Ludovic Halevy - "L'Abbe Constantin, v1"

G.A. Henty - "A Knight of the White Cross"

S. Weir Mitchell - "Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker"

Elizabeth Gaskell - "The Poor Clare"

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




After a prolonged fast, great care must be observed when commencing
to eat. Very small quantities of light food may safely be taken at
intervals of a few hours. A good plan, especially after an attack of
typhoid fever or dysentery, is to break the fast by thoroughly
masticating one or two tablespoonfuls of popcorn. This gives the
digestive tract a good scouring and starts the peristaltic action of
the bowels better than any other food.

The popcorn may advantageously be followed in about two hours with a
tablespoonful of cooked rice and one or two cooked prunes or a small
quantity of some other stewed fruit.

For several days or weeks after a fast, according to the severity of
the acute disease or healing crisis, a diet consisting largely of
raw fruits, such as oranges, grapefruit, apples, pears, grapes,
etc., and juicy vegetables, especially lettuce, celery, cabbage
slaw, watercress, young onions, tomatoes or cucumbers should be
adhered to. No condiments or dressings should be used with the
vegetables except lemon juice and olive oil.

Hydropathic Treatment in Acute Diseases

We claim that in acute diseases hydropathic treatment will
accomplish all the benefcial effects which the "Old School"
practitioners ascribe to drugs, and that water applications will
produce the desired results much more efficiently, and without any
harmful by-effects or aftereffects upon the system.

The principal objects to be attained in the treatment of acute
inflammatory diseases are:

To relieve the inner congestion and consequent pain in the affected
parts. To keep the temperature below the danger point by promoting
heat radiation through the skin. To increase the activity of the
organs of elimination and thus to facilitate the removal of morbid
materials from the system. To increase the positive electromagnetic
energies in the organism. To increase the amount of oxygen and ozone
in the system and thereby to promote the oxidation and combustion of
effete matter.

The above-mentioned objects can be attained most effectually by the
simple cold water treatment. Whatever the acute condition may be,
whether an ordinary cold or the most serious type of febrile
disease, the applications described in detail in the following
pages, used singly, combined or alternately according to individual
conditions, will always be in order and sufficient to produce the
best possible results.

Baths and Ablutions

Cooling sprays or, if the patient is too weak to leave the bed, cold
sponge baths or ablutions, repeated whenever the temperature rises,
are very effective for keeping the fever below the danger point, for
relieving the congestion in the interior of the body and for
stimulating the elimination of systemic poisons through the skin.

However, care must be taken not to lower the temperature too much by
the excessive coldness or unduly prolonged duration of the
application. It is possible to suppress inflammatory processes by
means of cold water or ice bags just as easily as with poisonous
antiseptics, antifever medicines and surgical operations.

It is sufficient to reduce the temperature to just below the danger
point. This will allow the inflammatory processes to run their
natural course through the five progressive stages of inflammation
and this natural course will then be followed by perfect
regeneration of the affected parts.

In our sanitarium we use only water of ordinary temperature as it
flows from the faucet, never under any circumstances ice bags or ice
water. The application of ice keeps the parts to which it is applied
in a chilled condition. The circulation cannot react, and the
inflammatory processes are thus most effectually suppressed.

To recapitulate: Never check or suppress a fever by means of cold
baths, ablutions, wet packs, etc., but merely lower it below the
danger point. For instance, if a certain type of fever has a
tendency to rise to 104 degree F. or more, bring it down to about
102 degree. If the fever ordinarily runs at a lower temperature, say
at 102 degree F., do not try to reduce it more than one or two
degrees.

If the temperature is subnormal, that is, below the normal or
regular body temperature, the packs should be applied in such a
manner that a warming effect is produced, that is, less wet cloths
and more dry covering should be used, and the packs left on the body
a longer time before they are renewed. More detailed instruction
will be given in subsequent pages.

Never lose sight of the fact that fever is in itself a healing,
cleansing process which must not be checked or suppressed.

Hot-Water Applications Are Injurious

Altogether wrong is the application of hot water to seats of
inflammation as, for instance, the inflamed appendix or ovaries,
sprains, bruises, etc. Almost in every instance where I am called in
to attend a case of acute appendicitis or peritonitis, I find hot
compresses or hot water bottles, by means of which the inflamed
parts are kept continually in an overheated condition. It is in this
way that a simple inflammation is nurtured into an abscess and made
more serious and dangerous.

The hot compress or hot-water bottle draws the blood away from the
inflamed area to the surface temporarily; but unless the hot
application is kept up continually, the blood, under the Law of
Action and Reaction, will recede from the surface into the interior,
and as a result the inner congestion will become as great as or
greater than before.

If the hot applications are continued, the applied heat tends to
maintain and increase the heat in the inflamed parts.

Inflammation means that there is already too much heat in the
affected part or organ. Common sense, therefore, would dictate
cooling applications instead of heating ones.

The cold packs and compresses, on the other hand, have a directly
cooling effect upon the seat of inflammation and in accordance with
the Law of Action and Reaction their secondary, lasting effect
consists in drawing the blood from the congested and heated interior
to the surface, thus relaxing the pores of the skin and promoting
the radiation of heat and the elimination of impurities.

Both the hot-water applications and the use of ice are, therefore,
to be absolutely condemned. The only rational and natural treatment
of inflammatory conditions is that by compresses, packs and
ablutions, using water of ordinary temperature, as it comes from the
cold water tap.

By means of the simple cold-water treatment and fasting all fevers
and inflammations can be reduced in a perfectly natural way within a
short time without undue strain on the organism.

The Whole-Body Pack

The whole-body pack is most effective if by means of it the patient
can be brought into a state of copious perspiration. The pack is
then removed and the patient is given a cold sponge bath.

It will be found that this treatment often produces a second profuse
sweat which is very beneficial. This aftersweat should also be
followed by a cold sponge bath.

Such a course of treatment will frequently be sufficient to
eliminate the morbid matter which has gathered in the system, and
thus prevent in a perfectly natural manner a threatening disease
which otherwise might become dangerous to life.

How to Apply the Whole-Body Pack

On a bed or cot spread two or more blankets, according to their
weight. Over the top blanket spread a linen or cotton sheet which
has been dipped into cold water and wrung out fairly dry. Let the
blankets extend about one foot beyond the wet sheet at the head of
the bed.

Place the patient on the wet sheet so that it comes well up to the
neck, and wrap the sheet snugly around the body so that it covers
every part, tucking it in between the arms and sides and between the
legs. It will be found that the sheet can be adjusted more snugly
and smoothly if separate strips of wet linen are placed between the
legs and between the arms and the sides of the body.

The blankets are now folded, one by one, upward over the feet and
around the body, turned in at the neck and brought across the chest,
the outer layers being held in place with safety pins.

The patient should stay in this whole-body pack from one-half hour
to two hours, according to the object to be attained and the
reaction of the body to the pack. If the pack has been correctly
applied, the patient will become warm in a few minutes.

The Bed-Sweat Bath

If the patient does not react to the pack, that is, if he remains
cold, or if, as is sometimes the case in malaria, the fever is
accompanied by chills or if profuse perspiration is desired, bottles
filled with hot water or bricks heated in the oven and wrapped in
flannel should be placed along the sides and to the feet, under the
outside covering.

This form of application is called the bed-sweat bath. It may be
used with good results when an incipient cold is to be aborted.

After the pack has been removed, the body should be sponged with
cold water, as already stated. Use a coarse cloth or Turkish towel
for this purpose rather than a sponge, as the latter cannot be kept
perfectly clean. Dry the body quickly but thoroughly, and finish by
rubbing with the hands.

In the meantime the damp bed clothing should be replaced by dry
sheets and blankets (a second cot or bed will be found a great
convenience), and the patient put to bed without delay and well
covered in order to prevent chilling and also to induce, if
possible, a copious aftersweat. The patient is then sponged off a
second time, put into a dry bed, and allowed to rest.

If the patient is too weak to leave his bed, the cold sponge may be
given on a large rubber sheet or oilcloth covered with an old
blanket, which should be placed on the bed before the pack is
applied. After removing the pack, put a blanket over the patient to
prevent chilling and wash quickly but thoroughly first the limbs,
then chest and stomach, then the back, drying and covering each part
as soon as finished. Remove the rubber sheet from the bed and wrap
the patient in dry, warm blankets, or lift him into another bed.

How to Apply the Short-Body Pack

A wide strip of linen or muslin, wrung out of cold water, is wrapped
around the patient from under the armpits to the thighs or knees in
one, two or more layers, covered by one or more layers of dry
flannel or muslin in such a manner that the wet linen does not
protrude at any place.

Similar packs may be applied to the throat,* the arms, legs,
shoulder joints or any other part of the body.

The number of layers of wet linen and dry covering is determined by
the vitality of the patient, the height of his temperature and the
particular object of the application, which may be to lower high
temperature to raise the temperature when subnormal to relieve
inner congestion to promote elimination.

If the object is to lower high temperature, several layers of wet
linen should be wrapped around the body and covered loosely by one
or two layers of the dry wrappings in order to prevent the bed from
getting wet. The packs must be renewed as soon as they become dry or
uncomfortably hot.

If the object is to raise subnormal temperature, less wet linen and
more dry covering must be used, and the packs left on a longer time,
say from thirty minutes to two hours. If the patient does not react
to the pack, hot bricks or bottles filled with hot water should be
placed at the sides and to the feet, as explained in connection with
the whole-body pack.

If inner congestion is to be relieved, or if the object is to
promote elimination, less of the wet linen and more dry wrappings
should be used.

When packs are applied, the bed may be protected by spreading an
oilcloth over the mattress under the sheet. But in no case should
oilcloth or rubber sheeting be used for the outer covering of packs.
This would interfere with some of the main objects of the pack
treatment, especially with heat radiation. The outer covering should
be warm but at the same time porous, to allow the escape of heat and
of poisonous gases from the body.

Local Compresses

In case of local inflammation, as in appendicitis, ovaritis,
colitis, etc., separate cooling compresses may be slipped under the
pack and over the seat of inflammation. These local compresses may
be removed and changed when hot and dry without disturbing the
larger pack.

In all fevers accompanied by high temperature, it is advisable to
place an extra cooling compress at the nape of the neck (the region
of the medulla and the back brain), because here are located the
brain centers which regulate the inner temperature of the body
(thermotaxic centers), and the cooling of these brain centers
produces a cooling effect upon the entire organism.

Enemas

While ordinarily we do not favor the giving of injections or enemas
unless they are absolutely necessary, we apply them freely in
feverish diseases in order to remove from the rectum and lower colon
any accumulations of morbid matter, and thus to prevent their
reabsorption into the system. In cases of exceptionally stubborn
constipation, an injection of a few ounces of warm olive oil may be
given. Allow this to remain in the colon about thirty minutes in
order to soften the contents of the rectum, and follow with an
injection of warm water.

Just How the Cold Packs Produce

Their Wonderful Results

(1) How Cold Packs Promote Heat Radiation

Many people are under the impression that the packs reduce the fever
temperature so quickly because they are put on cold. But this is not
so, because, unless the reaction be bad, the packs become warm after
a few minutes' contact with the body.

The prompt reduction of temperature takes place because of increased
heat radiation. The coldness of the pack may lower the surface
temperature slightly; but it is the moist warmth forming under the
pack on the surface of the body that draws the blood from the
congested interior into the skin, relaxes and opens its minute blood
vessels and pores, and in that way facilitates the escape of heat
from the body.

In febrile conditions the pores and capillary blood vessels of the
skin are tense and contracted. Therefore the heat cannot escape, the
skin is hot and dry, and the interior of the body remains
overheated. When the skin relaxes and the patient begins to perspire
freely, we say the fever is broken.

The moist warmth under the wet pack produces this relaxation of the
skin in a perfectly natural manner. By means of these simple packs
followed by cold ablutions, the temperature of the patient can be
kept at any point desired without the use of poisonous antifever
medicines, serums and antitoxins which lower the temperature by
benumbing and paralyzing heart action, respiration, the red and
white blood corpuscles, and thus generally lowering the vital
activities of the organism.

(2) How Cold Packs Relieve Inner Congestion

In all inflammatory febrile diseases the blood is congested in the
inflamed parts and organs. This produces the four cardinal symptoms
of inflammation: redness, swelling, heat, and pain. [Rubor, tumor,
colar and dolar.] If the congestion be too great, the pain becomes
excessive, and the inflammatory processes cannot run their natural
course to the best advantage. It is therefore of great importance to
relieve the local blood pressure in the affected parts and this can
be accomplished most effectively by means of the wet packs.

As before stated, they draw the blood onto the surface of the body
and in that way relieve inner congestion wherever it may exist,
whether it be in the brain, as in meningitis, in the lungs, as in
pneumonia, or in the inflamed appendix.

In several cases where a child was in the most dangerous stage of
diphtheria, where the membranes in throat and nasal passages were
already choking the little patient, the wet packs applied to the
entire body from neck to feet relieved the congestion in the throat
so quickly that within half an hour after the first application the
patient breathed easily and soon made a perfect recovery. The
effectiveness of these simple water applications in reducing
congestion, heat and pain is little short of marvelous.

(3) How Cold Packs Promote Elimination

By far the largest number of deaths in febrile diseases result from
the accumulation in the system of poisonous substances, which
paralyze or destroy vital centers and organs. Therefore it is
necessary to eliminate the morbid products of inflammation from the
organism as quickly as possible.

This also is accomplished most effectively and thoroughly by the
application of wet packs. As they draw the blood into the surface
and relax the minute blood vessels in the skin, the morbid materials
in the blood are eliminated through the pores of the skin and
absorbed by the packs. That this is actually so is verified by the
yellowish or brownish discoloration of the wet wrappings and by
their offensive odor.

One of the main causes of constipation in febrile diseases is the
inner congestion and fever heat. Through the cooling and relaxing
effect of the packs upon the intestines, this inner fever heat is
reduced, and a natural movement of the bowels greatly facilitated.

If constipation should persist in spite of the packs and cooling
compresses, injections of tepid water should be given every day or
every other day in order to prevent the reabsorption of poisonous
products from the lower colon. But never give injections of cold
water with the idea of reducing fever in that way. This is very
dangerous and may cause fatal collapse.

The Electromagnetic Effect of

Cold Water Applications

One of the most important, but least understood, effects of
hydropathic treatment is its influence upon the electromagnetic
energies in the human body. At least, I have never found any
allusions to this aspect of the cold-water treatment in any books on
hydrotherapy which have come to my notice.

The sudden application of cold water or cold air to the surface of
the nude body and the inhalation of cold air into the lungs have the
effect of increasing the amount of electromagnetic energy in the
system.

This can be verified by the following experiment: Insert one of the
plates of an electrometer (sensitive galvanometer) into the stomach
of a person who has remained for some time in a warm room. Now let
this person inhale suddenly fresh, cold outside air. At once the
galvanometer will register a larger amount of electromagnetic
energy.

The same effect will be produced by the application of a quick, cold
spray to the warm body.

It is the sudden lowering of temperature on the surface of the body
or in the lungs and the resulting contrast between the heat within
and the cold outside, that causes the increased manifestation of
electromagnetic energy in the system.

This, together with the acceleration of the entire circulation,
undoubtedly accounts for the tonic effect of cold-water applications
such as cold packs, ablutions, sprays, sitz baths, barefoot walking,
etc., and for the wonderfully bracing influence of fresh, cold
outside air.

The energizing effect of cold air may also explain to a large extent
the superiority of the races inhabiting the temperate zones over
those of the warm and torrid southern regions.

To me it seems a very foolish custom to run away from the
invigorating northern winters to the enervating sameness of southern
climates. One of the reasons I abandoned, with considerable
financial sacrifice, a well-established home in a Texas city which
is the Mecca of health-seekers, was that I did not want to rear my
children under the enervating influence of that beautiful climate.
I, for my part, want some cold winter weather every year to stir up
the lazy blood corpuscles, to set the blood bounding through the
system and to freeze out the microbes.

In our Nature Cure work we find all the way through that the
continued application of warmth has a debilitating effect upon the
organism, and that only by the opposing influences of alternating
heat and cold can we produce the natural stimulation which awakens
the dormant vital energies in the body of the chronic.

Increase of Oxygen and Ozone

The liberation of electromagnetic currents through cold-water
applications has other very important effects upon the system
besides that of stimulation.

Electricity splits up molecules of water into hydrogen, oxygen and
ozone. We have an example of this in the thunderstorm. The powerful
electric discharges which we call lightning separate or split the
watery vapors in the air into these elements. It is the increase of
oxygen and ozone in the air that purifies and sweetens the
atmosphere after the storm.

In acute as well as in chronic disease, large amounts of oxygen and
ozone are required to burn up the morbid materials and to purify the
system. Certain combinations of these elements are among the most
powerful antiseptics and germicides.

Likewise, the electric currents produced by cold packs, ablutions
and other cold-water applications split up the molecules of water in
the tissues of the body into their component parts. In this way
large amounts of oxygen and ozone are liberated, and these elements
assist to a considerable extent in the oxidation and neutralization
of waste materials and disease products.

The following experiment proves that sudden changes in temperature
create electric currents in metals: When two cylinders of dissimilar
metals are welded together, and one of the metals is suddenly
chilled or heated, electric currents are produced which will
continue to flow until both metals are at the same temperature.

Another application of this principle is furnished by the oxydonor.
If both poles of this little instrument are exposed to the same
temperature, there is no manifestation of electricity; but if one of
the poles be attached to the warm body and the other immersed in
cold water or exposed to cold air, the liberation of electromagnetic
currents begins at once. These electric currents set free oxygen and
ozone, which in their turn support the oxidation and neutralization
of systemic poisons.

According to my experience, however, the cold-water applications are
more effective in this respect than the oxydonor.

The Importance of Right Mental and

Emotional Attitude in Acute Disease

We have learned that in the processes of inflammation a battle is
going on between the healing forces of the body, the phagocytes and
natural antitoxins on the one hand and the disease taints, germs,
bacilli, etc., on the other hand.

This battle is real in every respect, as real as a combat between
armies of living soldiers. In this conflict, going on in all acute
inflammatory diseases, mind plays the same role as the commander of
an army.

The great general needs courage, equanimity and presence of mind
most in the stress of battle. So the mind, the commander of the vast
armies of cells battling in acute disease for the health of the
body, must have absolute faith in the superiority of Nature's
healing forces.

If the mind becomes frightened by the inflammatory and febrile
symptoms and pictures to itself in darkest colors their dreadful
consequences, these confused and distracted thought vibrations are
conveyed instantaneously to the millions of little soldiers fighting
in the affected parts and organs. They also become confused and
panic-stricken.

The excitement of fear in the mind still more accelerates heart
action and respiration, intensifies the local congestion and greatly
increases the morbid accumulations in the system. In the last
chapters of this volume we shall deal especially with the
deteriorating influence of fear, anxiety, anger, irritability,
impatience, etc., and explain how these and all other destructive
emotions actually poison the secretions of the body.

In acute disease we cannot afford to add to the poisonous elements
in the organism, because the danger of a fatal ending lies largely
in the paralysis of vital centers by the morbid and poisonous
products of inflammation.

Everything depends upon the maintenance of the greatest possible
inflow of vital force; and there is nothing so weakening as worry
and anxiety, nothing that impedes the inflow, distribution and
normal activity of the vital energies like fear. A person overcome
by sudden fright is actually benumbed and paralyzed, unable to think
and to act intelligently.

These truths may be expressed in another way. The victory of the
healing forces in acute disease depends upon an abundant supply of
the positive electromagnetie energies. In the initial chapters of
this volume we have learned that health is positive, disease
negative. The positive mental attitude of faith and equanimity
creates positive electromagnetic energies in the body, thus infusing
the battling phagocytes with increased vigor and favoring the
secretion of the antitoxins and antibodies, while the negative,
fearful and worrying attitude of mind creates in the system the
negative conditions of weakness, lowered resistance and actual
paralysis.

In the paragraphs dealing with the effects of cold-water treatment
upon the body we learned that the electric currents created in the
organism split up the molecules of water in the tissues into their
component elements (hydrogen and oxygen), thus liberating large
amounts of oxygen and ozone; and that these, in turn, support the
processes of combustion and oxidation in the system, burn up waste
and morbid matter, and destroy hostile microorganisms.