All of this leads inevitably to a recognition of the essential unity of the actions of the body in health and its actions in disease. Back of "both groups" of actions are the same powers of life and the same effort to preserve and enhance life. The facts enumerated plainly show that fever, pain, coughing, sneezing, vomiting, diarrhea, inflammation, eruptions, night sweats, etc., are vital phenomena and demonstrate conclusively that "disease" has no individual factor-entities other than those that sustain life in general and in particular. The symptoms of "disease" depend upon the same powers and functions that produce the signs of health. Health and "disease" are the same thing--vital action intended to preserve, maintain and protect the body. The unity of vital phenomena, whether called "healthy" or "morbid" is a fundamental principle of the Hygienic System and exists in the principle of orthopathy. Orthopathy recognizes the essential unity of healthy and morbid phenomena and sees in each a lawful and orderly adjusting of the internal and external relations of the organism.

Health is not a fixed state. It is a constantly varying condition of the organism ranging all the way from almost ideal health to the lowest depth of impaired health. But it is always health. Nor partakes of the same natural variations as does good health. Good is "disease" a fixed state. It is a condition of impaired health and health and poor health (disease) are but varying conditions of life. They are not antagonistic entities but different degrees of the same thing. The oneness and sameness of health and "disease" is as certain as that a bright light and a dim light are both light.

Heat and cold are relative terms. If we assume that heat is the positive condition, then cold is only a little less amount of heat. The hypothetical absolute zero is nothing more than a mere convenience of thought or of measurement. Wealth and poverty are relative terms. If wealth is assumed to be the positive condition, then poverty is only a little less wealth. So, health and "disease" are relative terms. Health is the positive condition; "disease" is only a little less health. There are not many kinds of health or specific forms of health; so there are not many kinds of disease or specific forms of "disease." "Disease" is a unit just as health is a unit and health and "disease" are a unit. There is only one life, only one health, only one "disease." But, just as there are many manifestations of life and many manifestations of health, so there are many manifestations of "disease."

Health and "disease" shade off into each other by insensible gradations so that it is difficult to say where one begins and the other ends; just as it would be difficult to say at what point on the thermometer heat ends and cold begins. In health and "disease" we are not dealing with antagonistic entities but different degrees of the same thing--Life; joist as with heat and cold we are not dealing with antagonistic entities but with different degrees of the same thing--Temperature. Health varies with the varying conditions under which life exists. Health and "disease" shade so insensibly into one another that no differential criteria can be offered to distinguish the one from the other, that can be exact or invariable. It is difficult to say just when a rapid heart, for instance, is to be considered a sign of "disease" or a flushed skin an evidence of congestion. A rapid heart may be due to effort or excitement or stimulation and a flushed skin may be due to heat or cold or to embarrassment, as in blushing. Blanched cheeks may be due to fear.

The unity and identity of all vital action and the unity and identity of the power back of these actions leads to a recognition of the fact that the cause of fever, inflammation, irritation, like that of all other physiological actions and processes, is always one and the same--the vital forces.

All morbid action is but a modification of the normal functions and processes of the body and all the physical results making up morbid structural alterations are simply modifications of natural or normal textures, produced from the same materials and by the same vital processes. When "disease" results in changes in the structures of the body, or in the functional products of the body, the constituents of these changed structures and products consists of materials identical with the normal or healthy constituents of the body and are aggregated, arranged and elaborated by the very same organic or physiological processes that operate in normal health. These are all the result of the same fundamental processes and functions of nutrition, elimination, reproduction, etc.

Dr. Moras gives us an excellent example of this fact in the following quotation from his Autology: "If now you will investigate the products or by-products of the organs and tissues of your body, in health and in sickness, yon will readily recognize that there is no real, distinctive difference between any given 'healthy' product and its corresponding 'sickly' product, aside from the difference in the quality or (adulteration) of the two--I mean the 'healthy' and the 'sickly'. For instance, the so-called pale, watery blood of anemia is just as much blood as the red, plastic blood of plethora, except in the proportion of white and red corpuscles and the richness of the serum. So with the saliva, gastric and intestinal juices, cerebrospinal fluids, genito-urinary secretions or excretions of these two individuals. It's only a difference in the 'grade'--not in the 'stuff itself. The 'mucous' secretion of the mucous membranes anywhere in the bodies of these individuals--one 'healthy' and the other 'sickly'--is exactly the same slime and lubricant; only this; that the sickly kind is more diluted or less oily, or more 'ropy' and less watery, than the healthy kind. That's all."

Again he says: "You understand that all 'symptoms'--such as fever, pain, redness, swelling, etc.--are phenomena manifested by each and every organ or tissue in conditions of impairment or disease; and that there is no real difference between the 'sickly' symptoms and the 'healthy' signs manifested by the organs or tissues in sickness and in health, aside from a mere difference in the degree of heat (fever), or sensation (pain), or color (redness), or size (swelling)."

"Disease" is no new thing superadded to the living organism but is a mere "complex" or aggregation of modifications of structures already existing and of functions and processes always going on in the living economy. The "disease" is always a product of the vital actions and is in no sense an entity or new and novel condition of structure and function. "Disease" is as truly natural as health and is constituted and maintained by the same vital powers, functions and structures as those which constitute and regulate the conditions of normal, as distinguished from impaired, health.

The healing power of nature is inherent in the living organism. It is not a special or unique power, nor is it a single power. It is simply the ordinary vital powers by which we live and grow. How true were Dr. Trall's remarks in his famous lecture on The True Healing Art: "What is the vis medicatrix naturae? It is the vital struggle in self-defense; it is the disease itself. So far from disease and the vis medicatrix naturae being antagonistic entities or forces at war with each other, they are one and the same. And if this be the true solution of the problem, it is clear enough that the whole plan of subduing or 'curing' disease with drugs is but a process of subduing and killing the vitality. We see, now, the rationale of the truth of the remark of Professor Clark: 'Every dose diminishes the vitality of the patient.'

"The announcement of the doctrine that the remedial powers of Nature and the disease are the same; that the vis medicatrix naturae which saves and the morbid action which destroys are identical, may sound strangely at first; and so do all new truths which are in opposition to doctrines long entertained and universally believed. It seems exceedingly difficult, and in many cases utterly impossible, for medical men to get hold of this idea, so contrary is it to all their habits of thought, and all the theories of their books and schools. Their minds have been so long wedded to the dogma, that disease and the vis medicatrix naturae are in some inexplicable way hostile powers, that after I have talked with them for hours on the subject, answered all their criticisms, and silenced everyone of their objections, they cannot overcome their prejudices and prepossessions sufficiently to comprehend it. And some of my medical students have revolved, and pondered, and criticized, and controverted this idea for months before they fully understood it. But it is true, nevertheless."