The Royal Road to Health | Page 5

Appetite and hunger. The evils of gluttony. Vegetarianism versus flesh eating. Diet, a question of latitude. The cause of old age. Cretinism. Danger of earthy matters in food substances. Fruits are ideal foods. The true value of bread. Classification of the ingredients of food substances. Table of proportions. Table of digestive values. Vegetarianism discussed. A mixed diet the most reasonable. How to eat. Liquids at meals. When to eat. The no breakfast plan. The effects of alcohol, tea and coffee. Improper habits of eating. The influence of mind upon digestion. The advantages of regularity. Nature's bookkeeping.


PART VIII.
TREATMENT OF DISEASE.
Complete formulas of treatment (with dietary rules) for over fifty different diseases, including Consumption, Appendicitis, Locomotor Ataxia, Paralysis, Dyspepsia, Pneumonia, Diabetes Mellitus, Uterine troubles, etc. Also all the principal ailments of children.


PART IX.
SOME HELPFUL SUGGESTIONS.
Disease is the result of the operation of natural law don't dread it. Don't treat symptoms; treat the fundamental cause. Pain is Nature's danger signal. Prevention is better than cure. The elements of prevention. Importance of a knowledge of physiology. The body, the vehicle of expression for the mind. The strenuous life. Tear worse than wear. The importance of reserve energy. The effect of the mind on the body. The human body as a bank. The importance of a daily balance. Cultivate cheerfulness. The habit of happiness. The folly of squandering health. Medicine and surgery compared. What children should be taught. The final word.
APPENDIX.
Instructions for massage. How to use the stomach bath by three different methods. How to improvise the Turkish Bath in your own home, without apparatus. How to use the wet sheet pack. How to care for the "Cascade".

THE ROYAL ROAD TO HEALTH.



PART I.
DRUGGING PROVED UNSCIENTIFIC.
It is one of the most profound mysteries of our civilization, and has been one of the most perplexing and discouraging phenomena of human existence, that, while the world at large has maintained an ever increasing "medical profession," whose members are popularly supposed to be competent to deal with all the ills that flesh is heir to; still there has always been a long list of what are termed "incurable diseases." But the immense strides made, in recent years, in every branch of modern science, has led the thinking public to consider such a condition of things as an outrageous libel on the God of Nature, and to question whether there can be such a thing as an incurable disease.
Health is such an inestimable blessing, that the individual who shall devise means to preserve it, or to restore it, when lost, is deserving of all the thanks and honors that a grateful community can bestow. Unfortunately, there are very few who estimate life at its true value, until they are confronted with the grim destroyer, Death. No one can fully appreciate the priceless blessings of health, until they feel that it has slipped from their grasp. The oft quoted phrase, "Health is Wealth," is truly a concrete expression of wisdom, for without the former, the latter is well nigh an impossibility. But its interference with the activities of life is one of the least evils of sickness, for perfect health is the very salt and spice of life; without it, existence is "weary, stale, flat and unprofitable."
But let none despair, for it is my purpose to show how those who enjoy the blessing of robust health may preserve it indefinitely, and how those who have lost it may regain it with access of vigor, and once more feel that life is indeed worth living. In presenting a new system of medication, it is necessary to attack the existing systems, and hence, I am placed in a delicate position, for of all the problems ever presented for the ingenuity of man to solve, undoubtedly the most difficult is, how to present new facts so as not to offend old errors; for individuals are very prone to regard arguments levelled against their opinions as direct attacks upon their personality; and not a few of them mistake their own deeply rooted prejudices for established certainties.
I shall endeavor to show that the practice of administering drugs to cure disease is a fallacy, and in so doing, I am bound to incur the condemnation of my brother practitioners, who prescribe drugs, and the druggists who vend them.
It may safely be asserted that the drug system of treating disease would be destroyed if it were to be critically examined; in fact, to defend it is provocative of unmistakable damage to it. If it is once subjected to the analysis of calm reason its defects become palpable to the meanest understanding.
There are three principal schools of medicine, each with a distinctive title, but they are all one in essential principles. They may differ in unimportant details; but in the main premises they are a unit. They all believe