The Natural Cure of Consumption, Constipation, Bright's Disease, Neuralgia Part 6

In his renewed state it proved no longer enticing!]

"And you are perfectly positive, Mrs. ----, that Mr. ---- fasted absolutely, with the exception of water, for forty-one days?"

"Perfectly satisfied," replied Mrs. ----; "in fact, I know it. There can be no possible doubt, inasmuch as the attendants were only too anxious to force the man to eat."

"Do you think the fast has made any change in Mr. ----'s condition?"

"Well," replied Mrs. ----, "he will probably be discharged as cured at the next meeting of the board of freeholders in August."[53]

[Footnote 53: It is a matter of regret to me that this book goes to press before I can ascertain the final result. Judging from the above account, however, I should expect a thoroughly successful ending, unless it should transpire that, true to their instincts, the attendants prevailed upon the patient to abandon the simple regimen, which he adopted after the fast, and resume the ordinary stimulating diet; in which case I should confidently expect a complete relapse.

As a hint regarding the effect of a stimulating and excessive diet upon persons of unsound mind, I subjoin a brief note taken during the trial of the most celebrated lunatic of modern times: "Guiteau's appet.i.te is quite as remarkable as his insolence. He has breakfast served in his room at the court-house about nine o'clock, and usually consumes at this meal a pound of steak, nine buckwheat cakes, three roasted potatoes, and five cups of coffee. Then, at half-past twelve, he gorges himself on roast beef and mutton."]

A certain cla.s.s of wakeful patients are benefited by the practice of eating shortly before bedtime, when this right has been earned by sufficient restriction during the day. To make this the fourth, or even the third meal, however, is almost certain to increase the difficulty at last. The victim of sleepless nights often finds himself quite overcome with drowsiness after his midday meal. If then he could throw himself upon the bed he would have no time to "count," or even think of such a device for putting himself to sleep. He was wide awake before lunch, and but for the habit of taking it, could have finished the day better without than with this out-of-season sleeping potion. Let him take the hint, eat his second and last meal, a sufficient one of plain food, in the evening after fully rested, and, thus equipped, go to bed directly, or after an hour or two of agreeable, but non-taxing, social converse. He must avoid every form of artificial stimulation--tea, coffee, wine, beer, tobacco. To breathe the atmosphere of an office, hotel, or smoking-car, for any considerable period, is no better, may be worse, than a moderate indulgence at first-hand in the open air.

CHAPTER VII.

RHEUMATISM, FATTY DEGENERATION, ETC.

Casey A. Wood. M.D., Professor of Chemistry in the Medical Department of Bishop's College, Montreal, in an article ent.i.tled "Starvation in the Treatment of Acute Articular Rheumatism" (Canada _Medical Record_), gives the history of seven cases where the patients were speedily restored to health by simply abstaining from food from four to eight days, and he says he could have given the history of forty more from his own practice, but thought these would suffice. In no instance did he find it necessary to extend the fast beyond ten days. His patients were allowed to drink freely of cold water, or lemonade in moderate quant.i.ties, if they preferred, and simple sponging with tepid water was resorted to when indicated by feverishness of the surface. In no case did this treatment fail. No medicine was administered. The cases reported "included men and women of different ages, temperaments, occupations, and social positions." He further says: "From the quick and almost invariably good results to be obtained by simple abstinence from food, I am inclined to the idea that rheumatism is, after all, only a phase of indigestion, and that, by giving complete and continued rest to all the viscera that take any part in the process of digestion, the disease, is attacked _in ipsa radice_."

In chronic rheumatism he obtained less positive results, but did not venture to try fasts of longer duration. Dr. Wood concludes by saying that "this treatment, obviating as it does, almost entirely, the danger of cardiac complications, will be found to realize all that has been claimed for it--a simple, reliable remedy for a disease that has long baffled the physician's skill; and the frequency with which rheumatism occurs will give every one a chance of trying its efficacy." As elsewhere remarked, nearly all patients continue eating regularly, until food becomes actually disagreeable, even loathsome, often; and, after this, every effort is exhausted to produce some toothsome compound to "tempt the appet.i.te."

Furthermore, and often worst of all, after the entire failure of this programme, the patient can, and usually does, take to gruel or some sort of "extract," which he can drink by holding his breath. All this tends to aggravate the acute symptoms, and to fasten the disease in a chronic form upon the rheumatic patient, or to insure rheumatic fever; and the same principle holds in nearly all acute disorders, it is well to remember. So inveterate is this mania for eating, even when to continue is like turning coals upon the dead ashes and clinkers of an expired fire, that, in ordinary practice, it is well-nigh impossible to induce any cla.s.s of patients to abstain from food at the beginning of an attack, or to give the fasting cure a fair trial at any stage of the disease. The term frequently applied--"starvation cure"--is both misleading and disheartening to the patient: in fact, he is both _starved_ and _poisoned_ by _eating_ when the hope of digestion and a.s.similation is prohibited, as is, in great measure, the case in all acute attacks, and more especially when there is nausea or lack of appet.i.te; and he can only escape from the danger by abstaining temporarily. Dr. Wood's prestige in the natural treatment of acute rheumatism was obtained in hospital practice, where it is comparatively easy to "control the symptoms" by withholding the cause, or, in other words, where the physician--providing the nurse is honest--can regulate the diet of his patients, absolutely. After such experience, it was less difficult for Dr. Wood to introduce this remedy among the most intelligent of his patients in private practice; for he could recommend it as in no sense an experiment, but as a remedy of positive advantage and, in fact, indispensable, if the best results were to be effected. My own experience, so far as it goes, has been similar to that of Dr. Wood. Moreover, in chronic cases--cases of long standing--the best results may be hoped for--in fact the best possible results have invariably followed--from an abstemious (_frugivorous_) diet, together with simple bathing, as special symptoms may indicate,--and an improved general regimen, as to fresh air, exercise (inaugurated gradually), beginning, perhaps, with pa.s.sive exercise, as rubbing, etc., by the attendant. A chronic disease usually implies chronic provocation: Nature has simply commuted the extreme penalty of the law; or, it may be likened to the reprieve of a convict under sentence of death, with an a.s.surance of full liberty upon complete reform.

Among the disorders radically and safely removed by fasting, is

OBESITY,

or any degree of excess in weight. Time, from ten days up. The weight, in this disorder, will diminish under the influence of fasting--by the waste and excretion of _material that can best be spared_ (fat)--at the rate of from one to three pounds, or more, a day, which rate of progress can be increased, happily, by exercise in the open air. Entire abstinence from food will cause the fat to disappear, but there can be no regeneration of the muscular system--on the contrary, it must continue to deteriorate--without exercise. It is better, therefore, to keep up a good degree of exercise, and to eat a limited amount of food daily. It is not that the fat person eats or digests more than the lean one (he may not eat nearly as much in fact), but he excretes less. Exercise in the open air favors the excretion of waste matters which otherwise would be deposited in the cellular tissues. The fatty degeneration so much admired in infancy, aids in the production of emaciation and consumption at adult age.

A fat person, at whatever period of life, has not a sound tissue in his body; not only is the entire muscular system degenerated with the fatty particles,[54] but the vital organs--heart, lungs, brain, kidneys, liver, etc.--are likewise mottled throughout, like rust spots in a steel watch-spring, liable to fail at any moment.

[Footnote 54: A slice of steak from the loin of a stall-fed ox exhibits this disease very clearly: mark its "well mixed" appearance (a token of praise to the ignorant or reckless epicure), where the muscular tissue has given place to the globules of fat which denote unexcreted excess in diet, and deficient nutrition, from lack of exercise.]

The gifted Gambetta, whom M. Rochefort styled a "fatted satrap," died (far under his prime) because of this depraved condition: a slight gun-shot wound, from which a "clean" man would have speedily recovered, ended this obese diabetic's life. Events sufficiently similar are constantly occurring on both sides of the water; every hour men are rolling into ditches of death because they do not learn how to live. These ditches have fict.i.tious names--grief, fright, apoplexy, heart disease, kidney troubles, etc., etc.--but the true name is _chronic self-abuse_.

Says an agricultural journal: "The eggs of most fowls are infertile from too much pampering and too little exercise. It is not wise to fatten any animal intended for breeding purposes." The principle here involved does not relate simply to the fertility of the ovum, but to the health and stamina of all living creatures: fat is disease. Very fat women can not conceive, or, if they do, their children can not be born alive; and those who are to any degree degenerated in this manner can not endow their offspring with the full measure of vitality to which they are justly ent.i.tled; while too often they are foredoomed to sickly lives and premature deaths.

I can in no way better ill.u.s.trate the relation of fat to health and strength, than by repeating the remarks of an intelligent and observing young farmer. "I fatten my cattle," said he, "because it pays--the market demands fat creatures; so I have my barn very snug and warm, and feed high. My neighbor, on the other hand, is what would be called a 'poor farmer'; that is, his buildings are not of the best, his barn has broad cracks all around, which gives them pure air, and his cattle are never fat. He works his oxen hard, gives them enough to eat to keep them in full health and vigor, but nothing for adipose. Mornings, in winter, when he turns his oxen out into the yard, they prance out like a lot of colts, kick up their heels and shake their horns like healthy creatures as they are; while mine will almost tumble down over the door-sill! His cows never give as much milk nor make as much b.u.t.ter as mine; but they are never sick, while mine are sometimes, and I lose one now and then with 'milk-fever,' or some other disease resulting from high feeding; but I am farming for profit, and my heifers bring an extra price by reason of the great milk and b.u.t.ter record of their mothers, and I can afford to have a sick or even a dead cow occasionally, providing I keep the fact quiet--not advertise the danger of the process necessary to 'drive the milk out of them.'"

[Obesity being a disease peculiar to, and (terminating in cholera infantum or some zymotic disease) especially fatal in, infancy, the author has endeavored to treat the subject exhaustively in his work ent.i.tled "How to Feed the Baby." He would merely observe, in this connection, that in plant life or animal life, the universal law is a _lean, lank infancy_: those creatures and those slips which thrive continuously and reach a healthy maturity are _never_ fat or stocky during the period of growth.

The human infant only is sought to be made an exception to this rule; with what success the mortality reports fully attest.]

CHAPTER VIII.

BILIOUSNESS, "HAY FEVER," NEURALGIA, ETC.

Regarding this ridiculous (because unnecessary) disorder, Sir Lionel Beale, a recognized authority, says: "The bilious 'habit' seems to be due to an unusually sensitive, irritable stomach and liver, which will discharge their functions fairly in a moderate degree, but which can not be made to do more than this without getting much out of order, [unless, I would remark, the _needs_ of the system be augmented and, consequently, the digestive powers exalted, by means of increased exercise, less pampering, more outdoor air, the use of lighter clothing, etc.] Most of the organs" he goes on to say, "taking part in the digestion and a.s.similation of food seem to strike work when the bilious attack comes on.

[It would seem more accurate to say that the 'strike,' resulting from overtaxation--excessive and unwholesome alimentation--const.i.tutes the 'attack']. If food be taken, the suffering becomes greater. The fact seems to be, that the digestive organs require rest for a time, and if, when an attack comes on, this rest is given, the bilious state pa.s.ses off, and the patient then feels extremely well, perhaps for a considerable time.

Persons of the 'bilious habit' should not [who should?] eat 'rich' foods, fatty matters, fried dishes, etc., etc., and should shun alcohol." He advises little or no meat; commends the vegetarian diet, fruits, and a good proportion of whole-meal bread--corn, rye, and wheat. The free use of milk promotes biliousness, in many cases. Skim-milk often "agrees" when whole milk can not be taken in any quant.i.ty without causing much disturbance. Milk can not be called a natural food for man, and, indeed, many are obliged to relinquish its use altogether; besides, as remarked elsewhere, there is much disease among cows, owing to the unnatural manner of feeding them, and in such cases the milk is impure. It is a safe rule for bilious subjects to abstain from milk altogether; while b.u.t.ter, cream and cheese are still more objectionable.

In the following complaints the benefit derived from temporary abstinence from food are most marked; the acute symptoms, as catarrhal discharges, feverishness, or pain, shortly disappear (when the fast may be broken), and the disorders themselves may be eradicated by a wholesome regimen such as would, in the first instance, have prevented them: acute catarrh, "rose," or "hay" fever, influenza, feverishness, fever (one to six days, or until convalescence), neuralgia (including headache and toothache). The list might be extended somewhat, but enough has been said to ill.u.s.trate the principle that "fresh air, fasting, and exercise is Nature's triple panacea" for the pain and discomfort experienced in a wide range of disorders where the necessity exists for excreting poisonous elements, and resting the viscera concerned in alimentation. "This exasperation of irritation _in the viscera_, and for the most part in the ganglionic network about the stomach and liver," says an eminent medical author, "is an invariable concomitant and cause" [of neuralgia, and all chronic nerve aches].

HINTS AND APHORISMS.

A well-knit frame never "drops a st.i.tch."--A chilly person is a sick person: good health, not good clothes, nor artificial heat, keeps a man feeling warm.--A rear guard: "I shall bring him out of this all right,"

says the doctor,--"if no new complication arises"; and then he prescribes a drug or a compound of drugs, which tends to provoke the complication.

For hundreds of years it has been, and, in general practice, still is the aim in sickness, to excite the organism to greater exertion in this, that or the other direction, _by giving it more to do_; the new gospel teaches that the true theory is, to enable Nature to put forth her energies in the most life-saving manner, albeit in her own fas.h.i.+on, by giving her more to do _with_: fresh air, suns.h.i.+ne, cleanliness, water,--the latter _pure_, _i.e._, without the everlasting drug which const.i.tutes the "more to do."

It is a hackneyed expression, that "a man is either a fool or his own physician at forty"; but if he then find himself neither whole nor mending, he is a fool if he does not seek advice. Stomach digestion demands a period of leisure; hence the rule, "Never eat till you have leisure to digest."--a.s.similation and nutrition demand peace of mind, to ensure the best results; in sickness, especially, "the balance of power"

often lies in this direction.

NOTE.--It should be understood that aside from the above hint, the foregoing disorders are to be considered by the reader in connection with the teachings of this volume as a whole. (See concluding paragraph in the chapter on Bright's Disease.)

Having studied the subject well and with all practicable aid, settle upon a regimen, let it become second nature, and never worry about diet or think of your stomach; but if that organ persists in making itself _felt_, adopt a more abstemious regimen still, and go on again.

Maria Giberne--artist and vegetarian, of whom at the age of fifty, Mozley said: "She is the handsomest woman I ever saw," and who "now at near eighty has the same flowing locks, though they are white as snow, and her talk and her letters are as bright as ever"--ascribed her wonderful preservation and unfailing health to her observation of the fasts [she was a Catholic] and her general abstemiousness. "Her diet consisted chiefly of bread and fruit, mostly apples. One apple in the middle of a long day she spoke of as a great refreshment. She had never to complain of the heat."

We call it a disorder when Nature is really putting things to rights--bringing the order of health out of the chaos of disease: it is like "house-cleaning," where the mistress has let things run at loose ends for a long time--sweeping the dirt under the stove, behind the door, etc., and making unnecessary dirt--instead of _keeping_ the establishment in order and thereby avoiding any occasion for a general upsetting.

Says one of Boston's eloquent preachers, the Rev. M. J. Savage: "In nine cases out of ten, men and women might fairly be called to account for being sick"; and Dr. T. L. Nichols, the eminent hygienist of London, says the same thing, only in slightly different language: "In nine cases out of ten, if people, when they found themselves becoming sick, would simply stop eating, they would have no need of drugs or doctors."

A certain cla.s.s of temperance reformers sign pledges to be moderate in their indulgences, and not to "treat" or be "treated." This rule would be a hundred-fold more life-saving applied (rationally) to food than to drink. It is quite generally the custom to urge our friends to eat to repletion, when they partake of our hospitality.

Given a natural mode of life and natural food, the appet.i.te also would be natural, and the stomach would not accept more than it could digest.

Nature appears, often, to be a lenient creditor, but she never neglects to collect her little bill, finally, with interest and costs of suit: "In the physical world there is no forgiveness of sin."

The mandate, In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, has, in my opinion, a physiological basis: a man can eat with advantage only an amount corresponding to the exertion he puts forth,--a modic.u.m being allowed, of course, for the physiological labor of the organism.

"Do not think these are unimportant things [questions of diet, etc.], not dignified enough to be spoken of in the pulpit. I tell you they reach to your mind and to your morals; they reach to your theology; they reach clear to heaven, so far as you are concerned, and are of fundamental importance, touching your religious and moral life a good deal more, sometimes, than what you think about the Bible, Sunday, or any other religious inst.i.tution whatever."--SAVAGE.

"Nothing hurts me--I eat everything." (Next year): "Nothing agrees with my stomach--I can't eat anything." Thus the dyspeptics' ranks are kept full with recruits from those who "don't want any advice about diet."

"Indigestion is charged by G.o.d with enforcing morality on the stomach."--THOLEMYeS.

Every appet.i.te held in check, aids in restraining every other--making _all_ serve the man, instead of the man them; while every one let loose, tends powerfully to give free rein to all.