Maintaining Health | Page 9

Cleanliness of body, in conjunction with cleanliness of
mind, will put disease to rout.
The ancient Greek writers commented on the good state of health
among the Egyptians, and modern medical writers marvel that they
made so little use of drugs. Evidently they found drugs of little value,
for they were taught hygienic living. The admirable health laws laid
down by Moses were derived from Egyptian sources.
The ancient nations were as much influenced by the Egyptians as we
are today by the Greeks who lived before the Christian era. The Greeks
built combination temples and sanitaria, to which the afflicted resorted.
The priests were in charge and these ancient heathens were great rogues.
By fooling the people they got big fees out of them. Their oracular
sayings and miracles were adroitly presented. They did not teach that
overeating is the chief cause of disease, for this did not suit the mystic
times. The people liked oracular prescriptions, and they got them. The
law of supply and demand worked as well then as it does now. The
heathen priests waxed fat and the medical art degenerated.
About five centuries B. C., Pythagoras taught that health can be
preserved by means of proper diet, exercise and the right use of the
mind. He also taught many other truths and some fallacies. In spite of
much superstition mixed with his philosophy, it was too pure for the
times and he perished.
Hippocrates, born about 470 years B. C., is one of the bright lights of
the medical world. He was so far ahead of his time that he still lives.

He was the founder of medical art as we know it. He used many drugs,
but he also relied on natural means. He was the first medical man on
record to pay serious attention to dietetics. The following quotations
will show how well his mind grasped the essentials of the healing art:
"Old persons need less fuel (food) than the young." "In winter abundant
nourishment is wholesome; in summer a more frugal diet." "Follow
nature." "Complete abstinence often acts very well, if the strength of
the patient can in any way maintain it." In acute disease he withheld
nourishment at first and then he prescribed a liquid diet. He also made
use of the "milk cure," which is considered modern, in conjunction with
baths and exercise; this is very efficacious in some chronic diseases. He
further spoke the oft-forgotten truth that physicians do not heal.
"Natural powers are the healers of disease." "Nature suffices for
everything under all conditions."
The next great physician was Galen, who lived in the second and third
centuries of our era. He added greatly to medical knowledge, made
extensive use of dietetics, and then in a self-satisfied manner informed
his readers that they need look no further for enlightenment, for he had
given them all that was of any value. Perhaps he meant this as a joke,
but those who followed him took it seriously, with the result that
medical advance stopped for several centuries.
The physicians of the dark ages had some light, as evidenced by this
popular quotation taken from a poem that the faculty of the medical
college of Salerno gave to Robert, son of William the Conqueror, in the
year 1101:
"Salerno's school in conclave high unites To counsel England's king
and thus indites: If thou to health and vigor wouldst attain, Shun
mighty cares, all anger deem profane; From heavy suppers and much
wine abstain; Nor trivial count it after pompous fare To rise from table
and to take the air. Shun idle noonday slumbers, nor delay The urgent
calls of nature to obey. These rules if thou wilt follow to the end, Thy
life to greater length thou may'st extend."
During recent times but two important discoveries have been made
concerning matters of health: First, the advantage of cleanliness;

second, the approximate chemical composition of various foods. All
the other important new discoveries are old.
Cleanliness, moderation in all things, right thinking and a realization of
the fact that nature cures are some of the most important stones upon
which to build a healing practice. The most important single
therapeutic factor is to abstain from food during pain and active disease
processes.
Cleanliness of mind and body has been taught for thousands of years,
yet cleanliness of body is a new discovery, for which we are greatly
indebted to the great bacteriologist, Pasteur. It has been found that
germs thrive best in filth; this has been taught so thoroughly that the
public is somewhat afraid of the germs and as a measure of
self-protection they are cleaning up. Of old, cleanliness meant a clean
skin, but this is the least important part. It is far more necessary to have
a clean alimentary tract