What must I do to get well? and how can I keep so?

Front matter

22101453057

THACKER & Co., c . BOMBAY.

WHAT MUST I DO TO GET WELL?

Preface To The Twelfth Edition

HAVE written this book expressly in appeal to the people, for it is they mainly who originate all great pioneer movements. From beginning to end I address the uninitiated in simplest words ; to wake them up — none too soon — to their vital well-being, their dearest interests. And it rejoices me that new editions are steadily called for, this being conclusive proof that I have indeed reached the people’s needs. For this and for my success in planting Dr. Salisbury’s life-saving Treatment in England, I must ever be profoundly thankful.

When by its means I had conquered my own long and terrible illness, I resolved in compassion for others to make the Salisbury Treatment a household word in every British home ; and far beyond my fondest hopes have I triumphantly achieved my purpose. Yea, the very cooks know of it ; for several patients have told me that at first they lived in a chronic state of warning ‘ for this day month ’ ; when Cook but heard the ominous words ‘minced beef’ or ‘ Salisbury treatment,’ she precipitately * skipped,’ as they say in the West !

If ever in what Mr. Leslie Stephen not inaptly sums up as ‘ this disastrous muddle of a world ’ a great bloodless

X

PREFACE TO THE TWELFTH EDITION.

revolution were imperatively called for, it is now and here ; in the profession and practice of medicine ; in correct diagnosis of diseases ; in ability to recognise their cause ; and in definite knowledge of the cure. During years of sleepless, wingless nights, with every nerve at highest pitch and pain racking every joint and muscle, one unquiet thought haunted me. That there was surely somewhere a fixed law of cure based on causes ; for prescriptions — aimed at symptoms and treating the disease instead of the patient — seemed to me at last to be founded on nothing. One of my doctors told me he ‘ had a hundred remedies for my illness,’ — yet not one of all that he tried was worth twopence to me? I felt we sufferers had desperate need of a system of cure that should exact from us something better than a capacious swallow and blind obedience. I wearily sought one of universal applicability, certain in its attitude in gravest as in simplest cases ; as effective in prevention as in cure. It was my own hopeless distress that evoked recognition of this great want, and I felt the utter lack of its fulfilment in all of the to me known Systems. I eagerly searched the best medical books ; and closed them with a sigh. I asked of my doctors ; all I got was an impatient intimation that it was their business — not mine — to ‘think.’ As, however, it seemed to be my business to suffer, I imagined it about time to think how I could possibly get rid of all the misery of it.

I have endeavoured to show that at last my longings were effectively met by the Salisbury System, in which the

1 I lately read a treatise by a learned physician on ' Asthma and Hayfever, ’ which he summed up with this startling announcement : ‘ Whatever may be the theory of the causation of these maladies, the question to physician and patient is, how shall the symptoms be relieved?’ That must have been his fun !

PREFACE TO THE TWELFTH EDITION.

XI chemical and microscopic investigations of blood, passages, sputum, etc. uncover the cause and logically point out the remedy. They are the pole-star of this splendid treatment, and enable the skilled guide to follow Nature’s clear teachings and to tread in her very steps. They are also the sole means of accurate diagnosis and safe treatment of distant patients, as of unerringly determining when cure is complete ; and they render right good service in exposing infringements of rules and slightest lapses in diet. For here, when the patient does not progress satisfactorily, it is clear proof that he has tried to improve upon rules by vagaries of his own or his friends’ devising. That some wrong-doings are at the bottom of non-progress, may always be advantageously bet on. And how useless is any attempt to evade discovery where the microscope is Detective, is evinced by the following episode, which I have the culprit’s noble permission to relate. It was a case of very serious illness of over two years’ duration.

The patient — some hundred miles away — on first writing to me said that from reading my book he had for 2 months taken only hot water and minced beef, which he * relished amazingly.’ Still, he said, he ‘ wasn’t getting on.’ Now I knew that 2 months of strict treatment would have advanced him considerably had he not been taking something hurtful along with the beef, so I requested samples to be sent. On examining these I was scarcely surprised at his * not getting on,’ for I saw he was eating largely of nuts and dried and fresh fruits. At the same time with all my experience I hardly believed the evidence of my own eyes, so quite unthinkable did it seem that a man sick of a so-called incurable disease, should be reckless enough to feed on nuts and fermentable fruits, and I

Xll

PREFACE TO THE TWELFTH EDITION.

wrote and told him so. Here is his reply : — ‘ . . . And now as by your tests on the specimens I sent you I see you have found me out, I will make a clean breast of it and tell you the truth [!]. 1 have been eating the fruits

and nuts at each meal with the beef, thinking that as they contain neither sugar nor starch in their composition [!!!] I could do myself no harm. I see now how wrong I was and consider that they were the cause of all the pains I had, and I promise you I will now keep strictly to the treatment.’ After a fortnight of unembellished adherence he was able to report : ‘ Swelling left feet and ankle-joints entirely, power of locomotion much improved, sensation of dragging weight in legs gone, and little or no pain now in affected parts.’ One more proof that virtue is its own adequate reward ! After several months of treatment his cure was complete, and all the delights of a musician’s life were his again. The end is instructive and sad. For over a year he kept true to himself and was well and happy ; then, alas for him ! he fell away from grace, — and the penalty loitered not. ‘ Contrary to Mrs. Stuart’s advice, who had cured me once of (naming his grave malady), I gradually merged into the old ways of feeding, eating much fruit, etc., . . . until at length it has culminated in swelling of my feet and ankles again . . . and I am desirous to put myself back on the Salisbury treatment. . . .’ Is it not strange, and pitiful too, that one wrested from the grave and restored to health should wantonly return to the plains of danger among the foods and fruits — pleasant to the eyes and good to the taste, but which he knew had placed him in such jeopardy before? Reader, he is happy who has the experience of another from which to learn wisdom.

I will find room for a few other examples ; they may

PREFACE TO THE TWELFTH EDITION.

xm amuse you, and will show better than mere words how valuable are the light and leading obtained from systematic use of the microscope.

A lady — very bad then, long since brisk and well — as usual had sent me samples before coming from afar. At the consultation she said, ‘Now I have told you everything I have eaten in the last fortnight.’ I smiled and replied, ‘ Strawberries seem earlier with you than with us ! ’ She looked astounded. ‘ Oh,’ she said, ‘ I do remember I have had 2 small plates of strawberries lately.’ I begged her to give herself no concern, as the microscope was always very kind in supplying any little omission of the patient’s, and it had an excellent memory !

Again, from these examinations I wrote to a patient in the far north that in some form or other he was taking sulphur largely, warning him that in so doing he was but generously feeding his disease (rheumatic gout, so-called). He wrote back : ‘ That’s very marvellous ; yes, I have taken for the last 3 years, by my doctor’s orders, a large sulphur lozenge every night of my life ’ ! (He owed his doctor a day in harvest for that advice ! ) I have also several times by these investigations forewarned distant patients, or the friends, that the brain being entirely unnourished was in even more danger than the body, and that immediate treatment was necessary to save the mind from becoming unhinged. In one case my warning was unheeded and the sufferer committed suicide.

I submit that feeling the pulse and inspecting the tongue — even a long one — cannot compete as a sure means of diagnosis with the searching examinations of the blood and secretions. In my practice they have been a rock and tower of strength to me, and without their aid I

XIV

PREFACE TO THE TWELFTH EDITION.

would never have dared to face the burden of care and responsibility that has been mine for many years, while entrusted with other people’s most precious health.

I could multiply instances, but this must be the last.

, In very early days I received samples from a patient who ‘ wondered at small progress since only strict Salisbury diet was the rule.’ After examination I wrote : ‘ Banatias can scarcely be entitled “strict Salisbury diet”!’ The soft impeachment was owned.

Now I am going to be very noble and confess to you that the bananas here for a while completely ‘ stumped ’ me ! In my microscopic (or may I be allowed my vulgar little joke and say muckroscopic ? ) studies I had put all the foods from the vegetable and from the animal worlds under the lens, first raw, then cooked, half-cooked, etc., studying them well, and learning to thoroughly recognise at a glance their distinctive characteristics. Thus was I able to ‘ spot ’ my friends when they appeared in the unsuspecting samples. But here was something I had not seen before, and I was 1 blest ’ if I knew what it was ! I was determined to find out, so as to bring it home to my patient and forbid the indigestible adjunct. I puzzled long over it, putting it under the instrument with water and without, with polariser, etc. I easily saw that it was vegetable substance holding much starch, which yet wasn’t starch of rice, bread, potatoes, beans, tapioca, etc. All at once it struck me that I hadn’t explored bananas. So I asked a friend to cycle to the town (5J miles off!) to get one, and said, as we had all this trouble in the interests of science, to fetch a dozen and we’d have a gorge ! The moment I placed an atom under the tell-tale lens I knew where I was and shouted Hooray !

PREFACE TO THE TWELFTH EDITION.

XV

I think two quotations from letters significant enough to lay before the thoughtful reader. My esteemed friend Mr. Richard Hartley of Dodworth generously presented a copy of my book to each Public Free Library in Great Britain and Ireland. The gift was refused and returned by one ; the librarian explaining that ‘the rejection was moved and seconded by two medical gentlemen on the committee, who however did not wish their names brought forward.’ Another librarian wrote that ‘ the interesting volume was in continuous demand, and he had heard of several invalids who had adopted the Salisbury treatment with favourable results.’ This last seems to explain the rejection in the first instance intelligibly and naturally ! Surely my little book never had so fine a compliment paid it as that ignominious kick-out from two pairs of medical boots — unless this : — a correspondent failing to procure my book, then reprinting, begged the loan of my own copy ‘ in order to transcribe it from beginning to end.’ The reader must decide which is the more flattering ; I am like the donkey between his two bundles of hay !

I have been charged with unfairness to the medical profession, in whose ranks I myself have dear and honoured friends. Unjust accusation ! But I see plainly and say fearlessly that there exists therein at present much blameworthy and obstructive intolerance born of prejudice and of ignorance (of the true causes of disease), crying loudly for redress ; — and that the time has come very near now when that gathering cry is bound to be heeded.1 By no

As for the majesty of Professional Etiquette — to which a patient’s best interests even must bend, — the sooner it takes a back scat the bettei for all concerned.

xvi PREFACE TO THE TWELFTH EDITION.

means do I underrate the immense complexity and perplexity of the physician’s problems, which perchance cause them to differ so widely — except ‘ in consultation,’ where their perfect unanimity is refreshing and reassuring; but I do most strenuously hold that every medical man, in honour and humanity, is bound to do all that in him lies to cure , using any and every means that experience has proved can and does cure. So, and so only, shall he ‘ adorn ’ his most noble calling of Healer.

Preface To The Second Edition

E origin of and apology for this little book are the very many letters I received from friends, and more particularly from strangers, inquiring minutely about the Salisbury Treatment.

The answers took long to write (often was I thus employed from 5 a.m. till 5 p.m. ), and after all I could not in the compass ofaletter indicate everything that from their questions I judged would be of use to my correspondents, in their endeavour to regain health or keep it. So this little book came to be evolved out of the needs of others, and I can truly say that I have put my whole heart into the work. And the abundant testimony that I did, and do still continually receive, to the ‘ very great benefits ’ that large numbers are deriving from following the treatment as I endeavoured to explain it in these letters, and in my First Edition, has made writing this Second one — if that were possible to me — doubly a labour of hope and love. More especially as I saw far greater possibilities for helpfulness and good, widening before me, on receiving from Dr. Salisbury his masterly work, newly published in America, ‘ The Relation of Alimentation and Disease.’

I begged and obtained his generous permission to use and make copious extracts from it. Accordingly, with close and deep attention I studied his book ; and then very carefully rewrote my own ; enriching it largely throughout with the fruits of Dr. Salisbury’s wisdom, research and long and varied experience.

Knowing as I did for so many years what it meant to ‘eat my bread with tears, and lie weeping on my bed through the long xviii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

night hours ’ in grief and pain, these pages have been written iri the ardent desire to help others to help themselves, and to save them from the suffering that I suffered.

I lay no claim to novelty, less than none to originality ; — I have but done my very best to explain helpfully and encouragingly to the sick, the beneficent operation of the Salisbury Treatment, as I have felt it in myself and seen it in others, to explain it so clearly and practically, that every intelligent man and woman may, by help of this book, get well and keep well. This is the goal towards which I have striven from my first page to my last. And with this view, I have in addition drawn attention to a few of the signs easily discernible when one first begins to get out of health, so that the remedy may be adopted at once ; and the pain, unutterable weariness, nuisance, and expense of illness spared. Every word also that I have said from myself is the outcome of tried and hard experience, learnt in conflict with more than a nine years’ most severe illness, and very much of it has been recalled to me now by those inquiries I spoke of above.

That words and experience of mine should stir you to rise up and conquer back for yourselves health, and freedom from pain and misery, as I have done, by the simple, sure and safe means here narrated, makes me most truly happy, and I feel — thankfully feel — that all I have suffered and what I have written are not resultless. Nor for myself have they been altogether so either :

all these years

Of lonely being, I have grown To tenderer pity for the tears Of others, — gazing through my own.

Elma Stuart.

Les Ormonds, Switzerland,

2i st June 1888.