Cyanide of potassium, an excellent Allopathic remedy, if applied "locally causes inflammation of the skin with an exzematous eruption, and if applied in quantity to an abraded surface will produce fatal effects." The inflammation and eruption, which is also a form of inflammation, are simply means of expelling the poison.

Inflammation follows the forcible infection of a person by what is called vaccine. Vaccine is pus and is septic. Syphilitic infection cakes place in the same manner. Septic matter comes in contact with an abraded surface and infection follows. In both cases, inflammation with ulceration follows, as a means of preventing the entrance of the septic matter into the general circulation and as a means of expelling it from the system. In inflammation, there is a large increase of blood to the affected part. This overcomes osmosis and prevents absorption.

Similar to the exzematous eruption produced by cyanide are the secondary eruptions--vaccinia and secondary syphilis--often following vaccination and so-called syphilitic infection. These eruptions serve the same eliminative and protective purposes.

The primary stage of syphilis, like that of vaccination, consists of an initial ulcer which forms at the point of infection. The ulcer is usually single, as in vaccination, and is hard at its base. It is accompanied by enlargement and enduration (hardening) of the nearby lymph glands. It is simply an enduration following local irritation and infection. The irritation produces inflammation which is the same as any other inflammation and is of a defensive character. It means that more material is carried to the point of inflammation than can be used or carried away by the veins. This prevents absorption and dilutes the infection. The thickening and hardening overcome osmosis. Just as in a pus sac, or abscess, the wall of which is thick and endurated, the escape of pus into the surrounding tissue is prevented, so, in the so-called syphilitic ulcer, or chancre, the hardening at its base prevents absorption of the septic matter into the system. Upon this point Dr. Tilden has the following to say:-"Nature is always busy fortifying against invasion, and when a mucous surface can not be healed it is utilized as an exit for waste products. In thus utilizing a broken surface two important objects are attained : First, it should be understood that a broken surface is a menace to life so long as the parts are raw, for absorption takes place very readily in a fresh wound, hence, to obviate this danger and furnish healing material, there is set up at once a rushing to the wound of a lot of plastic material, which soon covers and protects the surface. Through this provision of nature's a raw surface is soon fortified against the possibility of a foreign substance coming immediately in contact with it; this coating also protects from the air, and prevents absorption, even if the wound does not heal. The rushing forward of the plastic material for primary protection will end in developing a secondary protection if the part refuses to heal, which is the second object referred to above. It consists of a gradual thickening and hardening of the tissues, because more material is being taken into the tissues of the injured parts than is utilized, and it is not carried back by the return circulation, which means that there is a greater quantity of material taken to such a surface than can be used in healing, and it is either thrown out--exuded--excreted--or retained in the tissues; this causes accumulation--a thickening and hardening of the edges of the wound--the material that is taken there primarily for healing is used secondarily for fortifying and preventing the entrance of unfriendly and detrimental material. Please understand that nature, in this operation, is destroying the possibility of molecular attraction--overcoming the law of osmosis.

"Nature is never engaged in a senseless and purposeless work of any kind. I do not infer that there is a ratiocinative guidance; simply the adjusting of needs to ends, the laws for which are resident and imminent in the needs. This no one should know or recognize sooner than the physician; hence, he whose business it is to watch nature in her operations should know that the thickening and hardening at any point of inflammation is for a purpose, and that purpose is to overcome the carrying out of the laws of osmosis and molecular attraction, which, under normal conditions is necessary for the ready exchange of fluids in the body. When a raw surface is made to come in contact with environments containing materials that will be injurious to the body if they gain entrance, nature begins at once to destroy the possibility of exchange, and her plan is to build an indurated wall about the wound. And what does induration mean? It means that more material is taken in than is taken out; it means that the pressure from within is greater than from without; and such a thing as germ absorption can not take place in a fortified surface, the profession's opinion to the contrary notwithstanding. It should not be forgotten that nature is constantly fortifying against invasion. Sometimes she outreaches herself, and fortifies so extensively that her fortifications degenerate, because the induration becomes so solid that the capillary arteries fail to carry enough oxygen to the interior of her breastworks to keep them alive, hence degeneration takes place, and unless drainage is established septic infection will quickly end the life of the victim.

"I have gone into this explanation rather extensively to show that it is contrary to all the laws governing bodily development for germs to enter our bodies when and where they please. If the profession's belief regarding germs and their absorption were true the world would be depopulated.

"Think for a moment of a pus sac. The walls are thick and indurated. Blood and building material are taken to, in and through this fortification, but nothing is allowed to cross the dead line from the pus sac to the tissues outside or in the body. The only way the pus can get into the body is for the sac to be broken.

"I want to go on record as declaring that germs can not cross any of nature's fortifications unless the hand of man has broken her safeguards. I want to say that it is absurd, unscientific, and positively in opposition to biological as well as pathological science, to say that the 'tonsils and lymphatic tissues act as portals of entry for micro organisms.' "

The enlargement of the lymph glands in all infections--syphilitic, vaccinal, or from a corpse, or beef,--and from insect bites, and in colds, etc., is a means of arresting and destroying toxins of an organic nature that find their way into the lymph. It is a defensive measure.

Inflammation following a septic wound of a finger, though distressing enough, is not of malignant intent. It is well intended, its object being to protect the body from infection and to eliminate the septic matter already introduced. Even the much dreaded peritonitis is the patient's best friend. Without it most, if not all, abdominal operations would result fatally.