Water and vegetable diet in consumption, scrofula, cancer, asthma, and other chronic diseases ...

Front matter

WATER

AND

IN

Preface To The American Edition

The work which is here presented to the American public, was first published in London, under date of 1815, with the title "Additional Reports on the Effects of a Peculiar Regimen in Cases of Cancer, Scrofula, Consumption, Asthma, and other Chronic Diseases." I have thought better to change this name to that of " Water and Vegetable Diet in Consumption, Scrofula, Cancer, Asthma, and other Chronic Diseases," as being more expressive of the true character of the work. I place consumption first in the list of diseases, because of its greater frequency and importance. The new title will, I am confident, be more apt to attract the eye of casual observers than the old one, which consideration is plainly a matter that should be looked to in this day of many books.

I have also, in the following woik, changed many of the technical or scientific terras to such as will be better understood by the generality of readers. Numerous typographical errors, and some other mistakes, which had crept into the London edition, I have also corrected. I have likewise taken the liberty of omitting many of the lai'ginal references of the forriier edition, references which were, r the most part, made either to works that are not accessible to . nerican readers, or to those of foreign languages, which also are iiol here to be obtained. By making these omissions (which I conaidi3r does not at all depreciate the value of the work), it has been brought into a smaller space than it otherwise cou\dt have been, and is, as a consequence, afforded at a lower price. The notes and additions which 1 have made in the body of the work, will be recognized by the latter initial of my name.

That the '* Vegetarian diet," (as it is now called in England, and of which there are many followers in that country,) is destined to do yet a vast amount of good in the prevention and cure of disease, in the United States, I confidently believe. I feel myself too thankful for the great benefit I have received by adopting it for the most part during a period of nine years, to remain silent on the subject.

Many in this country have indeed already found great relief and, in not a few instances, a perfect cure, by the adoption of vegetable iv PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

regimen. A great number have also made shipwreck of the matter, so to say, and have in the end gone from bad to worse, and so as a consequence have got no good. It is very common to find persons who tell us that some years ago, after they had suffered much in the way of indigestion, constipation, and the like, they commenced the vegetable regimen, and apparently at first with the most beneficial results. At length, however, they found that they grew worse, and that on again returning to the use of flesh meat, they improved. Now I think that in most of these cases there has been manifest error in the method of the experiment. Thus the individual was at first careful in regard to every thing relating to both quality and kind of food ; at length, however, feeling an increase of tone and vigor in the digestive organs, and at the same time a great improvement in the keenness of appetite and relish for food, he took, insensibly and by degrees, to overdoing in quantity ; a practice which it should ever be remembered is a violation of the most important of all dietetic rules. In the use of saccharine mat-

. ter especially, have the " Vegetarians" committed error in the United States. It is far better to partake of a proper meal of

t plain vegetables and flesh meat than to eat a variety of rich, concentrated, and highly sweetened articles, as many have been in the habit of doing.

" Vegetarianism"' has hitherto been presented to Americans as

t a means of preventing rather than of curing disease. This work, then, brings the matter up in a new aspect. And surely any method, however simple it may be, which promises any relief whatever, in so grave maladies as those of which it treats, merits the candid consideration of every friend of his race.

The perusal,of this work will lead many, doubtless, to the conclusion, that if such striking benefits as are here described are to be gained by attention to diet alone, how much greater may we .not look for in combining the water-treatment with the course pointed out. I therefore recommend that all who make the experiment of vegetable diet, pursue at the same time a course of bathing, with an observance of good hygienic habits generally, such as are recommended in water-cure. The experiment will thus bo much easier borne, and its benefits rendered greater.

JOEL SHEW.

Preface To The London Edition

In offering to the public these "Additional Repoits," I fulfill the resolution I announced, when I published my "Reports on Cancer," of continuing to present to the public what I should think most interesting and important on the same subject. It will be seen that many of the facts, which I now bring forward, have been in my possession, even for a series of years ; and I have felt no small repugnance at suffering them to remain useless to myself and others. To withhold from society facts regarding health, is a sort of felony against the common rights of human nature. But I have found that little good is to be done by producing solitary cases. I have, therefore, defeiTed this publication till I could obtain a body of facts concurring to the same end; and w^hich, I hope, may possess some influence upon public opinion. I was, moreover, anxious to put the correctness of my assertions beyond the reach of doubt or suspicion. Circumstances beyond my control have forced me to consume much more time than such an object really required. But, having at length effected it, I am conscious that whatever depends upon myself has been now accomplished.

The statements, which occupy the first part of these sheets, are drawn, for the most part, from very common sources of information ; and the reader, therefore, is not to look for any thing like originality in them. But the inferences from these statements, though sufficiently obvious, are certainly not duly impressed upon the minds of men. It is to these, therefore, that I would more particularly durect the attention of reflecting persons.

I have purposely avoided in this work all refined reasoning about the nature of the matter, which, insinuating itself into the body in unsuspected vehicles, undermines its powers, and lays the foundation of fatal diseases. It is not that I think any thing which I have formerly advanced on these subjects untenable or visionary. In fact, the more I have considered the subject, the more have I been convinced of the general correctness of the opinions I have delivered. But several experiments which I have made are still unfinished ;

VI PREFACE.

Other employment, particuliiilj'^ the attention due to this publication, having occupied my time. When I have completed the inquiries in which I am engaged, I shall probably publish them in a separate form. This may be more useful than blending matters more strictly scientific with things designed for the general reader and common utility.

I may take this opportunity of saying that I believe I have spokci? too hastily, when I said, in the following work, that in certain ve"^' healthy situations, " probably not a tenth part of those born," die before two years of age. It rather appears by bills of mortality, that even in those places where the general health is so good, that one half the born live to mature age, still the gi'eat mass of mortality is in very early life. This error, however, does not materially influence the reasoning of the text.

The testimonies, which I have received from several coiTespondents, give me the satisfaction of knowing that my former attempts to direct mankind to the consideration of regimen have not been wholly lost. Tt would have better suited with my habits of feeling, to have suppressed the expressions of kindness contained in some of them, that are merely personal. But I have thought it improper to withhold what conveys, perhaps, the most lively image of the sentiments of the writers. I have, therefore, given what has come to my hands without mutilation ; and must content myself with hereby returning my thanks to the writers for these marks of their esteem. By the facts which they have conveyed to me, they have conferred a considerable obligation on me ; but eventually, I believe, a much greater service on the public.

W. LAMBE.

2, King's Road, Bedford Row, 25th March, 1815.

CHAPTER I. Page

Effects of the Author's former publications. — Erroneous estimate of Medical Practice. — Medicine corrupted by vulgar errors and false Philosophy. — The bases of Medical Theories hypothetical. — Diseases the same at all times. — The general doctrines of the Ancients with regard to their evident causes. 9-21

Chapter II

Opinions of Hippocrates concerning Food, and the use of Diluents ; that of Van Swieten. — General doctrine of Hippocrates on the eSects of Water. — Opinion of Hoffman ; of M. Cabanis. — Cullen's opinion examined. — Some additional considerations on Water. 21-31

Chapter III

Is Disease essential to the nature of man ? — The locality of particular diseases, exemplified in remittent and intermittent Fevers. — The hypothesis of Linnjeus. — Contagions, Scurvy, Bronchocele, and Cretinism. — General Conclusions. 31-41

Chapter IV

Mortality subject to fixed lavs^s. — Erroneous opinions on this subject. — The

artificial nature and identity of constitutional disease. .... 41-54

Chapter V

The power of Habit. — Diseases exasperated by a full diet. — Illustrations of the beneficial effects of abstemiousness. — Dr. Barwick. — Francis Pechi.— Wood, the miller of Billericay. — Apologie du Jeune. — Estimate of the ' Power of Vegetable Regimen! - 54-70 *.

Chapter VI

The objections to vegetable food : paleness and loss of flesh ; that the feeble require nourishing diet ; differences of constitution ; uneasiness from vegetables ; that eating flesh injures only by excess ; that it is not unfavorable to the intellect ; that it has been found useful in disease. — How far liliing justifies the practice. — Fish, milk.— The cookery of vegetables. - 70-102 t

Chapter VII

Noxious habits of slow operation. — Erroneous statements. — Vegetable food necessary to a perfect organization. — It is produced in all climates habi- • table by man. — The natural progress of society. — The use of animal food a rehc of barbarous manners. 103-131

Chapter VIII

On the use of spirituous and fermented liquors. — Spices. — Man by nature not

VIU CONTENTS.

PART II.— CASES AND OBSERVATIONS. Pags

Case I. — Weak Eyes, Pimples of the Skin, Dyspepsy, Sick Headache, Constipation, Depression of Spirits, and Gout. ------ 146

Cas e II. — Disposition to Puhnonary Consumption. ----- 161

Cas£ III. — Distortion of the Chest, Pimples of the Face, General Debility, and

Weak Eyes. 163

Case IV. — Disposition to Hydrocephalus and Apoplexy. - _ - - 165

Case V. — Pulmonary Consumption. --_----- 168

Case VI.— Asthma. 174

Case VII.— Cough, Difficult Breathing, and General Debility. - - - - 182

Case VUI.— Asthma, Debility, and Loss of Flesh. ------ 183

Case IX.— Paralysis. ---- 185

Case X. — Tumor of the Arm. - -_. i87

Some Remarks on Scrofula. --------- 188

Case Xf. — Scrofulous Ulcer of the Arm. ------- 195

Case XII. — Scrofulous Ulcers of the Neck. ------- 197

Case XIII. — Remarks on Cancer, with a Case. ------ 199

Case XIV. — Rheumatism. — A Case. - - - - - - - -213

Case XV. — Polypus of the Nose, with Numbness of the Limbs, Giddiness, and

Oppression of the Head. -------- 215

Case XVI. — Miscellaneous (From a Correspondent). - - - . - 2I6

Case XVII. — Hypochondriasis, Headache, Indigestion, Costiveness, and Jaundice (From a Correspondent). ------- 220

Cases XVIII., XIX., XX., and XXI. — Miscellaneous (From a Correspondent). 223

, Case XXII. — General Debility, Mental Weakness, Sleeplessness, and Headache

(From a Correspondent). -------- 225

Case XXIII. — Disposition to Pulmonary Consumption. ----- 227

Case XXIV. — Chronic Pains of the Bowels. Bloody Discharges, and Constipation. 228

Case XXV. — Leucorrhoea, Fluor Albos, or the Whites. ------ 229

Case XXVI.— Feebleness of Strength. 230

Case XXVII. — Hypochondriasis, Nervous Weakness, and Constipation. - 230

Case XXVIII.— Difficult Urination, Falling of the Womb, and Constipation. - 231

Case XXIX.— Cancer of the Uterus. 233

General Dispensary — Report of the Consultation Committee. - - - 237

Remarks on some Cases of Disease which have appeared under the Regimen. 238

Appendix. — Vegetable Diet in Whitestown Seminary, near Utica, N. Y. - 251

Caeeof Mr. Burdell, DentieftjOf New York. 255

VEGETABLE DIET.

Chapter I

Effects of the writer's former publications, — Erroneous estimate of Medical Practice. — Medicine corrupted by vulgar errors and false philosophy. — The bases of medical theories hypothetical. — Diseases the same at all times, — The general doctrines of the ancients with regard to their evident causes.

After a silence of several years, I am at length enabled to lay before the public what I flatter myself will be considered to be a respectable body of additional evidence of the beneficial effects of that peculiar regimen, which I proposed for trial in cases of cancer, in the year 1809. Though it cannot be said that the principles, which I attempted to establish in the "Reports" which I then published, have gained the assent of any considerable portion of the members of the medical profession, yet I have the satisfaction to know that my labors have not been wholly in vain. Several respectable persons, both in and out of the profession, have been sensible of the force of the reasoning used ; some have adopted the practice advised ; and have, from their own experience, publicly recommended it to others : nor has any one ventured to contradict the facts which I advanced ; or to assert that the conclusions drawn do not flov\^ legitimately from the premises established. And I know that many serious and reflecting persons have had their attention excited; have had their thoughts turned toward subjects to which they formerly had not paid the smallest regard ; and are looking forward, not Avithout interest and anxiety, to the result of the experiments which I have instituted.

I am, at the same time, perfectly aware that the contempt and ridicule, vrith which the proposal I made was received in some quarters, was immeasurable. There were those who professed that they could not preserve their gravity when speaking or writing on the subject; nor were insinuations still more 1* offensive witliheld. This, however, was no more than what I expected. Such is the natural homage of littleness, egotism, and malevolence to a zeal for truth, and the best interests of mankind. The man must know little of the workings of the human mind, who concludes that, because a proposal is ridiculed, it is therefore ridiculous. Men often laugh, not because there is a good joke, but to conceal some other secret, and not very agreeable, feeling. I doubt not, that the slave merchant laughed heartily at the first proposal to abolish the diabolical traffic in human flesh ; the sot laughs, who is advised to relinquish drinking ; and we are informed by Captain Cook that, when several of his people expressed to the inhabitants of New Zealand their abhorrence of the custom of eating human flesh, *' the savages only laughed at them." I feel confident, therefore, that men of candor Avill not be too prompt to decide whether, in the present case, these merry gentlemen laughed at my expense or at their own.*

It falls not within the scope of my immediate purpose to examine into the present condition of the medical art. There can be no doubt of its general utility, and in some degree of its absolute necessity in the present state and form of society. I can have no wish, therefore, to sink it in the estimation of mankind. But having made this avowal, it is equally obvious that on no subject whatever has there existed greater fallacies and delusions, than in the estimates that have been formed of the efficacy of medicines, and the other practices, which form the estabfished routine of the art. It would be a matter of little difficulty to trace to the fountain-head the source of these erroneous opinions. But I shall content myself with the irrefragable proof of the fact.

This proof may be readily drawn from the ever-varying fashions which predominate in the administration of drugs. It is an observation of Lord Bacon, that " medicine is a science more professed than labored, and yet more labored than advanced ; the labor having been, in my judgment, rather in circle than in progression : for I find much iteration, but small addition." Though this remark is as well founded at the present day as

^ So in this country, at the present day, we are often told that people have been made insane by the use of vegetable food, and a hundred other silly things too trifling to mention; as it" a man could famish on brown bread, potatoes, fruits, and milk, or even on brown bread and pure water alone. These nonsensical notions, put forth not unfrequently by men who, assuming to be learned, men even of the medical profession, are destined soon, among the thinking class, to be reckoned as belonging only to the delusions of the past. — S.

IN CllKUNIO IICJEASE6. 11

when it was made, it may be suspected to be occasioned by the hmits of the science, and not by any deficiency in its professors of activity or the spirit of research. Twenty years never elapsed without some new medicine or mode of treatment being proposed for some intractable complaint : great cures are published ; great expectations raised ; the new methods are universally tried ; hope is followed by disappointment ; and, in the course of a very few years, they are abandoned and forgotten. In my own days, there have been the pneumatic gases ; muriate of barytes and muriate of lime in scrofula ; nitrous acid in syphilis ; digitalis and tobacco in dropsy ; digitalis in pulmonary consumption. It were easy to enlarge the catalogue. I know not whether the use of iron in cancer, and of the alkalis and absorbents in scrofula, be as yet extinct ; but it is easy to anticipate their fate.^''

I consider it not as a reproach, either to the proposers or to the profession at large, to have adopted, for a time, methods of treatment which have proved useless. But it is a pretty sure index of the general feeling with regard to the present state of medical practice. This eager research after new medicines is an acknowledgment that something more, if more be possible, ought to be done for the relief of the diseased ; it betrays a restlessness and uneasiness ; a consciousness, that much of the established practice is either useless or impotent ; that our instruments are not what we wish them to be, and what we are taught in our schools to expect them ; and it evinces a secret wish — a very laudable and benevolent wish — that new and more successful methods should be introduced, or great improvements should be made upon the old. And such, I am persuaded, is the feeling of those who have devoted themselves to the service of the sick with the hope to be of real use to them, Avith the view to exercise their profession with honor to themselves, and with benefit to the community.

It is evident from the history of medicine, that it has, at no time, been established upon fixed and acknoAvledged principles ; such as, being founded on just experiments, or a copious induction of facts, command the assent of all correct reasoners. This is the reason that its doctrines have ever been a subject of con-

* Who does not know that medicine as much as dress has its fashions. Thus, for example, within a few years, for the treatment of consumption iodine has had its run; afterward wood-uaptha, and last of all cod liver oil (the expressed juice of rotten cod livers), as vile a substance as can be well conceived of. So, too, I might mention the rage fjr chloroform, which is already fast passing away. — S.

tention and disputation. When the principles of a science rest upon firm bases, there can be no sects or parties among those who cultivate it. Occasional error may have crept into mathematical science ; but there are no sects of mathematicians. In physic, on the other hand, doctrines have been fluctuating in every age ; tliere have been as many sects as schools ; and at this moment there are almost as many opinions as practitioners.

Medicine is both popular and scientific. Popular medicine is practiced in a certain degree by the whole body of the people, even by the rudest in the village. Hence it becomes contaminated by the errors, prejudices, and superstitions of the people; which must extend, in a greater or less degree, to every member of the community. Physicians can boast no exemption from these prejudices. A curious example of their extent and power may be found in a well-known and popular work. It is this: When, in the year 1760, the King of Spain determined, by a public decree, to free Madrid from the abominable custom of throwing the ordure out of the windovfs into the streets, it was ordered by a proclamation, that the proprietor of every house should build a proper receptacle, and that sinks, drains, and common sewers should be made at the public expense. *' Every class," proceeds the relater, "devised some objection against it ; but the physicians bid the fairest to interest the king in the preservation of the ancient privileges of his people, for they remonstrated, that if the filth was not thrown into the streets as usual, a fatal sickness would probably ensue, because the putrescent particles of the air, which such filth attracted, would then be imbibed by the human body."

The doctrines of scientific medicine descend from that small body of educated men, who give themselves up to it as a profession and the means of a livelihood. With these men it is a branch of philosophical science, and it, of course, becomes tinctured with the current philosophical opinions. From hence it has been deformed by absurdities, that are at present hardly credible. Even so late as the days of our own James the First, we find the study of judicial astrology esteemed necessary to a physician. In an examination of a noted impostor by the London College of Physicians, we find, among other questions put to him, with the answers of the man, the following :

" Being asked in astrology what house he looketh unto to know a disease, or the event of it : and how the Lord ascendant should stand thereto :

" He answereth, he looks for the sixth house ; which being disproved, he saith, he understands nothing therein but what he hath out of Caliman ; and being asked what books he hath read in that art, he saith he hath none but Caliman.''

Philosophy was, in its origin, founded more upon speculation than upon observation and experiment. And as the first reasoners in medicine were the philosophers, the principles that were thought to regulate the universe, were, by them, transferred to the phenomena of the human body. Hence the errors of philosophy were engrafted upon physiology.

Hippocrates is said to ha,ve separated medicine from philosophy. This can mean no more than that he was the first of the philosophers, who considered medicine to be a distinct branch of science. But the principles which he adopted to explain the causes and symptoms of diseases, were such as he had been taught, and found to be prevalent in the schools of philosophy in his time.

These principles were purely hypothetical, being, mostly, gratuitous assumptions with regard to the constituent principles of the animal frame. The body was thought to be composed of four humors : blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile ; health was supposed to depend upon the perfect mixture of these humors, each possessed of its proper qualities ; disease took place when the due proportions were disturbed, or Avhen cither of the elementary humors was separated, or not perfectly mixed with the common mass.

From this first rude notion of the analysis of the fluids have sprung the division of temperaments into the sanguineous, phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic, which is received at this day; in each of which that humor was thought to be predominant from which it receives its denomination.

It is clear, from many passages of the Hippocratic writings, that Hippocrates was not the inventor of these doctrines, but that they were the current opinions of his times ; and had probably existed at a period anterior to that of any of the records of medicine which have reached our times. However hypothetical and ill founded are the speculations on which these doctrines rest, they were implicitly received by Boerhaave and his followers ; nor is their influence wholly extinguished at present.

It cannot be supposed that opinions, which have no real foundation in nature, were at any time admitted without controversy. We find, even in the writings which are called Hippocratic, some variations from this fundamental hypothesis ; and otlier theories, which are wholly distinct from it. Many succeeding teachers rejected it entirely, and proposed other systems. Asclepiades embraced the atomic philosophy, derived from the doctrines of Democritus and Epicurus : he ascribed the production of diseases to the stopping up or relaxation of the pores. The Methodists thought that diseases Mvere not produced by morbid alterations of the fluids of the body, but considered them as aftections of the solids. They divided diseases therefore into three orders ; some they considered as caused by laxity ; others, as the consequence of tension ; others, again, as complicated, being related by some of their symptoms to each of the other orders. Another sect denied that diseases were connected with the sensible qualities of the body. They asserted that there was a subtle matter, an ether, attached to, and pervading the system ; and that diseases were affections of this matter. This sect was that of the Pneumatists.

Opinions so discordant, as it showed the evidence in behalf of each to be unsatisfactor}^, must have excited, in the minds of many, hesitation and discontent. Accordingly, there has ever been a sect, which has maintained, that, in medicine, evident causes were the only proper objects of inquiry ; that the changes, which take place within the body, are mostly incomprehensible, and the study of them must be therefore superfluous ; and that, could they even be discovered, they would throw no light on the methods of treatment. The question, they said, is not what makes a disease, but what will cure it. How digestion is performed, is of no moment ; but what matter is most easily digestible, is of the greatest ; it matters not how we breathe, but to determine the purest air is of the first consequence. In things of this nature, we are instructed, not by abstruse speculations and metaphysical subtleties, but by evident experience only. This is the proper guide in medicine, distinguishing the useful from the noxious, and applying them accordingly to practice. Such is the general reasoning of the sect of Empyrical physicians ; a sect, the tenets of which, though disclaimed in the schools, have ever found numerous adherents among men the most versed in practice ; and which, though not openly avowed, are, I am persuaded, silently assented to, and effectively acted upon, by the great body of practitioners, e^'cn at this day.

This short notice of the ancient sects demonstrates that, rit the origin of medicine, the causes assigned, as immediately operative in the production of diseases, Avere not deduced from experience, but were the creation of the imagination. It would be an unprofitable task to examine whether the doctrines of modern teachers have been built upon a more solid foundation. 1 bhall therefore wholly avoid them. Those to whom they are familiar, will readily perceive, that the questions, which have exercised the ingenuity of the makers of systems, in these latter days, are very nearly the same as were discussed and disputed upon in the schools of antiquity ; and that our modern sects are little more than the ancient, revived under new names. Nor will it be disputed, that no theory, which has been proposed, has had more than an ephemeral reputation ; nor has contributed, hardly in the most remote degree, to the only rational object of speculation — the improvement of practice, and the consequent amelioration of social life.

It is perfectly clear, however, that hinnan nature has been, and is, at all times, essentially the same. History depicts the same passions ; the same motives of action ; the same virtues and vices, adorning or darkening the human character ; and the records of medicine show that the human body has been at all times (within the reach of written memorials) subject to the same diseases. With the exception of a few contagions (the effect, perhaps, of some accidental combination of circumstances), it may be doubted whether there exists any new disease. In the Hippocratic writings we meet with, not merely the same names of diseases, as those employed at this day, but, generally speaking, the same names applied to the same things; we meet with the same order and succession of events ; the same accidents; the same signs, whether announcing safety or portending danger ; the same divisions of diseases ; in a w^ord, as far as we can judge, the very same scene, which is at this time daily passing before the eyes of medical practitioners. It is, indeed, the perception of this striking analogy which has impressed upon these memorials the indelible character of authenticity ; we feel for them a veneration like that excited by the works of Homer, being assured by our present experience that they are faithful transcripts from nature, taken at a period of very remote antiquity. As this is a fact of the first consequence in the history of human nature, I shall cite in illustration of it the account of a very common affection, as it is described in one of these ancient treatises. The disease I shall select is the com; mon catarrh, or cold, of which the following description is found in the treatise on ancient medicine.