BRARY OF CONGRESS, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Cure of Disease Simplified. A Modern Vade Me cum for the Household, —by- Mary Ries Melendy. "Simplicity is the Seat of Wisdom." 1893. ( WAV 4 1093 <^si COPYRIGHT, 1893, -by- Mary Ries Melendy, M. D. All Rights Reserved. PUBLISHED BYETHE GUIDING STAR PUBLISHING HOUSE, 59 WABASH AVE., CHICAGO. TO my Sons and Daughters, AND TO THE THINKING CLASS OF MEN AND WOMEN WHO MEASURE AND WEIGH THOUGHTS AS THEY DO MATERIAL THINGS; ALSO TO THAT VAST NUMBER WHO ARE LOOKING FOR A SaVlOT TO LEAD THEM OUT OF DOUBT, DARKNESS AND DESPAIR, This Book is Affectionately Inscribed. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. Painless Childbirth Prophesied Fifty Years Ago by the Most Eminent Physicians — What Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton Says — Grandeur of Motherhood — Advan- tages of a Mixed Diet — Abrupt Changes should be Avoided — Animal Food a Matter of Education — Diet for the Excessively Lean or Fat — Excessive Appetites should be Controlled — Practice of Deep Breathing During Months of Gestation — A System Born of Na- ture — No Exhaustion After Delivery — Deep Breath- ing Produces Pressure without Pain — Age no Hind- rance to an Easy and Natural Delivery — Dawning of a Happy Era for Motherhood — Fear in the Mind of Patient or Physician Must be Avoided — Criminals made in the Womb — Music During Pregnancy — A Word to Husbands — Wife's Privacy should be Sacred During Pregnancy. 1-38 CHAPTER II. EDUCATION OF INFANTS. A Prey to Wayward Influence — Infant Mind not a Blank — Contact with the Mother the Foundation of Every Future Idea — How to Bathe the Baby — Unsightly Objects should be Kept from View. . . . 39-43 CHAPTER III. CARE OF CHILDREN DURING DENTITION. Duties of Motherhood — Our Modern System of Education — A few Simple Medicines for Common Ailments — An Ounce of Prevention Worth a Pound of Cure — Simple CONTENTS. V PAGE and Nutritious Foods — Proper Clothing — Care of the Feet — Prevalence of Weakness of the Bladder Among Children — A Mother's Impressions Generally a Safe Guide — Fine Intuitions Belong More Especially to Woman — Dentition not Complete until Second Teeth Have Appeared 43-49 CHAPTER IV. HINTS ON DIGESTION. The Food we Eat — Common Belief that the Stomach Contains Bile — Quantity of Food Taken — Intervals between Meals should be Regulated by the Character of the Food 50-56 CHAPTER V. AIR AS FOOD. Invaluable Experience of Mr. Washburn — Twenty-five Years' Experience Breathing Extra Quantities of Air — Extra Breathing as a Cure for Consumption — Lungs Robbed of their Natural Food — Elemental Substances known to Exist in Nature — The Air Contains Every Constituent Necessary to Preserve the Life Forces — Science of Chemistry Outwitted in Many Kitchens — Experience in Australia — Forty-three Days' Fast with- out loss of Flesh — Science Calls for Facts — Another Lesson in a New Field — Infinite Range of Nature's Forces. 56-87 CHAPTER VI. BATHING. , Skin Subject to Abuse — The Waste of the Body Princi- pally Carbon — Respiration of the Earth Worm. 88-92 CHAPTER VII. CHANGE OF LIFE. A Few Simple Rules — Nature Primitive in Her Operations VI CONTENTS. PAGE Abnormal Growths — Women do not Understand their Systems— Listen to the Voice of Nature — Twenty- Four Hours' Rest from Eating — Diet During the Change — Elevate the Spirit and the Body will Grow Strong — Value of Deep Breathing — Benefit of Hot Baths at this Period — Possibility of Being as Young at Fifty as at Fifteen — Nature Plants in us the Higher Reason — Age is in the Mind, not the Body — Refinement Implies Power — Beautiful Thoughts from Prentice Mulford— Great Possibilities in Nature — Change of Life in Man as Critical as in Woman. . . 92-113 CHAPTER VIII. CARE OF THE EYES. Sight Important as an Educator — Bad Habits Lessen Nerve Force — Absorption of Cataract — Impairment of Sight Due to Enfeebled Blood and Nerve Force — Benefit to be Derived from the Use of the Flesh Brush — Stagnation — Death in Life. . . . . 113-118 CHAPTER IX. PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE. Colds Contracted Unconsciously — Indisposition of Chil- dren for Play — Perverted Polarity of the Internal and External Man — The Internal Organs Negative and the External Positive in Health. . . . . 118-123 CHAPTER X. CURE OF DISEASE MADE SIMPLE. Pain th£ Result of the Effort of the Vital Forces to Restore Health — Fossilized Mind a Hindrance to Pro- gression — Flesh Heir to no Ills — All Diseases are a Unit — Pure Air the Natural Disinfectant — Rest an Absolute Necessity — Inherited or Pre-Natal Tenden- cies — Practice Among the very Poor — Mind the Great Controller — Cholera Epidemic of Europe— Treatment CONTENTS. Vll PAGE of Asiatic Cholera — Peritonitis (Personal Experience) — It Meant Death — Malignant and Non-Malignant Scarlet Fever — How to Prevent Disfiguration from Smallpox 123-159 CHAPTER XI. TREATMENT OF GENERAL DISEASES. Acute Nephritis — Diabetes — Lean and Nervous People- Excess of Sweets — Constipation — Catarrh — Dropsy of the Brain, Fainting, etc. . . . . . 160-197 CHAPTER XII. MATERIA MEDICA. 198-233 CHAPTER XIII. MEDICAL ELECTRICITY. What Daniel A. M. Clark says — Animal and Vegetable Vi- tality — The Nervous Influence — Conduction of Forces Through the Nerves — Electrical Force — Lettuce Leaves Grown within a Few Hours — Proper Regard Must be given to Polarization — Attraction and Repul- sion — A Single Agent Made to Perform Processes Infi- nitely Numerous — Philosophy of Disease and its Cure — Every Disease is Positive or Negative in Excess — Relaxed and atrophied Conditions. . . 233-244 CHAPTER XIV. COUNT MATTEl's ELECTRO-HOMCEOPATHY. Principles of Electro-Homoeopathy — Superiority of Small Doses — A Revolution in Medicine — General . Indica- tions as to Doses — External Use — Vegetable Electric- ities. . . .... . . . 245-256 CHAPTER XV. CARE OF AND COOKING FOR INVALIDS. Flowers in the Sick-room — Keep All Medicines Away from Vlll CONTENTS. PAGE the Sick-room, etc 257-272 CHAPTER XVI. MEMORY. Its Natural Law and Benefit to Life — Knowledge Useless When it cannot be Revived — Knowledge of History of Great Value to the Statesman — We Judge of the Future by the Past — The Natural Musician has a Ready Memory — Memory Accompanies Taste — Good Memories of Children— Natural Laws of Memory. 272-290 CHAPTER XVII. HEALING THROUGH THE POWER OF MIND. Mind Enthroned — "Health Catching" — Greece Expressed Her Highest Wisdom in the Words, "Know Thyself"--- Happiness, Health, and Heaven are within Us. 290-327 CHAPTER XVIII. TRUE BEAUTY. Personal Attractiveness an Obligation — Bad Effects on the System from Absorption of Cosmetics by the Skin — Constipation Destructive to the Complexion. . 328-331 CHAPTER XIX. VALUE OF REPOSE AS A RESTORATIVE. Physical Repose Possesses a Restorative — Nervousness of the American People 332-334 CHAPTER XX. MARRIAGE AND PARENTAGE OF THE FUTURE. Tracing Humanity in Its Various Manifestations — No Man's Love Guided by Reason — Happiness Born of Self-Denial. . 335-359 INTRODUCTION. (PLEASE READ THIS.) In sending this book forth to the world, it is with the earnest desire of relieving at least some portion of the pain and suffering with which humanity is sorely afflicted, and which exists in every class and condition of life. No mortal state is perfect. The law which, as yet, prevents perfection of the human being, in all his aspects — physical, mental or spiritual — oper- ates also in every department of life, and in every field of activity toward which man directs the forces of his intellect. Agri culture is but just emerging from its crude period ; mechanics is still largely in the experimental stage; commerce and business are records of successive triumphs and failures, the latter predominating; theology has but recently commenced to broaden, and the law is no better than the men who make it. Medicine is but an invention of the human brain. Commencing in empiricism, it grew gradu- ally into a system of experimentation, and is but X INTRODUCTION. now slowly approaching the status of a science. Anatomy, physiology, pathology, surgery, chem- istry, and certain other departments of the pro- fession have been, through most praiseworthy and Herculean labors, developed into truly scientific knowledge, but much of the dark uuattained still remains in the materia medica — the healing, cura- tive, restorative, health-producing, disease-pre- venting department— in which it is the regret of many physicians that the darkness is still unpleasantly dense. None will more genuinely re- joice over advances here made than physicians. Of the various cases treated by the physician, the obstetrical inspires the most dread; any ad- vance here made is hailed with delight equally by profession and people. The most important ad- vance, namely, the fruit diet system, to be used during the period of pregnancy, was promulgated by M. L. Holbrook, M. D., and also by Alice B. Stockham, M. D., in her work entitled "Tokology ." This was a valuable ray of light to the world, and, as we continue to develop in this line, other ideas will dawn upon us. In this book, I give another ray, sending it forth in the hope and with confi- dence that, to the extent it shall be adopted and practiced, pain will be banished and happiness INTRODUCTION. XI increased. This new ray is especially valuable in giving to the world the knowledge of how to make childbirth easy, regardless of the kind of diet used during the period of gestation. We would not discourage the fruit diet system ; on the contrary, we favor it, but there are many women who do not, and cannot have the advantage of that system, and herein they may find perfect relief in this system. The chapter on Air as Food contains hints of priceless value. The chapter on Memory is so per- fect a delineation of the natural laws of memory that every one who gives it careful consideration will feel no occasion for courses of instruction by itinerant teachers. The chapter on Value of Repose as a Restorative, will be a boon to a large class. Healing through the Power of Mind is a chapter which, when fully understood, lifts all ideas of life, in its every aspect, to a new and higher plane. It makes specially conspicuous the influence of the mind over the body, and its great power to produce either health or disease. It is an impor- tant chapter to be considered in connection with all the other chapters, since the mind, rightly directed, is a tower of strength, sustaining and aiding every other system of treatment. The mind, Xll INTRODUCTION. as a remedial agent, cannot be too highly appre- ciated by all classes, whether lay or professional, since it has everything to do with the body, wheth- er for good or ill. Nearly every one has experi- enced the effect of disappointment or sudden fright, before a meal. This effect is to instantaneously check the appetite and change the desire for food into aversion. Contrarily, how good news will quicken the circulation and stimulate all the activ- ities. With the pregnant woman and the nursing mother, this knowledge is invaluable. The success or failure of business men depends entirely upon the use made of the forces of the mind ; rightly directed, success is certain. I would not seem arbitrary in the laying down of unbreakable rules. Every person must finally, to a great extent, rise above the instruction to be obtained in books before the grandest achievements can be made. Books should be guides, but with modifications. They should be followed so far as the judgment and good sense approve, and no further. Again, it is impossible for any book, however complete, to anticipate every emergency ; consequently, books should be relied on as furnish- ing principles and suggestions, rather than dog- matic and iron-clad laws. I wish every reader of INTRODUCTION. Xlll this book to consider every sentence in every chapter as being simply a thought on which he should improve if possible. A book thoroughly digested is worth far more to you than one thoughtlessly swallowed. Every one is familiar with the saying, that "What is meat for one may be poison for another." There are persons whom strawberries will nauseate, and others still who would be thrown in- to spasms by eating cheese. Thus it is important that each person should observe the effects result- ing from any course of treatment, and let his feelings as well as his judgment be his guide. There are cases where the feelings are perverted, and if so, the judgment should rule them. If, however, this should not be the case, they — as the true voice of nature — should be heeded and respected. In chronic diseases the feelings have become largely perverted. In acute cases they are natural. In the past, the feelings of the patient have not been sufficiently considered, and an increase instead of a mitigation of suffering has resulted. We are learning to be governed by nature more, and by arbitrary and tyrannical rules less. Rules should be received as guides to lean upon when your own intuitions suggest nothing better. The XIV INTROD UC TION. book that helps your individual intuitions most is the best guide for you. The human form is the most beautiful thing in nature ; the human mind is the strongest power possible for us to contemplate. A child has the capacity to understand a truthful answer to any question that it has the mind to ask. M. R. M. Chicago, III. PREVENTION AND CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. CHAPTER I. PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. Painless childbirth is an established fact. It was prophesied fifty years ago, by the most emi- nent physicians the world ever knew, that the time was coming when painless childbirth would be- come an established fact generally known to the world. MRS. ELIZABETH CADY STANTON has voiced it from the platform for many years. In a lecture to ladies, she thus strongly expresses her views regarding maternity and painless partu- rition : "We must educate our daughters to think motherhood is grand, and that God never cursed it. And that the curse, if it be a curse, may be rolled off, as man has rolled off the curse of labor, by labor-saving inventions ; and as the curse has been rolled from the descendants of Ham. My mission among women is to preach this new gos- pel. If you suffer, it is not because you are cursed of God, but because you violate His laws. What 2 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. an incubus it would take from woman, could she be educated to know that the pains of maternity are no curse upon her kind. We know that among Indians the squaws do not suffer in childbirth. They will step aside from the ranks, even on the march, and return in a short time, bearing with them the new-born child. What an absurdity, then, to suppose that only enlightened Christian women are cursed." Observation teaches us that all animals which are left to instinct and nature, bring their young into the world without suffering. The Indian squaw, as Mrs. Stanton remarks, w T ho is guided entirely by her own intuition and the natural laws which govern her, brings forth her young without pain. She will give birth while following a trail, only stopping long enough behind a stump or tree, without comforts, or even shelter, and in a few hours follow on with her new-born pappoose strapped to her shoulders, carrying the little burden herself. We do not wish to combat physicians on any theory, or any established methods of treatment which add to the welfare of mankind, but we heartily invite the co-operation of all progressive and practical thinkers of any school. With us, PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. 6 this knowledge is derived from experience, and not from undigested, undefined theories. Our object is to avert that suffering known only to woman in time of labor. We do not feel that any law of ethics should be permitted to interfere with a humane promulgation of any knowledge we pos- sess in this matter. The diet for the mother, while carrying a child, should be wisely considered. Set rules cannot be followed. A mixed diet is best, including cereals, vegetables, meats, and fruits in plenty. Of the meats, eat sparingly. If it is no self-denial to do without meat, then eat none ; there is greater abil- ity for mental and physical endurance and great- er fortitude without than with a meat diet ; this fact will sometime be universally recognized. There are ancient nations — non meat eating — whose great endurance demonstrates this fact, showing that the necessity for animal food is en- tirely a matter of education. The change from meat, however, must be gradual, for so long as the mind thinks the meat diet necessary, the necessity exists ; since the mind exercises great influence and control over the body. No change should be abrupt. Women, except among the rich, in some of the European countries, eat very little meat. 4 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. In Ireland, women of the poorer class live on a diet of potatoes and cabbage, and their confine- ments are only from one to three hours in dura- tion, with very little pain ; in some cases, no pain whatever is experienced. If a person is very fleshy and warm-blooded, lemonade and juices of berries and fruits are good; if lean and thin, oatmeal water and rice water make nice drinks, also coffee and tea moderately used. Care must be observed in not eating too much, thus causing fatigue. A little food well di- gested is better than a great deal not digested. If the system is in good condition, there will not be a particular longing or craving for any certain food, but if abnormal, then fancies will be marked. If a mother is very fleshy, she should reduce some- what by bathing and a very nutritious diet, not using much sweet food, eating carefully and in small quantities. A very thin person should eat farinaceous food and cream, vegetables, fruits and nuts, avoiding all sweets. It has been the thought with some that sweet food makes fat. The sweets cause acidity of the stomach; this produces an acid state of the blood which prevents the increase of fat and muscle. Pastry, cake, and canned fruits which PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. 5 contain a large amount of sugar, should be avoid- ed by the pregnant woman. Soups are very good, and should be eaten at the beginning of the meal. Some women, when pregnant, have excessive appetites, eating as much at one meal as formerly accustomed to eat in two. Such women have large children, often weighing from twelve to fourteen pounds at birth. These excessive appe- tites should be controlled. Leave the table a little hungry, and in less than twenty minutes the craving for food will cease, and the general feeling will be much improved ; as a result, the child will not be so large. The pregnant woman cannot drink too much water, since much extra fluid is demanded by the system; hot water is best if she enjoys it. The solid food should be well masti- cated and mixed with saliva. The practice of deep breathing should be cultivated and encouraged daily, during all the months of gestation. The extra air breathed will form a substitute for a portion of the solid food otherwise craved. It has not been generally taught, nevertheless it is a great and most valuable physiological truth, that the air we breathe is as necessary to the building of tissue and muscle as solid food. The breathing exercise will also be a most excellent additional 6 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. preparation for the day of confinement. It will not only make less table food (air is food) necessa- ry, but it will give an improved tone to the system generally. A person must attend well to cleanliness so as to eliminate all impure secretion that tends to the surface. This helps to purify the blood and strengthen the muscles. A very fleshy person can use water freely, and any kind of baths are of benefit. But a very thin and delicate person must use oils; any of the vegetable oils will do. Rub the oil well into the skin, then take a piece of flannel or a Turkish towel and rub until the skin is dry and soft. This makes a person feel strong and vigorous. This rule applies to children as well. The oils should be used twice a week in a warm room. We advocate the hot baths, using water, steam or Turkish. A warm sitz-bath, taken just before retiring, and the bowels and back well washed with pure soap, will be very beneficial twice a week, for two months before childbirth. I am acquainted with a number of ladies who used the Turkish or Russian baths during the entire nine months of gestation, with the most gratifying results. One of them had just time to PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. 7 reach home from the bath when the child was born; there was no opportunity for the family physician to arrive in time. She was the mother of five children. Attend well to the feet by bathing them at least every other night, on retiring. If troubled with habitually cold feet, dip them alter- nately first into a pan of hot water, then into cold ; repeat this several times before wiping them dry. This practice will soon establish the condition of permanently warm feet, an important aid to good health. The system here introduced is not new. It is known and has been practiced in various parts of Europe for a hundred years. I acquired the knowledge from one whose memory is sacred to me; who herself was the mother of eight large children, all born under the treatment that will be herein set forth. Her health remained unbroken, free from any weakness or injury from the many confinements she had passed through. The system is perfectly safe in the hands of the unprofessional. It is often the case in country places that the only dependence of the about-to-be-mother is upon the kind offices of a neighbor or friend. This system would be a boon to every woman in the land. It in no way interferes with the physician; on the 8 . CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. contrary it relieves both him and the patient of much anxiety, comforting her through the months of waiting, and relieving her mind of that terror and dread of confinement now so universal. It is a blessing come to woman, a system born of nature, soothing and refreshing. It eliminates all morbid accumulations and secretions, establishing a general equilibrium. Many who have had their first child under this system have remarked :"AVhy, I could have another and not feel tired." Others, who in previous con- finements have been ruptured and lacerated, and cautioned not to become pregnant again, after- wards pass through their confinements as safely as though former accidents had not occurred. The harmful tension at birth is caused by lack of right knowledge on the part of the patient, and an inherited ignorance from an ancestry before her. This injurious tension we remove. The relaxation of the nervous and muscular system is in perfect harmony with nature. The approaching termination of gestation is indicated usually by various symptoms called precursory or premonitory signs of labor. About the last two weeks a change becomes perceptible in the form of the abdomen. Its sides become more PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. 9 projecting, as the uterine tumor sinks from the region of the stomach and epigastrium. This change makes breathing easier, the food is taken with less discomfort, and in many ways the woman feels lighter and better. This change results from the body and neck of the womb blending into one, through the softening and giving way of the os internum uteri, and by the sinking downward of the uterus ; the fundus of which is now found to lie midway between the ensiform cartilage of the sternum, and the umbilicum. At the same time the uterus is projected forward. The inclination to urinate becomes more frequent,' owing to the increased pressure on the bladder. Sleep is more broken by restlessness, and walking becomes more difficult. The woman becomes more clumsy, and, a little later, glairy discharges take place from the vagina. These simply show an increased action of the mucous glands preparing for the final act of parturition. Finally there is the commencement of painless contractions ; these, a little later on, become somewhat painful, this slight painfulness t>eing only one of the signs. The mucous is more or less tinged with blood from the rupture of small vessels around the cervix, due to commencing dilatation and separation of the membrane — in 10 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. the language of the lying-in chamber, "the show." As the patient is about to give birth to the child, she should see that the bowels are evacuated, and if this is not accomplished naturally, a copious injection of warm water should be used. If constipation is very obstinate, an injection of slippery elm infusion with a little soap should be taken, in order to insure a free evacuation. In the early part of the first stage give Avarm tea, a cup every ten minutes, or as the case may require, inducing free perspiration. Have the room warm, with plenty of pure air. Attend to the feet and keep them Avarm. Pay attention to oiling the vagina and surrounding tissues with pure, sweet lard or unsalted butter. All handling or maneuvering, in the hope of bettering the process of nature, is uncalled for and injurious. Parts that are taxed by this process of nature quickly rally to a normal condition and tone, while unnecessary manipulation may subject them to serious injury and cause much after suffering. While the patient is taking the tea, she should pay special attention to extra breathing. Fill the lungs by inhaling through the nostrils, breathing as deeply as possible, and exhaling slowly in the same manner. Extra, breathing increases the PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. 11 strength and endurance of the patient; all reme- dies act more forcibly, and, capillary circulation being increased, at the same time hemorrhages are prevented or cured. This will cause pressure where otherwise there Avould be pain, and I cannot im- press it too vividly upon your minds. Many suppose that perspiration is weakening ; experience has proven to the contrary. Free per- spiration removes all fear of fever and other unpleasant symptoms generally attending child- birth. The child and placenta are delivered in from one to three hours at the longest, and the patient is left free from laceration, rupture, fevers, blood poisoning, and all the sequences so fre- quently following parturition. She suffers no pains, soreness, rigors, nor chills, when reaction takes place. Age is no hindrance to an easy and natural delivery. It will be as easy at forty as at twenty years of age. Nothing less than a malfor- mation of the pelvis can prevent a perfect delivery. In such a case, where surgical aid might be required, my treatment would still be of great assistance; it is invaluable in premature births, when the contents are large enough to give expul- sive power. When the time has come for the mother to give 12 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. birth, she should put on a loose dress— a flannel wrapper is best. Flannel is a non-conductor of heat, and as the object of the treatment is to remove all tension of the nervous and muscular tissues, the retention of the heat becomes an assistant, and also aids in dilating the os uteri and surrounding tissues. Do not lie down to have your offspring, unless very strongly inclined so to do. You do not lie down to work. A kneeling position is most desir- * able for some Avomen, holding for support to something in front of them; with others the sitting posture is easiest; move around and find the position that seems most comfortable. Many a mother has been sacrificed through the feeling that she must go to bed for the birth of her child. Nature at that time needs all the energy and as- sistance an intelligent mother can give. Do every- thing possible to assist; breathe deeply, hold a full breath, and by thus expanding the lungs, assist nature to bring forth her young. After the child is born, the mother should lie down and have some gruel, broth, or a cup of tea. If the after-birth immediately follows the birth of the child, nothing more is required at the time. If it is retained, and when the mother is rested, the PAINLESS CHILDBIBTH 13 attending physician can remove it; this can easily be accomplished by an injection, into the vagina and rectum, of slippery elm infusion and pure soap, thus relaxing and loosening the parts and causing a natural and easy delivery. Keeping warm and paying attention to the breathing will prevent any unusual discharge of blood. The patient must possess perfect control of herself, realizing that it is natural to bear children. She must not become frightened, and thus nervous and helpless as so many women do, as the result of hearing of the terrible experiences of others. If there have been sad experiences in the past, their day is over, and a new and happy era for the mother-woman has dawned. After the expulsion of the child, it is better to turn its back to its mother, and let her covering fall between herself and the child, thus bringing it into full view, and completely protecting the mother from cold or exposure. A soft napkin should now be used to wipe the child's face, eyes and mouth. The child usually cries lustily as soon as it is born. The sudden contact with the air is exciting, and more or less irritating to the exceedingly sensitive infant; the natural cry as- sists in establishing the new function of breathing. 14 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. Be not disturbed at this first manifestation of ex- ternal life through the seemingly painful cries, for the absence of these would give much more cause for alarm. Let the child lie undisturbed for some five minutes, or until breathing is fully established. By that time, in most cases, the cord will have ceased to pulsate up to within about three inches of the child's body. It should then be cut about three inches from the abdomen. In one minute the flow of blood from the cord will have ceased, when the cord should be tied, with coarse silk or thread, about two inches from the abdomen. Should the cord seem large and tapering from the abdomen, it may be because a portion of the in- testine is within it. In such case cut the cord be- yond the extended intestine, return the intestine into the abdomen, and retain it there by a belly- band. After the cord is washed and dried, take a piece of cotton, the size of the palm of the hand, cut a hole in it large enough for the cord to pass through, and place the cloth next the body of the child. Cut another piece of the same size, and, without the hole, place over the cord and hold in place by the belly-band. After it has healed properly, do not use band- PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. 15 ages any longer; discard them entirety. Do not use a diaper after three months, but teach the child to use a little chair. You may doubt the possibility of teaching a child so young, but try it and be convinced. Much labor is saved the moth- er by teaching the child early. Have the baby's mouth washed well before placing it to the mother's breast; sometimes the acrid secretion causes the nipples to become very sore. Do not be in a hurry to feed the baby; but after it has rested quietly for an hour, wash it clean and dress it warmly and loosely. Never place the child directly on its back ; let it lie on the side, or turn the body so it will lie partly on the abdomen. If there are reasons why the child should not be placed at the breast for the first five hours, it is better to adhere to the old practice of giving it catnip tea sweetened. Never use any of the adver- tised nostrums to make the baby sleep. Feed and dress it properly, and nature will take care of the rest. The first secretions of the mother's milk contain the necessary laxatives for the removal of the meconium from the bowels of the child. The meconium is of a dark, sticky nature and is natu- ral to the first conditions. Some mothers have 16 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. been frightened at the appearance of the child's first evacuations, not knowing that they were per- fectly healthy. A child always thrives best on milk; great injury to children results from giving them, too soon, food that requires mastication. If the child has to be fed artificially, see that the milk is fresh, and the bottle kept clean and sweet ; never dilute the milk, but give it pure and good, and always warm. A teaspoonful of lime water to a pint of milk will be beneficial in the summer. Never overload the child's stomach ; better feed it too little than too much. Give a baby a drink of water daily, at the temperature of spring water. It is well to remark here, that laboring women, especially brain workers, are the ones who suffer most at childbirth. This is owing to the fact that severe mental or physical strain produces great nervous and muscular tension. Consequently, the amount of rest necessary must be in proportion to the reserve force expended. Ladies who have led easy lives during preg- nancy, having no muscular or mental strain of any kind previous to parturition, are the ones who have easy confinements. So the more rest the about-to-become mother can take, the easier PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. 17 she can overcome any previous tension of the nervous system, and the more she is preparing the way for a perfect delivery. By an easy life, I do not mean one without mental or physical occupation ; I do not mean an aimless life, nor an idle, indolent, frivolous one. I mean the life lead by women who are not over- worked, overtaxed in mind or body; a life free from vexation and worry, whose environments are cheerful ; the life of the woman who does take air, exercise and proper food in delightful quantities, but who is not in any sense a hopeless, woe-be- gone, cheerless drudge. Man is the only member of the animal king- dom who shows any signs of labor or discomfort in bringing forth young. The mare Avill roll from side to side to help herself, and then stand erect to produce expulsion. In this branch of knowledge, we must not disdain to receive instruction from every possible source, for the enlightenment of our race. Thus only can we hope to overcome and control the most dreaded period of a woman's life. Do not fail to bear in mind the fact, that all fear in the mind of the patient or physician must be put aside, and replaced by confidence and hope; So our experience has been a return to the 18 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED good old times when pain and suffering were un- known at the period of childbirth, and they have come again for all who reach out for knowledge. Many women have been injured by lying in bed too long. I have always allowed my patients to sit up on the third or fourth day, though it is well to caution against excesses. I have sometimes found it difficult to keep my patients in bed twen- ty-four hours after the birth of the child. It is well, when having an impulse to get up, to do so ; and if, in the course of the next three minutes, there is an impulse to return to the bed, obey it; this gives a little agreeable and useful exercise, is a change for the limbs and body, and does no harm. Kepeat several times a day until full strength has returned. It is better for the mother to wait one or two weeks before taxing her strength too much. A proper amount of exercise, proportionate to the strength, is always beneficial. With the first feeling of fatigue the mother should lie down and rest. Her household duties should not be her first thought; herself and child are much more important. The husband and every member of the family should contribute all in their power to add to her welfare and comfort. Her cares and duties have been increased. Nursing the PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. 19 child taxes the strength of the mother, and over- work and worry of mind impoverishes the milk in quality and quantity. Her ease and comfort in- sure restful sleep and good digestion to both her- self and child. The first three to six months of the child's life are passed principally in sleep, this being necessary for its healthful and beautiful development. In this connection, while upon the subject of gestation and parturition, I will give the very in- teresting experience of a San Francisco lady. She is a woman of unusual quality of character, as will readily be seen. In the first letter I received from her, she w r rites : "I have thought for several years that things were not wisely ordered, in many re- spects, one of them being the science of having children; and now that I have acquired some knowledge in this respect, I am too old to put it into practice. When I had my children, I had made some study in the art of training my system by dieting, bathing, exercise, etc. I also studied how to determine the sex desired ; but I found the most important point was the study and cultiva- tion of the intellectual, including temperament and disposition. I felt that every part of the child should be under the mother's control, that 20 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. she was more than an ordinary sculptor, molding the mind as well as the external form." In reply to this letter, I asked if she would not favor me with a more extended expression of her knowledge in this direction, in order that I might give it to the world through my book. In reply she kindly returned the following : "During the period of pregnancy I took a bath every morning at seven, being careful that the room was always four or five degrees warmer than the bath; once a week I used soap. Took break- fast at eight, followed by an hour or two of gentle exercise, then a walk, if the weather was favorable, but never extended to cause fatigue. On returning I rested by lying down for half an hour, always throwing a blanket over me to avoid taking cold. Following the rest, I indulged in some pleasing and interesting book ; but in all these changes I never forsook the idea that I was forming a new life, and that a large responsibility for the charac- ter of the new being was resting upon myself. I tried to maintain the best frame of mind possible at all times, feeling that any varying moods on my part must make corresponding impressions on the child. I have since observed that w T hen either of my children acted in a decided manner, I could PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. 21 look back and see myself mirrored perfectly. During the first three months I ate three meals a day, being particular not to overload my stomach, and eating a very light supper. I always retired at nine, in a room well ventilated by hav- ing the window down at the top the year round. For the next six months I ate only two meals a day. A hearty diet results in a large child, caus- ing a difficult birth. A knowledge of what is prop- er food is very essential, and should be well under- stood. Vegetables, fruits and cereals comprised my diet, together with graham bread ; all cooked very plainly. I ate no meat of any kind, and drank neither tea nor coffee. I felt that meat created fever and made the bones of the child harder, consequently hardening the bones of the skull, and making the birth more difficult ; hence the occasional demand for doctor's instruments. This theory concerning meat is disputed by some. Meat may not affect all in the same manner, still I would at least advise that it be used sparingly. I drank nothing at meals, eating my food as dry as possible ; thus it was nearly half digested when swallowed. My digestion was never weakened by fluids of any kind During the last three months extra care 22 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. should be taken to prepare for the birth, in ad- dition to the morning bath. At this time my increased size and weight caused a little fever; to allay this, on retiring I used a wet compress, plac- ing it around my body from the waist down, the cloth being dipped in tepid water, wrung out, and placed in position with a dry one over it. By this means I slept well every night, awaking perfectly refreshed in the morning. During the last six weeks I took a sitz bath every afternoon, three hours after eating. Once or twice a week I rubbed my abdomen with sweet oil, on retiring. To keep my nipples from being sore when the babe began to nurse, I rubbed them with sweet oil and alum; this hardened them for future use. Judging by myself, I believe it to be much better for a woman to room alone at this time. I was and am not what would be termed a naturally built woman; in consequence was very cautious about everything concerning the birth of my first child, for fear of failure. To give an idea of my form, anything fastened around my waist would slip over my hips. As I came through with- out trouble, it proves how much easier it would be for one of perfect build. I wore my clothes loose, PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. 23 suspended from my shoulders, and never wore cor- sets. If all women would dress in this way they would find great relief from back ache, and other weaknesses. In regulating the sex of my children according to my desire, I think I had some success. With my first child, owing to the absence of all experience, or teaching from others, I had less confidence, and was less positive. I was young, being only eight- een years of age. My wish was that my child should be a girl. This desire was strong with me from the first, and, to my great joy, my wish was gratified. I have had but three children. My suc- cess or seeming success, with the first, gave me confidence to be more positive with the next two. Eight years intervened between the birth of my first and that of my second child, thus giving me time for study. I desired that the second also should be a girl, and so it proved. The third I desired should be a boy, and should resemble his mother; here also a perfect result was realized, he being dark, the opposite of his two sisters, who were light and resembled their father. This was my theory. From the time I felt positive that I was pregnant, I threw my mind on the lower portion of the body, keeping in mind 24 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. the sex desired. I continued this method for at least two months after discovering my condition. It was my last thought at night, first in the morn- ing, and the one uppermost in mind while perform- ing my work. During the remaining months of gestation, I gave my thought to the moral and intellectual formation of the embryonic man or woman, feeling that I could give the mind such direction as I pleased. I had read of criminals being made such in the mother's womb, through her criminal thoughts, and this encouraged me to believe that it lay within my province to shape my child's tendencies, whether for good or evil, for Aveal or woe. I am happy in having reason to be- lieve it now more strongly than ever. In using the term criminal, I refer especially to abortions and efforts of the mother to be rid of her child. If she does not succeed, which is often the case, then she surely brings forth a child with a criminal bent of mind. Think of it; if such action does not result in the successful murder of the child, the chances are for the production of a criminal! Here is a great law involved, which should be better understood. Think of music, and the musician is born; think of genius in any line, and the law of "like producing like" is again mani- PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. 25 fested. Think of the mechanical, the practical, for the purpose of great and important usefulness, and nature again gladly grants your wish. Think of poetry, and a poetic mind will gladden your heart. Think of the graceful in form, and nature again leaps joyously to your assistance. Nature is our loving mother, and her goodness is boundless. As women, with great destinies in our keeping, let us live above every thought which would tend to per- vert or destroy the perfect development of our children. With none of my children did I ever suffer from sickness at the stomach, nor did I ever lose sleep. During the day, if I felt sleepy, I indulged in a nap, feeling that this was one of the agencies for insuring a good baby. I was housekeeping at the time, doing all my work, including washing, until the last month, when I had an assistant. When I felt that the crisis was near, I kept on my feet as long as possible. I found that to give birth stand- ing, or on my knees, was easiest; others have told me that they found the sitting position best. I never suffered with pains more than half an hour. I to*3k my first two children myself, till a neighbor came to my assistance; I then gave her instruc- tions how to cut the cord, and brought the after- 26 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. birth myself; then bathed with warm water. Had no after-pains, and never wore a bandage. Had it been necessary, I could have washed the babe myself, and did so from that on. I rose the next morning, took my nice warm bath, dressed for breakfast, and washed the baby. I allowed my children to nurse as soon as they were dressed, and had plenty of nourishment for them. In my diet I made no change. I lay down awhile in the morning, rising in time for dinner; also in the afternoon. This plan I followed for three days. The fourth day I went down-stairs with the babe, and on the ninth day, went out visiting. I wanted to live as near nature as pos- sible. I believe that much contemplation of the manner of life of the Indian women was a great help to me, giving me courage to dare to be more natural. I am decidedly strong on the Woman's Eights question, and do not believe women should be obliged to bring unwelcome children into the world. I believe it to be the right of every woman to bear only the number of children she desires, and also in her right to the best conditions* for producing the best children. Man will yield when he must, therefore it devolves on woman to take PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH 27 the lead in this new and most important move- ment. It is not my intention to say anything de- rogatory to masculinity; had my sex been in- dulged through the ages as the male sex has been, the result would probably have been the same. A WORD TO HUSBANDS. During the w T hole period of gestation, the wife and mother will do better if she can have the as- sistance of her husband. This assistance consists simply in his extending to her his kindness, con- sideration, regard and sympathy. To render these he need lose no time from his business. It is not a question of time on his part, but of an understanding of the great value he has it in his power to be to her, without money and without price. Every husband should learn to appreciate the fact that there is no kind of stock raising so valuable as human stock. He no longer requires teaching relative to the successful improvement of horse flesh; having risen so high in the scale of knowledge, let him take still another step, and learn a still higher lesson. Not to any original evil in nature or disposition is his seeming careless- ness of the higher laws to be laid; it is simply the result of inherited tendencies and defective edu- cation. 28 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. It would almost appear as if men in general reason that, when horses die, money is required to buy more, but when women die, there are plenty to be had for nothing. We can scarcely believe this to be his real idea; yet his tragic and grief producing course is none the less a terrible truth. It is, however, a pleasure to be able to state that there are, among husbands, many noble excep- tions to this sad rule. Women are laboring, and will continue to labor, to bring all husbands up to a nobler and more beautiful plane of being, and a higher standard of thought. If the mother is so unfortunate as to be denied the due co-operation of her husband, let her re- member that it is always upon her, much more than upon him, that results depend; and, when she correctly and fully understands the power that is hers to exercise in the Divine office of maternity, she can accomplish much, even though his aid is withheld. It is the laws of being, that produce and govern being, that she needs to know; and she should esteem it a glorious privilege to be living in a century when woman is no longer denied the right of free speech, equally with her brother man. We, as women, will continue to agitate this subject, and as men become more accustomed to PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. 29 its discussion, they will learn to better appreciate it. Men are good hearted, but too many of them are wrong-headed; and, as conservative institu- tions never reform themselves, so neither will men become self reformers; an outside influence must be brought to bear upon them. Woman's nature is so heroic that she would willingly risk her life in order to have children that will be an honor to her. She is willing to do her best, but is wanting in a knowledge of the govern- ing laws. She only slightly realizes that the dis- position of her infant, whether sunny, confident, hopeful, strong and steady, or dark, despairing, weak and vacillating, is a matter almost wholly under her control. She little realizes that the con- ditions of her mind are repeated in the mind of the child; that her mental states are indelibly im- pressed on the mind of the child she is forming; and that the connection between the mind of mother and child is telegraphic and direct. She little realizes the power she possesses, even inde- pendently of her husband's assistance, to direct the character and disposition of her offspring. A woman under these circumstances should read cheery, noble books; these make valuable im- pressions upon, and divert her mind and thoughts 30 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. from things that might otherwise be troublous. She can generally maintain an even and composed state of mind, by realizing that the future well- being of the child, and possibly her own, depends on this. She can affirm that she will retire at night with only pleasant thoughts, and rise in the morning w T ith a song of gladness in her heart; gladness that she is passing through an experience necessary to the perfect fulfilment of her noble destiny. She can make pleasant calls on congenial acquaintances. She can ever have the one thought uppermost that her duty to the forming child is before every other, and she can reason herself into such a superior mental attitude respecting this temporary state, as to carry it through success- fully, even though the co-operation of him on whom she should most naturally depend, be un- fortunately w r anting. She can also, it being more natural to her than to him, retire to her closet and derive much strength from prayer, from commun- ion with the supreme power, and communion with herself as well, for it is only in secret that we truly learn to know ourselves. We may receive help and suggestions from friends and books, but the deep and subtle self-knowledge is received only in the stillness of solitude. PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. 31 There is another phase of marriage concerning which it is not only highly proper to give instruc- tion, — it is indeed imperative. Men will not teach it, the medical colleges do not teach it; it consists in correcting the idea that male continence is in- jurious. The average physician teaches that it is harmful for a man to retain his seed. More wicked instruction it is impossible to imagine. If the male has not sufficient legitimate employment to absorb and profitably use his surplus energies, let him, as John Milton said, go out and saw a log of wood. This erroneous teaching is so ingrained in the masculine mind as to prevent realization that by cultivating the mentality, the lower nature may be uplifted and transformed. Please under- stand that I do not condemn; I would only in- struct. Men have become so saturated with this pernicious teaching that they have come to believe that unless an outlet is found whereby they may throw away the substance which is, did they but know it, their true elixir, illness will result; and this so preys upon their minds that they really do become ill from brooding over their denial. Now, these men are innately good and they will yield to rational thought as soon as theyican be made to realize the better way. They will readi- 32 CURE GF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. \y observe continence in the marriage relation, when they rightly understand the laws governing their being. The dark age is past, but there is still some medical teaching that deserves to go with it. The medical colleges should teach greater cultiva- tion of the higher nature, and less of the lower. They should teach that happiness as well as health demands it, not only because it would in- crease the husband's health and happiness, but because it would infinitely enhance the chances of the wife for continued strength, and healthy, happy offspring. "As a man thinks, so is he," is a great truth, and so long as men believe continence to be in- jurious, the practice of it will make them ill-tem- pered, if not sick. It is a great truth, borne out by nature, that the masculine element will never be perfect in disposition, genius and physique, till it learns and believes the law that a conservation of the life forces, and not their Avaste, is the higher life. Man should more fully realize that the mar- riage that never dies is of the soul, not the body. He must realize that only on this higher plane is it possible to retain his wife's love, never through sensuality. He should realize that during the period of gestation, his wife's privacy should be PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. 33 sacred, and that not only his wife and child, but himself as well, will be better for it. When fully enlightened on this subject, he will understand that the more entirely he adheres to this rule, the more surely is he developing in himself a nobler and more perfect manhood. Continence is not in- jurious; on the contrary, it is beneficial." Before studying medicine with a view to its practice, and while I w T as yet but a young girl, living in the country where there was no physician in the neighborhood, I had some experience, a portion of which I will relate. I did not then see, as I do now, that this experience was a clear indi- cation of the vocation which would be most to my taste, as indeed it has ever been. There w T ere some surgical cases, which, in the absence of an im- mediate physician, seemed naturally to fall into my hands; when the physician finally arrived, he would express astonishment at the skill displayed. But this part of my youthful experience in medi- cine is not called for here. It is of some obstetrical cases that I wish to speak. Case 1. — A young married woman, age twenty- five, large and quite indolent, had been in labor twenty-four hours when her husband called for my assistance. She had had an insatiable appetite 34 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. during the entire nine months of gestation, which she had never tried to control. I first placed a gallon jug of hot water at her feet, and hot appli- cations over the abdomen. I then gave her hot relaxing tea every ten minutes, all she could drink, producing in twenty minutes a copious perspira- tion. The child was delivered, with placenta, in two hours, its weight being fourteen pounds. The mother made a rapid recovery, suffering no rup- ture or laceration. Case 2. — A young married woman, seven months pregnant, returning one night from a church entertainment, jumped to the ground from a lumber wagon in which she had been riding. The bag of waters was broken, and discharged a little daily for a week; pains of a severe character then set in, which continued forty-eight hours. Extremities became cold to the hips, and all pains ceased. She became alarmed at the situa- tion, being miles from any physician, when I was asked to see her. I decided that what I had done for others would aid her. After stimulating with hot relaxing tea, and putting hot flat-irons to her feet, the child was born in twenty minutes. It had no finger nails, only a thin filmy substance in their stead, and a large open fontanel beating like an PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. 35 exposed brain. It was of dark bluish color, and \veighed only three and a half pounds. No milk came into the mother's breast for a month. She was up in a few days, and the child has grown to full manhood, healthy and strong. Case 3. — A Mrs. D — miscarried her first child. Her second, which came at full term, was delivered in an hour and a half. No pain whatever, only, a sense of pressure, was experienced. Case 4. — Mrs. W — , thirty-nine years of age, of low stature, thickset, fleshy, and of short breath, counselled with me in the beginning of her preg- nancy. I found her in a state of mind bordering on desperation. I assured her that she had no trouble to apprehend; her fear, however, was not overcome until later. I recommended some ap- propriate books adapted to one in her condition; she read these and gave herself up to the higher wisdom. She kept away from such persons as would only depress her feelings and increase her anxiety, and in this way her mind was brought into a harmonious state. She grew to look for- ward with a fearless and strong heart to the fulfil- ment of her pregnancy, keeping uppermost in her mind the naturalness of child-bearing, and placing trust in the supreme wisdom that does all things 36 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. well. When the time for her confinement came, I was called again. I gave the treatment I had learned to employ, relaxed her system with artifi- \ cial heat, and she had an easy delivery, so easy as to cause her to remark that she would not dread to have another. Since graduating from a medical college and taking up the practice as a profession, I find that I was, in my youth, on the right track, my present system being only an improvement on my early method. The following is an extreme case. A single lady, twenty-seven years of age, had unsuccess- fully attempted an abortion to save her reputa- tion. She was very beautiful. Her occupation was that of sewing. The poisonous drugs she had taken produced the death of the foetus, but not its expulsion. A great sufferer, she had lain in this condition six weeks, and was reduced almost to a skeleton. Two of the city physicians exhausted their skill on her, without success, and left her to die under the effects of opium. While in this dying condition, another lady physician and myself were called. I suggested the sweating process, in con- nection with hot water injections to the unrelax- ing womb, keeping her, meanwhile, warmly PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. 37 covered. One hour after this treatment the entire system relaxed, including the os-uteri, expelling contents, which was a rotten mass of putrefaction. The odor of a dissecting room was nothing com- pared with this. Another injection, not so warm, with a few drops of carbolic acid, was given, when she fell into a sound sleep. The sack or bag of waters did not break until reaction set in, produc- ing painless contractions. The free perspiration also eliminated all poisons which had been taken into the stomach, purifjdng the entire system of foreign matter. She recovered perfectly, free from the least indication of fever or blood poisoning, as would ordinarily be expected. One who had undergone a Turkish bath could not have report- ed more satisfactorily. At another time, while visiting in Minneapolis, I was invited to a Woman's Hospital as counsel in a severe labor case. The woman had been in great suffering for two days, and, on examination, I found still no dilatation of the os-uteri. I sug- gested my usual course, which was followed. In an hour and a half the child was delivered without pain, and there was a perfect recovery. My obstetrical cases have been very numerous, but I have never lost a case, nor met with an 38 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. accident. Among these cases have been some critical ones, handed over to me from the hands of experts and surgeons. For the benefit of those who are easily alarmed by stories of the serious experiences of others, the following illustrates what a woman can do in the absence of all assist- ance. A woman, age forty, and mother of five chil- dren, lived on a farm in a vicinity where there was neither physician nor midwife. During the absence of her husband on business, she was taken with labor pains. Without assistance, alone in the house, she wrapped herself in a woolen shawl, and drank hot water and whiskey until free perspira- tion was induced. She did not lie down, but kept on her feet, knees, or in a sitting position: She had not long to wait before the child was born. She cut the cord, tied it, and waited for the after-birth, changing position frequently. This soon came, and in a few days she w r as as well as usual. Through it all she was entirely without fear. CHAPTER II. EDUCATION OF INFANTS. It has been said that education should com- mence at the cradle, and never cease. It should commence even earlier. On this point the follow- ing by Dr. J. B. S. King is excellent: "Education of infants may at first strike the reader as incongruous or possibly as an absurdity. How, it will be asked, can these little morsels of humanity, without the power of paying attention, without thought, a prey to every wayward in- fluence, with their aimless motions, their expres- sionless faces, be, in any sense of the word, educat- ed? Surely the infant mind must be a blank, incapable of education until more developed. Such objections unconsciously betray themselves and admit the very thing for which we contend. 'Until more developed' (that very development is the education meant) 'a prey to every wayward influence,' shows the means and possibility of edu- cation." At birth the baby's mind is a blank, but there are five little senses so delicately alive that this 40 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. condition soon ceases, and whether we are aware of it or not, education has begun. At first the infant passively receives what comes to him, but he is destined soon to be fed by five vigorous little loves, affections or desires, actively seeking grati- fication, and thus laying the foundation ideas for the building up of a human character, destined to endure through all the measureless mutations of eternity; for the first contact with any external thing impresses itself upon the form and substance of the tender skin, modifying its state, and con- veying the impression received by a thousand little sentient nerves to the ganglia of the brain, where it is registered upon those soft but enduring substances as the first impressions, upon the baby mind, of substance and of form. The first impression on the mind of the child should be made by means of contact with the mother. The little aimless hand, blindly groping in its new environment, should first touch the mother's skin, and the velvety cheek of the little head should come in contact with nothing less than the mother's breast. The sense of touch in- evitably communicates its delight to its four companion senses, and in a very short time excites into activity, sight, taste, smell and hear- EDUCATION OF INFANTS. 41 ing. The maternal touch incites the infant to reach forth to the mother and absorb from her those things which nourish and delight him; after touch, comes smell, as the child inhales from the warm body of the mother odoriferous particles w r hich delight and awaken it to a new perception. In the marvelous laboratory of the mother's system has been prepared milk, sweet, sapid, and nutritious, which awakens into its delight the sense of taste. Later on, and in sympathy with these, comes the sight of the tender and loving face of the mother bending over it, and finally the sense of hearing is filled with harmonious delight t>y the lullaby or tones of endearment. By this delightful affecting of the senses, is thus laid in the mind of the babe the foundation for every future idea of sympathy and beauty. During these early years, however little we may think of it, the root ideas of substance, form, weight, smoothness, roughness, symmetry, har- mony, unity, distance, space, taste and smell are stored away in the secret crypts of the infant brain, forming the substructure for all the educa- tion and instruction of later years. Acting on these ideas, care should be taken that the body "touches the mother's bosom soon after birth. 42 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. The elaborate and minute bath, so often given by painstaking nurses, should not be tolerated. Soap and water, and rubbing with rags and sponges, are not only unnecessary, but harmful. The foolish lot of finery, starched, rustling dresses, frills, necklaces and embroidery, to make the baby look pretty, should be done away with; simply wipe the new-born stranger gently with a soft cloth, wrap him in some similar material, and put him close to the mother's breast, where he may cosily nestle, bringing into existence that mighty thing, the "greatest thing in the world," a mother's love; where also the senses five may be stimulated into their first obscure perceptions. Let the mother and the nurse cultivate a serene, calm, cheerful disposition, as becomes their high station, and the baby will feel its influence, as rose petals feel the gentle breeze; harsh feelings, ill temper, fretfulness and worry should all be ban- ished from this quiet chamber. The first playthings should consist of smooth balls and blocks for the baby to handle in its puny grasp, in place of the irregularly shaped, glittering and noisy rattle so often given as the first toy. Different elementary colors should next be present- ed. Later on, as the child grows, if it be noticed CARE OF CHILDREN DURING DENTITION. 43 that he tires of a toy, it can be put away, and, after some days or weeks, presented to him again. During the first five years, all ugly, frightful, dis- cordant things should be kept out of the sphere of the growing man as much as possible; even pic- tures of fierce and savage animals, and of venom- ous things, such as serpents and toads, had better be withheld for a time. The little mind should first be filled with images of domestic animals, and things of beauty and use to man. A beautiful and orderly home, filled with an atmosphere of parental affection; judiciously selected toys, with patience and wisdom in answer- ing questions, are the influences which should sur- round the child until the age of six years, when education, as ordinarily understood, is usually begun. CHAPTER III. CARE OF CHILDREN DURING DENTITION. Before entering upon the duties of motherhood, a young woman should endeavor to extend her knowledge concerning the new cares and responsi- bilities about to devolve upon her. Instruction concerning these important topics, so necessary to the well-being of woman, is sadly neglected under 44 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. our modern system of education. There are cer- tain fundamental facts relating to her own body, and the formation of its organs, that it is very important, if not absolutely essential, for a pros- pective mother to know, that thus may be laid the basis for a practical knowledge of hygiene; both for her own benefit, and to insure the health and welfare of her infant, such knowledge is indispensa- ble. Further than this, it is very necessary to domestic happiness that she should be a good cook, thoroughly learned in the art of preparing wholesome dishes for her family. For this purpose she should make a study of physiology, that she may understand what kinds of food are best suited to the needs of growing children, and for her own requirements, especially during the important peri- od of pregnancy. She should also be aware of the health and comfort to be derived from a wise and skillful selection of material for her baby's clothes, and be able to acquire the knack of quickly and gently dressing and undressing the little stranger. She should understand how to use a few simple medicines for common ailments ; how to make a poultice, the indications which render its use neces- sary, and its proper application. Kemember the adage, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound CARE OF CHILDREN DUEING DENTITION. 45 of cure;'' hence that no emergency may find you unprepared, keep always on hand a small supply of simple remedies. We believe those recommend- ed in this book to be the best for this purpose. In the rearing of children, it should be the aim of the mother to select simple and nutritious foods. Under this head would come eggs, milk, barley, oats, and wheat, prepared in various appetizing ways. Bread made from entire wheat flour is the best, containing, as it does, all the essential con- stituents of the human system. Teach your chil- dren to avoid unsubstantial nicknacks and indi- gestible dishes, such as candies, cakes, greasy food, and heavy pastry of all kinds. Care in maintaining a simple diet is necessary to insure the proper growth of the various tissues, as well as the bones, muscles, nerves, teeth and hair. The diet should be a mixed one, consisting of cereals, vegetables, and fruits, the latter to be used plenti- fully. PROPER CLOTHING is an important factor in maintaining the health of an infant, v/hich should be, if anything, too warmly, rather than too lightly clad. The feet, especially in the winter, should be kept warm and comfortable, by protecting with woolen stockings; 46 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. they should be bathed every night if possible, for the reason that the feet, owing to the extra size of their pores, are great eliminators, ridding the sys- tem of much impurity. If no other conveniences are at hand, they may simply be bathed with a wet sponge and rubbed dry; coarse towels are best. Yery frequently, in winter, the base of the brain and the spinal cord become chilled, owing to insufficient clothing, rendering it very necessary that these sensitive parts should be carefully pro- tected from cold and draughts by warm clothing, reaching high up the back of the neck. Many children suffer greatly from weakness of the blad- der and kidneys, on account of the lack of warmth in these portions of the body, and the feet. Weak- ness of this nature many retain through life, causing or favoring the development of the various diseases to which humanity is subject. Prominent among these, is inability to retain the urine, or its opposite, difficult evacuation of the bladder, ca- tarrh of the bladder and kidneys, and Bright's Disease. At the age of three months the child usually begins to drool, a sign that the process of teething has commenced. When this condition is noticed, it is well to give the following homoeopathic medi- CARE OF CHILDREN DURING DENTITION. 47 cine : calcarea carbonica, 3x triturated, and cal- carea phosphorica, 3x triturated. Obtain one ounce of each of these at a reliable homoeopathic pharmacy, and give one kind in the morning, and the other in the evening. A dose the size of a grain of coffee is sufficient. If the child becomes fretful and peevish, as children frequently do during the period of dentition, give weak chamomile tea occasionally in connection with the powders. The matricaria or German chamomile is the best, though a very convenient way of preparing it is from the tincture of the herb. Mix a few drops in a cup of warm water, sweeten slightly, and allow the child to drink freely. Do not urge or tempt the child to eat. As a rule, this treatment is followed by a restful, natu- ral sleep, and, on waking, a healthful, natural ap- petite will result. Such treatment, from the third month, though no signs of teething should yet be manifest, will act as a preventive against such dis- eases as brain fever and convulsions. In cases of severe or protracted diarrhoea during this period, as a result of taking cold, or from improper or too rapid feeding, use the same remedies, giving the tea in smaller doses, and more frequently. Also use the following poultice: into 48 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. one quart of corn meal pour boiling water, in sufficient quantity to form a proper consistency; before spreading, add one teaspoonful of red pep- per, and two dessert spoonfuls of mustard, stirring until thoroughly mixed. Spread between two flannel cloths and lay over the stomach, bowels and bladder ; it will not burn or blister the tender skin. Then wrap the baby in a woolen blanket or shawl, and give a little warm chamomile tea. Admit no visitors ; quiet is essential, that you may maintain a serene and hopeful frame of mind, undisturbed by any influence tending to excite or cause anxiety. All nurses should possess serene, even temperaments. This treatment has been the means of restoring babies to life and health when the passages have been as numerous as thirty a day, and when life has been despaired of by the attending physicians. It is seldom necessary to change the poultice, but if thought desirable, the same material may be heated and a small quantity of pepper added. Do not, even in the most serious cases, give way to fear, and never allow your good sense to be over- ruled by another. Your impressions are generally a safe guide to follow; for the Almighty has implanted in every mother's heart a natural intu- CARE OF CHILDREN DURING DENTITION. 49 ition intended for the protection of her offspring. These fine intuitions belong to motherhood, and many a little life has been sacrificed through their being overruled by external influences. When a child reaches the age of six years, give the same powders, one of each kind, once a week, until the second teeth appear. The first, or milk teeth will remain for use until the new set is formed and developed, pushing the first ones out. The second teeth come to stay, and when perfect, their appearance is a joy to the beholder and a priceless boon to the possessor. Dentition is not complete till after the second teeth have appeared ; its process, whether painless or otherwise, is largely dependent upon food, clothing, air and exercise. When these are adapt- ed to the building up of a sound constitution, den- tition is comparatively painless, and if due atten- tion is paid to these essentials, medical counsel will seldom be required. CHAPTER IV. HINTS ON DIGESTION. A knowledge of this important function is the road to health. — Thomas. The food we eat undergoes a peculiar process called digestion, which serves the purposes of nu- trition, xlll solid articles used for food should be reduced to a comparatively fine pulp, through the action of the teeth. While the food is in process of mastication, there is mixed with it a considerable amount of fluid, called saliva. This fluid is furnished by the salivary glands, situated in the mouth. The sali- va softens and moistens the food, so that when carried into the pharynx, it is passed with ease through the aesophagus into the stomach. Proper- ly masticated food not only stimulates the lining, but excites an action in the glands of the stomach. These glands secrete a fluid of great solvent power, called gastric juice. The action of this fluid, aided by the contractile muscular energy of the stomach, converts the various kinds of food into a pulpy consistency, called chyme. HINTS ON DIGESTION. 51 The common belief that the stomach contains bile is erroneous, as, when in a healthy condition, no bile is found in it. If bile be ejected in vomit- ing, it not only shows that the action of the stom- ach is inverted, but also that of the duodenum. The chyme is conveyed through the pyloric orifice of the stomach into the upper portions of the small intestines, called the duodenum. The chyme not onlv excites an action in the duodenum, but also in the liver and pancreas. Mucus is secreted by the duodenum, bile by the liver, and pancreatic fluid by the pancreas. The bile and pancreatic fluid are conveyed into the duodenum and mixed with the clryle. The chyle and residual matter are moved over the mucus surface of the small intestine by the action of the muscular coat. This movement is called peristaltic or vermicular, from its resemblance to the motion of a worm. As the chyle is carried along the tract of the intestine, it comes in contact with the villi, where the lacteal vessels commence. These take up the chyle, and transfer it through the mesenteric glands into the thoracic duct, through which it is conveyed into the large vein at the lower part of the neck. In this vein the chyle is mixed with the venous fluid, and the whole is 52 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. called impure venous blood. The residual matter is conveyed into the caecum, or first portion of the large intestine, and is the natural stimulant for producing health of the bowels. Therefore, food must not be too concentrated, or too rich, but must contain waste matter. For this reason, bread made from coarse meal is better for general use than that made from fine flour, unless other food which contains waste matter is daily taken into the system. In digestion, five different processes are ob- served, as follows : First : — Chewing and admixture of the saliva with the food. This process is called mastication. Second : — The change through which the food passes while in the stomach, by its muscular con- traction and the secretions from the gastric gland. This is called chymification. Third: — The conversion of the pulpy chyme, by the agency of the bile and pancreatic juice, into a fluid of milk-like appearance, called chyle. This is chylification. Fourth : — The absorption of the chyle by the lacteals, and its transfer through them and the thoracic duct into the sub-clavian vein. Fifth: — The separation and excretion of the residuum. HINTS ON DIGESTION. 53 Nutrient food imparts a healthy stimulation to the salivary glands, during the process of mastication, and if well masticated and blended with a proper amount of saliva, it will induce a healthy action in the stomach, being its appropri- ate stimulus. Well prepared chyme is the natural stimulus of the duodenum, liver and pancreas. Perfectly elaborated chyle is the appropriate exci- tant of the lacteals. Hence, if the processes of mastication and insalivation are defective, all the changes in the food will be imperfect. If chymiflcation or chylification be faulty, the changes in the ulterior digestive process will be incomplete. The perfection of the digestive pro- cess, as well as the health of the general system, demands certain necessary conditions. The quan- tity of the food taken, its character and quality, the manner in which it is taken, and the condition of the system when it is taken, are all of great importance. The boy that exercises constantly and grows rapidly, not only needs food to promote the growth of the bones and muscles, but material for repairing the waste of the system. . We notice in the healthy growing child, the frequent call for food, the keen appetite and vigorous digestion. 54 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. When the system is developed and matured there is less demand for food, all that is required being a quantity sufficient to supply the loss in the action of the skin, liver and other organs. The active boy or man requires more nourish- ment than the one who is indolent, since the waste of the former exceeds that of the latter. When an individual who has been accustomed to active employment, such as agriculture, leaves it for work of a sedentar}^ character, as learning a trade, attending school, or engaging as a clerk, he requires less nutriment than before, owing to the fact that the waste of the system is diminished in nearly the same proportion as the exercise is lessened. Students of both sexes should guard against this evil during the first few weeks of attendance at school. If the food be deficient in waste matter, the tendency is to produce an inac- tive and diseased condition of the digestive organs. Consequently, nutrient food should have blended with it waste material; thus, unbolted wheat flour is more healthful than bread made from fine flour, and fruits and vegetables are more healthful than jellies. The importance of this point to men and women who follow trades and professions, cannot HINTS ON DIGESTION. 55 be overestimated. It has been illustrated by experiments upon the lower animals ; for instance, feed a dog with pure sugar or olive oil, articles containing no waste matter, for several weeks, and the evil effect of concentrated nutriment will be manifest. At first the dog will take his food with avidity and seem to thrive upon it, but soon his desire for food will diminish, his body emaciate, his eyes ulcerate, and in a short time death will result; but when bran or sawdust is mixed with this food, the health and vigor of the animal will be good for months. If a horse be fed grain only, without hay or straw or material of like character, the same results will follow. If at any particular season of the year there is a tendency to diarrhoea, an article containing the smallest amount of waste matter should be selected as food. But if there is a tendency to an inactive or constipated condition of the bowels, articles of food should be selected containing the greatest amount of waste material; such articles are more stimulating to the digestive organs, consequently more laxative. If those articles of food most easily digested are always eaten, the digestive powers will become weakened; if overworked, they will become ex- hausted ; thus both extremes should be avoided. 56 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. Food should be taken at stated periods. The interval between meals should be regulated by the character of the food, the age, health, exercise and habits of the individual. In most instances from two to four hours are necessary for the digestion of ordinary meals ; in addition to this the stomach requires from one to three hours in which to recruit its exhausted powers after the labor of digestion is complete. CHAPTER V. AIR AS FOOD. Herein is given, in his own words, the extraor- dinary and invaluable experience of J. H. Wash- burn. He lived on extra breathing for a longer period than was ever before attempted by any man, and felt splendidly. "HaA^ing been born with a feeble constitution, the first twenty years of my life were passed sus- pended, as it were, by a silken thread, between two states, — life and death, so called. Anxious parents cared for me according to the best of their knowl- edge. They carried me to all the physicians of note near our home, and practiced their advice 'till hope was worn out, and the little stock of consti- AIR AS FOOD. 57 tution I started with was gone. I then com- menced the study of medicine to learn, if possible, a way to health. The wrestle I had with big vol- umes, large words, and little sense, gave me no physical help but some knowledge. Many health journals I took and read. Slowly and surely were the facts coming to me that the term, "practice of medicine," was the right one to express the truth. To practice on the poor sufferer is the word. They practice on you to change the form of your ills to this, that or the other inharmony — disease — or kill you outright; often the latter. Through all these years I was learning from medical books and by word, that disease is an enemy, something extra- neous, to be fought as you would fight a grizzly, should he enter your home. All this time I was hanging by a silken thread so that I could almost look through the mist beyond death. Slowly it was dawning upon me that Nature cannot be foiled or set aside as to her constitution. I began to think about cause and effect; I reasoned that if certain effects do not, without variableness, follow certain causes, how can we have science? If I have ill health, I reasoned, such must be a legiti- mate sequence of preceding causes and conditions, near or remote, or both, in time of occurrence. So 58 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. I was led to think of the complicated, artificial habits of society. I met persons, young, middle- aged, and old, with teeth gone, hearing gone or impaired, sight gone or going, (as the great mas- ter, Shakespeare, expressed it — "sans everything,") and every sort of deformity, woe-begoneness and misery multiplied. I thought, when we find rocks tipped at every conceivable angle, we at- tribute it to volcanic action, cooling of the earth, etc., as causes or precedents. So through all the physical sciences we endeavor to trace conditions and facts as far back along the lines of causation as possible, thus obtaining a knowledge that gives us a solution of the present conditions. Why Nature is thus constituted would be an idle inquiry. Idle because entirely beyond the grasp of the human intellect. Ultimate forces or causes in Nature, or in any part of her domain, never can be grasped by the mind of man; but in the domain of relative causation, wide and vast as it is, is comprised man's field of observation, action and power. Now let us see what we can do with this line of thought in the domain of life relating to man. A person is afflicted by that form of bodily condition called consumption of the lungs. AIR AS FOOD. 59 The immediate condition we notice is disturbed breathing. Next in line is a discharge from the lungs. Next in order of observation is a sunken, narrow, congested chest. Still further back along* the line of causation we find that a subtle and potent law of inheritance has been at work transmitting condition and tendency. Here, trac- ing cause, for all practical purposes, may cease. The habits in our forefathers that resulted in this terrible scourge, lung-waste, though known, need not here engage our attention. It is enough to know that the first condition of dis- turbance was interrupted breathing. The air, pure, is the natural food for the lungs, and more than half the food for the whole system, as we will see further on; the trouble is, our patient does not get enough breath, enough of this air. Why he does not, or why his inherited tendency, is not necessary to our object in this inquiry. Now, with these plain, common sense premises before us, what is the rational road to a normal state of harmony or health? Briefly, more air in the lungs. Not only are the lungs robbed of their natural food, but by and through such insufficiency of air, the whole man, mind as well 60 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. as body, is robbed and dwarfed. I will explain here that the air, commonly supposed to be a compound of oxygen and nitrogen gases, is now known to contain all the elemental substances known to exist in nature. Oxygen is one allo- tropic form of electricity, magnetism, heat, light, motion and force, and these are the principal agencies that manifest in every department of Nature and the universe. Drawing this air into the physical domain through the lungs first, means something. Rightly breathed, it means life, health; wrongly breathed, it means disease, disorganiza- tion, death. The air, so called, contains every constituent the life forces need to preserve their equilibrium against disintegrating environments and tendencies. These elemental constituents with and in the air may not be condensed enough to furnish all the system requires to carry on life's purposes and hold its balance, health, but much more nearly so than is known to mankind. Leav- ing this digression, let us return to our patient, with, we will say, morbid lungs, and hence a morbid condition of every function of the system. It is a law, that solids yield to fluids. Solids and fluids are subservient to ethers, or, what is the same, matter in a radiant state. All these states AIR AS FOOD. 61 are so many different expressions of vibratory action of the same elemental and ultimate sub- stance. Now let us apply these reflections practically to the case of small lungs and chest. Loosen thoroughly every band, corset and appendage that obstructs, and never tighten them again. Seek an easy position, in a rocking-chair, or on a lounge, with shoulders and head a little inclined. Now, with perfect calmness, draw, slowly, the air into the lungs through the nostrils, deeper and deeper; be very careful to give attention to calm- ness. You may do yourself much harm here, as violent, spasmodic effort, inflating only the top of the lungs, will make you more nervous, and be harmful. Natural law is imperious and enforces exact justice. Do not hold your breath, but draw the air in calmly, deeper and deeper, and exhale as calmly as possible. The will has much influence in allaying nervous and spasmodic tendencies in the chest and system, such as a tendency to cough, and other manifestations of disturbed function. Keep this up a half hour or so at a time, and as often as you wish in repeti- tion. As you proceed, the ability to breathe deeper and deeper and more calmly will be marked. 62 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. Do not fail to use the agency of the will to pre- serve a perfectly calm state when you are taking these inhalations. Keep these exercises up. No great work is accomplished in a day; remember you are now to be made a new being; time and will are required, and are both indispensable to success. A marked change will be perceptible very soon if your work is done aright and well. At night when you retire, and through the night when you waken, you will find this deep breathing to be a magic wand; within the reach of all is this life elixir of mind and body. Will and a little intelligence is the price demanded. This habit persisted in, will, in time, give a breathing capacity that cannot fail to astonish the one who persists in it. Never eat to such excess as to cause the least oppression; adherence to this rule will greatly facilitate the breathing exercise. Eemember, some of our great men and women have lived very simple, abstemious lives, and accomplished much. Our good and great Franklin could withstand lightning because he lived on oat-meal gruel. He was more able to see the meanness of tyranny, and along with Payne and Jefferson, free their own and our necks from the yoke of heartless despots, because he AIR AS FOOD. 63 had a clear, oat-meal mind. He was able to write "Poor Richard" too, a copy of which work ought to be on every centre table in the land. Thoreau, the author of "Walden Pond" a famous Work, lived at an expense of only twenty dollars a year. He lived for the mind, not the stomach. He ate to live; too many of us live to eat. The animal appetites and propensities of the majority of mankind have entire control of the reins of government. Many, very many more are killed by gluttony than by starvation and the minie ball combined. Many of our public men are killed by a night of debauchery and gluttony, and the cry goes out — "worked to death." I could give the names of a number, and of one president who thus committed a - most degrading suicide. Yet you will be told that these are model society peo- ple, and perhaps they are. The whole science of chemistry is outwitted in many kitchens by cooks preparing viands that ruin the functions of body and mind. A hot and sickly blood leads to personal excess, and thus foetal-life is turned into a nursery of idiots and monsters ; yet we cry, "why is insanity so rapidly on the increase? " The women of the middle and lower classes spend most of their time cooking 64 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. and eating — a worse than wasted life — while the wealthy classes hire their cooking done and often live more simply than the poorer class, thus enabling them to give more time and ability to the accumulation and care of their wealth. At our fashionable hotels scarcely a dish of any kind fit to enter the human stomach can be obtained. Meats and trash ad infinitum is the order. We look back with horror to our ancestors who roved over Europe and the East, naked and hairy ; who were cannibals, killing and eating their tribal neighbors. Yet we rear our pet stock, the calf, for instance, with its big brown eye ; the deer with its swimming eye ; the little chick with its subtle sense; the noble horse also,— we rear and propa- gate these forms of life about us till they learn to trust us, (in this is our case worse than that of the cannibal,) then massacre and eat them. We are not satisfied with the infinite variety of fruits, grains and vegetables that furnish abundantly all the elements needed to keep the functions of mind and body healthy and clear. Add to this meat diet, peppers, spices and pungent sauces which pamper and derange, the habit of breathing im- pure air in stove-heated rooms, close and unven- tilated, need we wonder why, if we think at AIR AS FOOD. 65 all, mankind is sick not only in body, but in mind as well? With all these causes standing in fearful array before us, we go groping about, talking of the original fall of man, and hunting for sticking- plasters of all sorts and hues to hide the leprous sores. A leprous physical life causes leprous re- sults in the moral and mental natures. The ten- dency of facts and science today is toward the belief that the mind or the substance of the spirit is organized matter on an ethereal plane of activ- ity. Who can say that life in the body is not for the purpose of individualizing spirit body, through vital, organic processes, from the food Aye eat and the air we breathe, tempered with the mental and social salt superadded? I will now return to my personal experience. When I learned, slowly but surely, that "remedies and continuance in sin" is not the safest and surest way to health and heaven, I commenced to experiment. In 1860, I lived four months on cooked Irish potatoes alone — not using an ounce of any other food during this period — carefully noting the effect on my mental and bodily health. In all these experiments I was quite as much inter- ested in the effect of the habits upon the mind as GO CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. upon the body. It is not at all times an easy matter for the consciousness to take an accurate survey of itself. The truth is, we can only delin- eate from comparison; we can only know a thing relatively. I then lived on raw, lean, fresh beef, for several weeks, and noted results; then on apples, uncooked, for six months. Then on corn- bread eaten cold and dry, no salt or other foreign ingredients ; then on whole wheat flour, or graham bread, prepared as the corn-bread; then six months on raw, rolled oat meal. Through all these carefully conducted experiments, I claim I learned some valuable lessons. I am aware that these experiences are to be noted in connection with my temperament, condition of health, age, climate, season of year, and general habits. Through all these experiments I improved in health, being engaged in quite active, out-door exercise of a mild and light sort. I ate, as hinted, all the food free from salt, as that condiment always disagreed with me. The potato diet caused a round, distended viscera, especially over the bowels. My mind was active and appetite good, though I couldn't see that it improved my affection more than ordina- rily for the natives of the Emerald Isle ; I remained AIR AS FOOD. 67 about normal in that particular. I ate at an ex- act hour and almost exact minute, during these experiments, three meals a day, with a light supper, as a heavy one disposed me to in- somnia. My kidneys seemed to be disturbed with this potato diet, a sort of sediment appearing in secretions. The meat diet was less desirable and more perversive. I was morose, irritable and quick tempered. Some may say I should have cooked it. This I could not have so long endured, as cooked meat is not nearly so easily digested as raw. The secretions from my skin were more pronounced and noticeable. I could not endure so much exercise on this diet as upon the former. Liver was not so healthy; kidneys normal. At different seasons of the year, different effects might have obtained. These experiments took place in Indiana, where the changes of the seasons are marked. I was then very much affected by these changes, my whole being seeming to undergo an alteration, and when like periods of the year re- turned I seemed to be completely renewed; I state these facts that my physical conditions may be noted during these experiments in food. I felt well on the apple diet, and active in mind and body. The apples were a sweet variety, and the time of 68 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. year, summer and fall to midwinter. The grain foods all had a similar effect; I could do more work and felt easier and more active when living on them. Of the grains I prefer the oat meal eaten raw, as it is more nutritious and healthful eaten dry. Next in value is the whole wheat diet; it, too, is best eaten raw. With all this rigid experi- menting I gained vitality. The mental discipline was excellent. If a sinner can refrain from all the pampered foods of the average table he will have some self-command to begin with, and will gain in stock as he proceeds. My mother was as skilled in compounding "goodies" as good mammas usually are. I now "took to the woods." I went to the Pacific coast, secured a rig, and gypsied or "Mark Twained" that coast for several years, sleeping out-of-doors all the while, casting my tent where needed. During this time my diet was rolled oats, in the main, living low that I might think high, with a regular, cold, morning bath to brighten the eye. For this purpose I carried water in a jug, as there are many places in California where water, in overland traveling, is one of the rarely found nec- essaries. On this account I w T as greatly concerned for my mustangs. I rarely or never had occasion AIR AS FOOD. 69 to take liquids, my morning bath, even with my dry diet, preventing all thirst. I shall not here detail the rich lessons I learned from the rocks, gorges, mountains, plains, fossils, petrified forests, caves, Indian relics, water-falls and Gigantic Se- quoise or big trees of that trip, as it would be for- eign to the character of this article, or in fact the entire work; still that roving trip brightened my eyes and set the sylphs of health dancing. I now draw the veil for the present on the scenes of this continent, and ask the reader to re- join me on the banks of the classic Murray river in Australia, camped in the midst of that curious and numerous family, the marsupial Kangaroos. Camped on a small mountain stream, surrounded by some of our great, great grandmother's chil- dren, the little monkeys, I had the pleasure (?) of experiencing a violent attack of small-pox. There they call it black. Common small-pox is good enough for most purposes, but black small-pox is extra plenty and satisfying. All alone, far aw T ay from any human being, I was stricken with a violent fever. Some one who knew, said "necessi- ty is the mother of invention,' and so it was with me. I took my spade — I had a rig and camping outfit — and dug out a bed in the clay bank ; then, 70 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. stirring the water from the stream Avith the clay into a mortar, I wallowed in this mud and bathed till the fever vanished. The plan I adopted was as follows : Having bathed until my entire body was covered with a thick coat of mud, I rolled out on the bank in the warm sun, exposing all parts of my body to his rays, thus warming me all over thoroughly. Repeating this process many times I would then roll in the stream, wash all the mud off, and entering my blankets, sleep the "sleep of the just," and the free. A little oatmeal eaten raw, which I carried with me, and the clay mud baths, effected a cure that for completeness of work I will place in comparison with any case a learned M.D., with his array of chemical nostrums, ever had. From the very first bath I experienced relief. Instead of the usual fever and pustule eruptions, bluish spots appeared but never rup- tured, and of course left no scars. Life seemed to flow into me in charming waves. At the end of ten days I was well, clear and easy. No long, lingering sequelae, which might appropriately be called mismanagement, drug or remedy disease — often worse than the original — afflicted me. Here in my mud bath I learned the first lessons of a habit that has been a source of most important AIR AS FOOD. 71 knowledge to me, restoring me to the best of health, being to me a panacea at all times and under all conditions. It is no less than the prac- tice of deep breathing as previously detailed in this article. It revolutionized all the functions and economy of my being. I now wended my way, after recovering from the attack of small-pox, up fully into the regions of abode of the cunning little monkeys, and their co-dwellers, the native Australians, there to study them in their native haunts. Here again I cast my tent, and while I breathed in Nature through the mind and to the mind, I also breathed in the life forces through my nostrils. I experimented, and, as Lord Bacon, the "father" of modern thought, said, "experiment is the mother of inven- tion," found my ability to breathe deeper and longer at each inhalation rapidly increasing. An important change in all the excretions of the system was taking place. Especially was this change marked in the appearance and functions of that important gown and organ, the skin. Capil- lary circulation was rapidly changing, the skin becoming clear and bright as red blood appeared and caused the cold, clammy surface, such as had always afflicted me, to disappear. My kidneys, 72 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. also, were learning to quicken their step to the new music. The brain, too, could not escape, but joined in and enjoyed the new elixir of life. With these experiences came renewed courage. I did not relapse into neglect and indifference as do most people while conducting experiments. As my capacity to breathe deeper and longer at each inhalation increased, I found a tendency creeping into my being to eat less and less food ; this incli- nation I indulged. Already living only on raw rolled oats (how sweet they seemed) in moderate quantities, I now commenced to fasten earnest and increased the breathing exercises. A viscera nearly empty of food very much facilitates easier and deeper breathing. Gradually I substituted breathing for eating. I commenced to fast a day or so at a time, always leading an active life, studying the zoology of Australia, geology, bot- any, and my little tricky friends, the monkeys. I had an eye out, too, after that curious biped, the native Australian. If I grew weary I found an easy place, sat down, and, reclining a little, with e}^es shut to avoid positive light on the retina, renewed my life. Slowly, quietly, deeply, without diaphragm movement, one, two, three, four min- utes at a time would I inhale the air at one breath. AIR AS FOOD. 73 This repeated half an hour at a sitting filled me with dancing vigor. I arose again to activity. I found directly that I could fast several days at a time, not only without disadvantage, but with absolute gain. I was learning of a new world heretofore unknown to mortal man. I soon re- quired less sleep, and would spend hours at night in my tent, or blankets, thus deeply breathing. So quieting, so inspiring, such a calm, exhilarat- ing anodyne, with no collapse, I found this to be. A new way discovered; a new way to live, a new way to cure nervousness, weak lungs, kidneys, eruptions and all inharmonies so glibly prated of as disease ; disease, so called, being Nature's best efforts for relief under such environments. I kept up this fasting and breathing for seven years while roving over Australia and Borneo, where I saw the Bushmen, or tree dwellers — human — and chimpanzees, semi-human ; also visiting the Philippine Islands, China, Japan and India. In 1870 I returned to America, with, I think, some accumulated knowledge. I learned that the mem- bers of the human family in all parts of the globe I visited, are, substantially, alike. Ideas of right and Avrong in the main, are alike. Pain and suffer- ing alike afflict all. A failure to trace effects along 74 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. back the line of causation in mental and bodily distempers is alike observable everywhere, as well among Australians as Bornese. We find this among the children of China, Japan, and India, not excepting America's Anglo-Saxon babes who hunt heaven and rest on the 'microbe train — a train that is, first, an effect and not a cause. So also in the ethical spheres we are constantly fig- uring effects as causes, and figuring as causes, mythical creations. While the human being is thus constituted, mental and bodily diseases will prevail. Whenever we attain the true education — the constitution of our being, mind and body, and how related to Nature — harmony or heaven will begin. All men and all women must know these truths for themselves before we are safe. No D. D's., no M. D's. can save us. We must know, and having knowledge, must do daily, hourly, that which will save us, save us from our only enemy, self. I landed in Los Angeles and purchased a little fruit farm. Here I kept up my breathing and fasting habits, continuing the fasting periods over more and more time at each trial, until, during the fall of 1872, I reached a greater fast than any previously experienced. This fast lasted forty- AIR AS FOOD. 75 three days without loss of a pound of flesh, and without eating an ounce of food of any kind, or drinking a drop of fluid of any sort. All tissue and every need of the body was supplied to my system in the air I breathed, in quantities now astonishingly great. I had a sense that I could taste my blood, which seemed to be as sweet as nectar. I mean my blood as it coursed through my veins. I could draw in the air six to eight minutes at each inhalation, seeming not to exhale nearly the volume inhaled. It appeared to me that the air was used to make tissue for my whole body, now deprived of the food usually so used. My mind was active, clear, and, as I thought, ranged upon a high plane of being. I had quite active, daily exercise out-of-doors, walking often five miles to the mountains and returning the same day. I could skip almost as well as walk, being buoyant and light of limb. I slept, it seemed to me, all over the universe, and about four hours out of the twenty-four, passing much of the remainder of the night feeding upon every substance in nature now known to exist in pure air, or, more properly speaking, in space. I had not a trace of pain during the whole period of fasting, or rather feasting ; on the con- 76 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. trary, never felt better. I was as buoyant the last day as the first. I now believe that I could at that time have lived .right on with no more of the old-fashioned table food. I became alarmed at my very self and the position I was in, and re- turned to my usual sin and diet ; the diet being the sin. I have never at any time since felt so grand, so clear of mind, so serene, and so nearly a first cousin to a sunbeam. I look back to that period as the day when the sun rose and shed his effulgence athwart the landscape of my life never to be effaced or obscured from my memory. I have fasted many times since, five, ten, twenty, and twenty-five days at a time with good results and no inconveniences, but not Avith the grand ex- perience of the forty-three day's fast. All who know me today know of my abstemious habits and that I fast, entirely fast, half the time. I never have the least occasion for a drug. I fast awhile and feast on the life-giving air, never fail- ing to find restoration to health and harmony — for the terms are synonymous. It is almost impossible to live in a community and maintain habits in direct opposition to the habits of its members. To accomplish the great- est results from experiments in living on air, I AIR AS FOOD. 77 think it is necessary to begin very early in life. Let the father and mother, to be, fast much for six months before copulation, and, during the gesta- tiye period, let the mother use the deep breathing as much as possible, thus forming traits which, transmitted to early fetal life may accomplish such wonders as no extravagance of prediction could approach in truth. I belieye, with the above methods, a being may be produced, and therefore a race of people, who can find all elements needed to maintain life by largely increased breathing functions and habits. Any air that can be breathed at all contains moisture enough to meet every requirement of the system after it becomes established in the new habits. As a partial illus- tration of this theory, I have observed squirrels in the deserts of Australia that cannot get a drop of "water for ten months in the year, eating only very dry seeds, and breathing only very dry air, for such it is ; and I have shot them and found them fat. Moreover, my experiments demonstrate this to be possible. In my longest period of fasting, during the first ten days or thereabouts, there was some action of the bowels, lessening in amount constantly, and finally ceasing altogether. My kidneys were slightly active during the whole 78 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. period, but I think the action would have ceased in time had I continued to fast. My skin was soft, clean and scarlet. My liver, formerly more or less torpid, was now an entirely healthy one, and I was altogether unconscious of possessing such an organ. Tanner's forty day's fast was painful because he failed to make the necessary demand upon the air, to supply the needs of his system. An entirely new form of life cannot safely be predicated upon a single case, but I am satisfied that human life can be maintained on a plane now unknown and above any degree thus far sensed, even by the poet's brain. The magic wand of science has demonstrated that cosmic matter, world substance, exists everywhere in space. This world substance contains, in embryo, every sub- stance known in an v form, from crystallized granite up to the highest brain ultimate of the genus homo. Does not my experience sustain, if it does not demonstrate, this position? Does it not prove that this cosmic matter can be taken directly into the system through the lungs in sufficient quan- tity, and in this laboratory of the system be converted into life expressions without going the rounds of planetary and then vegetable forms, etc.? Who dares to say in these days, what is or AIR AS FOOD. 79 is not possible? Science is on her feet and calls for facts, wheresoever they may be found or wherever they may lead. Science has no pet dogmas or prec- edents to defend. She has no rut prepared for her wheels which she cannot leave if facts invite her to do so. The infinite, in Nature's possibilities, is her creed. If seven brilliant colors meet, kiss, and com- bine to make transparent light, she desires a knowl- edge of it. If a certain process in chemistry can produce, from coal-tar, a sweet substance seven hundred times sweeter than pure cane sugar, science welcomes the new fact with joy. If man, in whom is supposed to exist all known forces, can live and maintain his balance in nature in some other way than the old one, another ray of light will have dawned to aid science in her search for truth. Take the amphibian frog, and follow him through his six distinct changes. Hatched in the water, he at first resembles a fish ; has gills. Anterior legs come, then posterior. The tail is absorbed. All traces of former gills are now gone. He next pos- sesses full lungs. Having no ribs, like the turtle, he swallows the air. It would be but a little great- er change, involving but a little more time, for man to lose his viscera, and the lungs enlarge to take their place and perform their function. 80 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. This experience of mine is another lesson in a new field, adding its evidence to the widening mass of accumulating facts showing that we exist in a universe of infinite possibilities. We have learned one important lesson, namely, that we know almost nothing of the infinite range of Nature's forces that can be used to produce new and hitherto unknown results. Every night, wherever I may be, when I awaken, I resort to my habit, now a loved one, to make the remarkably long draughts upon Nature's plentiful and universal panacea. I soon feel new life coursing through every avenue of my being. If there are any clouds in my mental horizon, they are soon silver tipped. Have I symptoms of phys- ical inharmony, I close my mouth as to food, open my nostrils wider as to air, and in a remarkably short time I find myself at least as thoroughly renewed as those who repeat again and again the causes of disease and then seek drugs to divert the inevitable effects. My method always gives addi- tional strength to the vital forces instead of reduc- ing them as the drug plan cannot fail to do. Your illness is caused by an excess of foreign matter in the system, and the vital forces, or spiritual forces more properly speaking, are overtaxed to preserve their perfect movement through the body. You AIR AS FOOD. 81 now add a drug to the stock of foreign matter already on hand, and the vital intelligence reasons thus: "I cannot cast off both the old and this additional poison in the way I was working before this drug was added, now I'll have to try another plan or leave the body ;" so your disease is shifted, made worse, or you die, or perhaps get well in spite of drugs. An M. D., wise or otherwise as you view it, will tell you he gives you a drug that will have a certain effect on the svstem. Let us examine this false premise. Were you to place the same drug in a sack of meal would it act there? Certainly not, but why not act there as well as in the human system, if it is the drug that acts? If it is the inert drug that acts, why not in the one place as well as the other? No, the whole theorv is a mistaken and delusive one. If you are riding a swift horse swiftly, the trees, fences, and other objects seem to be flying past you, while, in fact, you know the contrary to be true. Now take inert drugs into a living, intelligent domain, and the life forces instantly say, "Here is foreign matter. I cannot use this for repairs, or for any purpose whatever, in my house. I must expel it from my sensitive organism, my delicate sanctuary . ' ' There 82 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. is no time to be lost parleying with this robber tramp. In this emergency bile is thrown into the stomach, a, violent contraction of the muscles sets in, and the enemy is ejected. So with the purga- tives, soporifics, anodynes, etc., to the end of the endless list. What is the effect of all this enormous strain? An extra draft is made upon the vital forces, that is often so disastrous that the normal functions may never be restored, and you may go through life a wrecked and hopeless invalid. Take a case of scarlet fever. The sequela?, as doctors call it, or, in other words, the diseases that follow this complaint, are often far worse than the origi- nal fever, often leaving the victim a total wreck for years, or for life. The vital forces have a struggle with foreign matter, called disease. This foreign matter is, eight times out of ten, the result of eating about eight times more than the system requires to supply all waste. To this condition you now add drugs, increasing the amount of foreign matter; the balance thus is often too great against the life forces, and the spirit, becoming discouraged, leaves the body in search of a domain where more rational thought obtains, and a mysterious provi- dence gets the credit or discredit of the premature AIR AS FOOD. 83 work. So through the whole interminable list of ailments. When you are well, learn how to keep well. When you are surfeited in the least, fast a day or several days, giving the vital forces rest ; practice deep breathing according to the directions I have given, and you will live until you are fully ripe, like a cocoon, and your second birth will be as natural as the first and give your mother, Nature, no pain from error as vour first mother doubtless had. In this way you will avoid the sin of remedies, and you and your posterity will escape the brand of ill health. Remember the system, or positive force, acts on drugs, on inert substance, and not vice versa as M. D's. assert. Keep your mind and body positive to opposing forces — don't forget this — by right mental and physical hygiene, and you will lead a happy and healthful life, and be a success independent of M. D's. or D. D's., your own law discoverer and law observer. Should you find merit in my breathing and fasting experiences, do not think you can rise in the morning, miss your breakfast, take two or three spasmodic inhalations of air, eat at dinner two meals in one and thus cure a bad case of spinal curvature. You cannot move a mountain at one blast, even with genuine dyna- mite. A world was made by right means in a few 84 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. hundred millions of years, and man, in his present state, stands on top of the bush of life and is the last effort of the forces at work through all these ages to produce an ideal fruit; though some people think even after the expenditure of so much time that the fruit is after all but a persimmon, half grown, "puckery" and bitter enough. I shall not pass judgment upon that question, but will say that you cannot hope for any great boon, like that of good health, unless you work for and earn it. There is no excellence without effort. The very effort has peace and value in it. It is not the flesh altogether that the sportsman looks forward to with such keen anticipation, but rather the wild chase that exhilarates him. I now revert to the clay poultice, and recom- mend it as a harmless but potent means of cure in case of wounds of any character, old sores, swollen joints, (from any cause) fevers, etc. Get pure yellow clay, clear of surface soil or mold, place in a pan, pour warm water over it and stir well till it becomes smooth ; spread on a cloth and apply directly to the raw flesh. Whether it be a fresh or an old wound makes no difference; immediate relief will follow. Pour water between the flesh and poultice w T hen it begins to dry, and renew often. AIR AS FOOD. 85 It is a magic balm, and were it costly, would be sought with avidity. Another potent equalizer is a foot-bath as follows : Have two shallow pans, one containing very cold, and the other very hot water. Dip your feet from one to the other, holding them in each pan as long as possible. Have a kettle on the stove containing boiling hot water; as you proceed with the bath you can gradually endure a greater degree of heat and of cold. Keep the temperature at the greatest extremes you can endure. Continue this an hour at a time two or three times a day, fast two or three days, and your la grippe will loose its grip. I have cured numerous cases thus, some taken when very severe, while I have known others to lie for weeks under other treatment, the result being a broken down constitution for the remain- der of their days in the flesh. All congestion of internal organs, such as pleurisy, cholera morbus, cramps of any description, headache, etc., can be easily cured through this simple plan. I do not expect many to practice it because it is too simple and cheap ; there is not enough black magic in it. As people believe some form of remedy to be indispensable, I give one other. It is* very effica- cious in ail diseased conditions. Get a good 86 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. syringe, and upon retiring at night inject into the bowels a half pint of pure, soft water, lukewarm. Hold this over night. Upon rising in the morning, take two quarts and hold as long as possible. This will cure Bright's disease if continued faith- fully, and will insure old age with a bright eye and mind if persevered in. Dr. Shew, hydropathist, first announced this to the public. His method has been much plagiarized by other parties in recent years. Reader, let me now say that you are in exist- ence for all time, and you should strive to think rationally on all themes concerning life. Health, both of mind and body, concerns us more than any other theme. Unless we possess it, we cannot fail to be vacillating, undecided, the prey and victim of our oavii weakness. Cultivate in vourself- independent thought, broaden the mind, and live to make somebody happier and better for your being. Fear nothing under the blue dome of the stars but .yourself. You alone are to determine whether black or white, success or failure, marks your path in life. Ignorance is the great arch- fiend, who, hid in the jungles of rudimental growth, entices us into thorny paths where, lost to a knowledge of our true state, we grope around in AIR AS FOOD. 87 the mazes of darkness, a ready prey to supersti- tion, precedent, and the vagaries that float about and around us, rife as malaria. Common sense is a good stock in trade to keep always on hand. A knowledge of our right place in Nature and the placing of ourselves in such place, is the true and only savior. Remember, the thought world is first in importance, but it must use means to accom- plish its ends. Even now a mental epidemic is abroad in the land. The leading symptoms are indicated by this sort of pulse: "There is no dis- ease, it is all imagination." If you eat six times more than you should of every kind of a mess unfit to enter the delicate physical economy, and get fever and pain as the result, "It is all a delusion, a cross-thought and an actual nothing." This kind of talk is real idiocy. When Garfield received in his body a small lump of lead, all the minds of this nation, as well as the civilized globe, united in prayer against that little bullet; yet the bullet was greater than them all combined. More common sense, friends, more common sense ! CHAPTER VI. BATHING. The entire body may be considered an excre- tory apparatus. The lungs, skin, liver, kidneys and bowels are but the more prominent organs for the elimination and outlet of the superfluous, wasted or noxious materials of the system. The two first mentioned organs only, constitute the subject matter of the present exposition. Begin- ning with the lungs, we will give so much of their anatomy and physiology as is necessary for the explanation of their functions. All that is neces- sary concerning the functions of the lungs can be stated in few words, since we have much to say on the skin, an organ much more under our control, and therefore much more subject to abuse. The waste of the body consists principally of carbon. This is indicated by the dark color of the blood as it returns from its rounds of circula- tion through the body, exhausted, devitalized and loaded with the impurities of decomposition, as well as with the refuse of the materials of recon- struction, chiefly carbonaceous. BATHING. 89 The Divine architect of our bodies has taken corresponding precautions for the elimination of this waste. The apparatus provided to this end is at once the simplest and most comprehensive, namely, the skin, by means of which the blood is exposed to the influence of the atmosphere. This is all that is necessary for the outlet of the poison- ous elements of decay. The air-cells of the lungs and the pores of the skin are respectively the great means whereby this purpose is accomplished, and it is their function to fulfil this office conjointly. Aeration of the blood is, then, the first essential of life. Remove a fish from the water, and the gill plates, which are its lungs, dry and cohere, render- ing aeration of the blood impossible, consequently causing death. In the earth-worm, leech, and other of the low- er forms of life, we find equally efficient means for the aeration of the blood, but nothing strictly in the nature of lungs. The change from venous to arterial blood is effected by small sacs, or vesicles, usually placed in pairs along the back, opening upon the surface of the body by means of pores upon the skin, called spiracles or breathing tubes. Close these spiracles and life is as effectually destroyed as by obstruct- 90 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. ing a man's windpipe, or as by drying up the gills of a fish. In the earth-worm there are no less than one hundred and twenty of these minute external openings between the segments of the body; in the leech there are only sixteen on each side. Through- out the whole animal kingdom there is an intimate relation between the energy of the vital functions and the activity of the respiratory apparatus. In cold-blooded reptiles, as the frog, respiration is reduced to the very minimum — the vital functions being correspondingly languid. In insects, on the contrary, we find a large provision made for breathing, and the vital action excessive, even vehement. It is estimated that the vibrations of the wings of the common fly number one thousand in a second of time. As an example of excessive vital action, witness the activity of a hive of angry bees, or a hill of hungry, thrifty ants, and the large amount of heat they evolve. The quantity of oxygen consumed by them exceeds, in proportion to their size and weight, the amount consumed by any other creature. We find in animals of a higher order, that the blood is aerated by a minute capillary net-work of vessels spread on the walls of the pulmonary vesi- BA THING. 91 cles or cells. In man, it is estimated that eighteen hundred of these bladder-like dilatations are grouped around the extremity of each air tube, making in all some six hundred millions. Of these tubes, the larger possess muscular fibers, hence, are contractile, and therefore liable to spasms. Thus originates the usual form of asthma. The average amount of carbon given off from the lungs of an adult is about half a pound each day. The exhalations from the surface (the skin) is a much more powerful agent in the circulation of the blood through the lungs than is the propulsive power of the heart. This fact alone speaks vol- umes in favor of the actual necessity of bathing, thus keeping the skin clean and free from obstruc- tion. It is both an incorrect and unworthy view of this great organ, the skin, to regard it simply as a protective covering of the body. It is much more — a living, sensitive, breathing, exhaling, ab- sorbing, excreting, eliminating membrane of ex- quisite structure and endowments. Here many of the prime operations of life take place. The skin may truly be called a great append- age to the heart and lungs, being a co-worker with them in the circulation of the blood. It does for the larger or systematic capillary circulation what 92 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. the lungs do for the smaller, or pulmonary circula- tion. It not only rids the blood of carbon and supplies it with oxygen, but regulates its density by evaporating the watery constituents. The skin is the great drying, draining and ventilating ap- paratus of the body ; it is in itself a universally expanded lung, kidney, liver, heart and bowels, and the greatest medium of nervous and vascular expansion ; therefore the seat of thrilling sensibili- ties, and exquisite tactile endowments. CHAPTER VII. CHANGE OF LIFE. The object of this chapter is to teach woman how to preserve her health and strength through the critical period termed "change of life." This change is perfectly normal, as much so as the one occurring between the ages of ten and sixteen, and should be so regarded. A few simple rules will apply to all cases, of whatever temperament. Nature is primitive in her operations, our aches and pains being simply her voice calling upon the intelligent forces, our thoughts, for assistance. The unpleasant symp- toms are liable to make their appearance at any CHANGE OF LIFE, 93 time between the age of forty and fifty-five years, or earlier, and are usually as follows: headache, nervous irritability, fainting spells, irregularity of the menstrual periods, and later on, hot flashes, hemorrhages, sharp pains through the uterus and at the base of the brain, severe nervousness in the legs and feet, backache, etc. With the appearance of the first symptoms, begin treatment, which should be continued until change is established. This prevents abnormal growths, such as tumors, polypi, cancers, flooding, and many other conditions which render the change critical, and even dangerous to many women. Listen to the voice of Nature, and early take proper precautions to prevent future suffer- ing. Many women, when contemplating this change, believe it will result fatally or in a serious disease ; at least that perfect health will never be re-established. The reason so much suffering is experienced during this period is that women do not understand how to properly prepare the sys- tem to undergo it with undiminished health. If Nature's laws are not violated, there will be no trouble whatever. Nature has four ways of removing obstruc- tions; namely, the lungs, alimentary canal, kidneys, 94 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. and the several million pores of the skin. With a proper understanding and management of these organs, no one need fear. The dress should eon- form to the laws of our being, — constructed to fit the body, and not the body the dress. Develop the muscular system by proper breathing and exercise. Change of life is one of Nature's requirements, hence the necessity of attending carefully to the enriching of the blood and glandular secretions by nutritious food, and by keeping the skin clean and free for the perfect elimination of all superfluous secretions. Women at this period should take enemas, both by means of the rectum and the vagina. Many suppose that these weaken the system; on the contrary, they render it healthy, washing away all eliminations of the mucous tissues. This is as necessary as cleansing the skin. Very warm water should be injected if troubled with gases ; a little borax or bi-carbonate of soda dissolved in the water will neutralize acidity and overcome this condition. If sore or irritated, use slippery elm injections, making them thin enough to pass easily through the syringe. Fountain syringes are best. In cases of hot flashes, heartburn, and sleep- CHANGE OF LIFE. 95 lessness, a disordered stomach is generally found to be the cause. A rest from eating for twenty- four hours, with a one grain dose of nux vomica, taken two or three times during the day, will overcome these difficulties. If great prostration occurs, the system should be treated with a good tonic, the patient obtaining as much pure air as possible, with moderate exercise. Thus strength will gradually return. As to diet, entire wheat, or graham bread, with eggs, milk, broths and gruels should be taken, according to appetite; also fruits and nuts. Meats, except wild game, should be avoided, as a rule, though their indulgence sometimes produces a tonic action, causing an appetite for other things; when this results their use is beneficial. The mind should not continually dwell upon self, •but should be diverted with pleasant company, reading, riding, etc. The atmosphere of music also is very beneficial. Elevate the spirit, and the body will grow strong. Always dress comfortably, keeping the feet warm by wearing shoes that allow free circulation of the blood. Try to maintain regularity of the bowels by eating properly, and not by dependence upon medicines only. Muscular exercise and deep breathing are also essential. 96 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. Hot bathing only is allowable at this period. Turkish, vapor, and hot sitz baths are the most beneficial, but if these cannot be obtained, bathe in hot water, in a very warm room, rubbing the skin thoroughly with a turkish bath towel or flannel. Fleshy people can use water freely, but thin, weak people should rub oils well into the skin after taking a hot bath. Bathing twice a week is necessary. We also wish to impress upon your minds that 3 r ou can be as healthy at fifty as at fifteen years of age, with an improved mental education, experience and culture, which should add to your attractions. During the period marked by change of life, there should be as little indulgence in the sexual relation as possible, none at all being preferable. It is better to invite menstruation as long as possible. By doing this you exercise a most excel-' lent safeguard against congestions, inflammations, and developments of uterine tumors and cancers. Injections should always be used after a discharge from the vagina, whether of the menstrual or leucorrhoeal character. These injections Avill pre- vent the great amount of itching, pain and smart- ing from which most women suffer so much during this period. Do not fear to use water freely; a CHANGE OF LIFE, 97 gallon at a time will not be too much, using, if possible, a fountain syringe, it being the most con- venient means for injections. Commence with water comfortably warm, gradually increasing the temperature until quite hot. Have no fear that the douche will induce hemorrhage, for there is no means known to the medical profession so prompt in checking uterine hemorrhage as copious in- jections of hot water. When change of life is so far advanced that the secretions from the womb and vagina are sharp and acrid, causing increased soreness and inflam- mation, add to the water a little borax or bi-car- bonate of soda. Use this treatment every other day, wearing a wet towel over the sore parts at night, which may be wet in either hot or cold water, as is most agreeable. In connection with bathing and injections, use the third trituration of vivibanum opulus, also of Pulsatilla, one grain at a dose, the vivibanum to be taken at night, and the Pulsatilla in the morning. These medicines come prepared in any Homoeopathic Pharmacy, and should be taken during one week of each month. If excessive thirst is experienced, cold water, (without ice) acidulated with a few drops of phosphoric acid, and sweetened with a little sugar, 98 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. may be drank freely. This makes a pleasant, healthful drink. To relieve pain at the base of the brain, and along the spine, bathe freely in alcohol diluted one third with water, producing gentle friction. As a tonic, use the third trituration of nux vomica, morning and evening, in doses the size of a coffee bean. Also an elixir of calisaya and iron, one tea- spoonful three times a day before eating. For other remedies, turn to the Materia Medica of this book. I subjoin the following beautiful thoughts on health and beauty, by Prentice Mulford: "Your thoughts shape your face and give it the expression peculiar to it. Your thoughts deter- mine the attitude, carriage, and shape of your whole bodv. "The law for beauty and the law for perfect health are the same. Both depend entirely upon the state of }^our mind : or, in other words, on the kind of thoughts you put out and receive. ''Ugliness of expression comes of unconscious transgressions of a law, be the ugliness in the young or the old. Any form of decay in a human body, any form of weakness, anything in the per- sonal appearance of men and women which makes CHANGE OF LIFE. 99 them repulsive to you, is because their prevailing mood of mind has made them so. "Nature plants in us what some call 'instinct ;' we call it the higher reason, because it comes of the exercise of a finer set of senses than our outer or physical senses, a dislike to everything that is repulsive or deformed, or that shows signs of decay. This is the inborn tendency in human nature to shun the imperfect, and see the relatively perfect. "Your higher reason is right in disliking wrink- les or decrepitude or any form or sign of the body's decay ; for the same reason you are right in dislik- ing a soiled or torn garment. Your body is the actual clothing, as well as the instrument used by your mind or spirit. It is the same instinct, or higher reason, making you like a w T ell-formed and beautiful body, that makes you like a. new and tasteful suit of clothes. "You and generations before you, age after age, have been told it was an inevitable necessity, that it was the law, and in the order of nature for all times and for all ages, that, after a certain period of life, your body must wither and become unattractive, and that even your minds must fail with increasing years. You have been told that 100 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. your mind had no power to repair and recuperate your body — to make it over again, and make it newer and fresher continually. "It is no more in the inevitable order of nature, that human bodies should decay as they have decayed in the past, than that man should travel only by stage-coach as he did sixty years ago ; or that messages should be sent only by letter as they Avere fifty years ago, before the use of the electric telegraph ; or that your portraits could be taken only by the painter's brush as they were half a century ago, before the discovery that the sun could imprint an image of yourself on a sensitive surface prepared for it. "It is the impertinence of dense ignorance for any of us to say what is, or what is to be, in the order of nature. It is a stupid blunder to look back at the little Ave knoAV of the past, and say that it is the unerring index finger telling us AA T hat is to be in the future. "If this planet has been Avhat geology teaches — a planet of coarser, cruder, and more violent forces than noAA< : abounding in forms of coarser vegetable, animal and even human life and organization than noAv; of AA 7 hich its present condition is a refinement and improvement CHANGE OF LIFE. 101 as regards vegetable, animal, and man — is not this the suggestion, the hint, the proof, of a still greater refinement and improvement going on at the present time? Does not refinement imply greater power, as the greater power of the crude iron comes out in steel? And are not these greater and as vet almost unrecognized powers to come out of the highest and most complex form of known organization, man? And are ail of man's powers yet known? "Internally, secretly, among the thinking thousands of this and other lands, is the question, (with many other questions now being asked,) 'Why must Ave so wither and decay, and lose the best that life is worth living for, just as we have gained that experience and wisdom that best fits us to live?' The voice of the people is always at first a whispered voice. The prayer, or demand, or desire of the masses is always at first a secret prayer, demand, wish, or desire, which one man at first dare scarcely whisper to his neighbor for fear of ridicule. But it is a law of Nature that every demand, silent or spoken, brings its supply of the thing wished for in proportion to the intensity of the wish, and the growing numbers so wishing, who, by the action of their minds upon some one 102 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. subject, set in motion that silent force of thought, not as vet heeded in the world's schools of philoso- phy, which brings the needed supply. Millions so wished in silence for means to travel more rapidly, to send intelligence more rapidly, and this brought steam and the electric telegraph. Soon other ques- tions and demands are to be answered, questions ever going out in silence from multitudes, and, in answering them, in at first attempting to carry out and prove the answers and the means shown to accomplish, or realize many things deemed im- possible or visionary, there will be mistake and stupidity, blunder and silliness, break-downs and failures, and consequent ridicule just as there were then smashups on railways, and ten exploded boilers in the earlier era of the use of steam, to one of today. But a truth always goes straight ahead despite mistake and blunder, and proves itself at last. "You are not young relatively. Your present youth means that your body is young. The older your spirit, the better can you preserve the youth, vigor, and elasticity of your body. Because the older your mind, the more power has it gathered from its many existences. You can use that power for the preservation of beauty, of health, of vigor. CHANGE OF LIFE. 103 of all that can make you attractive to others. You can also unconsciously use the same power to make you ugly, unhealthy, weak, diseased, and unattractive. The more you use this power in either of these directions, the more will it make you ugly or beautiful, healthy or unhealthy, at- . tractive or unattractive : that is, as regards unat- tractiveness for this one existence. Ultimately, you must, if not in this, in some other existence, be symmetrical: because the evolution of the mind, of which the evolution of our bodies from coarser to higher forms is but a crude counterpart, is ever toward the higher, finer, better and happier. "That power is your thought. Every thought of j^ours is a thing as real, though you cannot see it with the physical, or outer eye, as a tree, a flower, a fruit. "Your thoughts are continually mouldingyour muscles into shapes and manner of movement in accordance with their character. "If your thought is always determined and decided, your step in walking will be decided. If your thought is permanently decided, your whole carriage, bearing, and address will show that if you say a thing you mean it. "If your thoughts are permanently undecided, 104 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. you will have a permanently undecided gesture, address, carriage, or manner of using your body : and this, when long continued, will make the body grow decidedly misshapen in some way, exactly as when you are writing in a mood of hurry, your hurried thought makes misshapen letters, and sometimes misshapen ideas: while your reposeful, mood or thought makes well-formed letters and graceful curves as well as well-formed and graceful ideas. "You are every day thinking yourself into some phase of character and facial expression, good or bad. If your thoughts are permanently cheerful, your face will look cheerful. "If most of the time you are in a complaining, peevish, quarrelsome mood, this kind of thought will put ugly lines on your face : they will poison your blood, make you dyspeptic, and ruin your complexion : because then you are in your own un- seen laboratory of mind, generating an unseen and poisonous element, your thought : and as you put it out or think it, by the invisible law of nature, it attracts to it the same kind of thought-element from others. You think or open your mind to the mood of despondency or irritability, and you draw more or less of the same thought-element from CHANGE OF LIFE. 105 every despondent or irritable man or woman in your town or city. You are then charging your magnet, your mind, with its electric thought-cur- rent of destructive tendency, and the law and property of thought connects all the other thought- currents of despondency or irritability with your mental battery, your mind. "Your mind can make your body sick or well, strong or weak, according to the thought it puts out, and the action upon it of the thought of others. Cry 'Fire' in a crowded theatre, and scores of persons are made tremulous, weak, paralyzed by fear. Perhaps it was a false alarm. It was only the thought of fire, a horror acting on your body, that took away its strength. The thought or mood of fear has in cases so acted on the body, as to turn the hair Avhite in a few hours. "Angered, peevish, worried, or irritable thought affects injuriously the digestion. A sudden mental shock may destroy one's appetite for a meal, or cause the stomach to reject such meal when eaten. The injury so done the body suddenly, in relatively few cases by fear or other evil state of mind, works injury more gradually on millions of bodies all over the planet. "Dyspepsia does not come so much from the 106 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. food we eat, as of the thoughts Ave think while eat- ing it. We may eat the healthiest bread in the world, and if we eat it in a sour temper, we Avill put sourness in our blood, and sourness in our stom- achs, and sourness on our faces. Or if we eat in an anxious frame of mind, and are worrying all the time about how much Ave should, or should not, eat, and whether it may not hurt us after all, Ave are consuming anxious, worried, fretful thought- element Avith our food, and it Avill poison us. If Ave are cheerful and chatty, lively and jolly, Avhile eat- ing, Ave are putting liveliness and cheer into our- selves, and making such qualities more and more a part of ourselves. If our family group eat in silence, or come to the table Avith a sort of forced and resigned air, as if saying, each one to himself or herself, 'Well, all this must be gone over again,' and the head of a family buries himself in his busi- ness cares or his newspaper, and reads all the murders, suicides, burglaries and scandals for the last twenty-four hours, and the queen of the house- hold buries herself in sullen resignation or house- hold cares, then there are being literally consumed at that table, along Avith the food, the thought- element of worry, murder, suicide, and the morbid element which loves to dwell on the horrible and CHANGE OF LIFE. 107 ghastly; as a result, dyspepsia in some of its many forms will be manufactured all the way down the line, from one end of the table to the other. "If the habitual expression be a scowl, it is because the thoughts behind that face are mostly scowls. If the corners of a mouth are turned down, it is because most of the time the thoughts which govern and shape that mouth are gloomy and despondent. If a face does not invite people and make them desire to get acquainted with its wear- er, it is because that face is a sign, advertising thoughts behind it which the wearer may not dare to speak to others, possibty may not dare to whisper to himself. "The continual mood of hurry, that is, of being in mind or spirit in a certain place long before the body is there, will cause the shoulders to stoop for- ward ; because in such mood you do literally send your thought, your spirit, your real though invis- ible self, to the place toward which your power, your thought, is dragging your body head first ; through such life-long habit of mind does the body grow as the thought shapes it. A 'self-con- tained' man is never in a hurrv: and a self-con- tainecl man keeps or centers his thought, his spirit, his power, mostly on the use or act of the 108 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. present moment Avith the instrument his spirit uses— his body. The habitually self-possessed woman will be graceful in every movement, for the reason that her spirit has complete possession and command of its tool, the body ; it is not a mile or ten miles away from that body in thought, and fretting or hurrying and dwelling on something at that distance from her body. "If you expect to grow old, and keep in your mind an image or construction of yourself as old and decrepit, you will assuredly be so. You are then making yourself so. "If you make a plan in thought, in unseen ele- ment, for yourself, as helpless and decrepit, such plan will draw to you unseen thought-element, that which will make you weak, helpless and de- crepit. If, on the contrary, you make for yourself a plan for being always healthy, active and vigor- ous, and stick to that plan, and refuse to grow decrepit, and refuse to believe the legions of people who will tell you that you must grow old, you will not grow old. It is because you think it must be so, as people tell you, that makes it so. "If in your mind you are ever building an ideal of yourself as strong, healthy and vigorous, you are building to yourself of invisible element that CHANGE OF LIFE. 109 which is ever drawing to you more health, strength and vigor. You can make of your mind a magnet to attract health or weakness. If you love to think of the strong things of Nature, of granite mount- ains, heaving billows and resistless tempests, you attract to you their element of strength. "If you build yourself in health and strength today, and despond and give up such thinking and building tomorrow, you do not destroy what in spirit and of spirit you have built up. That amount of element so added to your spirit can never be lost : but you do, for the time, in so de- sponding, that is, in thinking weakness, stop the building of your health structure ; and although your spirit is so much the stronger for that addi- tion of element, it may not be strong enough to give quickly to the body what you may have taken from it through such despondent thought. "Persistency in thinking health, in imagining or idealizing yourself as healthy, vigorous, and sym- metrical, is the corner-stone of health and beauty. Of that which you think most, that you will be, and that you will have most of. You say, 'No!' But your bed-ridden patient is not thinking, 'I am strong:' he or she is thinking, 'I am so weak.^ Your dyspeptic man or woman is not thinking, 'I 110 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. will have a strong stomach.' They are ever sav- ing, 'I can't. digest anything ;' and they can't, for that very reason. "We are apt to nurse our maladies rather than nurse ourselves. We want our maladies petted and sympathized with, more than ourselves. When we have a bad cold, our very cough some- times says to others, unconsciously, 'I am this morning an object for your sympathy. I am so afflicted.' It is the cold, then, that is calling out for sympathy. Were the body treated rightly, your own mind and all the minds about you would say to that weak element in you, 'Get out of that body;' and the silent force of a few minds so di- rected would drive that weakness out. It would leave as Satan did when the man of Nazareth im- periously ordered him. Colds and all other forms of disease are onlv forms of Satan, and thrive 'also by nursing. Vigor and health are catching as well as the measles. "What would many grown up people give for a limb or two limbs, that had in them the spring and elasticity of those owned by a boy twelve years old ; for two limbs that could climb trees, walk on rail fences, and run because thev loved to run, and couldn't help running? If such limbs, so CHANGE OF LIFE. Ill full of life, could be manufactured and sold, would there not be a demand for them, by those stout ladies and gentlemen who get in and out of their carriages as if their bodies weighed a ton? Why is it that humanity resigns itself with scarcely a pro- test to the growing heaviness, sluggishness, and stiffness that comes even with middle age? I believe, however, we compromise with this inertia, and call it dignity. Of course, a man and a father, and a citizen and a voter and a pillar of the state — of inertia — shouldu't run and cut up and kick up like a boy, because he can't. Neither should a lady who has grown to the dignity of a waddle, run as she did when a girl of twelve, because she can't either. Actually we put on our infirmities as we would masks, and hobble around in them, saying, 'This is the thing to do, because we can't do any- thing else.' Sometimes we are even in a hurry to put them on, like the young gentleman who sticks an eyeglass to his eye, and thereby the sooner ruins the sight of a sound organ, in order to look tony or bookish, or like a chromo literary fiend. "There are more and more possibilities in Nature, in the elements, and in man and out of man ; and thev come as fast as man sees and knows how to use these forces in Nature and in 112 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. himself. Possibilities and miracles mean the same thing. "The telephone sprung suddenly on 'our folks' of two hundred years ago, would have been a miracle, and might have consigned the person using it to the prison or the stake. All unusual manifestations of Nature's powers were then attri- buted to the Devil, because the people of that period had so much of the Devil, or cruder element, in them as to insist that the universe should not continually show and prove higher and higher ex- pressions of the higher mind for man's comfort and pleasure." CHANGE OF LIFE takes place in man as well as in woman. His sys- tem undergoes a process not identical with, but similar to, that occurring in her. At puberty the boy develops the sperm or seed, Avhich is the male principle, and the girl develops the ovum, which is the female principle. Correspondingly, he changes again, with her, at the age of from forty to fifty or fifty-five. He suffers through nervousness, sleep- lessness, pain at the base of the brain, tendency to softening of the brain and insanity. Suicides are also more common among men at this age than at any other. The eyesight changes, rendering the CARE OF THE EYES. 113 use of spectacles necessary. The activity of the generative organs diminishes, and their functions grow weaker. To abstain from sexual intercourse during this period is of the greatest importance, and as essential to the welfare of men as of women. It follows, naturally, that a great discrepancy of years in the marriage relation is a violation of the laws of Nature. The marriage of a man of fifty to a young lady of twenty is a wrong to both parties. The same treatment prescribed for wo- man applies as well to man. CHAPTEE VIII. CARE OF THE EYES. Of all the senses, sight is the most important as an educator. We build magnificent colleges for the training of our children, that thus their future lives may be rendered happier and more successful than would otherwise be possible, yet the most im- portant means to this end — the eye — is recklessly neglected and abused. In consequence, the sight soon becomes impaired, causing the mind to re- ceive erroneous impressions. Who can say how much error and distortion of the real, is conveyed to the intelligence through such habits as disease the senses? These habits are the main cause 114 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. tending to lessen nerve force, and render sluggish the capillary circulation, which should be complete even through the most minute blood vessels. This depleted condition induces cataract, which appears first as a spot upon the pupil, and later on covers it partly, or perhaps entirely; it is usually of a gray or milky color, and ma} 1 " be either of a hard or soft character. During the first stage, a blur seems to envelop surrounding objects, which if small cannot be distinguished. The use of spec- tacles will not give relief, but onh r tends to increase the dimness. A bright light also has this effort ; the patient's vision being much clearer in a twilight. THE SYMPTOMS OF CATARACT are a thickening of the lens itself, called hard cata- ract, or a thickening of the containing membrane, called soft cataract. In acute attacks there is more or less pain, and a sense of fulness through the forehead and eyes, accompanied by an itching sensation. These conditions may be induced by external Auolence, hj using unsuitable glasses, or by exposure to very hot fires. Diseased kidneys and acute or chronic congestion will also induce this disease, though the form of cataract ordinari- ly found in the aged is simply the effect of impaired nutrition. When in the first or soft stage, cataract CARE OF THE EYES. 115 can easily be removed, a few treatments generally sufficing. If the trouble is of long standing, the treatment should be persisted in for a few weeks or months, when a complete cure will result. People in general know very little of the habits of life necessary to insure perfect health, and even less of the care necessary to insure perfect vision. When it is discovered that some diseased condition is threatening, do not tamper with so delicate a.n organ as the eye, by experimenting with drugs, but change all habits that tend to enervate the system and conform strictly to the directions here given. You will find that the eye is as responsive to intel- ligent treatment as any part of the body. TREATMENT. Bathe the eyes several minutes at a time in hot and cold water alternately, taking care that the temperature is as extreme as can be endured, whether hot or cold. Use twice each day. Also apply Mattel's red or blue vegetable electricity three or four times a day, holding the mouth of the bottle over the closed eye from one to two minutes. In connection with this, use an electric battery, (see Medical electricity) either the negative or the positive pole. A gentle current is best and safest. In cases of severe inflammation, either acute or 116 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED, chronic, use the positive pole of the battery, placing the negative pole at the coccyx, or at the feet if the latter be cold. For a negative, inactive condition of the eyes, use the negative pole, placing the positive at the coccyx. A small battery can be constructed by taking an empty ounce bottle, and filling it full of white cotton batting saturated with a drachm of mustard oil. Cork ti^htlv when not in use. Hold the mouth of the bottle near the open eyes, first one and then the other, until the tears flow freely. Repeat three or four times a day. If there is a sense of over stimulation, lessen the number of treatments. This induces a renewed action of the nerves, muscles and blood vessels, and a return of natural vigor to the parts, rlt removes cataract by absorption, restores and preserves weakened vision. During the period of change of life in both man and woman, this treatment, in connection with out-door life, and simple, cooling food, will insure good vision in old age, without glasses. Bear in mind that any impairment of the health is due to enfeebled blood and nerve force in the part affected, caused invariably by some habit or habits detrimental to the perfect action of the dif- ferent functions of the bodv. Anv means that can CARE OF THE EYES. 117 be used to insure an active and vigorous circula- tion in the eve and surrounding tissues will pre- serve the organ in perfect health. Hot baths of all sorts, Turkish, Russian, vapor, etc., concluding with a dash of cold water, will preserve an active capillary circulation and give much vigor to the eyes. A few moments spent every morning with a flesh brush, vigorously used over the entire body, will give immense returns in the general health of the body. The only difficulty is that most flesh brush- es become so soft after a few days use, that when the super-sensitiveness of the skin is removed the efficacy of the brush is diminished, and the good results lessened. Care should be taken to obtain a brush having very strong bristles; a stiff hair- brush also is good. This habit, if faithfully con- tinued, will have a remarkable effect upon all the nerves of the body, including those of the eyes, in strengthening and maintaining them in vigorous health. A German-American teacher, sixty years of age, employed in one of the high schools, was cured of a double cataract after the oculists had pro- nounced her case incurable. This was accomplished entirely under the treatment herein described; 118 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. the result being that within six months her sight was perfectly restored. It is not well to confine children too closely to their studies, or to allow them to read by a bright artificial light. When we consider the utter dis- regard of hygiene, as manifested in impure air, improper food, unhealthy occupation, etc., it is surprising that there is not greater impairment, not only of vision, but of all the functions of the body. Let us expend a little force repenting the various abuses to which we subject our systems, and a little more in good resolutions for the future, that thus the fulness of life may be ours, and not the stagnation of death in life. CHAPTER IX. PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE. As the cold season approaches, additional clothing should be worn to prevent the contraction of colds, so prevalent during the change from warm to cool weather. At this time, any predis- position of the system to disease is excited and de- veloped, especially from this cause, thus great care should be exercised to prevent it. Colds are more frequently contracted unconsciously than other- PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE. 119 wise, causing obstruction of the insensible as well as the sensible perspiration. The disagreeable effects mav extend throughout the entire system, or may be limited to some weak part of the body. If the kidneys are affected, either from inherited or acquired causes, the cold may settle in them, and some latent disease be thus developed. The first symptoms are usually pain at the lower part of the back, and over the kidneys ; also a nervous irritability each side of the spine, above the hip joints. The patient is generally unable to account for this, but if he is conscious of possessing weak kidneys, and the pains quite closely follow the cold, he may be assured that this is the cause. The local manifestation was most probably due to insufficient clothing over the spine and extremities. To prevent continuance of the symptoms, as well as inflammation and other complications which might result, take a hot bath, a few doses of aconite, the third, or febrifugo, and place a stimu- lating capcine plaster over the painful region, to- gether with additional clothing. This treatment will prevent more serious trouble, even so grave an ailment as Bright's Disease. If the bath is not convenient, soak the feet in water as hot as can be borne, then place them in cold water a few minutes, 120 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. then again in hot, taking care to keep the tem- perature at an extreme point of heat and cold. Alternate in this way for twenty 01; thirty minutes before retiring. Take no food except a stimulating hot soup or gruel, or hot milk. After this treat- ment, retire immediately, using extra covering on the bed. Complete repose both of mind and body is necessary, therefore endeavor not to allow the mind to act, but sleep and rest thoroughly. Upon rising in the morning, dress the body and feet warmly. Continue this treatment until all ill feelings have vanished. When there is a tendency to sore throat or bronchitis, the patient may be assured that, con- sciously or unconsciously, he has taken cold. The insensible perspiration may have been checked simply by getting the feet chilled. In such cases, bathe the feet in hot and cold water alternately, take a few doses of aconite or febrifugo, keeping warm and quiet until a normal condition is re- stored. When children feel indisposed for work or play, complain of aching pains over the entire body, are troubled with loss of appetite, and a general de- pression of the system, sometimes accompanied by headache, languor or chills, give treatment as fol- PRE VENT ION BE TTER THAN C URE. 121 lows : — medicate a quart of pure water with three pellets of Electro-Homoeopathic febrifugo, No. 1, or aconite 3d, six drops in a glass of water. Use a des- sert spoonful every fifteen or twenty minutes. Prepare a bath, using warm water at first, increas- ing the temperature until a free perspiration is induced. Wash the body well, and rub dry with a coarse or Turkish towel. Place the patient in bed, there to remain two or three hours, longer if neces- sary ; continue the use of the medicated water. I have found no other sedative or eliminative so effective as this. If the first bath is not sufficient to restore and equalize vital action, repeat until the desired result is obtained. If the patient is in attendance at school, he will, of course, be kept at home for one, two, or three days as the case may require. This treatment will be efficacious whether the patient be young or old. If the tub bath be incon- venient, add a pint of alcohol to a gallon of warm water, and use a sponge. This will be found very invigorating. The patient should remain in bed, and absolute quiet should be enjoined. In case of sore throat, add two drops of the mother tincture of belladonna to a glass of water, and give a des- sert spoonful every hour in connection with theaco- 122 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. nite or febrifugo. If water is craved, give it medi- cated according to previous directions. The re- sults of this treatment, if faithfully continued, will be very gratifying. By this means many children have grown to adult age, free from all the diseases natural but not necessary to childhood, such as scarlet fever, whooping cough, measles, chicken- pox, cholera infantum, diphtheria, etc. If some definite form of disease is already de- veloped, still use the febrifugo, or aconite 3d, alternating with scrofol«so, second dilution. See Electro-Homoeopathic remedies. Give every fifteen or twenty minutes, until full recovery. No other medicines are required. As soon as the appetite returns, give some of the gruels mentioned in chap- ter on "Care of, and Cooking for, the Sick." Under this treatment the tardy eruptions are promptly brought out, and no serious after effects follow, such as deafness, weak eyes, and prolonged cough, as is ordinarily the case. A perverted polarity of the external and inter- nal man, will cause him to become a ready victim to the contraction of disease. By nature, the skin is positive, and the internal organs negative. Through some of the many forms of perverted living, these electric poles become so perverted that CURE OF DISEASE MADE SIMPLE. 123 the internal organs are positive, and the skin nega- tive. In this condition, the skin lacks resisting power, and a cold will be contracted on the slightest provocation. To restore a positive external con- dition, thus enabling the skin to assert its natural resisting power, use frequent friction with cold water and a brush in a warm room. This treat- ment has a tonic effect, drawing the blood to the surface, and re-establishing an external circulation, which is an effectual bar to undue susceptibility to cold. Taking cold is the cause of so many serious ailments, that when proof against it, one may be said to be fairly on the road to living above disease. CHAPTEK X. CURE OF DISEASE MADE SIMPLE. Within the past fifty years, pathology has made immense strides toward perfection in the knowledge of disease, but as yet little progress in the curing of it. This is not due to incorrect diag- nosis, as post mortem examinations clearly prove, but to a lack of knowledge concerning the best methods of curing a disease when its nature is known. One important step is to avoid paralyzing the patient with fear. Long explanations of in- 124 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. herited or prenatal tendencies, and long; technical terms describing his ailments, may so fasten the idea of disease upon his mind as to prevent him from ever surmounting it. This dismal painting on the brain of the afflictions of the body is a ver}^ serious mistake. People in general do not take time to study the system and its requirements, thus preparing themselves to cope with disease when occasion requires. They prefer to leave that to the doctor. While practicing among the very poor, I saw that simple methods are necessary if we would reach their understanding — methods in harmony with, and true to, nature. Pain is the result of the effort of the vital forces to restore health to any part of the body which may be diseased, or to their effort to throw off entirely the part lacking vitality and substitute new material. When a patient understands this law of nature, his mind, the great controller, will become positive against diseased conditions, re- fusing to yield to dejection or fear, regardless of the nature of the disease, thus helping the bodily forces to more rapidly eliminate it. The most dreaded disease becomes tractable and curable when this power, exercised by the mind over the CURE OF DISEASE MADE SIMPLE. 125 body, is understood and applied. The first duty of every person, professional or otherwise, who, through sympathy and good will, is enlisted in the work of relieving suffering human- ity, is to ever be ready and open to receive new ideas. Nothing is more dangerous than that fos- silized mind which instantly rejects angl refuses to entertain a new idea. This is the same narrowness of mind which in years past rejected steam, electric- ity and the telephone as "new-fangled notions." Thousands are today unconsciously dragging out their lives in this prison of set ideas, effectually barred from progress by their confidence in the infallibility of old beliefs. But there are always a few men and women ready to emerge from the darkness of tradition into the light of new possi- bilities, and among them, the belief that we must be old at fifty and in our graves at seventy-five, is fast becoming a thing of the past. There are those today who are younger and healthier at fifty than they were at fifteen, and this renewed life is possible to all who are willing to renounce their old ideas and march forward under the banner of progress. Flesh is heir to no ills save those bequeathed by the mind of ignorance. The time is approaching when metaphysical law will be understood by every 126 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. man and woman in the land; also when it will form the most important subject of study in our medical colleges. Not until then will the practice of medi- cine become truly a science. Many physicians still contend that a disease must run its course. This can be proyen to the contrary, b*v a method I haye found ayailable in eyery disease, from a common cold or headache to a contagious, or a violent sewer gas fever. If there is vitality enough to carry a patient through a disease by allowing it to run its course, then there is certainly enough vitality to arrest it before injurious drugs are added, to act as a further inducement to derangement. Sydenham says that "reason dictates that a fever is nothing else than an effort of nature to thrust from the system morbific matter, in order to restore the patient to health." The celebrated Dr. Benjamin Rush says that "all diseases are a unit; fevers as well as other affections depend upon an irregular action, which is the first cause of every form and modification of disease. Diseases are intruders into the system in the form of poisoned air, etc." Physiologically speaking, the capillaries are the seat of disorder in all forms of fever. This affection is not confined to CURE OF DISEASE MADE SIMPLE. 127 the vessels of one region, organ or tissue, but is diffused over all the minute ramifying communica- tions of the aorta and venous branches. Strictly speaking, then, according to the highest authori- ties, there is but one disease, and that is a disturb- ance of the vital forces in their action throughout the system. The voice of science now is to the effect that the vital force is the living spirit. The most dreaded diseases can be treated and prevented with absolute certainty, by the use of a few harmless remedies, and by proper attention to the hygienic laws. By regulating and restoring the capillaries of the system, we prevent or cure small-pox, typhoid, dengue, scarlet, yellow, re- mittent and intermittent fever, measles, diphthe- ria, peritonitis, cholera, cholera infantum, and all inflammations and congestions. To maintain a healthy action of the different tissues and appara- tus of the skin, and the different sets of vessels found in them, attention to exercise, diet, respira- tion, clothing, bathing, light and air is of the greatest practical importance. Sickness, as a rule, is the penalty of physical wrong doing, yet Nature in her infinite wisdom, provides for its relief. This provision consists in the power of the system to remove diseased conditions. The vital 128 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. energies mav be aided in their work of restoration in two ways ; first, by removing all the causes that tend to produce disease or to continue it. Second, by assisting the forces of the system in their effort to remove disease. First. — Ordinarily, in all acute diseases, the patient does not desire food, and if it is taken and digested, the disease will be greatly increased by the stimulation of the chyle when converted into blood. If it is not digested, it will add to the pros- tration of the system, through irritation of the mucous membrane of the stomach. So that in all instances of acute disease, food should be withheld for a few days. Thirst may be allayed with cold water, barley or apple water, crust coffee, etc. When the patient recovers, his food should be given with regularity, in quantities not oppressive to the system, and not too frequently. In all instances where a physician is in attendance, the food should be prepared under his special direction, particularly after medicine has been withdrawn and the patient is convalescent. Many instances of recurring dis- ease are due to the injudicious use of food. Second. — By the action of the perspiratory glands of the skin, a great amount of waste matter is removed from the svstem. In disease, the action CURE OF DISEASE MADE SIMPLE. 129 of these glands is much diminished. Their ducts also will become obstructed, if the waste matter is suffered to remain upon the skin. This inaction and obstruction very much increases the oppres- sion of the diseased organs, consequently remov- ing this condition, by attention to bathing and friction, is a powerful means of restoring the system to such a state as will expedite a return to health. The reader should be deeply impressed with the idea that bathing, friction, and breathing extra quantities of pure air, greatly assist the return of health. In all cases of diseased action, the surface of the body becomes negative, reversing the natural or healthy condition, which is positive. In illness the blood recedes from the surface locally, or generally, the interior becomes positive, and diseased action results in one or more organs, causing such organ or organs to become abnor- mally positive, thus exciting a disturbance throughout the entire body through the action of the sympathetic system. This causes indisposition for work or play, languor, headache, and loss of appetite for a greater or less number of days, or until a definite disease is developed. It may be caused from being chilled, or taking cold. If the 130 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. patient is health}', an ordinary catarrhal condition of the nose or throat may be the only result, but if the cold or catarrh is not entirely eradicated, it becomes more frequent, and the simple cold or catarrh becomes chronic. This could have been prevented before developed, or cured after develop- ment, by the simple process of a hot bath, conclud- ing by sponging off with cold water, and a few drops of aconite 3d in a tumbler of water. This treatment, in connection with vigorous friction of the body, will restore the positive condition to the surface, which is the resisting power of the system against disease. Cold is readilv contracted from insufficient clothing, thinly clad extremities, also exposure to cold after having been confined for some time in a densely crowded hall or church. The. system be- comes depressed from breathing the impure air exhaled by hundreds of lungs, and upon emerging into the open air, becomes chilled, and lacks resist- ing power to counteract the ill effects. Thus, the weakest organ of the body is rendered abnormally positive, and develops disease. In this manner each disease makes its appear- ance, and receives its name from the organ afflict- ed. Should the trouble be with the kidneys, pain CUBE OF DISEASE MADE SIMPLE. 131 and congestion are first manifest, followed by severe inflammation. Bheumatism is caused by vitiation of the blood, due to improper food, etc. Digestion becomes impaired, food sours and fer- ments while in the process of assimilation, result- ing in acidity of the blood, by depriving it of the power to produce healthy nerves and tissues. The patient readily chills. Defective muscular resist- ance is the root of the trouble. Acidity of the blood causes various other diseases, such as inflam- mation of the joints, finally developing rheuma- tism. Blue mass or mercurial treatment destroys the life of the blood, causing excruciating pain at every change in the atmosphere. So through the entire catalogue of diseases there exists perverted function, causing excessive action of either the positive or negative condition. Pure air is an absolute necessity in the bed- room or sick-room. Very careful attention should be given this important detail. It is not only essential in preventing, but of the utmost import- ance in removing disease. When the system is stimulated by pure blood, its power in eliminating disease is much greater than when the blood is defective in quality, and retention of the poisonous carbon, which sufficient breathing would have 132 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. removed, causes vitiation and weakness. It is a mistake to suppose that cold air is necessarily pure air. The atmosphere may be very cold, yet reek with impurity. The fresh outer air should be warmed, keeping the sick-room at a tem- perature of 70° Fahrenheit, windows lowered at the top, or a pane of glass removed a/t some dis- tance from the patient, if the former method be inconvenient. There is no question but that dis- ease, in many instances, becomes severe and very dangerous, if not fatal, from the close, confined at- mosphere of the patient's room, when it would have been mild and of short duration if the apart- ment had been properly ventilated. Impure air taints the venous and arterial blood with a poison which reaches every organ, muscle, joint and atom of the body, weakens the entire system, and de- stroys its vitality. In consequence of this, Nature exerts herself to expel the effete matter, thereby causing discomfort or pain, perhaps in the form of headache, inflam- mation, fever, or a cough ; these being her symp- toms of disorder. A cough is Nature's effort to re- move some obstruction from the lungs. If the ob- struction is not removed, and the cough continues, consumption will result, developing a natural ten- C URE OF DISEA SE MA DE SIMPLE. 183 dency , or it may be induced in the perfectly healthy and strong. A thorough knowledge of the impor- tance of extra deep breathing as well as an applica- tion of it, is the secret of uninterrupted health, and the safeguard of mankind from disease and suffer- ing. The blood is the river of life flowing through every avenue of the system, and the air is the power that forces it into every cell, tissue, and bone of the body. If this propelling power, the air, is lacking in purity, the vital processes are weakened and diseased. Chilling the body, generally or locally, con- sciously or unconsciously, habitual cold feet, over- feeding or under-feeding, the habitual use of tobac- co or other stimulants, excesses in the sexual rela- tion, in or out of marriage, insufficient clothing, thin shoes and stockings, mental or physical over- work, with depressing effects on the mind, are the direct and indirect causes of weakened or destroyed health. See Chapter V, "Air as Food," and Chap- ter XVII, "Healing through the Power of Mind." Let it be firmly impressed on the mind, that pure air is the natural food for the lungs, the life of the blood, and the natural disinfectant, whose agency nature employs to eradicate foul smells ; it, there- fore, is the best disinfectant in the sick-room, work- , 134 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. shop, business house, theatre, or in the house of worship. In the water-closet, chlorate of lime should be used during times of epidemic or con- tagious diseases. Rest is absolutely necessary to a person suffer- ing from disease. By rest is meant not only a ces- sation of muscular labor, but of mental action as well. Consequently, if a person is indisposed, be it ever so slightly, the brain should not be kept excited and toiling by the noisy conversation of neighbors or friends. VISITORS TO THE SICK. "The anxious lady who visits her sick friend can do her no manner of good : all she can do is to show her a pocket handkerchief which she has moistened with her sympathizing tears; irritate her morbid nerves with chattering; help to spoil the air of the sick-room with her breath ; increase the noise that is so often hurtful to patients; dis- arrange the good order by her officious interfer- ence; give well-meant but erroneous advice, and, what is of greater consequence, perchance carry back the disease with her into her own home." — Hahnemann, Lesser Writings. Medicine is sometimes necessary to assist the natural powers of the system in removing disease, CURE OF DISEASE MADE SIMPLE. 135 but it is only aii assistant, useful in passive dis- eased states, wherever action is below par ; in the commencement of acute diseases, in the premon- itory stage of fevers and inflammations, — the stage of depression of power — and in the congestive stages of eruptive diseases, such as measles, scarlet fever, small-pox, etc.; in short, wherever the symp- toms show retrocession of the fluids from the sur- face to the interior, the disease can be averted or arrested when taken in time, or if developed, its duration or severity can be to a greater or less extent diminished. About nine years ago I began to test the po- tency of the Electro-Homoeopathic remedies of Count Mattei, of Bologna, Italy. The full details are too lengthy to relate. When reading the twenty years' experience of the Count, with his discovery, I doubted some of the extravagant descriptions of his cures. However, I reasoned that things which had been considered impossibilities a few years ago, are now everyday affairs. This may be no less true in the cure of diseases hereto- fore considered incurable. In reading of the great cholera epidemics oi Europe and this country, from the most reliable sources, namely, statistical and hospital reports, I 136 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. found that the average proportion of deaths in Paris from cholera under Allopathic treatment was forty-nine per cent, while that under the Homoeo- pathic was only seven and one half per cent. In Bordeaux, death occurred under Allopathic treat- ment at the rate of sixty-seven per cent, and under Homoeopathic at the rate of seventeen per cent. In the records of the mortality in European Hospi- tals, the average death rate, under Allopathic treatment, was sixty-five and one half per cent, while in hospitals where the cholera patients were given Homoeopathic treatment, only eleven and one half per cent died. During the prevalence of cholera in St. Louis, in 1849. one thousand five hundred and sixty-seven patients were treated by three Homoeopathic physi- cians. Of this number, only fifty-one died, a per- centage of three and one half per cent. In Cincin- nati, during the month of May, the Eclectic physi- cians treated three hundred and thirty cases of cholera, and one hundred and ninety-eight cases of cholerine, of which number only five proved fatal. Let me inform the reader that the Eclectic School does not employ calomel in any shape or form whatever. In the same city, during this epi- demic, four hundred and thirty-two cases of cholera CURE OF DISEASE MADE SIMPLE. 137 were treated by Allopathic physicians, of which one hundred and sixteen died. Again, an unprofessional gentleman, (having over two hundred laborers in his employ, among whom cholera prevailed in 1832 with its accustomed severity,) without medical ad- vice, and depending on ordinary domestic remedies, adopted, as the base of treatment, a prompt and diffusive stimulant, which proved perfectly suc- cessful. The result was, in treating a large number of cases, including thirteen in his own family, that all were cured. Nothing could have been more satisfactory. For the relief of the suffering, and for the in- struction of those who feel the truth of my asser- tions, I give my knowledge and experience of this dreaded disease, ASIATIC CHOLERA, in its most malignant form, together with its infal- lible treatment and cure. The commencement of this terrible disease is often unnoticed until the svs- tern is fully prepared for the sudden and violent outbreak. The slight, painless diarrhoea, and de- pression of the nervous power, with occasional diz- ziness, may pass unheeded and the patient be apparently well, yet after a sound and undisturbed sleep for hours, be awakened by a remarkably vio- 138 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. lent illness, perhaps vomiting, accompanied by profuse discharges from the bowels, attended with severe pains extending down the legs, and a sense of complete exhaustion. The physical powers and vital energies are immediately prostrated. The temperature sinks below the normal standard, the body becomes benumbed with an icy coldness, the skin becomes shriveled up and almost insensible to heat or stimulating fermentations. The breath, too, as it comes from the lungs, appears to partake of the same icy quality. The patient complains of being greatly oppressed, throws off the bedclothes and calls for cold water, which he eagerly drinks, aiid which should never be Avithheld. The hands and feet turn blue or purple, as will, sometimes, the entire body. There are severe spasms and cramps in the fingers, toes, legs and bowels, which cause him to writhe and groan in agony ; a wild, terrified expression overspreads the face, and the eyes appear dead and glassy. These important changes may all take place in a few minutes. Additional symptoms are, increased purging and vomiting, with low pulse. The only faculty which seems to preserve a good degree of power is the brain. The disease is now fully developed, and progress is rapid. CURE OF DISEASE MADE SIMPLE. 139 The above symptoms of genuine, malignant Asiatic cholera can be controlled to complete and perfect recovery of the patient, if the treatment is fearlessly carried out. At this stage of the disease, the patient will calmly tell you that all is over, and that nothing can save him. Pay no attention to this, but boldly and fearlessly keep at yo ur post, allowing no thought of fear to creep in. When purging and vomiting begin, use the most diffusive stimulants externally and internally. Keep a window open in the patient's room. It is necessary for two people to work together. One should pre- pare a poultice as follows: scald two quarts of common corn meal until of the consistency of pan- cake batter, and mix thoroughly with it six table- spoonfuls of red pepper, and four of ground mus- tard; spread one half inch thick between cheese cloth, and place over the entire stomach and bowels, the soles of the feet and calves of the legs. Pin flannel over the poultices, to keep them in posi- tion, and place jugs and bottles filled with boiling water, also hot bricks wrapped in pieces of cloth, about the bed. Rub the base of the brain with alcohol. To relieve the unquenchable thirst, give veratrum viride, six drops of the tincture to a quart of water, without ice, every ten minutes, in very 140 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. small quantities, as large quantities increase the tendency to vomit; this induces a copious perspira- tion. Cover the patient warmly. While one attendant is making the poultices, a second should prepare the following: — chloroform, four drachms; tincture capsicum, three drachms; essence of peppermint, two drachms; glycerine, three ounces. Mix, and give one teaspoonful in two large tablespoons of water. In thirty or forty minutes, if the symptoms have not sufficiently abated, repeat the dose. In connection with this, continue to give the medicated water as a drink every ten or fifteen minutes, until the patient breaks out in a warm per- spiration. Then allay his thirst with larger quantities of the medicated water, which he will be able to retain on his stomach in large quantities after perspiration sets in. Keep up the sweating from six to nine hours, at least. Allow 7 him to drink all the medicated water he craves. The stimulating poultices may remain until the patient is so far advanced tow r ard recovery that they may be removed altogether. The patient will fall into a sleep almost imme- diately after perspiration sets in, from which he must not be aw T akened. Boil strong vinegar in the CURE OF DISEASE MADE SIMPLE. 141 room until purging is controlled; place cloths, old sheets, old quilts, or cotton batting on the bed to absorb the watery stools. Reach under the bed- clothes and remove them as fast as the evacuations occur. Then immediately burn or bury them deep under ground at some distance from the house. It is not well to allow the patient to use the vessel or water-closet, as in so doing he disarranges all poultices and dissipates the artificial heat, thus hindering the progress of treatment. This disease requires all present to be quick, self-possessed and fearless. It is difficult to say when a case has be- come hopeless. The blue look, the cold extremities, the deeply sunken, glassy eyes, the almost imper- ceptible pulse, are not indications that the case is hopeless. All modifications of the disease require the same treatment, the only difference being that in the milder form the dose of cholera medicine should be lessened to a half teaspoonful. The external stimulants need not be quite so strong. When a cholera epidemic prevails, the premoni- tory stage should receive immediate attention. The symptoms are, lassitude, depression of nerve power, pains in the forehead, slight dizziness, and oppression at the chest. These, in most instances, 142 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. can be promptly removed. The patient should at once be put to bed ; hot, stimulating poultices should be placed over the stomach, and a large jug of boiling water wrapped in flannel should be placed against the soles of the feet. In a glass of water, put one drop of the tincture of veratrum viride. Give a tea spoonful every fifteen minutes. Continue this treatment in connection with a dose of natrum sulphate, third trituration, given every hour, dry on the tongue. A dose is an amount which can be held on a three cent piece. Perspira- tion will begin shortly, eliminating all cholera poison through the skin, kidneys and bowels. This is a simple and reliable treatment for the premonitory stage of cholera. PREVENTIVE OR PROPHYLACTIC TREATMENT. Pure air, pure water, plain and nutritive diet, are nature's great preventives against the count- less ills of life, sustaining a healthy and normal condition of the system, especially during epi- demics. This cannot be maintained without pure air, whether our dwellings are in the city or countrv. Pav special attention also to diet. Ab- stain from all pastry. A good, plain, nutritious diet is indispensable in the prevention of disease. Moderation in all things should be the rule. CURE OF DISEASE MADE SIMPLE. 143 Predisposing causes of cholera are, derange- ment of the stomach, great anxiety of mind, exces- sive fear of attack, unwholesome diet, exhaustion from overwork, mental or physical neglect of personal and domestic cleanliness, irregular habits, and excesses of every description. Any one of these may be sufficient to induce an attack. All are direct incentives and stimulating agents in the production of cholera. Fevers are classified as contagious, non conta- gious, idiopathic and symptomatic. Typhoid fever, scarlatina or scarlet fever, diph- theria, measles small-pox, erysipelas and malarial fever come under the head of eruptive fevers, the prognosis of which is favorable or unfavorable in proportion to the previous state of health of the patient. The symptoms of all fevers are, languor, weakness, headache, chilliness and loss of appetite. T} T phoid fever: — Stage of incubation generally three weeks, in some cases four, and in others two. Typhoid fever epidemics are most prevalent from August to November, although under favorable circumstances, they may occur at any time of the year. The symptoms of typhoid fever are, a sense of general indisposition, weakness and debility, with i;eadache, dizziness, soreness of the limbs, some- 144 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. times bleeding at the nose, and chilly sensations. These occur several days before the attack, which is ushered in. with a violent chill, or repeated chilly sensations daily. This is followed by fever, the pulse rising during the first week from ninety to one hundred beats per minute, and the tempera- ture from one hundred and one to one hundred and four degrees. From the earliest history of medicine until the present day, many and various theories have been advanced relative to disease, as well as much un- successful practice founded upon them. One of the most erroneous ideas is that which leads to the administering of purgative medicine at the com- mencement of a fever, in order to expel it from the system. This practice has been the means of in- creasing mortality to an alarming extent, as, after a drastic purgative has been given, it is almost impossible to effect a cure. The greater the malig- nity of the fever, the more serious the danger. This habit is very prevalent in private or domestic practice. The idea is to lessen the fever by remov- ing the poison in the system through purgation, which treatment has often imperilled the life of a patient before a physician could be summoned, although in typhoid fever this almost fatal mis- CURE OF DISEASE MADE SIMPLE. 145 take has frequently been made by members of the medical profession. The ancients, to whom we are indebted for much knowledge, believed fever to be the result of a warfare between the vital forces of the body, and some noxious element invading it. This is also the opinion of Ray, Rush, Sydenham, and other radi- cal and progressive thinkers of the present day. Our object, then, is to remove this offending ele- ment from the system by the most natural, safe and reliable method known, thus arresting disease if in the premonitory stage, and shortening its duration or lessening its severity in the second stage, eventually curing it without destroying the health and constitution of the individual. The following system is not based upon untried theory, but upon practical experience. Sufferers from typhoid fever, even in the last stages, have recovered by the administration of attenuated doses of febrifugo, given every five or ten minutes, by placing in the mouth a piece of linen, satu- rated with the medicine. Before becoming acquainted with the Electro- Homoeopathic system of treatment for fevers and inflammations, I used from five to seven differ- ent medicines, according as the different stages of 146 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. the disease presented themselves. At present I am able to prevent, as well as cure, disease with abs- olute certainty, by the use of two remedies, provid- ed mv directions are followed. TREATMENT OF FEVERS. When any fever symptoms are manifest, have the patient placed in the sunniest and best venti- lated room in the house, the parlor, should that answer the description. Give fifteen febrifugo pel- lets, No. 1, administering them dry on the tongue. Medicate a glass of water with one pellet of febri- fugo, and another glass with one pellet of scrofo- loso, No. 1. Give one teaspoonful from the glass containing febrifugo, every fifteen or twenty min- utes, continuously, for half a day. During the remainder of the day, give one teaspoonful from the glass containing scrofoloso, every twenty min- utes. Before placing the patient in bed, bathe his feet thoroughly in hot water, then in cold, and again in hot water. If a bath-tub is convenient, give the patient a hot bath as soon as possible. While he is in the water, increase the temperature gradually by pouring hot water over the chest from a dipper. Continue until the heat is as great as the patient can endure. While in the bath, the body should be covered with a piece of flannel or a CURE OF DISEASE MADE SIMPLE. 14:7 heavy towel. If the head should feel 'full'or dizzy, place a wet towel around it. Wipe until thorough- ly dry, place in bed with warm coverings, and a jug of boiling water at the feet. Do not neglect to administer the medicated water as directed. The hottest summer weather will admit of this treat- ment. Allow no one in the sick-room, and avoid all conA^ersation. Perfect quiet must positively be maintained. If normal conditions do not assert themselves in a few hours, and the fever should continue, with great thirst, keep the patient carefully covered, being particular not to check in the least any moisture of the skin, or any rash that may now be making its appearance on the surface of the body. Words cannot describe with what rapidit}' a too sudden cooling of the skin will cause any eruption, which may be about to make its appearance, to recede. This eruption is sometimes so faint as to escape detection by an inexperienced person. In some patients it presents itself only as a slight redness of the surface, or in spots on some portion of the body. This may be regarded as unimpor- tant by a person unskilled in sickness, when in truth it is a critical moment. A reaction of the entire system occurs— an effort to expel the obnox- 148 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. ious irritant of the blood from the system. The combined action of the medicine and the external stimulation causes increased heat and, consequent- ly, a nervous condition of the entire system. If, at this moment, the patient throws off the clothes, or is uncovered, the chill thus received causes the eruption to recede to the interior, where it fastens upon either the lungs, bowels, or perhaps upon the entire tract of mucous membrane. The febrifugo acts as a general sedative, elimi- native, and diaphoretic. The scrofoloso acts as a powerful assistant in bringing a retarded or checked eruption to the surface. The unquenchable thirst must be gratified by pure spring or cold boiled water. Medicate one quart of either with two pills of febrifugo. Of water thus medicated, the patient may consume two or three quarts or more during the t went v-f our hours. In the mean- time, the febrifugo in the glass may be discontin- ued, but the scrofoloso must be given in connection with the medicated water every thirty minutes. All food must be withheld until the fever has abated. Then gruels (see chapter on food for the sick) may be given in moderation, medicated with a few pills of scrofoloso, until sufficient strength is estab- lished to enable the patient to take solid food. CURE OF DISEASE MADE SIMPLE. 149 This is best withheld as long as possible. The greatest liability of the patient is to take cold, con- sciously or unconsciously, and suffer frequent re- lapses, which weaken his power of endurance. Do not be in too great haste to remain out of bed long at a time, when convalescing from fever ; as soon as slightly fatigued, lie down, cover up warmly, and rest. Take food often, in small quan- tities, until health is restored. If the symptoms indicate a recession of the rash to the lungs, bowels, or both, the case has become complicated, and a serious disturbance of the entire system pre- vails. The febrifugo and scrofoloso must be renewed, and given as in the commencement of the disease, every five or ten minutes. This will bring about a reaction, but the bowels and lungs must, from the very commencement, be well cared for. If the bowels show any signs of looseness or irregu- larity, cover them completely with a poultice made as follows : to one quart of corn meal, add boiling water sufficient to make a thick pancake batter. Add two table-spoonfuls of red pepper and one of ground mustard, mix thoroughly, and spread between cloths. This poultice should be one inch in thickness, and should be held in posi- tion by means of a long bandage, securely pinned. 150 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. Should there be difficulty in breathing, indicating implications of the chest and lungs, with a dry, brown tongue and parched lips, apply a poultice large enough to cover the entire chest, prepared as for the bowels. Keep the feet warm with jags of hot water. Bathe the patient in equal parts of hot water and alcohol, once a day, in a warm room, being careful to expose only one part of the body at a time, keeping the doors and windows closed. Change the body garments once a day when per- spiration is established. Perspiration usually induces sleep, thus relieving the nervous tension. The odor emitted from the patient is something indescribable, but need not cause alarm, for as soon as this stage is reached the patient is out of all danger from the disease. The only peril which still threatens him is a tendency to become easily chilled, which would probably result in a relapse. Should this occur, treat as in the beo-innine; of the disease, giving the medicines internally, and applying stimulants externally to feet, bowels, or wherever most required. The hot poultices need seldom be renewed. They can be retained on the afflicted parts until relief is obtained from pain and tenderness, and easy respiration is established. After the poultice CURE OF DISEASE MADE SIMPLE. 151 is removed, line a piece of oiled silk, large enough to cover the surface of the lungs and bowels, with a piece of cloth on which is spread medicated cos- moline, in which has been thoroughly stirred and beaten twenty pills of canceroso 5th dissolved in a little water. If the canceroso is not at hand, use the cosmoline only. In the absence of oiled silk, thin, tough paper may be used, though silk is much to be preferred. Use this upon the lungs and bowels until the patient is entirely recovered, renewing the cosmoline every day. Dress the body and feet much warmer, when first emerging from the sick bed, than was the custom before illness. Give the exhausted vital energies time and opportunity to regain strength; nothing is gained by undertaking any work or occupation before the full strength of the s} r stem is re-established. Rest, with a little moderate exer- cise, is absolutely necessary for perfect recovery. The administration of tonics or stimulants to hasten this result is erroneous, as an artificial stimulant for the overtaxed system is very injuri- ous. Rest and moderate exercise are the only nat- ural and permanent restoratives known to nature. A little tonic to strengthen a feeble appetite is oc- casionally advisable, but breathing an extra quan- 152 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. tity of pure air into the lungs when convalescent, is the greatest appetizer in the universe. This — with plenty of sunshine and bright and happy thoughts — is the best tonic for weakened nerves. Adminis- tering tonics and stimulants is parallel to lashing a horse when over-worked, instead of giving him the required rest and food. PERITONITIS. (PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.) After the birth of my last child, in the month of August, 1883, 1 was suddenly stricken with acute peritonitis, which involved ovaries and womb in severe inflammation. Being called out to visit some very sick patients, when my baby was only a month old and nursing, and not haying fully regained the required strength, I took a severe cold after an exhaustive day's work in my rounds. In less than thirty minutes I was writhing in agony, with pain through my ovaries, womb, and finally the entire peritoneum, accompanied by purging and vomiting. My features shrank, giving the appearance of one in the malignant stage of cholera. A physician was called, who gave me a half grain of morphia to relieve the agonizing pains. The dose had not the slightest effect, and in thirty minutes he gave me another half grain with some whiskey, which caused a partial subsi- CURE OF DISEASE MADE SIMPLE. 153 dence of the pain for about half an hour. From that on, I suffered continually with the most severe and racking pain. I refused to take any more morphia, as I saw that the physician began to be very much alarmed. He ordered hot applications over the abdomen in the form of flannel cloths wrung out of hot water, but no relief came. Every stab through, my abdomen, in all directions, can better be imagined than described. Another physi- cian was called, a Homoeopath, who prescribed aconite in alternation with belladonna, maintain- ing the hot applications day and night. This con- tinued for four days, my pulse remaining at one hundred and forty beats a minute, and my tem- perature varying from one hundred and two to one hundred and three. During this time, there was no abatement of the pain. At the beginning of the next week, the second physician considered the case fatal, and made it known to my family. My features now were cadaverous, the nose pinched, and the thighs continually flexed to the abdomen. My pulse remained stationary, the temperature rising to one hundred and Aye. My mind was perfectly clear, never having been more so in health. I realized that my case was hopelessin the minds of those 154 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. about me, and in that of the attending physician. I finally decided to take my own case, dubious as it was. My clothes and the sheets were wet from the applications which had been used, and I felt assured that this gave me more cold. I ordered the nurse to scald two quarts of corn meal with boiling- water, and mix with it red pepper and mustard, using a quarter of a pound of each, making a poul- tice large enough to cover the entire abdomen. I also directed her to prepare two glasses of water, in one of them dropping one pill of febrifugo, and in the other, one pill of the scrofoloso, and to ap- ply heat to my feet and limbs by means of jugs and bottles of hot water. I took the medicine day and night every ten minutes, and on the third day I broke out into a perspiration, which I kept up until the inflammation had entirely subsided. I shall never forget the comfort and assurance I received from the hot corn meal poultice. It is the most beneficial method ever conceived, is dry and moist, and can be worn twenty -four hours without change, thus avoiding unnecessary exposure to cold. When the inflammation had subsided, I removed the corn meal poultice, replacing it with a piece of cloth spread with cosmoline and covered with a piece of oiled silk. In a few more days an CURE OF DISEASE MADE SIMPLE. 155 evacuation of the bowels took place, the first half being black as coal, the last half perfectly nat- ural and well mixed with bile. I continued using cosmoline upon the abdomen until fully assured of the complete absence of inflammation. This pre- vented any perforation or adhesion of the bowels. I continued the two remedies, febrifugo and scrofo- loso, though not so frequently, allowing thirty or forty minutes to elapse between the doses. From these exceptionally good conditions, I unfortunately suffered a relapse. When, from pure exhaustion, I fell asleep, proper care was not taken to insure a continuance of these good conditions. The bed had cooled off, my pulse and temperature had gone down to less than normal, no more bed- clothes had been added, and the nurse also had fallen into a sound sleep. The cooling off awoke me; I was in a chill, and soon all pain and discom- fort returned. I knew then it meant death. I awoke the nurse and, telling her my situation, directed her to renew the hot corn meal poultice, and the former frequency of the doses of medicine, with an addi- tional dose of fifty pills of the febrifugo, dry on the tongue. In thirty minutes I had the chill under control, with a return of moisture and a rapid re- action. This occurred twice in succession, the 156 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. nurse falling asleep both times. I then refused to let sleep overtake me unless they agreed to keep awake while I slept, and maintain an even warmth about my body. After this they watched me dur- ing sleep, and if the temperature of the room changed, became cooler toward evening, or at any time during the day, I was covered, and warm irons were placed at my feet. The chest and arms were also kept warmly covered. I then began to take nourishment, oatmeal gruel, hot thin soup, or hot milk. During the first four weeks of the attack I took nothing but water, and nothing but liquid food during the second four weeks. After the inflammation had fully subsided, I ate cooked rice, baked potatoes and baked apples. I suffered no further relapse from chills. My bowels had completely collapsed, were lifeless as dough, and heavy as lead. I had no use of the abdominal muscles or diaphragm, breathing only in the chest. I discontinued the febrifugo, and took only the scrofoloso. The nurse carried or assisted me to the bath-room to give me hot general baths, sponging off with cold water, and then placed me in bed to rest and sleep. At that time I took the scrofoloso every hour. This treatment I continued every day until I could walk, which was during the eighth* CURE OF DISEASE MADE SIMPLE. 157 week, with the bowels feeling like lead. I then com- pletely covered the bowels with two Benson's cap- cine plasters cut in shape to act as a support while walking or moving about. These I removed every three days, replacing with new, after washing the entire abdomen with alcohol and water. The latter treatment I kept up for nine months, and in connection took one weekly general bath. I am free from any adhesion, perforation or irregularity of the bowels or any of the sequelae which so fre- quently result. Eternal vigilance was the price paid for the perfect health and strength I regained after one of the most violent and severe attacks of peritonitis with grave complications. Such has been my success with all my patients, in every variety of disease, by the use of the Electro-Homoeopathic remedies. LA GRIPPE is treated very successfully in the same manner as fevers, and with the same remedies. Apply the hot poultices, as described above, on any part of the body where most needed. My la grippe patients all convalesced on the third or fourth day, and were out at the end of a week, perfectly able to resume business. 158 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. SCARLET FEVER AND DIPHTHERIA, malignant or non malignant, are treated in the same manner as typhoid fever, the same remedies being- used, with the exception of an additional gargle of hot water and alcohol, equal parts. Use according to severity of the case. The unhealthy membrane is destroyed rapidly, and the Airulency of the disease abated. In scarlet fever, if the fauces or throat are sore and full, use the same gargle, the hot stimulat- ing poultice around the throat, close up to the ears. For intermittent fever, give fifty pellets of febrifugo, dry On the tongue, an hour or two before the expected chill, and a teaspoonful of the diluted febrifugo every ten minutes, the same as in typhoid fever. If the chill is not broken the first or second day, repeat the fifty pills tw T o or three times in succession. The treatment for small-pox is the same as that for typhoid fever, with the exception that all ex- posed parts should be covered with oiled silk or soft tissue paper, spread Avith cosmoline or fresh lard, to prevent pitting. Cut a place for the nose and eyes. For diarrhoea, use scrofoloso diluted in one CUBE OF DISEASE MADE SIMPLE. 159 quart of water, which is given as a drink if there is great thirst, with occasionally a dozen pills of scrofoloso administered dry on the tongue. Apply artificial heat when the vital forces have become positive or negative to excess. THE ELECTRO-HOMCEOPATHIC SYSTEM has been thoroughly elaborated and tested, not only by its author and discoverer, but subse- quently by some of the most eminent physicians of Europe, and with marvelous success. Throughout Europe and our own country, progressive physi- cians are testing this new system, finding there- in an entire revolution of all old ideas. Their ef- forts result in success never before approximated. I could give a list of hundreds of cases of ty- phoid, ague, sewer-gas and malarial fevers, small- pox, diphtheria, cholera infantum, scarlet fever and measles, that I have cured with the Mattei remedies, which, with the system of medication I once used, could not have been accomplished. CHAPTEE XI. TREATMENT OF GENERAL DISEASES. INFLAMMATION OF THE KIDNEYS. This includes acute inflammation of the kidneys (acute nephritis), and chronic inflammation of the kidneys (Bright's Disease). ACUTE NEPHRITIS. Symptoms.— Chilliness, vomiting, pain each side of the spine just above the hip bone, and pain- less swelling of the feet, legs and other parts of the body. The urine thickens if boiled, showing the presence of albumen. Causes. — It has been found by experiment, that out of two hundred cases, sixty-eight were produced by intoxicating drink and taking cold ; sixty by exposure, and twenty- five by scarlet fever. Treatment. — Give the pa- tient hot baths, exciting perspiration as soon as possible. In this way the skin is kept moist during the course of the disease. Bathe the spine and the region of the kidneys three or four times a day with alcohol, diluted one third with hot water. Aconite 3d is the remedy used for the chilli- ness, fever, thirst and scanty urine, arsenicum TREATMENT OF GENERAL DISEASES. 161 6th for dropsical swelling, mercurius corrosivus for mucous, blood or pus in the urine. Apis mellifica, sixth decimal trituration, may also be given in alternation with arsenicum for dropsical swelling. Diet. — Abstain from all solid food for a few days, using only slippery elm tea, crust coffee, and lemonade without ice. CHRONIC NEPHRITIS, OR BRIGHT'S DISEASE. Symptoms. — Gradually increasing debility, a frequently irritable pulse, dyspepsia and vomiting. Pale, bloated appearance, occasional loss of appe- tite, dropsy, and frequent desire to urinate. The urine is light in specific gravity, and forms a thick white deposit of albumen when boiled. Causes. — Hereditary tendency, frequent exposure to cold, cold feet, gout, scarlet fever or dyspepsia. Treat- ment. — The secretions of the skin should be kept active by frequent hot baths. Turkish, Russian, hot water and alcohol baths are all excellent, and should be taken in a w T arm room two or three times a week. The bath is necessarv for cleanliness, and for its tonic effect. (See Chapter X, u Cure of Disease made Simple. ") Arsenicum 6th and helonias 3d are the principal remedies. The condition of the stom- ach, bowels and skin should receive special atten- tion, as the disease results principally from a defect- 162 CVBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. ive condition of these emunctories. One of the most important features in the treatment is to maintain a free action of the skin, as by this means the blood is diverted from the kidneys, and purified. All stimulants and diuretics must be avoided. The specific treatment for degeneration of the kidneys consists in the building up of the system by extra breathing, diet, bathing, and rest from mental worry. Bathe the lower half of the back, also base of brain, if pain exists, and the bowels, if inactive, with alcohol 'and hot water, equal parts of each. Bathe and rub freely every other night, using only cold water over the parts with a sponge or coarse cloth, then drying thoroughly. Diet. — The diet given here is unlike that usually prescribed for Bright's disease. The most nourish- ing food is selected, that which does not contain sugar or starch, as these ingredients do not give strength but only produce heat, thereby causing inflammation. Bread made from entire Avheat flour, beef, mutton, tongue, oysters, raw or cooked without flour, and all kinds of fish or poultry not cooked or thickened with flour. Lettuce, cucum- bers, onions, asparagus, cold slaw, celery, string beans, sour apples, peaches with cream, straw- berries without sugar, coffee and tea in modera- TREATMENT OF GENERAL DISEASES. 163 tion, milk and buttermilk, are all beneficial. Eat slowly, in moderate quantities, and take as little liquid as possible at meals. Sleep eight hours of the twenty-four. Patients in the last stages of the disease have been perfectly restored to health, under the above treatment, even when able to pass only two thirds of a teaspoonful of urine at a time, which, being set in the sun, would almost entirely coagulate into albumen. DIABETES. Definition. — A constitutional disease charac-' terized by an excessive discharge of pale, sweet and heavy urine, containing grape sugar. Diabetes is a morbid condition of the blood, characterized by an abnormal increase of sugar. In healthy blood, it exists in an extremely minute quantity, and is most abundant a short time after meals. Causes. —Diabetes is considered by most physicians a ner- vous disease, and incurable. There is a defect in the chemical process by which the sugar and starch of the food are appropriated to the nutrition of the body. The natural process is interrupted at the point where grape sugar is produced, and the ex- cess of this substance in the blood is carried off by the kidneys. Treatment. — The same as prescribed for Bright 's Disease: Deep breathing, and hot 1(34 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. baths, concluding by sponging off with cold water, are most important. All diseases of the kidneys are curable under this treatment. The remedies used are, phosphoric acid water, prepared as lemon- ade, for the thirst, and uranium nitricum, third trituration. Give a powder every night. Diet. — The same as for Bright 's Disease. CORPULENCY. Very corpulent people are neither strong nor vigorous, and an excess of this kind should be " treated as an abnormal condition. Causes. — iferedity, excess of sweets, fine flour, sugar, pota- toes, pastry, fats, or creams. Treatment. — Hot baths of all kinds, exercise, moderation in eating, friction over the entire body with a Turkish bath brush, very deep breathing a few minutes, three to four times a day. Diet. — Bread made from the entire wheat flour; beef, mutton, tongue, lobsters, all kinds of fish, oysters, raw or cooked without flour, poultry, all kinds, but not thickened with flour ; lettuce, onions, asparagus, cold slaw, celery, string beans, sour apples, peaches, strawberries without cream or sugar, coffee and tea in modera- tion. Eat slowly, in moderate quantities, and take as little liquid as possible at meals. If constipated, wash the bowels and rectum TREATMENT OF GENERAL DISEASES. 165 every night with cold water. The bowels will regulate themselves after this diet has been adhered to for a few days. Use injections to clear the rec- tum of feces until a natural movement has been restored. LEAN AND NERVOUS PEOPLE. Causes. — Excess of sweets, acids, spices, fine flour, pastry, mental worry, or weak digestion. Thin people having weak digestion are often kept so by the same food which causes others to be cor- pulent. If the starch, butter and fine flour cannot be digested, the system is kept in a feverish, dys- peptic state, and nervousness or consumption re- sults for no other reason than that life is burned out by a diet which only produces heat and does not renew the tissues. Treatment. — Attend well to cleanliness, so as to eliminate all impure secretions that tend to the surface. This aids in purifying the blood and strengthening the muscles. Hot baths are best, such as are directed for corpulency, except that a thin person should use oils very often after a hot bath, rubbing well into the skin, with a piece of flannel or Turkish bath towel, until the skin is dry and soft. This induces a feeling of strength and health. Practice the deep breathing two or three minutes from three to four times daily. Breathing 166 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. too long or too often would over-stimulate the brain, produce dizziness, and sometimes headache. (See Chapter V, "Air as Food.'') Diet.— For lean and nervous people, bread made from the entire wheat flour, cream, butter, milk, graham mush, oatmeal mush with cream or sugar, soups of all kinds, eaten hot at the beginning of a meal, and seasoned with plenty of celery, onions or parsley; light puddings, farina, rice, tapioca, corn starch, with cream or sugar, and fruits of all kinds, with little sugar. Much sugar in a weak stomach is usually converted to lactic acid, creating acidity and heartburn, causing too much acid in the sys- tem, consequently leanness and nervousness. All liquids except soup should be taken between meals. Drink plenty of good water Avithout ice. Vegeta- bles, baked potatoes, boiled spinach, peas, beans, lettuce, cabbage, boiled celery, onions, meats of all kinds, chicken, oysters, fish, eggs, and lobsters. Tea and coffee sparingly. constipation. Causes. — Mental trouble, anxiety, the use of too much fine flour, pastry, the habitual use of purgative medicines, intemperance, lead in the system, tobacco. A tendency to costiveness is not so grave a symptom as many people believe; TREATMENT OF GENERAL DISEASES. 167 indeed, individuals thus predisposed generally live long, unless injured by purgatives, while those who are subject to frequent attacks of diarrhoea are soon debilitated, seldom attaining old age. The common idea that aperients or laxatives contrib- ute to health, and that impurities are thereby expelled from the body, is erroneous. Treatment. — Regular exercise, regular food, and a regular time for the evacuation of the bowels, are extremely important in the prevention and treatment of this disorder. Entire wheat or gra- ham bread should be used exclusivelv. If entire wheat bread cannot be obtained, substitute corn bread, rolled oats eaten raw in milk every morning, and ground wheat and barley mixed, also eaten raw in milk. Drink a glass of water before break- fast. Indian meal mush, with molasses, and ripe fruits and vegetables should form a large portion of the diet. Tea and coffee should be used spar- ingly. Washing the rectum and the entire abdomen every night or morning with cold water and a sponge, I have found to be, for many, an infallible cure. Drink plenty of cold water before and be- tween meals, without ice. If the rectum is full of accumulated feces, remove them with an injection of warm water. If the obstruction be very obsti- 168 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. nate, use castile soap and water. If the symptoms are dull headache, with irregular action of the bowels, itching of the anus, with piles, and sleep- lessness from over-eating, use nux vomica and cas- cara sagrada alternately every hour; if very ob- stinate, take bryonia every two hours. These remedies will also remove the yellow discoloration of the skin. AN INFALLIBLE REMEDY FOR CONSTIPATION. An infallible cure for chronic constipation con- sists in living for a few da} T s entirely upon good, ripe apples eaten at regular meal time, and after that, adding a slice of graham, oatmeal or any of the grain-flour toasts. Any of the ripe, tart fruits are excellent as an occasional change. A man came to me at one time, saying that he was so afflicted with constipation that life had become a misery. He said he had taken such a sea of drugs that it seemed to him his bowels must be dead, and that it was not unusual for an entire week to elapse without an action of the bowels. At that time it had been ten days since he had had a move- ment, and he was terribly distressed. I directed him to get some good apples, eat two or three for breakfast, three or four for dinner, and two or three for supper, with an abundance of not another TREATMENT OF GENERAL DISEASES. 169 thing, this to be continued a day or so, or two or three days at a time. At the end of a week I met him, and, with profuse thanks, he said he had learned a lesson that would lead to. renewed life. How simple is the true way, and how effectual. Another simple method of overcoming; obsti- nate constipation is to take a teaspoonful of pure olive oil before breakfast every morning, until a normal habit is established. Pay attention to diet, and take no liquids during meals. All liquids must be taken before meals, or from one to two hours subsequently. CRAMPS. Cramps are a violent involuntary action of a few of the voluntary muscles. Causes. — Cramps of the muscles of the stomach and bowels are caused by worms, or by indigestible food, poisons or ice water. Cramps of the legs and arms occur in cholera. They may also be produced by exposuie to cold, as in bathing, or may be the result of a de- ficient supply of blood to the parts. Treatment. — Hot poultice — a quart of scalded corn meal and a tablespoonful of red pepper, placed between two flannel cloths and laid over the bowels. If from worms, give cina or santonine, night and morning. 170 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. CHOLERA. SIMPLE CHOLERA. Definition. — An acute catarrhal inflammation of the stomach and intestines. Symptoms.— Nau- sea, vomiting, purging of bilious or watery fluid, thirst, coldness, and sometimes cramps of the legs and abdomen. Treatment. — If there is coldness and prostration, or cold SAveat, give two to three drops of the strong tincture of veratrum viride, one drop in a glass of water ; dose, one teaspoonful every ten minutes. If there is vomiting and purg- ing, give also veratrum alba once an hour. If thirst predominates, give arsenicum 3d. Apply heat to the extremities, also hot capsicum. Prepare poultices of corn meal mixed with boiling water, spread between flannels, and lay over the abdomen and stomach. ASIATIC CHOLERA. Symptoms. — Sudden prostration of strength, coldness of the surface, with great internal heat and thirst, cramps in the thighs, legs, toes and fingers, cold tongue and breath, vomiting and purging resembling rice water. In the advanced stage, the pulse is hardly perceptible, the eyes are sunken, the face is pinched, the voice reduced to a hoarse whisper ; there is extreme restlessness and TREATMENT OF GENERAL DISEASES. 171 thirst, with cold, clammy sweat. For treatment, read Chapter X, "Cure of Disease Made Simple," which contains directions for the treatment and cure of malignant Asiatic cholera. CHOREA. ST. VITUS dance. Symptoms. — Chorea is defined as a nervous disease, the seat' of which is supposed to be at times in the brain, and at other times through the entire nervous system. By degrees, the voluntary muscles of the whole body become affected, the limbs jerk about in every possible direction, and the face is contorted by all sorts of involuntary grimaces, much to the annoyance of the patient. Children between the ages of five and fifteen are most subject to this affection. Treatment. — Plain, nutritious diet. Bathe the bod v in hot water, and ty J sponge off Avith cold. If constipated, give a powder of nux vomica every night. If there is a pale, bloodless condition, give ferrum phosphoricum, first decimal trituration, one grain after every meal. If there are symptoms of coma, give san- tonine. If there is delayed menstruation, give Pulsatilla every morning. COLDS. Treatment. — For muscular soreness and ten- 172 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. derness, headache, cold feet, stiff, sore feeling over entire body, take aconite and bryonia in alterna- tion, wrap up warmly, and promote perspiration. See catarrh, neuralgia and sore throat. CATARRH. If precautions are taken to maintain an in- creased capillary action over the entire surface of the body, until normal and healthy action of the mucous membranes be established, and the treatment repeated with every new cold, catarrh of any kind could not become chronic. If the feet are permanently kept warm by proper dressing, and bathing from two to three times a week, as described in previous chapters, by placing in hot and cold water alternately, from thirty to forty minutes at a time, one of the greatest causes of disease would be removed. Patients who are subject to the use of tobacco, in any form, need never look for a permanent cure or relief from catarrh or disease of any kind until this habit is overcome, and the system rid of the tobacco poi- son. There are numerous nervous coughs that arise from irritation of the mucous membranes of the bronchi and capillaries of the lungs. Give two to three doses of nuxyomica, third trituration, two to three times a day, dry on the tongue, for two or TREATMENT OF GENERAL DISEASES. 173 three days, and the cough readily disappears, but not permanently unless the tobacco habit is dis- continued. With Turkish, or hot baths of any kind, taken twice a week, inducing free perspiration, to eliminate the offending poison of the tobacco from the system, the most obstinate catarrh can be per- manently cured if the treatment is persevered in. Nux vomica is an antidote for tobacco, and the best local and constitutional tonic in the Materia Medica. Deep extra breathing is also an import- ant essential. COLIC. Causes. — Exposure to cold, also indigestion, worms, and lead poisoning. It is distinguished from inflammation of the bowels, in that pressure relieves pain where in inflammation pressure is painful. Treatment. — The hot corn meal and red pepper poultice placed between flannel cloths, and laid over the entire bowels. Wrap the patient warmly, and give a little nux vomica, third attenu- ation, in some water, or twenty-five grains of scrofoloso. (See Chapter XIV, "Electro-Homoeo- pathy.") CORNS. Treatment.— Bathe the feet well until the hard skin is softened about the corn, and apply strong 174 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. nitric acid to the horny centre, with a camel's hair brush. Then take a sharp penknife and peel away the soft, deadened skin. Apply the acid two or three times during the treatment. The acid de- stroys the horny centre. COUGH. Causes. — Taking cold, but is usually a symp- tom of some other trouble, such as bronchitis, dyspepsia, or consumption. It may also result from the use of tobacco, which produces a nervous cough. Treatment. — Cough, with a dry, inflamed throat, requires belladonna, which should be taken as frequently as the severity of the case may re- quire. For dry, hard, painful cough, with stitches in the chest, bryonia should be given. If the cough is caused by irritation, owing to the poison of tobacco, give nux vomica, night and morning. For loud, hollow, ringing cough, give spongia. For short, hacking cough, with tight feeling in the chest, and frothy, rust colored sputa, give phos- phorus three times a day. CROUP, MEMBRANOUS. Symptoms. — Hoarseness and loss of voice, hol- low, ringing cough, or dry, barking cough, often changing to one having a squeaky sound. The hands of the child clutch at the throat with great TREATMENT OF GENERAL DISEASES. 175 anxiety, as if trying to remove some obstruction. Membranous croup never appears the second time. Treatment. — Aconite and kali bichromicum alternated. Keep the child well covered with flan- nel to induce perspiration. CROUP, SPASMODIC. Causes. — Cold feet, exposure to cold. Symp- toms. — The child appears to be suffering from a cold, and at night is awakened from sleep by a sense of choking, loud, harsh breathing, barking, dry cough, with great restlessness and anxiety. Treat- ment. — Give gelseminum, in drop doses, every twenty or thirty minutes. After the paroxysm, give aconite and spongia alternately. Apply hot poultice of scalded corn meal, into which has been stirred one teaspoonful of red pepper. Spread the mixture between two flannels, and apply over en- tire chest. Keep the child wrapped in flannel, to induce perspiration. diarrrxea. Causes. — Usually, the causes are, taking cold, indigestion, or dentition. Symptoms. — Frequent fluid evacuations from the bow r els. Treatment. — If the attack is caused by taking cold, aconite should be given, in connection with a hot foot bath and hot applications over the bowels. If the result 176 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. of indigestible food, mix vomica is the most effi- cient remedy, in connection with the hot local applications. Food should be taken in fluid form, at regular intervals. Corn starch is excellent, as well as oatmeal or farina gruel. When diarrhoea is the result of teething, use chamomile. (See Chapter III, "Care of Children During Dentition.") DIPHTHERIA. Symptoms. — Slight fever, loss of appetite and strength, with some soreness and pain in the throat, also swelling of the glands near the throat. In the first stage, there is only a reddening of the surface of the affected parts, but within twenty- four hours small yellowish white patches may be seen which, in mild cases, loosen and are thrown off in four or five days. In severe cases, these increase in extent and thickness, and assume a grayish color. Strips of the false membrane may be thrown off by coughing, only to be immediately formed again. As the severer conditions set in, the patient becomes restless, this condition being fol- lowed by great prostration. Treatment. — Bella- donna third, and aconite third should be given in alternation, every thirty minutes. The throat should be gargled thoroughly every hour with alcohol (ninety per cent) and water, equal parts. TREATMENT OF GENERAL DISEASES. Ill The water may be either hot or cold. This gargle readily destroys the false membrane. Give very hot baths when the patient is first stricken, also use the foot bath of alternate hot and cold water. Place over the throat a well salted slice of fat pork. DROPSY. Causes. — Dropsy may be induced by chronic or acute disease of the kidneys, or by chronic disease of the liver. Dropsy of the brain or chest, by inflam- mation of the serous membranes. Symptoms. — Dropsy, from disease of the kidneys, may early be noticed under the eyes ; it also begins at about the same time in different parts of the body. It is ac- companied by pain in the region of the kidneys, and scantiness of the urine. If the cause is in the liver, the swelling begins in the cavity of the abdo- men, afterwards commencing in the feet, and work- ing upward in the same manner as in cases of heart, or kidnev disease. Dropsy of the brain is usually confined to chil- dren. Dropsy of the chest is generally the result of chronic pleurisy, as manifested in the swelling of the affected side of the chest. Treatment. — Arseni- cum is one of the best remedies for dropsy of the tissues, from whatever cause. Apis mellifica is the 178 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. best known remedy for acute dropsy arising from disease of the kidneys. Hot baths are excellent ; also bathing and friction over the region of the kidneys, with alcohol. Excite capillary action by wearing a capcine plaster over the kidneys for two days, then remove and nse the alcohol again in the same manner. In this way a healthy action of the kidneys will be restored. Keep the feet warm, and bathe them every other day in hot and cold water alternately. DYSPEPSIA AND INDIGESTION. Causes. — Dyspepsia may be produced by vari- ous causes. It may result from an abnormal con- dition of the nervous system, or from over stimu- lating food or drink, such as mustard, pepper, fer- mented liquors, ice cream, tea or coffee. Worry and anxiety of the mind, or depression of the spirits from any cause, are the principal sources of dys- pepsia. So long as the mind is dull and gloomy, from disappointments in business or love, the effect is the same, — direct oppression of the vital forces. All food becomes poisonous to the system in time, if retained in the stomach until soured and fermented. Sour and fermented food pro- duces sour and acid blood. By the action of blood thus impoverished, the mind becomes per- TREATMENT OF GENERAL DISEASES. 179 manently gloomy, causing chronic dyspepsia. Symptoms. — These complaints are readily recog- nized by the following conditions; namely, ac- cumulation of wind, and formation of acids in the stomach. Patient feels unfit for mental or physical labor; hands and feet generally cold. Want of appetite, or morbid craving for sour, spicy, and acid articles. Gradual failing in flesh and strength. Treatment. — Correct diet is of the utmost importance. Plain food is necessary, with no fluids at meals. Soups and fluids of every kind should be taken before meals, or two hours after. If corpulent or lean, avoid all sweets, and all strong acids. Abstain from a meal frequently, to give the stomach rest. Take hot baths of all kinds, keeping the feet warm by bathing frequent- ly, and wearing thick soled shoes. The remedies for dyspepsia are, nux vomica, subnitrate of bis- muth, and lacto pepsine. Mix, and take two grains after each meal. EPILEPSY. Symptoms. — Sudden loss of consciousness, and motor disturbances in the form of more or less severe convulsions. These attacks recur at irregular pe- riods in the beginning of the disease. Causes. — Hereditary disposition, digestive disturbances. 180 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. over -exertion, and great fatigue. The loss of con- sciousness may be either sudden and complete, the patient being stricken down as if by lightning, or it may be a little more gradual; in this case, the pa- tient, when falling, partly realizes his condition, and endeavors to save himself from injury. Treat- ment. — The patient should be firmly held, or suf- ficiently restrained to prevent self -in jury. After the attack, allow him to sleep as long as possible. Belladonna should be given in the premonitory stage, if there is congestion in the face, or headache. Nux vomica is useful between attacks, to regulate the digestive functions. The Electro-Homoeopath- ic remedies for this disease are giving the best results, curing many permanently. ERYSIPELAS. This disease is caused by exposure to cold, by wounds, or contagion. At first, the eruption is of a bright red color, later assuming a livid hue. There is a constant burning of the skin, and some- times pus is formed and discharged. Treatment. — Yeratrum viride is the specific remedy for this disease. Aconite and belladonna, in alternation, are the best remedies in the early stage. Can- tharis, ten drops in one pint of water, is the best TREATMENT OF GENERAL DISEASES. 181 local application. Wet a linen handkerchief in the lotion and spread over the face. FOREIGN BODIES IN THE EYES. Treatment. — Take one or two grains of ground flaxseed and place under the eyelid. The foreign body will be taken up by the flaxseed as it moves about in the eye. The process is painless. FELON. Causes. — Blows and bruises, or an impover- ished state of the blood. Symptoms. — Loss of ap- petite, with headache, backache, and pain in the limbs. The patient is feverish, and unable to sleep, with flushed face and strong pulse. Treatment. — Dip' the felon in lye water, to keep it soft, or apply a soap poultice. When the part begins to swell, lance it to the bone. Give two grains of silicia, third decimal trituration, three to four times a day. GRAVEL. Causes. — Exposure to cold, extreme fatigue, hereditary tendency, and luxurious living. Symp- toms. — Uneasiness in the back and loins, thirst, a dry tongue, and constipation. Treatment. — Avoid all intoxicating drinks, taking soft or boiled water only. Holland gin, given in water, will aid in dissolving the stone ; chamomile will also have this effect, and tends to prevent its formation. 182 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. GOITRE. Goitre is an enlargement of the thyroid gland, or a thickening of the neck, and is of slow growth. In time this gland becomes enormously swollen, producing shortness of breath, and, in some cases, obstructing the circulation of blood in the brain. Treatment. — Give two grains of spongia three times a day. As external treatment, bathe the neck daily with cold salt water. GOUT. This is an inflammatory disease produced by morbid matter in the blood. Causes.— Luxurious living and the use of intoxicating drinks; also taking cold. Symptoms.— Pain in the small joints, commencing in the great toe, the heel, the knee, the hand, the wrist, or the elbow. Treatment. — Wrap the afflicted parts in cotton batting. Make a liniment of one pint of sweet oil and one ounce of ammonia. Mix, and apply freely. Give colchicum tincture internally, four or five drops in a little water, every hour. Also make frequent use of hot baths. Deit should be light, with no animal food or pastry. hay fever. This is a supersensitive condition of the mu- cous membrane, aggravated by the pollen of va- TREATMENT OF GENERAL DISEASES. 183 rious growths, principally the ragweed. Treat- ment. — Turkish baths, or hot baths of any kind, concluding with cold water. Electricity, scientific- ally applied, is also beneficial. The positive i ole should always be used internally over the highly irritable mucous surface, with a small nasal electrode covered with fine sponge. (See Chapter XIIL "Medical Electricity.") Make the bath, of some kind, a dailv custom. Patients addicted to the use of tobacco cannot be cured unless this habit is discontinued, as the poison of tobacco antidotes any remedy. HEADACHE. Treatment. — When headache results from cold, bathe the feet in hot and cold water, alter- nately. Aconite is the remedy. For periodical headaches, omit food twenty-four hours. Ignatia 3d is the remedy. Headache occurring before •and after menstruation should be treated with mix vomica and Pulsatilla ; if caused by anxiety or ex- citement, give ignatia, third attenuation, in water, every hour. Bryonia will cure a headache which is more painful when the patient moves about. This headache is characterized by irritability. PALPITATION OF THE HEART. The most common disease of the heart is pal- 184 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. pitation, caused by mental troubles, dyspepsia, formation of gases, suppressed menstruation, or an impoverished condition of the blood. If the disease results from mental troubles, give ignatia. If from dyspepsia, nux vomica and Pulsatilla. If caused by worms, give santonine or cina. Pulsa- tilla is the best remedy if the patient is suffering from suppressed menstruation. SYNCOPE OR FAINTING. Causes. — Sudden fright, violent injuries, severe pains, oppressive odors, the presence of indigestible matter in the stomach, loss of blood. Treatment. — Ammonia or camphor held to the nostrils. The patient should be laid flat on the floor, or a bed, and the feet placed first in hot water, then in cold. HEMORRHOIDS OR PILES. Piles are formed by an accumulation of blood in the small branches of the veins. This blood co- agulates, and forms a complete obstruction to the venous circulation. Piles are more common in wo- men than in men, and are produced by habitual constipation, pregnancy, abdominal tumors, in- flammation of the vagina, displacement of the womb, diseases of the bladder, and pin worms in the rectum. Treatment. — Internal and external piles should be bathed daily with cold water. Also TREATMENT OF GENERAL DISEASES. 185 bathe the lower part of the spine. The extended in- testine should be replaced after each evacuation, by the forefinger, well oiled and pushed up the rectum as far as possible. Bathe the parts thoroughly with cold water. Inflammation and swelling can be reduced by the application of very hot water, fol- lowed by cold, and the use of a cold, wet compress at night. Constipation must be avoided. (See ' 'Constipation," this chapter.) HYSTERIA. Hysteria is a disease of the nervous system, al- most confined wholly to females. Usually, the at- tacks are sudden and irregular, though in some cases, periodical. The patient bursts into a fit of weeping, soon to be followed by convulsive laughter. The disease generally makes its appearance before puberty, and is supposed to have its origin in deranged uterine action, also debility and nervous exhaustion. Ignatia is the remedy for nervous exhaustion ; macrotin and Pulsatilla for the men- strual derangement. Exercise, deep breathing and outdoor life are very important. HYPOCHONDRIA. Kead chapter on mental healing. Give ignatia and phosphoric acid prepared as a lemonade. 186 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. INFLAMMATION OF THE BLADDER. Causes— Taking cold, intoxicating drink, cold feet, too long retention of urine. Symptoms — Pain and weight in the sides and lower part of the abdomen. Treatment. —Aconite is the remedy in the first stage, given in alternation with cantharis. Rest in bed is necessary. Apply external heat over the bladder, give mucilaginous drinks, plain food, and see that the bowels are kept regular. PARALYSIS OF THE BLADDER. This occurs more frequently in people of ad- vanced age. Electricity is most effectual in its removal. (See Chapter XIII, "Medical Electric- itw") PERITONITIS. Causes. — Absorption of animal poisons after childbirth, surgical injuries. Ushered in with chills, fever, and small, quick, hard pulse. Also extreme pain, and tenderness of the abdomen. (See Chapter X, "Cure of Disease Made Simple.") INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN, OR MENINGITIS. Symptoms. — Meningitis is characterized by rigors, a hot, dry skin, hard and frequent pulse, hurried respiration, depression of spirits, vertigo, intense headache, loss of appetite, vomiting and constipation. The eyes have a wild expression. TREATMENT OF GENERAL DISEASES. 187 Delirium sets in early, the patient being noisy, violent and restless. These symptoms continue three or four days, after which the fever abates, the pulse flags, the tongue is dry and brown, and the delirium is apt to pass into stupor or coma. In a few days there is extreme prostration, the symptoms resembling those of typhus fever. When the disease terminates favorably, the improvement is gradual . Treatment. — Gelseminum or veratrum viride every half hour. Bathe the feet in hot water, then cold, alternating in this way for thirty minutes, two to three times a day, gradually in- creasing the temperature of the hot water, and de- creasing that of the cold. Also bathe the head in hot Avater, then in cold. In the intervals of treat- ment, keep a wet cloth on the head. Induce free perspiration. The nourishment should be mild, such as lamb broth, and gruels made from the cereals. SOFTENING OF THE BRAIN. Causes. — Imperfect nutrition, alcoholic drinks, tobacco, injuries to the brain, growth of tumors upon the inner surface of the skull. Symptoms. — Similar to those in inflammation of the brain. There is an impairment of the intellect- ual faculties, embarrassment in asking questions, 188 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. melancholy, drowsiness, particularly after eating, impaired vision and hearing, and pricking and twitching of the limbs, sometimes accompanied by pain, or by numbness. In the inflammatory form, the limbs are more frequently the seat of pain- ful cramps, stiffness, and contraction. There maybe nausea, constipation, difficult micturation, and labored respiration, which becomes stento- rious towards the last. A state of coma ensues, which may pass off in a day or two, but only to return and become more profound, until termi- nating fatally. Softening of the brain occurs more frequently after the fiftieth year, although it is pos- sible at any period of life. Treatment.— Turkish and vapor baths, hot and cold foot baths, daily. Rest from mental application is necessary, also abstaining from all liquors. If addicted to the use of tobacco, the habit must be discontinued. Diet. — Select food from that prescribed for lean and nervous people. The best remedies are, phos- phoric acid prepared as a lemonade, and nux vomica, 3d trituration, three times a day. Take plenty of outdoor exercise, and live in an atmos- phere of music and agreeable company. This will assist in maintaining a cheerful frame of mind. TREATMENT OF GENERAL DISEASES. 189 INFLAMMATION OF THE BREASTS. This develops chiefly during the period of nursing. Causes. — Stagnation of the milk within the glands, from taking cold, or external injuries. Symptoms. — Cold chills and rigors, with severe pain in the breasts, which feel hard and congested. Treatment. — Aconite every half hour. Prepare a poultice of flaxseed, adding a tablespoonful of black pepper. Mix thoroughly and spread on a cloth the size of the breast, cutting a hole for the nipple. Soak the feet in hot salt water, and remain in bed, covered warmly, keeping an even heat over the entire body. EARACHE. Causes. — Taking cold, the extension of inflam- mation, as in scarlet fever, chronic catarrh, etc. Symptoms. — Buzzing in the ears, with pain, head- ache, and dullness of hearing. Treatment. — Aconite in the first stage, copious hot douches into the ear by means of a fountain syringe. Also mix a few drops of chloroform with a teaspoonful of cosmoline, place on cotton batting and lay in the ear. INFLAMMATION OF THE THROAT. This is an inflammation of the upper and back portions of the throat. Symptoms. — Pain, swell- 190 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. ing, and a dark red color of the mucous membrane. In the chronic condition, ulcers may appear scat- tered over the surface. Treatment. — Belladonna, 3d attenuation. Gargle the throat with alcohol and water, equal parts, every hour. INFLAMMATION OF THE UTERUS. Causes. — Heavy lifting, tight lacing, and hered- itarv tendency. Symptoms. — Pain in the back, pain in the groin, bearing down pain over the bladder. Treatment. — Perfect rest, lying in a recumbent position. Pulsatilla is the remedy. Hot injections should be used once a week; also electricity scientifically applied. One treatment is often sufficient. For a chronic, inflamed condition, where ulceration and leucorrhoea exist, hot injec- tions twice a week should be taken, using one gallon of water. Sepia and macrotin in alter- nation. Deep breathing must be practiced, and all clothing suspended from the shoulders. JAUNDICE. Symptoms. — Yellowness of the skin and whites of the eyes. Treatment. — Febrifugo No. 1, of the Mattei remedies, hot baths of all kinds, and correct living. SUPPRESSION OF THE MENSES. Causes.— Taking cold, wet feet, mental depres- TREATMENT OF GENERAL DISEASES. 191 sion, general debility. Treatment. — Hot baths, foot baths two or three times a week. Ferrum phosphoricum, first attenuation, three grains after each meal. Macrotin taken in alternation with the iron, for several weeks. Good, nourishing food, and plenty of moderate, outdoor exercise. (See Chapter XVII, "Healing Through the Power of Mind.") PAINFUL MENSTRUATION. Treatment. — Bathe the feet in hot water every other night, for a week before the periods. Give gelseminum at night, two or three doses before retiring, and macrotin two or three times a day, for a week before the appearance of the menses. FALLING OF THE WOMB. Causes. — Self-abuse, general debility, caused by worry or anxiety of mind, incorrect living, falls or strains, weight of heavy clothes on the hips, gar- ters suspended from a band around the waist, or corsets. Symptoms. — Painful and irregular menses, pain in the back and limbs, melancholia, headache, bearing down feeling. Ulcers may be present, from the size of a pea to that of a half dollar. Treat- ment.— Hot douches should be used every other day, and continued during the two weeks following the menstrual flow. If caused by debility, take iron, 192 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. 3d attenuation, three grains after each meal. Also take macrotin every morning. If the result of falls or strains, take one or two applications of electricity, the positive pole placed over the pubes and uterus, negative pole over sacrum. (See Chap- ter XIII, ki Medical Electricity.") If arising from tight lacing and heavy weight on hips, remove the cause and treat as for general debility. Electricity is beneficial in all disorders of the sexual organs, if scientifically applied. If suffering from cold feet, re- store circulation by bathing them frequently in hot water, then in cold. Dissolve a pint of salt in the hot water. Abstain from ice water, ice cream and salt pork. Frequent cheerful company, live much out of doors, work in the garden, and do any and all kinds of light work, in or out of the house. Keep away from all gloomy, despondent people, and from all disagreeable, depressing influences. Make use of deep, abdominal breathing while standing or lying. Train the mind to look on the bright side of things, read cheerful books, and live in an atmosphere of music and sunshine. Bathe and massage the body frequently; that it should be done daily, is almost an absolute necessity. Eat wholesome, digestible food in small quantities. TREATMENT OF GENERAL DISEASES. 193 MILK CRUST. This disease develops on the scalps of teething children. It may be confined to a portion of the head, or it may extend down the neck, or to the ears or eyes. Treatment. — Wash the affected part with boiled water and castile soap, and dry with a soft cloth by pressing gently. Apply small quan- tities of cosmoline on every part affected with the eruption. This will heal and remove the scabs, and ameliorate the itching and burning. Internal- ly, give Count Mattel's scrofoloso, second dilution, every half hour. With the above treatment, milk crust can be cured in two or three weeks. MUMPS. Causes. — Generally, a specific contagion. Symptoms. — This complaint begins with febrile indications, a swelling in one or both parotid glands, and stiffness of the jaws. Mastication and deglutition are painful ; the parts are hot, tender, and painful on pressure. Treatment. — Remain in a warm room, and avoid taking cold. Use hot applications, with two or three doses of belladonna during the day. If the breasts or testicles are swollen, take Pulsatilla night and morning. 194 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. NETTLE RASH. (URTICARIA.) Causes. — Intestinal irritation, caused by eating strawberries, crabs, clams, or mushrooms. Also caused by uterine irritation during pregnancy, by menstruation, or by the introduction of pessaries or flannels. Symptoms. — Spots resembling those produced by the sting of nettles or mosquitoes. Treatment. —Rhus toxicodendron and aconite, in alternation. The diet should be free from any substance which might produce the disorder. NAUSEA, OR VOMITING. Causes. — Eating improper food, inflammation of the kidneys, pregnancy, overeating, indigestible food, scarlet fever, small-pox, intermittent fever. Treatment. — Drink a tumbler of hot water to expel the offending substance, and abstain from all food for twenty-four hours or more. Use an injec- tion of warm water in the rectum, to remove all accumulated fecal matter. Rest, and do nothing else, until the disturbance abates. neuralgia. This is a functional disorder of some particular nerve. Physiologically, an irritation in the course of one or several sensory nerves. Causes. — Heredi- tary predisposition, malaria, exposure to cold, thinness of the blood. Treatment.— For con- TREATMENT OF GENERAL DISEASES. 195 stitutional debility, enrich the blood, and excite its circulation with hot baths. Iron phosphate, third attenuation, is the remedy. Keep the feet warm. Diet. — Bread made of whole wheat flour, eggs, vegetables, oatmeal at breakfast, and fruits. In- dulge in plenty of pure air, and omit fluids at meals. NERVOUSNESS. Treatment.— If caused by general debility, nux vomica is the best remedy, in connection with hot baths. If by mental anxiety, read chapter on mental healing. If the cause is disease of the uterus, use hot injections, two or three times a week. Pulsatilla and helonias, night and morning. Dys- pepsia is one of the greatest sources of debility, causing various degrees of nervous disturbance. Remove the cause by eating with great precaution only such food, in small quantities, as is easily digested. DISEASES OF THE NOSE. General observations. — An habitually pointed nose denotes derangement in the mesenteric glands of the bowels, and general atrophy. When the nose becomes suddenly pointed in children, it de- notes an impending spasm. A thick, swollen nose indicates inflammation, if accompanied by pain, heat and redness, or scrofula; rachitic diseases. 196 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. If the nose becomes suddenly pointed during the act of parturition, it indicates internal hemorrhage, complete exhaustion, or threatening convulsions. The pointed nose of a nursing mother indicates her complete unfitness for that office. When ob- served during severe illness, it is always a grave symptom, indicating extreme exhaustion and collapse. A heavy motion of the nasal win^s during respiration is a sign of impeded respiration, due either to asthma, pneumonia, croup, dropsy in the chest, or incipient paralysis of the respira- tory muscles ; also utter prostration. Circumscribed redness of the point of the nose, cheeks, and forehead, with paleness and coldness of the other parts of the face, denotes, in pneumo- nia, that suppuration has taken place. A coppery, shining redness of the root of the nose, is a sign of existing syphilitic ulcers within the nose. An habitually cold nose is found in disordered states of the abdominal viscera, in dropsical com- plaints, and in chlorosis. A grayish, lead-colored nose is found in dropsy of the chest and pericardium, in induration of the lungs, and in some malignant forms of typhoid fever. TREATMENT OF GENERAL DISEASES. 197 Single, lead-colored stripes on the nose have been observed in obstruction of the portal vein. A bluish color of the nose is found occasionally in apoplexy, croup, diseases of the lungs, heart, and larger blood-vessels; in short, in all morbid conditions which cause stagnation of the blood. Brownish, yellowish spots on and over the nose, in the form of a saddle, usually indicate a diseased liver, or chronic leucorrhoea. "A blackish fur at the base of the nostrils, is found in typhus epidemic, dysentery, cholera, in fact, in any condition of great prostration." — Cow- perthwaite. SEASICKNESS. Phosphoric acid, six drops in a glass of water, taken daily, is a prevention or cure of this com- plaint. Eat sparingly the first two or three days, or until the system becomes accustomed to the swaying of the boat. Vomiting. — This is generally the result of over- loading the stomach, and requires no treatment. Ulcers and skin diseases respond readily to the Electro-Homoeopathic treatment. Give scrofo- loso, number one, second dilution. In very severe skin diseases the third attenuation is preferable. CHAPTER XII. MATERIA MEDICA. Homoeopathic remedies are prepared in the form of pills, powders and liquids, differing in degrees of strength. A close, when prepared as a powder, is an amount that can be held on a three cent piece; when prepared as pills, from five to six every hour, and in the form of a liquid, five to six drops in half a glass of water. In the latter case, give one tea- spoonful every twenty or thirty minutes. The fre- quency with which medicine is administered de- pends entirely on existing conditions. In chronic diseases, give from one to three doses a day. In acute diseases, remedies are given more frequently, every thirty or sixty minutes, or every two hours, according to the severity of the case. In regard to the strength of the medicine, the third attenuation is generally preferred of the vegetable remedies. Of the mineral compounds, such as iron, arsenicum, phosphates, silicia, sulphur, carbonates of lime, phosphates of lime, mercury, bromides, etc., the sixth attenuation is preferable. In the following pages are given diseases and their indications, with the corresponding remedy most needed. MATERIA MEDICA. 199 ACONITUM NAPELLUS. This remedy is used in the first stage of fevers and colds, also for restlessness, hysteria, vertigo, fulness in the head, and early stages of inflamma- tion of the eyes. There are usually roaring sensa- tions in the ears, with anxious, frightened expres- sion of countenance, and sensation of distention in the face ; dryness of mouth, with bitter taste, burn- ing thirst, and painful hiccough ; vomiting, with heat and thirst, painful inclination to urinate, hoarseness, expectoration of bright red blood, stitches in chest, cough, palpitation of the heart, with great anxiety and restlessness. This remedy is most frequently used in those diseases where the so styled antiphlogistic treatment — blood letting, etc., — would be the method employed. In inflam- matory fevers, such as the fever accompanying meningitis, bronchitis, pleuritis, pneumonia, peritonitis, metritis, cystitis, rheumatism, hepati- tis, enteritis, croup and catarrh, it is, in the first stages, a standard remedy. .ESCULTJS HIPPOCASTANUM. (HOESE CHESTNUT.) The symptoms indicating a necessity for this remedy are as follows : the patient is gloomy, low- spirited, irritable, is troubled with flushes of heat over occiput, neck and shoulders, giddiness, and 200 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. itching* over left eye. Pale, miserable appearance. Tongue coated white or yellow, with thick, yellow- ish phlegm in mouth. Taste sweet, bitter, metallic. Tongue feels as if scalded. Violent vomiting, burn- ing distress in the stomach, pressure, as from stone, in pit of stomach. This remedy is especially needed where there is dry, uncomfortable feeling in the rectum as though filled with small sticks. Sore- ness, burning, itching and fulness at anus. Hem- orrhoids the size of ground nuts, purple and pain- ful; sensation of burning; obscure vision, aching and lameness, or shooting pains in back. Constant backache, affecting sacrum and hips, aggravated by walking, and stooping forward. Therapeutic Range. — Congestion of the liver, constipation, dys- pepsia, gastralgia, prolapsus ani, hemorrhoids, leucorrhoea. AILANTHUS, (TREE OP HEAVEN.) Therapeutic Range. — Low, adynamic forms of disease, indicated by sudden and extreme prostra- tion, stupor, vomiting, purplish appearance of the skin, such as is observed in malignant scarlatina and other eruptive fevers ; typhoid fever, cerebro- spinal meningitis, tape-Avorm. Symptoms. — Semi-consciousness, inability to comprehend what is said. Eyes suffused and con- MATEBIA MEDIC A. 201 gested ; startled look when aroused ; pupils dilated and sluggish. Copious, thin, ichorous and bloody discharge from the nose. Face red and hot, covered with a rash. Teeth covered with sordes, tongue dry, parched and cracked. Throat livid and swollen, tonsils prominent and often ulcerated , external neck swollen. Throat dry and rough. Thirst for cold drinks. Breathing hurried, irregu- lar, heavy. Eruption of rash on face and forehead. APIS MELLIFIOA. Therapeutic Range. — Ailments arising from stings, iodines, abuse of cinchona, turpentine, cantharides. Also given in typhus and intermit- tent fevers, strangury and dropsy. Symptoms. — Stupor, interrupted by piercing shrieks. Absent mindedness; headache with vertigo. Patient lies in torpor. Delirium, with sudden shrill cries. Grinding teeth and burying head in pillow ; urine scanty, and of a milky appearance. E # yelids, ears and nose red and much swollen. Sensation in the toes and whole foot as if too large. General feeling of lassitude with trembling. Carbuncles with burn- ing, stinging pains. Great desire to sleep. ARNICA. Therapeutic Range. — Bad effects, even amounting to inflammations, from mechanical 202 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. injuries, falls, bruises, contusions, compound frac- tures, etc. ARSENICUM. (ARSENIC.) Therapeutic Range.— Effects of poisoning due to decaying or morbid animal matter, taken into the system byinnoculation, inhalation or swallow- ing. General dropsy of thoracic or abdominal cav- ities ; intermittent fevers, especially after abuse of quinine, typhoid and hectic conditions ; inflamma- tion of mucous membranes; diarrhoea; dysentery; chorea; epilepsy; paralysis, or bad effects from tobacco chewing. BRYONIA ALBA. White Bryony. Tincture and Trituration of Root. Useful when following symptoms or diseases are present : — Delirium; restlessness in sleep, and great excite- ment over the affairs of the day. Sharp stitching pain in chest, with inability to take a deep inspiration. Stitching, tearing pain, aggravated by motion. Constipation; stools hard as if burnt. Motion of jaws more or less constant, as if chewing something; lips dry and cracked. (Ty- phoid fever.) MATERIA MEDIC A. 203 Intermittent fever; chill commences on lips, tips of fingers or toes ; great thirst. Desire for things which cannot be had, or which are refused when offered. Frequent bleeding of nose when menses should appear; vicarious menstruation. Pain or diarrhoea, aggravated by every hot spell of weather. Puerperal fever ; swelling of the breasts. Lochia suppressed, with headache, especially in forehead, as if it would burst; worse on motion. In hydrocephalus, child throws left leg about. Patient feels as though he were sinking down in bed. Dry mouth and lips ; drinks large quantities of water. Sitting up in bed causes nausea and faintness. Thirst for warm drink, which relieves. Headache in forehead , extending backward and down the neck, shoulders and back. In typhoid fever, the patient resists being moved. Pneumonia ; typhoid fever. Wry neck — inability to move the head on ac- count of pain and stiffness. BELLADONNA. Deadly Nightshade. Tincture of whole plant. Violent throbbing of carotids. 204 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. Taking' cold from every draft of air when un- covering the head ; complains of taking cold after cutting the hair. Desire, with inability, to sleep. Furious delirium; strikes, bites, howls, wants to jump out of the window, or get away from im- aginary objects. Pains come suddenly, and go just as suddenly. Feeling in back as if it would break, hindering motion. Photophobia; dilated pupils ; injected eyes. Pain in throat when swallowing, especially when taking liquids. Pressure as though all the contents of the ab- domen would issue through the genital organs; felt particularly early in the morning. Vertigo, when stooping, or rising from stoop- ing position, with tendency to fall backward or to the left. Desire to escape, with restlessness and nervous excitement. Delirium; frightful figures and visions before the eyes. Spasmodic pains ; throbbing headache. Rush of blood to head and face. The acute symptoms of this drug have a strik- ing resemblance to those of hydrophobia. MATERIA MEDIC A. 205 COLCHICUM. Meadow Saffron. Tincture. Pressure in the head, especially in the occiput, and deep in the cerebellum. Scanty discharge of dark, turbid urine, with tenesmus and burning. Heart disease following rheumatism. Tearing pains in muscles and joints, numbness and pricking of hands and feet. Rheumatic pains in the legs, extending to toes. Gouty rheumatism in the small joints. CACTUS. (COMMON NIGHT-BLOOMING cereus.) Heavy pressure in the head, as if a great weight lay on the vertex. Sensation of constriction in the heart, as if an iron band prevented its normal movement. Oppression of respiration in going upstairs. Difficulty in breathing. Continued oppression and uneasiness, as if the chest were constricted with an iron band. Palpitation of the heart; irregularity of the heart's action, which at times is rapid, and at others slow. Coldness in back and icy cold hands. Acute and chronic affections of the heart. 206 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. CALENDULA. An excellent application for open wounds, burns and ulcers, also useful as injections for ulceration of womb. CINA. Variable appetite, desire for sweets, digging, boring sensations in the nose, peevishness, white and bluish tint around the mouth, grinding of the teeth at night, great hunger soon after eating, gagging cough in morning, after rising. Convulsions, child suddenly becoming stiff, gurgling noise, as though water were being poured out of a bottle, from the throat to the abdomen. Itching of the anus. DROSERA. Round-leaved Sundew. Tincture of Plant. Whooping cough, worse after midnight; feeling as of constriction in larynx, chest, and hypochon- driac region; cough worse after drinking; vomiting, first of food, then of mucus. Clergyman's sore throat, where constrictions exist; constriction and crawling sensation in larynx; cough aggravated by warmth and a recumbent position. Cough comes in violent paroxysms at intervals of about four hours. MATERIA ME DIC A. 207 Deep, hoarse, bass cough, with strangling. VERATRUM ALB. White Hellebore. Tincture of Root. Neck too weak to hold up the head; particu- larly in children with whooping cough. While in bed, face is red; after getting up, it becomes pale. Despair of salvation ; suppressed catamenia. Chilliness on top of head as if ice were lying there. Dysmenorrhea with vomiting and purging, or exhausting diarrhoea with cold sweat. During wet weather, pains in the limbs, getting worse in warmth of bed, better Avhile walking. Cold sweat on forehead. [Have seen apparently hopeless case of croup cured when the cold sweat on the forehead was the guiding symptom.] Cholera morbus, vomiting and purging at the same time. One of the chief remedies in cholera. VERATRUM VIRIDE. American Hellebore. Green Hellebore. Tincture of Root. Dangerously high temperature. Reduces tem- perature from 104° to 102° in a few hours. Patient trembles, jerks, and seems as if going 208 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. into convulsions. Convulsions after scarlatina, with dilatation of pupils, and sleeplessness. Continual jerking or nodding of the head. Cerebral congestion, with a tendency to con- vulsions in children. Great activity of arterial system. Puerperal mania following convulsions. To be given in all conditions where there is rapid pulse, very high temperature, or a tendency to erratic, convulsive movements. THUJA. Arbor Yitse. Tincture. America. Ill humor and depression ; weariness of life. Diarrhoea daily, after breakfast; at times pain- less, at others with colic. Stool bright yellow, watery ; expelled forcibly, with much noisy flatus ; gurgling, as water from a bung hole. Fig warts. Wart-shaped excrescences here and there, es- pecially on hands and genitals. Sycotic affections. Syphilitic herpes, and obstinate chancres. Gon- orrhoea. Warts. Profuse night-sweats, staining the clothes yellow, as if saturated with oil. Persistent sleeplessness. MATERIA MEDIC A, 209 SULPHUR. Brimstone. Flowers of Sulphur. Trituration and Tincture. Heat in the soles of the feet, or cold feet, with burning soles ; patient wishes to find a cool place for them, or puts them out of bed. Patient dislikes to be washed. Heat on top of head; flushes in face; feet cold. Hot Hushes with spells of faint ness, or passing- off with a little moisture and faintness or debility. Irresistible drowsiness in the daytime, and wakefulness the whole night. Patient feels suffocated ; wants doors and win- dows open. Burning in the vagina ; patient is scarcely able to keep still. Very red lips, particularly with children. Both the flow of urine and the discharge of feces are painful to the parts over which they pass. Diarrhoea some hours after midnight, or early in the morning. Weakness in the chest during the evening while lying down. Comedones ; black pores of the skin, particular- ly in the face. Sick headache periodically; once a week, or once in two weeks ; heat on vertex. 210 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. Voluptuous itching; scratching relieves ; burn- ing afterward. Stooping position while walking or sitting. Gone, empty feeling in stomach about eleven A. M. Hemorrhoids; with itching. One of the best remedies for scrofula. STAPHISAGRIA. St a vesacre . Tinct are . Styes, nodosites, chalaza? on the eyelids, one after the other, sometimes ulcerating. Sensation as of a round ball in the forehead, firmly fixed, even when shaking the head. Drowsiness during the day, sleeplessness at night ; body aches all over. Cough only in the daytime, or only after din- ner, particularly after eating meat. Too much dwelling of the mind upon sexual subjects. Teeth turn black, or show dark streaks run- ning over them ; gums ache. Every attempt to eat or drink causes beltyache and tenesmus ; dysentery in summer. Very peevish; throws or pushes things away indignantly. Itching of the margin of the lids. MATERIA ME DIC A. 211 Affections of glands and bones ; scrofulous and scorbutic affections. Painful swelling of glands. Swollen gums, ulcerating, spongy; bleeding when touched. SPONGIA. Sponge. Tincture and Trituration. Thyroid gland swollen and hard, with suffoca- tive attacks at night. Goitre. Pressing, painful swelling of the testicles; pinched, bruised, squeezing pain in the testicles. Spermatic cord swollen and painful. Sensation of obstruction in the larynx, as from a plug, with impeded respiration; incessant cough, low in the chest, where there is a sore pain. Cougli dry, barking, hollow and croupy, or wheezing and asthmatic. Dry cough day and night, with burning in the chest. Cough worse from lying with head low ; better after eating or drinking; croup. Dyspnoea and great weakness in chest ; inabili- ty to talk after slight exercise. Burning, sore pain in chest and bronchi, with rawness in the throat when coughing. 212 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. Excellent for children and women, especially those having light and lax skin and muscles. The action of spongia closely resembles that of iodine. SEPIA. Juice of Cuttlefish. Trituration. Yellow saddle across the nose; also yellow spots on the face. Pain and bearing down in the uterus ; crossing the limbs to prevent protrusion. Unpleasant feeling of lump in rectum; constipa- tion of pregnancy. Aversion to occupation; indifference to family ties ; irritable and easily offended ; memory weak ; uterine troubles. Putrid urine, depositing a pinkish sediment which adheres tenaciously to vessels. Great loss of the hair. Very irritable, fretful, and easily offended. Excessive appetite, or no appetite at all. Itching eruption in the bend of the elbow. Swelling and heaviness of the feet, with offen- sive perspiration ; coldness and heaviness of the hands and feet. Sensitiveness to cold or cold air. M ATE EI A ME DIC A. 213 SILICEA. Flint. Silicious Earth. Trituration, Ailments following vaccination, as abscesses, etc., even convulsions. Great costiveness, immediately before and dur- ing catamenia. Increased menses, with repeated paroxysms of icy coldness over the whole bod}'. Want of vital warmth even when taking exercise. Yielding mind, faint-hearted, anxious mood. The head is wet from sweating, particularly at night ; patient likes wrapping up. Foot-sweat, with rawness between the toes; also complaints after checking it. Inflammation and closure of the lachrymal duct. Difficult expulsion of soft stools, they seeming to slip back. Scrofulous subjects, with great coldness of body and sweaty feet. RHUS TOX. Poison Oak. Three-leaved Ivy. America. Tincture. Lameness, stiffness and pain on first moving after rest, or on getting up in the morning; relieved by continued motion. Complaints after getting wet in a rain while overheated. Mumps on left side. 214 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED, A dry, teasing* cough, coming on first before the chill, and continuing during the chill, in inter- mittent fever. Pains as if sprained ; ailments from spraining, straining, or lifting, particularly from stretching arms high up to reach things. Putting the hand from under the bed covers brings on the cough. Restlessness at night ; obliged to change posi- tion frequently. Soreness as if beaten in the hypochondriac re- gion, and still greater soreness of the abdomen; *\vorse on the side on which the patient lies ; worse when turning, and when beginning to move. Aching in left arm, with disease of the heart. Bh e u ma t ic pa ra 7 \ r sis . Muscular rheumatism of left side ; sciatica, left side. PULSATILLA. Wind Flower. Meadow Anemone. Germany. Tincture. Mild, gentle and yielding disposition; is sad and desponding; weeps about everything; can hardly give symptons on account of weeping. Menstrual colic, with great restlessness; tossing in every possible direction ; catamenia too late and MATERIA ME DIC A. 215 scanty, or suppressed, particularly by getting feet wet. Thirstlessness with all complaints ; rarely vio- lent thirst. Stomach disordered by eating cakes, pastry, and rich food, particularly fat pork. Coryza, fluid or dry, with loss of smell and taste; sore nostrils, later a yellowish green dis- charge. Wandering pains shifting rapidly from one part to another; also with swelling and redness of joints. Wetting the bed ; particularly by little girls. Believed in the open air, worse on retiring to a close and warm room; feels sick on entering a warm room. Bad taste in the mouth, especially early in the morning; nothing tastes good, or no taste at all. Diarrhoea, with varying stools ; no two stools alike. Fat food disagrees, and is so obnoxious that the mention of it disgusts. All evil results through menses becoming ir- regular from getting feet wet. PODOPHYLLUM. Mandrake. May Apple. Tincture. Prolapsus ani with stool, or from least motion. Faintness, with sensation of emptiness in 216 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. abdomen, after stool; frequent, painless, watery, gushing, fetid stool, with mealy sediment; mixed with mucus, offensive. A ets specially upon the liver and digestive tract. Morning diarrhoea, with green, bilious evacua- tions. Depression of spirits. Morning headaches, with heat in vertex. Giddiness and dizziness with sensation of ful- ness over the eyes. Offensive odor from the stomach. Tongue coated ; foul taste. Dryness of the throat. Loss of appetite. Depleted feeling in stomach. Desire for something sour. Great thirst for large quantities of water. Continued jaundice, with gall stones. Alternate diarrhoea and constipation; stools frequent and painless. Green, yellow, watery, sour, undigested feces, mixed with mucus, offensive. Pain under rio-ht shoulder blade. PHOS. ACID. AcUhun Phosphoricum. Phosphoric Acid. Tincture. Quiet ; perfectly indifferent. Incapacity for thought. MATERIA MEDIC A. 217 Disinclination to talk ; answers questions reluc- tantly. Involuntary stools, thin, whitish gray. Frequent and debilitating emissions. Weakness of sexual organs, with little sexual desire. Great weakness and prostration, especially in the morning. Lascivious dreams. PHYTOLACCA. Poke. Pigeon Berry. Garget. America. Tincture. Throat sore ; fauces congested, and of a dark red color ; dryness of throat ; tonsils swollen. With every attempt to swallow, excruciating pain through both ears. Acts specially on the glandular system; also acts prominently on the periosteum and skin. Sensation of soreness deep in brain ; sore pains over the head, worse on right side. Chalk-like sediment in the urine. Syphilis, primary and secondary, chancres on penis. Menses too frequent and too copious. Bleeding hemorrhoids, diarrhoea of mucus and blood, or resembling scrapings from the intestines. Urine acid and albuminous. 218 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. Nipples sensitive, cracked and excoriated. Rheumatic pains in arms and hands. Ulcers and nodes on legs. Great exhaustion and prostration. Pains always more severe at night. Bright's Disease, ulcerated sore throat, rheu- matism. Diphtheria, swellings and suppuration, espe- ciall}^ mammary congestion. Mativitis. PHOSPHORUS. Tincture and Trituration. Constipation, the feces being slender, long, narrow, dry, tough and hard like a dog's, and voided with difficulty. Slight wounds bleed much; hemorrhagic dia- thesis. As soon as water becomes warm in the stomach, it is thrown up. Dry, tickling cough in the evening, with tight- ness across the chest; expectoration in the morning. Frequent diarrhoea during cholera time; gushes forth as from a hydrant ; no control over sphinc- ter ani. Tall, slender women. Pain in the chest with coughing, relieved by external pressure ; cough worse when going from a warm room into the cold air. MATE EI A ME DIC A. 219 Trembling of the whole body while coughing. Inability to talk on account of pain in larynx. Threatened softening of brain. Phthisis. Pneumonia. Brain fag. NUX VOMICA. Poison Nut. Quaker Buttons. Hindostan. Tinct- ure and Trituration. With very particular, zealous, careful persons inclined to get excited and angry, or of a spiteful, malicious disposition. Inability to keep from falling asleep in the evening hours before bed-time. Nose running during the day ; at night stopped up. Patient awakes at 3 A.M., lies awake for hours with a rush of thoughts ; falls asleep in the later morning with troublesome dreams, and rises more tired than in the evening. Frequent and ineffectual desire to defecate, or passing small quantities of faeces at each attempt, with a feeling as if evacuation was not complete. Hypochondriasis, afflicting studious men, sit- ting too much at home, with abdominal complaints and costiveness. Dyspepsia. Head feels distended ; headache of drunkards ; 220 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. food lies like a stone on stomach; much sour belching. Bad effects from sedentary habits, coffee, rich food, late hours, etc. NITRIC ACID. Aqua Fort is. Aqueous Solution. Sensation as of a splinter in the throat; used after abuse of mercury. Yery strong smelling urine, like horse urine. Hemorrhage from the bowels in typhoid and other diseases. Secondary and tertiary syphilis, after abuse of mercury. Hemorrhage after abortion or confinement, with violent pressure, as if uterus were coming out at vulva; with pain in small of the back, through the hips, and down the thighs. LYCOPODIIM. Club Moss. Germany. Trituration. All symptoms worse from 4 to 8 P. M.; pain in back relieved by urinating ; red sand in the urine. Sudden repletion in dyspepsia. Much rumbling of wind in left hypochondriac region. Dyspepsia. Chill from 4 to 8 P. M. MATERIA ME DIC A. 221 Violent rheumatic pain, especially about the chest, threatening the heart, when characteristic symptoms exist. Pale, dirty, unhealthy complexion ; child cries before urinating. Diaper stained reddish yellow, sometimes red sand on diaper. Sense of satiety after eating very little. Fan-like motion of alae nasi. LILIUM TIG. Tiger Lily. North America. Tincture. Flabby, weak, atonic condition of uterus and ovaries; dragging-down feeling, better from pres- sure below ; pain going from one groin through to the other, then down the leg. The heart feels as though it were pressed be- tween two flat, hard substances; the pain ceases, begins again, and again ceases. A full, distended feeling in all parts of the body. Headache running up back of head ; feeling as if going insane. Frequent urination during the day, and con- tinuous pressure on the bladder. Constant desire to urinate, with scanty dis- charge. Frequent burning and smarting in the urethra. 222 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. Sharp, quick pain in left side of chest, with fluttering of the heart. Also useful in all ovarian irritations or dis- placements. LACHESIS. Trigonocephalus Lachesis. Brazil. Trituration of Virus. Hemorrhoids ; especially in drunkards, and in women at the climacteric, with pain darting up into the rectum every time they sneeze or cough. Always worse after sleep; great mania and loquacity ; suspicious ev^en of friends. Typhoid fever ; whites of eyes orange colored ; trembling of the tongue, which catches on the teeth when protruded. Extreme ia tolerance of pressure about the ab- domen ; clothes feel too tight. Diphtheria, beginning on the left side and ex- tending to the right; dark, purplish appearance of throat, with stringy, mucous discharge; intoler- ance of the least pressure about the throat. For all troubles at climacteric period, lachesis has no equal. Suddenly something runs from the neck to the larynx, and interrupts, breathing complete^; wakens patient at night. (Spasm of the glottis.) MATERIA MEDIC A. 223 Uterus does not bear contact, and has to be relieved of all pressure; frequent lifting of the clothes, they causing uneasiness in abdomen. Chills at night and flashes of heat by day. Much pain of an aching kind in shin bones. A tormenting, constant urging in the rectum, not for a stool. Catamenia at the regular time, but too short and feeble, Pains in uterine region ; increase at times more and more till relieved by a flow of blood from the vagina; after a few hours or days the same again, and so on. Ulcers, carbuncles, boils, etc., when they present a dark, purplish appearance. IPECACUANHA. Ipecac. South America. Tincture and Trituration. Stools grassy green, with nausea and griping ; pinching pain about the umbilicus. Great nausea with all troubles. Metrorrhagia; blood bright red and continual- ly flowing; great nausea. Phlegm rattling in chest, sometimes vomited up in young children. Distressing feeling in the abdomen, as though the stomach Avere hanging down relaxed. 224 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. Stools as if fermented, green -as grass, with nausea mid colic. Stooping causes patient to vomit. During hemorrhage from the womb, patient breathes heavily. Backache; short chill; long fever; principally heat with thirst, headache, nausea, cough and sweat. With every movement a cutting pain, almost constantly running from left to right. Vomiting, sweating, thirst, with bad breath. NAUSEA. KALI BICHROMICUM. Bi-Chromate of Potash. Trituration. Diphtheria; tough, stringy, ropy mucus; patch- es dotted here and there on tonsils ; pain shooting up into the ear. Headache in frontal sinuses; biting pain on bridge of nose ; better from pressure. Bladder-like appearance of the uvula with much swelling, but very little redness. Leucorrhoea, stringy, ropy. All secretions from mucus membranes are ropy and tough ; whooping cough, with tough expecto- ration. MATERIA ME DIC A. 225 Expectoration of much thick, tenacious mucous in the morning. Pale, yellowish complexion ; tongue smooth, red and cracked. Complete loss of appetite. Vomiting of a thin, pinkish, glairy fluid, sour, indigestible bile. Dysentery; stool consisting of brown, frothy water, or bloody, with painful pressure, urging and tenesums. Pain in coccyx while sitting. Great dryness of the nose; dryness of the mouth. Bones feel bruised. IGNATIA AMARA. St. Ignatius' Bean. Philippine Islands. Tritura- tion. Silent, suppressed grief; spasmodic laughter and grief. Patient is full of grief. Frequent involuntary sighing, with sensation of goneness or emptiness in pit of stomach. Headache increased when smoking tobacco or taking snuff, or from being where another is smok- ing. During the chill, thirsty; external warmth 226 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. pleasant; during the fever heat, no thirst; external warmth very unpleasant. Spasmodic affections of children consequent on being put to bed soon after punishment. Headache as if a nail were driven through the side of head ; relieved by lying on it. Amiable disposition if feeling well, but disturbed by every slight emotion. Patient seems to be weighed down by suppressed grief ; broods over imaginary troubles. Ailments from grief, or suppressed mental suf- ferings. Bad effects from disappointed love ; also from the use of tobacco. HEPAR SULPHUR. Calcarea Sulph urate . Li ver of Sulph ur. Sulph uret of Lime. Trituration. Fetid diarrhoea, the child smelling sour; sour exhalation from body. Stomach inclined to be out of order; longing for sour or strong tasting things. Extreme sensitiveness of skin to cold air, the least exposure causing cough. Croupy, choking, strangling cough, brought on by exposure to dry west winds. (Aeon.) MATERIA ME DIC A. 227 Ulcers have a bloody suppuration, smelling like old cheese. Sensation as of a fish bone in the throat. Cannot bear to be uncovered; coughs when any part of the body is uncovered. Sweats day- and night without relief. Unhealthy skin ; boils, carbuncles. Croup, with choking, strangling cough. GRAPHITES. Carburetum Ferri. Plumbago. Black-lead. Trituration. Eruptions; oozing out of a thick, honey-like fluid, especially behind the ears. Burning, circumscribed round spot on top of the head. Unhealthy looking skin; every injury suppu- rates and throws out a honey-like fluid. Mastitis in all cases where there are many old cicatrices from former ulcerations; milk can scarce- ly flow. Phlegmonous erysipelas of head and face, with burning, tingling pain. • Constipation; stool slarge, difficult and knotty. Unwholesome abscesses, with constipation, es- pecially in young females having too much un- healthy adipose tissue. 228 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. Tinea and eczema-capitis in children, when there exudes the peculiar honey-like fluid. GELSEMIUM. Yellow Jessamine. Carolina Jessamine. America. Tincture. Fever without thirst ; patient wants to lie still; inflamed tonsil on right side. "Goose flesh" over whole body. Cerebro-spinal meningitis; head drawn back and to one side. Vertigo, with dim vision; tongue feels thick and numb — as if paralyzed. Muscular paralysis and spasms, with wave-like sensation from uterus to throat. Headache on right side; pain over right orbit, with flushed face and injected sclera. Diarrhoea, caused and aggravated by every little excitement. Trembling, paralytic weakness, especially of the lower limbs ; motor paralysis. FERRUM. Metallic Iron. Trituration. • Menses occur too soon and are too profuse; ringing in the ears; fiery red face; menses intermit, and are very pale. MATEBIA MEDIC A. 229 Diarrhoea, more severe in the morning; dis- turbed sleep before midnight. Ashy pale or greenish face ; with pains or other symptoms, the face becomes bright red. [Have cured intermittent fever when these face symptoms were prominent.] Severe frontal headache, with cold feet. Loss of the hair. Cadaverous, earthy complexion . Blue rings round the eyes, which are dull and lusterless. Voracious appetite. Great weakness and prostration; very easily fatigued. Skin pale, yellow, dirty, withered, flabby. Restless sleep at night. Roaring in the ears. Passive congestion of female organs, uterine displacements, chlorosis in scrofulous patient, sup- purative stage of tuberculosis, scrofulous affec- tions generally. CANTHARIS. Spanish Fly. Tincture. Scalds and burns. Intense sexual desire ; nymphomania. Much burning in throat and stomach. 230 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. Stools like scrapings of intestines; shreddy, red or white mixed with blood, with burning and biting pain when urinating. Constant desire to urinate, passing but a few drops at a time, which is mixed with blood. Tenesmus vesicae after urinating. Violent burning, cutting pains in urethra before, during, and after urination. Pain in the loins, kidneys, and abdomen, with such intense pain on urination, that the patient cannot pass a single drop without moaning. Especially useful in acute cystitis, nephritis and inflammatory strangury. Also in Bright's Disease, ovaritis, sterility, and inflammation of serous membranes. CALCAREA PHOS. Phosphate of Lime. Trituration. Slow formation of bones. Delayed closure, or reopening, of fontanelles; child cannot hold up its head. Children lose flesh ; will not stand; do not learn to walk ; slow dentition. Osteo malachia. Fistula in ano. Weakness and distress in the region of the uterus, worse during passage of stool and urine. Flabby, shrunken, emaciated children. MATERIA MEDIC A. 231 CALCAREA CARB. Carbonate of Lime. Trituration. Children with dry and flabby skin, large open fontanelles, and profuse perspiration which wets the pillow far around the child's head. Patient delicate in general; walking produces great fatigue; vertigo on ascending a height or going upstairs; easily becomes out of breath, and is obliged to sit down. Feet feel as though clothed with cold, damp stockings ; continually cold in bed. Despairing mental condition, hopeless of recovery. Menses occur too often, are too profuse and lasting; difficult to stop menstruating. The least excitement causes menses to return. Very sensitive to least cold air, which seems to go through and through the patient. All objects appear as if seen through a mist. Bad dreams and horrid visions when closing the eyes. Leuco-phlegmatic condition of scrofulous women. Great longing for eggs, particularly in children when sick or convalescent. Patient fears insanity, or that people will observe and believe him to be insane. 232 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. Cannot endure tight clothing around the hypo- chondria; the head and upper part of the body sweat profusely. Children self-willed ; inclined to grow fat. Scrofulous ulcers, chorea, epileptiform convul- sions, etc., of scrofulous origin. CACTUS GRANDIFLORUS. Night Bloomimg Cereus. Tincture of Flowers. Feeling as though an iron hand were around the heart, preventing its normal action. Hypertrophy, rheumatism, and palpitation of the heart. Palpitation of heart day and night, especially when lying on left side. Heart feels as if clasped and unclasped repeat- edly by a strong hand. Congestion in the chest which prevents lying down ; palpitation, constipation. Acute and chronic affections of the heart. MACROTIN. Snake Root. Disordered menstruation, leucorrhoea, hysteria, rheumatism. Pains in the back and loins, dragging sensa- tion in the lower part of the bowels. MEDICAL ELECTRICITY. 233 Delay or suppression of the menses; pains in the top of the head. TARTAR EMETICUS. Tartar Emetic. Catarrh, bronchitis, asthma, pneumonia, diar- rhoea and small-pox. Nausea, watery diarrhoea, accumulation of loose mucus in the windpipe and bronchial tubes. CHAPTER XIII. MEDICAL ELECTRICITY. On this subject, Daniel Clark, A. M., says : "In the present stage of electric science, the con- viction has become very general among experiment- ers that galvanism, magnetism, faradism, Mo- tional electricity, and the electricity of the storm- cloud are, in their essential nature, one and the same thing, being diversified in appearance and effects by the different modes and circumstances of their development. This conclusion has been reached in various ways, chiefly, perhaps, by ob- serving the many analogies between the phenom- ena of these several forces, and also by the fact that each of them can be made to produce, or be produced by, one or more of the other. There are two phases of the electric principle which are not 234 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. generally classed here. I refer to the forces of animal and vegetable vitality. Of the animal, I regard the nervous fluid, or nervous influence, popularly so called, as being the very principle of animal vitalization— the life force— and a modifica- tion of the electric forces. It is, I think, generally considered that the nervous influence is electric. "There are some alleged facts which go far to sustain this view. It is said that if a steel needle is transfixed into a large nerve of a living animal, and allowed to remain in that position a sufficient length of time, the needle becomes permanently magnetic. So, too, if the point of a lancet be held for some time between the severed ends of a newly divided larger nerve, that point becomes magnetic, "But the fact on which I chiefly rely for evi- dence of this identification, being almost daily conversant with it in my practice, is this: The nervous influence obeys the laws of electrical polar- ization, attraction, and repulsion. "When I treat a paralyzed part in which the nerve is suspended, to all appearance, I have but to assume that this force is electric and apply the poles of the instrument accordingly, and bring it in from the more healthy parts, along with the in- organic current from the machine. MEDICAL ELECTRICITY. 235 " Forcing conduction through the nerves by- means of the artificial apparatus, I rouse the sus- ceptibility of the nerves until they will normally conduct the nervous influence, or electro-vital fluid, and the paralysis is removed. Again, if I treat an inflamed part in which the capillaries are gorged with arterial blood, I have but to assume that the affected part is overcharged with the electro-vital fluid through the nerves and arterial blood, and so apply the electrodes, according to well-known electrical modes, as to produce mutual repulsion, and the inflammatory action is sure to be re- pressed. This is so perfectly regular and constant that I am entirely assured, before touching the patient, what sort of effect will be produced by this or that arrangement in the application of the poles of the instrument. If I desire to increase or depress the nervous force in any case, I find myself able on this principle to produce the one effect or the other, at will. Hence, I say the nervous influence obeys the electric laws just as does the inorganic electric- ity. The author of my principles and practice says: 'We find this subtle agent not only in the nerves, but also in the muscles and blood, more especially in arterial blood: indeed, it seems to pervade more or less the entire solids and fluids of the animal system.' 236 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. "Vegetable vitality is another modification of the electrical force. The fact has been proven by re- peated experiments that galvanic currents, passed among the roots of plants, cause a development almost incredible to any one who has neither seen nor heard its rationale. I have seen it stated that by this process lettuce leaves may be grown within a few hours only, from the size of a mouse's ear to dimensions large enough for convenient use upon the dinner table. The following experiment has been related by Judge Caton, of Ottawa, 111., and subsequently confirmed by his brother, Deacon Win. P; Catori, of Plainfield, in the same state. It is said that the Judge had some choice ever- greens which appeared to be affected by unhealthy influences, causing a suspension of growth, and a withering of branches here and there, until such branches died. So the process went on, terminating finally in the death of the tree. In this way he lost some valuable specimens. At length a very fine and favorite tree was similarly attacked. He, of course, annoyed at the destruct- ive process, and especially reluctant to lose so fine a specimen of evergreen, called to mind something analogous to what I have referred to, and resolved to try the efficacy of galvanization in re-inforcing MEDICAL ELECTRICITY. 237 the vitality of the shrub. Having a telegraph wire extending from the main line, in Ottawa, to his residence, he availed himself of this facility and caused the wire to be passed among the roots of the tree in such a way as to bring the galvanic cur- rent to act upon them. It was not long before he observed, to his delight, a new foliage starting from the twigs, and after a little time the tree was again flourishing in all its beauty. "To insure the success of such experiments, proper regard must be given to polarization. This may not have been the case in the example just related, but if not, the Judge must have stumbled upon the correct application of the poles, as to have brought the roots under the influence of the wrong pole would have been fatal to the tree. Now, if taken by themselves, such experi- ments could not be regarded as conclusive in favor of the electric nature of vegetable vitality, notwith- standing that this theory best explains the phe- nomena : yet, when considered in connection with the fact that the nervous fluid of the animal king- dom is evidently a modification of electricity, and probably constitutes the vital force of the animal, the theory of its identification under another modification with the vital principle in the vege- 238 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. table kingdom also, as deduced from experiments like those just mentioned, receives strong confirm- ation, and is now, I believe, being adopted by the best philosophers of the age. When we have settled upon the position that the electricity of the heavens and that of the artificial machine are identical, and their identity essentially one with galvanism, magnetism, the electro-vital fluid of the animal, and the life force of the vegetable king- dom, it requires no extravagant imagination, nor remarkable degree of enthusiastic credulity, to suppose that all forms of physical attraction and repulsion are manifestations of the same all-per- vading agent — electricit}'. I feel no hesitation in expressing the belief that electricit}^, in one phase or another, and controlled only by the will, is the grand motive power of the universe. "It is fast becoming a generally received opin- ion among modern savants, that every body in nature is really magnetic, more or less, and that all visible or sensible changes are but the result of changing poles. Chemical affinities and revulsions are believed to be only the more delicate forms of electrical attractions and repulsions : the ultimate particles of matter, no less than matter in masses, being subject to the control of electrical laws. The MEDICAL ELECTRICITY. 239 imponderable agents, light and caloric, under the ingenious tests of scientific scrutiny, are beginning to give some very decided indications of being- simple electric phenomena. Indeed, the doctrine or theory that supposes caloric to be simply atomic motion is even now being generally accepted by the scientific world, and also the theory that motion in the atoms of a body which causes in us the sensa- tions of heat is probably electric motion. And per- mit me to observe that, though the operations of nature seem at first thought to be wonderfully complex and mysterious, yet if the views here pre- sented be correct, the marvel is changed to a pro- found admiration of the simplicity of the means by which the Almighty conducts His material operations. 14 A single agent made to perform processes so infinitely numerous, diversified and apparently complex. How amazing! Simplicity in complex- ity : majestic, like the mind of God! PHILOSOPHY OF DISEASE AND ITS CURE. "Every disease is either pret era atur ally posi- tive or negative. You will bear in mind that all acutely inflammatory or hypersthenic affections are electrically positive in excess, having too much vital action, being overcharged with the electro- 240 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. vital fluid: and that all paralytic diseases, or those of a sluggish, zoodynamic character are electrically negative, possessing too little vital fluid. By a universal law of electricity, positives repel each other: but positive and negative attract. "This is a principle of electric action universally admitted where the subject is at all understood. We apply it practically to therapeutic purposes. Therefore, when I wish to repress or repel the in- flammation which is electrically positive in excess, I place the positive pole to it, or at least bring it under that half of the circuit with which the posi- tive pole is connected, and as near to the pole as possible. And because two positives repel each other, and also because the direction of the current is from the positive to the negative pole, carrying the electro-vital fluid with it, either I must with- draw the positive electrode, orthat excess of electro- vitality in the diseased part which makes it mor- bidly positive, and thus produces inflammation, must give way. I will not withdraw the positive, therefore the positive inflammation must retreat and be dispersed. In treating this case, I will place the negative electrode either on some healthy part, or if there be perceptible anywhere in the system a morbidly negative part, as is often the case, I place the negative there. MEDICAL ELECTRICITY. 241 "For example, if I am treating nephritis, when I do not perceive any part to be abnormally nega- tive, I manipulate with the positive pole over the inflamed kidney, having the negative electrode placed at the coccyx. The positive pole repels in- flammation from the kidney, or rather expels from it that excess of electro- vital fluid which makes it morbidly positive, while the negative pole attracts the same toward the coccyx. On its way it be- comes more or less distributed to adjacent nerves, or, if gathered in the healthy parts under the nega- tive pole, it is immediately dispersed by the normal circulation as soon as the electrode is removed. "But if I find a spinal irritation, say in one or more of the cervical or dorsal vertebrses, and at the same time a stomach affected with chronic dyspepsia, accompanied with constipation of the bowels, I will work over the irritated or inflamed spine with the positive pole, because I know from its irritation that there is an excess of electro-vital fluid making it improperly positive, and with the negative electrode I will at the same time treat the stomach and bowels and liver, because I know from the inaction of these organs that there is a lack of vital force — they are too negative. Adopt- ing this method, I accomplished two objects in the 242 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. same treatment : first, the positive pole applied to the spinal disease repels from it the excess of electro-vital fluid, which is there doing mischief. Second, the negative attracts the same, along with the artificial or inorganic electricity, to the stomach and wherever else it is wanted, since nega- tives attract positives. "But suppose I do as the majority of physi- cians who use electricity without regard to polar- ity. That is, if treating acutely inflamed eyes, apply the negative pole to the eyes, thinking there- by to make them more negative, or, if treating amaurosis, apply the positive pole to the affected part, thinking thereby to make it more positive. Do you not see that by the fixed laws of electricity I necessarily increase the evil I am seeking to rem- edy ? Do you not see that by placing the negative pole upon the already overcharged and inflamed eyes, I attract to them yet more of the electro- vital fluid, increase their positive condition and aggravate the inflammation, and that, by present- ing the positive pole to the eye already more or less paralyzed, I repel what little electro-vitality they possessed, and so make the nerves more nega- tive and dead? And yet, I repeat it, this is pre- cisely the plan of nearly all those who use electric- MEDICAL ELECTBICITY. 243 ity in therapeutic practice without any regard to polarization — directly antagonistic to science and success. But the great mass of physicians who attempt to treat electrically have no knowledge either of the electrical conditions of the various forms of disease, or of the distinctive and peculiar effects produced by either pole of the artificial cur- rent, consequently, their use of this powerful agent is entirely empirical; merely hap-hazard experi- ments. "I may have raised an inquiry a few moments since, which ought to be answered. I said that in treating a positive disease, such, perhaps, as in- flammatory rheumatism, or acute pleurisy , I would use the positive pole on the inflamed parts, and the negative pole on either some healthy part or on a morbidly negative part, if I could find such. So, too, I would treat a negative disease, such as amaurosis, or torpidity of the liver, with the nega- tive pole, placing the positive upon some healthy or morbidly positive part. The query may have arisen : by placing the one pole or the other upon a healthy part, do you not derange the normal electro-vital action there, disturbing its healthy polarization? I answer, yes, for the time being, I do ; and if this disturbing force were steadily con- 244 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. tinued for any length of time, the disturbance would produce manifest and serious disease. But then a pole placed on a healthy part Ave generally move, or ought to move, more or less every mo- ment, which prevents the establishment of any per- verted action in the part, and the moment the electrode is withdrawn the normal polarization and health v action are resumed. "Relaxed and atrophied conditions should be carefully observed in this treatment. An atrophied muscle or organ becomes soft and flabby from lack of nourishment. But this condition is not proper- ly one of relaxation. It is a diminution, a thin- ning out of atoms by wasting without replenish- ment. Such a condition is negative, and requires treatment under the negative pole. On the con- trary, relaxed parts, such as appear in prolapsus uteri, and in the sagging down of the diaphragm, thoracic and abdominal viscera, exhibit no lack of nutrition or of vital action. "Relaxation is a loosening of atoms from each other, more or less without loss of aggregate weight, and implies a condition electrically positive in excess, requiring treatment with the positive pole." CHAPTER XIV. PRINCIPLES OF ELECTRO-HOM(EOPATHY. The efficiency and superiority of small doses of medicine in curing disease, when applied according to the law of similars, is a fact that can no longer be disputed. A drug able to produce fever will also destroy it when introduced into the body in attenuated doses. Homoeopathy, by applying this principle, has continually obtained remarkable results. Electro-Homoeopathy is a new step in developing and perfecting Homoeopathy. It excels Hahnemann's discovery in simplicity and relia- bility ; its remedies also gaining greater curative power through the peculiar manner in which they are prepared. The word electro (or electric) is suggestive of the prompt action of the remedies, and distinguishes them from those of the regular Homoeopathic Pharmacopeia. The discoverer of the new method is Count Cesare Mattei, of Italy, who, like Hahnemann and Eademacher, starts from the true principle that every disease is caused by vitiated fluids in the system, and that a cure can only be obtained if directed against those altered fluids, lymph and blood. Every disease is produced 246 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. bythe vitiated condition of the blood or lymph, or both. Whether the immediate cause be germs or noxious gases, etc., is of minor importance so far as the treatment is concerned, because the remedies act on the blood, lymph; or nerves, and enables the organism to disengage itself from the morbid principles causing the abnormal condition. Conse- quently, there are three principal remedies, each including different potencies, a few auxiliary reme- dies, and the fluid electricities. — Electro-Homoeo- pathic Guide. Electro-Homoeopathy is a revolution in medi- cine. It is the medicine of the future, for many so called incurable diseases can be radically cured by this means; certainly not in the very last stages, but even then relief will be given, and perhaps a cure obtained. That "there is no remedy for death" is certainly true, but there is no reason why man should succumb to so many diseases heretofore considered incurable. THE ELECTRO-HOMOEOPATHIC REMEDIES. DOSES AND METHOD OF ADMINISTRATION WHEN PRE- PARED AS PILLS. We here give general indications as to the doses of the remedies; absolute rules cannot be given, since constitutions vary infinitely; numer- PRINCIPLES OF ELECTRO-HOMEOPATHY. 247 ous exceptions may occur which must be left to individual observation. The ordinary dose, for internal use, is fixed at one pill of the first dilution, daily. The second dilution is better adapted to many cases, especially those of women and all persons exceptionally sensitive. In addition to one pill of the first dilution, given in water, from 10 to 20 pills are given dry, either of the same or another remedy ; in the last case alternating it with the first remedy dissolved in water. The third dilution is only given in extremely violent cases, such as hysteria, epilepsy, typhus fever, etc. Dilutions. The first dilution is obtained by dissolving a pill in a pint glass of drinking water ; also called the first glass. To make the second dilution, take two tea- spoonfuls of the first, put it into a second pint glass, which is to be filled with pure water. This is the second glass. The third is prepared in like manner by taking a teaspoonful of the second glass. The remedy is taken by teaspoonfuls in such manner as to finish the prescribed quantity during the day. 248 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. It must be remembered that the dose should be diminished in proportion to the gravity or violence of the disease, and that the more the dose is weakened, the more frequently the teaspoonfuls should be administered. Thus the first dilution would be taken, for an intermittent fever, by exhausting the glass in 15 or 20 doses; for typhus, a teaspoonful of the second dilution would be given every five or seven minutes. External Use. — The pills are used externally in different ways ; namely, in baths, compresses, unctions and gargles. To medicate an ordinary bath (soft water), dissolve 100, 150 or 200 pills in a glass, sepa- ratelv, then add this solution to the bath. For compresses and gargles, dissolve 20 pills in an ordinary glass of water. For unctions, dissolve 5 pills in a little water ; add a spoonful of oil or lard without salt, and mix thoroughly. Electricities are also used for baths and gargles. The proportion is three TABLE-SPOONFULS of ELECTRICITY for the BATH, and 8 to 10 drops for a gargle. The compresses should be renewed three times daily, or oftener, according to the effect produced. It should not be PRINCIPLES OF ELECTRO-HOMEOPATHY. 249 necessary to repeat that the external action of the PILLS IS THE SAME AS THE INTERNAL. As the disease diminishes, doses should be given less frequently, and the first dilution should be administered instead of the second, for the reason that the remedy, following the law of simi- lars, acts Homoeopathic-ally. Individual sagacity must do the greater part in regulating the larger or smaller dose required. We have observed how colic and dysentery were cured, and threatening paralysis averted by giving the patient a solution of one pill of scrofo- loso 1 in a table-spoonful of water every three minutes. In grave cases, from forty to fifty pills must be given in a glass of water. Dr. Cricca in Smyrna, and M. Schmid in the Hotel Kosa cured patients suffering from the most malignant fevers, declared hopeless, by giving forty to sixty little pills of febrifugo 1, and forty drops of white or blue electricity. The following rules, compiled as the result of long experience, should be carefully read: I. If the wrong remedy is used, it has no effect ; if, on the contrary, it produces aggravation, the remedy is correct, but the dose must be lessened until no aggravation is produced. 250 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. II. The effects of a remedy are not doubtful ; they are certain, provided the remedy is directed to a disease included within its sphere of action. Con- sequently, if, after giving several spoonfuls, no effect is observed, or if, in spite of the diminution of the dose, there is still aggravation, it may be concluded that the remedy is not specific for the malady. The aggravation in such cases is tem- porary, not dangerous. The patient may feel it in different ways. III. The diet should be healthy and sufficiently nourishing. Powerful acids, such as vinegar and lemons, must be avoided in grave maladies. IV. The remedies should not be mixed ; com- presses and unctions of two different remedies should be made successively. V. In complicated diseases, when several reme- dies are used, they must always be given separately. ELECTRO-HOMCEOPATHIC REMEDIES AND THEIR USES. Anti-Scrofoeoso 1 (also called in abbrevia- tion, scrofoloso 1, ) has the widest sphere of action of any of the remedies. It is the specific for scrofula, and for most cutaneous diseases, especially erup- tions. It is the best remedy for gout, itch, scabies, scurf, cavies, rachitis, consumption, morbid fatness, PRINCIPLES OF ELECTEG-HOMEOPATHY. 251 atrophy, inflammation of the eyes, deafness, convulsions, (if originating from the lymph) asthma, ischias, cataract, polypus, mania, staphy- loma, catarrhal angina, diphtheria, granular sore throat, chronic inflammation of the tonsils, gas- tritis, gastric ailments of women, seasickness, indigestion, vomiting, loss of appetite, gastralgia, ascites, with general dropsy dependent on organic abdominal disease, diarrhoea, obstinate constipa- tion, marasmus, glandular swellings, disorders of the urinary and generative system, kidney disease, diabetes, coxalgia, articular rheumatism, hysteria, epilepsy, fainting, boils, carbuncles, all kinds of skin disorders, erysipelas, ulcers, fistulas, whitlow, all kinds of eruptive fevers, megrim, neuralgia in the head, disorders of the eye, ear and nose, chronic coryza, and all disorders dependent on anaemia. Taken daily with a beverage, during meals, it induces sleep, appetite, strength, and is a pre- ventive of disease and infection. Scrofoloso 2; (abbreviated scrof. 2, or S. 2.) also called scrofoloso nuovo. Specific for gastric and rheumatic fevers, (with febrifugo 1) loss of hair, megrim, hysteric neural- gia, nervous and chronic dyspepsia, goitre, gland- ular swellings in the neck, catarrhal cough, croup, 252 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. hoarseness, chronic venereal disorder, (with ven- ereo) paralysis of the hands, sciatica, cramp in the legs. Scrofoloso 2 must not be taken for an attenu- ation of scrofoloso 1 ; quite to the contrary, it is a different remedy, composed of special constituents. THE ANTIANGIOITICOS. Angioiticos cure all disorders arising from a vitiated state of the blood, irregular circulation, etc. It modifies, corrects and regulates the blood, restores it to a healthy state, and eliminates the morbific poisons which impede its circulation. Vitiation of the blood is indicated by palpitation of the heart,violent beating of the arteries, vertigo, rush of blood to the head ; loss of blood from the nose, stomach, anus, urinary organs, etc.; coldness of the extremities, corns, warts, varices. Antiangioitico is therefore generally used in apoplexy; in swelling, inflammation and beating of the arteries; in heart diseases, dropsy of the spine or pericarde, in diseases of the chest and kidneys, loss of sight, congestion, chlorosis, deranged menses, constipation, dysentery, paraly- sis, etc. Angioitico 1. (ang. 1, or A. 1) has a special action in all disorders of bilious and nervous PEINCIPLES OF ELECTRO-HOMEOPATHY, 253 constitutions, inflammatory fevers, typhoid fever (with febrifugo), neuralgias, cerebral congestion, congestive headache, encephalitis, meningitis, in- flamed eyelids, acute and phlegmonous sore throats, quinsy, nervous asthma, pleurisy, c nvul- sive cough, spitting of blood, acute inflammations of the generative organs, metrorrhagia and too copious menstruation, metritis, cystitis, menstrual colic, rheumatic and gouty inflammations with swelling. A specific for paralysis, if caused by defective circulation. Angioitico 2. (ang. 2, A. 2) is used for all dis- orders of the circulation, of the heart, veins and ar- teries ; for congestions, varices, aneurisms, hemor- rhoids, hysteric disorders arising from deficient vitality in the uterine system, articular rheuma- tism, epilepsy, jaundice, (with febrifugo) inflamed ulcers, metritis, metrorrhagia, sciatica, enteritis, pneumonia, pleurisy, hoemoptysis. A specific for piles or hemorrhoids. Angioitico 3. (ang. 3, A. 3). — Most effective in cases of alteration of the blood ; also for nervous affections. Used in chronic skin disease, nettle rash, (with scrofoloso 5) congestions, sunstroke, hem- orrhagic apoplexy, paralysis, gastritis, enteritis, constipation with sanguine temperament, ulcera- 254 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. tion and cancer of the stomach, (with canceroso) asthma, quinsy, chronic laryngitis, acute and chronic pneumonia, acute bronchitis, uterine cancer, etc. THE CANCEROSOS. The remedies of this group have a special action against all diseases which reach such a point that they resist the action of the scrofoloso medicines. Canceroso 1 (can. 1, c. 1). Remedy for diseases of the lymph and for cancer. Treatment with the cancerosos must begin with this remedy. It acts especially on scirrhus cancers, white swelling, glands, polypi, inflammation of the ova- ries, all troubles of the womb and on leucorrhcea. A single grain in a glass of water hastens and allevi'ates deliver}^. Canceroso 1 is also used in the following disorders : scirrhus and other cancer- ous conditions of the breast, cancer of the stomach, tongue, shin, nose, lips, uterus, etc.; white swellings, spasms, fainting spells and hysteric attacks, disorders of pregnancy^ uterine cramp, leucorrhoea, dropsy, ascites, w T asting disease in children, inflam- mation of the rectum, induration of the liver, (with febrifugo) phthisical symptoms, granular laryn- gitis, ulcerative or granular throat, diphtheria, PRINCIPLES OF ELECTRO-HOMEOPATHY. 255 all kinds of lung diseases, scurvy, mumps, spinal disease, cerebral congestion, acute and chronic gas- tritis, typhoid fevers, (with febrifugo) diabetes, and disorders of the generative system in both sexes. THE FEBRIFUGOS. Febrifugo 1 (feb. 1, f. 1). Specific in all kinds of fever, intermittent, periodic of all types, remit- tent; also specific for neuralgia, etc. Febrifugo cures all disorders of the liver and kidneys, acute and chronic spleen diseases and hypochondriasis. Febrifugo 2 (feb. 2, f. 2). Very efficient in all cases of fevers and affections of an intermittent type, and diseases of the liver and spleen; is always associated with febrifugo 1 in the diseases for which that remedy is required; it is adminis- tered in unctions and compresses to the abdomen and hypochondria. Sometimes it is used internally in obstinate cases which resist the action of febri- fugo 1. VENEREO. Antivenereo (ven.), subdues every kind and stage of syphilis, being also its preventive. Also used for all forms of venereous (syphilitic) disease. THE VERMIFUGOS. Vermifugo 1. (verm. 1). There are two verm- ifugos, each efficient in removing all varieties of 256 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. worms and suffering therefrom ; the small thread- worm, the long round-worm, the tape-worm, etc. The proper dose is the 2d attenuation ; should it prove inefficient, take from 5 to 40 pills in a glass of water. Vermifugo 2 (v. 2), as unction on the abdo- men, groins and the flanks. Yellow electricity, 15 drops before breakfast, is a powerful remed,y for worms. FLUIDS HAVING ELECTRIC QUALITIES. Red Electricity, (elec. red, or el. r.) — Having positive action. Yellow Electricity, (elec. yell., or el. y.)— Having negative action. White Electricity, (elec. wht., or el. w.)— Having a mixed action ; is always beneficial. Blue Electricity, (elec. bl., or el. bl.) — Posi- tive, especially adapted to angioitic and asthmatic persons. Green Electricity, (elec. gr., or el. gr.) — Negative, for cancerous wounds and rheumatism of the joints. CHAPTER XV. CAKE OF AND COOKING FOE INVALIDS. The most important condition necessary to the maintenance of health, and the first requisite toward recovery of the sick, is perfect ventilation. A sunny exposure, an open fire, and in summer an open fireplace, are the greatest aids. Under all circumstances, keep the air pure in the sick-room. Cut flowers should not be suffered to remain any length of time; as soon as their first freshness is gone, remove them. The presence of carbon in the room, due to the wick of a lamp being turned too low, or to any cause whatever, is to be avoid- ed as a deadly poison. Keep all medicines away from the sick-room, or out of the range of sight and smell. Place the bed where all danger from draughts may be avoided, and always protect the patient's eyes from the direct rays of sun or lamp light. Frequent change of pictures and new arrangement of draperies and furniture is beneficial. It is of the utmost importance that all bed -linen and clothing should be changed very frequently; it should be washed and sunned thoroughly, previous to using. 258 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. Sweep the floor with a damp broom to prevent dust rising, or remove dust with a damp cloth. Allow no idle curiosity seekers to enter a sick-room; neither should a noisy person, of loud speech and manner, be admitted. An easy, natural, quiet manner in the attendants arouses a feeling of security and assurance in the patient. Wines and liquors of all kinds are generally injurious to the sick, especially when young, and in all fever cases. The most important requisite in a sick-room is a suitable nurse. DIET FOR INVALIDS. In fevers, but little nutriment is needed other than something light to quench thirst. Heating foods are especially injurious. The following reci- pes are excellent for use in the sick-room. FLOUR OR ARROW ROOT GRUEL. Mix two teaspoonfuls flour in a little cold water, add one saltspoonful salt, then stir all into one cup boiling water; cook five minutes, or until of a proper consistency. Add a little sugar if desired. If patient has summer complaint, a half inch stick cinnamon, or a little nutmeg boiled with gruel, is excellent. Flour and starchy gruels are not good for patients suffering from typhoid fever. CARE OF AND COOKING FOR INVALIDS. 259 MILK PORRIDGE. Two dozen raisins quartered, two cups milk, one table-spoonful flour, salt to taste. Boil raisins in water twenty minutes. Allow the water to boil away and add the milk. When it boils, add the flour rubbed to a thin paste with a little cold milk. Boil eight or ten minutes, and season with a little salt. Adding the beaten white of one egg after the porridge comes from the stove, improves it. BARLEY GRUEL. Boil one ounce of pearl barley a few moments to cleanse it. Pour off the water, add a quart of cold water, a half teaspoonful of salt ; simmer to one half, and strain. Excellent for fevers and gastric inflammation. INDIAN MEAL GRUEL. One teaspoonful flour, two table-spoonfuls corn meal, one teaspoonful salt, one quart boiling water. Mix flour, meal, and salt, working into a thin paste with a little cold water. Stir into boil- ing water, and boil thirty minutes, stirring fre- quently. Thin with milk or cream. Corn meal is heating, and not good where there is fever. OATMEAL GRUEL. Two table-spoonfuls oatmeal, a pinch of salt, 260 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. one quart boiling water. Boil one hour and serve with milk or cream. FARINA GRUEL. One table-spoonful Hecker's farina, one tea- spoonful salt, one cup boiling water, one of milk. Cook all together except the milk, for fifteen min- utes, or until it thickens, then add the milk and boil again. Farina is a preparation of wheat and very healthful. CRACKER GRUEL. Four table-spoonfuls powdered cracker, one cup boiling water,, one cup of milk, and a little salt. Boil up once and serve fresh. EGG GRUEL. The yolk of one egg beaten well, one teaspoon- ful sugar, one cup hot milk, white of egg beaten to a foam. Flavor with nutmeg or lemon. Good for cold if taken very hot after retiring. PANADA NO. 1. One cup stoned raisins, one quart water, two slices toasted bread, or one cup bread crumbs, two eggs, one table-spoonful sugar. Boil the raisins one hour, skim them out, then add bread to the boiling water. Boil fifteen minutes, stirring well. Beat the eggs, adding sugar, and pour the panada CARE OF AND COOKING FOR INVALIDS. 261 over them, stirring constantly. No. 2. — Split two fresh graham crackers. Put them into a bowl, sprinkle with a little sugar and cover with boiling water. Slip them out and serve with a lit- tle cream. No. 3. — Boil one table-spoonful cracker crumbs five minutes in one cup boiling water, slightly sweetened, and flavored with lemon or strawberry. OATMEAL MUSH FOR INVALIDS. One cup granulated oatmeal, pinch of salt, one scant quart boiling water. Put meal and salt in a double boiler, pour over them boiling water and cook two or three hours. Remove the cover just before serving and stir slightly with a fork, allow- ing steam to escape. Serve with sugar and cream. Baked apples, apple sauce, and apple jelly are deli- cious eaten with the oatmeal. They should be eaten with the mush, the cream being poured over both mush and fruit. INDIAN MEAL MUSH. One cup corn meal, one cup cold milk, one pint boiling water, salt to taste. Mix meal and salt with cold milk. Stir this gradually into boiling water. Cook half an hour in a double boiler, stir- ring often. 262 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. GRAHAM MUSH. Mix half cup graham flour and half teaspoonful salt into thin, smooth paste, with a little cold water. Stir into one pint of boiling water, and cook twenty minutes, stirring frequently. Serve with cream. Rye mush is excellent made in the same manner, eaten also with sugar and cream. BRAIN FOOD. (HEALTH FOOD CO.) Wet one cup of entire wheat flour in a little cold water and stir into one quart of salted boiling- water. Cook over hot fire one to two hours. Eat hot or cold, with sugar and cream. RICE WATER OR JELLY. Two table-spoonfuls rice, one quart cold water, salt and sugar to taste. Pick over and wash the rice and cook in water one hour, or until the rice is dissolved. Add a little salt and sugar to taste. If desired for jelly, add lemon juice and strain into a mold. When cold, serve with sugar and cream. If to be used as a drink, add more hot water, mak- ing a thin liquid, and boil longer with a half square of stick cinnamon. Strain, and serve hot or cold. Rice is good in diarrhoea and disentery, being easily digested and assimilated. CARE OF AND COOKING FOR INVALIDS, 263 TAPIOCA JELLY. One fourth cup pearl tapioca, one pint cold water, one table-spoonful lemon juice, one heaping table-spoonful sugar, salt to taste. Pick over and wash the tapioca, add the cold water, and cook in a double boiler until entirely dissolved. Then add the salt, lemon juice and sugar. Turn into a mold, and when cold, serve with sugar and cream. Half cup strawberry, blackberry or raspberry jam, or currant jelly, may be used instead of lemon, with- out loss of quality. IRISH MOSS JELLY. One half cup Irish moss, one pint boiling water, one lemon, one third cup of sugar. Soak the moss in cold water until soft, pick over and wash again, then put into the boiling water and simmer until dissolved. Add lemon juice and sugar, and strain into a mold. Currant jelly, instead of lemon, is good, or four or five figs steeped with moss is ex- cellent. The use of Sea and Iceland moss is recom- mended in rheumatic diseases, as they contain bro- mine and iodine. RESTORATIVE JELLY. One half box gelatine, one cup port wine, one table-spoonful powdered gum arabic, two table- spoonfuls lemon juice, three table-spoonfuls sugar, 264 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. two cloves. Put all these ingredients together in a glass jar and cover closely. Place the jar on a trivet in a kettle of cold water, heat slowly and the mixture will dissolve. Stir well and strain. Pour into a shallow dish and when cool, cut into small squares. Good for aged or weak persons. GUM WATER. One ounce clean gum arabic and half an ounce of sugar, dissolved in one pint boiling water, with juice of one lemon. Add lemon juice after other articles are dissolved, and strain all through a fine strainer. This is soothing in inflammation of the mucous membrane. TOAST WATER. Toast one pint of white or brown bread crusts very brown, but be careful not to burn. Pour over them one pint of cold water, and let stand for one hour. Strain, and add cream and sugar to taste. CRUST COFFEE. Pour one pint of boiling water over two slices of brown bread, or white bread toasted. Steep" ten minutes and strain. Add sugar and cream to taste. CORN TEA OR RICE COFFEE. Brown one cup of dried sweet corn or rice; pound or grind fine. Add one pint of cold water, and steep one hour. Strain and serve with cream CARE OF AND COOKING FOR INVALIDS. 265 and sugar. These are very nice beverages for the sick, for invalids, or those in perfect health. SLIPPERY ELM TEA. Pour one cup hot water over one teaspoonful of powdered slippery elm bark, or on a piece of the fresh bark. When cool, strain through wire strainer and flavor with very little lemon. Add a little sugar. This is soothing for inflamed mucous surfaces. ACID FRUIT DRINKS. Pour boiling water on mashed cranberries, barberries, whortleberries or cherries. When cold, strain and sweeten as desired. No. 2. — Stir a table-spoonful of any acid jelly or fruit syrup into a tumbler of ice water. No. 3. — Dissolve one table-spoonful cream of tartar in one pint of water. Sweeten to taste. APPLE TEA. Roast two large, sour apples, cover with boiling water. When cool, pour water off, strain and sweeten to taste. JELLY AND ICE. Chip half a cup of ice fine. Mix with it lemon, currant, blackberry, cherry, or barberry jelly. Excellent in fevers. 266 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. TAMARIND WATER. Boil two ounces of tamarinds with four ounces of stoned raisins in three pints of water, for one hour. Strain and cool. LEMONADE. Squeeze the juice from a lemon and add to it one table-spoonful sugar. Pour over this one cup of boiling water and cool. Drink hot after retiring, if taken for a cold. FLAXSEED LEMONADE. Pour one quart boiling water over four table- spoonfuls of whole flaxseed, and steep three hours. Strain, sweeten to taste, and add the juice of two lemons. If too thick, add a little more water. Excellent for fevers or colds. IRISH MOSS LEMONADE. Soak, pick over and wash one quarter of a cup of Irish moss, and add one pint of boiling water. Heat to the boiling point, but do not allow to boil. Keep at that temperature half an hour. Strain, and squeeze into it the juice of one lemon. Sweeten to taste. Use acid phosphate if preferred. WINE WHEY. Boil one cup of new milk, add one cup of wine. Let it stand on the back of the stove five minutes. Strain and sweeten. CARE OF AND COOKING FOB INVALIDS. 267 HERB TEAS. Pour one cup of boiling water over a table- spoonful of the herb. Cover the bowl, set it over the teakettle and steep ten minutes. Sweeten a very little if desired. Mullein tea is good for inflammation of the lungs, chamomile tea for sleeplessness, calamus and catnip teas for colds and infant's colic. Tea made from the root of carpenter square is a specific for colic, and is also excellent for disordered liver, stomach andkidnevs. Cinnamon tea is good for hemorrhages, water- melon seed and pumpkin seed tea for strangury and summer complaint. BURDOCK ROOT TEA. Burdock is a biennial plant, sending, the first season, a straight root deep into the ground, penetrating hard clay soils, often two feet deep. These roots are the portions utilized for medicinal purposes. They should be gathered, for best re- sults, in the fall, winter or spring, and used fresh or dried. Slice the roots into thin pieces, and pour hot water over them ; place in a jar or pitcher, and keep covered till cool. Drink this tea when thirsty, instead of water. It is the best blood purifier known, being a specific for boils, carbuncles, jaun- dice and all ordinary skin diseases. During the 268 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. spring and fall, when the system is undergoing change and so many people suffer from debilita- tion, it should be used as a common drink. MEATS. The majority of mankind believe animal food to be a necessary constituent of the diet. We therefore give a few formulas for the best prepara- tion of meats for the sick. Every particle of fat, skin and membrane must be removed. These might be available for the soup kettle of the healthy, but on no account should they be used for the sick. Broiling is the quickest and sometimes the most palatable method of preparing both es- sence and tea in an emergencv. BROILED BEEF ESSENCE. Broil half a pound of round steak one or two minutes, or until the juice will flow. Cut into small pieces and squeeze the juice into a bowl placed over warm water. Salt very slightly without re-heating, and if desired, pour over hot dry toast. BROILED BEEF TEA. Add a half cup of boiling water to the meat after broiling as above. STEWED BEEF ESSENCE. Cut half a pound of round steak into small pieces, season with a little salt, press or pound CARE OF AND COOKING FOR INVALIDS, 269 with a pestle, and let stand in a covered bowl half an hour. Pour off the juice, heat, but do not boil. Serve at once. BROILED BEEF PULP! Scrape raw beef to a pulp, make into small cakes and broil as steak. Season with salt and a little cayenne pepper. Serve hot. MUTTON BROTH. To make it quickly for an invalid, chop one pound of lean, juicy mutton very fine. Pour over it one pint of cold water, let it stand until the water is red, then heat slowly, simmering ten minutes. Strain, season, and add two table-spoon- fuls of soft boiled rice, or thicken slightly with rice flour wet with cold water. Serve warm. BARLEY SOUP. Remove the fat and bones from one pound of neck of mutton. Cut the meat into slices and add to it one table-spoonful of well washed barley, and one pint of cold water. Heat slowly, and simmer two hours. Put the bones into a cup of cold water, boil gently half an hour and strain into the meat and barley. Season with salt. Skim off the fat and serve with whole wheat wafers. , CHICKEN JELLY OR BROTH. Clean a small chicken, disjoint and cut the meat 270 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. into half inch pieces. Remove all fat, break or pound the bones. Dip the feet in boiling water and scald till the skin and nails peel off. The feet con- tain gelatine, and well cleaned may be used for jelly. Cover the meat, feet and bones with cold water, heat very slowly, and simmer till the meat is tender. Strain, and when cool, remove the fat. Season with salt, pepper, and lemon to taste, and add the white of one egg. Place over the fire, stir well, and boil five minutes. Skim, and strain through a fine napkin. If intended for jelly, pour into small cups and cool. Serve warm. BARLEY WATER. One table-spoonful pearl barley, three cubes loaf sugar, half a lemon, one quart boiling water. Wash the barley in cold water and place it, with the sugar and lemon, in the boiling water. Let it stand covered and warm for three hours, then strain. Currant jelly or orange juice may be used instead of lemon. Valuable for colds, strangury, diseases of bladder and urinary organs. CHICKEN PANADA. One cup of cold roasted or boiled chicken, pounded to a paste. Add half a cup of stale bread crumbs, and enough boiling chicken liquor to make CARE OF AND COOKING FOR INVALIDS. 271 a thick gruel. Salt to taste. Boil one minute and serve hot. CHICKEN CUSTAKD. Scald together one cup of strong chicken stock and one cup of cream. Pour over the well beaten yolks of three eggs, and cook in a double boiler till slightly thickened. Salt to taste and serve cool in custard cups. HEALTH BREAD, MADE OF ENTIRE WHEAT FLOUR. To three pints of water add a small cake of yeast and a teaspoonful of salt. Mix with this a sufficient quantity of entire wheat flour to make a soft dough, and mould into baking pans. Let it rise about one half as much as is usual with other bread before baking. Allowing bread to rise but once increases its nutrition. As the flour is very coarse, making the dough soft allows for swelling. Bake in a hot oven in the same manner as other bread, with the exception that it should be baked a trifle longer. DIET FOR PREGNANCY. Baked potatoes, omelets, baked apples, corn meal mush, rice muffins, tomatoes, baked rice, codfish, corn cakes, cracked wheat, breakfast pota- toes, sago, oatmeal gruel, corn muffins, sago and 272 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. cream, boiled rice, tapioca pudding with apples or oranges, corn bread, boiled eggs, green peas, straw- berry shortcake, asparagus, rhubarb, codfish balls, codfish and potatoes, macaroni, Boston brown bread, celery, farina, entire wheat bread, and all kinds of fruits. Plain soups are excellent, eaten before meals, and meats may be partaken of spar- ingly. CHAPTER XVI. memory; its natural law and benefit to health. Memory is not an organ of the brain represent- ing a specific quality, as reverence, spirituality, comparison, etc., but partakes of the qualities of all, the greater or less predominance of each organ controlling the degree of memory connected with it. Memory, therefore, is cultivated principally by the exercise of the organs controlling it. Memory is largely dependent upon physiolog- ical conditions; for instance, an organism endowed with superior physical health possesses, as a natu- ral consequence^ the best memory. Exceptions may occur, but only serve to prove the rule. From the most ancient times down to the present clay, many theories have been advanced MEMORY. 273 relative to the best method of improving the memory. Efforts in this direction have been made by the greatest scholars and thinkers of the time. This indicates how important the faculty of memo- ry has ever been considered. Nearly all the memory systems have been based upon some phase of mnemonics. The general term "mnemonics" is defined as a system based on a natural association of ideas, for the assistance and cultivation of the memory. The variety of systems result from the diversity of views respect- ing the relation of ideas. Reviewing the history of mnemonics we learn that it was taught by Simon- ides in the year 469 B.C. The names of great and earnest students in this department of knowledge adorn the pages of each succeeding century. In 1807, A. D., Gregory Von Feinaigle, a German, lectured in Paris, London, Edinburgh, Dublin, and other cities, receiving distinguished attention. A few years later, Francis Fauvel Gourand, of France, lectured in New York before larger audiences than had ever before assembled in this country to listen to the discussion of scientific subjects. That the subject is scientific is generally admitted. It is not claimed, in this book, that memory is 274 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. of such importance that its cultivation should be persisted in at the expense of perception, reason and judgment. There have been many instances of personalities possessing great memory, with a complete absence of reasoning power. When the law of memory is thoroughly understood, no further attention need be paid to its cultivation. The reason of this is obvious. Memory, being the result of other activities and conditions, can only be truly developed by the cultivation and educa- tion of these activities. To idealize memory to the extent of placing it so far above all other faculties as to practically ignore them, would be to live on the thoughts of others altogether, and not at all on our own. Nevertheless, the value of the other faculties is greatly diminished when the memory is weak. Knowledge is useless when it cannot be revived. A knowledge of history is of great value to the statesman, and it is through the exercise of memory that he retains that knowledge. We judge of the future by the past, and without recollection, we would be without a guide to future prognostica- tion. The natural statesman has this memory, un- consciously, arising from his love of his vocation. The natural musician has a ready musical memory, MEMORY. 275 growing out of a strong and active musical nature. Such natures would have more difficulty in forget- ting the rules of music than in remembering them. The business man, whose soul is in his business, remembers its minutest detail spontaneously, especially such details as are of daily practice. He may possess a very poor memory of the names of streets and numbers of houses, for the reason that these do not come under his special observation. Members of professions possess good memories, each in his individual line of work, as do also general readers, who possess not only a knowledge of literary subjects, but of the topics of the day. The reason is that their interest in any single subject is not so great as to exclude interest in other subjects. Memory accompanies taste. The stronger the taste for anything the more retentive the memory connected with it. As the various systems of mnemonics, popular in the past, are still being largely taught, some understanding of them is important. Of still greater importance is the knowledge that their merits are slight, very slight in comparison with the claims made for them. While the different systems vary slightly in method, they are substan- 276 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. tially alike, the key-note of each being association. The fault lies in the fact that their association of ideas is to a great extent artificial and cumber- some. Artificial, from want of natural association between what is desired to be remembered, and the assumed similar thing. It is cumbersome because of the great amount of extra thought process involved. If you would remember the name of Burnham, these systems would have you think of burning ham, and would say that the thought of burning ham causes you to remember Burnham. This is a double tax on the memory, and while these S3 r stems would seem to involve the natural law of association of ideas, the process is so artificial that it does positive harm to the memory , hj causing the mind to wander. The mind gropes about endeavoring to remember burning ham, a process thoroughly unnatural. While we some- times do aid memory by thinking of a similar thing, yet, as a system, it becomes un wieldly and fatiguing. Children possess good memories, but such would not be the case were they burdened by any of the old systems of mnemonics. Children have good general memories, because of their being nearly equally interested in all things, and con vers- ME MOBY. 211 ing upon all subjects in their range of thought with equal freedom, and keeping in constant practice. The child's good general memory illus- trates the truth that memory, like every other faculty, is dependent on practice for its activity and readiness. To a certain extent memory may be a gift, but this is comparatively a rare thing. There are prodigies of memory, which we will not attempt to account for, any more than we would undertake to explain any of the other laws of nature. A certain Corsican boy could rehearse •fifty thousand words, as dictated, and repeat them in reverse order. Eular, mathematician, could repeat the whole of Yirgil's Euclid and remember the first and last line on every page. Lord Mac- aulay repeated Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel" from one reading. O'Connell, M. P., delivered from memory a speech lasting nearly four hours, full of figures and calculations. Sir William Jones under- stood several foreign languages thoroughly, and could read with comparative ease thirty others. Every one is familiar with Blind Tom's memory of music. The average mortal will not attempt to emulate these prodigies ; he can, however, improve such memory as he maj T possess. There is another sense in which mnemonics is a failure ; its science is 278 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. confined principally to tricks and devices for remembering' figures, while these are of least importance in ordinary life. Within a few years, improved memory systems have been brought before the public, of which Prof. Loisette, of New York, and Prof. White, of New Haven, Conn., are prominent representatives. That these later systems are such great improve- ments, and that they are perfectly natural, as is claimed for them, is not borne out by all their students ; the complaint being that it first requires a prodigious memory to memorize their rules. These last systems, while making a considerable departure from mnemonics, still fail to satisfy the universal demand. There are natural laws of memory. They are very simple. One of the greatest of these laws is practice. How commonly is heard the expression, "I have forgotten because out of practice." There is only one art of never forgetting, and this consists in keeping in constant and regular use that which Ave desire to retain. We never forget our names, because constantly heard or used. On the same principle the merchant does not forget his business items. There is a general and a specific memory. The MEMORY. 279 child has the former ; the adult often succeeds in possessing only the latter. He has a vocation, and becomes absorbed in it to the exclusion of most other things; thinks of it all day, at his meals, and through the night, and then complains that his general memory is no longer good. Let not this special memory be thoughtlessly con- demned. It is quite successful in money making; it often develops great ideas, which are of more value to the world than the average thought produced by the general memory. Such persons, while in reality possessing valuable and useful memories, complain that there are so many things they cannot remember. It is possible to be more entertaining, besides being better for the health, to possess the general memory, though not at all difficult to have both. One of the best practices for the continued possession of a good general memory is conversation. Cultivate the very desir- able art of conversation whenever suitable oppor- tunity offers. Memory consists in the ability to revive past mental impressions. If the habit is to revive them only on special subjects, special mem- ory will result. Conversation possesses the merit of making use of any and every subject, thereby reviving impressions on all subjects, and keeping 280 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. the general memory strong and active. The best place to cultivate conversation is in the home. There is found plenty of time and opportunity, especially at table. Many families eat their meals month after month in almost complete silence. What wasted opportunities! They are allowing the general memory to die out. They little realize how much they will miss it in old age, nor what a delight it would be to them could the general mem- ory be retained. They do not realize that a good general memory is an excellent means of preserv- ing a green old age; not only this, but it prevents decrepitude, and renews 3 T outh. As a rule, people do not remember the names of strangers on being introduced. This fault arises from not thinking of the name, but observing the person ; thus, when the attempt is made to revive the name it results in failure, because there is no impression of the name to revive. Impressions of names are made through the attention, through the understanding. Napoleon the Third formed the habit of writing the name of a stranger and throw- ing it away. This made a double impression, through both sound and sight. If a good memory of names would be enjoyed, attention must be paid to understanding them clearly. Attention culti- MEMORY. 281 vates memory, and memory in turn cultivates the power of continuous attention. Upon hearing a new name it is well to think of its exact sound, or the sound of each syllable, and of its exact and cor- rect spelling. A little practice of this kind will soon establish the habit of remembering names, and by so lightning-like a process that the method is scarcely felt. The rapidity with which impressions can be recalled depends largely on their vividness ; the more striking and vivid the impression the more indelible it is. Practice also gives this result. Memory of faces, with most persons, is a gift. Where the gift is wanting, this particular memory can be improved through attention. Observe not only the face in general, but each feature separate- ly. This practice will soon develop into an uncon- scious habit. Some minds are constituted with metaphysical tastes predominating ; such persons have poor memories of faces, because they observe the internal man more than the external. Such persons need especially to cultivate attention to the external. Our faculties are given us for training, in a sense for amusement, and this understanding of them makes their cultivation a constant delight. After love, the highest pleasure is study — thereby attaining the highest possible development. 282 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. Another great aid to memory is cheerfulness. There is buoyancy and activity in cheerfulness ; it is spirit; it is health; it is life; it facilitates the conditions of memory. It favors brilliancy, is an assistant of the wits, removes mental sloth, and causes a birth rather than a dearth of ideas. Every- one has experienced that fatigue, weariness, pain, worry, confusion, depletion, trouble, haste, anxiety or sickness will cause loss of memory. This ex- plains the principle by which memory is so largely physiological. The mind is dependent on the body for its expression, and the two are so largely inter- blended as to make them practically one. Great ideas are more readilv retained than small ones, since they make more vivid impressions. Instantaneous remembrance is connected with taste. Every person is born with one or more leading tastes, and subject matter relating to these inherited tastes will be instantaneously remem- bered, without continuous practice. A taste for some vocation, subject, or thing, is a wonderful power. Though circumstances and environments ignore or leave in a dormant state one's dominant tastes, they nevertheless remain a power, and every memory connected with them will ever be instan- taneous. "There is no accounting for taste" is a ME MOBY. 283 universal saying, based on the great power of its nature. Endeavor to destroy natural inclination as we may, it still remains. Franklin said he had tried all his life to cure himself of his pride, and when it was cured he was proud to think he had succeeded. So he said that though it is possible to guide characteristics, they cannot be destroyed. Many memory teachers, when advertising, lay great stress on their ability to teach the art of perfect memory. Such advertising catches the pub- lic and brings patronage. The rules they teach are mere tricks, and while in rare instances one may be benefited by them, in general, the only fruits reaped are confusion of ideas, and mind-wandering. There are two natural laws of never forgetting, and only two. These are taste and practice. That for which we have a taste requires no spur, and that which we keep in constant practice will never become clogged by disease. These laws are simple and masterly, and to spend time and money for other artificial and unnatural methods will bring only disappointment. These teachers also gain much patronage from advertising to teach the art of remembering a book at one reading. It finally ends in their quali- fying this statement with an explanation to the 284 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED, effect that they did not mean you would remember every word ; that the general subject matter con- tained in the book constituted it, and by attending carefully to the understanding of the title, the preface, the character of the author, his object in putting forth the book, the divisions of the sub- jects, the relation of the various parts to each other, and generalization of the whole, you have what they meant by the entire book ; they will tell you that if you do this very slowly and thoroughly you will never forget its contents. It is needless to say that the student is someAvhat disappointed; still this point of their teaching is not without some redeeming value. There is a sense in which their definition of a book is correct and useful. Their deception in this respect does no harm at least, while many of the other deceptions are posi- tively injurious. There is a principle by which the art of for- getting can be fairly cultivated. It consists in diverting the thoughts to pleasant subjects, as often as the unpleasant ones recur. This practice continued grows into a habit, when the unpleasant thoughts return no more. If success should be only partial, it well repays the undertaking. Also the cultivation of cheerfulness, and a permanently MEMORY. 285 buoyant mind and sunny disposition has a ten- dency to direct the Avhole nature away from all that is unpleasant. Much abstract thinking tends to destroy general thought, and to strengthen the special memory. The abstract thinker very frequently gets into ruts, and in these the memory is tenacious from persistent dwelling upon one sub- ject ; while this habit destroys the general memory by holding the mind aloof from general topics. Great thinkers should have great diversions. It is necessary to prevent their becoming one-sided characters. It is also necessary for the good of the general health. Originality has a tendency to abstraction, also a tendency to run off on tangents, and while it is a quality of mind of great value, it needs healthful checks and guards, that the whole mind may not suffer. Cultivation of the imagination strengthens and vivifies the general memory. Imagination is both destructive a nd constructive. It is destructive when it is made the foundation of a life work, laid by reading works of fiction to excess in childhood. It is constructive when it is the flowing out of the mind after a solid foundation of facts has first been laid. It is never destructive of memory, in either case developing this faculty powerfully ; when it is 286 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED, destructive, it is of the judgment, not the memory. The insane have distorted, disconnected mem- ories. One evidence of perfect sanity, is a clear, well connected memory. The insane are not cheerful. Hobbyists are liable to develop excellent special memories, at the expense of the general memory. A habit of morbid brooding injures the mem- ory for everything except the thing brooded over. A good listener cultivates a valuable memory. Learn to listen as well as talk. Actors and actresses have a vocation so ex- clusively devoted to memorizing, that they too often neglect the development of reason and judg- ment. Diligent study of the grand side of their enchanting art will keep the judgment in good balance. Persons in old age, who have not kept the mind fresh, and the memory active, by absorbing- new knowledge daily, and by the practice of general conversation, are liable to become garrulous con- cerning the events of their early years, but of im- mediate matters, have memories sadly defective. Progressive minds never grow old. To be interest- ed in many subjects, and to maintain that interest through the years, means keeping the man inter- esting to society and his friends ; the possession of MEMORY. 287 a memory favorable to health, and an ever growing talent for entertainment and instruction. It means that the common saying that the days of child- hood are the happiest, will no longer be true. It means that the buoyancy and cheerfulness of old age, with all the accumulation of knowledge and experience of a lifetime, are resources from which to extract degrees of happiness compared with which that of the child is merely animal sport. Good digestion is an excellent tonic for the memory. Haste impairs memory. Things learned hastily do not make the best impressions. Things remembered go through a process of assimilation, to which haste is unfavorable. "Blood will tell," applies to the memory. Deficient blood, or poor blood, injures memory. A clear, excellent circula- tion makes a delightfully active memory. A good memory is a good preventive against insanity. Pleasant conversation is much more favorable to the cultivation of memory than severe argument. Method favors memory. Integrity favors memory; when we tell the truth it is easily remembered; when we prevaricate it is a great tax to recollect just what we said. "Honesty is the best policy" in business; it also makes the best memory. Im- pressions made when the feelings are aroused are 288 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. lasting. What is studied with pleasant feeling is best remembered . There is one good thing to be said concerning gossip, — it cultivates a vivid memory. Memory is favorable to bodily and mental rest. The prac- tice of the powers that strengthen the memory also increases happiness. It has been said that loss of memory causes nervousness and physical break- ing down. There is truth in this. It is also true that a physical deterioration injures memory. In review of the foregoing, let it be remembered that memory is a consequence and not a condition. It is a consequence of conditions. There are as many varieties of memory as there are varieties of faculties in the brain, no person having all mem- ories in equal degrees of strength, any more than he has all of the faculties in equal degrees of power. Commonly speaking, we do not separate the mem- ories, but speak of them as one memory. All ex- pression of nature proceeds from laws of growth; memory is of growth, like the body, and, like it, is governed by laws. These are the laws of health, exei cise of faculties, practice, and conversation for the cultivation of general memory; special .thought for special memory, with attention and under- standing. The habit of reviving at night the doings MEMORY. 289 of the day, as a rule for the improvement of one very valuable kind of memory, is profitable. Every person has one or more forms of memory stronger than others. It is well to ask yourself, what forms in you are most deficient, and, these ascertained, learn the particular law underlying deficiencies, and cultivate that law. Remember that nature is governed bylaw, not tricks, and that the faculties and memories are parts of nature. Understanding brings contentment. When you understand the laws you will be contented. Con- tentment does not mean stagnation. Our greatest scholars and students are the most contented. Study and investigation are natural, and the greater the degree of contentment the more profit- able are the results of our labors. The cultivation of the laws of memory, under a clear understand- ing, will be, not a drudgery, but a delight. Discon- tent is a cause of activity, but it is not happiness. All nature is in action, and the activities of happi- ness bring the wisest and best conditions, produce the most gratifying results, and achieve the most lasting satisfaction. Without wisdom, content- ment is wanting. Nature is wise and the more natural we become the more delightful will be our wise and contented activity. 290 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. Be not dismayed if you do not find your mem- ory grow to prodigious proportions at a single bound. Recollect that perception and reason are indispensable faculties, and that it is possible to give so much attention to one faculty as to dimin- ish the others. There is a proverb that "what is soon learned is soon forgotten." This is not al- ways true, but there is some truth in it. The rea- son is, that the thing too quickly learned does not pass sufficiently through the understanding. A thing must be reasoned upon before it can be pro- foundly and soundly understood. A good memory is a delightful accompaniment of life, and is based on laws. A piano is most delightful when in tune, and the tune of the instrument is what the memory is to the individual. A rose-bush is most beautiful when flowering, and memory is one of the many charming flowerings of the multiple human accom- plishments. CHAPTER XVII. HEALIXG THEOUGH THE POWER OF MIND. In the past, mind has been dethroned and matter enthroned. A new light is reversing this order, placing mind on the throne. HEALING THROUGH POWER OF MIND. 291 The body is the instrument through which thought is expressed. One of the products of life is thought; through thought comes education. Through education we have been led into some un- scientific beliefs, but from an age of beliefs we are now passing to an age of understanding. We are governed by what we know, thus a knowledge of the true healing elements will bring harmony and health. The five senses are only varied expressions of the one life. The greatest power in man is mind, for as "In nature there is nothing great but man, in man there is nothing great but mind." The fine and superior forces of nature playing through the human organization are coming to be better understood. These forces are developing and bringing out the latent mental powers with which we have heretofore not been familiar. One of the best proofs of a truth is that it will accord with every other truth. Thought moves the world, moves man, is the source of progress, and the architect of the universe. The mind may be made the agent through which a perfect system of mental healing is evolved. Of what does this new method of healing con- sist? It consists in educating the mind to employ its own and the bodily forces for the healing of all 292 CUBE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. mental and physical maladies. It domesticates force. A new system of cure implies new premises from which to reason to correct conclusions. We should no longer subvert the great sanative power of the intelligent mind to false or improper uses. While experiments in material remedies change annually or oftener, we, realizing the supremacy of mind, are worthy of a correct and unchangeable method. In proportion as we take hold of the new, we drop the old. We know that sickness is unnatural, and as this thought intensifies, the action of the system changes, and health-producing potencies within the mind are aroused. As pain can be assuaged by diverting the attention from it, so, by directing the thought away from the ail- ment, and coming into a contemplation of the higher controlling powers, we live in accordance with them, thus causing changes which harmonize with the higher perceptions. We have been piling up material remedies, in the hope of damming back the stream of disease, until the discovery is made that Ave are only increasing the confusion. THE NEW SYSTEM teaches that disease is very largely the result of wrong thought, and that the remedy lies in the substitution of thought tending to produce health, HEALING THROUGH POWER OF MIND. 293 and build up a right understanding. Knowing the cause of a trouble is the first step toward learning how to correct it. Acid fruit, a lemon, for instance, will contract the muscles of the mouth. This is accomplished through an action of the unconscious mind; a conscious thought of it will do the same. Thus thought can produce right or wrong action of the system. We have, then, a remedial agent that is educational. Belief regarding correct means leads to acquiring the desired result. Physicians of every school admit the great power of the mind over the body for good or ill. A belief in the possibility of perfection tends to produce perfection, and becomes a strong factor in establishing harmonious conditions. The power of thought is nowhere made more manifest than when, through its action, is observed the resulting physical or mental development. A belief that we are in health seeks to unite itself with the physical sensation of health, and continues the activity until a perfect outward corporeal expression is realized. The past systems of medicine have gone so far as to recognize the power of injurious ideas, but have stopped short of realizing or teaching the good to be derived from entertaining those which are beneficial. A clear idea produces a 294 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. sensation, which can be for, as well as against, our well-being. From the medical plane we are evolving into a sphere of higher truths. If thought and existence are the same, as the history of the ages proclaims, it follows that a change of thought, or of the direction of thought, will induce a corresponding change in the life. To think a change in our condition, determines the forces towards that result. Thought is the highest power of which we have knowledge, controlling all below it. Knowing no higher law than itself, it is free, and can think that which it pleases. Thought can change sensation, which quickly manifests new expression. This is the first educational medical art since the dark ages. Medical systems, as a rule, deal more or less in mystery, Avhile the mental science, being an exact knowledge, is entirely educational and practical. The more fully a patient can become enlightened concerning the method em- ployed, the greater will be the success. The pulpit teaches that the higher things are interior, which teaching, extended, broadened, and deepened, will unite the two professions of medicine and theology. Happiness, health and heaven are within us ; by no possibility can they be external. To know this is HEALING THROUGH POWER OF MIND. 295 to find them. Greece expressed her highest wisdom in the words, "Know thyself." Every one knows that one mind can affect another, and through it the body. This can be done by words, by the eye, or by actions ; and it can be done by a silent method, as when the men- tal physician gives a fifteen minutes' silent treat- ment, through a mutual understanding to this effect between the patient and himself. This influence can be made effective at a great distance as well as in close proximity. Col. E. G. Ingersoll said: "If I had made the universe I would have made health catching." He probably did not know that it is "catching." It is an aid to one who would practice this sys- tem to believe that universal mind pervades all nature, and that our minds can always be in com- munication with this universal mind ; also that it easily becomes a medium through which one indi- vidual mind affects another. It has been demon- strated that the silent action of one mind upon another, when a mutual understanding exists, can be especially effective. It is argued that the uni- versal mind is nearer to us, and we are nearer to it, than it is possible for one person to be to an- other; also that this all pervading mind, together 296 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. with our own, contains all the healing elements, which are utilized by the process of healing. Our efficiency in mental healing is greatly enhanced by belief in a surrounding power that can be used according to our needs. In treating ourselves or others, the leading desire should be to dislodge all morbid thoughts. When the patient is in a passive state, desiring recovery, he is more susceptible to influence ; even if impressions are not consciously felt, they are received, and will manifest themselves. Little children are attracted by mind-cure to a wonderful degree, and it is astonishing how they will cure their little pains through the action of their minds. The simplicity of the method causes it to be readily taken up by children, and there is no study that is more important to them, helping, as it does, to lessen pain they cannot entirely prevent. Every one has seen a child fall, and get up apparently in the greatest agony, when, the mother having given it a few T passes of the hand, and a soothing word, behold the change ! The next moment he is off to his play again. This is the power of the mind, and a manifestation of the mind-cure principle. If the child was not greatly injured, he was, at least, badly frightened. It was a mental malady which HEALING THROUGH POWER OF MIND. 297 the mother's words removed. To dispel fear is always a large part of the cure. As the child grows older it can, by instruction, remove its own fear, and still later on, check and control greater pain. How often a courageous word from some friend might change the polarities of being, and the patient be restored, whilst a continued pressure of surrounding fears, and an unceasing deluge of drugs, terminate all that is mortal. Mental science leads to an understanding of the mental forces, and how to apply them. It gives the philosophy of the wonderful cures by means of charms, amulets and incantations. There is no other system so spiritual. The science of evolution teaches that life is ever passing from the simple to the complex, but this science is an exception to the law. Its simplicity is one of the principal objec- tions which the learned profession urges against it. If ideas can cause disease, why can they not cure it? We must have faith in ideas. Wemustevolute selfhood. There is a self-healing of the body. There are organic cells, each possessed of vital power ; these myriad workers perform all the steps of healing, and it is in the power of the mind to hinder as well as aid these busy agencies. This organic process 298 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. is the result of natural law operating through chemical action. The mental science favors this process, while fear, timidity and false beliefs arrest it. Solids are reduced to fluids and gases, and lost to view. There are theories that every atom is a center of force, and, possibty , of life and mind, thus making it appear more or less plausible that all may be mind. If this theory were demonstrable, the argument would be complete; it is demon- strable, that all matter is the result of atomic chemism. The higher elements control the lower ; the finer are stronger than the crude, hence mind preponderates. Man should grow younger in mind as he grows older in years. The principle is simply this: "As a man thinks, so is he." Thoughts and ideas are ever striving for external expression ; thus, by keeping the mind young, we have a perfect guaran- tee for continued vouthfulness of bodv. Thought will externalize itself, thus growing thought will ever keep us young. Reliance on drugs makes the mind, consequently the body, prematurely old. This new system will make us younger at seventy than at thirtv-seven, for then we will have more of genuine philosophy. There is such a thing as mind-kill as well as mind-cure, but we are less con- HEALING THROUGH POWER OF MIND. 299 cerned with this department of the subject. With these general principles, we are prepared for their practical application. IN VISITING THE SICK, their confidence should first be gained, as perfect sympathy is necessary between physician and patient; also, the physician of tact will secure the co-operation of the entire family. These steps suc- cessful, form your judgment of the case by intuition and observation, and whatever you fail to learn in this way, obtain by interrogation. The object is not only to gain a general knowledge of the malady, but to learn precisely what is in the patient's mind concerning it. You then proceed to explain to the patient your manner of treatment, and the means em- ployed, thus securing a mutual understanding. This system of healing being of an educational na- ture, the patient should be instructed in the theory from which, as a basis, you begin your process of healing; tell him that you intend to take a position adverse to all his abnormal conditions, and that vou wish him to do the same. Sav further, that after you leave him, and during the time elapsing before your next visit, and thereafter indefinitely, until he is thoroughly restored, you will hold this 300 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. view of the case, and you wish him to do likewise. As this is your first visit, it will naturally be of longer duration than the subsequent ones; the treatment should continue for about fifteen min- utes, and the patient, having come into a receptive state, or comparatively so, should not converse. If any thoughts occur to you, however, that will be of benefit to him, express them without unneces- sary delay. During several treatments of the same case, conversation will naturally become less and less, while the amount of silent treatment will increase. In regard to the respective positions occupied by yourself and patient, it is best to be governed by your feelings, placing yourself either at one side or the other, in front, at some distance, or even behind the patient if you feel prompted so to do. When the patient is so weak as to be unable to sit up, the choice of positions will neces- sarily be more limited, but the healing power can be developed until equally successful treatments will result, though you may be in a separate room from that of the patient. It can be carried further. The power may be developed until treatments can be given with great success from a distance, and, finally, hundreds of miles, in some cases with almost instantaneous results. HEALING THROUGH POWER OF MIND. 301 The fifteen minutes having expired, and the physician about to leave, a parting word should be given to the effect that the patient and yourself will continue with unyielding tenacity to oppose his affliction, with the understanding that this course will send into the affected parts healthy thought, as well as new and invigorating healing elements. Some mental healers will not take a case unless the patient will agree to undergo seven treatments. In this, however, the physician should be governed by his judgment, in each individual case. In the subsequent treatments, and as rapidly as practicable, educate the patient to an understanding of the following principles: that fear is pernicious, that he does not hold it, but that it holds him, that an injurious belief is not held by him, but that he is its slave and victim, in this way preparing him to understand that the success of this system consists in possessing the right understanding. As an illustration, take the case of an abnormal craving for some injurious article of food. The party will feel that he must have it, that existence is quite intolerable and un- endurable without it. Now as to the remedy: Let all the mental energies and life forces — which will naturally follow — be turned to a desire for some- 302 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. thing more beautiful, pleasing, and health giving; in a few moments he Avill find, to his surprise, the first wild craving gone. The false, artificial appetites for alcohol, tobacco, opium, etc., can be destroyed through a correct application of mental science. Science is ever looking at things which are in a sense invisible. Science is of the mind, deals with matter, and controls it. Life is an element, like mind, which we do not try to define. We deal with the powers of life and mind in the sense of obtain- ing effects. Who can explain wherein resides the power of steam and electricity? All power is unseen . Memory is an excellent thing, but there are times, especially during disease, when the ability to forget is equally laudable; thus we must en- deavor to do away with the patient's tendency to brood over his adverse experiences. Thoughts of this nature must be corrected. This might seem to require almost superhuman skill, but when understood it is not difficult. All have witnessed instances of what an invalid will sometimes do when, for the time, he forgets his disease. It is not a question of how to obtain the power of mental healing, it being a universal possession, but how to use it. Whatever the pain, pleasure, or impression HEALING THROUGH POWER OF MIND. 303 to which we are susceptible, it is of the mind and spirit, permeating the entire physical organism. Modern, perfected phrenology no longer places mind in the brain only. Mind is ever externalizing through matter, and herein lies the power to build up health in the place of disease. It is a process which encourages the admission of more light, which is wisdom. This system rejects the amphitheater, the lab- oratory, and the pharmacy, substituting potencies which are free as air and water. When the mental equilibrium is disturbed, there will be a correspond- ing disturbance in the physical being. A cure, then, means simply the restoration of the mental balance. This science leads gradually to the check- ing of every primary wrong or downward ten- dency ; it will lead us finally to live above disease. Cultivate the flowers until there is no room for weeds. Keep the thoughts pleasantly occupied by reading, work or recreation. This course of pro- cedure increases strength and power, and is in harmony with dietetic and hygienic methods. If the patient is a young child, the case must be discussed both silently and audibly, chiefly with the parents or attendants. Only good-natured nurses should be allowed in a sick-room. When in 304 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. pain we become positive, thus, if we allow ourselves to relax the entire system, alleviation will result; this is a mental principle. A calm mind soothes, heals and tends to allay fears. Fear should be conquered in the physician as well as in the patient. Mind is the natural stimulus. All systems of medicine will check incipient symptoms easier than those of the subsequent stages. Every one is familiar with the effect of counter stimula- tion to overcome pain, which is accomplished by giving the life forces a new direction. In like man- ner can the mind be disciplined to control the same forces. Medical colleges are at last teaching that no form of drug performs the cure: that nature is the real remedy, but that drugs assist nature. This is to the credit of the colleges, and shows their progressive tendency. We teach that, with prac- tice, this assistance can be much better rendered by the mind, with the advantage that this power once acquired, we are ever afterward our own physicians. Respecting so called hereditary diseases, firm and persistent belief that they are not hereditary, that it is impossible they should be so, will largely achieve a victory. Concerning deleterious climates, with a conviction that no atmosphere is injurious, we rise superior to all ill effects. This principle HEALING THROUGH POWER OF MIND. 305 applies throughout the entire catalogue of sup- posed afflictions, and in this conclusion we reason from a basis incontrovertible and impregnable. Where disease has an origin in the unconscious mind, and in the involuntary action of the physical organism, science is still victor. In this practice new suggestions will be continually arising con- cerning the manner of treating, but, as no two individuals ever meet in precisely the same manner, no two cases will ever be handled precisely alike. Inspiration is unlimited, and ever brings success. The drug physician acknowledges disease, while the mind physician denies it. We find harmony by losing discord. As music or any of the arts or sciences must be taught, and as the ability to excel is a gradual development or growth, so it is with the science of healing through the power of the mind. All have noticed the de- pressing influence of sad news, and the elevating effect of news which is pleasing ; this is illustrative of the principle of mental science, demonstrating the power of the mind. We have simply to acquire a knowledge of this power and its use to have confidence in it. Many of the past failures of drug medication have resulted from the absence of this understanding. If you are already healthy, 306 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. and wish to remain so, ever keep before you a men- tal protest against any other condition. In treat- ing patients, instances may occur where it will be necessary to produce a shock in order to break up morbidity. In such a case you can afterward explain your reason for so doing. We cannot lay too much stress on the pernicious effects of pa- tients doubting* our ability to cure them. Where confidence is substituted for fear, the true and natural activities will be resumed. In the department of diet, departures from old theories are made. Heretofore, the feeling's of the patient have been too little consulted. Visitors or nurses, through excessive kindness, should not tempt the patient by naming enticing dishes the3 r would like to bring him. The patient should not be asked if he has an appetite. If he has not, the rule is that he shall take no food until he has. When the appetite returns, let the patient name the articles desired. This desire is the voice of nature, wiser than any other intelligence. Pru- dence should be exercised with regard to quantity. The beginning of illness is generally accompanied by the loss of appetite, when the patient should not eat. If this rule is observed, the appetite will not return voraciously, but by degrees. The HEALING THROUGH POWER OF MIND. 807 science of healing will remove artificiality and establish naturalness. Practitioners vary more or less in their modes, while all are governed by the same principles. Webster says: "The self-healing power of living- animals and vegetables is a property as wonderful as it is indicative of divine goodness." This science supplements and is an aid to self-healing, and an ever present counsel to guard and guide in all that pertains to the glory of health. It is an individual medical light, never absent/ but with us as an abiding friend. Contemplation increases its power. It has the merit of inciting us to the exercise of our deepest intelligence, and suggesting the widest, fullest and most perfect methods. Intelligence, knowledge, thought, wisdom, and understanding, must rule our lives, these being the agencies of mental science. This system not only promises increased health, but great economy, since no other system is so perfect in the science of right living, in which is contained, to a great extent, the secret of superior healing. This science is operated entirely through the understanding. Faith is good, but understanding is better. We are emerging from an age of beliefs to one of science. If we enable the sick to heal them- 308 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. selves by means of potencies within themselves, we are doing- a greater work than that of feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, for, having health, food and raiment are procured with comparative ease. How does this divine machinery operate? Darwin, in his science of evolution, brings out but little more than the physical side of life. The inner or spiritual he leaves, consciously or unconscious- ly, to the work of other brains. With mental science, its work in the past has more nearly con- cerned the exercise of the external. We had not arrived at the full knowledge of our ability to say to the will, to thought, be still and know that the silent forces are the true physician. Thought opens the door, and the silent activity prevails. The healing power is within the soul, the finite and infinite soul. We are in the sphere of cure in all that we do. All the work of life should be healthful. Activity is natural. Nature every- where is in constant activity, for motion is essential to health. The mind, the soul, effects all changes by an activity and change of place of particles. The reflection that we are masters of ourselves fills the soul with courage ; we begin to straighten up, stretch our limbs, and breathe HEALING THROUGH POWER OF MIND. 309 deeper; then fear and doubt depart, and a new and natural activity is re-established. It is popularly supposed that doctors secretly have a preventive remedy against contagious diseases, of which they avail themselves, but are careful to keep from their patients. This is a fallacy. Physicians are not so desirous of that kind of practice as to be guilty of such fraud. If they knew of a prophylactic they would only too gladly give it to the world. Their only protection is a positive mental condition, which produces an absence of fear. If our sixty-five millions of people could overcome fear, it would be a perfectly suc- cessful quarantine against cholera invasion. Phy- sicians have this positive mental condition forced upon them. Knowing that they must attend patients afflicted with contagious disease, they make a virtue of necessity ; what they do from necessity all can do from choice. Invisible life forces are the only healing powers, but precisely how they act we cannot tell. We do not know the cause of vascular circulation. It is known that the blood consists mainly of water, that its office is to carry atoms and particles of nutriment to the tissues for their building and growth, but the process is not known, and for 81 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. practical purposes this knowledge is not essential. So, notwithstanding there is much concerning the mind forces of which we are ignorant, the effects are demonstrable. If a horse knew his power, he could not be driven. Thus with man; there are many of his greatest powers yet to be developed of which he has thus far remained in as great ignorance as is the equine animal of his strength. This has already been demonstrated by the Adepts of India, in their development of the oc- cult forces. The idea to be inculcated is that it is not only possible but natural to become the char- acter Ave play : hence, before the play, we should take a moment's time to decide what we would like to become. The might and power of mind and intelligence demand recognition. Imagination is one of our greatest powers, one of our most subtle forces. Our thought can be en rapport with the great thought of the universe, causing a universal and perfect connection. It has been stated that a perfect man has seven senses, while only five are yet acknowledged. That the sixth sense is an unperverted, unerring intuition and soul permeating vision, forming a substitute for much of the present cumbersome los:ic and reason: that the seventh sense will HEALING THROUGH POWER OF MIND. 311 surround man with a divine halo, fill him with a divine power, and place him in connection Avith all the elements in the universe which can in any way contribute to his perfect happiness : that this will complete his nature, in correspondence with the seven notes in the musical scale, is a knowledge we have gained from much careful study and research. This system awakens humanity to a knowledge and use of the higher agencies, not without, but within, itself. It not only enriches life but lightens its burdens, and with it, the words, "Physician, heal thyself," are no longer idle. If we would become expert in the law, in music, or in mathematics, it is necessary that the mind should receive discipline in these directions. In like manner should drill be given in the science of mental healing. There is positively no other system that teaches the patient how to become his own physician. As man develops, his work im- proves, and from the most spiritual forms of religion down to the most material and practical science, a universal uplifting will result, from this discovery. It is as reasonable that; the finite mind should be mighty to control the body, as that the infinite mind is mio;htv to control the universe. The present and future, rolling on, silently but 312 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. surely, bearing with it our vast humanity, will gladly welcome every ray of light which can lessen the darkness of life and increase the sunshine. The following thoughts by Prentice Mulford are exceedingly significant, as indicating the wonderful power of the mind, and the great variety of its powers, many of which have not hitherto been recognized. "In the chemistry of the future, thought will be recognized as substance as much as the acids, oxides, and other chemicals of today. "There is no chasm between what we call the material and the spiritual. Both are of substance or of element. They blend imperceptibly into each other. In reality, the material is only a visible form of the finer elements Ave term spiritual. "Our unseen and unspoken thought is ever flowing from us an element and force, as real as the stream of water we can see, or the current of electricity we cannot see. It combines with the thought of others, and out of such combinations are formed new qualities of thought, as in the combination of chemicals new substances are formulated. "If you send from you in thought the elements of worry, fret, hatred, or grief, you are putting in HEALING THROUGH POWER OF MIND. 313 action forces injurious to your mind and body. The power to forget implies the power of driving away the unpleasant and hurtful thought or element, and bringing in its place the profitable element, to build up instead of tearing down. "The character of the thought we think or put out affects our business favorably or unfavorably. It influences others for or against us. It is an element felt pleasantly or unpleasantly by others, inspiring them with confidence or distrust. "The prevailing state of mind, or character of thought, shapes the body and the features. It makes us ugly or pleasing, attractive or repulsive to others. Our thought shapes our gestures, our mannerism, our walk. The least movement of muscle has a mood of mind, a thought behind it. A mind always determined has always a deter- mined walk. A mind always weak, vacillating, and uncertain, makes a shuffling, shambling and uncertain gait. The spirit of determination braces every muscle. It is the thought-element of deter- mination filling every muscle. "Look at the discontented, gloomy, melan- choly, and ill-tempered men or women, and you see in their faces proof of the action of this silent force of their uupleasant thought, cutting, carving, 314 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. and shackling them to their present expression. Such people are never in good health, for that, force acts on them as poison, creating some form of disease. A persistent thought of determination for a purpose, especially if such purpose be of benefit to others as well as ourselves, will fill every nerve with strength. It is a wise selfishness that seeks to benefit others with ourselves, because in spirit and in actual element we are all united. We are forces which act and react on each other for good or ill, through what we ignorantly call empty space. There are unseen nerves extending from man to man, from being to being. Every form in life is in this sense connected. We are all members of one body. An evil thought or act is a pulsation of pain thrilling through myriads of organizations. The kindly thought or act has the same effect in an opposite sense. It is, then, a law of nature and science that we cannot do real good to another without doing good to ourselves. kt To grieve at any loss, be it of friends or property, weakens mind and body. It is no help to the friend grieved for. It is rather an injury: for our sad thought must reach the person, even if passed to another condition of existence, and become a source of pain to him. HEALING THROUGH POWER OF MIND. 315 "An hour of grumbling, fret or fear, whether spoken or silent, uses up much element or force in making' us less endurable to others, and perhaps making for us enemies. Directly or indirectly it injures our business. Sour looks and words drive away good customers. Grumbling and hating is a use of actual element to belabor our minds. The force we so expend could be used to our pleasure and profit, even as the force we might use with a club to beat our own bodies can be employed to give us comfort and recreation. "To be able, then, to throw off or forget a thought or force which is injuring us, is a most important means for gaining strength of body and clearness of mind. Strength of body and clearness of mind bring success in all undertakings. "It brings also strength of spirit: and the forces of our spirits act on others whose bodies are thousands of miles distant, for our advantage or disadvantage. Because there is a force belonging to all of us, separate and apart from that of the body, it is always in action, always acting on others. It must be in action every moment, whether the body be asleep or awake. Ignorantly, unconsciously, and hence unwisely used, it plunges us into mires of misery and error. Intelligently 316 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. and wisely used, it will bring us every conceivable good. "That force is our thought. Every thought of ours is of vital importance to health and real success. All so called success, as the world terms it, is not real. A fortune gained at the cost of health is not real success. "Every mind trains itself, generally uncon- sciously, to its peculiar character or quality of thought. Whatever that training is, it cannot be immediately changed. We may have trained our minds unconsciously to entertain evil or troubled thought. We may never have realized that brood- ing over disappointment, living in a grief, dreading a loss, fretting for fear that this or that may not succeed as we wish, was building up a destructive force which has bled away our strength, created disease, unfitted us for business, and caused us loss of monej^ and possibly loss of friends. "To learn to forget is as necessary and useful as to learn to remember. We think of many things every day which it would be more profitable no't to think of at all. To be able to forget is to be able to drive away the unseen force (thought) which is injuring us, and change it for a force or order of thought to be used for. our benefit. HEALING THROUGH POWER OF MIND. 317 k ' Demand imperiously and persistently any quality of character in which you may be lacking, and you attract an increase of such quality. Demand more patience or decision or judgment or courage or hopefulness or exactness, and you will increase in such qualities. These qualities are real elements. They belong to the subtler, and as yet unrecognized chemistry of nature. "The man discouraged, hopeless and whining, has unconsciously demanded discouragement and hopelessness. So he gets it. This is his uncon- scious mental training to evil. Mind is magnetic because it attracts to itself whatever thought it fixes itself upon or whatever it opens itself to. Allow yourself to fear, and you will fear more and more. Cease to resist the tendency to fear, make no effort to forget fear, and you open the door and invite fear in : you then demand fear. Set your mind on the thought of courage, see yourself in mind or imagination as courageous, and you will become more courageous. You demand courage. "There is no limit in unseen nature to the supply of these spiritual qualities. In the words, Ask and ye shall receive, the Christ implied that any mind could, through demanding, draw to itself all that it needed of any quality. Demand wisely, and we draw to us the best. 318 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. " Every second of wise demand brings an increase of power. Such increase is never lost to us. This is an effort for lasting gain that we can use at any time. What all of us want is more power to work results, and build up our fortunes, — power to make things about us more comfort- able to ourselves and our friends. We cannot feed others if we have no power to keep starvation from ourselves. Power to do this is a different thing from the power to hold in memory other people's opinions, or a collection of so called facts gathered from books which time often proves to be fictions. Every success in any grade of life has been accomplished through spiritual power, through unseen forces flowing from one mind, and working on other minds far and near, as actually as the force in your arm lifts a stone. "A man may be illiterate, yet send from his mind a force affecting and influencing many others, far and near, in a way to benefit his fortunes, while the scholarly man drudges with his brain, on a pit- tance. The illiterate man's is the greater spirit- ual power. Intellect is not a bag to hold facts. Intellect is power to hold results. Writing books is but a fragment of the work of the intellect. The greatest philosophers have planned first, and acted HEALING THROUGH POWER OF MIND. 319 afterwards, as did Napoleon, Columbus, Fulton, Morse, Edison, and others, who have moved the world, besides telling the world how it should be moved. "Your plan, purpose, or design, whether re- lating to a business or an invention, is a real con- struction of unseen thought-element. Such thought- structure is also a magnet. It commences to draw aiding forces to it as soon as made. Persist in holding to your plan or purpose, and these forces come nearer and nearer, become stronger and stronger, and will bring more and more favor- able results. "Abandon your purpose, and you stop further approach of these forces, and destroy also such amount of unseen attracting power as you have built up. Success in any business depends on the application of this law. Persistent resolve on any purpose is a real attractive force of element, draw- ing constantly more and more aids for carrying out that resolve. "When your body is in the state called sleep, these forces (your thoughts) are still active. They are then working on other minds. If your last thought before sleep is that of worry, or anxiety, or hatred for any one, it will work for you only ill 320 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. results. If it is hopeful, cheerful, confident, and at peace with all men, it is then the stronger force, and will work for you good results. If the sun goes down on your wrath, your wrathful thought will act on others while you sleep, and bring only injury in return. "Is it not a necessity, then, to cultivate the power of forgetting what we wish, so that our cur- rent of thought attracting ill, while our body rests, shall be changed to the thought-current attracting good? "Today thousands and thousands never think of controlling the character of their thought. They allow their minds to drift. They never say of a thought that is troubling them, 'I won't think of it.' Unconsciously, then, they demand what works them ill, and their bodies are made sick by the kind of thought which they allow their minds to fasten to. "When you realize the injury done you through any kind of troubled thought, you will then com- mence to acquire the power of throwing off such thought. When in mind you commence to resist any kind of such injurious thought, you are con- stantly gaining more and more power for resist- ance. Resist the devil, said the Christ, and he HEALING THROUGH POWER OF MIND. 321 will flee from you. There are no devils save the illy used forces of the mind. But these are most. powerful to afflict and torture us. An ugly or melancholy mood of mind is a devil. It can make us sick, lose us friends, lose us money. Money means the enjoyment of necessities and comforts. Without these we cannot do or be our best. The sin involved in love of money is to love money better than the things needful, which money can bring. "To bring us the greatest success in any busi- ness, to make the greatest advance in any art, to further any cause, it is absolutely necessary that at certain intervals daily we forget all about that business, art, or cause. By so doing we rest our minds, and gather fresh force for renewed effort. "To be ever revolving the same plan, study, or speculation, or what we shall do or shall not do, is to waste such force on a brain treadmill. We are in thought saying to ourselves the same thing over and over again. We are building of this actual, unseen element, thought, the same construction over and over again. One is a useless duplicate of the other. "If we are always inclined to think or converse on one particular subject, if we will never forget it, 322 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. if we will start it at all times and all places, if we will not, in thought and speech, fall into the prevail- ing tone of the conversation about us, if we do not try to get up an interest in what is being talked of by others, if we determine only to converse on what interests us, or not converse at all, we are in danger of becoming cranks, or hobbyists, or mono- maniacs. "The 'crank' alone is responsible for his doubt- ful reputation. He is one who, having forced one idea, and one only, on himself, has resolved, per- haps unconsciously, to force that idea on every one else. He will not at any time forget his pet theory or purpose, and adapt himself to the thought of others. For this reason he loses the power to forget, to throw from his mind the one absorbing thought. He drifts more and more into the contemplation of one idea; he surrounds him- self with its peculiar atmosphere or element, which is as real an element as any we see or feel. "Others in proximity to him feel this one- ideaed thought, and feel it disagreeably : because the thought of one person is felt by others near him through a sense as yet unnamed. In the exercise of this sense lies the secret of your favorable or un- favorable impressions of people at first sight. You HEALING THROUGH POWEB OF MIND. 323 are, in thought, as it flows from you, constantly sending into the air an element which affects others for or against you, according to its quality, and the acuteness of their sense which feels thought. You are affected by the thought of othersin the same manner, be they far or near. Hence, we are ever speaking to others though our tongues be silent. We are generating for ourselves either ha- tred or love while alone in the apparent solitude of our chambers. "A crank often becomes a martyr, or believes himself to be one. There is no absolute necessity for martyrdom in any cause, save the necessity of ignorance. There never was any absolute necessi- ty, save for the same cause. Martyrdom implies lack of judgment and tact in the presentation of any principle new to the world. Analyze martyr- dom, and you will find in the martyr a determina- tion to force on people some idea in an offensive and antagonistic form. People of great ability, through dwelling on one idea, have at last been captured by it. The antagonism they drew from others, they drew because they held it first in their own minds. 'I come not with peace,' said the Christ, 'but with a sword.' The time has now come in the world's history for the sword to be 324 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. sheathed. Many good people unconsciously use swords in advising what they deem better things. "There is the sword (in thought) of the scold- ing reformer, the sword of dislike to others because of their utter disregard of your ideas, and the sword of prejudice for others because they refuse to adopt your peculiar habits. Every discordant thought against others is a sword, calling out from others a sword in return. The thought you advance is received by you in the same kind. The coming empire of peace is to be built up by recon- ciling differences, making friends of enemies, telling people of the good that is in them instead of the evil, discouraging gossip and evil speaking by the introduction of subjects more pleasant and profit- able, and proving through one's life that there are laws, not generally recognized, which will give them health, happiness and fortune, without injustice or injury to others. Their advocate will meet the sick with the smile of true friendship, for the most diseased people are always the greatest sinners. The most repulsive man or woman, the creature full of deceit, treachery, and venom, needs your pity and help the most of all, for that man and woman, through generating evil thought, is gener- ating pain and disease for himself or herself. HEALING THROUGH POWER OF MIND. 325 "You find yourself thinking unpleasantly of a person from whom you have received a slight or insult, an injury or injustice. Such thought remains with you hour after hour, perhaps day after day. You at last become tired of it, yet can- not throw it off. It annoys, frets, worries and sickens you. You cannot prevent yourself from going round and round on this same tiresome, troublesome track of thought. It wears on your spirit, and whatever wears on the spirit, wears on the body. "This is because you have drawn on yourself the other person's opposing and hostile thought. He is thinking of you as you are of him. He is sending you a wave of hostile thought. You are both giving and receiving blows of unseen elements. You may keep up this silent war of unseen force for weeks, and if so, both are injured. This contest of opposing wills and forces is going on all about us. The air is full of it. "To strive, then, to forget enemies, or to throw out to them only friendly thought, is as much an act of self-protection as it is to put up your hands to ward off a physical blow. The persistent thought of friendliness turns aside ill will, and renders it harmless. The injunction of Christ to do 326 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. good to your enemies is founded on a natural law. It is that the thought or element of good will carries the greater power, and will always turn aside and prevent injury from the thought of ill will. "Demand forgetfulness when it is only possible for you to think of a person or thing with the pain that comes of grief, anger, or any disturbing cause. Demand is a state of mind which sets in motion forces to bring you the result desired. Demand is the scientific basis of prayer. Do not supplicate. Demand persistently your shar§ of force out of the elements about you, by which you can rule your mind to any desired mood. "There are no limits to the strength to be gained through the cultivation of our thought- power. It can keep from us all pain arising from grief, from loss of fortune, loss of friends, and disagreeable situations. Such power is the very element of that attitude of mind most favorable to the gain of fortune and friends. The stronger mind throws off the burdensome, wearying, fretting thought, forgets it, and interests itself in something else. The weaker mind dwells in the fretting, wor- rying thought, and is enslaved by it. When you fear a misfortune (which may never happen), your HEALING THROUGH POWER OF MIND. 327 body becomes weak; your energy is paralyzed. But you can, through constantly demanding it, dig out of yourself a power which can throw off any fear or troublesome state of mind. Such power is the high road to success. Demand it, and it will increase more and more, until at last you will know no fear. A fearless man or woman can accomplish wonders. "That no individual may have gained such amount of this power, is no proof that it cannot be gained. New and truly wonderful things are ever happening in the world. Thirty years ago, he who should assert that a human voice could be heard between New York and Philadelphia would have been called a lunatic. Todav, the wonder of a telephone is an every-day affair. The power of our thought, still unrecognized, will make the telephone but a tame affair. Men and women, through cultivation and use of this power, are to do wonders which fiction has not, or dares not put before the world." CHAPTER XVIII. TRUE BEAUTY. Every person, male or female, should make himself attractive, if not beautiful. This is an imperative duty, providing it can be accomplished without risk to life or health. I wish to impress on the minds of my readers the fact that it is possible to be just as healthy at fifty years of age as at fifteen, and consequently just as beautiful. Many men and women of today realize this truth, though they are few in comparison with the num- ber who will accept it in the future. Physicians understand that the majority of complexion beautifiers are destructive to the skin, in the long run ; that by the absorption of washes, lotions and powders, various nervous and other- disorders are developed, such as headache, sleep- lessness, loss of memory and appetite, granulation and thickening of the eyelids, opacity of the eyes, and many other disorders of the sight; also lan- guor, and great weakness in the arms and legs — often diagnosed as rheumatism. Incipient paraly- sis, or lead paralysis is the true condition of the patient. TRUE BEAUTY. 329 The ill health of many ladies may be traced to the absorption of lead, bismuth, corrosive subli- mate, chalk, and flake white, which are the prin- cipal ingredients of the so called beautifiers, causing one or more of the above symptoms of disease, or disturbing the vital action ; this disturbance mani- fests itself through the nervous system, which is the telegraphic wire permeating every part of the hu- man system, as it is also the sentinel or watchman that carries every disturbed action of the system to the brain. To insure a permanently smooth and beautiful complexion, attention must be given to diet, bathing, rest and exercise, and the acquire- ment of a knowledge of proper dressing. A plain, nutritious diet is best. Drink no fluids with your meals, especially if in the least inclined to any weakness of the digestive apparatus. Soups and all fluids should be taken at the beginning of a meal, none being allowed to enter the stomach until the food is digested, or from two to three hours subsequently. Constipation is very destructive to a good com- plexion ; fecal matter is often absorbed into the system, causing headache and nausea, and stain- ing the skin a yellow, dingy color, frequently called liver spots. 330 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. The best means for removing constipation is a diet of cereals, vegetables and fruits, with bread made from the entire wheat flour, or a cup of uncooked rolled oats eaten in a little milk at breakfast; the same quantity of rolled wheat or ground barley may be substituted if preferred. A fountain syringe should be kept in the bathroom and resorted to whenever the rectum has not been relieved of all its contents ; by this means all ac- cumulated matter can be removed. Use plenty of water, occasionally adding a little good soap if the constipation is chronic or very obstinate. Never resort to physic or laxatives. While in the closet di- rect the mind to aid the evacuation. Do not strain or hurry. With haste or strain, action is retarded, the effect being to contract instead of relax the bowel. Take plenty of time, and relax in mind, thinking only of the object in view, and keeping all other thoughts away until the bowels have been evacuated ; concentrating the mind upon the act is very effectual. Washing the rectum with good soap and water is also a great aid. When tired, rest, if only for five minutes. Sit or lie perfectly quiet, and think of nothing but rest. Take your mind off everything and everybody. Always remember that by harboring your own strength, TRUE BEAUTY. 331 you are better able to help others. Do not worry about yourself or others, as that wastes your strength. Reserve all force for your own work, and cultivate thinking of one thing at a time. Take Turkish or Russian baths once or twice a week, if you can afford it. If not, take a hot bath in your room, and sponge off with cold water. Dry friction over the entire body every morning is invigorating in every case, reducing the excess of flesh in the corpulent, and increasing the growth of tissue in the lean ; friction being an excellent equal- izer of the circulation. Keeping up a vigorous cir- culation prevents wrinkles and early decay. Mas- sage of the face every night and morning stimulates the circulation of blood in the face, and is one of the best cosmetics, from which are received lasting results. Mix thoroughly one pint of glycerine and the juice of two lemons ; this preparation, applied to face and hands and rubbed well into the skin, removes all discolor ations. If the application be vigorously pursued for months, the flesh becomes clear, white and plump. CHAPTER XIX. VALUE OF REPOSE AS A RESTORATIVE. Physical repose possesses a restorative value not sufficiently recognized. Mental strain can be relieved through physical repose more readily than by any other means, which fact, could the insane be made to rightly comprehend it, would be the means of restoring almost any case, however difficult of cure. The proverbial American nervousness is not so much the result of mental tax as a lack of neces- sary bodily repose. Many people live under a con- stant tension, so much so that when lying in bed the muscles remain rigid ; they do not realize that it is impossible for the mind to relax until there has first been a physical relaxation. While it is true that the mind has great power over the body, it is also true that the body possesses great power over the mind; it is through an understanding of their mutual relations that the mind obtains its greatest relief, and achieves its highest expression of power. For example, by centering the thought on, and practicing physical relaxation, when in a REPOSE AS A RESTORATIVE. 333 condition of excitement or passion, the unpleasant feelings immediately disappear. Mental stress may be greatly relieved by re- maining seated for a short time in an easy position, and thinking only of rest. This can be accom- plished simply by keeping the word "rest" con- stantly before the mind. Many persons are rest- less because they do not know how to rest. Con- trolling the physical will bring ease in the midst of confusion. Relaxation of bodily tension gives men- tal ease. Many people are constantly exercising their mental faculties. This practice causes weak- ness instead of strength. It destroys the ability to transfer the thought from one subject to another at will. It causes a loss of mental control, which is one phase of insanity. Strength and self control are acquired through rest. The ability to dismiss a thought when you desire to do so is great gain. The mind constantly strained in one direction cannot see an opportunity when offered. It is in a rut, bound there by the strong chains of habit. The strings of a violin should not be kept at their utmost tension unless necessity exists for their use in that condition. The mind must be brought into a negative condition to receive new ideas. The habit of repose brings capacity for 334 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. presence of mind-; it brings the mind into a condi- tion to act promptly in emergencies. To increase and store up power is the ambition of all, but how to accomplish this is a knowledge belonging to comparatively few. This knowledge consists in obtaining sufficient mental and physical rest; a rest which gives time for recuperation. Human forces are constantly being increased, and if the exhaustive process predominates, the general power is diminished. Our educational systems re- quire too much mental and not sufficient physical exercise. We not only need hours, but minutes of repose. The minutes of repose are most readily obtained through easy bodily attitudes, and there is no situation where these cannot be enjoyed. The remedy for increase of power, for self-command, for presence of mind, for the ability and capacity to think new thoughts as required, is simple. The practice is not only easy, but delightful. The very thought of repose brings a feeling of repose. Believe you can get rest of mind through rest 01 of body, and you can do so. Believe you can have easy mental attitudes through easy physical attitudes, and you are in possession of a valuable recipe for health and strength. CHAPTER XX. MARRIAGE AND PARENTAGE OF THE FUTURE. At the present time, when a few minds have so far progressed as to dare exercise the right of in- dependent thought, one may venture to prophecy concerning the future without fear of fagot or thumb-screw, and also without fear of their modern progeny, the society boycott. The great age of a tenet is frequently offered as evidence of its truthfulness, and of the truthfulness of pet theories, when, in many cases, age is the only merit such theories possess. To progressive minds, the antiquity of a belief implies a question of its merit. Tracing humanity, in its various manifesta- tions, backward through the ages until a point is reached where investigation is baffled, we find the human mind more and more crude, more and more rudimentary; expressing itself in vagaries, dis- posed to worship, rather than to think ; disposed to fear, rather than to question. Again, we find that whenever a man or woman was conceived and born aright, and, upon reaching maturity, dared to give expression to normal thought, his 336 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. flat-skulled contemporaries graciously built a very warm fire, and roasted him ; such being the reward of the possessor of an independent mind, with the courage to live according to its convictions. In- variably, the man who attempts to depart from established customs, brings upon himself the bitter and relentless persecution of his fellow-men. Not only the records of history, but, far greater in im- portance, the evidence offered by geological re- search, justify us in this conclusion. From time immemorial, mankind has been characterized by a tendency to persecute any attempt to lift it from the slough of ignorance to a knowledge of the laws of life which, properly applied, would render it the perfect expression of the Divine mind. The fossil skulls and skeletons found all over Europe and the East, and, in fact, in all parts of the world, furnish conclusive evidence that the further back our investigation extends, the more do we find animal tendencies predominating. The skulls are low-browed, with heavy jaws and large, base-brain region. These truths should have the effect of lessening our habit of holding to the customs, forms of thought and vagaries of the ancients as the crite- rion by which to regulate our lives. Modern ideas FUTURE MARRIAGE AND PARENTAGE. 337 should engage our attention ; especially at a time when the crude is so far eliminated from our heads and hearts, through the natural law of organic growth, that woman dares to announce that she has a soul, and is allowed the right to offer her own evidence, in her own way, to support that position. It is better to take a precedent in an age when printing presses, railroads, telegraphs, telephones, and audophones, with a well-nigh perfect school system, abound in the land as evidences of prog- ress, than to retrogress toward that age when the human animal lived in a cave or mound, and spent the greater part of his time pounding flint that he might obtain fire from it, or shaping it for the purpose of knocking out his neighbor's brains, and then eating him. It may be said that such conditions have not existed in humanity for ages. True, but it is also a fact that man develops very slowly. This fact geology demonstrates, and ethnology confirms. Of comparatively recent date is the bitter persecu- tion instigated by the great divine, Cotton Mather, against women, both young and old, on the charge of witchcraft. These women were con- demned and executed by methods as barbarous as any used during the Inquisition. It is recorded 338 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. that one hundred thousand persons thus perished. With these unsavory truths before us, evidences of grades of intelligence to be but little envied, let us seek deliverance from the enemy — the enemy whose name is ignorance ; ignorance of our origin and of the latent, undeveloped forces and abilities which we possess, but know not how to develop in- to use. Geology and science demonstrate that man is an expression of forces heretofore manifest on lower planes of being, retrogressing more and more as we approach the planet's earlier history. Man inherits, in a great degree, types, forms and mental traits. He inherits, also, in a retrogressive degree. This is observed in the fact that children often resemble, mentally or physically, a member of the family for generations laid in the tomb. In this manner, our mental and physical organiza- tions are obtained, disposing us to crime as we preserve, through this law of retro-inheritance, traits that were inherent at an early period of the planet's history, when man was nothing more than a savage beast. Retro-inheritance is the origin of the evil tendencies still observed, in a greater or less degree, in humanity. The criminals of a com- munity are born with organizations and brain structures predominant in evil ; various combina- FUTURE MARRIAGE AND PARENTAGE. 339 tions in the brain, of the organs of the lower propensities, produce the various kinds and degrees of criminality. No one, as yet, is free from inher- ited tendency to vice, a tendency which the criminal code of our land serves to foster and encourage; the law of capital punishment in particular has this effect. War, or preparations for war, so inimical to the true Avelfare of the country, preserves and encourages brutality. The mind of a person con- stantly turned in any one direction for the accom- plishment of a certain end will aggregate great power toward its accomplishment. So with united mental action or national effort; continual preparation for war must finally succeed in bring- ing about those conditions which favor a display of that barbarity brought down with us from the ages when man lived entirely on the plane of animal propensity. If all the defects found in men and women of today are the natural outcome of influences com- ing down to us by inheritance from primeval man, we ask the reader if he cannot see a more effective way out of the rudimental jungles of ignorance than by following the instincts, not of Nature in her original purity and truth, but as she is perverted by ages of ignorance and wilful mis- 340 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. understanding? If men and women prefer to remain the slaves of their pampered appetites, with their animal passions as masters, then we must expect the conditions of the future will be in line with those of the past. But if, leaving the plane of sensual life, they will love and marry ac- cording to a higher law, then we shall see the dawn of the beginning of a new dispensation. Great men and women will then be born, who will be the glory of their race and the apex of true civilization. We will now endeavor to give a brief explana- tion of man's origin. The nebulous theory of world formation is now admitted by scientists to be the true one. Briefly, that theory is this : That cosmic matter, or world-substance, exists everywhere in space, operating on such a high plane of atomic motion as to render it ethereal, imponderable and on a plane above the evidence of our physical senses. When old planets and systems of planets, in their magnetic and electric conditions, etc., favor the condensation of this cosmic matter, opaque, nebu- lous masses appear, thus forming the nucleus of a new planet. Astronomers of the present day believe these mist worlds, now observable in a FUTURE MARRIAGE AND PARENTAGE. 341 state of growth, to have formed the nuclei of all the planets in the solar system; our own earth among the number. The accumulated evidence in support of this hypothesis need not at present be given. From the arrest of atomic action heat is evolved, hence the conclusion that our planet was once a seething caldron of fire — early human substance. The atomic motion of highly attenu- ated matter, being arrested and transferred to this nucleus of a new world, gave us planetary motion, and, after millions of ages of cooling and prepara- tion, life dawned in the form of plasmic, one-cell protozones. How? The energies first existing as cosmic, imponderable ether, having undergone certain chemical changes through planetary pro- cesses, at length developed into the most primitive forms of life, whence we have its many and varied expressions, up to, and including, man. That this is the true history of our planet and her innumer- able family of children — life of her life — none can doubt who will give the subject a little study. Man, then, is a product of the planet and the myriad forces of its atmosphere. He is the forces of his mother earth, refined, individualized and perfected through organic processes. 342 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. In support of this position and as evidence of its truth, we give the following facts. It is well known that a dense population springs up where- ever is found a rich, fertile soil. This population is maintained until, by constant use, the earth becomes depleted. Critically examined, this fact indicates that primitive planetary forces, through various forms of progression, have developed to the plane of vegetable life, approximating the plane of man sufficiently for absorption by him; thus becoming substance of his substance, life of his life, and finally attaining the perfect flower of all growth — the life of the spirit. Why does population decrease as the fertility of the soil diminishes? Because the substance used for the deA^elopment of human souls is exhausted, having attained an ethereal plane of vibration in organized spirit bodies. Much of the old eastern country, now uninhabited waste, was once teeming with the life which now occupies the spirit planes of individualized being. Reading the agricultural papers of the day, we find them teeming with warnings to the farmers concerning the rapid devitalization of the soil. The rapid waste of fertility can in a measure be laid to the charge of careless husbandry, but with the best care, fertility FUTURE MARRIAGE AND PARENTAGE. 343 of the soil will gradually lessen. Special deposits of fertilizing material may be utilized with good results, but this only tends to establish our premise more firmly. Thousands of square miles in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont are now waste because the conditions of the soil are no longer such as to render the production of spirit life, through development, possible. In addition to the above irrefutable facts, proving that human life is simply the result of planetary forces sublimated and individualized, it is observed that in regions Avhere people have dwelt for many years on the same soils, certain traits or characteristics are more or less peculiarly marked, while within a radius of but ten miles, with a differ- ent soil or subsoil, characteristics are entirely different. For instance, where the basial soil con- sists of disintegrated flint, the inhabitants are, as a rule, slender in form, active in habits, frank, sociable and spiritually inclined. On the contrary, when the basial soil is of limestone origin, the peo- ple indigenous to it are inclined to be corpulent, phlegmatic, less sociable, and more subject to the passions. So we ever find qualities in humanity corresponding to qualities in the soil to which it is indigenous. 344 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. Newton sat under an apple-tree, and, noticing an apple fall to the ground, set to work with an energy only equaled by the tenacity of the forces he investigated, to pursue gravitation and its agency in planetary behavior. It remains to be pointed out by what agency this gravitation, transferred from the planet to man, is expressed in his loves and hates. The relations of the sexes, their loves and hates, is identically the same force that controlled cosmic matter in space, which formulated, and now governs and individualizes, life and man from it. Does law obtain in Nature, — scientist, philosopher, thinker? We have been groping about, lost in the wild jungles of ignorance for ages past, seeking to climb a perpendicular wall that we may escape, only to end as we began, in difficulty, and making but slow progress toward emancipation. Now, in these modern times, impatience for the truth reaching a high tension, many of us seek to escape material- ism upon the wings of vagaries and mysticism that only differ from the past in being the same errors etherealized. Facts alone, not precedent or mysticism, furnish the only light that will lead safely to the path of knowledge and redemption. All atoms and molecules, whether in a crystal, FUTURE MARRIAGE AND PARENTAGE. 345 solid, or radiant state, seek their places and are held there by the law of gravity, or attraction and repulsion. Man being an aggregation and subli- mation of planetary forces — magnetism, electricity, light, heat, gravity, oxygen, motion and force— it follows that the attraction and repulsion of these forces, in their infinite combinations, determine his nature and actions. We call it love or hate on the human plane. In life below us, we call it instinct. With this preparation or premise, and with due appreciation of its importance, we now with reverence approach the subject of the coming redemption of the race, namely; Marriage and Parentage of the Future. In Nature's laboratory we find certain element- al forces operating on certain planes for a period long or short in duration, as the case may be, then changing types and developing new forms. One of the marked changes of the future will be emancipa- tion from a state of subjection to the passions, to the liberty of the reign of reason. Keason will predominate in both men and women, and by its light shall they govern love. By its light also, shall they see each other clearly, and this vision, born of wisdom and truth, shall guide them to a perfect union, a union, not for the gratification of 346 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. the lusts of the flesh, but for their mutual develop- ment into the harmony and beauty of a perfect life. A life beautiful in its completeness, made so by an understanding of the laws governing it. Then only will humanity rise above the animal plane of being. Our bodies will then command respect because of the realization that they are the laboratories wherein the eternal spirit-body is developing and evolving from planetary substances, foods, etc., and that the character and quality of the spirit is greatly determined by the food, drink and air utilized in the process. The fertilizer placed around the rose-bush is converted into attar of roses. The character of the soil and fertilizer determines, not only the quality of the attar, but of the bush as well. So with the spirit or soul; the body that elaborates it from the sap-blood will be under the direction of this new force, with reason as its guid- ing star. Woman will then know how to be beau- tiful ; she will possess true beauty and strength of character, and realize that corsets, rich food and irregular hours break down the health, as well as beget bad temper and ungoverned passions. When this sun of reason has risen, man will not waste his life in the pursuit of wealth regard- FUTURE MARRIAGE AND PARENTAGE. 347 less of the method used to obtain it. Nor will he then defile his body with the poisons of alcohol and tobacco. Reason, not appetite, will be his guide. He will seek one lovely and lovable woman, guided by reason and love. This woman also, has found the perfect way to a perfect life, the under- standing of the true laws that govern being. She is now a pure human flower; a woman who is master of herself. This man and woman converse upon life's duties. They speak of the union of two souls for happiness, joy, duty: happiness and joy because they do their duty, — because they know their place in Nature and rejoice in it. They know they evolved from the planet, or matter so called, through organic processes. They know they are, through their bodies, elaborating, individualizing and etherealizing matter into a spirit body that will arise from the old body at death, which is the real, the new birth. The new savior, reason, teaches our pair these truths. They say to each other, let us have a marriage of souls, not merely a formal ceremony accompanied by pomp and rich viands. Let one of the purposes of this marriage be to bring into existence a child who shall be an ideal being. Let us not be led by blind, unre- 348 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. strained passion, as has been the case with the races of men in the past, thus filling the world with animals, and the asylums with lunatics. Let us subject our minds and bodies alike to purification for at least a twelvemonth before the act that starts into being the one who is to be an example to the world ; an example in proof of the fact that we are born, not made, into greatness. Born great, we shall be great. Born scrubs, we shall be scrubs. Let the man and woman, who are to pioneer anew race of rational beings, live, during the year of preparation, very temperately, on the simplest foods, and as little cooked as possible, since Nature knows best how to ripen her viands for our best welfare. Live much in the open air amid pleasant scenery. Let the husband, true as steel, and the wife, as true, often inspire to each other by conversation concerning the ideal beauty, physical and mental, they are preparing them- selves to bring into being. At the moment of em- brace, after a year spent in preparation, let the accumulated expectancy of the whole year crown the act as a love offering, to be the last act of the kind till the new being is born. This is of the most vital importance. Copulation after conception is more unnatural, more brutalizing both to parents FUTURE MARRIAGE AND PARENTAGE, 349 and child, than all other habits and causes com- bined. It is always unwelcome to the woman and always thrust upon her by the man. Now commences a nine-month's period of growth and construction, that determines the char- acter of the future human being for all time to come. With the year's mental and physical pre- natal preparation, both indispensable to best results, you now have ready for development the purest, highest and best germ possible. The to-be mother should continue her simple diet, bathe free- ly, and take much out-door exercise, thinking cheerful and noble thoughts, ever dwelling upon pleasant themes; such thoughts, with correct food, determine the quality of the brain structure of the child. Remember, the new being is, in every part, evolved from the blood. The blood is a product of the food, and the food is composed of planetary and sun forces. In view of the importance of this fact, keep your blood rich, cool, active and pure. For this purpose, at this important period, the wife and coming mother should live principally upon fruits and succulent vegetables, with a small amount of the grains, rolled oats, wheat, whole-wheat bread, etc., with little, if any, of animal food. The good 350 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. old cook, Nature, knows best how to mix our foods. We have strayed so far away from her influence and become so artificial, that were we sud- denly to find ourselves in a simple and natural state, we would probably imagine it to be abnormal. The father's duty by no means ceases at con- ception. He should enter whole-souled into every plan and movement of the wife. Speak to her of the coming pride of their life. Have a happy smile and kiss for her on all suitable occasions. Cause her to be a mirror, reflecting your love, tenderness, and care. If these rules are faithfully and heartily carried out through the entire gestative period, behold, at the end of an easy birth, a philosopher. The head is fine; high in the moral region, wide and large in the intellectual, and small in the region of animal propensity. What an eye she has! A girl will probably be desired, because in the time of the reign of reason, woman will be acknowledged as naturally a little finer grained than man, hence, her intuitions are superior. It should be a girl, also, because we need good, grand and noble women, and this child, so born, must grow to one, in time becoming a noble mother, repeating herself and her mother's experience in her posterity. Yes, a noble body, a noble soul to FUTURE MARRIAGE AND PARENTAGE. 351 grow to noble womanhood, and show mankind what an understanding of the laws that govern life can do to save the race. What happy parents this couple will be! A happiness born of self-denial and duty, performed will be theirs, of passion subdued, and a new plane reached through victory over self. The neighbors will whisper, "How keen and beautiful that little curlv headed Mvrtle is; how tender, kind and considerate to others, to her playmates, and to all living things. Have you heard how strangely her parents acted for some time previous to her birth? It's a real romance. I've heard that they believe that beings, body and spirit, are individualized from the planet through organic processes. I've heard that the parents believe that the true Savior of the race is to consist in a true knowledge of how to be born aright. And really, doesn't it look as if it were true? A perfect angel is that little Myrtle. How wise beyond her years ! Theosophists believe she is the forty-ninth re-incarnation, but, if true, who are her real parents?" But the parents know better than that. They know why Myrtle is so intelligent and so noble. "Let us call on them some day, and learn something of the new plan, the new savior," say these neighbors. 352 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. They go over and get a sermon ; text, — man is evolved from the planet through organic processes, hence must be saved through organic processes. The parents explain how the blood conveys sub- stance to build every part of the body, — bone, muscle, nerve, brain. They explain how the blood whirls into brain-substance, and thence into thought-substance, as indicated by the rapid waste of brain tissue, and great amount of blood required in mental effort. They explain how Myrtle came, and how passion, or animal impulse, was ignored by following only the higher aspirations, with reason as guide. Myrtle grew up to be the possessor of great beauty of form ; she had no wish to lace, or use poisonous cosmetics to enhance her beauty , because her intuitions were pure, healthy, and always correct. Her mind and disposition were charming. Everybody was fascinated with her. She sensed at a glance the thoughts of those with whom she came in contact, hence, easily kept her right place in society, knowing instinctively whom to shun and whom to trust. She obtained her education in two ways ; first, by a keen observation of facts and of the operations of Nature, both in the mind and matter domains, and second, by an evolving or un- f FUTURE MARRIAGE AND PARENTAGE, 353 folding of herself from within. She sensed the great clouds of electricity and magnetism that are constantly being set free deep down in the earth and rising to the surface, there to intermingle with the air and be inhaled at every breath. She recog- nized how these forces, entering the blood through marvelous organic processes, are raised to the plane of spirit and thought-substance. She never could have sensed these subtle truths had she been born under the old plan of total depravity. Myrtle's great wisdom and magical grace of body and mind are noised abroad, and she is soon in great demand. Those who have mental distempers, as well as physical, seek her presence to be cured. A glance of her eye, with the melody of her voice, and a breath of her magic magnetism, at once sends to oblivion all inharmony, and the patient's cry is, "born into health!" Myrtle knows she came from the planet, knows she is the highest expression of organized planetary forces. She knows that purity and naturalness of habit, purity and simplicity of food, cleanliness, deep breathing and sweet, rich blood beget sweet, rich thoughts and a charming presence, or what is the same thing, magnetism. Thus, wealthy in wisdom, best of all wealth, 354 . . CURE OF DISEASE. SIMPLIFIED. rounded out and endowed with highest natural traits, Myrtle reached the age of pure womanhood when love seeks a response. She had heard much of Switzerland, the land that has been free for six centuries ; the land that fought so hard to conquer the demon of religious and political oppression, and the black arts of dogma, the land of the freest people upon earth. Some one of the mothers of Switzerland, Myrtle thought, may have given birth to a true man — a natural, noble, independent, pure man who had been born aright. So Myrtle prepared to take a trip abroad. Her wardrobe was very simple. She trusted to her natural attractions, as well she might, to insure recognition wherever she was pleased to go. Her person, mind, and manner, unconsciously to her- self, expressed poesy. All who sensed its marvelous harmony were entranced. AVhile aboard the vessel she taught the passengers a lesson. She explained to them that they might avoid sea-sickness, by living, the first day or two out, on a little dry graham toast, or oatmeal eaten dry. If these precautions were taken till the system became ac- customed to the motion, all would be well. Meet- ing a terrific storm, Myrtle, by the magnetism of a fearless mind, calmed her frightened companions, FUTURE MARRIAGE AND PARENTAGE. 355 showing them the folly of fear, and telling them that a cool and calm mind abated storms every- where. She showed them that no extraneous storm, however violent, could equal internal violence. Mental weakness, she said, was the calm preceding the only storm that could do one any very serious damage — the storm in the unknown sea of the human heart. The passengers learned numerous valuable lessons from Myrtle; one middle-aged lady, as if by intuition, said : "That lady was born aright. See what a head and eye. Do you notice," the old lady continued, "that she never goes to the table to eat? She thinks there isn't anything on it fit- to make blood for her system and brain. I think she must live somewhat as Benjamin Franklin did ; on oatmeal, on breathing, and on thought." In several instances, Myrtle was approached by titled gallants who offered themselves, backed by wealth of gold and the little heart they possessed, in exchange for her matchless woman- hood. Myrtle politely smiled these offers away. She was not fascinated, as many are, by the hol- low mockery of a title, even if amalgamated with gold. She was expecting her counterpart, a natural, temperate, healthy, sympathetic, men- 350 CURE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED, tally and morally rounded man, one who was born aright, who kept his place in Nature from intuition — one Avho knew no mean thought, one who could love a woman because she is the highest expression of the creative mind, one who can leave the animal plane and live in the ethical and mental. Such a one Myrtle expected to meet, love and wed. Arriving at Antwerp, the passengers bade Myrtle a hearty, wistful good-bye ; wistful, because by this time all recognized her modest, noble spirit, and could not prevent the secret wish that they might have been as she was. Myrtle did not linger at Antwerp, but sought the retirement of the mountain villas; the fruit and flower gardens, and the cozy foot-hill homes had a charm for her. They have for all song birds. Driving along the foot-hills of the famous Jung- frau, — famous because its wild beauty has been sung — Myrtle saw a young man in a plain, laborer's suit, in his garden of flowers and fruit. Karl Von Sena was this young man's name. I call him man. Myrtle had met so many of the sterner sex who drank rotted barley water, fire- water, and posed at the end of a cigar, that, to her keen sense, they "smelled to heaven," and the word FUTURE MARRIAGE AND PARENTAGE. 357 abhor was an accompaniment to gentleman, from her standard. When Myrtle drove nearer and Sena's eye met hers, an indescribable tremor, but for a moment, possessed her. Never before had she experienced any such sensation. During her life she had witnessed many tragical episodes, passing through them undaunted, but a glance from that eye, and a glimpse of the mind that leapt there- from, caused a tremor. She inquired of Karl the way to Eutli, the patch of meadow where, six centuries ago, the great trinity of Switzerland joined hands and took the oath that set an enslaved and insulted country forever free. A hasty conversation of the tongue passed between Karl and Myrtle, and a silent but much more eloquent one of the eye. The way to Rutli was given and Myrtle drove on, but in the moment of parting two pairs of eyes poured out to each other a whole universe of sympathetic thought. Karl Von Sena was born of honest, healthy, liberty-loving parents, who were descendants of the old Sena stock. Baron Yon Sena was one of the early martyrs. Karl's mother possessed a noble mind; she lived close to Nature, being a great admirer of the beautiful scenery around her. The grand Jungfrau (virgin), the beautiful, rose 358 C URE OF DISEASE SIMPLIFIED. majestically in the background, thus, through the mother's mind, stamping Karl with a poetical tem- perament, and a love of the beautiful. Karl was motive-mental, while Myrtle was mental-sanguine, or a brunette and blondine. Three months after the first language of the eyes, Karl and Myrtle again met at a celebration of the anniversary of the freedom of Switzerland, at a beautiful village, well named the Cradle of Liberty, located in the breast-pocket of Jungfrau. Here the great eternal seal of love was placed upon two brows and two hearts. Karl had traveled in America, and had heard of the LeBrants (Myr- tle's parents) and their peculiar doctrines. He explained at this meeting how he sensed, with the soul's eyes, a sweet, inspiring, ennobling feminine influence and presence while in the garden, before becoming physically aware of Myrtle's presence. Myrtle soon removed all the little foibles found in Karl's character (the result of imperfect knowl- edge on the part of his parents) and taught him the habits of a pure life — one without danger of pain. She taught him how to reach a good old age, and thus, in this nursery state, upon the earth-plane, mature the spirit-bud through the sap-blood. In- side the cocoon, she told him, was evolving a FUTURE MARRIAGE AND PARENTAGE. 359 butterfly. She taught him— he had the intellect to see and the heart to acknowledge— that the body was for the purpose of organizing, from matter, a pure, noble, immortal spirit-body, and at passing through the great chemical sieve, death, the body would be sloughed off and the spirit left free in its radiant home. Death, to them, was the crossing on rainbow wings to the ineffable Elysias, the hereto- fore black deserts of fear that mythology has clothed in such hideous garb. This case, taken from life, shows that the com- ing savior, Future Marriage and Parentage, under the guiding star of reason, can save. Let us look forward to her with eager expectancy. We have given this case as an illustration of the future condition of humanity, when Marriage and Parentage shall be governed by REASON — when the emancipation of the race shall be at- tained, not only by a knowledge of the laws that govern life, but also by their universal application. FINIS. Index. Aconitum Napellus Acid fruit drinks Acute diseases Age Air as food Ailanthus An open fire Ancient notions Antiangioiticos Apple tea Apis Mellifica Arnica . Arrow-root gruel Arsenicum Asiatic Cholera Australians Baby's mouth Bathing Hot Barley gruel Belladonna Bladder, Inflammation " Paralysis Brain, Softening " Inflammation " Food Bryonia Alba Bright's Disease Broiled beef tea . " pulp " " essence t '■ • PAGE 199 265 128 11 56 200 257 3 252 265 201 201 258 202 137 71 15 88 96 258 203 186 186 187 186 260 202 61 268 269 268 362 INDEX, Cactus Grandiflora Calcarea Carbonate Calcarea Phosphate Callendula Cancerosos Cantharis . Care of the eyes Care and cooking for invalids Case three Case four . Catarrh Change of life in man Change of life Cholera Chicken broth Cina Corn tea Cold Cold air Corpulency Constipation Constipation, infallible remedy Colds and Chorea Corns » Coughs Colchicum Colic . Congestions Crust coffee Cramps Croup, Spasmodic Croup, Membranous Cure of disease made simple Cut flowers in sick-room Diabetes PAGE 232 231 230 206 254 229 113 257 35 35 172 106 92 170 269 206 264 130 132 144 166 168 171 173 174 205 173 85 264 169 175 175 123 257 163 INDEX. 363 PAGE Diarrhoea . .... 175 Diarrhoea • • ... . 158 Diet for invalids . .... 258 Diet for pregnancy • .271 Diphtheria . 176 Diphtheria . . . . 158 Diseases of the nose .... 195 Dropsy . .... . 177 Drosera .... 206 Dreaded diseases . . . 127 Dyspepsia . . 178 Ear-ache . 189 Education of infants .... 39 Egg gruel . 260 Electro-Homoeopath} 246 (( it it How to Administer . . 216 it it it Dilutions 247 it ti if External . 218 it it it Compresses 218 Epilepsy . 179 Erysipelas . . 180 Extra breathing 10 Falling of the womb . . 191 Farina gruel . 260 Fear in Cholera . .... 309 Febrifugos . 255 Felon . 181 Ferrum . 228 Flax-seed lemonade 266 Foot-baths 85 Foreign bodies in the eyes 181 Garfield 87 General, specific memory 278 Goitre . . . . . 182 Gout . 182 364 INDEX. Graphites Gravel Gruel, egg Gum water Hay fever Health bread Headache Hepar Sulphur Herb teas Hemorrhoids or piles Healing through Power of Mind Hints on Digestion Hotel Rosa Husbands, a word to them Hysteria Hypochondria Ignatia Indigestion Indian meal gruel Infallible treatment and cure Inflammation of the kidneys Intermittent fever Ipecacuanha Irish moss jelly Irish moss lemonade . Jaundice Jelly and Ice . Kali Bichromicum Lachesis La Grippe Lean and nervous people Lemonade Lilium Tig. Lycopodium Macrotin PAGE 227 181 260 264 182 271 183 226 267 184 290 50 249 27 185 185 225 178 258 137 160 158 223 263 266 190 265 224 222 157 165 266 221 220 232 INDEX. 3t>5 PAGE Man's origin 310 Materia Medica . 198 Marriage and Parentage of the Future 335 Meats ..... . 268 Medical Electricity 233 Memory, its benefit to health . 272 Memory aids cheerfulness 283 Meningitis . 186 Menses suppression 190 Milk porridge . 259 Milk Crust .... 193 Mumps .... . 193 Mush for invalids 261 " Indian meal . 261 " Graham .... 268 Mutton broth .... . 269 Nausea, or vomiting . . 194 Nervousness . . . . 195 Nettle rash, (Urticaria) . 194 Neuralgia .... . 194 Nitric acid .... 220 Nourishment .... . 156 Nux vomica .... 219 Oatmeal gruel . 259 Palpitation of the heart . 183 Panada No. 1 . . 260 Peritonitis . . . . 186 u u . 152 Phosphoric acid .... 216 Phosphorus .... . 218 Philosophy of disease and its cure 237 Phytolacca .... . 217 Poultice ..... 139 Podophyllum . . 215 Prevention better than cure 118 366 INDEX. Predisposing causes of Cholera Prevention of Cholera Professor Loisette Principles of Electro-Homceopathy Progressive physicians Pulsatilla . Restorative , Rice water Scarlet fever . Scrofoloso No. 1 Sea sickness Sepia Silicea . Slippery elm tea . Small pox Spongia Staphisagria Stewed beef essence Stage of incubation Sulphur Symptoms of Typhoid Syphilitic . Symptoms of Cataracts Syncope Tamarind water Tapioca jelly Tartar emetic Teething The blood Throat, inflammation Thought in force Thuja Toast water Treatment of general disease Treatment for the eyes . PAGE 143 143 278 215 157 211 263 262 158 250 197 212 213 265 158 211 210 268 143 209 143 255 114 184 266 263 233 43 133 189 316 208 264 160 115 INDEX. 367 PAGE Treatment of fevers .... 146 True beauty - ■ ■ :- ---•---. • . . 328 Typhoid fever . . . " 146 Umbilical cord • • • .14 Understanding brings contentment 289 Uterus . • • . 190 Value of repose .... 332 Veratrum Alba • • • . 207 Viride . . • . » 207 Venereo , , , . 255 Vermifugo No. 1 . • • » • 255 Vegetable Electricity • • • . 256 Visiting the sick . • • I • 332 Young married women • • t . 34 Wine whey s • • • 266 368 Notice to Patrons. My formula of vegetable remedies, used for painless childbirth, is composed of herbs gathered from both continents. The ingredients are not in the least narcotic; they act in perfect harmony upon the system, one constituent not destroying or neutralizing the properties of the other. The nervous and muscular system is brought under their complete control, according to the quantity of the tea taken; some constitutions relaxing more readily than others. The patient suffers no incon- venience, no feeling of exhaustion, the strength not being taxed in any way whatever. Relaxation is not exhaustion. The mother feels stronger, clearer in mind, and better in every way than before the birth of her child. Prescriptions are forwarded to any address on receipt of $3.00. Book, "Cure of Disease Simplified," $2.25. Book and one prescription, $4.25. Full instructions accompany each prescription. Special rates to physicians. Dr. Mary R. Melendy, 3105 Calumet Avenue, Chicago, 111. - - WHAT IS - - Klectro-4Tomceopathy ? A perfect system of medicine, discovered by Count Mattei, of Italy. A system so simple, so perfect, and so complete, as to be a means of self-cnre in the hands of every intelligent person. In the Physician's hands it is T^e UltmjatUn} of Qhve. Electro-Homceopathy is a new medical science, founded by Count Csesar Mattei, who still lives and watches with jealous care the preparation of his wonderfully effective remedies. The Count, having resigned his seat in the Italian Chamber of Deputies many years ago, lived in quiet retire- ment in his romantic old Castle Bochetta, in a hilly and picturesque country, not far distant from Bologna, Italy. Here he spent his leisure hours in study. The different medical schools finally occupying his attention, he became aware of the many diseases listed as incurable. Feeling a warm interest in mankind, he put forth his best efforts to find out some means of reducing the list of incurables. Studying carefully the different schools, he was attracted more to Homoeopathy — Hahnemann's great work — then in its infancy. Much as he admired this great physician and scientist, he endeavored to find — by an improved method of preparing them — remedies whose curative action should be greater, whose reliability should in time become renowned. Having satisfied himself as to the theory, he began to practice upon himself and upon the tenants of his large estate. After some years' practice and practical experimenting, he began to give to the world what he had found — Electro-Homoeopathy. The theory upon which the Count builds his system is this: All disease is caused by the vitiation of the blood or lymph, or both blood and lymph. The blood supplies the tis- sues of the body with their necessary nourishment, the different organs and tissues eliminating in turn through the vascular and lymphatic systems. Health is dependent upon the normal transformation of matter in the body. The lymphatics, like the vascular system — blood vessels — form a net- work permeating every part of the body; so small are these tiny vessels that the point of the finest needle cannot be introduced through the skin without piercing one of them. The lymphatic vessels carry a whitish fluid from the different organs to the thoracic duct, thence into the vena cava, where it mixes and is transformed into blood, by means of oxygen, just before entering the heart. The manner of preparing these remedies is peculiar. The Count, still active at eighty-five years, has taken something of the Hahnemann] an school — the small dose and the doctrine of similars. From the old school he has taken the compounds, always having several medicinal products in each remedy. From the spagyrics of the middle ages he derived the peculiar method of preparing his remedies. By Electro he does not mean electricity, but that because their action at times is so quick as to suggest the title. The five fluid remedies he calls Electricities — vegetable electricity; these are powerful ex- tracts prepared in the manner of the spagyrics. All these remedies are extracted from non-poisonous plants having electric properties. They produce a gentle, at times an instantaneous action, but usually the action is gradual. In chronic cases the action is gradual and continuous. Since they are so gentle, they can be taken any length of time without disturbing the system. For a more complete description send to Dr. Chas. Pusheck, 330 La Salle Ave., Chicago, 111., the American General Depository, for one of the "Guides to Electro-Homoeo- pathy." Sent free to any address. THE GUIDE OR VADE A Pamphlet of 64 Pages, Containing a Synopsis of the Principles and Practice of ELECTRO-HOMEOPATHY. This gives a list of the remedies, and also, list of the more common diseases and how to treat them with these remedies, will be sent postpaid to any address. Send in your name for one. The reader is earnestly requested to call the attention of friends and digciples of Homoeopathy, as well as any person afflicted with disease, to this Vade Mecum. DR. C. PUSHECK, Electro-Homoeopathic Specialist for all Chronic and So Called Incurable Diseases. Consultations by mail a special feature. Send for question blank for any disease. Prescrip- tions made by correspondence. -330 Lh^rlle. fjv (rtic«60.lu 330 LA SALLE AVENUE. Hours from 1 to 5 P. M. Tuesdays, 9 A. M. to 9 P. M. Not open Sundays. Correspondence solicited.