[Illustration: A. T. Still. ]

 Philosophy of Osteopathy;

 BY

 ANDREW T. STILL, DISCOVERER OF THE SCIENCE OF OSTEOPATHY AND PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF OSTEOPATHY. 

 PUBLISHED BY A. T. STILL, KIRKSVILLE, MO 1899. 

 Copyrighted, 1899, by A. T. STILL. 

 Lithoprinted by EDWARD BROTHERS, INC. Ann Arbor, Michigan, U. S. A. 

Preface. 

Many of my friends have been anxious ever since Osteopathy became anestablished fact, that I should write a treatise on the science. But Iwas never convinced that the time was ripe for such a production, nor amI even now convinced that this is not a little premature. Osteopathy isonly in its infancy, it is a great unknown sea just discovered, and asyet we are only acquainted with its shore-tide. 

When I saw others who had not more than skimmed the surface of thescience, taking up the pen to write books on Osteopathy, and afterhaving carefully examined their productions, found they were drinkingfrom the fountains of old schools of drugs, dragging back the science tothe very systems from which I divorced myself so many years ago, andrealized that hungry students were ready to swallow such mental poison, dangerous as it was, I became fully awakened to the necessity of somesort of Osteopathic literature for those wishing to be informed. 

This book is free from quotations from medical authors, and differsfrom them in opinion on almost every important question. I do not expectit to meet their approval; such a thing would be unnatural andimpossible. 

It is my object in this work to teach principles as I understand them, and not rules. I do not instruct the student to punch or pull a certainbone, nerve or muscle for a certain disease, but by a knowledge of thenormal and abnormal, I hope to give a specific knowledge for alldiseases. 

This work has been written a little at a time for several years, just asI could snatch a moment from other cares to devote to it. I havecarefully compiled these thoughts into a treatise. Every principleherein laid down has been fairly well tested by myself, and proven true. 

The book has been written by myself in my own way, without any ambitionto fine writing, but to give to the world a start in a philosophy thatmay be a guide in the future. 

Owing to the great haste with which the book has been rushed through thepress to meet the urgent demand, we will ask the indulgence of thepublic for any imperfection that may appear. Hoping the world may profitby these thoughts, I am, Respectfully, A. T. STILL. 

 Kirksville, Mo. , Sept. 1, 1899. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. 

SOME INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

Not a Work of Compilation--Authors Quoted--Method of Reasoning--TheOsteopath an Artist--When I Became an Osteopath--Dr. Neal's Opinion--TheOpinions of Others--What Studies Necessary--What I Mean byAnatomy--Principles--The Practicing Osteopath's Guide--The Fascia--Not apleasing Task--Without Accepted Theories--Truths of Nature--Body, Motionand Mind--Osteopathy to Cure Disease--The Osteopath Should FindHealth. Page 11

CHAPTER II. 

OSTEOPATHIC EXPLORATIONS. 

Divisions of the Body--Searching for the Cause--Duty of the OsteopathicExplorer--Classification and Division--The Abnormal--NervePowers--Witnesses to Examine--Abnormal Growths--Cerebro SpinalFluid--Body in Perfect Health--Chemistry--Nature's Chemistry. Page 29

CHAPTER III. 

THE HEAD. 

A Free Circulation--Death Blows--Something of the Neck--Order ofTreatment--The Pelvis--Brains of Animals--Arterial Motion--MentalVibrations--Overburdening the Mind--Hemiplegia. Page 43

CHAPTER IV. 

EAR WAX AND ITS USES. 

Nature Makes Nothing in Vain--A Successful Experiment--A Question forAges--The Position--Meaning of Life--Some Questions Asked--Condition inCertain Diseases Caused by Cold--Cerumen in Fluid State--Winter KillsBabies--Some Advice to Mothers--A Case in Point--Connection of the brainand Other Nerves in Digestion--Unaided Investigation. Page 53

CHAPTER V. 

DISEASES OF THE CHEST. 

Where Confined--Consumption--Can Consumption Be Cured--ConsumptionDescribed--No Time for Surrender--Cerebral Spinal Fluid--How to DestroyDeadly Bombs of Decay--Battle of Blood for Life--MiliaryTuberculosis--Conversion of Bodies Into Gas--Forming aTubercle--Breeding Contagion--The Seeds of Disease--GeneratingFever--Whooping Cough--Clouds and Lungs Are Much Alike--The Wisdom ofNature--Water Formed in Lungs--The Law of Fives--Feeble Action ofHeart--The Heart--From Neck to Heart--Dyspersia or ImperfectDigestion. Page 68

CHAPTER VI. 

THE LYMPHATICS. 

Importance of the Subject--Demands of Nature on theLymphatics--Dunglinson's Definition--Dangers of Dead Substances--LymphContinued--Solvent in Nature--Where Are the Lymphatics Situated?--TheFat and Lean. Page 104

CHAPTER VII. 

THE DIAPHRAGM. 

Investigation--A Struggle With Nature--Lesson of Cause andEffect--Something of Medical Etiquette--The Medical Doctor--An Explorerfor Truth Must Be Independent--The Diaphragm Introduced--A UsefulStudy--Combatting Effect--Is Least Understood--A Case of BiliousFever--A Demand on the Nerves--Danger of Compression--A Cause forDisease--Was a Mistake Made in the Creation--An Exploration--Result ofRemoval of Diaphragm--Sustaining Life in Principles--Law Applicable toOther Organs--Power of Diaphragm--Omentum. Page 114

CHAPTER VIII. 

LIVER, BOWELS AND KIDNEYS. 

Gender of the Liver--Productions of the Liver--A Hope for theAfflicted--Evidences of Truth--Loaded With Ignorance--Lack of Knowledgeof the Kidney--How a Purgative Acts--Flux--Bloody Dysentery--Flux MoreFully Described--Osteopathic Remedies--Medical Remedies--More of theOsteopathic Remedy. Page 138

CHAPTER IX. 

THE BLOOD. 

Uses for Fluids--Blood an Unknown Fluid--Harvey Only Reached the Banksof the River of Life--Blood Is Systematically Furnished--Fatality ofIgnorance--To Find the Cause Must Be Honest--Following Arteries andNerves--Feeding the Nerves--The Blood on Its Journey--Powers Necessaryto Move Blood--Venous Blood Suspended. Page 149

CHAPTER X. 

THE FASCIA. 

Where Is Disease Sown?--An Illustration of Conception--The GreatestProblem--A Fountain of Supply--Fascia Omnipresent--Connection withSpinal Cord--Goes With and Covers All Muscles--Proofs inContagion--Study of Nerves and Fascia--Tumefy--Tumefaction. Page 161

CHAPTER XI. 

FEVERS. 

Be Armed With Facts--Union of Human Gases With Oxygen--Fever andNettle-rash. Nature Constructs for a Wise Purpose--Processes of LifeMust be Kept in Motion--No Satisfaction from Authors--AnimalHeat--Semeiology--Symptomatology--Definition of Fever--Fevers onlyEffects--Result of Stoppages of Vein or Artery--Aneurisms. Page 175

CHAPTER XII. 

SCARLET FEVER AND SMALLPOX. 

As defined by Allopathy--Scarlet Fever as Defined byOsteopathy--Smallpox--Power to Drive Greater Than in Measles. Page 190

CHAPTER XIII. 

A CHAPTER OF WONDERS AND SOME VALUABLE QUESTIONS. 

Wonders on the Increase--What Is Life?--How Is Action Produced--AcquaintYourself With the Machinery--Duty of the Osteopath--Formation ofSacrum--The Pelvis--Appearance of OEdema--Do All Diseases HaveAppearance in OEdema. Page 193

CHAPTER XIV. 

HAS MAN DEGENERATED?

The Advent of Man--Care of the Stock Raiser--Mental Degeneration MakesIt Unpleasant for an Original Thinker--Original Thinkers of theAncients--Methods of Healing--Failure of Allopathy--PrimitiveMan--Evidences of Prehistoric Man--Mental Dwarfage. Page 203

CHAPTER XV. 

OSTEOPATHIC TREATMENT. 

Five Points--Visceral List--Care in Treating the Spinal Column--MostImportant Chapter--Perfect Drainage--A Natural Cure. Page 213

CHAPTER XVI. 

REASONING TESTS. 

The Vermiform Appendix--Operating for Appendicitis--Expelling Power ofthe Vermiform Appendix--Care Exercised in Making Assertions--ReasoningTests--A List of Unexplained Diseases--Concluding Remarks. Page 223

CHAPTER XVII. 

OBSTETRICS. 

Overloading--Similarity of Stomach and Womb--Births--Preparation forDelivery--Caution--Lasceration Need Not Occur--Care of Cord--SeveringCord--Putting on Belly Band--Delivery of Afterbirth--Preparing forMother's Comfort--Post-Delivery Hemorrhage--Treatment for--Food forMother--Treatment for Sore Breast. Page 234

CHAPTER XVIII. 

CONVULSIONS. 

Old Phrases--Results of Stoppage of Fluids--Old Theory of Fits--What theReal Cause may be--Listen for the Cause--What is a Fit--Sensory SystemDemanding Nourishment--The Causes--The Remedy--Dislocation of Atlas andof the Four Upper Ribs. Page 250

CHAPTER XIX. 

CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

Thoughts for Consideration--Offering a New Philosophy--Lymphatics andFascia--A Satisfactory Experiment--Natural Washing Out. Page 258

CHAPTER XX. 

THE SUPERIOR CERVICAL GANGLION. 

With What It Has Communication--Its Course--One of itsFunctions--Stimulation or Inhibition--Result Produced. Page 263

Philosophy of Osteopathy. 

CHAPTER I. 

SOME INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

 Not a Work of Compilation--Authors Quoted--Method of Reasoning--The Osteopath an Artist--When I Became an Osteopath--Dr. Neal's Opinion--The Opinions of Others--What Studies Necessary--What I Mean by Anatomy--Principles--The Practicing Osteopath's Guide--The Fascia--Not a Pleasing Task--Without Accepted Theories--Truths of Nature--Body, Motion and Mind--Osteopathy to Cure Disease--The Osteopath Should Find Health. 

NOT A WORK OF COMPILATION. 

To readers of my book on the Philosophy of Osteopathy, I wish to saythat I will not tire you with a book of compilations just to sell to theanxious reader. As I have spent thirty years of my life reading andfollowing rules and remedies used for curing, and learned in sorrow itwas useless to listen to their claims, for instead of getting good, Iobtained much harm therefrom, I asked for, and obtained a mental divorcefrom them, and I want it to be understood that drugs and I are as farapart as the East is from the West; now, and forever. Henceforth I willfollow the dictates of nature in all I say or write. 

AUTHORS QUOTED. 

I quote no authors but God and experience when I write, or lecture tothe classes or the masses, because no book written by medical writerscan be of much use to us, and it would be very foolish to look to themfor advice and instruction on a science they know nothing of. They areilly able to advise for themselves, they have never been asked to adviseus, and I am free to say but few persons who have been pupils of myschool have tried to get wisdom from medical writers and apply it asworthy to be taught as any part of Osteopathy, philosophy or practice. Several books have been compiled, called "Principles of Osteopathy. "They may sell but will fail to give the knowledge the student desires. 

METHOD OF REASONING. 

The student of any philosophy succeeds best by the more simple methodsof reasoning. We reason for needed knowledge only, and should try andstart out with as many known facts as possible. If we would reason ondiseases of the organs of the head, neck, abdomen or pelvis, we mustfirst know where these organs are, how and from what arteries the eye, ear, or tongue is fed. 

THE OSTEOPATH AN ARTIST. 

I believe you are taught anatomy in our school more thoroughly than anyother school to date, because we want you to carry a living picture ofall or any part of the body in your mind as a ready painter carries thepicture of the face, scenery, beast or any thing he wishes to representby his brush. He would only be a waster of time and paint and make adaub that would disgust any one who would employ him. We teach youanatomy in all its branches, that you may be able to have and keep aliving picture before your mind all the time, so you can see all joints, ligaments, muscles, glands, arteries, veins, lymphatics, fasciasuperficial and deep, all organs, how they are fed, what they must do, and why they are expected to do a part, and what would follow in casethat part was not done well and on time. I feel free to say to mystudents, keep your minds full of pictures of the normal body all thetime, while treating the afflicted. 

WHEN I BECAME AN OSTEOPATH. 

In answer to the questions of how long have you been teaching thisdiscovery, and what books are essential to the study? I will say I beganto give reasons for my faith in the laws of life as given to men, worldsand beings by the God of nature, June, 1874, when I began to talk andpropound questions to men of learning. I thought the sword and cannonsof nature were pointed and trained upon our systems of drug doctoring. 

DR. NEAL'S OPINION. 

I asked Dr. J. M. Neal, of Edinburg, Scotland, for some information thatI needed badly. He was a medical doctor of five years training, a man ofmuch mental ability, who would give his opinions freely and to thepoint. I have been told by one or more Scotch M. D. 's that a Dr. John M. Neal, of Edinburg, was hung for murder. He was not hung while with me. The only thing made me doubt him being a Scotchman was he loved whiskey, and I had been told that the Scotch were a sensible people. John M. Nealsaid that "drugs was the bait of fools"; it was no science, and thesystem of drugs was only a trade, followed by the doctor for the moneythat could be obtained by it from the ignorant sick. He believed thatnature was a law capable of vindicating its power all over the world. 

THE OPINIONS OF OTHERS. 

As this writing is for the information of the student I will continuethe history by saying, that in the early days of Osteopathy I sought theopinions of the most learned, such as Dr. Schnebly, Professor ofLanguage and History in the Baker University, Baldwin, Kansas; Dr. Dallas, a very learned M. D. Of the Alopathic faith; Dr. F. A. Grove, well-known in Kirksville; J. B. Abbott, Indian agent, and many others ofrenown. Then back to the tombs of the dead, to better acquaint myselfwith the systems of medicine and the foundations of truth upon whichthey stood, if any. I will not worry your patience with a list of thenames of authors that have written upon the subject of medicine, asremedial agents. I will use the word that the theologian often uses whenasked whom Christ died for, the answer universally is, ALL. Allintelligent medical writers say by word or inference that drugs ordrugging is a system of blind guess work, and if we should let ouropinions be governed by the marble lambs and other emblems of deadbabies found in the cemeteries of the world, we would say that John M. Neal was possibly hung for murder, not through design, but throughtraditional ignorance of the power of nature to cure both old and young, by skillfully adjusting the engines of life so as to bring forth pureand healthy blood, the greatest known germicide, to one capable toreason who has the skill to conduct the vitalizing and protecting fluidsto throat, lungs and all parts of the system, and ward off diseases asnature's God has indicated. With this faith and method of reasoning, Ibegan to treat diseases by Osteopathy as an experimenter, andnotwithstanding I obtained good results in all cases in diseases ofclimate and contagions, I hesitated for years to proclaim to the worldthat there was but little excuse for a master engineer to lose a childin cases of diphtheria, croup, measles, mumps, whooping cough, flux andother forms of summer diseases, peculiar to children. Neither was itnecessary for the adult to die with diseases of summer, fall and winter. But at last I took my stand on this rock and my confidence in nature, where I have stood and fought the battles, and taken the enemy's flag inevery engagement for the last twenty-five years. 

WHAT STUDIES NECESSARY. 

As you contemplate studying this science and have asked to know thenecessary studies, I wish to impress it upon your minds that you beginwith anatomy, and you end with anatomy, a knowledge of anatomy is allyou want or need, as it is all you can use or ever will use in yourpractice, although you may live one hundred years. You have asked for myopinion as the founder of the science. Yours is an honest question, andGod being my judge I will give you just as honest an answer. As I havesaid, a knowledge of anatomy with its application covers every inch ofground that is necessary to qualify you to become a skillful andsuccessful Osteopath, when you go forth into the world to combatdiseases. 

WHAT I MEAN BY ANATOMY. 

I will now define what I mean by anatomy. I speak by comparison andtell you what belongs to the study of anatomy. I will take a chickenwhose parts and habits all persons are familiar with to illustrate. Thechicken has a head, a neck, a breast, a tail, two legs, two wings, twoeyes, two ears, two feet, one gizzard, one crop, one set of bowels, oneliver, and one heart. This chicken has a nervous system, a glandularsystem, a muscular system, a system of lungs and other parts andprinciples not necessary to speak of in detail. But I want to emphasize, they belong to the chicken, and it would not be a chicken without everypart or principle. These must all be present and answer roll call or wedo not have a complete chicken. Now I will try and give you the parts ofanatomy and the books that pertain to the same. You want some standardauthor on descriptive anatomy in which you learn the form and places ofall bones, the place and uses of ligaments, muscles and all that belongto the soft parts. Then from the descriptive anatomy you are conductedinto the dissecting room, in which you receive demonstrations, and areshown all parts through which blood and other fluids are conducted. Sofar you see you are in anatomy. From the demonstrator you are conductedto another room or branch of anatomy called physiology, a knowledge ofwhich no Osteopath can do without and be a success. In that room you aretaught how the blood and other fluids of life are produced, and thechannels through which this fluid is conducted to the heart and lungsfor purity and other qualifying processes, previous to entering theheart for general circulation to nourish and sustain the whole humanbody. I want to insist and impress it upon your minds that this is asmuch a part of anatomy as a wing is a part of a chicken. From this roomof anatomy you are conducted to the room of histology, in which the eyeis aided by powerful microscopes and made acquainted with the smallestarteries of the human body, which in life are of the greatest knownimportance, remembering that in the room of histology you are stillstudying anatomy, and what that machinery can and does execute everyday, hour, and minute of life. From the histological room you areconducted to the room of elementary chemistry, in which you learnsomething of the laws of association of substances, that you can thebetter understand what has been told you in the physiological room, which is only a branch of anatomy, and intended to show you that naturecan and does successfully compound and combine elements for muscles, blood, teeth and bone. From there you are taken to the room of theclinics, where you are first made acquainted with both the normal andabnormal human body, which is only a continuation of the study ofanatomy. From there you are taken to the engineer's room (or operator'sroom) in which you are taught how to observe and detect abnormalitiesand the effect or effects they may and do produce, and how they effecthealth and cause that condition known as disease. 

PRINCIPLES. 

Principles to an Osteopath means a perfect plan and specification tobuild in form a house, an engine, a man, a world, or anything for anobject or purpose. To comprehend this engine of life or man which is soconstructed with all conveniences for which it was made, it is necessaryto constantly keep the plan and specification before the mind, and inthe mind, to such a degree that there is no lack of knowledge of thebearings and uses of all parts. After a complete knowledge of all partswith their forms, sizes and places of attachment which should be sothoroughly grounded in the memory that there would be no doubt of theintent of the builder for the use or purpose of the great and smallparts, and why they have a part to perform in the workings of theengine. When this part of the specification is thoroughly learned fromanatomy or the engineer's guide book, he will then take up the chapteron the division of forces, by which this engine moves and performs theduties for which it was created. In this chapter the mind will bereferred to the brain to obtain a knowledge of that organ, where theforce starts, how it is conducted to any belt, pully, journal, ordivision of the whole building. After learning where the force isobtained, and how conveyed from place to place throughout the wholebody, he becomes interested and wisely instructed. He sees the variousparts of this great system of life when preparing fluids commonly knownas blood, passing through a set of tubes both great and small--some sovastly small, as to require the aid of powerful microscopes to see theirinfinitely small forms, through which the blood and other fluids areconducted by the heart and force of the brain, to construct organs, muscles, membranes and all the things necessary to life and motion, tothe parts separately and combined. By this minute acquaintance with thenormal body which has been learned in the specification as written instandard authors of anatomy and the dissecting rooms, he is wellprepared to be invited into the inspection room to receive comparisonsbetween the normal and abnormal engines, built according to nature'splan and specification, and absolutely perfect. He is called into thisroom for the purpose of comparing engines that have been strained frombeing thrown off the track, or run against other bodies with such forceas to bend journals, pipes, break or loosen bolts; or otherwisederanged, so as to render it useless until repaired. To repair signifiesto readjust from the abnormal condition in which the machinist finds it, to the condition of the normal engines which stand in the shop ofrepairs. His inspection would commence by first lining up the wheelswith straight journals; then he would naturally be conducted to theboiler, steam chest, shafts, and every part that belongs to a completedengine. To know that they are straight and in place as shown upon theplan and described by the specification, he has done all that isrequired of a master mechanic. Then it goes into the hands of theengineer, who waters, fires and conducts this artificial being on itsjourney. You as Osteopathic machinists can go no farther than to adjustthe abnormal condition, in which you find the afflicted. Nature will dothe rest. 

THE PRACTICING OSTEOPATH'S GUIDE. 

The Osteopath reasons if he reasons at all, that order and health areinseparable, and that when order in all parts is found, disease cannotprevail, and if order is complete and disease should be found, there isno use for order. And if order and health are universally one in union, then the doctor cannot usefully, physiologically, or philosophically beguided by any scale of reason, otherwise. Does a chemist get resultsdesired by accident? Are your accidents more likely to get good resultsthan his? Does order and success demand thought and cool headed reason?If we wish to be governed by reason, we must take a position that isfounded on truth and capable of presenting facts, to prove the validityof all truths we present. A truth is only a hopeful supposition if it isnot supported by results. Thus all nature is kind enough to willinglyexhibit specimens of its work as vindicating witnesses of its ability toprove its assertions by its work. Without that tangible proof, naturewould belong to the gods of chance. The laws of mother, conception, growth and birth, from atoms to worlds would be a failure, a universewithout a head to direct. But as the beautiful works of nature standto-day, and in all time past, fully able by the evidence it holds beforethe eye and mind of reason, that all beings great and small came by thelaw of cause and effect, are we not bound to work by the laws of cause, if we wish an effect? If the heavens do move by cause when was itsbeings divorced from that great common law? Are we not bound to trustand work by the old and reliable self-evident laws, until somethinglater has proven its superior ability to ward off disease and cure thesick. 

THE FASCIA. 

I know of no part of the body that equals the fascia as a huntingground. I believe that more rich golden thought will appear to themind's eye as the study of the fascia is pursued than any division ofthe body. Still one part is just as great and useful as any other in itsplace. No part can be dispensed with. But the fascia is the ground inwhich all causes of death do the destruction of life. Every view wetake, a wonder appears. Here we find a place for the white corpusclesbuilding anew and giving strength to throw impurities from the body bytubes that run from the skin to tanks of useful fluids, that would heapup and are no longer of use in the body. No doubt nerves exist in thefascia, that change the fluid to gas, and force it through the spongyand porous system as a delivery by the vital chain of wonders, that goon all the time to keep nerves wholly pure. 

NOT A PLEASANT TASK. 

I dislike to write, and only do so, when I think my productions will gointo the hands of kind-hearted geniuses who read, not to find a book ofquotations, but to go with the soul of the subject that is beingexplored for its merits, --weigh all truths and help bring its uses frontfor the good of man. 

Osteopathy has not asked a place in written literature prior to thisdate, and does not hope to appear on written pages even to suit theauthor of this imperfectly written book. 

WITHOUT ACCEPTED THEORIES. 

Columbus had to launch and navigate much and long, and meet many storms, because he had not the written experience of other travelers to guidehim. He had only a few bits of drift-wood not common to his home growth, to cause him to move as he did. But there was a fact, a bit of wood thatdid not grow on his home soil. 

He reasoned that it must be from some land amid the sea whose shores hadnot before been known to his race. With these facts and his powerfulmind of reason, he met all opposition, and moved alone; just as all mendo who have no use for theories as their compass to guide them throughthe storms. This opposition a mental explorer must meet. 

I felt that I must anchor my boat to living truths and follow themwheresoever they might drift. Thus I launched my boat many years ago onthe open seas, fearlessly, and have never found a wave of scorn norabuse that truth could not eat, and do well on. 

TRUTHS OF NATURE. 

We often speak of truth. We say great truths, and use many otherqualifying expressions. But no one truth is greater than any othertruth. Each has a sphere of usefulness peculiar to itself. Thus weshould treat with respect and reverence all truths, great and small. Atruth is the complete work of nature, which can only be demonstrated bythe vital principle belonging to that class of truths. Each truth ordivision as we see it, can only be made known to us by the self evidentfact, which this truth is able to demonstrate by its action. 

If we take man as our object to base the beginning of our reason, wefind the association of many elements, which differ in kind to suit thepurpose for which they were designed. To us they act, to us they arewisely formed and located for the purpose for which they were designed. Through our five senses we deal with the material body. It has action. That we observe by vision which connects the mind to reason. High abovethe five senses on the subject of cause or causes of this, is motion. Bythe testimony of the witness the mind is connected in a manner by whichit can reason on solidity and size. By smell, taste and sound, we makeother connections between the chambers of reason and the object wedesire to reason upon; and thus our foundation on which all fivewitnesses are arrayed to the superior principle which is mind. 

After seeing a human being complete in form, self moving, with power tostop or go on at will, to us he seems to obey some commander. He seemsto go so far and stop; he lies down and gets up; he turns round andfaces the objects that are traveling in the same direction he does. Possibly he faces the object by his own action. Then by about facing, hesees one coming with greater velocity, sees he can not escape by his ownspeed, so he steps aside and lets that body pass on, as though he movedin obedience to some order. The bystander would ask the question, "Howdid he know such a dangerous body was approaching?" He finds on the mostcrucial examination, that the sense of hearing is wholly without reason. The same is true with all the five senses pertaining to man, beast, orbird. This being the condition of the five physical senses, we areforced by reason to conclude there is a superior being who conducts thematerial man, sustains, supports and guards against danger; and afterall our explorations, we have to decide that man is triune whencomplete. 

BODY, MOTION AND MIND. 

First the material body, second the spiritual being, third a being ofmind which is far superior to all vital motions and material forms, whose duty is to wisely manage this great engine of life. This greatprinciple known as mind, must depend for all evidences on the fivesenses, and on this testimony, all mental conclusions are bad, and allorders from this mental court are issued to move to any point or stop atany place. Thus to obtain good results, we must blend ourselves with, and travel in harmony with nature's truths. When this great machine man, ceases to move in all its parts, which we call death, the explorersknife discovers no mind, no motion. He simply finds formulated matterwith no motor to move it, with no mind to direct it. He can trace thechannels through which the fluids have circulated, he can find therelation of parts to other parts; in fact by the knife, he can expose toview the whole machinery that once was wisely active. Suppose theexplorer is able to add the one principle motion, at once we would seean action, but it would be a confused action. Still he is not the mandesired to be produced. There is one addition that is indispensable tocontrol this active body, or machine, and that is mind. With that addedthe whole machinery then works as man. The three when united in fullaction are able to exhibit the thing desired--complete. 

OSTEOPATHY TO CURE DISEASE. 

The Osteopath seeks first physiological perfection of form, by normallyadjusting the osseous frame work, so that all arteries may deliver bloodto nourish and construct all parts. Also that the veins may carry awayall impurities dependent upon them for renovation. Also that the nervesof all classes may be free and unobstructed while applying the powers oflife and motion to all divisions, and the whole system of nature'slaboratory. 

A full and complete supply of arterial blood must be generated anddelivered to all parts, organs and glands, by the channels called thearteries. And when it has done its work, then without delay the veinsmust return all to heart and lungs for renewal. We must know some delayof fluids has been established on which nature begins the work ofrenewal by increased action of electricity, even to the solvent actionof fever heat, by which watery substances evaporate and relieve thelymphatic system of stagnant, watery secretions. Thus fever is a naturaland powerful remedy. 

THE OSTEOPATH SHOULD FIND HEALTH. 

To find health should be the object of the doctor. Anyone can finddisease. He should make the grand round among the sentinels andascertain if they are asleep, dead or have deserted their posts, andhave allowed the enemy to get into camps. He should visit all posts. Before he goes out to make the rounds, he should know where all postsare, and the value of the supply he has charge of, whether it be shot, shell, grub, clothing, arms or anything of value to the Company orDivision. 

CHAPTER II. 

OSTEOPATHIC EXPLORATIONS. 

 Divisions of the Body--Searching for the Cause--Duty of the Osteopathic Explorer--Classification and Division--The Abnormal--Nerve Powers--Witnesses to Examine--Abnormal Growths--Cerebro Spinal Fluid--Body in Perfect Health--Chemistry--Nature's Chemistry. 

DIVISIONS OF THE BODY. 

After many long years, treating and trying to teach the student ofOsteopathy how to hunt for and find the local causes of diseases, notcontagious, or infectious, I have succeeded in planning and suggesting amethod, which I am sure the doctor can easily follow, and find anydiversion from the normal, that would interfere with the nerves, veins, and arteries, of any organ or limb of the body. I have formulated asimple mental diagram that divides the body into three parts, chest, upper and lower limbs. The first division takes in head, neck, chest, abdomen and pelvis. The second division takes in head, neck, lower andupper arm and hand. The third division takes in foot, leg, thigh, pelvisand lumbar vertebra. I make this division for the purpose of holding theexplorer to the limits of all supplies. In the ellipse of the chest isfound all vital supplies; then from that center of life we have twobranches only, one of the arm, and one of the lower limb. In eachdivision we have five points of exploration. [1]

[Footnote 1: Explore: (1) To seek for or after: to strive to attain bysearch; to look wisely and carefully for; to search through or into; topenetrate or range over for discovery; to examine thoroughly; as, toexplore new countries or seas; to explore the depths of science; "hiddenfrauds (to) explore. "--WEBSTER. ]

SEARCHING FOR THE CAUSE. 

To illustrate, we will take the lower limb, whether there is lameness, soreness, gouty, rheumatic, neuralgic, swollen, shrunken, feverish, cold, smooth and glassy, sores, ulcers, erysipelas, milkleg, varicoseveins, or any defect that the patient may complain of, who is the onlyreliable book or being of symptomatology. For convenience we will dividethat lower limb into five parts, the foot, leg, thigh, pelvis and lumbarregion. The patient (symptomatologist) tells us he has a pain in front, center and under part of foot. Now the doctor or bird dog, can findquails of reason in but one field that would lead him to the cause. Asthis field is divided into five parts and the hunter has carefullysearched four divisions, he will find the cause or causes in the fifthand none other. If a dislocated bone is not found in the foot afterascertaining that there has been no crushing by falling bodies, horsesfeet, stepping on glass, nails and other things that would penetrate thefoot, and irritate by being broken off, closed and remaining in theflesh; we will explore the leg for the quail, ascertain if thearticulation is normal at ankle and knee. If we find the bone is notbroken, the leg has no splinters of wood, nor injured flesh by bitesfrom dogs or other animals, nor any other substance that would injurethe leg, we are prepared to pass on and explore another place for painin the foot. We go on to division No. 3 or the thigh division, andascertain if the thigh is normal in all conditions, properly in socket, with all muscles, ligaments and nerves unoppressed. There are but twomore divisions left for exploration, and they are the most important andinteresting of the five, the pelvis and lumbar, through which all thenerves of the limb pass. We must stop at pelvis and observe carefullythat there is no twist of ligaments before going to lumbar, which is thelast of the five divisions. If we have found nothing in the previousfour, and have explored them as carefully as we should, we have but onebrush heap left, and that one contains the quail that we have beenhunting for. As the lumbar contains and conveys all nerve forces to thepelvis from the brain and all divisions of the lower limbs, we will nowexamine the articulations of that part of the spine, and in that we arevery certain to find the cause if we have made no mistake in ourexamination in the preceding divisions of the limb. As we enter theexploration of this part of the spine we must remember that we are aboutto deal with the many divisions of the nerves of the _cauda equina_. Thegreat question before us, comes after this form. What would wound orbruise any division of nerves that would lead by the way of the great orlesser sciatic, to a bone in the front and under side of the foot? Jars, strains, twists, and dislocations, must be carefully searched for. Apartial dislocation of one side of the spine would produce a twist whichwould throw one muscle on to another and another, straining ligaments, producing conjestion and inflammation, or some irritation that wouldlead to a suspension of the fluids necessary to the harmonious vitalityof the foot, which is the great and only cause by which the suffering isproduced in a foreign land, which we call a famine in the foot. 

DUTY OF THE OSTEOPATHIC EXPLORER. 

This method of exploration is not directed by the sound of the fog-hornsof unreliable and unsatisfactory symptomatology. Osteopathy has a methodof its own, which is correct or it has no method at all, and is guidedby the surveyor's compass that will find all corners as established bythe orders of the government and surveyor's general. Thus an Osteopathmust find the true corners as set by the Divine Surveyor. The generalsurveyor hands our plats and specifications to the division general, with instructions to establish all lines and divisions, state, county, township and sections, and mark each one by stones or otherwise, so theycannot be lost; but are findable by any competent surveyor who followsthe field notes displayed in anatomy. Thus you would see a successfulOsteopath is guided by the field notes of nature to all corners, hisbusiness is to know that every corner stone is in its place, standingerect as nature designed and established it. If he tolerates anyvariation of this stone or stones from the place or places that God thegrand surveyor of the universe has placed them, he will observe there isan infringement and cause for inharmony and discord of the possessors ofthe four quarter sections of land, for which this cornerstone wasplaced; and his sworn duty is to bring this stone from any variationfrom the field notes and establish it where it was first placed. Thushis ability to find the true corners and adjust all stones will mark himas a successful Osteopath. 

CLASSIFICATION AND DIVISION. 

I will classify or divide man's body for convenience of exploration fordiseases into head and neck first; then head, neck and chest, third, head, neck, chest and abdomen; then unite head, neck, chest, abdomen andsacrum. I will take up a few diseases under each division as they arelocated. By this method I think I can better show what nerves should bemore or less active. 

THE ABNORMAL. 

A lesion may and does appear on a part or all of the person which mayappear as a growth or withering away of a limb in all its muscles, nerves and blood supply. As in case of tumors on scalp, loss of hair, eruptions of face, growth of tonsils, ulcers of one or both ears, growths on outside and inside of eyes, a cause must precede an effect inall cases. A pain in head is an effect; cause is older than the effectand is absolute in all variations from normal conditions. A tumor on thehead and under the skin is an effect only. It took matter to give itsize, it took power to deliver that substance, the fact that a tumor wasformed, shows that the power to build was present and did the work ofconstruction. Another power should have been there to complete the workat that location; that power is the offbearing of the dead matter afterthe work of construction was complete. 

NERVE POWERS. 

If we think as men of reason should, we will count five nerve powers. They must all be present to build a part, and must answer promptly atroll call and work all the time. The names of these master workmen aresensation, motion, nutrition, voluntary and involuntary. All must answerat every roll call during life; none can be granted a leave of absencefor a moment. Suppose sensation should leave a limb for a time, have wenot a giving away of all cells and glands? An undue filling up followsquickly because sensation limits and tells when the supply is too greatfor the use of the builder's purpose. Suppose the nerve power known asmotion should fail for a time, starvation would soon begin its deadlywork for want of food. Suppose again the nerves of nutrition should failto apply the nourishing showers we would surely die in sight of food. With the voluntary nerves we move or stay at the will of he or she whowishes to give direction to the motor powers, at any time a change byaction is required. At this time I will stop defining the several andvaried uses of the five kinds of nerves, and begin to account forgrowths and other variations, from the healthy to the unhealthyconditions of man. The above named are the five known powers of animallife, and to direct them wisely is the work of the doctor ofOsteopathy. 

WITNESSES TO EXAMINE. 

He has five witnesses to examine in all cases he has under his care. Hemust give close attention to the source and supply of healthy blood. Ifblood is too scant he must look to the motor systems of blood making, that would surely invite his most careful attention and study of theabdomen. He cannot expect blood to quietly pass through the diaphragm ifimpeded by muscular constriction around aorta, vena cava or thoracicduct. The diaphragm can and is often pulled down on both vena cava andthoracic duct, obstructing blood and chyle from returning to heart somuch as to limit the chyle below the requirement of healthy blood, oreven suppress the nerve action of lymphatics to such degree as to causedropsy of the abdomen, or a stoppage of venous blood by pressure on venacava so long that venous blood would be in stages of ferment when itenters the heart for renovation, and when purified and returned thesupply is too small to sustain life to a normal standard. 

ABNORMAL GROWTHS. 

Thus the importance of a careful attention to the normal certainty ofall the ribs to which the diaphragm is attached is essential. Theeleventh and twelfth ribs may, and do often get pushed so far from theirnormal bearings, that they are often found turned in a line with thespine, with cartilaginous ends down near ilio-lumbar articulation. Whenin such position they draw the diaphragm down heavily on vena cava atabout the fourth lumbar. Then you have cause for intermittent pulse, asthe heart finds no passage of blood through the prolapsed diaphragmwhich is also stopping the vena cava and producing universal stagnationof blood and other fluids in all organs and glands below the diaphragm. Thus you have a beginning for abnormal growths of womb, kidneys and alllymphatics of liver, kidneys, spleen, pancreas, and all tumors ofabdomen. 

CEREBRO SPINAL FLUID. 

To satisfy the mind of a philosopher who is mentally capable of askingfor and knowing truth, when presented by nature, you must come at himoutside of the limits of conjecture, and address him with self-evidenttruths only. When he takes up the philosophy of the great subject oflife, to him who does know truth, no substitute can to any degreesatisfy his mental demands. To the one who would deal in conjectures orsuppose so's, he will at once be placed in the proper category to whichhe belongs, which is the drift-wood that floats down the dark river thatis overshadowed by the nightmare of ignorance and superstition. Aseeker after truth, is a man of few words, and they are used by him onlyby the truths or facts discovered. He has no patience with the unmeaningrecords offered only to please the credulous, and by those of little orno truth that appears during a long recitation of ungrounded statements. From the above it is wisely seen that the object of these remarks is topresent a few truths for the purpose of stimulating the attention of thelistener. We will take man when formed. When we use the word formed, wemean the whole building being complete. The brain with all organs, nerves, vessels, and every minutia in form with all materials found orused in life. 

BODY IN PERFECT HEALTH. 

We look at it in perfect health which means perfection and harmony notin part, but of the whole body. So far we are only filled with love, wonder and admiration. Another period of observation appears to thephilosopher. We find partial or universal discord from the lowestobservable to the highest in action and death. Then the book of whys isopened and displays its leaves which calls out mental labor even to thedegree of agony, to know the cause or causes that produce a failure of alimb in sensation, motion, nutrition, voluntary and involuntaryfunctional exhibits. His mind will explore the bone, the ligament, themuscle, the fascia, the channels through which the blood travels fromheart to local destiny, with lymphatics and their contents, --the nerves, the blood vessels and every channel through or over which all substancesare transmitted all over the body, particularly the disabled limb inquestion. It proceeds too and does obtain blood abundantly to and fromthe heart, but the results obtained are not satisfactory, and anotherleaf is opened of why no good results are obtained and where is themystery, what quality and element of force and vitality has beenwithheld? A thought strikes him that the cerebro spinal fluid is thehighest known element that is contained in the human body, and unlessthe brain furnishes this fluid in abundance a disabled condition of thebody will remain. He who is able to reason will see that this greatriver of life must be tapped and the withering field irrigated at once, or the harvest of health be forever lost. 

CHEMISTRY. 

As chemical compounds are not known to Osteopathy to be used asremedies, then its use as a study for the student is only to teach thatelements in nature do combine and form other substances, and withoutchanges and unions, no teeth, bone, hair, or muscle could appear in thebody from the food eaten. Then chemistry is of great use as a part of athorough Osteopathic education. It gives us the reasons why food isfound in the body as bone, muscle and so on, to all kinds of flesh, teeth and bones found in animal forms. Unless we know chemistryreasonably well, we can not do away with much mental worry of whatbecomes of food after eating. By chemistry the truths of physiology arefirmly established in the mind of the student of nature, that in man achemistry of wonderful powers does all the work of animal forms, andthat in the laboratory of nature's chemistry is the ruling power. Byelementary chemistry we are led to see the beauties of physiology only. Thus chemistry of the elementary is one, and physiology is the witnessthat it is law in man as in all nature. Thus in chemistry we comprehendsome of the laws of union in nature which we can use mentally withknowing confidence. In chemistry we become acquainted with the law ofcause and change in union, which is a standard law sought by the studentof Osteopathy. 

NATURE'S CHEMISTRY. 

Osteopathy believes that all parts of the human body do work on chemicalcompounds, and from the general supply manufacture for local wants; thusthe liver builds for itself of the material that is prepared in its owndivision laboratory. The same of heart and brain. No disturbing orhindering causes will be tolerated to stay if an Osteopath can find andremove it. We must reason that to withhold the supply from a limb, towither away would be natural. We suffer from two causes. First, want ofsupply (hunger), and the burdens of dead deposits along nerve centers, which five nerves by chemical changes while in fermentation shouldregulate local or general divisions. 

CORRECT METHOD OF REASONING. 

In concluding this chapter we will confine our labor to an effort todirect the beginner to a correct method of reasoning. When he is broughtface to face with the stern realities of the "sick room, " the Osteopathbegins his inquiries and follows with his questions just far enough toknow what division of the body is in trouble. If he finds an arm haslost motion, he goes to arm to explore for cause. He can begin his huntfor cause at hand, explore it carefully for wounds, strains or anylesion that could injure nerves of the arm. If he finds no probablecause there, he should explore bones for dislocations or strains ofligaments at elbow; if he finds no defect there sufficient to locatecause in lower arm or hand; he has only two more places left to inspect, the shoulder and neck with their articulations of bone and muscles. Iffound normal at shoulder, then go to neck, out of which go all or mostof the nerves of the arm; if he finds no lesion or cause equal to thetrouble so far, then he has been careless in his search and should goover and over from marrow to periostium of all bones of the neck andhead, because there are only five divisions in which a lesion can exist. Carefully look, think, feel and know that the head of the humerus istrue in the glenoid cavity, clavicle true at both ends of itsarticulation, with sternum and acromion processes. See that the bicepsare in their grooves, and ribs on spine are true at manubrium and spine, and that neck is true on first dorsal. True in all joints of the neck, as the nerves of the arm come from the neck, there must be no variationfrom normal, or trouble will appear from that cause. As the neck hasmuch to do with the arm, we should keep a living picture of the forms ofeach bone, how and where it articulates with others, how it is joined byligaments, what blood vessels, nerves and muscles cross or range with itlengthwise, because to overlook a small nerve and blood vessel you mayfail to remove a goitre, and all diseases of the head, face and neck. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE HEAD. 

 A Free Circulation--Death Blows--Something of the Neck--Order of Treatment--The Pelvis--Brains of Animals--Arterial Motion--Mental Vibrations--Overburdening the Mind--Hemiplegia. 

A FREE CIRCULATION. 

Before we treat of the head, we must follow blood from the heart to allorgans of the head. Not only look at the pictures in Gray, Morris, Gerrish, or some finely illustrated work on anatomy, but we must apply asearching hand and know to a certainty that the constrictors of neck, orother muscles or ligaments do not pull cervical and hyoid bones so closeas to bruise pneumogastric or any other nerves or fibres that wouldcause spasmodic contraction of digastric, stylo-hyoid or the wholeremaining group of neck muscles and ligaments, with which you are orshould be very familiar. Ever remember that the venous drainage must bekept normally active or congestion, and tumefaction, with inflammationof the glands of the head, face and neck will appear, and mark for youthis oversight; because the perpetual health, ease and comfort of thehead beginning with the scalp and hair, with their nerves, glands andpurity of blood supply, a healthy eye, good hearing, healthy action ofbrain with its magnetic and electric forces to the vital parts whichsustain life, memory and reason, depend directly and wholly uponunlimited freedom of the circulatory system of nerves, blood andcerebral fluid. They must be normal in action and quantityunembarrassed, otherwise bad hearing, ulcers of the ears, cross eyes, pterygium, cataract, granulated lids, staphyloma, lachrymosis and up tofull list of diseases of the eye, with tonsilitis, injured voice, tumorsand cancers of face, head, tongue, mouth and throat, along witherysipelas, blotches and pimples, and all diseases of the glandularsystem of the head and neck. Undoubtedly all these afflictions havetheir origin in obstructed normal action between the heart and thetermination of all above it, for want of nerve and blood harmony. 

DEATH BLOWS. 

Remember that death blows are dealt out freely above the sternum byirritation and constriction of the parts above described. We shouldoften refresh our minds, beginning with the muscles that connect thehead and neck, and know to a certainty as we explore that junction thatthe capitas minor, major and lateralis, long and short of both anticusand posticus regions are indisputably normal to your hand and judgment. It is almost useless to say to the anatomist who has had the drilling inall branches of that science, previous to obtaining his diploma, tocommence and detail the venous and excretory system, through which allthose glands are drained, and kept in a healthy condition, but we saythis much; let your morning, noon and evening prayer be this, Oh Lord!give me more anatomy each day I live, because experience has taught methe unavoidable demands when in the "sick room. "

SOMETHING OF THE NECK. 

Before you leave that wisely constructed neck, I want to press andimprint on your minds in the strongest terms that the wisest anatomist, and physiologist, the oldest and most successful Osteopath knows onlyenough of the neck, and its wondrous system of nerves, blood and musclesand its relation to all above and below it, to say, "From everlasting toeverlasting thou art great, O Lord God Almighty!" Thy wisdom is surelyboundless, for I see that man must be wise to know all about the neck, for we find by a twist of neck, we may become blind, deaf, spasmodic, lose speech and memory, and all that is known as the joys of man. Onthat division of the body all action of arms, legs, chest and allmuscles get their life--power and motion. Think for a moment of thethousands and tens of thousands of large and small fluid vessels thatpass to and from heart and brain, to every organ, bone, fibre, muscleand gland, both large and small, receiving and appropriating thesubstances as prepared in the chemical laboratory; so wisely situated, and so exact in all its works in the production and application of allsubstances in the body. 

ORDER OF TREATMENT. 

The reader will begin with the brain or head because I want to startwith the head; first give such diseases as belong to that division ofthe body. Then the neck, chest, abdomen and pelvis. Thus we have fivedivisions in regular order, beginning with the head and finishing withthe sacrum. The reader will find diseases of eye, ear, tongue, nose, face, scalp and hair under the chapter treating of the head. Next inregular order will be the division of the neck, with diseases of tonsilsand glands of neck, swallow, trachæ, nerves, blood vessels and muscles, fascia and lymphatics, superior cervical ganglion and other nerves ofthe neck, as they affect vitality in diseases. Then we pass on to thirddivision, with diseases of lung, heart, pericardium, and pleura, withall parts of chest. Then abdomen, liver, stomach and bowels, and allorgans with resisting power of diaphragm. Fifth, pelvis, with its greatsupply of nerves, blood and other fluids. These give us cause to haltand seat the mind for a long season of observation. A great field opensat this point for the observing thinker. 

THE PELVIS. 

In the pelvis we find a system of nerves and arteries with blood forlocal supply, besides blood to construct womb, bladder, rectum, colon, cellular system and all the muscles of that cavity (the pelvis) all ofwhich comes from arteries and branches above. We think it is notnecessary to name them only in bulk, to a student versed in anatomy. Perhaps less is known of the pelvic system and its functions than anydivision of the body, and for that reason I have felt that we shouldknow all that is possible to be learned. I believe more ignoranceprevails to-day of internal causes of diseases than would if we reasonedthat the pelvic nerves and vessels had much to do in forming theabdominal viscera. 

THE BRAIN OF ANIMALS. 

Of all parts of the body of man to be well studied, the brain should bethe most attractive. It is the place where all force centers, where allnerves connect to one common battery. By its orders the laboratory oflife begins to move on crude material and labors until blood is formedand becomes food for all nerves first; then arteries and veins by nerveaction and forces, to suit each class of work to be done by that set ofnerves which is to construct forms; keep blood constantly in motion bythe arteries and from all parts back to the heart, through the veins, that the blood may be purified, renewed and re-enter the arteries to betaken to all places of need. 

ARTERIAL MOTION. 

Arterial motion is normal during all ages, from the quick pulse of thebabe's arm, to the ages of each year to one hundred or more. At thisgreat age the pulse is so slow that the heat is not generated by thenerves, whose motor velocity is not great enough to bring electricity tothe stage of heat. All heat, high and low, surely is the effect ofactive electricity--plus to fever; minus to coldness. When an irritantenters the body by lung, skin or any other way, a change appears in theheart's action from its effects on the brain, to the high electricaction and that burning heat called fever. If plus violent type (yellowfever), if minus, low grades (typhus, typhoid, plagues), and so onthrough the list. 

MENTAL VIBRATIONS. 

To think implies action of the brain. We can grade thought although wecannot measure its speed. 

Suppose a person of one kind of business thinks just fast enough to suitthat profession. A man is engaged in raising hogs and that alone. Hemust reason on and of the nature of hogs. He begins about so: a hogeats, drinks, bathes, roots and sleeps. He knows the hog eats grain, sohe feeds it corn, or some other suitable cereal, with plenty of waterand good bedding. The swine is on his mind night and day. 

THE WHEELS OF THOUGHT. 

Now the question is, how fast does he think? How many revolutions do thewheels of his head make per minute to do all the necessary thinkingconnected with the hog business? Say his mental wheels revolve 100 timeseach minute. Then he adds sheep to his business, and if that shouldrequire 100 more revolutions and he takes charge of raising draft horseswith 175 revolutions added, you see the wheels of his head whizzing off375 vibrations per minute. And at this time he adds the duties of thecarpenter with 300 more revolutions, add them together and you see 675. To this number he adds the duties and thoughts of a sheriff, which arenumerous enough to buzz his wheels at 1500 more, you find 2175 to behis mental revolutions so far. Now you have the great physical demandsadded to the mental motion which his brain has to support, yet he can doall so far, fairly well. 

OVERBURDENING THE MIND. 

He now adds to his labors the manufacturing of leather, from all kindsof hides, with the chemistry of fine tanning, which is equal to allprevious mental motions. Add and you find 4250 revolutions all drawingon his brain each minute of the day. Add to this mental strain theincreased action of his body which has to perform these duties and yousee the beginning of a worry of both mind and body, to which you addmanufacturing of engines, iron puddling, rolling, etc. ; a delegate to anational convention, thoughts of the death of a near relative; add tothis a security debt to meet during a money panic. By this time the mindbegins to fag below the power of resistance. 

HEMIPLEGIA. 

Duration of such great mental vibrations for so long stops nutrition ofall or one-half of the brain, and we have a case of "Hemiplegia, " or thewheels of one-half of the brain run so fast as to overcome some fountainof nerve force and explode some cerebral artery in the brain and deposita clot of blood at some motor supply or plexus. 

Thus we see men from over mental action fall in our National councils, courts, manufactories, churches, and almost all places of great mentalactivity. Slaves and savages seldom fall victims to paralysis of anykind, but escape all such, for they know nothing of the strains of mindand hurried nutrition. They eat and rest, live long and happy. The ideaof riches never bothers their slumbers. Physical injuries may and oftendo wound motor, sensory and nutrient centers of brain; but the effect isjust the same, partial or complete suspension of the motor and sensorysystems. 

If you burst a boiler by high pressure or otherwise, your engine ceasesto move. And just the same of an over-worked brain or body. 

Hemiplegia. "The half" and "I strike. " Paralysis of one half of thebody. [2]

[Footnote 2: Chambers. ]

Hemiplegia is usually the result of a cerebral hemorrhage or embolism. It sometimes occurs suddenly without other marked symptoms, but commonlyit is ushered in by an apoplectic attack and on return of consciousnessit is observed that one side of the body is paralyzed, the paralysisbeing often profound in the beginning, and disappearing to a greater orless extent at a later period. 

Hemiplegia is much more rarely produced by a tumor. It then generallycomes on slowly, the paralysis gradually increasing as the neoplasmencroaches more and more upon the motor tracks, though the tumor may becomplicated by the occurrence of a hemorrhage and a sudden hemiplegia. 

A gradual hemiplegia may also be produced by an abcess or chronicsoftening of the brain substance. Other conditions or symptomspresented, will in such case, assist us to diagnose the nature of thelesion. 

CHAPTER IV. 

EAR WAX AND ITS USES. 

 Nature Makes Nothing in Vain--A Successful Experiment--A Question for Ages--The Position--Meaning of Life--Some Questions Asked--Condition in Certain Diseases Caused by Cold--Cerumen in Fluid State--Winter Kills Babies--Some Advice to Mothers--A Case in Point--Connection of the brain and Other Nerves in Digestion--Unaided Investigation. 

NATURE MAKES NOTHING IN VAIN. 

That nature makes nothing in vain is an established truth in the mindsof all persons whose observation has created in such persons a desire toreason, and that being my faith for many years I asked myself to try andget a reason of why nature had made and placed in a person's head somuch fine machinery just to make a little ear-wax. If nothing is made invain, what is that bitter stuff made for? It is always there, and morebeing made all the time. I have read many authors or say so's aboutear-wax, and about the best the wise or the unwise have said is that itwould keep bugs and other insects out of our heads. I thought if thatwas all that it was made for nature had done a great deal to shoo offthe bugs. The idea that it was made bitter and bad to eat just to makebugs sick was weak philosophy, if nature never did any useless work ormade anything in vain. At this time I saw the doors all open and a goodchance for the loaded mind to unload and give us other uses for ear-waxthan bug food, and to lubricate the auditory nerves with dry wax. Atthis time of my desire to know some positive use or object that naturehad in forming so much fine machinery and no use for its products whenmade, but to pull out of the head with a hairpin, I reasoned about so, that this dry hard wax was once in the gaseous or fluid state. 

A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT. 

When I had about concluded to sit down with the common herd of doctorsand say that wax was wax, a fat boy of two summers was reported to me tobe dying with croup. I began to think more about the dry wax that isalways found in cases of croup, sore throat, tonsilitis, pneumonia, andall diseases of the lungs, nose and head. On examination I found theear-wax dried up. So I put a few drops of glycerine, and after aminute's time a few drops of warm water in the child's head, and kept awet rag corked into its ear frequently for twelve hours, and gave itOsteopathic treatment, at the end of which time all signs of croup haddisappeared. I used the glycerine to soften the wax, which combiningwith water formed a harmless soap better qualified for washing the ear, and retaining the wax in solution than anything I have tried, for it ismy opinion that the ear wax should be kept in a fluid state. When inthat state the absorbent can more readily take it up and use it in theeconomy of life in this condition. The same day two ladies came to myhouse, sore in lungs, necks tied up, sore throats, fever and headache. As an experiment, in addition to Osteopathic treatment, I put a fewdrops of glycerine in their ears, followed with water to wet and softenthe wax which was dry and hard, to get it back to a fluid state. Bothgot better of their sore lungs and throats in a short time, and intwenty-four hours they were about well, and lungs coughing out phlegm, easily. From this I think that the cause of croup is simply the resultof abnormality of the cerumen system. 

A QUESTION FOR AGES. 

As a question of the uses of ear-wax has been before man for ageswithout an answer being given that passes the line of conjecture, Ithink there could be no reason why a few looks through the field glassof inquiry should not be given in a limited way on that great plane offertility, for the minds of our most profound thinkers. As far as thewriter can learn from reading and other methods of inquiry, the powerand use of ear-wax has never been known, looked on, or thought of as oneof life's agents for good or bad health. One asks this question: "Whyare you talking about ear-wax, the filthy stuff?" In answer I asked, "What do you know about ear-wax?" The answer, "I don't know or careanything about the dirty stuff. "

THE POSITION. 

As my spleen is my organ of mirth, I let it bounce against my side a fewtimes at such ignorance and gave the wax subject more study than ever--Ibegan to read all the books I could find on Anatomy, Physiology, andHistology to get some knowledge of the machinery that the wise architectof that greatest of all temples had made to generate wax. At this time aconviction came to me to be sure of its uses before I gave an opinion. Ifind the center of nerve supply of the ears located at the base of thebrain and side of the head, in front of the cerebellum, just below andnear the center of the brain, a little above the foramen magnum, closeto and behind the carotid arteries, deep and superficial, just above theentry of the spinal cord to the brain. Thus it is situated directly incommunication with all nerves to and from the brain to every part of thebody. Another question, and another came only to come and go without ananswer--such as how and where is this wax made? Of what use is it? Whyso awful bitter? Has it any living principle above dry earth? Is itproduced in the brain, lymphatics, fascia, heart, lungs, nerves orwhere? How much of it would kill a man? Would it kill at all? What is itmade for? Is it used by nerves as food, or used by lungs, heart, or anyorgan as an active principle in the magnetic or electric forces? So farall authors are silent even to offer a speculative opinion about how itis made and its uses. So far we get nothing from the ancient or modernwriters, as to its uses or anything that would cause a man to think thatthe Creator had any great design, when he made so wisely constructed andso much machinery and gave it such prominent place in the center of thebrain. By this time the reader begins to mentally ask what does this waxevangelist know about the wax and its uses? The writer wishes to observeand respect all nature and never be too hasty. To carefully explore all, and never leave until he finds the cause and use that nature's hand hasplaced in its works, never overlooking small packages as they oftencontain precious gems. I am sure no man of brilliant mind can pass thismilepost and not hitch his team and do some precious loading. At thispoint my pen will give notice to all anatomists, histologists, chemistsand physiologists that I will give "no sleep nor slumber to theireyes, " until I hear from them an answer, yes or no to these questions:For what purpose did God make ear-wax? Is it food or refuse? If food, what is nourished by it? and how do you know your position is true andundebatable?

MEANING OF LIFE. 

Life means existence; existence means subsistence; subsistence meanssomething to subsist on, and of the degree of refinement to suit thebeing or principle whose function is to do the skilled work which isfound marked on the tressle-board of the wisest of all builders, whosework is absolutely correct in form and action, and beautiful to behold. It calls out the admiration of man and God himself, who did say of man, "Not only good, but very good. "

SOME QUESTIONS ASKED. 

I consider ear-wax one of the most important questions before the mindsof our physiologists. The first and only knowledge of which substancebegins with the observer's eye when he beholds the dry wax as it isexcreted and dropped into the cavities of the ears. A questionarises--and stands without an answer--is this substance which iscommonly called ear-wax, technically called cerumen, is it dead or is italive while in this form and visible? If dead, why, and how did it loseits life? Why has it not been consumed if once a living substance? Whenalive, is it in the gaseous or fluid state? and when alive, and consumedas nutriment by the system what does it nourish? is the question for thephilosopher's attention, not superficial, but his deepest thought? Whyis it deposited in the center of the brain if not to impart its vitalprinciple to all nerves interested in life and nutrition--both physicaland spiritual. Its location, itself, would indicate its importance. Another thought is that no better place could be selected to establishand locate a universal supply office for the laborers of all parts ofthe whole superstructure. Another question arises: When we examine aperson paralyzed on one side, why do we find this bread of life in suchgreat quantities on the table and not consumed? Has not one-half of thebrain and the nerves of that whole side, limbs and all, lost their powerof digestion? Is hemiplegia a dyspepsia of the nerves of nutriment ofthe brain and organs of that side? If so we have some foundation onwhich to build an answer why this wax is not consumed and is dried up inthe ears of the parylytic. The answer would be that nutrition issuspended. 

CONDITIONS IN CERTAIN DISEASES, CAUSED BY COLDS. 

Let us take croup, diphtheria, scarlet fever, la grippe, and all classesof colds--on to pneumonia. They present about the same symptoms, differing more in degrees of severity than of place. All affect thetonsils, nostrils, membraneous air-passages, and lungs about the sameway. Croup exceeds by contracting the trachea enough to impede thepassing of air to the lungs; diphtheria has more swelling of thetonsils, throat and glands of the neck, but all depend upon the sameblood and nerve supply, or a general law of blood beginning witharteries to and from veins, lymphatics, glands and ducts to supply andtake away all fluids that are of no farther use to the vital andmaterial support. As all authors have agreed that the brain furnishesthe propelling forces to the nerves, it would be proper to inquire howthe brain is nourished. If so, we will begin and say the great cerebralsystem of arteries supply the brain of which it gives quality of allfluids and electric and magnetic forces, which must be generated in thebrain. Then a question arises, if the heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, lymphatics, kidneys and all parts of the body depend upon the brain forpower, what do they give in return? If they give back anything it mustbe of the kind of the organ from whence it comes; thus a kidney cannotgive liver nor spleen. Each must help to keep up the universal harmonyby furnishing its mite of its own kind. Suppose lung fever is the effectof lack of renal salts, where would be a better place to dispatch fromto renal organs than the ears to reach the brain and touch the nervethat connects with the sympathetic ganglion. 

CERUMEN IN FLUID STATE. 

Suppose we take the cerumen in its fluid state, by the secretions to thelungs from the ears and see the action of air and other substances onit, and it on them. We may safely look for a general action of somekind. If it be magnetic food, we will see the magnetic power shown inthe lungs, and through the whole system, vitalizing all organs andfunctions of life. Thus the lymphatics will move to wash out impurities, and the nutritive nerves will rebuild lost energy. As but little isknown or said of how or where the cerumen is formed, we will guess it isformed under the skin in the glands of the fascia and conveyed to theears by the secretory ducts. Its place and how it is manufactured is notthe question of the greatest importance, but its uses in disease andhealth. 

WINTER KILLS BABIES. 

The writer has much reason to believe he has found a reliable pointerfor the cause of croup, diphtheria, and pneumonia; also a rational andeasy cure that any mother can administer and save the babe from chokingto death in her arms. Having witnessed croup in all its deadly work forfifty years, and seen the best skill of each year and generation fail tosave, or even give relief, I lost all hope and grew to believe there wasno help and the doctor was only one more witness to the scene of deathand carnage found along the mysterious road that croup travels to slaythe babes of the whole earth. Of later days we have new and differentnames for the disease, but alas, it kills the babe just as it did beforeit was called diphtheria, la grippe and so on. 

SOME ADVICE TO MOTHERS. 

I write this more for the mothers than for the critics. We say tomothers, as you are not Osteopaths, you are perfectly safe in puttingglycerine in a child's ears. It is made from oils and fats. I believewhen the wax is not consumed it clogs up the excretories with deadmatter, thus the irritation of the nerves of throat, neck, lungs andlymphatics which give cause for the swelling of the tonsils and glandsof the neck. In this book can be found why I see wisdom in treating forcroup from the nerve centers of the brain. So far the uses andimportance of healthy ear-wax as a cure for disease has had no attentionthat I can find by any author on disease or physiology. I hope time andattention may lead us to a better knowledge of the cure of diphtheria, croup, scarlet fever and all diseases of the throat and lungs ofchildren, and how to cure a greater per cent than has been up to thiswriting. My experience up to date with such diseases, when treated asindicated, has been very encouraging. Though it is but a short timesince I began to treat by this method, it has proven good with the youngand old. 

As all authors so far seem silent even as to how or when the wax isformed, we must resort to much careful dissection to find the relationof the cerumen system to health. To intelligently acquaint the motherwith this treatment who does not understand anatomy so as to giveOsteopathic treatment for croup, diphtheria, and so on, I will say; takea soft wet cloth and wash the child's neck and rub gently down from earsto breast and shoulders; keep ears wet, often dropping in the glycerine. Use glycerine because it will mix with the water and dissolve the wax, while sweet oil and other oils will not do so. 

A CASE IN POINT. 

At 2 o'clock p. M. I called to see a babe having malignant croup in itsworst form, and examined its ears to see condition of wax. I had noticedin consumptives that some cases had great quantities of dry wax in oneor both ears, but to this time had not thought of such deposits being anevidence of lost or suspended action of the nerves that manufacturedcerumen. In this case I found wax dry and very hard, with much swellingand hardness in region of ears, eustachian tubes and tonsils. I reasonedthat the excretory duct had become clogged, and that by the wax beingretained in ducts and glands an irritation of the nerves of the cervicallymphatics had caused contraction near head, and produced congestion ofthe lymphatics, of the pneumogastric, and cutting off nerves supply fromlungs. Believing this to be very likely I concluded to act on the aboveline of reasoning and see if I could give some relief. I did not stop todebate why the wax was hard and dry, but how to soften the wax, was thequestion of interest to me then. So I proceeded. I reasoned that soapand water would be the best treatment to clean the ears, and soften thewax. At this point to select the best make of soap in the ears was to bedesired, so I took pure glycerine and water, dropped in a few drops andtook a small roll of cloth, made it wet in warm water and pushed it inears to keep them wet. In a few minutes I wet and inserted a soft clothcork in the child's ears. I twisted the corks around in the ears, eachtime to mix the water and the wax to a softened condition, for to keepthe wax wet was the object. In a few minutes I got the wax wet and thechild coughed up phlegm easily, and when the dreaded hour, ten o'clockat night came, all danger had passed. 

CONNECTION OF BRAIN AND OTHER NERVES IN DIGESTION. 

If digestion is the effect of organs, fluids and forces, then thestudent of nature's law must be governed by well known truths, such asthe location of the brain, connection of the nerves to other organs, bringing all parts interested in digestion in mental view. Thus you havea chance to know if one organ has an assisting relation to any otherorgan or system or if its products are of general or of special use. Afew questions at this point of inquiry would be in place. Does the braingive assistance in digestion, and why may we reasonably suppose so, whendigestion does its work normally and has a full, rich supply of blood?Yet disease enters the system, and begins its work with generalweakness, swelling, wastings, and pain with some, or all the glandscongested and sore, and a plenty of rich blood all the time. Then are wejustified to go to the brain and examine the electric and magneticbatteries? We know such forces exist but as their location in the brainis not known farther than the fact of their existence, we do not knowhow they are fed, nor from where, so we are fully warranted in seeking ause for both powers--magnetic and electric. One says the power ofelectricity belongs more to the motor nerves and the magnetic to thenutrient system; if not they are happily blended and give the results. Without such forces life and motion could not be sustained. As it is notmy object to write a treatise on general physiology, I will turn at onceto the subject of the relation of life and health as affected by theabnormal supply and action of ear-wax. [3]

[Footnote 3: "The secretion of the external auditory meatus, mixed withthe secretion of the neighboring glands or ceruminous glands, forms thewell known ear-wax or cerumen. The secretion in this place contains areddish pigment of a bitterish sweet taste, the composition of which hasnot been investigated. " American Text-Book of Physiology. ]

UNAIDED INVESTIGATION. 

As our investigations are without the assistance of ancient or modernwriters we will have to reason that man is a machine of form and power, forming its own parts and generating its own powers as it has use forthem. At this time we begin to reason thus, that all powers areinvisible and we see effect only. We know such forces to be abundant innature, and life is sustained by them. To find the substances in thebody that causes them to act and how to act, has been the object of myjourney as an explorer. If they give us health when normal actionprevails and disease only when abnormal, then we are admonished to forma more intimate acquaintance with the qualities, and with all theproducts, when formed in this great laboratory which compounds andqualifies each substance to fill its mission of force, construction, purity and action. 

CHAPTER V. 

DISEASES OF THE CHEST. 

 Where Confined--Consumption--Can Consumption Be Cured--Consumption Described--No Time for Surrender--Cerebral Spinal Fluid--How to Destroy Deadly Bombs of Decay--Battle of Blood for Life--Militis Tuberculosis--Conversion of Bodies Into Gas--Forming a Tubercle--Breeding Contagion--The Seeds of Disease--Generating Fever--Whooping Cough--Clouds and Lungs Are Much Alike--The Wisdom of Nature--Water Formed in Lungs--The Law of Fives--Feeble Action of Heart--The Heart--From Neck to Heart--Dyspepsia or Imperfect Digestion. 

WHERE CONFINED. 

Diseases of the chest are generally confined to heart, lungs, pleura, the pericardium, mediastium, blood vessels, with nerves and lymphatics. As we open the breast we behold the heart, a very large machine orengine, situated conveniently to throw blood to all parts of the body. To it we see hose or pipes that go to each organ, all muscles, thestomach, bowels, liver, spleen, kidneys, bladder and womb, all bones, fibers, ligaments, membranes, and its body, lungs and brain. When wefollow this blood through its whole journey to feed the dependent parts, be they organ or muscle, we find just enough unloaded at each station tosupply the demand as fast as consumed. Thus life is supplied at eachstroke of the heart, which gives blood to keep digestion in full motionwhile other supplies of blood are being made and put in channels tocarry to the heart, blood is freely given to keep those channels strong, clean and active. Thus much depends on the heart, and great care shouldbe given to that study, because a healthy system depends almost whollyon a normal heart and lung. Thus to study well the frame work of thechest should be with the greatest care. Every joint of the neck andspine has much to do with a healthy heart and lung, because all vitalfluids from crown to sacrum do or have passed through heart and lungs, and any slip of bone, strain or bruise will affect to some degree theusefulness of that fluid in its vitality, when appropriated in the placeor organ it should sustain in a good healthy state. To the Osteopath, his first and last duty is to look well to a healthy blood and nervesupply. He should let his eye camp day and night on the spinal column;to know if the bones articulate truly in all facets and other bearings, and never rest day or night until he knows the spine is true and in linefrom atlas to sacrum, with all ribs known to be in perfect union withprocesses of spine. In reasoning for probable causes of diseases ofchest, we are met with the fact that the heart and lungs are housed up, and out of reach of the hand and eye. We hear a cough, see blood andother substances after they pass out of the lungs; we learn of generaland local pain and misery, feel heat and cold on skin, note abnormalbreathing, but here we are at a stop, for want of facts. We knowsomething is wrong, but cannot say what, until after death has done thework, then we open the chest and find tubercles, cancers, ulcers andabcesses. How came they there? is the unanswered question. The servantof that breast who failed to keep his room clean, is the one to find andpunish. 

CONSUMPTION. 

I believe so much death by consumption will soon be with the things ofthe past, if the cases are taken early and handled by a skilledmind, --one trained for that responsible place. He or she must be taughtthis as a special branch. It is too deep for superficial knowledge orimperfect work. Life is in danger, and can be saved by skill, not byforce and ignorance. He who sees only the dollar in the lung, is not theman to trust with your case. 

It is such men as have the ability to think, and the skill to comprehendand execute the application of nature's unerring laws, that obtain theresults required. We believe the day has come, and long before noon, thefear of consumption will greatly pass from the minds of people. We havelong since known and proven that a cough is only an effect. If an effectthen a wise man will set his mental dogs on the track, which is (effect)to hunt the skunk, (cause). He has all the evidence by the cough, location of pain, tenderness of spine, neck, and quality of thesubstances coughed up to locate the cause, and to know, when he hasfound it, how to remove the cause, and give relief; will grow moresimple as he reasons and notes effect. We do not think this result willbe obtained every time by even an average mind, unless he has a specialtraining for that purpose. He must not only know that the lungs are inthe upper part of the chest close to the heart, liver and stomach, buthe must know the relation all sustain to each other, that the blood mustbe abundantly supplied, support and nourish three sets of nerves, namelysensory, motor and nutrient; also voluntary and involuntary. If thesupply should be diminished on the nutrient nerves, weakness wouldfollow; reduce the supply from the motor and it will have the sameeffect. Motion becomes too feeble to carry blood to and from lungsnormally, and the blood becomes diseased and congested, because it isnot passed on to other parts with the force necessary for health oflungs. 

At this time the nerves of sensation become irritated by pressure andlack of nutriment, and we cough, which is an effort of nature to unloadthe burden of oppression that congestion causes with sensory nerves. Ifthis be effect, then we must suffer and die, or remove the cause, putout the fire and stop waste of life, without which all is lost. Naturewill do its work of repairing in due time. Let us reason by comparison. If we dislocate a shoulder, fever and heat will follow. The same is trueof all limbs and joints of the body. If any obstructing blood or otherfluid should be deposited in quantities great enough to stop otherfluids from passing on their way, Nature will fire up its engine toremove such deposits by converting fluids into gas. As heat and motionhave much to do as remedies, we may expect fever and pain until nature'sfurnace produces heat, forms and converts its fluids into gas and otherdeposits, and passes them through the excretories to space, and allowsthe body to work normally again. 

HOW CONSUMPTION USUALLY BEGINS. 

We believe consumption causes the death of thousands annually who mightbe saved. We must not let stupidity veil our reason, and we are to blameif we let so many run into "Consumption" from a simple hard cough. Theremedy is natural, and we believe from results already obtained 75 percent can be cured if taken in time. What we generally call"Consumption" begins with a cough, chilly sensations, and lasts a day ortwo. Sometimes fever accompanies with cough, either high or low. Thecold generally relaxes in a few days, lungs get "loose, " and much israised and continues for a period, but the cough appears again and againwith all changes of weather, and lasts longer each time, until itbecomes permanent, then it is called "Consumption, " because of thiscontinuance. Medicines are administered freely and often, but the lungsgrow worse, cough more continued and much harder, till finally bloodbegins to come from lungs with wasting of strength. Change of climate issuggested and taken, but with no change for the better; another andanother travels to death on the same line. Then the doctor in councilreports "hereditary consumption" and with his decision all aresatisfied, and each member of the family feels that a cold and coughmeans a coffin, because the doctor says the family has "hereditaryconsumption. " This shade tree has given comfort and contentment to thedoctors of the whole past. 

CAN CONSUMPTION BE CURED?

If you have a tiresome and weakening cough at the close of the winter, and wish to be cured, we would advise you to begin Osteopathic treatmentat once, so the lungs can heal and harden against next winter's attack. 

This is the first I have written on "Consumption" because I wanted totest my conclusions by long and careful observations on cases that Ihave taken and successfully treated. I kept the results from publicprint until I could obtain positive proof that "Consumption" could becured. So far the discovered causes give me little doubt, and the curesare a certainty in very many cases. An early beginning is one of thegreat considerations in incipient consumption. 

CONSUMPTION DESCRIBED. 

For fear you do not understand what I mean by "Consumption" I will writeon a descriptive line quite pointedly. I will give start and progress tofully developed consumption. We often meet with cases of permanentcough, with expectorations of long duration, dating back two, five, ten, even thirty years, to the time they had measles. The severity of thecough and strain had congested even the lung substances, and a chronicinflammation was the result. If we analyze the sputa we find fibrin andeven lung muscle. Does all this array of dangerous symptoms cause anOsteopath to give up in despair? It should not, on the other hand heshould go deeper on the hunt of cause. He may find trouble in nervefiber of pneumogastric nerve, atlas or hyoid, vertebra, rib, orclavicle, may be by pressing on some nerve that supplies mucousmembrane of air cells or passages. A cut foot will often producelockjaw, why not a pressure on some center branch or nerve fiber causesome division--nerve of the lungs that governs venous circulation whichwould contract and hold blood indefinitely as an irritant, equal tocause, perpetual coughing?

NO TIME FOR SURRENDER. 

This is not the time for the brainy Osteopath to run up the white flagof defeat and surrender. Open the doors of your purest reason, put onthe belt of energy and unload the sinking vessel of life. Throwoverboard all dead weights from fascia and wake up the forces of theexcretories. Let the nerves all show their powers to throw out everyweight that would sink or reduce the vital energies of nature. Give thema chance to work, give them the full nourishment and the victory will beon the side of the intelligent engineer. Never surrender but die in thelast ditch. 

Let us enter the field of active exploration and note the causes thatwould lead us to conclude we have the cause that produces "consumption"as it has ever been called. 

Begin at the brain, go down the ladder of observation, stop and whetyour knives of mental steel sharp, get your nerves quiet by the opiumof patience. Begin with the atlas, follow with the search-light ofquickened reason, comb back your hair of mental strength, and neverleave that bone till you have learned how many nerves pass through andaround that wisely formed first part of the neck. Remember it wasplanned and builded by the mind and hand of the infinite. See what nervefibers passes through and on to the base center, and each minute cell, fascia, gland and blood vessel of the lungs. Do you not know that eachnerve fiber to its place is king and lord of all?

CEREBRAL SPINAL FLUID. 

I think consumption begins by closing the channels of cerebro-spinalfluid in neck, which fluid stands as one of, if not the most highlyrefined elements in animal bodies. Its fineness would indicate that itis a substance that must be delivered in full supply continually to keephealth normal; if so, we will for experimental reasons look at the neckligated, as found in measles, croup, colds and eruptive fevers. Supplyis stopped from passing below atlas for three days. During such diseasesfever runs high at this time and dries up the albumen, giving cause fortubercles to begin, as fever has dried out the water and left thealbumen in small deposits in the lungs, liver, kidneys and bowels. Ifthis view of the great uses of brain fluid is true as cause ofglandular growths and other dead deposits; have we not a cause formilitis tuberculosis? Have we not encouragement to prosecute withinterest, in the hope of an answer to the question, "What istuberculosis?" Our writers are just as much at sea to-day as a thousandyears ago. I will give the reader some of the reasons why I think themischief was started while fluid was cut off by congestion of neck. Howcan the fluid be cut off at neck is a very natural question. By thecrudest method of reasoning we would conclude that from the form of theneck, many objects are indicated, and the material of which it iscomposed would give reason to turn all its powers of thought, to ask whyit is so formed, as to twist, bend, straighten, stiffen and relax atwill, to suit so many purposes? A very tough skin--a sheathe--surroundsthe neck with blood vessels, nerves, muscles, bones, ligaments, fascia, glands great and small, throat and trachea. In bones we find a greatcanal for spinal cord. It is well and powerfully protected by a strongwall of bone, so no outer pressure can obstruct the flow of passingfluids, to keep vitality supplied by brain forces, but with all theguards given to protect the cord, we find that it can be overcome byimpact fluids to such degree as to stop blood and other fluids fromsupplying lungs and all below. 

The fluid we speak of comes from the skull, and when in process offormation must not be disturbed until it has passed through all chancesof being injured by force, air or light. Thus the great need of walls tohold the enemy outside the safety line. Such truths surely shouldattract our attention when we explore for causes. We can analyzematerial bodies but we have to stop at the life line for more knowledge. Our boats have been in port over 6000 years, waiting for knowledge aboutthe whats and whys of life, until barnacles of ignorance haveaccumulated to such thickness that the conchologist has called that cakeof shells "allopathy" which weighed anchor and turned to the great seaof human credulity to expound, with nothing but conjectures to offer. Hetoots his fog-horn in all lands and on all seas, and says, "age beforereason. " Thus one generation blindly follows another. 

HOW TO DESTROY DEADLY BOMBS OF DECAY. 

I think by this time the reader has gotten his mind in line with hisexploring needle of thought to get some light or knowledge of why agrowth and how a body that has never failed for few or many years, begins and continues to form and plant deadly bombs of decay in thatonce powerful engine of perfect health, to produce suicide. We see andknow this to be the case in thousands of beings annually, and this samequestion is just as applicable to the herds of animals as to man. Thuswe cry piteously for help, but no answer has come in past days; we go onand give place in lungs and other parts of the deadly tubercle. But oneanswer can be given in "Holy Writ" to suit these questions, "Cleanlinessis next to Godliness. " Turn the waters of life loose at the brain, remove all hindrances and the work will be done, and give us the eternallegacy, LONGEVITY. 

BATTLE OF BLOOD FOR LIFE. 

In America from the day of Washington and all centuries before his time, man has dreaded diseases of the lungs more universally than any otherone disease. If we compare pulmonary diseases with other maladies wefind more persons die of consumption, pneumonia, bronchitis and nervouscoughs than from smallpox, typhus and bilious fever and all other feverscombined. Many diseases of contagious natures do not stay in city, town, country nor an army, but a short time; kills a few and disappears andmay not return for many years. The same is the history of yellow fever, cholera and other epidemics. They slay their hundreds and stop asunceremoniously as they began. But when we think of diseases that beginto show their effects in tonsils, trachea and lining membranes of theair passages, we find we are in a boundless ocean; because we find allseasons of the year, which afford changes of weather: Wet, dry, windy, hot and cold, which mark 30° to 60° in twenty-four hours, chills thelungs and whole system, closes the excretory system against renovatingequal to deposits, with all other chances to throw out dead matter andgases that destroy blood and life in proportion to the amount and timeof abnormal retention. 

It takes no great mind to know from past observation that a common coldoften holds on and settles down to chronic inflammation of the lungs, and the patient dies of consumption, croup, diphtheria, tonsilitis, andas catarrhal trouble stays and begins to waste vitality by failing tooxygenize blood while in the lungs, diphtheria paves the way for theyoung and old to die of consumption. Dance halls, opera houses, churches, school houses, and all crowded assemblies never fail toinspect and deposit the seeds of consumption in weak lungs. 

As one delves deeper and deeper into the machinery and exacting laws oflife, he beholds works and workings of contented laborers of all partsof the one common whole--the great shafts and pillars of an engineworking to the fullness of the meaning of perfection. He sees that greatquarter-master the heart, pouring in and loading train after train andgiving orders to the wagon-master to line his teams and march on quicktime to all divisions, supply all companies, squads and sections withrations, clothing, ammunition, surgeons, splints and bandages, and putall the dead and wounded into the ambulances to be repaired or buriedwith military honors by Captain "VEIN, " who fearlessly penetrates thedensest bones, muscles and glands, with the living waters to quench thethirst of the blue corpuscles, who are worn out by doing fatigue duty inthe great combat between life and death. He often has to run his trainson forced marches to get supplies to sustain his men of life when theyhave had to contend with long sieges of heat and cold. Of all officersof life, none have greater duties to perform than the quarter-master ofblood supply, who borrows the force with which he runs his deliveriesfrom the brain which give motion to all parts of active life. 

MILITIS TUBERCULOSIS. 

A tubercle is a separate body being enveloped. [4]

[Footnote 4: Chambers. ]

As all descriptions of a tubercle in books amount to about this, thatthe tubercle is an amount of fleshy substance which may be albumen, fibrin, or any other substance collected and deposited at one place inthe human body, and covered with a film composed generally of fibrinoussubstances, and deposited in its spherical form, and separated from allsimilarly formed spheres by fascia. They may be very numerous, for manyhundreds may occupy one cubic inch and yet one is distinct from allothers. They seem to develop only where fascia is abundant; in thelungs, liver, bowels and skin. After formation they may exist and shownothing but roughened surfaces, and when the period of dissolution andthe solvent powers of the chemical laboratory take possession to banishthem from the system, it generally begins its labors at such time assome catarrhal disease is preying upon the human system. Nature seems tomake its first effort for the purpose of disposing of such substances ashave accumulated at the catarrhal period. At which time it bringsforward all the solvent qualities and applies them with the assistanceof the motor force to drive out through the bowels, lungs, porous andexcretory system all irritable substances. Electricity is called in asthe motor force to be used in expelling all unkindly substances. By thiseffort of nature, which is an increased action of the motor nerves, electricity is brought to the degree of heat usually called fever, whichif better understood we would possibly find to be the necessary heat ofthe furnace of the body being used to convert dead substances into gaswhich can travel through the excretory system and be thrown from thebody much easier than water, lymph, albumen or fibrin. 

CONVERSION OF BODIES INTO GAS. 

During this process of gas burning, a very high temperature is obtainedby the increased action of the arterial system through the motor nerves, permeating those tubercles and causing an inflammation of them by thegaseous disturbance so produced; another effort of nature to convertthose tubercles into gas and relieve the body of their presence andirritable occupancy. 

As an illustration we will ask the reader if it would be reasonable toexpect to pass a common towel through a pipe stem. Nevertheless naturecan easily do it. Confine the towel in a cylinder and apply fire, whichin time will convert the towel into gas or smoke, and enable it to passthrough the stem. Is it not just as reasonable to suppose those hightemperatures of the body are nature's furnaces, making fires out ofthose dead bodies, while passing them through the skin in order to getrid of these great and small towels which are packed all through thehuman fascia, and can only be passed from the body in a gaseous form;the gas generated by heat. 

The blackened eye of the pugilist soon fires up its furnaces andproceeds to generate gas from the dead blood that surrounds the eye. Though it may be considerable quantities under the skin, the blood soondisappears leaving the face and eye normal to all appearances. No pushas formed, nor deposit left, fever disappears, the eye is well. Whatbetter effort could nature offer than through its gas generatingfurnace. I will leave any other method for you to discover. I know ofnone that my reason can grasp. 

FORMING A TUBERCLE. 

When reason sees a white corpuscle in the fascia not taken up as anutrient, it attaches itself to the fascia with all its uterine powersduring the time of measles or other eruptive diseases, and soon takesform and is a vital and durable being whose name is tubercle; in form asphere, and place of foetal life is a cell in the fascia of lifegiving power to all forms of flesh. Thus all tubercles areunappropriated substances whom mother fascia has clothed and ordered incamp for treatment and repairs, and placed them on the list of enrolledpensioners, to draw on the treasury of the fascia, until death shalldischarge them. 

BREEDING CONTAGION. 

The mothers of the human race give birth to children from puberty tosterility. She may give birth a dozen times, but nature finally calls ahalt, and the whole system of life sustaining nerves of the womb whichare in the fascia, with blood in great abundance to supply foetallife, ceases to go farther with the processes of building beings. Vitality for that purpose stops, never to return. Nature has no longer ademand for her system to act as a constructing cause for other beings, of her kind, and she is free the remainder of her days. 

A question arises. Are children all she can develop in her system andgive birth to? No, she can go through other processes of breeding. Inher fascia there is one seed, if vitalized will develop a being calledmeasles. She never has but one confinement. That set of nerves that gavesupport and growth to measles died in the delivery of the child, andnever can conceive and produce any more measles. Another seed lives inher fascia waiting to be vitalized by the male principle of smallpox, and when it is born it always kills the nerves that gave it life andform. And the person never can have but one such child or being duringlife. 

Still another seed awaits the coming of the commissary to nourish whileit consumes that vitality in the fascia of the glands to develop theportly child we call mumps. Both male and female conceive and give birthto such beings, then tear up the tracks and roads behind them, bykilling the demand for such drink. 

I want to draw the mind of the reader to the fact that no being can beformed without material. A place in which to be developed, and allforces necessary to do the needed work. And as all excressences andabnormal growths, diseases and conditions, must have the friendlyassistance of the fascia before development; the fascia is the place tolook for cause of disease and the place to consult and begin the actionof remedies in all diseases, even though it be the birth of a child. 

THE SEEDS OF DISEASE. 

We can arrive at truth only by the powerful rules of reason, so thephilosopher has shouted from the house tops of all ages. He adjusts hismany supposable causes, adds to and subtracts until he arrives at aconclusion based upon the facts of his observations. Knowing theprinciples that exist in substances and seeds, by which when associatedwith proper conditions that powerful engine known as animal life givesthe truth with fact and motion as its voucher. We reason, if corn beplanted in moist and warm earth, that action and growth will present theform of a living stalk of corn, which has existed in embryo, and stillcontinues its vital actions as long as the proper conditions prevail, i. E. , until the growth and development is completed. If you take a seedin your fingers, push it in the ground and cover it up, incubation, growth and development is expected in obedience to the law under whichit serves. Thus we see to succeed we must deposit and cover up the seedin order that the laws of gestation may have an opportunity by whichthey get the results desired. As nature always presents itself to ourminds as seeds deposited in soil and season to suit, and it is loyal toits own laws only, we are constrained by this method of reasoning toconclude that disease must have a soil in which to plant its seedsbefore gestation and development. It must have seasonable conditions, the rains of nourishment, also the necessary time required for suchprocesses. All these laws must be fulfilled to the letter, otherwise afailure is absolute. As the great laboratory of nature is always at workin the human body, the chilling winds and poisonous breaths, withextremes of heat and cold at different seasons of the year by day andnight, and the lungs and skin are continually secreting and excretingevery minute, hour and day of our lives, is it not reasonable to supposethat we inhale many elements that are floating in the common winds thatcontain the seeds of some destructive element, to the harmony of fluidsthat are necessary to sustain the healthy animal forms. 

GENERATING FEVER. 

Suppose it should start the yeast, or kind of substance that livesgreatly upon lime. If this yeast in its action and thirst for food tosuit its life and appetite should call in from the earth, water andatmosphere for its daily food lime substances only, and by its powerdestroy all other principles taken as nourishment, is it not reasonableto suppose it would deposit such elements in over powering quantities inthe fascia of the mucous membrane of the lungs in such quantities, as toovercome the renovating powers of the lungs and excretory system, by itsparalyzing quantities of diseased fluids, all through the universalfascia of animal life. This deposit acts as an irritant to the sensorynerves to such an extent that the electricity of the motor nerves isforced to take charge of, and run the machinery of the human body, withsuch velocity as to raise the temperature of the body, by putting theelectricity above the normal action of animal life, and thereby generatethat temperature known as fever?

The two extremes, heat and cold, may be the causes of retention anddetention. One is detained by the contraction of cold until the bloodand other fluids die by asphyxia. The warm temperature producesrelaxation of the nerves, blood, and all other vessels of the fascia, during which time the arteries are injecting too great quantities offluids to be renovated by the excretory systems. Thus you have a causefor decomposition of the blood and other substances, to be conveyed tothe lungs for purification and renewal. You have a logical foundationand a cause for all diseases, catarrhal, climatic, contagions, infections, and epidemics. The fascia proves itself to be the probablematrix of life and death. Beginning with the mucous membrane penetratingall parts to supply and renovate the fluids of life, and nourishing allthe nerves of nutrition and assimilation. When harmonious in normalaction, health is good; when perverted, disease is destructive untodeath. 

WHOOPING COUGH. 

I have perused all the authority obtainable, advised with and counciledfor information in reference to the cause of whooping cough until I amconstrained to think, whether I say so or not, that I have had manyadditions of words during the conversation, and to use a homely phrase, less sense than I started out with. My tongue is tired, my brainexhausted, my hopes disappointed and my mind disgusted, that after somuch effort to obtain some positive knowledge of the disease inquestion, which is whooping cough, that I have received nothing thatwould give me any light whatever pertaining to the subject. It winds upthus, that it may be a germ that irritates the pneumogastric nerve. I gooff as blank and empty as the fish lakes on the moon. I supposed writerswould say something in reference to the irritating influence of thisdisease on the nerves and muscles that would contract or convulsivelyshorten the muscles that attach at the one end to the os hyoid, and atthe other end at various points along the neck, and force the hyoid backagainst the pneumogastric nerve, hypoglossal, cervical, or some othernerve that would be irritated by such pressure on nerves by the oshyoid, when pulled back and held against such nerves. The above picturewill give the reader some idea why I became so thoroughly disgusted withthe heaps of compiled trash. I say trash because there was not a singletruth, great or small, to guide me in search of the desired knowledge. And at this point I will say on my first exploration I found all of thenerves and muscles that attach to the os hyoid at any point contracted, shortened and pulling the hyoid back to and pressing against thepneumogastric nerve, and all the nerves in that vicinity. Also each andevery muscle was in a hard and contracted condition in the region ofthis portion of the trachea, and extended up and into the back part ofthe tongue. Then I satisfied myself that this irritable condition of themuscles was possibly the cause of the spasms of the trachea during theconvulsive cough. I proceeded at once with my hand guided by my judgmentto suspend or stop for awhile the action of the nerves of sensation thatgo with and control the muscles of the machinery which conducts air toand from the lungs. That my first effort while acting upon thisphilosophy was a complete relaxation of all muscles and fibers of thatpart of the neck, and when they relaxed their hold upon the respiratorymachinery the breathing became normal. I have been asked what bone Iwould pull when treating whooping cough? My answer would be, the bonesthat held by attachment the muscles of the hyoid system in suchirritable condition that begin with the atlas and terminate with thesacrum. To him who has been a willing student of the American School ofOsteopathy the successful management of whooping cough should beabsolute, reliable and successful in all cases, when taken for treatmentin anything like, a reasonable time. 

CLOUDS AND LUNGS ARE MUCH ALIKE. 

One is always the same in form and stays in the body of animals, whilethe clouds, the lungs of the sky, are never the same in form. They aresometimes very dense and separated from all others. Such are morefurious in display. Then we see the softer clouds which cover allvisible space above; they too give us rain but in a more quiet way andare more extended in space; they shade the sun, and form water byuniting oxygen and hydrogen, and supply vegetation and all demands forwater. Now we see and know the uses for the clouds or lungs of the sky, and we are led to hunt and locate the water forming clouds of the animalbeings. As we behold above us the forming clouds we see great activity, with darkness and attending shadows, without such shadows or darkness norain can form. 

The lung of man, too, is in the shade, and surely like the clouds havemuch to do with the air which contains both gases, which compose waterand other elements of life. With my power of reasoning, if the lungs donot generate water and supply the human system through the secretions tosustain life, and keep the body clean and healthy by the excretories, Iam at a loss to know why so much wind is taken into the body just toblow out. One would say we live by the wind, and to cut it off we die. At this point I will ask the question, Where and how do fishes get theirwind? If they can live on oxygen and hydrogen when united in the form ofwater, is not this the strongest conclusion we can come to that thelungs generate water of a purer quality than is found in the runningbrooks or ocean?

Is it not reasonable to suppose that in the lungs can be found thefountain from which water is conveyed to the lymphatics and other partsof the body, to mix with the blood and keep it in proper condition whilein construction and processes of renovation? Then if this be true, havewe not established and located the fountain head and supply of thenutrient waters of life? If so are we not justified in going to thatfountain for water to extinguish a fire that is consuming the body, which we call fever? This heat never appears until the water supplyingthe lymphatics is very much exhausted, previous to this exhibition ofheat; which the chemist would conclude was the result of the action ofphosphorous uniting with oxygen without hydrogen. 

We as philosophical machinists, to extinguish this fire by every methodof reason, would be forced to go to the lungs, and place them in acondition that they can generate water at once and supply the excretoryducts, which will at the first pulsation of the heart throw water uponthe consuming fire, and extinguish it by uniting oxygen with hydrogen, and cover the burning building with water by disabling the power ofphosphorous and oxygen from uniting and keeping up the flames ofdestruction. 

THE WISDOM OF NATURE. 

For all my life previous to the day I spoke out with my conclusions ofthe wisdom of nature as a very wise and careful mechanic, I had beentold that "God" was wise to a finish, --from my birth until I wasthirty-five years old, --when I saw that all work done by that law ofpower and wisdom was absolutely perfect in all its requirements. Invegetable life no power of human can detect a flaw or even suggest anadditional leaf, limb or fruit. I had made a long study of minerology inwhich I found each stone or mettle was in a division of life that wasits own, and no other stone could appear dressed in its garb, from theblack silurian to the purely transparent crystal. I saw that a diamondcould not be a ruby, neither could it be an oak, a goose nor a goat. With all the teaching which had given God credit for his perfectconstruction, wisdom and ability in all nature, I reasoned that inparching seasons that the sun's fires were put out, and a feverish earthcooled by the falling dews of the clouds. I asked of my own reason ifthere was not a cloud of water in the human body that could be caused todrop its dews, put out the fires of fever, and save the forests of lifethat were being burned every fall season. 

WATER FORMED IN LUNGS. 

I reasoned that water was made by the union of two gases, hydrogen andoxygen, --then a question arose, Is it not fully in line with reason thatunion of the two gases can and does occur in the lungs and form water, that is taken up by the secretions carried to the lymphatics, and bythem to all of the system and stored away for use? Thus I reasoned, andproceeded to seek nerve centers to cause the lymphatics to dischargethis water on such places and in quantities sufficient to reduce theheat called fever. I succeeded, fevers vanished as with a magic touch, and left the persons, both old and young, in their normal temperatureswithout any difference as to kinds of fever to the complete list. 

Our lungs are surely the half-way place between life and death. We aretold by chemistry that two gases make water for the uses of the body. Isit not true that nature makes water in great quantities often forspecial cases or conditions, for relief purposes, such as in asiaticcholera, cholera morbus, chills and fever; when the contents of stomach, bowels and skin run off many gallons of water, running through sheet andmattress and on floor, not from kidneys but skin. Is it not plain to theman of reason that the two gases, oxygen and hydrogen, do unite in thelungs, form water and give supply to this great river of water thatwashes life out in but a few hours in cases of cholera and otherdiseases. The person is very cold at such times, breath and lung farbelow the normal, and fully enough to condense gases to water. 

THE LAW OF FIVES. 

Lungs have five lobes, three on right lung, and two on left. Liver hasfive lobes, three on right lobe, and two on left lobe. Nerves have fivequalities, nutrition, sensation, motion, voluntary and involuntary. Nerves have five senses, seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling and tasting. Since all principles differ in qualities or kinds of service, would itbe amiss for us to inquire a little farther why the lungs and liver areprovided with five divisions each, if not to do five kinds of work, anddifferent from all other kinds in many ways?

FEEBLE ACTION OF HEART. 

I want to draw your attention to the facts that there is no method knownby which electricity or magnetic forces can be weighed. When we find thenerves that connect the heart and lungs to brain limited by pressurefrom twist or slip of neck, do we not see cause for croup? How would wereason to convey electricity without a connected wire? Not at all, wewould know no electric force could reach to any point unless a continuedconnection was made. Now to the point; suppose the vagus nerve should beoppressed to a condition to cut off part of the electricity, would we besurprised if the heart should be feeble in action. I think much of thediseases of the "_heart_" are not of the organ but from a feeble supplyof electricity that is cut off in medulla or heart nerves, between heartand brain. Why singing and roaring of ears in heart diseases, if thereis no waste of pectoral electricity?

THE HEART. 

With the knife of reason in hand and the microscope of mind of thegreatest known power properly adjusted, we cut and lay open the breastof man. Here we dwell indefinitely. This is the engine of life, theself-propelling machine which has constructed all that is necessary toits own convenience and comfort. It has brought and deposited its ownnourishment in the coronary arteries, whose duty is to construct andenlarge the heart from time to time as its demands increase. We see itsmain trunk of supply placed lengthways with the spinal column for thepurpose of constructing a manufactory of nutriment. We pass from theheart upward about one foot, here we find it has constructed a batteryof force and sensation, and contains all power necessary to carry onconstruction to the completed man. 

In that brain or battery is found all the motor and sensory elements oflife, with nerves to transmit all nerve powers and principles found inthe human body. There is not a known atom in the whole human make-upthat has not been propelled by the heart through the channels by whichit has provided for such purpose. Every muscle, bone, hair, and allother parts without an exception have traveled through this system ofarteries to their separate destinations. All are indebted to the heartfor their material size, and all qualities of motion and life sustainingprinciples of the human body. 

If the carotid artery should tire out and not be able to perform itsduty the brain would tire out also, and cease to operate. Should thedescending aorta come to a halt from any cause, all parts of the bodydepending upon that vessel would suffer a total loss of blood supply. Equally so with any other principal artery of limb or body, all mark afailure equal to the suspended supply. The parts and principles of thehuman body depending upon the heart are numerous beyond computation. Every expulsive stroke of the heart throws into line armed and equippedfor duty thousands and millions of operators, whose duties are toinspect, repair injuries and construct anew if need be from the crown ofthe head to the sole of the foot. With the best eye of reason we see butdimly into the breast of man which contains the heart, the wonder of manand the secret of life. 

I have given these bulky descriptions of the forest and ocean toprepare the mind of man to begin the inspection of the machinery thathas constructed the body of which he is the indweller. If we cannotswallow all, we can taste. 

FROM NECK TO HEART. 

The hearts of all animals should call the most careful attention of thestudent of nature. He finds in it the first act of life; from it go allparts or by it all parts of the body are made, and the student of naturesoon learns that at the heart he finds the first evidence of the powerof life to continue and give useful shape to matter. Its first work isto complete itself in material form with necessary chambers to holdblood and with tubes to convey to all places of need. He sees vesselsleaving the heart to form brain, lungs, liver, trunk and limbs, and witheach and all he can see the nerves of motion, sensation, nutrition, thevoluntary and involuntary--all working in perfect harmony and content todo their part in the economy of life. Without that union in action aconfusion will show in form of abnormality which is known as disease. Onits work all nerves do depend for force and strength to build andrenovate the body in all its bones, muscles and nerves--thus allchannels to and from the heart must be cleared from all hindrance. Nonerve can do its part unless it be well nourished. If not it will failto execute its part for want of power--for by it all blood must move. These nerves are found in plexuses in all parts of the body; they areabundant in the skin, fascia, muscle, lymphatics and all organs greatand small. The Osteopath must know or learn that no infringement can betolerated in any part. Nature's demands are surely absolute, and requirethat the last farthing shall be paid in full. Now for a start--we willexplore the neck; here we have the great and small occipital and thecervical group all receiving from the brain and feeding parts below. Thus we must stop at the neck and read the lessons that can be foundthere, and learn them well; or we will find that we will not be able tomeet diseases only to be defeated. We must have the fight during thefour seasons of the year. In the cold seasons we will find lung andother diseases--croup, pneumonia, diphtheria, sore throat. All these dotheir mischief through the nerves of the neck. 

Where is or who is the great thinker who knows and can tell all of theduties and actions of the nerves of the neck, or what nerve failed andslept while a tubercle was formed in the lungs? Which nerve slept whilefat is heaped up in useless piles in the body? Let us wake up!Consumption does not come without a cause. What plexus is overcome andallows the lungs to waste away? To what ganglion of the spine would thefinger of reason point, and say, "that is the cause of _phthisispulmonalis_?" In our search we find a division of nerves run from thebrain through the regions of the neck, and find a point at which abranch leaves a greater nerve on a line that leads to the lungs. We willlikely find a ganglion at which place all or much of one or both lungsare supplied. Then we, by reason, would see that freedom of actioncannot be. If some substance should intrude by pressure on any nerve inthat region, we must judge by conditions if that pressure has cut offnutrition equal to feeble condition of the lungs. 

DYSPEPSIA OR IMPERFECT DIGESTION. 

In our physiologies we read much about digestion. We will start in wherethey stop. They bring us to the lungs with chyle fresh as made andplaced in thoracic duct, previous to flowing into the heart to betransferred to lungs to be purified, charged with oxygen and otherwisequalified, and sent off for duty, through the arteries great and small, to the various parts of the system. But there is nothing said of thetime when all blood is gas (if ever) before it is taken up by thesecretions, after refinement, and driven to the lungs to be mixed withthe old blood from the venous system. A few questions about the bloodseem to hang around my mental crib for food. Reason says we cannot useblood before it has all passed through the gaseous stage of refinement, which reduces all material to the lowest forms of atoms, beforeconstructing any material body. I think it safe to assume that allmuscles and bones of our body have been in the gas state while in theprocess of preparing substances for blood. A world of questions arise atthis point. 

QUESTIONS OF GAS. 

The first is, Where and how is food made into gas while in the body? Ifyou will listen to a dyspeptic after eating you will wonder where hegets all the wind that he rifts from his stomach, and continues for oneor two hours after each meal. That gas is generated in the stomach andintestines, and we are led to believe so because we know of no otherplace in which it can be made and thrown into the stomach by any tubesor other methods of entry. Thus by the evidence so far the stomach andbowels are the one place in which this gas is generated. Now comesquestion two: As I have spoken of the stomach that generates and ejectsgreat quantities of gas for a longer or shorter time after meals, thisclass of people have always been called dyspeptics. Another class of thesame race of beings stand side by side with him, without this gasgenerating. He, too, eats and drinks of the same kind of food, withoutany of the manifestations that have been described in the first class. Why does one stomach blow off gas continually, while the other does not?is a very deep, serious and interesting question. As number two throwsoff no gas from the stomach after eating, is this conclusive evidencethat his stomach generates no gas? Or does his stomach and bowels formgas just as fast as No. 1? and the secretions of the stomach and bowelstake up and retain the nutritious matter and pass the remainder of thegas by way of the excretory ducts through the skin? If the excretoryducts take up and carry this gas out of the body by way of the skin, andhe is a healthy man, why not account for No. One's stomach ejecting thisgas by way of the mouth, because of the fact that the secretions of thestomach are either clogged up or inactive, for want of vital motion ofthe nerve terminals of the stomach. Another question in connection withthis subject: Why is the man whose stomach belches forth gas in suchabundance also suffering with cold feet, hands and all over the body, while No. 2 is quite warm and comfortable, with a glow of warmth passingfrom his body all the time? With these hints I will ask the question:What is digestion?

CHAPTER VI. 

THE LYMPHATICS. 

 Importance of the Subject--Demands of Nature on the Lymphatics--Dunglinson's Definition--Dangers of Dead Substances--Lymph Continued--Solvent in Nature--Where Are the Lymphatics Situated?--The Fat and Lean. 

IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 

Possibly less is known of the lymphatics than any other division of thelife-sustaining machinery of man. Thus ignorance of that division isequal to a total blank with the operator. Finer nerves dwell with thelymphatics than even with the eye. The eye is an organized effect, thelymphatics the cause; in them the spirit of life more abundantly dwells. No atom can leave the lymphatics in an imperfect state and get a unionwith any part of the body. There the atom obtains form and knowledge ofhow and what to do. The lymphatics consume more of the finer fluids ofthe brain than the whole viscera combined. By nature, coarser substancesare necessary to construct the organs that run the blast, and roughforging divisions. The lymphatics form, finish, temper and send thebricks to the builder with intelligence, that he may construct byadjusting all according to nature's plans and specifications. Naturemakes machinery that can produce just what is necessary, and whenunited, produces what the most capable minds could exact. 

The lymphatics are closely and universally connected with the spinalcord and all other nerves, long or short, universal or separate, and alldrink from the waters of the brain. By an action of the nerves of thelymphatics, a union of qualities necessary to produce gall, sugar, acids, alkalies, bone, muscle and softer parts, with the thought thatelements can be changed, suspended, collected and associated and produceany chemical compound necessary to sustain animal life, wash out, salt, sweeten and preserve the being from decay and death by chemical, electric, atmospheric or climatic conditions. By this we are admonishedin all our treatment not to wound the lymphatics, as they areundoubtedly the life giving centers and organs. Thus it behooves us tohandle them with wisdom and tenderness, for by and from them a witheredlimb, organ or any division of the body receives what we callreconstruction, or is builded anew, and without this cautious procedureyour patient had better save his life and money by passing you by as afailure, until you are by knowledge qualified to deal with thelymphatics. 

DEMANDS OF NATURE ON THE LYMPHATICS. 

Why not reason on the broad plain of known facts, and give the why he orshe has complete prostration. When all systems are cut off from a chanceto move and execute such duties as nature has allotted to them, motornerves must drive all substances to and sensation must judge the supplyand demand. Nutrition must be in action the time and keep all parts wellsupplied with power to labor or a failure is sure to appear. We mustever remember the demands of nature on the lymphatics, liver andkidneys. They must work all the time or a confusion for lack in theirduties will mark a cripple in some function of life over which theypreside. 

DUNGLINSON'S DEFINITION. 

Dunglinson's scientific definition of the lymphatics is very extensive, comprehensive and right to the point for our use as doctors ofOsteopathy. He describes the lymphatic glands as countless in number, universally distributed all through the human body, containing vitalizedwater and other fluids necessary to the support of animal life, runningparallel with the venous system, and more abundantly there than in otherlocations of the body, at the same time discharging their contents intothe veins while conveying the blood back to the heart from the wholesystem. Is it not reasonable to suppose that besides being nutrientcenters, that they accumulate and pass water through the whole secretoryand excretory systems of the body, in order to reduce nourishment tothat degree from thick to thin, that it may easily pass through alltubes, ducts and vessels interested in distribution, as nourishmentfirst, and renovation second, through the excretory ducts. The questionarises whence cometh this water?

DANGERS OF DEAD SUBSTANCES. 

This leads us back to the lungs as one of the great sources of which youhave been informed under the head of "Lungs, Gases and Water. " With thisfountain of life saving water provided by nature to wash away impuritiesas they accumulate in our bodies, would it not be great stupidity in usto see a human being burn to death by the fires of fever, or die fromasphyxia by allowing bad or dead lymph, albumen, or any substance toload down the powers of nature and keep the blood from being washed tonormal purity? If so, let us go deeper into the study of the life-savingpowers of the lymphatics. Do we not find in death that the lymphaticsare dark, and in life they are healthy and red?

LYMPH CONTINUED. 

What we meet with in all diseases is dead blood, stagnant lymph, andalbumen in a semi-vital or dead and decomposing condition all throughthe lymphatics and other parts of the body, brain, lungs, kidneys, liverand fascia. The whole system is loaded with a confused mass of blood, that is mixed with much or little unhealthy substances, that should havebeen kept washed out by lymph. Stop and view the frog's superficiallymphatic glands; you see all parts move just as regular as the heartdoes; they are all in motion during life. For what purpose do they move?if not to carry the fluids to sustain by building up, while theexcretory channels receive and pass out all that is of no further use tothe body. Now we see this great system of supply is the source ofconstruction and purity. If this be true we must keep them normal allthe time or see confused nature in the form of disease, the listthrough. Thus we strike at the source of life and death when we go tothe lymphatics. 

With this fountain of life-saving water, provided by nature to wash awayimpurities as they accumulate in our bodies, would it not be greatstupidity in us to see a human being burn to death by the fires offever, or die from asphyxia, by allowing bad or dead lymph, albumen orany substance to load down the powers of nature to keep the blood washedto normal purity? If so let us go deeper in the study of thelife-sustaining powers of the lymphatics. 

NATURE'S SOLVENTS. 

The brain flushes the nerves of the lymphatics first, and more than anyother system of the body. No part is so small or remote that it is notin direct connection with some part or chain of the lymphatics. Thedoctor of Osteopathy has much to think about when he consults naturalremedies, and how they are supplied and administered, and as disease isthe effect of tardy deposits in some or all parts of the body, reasonwould bring us to hunt a solvent of such deposits, which hinder thenatural motion of blood and other fluids in functional works, which areto keep the body pure from any substance that would check vital action. When we have searched and found that the lymphatics are almost the solerequisite of the body we then must admit that their use is equal to theabundant and universal supply of such glands. If we think and use ahomely word and say that disease is only too much dirt in the wheels oflife, then we will see that nature takes this method to wash out thedirt. As an application, pneumonia is too much dirt in the wheels of thelungs, if so we must wash out; no where can we go to a better place forwater than to the lymphatics. Are they not like a fire company withnozzles in all windows ready to flush the burning house?

WHERE ARE THE LYMPHATICS SITUATED?

A student of life must take in all parts, and study their uses andrelations to other parts and systems. We lay much stress on the uses ofblood and the powers of the nerves, but have we any evidence that theyare of more vital importance than the lymphatics? If not let us halt atthis universal system of irrigation and study its great uses insustaining animal life. Where are they situated in the body? Answer by, where are they not? No space is so small as to be out of connection withthe lymphatics, with their nerves, secretory and excretory ducts. Thusthe system of lymphatics is complete and universal in the whole body. After beholding the lymphatics distributed along all nerves, bloodchannels, muscles, glands and all organs of the body, from the brain tothe soles of the feet, all loaded to fullness with watery liquids, wecertainly can make but one conclusion as to their use, which would be tomingle with and carry out all impurities of the body, by first mixingwith such substances and reducing them to that degree of fluids infineness, that could pass through the smallest tubes of the excretorysystem, and by that method free the body from all deposits of eithersolids or fluids, and leave nourishment. 

THE FAT AND LEAN. 

A question: Why is he too fat and she only skin and bone, while a thirdis just right? If one is just right, why not all? If we get fat by anatural process why not reverse the process and stop at any desirablepoint in flesh size? I believe the law of life is simple and natural inboth respects if wisely understood. Have we nerves of motion to carryfood to all parts, organs, glands and muscles? Have we channels toconvey to all? Have we fluids to suit all demands? Have we brain powerequal to all force needed? Is blood formed sufficiently to fill alldemands? Does that blood contain fat, water, muscle, skin, hair and allkinds to suit each division, organ, and nerve? If so and blood hasbuilded too much flesh, can it not take that bulk away by returningblood to gas and other fluids? Can that which has been done be doneagain? If yes be the correct answer, then we should hope to returnblood, fat, flesh and bone to gas and pass them away while in gaseouscondition, and do away with all unnatural size or lack of size. Ibelieve that it is natural to build and destroy all material form fromthe lowest animated being to the greatest rolling world. I believe noworld could be constructed without strict obedience to a governing law, which gives size by addition and reduces that size by subtraction. Thusa fat man is builded by great addition, and if desired can be reducedby much subtraction, which is simply a rule of numbers. We multiply toenlarge, also subtract when we wish a reduction. Turn your eye for atime to the supply trains of nature. When the crop is abundant, thelading would be great, and when the seasons do not suit, the crops areshort or shorter to no lading at all. Thus we have the fat man and thelean man. Is it not reasonable as a conclusion of the most exactingphilosophy that the train of cars that can bring loads of stone, brickand mortar until a great bulk is formed, can also carry away until thisbulk disappears in part or all? This being my conclusion I will say bymany years of careful observation of the work of creating bodies anddestroying the same, that to add to is the law of giving size, and tosubtract from is the law of reduction. Both are natural, and both can bemade practical in the reduction or addition of flesh, when found toogreat in quantity, or we can add to and give size to the starving musclethrough the action of the motor and nutrient system conveyed to, andappropriated from the laboratory in which all bodily substances areformed. Thus the philosophy is absolute, and the sky is clear to proceedwith addition and subtraction of flesh. I believe I am prepared to sayat this time that I understand the nervous system well enough to directthe laboratory of nature and cause it through its skilled arts tounload, or reduce, he who is over-burdened with a super-abundance offlesh, and add to the scanty muscle a sufficiency to give power ofcomfortable locomotion and other forces, by opening the gate of thesupply trains of nutrition. 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE DIAPHRAGM. 

 Investigation--A Struggle With Nature--Lesson of Cause and Effect--Something of Medical Etiquette--The Medical Doctor--An Explorer for Truth Must Be Independent--The Diaphragm Introduced--A Useful Study--Combatting Effect--Is Least Understood--A Case of Bilious Fever--A Demand on the Nerves--Danger of Compression--A Cause for Disease--Was a Mistake Made in the Creation--An Exploration--Result of Removal of Diaphragm--Sustaining Life in Principles--Law Applicable to Other Organs--Power of Diaphragm--Omentum. 

INVESTIGATION. 

Let us halt at the origin of the splanchnic and take a look. At thispoint we see the lower branches; sensation, motion, and nutrition, allslant above the diaphragm pointing to the solar plexus which sends offbranches to pudic and sacral plexus of sensory system of nerves; just atthe place to join the life giving ganglion of sacrum with orders fromthe brain to keep the process of blood forming in full motion all thetime. A question arises, how is this motion supplied and from where? Theanswer is by the brain as nerve supply, heart as blood supply, all ofwhich comes from above the diaphragm, to keep machinery in form andsupplied with motion, that it may be able to generate chyle to send backto heart, to be formed into blood and thrown into arteries to build allparts as needed, and keep brain fed up to its normal supply of powergenerating needs. We see above the diaphragm, the lungs, heart andbrain, the three sources of blood and nerve supply. All three areguarded by strong walls, that they may do their part in keeping up thelife supply as far as blood and nerve force is required. But as theygenerate no blood nor nerve material, they must take the place ofmanufactories and purchase material from a foreign land, to be able tohave an abundance all the time. We see nature has placed itsmanufacturies above a given line in the breast, and grows the crudematerial below said line. Now as growth means motion and supply, we mustcombine in a friendly way, and conduct the force from above to theregion below the septum or diaphragm, that we may use the powers asneeded. This wall must and does have openings to let blood and nervespenetrate with supply and force to do the work of manufacturing. 

A STRUGGLE WITH NATURE. 

After all this has been done and a twist, pressure or obstructing foldshould appear from any cause, would we not have a cut off of motion toreturn chyle, sensation to supply vitality, and venous motion to carryoff arterial supply that has been driven from heart above? Have we notfound the cause to stop all processes of life below diaphragm? In short, are we not in a condition to soon be in a complete state of stagnation?As soon as the arteries have filled the venous system, which is withoutsensation to return blood to the heart, then the heart can do nothingbut wear out its energies trying to drive blood into a dead being belowthe diaphragm known as the venous system. It is dead until sensationreaches the vein from the sacral and pudic plexus. 

LESSON OF CAUSE AND EFFECT. 

Previous to all discoveries that have been made a demand for theusefulness of such discovery, is felt and talked of for years, centuriesand cycles of time. Its discovery is an open question and free to all, because in this fact all are interested. That lack may be felt andspoken of by all agriculturists, and the inquiry directed to a betterplow, a better sickle or mowing machine with which to reap standinggrain. The thinker reduces his thoughts to practice, and cuts the grain, leaving it in such condition that a raker is needed to bunch it previousto binding. 

His victory is heralded to the world as king of the harvest, and soaccepted. The discoverer says, "I wish I could bunch that grain. " Hebegins to reason from the great principle of cause and effect, andsleeps not until he has added to his already made discovery, an additionso ingeniously constructed that it will drop the grain in bunches readyfor the binder. The discoverer stands by and sees in the form of a humanbeing hands, arms and a band; he watches the motion then starts in torustle with cause and effect again. He thinks and sweats day and night, and by the genius of thought produces a machine to bind the grain. Bythis time another suggestion arises, how to separate the wheat as themachine journeys in its cutting process. To his convictions nothing willsolve this problem but mental action. He thinks and dreams of cause andeffect. His mind seems to forget all the words of his mother tongue butcause and effect. He talks and preaches cause and effect in so manyplaces that his associates begin to think he is mentally failing, andwill soon be a subject for the asylum. He becomes disgusted with theirlack of appreciation, seeks seclusion and formulates the desiredaddition and threshes the grain ready for the bag. He has solved thequestion and proved to his neighbors that the asylum was built for them, not for him. With cause and effect which is ever before thephilosopher's eye, he ploughs the ocean regardless of the furiouswaves, he dreads not the storms on the seas, because he has soconstructed a vessel with a resistance superior to the force of thelashing waves of the ocean, and the world scores him another victory. Heopens his mouth and says by the law of cause and effect I will talk tomy mother who is hundreds of miles away. He disturbs her rest by therattling of a little electric bell in her room. Tremblingly the agedmother approaches the telephone and asks "Who is there?" And isanswered, "It is me, Jimmie, " and asks, "To whom am I talking?" She says"Mrs. Sarah Murphy. " He says, "God bless you, mother; I am at Galveston, Texas, and you are in Boston, Mass. " She laughs and cries with joy; hehears every emotion of her trembling voice. She says to him, "You havesucceeded at last. I have never doubted your final success, notwithstanding the neighbors have annoyed me almost to death, tellingme you would land in the asylum, because no man could talk so as to beheard 1000 miles away; his lungs, were too weak, and his tongue tooshort. "

Now, friends, I have given you a long introductory foundation previousto giving you the cause of disease, with the philosophy that I havegiven upon cause and effect. I think it absolutely clear and the effectso unerring in its results, that with Pythagoras I can say "Eureka. "

SOMETHING OF MEDICAL ETIQUETTE. 

To know we have found a general cause for disease, one that will standthe heights and depths of direct and cross examinations, as given by thehigh courts of cool headed reason, has been the mental effort of alldoctors and healers, since time began its record. They have had to treatdisease as best they could, by such methods as customs had establishedas the best known for such diseases; notwithstanding their failures andthe great mortality under such a system of treatment. They have not feltjustified to go beyond the rules of symptomatology as adopted by theirschools, with diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. Should they digressfrom the rules of the etiquette of their alma maters they would lose thebrotherly love and support of the medical association to which theybelong, under the belief that, "A bad name is as bad as death to a dog. "

THE MEDICAL DOCTOR. 

He says that in union there is safety, and resolves to stick to, liveand do as his school has disciplined all its pupils, with this command, "The day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Stick to thebrotherhood. "

AN EXPLORER FOR TRUTH MUST BE INDEPENDENT. 

The explorer for truth must first declare his independence of allobligations or brotherhoods of any kind whatsoever. He must be free tothink and reason. He must establish his observatory upon hills of hisown; he must establish them above the imaginary high planes of rulers, kings, professors of schools of all kinds and denominations. He must bethe Czar of his own mental empire, unencumbered with anything that willannoy while he makes his observations. I believe the reasons are soplain, so easily comprehended, the facts in its support so brilliant, that I will offer the same, though I be slaughtered on the altar ofbigotry and intolerance. This philosophy is not intended for minds notthoroughly well posted by dissection and otherwise of the whole humananatomy. You must know its physiological laboratories and workings withthe brain as the battery, the lungs as the source or machine thatrenovates the blood from all impurities, and the heart as the livingengine or quarter-master, whose duty is to supply the commissaries withblood and other fluids to all divisions and sub-divisions of the humanbody, which is busily engaged producing material suited to theproduction of bone and muscle, and all other substances necessary tokeep the machinery of life in full force and action. 

Without this knowledge on the part of the reader, the words of thisphilosophy will fall as blanks before reaching his magazine of reason. Thus this is addressed to the independent man or woman that can, willand does reason. 

THE DIAPHRAGM INTRODUCED. 

At this point we will introduce the diaphragm, which separates theheart, lungs and brain from the organs of life that are limited to theabdomen and pelvis. A question arises at this point; what has thediaphragm to do with good or bad health? At this time we will analyzethe diaphragm; we will examine its construction, and its uses; we willexamine its openings through which blood passes both above and below. Wewill examine the opening through which food passes to stomach. We willcarefully examine the passage or opening for nerve supply to the abdomenbelow, to run this great system of chemistry, which is producing thevarious kinds of substances necessary to the hard and soft parts of thebody. We must know the nerve supply of the lymphatics, womb, liver, kidneys, pancreas, the generative organs, what they are, what they do, and what are demanded of them, before we are able to feed our own mindsfrom the cup that contains the essence of reason as expressed from thetree of life. 

A USEFUL STUDY. 

The diaphragm surely gives much food to the one who would search for thegreat whys of disease as reported causes seem to be far back in the fogsof mystery. It may help us to arrive at some facts if we take each organand division and make a full acquaintance of all its parts and usesbefore we combine it with others. 

COMBATTING EFFECTS. 

In all ages, the Doctor has for lack of knowledge of the true cause ofdiseases, combatted effects with his remedies. He treats pain withremedies to deaden pain; congestion to wash out overplus of blood thathas been carried to parts or organs of the body by arteries of blood andchannels of secretions and not taken up and passed out and off by theexcretories. He sees the abnormal size and leaves the hunting of thecause that has given growth to such proportions and begins to seek restand ease for his patient. Then he treats to reduce by medicine to carrythe waste fluids to bowels, bladder and skin, with tonics to givestrength and stimulants to increase the action of the heart in order toforce local deposits to the general excretory system. At this time letthe Osteopathic Doctor take a close hunt for any fold in muscles of thesystem that would cause a cut-off of the normal supply of blood orsuspend the action of nerves whose office is to give power and action tothe excretory system sufficient to keep the dead matter carried off asfast as it accumulates. Let us stop and acquaint ourselves with the truecondition of the diaphragm. It must be normal in place, as it is sosituated that it will admit of no abnormality. It must be keptstretched, just as Nature arranged that it should, like a drum-head. Itis attached all around to the chest, though it crosses five or six ribson its descent from the seventh rib to the sternum at the lower pointand down to fourth lumbar vertebra. It is a continuous slanting floor, above bowels and abdominal organs, and below heart and lungs. It must, by all reason, be kept normal in tightness at all places, without a foldor wrinkle, that could press the aorta, nerves, oesophagus, oranything that contributes to the supply or circulation of any vitalsubstance. Now can there be any move in spine or ribs that would orcould change the normal shape of the diaphragm? If so, where and why?

IS LEAST UNDERSTOOD. 

The diaphragm is possibly the least understood as being the cause ofmore diseases, when its supports are not all in line and normalposition, than any other part of the body. It has many openings throughwhich nerves, blood and food pass while going from chest to all partsbelow. It begins at the lower end of the breast-bone and crosses to ribsback and down, in a slanting direction to the third or fourth lumbarvertebra. Like an apron, it holds all that is above it up, such as heartand lungs, and is the fence that divides the organs of the abdomen fromthe chest. Below it are the stomach, bowels, liver, spleen, kidneys, pancreas, womb, bladder; also the great system of lymphatics of thewhole blood and nerve supply of the organs and systems of nutrition andlife supply. All parts of the body have a direct or indirect connectionwith this great separating muscle. It assists in breathing, in allanimals, when normal, and when prolapsed by the falling in and down ofany of the five or six ribs by which it is supported in place, then wesuffer from the effects of suspended normal arterial supply, and venousstagnation below diaphragm. The aorta meets resistance as it goes downwith blood to nourish, and the vein as it goes back with impuritiescontained in venous blood, also meets an obstruction at the diaphragm, as it returns to the heart through the vena cava, because of the packingof a fallen diaphragm on and about the blood vessels that must not beobstructed. Thus heart trouble, lung disease, brain, liver, womb, tumorsof the abdomen and through the list of effects can be traced to thediaphragm as the cause. 

I am strongly impressed that the diaphragm has much to do in keeping allthe machinery and organs of life in a healthy condition, and will tryand give some of the reasons why, as I now understand them. First, it isfound to be wisely located just below the heart and lungs; one being theengine of the blood, and the other is the engine of the air. This strongwall holds all substances or other bodies away from any chance to presson either engine, while performing their parts in the economy of life. Each engine has a sacred duty to perform under the penal law of death toitself and all other divisions of the whole being, man. If it shouldneglect its work of which it is a vital part, should we take down thiswall and allow the liver, stomach and spleen to occupy any of the placesallotted to these engines of life, a confusion would surely be theresult; ability of the heart to force blood to the lungs would beovercome and cause trouble. 

A CASE OF BILIOUS FEVER. 

Suppose we take a few diseases and submit them to the crucial ordeal ofreason, and see if we do, or can find any one of the climatic feversthat appear with its full list of symptoms and have no assistance froman irritated diaphragm. For example take a case of common bilious feverof North America. It generally begins with a tired and sore feeling oflimbs and muscles, pain in spine, head, and lumbar region. At this pointof our inquiry we are left in an open sea of mystery and conjecture asto cause. One says, "malaria, " and goes no farther, gives a name andstops. If you ask for the cause of such torturous pain in head and back, with fever and vomiting, he will tell you that the very best authoritiesagree that the cause is malaria, with its peculiar diagnostic tendencyto affect the brain, spine and stomach, and administers quinine andleaves, thinking he has said and done all. 

Reason would lead seekers for cause of the pain above located toremember that all blood passes first as chyme up to heart and lungs, directly through the diaphragm, conducted through the thoracic duct, first to heart, thence to lungs, at the same time rivers of blood arepouring into the heart from all of the system. Much of it very impure, from diseased or stale blood. Much of the chyle is dead before it entersthe great thoracic duct and goes to the lungs without enough pure bloodto sustain life. Then disease appears. 

As a cut-off the diaphragm, when dropped front and down, and across theaorta and vena cava by a lowering of the ribs, on both sides of thespine; it would be a complete pressure over coelic axis, with liversupply, renal, pelvic, to a complete abdominal stoppage. Then we haveover-due blood for other parts to send off dead corpuscles by asphyxia, with no hope that it can sustain life and health of the parts for whichit was designed. Thus we know that nature would not be true to its ownlaws, if it would do good work with bad material. 

A DEMAND ON THE NERVES. 

Why not reason on the broad scale of known fact, and give the "why" heor she has complete prostration when all systems are wholly cut off froma chance to move and execute such duties as nature has allotted to them. Motor nerves must drive all substances to, and sensation must judge thesupply and demand. Nutrition must be in action all the time and keep allparts well supplied or a failure is sure to appear. We must everremember the demands of nature on the lymphatics, liver and kidneys, that nerves work all the time or a confusion for lack in their dutieswill mark a cripple in some function of life over which they preside. 

DANGER OF COMPRESSION. 

At this time we see by all systems of reason that no delay in passage offood or blood, can be tolerated at the diaphragm, because anyirritation is bound to cause muscular contraction and impede thenatural flow of blood, first through the abdominal aorta, and even to atemporary, partial or complete stoppage of arterial supply to theabdomen. Or the vena cava may be so pressed as to completely stop thereturn of venous blood from the stomach, kidneys, bowels and all otherorgans, such as the lymphatics, pancreas, fascia, cellular membranes, nerve centers, ganglionic and all systems of supply of organs of lifefound in the abdomen. Thus by pressure, stricture or contraction to thepassage of blood can be stopped, either above or below the diaphragm, and be the cause of blood being detained long enough to die fromasphyxia, and be left in the body of all organs below the diaphragm. 

A CAUSE FOR DISEASE. 

Thus you see a cause for Bright's disease of kidneys, disease of womb, ovaries, jaundice, dysentery, leucorrhoea, painful monthlies, spasms, dyspepsia, and on through the whole list of diseases now booked as"causes unknown, " and treated by the rule of "cut and try. " We do knowthat all blood for use of the whole system below the twelfth dorsalvertebra does pass through the diaphragm, and all nerve supply, alsopasses through the diaphragm and spinal column for limb and life. Thisbeing a known fact, we have only to use reason to know that anunhealthy condition of the diaphragm is bound to be followed by manydiseases. A list of questions arise at this point with the inquirersthat must and can be answered every time by reason only. The diaphragmis a musculo-fibrinous organ and depends for blood and nerve supplyabove its own location, and that supply must be given freely and purefor nerve and blood or we will have a diseased organ to start with; thenwe may find a universal atrophy or oedema, which would, besides itsown deformity not be able to rise and fall, to assist the lungs to mixair with blood to purify venous blood, as it is carried to the lungs tothrow off impurities and take on oxygen previous to returning to theheart, to be sent off as nourishment for the system. It is only inkeeping with reason that without a healthy diaphragm both in its formand action, disease is bound to be the result. A question from our sideof the argument is: How can a carpenter build a good house out ofrotten, twisted or warped wood? If he can, then we can hope to behealthy with diseased blood, but if we must have good material inbuilding, then we should form our thoughts to suit the heads ofinspectors, and inspect the passage of blood through the diaphragm, pleury, pericardium and the fascia, superficial, deep and universal. Disease is just as liable to begin its work in the fascia andepithelium as any other place. Thus the necessity of pure blood andhealthy fascia, because all functions are equally responsible for goodand bad results. 

WAS A MISTAKE MADE IN THE CREATION?

At a given period of time the Lord said, "Let us make man. " After He hadmade him He examined him, and pronounced him good, and not only good, but very good. Did He know what good was? Had He the skill to be acompetent judge? If He was perfectly competent to judge skilled arts Hisapproval of the work when done was the fiat of mental competency backedby perfection. Since that architect and skilled mechanic has finishedman and given him dominion over the fowls of the air, the beast of thefield and fishes of the sea, hasn't that person, being or superstructureproven to us that God, the creator of all things, has armed him withstrength, with the mind and machinery to direct and execute? This beingdemonstrated and leaving us without a doubt as to its perfection, are wenot admonished by all that is good and great to enter upon a minuteexamination of all the parts belonging to this being; acquaint ourselveswith their uses and all the designs for which the whole being wascreated. If we are honestly interested with the acquaintance of theforms and uses of the parts in detail by close and thorough examinationof the material, its form and object of its form, from whence thissubstance is obtained; how it is produced and sustained through life inkind and form. How it is moved, where it gets its power, and for whatobject does it move? A demand for a crucial examination of the skull, the heart, lungs, of the chest, the stomach, liver and other organs ofthe abdomen is made. The septum of the brain, the pericardium of thechest--the diaphragm of the abdomen which is a dividing septum betweenthe abdomen and chest. In this examination we must know the reasons whyany organs, vessel or any other substance is located at a given place. We must run with all the rivers of blood that travel through the system. 

AN EXPLORATION. 

We must start our exploring boat with the aorta, and float with thisvital current; see the captain as he unloads supplies for the diaphragmand all that is under it. We must follow him and see what branch of thisriver will lead to a little or great toe, or to the terminals of thewhole foot. We must pass through the waters of the dead sea by the wayof the vena cava, and observe the boats loaded with exhausted and wornout blood, as it is poured in and channeled back to the heart, with allbelow the diaphragm. Carefully watch the emptying of the vena azygosmajor and minor, with the veins of the arms and head all being poured infrom little or great rivers to the vena innominate on their way to thegreat hospital of life and nourishment; whose quarter-master is theheart; whose finishing mechanic is the lung. Having acquainted ourselveswith the forms and locations of this great personality we are ready atthis time after examination, and found worthy and well qualified toenter into a higher class in which we can obtain an acquaintance withthe physiological workings separately and conjoined of the whole being. At this place we become acquainted with the hows and whys of theproduction of blood, bone and all elements found in them, necessary tosustain sensation, motion, nutrition, voluntary and involuntary actionof the nerve system. The hows and whys of the lymphatics, the lifesustaining powers of the brain, heart, lungs, and all the abdominalsystem, with their various actions and uses, from the lowest cellularmembrane to the highest organ of the body. 

RESULT OF REMOVAL OF DIAPHRAGM. 

When we consult the form of the cross-bar that divides the body in twoconjoined divisions and reason on its use, we arrive at the fact thatthe heart and lungs must have ample space or room to suit their actionswhile performing their functions. At this time a question comes up: Whateffect would follow the removal of the fence between heart, lungs andbrain, above that dividing muscle, and the machinery that is situatedbelow said cross-bar? We see at a glance that we would meet failure tothe extent of the infringement on demanded room for normal work of heartto deliver below lungs to prepare blood, and the brain to pass nervepower to either engine above, and all organs below the diaphragm. 

SUSTAINING LIFE PRINCIPLES. 

The life of the living tree is with the bark and superficial fasciawhich lies between the bark of the body of the tree, its periostium. Theremainder of the tree takes the position or place of secreting. Itsexcretory system is first upwards from the surface of the ground, andwashes out frozen impurities in the spring, after which it secretes andconveys to the ground through the trunk of the tree to the roots whichis like unto the placenta attached to mother earth, qualifying allsubstances of constructing fiber and leaf, of that part of the treeabove the ground. Each year produces a new tree which is seen and knownby circular rings called annular growths. That growth which wascompleted last year is now a stale being of the past and has no vitalaction of itself. But like all stale beings its process is a life ofanother order, and dependent upon the fascia for its life and cellularaction which lies under the bark, for its own existence as a livingtree. It can only act as a chemical laboratory and furnish crudematerial which is taken up by the superficial fascia and conveyed up tothe lungs, and exchanges dead for living matter, to receive and returnto all parts of the tree, keeping up vital formation. With frost itsvital process ceases through the winter season until mother earthstimulates the placenta, and starts the growth of a new being, which isdeveloped and placed in form on the old trunk. Thus you see everythingof animal growth as we would call them, is a new being, and becomes apart of the next being or growth formed. 

STALE LIFE. 

Should this form of vitality cease with the tree another principle whichwe call stale life takes possession and constructs another tree which isjust the reverse of the living tree, and builds a tree after its ownpower of formulation from the dead matter, to which it imparts aprinciple of stale life, which life produces mushrooms, frogstools andother peculiar forms of stale beings, from this form of growth. 

Thus we are prepared to reason that blood when ligated and retained inthat condition of dead corpuscles, and no longer able to support animallife, can form a zoophyte and all the forms peculiar to the great law ofassociation, as tumefactions of the lymphatics, pancreas, liver, kidneys, uterus, with all the glandular system, be they lymphatics, cellular, ganglia or any other parts of the body susceptible of suchgrowths, below the diaphragm. Thus we can account for tubercles of theabdomen and all organs therein found. 

LAW APPLICABLE TO OTHER ORGANS. 

This same law is equally applicable to the heart, lungs, the brain, tissues, glands, fascia and all substances capable of receiving withoutthe ability to excrete stale substances. 

As oedema marks the first tardiness of fluids we have the beginningstep which will lead from miliary tuberculosis to the largest knownforms of tubercles, which is the effect of the active principles ofstale life or the life of dead matter. 

POWER OF DIAPHRAGM. 

At this point we will draw the attention of the reader to the fact thatthe diaphragm can contract and suspend the passage of blood and produceall the stagnant changes from start to completed deadly tubercle. Alsothe cancer, the wen, glandular thickening of neck, face, scalp, fasciaand all substances found above the diaphragm. In this stale life we havea compass that will lead us as explorers from the North star, to theSouth pole, the rising sun of reason, and the evening dews of eternity. This diaphragm says: "By me you live and by me you die. I hold in myhand the powers of life and death, acquaint now thyself with me and beat ease. "

OMENTUM. 

The truth of the presentation of facts should be the principle object ofevery person who takes his pen with a view to give the reasons whycertain witnesses' testimony are indispensable to establish supposableor known truths. This being the case I have summoned before this courtof inquiry an important witness. He has now taken the oath to tell thetruth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, of the case beforethis court. His name is the Great Omentum. Mr. Omentum, state if youknow of any reason why or how by irritation from a misplacement of yourbody or any of its attachments to or about the diaphragm, the spine, stomach or other places that could cause irritation and thickening bycongestion of your own body to such degree as to impede the flow ofarterial or venous blood, over whose position you occupy much space fromthe diaphragm downward? State what effect a falling down of the eleventhand twelfth ribs on both sides of the spine with their cartilaginouspoints turned inward and down; if they should draw the diaphragm downand across your body? What would be the effect on circulation of theblood, and other fluids on the kidneys and other organs of the abdomenand pelvis? Would it not be the foundation for destructive congestion, and abnormal growth? State if you know if any such ligation would causeswelling by retention of blood in the spleen, liver, kidneys or otherorgans of the abdomen and pelvis? Would it be reasonable to suppose thatyou could perform your functions in office with any irritating conditioncaused by prolapses of diaphragm? Would not an irritation of yourattachment to the diaphragm, spine or stomach be great enough to impedethe blood on its passage through the aorta to the abdomen, or impede theflow of blood back and through the diaphragm? If so state how and why?

CHAPTER VIII. 

LIVER, BOWELS AND KIDNEYS. 

 Gender of the Liver--Productions of the Liver--A Hope for the Afflicted--Evidences of Truth--Loaded With Ignorance--Lack of Knowledge of the Kidney--How a Purgative Acts--Flux--Bloody Dysentery--Flux More Fully Described--Osteopathic Remedies--Medical Remedies--More of the Osteopathic Remedy. 

GENDER OF THE LIVER. 

Let us abruptly assume that the liver is the abiding placenta of allanimated beings. If this position be true we are warranted and justifiedin the conclusion that the germs necessary to form blood vessels andother parts of the body must look to the liver for the fluids in whichthey would expect to construct in form and size. It seems to be nature'schemical laboratory, in which are prepared by receiving chemicalqualities and quantities to suit the formation of hard and softsubstances, which are to become the parts and the whole of any organ, gland, muscle, nerve, cell, veins and arteries. In evidence of theprobability of the truth of this position, we will draw your attention, first to its central location between the sacral and cerebral nervecenters. There it lies between the "stomach" the vessel which receivesall material previous to being manipulated for all nutrient purposes, and the heart, the great receiving and distributing quarter-master ofall animal life. It supplies squads, sections, companies, regiments, battalions, brigades and divisions--to the whole army, and all partsthat are dependent upon the nutrient system. 

PRODUCTIONS OF THE LIVER. 

The liver seems to be able to qualify by calling to itself allsubstances necessary to produce gall. Its communications with all partsof the body is direct, circuitous, universal and absolute. If pure itproduces healthy gall and other substances, and in fact when healthyitself all other fluids are considered to be pure, at which time we aresupposed to enjoy good health and universal bodily comfort. With adiseased liver we have perverted action which possibly accounts forimpure and unhealthy deposits in the nasal passage and other parts ofthe body in their own peculiar form. Polypus of the nose, tumefaction oflungs, lymphatics, liver, kidneys, uterus, and even the brain itself. Suppose such deposits, composed of albumen and fibrin, prepared in theliver should be deposited in the lining membranes of veins leading tothe heart, and by some other chemical action this accumulated massshould come loose from the veins, would we not expect what is commonlycalled clots enter the heart, and shut off the arteries, supplying thelungs, stop the further circulation of blood and cause instantaneousdeath called heart failure, apoplexy and so on? Is it not reasonable tosuppose that under those deposits that softening of arteries has itsbeginning, which results in aneurisms and death by rupture of suchabnormally formed arteries? Are the lungs not liable to receive suchdeposits and form tubercles to such proportions as to become livingzoophytes capable of covering all of the mucous membrane of the lungs, air passages and cells, and establish a perpetual dwelling of zoophytesand absorb to themselves for their own maintenance and existence, bloodand nourishment of the whole body unto death? This being the result ofone chemical action of the body and all by and from nature, is it notreasonable to suppose that the provision by nature is ready to produceof itself the chemicals of kind, quality and quantity equal to thedestruction of this enemy of life?

A HOPE FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

I think before all diseases pass the zenith, after which the decline isbeyond the vital rally, they are curable by the genius of nature's ownremedies, and believe the truths of this conclusion have been supportedabundantly by daily demonstrations. I believe there is hope for theconsumptive equal to one-half if not greater when taken in proper time, which is at any period of the disease, previous to breaking down byulceration or otherwise, lung tissue, and even after this period, hopeis not altogether lost. 

EVIDENCES OF TRUTH. 

Nature and good sense are terms that mean much to persons who are usedto set aside all else for facts. A fact may and often does stay beforeour eyes for all time powerful in truth, but we heed not its lessons. Instances, at least a few, would not be amiss at this time. Electricity, the most powerful force known, was never able with all its works to getthe attention of man's thoughts, more than to call it thunder andlightning, and let it pass from his mind from time to time, tillbrighter ages woke up a Franklin, Edison, Morse and others who heededits useful lessons enough to make application of its powers for itsforce and speed. By the results obtained, they and others have used itspowers and gotten truths as rewards, that they did not know even existedin or out of electricity or in any of the store-houses of all nature. But as the winds of time have blown open a few leaves of nature's book, and their brilliant pages and useful lessons have found a lodging placein such persons as were endowed with wisdom to see, and patience topersevere, by their energy and wisdom to-day we have many pages to addto our books of useful knowledge. We can now talk around and all overthe earth by the power of the dreaded thunder and lightning. By it wetravel, by it we see at night, by it we search on land and sea forfriend or foe; in fact, it is dreaded no more but sought, used and lovedby all who know of its uses in civil life. Thus our enemy has become ourfootstool. By the speed of man's ability we know and use the comfortsthat nature holds in store for us until we call for and use them. 

Other and just as useful questions as electricity await our attention. Parts and uses of the human body, to-day are to us as little understoodas electricity was at any time. The lung to-day is an unknown mystery, as to what its power and uses are; we only know that air goes in and outof the lungs; farther than that we are at sea. We have just as littleknowledge of the heart as the lungs, we find a hollow fibrinous tankreceiving and discharging blood; we are not prepared to say whether thecorpuscle is formed in the heart or not; all else is conjectural andspeculative on the subject the corpuscle. We see channels leading to andfrom it, to and from all parts of the body, muscles and glands. We knowit moves when we are alive, we know it is silent in death. 

LOADED WITH IGNORANCE. 

We pass from there to the liver loaded down with ignorance, from what weknow, cannot tell whether it is male or female, we simply know its size, location and something of its form and action, but nothing beyondconjecture. It stands to-day one of the wonders to him that tries toreason. 

LACK OF KNOWLEDGE OF THE KIDNEY. 

We will leave this organ of many pounds with an open confession of ourignorance and take up the kidney. At what time was the man and womanborn that knew and left on record a true and reliable knowledge of therenal capsule. We do not know whether that is the organ that makes ourteeth, our hair or generates a powerful acid by which lime is kept insolution, so as not to form stones and such deposits. 

HOW A PURGATIVE ACTS. 

Nature's method is simple and easily comprehended in deliveringpurgative medicines, with their softening powers to dry constipatedfecal matter. For instance: We would give a purgative in the shape ofsalts, rhubarb, calomel and other substances of choice. The firstquestion of the physician is how is this to pass through so denselypacked substance or fecal matter which is in the bowels? At this time wewill be short in the statement. The purgative poisons are taken up bythe the secretions conveyed to the lymphatics. To soften and wash out isthe object of nature. The lymphatics begin the work of washing out bystarting action of the excretories and furnishes the water to soften, which is injected into the bowels from the mouth to the extremities by asystem of salivation. 

FLUX (BLOODY DYSENTERY. )

Flux is common in all temperate climates. It generally shows its truenature as dysentery after a few hours of tiresome feeling, aching inhead, back and bowels. At first nothing is felt or thought of more thana few movements of the bowels than is common for each day. Some pain andgriping are felt with increase at each stool, until a chilly feeling isfelt all over the body, with violent pains in lower bowels, withpressing desire to go to stool, and during and after passage of stool afeeling that there is still something in the bowels that must pass. Soonthat down pressure partially subsides, and on examination of passage aquantity of blood is seen which shows the case is bloody flux, as thedisease is called and known in the southern states of North America, orbloody dysentery in the more northern states. It generally subsides bythe use of family remedies, such as sedatives, astringents, andpalliative diets. But the severity in other cases increases and thedischarges have more blood, greater pain, mixed with gelatinoussubstance even to mucous membrane of bowels, high fever all over exceptabdomen, which is quite cold to the hand. Back, head and limbs suffermuch with heat and pain, and much nausea is felt at all motions ofbowels. Bowels change from cold to hot, even to 104, at which time allsymptoms point to inflammation of the bowels. The colon in particular, at which time discharge grows black, frothy and very offensive fromdecomposition of blood. Soon collapse and death close out the case, notwithstanding the very best skill has been employed to save the lifeof the patient. The doctor has tried to stop pain by opiates and othersedatives, tried to check bowels with astringents, used tonics andstimulants, but all have failed, the patient is dead. 

HOW DOES THE OSTEOPATH CURE?

But the question for the Osteopath is: At what point would you work tosuppress the sensation of the colon and permit veins to open and allowblood to return to heart? Does irritation of a sensory nerve cause veinto contract and refuse blood to complete circuit from and to the heart?Does flux begin with the sensory nerves of bowels? If so, reducesensation at all points connecting with bowels, stop all overplus, keepveins free and open from cutaneous to deep sensory ganglion of wholespine and abdomen. Remember the fascia is what suffers and dies in allcases of death by bowels and lungs. Thus the nerves of all the fascia ofbowels and abdomen must work or you may lose all cases of flux, for inthe fascia exists much of the soothing and vital qualities of nature. Guard it well, so it can work to repair all losses or death will beginin fascia and through pass it to the whole system. 

FLUX MORE FULLY DESCRIBED. 

"Bloody flux" is a flow of blood with other fluids from the mucousmembrane of the bowels. A disease generally of the summer and fallseasons, and is more abundant south than north of latitude 40° of NorthAmerica. It is so well known in this country by its ravages that todescribe it is almost useless, as bloody fluids pass from bowels in allcases. 

We reason that the veins have contracted by nerve irritation and fail toconvey blood to heart on normal time. By which delay decomposition doesits work. Thus a cause is seen for excreting fluids by motor action ofbowels, when supplied by the excretory system. 

OSTEOPATHIC REMEDIES. 

An Osteopath to successfully treat flux or bloody dysentery must reasonand address his attention first to the soreness and irritation ofbowels, which he finds suffering with oedema of mucous membrane of allthe glands and blood vessels belonging to the lower bowels. As quiet isthe first thing desired, he will direct his attention to the sensorynerves of the colon and small intestines, in order to reduce theresistance of the veins and diminish the arterial action. When he hasdiminished sensation of the veins of the bowels, the arterial forcecompletes its circuit through the veins back to the heart, with muchless arterial action, because venous resistance has ceased and thecircuit is normal, and healthy action is the result. 

MEDICAL REMEDIES. 

The medicine man addresses his remedies first to the misery, with thedesire to relax the nerves and overcome pain, and obtains this resultthrough some class of opiates. After a short rest he addresses hisattention to the motor action of the heart, with the view of givingarteries greater power to force arterial blood through all obstructions, and tries to stop all excretory wastings by the use of astringentscombined with sedatives and soothing fluids. 

MORE OF THE OSTEOPATHIC REMEDY. 

The Osteopath will govern sensory and motor nerves by digitalsuspension of the abnormal irritability of the sensory nerves on thevarious parts of the spine as indicated by the disease. 

He uses no injections for the bowels for the reason that the necessaryfluids naturally flow into the bowels to lubricate and quiet, andproceed at once to repair all irritated surfaces, which is abundantlysupplied by nature from the mouth of the sphincter ani, without whichforethought and preparation, nature's God will prove his incompetencyfor the great battle of life. 

You administer medicines from the chemistry of the arts by mouth, injection and otherwise. We adjust the machinery and depend uponnature's chemical laboratory for all elements necessary to repair, giveease and comfort, while nature's corpuscles do all the work necessary. 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE BLOOD. 

 Uses for Fluids--Blood an Unknown Fluid--Harvey Only Reached the Banks of the River of Life--Blood Is Systematically Furnished--Fatality of Ignorance--To Find the Cause Must Be Honest--Following Arteries and Nerves--Feeding the Nerves--The Blood on Its Journey--Powers Necessary to Move Blood--Venous Blood Suspended. 

USES FOR FLUIDS. 

If a thousand kinds of fluids exist in our bodies a thousand usesrequire their help, or they would not appear. Thus to know how and whythey help in the economy of life is the study of he who acts only whenhe knows at what places each must appear, and fill the part and use forwhich it is designed. If the demand for a substance is absolute itschance to act and answer that call and obey such command must not behindered while in preparation, nor on its journey to local destination, for by its power all action may depend. Thus blood, albumen, gall, acids, alkalies, oils, brain fluid and other substances formed byassociations while in physiological processes of formation must be ontime in place and measured abundantly, that the biogenic laws of naturecan have full power with time to act, and material in abundance and ofkinds to suit. Thus all things else may be in place in ample quantitiesand fail because the power is withheld and no action for want of brainfluids with its power to vivify all animated nature which have followedany fluid found in the body, and followed it from formation to use andexhaustion step by step until he knows what form a union with one ormany kinds. Thus we can do no more than feed and trust the laws of lifeas nature gives them to man. We must arrange our bodies in such truelines that ample nature can select and associate by its definitemeasures, weights and choices of kinds, that which can make all fluidsneeded for our bodily uses, from the crude blood to the active flames oflife, as seen when marshalled for the duties of that stands and obey theedicts of the mind of the infinite. 

BLOOD AN UNKNOWN FLUID. 

Blood is an unknown red or black fluid, found inside of the human body, in tubes, channels or tunnels. What it is, how it is made, and what itdoes after it leaves the heart in the arteries, before it returns to theheart through the veins, is one of the mysteries of animal life. It hasbeen tried to be analyzed to know of what it is composed, and when done, we know but little more of what it really is, than we know what sulphuris made of. We know it is a colored fluid, and it is in all parts of theflesh and bone. We know it builds up heaps of flesh, but how, is thequestion that leads us to honor the unknowable law of life, by which itdoes the work of its mysterious construction of all forms found in theparts of man. In all our efforts to learn what it is, what it is madeof, and what enters it as life and gives it the building powers withthat intelligence it displays in building, that we see in dailyobservation, is to us such an incomprehensible wonder, that with the"sacred writers" we are constrained to say, Great is the mystery of"Godliness. " I dislike to say we know but very little about the blood, "in fact, nothing at all, " but such is the truth under oath. We cannotmake one drop of blood because of our ignorance of the laws of itsproduction. If we knew what its components were, we would soon buildlarge machinery, make and have blood for sale in quantities to suit thepurchaser. But alas! we cannot with all the combined intelligence ofman, make one drop of blood, because we do not know what it is. Then, asits production is by the skill of a foreigner whose education has grownto suit the work, we must silently sit by and willingly receive the workwhen handed out for use by the producer. At this point I will say thatan intelligent Osteopath is willing to be governed by the immutablelaws of nature, and feel that he is justified to pass the fluid on fromplace to place and trust results. 

HARVEY ONLY REACHED THE BANKS OF THE RIVER OF LIFE. 

When Harvey solved by his powers of reason a knowledge of thecirculation of the blood, he only reached the banks of the river oflife. He saw that the heads and mouths of the rivers of blood begin andend in the heart, to do the mysterious works of constructing man. Thenhe went into camp and left this compound for other minds to speculateon, of the how it was made, of what composed, and how it became a mediumof life which sustains all beings. He saw the genius of nature hadwritten its wisdom and will of life, by the red ink of all truth. 

BLOOD IS SYSTEMATICALLY FURNISHED. 

Blood is systematically furnished from the heart to all divisions of ourbodies. When we go any course from the heart we will find one or morearteries leaving heart. If we go toward the head, we find caroted, cervical and vertebral arteries in pairs, large enough to supply bloodabundantly for bone, brain, and muscle. That blood builds all the brain, all the bone, nerves, muscles, glands, membranes, fascia and skin. Thenwe see wisdom just as much in the venous system, as in the arterial. Thus the arteries supply all demands, and the veins carry away allwaste material, with returning blood of veins. We find building andhealthy renovation are united in a perpetual effort to construct andsustain purity. In these two are the facts and truths of life andhealth. If we go to any other part or organ of the body, we find justthe same law of supply, arteries first, then renovation, beginning withthe veins. The rule of artery and vein is universal in all livingbeings, and the Osteopath must know that, and abide by its rulings, orhe will not succeed as a healer. Place him in open combat with fevers ofwinter or summer and he saves, or loses, his patients, just inproportion to his ability to sustain the artery to feed, and the veinsto purify by taking away the dead substances before they ferment, in thelymphatics and cellular system. He shows just the same stupidity andignorance of support from arteries and purity by the veins when he failsto cure erysipelas, flux, pneumonia, croup, scarlet fever, diphtheria, measles, mumps, rheumatism, and on to all diseases of climate andseasons. 

FATALITY OF IGNORANCE. 

It is ignorance and inattention to the arteries to supply and the veinsto carry away all deposits before they form tumors in lungs, abdomen orany part of the system. Thus man's ignorance of how and why the bloodrenovates and why tumors are formed, has allowed the knife to be foundin the belts of so many doctors to-day. On this law Osteopathy hassuccessfully stood and cured more than any school of cures, and hassustained all its diplomates financially and otherwise. I write thisarticle on blood for the student of Osteopathy. I want him to put natureto a test of its merit, and know if it is a law equal to all demands. Ifnot, he is very much and seriously limited when he goes into war withdiseases. What is to be understood by "Disease?"[5]

[Footnote 5: DISEASE. 1. "Lack of ease. 2. An alteration in the state ofthe body, or some of its organs, interrupting or disturbing theperformance of the vital functions and causing or threatening pain andweakness; malady; affection; illness; sickness; disease;disorder. "--Webster's International Dictionary. ]

When we use the word "disease, " we mean anything that makes an unnaturalshowing in the body by pain, overgrowth of muscle; gland; organ;physical pain; numbness; heat; cold; or anything that we find notnecessary to life and comfort. I have no wish to rob surgery of itsuseful claims, and its scientific merits to suffering man and beast. Such is not my object, but to place the Osteopath's eye of reason on thehunt of the great whys that the knife is useful at all, I am sure itcomes often to remove growths and diseased flesh and bone that havegotten so by man's ignorance of a few great truths. 1st, If blood isallowed to be taken to a gland or organ, and not taken away in due timethe accumulation will become bulky enough to stop the excretory nervesand cause local paralysis; then the nutrient nerves proceed to constructtumors, and on and on until there is no relief but the knife or death. Had this blood not been conveyed there, it would not be there at all, either in bulk or less quantities. Had it simply done its work andpassed on we could have no material to grow such abnormal beings. If atumefaction appears in one side, and not in the other, why so? and whyis there no growth in one side the same as the other? It takes no greateffort of mind to see that the veins did not receive and carry off theblood, and a growth was natural, as the condition could not do otherwiseand be true to nature. Thus man's ignorance has made a condition for theknife. Had he taken the hint and let the blood pass on when its work wasdone, he would not have to witness the guillotine of death to hispatients, whose early pains told him a renal vein or some vessel belowthe diaphragm was ligated by an impacted colon, or a few ribs pullingand bringing diaphragm down across vena cava and thoracic duct andcausing excitement or paralysis of solar plexus, or any other nervesthat pass through diaphragm with blood to and from heart and lungs. 

TO FIND THE CAUSE. 

How to find causes of diseases or where a hindrance is located thatstops blood is a great mental worry to the Osteopath when he is calledto treat a patient. The patient tells him "where he hurts, " how much "hehurts, " how long "he has hurt, " how hot or cold he is. The doctor putsthis symptom and that symptom in a column, adds them up according to thelatest books on symptomatology, finally he is able to guess at some nameto call the disease. Then he proceeds and treats as his pap's fatherheard his granny say their old family doctor treated "them sort ofdiseases in North Carolina. " An Osteopath feels bad to have to huntcause for diseases, and not know how to start out to find the mechanicalcause. He feels that the people expect more than guessing of anOsteopath. He feels that he must put his hand on the cause and provewhat he says by what he does, that he will not get off by the feebleminded trash of stale habits that go with doctors of medicine, and byhis knowledge he must show his ability to go beyond the musty bread ofsymptomatology and water his patients made, from the cider of the ripeapples from the tree of knowledge. 

MUST BE HONEST. 

An Osteopath should be a clear-headed, conscientious, truth loving man, and never speak until he knows he has found and can demonstrate thetruth he claims to know. 

FOLLOWING ARTERIES AND NERVES. 

I understand anatomy and physiology after fifty years casual and closeattention, the last twenty years being very continued and closeattention to what has been said, by all the best writers whom I haveperused, many of whom are considered standard guides for the student andpractitioner to be governed by. I have dissected and witnessed the verybest anatomists that the world affords dissect. I have followed theknife after arteries through the whole distribution of blood of arterialsystems, to the great and small vessels, until the lenses of the mostpowerful microscopes seemed to exhaust their ability to perceive thetermination of the artery; with the same care following the knife andmicroscope from nerve center to terminals of the large to the infinitelysmall fibers around which those fine nerve vines entwine. First like abean entwining by way of the right around and up continuing to theright, and then turn my microscope to the entwining of another set ofnerves which is to the left universally as the hop. Those nerves aresolid, cylindrical and stratified in form, with many leading from thelymphatics to the artery, and to the red and white muscles, fascia, cellular-membrane, striated and unstriated organs, all connecting to andtraveling with the artery, and continuing with it through its wholecircuit from start to terminals. 

FEEDING THE NERVES. 

Like a thirsty herd of camels, the whole nerve system, sensory, motor, nutrient, voluntary and involuntary; this herd of sappers or hungrynerves seems to be in sufficient quantities and numbers to consume allblood and cause the philosopher to ask the question: "Is not the laborof the artery complete when it has fed the hungry nerves?" Is he notjustified in the conclusion that the nerves do gestate and send forthall substances that are applied by nature in the construction of man? Ifthis philosophy be true, then he who arms himself for the battles ofOsteopathy when combating diseases, has a guide and a light whereby hecan land safely in port from every voyage. 

THE BLOOD ON ITS JOURNEY. 

Turn the eye of reason to the heart and observe the blood start on itsjourney. It leaves in great haste and never stops even in the smallerarteries. It is all in motion and very quick and powerful at allplaces. Its motion indicates no evidence of construction even supposableduring such time, but we can find in the lymphatics, cells or pockets, motion slow enough to suppose that in such cells, living beings can beformed and carried to their places by the lymphatics for the purposesthey must fill, as bone, or muscle. Let us reason that blood has a greatand universal duty to perform, if it constructs, nourishes, and keepsthe whole nerve system normal in form and function. 

POWERS NECESSARY TO MOVE BLOOD. 

As blood and other fluids of life are ponderable bodies of differentconsistences, and are moved through the system to construct, purify, vitalize and furnish power necessary to keep the machinery in action, wemust reason on the different powers necessary to move those bodiesthrough arteries, veins, ducts, over nerves, spongy membranes, fascia, muscles, ligaments, glands and skin; and judge from their unequaldensity, and adjust force to meet the demand according to kinds, to besent to and from all parts. 

VENOUS BLOOD SUSPENDED. 

Suppose venous blood to be suspended by cold or other causes in thelungs to the amount of oedema of the fascia, another mental look wouldsee the nerves of the fascia of the lungs in a high state ofexcitement, cramping fascia on veins which is bound to stop flow ofblood to heart. No blood can pass through a vein that is closed byresistance, nor can it ever do it until resistance is suspended. Thusthe cause of nerve irritation must be found and removed before thechannels can relax and open sufficiently to admit the passage of thefluids being obstructed. And in order to remove this obstructing cause, we must go to the nerve supply of the lungs, or any other part of thebody, and direct our attention to the cause of the nerve excitement, andthat only; and prosecute the investigation to a finish. If the breathingbe too fast and hurried, address your attention to the motor nerves, then to the sensory, for through them you regulate and reduce theexcitement of the motor nerves of the arteries. As soon as sensation isreduced the motor and sensory circuit is completed and the labor of theartery is less, because of venous resistance having been removed. Thecircuit of electricity is complete as proven by the completed arterialand venous circuit for the reduction of motor irritation. The hightemperature disappears because distress gives place to the normal, andrecovery is the result. 

CHAPTER X. 

THE FASCIA. 

 Where Is Disease Sown?--An Illustration of Conception--The Greatest Problem--A Fountain of Supply--Fascia Omnipresent--Connection with Spinal Cord--Goes With and Covers All Muscles--Proofs in Contagion--Study of Nerves and Fascia--Tumefy--Tumefaction. 

WHERE DISEASE IS SOWN. 

Disease is evidently sown as atoms of gas fluids, or solids. A suitableplace is necessary first to deposit the active principle of life, bethat what it may. Then a responsive kind of nourishment must be obtainedby the being to be developed. Thus we must find in animals that part ofthe body that can assist by action and by qualified food to develop thebeing in foetal life. Reason calls the mind to the rule of man'sgestative life first, and as a basis of thought, we look at thequickening atom, the coming being, when only by the aid of a powerfulmicroscope can we see the vital germ. It looks like an atom of whitefibrin or detached particle of fascia. It leaves one parent as an atomof fascia, and to live and grow, must dwell among friendly surroundings, and be fed by such food as contains albumen, fibrin and lymph; also thenerve generating power and qualities, as it then and there begins toconstruct a suitable form in which to live and flourish. And as thefascia is the best suited with nerves, blood, and white corpuscles, itis but reasonable to look for the part that is composed of the greatestper cent of fascia, and expect it, the germ, to dwell there for supportand growth. 

AN ILLUSTRATION OF CONCEPTION. 

When you follow the germ from father until it has left his system offascia, we find it flourishing in the womb, which organ is almost acomplete being of itself. The center, origin, and mother of all fascias. It there dwells and grows to birth, and appears as a completed being, aproduct of the life giving powers of the fascia. 

With this foundation established we think we prove conception, growth, and cause of all diseases to be in the fascia. 

As this philosophy has chosen the fascia as a foundation on which tostand, we hope the reader will chain his patience for a few minutes onthe subject of the fascia, and its relation to vitality. It standsbefore the philosopher as one of, if not the deepest living problemsever brought before the mind of man. 

We will ask your attention in the attached effort to describe the fasciaat greater length: It being that principle that sheathes, permeates, divides and sub-divides every portion of all animal bodies; surroundingand penetrating every muscle and all its fibers--every artery, and everyfiber and principle thereunto belonging, and grows more wonderful asyour eye is turned upon the venous system with its great company oflymphatics, which supplies the water of life, used to reduce too heavilythickened blood of the veins, as it approaches the heart on its journey, to be renewed after purification and thrown back into the arteries topatrol, nourish and supply from headquarters to the videts of this greatmoving army of life, the substance of which we are now speaking. 

THE GREATEST PROBLEM. 

The fascia is universal in man and equal in self to all other parts, andstands before the world to-day the greatest problem, the most pleasingthought. It carries to the mind of the philosopher the evidence, absolute, that it is the "material man, " and the dwelling place his ofspiritual being. It is the house of God, the dwelling place of theInfinite so far as man is concerned. It is the fort which the enemy oflife takes by conquest through disease and winds up the combat andplaces thereon the black flag of "no quarters. " That enemy is sure tocapture all forts known as human beings at some time, although theengagement may last for many years. Procrastination of surrender canonly be obtained by giving timely support to the supply of nourishment, with an unobstructed condition, kept up in favor of the nervesinterested in the renewal of the human system, that powerful life forcethat is bequeathed to man and all other beings, and acts through thefascia of man and beast. 

A FOUNTAIN OF SUPPLY. 

The fascia gives one of, if not the greatest problems to solve as to thepart it takes in life and death. It belts each muscle, vein, nerve, andall organs of the body. It is almost a network of nerves, cells andtubes, running to and from it; it is crossed and filled with, no doubt, millions of nerve centers and fibers to carry on the work of secretingand excreting fluid vital and destructive. By its action we live, and byits failure we shrink, or swell, and die. Each muscle plays its part inactive life. Each fiber of all muscles owes its pliability to thatyielding septum-washer, that gives all muscles help to glide over andaround all adjacent muscles and ligaments, without friction or jar. Itnot only lubricates the fibers but gives nourishment to all parts ofthe body. Its nerves are so abundant that no atom of flesh fails to getnerve and fluid supply therefrom. 

FASCIA OMNIPRESENT. 

This life is surely too short to solve the uses of the fascia in animalforms. It penetrates even its own finest fibers to supply and assist itsgliding elasticity. Just a thought of the completeness and universalityin all parts, even though you turn the visions of your mind to followthe infinitely fine nerves. There you see the fascia, and in your wonderand surprise, you exclaim, "Omnipresent in man and all other livingbeings of the land and sea. "

Other great questions come to haunt the mind with joy and admiration, and we can see all the beauties of life on exhibition by that greatpower with which the fascia is endowed. The soul of man with all thestreams of pure living water seems to dwell in the fascia of his body. 

Does it not throw hot shot and shells of thought into man's famishingchamber of reason; to feel that he has seen by thought the frame work oflife the dwelling place on which life sojourns? He feels that he canfind all disturbing causes of life, the place that diseases germinateand grow, the seeds of disease and death. 

CONNECTION WITH THE SPINAL CORD. 

As life finds its general nutrient law in the fascia and its nerves, wemust connect them to the great source of supply by a cord running thelength of the spine, by which all nerves are supplied by the brain. Thecord throws out and supplies millions of nerves by which all organs andparts are supplied with the elements of motion, all go to and terminatein that great system, the fascia. 

As we dip our cups deeper and deeper into the ocean of thought we feelthat the solution of life and health is close to the field of thetelescope of our mental search lights, and soon we will find the road tohealth so plainly written that the wayfaring man cannot err though he bea fool. 

GOES WITH AND COVERS ALL MUSCLES. 

As the student of anatomy explores the subject under his knife andmicroscope he easily finds this membrane goes with and covers allmuscles, tendons and fibers, and separates them even to the least fiber. All organs have a covering of this substance, though they may have namesto suit the organs, surfaces or parts spoken of. 

We write much of the universality of the fascia to impress the readerwith the idea that this connecting substance must be free at all partsto receive and discharge all fluids, if healthy to appropriate and usein sustaining animal life, and eject all impurities that health may notbe impaired by the dead and poisoning fluids. Thus a knowledge of theuniversal extent of the fascia is almost imperative, and is one of thegreatest aids to the person who seeks cause of disease. He of all menshould know more of the fascia, and when disease is local or general. That the fascia and its nerves demand his attention first, and on hisknowledge of the same, much of his success, and the life of his patientsdo depend. 

Will the student of Osteopathy stop just a moment and see his medicalcotemporary plow the skin with the needle of his hypodermic syringe. Hedrives it into and unloads his morphine and other poisonous drugs underthe skin, and into the very center of the nerves of the superficialfascia. He produces paralysis of all nerves by this method, just ascertainly as if he had put his poison in the cerebellum, but not socertain to produce instantaneous death as to unload in the brain. But ifhe is faithfully ignorant, he will kill just as certainly at one placeas the other, because the poisonous effects can be easily taken to everyfiber of the whole body by the nerves and fibers of the fascia. 

When you deal with the fascia you deal and do business with the branchoffices of the brain, and under the general corporation law, the same asthe brain itself, and why not treat it with the same degree of respect?

The doctor of medicine does effectual work through the medium of thefascia. Why not you relax, contract, stimulate and clean the wholesystem of all diseases by that willing and sufficient power to renovateall parts of the system, from deadly compounds that generate throughdelay and stagnation of fluids while in the fascia. 

Our school is young, but the laws that govern life are as old as thehours of all ages. We may find much that has never been written norpracticed before, but all such discoveries are truths born with thebirth of eternity, old as God and as true as life. 

The difference between a philosopher and a less powerful thinker is oneobserves alone, and depends on his own powers of mind to arrive attruth. Another lacks self confidence and mental energy. 

PROOFS IN CONTAGION. 

If disease is so highly attenuated, so etherial, and penetrable inquality, and multiple in atoms; and a breath of air two quarts or moretaken into the lungs fully charged with contagion, how many thousand aircells could be impregnated by one single breath? Say we take a case ofmeasles into a schoolroom of sixty pupils, in a warm and poorlyoxygenized atmosphere all day, would not the living gas thrown off fromactive measles enter and irritate the air cells and close the mostirritable cells with the poisonous gas retained for active developmentin those womb-like departments in the lungs. 

Now you have the seeds in thousands of cells, which are as vital andwell supplied by nerves and blood as the womb itself. Would not reasonsee the development of millions more of the vital beings who get theirnourishment from the vitality found in the human fascia, which comesnearer to the surface in the lungs than in any part of the system, except it be the womb. 

In proof of the certainty of measles being taken up by the lungs at onebreath and caught by the secretions and conveyed to the universal systemof fascia to develop the contagion, I will give the case of one of myboys who was sick with cold as I supposed; watering of eyes, cough, fever and headache. He was in the country about eight miles from home, and on our return stopped to get his books at a small school house. Heran in, picked up his books that were lying upon the desk, walked thelength of the room which was about forty feet, was not there overone-half minute and in just nine days forty-two children broke out withmeasles. So certain is contagion to be taken up by the nerves andvitalizing fluids of the fascia. 

It seems that all the fascia needs to develop anything is to have theseed planted in its arms for construction, the work will be done, labeled, and handed out for inspection by the inspectors of all works. 

STUDY OF NERVES AND FASCIA. 

We must remember as we reason on the power of life which is located inthe fascia, that it occupies the whole body, and should we find a localregion that is disordered and wish to, we can relieve that part throughthat local plexus of nerves which controls that organ and division. Thusyour attention should be directed to all nerves of that part. Sensory, to modify sensation, blood must not be let run to the part by wildmotion, its flow must be gentle to suit the demands of nutrition, otherwise weakness takes the place of strength, then we lose thebenefits of the nerves of nutrition, by which strength of all systems offorce are kept in action during life. 

Suppose the nerves that supply the lungs with motion should stop, thelungs would stop also; suppose they should half stop, the lungs wouldsurely half stop. Now we must reason, if we succeed in relieving lungs, that all kinds of nerves are found in them. The lungs move, thus youfind motor; they have feeling, thus the sensory; they grow by nutrition, (thus the nutrient nerves;) they move by will, or without it; they havea voluntary and involuntary system; they move in sleep by theinvoluntary system. 

The blood supply comes under the motor system of nerves, and delivers atproper places for the convenience of the nerves of nutrition. Thesensory nerves limit the supply of arterial blood to the quantitynecessary, as the construction is going on by each successive stroke ofthe heart. They limit the action of the lungs, receive and expel air inquantities sufficient to keep up purity of the blood, etc. With thisfoundation we observe if too great action of the motor nerves, shows bybreathing too often to be normal, we are admonished to reduce breathingby addressing attention to the sensory nerves of lungs, in order thatthe blood may pass through the veins, whose irritability has refused toreceive the blood, farther than arterial terminals. So soon as sensationis reduced relaxation of nerve fibers of veins tolerates the passage ofvenous blood, which is deposited in the spongy portions of the lungs insuch quantities as to overcome the activity of the nerves of renovationthat accompanies the fascia in its process of ejection of all fluidsthat have been detained an abnormal time, first in the region of thefascia, then in the arterial and venous circulation. Thus you see whatmust be done. The veins as channels must carry away all blood as soon asit has deposited its nutrient supplies to the places for which it isconstructed, otherwise, by delay vitality by asphyxia is lost to theblood which calls a greater force of the arterial pumps to drive theblood through the parts, ruptures its capillaries and deposits the bloodin the mucous membrane; until nerves of the fascia becomes powerless bysurrounding pressure, which causes through the sensory nerves anirritability at the heart, which puts in force all its powers of motion. 

TUMEFY, TUMEFACTION. 

Webster's definition of tumefaction is to swell by any fluids or solidsbeing detained abnormally at any place in the body. 

The location may be in, or on any part of the system. No part is exempt;even the brain, heart, lungs, liver, stomach and bowels, bladder, kidneys, uterus, lymphatics, glands, nerves, veins, arteries, skin andall membranes are subject to swellings locally or generally, and withequal certainty they perish and shrink away. If either condition shouldexist death to the parts or all of the body will occur from want ofnutrition. Instance, in lung fever which begins when swelling isestablished in lymphatics of lungs, trachea, nostrils, throat and face. At once you see the pressure on the nerve fibers compressed to suchdegree that they cannot operate excretories of lungs or any part of thepulmonary, system. Veins, suspended by irritation of the nerves, arteries are excited to fever heat in action with increase oftumefaction. A tumefying condition undoubtedly marks the beginning ofall catarrhal diseases. Its ravages extend to the diseases of the falland winter seasons. They are so marked on examination that the mostskeptical cannot dispute or doubt the truth of this position. In fact heis already committed to a belief that there is something in the fluidsthat he must purify by the chemical process of drugs. 

MEDICAL DOCTOR'S TREATMENT. 

He looks on, and treats winter diseases with powerful purgatives, sweats, blisters, hot and cold applications with a view to removecongesting fluids. He is not very certain which team of medical power hecan depend on. He hitches up many kinds of drugs hoping that a few ofthem may be able to carry the burden. He bridles his horses with opium, loads them down with purgative powders, and whips them through withcastor oil, and for fear they will not travel fast enough he uses as aspur a delicately formed instrument known as the hypodermic syringe. Hepunches and prods until his horses fall exhausted. Disease and deathshould give him a large pension for the assistance he has rendered intheir service. All is guess work whose father and mother are "Traditionand Ignorance. " Ignorance of the kind that is wholly inexcusable toanyone but a medical doctor. An Osteopath who does not understand thegeneral law of tumefaction of the whole system is not excusable from thefact that tumefaction, disease and death are so plainly written on theface of all diseases that the blind need not have eyes to see, nor thephilosopher any brain to enable him to know this foundation is thehighest known truth of all man's intellectual possessions. Thus by thelaw of tumefaction, death can and does succumb to its indomitable will. Observations without record will show any fair minded person thattumefaction does cause death in the majority of cases. But another poweris equally as effective in destruction of life which is just the reverseof tumefaction. It destroys by withholding nutrition and all of thefluids; the effect is starvation, shrinkage and death. Thus you see itis equally certain in results. In the one case death ensues from anoverplus of unappropriated fluids of nutrition, in the other there is noappropriation to sustain animal life and the patient dies fromstarvation. The same law holds good in the parts as well as in the wholebody. 

CHAPTER XI. 

FEVERS. 

 Be Armed With Facts--Union of Human Gases With Oxygen--Fever and Nettle-rash. Nature Constructs for a Wise Purpose--Processes of Life Must be Kept in Motion--No Satisfaction from Authors--Animal Heat--Semeiology--Symptomatology--Definition of Fever--Fevers only Effects--Result of Stoppages of Vein or Artery--Aneurisms. 

BE ARMED WITH FACTS. 

When we reason for causes we must begin with facts, and hold themconstantly in line for action, and use, all the time. It would be goodadvice never to enter a contest without your saber is of the pureststeel of reason. By such only can you cut your way to the magazine oftruth. 

As we line up to learn something of the cause of fever, we are met byheat, a living fact. Does that put the machinery of your mind in motion?If not, what will arouse your mental energy? You see that heat is notlike cold. It is not a horse with eyes, head, neck, body, limbs andtail; but it is as much of a being as the horse; it is a being of heat. If cause made the horse, and cause made the heat, why not devote allenergy in seeking for cause in all disturbances of life?

UNION OF HUMAN GASES WITH OXYGEN. 

Who says heat is not a union of the human gases with oxygen and othersubstances as they pass out of the excretory system. By what force doparts of the engine of life move? If by the motor power of electricity, how fast must the heart or life current run to ignite the gasolene ofthe body and set a person on fire and burn to fever heat?

If we know anything of the laws of electricity, we must know velocitymodulates its temperature. Thus heat and cold are the effect. 

If we understand anatomy as we should, we know man is the greatestengine ever produced, complete in form, an electro-magnet, a motor, andwould be incomplete if it could not burn its own gases. 

When man, is said to have fever, he is only on "fire, " to burn out thedeadly gases, which a perverted, dirty, abnormal, laboratory, hasallowed to accumulate by friction of the journals of his body, or in thesupply of vital fluids. We are only complete when normal in allparts, --a true compass points to the normal only. 

When reasoning on the fever subject would it not be strictly in line tosuppose that the lowest perceptible grade of fever requires a lessadditional physical energy to remove some foreign body from the person, that at first would naturally show a very light effect upon the humansystem, which would be the effect of itchy sensation. 

FEVER AND NETTLE-RASH. 

Let us stop and reason. Might this effect (itching) not come fromobstructed gases that flow through and from the skin? If gas should bedetained in the system by the excretory ducts the substance closing theporous system would cause irritation of nerves, and increase the heart'saction to such degree that the temperature is raised to fever heat, bythe velocity with which electricity is brought into action. Electricitybeing the force that is naturally required to contract muscles and forcegases from the body. 

Let us advance higher in the scale of foreign bodies until we arrive tothe condition of steam, which is more dense than gas. Would it not takemore force to discharge it? By the same rule of reasoning we find waterto be much thicker as an element than either gas or steam. 

Then we have lymph as another element, albumen, fibrin, with all theelements found in arterial and venous blood, all of which forcesrequired to circulate, pass through and out of the system, must beincreased to suit. Therefore we are brought to this conclusion, that thedifferent degrees of temperature do mark the density of the fluids withwhich the motor engine has to contend. 

If gas produces an itching sensation, would it not be reasonable tosuppose that the consistence of lymph would cause elevations on theskin, such as nettle-rash. 

If this method of reasoning sustains us thus far, why not argue thatalbumen obstructed while in the system of the fascia would require amuch greater force to put it through the skin. The excretions of thebody would cause a much greater heat to even throw the albumen as far asthe cuticle. 

If a greater, with a greater velocity, why not grant to this as cause ofthe disturbance of motor energy equal to measles. Let us add to thisalbumen a quantity of fibrin, have we not cause to expect the energyhereby required to be equal to that nerve and blood energy found insmallpox?

If this be true, have we not a foundation in truth on which to base ourconclusions? That the difference in forces manifested is the resistanceoffered by the difference in the consistence of devitalized fluids whichthe nerves and fibers of the fascia labor to excrete. 

NATURE CONSTRUCTS TO SUIT A WISE PURPOSE. 

By close observation the philosopher who is hunting to acquaint himselfwith the laws of cause and effect, finds upon his voyages as anexplorer, that nature as cause does construct for wise purposes; andshows as much wisdom in the construction and preparation of all bodies, beings and worlds, as the workings of those beings show when in action. 

As life, the highest known principle sent forth by nature to vivify, construct and govern all beings, it is expected to be the indweller andoperator, and one of the greatest perceivable and universal laws ofnature. And when it becomes necessary to break the friendly relationbetween life and matter, nature closes up the channels of supply. 

It may begin its work near the heart, at the origin of the greatestblood vessels, or do its work at any point. It may begin its closingprocess at the extremities of the veins or anywhere where exhaustedvital fluids may enter for return to the heart for renewal by union withnew material. 

As nature is never satisfied with incompleteness in anything, allinterferences from whatsoever cause are sufficient for nature to call ahalt and begin the work of excavation by bringing the necessary fluids, already prepared in the chemical laboratory, to dissolve and wash awayall obstructing deposits previous to beginning the work ofreconstruction, which is to repair all injured parts of the machineryif disabled by atmospheric cause, poisons, or otherwise. 

When nature renovates it is never satisfied to leave any obstruction inany part of the body. All the powers of its battery force are brought inline to do duty, and never stop short of completeness which ends inperfection. 

All seasons of the year come and go, and we see year in and out theperpetual processes of construction of one class of bodies, and thepassing away of others. 

Vegetation builds forests, and cold builds mountains of ice to bedissolved and sent into the ocean to purify the water, and keep thebrines from drying to powder, as salt. 

PROCESSES OF LIFE MUST BE KEPT IN MOTION. 

All the processes of earth-life, must be kept in perpetual motion tocultivate and be kept in healthy condition, or the world would witherand die, and go to the tombs of space, to join the funeral procession ofother dead worlds. Thus you see all nature comes and goes by the fiat ofwisely adjusted laws. 

NO SATISFACTION FROM AUTHORS. 

Read all the authors from Æsculapius to this date, and all combinedleave the inquirers without a single fact as to the cause or causes offever. 

One says fever may come from too much carbon. Another says chemicaldefects may be the cause. 

I would like to agree with some of the good men of our date or theancient theorists if I could, but they, both dead and alive, are a blankexcept the tons of paper they have covered all over with conjectures, and closed out by the words "Perhaps so's and howevers" spoken in alltongues and languages on earth. 

All have explored for centuries for the cause of fevers, and on returnfrom their multiple voyages say, we hope some day to find the cause. Wehave killed many dogs experimenting, but have failed to find the causeof fever. 

ANIMAL HEAT. 

To think of fever, we think of animal heat. By habit we want to know howgreat the heat is. We measure by a yard stick till we find we have 100°, 102°, 104°, to 106°, at this point we stop as we find too many yards ofred calico to suit the size of the purse of life. Which we think cannotconsume more than 106 yards of heat. We begin to ask for the substancesthat are more powerful than fire. We try all known fire compounds andfail. The fire department had done faithful work, and all it could bringto bear on the fire. It had put on hose and steam, knocked shingles offand windows out, but not until the fire had ruined the house with allits inside and outside usefulness and beauties. Another and anotherhouse gets on fire and burns just as the first did. All are content tosee the ruins and say it is the will of the Lord; never thinking for amoment that it was with the aid of the heart that the brain burned upthe body. 

Of what use is a knowledge of anatomy to man if he overlooks cause andeffect in the results obtained by the machinery that anatomy shouldteach? He finds each part connected to all others with the wisdom thathas given a set of plans and specifications that are without a flaw oromission. The body generates its own heat and modulates to suit climateand season. It can generate through its electro-motor system far beyondthe kindly normal, to the highest known fever heat, and is capable ofmodulations far above or below normal. A knowledge of Osteopathy willprepare you to bring the system under the rulings of the physical lawsof life. Fever is electric heat only. 

SEMEIOLOGY. 

(Med. ) The science of the signs or symptoms of disease. 

SYMPTOMATOLOGY. 

The doctrine of symptoms; that part of the science of medicine whichtreats of the symptoms of disease. Semeiology. 

These definitions are from Webster's International Dictionary, considered by all English speaking people as a standard authority. Bothwords are chosen names to represent that system of guess work, which isnow and has been used as a method of ascertaining what disease is ormight be. It is supposed to be the best method known to date to classifyor name diseases, after which guessing begins in earnest. What kinds ofpoisons, how much and how often to use them, and guess how much good orhow much harm is being done to the sick person. 

To illustrate more forcibly, to the mind of the reader that such systemthough honored by age is only worthy the name of guess work, as shown bythe following standard authority on fevers:

POTTER'S DEFINITION OF FEVER. 

"Fever is a condition in which there are present the phenomena of riseof temperature, quickened circulation, marked tissue change, anddisordered secretions. 

"The primary cause of the fever phenomena is still a mooted (discussedand debated) question, and is either a disorder of the sympatheticnervous system giving rise to disturbances of the vaso-motor filaments, or a derangement of the nerve centers located adjacent to the corpusstriatum, which have been found, by experiment, to govern the processesof heat production, distribution, and dissipation. 

"Rise of temperature is the pre-eminent feature of all fevers, and canonly be positively determined by the use of the clinical thermometer. The term feverishness is used when the temperature ranges from 99° to100° fahr. ; slight fever if 100° or 101°; moderate, 102° or 103°; highif 104° or 105° and intense if it exceed the latter. The termhyperpyrexia is used when the temperature shows a tendency to remain at106° fahr. And above. 

"Quickened circulation is the rule in fevers, the frequency usuallymaintaining a fair ratio with the increase of the temperature. A rise ofone degree fahr. Is usually attended with an increase of eight to tenbeats of the pulse per minute. 

"The following table gives a fair comparison between temperature andpulse:--

 TABLE OF DEGREES. 

 A temperature of 98° corresponds to a pulse of 60° " 99° " " " 70° " 100°F " " " 80° " 101°F " " " 90° " 102°F " " " 100° " 103°F " " " 110° " 104°F " " " 120° " 105°F " " " 130° " 106°F " " " 140°

"The tissue waste is marked in proportion to the severity and durationof the febrile phenomena, being slight or (nil) in febricula, andexcessive in typhoid fever. 

"The disordered secretions are manifested by the deficiency in thesalivary, gastric, intestinal, and nephritic secretions, the tonguebeing furred, the mouth clammy, and there occurring anorexia, thirst, constipation, and scanty, high-colored acid urine. "[6]

[Footnote 6: What has the student gained by reading the above definitionof this standard author and representative of present medical attainmentbut a labored effort to explain what he does not know. ]

FEVERS ONLY EFFECTS. 

Fevers are effects only. The cause may be far from mental conclusions. If we have a house with one bell, and ten wires each fastened to a doorrunning to the center, all having wire connection and so arranged thatto pull any one wire will set the bell in motion, and without anindicator you cannot tell which wire is disturbed, producing the effector ringing of the bell at the center. An electrician would know at oncethe cause, but to discriminate and locate the wire disturbed is thestudy. 

Before a bell can be heard from any door, the general battery must becharged. Thus you see but one source of supply. To better illustrate--wewill take a house with eight rooms, and all supplied by one battery--oneis a reception room, one a parlor, one a sitting room, one bed room, one cloak room, one dining room, one a kitchen, and one a basement room, all having wires and bells running to one bell in the clerk's office, which has an indicator for each room by numbers on its face. If themachinery is in good order he can call and answer correctly all the timeand never make a mistake. But should he ring to call the cook and herbell keep on ringing and she and clerk could not stop it, and theysummon an electrician, what would you think if he began at the parlorbell to adjust a trouble of the kitchen bell? Surely you would not havehim treat the parlor bell first, because you know the cook could onlyanswer by the effect, or rattling of the office bell. Hers is cause, sound at office, effect. Now to apply this illustration, we will say asystem of bells and connecting wires run to all parts or rooms of thebody, from the battery of power or the brain, conveyed by the strings ofwires or nerves, that are put up and run to all active or vital parts ofthe body. Thus arranged we see how blood is driven to any part of thesystem, by the power that is sent over the nerves from the brain to thespinal cord, and from there to all nerves of each and all divisions ofthe body. Then your blood that has done its work in constructing partsor all of the system, entering veins to be returned to the heart forrenewal. Each vein, great and small, has nerves with them as servantsof power, to force blood back to heart through the different sets oftubes known as veins, and made to suit the duties they have to performin the process of life. As it travels to the heart with blood too thickto suit the lungs, the great system of lymphatics pour in water to suitdemands, preparatory to entering the lungs to be purified and renewed. Thus you see nature has amply prepared all the machinery and power toprepare material and construct all parts, and when in normal conditionthe mind and wisdom of God is satisfied that the machine will go on andbuild and run according to the plan and specification. If this be trueas nature proves at every point and principle, what can man do fartherthan plumb, line up, and trust to nature to get results desired, "lifeand health?" Can we add or suggest any improvement? If not, what is leftfor us to do is to keep bells, batteries and wires in normal place andtrust to normal law as given by nature. 

RESULT OF STOPPAGE OF VEIN OR ARTERY. 

But few questions remain to be asked by the philosophical navigator whenhe sets sail to go to the cause of flux. Would he go to blood supply?Certainly, there must be supply previous to deposit. Reason would causeus to combine the fact that blood must be in perpetual motion from andto the heart during life, and that law is the fiat of all nature whichis indispensable and absolute. Blood must not stop its motion nor beallowed to unduly deposit, as the heart's action is perpetual in motion. The work is complete of the heart if it delivers blood into theexploring arteries. Each division must to do its part fully as a normalheart does, or can in the greatest measure of health; and a normallyformed heart is just as much interested in the blood that is runningconstantly for repairs and additions, as the whole system is on thearteries for supply. Thus you must have perfection in shape first, andfrom it to all parts as far as an artery reaches. All hindrances must bekept away from the arteries great and small. Health permits of nostopping of blood in either the vein or artery. If an artery cannotunload its consents a strain follows, and as an artery must have room todeposit its supplies it proceeds to build other vessels adjacent to thepoints of obstruction. 

ANEURISMS. 

Some are builded to enormous sizes. We call them aneurisms oraccommodation chambers, builded by nature's constructing ability of thearteries as deposits for blood. The artery should pass farther on, thusyou by reason must know an obstruction has limited the flow of blood, and the tumor is only an effect, and obstruction is the cause of allabnormal deposits, either from vein or artery. Unobstructed blood cannotform a tumor, nor allow inharmony to dwell in any part of the system. Flux is an effect, blood supply and circulation both at variation fromnormal. An artery finds veins of bowels irritated and contracted to suchdegree that arterial blood cannot enter veins with cargo of blood atall, and deposits its blood at terminal points in mucous membrane ofbowels, and when membrane fails to hold all blood so delivered, then thefirst blood which dies of asphyxia finds an outlet into the bowels to becarried off and out by peristaltic actions. Thus you have a continuousdeposit and discharge for arterial blood until death stops the supply. 

CHAPTER XII. 

SCARLET FEVER AND SMALLPOX. 

 As defined by Allopathy--Scarlet Fever as Defined by Osteopathy--Smallpox--Power to Drive Greater Than in Measles. 

AS DEFINED BY ALLOPATHY. 

"Scarlet fever begins with a short period of tired feeling. A shortperiod of chilly sensation, fullness of eyes and sore throat. In a fewhours fever begins with great heat of back of head. It soon extends allover the body, sick stomach and vomiting generally accompany thedisease. Rash of a red color beginning on back, and extends to throatand limbs. About the second or third day, the fever is very high, from100° to 104° and generally lasts to fifth and seventh day, at which timefever begins to diminish, with itching over the body. The skin at thistime throws off all of the dead scales that had been red rash in thefore-part of the disease. Often the lining membranes of the mouth, throat and tonsils slough and bleed. Also pus is often formed just underthe skin in front of the throat. Such cases usually die. [7]

 ALLOPATHY. "

[Footnote 7: Very true, if treated by the medicine man. ]

SCARLET FEVER AS DEFINED BY OSTEOPATHY. 

Is a disease generally of the early spring and late fall seasons. Generally comes with cold and damp weathers during east winds. It beginswith sore throat, chilly and tired feelings, followed with headache andvomiting. In a few hours chilly feeling leaves and fever sets in veryhigh, burns your hands. The patient is rounded in chest, abdomen, faceand limbs by congestion of the fascia and all of the lymphatic glands. This stagnation will soon begin its work of fermentation of the fluidsof fascia, then you see the rash. If you do not want to see the rash andsloughing of throat, with a dead patient, I would advise you to trainyour guns on the blood, nerves, and lymphatics of the fascia and stopthe cause at once, or quit. 

 OSTEOPATHY. 

SMALLPOX. 

If we give a thought to the action of the electro-motor force, we wouldbe constrained to believe that a power that could drive gas through abody of great density, would be much less than one that could forcelymph through the same density. The same of albumen. 

POWER TO DRIVE GREATER THAN IN MEASLES. 

Thus in smallpox the motor energy must be equal to the force that wouldconvey albumen through all tissues. Measles would be less, and so onaccording to the thickness of the fluids present. Thus you see the powerto drive dead fluids from fascia must be much greater in smallpox thanin cases of measles. Then we must see why the pulse of smallpox is sopowerful during development of the pox. After killing the fluids byretention in the fascia of the skin, a greater force yet is created byhurting nerve fibers of fascia; then the motor energy appears and allthe powers of life go to help the arteries force fluids through the skinand push to and leave them in the fascia of the skin to be eliminated asbest it can. In some parts elimination fails, such places are calledpox. They supurate and drop out leaving a pit (the pox mark). Now hadthe nerves of the skin and fascia not been irritated to contract theskin against the fascia passing its dead fluids through the excretoryducts of the skin, we probably would have no eruption. It is not quitereasonable to conclude that after the heart overloads the fascia and thenerves lose their control by pressure of fluids, that all that is leftis chemical action to the production of pus, which throws it out offascia in intervening spaces? Then should the fascia have greater deathof its substances, we have one spot to run into others, and we have"confluent smallpox. "

CHAPTER XIII. 

A CHAPTER OF WONDERS AND SOME VALUABLE QUESTIONS. 

 Wonders on the Increase--What Is Life?--How Is Action Produced--Acquaint Yourself With the Machinery--Duty of the Osteopath--Formation of Sacrum--The Pelvis--Appearance of OEdema--Do All Diseases Have Appearance in OEdema. 

WONDERS ON THE INCREASE. 

Wonders are daily callers, and seem greatly on the increase during theEighteenth century. As we read history we learn that no one hundredyears of the past has produced wonders in such number and variety. Stupid systems of government have given place to better and wiser. Voyages of the ocean have had months by sail reduced to days by steam. Journeys over land that would require six months by horse and ox, arenow accomplished in six days by rail. Our law, medical and other schoolsof five and seven years, are now but two or three; and the graduates ofsuch schools are far superior in useful knowledge to those of the fiveand seven. And no wonder at that, for the facilities for giving thepupil an education are so far superior that the knowledge sought, can beobtained in less time. Our schools are not intended to use the greatestnumber of days that are allotted to man. But at this day schooling andlearning mean, to obtain useful knowledge in the quickest way that athoroughness can be obtained. If there is any method by which arithmeticcan be taught so as to master it in thirty days instead of thirty monthslet us have it. We want knowledge, we are willing to pay for it, we wantall we pay for, and we want our heads kept out of the sausage-mill oftime wasting. 

A great question now stands before us: What are the possibilities ofmind to improve our methods of gaining knowledge, shorten time, andgetting greater and better results? I am free to say the question is toomomentous to form an answer, as each day brings a new wonder, to the manor woman who reasons on cause, and gives demonstrations by effects. 

WHAT IS LIFE?

The philosopher who first asked that question no one knows. But allintelligent persons are interested in the solution of this problem, atleast to know some tangible reason why it is called life; whether lifeis personal or so arranged that it might be called an individualizedprinciple of nature. 

I wish to think for a time on this line, because we should make a wisehandling of the machinery of the body. 

If life in man has been formed to suit the size and duties of the being;if life has a living and separate personage, then we should be governedby such reasons as would give it the greatest chance to go on with itslabors in the bodies of man and beast. 

We know by experience that a spark of fire will start the principles ofpowder into motion, which, were it not stimulated by the positiveprinciple of father nature, which finds this germ lying quietly in thewomb of space, would be silently inactive for all ages, without beingable to move or help itself, save for the motor principle of life givenby the father of all motion. 

HOW IS ACTION PRODUCED. 

Right here we could and should ask the question: Is this action producedby electricity put in motion, or is it the active principle that comesas a spiritual man? If so, it is useless to try, or hope to know whatlife is in its minutia. But we do know that life can only display itsnatural forces by the visible action of the forms it produces. 

If we inspect man as a machine, we find a complete building, a machinethat courts inspection and criticism. It demands a full exploration ofall its parts with their uses. Then the mind is asked to see or find theconnection between the physical, and the spiritual. By nature you canreason on the roads that the powers of life are arranged to suit itssystem of motion. 

If life is an individualized personage, as we might express thatmysterious something, and it must have definite arrangements by which itcan be united and act with matter; then we are admonished to acquaintourselves with the arrangements of those natural connections, the one ormany, as they are connected to all parts of the completed being. 

As motion is the first and only evidence of life, by this thought we areconducted to the machinery through which life works to accomplish theseresults. 

ACQUAINT YOURSELF WITH THE MACHINERY. 

If the brain be that division in which force is generated or stored, youmust at all hazards acquaint yourself with that structure of thismachine; trace the connection from brain to heart, from heart to lungs, and other organs that can be acted upon by the brain, whose duty may beto construct the fleshy and bony parts of the body. Trace from the brainto the chemical laboratories, and note their action as they unite andprepare blood and other fluids, that are used in the economy of thisvital, self-constructing and self-moving wonder, commonly known as man;wherein life and matter do unite, and express their friendly relationone with the other; and while this relation exists we have the livingman only, expressing and proving the relation that can exist betweenlife and matter, from the lowest living atom, to the greatest worlds. They can only express form and action by this law. Harmony only dwellswhere obstructions do not exist. 

DUTY OF THE OSTEOPATH. 

The Osteopath finds here the field in which he can dwell forever. Hisduties as a philosopher admonish him, that life and matter can beunited, and that union cannot continue with any hindrance to the freeand absolute motion. Therefore his duty is to keep away from the trackall that will hinder the complete passage of the forces of the nervoussystem, that by that power the blood may be delivered and adjusted, tokeep the system in normal condition. Here is your duty; do it well, ifyou wish to succeed. 

FORMATION OF SACRUM. 

We believe only when we do not know. Belief and doubt are equal terms. If we believe the sacrum is formed by a local system, then we can orwill have cause to believe that the rectum and colon appear after theouter skin is in process of forming. For want of the truths we are leftin speculative doubt. I believe the lower bowels are formed by localmachinery that receives and appropriates to the purpose of constructionof such parts or organs as nature designs to be used there. If wedissect a chicken as soon as hatched we will find the colon beginning atrectum and complete in form, but not connected to the small intestines. 

THE PELVIS. 

To get more directly at the point I want to make I will say I have somereasons to believe that the lower bowels are builded from rectum to thevermiform appendix, by acts of pelvis. It may be well to state that Ihave seen formation of rectum and colon in the chicken, before the smallintestines were visible at all. Then in same chicken I saw, liver, lung, crop and gizzard, and only one artery in the region of the smallintestines. From this I was led to believe that the pelvis did much ofthe forming of the viscera. If so, then we could look for much reliefthrough the system of the pelvis. 

APPEARANCE OF OEDEMA. 

OEdema is the one word that appears to be at the first showing of lifeand death in animal forms. Previous to death by general swelling ofsystem, a watery swelling of fascia and lymphatics, even to those ofnerve fibers. If a disease should destroy life by withholding allfluids, we can trace such cause in the beginning to a time when therewas watery swelling of the centers of nerves of nutrition, to suchamount as to cut off nerve supply until sensation ceased to renovate andkeep off accumulating fluids so long that fermentation did the work ofheating till all fluids had dried up, and the channels of supply closedby adhesive inflammation, and death follows by the law of generalatrophy. 

DO ALL DISEASES HAVE BEGINNING IN OEDEMA?

To assert that all diseases have their beginning in oedema may be widein range, but we often find one principle to rule over much territory. "Instance:" Mind is the supreme ruler of all beings, from the mites oflife to the monsters of the land and sea. Thus we see a ruling principleis without limit. The same of numbers. By heat all metals melt tofluidity; acids must have oxygen to begin as solvents in most metals. Weonly speak imperfectly of some common laws to prepare the student tothink on the line of probabilities as I hold them out for consideration. Suppose we begin at the atoms of fluids such as enter to constructanimal or vegetable forms, and pen up till decomposition begins. Bysuch delay does not nature call a halt and refuse to obey the laws ofconstruction and let all other supplies pile up even to death? Is notall this the result of oedema? OEdema surely begins with the firsttardy atom of matter. 

Pneumonia begins by its oedematous accumulations of dead atoms, evento the death of the whole body, all having found a start in atoms only. 

QUESTIONS FOR THE OSTEOPATH. 

We will close this chapter by propounding a few questions which theOsteopath should keep in mind. 

Are the human and animal forms complete as working machines?

Has nature furnished man with powers to make his bones; give them theneeded shapes of durable material, strong in kind?

Does a section in nature's law provide fastenings to hold these to oneanother?

Then another question arises: How will this body move, and where and howis the force applied?

Where and how is this force obtained?

How is it generated and supplied to these parts of motion?

What makes these muscles, ligaments, nerves, veins, arteries?

Are they self-forming, or has nature prepared machinery to make them?

Does animal life contain knowledge and force to construct all of theparts of man?

Can it run the machine after it has finished it?

By what power does it move?

Is there a blood vessel running to all parts of this body to supply allthese demands?

If it has a battery of force, where is it?

What does it use for force?

Is it electricity? If so how does it collect and use this substance?

How does it convey its powers to any or all places?

How does the man keep warm without fire?

How does he build and lose flesh all the time?

Where and how is the supply made and delivered to proper places?

How is it applied and what holds it to its place when adjusted?

What makes it build the house of life?

Do demand and supply govern the work? If not, what does?

Are the laws of animal life sufficient to do all this work of buildingand repairing wastes and keep it in running condition?

If it does, what can man do or suggest to help it?

Is this machine capable of being run fast or slow if need be?

Does man have in him some kind of chemical laboratory that can turn outsuch products as he needs to fill all his physical demands?

If by heat, exercise, or any other cause he gets warm, can thatchemistry cool him to normal?

If too cold can it warm him? Can it adjust him to heat and cold?

If so, how is it done? Is the law of life and longevity fully vindicatedin man's make up?

CHAPTER XIV. 

HAS MAN DEGENERATED?

 The Advent of Man--Care of the Stock Raiser--Mental Degeneration Makes It Unpleasant for an Original Thinker--Original Thinkers of the Ancients--Methods of Healing--Failure of Allopathy--Primitive Man--Evidences of Prehistoric Man--Mental Dwarfage. 

THE ADVENT OF MAN. 

The exact time when man's foot appeared on the earth, no record shows. Aknowledge of his advent might be profitable. The unwritten history ofthe human races with the genius or lack of genius, might to us be anopen book of knowledge. As it is not supposable that the mind of man hasjust become observingly active in the last few centuries, absoluteevidence of purer and deeper reason than we have been able to present, stand recorded on the faces of many valuable "lost arts" which we havenever been able to equal. Is it not very reasonable to suppose that thepowers of mind have wonderfully degenerated from some cause?

CARE OF THE STOCK RAISER. 

The stock raiser carefully preserves the best and most healthy of themales and females of his flocks and herds for breeding purposes, thattheir offspring might be healthy and well developed, for the purposesfor which he raises them. As a result he raises stock from the poultryhouse up, with marked improvement in form, strength and usefulness. Should he be foolish enough to kill off all the healthy and welldeveloped males as they appear in his herds of cattle and other stock, for one or two centuries, would any one with average intelligencesuppose that the standard of animals would or could be kept up, bybreeding from the unfortunate stock, that had been pierced through thelungs while fighting with more powerful animals. If for breedingpurposes he would save calves, colts, lambs, pigs, goats or any otheryoung males to breed from, that had had a leg frozen off, one or botheyes plucked out, necks and ears torn by panthers, what would you thinkof the man's sanity?

On this line we would ask what has been the procedure of all nations?Has it not been to select the strong and healthy males, drive them outto the field of battle, destroy a million or more of the strongest men, as our war of the sixties shows. Since that war closed the fathers ofour children are mainly the crippled, worn out, and degenerated physicalwrecks, with the assistance of the refused, who for lack of physicalability were barred from entering the United States' service. Suchphysical and mental wrecks are the fathers of the children born duringthe last thirty years. Every healthy young lady who married and became amother after the early sixties, had to select a husband from a war orhereditary wreck. From that degenerated stock of human beings ourasylums are filled, and the beams of the gallows pulled down by theweight of the bodies of those mental dwarfs. Run this train of reasonback for a few hundred or thousand of years, --this degenerating force, bearing upon the offspring, and is it a wonder that we have physical andmental wrecks all over the country?

MENTAL DEGENERATION MAKES IT UNPLEASANT FOR THE ORIGINAL THINKER. 

Now if we have been mentally degenerating, killing our best men back fora few thousand years time, and still have a few left who are fairly goodreasoners, what was their mental powers then, compared with now? Theycould think from native ability; we only through acquired ability by ourmethods of education. Should an original thinker occasionally appearfrom the crippled and maimed, he will have much that is unpleasant tocontend with, unless he is generous enough to credit the cause to aneffect produced by the lack of mental and physical forces in the siresjust described. A man or woman who is able to reason, cannot afford towear out his or her physical and mental forces by spending time intiresome discussions with such blank masses, who are very fortunate tohave intelligence enough to make a living under the methods that requirethe least mental action. 

It would not be manly nor lady like to allow a feeling of combattivenessto arise and spend your forces on such persons. Pre-natal causes havedropped them where they are, and a philosopher knows he must submit tothe conditions, and he is sorrowful in place of vengeful andvindicative, and all that is left for him to do is to trim his lamps andlet the lights defend themselves. 

ORIGINAL THINKERS OF THE ANCIENTS. 

On this line we have much to think of. Anciently they did think: Greatminds existed then, as is evidenced by the architecture displayed inconstructing temples and pyramids. As in philosophy, chemistry, andmathematics, they stand to-day as living facts of their intelligence. Insome ways we are equal and even surpass the ancients. Before theestablishment of religious and political governments, national andtribal creeds, to sustain which the powerful minds and bodies ofthousands and millions have been slain and their wise councilsprohibited by death. Reason says under the circumstances we must kindlymake and do the best we can in our day and time. No doubt their religionwas better than ours, before they began to fight about their gods andgovernments. 

METHODS OF HEALING. 

Some evidence crops out now and then that their methods of healing werenatural and wisely applied, and crowned with good results. As far ashistory speaks of the ancient healing arts they were logical, philosophical, good in results and harmless. It is true enough that wehave great systems of chemistry that are useful in the mechanical arts, but very limited in their uses in the healing arts. In fact, a verygreat per cent of the gray-haired philosophers of all medical schools, unhesitatingly assert that the world would be better off without them. These conclusions are sent forth by competent and honest investigators, who have tested all known methods and medicines, and carefully observedthe results from a quarter to a half a century. Let us call it "atrade, " as the use of drugs is not a science. 

The author will now say, the health hunter in a majority of cases, whenhe administers drugs, gives one dose for health and nine for the dollar. 

As it becomes necessary to throw off oppressive governments, it becomesjust as necessary to throw off other useless customs, without which nosubstitute has ever been received. 

FAILURE OF ALLOPATHY. 

Allopathy, a school of medicine known and fostered by all nations, droveon with its exploring teams; gave up the search, went into camp andbuilded temples to the god who purged, puked, perspired, opiated, drankwhiskey and other stimulants; destroyed its thousands, ruined nations, established whiskey saloons, opium dens, insane asylums, naked mothersand hungry babies, and still cries aloud, and says: "Come unto me and Iwill give you rest. I have opium, morphine, and whiskey by the barrel. Iam the god of all healing knowledge, and want to be so recognized bypeople and statute. I do not wish to be annoyed by Eclecticism, Homoeopathy, Christian science, massage, Swedish movements, norOsteopathy. I do not like Osteopathy any better than I do a tiger. Itscratches me and tears away all my disciples. I cannot destroy it. Ituses neither opium nor whiskey, and it is impossible to catch it asleep. It scratches us, and has scratched our power out of four states duringthe last twelve months, with no telling where it will scratch next time. We must prepare for more war, I have heard from my scouts that on itsflag the inscription reads thus: 'No quarters for allopathy inparticular and none at all for any schools of medicine farther thansurgery, and war to the hilt on three-fourths of that as practiced inthe present day. The use of the knife in everything and for everythingmust be stopped; not by statute law, but through a higher education ofthe masses, which will give them more confidence in nature's ability toheal. '"

PRIMITIVE MAN. 

It is reasonable to suppose that the mind that constructed man was fullycompetent to undertake and complete the being to suit the purpose forwhich he was designed. After giving him physical perfection in everylimb, organ, or part of his body, it is reasonable to suppose, that atthat time, he gave him all the mental powers needed for all purposesduring the life of his race, and with that perfection in the physical, it is supposable he approached very nearly to intellectual perfection. He was a mathematician, not by collegiate process, but by nativeability. He did not have to take a course in a university to studychemistry, because of the fact that he was a chemist when he was born. Possibly he could speak or understand all languages spoken by the humantongue, from the powers of his mind, which occupied a pure and healthyphysique. In a word he was well made and fully endowed with all thephysical and mental forces necessary to the whole journey of his life. Now a question arises: "When did he begin to degenerate physically andmentally?" Let us reason some on this line, which seems to be a rathersolid foundation, and as history is young itself, and has imperfectlyrecorded only such events as have transpired during a few centuries, with records imperfectly preserved. 

EVIDENCES OF PREHISTORIC MAN. 

We see evidences all along the journey of prehistoric man's life, thoughthe being and his bones have been mostly obliterated; we see close tohis bony remains the stone axe, the flint-dart. We find acres of groundin many places close to mounds and caves, with countless millions ofslivers that have been scaled from flints and formed to suit warpurposes; while the many bones that are found in caves, heaps and piles, indicate that many thousands fell in mortal combat then and there. Possibly they were old in the skilled arts of war at that day. Theirgreat and powerful men, who should have been parents of the cominggenerations, were slain and destroyed and the conquered became thecaptives and slaves of the more powerful, with all opportunities formental development suppressed. Other nations and tribes willinglyentered the bloody fields of battle, with nothing to report but thedeath of the best physically formed men, and leaving the propagation ofthe race or races to be kept up by those who were left behind asunqualified to go into battle, for lack of strength of either body ormind. 

This process of destroying the mentally and physically great has beenkept up to the limits of our history's record. We have to go to schoolsabout one-half of our time in order to cultivate and stimulate ourmental energies sufficiently well, that we may follow the ordinarybusiness pursuits of life. 

MENTAL DWARFAGE. 

Without worrying the patience of the reader any further, we will ask himif it is not reasonable that during all the past thousands of years, that men have fought over their gods and governments, has it notproduced the mental dwarfage from the causes he has had to face? Ourprofessional men are only imitators of one another. They must spendyears in school because of a lack of native ability. This is ourcondition, and we must make the best we can of it. Most of our learnedmen, so-called, at the present day, stand upon heaps of mental rubbish. You seldom see in an editor's columns any evidence of mental greatness. He clips, quotes and sells his wisdom. He takes up some hobby, religious or scientific. He lauds his own religious views; hisscientific ideas he wishes embalmed for the use of future generations. His law is _the_ law. His medicine is God's pills, notwithstanding he isthe laughing stock of all who know him. I want to be good to them. Iexpect to be good to them, as they are suffering from the effects ofpre-natal causes, thrown upon them by their ancestors for thousands ofyears. By those causes they have been possibly wounded worse than Ihave, and I do not expect to spend any time in combats with mentaldwarfs; political, religious, or scientific bigots. If I cansuccessfully run my boat over the riffles of time, I shall credit it togood luck, not native ability, for I, too, feel what they should, --thedeep plowings of mental dwarfage, that is the result of killing all thegreat and good men for ages. 

CHAPTER XV. 

OSTEOPATHIC TREATMENT. 

 Five Points--Visceral List--Care in Treating the Spinal Column--Most Important Chapter--Perfect Drainage--A Natural Cure. 

FIVE POINTS. 

The five points of observation will cover easily the whole body, and wecannot omit any one of them, and successfully examine any disease of thesystem. Local injuries are, however, an exception to this rule, and evena local hurt often causes general effect. Suppose a fall should jar thelumbar vertebra, and push it at some articulation, front, back, orlaterally; say the lumbar, with one or two short ribs turned downagainst the lumbar nerves with a prolapsed and loosened diaphragm, pressing heavily on the abdominal aorta, vena cava, and thoracic duct;have you not found cause to stop or derange the circulation of blood inarteries, veins, lymphatics and all other organs below diaphragm? Thenheart trouble would be the natural result. Fibroid tumors, painfulmonthlies, constipation, diabetis, dyspepsia or any trouble of thesystem that could come from bad blood would be natural results, becauselymph is too old to be pure when it enters the lungs for purifying. Ifblood or chyle is kept too long below the diaphragm, it becomes diseasedbefore it reaches the lungs, and after renovation, but little good bloodis left. Then the dead matter is separated from blood and blown out atthe lungs while in vapor. Thus nutriment is not great enough to keep upnormal supply. In this stage the patient is low in flesh and feeblegenerally, because of trouble with blood and chyle to pass normallythrough the diaphragm. 

VISCERAL LIST. 

The failure of free action of blood produces general debility, congestion, low types of fever, dropsy, constipation, tumefaction and onto the whole list of visceral of diseases. 

From this we are called to the pelvis. If the innominate bones aretwisted on sacrum or are driven too high or too low, an injury to thesacral system of blood and nerves would be cause equal to congestion, inflammation of womb or bladder-diseases, with a crippled condition ofall the spinal nerves. This would be cause enough to produce hysteria, and on to the whole list of diseases to spinal injuries. The Osteopathhas great demands for his powers of reason when he considers therelation of diseases generally to the pelvis; and this knowledge hemust have before his work can be attended with success. 

As I said, five points comprise the fields in which the Osteopath mustsearch. I have given you quite pointedly and at length, hints on spineand sacrum which cover the territory below the diaphragm. In conclusionI will simply refer you to the chest, neck and brain, and say, "let yoursearch light ever shine bright on the brain. " On it we must depend forpower. About all nerves do run through the neck and branch off to supplyboth above and below, to do their parts in animal life, to the heart, brain and sum total of man and beast. Search faithfully for cause ofdiseases in head, neck, chest, spine and pelvis; for all organs, limbsand parts are directly related to and depend on these five localities towhich I have just called your attention. 

With your knowledge of anatomy, I am sure you can practice and besuccessful, and should be in all cases over which Osteopathy is supposedto preside. 

CARE IN TREATING THE SPINAL CORD. 

I want to offer you the facts, not advice, but pure and well sustainedfacts, the only witnesses that ever enter the courts of truth. A spinalcord is a fact; you see it--thus a fact. That which you can see, feel, hear, smell or taste is a fact, and the knowledge of the ability of anyone fact to accomplish any one thing, how it accomplishes it and forwhat purpose, is a truth sought for in philosophy. The spinal cord isthe present fact for consideration. You see it, you feel it, thus youhave two facts with which you can start to obtain a knowledge of the useof this spinal cord. In it you have one common straight cylinder whichis filled with an unknown substance, and by an unknown power wiselydirected. It is wisely formed, located, and protected. It throws offbranches which are wisely located. They have bundles, many and few; theyare connected to their support, which is the brain, by a continuous cordin length and form to suit. After it has concluded throwing off branchesat local places for special purposes, then like a flashlight, it throwsoff a bundle of branches called horse-tail plexus, _caudae equinae_, which simply signifies the many branches that convey fluids andinfluences to the extremities, to execute the vital work for which theyare formed and located. While the laws of life and their procedure toexecute and accomplish the work designed by nature for them to do, ismysterious and to the finite mind incomprehensible, you can only seewhat they do or perform, after the work is done and ready for yourinspection. 

HOW TO TREAT THE SPINAL COLUMN. 

Now as we are dealing with the omnipresent nerve principle of animallife, I will tell you this one serious truth, and support it by the factof observation. To treat the spine, and thereby irritate the spinal cordoftener than once or twice a week will cause the vital assimilation tobe perverted, and become the death-producing excretor, by producing theabortion of the living molecules of life, before fully matured, while inthe cellular system, which lies immediately under the lymphatics. 

Your patients will linger long from the change of the nutrient ducts tothrow off their dead matter into the excretories, which death was causedby the undue, or too many treatments of the spinal cord. If you willallow yourself to think for a moment, or think at all of the spinal cordbeing irritated, and what effect it will have on the uterus you willrealize that I have told you a truth, and produced an array of facts tostand by that truth. Many of your patients are well six months beforethey are discharged. They are kept on hands because they are weak, andthey are weak, because you keep them so from irritating the spinal cord. Throw off your goggles and receive the rays of the sunlight whichforever stand in the bosom of reason. 

MOST IMPORTANT CHAPTER OF ALL. 

This is the most important chapter of this book, because at this pointthe engine of life is turned over to you as an engineer and by you it isexpected to be wisely conducted on its journey. 

Your responsibility here is doubled. Your first position is that of amaster mechanic, who is capable of drawing plans and writing minutely aspecification whereby the engineer may know what a well constructedmachine is in every particular. He knows the parts and relations of bothas constructor and operator, and you are supposed to be the foreman inthe shop of repairs. The living person is the engine, nature theengineer, and you the master mechanic. 

This being your position it is expected that you will carefully inspectall parts of the engines run into your repair shop, note all variationsfrom the truly normal, and adjust from those variations as nearly aspossible to the conditions of the true specimen that stands in the shop. 

PERFECT DRAINAGE. 

At this point it will be proper to suppose a case by way ofillustration. Suppose by some accident the bones of the neck should bethrown at variance from the normal to a bend or twist. We may thenexpect inharmony in the circulation of the blood to the head and facewith all the organs and glands above the neck. We will find imperfectsupply of blood and other fluids to the head. We may expect swelling ofhead and face with local or general misery. Thus you have a cause forheadache, dizziness, blindness, enlarged tonsils, sore tongue, loss ofsight, hearing, memory, and on through the list of head diseases, allbecause of perverted circulation of the fluids of the brain proper ofany local division. It is important to have perfect drainage, forwithout it, the good results from a treatment cannot be expected tofollow your efforts to relieve diseases above the neck. 

WHAT TREATING MEANS. 

Here I want to emphasize that the word treat has but one meaning, thatis to know you are right, and do your work accordingly. I will onlyhint, and would feel embarrassed to go any farther than to hint to you, the importance of an undisturbed condition of the five known kinds ofnerves, namely: sensation, motion, nutrition, voluntary and involuntary, all of which you must labor to keep in perpetual harmony while treatingany disease of the head, neck, chest, abdomen, pelvis, spine and limbs. 

If you would allow yourself to reason at all, you must know thatsensation must be normal and always on guard to give notice by local orgeneral misery, of unnatural accumulation of the circulating fluids. Each set of nerves must be free to act and do their part. Your duty as amaster mechanic is to know that the engine kept is in so perfect acondition that there will be no functional disturbance to any nerve, vein, or artery that supplies and governs the skin, the fascia, themuscle, the blood or any fluid that should freely circulate to sustainlife and renovate the system from deposits that would cause what we calldisease. 

A NATURAL CURE. 

Your Osteopathic knowledge has surely taught you, that with an intimateacquaintance with the nerve and blood supply, you can arrive at aknowledge of the hidden cause of disease, and conduct your treatment toa successful termination. This is not by your knowledge of chemistry, but by the absolute knowledge of what is in man. What is normal, andwhat abnormal, what is effect and how to find the cause. Do you eversuspect renal or bladder trouble without first receiving knowledge fromyour patient, that there is soreness and tenderness in the region of thekidneys at some point along the spine. By this knowledge you are invitedto explore the spine for the purpose of ascertaining whether it isnormal or not. If by your intimate acquaintance and observance of anormal spine you should detect an abnormal form although it be small, you are then admonished to look out for disease of kidneys, bladder orboth, from the discovered cause for disturbance of the renal nerves bysuch displacement, or some slight variation from the normal in thearticulation of the spine. If this is not worthy of your attention, yourmind is surely too crude to observe those fine beginnings that lead todeath. Your skill would be of little use in incipient cases of Bright'sdisease of the kidneys. Has not your acquaintance with the human bodyopened your mind's eye to observe that in the laboratory of the humanbody, the most wonderful chemical results are being accomplished everyday, minute and hour of your life? Can that laboratory be running ingood order and tolerate the forming of a gall or bladder stone? Does notthe body generate acids, alkalies, substances and fluids necessary towash out all impurities? If you think an unerring God has made all thosenecessary preparations, why not so assert, and stand upon that stone?

You cannot do otherwise, and not betray your ignorance to the thinkingworld. If in the human body you can find the most wonderful chemicallaboratory mind can conceive of, why not give more of your time to thatsubject, that you may obtain a better understanding of its workings?Can you afford to treat your patients without such qualification? Is itnot ignorance of the workings of this Divine law that has given birth tothe foundationless nightmare that now prevails to such an alarmingextent all over civilization, that a deadly drug will prove its efficacyin warding off disease in a better way than has been prescribed by theintelligent God, who has formulated and combined life, mind and matterin such a manner that it becomes the connecting link between a world ofmind, and that element known as matter? Can a deep philosopher dootherwise than conclude that nature has placed in man all the qualitiesfor his comfort and longevity? Or will he drink that which is deadly, and cast his vote for the crucifixion of knowledge?

CHAPTER XVI. 

REASONING TESTS. 

 The Vermiform Appendix--Operating for Appendicitis--Expelling Power of the Vermiform Appendix--Care Exercised in Making Assertions--Reasoning Tests--A List of Unexplained Diseases--Concluding Remarks. 

THE VERMIFORM APPENDIX. 

At the present time more than at any other period since the birth ofChrist, the medical and surgical world have centralized their minds forthe purpose of relieving locally inside, below the kidney of the male orfemale, excruciating pain, which appears in both sexes in the regionabove described. 

From some cause, possibly justifiable, it has been decided to open thehuman body and explore the region just below the right kidney in searchof the cause of this trouble. Such explorations have been made upon thedead first. Small seeds and other substances have been found in thevermiform appendix, which is a hollow tube over an inch in length. Thesediscoveries, as found in the dead subject, have led to explorations inthe same location in the living. In some of the cases, though very few, seeds and other substances have been found in the vermiform appendix, supposed to be the cause of local or general inflammation of theappendix. Some have been successfully removed, and permanent relieffollowed the operation. These explorations and successes in findingsubstances in the vermiform appendix, their removal, and successfulrecovery in some cases, have led to what may properly be termed a hastysystem of diagnosis, and it has become very prevalent, and resorted toby the physicians of many schools, under the impression that thevermiform appendix is of no known use, and that the human being is justas well off without it. 

OPERATING FOR APPENDICITIS. 

Therefore it is resolved, that as nothing positive is known of thetrouble in the location above described, it is guessed that it is adisease of the vermiform appendix. Therefore they etherize and dissectdown for the purpose of exploring, to ascertain if the guess is right orwrong. In the diagnosis this is a well-defined case of appendicitis; thesurgeon's knife is driven through the quivering flesh in great eagernessin search of the vermiform appendix. The bowels are rolled over andaround in search of the appendix. Sometimes some substances are found init; but often to the chargrin of the exploring physician, it is found tobe in a perfectly healthy and natural condition, and so seldom is itfound impact with seeds or any substance whatever, that as a generalrule it is a useless and dangerous experiment. The per cent of deathscaused by the knife and ether, and the permanently crippled, willjustify the assertion that it would be far better for the human race ifthey lived and died in ignorance of appendicitis. A few genuine casesmight die from that cause; but if the knife were the only known remedy, it were better that one should occasionally die than to continue thissystem, at least until the world recognizes a relief which is absolutelysafe, without the loss of a drop of blood, that has for its foundationand philosophy a fact based upon the longitudinal contractile ability ofthe appendix itself, which is able to eject by its natural forces anysubstances that may by an unnatural move be forced into the appendix. [8]

[Footnote 8: My first Osteopathic treatment for appendicitis was in1877, at which time I operated on a Mr. Surratt and gave permanentrelief. During the early eighties I treated and permanently cured MrsEmily Pickler of Kirksville, mother of our representative, S. M. Pickler, and mother of ex-congressman John A. Pickler of South Dakota. The infirmary has had bad cases of appendicitis probably running up intohundreds without failing to relieve and cure a single case. The abilityof the appendix to receive and discharge foreign substances is taught inthe American School of Osteopathy and is successfully practiced by itsdiplomates. In the case of Mr. Surratt I found lateral twist of lumbarbones; I adjusted spine, lifted bowels, and he got well. When I wascalled to Mrs. Pickler she had been put on light diet, by the surgeon, preparatory to the knife. She soon recovered under my treatment withoutany surgical operation and is alive and well to this date. ]

EXPELLING POWER OF THE VERMIFORM APPENDIX. 

To a philosopher such questions as this must arise: Has the appendix atits entrance a sphincter muscle similar in action to that of the rectumand oesophagus? Has it the power to contract and dilate?--contract andshorten in its length and eject all substances when the nerves are in anormal condition? And where is the nerve that failed to execute theexpulsion of any substance that may enter the cavity of the appendix?Has God been so forgetful as to leave the appendix in such condition asto receive foreign bodies without preparing it by contraction orotherwise to throw out such substances? If He has He surely forgot partof His work. So reason has concluded for me, and on that line I haveproceeded to operate for twenty-five years without pain or misery to thepatient, and given permanent relief in all cases that have come to me. With the former diagnosis of doctors and surgeons that appendicitis wasthe malady, and the choice of relief was the knife or death, or possiblyboth, many such cases have come for Osteopathic treatment, andexamination has revealed that in every case there has been previousinjury to some set of spinal nerves, caused by jars, strains or falls. Every case of appendicitis, gall or renal stones can be traced to somesuch cause. These principles I have proclaimed and thought fortwenty-five years. 

CARE EXERCISED IN MAKING ASSERTIONS. 

We should use much caution in our assertions that nature had made itswork so complete in animal forms and furnished them with such wiselyprepared principles that they could produce and administer remedies tosuit, and not leave the body to find them. Should we so conclude andfind by experiment that man is so arranged, and wisely furnished bydeity as to ferret out disease, purify and keep the temple of life inease and health; we must use great care when we assert such is notundeniably true up to the present. The opposite opinion has had fullsway for twenty centuries at least, and man has by habit, long usage, and ignorance so adjusted his mind to submit to customs of the greatpast that should he try, without previous training, to reason and bringhis mind to such altitude of thought of the greatness and wisdom of theinfinite, he might become insane or fall back in a stupor, and existonly as a living mental blank in the great ocean of life, where beingsdwell without minds to govern their actions. It would be a greatcalamity to have all the untrained minds shocked so seriously as tocause them to lose the mite of reason they now have, and be sent backonce more to dwell in Darwin's protoplasm. I tell you there is danger, and we must be careful and show the people small stars, and but one at atime, till they can begin to reason and realize that God has done allthat the wisest can attribute to Him. 

REASONING TESTS. 

There is but one method of reasoning. That method is by the lawsgoverning the subject to be reasoned upon. 

Reasoning is the action of the mind while hunting for truths. 

THE ABDOMEN. 

As we are about to camp close to the abdomen for a season ofexplorations and a more reasonable knowledge of its organs and theirfunctions, we will search its geography first, and find its location onthe body or globe of life. We find a boundary line established by thegeneral surveyor, about the middle of the body, called the diaphragm. This line has a very strong wall or striated muscle that can and doesdilate and contract to suit for breathing, and quantities of food thatmay be stored for a time in stomach and bowels for use. The abdomen ismuch longer than wide. In short, it is a house or shop builded formanufacturing purposes. In it we find the machinery that produces roughblood or chyle, and sends it to heart and lungs to be finished toperfect living blood, to supply and sustain all the organs of thisdivision. This diaphragm or wall has several openings through whichblood and nutriment pass to and from abdomen to heart, lungs and brain. I want to draw your special attention to the fact that this diaphragmmust be truly normal. It must be anchored and held in its true positionwithout any variation, and in order that you shall fully understand whatI mean, I will ask you to go with me mentally to all the ribs, beginningwith the sternum, see attachments, follow across with a downward courseto the attachments of this great muscular septum to the lower lumbarregion, where the right crus receives a branch or strong muscle from theleft side, and the left crus receives a muscle from the right whichbecomes one common muscle known as the left crus, the same of the rightcrus receiving a muscle or tendon from the left, which you will easilycomprehend from examining descriptive cuts in Gray, Morris, Gerrish, orany well illustrated work of anatomy. You see at once a chance forconstriction of the aorta by the muscles under which it passes, causingwithout doubt much of the disease known as palpitation of the heart, which is only a bouncing back of the blood that has been stopped at thecrura. Farther away from the spine near the center of the diaphragm wefind the return opening through this wall, provided to accommodate thevena cava. To the left a few inches below the vena cava we find anotheropening provided for the oesophagus and its nerves; like the aorta, ithas two muscles of the diaphragm crossing directly between oesophagusand the aorta, in such shape as to be able to produce powerfulprohibitory constriction to normal swallowing. 

A LIST OF UNEXPLAINED DISEASES. 

At this point I will draw your attention to what I consider is the causeof a whole list of hitherto unexplained diseases, which I think are onlyeffects, caused by the blood and other fluids being prohibited fromdoing normal service by constrictions at the various openings of thediaphragm. Thus prohibition of free action of the thoracic duct wouldproduce congestion of receptaculum chyli, because of not being able todischarge its contents as fast as received. Is it not reasonable tosuppose a ligation of the thoracic duct at the diaphragm would retainthis chyle until it would be diseased by age and fermentation, and bethrown off into the substances of other organs of the abdomen and set upnew growths, such as enlargement of the uterus, ovaries, kidneys, liver, spleen, pancreas, omentum, lymphatics, cellular membranes, and all thatis known as flesh and blood below the diaphragm? Have you not reason toexplore and demand a deeper and more thorough anatomical knowledge ofthe diaphragm and its power to produce disease while in an abnormalcondition, which can be caused by irritations, wounds or hurts, from thebase of the brain to the coccyx? Remember this is an anatomical andphilosophical question that will demand your attention to the mechanicalformation, physiological action and the unobstructed privileges offluids when prepared in the laboratory of nature, to be sent at once totheir ordained destination, before such substances are diseased or deadwith age. You must remember that you have been well drilled, or talkedout of patience in the room of symptomatology and all you have learnedis, something ails the kidneys, and are told their contents whenanalyzed are not normally pure urine. In urinalisis you are told "hereis sugar, " "here is fat, " "here is iron, " "here is pus, " "here isalbumen, " and this is diabetis, this is Bright's disease, but nosuggestion is handed to the student's mind to make him know that thesenumerous variations from normal urine are simply effects, and thediaphragm has caused all the trouble, by first being irritated fromhurts, by ribs falling, spinal strains, wounds and on from the coccyx tothe base of the brain. Symptomatology is very wide and wise in puttingthis and that together and giving it names, but fails to give the causeof all these abdominal lesions. Never for once has it said or intimatedthat the diaphragm is prolapsed by misplaced ribs to which it isattached, or that it is diseased by hurts of spine and nerves above itsown location. Allow yourself to think of the universality of thedistribution of the superior cervical ganglion and other nerves whichare of such great importance that I will by permission insert in thelast chapter of this book a description of that great system of thesympathetic nerves by Dr. Wm. Smith, whose superior knowledge of anatomymakes him eminently qualified to describe the location and uses of thisgreat sympathetic system of the nerves of life. 

CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

As you read his able essay remember there are four other sets of nervesequal to, and just as important in their divisions of life, which arethe motor, nutrient, voluntary and involuntary. All of which you as anengineer must know, and by proper adjustment of the body give themunlimited power to perform their separate and united parts in sustaininglife and health. Now as I have tried to place into your hands a compass, flag and chain that will lead you from effect to cause of disease inany part or organ of the whole abdomen I hope that many mysteries whichhave hung over your mental horizon will pass away, and give you abidingtruths, placed upon the everlasting rock of cause and effect. You haveas little use for old symptomatology as an Irishman has for a cork whenthe bottle is empty. Osteopathy is knowledge, or it is nothing. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

OBSTETRICS. 

 Overloading--Similarity of Stomach and Womb--Births--Preparation for Delivery--Caution--Lasceration Need Not Occur--Care of Cord--Severing Cord--Putting on Belly Band--Delivery of Afterbirth--Preparing for Mother's Comfort--Post-Delivery Hemorrhage--Treatment for--Food for Mother--Treatment for Sore Breast. 

OVERLOADING. 

When in the course of human events and actions of life, a womandisregards the laws of nature to such an extent as to overload thestomach beyond its powers and limits; or another way to present thethought, we will say, if you fill the stomach so full as to occupy allspace, or so much of the space as to cripple the laws of digestion andretain the food, the decomposition sets up an irritation of the nervesof mucous membrane to such a degree as to cause sickness and vomiting, or any other method of disgorging the stomach, which is the naturalprocess to unload an overloaded vessel. When the nerves cannot take upnutrition, they will then take up destruction and other elements whichare detrimental to the process of nutrition, and there is no otherprocess for relief but to unload. The loading that has been depositedin the stomach was for the purpose of sustaining a being. The stomachitself is a sack. When filled to its greatest capacity, it irritates allthe surroundings, and in return they irritate the stomach. Thus itunloads naturally for relief. Now we wish to treat of another vesselsimilar in size, similar in all its actions, which receives nourishmentfor a being, which nourishment is contained in the blood, and conveyedfrom the channels commonly known as uterine arteries. To all intents andpurposes this nourishment is taken there to sustain animal life, afterhaving constructed the machinery then it appropriates the blood to thegrowth and existence of a human being. One is the womb, the other thestomach. The placenta in the womb is provided with all the machinerynecessary to the preparation of blood, such as is used for all purposesin forming and developing a child. Which is the stomach? Which is thewomb? and what is the difference? Both receive and distributenourishment to sustain animal life. Both get sick, both vomit whenirritated and discharge their loading by the natural law of "throw up"and "throw down. " Now note the difference and govern yourselvesaccordingly. One is mid-wifery, or treatment of the lower stomach duringgestation and delivery. The other is the upper stomach that takescoarser material and refines the unrefined substances, keeps the outerman in form and being; the other contains the inner man or child, and bythe law of ejection, when it becomes an irritant, it is thrown out bythe nerves that govern the muscles of ejection. 

BIRTHS. 

To illustrate: I will say, just as long as digestion and assimilationkeep in harmony and the mother generates good blood in abundance, thechild grows, and by nature the womb is willing to let the work ofbuilding the body of the child go on indefinitely; but nature has placedall the functions of animal life under laws that are absolute and mustbe obeyed. We by reason are asked to note the similarity of the stomachand the womb, as both receive and pass nutriment to a body forassimilation and growth. When a stomach gets overloaded, sicknessbegins, as digestion and assimilation has stopped, then the decayingmatter is taken up by the terminal nerves, and conveyed to the solarplexus, and causes the nerves of ejection, to throw the dying matter outof the stomach which is above. Try your reason and see the stomach belowsicken and unload its burden. Is this sickness natural and wiselycaused? If this is not the philosophy of mid-wifery what is? As soon asa being takes possession of its room, the commissary of supplies beginsto furnish rations for that being, who has to build for itself adwelling place. The house must be built strictly to the letter of thespecifiction. Much bone and flesh must be put into the house of life, and some of all elements known to the chemist, must be used and wiselyblended to give strength; also all material to be used in the house mustbe exact in form and given strength equal to all forces, that may benecessary to execute the hard and continued labors of the machinery thatmay be used in all transactions and motions of mind and body. Now wemust go to the manufacturing chief, and have him through thequartermaster deliver and keep a full supply of all kinds of materialfor the work, and when the engine is done, put it on an inclined planeand cut the stay-chains and let it run out of the shop. Be careful andnot let the engine deface nor tear the door as it comes out. A questionis asked: On what road does the quarter-master send the supplies? Asthere is but one system over which an engine can bring supplies, we willcall that road the uterine system of arteries. The mechanic reports thathe will open the door of this great shop of manufacturing, and let itroll out the engine by the power and methods prepared to run outfinished work. First you see a door open because the lock is taken offby a key that opens all mysteries; and the great ropes that have beenfar inferior to the force of resistance, that has held the door shut, are all sufficient in power. By getting sick, muscles become convulsedto rigidity of great strength with force enough to push the new engineof life out into open space easily, by nature's team that never fails toobey orders to deliver all goods intrusted to its care. 

PREPARATION FOR DELIVERY. 

A student of mid-wifery can only learn a few general principles, beforehe gets into the field of experience. Actual contact with labor teacheshim that much that he has read and had told to him by professors ofmid-wifery in the lectures, is of but little use to him at the bedside. What he needs to know is, what he will have to do after he gets there. He must know the form and size of the bones of a woman, how large a holethe three bones of the pelvis make, for the reason that the child's headwill soon come through that hole. He must know a normal head cannot comethrough a pelvis that has been crushed in so much as to bring the pubiswithin one and one-half to two and one-half inches of the sacrum. Hemust examine and know, and do this soon after he is called, for thereason, that he will have to use instruments in such deformities, andmay wish the counsel of an older and more experienced doctor. And thisprecaution will give him time to be ready for any emergency. 

But more than ninety per cent of all cases are of a very simple nature. The mother is warned by pains in back and womb, coming and repeating atintervals of one-half hour to less time. When by the finger the doctorcan tell the mouth of the womb has opened to the size of a quarter orhalf dollar, he then may know that labor will soon start in goodearnest, and at this time it is well to call for a twine, cut twostrings about a foot long, to tie around the navel cord. 

CAUTION. 

The first duty of the obstetrician is to carefully examine the bones ofthe pelvis and spine of the mother, to ascertain if they are normal inshape and position. If there is any doubt about the spine and pelvisbeing in good condition for the passage of the head, through the bones, and you find pelvic deformity enough to prohibit the passage of thehead, notify the parties of the danger in the case at once, and that youdo not wish to take the responsibility alone, as it may requireinstruments to deliver the child, as there is danger of death to thechild and mother also, but less danger to the mother than to the child. Now you have done that which is a safeguard against all troublefollowing criminal ignorance. 

I will give you a condensed rule of procedure in all normal cases ofobstetrics. With index finger, examine os uteri; if closed and onlybackache, have patient turn on right side, and press hand on abdomenabove pelvis, and gently press or lift belly up just enough to allowblood to pass down and up pelvis and limbs. Relax all nerves of thepelvis at pubes. 

SECOND EXAMINATION. 

Caution: Wait a few hours; examine os again. If still closed and noperiodical pains are present, you are safe to leave case in the hands ofthe nurse, instructed to send for you if regular pains return atintervals. On your return, explore os again, if found to open as largeas a dime, you are by this notified that labor has begun its work ofdelivery. You now place patient on her back, propped to an easy angle ofnear thirty degrees, with rubber blanket in place. After you find os, dilated to nearly the size of a dollar, then relax nerves at pubes. Soonyou will find in mouth of womb an egg-shaped pouch of water, which youmust not press with fingers till very late in labor, for fear ofstopping labor for perhaps many hours. Remember the head can and doesturn in pelvis to suit the easiest passage through the bones, while inthe fluids of the amniotic sack. Now, as you know why not to rupturesack and spill fluids, you are prepared to proceed to other duties, which are to prevent rupture of perineum. Place the left hand on thebelly, about two inches above symphesis and push the soft parts downwith the left hand; support the perineum with the right hand until headpasses over. This is necessary to prevent rupture of perineum. 

LASCERATION NEED NOT OCCUR. 

If you follow this law of nature, lasceration may occur in one out of athousand cases, and you will be to blame for that one, and may becensured for criminal ignorance. Now you have conducted head safelythrough pelvis and vagina to the world. You will find pains stop rightshort off for about a minute, which is the time to learn whether thenavel cord is wrapped around the child's neck. 

CARE OF CORD. 

If it is found all around the neck once or more, you must slip fingerdown neck and loosen cord to let blood pass through the cord till nextpain comes, in order to ward off asphyxia of child. 

When pain comes, gently pull child's head down toward the bed. There isno danger of hurting the perineum now since the head has passed the softparts. At this time the danger is suffocation of child. Never draw childtoo far away from mother's birth place by force, as you may tear navelstring from the child and cause it to bleed to death. If you value thelife of the child, then you must be careful not to place the navel endof the string in any danger of being torn off. Now you have made a goodjob for both mother and child so far. The child is in the world; and youwant to show the mother a living baby for her labor and suffering of thepast nine months. The baby is born and the mother is not torn, but thebaby has not yet cried. Turn it on its side, face down, run your fingerin its mouth and draw out all fluids, thick or thin, to let the breathpass to the lungs. Then blow cold breath on its face and breast to causeits lungs to act. 

SEVERING CORD. 

Baby cries, all is safe now. Baby is born safely and cries nicely, butstill has cord fastened to afterbirth. It has no further use for cord, as life does not depend upon blood from the afterbirth any longer. Takethe cord about three inches from the child's belly, between thumb andfinger, and strip towards child to push bowels out of the cord if thereshould be any in it, as a safeguard for bowels, then tie a strong stringaround cord, first three inches from child's belly, second, four inches;take the cord in your hand and look what you are doing. If baby's handshould fall back to cord, you might cut off one or two fingers, or woundthe hand or arm very seriously. Cut cord between the two ties just madeon navel string. Look out for your scissors; pass the child over to thenurse to be washed and dressed, while you deliver the afterbirth frompelvis or womb. 

PUTTING ON BELLY BAND. 

When the child's shirt is on, cut a hole the size of your thumb in adoubled piece of cloth, five inches long by four wide, put the hole twoinches from one end, and run the cord through the hole. Lay the clothacross the child's belly, then fold the cloth lengthwise over the cord, which must lie across the child so it will not stretch cord by handlingor straightening child out. Now you are ready to finish the delivery ofthe afterbirth. You have a plug of soft and tender flesh to get out ofthe womb and vagina. 

DELIVERY OF AFTERBIRTH. 

As the afterbirth has been grown tight to the womb during all the daysof mother's pregnancy, and furnished all the blood to build and keep thechild alive in the womb for nine months, it has done all it can do forthe child, and is now ready to leave the womb. 

You are there to assist it to get out of the place it has occupied solong. You must begin first to rotate or roll the placenta first one wayand then another, up, down and across the vagina, by gently pulling thecord. Look out or you will pull the cord loose from the placenta; thenyou will have made your first blunder, --no cord to pull placenta with, and the mother bleeding and faint from loss of blood. Now is the timeand place to save life. Pass your hand forward into the soft parts toget your fingers behind the placenta; now give a rolling pull and bringit out with the hand. You will find it an easy matter to get your handinto the vagina and womb after the birth of the child. Get all theplacenta out, then take a wad of cloth or rags as large as the child'shead, and press it under the cross bone of the pelvis; push the clothunder and up, so as to completely plug the pelvis. Now pull the hairgently over the symphesis, which will cause the womb to contract byirritation. 

PREPARING FOR MOTHER'S COMFORT. 

All is now done but to provide for the mother's comfort, which is yournext duty. Draw her chemise down her back and legs until it is straight, then with safety pins, pin the chemise on inner side of thighs so thatthe chemise will go around both thighs separately. Now you have theshirt fast to keep it from sliding upwards, and you are ready to make aband of the chemise to support the womb and abdomen. Bring the chemisetightly together for two or three inches above the pelvis to form aband. Previous to pinning, draw the lump (womb) you feel abovesymphesis, up, then pin, and the belt you have made of the chemise willsupport the womb. All is safe now, but you must not leave for two hours. You may have delivered a feeble woman, who may flood to death afterdelivery of the child, if you do not leave her safe. I have in mind onecase who flooded all of two quarts at a single dash. The first symptomwas a pain in the head. 

POST-DELIVERY HEMORRHAGE. 

I know of only two causes that would produce hemorrhage or bleedingafter the child is delivered. One is when the afterbirth (placenta), isseparated from its attachment to the womb and still retained in thewomb or vagina, or when a part is separated and still lies in the womb, that retention of placenta prevents the natural circular contraction ofthe womb, to close on itself and retain it, with force enough to preventthe further discharge of blood, would give a chance for a continuedstream. Then should the patient bleed profusely after the placenta hasbeen removed, another cause would be in pulling away the afterbirth, aspart of the upper portion of the womb may be pulled to an invertedposition, which would be like a hat if you press the top down with thehand. Then there is a chance for leakage because of this unnatural foldmade in the womb. 

TREATMENT FOR. 

My method of relief is to insert the hand, and with back of fingerssmooth out all folds. Before you draw the right hand from the womb placeleft hand on abdomen, catch the womb between the thumb and finger andwithdraw hand. With the left hand pull the hair above symphesis orscratch the flesh just above across the region of the symphesis, justenough to make an irritation. After the hand is out of vagina pass asmall bundle of cloths as far under the symphesis as would be necessaryto hold everything up, then fasten chemise; beginning at symphesis drawit tight for about two inches above symphesis and with strong pinsfasten it. Be sure you keep garment tight by pulling down between limbs. The coarser the chemise the better, as you want to make a strong bandageat that point so as not to push the womb down into the pelvis. If thepatient's general health is fairly good let her tell you what she wantsto eat, and go and get it. Let her diet be after her usual custom. Youmust remember she has just left the condition of a full abdomen. Laceher up, fill her up and make her comfortable for six hours; then changeher bedding. 

FOOD FOR MOTHER. 

Remember this, if you stop digestion on her for some hours with teas, soups and shadows to eat, you carry her to the condition where it wouldbe dangerous to give her a hearty meal. My experience and custom forforty years has been crowned with good success. I never lost a case inconfinement. I have universally told the cook to give her plenty to eat. 

TREATMENT FOR SORE BREAST. 

If she begins to have fever followed by chilly sensations, with swellingof one or both breasts, I relieve that by laying her arm ranging withher body. Let some one hold the arm down to the bed, then I place bothof my hands under the arm, pull it up with considerable force till Iget it as high or higher than normal position of the shoulder. Then pullher shoulder straight out from the body a fairly good pull, then pullthe arm up on a straight line with the face, and be sure that you havelet loose the axillary and mammary veins, nerve and artery, which havebeen cramped by pulling the arm down during delivery. No breast shouldbecome caked in the hands of an Osteopath. Do not bother about thebowels for two or three days. It may be necessary to use the catheter ifthe water should fail to pass off after inhibiting the pubic system. This is straight mid-wifery and will guide you through at least inninety per cent of the cases you will meet in normally formed women. 

Right here I wish to say one word: I think it is very wrong to teach, talk and spend so much time with pictures, cuts, talks and lectures, andhold up constantly to the view of the student, births coming from theworst imaginable deformities and call that a knowledge of mid-wifery. Itis normal mid-wifery you want to know and be well-skilled in. Theabnormal formations are few and far between, and when a case of thatkind does appear, it is your knowledge of the normal that guides youthrough the variations. You will very likely never find two abnormalspresenting the same form of bone. As this is intended to only presentto the student natural delivery I will let the subject drop with oneword about the sore tongue of the mother. Adjust her neck, relieveconstrictor and all other muscles that would impede any blood vesselthat should drain the mouth and tongue. Remember this, that a horse thatis always hunting bugars never finds a smooth road. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

CONVULSIONS. 

 Old Phrases--Results of Stoppage of Fluids--Old Theory of Fits--What the Real Cause may be--Listen for the Cause--What is a Fit--Sensory System Demanding Nourishment--The Causes--The Remedy--Dislocation of Atlas and of Four Upper Ribs. 

OLD PHRASES. 

As old phrases that have long been in use as names for the variousdiseases have almost grown to the degree of disgust, I laid them asideand have been trying and have succeeded in unfolding natural laws to abetter understanding, which do and should be our guide and action intreating all diseases that mar the peace and happiness of the human raceby misery and death. By such old systems with their foolish andunreliable suggestions, of how to guide the doctor in treating diseaseswhich have proven unworthy of respect, if merit is to be our rule of theweights and measures of intelligence. I have become so disgusted withsuch verbiage with the sense that follows the pens that have writtentreatise on disease, that I have concluded to do like Adam of old, givenames that may appear novel to the reader when I wish to draw theattention of the student who is trying to obtain a knowledge of themysteries hitherto unsolved and unexplained. We have panned and washedby their suggestions and have obtained no gold. There are two very largeand powerful rivers passing their fluids in opposite directions over aterritory that I will call the Klondike of life. This territory isbounded on the east by a great wall, which according to the old bookshas been called the diaphragm, through which comes forth a great riverof life that spreads all over the plains of the anterior lumbar region. On that plain we find a great system of perfect irrigation of cities, villages, and fertile soils of life. 

RESULT OF STOPPAGE OF FLUIDS. 

This region of country covers one of the greatest and most fertilefields of life producing elements, and places them on the thoroughfares, and sends them back over the great central railroad, the thoracic duct, from lymphatics of the whole abdomen, to the heart and lungs to beconverted into a higher order of living matter. When finished it iscalled blood, to sustain its own machinery, and all other machines ofthe body, giving rise to the mental question: "What would be the effectproduced to life and health, if we should cut off, dam up or suspend theflowing of the aorta as it descends close by the vena cava and thoracicduct as they return with contents through the diaphragm on their journeyto the heart and lungs for manufacture and finish. And after havingsupplied the plain, what would be the effect if the vena cava and itssystem of drainage, and the thoracic duct should be dammed up so thatchyle and blood could not be carried to the heart and lungs for renewal, purification, and finish. How much thought would be required to see thatby stopping the arterial flow or that of the vena cava an irritating andfamishing condition would ensue, with congested veins, lymphatics andall organs of the abdomen, to that condition called fermentation, congestion and inflammation, which in time is thrown off by sloughingaway the substances of the lymphatics of the whole abdominal system ofglands that belong to a liver, a kidney, the uterus and the bowels, tothe condition that has long since been a mystery, and called typhoidfever, dysentery, bilious fever, periodical spasms, and on through thewhole list of general and special diseases of winter and summer. I wouldadvise the practicing Osteopath to do some very careful panning up anddown the rivers of this Klondike, for if you fail to find gold, and muchof it, you had better spend the remainder of your life where reasondwelleth not. Ever remembering that ignorance of the geography andcustoms of this country is the wet powder of success. "

OLD THEORY OF FITS. 

We often see a woman or man afflicted with fits or falling sicknesswhich the doctor has failed to cure. What is a fit? For want of a betterknowledge we have an established theory that "hysteria" is purely herimagination and as we must respect old theories, we will call it a fitof meanness. This is what we have had for breakfast, dinner and supperand we are asked to respect such trash because of the "establishedtheories. "

We are instructed by the universal "all" of the graduates of variousmedical schools to call her a criminal and proceed to punish her with awet towel, well twisted, and administered freely--more comprehensivelyexpressed by the term "spanker" and "spank her" very much--late fromScotland with all Europe, and schools in America, except the AmericanSchool of Osteopathy, which recommends to "wallop" and "wallop" veryfreely the empty headed schools and theories that have no more sensethan to torture a sick person and do so to disguise their ignorance ofthe cause of her disease, which is shown by the spasmodic effect thathas been named by a little book of guess work, generally called anduniversally known as symptomatology. 

WHAT THE REAL CAUSE MAY BE. 

Not a single author has hinted or in any way intimated that the cause ofher disease is a failure of the passing of the blood, chyle and othersubstances to and from the abdomen to nourish and renovate the abdominalviscera caused by a prolapsed diaphragm, which would cause resistance tothe passing of the aorta, through which passes the arterial bloodthrough the crura, and the vena cava that returns the venous blood, andthrough which crura the chyle is conducted from the receptaculum chylibefore decomposition by fermentation sets up. 

LISTEN FOR THE CAUSE. 

The afflicted is intoxicated. Here is where she gets a poisonous alcoholand will never be relieved permanently until the "wet towel" of reasonhas slapped on both sides of the attending physician's head, so he canhear the squeezing and rattling of regurgitation, and straining andcreaking of the fluids in their effort to pass through that great andstrong towel called the diaphragm. Until he learns this I would applythe wet towel of reason to the doctor, for fear he becomes lukewarm inhis studies and gives his patient a hypodermic injection of morphine, which is the advice as given at the last council of medical men whopractice "old established" theories rather than be honest enough to say:"The woman is sick and I know it, but I do not know the cause of hertrouble. "

WHAT IS A FIT?

What is a fit? If God's judgment is to be respected a fit is thelife-saving step and move, perfectly natural, perfectly reasonable, andshould be so respected and received as divinely wise, because on thatnatural action which is produced on the constrictor nerves first, thenthe muscles, nerves, veins and arteries with all their centers. Itappears at this time that the vital fluids have all been used up, orconsumed, by the sensory system, and in order to be temporarilyreplenished, this convulsion shows its natural use by squeezing vitalfluids from all parts of the body to nourish and sustain the sensory, which has been emptied by mental and vital action, until death isinevitable without this convulsing element to supply the sensory system, though it may be but a short time. 

SENSORY SYSTEM DEMANDING NOURISHMENT. 

The oftener the fits come, the oftener the nutrient system of thesensory cries aloud in its own, though unmistakable language, that itmust have nourishment, that it may run the machinery of life, or it mustgive up the ghost and die. In this dire extremity and struggle forlife, it has asked the motor system to suspend its action, use its powerand squeeze out of any part of the whole body though it be the brainitself, a few drops of cerebro-spinal fluid, or anything higher orlower, so it may live. 

Those of you acquainted with the fertile fields of the Klondike referredto, will be enabled to furnish the sensory system with such nutriment, as will not make it necessary to appeal to you through the language usedby the unconscious convulsions with all their horrible contortions. 

THE CAUSES. 

Thus you surely see with the microscope of reason that the sensorynerves must be constantly nourished, and that all nutriment for thenerves must be obtained from the abdomen, though its propelling forceshould come directly from the brain. 

THE REMEDY. 

The nerve courses from the brain must be unobstructed from the cerebrum, cerebellum, the medulla oblongata, and on through the whole spinal cord;with a normal neck, a normal back, and normal ribs, which to anOsteopath means careful work, with power to know, and mind to reasonthat the work is done wisely to a finish. I hope that with thesesuggestions you will go on with the investigation to a satisfactorydegree of success. 

DISLOCATION OF THE FOUR UPPER RIBS. 

I wish to insert a short paragraph on a few effects following a down, front, and outer dislocation of the four upper ribs of either side. Wehave been familiar with asthma, goitre, pen-paralysis, shaking palsy, spasms, and heart diseases of various kinds. We have been as familiarwith the existence of those abnormal variations as we are of the risingand the setting of the sun. Our best philosophers on diseases and causeshave elaborately written and published their conclusions, and the worldhas carefully perused with deep interest, what they have said of all thediseases above named, also diseases of the lung, and to-day we are bythem left in total darkness as to the cause of the above named diseases, also fits, insanity, loss of voice, brachial agitans, and many otherdiseases of the chest, neck and head. As the field is open and clear forany philosopher to establish his point of observation, note and reportwhat he observes, I will avail myself of this opportunity, and say in avery few words, I have found no one of the diseases above indicated tohave an existence without some variation of the first few of the upperribs of the chest. With this I will leave farther exploration in thehands of other persons; and await the report of their observations proand con. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

 Thoughts for Consideration--Offering a New Philosophy--Lymphatics and Fascia--A Satisfactory Experiment--Natural Washing Out. 

THOUGHTS FOR CONSIDERATION. 

"Let us not forget the assembling of ourselves together. " Whether thisquotation applies to us or not, as an Osteopath I will venture to saythat the honored dead, and the honest living intelligent healers of allschools, and all systems of trying to relieve our race from disease andsuffering, so far as I have been able to ascertain, have been forced toguess how to proceed when they enter the "sick room" for want of aphilosophical system of procedure. We have collected together many orfew symptoms, named the disease, opened the battle, and on our side havemet the enemy and fought bravely all battles very much the same way. Ihave spent one-half of a century in the field trying the many methods ofattacks; and used the best arms and ammunition to date, and designed todo the greatest good. For twenty years or more I was content to begoverned by the opinions and customs of older and more experiencedphysicians. I gave the disease its proper name. I gave the medicine astaught and practiced, but was not satisfied that the line of procedurewas philosophically correct. 

OFFERING A NEW PHILOSOPHY. 

I believe at the present time I am fully prepared to say I can offer youa more rational philosophy of what should be the physician's firstobject, when called to repair a vessel that has become unseaworthy byaccumulated barnacles, and is placed upon the dry dock for restorationto that condition called seaworthy, again. I believe this philosophywill sustain the strongest minds in the conclusion that our first andwisest step to successfully combat all diseases would be to inhibitfirst the nerves of the lymphatics, then produce muscular constrictureand cause them to unload their diseased contents, and keep themunloading until renovation is absolutely complete; leaving thelymphatics in a purely healthy state, and keep them in this condition atany period of the disease. I have long since been of the opinion that ifwe could keep all impurities from accumulating in the lymphatics, andnever allow them to become overloaded, we would have no such diseases asbilious fever, typhoid, mountain fever, malaria, pneumonia, flux, heartdisease, brain disease, fits, insanity and on to the whole list ofclimatic troubles, and the troubles with the changes of winter andsummer. 

LYMPHATICS AND FASCIA. 

I have thought for many years that the lymphatics and cellular system ofthe fascia, of the brain, the lungs, and the heart throughout the wholesystem of blood supply, do get filled up with impure and unhealthyfluids, long before any disease makes its appearance, and that theprocedure of changes known as fermentation, with its electromagneticdisturbances, were the cause of at least ninety per cent of the diseasesthat we labor to relieve by some chemical preparation called drugs. WhenI was fully satisfied that we were liable to do more harm than good withsuch remedies, I began to hunt for more reasonable methods to relievethe system of its poisonous gases and fluids, through the excretorysystem of the lymphatics and other channels, through which we had hopedto renovate and purify the system. 

A SATISFACTORY EXPERIMENT. 

For twenty-five years I have tried to balance myself, divert my mindfrom all previous methods and see if I could not get more directly tothe lymphatic system of nerves, and cause the millions of vessels knownto exist in the body to begin to unload their contents and continuethat action until all impurities were discharged by way of the bowels, lungs, kidneys and porous system. 

NATURAL WASHING OUT. 

At the conclusion of this philosophy I will endeavor to explain just hownature has provided to ward off diseases, by washing out beforefermentation should set up in the lymphatics, from being received andretained the length of time, that destructive chemical changes wouldbegin its work of converting elements into gas and discharging them fromthe system as unsuitable for nutriment. In order to avoid this calamitywe are met with two important thoughts, one of the power of the nervesof the lymphatics to dilate and contract, also that of fascia andmuscle, to dilate or constrict with great force when necessary to ejectsubstances from gland, cell, muscle and fascia. Thus we see a cellloaded to fullness by secretion which it cannot do without; open-mouthedvessels through which it receives this fluid. Then again the system ofcellular sphincters must dilate and contract in order to retain thefluids in those cell-like parts of the body. Now we are at the pointwhen ready for use in other parts of the system, those sphincters musttemporarily give away, that the gland may relax and dilate. Then theuniversal principle of constriction throughout the whole body candischarge the contents of the lymphatics of all divisions of the body, which is surely the normal condition. Let the lymphatics always receiveand discharge naturally. If so we have no substance detained long enoughto produce fermentation, fever, sickness and death. 

I think this thought has been presented plainly enough to be fullyunderstood and practiced by the reader, if an Osteopath. 

CHAPTER XX. 

THE SUPERIOR CERVICAL GANGLION. 

 With what it has Communication--Its Position--One of its Functions--Stimulation or Inhibition--Results Produced. 

WITH WHAT IT HAS COMMUNICATION. 

Every ganglion on the great chain of the sympathetic nerve has specialand important functions, but upon the superior cervical falls thegreatest burden of responsibility. This ganglion has communication witha greater number of nerves and organs than any other; is in directcommunication with three cranial and four cervical nerves, indirectlywith four more cranial nerves, and enters, by its branches into theformation of a large number of plexuses. Through this ganglion it isthat much Osteopathic work is done, and the purpose of this brief paperis to point out some of the many effects which may be produced by itsstimulation or inhibition. 

ITS POSITION. 

Anatomically we know that the superior cervical ganglion is situated inrelation to the transverse processes of the upper three cervicalvertebrae. It gives off branches which communicate directly with thevagus, glosso-pharyngeal and hypoglossal nerves; another branch, theascending, passes into the carotid canal and enters into the formationof the carotid and cavernous plexuses; other branches pass to thepharynx, and a branch enters the formation of the cardiac plexuses. Fromthe carotid and cavernous plexuses pass many nerves, only a few of whichneed special mention; one unites with the great superficial petrosal toform the Vidian nerve which goes to _Meckel's_ ganglion, branches passto the Gasserian ganglion, while we have others passing to the third, fourth, the ophthalmic division of the fifth and the sixth nerve, alsowe have derived from the nerve the sympathetic root of the lenticularganglion. 

ONE OF ITS FUNCTIONS. 

Physiologically we know that one of the special functions of thesympathetic nervous system is to control the tone of non-striatemuscular tissue, and that we have filaments distributed from thesympathetic system in the muscular wall of every blood vessel, duct andorgan throughout the body. We also know that the sympathetic is theaccelerator nerve of the heart, being opposed in its action by the vaguswhich, is inhibitory; further, that the vagus is constant in itsbrake-like action, while the sympathetic only acts when stimulatedeither directly or reflexly. While the vagus is inhibitory to the heartit is motor to the lungs. Nerve force is not generated in thesympathetic system; the cerebro-spinal nerve force is conveyed to theganglia by the rami communicantes and in the ganglia is transformed intosympathetic nerve force. We might compare the ganglia to electricaltransformers. Such being the case it is not difficult to see that if thesuperior cervical ganglion receives the nerve-force for transformationfrom the upper four cervical nerves and we can prevent, or lessen, thepassage of nerve-force from the spinal cord through those nerves to theganglion, that we will, to a corresponding degree, lessen the amount ofsympathetic nerve-force transformed in the ganglion and transmitted fromit by its branches. 

STIMULATION OR INHIBITION. 

We can produce stimulation or inhibition of a nerve at will; presssuddenly and with a little violence upon the ulnar nerve where it liesin relation with the internal condyle of the humerus and we will find amanifestation of its physiological action, evidenced by a sense of painin the ulnar and radial sides of the fifth finger and the ulnar side ofthe fourth, together with contraction of the muscles supplied by thatnerve. But if our pressure be less intense and more prolonged we willinhibit the nerve and produce a sense of numbness in the same areatogether with temporary loss of muscular control. 

Osteopaths well understand how to produce either stimulation orinhibition of the ganglia by way of the nerves passing to them from thespinal cord, and the results of such inhibition or stimulation in anysympathetic area can be prophesied readily by anyone who has read withattention what I have written; for instance, in the case of inhibitionin the region of the nerves supplying the superior cervical ganglionwith nerve force, we will find, first, throughout the area ofdistribution of the branches of this ganglion a relaxation of thevascular walls. This will be marked by two indications, first, the skinwill become flushed and moist; second salivary secretion and lachrymalsecretion will be increased. Second, the vagus is now allowed full sway, and we will find slowing of the heartbeat. It is well known thatpressure over the seat of the first spinal nerve for a very brief periodof time will control a congestive headache; the pressure in such case ismade only for so long time as to produce stimulation of the sympatheticto greater activity, when we will attain a vaso-constrictor action, lessen the volume of blood in the cranial cavity and so abolish theheadache. The arteries of the body may be divided into three groups, thelarge, the medium-sized and the small; in the first of these we findlittle muscular tissue and much elastic; in the second they exist inabout equal proportions, while in the small arteries we find muchmuscular tissue and little elastic. As a consequence it is upon thesmaller arteries that the sympathetic system has its greatest effect. Aswe dilate the smaller arteries and slow the heart action, it followsthat we reduce the blood pressure, as we reduce blood pressure we reducetemperature, and within a very few minutes after the commencement ofthis inhibitory pressure on the upper four cervical nerves we will findin the large majority of cases, the capillaries over the entire surfaceof the body flushed, this being accompanied by a fall in the pulse rateand a marked diminution of the temperature. Indirectly at the same timewe produce an effect upon the lungs; as we lessen blood pressure and thefrequency of the heart action we find in accordance with thephysiological rule an alteration in the respiration, it becomes slowerand deeper. Arguing along these lines, and applying similar reasoning toeach of the branches of this ganglion, anyone can trace out the manysubsidiary results which may be expected from either stimulation of therami communicantes nerves distributed to it, or their inhibition. Exactly similar rulings will find their prompt proof with regard to anyother of the ganglia of the sympathetic system. We will findcorresponding results in the cases of the thoracic ganglia which form bytheir branches the pulmonic plexuses; we get the same results from thesplanchnic ganglia; while in the lumbar region we find that we have aready means of control of the vascular system in the lower abdomen andpelvis. Much, very much, is still to be learned concerning thesympathetic nervous system, and all such increase in knowledge can comein one way only, clinical observation of Osteopathic treatment. 

 WILLIAM SMITH, L. R. C. P. And S. , (EDIN. ), D. O. 

THE END. 

 * * * * *

A. T. Still's Table or Device, That He Has Constructed For

THE USE OF THE OPERATOR, THE EASE AND COMFORT OF THE PATIENT. 

It is a welcome success and does away with the lubberly old tables. Itgives ease and support to all classes of patients. By its use thepatient can sit in a chair or on a stool and feel at perfect ease duringall treatments, then the operator gets results and is not tired to deathwhen he has treated a patient; knows and feels that there has been somegood done. 

The asthmatic knows he has gotten help because pain has left his chestand he breathes as with new lungs; he knows he is helped more by onetreatment while sitting on a chair with his body easy and at rest in thecushioned swinging device than he would or has received by the bestskill on any table. Then the operator says, "Thank fortune, I am notworn out, and know I have gotten every bone to the place it belongs, andI know I have given satisfactory relief because my patients say so. "

I think to an operator this device is his best friend. With it wellunderstood he can do as much work as three good operators can do on theold tables. Remember this device does no part of the treatment butplaces the patient to your convenience while you do the work. 

I feel as I am the discoverer of the device, that I know its needs andfeel free to advise pupils. 

The device will cost you $25 only. 

 A. T. STILL, Founder. 

The American School of Osteopathy, KIRKSVILLE, MO. 

The course of study in The American School of Osteopathy is a carefullygraded one, and is divided into four terms, of five months each. Theterms beginning September and February of each year. The course thusrequires two years for completion. 

COURSE OF STUDY. 

The course of study extends over two years, and is divided into fourterms of five months each. 

FIRST TERM. 

The first term is devoted to Descriptive Anatomy including Osteology, Syndesmology and Myology; lectures on Histology illustrated bymicro-stereopticon; the principles of General Chemistry and Physics. 

SECOND TERM. 

The second term includes Descriptive and Regional Anatomy; didactic andlaboratory work in Histology; Physiology; Physiological Chemistry andUrinalysis; Principles of Osteopathy; Clinical Demonstrations inOsteopathy. 

THIRD TERM. 

The third term includes Demonstrations in Regional Anatomy; Physiology;lectures in Pathology illustrated by micro-stereopticon; Symptomatology;Physiological Psychology; Clinical Demonstrations in Osteopathy. 

FOURTH TERM. 

The fourth term includes Symptomatology; Minor Surgery; didactic andlaboratory work in Pathology; Psycho-Pathology; Gynæocology; Obstetrics;Sanitation and Public Health; Venereal Diseases; Medical Jurisprudence;Clinical Demonstrations; Clinical Practice. 

 * * * * *

The school is open to students of both sexes without distinction, andall have equal opportunities and privileges, and are held to the samerequirements. 

The methods of instruction are such as obtain in the best academic andcollegiate institutions, and include recitations from standardtext-books, lectures, quizzes, practical laboratory work, and practicalclinical work. 

The equipment of the school is complete in every respect. The recitationand lecture rooms are amply provided with all necessary means ofillustration, such as specimens fresh and preserved, skeletons, models, charts, manikins and diagrams. 

The respective laboratories are fitted up with all the necessaryapparatus for practical work in the Anatomical, Histological, Microscopical, Chemical and Physiological departments. 

The clinical facilities and opportunities enjoyed by students in thisschool are exceptional. An abundance of material is always available forclinic demonstrations, which are continued daily through two terms, withpractical work in the clinic operating rooms by each student, under thedirection of the regular operators, daily during the whole of the lastterm. 

In addition to the regular clinical department, the A. T. StillInfirmary has constantly under treatment from three hundred to fivehundred patients, and although the students do not see these patients, the many cases of diseases of all kinds under the care of the regularoperators in the Infirmary give them constantly fresh and variedillustrations for use in their lectures. Sometimes, too, patients whosecases may be of special interest offer the use of their cases for thepurpose of demonstration before the students. 

Opportunities are thus furnished to students for such practice and drillin the actual work of treating diseases as we believe is not equaled byany similar institution anywhere. The course of study is progressivelygraded with a view to giving students a thorough and comprehensiveknowledge of the facts and principles upon which their future work is tobe based. These clinic exercises in connection and immediately followinggive them facility and readiness in the art of applying the facts andprinciples which they have acquired in recognizing and treating diseasedconditions. 

Catalogue mailed upon application. For information as to terms, etc. , apply to

 A. T. STILL, AMERICAN SCHOOL OF OSTEOPATHY. PRESIDENT. KIRKSVILLE, MO. 

The A. T. Still Infirmary

Cures by the Science of Osteopathy all Diseases Which are Known asCurable. 

Dr. A. T. STILL, founder of the Science of Osteopathy, has associatedwith him, in his infirmary organization, the oldest and most successfulpractitioners and exponents of the science, selected with specialreference to their fitness for the work of practically demonstrating theprinciples of Osteopathy and occupying positions as teachers andlecturers in the American School of Osteopathy. All are regulargraduates of this school. 

The students in the school are not permitted to even assist in treatingthe Infirmary patients. All the work is done by regular operators. 

The examination previous to treatment is conducted by Dr. Still's threesons assisted by the operators. After examination the patient isassigned to the room in which he or she will receive treatment, andplaced under the care of an Osteopath best suited to the case. 

The fees for treatment at the Infirmary are $25 per month. Wherepatients are unable to come to the Infirmary for treatment, an extracharge of $1 to $2 per visit is added. 

The Infirmary maintains a complete bathing department in charge ofcompetent attendants. As good baths are therefore obtainable inKirksville as in any city. The charges are very moderate--twenty-fivecents for a single bath, or $2. 00 for a commutation ticket for tenbaths. When bath tickets are procured no other fees to attendants arenecessary. 

A representative of the Infirmary meets all trains, day and night, tohelp all patients who may need assistance and see that they are properlycared for. 

OPERATIVE SURGERY. 

To correct a misapprehension on the part of many, it should beunderstood that the A. T. STILL INFIRMARY is fully prepared to receiveand handle the most difficult cases requiring the highest order ofskilled surgery, and it is not necessary to send such cases to the greatcity hospitals in the east for even the most difficult and delicateoperations. 

Dr. J. B. Littlejohn, of the faculty, is a graduate in surgery from theUniversity of Glasgow, Scotland, and held for three years the positionof Surgeon under the Government Board of England, besides otherimportant and responsible positions in Europe and America. 

Dr. Wm. Smith holds evidences of qualifications as follows: Licentiateof the Royal College of Surgery, Edinburg; Licentiate of the RoyalCollege of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow; Licentiate in Midwifery, Edinburg and Glasgow; etc. 

Cases requiring careful and delicate Surgery, the removal of fibroidtumors, and in fact any operation of whatever nature will receive thebest and most scientific treatment and care in this institution. 

The management has now secured a powerful and perfect Roentgen or X-Rayapparatus which will be used in connection with this department, in theexamination of difficult cases. 

Patients coming to the A. T. Still Infirmary may rely upon the fact thatthey will in no case be subjected to unnecessary surgical operations, asthe knife is never used unless absolutely necessary. 

Address all letters of inquiry to

 A. T. STILL INFIRMARY, KIRKSVILLE, MO

+---------------------------------------------------------------------+|Transcriber's note: || ||Corrections have been made to everyday words printed incorrectly, but||all technical terms are as in the original. |+---------------------------------------------------------------------+