THE DISCOVERY 
OK 
THERMO-MOTOR FORCE; 
The Secret Spring that Wields the Power 
OK 
LIFE AND DEATH: 
Its Seat, Process of Production, and Modus Operandi. 
THE RESULT OF CLINICAL, PATHOLOGICAL AND EXPERI- 
MENTAL RESEARCHES AT GUYS HOSPITAL, LONDON, 
AND OF THE WIDE FIELD OF OBSERVATION 
PRESENTED AT THE BELLEVUE AND 
OTHER NEW YORK HOSPITALS. 
By JOHN AYLWIN BEVAN, M. D., 
INVENTOR OF THE (ESOPHAGOSCOPE. 
(Illustrations in London Lancet, N \v Inventions, 11 April, 1868.) 
“ Physiology an<l Pathology have experienced a mighty impulse from the general re- 
ception of the Doctrine of Cell Development, and by this truly grand generalization the 
Principle of Life has been almost compelled to confess its secret. In this branch of 
Research, the Microscope and Chemistry have powerfully aided. We had never heard of 
the Endoscope, Ophthalmoscope, the <E soph ago scope, and other useful aids in Diagnosis 
which are now in the hands of every student.—Charles Elam, M. D., Medicine, Disease 
and Death.—John Churchill, London, 1870.” 
“A Brief Analysis of the Preventable Causes of Premature Death” 
IS INCLUDED IN TIIE ABOVE WOfCKv 
NEW YORK: 
EVENING POST STEAM PRESSES, 
208 Broadway, cor. Fulton St. 
1878. THE DISCOVERY 
OF 
THERMO-MOTOR FORCE; 
The Secret Spring that Wields the Power 
OF 
LIFE AND DEATH: 
Its Seat, Process of Production, and Modus Operandi. 
THE RESULT OF CLINICAL, PATHOLOGICAL AND EXPERI- 
MENTAL RESEARCHES AT GUYS HOSPITAL, LONDON, 
AND OF THE WIDE FIELD OF OBSERVATION 
PRESENTED AT THE BELLEVUE AND 
OTHER NEW YORK HOSPITALS. 
JOHN AYLWIN BE VAN, M. D., 
INVENTOR OF TIIE (ESOPIIAGTTSTDPE. 
(Illustrations in London Lancet, New Inventions, 11 April, 18C8.) 
“ Physiology and Pathology have experienced a mighty impulse from the general re- 
ception of the L'octrine of Cell Development, and by this truly grand generalization the 
Principle of Life has been almost compelled to conf ess its secret. In this branch of 
Research, the Microscope and Chemistry have powerfully aided. We had never heard of 
the Endoscope, Ophthalmoscope, the CEsophaooscope. and other useful aids in Diagnosis 
which are now in the hands of every student.—Charles Elam, M. D., Medicine, Disease 
and Death.—John Churchill, London, 1870.” 
“A Brief Analysis of the Preventable Causes of Premature Death” 
IS INCLUDED IN THE ABOVE \VORIv_ 
NEW YORK: 
EVENING POST STEAM 
208 Broadway, cor. Fulton St. 
1878. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by John A. Bevan, 
M.D., in the office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington ; all rights 
reserved. yo JAy |3eLOYED ARENTS, 
AND 
TO HER 
WHOSE CHEERFUL COMPANIONSHIP, POWER OF COMPARISON, 
JUST DISCRIMINATION, NO LESS THAN DISINTERESTED 
UNSELFISHNESS AND HEROIC ENDURANCE, 
I OWE SO MUCH ; 
TO MY BELOVED WIF3E 
This Work is Dedicated, 
WITH THE HOPE, 
THAT THEIR SHARE IN' ITS PRODUCTION, AND THE GOOD IT 
WILL ACCOMPLISH, MAY BE RECOGNIZED BY 
THE WORLD, AS IT IS 
THE AUTHOR. DISCOVERY OF THERMO-MOTOR FORCE. 
CHAPTER I. 
Dear Reader : 
If you were dead, and yet retained the capacity of seeing 
all that is going on in the world, “ the cause that lacks as- 
sistance,”. “ the wrongs that need resistance,” the strong 
trampling on the weak, women and children the great suffer- 
ers from weakness, and men from ignorance and want of 
self-control in the struggle of life, and if, when in Hades, 
you saw all this still going on, and reflected that during 
your lifetime, when you could have fought for the weak, and 
taught the ignorant, you allowed indolence, indifference, 
fear, or selfishness to step between you and action, and did 
nothing, and if then, whilst longing to stretch out the friendly 
hand, to give the sympathizing look, you were doomed 
forever to watch sufferings which you were eager to prevent, 
and think over and over again the same thought, that the 
opportunity was once given you to do this, but that now it is 
lost to you forever, would you not inwardly resolve that 
if ever again your spirit should assume the human form, and 
you should mix again with your fellow-mortals, you would 
seize the present moment and stamp it with all the intensity 
of action of which your soul was capable before it was again 
beyond your grasp ? 
Such, dear reader (inasmuch as we are all dead [a.s regards 
action] to the past) is my position, and such my resolve. 
For I, only a few weeks ago, had a near relative, whom I 
dearly loved, and I had also recently made an important dis- 
covery on the subject of health, of which he was ignorant, 
and which it was my duty and intention, no less than my 
privilege, to communicate to him, but at that time my mind 
was occupied with urgent and important business, and I 
therefore wrote that I intended sending him a long letter 
soon, and put it off to a more convenient season. A brief 
interval elapsed, but instead of a reply from him came a 
black-edged envelope, and you know the rest. Typhoid was 6 
the cause. Had I written that letter when the thought first 
occurred to me I might have saved him, but now the oppor- 
tunity is lost to me forever. My relative, a few weeks before 
his death, was in as apparent good health as 37ou, dear 
reader, and yet he was cut off in youth, leaving his young 
wife and children to the world. Why or how ? From want 
of money? No, he was wealthy. Simply from ivant of 
knowledge of Thermo Motor force and how it may he controlled. 
I purpose, therefore, dear reader, with divine assistance, 
to communicate this knowledge to you,—to analyze the 
causes of premature death—to show that either misery or 
happiness is in store for you, as you remain in ignorance 
or acquire this knowledge, and, by a familiar comparison, 
how to avail yourself thereof; to show how I discovered the 
existence seat, process of production and modus operandi of 
the thermo-motor force . and how, not only cholera, but all 
diseases brought on by defective nutrition, viz., degenera- 
tions and emaciations of organs, including pulmonary con- 
sumption, and also paralysis of the voluntary muscles and 
premature decrepitude, are caused, and how they may be 
prevented. 
To bring to light the concealed process essential to pain, 
its object and use, and how it may be permanently removed, 
To point out the remedies, that it is a fact, the American 
differ from other peoples, in this, that their minds are not 
fixed, they are open to new ideas, and ready to act on them, 
if they find they can profit thereby. It is this characteristic, 
derived from the blending of the Norman and the Saxon 
races, which gave them the moral courage to resist the en- 
croachments of king, and priestcraft, and to throw them 
off, thus acquiring the power of governing themselves, like 
their ancestors in the old Norse song. 
The Norman and the Saxon foe 
Are long since dead and gone, 
Their language and their races, both 
Are blended into one. 
But we, their children, still maintain 
Their old supremacy, 
Wherever vessel spreads a sail— 
We rule the stormy sea,” 7 
In the same way, if it can be demonstrated to them that 
they are held in bondage by erroneous notions, caused by 
want of knowledge of this discovery, that same indomitable 
spirit of independence of thought and action, will make them 
throw off said erroneous and mischievous, aud adopt true and 
beneficial conceptions like these same Danish ancestors of 
theirs in the old song : 
“ Too narrow was their native land 
For hearts so bold and free, 
_ From bay and creek they sailed forth 
And conquered Normandie. 
And let their glory oft be sung. 
In thrilling harmonic, 
And let it, aye, be borne in mind, 
They ruled the stormy sea.” 
And that it is no less a fact, that there exists two dominant 
causes of disease. 
I shall endeavor to exhibit these causes in the clearest 
light of which the subject admits, and which, from their im- 
portance, they deserve, and if the American people are in 
earnest, they must go to the root of the matter, by employ- 
ing the same sagacity and resolution which won them their 
independence and their constitution, to devise and execute 
a plan for their removal. 
CHAPTEE II. 
It is now my privilege to bring to light the hidden process 
essential to pain, its object and use, and how it may be per- 
manently removed. 
Let us inquire by what process is pain, that mighty engine 
of cruelty, that great test of endurance, through which we 
all pass, in different degrees, from that caused by “ a grain 
of sand, a gnat, a wandering hair—any annoyance to that 
precious sense,” to that of the racking headache, the agonies 
of labor, or the excruciating torture of an extensive burn, 
brought about ? 8 
Who has not observed swellings and discolorations in the 
leaves of living plants ? 
Have you ever opened them, and also observed the ova of 
some parasitic insect deposited therein, and asked yourself 
how this destruction and discoloration of the tissue of the 
leaf has been caused ? and perceived that the growth of 
these ova pressing on the surrounding tissue cells dimin- 
ished their resistance to the oxygen to such a degree that 
they were not only incapable of performing their usual func- 
tion of decomposing the carbonic acid and assimilating the 
carbon, but they could not even protect themselves from the 
action of the oxygen, which accordingly decomposed them, 
producing discoloration and death of said tissue cells? 
If so, you will have no difficulty in comprehending how 
pain is produced when I assure you that just as you may 
have seen parasitic growths in the leaves of living plants 
cause their discoloration and destruction, so I have observed 
the same cause, viz., a parasitic growth, in the brain of a 
child of nine years (by its growth and expansion, compress- 
ing the surrounding cells of one of the centres of sensation 
(right optic thalamus), thus diminishing the resistance of its 
cells to the oxygen to such an extent that they could no 
longer withstand its decomposing action, gradually changing 
it into a cavity containing a clear fluid) induce severe pain 
in head and also in corresponding side of the body, increas- 
ing with the increase of its rate of growth, until the whole 
of the structure of said sensory centre was destroyed, when 
the pain also ceased, thus proving not only that the optic 
thalami are the seat of sensation, which is distributed from 
them by means of conductors or nerves throughout the sur- 
face of the skin, mucous and serous membranes, but that 
the essential cause of pain, in every instance, is the destruc- 
tive or burning action of the oxygen on the cells of said 
sensory centres themselves or on their conductors or nerves, 
whether induced by compression of their substance, as in 
this case, or by waste of the thermo-motor force, as is proved 
by that which follows, and which being the first case under 
my charge at Guy’s Hopital, I shall not easily forget. 
It was that of a middle aged man whose body presented a 
most extraordinary contrast in form : his limbs and face being shrivelled to that of a mummy, whilst his abdomen 
was that of a second Daniel Lambert. 
This poor fellow could eat nothing but a little rico, and 
his sufferings were terrible. 
Now, why did this man die in such agony? 
The essential cause was the decomposition or burning of 
his centres of sensation (optic thalami), by the circulation of 
oxygen, which is demonstrated and rendered absolutely cer- 
tain by his own words, for the day before hfs death, he said 
to me, “ Whenever T take even a little tea to drink, it feels 
like a burning coal all over my body,” for as tea is known to 
increase the rate of respiration and the amount of oxygen 
therefore, they prove that burning pain increased and de- 
creased with the quantity of said oxygen in the circulation. 
Pain, therefore, may be allegorized as chaos (ignorance 
and destruction) applying a pencil of flame (the oxygen) 
either to the substance of the optic thalami themselves, or to 
the nerves or the conducters of the sensitive fluid therefrom 
to the skin, mucous and serous membranes. 
The quacks, as Mephistopheles, applying a shield (opium) 
between the nervous substance and the flame (oxygen) so 
long as he is paid for so doing. 
Whilst knowledge of this force and principle may be typi- 
fied by Pallas Athene, teaching the sufferer how to econo- 
mise this force, by controlling the emotions and by regu- 
lating the actions and appetites, thus warding off pain by 
increasing the resistance of the cells of said sensory centres 
to the action of the oxygen, and by increasing the power of 
the digestive organs to produce those fluids necessary to 
protect their cells from its destructive action. 
The object and use of pain may be compared to that of 
the alarm whistle in the steam engine, for as the latter gives 
us notice when there is an excessive degree of pressure to 
the square inch, thus preventing a boiler explosion, so the 
former warns us when the optic thalami, or any part of the 
skin, mucous, or serous membranes are in danger of destruc- 
tion, thus preventing fatal inflamations of those mem- 
branes. 10 
CHAPTER III. 
I will now analyze the causes of disease and premature 
death. 
“ Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas,” “Happy is lie 
who knows the causes of things.” Wherefore? Because 
having witnessed certain phenomena in others, and traced 
them to their causes, he knows how to avoid them. 
Thus, he who has attended two men during their last ill- 
ness, one of whom has habitually drank beer to excess and 
the other whiskey, and who has done his best to alleviate 
the nausea, headache and delirium of the one, and the in- 
tense pain of the other, and who after death has traced these 
effects to Bright’s kidney in the former, and cirrhosed liver 
in the latter, ever afterwards, by the law of association of 
ideas, connects excess in dilute alcohol with all the miseries 
of prematuie death by Bright’s kidney, and excess in con- 
centrated alcohol, with the torture of a similar end by 
cirrhosed liver, and perceiving how easily alcohol may be- 
come an instrument of suffering to himself and others, whilst 
it in no way nourishes the body, but tends to blunt the feel- 
ings and impair the memory, he instead of encouraging 
others to partake of it by being a moderate drinker, resolute- 
ly denounces, avoids, and thus treads it under foot. 
My analysis furnishes me with thirteen cases of men of 
different occupations who partly from the want of this asso- 
ciation in their minds of the penalty with the indulgence, 
which actual experience alone can give, partly from want of 
that self control which a proper education ought to supply, 
perished prematurely by this predominant cause. 
Their occupations were : 1, brewer’s drayman ; 2, lawyer’s 
clerk ; 3, valet; 4 workman ; 5, shipping-clerk ; 0, bricklayer ; 
7, brushmaker ; 8, engineer ; 9, laborer ; 10, soldier ; 11, bar- 
keeper ; 12 and 13 not stated. 
Or, he who has attended those in the last stage of disease, 
who have habitually overworked themselves physically in a 
moist climate, and who has exerted himself to diminish to 
the utmost their troublesome cough, bloodspitting and diar- 
rhcea, their profuse perspiration, their great pain and 11 
tenderness across the chest, and their gasping for breath, 
and who after death, has similarly seen these results linked 
with tuberculous lungs, always thereafter by the same law, 
unites excess in physical work with all this distressing suf- 
fering; and if before inclined to such excess he now not only 
regulates his own work by the amount of his strength, but 
gives his best efforts to enforce this truth upon others. 
My analysis supplies me with nine cases of persons in dif- 
ferent callings, who, from want of the practical knowledge : 
1, that excessive physical work in a moist climate< and flesh meat 
instead of properly prepared cereal, vegetable fruit and milk diet, 
tend directly to pulmonary consumption ; 2, that all occupations 
which drive the blood to the lungs tend to the same end; 3, that all 
work, continued when you are fatigued, is excessive; 4, that a 
winter cough is the first stage, for which medical advice ought to 
be sought—paid the penalty of their ignorance by an early 
and painful death. The victims are arm-workers, viz: 
laborers, carpenters, coopers, warehousemen, gunners, car- 
tridgemakers, occupations which tend to send the blood to 
the lungs, and which should therefore be avoided in such 
cases. 
Or, ho who has seen those in the dying stage, who have 
habitually given way te sexual excesses, and who has essay- 
ed to mitigate their shivering and convulsions to arouse their 
unconsciousness, or to control the violent delirium that en- 
sues on the sudden suppression of Urine and consequent 
blood poisoning by urea, and who after death has found the 
other end of the chain which joins these symptoms to a 
stricture, and consequently diseased kidneys, and perhaps a 
partially destroyed brain, cannot fail in afterwards, by the 
same law', associating sexual excess, writh all this severe phy- 
sical and mental suffering, and will not he warn his fellow- 
man ? 
My analysis supplies me with 6 cases of premature death, 
in which this cause was predominant, in 4 tlieve was Stric- 
ture, in 1 Disease of the Brain and in all Disease of the 
Kidneys. 
Or, he who has been at the bedside of patients dying 
prematurely, who have lived and w'orked in a marshy dis- 12 
trict, and who has endeavored to remove their pains in the 
limbs and back, their shivering and labored breathing, their 
violent cough, delirium and unconsciousness, and, who after 
death, has traced these phenomena to an extremely wasted 
Brain and a degenerated Liver, Kidneys and Spleen, must 
by the same law always connect Marsh Miasma with its cor- 
responding suffering from Atrophied Brain and degenerated 
Abdominal Viscera, and will not feel it his duty to warn 
those living on undrained land that unless they either re- 
move themselves elsewhere, or the cause, by draining their 
land, not all the Quinine on the slopes of the Andes will 
prevent them from ultimately sharing a similar fate ? 
My analysis gives 2 cases of premature death from Miasma. 
Both laborers on undrained land in whom the above changes 
were found after death. 
Or, who that has vainly treated the pain and breathless- 
ness of one patient, or the continuous vomiting and purging 
of a second, or the constant paralysis, headache and irrita- 
bility of a third, dying from the habitual use of food defi- 
cient the first in Gluten, the second in the Phosphates, and 
the third in soundness, and who, after death, has connected 
these symptoms with Heart Disease in the first, with fatty 
Liver and Kidneys in the second, and with hydatid tumor 
in the Brain and Liver in the third,- will fail afterwards by 
the same law to connect want of food containing Gluten 
with the pain and breathlessness of Heart Disease, want of 
food containing Phosphates with the constant purging and 
vomiting of fatty Liver and Kidneys, and diseased pork, 
with the paralysis pain and irritability of Brain Tumor ? 
And will he not impress on those around him the necessity 
of a diet which shall include in some form or other the al- 
bumen, fibrin and casein of fruits and properly prepared 
cereals and vegatables, and which shall exclude all animal 
food whatever? 
My analysis shows, as might have been expected, that the 
victims are poor women and children. The first case was a 
waiter, the second a poor widow" with five children, and the 
third a girl of 9 years. 
Or, who that has alleviated the intense abdominal pain in 
extreme cases of Typhoid, in those who have habitually 13 
worked in unventilated rooms, without either fresh air, suli 
or exercise, and in whom ordinary Typhoid has been aggra- 
vated by taking mercury in any form, whether as the so- 
called Anti-Bilious Pills or the officinal Pill, and who, after 
death, has followed these symptoms to their origin, an ul- 
ceration and perforation of the glands of the large intestine, 
can help, by the same law, linking together deficient air, sun 
and exercise, and the habit of taking Anti-Bilious Pills with 
premature death, and the intense abdominal pain of per- 
forated intestine ? 
My analysis states two cases, Eliza C., (tit 13, an envelope 
folder, and David B., ret 21, a storekeeper’s assistant. Both 
victims to the above predominant causes. 
Or, he who has attended women in the final stage of dis- 
ease, who have habitually oversuckled their infants, who has 
observed the deep yellow color of their skins, and has used 
every means to alleviate their constant headache, blindness, 
their unquenchable thirst and excessive vomiting, their foam- 
iug at the mouth, restlessness and spasmodic breathing, and 
who, after death, has found these symptoms originated 
from an acutely atrophied and }Tellow liver—will, by the same 
lawr, thereafter associate the habit of oversuckling infants 
with the acute physical and mental suffering of atrophied 
liver, and he will take care to impress ignorant nursing 
mothers with the magnitude of the danger to which they are 
exposing themselves. 
My analysis shows twro such cases, in one of which the 
Jaundice came and "went, as the suckling was renewed or 
discontinued, up to a certain point, when it proved fatal. 
Or, he who has attended at the bedside of the man who 
has constantly overworked his brain, and who has observed 
his vacant expression, loss of sight and memory, and has 
done all in his power to alleviate his headache and sleep- 
lessness, his delirium and unconsciousness, and who, after 
death, has pursued all these phenomena until he has found 
them joined to a brain tumor,—will, by the same law, after 
this, unite excess in mental work with prematuie death, phys- 
ical pain and Dementia. And he will teach all those who 
have entered on a similar path to avoid it. 14 
My analysis presents one case, that of an East India 
merchant’s clerk, who brought this on himself by excessive 
hard headwork converting Indian into English money. Ex- 
cessive here meaning, as before stated, men*al work continued when 
feeling languor or headache. 
Or, he who has been at the bedside of the man who has 
habitually chewed and smoked tobacco to excess, who has 
observed his emaciated and haggard look, his great soreness 
of throat and pain in neck, and such difficulty in swallow- 
ing as to interfere with his proper nutrition, who has seen 
this man sink in spite of an operation to introduce food di- 
rect into the stomach, and who, after death, has sought out 
the hidden origin of these symptoms in an extensive ulcera- 
tion of the (Esophagus—will later ever incorporate excessive 
chewing and smoking with premature death, and the pain and 
starvation of (Esophageal ulceration. Excessive, here, means 
chewing and smoking continued in spite of relaxed or sore throat. 
My analysis offers but a single case of premature death 
from this predominant cause, that of a tobacco cutter. 
Or, who that has seen a man with tumor in the groin, 
subjected to the improper treatment of mercurial vapor 
baths, and has observed, immediately after the first bath, 
shivering and sickness, and after the second raving delirium 
and death, and who knows the action of mercury is to destroy 
the red blood cells, and who, after death, finds the degenera- 
tion of organs, which always accompany this blood state, will 
omit in future, by the same law, to associate the taking of mer- 
cury into the system with premature death, and all the phys- 
ical and mental suffering of a decomposed blood ? And will 
he not denounce its use accordingly? 
CHAPTER IV. 
Before unfolding my discovery of the thermo-motor force 
I will endeavor to place the subject in a clear light by a 
familiar comparison. We know that paper money is the 
equivalent of several combined powers or forces, and yet it 
is valueless unless there is corresponding specie in the bank. 15 
So also is the health of the body, and yet in it too apparent 
prosperity is equally fictitious unless there is a correspond- 
in'’; reserve of thermo-motor force in the brain to preserve 
it. Therefore, as specie, not paper, is the measure of sol- 
vency, so the reserve of thermo-motor force and not (Apparent 
health is the measure of that power of resistance to opposing 
conditions and processes in which real enduring health con- 
sists. Or we may divide the money force spenders into 
three classes: those that exceed, those that live up to, and 
those that live below their income, and wre observe that the 
first class come to grief in prosperous times, that the second 
get along until reverses occur, when they too succumb, and 
that the third only escape disaster in times of general de- 
pression. Now, we may with equal truth similarly classify 
people as regards the expenditure of the thermo-motor force 
essential to health. 
Some use it excessively, and they are continually sick, even 
youth. Others use it freely" by wliat is termed “ generous" 
living, every variety of fish, fiesh, fowl, wine, beer, spirit, 
tea, coffee and condiment, and although always on the verge 
of sickness maintain apparent fair health, unless any unusual 
strain be brought to bear upon them. Directly this is the 
case, either from some unusual exertion, or perhaps the 
breaking out of an epedemic, and they too are attacked and 
perhaps carried off. 
Others, again, use it economically by a plain and simple 
properly prepared cereal fruit and vegetable diet, and an 
open air life, and these in times of excessive exertion, hard- 
ship and pestilence maintain their wonted health, and live to 
an advanced age, whilst thousands of the members of the 
other classes are dying around them, or live hale and hearty" 
to a patriarchial old age, whilst they sink into premature 
decrepitude. 
Now. why" the superior endurance of those of the third 
class of brain force spenders? 
Is not the reason to be found in the same cause that gives 
the corresponding class of specie money force spenders that 
power of tiding over reverses, not present in the other two; 
viz., the possession of a reserve of power or force ? Is it a fact, that those who economise thermo-motor force 
by a simple diet of properly prepared cereals, fruits and 
vegetables, an out-of-door life, avoidance of stimulants, and 
excesses of every kind, enjoy a length of life, freedom from 
disease, and a clearness of intellect to which the flesh-meat 
eaters, self-indulgers, who take as their motto, “Bum 
vivimus, vivimus,” are strangers. 
How is it that the length of life of the Brahmins of India 
is so extraordinary ? 
Does not their caste oblige them to follow this mode of 
life? 
What was it that enabled Howard, originally of a weak 
constitution, to live forty days in a filthy lazaretto, to mix 
freely with those suffering from cholera, and yet escape un- 
scathed ? 
Was it not his simple cereal fruit and vegetable diet? 
And did he not give it as the result of his experience that 
those who partook of animal food were the first to be 
attacked by the disease ; and is not this a well-established 
fact, and if so, why is it ? 
By the aid of this discovery the explanation is sufficiently 
simple. I will demonstrate in its proper place that the 
medulla has a certain quantity of stored up thermo-motor 
force in a state of rest, which once expended in motion can 
never be restored. 
We also know that the red blood cells are the oxygen 
carriers which convey that gas all over the body, that they 
release it in the capillaries, where it performs its function 
of decomposing the tissues and brain substance and releasing 
said force. The more freely, therefore, these cells are sup- 
plied the quicker the rate of decomposition and the release 
of this “once lost never regained” force, and the sooner 
its exhaustion, which is death, must occur, whilst the 
slower these blood cells are produced the more tardily 
these cells are decomposed and said force released, the 
longer it is before itsexliaustion and death takes place. 
Now, the chief difference between animal and vegetable 
food is this : in the former the animal albumen and fibrin of 
the blood and muscular fibre is contained ready-made in a 17 
concentrated form, and only lias to be dissolved, whilst in the 
latter the vegetable albumen and fibrin have to be 'prepared 
and concent rated by the organism before it can nourish the 
blood cells. Therefore animal food multiplies them rapidly, 
vegetable food slowly, and the rate of expenditure of thermo- 
motor force corresponds. Hence the superior endurance and 
length of life conferred by the simpler diet. 
Thermo-motor force resides in the medulla oblungata, 
and as before stated, being essential to the digestive process, 
wields the power of life and death, for upon its integrity 
depends the preparation of those fluids which perform a 
three-fold office, for they are the nourishers of the body de- 
fending it from the destructive action of the oxygen, and 
diffusing through it Animal Heat. 
Everything which tends to weaken said force, helps also 
to hand over the body to destruction. 
Nor does the oxygen when it once commences, do its work 
slowly. A couple of years on the average suffices. 
How jealously then should mankind economise this force ! 
13y the help of this discovery, man will become his own 
saviour for he will now need no physician to teach him self- 
control. For just in the same way that the discovery that 
the principle of “ do as you’d be done by ” based on love of 
others underlies the thousand varieties of religious creeds, 
will overthrow the wily devices of priestcraft, and the evils 
of fanatical hatred and persecution amongst races of differ- 
ent religions, by causing them to recognize that they are 
all members of one great brotherhood, animated by one 
great sentiment and its harmonious principle. So the dis- 
covery of Thermo-motor force, and that waste of said force is 
the concealed cause of every form of disease, and its correspond- 
ing principle, based on love of self, will overturn the rival 
schools of medicine, by rendering them superfluous, and 
priest armed with threats of eternal woe, and physician with 
bolus and globule will be consigned along with the rack 
and the thumb screw to the merited oblivion of the dark 
ages, and in their stead will rise up under the shelter of 
friendly colleges, men who will consecrate their lives to the 
discovery and promulgation of those great truths, upon 
which man’s physical and mental welfare depend. 18 
CHAPTER Y. 
I will now proceed to show how I discovered the existence 
and seat of Thermo-motor Force. 
When I commenced the study of medicine, of all diseases, 
Cholera appeared to me the one involved in the deepest mys- 
tery. I therefore determined to solve it. It seemed to me 
most probable that it was caused by arrest of the action of 
the secreting and excreting organs, which I subsequently 
proved by inducing it, by ligaturing the ducts of said organs 
in dogs and rabbits. The next point to settle was; how this 
arrest of action of said organs was produced? At this time 
we had a marked case of Cholera and also of arsenical 
poisoning, at the Hospital, and I thus had an opportunity 
of comparing tlie£>o.s£ mortem appearances aud symptoms, in 
said cases with each other, and I was struck with the simil- 
arity between them, vomiting, watery discharges and de- 
generation of the digestive and excretive organs, being pre- 
sent in both cases. The idea therefore suggested itself that 
Cholera was brought about by the inhalation of some irri- 
tant poison, exhausting the brain forces, and thus causing 
this degeneration of said organs. 
To test to truth of this theory, I caused dogs to inhale 
Arseniureted Hydrogen Gas, which experiments, owing to 
the excessively poisonous nature of this gas, were performed 
with considerable risk, and found that on the one hand, 
whilst it failed to produce the essential symptom of Cholera, 
viz., excessive purging, yet on the others, it induced indi- 
gestion, retching, thirst, spasmodic contraction of voluntary 
muscles, loss of animal heat, and a gradual arrest of heart’s 
action, whilst an examination of the viscera, showed that 
the Heart, Liver and Kidneys were highly fatty, (the He- 
patic Cells and Renal Epithetium being converted into said 
substance), and a microscopic examination of the brain dis- 
closed the fact that many of the Celts in the Medulla at the 
origin of the Pneumo Gastric Nerves, were ruptured, and their 
Cell contents escaped, which facts point the following process. 
Entry of Arseniureted Hydrogen into the circulation, its 
arrival at the brain (Medulla ablongata and Corpora striata) 
at which part, the heat being greatest, it induces such an 19 
excessive production of the Tliermo-motor force as to 
cause its rapid exhaustion, hence diminished supply of said 
force, to the voluntary muscles and their spasmodic con- 
traction, to the heart and its gradual arrest of action, to the 
stomach, and a corresponding deficiency of its action, and 
therefore also in the preparation of those fluids necessary 
to nourish the organs, and for the general diffusion of an- 
imal heat, lienee fatty degeneration of liver, kidneys, and 
heart and a loss in the animal heat, which I found by ac- 
curate thermometrical observations to be less in the brain 
than in its dependent viscera, thus although in this experi- 
ment I failed to induce Cholera, yet by if, I discovered the 
existence, seat, production and modus operand! of the Thermo- 
motor force, upon the deficiency of which all forms of disease 
depend, and the following case proves that in Cholera this 
exhaustion of the Thermo-motor Force is brought about 
not in a comparatively sudden manner by an irritant poison 
as I at first conc2ived, but gradually by a deficiency or ab- 
sence of a necessary element to its production, Phosphorus, 
viz., that of Hannah F and her three children, who after 
living for five months on white flour, water and tea (starch 
without Phosphorus), died of Cholera. 
CHAPTER YI. 
I will now make it clear that not only cholera but that all 
diseases brought on by defective nutrition, viz. : Degener- 
ations and emaciations of organs, including pulmonary con- 
sumption ; also parulysisof the voluntary muscles and prema- 
ture decrepitude, are caused by a waste of that form of brain 
force which resides in the corpora striata and medulla oblon- 
gata, which is the most important of all the brain forces, as 
it wields the power of life and death, and which, being a 
compound of heat and motion, I call the thermo-motor force. 
Or, to prove that the cause of cholera and all degenerations 
of organs, pulmonary consumption, paralysis, and prema- 
ture decrepitude, is one and the same, viz. : Waste of said 
thermo-motor force, and that the only difference is in the 
modus operandi. 20 
And firstly to demonstrate the modus operandi of cholera : 
By showing that if there were steam engines so constructed 
as to prepare and supply their own furnaces with fuel, their 
boilers with water, besides turning other machinery, and if, 
owing to an accident to the feeding machinery, an essen- 
tial element of the fuel were omitted, then the heat of 
the furnace would proportionately diminish, and with 
it the action of said feeding machinery, which would thus 
supply the furnace with a less quantity of fuel, and the 
quantity and quality of the fuel being thus simultaneously 
reduced, the heat of the furnace would gradually diminish, 
and the action of the machinery become slower and slower, 
until at last it would stop altogether. 
Now, what mechanic would not understand the cause of 
this arrest of action to be a breakage of the feeding ma- 
chinery, the furnace being dependent on said machinery 
for the preparation and supply of its proper quantity of fuel ; 
and if he can understand this, what greater difficulty can 
he have in comprehending that the iuducing cause of death 
from cholera is identical, viz. : An, accident to the feeding 
machinery. 
For what takes place in cholera? The same thing that 
occurs when the nerve which conveys heed and motion from the 
brain to the stomach, in a dog, is divided. 
Its digestive organs can no longer prepare the fuel to be 
burnt in the furnace of the capillaries, the temperature and 
action of the vital organs is arrested. 
The only difference between this mode of death and that 
from cholera, is first in degree, not in kind ; the shutting off 
the supply of heat and motion to the stomach being sudden 
in the former and gradual in the latter, thus allowing 
time for the effects of the blood poisoning from the arrested 
action of the secretory and excretory organs to manifest 
themselves, and secondly, in the mode of induction, the ac- 
cident affecting that part of the feeding machinery in the 
living animal, which selects the food, thus depriving the 
brain of that element by which it maintains its power of 
producing and supplying the stomach with heat and motion 
necessary to support the vital processes, and thus ivctsting 21 
this force. I have already proved this essential element is 
phosphorus. 
As the above described cholera process is the same as that 
by which thousands of infants die yearly, in this city, viz. : 
Cholera infantum or summer complaint, I shall give this 
case in full. 
A poor woman with a a family of three children had been 
existing for upwards of six months on nothing but white 
Hour water, and tea, during which time all they suffered 
from was a feeling of weakness, and who came into the hos- 
pital to endure all the miseries of death by the vomiting 
and purging of cholera. 
N ow, why did she and her children die thus miserably ? 
From want of knowledge of the principle of the economy of 
thermo-motor force, and that by living on food deficient in 
that element essential in its production (phosphorus), she 
was wasting the power of producing said force, and that the 
same money with which she starved herself and her child- 
ren to death on white flour would, if invested in properly 
prepared (unbolted) Hour, and crushed wheat, have kept 
them not only alive, but in good health, because the former 
contain what the latter do not, viz. : The gluten containing 
the phosphates or the essential elements of brain and 
muscle. 
The woman knew they were in want of food, but because 
the suffeiing was not great, she did not think it dangerous ; 
neither was it at first, but each time this principle was in- 
fringed, and her thermo-motor force wasted the capac- 
ity of her medulla to generate said force diminished until 
at last it reached such a degree that it could no longer digest 
her food, and this poor family died in the agonies of starva- 
tion, although wine and beef-tea were constantly poured 
down their throats. 
It is the same with thervictims of cholera infantum ; every 
time this principle is broken, the infant’s thermo-motor force 
wasted by giving it food deficient in gluten, such as a de- 
coction of starch, adulterated or swill milk, Ac, instead of 
pure milk ; thin gluten, or the starch and gluten strained 
from steamed crushed -wheat the mother unwittingly takes 22 
a step in a coarse of action which will ultimately starve her 
infant to death, and all the drugs and stimulants poured 
down its throat will only hasten that end. In this connec- 
tion I take pleasure in directing public attention to the 
great value of the cereal foods prepared by the Health Food 
Company, and also Mr. E. C. Smith’s crushed wheat. 
Secondly.—To demonstrate the modus operandi of pulmon- 
ary consumption : By showing that if there were such a self- 
feeding steam engine, and if the draught being greatly in- 
creased to intensify the heat, the engine were caused to 
supply wet fuel around the sides of the furnace so that the 
oxygen might decompose this fuel instead of its sides ; and 
if, owing to an accident to the feeding machinery, it supplied 
this fuel so as to expose the sides, then the oxygen would 
act on those sides instead of on the fuel, making holes there- 
in, through which a part of the fuel would escape, and the 
whole temperature of the furnace be lowered to such a degree 
as to prevent it from causing that union of the oxygen with 
the remaining carbon essential to the production of heat and 
motion, and the machinery would be stopped. 
In the same way, who can fail to understand the cause of 
this arrest of its action to be an accident to the feeding 
machinery, or that part of it which governed the direction 
of the distribution of the fuel; and if this is easily understood, 
what greater impediment is there to comprehending that the 
cause of death from pulmonary consumption is the same, 
viz., an accident to the feeding machinery, or that part of it 
which supplies to man a food deficient in carbon, viz., the 
perverted appetite which prefers flesh meats to properly pre- 
pared cereals, fruits and vegetables, and which is demon- 
strated to a certainty by the case of William H , a laborer, 
set. 32, who, inheriting deficient power of producing thermo- 
motor force, and wasting that force by a diet of flesh meats 
and by overwork, died from pulmonary consumption within 
three years ; whereas, had he economized this force by living 
on carbonaceous foods, milk and properly-prepared cereals 
and vegetables, and obtained some suitable light employment, 
not involving arm work, he might have prolonged his life for 
many years. Also, by the case of Anna C , sot. 14, who 23 
inherited a similar deficient power of generating this force, 
and who, being compelled to work at making cartridges, 
involving considerable arm work, inducing cough, headache, 
loss of muscular strength and voice, and which symptoms 
the use of flesh meats not only increased, but added others, 
viz., loss of appetite and vomiting on the slightest exertion, and 
who thus died in a few months, when, by a judicious economy 
of this force, by the use of the same carbonaceous diet, 
especially milk, and an open air life in the country, her life 
might similarly have been prolonged. 
And all this applies with eg uaJ farce to the thousands of cases 
of pulmonary consumption which occur annually in this city. 
Thirdly.—To demonstrate the modus operandi of paralysis 
of the voluntary muscles : By showing that in a steam 
engine, if you were to cause the furnace to reach the degree 
of heat of the oxy-hydrogen blow-pipe, the boiler coverings 
would melt, and the boiler, emptying itself into the furnace, 
would extinguish and arrest the heat and motion of the 
machine. 
In this case it would be plain to all that the cause was 
excess or waste of heat. 
In the same way in the body, by the habitual use of 
alcoholic irritant poisons, the thermo-motor force may be 
wasted, causing, by die process previously demonstrated, 
degeneration of the organs and of the coats of the arteries of 
the brain, which, on the slightest strain, rupture, pouring the 
blood upon the source of this force, the medulla oblongata 
and corpora striata, which, by its coagulation and pressure, 
causes an arrest of its production and supply, first to the 
voluntary muscles (hence arrest of voluntary motion), and 
secondly, to the heart, which consequently ceases to act. 
Is it not, therefore, equally clear that the cause of paraly- 
sis of the voluntary muscles is waste of the thermo-motor 
force by alcoholic irritant poisons ? 
This is further demonstrated by the case of a man jet. 50, 
a shoemaker by trade, who, from wasting this force by in- 
temperance, was seized suddenly whilst at work with loss of 
power of voluntary motion of the muscles of the right side, 
the heart gradually ceasing to act, and after death I observed 24 
blood clots compressing the medulla oblongata and left 
corpus striatum. 
It can be no less plain, that had he economized said force 
by supplying his thermo-motor centres with nutritive liquids 
instead of irritant poisons, that degeneration of his arterial 
coats, and of those fluids which nourished his arterial coats, 
and consequently the destruction of the latter, and his own 
death, would have been prevented; and the adoption of this 
course of action would, save hundreds of persons, annually, in 
this city, from death by appoplexy. 
Fourthly.—To demonstrate the modus operand! of prema- 
ture decrepitude. 
By showing, that if two locomotives were running a race 
across the Continent for a heavy wager, and each started 
with an equal but limited amount of fuel, and if one engineer 
piled it on as fast as he could, whilst the other proportioned 
the rate of combustion to the quantity of his fuel, then, 
whilst the former at first would far outstrip his rival, yet, be- 
fore he had half accomplished his journey, would find his 
engine at a standstill for want of fuel; the latter, though at 
first left far behind in the race, would slowly but surely 
overtake his more impetuous rival, and would reach the gaol, 
and thus triumphantly carry off the prize, whilst the other 
would be left helplessly in the rear. 
This is furtln r demonstrated by the case of 'William B 
cet ‘27, who had been employed in the Cornish Mines, and 
had always enjoyed health until 2 years before entering the 
hospital, when, having attended a funeral on a wet day, and 
being anxious to reach home early, being just married, he 
walked a distance of 6 miles in an hour, and whilst doing so 
was seized with a sudden pain across the abdomen ; he felt 
cold internally, and then went to bed. Three weeks after- 
wards was attacked by burning pain across the stomach 
and vomiting. 
On going to bed the pain left him, and he felt well. On ris- 
ing and moving about, it always returned, with choking 
feeling. 
He couldn’t do any hard work ; confining himself to light 
work, sifting the ores or breaking them ; in doing which the 25 
symptoms always returned; but on leaving work and going 
to bed, they always left him. 
At last was obliged to leave off work entirely. One doctor 
treated him for inflammation of the stomach, another for the 
lungs, but neither did him any good. 
Had been continuously employed in the mines for 7 years, 
working underground, at a distance of 1,500 feet, at a temper- 
ature quite as high as summer heat in New York ; the per- 
spiration would stream down him, and on an average he 
would lose in this way 7 to 9 lbs. a day of 10 hours. 
At times, working through the lodes was very severe; 
sometimes using the pick on his knees, or on his back, or 
standing up, this necessitates bending forwards with every 
blow, thus calculating he would work continuously 8 hours a 
day, and throw the pick stooping forwards 1,500 times every 
hour, or 12,000 times a day, or 3 million times a year, or 21 
millions such actions in seven years in an atmosphere de- 
prived of solar light and at a high temperature. 
Can it, therefore, be a matter of surprise that such an ex- 
cessive expenditure of the thermo-motor force should mani- 
fest itself in all the symptoms of the exhaustion of that force, 
breathlessness and vomiting on the least exertion, observed 
only in the last stage of disease and of decrepitude. 
And, did not this young Cornish miner bring his body in- 
to a precisely similar position to that into which the impet- 
uous engineer just referred to brought his locomotive, and by 
the same identical cause, viz.: by allowing impulse tc pre- 
dominate over judgment, and thus causing the waste of that 
force, which by a judicious economy, would have carried him 
like the successful engineer’s locomotive, by a regulated 
course of action, to the goal, and secured him the prize of 
length of days ? 
Now, if these cases demonstrate anything it is this, that 
the elation of wine, the energy induced by a flesh meat diet, 
the weakness by food deficient in phosphates, the exhaustion 
of overwork, and similar causes, are all so many excessive 
drains on this thermo-motor force, of which we all have a 
certain limited amount, which we can never replace, and the 
exhaustion of which is certain to cause degeneration of the 26 
digestive organs, and of those fluids upon whose integrity 
as before stated, depends the nutrition of all the organs of 
the body, including the brain (and, therefore, of the source of 
this force itself), also the diffusion of animal heat, and the 
protection of the organs from the decomposing action of the 
oxygen, causing death, either from deficient nutrition and de- 
generation of the organs of digestion, and excretion in such 
a degree as to induce fatal blood poisoning as in cholera. 
Or from degeneration of the digestive organs and of those 
fluids necessary to protect the organs from the decomposing 
action of the oxygen in such a degree as to destroy the air 
cells of the lungs, inducing fatal apnea or breathlessness, as 
in pulmonary consumption. 
Or from degeneration of the digestive organs and of those 
fluids necessary to nourish the organs in such a degree as to 
destroy the arterial coats and cause them to rupture, as in 
apoplexy. 
Thus deficiency of the thermo-mator force is the great 
latent or concealed cause of disease and death in all cases, 
and therefore this force, as before said, wields the power of 
life and death, for if its deficiency exists in a high degree, 
death is certain, whilst if there be a reserve of said force it 
will enable the weak organs to hold out by supplying them 
with the requisite degree of resistance and protection. 
Thus no local application to nor bolus nor globule treat- 
ment of the liver, kidneys and alimentary canal of the lungs 
or of the arterial coats can prevent or remove the vomiting 
and purging of cholera, the breathlessness of pulmonary con- 
sumption, or the annihilation of sensation and motion of 
apoplexy. 
But all these sufferings, diseases, and premature death itself 
can he warded off by a judicious economy of this force, based 
upon an adequate comprehension of the importance of the appli- 
cation of this great truth to the saving and prolongation of life. 
If this is true, then it is equally so that theie is but one 
great disease and a corresponding treatment, whose single 
CHAPTER VII. 27 
aim it is to judiciously economize this force and aught else 
as far as effectually removing pain, disease and premature 
death is concerned, is sheer quackery. 
The all-important question then is, how best to economize 
this force ? 
Let us first trace and comprehend the mode of its pro- 
duction, and then the application of the principle of its 
economy will be sufficiently easy. 
How is the thermo-motor force produced ? 
Just in the same way as the electric current ; by the ap- 
plication of conductors of force to the galvanic battery. 
Or as a motor current derived from vegetable cell growth 
would be if it were possible to convert the vegetable repro- 
ductive cell force into a current of heat and motion by the 
application of conductors of force to the living plant. 
But although vegetable cell force cannot be thus converted 
directly into heat and motion, yet it is indirectly by the veg- 
etable cells being dissolved and raised into a higher kind of 
vegetable cell reproductive action owing to their assimila- 
tion by the brain cells, and this higher vegetable cell action 
being supplied with conductors of force (nerves), is by them 
converted into a current of force, which being conducted to 
the digestive and muscular organs produces voluntary and 
involuntary muscular action and diffuses animal heat. 
If this is true, then the basis of all life or of the thermo- 
motor force in the animal organism is that higher kind of 
vegetable cell reproductive force stored up in the nervous 
centres of motion and heat (the corpora striata and the 
medulla oblongata) and every time our hearts contract, every 
time ive move, ive lose a part of that stored up force, which once 
expended in motion can never he replaced. 
Hence death's necessity, to live ive must die. 
But have we no control over this force ? 
If, indeed, this is really so. “ what skills it to mourn or 
talk?” 
We are the victims of a blind fate, and pain, disease and 
premature death are inevitable. But, if it is not, then in 
proportion as we can acquire control over, we can regulate 
the expenditure of this force and thus stamp out all these 
evils. 28 
I consider it superfluous to prove what is already mani- 
fest to all, or that to control his actions is the prerogative of 
man; and who has a greater right to assert this proud pre- 
rogative than the citizens of this great republic ? for have 
they not ably defended those rights of self-government and 
unity of action which their fathers so nobly won ? 
But the question of the future is, Will this republic be 
able to maintain these rights and unity of action per- 
petually ? 
Or will she, like her great prototype, the Roman republic, 
pass through the same phases of growth, maturity, decay, 
and death ? 
And will this decay be preceded by the same cause, or the 
loss of her public spirit, of that sentiment of the sacred na- 
ture, of this principle of liberty, love of country, and unity 
of action for the common good, which inspired her great 
founders ? 
The answer to this question is bound up in the one, as to 
whether America’s free citizens can and will remove all the 
evils of pain, disease and premature death from, and confer 
all the benefits of length of life and happiness on themselves, 
by raising the moral feeling and increasing the self-control 
of the masses, by means of a well-digested plan, which shall 
regulate the hours of work and keep them icithin such limits that 
the average man shall have both time and mental energy left for 
self-improvement, and which shall found and endow public 
schools or colleges of anatomy, physiology, hygiene, divinity, 
music, painting, sculpture, biography and history, and 
make them not only accessible but attractive to all classes of 
mind, for, though, theoretically, man can regulate his actions, 
yet, practically, this is no easy task to the best of us, for 
man has within him two enemies to his welfare that he must 
combat and conquer, before he can seize the crown which 
confers on its possessor length of days and happiness, viz. : 
appetite and ignorance. 
The remedy for the former consists in elevating his moral 
feelings, hence the necessity of public colleges for the teach- 
ing of those subjects tending to raise noble sentiments to 
which I have already referred, in which path Mr. Peter 29 
Cooper, having taken the first step by the establishment of 
schools of art for women and lectures for the people, and Mr. 
Cullen Bryant, by his splendid translation of the Odyssey, 
will ever place them in the front rank of public benefactors. 
That for the latter, public schools for teaching those sub- 
jects which give him a knowledge of those laws which gov- 
ern his body, and the action of different foods and substances 
thereon, thus enabling him to regulate the motion of his or- 
gans of so-called involuntary action, as the former gives the 
highest direction to his voluntary efforts, whilst to still fur- 
ther economise this force, and thus win ampler time for and 
power of self-improvement—colleges for the study of the 
theory and practice of mechanics and experimental chemis- 
try should be established. 
It is almost needless to point out that the money saved 
by the suspension of medical hospitals and asylums would in 
the end more than repay the expenses of the colleges for 
anatomy, physiology, organic chemistry and hygiene. 
That by the abolition of workhouses and prisons, those 
of schools of divinity, music, painting and sculpture. 
That by the arrest of the traffic in alcohol, those of the 
schools of mechanics and inorganic chemistry. 
If the American citizens of the centennial period are in 
earnest, they will go to the root of the matter by devising 
and executing a plan by which these objects vs ill be attained 
and they will receive the homage of all posterity, as having 
not only shown themselves equal to their fathers, by perfect- 
ing their work and conferring thereon endurance ; but they 
will shine superior to them in this, that they will take the 
front rank among the Benefactors of mankind by teaching 
them how to eradicate from their midst that triple curse— 
pain, disease and premature death, and to substitute in its 
place, happiness, beauty of form and length of days. 
New York, December, 1877.