PARTII.
CHAPTER I.ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF BRAIN AND BODY.
The vitality and activity of every organ of the body is maintained and controlled by mental impulse, which is transmitted or individualized by the brain, transmitted in the form of mental impulse through the channels provided by the nerves. The brain consists of three parts: the cerebrum or fore brain, the cerebellum or back brain, and the medulla oblongata.
The nervous system consists of two kinds of nervous tissue. One of these is called the white substance, composed of nerve filaments, and is found in the trunks and branches of nerves on the exterior of the spinal cord and in the internal parts of the brain. The grey substance is composed of granular matter and ganglionic cells. This forms the external layer of convolutions of the brain. This substance forms itself into a double chain of nerve masses or ganglia which are connected by intervening cords and extends down on either side of the spinal column. It is also found in the interior of the spinal cord, the walls of the internal organs and in various parts of the body, forming large plexuses. The solar system, also called the abdominal brain, is the greatest collection of nerve matter in the body outside the skull. Other collections of sympathetic nerve matter are found in the chest and pelvic organs.
Natural will-power can direct its force wherever it is wanted, be it for work or rest; it can sustain on bread and water for many days. Without substance there can be no power. Substantial food, fresh air, water and natural exercise develop strong bodies and minds.
The brain is covered by three membranes, called meninges. One, composed of fibrous substance, forms the lining of theinterior of the skull and extends downward around the spinal cord. Next to this is a loose meshwork of delicate fibers, called the arachnoid. The inner membrane rests directly upon the brain substance which encloses a meshwork of small blood vessels and lymph channels. At the base of the brain these blood vessels form a circle, called the circle of “Willis.” Through it the blood is evenly distributed into the fine microscopical structures of the brain.
The cerebrum, or fore brain, is divided into two hemispheres, each of which is further divided into numerous lobes consisting of grey and white nervous substance and millions of nerve cells and fine blood vessels. The hemispheric ganglia are the instruments through which the intellectual powers manifest themselves. If these instruments have become imperfect in structure through retarded development by wrong environment and education, or have been damaged in any manner by severe shock, violence or disease, the manifestations of intelligence are affected in a corresponding degree.
The cerebellum also is composed of grey and white matter and lies at the back part of the base of the skull. It has no convolutions, but is subdivided by many parallel ridges. The pons varolii is the bridge of brain matter which unites various parts of the brain, connecting the cerebrum with the cerebellum and the medulla oblongata. The cerebellum is the seat of co-ordination, or associating power, through which the various muscular movements are effected.
The medulla oblongata is situated at the top of the spine, on issuing from the skull it enters the spinal column and then is known as the spinal cord. Any injury to this part is more fatal than to any other part of the brain.
By natural feeding, overwork is not possible. The body demands rest when its strength is exhausted. Artificial stimulants are deceivers. They make a man feel strong when he is weak. They produce artificial heat and will-power and an abnormal temperature; they lead to overwork, abnormal development and degenerate brains and bodies.
The cranial nerves are twelve in number on each side and originate in the brain. In addition to these we have thirty one pair of nerves branching out from the spinal column.The spinal nerves also originate in the brain, they converge at its base and form the spinal cord which passes out of the skull through an opening called the foramen magnum into and through the center of the circular spaces in the vertebrae of the spinal column.
The white fibres of the spinal cord consist of collections of nerve filaments, each of which carries on a special work in the transmission of nerve impulses to and from the brain. Each nerve arises from two roots, a motor and a sensory root. The divisions and sub-divisions from these filaments form minute plexuses and fine nerve branches which finally terminate in the muscles, skin and various organs of the body. Each of these five nerve branches consist of neurons and dendrites, by which motions and sensations are carried to and from the brain. These nerve impulses which are carried to and from the nerve centers by a mysterious energy, resemble electricity and can be studied much the same as electrical currents.
The chains of the sympathetic nervous system are connected by cross branches to the sympathetic nerve ganglia on either side of the spine. It also connects by cross branches and nerve plexuses with the central nervous system or white nerve fibres. While the white nerve fibres, also called the animal nerves, are largely concerned with the voluntary acts of the body, the functions of the sympathetic, or vegetative nerves, are those concerned with the health of the body. They govern circulation, digestion and elimination, and the repair which takes place after a tissue is injured. The sympathetic nerves spread to every part of the body, especially to the vital organs. An individual who is richly supplied with nervous matter of this nature has more endurance (or vegetative force) than one who is not so endowed. While the brain and body of man wears out from the day’s work and sleep is absolutelynecessary, the functions of the heart and lungs and the work of nutrition must go on just the same, but during this time the sympathetic nerves carry on the vital processes of the body without interruption. They never sleep.
CIRCULATION.
The blood is a circulatory fluid and is pumped by the heart through the arteries to every part of the body. The arteries are elastic tube-like canals with walls consisting of fibrous material and are lined by delicate muscular layers. The arteries in their distribution communicate freely with one another, dividing and sub-dividing, becoming continually smaller, until they can no longer be traced by the naked eye. These smallest branches are called capillaries. It is by means of them that metabolism becomes possible. The nutriment of the blood passes out through their walls into the tissues and the waste from the tissues passes back into the blood. These unite forming larger vessels called veins which carry the waste matter back to the heart and lungs. The color of the venous blood is dark blue while that of the arteries is bright red.
The lymphatic system consists of lacteals, glands and lymphatic vessels. The lacteals are small vessels originating in the villi of the small intestine side by side with the blood vessels. They contain the milk-white fluid called chyle. The lymphatic vessels, like the arteries and veins, are tubular canals, lined with delicate muscular layers and membrane. They unite with each other, gradually forming larger vessels. In their course they pass through numerous lymphatic glands and finally unite into two great trunks.
Sunlight is a great disinfectant. Dark rooms are a breeding place for tuberculous germs. Daily out of door exercise in the sunshine will increase health and reduce the coal bill. Without exercise our food can be of little benefit to us.
The alimentary tract with its different departments resemblessomewhat a manufacturing plant. The first of these departments is the mouth. When mastication and insalivation are completed, the food is conveyed by deglutition to the stomach. Here it is subjected to churning and chemical changes by the involuntary muscles and the secretion of the gastric juice. When this is accomplished, the contents pass into the intestine. Here they mingle with fluids secreted by the gall bladder and pancreas. Food which has been reduced to chyme by the stomach is now reduced to chyle or liquefied food and is absorbed by the lacteals. When the digested material is absorbed and carried to the liver, the glands and other blood making organs, the process is called sanguification. From there the blood is carried to the heart and lungs to receive oxygen and then it is distributed to the different organs and tissues of the body. These processes are directed by the intelligence of the sympathetic nervous system which therefore governs the nutrition of the central nervous system, known as the animal nerves. Space is too limited to go into a discussion of the functional activities of the different ductless glands and their relation to the tissue metabolism.
Drink sufficient pure natural water between your meals. There is danger in over-drinking as well as in under-drinking.
CHAPTER II.KNOW THYSELF.
The foregoing pages present an outline in the elementary anatomy and physiology of the brain and nervous system, to those who are not acquainted with its structure. To all who are interested in the intelligent care of the body it is of prime importance to obtain practical knowledge of the principles underlying the control of the body. The proper development of the individual is a steady growth. It resembles the unfolding of a flower, through the partaking of proper food, water, air and sunshine. A normal human being enjoys merely being alive. This is Nature’s law. The shortest road to happiness is to regard the body as the present dwelling-house of the eternal, and not merely to dream of the possibilities of becoming perfect in some future state of existence. Our physiological body constitutes the source from which the immortal man receives its strength. In order to have a healthy mind, all the body must work together harmoniously. The quality and quantity of the fluids must be right, there must be no leakage, the wires or nerves must lie in perfect harmony with the structures resting on a perfect foundation. Only in this way can the oxygen undergo the highest modification.
A seed requires the power of the sunshine in order to utilize the elements which it takes from the earth, and in the same sense the spiritual man receives his nutriment from the spirit through its elementary forces. God gave us these bodies, and unless we are willing to care for the temple which our spirit inhabits, we are not worthy of a better body in this world or in the one beyond. The primary course for most ailments can be traced back to hereditary weaknesses, developed through wrong environment, bad habits and improper feeding. We cannot develop a fashionable disease of typhoid, small-pox or diphtheria unless our lymphatic glands are storingup excessive waste matter produced by continuously overeating or wrong eating of unclean combinations of foods. Neither can right eating alone, without right thinking, physical exercise, fresh air and sunshine, produce health. The air we breathe is filled with healing power. The water we drink is from the fountain of life.
Deep philosophy combined with material science and practical work will lead to the understanding of the divine laws of nature. An individual who is suffering from a chronic ill which he is unable to correct by following a physician’s advice at home, should seek refuge in a sanitarium and be educated in the divine laws of God or Nature.
“No soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul!”—Browning’s Rabi Ben Ezra.
Spirit, also called essence, light, mind, or soul, is dependent upon matter for its expression. In other words, structure precedes function.
Example: To produce light we need to act upon a mechanism. As the striking of a match or the pressing of a button produces light, so the action upon the brain cells by the ether of the blood produces light or spirit.
Pure air and raw vegetables are rich in ether, and therefore are a necessity for a healthy mind or spirit.
Mental exercise or “thought” is necessary to convey the blood to the cell mechanism. Obstruction of blood vessels, preventing blood flow, produces death, partially or wholly.
STIMULANTS—THEIR EFFECT UPON THE BODY.
Sugar, tobacco, alcohol, and sweetened beverages in the form of coffee, etc., produce a stimulating effect upon the sympathetic ganglia near the base of the brain and through these arouse the emotional nature, exciting the nerves of sociability, the facial muscles, the sense of sight, the sense of speech and the nerves controlling the organs of reproduction and those of muscular action. Excitability of one set of nerve fibres will always produce a morbid condition upon the opposites, and these are the finer instincts and sensualities.
An individual with a delicate, nervous structure or one who has bony displacement or contracted tissue in the cervical region interfering with normal blood flow, would therefore be more injured by such irritants or stimuli than one whose structures and functions are working harmoniously. A person who, in addition to these physical defects, has weak kidneys and intestinal obstruction interfering with the glycogenic functions of the liver will suffer far more often in spite of total abstinence from all such stimulants because he indulges in foods such as canned, watery cooked fruits in combination with yeast bread, potatoes and a variety of cooked foodstuffs which his eliminating organs are not able to manage, and alcoholic fermentation is the result. The blood, instead of being a transparent, homogeneous, and alkaline fluid, resembles in appearance sour milk. The coagulated constituents of the blood clog the fine capillaries and infiltrate the structures of the lower body, allowing the watery contents to circulate in the tissues of the brain and chest, exciting the nerves and vital organs and producing an undue pressure upon the glandular secretions of the suprarenal capsules, tyroid and pituitary body, leading to diabetes or dropsy. The symptoms of such conditions are similar to those of chronic alcoholism.
Persons of the latter class should avoid all artificial stimulants,and use natural stimulants such as sweet fruits and honey in very moderate quantities (during the winter only), and never at the morning meal. They should restrict themselves to a diet of dry natural foods, including a considerable amount of fats properly combined with acids and raw greens in the form of salads. In addition to these they may use legumes in moderate quantities, raw or plain boiled cereals without sugar, also nuts several times per week. Clabber milk and cottage cheese are also good. Fresh milk, if agreeable, should be modified with one-third water and milk sugar added, heating to 170° F. The heating of the milk to this point prevents fermentation. During hot summer months when the skin is active, there is less tendency to fermentation by such people, and heating of milk, if fresh, is generally unnecessary. (However, this is not the case with infants or people who have a tendency to diarrhea.)
Artificial sweets, white bread and poisonous beverages develop butterflies that crave excitement and artificial life. The world is full of people that are without substance, power or principle. They earn their living the easiest way they can. Wrong feeding is responsible for such conditions. Social reformers and humanitarians cannot solve problems until they have learned how to feed the race.
The “Dreadnaught”—Stimulant.(Quoted from Dr. Axel Emil Gibson’s Work.) The ruling stimulant of the world today is not the coffee, tea, beer nor even whisky—but the innocent-looking, pleasant-tasting, alluring white powder known as sugar. Its stimulating power is greater than that of the alcohol, because it is the parent and generator of the alcohol.
CHAPTER III.CONSTIPATION.
This is one of the most common disorders of civilized people. The disease may be primary or secondary. The movement of the bowels normally depends on the amount eaten. Some people eat such great quantities that two or three movements are necessary every day in order to carry off the excess of waste. People of moderate habits who eat dry food properly combined need not of necessity have a movement every day in order to maintain health, but such are few. The fecal discharge, if allowed to remain in the colon longer than is natural, accumulates in the folds of the colon, and its fluids are re-absorbed into the circulation while the remainder becomes hard; part of it continues to adhere to the mucus membrane and attracts more accumulation until finally the entire walls of the colon become encrusted with fecal matter. A physic will not always remove the encrusted matter or even loosen it; it may give temporary relief by establishing a small passage way through the accumulation of the colon and some benefit is felt. Thousands of people suffer from such conditions for years without being aware of it. Is it any wonder that men who are thought to be in apparently good health die of apoplexy, paralysis, consumption, appendicitis or Bright’s disease? Besides this nearly all diseases of a contagious nature have their origin in the colon.
The question is often asked why do these conditions exist? Take a lesson from the animals who live on natural sun cooked foods. They masticate their food and obey the call of nature whenever evacuation is necessary.
Constipation may be the result of purely mechanical conditions, such as want of exercise, tight corsets, drug taking,paralytic state of the bowels, strictures or adhesions to neighboring organs from previous inflammations. Under all conditions it is possible to be greatly benefited by a diet suitable in quantity and quality to the individual needs and by correct habits.
Raw foods are more nutritious than cooked foods, if they are pure and fresh and can be digested without difficulty. A change from cooked to raw foods might produce diarrhoea or constipation. The latter condition is generally not dangerous. Constipation from cooked foods is more dangerous.
A daily evacuation of thebowels is not always a sign that the stomach and intestines are in good working order. The bowels can be forced to move by eating of too rich foods.
OBESITY.
There are several different forms of obesity, due to varied causes, and each requires a different form of treatment. The first class suffer from ordinary causes, and can be cured easily by a diet which is suitable in quantity and quality to the particular temperament and occupation and by taking sufficient exercise out of doors. Unless the person is willing to deny himself those foods which create this unnecessary fat, disease or heart failure will follow. The stomach and intestines under the fermentation of sweets, fruits and starches resemble a yeast jar; the follicles of the mucous membrane become filled with beer, alcohol, vinegar and all sorts of irritating acids and paralyze the cells of the secretory glands of the alimentary tract. As a result of this paralysis, an excessive amount of ropy, sticky mucus is poured out, and the patient suffers with lassitude, nervousness, gas and headaches. Under this condition the circulation grows weak, the lower limbs are cold, constipation takes place and often the feet are swollen. If this condition is not relieved by proper dietetic treatment, the lower end of the stomach closes to such an extent as to retain the gasses and alcoholic ferments, thus dilating the stomach to an enormous degree. Later the lower end of the stomach becomes partially paralysed, the portal vein of the liver becomes sluggish and the breathing difficult. As this condition extends farther down to the junction of the small intestine it paralyzes the structures near the appendix and causes appendicitis; or it may congest the intestine extending to the rectum and cause prolapsus or falling of the intestines. If the vital organs are so strong that the latter condition does not occur, there is, nevertheless, a state of starvation, because the muscles are infiltrated by fat, and the nervous tissues can not receive nutriment. The whole body becomes finally congested, paralyzed, and feeble, and mental and physical disease is the result.
To those who are fairly well nourished and have noorganic diseases the following suggestions may be of assistance: Begin your change of diet with a fast of a day or two. Take sufficient out of door exercise to bring about a good circulation. If the heart be weak, take only short walks and do not expose the shoulders or chest to hot sun light. Use an umbrella. Drink water between meals according to your normal desire. Eat two meals a day for a while, taking breakfast between nine and ten. The menu may be composed of raw or cooked spinach, celery, string beans, cabbage, onions, mustard greens, dandelion greens, black olives, lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes. Salads with French or mayonnaise dressing are more beneficial than cooked greens. Serve with toasted whole wheat or black bread and butter. Dinner should be taken between three and five and the menu may be composed of baked apples, or apple sauce, ambrosia, apricot sauce, plum sauce, stewed prunes, or clabber milk with sweet sterilized cream and toasted black bread, or of raw fruits such as berries, apples, peaches, oranges, pineapple, or soaked French prunes. Serve plain or with cream. The first four mentioned may be served with lemon and olive oil or mayonnaise dressing (fats properly combined with acids are not fattening). Whole wheat toast or nuts may be served in addition. Later add legumes, eggs and cheese to your diet. For combinations see recipes. Avoid artificial sweets, white flour preparations, wrong combinations of food, and excesses of any kind.
People who are confined to mental or indoor work should take walks and other physical exercise every day in order to equalize the circulation. Those who do domestic work should devote some time each day to mental activity and walks out of doors. People who do not reduce by taking out of door exercise should remain in bed until 10 A. M. for awhile and take exercises with the lower limbs in a horizontal position. The above suggestions are only for conditions where the powers of digestion and assimilation over balance those of elimination. The treatment of special conditions should not be undertaken by the patient alone. The condition that leads to fatty degeneration is also a forerunner of consumption.However, in the latter case the patient has less absorbing power and only assimilates the irritating acids. The brain cells and vital organs become gradually paralyzed by this acid fluid and death follows.
Certain persons of enormous vitality produce pseudo tissue, and develop tumors of various types. The names of the various diseases are many but the causes that produce them are few. Different persons with hereditary tendencies to different constitutional diseases may all trace their ailments to one great cause, that of wrong eating. Chemical and mechanical injuries by drugs and accidents are often secondary causes which help to develop such conditions. People who desire to undergo drugless methods of treatment, such as fasting, dieting or exercises should never do so without the direct care of a physician.
Disease is a sin, produced by improper breeding and feeding and wrong habits. To those who employ physicians I would say: Do not expect to be relieved by paying the doctor for your sins. Leave your arguments at home and take faith with you. Do not expect to be relieved (from ills) in a short time which have been years in the making. If you are poor and helpless you will receive more assistance from doctors than from other human beings. If you are not so unfortunate still do not deceive him. Leave out all shrewdness and business methods. If you expect honesty, give it first; be willing to pay for the advice which has taken many years of hard study and work to acquire. If you meet a dishonest physician, remember that very often he is the product of dishonest treatment by his patients. Do not therefore lose faith in humanity, but seek for another, and be willing to follow his advice, paying for it cheerfully, and you will be happier and healthier.
CHAPTER IV.PSYCHOTHERAPY.
A science applied to diseases which are of a purely mental origin and which sooner or later will affect the body. All chronic physical diseases caused by physical injury will in time become mental. Here material science, with or without mental treatment, will bring relief. The treatment is not at all comfortable and (in most cases) a housecleaning process. The liver is the greatest filter of the body and the most sensitive organ. Chronic or acute and poisonous secretions are produced through mental influences, and this in turn produces mental congestion. Pressure upon nerves produced by chemical or mechanical injury affecting the liver or other vital organs will in time produce congestion of the brain. The latter can be cured by taking away this pressure through applied physiological chemistry and applied anatomical adjustment. In severe cases of illness the cure depends to a large extent on the faithfulness with which the details are carried out. Some of these seem unimportant to the patient and to those who know little of the treatment. In any case where successful results have not been obtained, it has always been easy to point to faults of commission or omission.
An individual who has an analytical turn of mind ever ready to investigate his methods of treatment after he has put himself under a doctor’s care makes a cure almost impossible. The over-development of certain nerve centers and the mental discipline necessary for relaxing these functions will retard or oppress the functions and nerve centers of the sympathetic nervous system, which are needed for control of repair work. In other words, nerve centers which are abnormally positive will cause other abnormally negative nerve centers to exist and prevent these from reaching a normalpositive state. As a result the body cannot eliminate its waste matter, and reconstruction is almost impossible.
Two-thirds of the inmates of our insane asylums and prisons might be cured if the proper treatment were applied. The young under twenty years of age yield much easier to treatment than older persons. Pseudo psychic healers or those who deny the existence of a disease do either effect a cure by faith or else they paralyze certain nerve centers and drive the disease inwards turning it into phlegma or fat, or else into more dangerous material such as cancers, insanity or heart failure. Scientific psychic healers are doing wonderful work by means of the psychometer in the diagnosis and treatment of psychic disorders. However, the cause and prevention of the disease for these unfortunate victims lies deeper. They are the product of modern and wrong methods of education, stimulated and forced by artificial feeding. They have reached that state of refinement, or culture of the flesh, and soul starvation where degeneration is at work. If the body is the strongest, the result is mental derangement. If the body is the weakest, the result is cancer and tuberculosis in its acute or chronic form, and many other bodily disorders. A healthy person (even if born with a delicate body) who has been perfectly fed on natural foods which have not been deprived of their organic salts could not possibly be affected by slight shocks of unpleasant environment to such an extent as to produce diseases either mentally or physically. Sorrow and disappointments in life are just as necessary for our development as rainy and unpleasant weather is. The weak brains and bodies of brittle bone and diseased flesh are the result of wrong feeding. Chronic food poisoning and starvation is much more detrimental to the human race than wholesome natural foods with the addition of small quantities of alcohol. The person who is boasting of health and old age in spite of small quantities of whiskey taken is generally born with no weaknesses. The effects of alcohol have probably shortened his life of eighty or one hundred years, but his mental and physical capacities have been superior to that of many intemperate drinkers as well as eaters.
CHAPTER V.SUGGESTIVE MENUS FOR ACUTE CONVALESCENTS.
Allow the patient to return to simple solid foods gradually. If he tires easily of one thing, as much variety as possible should be introduced into the diet, but as a rule no more than three or four articles should be served at one meal.
A cup of whey with or without lemon, or albumen water.
Five to ten ounces of milk, diluted with gruel or tea.
Gelatine prepared from barley, or legumes and zwieback.
Cocoa or milk (5 to 10 ounces) with zwieback.
Malt Coffee with hot cream and milk-sugar and zwieback.
If food is required at 10 p. m. or during the night, give whey, blackberry juice, broth, apple water, orange juice, tea, coffee or lemonade.
Water gruel prepared from barley, oats, wheat or rice.
Broth with the yolk of an egg or fresh milk with crackers.
Gelatine of wheat, or toast with sterilized cream and zwieback.
Milk, coffee, cocoa or eggnog with zwieback or crackers.
Broth with two tablespoonfuls of cream, ryenuts or zwieback.
3. Breakfast.
Cereal gruel with one-third milk and one-fifth cream.
Water, whey or tea of beans, peas, lentils or bran.
Spinach on toast, eggs, baked potato.
Raw bran, oatmeal water, almond milk or hot or cold water.
Baked apple with cream. Cream of celery soup with toast.
Gruel of Cook’s flaked rice or shredded wheat with hot cream.
Milk or broth with yolk of egg, and crusts or zwieback.
Puree of dried green peas, zwieback with butter, celery.
Cold water or malt coffee.
Cream of tomato soup or broth with toast and celery.
DIABETIC FOODS.
Oil, butter, mayonnaise dressing, cream, cottage cheese, Swiss cheese, eggs, almonds, pecans, walnuts, nut-cream, bacon, veal, lamb, pork, potato salad, berries and acid fruits in the form of salads, asparagus, artichokes, raw greens, rye, buttermilk, gluten bread, legumes in moderate amounts with acids and greens, olives, bran, bran and legume gelatines.
TABLE OF COMMONLY USED FOODS, GIVING CALORIC VALUE.
MEMORANDUM