The secrets of health; or, how not to be sick and how to get well from sickness

Preface

A new book with no good purpose is an impertinence. A new book with a good purpose, but with only thread-bare modes of expression, has no place. A new book with a right purpose and somewhat unfamiliar thoughts, is always a need of the times.

This book comes burdened with three themes, all more or less common, yet two of the three so unlike anything heretofore published for the people that if the purpose to enlighten them upon these subjects be right, the need for it is beyond question.

Diet, Hygiene, and Home Prevention and Treatment of Disease ! The spirit of invention and discovery has put so much into our modern life, and crowds men so rapidly through life, that these are the only safeguards against wreckage by overloading, or collapse in mid-ocean by over-pressure upon the boilers.

Hygiene is in a general way somewhat understood, but of diet, lest the assertion might be deemed unduly disparaging, let Sir William Eoberts, among the foremost of the medical profession of Europe, be our spokesman. In his words, "Our notions on dietetics are little better than a farrago of whims and fancies." And let Dr. William H. Porter, of like authority in America, repeat his humiliating confession : "The vast majority of medical men have no definite knowledge with which to answer the simple, practical question of their first patient, 'Doctor, what shall I eat?'" Yet R. H. Crittenden, Ph. D., of Yale University, declares, "We need as definite knowledge of the properties of the foods we employ as of the medical virtues of the drugs we make use of."

IT PREFACE,

This book seeks to supply that need ; not for the physician alone, but so clearly and definitely that any intelligent person can by its aid prepare a scientific dietary for all the varied circumstances of healthful life.

This book likewise seeks to prevent the avoidable diseases that afflict mankind, and so to treat the unavoidable by simple, natural methods rather than by drugs, that they shall be shorn of much of their power, and recoveries be to health instead of lifelong invalidism, or to a mere exchange of diseases.

The author has gleaned from all schools of healing, and for the convenience of those who might not be able to procure the preferable treatment, has added others under the different diseases. The list of authorities consulted (see page 554) is a general acknowledgment of indebtedness, to avoid filling space with special citations.

The objection may be anticipated that "So many of the words employed are so unusual that the people cannot understand them.'* But the Glossary fully provides for that; and the author is unwilling to believe that a reading public that absorbs such immense editions of colossal dictionaries and encyclopaedias, scientific treatises and high-class literary periodicals, will turn away disheartened from such an undertaking, merely because of the necessary use of some technical terms. Besides, its careful reading will be an education in itself of no small value to all young people who would be abreast of the culture of the age.

Hippocrates wrote, "It is a divine work to relieve pain." If this shall be the general outcome of the book, the writer will be profoundly thankful that thus he may in a measure fulfil the Higher Master's commission, « Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit," and in this spirit commits it to the care of that Providence that guides the sparrow's wing as unerringly as the swing of a world in space.

THE AUTHOR,

Springfield, Mass., 1895.

Table Of Contents

Page.

PART I— How to Live— Hygiene 1-48

1. The Air and Ventilation— 2. The Sunlight and its Uses in Health and Disease— 3. Temperature and Humidity — 4. The Supply and Purity of Water— 5. Sewerage and Cesspools — 6. Hints on Housebuilding— 7. The Various Kinds of Baths and Their Uses— 8. Clothing— 9. Sleep— 10. Rest and Recreation— 11. Exercises for Health —12. Injurious Habits and the Harm They do— 13. The Abuse of Drugs— 14. Contagion and Infection.

PART n— Our Living Machine— Its Mechanism and Motions. 49-80 Motion, Frame-work, Machinery, Covering — Vegetation, Growth, Sleep, Rest. Recuperation— Circulation, Blood, Respiration, Oxidation, Digestion, Absorption, Secretion, Excretion— Sensation, Feeling, Taste, Smell, Hearing, Sight — Intellection, Perception, Emotion, Volition, Origination — Degeneration, Sub-oxidation, Sub-nutrition, Ab-secretion, Ab-excretion, Ab-circulation, Mal-generation— Generation, Organs, Sex, Functions, Conception, Gestation, Maternity, Lactation.

PART III— The Digestion— Its Organs and Processes 81-92

Salivary digestion; Gastric Digestion— Pepsin, Hydrochloric Acid; Starches, Sugars and Fats, Mineral Salts. Pancreatic Digestion, Trypsin; Fats and Grape Sugar Absorbed through the Lacteals, etc.— Table of Digestive Ferments— Amount of the Secretions— The Process of Digestion Described— Chemistry of Digestion— Nutrition —The Process of Elimination, its Products, Daily Quantity, Exciting Agents, What it Does, Character of its Product Governed by its amount, Illustrative Table — Correct Dietary Scientifically Ascertained.

PART IV— Diet— What, How Much and When to Eat 93-152

Energy Expended— Amount of Oxygen Required— Units of Nutrition— The Kinds of Food Required— All Made up of Thirteen Elements- Average Composition of Foods— Proportions of Daily Supply- Foods as Usually Classified— Our Nomenclature — The Fiber-Foods —Fat-foods— Force-foods— Fixed-foods— Oxygen-food— Its Supreme Importance— Average Normal Demand per Day— How Far the People Fail— Two Reforms are Imperative— Subsidiary Foods— Tea- Coffee and Cocoa— Effects on Salivary Digestion— Effervescent Water, Vinegar, Wine and Brandy— Retardation of Digestion Beneficial—Mastication and Salivary Digestion— Food Value of Alcohol- Extractive Foods— The Amount of Food Materials Needed— Prof. Church's Dietary— Table of Food Elements Required in Different Circumstances— Similar Table— Conclusions Drawn from the Tables —American Waste— The Necessity for Dietaries— How to Make Dietaries—Rules to Work by— Nutrition not Governed by Cost— Wrong Feeding and Disease— Working Table for the Construction of Dietaries—Its Availability Illustrated— The Ideal Diet— Table of Defective Diets— National Examples of Diet— Condensed Rules for the Preparation of Home Dietaries— General Principles of Correct Diets— Facts of Importance to Aid Right Eating.

VI THE SECRET OF HEALTH.

Page*

Part V— Foods And Their Preparation 153-262

1st. Foods in Common Use— Their Nature and Classification— When Appropriate and when not Appropriate— Their Adulterations- Economical Substitutes for. 2d. Particular foods for Particular Needs— Fluids, Mushes, Puddings, Bread, Biscuit— Meats, Fruits and Jellies.— How to Prepare these Foods. 3d. Infant Foods: Their Preparation and Use. 4th. The Manufactured or Prepared Foods— Tabulated for Dietary Use— Their Nutritive Value Shown, this being a Practical Key to Their Use in Various Circumstances.

PART VI— Special Treatments 263-337

1. The Faith Cure— 2. Mind Cure— 3. Christian Science Cure— 4. Hygienic Treatment — 5. Fasting Cure— 6. Abstinence Cure— 7. Dietetic Cure— 8. One Meal Cure— 9. The Salisbury Treatment— 10. Grape Cure— 11. Fruit Method— 12. The Fruit-and-Bread Cure— 13. The Natural Method— 14. The Camp Cure— 15. The Rest Cure— 16. The Oxygen Treatment— 17. The Movement Cure— 18. The Massage Treatment — 19. The Magnetic Treatment — 20. Electrical Method— 21. The Hall Treatment— 22. Our Doctor's Colon Flush, an Exhaustive but plain Statement of the Simple but Effective Treatment by Means of Bowel Injections— 23. The New Method Cure —24. The Inhalation Treatment— 25. The Biochemic Cure— 26. The Densmore Preliminary Treatment— 27. The Kneipp Cure— 28. The Climate Cure, the Objects Sought by it, How They are Accomplished, and where to find the Desired Climate— 29. The Tractor Cure— 30. The Earth Cure— 31. Our Doctor's Water Treatment, a Comprehensive Discussion of Hydropathy, Who may Employ it, When and How.

PART VII— Care of the Sick 338-352

1. Hints on Nursing— 2. The Sick Room— 3. Bed and Clothing— 4. Water Supply— 5. Giving Medicines— 6. Bed Sores— 7. Food— 8. Treatment of Patient— 9. Useful Facts— 10. Medication— 11. Respiration, Pulse and Weight— 12. Landmarks of Diagnosis — 13. Questions Concerning Remedies— 14. States and Indications — 15. Landmarks for Prescription— 16. Diet as a Remedy— 17. Walking as a Remedy.

Part Viii- Particular Methods And Special Diets 353-387

Fifteen Methods of Treating Various Forms of Disease Without Too Much Drug Dosing Fully Described, and Directions Given for the Application of these Methods— Numerous Special Diets Prescribed for use Under Certain Circumstances.

PART IX— Diseases and their Treatment 388-545

All the Principal Diseases and Most Common Ailments Described so that They May be Recognized— The Cause Pointed Out— The Best Treatment in Each Case Given in Detail, Including Full Directions as to Diet, Hygiene, Exercise, Baths and Similar Common Sense Methods, as well as Proper Medicines when Physic is needed.