Reuben Post Halleck - "History of American Literature"

C. E. Orr - "How to Live a Holy Life"

E. P. Roe - "Nature's Serial Story"

(A.E.) George William Russell - "Imaginations and Reveries"

New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

FlatSigned Press Alleges Don Imus Remarks Damage Legacy of President Gerald R. Ford
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Nathan Yungerberg, an accomplished model scout and professional child photographer is launching a nation-wide casting call to find the cover model for his highly anticipated book release, 'The Model Child: A Parents Guide to the Child Modeling Industry' (ISBN: 978-0-9817018-0-6).

Books: Nature Cure

H >> Henry Lindlahr >> Nature Cure




However, the electromagnetic forces in the body are not only
increased and intensified by positive foods, exercise, cold-water
treatment, air baths, etc., but also by the positive attitude of
mind and will.

The positive mind and will are to the body what the magneto is to
the automobile. As the electric sparks from the magneto ignite the
gas, thus generating the power that drives the machine, so the
positive vibrations, generated by a confident and determined will,
create in the body the positive electromagnetic currents which
incite and stimulate all vital activities.

Common experience teaches us that the concentration of the will on
the thing to be accomplished greatly heightens and increases all
physical, mental and moral powers.

Therefore the victory in acute diseases is conditioned by the
absolute faith, confidence and serenity of mind on the part of the
patient. The more he exercises these harmonizing and invigorating
qualities of mind and soul, the more favorable are the conditions
for the little soldiers who are fighting his battles in the inflamed
parts and organs. The blood and nerve currents are less impeded and
disturbed, and flow more normally. The local congestion is relieved,
and this favors the natural course of the inflammatory processes.

Therefore, instead of being overcome with fear and anxiety, as most
people are under such circumstances, do not become alarmed, nor
convey alarm to the millions of little cells battling in the
inflamed parts. Speak to them like a commander addressing his
troops: "We understand the laws of disease and cure, we know that
these inflammatory and febrile symptoms are the result of Nature's
healing efforts, we have perfect confidence in her wisdom and in the
efficiency of her healing forces. This fever is merely a good
house-cleaning, a healing crisis. We are eliminating morbid matter,
poisons and germs which were endangering health and life.

"We rejoice over the purification and regeneration now taking place
and benefiting the whole body. Fear not! Attend to your work quietly
and serenely! Let us open ourselves wide to the inflow of life from
the source of all life in the innermost parts of our being! The life
in us is the life of God. We are strengthened and made whole by the
Divine life and power which animate the universe."

The serenity of your mind, backed by absolute trust in the Law and
by the power of a strong Will, infuses the cells and tissues with
new life and vigor, enabling them to turn the acute disease into a
beneficial, cleansing and healing crisis.

In the following we give a similar formula for treating chronic
constipation.

Say to the cells in the liver, the pancreas and the intestinal
tract:

"I am not going to force you any longer with drugs or enemas to do
your duty. From now on you must work on your own initiative. Your
secretions will become more abundant. Every day at--o'clock the
bowels will move freely and easily."

At the appointed time make the effort, whether you are success-ful
or not, and do not resort to the enema until it becomes an absolute
necessity. If you combine with the mental and physical effort a
natural diet, cold sitz baths, massage and osteopathic treatment,
you will have need of the enema at increasingly longer intervals,
and soon be able to discard it altogether.

Be careful, however, not to employ your intelligence and your will
power to suppress acute inflammatory and febrile processes and
symptoms. This can be accomplished by the power of the will as well
as by ice bags and poisonous drugs, and its effect would be to turn
Nature's acute cleansing efforts into chronic disease.

The Importance of Right Mental and Emotional

Attitude on the Part of Friends and Relatives

What has just been said about the patient is true also of his
friends and relatives. Disease is negative. The sick person is
exceedingly sensitive to his surroundings. He is easily influenced
by all depressing, discordant and jarring conditions. He catches the
expressions of fear and anxiety in the looks, the words, gestures
and actions of his attendants, relatives and friends and these
intensify his own depression and gloomy forebodings.

This applies especially to the influence exerted by the mother upon
her ailing infant. There exists a most intimate sympathetic and
telepathic connection between mother and child. The child is
affected not only by the outward expression of the mother's fear and
anxiety, but likewise by the hidden doubt and despair in the
mother's mind and soul.

Usually, the first thing that confronts me when I am called to the
sickbed of a child is the frantic and almost hysterical mental
condition of the mother, and to begin with, I have to explain to her
the destructive influence of her behavior. I ask her:

"Would you willingly give some deadly poison to your child?"
"Certainly not," she says, to which I reply:

"Do you realize that you are doing this very thing? That your fear
and worry vibrations actually poison and paralyze the vital energies
in the body of your child and most seriously interfere with Nature's
healing processes?

"Instead of helping the disease forces to destroy your child, assist
the healing forces to save it by maintaining an attitude of absolute
faith, serenity, calmness and cheerfulness. Then your looks, your
voice, your touch will convey to your child the positive, magnetic
vibrations of health and of strength. Your very presence will
radiate healing power."

Then I explain how faith, calmness and cheerfulness on her part will
soothe and harmonize the discordant disease vibrations in the
child's body.

Herein lies the modus operandi or working basis of all successful
mental and metaphysical treatment.

Summary

Natural Methods in the Treatment of Acute Disease

~I. Fresh Air~

A plentiful supply of pure air in the sickroom. Frequent exposure of
the nude body to air and sun light. Patient must not be kept too
warm.

~II. Natural Diet~

The minimum amount of light food, chiefly fruit and vegetable
salads, no condiments. Only enough water to quench thirst,
preferably mixed with acid fruit juices. In serious acute febrile
conditions and during healing crises no food whatever. In diseases
affecting the digestive organs fasting must be prolonged several
days beyond cessation of febrile symptoms. Great care must be
observed when breaking fast.

~III. Water Treatment~

Cooling sprays or sponge baths whenever temperature rises. Fever and
inflammation must not be suppressed by cold-water applications, but
kept below the danger point. Neither ice nor hot applications should
be used. Wet packs followed by cold ablutions for elimination of
systemic poisons. Separate compresses over seat of inflammation,
also at nape of neck. Kind and duration of pack to be determined by
condition of patient and object to be attained. Injections of tepid
water to relieve constipation when necessary.

~IV. Medications~

No poisonous drugs, nor any medicines or applications which may
check or suppress the feverish, inflammatory processes. Homeopathic
medicines, herb decoctions and specific nutritional remedies when
indicated.

~V. Manipulative Treatment~

Osteopathy, massage or magnetic treatment when indicated and
available.

~VI. Mental Attitude~

Courage, serenity and presence of mind are important factors. Fear
and anxiety intensify disease conditions, poison the secretions of
the body and inhibit the action of the healing forces. Do not
suppress acute inflammatory and feverish processes by the power of
the will. The right mental and emotional attitude of relatives and
friends exerts a powerful influence upon the patient.



Chapter XIV


The True Scope of Medicine


Anyone able to read the signs of the times cannot help observing the
powerful influence which the Nature Cure philosophy is already
exerting upon the trend of modern medical science. In Germany the
younger generation of physicians has been forced by public demand to
adopt the natural methods of treatment and the German government has
introduced them in the medical departments of its army and navy.

In English-speaking countries, the foremost members of the medical
profession are beginning to talk straight Nature Cure doctrine, to
condemn the use of drugs and to endorse unqualifiedly the Nature
Cure methods of treatment. In proof of this I quote from an article
by Dr. William Osler in the ~Encyclopedia Americana,~ Vol. X, under
the title of "Medicine":

Dr. Osler on Medicine

"The new school does not feel itself under obligation to give any
medicines whatever, while a generation ago not only could few
physicians have held their practice unless they did, but few would
have thought it safe or scientific. Of course, there are still many
cases where the patient or the patient's friends must be humored by
administering medicine or alleged medicine where it is not really
needed, and indeed often where the buoyancy of mind which is the
real curative agent, can only be created by making him wait
hopefully for the expected action of medicine; and some physicians
still cannot unlearn their old training. But the change is great.
The modern treatment of disease relies very greatly on the old
so-called natural methods, diet and exercise, bathing and
massage--in other words, giving the natural forces the fullest scope
by easy and thorough nutrition, increased flow of blood and removal
of obstructions to the excretory systems or the circulation in the
tissues.

"One notable example is typhoid fever. At the outset of the
nineteenth century it was treated with 'remedies' of the extremest
violence--bleeding and blistering, vomiting and purging, and the
administration of antimony and mercury, and plenty of other heroic
remedies. Now the patient is bathed and nursed and carefully tended,
but rarely given medicine. This is the result partly of the
remarkable experiments of the Paris and Vienna schools in the action
of drugs, which have shaken the stoutest faiths; and partly of the
constant and reproachful object lesson of homeopathy. No regular
physician would ever admit that the homeopathic preparations,
'infinitesimals,' could do any good as direct curative agents; and
yet it was perfectly certain that homeopaths lost no more of their
patients than others. There was but one conclusion to draw--that
most drugs had no effect whatever on the diseases for which they
were administered."

Dr. Osler is probably the greatest medical authority on drugs now
living. He was formerly professor of materia medica at the Johns
Hopkins University of Baltimore, U. S., and now holds a
professorship at Oxford University, England. His books on medical
practice are in use in probably every university and medical school
in English-speaking countries. His views on drugs and their real
value as expressed in this article should be an eye-opener to those
good people who believe that we of the Nature Cure school are
altogether too radical, extreme, and somewhat cranky.

However, what Dr. Osler says regarding the "New School" is true only
of a few advanced members of the medical profession.

On the rank and file, the idea of drugless healing has about the
same effect as a red rag on a mad bull. There are still very few
physicians in general practice today who would not lose their bread
and butter if they attempted to practice drugless healing on their
patients. Both the profession and the public will need a good deal
more education along Nature Cure lines before they will see the
light.

In the second sentence of his article, Dr. Osler admits the efficacy
of mental therapeutics and therapeutic faith as a "curative agent,"
and ascribes the good effects of medicine to their stimulating
influence upon the patient's mind rather than to any beneficial
action of the drugs themselves.

With regard to the origin of the modern treatment of typhoid fever,
however, the learned doctor is either misinformed or he
misrepresents the facts. The credit for the introduction of
hydropathic treatment of typhoid fever does not belong to the
"remarkable experiments of the Paris and Vienna schools." These
schools and the entire medical profession fought this treatment with
might and main. For thirty years Priessnitz, Bilz, Ruhne, Father
Kneipp and many other pioneers of Nature Cure were persecuted and
prosecuted, dragged into the courts and tried on the charges of
malpractice and manslaughter for using their sane and natural
methods. Not until Dr. Braun of Berlin wrote an essay on the good
results obtained by the hydropathic treatment of typhoid fever and
it had in that way received orthodox baptism and sanction, was it
adopted by advanced physicians all over the world.

Through the Nature Cure treatment of typhoid fever, the mortality of
this disease has been reduced from over fifty percent under the old
drug treatment to less than five percent under the water treatment.

But the average medical practitioner has not yet learned from the
Nature Cure school, that the same simple fasting and cold water
which cure typhoid fever so effectively, will just as surely and
easily cure every other form of acute disease, as, for instance,
scarlet fever, diphtheria, smallpox, cerebrospinal meningitis,
appendicitis, etc. Therefore, we claim that there is no necessity
for the employment of poisonous drugs, serums and antitoxins for
this purpose.

Referring to the last two sentences of Dr. Osler's article,
homeopaths have, as a matter of fact, lost less patients than
allopaths. The effect of homeopathic medicine, moreover, is not
altogether negative, as Dr. Osler implies. The discovery of the
minute cell as the basis of the human organism on the one hand and
of the unlimited divisibility of matter on the other hand explains
the rationality of the infinitesimal dose. Health and disease are
resident in the cell; therefore, the homeopath doctors the cell, and
the size of the dose has to be apportioned to the size of the
patient.

When Dr. Osler says that most drugs have no effect whatsoever, he
makes a serious misstatement. While they may not contribute anything
to the cure of the disease for which they are given, they are often
very harmful in themselves.

Almost every virulent poison known to man is found in allopathic
prescriptions. It is now positively proved by the Diagnosis from the
Eye that these poisons have a tendency to accumulate in the system,
to concentrate in certain parts and organs for which they have a
special affinity and then to cause continual irritation and actual
destruction of tissues. By far the greater part of all chronic
diseases are created or complicated on the one hand by the
suppression of acute diseases by means of drug poisons, and on the
other hand through the destructive effects of the drugs themselves.

Dr. Schwenninger, the medical adviser of Prince Bismarck, and later
of Richard Wagner, the great composer, has published a book entitled
~The Doctor.~ This work is the most scathing arraignment and
condemnation of modern medical practice, especially of poisonous
drugs and of surgery. Dr. Treves, the body physician of the late
King Edward of England, is no less outspoken in his denunciation of
drugging than Drs. Osler and Schwenninger.

Just a few men like these, foremost in the medical profession, who
have achieved financial and scientific independence, can afford to
speak so frankly. The great majority of physicians, even though they
know better, continue in the old ruts so as to be considered ethical
and orthodox, and in order to hold their practice. It is not the
medical profession that has brought about this reform in the
treatment of typhoid fever and other diseases. They have been forced
into the adoption of the more advanced natural methods through the
pressure of the Nature Cure movement in Germany and elsewhere.

Dr. Osler's statements, made with due deliberation in a contribution
to the ~Encyclopedia Americana,~ are certainly a frank declaration
as to the uselessness of drug treatment, and on the other hand, an
unqualified endorsement of natural methods of healing.

But it seems to me that Dr. Osler pours out the baby with the bath
water, as we say in German. That is, I am inclined to think that his
opinion regarding the ineffectiveness of drugs is entirely too
radical. There is a legitimate scope for medicinal remedies insofar
as they build up the blood on a natural basis and serve as tissue
foods.

Many people who have lost their faith in "Old School" methods of
treatment have swung around to the other extreme of medical
nihilism. In fact, Dr. Osler himself stands accused of being a
medical nihilist.

Many of those who have adopted natural methods of living and of
treating diseases have acquired an actual horror of the word
medicine. However, this extreme attitude is not justified.

It also appears that some of the readers of my writings are under
the impression that we of the Nature Cure school absolutely condemn
the use of any and all medicines. This, however, is not so.

The Position of "Nature Cure" Regarding Medicinal Remedies

We do condemn the use of drugs insofar as they are poisonous and
destructive and insofar as they suppress acute diseases or healing
crises, which are Nature's cleansing and healing efforts; but on the
other hand we realize that there is a wide field for the helpful
application of medicinal remedies insofar as they act as foods to
the tissues of the body and as neutralizers and eliminators of waste
and morbid materials.

In every form of chronic disease there exists in the system, on the
one hand, an excess of certain morbid materials, and on the other
hand, a deficiency of certain mineral constituents, organic salts,
which are essential to the normal functions of the body.

Thus, in all anemic diseases the blood is lacking in iron, which
picks up the oxygen in the air cells of the lungs and carries it
into the tissues, and in sodium, which combines with the carbonic
acid (coalgas) that is constantly being liberated in the system and
conveys it to the organs of depuration, especially the lungs and the
skin. In point of fact, oxygen starvation is due in a much greater
degree to the deficiency of sodium and the consequential
accumulation of carbonic acid in the system (carbonic acid
asphyxiation) than to the lack of iron in the blood, as assumed by
the regular school of medicine.

Foods or medicinal remedies which will supply this deficiency of
iron and sodium in the organism will tend to overcome the anemic
conditions.

The great range of uric acid diseases, such as rheumatism, calculi,
arteriosclerosis, certain forms of diabetes and albuminuria, are
due, on the one hand, to the excessive use of acid-producing foods,
and on the other hand, to a deficiency in the blood of certain
alkaline mineral elements, especially sodium, magnesium and
potassium, whose office it is to neutralize and eliminate the acids
which are created and liberated in the processes of starchy and
protein digestion.

In another chapter I have explained the origin and progressive
development of uric-acid diseases. Our volume on Natural Dietetics
will contain additional proof that practically all diseases are
caused by, or complicated with, acid conditions in the system.

Any foods or medicines which will provide the system with sufficient
quantities of the acid-binding, alkaline mineral salts will prove to
be good medicine for all forms of acid diseases.

The mineral constituents necessary to the vital economy of the
organism should, however, be supplied in the organic form. This will
be explained more fully in subsequent pages.

From what I have said, it becomes apparent that it is impossible to
draw a sharp line of distinction between foods and medicines. All
foods which serve the above-named purposes are good medicines, and
all nonpoisonous herb extracts, homeopathic and vitochemical
remedies that have the same effect upon the system are, for the same
reason, good foods.

The medical treatment of the Nature Cure school consists largely in
the proper selection and combination of food materials. This must be
so. It stands to reason that Nature has provided within the ranges
of the natural foods all the elements which Man needs in the way of
food and medicine.

But it is quite possible that, through continued abuse, the
digestive apparatus has become so weak and so abnormal that it
cannot function properly, that it cannot absorb and assimilate from
natural foods a sufficient quantity of the elements which the
organism needs. In such cases it may be very helpful and indeed
imperative to take the organic mineral salts in the forms of fruit,
herb and vegetable juices, extracts or decoctions. Among the best of
these food remedies are extracts of leafy vegetables such as
lettuce, spinach, Scotch kale, cabbage, Swiss chard, etc. These
vegetables are richer than any other foods in the positive mineral
salts. The extract may be prepared from one or more of these
vegetables, according to the supply on hand or the tolerance of the
digestive organs and the taste and preference of the patient. They
should be ground to a pulp in a vegetable grinder, then pressed out
in a small fruit press, which can be secured in any department
store. One or two teacups per day will be sufficient to supply the
needs of the system for mineral salts. This extract should be
prepared fresh every day.

Then there are the Kneipp Herb Remedies. Most of these are the
Hausmittel [home remedies] of the country population of Germany
which have proved their efficacy since time immemorial. Their
medicinal value lies in the organic mineral salts which they contain
in large quantities and in beneficial combinations.

The homeopathic medications, as will be explained at length in
another chapter, produce their good results because they work in
harmony with the Laws of Nature.

We never hesitate, therefore, to prescribe for our patients
homeopathic medicines, herb decoctions and extracts, and the
vitochemical remedies which assist in the elimination of morbid
matter from the system and in building up blood and lymph on a
normal basis, that is, remedies which supply the organism with the
mineral elements in which it is deficient in the organic, easily
assimilable form. Herein lies the legitimate scope of medicinal
remedies.

All medicinal remedies which build up the system on a normal,
natural basis and increase its fighting power against disease
without in any way inflicting injury upon the organism are welcome
to the adherents of the Nature Cure methods of treatment.

On the other hand, we do not use any drugs or medicines which tend
to hinder, check or suppress Nature's cleansing and regenerating
processes. We never give anything in the least degree poisonous. We
avoid all anodynes, hypnotics, sedatives, antipyretics, laxatives,
cathartics, etc. Judicious fasting, cold-water applications and, if
necessary, warm-water injections in case of constipation will do
everything that is claimed for poisonous drugs.

Inorganic Minerals and Mineral Poisons

For many years past, physicians of the different schools of
medicine, diet experts and food chemists have been divided on the
question whether or not mineral substances which in the organic form
enter into the composition of the human body may safely be used in
foods and medicines in the inorganic form.

The medical profession holds almost unanimously that this is
permissible and good practice, so that nearly every allopathic
medical prescription contains some such inorganic substance, or
worse than that, one or more virulent mineral poisons, as mercury,
arsenic, phosphorus, etc.

So far, the discussion about the usefulness or harmfulness of
inorganic minerals as foods and medicines was largely theoretical
and controversial. Neither party had positive proofs for its
contentions.

But Nature's records in the iris of the eye settle the question for
good and for ever. One of the fundamental principles of the science
of Diagnosis from the Eye is that "nothing shows in the iris by
abnormal signs or discolorations except that which is abnormal in
the body or injurious to it." When substances which are uncongenial
or poisonous to the system accumulate in any part or organ of the
body in sufficient quantities, they will indicate their presence by
certain signs and abnormal colors in the corresponding areas of the
iris.

In this way Nature makes known by her records in the eye what
substances are injurious to the body, and which are harmless.

Certain mineral elements, such as iron, sodium, potassium, calcium,
magnesium, phosphorus, sulphur, etc., which are among the important
constituents of the human body, may be taken in the organic form in
fruits and vegetables, or in herb extracts and the vitochemical
remedies, in large amounts, in fact, far beyond the actual needs of
the body, but they will not show in the iris of the eye, because
they are easily eliminated from the system.

If, however, the same minerals be taken in the inorganic form in
considerable quantities, the iris will exhibit certain well-defined
signs and discolorations in the areas corresponding to those parts
of the body in which the mineral substances have accumulated.