The contrast between health and impaired health is the difference between a healthy and a morbid circle of affinities, based on a good and a bad metabolism respectively. Pathology is the complex effect of a multitude of correlated antecedents; the simplest of so-called "diseases" is the sum-total of a multitude of elements--of countless antecedents and coexisting factors--the constant and commonly increasing sway of which pervert metabolism and produce a regressive metamorphosis throughout the body, the regression being greater in some parts than in others, so that there is a constantly increasing complexity of the pathology, both local and general.

If we attempt to trace pathology from its earliest beginnings we must begin with deficiencies that arise out of the slow deterioration of function resulting from the universal deficiencies and excesses of life. This is the commencing stage which is necessary to the very existence of pathology. As function deteriorates and the deficiencies become greater, the tissues begin to change from the ideal state. There is a general lowering of tone, and a consequent lessening of physical efficiency.

As the tissues depart more and more widely from the ideal standard, they will be less able to perform their functions; their functional powers will correspond to the deterioration which they have undergone. The tissues, being unable to perform their functions as efficiently as in health, perform them as well as they can. As the tissues deteriorate, functional powers grow less, and as functional powers grow less, deficiencies increase, so that tissue deterioration is accelerated. A vicious circle is established which, despite strong resistance, slowly, insidiously, but certainly, undermines the organism.

The pathological changes in a structure pass through a more or less regular series; in some cases the changes being very great, in others very slight; sometimes, being produced rapidly, at other times slowly, but rarely remaining static. The slowness or rapidity with which a local structure undergoes morbid changes is determined by the support it receives from the general system.

An indissoluble relationship exists between every single organ in the body and the entire sum total of the forces and functions of life and all other principles of the entire being. The ability of even the strongest organ in the body is inadequate to meet all the requirements of its existence, and for the satisfaction of these it is dependent upon the good offices and services of the other organs of the body. Barring violence, an organ falters in function only when its support fails. Failing support of an organ means a failure of the whole organism.

Thus, while some organs are almost always damaged more than others, the general structural changes more or less common to all tissues represent an unbroken and progressive degeneration, beginning with the simple primitive changes and progressing, by regular gradations, through increasing complexity, to the final decomposition of the organ or of the organism. We are witnessing a slow and not abrupt degenerative process--the degeneration and degradation of an organism. The detailed changes passed through are very varied, but the general change passed through is the same for all organs.

As the structures and functions of the body are complex and mutually related, so the developments of pathology are usually complex, and many phases of pathology are mutually dependent. The labors of the body are continually intermingled with the products and consequences of degeneration--the elements introduced by the degenerative tendencies become variously blended with and superimposed upon the elements of health--and no investigation of pathology can be quite satisfactory, except as it supplies lines of discrimination between these.

By the principle of the unity and continuity of pathology we do not mean anything so absurd as that one "disease" causes another, such as, that, colds cause tuberculosis. A cold does not produce other diseases as is popularly taught and generally believed. The constitutional derangement, enervation, toxemia and intestinal indigestion, which brought on the crisis

(cold), also builds the other "diseases", even the organic "diseases". Not one cold but many colds and other crises develop over the long period of time during which organic disease is developing.

Constipation (intestinal stasis) is accused by many, of being the cause of many so-called diseases, ranging all the way from black-heads to cancer; it is often mentioned as a cause of cancer. Too much stress is placed upon the constipation and little or no emphasis is placed upon its antecedents. Those who are afraid of the stasis take the condition as they find it and attribute to it all the subsequent pathologic developments. The fact that these troubles may be and usually are concomitant and successive developments out of the same causes that produced the constipation is completely overlooked. This leads to treatment of the colon in an effort to cure constipation, rather than to a correction and removal of the causes of the constipation. Some even seek to prevent cancer by curing constipation, instead of seeking to prevent it by correcting the common causes of both of these.

The teeth are integral parts of the body and do not stand apart from it as separate entities. They partake of the infirmities of the body as a whole. A carious tooth is not to be regarded as a local disease, unrelated to the general condition of the body. We should rather view it as a local effect of far-reaching general or systemic causes, which causes affect the body as a whole.

Indeed, those processes which can be shown, experimentally, in animals, to destroy and distort the teeth, are known to injure many other parts of the body, perhaps all parts, more or less. Dietary deficiency, for instance, is not confined, in its effects to the teeth. The jaw bone, the skull and other bones may become carious. The gums and other soft tissues of the body are also affected. Decay of the teeth is but part of the universal decay of the body, all of this decay arising out of the same common causes. Not merely the bones, but the soft tissues, as well, partake of the deterioration. The absurdity of the present fad for extracting abscessed or carious teeth to cure various so-called diseases should be apparent to all. The decay of the teeth is not the cause of the deterioration and disease elsewhere, but all local evidences of decay are concomitant and successive effects of a common basic cause.

All chronic, "incurable," so-called diseases, with which people die, are preceded by recurring simple ailments such as colds, gastritis, headaches, neuralgia, periods of not feeling well, constipation, diarrhea, indigestion, etc. So-called rheumatism, arthritis deformans, cancer, Bright's disease, diabetes are end-points in a pathologic process, the early manifestations of which are regarded as simple and insignificant ailments. Asthma and hay fever do not develop without cause, and this cause has been at work for weeks or years, in most cases, and all the while manifested itself in some form. All of these so-called diseases are evolutions out of a common basic cause.