The voice of history and the laws and powers of life cry aloud in praise of hygiene and in denouncing therapeutics.

It will be noticed in all the examples given of the power of self-repair that no special condition or treatment is required--just the normal ordinary conditions of plant and animal life. Take the ease of the begonia leaf; all that is required for the development of a plant from the fragment of a leaf are those same conditions required for the daily growth and sustenance of the plant, or for its development from the seed--suitable soil, water, air, warmth and sunlight. In a word, hygienic conditions, not therapeutics, are all that are required and development, regeneration, repair and cure follow spontaneously and independently of art. It is worthy of special notice, as well, that these follow even under unfavorable conditions and often in spite of actual hindrances. This will be made more clear in another chapter.

The famous sympathetic powder of Sir Kenelm Digby was credited with the wonderful power of healing wounds when merely applied to the bloody clothes of the wounded person, or to the weapon that had inflicted the wound. This powder once enjoyed an astounding reputation. The cures credited to this powder were accomplished by the intrinsic healing powers of the organism and the results of the use of this powder supplied surgeons with the first hint, which led them to the improved practice of healing wounds by first intention.

This self-healing power is seen not alone in cases of external injury but in the gravest internal troubles and brings about recovery, not only without the aid of a practitioner, but even in spite of him and his remedies. This inherent defensive reparative power is actively engaged in defending the body against external and internal mischief at all times.

There are those who believe that cure is accomplished by anything that will effect the mind strongly enough. It will be noted that no mental influence aids the decapitated snail to grow a new head, nor does the asparagus plant receive any help from this source, in growing a new shoot. Crabs do not employ mental influences in growing new claws, nor do trees in healing a wound where a limb has been torn away. The identity of the reparatory powers and processes employed by both plants and animals cannot be doubted. Man cannot grow a new head like a snail, nor a new limb like a crab, and treatment cannot grow these for him. Man can heal a wound or a broken bone, but treatment, beyond bringing the edges of the wound together or setting the bone, cannot aid him in healing these. Cleanliness and rest are all that wounds require and many heal without either of these, although, not rapidly.

It is the contention of the present writer that the power of healing and cure is inherent in living protoplasm and that it does not inhere in anything else. Living matter cures itself where cure is possible. Where cure is not possible, no outside "aids" will or can effect it. All cure is self-cure. It is spontaneous and independent of art. Indeed, with the exception of a few surgical cases, art is a hindering agent or force, impeding or preventing cure or healing and both increasing and prolonging the suffering.