The Unity of Acute Diseases

[Guest guest]

Nature Cure

Philosophy & Practice Based on the Unity of Disease & Cure

Henry Lindlahr, M.D.

TWENTIETH EDITION

Published by The Nature Cure Publishing Company

525 South Ashland Boulevard, Chicago

1922

http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020123lindlahr/020123ch5.html

Chapter V

The Unity of Acute Diseases

In the last chapter I endeavored to explain the three primary causes of

disease, namely: (1) Lowered Vitality, (2) Abnormal Composition of Blood

and Lymph, (3) Accumulation of Waste, Morbid Matter, and Poisons in the

System.

We shall now consider some of the secondary manifestations resulting from

these primary causes. Consulting the table on page 18 (Chapter 2, internet

version), we find mentioned as the first one of the secondary causes or

manifestations of disease, " Hereditary and Constitutional Taints. "

On first impression, it might be thought that heredity is a primary cause

of disease; but on further consideration it becomes apparent that it is an

effect and not a primary cause. If the parents possess good vitality and

pure, normal blood and tissues, and if they apply in the prenatal and

postnatal treatment of the child the necessary insight and foresight, there

cannot be disease heredity. In order to create abnormal hereditary

tendencies, the parents, or earlier ancestors, must have ignorantly or

wantonly violated Nature's Laws, such violation resulting in lowered

vitality and in deterioration of blood and tissues.

The female and male germinal cells unite and form the primitive

reproductive cell--the prototype of marriage. The human body with its

millions of cells and cell colonies is developed by the multiplication,

with gradual differentiation, of the reproductive cell. Its abnormalities

of structure, of cell materials and of functional tendencies are reproduced

just as surely as its normal constituents. Herein lies the simple

explanation of heredity which is proved to be an actual fact, not only by

common experience and scientific observation but also in a more definite

way by Nature's records in the iris of the eye.

The iris of the newborn child reveals in its diagnostic details not only,

in a general way, hereditary taints, lowered resistance, and deterioration

of vital fluids, but frequently special weakness and deterioration in those

organs which were weak or diseased in the parents. Under the conventional

(unnatural) management of the infant, these hereditary tendencies to

weakness and disease and their corresponding signs in the iris become more

and more pronounced, proceeding through the various stages of incumbrance

from acute, infantile diseases through chronic catarrhal conditions to the

final destructive stages.

In the face of the well-established facts of disease heredity we have,

however, this consolation: If the child be treated in accordance with the

teachings of Nature Cure philosophy, the abnormal hereditary encumbrances

and tendencies can be overcome and eliminated within a few years. If we

place the infant organism under the right conditions of living and of

treatment, in harmony with the laws of its being, the Life Principle within

will approach ever nearer to the establishment of the perfect type.

Hundreds of " Nature Cure " babies all over this country are living proofs of

this gladsome message to all those who have assumed or intend to assume the

responsibilities of parenthood.

Natural Immunity

Under Division II of " Secondary Causes or Manifestations of Disease " we

find mentioned germs, bacteria, parasites, inflammations, fevers, skin

eruptions, chronic sinus discharges, ulcers, etc.

Modern medical science is built up upon the germ theory of disease and

treatment. Since the microscope has revealed the presence and seemingly

entirely pernicious activity of certain microorganisms in connection with

certain diseases, it has been assumed that bacteria are the direct, primary

causes of most diseases. Therefore, the slogan now is: " Kill the bacteria

(by poisonous antiseptics, serums and antitoxins) and you will cure the

disease. "

The Nature Cure philosophy takes a different view of the problem. Germs

cannot be the cause of disease, because disease germs are also found in

healthy bodies. The real cause must be something else. We claim that it is

the waste and morbid matter in the system which afford the microorganisms

of disease the opportunity to breed and multiply.

We regard microorganisms as secondary manifestations of disease, and

maintain that bacteria and parasites live, thrive and multiply to the

danger point in a weakened and diseased organism only. If it were not so,

the human family would be extinct within a few months' time.

The fear instilled by the bacterial theory of disease is frequently more

destructive than the microorganisms themselves. We have had under

observation and treatment a number of insane patients whose peculiar

delusion or monomania was an exaggerated fear of germs, a genuine

bacteriophobia.

Keep yourself clean and vigorous from within, and you cannot be affected

by disease taints and germs from without.

Bacteria are practically omnipresent. We absorb them in food and drink,

we inhale them in the air we breathe. Our bodies are literally alive with

them. The last stages of the digestive processes depend upon the activity

of millions of bacteria in the intestinal tract.

The proper thing to do, therefore, is not to try and kill the germs, but

to remove the morbid matter and disease taints in which they live.

Instead of concentrating its energies upon killing the germs, whose

presence we cannot escape, Nature Cure endeavors to in-vigorate the system,

to build up blood and lymph on a normal basis and to purify the tissues of

their morbid encumbrances in such a way as to establish natural immunity to

destructive germ activity. Everything that tends to accomplish this without

injuring the system by poisonous drugs or surgical operations is good

Nature Cure treatment.

To adopt the germ-killing process without purifying and invigorating the

organism would be like trying to keep a house free from fungi and vermin by

sprinkling it daily with carbolic acid and other germ killers, instead of

keeping it pure and sweet by flooding it with fresh air and sunshine and

applying freely and vigorously broom, brush and plenty of soap and water.

Instead of purifying it, the antiseptics and germ killers would only add to

the filth in the house.1

All bacteriologists are unanimous in declaring that the various disease

germs are found not only in the bodies of the sick, but also in seemingly

healthy persons.

A celebrated French bacteriologist reports that in the mouth of a healthy

infant, two months old, he found almost all the disease germs known to

medical science. Only lately, a celebrated physician, appointed by the

French government to investigate the causes of tuberculosis, declared

before a meeting of the International Tuberculosis Congress in Rome that he

found the bacilli of tuberculosis in ninety-five percent of all the school

children he had examined.

Dr. Osler, one of the greatest living medical authorities, mentions

repeatedly in his works that the bacilli of diphtheria, pneumonia and of

many other virulent diseases are found in the bodies of healthy persons.

The inability of bacteria, by themselves, to create diseases is further

confirmed by the well-known facts of natural immunity to specific infection

or contagion. All mankind is more or less affected by hereditary and

acquired disease taints, morbid encumbrances and drug poisoning, resulting

from age-long violation of Nature's Laws and from the suppression of acute

diseases; but even under the almost universal present conditions of lowered

vitality, morbid heredity and physical and mental degeneration it is found

that under identical conditions of exposure to drafts or infection, a

certain percentage of individuals only will take the cold or catch the

disease. The fact of natural immunity is constantly confirmed by common

experience as well as in the clinics and laboratories of our medical

schools and research institutes. Of a specific number of mice or rabbits

inoculated with particles of cancer, only a small percentage develops the

malignant growth and succumbs to its ravages.

The development of infectious and contagious diseases necessitates a

certain predisposition, or, as medical science calls it, " disease

diathesis. " This predisposition to infection and contagion consists in the

primary causes of disease, which we have designated as lowered vitality,

abnormal composition of blood and lymph, and the accumulation of waste,

morbid matter and poisons in the system.

Bacteria: Secondary, Not Primary,

Manifestations of Disease

In a previous chapter we learned how lowered vitality weakens the

resistance of the system to the attacks and inroads of disease germs and

poisons. The growth and multiplication of microorganisms depend furthermore

upon a congenial, morbid soil. Just as the ordinary yeast germ multiplies

in a sugar solution only, so the various microorganisms of disease thrive

and multiply to the danger point only in their own peculiar and congenial

kind of morbid matter. Thus, the typhoid fever bacillus thrives in a

certain kind of effete matter which accumulates in the intestines; the

pneumonia bacilli flourish best in the catarrhal secretions of the lungs,

and meningitis bacilli in the diseased meninges of the brain and spinal cord.

Dr. Pettenkofer, a celebrated physician and professor of the University

of Vienna, also arrived at the conclusion that bacteria, by themselves,

cannot create disease, and for years he defended his opinion from the

lecture platform and in his writings against the practically solid phalanx

of the medical profession. One day he backed his theory by a practical

test. While instructing his class in the bacteriological laboratory of the

university, he picked up a glass which contained millions of live cholera

germs and swallowed its contents before the eyes of the students. The

seemingly dangerous experiment was followed only by a slight nausea. Lately

I have heard repeatedly of persons in this country who subjected themselves

in similar manner to infection, inoculation and contagion with the most

virulent kinds of bacteria and disease taints without developing the

corresponding diseases.

A few years ago Dr. Rodermund, a physician in the State of Wisconsin,

created a sensation all over this country when he smeared his body with the

exudate of smallpox sores in order to demonstrate to his medical colleagues

that a healthy body could not be infected with the disease. He was arrested

and quarantined in jail, but not before he had come in contact with many

people. Neither he nor anyone else exposed by him developed smallpox.

During the ten years that I have been connected with sanitarium work, my

workers and myself, in giving the various forms of manipulative treatment,

have handled intimately thousands of cases of infectious and contagious

diseases, and I do not remember a single instance where any one of us was

in the least affected by such contact. Ordinary cleanliness, good vitality,

clean blood and tissues, the organs of elimination in good, active

condition and, last but not least, a positive, fearless attitude of mind

will practically establish natural immunity to the inroads and ravages of

bacteria and disease taints. If infection takes place, the organism reacts

to it through inflammatory processes, and by means of these endeavors to

overcome and eliminate microorganisms and poisons from the system.

In this connection it is of interest to learn that the danger to life

from bites and stings of poisonous reptiles and insects has been greatly

exaggerated. According to popular opinion, anyone bitten by a rattlesnake,

gila monster or tarantula is doomed to die, while as a matter of fact the

statistics show that only from two to seven per-cent succumb to the effects

of the wounds inflicted by the bites of poisonous reptiles.2

In this, as in many other instances, popular opinion should rather be

called " popular superstition. "

In the open discussions following my public lectures, I am often asked:

" What is the right thing to do in case of snakebite? Would you not give

plenty of whiskey to save the victim's life? "

It is my belief that of the seven percent who die after being bitten by

rattlesnakes or other poisonous snakes, a goodly proportion give up the

ghost because of the effects of the enormous doses of strong whiskey that

are poured into them under the mistaken idea that the whiskey is an

efficient antidote to the snake poison.

People do not know that the death rate from snakebite is so very low, and

therefore they attribute the recoveries to the whiskey, just as recoveries

from other diseases under medical or metaphysical treatment are attributed

to the virtues of the particular medicine or method of treatment instead of

to the real healer, the vis medicatrix naturæ, the healing power of Nature,

which in ninety-three cases in a hundred eliminates the rattlesnake venom

without injury to the organism.

To recapitulate: Just as yeast cells are not only the cause but also the

product of sugar fermentation, so disease germs are not only a cause

(secondary) but also a product of morbid fermentation in the system.

Furthermore, just as yeast germs live on and decompose sugar, so disease

germs live on and decompose morbid matter and systemic poisons.

In a way, therefore, microorganisms are just as much the product as the

cause of disease and act as scavengers or eliminators of morbid matter. In

order to hold in check the destructive activity of bacteria and to prevent

their multiplication beyond the danger point, Nature resorts to

inflammation and manufactures her own antitoxins.

On the other hand, whatever tends to build up the blood on a natural

basis, to promote elimination of morbid matter and thereby to limit the

activity of destructive microorganisms without injuring the body or

depressing its vital functions, is good Nature Cure practice. The first

consideration, therefore, in the treatment of inflammation must be to not

interfere with its natural course.

By the various statements and claims made in this chapter, I do not wish

to convey the idea that I am opposed to scrupulous cleanliness or surgical

asepsis. Far from it! These are dictates of common sense. But I do affirm

that the danger from germ and other infectious diseases lies just as much

or more so in internal filth as in external uncleanliness. Cleanliness and

asepsis must go hand in hand with the purification of the inner man in

order to insure natural immunity.

Footnotes

1 All this was written before the introduction of antibiotics. The modern

theory is still the same, however: “kill the bug” and the disease goes

away. This only happens if the body’s vitality is strong enough to finish

off the germs that are left after the antibiotic has done its work. If it

is not, the condition will return again and again. The most common example

of this is the reoccurring upper respiratory and ear infections in children

raised on antibiotic therapy.

2 There are poisonous critters whose bite or sting can be nearly

universally fatal so it is a good idea to take measures to avoid such

exposure whenever possible. The better the vitality as defined by Dr.

Lindlahr, however, the better chance you have of surviving such an attack,

even with the use of antitoxins.

--------------------------------------------------------

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK

$$ Donations to help in the work - accepted by Paypal account

vaccineinfo@... voicemail US 530-740-0561

(go to http://www.paypal.com) or by mail

Vaccines - http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm

Vaccine Dangers On-Line course - http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccineclass.htm

Homeopathy On-Line course - http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/homeo.htm

ANY INFO OBTAINED HERE NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS MEDICAL

OR LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION TO VACCINATE IS YOURS AND YOURS ALONE.

******

" Just look at us. Everything is backwards; everything is upside down.

Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy

knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information

and religions destroy spirituality " .... Ellner