At this point it will be proper to suppose a case by way of illustration. Suppose by some accident the bones of the neck should be thrown at variance from the normal to a bend or twist. We may then expect inharmony in the circulation of the blood to the head and face with all the organs and glands above the neck. We will find imperfect supply of blood and other fluids to the head. We may expect swelling of head and face with local or general misery. Thus you have a cause for headache, dizziness, blindness, enlarged tonsils, sore tongue, loss of sight, hearing, memory, and on through the list of head diseases, all because of perverted circulation of the fluids of the brain proper of any local division. It is important to have perfect drainage, for without it, the good results from a treatment cannot be expected to follow your efforts to relieve diseases above the neck.
WHAT TREATING MEANS.
Here I want to emphasize that the word treat has but one meaning, that is to know you are right, and do your work accordingly. I will only hint, and would feel embarrassed to go any farther than to hint to you, the importance of an undisturbed condition of the five known kinds of nerves, namely: sensation, motion, nutrition, voluntary and involuntary, all of which you must labor to keep in perpetual harmony while treating any disease of the head, neck, chest, abdomen, pelvis, spine and limbs.
If you would allow yourself to reason at all, you must know that sensation must be normal and always on guard to give notice by local or general misery, of unnatural accumulation of the circulating fluids. Each set of nerves must be free to act and do their part. Your duty as a master mechanic is to know that the engine kept is in so perfect a condition that there will be no functional disturbance to any nerve, vein, or artery that supplies and governs the skin, the fascia, the muscle, the blood or any fluid that should freely circulate to sustain life and renovate the system from deposits that would cause what we call disease.
A NATURAL CURE.
Your Osteopathic knowledge has surely taught you, that with an intimate acquaintance with the nerve and blood supply, you can arrive at a knowledge of the hidden cause of disease, and conduct your treatment to a successful termination. This is not by your knowledge of chemistry, but by the absolute knowledge of what is in man. What is normal, and what abnormal, what is effect and how to find the cause. Do you ever suspect renal or bladder trouble without first receiving knowledge from your patient, that there is soreness and tenderness in the region of the kidneys at some point along the spine. By this knowledge you are invited to explore the spine for the purpose of ascertaining whether it is normal or not. If by your intimate acquaintance and observance of a normal spine you should detect an abnormal form although it be small, you are then admonished to look out for disease of kidneys, bladder or both, from the discovered cause for disturbance of the renal nerves by such displacement, or some slight variation from the normal in the articulation of the spine. If this is not worthy of your attention, your mind is surely too crude to observe those fine beginnings that lead to death. Your skill would be of little use in incipient cases of Bright's disease of the kidneys. Has not your acquaintance with the human body opened your mind's eye to observe that in the laboratory of the human body, the most wonderful chemical results are being accomplished every day, minute and hour of your life? Can that laboratory be running in good order and tolerate the forming of a gall or bladder stone? Does not the body generate acids, alkalies, substances and fluids necessary to wash out all impurities? If you think an unerring God has made all those necessary preparations, why not so assert, and stand upon that stone?
You cannot do otherwise, and not betray your ignorance to the thinking world. If in the human body you can find the most wonderful chemical laboratory mind can conceive of, why not give more of your time to that subject, that you may obtain a better understanding of its workings? Can you afford to treat your patients without such qualification? Is it not ignorance of the workings of this Divine law that has given birth to the foundationless nightmare that now prevails to such an alarming extent all over civilization, that a deadly drug will prove its efficacy in warding off disease in a better way than has been prescribed by the intelligent God, who has formulated and combined life, mind and matter in such a manner that it becomes the connecting link between a world of mind, and that element known as matter? Can a deep philosopher do otherwise than conclude that nature has placed in man all the qualities for his comfort and longevity? Or will he drink that which is deadly, and cast his vote for the crucifixion of knowledge?