Three Viewpoints on Hygiene
According to Dr. B. J. Palmer there are three viewpoints of hygiene; that is to say, there are three aspects from which the subject of cleanliness may be considered: namely, the medical, layman’s and chiropractic hygiene. The chief differences are: the medical hygiene tries to make the internal condition sanitary by the application of external means; the layman’s hygiene makes the external condition sanitary by the application of external means; the chiropractic hygiene makes the internal condition sanitary by permitting the internal forces to operate unhindered in the body.
We see that from every viewpoint, hygiene means cleanliness. The only real difference in these viewpoints consists in the methods used to obtain this desired end. The layman maintains a sanitary external condition by observing the laws of Nature. When dirt accumulates on the outside which creates an unhygienic and objectionable condition, he uses soap and water to cleanse the outside. His unhygienic condition is outside of the body and he uses outside means to rid himself of that condition. It is very obvious that this is a perfectly proper procedure and if correctly and systematically applied it will produce a hygienic external in so far as that condition is influenced by external environment.
The most baffling unsanitary and unhygienic conditions are the internal, and yet if these conditions are considered in the light of the same common sense as is applied to the external conditions, no great amount of difficulty will be experienced in coping with them. However, great difficulties will be experienced if an effort is made to keep the internal in a proper sanitary condition by the application of external means. This has been well demonstrated in the application of medical hygiene. However, the author does not want to be understood as implying that a great deal of good has not been accomplished in the investigations that have been made along the line of hygiene and more especially in sanitary science. But when chiropractic philosophy is properly understood, it will be readily seen that it is far better to clean the inside from the inside than to attempt cleaning the inside from the outside. With all due regard it must be said that up to the time of the introduction of chiropractic hygiene all the efforts were to clean the inside from the outside, but Chiropractic says the inside must be cleansed from the inside and this contention has been amply proven in the results obtained through chiropractic adjustments.