Necessity for true recreation
Under modern civilized conditions the majority of people do not seem to understand recreation. The summer seashore resorts, with their expensive attractions and whirling life, the great hostelries in the hills and mountains, and the lakes where thousands of people congregate, entail upon them certain duties, anxieties, expectations, disappointments, and often financial strain that deprive these places of all features of recreation, and make the sojourn there one of labor and strife. The real purpose that takes most people to these resorts is to be seen; to "star" themselves before the multitude, which in its last analysis is a kind of vanity, and it is obvious that from any effort in this direction no recreation can be obtained.
The nervous person should seek a few congenial and thoughtful companions, and get back into the great heart of nature whereeverything moves in obedience to supreme law. Associate intimately with animals; study their habits, and notice how they respond to kindness; admire their honesty; analyze the love and fidelity of a dog. This is true diversion and recreation. This defines the purpose of life, if there be purpose behind it. This draws a sharp distinction between the condition that makes nervousness and the condition that makes honest, thoughtful, useful human beings.
The preceding lessons were written through a period of many years' active practise in treating dis-eases by scientific feeding. They were intended as a normal course to qualify doctors, nurses, and those who wished to treat dis-ease by this method. However, the demand for this class of information has come from people in every walk of life, therefore the lessons, and all technical matter composing this entire work have been most carefully revised and rewritten in simple language so that any person of ordinary intelligence can comprehend them.
The following lesson is intended for the guidance of the practitioner in beginning his work in this branch of the healing art.
Inasmuch as nearly all human ills are caused by errors in eating, the preceding lessons have been confined almost wholly to dis-eases that originate in the digestive organs.
Dietetic treatment is reconstructive
There are a great many abnormal conditions of the human body classed as dis-eases that bear a very remote relation to diet, but in practise the student will soon learn that many of these conditions, which have not been considered in these lessons, will entirely disappear when the diet is perfected. This is true because dietetic treatment, based upon the fundamental laws of nutrition, is reconstructive, hence every part of the anatomy shares in the general improvement.
Scope of scientific feeding
There are many logical arguments to support the theory that there are no incurable dis-eases. There are many cases, however, where the vitality has become so low that recovery from dis-ease is impossible, but ifthe patient could be taken in time, the correct diagnosis made, and the proper food, air, and exercise given, Nature would begin her work of rebuilding at once. In view of these facts it is somewhat difficult to fix a limit to the scope of scientific feeding.
The value of letters
The science of prescribing diet is a work that can be best conveyed to the patient in writing, hence one of the first and most important things for the new practitioner to do is to study the art of polemics—acquire the ability to write plain, convincing literature and letters. This is one of the greatest arts within the scope of human learning, and is probably susceptible of greater development than any other branch of human endeavor.
Every person has his own individual method of expression that should be preserved and cultivated. Select some good author and copy his logic, but not his language. For this purpose I would recommend the works of Henry George, the great economic philosopher—and probably one of the greatest polementitians that ever lived.
Writing is mental calisthenics
The student should begin by taking up some simple branch or certain subject of his work, and writing a short argument or essay upon it, using every fact that he can possibly command to convince imaginary readers of the correctness of his theories. Select a new subject and write something on it every day. This is merely mental calisthenics, and after a month's training the thoughts and the language will flow with a freedom that will enable the student to write just as he feels.
A booklet describing your work
It would be well to arrange an argument based upon each lesson separately, dividing it into short chapters. These arguments oressays should be logically arranged to form a booklet, with proper title, as such representative literature is vitally necessary to the growth and the success of your work. It will also be found that this will be splendid mental exercise, and will serve well in presenting your work, either orally, or by letter.
The personality of the writer
Every one should endeavor to be original in his literature; in other words, no special effort should be made to quote any "authority" or to copy the style of other writers. Put your own personality into your work, for the most successful writer is not always the one who uses the most learned, polished or scholarly language, but the one who can convey his thoughts to the minds of others in the simplest and the most comprehensive language.
Language at best is but a vehicle for conveying the thoughts of one person to the mind of another, and while there are accepted standards in literature and letters, from which one should not make too radical a departure, yet the ability to present one's convictions, or position convincingly should be of first consideration.
The most important thing in writing is to have something to say; then to say it so that it can be understood.
Experience is the only method by which theory can be converted into knowledge. The best possible source of information, therefore, is personal experimentation. If the student should have any disorder, especially of digestion and assimilation of food, or elimination of waste, he should experiment upon himself along the lines laid outin this course. He should keep an accurate record of selections, combinations, and proportions of food, with results or symptoms. He may thus be able to arrange menus for himself, even more effective than those given as examples or guides throughout the course.
If there are no personal disorders that will permit of such experiments, then they should be made upon some other person with whom the student is sufficiently familiar in order that accurate information concerning the results may be secured.
Though the student may be normal and healthy, it is possible to make many valuable experiments in regard to special adaptations of diet, such as combinations to induce natural sleep; to produce and to relieve constipation and diarrhea; to produce excessive body-heat when exposed to cold, or the minimum of heat in summer, or in warm climates.
Correct diagnosis is one of the most important factors in the practise of applied food chemistry, and when a correct diagnosis has been made the remedy will suggest itself if the student has a thorough understanding of causes.
Causes sometimes very remote
In diagnosis it is often necessary to ascertain the patient's general habits of eating during the few years prior to the appearance of the disorders. As an example, rheumatic conditions are often superinduced by an overconsumption of starch, usually cereal starch and acids. This overindulgence may have continued for several years before the appearance of any rheumatic symptoms. The primary causes being residual in the body, exposure, low vitality, or extreme climatic changes may give expression to them in the form of rheumatism, or some kindred trouble.
Value of limited feeding
After determining the causes, a diet should be designed which will counteract existing conditions. This may usually be accomplished by limiting the quantity of food somewhat below the demands of normal hunger. This will give the digestive organs less work to do, and the body an opportunity to take up or consume any excess of food matter that may have become congested. In cases accompanied by loss of hunger, it is sometimes necessary to put the patient upon an absolute fast from one to three days, but in the majority of cases a semi-fast is best, prescribing light, nutritious foods of a remedial character.
In beginning treatment each patient should be made acquainted with the fact that the radical change in diet may bring slight discomfort. While the system is adjusting itself to the new regimen, there is usuallya slight loss of weight and a feeling of weakness or lassitude.
Curing a slow process
It should be impressed upon the mind of the patient that regaining health and strength is in reality a process of growth or evolution, hence slow and gradual; that when one has violated the laws of health for many years, Nature will not, or probably cannot forgive all these sins and repair all these wrongs in a month or two. However, when one gets in harmony with the physical universe, and conforms to the laws of his organization, Nature will construct (cure) much more rapidly than she formerly destroyed (produced dis-ease).
The patient should agree with the diet
The practitioner may have many cases that for some seemingly mysterious reason will not respond to a perfectly natural diet and will, therefore, be called upon to change the diet from time to time in the vain hopeof finding combinations of food that will agree. In these cases the student should not be led to deviate too far from what he knows to be a natural and chemically harmonious regimen. If such a diet does not produce the desired results, it is not always the fault of the food, but the fault of the patient. If the food is right, and does not agree, it is the patient that is wrong, hence the logical thing to do is to make the rebellious patient agree with the food, instead of searching for a food to agree with the patient.
These facts should be impressed strongly upon the mind of the one under treatment, and he should be prevailed upon, if possible, to conform strictly to a correct diet until Nature is given time and opportunity to bring about an adjustment between the individual and his food.
It has been the custom of the medical profession for centuries to shroud its work in mystery, to write prescriptions in a dead language, to keep patients in ignorance of the remedies being applied. This seems tobe necessary, probably because an intelligent discussion of allopathic drugs, their sources and their constituent elements would, no doubt, prove fatal to their administration. The food scientist should follow exactly the opposite course. He should make a very careful diagnosis, taking into account the diet, habits of exercise and exposure to fresh air prior to the appearance of the dis-ease, as well as at the time of treatment. By giving the patient a thorough understanding of your work, you gain his confidence and faith, which wield a very powerful influence over the body.
Worry or fear causes stomach trouble
A very careful examination should also be made of the mental conditions. Worry, fear, or anxiety often produce serious digestive trouble whichis generally attributed to other causes, and which should be treated very differently from the same trouble caused by errors in eating.
During my professional work many patients have come to me laden with fear, caused by the thoughtless or perhaps reckless statement of some physician. It is indeed as great a crime for a doctor to pass the "sentence of death" upon a man who comes to him for help as it would be for the judge of a court to pronounce the death sentence upon a prisoner without hearing the evidence, and some day when the power of the mind or suggestion is understood, it will be so considered.
What Christian Science has done
It is impossible to fully estimate the effects of fear on the human body. Each year, I become more and more impressed with the fact that fear is one of the most potent factors in the cause of dis-ease. Christian Science has relieved thousands of people through the simplepresentation of a philosophy that induces the individual to throw off this burden of fear. It matters not whether this burden is cast upon the Gentle Nazarene or John Doe, the fact that it has been disposed of often leads to relief and recovery. Christian Science has done the world a great service—it has put out the fires of an orthodox hell by pouring into it orthodox medicine.
With a clear knowledge of the powerful psychological law, and the laws of human nutrition, the student has at his command two of the greatest forces in Nature for the relief of human suffering.
Value of truthful advertising
Judicious and truthful advertising is another important factor in the success of the food scientist. Advertising has been considered unethical by medical men for years. It has been discredited, not because it iswrong, or because there is any harm in telling the public the truth about one's business, but because so many spurious nostrums and patent medicines were exploited by "quack" doctors, that the respectable physician deemed it best to adopt the other extreme in his effort to keep entirely out of this class.
Advertising, however, is rapidly acquiring a more honest and upright character. The best magazines and some weekly newspapers will no longer accept advertisements of a questionable character, especially regarding medical remedies. Many of these excellent publications go so far as to vouch for and guarantee the honesty of everything exploited in their pages. Such methods are gradually purifying the advertising atmosphere.
Advertising both virtuous and necessary
There is no logical reason why anybody who has a virtuous and useful article, or who has discovered anything in the realm of science thatwould be a benefit to humanity, as well as a profit to himself, should not make it known as widely as possible through the instrumentality of advertising.
In preparing advertising literature, whether for magazines, booklets, or letters, facts and truth concerning your work are all that is necessary. No statement should be made that can in any way jeopardize your reputation; nothing should be stated or claimed that cannot actually be made good.
For many years it has been my policy to keep my advertising conservatively below the full limit of facts; in other words, the whole truth concerning that which can be accomplished by scientific feeding sometimes seems so startling to the lay mind that the experienced advertiser will not state it as it really is.
A patient of mine who had been in a wheel chair for twelve years, and afflicted for twenty years with locomotor ataxia, was so much improved within a year's time that he walked from Brooklyn to my office in New York City to exhibit himself. He gave me a testimonial letter and the privilege of using it in my advertisements. I wrote up the facts in regard to his case and submitted them to my agent, who was an expert advertiser, and he advised me not to state the facts as they were; the public, he contended, would not accept them as true.
It is almost impossible to estimate the moral effect of a broad-minded, tolerant and courteous attitude toward others engaged in the practise of the healing art. Medical doctors seldom agree, especially those of different schools. They accuse each other of ignorance and incompetence, and the public is sometimes inclined to concede thatthey are right.
In certainty and in truth one has confidence and strength which is always conducive to tolerance. The food scientist, knowing the laws of cause and effect in regard to nutrition, and knowing the proper use of natural methods of diet and hygiene in the prevention and the cure of specific dis-eases, needs neither to dispute with a fellow practitioner, nor to argue with his patient. He can afford to state his position and quietly allow Nature to prove his claims.
The following lessons, while they do not treat directly of either the chemistry of food or the chemistry of the body, are so closely allied to these subjects that this work would not be complete without them.
If a resident of a city, who is not familiar with modern farm machinery, should see a grain-binder at work, he would be impressed with the skill and the ingenuity of man. In all probability he would think that the machine was the product of one inventive mind. In this, however, he would be mistaken. The reaper in its modern form is the result of gradual development or growth.
An example of evolution
The earliest method of gathering grain was pulling it up by the roots. Later, as cutting tools were invented, a rough knife was used to sever the stalks just above the ground. An improvementupon this method was the cycle; then came the scythe, then the cradle; and next came the mower which was operated by horse-power. From the mower was developed the self rake, which bunched the grain so that the hand-binders could work with greater facility. The next improvement was a self-binding machine. In the present machine we have all of these and many other improvements, which give greater speed with less waste of labor and time.
This development of the grain-binder is a process of evolution. In order to understand a machine so as to use it intelligently, or to make improvements upon it, it is necessary not only to know the machine as it actually is, but also to know the history of its development up to its present form.
To know man is to know evolution
The story of the evolution of a machine is, at best, but a crude illustration of the evolution of man. Nevertheless, the conclusion is the same. If we are to understandman, we must study not only his present physical and mental state, but also the history of his development. Yet those whose work is concerned directly with man—whether they be teachers, guiding the growth of the child; statesmen, formulating the laws and regulations by which men are to be controlled in their public actions; or physicians, who are supposed to instruct and to guide men in the care of their physical well-being—are often densely ignorant of the most rudimentary knowledge of the evolution of man as it is now known and understood by the leading scientists of the world.
Our entire system of education, our ideas of health and dis-ease, our social customs, the principles of our form of government; our ideas of right and wrong, of rewards and punishments, are all fundamentally concerned with the evolution of man, and when this knowledgeis studied with as much application as are the ancient languages, we may expect to see humanity progress at a rate hitherto unknown.
Significance of the term "evolution"
The evolution of man has been very much misunderstood. The term "evolution" is a broad one. It may refer to the growth of the individual, or to the race. It may mean the development of strictly physical organs, or of mental habits, of social customs, or of material products of man's genius, as the great works of civilization in the form of recorded learning, and the wonderful products of man's building ingenuity as seen in modern cities.
The subject of the evolution of the human race may be grouped into three general kinds of development or growth:
Evolution in these three directions has taken place simultaneously. The mind and the body depend upon each other for their life and actions; while customs are merely the product of many minds working together and communicating their ideas to each other.
The human race is but the sum of the individuals composing it. We cannot consider the development of the individual without considering him in his relation to the race, neither can we understand the development of the race without understanding the growth of the individual.
Difference between inherited and acquired characteristics
One distinction too often overlooked by those who are not familiar with physiological science is the difference between actual physical inheritance and externalcustoms. I wish to dwell at length upon this distinction, because a lack of understanding upon this point has been the source of many errors of judgment on the part of those who have been interested in the subject of physical training and food science.
At birth the individual inherits an organism with certain tendencies, both physical and mental, but this inheritance should not be confused with the physical habits which the child acquires by training from its parents and its associates. Thus, the child may inherit a brilliant mind, a weak stomach, or a sixth finger, but the child does not inherit a liking for broiled lobster, or a fondness for golf, or for driving an aeroplane. These are acquired and developed as habits, the same as the child would learn English or French, or would cultivate a fancy for parting his hair in the middle, or on the left side.
At the present time scientists are agreed upon the general theory of the evolution of man. The discussions pro and con regarding this, which exist today, are either discussions of minor points which have not yet been clearly worked out, or are the discussions of people who have grasped only a portion of the idea of evolution, and who are ignorant of its broader conception and of the facts which science has brought to the light of day.
The three great proofs of evolution are:
These three separate records of the development of living beings are considered by scientists as a most conclusive proof of the truth of evolution. Recorded as fossils in the rocks, we find the story of the development of all life upon the earth, from its simplest to its highest forms of plants and animals that live today, among which is man.
The earliest forms of animal life
The first forms of animal life were, in all probability, minute one-celled organisms; these left no visible fossil remains. As soon as animals developed hard parts in their bodies, such as shells and bones, we find a record of their existence as fossils. The earliest recorded forms of life were various kinds of sea-creatures, of which the modern crustacea (lobsters, etc.), snails, clams, and various shell-fishes are types. Later were developedboneless fishes, on the order of skates. After these came true fishes; then amphibia (frogs, etc.); then reptiles, birds, and, last of all, mammals, including man.
The facts are the same, whether we take the history of the successive forms as recorded as fossils in the rocks, or the living representatives that remain to tell the story in another form.
The single cell is the nucleus
The third proof, which is the story of evolution recorded in the growth and development of the individual, is yet more interesting. As life developed from simpler forms, each individual animal or plant became more complex, or carried a little further the process of growth. But the method of reproduction of new individuals remained fundamentally the same. Each individual began, like its ancestors, as a single-cell being. By the process of nutrition these single cells in each case would grow, divide, and produce various tissues and organs, butalways repeating the general story of the development of the race.
Gills in the human embryo
The growth of the human embryo offers many proofs of evolution, which are wholly unexplainable upon any other theory of the origin of man, and would in themselves prove the truth of this view of man's creation were the proofs of geology entirely lacking. A single example will serve as an illustration. The human embryo at a certain period develops gill slits in the neck, the same as the embryo of a fish. This formation of unused or rudimentary organs which are afterwards outgrown, is very common throughout the animal world. In the upper jaw of a calf there are formed at a certain period incisor teeth, which never grow through the gums, but are reabsorbed and disappear as the calf develops.
I will not go further into the proofs and facts of the general theory of the evolution of animal life, but will nowconsider the later period of the development of man, which will show us his relation to other animals, and from which we can derive much valuable information regarding his natural physiological requirements.
The conception of man being descended from a monkey has been the subject of much wit and mirth.
Man's relation to anthropoid apes
The scientist is not concerned with this theory; he only claims that man is very closely related to certain monkey-like forms known as anthropoid apes. The proofs of this assertion are abundant and conclusive. In fact, anthropoid apes, such as gorillas, chimpanzees and orang-outangs, are much more closely related to man than they are to other kinds of monkeys. This relation is shown by very close resemblance between the anatomy of man and apes, especially as to the teeth anddigestive organs. Other facts are now known, of which Darwin and early investigators were ignorant, which prove this relation in a much more striking manner.
Comparison of blood from man and apes
Late studies upon the growth of the embryo of anthropoid apes have shown that they were at certain periods almost indistinguishable from human embryos. Another proof, quite striking and interesting, is in the similarity of the parasites and dis-eases of men and apes. Scientists have, within the past few years, made a series of comparative investigations upon the blood and serum of men and apes, which have resulted in most remarkable discoveries. There are certain accurate tests known to the physiological chemist by which human blood may be distinguished from the blood of all other animals, but the blood of these man-like apes is an exception to this, and cannot be distinguished from human blood.
Difference in the development of man and apes
From these facts it is clear that the earlier types of men were creatures whose physical development and whose habits were not very different from those of apes. The development that has taken place since that time is truly very wonderful and has resulted in a widening gap between man and apes that today seems very great. The truth remains, however, that this gap is not so much one of anatomy and physiology as it is one of mentality and of external habits and material aids to living that have resulted from man's greatly developed mental faculties.
Power of speech a factor in man's evolution
Thus, when the mind of man reached the stage of development in which the use of articulate speech became possible, the evolution of intelligence proceeded at a very much more rapid pace than had been possible before. He could communicate his ideas to his fellow-creatures; concerted action became possible, and thefaculty of reason, or the ability to think was multiplied by the number of beings who could communicate with each other.
The power of reason and the ability to communicate ideas resulted in the formation of those habits which distinguish man from other animals. When one primitive man learned the use of a club as a weapon, found how to use sharp-edged stones as cutting tools, or discovered the wonders and power of fire, he communicated his new-found knowledge to the other members of his tribe, with the result that new ideas became common property.
Man's bad habits have kept pace with his progress
This spreading of habits or customs took place very rapidly among men and was the source of the various changes which distinguished civilized life from savage life. But we must here point out that not only good habits were so spread, but bad ones as well. The origin and the use of opium and of alcohol, the injuries of fashionabledress and the economic wrongs of tyrannical government originated along with the birth of language, art, science, and all that uplifts and benefits mankind.
Clearly, then, that man is misinformed who defends a wrong by referring to its age and reasons that, if certain things were harmful, they would not have survived. To the young thinker the existence of harmful ideas and habits among mankind may at first seem inconsistent with the principles of the survival of the fittest, but this difficulty will disappear upon further investigation.
Factors that determine the survival of races
Since the beginning of recorded history many factors have helped to determine what kind of individuals and races should survive. War, economic wealth and poverty, intellectual beliefs, religions, and social institutions have all been potent factors in determining who should survive. With wealth and conquest camethe opportunity to gratify tastes and passions of which the poor individuals of weaker races could not avail themselves.
Many habits and customs detrimental to life and health
Many of the habits and customs which man has developed are not necessary to life, and may be positively detrimental to health and longevity. They have been handed down from generation to generation, not because of their benefit to man, but in spite of their detriment.
Such condition of affairs would not be possible if man were not the dominant animal. Man's intellectual supremacy has given him power over the rest of nature, which has resulted in making his struggle for existence much less severe. His use of weapons and of artificial protection from natural destructive forces, as severe heat or cold, has made it possible for him to live and to produce offspring in spite of wrong habits and wrong methods of living, and the natural resistance of life.
Man's organs have a limited power of adaptation
A prevalent error that is due to an incomplete knowledge of the facts of evolution is the belief that organs readily change or adapt themselves to the habits or environment of the individual. This is not true to the extent that it is ordinarily believed. Each individual has a certain limited power of adaptation. He may develop his lungs to a greater breathing capacity, or train his hand for certain skilled work, but these particular acquired habits of the individual are not inherited.
Evolution of the race proceeds by the law of natural selection. Thus, if those who are born with great vigor and strong lungs are enabled to live where their weak-lunged neighbors will die, the result will be that their offspring, having greater lung capacity, will form a race with increased lung capacity. But the individual training of the lungs, or of the hand, or of any other organ of the body,will not of itself change the inherited tendency, or, to use a common term of the scientist, the germ-plasm of the race.
Organs and functions will change or become evolved by natural selections; that is, where it is a matter of life and death. But where the selective agencies depend upon other things, an organ may be used or abused for thousands of successive generations, and yet the natural inherited organ of the new-born child will be identical in development and function to that of the remote ancestor.
Acquired characteristics are not inherited
There are abundant proofs that so called "acquired characteristics" are not inherited. Were acquired characteristics inherited, Chinese women would be born with small feet and the babies of the Flathead Indians would inherit the flat head which has for generations been produced by binding a flat stone on the soft skull of the new-born infant.
In the light of this fact we may understand how it has been possible for man to live through the varying dietetic habits and customs that the constantly changing ideas and tastes of civilization have thrust upon his physical organism. Each individual has transmitted to his offspring the same type of digestive organs and functions that he himself inherited from his remote anthropoid ancestors.
Meaning of expression "natural" diet
Thus, such terms as "back to nature," "natural diet," etc., only mean to the food scientist the habits of life or the dietary which is most suited to the unperverted physical organism of man. They do not imply the meaning that is popularly given to the term, of casting aside all the habits and customs of civilized man, but only the adapting of these customs to the inherited physiological organism of man.
Indeed, science may actually improve upon primitive conditions, and still notbe inconsistent with the requirements of the inherited physiological machine. No intelligent man will dispute the advantage of a house in a snowstorm. Yet the house is artificial. It is not "natural" in the sense that the term is commonly used.
Or, again, man has by the aid of civilization rendered it possible for us to use foods far removed from their source of production, or, by preservation, to have them at seasons of the year when nature does not provide them. These artificial results of civilization are good. They are a part of the story of evolution, the benefit of which no one can question.
Man's dietetic development
But the great majority of the dietetic "frills" of modern man are actually unsuited to his physiological make-up, and exceedingly harmful. They have been developed as have habits of drink or personal adornment and may be in direct antagonism to the ultimate well-being of the human race.
I have briefly reviewed the history of the evolution of man. The facts to be remembered are:
With this general survey of evolution, and a clear understanding of the principles involved, I trust the reader will consider the facts here presented in the unprejudicial spirit of the true scientist.
That part of human life and living that is associated with the functions of sex and reproduction is at once the cause of the world's greatest misery and the world's greatest happiness. It is the subject of the greatest popular ignorance and superstition, and at the same time the field of the most wonderful of all scientific knowledge.
For the origin of sex we must look back into the remote ages of creation in the early stages of organic evolution.
Fundamental function of the cell
The first essential property of matter that makes life possible is the power ofnutrition, which means the ability of the living cell to transform other chemical substances into its own protoplasm or living substances.
But this world would have remained a barren mass of igneous rock if nutrition had been the only function with which the earlier forms of life were endowed. Not only must the living cell be enabled to grow by absorbing other substances, but it must reproduce itself, or multiply the number of living individuals.
First form of reproduction
The first method by which this was accomplished was undoubtedly one of simple division; that is, the living cell grew by absorbing other substances and when sufficient size had been attained, divided, forming two daughter-cells. This division process of reproduction is the form by which all bacteria (so-called dis-ease germs) and many other lower forms of life increase their numbers.