A tired man may feel strong in the presence of danger. He may forget his fatigue under excitement. A cold plunge or a hot shower may exhilirate him for a moment. A cup of coffee or a dose of some drug may "increase" his strength. A few snappy exercises may "pep him up." But these things do not recuperate power or repair tissue. Actually they exhaust power and destroy tissue. Dr. Walter says: "An evil indulgence, instead of obviously depleting our powers, produces, on the contrary, an increased consciousness of power, often a pleasing exhiliration, due to the vital resistance which it arouses, thus giving an appearance of vigor at the very time and by the means that it is exhausting the power and providing for a reduction of vigor."

The more injurious a habit, agent or indulgence is, the more dangerous and the more delusive it is. "Opium and alcohol, in comparison with tea and coffee, are the illustrations." The first named two are much more delusive than the latter, because they are correspondingly more deadly. Energy which is manifest only through work, through expenditure, makes its manifestations correspond to its expenditures. Tonics, stimulants, food, work, excitement, etc., call out and make manifest, the powers of the body and thus appear to give us the very power which they cause to be expended. Recovery of health must, therefore, come through opposite practices, that is, practices that conserve and do not deplete the powers of life.

Dr. Weger says: "Any practice to be strictly in accordance with the Theory of Toxemia must be broad enough in its scope to embrace the entire field of habit and conduct, especially habits that break down vital resistance. Hence, enervation must be considered as of equal importance with toxemia before a proper and successful system of treatment can be outlined or put into effect. Many forms of treatment directed toward the removal of toxins are in themselves enervating. Bearing this in mind, one must choose that which conserves or restores vital energy. Nerve energy can only be regained through rest. Herein lies the secret of health restoration."

If enervation is to be overcome and normal function re-established, recuperation is essential. Recuperation occurs only during rest. There is a sense in which a change is rest but it is not true rest. A man may change from one form of activity to another and keep this up continuously without stopping until he "rests" himself into exhaustion. True rest is secured only be reducing function and by stopping temporarily all function that can be stopped without harm.

It does not matter whether enervation and impaired or suspended secretion and excretion are due to shock or to long continued abuses of the body; it does not matter whether enervation develops quickly or slowly, rest--mental, physical and physiological--is the means of recuperation and of restoration of normal function. Rest and replenishment of power is the first step in the curative work; as Dr. Jennings declares: "In the lowest depths of adynamic disease, when the last glimpse of life seems fading quite away, there still lingers, lives and reigns the 'law of cure' which will secure a restoration to health, if, under existing circumstances, such an event is possible. Rest and replenishment of power is the first step in the ascending pathological transit; removal of useless matter by the decomposing function, with its activity and force increased by resting, constitutes the second step, and the third consists in a repair of breaches by the accretion of new, well wrought material. These three steps form the first grand division in the ascending pathological transition, the removal of structural derangement, or cure of organic disease. The next grand step in the ascending pathological work consists in the re-establishment of regular or natural functional action."--Philosophy of Human Life, p. 102.

After emphasizing that the tendency of the movements of life in "disease," "all and singular, is to save life, as far as that may be in danger," he says: "The first object aimed at in this treatment (Hygienic), is to shut down all unnecessary waste-gates; to place the system as far as possible, under circumstances in which there shall be no unnecessary expenditure of power, in order that the departments of labor that are now deficient in force, may receive an accession to their strength."--Philosophy of Human Life, p. 169.

The resting invalid is the recuperating invalid. Invalids do not recover so long as they are being stimulated and worked. They only recover after they have given up hope of recovery and abandoned all efforts at cure. Seizing the opportunity nature begins silently and gradually to recuperate the expended power and repair the damaged structure. Silently and unconsciously the power accumulates. It may be then, that some miracle monger comes along with a catchy little metaphysical ditty or a persuasive personality and, having persuaded the patient of his marvelous and unusual powers, begins his experiments with her. She responds. She feels her strength "returning." Hope and expectancy are renewed. Greater efforts are made and health is soon hers. Why? Because the power of health once in her, it is an easy thing to call it out. The power of response is her own power--power gradually, silently and unconsciously stored up through rest and resignation. She began to get well as soon as she ceased to try to get well. All the essentials of recovery must be completed before the miracle monger comes along, else he fails.

Dr. B. Frank Walters says, "When the nervous system is tired out by life's varying and multiple activities, there is no method of restoration that supercedes rest, and no method that so quickly and effectively induces elimination of toxemia. One cannot take an overdose of rest."

Rest and sleep conserve energy and permit recuperation. Work-- mental, emotional, physical and physiological--expends energy. Tonics and stimulants increase function causing an increased expenditure of energy.

It is said that to compel a man to maintain the erect position, even during sleep, produces the most painful death that the genius of torture can devise. It rapidly exhausts. It completely exhausts the heart which must continue to pump the blood against gravity. The recumbent position, in which the blood circulates pretty nearly on a level, is, therefore, a wonderful relief to the over-burdened heart. This relief was thought by Dr. Walter to be the most valuable part of sleep. It was largely to secure this relief that he sent his patients to bed to rest.

Of course the withdrawal of stimulation and the cessation of physical activity and control of the passions and emotions afford the heart as well as the rest of the body an opportunity for rest. But there is another means of resting the heart and the other organs of the body which was much insisted upon by Walter.