The Royal Road to Health Part 20

No engineer can obtain from the machine under his control the highest results, unless every part of the mechanism is in perfect working order. How much more important, then, that the human organism should be in perfect adjustment, since through it the mentality is to find its highest expression? Without a knowledge of its construction and its working principles, how is the individual to raise the human machine to the highest plane of excellence and maintain it there? No one is allowed to run an engine without first pa.s.sing an examination, which necessitates a certain amount of study and knowledge of the laws of mechanics; yet men undertake to run that complex machine, the human body, in utter ignorance of physiological law! Is it any wonder that there are so many breakdowns? What I contend for is the study of the fundamental facts concerning the ordinary functions of the body: of diet, dress and exercise in their relation to health, and the relative effects of good and bad air upon the system. It is of infinitely more consequence to understand the basic principles of digestion and the proper combination of foods, or to understand thoroughly the baneful effects of sleeping in a badly ventilated room, than to be the greatest living expert in conic sections. Practical physiology is the crying need of the times, especially for our children, if we expect them to be well developed--mentally morally and physically.

With such an equipment of knowledge the individual is prepared to withstand the wear and tear of life, and I may remark here that it is the tear more than the wear that figures in physical breakdown. All human beings are not endowed alike with nervous force; it is largely a matter of heredity, but what we have may be cultivated and developed.

Failure to do so renders the individual liable to nervous breakdown, or neurasthenia, as it is popularly termed, a widespread disease, especially in America, where the strain of life is greater than elsewhere. Compet.i.tion, a desire to go beyond one's fellows in achievement, working beyond the strength, together with lack of care of the physical system, all conspire to keep constant the undue excitement of the nerves that ends in exhaustion. Children born of nervous parents, with weak nervous systems, should be fortified against the risks of inheritance by hygienic measures, during their developmental period, strengthening in every way their physical and mental endowments. Even those well developed in this respect should husband his or her resources--always keeping a reserve fund by avoiding undue fatigue, spending plenty of time in sleep, taking care of the body, and arranging for intervals of rest that shall include change of scene and environment.

Remember that mind and thought have their effect on the bodily health, no less than material and physical conditions; and that although a healthy body needs a sane mind, it is none the less true that a sane mind needs a healthy body; therefore maintain perfect equilibrium between the two. It may surprise you to hear your body compared to a bank; but the a.n.a.logy is perfect, as I shall proceed to show. No living organism is precisely the same for sixty consecutive minutes.

There are perpetually losses from within and gains from without; losses in the form of broken down tissue, gains in the form of food or air, which is the most essential form of food. So, in a bank, there is a constant interchange of deposits and withdrawals. No bank could exist if the depositors insisted upon their money being h.o.a.rded up there. It is the money, and not the bank, that is the fixed consideration, money being the medium of exchange. In the human system, food is the medium, and for the same reason that a bank cannot exist by h.o.a.rding up money, it is impossible for a living organism to exist by simply storing up food. There must be a continual interchange, otherwise the human bank cannot pay dividends in the form of health and energy.

And even as some banks, that appear solid and substantial from the outside, may be on the verge of ruin, owing to the lack of supervision over income and expenditure; so many apparently robust bodies may be on the verge of physical collapse, owing to the mistaken belief that the body is simply a depository for food. Energy may be stored up in the system for future use, that being the dividend resulting from judicious interchange; but to force the system to receive more food than it can use and a.s.similate, is to invite disaster and pave the way to physical bankruptcy. A knowledge of banking is valuable in any walk of life, and I feel that the most valuable advice I can give my readers is to study Nature's bookkeeping, as manifested in the human bank, and to see that the balance is strictly drawn between income and expenditure. The world will yet see the day when it will be considered a disgrace to be sick; but in the meantime, humanity suffers for lack of that important knowledge--knowledge of self.

Above all, cultivate the habit of happiness. Whatever else you may neglect, do not neglect that, for the happy habit is the greatest treasure that any individual can possess. Happiness depends largely upon physical conditions. With poor health, perfect happiness rarely exists; therefore it is your duty to be healthy, and the possession of health is in the majority of cases a matter of personal endeavor. But although the physical is important in health, yet the physical is dominated by the mental, and if you resolve to be happy, you can succeed. Commence this day, by saying to yourself, I am happy; I will be happy. Start out with the resolve that you will at least do some one thing to-day that will bring happiness to another, in the form of some simple service. Even if no such opportunity presents itself (although opportunities are never lacking), you can at least bestow cordial and cheerful greetings on those with whom you come in contact.

No surer road to personal happiness can be found than endeavoring to make others happy. If you find it difficult to be cheerful, there is more need to look to your surroundings. Read none but cheerful books; cultivate cheerful acquaintances. You will be amply repaid for your endeavors to cultivate the habit of happiness. From the standpoint of health, it is a profitable proceeding, for joy quickens the circulation. You can get the happiness habit if you wish to, and it is your duty to yourself and those around you to do so. If the clouds are lowering, do not give way to depression. Rouse yourself. Look for the rift in the clouds, disclosing the little patch of blue, and hope for the triumph of fair weather over foul. Even if you do not attain the degree of happiness you antic.i.p.ated, you will find yourself improved, mentally, morally and physically. Get the habit, remembering that "a happy and contented mind is a continual feast."

And now, in conclusion, I would ask the reader to carefully consider the facts herein set forth relating to disease and its treatment, to weigh the testimony AGAINST the old system, and FOR the new, and let sober reason decide which of the two is the more rational. Bring the same dispa.s.sionate judgment to bear on this question that you would on a matter involving your financial welfare. It will amply repay you to do so, for the matter at stake is a weighty one. The preservation of health is a DUTY that each member of the human family owes to self and friends.

Without health, existence is as torpid and lifeless as vegetation without the sun. And yet it is frequently thrown away in thoughtless negligence, or in foolish experiments on our own strength: We let it perish without remembering its value, or waste it to show how much we have to spare. It is sometimes given up to levity and chance, and sometimes sold for the applause of jollity and looseness. Some there are, who inherit weak const.i.tutions, and fall an easy prey to sickness; while others, who are neither thoughtless or naturally weak, invite disease through simple ignorance of the laws that govern their being. Owing to these manifold causes sickness is rife, and the medical profession has come to be regarded as an exceedingly lucrative one.

This would not be a matter so much to be deplored, if so-called "medical science" had kept pace with the other sciences; but the lamentable truth is that the practice of medicine (so far as healing value is concerned) has not advanced one jot since the days of Esculapius. Surgery has made wonderful strides, but medicine has stood still. True, they have increased the number of remedies, aye, a hundredfold, but the only result has been to complicate the system, without improving it.

What people need is fewer doctors, and more instruction in the art of preserving health.

Hygiene should form a part of our school curriculum. Children should be taught the mysteries of their own bodies, then the future generation would have little need of medical men--they would know what to do to regain their health, when a.s.sailed by sickness, instead of feeing a professional man to order them what to take.

My purpose in this work has been to show the people that they can, if they will, be their own physicians, and that in doing so, their chances of recovery are immeasurably greater--that the preservation of their health is in their own hands. The administering of drugs in sickness is illogical in its reasoning, unsound in its theory, and pernicious in its practice. Thoroughly cleansing the system by flus.h.i.+ng the colon is a simple, common sense method of treatment, easy of application, thoroughly hygienic in theory, and, beyond all question, immensely beneficial in practice.

Thousands of grateful people can testify to its efficiency, frequently in cases where the "faculty" had abandoned all hope, and why? Because it a.s.sists Nature instead of thwarting it. The princ.i.p.al drawback under which the system has labored hitherto, has been the lack of perfect apparatus for the introduction of the cleansing stream, but I now have the satisfaction of introducing to the public a means for that purpose that leaves nothing to be desired. The J. B. L. Cascade is the most satisfactory and effective appliance for flus.h.i.+ng the intestinal ca.n.a.l that has yet been invented.

It is the outcome of years of patient toil and thought, but the thoroughly satisfactory results obtained by it, and the enthusiastic encomiums lavished upon it by its beneficiaries are regarded by the inventor as an ample and commensurate reward (not wholly undeserved) for the mental labor involved in its successful evolution.

Its simplicity is such that it can be manipulated by any intelligent child, and its price, by comparison with its remedial virtues, is insignificant. With this perfected apparatus, and the J.B.L.

antiseptic tonic, any parent can const.i.tute himself the physician of his family, and by following the directions for the treatment of the various diseases described in this work, can successfully combat them-- and all at a trifling cost. But more than that, he can, by periodical use of it, so improve the physical condition of himself and family, that they will forget what sickness is, and rejoice in that exhilaration of spirit that only comes with perfect health.

My system of treatment is true in philosophy, in harmony with nature, and thoroughly rational in practice.