brandy, or brewed, like beer. 
Where rheumatism of the nerves exists in connection 
with that of the muscles and the joints, or disconnected 
with them, a primary necessity, in order to cure, is the 
use of the most rigid diet. It is always difficult to 
deal with diseases of the nerves themselves. W ith any 
organs where the nerves are not involved, one can more 
readily deal, because these are the medium of trans- 
mitting vital force, and while they are healthy in their 
nature or in their action, vital force can be compara- 
tively easily determined. But where the nerves them- 
selves are diseased, the distribution or application of 
vital force becomes more difficult, and direct effects 
upon the outside parts can scarcely be looked for. It 
is only in such case that they can bo reached through 
the change which may be made to go on in the general 
system. 
Nervous rheumatism, therefore, no matter what its 
peculiar form maybe, is a very difficult disease to over- 
come. If it be generally neuralgic, showing itself at 
different points of the body at different periods of time, 
or if it be locally neuralgic, as in the case of sciatica or RHEUMATISM. 
457 
rheumatism of the great nerve which extends to the 
lower extremities, the physician and his patient may 
calculate on having a cure made only by such processes 
of change as amount to a reconstruction. Little ben- 
efit comes from seeking to produce permanently cura 
tive results from the administration of means, what- 
ever these may be, only to the part affected. 
I have treated a good many cases of nervous rheu 
matism with success, some of as long standing as ten 
years, and where, too, the patient had taken a great 
amount of medicines, and these of a narcotic nature ; 
but I should prefer never to have any more of like 
cases to treat. The patient becomes so wearied, and 
the physician too, with the obstinacy that the disease 
shows, as to justify the statement that, but for the fact 
that all that a rheumatic patient hath will he give for 
his restoration, and that unless cured, so as to be able 
to enjoy health, he may live on for years and suffer 
very greatly, I would never consent to take a case of 
nervous rheumatism where the diathesis had become 
fixed under drug-medications. I can but think that if 
medical men of the drug-administrative schools could 
be led to reflect on the terrible suffering to which they 
subject their rheumatic patients by giving them poison- 
ous medicines, they would hesitate before doing so. 
To give strychnine, colchicum, arsenic, calomel, opium 
and many other drug-medicaments, as many of these 
physicians do, seems to me horrible. When Psycho- 
hygiene comes to be understood in its prophylactics, or 
means of prevention of disease, as 1 hope it some d iy 458 
RHEUMATISM. 
will, then persons will not have rheumatism as much 
as they do now, and will therefore be less under the 
seeming necessity, on their part, of taking poisonous 
drugs. For that good time I most devoutly pray, and 
hope that I may live long enough at least to see its 
dawning. CHAPTER LII. 
INTERMITTENT FEVEE OE FEVEE AND AGUE. 
This disease is so common in what is called marshy 
or lowland districts of our country as hardly to need 
any detailed description. In fact, at some time or 
other in the settlement of all parts of the country the 
resident inhabitants thereof have had more or less of 
it amongst them. I hardly know of a wooded region 
where, in the clearing up of the land, the settlers have 
not had more or less intermittent fever. 
Its provoking cause is understood by physicians 
generally to be a miasm or malaria or poisonous 
effluvium developed under the decomposition and de- 
struction of organized vegetable matter, mingling itself 
with the blood, and poisoning it so as to create a febrile 
state of the body, though it has been lately claimed 
that it is the effluvium of a vegetable growth. 
The disease is of such a nature as not to be ranked 
as dangerous to life. Its ultimate and worst effects 
are seen in the impairment of constitutional vigor. 
The disease is not infectious or contagious ; is not con 
fined to any season of the year, but prevails more in 
the spring and early autumn than in the summer oj 
winter. 
459 460 
INTERMITTENT FEVER OR FEVER AND AGUE. 
Medical classifiers of disease have divided fever and 
ague under three distinctions : the quotidian, which is 
a daily ague, the paroxysm occurring at or nearly the 
same hour every day ; the tertian, or that wherein the 
fit occurs every other day; and the quartan, or that 
wherein the paroxysm omits for two whole days and 
then returns. It will he seen that the interval in the 
first is twenty-four hours; in the second, forty-eight; 
and, in the third, seventy-two hours. The tertian ague 
is more common than either the quotidian or the 
quartan with the people of the middle and north- 
western States of the Republic. Out of many hun- 
dreds of cases with which I have had to deal, I have 
seldom found persons who had the quotidian or quartan 
ague. And in these cases, I think, nearly all, if not 
all, originally had their paroxysms alternate days, 
which were broken up under remedies taken, to re 
appear every day or every third day. 
Those who have seen more of the quotidian and quar 
\an types than I have, say that these, like the tertian, 
nave each characteristics peculiar to itself. Thus, while 
the fit of the tertian begins at noon, the quotidian be- 
gins in the morning, and the quartan in the afternoon. 
No matter, however, what difference in the time of ap- 
pearing the disease may show, the conditions of the 
system under it are substantially the same. 
A fit of ague in its duration puts on three distinct 
stages : the cold or the shivering stage, which lasts in 
different persons different periods of time, passing into 
the hot or fever stage, -whoso duration is longer in the INTERMITTENT FEVER OR FEVER AND AGUE. 
461 
cases of different persons; and the sweating or termi 
nating stage. Some persons have severe shivering with 
modified fever, and little or no sweating; some less 
shivering, more fever and more sweating; some less 
shivering, less fever and more sweating, as the case 
may be, each person showing peculiarity according to 
his or her constitutional tendency or type of build. 
My own observation has led me to this view: that 
persons of the nervous or nervous-sanguine tempera- 
ment suffer more during the paroxysm from the ague ; 
those of bilious temperament from the fever, and those 
of the lymphatic temperament, or some combinations 
in which the lymphatic predominates, from the sweat- 
ing. I think this conclusion is not a fanciful one ; but 
is based upon a fair and quite broad accumulation of 
facts. If it has any foundation in fact, it may have 
something to do in determining the particular method 
of treatment to be administered in each case as it 
stands. Most certainly it would modify my applica- 
tion of remedial means that a person should have a 
severer chill and fever than he did of sweating, or that 
he should have more fever and more sweating than he 
did of chill. In the one case I should give one kind 
of combination of treatment, in the other case quite a 
different one, just as I should treat a person who had 
an attack of fever once in three days differently from 
what I should a person who had it every day in the 
morning. 
There are two very important views to be taken with 
reference to intermittent fever. One is that the true 462 
INTERMITTENT FEVER OR FEVER AND AGUE. 
Psycho-hygienic method of living would bo almost a 
certain preventive of it, no matter in F/hat district one 
might live. The other is that having it, living where- 
ever one may, it is far better to be treated Psycho-hygi- 
enically for it than to take the specific remedies which 
are in vogue amongst physicians. 
As to the first, I have never been able to satisfy my- 
self why, in the nature of things, human beings should 
be subject to intermittent fever because of the miasm 
which they introduce into their blood through the at- 
mosphere that they take into their lungs any more than 
why horses should have it, except on the ground that 
human beings under their conditions of living are not 
so healthfully related thereto as horses are, except also 
that human beings have a more susceptible nervous 
system than horses, by reason of their higher cerebro- 
nervous organization. A horse has an organic nervous 
system-lungs, heart, stomach, liver, bowels, kidneys 
and skin, each of which is intended to perform to the 
organization of which it is a part the same office pre- 
cisely that it does in the human organization of which 
it is also a part. The blood of a horse when analyzed 
shows substantially the same constituent elements that 
the blood of a man shows ; so that this great primary 
organ in the horse is clearly intended to serve the same 
purpose for him that the blood of a man does for him. 
Now, different as may be the external organization of 
the horse from that of the man, the fact that he has all 
the vital organs which a man has, renders it altogether 
probable, and is, I think, logically conclusive that tho INTERMITTENT FEVER OR FEVER A.XD LGUE. 
463 
same causes in proper proportion to the effects to be 
produced by their operation would produce the same 
effects in the horse as in the man; yet while human 
beings all over our country, and, for that matter, all 
over the world, are sick more or less from fever and 
ague, no horse on the American continent, or any 
where else that I ever heard of, was ever known to 
have it. No matter how much the miasm or malaria 
is mingled up with common atmosphere, the horse 
breathes it into his lungs and mingles it up with his 
blood without any ill effects therefrom ; yet it is under- 
stood, and generally supposed, that a human being can- 
not do this with any degree of impunity. The general 
impression is, and it has been confirmed by all that 
physicians have said on the subject, that if a man lives 
in a malarious district, no matter how he may live, he 
will have fever and ague. 
In this general conclusion I do most respectfully de- 
clare my disbelief. I do not think that human beings 
are naturally any more disposed to take on derange- 
ments of their bodies, resulting in fever and ague than 
horses are, provided they, in all respects, were to live 
as thoroughly ■within the line of the laws of their health 
and their lives as horses always do when free from man, 
and as, for the most part, they do though they are sub- 
ject to him. 
I wish, therefore, to say that if human beings would 
do four things, being healthy, I think they would never 
have intermittent fever: First, eat farinaceous and 
fruit foods only ; second, avoid all overstraining of the 464 
INTERMITTENT FEVER OR FEVER AND AGUE. 
nervous system and over-taxation of the muscular sys- 
tem ; third, keep their skin clean by frequent ablu- 
tions of it in soft water; fourth, abstain from the 
use of all condiments, including spices and common 
salt, and drugs and medicines of every kind, which, if 
Shey were taken into the stomach and the circulation of 
a person in health, would either make him sick or tend 
to make him sick. 
I am led to this conclusion by this simple fact, that 
I have had during my practice a large number of per- 
sons who, living in fever and ague districts of country, 
and having come to me to be treated for it after the 
ordinary remedies used by physicians had entirely failed, 
have been entirely cured under Psycho-hygienic treat- 
ment, and have gone home to follow out the methods 
of life advocated by me; and though living in the same 
districts where they had lived for years previous to com- 
ing to me, and during which time they had annual at- 
tacks of fever and ague, under the new mode adopted 
under my suggestion, have not for years had one single 
recurrence of the disease. 
If, then, it be true that a man living in a malarious 
district of country does have fever and ague while the 
subject of certain habits or modes of physical life, and 
ceases to have it, though he continue to reside in that 
district, when he changes his habits and modes of life, 
it logically follows, so it seems to me, that the malaria 
which he takes into his circulation is innoxious, because 
it lacks the proper constituents in his blood, or in his 
organized tissue, or in. the conditions of his nervous INTERMITTENT FEVER OR FEVER AND AGUE. 
465 
system, whereby to be made effective in the production 
of disease. This is my theory about the matter, just 
as it is my theory about pulmonary consumption aids 
ing from the ordinary use of impure air. I am, there- 
fore, convinced that if one can so regulate his dietetics 
and his labor, and the cleanliness of his body as to 
secure to himself good healthy blood, and healthy 
tissue organized out of that blood, simply a malari- 
ous district and breathing what is termed the mias- 
matic poison, will not produce in him intermittent 
fever. 
I do not see why I may not rationally take up thin 
view and rest upon it conclusively, because of the 
changes which have occurred in my own practice, and 
which are incontrovertible facts, and because also col- 
lateral evidence of the truth of my view is furnished 
in other directions through another class of facts. Take 
for instance this as one of them: Whooping-cough com.es 
into a family and affects four children out of five, but 
the fifth is exempt. lie is just as much exposed to the 
infection as are the others, yet they have it, and he 
does not. Measles gets into a neighborhood, and, un- 
der the same conditions of exposure, three-fifths of all 
the children in the neighborhood have it, but the other 
two-fifths escape. The small-pox comes into a commu- 
nity, and six out of ten persons have it, yet four out of 
the ten do not. 
How is this to be accounted for ? I account for it 
on the ground of different degrees of vital resistance 
which the affected and the unaffected show, those 466 
INTERMITTENT FEVER OR FEVER AND AGUE. 
who are made sick not having enough of it at disposa. 
to protect them, so they become sick ; those who do not 
have it being in better conditions to resist it, escape it. 
Largely the difference between these persons is to be 
accounted for not on constitutional but on functional 
conditions of their bodies at the time of exposure, and 
these conditions are mainly conditions of living involv- 
ing methods, habits, fashions, plans and ways of life. 
Though these are not obvious to the superficial ob- 
server, yet they are perceivable on close inspection. 
One man in his habits of living, take them together 
as a whole, so uses up power that when he is exposed 
there is no available vital force at command ; so he 
has to become sick. For under the Psycho-hygienic 
theory the vital principle always exerts itself, under 
any given circumstances, to the utmost possible degree 
in the direction of protecting life, and therefore in the 
direction of preserving health. No human being ever 
gets sick while, under the circumstances, it is possible 
for him to keep well, sickness being a condition of life 
abnormal, and therefore unnatural, and which, at the 
time, the vital force could not possibly guard against. 
I recollect, some years ago, suggesting the idea, 
through a medical journal, I believe, that fever and 
ague is a disease which might be avoided by persons 
living in miasmatic regions, provided always great care 
and attention were paid by the inhabitants to their 
modes of life. Amongst other things which I brought 
to notice were en tire abstinence from animal food; 
great regularity of habit in the direction of labor and INTERMITl'ENl FEVER OR FEVER AND AGUE. 
467 
nf rest; entire sexual continence during the summer 
solstice; complete and utter disuse of common salt; 
the avoidance also of condiments; the use only of soft 
water as a drink, and this cold; the disuse of all fer- 
mented breads; a practical disuse, during the warm 
seasons, of sugar ; a free use of sub-acid fruits in their 
natural state ; the eating of two meals a day, and never 
any food later than three o'clock in the afternoon, if 
the person were going to bed early in the night; the 
washing of the body as often as three times a week, 
and such social conditions of life as would insure free- 
dom from fretting and long-continued mental anxiety. 
About two years after I had made the statement, I 
received a letter from a physician, stating that he had 
accidentally read my article; was impressed with the 
thoughts in it; and himself a great sufferer from fever 
and ague, and an extensive practitioner in the direc- 
tion of the treatment of the disease, .living himself in 
a malarious region, he determined to test my theory as 
well as he could in his own person. The results aston- 
ished him; for although by reason of his profession, 
which compelled him to sleep and eat and work irre- 
gularly, he could not carry out my suggestions in 
full; to the degree that he was able to do so, he did, 
and though in far less favorable circumstances than he 
would have been could he have lived up to my advice, 
he nevertheless found himself so improved between the 
time of his undertaking my treatment and the fever 
and ague season of the succeeding year, that he entirely 
escaped the disease that year and the next, though he 468 
15 TER MITT ENT FEVER OR FEVER AND AGUE. 
had not done so for several years previous, and though 
his neighbors had had it in the two years in which he 
had had nothing of it, as severely and as sufferingly as 
ever before. 
He said that upon reading my letter, the only point 
upon "which the suggestions that I presented seemed to 
him unreliable was that of the disuse of flesh meat; 
but now he believed that in all the things wherein he 
had made reformation in his habits, not one was more 
beneficial than that of abstaining from flesh meats. 
He concluded by saying, that he was entirely con- 
verted to my idea that fever and ague depended far 
more upon certain conditions of body produced by cer- 
tain conditions of living, in connection with the mal- 
arious poison introduced into the blood, than from the 
effects upon the body of the malaria alone introduced 
into the circulation. 
Some eight years ago I received a letter from a 
young man living in Indiana in the valley of the Wa- 
bash, -who told me that he was a great sufferer from 
fever and ague, having had it for seven successive years, 
that he had taken all the medicines "which had been 
prescribed by his physicians, and that he felt that ho 
was being killed. He wanted to know if I thought 
there was any help for him. I told him that having 
been drug-medicated so severely, I dared not, in the 
absence of a personal examination of his case, promise 
him a cure under a course of treatment at home; but 
that if he would come and let me see him, if I decided 
that I could do nothing for him, I would make him INTERMITTENT FEVER OR FEVER AND AGEE. 
469 
welcome for a few days, and would charge him nothing 
foi looking at his case. 
So on he came; underwent his examination, and 
by my advice went under treatment. He had an en- 
larged liver and an enlarged spleen ; and, on the whole, 
was rather a pitiable-looking object. Of bilious tem- 
perament, he had become of a nasty, dingy, sallow 
color, a sort of rotton-stone brown. I kept him eight 
months, changed his whole organization in its func- 
tional relations, so that he was as fine and fair a 
specimen of manly health to look upon as one would 
wish to see. He went home, stayed in the neighbor- 
hood where he had lived the whole seven years during 
which he suffered from intermittent fever ; where, too, 
his neighbors had it more or less every year, and con- 
tinued to have it; and yet for five years, during which 
time he lived there, he never had it. He enlisted in 
the army, and went through a series of exposures as a 
private soldier, and for the two years, during which he 
was largely on fatigue duty, never had one sick day. 
Poor fellow ! What disease could not do, a bullet did. 
In a grand fight he was shot through the lungs and 
died. 
I have on record not less than fifty letters from men 
who came to me in poor health, many of them practi- 
cally broken down from having fever and ague for 
years before coming 1) me ; but who, under the Psycho- 
hvo-ienic methods of treatment were cured of their 
agues 5 restored to good health j went into the v ar , 
passed through all the hardships of it for two or three 470 
INTERMITTENT FEVER OR FEVER AND AGUE. 
years; never went into a hospital in the entire time; 
never took a particle of medicine, and came out whole. 
Very likely the inquiry will be raised, what was their 
dietary ? I have to say that in the great majority of 
instances they utterly and completely refused the use 
of animal food, living, week in and week out, on bread 
and beans if they could get nothing else. 
But if one has not learned how to protect himself 
against intermittent fever, and so does have fever and 
ague, what is the true method of treating it ? I have 
to say that my plan substantially involves all those in- 
strumentalities which I have described as so effectual 
in preventing it, and, in addition thereto, a course of 
Hygienic treatment. 
In my earlier practice I used to give treatment to 
my fever and ague patients on the days in which the 
paroxysms occurred; but after a while the impression 
fastened itself on me that a better way would be to 
give treatment on the days of the interval of the parox- 
ysms ; or if the case be one of quotidian ague, to give 
it at that period of the day when the paroxysm was ofl 
the patient. So adopting that I have followed it with 
great satisfaction. 
In cases of fever and ague where the patient is of 
full habit of body, not being thin and skeletony and 
very debilitated, my plan of administrating treatment 
is substantially as follows: Give the patient a sitz- 
bath, the water of which is as high in temperature, at 
least, as the blood, and as much higher, up to one hun- 
dred and ten, as seems comfortable and pleasant. In INTERMITTENT FEVEE OR FEVEE AND AGUE. 
471 
connection, with this also give a hot foot-bath, requir- 
ing the patient to immerse the hands in the sitz-bath . 
wrap the head up in cold, wet towels ; cover the bodj 
up with sheets or a comfortable, well tucked up behind 
the neck and tucked in between his back and the back 
of the sitz-bath. After sitting a few minutes, give him 
a gill of cool water to drink. When he has come to 
sweat well, take him out and put him in a cold, wet 
sheet-pack, which will then feel pleasant to him. Put 
on clothing 'enough to keep him warm. If he falls 
asleep, let him lie while he sleeps, though he be in 
an hour or two. If he does not go to sleep, or wakes 
up out of his sleep, take him out at the end of forty 
minutes and give him a dripping-sheet, which should 
be at a temperature of eighty-five or eighty. Rub 
well by an attendant; dry off the body. Put the pa- 
tient to bed ; keep him there for two hours. Let him 
have farinaceous food with fruits, eaten plentifully. 
See that his bowels are kept open and his surroundings 
pleasant. This all to be done on the day when he has 
no paroxysm. 
The next day, when the paroxysm comes on, keep 
him warm when he is cold, cool when he is warm ; and 
wipe his skin off at. the close of his sweating. Let him 
live on fluid foods only. Follow this treatment up as 
prescribed. 
If the patient has had fever and ague for a long time, 
and has taken a great deal of quinine and arsenic, or 
any other poisonous remedy, he will, under such a course 
of treatment as suggested above, be very likely after a 472 
INTERMITTENT FEVER OK FEVER AND AGUE. 
while to have a crisis which will show itself in erup 
tions upon the skin over the bowels or different parts 
of the body, in which case he will cease to have the 
ague when the eruption shall begin to appear; and if 
it should be quite extensive and eliminative, the condi- 
tions of the system will be so changed thereby that no 
fever and ague will appear after the crisis has disap- 
peared. 
If the circumstances be such that the patient cannot 
take a sitz-bath, then wet woolen fomentation cloths 
over the stomach, liver and bowels may be applied, as 
also hot wet cloths to the feet, the patient remaining 
in bed until the time comes for the wet-sheet pack. 11 
fomentations instead of sitz-baths are used, the wet 
sheets in which he is packed should be of a little higher 
temperature than in the former case. 
There is no difficulty in treating fever and ague after 
this plan ; the worst cases give away. There are great 
advantages in treating it after this plan, amongst which 
is this, that no unpleasant consequences follow the treat- 
ment ; the patient's constitution is not impaired; there 
is no morbid diathesis, or fixed morbid condition of 
body resulting from the treatment, both of which re- 
sults are often the case under the administration of 
drug-medicines. 
Where disease has been of long standing, occurring 
every year, and drug-medicines have been taken, it is 
not unusual that the patient has to remain under Psy- 
cho-hygienic treatment for months. In some instances 
1 have had to keep my patients over a year at least to INTERMITTENT FEVER OR FEVER AND AGUE. 
473 
get them over the fever and ague which was on them 
when they came, and at the same time place their sys- 
tems where they would not readily give way to the re- 
currence of the disease under exposure. CHAPTER LII1 
REMITTENT FEVER. 
This is a form of fever where there are strorg exa- 
cerbations with a remission of them, partaking almost 
of the nature of the intermittent, following each other 
so closely, however, as to leave but little space between 
them. Dr. Hooper says that in some cases where there 
is a great secretion of bile, the fever is called bilious- 
remittent ; where there is strong tendency to putres- 
cency it is termed a putrid remittent and so on. The 
disease is common to the eastern and middle States. 
It is not, as a general thing, dangerous when Psycho- 
hygienically treated ; but is a difficult form of fever to 
treat when powerful drugs or poisonous medicines are 
administered. 
The true rule for treating it is that which I have al- 
ready laid down under head of intermittent fever. Make 
less effort to control tlie exacerbations while they are 
at their height; but make more effort when they are 
at their minimum manifestation. Keep the bowels 
cleansed by injections; the head cool. Give no food 
except what is liquid in form. Keep the skin clean by 
packs and towel washings, or by the latter alone. Lay 
over the abdomen fomentations at least once every day 
474 REMITTENT FEVER. 
475 
for the space of thirty minutes, and keep on cold com- 
presses all the while, night and day. 
In order to understand the difference between remit- 
tent fever and intermittent, the observer will take note 
that in the former there are no intermissions. There 
ire what are called remissions, the severity of the fever 
lying down, but not disappearing. Ofttimes, too, in 
remittent fever there are diarrhoea and swelling of the 
bowels and tenderness over what is called the iliac re- 
gion ; though some physicians say that these symptoms 
are rarely observed; but I do not know that I ever saw 
a case of remittent fever treated without medicine where 
there was not more or less of flux of the bowels, with 
abdominal tenderness at some period of its progress. I 
have looked upon these as almost necessary concomi- 
tants to its manifestation. 
Where remittent fever is treated by drugs and the 
fever becomes protracted, it often puts on typhoid 
symptoms, showing delirium and sordes on the teeth. 
It does not necessarily follow that because these are 
seen, there is a union of the typhoid with the remittent 
fever; because these often do occur in all fevers; but 
it is well worth while to watch the case. In a consid- 
erable number of cases I have been called to treat re-# 
mittent fevers where these complications were to be 
seen ; but in such cases the patients had all been medi- 
cated previously to their passing under my care. I do 
not know that I ever saw a case of remittent fever 
where the patient showed typhoid indications and had 
not been medicated, unless such person had, before be- 476 
CONGESTIVE CHILLS 
ing taken sick, been in the habit of drinking largely 
of spirituous or brewed liquors. 
I do not think that simple remittent fever, as a gen- 
eral fact, therefore, is to be regarded as dangerous. 
Where such cases do become fatal, they are so because 
of morbid affections pre-existing, and which are involved 
in the case when the fever comes on. 
There is a kind of fever called by doctors pernicious 
remittent fever, characterized by quite different symp- 
toms from that of simple remittent fever, but needing 
much prompter and more active Psycho-hygienic treat- 
ment to its cure. 
Connected, however, as a consequence of remit' ent 
fever under drug-medication, there exists a liability to 
have enlarged spleen, general dropsy and want of blood. 
I never noticed, however, such liability under the Psy- 
cho-hygienic treatment. Though 'remittent fever will 
differ in severity with different individuals, and at dif- 
ferent times and places, though, perhaps, always se- 
verer in a tropical than in a temperate clime, it is man- 
ageable everywhere under the Psycho-hygienic treat- 
ment, and should not be classed as among the danger 
ous or destructive diseases. 
Congestive Chills.-This is a disease more common 
in the south and southwest, and is known among medi- 
cal men as what is termed pernicious intermittent fever. 
It differs from the fever and ague in the simple fact 
that very severe congestion of the cerebellum takes 
place. CONGESTIVE CHILLS. 
477 
Dr. Austin Flint in his new work entitled "Flint's 
Principles and Practice of Medicine," says of this form 
of fever that it prevails at certain epochs in malarious 
regions, and that of the cases of simple intermittent 
fever which occur at these epochs the proportion in 
which the disease is pernicious is more or less large. 
He thinks the pernicious variety prevails at particular 
seasons in all malarious regions. 
Dr. Drake in a work on the principal diseases of the 
interior valley of North America, printed in 1854, says 
that the regions in which this fever has prevailed most 
frequently are the level portions of Alabama, Missis- 
sippi and Louisiana; the southern shore of Lake Michi- 
gan from Chicago around to St, Joseph's River; and 
of Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie, from Lake Huron to 
Lake Ontario near the estuaries of the creeks and rivers. 
Congestive chills make their appearance in the first 
instance in such a form to one unacquainted with their 
ordinary manifestations as not to alarm him, their per- 
nicious character not being at first observed, the chilly 
stages at first being not very particularly marked, and 
when it is followed by the hot stage this is but partially 
developed. In some cases the person is able to pursue 
his business without any very great difficulty until the 
second chill takes place, when the symptoms become 
more marked, and in many instances decidedly alarm- 
ing, a comatose state of the brain immediately follow- 
ing the chill, while other cases are characterized by de- 
liriura which shows itself before the coma, v;'estern 
physicians say that in their practice they oft find 478 
CONGESTIVE CHILte. 
their patients so actively delirious in the second stagfl 
as to require persor al restraint. 
In a letter which I received from a physician living 
in the West who has had large experience in the treat- 
ment of this form of intermittent fever, and who be- 
came entirely disheartened and discouraged at his want 
of success under-first, the allopathic, then the homeo- 
pathic, and thirdly, the eclectic methods, he says, " I 
have found that in the first stage there is great irregu- 
larity of show, one case manifesting one class of symp- 
toms, and another case quite a different class of symp- 
toms. But in the second stage I have found a very 
great uniformity of exhibition, the patient showing 
heavy chills with numbness in the lower limbs and in 
the great toes, and in the arms at or about the wrists, 
in one or two instances the wrists seeming to be par- 
alyzed and the hands falling down, the patient being 
delirious at first and sweating profusely, followed by 
purging, and that by vomiting, and sometimes putting 
on a state of collapse such as medical writers describe 
to be an attendant in Asiatic cholera. Many persons 
whom I have treated in their first chill I have been 
able to cure by the use of quinine, and a few cases have 
recovered who have had the second chill under the ad- 
ministration of quinine and opium, alternated as in my 
best judgment I thought fit to do; but the great ma- 
jority of cases have died in the second chill. And 
within my own personal knowledge, I know of no case 
where a person suffering from the third chill has re< 
covered under the use of medicines. CONGESTIVE CHILLS, 
479 
" Now, I come to you as one who represents a new 
system of treatment, and I want your advice on the 
subject. What would your Psycho-hygienic treatment 
do ?" 
To this I replied : " In the first place, a man resid- 
ing in a malarious district will not have congestive 
chills if he will live hygienically. If, however, he does 
not live hygienically and has one, the Psycho-hygienic 
treatment, properly administered, will cure him. And 
once cured, if he will live hygienically, he will not 
have another. If he has had one, and does have a sec- 
ond, the Psycho-hygienic treatment will cure him, pro- 
vided always that his system has not been broken down 
by drug-medication, by debauchery in general and spe- 
cial living, or by age." 
A year after I made my reply to his letter, giving 
him my thought as to the best way of treating this 
form of disease, he wrote me again as follows: 
"Upon the receipt of your letter I accepted your 
views, and have followed your suggestions with the 
most eminent success. Out of thirty cases of conges- 
tive chills, in which the large majority of them were 
of the second occurrence, and three or four of the third 
attack, I have lost but two ; whereas, under my former 
plan of treatment, I used to lose two out of every five. 
I congratulate you upon the profound philosophy which 
you have in respect to the nature, as well as to the 
method of treatment of this most terrible disease; for 
there is nothing, not even Asiatic cholera, nor spotted 
fever, nor malignant typhus fever, nor small-pox, that 480 
CONGESTIVE CHILLS, 
so frightens our people, as this pernicious intermittent 
fever. It comes when one least expects it, and goes 
only to recur when one least expects it; and our west- 
ern country is dotted with the graves of those who have 
died of it." 
The suggestions which I made to him with reference 
]to the treatment of this kind of fever were substan- 
tially as follows: Immerse the patient from head to 
foot, as soon as possible after the sensation of chilliness 
is perceived, in hot water. Keep him there until he 
sweats thoroughly. While in the bath, whether a 
sitz-bath or a reclining-bath, or by envelopments in 
woolen sheets wrung out of hot water, give him cool 
water to drink. There is no danger from it, provided 
the surface of the body be kept up at high temperature 
-in fact, it will make him sweat all the more profusely. 
Let him remain in the bath until he has complete relief 
to the brain and the nervous system, and the sensation 
of numbness in the lower limbs, and especially in the 
feet, has passed away. If he be faint, let him drink 
cold water. When the sensation of relief conies on, 
which it will do as soon almost as he begins to sweat, 
let him remain until he feels heated in his blood all 
through ; then take him out and pack him from head 
to foot in a cold wet sheet, letting him lie in that until 
he gets thoroughly warm, when take him out, and give 
him a thorough dripping-sheet or towel-wash all over 
his body, wiping it dry and rubbing it with-the dry 
hand thoroughly. Then put him to bed, wrapping his 
feet and legs up in dry warm cloths, and his head in CONGESTIVE CHILLS. 
481 
cool cloths, when he will be disposed to go to sleep. A 
little' nap, if nothing more, will do him tine service. 
As soon as lie wakes up, give him an injection of tepid 
water to move his bowels, provided there has been no 
movement that same day. 
From this time onward his recovery will be rapid. 
But any severe exertion of body or mind should be 
carefully guarded against for days after he feels as well 
as before his sickness. It does not always follow that 
the second chill occurs because of the introduction of 
fresh malaria into the system, but because of newly de- 
veloped activity of vital force against malaria previously 
introduced. It is, therefore, important that the patient 
in recovering from the first attack should guard against 
a second by protecting himself from fatigue or exhaus- 
tion ; for if he does over-work he might have a renewal 
of the disease, when, if he were careful, he could avoid 
it. The general regimen, therefore, of a patient suffer- 
ing under this form of disease, should be of the sim- 
plest possible kind so far as food, drink, dress and exer- 
cise are concerned. If he will but care for himself, he 
will not only not have a second attack, but he will im- 
prove his health so that he cannot have it, though he 
does live in a malarious district. 
Curious enough, though I have never been a western 
practitioner, yet I have had over fifty cases of conges- 
tive chills in my Institution, the subjects of them being 
western men, women and children, and yet only one 
death has ever occurred under my care. That was a 
lady who, having had two congestive chills befc re start- 482 
CONGESTIVE CHILLS. 
ing fhm home, came to us, and as soon, or nearly as 
soon, as she had fairly become accommodated and do- 
mesticated with us, was taken with a third. We thought 
she would die in a very little while ; but she lived long 
enough for her husband to be telegraphed, and to ar 
rive before she died. 
I feel confident that if the people residing in the dis- 
tricts of country where congestive chills are frequent 
would adopt our plan of living which is simple as well 
as economical, they would find it a safe-guard against 
this form of intermittent fever. I do not think that 
one need have congestive chills any more than the or- 
dinary fever and ague. And where one is attacked 
with it, the treatment recommended above has proved 
itself* so successful in the cases of it with which I have 
had to deal, and proved so successful in the case of the 
physician whose correspondence and my own I have 
given, and also in many individual cases where by pri- 
vate correspondence I have recommended similar treat- 
ment, that I feel like earnestly forcing it on the atten- 
tion of my readers. CHAPTER LEV 
TYPHUS AND TYPHOID FEVERS. 
The word "typhus" is derived from a Greek word 
meaning stupor. The word " typhoid " is a word of 
Greek origin, meaning like to typhus. Physicians of 
the present day are disposed to declare the non-idcn- 
tity of these two diseases, affirming that while they 
show in many respects the same or similar symptoms, 
they differ so much in their symptoms as to justify the 
conclusion that they are not essentially the same, but 
different diseases. How this may be under drug-treat- 
ment I do not know; but in my own practice, where 
no medicines are given, I have not found the distinc- 
tion to be so broadly established as is generally claimed 
by medical men who administer medicinal remedies. 
The most that I can say in the way of distinction is, 
that in the one case the disease is of a severer or more 
intensified type than in the other. True, there are 
some symptoms in the one which do not show in the 
other; but this is true of any disease as it exists in 
different persons. In no direction have I ever seen so 
strong and marked a difference between the symptoms 
which the subject of typhus or typhoid fever shows 
when not taking drug-medicines, as when taking them. 
483 484 
TYPHUS AND TYPHOID FEVERS. 
The difference is so great as at first sight to lead the 
medical observer to say, that if the person taking drug- 
medicines has the typhus or typhoid fever, the one who 
has not taken any has it not; for a greatly modified 
symptomatic manifestation is seen under the two admin- 
istrations. Typhus and typhoid fevers, therefore, will be 
considered by me as essentially the same disease with 
different intensities; for were I to recognize the non- 
identity of them, the treatment which I should suggest 
to be given would be essentially the same. So there 
is no necessity of my making separate classification. 
The disease is, in most cases, inaugurated by a slight 
or severe chill of the subject, accompanied, in many 
instances, with hard headache, pain in the bones, espe- 
cially in what arc called the shin-bones. This sometimes 
is so severe as to be almost intolerable. It is as pain- 
ful as it is sometimes in cases of small-pox. I have 
never had any difficulty in breaking up typhus or 
typhoid fever by the Psycho-hygienic treatment, if I 
could have the disease to treat in its earlier manifesta- 
tions. 
In the year an Irish girl came to the town where 
I lived, to visit some friends. She was a freshly-landed 
immigrant, and within two days after she reached the 
house of her friends she was taken down with what is 
called ship fever. The disease was not well under 
stood by the physician in the place, and it soon com 
municated itself to members of the family, and from 
them to other families, and became epidemic. A great 
number of persons had it, and almost all of them who TYPHUS AND TYPHOID FEVEES. 
485 
were treated by medicines died. Of the numbers 
taken down with it, there were eighteen brought to my 
Cure. Kot one of them died. Some of them were 
very severely sick, nevertheless four weeks was the 
longest period that any of them were confined; while 
other cases in the town were sick four, five and six 
I 
weeks and then died, and others were confined to their 
rooms for three or four months before being able to 
get out of doors; and when they did, it seemed as 
though they had suffered so much constitutional im- 
pairment as to render their future health quite ques- 
tionable. 
One case of a gentleman, a friend of mine, who had 
passed into the hands of an allopathic physician be- 
fore I took him to treat, and who had administered to 
him thirty grains of calomel at one dose, which calo- 
mel was in him when they brought him to me, I have 
considered to be, on the whole, the most remarkable of 
any case of typhus or typhoid fever I have ever had 
to treat. He was a large man, weighing about 245 
lbs., delirious when they brought him to me, yet within 
twenty-eight days he rode from my Cure to his home 
quite convalescent. During his sickness, however, he 
had such a pustular eruption as I never saw upon any 
other person. At one time I counted over four hun- 
dred open-mouthed boils upon his body, from the size 
of a pea to the size of a hickory-nut, and along the 
dorsal muscles, where there were no boils, at one period 
during his sickness the skin could be pressed together 
under the fingers and pus would ooze out without any 486 
TYPHUS AND TYPHOID FEVERS. 
difficulty. It was considered a great triumph of the 
Psycho-hygienic treatment that not a case of the eight- 
een who were placed under my care died. I so consid- 
ered it myself at the time, and do still so consider it; 
for if every physician in this country who has had 
typhus or typhoid fever to treat has so succeeded in 
his practice as not to have a single case in each eight- 
een die, his skill may be regarded, I think, as greatly 
to his credit. I do not, however, take credit so much 
to myself for my success, as I give it to the method 
of treatment used. 
My plan of treating typhus and typhoid fevers is 
this : When called to a patient in the incipient stages, 
I endeavor, if possible, to break up the fever. I think 
one of the best ways to do this is to keep the top of 
the head covered with ice-cold cloths, or with a blad- 
der of ice. In four or five instances I have broken up 
a well-established condi tion of typhoid fever in twelve 
hours by the application of icc-cloths or a bladder of 
ice to the top of the head. In two other cases I 
broke up a fever by putting a bladder of ice into the 
nape of the neck and letting it lie there steadily for 
twenty-four hours. In one or two other cases I broke 
up a fever by putting the whole body of the patient, 
save the head, into water of quite a low temperature, 
and letting him sit there for quite a long time, reduc- 
ing the pulse greatly, and keeping him there until the 
ne?T0us conditions were changed. For whatever may 
be the cause of this fever, whether it be by the intro- 
duction of a poison nto the system, or, as some physi- TYPHUS AND TYPHOID FEVERS. 
487 
cians think, by exhaustion of the nervous energy, so as 
to constitute what may be called a reactionary febrile 
condition, the treatment, to be successful, should have 
its effect primarily upon the nervous system. I think 
that in districts of country where the disease exists 
(or if the non-identity theory prevails with reference 
to typhus and typhoid fevers where both these diseases 
exist), if those who have to deal with it, whether phy- 
sicians or laymen, would so bring to bear heat and cold, 
by means of water, upon the circulation and the ner- 
vous system as essentially to change their action re- 
pectively or unitedly, they would be able to break up 
the fever any time within thirty-six hours of its first 
exhibition. 
In the hydropathic treatment proper, there is not 
anything like energy enough displayed. Where the 
pulse is very quick and the skin very hot, and there is 
pain in the head, and perhaps pain in the bowels low 
down, with cold feet and legs, and cold sweating knees 
and cold sweating hands in the palms, there is no 
danger from what may be termed active or even heroic 
treatment. When, however, the disease has crept upon 
the patient unawares for days, he feeling only from day 
to day not quite so well as usual, or simply unwell, 
with loss of appetite and less of vigor to work, some 
headache, and irregular action of the bowels, until all 
at once he is prostrated and the pulse runs high, the ton- 
gue becomes furred, the eyes suffused, and chills rim up 
and down the backbone, it is not so easy to break up the 
fever, and therefore the treatment need not be so heroic. 488 
.TYPHUS AND TYPHOID FEVERS. 
Of course in talking about breaking up fevers, I use 
terms in their popular sense. A fever, as my readers 
well know, is, of itself, a remedial effort. It is nature 
making an extra vital effort to change abnormal condi- 
tions of the system into those which are normal. When, 
therefore, I talk about breaking up a fever, I do not 
mean thereby to stop the vital effort that is going on, 
but simply to aid the vital effort to change the abnor- 
mal condition, and so re-establish the system in its 
natural or healthful conditions. If there be contagion 
in the system, it is to render it inert by a new dispen- 
sation of vital force, or else to cast it out thereby, so as 
to leave the system free from its effects. 
Where typhoid fever is fairly established, or has got 
what is usually called its "conditions of run" fixed,' 
tlie hydropathic or water treatment is of the first im- 
portance. Dr. Flint, of Bellevue Hospital College, 
says that " the known resources of therapeutics do not 
afford reliable means for the arrest of these fevers, or 
even shortening the duration of the febrile career. The 
measures proposed for these ends within late years are 
quinia in large doses, full doses of opium, and the use 
of the wet-sheet after the hydropathic method. The 
first of these, large doses of quinia, has been abun- 
dantly tried, and found to be an unsuccessful and abor- 
tive plan of treatment. Statistics reported by Dr. M. B. 
Peacock, of London, show an increased rate of mor- 
tality, and a longer duration in hospitals of the cases 
ending in recovery, as the results of the employment 
nf quinia in large doses. The opiate plan I have tried TYPHUS AND TYPHOID FEVEES. 
489 
m a few cases. These cases have not furnished evi- 
dence of success in arresting the fever, but in some of 
the cases the disease appeared to be favorably modified. 
This plan of treatment claims further trial. The wet- 
sheet, after the mode practiced by the hydropathists, 
commonly called packing, I have tried in a small num- 
ber of cases. A distinct amelioration of the symptoms 
followed immediately in every case, and in two of the 
five cases immediate cessation of the fever followed." 
During my Psycho-hygienic practice I have treated 
over one hundred and fifty cases of typhus or typhoid 
fever. I never lost a case where I was the first and 
only physician called. In cases of typhoid fever, where 
usually abdominal lesions are seen under drug-treat- 
ment, I have found, however, in my patients these to 
be avoidable. I never had a case of metastatic action 
of the disease from bowel to brain setting up delirium 
and coma ultimating in death. In truth, I do not 
know that I ever had a half dozen persons show any- 
thing like delirium, not even to flightiness, unless it 
was at or about midnight for a little while at a time. 
When the fever is high, packs and dripping-sheets 
should be given. The pack may continue from fifteen 
to forty-five minutes as the case may be. It had better 
be given in the the middle of the day or thereabouts; 
the dripping-sheet, at a temperature of eighty-five de- 
grees, following the pack. If the patient be too feeble to 
be submitted to it, then towel washings after the pack, 
with dry towel and hand rubbings, should be given. 
Tn my practice I usually keep the head thoroughly cn 490 
TYPHUS AND TYPHOID FEVERS. 
cased in wet cloths, including the back of the neck, 
applying warm cloths up and down the spine with 
cold cloths over the bowels; the bowels cleaned every 
day by tepid injections, the patient to be permitted to 
have frequent urination. If any involvement of the 
lings is shown, the cold wet compress is laid over 
them ; the patient to suck, dissolve and swallow bits of 
ice as frequently as he pleases; the feet to be kept 
warm ; the room well ventilated, with shadowed light; 
and to have, if possible, only one set of day nurses and 
relays of night nurses, the same persons taking care of 
him during the incubation and progress of the disease. 
During the earlier period of the disease, I give no food. 
As time elapses, and it becomes necessary that the pa- 
tient should eat, I give fluid foods only, and these in 
the form of gruels, usually preferring unbolted wheat- 
meal stirred into boiling water to a thickness that 
will make it convenient as a drink or to eat with a 
spoon, letting the patient have this and nothing else. 
As circumstances may seem to demand, I modify the 
applications of water, acting upon this plan that what- 
ever part of the body is in its temperature above the 
ordinary level, I keep cool, and whatever part is below 
the ordinary level, I keep warm; thus keeping up an 
equalization of the circulation and an equilibrium of 
the nervous system, and waiting patiently for na- 
ture to work out her cure. It is the speedier, as it ia 
by far the surer and safer method. CHAPTER LV. 
ERYSIPELAS OR ST. ANTHONY'S FIRE. 
This is an inflammatory disease, or what may be 
termed a form of continued fever. Perhaps, consid- 
ered as a local affection purely, it would be regarded 
as belonging properly to surgery; but under the as- 
pects in which it appears in this country, it connects 
itself so with fever as to be regarded as a disease hav- 
ing constitutional aspects. Erysipelatous fever is a 
form of fever distinguished from other kinds of fever, 
because it has erysipelas as a complication. Where it 
exists independently of general fever, it confines itself 
to parts or localities of the body, and may be treated 
as a local disease; but where it puts on a febrile mani- 
festation, it is ofttimes a dangerous disease, drowsiness 
and delirium accompanying it. The pulse becomes, 
under such circumstances, full and hard, and vesicles 
or blisters develop themselves as the disease progresses. 
It takes on two forms, affecting the internal and the 
external skin. It more commonly occurs with women 
than with men; is seen often in children; but shows 
itself amongst those wTho are of rather a robust consti- 
tution, and of what may be termed nervous-sanguine 
temperaments. It is a disease which, when it does not 
491 492 
ERYSIPELAS OR ST. ANTHONY'S FIRE. 
affect the entire system, may affect any part of ths 
body. It as frequently appears on the feet as on the 
face, on the legs as on the arms; and with persons of 
certain temperament or condition of body it becomes 
of a phlegmonous character and quite dangerous. 
The causes which operate to induce it may be any 
which are likely to create inflammation, such as expos- 
ure to severe cold, or the external or internal use of 
stimulants largely. Some physicians think that cer- 
tain states of the atmosphere have the effect to cause 
it to become epidemic. I have been rather surprised 
to find that among allopathic physicians erysipelas is 
regarded as a contagious disease; as, for instance, when 
a patient in the hospitals in New York is seized with 
it, he is removed from the chamber where other pa- 
tients are to a place by himself. In all the cases which 
I have had to treat in my Institution, it has never oc- 
curred to me that any one could possibly be jeopardized 
by being brought into the freest communication with 
them, and no bad effects have ever resulted therefrom. 
Persons who are in very comfortable health have slept 
in a room where erysipelatous patients have been lying, 
and other patients, who themselves were quite sick, 
have remained in the same room and yet no such re- 
sult as one would expect to see, if the disease be con- 
tagious, or even infectious, has ever showed itself in a 
single instance under our management. 
My treatment for erysipelas is uniformly what may 
be termed antiphlogistic or anti-inflammatory. It is 
to deplete the system, and at the same time to purify ERYSIPELAS OK ST. ANTHONY's FIKE. 
493 
the blood. Abstinence as one means of depletion, pack- 
ing followed by general ablution in order to excite ex- 
cretion by the skin, injections to remove al vine excre- 
tions, tepid wet compresses over the inflamed parts- 
these with gentle nursing have always been productive 
of the desired results. Never under the Psycho-hygi 
enic treatment have I yet lost an erysipelatous patient, 
though not infrequently we have from twenty-five to 
thirty of more or less severe cases in each year. Whether 
erysipelas be regarded as a disease to be surgically or 
simply medically treated, I have not found it necessary 
to apply any of the means which when it is surgically 
treated are regarded as successful. In no case, how- 
ever bad, that I have ever treated, have I felt myself 
called upon to "line" the disease with lunar caustic; 
but have found that, in from three days' to a week's 
duration, I have been able to bring the disease in 
check, mainly keeping up the general conditions of the 
patient to such a degree as to make him feel that the 
disease was within my management. Where the swell- 
ing has begun in the face, and has extended over the 
head, as it has in some instances, I have never yet had 
a patient under my treatment who became delirious. 
I have seen a good many erysipelatous patients who 
were delirious and some of them semi-comatose; but 
never have I myself had a case go to that extreme. 
One need never have erysipelas, and, therefore, need 
never have to treat it, if he will live according to the 
laws of life and health. Whenever the disease appears, 
no matter in what form, it is because of an 1 jflamma- 494 
PURPURA HEMORRHAGICA. 
tory diathesis or habit of body, and persons who live 
upon farinaceous and fruit foods and drink water, will 
not have it, no matter what may be the injuries they 
receive. 
Purpura Hemorrhagica.-This disease is often seen 
In children and women. What its causes are' is not 
clearly ascertained. It occurs, however, at every pe- 
riod in life, but oftener than otherwise inside of pub 
erty; or, if amongst grown persons, in those whose 
habits are sedentary, and who live in ill-ventilated 
rooms, or where the air is poisoned by the effluvia 
arising from poisonous substances. The manifestations 
of it are different in different persons, the disease show- 
ing itself inwardly. Where it appears externally, there 
are numerous little blue-red spots upon the external 
skin, looking very much like bites of fleas, and called 
by doctors petechia. These are more numerous on the 
breast or inside of the arms and legs than elsewhere. 
They do not itch at all; but arc indicative of a bad 
condition of the vascular system. Where they appear 
on the legs and arms, they are of a bright red color, 
the face being free; after a little they turn purple or 
livid. The capillary blood-vessels become so affected 
as that the blood extravasates and lodges in the cellular 
tissue, and in instances not infrequent the blood makes 
its way to the surface, so that there are spots on the 
body where the blood sensibly oozes out through the 
cuticle. Precedent to the appearing of the purple 
spots, the patient ofttimes shows great weariness of PURPURA HEMORRHAGICA. 
495 
body, and complains of aching in his lower limbs. 
Sometimes, however, the disease appears all of a sud- 
den. Whenever it does appear, however, there is at- 
tendant great depression of spirits. If the pulse is not 
quickened, it becomes feeble, and occasionally there is 
a flushing of the face with an unnatural heat of the 
body, and subsequently, perspiration. There is no regu- 
larity as to its appearance, nor to its duration. In 
some instances it lasts but a little while; in others it 
continues for months; and there have been cases where 
persons have suffered from it for years. 
I have had but few cases of it to treat. One very 
remarkable case, however, came under the care of Dr. 
Austin and myself. The patient was a young lad, 
about fourteen years old, the son of a friend of mine. 
When we were called to take his case in hand, he had 
been treated some fourteen days by an allopathic phy- 
sician ; had steadily grown worse, until he himself be- 
came decidedly opposed to being under his care longer, 
and, at his own suggestion, his parents requested our 
attendance. Dr. Austin and myself went to see him. 
We found him very low in flesh, as sallow as if he had 
the jaundice, greatly depressed in spirits, complaining 
of pain in his legs, lacking all appetite for food. After 
looking the case over thoroughly, and deciding that we 
would take it in hand, we proceeded to our treatment, 
which was introductorily as follows : 
We had the body washed all over in quite cool wa- 
ter, and wiped gently and carefully until it was dry. 
The effect was quite marked, inducing sleep almost as 496 
ACNE. 
soon as the bath was finished. When the lad awoke, I 
gave him some wheat-meal gruel to drink; and during 
that day gave him a sitz-bath at a temperature of 90° 
for a few minutes, followed by one of 85° for eight or 
ten minutes. Compresses were put upon his abdomen 
and his bowels were moved by tepid enemas. On the 
second or third day, under our directions he took a wet- 
sheet pack, and -was washed all over after it in quite 
cool water. So between packing and washing, sitz- 
baths, compresses and enemas given, with the disuse of 
solid food and the use only of wheat-meal gruel, the boy 
commenced to gain; and in less than one fortnight 
from our taking the case was riding out. Since that 
time we have had several other cases, but none so marked 
as this. 
Acne.-This is a disease appearing generally on the 
face, more particularly on the forehead, showing itself 
in hard pimples or pustules on the face. It is often 
seen in persons of full habit of body who are scrofu- 
lous, or in those who are particularly of the bilious 
temperament. It never appears except in persons who 
have more or less morbid conditions of liver, or who 
are of scrofulous habit of body. It appears in its worst 
form generally in spring or fall; wears out in the win- 
ter, or disappears in the heat of the summer; but re- 
turns again as the seasons change so long as the condi- 
tions of the blood which first produced it continue to 
exist. 
The remedy for it is great cleanliness of body by fro ACNE. 
497 
quent ablutions, and farinaceous and fruit diet, and such 
equalization of the circulation as relieves the external 
surface from great changes of temperature. The pim 
pies range generally from the size of a pin-head to that 
of a pea. Where they are the largest, they often be- 
come hard and red, and, if pricked, bleed. In some per- 
sons they are exceedingly difficult to cure. I have 
known one lady whose face wore such acne as to re- 
sist the most thorough allopathic and homeopathic ap- 
plication, and who under the Psycho-hygienic treatment 
failed to improve until six months had transpired, at 
which time she began to improve, and went on until in 
about three months her face was entirely smooth, and 
skin as clear as it was on any other part of her body 
She has had no return of it since she was cured, hav 
ing lived hygienically. CHAPTER LVI. 
ULCEUS. 
Physicians an 1 surgeons divide ulcers into five varie- 
ties : First, the healthy; second, the irritable; third, 
the indolent; fourth, the varicose; fifth, the specific. 
I do not wish to say anything about the " healthy " 
ulcer, because, in fact, it is no ulcer at all. It is an ab- 
scess w'hose formation is normal, and when it has reached 
its extent it disappears by normal vital action. All the 
need there is of giving it any attention or consideration 
is in making the person suffering from it as comfort- 
able as may be during the inflammatory process which 
precedes the suppurative. Such an ulcer is a common 
boil. IIow to treat it properly, everybody ought to 
know, consists in fomenting and poulticing it until the 
suppurative process has been completed, when the boil 
breaks, and relief is had, after which healing, as a gen- 
eral thing, proceeds rapidly. 
The Irritable.-The second kind of ulcer, which 
is denominated by physicians the irritable, wears usu- 
ally a dark purplish appearance ; has but little matter 
in it, and this of an ichorous appearance, the smell of 
which, however, is very fetid, and the effect of which 
498 THE IRRITABLE ULCER. 
499 
on the skin is sometimes quite corrosive. Dr. Hill in 
his Surgery says that the granulations in it are imper- 
fect, spongy and of a dark red hue. The peculiarities 
of it are that it affects the system in general, and in- 
duces what are termed constitr.tional symptoms. Thus, 
a person having it will often show thirst and chills, will 
be irritable and fretful, and sometimes suffer from great 
prostration. At whatever part of the body the ulcer is 
located, there will be a painful, smarting, burning sen- 
sation present. This kind of ulcer, when neglected or 
badly managed, often becomes gangrenous. I had two 
patients in my Cure who were threatened with ulcerous 
gangrene. It was with a good deal of difficulty that 
their vital force resisted the gangrenous condition ; but 
by very careful dieting and soothing, emollient poulti- 
ces, warm fomentations followed by cold affusions, the 
destructive condition was not reached. With the allo- 
pathic, eclectic, and, to some extent, the homeopathic 
practice, fomentations are made of bitter herbs, such as 
hops, poppy-leaves, and what is termed smart-weed. 
But these are not at all necessary. There is nothing 
to be gained in their use, unless it be in the case of 
hops and poppies, where the narcotic principle con- 
tained is absorbed into the circulation, and so relieves 
the patient. A very good poultice for them is made 
of the common carrot, which I have often tried, roasted. 
A bread-and-milk poultice is very good ; but these are 
merely soothing processes. The cure for such an rdeer 
is to be found in what may be called constitutional 
treatment. The liver, bowels, and external skin almost 500 
THE INDOLENT ULCER. 
always conjoin to produce it. When, therefore, one is 
suffering from such a morhid external disease, the treat- 
ment which is the best calculated to cure it is that 
which involves the blood-making organs, the organs 
which circulate the blood, and those organs which carry 
off from the blood waste matter. Packs, sitz-baths, drip 
ping-sheets, foot-baths, as these may be easily or readily 
applied, constitute, the external form of treatment. A 
rigid dietetic regimen is a sine qua non to cure. Prop- 
er defecation of the bowels must certainly be secured. 
Under such conditions, the patient will sometimes rap- 
idly, but oftener slowly, nevertheless surely, improve. 
I would not advise any one having irritable ulcers to 
take powerful medicines internally, nor to do anything 
externally calulated to shock or strain the nervous sys- 
tem. Give the patient time, and under the Psycho-hy- 
gienic treatment, he will get well. Where there are 
strength and vigor enough of the body, to the other 
means already described there' may be added quite fre- 
quent and powerful sweating. 
The persons most liable to have irritable ulcers are 
rank meat-eaters and large drinkers of distilled or 
brewed liquors. 
The Indolent Ulcer.-This, when described, proves 
to be almost entirely the opposite of the irritable ulcer. 
A distinguished surgeon says that each can be best 
studied in a contrast with the other. Reverse the de- 
finition of the one and you have that of the other. 
The indolent ulcer has the edges of the sore everted THE INDOLENT ULCER. 
501 
instead of being inverted, being rounded and thick, 
somewhat glossy and quite regular. The granulations, 
instead of being red and sensitive, are of a dull, pale 
aspect, and insensible, with round, flat heads, and gen- 
erally located on the bottom of the excavation, and 
have, in short, a fungoid character. The pus, instead 
of being ichorous, is thick and of a dark-yellow color, 
and so firmly adherent to the base of the ulcer that it 
cannot be removed without considerable force. This 
kind of ulcer is the more important inasmuch as it is 
the most common form of sore, and deserves attention 
from the fact that it is an affection as rarely cured by 
the profession generally as any that can be named, not 
in its nature incurable. Indolent ulcers occur most 
frequently on the lower extremities. I have had a great 
many cases to treat, and have uniformly succeeded in 
curing them by the Psycho-hygienic methods. I will 
state two cases as illustrative of my practice. 
Several years since, a gentlemen brought his wife to 
me who had been troubled with two indolent ulcers on 
the inside of her right leg, about two-thirds of the way 
from the knee to the ankle-joint. She had had them 
for four years, and had exhausted the resources of medi- 
cine and surgery, as usually applied by the best phy- 
sicians and surgeons of the Northwest. She had con- 
sulted distinguished medical men in Milwaukee, Detroit, 
Davenport, Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, 
Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse. These gentlemen 
had made examinations, and prescribed, and she had 
followed their treatment. But so far from being bene- 502 
THE INDOLENT ULCER. 
fited thereby, on the whole she had been made worse: 
for -while she was no better as respected her ulcers, she 
was worse as respected her general health. The ulcers 
were about two inches apart; one the size ol the top 
of a small tea-cup; the other the size of its bottom. 
The larger one had extended itself, originally not hav- 
ing been larger than the smaller of the two ; but curi- 
ously enough its extension was made in a direction 
opposite to the other, and so they had remained dis- 
tinct ulcers instead of becoming confluent. I saw at 
once that the treatment she must have, if it were to 
prove curative, should be mainly constitutional. So I 
told her husband that, if he would give her to me for 
six mouths, I not only thought that I could have the 
ulcers heal, but that she would be in so much better 
conditions than she had been as that they should not 
break out again. 
I put her under the following treatment: Iler diet 
was composed entirely of preparations of wheat-meal 
in the way of unleavened bread, Graham pudding, 
Graham gruel and sub-acid fruits, she eating no beans 
or peas, potatoes, carrots, turnips nor any kind of vege- 
tables. For four months, twice a day, she had this 
food. 
Iler baths for the first six weeks were a wet-sheet 
pack from thirty to forty-five minutes, followed by a drip- 
ping-sheet for a minute and a-half, at a temperature of 
85°, one minute; 80°, half a minute ; rubbed dry and 
Wann afterwards ; abdominal bandages night and day ; 
injections of tepid water once in twenty-four hours; THE INDOLENT ULCER. 
503 
from a-half pint to three pints of soft water a day for 
drink ; a douche on the ulcerated leg for five minutes, 
by pouring over it water as het as could be borne, alter- 
nating with water as cold as could be borne (a dipper- 
ful of warm then of cold, and so on for the entire 
time); the wearing of wet coinpresses on the leg ; the 
wealing of the American costume, and life, as much 
as possible, in the open air. 
When four months were gone, the ulcers were hf aled; 
the leg sound ; the woman, to all intents and pui loses, 
healthy. She so remained, for four years, at the expi- 
ration of which time 1 lost knowledge of her • ondi- 
tion, and have not heard from her since. 
The second case is, on the whole, more rema kable 
than the former. A gentleman said to me, " Al r wife 
is out of health, and I have been thinking foi some 
time that I would like to speak to you about her." 
" What is the matter with her ?" I asked. 
" She is in poor health generally, but has an ulcerous 
leg ; and I have exhausted my purse and my patience 
in the employment of physicians, to no purpose." 
Being so situated that I could visit the lady, I said, 
"Well, if you wish, I will go and see her; then, per- 
haps, I may be able to tell you what I can do." 
He expressed himself as very desirous to have me de 
so, and I went. I found his wife to be a woman of 
about fifty years of age, who had had this ulcer for 
fifteen years; was dyspeptic, scrofulous and predis- 
posed to consumption. I talked with her, got at hei 
feelings and conditions, and then said to him : 504 
THE INDOLENT ULCER. 
11 Your wife can be cured, and by processes very 
simple but sure, provided she will do as I tell her." 
She expressed herself as willing to do anything that 
she could do and remain at home, saying that it was 
impossible for her to go away from home. I told her 
that I thought it was not necessary; that she might 
'get well in her own house. She was a large meat-eater, 
tea-drinker, coffee-drinker, butter-eater, salt-eater, spice- 
eater, taking medicines all the time, and applying 
some sort of ointment or lotion to her leg all the while. 
I made her a prescription as follows: To give up 
meat, butter, spices, common salt; to drink no tea or 
coffee; to drink only soft water; to eat for her food 
unleavened bread, Graham pudding and sub-acid fruits; 
or, in their stead, any kind* of vegetable which she 
liked so it was simply cooked; to wear abdominal 
bandages day and night; to wash her body all over 
every day; to keep wet compresses on her leg ; to 
keep herself free from company, and from the cares of 
the family, and to live largely out of doors. She said 
she would do so. 
I saw nothing more of her nor heard from her, nor 
do I recollect to have thought of her for the next six 
months, till one evening I met her husband at a public 
convocation, when he said to me, " Come and see your 
patientand he took me around where she sat, look- 
ing as nice and as fine as any woman could ; health 
good ; ulcers entirely healed, and she rejoicing greatly 
in her newly-recovered health. So true is it that God's 
mightiest things are his simplest things. VARICOSE and specific ulcers. 
505 
The Varicose Ulcer.- This is an ulcer which 
always arises from, or is dependent upon, a swollen, 
or what is termed a varicose, condition of the neigh- 
boring veins. The same treatment which has to be 
given for either the irritable or the indolent ulcer is 
proper for this. Perhaps the treatment needs to be 
more thoroughly localized in this than in either of the 
other cases ; but, notwithstanding, constitutional treat- 
ment is important. Where varicose ulcers exist, they 
cannot be cured if the practice of ligating the part 
affected is kept up. As they oftener than otherwise 
appear on the lower extremities, and as all the small 
veins in the region are involved, anything like the 
wearing of garters or elastics is inadmissible. To do 
so is to render the cure impossible. 
The Specific Ulcer.-These are sores which grow 
out of some specific inflammation, such as scrofula or 
venereal poison, and are to be cured by constitutional 
treatment only. They defy medicinal remedies. If, 
being located on one part of the body, they are cured 
by medicinal administration, it is only to break out in 
another part of the body. The treatment, therefore, 
which is necessary and proper for scrofula or syphilitic 
disease in any of its chronic forms, is the treatment fit 
for this ; and as I have called attention to this class of 
diseases in a work on " The Sexual Organism," and 
in " Consumption," I forbear to discuss them at length 
here, saying only with reference to them that the Psy- 
cho-hygienic method of living, as well as of treating 
disease, is the true method for curing them. 506 
BOILS, 
Boils.-A boil is an inflammation of the cellular 
tissue and the skin ; by surgeons it is teimed a furuncle. 
It is liable to occur on any portion of the body, more 
commonly, however, upon the buttocks, nape of the 
neck, fingers, or face, oftentimes numbers coming in 
succession, or in groups, or on the same part closely 
adjacent to each other. The causes of the boil are 
not readily appreciable; the most that can be said 
about them is that they are the result of an effort of 
the vital force to expel acrid, excrementitious matters. 
I think no person has them who has not disordered 
digestion or derangement of the secretories. Usually, 
it is supposed that persons who have them have disor* 
der of the liver ; or, if they are women, that when they 
have them their appearance is connected with some 
derangement of the menstrual flux. 
When the boil first begins, it appears upon the skin 
as a little red, hard pimple, enlarging itself under the 
extension or inflammation of the part until it swells up 
and looks like a cone. As it varies in size from a pea 
to a large-sized apple, the pain which is felt in it is, or 
may be, exceedingly severe. When it first begins, the 
pain is of a burning, smarting kind ; -when suppuration 
is nearly reached the pain becomes throbbing or pulsa- 
tive. Sympathetic irritation often exists, especially 
when the boil appears in the region of the large glands. 
Boils are of different kinds ; they are called common 
boils or carbuncles. But whatever may be the peculiar 
causes which produce them, they are, in the main, the 
same, and the treatment should be essentially the same, BOILS AND CAEBUNCLES. 
507 
varied of course by the intensity of the inflammation 
and of the suffering of the patient. Under the Psy- 
cho-hygienic treatment, involving as this does the use 
water and of all other hygienic means which are 
calculated to produce change from worse to better, the 
ordinary boil is quite a common form of crisis with our 
patients. 
The appearance of anthrax or carbuncle is less com- 
mon, but has often enough appeared to make me en- 
tirely familiar with it. The most common seat of the 
carbuncle is the nape of the neck, though I have seen 
a good many of them in the region of the fifth dorsal 
vertebra. I think that persons who drink largely of 
ale, and live upon fat meats, are much more liable to 
have this form of boil than persons who live more 
healthfully. The extent of the inflammation of the 
carbuncle ranges from that of an inch in diameter to 
four or five inches. Dr. Gross, in his System of Sur- 
gery, says that little or nothing is known of the exci- 
ting causes of carbuncle. The outbreak is commonly 
ascribed to the effects of cold, to disorders of the stom 
ach, overeating, constipation of the bowels, loss of sleep, 
excessive venery, and other debilitating influences ; but 
how far, or in what degree these circumstances tend to 
favor its development, it is impossible to say. My ex- 
perience does not lead me to such conclusions ; for those 
who have had the carbun 2ular boil while under Psy- 
cho-hygienic treatment, have not been persons given 
to debauchery in any sense, unless it has been in the 
direction of drug-medication. The disease, therefore, 508 
BOILS AND CABBUNCLES. 
I regard as of constitutional character, as I do erysip- 
elas ; it may as readily appear in a person whose 
habit of body is scrofulous, whose conditions of living 
have been somewhat one side of the right, who has 
taken a good deal of medicine or drunk long, though 
in moderation, of malt or distilled liquors, or who has 
drunk so largely of mineral waters that cathartic action 
of the bowels has entirely ceased, no matter how much 
water is drunk, as from causes which involve great 
debauchery. I am disposed, therefore, to think that 
it is not a bad state of the solids, as some physicians 
suppose, which induces the carbuncular manifestation, 
but that the blood is befouled with excrementitious 
matters, which the eliminative organs have not been 
able to throw off, and that when they have come under 
Psycho-hygienic treatment and changes are instituted, 
demanding the casting out of acrid or poisonous mate- 
rials, the form of this excretion is carbuncular. 
Whenever I have had one appear on a patient, I have 
recognized the fact that the general system strongly 
sympathizes with the local affection, and so my treat- 
ment has been made accordant to this conviction. I 
have never seen a single case, though I have had some 
very severe cases, where I have thought the life of the 
patient was in the least danger. I know, however, that 
persons do, under the drug-medicating treatment, fre- 
quently die. I wish I could induce every surgeon in 
the country to employ Psycho-hygienic methods in 
severe cases. I think that if he would, he would 
find his success vastly greater than under the methods BOILS AND CARBUNCLES. 
509 
usually in vogue. For instance, there is no necessity 
for bleeding or actively purging a patient, no matter 
whether there be extraordinary fullness of blood or of 
body. It is far better to produce a change in the secre- 
tions by means of the skin at large, than through the 
action of the bowels under the use of purgatives. Mer- 
curial cathartics are decidedly contra-indicated. They 
never should be given. Nor should emetics be given, 
however great the gastric derangements; nor need 
stimulants nor tonics be given, even though there be 
some manifestation of cerebral involvement; nor need 
anodynes be given to procure sleep ; nor need blisters 
be applied. This whole method of treating an inflam- 
matory skin and cellular tissue disease is unphilosophi- 
cal, and should give way to a better method, which may 
be as follows: Deplete the body by abstinence from 
food at first; sustain the body by tonic baths and semi- 
fluid foods; let nitrogeneous instead of carbonaceous 
foods be given. This is all that needs to be done. Of 
course, as you would treat any person having local oi 
general fever, so treat a person having carbuncular in- 
flammation. Packs, sitz-baths, dripping-sheets, band- 
ages about the abdomen, injections of tepid water, cool 
cloths to the head, ventilated rooms, quiet surroundings, 
pleasant associations, with food made out of grains and 
fruits, will prove as much more efficient and successful 
than the common plan as one can think. When the 
patient begins to improve, change of scene may be 
made. 
In a practice as extensive as is mine, under critical 510 
BOILS AND CARBUNCLES. 
actions as numerous as I have to deal with, one maj 
see in the course of a year more of this form of boils 
than in an ordinary city or country practice a physician 
would see in a lifetime. I do but state the simple 
truth when I say that not one time in a hundred would 
a person having a carbuncle run any risk of dying 
under the commonest knowledge how to make a fair 
application of Psycho-hygienic treatment. CHAPTER LVII. 
BURNS AND SCALDS. 
To treat injuries of this sort might well pass under 
the head of surgery, and therefore I might omit all 
allusion thereto. It may, however, not be thought im- 
proper for me to say a few words with reference to the 
best method of treating them, because, after the hy- 
gienic idea of what disease is, these injuries may be 
called diseases. 
The human skin is, on the whole, as important an 
organ as any of the human body; and while it can, 
perhaps, perform its functions to such degree as will 
enable the body to retain general vital relations to its 
uses and offices, though the skin be diseased, better 
than any other organ in the body can do, nevertheless 
there is a point beyond which the skin itself cannot be 
injured and made to take on unhealthy conditions, and 
yet be able to perform its functions. Burns or scalds, 
whether made by the heat of fire or by heated fluids, 
are dangerous only as they are extensive. If they are 
local, nature takes care of the difficulty by the healing 
process which immediately begins after the scald or 
511 512 
BURNS AND SCALDS. 
burn is received ; but if large portions of the skin are 
destroyed, then the system becomes so deranged, both 
in respect to the circulation of the blood as well as to 
the irritation of the nervous system, as to render resto- 
ration doubtful if not impossible. 
In the way of treating local burns or scalds, the 
treatment is to keep the part from the air. Anything 
which will do this may, in itself, serve a remedial pur- 
pose. Thus any poultice or plaster made of flour or 
any substance which can be spread on the burned part, 
and not inflame it by irritating the raw flesh, serves 
a temporary purpose. It becomes, in a measure, to 
the part injured, an artificial skin. 
I have never had but one serious scald or burn to 
deal with, and that I treated by immersing the entire 
part in water, keeping it there hour by hour for days, 
taking it out only when I felt that it was prudent to do 
so, either because of the desire of the patient to have 
it done, or because of the necessity of change of pos- 
ture to the patient; but, as soon as I could, placing 
the part back in water and covering it all up by it. It 
proved to be a most successful way of treating the 
injury, and enabled the sufferer to sustain the pain 
better than in any other way of which I could con 
oeive. 
When burns or scalds occur, water dressings are 
therefore of great value, provided the applications be 
of substances which are soft and delicate in their tex- 
ture. Wet these in water, and apply to the injured 
part, and keep them wet all the while. Nature will TUMOES-BEONCHOCELE. 
513 
produce healing quicker in burns and scalds, as in all 
kinds of wounds, under the application of water, than 
of any other substance which I know. 
Tumors.-Most physicians, and I think many sur- 
geons, would be surprised if they could witness the 
changes which go on in the human body in the reduc- 
tion and disappearance of tumors under Psycho-hygienic 
treatment. I am quite disposed to think that, in many 
cases where surgery proper is considered as the only 
remedy for certain classes of tumorous growths, the 
Psycho-hygienic treatment, properly and sedulously ap- 
plied, can render the knife or caustic quite unnecessary. 
I propose here to allude to some cases of treatment 
which have passed under my own management going 
to show the correctness of this view. 
Broncbocele.-This is a hard tumorous enlargement 
of the thyroid gland, a gland situated in the fron< 
part of the neck, just below the skin, which is callee 
in common phrase "Adam's apple." The disease is 
known ordinarily by the name of "goitre." In the 
early stage of its appearance the tumor is elastic and 
quite soft, oftentimes growing to a large size, and be- 
coming solid and compact in its formation as it ad- 
vances. 
The places where it is said to be more prevalent than 
in others are the valleys of Switzerland and the Tyrol, 
though in Derbyshire, England, it is very prevalent, 
[n these districts of country writers affirm that more 514 
BRONCnOCELE. 
women have the disease than men. Few children, 
even in these districts, have it. It only appears in 
persons who have arrived at puberty. It is supposed 
to be more common with persons who live in malarious 
or marshy places; but I do not believe that this would 
be the case if such persons were able in all respects, 
except in the direction of the atmosphere, to live as 
healthfully as persons do who live upon dry, high 
lands. 
It is generally considered, when well developed, to 
be an incurable disease, surgery not being able to apply 
its remedial resources by cutting the tumor out, the 
place where it is located and the way of its growth 
both forbidding the expectation of successful excision. 
To stimulate the absorbents, therefore, so as to reduce 
it and carry it away is the method of practice. The 
particular specific which physicians and surgeons 
used a few years ago, and upon which they relied more 
than any other, was iodine. It was given internally 
and applied as ointment externally, but failed to pro- 
duce the effect desired, in many cases the constitution 
of the patient breaking down under the administration. 
The way which I have followed in the treatment of 
bronchocele, and under which I have had, in several 
instances most marked success, has been the paying of 
great attention to the conditions of living of the pa- 
tient, such, for instance, as giving him grains, simply 
prepared, with sub-acid fruits for food and soft water 
as a drink ; keeping him upon this for months, and, in 
a few instances, for two or three years. I was led tc BE0NC1I0CELE. 
515 
adopt this dietetic practice in view of the results which 
were produced by a celebrated English physician, Dr. 
Lamb, in the treatment of cancers. His success sug- 
gested to me the idea of treating scrofulous accretions 
in this particular way. So, keeping from the patient 
all kinds of greasy or complicated foods, and causing 
him to eat farinaceous and fruit foods exclusively, for 
such a length of time as to produce marked changes 
in the structure of his body at large, I have found, 
when this course was accompanied by proper hydro- 
pathic treatment, most excellent results to flow there- 
from. 
One case which will illustrate my idea, but which 
was no more successfully treated than a dozen other 
cases, though, perhaps, none of them were as bad as 
this, I placed under the following conditions: In the 
morning the patient was required to get up and walk 
half a mile ; to eat his breakfast at eight o'clock-food 
consisting of unleavened bread, Graham pudding, some 
sub-acid fruit uncooked, and water; dinner at three 
o'clock, the same in kind as breakfast, though, perhaps, 
a little less in quantity; at eleven o'clock each day a 
bath, one day a sitz-bath at a temperature of 85° for 
twenty minutes, 80° for ten minutes ; the other day a 
wet-sheet pack with fomentations over the bowels and 
over the neck upon going in ; duration of pack forty 
tninutes; to come out and take a half-bath at a tem- 
perature of 85°, rubbed by two persons, to be followed 
by a spray at 72° of one minute, on the tumorous portion 
of the neck, the patient standing in a foot-bath at a tem 516 
BRONCHOCELE 
perature of 105° ; after being wiped, to put on a wet 
coinpress on the goitre and wear it night and day, as 
also over the abdomen ; bowels kept open when need- 
ful by tepid injections of soft water; life in the open 
air ; dress warmly and loosely. In the course of eight- 
een months, the goitre which was as large apparently 
as a hen's egg, lying directly over the thyroid gland 
in part, and extending around to the right side of the 
neck, had entirely disappeared. There was, however, 
no greater change in the conditions of this patient in 
respect to the disappearance of his tumor than there 
was in his general appearance. When he came under 
my treatment he was as feeble and inactive a person as 
could well be found of his age, complaining of want of 
power, of a sense of debility upon him all the time; 
his appetite would be one day voracious, the next day 
capricious, and the third day perhaps entirely gone. 
But after his bronchocele was cured, he became fleshy 
and fair-looking, quite sprightly in his appearance, and 
as active and companionable a person as one could well 
desire.- I confess that I myself was astonished at the 
result; but I have ceased to be so since my discovery 
of the principle of reconstruction that exists in the hu- 
man body under proper applications of its vital force. 
I am disposed, therefore, to think that where persons 
of a scrofulous or tumorous diathesis of body are af- 
flicted with any such defective organization of blood, 
or of its circulation and its organization into tissues, as 
to lead to the formation of abnormal growths, or to 
any modification of structure aside from the right line BR0NCH0CELE. 
517 
of growth of it, proper external conditions of liv- 
ing, under a proper use of hygienic agents and influ- 
ences, will produce results such as at first will astonish 
the most candid and reflective observer. CHAPTER LVIII. 
VAEICOSE VEINS. 
A gee at many women in this country who hava 
passed middle life know what this disease is. Curious 
enough it is, that where one man has varicosity of veins, 
notwithstanding the much greater strain that he puts 
upon the legs in his use of them, ten women have them. 
I account for it in two ways ; one that the habits of wo- 
men are much more sedentary than those of men, and 
the sitting posture is decidedly unfavorable to venous 
circulation ; the other is that women in their style of 
dress ligate the lower limbs in the wearing of tight 
shoes, which in themselves are very bad, and in the 
wearing of garters just below the knee for the purpose 
of keeping the stockings up and smooth on the leg. 
Perhaps, also, the wearing of their clothes about their 
hips tied with strings or cords, as has been commonly 
the case, has also something tp do in the matter, for to 
the degree that the circulation upward is checked, to 
that degree is varicosity of vein likely to be produced. 
The veins are the vessels which carry the blood back to 
the heart. From that part of the body which is below 
the heart they have to carry the blood against the law 
of gravity. In order, however, to the doing of this 
518 VARICOSE VEINS, 
519 
successfully, the veins are constructed with valves in 
them, which open from below upward, so that the blood 
in its passage upward opens these valves ; as soon as a 
portion of it has passed, the valves set back and keep 
it there, while the blood below pushes the valves open, 
and this propels the blood into another venous chamber 
which is also constituted by a valve opening from be- 
low upward. Now, when from any cause, either by 
ligatures applied about the limb, or from crookedness 
in posture, or from any cause or causes wdiatever, the 
blood is obstructed from above, the tendency of it is to 
accumulate in such quantity as to extend the vein side- 
wise, making it larger than natural. In this way the 
valves become too small for the purpose for which they 
are made, and drop down in the vein and let the blood 
set back. This condition is what is called varicosity 
or enlargement of the blood-vessel. Sometimes this 
dilatation or enlargement becomes so great as to ren- 
der the vein useless as a tube for carrying the blood, 
and the blood accumulates in such quantity and is 
pushed on so feebly that irritation and inflammation 
of the coats of the veins supervene. You have then 
what is called varicose inflammation, which is a danger- 
ous disease, and very difficult to cure, and which, if it 
is not cured, kills the patient. 
I have tried to explain the origin of varicose veins 
that the common reader might get some idea of the 
mechanical obstruction that exists in its production. I 
have not tried to be very precise and scientific, but 
only intelligent in the matter, bringing my descriptiou 520 
VARICOSE VEINS. 
within such a range as would be suggestively available. 
This disease is usually considered to be only curable by 
surgical operation. First and last, however, I have 
had probably a hundred persons, four-fifths of whom 
were women, to treat for varicose veins of the legs. 
In some cases I have had varicosity of the spermatic 
veins to treat, but usually those of the legs. I have 
been surprised, not to say astonished, to see how won- 
derfully Nature takes up even so bad a structural con- 
dition as this disease shows, and rectifies it on the best 
possible plan, when once the patient is brought into 
the best possible conditions for having it done. I am 
sure that there is a field of observation here which it is 
very desirable for medical men and surgeons to explore. 
I recollect, some years ago, having a case of varicose 
veins to treat. The gentleman was one who had con- 
sulted many surgeons, and they had told him that the 
disease was so extensive that nothing within the line 
of an operation could benefit him; and that he must 
make his life as comfortable as he could, and accept 
the issue philosophically. He came to me and I put 
him under treatment. He was a man who in every re- 
spect, except in his dietetic habits, had been a careful 
and temperate liver; but he ate badly, and drank cof- 
fee enormously, and had dyspepsia. I put him under 
Psycho-hygienic treatment. In the course of six or 
eight weeks he was taken down with a general fever, 
and inflammation of the varicose veins of the less set 
up. We carried him through the fever, and succeeded 
in reducing the venous inflammation, and when he re- VARICOSE VEINS. 
521 
covered, his veins were almost normal in their appear- 
ance. Circumstances rendered it necessary for him to 
commence business sooner than I advised, and so he 
did not get the full benefit of a course of treatment; 
but such was the permanent improvement in his case 
that he is now living, and works as hard as any man, 
and his veins are not nearly so large as they were when 
he came under my management, and give him but 
very little, if any trouble. The improvement was so 
marked that when he went to his home, he submitted 
his case to the inspection of the surgeons whom he had 
consulted, and his own declaration was that " more as- 
tonished men one never saw." They wanted to know 
of him what had been done to produce so remarkable 
a change in the appearance of his veins, and in the 
condition of his health generally; and when he told 
them that he had been under Psycho-hygienic treat- 
ment, they expressed themselves in the most eulogistic 
terms of the results produced by it in his case. 
The treatment which I gave him, and which in gen 
eral I give to such cases, is that which tends to product 
a change in the quality of the blood as well as in the 
vigor of its distribution. I have found in this disease 
that sluggishness of circulation is as often produced by 
impurities in the blood, as by any other cause. That 
this should be the case is to be accounted for perhaps 
as much on the ground of debilitation of the nervous 
system as on any other ground ; for it is true that the 
nervous system soon becomes affected in its manifesta- 
tions of power when the blood which furnishes it vigor 522 
VARICOSE VEINS, 
to work with becomes impure, as from undue or over- 
use of such power. One may get sick from want of 
power as readily and as decidedly as from over use of 
power; and where the blood, under the general habits 
of living of a person, becomes greatly depraved and 
deteriorated in quality, disease may arise in certain 
structures therefrom, as well as from exhaustion of 
nervous force consequent upon too severe and too long 
continued labor. To treat varicose veins, therefore, 
successfully, one not only needs proper surgical appli- 
ances, such as a bandage, in order to furnish artificial 
sontractility to enable the blood to pass along its course, 
but such treatment also as will improve the general 
health and increase the disposable vigor, and in this 
way aid in producing norma, conditions of the struc- 
ture affected. BATHS, 
AND 
HOW TO TAKE THEM. 
By MISS HARRIET N. AUSTIN, M.D. 
To many persons the descriptions and explanations 
below may seem unnecessarily minute, but they will 
not, T think, to him who has had much experience in 
giving instructions for home-treatment. He who has 
seen persons attempt to take sitz-baths in wash-bowls, 
to take half-baths without undressing, to give a drip- 
ping-sheet by wetting one corner of the sheet in cold 
water, or to give hot fomentations with a small linen 
towel, or a bit of flannel as large as his two hands, has 
learned how crude are the notions of the people in 
regard to the whole matter of water-treatment. A 
vast deal of injury has been done in this method of 
treatment, as well by the bungling use of appliances, 
which, if skillfully used, would have been entirely pro- 
per, as by the use of such as were wholly unsuited to 
the person to whom they were administered. 
We do not give heroic treatment. We do not believe 
in it. Our baths are all mild, and given at not very 
frequent intervals. The first thing to be done when a 
523 524 
BATHS, AND 
bath is to be given is to prepare the room, making it 
of a comfortable temperature. ■ The second is to pre- 
pare the bath, using soft water, and making it of the 
right as indicated hy a thermometer. 
Persons sometimes ask us to explain what we mean 
by certain temperatures, so that they can get along 
without a thermometer. This is impossible. The 
terms hot, cold, warm, tepid, are so indefinite, and 
convey so different impressions to different persons, as 
to be entirely unreliable in giving directions. What 
is hot to one person is cold to another, in the morbid 
states through which sick persons pass. And the sen- 
sations of healthy persons are so variable that they can- 
not be relied upon to temper baths by the touch, for 
those with wdiom a slight change is of consequence. 
Of course the line where cold passes into tepid, or 
tepid into warm, is inappreciable, but in general terms 
I should consider a bath at 75° Fahrenheit cold, at 85°, 
tepid, at 95°, warm, and at 105°, hot. The idea that 
the hotter a person is, the colder should be his bath, 
is productive of great mischief. The true rule is ex- 
actly the reverse of this; that is, a person in a high 
fever should have his bath at a higher temperature 
than if he had no fever; for what, in the latter case, 
would be a pleasant temperature to him, might be 
shockingly cold in the former. So, while in such con- 
ditions a bath at 90° would subdue the fever, one at 
75° would be likely to produce violent reaction, and in 
half an hour the fever would be higher than before.* 
* It a person in fever is to be packed, liis conditions are much HOW TO TAKE THEM. 
525 
Having the bath ready, the next thing is to get the 
patient ready. One who is suffering from acute disease 
may often, when feeling nervous, and restless, and ex- 
hausted, be greatly refreshed and soothed by the ad- 
ministration of a bath. But persons wdio are taking 
a course of treatment for chronic ailments, or those 
who simply bathe for cleanliness, should never take 
their baths when tired. Baths are always most bene- 
ficial in their effects when taken with the body at its 
highest point of vigor. Hence, as a rule, ten or eleven 
o'clock in the day is the best hour for bathing. When 
this is impracticable, the hours of rising or retiring are 
unobjectionable. No bath should be taken immedi- 
ately after or Ijefore a meal. Care should be taken 
to have the feet warm on coming for a bath. In 
cases where they are habitually cold and cannot be 
warmed by exercise, it is often well to take a warm 
foot-bath for a few minutes before a general bath or a 
pack. Next, the patient lays aside all his clothing, and 
wets his forehead and top of the head in the bath or 
cool water ; and if the bath is continued beyond a few 
minutes, like a sitz-bath, a wet towel or cap should be 
kept on the head. If the bath is to be reduced, as we 
very frequently do, as reducing a half or sitz-bath from 
90° to 85° or 80°, the patient rises out of the water 
while the attendant pours in cold water. Soap should 
never be used except for persons who bathe very sel- 
more readily and safely controlled by wetting two sheets in water at 
DO"1, wringing them bnt slightly, and packing him in them, or even 
by putting him into a fresh pack when the first one becomes heated, 
than by putting him into a cold sheet. 526 
BATHS, AND 
dom, or who are very dirty. When a person conies 
from any general hath, that is, having the wh le sur- 
face bathed, he should be instantly enveloped in his 
wiping-slceety and himself and the attendant should 
fall to rubbing vigorously. Sheets should b; made 
specially for bathing purposes. A common cotton bed- 
sheet will answer for wiping ; for a sheet of some kind 
must be used, towels after a general bath being entirely 
unfit, and crash towels quite out of the questio i. But 
for packing or dripping-sheets, use linen, and I ave the 
sheet not longer than to reach from the persona's head 
to his heels. The fabric may be coarse and heavy, but 
must be so/? and smooth. 
As soon as the skin is thoroughly dried after a bath, 
the sheet is removed and the rubbing continued briskly 
and gently over the whole surface, with the dry hands, 
for four or five minutes. A healthy person can do his 
own rubbing, but the invalid is greatly benefited by 
having an assistant" and everything that this person 
has to do in administering the treatment, should be 
done with energy and expedition, not leaving the pa- 
tient in a shivering, uncomfortable state for even the 
shortest length of time. 
After getting through with the bath, immeliate 
means must be taken to establish thorough a^dperma- 
nent reaction. If the person has a good degree of 
strength, he may go out well dressed for a brisk walk, 
or to split wood, or fodder the cattle, or do anything 
which will keep him stirring. But in the case of very 
delicate persons, it is often better, particularly if the HOW TO TAKE THEM. 
527 
weather is inclement, to go to led, well covered np, with 
a cool cloth on the head and a warm blanket at the 
feet, if needful, and lie for an hour or two, till the cir 
culation becomes entirely quiet. And sometimes com 
parativc-ly strong persons do well to follow this course, 
and get up and take their exercise afterward. If a 
person uses these means, and still grows chilly thirty 
or sixty minutes after his bath, or if, after an hour or 
two, he feels an unusual languor or exhaustion, his bath 
has done him harm instead of good. 
GENERAL BATHS. 
The Half-Bath, so called because about half the 
person is immersed in water, is taken in a tub about 
four and a half feet long, twenty-six inches broad to- 
ward the widest end, and gradually tapering till it is 
no more than fifteen inches broad toward the othei 
end, and eleven or twelve inches high. At least, this 
is a convenient size and shape. Ours are made with 
staves and hoops, and sit on wooden horses about 
twenty inches high, with a hole stopped with a plug 
in the bottom, at the small end. The bath is prepared 
at the right temperature, about six inches deep; the 
patient wets his head and steps into it, sitting down in 
the broad end of the tub, with his feet extended toward 
the narrow end. To have it done just right, there 
should be two attendants, one to rub the patient's legs 
and the other to rub his back and arms, while he rubs 
the front part of his body. The rubbing should be 
ione lightly and briskly, dipping the water up on to 528 
BATHS, AND 
the body with the hands very frequently. The com 
mon time to continue the bath is for two minutes, 
though to gain a particular and it is often continued 
much longer. 
In an institution where all the apparatus is at hand, 
fliis is one of the most convenient, pleasant, and effi- 
-'lent forms of bath. 
The Plunge is taken in a tub four or five feet deep, 
nearly filled with water, and so narrow that the person 
can place a hand on each side of the tub, leap in, crouch 
down till the water rises to his chin, and then leap out. 
This is a very pleasant, and, if taken cold, a very ex- 
hilarating form of bath. When arranged, as we have 
it at Oub Home, so that the temperature of the water 
can be raised to about 75° or 80°, it is one of the best 
baths which a robust, healthy person can take for clean- 
'iness, daily or tri-weekly. 
The Dbipping-Sheet will, perhaps, be found to be 
more practicable for invalids in families, than any other 
form of bath. It requires but little water, can be taken 
on the nicest carpet, and if mild in its temperature, 
produces very mild reactions. An oil-cloth should be 
spread on the floor or carpet, and the sheet put in a 
pail half full of water. The patient stands in the 
middle of the cloth, and the attendant raises the sheet 
by two of its corners and throws it around him, so as 
to completely envelop him from his neck to his feet, 
and immediately falls to rubbing him vigorously with 
both hands, over the sheet. If desired, the sheet can be 
partly relieved of the water by squeezing through the HOW TO TAKE THEM. 
529 
hand, as it is raised from the pail. It is common to 
apply the sheet twice; first in front, lapping it behind, 
rubbing one minute, then removing, dipping in the 
water again, and putting around from behind, and 
rubbing another minute. A very feeble person can 
take this bath sitting on a stool, if need be; but in 
that case there should be t-wo persons to rub outside the 
sheet. Or a strong person can take it alone, as he can 
reach nearly every part of his person to rub, and can 
wash his back by drawing the sheet across it. It is an 
excellent bath. 
The Pail-Douche should be taken in a room where 
a portion of the floor is lower than the main part, and 
from which the water is canned off by a drain. From 
one to six pails full of water may be used. The person 
stands on the depressed floor, and the attendant, stand- 
ing four or five feet away, takes up a pail and dashes 
the water with considerable force, at three or four 
dashes, over him, letting it strike near the upper part 
of the body, and so run down and cover him ; the re- 
cipient meantime turning slowly round, so as to receive 
the water on all parts of the body. This is a very 
pleasant bath, if not taken below 80°, and entirely 
unobjectionable to be used daily for cleanliness by per- 
sons in health. 
The Towel - Washing has no advantages over the 
dripping-sheet, except in instances where it is used sim 
ply for cleanliness, and is more convenient, or when 
the person is too feeble to sit up. One who is very 
feeble may be bathed in this way without fatigue or 530 
BATHS, AKD 
exertion. The nurse uncovers an arm, or a leg, or a 
small portion of the body at a time, partially wrings a 
soft towel out of tepid water, and washes the part 
quickly and gently, wipes with a soft towel, rubs with 
the warm, dry hand, covers again, and so proceeds till 
the whole surface is washed. Or, if this is too much 
at one time, the operation may be suspended an hour 
or two. Patients who are feverish are often greatly 
soothed and comforted by having the back bathed in 
this way several times in a day, or even by having the 
face, hands, and feet bathed. Water may be used more 
freely by spreading a dry sheet or blanket under the 
patient to protect his bed. If the patient is able to 
up for his bath, the dripping-sheet should be used 
nstead of a towel. 
THE PACK. 
Preparation is made for the Pack on a bed or lounge, 
,be pillow lying in its place, and two warm comfort- 
ables and a woolen blanket, or as many blankets as will 
amount to these in quantity, being spread upon it. 
Over these is spread the wet sheet, slightly wrung, and 
so high up that it will reach but a few inches below the 
knees, and may be wrapped around the head. The 
patient immediately places himself upon this, on his 
back, his arms at his sides, and the attendant quickly 
brings the comer of the sheet over from the farther 
side, under the chin, and tucks it under the near 
shoulder, and up close to the neck, and then all along 
down the body to the bottom of the sheet. Then the HOW TO TAKE THEM. 
531 
opposite side of the sheet is spread over and tucked 
under in the same way. Then one side of the blanket, 
then the other, and so of the comfortables, being sure 
to make these snug around the feet. It there is liabil- 
ity that the feet will grow cold, they should be wrapped 
in a warm blanket or have a bottle of hot water placed 
near them, outside the blanket. Sometimes we wraj 
them in flannel folded and wrung out of hot water; 
and very frequently, when persons have local conges- 
tions, as of the lungs, liver, or throat, we place over 
the part hot, wet flannels when we put them in pack. 
I have known persons who could not take a pack in 
the ordinary way without chilling, have them admin- 
istered with great benefit by placing a strip of hot flan- 
nel up and down the back-bone, inside the wet sheet. 
A. cool wet towel should be laid on the forehead, and 
the person left entirely quiet, and in three times out of 
four he will go to sleep and get a delicious nap. IIn 
should not be left alone, however, unless he is accui 
tomed to it, as he may become very nervous on finding 
himself alone and helpless. The rule for remaining ii 
the pack, if the patient is quiet, is till lie feels thor- 
oughly warm ; say from twenty-five to sixty minutes. 
It is usual to give persons some form of general bath, 
as described above, the moment he is taken out of 
pack ; though with feeble persons we sometimes throw 
the dry sheet round them instead, and wipe immedi- 
ately. Or such one may take a towel-washing, lying 
still, and being only partly uncovered at a time. 532 
BATHS, AND 
LOCAL BATHS; 
The Sitz-Bath may be taken in a common-sized 
wash-tub, though we have tubs made on purpose, 
which are higher at the back, with so much water 
as nearly to fill the tub when the person sits down. 
The person should remove all his clothing, except his 
shoes and stockings, and be well-wrapped up in his 
bath with a comfortable. Many times it is desirable 
to undress the feet also, and take a warm foot-bath 
while a tepid sitz-bath is taken. In this case, the feet 
should be dipped into the cool water when taken out 
of the warm-bath. A cool wet cloth or cap should be 
worn on the head. This bath is continued from five to 
ninety minutes, to meet conditions: though the more 
usual time is from fifteen to thirty minutes. 
The Shallow-Bath may be taken in any tub suf- 
ficiently large to allow the person to be immersed in 
water to the hips, as he sits or stands in it. The upper 
portion of the body should be covered with a blanket 
or warm wrapper. This bath is continued from five to 
thirty minutes. Sometimes, however, it is taken sit- 
ting, in a half-bath tub, an attendant rubbing the 
limbs, and in such case it is continued from one to 
five minutes. 
The Hand-Washing is performed by dipping the 
hands frequently in a vessel of water, and rubbing 
vigorously a limited portion of the surface, as over the 
chest, abdomen, liver, spleen, or spinal column. Severe 
congestions are sometimes relieved by this process - HOW TO TAKE THEM. 
533 
dipping the hands alternately in cold and hot water, 
and continuing it ten to twenty minutes. 
Foot-Baths are made from one to five inches in depth, 
in a keeler or common pail, and are continued from five 
to twenty minutes. Hand-Baths taken alone or with 
foot-baths are often beneficial. 
When Fomentations are to be applied to any part 
of the trunk of the body, the better plan is to double 
a woolen blanket and spread it on a bed, and let the 
patient undress and lie down upon it. A flannel folded 
to about six thicknesses is then wrung out of hot water 
and placed upon the part to be fomented ; the blanket 
is brought over it, first from one side and then the other, 
and then the bedclothes spread over all. The cloth 
should be applied at such a temperature as to feel de- 
cidedly warm, or pleasantly (not unpleasantly) hot; and 
should be replaced by a fresh one as often as it grows 
cool-say from six or eight to twelve or fifteen minutes. 
The head must be kept cool and the feet warm. The 
applications may be continued from ten minutes to two 
hours, as occasion requires. On finally removing the 
flannel cloth, the part fomented must be washed off 
with cool water - say at 85° or 80°-unless a cool bath 
is to follow, or a cool bandage or compress is to be 
applied. Here is an important point: Whenever water 
is applied to any part, or the whole, of the body at so 
high a temperature as to relax the coats of the capil- 
laries and distend them with blood, it must be followed 
by an application at so low a temperature as to con- 
stringe the vessels and restore their tone. Otherwise 534 
BATHS, AND 
there is great liability to take cold. Hence, the old 
fashioned way of " soaking the feet in hot water," on 
going to bed at night, for a cold, had to be done with 
great care to avoid adding to the cold. If the hot-bath 
had been followed by a cold one, there would have been 
no difficulty. 
SWEATING. 
One of the most convenient and efficient methods of 
inducing sweating is to place the patient in a sitz-bath, 
with a foot-bath, letting both be as warm as can well 
be borne. He must be well-covered with a comfortable, 
and as the baths gradually cool, hot water can be added. 
The head must be kept well wot with cold water, and 
watch kept that the patient does not grow faint. When 
perspiration is thoroughly established, he may take a 
half-bath or dripping-sheet, and go to bed. If it is de- 
sired to check the perspiration entirely, a good way is 
to commence the half-bath as high as 90°, and gradu- 
ally reduce it to 80°, or lower. One of the safest and 
most effectual modes of breaking up a severe cold for a 
robust person, is to place him in the hot-bath till he 
sweats profusely, and then transfer him immediately to 
a pack at about 80°, and follow this by a dripping-sheet, 
and send him to bed with but little to eat for two or 
three days. If there is congestion of the throat or 
lungs, it is sometimes well to foment the parts while in 
the hot-bath. Such a course as this is a considerable 
tax upon the strength, and should be followed by, at 
least, several hours' repose in bed. If, after going to 
bed, the sweating continues too long, it should be HOW TO TAKE THEM. 
535 
decked by a cold bath ; or, if it continues at all, it is 
well to rub off the surface with a wet towel on rising. 
EMETICS 
Of warm water should be administered at the tempera- 
ture most sickening to the patient, probably about 90°. 
The draughts should be taken at short intervals, not 
allowing time for the absorbents of the stomach to take 
up the water to any great extent. It may be needful 
to give anywhere from a pint to four quarts. 
INJECTIONS. 
When used daily for cathartic purposes, should be taken 
at a regular hour, one hour after breakfast being a very 
suitable time, at a temperature of 85° or 80°. If there 
is particular inactivity of the bowels, the enema may 
be rendered more efficacious by lying down, having the 
water slowly injected, and retaining it fifteen or twenty 
minutes, if necessary for this purpose pressing exter- 
nally with a folded towel. Some author has said that 
it is better to lie upon the right side in taking an injec- 
tion, and it would seem from the conformation of the 
intestines that there might be reason in this. Where 
there is obstinate constipation, it is sometimes useful to 
take a small cold injection, to be retained, on going to 
bed at night. 
BANDAGES, 
To be worn next the body, should be made of heavy, soft 
linen. The outer, dry bandage may be made of com- 536 
BATHS, AND 
mon cotton muslin, cotton jean, cotton flannel, or, if 
necessary to keep the person warm, woolen flannels. 
Both the outer and inner bandage should be made 
double. The rule for wetting the bandage in chronic 
aihnents is, before it gets dry - say three to five times 
in twenty-four hours. In acute diseases, particularly 
if there is much fever, they may need wetting much 
oftener. It is not necessary that they should be wet in 
very cold water, if this is unpleasant, but the water 
should be cool. 
Abdominal Bandages may be made about six inches 
wide, and sufficiently long to wind twice around the 
body, or only long enough to pass around the body 
once, and meet in front. In the latter case they should 
be wide enough to cover the stomach and abdomen, 
and need to be fitted to the form, by inserting gores in 
the lower part, or taking seams in the upper part. 
The Wet-Jacket is fitted nicely to the form, having 
arm-holes, and coming up snugly round the neck, and 
may reach only to the waist, or it may come to the 
hips. In this form they are admirable, worn in fevers. 
They should be made to lap in front, thus covering the 
chest with four thicknesses of wet linen and of dry cot- 
ton. These, as well as the abdominal bandages, may 
be left dry across the back, if they cause chilliness. In 
both cases, also, the outer bandage should extend a little 
over the edge of the wet one. 
The Throat Bandage should be about three inches 
wide, and made to pass once or twice around the neck. 
Compresses are limited bandages, as a folded wet IIOW TO TAKE THEM. 
537 
towel, worn over the throat, or chest, or stomach, or 
liver, and so covered with a dry bandage as to be kept 
warm. 
THE WET CAP 
Is made by taking a piece of linen long enough to meas- 
ure round the head, just above the ears, and from three 
to four inches wide when doubled. This is sewed to- 
gether at the ends, and gathered at the upper edge into 
a round crown-piece. It is wet in cold water and worn 
on the top of the head, coming down on the forehead, 
and must be re-wet as often as it becomes dryish. It 
does not add particularly to the attractiveness of one's 
appearance, but is exceedingly comfortable where one 
suffers from heat in the head, from chronic congestion, 
or to be worn in the study or library when thinking is 
not easy. THE SANATORIUM. 
THIS INSTITUTION was founded Twenty-Five years ago, on the 
eastern heights overlooking the village of Dansville, in Western New York. 
Its object is the treatment of invalids suffering from diseases more or less 
chronic, by a system peculiarly its own, and yet scientific in every respect. 
For sufferers whose complaints do not yet involve organic changes of vital 
structures, its proprietors confidently believe that there is no place in America 
where recovery can more certainly and speedily be hoped for and assured. 
CLIMATE AND LOCATION. 
The natural advantages of our location are unequalled. Climatically it 
is as nearly perfect as any health resort in the world. During winters which 
are of exceptional severity elsewhere, we seem to be sheltered from violent 
storms and intense cold. Even in midsummer the stifling and oppressive 
heat of other localities is with us unfelt. There is not a single mosquito 
bar in the Institution. Malaria is absolutely unknown. No fogs. 
During the summer and autumnal months feeble patients often dwell in 
tents, while more than a hundred invalids can be seen lying upon cots under 
the shade trees during the greater part of nearly every day. 
FOR BEAUTY OF SITUATION 
the Sanatorium is unsurpassed. Founded upon the slope of a lofty hill, it 
commands a magnificent prospect. Travelers of extended observation in 
many lands, assert without reservation that few scenes in Europe are of 
more varied or continual beauty than that which greets the eye of the visitor 
from the plaza of Our Home. 
THE MEDICAL MANAGEMENT 
is under physicians educated in the best schools of modern medical science, 
and skilled by extended hospital experience in America, as well as in Paris 
and London, in Berlin and Vienna. The methods of treatment employed 
are adapted to the necessity of each individual case. Medicines are never 
given for curative purposes, since we believe there are safer and surer agen- 
cies. Exercise, rest, diet, and various forms of baths, notably the Moliere 
Thermo-Electric, Turkish, Russian, Electric, and Roman, together with 
Massage, Swedish Movements, Light Gymnastics, Electricity, Inunction, etc., as indicated, are among the measures we successfully employ. During 
the past twenty-five years many thousand patients from all parts of the 
American continent, West Indies, and Europe, have been successfully treated. 
OUT-DOOR LIFE. 
One peculiar feature of Our Home is the out-door life led by the patients 
at all seasons of the year. Great pains are taken to get feeble people out- 
of-doors, everywhere-on the lawn, under the shade trees, on the mountain 
side, swung in hammocks, lying on cots, or on blankets on the grass, sitting 
in groups, or riding over the hills-our invalids are scattered, enjoying air 
and sunshine, and drinking in life and health amid the quiet scenes. 
REST. 
There is no measure more necessary to the recovery and recuperation of 
the sick and overtasked, than that which secures a condition of rest. This 
is an important feature in the life at Our Home. Everywhere in homes, 
offices, and school-rooms, on farms, in stores, and in factories, are to be 
found overworked men and women, who by timely intervention may avoid 
permanent invalidism. No place is better calculated for quiet, healthful 
rustication than Our Home. Everything unites to give freedom from care 
relief from fashion and all its vexing impositions, from social dissipations, 
irregular habits and tendencies to overwork, while at the same time all ar- 
rangements, exterior and interior, lead to the cultivation and attainment of 
thorough mental and physical repose. 
THE NEW MAIN BUILDING 
to be occupied in August, 1883, is the largest, most perfect in its sanitary 
appointments, and home comforts, and the only absolutely fire-proof and 
noise-proof Health Institution in the world. Surrounding the main building 
are numerous cottages belongi ig to the Institution. 
PRICES. 
These range according to room occupied, from gio to $20 per week. 
Boarders are received for $- p?r wee':, exclusive of room, which may be had 
from one dollar upward:. . Special terns to Physicians and Clergymen. 
Dansville is situa'ed on the direct line of the Delaware, Lackawanna, 
and Western Railroad, between New York and Buffalo, and also on branch 
of the Erie. There are numerous passenger trains daily with palace cars 
and sleepers. For further information, or circulars, address 
THE SANATORIUM, Dansville, N.Y. THE LAWS OF LIFE: 
A FAMILY HEALTH JOURNAL. 
Over a quarter of a century ago appeared the first number of this periodi- 
cal-a journal devoted to the promotion of popular instruction on hygienic 
laws. Its original founders are still valued contributors ; and the main ideas 
for which, during this long period, it has been the earnest and steadfast ex- 
ponent, are still the objects of its advocacy and the reason of its existence. 
The purpose of The Laws of Life is chiefly to educate people on sub- 
jects pertaining to health. There can be no doubt that thousands upon 
thousands of human beings perish every year who, were ignorance less prev- 
alent, might survive to long, happy, and useful lives. The Law's of Life, 
therefore, aims- 
To teach men and women, young and old, of all classes and occupations, 
what they need to know of sanitary laws which elsewhere they can not find. 
It seeks to impress upon them the infinite importance of preserving health. 
It warns them in regard to bad habits of living, widely prevalent, against 
the effects of which, the best inheritance of constitutional vigor is often of 
no avail. 
It endeavors to point out from month to month by what methods lost 
health may be regained, not through dependence on the medical art, but by 
return to Nature and observance of her laws. 
The conductors of The Laws of Life believe that it fills a want in 
periodical literature which should make it a welcome visitor in every family. 
Upon topics for which periodicals devoted to special departments of general 
literature have no place, it aims to throw the light of science and good sense. 
Its object is not to be a guide for the experienced physician, but a health 
journal for the family. Therefore- 
In style it aims first at being clear. 
Its statements are presented in plain language, so as easily to be understood. 
Its principal contributors are physicians of culture and wide experience. 
It means to be a journal for all classes-for the housewife, the school 
teacher, the student, the mechanic, the farmer, the lawyer, the clergyman, 
the man of business. 
Terms of SuToscziptioxi. 
One copy for one year, post-paid, - - - $1.50 
Five copies ordered at the same time, - - 6.00 
Ten copies ordered at the same time, - - 10.00 
To persons willing to act as our agents in the sale of our publications or 
in procuring subscriptions, we offer special inducements, which may be 
learned on application. Specimen Copies Free. 
How to ILzConesr. 
Do not send checks on banks out of New York City. The most generally 
convenient method is by Post-Office Order on Dansville, or by Bank Draft 
on New York City. Money sent in this manner is at our risk; otherwise at 
the risk of the sender. Address all correspondence relating to this depart- 
ment to 
THE LAWS OF LIFE, Dansville, N, Y. The Sexual Organism 
AND ITS 
HEALTHFUL MANAGEMENT. 
By JAMES C. JACKSON, M.D., 
'Author of ''''How to Treat the Sick Without Medicine'' " Consumption," and 
other -valuable and popular books and tracts relating to health. 
We have recently printed a new edition of this book, which, in size, style, and 
binding, is similar to " Consumption," mentioned elsewhere. 
CONTEXTS I'art First. 
To My Readers. The Child before its Birth, and the Mother's relations to it. 
The Nursling, the Weanling, and the way to lay the foundation of a Healthy Nerv- 
ous System. Scrofula, and its influence on the Sexual Organs-Treatment of this 
disease with a view to preserve children from libidinous desires. The care of chil- 
dren from five to fifteen years of age, involving the following considerations : Dress, 
Associates, Bed-Fellows, Study-Books, Life Out-doors, Play, and Employment. 
Personal Purity ; its desirableness; and the important part which the Special 
Senses exert in its maintenance. Diseases of Organs corresponding in place to 
the Sexual, arising from abuse of the latter, as Piles, Diseases of the Kidney, Blad- 
der, etc. Diseases of the System arising from over-exertion or abuse of the 
Reproductive Organs, such as Dyspepsia, Liver Complaint, Nervous Headaches, 
Sick Headaches, Rheumatism, Early Loss of Sight, Consumption, etc. 
Part Second. 
Woman's Organization, its General and Special Functions • Girlhood and its 
Needs ; Menstruation and its Derangements ; Amenorrhcea ; Dvsmenorrhcea, or 
Painful Menstruation; Menorrhagia, Leucorrhoea, Whites; Treatment; The 
Uterus and its Displacements, and the Diseases consequent thereon: Prolapsus 
Uteri, Treatment of the Prolapsus, Chronic Inflammation of the Neck of the 
Womb-Treatment; Marriage, Pregnancy, Abortion, Child-Bearing; Panaceas, 
Female Pills, Quacks, and Quackeries. 
This is one of the most valuable books ever written. It should be read by 
every man and woman in the land. Every young man contemplating marriage 
should read it. Every school-boy should carefully and studiously read it. Every 
young woman should read it. She will find in it nothing offensive to modesty, 
nothing that should make her blush, but much that will instruct her how to pro- 
tect her rights and personal immunities, so as forever to secure her from having 
cause to blush. 
This book is far the ablest ever written on the subject. It embodies the experi- 
ence of one of the ablest physicians living, whose opportunities for thinking and of 
studying the Laws of the Human Organism in this special department have never 
been excelled. If the tens of thousands of young men in our land suffering from 
debilities arising from their want of knowledge of the Laws of the Sexual System, 
could each have this work placed in his hands, what a blessing it would he to him. 
The publishers are not unmindful that on the subject of Sex the people of the 
United States hold a conservative position. The publishers are happy to be able 
to say that they hold the same position. Neither for " love nor money" coul 1 
they be induced to publish anything that might serve to weaken in the minds of 
the people-especially the rising generation-the regaid which they cherish and 
are taught to cherish for the social and family relations This book contains no 
subtle sophistries, no cunningly concocted falsehoods made to look like truths, 
which once read shall poison the mind and debase the moral sense of him or her 
who reads it. It sets no snares and digs no pitfalls for the young and the unwary. 
Buy the book, then, and read it. Having read it yourself, lend it to your 
neighbor. You can do nothing better with the same amount of money. The 
violation of the laws of life in the department of the Sexual Structure is very 
great, and knowledge should be had. Read, digest, and live. Price, post-paid, $2. 
OUR HOME PUBLISHING DEPARTMENT, 
LIVINGSTON COUNTY, T)n,Ti a-xtH ZEST. "X". CONSUMPTION: 
How to Treat It and How to Prevent It, 
By JAMES C. JACKSON, M.D., 
Consulting Physician to 11 Our Home on the Hillside," at Dansville, 
Livingston Co., N. Y., the largest Sanatorium in the United States. 
We have just printed a'new edition of this work, 121110, 400 pages, on 
extra fine and heavy book paper, strongly bound in brown muslin. 
It is one of the best works which Dr. Jackson has ever written, 
and one that has a large sale. 
In this book you will find the information you need. The book is written 
in a clear style, is free from technical terms, and full of valuable instruction. 
Thousands of volumes of it are in circulation, and tens of thousands of 
human lives have been saved by reading it and following its instructions. 
CONTENTS. 
Why should Persons die before their time ? Breeding of Children often 
a Predisposing Cause of Consumption. Consumption-what is it ? Ex- 
haustion of Vital Power, or Debility, caused by Excessive Sexual Indulgence. 
Difference in age of the Parents a Cause of the Consumptive Habit in 
Children. Predisposition to Consumption, growing out of the use of 
Unhealthy Food. Impure Water, Mineral and Medicated Waters, as Pre- 
disposing Agents to Consumption. Alcohol, and its Influence in Develop- 
ing Consumption. Causes operating on the Mother during Pregnancy, and 
those which are induced after Birth. Causes which are not Congenital, but 
induced after Birth-Unhealthy Milk while Nursing-Improper Food in 
Childhood. Sleeping in the same bed with Consumptive Persons. Breathing 
Impure Air in Close Rooms, Shops, Factories, etc. Causes operating to pro- 
duce Consumption in Persons predisposed to it, originating in their Conditions 
of Mind. Recreation and Amusements-Walking-The Movement Cure- 
Dancing-Horseback Riding. The Influence of Dress in Producing Con- 
sumption. Mental Causes as predisposing to Consumption. The Influence 
of Unhappy Social Relations in predisposing persons to Pulmonary Con- 
sumption. Diseases which tend to produce, and which end in Consumption 
-Catarrh-Chronic Catarrh. Epidemic Catarrh, or Influenza-Bronchitis, 
or Inflammatory Sore Throat-Chronic Bronchitis-Asthma-Hemorrhage 
from the Lungs - Whooping Cough-Inflammation of the Lungs-Skin 
Diseases. Measles-Scarlet Fever-Vaccination. Diseases of the Nutri- 
tive Organs. Uterine Diseases, and their Influence in producing Consump- 
tion. Tubercular Consumption-Mesenteric Consumption, or Consumption 
of the Bowels. What is not the True Treatment for Pulmonary or Mesen- 
teric Consumption. 
The price of the above book was recently reduced from $2.50 to $2.00, 
which price includes postage. Address 
OUR HOME PUBLISHING DEPARTMENT, 
LIVINGSTON COUNTY, nANSVII.I.F, N. Y. HEALTH TRACTS, 
PUBLISHED BY 
Our Home Publishing Department, 
Dansville, Livingston Co., N. Y. 
Singly. Per doz. 
1. How to Rear Beautiful Children, . . 5 cents. 50 
2. How to Cure Drunkards, . , .5 cents. 50 
3. How to take Baths, . . . .5 cents. 50 
4. Tobacco, and its Effects upon the Health and 
Character of those who use it, . .5 cents. 50 
5. Diphtheria; its Causes, Treatment and Cure, scents. 50 
6. The American Costume, or Woman's Right 
to Good Health, . . . .5 cents. 50 
7. Flesh as Food ; or, How to Live without Meat 5 cents. 50 
8. Dyspepsia ; or, How to have a Sound Stomach 5 cents. 50 
9. Student Life ; or How to Work the Brain 
without Over-working the Body, . . 5 cents. 50 
10. The Curse Lifted ; or. Maternity Made Easy, 5 cents. 50 
11. Piles and their Treatment, . . . scents. 50 
12. The Gluttony Plague, . . .5 cents. 50 
13. Wife Killing, . . . . .5 cents. 50 
14. Shall our Girls Live or Die ? . . scents. 50 
15. How to Nurse the Sick, . . .5 cents. 50 
16. How to Get Well and How to Keep Well, . 5 cents. 50 
17. The Four Drunkards, . . .5 cents. 50 
18. Dancing ; its Evils and its Benefits, . . 5 cents. 50 
19. The Weak Backs of American Women, . 5 cents. 50 
20. Clergymen ; What they Owe to Themselves, 
to their Wives and to Society, . • 5 cents. 50 
21. Papers on Alcohol. . . . .5 cents. 50 
22. The Whole and the Hulled Wheat, . . 5 cents. 50 
23. The Salt-Eating Habit, . . .5 cents. 50 
Sets containing one of each, $1,10. 
These will be sent prepaid by mail to any address in the Uni- 
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