The power of cure is inherent in living matter. Beginning with the tiniest microscopic cell or germ and extending to the most highly complex organism of which we know, the power of healing or cure is seen in operation. Indeed it is one of the grand distinctive marks of living things that they can repair their own injuries. If a leg of a table is broken, the table cannot repair the break; if the leg of a man is broken his system will be able to repair the fracture without any artificial assistance.

It required thousands of years of torturing the wounds of sufferers with almost every substance in the three kingdoms of nature, before surgeons finally discovered that there is no healing virtue in any "remedy" and that the healing of a wound is not the result of any application, but is the work of nature, that is, of a restorative principle identical with the principle of life, and by which each organ and tissue is to a certain extent, enabled to repair the damages it sustains. In vain would the surgeon set the ends of a broken bone in a case of fracture, except for the power of the bone to reunite itself ; or to reduce a dislocation, if the torn ligaments were not able to heal themselves. In vain would he bring together the severed edges of a wound if the power of healing possessed by these did not exist in them.

They have not yet learned that there is no healing, strengthening, or helping virtue in any "remedy" used in disease and that the healing of internal as well as external injuries is not the result of "drug action", or "serum action", but of the inherent restorative principle which is identical with life and which enables each organ to repair its own damages.

The general public still believes in healing salves, ointments, balsams, etc., which will heal wounds and open sores. The medical profession still believes in healing remedies which will heal internal injuries. Wounds heal of themselves--so, also, do "diseases".

In the reparative process, a certain series of changes must necessarily take place in the damaged part before it can be restored to soundness, and these changes require time. It was an easy matter for those who did not know of these changes, nor of how and by what they were made, to attribute the healing of a wound or bruise to whatever happened to be used on it. The remedy was applied, the wound healed--ergo, the remedy healed the wound! The child had diptheria, antitoxin was given, the child recovered. Ergo! antitoxin saved the child's life.

Reparation and cure are not effected by any entirely new action in the body, but by a modification of some of the nutritive actions. Cells possess latent powers and properties that actualize under the in influence of pathogenic influences and agencies, when the organic medium undergoes physicochemical changes. Due to possession of these latent powers, which are capable of becoming active in response to changes in their media, the cells are able to deal with unforeseeable events which occur in the course of a lifetime. Let us look at the healing processes of life. To do this, we will consider them under a few general heads, as follows:

1 The capacity of redintegration following the disintegration of tissues. Of this power, no evidence is needed, for it is well known to physiologists and, even, by the unlearned in science. It is the process of repair which is continually making good the eternal wear and tear of the tissues consequent upon the operations of life. Regeneration of tissue is a continuous physiological process in health and disease and operates to restore tissues that have been destroyed, although here its sphere is more limited. Were it not for this process of repair and replenishment the bodies of all animals would begin to gradually wear and waste away from the moment of birth and in the course of a few days would perish or wear out. Animals would not live through the period of infancy.

Carrel and Burrows discovered that cells which showed signs of what is called old age require only to be placed in a new culture medium to become young again and to multiply and grow. Dr. Woodruff kept groups of cells alive for 8,500 generations without loss of cellular vitality.

Parts of the stomach, kidney, the lungs, the liver and other organs have been rebuilt by being fed with blood. Lung tissue added to the piece of lung, kidney tissue to the kidney, liver tissue to the liver, etc. Almost all parts of the body have been subjected to experiments of this kind and have proven themselves capable of growth and repair under such conditions. Each part of the body renews and repairs itself, by its own intrinsic power to absorb nutritive material from the surrounding medium and assimilate, organize and transform it into material identical with its own substance, and endow it with vital properties.

Part of a newly-born rabbit was placed in cold-storage and allowed to remain there for a year. It was then placed on a slide, given food and warmth, and it began to grow as soon as the proper temperature was reached. A piece of bone of a young pig began growing quickly, but a piece of bone from an old pig was slow in beginning its growth. Experiments have shown that parts taken from very young life begin to grow soon, those from middle life require more time to start growing, while those from old life require much more time. The practice of grafting plants and trees is familiar to all, in fact, it is so common that everyone considers it a matter of course. In recent years grafting of animal parts has been successfully accomplished. For instance, pieces of skin have been put in cold storage to prevent decay, and after they have been there several months, have been taken out and fed warm blood and they began to grow. New pores and layers were built in perfect order, and all the intricate apparatus involved in perspiration were constructed. Fresh pieces of skin placed on the denuded flesh where the skin was torn or burned away grew and united with the surrounding skin.

Pieces of bone have been taken from freshly killed animals and fed with fresh blood with the result that they selected from the blood, elements necessary to the building of new bone and rejected the rest. Pieces of new bone have been grafted into the bones of those who from some cause have had part of their bone destroyed. The bone grew and united with the surrounding bone.

The power to regenerate impaired, degenerated, atrophied parts depends not alone upon the abilities of depleted and "aged" cells to revive and grow young again, but also upon the power of the organism to replace dead and dying cells with new ones. This power has its limits. Tissues that are destroyed and have had their places filled by other tissues of a lower grade cannot regenerate, at least, not fully. Thus in cirrhosis of the liver, where the functioning cells have been replaced by, connective tissue the system has no means of dissolving the connective tissue and fining the space occupied by it with liver cells. Experiments upon all the tissues of the body, both of young, middle aged, and old animals have shown this power of regeneration to belong to all of them. The exercise of this power of regeneration, however, depends upon the existence of certain definite conditions which need not be discussed here.