By resting he recuperates. By resting he enables the body to utilize the energy, usually expended in mental and physical work, but which is conserved through rest, in the work of elimination and repair. Functions which have been lashed to impotency by overstimulation are slowly restored to normal. Structures that have been damaged by overstimulation or by toxins are slowly repaired. Energies that are at low ebb are recuperated. Muscles that grow weaker, while at rest, become stronger than before rest, after they are judiciously exercised, because there is more power back of them. Development is the outgrowth of power within. If the power of development is lacking no development will occur. Recuperation of power is the prime requisite of development. The invalid cannot develop health if he lacks power to do so. He must recuperate his powers.

4. Time, is the next great requisite in all "diseases." This is demanded by the physicians of all schools. Some have claimed they could cure instantly or almost instantly and we shall discuss these claims here.

Dr. Richard C. Cabot asks: "If nature, assisted by the proper mental and emotional moods, is capable of curing an ulcer in three or four weeks, why isn't it possible for the same force to heal a similar ulcer in a few minutes, when the curative processes have been speeded up abnormally by the subject's passing through an intense religious experience?"

To put this question a little differently. If nature, assisted by warmth and moisture, is capable of hatching a chicken in three weeks, why isn't it possible for the same force to hatch a similar chicken in a few minutes when the evolutionary processes have been speeded up abnormally by passing through an intense stimulating experience?

Dr. Cabot's question is absurd. It assumes that instantaneous healing is a possibility and wholly ignores all the facts of pathology and tissue regeneration now known. Cure is an evolution in reverse and no more takes place instantaneously than a chicken can be hatched instantaneously.

I am well aware that many apparently instantaneous cures of long standing chronic conditions have occurred. Emil Coue registered a few such when he exploited American credulity a few years ago. Daddy Flynn did the same thing before he died. Many others have done likewise. Most of these apparent cures are not cures at all, and only last a few days or a few hours.

In those that were permanent, there was, back of them weeks, months and years during which the silent creative processes of the organism had been doing their curative work. The really essential work of cure had been accomplished before the miracle monger came along. Dr. Tilden well declared: A Stuffed Club, June, 1913, "Disease is an evolution; it is not an infection; it is not a subtle entity that gains entrance into a healthy body and destroys health and life. *** Disease in its development obeys the same laws that govern gestation, growth, education, crystalization, ossification, fossilization, etc."

Health is subject to and controlled by the same laws. Health must be evolved; as Dr. Dewey well said: "Cure is an evolution in reverse." The evolution of health requires time. "Disease" is a development--cure must be a development. As well expect to cure "disease" instantaneously, or even in a few days, as to expect to hatch chickens in a few minutes.

A common mistake is to regard "disease" as cured and health restored when the symptoms have ceased. In reality the patient is in just the same condition he was in just prior to their appearance. It is still a long way back to full health. There is much road that must again be traversed before one arrives at the health which he enjoyed before he began the evolution of his sufferings. Man regards the appearance of symptoms as the beginning of "disease" and their disappearance as its end; and each new appearance of symptoms of "disease" as a new "disease," instead of merely new incidents in one general and continuous condition. So long as these mistaken notions of "disease" are entertained he will be the prey of fakers and exploiters who will profit off his ignorance.

Time is an indispensible element in all cures. If the necessary time has not elapsed before the employment of the "cure," it must elapse during the "cure." This is because nature does her work slowly not rapidly-- instantaneously. Forces that have been slowly gathered may be suddenly loosed and rend a mountain but no sudden losing of forces could grow and mature a tree. In the animal organism forces that have been slowly and silently accumulating for years may be suddenly loosed, either spontaneously or in response to some external influence, but time is assuredly required for their accumulation.

No remedial effort, however vigorous and powerful, is capable of producing an instantaneous cure. Take a look at the condition of the average sick body and you can readily see that such is impossible. There is more or less vital and nervous depletion, with a consequent functional impairment of all the organs of the body; the blood and tissues are saturated with toxins; there is more or less destruction of tissue in all parts of the body, more in some parts than others; some parts of the body are engorged, congested, inflamed, while other parts are anemic; perhaps in some parts there are deposits, while some organs are more impaired than others; secretion and excretion are greatly impaired, perhaps in some instances almost wholly suspended; digestion is impaired; there is constipation or diarrhea, and a sluggish circulation. In many cases there is some form of degeneration of one or more organs, or the degeneration is more or less general; there may be degeneration of some of the nerves, or a sclerosis in the spine; hardening (sclerosis) of the arteries and liver, perhaps, even, the formation of scar tissue in the brain.

If chronic toxemia has so deeply affected the constitution, how can we expect to restore so many damaged organs and impaired functions to sound health in a short time? If a destructive cause has long operated, even though counterbalanced by strong resistance, can the damages be repaired quickly? Indeed, can we ever hope to completely repair all of them?

It is not possible for this condition to be overcome instantly. It requires time for the body to heal a broken bone or a flesh wound and no one would pretend that his method could bring about an instantaneous healing of these. Just so it requires time to clean out such a condition as we have described above and return to normal and usually it requires more time to do so than to heal a broken bone or a flesh wound. No organism can cleanse itself of its morbid matter instantaneously, nor can it repair its damaged tissues or regenerate its atrophied and degenerated parts instantly. Hypertrophied parts cannot be instantly reduced to their normal size. Normal secretion and excretion are not instantly re-established nor is recuperation of vital force accomplished instantly.