Expelling Impurities
A foul alimentary canal is the cause of nearly all diseases, more especially of children’s diseases. Usually the first method to adopt in the treatment of children’s diseases is cleansing the lower bowel. In some cases the stomach also requires cleans¬ing, so an old-time method is recommended for this purpose; namely, tickling the inside of the throat with the finger till the stomach empties itself and to continue the process till nothing remains therein, giving drinking water to assist.
This, together with hot packs to the spine and throughout the entire middle part of the body, is what might be termed the fundamental principle in treating children’s diseases.
This, combined with the free drinking of non-nourishing liquids, will so quickly cleanse the body of the poisons which directly .cause serious diseases that these will literally be cured before they start. The method now in vogue of pumping antitoxins and other serums into children and the pernicious routine of drug¬ging cannot possibly obtain such results. It can only add to the body’s toxemia and reduce vitality.
There has been a definite need for a practical work on dis¬eases and their home treatment, in sane, safe and satisfactory ways. Some treatments or factors of treatment we describe may be unobtainable; some niayseem bizarre to the uninitiated; some may have been used already without desired benefit.
In such cases, one should remember that disease often is a “six-horse load.” Many have tried to move the load with a single “horse”—with a little or with much exercise alone; with diet alone; perhaps with merely dropping meats from the list of foods used, while often adding enough cereal of other none-too-good foods to counteract what value there may have been in the meatless menus; or with cold baths, or sleep¬ing with open windows, or the use of local heat or sun-baths, or some other single factor—a single “horse.” There is multi¬plied power in numbers, so any health factor will have greater value when used in combination with other health factors. Health Factors
Therefore, use as many of the health factors, as many “horses/’ as you can, provided there is no conflict and no con¬traindication to the use of some of them.
Diet, including water drinking, is the most important single factor; exercise and relaxation (including sleep) are Jhe next most important, the two being inseparable, for one cannot relax without hav¬ing tensions to relax, he cannot rest without first being tired, and he cannot continue tension or activity without alternating it with rest. Get these two (or three) factors if nothing else. But do not neglect elimination, fresh air, sunlight, bathing, right thinking and whatever others may be necessary. Enter into the treatment with belief that good results will be yours. In spite of all medical inanities and insanities the human race has continued from generation to generation; so it is to be hoped that the intelligence manifested within the body itself will some day be given proper respect. Then the general principle that there is no disease without a cause within the body will be definitely and completely accepted.