<4<:<f$-5S:L\\v£:v;£;£L^<;r'x:i3K-:?:=xW:3B£x^>x^r^^^ » *• * -- " •• tlslifcii^iK^ * -S- .4 ~-. - •*- 2: ~ ■"*" **'*'^' 7.;. .. ~ _ - - - X •► "' 2"* " " "-'a THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH BY ALMA C. ARNOLD BODY ANIMAL NEW YORK ALFRED A. KNOPF 1918 COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, Inc. FMhtd Afril mt PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OE AMERICA FOREWORD The following pages were written after great grief at the sudden accidental death of a dear friend and patient. This friend had, during the last three months of his life, urged me daily to put into print my teachings that had made life abundant with health and happiness for him. He never was an invalid, but at fifty-five had the usual symptoms presaging the ailments of old age, supplemented by the hopelessness and fears of the practice of the older sciences of healing. I brought him hope mentally and demonstrated to him physically that he was the master of his health and happiness through mind science, exer- cise, diet and the reconstruction of his spinal col- umn. He changed from one, afraid of old age and symptoms of weakened organs, into the student of life who could make of himself whatever he wished. To John Dunbar Wright, the friend I lost, and to the many patients who have encouraged me by their appreciation of my work, is due my publish-! FOREWORD ing this book. It is the work not of a literary person but rather of a Teacher of Health and of a Humanitarian and it was written for the laity, the seekers after health rather than as a scientific thesis. To the seeker of Health and Happiness, I dedi- cate it. Alma C. Arnold. CHAPTER PAGE I. The Soul 1 II. The Mind 7 III. The Body 13 How to stand, sit and lie down correctly; how to exercise for spinal and abdominal strength, for liver stimulation, for kidney efficiency and to keep joints elastic. How to bathe after exercise. IV. The New Science of Health 26 Cosmo-Therapy, including Chiropractice, Dietetics, Hygiene and Hydro-Therapy. V. Our Organs and Their Functions 38 Nerve Control Circulation Respiration Digestion Assimilation Elimination Generation Regeneration. VI. Inoculations and Operations 44 Quotations from Scientific Articles. VII. Diseases 57 Rheumatism Fevers CONTENTS CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Autotoxaemia and Constipation Colds Catarrh Hay fever. VIII. Drugs 66 Ancient Drugs Modern Drugs What famous physicians say of them Tonics. IX. Drugs versus Foods 77 Drugless Science impossible without the Science of Dietetics. X. How Much Shall We Eat? 84 XI. How Shall We Combine Our Foods? 90 The different mono diets General rules on diet. XII. A Week's Menu 105 Substitutes for meat dishes Recipes The folly of mixing inharmoniously. XIII. The Staple Foods 117 Bread, recipes for bread Water Alcoholic beverages Soft drinks Sugar Milk Meat and its substitutes Vegetables Salts and condiments Fruits. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XIV. Overweight and Underweight 159 Drugs or diet? XV. Sex and Regeneration I68 Reproduction Pleasure Regeneration. XVI. Old Age 178 The Life of Conaro and the Life of Clara Barton. ILLUSTRATIONS NO. PAGE I. The Triangle of Health Title page II. Man Positive, Man Negative 14 III. The Young Spine, the Old or Incorrect Spine 15 IV. A-Right and Wrong Standing 16 B-Right and Wrong Sitting 17 C-Right and Wrong Lying Down. 17 V. A-Exercises for Spinal and Abdominal 20 B-Exercises for Liver Stimulation 21 C-Exercises for Kidney Efficiency 22 D-Exercises to Keep Knees Elastic. 22 VI. A-The Nervous System 29 B-Spinal Openings, Normal 30 C-Spinal Openings, Abnormal. 30 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH CHAPTER I THE SOUL The soul's desire is primarily for happiness, and Happiness is impossible without Health. The creative force within us realizes that unless we are at peace with ourselves we are out of harmony with the universe and mankind. As long as we are not happy, we are creating undue introspection, selfish- ness and disease. Even in infancy we find the quest for happiness in the first desire of the infant for food. As we grow older we desire play and companionship- later learning, fame, power-and in the end peace. All this manifests itself through the mind and the body, but the desire for it is in the soul, the ego, the real I. The real 7 is a part of God the Supreme Power- Nature, Over-soul, or whatever you might call this great force outside of us. This is in contradiction 1 2 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH to the old Bible belief that we are worms of the dust. The New Testament and latterly Mental and Christian Sciences have brought the message to man that he is, to a great extent, the arbiter of his fate. This thought, this knowledge, creates the de- sire to know about the instruments of the soul: the mind and the body. The power to will a thing is of God and cannot help but win success for us if we will within reason. Trouble comes when we will or create without the working of the mind or reason. With reason as an adjunct to will we know that we must mount, step by step, to attain the heights of desire. We cannot, for instance, fill a scientific position without a thorough training that may cover years. We cannot hope to be wealthy without giving the equivalent in service for the money we long for. There is no quick road to success. The larger per- centage of successful men and women have studied and labored long and ardently, and when finally success came to them they knew that they had paid for it in advance. Understanding this, we should not expect to be happy, successful, or healthy, until we have paid for it. Of course, apparent instances can be cited to the contrary. Some people seem to be bom with a silver spoon, luck and opportunities, but it is only THE SOUL 3 in appearance-in fact all success has been labored for, either in this generation or the one before us. The majority know this and are grasping at op- portunities to learn how best to attune themselves to life and thus gain happiness. We find that the balancing of soul, mind and body creates the state of happiness that makes for progress of the individ- ual and of humanity. For humanity at large can only be helped by helping the individual. Man, to attain perfect happiness, must be healthy. He must cease to look at himself as so many sep- arate parts, but rather as a triune organism, suf- ficient unto himself. As the soul he expresses God, as the mind he personifies man, and as the body he represents the animal. The three sides of the triangle must harmonize and balance, or perfect health, happiness and peace cannot be his. Overattainment or underdevelopment on any side means disharmony, disease and misunderstanding of the Great God, Over-Soul, or Cosmic Law. A perfectly balanced triangle, on the other hand, is bound to result in a normal human being, radiating cheer, optimism, naturalness, and love. For the sake of more ready understanding, let us illustrate the three planes and their attributes, thus: We will find that the soul is the demonstration 4 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH of the Great Spirit and therefore the creative part of man. It lies with man to make out his program. What do you want to create? Ask yourself the question. Then act accordingly. Do you seek your happiness in the world to come? Then study the future life and live accord- ing to some of the old philosophers, or the Bible. In this case, you would scarcely expect to be much good to yourself or your fellow men on this earth, would you? Or is your mind, your consciousness, all aglow with ambition to do and dare? You would not think you could have success unless this thinking mind of yours were supplemented by your spiritual or initiative forces, and by your physical Health and Good Nature, would you? But supposing you possess a strong animal body. Is it going to get you anything if you have not the Cosmic force and mental strength to back you? Has the Hindu, with his spiritual understanding of the laws of the Universe, done anything to fit him for a happy existence here on earth? From most accounts, he is starving physically and men- tally under the yoke of one of the great nations. Can we envy the scholar and scientist? Gen- erally he has given so much of his life to Science THE SOUL 5 that he is a failure socially, financially or physi- cally. After all is said and done we may count nearer happiness the physical or animal man, and that is because our present abode is a physical planet. He is living according to the laws of a material plane. He lives according to his instincts, and wastes none of his energy on mental and spiritual problems. He eats and drinks what he likes, and lives a short life, and a merry one. One must accord to him the prize of getting closer to the laws of existence, here, on this earth. Looking at him, however, from the angle of a future existence, or a mental consciousness to which the progress of mankind is an obligation, he is absolutely nil. He may live content and sat- isfied until the final summons of the dissolu- tion of earthly existence comes to him in the figure of death. Then, unless those of us who have faced this figure in our lives are much mis- taken-the panorama of life that will pass before him in this last moment will be anything but peaceful. Even before that moment of dissolu- tion, his last years are encumbered with pains and regrets. The time has passed when we could blame our 6 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH burdens upon the Lord. We know full well now that such phrases as "God has given life and taken it away," and "It is God's will that sickness and trouble have come upon us" are a blasphemy. We know that God is good. Our own ignorance is the only devil there is. Soul, mind, and body are the three planes upon which health and happiness have to be wrought. But in this book I will concern myself mostly with the base of the triangle, the physical health and happiness. It is fundamentally important, as long as our abode is a physical planet. CHAPTER II THE MIND How many of us know that thought, motion and emotion travel through the body over a material avenue? Knowing or not knowing this, makes all the difference in the world in handling our body in an intelligent manner. Not knowing this one sin- gle fact means putting the cart before the horse. In this manner medical science has fumbled the issues of health for ages. Knowing this throws a different light on the sit- uation, and one is at a loss to understand why our great physicians and teachers have not held this fact, that the body is governed by nerves and brain, before their patients more sharply. Did we under- stand that the nervous system is the avenue over which the superconscious, the conscious and subcon- scious forces travel, we would have a wholesome fear of obstructing or abusing it in any manner. But even many physicians fail to realize the enor- mity of this great system of the body, because the 7 8 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH psychic part of it has been lost track of in this ma- terial age. This great force, the nervous system, receives from the unseen forces which we comprehend so little the impulse to action in the subconscious mind. That is: our blood runs through our arteries, our kidneys and intestines act, and this without any con- scious effort on our part. Do we want to walk, or move our hands or our mouth in speech, our nerves likewise have to command the situation. The nerv- ous system, therefore, becomes the link between the psychic world of which we know so little and the physical world of which we are so ignorant, in spite of all the great improvements of civilization. Harvey, in demonstrating the circulation of the blood, said, "Blood is life." Latter-day experi- ence has taught us, however, that blood circulation is only an incident in life. Nerves are life. Cir- culation of blood is carried on in the idiot, in the paralytic and in the paretic. Yes, the man whose brain has softened, who sits day in, day out, in an apathetic stupor, generally has good circulation of blood. But is this life? Assuredly not! Life means: to feel, to move, to think, to grow, to attain and to enjoy! Let us think for a moment of our brain as the great dynamo (for life is now known to be electric), THE MIND 9 in which the forces are generated that command our body. Or let us compare it with the root of a tree. We know that the tree receives its sustenance out of the root. How few of us realize that the body receives its compulsion from the brain! Think of the spinal cord as the trunk of the tree and think of the nerve bundles leading into the sym- pathetic nervous system as branches of the tree-all the ramifications of the sympathetic nervous system as the leaves and fruit of the tree-and we must immediately conclude that our first consideration for health should direct our thoughts towards our brain, the great dynamic force of our being. We must immediately realize that this great dynamo, or brain, must be kept in a healthy condition, and that this in turn requires right thinking and regen- eration of body cells. We also must know that structurally the spine, the great lever of the body, must be in a perfect condition in order to give free- dom to these great nerves, emerging from the brain, through the spinal column, into the functions and extremities. This makes of the utmost importance the study of the nervous system, especially by physicians, who are still attending symptoms of disease in an organ, instead of looking for causes in the govern- ing force behind it. 10 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH We can readily see that all systems of healing are fulfilling a part in evolving the superman and superwoman. But the mistake that is made by many of them is that they exaggerate their par- ticular work, and think it the only road to health and happiness. They forget that man is triune, that spirit, mind and body must work in perfect unison to make a balanced normal human being. This is the gross mistake in each separate panacea of healing. The mind curists are divided between mental science and healing by faith, and they forget that the two are synonymous. The average chiropractor and osteopath who squabble about their structural work forget that these sciences should be drawn together and that another link should be added-that is: dietetics. The dietitians with their different theories are so divided between the old calorific system and the new practical one of feeding according to tempera- ment, vocation and ability of the stomach to digest, that they also fail to get the confidence of the public. How much easier to comprehend a human being, if we realize that he is a physical demonstration of a spiritual power, and that between his spiritual and physical body stands a system of communica- THE MIND 11 tion as real as the wires over which messages run from Central to one's telephone receiver. It has been acknowledged by medical science for ages that all functions are dependent upon these nerve impulses. But how has this science ever figured out that stimulating a periphery or ending of these nerves through drugs could bring any bene- ficial result? When once we begin to study the brain and spine and find that contractions and inelasticity of mus- cles bring about luxations and displacement of the twenty-four vertebrae of the spine, thereby imping- ing upon nerves, we have a basis upon which to form a theory of cause and effect. How material and evident contraction of muscular tissues can become, we see when we know that old age is noth- ing more or less than this contraction of muscles and hardening of arteries and bony structure, and when finally death comes to us, it is because all elasticity has left the body. We all have observed this shrinking of the body as it grows older and loses in elasticity. This causes a lessening of force in new tissues, car- tilages and muscles. Now if we can prevent such shrinking, will it not ensue that the energies of youth would stay with us? To keep this elasticity means the warding off of old age and death for a 12 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH much longer period than we experience to-day. The first means at hand in understanding this- is in comprehending the working of the nervous sys- tem. Nerves, then, are responsible for every ac- tion and for every feeling. Does your mind think? Your brain makes it do so, and your thoughts travel over your nerves. Do your lungs function? Your pulmonary nerves cause your breath to inhale and exhale. Does your stomach digest food? It is your gas- tric nerves that set the gastric juices to work. Do you get rid of your waste matter? It is the splanchnic nerves that attend to it. Why does your little finger move? Because your brain wills it. Through the spinal column, out into the arm, this force moves the lymph, the blood supply and the muscles make the action of a move. The actions of your extremities are de- pendent upon your brain lobes functioning prop- erly. CHAPTER HI THE BODY. The building of a good house means a strong foundation and frame structure, and on such a foundation-the bones-must begin the reconstruc- tion of life. These 206 classified bones are held in place by ligaments and muscles. Your mode of living determines whether these muscles are elas- tic and pliant or stiff and contracted. Doesn't this bring home to you the importance of standing, sit- ting, lying and exercising correctly? Were we to keep on playing like healthy chil- dren, we should never lose our youthful erect pos- ture. But we become dignified or studious, gen- erally before puberty. Wrong positions and con- tracted muscles do the rest, and shape us into the caricature of man instead of the image of God. We meet two kinds of people daily, and I want you to take stock of their body posture for a mo- ment. Don't you find invariably that a body at ease, 13 14 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH Man Positive, Man Negative a body positive, means a healthy, successful indi- vidual? Doesn't such a one suggest to you, at first glance, that he knows whereof he speaks? That he has influence and force with his fellow-men? This attitude of knowing (impressing you with his worth) is not spiritual or mental alone. Rather these two qualities have been so strong that they have built his physical body. This physical body in turn builds spirit and mind, and it does it through the unimpeded intake of oxygen through the lungs-the best real food or tonic nature gives us. And this function is performed through the easy nerve action of the pulmonary nerves, whose exit is plainly from the brain, through the spinal THE BODY 15 The Young Spine The Old or Incorrect Spine column into the lungs. Is this nerve center quite normal? Or have you curvature and displace- ments? This must be attended to by an expert before you need go any further in correcting your welfare. To be sure, our body is fed by food; and a later chapter will show how important our eating and drinking are in its upbuilding. Here, however, I want to demonstrate only that THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH 16 energy travels over nerves, and that this energy can be normal only through the nerves' free exit through spinal openings. That makes an erect posture of the utmost importance. An erect pos- ture depends upon elastic muscles and ligaments, and these are made daily, not alone through our food, but also through exercise that makes the easy balance of the body possible. A-Right and Wrong Standing Especially important in our structure is the spine because its natural curves mean proper positions of all our organs and extremities. Improper align- ment of this column of twenty-six bones means wrong posture, strained muscles, depressed organs. You may have been unfortunate enough to have fallen, you may have been unable to regain the THE BODY 17 B-Right and Wrong Sitting C-Right and Wrong Lying Down. 18 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH strength to hold yourself normally after a severe illness, or you may have acquired stiffened mus- cles through worries, wrong eating or draughts. In that case, you need correction at the hands of a good chiropractor, a physician who makes the study of the spine his life work. But barring these accidents, there still might re- main a normal body that could be strengthened or retained by a judicious method of exercise. Youth and health mean elasticity-elasticity of bones, muscles, organs and mind. Have you fully concluded that I am right when I argue that you lose your youth because you lose the elasticity of your body? And the remedy after you have lost it? Exercise, of course, right standing, right sitting, and right sleeping. Have you curvatures or small displacements in your spinal column? Then you require help. But granting that you have only be- come old before your time-start exercising, very moderately in the beginning, or you will strain your hardened muscles and give up in disgust. The one universal method of exercise that can be followed by the sick and the well, by the young and the old, without harm and with great benefit, is that one so ably described by Sanford Ben- nett-our "old at 50 and young at 75 years" man. THE BODY] 19 I can recommend his book, 4'Old Age and Its Causes," for a further study on exercise. The exercise I have chosen as sufficient for my- self is primarily the stretching exercise. I do it in bed upon retiring and awakening. I learned this from our domestic pets, dogs and cats, and I follow faithfully their movements. Just try it! Stretch your four limbs to your utmost capacity, and you will see that you not only tighten every muscle in your body outside and in, but you draw at the same time all the oxygen you can hold into your lungs, and, when you relax, the old carbon dioxide, or waste gases in your lungs, leaves you in one grand exhalation of your breath. Do not forget to draw up one side of your body, while pulling the other one down, and then reverse this. Notice how this limbers and warms your whole muscular system along the spine, and this is the most beneficial part of the exercise. By loosen- ing the spinal muscles you let new life down from the brain through the spinal cord into the whole sympathetic nervous system. This surpasses all tonics and makes you anxious to get out of bed. Now if you are the least bit ambitious, take the following four exercises: First: Exercise for the spinal and abdominal muscles, stretching up and touching the floor. 20 Second: For liver stimulation and this beats calomel in its effect. Sidewise stretch. 21 Third: Promotes kidney efficiency and takes the place of the drug eliminants that are usually given for "acids" and "rheumatism." Fourth: To keep the knees elastic and to stimulate the lymph vessels in the groin. 22 THE BODY 23 One should begin by doing each exercise three times, and gradually increasing to twenty move- ments each. The eighty movements (and that is for a strong normal body) should not take over eight or ten minutes, because the results depend upon the ambition one spends upon them, and three movements each, done with joy, are better than twenty that are performed as a necessary evil. If you have performed these exercises in a cool room with windows wide open, you should be in a perspiration, because inhaling cold air acts as coal does in a furnace. The blood is circulat- ing, the skin is glowing, and the muscles are vi- brating. Every move you make briskly has set up a spark of electricity. And you have recharged your dynamo, your brain. Easy, isn't it? Now for a good hot bath, with plenty of soap to wash off all the impurities that have accumulated on the skin during the night. Then a generous cold shower, and a brisk rub with a coarse towel. To make up for the natural oil supply washed away with the soap lather, you may pat your skin vigor- ously with the hands, and you will find the reaction so complete that cleaning teeth, massaging and brushing scalp can be attended to before dressing. A daily air bath like this is of great benefit to our vitality, and the pride in our strength in en- 24 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH during such a procedure is such a mental stimulant that we are amply repaid for our work. Takes too much time? I use, outside of the stretching exercise in bed, one half hour to exer- cise, groom myself and dress. Surely that is a good investment of time. It will make you so en- ergetic that, before dinner in the evening, you will want another bath and a grooming. I do. I am tired by the day's work, and a cold shower re- freshes me, a change of dress stimulates my mind and makes me ready for an evening of pleasure. On going to bed, one should be so tired physi- cally that the stretching exercise, which relaxes the whole muscular system, should prepare one for a wonderful sleep, free from dreams and anxiety. How little we think of our well being! The average person goes to sleep thinking of his daily work, scheming and worrying. His muscles are set, and the breath comes in short, irregular gasps. Do you do this? Then you must realize that you cannot possibly get rest and recuperation out of such a sleep. You may as well do a washing or a plowing as try to rest without relaxation. What a different picture the successful man of intellect presents! He has performed his share of the world's work, he has groomed himself, dined, and enjoyed the evening, spent it in wholesome pleasure. Home and to bed-so tired, physically, that he knows he could sleep on a floor. A short grooming in the bath room, a stretch outside of and in bed, a few deep breaths in which he rids his lungs of impurities. With eyes closed he lies, feeling as a babe in the arms of his Father, seeing mentally the powerful rays of the sun, expressing the spiritual forces, enter into his body to remake the waste tissues of the day. That is life, and such a sleep cannot help but fit one for another day of work and pleasure in the work. THE BODY 25 CHAPTER IK THE NEW SCIENCE OF HEALTH The foregoing will prove helpful to the normal man. But what of the one who is injured rather than helped by exercises, who is too tired, mentally and physically to drag himself through them? He has been to all sorts of physicians for help, and every system has proven itself of no avail. He has become a pessimist and his very pessimism is helping him into old age and death. Medical science, in alleviating our symptoms through drugs and serums, has so completely lost sight of the cause of disease, that it is failing more and more as time goes on to bring Health and Happiness to Humanity. Medical practice of to- day reminds us of a story of our early childhood. This story dealt with a colony of ants who set out to study man. He was too large for their compre- hension, so they divided the task. One studied his hand, one his foot, one his eyes, his ears, etc.! But altogether they made a being that as a whole was quite impossible. Isn't that strangely like medical practice? Doesn't every specialist study 26 THE NEW SCIENCE OF HEALTH 27 one particular organ and forget all about the cause of this organ's inability to function? So we actually see some physicians claiming that pyorrhea (it used to be called "tartar" or "acid" on the teeth) is the cause of all sorts of illnesses, when a little reasoning should tell them that our teeth decay because our digestion, assimilation and elimination of foods are all wrong. We are lack- ing the nutrient salts that build the material for teeth, hair, flesh, tissues, etc. Some physicians tell us that a lot of little microbes fly around and infect us. One kind gets into our joints and makes rheumatism, one flies into our lungs and is responsible for tuberculosis, one settles in our throat, and so on and so forth. The same physicians laugh at the idea of a spine out of order. Wrong curves and little displace- ments between vertebrae are of no consequence to them. Only the more intelligent physician realizes the effect of abnormality in structure, and while his education has been neglected on the practice of righting these structural wrongs, he acknowledges the theory because he sees the results brought about by the application of these later sciences. But what if he doesn't? The layman sees; and he is fast abandoning medicine, serum and un- necessary surgery for the sciences that lead him 28 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH back to nature and himself. He has ceased putting his burden of illness on the Lord, and he wants to know all about himself. The physician who can teach him and explain to him the why of an exer- cise, of a diet, of an illness, is the physician for him, and the search for such a one has made pros- perous and helpful the physical culturist, the hy- drotherapist, the dietitian, the osteopath, the men- tal and Christian scientist, and finally the Chiro- practor. For all these natural sciences have dem- onstrated, singly and collectively, that nature is the only power that cures, and that man must, in time, become his own physician in order to be fit to endure this strenuous earth life. To be his own physician, he is trying to learn about himself, and for this reason he goes to the mental and Christian scientist, to the hydrothera- pist, hygienist, and chiropractor, who has, through his more scientific method of correcting bodily structure, supplanted the osteopath. "Chiropractice" means handpractice, and is the name given this science by one D. D. Palmer, who accidentally stumbled upon the fact that displace- ments of vertebrae caused disease. How much he was inspired by the old Bohemian and Austrian practices of "Napravit" will never be known. Suffice it that he was the first one on our continent A-The Nervous System The Spinal Nerves, which escape from the spaces between the small bones or vertebrae, divide and send communicating filaments to the network of sympathetic nerves. That these spinal nerves which lead life force from the brain to all parts of the body can be impinged upon by a depletion of intervertebral cartilage and spinal muscles is known to all phy- sicians but the fact that this cartilage can be built up by resetting the vertebrae against their facets, thereby setting up spontaneity or subconscious action, is a comparatively new feature, and is disputed by the average physician until he has investigated this work. (See Illustrations VII-B and VII-C.) 29 30 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH to demonstrate the fact that the normality of the apertures between any two vertebrae meant Health; B-Spinal Openings, Normal C-Spinal Openings, Abnormal that any deviation from normal caused disease. This was in 1895. Osteopathy preceded him by THE NEW SCIENCE OF HEALTH 31 ten years in the theory that all energy was derived from the brain through the spinal nerves into the sympathetic nerve gangliae and all organs of the body. To D. D. Palmer belongs the glory of demon- strating that single displacements of vertebrae could be handled scientifically. Scientifically and pain- fully, alas! I found this out in 1901 when, after an invalidism of many years, I was helped into health by one of his first students. My daughter's recovery of health and my own, filled me with such enthusiasm that I threw myself heart and soul into the study of the new science. I had studied medi- cine and osteopathy; and the superiority of Palmer's chiropractice over both sciences was so colossal that I have gained more and more confi- dence in sixteen years of a most successful study and practice. However, my analytical training in medicine, os- teopathy, hydrotherapy, dietetics and orthopaedic surgery had, even fourteen years ago (my gradua- tion year) seen the discrepancies in the science of chiropractice. One shortcoming lay in the pain- ful technique of the adjustment, and a nervous woman or a little child might have preferred ill- ness to the correction by the method then in use. I, myself, would have backed down from further ap- 32 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH plication of the cure, had I not been willing to die rather than live on as I had lived. Also, my earlier studies of anatomy made me see that my only hope for health lay in this new science. Fifty years from now, when my physical ener- gies have been spent, if I shall have not died through an accident, I shall have time to enumerate all the remedies that I had tried! Suffice it to say now, I took all the medicines as they came along, tried them, and found them wanting. I studied thoroughly and tried to apply mental and Christian sciences, to say nothing of all nature cures, hydro- therapies and dietetics dealt out to me by physicians who were sicker than I was. Nothing availed until, through chiropractice, the lesions in my spine caused through falls when I was a little child, were corrected. I never said mental or Christian sciences were all wrong, or that diet did not matter anyway, and that osteopathy was a failure, and this in spite of the fact that none of them had cured me. My first chiropractic treatment made me realize, in one minute, that nerve force had been hindered and impinged upon in the upper part of my spine, and that if Dr. Langworthy, my physician, really could do what he said he could do, I should have a chance of a new life. He did, and I want to thank THE NEW SCIENCE OF HEALTH 33 him in these pages for the work he did for me sixteen years ago, also for the broadness of the cur- riculum in his school, from which I subsequently graduated. For he taught that spinal freedom should be supplemented by right living in hygiene and diet. I was too intelligent to think that spinal correc- tion meant everything, and this is the criticism among the better classes of patrons of this science to-day-that chiropractice claims too much. This criticism is just. It does claim too much. But supplemented by mental science, dietetics, hygiene and hydrotherapy in acute cases, it spells the ne plus ultra of all healing sciences to-day. More than that, the system of painless adjust- ment as founded and practiced by me is, with the intelligent application of the science of right living, a preventive of disease. I claim that the one, two or three corrections on the spine through the old Palmer thrust that is still practiced by chiropractors in general, must be substituted by an easy thrust that moves each ver- tebra along the whole spine. I am a heretic, al- most as much among the chiropractors who have followed the old routine of work, as I am among the physicians. Dr. D. D. Palmer, shortly before his untimely death in 1910, asked an explanation of 34 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH my work, and I owe it to humanity to draw its at- tention to this superior spinal thrust in copying the letter I wrote to D. D. Palmer. He eulogized my work in many pages of his last book, and while I say frankly that the worst chiropractor is better than the best osteopath, I also want to state that there is a vast difference among the chiropractors. Quite naturally. Some of them are satisfied with what they know; others keep on learning and studying. Here follows my letter to Dr. D. D. Palmer, July 20th, 1910. "Dear Dr. Palmer: "Your letter received, and I will gladly give you an explanation of my work. "I doubt not when you started this great work, you knew that it could not stand still. You knew also, that development was not likely to come from one brain alone. Others would see lines along which it could grow and, being a big man, you would give credit where it belongs. "As you know, I studied with Dr. Langworthy af- ter he had cured me of a twenty-year invalidism. The work, as he gave it, was severe beyond ex- pression, especially to a highly sensitive nervous system, and it took all my courage, and I might say THE NEW SCIENCE OF HEALTH 35 lack of love for life, to go through it. Later, as I studied and watched others adjusted, the thought took possession of me that something could be ac- complished in the line of skill and ease. After years of work, I found that pressure upon the spinous processes, more than thrust, moved verte- brae without shock to the most delicate constitution. But this pressure had a disadvantage, viz.: when I moved one vertebra I dislodged its neighbor below. Then I reasoned, why not move each vertebra be- ginning at the sacrum, which I did, and imme- diately I knew I had the ne plus ultra of healing. My experience with a practice of fifty patients daily confirms and strengthens with each year I am in the work, and my success as a practitioner is un- questionable. "This method of putting the whole spine right by resetting each vertebra plumb against the facet of its neighbor reconstructs the entire spine in most cases, and thus removes the cause of the present distressing symptom as completely as does the violent adjustment, but in addition, it puts the con- stitution into such shape that it can resist disease in every other region, and thus corrects tendencies which usually lie dormant until late in life. "I practice, with this complete adjustment, a sys- tem of dietetics to make good the nerve matter so 36 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH newly released from impingement, and to build the intervertebral cartilage, which holds the reset ver- tebrae in place. "I consider my work a step in the advance that this great work must continue to make, and if you ever come to New York, I know I can convince you. "Thanking you again for your just inquiry into the work at first hand instead of accepting the criti- cism of casual observers, I am, "With every wish for your success and pros- perity, very sincerely yours, "Alma C. Arnold." Sciences outside of chiropractice and dietetics appear complex and unnecessary when one begins to understand that all health, all disease, comes from within. In other words, each individual is a world by himself, is a law unto himself, and according to his knowledge and understanding can avert most of the troubles that come to him from the outside. Wouldn't it be queer if nature had formed a body composed of many organs and their functions and left them all haphazard, each standing or falling by itself? Doesn't it seem much more reasonable that each little atom should combine with other atoms and make an organ? That many organs THE NEW SCIENCE OF HEALTH 37 should combine to make man, and that a great cen- tral force should sit in judgment and command of these organs and their functions? That is what chiropractic science claims and it has made good on this theory for over twenty years. It claims loosening spinal muscles through pres- sure or thrusts on vertebrae, releases nerve force and puts this force into functioning any organ or extremity, and it proves its theory among an ever growing clientele of the most intelligent people of to-day. I say "intelligent" because the unthink- ing multitude will keep on abusing their bodies by immoderate living, and will rely upon something mysterious out of a bottle, or a pill or powder box to overcome the disease-just as the fairy wand of our childhood overcame evil. I admit it is a much easier way, if it would really produce a healthy body, but it doesn't. CHAPTER V OUR ORGANS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS The normal action of the seven great functions of the body through the seven organs constitute health, and their sluggish or impeded action spells illness. One can scarcely say which one of these organs is the most important, for disturbance in any one of them brings on disaster for the other six, just as one disabled part of a machine makes the whole unreliable. Does this not give food for thought on the system of specializing in medical science of to-day? It surely makes the question of which was first, the egg or the hen, applicable to the point of view of which was first, the cause or the symptom? A little thought will convince any one that all these organs and their functions are of equal im- portance, because the failure of action in any one means congestion in all others. These functions are: 1. Nerve control through the spinal and sympa- thetic nervous systems. 38 OUR ORGANS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS 39 2. Circulation through heart, arteries and veins. 3. Respiration through lungs and skin. 4. Digestion through salivary glands, stomach and intestines. 5. Assimilation through intestines, blood and lymph. 6. Elimination through lungs, skin, kidneys and bowels. 7. Generation and regeneration through brain and sex organs, physical and mental. Can you imagine any one of these functions be- ing impaired without disturbing the others? And can you not see that any impairment of any one causes one disease only, and this disease is conges- tion? 1. Headache and brain fe- ver are caused by Congestion in brain cen- ters, spinal cord and nerves. 2. Chills, fever and all heart diseases are caused by Congestion in the circula- tory tract, the waste mat- ter of the body clogging the arteries and veins; and nature trying to get rid of this sets up com- bustion. 40 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH 3. Colds, throat troubles, bronchitis, pneumonia and toxaemia are caused by 4. Gastritis, indigestion, ul- ceration, cancer, auto- toxaemia are caused by 5. Peritonitis, typhoid, ma- laria, hookworm, colon- itis, constipation, and hemorrhoids are caused by 6. Rheumatism, Bright's disease, diabetes, and uraemia are caused by 7. All sex diseases are caused by Congestion of mucous membranes and glands. Congestion of salivary glands, gastric and pan- creatic juices. Congestion of force to transform food into nu- trient material and to eliminate waste. Lack of force to eliminate through kidneys, skin and bowels. Congestion of force through glandular sys- tem. This ought to explain the origin of all diseases, and I need only add that all organs are perfect until we abuse them through neglecting their functions. OUR ORGANS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS 41 It has been shown that the primary function is nerve action. Now how can we abuse it? This is the easiest of all crimes. For we can dissipate our nervous energy in four respective ways, or we might injure it along all four lines. These four abuses are: Immoderation in work. Immoderation in food. Immoderation in drink. Immoderation in sex. Every individual has, depending on ancestors, birth or early environment, a stock of vitality. Ac- cording to this inheritance, normal birth or early environment, he may spend much or a little, as a financier handles his bank account. Through right or wrong living in youth, he may add to or dimin- ish this stock. He may spend a great deal if he has a great capital; or he may spend a little, if he has a small one. This explains one person working without fatigue for ten hours, when an- other one tires in two, and this fact compels us to take inventory of ourselves. When I work more than I should, I use my leisure time to recuperate in rest. When I work accord- ing to my physical allowance, I can afford to spend this leisure time in strenuous play. This puts upon each individual the responsibility of his wel- 42 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH fare, and I admit this requires good sense and knowledge. But surely this wonderful machine, our body, is worth a little thought and study! Shifting this responsibility means employing a physician of the old school; and that experiment has proven as fallacious as employing a preacher for our soul's welfare. Lucky is the person who has a certain amount of daily work to perform. He can divide the day into work, rest and pleasure very easily. But the leaders in professions, finance, and commerce have a more difficult time of it, and they have to think the harder to divide their lives into the strenuous- ness of work and its equivalent in relaxation. These leaders among men must understand that, no matter how important their work, first must come the business of attending to self. In my own experience I know that at times I must overwork. It might be in a day, in a week, or a month. But I also rigorously spend an equiv- alent in time to making good on my expenditure of vitality. For instance, after I found I tired in six hours of work a day, I made another holiday; I do not work Sundays or Thursdays. As time goes on and my brain works harder, as it does in normal be- ings as they grow older, I shall make another holi- •UR ORGANS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS 43 day and another and so on. And while I shall do everything but rust, I shall write or lecture or teach instead of working so hard physically. This personal history I state to illustrate that, as we grow older, we may use our brain forces more, but our body forces less, and because, as Elbert Hubbard so tersely states, we must become "the genius who lets the other fellow do his work." CHAPTER VI INOCULATIONS AND OPERATIONS Most diseases have been shown to be of our own making, and I can sense from many of my readers the questions: "What about the germ? Don't you believe in germs?" Assuredly I do. So much so that I would not be vaccinated or inoculated for all the money in the world. I know full well that my breathing germs, drinking or inhaling germs is well taken care of by the active functioning of my body. But bringing germs into my veins through inoculation is an entirely different matter. It is a dangerous proceeding, and I would rather risk contracting smallpox, typhoid or even the serious sex diseases, than I would risk getting into my blood along with the disease serums, all the impurities of the cow, calf and horse. Besides, the cell of these animals grows nine times in proportion to one of the hu- man cell, and one of the greatest cancer specialists in the world, Dr. Herbert Snow, senior surgeon 44 INOCULATIONS AND OPERATIONS 45 of the Cancer Hospital of London, argues, after a lifetime of experience,1 that this fact is responsible for seven-tenths of all cancer and tuberculosis cases. After all, having smallpox means that we have allowed our blood to become poisoned. Suffering with typhoid means that we have eaten food habit- ually that we could not digest. Now wouldn't it be better to take the consequences of this wrong living, learning a lesson therefrom, than to para- lyze these impurities until at a later date they break forth in some different disease? Medical science hasn't even a proof that an individual is going to have smallpox or typhoid. It merely guesses that the individual might get these diseases. It sim- ply plies us with statistics and tells us that after vaccination and inoculation these diseases disap- pear. I, and many others, argue, that better sani- tation and better living cause the disappearance of these evils. Here the poor reader is wondering whether the statistics of the vaccinators or the naturalists, who concur in my sentiments, are correct. I, as usual, put the responsibility of settling this question upon you, the reader. I let you think out the problem with me. " . . . The start of this gigantic vaccine fraud 1 In his lectures reprinted in The Open Door. 46 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH had an early origin. It began with a superstition among the peasants of Asiatic Turkey, that if a per- son were inoculated with the scab from small-pox, he would ever after be immune from the disease. A visiting lady from the English Court believed this to the extent of repeating the superstition on her re- turn home. The custom of 'grafting' started from her story and spread all over Europe. Ere long it was discovered that this was spreading the disease and to stamp it out stringent laws were passed mak- ing the practice of 'grafting' criminal. "Conditions thence on to 1789 grew worse, in which year Edward Jenner, later a noted physician, is accredited with having made the first experiment in what then became known as vaccination. Of Mr. Jenner no less an important personage than Andrew Carnegie says, with reference to his achievement in the vaccination theory, 'He made the world move,' upon which rather influential opinion Helen S. Gray, a present-day magazine writer of note, comments: 'Yes, he made the world move, but backward, not forward.' "In his petition for remuneration, presented to the English House of Commons Jenner assured the members of that body that cow-pox admits of being inoculated on the human frame with the most per- fect ease and safety, and is attended with singu-r INOCULATIONS AND OPERATIONS 47 larly beneficial effect of rendering through life the person so inoculated perfectly secure from the in- fection of 'small-pox.' "The English Parliament voted him £150,000 sterling as a reward for his discovery, but he after- wards was compelled to acknowledge that his vac- cine, as he called it, was a failure. "He inoculated his son and a young man named James Phipps, and both died of tuberculosis. La- ter, Jenner, the father of the vaccination theory, faced about and declared that vaccination did not protect from small-pox, denouncing in strong terms as spurious, cow-pox virus contaminated with the virus of small-pox. So re-vaccination was intro- duced, on the ground that the old vaccination would entirely lose its effect on the system after several years, until now authorities say vaccination is necessary every time small-pox enters a com- munity. ..." 1 Something has been said of the safety of which the public can rest assured because of labor- atory inspection, not only by the vaccine manufac- turer, but also by representatives of the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. When we recall, however, that for five or six years 1 From Vaccination: The Serum-Vaccine Therapy Fad arranged by F. P. Myers, D. C. 48 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH several vaccine farms in this country propagated vaccine virus contaminated with the foot and mouth disease of cattle, and that this contamination es- caped discovery during that time, causing hundreds of thousands of diseased vaccine points to be used for the vaccination of children, we can gather some idea of what the so-called laboratory inspection amounts to from the standpoint of public safety. About the "purity" of lymph, I need only quote from Prof. Milton J. Rosenau, director of the Hy- gienic Laboratory of Washington, D. C.-one of the most noted bacteriologists in the United States, who stated in Bulletin 12 of that Laboratory in 1903: "We are compelled to vaccinate our patients with a virus containing micro-organisms other than those causing vaccinia. Now, although bovine virus is free from the danger of conveying the infectious diseases peculiar to man, it is liable to other equally undesirable contaminations. For instance, in addition to the micro-organisms that are specific for vaccinia, it contains the pus cocci, and the bac- terium that live normally upon and in the skin of the calf, and these micro-organisms always con- taminate bovine virus." (Pure lymph??) "It will be shown that there is practically no vac- cine on the market free from bacterial contamina- INOCULATIONS AND OPERATIONS 49 tion. We have found tetanus (lockjaw) spores alive and virulent on dry points after two hundred and ninety-five days and in glycerinated virus sealed in capillary tubes three hundred and fifty- five days." Dr. Rosenau being an unquestionable authority on the subject, I think may well prove my point, that vaccination and inoculation against any disease is dangerous. For further study of this subject, I would advise "Board of Health Statistics," N. Y., or a subscription to The Open Door, the National Anti-Vivisection Magazine of New York, or Vac- cination Inquirer, London, England. Any of these will prove the total valuelessness of inoculation and throw so much light on the subject that I may rest assured you will take my side of the question. In view of the fact that every one of the men fighting or preparing to fight for our country has to submit to these dangerous inoculations, a study of this subject becomes of the utmost importance. The Open Door, the National Anti-Vivisection Magazine, for the month of April, 1917, ran an article entitled "Facts," viz.: "Infantile Paralysis and Vaccination: Do you know that infantile paralysis often follows vac- cination? (See report of investigation of 54 cases of illness and death from vaccination by James A. THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH 50 Loyster, in New York State during 1914; and statistics.) "Do you know that investigation of the epidemics of 1907 and 1916 produced strong evidence that they were started from vaccine virus? (See New York Herald for Sept. 28th, 1916.) "Do you know that the United States Government proved that the epidemics of foot and mouth disease, which swept this country in 1902-3, 1908-14 were started from vaccine virus? (See Bureau of Animal Industry, Circular No. 147, and Farmers' Bulletin No. 666.) "Do you know that hundreds of United States soldiers on the Texas border have suffered from paratyphoid fever caused by typhoid vaccination? (See newspapers and Army Reports.) "Do you know that paratyphoid was unknown until the British soldiers in India were inoculated with Wright's antityphoid serum and that it occurs only in persons who have been inoculated? "Do you know that the cases of typhoid fever among the Spanish-American war soldiers in 1898 (before the discovery of typhoid vaccine) amounted to 8.8 per cent? (See U. S. Army reports.) "Do you know that when the 14th regiment N. Y. N. G., U. S., arrived at Camp Whitman from the Texas border, the cases of paratyphoid, together INOCULATIONS AND OPERATIONS 51 with the healthy active carriers, amounted to 17 per cent.? Double that of 1898. (See N. Y. Health Department Reports.) "Do you know that paratyphoid fever is human hog cholera? (Appleton's Medical Dictionary, January, 1916, defines it: "Paratyphoid-resem- bling typhoid fever or the typhoid bacillus. Para- typhoid bacillus-an organism belonging to the hog cholera group, which causes paratyphoid fever!) "'Do you know that nearly 70,000 British sol- diers (all vaccinated for typhoid immunity) were sent home from the Gallipoli Peninsula with tu- berculosis? And as a result compulsory vaccina- tion has been abolished in England? (See report of speeches in the House of Parliament.) "'Do you know that New York City statistics show that cancer has increased there fully 225 per cent, since 1870? (See Board of Health Report.) "Do you know that cancer and tuberculosis are traced by specialists to blood debasement from vaccination? (See writings of Sir Robert Bell, for 43 years cancer specialist in London; and many others.) "Do you know that, contrary to the general be- lief, the wide use of diphtheria antitoxin has neither lowered the number of cases, nor the death? (See report of special inquiry by the New York City 52 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH Health Department, published in the New York World for June 12th, 1916.) "Do you know that the Flexner serum for cere- bro-spinal meningitis was injected into 15 children in the City Hospital of Cincinnati, Ohio, and that 14 died within five minutes? (See full report in the Cincinnati Enquirer for March 18, 1914.) "Do you know that the recurrence of the out- break of foot and mouth disease in 1915 was due to anti-hog cholera serum? (See report of the Bureau of Animal Industry for September 28th, 1915.) "Do you know that following this discovery, the Canadian Government passed a law prohibiting the use of these serums? "These are facts! Can you disprove them, or do you know any one who can?" This settles the question of inoculation pretty well, I think. And how about operations and surgery? Splen- did in cases of accidents. I think surgery, and particularly orthopaedic surgery, is a science that has made marvelous strides in the last hundred years; more than ever in this world war. My hat goes off to the surgeon who prevents disaster, es- pecially since he has learned that nature, given half a chance, makes many an operation unneces- INOCULATIONS AND OPERATIONS 53 sary. Giving nature a chance means that through hygiene, good, simple foods and the omission of strong antiseptics some of the worst wounds are healed, an arm, a leg, even an abdominal cavity reestablishes functions, making the knife unneces- sary. For the surgeon who cuts for a chronic disease or an acute one, I have nothing but criticism. And this criticism is bom of the fact that I have seen hundreds of women absolutely ruined through ex- cisions of valuable organs. Poor deluded woman! All she needs to rid her of the most valuable glands is a smooth physician, who, because he does not know how to help her, puts his cares upon the surgeon. He shifts the responsibility, and gains a fee from the surgeon. Easy, isn't it? To any one who has a remote idea of having an operation per- formed, I advise the purchase of Dr. Norman Bamesby's "Medical Chaos and Crime." The cutting out of tonsils and adenoids in chil- dren will in some near future be classed with the blood letting of 50 years ago, or with the decay and pulling of teeth of a few generations ago. In other words, it will be classed as a crime. I advise all parents contemplating such a crime to read Dr. Richard B. Falner's "Tonsils and Ade- noids, Treatment and Cure." THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH 54 I need only state that the tonsils stand at the entrance of the larynx as filters of foul or cold air. That they are guardian angels performing a val- uable task for the economy of the body, and that they should be cured, not extirpated. The subject of operations can scarcely be closed without a reference to the greatest graft of the cen- tury, viz.: Appendisectomy. How any physician can have the nerve to advo- cate the excision of an organ that he knows to be a valuable factor in the lubrication of the large colon, is beyond me. I could understand his theory if it were theory only. But I dare any surgeon to show me a case of appendicitis where the stomach, duo- denum, jejunum and small intestines were in good condition! I have, during my medical studies (I have not had the nerve to practice this guesswork) been pres- ent at seven operations for appendicitis. In all these cases, I found greater inflammation in the caecal pouch, ascending colon and small intestines, than I found in the innocent little oil gland, the ap- pendix. I raised my voice even as a student to draw the attention of the surgeon to this fact. But always I was told that the cause of the con- gestion was in this little "useless" gland. Re- peated "teaching" of this still leaves me uncon- INOCULATIONS AND OPERATIONS 55 vinced. The more so, because appendicitis is cured right and left by thousands of Nature Curists, Hydrotherapists, Chiropractors and by Dietitians through a fast; and fast you must, even with an operation. I do not understand my fellow-man who pro- claims himself a Christian, goes to church, sings and prays to a God, and then allows a surgeon to mutilate his body! I do not believe in a church or a minister who stands between me and my God. But I have im- plicit faith that this Divine Spirit that has put me here and keeps urging me on to do His work, has put each little organ in my body for some good purpose, and that I shall fare better with His re- pairing it, than I will with a man plus a knife and a lot of theories the value of which no practice has ever demonstrated. My tonsils? Parts of the glandular system, of more value than even I, who adore the human ma- chine more and more as I see its great recuperating forces, can fathom. My appendix could not be purchased for $50,- 000. I value it that much as the lubricating gland that empties its contents into the caecal pouch, to further the expulsion of waste matter. And my sex organs? No million would cause THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH 56 me to part with them, because I know they are my secondary brain and like the brain are the cause of joy, love and life, work, ambition and success. CHAPTER VII DISEASES RHEUMATISM Go to a medical practitioner. He has two reme- dies, viz.: any of the salicylates or the potassii acetas. Of late, he prescribes one of the coal tar products, such as aspirin, ammonol, etc., and sim- ply paralyzes the tissues, so they cannot express pain. But the average physician still aims to cause better action through the kidneys by a stimu- lant such as any of the salicylates or potassii acetas. Now what does this stimulant do to these great or- gans of elimination? The same thing that a whip does to a tired horse: it accomplishes worse than nothing. One can whip the animal until it drops in its tracks, but is it wise? Wouldn't it be better to rest the horse after a strenuous ride or a drive? Most assuredly this is what should be done to the kidneys. Rheumatic pains tell us that there are impurities in the body which the kidneys, the skin, the lungs, the bowels have not been able to eliminate. These impurities can be thrown out 57 58 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH forcibly by the above named remedies. But how long will these eliminary organs stand for it? Just about as long as the tired horse will stand being whipped into action. You know there will be a dead horse very soon, and equally well you should know that the end of endurance in your eliminary organs means death by uraemia, dropsy and finally pneumonia. The ultimate cause of death is always either pneumonia or heart failure. Naturally! when we stop breathing and the heart ceases to pump blood through the arteries, we die. But what caused these two conditions? That is sel- dom told or even known by the old system of medi- cine. But the new systems of healing know that a healthy, normal action of the great functions: Circu- lation, Assimilation and Elimination, means Life. The reverse spells Death. Who would run these risks with drugs when he knows that disease is caused by wrong eating, wrong thinking, wrong structural conditions? And how easy to inform oneself on the primary principles of food, thought and exercise! FEVERS Acute and chronic fevers are the natural results of wrong feeding. Climate has little or nothing to do with it, except that it makes a greater demand on DISEASES 59 the nervous system to overcome great changes in temperature. Any normal individual's skin takes care of this demand, that is: the pores contract in cold and relax or open in the warm atmosphere. The skin not functioning properly puts a larger strain on the kidneys, and if these are not capable of taking care of elimination properly, congestion takes place in our body, in some organ or another-always in the weakest one. Now, Nature in trying to rid us of this conges- tion, wherever in the body it might be, sets up en- forced action in the arteries and veins, in order to expel the surplus waste matter, and our tempera- ture rises. It is a beneficial procedure by Nature, and should be aided by not eating, by drinking copiously, and by stimulating the action of the skin through hot baths. But the great activity Na- ture expends, even before the temperature rises, makes us feel weak, and, laboring under the old idea that food makes strength, we feed to strengthen ourselves, exactly the opposite of what we should do. Would we, at this juncture, but follow the in- stincts of the animal! Every animal ceases putting food into a body congested with old uneliminated waste matter. Man, alone, contracts his whole 60 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH nervous system with fear and runs to the doctor who fosters his fear by telling him that the fever must run its course for a few days, until he finds out what kind of a fever it is. It seems scarcely possible that such a procedure could ever have been in vogue, but there are still doctors who, instead of helping to assist these fe- vers immediately, in a natural manner, "wait" un- til they know what kind of fever this super-tem- perature may be a symptom of. The newer methods of diagnosis by physical contact with the patient find the weakness in the spinal nerves, and in the abnormality of organs. The new "Doctor of Health," having derived his diagnosis from the spine, from the eyes, from the organs and the symptoms of the patient, does not "wait" until the waste matter has burned on to show from what organ or function it has originated. Instead he follows Nature's law, which the igno- rant brute, the animal, has proven to be correct. He stimulates action of circulation and elimina- tion. These are aided by mechanical means, such as Chiropractice, Osteopathy, Vibration, and Mas- sage, and instead of urging new foods to be taken, he starves his patient, thereby stopping assimila- tion, He takes care of elimination by copious DISEASES 61 draughts o£ water, and hot baths that cause invigor- ated action through the skin. We all know of instances where patients worship a physician who has successfully gotten them through a severe illness, but the time is near when the physician who does not know how to keep his patient from becoming dangerously ill will not only not be worshipped, but will be severely criti- cised. In other words, we have found that Na- ture is the great physician, and that the physician can at most only be Nature's assistant. He will be a harsher task master as a teacher, but he will con- serve our vitality because he will understand that the normal digestion and elimination of food is the first prerequisite to Health. What a short time ago it seems that instead of looking into the food question and hygiene we tried to combat fever conditions with antipyrin, phenace- tin and other coal tar products! These medicines are heart depressants and lower the fever through paralyzing the nerves. Inaction of nerves means inaction of functions through the organs. This is an effective cause for more chronic accumulation of the waste matter that Nature graciously meant to bum up by fever. This idea is contrary to the germ theory, of course, and many authorities, even to-day, argue 62 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH that germs are flying around in the atmosphere, able to devour us! But the argument of the modern physician, that we have in our bodies antigerms for every germ that tries to get into us is a much more reasonable and hopeful proposition. Working on this hy- pothesis means the displaying of much more intel- ligence and will power on the part of both patient and doctor. For this reason it is a theory not nearly so likely to be taken up as the one that we have "caught" something; and that we must have medicine out of a bottle to cure us of a condition that has originated from our own and the old- fashioned doctor's ignorance. The modem doc- tor teaches health, and to attain health we must work hand in hand with Nature. Nature's first aid is a hot bath and plenty of wa- ter, hot or cold inside and out. Add a fast of twenty-four hours, and see how quickly you can cure most fevers in their first inception. AUTOTOXJEMIA AND CONSTIPATION This means self-poisoning; and the system can no more easily rid itself of poison that we take out of a bottle, than of poison that we create in ourselves. A swift river is a clean one, and the quick action through the stomach, intestines and DISEASES 63 large colon means cleanliness and consequent lack of poison. How little the average person dreams that his twenty-eight feet of alimentary canal are filled with hardened waste matter, that has lain dormant for days, weeks and years! The intestines may be compared to a rubber tubing which stretches and en- larges with the burden of dead food. Taking lax- atives simply opens up the center of this canal. All around this, caked tightly into the mucous mem- brane, is this waste matter covering all the little fibers that should extract nourishment out of the intestinal canal, and which, instead, extract the stored up poisons. In this manner we have a dis- ease that, without pain, wrecks our nervous system and our energy. That "tired feeling" is not al- ways caused by overwork, or by the weather! We lay the foundation for it by our greediness to con- sume and store away more food than we can digest and eliminate, and we keep on building more pois- onous matter as the years roll by until some day an explosion occurs in the shape of appendicitis, colonitis, peritonitis, typhoid fever or whatever the Doctor of Medicine might choose to call this accu- mulated sum and substance of ignorance and greed- iness. 64 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH COLDS, CATARRH, HAYFEVER What can this accumulated, retained waste mat- ter do but exhibit itself in a weak part of the body? And what better spot than the mucous membrane of the nose and throat-which, besides being asked to eliminate the waste, is constantly irritated by the dirt, dust and foul air exhaled by our fellow- men? A clean, sensitive membrane, in a healthy, hearty sneeze, almost immediately rids itself of the foul germs that enter. In that instance, unless accom- panied by the autosuggestion of "I am catching cold," the violent contraction in the capillary sur- face throws out what it does not want-that is, im- pure germs. But mortal man, instead of enjoy- ing this cleansing ceremony, runs in fear, either to the Doctor or the drug store, fills himself with quinine or aspirin and tries to fool Nature in its effort to regenerate his vitality, thereby laying up stagnant waste matter to explode into other, more dangerous diseases. Animals cure their "colds" by refusing to eat and by drinking copiously of clear water. Our human intelligence might aid Nature in eating laxative fruits, resting and inhaling more forcibly of oxy- gen. Also by applications of cold water com- DISEASES 65 presses around throat, or by spraying eyes and nose (on the outside only) with cold water; a chiro- practic or osteopathic treatment, or a massage even; or one might take a hot bath with two pounds of Epsom salts in place of soap before going to bed, also a hot lemonade, without sugar. But this takes intelligence and patience. And only that man and woman can practice this who have gray matter. Others run to medicine. Enough of diseases-I could go on indefinitely, always proving practically the same cause for all ailments. Nature healing is simple, and works with mathematical precision. All chiropractors can find the weak spots in the structural body of man. All good dietitians can teach systems of diet to improve one's health. All mental and Christian scientists can help you by showing you the wonders of God or Nature. By dropping fear alone, you can help yourself much; how much more by using ordinary sense, aided by a good doctor of health, who uses all these methods combined. CHAPTER VIII DRUGS We must go back into ancient history to under- stand the motive that ever made the sick reach out for drugs instead of trying to follow Nature's laws by right living. Early medical practice was primarily a matter of faith. Churches were more often hospitals for the body than temples for the soul. Humanity was chiefly cured by prayer and fasting, because both of these put the patient into a clean condition, so that Nature could do her work. Everything is bound to go in circles, and the circle starting in faith will end there some day. Primitive man who lived a natural life also had good health. But as the conscious mind began to usurp to a great extent the working of the subcon- scious or instinctive mind, he fell into errors that necessitated help from the outside. The profes- sion of the human healer was a sacred one and connected with the higher priesthood. The earlier faith of man ascribed the origin of mankind to divinity and therefore associated the 66 DRUGS 67 practice of medicine with religious worship. Gods or Idols were the first physicians; and to them were ascribed supernatural powers to heal the sick. By and by the priest interpreted the will of God. La- ter on the Wise Men, the early teachers, Pythagoras, Aristotle and others, taught humanity to heal dis- ease metaphysically, that is, partly through the mind and partly through the body. We see by this that the healing art is as old as the history of the human race, and Bible History teaches us that Moses was the first great physician. He went into the mountains to converse with God or Nature, and brought to humanity the first great truths of sanitation, hygiene and moral responsi- bility. The human body is of such a complex nature that to look at it from a material standpoint, as medi- cine does to-day, has been a failure, because in that way we do not pay sufficient attention to the psychic or unseen forces that work through us. The sacred books of the Hindoos give us the first intimations that medical science was a distinct art, and Sushruta, a Hindoo sage, was the first author to make a classification of drugs. His teachings to some extent are used in Medical Science to this day and comprise two groups, the eliminants and tonics. 68 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH Athens was next to fall in line in furthering the Science of Medicine, and in this center of civiliza- tion TEsculapius was the foremost authority. It seems that he did not even try to cure people about to die, but rather prescribed for those virtually sound, but afflicted with some minor disease. He gave drugs for these diseases instead of changing diet and habits, and he might well be called the predecessor of the physician of to-day. Hippocrates was the first physician to claim that Nature could be assisted by diet and sanitation, and that drugs should only be used secondarily to stim- ulate Nature into superaction. To Hippocrates belongs the distinction of creating for Medical Science a literature which has made him and his art immortal; but his chief distinction lies in the fact that he was careful not to interfere with Na- ture's reparative efforts, but on the other hand, en- deavored to promote them, because he said, "Na- ture is the first of physicians." Could the science of healing the sick have pro- gressed along those lines, the history of disease to- day would be a different one. But the science has worked itself, since then, through the most awful absurdities, until to-day we do not follow in the footsteps of Hippocrates but of Aesculapius. Witchcraft was no worse than the different DRUGS 69 phases that the healing of disease has gone through; and even in the time of Louis XIV of France, physicians prescribed "pulverized human skull," "balsam of bats," concoctions of adders, bats, suckling whelps, earthworms, "hog's grease," the marrow of a stag, "the thigh bone of an ox"! These prescriptions won fame and envy for a fa- mous physician of that time. "Crab eyes" and "crab claws," "elk's hoof," "wood lice," "church bugs"; offal and faecal mat- ter, from both human beings and animals, were a very popular method of "curing" the sick. The Pharmacopaeia-Londoninesis, written in 1676 by William Salmon-"Professor of Physick," published "with the grace of his Majesty, the King, for public good," and sanctioned by the "fellows of the London College of Physicians," suggests: "hair powdered drunk thereof for jaundice" and "blood drunk hot for epilepsy, but violent exercise must be taken afterward, as great trembling comes upon those that take." The "blood from the ele- phant mixed with the ashes of a weasel helps the elephantiasis," etc. Pages could be filled with lists of such "medicines," including those made from man, down to the snail, too numerous to men- tion and some too filthy and sickening to publish. These incredible cures date back to 1675, but do 70 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH not differ essentially from some modern prepara- tions. What wonder that we to-day, in sheer disgust, turn back to Nature, especially when we hear the statements of such prominent physicians as Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, of Harvard University, who says, "I am sick of learned quackery." 1 Dr. Mason Good, a learned professor in London, says: "The effects of medicine on the human system are in the highest degree uncertain; except indeed, that they have already destroyed more lives than war, pestilence and famine combined." Professor Gregory, of Edinburgh: "Gentlemen, 99 out of every 100 medical facts are medical lies, and medical doctrines are for the most part stark, startling nonsense." Dr. James Johnson, F. R. S., editor of the Chiru- gical Review. "I declare it is my conscientious con- viction, founded on long experience and observa- tion, that if there were not a single physician, sur- geon, man-midwife, chemist, apothecary, druggist or drug on the face of the earth, there would be less mortality and less sickness than now pre- vails." 1 The reader will find these and many further quotations of a similar nature in "The Public Estimate of the Physician," by F. P. Myers, D. C., published by The Chiropractor Publishing Company, Davenport, Iowa. DRUGS 71 Dr. Coggswell, of Boston: "It is my firm belief that the prevailing mode of practice is productive of vastly more evil than good, and were it abso- lutely abolished, mankind would be infinitely the gainer." Prof. J. W. Carson: "We do not know whether our patients recover because we give medicine or because Nature cures them. Perhaps bread pills would cure as many as medicine." Dr. Marshall Hall, F. R. S.: "Thousands are annually slaughtered in the quiet sick room." Dr. Ramage, F.R.S., of London: "The popular medical system has neither philosophy nor com- mon sense to commend it to confidence." Dr. Alex. H. Stevens: "The reason medicine has advanced so slowly is because physicians have studied the writings of their predecessors instead of Nature." Oliver Wendell Holmes, Boston, the physician and poet, declared: "Mankind has been drugged to death, and the world would be better off if the contents of every apothecary shop were emptied into the sea, though the consequences to the fishes would be lamentable." And the latest statement of Dr. Wm. Osler, one of the recognized allopathic authorities of to-day, says: "No regular physician would ever admit that 72 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH the homeopathic 'infinitesimals' could do any good as direct curative agents; and yet it was certain that homeopaths lost no more of their patients than others. There was but one conclusion to draw- that most drugs had no effect whatsoever on the diseases for which they were administered." We have followed in the past blindly the dictates of our physicians, but we recognize that they travel so far apart from the laws of Nature that we turn to-day to the drugless methods. The Pharmaceuti- cal Advance, of March, 1916, tells us that there are 28,000,000 devotees of drugless healing in the United States. This vast army of ailing human beings comprises the clientele of the chiropractor, the osteopath, the Christian and mental scientist and the dietitian. In other words, more than 25 per cent, of the population of America has been weaned from orthodox medicine and takes its chances with the "pseudo" scientist, rather than with those who are efficient in "learned quackery," for this is what Oliver Wendell Holmes called the Science of Medicine. The sciences of the future will be assisting Na- ture through hygiene, dietetics and mind science, to say nothing of Christian science, which is 50 per cent, absolute truth. For there is a power out- side of us that regulates the planets, the atmos- DRUGS 73 phere and ourselves as well. This power is always for good, because it stands for action, and action means balance in the planet as well as in the hu- man body. But "I know I can cross the Hudson River and arrive in Hoboken, yet I don't sit in my apartment and expect this great unseen power to lift me bod- ily. Instead, I take the trolley cars and the ferry boat and use 50 per cent, of physical motion, to fulfill the faith I have had in making this trip." Christian science in time must come to recognize that the faith in this great power to heal must be supplemented by material action, and all the man- ipular practices, such as chiropractice, osteopathy, electricity, mechano-therapy and massage, are help- ers of Nature. Edison claims that he does not know what elec- tricity is. He only knows how to work with it. No more can the physician tell what life is, but when he considers life as a great force of Nature, he will assist this force in a far different manner than to pour drugs into it. Rather will he recon- struct the bony and muscular structure of man, thereby allowing the nerve currents to carry the stream of life freely to the organs-rather will he advise along dietary lines, and teach the patient to furnish the right fuel for his body. 74 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH We know that it is not the quantity of food that we partake of, but rather the manner in which we can digest and assimilate our food. No two peo- ple metabolize or assimilate their food alike, and one wonders how medical science could ever hope to have drugs affect all systems alike! The fact is that they do not. And for this reason we try one drug after another until Nature, in spite of these drugs, has cured our disease. Who has ever heard of stomach trouble being cured by a drug? All the peptones in the world cannot stimulate the muscular coat of the stomach to perform the work of digestion. But by diet and release of pressure on gastric nerves, any and all stomach diseases are speedily cured, unless all vitality has been sapped and we finally admit we have waited too long- Nature is too tired to perform any more tasks. TOPICS The tonics in medicine are alcohol, strychnia and arsenic. These drugs whip into action the nerves, which in turn make functioning more forcible. The best manner of resting the nervous system is through sleeping and fasting, and these by them- selves are a tonic. What sleep is to our brain, a fast is to our stom- ach and organs of elimination. Knowing that we DRUGS 75 have overworked these organs through a winter's campaign of feeding too much, we should retire for a rest and a fast. Lent is a religious institution, primarily pro- mulgated by ancient religions. And where a per- son has not enough brain to cut out heavy foods except when he is told to do so by his religious* tenets, we can certainly give three cheers for his religion. But common sense would tell us that keeping Lent 365 days a year, cutting out a meal or a few courses every day, is a much wiser plan.1 Were we to do this, our system would be in a splen- did condition to partake of the tonics of Nature, such as the early vegetables, onions and radishes, or the early fruits, rhubarb and strawberries. One can see fully 50 per cent, of the readers exclaiming that they cannot eat one or the other, because they cause untoward symptoms, and the truth of this must be admitted-because the average person so preserves his onions and radishes with salt that Na- ture cannot assimilate them at all. Also, by pouring vast quantities of sugar on rhubarb and strawberries he makes of them a con- coction which is absolutely harmful to his diges- tion. A trial of eating these foods in the right manner will convince the skeptic in one week's time of their tonic qualities. It must be said again 76 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH that especially with these spring tonics, the rule (explained further under "Dietetics"), that "vege- tables, fruits and milks must be kept apart," must be rigidly followed. But have you no use for drugs at all? This question is asked of me often, and the answer must be, "Yes, drugs are excellent to die by, also in un- avoidable accidents; as pain killers they may be employed to advantage." But that leaves, indeed, a small field, when the patient is told that in acci- dents the healing action is hindered by pain killers, and that the habits formed by even a small quan- tity of these pain killers are detrimental to mind and body. The system of prevention of disease is still in its infancy, and for that reason there are still peo- ple dying of diseases that entail great suffering before death, and in such cases, drugs are as yet a God-send. CHAPTER IX DRUGS VERSUS FOODS Almost the whole medical theory of drug taking rests upon the rock of faith. Faith in a drug or a physician has done more to relieve symptoms than the application of the drug. And for this reason the dangerous application of drugs is not as great as it would be otherwise, for physicians and laity alike have fully recognized the influence of mind over matter. Now when we consider that one man's meat is an- other man's poison, we must also remember that this is equally true of drugs. All physicians know that according to temperament, vocation and habit, they must prescribe differently for different people. Surgery has been tried out on guinea pigs, dogs, cats and monkeys, and these animals under close observation tell the careful surgeon when like op- erations might prove tolerably certain in effect on human beings. The serum therapy having been tried on these poor animals has been in great part unsuccessful, 77 78 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH because blood and lymph are vastly different in an- imals on account of the difference in the food in- take and habits. How much more unreliable are these serums when applied to the human family where the factor of mind is of such great import! Time was when we called a physician and with- out question took his prescribed drugs. That time has passed; every intelligent person wants to know the why and wherefore of a prescription, and if the physician knows and honestly tells what he knows, he will say: "I have prescribed for you a tonic, but frankly the only tonic there is, is fresh air and simple food. What I have prescribed for you is simply a whip, (arsenic and strychine) and does you more harm than good." Or-"Here is a medicine for your headache, but if I were in your place, I would rather stand the pain than paralyze my nerves so they could not feel the pain. You see, the cause of the pain is congestion, and there is no drug that will help that without injuring other functions of yours." Or-"Rheumatism? Yes, I can give you a drug that will throw out of your kidneys and bowels some of the poisonous matter that is responsible for your pain. But these drugs would injure your stomach and your heart, and I would rather go on a DRUGS VERSUS FOODS 79 simple diet, if I were you, and make the cure slower but more certain." Or-"Constipation? My dear friend, don't you know that all laxatives act on the bowels through irritation? Why take such an irritant through the tender membranes of the stomach and intestines? You had better look to your diet to correct this in- action. Or your gastric and splanchnic nerves may be impinged. Until these two important causes have been seen to, I advise you to take a rectal injection of three cups of water to one of olive oil. The addition of oil is soothing, and even soap would be too much of an irritation for the tender membrane of your colon." At great length, I might cite new diseases that invariably, sooner or later, follow the taking of drugs. Especially I should give a warning about so-called headache cures or pain-killers, because in many cases it is not another disease which fol- lows the taking of these, but death, the last great experience. Unless you are quite satisfied to enter into this experience, do not take these coal tar products. The reader of a book such as this prob- ably knows of enough experiences of friends to give him a healthy fear of the whole category of drugs. The best food to take when ill, or indisposed, is 80 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH no food at all! Animals, guided by instinct, are far ahead of us, who have lost instinct and have not acquired a sufficient amount of intelligence to re- place instinct. All animals, at the first aproach of illness stop eating, and that is the reason we have comparatively few hospitals for animals. They are provided with natural instinct-are "fool proof." Not so the human! He has not been taught that all sickness means congestion of some organ, that is: inactivity of some function. So instead of giving this organ a chance to recuperate from an inadvertent abuse by a rest, inside and out of the body, he piles on more abuse. A fast of a day or two, with a copious flushing by water drinking and bathing would cure 99 out of 100 dis- eases in quick order. The animal allows Nature to help him in this manner. Not so the average human being! He takes his favorite drug, thereby weakening his functions more, eats nice "nour- ishing" food and coddles himself into a first rate illness or operation. Foolish? Of course! But how is he to know when the old-fashioned physician, who should have been his teacher, has left him to believe that he can live any old way and then take something out of a bottle or a pill box and be as well as before? Experience teaches that this is stark, startling non- DRUGS VERSUS FOODS 81 sense; but the average physician thinks his patient wants this, that or the other, and that if he does not furnish him what he wants, he will change phy- sicians. Economics prompt him "to give them what they want." I have practiced for fourteen years; and my medical education has been the strongest factor in driving me into Nature's lines. I have found that I can well afford to lose the patient who does not want to help himself, and my belief in the survival of the fittest makes me content when such a one is discouraged with my frankness. There are many in this wonderful country of ours who wish to be above the average in health. They are willing to forego habits that have proven fallacious, "pleas- ures" that have brought in their train incapacity and premature old age, and who with Napoleon believe: "Doctor, no medicine. We are machines made to live and enjoy-organized expressly for that purpose. Such is our nature. Do not coun- teract the living principle. Leave it to Nature to defend itself, and it will do better than your drugs." DRUGLESS LIVING IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT THE SCIENCE OF DIETETICS The time has passed when man has been satisfied to become ill, decrepit and old, long before his time, and he wonders now, how he could expect any- 82 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH thing but this condition of premature age when he was not willing to learn how to build and repair his best possession, his body. Only one generation ago, he learned that his teeth could be repaired and kept in his mouth as long as life lasted; and dentistry has made such strides in the last two or three decades that one rarely finds a person with bad teeth now. In an- other three decades the tooth puller will be a thing of the past, because we know that, through great cleanliness and right food, every single tooth can be kept in our mouths. We still read that bad teeth cause all sorts of diseases. Pyorrhea, for instance, is said to be the cause of rheumatism, throat and lung diseases, etc. But the better informed know that lack of the right kind of food and the use of wrongly combined foods, show their results in all parts of the body, especially so in the building of teeth. These are the visible signs of good or bad assimilation and elimination, and we may rest assured that could we but understand that all decay and discoloration is caused by the food we partake of, three times a day -we would quickly enough learn how to live more scientifically. Under the old idea of feeding so many calories of proteids, carbohydrates and fats, learning any- DRUGS VERSUS FOODS 83 thing about food became an endless job, seldom resulting in any tangible results, for the simple reason that no two people have the same power of digestion. Digestion is under the control of the gastric nerves, and food in turn makes nerve force. Nerve force makes possible digestion, assimilation and elimination, and none of these functions can be suc- cessfully performed except naturally. No drug can further any of these functions. To be sure, we can whip up our appetite by tonics; we can help di- gestion by pepsins and elimination by laxatives and diuretics, but we will never find the drug that will assimilate our food and transform it into strength and energy. This our nervous system must accom- plish, and that great system may be worn out sooner by wrong feeding than by any other agency. CHAPTER X HOW MUCH SHALL WE EAT? The instinct of hunger and the appeasement of appetites hold mankind enslaved in an iron grip, and the more civilized the nation, the stronger its bondage to old customs. Eating is a pleasure; and, working upon the hypothesis that while a little is good, a great deal is better, man digs his grave fast and furiously through his intense satisfaction of this primeval instinct. How much and what shall we eat? becomes the great question before us, when we consider that "what we eat, we are." Is there any doubt that a gourmand soon takes on all the ear marks of a pig, and that the gourmet (one who eats little and well) develops into the spiritual, mental, good natured social factor of our daily life? Were we bom a finished product, it really would not matter what or how much we would put into our stomachs. But we all know that billions of cells in our bony structure, flesh tissues, nerve mat- ter, etc., die every day, and that these dead cells are replaced by new, living ones, fashioned out of 84 HOW MUCH SHALL WE EAT? 85 the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe. The decorator of our house knows that the ef- fect of the home depends upon the judicious se- lection of furniture and draperies. The fashion- able woman of to-day knows that one or two pieces of jewelry, one or two fabrics in her gown, make a more pleasing all-together than the fripperies, ruf- fles and furbelows of the woman of a generation or two ago. Simplicity has become the key to all that is beautiful. We are fashioning ourselves after the pattern of Nature, and we are becoming artists. The artist in food economy is asking of those of us who have studied the machine-our body-"how much shall I eat, and what shall I eat?" The savage seldom overeats. Not until the mis- sionary brings to him the pernicious habits of the "civilized" countries. Nature is kind and has furnished him with instinct, and this instinct in the civilized nations should be replaced by intelligence in the selection of food. Instinct tells us that one food at a time satisfies our hunger, and we find pri- meval man satisfying his with the food Nature fur- nishes him. It may be a fruit, rice, fish or game. He eats his fill of one food. Until he gets hungry again, one hour or one day may have 86 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH elapsed-he has no set meal hours. He does not think of eating until he is hungry again. This means a healthy stomach, and such a one has no abnormal desires. Eating one food at a time means eating very little food. Try it! See how small a portion you will eat if you eat just one thing. Your stomach will absolutely refuse another bite of meat or potatoes -you are filled to your capacity! But bring along a nice rich dessert and you will find it go down nicely. By that time, the stomach is so full and disgusted, it lets you feel no scruples when you pour strong coffee on top of it all. In fact, you must have this coffee; it is a strong stimulant, and you need a whip to stir the function of digestion. How much wiser to eat just a few well-cooked things at a meal and satisfy yourself on these alone. If the savage does not overeat because he soon fills up on his one article of food; if the gourmand digs himself an early grave by his many courses at a time, would it not be wise to strike a mean between the two and eat moderately? Try eating two to three courses at a meal, and then ask yourself if you do not feel better for it. How much shall we eat? It is the Talmud that teaches "while it tastes good, cease eating." Noth- HOW MUCH SHALL WE EAT? 87 ing need be added to this. It is a truth, both sim- ple and logical. What a pity that we have not better understood this vital question long before now! And how easy to understand it when a simple regime like the one tested by me for many years, has proven so effective. Do not for a moment think that you are going to starve to death, or that you are going to lose all the joys of living. On the contrary, eating becomes more beautiful if you do not have such great varieties at one meal as to disgust the innate, finer forces within you. Who does not read of the table of the gourmand of a few generations ago, when all there was to eat was put on the table at one time? We have become too refined even to look at such a conglomeration, and appease our eyes by bringing on the courses one at a time. In this manner, we overtax our nervous system by consuming a lot of food our body cannot assimilate or eliminate. This causes fifty per cent, of all dis- eases. The first consideration when we sit down to eat is pleasant companionship, a clean and daintily set table, and a pleasant disposition. For instance, we all know that we can go to a picnic in the summer when the eye is filled with the beauties of Nature 88 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH and digest foods and mixtures of foods that would incapacitate us for days, were we at home and tired from our day's work. Eating is not a physical matter only. It is psy- chic, and the nervous system being the receptacle of Nature's finer forces is also the dominating power over the material organs and their functions. This nervous system then has to be catered to first and foremost by environment, cleanliness and a cheerful disposition. These are the foundations of Eating for Health. Under these conditions, we unconsciously chew our food better and eat more slowly, and any one can test this statement by taking note of the time spent in eating by oneself and in pleasant company. Food is really not as great a necessity as we have believed! We all eat more for pleasure than for nourishment, for were we to feed for the latter alone, it would be an easy matter. The wheat berry furnishes us all the nourishment needed for the maintenance of our body. In addition to wheat, we need only a sufficient quantity of water. This is not a haphazard statement, but a tried one. I can guarantee the reader that he can test the truth of this theory by living for one week on these sim- ple foods. He will find that he is better nourished and more energetic on this diet than were he to mix HOW MUCH SHALL WE EAT? 89 all the dainties of a meal of Lucullus. So much for the mere necessity of eating. The luxury of it lies entirely in the mind, the eye, the tongue, palate, and pharynx, and to prolong this pleasure we should chew our food until it has attained a fluid state and is swallowed without effort. To Horace Fletcher belongs the honor of having drawn our attention to this fact, and while he had in mind more the disintegration of food and the mixing of the saliva with it, he built better than he knew, for he drew our attention to the pleasure of eating. Most people look forward to eating a dinner in the evening simply as a necessity, while in fact it should become the most pleasurable time of the day. After throwing aside the cares and worries of our day's work, at our evening meal we commune with those we love best and interchange thoughts and ideas, which in turn make our lives happier and better. CHAPTER XI HOW SHALL WE COMBINE OUR FOODS? Food scientists tell us that we need a certain amount of protein, fats and carbohydrates! So many calories of each. Then they go on at great length, telling us of the value of each food, and I wonder how many individuals have really profited by the whole complex study of it all. For it is not how many calories we eat that mat- ters, but how much we digest of what we eat. I, for instance, can eat bread prepared from real wheat (meaning all of the wheat berry ground and baked) and gain five pounds a week on this one food. I have actually demonstrated this. I also have eaten absolutely nothing for one whole week, from Saturday to Saturday. I drank plenty of wa- ter, and the last twenty-four hours of this fast I had four glasses of buttermilk. I exercised vio- lently, took long walks, hot and cold baths, an hour's massage a day, and lost only seven pounds in seven days! I eat about four real dinners a week, and these are taken without soups, desserts or coffee. The 90 HOW SHALL WE COMBINE FOODS? 91 other three dinners are the average little supper- say rarebit and salad, or spaghetti and salad. I have not eaten lunch regularly for sixteen years, and if perchance I do eat it, I leave out dinner. My breakfast consists of Kaffee Hag, fruit and one slice of toast-unless I omit even that-because my scale shows an increase of weight that I do not need nor want. I admit that I drink a great deal of water, also a bottle of beer at times, but I work mentally and physically for six hours a day as only a prize fighter or an athlete possibly could. Besides this, I go swimming and take strenuous physical culture exercises almost every day. My health is absolutely perfect, and I know that I can die of but two causes-viz.: an accident, or the wearing out of my nerves from immoderate work. In giving this personal experience I only mean to show that food is of small consequence in feeding our body. We have been told we need proteins! Well and good. Proteins are: meat, chicken, fish, eggs, cheese, beans, peas, lentils and nuts. These are the "strong" foods, and these should be eaten sparingly. I still remember, and it is all of twenty years ago, that I burst upon some of my fellow students with 92 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH the statement that I had just read in a book by a great German authority (Carl Von Noorden), that four and one-half ounces of protein a day were suf- ficient for the upkeep of the body. I still hear their laughter of derision. All of us figured out that we were consuming eight to ten ounces of protein a day. Most of us were eating meat twice a day, eggs for breakfast, and in addition such "incidentals" as the legumes and nuts. The head- aches I was suffering from so terribly were sup- posedly caused by anaemia, and the idea of dimin- ishing my red blood corpuscles by eating less pro- tein was scorned by my medical friends. But I tried eating more nourishing vegetables, and I found that the nutrient salts contained in them furnished me better blood at first hand than they had at second hand, that is: through the cow eating the vegetables and my eating the cow. Besides, I found that I could not as easily over-eat, because the vegetables, in addition to the nutrient salts my body needed, furnished me with a good quantity of distilled water, and waste matter. Especially was this true of the fruits. By studying each indi- vidual fruit and vegetable, I soon found myself in- formed of their great value, especially of that part of fruit and vegetable that was generally thrown away in the peeling or cooking. Naturally, I re- HOW SHALL WE COMBINE FOODS? 93 solved to eat the peelings, and to my mind came an incident that threw light on the value of consum- ing all of the fruit and vegetable. Years ago, on a visit to Germany, I had noticed that a man, coming to the kitchen door every morn- ing, was handed a bag of something. Upon in- quiry, I found he collected the potato peelings from all families and that they were used to make cows give better milk. I concluded that if that sub- stance of the potato was good for the cow, it was good for me also. And I have not eaten potatoes without peelings since, unless I have been forced, through politeness, to eat them as they are usually prepared. Upon a thorough investigation I found that the skins of all fruits and vegetables were most valu- able in nutrient salts, and I have long ceased en- joying the so-called finer foods. More so since Elie Metchnikoff has propounded his theory of large colon bacillii. This great Rus- sian scientist has demonstrated to a certainty that mankind grew old and died before its natural time because of the poisons in the intestines and espe- cially in the large colon. He even advocated the excission of the latter, claiming it had lost its significance because mankind ate finer and more concentrated foods, that lacked the waste matter 94 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH necessary for the function of the large muscles of the colon. I believe no one was found brave enough to make the experiment of cutting out his colon; but many, I hope, were set to thinking that we had better furnish this organ with more waste matter. These wise ones, far from surmising that this would cause appendicitis, commenced eating the skins of fruits and vegetables. A lot of others followed Metchnikoff in drink- ing sour milk, buttermilk and all the bacilli-pre- pared drinks in the drug stores. For Metchnikoff had also demonstrated the fact that these sour milk ferments were antidotes of the colon poisons. He had made extensive investigations among the na- tions whose daily dietary consisted of soured milk and coarse rye or wheat bread and he had found these people lived long and healthily. I can verify these investigations. I, myself, have seen a woman of 137 years of age plowing in the fields of Bohemia. I have seen men and women of 100 and 110 years as agile and bright as the average American of 60. All this in the poorer Slav countries-lucky poor! I also found that these people practically lived on these simple foods. Rarely-only on holidays -did they eat meat, chicken or even eggs. I con- HOW SHALL WE COMBINE FOODS? 95 eluded that this lack of many foods partaken of at the same time was the cause of the absence of poisons in their intestinal tract. I also figured that feeding these bacilli concoctions on top of all the other foods added insult to the injury com- mitted against our stomach. Metchnikoff has dem- onstrated this fact to me, for he recently died, aged only 72. How then shall we combine our foods? The best way is not to combine at all, but eat one thing at a time. Dr. Thomas J. Allen, of Western repu- tation, has spent the last 20 years in lecturing and practicing this mono diet. Dr. Saulsbury of New York made a great furore, about that many years ago, with his exclusive meat diet cure. Dr. van Noorden also introduced an exclusive oat meal diet. The milk diet also has many admirers. But the cures are neither in the meat, the oatmeal nor the milk. The cures are brought about because the system need digest only one food at a time. Neither of these diets can be kept up for a lengthy period, because none of them contain all the ele- ments needed for the body. The nearest solution to a one food diet is wheat-the all wheat-because it alone contains all the nutrient salts our blood 96 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH needs. I know this works out in practice as well as in theory, because I have tried it again and again on babies and adults. Some ten years ago, I examined a patient who had cancer of the stomach to such a degree that surgeons had refused to operate. I told this man that neither I nor any living being could cure him, but that spinal adjustments and a strict diet could ease his pain, and make him live longer. I put him on bread and mush of wheat-he ground that himself so as to be sure he was getting all of the wheat. At one meal a day I let him eat raw apples with peeling. And when after a month I told him I would add salad to one meal, he told me he would prefer to stay with wheat and apples, because he knew when he was well off. Three years afterwards a rusty nail penetrated his foot and he died of resulting blood poisoning and unnatural treatment accorded him. I was in Europe at the time, or I should have insisted upon an autopsy, and I feel sure that I would have found that his cancer had disappeared. This man had worked and enjoyed freedom from pain for three years after medical science had doomed him to death. Even I had underestimated Nature's possi- bilities. Seven years ago a little child of 18 months was HOW SHALL WE COMBINE FOODS? 97 brought to me after her parents had been told she could not possibly live because she had rickets. My claim that all diseases were manufactured in the stomach was verified by the fact that this baby had been fed by a wet nurse whose child was also suffering from the disease. Both of the children, subsequent to the breast feeding, were fed by one of our great children's specialists. He fed these little ones, who were not digesting food and wanted none, forcibly: eggs, milk and meat juice. It was sent down into their alimentary canal only by hold- ing their nostrils! Like Strassburg geese. The baby brought to me was fat but absolutely lacking in brain cells. Brain makes intelligence, bony and muscular structure, teeth, etc. This baby was de- ficient in all. It could not smile, move, eat, digest or eliminate food without being forced to do so. It had two teeth at the age of eighteen months. Its bones were easily bent, and the only sound it made was a groan or a sigh. I marvel that these poor parents had the nerve to put their precious baby into the hands of a new science. A science tabooed and abused by ortho- dox medicine! But this orthodox science had proven of no avail, and in spite of my radical ideas the baby was entrusted to me. The first spinal ad- justment brought forth tears from father, mother 98 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH and baby. I grit my teeth, knowing at this late stage it meant life or death, and that I would be happy to see the baby die rather than live a few weeks longer as it had lived. The parents, feel- ing as I did, with me formed a trinity that was too strong for defeat. At any rate, the baby, though not eating a bite for ten days, losing most of the flesh it did have, gained in these ten days eight teeth and a nervous system that was instrumental in making as healthy a little youngster as one could wish to meet. I myself have been an invalid, and out of all my experiments and experiences I have learned that between gourmandism and mono diet, lies the intel- ligent middle of the road. I, my family, and my friends, live by my method of diet. And with- out one exception all agree that of all the diets, mine is the simplest and most applicable. Whether you are "boarding," eating a la carte or en fa- mille, all of you, with a bit of intelligent thought, can follow my mode of living. Here I can do no better than quote from "Diet Facts," a small pamphlet which I wrote in 1909, which has been helpful to many through all the intervening eight years. I embody it here intact. A few of the statements have been made before, but they can bear repetition. HOW SHALL WE COMBINE FOODS? 99 GENERAL RULES ON DIET "Volumes have been written on the chemistry of food and the body. Fads spring up, are tried and forgotten. And I think it timely that the experi- ence gained from the many patients I have had under observation for so many years should be re- corded in a treatise, which the average mind can grasp without making the matter of diet a life study. " 'One man's meat is another man's poison,' and if this were not true, illness and doctors would not be such common factors in life. The calorie the- ory (that is, feeding so much protein, carbohy- drates, fats and minerals) in its failure to nourish properly, has shown that eating is not a matter of feeding but a matter of combustion of food. This combustion depends upon nervous energy as much as nervous energy depends upon food. Granting then, that the nervous energy of our body is at par, general rules on diet can be laid down only, and each individual must prove his fitness to live by the intelligence with which he selects his food to rebuild the tissues he wastes. The one law that applies to everybody, to the brain and the muscle builder, is: that food eaten at a meal must harmonize. How can we know? It is simple, like all truths. To any one understanding even the smallest principle 100 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH of chemistry the foods which, combined, please the eye and taste good in the mouth, will digest and assimilate in the stomach and the intestines, and eliminate through the bowels and kidneys. Try it, eat in small enough quantity, or the whole system will go on a strike. Chew your meal well enough for it to mix thoroughly with the saliva, which is the first digestive fluid. "While admitting that diet has to be entirely modeled to fit economics, vocations, climate and temperaments, I, after much study, have found there is much good in all systems, and that the ques- tion is up to each individual to make the proper selection. I think meat a proper article of food for the man who spends his day following the plow, coming in contact with the earth, perspiring and eliminating through the skin much of the uric acid and poison he takes into his system with meat, oxygenizing his blood in the open air. " But I also agree with the vegetarian that meat must cease to be an article of food as soon as man evolves from the hunter, the farmer and worker in the street-to an individual who emerges from an apartment into a street car or limousine, to enter an office to use his nervous energy in brain instead of brawn. The substitutes for meat, viz.: eggs, milk, cheese, beans, peas, lentils, nuts and cereals, HOW SHALL WE COMBINE FOODS? 101 should be indulged in sparingly also, and the limit should be found in from two to four ounces daily, according to temperament, vocation and the power of the gastric nerves. How many of us, under the mistaken notion that strength can be obtained from these proteid foods only, have eaten up to ten ounces a day! "The ailment most prevalent three decades ago was anaemia and its accompanying diseases. We straightway jumped to the other extreme, knew noth- ing but building red corpuscles, until to-day, we are plunged into another dilemma. We have over- fed on proteids and the disease of to-day is auto- toxaemia. Let us swing the pendulum into the cen- ter now, use an uncommon quantity of common sense and remember above all else, that: "Food is needed only to rebuild tissues and blood; our strength we get out of these tissues and from the oxygen we breathe, from the vitality we liberate through right thinking, and from the elec- tricity we arouse in ourselves through physical mo- tion. "More than three-fourths of our body is water and air, which should be replenished with from six to ten glasses of water each 24 hours taken between meals. "Many physicians argue that all solid foods hold THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH 102 more or less water, and we therefore do not need it in liquid form. But when we consider that we exhale much fluid through our skin and that our kidneys and bowels need flushing, we can readily understand that through the intake of water false appetites disappear and organs are cleansed and lubricated. "Food should never be eaten while one is tired or worried, because our nervous force is low at these times, and gastric nerves have to digest food and splanchnic nerves have to eliminate waste matter. A short rest before meals and deep breathing will oftentimes raise one's vitality enough to enjoy a small quantity of light food. Hot water or soups should never be taken before meals, because hot fluids relax the muscles of the stomach and these muscles should be stimulated rather with cold water before meals, than to be relaxed with hot water. "Salt and condiments should be avoided; these are preservatives and the food should not be pre- served but broken down and assimilated as soon as possible. Salt is a mineral and should be avoided also, because it hardens bones and arteries, and this hardening is the real sign of old age. "Sugar is a fermentive and creates acid. Fail- ure to take this fact into account has led to many errors in diet, such as tomatoes and lemons being HOW SHALL WE COMBINE FOODS? 103 bad for rheumatic people. These and other acid fruits are the best counteracting agents we have against uric acid unless they are eaten with sugar or other sweets. If we crave sweets let us eat the nat- ural ones, such as dates, figs, honey and combine these only with grain and milk or cream. "Simplicity and moderation in the menu is the watchword among intelligent people and if we eat a few, well harmonized foods at one time, it gives us a feeling of refinement and cleanliness that well re- pays the sacrifices and control over our appetites. "Coffee, tea, wine and beer may be indulged in moderately, if they have a relaxing instead of stim- ulating effect. "Breakfast-Whole wheat, graham or rye bread or toast, or cereal with good milk or cream and either figs, dates, bananas or one soft-boiled or poached egg. "Lunch-None for people inclined to obesity. To others, fruit or a fruit or vegetable salad and a small graham wafer, no drink. Breakfast and lunch may be reversed. "Dinner-No meat; in its place one of these- Chicken, fish, eggs, beans, peas, lentils, macaroni with cheese, and two or three good vegetables, such as onions, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, celery, spinach, asparagus, beets, carrots, turnips, mush- 104 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH rooms, cabbage, radishes. A little dark bread, and cheese eaten with a large vegetable salad makes a splendid second course and leaves one in better condition than if a dessert were added. If one absolutely must have sweets, why not have it in place of a lunch? "And why not eat fresh fruits and vegetables, when we know that through them we revitalize our tissues? Also why eat devitalized preparations, such as white flour, meats, etc. "Remember that most foods are good, that it is the inharmonious mixtures that cause gases and de- composition. A safe plan is to keep fruits, vege- tables and milk apart, and this is an easy matter, since we eat three times a day." CHAPTER XII A WEEK'S MENU Sunday: Breakfast, Cornmeal mush, bananas, cream, all-wheat toast, coffee. Lunch, Fruit only. Dinner, First course: Celery, almonds and an appe- tizer of caviar on toast. Second course: Chicken stuffed and baked, baked potatoes, spinach. Third course: Salad of romaine, celery and nuts, French dressing. Serve cheese, also light wine if desired. Note: A delicious filling for fowl may be made by cooking the gizzard, liver and heart in a little water, then chopping them and mixing with breadcrumbs, a little on- ion, thyme, an egg and the broth from the cooked liver and heart. Salt and pepper to taste. Salad Dressing may be: 1st: French Dressing-% cup olive oil, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, a little salt and paprika. 2nd: Russian Dressing-a little garlic and % pack- age cream cheese mashed in the salad bowl. A yolk of one egg, 1 cup of olive oil, teaspoonful lemon juice, tablespoon chili sauce and a little salt and cayenne pep- per to taste. 3rd: Fry squares of bacon brown, add wine vinegar, 105 106 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH salt and pepper to taste. Pour over salad while hot. This is excellent for cold slaw, potato salad or wilted lettuce and romaine that is not quite tender enough to be enjoyed entirely raw. 4th: Mayonnaise-Whip yolk of egg, and, drop by drop, olive oil until stiff. Add lemon juice and salt to taste. Monday: Breakfast, Oranges, omelet, coarse bread toast and de- caffeinized coffee. Lunch, Milk or buttermilk, as much as one likes, with whole wheat crackers. Dinner, First course: Nuts, radishes, a tomato stuffed with celery and mayonnaise. Second course: Spaghetti. Third course: Cold Slaw Salad. Note: Recipe for Omelet-beat up one egg for each person, yolk and white separately, with a little salt added to each. Now put olive oil in frying pan, beat and pour in yolk. Let set, then spread on whites and fold. Recipe for Cold Slaw: Cut cabbage fine, add a little onion and apple, also cut up finely. Fry to a crisp brown, bacon cut in squares, add a little wine vinegar to this while hot, stir the cabbage, onion and apple for a few moments. This makes an excellent dish, garnished with sprays of parsley. Note: Apple is the only fruit that combines with all vegetables; celery and lettuce the only vegetables that combine with all fruits. Recipe for Spaghetti-Stir sauce first, and for this use one cup of olive oil and four good sized onions sliced. A WEEK'S MENU 107 Boil this until onions are brown. Then add one quart of tomatoes, a whole bunch of finely chopped parsley, and let boil until one pound of spaghetti has been cooked in salted water. In a separate vessel cook one pound of mushrooms, or use chicken chopped up fine instead. When spaghetti is soft, drain and put on meat platter. Over this sprinkle liberally some grated Parmesan cheese. Spread mushrooms or chicken, and over all the sauce. This is a delicious dish, taking the place of meat and vegetables. Tuesday: Breakfast, Bananas, waffles, honey, coarse bread and decaff einized or cereal coffee. Lunch, Fruit, either eaten with whole wheat crackers or as a salad. Dinner, First course: Celery and almonds. Second course: Duck or goose with red cabbage and baked sweet potatoes. Third course: Salad of watercress, cheese and crackers. Note: Recipe for preparation of duck: Duck should be stuffed with chestnuts, apples, breadcrumbs and par- boiled liver and heart, a little salt and paprika. All this is to be moistened with the small amount of water the liver and heart has been boiled in. Recipe for red cabbage: Red cabbage should accom- pany both goose and duck and it should be prepared by cutting up the cabbage finely, also an apple or two, cut up with the peelings. A little lemon juice and a few caraway seeds. All this boiled in as little water as pos- sible. Just before serving, add a little butter. THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH 108 Wednesday: Breakfast: Grapefruit, cooked egg, coarse bread toast, decaffeinized coffee. Lunch: Clam chowder, coarse bread. Dinner: First course: Celery, onions, new when in season, or sliced Bermuda-this may be served in olive oil and lemon juice. Second course: Pea soup with dumplings. Third course: Salad of endive with Roquefort cheese dressing. Note: Recipe for Pea Soup-soak dry peas over night, cook two hours. Before dinner, add celery, parsley and two onions fried to a deep brown in either olive oil or bacon. Recipe for Dumplings: Whip an egg, yolk and white separately, add a little salt and two tablespoonfuls of water. Now slowly add white flour with which baking powder has been mixed (a teaspoon to a cup of flour), stirring all the time. The exact proportion cannot be given as a large egg would take up more flour than a small one, but enough should be stirred in so that it can be handled with a spoon. Dip a clean teaspoon into water, so the dough will not adhere to it when taken up, and drop into the soup. These dumplings may also be cooked in water, drained and garnished with bread crumbs fried in olive oil. They are an addition to most meals and should especially be recommended for people who wish to put on weight. Thursday: Breakfast, Grapes, German coffee cake with apples, coarse toast and decaffeinized coffee. A WEEK'S MENU 109 Lunch, Chocolate and toast. Dinner, First course: Anchovy dainty. Second course: Vegetable stew. Third course: Salad of apple, celery and lettuce with French Dressing. Note: Recipe for German Coffee Cake: Set yeast about 7 P. M. the night before by soaking compressed yeast cake in two cups of water. Before retiring add flour to consistency of dough that can be handled with a spoon. (Whole wheat flour is best, though white flour used occasionally is not harmful.) The next morn- ing add a little salt, a little brown sugar, grated orange or lemon peeling and one egg. Let rise, then put in pan, let rise again for half an hour and put sliced apples closely over the top. Over this butter, a little brown sugar and cinnamon. Bake brown. Recipe for vegetable stew: Fry about six onions in olive oil or butter or drippings-add 2 quarts of water and two pieces of marrow bone about four or five inches long. Add to this all kinds of vegetables cut up fine and cook slowly for about three hours. Salt to taste. Fifteen minutes before dinner, add one package of Ger- man Noodles. Friday: Breakfast, Prunes and dried apricots boiled together in very little water, poached egg, coarse bread and decaffeinized coffee. Lunch, Buttermilk, coarse bread. Dinner, First course: Caviar and onion dainty. Second course: Fish, potatoes boiled in skins, Brus- sels sprouts. 110 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH Third course: Salad of cucumbers and onions, cheese. Note: Fish should be turned in flour or cornmeal to which salt has been added, then fried in kettle with plenty of cooking oil, boiling hot. This makes it greaseless and easily digested. Recipe for Cucumber Salad: Cucumbers are easily digested if they are sliced an hour before mealtime and sprinkled with salt. Before serving squeeze out of brine and mix with onion and parsley, olive oil and a little lemon juice. Saturday: Breakfast, Apples quartered and boiled with skins in a very little water. Buckwheat or wheat pan- cakes, maple syrup, decaffeinized coffee. Lunch, Fruit Salad, coarse toast. Dinner, First course: Crackers with sardines heated in oven. Second course: Baked beans, potatoes. Third course: Salad, romaine and tomatoes and a very little cheese. Note: Recipe for baked beans: Soak navy beans at night. Two hours before dinner next day put in baking pan with one can of tomatoes. Put on top slices of bacon and bake until brown. These menus may be varied along the same lines. Also a little wine or beer may be drunk. One need not com- plain of hunger, for I do not insist that a certain quan- tity should be eaten, but leave this entirely to the option of the individual. As time goes on, we find that less and less is eaten, because if no sin is being committed in mixtures that do not harmonize, our stomachs repay us A WEEK'S MENU 111 with a feeling of ease and satisfaction after we have eaten a small quantity. Additional Dinners 1. Boiled cauliflower, served on meat platter. Around this make a rim of noodles that have been boiled in water and drained. Over all sprinkle Parmesan cheese. This is a protein or meat dish, and with a salad of alligator pears makes a splendid meal. 2. Sauerkraut or cabbage may be boiled until nearly soft, then potatoes steamed on top. A tight lid is neces- sary. Bread crumbs should be fried in olive oil (frying in butter is less digestible), and this served on top of the kraut or cabbage makes an excellent meat dish. 3. Peas and carrots cooked together. Serve mashed potatoes whipped to a light mass with butter. 4. Chicken or fish remnants may be made into a nice dish when heated in a sauce made by browning white flour in a pan to a deep brown. Add butter, then wa- ter, stirring continuously. Slices of dill pickles and a few capers improve this. Served on dark toast with buttered beets and rice constitutes a good dinner. 5. Boil rice for one hour in double boiler with a little salt. Put layer in casserole, then tomatoes, fresh or canned, a little red pepper cut in thin strips, small lumps of American cheese, repeat until dish is filled. Bake well. This will satisfy the hungriest stomach. Another vegetable, a salad and a few nuts and whole wheat crackers furnish a nourishing, digestible and dainty dinner. 6. Mock Meat Loaf. Soak overnight two cupfuls of 112 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH lentils. Boil slowly next day for two hours in only enough water to keep from burning. It should be stiff when it comes from stove. Allow to cool, then add two cupfuls of chopped walnuts, two finely chopped fried onions, two par-boiled potatoes, mashed, and one egg. Blend thoroughly, and put into a loaf and bake. Serve with a celery sauce made by boiling a stalk of sliced celery in a small amount of water. Thicken and add butter. I eat even less than I have specified. I have lived normally for so many years that my stomach wants few things at a time. I have not eaten lunch for fifteen years and my breakfast, if I eat one at all, consists of all the fruit I want, slice of toast and a cup of Elberskirchen Coffee-which is pre- pared after the old Liebig method and has most of the caffein extracted. This may be procured from C. M. Elberskirchen, 511 Westside Avenue, Jersey City, New Jersey. Cream may be added to this, because it is the fatty part of the milk, and its com- position is changed by the heat of the coffee. Glance over all my menus, and you will note that each meal might be served on one plate and the eye would be pleased with the combination, the pal- ate would be pleased with the taste. The stomach would digest it quickly. Digestion in its turn as- similates and eliminates, unless, of course, there is gastric nerve pressure. In that case, even when A WEEK'S MENU 113 pressure is not apparent in the spine, consult a Chiropractor. A few stories about food mixtures will help cut down even more the foregoing dietary formula. One is about a scientist who attended the usual banquet; and realizing the things that were to come (no need guessing-all banquets are exactly alike) asked for a bowl to be placed near his chair. Whatever came along was put into this bowl. Im- agine the disgust of the guests upon viewing this garbage! The inimitable Elbert Hubbard, an intimate friend of mine, told a story of a man who went to a physician to consult him about a serious ailment. This M. D. (I strongly suspect his father, dear old Dr. Hubbard) said: "I am certain you do not eat right! You eat too many mixtures and you drink too much." "Oh, Doctor, I live very simply-I scarcely have any appetite, I am sure you are mistaken." Dr. "Sensible" acquiesced and promised to think the case over. At the same time he ordered a con- fidant to follow Mr. Patient, and to put the equiva- lent of all foods consumed by him in a tin bucket. Upon leaving his doctor (it was ten A. M.), Mr. Pa- tient stopped in a nearby saloon and had a glass of beer and a sandwich. Next, to his place of busi- 114 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH ness, where after a certain amount of brain work, lasting a few hours, he went to lunch. A few busi- ness associates with their different requirements for food helped to make him consume: a plate of raw oysters, a few chops, creamed potatoes, a salad and a piece of pie. All this menu was added to the beer and ham sandwich of the ten o'clock "bite." Some more hours of work and a natural exhaustion caused by his brain and stomach forces see-sawing between digestion and brain work, Mr. Patient needed a cocktail about five P. M. This gave him a new and unnatural appetite for a dinner he did not need at all. And he sat down to a full-fledged dinner, di- rected by a thoughtful wife who had no idea of his second breakfast, heavy lunch and mid-after- noon repast. He, himself, had by this time lost all idea of what his body needed. He was only thinking of the schemes of his business life and his stomach's pleasures. But the doctor's faithful had added all the eats and drinks to the contents of the tin pail- Next morning he was to add to this the break- fast, before bringing it all to the physician. But, upon starting out on this early errand, he found that the contents had exploded the pail!!! A good one act play was given in an Amateur A WEEK'S MENU 115 Theater in New York last winter that was educa- tional to a greater degree than many lectures given by the greatest physicians. The stage setting resembled the interior of the stomach, and four clowns in striped suits were seen dancing about merrily. These personified the gas- tric juices. Now, through the rear which illus- trated the mouth, danced the different foods. The first was a woman dressed in light, airy gar- ments. She was the cocktail. The four clowns or gastric juices began to hop around and dance in great glee until they had tired her so that she lay down in one comer exhausted. This signified that the cocktail was partly digested. Not quite, be- cause an oyster entered in the shape of a boy and tried to frolick with her, but the four clowns drew his attention so vigorously that he finally lay beside her also, in a state of digestion. The clowns then made ready to take a rest when in came a man dressed as a pig, and they had to arouse themselves and work so vigorously that when they retired, thinking their work finished, they were quite out of breath. Not so, for along came some sauces, Worcester, mustard and gravy, and again there ensued a dread- ful tussle. But quiet reigned at last and the limit seemed reached when along, hand in hand, came the 116 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH ice cream and cake. The clowns or juices could only look up disgustedly. They shrank back in their comer, chiled with the cold. They could not arouse themselves nor the foods already packed down in a partial state of digestion-when, as a final insult, came a liqueur and some coffee!!! Whether the person who had eaten all this used the old Roman method of emptying the stomach or whether this organ was normal enough to perform this very necessary function itself-at any rate, the four clowns suddenly, in great fury, threw out of the door everything that had come in and laid down to an uneasy rest. CHAPTER XIII THE STAPLE FOODS "The Staff o£ Life," our forefathers called it, and how well they fared on it in the early days of strenuous living in our new country is shown by the magnificent physiques of even a generation ago. They worked much harder, had fewer comforts, more hardships, and still they were happier by far than their sons and daughters of to-day. Money and food surely were much less easily procurable then than they are now, and still they lived and prospered. Also, Materia Medica of their day recorded one disease where it now has a dozen. How can we study their conditions and not learn a lesson therefrom? What are we doing to-day that makes nine-tenths of humanity invalids or semi- invalids? Medical science has done wonders in making far better sanitation, why has it not made less sickness? The hope of humanity has ever been that disease some day might be entirely elim- BREAD 117 118 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH mated. Has this hope been realized even to a small degree? If we would study a little less bacteriology and would look deeper into the causes of diseases that are so close at hand, we could not help but see that the habits of our everyday living are largely to be blamed for the below par condition of the human body. Let us turn our minds to staple articles used at every meal; and first in importance stands-bread. Let us analyze this bread of all civilized coun- tries! Nature grows for us the wheat berry, which is identical in its composition with the human body, and bread made out of this whole wheat berry can truly be called the "Staff of Life" because, should we eat nothing but this (and I have proven it again and again), we could live a comfortable, healthy life. But think for a moment what we do with this wonderful life substance! We grind it in a mill which, with its modern machinery, makes four prod- ucts out of it. The first product is fine, white flour which contains the starchy matter of the wheat. The average person eats this, and because of its lightness, consumes starch in such quantities that his alimentary canal goes on a strike. It cannot get away with so much, and because we feel instinc- THE STAPLE FOODS 119 tively that we have not been nourished, we pack in other foods which we would not want at all, had we but had the whole substance of the wheat. Next, the miller has the so-called whole wheat which is not "whole" at all. It is simply another sifting of the wheat, fine and dark. Next, he gets the graham flour which contains parts of the bran, and is usually so doctored in the baking with molasses that we can hardly swallow it. No one with any normal sense of taste can enjoy this bread. The fourth substance, that which is too coarse to go through the fine bolting cloth of the mill, and which contains the heat- or energy-producing par- ticles of the wheat, is sold as shorts or chicken feed. We feed the energy-making part of the wheat to the chicken, then we eat the chicken. In European countries, where fine white bread is eaten, they also eat the coarser products such as pumpernickel, bran, etc., and to this may be at- tributed the fact that the European is not like the American, a chronic dyspeptic. The question arises, why do we not give enough thought to this article of food that is found on our table three times a day? And I answer out of my vast experience: Be- cause, until the individual is sufficiently educated 120 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH to understand the chemistry of food, he will want a good looking white bread, and the average baker caters to the unthinking majority! As time goes on, and the demand increases for bread that is nourishing as well as ornamental, we will be furnished, of course, by the baker with real bread. In the meantime, the house-wife does well to buy this flour from a reliable mill, and to bake her own bread. The average cook spends her time in mak- ing cakes and desserts. Why not put some of this time into making the most delicious part of our daily meals, the daily bread, in our own kitchen? I surmise that one week's experience with the right kind of bread will spoil any one's appetite for the light, unwholesome bread we have been buying and eating. It simplifies a whole meal because it tastes so good and is so nourishing that we do not want the mixtures of the average table. The time has come when a man who wears jew- elry or a woman who wears laces and frills is not thought to be a refined person. We are looking for elegance and simplicity in superior people. And, in the near future, one who can sit down to a five or seven course dinner will be as ill thought of as the loudly dressed person of to-day. THE STAPLE FOODS 121 We shall require quality instead of quantity in our food, and shall realize, after a month of living in this manner, that the old way will do very well for pigs and wolves, but not for mankind. And the food that will make this condition of re- finement possible is made from the whole wheat berry. But where does one buy this all-wheat flour? Not in the grocery stores, because there is not enough demand from educated housekeepers to make it profitable for the grocer to handle it. Con- taining the vitamines of the wheat, it becomes wormy in a short time, and storekeepers cannot afford to throw away what they cannot sell promptly. We must either grind the wheat our- selves (in a coffee mill or wheat grinder) or send to the address given below. This mill carries a specially coarse article for my own and my patients' convenience.1 Note: Recipe for making "all wheat" bread. About 7 P. m. mix ten cups of flour with teaspoonful of salt and four teaspoonfuls of olive oil and put into a warm place. At same time soak one Fleischmann yeast cake in one cup of water. Let stand until retiring, then mix flour, yeast cake and more lukewarm water to a dough that can be handled with the hands or bread mixer into 1 Readshaw's Forest Mills, Dansville, New York. 122 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH a compact mass. About four cups of water make this dough of the right consistency, but judgment must be used, as wheat differs in its capacity of swelling. Let stand until morning, and knead into loaves of rather smaller size than white bread, because more time is con- sumed in baking same than ordinary white bread. After rising to one and one-half its size, bake in a hot oven and finish slowly by turning down gas entirely. While fashioning loaves use a little olive oil or Crisco on hands to assure a softer crust than would otherwise result. Recipe for Drop Biscuits: 4 cups of "all wheat" flour, I cup yellow cornmeal, 5 teaspoonfuls of baking powder and 5 teaspoonfuls of olive oil. Mix well and add one or two cups of lukewarm wa- ter, stirring quickly with spoon, then drop into well greased pan, a few inches apart. The dough will run out rather flat and cakes can be broken apart when fin- ished baking. These may be eaten while warm because they are mostly crust and for this reason easily diges- tible. Recipe for Muffins: 4 cups of "all wheat" flour, I cup of cornmeal, 5 level teaspoonfuls of olive oil, 5 level teaspoonfuls of baking powder, one-half cup of chopped nuts and one-half cup of raisins. Mix well, add one egg and water to consistency of thick dough, and put into muffin pans. These muffins are too rich to eat one's fill and should be used sparingly. IT AT ER The globe consists roughly of three-quarters wa- ter and air and one-quarter earth. So our body is THE STAPLE FOODS 123 three-quarters water and air and one-quarter solids. Were we to impress this fact upon our minds thoroughly, we would know that we should feed into our body fluid and solids in the proportion of 3 to 1. Water is a food as well as a cleansing agent; and the results obtained from religiously feeding water into our system show in a very short time. We are often "hungry" and eat great quan- tities of food in consequence, when our poor stom- ach is simply asking for water to cleanse it. We begin misunderstanding the desires of the body in the baby, and keep filling up its little stomach with food, when it really wants and needs water. It may be claimed that all foods are com- posed of more or less water, and I grant this. For this is the only reason people do not die when they neglect drinking water; but it is not so much a mat- ter of life or death, but of health or disease, that should cause us to look into the necessities of the body. Were we living for to-day or to-morrow it would not make such a great difference. But hold- ing in mind the fact that we want to prepare for a future full of ease and energy, we must see to it that our body is nourished and our organs of elim- ination are w:ell flushed. Assimilation may be car- ried on more successfully without water than can elimination, because most solid foods contain a 124 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH large percentage of fluid, but the flushing through the kidneys and intestines has to be aided through this valuable fluid. Since we understand that the elimination of waste matter is as necessary as the building up of tissue, we will readily grant that water drinking is an absolute necessity. One of the most com- mon diseases, constipation, is sometimes cured by observance of this one rule. Also "catching cold" means nothing more or less than that a mucous membrane has become irritated through congested deposits left in the system. Too much food and the lack of water are primarily responsi- ble for this. The best time to drink water is between meals; and especially upon arising and before going to bed. Taken at meals it is rather a detriment than otherwise, because the stomach is a set of muscles that grind the food into a fluid, to a greater degree even than the teeth. It enlarges in proportion to the amount of food we put into it, and putting in a quantity of water, besides stretching the muscular tissues, diminishes the strength of the gastric juices that are manufactured during the process of assim- ilation. How much water to drink depends a great deal upon the fact that some people do more physical THE STAPLE FOODS 125 work than others. Physical work causes the evap- oration of fluid through the skin to a great extent, and a laboring person needs more water than one leading a sedentary life, whose skin is not over- active. Upon arising in the morning the intelli- gent person drinks a glass or two of water, realiz- ing intuitively that "his inside needs cleansing as well as his outside." Cold water taken at this time of the day is taken up greedily. Hot water should never be partaken of before any meal, and this statement is made in spite of all the advice delivered by physicians for the last twenty-five years. As has been stated before, the stomach is a set of muscles, like the muscles of the outside of the body. We all know that when we want a re- laxing bath we take a hot one, and when we want to stimulate our body into action, we take a cold one. Let us apply this to our stomach muscles, and we shall find that filling the stomach with hot water relaxes and weakens it to such an extent that diges- tion is hindered. If we have need of hot water for cleansing purposes, let us drink it an hour or two after meals-never before. The cleanest and most easily digested water is the water that is most active and in contact with its sister element-air, and for this reason, the most wholesome water is that of the mountain springs, 126 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH not alone in clearness, but in temperature. It is the ideal fluid food for man. Mineral springs also are of great benefit to the human being, when once we have found our digestion capable of appropriating particular minerals that are necessary to our body. For the person with a sluggish digestion, however, different mineral springs will have to be tried and tested, for no two people are alike in the need of the same mineral. All of this holds good only when we drink water at the springs, for the same water bottled, corked up, and the air excluded from it, becomes a different product and has a different effect. Some of the germs in these waters die from the lack of air, and we run a great risk of making our stomach into a morgue instead of an aqua- rium. This statement holds good as to boiled wa- ter, also; and I, for one, will take my chance with the live germs wriggling through my system, as soon as the dead ones. The cleanest water, of course, is distilled water. This is absolutely pure, because it is devoid of all animal life. But the young may be in need of the very mineral that is so carefully excluded from it. Distilled water will be most valuable to the matured person whose body is over-filled with mineral mat- ter. The affinity of water to minerals helps much in expelling the latter. It would be advisable, THE STAPLE FOODS 127 therefore, to drink distilled water when troubled with rheumatism or arthritis deformans. It also is indicated in hardening of the arteries. The water most wholesome next to the mountain spring is certainly the river water found in our big cities, where the city has a good filration system. Much motion through the pipes and conduits cleanses, and for this reason it may be advocated above all other waters. Germs? Assuredly! But we have in ourselves germ fighters in the shape of the white corpuscles that can be well trusted with the ousting of foreign germs taken into our system. Nature has made due provision for this. ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES The most discussed subject in our daily living is the question of alcoholics or stimulants. It is also the least understood subject; and to one who has studied it from all sides, the saintly prohibitionist who says, "Oh, no! I never touch liquor, I am a teetotaler" is a joke. Such a one prides himself that he is better than his friend who, moderately or immoderately, takes his glass of wine or beer or whiskey. The immoderate use of liquor cannot be con- demned too severely; but neither can the immod- 128 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH erate use of anything else be condoned. To be sure, the immediate result from an over-indulgence in liquor might be the most obnoxious one, both to the individual and his friends, because man shows himself as he really is more readily when under the influence of liquor than under the influence of any other agent. But we are under the influence of one stimulant or another at most times, though few of us understand this. The greatest stimulant of all, of course, is oxygen; and this is derived from the air we breathe. Any one can prove this by forcibly inhaling four or five breaths when he is tired. It is the only natural stimulant we should use, and the only one we would use, if left alone with Nature. As man becomes more civilized he craves more artificial stimulants, and he generally gets them. The greatest natural stimulant after oxygen is love, friendship, and pleasant companionship; but these great psychic forces are not always at hand, and man takes only too naturally to physical stim- ulants. Among these, alcohol, whiskey, beer and wine are classed, and condemned by many. The person who does not touch these foods (for such they are), generally sets himself up as a "Better than thou," because he does not understand that just because he leaves liquors out of his dietary, he THE STAPLE FOODS 129 is most likely to take even stronger stimulants. That is because he does not understand the method by which alcohol is made. Alcohol is made through fermentation and dis- tillation, and both these processes would be im- possible without sugar. When we understand this, we find that we can make alcohol by simply eat- ing sugar, because this alkaline substance coming in contact with the hydro-chloric acid of our stom- ach, ferments quickly and causes as much stimula- tion to our nerves as though we partook of the pre- fermented article in the shape of light beers or wines. Everybody is familiar now-a-days with the usage of giving sugar to soldiers before they go into bat- tle, or of giving sugar to athletes. But how few people know that this article of food is given to these people because it creates an alcohol which is taken up by the nervous system more quickly than the prefermented alcohol in the shape of wine or beer? A good pair of kidneys eliminates the pre- fermented article very quickly, not so the ferment- ing one. A simple knowledge of how wine is made will explain to the reader more fully this question. Wine is made by crushing fruit, vegetables or grains, and allowing the natural sugar of these 130 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH foods to ferment. In order to hasten the process, we add cane sugar and water, and let this stand in a warm place until fermentation has brought to the surface all waste products, leaving a clear, watery fluid, according to the ingredients of which it is made. The alcohol made in this manner is concentrated before it even enters the stomach, and through its very density is eliminated much more quickly than when we depend on the stomach itself to perform the process of fermentation. The teetotaler, with- out realizing it, creates his stimulant. Lacking the immediate pleasing effect of alcoholics, he gen- erally turns into a dyspeptic grouch-much more objectionable than his friend, who, admitting he wants a stimulant, partakes of a glass of beer or light wine, and thereby draws his nervous energy to his stomach. This friend might be accused of a little undue conviviality, but certainly he becomes more human than his grouchy sick friend. It must be understood that I am not advocating the use of alcohol, but wish rather to explode the mistaken notion that alcoholics are the only stimu- lants. Harm comes from partaking of alcohol in moderation only when the function of the kidneys is impaired, and all liquor should be excluded from THE STAPLE FOODS 131 the dietary in such cases. But how much more should sugar be excluded! Sugar is present in all fruits, vegetables and grains, and such sugar of course should be used. But the concentrated sweetness of sugar cane, figs, dates and bananas should be used only in modera- tion because, next to the oxygen we breathe, sugar is the strongest stimulant there is. Next to sugar, alcohol is strongest in brandy and whiskey, and these strong liquors should also be avoided, leaving for consideration the light wines and beer. The latter is a liquor originally brewed in Germany, and the English people, brewing it in a slightly different manner, manufacture ale and ported instead. The foundations of these drinks are hop and malt. The former is known as a seda- tive vegetable. The latter is a product made by steeping, drying and concentrating grain, which may be either peas, beans or wheat. The water in beer is distilled, and the percentage of alcohol so small that it cannot be objected to by any one who understands thoroughly the manu- facture of it. Every human being has his idio- syncrasies, and there are people whose kidneys are not normal, to whom beer might be harmful, but to such people meat and sugar are even more harm- ful, and the discredit should not all be given to beer. 132 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH No lesser authorities than Dr. Abram Jacobi and Dr. Beverly Robinson take the stand which I take. They go even farther and advocate it as a stomachic stimulant and an antiseptic. Practice is a more reliable fact than theory, and both these men have found alcohol, in moderate doses, to be beneficial. SOFT DRINKS The average teetotaler clothes himself with the "Mantle of Righteousness" because he doesn't drink alcoholic stimulants! Then he turns into the next drug store to have some soft drink or can- dies, by which he injures himself tenfold as much as by drinking any of the light liquors. Most soft drinks are flavored with syrups, and I have already shown that we manufacture alcohol in our stomachs when we eat sweets. All sweets turn into an acid, causing fermentation. These set up diseases more quickly than were we to par- take of the already manufactured alcoholic bev- erages, such as light beer and wine. Many of the soft drinks furthermore contain narcotics, especially Coca-Cola, a beverage univer- sally indulged in by the "tired business man." I was called at one time to a patient who had been given up as absolutely incurable of para- plegia, a form of paralysis, and upon questioning THE STAPLE FOODS 133 into the causes, I found that he was one of the so- called "good" men. He never drank, smoked nor chewed! He even vowed he had never overin- dulged in eating, and the family seemed to corrobo- rate this latter statement. But I found his duties were so arduous, that by ten o'clock in the morning, he was tired out. He would run around to a drug store and take a glass of Coca-Cola. As much as eighteen and twenty glasses were drunk in this fashion during the day, and neither the physician nor the patient had ever made any deductions from this fact. The man's nervous system was tired, and he should have rested it. Instead, he whipped up his poor nerves with as strong a stimulant as if he had taken strychnia. Had he drunk two or three glasses a day, the effect would not have shown it- self in so serious a manner as paraplegia, but it would have caused the appearance sooner or later of less aggravated symptoms. It must here be stated again that the food, drink or drug that we take occasionally, at great inter- vals, cannot be very dangerous to our health and welfare. It is the habitual use of stimulants, of too much sugar, meat and in fact, all proteins, as well as drinks, which proves a menace. The greatest stimulant is oxygen-life itself- 134 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH that we take in with every breath we draw. Even of that stimulant we can take too much! This statement any one can prove for himself by en- forced deep breathing prolonged immoderately. One reason why sleep is so absolutely necessary to us is that our conscious mind is at rest in sleep. We relax to such an extent that we habitually breathe more deeply than we do while conscious. And, if we sleep in a well ventilated room, we awaken in the morning thoroughly refreshed. This is Nature's stimulant, and could we succeed in practicing this deep breathing during the day, we should add years to our lives. Water and sim- ple foods also are Nature's stimulants, but every- thing outside of this, whether it be sugar, coffee or Coca-Cola, should be indulged in very moder- ately. SUGAR Sugar in its natural state, such as cane sugar, maple syrup or honey, is a boon to humanity when not taken in connection with acid fruits. But the refined sugar that we buy in the open market is so devoid of its natural nutrient salts that it is worse than worthless, because in refining it strong poisons such as sulphuric acid, etc., are used. I must give credit to Alfred McCann, who has THE STAPLE FOODS 135 exposed the sins of the manufacturers in detail in his book, "Starving America." Natural sugar is energy-producing and heating, and makes an ideal food in combination with milk, cereal or chocolate. With vegetables or fruits it becomes a greater poison in our system than whis- key, and few people realize this because they have become so abnormal, that the effect of a wrong die- tary does not assert itself immediately after eat- ing. Sugar in combination with acid fruits or vegetables is distilled into an alcohol by the juices of the stomach and sets up a fermentation, which begins even in the mouth. It does not take much knowledge of chemistry to understand this fact. The very way in which wine is made, described in the chapter on alcohol, proves my point. The first time this was brought forcibly to my mind was while traveling in Europe ten years ago with a chance companion. He, my sister and I (my sister had been living on the dietary that I had already to a great extent proven), traveled from morning until night, on foot, over mountains, in dust and dirt. We would arrive in the evening at some village; and after a clean-up, my sister and I would appear at the dinner table rested and in good spirits, while our companion, a strapping big New Yorker, would be worn to "a frazzle." 136 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH I had said nothing to him about my work and ideas on health; but after a few days' travel, look- ing at me, dejectedly he said, "How is it that you, two delicately constructed women, can stand all the hardships of a trip like this, and are not even fatigued, when I am a wreck?" I said: "This is very easily explained, because my sister and I are eating constructively, while you are eating destructively. If you will follow my dietary for awhile, you will soon see that eating as small an amount of food as we eat will give you more strength and endurance, than twice that amount eaten if wrongly combined. And your greatest mistake is eating too much sugar. We are doing all our work upon the natural energy created from the food of the day before, while you are stimulated by the alcohol you have created at your morning's breakfast through eating sugar, acid fruits and milk. When at night, my sister and I drink a glass of beer, it is to relax our system from the strenuousness of the day, while you by that time are relaxed through sheer exhaustion." Being a very intelligent man, this theory took root, and after following our dietary for three or four days, he was a changed man. I wish I still had in my possession the letter he wrote me three THE STAPLE FOODS 137 weeks afterwards! It would be a valuable addi- tion to the many recommendations of my diet that I have gathered through an experience of fourteen years. The most difficult patient I have ever had to han- dle was my own mother, who had lived a life of in- validism, not through constitutional weaknesses, but through wrong methods of hygiene and diet. This I count as the greatest of my accomplishments, that I have made the members of my own family advocates of my diet. The greatest evil to combat, with both my family and my patients, has always been sweets. After that, strong coffee, meat and, only in a fourth de- gree, alcohol. If one-half the energy spent upon prohibition were spent upon a right dietary, our national health would be improved to an astonish- ing degree. The proof of the pudding is ever in the eating, and I ask of my reader to follow this one maxim for a few weeks. The improvement in his energy and good nature will be so apparent, that he will be ready to follow me in all my other theories. Eat natural sweets if you like, but combine them with alkaline foods, such as cereal and milk, at one meal of the day. But do establish the balance by 138 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH making another meal of the day of acid fruits, and under no consideration add to this sugar or sweets in any form. Now, make a third meal of the day of vegetables, and legumes and you have an ideal combination. The cry of the day is efficiency, and efficiency cannot be taken out of a bottle. It has to be made in the body. Just as little as we can expect a beautifully constructed house to remain beautiful with a conglomeration of furniture piled into it, so little can we expect our body (made in the image of God) to remain beautiful when we make it a fight- ing place for food gases. MILK Instinct which has so far taught mankind more than intelligence has led us to feed babies upon their mothers' milk. Even should the mother not be strong, her milk has been found to be a better food for her infant than the finest food concocted in the chemical laboratory or kitchen. After this period of nursing, or in cases of the mother's inability to feed her baby, the most appro- priate food has seemed to be milk from a cow or goat, and I believe this would be the nearest nat- ural food that the child could partake of, if the cow were perfectly healthy, if the milk were treated THE STAPLE FOODS 139 with great cleanliness, and if this food could get to the child before it became stale or soured. The in- fant is feeding for body-growth during the first year of its life, and, no demand being made on its brain, milk is almost an ideal food. After one year, it is more in need of the ingredients that are lacking in milk. These can only be found in the vitamines of fruits and vegetables. In the first year, how- ever, milk, thinned to the right consistency accord- ing to the age and temperament of the child, usually proves a good dietary. How little of the good in milk is left for the baby and child in the city is not even problematical, when we know that milk, in order to be brought to the consumer in a sweet state, must through treat- ment with formaldehyde or pasteurization lose most of its nutrient elements. In no other way could milk retain its sweetness through a twelve- hour jolt on a railroad. In view of this fact, it were better if we substituted other articles of food, at least in the very young, who are dependent upon one or two articles for health and growth. Milk is best partaken of by itself, and it must here be remembered that it is a food, not a drink. One can live a long time on nothing but milk, and this has been tested out again and again in sanitariums. It is not so much that the milk is so 140 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH good for one, but that the lack of all mixtures is a bonanza to the tired body. Were one to add bread to it, and by bread I mean the all wheat article, one cannot deny that one would have an ideal meal. Never, never com- bine it with the fruits and vegetables. What a percentage of people we know, who start out a day's work with a stomach filled up with acid fruits such as oranges, grape fruit, apples, prunes, etc., and a cereal with sugar and milk? The gases that form in the stomach after such a meal can best be guessed at, if we put in a closely covered vessel these contents and take a peep at them in a few hours. We would find such a nau- seating mess, that we could scarcely look at it. Yet our alimentary tract of 28 feet is filled up with just such a combination, and expected to be docile enough to digest and eliminate it. Milk should never be mixed with acids, and that precludes all combination with fruits, vegetables, wine and beer. The alkaline fruits, viz.: bananas, figs and dates, do combine with milk or cream. Also the legumes, beans, peas, lentils and all grain, such as the flour products, bread, noodles, spaghetti and macaroni. Ice cream, eaten with bread or light cake, is a meal by itself, and this would be suflicient nourish- THE STAPLE FOODS 141 ment for a supper or a lunch. But added to a vegetable or acid fruit meal, it becomes a detri- ment to our digestion. Milk forms a toxin also when eaten with all kinds of fish, and a case of ptomaine can be invited at any time if lobster and milk are partaken of to- gether. In a lesser degree, boiled milk is also harmful when eaten in the shape of oyster stew or cream sauces on vegetables. Boiling milk de- stroys some of the ferments, to be sure, but it still leaves a hard nut to crack for the digestion and as- similation. MEAT AND ITS SUBSTITUTES I have no sentimental reasons for eliminating meat from the dietary. I think animals were cre- ated partly for the pleasure of man, and should I raise my voice against meat for this reason, I should not think of wearing leather shoes or a coat made from fur. The reason the average person looks askance at the physician who talks against meat is because such a physician generally is an idealist. He thinks it wrong to kill animals. Though an ideal- ist myself, I have no such qualms. If the animal is killed in a humane manner, it seems to me more beautiful than if we allow it to die of disease. 142 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH For this reason I do not advise the farmer who rises at five o'clock in the morning and works at hard labor all day, to drop meat from his dietary. Neither do I think it necessary for the laborer, or for the man who works outdoors at hard work, to drop meat. The forces of the earth are magnetic enough to draw out of us all the poisons which we partake of in meat. Perspiration and contact with air take care of the poisons and with an active organism we should not have any diseases arising from meats. The person, however, who is in an office or a house all day, who never perspires for lack of ex- ercise, who never comes in contact with Mother Earth, poisons himself to such a degree that not only is he bound to have all manner of disease arising from the use of meat, but much of the prev- alent nervousness can be traced back to this strongly protein food. The last five years have taught the medical pro- fession more about the glands of the body than as many previous centuries, and we are now absolutely certain that anger or fear disturbs the function of most of these glands in our body. The same holds true in regard to animals. The anxiety and fear which the animal goes through in transportation and preparation for the killing so THE STAPLE FOODS 143 disturbs its glandular system that its meat is pois- oned in the act of killing. This poison can almost be tasted in fresh meat, and for that reason we ma- ture the carcass of the animal until the air has partly withdrawn it. Before the time of refrigeration this period of curing meat lasted from one to five days, according to climate. With the use of modern cold stor- age meat lies so long in a frozen condition that the nutrient cell salts have all evaporated long before we eat it, and we not alone get a poisonous article, but one deficient in nutrition. If meat were the only protein, there would still be an argument left for its use. But chemistry has proven that the natural products of the animal such as eggs, milk and cheese, contain more protein than meat. Also that all the legume family, beans, peas, lentils, are strongly protein. What a wonderful array of substitutes for meat! And our only trouble should be how to eat little enough protein. Time was, within our memory, when people lived largely on vegetables. Even to-day, in Ireland, the sturdy countryman lives mostly on potatoes. The Scotchman's piece de resistance is oatmeal. In Russia, Bohemia and Poland, where are the longest lived peoples, we find that they subsist largely on 144 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH sour milk and coarse bread. Meat is too rare in these countries to be eaten three times a day. Once a week is the average. And yet these people work hard, live long and have beautiful strong bodies. Elie Metchnikoff based his Bulgarian bacillus theory on information obtained from studying these very people. I admit that the pleasures of the table are worth while. We do not eat solely to feed our bodies, but for pleasure also. This pleasure, however, can be augmented by other foods than meat. Should a person eat a small amount of meat at one meal a day and realize that the eating of it has to be counteracted by some exercise in the open air, it cannot cause any harm; unless the bowels, kid- neys and skin tissues are inactive. This is a matter for your physician to adjust. Should you not be fortunate enough to eliminate sufficiently freely through these three channels, stop eating meat. At least confine yourself to fowl and fish, because the use of these foods removes the danger of uric acid poisoning. Another reason for removing meat from the dietary would be the ill-temper shown generally by the meat eater. A phlegmatic, good natured person can eat meat with less harm than a highly strung nervous one, and we have proven on chil- THE STAPLE FOODS 145 dren, innumerable times, that the withdrawal of meat from their dietary means increased good-na- ture and amiability. For psychological reasons, if for no other, chil- dren should not be fed on meat until they are sixteen years old. Meat develops sex in children much earlier than it develops the brain to know how to handle sex. If every mother could study the difference in children brought up on a meat and non-meat diet, she would soon cast her vote in favor of the latter. It makes one wonder where the idea originated, that meat makes strength, which no other article of food could make! When I was a child of seven, I had pernicious anaemia, and for seven years I was fed on a quar- ter of a pound of meat per day, with cod liver oil and iron pills-and at the age of fourteen, I had fewer red blood corpuscles than I had when I was seven. If meat makes red blood, why did I not get it? An extended ocean trip which caused an appe- tite for vegetables that I had never liked and had therefore never been given, caused my anaemia to disappear, and I have proven since, in thousands of other cases, that we get more good red blood out of spinach, cabbage, lettuce, etc., than we can hope 146 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH to get out of meat-because iron extracted out of these vegetables is the only iron we can digest and assimilate. The more we investigate the more we find that meat is one of the most devitalized and poisonous substances of the dietary. Some time ago a German cruiser that had been dodging the enemy's ships in the Pacific came into an American port with most of its crew very ill. The disease was called everything from beri-beri to cholera by our physicians, and it took a layman, Alfred McCann, to prove that the cause of the dis- ease was the eating of devitalized foods. It was shown that they had plenty of meat, bacon, sugar, white flour and canned vegetables and yet these men were ill from starvation, caused by the lack of nutrient salts contained in fresh vegetables and fruits! The average human being does not become acutely ill from eating meat, because he has the advantage of fresh vegetables to some extent. But should it not demonstrate to physicians the fact that, if the total lack of fresh vegetables and the over- feeding of protein causes such acute conditions, it also can cause chronic diseases, which could be re- lieved by a different dietary rather than strong drugs which only add to the trouble. THE STAPLE FOODS 147 Some years ago Professor Chittenden of Yale university made an experiment with a certain num- ber of students whom he put on a meat dietary, and another number whom he put on a vegetable diet- ary. The meat-fed squad far surpassed the vege- tarian squad in the first few days of the experi- ment, but were, at the end of the experiment, left lamentably behind. Does this not show the superiority of an, at least partly, vegetable diet over the meat diet? The reason why vegetarianism has not had a larger following is because we have eaten so greed- ily of the meat substitutes that we have overloaded on protein, the same as if it were meat. Authori- ties differ on the amount of protein one should consume. From one to five ounces per day has proved to be plenty. And when one considers that an egg weighs an ounce or two, according to size, and that most vegetables and all grains furnish us with protein, we can see that we can readily be overfed on this, the so-called strength- producing part of our dietary. The substitutes for meat are eggs, beans, lima beans, peas and lentils. In winter these are best employed in the dried state, for not only are they always in the market, but they furnish us with a great amount of protein very cheaply. 148 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH They can be employed in many different ways, and recipes have been given in the foregoing diet list. As soon as the fresh beans and peas are in the market, they may be substituted for the dried ones. VEGETABLES In the days gone by, when physicians thought that strength came only from the protein foods and that no other food was nearly so important, we often heard "Eat plenty of milk and eggs and meat, be- cause vegetables are mostly water, and there is nothing nourishing about them." "When you are eating the raw foods such as lettuce, radishes, celery, etc., you are running a great risk of germs extracted from the earth, and the cooked vegetables such as cabbage, kale, tur- nips and even spinach, contain no nourishment." Even to-day, we still hear physicians say that cabbage and onions are taboo and difficult to digest. I grant this to be true in a certain sense. The person who can digest cabbage boiled with pork has to work hard in the open to counteract the strain put upon the stomach, but I defy any one to cook this vegetable in a very little water-pot tightly cov- ered so as not to let the nutrient salts escape, add a little oil or butter, and then not be able to digest it! THE STAPLE FOODS 149 How sadly we are in need of intelligent workers in our kitchens! The average cook spoils a vege- table by either cooking it with meat or in too much water which is drained into the sink with all its nourishment, leaving us to eat the residue which is of no nutritive value whatsoever. Recognizing this fact, we put on a cream dress- ing and gain a little nutrition, plus gases created by the mixture of the vegetable and milk, so that we are worse off than before. No wonder the vege- tarian dietary is in such ill repute. By eating meat and getting the cell salts second hand, we do get them, unless the system of refrigeration has extracted them entirely, even out of the meat. "Half of our diseases are uric acid diseases." Then why feed them as we literally do with meat? How much better to take the legumes, that is, beans, peas and lentils (and these take the place of meat) moderately, and eat heartily of the vegetables that give us the nutrient salts. The Potato consists of a very small part of protein, a moderate part of carbohydrate, which is converted into fats or fuel, and a considerable part of waste matter. It also includes phosphates and ash, providing we eat the skin, the most valuable part of this staple vegetable. The Onion, next to the potato, is the most uni- 150 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH versally used vegetable; and it cannot be recom- mended too highly. As is the case with all vege- tables, the mineral salts cannot be fully tabulated, but the effect in practice has shown it to be of great quieting effect on the nervous system; also it is known to have antiseptic qualities beyond compari- son. In fact, the ancients knew it to be an effectual agent against disease, and the exclusive use of it was rightly held to be the best remedy in epidemics. Its greatest recommendation is, however, its lax- ative quality; and cooked onions are better than raw ones, for the reason that one eats more of them. The best ways of preparation are first-baking them whole, in a very little water and olive oil; second-by cooking them in olive oil (one-half cup olive oil to two quarts of onions), in a tightly covered pot. This latter method is especially healthful and simple, and must be tried to be ap- preciated. The Tomato: This has very little refuse, 94 per cent, of water, a negligible quantity of protein fats and carbohydrates, but is rich in ash and mineral matter that make it one of the finest cleansers and eliminants of our body. The physician who says it is too acid a food, es- pecially for the rheumatic patient, does not know that it can form acid only in connection with sugar, THE STAPLE FOODS 151 and the latter should be blamed for forming acid. It stands to reason, therefore, that desserts should not be eaten at the same time with tomatoes, neither should milk or cream. But in conjunction with other vegetables and meat or its substitutes, it de- serves a place in nearly every dinner. Especially wholesome is it raw in the shape of salad, with let- tuce, olive oil and lemon juice as a dressing. Cabbage: This is probably the most maligned vegetable there is, and for the simple reason that it is generally cooked with meat or milk gravies. By itself, cooked in a small amount of water, and dressed with a little salt (to take the place of the natural salt that escapes in cooking) it is one of the most delicious dishes, furnishing us with one of the most necessary salts, viz.: iron. Brussels sprouts, kale, red cabbage, come under this heading also, and should be used liberally. Spinach, beet tops, dandelions, all these furnish us with iron, distilled water, and are at the same time of great value as eliminants. A little butter or olive oil added while cooking makes them even more tasty and healthful. Radishes, Celery and Lettuce: The use of these foods cannot be urged too fervently. They furnish us with natural salts that are easily assimi- lated, provided they are not preserved with table 152 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH salt to such an extent that they are actually "pre- served" and difficult to digest for that very reason. It must be remembered that the first step in di- gestion is a breaking down of the food, and the quicker this breaking down is performed, the quicker the food is assimilated and the waste mat- ter eliminated. More information regarding this is found under the heading of "Salt and Condiments." It is only mentioned here because so many people, when urged to eat the above named vegetables, claim that they are hard of digestion; and the reason for this is that salt is added. Try eating them without salt, and learn how re- fined and sensitive one's organs of taste, the palate and the tongue, can become, and how much more enjoyable all raw vegetables are when eaten in a natural state. Should one wish to make them more palatable, the addition of olive oil and lemon juice can be recommended highly. Olive oil is very nourish- ing, and the addition of lemon juice makes both digestible enough for the weakest stomach. The proportion most palatable is nine to one, that is: nine teaspoonfuls of olive oil to one of lemon juice. This makes a splendid dressing for any vegetable. All vegetables should be cooked in one-half cup THE STAPLE FOODS 153 of olive oil and one-half cup water, tightly cov- ered ; in this manner, the nutrient salts are retained, and the olive oil softens and enriches. Salts and Condiments: It is the purpose of this book to acquaint the reader with the main ar- ticles of food, and salt is one which is universally used and as often abused. Next to foods, which produce energy and heat and nourishment in our bodies, we need the nutrient salts to build cell and tissue. This fact has ever been uppermost in the minds of those taking care of health and disease. These nutrient salts are the foundation of every- thing. But we confuse the idea when we think that the natural salts which are in fruits and vege- tables and grains can be supplanted by the arti- ficial mineral salt that is found on our table at every meal. The desire for salt is stimulated in us because we have so long subsisted on a diet that was defi- cient in natural salts. It is a known fact that, when vegetables are cooked in the fireless cooker (a device that will do much in the future towards helping humanity onto the right way in cooking), we need less mineral salt to make the food tasty, and therefore nourish- ing, than we do by cooking in the ordinary manner. Most people cook their vegetables in a great deal of 154 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH water, pot scarcely covered, allowing part of the nutrient salts to escape in the shape of steam, while the rest is thrown away in the water they have been boiled in. We wonder why the first thing that we pick up at the table is the salt cellar! We simply want to supply the natural salt we have wasted in cooking, and forget that the mineral salt is not adequate to supply this need. Mineral salt, not alone, does not supply the natu- ral nutrient salts of the food, but it adds a strong stimulant that works upon the system harmfully, being one of the causes of arteriosclerosis and hardening of the bones, both of which cause pre- mature old age. Old age means a cessation of elasticity, and this may occur in a person 25 years old, in the same pro- nounced manner as in one 90 years old who has lived according to the laws of Nature. For old age is not a period of life, but a condition, and we can bring it on or retard it, according to our will and the intelligence of the way we live. Salt is one of the great causes of premature old age, because it stops action; and the great law of life is action. Ask the housewife how she preserves meat or fish that is in danger of spoiling, and she will tell you that she does so by sprinkling it liberally with salt. So salt becomes a preserving agent, and THE STAPLE FOODS 155 this is exactly what we do not want in our stomach. The quicker our food disintegrates in our stom- ach and intestines, and the quicker the waste mat- ter is eliminated, the better for us. By putting a great deal of salt in our food we are causing the opposite of this. We are preserving our food, and therefore retarding assimilation and elimination. How often do we hear people say: "I cannot eat radishes." Of course not! They are fibrous vege- tables which, without salt, break down readily, fur- nishing us with nutrient salts and waste matter, and rendering the system exceedingly healthy. With salt they are preserved, and our gastric juices are powerless to digest them. The same might be said of onions. Our artificial table salt is found to be eliminated through our kidneys with such great effort that it is often retained in the system. We dry up bones, store up mineral in arteries and wonder why arteries harden, why bones get brittle, why muscles contract! I know of cases where muscles and ligaments have become so inelastic from the use of too much salt that the person found great difficulty in mov- ing about, and where simply omitting salt from the dietary and furnishing olive oil and lemon juice as counteracting agents, has brought about a great THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH 156 change. This, even without other agents (such as re-construction and physical culture), would make one regard the matter of eating salt sparingly, as a most vital one. Ill health and old age are mostly due to the failure of physician and patient to correct the daily habits. When once we can understand that the body is primarily right, and that it is up to us to keep it right, we will lay more stress upon the fact that daily habits have to be studied more closely. Condiments: These are used from habit, and the person using much salt generally peppers his food out of recognition also. All peppers, and sauces such as Worcester and mustard, are stimu- lants to a jaded appetite. But by this time we have learned that if natural hunger is lacking, one had best take Nature's hint and see what is wrong. Whipping up the appetite by these agents is worse than whipping it up by liquor, because the latter is far more easily expelled through the kidneys, bowels and skin than these blood-drying additions to food already devitalized by wrong preparation and cooking. However, a very small quantity of home-made pickles makes a dainty addition to a meal once in a while. THE STAPLE FOODS 157 FRUITS The real nutrient salts are contained under the skin of the fruit. This is generally discarded, and for this reason fruit has been maligned as being merely a tid-bit instead of a substantial part of our dietary, fit to build nerve, blood, and muscle. Bananas, figs, dates, and raisins are the meats among fruits, and of these one might easily eat too much. These four fruits combine and harmonize perfectly with milk and natural sweets such as honey, jam and sirup. All other fruits come under the heading of acids and are therefore splendid eliminants. They con- tain a great quantity of water; and one cannot, as a consequence, overeat on them. One meal a day of fruit, with the addition of water, makes an excellent laxative, and in severe cases of constipation this might also be taken before going to bed. Lemons, grape fruit, oranges, apples, prunes, pears, grapes are tonics and eliminants. The sulphur and molasses of our forbears degenerates into a poor substitute for driving out the winter's impurities, when once we realize that the rhubarb performs that function perfectly, through the natural channel of elimination, the bowels and skin. 158 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH But here again the manner of preparation has been such that it has been more of a detriment than a blessing. It is thought to be impossible of con- sumption without a liberal addition of sugar, and so combined it has been rather a great insult to the stomach than a wonderful form of spring house- cleaning. Sugar has made of it an acid that the strongest man could not eliminate, and the blame has never been put upon the sugar but on the rhu- barb! The method of preparation should be: to peel off the outer tough fiber, cut it into inch long pieces, and put it to boil in its own juice, which is extracted very quickly by a little pounding with a spoon. When soft, it will be found to be a palatable dish that leaves a clean wholesome taste in the mouth and an equally clean mucous membrane in the stomach. It should be eaten every other day in liberal doses early in the spring, and can well be depended upon as a spring tonic that does for the bowels, what dandelion does for the kidneys. Strawberries, minus sugar and cream, and all small fruits are of great value. CHAPTER XIV OVERWEIGHT AND UNDERWEIGHT The foregoing serves well for the normal per- son. But what of the poor people who weigh too much and are therefore always tired and in danger of sudden illness that may make short work of life at any time? To these goes a great deal of my sympathy be- cause for years of my life I struggled myself against an over-generous weight. After taking all the drugs on the market and still retaining my 175 pounds (I am five feet four inches), an honest friend told me one day that I ate too much. I, a woman of refinement, gourmandize? Didn't I need food badly because I was so tired always? After giving vent to my rage at the statement, I began to take count of the food I consumed. To be sure I did not eat much, but I ate often, for the craving that I mistook for hunger was a pleading of the stomach for rest. And that is the trouble with most people! The stomach has not digested the last meal, and labors hard to empty itself, when 159 160 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH they, instead of drinking a glass of water to help the cleansing process, put in another meal. I ate in that manner each day: A light break- fast, a "bite" at 10:30, a lunch at 1, tea or coffee with its accompanying cake or crackers at 4, dinner at 7; and before I went to bed, I had beer and a sandwich or wine and cake. What wonder that I climbed rapidly from my normal weight of 135 to 175 pounds! My friend, a layman, who had an unusual amount of common sense, whereas I and my col- leagues had studied the body so much that our brains were actually befuddled, opened my mind's eye to such an extent that I went through all the authorities and studied methods to reduce. Sauls- bury claimed that meat was the sum and substance of all grains and vegetables, because the animal could digest these and we could digest the animal. His was not only a method of reducing weight but also of curing ills. The temporary good, which must be attributed to withholding mixtures, was found to be injurious in the long run, because it taxed the nervous system too much in the eliminary organs. I followed his dietary for three months, and lost 40 pounds, thus bringing me to my normal weight of 135. But in its train came, as a natural consequence, three years of arthritis (joint rheu- OVERWEIGHT AND UNDERWEIGHT 161 matism). That was far from compensating me for my slender figure, and I should not advise any one so to injure himself. Nor can I let this occasion pass without warning against the "Eat and Grow Thin" plan. This method consists of with- drawing fats and carbohydrates from the dietary, and advises so much protein that the eliminary organs, bowels and kidneys, actually go on a strike. This necessitates, nine times out of ten, a laxative. The lack of fats is hard on the nervous system, and this nervous system becomes so overworked that it takes months and years to repair itself. Many of my patients are those who have reduced by this method. Drugs for reduction? These are mostly thyroid preparations, and I need only say that scientists have made tests and have found that not only does it reduce, but it ages the patient. They came to this conclusion by putting some pollywogs in a re- ceptacle and feeding them on thyroid. Others were allowed to live normally. It was proven that the thyroid fed grew three times as quickly and died in one-third as many days. All this meaning that thyroid gland extracts are too strong a stimu- lant for the combustian of tissues and this means old age, long before its time. How many will think of taking these remedies under such a penalty? 162 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH Every thought should be directed towards retaining youth and its attributes. The simplest, most efficient and health-giving method for reduction is the "mono" diet. It is built on the knowledge that the body needs so much protein, so much carbohydrate, so many nutrient salts, etc. If it does not get it, it extracts it out of the surplus weight. One who is simply too fat loses 30 pounds a month. One muscularly strong, half that amount. But one or two months or even six months of this manner of eating would bring dividends, not alone in loss of weight, but in in- creased health and youthfulness. What could be easier than eating three meals a day and all we possibly want to eat, so long as we eat only one thing at a time? We can, as in a normal dietary, divide our three meals a day into milk or its derivatives, fruits, and vegetables. This means that we can have seven meals a week of some one kind of milk, which group can be divided into buttermilk or cheese, seven meals a week of fruits, and seven meals a week of vegetables or meat. For the better understanding of this system of reducing flesh this argument will be followed by a week's menu: OVERWEIGHT AND UNDERWEIGHT 163 Sunday- Breakfast: Grapefruit Dinner: Chicken Supper: Ice Cream Monday- Breakfast: Apples baked raw or cooked (without sugar) Lunch: Milk or Buttermilk Dinner: String Beans Tuesday- Breakfast: Rhubarb Lunch: Eggs Dinner: Lentils Wednesday- Breakfast: Prunes Lunch: Cocoa Dinner: Peas Thursday- Breakfast: Apricots or Strawberries Lunch: Bananas Dinner: Clams Friday- Breakfast: Oranges Lunch: Welsh Rarebit Dinner: Fish Saturday- Breakfast: Pears Lunch: Lettuce Salad, Olive Oil and Lemon Juice Dinner: Broiled Meat 164 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH It must be remembered that these foods must be eaten absolutely alone, without the addition of any- thing else, but the quantity is left entirely to the pa- tient. In other words, eat all you wish of these 21 foods a week, and repeat along the same lines as the seasons change and other fruits or other vege- tables are in the market. An absolutely honest following of this dietary reduces from 15 to 25 and 30 pounds a month, according to the exercises and deep breathing that are added. Not alone does it reduce, but with every day you acquire additional health and energy. The emaciated and thin person is warned strictly against following these rules. They apply only to the person who has an excess of fatty tissue. Keeping out of doors is a great essential in this and in all reduction methods, because we can burn up more waste matter in our body by inhaling oxygen and exhaling waste matter, than we can by elimination through the kidneys and bowels. For this reason, fast walking and exercises are better than just taking the air quietly, for the oxygen is forced down deeper into the lungs, and takes out a greater amount of carbon dioxide. Breathing deeply affects our body as the open- ing up of the draughts does a stove: fuel is con- sumed more quickly and gives off more heat. For OVERWEIGHT AND UNDERWEIGHT 165 this reason a very active person cannot put on flesh as readily as one o£ an inactive, quiet temperament. Underweight: The cause of emaciation is lack of nerve force, and this may be an inheritance from ancestors, or wrong living of the mother during pregnancy, which in turn would cause such a hard confinement that the structure of the baby is injured in its advent into the world. Lack of right feeding after we are bom is also a cause of underweight. The wonder is that we grow up at all! Rather than probe into the causes of emaciation, we, labor- ing under the old, false idea that food makes strength, feed in so much material that the nervous system becomes more depleted and, as a conse- quence, can do less to correct the trouble. Could we but make the emaciated person under- stand that it is not the quantity nor quality of food eaten that will build flesh and strength, but rather the quantity and quality of food that is digested and assimilated! And could we but make this person believe that the nervous system is capable of doing only so much, and that any surplus food adds a burden because it takes nervous force to elimi- nate it-half of the battle would be won! Again and again I have demonstrated the truth of this, and flesh has been put on where the patient ate only one-fourth of what he ate before; and this 166 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH one-fourth has been rather of the foods containing nutrient salts than of the heavier protein foods, such as meat and eggs. The first material needed to build up a thin per- son is water, because, as has been stated before, three-quarters of our body consists of water and air. Water should never be drunk at meal times, because it enlarges the area of the stomach and diminishes the gastric juices. Taken half an hour before meals, however, it is a wonderful stimulant to the gastric juices and muscular tissues, and puts both in shape to attack the food when it comes along later. Now, if this food is easy enough to digest, so that it can be assimilated readily, it stands to reason that it will build flesh tissues and nerve forces much more readily than a conglomerate mass of eggs and meat that are simply turned into poison, be- cause they are not broken down by the gastric juices. The burdens put upon the nervous energy to expel this fermented undigested food is so great, that there is not enough energy left to digest the next meal. Hunger is a great boon; and getting up from our meal partially hungry means more appetite for the next meal. More appetite, because the gastric juices are not so worn out that they cannot resur- OVERWEIGHT AND UNDERWEIGHT 167 rect themselves. The quantity of food must be left to the good sense of the individual. Remem- ber that "weakness" or great hunger between meals may be satisfied and appeased by the drinking of water, or the eating of some acid fruit. Bananas, dates and figs should never be eaten between meals. They are the meats among fruits, and should be used as the foundation of a meal. CHAPTER XV SEX AND REGENERATION Much mystery and secrecy is generally thrown around this great function. While we admit that it plays an important part in our daily affairs, we enshroud its discussion in such technical language that none but the profession can understand it. Or we dismiss it as a necessary, but to be hidden, ad- junct of life. The books written about it have been written by men of medicine, or by old men, who, through excesses in youth brought to an early incompe- tency, or impotence, are spending the rest of their lives in preaching against its abuses and uses. Few live men, who have thoroughly understood the function, have been courageous enough to write about it, unless it were pathologically. And as for women? The mother or sweetheart has neither time nor desire to write about it. She lives it. And the woman physician is often a spinster, totally lacking in experience. Anatomically and physiologically, we know that the sex organs in men and women order the func- 168 SEX AND REGENERATION 169 tion of reproduction. Nature's first prerogative is to reproduce its kind; and to this it subordinates even the greater good, viz: that of furthering the interests of man after he has arrived. Nature seems rampant in its desire to create new beings, then drops the subject, saying, "I have created, now you finish." So far, all has been instinctive, igno- rant and natural. After that, intelligence, art and study must make of the created being either an in- valid, an ordinary human being, or a genius. Anatomically and physiologically, animals are on a par with man, and so far the animal almost always proves itself man's superior. Instinct guides it, for instance, into the sex exercise only at certain periods of the year. Also when this exer- cise has brought about the means to the end, that is, the impregnation of the female, it ceases to function until again the period of heat and fecun- dation comes around. Not so with man. And I speak advisedly of both man and woman. There may be periods of the year where the sex urge is stronger than at other times. On the whole, however, time is not a great factor. From this we must conclude that in the brain of man, through his thinking power, arises a psychic purpose for sex-expression, and this is not for propagation of the species alone, but for 170 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH propagation of pleasure, stimulation and ambition. Some authorities condemn the sex and pleasure proposition, but these authorities are generally men and women who have lived such an impure sex life in youth that they are incapable of clear judg- ment on the subject at a later period. They do not realize that the emotion of sex is a psychic as well as a physical reproducer. They forget that the sex organs are another brain; and that the functioning of this brain reacts on our consciousness, and cre- ates ambition, force, joyousness, and capacities for work, which neither diet, rest nor exercise can equal. All of us, I hope, have felt one great love enter our lives, and even the memory of it makes our hearts leap, our eyes shine and our bodies re- act to the wonders of this great sublime force that orders our lives. Even the memory of it! How much more won- derful the actual experience! Truly, men and women may count themselves old only when the desire for love and companion- ship is ended. One can but sympathize with the young men or women (and there are many such), who by study, housekeeping or money-making can satisfy all their worldly desires! Fate be praised that three-fourths of us are en- dowed with enough romanticism and sentiment to SEX AND REGENERATION 171 realize the importance of love and companionship, otherwise money would corrode for very useless- ness. Churches and religions would cease to exist. And while the former well might be changed into institutions of learning, religion, which means the desire to attain Godliness, is most easily reached through the nervous system. The sex emotion is the physical demonstration of this link between the psychic and the physical. Con- trary to this, as an example, we might consider the case of the Eunuch, or the castrated animal. Am- bition and energy gone, the nerve forces combine to fatten an inanimate, useless body. Men instinctively shrink from castration of their sex organs, and be it said to their credit, not because they sensed lack of pleasure, rather do they know and feel that these organs are fit to re- produce brain as well as offspring or "pleasure." Not so the woman of the past generations. To her this function has meant "illness" every month, a disagreeable period, unclean and abhorrent- while its lack in 50 out of 100 cases, meant worry, trouble, childbearing and rearing. This idea was bom of the old theological belief that children should be born in great pain. The victim of this belief thought that God sent children! I have wondered always why this church-going, supemice 172 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH woman of yesteryear was so adverse to having a dozen of these children sent by God! ! What a different picture the modem woman rep- resents! She well knows that God or the Cosmic Will is speaking through her. She also knows, however, that this same force is just as willing to reproduce brain cells in her, as children. With her lies the choice. For, as these brain cells keep piling up, she understands that present day economics prompts her to choose quality rather than quantity in physical children, and that very often it be- comes expedient that mental rather than physical offspring should be borne by her. She knows that children do not really owe any- thing to the parents, because they have not been consulted in the transaction at all. Rather do the parents owe all and everything to the child. Creation of the child becomes a voluntary, sacred act instead of an accident, brought about by her "committing a sin." If this great conflagration, the World War, does nothing but make men and women see the won- ders of the sex urge, it has not been endured in vain! This it must teach: that the woman, rich or poor, who is courageous enough to take the SEX AND REGENERATION 173 consequences of following her sexual urge in childbearing, should be put upon a pedestal. I, for one, am more than willing to contribute my admiration to the modem woman, who, instinc- tively realizing that the world needs reproduction, has the courage of exercising her divine right- that of being a Mother. Becoming a Mother is no more a life-work than becoming a father. To be a true mother, nurse and teacher is a sublime work, to be sure. But how many mothers are there who are capable of caring for their children in an intelligent manner? It behooves the modern woman to study these great adjuncts to motherhood, always keeping in mind the years to come, when the children shall have out- grown her care. This means preparation for other work to then fill her life. In the future, when woman becomes independent, economically and financially, man will have to re- spect her as a companion instead of treating her as a toy. And as a companion, a partner of man, she will finally come into her own. How many there are to-day opposing woman's de- sire for suffrage! They do not realize that this is the sex will, a divine craving for the right to take her place in the world's work, and that man or 174 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH woman opposing this will is spending his or her time foolishly. For the divine plan is the estab- lishment of heaven on earth, and man or woman, incomplete by themselves, must work together to fulfill the laws of progress. Together we must stand, divided we have always fallen. You need only look to history to prove this. Civilizations have come and gone, and they have gone because man and woman were separated by a chasm of prejudice. But this is the dawn of the new era! Every- thing has proven false. Military power, secret diplomacies, poverty and sickness-all must go! And out of it all will arise the era of humanity and love. How can it, without man and woman holding hands across all this abyss of past igno- rance? Sex expression is a vital factor and a sacred one, because it is the one human emotion that bridges the conscious to the superconscious mind, and when once this fact is realized, the sin and shame of it evaporates like a mist, in the sunlight of under- standing. Let us teach our children, instead of befuddling their minds with the secrecy of life! Let us teach the young that to create a child is the most sacred function of life, and that this should be the aim of SEX AND REGENERATION 175 every normal man and woman. But where youth has passed, and because ethically and economi- cally parenthood has been missed, when life seems dull and monotonous-there is still left companion- ship and love expression, to further mental and spiritual creation. Poor man! How he has dreaded the loss of youth and physical forces, and all because he has not learned in youth how to conserve himself! Even to-day many do not know that sex expression for mental stimulation means expression of affec- tion in companionship. On the other hand, sex urge expressed to the limit is such a sacred action that it should be indulged in only for the reproduc- tion of offspring. Religious teachers have known this for centuries but they have clothed this knowledge in the advice of inhibition instead of an explanation of the process of conservation of sex fluids. For further study, read: Dr. Alice Stockham's "Karezza" or Bernarr McFadden's "Marriage, a Lifelong Honey- moon." Prohibition always reacts, temperance must take its place and education in understanding the finer forces of nature will bring about the millennium of the future. Especially in woman. When she finds that up 176 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH to middle age or the menopause she has been solely the maternal lover of man and after this period be- comes his real mate, she will look forward to this time with joy instead of grief. All through with life? Old? Not at all. For this is the time when the physical ordeal Nature un- dergoes every month of creating and demolishing a receptacle for a new human being, is finished. Where do you, woman of the past, think this great force goes? We know there is nothing lost. Even when we are dead, even if our individuality does not go on, even then our spirit must return into the Great Oversoul, our body must fertilize minor bodies. Then why should the great sex force that makes the childbearing period of woman's life, be gone? And it is not gone. It is transposed into force- creating of spiritual and mental children. Bring- ing this message to the woman of over 40, is what I want especially to emphasize. Wake up! The best, most wonderful period of your life has come; the time of your life when you are through creat- ing physical children, when, if there is a divine spark within you, you shall create better condi- tions for your fellow-men. The time when you shall create love for all humanity. The time, when SEX AND REGENERATION 177 you shall teach, work and aspire, and the time when you may take your place at man's side, as his un- derstanding mate and his equal. CHAPTER XVI OLD AGE Old age is not a period, it is a condition of life. Old is the man or woman, who, no matter how many or how few years he has counted in birth- days, has lost enthusiasm. In other words,-the one who gives up his ambitions, his aspirations, his joy in living,-is old. "I am so tired. I work hard and what is the use," he is old. "I have no luck, everything goes wrong with me," he is old. "What are you talking about? You are a dreamer! I know better than that," he is old. But dreams come true, do they not? I never have had a dream, that is: a dream in broad day- light, that has not come true. And no one ever has accomplished an "impossible" deed, without hav- ing seen the vision long, long before he finally ac- complished it. The only reason so many fail to accomplish their ideals is, because they want to travel the road of "get-there-quick." At the first discouragement these poor ones throw up their 178 OLD AGE 179 hands and say: "It cannot be done." They ut- terly lack sportsmanship. They are too weak to stand Fate's laughter and derision; and down they go to mediocrity. A dreamer is never old. He builds an air-castle and it tumbles! He builds another one, on a much higher plane every time, and this building air- castles, this living his ideals, keeps him ever youth- ful. If, with this spiritual and mental urge, he has also learned to manage his body, his temple of spirit and mind, he can well make claim to being the superman, the man of the future. Such a one goes through disappointments, through hardships, to be sure, but out of the depth, ever and ever, the great spirtual will pulls him on and upwards. In the past, man has been pulled down by his physical disabilities, his weaknesses, and his pains, but to-day, with all the natural means at hand for a better physical body, with the teaching of hygiene and diet, with a "Doctor of Health" instead of a Doctor of Medicine, he may well call himself,- not alone the captain of his soul,-but the captain of his body as well. Understanding at last: that progress for hu- manity can only be built upon progress in himself, he will be fired to a desire to know himself; and 180 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH if my little book has stirred him to this desire, I am content. I have aimed to dispel the hopelessness of the older sciences. I want to carry the message that temporary troubles need be only temporary, that an illness, especially an acute one, is a boon in- stead of a calamity. A strong person's nervous sys- tem is so normal and so sensitive that impurities and poisons propagated in his body through igno- rance of living are repelled and expelled either through a vomit, a purge, or in the shape of an acute illness. The real invalid is he who does not know that he is below par. The square-headed, wide-necked fogy of 50, who refuses to see that his stuffing three square meals a day will manifest itself in a quick ending in pneumonia, or in apoplexy, a "stroke," or a kidney trouble. He is both sick and old, and does not know it. And we can only sympathize with him when we remember that the sciences of medicines and witchcraft have not been Sciences of Health. With health of our own making we shall at last realize that death is beautiful, because it is nor- mal and an ending to a full, busy, and joyous life, that will manifest itself in a going-to-sleep, from which there is no awakening. OLD AGE 181 All other deaths are accidental, whether by acci- dent or illness, and these shocks may in most cases be averted. I cannot close without citing an example in history that has demonstrated so ably all my the- ories. It is the life of Comaro. This famous Italian wrote his biography for the good of humanity because at the age of 40 he had been given up as a hopeless invalid by his friends and physicians. The spark of divinity was too strong within him to die, and he concluded to take his affairs in his own hands. After close inspec- tion of himself he found he had lived immoderately and ignorantly; had eaten, drunk and worked too much. He changed his habits, hoping that he might live at least a little longer. How he succeeded is well worth reading about in "The Art of Living Long," published by William F. Butler, Milwaukee, 1917. At the age of 83, he wrote a formula for long life and the substance of it is: "Live moderately." When he was 94, he wrote again, verifying his theories of 54 years, and he finally died at the age of 103, having been mentally and physically a help and a blessing to his fellow-men. All of us know of examples of wonderful men and women, old according to years, young in physique and mentality! 182 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH The finest personification of youth in my life has been Clara Barton, the organizer of the Red Cross in America. She died a few years ago at the age of 92, a perfectly natural death. There are few, I am sure, who had lived a more strenuous life than she! In childhood a serious student, in early youth a teacher, she fell into the maelstrom of all the great wars, beginning when she was about 40. I was privileged to be her physician the last four years of her life, and I prize the friendship and confidences of this great woman highly. About nine years ago I first came in contact with her. She was consulting me about a partial paral- ysis in her legs. I started loosening her spinal nerves and advised her as to a dietary. I shall never forget her acquiescing in the rules I laid down for her, with the smiling remark, "My dear Doctor, I started living on your simple plan 40 years ago, or I would not be here to-day. I was ill at that time, and I took myself in hand. But where did you, a strong healthy woman, learn all this?" "Because I, too, Miss Barton, have been through the school of hard knocks. I have suffered, and learned from this suffering that Nature's laws, plus human intelligence, can tide us into Health and Happiness." OLD AGE 183 She subsequently had a bad accident, and a physician who was called told her if she did live, she never would walk again, because her spine was broken. She did live, and six weeks afterwards, worked as though nothing had happened. The letter stat- ing this case is among my choicest possessions. I only mention it here to show the chance of recu- peration after even a bad accident at the age of 88. She died when she was 92, without pain or suffer- ing. Simply went to sleep, as a happy child. And Dr. Julian Hubbell, when writing me of her passing on, said: "I am sure she would have lived years longer could she have lived near you." Spinal nerve loosening had for the last year or two, kept all her functions normal. What a blessing old age becomes when we cease fearing the pain of dying! When we have gath- ered experience and knowledge to meet the ills of every day that are really not such a great dilemma. When we find that, what in childhood was a tragedy, becomes in later years a bubble which might annoy us for awhile, but is sent us for an experience-when all our doubts about a future ex- istence have either been qualified into an assur- ance of a more glorious life to come or into a be- lief that death brings us rest and annihilation! 184 THE TRIANGLE OF HEALTH Whatever it is, we have gathered philosophy, and to the end we trust in the Great All-Powerful Spirit that gathers us, his poor, tired children, to His breast. THE END