WBD SB58t J855 •■' ^sNT mm ■::■:■: cy.:vm ■\---v «%## \t'f/.t Surgeon General's Office mm q ifec/ibn,................................................ ^aQQ'o^QjgggQiO'QOQgQ.OQe'ftee THEORY NUTRITION. THE TREATMENT OP DISEASE, AND PHILOSOPHY OP HEALING, WITHOUT MEDICINE By LAROY SUNDERLAND, *^« AUTHOR OF " THE BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE," " BOOK OF HEALTH," " BOOK OF PSYCHOLOGY," &C, &C.__ _. BOSTONA Yy ^^ BELA MARS H^g^^gJ^. NEW YORK : STEARNS & CO.; GARRETT & CO. 1855. 5 958-fr 855 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the Year 1855, by LAROY SUNDERLAND, Cn the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. TO THE READER. Here you have my Theory of Nutrition. Will you read the book through? Not merely look at a few passages, but do as the religious folks say, " Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" the whole before you either lay it aside or allow your preconceived opinions to decide as to its real merits. If good health be the first condition of all real happiness, then the matter treated of in these pages is of grave importance to all; and yet how important you may not fully realize till you find yourself sick, even beyond the possibili- ty of recovery. What, then, shall I, can I, say for inducing a thorough examination of this theory ? Surely it will scarcely be considered as justice to criti- 3 4 TO THE READER. \ cize severely while you merely taste of a few sentences. You may find a few things you are not able fully to comprehend — some that are obscure perhaps, or that do not please you at all. Very likely. We do not, cannot, all think or speak alike on any subject. Having done the best I could under all the circumstances of the case, is it now too much for me to hope that the reader will have equal candor in passing judgment on these labors de- signed for his good? LAROY SUNDERLAND. 28 Eliot Street, Boston, May 22, 1855. CONTENTS. The Question Stated. Page 9. Preliminary. Page 10-12. Nature's Methods. Primary Motions. — Time. — Progressive. — Intelli- gence. — Complexity. — Harmonious......Page 13-21 Origin of Disease. Puerility. — Absurdities. — Solution. — Beginning of all Things. — Ignorance. — Knowledge gradual. — Helplessness. — Diversity, Individualities. — Reform- atory. — All for the best...........22-29 Doctoring. " Father of Medicine." — The Regular Faculty. — Que- ries. — Authority............. 30-39 The Medical Profession. Force of Education. — The Inference.......40-48 5 6 CONTENTS. Drugs and Drugging. " Choice Remedies." — Other Objections. — Admoni- tion.— Objection answered..........49-55 Quackery. False Pretences. — Fanciful, Fictitious. — Fraudulent. Supernatural. — Germ of the Error. — Important Questions................56-67 Medical Authorities. Medical Testimonies. — Conclusions. — Homoeopathy. — Hydropathy. — Confirmation. — All, against drug- ging. — What shall the Invalid do ?......68-82 Common Fallacies. " Must take Something." — Too much Haste. — Loca- tion of Disease. — Cathartics. — Electro-Magnetism. — " Dieting."— Doctors over-estimated. — Is it cura- ble ? — Panaceas. — A Delusion. — Preventives. — Miracles................83-97 The true Theory. Health. — Disease. — Analysis. — Unity of Disease. — Correspondence. — Sleeping. — "Waking. — Alterna- tions. — The Inference. — Causes of ill Health. —The Remedy. — Death.............98-108 Nutrition. Characteristics. — The Nutritive Principle. — Instinct. — Nutrition...............109-115 CONTENTS. 7 Vitality. Prolificacy. — Fecundity. — Radical. — Forms, Uses. . 116-123 Nutritive Phenomena. "Marks" on Infants. — Transmission of Qualities.-r- Lactation. — Exhaustion. — Blood. — Death by Elec- tricity. — Living Blood. — Tumors. — The Cilia. — Post Mortem growths. — Weakness. — Decay. — Fe- ver.— Emotions.—Correlative Phenomena. . . . 124-131 Physiology of Nutrition. Extent of Surface. — Consistency of the Nutritive Fluid. — The Capillaries. — The Lymphatics. — Perspira- tion. — Functions of the Skin. — Mucus. — Positive and Negative. — Alternating Forces. — " Impure Blood."—The Cure............132-143 Principles of Nutrition. Nutriment. — Liquid Food. — Solid Food. — Mixed Food. — Flesh or Vegetable Diet.—Reason, Judgment. . . 144-152 Dietetic. Misapprehension. — Specific Rules. — Peculiar to this Theory. — Remarkable Case. — Sustenance of Life.— Exercise, Air. — Amount of Food. — Respiration. — Summary................153-164 Treatment by Nutrition. Tho Intention. — Change in Diet. — Query answered. — Pure Air. — Peculiarities...........165-174 8 CONTENTS. The Nutritives. Axiomatic. — Explanatory..........< 175-179 The Nutritive Cure. Spontaneous Cures. — This Theory must be tested. — Encouragement. — Nature performs the Cures. — Ret- rospective. — Important to Invalids. — Information Wanted. — Difficulties. — "Exceptions." — " Certifi- cates." — Medical Errors. — Caution. — Discrimina- tion.................. 180-198 The Invalid. Take Time to be well. — Determination. — Be in Earnest. — Contentment. — Gratitude. — Hope......199-210 Sympathy. Page 211-216. THE QUESTION STATED. In the following pages, an attempt is made to show that pure, perfect Nutrition is Health. Imperfect Nutrition is Disease. Instinct is the Cause; Nutrition the Means; and Life or Health the Result. The true Vis Medicatrix Natures (Curative Principle) is, therefore, in Nutrition, always. When this is disturbed, or imperfect, the phe- nomena occur which we denominate Disease. The inquiry is not, as to whether the sick do not recover, sometimes, while in the use of medicine ; nor whether all forms of disease be or be not curable at all, by some means. Nor, is it, whether, medicine may not be required, inter- nally, in cases of worms, wounds, hemorrhage, deadly poi- sons, or calculous formations in the bladder, kidneys or gall ducts. Nor, is it as to whether external medicinal applications may not or should not be made, for keeping the surfaces of the body in a healthy condition; or for healing sores, as in the case of burns; nor, is it in respect to what might or might not be allowable in some sudden and special emergencies, when, health and life may be in imminent peril; but, the question is this : — Whenever the wound is healed, and the Disease is radi- cally cured, is it done, immediately by Nutrition ? And, if so, is there a more natural, feasible, direct, and reliable method, for assisting nutrition, than by taking medicine, into the stomach? And what is that method? 9 PRELIMINARY. For more than twenty-five years previous to 1847, when this theory was first announced to the public, I had been engaged in a series of Physiological and Dietetic experiments (made, at first upon myself) by which my mind was, finally, conducted to the conclusions set forth in the following pages. And, within the last few years, my method of treating all forms of disease by Nutrition alone, without medicine, has been sufficiently tested in different parts of the coun- try, to put this question beyond all reasonable doubt. Gentlemen of the Medical Profession give it their ap- proval, and, are themselves astonished at the success they are, every where, meeting with, as far as they have adopted its Principles. Cures of Acute and Chronic Disease, radical and permanent, performed without a particle of medicine, may well be said to form a New Era in the history of the Healing Art. Nothing, perhaps, could more clearly manifest the in- creasing popularity of this method of cure, than the announcements now so often made, of different medical nostrums for sale, said to be " prepared on the principle of Nutrition " / All of them are offered to the Invalid as possessing some healing virtues for the reason that they are " prepared according to the Nutritive Principle." In- deed, some six years after my announcement of this 10 preliminary. 11 Theory of Nutrition, one person went so far as to apply for a " Patent Right," in the discovery of this very Prin- ciple! He says:—"It must be remembered, that he claims no Patent for any Medicine, — it is only the Prin- ciple of Nutrition." * He goes on to say (for effect no doubt) that he "had brought the subject before Con- gress ;" and I suspect, if he did so, the subject will remain there, a long time, before that Body will grant an award for a " Principle" which was discovered and an- nounced to the world years before this person had been heard of. [See Book of Human Nature, Page 117-131.] It would, indeed, be unjust to myself, to deny, that I have felt a peculiar satisfaction in contemplating the attention which some of the Medical Profession, and intelligent people of all classes, in different parts of the country have given to the Nutritive Cure. As a Sectarian declared of his views of Religion, I may say of this subject: — If it be, in all cases, reliable; if it be according to the Inherent, and Eternal Laws of Nature — if it be True, it is tre- mendously so ! Consequences as real as Life, as broad as Humanity, and as enduring as the continuance of the Race, hang upon its Principles. Surely, if there be untold evils in the prevalence of quackery empiricism, — if there be Philanthropy in lessening the sum total of human suffering; if there be any approach to the Heav- enly and the Divine in securing to mortals the very first and most essential condition of Happiness, then may I not hope, that the Principles of the Nutritive Cure will find a ready place in every human heart, and contribute, as 1 know they must, to the development of Habits, in Harmony with the greatest good of each ? Boston Herald, December 22, 1852. 12 theory of nutrition. When I say, that these pages are not written for the " Medical" or any other " Profession " as such, that there is nothing here which challenges mere criticism from the learned and scientific, it will be understood for what classes of .people these labors have been performed. To parents, to Husbands and Wives, to all who may not have had the author's opportunities for investigating the Laws and Mysteries of Human Nature, these pages are dedi- cated. To Children and Youth, and all who would enjoy the best of Health and avoid the greatest amount of suf- fering. Had I, when young, been told the secrets you will find disclosed in the following pages, it would have been more to me, than all the gold of California. Here, I give you the fruits of thirty years of toil. If my labors should prove any assistance to you, all I ask, in return is, that you should increase your own Happiness still more by extending to others, the same Information by which you, yourself, have been benefited. NATURE'S METHODS. Before entering upon the details which constitute the principal design of these pages, it may be well to pause, in view of some of those more General Processes, which characterize all of Nature's Developments. And, in speak- ing of Nature, we need not exclude the correct idea of its Divine Author. When we view Nature as all else besides Him, we speak of it as a Result, of which He is the Cause. But, when we contemplate Nature as a Sys- tem of Laws, she, herself, becomes a cause, or a combina- tion of causes, and, it is a knowledge of these Causes, or Laws, these precedents and their consequents, that we wish now, more fully to comprehend. I use the term methods when speaking of nature's processes, because I refer, more especially, to the choice which she, evidently, makes in the use of means. We use the term system to signify such an arrange- ment of numerous single objects, as make them perfectly coalesce in one. Method refers more to the manner of this arrangement; or, the means chosen for its execution. As science signifies the knowledge of being, or of Phenomena in general, so, Philosophy, signifies the internal, or spiritual laws by which the developments are made to appear. The term method, therefore, gives the most accurate idea that I wish to convey concerning the manner in which Nature does her work. For, while Nature is an Absolute Sys- 2 13 14 theory of nutrition. tern, her Perfection is evinced in her choice of methods for accomplishing her magnificent purposes. Primary Motions. Nature's primary motions are secret, and hidden from the external world. The external eye was not made for beholding either the place where she begins her forms, nor the manner in which she carries them forward. Phe- nomena, are results of causes that we cannot examine with the external senses. The office of the external eye is to behold Nature's work, after it has been begun. This inability to see Nature's primary motions was felt by the ancients, one of whom said: "thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, how the bones do grow in the womb." * What is said of the origin of animal life may be said of all the primary motions which originate all of Nature's developments. They are spiritual, beyond the extent of our external vision. Nor is this all. The effort to bring these motions into the external world, so as to examine them is such an interference with her system that, her work is thus interrupted, and fatally hindered. To be examined and minutely inspected, therefore, in her primary motions, man must be, himself, developed and fully matured. His interior eyes must be opened, for it is only with his higher nature, his God-like Faculties of Reason, that Nature can be seen, in her most important processes of development. The Infant, comprehends nothing of the motions, laws, conditions, processes, by which he is made an infant. Nor, can he know either that he is an infant, or, that there is any difference be- tween an infant and a fully developed man. To know, * Ecclesiastes 11:5. nature's methods. 15 therefore, and comprehend Nature's Laws, we must be- come matured in manhood. She never reveals her hid- den mysteries where there is not a matured judgment, for appreciating, not merely what she does, but the reasons upon which all her works are founded. Time. Nature's processes are slow. Time is measured by mo- tions. And one of the first developments of mind is seen in its ability to compare and discriminate between periods of time, and things that differ. Haste is characteristic of infancy and the want of maturity, experience and observa- tion. Infancy and childhood, are distinguished by impa- tience. All its wants must be, suddenly, gratified. But, Nature's higher developments may be measured, and determined as to their intrinsic or relative importance by the time required for their completion. Observe what stupendous lessons are taught us in Geology's enfoldings, carrying our contemplations back, into ages past, where " Thought cannot follow, And bold fancy dies." Untold ages were necessary for completing the develop- ments of this earth, and all its countless appendages ! Cen- turies on centuries elapsed before, the infant Race, was matured sufficiently to begin to have any idea of its ori- gin or destiny. At first, what crude notions of God, and man! What an imperfect estimate of human fife, and the Brotherhood of the Race! What commotions, revolutions and wars; what ignorance, barbarism and suffering, before, the Race began to appreciate the Laws by which its exist- ence had been originated. And, even, since the appear- ance of Jesus (who has been considered by so large a por- 16 theory of nutrition. tion of the world as a model man) how very slow have been all those movements of mankind which have a tendency to bring out the destiny of the Race, and those important discoveries in Science, Philosophy, and Theology, which promise the greatest good to the whole human world. The earthquake, and the lightning's flash are, indeed, sudden : as are all those motions which may be called, abnormal, and irregular. It is so in disease, and crime. But, Na- ture in all her higher normal motions is gentle, slow, and sure. She does nothing by fits and starts. These are peculiar to childhood and the want of development. Progressive. Nature is Progressive. Her laws are always active, always present, independent, invariable and universal. If she begins in the angular, in time, she progresses to the circular; and from the circular to the spiral, and from the spiral to the spiritual. Nature, never did, does not, and never can stand still. She is constantly evolving her Forms into new planes of life. She attracts and contracts ; she gives and wants. Thus she pushes the mineral into the vegetable, and the vegetable into the animal, and the animal into manhood. As if all her efforts were for man, to make a perfect man. And, hence, as we approach manhood, we begin to understand the Laws by which her developments are carried on. Now, we comprehend the difference between infancy and maturity; discord and har- mony; disease and Health, evil and good; imperfection and Symmetry, Beauty, Heaven. Thus we distinguish between the discrete and concrete Degrees, which enter into the Essence, Forms and Uses of All Things. The beginning is imperfect when compared with the end. Hence the terms, imperfect, discord, disease, pain, are nature's methods. 17 understood as having respect, always, to Nature's wants, and the Progression and Development which are to con- stitute, the greatest good of all. Intelligence. All of Nature's Processes, are Instinctive with intelli- gence, and Plastic Power, adapting the most appropriate means, for the accomplishment of the highest Ends. Her motions comprehend all forms, and adapt them to all uses. She not only develops the Mineral, Vegetable, Animal and Spiritual kingdoms, but, she knows how to overcome difficulties that are laid in her way. Thus, if the roots of a plant be obstructed in one direction, she moves them in another. If they want water, she tells them in what direction to find it. If the plant, (scarlet runner) wants supports and props, upon which to ascend, she stretches out the little feelers, in the direction where they will be found ; and, she does this, even when the prop is changed as often as once a day ! In all these motions we see the intelligence and power of choosing the means for the accomplishment of certain ends. There are different processes, by which the wants of the plant may be gratified; and, being prevented in one form, Nature, invents another, and in this manner overcomes difficulties, chooses her method, and finally suc- ceeds in her work. If a bone be broken, so that the divided ends are half an inch or more apart, and displaced out of a straight line, so that one is above or below the other, Nature contrives the true method for uniting them, by building a bridge of bone from one bone across the space to the other. In this work we see, what is meant by Instinct, and Nature's adaptation of appropriate means to ends. So, if a foreign substance, be introduced by 18 THEORY of nutrition. mistake or violence into the organism, she puts forth a series of motions for expelling it. If this cannot be done, she then tries another method, by forming and enclosing it in a sack so as to isolate it from the other tissues and fluids of the system. In this way hard and even poison- ous substances are incased while they remain in the human body for many years. Thus we see that Nature, has dif- ferent methods, for accomplishing the same ends. Her power is plastic. She always adapts her means to the uses to be accomplished. So, when her work is obstructed by ignorance, in the use of food, or drink, or medicine, she does the very best that can be done under all the cir- cumstances of the case; and, what she may fail in accom- plishing in one way, she makes efforts for doing in another. Such is the instinctive Intelligence, displayed by Nature, in accomplishing the Designs of Her Author, in devel- oping the Essence, Forms and Uses of all things.* Thus she does her work in the lower Forms of life, till, ascend- ing, to a higher plane, she makes geometricians of the honey bees. The cells of the honeycomb are so con- structed as with the least quantity of material, to have the largest size space, and least possible loss of interstice. Of the mole She makes a meteorologist. The bird called the nine-killed is an arithmetician, as also the crow, the wild turkey and some other birds. The torpedo, the ray, and * Certain Phenomena have occurred, which are alleged to have been produced by " departed spirits." But, if a spirit out of the human body do those things, why may not a spirit in the Human Body do them ? The argument is simply this: — If Nature evinces, method, intelligence, discrimination, and the choice of appropriate means by which she accomplishes certain ends in the Vegetable and Animal kingdoms below, why may not Nature do similar things (Spiritual Phenomena) in the mental world above ? The real mystery is as great in the one case as the other. nature's methods. 19 the electric eel are electricians. The nautilus is a navi- gator. He raises and lowers his sails, casts and weighs anchor, and performs other nautical acts. Whole tribes of birds are musicians. The beaver is an architect, builder and woodcutter. He cuts down trees, and erects houses and dams. The marmot is a civil engineer. He not only constructs houses, but builds aqueducts to keep them dry. The white ants maintain a regular army of soldiers. Cat- erpillars are silk spinners. The squirrel is a ferryman. With a chip for a boat, and his tail for a sail, he crosses a stream. Dogs and wolves are hunters. The black bear and the heron are fishermen. The ants have regular day laborers. The monkey is a rope dancer, and possesses more reason than imitation. An orang outang, in Paris, discovered that a rope suspended from the ceiling, and tied in loose knots to prevent his reaching the window, could not be untied and brought back to its former length while he hung on its lower extremity; in fact, he per- ceived that his weight only made the knots tighter. Whereupon, he climbed hand over hand, and hanging from above each knot, he untied them without difficulty as he ascended; and ultimately making the cord as long as it was before, proceeded to employ it for the purpose of his usual furtive indulgence. Again, it is well known that the arctic fox and the wolverine will undermine poles on which the preserved meats are hung in the high northern latitudes, and thus get possession of the prize which, owing to the want of prehensile power in their claws, they could not otherwise reach. That animals approach Reason, or calculation, is be- yond all doubt. An elephant at Exeter 'Change, London, has been known to obtain a sixpence through the agency of pure geometrical deduction. The coin was placed out 20 theory of nutrition. of his reach by a visitor to the menagerie; but the ele- phant was not to be thus disappointed. With as much accuracy as if he knew the mathematical proposition that the angle of incidence on all plane surfaces is equal to the angle of reflection, he blew a current of air against the adjacent wall, on a point which caused the stream to im- pinge upon the sixpence in its backward course, and so to move it within the reach of his proboscis. The logic of the dog is known to every one, by which he evinces not only reason, but gratitude and humanity also. And, thus it is, Nature ascends, from the lower to the higher until she has developed the Human Form, which is the crowning glory of all. ■ Complexity. How diversified, how complex, are all of Nature's works. Thus we use the term coarse, when applied to the mineral world, or to signify that which is low. The animal is low, when compared with the spiritual; and, all in one sphere is low and coarse, when compared with that which is above. Hence we often err in judging of her works, because we do not discriminate between, one sphere and another; between one degree of development and another. We do not consider how diversified all of Na- ture's works are. True it is, a thread of correspondence may be traced through the whole, so, that what we find true of the lower, we shall, also, in a still higher sense find true in the plane of development above. But, in solving Nature's mysteries, we shall succeed best while we bear constantly in mind, that her motions are complicated, combined, in ascending Forms, Degrees, and Spheres, beyond even the powers of the most capacious mind, fully, to comprehend. nature's methods. 21 Harmonious. This term applies not only to the one Grand Design for developing Manhood in all the Relations of Life, but, also, to all the Forces and tendencies in each of Na- ture's ascending planes. All her Laws, in each kingdom are independent of each other, and yet, they act in perfect Harmony. Physical, Organic, and Moral Laws, have each their appropriate sphere, each act, independently of the other, and, yet, each, have in view the progressive development of the Race. In order, therefore, to com- prehend Nature's primary motions we must contemplate her in all her planes, in each kingdom, and in the one grand design of the whole. This view of Nature's methods of doing her work will assist us, it is hoped, in our at- tempts to find out what disease is, where it originates, and, what must, in the nature of things, be the best means of Cure. ORIGIN OF DISEASE. The views entertained as to the origin of all disease and suffering, must have more or less influence in modify- ing our efforts for a cure. Those who believe, that all disease, is " foreordained of God," and, a part of inexora- ble Fate, from which there is, there can be, no escape, will not be very likely to make use of the best means of cure. Hence, we want consistent views on this subject, as on all others, in order to act consistently, in the use of those means which are, and, must be, the most conducive to good health. Puerility. The stories told us in Infancy we are the most apt to believe, until we get old enough to know better. And, thus of the Race. As the Theological Idea, took the lead in accounting for its sufferings, so, the priest became the doctor, not of the soul, merely, but, of the body, also. And, thus, corresponding with the developments of Science and Philosophy in the early ages of the world, we find the Priesthood solving the Problem of all evil, by a mixture of Conjecture, Credulity and Tradition, in re- spect to the sin of Eve, and Adam, the supposed progen- itors of the Human Family. And thus we have been told, that all the disease and pain suffered by men, are to be considered as the « Curse of an offended God," which he inflicts as the penalty of " Adam's sin ;" for 22 origin of disease. 23 " In Adam's fall We sinned, all." For ages past, it has been customary for the Priesthood to call on the people, to fast and pray, in order to propi- tiate the Deity and induce Him to remove the Diseases which he sends as scourges upon his offending children. Absurdities. Not satisfied with dogmas so perfectly absurd, others have attempted to account for disease by telling us, it is, " Hereditary," " Circumstantial," and " Educational," and there they stop. How it came to be " Hereditary," they have not shown. Even the famed Swedish Philosopher, who, certainly, evinced profound knowledge of Nature's Laws, tells us that disease is originated by " evil spirits." He says: — " Evil spirits have often and for a long time applied to me, and according to their presence they induced poison and also diseases. I was seized with heaviness, with pain, with disease, which ceased in a moment, as soon as the spirits were expelled." * All pain and disease, according to Swedenborg's phi- losophy, are induced by " evil spirits," or supernatural causes. If so, and he was influenced by these "evil spirits," according to his own showing, he was not per- fectly secure from those influences which may, for aught that appears, have led him into error. Indeed, this extraordinary man goes even further, and teaches that: — " Poisonous serpents, scorpions, crocodiles, dragons, tigers, wolves, foxes, swine, owls, rats, mice, locusts, frogs, bats, * Hobart's Life, p. 216. Similar ideas prevailed among the early Egyptians. See Herodot. lib. 2. 24 theory of nutrition. spiders, flies, drones, moths, lice, newts, and all malignant virulent, and poisonous herbs, did not derive their origin from the Lord, neither were they created from the beginning, neither did they originate from nature, by her sun, but they are from hell." * "From hell!" Indeed, and where did "hell" come from ? This is like the poor native who undertook to tell his Teacher what this earth stood upon. It rested, he said, upon a great post. The post stood upon a great rock. And the rock rested on the back of a big turtle. But, what the turtle stood upon he could not tell. So, we do not solve the problem, in all these answers, we only substitute one absurdity for another. We may lay the blame on " Adam," or on " evil spirits," or the " curse of God," still the question presents itself for our answer — How has it came to pass, that the Race are sick at all ? Why were they not constituted so perfect that they could not sin ? Or, made so near perfection, that they could not become diseased ? Solution. Let us, now, see, if there be not another solution to this vast Problem, more in harmony with Nature's Laws, and more worthy of the Father and the Mother of us all, than either of the explanations here referred to. Beginning of all Things. Consider all progressive developments as necessarily imperfect in the beginning. Man, in order to be, must, * D. L. W. 338, 339. But this idea is not original with Swedenborg, similar views prevailed among the Chaldeans. See Demonoloeia. London, 1831. 6 But, query, — If mineral and vegetable poisons are really from hell, origin of disease. 25 have a beginning; and, if his existence be progressive the beginning must be imperfect. Hence, imperfection, attaches to the idea of Infancy. The babe may be a per- fect infant, but, certainly, not a perfect Man. Manhood is the completion, the development, the progression of the Infant. And, if man is, to progress, eternally, it is be- cause, he must ever fall below the Infinite. Now the characteristics of Infancy, are threefold, and attach not only to man as man, but to the Race, or Races, which make up the whole Human Family: — Ignorance. In Infancy, there is no knowledge either from observa- tion, or Intuition. Infancy is but another name for total ignorance of all Laws, human or Divine. To all prac- tical purposes the profoundest wisdom is of no avail, where there are no Faculties developed for appreciating it. Thus the Infant in knowledge (in himself consid- ered) is as liable to eat poison as he is wholesome food. He is, as an Infant, as really liable to evil, as he is susceptible of the sense of hunger. And, so general is this ignorance, that, we know he could live but a short time from birth but for superior (Parental) wisdom, that watches over him. The Goodness that is for him is Absolute, surrounds him on every hand for the supply of all his wants. And yet, these wants render him liable to evil, liable to poison; liable to pain. In the nature and constitution of things it must be so. And, although we are constantly reminded of the fact, that the Race must all have commenced in a state of Ignorance, where ten or or the devil, how is it to be accounted for that they sometimes per- form cures, when used as medicines, as Swedenborgian physicians assume they do ? Are the means of cure from the devil ? 3 26 THEORY OF NUTRITION. ten thousand errors were possible, yet, we marvel and ask where evil, or the mistakes of childhood could have sprung from ! As if error, misconception, and consequent suffering were not consistent with a condition of Infancy! Knowledge gradual. An able writer has shown, that each of our leading conceptions, each branch of our knowledge passes succes- sively through three stages. First — the infantile or su- pernatural or fictitious ; second — the metaphysical or abstract; third — the positive or scientific. The first is the necessary point of departure by human intelligence ; the second is merely a stage of transition from the super- natural to the positive; and the third is the fixed and definite condition, in which knowledge is alone capable of progressive development. In the first, man explains phenomena by some fanciful conception, suggested in the analogies of his own con- sciousness ; in the second, he explains phenomena by some a priori conception of inherent or superadded entities, suggested in the constancy observable in phenomena, which constancy leads him to suspect that they are not produced by any intervention on the part of any external being, but are owing to the nature of the things them- selves ; in the third, he explains phenomena by adhering solely to these constancies of suggestion and coexistence, ascertained inductively, and recognized as the Laws of Nature. Consequently, in the Infantile stage, Nature is regarded as the theatre whereon the arbitrary wills and momentary caprices of superior powers play their vary- ing and variable parts. In the metaphysical stage the notion of capricious divinities is replaced by that of ab- stract entities, whose modes of action are, however, inva- ORIGIN of disease. 27 riable. In the positive or Hemonial stage the invariable- ness of phenomena, under similar conditions, is recognized as the sum total of human investigation, and beyond the laws which regulate phenomena it is considered idle to penetrate.* Helplessness. Were there ever so much knowledge, in a state of In- fancy, it would yet be a condition of utter helplessness. The physical system is not developed; there is no strength, no power for executing what more wisdom might dictate should be done. So man begins in order to be, and pro- gresses from Infancy to manhood. But, how can, we imagine a condition of ignorance and utter helplessness, without involving the possibility of evil? Indeed, to speak of Infancy either of one man or of the whole Race, is to carry the mind back to the origin of evil. And, in this view of the subject the mind becomes sat- isfied. Diversity, Individualities. The more Individuals, the more Families, the more Races, the more nations. Thus Individualities are mul- tiplied, all partaking of the Infantile condition, of igno- rance and weakness, it is manifest, how complicated and multiplied the chances must be, for misunderstanding, war, accidents, disease and Evil or death. The greater the number of children the greater the probabilities of friction, and trouble. So it must be in the nature of things. Reformatory. As all violations of Law, all disease, are matters of necessity, when considered as parts of the great whole of * Positive Philosophy. Translated by Miss Martineau. 28 THEORY OF NUTRITION, things, so, the pain we "suffer as the consequence, becomes the means of Progression. Nature, as we shall find, is made up of alternating phenomena. The further the pendulum is swung in one direction, the greater the dis- tance it goes in another, opposite, direction, when freed from all restraint. The slavery and woes consequent upon the Infancy of the Race, have each contributed to those Benevolent efforts which contemplate their utter extirpation. And, the diseases, prevalent among men, have contributed, perhaps, more than any other one thing, to those investigations, which have resulted in a knowl- edge of Human Physiology. Insanity and crime have put Philosophers upon those investigations which have resulted, in the science of Phrenology, Psychology, and the Laws of Life. All for the best. It is not only best there should be Laws; but that we should know and obey them. This solution enables us to see why, and how it is that all pain is for the good of those who suffer. What might not follow, if you could hold your hand in the fire, without pain, until it should be consumed ? If the human body could be cut to pieces without pain, how could the Race be conserved ? What would hinder, people even from be- ing burned up, without knowing any thing about it ? Thus we see, that, in no other way could life and health be ren- dered so secure, so free from danger, as by the conscious- ness of that pain which always follows violated Laws. " A burnt child dreads the fire." Nothing else would be so likely to stimulate us in observing Nature's Laws, as the certainty of the suffering which must inevitably fol- low their violation. Hence, all disease, and, all pain, ORIGIN OF DISEASE. 29 force upon us the necessity of becoming familiar with the Laws of our being; and, as we become acquainted with these laws we avoid the pain consequent upon their viola- tion. And thus it is, that the suffering Invalid, may con- template his own case, and, answer to himself this oft repeated query, as to why he is made to suffer ? It is, cer- tainly, better to suffer, than to remain in ignorance; better to endure pain, than to remain an Infant, or an Invalid, forever. Hence the prayer so often breathed from the sick chamber: — " The brooks have long been moaning, Like captors, to be free. And the spring has loosed their fetters — Will it bring no change to me ? Will not the pleasant, balmy hours Bring healing as they fly ? Must I sit within my chamber, While the sunny days go by'? Alas ! I'm very weary — But my room is irksome now; I pine to feel the gentle breeze, Steal o'er my cheek and brow ; 0, joy ! to breathe it once again ! — I'd give a world of wealth, If I could drink, with this soft breeze, One little draught of health." 3* DOCTORING. From time, immemorial, diseases of both Soul and Body, have claimed the profoundest skill for their cure, and of the most intelligent men that have ever lived. In the early ages of the world the Hero, the Priest and the Physician, were united in the same person. The reason was obvious. The priest and ruler were supposed to be the nearest to the gods, and hence, to have the highest knowledge of their laws. It was in the darkness of the early ages when the crudest notions obtained in Theology, that the practice of bleeding and doctoring commenced, and thus they were founded on nothing above magic, and the merest pretences of fanatical credulity. Without any knowledge of Physiology, how could the profession of the- ology or of physic be supposed capable of originating any philosophical methods for curing disease? Indeed, until some three centuries before Christ, the practice of medi- cine consisted in nothing but the most silly forms of in- cantation ; and, even up to the 17th century, the whole materia medica contained but very little to be approved by good sense or sound philosophy. "Father of Medicine." Hippocrates, allowed to be the Father of medicine, and who, certainly, did more than any one before him for in- troducing, among its numerous crudities, something like 30 DOCTORING. 31 common sense, in the treatment of certain cases, yet, his teachings show how deplorable that ignorance was which prevailed in his days. He bled his patients from two veins at once, so as to produce fainting; and, when his medicines failed he recommended the knife, or even fire, as a last resource. He advised trepanning in cases of vio- lent headache, and, withal, evinced so much ignorance of Human Physiology and Anatomy, that it was marvellous how he should have stumbled upon so many truthful aphorisms on diet and the real nature of disease as he is known to have taught in his writings. The Regular Faculty. At first thought, it seems, strange indeed, that the pro- fession should not have profited more, by the labors of that extraordinary man. For, we must remember, that, it is since, the days of Hippocrates, that the greatest abuses in drugging, and the rankest forms of empiricism have prevailed all over the world ; empiricism, not of the " In- dian doctors," " mesmerizers," and those denounced as " quacks " by the " regulars," but, ignorance, and quackery among those standing at the head of the Medical Faculty. The first Englishman, appointed Court Physician in Lon- don, when attending the king's son for small pox, directed the patient's room to be hung with scarlet cloth, and the sick man, himself, to be rolled up in similar stuff! And, this physician was of that class, who extolled Bezoar (stones generated in the stomach or gall bladders, of a hog) as a most valuable remedy. It was the highest medical authority then known, which, one or two centu- ries since, prescribed medicines composed of forty ingre- dients combined in one, under the notion, that if one ingredient did not reach the complaint, another would! 32 THEORY OF NUTRITION. It was the " regular Faculty " who prescribed moss from a dead man's skull, and " pulverized Egyptian mummy," as excellent remedies for the sick. A dram of a preparation called the " treacle of mummy," swallowed in the morn- ing, prevented the danger of poison for all that day! The hair and nails cut up fine, mixed with wax, and stuck upon the back of a live crab, and the crab, thus loaded, cast back into the sea, was prescribed by this high authority, as a " sovereign cure" for the gout! The " Doctor of Medicine" in the University of Basle, (1527) recom- mends corals, " which are of two sorts," says he; " the bright is good to quicken phansie, and is against nocturnal spirits, — which fly from these corals as a dog from a staff, but they gather where the dark coral is." It was by such medical authority that, the stars were consulted in the treatment, of disease; — " Which, unto such as have obtained the key, Shows the true cause of a disease, and may, Direct the Doctor, expeditiously, The nearest way to cure the malady." * The history of all the fanaticisms, political or religious that have ever prevailed " since the world began," could scarcely parallel those which have obtained under the name of " doctoring " for the cure of disease. I do not, now, refer, to what is commonly understood as " quackery," but, to the art of Healing as practised by those, admitted to be at the head of the Medical Profession. It was under the sanction, and by the direct teachings of this class, that the " Sympathetic powders" obtained advocates; also, "Vulnerary Powder and Tincture of the Sulphur of * Dr. R. Sanders, author of Astrological Judgment, and practice of Physic. 1680. DOCTORING. 33 Venus." No intelligent practitioner of the present day, needs to be told of the rage which once prevailed in the profession in favor of " Vervain root," " uroscopy," " lith- ontriptics," and other medical nostrums. And, now, in reviewing the ages of the past, and recounting the gross derations, and the disgusting empiri- cisms, that have prevailed in the use of medicines for the cure of disease, in past ages, we are at a loss, to account for all we find upon the page of History in connection with this subject. We have had doctors enough, medi- cine enough, drugs enough, surely, to cure all the diseases that were ever known. And yet, in despite of all the Doctors, and all the panaceas, and all the " patent medi- cines," and all the " new and wonderful, medical discov- eries," for all past ages, what multitudes of the "sick, the blind, and the lame," are still among us calling in vain for help ? The highest knowledge which it is possible for man to acquire, is that which makes him familiar with the laws of his own being. As good health is the first condition of that happiness after which all are so constantly as- piring, so, a knowledge of the laws of life, upon which that health depends and by which it must be recovered when lost, must be considered as among Nature's higher developments, which the Race are as slow in acquiring as they have been, the higher and more correct views of Theology, and the Mechanic arts. It must be so in the nature and constitution of things. Ignorance, and miscon- ception are peculiar, not merely to man, as an Infant, but to the Infancy of the Race. That knowledge of Nature's laws which develops the Eace from the empiricisms of its childhood, is farther distant from the beginning; it is appropriate to manhood, and the maturity of the Race, 34 THEORY OF NUTRITION. not to their adolescence. As there are laws, or necessi- ties that govern our infancy and childhood, as individuals, so, there must be such necessities as hem us in, and direct our course as communities, and a Race of men. We acquire our highest and most important views, when fully advanced to the maturity of manhood. And, hence it is that profession may be considered the highest which makes man a Teacher (doctor) of the highest Laws. And how have these laws been taught in preceding ages ? What have the priests of all nations taught concerning God, and the moral maladies of the Race ? What ab- surdities, what contradictions, what unworthy views of Human Nature, as, also, of the great Father and Mother of us all ? Queries. And, now, " if these things are done in the green tree, what shall be said of the dry ? " If the priests, sent of Heaven, and inspired by the " Holy Ghost," have failed, in curing moral diseases, what shall be said of the other pro- fession, who have ransacked the Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal kingdoms, for materials out of which to concoct the ten thousand forms of medicine which have been pre- scribed for the cure of the sick ? In proportion to the number of mortals now on the face of the globe, and, also, in view of the lights of Science and Philosophy, which are so generally diffused all over the world, it is, perhaps, questionable, whether there be not, now, more disease, on the whole, than ever before, at any previous period of the world's history. So, that,-we are compelled to admit that, if the hitherto prevalent forms of sectarian- ism have proved failures, so, indeed, have their correlative forms of physical " doctoring." Indeed, the multiplicity of these different methods proves the imperfection of each; DOCTORING. 35 because, the failure of one has thus suggested the neces- sity of another. And, thus, we see how they have one and all of them, from the first until now, corresponded, precisely, with the ignorance and discords of the age in which they were commenced. In the beginning of the race, Science, Philosophy and Theology corresponded with the imperfections in man's mental developments. Hence, we can, now, no more be satisfied with the habits of doc- toring commenced four thousand years ago, than we can be with the style and habits of living which prevailed among the race at that time. Because our ancestors consulted the stars in the use of medicine, is that any good reason why we should swallow the doses which were, then, pre- scribed by such means ? Of " olden time " we find the priests who were the doctors consulting, stones, herbs, the entrails of animals, the flight of birds, and the appearance of the heavenly bodies, for directions as to the kind and quantity of medicine for the sick. And, is this to be taken as a sufficient reason for swallowing a similar kind of stuff, at the present day, while we know, that all curable disease may be healed without any medicine at all ? So, among the Indians of this country. Formerly, what a jumble of " roots and herbs," stones, bones, skins and entrails of animals, were carried about in the " medi- cine bag." The " medicine man," or priest, had not the first particle of knowledge of Physiology, Pathology, or the Laws of Life, and Health. How, then, could the prescription of his nostrums be relied upon at all ? In speaking of past ages, we are accustomed to call the ever varying habits of doctoring, as " systems of medi- cine," but, with what propriety it would, perhaps, be diffi- cult to show. The term, system attaches only to a Theory which has been rendered perfect in all its parts. Hence 36 THEORY OF NUTRITION. we seldom speak of Geology as a system; but we do thus speak of Astronomy, because its principles are settled, beyond all dispute; and they are complete; there are enough of them to make one perfect whole, without any redundancy of parts; there are just enough, no more are wanted. So of Mathematics. The terms and all its prin- ciples are defined, understood and admitted. Now, apply either of these tests to any so called " sys- tem " of doctoring and you will find it wanting. Wanting in well defined fundamentals. That is, they are not agreed as to the number, or order of Nature's elements. They are not agreed as to the Fundamental laws of matter or of mind. How many original Elements are there in sub- stance? What is their order? Which is first? And, why so ? Is heat before motion in the order of develop- ment ? Is motion before form ? And, so of the composi- tion of the human body ? We speak of the " nervous system; " as if there were but one, and, also, as if we had knowledge enough of that to tell all its laws, so as to re- duce them to a perfect science! But, is this so ? Are we agreed, as to whether we should speak of the nerves, as divided into three systems or only one ? Those which ap- pertain to Vitality, would make one, perhaps. Those which appertain to Motion, including the spine, as the second; and, all these we have had in cases where there was no cerebellum. Hence those which constitute the Cerebral system proper, might constitute a third class, and thus we should have three nervous systems, so distinct that each may be considered separately from the others; as the motions and functions of each are different, however united and intermingled they may be found in one whole, living, and perfect organism. It may be said, truly, that the term motion must apply DOCTORING. 37 to them all, as we have no digestion without motion; and no thought, even, without it. And thus we perceive how intricate are all of nature's laws; they are so intertwined, so united, each partaking of the other, that it becomes no slightwork to trace them throughout all their ramifica- tions. The vital system, has motion, hence the motive system enters into the vital. The motive system has life, or there would, could, be no motion, hence the vital system, enters into that; and the cerebral system is con- stituted by both life and motion, hence, both these enter into that. Now, if it be supposed, that one class of dis- eases, originate or is located in the vital system, as in dyspepsia; and another in the motive system as in the case of spasms; and a third in the cerebral system, as in the case of insanity, it must be easy to see how important this knowledge is in the practice of the healing art. For, thus it is manifest, how complicated, often, certain forms of disease become, how much one system will affect another. Indeed, we shall find, perhaps, that one system of nerves cannot be diseased without involving another class, more or less. The calamity may be similar, but not the symp- toms ; as those which appertain to the vital system, must differ from those that are peculiar to the motive system; and both these must differ from those which appertain to the mind. But, why, it may be asked, do we deny the term " sys- tem," to the various prevalent methods of doctoring while we do apply the term to Physiology, and to the parts, even, into which this science is divided ? I answer, we know that Nature's Laws are complete, and make one perfect whole. We may not indeed, be able to define them all; but we do know enough of Nature to be assured that her Laws are perfect, and cannot be improved. It may, 4 38 THEORY OF NUTRITION. therefore, be proper to speak thus of Nature, while we withhold this term from the imperfect views which men have formed of Nature, or the different methods of doc- toring. The numerous processes of treating disease, to which we have referred scarcely deserve the name of theory, even, much less that of system. They have neither beginning nor end; you do not know the head from the feet; nor is it manifest whether they have any feet on which to stand, and much less a head for ideas at all. They are nondescripts, monsters, ugly and repul- sive, for which neither science nor philosophy have, as yet, found even an appropriate name. But, like the old methods in war, the old methods in government, the old methods in navigation, in locomotion, in the Arts and Sciences, they are passing away, to give place to those which are better, and more in agreement with the pro- gressive tendencies of the Age. Authority. The authority, every where recognized and urged for doctoring with medicine at all, is in the practice of past ages. We do so, because, others have doctored, in the same way before us. But, is this a sufficient reason, for doctoring ? " The imputation of Novelty, is a terrible charge, among those who judge of men's heads as they do of their wigs, by the fashion, and can allow none to be right but the received doctrine. An error is not the better for being ancient or com- mon, nor truth the worse for having been neglected; and if it were put to vote any where in the world, 1 doubt as things are managed, whether Truth would have the majority, at least while the authority of men, and not the examination of things must be its measure." * * Locke. DOCTORING. 39 And now, why should not the entire habits of doctor- ing, give place to the laws of progression, the same as, have our habits in mechanism, and agriculture ? If the practice have been commenced in ignorance, and perpet- uated by the laws of habit, association and rehance upon the past, why hold on to it any longer ? Especially if its mischiefs exceed all its benefits ? If, as we hope to be able to show, the Invalid is better without medicine than with it, why should he " doctor " any more ? " Hope, sweet hope is dawning, Now, I'll not drug any more." THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. The remark made by Lord Bacon, respecting the re- straints imposed upon students, by the popular forms of Education, would be equally true, perhaps, of the Medical Profession: — " In the University all things are found opposite to the advancement of the sciences; for the readings and exercises are here so managed, that it cannot, easily, come into one's mind to think of things out of the common road; or if here and there one should venture to use a liberty of judgment, he can only impose the task upon himself without obtaining assistance from his fellows ; and, if he should dispense with this, he will still find his industry and resolution a great hinderance to his fortune. For, the studies of men in such places are confined and pinned down, to the writings of certain authors; from which, if any man happens to differ, he is presently represented as a disturber and innovator." Force of Education. In the nature and constitution of the human mind, it must be so. The habits to which we are trained from infancy, become a part of our nature. The views we receive from those to whom we are taught to look up as authority be- come the laws and landmarks of our future life. And, the more our education to any profession may have cost us, so much the more power will that education have over us. Educated Jews, we are Jews. Educated Moham- medans, we are believers in the Prophet. 40 the medicUl profession. 41 " 'Tis Education forms the common mind, 'Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." Hence, as a general result, we find, those educated into the belief of Allopathy, Homoeopathy, think and practise accordingly. It is appropriate to the student of Human Nature, to stand outside, as much as possible, from all these " schools " of medicine, and inquire how they have, each, come into existence ? From small beginnings vari- ous streams have combined to make the current which car- ries us upon its surface. These " schools " are formed by laws similar to those which develop religious sects and par- ties in politics. And, thus educated, influenced, and bound by sectarian cords, the medical profession, are so far, re- strained from progression and prevented, from forming a correct estimate of the real merits of discoveries that have been made. " Physicians are too often led to exaggerate the usefulness of the doctrine in which they have been educated, and, especially, those, by the exercise of which they obtain their daily bread. In such cases, habit gets the ascendency over enlightened judgment, and the man of routine, or of narrow views, asks himself, from day to day, what drug he shall next resort to, instead of asking the more important question, whether any drug, is called for, or is properly admissible in the case." * Hence, as a profession, they have always stood in the way of reform, and opposed some of the most important improvements in the Art of Healing. How has it been in Hydropathy ? In Homoeopathy ? How was it with him who discovered and announced the circulation of the blood ? Harvey was opposed by the medical profession and persecuted through life. He was in derision called * Dr. Jacob Bigelow. 4* 42 THEORY OF NUTRITION. the "circulator" a word in its original, signifying a vaga- bond or quack. And, so strong was this opposition that he, in a great measure, lost his practice by it. And the profession of surgery is not, wholly, free from a similar censure. Formerly, it was the practice, in cases of amputation, to stanch the bleeding by the application of boiling pitch to the surface of the stump! And, when Ambrose Pare' introduced the ligature as a substitute for this barbarous habit, he was subjected to the severest ridi- cule by the Faculty, as if life could be suspended upon a thread, when hot rosin had been used with such success for so many past ages of the world! What a blessing has the practice of inoculation proved to the world! And yet, Lady Mary Montague, who in- troduced it into England, brought upon herself such a flood of persecution, vexation, and obloquy, in consequence of her agency in the affair, as made her declare that, for four or five years, she seldom passed a day without repent- ing of what she had done; and she declared she never would have attempted it, could she have foreseen the trouble it had brought upon her. The medical profession arose against her en masse; the clergy denounced her from the pulpits, and the nation was thus taught to look upon her, as a wicked woman who had thus attempted to thwart the Providence of God, by her innovations. A like fate awaited the discovery of Vaccination by the immortal Jenner. He was proscribed and persecuted by the Royal College of Physicians, and made to feel the weight of their displeasure years after the vast benefits of his discovery had become known and fully admitted all over the kingdom. Against him, also, the pulpit and the Bible were made to thunder their anathemas ; vaccination was donounced as the real Anti-Christ, of the Scriptures, THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 43 and the people warned against its practice, under the fears and penalties of hell fire and eternal damnation. Who shall decide when Doctors disagree f Not merely the so called " quacks " and dealers in " mesmeric " and " patent" nostrums, but, practitioners of all schools, pill venders of all parties, and the highest medical authorities known, are divided and subdivided, so that we shall find scarcely any two of them united in opinion in respect to any one form of disease in particular. Thus, the cele- brated Stahl, attributes the frequency of pulmonary con- sumption, to the use of the Peruvian bark, while Dr. Morton, another physician equally celebrated, relied upon this bark as a perfect cure for consumption. Dr. Beddoes considers foxglove as a specific for this disease, while, Dr. Parr, declares foxglove, to be decidedly injurious. Dr. Ried thinks its frequency is caused by mercury; while Dr. Brillonet relies upon this mineral as a perfect cure. Galen, as is well known, relied upon vinegar as a cure for consumption; but, Dr. Depault, and other celebrated au- thorities, assert, that consumption is, generally, caused by the common use of vinegar by young people, who swallow it for the purpose of preventing obesity. Next to pulmonary Consumption, the Asiatic cholera, perhaps, may be considered as the general scourge of the Race. And, how many different remedies have the Medi- cal Profession recommended for this disease! A volume would scarcely contain them all; and Dr. Mackintosh well remarks, that no better evidence can be afforded of the ignorance of the profession, generally, as to the nature and seat of any disease, than the number and variety of the remedies that have been confidently recommended for its cure. And, without attempting an enumeration of all 44 THEORY OF NUTRITION. the remedies that had been prescribed in Edinburgh for cholera, he mentions the following: — Bloodletting; cupping, dry-cupping; bleeding from the arteries; emetics of mustard ; ipecacuanha; antimony and sulphate of copper; calomel; colocynth, singly and com- bined ; castor oil, croton oil, jalap, opium, calomel and opi- um ; fluid mercury; mercurial friction; opium combined with antimony; opiate confection; colchicum, cajeput oil; peppermint oil, capsicum, charcoal, camphor variously com- bined; ether, mint tea, nitric spirits of ether; magnesia, milk and magnesia combined; lime water alkalies, aromatic spirits of ammonia; Dover's powder, oxide of bismuth; vari- ous balsams; acetate of lead; nitrous acid, soda water, cold water, ad libitum; water prohibited; effervescing draughts, strychnia; various rubefacients in the shape of frictions, sinapisms, embrocations ; various contra-irritants, as blisters, antimonial ointment, moxas, actual cautery, bastinadoing the feet, cutting the throat, suffocating under a feather bed ! in- jections of oxygen gas into the bowels, the application of heat in the shape of warm baths, fomentations, dry heat; the application of cold, galvanism, injections of beef tea, starch and opium, camomile tea, hot water, cold water, strong solu- tion of fusible potash, tobacco, port wine, alcohol, sulphate of copper, acetate of lead, Stephens's drug; saline injec- tions into the veins, &c. And, all these remedies Dr. Mackintosh informs us, he fairly tried, without any advantage, at least from a large majority of them. The two opposite methods of treating the effects of burns and scalds, are well known. Mr. Kentish prescribes rectified spirit of wine, and spirit of turpentine, to be applied hot to the sore! But, Sir James Earle, on the contrary, recommends the application of cold water, snow, or pounded ice. This was many years ago, and since that time the cold water method has found numerous advocates all over the world.* * Flour is the remedy, and the only one, in severe cases of scalding and burning, casualties which else so often destroy life. Let us keep it before the people, while the explosion of steam boilers and burning fluid lamps are so rife all over our country. THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 45 So, also, of Anatomy. One party with Dr. Battie, have assumed that a knowledge of the dead body is the great basis, on which we are to build the Theory that is to guide us in distributing life and health to our fellow- creatures ; while, another class, with the great Sydenham, have maintained that, in the treatment of all forms of dis- ease, a knowledge of Nature's Laws is necessary, which can never be obtained by, merely, studying the parts of a dead carcass. The Inference. The inference to be drawn from these discrepancies among Professional men, seems to be that, Physiology and the real nature of disease have not been, fully, under- stood ; and, hence, the jargon in the views of the profes- sion as to the best means of cure. On no other subjects has there ever been so much division as on medicine and theology, which, as we have seen, were, formerly, united in one profession. Indeed, these are the only Professions which have ever assumed to think for the multitude. Dis- agreeing and quarrelling ever so much among themselves, they, nevertheless, assume to tell us that we must believe and practice, under the pains and penalties of sickness, death and eternal damnation! And, how many centu- ries is it since they took the lead in other prejudices against those improvements, in the common habits of life which have since proved of so much benefit to the world? Indeed, it is well known, that they once, for- bade the substitution of coal for wood! And, so strong was this prejudice against the use of coal in England, on its first introduction, that a petition was presented to Par- liament against " the use of the noxious fuel." Finally a royal proclamation was issued, forbidding its use in the city, on penalty of the demolition of the furnaces in which 46 THEORY OF NUTRITION. it was consumed. At last it was made a capital offence, and it is said there is a record of the execution of one person for that offence. It took three hundred years to do away this prejudice. Dr. Ure informs us, that when Logwood, was first introduced into England in the reign of Elizabeth, as it afforded to the unskilful dyers of her time a fugitive color, it was not only prohibited from being used, but it was ordered to be burned, wherever found, by a law passed in the twenty-third year of her reign. The same law was enacted against Indigo. At length, after a century of absurd prohibition, these two valuable tinctorial matters were allowed to be used.* Those extreme preju- dices were founded in ignorance; and yet prejudices, equally unfounded, prevail, now, in favor of the old pro- cesses of professional drugging, nor is it easy to see how they are to be done away with, except, by the education of the Race into a knowledge of Nature's Laws. For, what is " quackery " so called, in the profession or out of it ? Is it not the use of medicines without a competent knowledge of the Laws of Life ? No matter, what school, what system of medical practice is adopted. When the use of drugs is undertaken as a profession, when the sale of certain nostrums becomes a source of pecuniary profit, the danger is incurred to which the invalid's attention is here directed.! * Diet. Art, and Man., p. 787. t Dr. Frosbroke an English Physician, relates the following: " I saw a farmer come into a druggist's shop, to get cupped. On making his bargain with the druggist he was ordered into a back room when, I said to the druggist, ' That fool does not want cupping;' to which the man of pills and powders replied, ' He does not look as if he did, but, we can't afford to let Mm go without it.' " How often is this said by the medicine vender, when he gets a victim into his power. " The medicine, may not do him any good, but, we cannot afford to let him THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 47 The multiplication of medical theories, and the evolu- • tions of new schools, which merely recommend new forms of doctoring, do not seem to promise that good which the Race so much need. The " new discoveries " so called of diversified forms of drugging, the announcement of some new notion which contemplates merely some novel form of medication, is not the " good time coming," for which Humanity has so long suffered and waited in Hope. If it be a matter of joy when some new theory of drug- ging is announced to the world, some new phase, by which the amount of medicine swallowed by the invalid is in- creased, how much more pure and real must that joy be, which must follow that Era, which dispenses with all drugs and drugging! The day that brings the end of all the paraphernalia of pills and powders ! Surely, if it be a matter of joy to see the poor invalid revive even in despite of medicine, it must be far more so, to witness his recovery and see him healed without the use of any medi- cine at all! * " Swift fly the years, and rise the expected morn. 0, spring to light, auspicious day be born." In that " auspicious Day," the business of the true Physician will be, to give Instruction by which disease may be prevented; or Healed by Nature's Forces, with- go without it. We must get a living in some way." And, thus, many a barrel of pills, and many a hogshead of sirups have been sold and swallowed by the sick. * " The rich patient cures the poor physician much more often than the poor physician the rich patient; and it is rather paradoxical, that the rapid recovery of the one usually depends upon the procrastinated disorder of the other. Some persons will tell you, with an air of the miraculous, that they recovered although they were given over. When they might with more reason have said, they recovered because they were given ever." — L.vcox. 48 THEORY OF NUTRITION. out the use of medicine. And, how beautiful upon the mountains must the feet of all such be! They bring, with them, the words of peace and healing. The balm with which they cure is in the words they utter. Of them it may truly, indeed, be said: — " They bring salvation on their tongues And words of health reveal." DRUGS AND DRUGGING. A recent medical publication informs us, that the state of medical knowledge is extremely low in Turkey, the only exception being in some of the larger towns, where a few of the practitioners have been educated in Italy, France, or Athens. The treatment of mild and chronic cases is generally in the hands of charlatans or sorcerers. Various are the decoctions of herbs and preparations of ointment had recourse to by the one; while the others, principally women, practise incantations and enchantments, and the patients are often carried, when almost dead, over the roughest mountain roads to the church or convent, and there left to die. This, refers to the Greek portion of the population. Some empirics confine themselves solely to the treatment of dislocations and fractures. The means used by such people are juleps and ptisans, with hot poul- tices of ashes and water. And, might not a similar strain of remarks be true, of charlatanism, in this country ? In what other portions of the world, are there so many " patent" " mesmeric " or " spiritual" nostrums advertised as in this ? Nay, we have among us, those who assume to cure diseases by " conjuration," and the touch or pre- scription of the "seventh son," "Indian," and all sorts of " doctors," almost as numerous as there are patients to be cured. And what is the object of the whole ? Drugs and drugging ! Nothing ig done, no cures, without you 5 49 50 theory of nutrition. swallow the potion. The " sugar," put upon the nauseat- ing " pill," to make it go down, has been proverbial from time immemorial. And, why should sugar be necessary except to make palatable the most loathsome and disgust- ing substances ? Indeed, there can be little doubt but if Invalids could know the real nature of the substances they swallow, they would abandon the habit of drugging at once, and forever. "Choice Remedies." But, it so happens, that whenever the Invalid com- mences drugging, from his own sense of danger, he does so, under the belief that he is taking a " most excellent medicine." This one is a " choice remedy." Thus, in- deed, all " patent" nostrums are called. And, this is the place perhaps to shed a little light upon this subject. I have now, before me a medical work,* which was as pop- ular, perhaps, in its day as any ever published by the medical Profession. The following Recipes are quoted from this work in order to give the reader some just con- ception of the loathsome and abominable stuff, that sick people have been required to swallow, even by the regular Faculty. Among a vast number of other " Prescrip- tions " I find the following, " choice " ones indeed:__ "R. For the dysentery.—Take pig's dung, dry it, and burn it to gray (not white) ashes; of these give half a drachm for a dose." — Vol. i., p. 4. " R. To clear the eyes from films. — Take human dung of a good color and consistency, dry it slowly till it be pulverable. Then reduce it to an impalpable powder, which is to be blown into the patient eyes." — lb. p. 11. * " A collection of Choice Remedies for the sick, or Medicinal Experi- ments. 'By the Honorable R. Boyle, Esq., late Fellow of the Royal Society.' Three volumes in one, London, 1718." drugs and drugging. 51 "R. For the cholic. — Take five balls of fresh horse dung,. and let them steep for fifteen minutes or less, in a pint of white wine, in a vessel well stopped; the liquor may be well impregnated with the more volatile parts of the dung. Dose, half a pint at a time."—lb. p. 27. " R- For the small pox. — Take a handful of the little balls of fresh sheep's dung, and put them into a quart of white wine, and let them infuse till well impregnated with the taste and color of them. Dose, a teaspoonful once in two or three hours."—lb. " R- For the dysenterick and other fluxes. — Take the fresh, warm dung of a hog, and boil it in a porringer of milk. Sweeten with loaf sugar. Let the patient take this twice a day." — lb. vol. Hi., p. 38. " R- A tryed medicine to make a quick exfoliation. — Take the thigh bone of a hanged man, and having burnt it to black- ness, reduce to fine powder, which is to be carefully strewed over the part." — lb. vol. ii.,p. 159. "R. For an ague. — Take the bone called patella of a dead man, and having reduced to fine powder, give for a dose, as much as will lie upon a sixpence." — lb. vol. t'ii., p. 30. " R. For convulsions. — Take earth worms, wash and dry, and reduce to powder. Add ambergris, both to perfume the powder, (whose scent is of itself rank,) and to make the medicine more efficacious." — lb. vol. i., p. 6. " R. For ulcers in the breast. — Take hog lice, and beat them in a marble mortar, and give the juice of five or six of them at a time." — lb. p. 13. " R- To increase milk in nurses. — Take earth worms, dry them so they will not stink, and yet be pulverable. Reduce to powder, and give half a drachm for a dose." — lb. vol. ii., p. 115. " R- For obstructions, and divers diseases proceeding thence. — Let the patient drink of his own urine, newly made, for- bearing food for an hour after." — lb. vol. i., p. 20. " R- For the dysentery and pleurisy. — Grate to fine powder the dried pizzle of a stag, and give of it as much as will lie upon a shilling, twice a day." — Vol. i., p. 35. " R- To strengthen the blood of weak patients. — Take vipers, reduced to fine powder,----antimony, &c, make into small cakes, whereof one may serve for a dose." — 76. p. 45. " R- For cancers. — Take the warts from the hind legs of a stone horse; dry them, and reduce to powder. Dose, half a drachm." — lb. vol. ii., p. 64. 52 THEORY OF NUTRITION. In reading these prescriptions you should bear in mind, that, although they were in vogue some two hundred years ago, they were adopted, and, those disgusting medicines were taken, by multitudes of people, at that age of the world when the habit of drugging commenced. And, if this pernicious practice began during the " dark ages;" if it originated in ignorance, and continued mixed up in the most silly and fabulous tradition; * and, if, now, after the lapse of centuries, we have the testimony of leading men in the medical profession, not merely against quack- ery, and such stuff as the above medicines must be made of, but also against all drugs, all medicines of whatever kind or quality, then, it is for the Invalid to determine, how much it is for him to rely upon any course of mere medication, regular or irregular, or whether he will ever " dose " any more at all. And in deciding this question, you must bear in mind, that all substances which act as medicines, are given for no other purpose, only, as they are poisonous. Not merely mercury in the form of blue pill, corrosive sublimate, calomel, or something else, but the various vegetable substances used as emetics and cathartics, act only because they are poisons. Not a particle of medicine, truly so called, can be taken into the system without injury; and no one, who takes the vile stuff can be secure against its poisonous effects. Even the smallest quantity will often disturb the tender tissues of the nervous system, and bring about derangements that end in disease and death. * The use of the sign " R " in medical prescriptions, was first, purely magical, to signify faith in Jove, by whom the cure was sup- posed to be performed! DRUGS AND DRUGGING. 53 Other Objections. But this is not the only ground of objection against the use of drugs; they not only, do a positive injury to the tissues with which they come in contact, but they lead the patient to hope for a cure from the wrong source. They divert attention from Nature's Laws. Even in cases where the doses are Homoeopathic, this objection is valid. The patient swallows the dose, regularly, at the appointed hour, and is but too apt to imagine, that this is all of that process which is necessary for a permanent cure; when, the most essential thing to be done in all cases is partially or en- tirely overlooked. All habits, therefore, of dosing are, for this reason, more or less pernicious. No matter what the " system" may be under which the drugging is car- ried on, if it divert attention from those habits of living which are essential for good health; it is to be deprecated as, on the whole, mischievous and not to be relied upon. The Invalid, therefore, should be made to understand, that, these objections lie scarcely more against one kind of medi- cine than another. It is not the medicine, so much as the habit of taking it, against which objection is here made. The dose is swallowed because you rely upon it as the means of cure. Each one has his hobby, his favorite " Dr." and each " Dr." has his favorite remedy. Of course, always, when a dose is swallowed, it is done under the firm persuasion that it is the very best medicine in the world for that complaint. And, at this very moment, ten or ten thousand invalids, may each be taking so many en- tirely different nostrums and all for the same disease, each supposing that the one he is taking is the best that ever was known! 5* 54 THEORY OF NUTRITION. Admonition. When sick, it is not the best time to enter upon a dis- cussion of the best means of cure. This knowledge should be acquired while in health, and while the mental Faculties are in harmonious and healthy activity. When once enfeebled with disease, you are more liable to lean upon, a broken re*d. " A drowning man, catches at a straw," worthless chaff, which can afford no more relief, than the drugs upon which the sinking invalid often relies for health. Let us, then, while in health, fully acquaint ourselves with those Laws upon which Life, and health depend; those very Laws whose violation causes diseases and the fulfilment of which always brings the blessings of Health, and Happiness. Objection Answered. But, to all this it may be objected: — "I have cured disease by giving medicine ; therefore, I know that medi- cine may, in some cases, especially, of acute disease, be useful." I answer, I have cured acute and chronic diseases with- out a particle of medicine! Thus, I have the advantage of you; as I know, that disease that can be cured at all. may be cured without medicine. The true state of the case is, you do not dare to trust Nature to do her own work! You lack faith in the Laws of God. You are fearful they will not operate without a dose of medicine! The question, now, is not whether you shall, or shall not, do any thing to remove the obstructions in Nature's way; not, whether the Physician shall or shall not do any thing to assist those motions of nature which need assistance ? That she needs some assistance, or, rather, that more or DRUGS AND DRUGGING. 55 less Heat, more or less Motion, is wanted in certain parts, is admitted. Hence, the question is, in what way shall that assistance which the invalid wants be most readily afforded ? By drugs ? Or by nutrition ? And, if by the latter, how shall that assistance be rendered ? To ob- tain a satisfactory answer to this query is the object of our present investigations. Read, and then judge. QUACKERY. By quackery is* here meant the habit of dosing, or prescribing medicine without a competent knowledge of Nature's Laws. The word has been used as a term of reproach, signifying a mere pretension to medical skill, and it has been applied to medical practitioners, in the profession and out of it. And, it has come to signify, not merely the want of knowledge appropriate to the Healing Art, but also, such arts in drugging as originate in igno- rance and cupidity in their most repulsive forms. To tamper with health and life, by which the one is impaired and the other shortened, is a crime, which must be exposed in order to be prevented. Education, expressly for the practice of medicine, does not, necessarily, give the requisite qualifications for a " good physician." A boy may go to college a blockhead, and, after studying long enough to take his medical de- gree, may come away, a blockhead as he went. It is, on all hands, admitted, that there is as much real quackery in the profession as there is out of it. And with what justice this term is used as one of reproach, by all parties, will appear, perhaps, in the sequel. Our present limits do not permit extensive details of the arts, deceptions, and frauds, which have always characterized quackery, " regu- lar " and " irregular " more or less. It may be sufficient if we group a few facts under the following general heads. 56 QUACKERY. 57 False Pretences. It has been more or less common for quackery to ap- pear under the guise of great sympathy for the sick; but recently, its hypocrisy has been, seen under a new phase, more specious, and yet more depraved, than some of its forms, which have gone before. I allude to those adver- tisements, put forth in this country, and, also, in England, purporting to come from " Retired Clergymen " or " Re- tired Physicians," who, from motives of benevolence, alone, offer to assist the sick, by sending a free recipe for the cure of "Nervous Sufferers."* This "retired clergy- man," is a quack, and takes these insidious means for sell- ing his " pills," made of " Alcoholic Extract of the Ignatius Bean, and gum Arabic." Of course, it would not answer his purpose, to advertise his nostrum, openly, so he adopts this method for inveigling, the unsuspecting into the pur- chase of his " pills, at $1 per box." Recently a case was reported,! of a lady who ordered the pills of this " retired clergyman," but, on taking his nostrums, she soon found her system poisoned, and, had to put herself under, Treat- ment accordingly. She came, very near losing her life. • Here are specimens of this class: — To Nervous Sufferers. A retired Clergyman, restored to health in a few days, after many years of great nervous suffering, is anxious to make known the means of cure. Will send (Free) the prescription used. Direct to Rev.-----------, No. 57 Fulton street. The same "retired clergyman," puts it forth, in another paper, thus: — To Nervous Sufferers. A retired Physician, who possesses a pre- scription that proved effectual in restoring him to health in a few days after years of suffering from general nervous debility, is anxious to make it known. Will send free, the prescription used. Direct to Dr.----------, 69 Fulton st. t Gates Co. (N. Y.) Whig. 58 THEORY of nutrition. She was completely prostrated, and, on analyzing the " pills " she had been taking they were found to contain corrosive sublimate ! And, the same " pills," the " retired clergyman," had told her were made exclusively of " Igna- tia Amara," and " gum Arabic." It is common for persons totally ignorant of Human Physiology, and, with no practical, or theoretical knowl- edge of Anatomy, or Pathology, to announce themselves as " Drs." and " M; D.'s " in order to excite confidence in their nostrums! And, perhaps, in no other, of what are called the " learned professions," is there so much of this theft of titles as in the practice of drugging. It does not obtain, to the same extent, in Theology, or, the practice of Law. Indeed, in no other, art or profession is it so easy for an ignorant pretender to " set himself up," as in prescribing nostrums for the sick ! A man who should, in this way, without education, or experience, call himself a shoemaker, or a carpenter, or a tailor, and, " try his hand " at the trade, accordingly, would soon find his leyel. A man who should attempt the practice of the legal pro- fession, without the necessary qualifications, would not be long in finding himself in his appropriate sphere. And, an incompetent person may take a notion to become a Teacher, in Theology. He, too, must sooner or later reach his true level; and, his babble need not, very much, harm any one. But, not so with the quack in medicine. His concoctions are swallowed by the invalid, the very worst use that could possibly be made of them. To put those disgusting nostrums into the stomachs of those already sick and suffering, is cruelty added to deception and fraud.* It is not, indeed, easy to perceive how this * So general has this practice, become, of assuming the common medical title of " M. D." and " Dr." that some gentlemen, regularly QUACKERY. 59 evil is to be remedied, except, by increasing the general intelligence of the people, which will enable them to dis- criminate between, the true and the false, in respect to those things which concern Life and health, the same as they do in respect to the company they keep, or, the gar- ments with which the body is clothed. A similar kind of deception is practised in the assump- tion of foreign characters, so as to make the quack an " Indian Doctor." Not to speak of the right of any per- son, to call himself " Turk," " Egyptian," or " Indian," roference is here made merely to the deception, practised under this term. The inference is reasonable, that when the moral dereliction is so great, as to lead the self-styled " Dr." to such false pretences as these, his skill in pre- paring nostrums cannot be very reliable. The time has been, when the term of " Indian," was but another word for ignorance, superstition, and savagism. And, at no period in the history of the aborigines of this country were they ever known to evince any knowledge upon which in- telligent people could, for one moment, rely in the safe treatment of disease. They were, always, ignorant; — ignorant not merely in the Arts and Sciences, but igno- rant of the Laws of Life and Health, ignorant of Pathol- ogy, and any reliable means of curing disease. The acme of their medical knowledge was in a small bag, filled with roots, herbs, bones, snake skins, or the heart of an enemy, slain in battle! And, yet, so much more ignorant, if possible, are some of the " white skins " than even those degraded savages, of the wild woods, that we find them, coveting the fame of the " poor Indian's" " Medicine bag," and, the most attractive recommendation they can educated fm the profession, even decline to prefix the "Dr." to their names entirely. 60 THEORY of nutrition. give to their nostrums is to call them " Indian." And why do they not announce themselves, as "African," " Calmuc," or "Kamtschatka " " Doctors " ? Why purloin the name of " Indian," exclusively ? Fanciful, Fictitious. The multitude, always rely more or less on that which comes under the name, or idea of the mysterious. If it come from afar, if it be dear bought, if it be dug up from the bowels of the earth; or, if it come from the savages in the wilderness; why, it must, for this reason, possess peculiar virtue in healing the sick! One of the most effectual medicines among the Indians was a human heart, carried in a bag, with a knife thrust through it. And, to call a nostrum, " Indian" makes it reliable and efficacious! And, so, the uninformed, imagine, that, if a medicine come from an Indian, it must be good as a matter of course. It is, for such persons, in vain, that the true Philosophy teaches the doctrine of eternal Progression. They fail to see, that the farther back we go, into savage life, the less we can rely on the " Medicine bag." And, how much less confidence should be placed in that quack who appropriates the name of " Indian," for no other pur- pose, than that of attracting purchasers of his nostrums. It is a similar superstition under which multitudes swallow any amount of medicine from the supposition, that, as it is " Botanic," it cannot be injurious. They do not know, or overlook the fact, that some of the most deadly poisons in the whole materia medica, are from the vegetable king- dom. Nor can it be denied that there is more or less of the hypocritical, when all sorts of nostrums are adver- tised under fictitious names. There is, perhaps, no large city but where you will find advertisements of nostrums QUACKERY. 61 for sale by " Drs." so and so, whose real names do not ap- pear, and are never known. A large proportion of the patent nostrums, and generally, all specifics for the cure of secret diseases, are advertised under feigned names. In all this, there is more or less deception, which ought never to be found, in connection with the Healing Art. It is a species of dishonesty of which no worthy and truth- ful person would be guilty. And, the prefix, or, affix, of " Prof." or " Dr." or " M. D." to a part of the proper name, (leaving out the initials), so as to give an air of professional reliability, which the quack could never attain without such deception, is not merely disreputable but, often criminal, as it involves, interests, as dear as life, and with which no one should be allowed to tamper. Fraudulent. To such miserable shifts is the general practice of drug- ging driven. The manufacture, and sale of medical nos- trums is a part of the commerce of the country. And, hence it is that cupidity and deception enter so largely into those practices. The adulteration of drugs, deserves far more attention than has, yet, been given to this sub- ject. Exposures of this practice have, repeatedly, been made in the public papers; and, persons competent to detect these frauds have assured us, that there is, scarcely, an article in the materia medica, which can be counter- feited, but which has been adulterated, and, from motives of cupidity. Surely, drugs are nauseous and bad enough in their purest condition ; but to mix them with clay, lime, chalk, or other deleterious substances, is hardly allowable, if they are to be swallowed by the sick. It is not, per- haps, well known to what an extent, articles of food have been adulterated, while in the hands of the seller; and, 6 62 THEORY OF NUTRITION. if food be thus poisoned, we might perhaps, expect similar frauds, in connection with medicinal drugs. So, that, on the whole, from the deleterious nature of all drugs, and from the deceptions, and ignorance of many who prescribe them, as well as from the poisonous substances mixed with the drugs, out of which the medicine is made, we come to the conclusion, that the only safe way for us all is, to abandon all drugs, and drugging, all quacks, and quackery, at once and forever. Supernatural. Under this head we class all medicines alleged to have been suggested, discovered, prepared, or prescribed, in an abnormal state, or by unusual, and extraordinary means.* It is not meant here, that there is never any good done by such prescriptions. There may be any allowance of alleged goodness in the grandmother who doses the in- fant to death with " roots and herbs." All this and more, may be done, not from the want of goodness, but rather from the lack of that " wisdom," which is " profitable to direct." If there be goodness and Truth, in any Theory, of '• Science," or " Religion," or " Spiritualism," there is so much the more reason why such a Theory should not be perverted to the furtherance of drugging and quackery. But, when medicines are offered to the sick, on the con- sideration that they are "spirit medicines," "clairvoy- ant medicines," of course, those who believe in clairvoy- ance, or spiritualism, will be very likely to swallow such medicines whenever they are sick. And, why not, for similar reasons, announce one medicine as a "Baptist medicine," another as a "Quaker medicine," and so on through the whole catalogue of sectarianism ? f * Cures by the " hand of the seventh son," and by " conjuration " " spirit medicines " and the like. t This very thing is done, among the Catholics and other Religious QUACKERY. 63 It seems marvellous that people should be taken in with assumptions involving the supernatural, which are so pal- pably specious. The " spirit medicines," we are told, are "not mineral," but "made, exclusively, of roots and herbs!" And, we see the claims of " clairvoyants," and the " spirits " set forth upon the fact, that " all the medi- cines" are made of vegetables; or that, the "spirits" " prescribe," " Homoeopathic," or " Eclectic" medicines! But to all of this, three very serious objections may be made: — 1. A medicine is none the less a drug, and often poi- sonous, for being made of vegetables. 2. If the medicine be made of edible vegetables, it is, nevertheless, objection- able, as it diverts the attention from learning Nature's true, and highest method of cure, which is by pure Nutri- tion, without medicine. 3. All Forms of " Religion," or " Spiritualism," appeal directly to man's Faculties of credulity or marvellousness. Now, these are not the Faculties of the Human mind which should take the lead, or, scarcely hold a subordinate rank, in Pathology, Phys- iology, and prescribing for the sick. The Healing Art, should be subject to the same Laws of Progression, which have improved all other Sciences, all other Arts, and which are carrying the Race, forward from Infancy to Manhood. And, while subject to these Laws it must be improved with the progressive tendencies of the age, and hence it can never be permitted to rest, on claims founded, sects, by which the weighty influence of Religious sectarianism is brought to bear in favor of drugging. I knew a Methodist preacher, (Rev. B. II.) who did an immense business in the sale of his " Family Pills." He once informed me, that a church " sister," who had swal- lowed a box of his " pills " was so well pleased with their effects, that she gave it as her opinion, there must have been a " Methodist prayer in each one of them ! " 64 THEORY OF NUTRITION. principally, on credulity and fanaticism. Quackery, visions, reliance on dreams, trances, and ghosts, belong to the ages, that have passed by. The true standard of knowl- edge in the treatment of disease, is founded in the highest wisdom of mortals. The Judgment must be exercised, in the normal state, and developed by the largest experi- ence. The best and most reliable judgment is that view which the Human Reason takes of things, in the full, normal, and healthy exercise of all the senses external, and internal. One state is the best for dreaming; another may be best for visions, and a third for hallucinations. To rely on " spirits " out of the body, or, upon clairvoyance in the body, in prescribing for disease, is just as far from the highest and best way, as it would be to depend on " spirits " for making a crop of corn grow, instead of using the appropriate means. I am aware, that in the pursuit of an end, the means may, sometimes, be stumbled upon by following the suggestions of clairvoyants or " spirits " out of the body or in ; and, it is true, also, that the sick, may, sometimes, get well, even when means are used which are not the most appropriate. But, all this goes to prove the charges here made against drugs and drugging. To look for a cure, or for a knowledge of the means, to what is believed to be supernatural, is not in the highest order of Nature; it is not in Harmony with the highest wisdom, and hence it encourages quackery, and the gen- eral mischiefs of drugging. Germ of the Error. The great mistake made in the infancy of the Race, in failing to distinguish between a Remedy and a Medicine in the treatment of the sick. Here is the foundation of all drugging, and all quackery, regular, and irregular. QUACKERY. 65 We first imagine, that a " root," an " herb," a medicinal drug, is the same thing as a Remedy for disease! If there be an interruption in the health, if there be pain, it is one of the first instincts of our nature that something should be done, to correct the wrong; and, although it is not known what the wrong is, yet, we feel that something should be done, to put a stop to the suffering. For, the disease, the evil, the discord, it is true there should be an appropriate Remedy. But, it does not by any means follow that the Remedy should consist in "roots" or " herbs " or medicinal drugs, Allopathic, Homoeopathic, Botanic, or Eclectic! Not at all. The pain may be re- lieved, the wound healed, the disease cured, by the appro- priate Remedy, without a particle of medicine! And, to suppose to the contrary is about as reasonable as it would be, to assume, that Nature could not develop a healthy Form in the fcetal state, without the addition of a certain amount of drugs ! But, failing to distinguish, between a drug, and an ap- propriate Remedy, the Race have come into the practice of drugging, and the sale of medicine has tempted tho cupidity of the low and vicious, until the frauds and mis- chiefs of quackery, have become, frightful indeed. The scourge of the pestilence itself, is scarcely less to be de- plored. The evils that we suffer, spontaneously, and which arise from ignorance and the infirmities of our nature, we can endure without complaint. But, when deprived of health, and subjected to disease, and suffering, by the cupidity of the pill-man, our sufferings become intolerable, and we admit the necessity which calls for the cautery like that here applied. Those we love, prescribe drugs for our ailments, and 6* 66 THEORY OF NUTRITION. hence we swallow them. Nothing tends more, to keep quackery in vogue, than the freedom, with which it is cus- tomary for clergymen, (not "retired") and parents to prescribe some favorite nostrum. What old person can be found, but who has a favorite " root," " herb," " pill," " drops," " bitters," and the like, for any and every " ill" that they, or their nearest relatives, or friends, are " heirs to." And, it is as common, to recommend some favorite medicine as a " cure all," as it is to hear persons complain of any indisposition. It is a matter of course, to tell of some medicine, whenever we meet with a friend who is sick. The invalid wants and really needs, a Remedy, and we give him, instead thereof, a drug! And thus it is, as the habits of, quackery, and drugging enter so much into the every-day business of life, as they infect the rela- tions which exist between friends, so, are the difficulties multiplied which forbid the removal of the deceptions, cupidity, and frauds, which have ever been more or less characteristic of all quacks and quackery, and of which complaint is here made. Important Question. Now, the question which comes home to the Invalid is a most important one, indeed: — Can, any good, come of drugs, and medicinal die-stuffs, the manufacture, and the sale of which is mixed up with so much hypocrisy and fraud ? Is not the thing an evil, in itself, considered? Tell me not of the "Reformed Practice," or this or that school of drugging, as if drugs, could be improved, or there was any thing truly redeema- ble in the practice as it now prevails all over the world. The true Philosophy places all medicine, on a par with QUACKERY. 67 Intoxicating liquors; certainly, not above the " fire water." They should not be taken into the human stomach, as the general rule, and, whatever else may be their legitimate use, they never, in any case, add to the nutritive health or strength of the human stomach. MEDICAL AUTHORITIES. What are the reasons for the present habits of drug- ging, which so generally prevail all over the world ? We may be told, it is education. People are taught in child- hood to believe that drugs are necessary in most cases of disease. True, but on whom do the people rely, for their authority in the use of drugs ? Not, altogether, on the " old women." They look up to the physician, the " doc- tor," the medical profession, where they find the reasons for what they do. Well, now, and suppose, upon exami- nation, it be found that the most skilful and eminent of the Medical Profession, have, themselves, no confidence, at all, in the prevalent habits of drugging ? What then ? Nay, I shall be able, I think, to prove to you, beyond all doubt, that, the wisest Physicians we have, or, ever have had, have no real faith in the prevalent habits of using medicine for the cure of disease. And, in reading the following testimonies, from some of the very highest medi- cal authorities, — from men who have attracted the atten- tion of an admiring world, ask yourself how much you should rely upon those ignorant persons who offer to drug you for diseases, the very names of which they do not understand! For, we have reasons for supposing, that the greatest amount of doctoring and drugging is now done by persons, who are grossly ignorant, — persons who know little or nothing either of Human Physiology, Pa- 68 MEDICAL AUTHORITIES. 69 thology or Therapeutics! Persons, hardly up to medi- ocrity in sound sense, are found as we have seen, all over the country, who can be said to have no Theory at all, and yet they tamper with the lives and the health of all who swallow their nostrums. Persons so ignorant that they are unable to " concoct" an advertisement of their potions, in decent language, and yet, they put forth assump- tions in favor of their drugs, disgusting to all who are not as low as themselves in the scale of honesty and intelli- gence. Contrast one of a thousand of the advertised remedies with the following testimonies, and then render your verdict on thejmerits of drugging. Medical Testimonies. The celebrated Bichat, a French physician of high authority on the subject, says : — " To what errors have not mankind been led in the em- ployment of medicines ! The same identical remedies have been employed under different names, according to the man- ner in which they were supposed to act; deobstruent in one case, relaxant in another, the same medicine has been em- ployed with all these opposite views. " Hence the vagueness and uncertainty our science pre- sents at this day. An incoherent assemblage of incoherent opinions, it is, perhaps, of all the physiological sciences, that which best shows the caprice of the human mind. What do I say 1 It is not a science for a methodical mind. It is a hopeless assemblage of inaccurate ideas; of observations often puerile; of deceptive remedies; and of formula? as fantastically conceived as they are tediously arranged." Magendie, another French physician, of high authority in Pathology and Physiology, utters the following testi- mony : — " I hesitate not to declare, no matter how sorely I shall wound our vanity, that so gross is our ignorance of the real nature of the physiological disorders called diseases, that it 70 THEORY OF NUTRITION would, perhaps, be better to do nothing, and resign five complaint we are called upon to treat, to the resources of nature, than to act as we are frequently compelled to do, without knowing the why and the wherefore of our conduct, and at the obvi- ous risk of hastening the end of the patient." The venerable Dr. B. Waterhouse, after lecturing for twenty years in the Medical Department of Harvard Col- lege, declared, "lam sick of learned quackery." The following testimony is from the lamented Dr. James Jackson, of Boston, whose education, literary and medical, eminently fitted him for judging as to the^real merits of the common habits of Drugging : — " But our poor pathology, and yet woAe therapeutics, shall we ever get to a solid bottom ? Shall we ever have fixed laws ? Shall we ever know, or must we ever be doomed to suspect or presume ? Is perhaps to be our qualifying word forever? Do we know, for example, in how many cases such a treatment fails for the one time it succeeds 1 Do we know how large a proportion of cases would get well without any treatment, compared with those which recover under it 1 " Thomas Jefferson said, — " I have lived to see the disciples of Hoffmann, Boerhaave, Stahl, Cullen, and Brown, succeed one another, like the shifting figures of the magic lantern j and their fancies, like the dresses of the annual doll babies from Paris, becoming, from their novelty, the vogue of the day, and yielding to the next novelty their ephemeral favors. The patient treated on the fashionable theory recovers in spite of their drugging. The medicine, therefore, restores him, and the Doctor re- ceives new courage to proceed in his experiments on the lives of his fellow-creatures." Dr. B. Rush, who stood at the head of the profession in Philadelphia for many years, declared in one of his public lectures as follows : — " I am incessantly led to make an apology for the insta- bility of the theories and practice of Physic; and those physicians generally become the most eminent who have MEDICAL AUTHORITIES. 71 the most thoroughly emancipated themselves from the tyr- anny of the schools of physic. Dissections daily convince us of our ignorance of disease, and cause us to blush at our rescriptions. What mischief have we done, under the elief of false facts and false theories ! We have assisted in multiplying diseases; we have done more, we have in- creased their mortality." " The art of healing is like an unroofed temple, uncovered at the top, and cracked at the foundation." Dr. Jamieson, of Edinburgh, affirms that, — " The present practice of medicine is a reproach to the name of science, while its professors give evidence of an almost total want of true knowledge of the nature or proper treatment of disease. Nine times out of ten, our miscalled remedies are absolutely injurious to our patients, suffering under diseases of whose real character and cause we are most culpably ignorant." Dr. Ramage, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physi- cians of London, all whose members have attained the highest medical honors known to the British schools, says, — " It cannot be denied that the present system of medicine is a burning reproach to its professors, if indeed a series of vague and uncertain incongruities deserve to be called by that name. How rarely do our medicines do good! How often do they make our patients really worse ! I fearlessly assert that in most cases the sufferer would be safer without a physician than with one. I have seen enough of the mal- practice of my professional brethren to warrant the strong language I employ." Sir William Knighton, physician to George IV., and, at the head of his Profession, says : — " It is somewhat strange, that, though in many arts and sciences, improvement has advanced in a step of regular progression from the first, in others, it has kept no pace with time ; and we look back to ancient excellence with wonder not unmixed with awe. Medicine seems to be one of those ill-fated arts whose improvement bears no proportion to its antiquity." 72 THEORY OF NUTRITION. Le Sage showed his estimate of drugs and medicine when he said: — " Death has two wings ; on one are painted, war, plague, famine, fire, shipwreck, with all the other miseries that pre- sent him at every instant with a new prey. On the other wing you behold a crowd of young physicians, about to take their degree before him. Death, with a demon smile, dubs them ' doctors,' having first made them swear, never, in any way, to alter the practice of physic." Lord Byron, called it the " destructive art of healing," and says he got well of a fever by refusing to see his phy- sician, and the use of barley water. Says Dr. Samuel Dickson, formerly a medical officer in the British staff: — " Till the emoluments of those who practise physic, cease to depend upon the quantity of the useless drugs they mer- cilessly inflict on their deluded patients; — till Physicians become something more than mere puppets of the apothe- cary ; — till the terrible system of collusion which at present prevails, under the name of l a good understanding among the different branches of the profession,' be exposed, the medical art, must continue to be a source of destruction to the many, — a butt of ridicule for the few." Says Dr. Frank : — " Thousands are slaughtered in the quiet sick room. Gov- ernments should, at once, banish medical men, and their art, or they should take proper means that the lives of the people may be safer than at present, when they look far less after this dangerous profession, and the murders committed in it, than after the lowest trades." Dr. Forth says: — " A monarch who should free his state from this pestilent set of physicians and apothecaries, and entirely interdict the practice of medicine, would deserve to be placed by the side of the most illustrious who have ever conferred exten- sive benefits on mankind. There is scarcely a more dishonest trade imaginable than tlie art of medicine in its present state." MEDICAL AUTHORITIES. 73 The illustrious Abernethy uttered these words: — " There has been a great increase of medical men it is true, of late years, but, upon my life, diseases have increased in proportion ; that is a great comfort." * Dr. E. H. Dixon, Author of " Woman and her Dis- eases," " Treatise on the Sexual System," &c, says: — " The monstrous evil of quack pills, so enormously used in this country, has produced innumerable cases of falling of the womb, piles, prolapsus of the vagina, and other dis- eases. No enlightened person will ever use medicine (for costiveness) if it can be possibly avoided. Diet is the natu- ral remedy, medicine that of art." Sir Gilbert Blane says: — " The benefit derivable to mankind at large from artificial remedies is so limited, that if a spontaneous principle [Nutri- tion] of restoration had not existed, the human species would long ago have become extinct." Dr. Nathan Smith, makes the following confession : — " During the whole of my practice, I have never been sat- isfied that I have cut short a single case of typhus." A work entitled " Nature in Disease " has recently been published by Dr. Jacob Bigelow, formerly president of the Mass. Med. Society, in which an attempt is made to show that a large class of diseases are not curable by medicine at all. He says: — " In self-limited diseases, we include those which are * The " increase " of disease a " comfort" to the medical profession! Think of that, ye pill eaters! According to the N. Y. Med. Gaz. for Sept. 1854, there are in the States and Territories, 40,564 Physicians; 191 Surgeons; 6139 Apothecaries and Druggists; 59 Patent Medicine makers. The whole number of Clergymen reported is 26,842; the whole number of lawjers, 23,939. Ninety-four thousand five hundred and fifteen persons employed in law, medicine, and divinity, or who are devoted to the business of doctoring for the ills of mortality ! 7 74 THEORY OF NUTRITION. not known to be shortened by medical treatment. Examples are abundant, and are found in typhus and typhoid fever, measles, small pox, hooping cough, dysentery. " It is with regret that we are obliged to acknowledge a third class, that of incurable diseases, which has been recognized, in all ages as the opprobrium medicorum. It includes the long train of internal morbid degenerations, malignant and chronic — in which fife is rendered incapable of continuance. " Medicine in regard to some of its most important objects is still an ineffectual speculation.^ And, what Dr. Bigelow has shown in respect to those diseases he calls " incurable," is equally true of all forms of disease. If medicine, strictly speaking, cannot cure one form of disease it cannot cure another, for we shall find, that disease is a unit in the same sense that fife is a unit. And, hence, if there be one form (not to say degree) of disease which medicine cannot shorten, this is sufficient to prove the position here taken, viz., that disease is never curable by medicine, and for this statement we have the opinions of the most intelligent physicians who have ever lived, as is here shown. The eminent Lugol, of Paris, says, in a lecture deliv- ered in 1841: — " We are following an erroneous course in our investiga- tions, and must resort to some new modes if we desire to be more successful." Dr. Evans says: — " The medical practice of our day is, at best, a most un- certain and unsatisfactory system; it has neither philosophy nor common sense to commend it to confidence." The Dublin Medical Journal of 1842, discourses on this wise: — " Assuredly the uncertain and most unsatisfactory art that we call medical science is no science at all, but a jumble of MEDICAL AUTHORITIES. 75 inconsistent opinions, of conclusions hastily and often incor- rectly drawn ; of facts misunderstood or perverted; of com- parisons without analogy; of hypotheses without reason, and theories not only useless but dangerous." And the late Professor Gregory: — " Gentlemen, ninety-nine out of every hundred medical facts are medical lies, and medical doctrines are, for the most part, stark staring nonsense." The distinguished Dr. John Mason Good, author of the Study of Medicine, confesses in that celebrated work, that — " The science of medicine is a barbarous jargon, and the effects of our medicines on the human system are in the highest degree uncertain, except indeed that they have al- ready destroyed more lives than war, pestilence and famine combined." In a lecture recently delivered before a class of medical students, Dr. Campbell, Physician in Chief to the Phila- delphia Hospital, gave utterance to the following: — " Nature, nature cures diseases, gentlemen. Never forget that. When you get into practice and begin to prescribe largely, you will begin to overlook that fact, and to think that you yourselves and your medicines cure. As soon as you do so, you begin to kill." The following declaration has recently been put forth by " The American Medical Society," composed, as we are assured by the New York Tribune, of some of the most intelligent of the regular Faculty: — " It is wholly incontestable that there exists a wide-spread dissatisfaction with what is called the regular or old Allo- pathic System of Medical practice. Multitudes of people in this country and in Europe exhibit an utter want of con- fidence in physicians and their physic. The cause is evi- dent : erroneous theory, and, springing from it, injurious — 76 THEORY OF NUTRITION often, very often, fatal — practice. Nothing will now sub- serve the absolute requisitions of an intelligent community but a medical doctrine grounded upon right reason, in har- mony with and avouched by the unerring laws of nature and of the vital human organism, and authenticated and con- firmed by successful results. " False theory, false induction, inefficient or fatal practice, these are the all-sufficient reasons for the popular dislike, discontent, disgust and detestation. Judged by its own au- thors, it stands self-condemned before the world." Conclusions. And now, if there be such a manifest and admitted de- ficiency in the " regular " educated medical faculty, what may we not expect outside of it ? Why, precisely what has come to pass; " patent" nostrums and " electro" or " galvanic chains," " mesmeric sirups," &c, &c, cover the land, and spring up in every house like the frogs and lice of Egypt! Says Adam Smith, the learned author of " Wealth of Nations," " The cause of the quackery out of the profession is the real quackery in the profession." And to such an extent is this quackery now carried, that it is admitted that the aggregate sum paid for these non- reliable patent nostrums far exceeds the whole remunera- tion received by all the intelligent, honest physicians, of all classes, throughout the country, both for their practice and medicine! Homoeopathy. It has become quite common, of late years, for physi- cians, " regular " and " irregular," to commend their prac- tice to the confidence of the community by saying of themselves, that they give but a very small quantity of drugs, and the smaller the quantity the better, until you come down to Homoeopathy, which is next to none at all. And how successful this theory of practice has been, all MEDICAL AUTHORITIES. 77 know, who have given the subject any candid examina- tion. For when we come to the trillionth part of an atom of medicine, it is indeed so nearly next to none, that no one could well object on account of the quantity. Well, now, to show that the real cures effected by Homoe- opathy are, after all, brought about by Nutrition, and not so much by the infinitesimal dose of medicine that is given, take the following account. It is from a Homoeopathic work, giving directions for the sick while they are under treatment: — " The diet is such as to preclude the possibility of any in- terruption from substances which exert any medicinal action. All raw vegetable juices, all spices, all essences, all odors, all perfumes, all theiform infusions, (herb teas,) all that can by any possibility be supposed to exercise the slightest in- fluence over the organism, are strictly and rigorously ex- cluded ; also, all mental exertion, or any shock that can in any way interfere with or divest the action of the medica- ment." And thus it is, that the whole drift of Homoeopathy is given in favor of the Theory here set forth of Cure by Nutrition. In lessening the amount of drugging, there- fore, it has done immense good, even had it performed no cures ; but its excellence over Allopathy is shown in this respect chiefly, that it has proved to a demonstration how very little Medicine the Human System does really need, and how much better the Nutritive Principle succeeds without drugs than it does with them. And yet, notwithstanding the good which Homoeopathy has confessedly done, in lessening the amount of drugging, as a system of medication it is objectionable as we have already seen. Nor is this all. If one of its fundamental principles be true, that, medicines in such inconceivably small quantities (as in odors) are effectual in curing 7* 78 THEORY OF NUTRITION. disease, it must follow, that more diseases are caused (Homoeopathically) in this way, than any amount of the practice could ever cure. For, all persons, are, always, and, every where, necessarily exposed to such exhalations float- ing in the atmosphere as must be sufficient to induce disease and death. Odors, and dust, in Homoeopathic doses, are inhaled at every breath, but, from which no more sensible results follow, than may reasonably be an- ticipated, from the infinitesimal doses administered in cases of sickness by the strictest follower of Hahnemann. The presumption is, therefore, that nutrition performs the cures, sometimes attributed to the peculiar medical treatment, common to Homoeopathy. Hydropathy. And, a similar remark might be made of Hydropathy. All the " Cures by Water," all of them, from first to last, prove incontestably, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that diseases, that are curable at all, may be cured without drugs, and when diseases are cured without the pecidiar use of water or some of its uses, so much insisted upon by Hydropathists, the conclusion is forced upon us, that, the immediate cause of the cure in all cases, is neither in the drugs nor in the water, but in the processes of nutri- tion. The triumphs of the Water Cure are many, and known all over the world; and each one added to the general aggregate is an irrefutable testimony against the mischiev- ous theories and habits of drugging, whether with quack nostrums, or pills and powders administered in the regular way; and these cases, when viewed in the light which Philosophy sheds upon Nature's Method, prove to a demonstration how much better the organism succeeds MEDICAL AUTHORITIES. 79 without the vile compounds, than it can when forced to swallow them. Confirmation. The following is the language of Dr. Dickson, the au- thor of the Chrono-Thermal system : — " In the generality of cases of disease, it matters not what may have been the primary cause. The disease, or effect, under every circumstance, not only involves change of tem- perature, but produces more or less interruption to the two vital processes, Digestion and Respiration. In other words, it impedes sanguification, or the necessary reproduction of that living [nutritive] fluid, which throughout all the changes of life is constantly maintaining expenditure. This being in the nature of things, one of the first effects of dis- order, let us beware, how we employ a remedy, which if it do not succeed in restoring a healthy temperature, must, inevi- tably, hasten the fatal catastrophe." All, against Drugging. The drift of all the modern theories would seem to be against drugging. Each one, cries out against its neigh- bor, and condemns the drugging which is not practised by itself! Allopath, Homoeopath, Chrono-Thermal, Botanic, Eclectic, or what not, each is opposed to the practice of the other, till, like the Kilkenny cats, they have eaten each other up, and nothing is left of either. The cures by Galvanism, and those performed by Pathetism or Psychology, (and their name is legion) all go to prove this Theory of Nutrition. And thus will be seen the advantage which the Nutritive Cure, manifestly pos- sesses over all other theories. For, while neither of the medical Theories allows any thing to its neighbor, diseases are cured, without any medicine at all, which cannot be accounted for, except by admitting what is here set forth as the immediate cause of cure in all case?. 80 THEORY OP NUTRITION. Within a short time, numbers have been healed, with- out any visible means, by what has taken the name of " Spiritual Influence." But, no matter what name it is called by, it will, doubtless, come to be seen and under- stood, by and by, that all these wonderful Cures are per- formed in reality, not by something out of the patients own system, but rather by the Nutritive Fluid, which is set to work, within it.* In this manner during the last thirty years, I have cured or relieved cases of Paralysis; Fits ; Spasmodic Hysteria ; Insanity ; Tic Douloureux ; Aphony ; Neuralgia ; Old Sores ; Want of Sleep ; Dys- menorrhea ; Sick Headache ; Monomania; besides, Ner- vous Difficulties without a name! And, now, while the reality of my cures is thus demonstrated, by similar ones recently performed every where, as it is alleged by " spir- its," out of the human body, operating upon the spiritual forces, or the Nutritive Principle, within the Body, I do not perceive how any intelligent " spiritualist," can enter- tain any doubt, for one moment, on this subject. The cures are often effected, without drugs, and thus is put * See the author's Book of Psychology, Pathetism, Historical, Phil- osophical, Practical, giving the rationale of every possible form of nervous or mental phenomena known under the technics of Amulets, Charms, Enchantment, Spells, Fascination, Incantation, Magic, Mes- merism, Philters, Talisman, Relics, Witchcraft, Ecstasy, Hallucina- tion, Spectres, Trance, Illusions, Apparitions, Clairvoyance, Somnam- bulism, Miracles, Sympathy, &c, &c, &c, showing how these results may be induced, the theory of mind which they demonstrate, and the benevolent uses to which this knowledge should be applied. Price only 25 cents. Sent by mail to any part of the country, free of post- age. This book discloses the whole secret of " Electro-Biology," " Mental Alchemy," "Electrical Pyschology," &c, &c, and for teach- ing which #10, and even #50, have been charged! The title shows why it should be read by all persons who wish to understand the won- ders and mysteries of which it treats. Read it by all means! MEDICAL AUTHORITIES. 81 upon this Theory of Nutrition, the seal of Demonstration. The " spirits " do not, always, succeed in effecting cures which they undertake; they sometimes fail as the best Physicians are known to do. Frequent calls have been made upon the author to treat cases, which the " spirits " had failed to cure. It is not an unreasonable assumption, that a case, before it is undertaken should, indeed, be curable. If curable, all I can promise is that this method by nutrition has the decided advantage of all others, old or new, ever tried upon the sick and afflicted.* What will the Invalid do? Of one thing I am quite sure, that no intelligent per- son, who values health, will or can rely upon either of these medical Theories, provided it is known, precisely, how little medical men rely upon them. If Physicians, themselves, repudiate their own medicine, what is to be expected from the invalid who is made acquainted with this fact ? If those who know the most of drugs, and drugging, are opposed to all forms of medicine, what shall we think of those ignoramuses who are ever and anon, cracking up some new medical discovery, some " cure all," * And speaking of the " spirits," it may not perhaps, be out "of place to mention here, that since my first " Pamphlet" on this subject was published, I have seen a "communication" purporting to come from " the spirit world," in which my ideas were repeated, almost in my own language! The "spirits" however, gave me no credit for what they seem to have borrowed from my labors ! I have already referred to the fact, that the " spirits," so called, are, now, engaged in recommending new forms of drugging ! In many of the spiritual papers, may be seen, advertisements of medical drugs, all powerful to heal, recommended by " spirits," it is said, out of the hu- man body! But, to me the prescription of some new fonn of drugs would rather go to prove, that the " spirit" which did this was, still in this world, of drugs, and drugging, quacks and quackery. 82 THEORY OF NUTRITION. which the sick are invited to take as the surest means of life and health ? It is this very quackery in the regular Faculty that has repelled so many of its members who have abandoned it in disgust. One of them after leaving it, thus gives his opinion of the medical profession : — " But man, who knows no good unmixed and pure, Oft finds a poison where he sought a cure : For grave deceivers lodge their labors here, And cloud the science they pretend to clear. Scourges for sin the solemn tribe are sent, Like fire and storms, they call us to repent. But storms subside, and fires forget to rage : These are the eternal scourges of the age ! 'Tis not enough that each terrific hand Spreads desolation round a guilty land : But trained to ill, and hardened by its crimes, Their pen, relentless, kills through future times. " Ye frigid tribe, on whom I wasted long The tedious hours, and ne'er indulged in song; Ye first seducers of my easy heart. Who promised knowledge ye could not impart; Ye dull deluders, truth's destructive foes ; ' Ye sons of fiction, clad in stupid prose ; Ye treacherous leaders, who, yourselves in doubt, Light up false fires and send us far about — Still may yon spider round your pages spin, Subtle and slow, her emblematic gin ! Buried in dust, and lost in silence, dwell; Most potent, grave, and reverend friends—farewell!" * * Crabbe. COMMON FALLACIES. In a work of this kind it may be proper, to give a pass- ing notice of some of those popular errors, which are so common in the minds of people, generally, in respect to Pathology and Therapeutics. These notions are worthy of notice, only, in so far as they hinder the progressive tendencies of the age, and keep up those habits, which result, more or less in disease and death. Among this class we may mention the following. "Must Take Something." It is a common fallacy, that, in all cases of sickness, " Something must be taken" as the phrase is. When in- disposition is apparent, the inquiry is started on every hand " What have you taken for it ? " And, if the answer be "Nothing"! then comes the common advice in every body's mouth, " Why don't you take something ? " The question is never once asked, as to whether any thing ought to be taken ? Or, whether any thing ought to be done, in the sense of being "taken" generally understood by this term. And, yet, this is the first question, always. Or, rather, perhaps, we might, sometimes, more appropri- ately ask, " What has been taken " to cause the difficulty ? What was, taken, by the patient's ancestors ? What has, he, himself, taken ? In his habits of Life, what has he done? What of his occupation? What in his eating 83 84 THEORY OF NUTRITION. and drinking habits ? Habits of dress, and all that go to make up his spiritual and physical being ? What has he done? Many forms of disease produce alarm, necessarily, ac- cording to the want of information of all concerned. Hence, they become impetuous to take something; " Run for the doctor," or, for the brandy bottle, the pill chest, or the lancet! And, you will have as many different medi- cines advised, as there are neighbors to sympathize with the patient. Each one has a perfect " cure all," which the sufferer is earnestly desired to take, and, so he tries one after another, till he gives up in despair, justly concluding that his cure is not to be found in any medicine at all. A man is thrown from a horse, or, is stunned by a blow. Now see what is "done," to relieve him. A knife is thrust into his veins and life's choicest current is allowed to escape, as if the less he had of Life in him, the sooner he would recover! So, in diseases considered more than commonly dan- gerous, " Something must be taken." And under this impulse of fear, how often the stomach of the sufferer has been crammed with loathsome nostrums, enough to kill a perfectly well person. " But, would you have us do, literally, nothing, at all ?" Answer. If the case require surgical aid, send, immedi- ately, for the best, nearest, surgeon. And if you, your- self, do not know what to do, why, then, apply to the nearest who does know. These remarks refer, of course, to acute disease, and not to those of the chronic form, which require no haste as is here supposed to be neces- sary in cases of accidents. COMMON FALLACIES. 85 Too Much Haste. Another fallacy akin to the foregoing often disturbs the invalid, who may be under the true course of Treatment by Nutrition. He expects a miracle to be wrought in his case; he wants to get well in a day or a week. And, if he do not find a marked change within the time he has set, why, he begins to fear that there is no help in that course of Treatment for him. Whereas, he should know, that, while abstaining from drugs, entirely, he is, posi- tively, doing one of the very best things that he could do, for his recovery. When the cause of your disease ceases the effects must cease also. Why, then, worry about the cure, when your own judgment tells you, you are doing all that can be, safely, done ? Or, suppose you find yourself worse, at times. You should know, that all forms of disease partake of the alternating characteristics peculiar to all the other phe- nomena of life. We do not grow up, in a straight line. Life is not all, wakefulness, nor all sleep ; nor all inhaling, nor all exhaling; nor all hunger, nor all eating and drink- ing ; nor all Male, nor all Female ; nor all pleasure, nor all pain. Hence, the invalid, while under Treatment by Nutrition, should bear in mind, that his cure must corre- spond in some of its symptoms, with the other phenom- ena of life. It does not follow, because you may feel less well, at times, while in the process of cure, that, therefore, you are not, on the whole, better, than when the treatment was commenced. Every ill turn you may have, is not only less painful, but, it " makes the num- ber less," extending and lengthening the well periods of returning health, more and more, till the Cure is perfected as far as the constitution of your organism will allow. 8 86 THEORY OF NUTRITION. Location of Disease. The most egregious fallacies prevail in respect to the particular parts, of the body in which a disease is sup- posed to reside, or be located. It is thought to be in the system in the same sense that food is in the stomach. It is spoken of as an entity, a something which is to be chased and driven out the same as you would drive a noxious animal from your house ! The blood is said to be " impure " and, were it impure in the sense often alleged by quacks, the patient could not live for one single moment. But he conjures up the In- valid's fears in order to induce him to swallow a peck or more of his pills; a gallon or so of his " bitters," all of which will, most assuredly, " purify the blood." The Invalid believes his " stomach is foul," in the same sense in which firearms are so, after having been long in use without cleaning! Many such notions prevail, and all are fed and encouraged by the common assumptions as to the necessity of certain medicines as a means of cure. Cathartics. " Pills," " bitters," and all that class of nostrums which operate directly upon the liver and bowels, are supposed to be as necessary, as our daily food. At certain seasons of the year, especially, it is supposed some "opening medicine" is absolutely necessary, to keep one in good health, and, more so to restore it when lost. The invalid is not aware, that a dose of physic was never swallowed which did not leave the bowels more costive than before. But, the prevalence of this fallacy has laid the foundation for fortunes made in the sale of the various "pills," so well known, and so generally taken in different parts of COMMON FALLACIES. 87 the country. Indeed, so extensively has this form of dosing prevailed all over the world, so common are " the vegetable pills," " the family pills," " the stomach pills," " the liver pills," " the cathartic pills," " bilious pills," &c, &c, that this monosyllable has become one of hateful im- port ; the very term itself, seems almost enough to puke or purge, without even the trouble of swallowing any thing. Electro-Magnetism. As people have become conversant with the common phenomena of Magnetism and Electricity, quacks have not been wanting to tax their credulity in the sale of " Electrical" and " Magnetic " medicines. The idea held forth is, that certain fluid, resinous, and vegetable prepa- rations, were by a peculiar process, made " electrical" or " magnetic." And multitudes of sick and the suffering have resorted to such medicines who did not know, that, the conveyance of electricity, or magnetism to fluids or any other substances (except, the hard metals) so as to render it permanent, was an impossibility. The magnet- ism conveyed to water, remains only while the process is in operation by which it is at first generated. And, nu- merous substances are said to be medicinally magnetic, the qualities of which cannot be changed by the application of magnetism at all! But under the prevalence of this fallacy, what sums of money have been paid for " galvanic rings," " bracelets," " chains," and the like! Whereas, from the manner in which these things are constructed it is obvious there is, and can be no more real galvanic action produced by them than results from a jackknife worn in the pocket, or the pins, with which the clothes are held together. Indeed, it would be a decided improvement on all these so called 88 THEORY OF NUTRITION. galvanic, magnetic, or electrical, appliances, if the tailors were to assume, to have rendered the coats and pants magnetic by the peculiar structure of the buttons put upon them! " Dieting." While many have just conceptions as to the importance of some restrictions which are supposed to be necessary, in certain cases of disease, yet, the most palpable errors prevail, in respect to what should be done in each par- ticular case of what is called dieting. Here are a few of them: — 1. That " dieting," consists or should consist in living on concentrated food, such as " crackers and milk;" bread made of superfine flour, sugar, and the like. This is the way for persons to become invalids. 2. That dieting consists in living, exclusively, on one article of food, only, and no matter how much of that be taken at a meal. 3. That it is " dieting" to a good purpose to live on Vegetable food, exclusively; and, while one does so, he may eat as much, at every meal as his stomach will hold. A spare diet of lean flesh, when the animals were healthy, would, in some cases, be better than gormandizing with fruit or vegetables, exclusively. 4. It is quoted as a proverb, often, " Stuff a fever, and starve a cold." The idea is, that in some diseases we should eat as much as we possibly can, at each meal. But we ought to know, that in all " colds " so called, there is more or less fever, which is relieved more by starving, than by " stuffing." 5. When the appetite is good, it is supposed we may eat almost any kinds of food, and in any quantities. But, there is, really, as much or more danger, when the appe- COMMON FALLACIES. 89 tite is keen, than when it is poor. It is during such sea- sons, that the stomach is overloaded, the digestive system deranged, and the foundation laid for dyspepsia, liver- complaint, costiveness, piles, consumption, tumors, head- ache, and, indeed, all forms of disease, that human beings ever suffer. 6. A similar error prevails, in respect to the time ne- cessary to make a permanent change in the health by the food we eat. It is true, that crude indigestible substances, do, often, induce bowel complaints and other difficulties, in a few hours after being eaten. But, the habits of living which lay the foundation for chronic diseases, and which predispose the system to " cholera, plague, and fever," are those which have been long continued; those which pre- vail with us, while we are comparatively well. Nor, can a chronic disease be removed by a few days of abstinence from the particular kinds of food which have been the cause of it. There are cases, in which an attack of head- ache, or colic, or some other form of disease may, indeed, be traced to some fault in diet but recently committed. When the complaint is chronic, the patient must not ex- pect an immediate cessation of all his bad symptoms, merely by using a little self-denial for a few days. 7. We fail in tracing our complaints to their true causes. Opium, Tobacco, and the habitual use of alco- holic liquors, all interrupt the digestive system; this is disease ; and in such an enfeebled condition, it is more susceptible to an infection from external causes. When, in such cases, the system is attacked with contagion, its powers of resistance are not sufficient, and, hence acute diseases become chronic, and the chronic form ends in death. 8. A mistaken notion prevails respecting the cooking R* 90 THEORY OF NUTRITION. of fruits and vegetables. Ripe fruits need never be cooked at all, except when dried ; and, even when thus cooked, they cannot be so wholesome as when eaten un- dried. But, if the fruit be unripe, all the cooking does not ripen them, nor make it safe to eat them. With vegetables, a little more latitude may be used; but there are some kinds of these, which may be either too dry, and hard, or not sufficiently matured to be suitable for food. 9. It is a mistaken notion when gormandizers suppose that one kind of food, taken at the same meal, counteracts the deleterious effects of another kind. Thus we are told that no amount of cherries will injure, if you only eat the stones with them. Whereas, persons have died from the quantity of cherry stones taken into the stomach. Nor will " pepper," " vinegar," " wine," " old cheese," and " mustard," correct the evils of over-feeding as many have supposed. 10. Nor is it true, that one should, always, eat, whether hungry or not. As a general rule, it is safe, always, to graduate the quantity and the quality according to the appetite. The less appetite, the less food; certainly, it is always, safe to follow an enlightened judgment, both as to the quality and the quantity of our food, as it is in all things else, upon which our happiness so much depends. Doctors Over-estimated. It is a common fallacy that persons called " doctors," must, as a matter of course, understand all about any and every case of disease, as to its cause, or causes, and the best means of cure. Some of the most ignorant persons in the community are in the " practice of medicine;" not ignorant in the general sense of this term, but especially ignorant of the Laws of Health. Indeed, we sometimes COMMON FALLACIES. 91 find that ignorance and unfitness for this office are made the grounds on which patronage is claimed for this class of persons ! The less informed they are the better, as it is hence imagined, that such, are special favorites of Heaven, who stumble upon the means for restoring health. Legal business, and pecuniary transactions are never, thus, intrusted to the care of ignorance, and mere pre- tension. An impaired garment or watch, however worth- less, would never be thus confided to inexperienced and unpractised hands. But, health, which is so much more precious than silver and gold, is often thrown away, through the ignorance of those on whom reliance is placed for a cure. There are many forms of disease which set at defiance, all the experience and practical skill of the most intelli- gent and reliable physicians in the world. They often find themselves at a loss, and, unable to give a satisfactory diagnosis, and hence they cannot prescribe medicine as a means of cure. And, yet, some " Indian doctor," some " patent " nostrum vender, gets hold of one of these cases, and he finds no difficulty at all; he understands all about it, and can cure it with his " new medical discovery," as a matter of course! Such is the want of thought among the masses now suffering every form of disease, acute and chronic, tlirough the length and breadth of the land. Is it Curable? Another of the common fallacies, is found in the notion that all diseases are curable. Thus, of yellow fever, the plague, whooping cough, mumps, typhoid fever, small pox, chicken pox, scarlet fever, and measles. That these forms of disease are not, and never were cured by medicinal treatment, we have the highest authority for asserting. 92 THEORY OF NUTRITION. Indeed, who so wretchedly ignorant of Pathology as not to know this fact! And yet, we have among us any num- ber of " doctors " who pretend to cure these diseases by medicine, and who acquire fortunes by the sale of the nostrums they make for this purpose. " Panaceas." It is a common fallacy, in supposing, that there is pecu- liar virtue in certain nostrums, for the cure of certain diseases. One class believe in " vegetable " medicines ; another rely upon steam, and a third upon the " shadow of a pigeon boiled down." Patent medicines are popular in all parts of the world. In the year 1844, while lec- turing in Providence, R. I., I was informed by the author of a nostrum called " Pain Killer," of his discovery ! It consisted of four ingredients only, which possessed virtue chiefly, because they came from the four quarters of the globe! And, with that nostrum, that same man has since made a princely fortune! * Such are the Common Fallacies which prevail in re- spect to one nostrum and another, made " for sale," but on which the uninformed invalid relies for the cure of disease. * Dr. Doesticks, has invented a new patent medicine. This is the way he did it: — Bought a gallon of tar, a cake of beeswax, and a firkin of lard, and in twenty-four hours I presented to the world the first batch of " Doe- stick's Patent Self-Acting Four Horse Power Balsam," designed to cure all diseases of mind, body or estate, to give strength to the weak, money to the poor, bread and butter to the hungry, boots to the bare- foot, decency to blackguards, and common sense to the Know Noth- ings. It acts physically, morally, mentally, psychologically, physio- logically and geologically, and it is intended to make our sublunary sphere a blissful paradise, to which Heaven itself shall be but as a side show. COMMON FALLACIES. 93 A Delusion. It is a greater fallacy still to suppose that any disease is ever, really cured by medicine at all! And in this great delusion which so generally prevails all over the world, each family and each individual has his " hobby cure," his "cordial," "pills," "sirups," "oik" "bitters," and the like, each of which is believed to be a " sovereign Remedy" for some ailments, and is kept and ever and anon is swallowed occasionally. Preventives. And, akin to this fallacy, is that other in respect to nostrums supposed to be preventives of disease. The no- tion is, that, by taking the dose, while in a state of perfect health, (as in the prevalence of Asiatic Cholera, or the Yellow Fever, or Dysentery,) the system is thus invig- orated and rendered invulnerable to disease! A more palpable fallacy could scarcely be imagined. Any intelli- gent Physician will tell you, that medicine is never effectu- al, as medicine, only in so far as it acts as a poison. It is not nutriment. The blood is not made out of drugs. The tissues recoil from its contact. Hence to take medi- cine in health is to predispose the system to disease. It must be so. The drugs interfere in the normal motions of the parts which they reach, and thus the regular functions are interrupted, and the system is weakened. And, it would seem to have been this very truth instinctively de- veloped in the mind, which, long ago, originated the well- known words: — " I was well — Took Physic, Was sick, and died." 94 THEORY OF NUTRITION. Surely, it is enough that the sick should be everlastingly dosing. The invalid, just ready to drop into the grave, makes his daily meal of drugs. And, so also, if the healthy wish to become diseased, why, take to drugging. Have your box of pills, your bottle of sirup or cordial, or "oil," and swallow it as regularly as you do your " daily bread." If you are not, now, an invalid, you will be one in due time. Miracles. Another fallacy equally prevalent, is the notion that cures should be looked for, to be performed abnormally, or by miracle. It has been truthfully remarked, that, he is the most reliable Physician who, above other men, un- derstands diagnosis. A knowledge of disease which must comprehend a knowledge of Human Physiology, the na- ture of each organ and its functions; also, the ability to distinguish between the different forms of disease, between a disease and its symptoms, and between symptoms that are morbid and those that are healthy. And, I ask, how is this knowledge to be acquired ? In a dream ? By con- jecture ? Is there any royal road to its acquisition ? Does it come by miracle ? The true answer to these queries must be suggested by a general knowledge of Nature and the Constitution of things. The highest and the most reli- able knowledge is, always, acquired by experience. Man is born for education, or experience. The grand Problem of Human Life is solved, only, by experience. Man is not born, so much for Intuition, or Clairvoyance. True, we, now and then, have an Intuitive Mathematician like Colburn and Safford; but these mathematicians are not Philosophers, their knowledge on other, collateral subjects is small like that of other men. Mathematics, as a COMMON fallacies. 95 science, does not depend upon those prodigies. The great Problems of Manhood are not solved by intellectual mon- sters. They are worked out by observation and expe- rience. We should bear in mind, that when an invalid has faith in a clairvoyant's description of his case, he would be most likely to rely upon the remedy which should be thus indicated. And, in this way, many cures may have been effected, while, at the same time, it does not follow, either that the disease was, precisely, what the clairvoyant said it was, nor, indeed, that the nostrum was the real cause of the cure. The real healing was brought about by Nutrition. And the nutritive system was assisted by the directions in respect to the diet, bathing, exercise, and the impressions made upon the nervous centres through the organs of Hope. In this manner, numbers may have been cured, who have been prescribed for by "spirits." But, all these methods come under the head of the Abnormal, the irregular, or the miracu- lous. They are incidental. They are not the highest and most reliable. A quack succeeds, it may be, in one case out of a hundred failures. And the abnormalness, the miraculous, and wonderful, of that one case, gives con- fidence in the ninety-nine cases, where there was no correct diagnosis at all. And, in these ninety-nine cases, the patient may be benefited, perhaps, by following the prescription for a cure. But, it is uncertain. There is nothing, perfectly, reliable in these abnormalisms as the means of cure. What we most want, and, that skill on which we should most rely, is the result of the largest, and most matured experience. It is found only in Manhood ; only in those minds harmoniously developed by the most varied experi- ence in the phenomena of disease and the laws of health. 96 theory of nutrition. And, hence it is, we find, those invalids, most wanting- in experience, are the first to rely on the miraculous, and abnormal methods of cure. They are attracted by the marvels of what is mysterious and unaccountable. They have yet to learn, that Nature's highest aim is to develop Manhood, by the most varied experience; years of un- wearied toil, and a life of laborious investigations, without which man would fail of the grand object for which he was developed. It is, indeed, a most humiliating reflec- tion, that so large a portion of the human family should still so much rely upon the conjectural, — the abnormal, the cabalistic, in the treatment of disease, instead of a practical knowledge of Nature's Laws. But such are the common fallacies which stand in the way, not merely of good health, but of the ultimate progression and final destiny of the race. The fallacy in respect to these abnormalisms, consists in thus looking for a cure, or relying upon clairvoyance, for the diagnosis or the means of cure. That diseases have been cured by clairvoyance as I have already said, I do not deny. So diamonds have been found, in certain localities. But the finding of a diamond in a particular spot does not prove that another diamond may be found there. And, yet, we know it did suggest this very idea to the Royal Society of London, many years ago, for they sent to Sir P. Vernatti, then resident in the East Indies, to ascertain " whether diamonds and other precious stones, grow again after three or four years in the same places, where they have been digged out."* It is, now, easy for us to account for such an inquiry as this, by the igno- rance of the age, hi which it was put forth. And, so we * Dr. J. Bigelow's Ad. before the Am. Ac. of Arts and Sciences, 1852. common fallacies. 97 are compelled to a similar conclusion in respect to the fallacies of many at the present day, who look to the miraculous for the cure of disease. Those must do so who do not know of any higher or more reliable method. Aud yet, there is a " more excellent way," and of which, perhaps, the reader will be better satisfied, after he shall have " inwardly digested," the page which follows. 9 THE TRUE THEORY. A subject so comprehensive as that of Life, Health and Disease, could not, very well, be disposed of in a sin- gle page. The business of a lifetime, continued from beginning to the end, would scarcely be sufficient to do justice to a matter so vast and complicated. And, yet, when it is considered, how very simple all of Nature's Laws are, when examined, in detail, I may attempt, perhaps, a brief statement of what I suppose may ap- proach the Truth on this subject, so as not to be misunder- stood. A few terms may be used that will be somewhat new to some of my readers ; but, the exercise of a little attention and patience, will, I hope, enable the candid, fully to comprehend all that follows. Health. I observe, then, that perfect Nutrition, continued for a certain period of time, is Health. Instinct is the cause, Nutrition the means, and Life, Development, or Health, the result. Disturbance in the complicated processes of Nu- trition ; that is, excess or deficiency in the Ingestive, Re- tentive, and Egestive, Motions, peculiar to Instinct, is, disease, weakness, pain, death. The true Vis Medicatrix Natura (Curative Principle) is, therefore, in Nutrition, always. When this is imperfect, the phenomena occur which we denominate Disease. 98 TnE TRUE theory. 99 Disease. Hence, I say that, disease may, in all cases, be consid- ered as the best state which the organism can bring about under all the circumstances, and with the nutritive mate- rials it has at command. It is an increase or diminution, of that amount of Heat and Motion which constitutes Health. When there is an excess, and the motions or Functions are suddenly and unduly excited, we call the disease acute; but when the disturbance has continued long enough to alter the structure or the relative position of the particles composing the parts affected, the system is diminished in strength, and we say it is Chronic, and the Treatment varies accordingly. In the former case, the Treatment may be called Negative, as the less labor there is imposed upon the stomach the better. But, in Chronic cases, the Treatment should be Positive, the stomach being regularly supplied, not with medicine, but humored, so to speak, with such Nutritives as will soonest become assimilated, and thus add to the Living Principle by which the Organism is harmoniously developed and conserved. Analysis. To have a distinct idea of this Theory, the reader will please to weigh the following observations: — If we suppose matter to be that Substance evolved from the Divine Elements, Love, and Wisdom, it is evi- dent it must be Triune, and thus correspond in its Essence, Forms, and Uses, with the producing Cause. Hence, in the Constitution of the Universe, we have, Heat, Motion, and Light. In the Divine Order, the first Element must be Heat, which corresponds to Love, or Life. It is inherent in matter, constituting its molecules, 100 theory of nutrition. it evolves their motions, and thus determines their chemical relations. Philosophically speaking, we make a difference between the Principle of Will, power, activity, and actual motion. But, we say, that in whatever Forms matter exists, or is manifested, it is, always, in motion; for, without motion matter could have no Form, and without Form, there is, there can be, no existence. Hence, to give Form to motion, we have the third Element, which is Light, corresponding to Wisdom. Now, we know that light is triune, Red, Yellow, and Blue, and thus we have the inherent and Constitutional, Chemical, and Geomet- rical Laws which enter into, and develop the Nature and Constitution of things. Thus, all the conditions, motions and manifestations of nature or matter, are mathematical and chemical. The first condition is Heat; this, evolves motion, form, arrangement; and is mathematical; motion evolves Light, which is chemical change ; and hence it is, that the same primitive laws appertain to every particle of matter throughout universal existence ; and which pro- duce the revolutions or alternations of nature, such as Heat and Cold ; Light and Darkness ; Male and Female ; Life and Death. One condition, motion, pole or force, evolves its opposite, or becomes the law, cause or reason for another of an opposite kind. Hence it is, that too much of one motion, when unaccompanied by another, produces its negative; as too much excitement of one kind, exhausts that kind of excitability ; too much life, so to speak, produces death ; and too much of one kind of light produces darkness ! Unity of Disease. Now, to see how, exactly, disease must, in all cases, correspond, with these inherent Laws of Nature, bear in the true theory. 101 mind, that, if matter be a unit so must Life be a unit, and if disease be a disturbance in the processes of Life, then disease must be a unit in a similar sense that Life is a unit, or the Nutritive Fluid is so. Indeed, it is worthy of notice, that more than two thousand years ago, Hip- pocrates announced this very idea, when he declared that " All disease is one and identical? Human life, as we know, puts forth a variety of phenomena; it makes nu- merous appearances, while Life, itself, is a unit, one and indivisible. It should follow, therefore, that the phenom- ena we denominate disease, are, all, traceable to that same ' unity which is characteristic of Nutrition, and Life, itself. Fever and disease are one and identical. They are neither essences to extract, nor entities, to combat — they are simple variations in the phenomena of corporeal movements; and, in most cases, happily for mankind, may be controlled with- out the aid either of physic or physicians. The same repar- ative power by which a cut or a bruise, in favorable circum- stances becomes healed, may equally enable every part of a disordered body to resume its wonted harmony of action. How often has nature in this way triumphed over physic, even in cases where the physician had been too busy with his interference. It is in such cases of escape that the gen- erality of medical men arrogate to themselves the credit of cure.* Correspondence. Disease, in all its forms, must correspond with the phe- nomena of Life and health. What, then, are the chief characteristics in the predominating Phenomena of Life ? They may be understood by Sleeping and Waking. Life is made up of a series of alternating motions or states, one of which is positive to another which is nega- tive. If waking be positive, then we say sleeping is negative. Motion is before animal life, and, when asso- * Dr. N. Dickson. 102 theory of nutrition. ciated in three Forms, (Ingestive, Retentive, Egestive). We have life-cells, porosity, and the nutritive fluid, which is animal Life, breathing, inhaling and exhaling; the contraction and expansion of the heart, the arterial and venous blood. All these states, and functions show the antagonizing or alternating motions and conditions that make human life. Sleeping. Sleep is the centripetal motions of the nutritive forces, by which the parts are increased in their constituent mole- cules, or their functional powers. It is a law of motion, as we have seen, for forces to form poles at certain distances within their spheres. That is, the force stops at a certain point within its sphere, where another motion is evolved in an opposite direction. And thus we perceive the alter- nate motions that constitute sleeping and waking. The time for each state is determined by the sphere in which the systems are developed; and their intensity and dura- tion are alternated by each other, as a matter of course. Sleep, therefore, is nutritive action, in the strictest sense of the word; it is that centripetal action, which is the opposite of excitement from light, and all external influ- ences which tend to excite the centrifugal motions of wakefulness, by which the energies of the body and mind are drawn out and exhausted. Hence, we sleep best in the dark ; for sleep is but another term for growth in both plants and animals. It is the time taken by the motions in the capillaries, which appropriate the nutritive fluid to supply the wants for augmenting the parts, and for re- producing what they have exhausted from light and exer- cise. THE TRUE THEORY. 103 Waking. The centrifugal motions of the nutritive forces, con- stitute excitement, wakefulness, consumption, or expendi- ture of functional power, and all those exhalations from the different parts of the system, produced and evolved by the nutritive process, principally, during the time not spent in sleep. I say principally, for we know that in sleeping there is what may be termed a compensating process of excreting carbonic acid, and the vapor of water, for at every instant of life parts of the body are thus removed, and emitted into the atmosphere. And so, also, in waking, or during the exhaustion or excitement of the system, there is a constant series of centripetal motions, which supply and appropriate the quantity of the vital fluids necessary to keep up the motions of life. In these two alternating motions, we have the process which makes the nutritive matter from which we see the correspondence that should always exist between sleep and exercise and food and air. Exercise increases breathing, and the air we breathe supplies the fire which consumes the food; this food, digested, supplies the nutritive matter, and which must be appropriated in sleep. So, if the excitement be mental, the exhaustion brings on those motions which supply the waste.* Alternations. If, then, Life itself, and Health, consist in a regular series of alternating motions, or phenomena, it must follow, as a matter of course, that what we call disease, is in all cases, nothing more nor less, than excess or diminu- tion of these motions ; and thus it must alternate, in * Sec the Book of Human Katxire, p. 60-72. 104 THEORY OF NUTRITION. perfect correspondence with the normal phenomena of life. In other words, the disease may be said to sleep, and wake; or to come and go; at certain periods of time. And thus it is easy to see, that the amount of heat, mo- tion, or motions, and the time during which they are con- tinued, must constitute the characteristics of all forms of disease, whether acute or chronic. One motion continued for a certain period, is growth; continued beyond that period, it is excess, and decay. One motion attracts and receives ; another repels and expands ; combined, — these motions retain, assimilate and build up, which is Nutrition and Life. The union of these two opposite (positive and negative, Male and Female) motions, makes the third, or a circle, porosity, and the little cells, where all Life begins. The Inference. Thus we see what Life and Health must be, or those conditions from which the phenomena of Health result. Health is that condition of the organism in which there is, precisely, Heat, Motion, and Light, enough, no more nor less; and consequent Harmony in these antagonizing mo- tions of Receiving and Expelling. This Harmony is the marriage between the positive and negative, or Male and Female Principles which assimilates, builds up, and evolves Health as the result. In this state of things, each organ, each part and particle is of the right Temperature; con- sequently, it has the right motion, and the right Form. The Ingestive, Retentive and Egestive motions are Har- monious, without diminution or excess. Thus, the due amount of nutritive fluid is elaborated and assimilated in the proper places and at the appropriate time. This is Life, Health, Strength, Happiness. Disease, then, must be a want of Harmony in the THE TRUE THEORY. 105 primary, receiving, retaining, and expelling motions. The Instinctive Forms of Heat, Motion and Light, elaborate the nutritive fluid, the cells, and pores, where life com- mences, and, they tend towards the greatest perfection of which the organism is susceptible, both in sickness and in health. And, disease is the interruption of their Har- mony. Thus Nature, always, does the best that can be done, with the materials she has to work with, and the greatest amount of health is enjoyed when she is the least obstructed in either of these motions. Causes of 111 Health. The remote causes which may tend to excite or diminish these motions, are as numerous as the items which make up the universe, including, withal, every emotion, percep- tion, conception and thought, which comes within the range of mind. The different elements received into the stomach; also, cold, heat, light, darkness, sound, color, odor, bodily and mental exercise, associations ; in a word, every thing, real, or imaginary, which may touch the nervous system or occupy the mind, is capable of affecting the health, and producing those changes in the nutritive fluid which alter the tone of the capillaries, and thus bring on a state of disease, or remove it, as the case may require. These various stimuli, acting upon the nerves, fibres, and tissues, excite them to action, and when in due quan- tity, the system is in a state of health ; but when con- tinued too long, or in too large a quantity, the susceptibility is exhausted, and the system sinks into a state of indirect debility, as we have seen. The Remedy. We can now perceive what is indicated as the best means of cure in all cases. It must be more or less Heat, 10G THEORY OF NUTRITION. more or less of these Primary Motions ; more or less of each; more Harmony among them all. More or less heat, in one part; more or less, received; more or less retained and assimilated; more or less, expelled and thrown out of the system. To effect a cure, therefore, the necessary amount of Nutritive fluid, must be elabo- rated, and assimilated by the different parts at the proper time, and this condition must be alternated, at the proper time by the due amount of those Egestive Motions, which excrete and expel from the system those effete parts of the air, and food, which are not suitable for constituting the Nutritive fluid, out of which the organism is devel- oped. The object, therefore, always, in the Treatment of disease, should be, to extend the periods of its alternations, that is, when the pain ceases, or goes to sleep, if we can keep it asleep, the cure is effected. Hence disease has always been considered as analogous to Death; death is the alternation of Life, as disease is of Vitality. The transition of death is the natural result of those vital forces, which are in operation for transforming matter, from one sphere to another above. Death. When, from the mineral and vegetable kingdoms, Forms reach those degrees which develop sensation and conscious- ness, or the personal identity of the human soul, then the Form is individualized, and never recedes, though the materials from which it has been developed are constantly dying, or changing, by the laws of chemical action, from one state to another. Strictly speaking, death commences just as soon as we commence our existence, because life, or the human soul, is constantly changing the matter with which it invests itself, THE TRUE THEORY. 107 in the form of the living body. There is no sense, there- fore, in which death can be dreaded, in itself considered, but, on the contrary, it should be viewed as it really is, the change in our form of existence by which the spirit relieves itself of the grosser particles of matter, now no longer needed, and ascends to another sphere, according to the laws of progression by which its existence was at first commenced. What death is, therefore, to Life, disease is to health. And, as we labor, eat, sleep, &c, to live, and thus to put off death as long as possible, so, in the treatment of dis- ease, we excite those motions that keep off, or extend the paroxysm; we make the time so long between the healthy period and that of the pain or disease, that the latter never returns ; the result is health and Happiness. Such, in short, is the True Theory of Disease. The Philosophy of its cure we shall be the better able to comprehend, perhaps, as we proceed with the considerations which are to follow. Observe, then, the simplicity, the symmetrical harmony, and, consequent beauty of this Theory. Begin- ning with Nature's Primary Motions, we find, precisely, their number, and order, each of which we may examine with as much minuteness as we count the timbers and in- spect the materials entering into the structure of the building in the process of erection; so that when once completed, we can point out the different mortises by which it is compacted together; we can describe its true foundations, and those hidden parts which are covered from sight. We know the materials of which it is made, the number of its stories, nay, every room and closet, with its peculiar finish ; together with their size, and the appropriate use to which each in particular, and the entire house, in general, were designed to subserve. 108 THEORY OF NUTRITION. So in respect to the " House we live in." Repeated as Nature's processes are, in every animal that is born, and multiplied, in succeeding generations from age to age, the varied and extended experience of the Race, give us in- creasing advantages, for perfecting the Theory of Human Nature. And, as we progress in our observations we find ourselves not only improved in the mechanic arts, so that we work to better advantage and save labor, by our in- ventions, but we have, at our command, also, new, easy, and reliable facilities for preventing disease, and securing the Health and the harmonious development of the Hu- man Body. Our means are multiplied for avoiding the evils that have hindered the progress of those that have gone before. Thus we become more contented in view of the past, more thankful for the present, and Hopeful for the future. NUTRITION. Characteristics. Nutrition consists in those threefold Instinctive mo- tions (Ingestive, Retentive, Egestive,) by which certain substances (oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen,) are re- ceived, separated, (expelling the dead parts) changed, assimilated and Vitalized into the development of the Living Organism. Its essential characteristics are in these three associated motions, of Receiving, Assimilating, and Expelling; each of which must be excited and main- tained by the appropriate amount and quality of positive and negative material, in order to continued Life and Health. Nutrition, therefore, is not an exclusive assimila- tion. The common notion on this subject has been, that those substances are the most nutritious which are soonest assimilated and the whole of whose particles are retained, and enter into the permanent composition of the human body. Even Liebig says: — " Only those substances can be properly called nutritious, or considered as food, which are capable of conversion into blood." But, strictly speak- ing, it is only part of the air that is converted into blood; only a part of the food is assimilated. And, that part which is dead, is not wanted, and hence the Egestive mo- tions which are necessary to throw it out of the system. All the processes of nutrition require, so to speak, posi- tive and negative, substances, one part to be retained and 110 THEORY OF NUTRITION. assimilated, and another (the larger part) to be ejected from the system. The innutritious part of air and food is necessary to excite the Egestive motions, just as necessary as the other part which becomes blood. Life consists not in irchaling, merely, but also in exhaling. Not only in re- ceiving, and retaining, but, dividing, changing, and ex- pelling dead matter which the organism does not want.* The Nutritive Principle. To understand what is meant by Nutrition, ask your- self, what causes a wound to heal ? You may have noticed Nature's process in healing a cut upon your hand. At first she covers it up, with a scab, to keep the air from interrupting the work that is to be done. In a few days you examine and find new flesh has been made and the parts are joined together, exactly as they were before the injury. Now, all this is performed by Nutrition, that Principle which is supplied to your system by air and food. This is the principle exhausted by severe labor ; hence you feel weak, from too much exercise. In this case you exhaust the Principle faster than your nutritive system is capable of supplying it. So, if you take a pow- erful dose of physic, you feel weak from exhaustion, be- cause, an excess in the Egestive motions has interrupted the due supply of Nutrition. Now, precisely the same Principle which gives you Life from good air, and Strength from good food and rest in sleep is the Principle which performs the cure in all cases of disease. There is, there can be, no exception to this Law. It is Nutrition which develops the foetus in the mother's womb; * For a more elaborate view of this important subject, the reader is desired to examine the author's Book of Human Nature, pages 117-128. NUTRITION. Ill it is Nutrition, which makes it grow after it is born. All, all that is taken into the stomach, or the lungs, or ab- sorbed through the skin, adds to the Life, Health, Strength, and growth of the Body and, the Mind, only, in precisely so far as it makes the Nutritive Fluid or Blood. When this is wasting the body is emaciated and weak. When it is interrupted, or misdirected, too much is accu- mulated in one place, and hence, are fevers, swellings and tumors. The term disease, therefore, applies, only, to imperfection in the Nutritive Principle, and no Treat- ment is beneficial, in any case, except such as assists in its harmonious processes. All diseases, then properly so called, if curable, at all, may be Healed by Nutrition, and in such cases the less drugs taken into the system the better. Because, these impose extra labor upon the vital organs, they are not digested, and do not, cannot, enter into the constituents of the Nutritive Fluid. Instinct. Having stated, that Instinct may be considered as the cause of Nutrition, we next wish to know what Instinct is! It is desirable to go as far back from the external world, or the Phenomena of Life, as possible, in this inquiry. The nearer we come to Nature's Primary motions, the sooner we shall find the Principle or Power which cures disease. We say, then, that Instinctive motions are common to all Forms of Life, whether Mineral, Vegetable, or Ani- mal. They are motions which are not originated by the observations or experience of the Organism acting; but, yet, are such as are appropriate for developing the Form, and by which it adapts its movements to the supply of its 112 THEORY OF NUTRITION. own wants.* These motions are threefold, combining those which Receive, those which Retain and those which Expel all substances, of and from which the Human Body is made. Thus: — 1. Ingestive. These motions which constitute degluti- tion, inspiration, and absorption. 2. Retentive. Those motions which retain and assimi- late that which has been received. These motions con- tract the sphincters and keep the contents of the bowels, &c, in their appropriate places. They attract, contract, and assimilate congenial substances, and they develop and build up the organism, from the vital or congenial parts of those materials Ingested through the skin, and into the stomach and lungs. But, as there are certain parts re- ceived, both in the air and in food, which are innutritious and cannot be assimilated, we perceive, the necessity for — 3. The Egestive Motions. Those which expel the in- nutritious (diseased) matter from the pores, and the other outlets of the system. Thus, the dead air is thrown out from the lungs; and the bowels and bladder are relieved of their contents. Because, if retained too long, sickness is the result. We know, that it is in the Harmonious Combination of these different motions that we have all the varied Phenomena of Life, such as Breathing, Di- gesting, Growth and Health. Observe them in the Lungs! Notice how the whole volume of ah is Received, the Oxygen Retained, while the carbonic acid and vapor of water are Expelled. So, in the stomach, the food is first received, then retained and churned over in the process of digestion, and then expelled through the pylorus into the intestinal canal. Now, when we consider to what an * See Book of Human Nature, page 61. NUTRITION. 113 extent these motions must be combined in one Organism as complicated as we know that of the Human Body to be, it is easy to comprehend how a slight deficiency, or excess, in any one of these classes of motions, must result in what we denominate disease, weakness or death. The constant reception of more food than can be retained to advantage, is nothing more nor less than disease. Excess in the Re- tentive motions of the Bowels, or an undue increase in the Egestive which discharge from the Bowels, or the skin, is disease, weakness. In either case, excess, or deficiency, in these Instinctive motions, develop those phenomena, both of body and mind, denominated disease. Such we find to be the primary or Instinctive motions of Life, and Health. Their importance in the study of the animal economy, demands far more attention than can be given them in these pages. But, let the intelligent reader once get hold of the ideas here attempted to be conveyed, and he will, it is hoped, follow up this investigation and trace it through all the sinuosities of the human organism, and thus he will find himself, able to appreciate the Laws here laid down for securing health and long life. The Human Body is the most complicated and mysterious piece of machinery, that ever attracted the attention of thinking minds. And hence it is, that time, and patience, and earnestness are necessary to make progress in the knowledge of nature's hidden laws. Nutrition. Observe, then, the distinguishing characteristics of Nu- trition, have respect:— 1. To that which is received into the organism, food and air. 2. To the separating, choosing, assimilating, and re- 10* 114 THEORY OF NUTRITION. taining, processes, by which additions are made to the size and strength of the organism. 3. To those motions which expel from the lungs, bowels, and pores, the innutritious particles which are un- fit to enter into the composition of the nutritive fluid. Now, as disease is, an excess, or diminution of one or each of these motions, we are driven to the conclusion, that the means of cure, indicated must be in Nutrition. Drugs are not assimilated, they do not enter into the composition of the blood. Hence, to receive them into the stomach, is adding to the evil which has already oc- curred. It is putting substances into the stomach which, not only afford no material for nutrition ; but they make extra labor for the system, in expelling them; labor, for which the organism receives no nutriment in return. In the motions of inhaling, we receive nutriment from the oxygen, which gives us strength to exhale, that part of the atmosphere which is innutritious. In the motions of mastication, and digestion, we assimilate a portion of the food, which gives strength to expel that part which the system does not want; or, rather, that part whose pres- ence in the system is necessary only to excite the egestive motions by which it is expelled. But, it may be said, I am aware, that medicines should be given for the purpose of exciting either of these inges- tive, retentive, or egestive motions, when the system is diseased. I answer, in all such cases, the action, thus ex- cited, is itself abnormal, it is not, like that which is natu- rally caused by the appropriate kind of Nutriment. In cases of constipation, a dose of physic excites unnatural motions of the bowels, which is alternated by a still greater degree of costiveness than before. Because, as we have seen, one extreme leads to another. An unnatural excitt- nutrition. 115 ment of the egestive motions of the bowels, alternates in an unnatural extreme of the retentive motions. Hence the only rehable and safe method for exciting a healthy action of the bowels is by nutrition, or receiving into the system the appropriate kind of nutriment. And, the same may be said of every other form of dis- ease properly so called. When there is hemorrhage, or, in cases of foreign or poisonous substances in the stomach, bladder, kidneys or bowels, it may be necessary to receive some kind of medicine into the stomach for the purpose of exciting those motions by which it may be suddenly and safely expelled. But, in all other cases, medicine is not needed, and nature's processes, are more or less hindered whenever they are received into the system. If the foetus commences in nutrition, grows, and is developed by nutrition, from first to last, without drugs, so may the In- valid, recover harmony in his disordered organism, by Nu- trition, alone, and thus progress into harmony, health, and happiness, without, medicine, drugs or drugging. It would be a libel on the Maker of us all, to suppose other- wise. Whatever allowance may be made for these im- perfections which attach to infancy, as we approach to manhood, we become conscious of the perfection and com- pleteness that characterize our maturity, and thus we outgrow the necessity for drugging as really as we are developed beyond the ignorance, discords, evils, antag- onisms, and sufferings peculiar to childhood, and the infancy of the race. VITALITY. In this examination of Nature's Instinctive motions, we approach, as it were, those little cells where life be- gins. We may admit, if need be, that we cannot, fully, comprehend what life is, any more than we can compre- hend what a particle of matter is. But if we use this term as expressive of a fact, in the great whole of Nature, it may be as accurately described as any other property of Heat, Motion or Light. For, life is a result developed, as we have seen, by a combination of each of these ele- mentary principles of matter. And, now, to realize how competent, how efficient, Life is, and must be, for over- coming disease, we may contemplate some of its pecu- liar phenomena, and the manner in which the Living Principle does its work. Prolificacy. The life-giving Principle is immanent in Nature, in the Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal Kingdoms, each teems with life. And, how powerful, for life, we do not perceive, without considering the prolificness peculiar always, and every where, to the vital principle. See how it covers the earth with verdure ; and, with what unvarying aptness it renews its life-giving efforts in each succeeding period of time. And this principle attaches to each form of vege- table life; to each plant, each herb and each tree. The 116 vitality. 117 elm, we are told, produces, one thousand five hundred and eighty millions of seeds ; and each of these seeds has the vital germ, " in itself," for reproducing the same number over again, so that, the seeds from the third or fourth generation of this noble tree, amount to myriads more than would be sufficient for stocking the superficies of all the planets in our solar system! Such is the astonishing prolificness of this nutritive and life-giving principle with which the Mineral and Vegetable kingdoms have been endowed. Fecundity. Eminent naturalists have assured us, that not less than thirty thousand living bodies are to be found in a single drop of water! And each of these animals, so incon- ceivably small, has a perfect nutritive system, composed of bones, muscles, stomach, heart, arteries, veins, &c, and a soul that animates the whole! The fecundity of the fish tribe is well known. Leuwen- hosk counted, in a middling-size cod, nine millions, three hundred and eighty-four thousand eggs! And the common herring, it has been computed, would multiply with such rapidity as to overstock the entire ocean, in a short period of time, if they were not constantly devoured by fishes of '' larger growth," for many of which they seem to con- stitute the principal article of food. And thus it is, above, below, and all around us, in the Mineral, Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms, nature teems with life-forms ; it is her constant endeavor, the work not only of a Century, or a year, a month, or a day, but per- formed in myriads of myriads of forms, during every moment of time. Nay, it was for this very use that Na- ture, herself, was born, for this stupendous design breathed 118 theory of nutrition. the Divine Life into her, and made her, as she is, the benign mother of us all. She furnishes the life-cells, in which her conceptions are formed and from which her innumerable, vegetable, animal and mental Forms are evolved. Life, therefore, is her appropriate work, and from her unnumbered matrices living forms are born, in numbers, exceeding the powers of the most exalted ima- gination to conceive, and which can never be fully compre- hended by the most capacious Intellect, inasmuch as no effect, can comprehend the cause by which it has been produced. Radical. Having stated, that Life results from a certain associa- tion of the twofold elements of Nature, the inquiry arises, as to how this association is brought about ? What is it that brings the Positive and Negative together, the unity of which produces life ? The answer is to be found in a knowledge of the nature and constitution of things. As we have seen, there are two Great Forces, in nature, which we call Positive and Negative. Now, we know, that these Forces, in all departments of the universe, are Male and Female. That is, they constantly tend towards and attract each other. They are in each kingdom, in each sphere, in each degree, in each form, and in each particle of matter, from the highest to the lowest, in the entire universe of matter and of mind. They are ever present, always acting, always attractive, tending towards each other; and hence, life must, necessarily, follow as the result! We have seen in what sense Nature is pro- gressive. She is always living, evolving life, throughout each of her vast dominions, including all of the Mineral, and all we know of the Vegetable, and Animal worlds. VITALITY. 119 The Degrees, and Forms, and Uses, show how far she has progressed, from the mineral, or the vegetable, up to manhood. And, thus we perceive, that in all her particles of matter, in all her spheres of development, these ever- present Male and Female Forces, acting and reacting on each other, attracting and being attracted, — those asso- ciations must, necessarily, be brought about, which evolve the Forms of Life that appear. We may call these Forces, God, or, the Laws by which God acts in matter, and mind. It is sufficient for our present purpose, to find this view of his works, a satisfactory answer to the ques- tion, as to the origin of human life. Vitality must be a necessary result of the Male and Female, Positive and Negative, Forces, in Nature, just as really as the ebbing and flowing of the tides, are the result of the Laws of gravitation. Life must be contemplated as a necessity in certain conditions of matter, and hence its consistency and efficiency in overcoming, disease, or whatever, tends to impede the development of its peculiar phenomena. Forms, Uses. Our confidence in this Theory will be still further strengthened if we contemplate the progressive Forms in which the Nutritive Principle is developed. Each Form is individualized, and separate not from its fellow, merely, but, from all other forms that are above or below. Thus it is precisely the same in each particle of matter, the same in each pebble, the same in each vegetable; and differing still from all that goes before, it is the same in each hving body, in each sphere of Animated Nature. Thus it revolves, re- produces, and unfolds its forms, from age to age, preserv- ing and perpetuating, from eternity to eternity, the peculiar and vital Individualities of each Form, and by which one 120 theory of nutrition. is separated and distinguished from another. The same Vegetables, the same Animals, and the same Human Beings are reproduced from age to age. Life's " Indi- vidual sovereignties " can never be annihilated. They are eternal, because the Laws by which they are evolved are eternal. In the universality, and unvarying independence of these laws, we find the reasons, for faith and hope in God, and Nature. Knowing that his Laws never fail, his work is always perfect, we have confidence in the use of appropriate means, for the restoration of health, that has been lost from a want of a knowledge of those laws by which alone it can be conserved. These forms of life change, each fills a given sphere. Thus, the vegetable starts from its germ, and, passing through the successive changes necessary for the perfection of its seed, the outer form, on which the fruit or seed is matured, dies, is de- composed and returns again to the mineral kingdom. The Animal, still higher in the plane of development, fills a higher sphere ; and, after giving,birth to its own forms of life, dies and goes back, while the Life, peculiar to that Form, continues and is never annihilated, is never ab- sorbed, or lost among the other spheres of development. Such are the conservative powers, and uses, of Life in all its forms from age to age. And, from these tendencies we infer its competency for resisting disease. And to make this still more manifest, let us descend to a few details: — 1. Vitality overcomes the laws of gravitation. The sap of plants and trees ascends against the force of these laws, and the blood and other fluids in the human body are circulated in despite of them. 2. It resists, overcomes, modifies, and annihilates the lower chemical affinities. The function of digestion, is VITALITY. 121 chemical action, in a higher sense, than these terms could be used of any arrangements of human skill. No change can be made in temperature, or the relation of particles without the operation of chemical and electrical laws. And, with what constant, and efficient action the digestive, circulating, assimilating, and excreting processes of the nutritive principle are carried on, but a slight acquaint- ance with human Physiology is necessary to show. And all these processes are carried on by superseding some of those chemical affinities which obtain in the mineral and vegetable world below. The perfection of chemistry is constantly carried on in the stomach, and lungs of the living body. Here, indeed, we have a true laboratory, for evolving the true elixir of life, the real vital fluid. Here is manufactured a Living Element, which resists and overcomes, the " imponderable fluids." The normal temperature of the human body in this country is not far from 96° Fahr. But, Dr. Fordyce remained in a room twenty minutes that had been heated to 120°; and after- wards, in a room heated to 130°, where he remained fifteen minutes, while the thermometer in his hand rose only to 100°. Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Solander, and Sir Charles Blagden remained several minutes in a room heated to 196° and even 211°; and the latter of these gentlemen remained eight minutes in a room heated to 260°. A young female at Rochefaucault, is said to have been in the habit of staying from ten to twelve minutes at a time in an oven heated to 276° ; and Tillet and Duhmal informs us that they bore a heat of 290°, for nearly five minutes. The sculptor Chantrey is said to have often entered his furnace, when heated for drying his moulds, to 320°, and his workmen did the same with impunity when the ther- mometer was up to 340°. Mons. Chabert the " fire king " 11 122 theory of nutrition. is said to have entered -an oven when the heat was up to 400°, more than 180° above the temperature at which water boils! And we find this Living Principle, possessed of a sim- ilar power for generating.heat. In the account of Captain Parry's voyage to the Arctic seas we are told, that his crew were frequently exposed to a temperature 50° below zero, and 150° below that of their own bodies, without be- ing frozen. Such are some of the amazing powers of the Nutritive Principle, for overcoming, modifying, and anni- hilating difficulties that lie in the way of life and health. The thought is overpowering. Its contemplation should shame the hordes of quacks and pill venders, who swarm around the poor invalid with their " medicine bags," of " roots and herbs," " seaweed," " pigweed," or some other nostrum equally worthless. Behold, what miracles of wonder, what stupendous achievements, the living Princi- ple of Nutrition accomplishes unaided by artificial drug- ging ! Divine and Godlike Principle! Alas, that it should ever have been so misunderstood, so much abused, and perverted, through the cupidity of those who " lie in wait to deceive," those whose pecuniary interest is best subserved by the sickness and sufferings of the race, and the consequent amount of physic which, the " Doctor " prescribes as the means of cure. Surely, no " good physician," no one truly honest would ever think of putting drugs in the way of this Vital Prin- ciple. Why interrupt her beautiful work, with disgusting doses of medicine? Why not remove all impediments out of the way! Observe how symmetrical all her births are! when the least interfered with by art and drugs. Who can paint the colors of the rainbow ? What pencil can spread on the canvas the golden hues of sunset ? VITALITY. 123 What art can equal, or even assist, nature in her most common and lowest work! Why not, then, trust the " Benign Mother " ? Why not repose on her Laws, antici- pate her wishes, yield to her mandates of love, and enjoy that life, health, strength, and happiness, which she be- stows with a liberal hand on all her obedient children ! NUTRITIVE PHENOMENA. The term " vital fluid," is often used without, perhaps, any definite idea as to what is really meant by it. In the composition, and functions of the human body there are, certainly, different fluids, as the serum, bile, milk, urine, saliva, mucus, tears, and the blood from which all these are derived; and this is evolved, also, from another which goes before it, which is the pure nutritive fluid. The notion that the life principle is in the blood is not by any means true, only, in so far as that the nutritive elements pass into the blood, as one of their conditions for supplying the wants and developing the tissues of the hving body. The Vitalizing principle is, perhaps, supplied principally, if not wholly, from the air, as the nutritive substance passes into the blood, and through the lungs for this purpose. But, then, we must remember, that these nutritive elements do not, permanently, remain in the blood; they are carried off from the heart, till they reach every organ, every muscle, every tissue, every part, and the minutest extent of the entire body, where they are left for its development, while the comparatively dead blood returns again to the heart and lungs, for the purpose of receiving a further supply of life. Hence we say, that nutrition, properly speaking, is before the blood. The blood, and the finest vitalized nervous tissues are made by nutrition. And, it is for this obvious reason, that I call this the vital, or living fluid. 124 NUTRITIVE PHENOMENA. 125 The blood, and other fluids of the human body are vital only as they contain the nutritive matter, or, by their mo- tions subserve the design of this Principle. And, now, to make this still more manifest, and, also, to demonstrate how directly this fluid is itself life, and health, and its im- perfection, disease, and death, let us look at some of its phenomena; some of those singular changes, in the mys- terious appearances of parts of the human body, normal and abnormal, for which no satisfactory solution can be found, except that which is afforded in the views given here. " Marks " on Infants. From the mind of the mother, Forms, and colors, are transmitted to the foetus, exhibiting, precisely, what the mother had in her thoughts at a particular time, before the child was born. Now, we know, that color has respect to materiality. This must be in the nutritive substance, entering into the formation of the fetus, and which is shaped and controlled by the mother's mind. And thus we may see, how closely connected, how indissolubly united are mind and vitalized matter, insomuch, that shape, form, color, and qualities are communicated to the fetus by the maternal mind.* And, if mind has so much to do in the formation of the human body, in the begin- ning, how much must we not suppose the mind has to do with all the phenomena, of health and disease, which fol- * I am well aware of the extent to which some of the medical pro- fession have given credence to the teachings of Dr. W. Hunter on this subject. He sought for these congenital "marks," but says he did not find one among two thousand which he examined. Well, what if he did not ? Others have found them. And, besides, if we had never seen one, a knowledge of Nature's Laws would lead us to expect their occurrence, precisely as we know they have come to pass. See Book of Human Nature, p. 135. 11 * 126 THEORY OF NUTRITION. low, through the whole course of our subsequent lives! We have already seen, that all things in nature, real and imaginary, which can occupy the thoughts, may change the conditions of the nutritive fluid, and, thus destroy, or restore the impaired health. Hence the immense im- portance of all those agencies, in cases of disease, which tend to soothe and quiet the mind, and excite the activity of Faith and Hope. Transmission of Qualities. It is now admitted by all who have sufficiently studied this interesting subject, that both the physical and Intel- lectual qualities are transmitted from parents to children.* But, such transmission can be effected only by the pro- cesses of nutrition. There is no other way to account for it. Not life, merely, but health, and disease; not Intel- lectual beauty, merely, but mental discords and imper- fections, are transmitted, from parents to their offspring. And, what a subject this, for the contemplation of all who are to become fathers and mothers ! All you receive into the composition of your own minds and bodies, you must, from the laws of absolute necessity, transmit to your posterity. Think of this ! Lactation. The effects produced in the mother's milk, while nurs- ing, from violent mental emotions. The nutrition is in the milk. And cases have occurred where a fit of anger in the mother, immediately before putting the infant to * See the Author's Book of Health, on this subject, page 12. Also Book of Human Nature, pp. 78, 135. NUTRITIVE PHENOMENA. 127 the breast, has produced convulsions and even caused the death of the child. Exhaustion. Animals when chased to death, putrefy much sooner, on this account. Now, this cannot be in consequence of the loss of blood ; but the nutritive principle being exhausted, which is the vitality of the system, it is the sooner decom- posed when this is absent, so as to be the immediate cause of death. Blood. That the nutritive fluid has in it the living, healing principle, and is immediately active in the cure of disease, is shown by the phenomena that take place in the healthy blood, after being drawn from the system. Its fluidity is maintained for some time, by the vital principle, as it can- not clot and separate until its heat, or vitality is gone. So, if a clot of blood lie enveloped among hving tissues, the nutritive Principle will, sometimes, form separate blood vessels of its own so as to constitute a distinct organized substance. Death by Electricity. We have, already, noticed the chemico-electrical quali- ties, that combine to constitute the vital principle of the blood. But, in cases where death is caused by lightning we find this principle is destroyed from the blood, which is the cause of death. In such cases, it does not clot but turns putrid at once. Living Blood. This Nutritive Principle is seen in the blood just drawn from slaughtered animals. Its electrical (positive and 128 THEORY OP NUTRITION. negative) properties, being much stronger, keep its parti- cles asunder and it remains in a fluid state, till the life element has cooled out of it. Whereas, the blood that flows last from the system, as it becomes weak, clots and separates immediately, because its vitality is already exhausted. Tumors. The growth of tumors and the decay in cases of old sores illustrate the irregular processes of the nutritive principle, as is proved, when they are radically cured, as I have known them to be, by abstinence, or fasting, con- tinued for weeks or months, as the case may require, and the system of the patient is able to endure it. In tumors there is an undue quantity of the nutritive material deposited; or, material not of the right kind. And in sores and tuberculous formations, there is a want of power (vitality) sufficient to expel the dead material; so it is en- closed in a sack, as the best disposition which can, under all the circumstances, be made of it. In such cases, a change in the dietetic habits, adds to the vital powers, and the strength thus augmented expels the dead matter, and, heals the sore. The Cilia. We find this nutritive, or life Principle, developed in those mysterious little live creatures, called cilia, from their resemblance to the eyelashes. They are so exceed- ingly minute, as to be seen only with the microscope. They are the effluvia of nutrition, being found wherever we find animal life. They are developed from the smah cells which cover all the mucous membranes, in the ali- mentary canal, the air passages of the nose and lungs, &c They are found in uncounted millions covering these NUTRITIVE PHENOMENA. 129 little mucus cells, moving with great rapidity; and their motions are continued, even after the death of the parts to which they are attached, except when death is caused by electricity powerful enough to disorganize the tissues. Post Mortem Growths. The growth of the hair and nails, as they are said to do, sometimes after death, must be from a full supply of nutrition, before death took place. Weakness. The sensation of weakness from Physical exhaustion; and the delirium which precedes death from starvation. In these cases the nutritive Principle (not the blood) is wanting. Decay. The phenomena of growth and decay, are to be ac- counted for by the want, or a due supply of nutrition. Fever. This theory would seem to solve the problem of Fever, and Inflammation, local and general. The injury of a tissue calls the Instinctive Principle into action, for repairing the mischief that has been done. One of the Motions of the Nutritive Fluid is thus quickened to excess, which is Fever or Inflammation. We have, already, seen, that excess or diminution, in certain cases, is disease, and, indeed, all forms of disease are more or less char- acterized by these two alternating conditions of more or less. Fever and Ague; Fever or excessive heat, is irregular nutritive action ; and, it is disease, only, because it is out of proportion with the other motions of the organ- 130 THEORY OP NUTRITION. ism, on which Harmonious action depends. And, here, we see Nature's grand Design, of which we have spoken before, which is, under all circumstances, to overcome all opposing obstacles, and do the best that can be done, for life and health. If a part of the body be injured, sympa- thy draws one of the nutritive Forces to that part in order to repair the mischief. Hence, Inflammation is Nature's benevolent effort to conserve health and life, and is, there- fore, Nutritive Phenomena in the strictest sense of these terms. Emotions. The effects of violent grief, fear, and joy, which often restore, or destroy the health, are Nutritive Phenomena. A sudden blow upon the human mind, has produced death, as instantaneous as if it had been given with a club upon the head. And, so has the sudden excitement of Faith and Hope, resulted in permanent Health, simply because Harmony is thus restored in the process of nutrition. Correlative Phenomena. The proximate cause of all sensation and all emotions, whatever, together with their correlative and abnormal physical phenomena, is in the Nutritive Fluid. Thus we account for the phenomena, of blushing, laughing, weep- ing, sneezing, sighing, and, indeed, all mental and nervous excitements. And, hence, it is, we say, that good health is the first and most essential condition of Happiness. In- deed, it were easy to trace all the miseries of the race, all the mental and physical sufferings ever endured by Mor- tals, to the want of good Health, or disease, and the want of Harmony in the Vital, Motive or Cerebral Systems. True, these discords may be traced to various remote NUTRITIVE PHENOMENA. 131 causes, from children back to parents, extending to un- numbered generations who have gone before. They are Hereditary, Circumstantial, and Educational. But, it is enough for us to know, that these discords and diseases exist; and, finding the Laws, Associations and Conditions which have caused them, we may, the sooner, commence the use of those appropriate means by which they are partially, or wholly removed. The whole of Life, may be considered as the result of Nutrition, both Mental and Physical. Corresponding with the Body, the Mind has its senses of seeing, hearing, feeling and tasting, or we should say, that, these Faculties all exist in the mind rather than the body. Hence, it is a matter of the utmost consequence that we should nutritate (so to speak) from the best materials, because with our physical devel- opments the mind must always correspond. Nay, should we not say, rather, that all the changes taking place in this world, originate in the mental world, before they appear in the phenomena of the physical ? Hence, this investigation, and all those means of Information, which feed the mind with Truth, must tend to its ultimate development and eternal progression in the spheres above. " Yet scorns the immortal mind all base control! No chains can bind it and no cell enclose : Swifter than light it flies from pole to pole, And in a flash from earth to heaven it goes! It leaps from mount to mount — from vale to vale It wanders, plucking honeyed fruits and flowers; It visits home to hear the fireside tale, Or in sweet converse pass the joyous hours : — 'Tis up before the sun, roaming afar, Ana in its watches icearies every star." PHYSIOLOGY OF NUTRITION. In order, more fully, to comprehend how it is, that cures are effected by pure Nutrition, the reader is now requested to ponder what follows. Among the Physiological facts, here detailed, he will find authority for those Principles of Nutrition referred to, or distinctly stated, for which originality is claimed in this Theory of cure ; and, from which, it may be seen, wherein this method really differs from all other theories, that have gone before, or, that may yet follow after it. Extent of Surface. The extent of surface, proportioned to the nutritive func- tions. Thus, the total number of air cells in the lungs amounts to six hundred millions, and the extent of surface thus exposed to the air within the lungs is 20,000 square inches, or some thirty times larger than the external sur- face of the whole body! Such is the extent of surface, required for that vital operation by which life is breathed into the chyle out of which nutrition is made. This substance is transmitted from the smaller intestines through a vast extent of net- work in the mesenteric glands, which can scarcely be estimated by such as have never examined the anatomy of the human body. Indeed, we find the small intestines lined with millions of minute excrescences, having no open- 132 PHYSIOLOGY OP NUTRITION. 133 ings; and, yet, comprising nerves, blood vessels, and cell- formations, through which the nutritive substance is trans- mitted into the blood. The stomach is hned with more than one million two hundred and ninety-six thousand lit- tle openings, from which the gastric juice is poured out. And these follicles extend through the colon, the inter- nal surface of which is covered with them, whose aggre- gate number exceeds nine millions six hundred and twenty thousand! Such is the extent of surface, directly concerned in the processes of nutrition. And as we proceed, we shall find the external surfaces of the organs, and the entire body, are so intimately connected with the internal that the whole must be examined together, and in detail, in order to get a correct idea of this complicated subject. Consistency of the Nutritive Fluid. How very small the living tissues of the human body must be, we may imagine, when we consider that through many of them water cannot pass at all! The red globules of the blood are 3^ of an inch in diameter, and, yet, many of the vessels are too fine to allow these to pass, even one by one. Thus, the tissues in the transparent part of the eye, transmit no colored blood, except when diseased. When inflamed the tissues become distended with red blood. This fact shows that the Nutritive Fluid, strictly speaking, is not blood, although the blood is one, and, its principal condition. Nutrition makes blood; and yet, it has to leave the blood, and be separated from it, in order to form some of the tissues of the living body. How sublimated the nutritive material must be, will be further evident, when we contemplate the tissues of the animalcula, before referred to, thirty thousand of which 12 134 THEORY OF NUTRITION. can live and move in a single drop of water! The thought is scarcely conceivable. What must be the size of one of the animals, which cannot be seen with the unassisted eye? And, when discovered by the magnifying glass, what must be the size of its bones, intestines and arteries ? Nay, what must be the consistency of its nutritive fluid ? The Capillaries, Or, hair vessels, because they are so very small, like hair; indeed, some of them are so exceedingly fine that they can only be seen, by a microscope of the highest magnifying powers. They are a part of the arterial and venous systems, and, are extended to the entire surfaces of the whole body external and internal. Their minute- ness may be inferred from what is stated, above, as to the red globules of the blood being too coarse to pass through them, and their extent may be estimated from the fact, that every organ, every tissue, and particle composing the body is developed from the materials sent through the capillary vessels. The Lymphatics. These, are little vessels which extend from every part of the system, external and internal, whose office is to receive, suck up, whatever substances are applied to their mouths, which they convey into the thoracic (or Nutri- tive) duct. Any liquid substance applied to the surface of the body is taken in, absorbed, and is more or less mixed with the blood. Thus it is, that one part of the Organs of Nutrition are located in the surface of the human body, by which substances are constantly received into the circulating system. The importance of these ves- sels cannot be too highly estimated; as it is easy to see PHYSIOLOGY OF NUTRITION. 135 how necessary it must be to keep the surfaces of the body constantly free from all impurities ; because, whether in the air, or in the dead matter thrown out from the pores, if left in contact with the skin, they are absorbed and thus interrupt the harmonious processes of Nutrition. Hence the reason for constant cleanliness and bathing the whole body with pure water. Indeed, we are assured, that, through the skin on the outer surfaces of the body changes are produced in the air analogous to those effected by the lungs; that is, oxygen is absorbed, and carbonic acid is evolved through the pores. Perspiration. The functions of the Lymphatics, involve the Ingestive motions, like the stomach and lungs; the pores are, also, for the Egestive motions like the bowels by which the dead and innutritious matter is thrown out from the sys- tem. They extend not only all over the entire external surface of the human body, but they are found, also, on the outward surfaces of the brains, spinal cord, eyes, heart, lungs, liver, spleen, pancreas, kidneys, cystis, uterus, stomach, and intestines. All are covered with a skin, called serous membrane, which is filled with these httle pores, and from which exudes a fluid, which is found to be more or less salt or acid. Each of these pores is the aperture of a little tube, about a quarter of an inch long. Now, we are told, that on the palm of the hand there have been counted no less than three thousand five hundred and twenty-eight, of these pores in one square inch ! It follows, that in a square inch of the skin of the human hand, there exists a length of tube equal to eight hundred and eighty-two inches, or seventy-three feet and a half! Dr. Willson has estimated the entire number of pores in 136 THEORY OF NUTRITION. the human body, at seven millions, and the entire length of perspiratory tube, at one million seven hundred and fifty thousand inches, or nearly twenty-eight miles ! From investigations made by Sanctorius, Rye, Keil, Hartman, and others, it would seem, that, the average quantity of matter thrown off, daily, from a healthy labor- ing man, who consumes 60 ounces of food, is about 30 ounces, or three and a half pints, nearly half the weight of the whole amount of food taken in 24 hours. Functions of the Skin. The offices of the skin, or, rather, the different organs, composing or entering into that membrane, seem to be fourfold: — 1. The excretion of perspiration. 2. The excretion of sebaceous matter, transformed from the blood, for the purposes of lubricating the parts and keeping the surface in a supple condition. 3. Through the pores, is, also, eliminated carbon from the venous blood, thus assisting in the work peculiar to the lungs. 4. Absorption. Any fluid applied to the surface is imbibed through the pores, and in this manner enters the circulating system. Thus it is said to absorb oxygen from the air, and from water; as we know, that poisonous substances are often received into the system in this manner. And thus if our entire organisms, are constantly receiving something, from the air either good or bad, and, constantly giving off effluvia that are unhealthy when kept in contact with the body, we may see the reasons, for certain Rules in respect to the exter- nal surface, prescribed in the Treatment of Disease by Nutrition. If the healthy functions of the pores be in- terrupted, by any means, the phenomena follow which we denominate sickness and disease. physiology of nutrition. 137 Mucus. If we examine these internal surfaces of the body, which are opposed to the external, such as we find in the mouth, oesophagus, stomach, and the alimentary canal, as well as the inner surface of every other organ, we find them with slight modifications lined with Villous mem- branes, like the external surfaces, and from which there is constantly discharged a semi-fluid or mucus, which is more or less alkaline. The chemical Physiologists have demon- strated that the lymph and blood are alkaline fluids. It is certain that saline matter, consisting principally of soda, is essential to the blood; and, when deprived of this salt, the blood becomes black, and cannot be enhvened by the contact of oxygen. Those habits of living, therefore, which deprive this fluid of its natural quantity of alka- lescence, interfere essentially, with those chemical and electrical changes which are necessary for producing pure nutrition. Positive and Negative. Now, we are, also, taught by chemistry, that Acids, and Alkalies, possess directly opposite, and antagonizing prop- erties ; like the north and south poles of a galvanic bat- tery. And yet, they have, at the same time, the strongest chemical affinities (Male and Female) for each other, while these qualities are universally diffused throughout the entire Vegetable and Animal kingdoms ! They con- stitute the two great divisions of matter, one of which (as the acid) we call for the sake of distinction, Negative, and the other, the alkali, Positive. It has been demonstrated that each of these qualities, (acid and alkali) gives out dif- ferent or opposing Forces. The alkaline or Positive gives out the Negative Force (Egestive) which expands, 12* 138 THEORY OF NUTRITION. and spreads. The acid or negative, gives out the Positive Force (Ingestive) which attracts and contracts. And, thus we find, that the alkaline or Positive Forces, on the internal surfaces, are constantly expelling; while the acidified or Negative Forces are constantly attracting, and drawing into the system, those substances with which its wants are supplied. Alternating Forces. An8, here, we may refer to the illustrations already given under the head of " The True Theory," as to the real nature of disease, its alternating phenomena, and its perfect correspondence with the phenomena of Life and Health. So beautifully does the Thread of Correspond- ence run through all the Laws of Physiology, and Pa- thology, and of which we must never once lose sight in studying the best means of cure. By these alternating motions of contraction and expan- sion, the blood and lymph are circulated, the various ab- sorptions and secretions are carried on, and the different excrement is thrown out of the system. The Harmonious operations kept up for these important purposes, we call excitement. Egestive motions are maintained at the expense of ex- citability, and therefore there must be a constant repro- duction of excitability in the system, equal to the expendi- ture necessary for the maintenance of constant excitement. If a diminution of excitability exist, (as is the case in the decline of life,) the system is diseased; and if it be accu- mulated to an over degree, it is also diseased in an oppo- site condition, the equilibrium being disturbed. The Instinctive Forces give those qualities to the living body which constitute the system sympathetic, and render PHYSIOLOGY of nutrition. 139 all its parts excitable, or susceptible to an influence from every other part; and hence, one part, or organ, is influ- enced by its association with another. The strength of the associations will depend on the difference in the quali- ties or functions of the parts, and the nervous or mental connection established between them. This susceptibility of the nervous system to impressions from different causes, by which nutrition is increased or diminished, is differently developed in different persons. Its degree, in every case, is determined by the Instinc- tive power. We know, that by it the several parts and organs of the system are made capable of receiving active impressions. The eye, for instance, is capable of feeling the impressions made upon it by the rays of light, the ear by sound, the nose by odors, &c. The skin is also prepared to feel the impressions made by external agents or substances, as of heat or cold, soft or solid, rough or smooth. But the impressions made on the organs of sense are not immediately connected with that nutritive power upon which life depends. Each of the senses, when stimu- lated by any suitable impression made upon them, mani- fests a perception, and in this way more or less influences the state of health. The influence of excitability upon the heart and arteries, veins, lymphatic glands and secret- ing vessels, makes these several organs capable of feeling the impressions made by the stimulant which acts upon them, and predisposes them to perform their natural functions. From such laws as these, we perceive how immensely important it is for all persons, (and Invalids especially) to adopt those habits of living, exercise, and bathing, which will keep the pores, and the bowels open and perfectly free. When the Egestive motions are arrested constipation 140 THEORY OF NUTRITION (from constipo, to crowd together), piles, &c, follow as the legitimate result. And, this perhaps, is scarcely so great an evil as those which follow obstructed perspiration. These egestive motions interrupted, in the pores of the skin, through which the dead fluids are emitted, and they are thus reabsorbed, back upon the lungs, and hence come inflammations, coughs, fevers, asthma, and consumption. And, thus, if we keep in view what has been said of these outer, and inner surfaces of the human body, and how they, reciprocally, affect each other, we may perceive how it is that an affection in one internal part may cause a corresponding difficulty in another part which is exter- nal, and vice versa. "Impure Blood." The want of the appropriate motions in the pores, may leave an undue quantity of effete fluid in the blood. Indeed, we are told, that as many as fifteen different sub- stances have been found in the blood of Invalids which ought not to be there.* But this affords no real support to the notion on which nostrums are prepared to be swallowed by the sick, for " purifying the blood," as it is called. On no one subject, connected with disease has there been, probably, so much empiricism, as in respect to the blood, when it has been represented as being "impure" and diseased. And, hence, medicines, in any quantities are always in vogue "for purifying the blood," it is said. And this, we are told, is to be done by acting abnormally, upon the liver, stomach and bowels, with cathartics! The idea is perfectly preposterous. And while a belief in this silly * Dr. Simon. PHYSIOLOGY OF NUTRITION. 141 notion has, unquestionably, lined the pockets of nostrum venders with gold, it has led its victims into habits of drugging, which have carried millions of them into an un timely grave. Alas! that such mischiefs should be per- petrated under the idea of "purifying the blood" by drugging* All that need be done in such cases, and all that can be done, safely, is to excite by normal means the motions that are deficient; or to diminish those motions that are ab- normal, or in excess. And this may be done, and should, always, be done, by food, water, air and exercise. Thus, the system is made to cure itself, instead of being sat- urated, benumbed, perverted, deranged, and destroyed by nauseating medicines. * I have already shown to what extent, the country abounds in "root," and "herb," "doctors," who advertise their concoctions, made of " pastureweed," " seaweed," and " pigweed," and all for " purifying the blood." Here is another specimen taken from an ad- vertisement in the Boston Herald, of Feb. 3, 1855. " The system and blood, by this medicine, fairly undergoes a regular renovation. The old, thick and humory blood is cleaned off, and re- newed by new, lively and healthy blood, which will flow freely through your veins, giving activity to the feelings and new strength to the sys- tem in general. When you get your thick, old fogy blood thinned and renewed, your system will be fairly regenerated throughout, carrying off those certain attendants of one hundred and one bad and unpleas- ant feelings, felt more or less every day by many of us without being able to account for it. This medicine will be found to be effectual in renovating the whole system, beginning at the blood, the root of all evil. One bottle will generally effect a cure, but in some obstinate cases, it will be necessary to take two or three bottles in order to give your system a thorough cleaning, so as not to make any half-way work about it, and not be dosing again in a few months. It is a thorough cleaner and regenerator for the blood and system. Price $1 per bottle." And, with such disgusting empiricism as this, are thousands on thousands gulled into habits of dosing, at " $1 a bottle," from year to year. 142 THEORY OP NUTRITION. The Cure. Health consists in the perfect Harmony of the external, and internal; the balance, of the Ingestive, Retentive, and Egestive motions. When from any cause, this bal- ance of power is interrupted, and there follows too much internal acid, or not enough, as the case may be, the nu- tritive processes are thus disturbed, which is the sore, the pain, the weakness, or disease, of which the patient com- plains. And, thus, we are conducted to the Philosophy of the Nutritive Cure, a Philosophy by which Nature has performed all the cures that ever were made, since the first disease, from which Humanity ever suffered pain; — a Philosophy, by which all the cures that ever can be made, in all coming time, must be effected, if any cure be made at all. No matter what the Theory, nor what the medicines, Nature holds in her own hands, and under her own control, the Curative Principle, and which she is ready to apply, and which she will, always, apply in all coming time as she has in all time past, when she is not hindered by drugs, and the ignorance, of those who interfere with her Laws. We have seen, that disease is an excess, or diminution of certain motions ; or what we may call abnormal action in certain parts. Now, if disease be abnormal action, how perfectly preposterous to increase that action by putting poisonous medicines into the stomach ? The dose is poison- ous or it is not medicinal. And, if poisonous, it induces ab- normal motions, as all motions are which are not strictly Nutritive. How can it be natural, and according to Na- ture's Higher Laws, to cure abnormal action by exciting mo- tions of the same kind ? And, yet, such is the theory upon which all medicine is given for the cure of disease! And, PHYSIOLOGY OF NUTRITION. 143 suppose the Fanner were to adopt a similar philosophy in the culture of cabbages ? On finding that his plants did not thrive, he should set about the concoction of a medi- cine to " dose " them with! And, why not ? Why should we not "doctor" vegetables with medicines as well as men ? What developments have been made in the Vege- table Kingdom within the last twenty-five years ? What Symmetry, Perfection, Beauty, and Use in the production of fruits! And, how have these wonderful improvements been brought about ? Why, evidently, by Vegetable Cul- ture, by Vegetable Nutrition, and not by medicine. Farm- ers have begun to comprehend the Laws of Progressive Development, and they have applied themselves, not to the concoction of medicinal nostrums by which to cause the growth of beautiful, and dehcious fruits, but to the observance of Nature's Laws. And, why may we not be equally wise in cooperating with these Laws in the devel- opment of Health? If, when studied, understood, and obeyed, we find them evolving better vegetables, more de- licious fruits, and improved animals, why not rely upon these Laws, in the perfection of the Human Race! PRINCIPLES OE NUTRITION. I say, principles, because the subject includes a com- bination of organs, parts, and Functions, among which are the teeth, salivary glands, the stomach, liver, heart, lungs, pancreas, intestines, lacteals, &c, &c, all of which are directly concerned in the processes of nutrition. But, in- formation on these organs and their uses must be sought for in works professedly on Human Physiology. Nutriment. Nutrition comes from the vitalized chyle ; and this from the digested food or chyme. All that appertain to the In- gestive Motions, have respect to food, ahment, nourish- ment. As all life begins in Nutrition, food (including air) is wanted, and this we may divide into two kinds, Positive and Negative, in order to obtain a better idea of the subject now under consideration. We call that part of what we receive into the lungs and the stomach, Posi- tive, which is retained and assimilated, and thus is made a part of the living organism. The other, and the larger portion of what we breathe and eat, we say is Negative, because it is innutritious, and hence, is expelled as dead matter. The system is diseased and suffers, from a dim- inution or excess of positive or negative matter. But, that which it is most desirable for the Invalid to under- 144 PRINCIPLES OF NUTRITION. 145 stand, here, will be borne in mind, perhaps, under the following heads: — Liquid Food. The earth, itself, we are told, commenced as a globe, in a gaseous, or fluid state. All nutritive processes require a fluid condition of the materials. The first motions in nature were angular;* these progressing formed the cir- cular, and thus we have the httle cell, or tube, filled with fluid, in which all life commences. This, progressing, forms the stomach, the intestinal canal, and the capillaries, through which fluids are circulated, for building up the organism. All Forms, that require, or, result in Nutri- tion, begin in a fluid or plastic condition. And, ninety per cent of the Human Body is fluid, when fully grown. The first nutriment received into the infant stomach is fluid; the chyme is fluid; the chyle more so, and when vitalized in the lungs, it is yet more fluid, when it becomes Nutri- tion, which is still more refined, approaching the consist- ency of the electrical or spiritual, it exceeds the power of comprehension. All that is taken into the lungs, or ab- sorbed through the skin, must be fluid, as are those nega- tive qualities of the air and food which are passed out of the system. Solid Pood. From fluids exclusively the infant is developed towards maturity. The teeth are grown for mastication. The bones, which were at first soft, have now become solid. * That is, those motions which commence Forms; not, that any one motion, can, strictly speaking, be called the first or the last, in the Infinitude of the Divine existence. But, a motion may be called the first, or second, in numerical relation, only, with those which have preceded, or which may follow after. 13 146 THEORY OF NUTRITION. Look at the teeth. Man wants sohd food, as well as liquid. His nature is best conserved, when, he has a use for his teeth. And yet, these very teeth were designed for rendering solid food, liquid! Put a dry crust in your mouth. Observe how quickly it becomes moistened by the saliva, deposited in the glands near by for this very purpose. You masticate until it becomes, comparatively, liquid, else it could not be passed into the stomach. Now, observe, a certain quantity of Negative matter, or solid food, (like the bran of wheat) tends to excite the Egestive motions of the bowels. It is innutritious and must, there- fore, be expelled. Hence, to restore Harmony between the Ingestive, Retentive, and Egestive movements of the organism, a certain quantity of Negative or Innutritious matter must be received into the Stomach and Lungs. If the air we breathe were all oxygen, death would soon ensue, as it would, if our aliment were all nutritive, all fluid, or all solid. Thus, a person would actually starve to death, if confined to what might be considered the purest diet, such as the white of eggs, if it did not contain a suitable proportion of indigestible matter. All vegeta- bles contain salts, or negative matter, peculiar to their tribe, besides those compounds of soda, potash, iron, mag- nesia, lime, manganese, with sulphuric and phosphoric acids, and silica and chlorine. Substances which contain no soda, potash or lime, conjoined with some acid, are not fit for food, as they cannot be changed into blood, unless some such salts as those above named are combined with them. The solid, or innutritious parts of food, therefore, are as necessary, for carrying on the processes of Life, as those Positive parts which are assimilated and become components of the living body. PRINCIPLES OF NUTRITION. 147 Mixed Food. That food which is, properly combined, both of solids and liquids, of nutritious and innutritious matter. The highest good, the best health of each requires Harmony, a balance of those antagonizing, alternating, centrifugal and centripetal motions, of which we have already spoken. It is only when there is just enough of each, in a given period of time, that we become conscious of Life, Health and Happiness. Flesh, or Vegetable Diet. In the selection of food, determining whether it should consist of flesh or vegetables, or both, as also, in the quantity, and the quality, superior Judgment must always be used. The Infant is controlled by the judgment of those above him, and so should the Invalid rely upon the wisdom of those who are above him in a knowledge of the Laws of life and health. Now, our present inquiry is not so much in respect to what a perfectly healthy, labor- ing man may, or may not eat (whether hog, dog, or snake), but what is best for the Invalid, or those who desire to enjoy the best health that is possible for them. Is a flesh diet necessary, or injurious ? I answer, 1. According to Liebig (the highest authority, per- haps, that could be quoted on this subject), the blood of all animals (men included) is produced from vegetables; for the flesh-eating animals, in consuming flesh and blood, consume, strictly speaking, the vegetable principles which served for the nutrition of the animals that are eaten for food. The elements of vegetables take, precisely, the same form in the stomachs of the graminivora, that flesh docs in the stomachs of the carnivora. Hence, there can 148 THEORY OF NUTRITION. be no good reasons for eating flesh, at all, except our ina- bility to procure good vegetables. 2. Invalids, and all who would enjoy the best health, need the purest and best foods. Now, we know, that a vast majority of the animals (ninety-nine out of every hundred, perhaps) slaughtered, especially, in our cities, are diseased, and wholly unfit for food. Those, therefore, who eat flesh, are liable to disease from the diseased con- dition of the animals, either before being slaughtered or afterwards; and even if the animals were healthy, you only get the nutritive material, second hand, after it has been used up by the animal on which you feed. The con- clusion, therefore, is inevitable, that flesh, for man, (in a climate hke our own) is not only unnecessary, but often, if not always, injurious on the whole; as a pure vegetable and fruit diet would be far better, and, if selected with suitable care, and, properly prepared, would be attended with the greatest benefit, in retaining good health, or in regaining it when once lost. This conclusion becomes stiU more apparent if we ex- amine the comparative amount of what is called " Nutri- tious Matter " contained in some of the principal articles of human food. Thus, we are assured, that: — 100 lbs. wheat contain 85 lbs. nutritious matter. rice u 90 rye « 80 barley u 83 peas u 93 lentils tt 94 beans a 89-92 bread(av ■)" 80 meat (av, )" 35 potatoes beets a 25 u 14 carrots u 10-14 cabbage u 7 greens, turnips 4-8 PRINCIPLES OF NUTRITION. 149 If, therefore, we desire the most nutritious food, at com- mand, we do not get it in a flesh diet, as is easily shown.* The American Vegetarian Society is composed of a large number of InteUigent men and women (including Physicians and other professional people), who wholly abstain from the use of animal food, and who enjoy excel- lent health as the consequence. At their meeting held in Philadelphia, Aug. 30, 1854, they set forth the following declarations: — " It is well known that there exists in the United States of America a vast amount of sickness and disease among the people, and it has become the pecuniary interest of a large class of authorized and unauthorized physicians to prescribe and vend a variety of drugs, patent medicines and other deleterious articles as remedies, and that in addition to these causes of disease, the flesh of animals, intoxicating liquors, tobacco, &c. are also consumed in large quantities. That owing to the large profits arising from these traffics, although science and experience have proved all such articles to be promotive of sickness and death, the trades are still perse- * A correspondent of the New Era, for Oct. 21, 1854, publishes the following table, showing the cost of 100 pounds of nutritive substance, from articles in common use, at present prices: 100 lbs. nutritious matter from wheat wheat .... costs $'■> 40 rice " 5 o~> rye " 2 2.5 white beans m 180 meat (average) a 25 71 potatoes " 3 33 cabbage n 14 00 turnips " 13 33 corn meal c< 188 unbolted flour " 3 75 bolted flour " 5 25 ripe apples " 3 33 Hence, on the score of economy we have no excuse for eating flesh And, a fruit and vegetable diet is a great saving, in another respect, the doctor's bills are not near so large, or dispensed with altogether ! 150 THEORY OF NUTRITION. vered in, greatly to the injury and destruction of the people of these United States. " That it is the duty of every patriotic citizen to inquire for him, or herself, into the nature of the human constitution and its natural requirements, so as to adopt such daily habits with regard to food as are required by the laws of Nature and of health. " That prevention being better than cure, it is the duty of parents, especially to understand what food is best adapted to promote a sound and vigorous constitution in their chil- dren, and thus to prepare them for resisting the contagion of disease and prevent the large proportion of infant mortality which now takes place in this country. " That in order to ascertain for themselves what is the proper % food of man, the people of the United States are hereby rec- ommended to peruse the excellent work recently published, entitled ' Fruits and Farinacea, the proper Food of Man,' by an eminent English writer. " That in the experience of this Society amounting in the aggregate to about a thousand years' practice of Vegetarian diet, the principles imbodied in the said work are in accord- ance with the laws of Nature, and productive of the greatest possible health, physically, mentally and spiritually." * The truth is, our habits of living are so much perverted that we can, scarcely, form any just idea, as to what food is best for man, either in a healthy or in a diseased condi- tion. In the Glasgow (Scotland) prison, some experi- ments in diet were recently made, when it was found that ten persons gained four pounds of flesh each in two months, eating for breakfast eight ounces of oatmeal made into a porridge, with a pint of buttermilk ; for din- ner, three pounds of boiled potatoes, with salt; for supper, five ounces of oatmeal porridge, with one half pint of buttermilk, which costs two pence three farthings per day. * After people have learned to live on dead carcasses, and are told how much better a pure Vegetable Diet would be, the question comes up, "What shall we eat?" Answer, read the work above recom- mended, The Book of Health, and also, Dr. \V. A. Alcott's " Lectures on Life and Health." PRINCIPLES OF NUTRITION. 151 Ten others gained three and a half pounds of flesh, eating six pounds of boiled potatoes daily, taking nothing with them but salt. Ten others ate the same amount of por- ridge and buttermilk, without the potatoes, as the first ten, but for dinner had soup ; they lost one and a quarter pounds of flesh each; and twenty others, who had less potatoes, but a half pound of meat for dinner, diminished in size likewise. From this, it would appear that potatoes were better diet than smaller quantities of animal food, at least for persons in confinement; but, I have had the tes- timonies of laborers in the open air and farmers, who have declared, that after the experience of years, they have found more health, more strength for physical labor and greater powers of endurance, from an unmixed fruit and vegetable diet. • Individuals have been known, who, have borne a different testimony from a trial of a few weeks or months ! But the principle is not to be tested in this manner. In order to notice, the full benefits of a pure vegetable diet, the trial should commence early in life, and be continued from one generation to another, the same as our flesh-eating habits have been. The tempera- ment and constitutional appetites cannot be radically changed in a very short period of time. The foundation should be laid broad and deep in the Laws of Human Physiology. A\re have not, yet, learned what benefits are to accrue to us and our children after us, from the faithful observance of these laws. Reason, Judgment. Thus we perceive, how it has come to pass, that the race have become diseased from their habits of living, and have not been healed by drugs : — 152 THEORY OF NUTRITION. 1. Variety in the faculties of taste, and appetite. The animals are more simple, living on one, or a very few arti- cles of food. But, for man, there is a greater variety. "We have reason and judgment for our guide, in addition to Instinct. This increases our pleasure at the same time it renders us more liable to the mischiefs of over- feeding. 2. The animals never drink with their eating, except, perhaps, the swine. Nor is it clear that this animal would do so, except when its food is provided by man. The most natural and Physiological method would seem to be to separate, entirely, the process of eating and drinking. An infant never drinks; as all the liquid taken into its stomach, is food, and highly nutritive. 3. It may hence be inferred, that the true way for all is to become familiar with the Principles of Nutrition. We eat three meals a day, when, in many cases, two would be enough ; and we drink, drink, drink, any amount of slops, the principal effect of which is to intercept the healthy processes of nutrition. But, while we have Reason for our guide, and, while our appetites are so liable to become perverted, we may see how important it is, that we should follow an enlightened judgment, in the selection of our food, and in all our habits of living. We need to know not only what to do, what food is the most wholesome, but, also, the reasons why it is so. This knowledge will do more for health, than all the apothecaries, and pill-men, in the land. Let the invalid fully comprehend, the rea- sons on which the nutritive cure is founded, and it will soon become the first business of his life to fulfil them. DIETETIC. All theories of drugging, have, within a few years past, given far more attention than formerly to the patient's habits of living; and, while a very large number of the medical profession do, manifestly, prescribe drugs, without due attention to the subject of diet, yet, among the pro- gressive class of physicians of all parties, there is, evi- dently, an increasing attention paid to the subject of diet. Misapprehension. But, still, a great misapprehension prevails, extensively, in respect to what is, really, meant by that course of diet and regimen the most appropriate for the sick. The com- mon notion is, that, in all cases of disease, if the diet be changed at all, it can only be restricted. We must eat less of the 6ame articles of food. Whereas, the true standard erected by the Nutritive Cure, is neither restriction, ex- clusively, nor over indulgence, occasionally, or always. True it is, the cure is, very much, facilitated by the quali- ties and quantities of food taken into the stomach, from time to time. But, this is not all, for the food must de- pend on numerous other conditions; such as the age, temperament, exercise, taste, appetite, and location and nature of the disease, &c. And, in these facts, it is, in- deed, shown to be Nature's Method of Cure. In the common practice of dosin.tr, it is widely different; for the 1-53 154 THEORY OF NUTRITION. pill-man, has only to know, or to conjecture, what the complaint is, and, the medicine is all ready to be prescribed and swallowed. Nay, how many nostrums are advertised for the cure of such and such diseases, and the only varia- tion in the treatment is in the quantity and frequency of the doses that are given ! The idea is absurd ; for it is the same as if we were told, that all the sick are of the same age; and sick from the same cause! Nay, that all In- valids are of the same temperament, the same habits, the same tastes, the same suceptibilities, developed in, pre- cisely, the same degrees; and so they must be cured by the same medicine, given in "sufficient quantities," to each one. Such are the absurdities involved in the old methods of dosing. Specific Rules. It is plain, that many specific rules for diet could never be, safely, given, either for the same disease or for any one class of diseases. There are rules founded on well-known principles of Human Physiology, however, which are, and must be, universal in the treatment of disease. But these rules can never be appreciated without a knowledge of the Theory of Nutrition on which they are based. Peculiar to this Theory. Now we have seen, in what respects the Functions of Digestion, and the nourishment of the human body, par- take of the dual, male and female, principles ; the exter- nal and internal, positive and negative. For, as singular as it may appear, at first thought, the nutritive cure, feeds the body, not through the stomach alone, but also, through the pores in the external surfaces of the body ! And, this Theory shows how it is that the processes of nutrition are DIETETIC. 155 carried on, not only through the Stomach and Lungs, but, also, through the external surfaces, or the skin, even when food is withheld entirely, from passing into the stomach and bowels! This idea of feeding, (dieting!) through the pores, exclusively, is, certainly, not very common among invalids! Why, poor sufferers ! They hear a suggestion, about any " restrictions " imposed upon the habits of liv- ing, with a sigh ; but, what will be said, when told that in some cases the patient is required to give up eating entirely, while being dieted through the skin, and, that while he does so he may be increased in weight! As this case is, indeed, a most remarkable one, I give it in the language of the medical gentleman who wrote the details expressly for these pages. Remarkable Case. " While in the practice of my Profession in the city of Philadelphia, in January, 1836, Samuel Cunningham, age 36, applied to me, for treatment of ulceration and stricture of the rectum. In New Orleans, previously, he had been under medical treatment, in one of the Hospitals for inflammation of the bowels and complete stoppage. Very large doses of calomel had been given, with copious bleeding, without success. They then resorted to general and local bleeding and blisters till he was brought to death's door. He could gain no strength, and the least nourish- ment taken into his stomach only increased his difficulty, as it brought on constant tenesmus, without the possibility of any evacuation. "After repeated complaints to the Physicians, they finally agreed upon an examination when they found, that a severe stricture had formed in the rectum five inches from the orifice. Various methods were tried for removing it, but 156 THEORY OF NUTRITION. they only caused ulceration ; and after lingering there two months he was discharged, as incurable. He came to Philadelphia and was admitted into the Pennsylvania Hospital in October, 1836, where he remained till the fol- lowing January, when he was again discharged as in- curable ! " He, then, applied to me. I found him very much ema- ciated, although he was naturally a strong-built muscular man. I informed him my only hope of his cure was in keeping him alive for some weeks or months without eating any thing at all! And, if he had courage to undertake such a course I would try to cure him. He consented, and re- mained with me fifteen weeks, during which time not one particle of food was taken into his stomach, and yet, he actually increased in weight while thus deprived of food, thirteen pounds and a half! All that passed into his stomach was a little black tea, three times a day, and one large table spoonful of tonic sirup. His nutritive system was fed through the pores of the skin, in the following manner: — " Every day at 11 A. M., I caused him to remain in a tepid bath made of beef broth, for one hour, at least, with friction before and after. The broth was prepared, by boiling sixty pounds of marrow bones in three hundred pounds of soft water, with two ounces of calcinated potash. The boiler kept closed as much as possible, and over a slow fire for twenty-four hours. In cool weather I used the same quantity three times, but in warm weather, less. I weighed the liquor, frequently and always found, that my patient absorbed from ten to twelve pounds each time! He was under treatment, as I have said, fifteen weeks, during which time he took no food into his stomach, and yet, he gained in flesh, and he left me in May 1837 DIETETIC. 157 perfectly cured. His case excited much curiosity in Phil- adelphia, and, indeed, his wife and three children were supported from the small pittances paid by visitors during the time of treatment, who came to see the man who lived without food." * Surely, if a man can receive food through his pores, without swallowing a mouthful for nearly four months, and, all this while increasing in strength, and health, and weight, it must be a matter of immense importance in all cases of disease to attend to the condition of the pores, and adopt those methods which will secure their normal functions. This and other similar cases, teach us how egregious is the blunder of those physicians who have so much to say against " starvation " as a means of cure. Indeed, it now and then happens that a " Dr." finds this declaiming against " starvation " a very convenient method of recom- mending his own nostrums as the only means of recovery. In this way, he gives an impression of superior wisdom, and holding out the hope of " indulgence " in the luxuries of living, he creates a prejudice against Nature's higher process of cure. Sustenance of Life. Few persons have any just conception as to how long animal life may be often sustained without the common process of receiving food through the mouth into the stomach. There are any number of cases on record where persons have lived many days and weeks without eating food. I knew a little girl who lived six weeks, on the juice she sucked from pickled cucumbers. A man * Letter of Dr. L. Girardin to the author, dated Boston, Aug. 9, 1854. 14 158 THEORY OF NUTRITION. was exhibited about the country last summer, in a state of coma, who, it was alleged, had lived some months with- out eating. A woman condemned to death, in the reign of Richard III., lived forty days without food or drink. A young lady, sixteen years of age, is mentioned in the Edinburgh Medical Essays for 1720, who was thrown into such a violent rigidity of the muscles, by the death of her father, that she was unable to swallow for fifty-four days, and when she came into the natural state again, she de- clared that she had no sense of hunger or thirst. A still more extraordinary account is related of a man who, upon recovering from an inflammatory fever, had such a dislike to food of all kinds, that for eighteen years he never tasted any thing but water. Animals have been known to live for years without food or even air. Lizards have been found enclosed in chalk rocks, and toads have been discov- ered enclosed in the trunks of trees, in rocks, and other conditions where it was impossible for them to receive air for many years. Snails it has been repeatedly asserted, will live upon air alone. It is also said that spiders will live on the same light diet, and that, though they will de- vour other food, they really do not need it to support life. Latreille confirms this statement by an experiment which he made with a spider, by sticking it to a cork, and pre- cluding it from communication with any thing else for four successive months; and, at the end of that time it was as lively as ever. A writer in the Philosophical Transac- tions states that he kept a beetle in a glass for three years without food. Rondelet kept a silver fish in pure water alone for three years, and at the end of that period it had grown as large as the glass globe that contained it. Sev- eral species of the carp it is said, have a similar power ; and even the pike, one of the most voracious of the finny DIETETIC. 159 tribes, will thrive upon water in a marble basin. All kinds of amphibious animals are particularly tenacious of life, and not only frogs and toads, but tortoises, lizards, and serpents, are well known to have existed for months, and even years, without other food than water, and, in some cases, only air. It is stated on good authority that a per- son once kept two horned snakes in a glass jar for two years, without giving them any thing. It was not observed that they slept in the winter season, and they cast their skins as usual about the 1st of April.* That animals should live for a time on oxygen, is not difficult to believe, but how they should exist, for years, without any air at all, it is not easy to conceive, unless we suppose that, the wood or the rock, is a conductor of elec- tricity in sufficient quantities thus to support life. We are told that bees in a torpid state have been found inside of a hard rock, where they have reposed for ages. When turned out of their prison they have soon exhibited life, and flown away. Facts like these are scarcely credible, and still more unaccountable. And thus of fishes and even animals, said to have been frozen solid, and yet, on being thawed they are found to be alive ; and the blood flows as freely as before! When there are no wastes, no expenditures, no egestions going on, we can easily comprehend why, there should not be much nourishment needed. But, how is it that the functions of hfe are so long suspended in this way ? This is, indeed, a mystery which the Philosophy of past ages does not enable us to solve ; no more, indeed, than that same philosophy explains to us, how it is, that otherwise intelligent physicians, with all the foregoing * N. Y. Times. 160 THEORY OF NUTRITION. facts before them, showing as they do, the astonishing tenacity of the living, Nutritive Principle, should, never- theless, rely so much on drugging for the restoration of health. Surely, a life that lives, a Principle that survives the deprivations of food, like the cases here referred to, is and must be capable of overcoming disease without any help from the nauseating pills and medicines with which its work is so often obstructed. Exercise, Air. The amount of nutriment needed in any case, must of course depend very much on the exercise and the amount of air consumed in the lungs. Probably the very first motion peculiar to the new-born infant, is that by which air is ingested into the lungs. The air rushes in where it is wanted. Indeed, we shall find all the Instinctive motions before spoken of, combined in the Lungs, in the process of breathing.* The chyle is Vitalized into nutrition by breathing. Now, if we sup- pose an adult inspires, 30 ounces of oxygen, daily (more in cold weather), this is sufficient to convert the carbon, of 24 lbs. of blood, into carbonic acid and the vapor of water, which are Egested from the system. He must, therefore, take as much nutriment as will be sufficient to supply this daily loss. But if, from tight lacing, stoop- ing, sitting, or any other cause the size of the lungs be * See the author's Book of Health, page 50, where this subject is elaborated at length. All parents and children, all teachers, all who in any sense are out of health, should by all means read this Book. It contains a vast amount of information, with practical remarks on Parentage, Infancy, Food, Diet, Labor, Recreation, Sleep, Bathing, Clothing, Air, Causes of 111 Health, &c. Sent (for twenty-five cents) by mail, free of postage, to any place where it may be ordered. DIETETIC. 161 reduced, the amount of air consumed must be thus lessened in quantity. This is a direct interference with nutrition, and the highest Forms of Vitality.* Exercise. Exercise increases the amount of oxygen received into the lungs, and hence the amount of food taken into the stomach should always correspond. The less exercise, the less air, less want of food. Thus, a child in whom the organs of respiration are very active, requires food more frequently and in a greater proportion to its size than an adult. As a general fact, invalids exercise less, and breathe less air, on account of their indisposition. They are more confined within doors, and for this reason, they should re- duce the quantity of aliment, especially of animal food. A bird, deprived of food, dies on the third day, while the serpent, whose lungs are very small, lives without food for three months or more. Amount of Pood. There does not seem to be any very accurate idea prevalent as to the amount of food really necessary, either for animals or for men. We are told that of hay, an ox requires two per cent, a day of his live weight. If he weighs 2000 pounds, he requires 40 pounds of hay. If he is working he will take two and a half per cent. A milch cow should have three per cent, of her weight, as she is proportionably lighter than the ox, and part of the sub- stance of her food goes to form milk. A fattening ox may be fed five per cent, when half fat, and afterwards * See the author's Pamphlet on the "Magnetic Lace," for enlar- ging the chest. Sent by mail free. 14* 162 THEORY OF NUTRITION. four per cent. This is independent of other fbod. A grown sheep will take three and a third per cent, of its weight in hay, to keep in good store condition.* Animals in a growing state require most food, of course. And, with regard to man, some tea and coffee taker has pub- lished the following calculation which may be taken as a fair estimate for the average run of people who live on dead carcasses. " I have been married 32 years, during which time I have received from the hands of my wife three cups of coffee each day, two in the morning and one at night, making about 35,040 cups of half pint each, nearly 70 barrels of 30 gallons each, weighing 17,520 pounds, or nearly nine tons. Yet from that period I have scarcely varied in weight myself from 160 pounds. It will be seen, therefore, that I have drank in cof- fee alone, 218 times my own weight. I am not much of an eater, yet I presume I have consumed about 18 ounces a day, which makes 5806 pounds, or 10 oxen. " Of flour I have consumed in 32 years about 50 barrels. For 20 years of this time I drank two wine glasses of brandy each day, making 900 quarts. The Port wine, Madeira, whiskey punch, &c, I am not able to count, but they are not large. When we take into account all the vegetables in addition, such as potatoes, peas, asparagus, strawberries, cherries, pears, peaches, raisins, &c, the amount consumed by an individual is most enormous. Now, my body has been renewed more than four times in 32 years; and taking it for granted that the water, of which I have drank more, acts merely as a dilutant, yet taken together, I conclude I have consumed in 32 years about the weight of 1108 men of 160 pounds each." As incredible as this estimate may at first appear, it is evidently too near the truth to be doubted by any one familiar with the laws of life, and the general dietetic habits which prevail among the people of this country. * The Plough. DIETETIC. 163 Respiration. The mutual action between the elements of food and the air we breathe develops animal heat. When we take exercise in the cold air, we respire a greater amount of oxygen, which implies a greater supply of carbon in the food, out of which the fire is made. And so, when all the motions, Ingestive, Retentive, and Egestive, are carried on in Harmony, the pores (outlets) of the entire system are open and free, from which are thrown off, the innutri- tious properties of the blood, that are not wanted for building up the organism. And hence we see the reasons for constant bathing and washing the entire surface of the body, in order to assist the Nutritive processes in throw- ing out from the system, those elements, which can sub- serve no further use by remaining. Summary. Finally, let the following Rules be borne in mind: — 1. Tlie stomach never to be overloaded at all. It is overtasked when one meal is taken before the other is fully digested. Hence occur flatulence and sour eructa- tions. Reduce the quantity from day to day, till these symptoms disappear. 2. Regular exercise, daily, in the open air, sufficient to induce, more or less perspiration. Were I to utter the two most important, and fundamental Rules of Health, they would be like the foregoing: never overload the stomach, and exercise, daily, in the open air, in labor, or recreation, sufficient to produce more or less perspiration. 3. TJiorough mastication. Take time for eating. 4. Simplicity in diet. Not too many articles of food at one meal. 164 THEORY OF NUTRITION. 5. The principal article of food should be good Bread made of unbolted wheat, " old and ripe." If properly in- formed, in respect to the laws of life, you may, safely, follow your judgment in selecting your food, and eat those kinds which you find, on experience, to be the most con- genial with your constitution, and the most easily digested. A vitiated appetite is not a safe guide, at any time. 6. Avoid, as much as possible, all forms of drinking with your meals. Eating is a work for your teeth, which must never be superseded by drinking any fluids. What- ever be the consistency of your food at meal time, it should be thoroughly mixed with the saliva in the mouth. Such are some of the more general Rules, suggested by the Laws of Health for the observance of all. As we proceed, we shall find the reasons upon which they are founded. TREATMENT BY NUTRITION. To the Physician accustomed to prescribing drugs, and, to the invalid who relies upon his wonted dose, as much as upon his daily bread, I can imagine how " odd," how " very odd," it may at first seem, to contemplate the treat- ment of any case of disease, without a particle of medi- cine 1 The pill box, the lancet, the bag of herbs, the significant magical "R" upon a httle slip of paper, with a few unintelligible syllables,—these are the usual parapher- nalia of the sick room. Very well. And, if you have not already had enough of the vile stuff, why, you must con- tinue to dose on. And yet, there is a more excellent way. The Intention. In all forms of disease, there are more or less of the foUowing phenomena, and which are to be considered in all their details, peculiar to age, temperament, habits, occu- pation, accidents, tastes, and conditions of each case in prescribing the means for a cure by Nutrition. 1. Deficiency, or excess, in the Temperature of a part or the whole Body, which results in pain, weakness, and puts the system in a condition more or less analogous to that of an infant. 2. Deficiency, or excess, in the Nutritive Material, from which each part in particular, and the whole body in gen- eral, is developed. 165 166 THEORY OF NUTRITION. 3. Deficiency, or excess, in the structural Forms, Func- tions, and Uses of certain parts, or of the entire Body. A volume would scarcely be sufficient for the exemplifi- cation of these phenomena, but the above statement will prepare us for a just conception of what the Treatment in each case should be, and the reasons for Rules hke those which follow : — 1. That, during Treatment, all the fluids taken into the stomach, should be nutrient, and, properly salivated; as thus, they sooner become chymified, so as to supply the wants of the organism. This Rule prohibits drinking. No fluids should be drank, (or very seldom except in acute diseases,) and, yet, a certain proportion of all that is taken into the stomach should be fluid food, and, taken so as to have it properly salivated.* 2. That all the food which is taken in a solid form, should be such as (in each case) will sufficiently excite the gastric and peristaltic motions of the stomach and bowels; because, by these harmonious motions, and these alone, can the human organism be made to Nutritate, nourish and develop itself. 3. Whatever substances, therefore, are taken into the stomach as food (and none others should be taken), they should be such, (in each case) as are the most readily acted upon by the gastric fluid, most easily digested into chyme, and thus they must sooner afford that increase * The following anecdote is told of Abernethy: An American sea captain called on the Dr. to consult him in respect to a cure for his dyspepsia, and at the time of addressing him, emptied the contents of his mouth upon the floor. The Dr. stared, but kept silent, till the Yankee inquired what he should do for his indigestion ? " Pay me my fee, and I'll tell you," said Abernethy. The pay was handed over, and the following advice given in return: — " Instead of squirting your saliva over my carpet, keep it to masticate your food with." TREATMENT BY NUTRITION. 167 of material out of which the Strength and entire organ- ism is constituted and made. The Invalid may now perceive, why the Treatment, in all cases, should consist so much in a change in the dietetic habits, (through the stomach and the skin) because, from these habits the temperature is determined, and the mate- rials are furnished for building up the body, and devel- oping those Forms and Functions in harmony, which make it healthy and happy. For, bear in mind, that the motions by which the disease is to be " expelled," are not those which appertain to the bowels, scarcely more than those which open the pores of the skin, extending over the entire surface of the body. To restore and retain the external surface in a Healthy condition, three things are necessary: — 1. Regular change of the linen worn next to the skin. The head should never be covered in sleep. And on retiring to rest the under linen should, always, be laid aside, and a gown made for this purpose worn, in its stead. Where there is free perspiration the linen should be changed every night and morning, or oftener, if necessary. 2. Washing the entire body, daily in pure water. Not merely the hands, mouth, nostrils, and face, but the whole body. The very feeble may begin with mere friction by the hands of an assistant, for five or ten minutes. Let the clothing be removed on rising, and the process in- creased for a few days. Then, commence the application of pure cold water merely to the chest, and immediately wipe and rub dry till a glow of heat is felt. The next day, extend the water over the chest a little farther, and repeat the friction as before; and, so continue till you can wet the entire surface, and get up a glow or reaction im- mediately after. If you are feeble it is not necessary to 168 THEORY OF NUTRITION. wet the entire Body at once, especially in cold weather. Begin by a httle at a time, and increase, as you are able to endure it. And, remember, that the object is to pro- duce a glow, or sense of heat, upon the surface, and hence, as a general Rule, the colder the water and the more rub- bing, the sooner this condition is brought about. The water may be applied from a sponge, or what is, perhaps, some- times better, a towel or sheet may be wet, and the parts or the whole body rubbed under it, for five or ten min- utes. The Bathing may be done on rising in the morn- ing, but the best time, especially, for the shower bath, or any other severe application of water, in the cure of dis- ease, is some three hours after breakfast. The addition of common salt, or alkaline substances to the water in Bathing, and the use of alkaline bandages, must be regulated according to the indications of the dis- ease, in each case. These Rules apply more or less in all cases of acute disease, and should never be wholly omitted by persons even in good health. Change in Diet. But, when the complaint has been of long duration and has become " chronic," the structure of the tissues are so altered that the system is reduced in strength to a condi- tion analogous to that of infancy; and, hence it follows, from the Analogies of Reason, as well as from those Physiological Laws already described, that, during this period of disease, a part of the nutriment should corre- spond, as nearly as may be, with that which Nature has, herself, provided for the helpless Infant. In real infancy, all the food is fluid; not merely because there are no teeth for its mastication, but, also, because the milk of the TREATMENT by nutrition. 169 mother's breast, is sooner acted upon by the gastric juice, and thus, in the shortest possible space of time, it is changed into the Nutritive Material from which the body and mind are developed. And, the same may be said of all the mammalia, they grow very fast while living, exclu- sively, upon fluid food! The reasons for this are to be found in the Philosophy of Nutrition. As the Invalid is an anomaly, as he is neither an infant, nor a well, full grown adult, but reduced by disease, or accident to a condition of weakness, or comparative Infancy, so he must change the qualities of his nutriment accordingly, combining the solids and liquids, so as to secure the necessary motions of the Stomach, Liver, and Bowels. When the teeth are once developed, there is a use for them, which can never be safely superseded by liquids.* The wants of the organism, as it approaches maturity, require more or less solid food, and which should be thoroughly masticated, and hence, it is, that during the process of mastication, no fluids should be drank at all. This Rule is not only peculiar to the Nutritive cure, but it is supported by the well-known Laws of Health, as well as the Analogy of Reason. Query Answered. It may be asked, here, perhaps, if the foregoing reason- ing be true, why we should not, always, live on fluids ? The answer is, because it is not possible that we should, always be infants, for whom Nature has provided that * Fruits, roots, and the succulent parts of vegetables, appear to be the natural food of man; and his short canine teeth, not passing beyond the line of the others, would not permit him either to feed on herbage or devour flesh, unless those aliments were previously prepared by the culinary processes. —Baron Cuvier. 15 170 THEORY OF NUTRITION. kind of food. The food, therefore, should correspond, always, with the age, temperament, and wants of the In- dividual. An Infant, needs an Infant's food, and an Inva- lid, being in a condition analogous, in some respects, to that of feeble and helpless Infancy, needs, not the same food, but, only, that which is Analogous, that which is as well adapted to the diseased condition of the Invalid, as the milk is to the condition of Infancy. Pure Air. Pure air is scarcely thought of as a means of cure. But when we consider, that, we could not live a moment after it is wholly withheld from the lungs, and, also, that the entire surface of the body is constantly acted upon by the quality of the air with which we are surrounded, whether in doors, in bed, or out, we cannot over-estimate its im- portance, in the cure of disease.* The more food the more exercise and air, and vice versa. So, if the chest be contracted by tight lacing, stooping, sitting, or any of the occupations of hfe, the quantity of air consumed in the lungs is thus lessened, and the pro- cesses of nutrition, in this manner, interrupted. * People who shudder at a flesh wound and a trickle of blood, will confine their children like convicts, and compel them month after month to breathe quantities of poison. It would less impair the men- tal and physical constitutions of children, gradually to draw an ounce of blood from their veins, during the same length of time, than to send them to breathe, for six hours in a day, the lifeless and poisoned air of some of our school rooms. Let any man who votes for con- fining children in small rooms and keeping them on stagnant air, try the experiment of breathing his own breath only four times over; and if medical aid be not on hand, the children will never be endangered by his vote afterwards. — Horace Mann. TREATMENT BY NUTRITION. 171 Peculiarities. Thus, the Cure by Nutrition is characterized and dis- tinguished from all other cures, so called, in the following Principles: 1. That it discards, as a general Rule, all drugs and medicines, whether of minerals or vegetables, from the stomach. 2. It distinguishes between the times, and the use of solid and liquid food. As a general Rule, no hquids, except the Nutritives are to be taken with meals; and none are to be drank, at any time, at all, during the time of meals. 3. It discriminates between the extremes of over-feed- ing, and starving. The Rule is Never to overload the stomach at all. But the food solid, and liquid, should be taken in quantities adapted to the age, Temperament, and necessities of the case. More or less Abstinence from all Nutriment, in all forms of acute disease. In chronic cases, the stomach, that great laboratory of the system, should be humored and supplied with that kind of ahment and in those quantities, which are adapted to its powers, in perfect analogy with what we find Nature does for the infant and the growth of the young. 4. We should eat, only, from the sense of hunger; and drink, only, from a sense of natural thirst. In infancy, both these senses are blended, so as to be satisfied by one and the same act, and by one and the same kind of ali- ment. Drinking, in infancy, contributes as much to the growth as eating, for they are the same. Now, we know, that, in after life, the sense of thirst is not only artificially excited, but the large quantities of fluid taken into the stomach add nothing to the nutritive material needed by 172 theory of nutrition. the organism. Nay, they are an injury because they retard the work of digestion in two ways: — (1.) By making extra labor, for their absorption, which must take place before digestion can go on; and (2.) When hot fluids are drank, they relax and weaken the inner surfaces of the stomach, so as to retard those peculiar mechanical motions of that organ, which constitute a part of the di- gesting and nutritive processes. 5. But this method of cure secures the means through both these senses of Hunger and Thirst, so that, (for a time) all the fluid taken to satisfy thirst, is purely nutri- tive. For, although, solid food, as Dr. Beaumont has shown, is soonest digested in the stomach of a healthy laboring man, and its nutrient principles soonest carried into the circulation, yet, it has been proved, that exhaustion from abstinence, is much quicker relieved by liquids, than by solid aliment. And, from parity of reason, it follows, that, other things being equal, exhaustion, or weakness from disease, must be soonest relieved by an appropriate quantity of' liquid food which must pass into nutrition, the sooner, on account of its being liquid. 6. And hence it is, that this term Nutrition is the only one suitable to be used in connection with any real cure. If a cure be effected in any case, where water or drugs are used, the cure is brought about by nutrition, and not really by the water, nor by the drugs. 7. Nor is this all. By preparing food in a liquid form, we have the advantage of thirst, as well as hunger, through which we contribute, directly, to the increase of nutrition. Ordinarily the drinking habits are one prin- cipal cause of the disease. Now, if we can satisfy the sense of thirst with food, we may thus avail ourselves of that sense for assisting nutrition instead of hindering TREATMENT BY NUTRITION. 173 it, as is now done, in most cases, by drinking. Thus may be seen, two of the Strong Holds of the Nutritive Cure in Hunger, and Thirst. These two senses, when not satisfied according to the Laws of Health, contribute to disorder, and suffering. But, under this Treatment by Nutrition, they become the sources of the purest pleasure, (which can never be said of nauseating medicines) and thus the Invalid is attracted by the Instincts of his nature into the habit of using those articles for food, which con- tribute most directly, in assisting the processes of the cure. The invalid is not an infant, hence he should not be con- fined to fluid food, exclusively. But, yet, he is weak, helpless, emaciated, and in a condition analogous to that of Infancy. While, therefore, the Invalid needs fluid food such as is highly nutritious, for giving an immediate supply to the wants of the weakened organism, at the same time, he needs a constant amount of Negative Mate- rial, such as will soonest excite the gastric and peristaltic motions of the Liver, Stomach, and Bowels. Hence every invalid should know, that if the food be not such as to cause a regular and daily motion of the bowels, it is not of the right kind. The " stay and the staff of life," is good bread made of unbolted meal. And, as this stands at the head of the list as an article of food, so, for in- ducing a healthy action of the bowels it is as far before drugs and medicine, as a living body is before a dead one. And, thus when the habits of exercise and bathing are such as to secure a degree of free perspiration, daily, so as so combine the Ingestive and Egestive motions in har- mony, the work of cure may, indeed, be said to be begun. And, thus, we see, it is not in one dose of medicine, or a hundred, nor is it in one extreme notion, or another, in respect to food, or bathing; but, by a judicious combina- 15* 174 THEORY OF NUTRITION. tion of all that appertains to eating, breathing, receiving and excreting, ingestive, assimilating, and egestive, from the pores and the bowels, at the proper time, that the greatest amount of health is secured, which it is possible for each one to enjoy. THE NUTRITIVES. By this term I designate a series or articles of liquid food, which the Invalid is instructed to prepare for him- self, according to the varying conditions of the case, as is indicated in the age, temperament, habits, tastes, and dif- ficulty to be overcome. And as they bear so important a part in the Theory of Cure by Nutrition, it becomes neces- sary to give, here, a more distinct idea as to their essence, forms and use, in the treatment of disease. Axiomatic. I. That although solid food be necessary, and indispen- sable, for the adult, yet, in all cases of exhaustion the strength is soonest restored, from fluid food, for this obvi- ous reason, that it is soonest acted upon by the gastric fluid, and thus, it is the more readily assimilated by the motions of the nutritive system. The immense advantage which a knowledge of this principle suggests in the treatment of disease must be obvious on tlwc slightest reflection. II. Thirst is one of our natural instincts. But, alas ! to what an extent is this instinct perverted by the drink- ing habits of society ! What shall we say of tea, coffee, chocolate, shells, broma, beer, ale, cider, bitters, brandy, rum, gin, wines, and the innumerable '• herb drinks," and concoctions prescribed by quackery in disease ! Now, the 17o 176 THEORY OF NUTRITION. mischiefs these do are threefold; as we have elsewhere seen: — 1. Taken hot they relax the fibres of the stomach and thus prevent digestion. 2. Taken in such quantities they distend the stomach, and make extra-labor in their absorption before digestion can go on. 3. They occupy the place in the appetite, and in the stomach, which belongs exclusively to fluids that are strictly nutritive. Now, the question, often, is not altogether, in respect to what the patient, ought to do ; but, what will he consent to do ? What sacrifices will be made in order to get well ? And, here, the Nutritives come in place; for, they may be substituted, for tea, coffee, &c, not only with infinite advantage, but, also, with the greatest gustatory pleasure ! The pleasures of the coffee and the tea cup are known and acknowledged world-wide. But here is a most con- genial, excellent, and nourishing article of fluid food, which, when once tasted, is found to afford far more real pleasure, far more real luxury than any cup of tea, or coffee, or other slop ever made. III. In cases of narcotism, where persons have con- tracted an ungovernable appetite for Opium, Tobacco, or Intoxicating Liquors. The difficulty in these cases, often is, not that the victims would not break off the habit if they could; not that they do not know that they are dying by inches from the use of the poison. But the difficulty cqnsists jn this; the habit has created an artificial appe- tite, a love, a hankering, a hungering and thirsting which is insufferable, while it is not fed with the narcotic so as to be satisfied. The nervous system, accustomed to lean upon the narcotic, trembles, is weak, shattered, and un- THE NUTRITIVES. 177 able to stand alone without it. I have known numerous cases of delirium tremens, which resulted from stopping the use of opium and tobacco. But the Nutritives form the only substitutes on which the weakened nervous system of the opium eater, the tobacco chewer, and the wine bibber can rely, with satisfaction and safety. Some- thing for a support he must have ! Here is that " some- thing," in these Nutritives! The excitement from nar- cotics, is artificial. The strength from a tumbler full of the Nutritive is Natural. The stimulus of Opium, Al- cohol, or Tobacco is abnormal; but the energy and life- giving power from these Nutritives, when used as a sub- stitute, is normal, rational, certain, and leaves no sting behind. IV. Invalids who have contracted habits of dosing in the use of medicine, need this Nutritive, not merely as an article of excellent food, but as a substitute for drugs. We are all creatures of habit, slaves to social and personal customs, from which we do not find it easy to break away. Hence, the invalid, long accustomed to dosing, is heard to inquire, " What shall I take ? I want my bitters! 'Seems as if I must take something!" Well, so you may, and so you must, " take something ;" and here it is, in the form of an excellent, wholesome, and delicious arti- cle of liquid food. You may take this with safety and benefit; take it as often and as much as you want. You must not, therefore, from the " laws of habit," ever drug or dose any more. And thus it is, the Nutritives are indicated by the exigencies of every case of chronic disease; and by our natural and artificial instincts ; they are called tor by the infirmities of our nature, and the laws and habits of life, which, more or less, affect and control us-all. 178 THEORY OF NUTRITION. Explanatory. If we consult analogy, the same authority which has guided us in determining the,nature of life, health, and disease, and, ask what Nature should supply as a substi- tute for drugs, or as the Invahd's peculiar food, we are referred to that quality which approaches the nearest to what she has, actually, provided for the newly-born In- fant. Now, we know, that the elements of the egg, enter into the forms of life, (as in the growth of the chick,) even without the usual processes of digestion; and milk being in its elements, so very near the composition of blood, by digestion becomes assimilated, sooner than any other substance which could be taken into the infant's stomach. Hence, the infant is known to grow, so much faster, than the adult who lives on solid food. Dr. Prout has shown that all our principal alimentary matters may be reduced to three classes: the saccharine, the oleaginous, and the albuminous — represented by butter, sugar, and white of egg. Now, milk consists of all three — the curd, which is chiefly albumen; the butter, chiefly oil; and a portion of sugar. Milk is the only substance prepared by nature so completely perfect as to be a compound of these three principles. It should be constantly borne in mind, however, when I speak of fluid food for the Invalid, I do not mean sub- stances to be drank like water. The Nutritives pre- pared expressly for the cases for which they are indicated, are more or less in the fluid form, but they are not to be drank, but eaten, so as to mix the saliva with them as much as possible, as in the case of food requiring thorough mastication. The articles sold under the name of " Pepsin," and " Invalids' Food," bear no compar- THE NUTRITIVES. 179 ison to the Forms of Food prepared according to this Theory of Nutrition. The " Nutritives," are not composed of exotics, but of indigenous substances, every where available, and combined according to the indica- tions of each case, they far surpass all the medicines ever taken into the human stomach, as the experience of mul- titudes abundantly proves. The series ascend from solids to fluids, and are varied to correspond with the Age, Tem- perament, Idiosyncrasy, Taste, Appetite, Disease, Digestive Powers, and Wants of each case for which they are indi- cated. Prepared of the most nutritive substances to be found in the Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms, they can- not do injury in any case, but may be given to the new- born infant with advantage, and when used by the ema- ciated Invalid, they impart Vitality, Health, and Strength to the wasted system. THE NUTRITIVE CURE. Can disease be, radically, cured, by nutrition, alone, without medicine ? Can acute and chronic diseases be, successfully, treated without the use of drugs? Is this method safe and reliable in all cases ? Is it Philosophical and founded upon legitimate deductions from Pathology and Human Physiology ? Is it hi perfect agreement with all, else, we know of Nature's Laws ? Spontaneous Cures. All medical authorities admit, that diseases are cured, sometimes, without the use of medicine, or, in despite of it. Every medical man knows this. But such cures, we are told, are " spontaneous." Well, and what is a " sponta- neous " cure ? You do not mean by this, that the cure was accidental, in the sense, that it had no real cause! Is it sound Philosophy to speak of cures as accidental ? Should we not, rather, consider any case of cure, as Nature's regular and legitimate work ? Are not these, so called, spontaneous cures, precisely, what we should expect Nature to do, always, when there are no intervening causes to prevent it ? Yes, but you say, perhaps, " medicines should be given to remove those intervening causes." I reply, that the medicine, alone, is an " intervening cause," in the way of Nature's cures. Nature cures always, when not prevented, or limited by the spheres of her own 180 THE NUTRITIVE CURE. 181 operations. It is natural for man to die, natural for him to go thus far in health, but no farther. This Theory must be Tested. It amounts, then, to this; the only way to determine whether drugs are necessary, as is generally supposed, is to test it by actual experiment. We must make as long a trial without medicine as we have with it. We must investigate, as long in the right direction as we have in the wrong one. If we have taken pains to learn to drug the human body into disease, how much more for learning Nature's true method of curing disease without drugs ? It is important for us to devote as much time for learning the true method, as we may have done for learning the wrong one. Does it afford you joy to see the sick recover, while in the use of the medicine you have prescribed ? How much deeper and purer would your rejoicing be, to see the sick healed without any medicine at all! This joy has been mine for thirty years past; and it may be yours, also. But, one thing, you are bound to do; and, that is, to try the new method before you condemn it. Say not, that it may do, in a few cases ; but not in all. This you do not know, till you have tried it in all. Yes, in all; in small pox, in malignant scarlatina, and Asiatic cholera! The rule is, certainly, a safe one — " Prove all things, — hold fast that which is good." But the proof should be sought first, and this is found, only, in experience, in actual, per- sonal observation, and experiment. Encouragement. The history of the past, certainly, encourages the hope, that the time will come when all the drugging will be 16 182 THEORY OF NUTRITION. confined to ignorance and quackery where it was at first begun. We have seen how much the most intelligent of the Profession are, even, now, opposed to it; and, at the present time, the zeal with which medical nostrums are recommended, for the cure of disease, is taken, gener- ally, as prima facie evidence of quackery ; so very strong are the tendencies of the age against drugging. It does not, therefore, seem unreasonable to hope, that the time will come, when the pill box and the " medicine bag," will be, exclusively, the insignia of quackery, and the true Physician will be no more expected to give medicine in the treatment of disease. Surely, there is to be a mil- lennium in Health, as well as in morals and religion. Nature performs the Cures. It is an old proverb — " God made us and we marvel at it." The vulgar marvel when assured that persons in a state of Trance, can see with their eyes closed. But, the truly wise marvel more, at the mechanism, and phi- losophy of that vision which results through the eye when it is wide open. Nature cures the invalid, and the medi- cine gets the credit. It is a " wonderful medicine." Yes, and the greatest wonder is, that it did not kill the patient before he got through with taking it. " The dead tell no tales." And, it is well for the pill men, that they do not. If all who have died, in consequence of the medicines they swallowed, could only come back, long enough to publish "certificates" of the kilhng process they went through from the medicines that hastened their exit out of the world, what a stir it would make among the medi- cine men! There would, indeed, be a deathly rattle among the pill boxes. Why are we so slow in believing what Nature would do THE NUTRITIVE CURE. 183 in healing disease if never interfered with and prevented by art, or the ignorance of those who undertake to mend her work ? Behold, what she has done in the mineral and vegetable kingdoms. The beautiful verdure with which she has clothed the earth ; the diversified hill and dale, the broad expanse of oceans, the deep rivers, the cloud-capped mountains raising their peaks to the heavens as if to remind us of her progressive, elevating tendencies. She paints the flowers with beauty, and by her invisible hands, spreads the fields with waving grain. The golden fruits of autumn, with the innumerable provisions she has so liberally made for the sustenance and comfort of human beings, all show the exquisite perfection of her handy work. Nor is this all. See what she has done, and is now doing, in the development of the Race. We are amazed in the contemplation of living bodies so exceed- ingly diminutive, that it requires myriads of them united in one drop in order to be visible to the unassisted eye. We stand aghast, in viewing the skeletons of those enor- mous creatures, which measured fifty or seventy feet in length; and, are struck dumb with amazement, when shown one of those huge animals whose bones would be sufficient to construct a house, even larger than some in which mortals are, sometimes, known to dwell! But, what are these gigantic and wonderful developments in the animal and physical worlds, when compared with what Nature has done in the Universe of spiritual beings! Man, as to his Body, is the perfection of Love or Sub- stance ; as to his mind, he is the perfection of Motion, in Form and Order. But, she has, not only developed a Human Form, which is the crowning glory of all her work, but, she has brought forth a Race, or a family of Races, and, not satisfied with the unnumbered millions 184 THEORY OF NUTRITION. which she is constantly unfolding from the fetal into the rudimental; and from the youthful upward, to maturity and manhood, see with what astonishing power, she excels in the work of Humanity! What developments in Genius, what powers in Intellect, what giants in mental stature she has, now and then, sent forth, to prophesy of the fu- ture, and show us what grounds we have yet for Hope. In ah ages she has had her apostles, men and women largely endowed with an understanding of her Laws, and who have, proclaimed the "good time coming." And, surely, in that good time, we may hope, not merely, for a church without a bishop, a government without a king, and a future heaven without a devil, but Health, per- manent, uninterrupted Health, without drugs. All this Nature will do; and by the same laws that develop the Human Form, and bring it to the consciousness of manhood, and by whose plastic power, it is conserved and matured from one degree of development to another. Why not, then, let her proceed in her work, without interruption! When, injured or diseased by accident, who knows, better than she, what should be done to repair the mischief? She is the true Nurse, the "good Physician," with " a lady's hand, an eagle's eye, and the lion's heart;" exceeding, by far, aU that poets have sung of tenderness in the maternal; all that can enter into the imagination to conceive of the true and real Alma Mater. Her ma- ternal powers are Divinely manifest in all we see of the beautiful, all we hear of the musical, all we feel of con- tentment, gratitude and hope. Her work may be marred, but never imitated. Of the Divine it is said his works [Laws] are perfect. As we become more familiar with his method and comprehend more of Nature's processes, we understand, also, how it is, THE NUTRITIVE CURE. 185 she carries forward all her designs even from the begin- ning. To appreciate, therefore, the real merits of the Nutritive Cure, we must penetrate beneath the surface of things, till we come to the germ from which is to be de- veloped the complicated and wonderful mechanism known in the Human Form. Retrospective. Early habits of life had very much prepared my own mind for that course of Physiological investigation which, afterwards, resulted in the views set forth in these pages. It is twenty-five years since I was, myself, an invalid, and, on consulting some of the best medical men then known, I was pronounced almost beyond the hope of re- covery. But, having, even, then, little or no faith in drugs, as a means of cure, I was thus forced upon a course of dietetic experiments, on myself, and by this means, I found the Idea of cure by Nutrition, gradu- ally developed in my own mind. My professional labors, for a series of years as a public Lecturer on Human Nature, brought me in contact with large numbers of the sick, and gave me every desirable facility for acquiring not merely a general knowledge of Pathology; but I was called upon, more or less, to pre- scribe, and direct the suffering to the best means of cure. I never dabbled with drugs, or medical nostrums in any form. And yet, for many years I found myself more and more successful in prescribing for the sick, until in 18 1(>, I made a formal announcement of the *' Principle of Nutrition" by which I supposed my cures had been made.* • Sec Book op Human Natcre— its Origin, Laws, Destiny, illus- trating the Philosophy (New Theory) of Instinct, Nutrition, Life, and 1(5* 186 THEORY of nutrition. The success of this Principle in the cure of disease, has proved too strong a temptation for a few of the pill men, who have made attempts, under its auspices, to bring into notice new forms of drugging. They cure by the " Nu- tritive Principle," but administer more or less drugs. The nostrums are all " prepared," we are assured, " according to the Nutritive Principle ;" all of which might be said of any druggist, while administering a dose of calomel and jalap; all "prepared according to the Nutritive Princi- ple." And, thus it is, that under this guise, the sick are liable, still, to be inveigled into habits of drugging. And, as this Theory becomes more and more popular, the temptation is increased for using it as a lure in the quack- ery of medical nostrums. There has been drugging enough, carried on, under the old systems. No new Theory was necessary for multi- plying the methods of dosing with medicine. Hence, it is to be hoped, that all who desire to see Goodness and Truth prevail, against mischief and error, will be careful in distinguishing between the True Theory of Nutrition, which cures without medicine, and those uses that quacks may attempt to make of it, in the sale of " Nostrums " alleged to be " prepared according to the Nutritive Prin- ciple." We must bear in mind, that all the old and all the new theories of drugging, may be said to cure, (as far as any of their cases recover) " according to the Principle of Nutrition;" and, there is not a quack in the world but who might announce his nostrums under the auspices of " The Nutritive Principle." No one will deny, but that, their Correlative and abnormal Phenomena — Physical, Mental, Spir- itual, Handsomely bound in cloth, containing 432 pages, 12mo. Copies mailed, free of postage, for #1. THE NUTRITIVE CURE. 187 if a cure be performed, it is, indeed, done by this same Nutritive Principle, and not by the medicine, that is swal- lowed. So, that, while this " Principle " may be claimed by one pill man as well as another, as all cures are made by it, yet, there is but one Nutritive Cure, which relies on Nature, alone, without the use of medicine at all. Important to Invalids. All are agreed, that something should be done to lessen the vast amount of quackery in drugging which is sweep- ing so many thousands into the grave every year. Look at any of our newspapers, and count the number of die- stuffs, all advertised as so many infallible cures of disease. And yet, it is a serious fact, to which the attention of in- valids cannot be too often called, that, while the country is thus flooded with these medical nostrums, and which the soi-disant " doctors" proclaim as infallible, yet, the most experienced, intelligent and reliable physicians, both in Europe and America, are crying out against all drugs and drugging ! They have, as we have seen, borne the most explicit testimonies against the whole tribe of pill men! And, still, the vast majority of invalids hanker for medicines as the Israelites are said to have done after the leeks and onions of Egypt. I have heard of a lady who had taken a bushel of pills ; and it is said that David Hartley took two hundred pounds of soap to cure the stone. Bishop Berkeley (hank a butt of tar water. Meyer, in the course of chemical neutralization, swallowed one thousand two hunched crabs' eyes. One person took so much of elixir of vitriol that the keys were rusted in his pocket by the transudation of the acid through his skin ; and another turned blue from the quantity of argentum nitratum which had been administered to him. Such is 188 THEORY OF NUTRITION. the force of education and habit, that many Physicians continue to prescribe something under the semblance of medicine, merely because, they must conform to the preju- dices of the people or lose their practice. Information Wanted. What the people want is Information; a thorough knowledge of Human Physiology. Let them be instructed on this and collateral subjects. Begin early. In a com- munity like our own, thus enlightened, skilful Physicians and Surgeons could but be generally appreciated; and they would never be compelled, as now, some of them are, to make a show of using medicine when they hold the whole materia medica in utter abomination. Some of them know very welh/that a vast majority of all curable diseases have been and may be successfully treated with- out any medicine at all, and are waiting for the good time coming, when they will be under no necessity, from sheer ignorance and bigotry to countenance the pernicious habits of drugging in any form. Difficulties. It thus becomes manifest, under how many disadvan- tages, the True Theory of Cure, must, for a season, be compelled to labor. Millions of money are invested in medicinal drugs. Fortunes have been made in their sale, and, millions more are concerned in advertising and sell- ing these drugs, from year to year. Newspapers which are paid thousands of dollars from month to month for advertising these nostrums, are closed against any attempts which Philanthropy could make to expose, through the same columns, the fraud and injustice which are thus practised upon the people. The masses often prefer to be THE NUTRITIVE CURE. 189 humbugged; they will pay, liberally, for being deceived; but never a cent to the man who exposes the cheat. The commercial papers receive far more support from quacks than any other one class. Of course, it is not for the pecu- niary interest of such papers, to be very zealous in bring- ing before the public a system of curing disease in which no medicine is used. " It does not pay," to expose quack- ery, or the evils of drugging. " Exceptions." " But, after all," says an invalid, " my own case is an exception to your general rule. I am sick, and want help. I have one of the best Physicians in the world; and I know he will do the very best he can for me. The medicine he gives will not injure me, I am sure." And, is your Dr. a wiser man than Bichat, Magendie, Water- house, Rush, Ramadge, Lugol, Gregory, Good and others ? Than these, better men and more skilful Physicians never lived. And these are the medical men who have borne such burning testimonies against your present prac- tice of dosing, and who have pronounced it uncertain, un- satisfactory, and unworthy of any confidence at all. Their united verdict may be set forth in the words of Dr. James Johnson, Editor of the " London Medico-Chirurgical Re- view," who says : — u I declare it as my conscientious opinion, founded on long experience and reflection, that if there was not a single phy- sician, surgeon, apothecary, man-midwife, chemist, druggist, nor drug on the lace of the earth, there would be less sickness and less mortality than now prevail." How, then, can you drug any more, in view of the fol- lowing facts : — 1. Tliat you are no better for all the medicine you have 190 THEORY OF NUTRITION. taken. Nay, you are not, now, as well as you might have been, had you never drugged at all. 2. If you continue in the use of medicine, you must do so, against the solemn judgment of the best Physicians who have ever lived. 3. Your excuse for taking it is a sheer fallacy. It is a " small dose," or it is made of " roots and herbs;" or, " there is no mineral poison in it!" Alas ! The most deadly poisons are from the vegetable kingdom. And the habit of " small doses" of medicine is like the small drams of intoxicating liquor. The habit is a bad one, and better be abandoned. " Certificates." Do not be deceived by " Certificates " of alleged cures said to have been performed by this or that nostrum : — 1. Not one in a hundred of these certificates is genu- ine. And, they would prove, precisely, nothing against the Nutritive Cure, if they were all true ! Suppose Mr. A. did get well in despite of the " sea weed," he took. Mr. B. got well without taking any " weed!" 2. Certificates of cures by Nutrition, where no drugs are used internally, are the only certificates which are worthy of any notice. For, if disease has been cured in so many cases without drugs, then it follows that " cer- tificates " of cures by drugs prove nothing in favor of any particular medicine that may have been taken. The patient got well, in spite of the drugs ! And how much sooner might he not have recovered, had he taken no drugs at all! 3. In cases where invalids change from one medicine to another, and finally give the credit of cure to the last one tried, injustice is done to Nature's higher Methods; inas- THE NUTRITIVE CURE. 191 much as the cures are not effected by the first or the last medicine resorted to ; but, in changing from one medicine to another, the way is opened for Nature, in her nutri- tive process, to step in and do the work. And the cure might have been effected much sooner had the patient left off drugs entirely ! For in this way thousands have re- covered, where one has been benefited, after trying some new medicine. And, observe, certificates of these cases, of spontaneous cure, effected by Nutrition, (because drugs were out of the way,) are never pubhshed ! It does not subserve the interests of any medicine vender to procure, or to fabricate accounts of such cases as these. Think of this. 4. The largest number of cures made, are cured by Nutrition, without drugs, and, if by any means, these cases could be faithfully reported, they would, by far, out- number those cases said to be cured by medicine. In reading, therefore, those certificates of cure, where medi- cines are used, the invalid should bear in mind that they prove nothing in favor of drugging. Medical Errors. It is well known, that the most egregious errors are often committed by those who call themselves M. D's. in respect to the real nature of diseases which they assume to have cured. The truth is, many such do not know the difference between the morbid and the curative symptoms of disease ; nor, can they distinguish between the disease itself, and its symptoms. And yet, what is more common than to hear such persons speak of having cured such and such diseases, when there is not the first particle of evi- dence, that the patient ever had any such disorder at aU! 192 THEORY OF NUTRITION. The patient, himself, did not know what his disease was, nor where it was located. A venerable Physician, when addressing his Profession, on this subject, uses the following truthful language : — " Nothing can be more illogical, than to draw our general conclusions, as we are sometimes too apt to do, from the results of insulated, and remarkable cases; for, such cases may be found in support of any extravagance in medicine; and, if there is any point in which the vulgar differ from the judicious part of the profession, it is in drawing premature, and sweeping conclusions from scanty premises of this kind. Moreover, it is, in many cases not less illogical to attribute the removal of diseases, or even of their troublesome symp- toms, to the means that have been most recently employed. It is a common error, to infer that things which are consecu- tive in the order of time have, necessarily, the relation of cause and effect. It often happens, that the last remedy used, bears off the credit of having cured a disease ; whereas, the result may have been owing to the first remedy employed, or to the act of Nature [Nutrition] unassisted by any of the remedies." * Such is the sound judgment by which, intelligent, can- did physicians, (and there are many such), discriminate between quackery and real merit in the practice of the healing art. Caution. Be on your guard, that you are not lured into the use of some worthless nostrum, under the pretence that the medicine is made from the " stomach of the ox," and hence if you put a quantity of rennet into your own stomach it will assist Nutrition. Do not believe a word of this nonsense. The idea is unphilosophical and absurd. An extra quantity of rennet in your stomach, will no more assist your digestion, in the way it should be assisted, than a quantity of hver, eaten, would cure you of a hver " Dr. Jacob Bigelow. THE NUTRITIVE CURE. 193 complaint. If you had the "bowel complaint," would you fall to eating the intestines of a hog, or an ox, for a cure ! You might as well do this, as to eat " pepsin." It is, as if a child's head were to be made as large as a half bushel, because he had the headache. Or, as if you were to make your stomach as big as that of a horse, in order to cure dyspepsia! The idea is absurd. " Pepsin " or rennet, is not the only thing to be supplied in dyspepsia. And, for aught that appears in many cases, there may be too much of this principle already in the stomach, which is one part of the difficulty to be overcome. But, whether there be too much or too little, artificial pepsin is never desirable. The treatment should be such as will enable the stomach to elaborate a sufficient quantity of pepsin for itself. To increase the function of digestion to that of an ox, is not what is wanted, in the cure of disease. The Nutritive Fluid which each organism needs, is not made in the stomach of an ox, nor in the pots of the pill man. Nutrition is what the Organism must make for itself in each case. To me it would not be so preposterous, even, if one were to assume the discovery of a method for making the real honey, without the flowers or plants where alone it can be generated. The bee collects it, but it cannot be artificially made. And so of Nutrition. It never occurs without Instinct, as the first Cause; and when it does occur, Life or health is the result. Artificial Nutrition is an absurdity, an impossibility. What can be more evidently absurd than to assume the power to relieve Nature of its necessary processes, instituted, in the In- finite Design, for the Conservation and Development of the Living Organism ? This is, indeed, the real quack- ery of all those habits of drugging, in which it is assumed to reheve the Human Body of its necessary Functions. 17 194 THEORY of nutrition. That is, they profess to do that for the stomach wliich will reheve it from the necessity and labor of digesting the necessary amount and the kind of food which the organism requires! Look at this idea. It is as if they were to say, " I will relieve your eyes from the necessity of seeing. They are weak, and I will put some visual fluid into them, so that they will be relieved of any necessity of seeing. Nay, you may close them up, as you will have no further use for them." And so we might be told, that the ears may be relieved of all necessity of performing their appropriate functions. Put a newly-discovered "patent," auric "fluid" into them, and that fluid will hear for you. You may be really as deaf as an adder, but that fluid whM do all the hearing that will be necessary in your case. And why not ? Why not supersede one function as well as another ? For, observe, we do not now speak of processes, either of medication or diet, for assisting a function, for I have shown by the testimony of Physicians themselves, that the common processes of drugging, " regular " and " irreg- ular," do not assist Nutrition. They do more hurt than good! That the Invalid does, sometimes, recover in de- spite of the drugs, is no evidence against the position here taken. But if chronic and acute diseases are radically cured in a majority of cases, as far as the trial has been made, without any drugging at all, this is proof to a dem- onstration that Nature's Method of Cure is one far above that of drugging. And such cases I have had, where Invalids have been increased in weight, incredibly, in a few weeks, without eating " pepsin," or swaUowing large quantities of the so called " Revalenta Arabica." * * "What purports to be an exotic substance, sometimes made of ground peas or beans! It is by no means equal to good bread made of unbolted wheat. THE NUTRITIVE CURE. 190 The Theory I first announced, therefore, was not, that Nutrition could in any case be superseded by " fluids " or solids. My idea was, that Nutrition is the true and only vis medicatrix naturae. Imperfect nutrition is dis- ease, and perfect nutrition is health, always. And hence all methods of Treatment, which are not based on a knowledge of this Principle must be imperfect, and liable to more or less mischief. The Treatment is helpful only as it reaches and assists the Instinctive Principle, which is the cause, while Nutrition is the means, and Life the result. But this assistance we know " pepsin " cannot render. The only aid which any case can require, is that which facilitates the work of Nutrition for the entire organism. The Organism is not healthy till it nutritates perfectly for itself. And the processes by which this is done are locked up in the interiors of Nature, " patented" by laws far above any yet artificially made by mortals.* Discrimination. The Nutritive Cure, properly so called, is not to be confounded with any other system. It is not hostile to any other, only in so far as they favor drugging, and, overlook the Nutritive Principle. They do indeed, all of them, more or less, recognize this Principle in the treatment of disease ; and, it will be found, that each one succeeds, in proportion, as it is relied upon in all cases that are curable. But, annihilate drugs and there would be nothing left of Allopathy ; nothing left of the various Botanic systems ; nothing left of Eclecticism, even. An- nihilate drugs, and there would be some good left of Homoeopathy ; for, as we have seen, its chief excellences * See Book of Human Nature, pp. 117-131. 19G THEORY OF NUTRITION. consist in the smallness of the doses of medicine, and the restrictions that are imposed on the diet. Annihilate its peculiar use of water, and nothing would be left of Hydropathy, except what is included in the nu- tritive cure. Hence, the only objections against the water cure must be confined to the foUowing : — 1. It is excessive, and goes to extremes in prescribing water as a drink. It increases the drinking habits beyond the wants of the organism. It may be said, that this ex- cess is not essential to Hydropathy. It was, certainly, a fnndamental principle with Priessnitz; and it remains so with his followers to the present time. 2. Hydropathy is excessive in some of its modes of applying water to the external surfaces. In many cases it is too severe. Relied upon as the means of cure in all cases, such severities, and extremes, were, of course, to be expected. And, practised as they are, so generally, they attach to, and characterize the system. 3. Hydropathy substitutes one of the means of cure, for the Principle by which all cures are effected. Hence the term Hydropathy, (water disease) or the water cure. In the treatment of disease, all the means used may be classed under the foUowing heads. 1. Food or what is received into the stomach. 2. Exercise, air, in quality and quantity. 3. Apphcations made to the external sur- face, as water, and friction. Now, why not call the treat- ment, the " Exercise Cure," or the " Food Cure," as well as the " Water Cure " ? Is it not objectionable to desig- nate the Cure, by any one of the numerous means used for bringing it about ? Is it not more correct to designate the Cure, always, by the Principle, which is immedi- ately concerned in bringing it about ? We know that cures are made, in acute cases, without TnE NUTRITIVE CURE. 197 food, received into the stomach; and they are made in other cases where no water can be applied externally; and, in others, where there is no exercise, or but very little; and others, still more numerous, where there are no medicines, Botanic, Eclectic, Allopathic, or in Homoeo- pathic doses. Hence to designate the cure, by one of the means used, is not a dictate of sound Philosophy, if in- deed, it is allowable to designate it by the means used at all. For, otherwise, we might have as many " Cures " as there are means, and hence, we should call one the water cure, another the " Pill cure," the " steam cure," the " sirup cure," &c, &c. And this very practice now obtains in Switzerland, where they have the "Whey cure," and the " Raisin cure," because the sick are con- fined to these articles during the treatment. In Germany, some years since, a Mr. John Schrott in- troduced what has taken the name of the Hunger cure, because the treatment consisted, very much, in restrictions imposed on the invalid's diet. But, the cure is not, per- formed, directly, by medicine, nor by water, nor by hun- ger ; although hunger, and water, and food, may hold conspicuous places among the means of cure. Hence it would be more correct to say, what is indeed, true, that all that is really good in the water cure, or any other sys- tem, is comprehended in this, because, as we have seen, whenever a cure is effected, Nutrition is the immediate cause by which it is brought about. This Principle is not only the nearest to life, but it is Life, precisely what is wanted in all eases of disease.* * The author has prepared a " Pamphlet of Information " expressly for the Blind and all who are in ]>oor Health, wlio wish his services in the treatment of disease [sent by mail for 1 Dime, post free], and, from 17* 198 THEORY OF NUTRITION. But, then, it does not follow, because we want more life in all cases of disease, that, therefore, we must, in aU cases, need more food, even of any kind. For a time, in acute diseases, it may be necessary to stop eating, entirely. The supply of food should, always, correspond with the demand; with the powers of the system for making the right disposition of it for the time being. In many cases of acute disease, fevers, and those which disturb the diges- tive system, the vital powers have a more important work to do, than digesting food in the stomach. The system, for the time being, is sufficiently fed, and nourished by the air and from water ; and, at such an important crisis, to impose on it the labor of digesting food, is attended with perU, and more or less injury to the nutritive functions. As we may rely, always, on Nature's Laws, always de- pend on Principle for our guide, in the treatment of disease; we may hope, in view of Nature's progressive tendencies. All that has gone before in the old methods of treating disease, has but prepared the way, for the Nutritive Cure. In this method we have aU the good of the past, without its evUs; we have less of tradition, less of bigotry, less of sectarianism, and more of Nature's higher Laws, which are, always, available, easy of access, and reliable, because they are universal, independent, and r eternal. which all may learn as near as may be, what the process of treatment is, and, how its benefits are to be obtained. THE INVALID. The invalid who has, now, gone through with a candid perusal of the preceding pages, may be reasonably sup- posed in the way of advancement to the enjoyment of better health. It remains for me, therefore, to close with a few suggestions adapted to the condition of such as are dis- posed to be benefited by these labors. Take Time to be Well. Make it your first and principal business. Fix the day to begin ; and set about it in earnest. Arrange your do- mestic affairs and your business so, as to devote all your time to health if it require so much. Do not imagine that you may continue on in your old track, reforming a little, once in a while, now following the Directions made out for you, for a day or two, and then, omitting them. If you wish to be well, the treatment should be constant and thorough, from three to nine months, at least. Make this your first duty. Attend to your health, first, and your business afterwards. The great difficulty, with many In- valids is, they cannot find time to be well! They can find time to transgress the Laws of life, — time to suffer pain, — time to feel unwell, — time to complain, and almost despair of life. But, no time for Bathing, no time for Recreation, — no time for working hard for health. Such persons ex- pect a miracle to cure them. They drug, and dose, 200 THEORY OF NUTRITION. from day to day, and from year to year, vainly wondering why they are no better. They swallow the pill, and ex- pect to be cured! And, then, when told to cease drugging, and allow Nature to do the cure, they become impatient, and are discouraged if not healed in a day or a week! Determination. Make up your mind to be well! Fix your will upon good health. Resolve to enjoy all that your own constitu- tion will allow. You will never become well by accident. Good health, when once lost, is not a haphazard work. It results with certainty from the use of the appropriate means. Bad practices must be broken up. The neces- sary change in your habits of living can easily be made if you say they shall be. But, these changes may not occur spontaneously. You must do the work. Set about it, with a similar fixedness of purpose that you have set about other important matters, in which your own present and future happiness was concerned. Health comes to that Invahd who wills it. And, without this desperate, determined, inflexible, purpose, you may always be sick, and suffer, beyond the hope of relief. The restoration of health is not a matter of "fixed fate," in such a sense as renders it unnecessary for you to will it yourself; and, not merely will it, but decide upon it with that fixedness of purpose, that knows no denial. Without this will-purpose you might not keep your health even if you should regain it. Any slight tempta- tion would overcome you, and you would fall back again into your old habits. Say not that you are feeble, " ner- vous," and cannot make the necessary resolution to be well. The disease you suffer may have this very tendency on your mind, [to give you force of will] if you take THE INVALID. 201 the right views of things. Conscious volition always comes from the views we take of things. In writing the foregoing pages, the design has been to change your views. If you have now, a more truthful idea of diseases, or a more accurate conception of the laws of health, you have, in this knowledge, more power over yourself; more of that ability wliich enables one to choose that which his reason prefers. If you can decide on marriage, decide on business affairs, decide on any thing, pro or con, how much more on the use of appropriate means for regaining your health. And, this decision must be made, in such a form as wiU never fail. It must come from each element of your being; aU the Faculties of your nature should concur and combine in the formation of a purpose as enduring as existence itself, and, stronger, even, than death, which is parried and baffled by its power! How Nature chooses her methods, in the Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms, we have already seen. She discrim- inates, and determines on one method which she can adopt, rather than another, which may be out of her reach, — thus evincing the Superior Intelligence which guides in all her works. And thus man has the power of choice, the abUity to decide what he should do, and what he wiU, or wiU not do, for his own health. AU things are said to be possible to him who wills. And, observe, what stu- pendous designs have been carried out by this Faculty of the human mind. What battles have been fought, what victories won; what difficulties overcome, in the acquisi- tion of wealth, of knowledge, and worldly aggrandisement! Such are the achievements of the human wiU, when once roused and active in carrying out what the judgment dic- tates should be done. A Faculty so efficient in all things else, must be all-powerful in the acquisition of health. 202 THEORY OF NUTRITION. Certainly, it is necessary in the use of the means, and as health is more important than wealth or power, so the invahd should fix his wiU more on health, more on the use of the appropriate means, more and more on over- coming aU difficulties. There are but few invalids who might not be improved in health, could they bring themselves to the abandonment of all medical nostrums, and the rigid use of the dietetic rules, elaborated in the preceding pages. Indeed one could scarcely be said to deserve good health, who, lazily, relies on the pill box, and nostrum bottle, while he practises no self-denial for health. Self-denial is enjoined as a principle in all forms of religion; in all schemes of party politics; and, more or less, in all forms of civil govern- ment. And, how is it, that, this principle has been so generaUy overlooked in all theories of drugging ? How is it, that people, deny themselves of recreation, and lux- uries, in order to increase in wealth; but, when required to use self-denial, in order to regain health, they are weak and powerless. They have no courage, no resolution, no desperation, for overcoming the enemy who stands near and ready to push them into the grave. The whole history of Psychology * shows that the nu- tritive system, is distinctly under the control of your will, especiaUy those portions of the bowels, connected with the mesenteric glands, through which the chyle is con- veyed to the blood. Dr. Recherand declares, that more than a hundred experiments on living animals satisfied him, beyond all doubt, that, the intestines are the last part in which the traces of hfe may be discovered. Whatever may be the sort of death, by which they are destroyed, * See the author's Book of Psychology. THE INVALID. 203 peristaltic motions are still continued in the canal, while the heart has already ceased to beat, and the rest of the body is all an inanimate mass. And facts in abundance, are at hand, showing how much the digestion, and the state of the bowels are effected by the mind, and the force of the human will. I have known cases where the pulse has been increased, or entirely suspended, by the wiU. And we have an account of Col. Townsend, who, not only suspended his breath and pulse, often as a singular experi- ment to show what he could do, but, he even carried his wiU, so far at last, that he actually died, in the trance which his own volition had brought upon himself. Such is the astonishing power, which the human wiU has over the vital forces, and such the uses it may subserve in the restoration of health. Be in Earnest. Yes, be in earnest for your health. The quack is in earnest to get your money for his pills. The lawyer is in earnest for his fee. You must be in earnest, or perish ! Earnestness is more than mere volition. If you desire good health, you must fix your will on having it; and make up your mind to do this work; you must be in earnest. One may be set, in his own way, stoical, even, where there is no real earnestness, in the use of means for the enjoyment of good health. See how the miser labors for money; how the merchant forms and carries out his plans for wealth. The mechanic toUs late and early; the farmer through the summer's heat and the winter's cold. They are in earnest. And, what folly to complain of iU health, before you have, earnestly, used the appropriate means for securing it. You may have done much, suffered much, sought long, for health. You may 204 THEORY OF NUTRITION. have consulted the highest medical authorities, aU to no purpose. It is not sufficient that you should, ardently, desire to be weU, and earnestly seek for health; it must be earnestly sought in the use of the right means. This is the ordination of the Divine Author. In this way we progress, and become what he meant we should be. If health be not worth our sincere and most earnest labors, then let us be invalids forever! Or, if good health be the foundation of aU real happiness, then be in earnest in the use of those means you know to be the most appropriate; not a part, but the whole; not by fits and starts, but, from day to day, from week to week, from month to month, and from year to year, con- tinuaUy, without interruption. This is the way, and, the only way, ever to regain lost health : — " Toiling, rejoicing, sorrowing, Each morning sees the work begun ; Each evening sees its close ; The right attempted, Duty done, Will bring a night's repose." Contentment. How slow we are to learn, that aU disease is the evi- dence of some violated Law, for which atonement must sooner or later be made without the failure of one jot or tittle. Into the prison of disease, all offenders have to be cast, and to them no release can be given untU they have paid the utmost farthing. AU you have suffered is for your own good. Otherwise you would not learn the na- ture of those Laws which have been violated, and obedi- ence to which is Health and Happiness. Do not suffer your past disappointments in drugging to hinder you, in the use of appropriate means for regaining THE INVALID. 205 health. The past is of use when it stimulates our hopes for the future. Because you have failed in regaining your health, by drugging, it does not follow that you may not regain it, in the use of the right means, without drugs. If a view of your past life, or a consideration of what happened before you were born, serve to excite a feeling of discontent, you are a superficial thinker. You were not consulted about your nature, before you were born, nor was it necessary you should be. Why, then, worry about it ? Why fret about the Laws of Nature, which cannot and ought not to be altered ? What if you were born with a feeble constitution ? What if you did sin in your childhood, when you knew no better ? When you were little, you "stubbed your toes," on your way to school, many a time, no doubt. When perambulating the pastures, how often were your little feet torn with the naughty briers; and, when climbing the fences, do you remember how you tumbled down, and the pains you suf- fered as the consequence? And, thus it was, you first began to learn the laws of gravitation. You are, now, no worse, for all those mishaps, and you laugh, when you think of them. You do not, now, find fault with the thorns that caused your hands to bleed ; you do not scold at the stone that hurt your foot while playing in the street; you are contented with your past childhood. Well, aU this present hfe is rudimentary. It is the childhood of the future. And, if we may not, do not, complain of one part, why should we of another? The only, true, state of feeling, then, for the sick in view of the past, is contentment. No matter what the cause, or causes of your sickness may have been. Do not waste your nervous energies in grieving over what you cannot help. The errors of the past may be a blessing, if you 18 206 THEORY OF NUTRITION. take correct views of them ; certainly, they wiU prove a blessing if they make you wiser for the future; more vigilant in guarding against the sin that so easUy besets you. The past is beyond our control, and hence it cannot be, legitimately, a subject of complaint, or discontentment. Let it pass. Sufficient unto the day, is the evil thereof. Gratitude. Gratitude is a feeling of pleasure, arising from a con- sciousness of love and kindness. Goodness is that ele- ment received from others, by which we are developed, and progress to manhood. All our Faculties must be gratified, and that which gratifies them, most, in harmony with all the Relations of life, is the greatest good. Hence we speak of aU as good, which pleases, and gratifies. If it be precisely what we want, it is more or less good, as it is adapted to gratify the highest wants of our nature. Hence there are everlasting, and ever-varying sources of gratitude, more or less surrounding every human being. The air you breathe ; the odors you smeU ; the light of heaven which reveals all you see of Beauty, Perfection, and Symmetry; all the pleasures of memory and of taste; aU the luxuries provided in such rich profusion on every hand. The duty of gratitude may be inferred by imagin- ing yourself, totaUy blind ; totally deaf; without a friend; destitute of all the Relations of hfe, no father, no mother, no brother, no sister, no friend; shipwrecked and thrown upon some desolate island, not to live, but to perish alone! Can't feel thankful! And, what would you feel were you, this day, stripped of every thing you love ; all that contributes to your personal and social comfort! Why, this infliction you have so long endured, in the nature and ten- dency of things, is designed to have this very effect on THE INVALID. 207 your mind, to make you more thankful, more contented with the past, more grateful for the present. For, in these two elements there is real and enduring joy, even for all who suffer pain. In the indulgence of these beau- tiful traits of character, we can see how it is, that all things, even poor health, work together for our good. Hope. Hope is the expectation of future good; it is the exer- cise of that Faculty of the human mind whose function it is to look upward and forward with joy to the future. When wisdom be wanting, it may, sometimes, tell " a flat- tering tale;" but, its healthy and harmonious action is more necessary for human happiness than any other one faculty. No other faculty has so much to do in the resto- ration of health. "A cheerful (hopeful) countenance makes the bones fat." Under the encouraging influence of Hope, the blood circulates freely, it assists digestion, heals the wound, relieves the pain, soothes the nerves, and does more in the cure of disease, often, than any other physician; because, no other, gives so much " aid and comfort," to the processes of nutrition. Under its divine influence, see how often invalids recover, even while drugging in the use of poisonous nostrums ; nauseating and destructive in their tendencies, enough so to make the person sick, and cause the very difficulties they are, vainly, said to cure. And yet, in despite of the drugs, in despite of bad air, bad food; in despite of bad habits, and other opposing influences, see how powerful Hope is, to cure; and how often invalids recover by its aid alone, more than from any other one cause. Now, if Hope do so much for nutrition, under disad- vantages so formidable, how much more will it not do, for 208 THEORY OF NUTRITION. the invahd who is in the use of appropriate means of cure? Surely, when there is a knowledge of Nature's Laws, where there is a correct idea of the complaint, and a just appreciation of the best method of cure, and the only one, perhaps, upon which the sick may rely with confidence, we may, in such case, invoke aU the benefits of Hope, that friend of the friendless; that consolation of the suffering, that light which shines in a dark place, "until the day dawn, and the day star arise in our hearts." " Hope comes to all," and how much more should the invalid and suffering be strengthened in the use of the right means by its light! Hope on, hope ever! Love is light and life. As the light is, or, as the wisdom element is developed, so are the foundations made sure for hope. When it springs from a well-informed mind, from a sound judgment, and correct views of the Laws, from which good health is to be anticipated, then it is, that Hope be- comes a most congenial helper, a powerful auxiliary in the cure of all maladies. The want of this knowledge, often makes hope premature, or deficient. In such cases, the want of a " well-founded Hope " is, itself, a disease, and the patient must be treated accordingly. For, without Hope, how can the means of cure be used at aU ? with- out Hope nothing can be done. Hence it is, we consider, a state of despair, one of the worst diseases, with which the true physician has to contend. It is a condition of mind in which one Faculty preys upon another. There is fear, distrust, and corroding anxiety for which the materia medica furnishes no balm. There is no spiritual light. All is dark, despair. All is wrong with the in- valid ; dissatisfied with himself he becomes more or less so with God and the Laws of Nature. He looks in the THE INVALID. 209 wrong direction for light; he searches in the wrong place for heat, he mistakes, misjudges the rules of action. In this state of mind the nutritive system is deranged; diges- tion ceases; the vital processes stop; the fluids are poi- soned with the seeds of death ; the energies of the organism are smitten with palsy. Despair eats out the stamina of life ; and the system wastes away and dies as sure, as if smitten with the plague or Asiatic Cholera. Hope is the breath of life to the soul. Without it we gasp and die. The grounds of that " hope " that is " sure and steadfast, like an anchor to the soul," as we have already seen, are the independent, universal and unvarying Laws of the Eternal God, with whom there is no variableness, nor, even, any indication of a change ! This God is the In- finite Father and Mother of us all. And if the human yearns in paternal and maternal pity over the sick child, how much more true is this of our Father in Heaven! Hence, there is Hope for the poor sufferer who has even no hope for himself! The disconsolate who writes such bitter things of his own destiny. Yes, hope for you ! You do not, know all of Nature's Laws; nor have you lived long enough to find out, that he who knows the least of them has the least hope ! Hope, is, indeed, the medicine for the soul ; this is the true spiritual-balm, the elixir of Life. If you would be well, you must take this medicine, breathe this atmos- phere, — be hopeful! Do not be gloomy ; do not despair of the future. There is a good time coming, even for you! You are, now, better off, than you once hoped to be. Could you have been consulted, before you were born, you might not have expressed any hope for the good you, even, now, enjoy. Or, had you, been asked when a child, what you might be in ten, twenty, or thirty years, is * 210 THEORY OF NUTRITION. you would have been at a loss to tell. And, now, as you approach manhood, you look back with joy upon the past, — the ground you have travelled over, the victories you have won, the lessons you have learned, and the real, permanent good, of which you have come into possession! And, every pang you have endured makes one the less, and brings you farther and stiU farther on towards that clime where no one is sick, and where " The wintry storms of time have passed, And one unbounded spring encircles all." SYMPATHY. Whatever the mode of Treatment (and especiaUy in this) the Invalid needs and should receive the sympathy and cooperation of his family and friends. In many cases, it is not at all advisable to attempt this cure without this cooperation. The preparation of the food which the In- valid ought to eat, and the habits of life all have more or less to do with the domestic relation. If, therefore, the husband, or wife, the parent, or child, the brother, or sister, fail in finding that assistance and sympathy which ought never to be lacking in the domestic circle, the difficulty becomes formidable indeed. For, what can the " good Physician " do who is a stranger and perhaps, afar off, if the Invalid's " own familiar friend " not only withholds all sympathy but actually " lifts up his heel," against the pro- posed Treatment? There can be no doubt but many cases of suffering are protracted more for the want of congeniality in some of the domestic Relations, than from any other cause. And, when that congeniality and sym- pathy is lacking, no system of drugging, or any other treatment could so well succeed : — " To cheer with sweet repast the fainting guest, To lull the sick one on the couch of rest. To warm the traveller, numbed with cold, The young to cherish, to support the old, 211 212 THEORY OF NUTRITION. These are our cares, and this our glorious task. Could Heaven a nobler give, or mortals ask 1" Is it not enough, that the Invalid suffers ill health, that " wearisome days and nights are appointed to him " ? — " The birds are flying round about. With sunlight on their wings, And, out upon the maple tree The robin sits and sings. I hear, again, at even tide, The lowing of the kine, All things are gladdened by the spring, How sad a lot is mine ! " And, sad, indeed, it must be when the poor invalid finds no congenial friend, to sympathize with him in his afflic- tion ; or, to yield him that assistance we all so much need when disabled by protracted illness. We can scarcely over-estimate the value of that en- couragement, which comes to the sick from the loving and earnest cooperation of a congenial friend. The kind word, the cheerful look, the helping hand, all contribute, far more towards the recovery, than all the drugs in the world. As iron sharpeneth iron so does the countenance of a man his friend, and never to a better purpose than when this pleasant countenance contributes to the restora- tion of the sick. The Nutritive Treatment becomes, more than any other system can, a part of the domestic arrangements of the Fam- ily in which the sick one resides. Now, it is in the Relations of Life that we find all we know of Happiness. What is there of Life, or Health, or Joy, that does not come from the Conjugal, the Paternal, the Filial, or the Fraternal ? Without the Harmonious fulfilment of these relations there can be no health, no life, no joy. SYMPATHY. 213 In the conjugal, we have all we know of Perfection; all we enjoy of Symmetry; and aU we desire of Beauty. It moulds our own Essence, into those Forms and Uses, which results in health of soul and body, such as lay the foundation for the most pure, and dehghtful which it is possible for the human to enjoy. How much good health depends on this Relation, a volume would not be sufficient to show. And, when perfectly formed, how much it mitigates our sufferings, how much it contributes towards laying the rough paths of peevish nature even, those, only, can realize, whose happiness it is, to find themselves truly and conjugially mated. In the Parental, we have all of Power and Authority, that are necessary in the use of appropriate means. The soul like the tendril is " accus- tomed to cling," to lean, on superior wisdom in the use of means, for the relief of pain. And, in the FUial we have aU we aspire for in Faith and Hope, without which we are suffocated with dark despair, and never can be cured, no matter what the malady may be. In the Fraternal we find justice that develops Individual Sovereignty ; a prin- ciple that makes equal, restores that which was lost, makes harmony out of discord, raises that which is too low, abases that which is too high, and establishes an equi- librium where there is more or less in heat or light. Thus they all tend to Harmony; as harmony in one Re- lation, calls for harmony in all. Health of mind, de- mands health of body. When the Love peculiar to each of these endearing Relations prompts to the highest wis- dom in the use of appropriate means for the restoration of health, labor becomes rest, pain is sweet, and the in- firmities, which cannot, be immediately cured, we endure with patience, and Hope. 214 THEORY OF NUTRITION. The Family Circle, as I have elsewhere attempted to show,* is the original church, in which the true sacraments of a harmonious life are to be constantly observed. No other contains so much of love, so much of heaven, so much of God. This is the place for sympathy, for nursing the sick; where the paternal love, the sister's smUe, the brother's joy, become the bahn of hfe, far more powerful to heal, than any drugs in the materia medica. When all the social relations are sustained and fulfilled in harmony, the invalid may, indeed, be troubled on every side, but not distressed ; he may be perplexed, but not in despair; cast down, but not destroyed. The medicine which is health to his soul, is not in the pill box. His reliance is on Nature's Laws which he studies, and, Na- ture's Author whom he worships. In these Laws which are eternal, and these endearing Relations which never end, even the suffering invalid, finds consolation, and the means of permanent happiness. He is now, no longer, to be tossed about with " every wind" of quackery, "whereby they lie in wait to de- ceive ;" he no longer follows the ignis fatuus of patent nostrums, but, confiding in the Divine Sources of health he uses the only appropriate means for its attainment. With such views and feelings, such helps, as are found in these Laws, the blind are made to see; the ears of the deaf are unstopped; the lame are made to walk and the sick are healed. And, this medicine, is free for aU! It is in the air we breathe, in the sun-light of heaven, in the bread we eat, which thus becomes to us, truly, the bread of life. Happy is that Family, where this Harmony reigns. * Book of Human Nature, p. 404. SYMPATHY. 215 The hope of no member is allowed to die for the want of its appropriate food: — :{ They feel each other's woes, Each other's burden bear, And often for each other flows. The sympathizing tear." From many such, do letters of gratitude reach me from time to time, telling of victories gained over disease, of hopes revived and health restored, by the Nutritive Cure. Happy souls! It was for joys hke these that we were created. We may never meet, in this sphere, where we have had so much of ignorance and discord with which to contend. But, the assurance, that my humble services may have mitigated the sufferings of any feUow-creature, is among the purest joys I ever knew. It is " more blessed to give than to receive." How high, how holy must that pleasure be, to find yourself able to heal the wounded spirit; to administer consolation to the heart oppressed with sorrow! In such labors, we, ourselves, are developed into the stature of manhood, and partake of the blessings we bestow. We advance, not merely in physical health, but in those mental qualities which ren- der us conscious of the Divine. Thus, even the sick and afflicted, become contented, and cease to complain of the past. Grateful in view of those Laws and conditions on which Hope is securely based for the future, we are car- ried forward under burdens that otherwise could not be borne. The future must be better than the past. To each there is a better day coming. We may not aU have the same Ideal of it; but we must, if we act out our nature in harmony, look forward with ardent longings for its enjoyment. These aspirations for good health, for the 216 THE THEORY OF NUTRITION. harmonious development of soul and body, are nature's prophecies of what we may, and shaU be in the future. Her Laws, when correctly interpreted, utter no predic- tions which are not, sooner or later fulfilled. She has Symmetries, Perfections, and Beauties, for aU, which the eye hath not yet seen, and which it has not, yet, entered into the heart of man to conceive. Ever changing her Forms, from the lower, to the higher, we are thus im- peUed to the use of appropriate means, for the acquisi- tion of health, and find a foretaste of the happiness we seek, whUe performing the labors necessary for its enjoy- ment : — " There are green isles in each ocean, O'er which affection glides; And a haven on each rugged shore, When Love's the star that guides." »■■.•:■/ -■■"ri'iiMwwb ///'■■■amj/ir W■•■'::'):K > •''' A3 '.Y<