OCHlE:Fri?D£cKK*\(C.C.) THE SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATION WATEE-CUEE PAMPHLET I. BY C. C. SCHIEFERDECKER, M. D., UNION SQUARE WATER-CURE, IN BALTIMORE. B/LTIMORE : PRINTED BY JOS. ROBINSON. 1859. THE SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATION WATEE-CTJEE PAMPHLET I. C. C. SCHIEFERDECKER, M. D., UNION SQUARE WATER-CURE, IN BALTIMJJ &J&0 BALTIMORE : PRINTED BY JOS. ROBINSON. 1859. PREFACE. The eminent Professor Dr. Bocb, (Leipzig) says, speaking of the progress of the Medical Science in latter years, and denouncing the monstrosity of the wrongs committed by the old regular symptomatical school, that in this school exists nothing but faith, hypotheses, fancies, groping in the dark, &c, and adds: "The question, which is asked, when we praise this progress of Medi- cine : Does the new school cure diseases better than the old ? we answer: Certainly it does, if not with newly discovered drugs or with medicaments in general, but with more rational diete- tics, and thus with less cost and in less time, because the diseased body has only to conquer the diseasing cause, and not also the diseasing remedies. The principal preference of this new school over the old lies in the fact, that it injures less, and hastens not the patient into the grave, that it recognizes incurable evils, and does not try to forcibly remove them at the expense of yet healthy parts of the body: in short, that it perceives where something can be done and where not. The physician remains always a weak being, and cannot reproduce, in contradiction to the laws of nature, health by mere medication." Such is the opinion of many of the highest authorities in medical matters, particularly in Europe ; the sublime arrogance, with which drug-worshippers sneered at every innovation, has given place to a modest and becoming distrust in their destruc- tive art. The fact, that in reality a physician, in giving a drug, can only hope and expect, that it may have the desired effect, is too humiliating for a man of honor and philanthropy; none but those who degrade the profession to a means of accumulating wealth,will be satisfied with a practice, that excludes'all conscious- ness of right or wrong. Can it then be denied that the healing art requires reformation, as well reformation as other branches of human knowledge ? Have state-ecouomy, jurisprudence, the- -J ology and many mechanical arts, lost any of their dignity by such progressive reforms ? Yet all such reforms never originate with the reigning powers, with the clergy, the judges, &c, but the voice of the people, the criticism of laymen, the progressive spirit of humanity urges them forward. Why then should the healing art, acknowledgedly the most imperfect of all, remain a " touch me not" for the public, whose interests are most eminently at stake ? Nobody will deny, that there exists among the people an uneasiness about medical matters; they have learn- ed to suspicion the infallibility of the drug—business, and hon- orable physicians, highminded clergymen and philanthropic laymen have stepped forth to give voice and even direction to the murmuring complaints of the deceived victims of medi- cal abuse, who now unfortunately compose the majority of civi- lized nations. It is in view of this fact, and in consideration of what I conceive a sacred duty, that I bring forward, in as few lines as possible, the stand-point, from which the man that is capable to rise above the inherited superstitious faith, may form his own conclusions in regard to his duty when sick. It is not personal sophistica- tion or interested speculation which I bring before my reader, but the well-founded view, that most eminent physicians of France, Italy, Germany and England, wish to see instilled into the public mind. It is the anxious appeal of those who feel deeply their responsibility as guardians of the people, in view of the undeniable downward tendency of that part of the hu- man race, which we proudly call civilized. It is the warning voice of experience from the mouth of the greatest and best of physicians all over Europe. 0 that they would be heard and trusted I Of these great men, stands Richter most prominently forth, and I am proud to bring his and similar views before a free people, who have the right and the desire to think for themselves. C. C. SCHIEFERDECKER, M. D. WATER-CURE. The healing art, whatever remedies it may apply, aims always :—1. At the preservation of the individual human life-form, in its integrity; and 2. At the restoration of this integrity, if it is lost, viz: at prevention of diseases and at restoration of health. The first aim is attained, when all these influences of the outer world, which, in consequence of the dependency of indi- vidual life (mikrokosmos) from the general life of nature (makrokosmos,) must necessarily touch the individual organ- ism, are guided in such a way, that they do not intrude upon its economy, as something inimical, destructive, but rather operate upon it as promoting and preserving its integrity. The other aim of the healing art, viz: to free the organism from disease and to regain health, the usual and principal claim which is made on the practising physician, require the most accurate knowledge of the organism in all its directions, as well of its normal as its abnormal conditions and formations. Of the processes, under which the normal condition passes over into the abnormal, and this latter again in the former, and finally, the knowledge of the makrokosmus in all its parts and powers, with which it influences the individual human life, and the manner in which they operate. By the knowledge of 6 all these alone is the physician enabled to select from the outer world the proper means, which, operating upon the diseased organism, will reproduce health. From time immemorial, the greatest diversity of opinions has existed among the physicians which of these outer things to choose, and how to regulate and form its influence, in order to obtain in certain cases the aim of healing diseases ; and to this day, this quarrel remains unsettled. The cause of this un- certainty and wavering of the medical practice, lies in the fact, that medical professors left the simple and only right road which true experience and artless observation of nature indicates, that it meddled with vain visions and idle speculations, that it built over reality a superstructure of imaginary theories and vaunting systems; to please which, nature was unmercifully belied. Time has brought forth an incredible mass of such chimerical phantoms; but all of which, carrying the germ of their transitoriness in half truth and error, from the beginning with themselves, disappeared soon, and often without a vestige, but not without having caused much injury during their exis- tence ; for thousands of men lost their life by the false theories, with which the heads of the physicians were filled. Every page in the history of medicine bears testimony of this fact. The reader sees, astonished, how far the human mind can be led astray, if it once has left the true guidance of unbiassed obser- vation of nature and honest experience. Cicero's assertion: " that nothing so foolish can be imagined, which will not soon be contended for by some philosopher as a sublime truth," finds its fullest application also with physicians. Notwithstanding it will be of advantage for every physician to make himself acquainted with these epbemere theories and systems of medicine, which, from time to time, have swayed authority, no matter how erroneous and absurd they may be, and with the fountains from which these influential deviations from truth have originated ; for the same errors rise up again and again as new discoveries, or are never entirely given up and / extinguished, but exist—yet with power, sanctioned by age and superstition. Far worse fare we now-a-days, where frequently every theory is condemned, and so-called experience is received for the sole guide of practice. This stupid experience, the sworn enemy of all science and true learning in the medical art, boasts of its assumed infallibility and rebels against all rational investigation. Herein originates the credulity in and admira- tion of so many remedies, which physicians either deceived them- selves or deceiving others, in journals so loudly praised as cures in certain diseases. This kind of science is certainly perfectly adapted for ignorants and fools ; it does not require deep reflec- tion and serious study of nature, but can easily be acquired from books and journals, the pontes assinorum of the lazy blockhead. Such proceedings are fit only for the rabble of the medical profession, for whom the principal object of life is a practical success in making money. The honorable, conscien- tious physician, who appreciates the sacredness of his calling, which is in reality more that of an angel, than that of a man, who knows well that there exists not one certain and infallible remedy against any disease whatever, be it the slightest cold or a pain in a single tooth; but that every remedy may be injuri- ous in every disease,—asks for a theory, according to which he decides, when a remedy may be given or not, and how and why it is administered. Yet physicians have cured diseases at all times, whether the reasons that guided the treatment rested upon the most shocking ignorance, or whether the physician ap- plied without all theory, at random, the remedy. But nature has also at all times healed diseases without any remedy and with- out consulting a physician; and daily are thousands restored from diseases, often the most dangerous, and medically, most unconquerable, without the help of science; daily is the advice of the physician neglected and the contrary done—and yet peo- ple get well, which fact often astonishes the physician himself, and makes him praise his grand remedy to the skies, without thinking one moment on the kindness of all-regulating nature. 8 Even what is more yet, this innate nature overcomes the most nonsensical experiments of the physicians and the disease itself, and frequently makes the remedial agent, which, if it would act according to the design of the physician, would necessarily kill, act differently and salubriously—for instance: a vomitive pro- duces diarrhoea, &c. Thus we see, that the organism itself has the power to conquer invading disease-matters; and I intend to prove below that all medical art avails nothing, when the own healing power of the body denies its assistance. I mention here the remark of Paracelsus: " The outer physician is not the master, but the servant of nature, who only offers the inner physician weapons, with which he fights and conquers the disease. Nobody can be cured of a disease, if his own inner physician heals him not." The laws of nature are, as it were, the thoughts, according to which the Almighty created all creation ; by exploring them, the human intellect will at least gain the advantage of not inter- fering violently with them. It is the object of these hastily composed lines to try to define part of these divine thoughts: the laws by which nature heals, or the healing power of nature. There appears in the creation of beings, a power, which forms, according to an idea perfectly conformable to the purpose, and unknown to the created individual, the designed organization out of the formless organic matter; a power, a something, which is distinguished from the conscious entity, (be this called soul, or reason, or anything else) of the perfected individual, which is even of a higher, more elevated nature than this, because it knows a priori all laws of organic and inorganic nature, handles and exercises them in the creation of the own proper organiza- tion, equally masterly and infallibly, and not merely by way of trial, while the conscious entity, reason, acquires by a thousand failures and laborious observations, only poorly a certain moiety of knowledge of these laws. This creative something, of which we do not know how and when it got the matter in which it works and acts, whose existence we cannot sophisticate away 9 is the anthem of God, the all-pervading creative power itself appearing in a certain fraction, the infinite, eternal, acting within space and time. The creative power in the organic being is called its life-power; the actual combination of the life-power with the organic matter, conditions all phenomena, the com- pletion of which we call life. All attempts at the explanation of the real nature of life, however learred and clever they may be, are poor cbanglings, and have always been found wanting. We can, indeed, know of life only, what the sage Heraclit has said of it; that it is a continuous growing, which later philosophers have explained, that it is a continuous process of interior change and exterior transformation ; a never-resting mutation of the internal mat- ter and external form, by which the organism is in no moment the same, but yet always like itself. If in the above mentioned metamorphosis of life, the idea of the whole, as existing, can be preserved, then the power must necessarily continue to be active, which had originally created all organs, and harmo- niously combined all parts to a whole, because it followed up the idea of the whole, while it formed the single parts. In the direction of its activity upon the preservation of the harmo- nious unity of the whole, in the metamorphosis of life, this power, which is nothing more nor less than the original crea- tive power, becomes self-preservation. Gaubius explains this relation nearer, when he says : " The organism possesses the faculty of self-preservation, by means of which it appropri- ates continually again the material which it loses by the life- process, and preserves, notwithstanding the continuous decay and change of its form and mixture, the same unchanged ex- istence. Hoffmann calls life, for this reason, " Preservation of the living body, which has the tendency to destroy itself." Hegel recognizes in the self-preservation the most necessary require- ment of life, when he says: " Living is and preserves itself only as self-producing, not as being; it is only, while it makes 1* 10 itself, what it is,—therefore self-preservation is the essential conception of life." The manner in which this creative power, this Divine some- thing in us, effects the self-preservation, is this: It removes those matters, which have become disorganized by the life- activity, and are of no further use for the economy of the organism, through the excretive organs, from the body, and re- turns them to general nature; at the same time, it takes from the latter new matter, for the individual living being is coerced by the sensation of existing want and necessity to take nutri- tious food, which then the life-power, in the capacity of self- preservation, conducts through the different organic processes of digestion, fluid formation, motion and breathing, till they are perfectly assimilated, and adapted for the organic restitu- tion of the necessary losses. This self-preservation, which the body in no moment of life loses, controlling alike the whole, as every single part, appears the clearer and the more powerful, when anywhere a part of the whole gets alienated by deviation in form and mixture, and consequent abnormal activity of the whole, the origin of which to show, is the duty of nosology; for the idea of the whole is only realized in the harmonious catenation of all parts; every alienation, every renunciation from the order and law of the whole must necessarily tend to its destruction ; to prevent which, self-preservation steps forth and tries to reproduce the proper balance, and to reconduct the deviating form again to the normal condition, to harmony with the whole. Pythagoras already recognized better the real nature of dis- ease, than most physicians of our days, who are content with a description of the word disease, and boast with high sound- ing phraseological definitions. Pythagoras declares : that health is the harmony of the organic activities, but that disease is dis- harmony and predomination of one over the others, (tjjs jt«v vyeic&i tivctt 'urovopixs ruv ^vix/iem, tjjv £'ev etvrois f*,ovccp%iuv voirev 11 Miiller says: The same power that preserves the organisms by continuous nutrition and regeneration, restores again the equi- librium in the organic part, after a disturbance. We recognise, therefore, in the power which creates, which preserves the or- ganism, and restores it in disease, always the same essential entity, which, according to the activity which is momentarily called forth, acts either as creative power, or self-preservative power, or healing power ; it is always the same indivisible life- power. Although sophistic hypotheses and school-wisdom may deny the existence of this power, this Sstov of Hippocrates, the greatest physicians and philosophers of all ages, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristoteles, Gallenus, Paracelsus, Helmont, Harvey, Syden- ham, Baile, Stahl, Glisson, Gaubius, Albin, Reil, Cuvier, Oken, He- gel, Scboenlein, Miiller, Liebig have recognised it as identical with the soul, some with the instinct, some with the blood-circulation, &c. Reil says: " There are physicians who assume that the healing power of nature is a particular system of powers, which exist in order to mend the originated wants of the organism. But these ideas are without foundation. The healing power of nature is the combination of all powers of the organization of its physi- cal, chemical and mechanical powers, whose connexion to a totality in regard to proper action is healing diseases." The greatest of all physicians, Hippocrates, has best understood this vis natura? medicatrix; he trusted its hints so much that he forbade all independent interference of physicians in the treatment of diseases, and advised his pupils to regard without theoretical speculations, nothing but the hints of nature, exclaiming: medicus naturae minister. The often misunderstood and abused sage and physician Paracelsus, inspired by the wonderful power of nature, said: Nobody is cured of a disease, unless the phy- sician in himself heal him. This power does not dwell in a certain part of the organism ; not in the nervous system, nor in the blood ; not in the heart, nor in the lungs, nor in any other province of the body, for all of these it created and taught to be active ; nor is it one of these 12 activities itself; not nerve-power or irritability: not blood motion nor blood circulation; not absorption nor evaporation ; nor is it adequate to any other power of nature, neither of electricity, nor of magnetism, nor of galvanism and chemism, but all these are contained in it; it reigns over all these, and uses all these, when creating, preserving and healing the organism. Having thus tried to show what the healing power of nature is, I may now proceed to endeavor to elucidate, how this power expresses itself, which path it takes, what means it applies to gain the object of removing disease out of the organism. How does nature heal diseases ? This question can experi- ence alone answer. Yet it is not an easy matter to gain true experience, because, firstly, men are at present used to deviate in their mode of life from the simple requirements of nature which disturbs her in her normal expressions; secondly, because the physicians, who might have the best opportunity of getting such experiences, usually with proud confidence in the omnipo- tence of their art, at once use their remedies and change and confuse thus the normal course of diseases; finally, because not every one possesses the faculty of making natural observations and to acquire true experience. This faculty is innate, and cannot be gained by industry and labor. The ancients, whose senses, not yet veiled by the bias of reigning systems and theories, could conceive nature natural, because she herself was not yet disturbed and artificed by luxury and licentiousness ; they followed the straight road of sound reason, wrote simply without sophistications, and founded their positions upon truth and certainty. The sage of Cos, Hippocrates, again deserves the highest regard in this respect, yet we find in his works only what nature does. The explanation of the how the elucida- tion of the process which nature follows in curing diseases, has the physiology of our days made the object of deep research. Nature has been compelled by experiments to reveal and to disclose clearly to the eye of the observer, her secret work- ing. Tiedemann, Burdach, Magendie, Marshall Hall, Wilson 13 Philipps, Stark, Weber, Miiller, Schoenlein, Jahn, Valentine, Liebig, and others, deserve in this respect the gratitude of the world. The realization of the prevention of disease is entrusted to the instinct, given to every living creature. In the same ratio as the individual reason develops itself from infancy into riper years, retreats the power and acuteness of this instinct, leaving to reason to decide whether the individual shall follow the warn- ing voice of instinct or not. It is, therefore, not the fault of nature, when man breaks through the protecting, prescribed limit, and in the ecstasy of freedom, overleaps nature's barriers, surrounding himself by an artificial world, in which the instinct loses its sway and the discerning voice of nature is silenced. Every course of disease, be it brought into the body from outward as something mechanical, chemical or dynamic or produced in the body itself, (as f. i. in inherited disease,) attacks always first only a small part, and leads that away from the normal status of the whole. Although the whole body suffers in every disease, the diseased action confines itself always only to an organ or a system ; it can never extend all over the whole organism, because then the organism would totally alienate from its own idea ; it would not remain the same, but become an entirely different one. No matter where or how the diseasing cause penetrates into the organism, it finds every- where the life-power of the body, in its restorative function, ready, vigilant and active, to drive out the intruding enemy. This life-power is under circumstances, in single organs and in the whole organism, capable of increasing its own strength ; it may concentrate its energy more towards one particular spot, by means of which its actions become more vigorous and dura- ble than in the usual progress of life. An increased effort of the life-power cannot be doubted in the progressive evolutions by which the different organs and systems morphically and functionally, attain their highest development; it is also acknow- ledged in the cyclical metamorphosis of the organism, by which 14 it adapts itself f. i. to the seasons. But the life-power appears then, also, raised and increased, when it acts as vis nature medicatrix. The symptoms which appear in consequence of the increased energy of the life-power, when it steps forth as heal- ing power, shall now occupy our attention : Topical Reaction. The blood flows readier and with greater force to the organ affected by the diseasing cause, than it does in a healthy state. So the change of matter in the organ is quickened. The quicker and more extensive this change is in an organ, the more must the expression of its power be increased, and therefore all the symptoms appear continuous and overstepping the normal activity; an increased development of warmth takes place in the diseased organ ; the turgor vitalis is augmented by the loosen- ing of the organic texture, which makes its capacity for the reception of blood greater ; if the organ is capable of spon- taneous motion, it takes the position it has in its highest normal activity, f. i. the stomach turns its great curvature to- wards the integuments of the abdomen, the same as in the act of digestion; muscles contract, &c. The nerves of the diseased part impress the sensorium, and the local impediment of the harmonious concert of the whole is felt as pain, heaviness, pressure, uncomfortableness, &c. These symptoms of the ac- tivity of the organism against diseasing intrusions are the signs of inflammation of the old canon: color, rubor, turgor, dolor. But this inflammation is not the increased life-power, the vis naturas medicatrix, alone: it is the combined process of the beginning renunciation of a part from the normal condition of the organism, and the struggle of increased organic activity against this. Inflammation is, therefore, not a disease, but only the expression of augmented life-power in its local endeavor against intrusion into the organism. We see thus, that whatever the symptoms of inflammations may be in a disease, f. i. in catarrh, rheumatism, gout, scurvy, pneumonia, &c, they only announce a local healing tendency. 15 The topical reaction against every diseasing intrusion into our organism is, of course, modified in the details of the exte- rior symptoms, on the one side, by the kind of intruder, which may act mechanically, chemically or dynamically; on the other Bide, by the affected organic part itself, which must react ac- cording to its specific character, f. i. the muscle by violent con- tractions ; the nerve by sensations, which again are different in the different nerves: in the sensitive nerves by pain; in the oph- thalmic nerves by scintillations; in the auditory nerve by sounds, &c; the lung by difficulty of breathing, the intestines by in- creased motion, &c. The aim and effect of the reaction is this. Every pathic irri- tation, every intrusion of disease-matter into the body is con- nected with a material qualitative change of the affected part, a decomposition, as it were, of its elements; new qualities for- eign to the organism, are formed, which are then the material fundament, the body of the disease. This fundament acts upon the organism with the tendency to change its integrity and nature. For instance, the narcotics affect the body by partially destroying its material quality, by chemical decomposition; we clearly see this in the blood of those who are poisoned ; there are in it quite different affinities and chemical combinations from those in the healthy blood. Blood thus decomposed, cannot serve for the preservation of life, because it acts as de- composing ferment upon all organs alike, and sudden death must follow. The reaction aims at once to remove the intruder from where it intruded, f. i. by suppuration and reproduction of normal elements. A splinter intrudes in to my hand; the life-power, not discerning whether it is poison or not, but know- ing that it is foreign and not assimilable to the body, sends an abundance of blood to the injured spot, serum is exuded, the splinter surrounded by it, and thus, by what we call suppura- tion, removed; if the intruder is a poisonous mineral, f. i. lead, the same serum, extracted from the blood, surrounds it, and pre- vents thus the oxide from being absorbed and poisoning the body. 16 Against assimilable matter the body does not struggle. Look at the difference: you rub into your skin pure grease, there will be no trouble, but combine with the grease a mineral poison, f. i. tartar emetic, and you soon will perceive how quickly the body will resent the insult and defend itself by eruption, containing at least in part the intruding poison, &c. But when this local struggle for the expulsion of the intruder is insufficient, and the foreign matter penetrates deeper in the general organism, even when the disease attains its highest acme of virulence, it is unable, as long as the organism lives, to entirely overcome the reaction against it; the struggle con- tinues, and the life-power defends the terrain step by step, call- ing the whole organism to assistance. General Reaction. The intimate reciprocity of all parts of the organism, mediated by the nerves and blood circulation, produces a certain equilibrium of all the different parts with each other, a harmony of all single life-directions and a con- sensus of the activity; and thus a wavering of the whole is originated, when any part is more seriously disturbed. This wavering, this struggle for the restoration of harmony lasts till the lost equilibrium is regained by the removal of the interrup- tion, or till the whole perishes by self-destruction in this struggle; i. e. it ceases to exist under the present form and mixture. The symptoms of this vibration, (I use this figurative expression) are called fever, to examine which, in its healing tendency, as a reaction against disease, will be now our object. Fever. After the local reaction against injurious intrusions has shown itself insufficient, and after thus the harmonious catenation of the whole is interrupted, the nervous system penetrates this and produces a general feeling of illness, debility, heaviness, dull pain in the members and the whole body, faint- ness with stretching of the members, yawning and continuous weakness. The mental faculties are paralysed, indifference and aversion to occupation, forgetfulnesss, irritability and fretfulness exist; the senses are touchy to a painful extent, and their per- 17 ceptions disturbed. The organic restoration is impeded, con- sequently there is aversion to victuals, bad digestion, nausea, pressure and heaviness in the pericordia, eructations, inclination to vomiting, &c. Frequent chilliness and shivering, particularly between the shoulders, down the back, alternating with flying heat. After these precursors, whose duration is longer or shorter, appears what the School calls the paroxysmus, with vio- lent, continuous fever ; during which, the life-power of the or- ganism seems to have sunk to the minimum of its energy. The turgor vitalis disappears; the skin shrinks, (goose-flesh,) is leather-like dry, while the pores of the skin are crampily closed, pale, the nails are bluish; the muscles tremble cramplike, (tremor artuum,) respiration is short and anxious ; the pulsation small, contracted, irregular. The victuals in the stomach re- main undigested, depress, excite nausea and vomiting, mouth and organs for swallowing are dry; thus wanting secretion causes desire for much drinking. The urine flows freely, be cause the skin-evaporation is entirely suppressed, and the ex- creted matters are only removed in that way : the mental ac- tivity is entirely suppressed, the psyche disturbed, fretful, hopeless and timorous. The Chill-Stage, which is a rest of the whole organism, (as far as this is possible without annihilation,) for the collection of strength for a most vigorous fever struggle, is of only short duration, and followed by the Heat-Stage, which has the following characteristic symptoms: The pulsation gets roused, fuller and stronger, more even and generally less quick than in the chill-stage; the arteries, which lie near the surface, pulsate visibly, violently, the skin swells with increased turgor vitalis, gets a lively deepened colour, particularly on the cheeks, and the lips are slightly puffed up. The bead is heavy, the mind very active, generally delirious, the senses are sickly sharp. The muscular power seems to be increased, and all actions hasty and vehement. The extreme thirst longs for cooling ; the respira- tion is deeper and freer, but quicker than in the chill-stage. 2 18 The designation of chill and heat-stage is taken from the feel- ings of the sufferer; both are, generally, only existing in his feelings, and the thermometer shows hardly any difference. But sometimes the quicksilver falls 8 to 10 degrees F. in the chill-stage, below, and rises 8 to 10 degrees F. in the heat- stage, above, the usual standard of blood warmth. After the organism has in the chill-stage rallied all its inhe- rent forces, the fluids begin to ferment fully in the heat-stage, by means of which, the healthy parts are separated from the unhealthy, and these latter become excernible, (the coctio of Hippocrates.) The fever-heat influences the body so that it drives the juices, lymph and blood freer, lighter and quicker, through its single parts, raises the respiratory process, strains the functions of the nervous system, making them more ener- getic and lasting, solves and quickens the secretions; in short, it urges regularly all the functions of the organism, and thus overwhelms the further progress of disease, while this is made ready to be thrown out. All these different symptoms depend, in consequenee of the consensus of the whole, one from the other, one conditions the other, f. i. the respiration acts upon the circulation, this upon the nerves and vice versa; the increase of action in one function, causes an increase of action in the other. But the forces of the unimpaired organism are already in normal life, incapable of bearing a c.ontinuous strain, and re- lax after some time their activity, begin to flag, and need rest and repose. This necessary change of activity and rest, causes periodicity of many life-actions. It is clear that the increased exertions, made by all parts of the organism during the reac- tion against foreign intrusions, can only last for a certain time, till the existing force is exhausted by the activity; and that then rest must follow, by which, new strength is accumulated for the purpose of beginning again, after such restoration, the increased activity, the reaction. The School calls this activity of the organic forces, paroxysmus, the time of rest, intervals. It would be exceeding the limits of this lecture, to consider the 19 relative time of activity and repose, which isperfectly regulated according to periods. It is a most dangerous mistake of a physician, to confound the healing endeavor of nature, in the form of fever, with the disease itself, and to look at it as the condition which the phy- sician should remove. Thus the only means, by which the suf- ferer could be cured, is destroyed, and disease permitted to get the supremacy. Physicians are very apt, either in conse- quence of ignorance or of laziness, to confound thus the disease with the healing symptoms, particularly as these latter are fre- quently the only visible signs, and to struggle against the heal- ing efforts of the body, instead of against the diseasing cause ; f. i: we hardly can perceive the real disease in the intermit- ting fever, the suffering of the nutritive nervous system; the Bymptoms are the only apparent abnormities. But there is a possibility that even the healing efforts of the organism may partake, in consequence of the artificiality of our social exis- tence from infancy, of wrong tendencies, and to discern the right from the wrong in such cases, it is a very difficult task for the most sensible physician. I intend to recur to this matter below. The assertion of the most palpable truth, even its proof by the most uncontrovertible reasons, without the addition of indis- putable authority, remains in our skeptical times, without ef- fect on the generality of men : I, therefore, will now show, that from the earliest periods of medicine, these views have been held by the most distinguished sages of the medical science. Hippocrates says: " The healing power of nature finds always, without being taught in diseases, what is of benefit for the patient; and destroys, rising in its might, particularly in young persons, the disease." Celsus asserts of Asklepiades : that he used principally the fever for the cure of diseases, and adds for him- self: " Art can do nothing, when nature does not support it." He further declares: " The fever is the principal support for the cure of diseases, and the physician has, in order to effect this, 20 sometimes to produce it." Aretajus confirms this view and says : The disease groios and increases only then, when the healing power of nature, which shows itself in the fever, sinks! Civlius Aurelianus makes the following admirable remark: " The fever, wherever it shows itself cures alone the disease; chronic diseases have need of the help of art for their removal, particularly be- cause the healing power of nature, which is so active in fever, is there totally silent." Even among the Arabian physicians, who carefully preserved for centuries, the, in Europe, neglected medi- cal science, were many, who proved, that to them the healing importance of fever was not unknown ; thus says Avicenna : in the highest acme of the fever, the innate healing power of nature struggles against intruded disease violently, and drives it, when victorious, out of the body. Paracelsus proves in many passages of his works, that he also believes the fever to be a healing effort of nature. His spiritual heir, Helmont, says sim- ply : " The fever is not a simple increase of warmth, bid it is rather a process in which the healing power of nature is roused, to remove diseased matters that have intruded into the body." Campanella confirms these views in these words: "lam con- vinced that the fever is not a disease, but that it is a war waged by the healing power of nature against disease, and that the living body cannot have a better means for the restoration of lost health. It is certain that all diseases are cured by a superinduced fever, as on the other side, the disease prevails and destroys, when the fever, where necessary, fails. Those, therefore, who consider fever to be an evil, are very much mistaken, although its cause is an evil. But whoever tries to stay the fever, produces death, either of the whole body, or of a particularly injured member. The fever is, therefore, a spontaneous, extraordinary kindling up of the life-power, struggling against the foreign disease-cause, which gets by it heated, transformed, loosened, and finally ready to be entirely extinguished and removed, or at least, mended. Thus we see, that the fever is not the disease, but the remedy against the disease. Therefore, we have no essential fever, but only a 23 achieved its aim, and might therefore at once get quiet. But the irritation continues yet for some time ; as the waves undu- late violently, long after the hurricane has ceased to agitate the waters, but then it furthers the progress of the vessel; it is ne- cessary to throw out every particle of disease as well as those refuse-matters, which have been accumulated during the in- creased life-process of the organism; the organs of secretion and excretion, have to remain therefore, particularly active. All this is called the Crisis; the pores of the skin are opened, and the bad matter is removed by regular, continuous warm sweats (which often may be proved by chemical analysis,) through the urinary organs and other organs of excretion ; even the exhala- tion of the lungs is sometimes changed, and contains refuse- matter. That the crisis is generally effected by sweat and urine is caused by the fact, that these are the means by which the or- ganism, in health, rids itself of foreign matter; both excre- tions are immediate separations of bad matter out of the blood. Bile is produced in the blood, by its transit through the li- ver ; this bile ought to be extracted from the blood, by the my- riads of absorbing ducts of the liver, which again, deposite it in the gall bladder; but when the liver is, in consequence of the inactivity of its complexces of nutritive nerves, congested, and thus these little ducts obstructed, the bile remains in the blood. To prevent the bile from being brought to heart and lungs and brain, the activity of the organism rouses the secre- tionary power of the skin and kidneys, and extracts by them the bile from the blood ; thus we find the bile pigment in the skin and urine, while neither saliva, nor the tears, nor the other secretions that empty into the intestinal canal, contain even a vestige of bile. If the crisis is imperfect, viz: if the body is, in consequence of insufficient power, or of interference by drug medication, incapacitated to remove every particle of foreign matter, that it tried to get rid of by the condensation of the life-power in acute 24 disease, we have either a chronic languor established, or the body will take advantage of the first opportunity, to renew the struggle. Infection in acute contagious diseases, takes place only during their crises, at which time, the diseased matter is violently and largely thrown out; while in chronic diseases, a real material part of the original disease-stuff is only slightly constantly oozed out, in the imperfect healing effort. This removal in acute contagious diseases, is so strong that even the surrounding atmosphere, to a greater or smaller extent, gets infected and infectious; while the chronic efforts of this kind, require immediate contact with the diseased individual, to produce infection. I here hint only, in regard to that kind of infection, where the same contagion, f. i: that of typhus, which, under circumstances, creates nosocomial, pulmonal gan- grene, &c, produces different diseased conditions, at the phy- siological remarks, (which belongs not properly to this part of our examination,) " that everything, which has got life as an integral part of an organic existence, can never entirely be ex- tinguished, but always remains able to be revivified, even if this takes place under quite different circumstances. There are many diseases, which last a shorter or longer time without being accompanied by the general revolt of the organ- ism in fever, and which are still less frequently conquered, by the local, never-resting reaction. These disease-processes are called chronic diseases, because the health struggle against them, does not usually threaten life by its violence, and the disease matters themselves destroy only very slowly. These disease-forms are either consequences of medically suppressed acute diseases, or of such drugs which the body was unable to get rid of, or fruits of the daily more increasing deviation of our life relations from the simple behests of nature, or effects of already inherited ener- vation of our present generation of vaccination: they are, gener- ally speaking, not cured by nature, but it becomes the duty of the medical art to remove them. Yet even here is nature not 21 symptomatic one, and the fevers differ among themselves only ac- cording to the degree of danger, so that the intensity andextensity of the rising life-power, the fever, is conditioned by the kind, degree, time and place of danger of the disease. Therefore is also no fever by nature simple, complicated, putrid, pestilential, &c., but only the disease-cause, which produces it, can have this quality." We can hardly comprehend how such clearly express- ed views could be lost entirely sight of among later physicians, instead of becoming the basis of a rational practice; and yet it is so, although we find here and there again, a sage who un- derstood his science and repeated the true doctrines. Syden- ham says: " The fever is the means nature uses to separate the pure from the impure matter;" Boerhaave adds: " The fever is not always destructive, and those eir greatly, who opine, that it is to be always, by every means possible, suppressed, for often con- quers nature by the fever such diseases, as had resisted rebellious- ly the best remedies;" but although he did much for a more rational practice, he gave too much weight to the chymical and mathematical dreams of his predecessors, as to be able to look into nature with undimmed eyes. Stahl finally tore open the veil that covered simple truth and taught enthusiastically: the operations of the healthy body depend not alone from the sway and action of the soul, which examines and judges what is good and beneficial, but most of the signs and indications of an un- natural condition in diseases, as they appear to our senses, and the various movements caused under these circumstances, originate from the same cause. The fever is an endeavor of the soul, sometimes with success, sometimes in vain, but always produced with the view to free itself from the cause of disease or injurious matter. Stahl says further: " The wholesome attempt of nature, which is expressed in fever, is by no means to be regarded as the object of the cure, but as its healing means, and has, therefore, to be led and conducted, but not extinguished." The stupidity of the followers of Stahl, their mistakes in his curative views, and their want of penetration, made it soon a shame to be called a 2* 22 follower of his doctrines. But Peter Frank again asserted : The fever is the shadow of the disease, it is the means by which nature separates the pure from the impure, an endeavor of life to avert death, and it cannot be denied, that a certain unknown principle is inherent to organic beings, which replaces lost parts, unites broken and severed ones, rinses out, envelops, loosens and drives out what is injurious. One of the most distinguished physicians of later times, expresses this as his unconditional conviction: That wherever the organism is able to develop against disease regular reactions, and where these do not degener- ate and become abnormal, no disease, even not the most violent, can become fatal, because, as long as the reactions remain normal, a life-direction can never become so predominantly one-sided, as seems necessary for local or general death of the organism." The great Schoenlein has founded his whole Therapeutic on this fundamental principle: The fever, which is sufficient in Us moderate strength, to con- quer every disease, is so to be led and guided, that it retains this moderate strength, and, when this strength is lost, it is our duty to reproduce it. I consider these quotations sufficient to give authority to my above mentioned views on fever, and will return now, to the consideration of other matters. I have shown that the various life-activities of the organism, in all directions, are increased and accelerated in the fever, and at the same time, the disease driven to its utmost height. It is clear, that this state of things cannot long be borne by the organism, because it must either destroy itself by its abnormal efforts, and be overthrown by the disease, or it must conquer the disease and destroy the abnormal life-process. One of the two, the destruction of the organism or of the disease, takes place in the acme of the fever. The victory of health over the disease is thus attained: When the reaction of the organism has succeeded to overpower the disease, the excited state of the organism has momentarily 25 entirely inactive, but is constantly trying at least, to preserve and keep up against the damaged one; although men continually strive to drive nature out of nature; she always returns, as soon and often as she can, to her true normal condition and types, and cures frequently by a sudden fever, a disease, which resisted years after years, the most scientific treatment. We may therefore assert with Junker : " The simple truth, that man has his phy- sician in himself, and that nature cures diseases, always selecting the best road to it; is more worth, and gives better hope in the treatment of diseases, than the most brilliant arrangements of a drug shop, with all its poison-lreasures.,> Take a glance at the healing results in acute and chronic diseases, and you find how little the proud art, with its ava- lanche of remedies, effects, in the cure of diseases, and how much kindly nature accomplishes. In acute, feverish disease- forms, which to cure, as shown before, nature alone suffices, or at least essentially assists, the results of medical treatment are favorable, because the far greater part of the patients get re- stored to health. On the other side, look at the experience in chronic diseases; here we find quite different results, although here, too, nature dqes not entirely refuse her help; the common art gains here only what nature alone achieves, viz: preserva- tion of life and enduring of the disease. The partial sympa- thically local struggle of the body in chronic diseases takes place, when either the powers of nature have sunk, in conse- quence of its long continuance, or of medical interference, or of advanced age, or when the diseased causes have only slowly and, as it were, imperceptibly intruded upon the body. Not unfrequently we see then local crises produced. I cannot enter here upon the more minute details of these processes, but will mention the principal features, under which nature, in these cases, helps herself. Every function of a system, organ, or part of an organ, can step forth in an healing effort. Nature effects this: 1. By rousing and setting to work a function opposed to the sickly active function, (the School calls it antagonistical,) 26 by means of which the originally diseased function returns to its normal state. Here the secondarily affected organ exceeds, certainly, the normal measure of its function; but if this newly affected organ is less important to the existence of the whole, and if the organism can, without danger to its existence, divest itself of its normal function, for some time, easier, than this is the case with the originally diseased organ, it is this then a cura- tive effort; for thus one disease, is removed by another, or at least alleviated. The process is this : The life-power is derived from the affected, more precious part, and thus its excessive and destructive activity lessened, because the material condi- tion of its activity, the greater flow of the blood to it, which nourishes and increases its life-power, is drawn away and led to the other organ, f. i. dangerous congestions of blood to head, chest and liver are relieved by sudden hajmorrhoidal discharges, by which the danger is removed, although the diseased cause is not touched by this reaction, but only life saved and pre- served. The particular degeneration of the fluids of our body, which the ancients very properly called impetiginous acridity, orginates, often for years, abnormal functions in different in- ternal organs, f. i. in the liver, lungs, &c.; suddenly there ap- pears a cutaneous eruption, by which the internal difficulties are alleviated or entirely removed. I cannot help but to men- tion, that the eminent Dr. Delisle, in Paris, considers consump- tives saved, when they are capable of getting the small-pox. I myself have had a case, pronounced by distinguished physi- cians " a gone case of consumption," of a lady in hands, who, after having been considerably strengthened by my advice and treat- ment, all at once broke out without the possibility of external infection, in most violent small-pox eruptions of the most ma- lignant kind, and who enjoys now very good health, at least, as far as civilized nonsense and artificial life will permit this. Here, as in many other cases, was the vaccine-poison, delved into her body, the cause of the internal chronic suffering, which the body tried to relieve by local erysipelas, or often repeated 27 fever attacks, which then again were quacked back into the unwilling organism, till it gave up in despair its curative efforts, and consumption was established. 2. Nature replaces a function of the organism, which is im- peded or suspended by disease, by another which then appears increased. When f. i. the suppressed function is a secretion, then the organism would, by the entire cessation of this secre- tion, which has to keep the blood in its normal state, soon be destroyed, because the blood changed in quality could not answer for the preservation of life. Let us take the case of an acute exanthem; we know that in the common medicinal treat- ment, frequently dropsy follows it. Here the normal func- tion of the skin, the transpiratiou, is suppressed by the disease and not assisted by the treatment, a watery substance is de- posited wherever there is most weakness, and this watery de- position is again removed, if not interfered with, by augmented urinal discbarge. 3. Nature opposes to an increased or decreased activity of an organ entirely new formations; this she does by boils and ab- scesses, which we may properly call pathical organs of secretion. The organism rids itself by means of these formations, not only as certainly, as in the manner mentioned under 1 and 2 of dan- gerous disease processes, or lessens and mitigates them ; but it is also enabled to remove from its integrity, entirely, foreign de- structive intrusions, f. i: of balls, pins, and of the whole army of mineral poisons, which the faculty pours, rubs and injects into the unfortunate body of the victims falling into their mer- ciless hands. Hippocrates, speaking of such pathic formations, remarks: " Where suppuration ensues, there the evil returns not;" f. i.: sup- purating bubos frequently determine in lues the whole disease ; sufferings of different organs of many years standing, as chronic inflammations of the eyes, running ears, abdominal pain, cease as soon as so called running sore (ulcus atonicum) opens on a 28 foot, and the physician originates surely a new dangerous diffi- culty, when he heals the old one without circumspection. I take this opportunity to mention the case of Mr. C. T. of Delaware, whose derivative outlet of disease, a running sore on his left leg, a Philadelphia Quack, notwithstanding the warnings of eminent physicians, unceremoniously healed; he was in consequence of this practical crime, attacked by real dia- betes and, altho' attended to, by most distinguished physicians, paralysed and brought to the brink of the grave. A medical and true friend of his brought him to me; I saved his life, but not before he had very sever eruptions and large boils all over his body ; even the old sore on his leg opened again and discharged very ugly matter. 4. Another sympathically local reaction is increased resorp- tion, by which, pathical productions, collected in a certain part of the organism, are brought again in circulation, and then thrown out of the body by the organs of secretion and excretion. 6. Here belongs also the regeneration of organic parts, viz: the regeneration of pieces of bones and nerves, the healing of wounds by scar-formation, &c. I call the attention of my readers to the fact, that all these efforts of nature for conquering and enduring diseases, at least in the beginning, are accompanied by some feverish excitement, which strengthens, hastens and leads them to a favorable result. Finally, I cannot conclude these observations, without men- tioning those two mighty means of refuge, which cannot be brought under any of the above mentioned kinds of reaction, and which nature also very frequently applies for the cure or endurance of disease; I mean the habit and instinct. The organism accommodates itself by accustoming itself to disease in it so, that they do not exist in it any more as entirely heterogeneous, foreign entities, i. e. that their irritation to it gets lessened or removed. Alcohol, f. i. is a matter very in- imical to the organism, which would very soon, by a continu- ous influence, destroy it, if the body did not, by accommoda- 29 tion, deprive the destructive stuff, at least of a part of its irritating character. This is thus accomplished: the alcohol enters, as such, into the mixture of the organs, and makes them alcoholic ; by this means, they lose a part of their specific dif- ference from alcohol, and the irritability is suspended. This perfect impregnation of the organs with alcohol, explains the self-combustions. Our organism gets accustomed to malforma- tions, false productions; we can get acclimatized, &c. Nature uses often the instinct, this wonderful, inscrutable power, which unconsciously knows, what is wholesome, in a given case, for the organism, and irresistibly urges to follow this know- ledge, with most undoubted benefit, for the cure of diseases. Where this voice of nature, the call of salvation, speaks loudly, there we can and must trust it, without fear and sophistry; for it never misleads, but makes always a proper and right choice. Thousands of facts, which our reason gazed at with astonishment, unable to explain and comprehend them, pro- claim loudly the wonderful healing power of nature, in her never-resting endeavor, to protect and preserve the organism. For the first knowledge of all, even now with benefit applied remedies, we have to thank this unexplainable bent of the organ- ism, which led and leads yet to its use ; but I know not one in- stance, where the instinct longed even for a homoeopathic dose of infinite dilution of poison. Who teaches the wild-roving child of nature to admire the beautiful fruit of the Belladonna, and yet disdain to touch it? What makes the newborn infant struggle against the swallowing of anything like medicine, so that the deluded mother has to squeeze its nose to compel it to take it ? What teaches the untutored child of the wilder- ness to avoid the poisonous reptile and the ravenous beast? It is not the knowledge of the chemist, botanist or natural his- torian, but the innate protective instinct, given to created beings by the kind Creator. And yet this instinct is studiously battled against by the faculty. It remains now for me to prove, that the above mentioned processes, by which nature effects the cure of disease, are really normal acts of the organism, and not only themselves produced by the disease, and equally abnormal, i. e. 30 that the reactions against disease are really only expressions of the one undivided life-power of the organism. When we examine the normal, quiet course of the organism, we find in it moments which agree perfectly with these self- protective actions against the disease; but they are there, where they appear in the normal, undisturbed progress of life, called upon as the simple elevation of the life-power, which is destined to perfect a development, be it continuous or cyclical, and to prepare an organ for the perfect fulfilment of its duty. The symptoms, which I have called topical reactions against disease, correspond in the normal life-course perfectly : 1. With the changes which we observe in certain or- gans, cyclically in the act of its highest activity, f. i. in the stomach, during digestion ; in the uterus, during pregnancy; in the breasts, during that time, &c. 2. With the changes, which we see in the progessive develop- ment of the organism, f. i. in the gums and jaws, during teeth- ing ; in the brain, during the development of the higher facul- ties of the soul; in the sexual organs, during the transition froTn childhood to respective manhood and womanhood ; in the voice at this period; in the female generative organs periodically, during fertility. In all these cases, there appears an increase of nervous ac- tivity, which show a more intense sensibility in the pertaining parts, augmented influx of fluids to them, and a quicker change of matter in them, and we see clearly the same symptoms, which are above mentioned as characteristic for the topical reaction, viz: dolor, calor, rubor, turgor. We meet also in the observation of the natural processes of normal life, appearances perfectly analogous with the general reactions against disease, as they appear in fever. There appear Bympathetical excitements of the whole organism, which are 60on less violently, soon clearer visible, according to the import- ance, intensity and extensity of the preceding and originating changes of the organism, when the action of the life-power is particularly excited, for the morphic and functional formation of the organs or systems, in the progressive or cyclical develop- 31 ment. A fever accompanies teething; the first appearance of menstruation, is somewhat indicated at every following monthly change, and takes place after conception, during par- turition, at the entrance of the milk in the breasts; the grow- ing and stretching of the body is frequently connected with fever- ishness,—so also the digestion ; finally, we observe at midnight, in every body, some slight feverish excitement, (febricula noc- turna,) because then the life-power steps forth again in its ori- ginal intensity, with which it acted upon the organism before its birth. I may as well mention here, that the feverish struggles in diseases, the general reactions against diseasing causes, usu- ally are the strongest in evenings till after midnight, because then, as already observed, the life-power increases her activity itself. The partial secondary healing efforts against diseasing causes, answer equally under similar circumstances, under which symp- toms, analogous to the primary topical and general reactions, appear, the normal progress of life. In the period of teething, where the activity of formation is increased in the gums and jaws, and therefore the influx of fluids to these organs is much augmented, the activity in the intestinal canal is also much in- creased, and eases the teething-exertion, by the derivation of fluids; in summer, where the cutaneous life appears much roused, we observe a corresponding increased activity of the digestive apparatus, and lessened urinal secretion; the aug- mented secretion of bile in summer, corresponds with the less perfect decarbonization of the blood through the lungs; in win- ter, where the function of the skin is somewhat suppressed, we find in its stead, a greater secretion of urine, &c. These are facts to prove, firstly, the identity of the symptoms, which ap- pear on the one side for the preservation of life against disease, and on the other side in the normal progress of life; and to show, secondly, that the same symptoms are founded upon the Bame entity, or upon the same internal basis, viz: the develop- ment of the intensity and extensity of the life-power itself; and to convince, thirdly, that these reactions are not abnormal processes —symptoms belonging to diseases which threaten life, but the nor- mal expression of activity of the life-power for self-preservation. 32 Thus I have tried to prove that nature protects the organism against disease on her own accord, heals it of diseases and makes the uncurable, at least, bearable. I have also indicated the means by which nature effects this work properly and success- fully. It would, therefore, seem a perfect conclusion, if I would recommend to leave the whole healing business in the hands of mighty and willing nature without any interference. But nature has with us, ceased to be natural; she is forced out of her simple and secure road, and impeded everywhere in her free successful activity by the abominable artificialities and ridiculous notions of false civilization and bombastic science. Yet it is impossible to drive nature entirely out of nature, for she preserves always her original type, and is ever willing to return to her normal character. If she cannot do this, she loses the right measure and deviates from the proper middle ; she rouses herself against an intruder, but often flutters her powers away in over-exertion, while on the other side her healing endeavors are only indicated in weak hints, and fall far short from the desired aim: in both cases, the disease triumphs, and life succumbs, if Art does not assist. The rational Art, turning to the reactions, viz: the curative endeavor of nature, its attention, finds in them the only hope for a favorable result. The question : which of the three recog- nized healing methods: Allopathy, Homceopathy, or Water Cure, conforms with nature most, and alone can elevate artificed nature to natural nature, while it allows perfect consciousness in application, is very simply answered, for every body can see that the culture of the skin, as assistant respiratory organ and the change of the locus medicamentosus from the stomach (of the drug-practitioner) to the skin, enables the physician alone to bring the diseased body in a focus of perfect health-relations, of which, then, nature can take all the advantages, she anx- iously longs for, but which, otherwise, is denied to her. The only difficulty is, that to be a natural physician, requires more knowledge, deeper study, and intuitive individualization, than the drug practice. I