Basic HTML Version
Section 12—The Prevention of Disease and Its Cure by Rational Methods
251
Educate the Sick
The first labors of a physician should be to educate the sick and
suffering in the very course they should pursue to prevent disease.
The greatest good can be done by our trying to enlighten the minds
[222]
of all we can obtain access to, as to the best course for them to
pursue to prevent sickness and suffering, and broken constitutions,
and premature death. But those who do not care to undertake work
that taxes their physical and mental powers will be ready to prescribe
drug medication, which lays a foundation in the human organism for
a twofold greater evil than that which they claim to have relieved.
A physician who has the moral courage to imperil his reputation
in enlightening the understanding by plain facts, in showing the
nature of disease and how to prevent it, and the dangerous practice
of resorting to drugs, will have an uphill business, but he will live
and let live.... He will, if a reformer, talk plainly in regard to the
false appetites and ruinous self-indulgence, in dressing, in eating
and drinking, in overtaxing to do a large amount of work in a given
time, which has a ruinous influence upon the temper, the physical
and mental powers....
Right and correct habits, intelligently and perseveringly prac-
ticed, will be removing the cause for disease, and the strong drugs
need not be resorted to. Many go on from step to step with their
unnatural indulgences, which is bringing in just as unnatural [a]
condition of things as possible.
Stimulants and Narcotics
Diseases of every stripe and type have been brought upon human
beings by the use of tea and coffee and the narcotics, opium, and
tobacco. These hurtful indulgences must be given up, not only one,
but all; for all are hurtful, and ruinous to the physical, mental, and
moral powers, and should be discontinued from a health standpoint.
The common use of the flesh of dead animals has had a deteriorating
influence upon the morals as well as the physical constitution.
Ill health in a variety of forms, if effect could be traced to the
cause, would reveal the sure result of flesh eating. The disuse of
meats, with healthful dishes nicely prepared to take the place of