As stated before, the simple fact is, that there is no law of cure, only a condition—and that condition—obedience, by which is meant a course of treatment in harmony with Nature.
The older physicians grow the more they rely upon the vis medicatrix naturae, which is, after all, the only remedial force, and one totally beyond their control. The physician can no more perform cures than the farmer can make his crops grow. In each case, all that can be done is to employ all the methods that cumulative wisdom can suggest to make the conditions as favorable as possible, and leave the rest to Mother Nature, who is not in the habit of making mistakes, and whose unerring methods would cure ninety per cent. of all diseased conditions, if her beneficent intentions were not frustrated by well meant, but nevertheless pernicious, drug interference.
PART II.
The True Cause of Disease.
At this point the reader will doubtless be tempted to exclaim: “Well, you have demonstrated to your own satisfaction that the medical profession entertains erroneous opinions as to the true nature of disease, and also that drugs are absolutely useless—nay, injurious—in such conditions: but is this all? Having destroyed our trust in drugs, what have you to offer in their stead?” To which perfectly natural query, I gladly reply, I have a system of treatment to propound, a system that has triumphantly stood the test of years, a system that must commend itself to every intelligent reader, because it is strictly in accordance with natural law.
But before I proceed to explain it, I desire to announce my own theory respecting disease—a theory essentially radical in its character, and of which I am the originator, and that is:
There Is Only One Cause For Disease.
This may sound strange, for the majority of people imagine that there is a different and specific cause for every ailment, and physicians generally do not combat the opinion. But as a matter of fact, there is only one disease, although its manifestations are various, and there is only one cause for it, and that is the retention of waste matters in the system. These substances may be in the gaseous, liquid or solid form, but they are foreign bodies, inimical to the welfare of the organism, and their presence must result in derangement of bodily function.