The Natural Cure of Consumption, Constipation, Bright's Disease, Neuralgia Part 1

The Natural Cure of Consumption, Constipation, Bright's Disease.

by Charles Edward Page.

PREFACE.

The inexpert,--they who can not claim sufficient acquaintance with a given subject to enable them to _think freely_ ("free thinking" being altogether another matter),--find it sufficiently difficult to obtain an author's meaning, when they are really desirous of so doing, and devote some time and patience to the work in hand; it is impossible, often, to arrive at just conclusions otherwise. The liability to error is increased many fold when the subject is not merely not popular, but is, in fact, _un_-popular.

It is a prevalent custom to "skim over" a volume, and then praise or condemn it, according to the reader's preconceived notion.

Sick people searching for means whereby they may be made well, sometimes fall into this error, and for want of thoroughness in their reading of a health-book make blunders in carrying out the prescribed treatment. In such cases, not only do the patients themselves suffer, perhaps lose their lives, or fail in some way, but their failures exert an influence tending to throw a sound method into disrepute. In this way it often happens that what is termed "dieting" is either overdone, half done, or not done at all in the manner designed by the author; "exercise" is taken under wrong conditions, as, for example, in point of time in relation to meals, it is conducted spasmodically or, perhaps, carried to excess, and the organism thereby depleted instead of strengthened; if the prevailing habit of over-wrapping the body is emphatically condemned, as is the case in the present volume, the reader, if a convert and designing to "go by the book," may conclude that he is expected to go shivering about in shirt-sleeves in all weathers; and the unfriendly critic is sure to make a point--taking off the idea in a manner to send a chill along the spine of an inquiring consumptive. In this way, too, has arisen the saying, as applied to the supposed notion of food-reformers, "Whatever is good is bad, and whatever is bad is good." Whatever it may be worth, therefore, I preface this volume with the simple request that the health-seeker, the casual reader, and the critic, alike, shall examine it in a manner to get the real meaning of the text before practicing, praising or condemning.

CHARLES E. PAGE.

BIDDEFORD, ME., _February, 1883_.

47 RUTLAND ST., BOSTON, _February, 1884._

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

Although it is evident to my mind that the world is growing more healthy and more moral with every generation--speaking of civilized nations--it is still, as all agree, in a most pitiful state as regards both moral and physical health. The two are indissolubly a.s.sociated, notwithstanding the glaring exceptions which are, indeed, more apparent than real, and it is difficult to appreciate which leads--whether man grows more healthy as his moral tone improves or more moral as his physical state is exalted. Both are, in fact, constantly acting and reacting upon each other. Few people withdraw themselves from the influence of disease-producing habits, who do not first come to hate disease as a symptom of disobedience to the laws governing their organism. The pain of an aching head is not sufficient, generally, although it may discount the tortures of the d.a.m.ned, to determine the sufferer to live a better life; but when he comes to know the fact that the disorder is needless, brought upon himself by violation of law, and that it is the normal office of pain to warn of danger; then, if he be conscientious, instead of cursing his suffering, he will feel ashamed of his sin, and endeavor to learn the laws of life and obey them.

"In days gone by and not far away, there was a very general impression with the people that sickness and the death which so often follows it were of divine origination and ordainment. No person who might be sick blamed himself for it; certainly no one was held by the community of which he was a member, as in any sense responsible or blameworthy because of his death by sickness. It was believed that for reasons thoroughly justifiable, but incomprehensible to the mind of man, the Supreme Ruler saw fit to manifest His modes and methods of government, either providential or punitive, by taking away the health or the life of those who became sick, or who being sick died of their sickness.

"This notion, though not so prevalent as formerly, still lingers in the popular mind and lies hidden away in the select circles of religious people, occasionally to be brought forth and urged upon public consideration with emphasis, when some person is taken sick and remains for many months and perhaps years an invalid, or when one taken sick suddenly dies.

"There is no basis in science nor in religion for this impression. It never rose, it never can rise, to the dignity or worthiness of an idea; it must always dwell, no matter who entertains it, on the low level of irrational impression. Its basis is error, not knowledge; its superstructure is superst.i.tion. By and by, when mankind shall reach such a degree of rational development as to understand that human life has its laws, and that human health is but the legitimate outcome of the operation of these laws, and that every human being of every tribe and kindred and tongue, is born to live on earth under such minute and careful providential arrangements as to hold within him, at his starting, great securities and guarantees of the very highest order, for the continuance of his life up to a definite period, and that by reason of this inherent capability, he is ent.i.tled to live to the full measure of his endowment, this foolish, I may say wicked, notion, that G.o.d kills people will disappear. When it shall be abandoned, the sickness which now is so common everywhere, and the deaths which now so frequently result, will cease, and human beings will live from birth to death by old age, casualties, and accidents one side, as surely as the seasons come and go."[1]

[Footnote 1: "The Absurdity of Sickness," by James C. Jackson, M.D.]

Few people have any just conception of the prevalence of disease even in their own midst--among their own kindred; and this is simply because it never absurdly happens that all those who are subject to illnesses are "attacked" at the same time. When any large proportion are down at once, the doctors call it an _epidemic_, and it is attributed to a "wave"--an epizootic or influenza wave, for example, according as the victims are horses or men (the poor animals depend upon the elevated race for their habits, and never have disease except these are unphysiological),--when, in fact, the so-called epidemic, whether it be scarlet or yellow fever, diphtheria, or what not, is the result chiefly of the uniformly bad living habits of our people and their consequent predisposition to sickness. I do not ignore the influence of contagion in certain disorders, but a.s.sert that no person in _prime physical condition_ is ever made sick by transient contact with the so-called contagious diseases.

"There can be no doubt," says Dr. Moore, "of the inherent effort of the system to preserve its integrity and to resist and overcome the effects of morbid influences. And when the system is properly organized and perfect in its physiological functions, it has the power to accomplish this (unless these obnoxious influences are so overwhelming as to destroy life at once) in a prompt and complete manner, unaided by any external influences whatsoever, so that health will be maintained and all injurious action of disease-producing causes unconsciously and successfully averted.

But if instead of such a properly organized and healthy system, we have formed an incomplete and inferior grade of structural organization, and consequently an enervated nervous system, resulting from imperfect and deficient nutrition, such as evidently exists in the s...o...b..tic diathesis (the effect of deficiency in vegetable food), or as must result from habitual or frequent digestive disturbances, this endeavor to resist or avert disease, will be necessarily so enfeebled that it will be impossible for the system, by its own inherent and unaided energy, either to ward off or to overcome the effects of disease-producing agents. This protective and restorative effort, if not sustained by a high character of structural organization and active nervous energy, must be followed, therefore, as a natural consequence, by an exhaustion of vital power; in which condition there would be evidently an increased susceptibility to all morbific influences, and a marked predisposition to any exciting causes of disease which might be brought to bear upon it.

"It is well known that certain individuals are more severely affected by any ascertained cause of disease than others; and also that the same exciting cause may at one time produce serious disturbance of health, while at another, and under precisely the same conditions, as far as known, no injurious effect is produced. How frequently do we observe during the same epidemic, as, for instance, scarlet fever, measles, diphtheria (and even of sporadic forms of disease), a marked difference in the character and severity of individual cases. Even in members of the same family, under apparently similar conditions, some are stricken down with the most malignant form of one of these diseases, while others may, at the same time, be but slightly affected by it, or perhaps entirely escape an attack. It can not be that they who are the most severely affected receive a larger or a stronger dose of the morbific agent which has produced the disorder, than the others, and that the disease-producing influence, in consequence of larger quant.i.ty or greater strength and power, acts with more severity and force on one than on another. For, leaving out of consideration all effects of existing predisposition, we know that a person unprotected by a previous attack or by vaccination, would be, in all probability, just as severely affected by the contagious influence of a case of small-pox, whether he was exposed for a few moments or for several hours; and besides, it would make no difference whether the case happened to be a mild one or of a more malignant form.

"It is, therefore, difficult to account for this variable operation of disease-producing agents, unless we admit the existence of such a latent predisposition as that already mentioned, and acknowledge that the system, at the time of exposure to disease-producing causes, is thereby made more or less susceptible to their effects in proportion to the development of such a predisposition. The less the power of resistance and the greater the degree of impressibility, the more aggravated will be the character of every disease which affect the system while it is thus predisposed; or, in other words, the severity of the disease will be proportionate to the degree of departure from the standard of health."[2]

[Footnote 2: "Predisposition and Typhoid Tendency," by Thomas Moore, M.D.

Philadelphia.]

Predisposition is that state of susceptibility produced by the continued operation of the predisposing cause. _Exciting causes_ are those which tend to the immediate development of diseases, especially in a system already having a predisposition thereto.

But in my opening remarks, I had in view, particularly, the common sicknesses that prevail among us, and which are not cla.s.sed as contagious. Not one in the thousand of our population _so lives_ as to feel an a.s.surance of absolute health for, say, a single month, much less for the coming twelve months. There are, however, among the cla.s.s I shall hold up as examples to my readers, further on, individuals who would be willing to stake their lives on their ability to meet any engagement depending upon a mental and physical state, equal to that enjoyed at the present moment, on any day, week, or month, during the next year or ten years; and every ordinarily healthy person, who can fairly be called a free agent, ought to be able to feel such an a.s.surance in his own case; and if he be at middle-age, or under, and afflicted with ailments, other than organic and incurable, he should be able to count with certainty on being a better man, physically as well as morally, ten years hence than he is to-day.

But how is it in practice? Why, even our national salutation (which is, also, about the same among all civilized nations) is significant in this connection, as we shall observe, further on: if sickness was the exception and not the rule, health would not be the stock question everywhere and always--the princ.i.p.al theme of conversation--as it is now. People seem to delight in a subject that they know nothing about, like a good old Methodist preacher I once knew, who said on one occasion, at prayer-meeting: "I love to talk about religion--I have so little of it."

We talk about enjoying good health, and some of my readers would, I dare say, make the claim for themselves, although too well aware of occasional lapses, and indeed the great proportion of our people, in spite of heredity, might obtain, and rest secure in, a high state of health; but, living as they do, a truly sound person is almost the rarest thing in the world.

"How are you?" is the question on meeting an acquaintance. "First-rate, although I have my old sick headaches occasionally." Another replies, "Pretty well, _now_--have just had a touch of neuralgia--you know I always had that now and then." Another has a "bad cold in the head." Smith enjoys good health, although "troubled a good deal with dyspepsia, constipation, etc.," which means that he is constantly annoyed by symptoms inseparable from his disease. Jones is "tip-top," with an occasional "attack" of cholera-morbus, or a bilious spell. Brown "never was better in his life,"

but could tell you of a fearful sickness last spring--"like to have died,"

and no wonder--he had three drug doctors and a gallstone! Robinson is "tough as a knot"--just now--since getting cleaned out by erysipelas--an eruption of the acc.u.mulated poison resulting from his bad habits. It was a fearful "attack," as he says! "The doctor called it the worst case he ever saw--my head was swelled so I couldn't see for weeks--used up a bushel of cranberries in poultices, when I had counted on having cranberry sauce all winter--did not get a spoonful." Of course Robinson exaggerates about the quant.i.ty of cranberries.

Tom, one of the healthiest-looking specimens, recently had typhoid fever and came near dying. Mrs. d.i.c.k had "slow fever" the past summer and managed to keep it a-going for three months. She says it was a dreadful "attack"; and she tries to explain it by saying that several years ago, she had it every summer for three summers, and "it generally leaves the seeds in the system!" Harry's wife had stoppage and inflammation of the bowels--a deadly sickness for six months, entailing infinite distress on the large family that needed her about so much. "The doctor's big bill isn't paid yet," she mourns, "and mercy only knows when it will be." She has always been a well woman, so-called, has always seemed pretty well until this terrible disease "attacked" her.

The list is endless, of the so-called healthy ones who have been from time to time "attacked" with one disorder or another and recovered,--while the mortality reports from week to week tell the final story of the premature taking off of thousands of men, women, and children who, although always regarded by themselves and friends as healthy, have suffered the death-penalty after a longer or shorter imprisonment.

How often we hear such remarks as this: "I never was so surprised in my life as I was to hear of Miss Blank's death--perfect picture of health--fat, hearty, red-cheeked--the last person in the world I would have thought of dying." This shows how much the people know about health.

Ninety-nine in a hundred would have called this young lady a specimen of health, when, in fact, any expert would have known that she was a typhoid subject--almost sure to be down with it sooner or later, and, with her whole physical conditions so against her, that recovery would be almost a miracle, _under the prevailing system of treatment_. Just recall the scores of cases where you, my dear reader, have been surprised at the death of this or that friend, "always so strong and well." In fact, this is so common that we expect to be surprised continually, and are not much surprised when we are!

How many healthy-born infants die before their first year is reached--babies that for months are mistakenly regarded as pictures of health--"never knew a sick day until they were attacked" with cholera-infantum, scarlatina, or something else. They are crammed with food, made gross with fat, and for a time are active and cunning, the delight of parents and friends--and then, after a season of constipation, a season of chronic vomiting, and a season of cholera-infantum, the little emaciated skeletons are buried in the ground away from the sight of those who have literally _loved them to death_. This is the fate of one-third of all the children born. As a rule, babies are fed as an ignorant servant feeds the cook-stove--filling the fire-box so full, often, that the covers are raised, the stove smokes and gases at every hole, and the fire is either put out altogether, or, if there is combustion of the whole body of coals, the stove is rapidly burned out and destroyed. With baby, "overheating" means the fever that consumes him, and, in "putting out the fire," too often the fire of life goes out also.[3]

[Footnote 3: For a thorough discussion of this question see the author's work on Infant Dietetics, ent.i.tled "How to Feed the Baby" New York: Fowler & Wells.]

"For the preservation of life G.o.d has ordained certain laws to be observed, the neglect of which necessarily brings disease and premature death." Hence it is that if any of us are sick--except from accidents or congenital causes--it is our own fault. If we have dyspepsia, and the endless afflictions resulting from this parent of diseases, it is our own fault--either of ignorance or carelessness. If neuralgia, "sciatica,"

rheumatism, gout, or sick-headache afflicts us, we can thank ourselves; for the simple question is--whether it will "pay" to keep clear of them?

It is all very fine to bowl along without thought; to eat, drink, and breathe, without using our brains or consciences, and to shun the best products of the brains of others who make this subject the study of their lives, and when the inevitable sickness comes shift the responsibility on to the Lord. It is rank blasphemy, nevertheless.

In the struggle of life, when so many of His children are engrossed in the vital question of bread-winning; when to obtain the mere necessities of life, or, at most, these and the ordinary comforts, requires all the time, early and late, of so large a portion of the human family, it is not to be supposed that the Creator designed that the due and proper care of the body--its development and the maintenance of a healthy state--should be a matter of such complications as to be beyond the comprehension of ordinary mortals, or require the expenditure of an amount of time that would prove embarra.s.sing to all, and totally impossible to many. Nor should Christians conclude that an "all-wise, all-merciful, and all-powerful Father"

designed that the creatures formed in "His own likeness" should alone, of all created beings, be necessarily subject to the multifarious forms of disease, that in fact, under present conditions, do so continually afflict them. Happily such conclusions are not borne out by rational experience; for, in practice, it is found that not only is less trouble and expense required to keep well, than to pursue a course that is promotive of disease; and to get well when disease is really fastened upon us, than to continue the general regimen that has worked the mischief, and seek to counteract it by poisonous drugs; but in fact it has been clearly shown by innumerable living examples, that neither much time, trouble, or expense is necessary to maintain the body in a state of absolute health--perfect ease and comfort--when once this state has been reached, or to restore to comparative health a large proportion of "miserable sinners" who, without a radical change in their mode of life, must continue to suffer from their self-inflicted pains.

It requires no more time to breathe pure than impure air--and no more time or expense to obtain it: it is as free as air, and will fill our homes, without money and without price, unless we seal them against its admission. The poorest factory-operative that goes by the bell, can with a pint of water and a single towel, if need be, take a three-minute bath any or every morning, if he appreciates its importance and is conscientious in his living. It costs no more to eat enough than to over-indulge the appet.i.te, as is the universal rule, high and low, until nausea and lack of appet.i.te compel abstinence or moderation. It costs money to poison the system with beer or tobacco, and thus shorten one's life and impair its usefulness, and transmit evil moral and physical tendencies to his offspring, but it is a ten-fold saving to keep clear of these evils. And so it proves throughout the list: it is cheap to keep well, and dear to get sick.

"So to observe Nature as to learn her laws and obey them, is to observe the commandments of the Lord to do them. It has so long been the habit to exalt the mind as the n.o.ble, spiritual, and immortal part, at the expense of the body, as the vile, material and mortal part, that, while it is not thought at all strange that every possible care and attention should be given to mental cultivation, a person who should give the same sort of careful attention to his body would be thought somewhat meanly of. And yet I am sure that a wise man who would ease best the burden of life, can not do better than watchfully to keep undefiled and holy--that is, healthy--the n.o.ble temple of his body. Is it not a glaring inconsistency that men should pretend to fall into ecstasies of admiration of the temples which they have built with their own hands, and to claim reverence for their ruins, and, at the same time, should have no reverence for, or should actually speak contemptuously of, that most complex, ingenious, and admirable structure which the human body is? However, if they really neglect it, it is secure of its revenge--no one will come to much by his most strenuous mental exercises, except upon the basis of a good organization; for a sound body is a.s.suredly the foundation of a sound mind." (Maudsley).

That there is need of a radical change in the study and practice of medicine, is well known among those who have examined the subject with any degree of thoroughness. A prominent defect is thus described by the eminent Dr. Combe: "The little regard," he says, "which has. .h.i.therto been paid to the laws of the human const.i.tution, as the true basis on which our attempts to improve the condition of man ought to rest, will be obvious from the fact, that, notwithstanding the direct uses, to which a knowledge of the conditions, which regulate the healthy action of the bodily organs, may be applied in the prevention, detection, and treatment of disease, there is scarcely a medical school in this country (Great Britain)[4] in which any special provision is made for teaching it.... The prominent aim of medicine being to discriminate, and to cure _diseases_, both the teacher and the student naturally fix upon that as their chief object, and are consequently apt to overlook the indirect (!) but substantial aid, which an acquaintance with the laws of health is calculated to afford, in restoring the sick as well as in preserving the healthy from disease." The use of the word "indirect," in this connection shows how far Dr. Combe, himself, was from having a true comprehension of the importance of hygienic knowledge. Although individuals, here and there, finally work out this knowledge for themselves, it is generally late in life, when long years of blundering practice have forced it upon them. Hear what some of the wise old heads say on this point:

[Footnote 4: Some advance has been made in this direction of late, but the outlook is far from satisfactory; there is scarcely a college lecture-room but in deficient ventilation, or a lecturer whose living habits, and, consequently, personal health, do not cry aloud, "Physician, heal thyself."]

A. H. Stevens, M.D.: "The older physicians grow, the more skeptical they become in the virtues of their own medicines." Prof. Willard Parker: "Of all sciences, medicine is the most unreliable." Prof E. H. Davis: "The vital effects of medicine are little understood." J. Mason Goode, M.D.: "The science of medicine is a barbarous jargon." Dr. Bostwick, author of "History of Medicine": "Every dose of medicine is a blind experiment."

Prof. Evans, M.D.: "The medical practice of the present day is neither philosophy nor common sense." It was the well-known remark of Dr. James Gregory, who added as much reputation to the medical school of the University of Edinburgh, as any other individual--that, "ninety-nine in the hundred medical 'facts' are medical lies, and that all medical theories are stark, staring nonsense." Dr. McClintock: "Mercury has made more cripples than all wars combined," and he might have added that the abuse of soda or pota.s.sa in its present various forms is destroying myriads of stomachs every year beyond redemption. Sir Astley Cooper, the most famous physician and surgeon of the age: "The science of medicine is founded on conjecture and improved by murder." Oliver Wendell Holmes said before a medical cla.s.s in 1861: "The disgrace of medicine has been that colossal system of self-deception, in obedience to which mines have been emptied of their cankering minerals, the vegetable kingdom robbed of all its growth, the entrails of animals taxed for their impurities, the poison bags of reptiles drained of their venom, and all the conceivable abominations thus obtained thrust down the throats of human beings, suffering from some fault of organization, nourishment, or vital stimulation."

That the practice of medicine to-day is not what it should be, is due largely to the position of the laity on this point--their aversion to taking advice instead of medicine. They will consider the question of prevention, in the shape of anti-bilious pills, for example, but not at the expense of their lawful follies. If indeed physicians, generally, knew enough about the natural laws to retain their own health, how could they all derive an income from teaching the simple method by which all their neighbors would remain well? A patient, for example, is suffering pain, and sends for the doctor, who comes, examines, and finally says, "I find nothing serious here--this pain in the head will soon leave you--just keep about if you can; if not, remain quiet. Coming in from the fresh air, I observe that your room is very close, sufficient of itself to give you the headache--change the air and keep it pure; eat nothing more to-day: you are 'ahead of your stomach,' withal; in fact, that is the chief trouble.

Take a quick sponge bath on retiring, and you will find yourself all right in the morning--you need no medicine." Do you fancy he would get another call from her, or from her friends through her influence? Her _head aches_, and she is incensed at such heartless nonsense. She sends for another doctor, who will probably be sharp enough to treat her _disposition_, and endeavor to "control the symptoms" instead of teaching her to remove the disease by removing its cause; he gives her a "quieting medicine"--something to deaden her senses; she has several days' illness, he gets several fees--as he ought, to be sure--and the good-will of the family; and so he rises in the profession, while the other falls into the shade unless he drops his hygienic nonsense. Thus, we observe, a premium on shrewdness and a tax on sincerity.

"It is notorious that in proportion to people's ignorance of their own const.i.tutions and the true causes of disease, is their credulous confidence in pills, potions, and quackish absurdities, and while this ignorance continues, there will, of course, be plenty of doctors who will pander to it. And not the least of the benefits likely to follow the better diffusion of physiological and sanitary information will be the protection of the community from the numberless impostures of charlatanism, and a better discrimination of the qualifications of competent physicians."[5]

[Footnote 5: "Physiology and Hygiene," Huxley and Youmans.]

I take it that all are agreed as to the desirability of good health, although it is often said of a certain cla.s.s of chronic invalids, that if they were to be deprived of the pleasure of croning over and detailing their symptoms, life would have no charms for them. But this is a provision of nature to prevent the meanest life from becoming altogether an unmitigated burden: when a person becomes so disordered physically that he has nothing else to enjoy, a certain depraved condition of mind is induced which enables him to extract a little satisfaction from dwelling upon and recounting his miseries! In contrast to such cases how gloriously shines out the example of the old lady who, on being interviewed by the minister, thus related her experiences: her husband had been long dead, leaving her with eight children, whom, through her own labor, she reared and educated. One after another all had died after lingering illnesses--the last, a son, the only support of her old age, had been recently buried; and, to crown all, the remnant of the little property left by her husband, had just pa.s.sed from her possession--the uninsured buildings by fire, and the land by the foreclosure of the mortgage. "But,"

concluded the dear old soul, while her brow lightened and her eye kindled with enthusiasm, "thank the Lord, I have two teeth left, and praise and bless His holy name, they are opposite each other!" I pause to note an important lesson--the influence upon health, of prevalent good nature, and the habit, which may be cultivated, of looking on the bright side of things. "People ask me," says Old Sojourner Truth, "how I came to live so long and keep my mind, and I tell them that it is 'because I think of the great things of G.o.d, not little things.' I don't fritter my mind away in caring for trifles."

It has been elsewhere noted--the propensity of people in general for preferring medicine to advice. If the world were convinced that the writer possessed an unfailing remedy--a "medicine" that would cure every physical ailment and prevent disease, it would be demanded faster than it could be manufactured, though every gin-mill in the land were transformed into a laboratory for its production. No price would be deemed exorbitant, and, though the mixture were black as ink, and more nauseating than the vilest drug in our vile Materia Medica, it would still be gulped down as a child demolishes bon-bons, if it never failed in its efficacy.