Tilden says: "The idea that disease can be cured is absurd. It is as reasonable to believe that a remedy can be given to overcome the effects of a knockdown blow over the head. It is as reasonable to believe that a remedy can be given to cure the tire following work or exercise or to cure the effects of inebriety while drinking is continued, or that a serum can be used to restore potency to those practicing sensuality."

Religious people who have more faith in their God and prayer than in cutting out their bad habits, usually have nothing in the line of health or intelligence to recommend either their God or their prayer to us. Nonetheless, there are ebbs and tides in the vicissitudes of vital vigor, and the self-regulating powers of the body may rally in a manner to overcome both the "disease" and the drug so that abiding faith may at least reward the patron of a prayer agent.

In treating Osteopathic and Chiropractic maladjustments and malalignments I have noticed that all discomfort disappears when toxemia is removed. As Tilden expresses it. "When toxemia--chronic intoxication--from any cause, is corrected, there is little left for the various schools to dispute about regarding causation."

What about germs? If enervation permits germs to gain a foothold and complicate toxemia, it is but logical to assume that the first step to recovery is to get rid of toxemia and the precedent enervation. With toxemia removed there is no longer fertile soil for germ propagation and the "secondary infection" ceases to exist because of lack of its most necessary food--toxin saturated tissues of low resistance.

Cure requires the restoration of resistance, not the killing of germs, for germs are omnipresent. Nobody can get well while he continues to break down resistance. True health and fitness are complex results of fidelity to the greater aims of nature. It is by no means enough to "look well" and "feel well." Physiological bankruptcy is not always apparent on the surface.

Dr. Weger says: "When enervation is pronounced, it is not an easy matter to throw off the bacterial scavengers of unhealthy tissue. The progress of recovery, from mixed infections, then, is in the same ratio as the degree of enervation. Great enervation means slow recovery from either acute or chronic ill-health. A robust constitution will shake itself free from the shackles of disease; while a depleted constitution drags its way slowly over the tortuous path with an effort, in extreme cases, that tries the endurance of the body to the breaking point of despair. Death represents a body that has succumbed to the ravages of the battle between inherent resistance and overpowering causes."

In her Notes on Nursing (p. 9), Florence Nightingale gives evidence of orthopathic leanings and reveals that she was frequently called upon to answer the objections of those who could not give up their faith in "cures," and who insisted on doing something in "disease." She says: "Another and the commonest exclamation which will be instantly made is--would you do nothing, then, in cholera, fever, etc.?--So deep-rooted and universal is the conviction that to give medicine is to be doing something or rather everything; to give air, warmth, cleanliness, etc., is to do nothing."

The Hygienic practice is commonly referred to, even today, as the do-nothing treatment. We have expanded it into "doing-nothing-intel-ligently" for the reason that it requires more skill and intelligence to "do nothing" in the Hygienic sense than to "do something" in the medical sense. Hygiene is a let-alone plan insofar as "disease" and the symptoms of "disease" are concerned. It gives every attention to hygiene. This is its "aids to nature." So far as possible, it removes all pathoferic influences. It does not try to remove "disease" nor the symptoms of "disease." Miss Nightingale replied to the above objections: "in these and many other similar diseases the exact value of particular remedies is by no means ascertained, while there is universal experience as to the extreme importance of careful nursing (hygiene) in determining the issue of disease." Tilden says: "A wise letting-alone is the most scientific treatment that can be given in any so-called disease. All desperate pathologies are built by drugs, officious meddling, disease-producing suggestions and bad nursing in a toxemic subject."

Nature does not employ food, water, sunshine, warmth, exercise, rest, as cures. She employs these in "disease" in the same way and for the same purposes that she uses them in health. These are elements in nutrition, are necessaries of life, in both health and un-health, and are in no sense therapeutic agents.

2 "The supplying of the conditions of health." In other words, supply any element or condition required by nature for the comfort of the patient, or that is needed by the vital forces in the work of cure. The elements of an unbounded success are wrapped up in the Hygienic principle of health by healthful living, and hygienic measures are entitled to be applied in the care of the sick just as surely as to the maintenance or even the recovery of health. If health is to be restored, the conditions of health must be supplied.

Health by healthful living is the only correct practice and applies to the sick as truly as to the well. It is the true plan of regaining as well as of maintaining health. A mode of living, not a plan of treatment, is the road to health. Both the power and the instinct of repair are inherent in the living organism and these will restore all lesions and heal all "diseases," provided only that the conditions of health are supplied.

We shall cultivate health and recognize that health is a positive creation. True remedial care supplements the vital efforts by supplying the needed hygienic conditions, and thus renders them more complete and perfect. This can be done only by agents and conditions, the innate qualities of which supply the current demands of the vital powers.

The vigor of renewal observed in the human body should cause all of us to trust its power of renewal, even though the prospect may not look so good. The wonderful recuperative power of the human body astonishes and delights all who observe it. Observe the ample provisions that are made in the construction of the body for effecting and maintaining the functions of the organism, every organ possessing a reserve of functional power over and above the normal daily demands, its many powers of adjustment and compensation, and we cannot help but feel that full trust may be placed in the renewal powers of the body. Unfortunately, the modern mind is moribund and refuses the ministrations of nature. The usual path of life leads by way of scientific quackery and surgery to an early grave.

The hygienist has no office save that of supplying the needed hygienic factors to facilitate the success of the restorative efforts of the body. He must be a diligent student of nature and her faithful servant-- inquiring into her needs, supplying her wants and endeavoring to understand and conform to her laws. The moment he forsakes this line of conduct and attempts to cure "disease," he becomes the enemy and not the friend of the sick.