THE SPANISH INFLUENZA.
In any attempt to unravel the tangled skein of cause and circumstance which surrounds the subject of the world-sweeping pandemic which masquerades under the misleading title of the "Spanish Influenza," the first and most important initial step must be a keen and careful sifting of the facts and forces, natural and artificial, which control or dominate the situation.
The debatable questions appear to be chiefly the following:
(1) The fundamental causes that underlie the great-epidemics or pandemics that the world experiences from time to time—the present one in particular.
(2) The fact or fallacy of the germ as a causative factor or merely an effect or product of disease conditions.
(3) The alternative course, origin and medium of transmission and finally
(4) The soundness and efficiency or otherwise of the preventive and curative measures with which the combined intelligence of the Medical Faculty has risen to the dire emergency of the moment for the protection of the people who have relied so confidently, as by law compelled, upon the standard of their acumen and official aid as competent guardians of public safety.
The findings, as to the first question, are to the effect that it appears, from the earliest recorded annals of disease, that epidemics corresponding to the present outbreak have occurred at irregular periods all up the centuries under names and conditions peculiar to the times, and following usually in the wake of some great social cataclysm, strain or upheaval, the result of wars, persecutions, famines and distress—causes which clearly illustrate the close reactive connection between the mental and physical action of disease.
The great pandemics seem to have originated largely in the Orient—the region of vast congested populations and racial struggles and starvation—the advent of their apparent influence upon the western world depending chiefly upon the rate of commercial or popular intercourse, the movements of armies or the ingress or egress of peoples. The logical establishment of direct proof of the connection between these visitations and local epidemics in distant lands is a problem as yet unsolved. The weight of evidence, at first sight, would seem to lie rather in the other direction—to indicate that such epidemics are the direct outcome of existing local conditions, mental and physical.
For example: At the end of that strenuous period in England's history, between the reign of the first Charles and the fall of the Commonwealth, an epidemic broke out which, as the historian tells us, converted the country into "one vast hospital." The malady—which by the way was fatal to Cromwell—the Lord Protector himself—was then termed "the ague." The term "Influenza" was first given to the epidemic of 1743 in accordance with the Italianizing fashion of the day, but was eventually superseded by the French expression "La Grippe," usually held to represent a more modified form of the disease which appears to vary in intensity and virulence according lo its provocation and derivation.
The old school hypothesis and the deductions therefrom would seem therefore, to be this: That a super-malignant contagium imported from some foreign source falls upon organisms predisposed to infection by mental stress or physical privation and over-strain or both combined; and the contagion thus generated through the medium of some unsuspected "carrier" seizes upon and sweeps through that portion of the community so predisposed, in the form of a great, general epidemic with a maximum of mortality. At later intervals the same repeats itself with less violence and reduced mortality, because a great proportion,—representing the sufferers in the original epidemic,—being now thereby immune, the onus falls upon that section of the younger generation unprotected by individual resistant force who consequently become the chief sufferers—as in the case of the present epidemic, the pandemic form of which is obviously due to the fact that equal conditions of unrest, privation and distress prevail universally throughout the entire nerve plains of the Planet.
The first recorded outbreak in America occurred in the year 1647, followed by a second in 1655 and again in 1789 and 1807. In these the mortality appears to have been confined, after the first outbreak, to a few mere modest thousands whereas in the present visitation a conservative estimate places the figures of the horrible world-holocaust at no less a sum than 18 million lives in all.[D] The ravages in America have been appalling including many of the medical profession.
We pass on then to the second item—the question of the germ.
The illusive germ has come to be regarded by the layman with reserve—nay more—with suspicion. The part of the bacteriologist has been somewhat overdone. The conditions of popular credence are not what they were. A great change has awakened the masses of the people and a new intelligence is born which now discerns that disease is one great Unity just as the body is one inseparable interdependent whole—that the cause of disease is in the blood and dependent upon its nourishment and moreover, that the physical forces of the body can be exhausted as much by mental strain,—causing the too rapid burning up of nerve fat (lecithin),—as by excessive physical exertion. For example. Mental disturbance—grief, worry, excitement—produce immediate physical effect in headache, palpitations and the like. Physical exhaustion—privation, hunger and over-work—on the other hand produce mental depression and collapse. The inevitable law of compensation rules.
Thus the germ, bacillus, or microbe, as a direct cause of disease is an exploded fallacy. They are now recognized as the result of disease—not the cause: releasing irritants perhaps and possibly carriers or transmitting mediums to other diseased or predisposed organisms.
It follows accordingly that Sero-Therapy or Inoculation with specific serums derived from such germs, as a preventative of disease is simply a pernicious farce; "pernicious," since the introduction of such poisons by inocculation into the blood constitutes in itself a serious menace to life and health.
This has never been more clearly demonstrated than in the present singularly futile efforts of the Regular Medical Faculty to stay the on-rush of the Influenza Epidemic or to save or safeguard its victims—a fact which compels the people in their thousands to turn to the less pretentious but more successful members of the eclectic or Irregular schools among whom both help and healing may be found.
And this is the history of the Influenza germ:
The bacterial criminal was located. We know it, for the discovery was officially proclaimed and vouched for by the press with all due pomp and circumstance. True, it was "so minute as to be invisible to the most powerful microscope;"—but it was sensed by science, none the less, and handed over captive, for "culture" to the manufacturing chemist. Inoculation followed freely—the people in their thousands and our gallant troops alike submitted to the mandate of the powers that be—the soldiers voiceless and under penalty.
America breathless, awaited the result. There was none.
Finally scare-heads in the Press astonished the land. They were these: "Medical World is Baffled by the 'Flu'."—"Exhaustive Experiments Leave Doctors Mystified."—"Every Test a Failure."—"Explosion of Accepted Theories Causes Science to Grope for Light."
It appears that, through the heroism of a hundred of our naval men who volunteered for the purpose at the risk of life, the Medical Authorities in desperation were enabled to try every possible method of infection with the alleged Influenza Germs, our boys submitting to inoculation and even to the repulsive ordeal of introduction into the nose and throat of diseased mucous from and close contact with coughing and spitting bed patients in the severest forms of the disease. The experiments were made simultaneously at San Francisco and Boston under the direction of Surgeons McCoy and Goldberger of the U.S. Health Department and the Naval Authorities.
The astounding negative result as indicated by the press, was described as "The Sensation of the day," for the fact was revealed that Not one, of the hundred who underwent these drastic and determined tests, developed any symptoms of Influenza. This picture of failure was surmounted by the summing up of the situation on the part of the highest Medical Authority; to this effect:
"These new experiments in the transmission of Influenza," said Surgeon General Blue, "show how difficult is the Influenza Problem."
The result points clearly to a state of natural immunity enjoyed by those who, like these men of the Naval Service, lead an hygienic, contented well regulated life with the simple accessories of good and sufficient food, fresh air and regular exercise.
The same principle has been recently demonstrated in England in the same connection by the annual report of one of the great public schools celebrated for hygienic methods, where amongst a total of 800 students not a single case of influenza appeared—although no preventive measures were employed beyond the simple rules of health and cleanliness.
Finally, as regards serums and specifics, the judgment of Dr. Karl F. Meyer, of the Hooper Institute of Medical Research of the University of California, may be accepted as focusing the consensus of unbiased opinion on the subject. It was as follows: "Serums have not yet been introduced which produce immunity from Spanish Influenza. The serums now employed are of no use whatsoever. You have no idea how really and truly helpless we are. As an example, take the advice given us by the Public Health Department when we asked what should be done if the epidemic struck West. They said: 'Organise your hospitals and undertakers.'" In the same statement Dr. Meyer declared that the Medical fraternity is in total darkness as to the cause and nature of the epidemic.
Of other preventive measures resorted to—Masks, Quarantine and the veto upon public gatherings—proved equally mistaken and futile. Masks of a texture calculated to baffle the most determined attempts of the minute invisible homicide were made compulsory, and in the great cities masquerading millions became a constant feature of the streets, until an idea of the danger of masks, as microbe preservers and carriers, dawned upon the official mind. Thus, beyond fostering fear and depression amongst the citizens nothing was achieved in the direction desired, but rather the reverse; since it is now very generally recognized that such mental conditions with their consequently lowered vitality are a common prelude to disease.
At the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association in Chicago, following a two days' discussion of preventive measures against Influenza and Pneumonia, Dr. Chas. J. Hastings, president of the organization said: "A tremendous amount of damage is done by interfering with nature, when nature would have done better had she been left alone. We have very little power over pneumonia. I am convinced that as many patients have been killed by physicians as have been cured."
The talented "Health" editor of the Los Angeles Times, commenting upon these matters, writes: "The handling of this epidemic by 'health boards' and doctors who have been running around like wet chickens—their eyes, however, fastened on the feed box—has furnished another striking evidence of the futility of what is misnamed 'Medical Science.'"
All this carries one back 50 years to the memory of Sir John Forbes, Court Physician to the late Queen Victoria of England, and the eminent Editor of the British and Foreign Medical Review, who thus tersely recorded the scientific conclusions arrived at in the course of his long, professional experience, in connection with drugs, drug medication and allopathy, under the title of "Why we should not be poisoned because we are sick:" "Firstly,—that in a large proportion of cases treated by allopathic physicians, the disease is cured by nature and not by them. Secondly,—that in not a small proportion, the disease is cured by nature in spite of them. Thirdly,—that consequently, in a considerable proportion of diseases it would fare as well or better with patients if all remedies, especially drugs, were abandoned;" and he emphatically adds: "Things have come to such a pass that they must either mend or end." This, be it remembered, was in 1868,—50 years ago—and such frankness would not have been tolerated from other than "Sir John"—for, as was said by an inspired American: "He who dares to see a truth not recognized in creed must die the death." And now indeed is revealed the wisdom of Shakespeare when he said: "Ignorance is the Curse of God;" or of Bolinbroke's bitter assertion: "Plain truth will influence half a score men at most in a nation or an age, while mystery will lead millions by the nose."
I am not prepared to endorse the cynical saying of Voltaire: "Regimen is superior to medicine—especially as from time immemorial out of every hundred physicians ninety-eight are charlatans." But this much is certain, that they have found the needs of nature too laborious—the pathway of their leader—the Great Hippocrates—of Galen, Sydenham, Boerhaave, too tame, and have listened to the lure of Paracelsus, and adopted, with its high pontificial manner and medication, the more luxurious empiricism of the medicasters of five centuries ago.
But the time has come when the reign of bigotry, drugs and mystery must have an end—the chartered lien on human life must cease and the antique secret consistories so long omnipotent, must be brought to the enlightened level of the day.
We have come to the parting of the ways, where it becomes the bounden duty of every earnest, fair-minded physician to cast off the manacles of professional caste and secret obligation and to advance with open mind across the wholesome confines of eternal truth. This as much in their own interest as in that of their patients. For there is disaffection in the once solid phalanx, and we find strictures such as these in the standard works of the profession: "It cannot be denied that practitioners in medicine stand too low in the scale of public estimation and, something is rotten in the State of Denmark."
A series of articles appearing recently, in the English Review, from the daring and masterly pen of George Bernard Shaw, deals with the subject with an ungloved hand, taking as opportunity a vitriolic controversy recently raging between exalted lights of the medical profession in London, which raises abruptly the long-drawn curtain of mystery and exposes the secret skeleton to the view of a wondering world. Speaking of the absolute, autocratic powers of the medical monopoly and the superstitious, hopeless complacency of the public, the writer says: "The assumption is that the 'registered doctor' or surgeon knows everything that is known, and can do everything that is to be done. This means that the dogmas of omniscience, omnipotence and infallibility, and something very like the theory of the apostolic succession and kingship by anointment, have recovered in medicine the grip they have lost in theology and politics. This would not matter if the 'legally qualified doctor' was a completely qualified healer: but this is not the case; far from it. Dissatisfaction with the orthodox methods and technique is so widespread that the supply of technically qualified unregistered practitioners is insufficient for the demand.... The reputation of the unregistered specialist is usually well founded. He must deliver the goods. He cannot live by the faith of his patients in a string of letters after his name."
From all sides the same dissatisfaction is told showing that, with the sick and simple majority, what is termed "the attractive bed-side manner" of the polished practitioner has vastly out-weighed—in the past—the more vital advantage of superior skill on the part of practitioners of the drugless and natural systems which are winning their way to favour, in spite of the organized opposition of the orthodox profession and the powerful "vested interests" of the medicine-men.
To return to the subject proper: The summing up as to the efficacy of inoculation, drugs, serums and specifics for Influenza may best be found in the supplements to the U.S. Public Health reports, and vouched for by Surgeon-General Rupert Blue and the Government experts:
"Since we are uncertain of the primary cause of Influenza, no form of inoculation can be guaranteed to protect against the disease itself." "No drug has as yet been proved to have any specific influence as a preventive of influenza.
"No drug has as yet been proved to have any specific curative effect on influenza—though many are useful in guiding its course and mitigating is symptoms.
"In the uncertainty of our present knowledge considerable hesitation must be felt in advising vaccine treatment as a curative measure.
"The chief dangers of influenza lie in its complications, and it is probable that much may be done to mitigate the severity of the affection and to diminish its mortality by raising the resistance of the body...."
It is not my purpose in adducing these startling facts to impugn the Allopathic system or to disparage the elder branch of the Profession of Healing. They are simply assembled for the purpose of proving a case in favour of the newer or Hygieo-Dietetic System.
But here in consecutive order of testimony is a truly terrible denouncement—the testimony, as it were, of two hemispheres of the terrestrial globe proclaiming the positive failure of the section of science upon which, for very existence, their inhabitants have been accustomed to rely!
Now Health and Disease are dependent upon degrees of positive and negative vibrations, as is every form of life in the great Cosmic Unity of the Universe. Both are tones with endless modulation, but the integral fact, in either case, is one. Disease, then, is a Unit—a degenerate function of the blood—and, such being the case, the failure of any curative principle or system aspiring to remedy that degenerate functioning, in any degree, is a failure of that principle or system as a whole.
The sensational admission, therefore, of the chiefs of the Profession in America and England, as herein cited, amounts in plain language to the tacit admission that drugs and serums are powerless to produce any "preventive influence" or any "curative" effect upon Influenza, (or as it rationally and logically follows, upon any other disease) although, as openly stated in this official proclamation, they may influence the "symptoms."
But, finally—And here is the supreme announcement, wherein at length the Truth comes out triumphant—"The severity of the disease may be mitigated and its mortality diminished by raising the resistance of the body."
This in one single sentence is the sum total of the teachings of the eclectic, independent and legally debarred and officially unrecognized Physiologico-Chemical, Hygieo-Dietetic School of Natural Science which I have the honor to represent.
The true teaching of Hippocrates, surnamed "The Father of Medicine"—the ostensible leader, for all time, of the "regular school" of Medicine was comprised in one phrase: the Vis Medicatrix Naturae—The Healing Power of Nature.
The teaching of our New, Independent School is identically the same—plus the physiologico-chemical discoveries of the intervening centuries. They are plain and natural precepts, surrounded by no fearsome atmosphere of mystery. They are to this effect:
That the human organism, together with all its interdependent parts, organs and functions, is an inseparable whole—a Unit—subject absolutely to Natural Laws. As said St. Paul: "And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it." (Cor. 12-26.)
That disease, therefore, is likewise a unit with a diversity of manifestations which, like all conflicting elements, develop in the individual organism along the lines of least resistance, according to the weakness—hereditary or acquired—of the individual. This we term predisposition.
The cause of predisposition to disease, centres absolutely and entirely in the blood, causing obstructions to normal circulation, the obstructing materials being poisons and impurities, either hereditary or acquired through malnutrition or the introduction of unassimilable matter into the system in the form of improper food, drugs, medicines or vaccines which remain as poisons in the blood.
Disease is the remedial effort of Nature to throw off such obstructions—a process of purification and regeneration—and its symptoms should be assisted and regulated rather than resisted and suppressed.
"Doctors prescribe—but only Nature cures," is an ancient axiom, but it faithfully represents the "vis medicatrix naturae."
The question has recently been publicly propounded "Is sickness criminal?" Very certainly, disease is the outcome of personal neglect, in past or present; but the nature of the question is a sign significant that the laity are awakening to the truth that the healing power of nature rests wholly in the generation and conservation of latent reserve energy.
As regards the influenza controversy the Official verdict is, as we have seen, that the Regular Medical Profession as a whole, has failed in its endeavor to fathom the mystery and is at present "really and truly helpless." Let us therefore, seek the cause of this disastrous failure and strive to solve the problem along other lines.
If so poor be the harvest, what of the soil? is the natural enquiry. And it must be generally admitted that this spectacular failure lies in the superficial teaching of the medical schools—its search for causes in the mature, and "specialized," anatomical organs in place of the fundamental physiological, chemical and embryonic causes from which, in their appointed order those various organs are evolved;—first the brain and nervous system, afterwards the tissues and the bones. Thus, unversed in the deeper phases of causation, men are hurried unprepared into ranks of a noble profession to struggle as best they may, through lack of deeper knowledge, with the serious symptoms of disease—at first by rote but later, are tempted to tamper empirically with its issues.
It has been said by a great scientific authority that, in order to thoroughly comprehend and cure any form of disease it is necessary, in the first place, to mentally map out and visualize the course of its growth and to follow it backward, step by step, to its source before it is possible to formulate curative treatment adapted to its cause and phases.
To commence then at the initial stage, let us bring upon the scene one of the greatest chemists of the age: Justus von Liebig, the discoverer of "The Law of the Minimum," which is this: That of the sixteen known constituents of the blood essential to the healthy growth and maintenance of the organs and tissues of the body, the absence of any proportional ingredient, however small, will cause degeneration in the organism and interfere with the proper functioning of one or more of the activities concerned.
Upon this Law is based the attested, dominant fact that all our mental and physical activities—powers of thinking, feeling, motion and every action, including the reproduction of species are equally dependent upon our blood—and our blood, in turn, depends upon proper nutrition. The ancient aphorism: "Man is as man eats," is therefore true in theory and in fact.
Human diet and human life being thus closely allied, it becomes a consideration of the first magnitude to see that all food contains in well balanced degree a correct proportion of the sixteen essentials: carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, iron, sulphur, phosphorus, chlorine, potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium, manganese, fluorine, silicon and iodine.
Amongst the chemical salts of such scientific nutrition may, or may not, be found the famous "Vitamines," long sought of science; but what they certainly do supply is the electro-magnetic energy, the impulse of growth and vital function, the secret of bactericide blood and its power of circulation.
It is the magnetic iron in the blood which promotes nerve function in both the brain and the intestinal tract, producing on the one hand intellectual activity and on the other, breathing digestion and excretion. Similar causal action in corelation to the integral elements of food prevails throughout the organs of the body, demonstrating the vital importance of the quality of our daily food for the renewal of tissue and the maintenance of healthy metabolism.
In an attempt to define the primary cause of Influenza, Prof. Kuhnemann, a well known authority on practical and differential diagnosis, gives a minute description of its various symptoms, terminating with a weak suggestion that the already discredited bacillus may be regarded as the cause.
This is, in detail, as follows: "Fever is always present," Prof. Kuhnemann says, "but not of any certain type. At times, after short periods of Apyrexie there is a rise in temperature sometimes swelling of the spleen. There is no characteristic change in the urine; sometimes Albuminuria. There is an inclination to perspire freely; consequently Miliaria is often present; also Herpes, less frequently other Exanthema, Petechien. The mucous membranes are inclined to hemorrhage (Epistaxis, Hematemesis, Menorrhagia, Abortion).
"Complications and after effects:
(1) Of the respiratory system:—Croupose and Broncho-pneumonia of atypical progress (atypical fever of protracted course, relatively strong Dyspnoe, Cyanosis, feeble pulse) and high mortality; after effects serous or mattery Pleuritis, Lung abscesses, Phthisis.
(2) Of the circulatory system:—Myocarditis, Endocarditis, Thrombosis.
(3) Of the digestive tract:—Chronic stomach and intestinal catarrh, Dyspepsia.
(4) Of the nervous system:—Any form of Neuralgia, Paralysis, Neuritis, Psychosis, etc.
(5) Of the sense organs:—Otitis media; Nephritis and Muscular Rheumatism are also observed. Influenza aggravates any case of sickness, especially lung trouble."
All this seems to constitute a very formidable and perplexing indictment, sparkling with learning and bristling with difficulties. But when these mellifluous mysticisms are once translated into "the vulgar tongue" they prove to be, strange to say, easily within the comprehension of the ordinary layman.
For instance, "Apyrexie" means Free from fever; Albuminuria—Albumen present; Miliaria—an acute inflammation of the sweat-glands (Abnormal sweating); Herpes—an inflammatory skin disease characterized by the formation of small vesicles in clusters (Fever rash); Exanthema—Skin eruption; Petechien—Spots; Epistaxis—Nose-bleeding; Hematemesis—vomiting blood; Menorrhagia—Excessive menstruation; Croupose—resembling croup; Broncho-pneumonia—Inflammation of the lungs; Atypical fever—irregular fever; Dyspnoe—Hard breathing; Cyanosis—Blue discoloration of the skin from non-oxidation of the blood; Pleuritis—Pleurisy; Phthisis—consumption; Myocarditis and Endocarditis—Inflammations of the heart; Thrombosis—coagulation of blood; Intestinal Catarrh—Inflammation of the bowels; Dyspepsia—Indigestion; Neuritis—Nerve inflammation; Psychosis—Mental derangement; Otitis media—Inflammation of the ear; and Nephritis—Inflammation of the kidneys.
"Aetiology:—The influenza bacillus (found in blood and excrement) is to be regarded as the cause. The malady is highly contagious. Period of incubation given as, from two to seven days. Runs its course in one or two weeks, recovery as a rule favorable; though convalescence is often protracted. Unfavorable results are brought on through complications, most often by Pneumonia.
"Diagnosis:—Easily determined during an epidemic or marked symptoms. The catarrhal form of influenza differs from simple catarrh of the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract through the presence of nervous symptoms and a more abrupt beginning. The symptoms may be similar to those of Measles or Abdominal typhus. In each case, complications with Pneumonia must be considered.
"The proof of the presence of the Influenza bacillus," he concludes, "is of little value in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis in medical practice as the bacillus cannot be distinguished with enough accuracy through the microscopic examination, which must be a very minute culture proceeding."
This is the final dictum of medical Science on the subject—Science which however, adds nothing to our knowledge and leaves us still in darkness and uncertainty, while memory brings a well known couplet to the mind:
He holds the threads of Wisdom's way
Loosely, with palsied hand.
Why lacks he now, for pity's sake,
The grace to understand?
M.B.
(After Goethe.)
But let us weigh this long list of symptoms and estimate their respective significance by the light of physiological perception.
The ever present fever is due to stagnation of the blood. Swelling of the spleen is caused by catabolism of the Malpighian bodies. Albuminuria is the result of cold in the Plexus renalis; Perspiration is due to numbness in the nerve fibrils. The inclination of the mucous membranes to Hemorrhage is explained by congestion of blood in the capillaries, due to lack of vigor in the nerve fibrils. When the nerve fibrils fail to act, the capillary circulation stops and the blood overloaded with carbonic acid presses against the walls until they burst.
The complications and after effects are explained in the following manner:
Complications in the respiratory system are all due to failure to properly treat the acute stage of the disease, and where the resistance of the patient has been sapped they usually end fatally. Complications in the circulatory system are subject to the same explanation as fever. Digestive complications are due to impaired metabolism brought on by loss of energy in the Vagus nerve. Complications in the nervous system are consequent upon the degeneration of the whole Vagus tract. Sensory complications are due to the disease attacking the "minoris resistentia," the point of least resistance in the patient.
This explanation of the real significance of the symptoms of Influenza should make it sufficiently apparent that its cause is fundamental, widespread and deeply rooted in the organism—a menace not to be lightly and tentatively treated with impunity. That the disease is not one that may be met—with any prospect of success—with febrifuges, drugs, serums and specifics—to say nothing of whisky and the like futilities, to use no harsher term, such as are said to have characterized the prescriptions of a very considerable proportion of the Regular Medical Profession and with such terribly disastrous results. What the liquor statistics show on our side of the line I am at the moment unable to say, but I see it reported in the press of an adjoining province that under nominally strict "Prohibition" the sale of liquor had increased no less than 900 per cent, largely upon doctors orders, and that the sales from the Government stores in one city, during the past month had totaled $50,000—as compared with $6,000 for the corresponding period of the previous year.
The Professor's elaborate diagnosis, from a physiologico-chemical point of view seems rather to point to a meaning which he has missed—to indicate a latent, more remote possibility behind the shy bacillus, as the primary cause of the disease.
Let us endeavor to read the riddle rightly. On scientific contemplation it at once becomes apparent that the symptoms as defined by Kuhnemann—and indeed all other observers—are confined to the regions traversed by the Vagus (wandering) or Pneumogastric nerve—a nerve of comprehensive scope and bi-functional activity, physical and psychic and in operation, remarkably in accord with the manifestations of Influenza.
Concisely stated, the physiological function of the Vagus nerve is to regulate the process of breathing, tasting, swallowing, appetite, digestion, etc.; and the result of its failure to function would create coughing, choking, indigestion—separately or in combination. Its mental functions include the expression of shame, desire, disgust, grief, torture, depression and despair.
The following is its academic description:
Vagus or Pneumogastric nerve (tenth cranial); function—sensation and motion; originates in the floor of the fourth ventricle (the space which represents the primitive cavity of the hind-brain; it has the pons and oblongata in front, while the cerebellum lies dorsal), and is distributed through the ear, pharynx, larynx, lungs, esophagus, and stomach; possesses the following branches—auricular, pharyngeal, superior and inferior laryngeal, cardiac, pulmonary, esophageal, gastric, hepatic, communicating, meningeal.
It is interesting to compare the scope and characteristics of the Vagus, as here defined with the details of Prof. Kuhnemann's diagnosis of Influenza and to draw conclusions.
In order to establish more unmistakably the symptomatic sympathetic connection between the Vagus and Influenza, it may be well to touch briefly upon the initial processes of metabolism and nerve production.
An inherent impulse in the ovum (protoplasm or egg cell) serves to separate the albuminous substance into groups of an opposite nature. Water is chemically separated from one portion, which results in thickening the albumen from which it was extracted, while the liberated water aids in liquifying another portion of the albuminous matter. Thus, on one side slender threads arise, termed fibrine or filaments, and on the other lymph fluid appears, which receives the particles of salts freed from the filaments during their chemical separation. When the fibrine and lymph are organized from the protoplasm, the remaining albumen is absolutely unchanged and ready to furnish material for the growth of either.
It is the function of salts to increase the electrical tension of the lymph. All salts possess the property of being electrically positive or negative. The more concentrated a saline solution, the greater its electrical energy.
That the function of the lymph is to assist in the formation and nutrition of the nerves is apparent when the nature of lymph and the composition of nerve substances are compared. The contrast which exists between fibrine and lymph, and the similarity of lymph to nerve fat when taken together, justify the conclusion that the nerve substance lecithin, was formed from lymph in the first instance.
The whole process of life consists of an electro-chemical combustion. This is clearly shown in the case of lecithin, which serves to control both motion and sensation. In the presence of oxygen it burns up, forming a new chemical combination, and throwing off minute quantities of carbonic acid and water in the process. Every movement and process, both voluntary and involuntary, and every thought and emotion, depends upon oxidation, which consumes muscular tissue and nerve substance.
The greater our physical exertion the more muscular tissue must be consumed. The higher our emotional state, the more we think or agitate ourselves, the greater must be the quantity of nerve substance burned up. All of the substance burned up in labour, in worry and in thought, must be replaced or the flame will flicker out!
The metabolism of muscular tissue is not in question at the moment. We are concerned here with nerve metabolism alone.
This occurs in the following manner: In response to the demand for new material created by the chemical combustion of lecithin, new oil flows down the axis cylinders of the nerve fibrils, which are arranged somewhat in the manner of lamp wicks. The average duration of the flow of this oil is about eighteen hours. When the cerebro-spinal nerves refuse to perform their function any longer, because the supply of oil is running low, fatigue and sleep ensue, and the blood descends from the brain to the intestines. Thus the cerebro-spinal system is permitted to relax and rest. In the meantime the sympathetic nervous system has taken up the task of directing the renewal of worn tissues, which draw their supply of necessary materials from the digestive canal, with a new supply of phosphatic oil. For the carrying out of these processes, which prepare the brain and spinal nerve system for the demands of another day, the magnetic blood current acts as distributor of supplies.
Through the fact that this supply is directly dependent upon nutrition, three possibilities inevitably present themselves:
(1) That any radical change of diet may result in an insufficient supply of the various elements necessary for the production of lecithin in the requisite quantities.
(2) That strenuous and unaccustomed physical and mental exertion may involve a consumption both of nerve substance and muscular tissue, greater than the outcome of the ordinary diet is able to compensate.
(3) That a protracted term of emotional strain and agitation may adversely affect both appetite and digestion while rapidly consuming the substance of the nerves.
In discussing the causes of disease Julius Hensel lays great stress upon the emotions. He goes so far as to say that they "undoubtedly occupy the first place amongst the factors causing disease, and we must not evade the consideration of them. We shall find that their action also amounts to an electro-chemical process." I would not for an instant be understood to contend that the emotions alone are sufficient to explain the origin of disease—not at all. There are other factors—jointly or severally dominant—diet, occupation, changes of weather, climate, or conditions.
In the matter immediately under review, however, the world-wide pandemic of "Spanish Influenza," there can remain no shadow of doubt in the mind of any unbiased observer who follows the question fairly along the lines of electro-chemical biology, but that the general emotional disturbances incident upon the war conditions of the world, combined with the chaotic dietetic position with its anxieties and privations under strenuous and unwonted physical demands, do undoubtedly afford a sound and reasonable explanation of the cataclysmal outbreak which has recently fallen upon the nations.
The brazen blast of war, in 1914, with all its ruthless wreck and carnage, shook the universal fabric of the sphere. Fear, fraud and famine were met together, duplicity and greed had kissed each other. Short rations and with some, starvation, were soon the order of the day. The corners of the earth were swept of stale forgotten stores and profiteers waxed fat and prices soared, whilst the vitals of the working world were vastly underfed. The ranks of labour, depleted of its men, were filled by females uninured to toil and dangerous nerve racking environments. Relentless time brings its revenges fast; but still they worked and suffered while malnutrition sapped the life-blood of the race. In the homes of the fighting men fear reigned supreme—ever the sword of Damocles suspended at the hearth. And then the death lists came and the world was wet with human tears and all the furies flew the earth—grief, hatred, revenge, love, pity and remorse, but the wail of mourning was throughout all lands in all the "sable panoply of woe" attending fast lowering vitality, bred by force of pain and hope deferred. Pliny well said: "Dolendi modus, non est timendi"—Pain has its limits, apprehension none—and now as in his day, the latter bore the palm.
Such was the position when two years ago the world first felt the impact of the pestilence and millions withered up like blighted corn.
The Vagus nerve with which we have been dealing, is concerned with the expression of emotions such as these; and being so, was burned up rapidly with fervent heat—the flames of sorrow still with fasting fed. In the majority of human lives such was the case, while the sources of nutritive reserve force were depleted by lack of things of universal use and foreign substitutes for normal food. Small wonder then the once steady nerves soon buckled with the strain; that sickness followed swiftly with disaster in its train and that the death rate rose enormously, beyond recorded precedent. And then when seeming good succeeds the storm of ills a plethora of new-born cares arose and worse, more fatal still, reaction from the strain which with relaxing energy demands its deadly share. Here in America we meet our troubles with serener front, unawed by State-fed sacerdotal superstitions; but in England how the scourge has wrung from dire depression its full toll of death. There for the first time deaths exceed the births and for the final quarter of 1918, the deaths exceed those of the former term by 127,000 of which Influenza claimed one hundred Thousand dead. Similar conditions, it would appear, have been more or less general throughout the European and indeed all other Continents and the title "Pandemic" has been richly earned; but the term which would seem to me more descriptive still would be "Panasthenia"—the general loss of vitality.
The human organism is, as we know, electro-magnetic. The effect upon the fabric of abnormal disturbance is registered with infinite exactitude by electrons—atoms of electricity—which rise and fall in numerical vibration according to the positive or negative tone of the whole; and excessive manifestations in one direction or the other, indicate respectively, a condition of positive or negative disease.
When the slowly vibrating negative electrons outnumber the rapidly vibrating positive atoms the electronic vibration of the whole body is lowered. As a result, we become depressed, weak, tired and retain little bodily warmth. Digestion is upset, metabolism falls far below normal, and the skin becomes pale, because of the morbid action set up in the mucous membrane by the excess of negative electrons. Catarrh supervenes. This is the condition in which negative disease thrives best: Influenza, nervous debility, anaemia, sleeping disease, cholera, diphtheria and the rest, in all varied forms of negative disease.
The Vagus, or Wandering Nerve, permeates every vital section of the body, as the accompanying plate will show. It controls, as has been shown, all the highest functions, both mental and physical of human life—that life which depends for its well-being upon electro-chemical combustion, metabolism, and the fuel supply we designate as food. It is the first postulate of healthy vitality in the human frame that metabolism and catabolism—intake and output—shall go hand in hand—that the body must receive continually such fresh nutrition as may replace what it consumes in the process of muscular action and the exercise of mental and emotional activity, and we are consequently brought to the conclusion that such bonds of safety and provision being rudely and suddenly severed, all physical resistance must be quickly broken down, the latent reserve energy is used and disappears, psychic resolution—the immunity of mind—soon abdicates its throne and the depleted organism, robbed of all defense, falls victim to contagion when it comes to kill.
Treatment.
As regards the treatment, actual and preventive, applicable to Spanish Influenza, the methods employed under the Hygienic-Dietetic System of Healing have been already defined in a previous chapter on the subject of negative disease in general. Instruction, however, devoted to Influenza alone may be found in Chapter VI of the special pamphlet issued in that connection under the title: "Influenza, Cause and Cure,"[E] and also in my greater work: "Regeneration or Dare to be Healthy," now in course of completion.
And now, one final word in conclusion, for the purpose of drawing together, as it were, the multiplicity of threads which constitute the complex skein of causes and effects, with their remedial measures which cover the wide range of human life's vicissitudes—the interruptions of its would-be harmonies—which take the forms, all too common in these times of stress, of physical disturbance and of mental strain which come to us in the combined and threatening guise of suffering and disease.
That these forms are more pronounced, more virulent today than ever before in the records of the race, is surely great Nature's manner, crude and masterful, of pressing her mandate home—right home upon the plastic film of evanescent shadows and ephemeral shades we proudly call our consciousness.
How many, let me ask, how many of us, in the absorbing round of life's futilities, have paused to really recognize the sinister "hand writing on the wall?"
The phase of the world's history through which we pass complacently is of no light portent, its happenings no casual concern, but, in point of crucial fact, a virtual "rending of the sphere"—a cosmic upheaval such as never yet before has racked the tense life sinews of the world, confounding the wisdom of the wise and wrecking in one fell climax of contempt the moral precepts of two thousand years.
The greatest human struggle the world has ever known synchronizes strangely, yet logically with the world's greatest pestilence which has swept successive millions to their doom without exacting from the residue even the sentimental tribute of a tear.
The official brains of the entire globe are leagued in self-protective unison "to make the world safe for democracy;" but Demos dies, by violence and disease, ere yet salvation comes. It appeals to its old-time standards for relief,—they are gone; to its pastors—they are mute; to its masters—they are impotent; to its doctors—they are baffled, helpless and aghast, whilst vainly searching earth and air for some frail pretext of unreal enlightenment, some fragile figment of belief. And yet in hypnotized complacency the masses stand; for meanwhile commerce reaps its costly gains and labour draws in enhanced increment the wages of the living and the dead.
Less serious visitations have, in former times, left their eternal imprint on the age. They served to point the moral of widespread reform—to emphasize the practice of hygiene and sanity. For all such scourges are but signs of Nature's trust betrayed, her sacred laws defied in the wild rush for gain, oblivious of the Law of Compensation's cost, with its inevitable reckoning.
Thus, to the discoverer of the lost initiative, what prospect does the future hold in store?
Pandemics, such as this, repeat themselves; and other forms of dread disease are following the footsteps of mankind. Arterio sclerosis, (hardening of the arteries), with its kindred complaints, for instance, now threatens to become a standing feature of the race through ignorance of the physiological functions of the nerves, their tissue exhaustion and supply.
With such impending dangers are our men distressed; and yet there seems but grudging, slight encouragement for those who seek to stay the onslaught of the foe, by scientific measures of precaution and hygiene.
What the nation needs is now a practical and nation-wide awakening. Let the people realize the danger of their risk; let them rally to the call and loyally support those who thus offer them the safeguard of knowledge as a refuge from the impending storm. Then will so-called "incurable disease" be relegated to the limbo of the past and, among other prophylactic means, this, my latest great discovery—the cause of Influenza, its prevention and its cure, a discovery which must rank amongst the great scientific achievements of the day—will mitigate the force of epidemics on mankind. It should also give to the reader of this little book a fair assurance of what immunity it is possible to secure by careful study and practice of its truths and should prove to the thinker the nucleus of a lesson which can nowhere be better learned than in the teachings and the precepts of the Hygienic-Dietetic School.
"But to the hero, when his sword
Has won the battle for the free,
Thy voice sounds like a prophet's word
And in its hollow tones are heard
The thanks of millions yet to be"
FINIS.
Wide and unlimited as the field of biology and the hygienic-dietetic method of healing is, I have in the foregoing pages tried to devise a guide that will indicate the points that are most necessary to the confidence of the patient, based upon knowledge.
If I have enlightened my readers sufficiently regarding the most modern results of biological research, if I have succeeded in showing them the ray of hope, in the midst of their suffering, that will give them courage to live, and live as healthy human beings, I shall feel amply rewarded for the hard work that had necessarily to be done before the present pinnacle in the art of healing could be reached.
Let me repeat: this brochure is not designed to lead any one away from the man who knows, who has gone to the sources of wisdom, to bring salvation to those who demand the right to live in health and vigor. Far otherwise; for my deliberate injunction is that the cure of disease, in any form, should not be undertaken except under the guidance of an hygienic physician who may indicate to them the path, so that they may not tread it blindly, but in the light of knowledge.
The outlines of a great and wonderful science are presented. Another wall between the layman and the professional has been torn down. If, my readers, you can one day say this booklet has guided you to the right path, back to the enjoyment of life in youthful health and vigor, then join with me and others in propagating these sane and safe principles, and make others "Dare to be Healthy," as you have dared yourself.